Trump AI-generated memes for himself & OMB head Russell Vought,   WWII death skulls on some Nazi officers’ hats

Remembering Democracy, Learning the New Rules Under Autocracy

“[A] large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country [is fueling a historic national schism] shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general…The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.” 

Stephen Miller, the President’s deputy chief of staff, October 5th.

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs …. This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition… This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.” Trump-appointed federal judge Karin Immergut, barring administration’s justification for deploying California National Guard troops in Portland as “simply untethered to the facts,” October 4th.

“The administration will abide by the ruling insofar as it affects the covered parties, but there are also many options the President has to deploy federal resources under the U.S. military to Portland.”

 Stephen Miller, reacting to Immergut’s ruling.

“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics…derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates” and “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” 

Benjamin Franklin

A recent Trump executive order has labeled “Antifa” as the ultimate terrorist enemy his administration is sworn to eradicate. That label is not an organized cadre of terrorists; it is a label that Trump can and has attached to his political opponents, often called “radical leftwing Democrats.” And to justify attacking, investigating, arresting “terrorists,” his administration has extended that label to elected Democrats in droves. Although the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 bars the use of the military for domestic purposes absent a rebellion (a la the Civil War), Trump is actively considering employing the exception to that statute, the earlier Insurrection Act of 1807.

The Insurrection Act the U.S. federal statute that empowers the president to deploy the U.S. military and to federalize the National Guard units of the individual states in specific circumstances, such as the suppression of civil disorder, of insurrection, and of armed rebellion against the federal government of the U.S. I suspect that replacing ordinary local police dealing with typical criminal activity does not rise to the level of “civil disorder” that justifies a military takeover of cities that Trump did not carry in the last election.

If you look at the epithet, “Antifa,” you just might remember where that meme came from. It literally is a portmanteau of “anti” and “fascist.” Thus, literally, if one opposes anti-fascism, it does suggest that one actually supports fascism… which seems to be consistent with fighting your own citizens as the “enemy within,” a long-time fascist mantra. It is odd that the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has actually cut federal contributions to local law enforcement and dissolved federal efforts to work with local law enforcement to work on bona fide anti-terrorism efforts.

“Republicans’ keenness to label Democrats as terrorists comes two weeks after Trump signed [the above] executive order declaring a left-wing antifascist movement, known as antifa, as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ — a designation that does not exist under U.S. law… The order, which opened a new front in Trump’s battle against his political foes, also threatened to investigate and prosecute individuals who funded ‘any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of antifa.’” Michael Wilner and Ana Ceballos, writing for the Los Angeles Times, October 10th.

The administration has also deleted previously published DOJ studies showing that in recent years the vast majority of “domestic terrorism” has been generated by rightwing radicals… “radicals” that have been normalized by Donald Trump himself. Anyone who witnessed the ultra-violence of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol most certainly can tell that Trump’s relabeling of these violent felons as “patriots” before issuing blanket pardons, can understand how “relabeling” this criminal wave defies logic… and very much brings into question Trump’s simply labeling his enemies as radical terrorists.

Look at the facial images above, published on Trump’s Truth Social. Do they look like the leaders of any semblance of a democracy? Not to mention that even when they pretend to show violence in the streets of blue American cities, those pictures are often nothing more than either quite dated or severely doctored “edits,” to put it mildly. “Before a federal judge blocked Donald Trump from putting members of California’s national guard on the streets of Portland, Oregon, late on Sunday [10/5], the state’s Republican party welcomed the planned deployment in celebratory posts on social media.

“’President Trump on Sunday [10/5] deployed 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon after a judge ruled that the Oregon National Guard could not be deployed to keep federal facilities and personnel in Portland safe,’ Oregon Republicans wrote on their official Facebook, Instagram and X accounts.

“On all three platforms, the statement was illustrated with an image that seemed designed to support Trump’s false claim that protests against immigration sweeps in Portland are so out of control that the city is ‘burning to the ground’. On one side of the image, a line of police officers held riot shields; on the other, a crowd of young men held up flares that lit up a night sky filled with red smoke… On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart.” Guardian UK, October 6th.”

Russell Vought, pictured above, the President’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, is Trump’s GOP shutdown Tsar. Both he and Trump are threatening massive “permanent” layoffs, and despite statutes and promises to the contrary, are suggesting that even for those allowed to return to work after the shutdown ends, they may not be paid even if they really worked. The “goal, Trump has said, is to specifically target Democrats…As of Monday [10/6] afternoon, it was unclear exactly how many federal workers or what federal agencies would be targeted… ‘We don’t want to see people laid off, but unfortunately, if this shutdown continues layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt said during a news briefing.” LAT.

In the end, for those who fear we may lose democracy, I am afraid we already have. And unless the midterms and following elections (if there are any)… or a Trump reconfigured Supreme Court… cannot restore democracy, the path to any future democracy may be many decades from now, if ever. That nature (climate change) and a much more powerful China may punish us for the choices made by the American voters in 2024, is not much consolation, since the innocent will be punished right along that MAGA minority that made that collapse happen. Even Donald Trump’s horrible polling numbers will be relegated to the trash heap of history… perhaps buried along with the medical diagnoses that just might have evidenced Trump’s possible dementia that is being discussed with increasing frequency… everywhere.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the complacency of so many “it can’t happen here” Americans may deliver unexpected mayhem and poverty… because too many won’t know what they had until they look back to what is now gone.