How The Firehose Of Trump News Is Eroding American Democracy

[Celerity]

Democracies die by a thousand cuts, and under Trump, there have been many more than a thousand.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/how-the-firehose-of-trump-news-is



WASHINGTON, DC -- Whenever we’re blasted in the face by the explosive stream of burning hot crapola from the firehose of news, it’s sometimes difficult to plug the various bombshells into proper context. It’s partially because the news is so shocking, like driving past a harrowing car crash, but it’s also because the context itself is even more terrifying than the news. The information from Bob Woodward’s book alone is enough to make us feel thoroughly battered. In the past week, we’ve read about how the president and his lover, Kim Jong-un, almost got us into a real-life nuclear war back in 2017. This was real. The president’s defense secretary, General Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis, was so freaked out, he was sleeping in his clothes. We were that close. And yet, I bet if you surveyed people who closely follow political news, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who could spontaneously recall that story, despite the fact it dropped just six days ago. Since that news dropped, we also learned that Trump knew and understood the seriousness of COVID-19 as early as January, and in April told Woodward the virus was "so easily transmissible, you wouldn't believe it." This was just four days before he insisted upon liberating Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia while also demanding that the nation reopen.

Woodward also reported that Trump intentionally “played down” the virus in public. During a town hall on the ABC network, Tuesday night, Trump said he actually “up-played” the threat. During the same TV appearance, the president called for “herd immunity” as the solution to the pandemic -- he actually said “herd mentality,” but, you know, the brain worms. Herd immunity requires that around 65 percent of the U.S. population become infected with the virus, which would also mean millions of deaths. Meanwhile, the CDC has been scrubbing reports about the pandemic, removing any facts that are unflattering to the president. We also read that a gynecologist hired by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been performing what amounts to surgical mutilations of women being held in ICE custody -- unnecessary hysterectomies, to be specific. This alone should be enough to charge the Trump regime with crimes against humanity. Trump announced another so-called peace deal that was completely superficial, given how the two parties in the deal, Israel and Bahrain, were already doing the things required in the peace deal. The same thing goes for the alleged peace deal between Israel and the UAE. Both were fake peace deals passed off as legit.

Michael Cohen reported in his new book that Trump wants to be the American version of Vladimir Putin, further confirming that the president will refuse to leave office if he loses the election. Add into the mix the incomprehensible number of dumbstupids out there who continue to attend Trump’s superspreader rallies, refusing to wear masks or socially distance from each other, spreading the virus and worsening American life well into the future. By now, the revelations from The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg about Trump’s brutal disrespect for all soldiers, including POWs and MIAs, including wounded warriors, seems like a distant memory despite being just two weeks ago. Can you blame us for forgetting the nuclear war story? The point of this exercise is to illustrate how each of these despair-inducing events represents the erosion of democracy -- not to mention the erosion of our national reputation, our national dignity, too. Our moral standing in the world has been reduced to being no better than Putin’s or Kim’s. We’re now synonymous with the dictator in the White House, and our ability to bring democracy and human rights to other parts of the world has been almost entirely drained away by all of this.

We don’t see it close up, but when we pull out to a wide-shot, it’s plain and unmistakable. Unless enough Americans pull up on the cockpit controls, the United States will crash headfirst into the ground, taking us all with it. Most non-voting Americans are merrily unaware, while 35 to 40 percent of the voting population doesn’t realize that they’re the ones nose-diving the nation, enabling and affirming their strongman dictator’s actions. Trump was never going to simply snap his stubby fingers or press a secret button that lights the original copy of the Constitution on fire. Democracies die by a thousand cuts. And by my count, there have been many more than a thousand cuts inflicted upon our once-great but flawed nation. If the Democrats can win a majority in the Senate, a second term for Trump won’t be completely unleashed, and there are opportunities to block him as a last ditch effort. So re-election won’t be the end, just the beginning of the end. Knowing the horror show that’s lurking around the corner, let’s all agree today as patriots and constitutionalists to make sure the worst case scenario never comes to pass. Let’s make sure that by this time next year, Trump and his collaborators will be in federal custody awaiting trial rather than the chaotic alternative.

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