An Increasing Tolerance for Corruption, The Double Standard New Normal

 

Nazi war criminals, 12 of who  were hanged, as WII war criminals

                                                        

An Increasing Tolerance for Corruption, The Double Standard New Normal

"It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL… Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand - We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET." 

Trump on Truth Social, November 20th responding to Democrats saying that soldiers need not commit war crimes if so ordered.

This blog is a “part 2” to my recent If You Can’t Make It Right, Make It Legal; America Enters Its Banana Republic Phase blog, but after Donald Trump’s White House detoxification-washing of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), lauded as a champion of human rights who had nothing to do with the 2028 extra-territorial execution (dismemberment) of Washington Post Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul – despite legions of evidence to the contrary from multiple reports from our own intelligence agencies – I am pressed to go one more step into our relatively passive acceptance of corruption that seems to define the entire Trump administration. MBS also bagged a pile of advanced microchips and a few F-35s as well.

Be certain of one thing, the Teflon President has weathered criminal convictions, imperious executive orders that have made a mockery of the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers annunciated in the first three articles in the Constitution and plunging polls. There are so many outs in the Epstein documents release bill, that I wouldn’t hold my breath at complete disclosure. The bill orders release within the law, which will given Trump’s personal law firm, the entire Department of Justice, reason withhold or redact documents, filled with the very information most people want to see… if they are related to current investigations – gee, the DOJ just happened to mount a pile of new Epstein investigations – or were produced pursuant to a grand jury inquiry (secret absent a specific court order to the contrary). Of course, we do not expect such redactions or exclusions to be used if the named individuals are prominent Democrats. By the way, through much of his long personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Trump was a registered Democrat.

Since I started with this White House visit by the de facto Saudi chief of state, let me start with this little excerpt, in the November 19th New York Times, by opinion columnist, Jamelle Bouie: “This week, President Trump welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia with a lavish reception at the White House. Part of the president’s relationship with Prince Mohammed includes lucrative ties between the Trump Organization and Saudi firms, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. It is for this reason, perhaps, that the president angrily dismissed the idea, evidence of which U.S. intelligence long ago gathered, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, in 2018. The crown prince denies it. ‘Things happen,’ Trump said.

“Earlier this month [November], top Swiss business leaders arrived at the White House bearing lavish gifts fit for a king. The chief executive of Rolex gave President Trump a gold-plated desk clock. Not to be outdone, the chief executive of a gold-refining company presented him with a 2-pound gold bar engraved with 45 and 47, in honor of his two presidencies. A week later, the president rewarded Switzerland with a favorable break on tariffs, reducing them from 39 percent to 15 percent.

“This summer, The New Yorker reported that the Trump family had earned $3.4 billion through deals it had arranged since Trump entered the White House in 2017. The Trump Organization is also expanding its operations around the world, developing more than 22 properties in at least 10 countries, whose leaders have every incentive to flatter the president with gifts and handouts.

“And ProPublica reports that Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, directed more than $220 million worth of funding for an ad campaign to a consulting firm with ‘longstanding personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at D.H.S.’” Through all of this, Trump’s closed-door signing of his much-reviled Epstein release bill (knowing that the bill was veto-proof), Trump continued his signature vitriol and demonization unabated. Not only did he attempt to shift “Epstein” malignancy from him to prominent Democrats, who welcomed a genuine investigation (come what may), but he found solace in admonishing a Bloomberg journalist with a “quiet piggie” insult. Pig memes, anti-MAGA/anti-Trump are all over the Web.

Additionally, as constitutional scholars find no legal basis for Trump’s practice of blowing up small boats in the Caribbean, without approval by Congress or any courts, merely by saying (with no tangible proof) that these blasts are simply killing “narco-terrorists,” Trump seems oblivious to the jeopardy he is placing on US military and intelligence offices whom he has ordered, through his reservist major DOD head, Pete Hegseth, to implement the killing. The above black and white photographs are a few of the Nazis convicted of post-WWII war crimes (often under US military judges) when their defense, “we were just following orders,” was consistently rejected.

“President Donald Trump demanded the arrest and trial of several ‘seditious’ Democratic lawmakers over a video in which they appealed directly to serving military and intelligence personnel to ‘refuse illegal orders’—and said their actions were ‘punishable by DEATH!’ He also shared a social media post calling to ‘hang’ the Democrats… Democratic leaders called Trump's remarks ‘unhinged’ and condemned what they said were ‘disgusting and dangerous death threats,’ urging Republicans to ‘forcefully do the same.’ They told Trump to delete the posts.

“Trump's incendiary rhetoric comes amid serious bipartisan concern about rising political violence in the United States in the wake of high-profile assassinations, including those of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota.” Shane Croucher, writing for the November 20th Newsweek. Indeed, as former Trump ally, Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, opposed Trump resistance to releasing the Epstein papers, she immediately faced standard-issue MAGA death threats. No, Trump has not read the tea leaves, accepted the recent election results or recognized the consistency of his horrific polling.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as strongman Trump issues death warrants, I wonder from whom he received his 007 license to kill?