Pulitzer winner David Cay Johnston: Will Trump's America end in "firing squads"?

[bdamomma]

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/27/pulitzer-winner-david-cay-johnston-will-trumps-america-ends-in-firing-squads/

This article is dated Nov 2019, but has some interesting observations by David Cay Johnston.

snip of article



The Republicans’ only defense is “So what?” Unable to deny the facts of Trump’s corruption, apparent criminality and defiling of the presidency, the Republicans and their right-wing disinformation media and public default to a cult-like logic that Trump is something like an American king or emperor. As such, he is literally above the law while also simultaneously being the human embodiment of the law and the nation.


When investigative journalists start to follow the money with Trump, Ukraine, Russia and related matters, what do you think they will discover?

Bribing the Republican jury is what Trump is doing now. There are promises of campaign money and the implicit message that if you don't play ball with me and take my money, I will find somebody to run against you in a primary and destroy you. You don't see it reported that way in the mainstream press or on TV. Because of that Trump benefits. Trump is also masterful in communicating in a way that reaches the average person who does not follow politics closely or make politics or being a responsible citizen central to their life.

He is a con artist. Donald Trump is the third-generation head of a white-collar crime family, and to cover him like he's a politician is absurd. Consider the Ukraine situation. There's something very important that gets very little attention in the news. The Republicans keep saying there was a 55-day delay in giving military aid to the Ukrainians because Trump was concerned about corruption. Well first of all, it was a six-month delay. There was no provision in the law providing for that. The second problem is it was clear that Trump had no interest in corruption. What he wanted, according to Ambassador Sondland, was an announcement by the new president of Ukraine that he would be investigating the Biden.

[pangaia]

1. no joke....

political arrests..... etc etc

[2naSalit]

2. K&R!!!

[Yeehah]

3. We've already got lawmakers onboard with that

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/02/montana-lawmaker-rodney-garcia-constitution-says-socialists-get-shot/4639722002/

[DFW]

4. "A thug."

This is a direct quote from a well-known Washington pundit (not known for taking sides) speaking off the record about ten days ago.

This is hardly the first time anyone has said this about Trump, but this was not just anyone posting on a chat room board.

On the other hand, he also knew some stuff we'll never see posted anywhere that would not have pleased some of us about our own candidates, so not all "low down inside info" is to our liking.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Trump isn't that blantant...

He does character assassination, propaganda smears, getting people fired, basically ruining their lives.

[0rganism]

6. only in the national interest, I'm told

hard to imagine what the country will look like on the recovery side of this fiasco if we're lucky enough to get there someday

[MontanaMama]

7. They're already arresting people

at the capitol for free speech “violations”. Expect it.

[bdamomma]

11. they arrested

women when they wanted to vote. I guess the protestors hit a nerve. Never

[MontanaMama]

12. Damn straight momma.

Ride or die.

[SMC22307]

8. Democrats better understand this and figure out a way around it...

"Trump is also masterful in communicating in a way that reaches the average person who does not follow politics closely or make politics or being a responsible citizen central to their life."

[dustyscamp]

13. We need to ul our message game asap

[SMC22307]

15. Yep. Dirty Don is gonna cut SS and Medicare...

then blame Democrats, and (some) voters will believe it. I'm already seeing posts all over social media about Dems cutting these programs. At some point the Democratic Party needs to give a history lesson in the form of a major advertising blitz and set the record straight. Take pride in these programs and let the American people know that they WILL protect them.

[bdamomma]

22. I sometimes

think between Steyer and Bloomberg they should flood the media with a deluge of commercials, and say Trump's Party want to take your healthcare and SS away.

They rather hear lies coming from liars, one thing I remember is that Repigs can't govern, but we can.

The Democrats have proved that so many times, they are for the people.

[SMC22307]

24. Agree. Maybe when we get closer to the election we'll see that.

The words came out of Drumpf's mouth at Davos... run that clip, for starters!

[CloudWatcher]

9. "Trump had no interest in corruption"

This is just not true. Trump has a lot of interest in corruption. He wants to enable corruption on a world-wide scale. It's not even a secret.

[DallasNE]

10. People On The Left Side Of The Aisle

Already know this. They are informed Americans. On the right side of the aisle the people are misinformed. That leaves a who do you believe conundrum so people believe the message that most closely matches what they want to hear. That is a problem for a democracy to have a misinformed segment of the electorate. The Fox News business model at one time would have left them without a broadcast license. That was swept out with deregulation and in swept corruption. Corruption always fills the void left by deregulation. But things are especially ugly right now.

I am a Facebook friend with a cousin of my ex-wife. That person reposted an image on Facebook that was 4 photo's plus the name of the person they believe to be the whistleblower. These are good people. 10 years ago they would not have thought to do something like this. In fact, they would have criticized someone behaving in this manner. Now they are that person. That is just my personal example of what that monster named Donald John Trump has done and what he is doing to ordinary, good Americans. Healing will take a long, long time.

[SMC22307]

19. That's a good example.

Over the weekend I read a violent tweet aimed at Rick Wilson (and his family) and was stunned at how unhinged the guy was -- and he used his real name! Unless he lives in total Rightwingville, there's gotta be some repercussions (right?). I'm just amazed at how little self-control people (adults!) have on social media and how emotional they become. And for who? Donald Fucking Trump. #cultists

[cilla4progress]

14. I believe

It could.

Calm before the storm.

[AlexSFCA]

16. trump is only good at one thing - being a con artist

I think he is the greatest con artist of our time, I’d give him that, what an achievement.

[copperearth]

21. No, he is the greatestt con man in World History!

[wnylib]

23. True. He is quite good at being a con artist.

And, as the article points out, he is disorganized and lazy. But there are people around him who take advantage of their influence on him for their own purposes. There is a party behind him full if people who love the idea of absolute power.

[crickets]

17. K&R for visibility.

[shanti]

18. Please

Don't give him any ideas!

[copperearth]

20. I have always maintained that Trump's election was illegal.

Since the Declaration of Independence talks about interference of foreign nations, the whole election should have been set aside immediately. They knew that the Russians had orchestrated the interference, and a new election should have been called for with no one running who had run before in that election, meaning Trump, Clinton, or Sanders not being allowed to run. There was time for the two Parties to pick new candidates and then have a shortened campaign season and then there would never have been this travesty in our government. You can't find every answer needed in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers would simply never have envisioned a con man-gangster taking over our Country. I don't blame them:I can't imagine it either ...but it has happened.