Yves here. The headline from Richard Murphy may seem overwrought, but Trump actions have been so wildly out of bound that nothing is impossible. The latest Trump salvo against legal protections and civil rights is expected to come on or before April 20, as in Easter Sunday. Waging Nonviolence gives the background:
With President Trump constantly flooding the zone, there’s a chance to think ahead about the possible implementation of the Insurrection Act. One of Trump’s presidential actions calls for the Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a joint report by April 20. The report will offer “any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”..
The Insurrection Act is a dusty law that has gone without updates for 200 years. The original text states: “That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws… the president of the United States [can] call forth the militia [or armed forces] for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection.” (Technically, it is now not just one law but a series of statutes in Title 10 of the U.S. code.)
President Trump loves direct control and so it strikes me that invoking the Insurrection Act is very likely. This occasionally used provision empowers the president, with few legal limitations, to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops inside the country….
One should note the narrowness of Trump’s proclamation that could lead to the Insurrection Act being invoked. It’s framed as being used for “operational control of the southern border” — not broader mass deportation or, what some of us feared, targeting nearly all anti-Trump political activity.
This means the Insurrection Act may be initially more focused. Folks on the border will bear the brunt of further militarization — despite an already heavily militarized border where crossings have dropped dramatically.
Trump’s desire to criminalize protests against him is obvious. ICE is effectively kidnapping green card holders who have only exercised their freedom of speech, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. One executive order attempts to criminalize protesting in Washington, D.C. And the FBI is on a McCarthy-like venture looking for “domestic terrorism” among anti-Tesla protests.
It therefore appears that Trump would relish the opportunity to use the Insurrection Act more broadly against opponents. If the first move is somewhat limited in scope — e.g. the border and ICE enforcement — he will look for a violent spark that he can claim as pretext to expand the scope more widely.
It’s not hard to see that violent action is close to baked in as incomes collapse and businesses fail thank to the tariffs even as cost for basics will also be rising. For instance, Conor featured this tweet today in Links:
Many truckers I’ve spoken with don’t realize how quickly container volumes have collapsed.
Starting in May, port freight out of California will be almost eliminated.
Its going to be a bloodbath in dray, followed by intermodal, and then a collapse in I-20 & I-40 trucking. https://t.co/q0JFZg2Lbr
— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) April 18, 2025
Admittedly, truckers so far have not been as effective in protests as they hoped. But they have also not collectively had tons of time on their hands and an imperative to Do Something as a result of losing their livelihoods. And I believe most have guns to protect themselves while driving. Truckers by themselves
I know a US citizen who has been involved in anti-Trump activism (but not on the hot topics of the Palestinian genocide or immigration) who is so worried the April 20 plans that he plans to leave the US if the announcement is as bad as he fears. And he is well along in getting a non-US citizenship but I am not sure whether he has it in hand.
By Richard Murphy, Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School and a director of the Corporate Accountability Network. Originally published at Funding the Future
Will Trump invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to enforce his rule, via a militia if need be, ending democracy in the USA in the process?
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Is Trump about to end democracy in the USA? I fear he might be, and I fear it might be very soon that this happens. So let me explain my reasoning. There are two causes for my concern and one consequence.
Let’s look at the causes. The first is a judge named Judge James Boasberg.
Judge Boasberg was the person who said to the federal administration that Trump could not deport people to El Salvador without there being proper due process in place. He ordered that a flight that was already on its way to that country be reversed and returned to the USA and the Trump administration ignored him.
What he’s now done is suggest that, and I’m going to quote him, “the US Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial powers, especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it.”
In other words, what he’s saying is that Trump and his cohort in his regime- and that’s the right word for his government – have deliberately ignored the ruling of a federal judge and are therefore in contempt of court.
Now, if you know anything about the law, there is one group in society who really upset judges, and those are the people who are in contempt of court, because judges think that they are really important people and in a real sense they are, because their behavior is fundamental to the upholding of democracy because if we don’t have the rule of law, we cannot have a democratic society.
Judge Boasberg is rightly saying that the people in the Trump administration who have ignored this order from Trump downwards, because he has bragged about it, are in contempt of court. They stand at risk as a consequence of going to prison. Let’s be clear about that. That’s the penalty for being in contempt, and he is starting proceedings.
Now, let me move to my second example of the reason why Trump might end democracy in the USA very soon. In this case, I’m talking about Governor Gavin Newsom in California. He has begun a legal action against the US federal government, brought by his state, which is the fifth-largest economy in the world, to put California into context. And what he is saying, absolutely and indisputably legally correctly, is that Trump is not allowed to impose tariffs in the USA without the approval of Congress, and Trump has never gone to Congress to seek that approval. Therefore, all the moves that he’s making with regard to tariffs are, as Governor Newsom puts it, illegal.
He and his attorney general have lined up an argument. They’re going to bring the case. They want to overthrow the entire process of disruption that Trump has created.
Those, in my opinion, are the two crisis points in the US legal system that are now facing Trump, amongst many other court cases that are going on, these two stand out to me and what I think is that Trump is going to do something extreme in reaction.
90 days ago, or at the time of recording this, almost 90 days ago, Trump signed an order and that order required that two of the most fair-minded people in the USA should look at whether there was an emergency or crisis amounting to insurrection in the USA, which would require that Trump could declare a state of emergency, meaning that the Insurrection Act of 1807 could be brought into force, basically suspending the rule of law and allowing military law to apply.
Those two fair-minded people were JD Vance, the Vice President of the USA, and Pete Hegseth, the Fox News commentator who happens now to be Secretary of State for Defense.
Do you think it likely that they’re going to disagree with Trump?
Do you think it likely that this was all stage-managed to ensure that military law could be enforced?
Do you think that in practice, Judge Boasberg and Governor Newsom are, totally innocently, and totally, appropriately, but nonetheless, provocatively providing Trump with the excuse to actually go ahead with what he has always wanted. Which is to suspend democracy in the USA.
The 1807 act is remarkably short. In fairness, anybody can read it. There is a copy on my blog, but let’s look at the key words, which are in section 333 of that Act, and they say this.
“If an action so hinders the executions of the laws of the United States, or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States, or impedes the course of justice under those laws, then the Insurrection Act can be invoked.”
And what happens when the Insurrection Act can be invoked by the President? It means that the President can either call up the army or what it describes as a militia, which these days is thought to be the National Guard, but it is not said as such in the Act, to enforce the law as the President sees it.
Could it be that President Trump could, in fact, call up a militia? There are, after all, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of MAGA faithful in the USA who might respond to his call. They did in January 2021, after all. They staged an insurrection, then. Would they now do it again, legally, according to Trump, under the Insurrection Act, to oppress the powers that are trying to uphold the rule of law in America?
And what would happen if Trump did this?
My belief is that he will try to do this.
My belief is that he may end up in conflict with the US military as a result.
But I do believe he might call up a militia as a consequence, and if he does, wait for the disappearances to start.
How long will Governor Newsom be out of prison?
How long will Judge Boasberg be in office, let alone enjoy his freedom?
How long will many of Trump’s long-term political opponents be out there enjoying their day-to-day activities?
How many of those who are now appearing daily on media shows in the USA criticising Trump on things like MSNBC, and elsewhere, will be able to do so for very much longer?
When Trump believes that he can use the Insurrection Act, and he believes that he can use the power of force to literally dictate terms to the USA, anything could happen. And what we know is that there are no tyrants on earth who don’t throw their opponents into prison or worse.
Trump might be moving to that point.
It doesn’t take long for a democracy to collapse.
It might happen in the space of only three or so months in the USA.
We are living, as I’ve said before, and will say again in very dangerous times. But, the coming weekend, which will represent the 90 day anniversary of the signing of that order, requiring Vance and Hegseth to form this opinion, might, in the light of the actions of Governor Newsom and Judge Boasberg, give rise to the end of US democracy and that would be quite an astonishing turn of events that the world could never ignore.
What democracy is there ro actually lose in the US? The mask fell off with the citizens united allowing loads of corporate money into politics and the lives of the many has been crappified exponentially. Sure, you get to vote between the Uniparty every four years or so but thw outcome is the same.
You could ask the pre-Trump times: how many whistleblowers have lived good lives, how many Occupy Wall Street were not beaten up by the police etc.
I am very worried about the neoliberal fascist acceleration in the EU but getting upset about only one person’s deeds is not serious. These fascist processes take tears to build up and implement.
Yes, I neglected to say that we’ve been going down a slippery slope with, for instance, Bush engaging in extraordinary rendition to torture sites run by allies, and Obama getting rid of habeas corpus. But that does not change the fact that this trajectory has accelerated greatly under Trump.
What you’re describing is very grave, of course, but Trees & Trunks is offering more than a quibble in questioning whether there was a functioning democracy to lose. Biden and Trump, in this sense, might be symptoms so grave as to constitute a death rattle followed by a final defecatory bowel release.
On this view, democracy in the West might be found to have ended with the assassination of JFK. But the facade of a democracy–or perhaps of a Constitutional Republic ring-fenced by a particularly good founding document–has offered real value, that is, the power to restrain the excesses of the worst, a degree of predictibility, and a certain social cohesion and normative force.
We had freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Universities and law firms, as private institutions, were free to run their own policies. The Executive was not pervasively defying the judiciary and now violating the Constitution via deportations with no due process.
This is a huge difference in degree which is a difference in kind.
It amazes me that more people don’t see this.
I’ve mostly been following your Trump coverage in silence, but I want to thank you Yves. It is excellent and clear-eyed.
To your point…
You could ask the pre-Trump times: how many whistleblowers have lived good lives, how many Occupy Wall Street were not beaten up by the police etc.
…add Julian Assange and Edward Snowden as other glaringly obvious examples, even Tulsi with the ridiculous air marshall thing.
I am getting Pink Floyd ‘waiting for the worms’ vibes.
I have no idea what to do.
Thanks Yves.
I wondered what your thoughts were on this issue.
Seems like a good time for me to make a donation to Naked Capitalism.
I can’t believe that I’m watching the collapse of a great (and awful) empire. What a spectacle!
The boot is definitely coming down and our rulers are as evil as any before. I expect the worst.
Is America once more to see a return of the Palmer Raids?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids
I would not put it past Trump to go for Palmer Raids 2.0
It is always a good thing to be reminded of history, thanks for that, Rev Kev.
The notion that America was always a Disneyland of Democracy, civil rights, and justice doesn’t hold up well to anyone who can read.
It’s not for nothing that I call Woodrow Wilson the first Neocon President.
I tagged some local communists into making this connection! Currently reading Mike Davis and Justin Chacon’s book ‘No One Is Illegal’, some of which is a labor history of modern California and some of which is a Marxist history of modern Mexico, so immigrants serving as test cases for repression has featured in my thinking. I wonder if you’ve read Mitchell Palmer’s op-ed justifying his raids: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-case-against-the-reds/
The lag time between tariffist attacks and consequences on shelves is a bit much.
Lots to stay on top of in the news and in economic headlines. I’m not panicking quite yet….to quote Mr. Valentine of course, but those S&P 500 future contracts along with dropping of WTI, etc to be a harbinger of a sort. Trading Places is the film, for the kids, look it up!
One can put this in the most favorite of economic policy lingo. Assume your can opener is trapped in a port container cargo ship just off the coast of Long Beach. I got it , here is my solution! In ten years all can openers will be made here, U S A hooray! \sarc
>Trading Places is the film, for the kids, look it up!
Well, over/under on a market collapse, 90 days?
Bet you a dollar?
And the oligarchs come out of it just fine?
Another dollar yes or no?
The latest, as far as I can tell, is that all the AMZN warehouses built over the past 10 years are loaded to the gills with pre-tariffist goods. So, we have that going for us. A decent stockpile that should last until around the MLB All-star break, and then its every man and woman for themselves.
Perhaps this is an opportunity for our edifice wrecks, Data Center REIT version.
Rip out those servers from the data center and replace ’em with rows of Rice Krispies, flat screens, and knock-off fashionista garb!
Tilt-up construction is what made this country great big new warehouses all over tarnation.
Tariffist attacks? There’s bound to be blowback.
What democracy is Murphy talking about? The US, UK and EU now only allow uniparty politicians to be elected in a system that pretends there is a choice of candidates.
With the frame that “democracy” was at work (and thus all the problems) and not the continuation of thousands of years of oligarchy, it removes the idea of trying to make “democracy” work out of people’s heads.
To underline your point, Biden’s Anti-Semitism Czar piped up a couple of days ago to say she supported Trump’s deportation of students who demonstrated in support of Gaza. Deborah Lipstadt said, “To depict some of these people as martyrs and heroes is ludicrous.”
Despite the awful things that are being done to some people, my feeling is that people who are truly on the Left should keep their heads down right now. If they protest now, the Dems will be right with Trump in sending you somewhere tropical but unpleasant. Let Trump and the Dems go at it for as long as possible, rooting for their mutual destruction. Use this time to organize quietly, emphasizing mutual aid because lots of people are going to need help. We should strengthen ourselves while Trump and the Ds weaken each other with internecine warfare. That way, time works in the real Left’s favor.
As much as I appreciate your comment, how are the Dems going at Trump? Being as generous as I can, the best I can tell, the Dems are just silently waiting for Trump and Trumpism to collapse. I don’t think that’s going at Trump one bit. I think instead you could call it an overdose of hopium.
What “democracy” indeed. The US is a Public Relations Democracy Inc.. The winner-takes-all (first past the post) electoral system, Electoral College, formalized political bribery, oligarchy-controlled mass media and discourse dictatorship, BigMoney etc. are huge barriers, and prevent any meaningful choice. Elections Inc. are a way to get the plebs to legitimize political fraud and also serve to distract and divide the public. Meanwhile, the oligarchy accelerate the asset stripping, price-gouging, and smash-and-grab privatization.
The DT2 regime is the logical conclusion of decades of growing institutional corruption and rot. I guess this is to be expected at this stage in the Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The current US regime, as others have observed is accelerating the decline, the vultures and parasites are circling.
I like the term Potemkin Democracy myself. Add to it Potemkin Economy, Potemkin Military, Potemkin Nation, Potemkin Empire — its Potemkins, all the way down. Welcome to Potemkia.
Let’s you and him fight it out doesn’t work when they’re elephants and we’re mice. That’s just going to get you a lot of crushed rodents.
Regardless of what happens, I’d suggest stocking up on shelf stable food.
Other reasons for thinking Trump may be trying to end democracy:
1) Trump himself has tried to incite insurrection (see January 6th, 2021),
2) And he seems to have this particular Insurrection Act in his back pocket, suggesting it has been very closely studied by his team, likely long before January 6th.
3) Steve Bannon, Chief Strategist in the first Trump admin, who is still connected, and whose strategy is still being implemented – who argues the US is not a democracy, thinks the US is at war with Islam, should be more overtly at war with Islam (and bear in mind an anti-Islam stance would be itself anti-democratic).
By the way, he is the author of the “flood the zone” tactic which purpose is specifically to undermine confidence in democracy. And the tactic is working quite well, with almost everyone saying Trump has no plan, nobody knowing what he’ll do next. Creating unpredictability, uncertainty and inability to discern truth is the whole point of the “flood the zone” tactic.
4) Steve Bannon, Vance, Trump, etc., have repeatedly and openly voiced support for far-right and nationalist governments in Europe and for nationalism at home.
The most likely scenario is a civil war. I don’t think Trump will be able to take control of all the states. A government in exile may form in Alaska or Hawaii.
I don’t think a civil war is in the cards, but a very messy Yugoslavia style breakup, definitely possible. California breaks off first. Nevada, Oregon, and Washington quickly decide to go with it. Then eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and all of Nevada less Vegas and Reno secede from their respective states and solicit incorporation into Idaho and Utah. Aaaaand we’re off to the races.
How much of non-coastal California would also try joining Idaho and Utah under this scenario?
Everything above 2000 foot elevation?
Where does California get their water from in this scenario?
Northern California has plenty of water.
Southern California steals most of its water from Northern California.
If Colorado River water to California ever gets cut off, Imperial Valley ceases to exist as an agricultural zone. That’s where 90% of the winter lettuce and other leafy greens in the US comes from.
Eastern parts of Cali are definitely redder than the coast, but nowhere near as bitterly so as eastern Oregon, where there’s already been a movement for years now trying to secede and join Idaho. As for water, Norcal gets its water from Sierra snowpack, so nothing changes there, other than climate change is going to mean less and less snowpack going forward. As for Socal, well, the Colorado river’s drying up anyway. They’ll need to recommission the great boobies at San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant and figure out how to bring water desalination online. Rapidly.
Please don’t suggest reopening a nuclear power plant near an earthquake fault. Aside from the environmentalists, most people who were against the plant were concerned about earthquakes.
The problem with SONGS wasn’t earthquakes. Are you thinking about Diablo Canyon?
Probably.
There’s certainly a powder keg waiting to be lit. I don’t think civil war or any kind of organization to the resistance will follow what happens initially. I think what is going to occur first is chaos. And if I had to guess… I think the most likely scenario is some government aligned force over reaches and does something very stupid and very public. Think Rodney King or George Floyd but much worse. That precipitates national riots. The national riots precipitate more vicious crack downs. And then finally, the government runs to the head of the mob, perhaps by calling a constitutional convention at the request of the states. And that’s when the dissolution of the US hits.
This is the first imperial crisis of the digital age.
One hopes that with digital communication the war won’t take 30 years as it did after Gutenberg.
Could be equally damaging much more quickly with the last 500 years of “progress.”
I’m a boomer who grew up in the suburbs (albeit very working class suburbs), so this comes off as alarmist to my ears. But blatant fascism does seem to be a real possibility now. And as Yves points out, it has been the trend for a while. Most people didn’t care at all when you told them that Obama was murdering US citizens in the Middle East.
But Bernie and the fake leftists now have to be blamed squarely for their role in this. For over 10 years he and his ilk pretended to represent a real alternative to the rot. But it was fakery. And what he’s doing now is fakery. Every time he will tell you to support the Democrat party in their fake resistance.
That is a big NO for me. I will not go to the barricades for the likes of Gavin Newsom. And I disagree with Richard Murphy that Newsom will every spend a day in jail. He is too much of a coward. He will surrender to Trump in a second to save his skin
The problem for people like Newsome is that given the choice between a painful shearing and hidden wolves, his sheep will jump the fence. The good governor caving to pressure won’t stop what happens next. It may even make it worse. People who know they have nothing to lose, and know they have no cause to support their government, are dangerous en masse.
JD Vance once called Trump Hitler, but he is now the VP, I wonder if every morning he tells himself that he is doing it For The Greater Good. Gavin Newsom is just like any other politician, I would trust him as far as I can throw him.
Repeal the 17th Amendment anyone?
And whatever you do, never attend a local school board meeting.
I’m sure there won’t be any unintended consequences…
I am pretty puzzled.
I have this piece above.
I have various warning articles and accounts by NC commenters on the threats to academic freedom and what that could do to sciences in the US.
I have, albeit very narrow, personal views from colleagues in the US (all well-to-do people).
– Except one acquaintance, who is a Trump voter and worked for Boeing at a factory since the 1980s. Immigrant from Eastern Europe.
And then I have interviews by Chris Hedges with a Jason Stanley but also with a Norman Finkelstein.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/erasing-history-how-fascism-works
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/emptying-gaza-w-norman-finkelstein
Then there is RACKET posting videos documenting protest on both sides of the fence.
(As I said before in authoritarian systems or worse you don´t have public protest against the leader.)
Or this latest ATW with Kirn/Taibbi on “Harvard vs. The Trump-Monster” (pun intended by Taibbi).
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-apr-18-2025-harvard
It almost strikes me as if this again is a form of completely detached parallel realities in the same country.
Those who do not feel affected at all and probably are not affected.
And people who flee the country. Which also probably means they have the means to do so.
For both views their own perception certainly holds up. But there must be a something objective here beyond.
One broadly-shared reality is no more.
We can say that this reality has roughly split between three major blocs: the two wings of the plutocracy and one that chooses neither of the above.
The two wings are without a doubt authoritarian to the core, though each has different flavor and makes different sounds, together they serve to propel the plutocracy onward. To them, the third block is simply threatening, potentially disruptive noise that must be kept muffled, if not muted, altogether.
Yes, you indeed can say that there are two parallel realities, and that both share many similarities, commonalities, and mirror-image biases, but don’t forget the third reality… you’re here, aren’t you?
“The future is here, it’s just poorly distributed.” What you’re seeing is the distributional effects.
The future is a techno-market state where the tolerated population serves the technology and its market.
What we are seeing now is the market state externalizing costs that don’t serve the techno sphere and the oligarchs benefiting from it. Starting with the most vulnerable, as the economy collapses they will move up the income chain as they subvert all income flows to themselves. You’re not in the crosshairs now, unless you’re a tech bro you will be as soon as the classes below you are liquidated.
These idiots imagine AI will somehow overcome world opposition to this nihilistic, suicidal vision of some plutocratic utopia. They worry about keeping their security in check without the faintest understanding that the power and prestige they desperately yearn for is as socially constructed as their money and technology.
Re: Hedges – Stanley – this is a messy one.
There is nothing Stanley does not want to talk about and mix into his theoretical bag. No matter how far-fetched. If fascist is written on it it´s a deal.
Stanley´s intermittent quoting/referencing Hitler/Nazi Germany e.g. is nauseating and primitive.
I do share his threat analysis towards public education at large to faciliate financial interests.
But when he leaves US territory it gets shaky. Stanley´s very limited historic timeline (as far as in this interview – I have not yet read his book):
-WWI was followed by 1933/1945. And then came Trump.
-How can American scholars of apparent merit seriously equate Germany of WWI and WWII?
-German soldiers in WWI and WWII were heroes! What a scandal!
Really?! Wow what an observation Mr. Stanley.
Show me a single country where this is not the case. Not even in anarchist Spain in 1936 would they denounce their own soldiers.
-German soldiers of 1914 with the snap of a finger turned into Nazis?
Well with both of them, Stanley and Hedges, quoting Thomas Mann, I got a bridge to sell as 1914 is concerned…
In fact if I take many of Stanley´s points the US has been fascist since 1945.
Finkelstein sure seems to have huge doubts not necessarily about Stanely but the quality of humanities taught in this – as Stanley sees it – “best university system in the world” – seriously?
This reminds me of the F-35 syndrom. Odd days.
The local news stations in Knoxville (I’m told Knoxville is a blue city in a red state) seize on sympathetic situations of cancer patients having their Medicaid shut off because their spouse collect Social Security that pushes them over income benefit limits, and now they are reporting (with lots of footage of recently emptied bare storage shelves once overflowing with food items) about food banks cutting back due to federal funding cuts at FDA. Yet in my estimate, people will need to see their 401k’s whacked before any possible violent opposition or revolution. Trump better keep up pressure on The Fed to slash interest rates.
Trump can’t fire Powell at the Federal reserve until May of 2026. Trump wants to put in a loyalist in charge of the Fed who will drop interest rates to zero-ish overnight on Trump’s orders. Powell says inflation will go up in the next six months, which means higher interest rates, due to tariffs and volatility.
Invoking the Insurrection Act on Sunday will let Trump replace Powell immediately.
Will it? I saw nothing in the act that gives him the power the remove the head of the Fed.
Trump can declare an emergency over inflation and interest rates, and remove Powell as Chairman to fix things.
Or, he can fire him as Chairman, violating the Humphrey’s Executor legal standard, and let it go to the Supreme Court, which is already weighing Presidential ability to fire any damn one.
LA Times on this topic today
Powell can be pink misted. John Robert’s and The Supremes said so. And if Trump can that, I ask you what can’t he do?
Chris Hedges has a relevant column today.
“The U.S. offshore concentration camps, for now, are in El Salvador and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But don’t expect them to remain there.
Once they are normalized, not only for U.S.-deported immigrants and residents, but U.S. citizens, they will migrate to the homeland.
It is a very short leap from U.S. prisons, already rife with abuse and mistreatment, to concentration camps, where those held are cut off from the outside world — “disappeared” — denied legal representation and crammed into fetid, overcrowded cells.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/17/chris-hedges-american-concentration-camps/
You think this is something new? Odd that Chris Hedges doesn’t mention it, but everyone’s hero, FDR himself, set the precedent. Look up Executive Order 9066, the Manzanar concentration camp, and the Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States.
You wonder if it will end in the US having their own Night and Fog decree. That political opponents and undesirables will go out and just disappear into the night and fog never to be seen again by their friends and family-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Nebel
So Rachel Maddow was right all along? I think the above is silly.
Trump is an old man. What exactly do they think would be his motive in declaring himself dictator? Biology says he wouldn’t be one for very long.
But he does like to jerk everybody’s chain and puff himself up. Even Alastair Crooke has been talking about a Trump “mandate” as opposed to the reality of him winning a thin popular vote majority in a country where half the people don’t vote. So how many divisions does the Trump Messiah have?
https://scheerpost.com/2025/04/18/trumps-will-be-done/
Here’s suggesting it’s a question to be investigated before getting carried away.
Don’t forget that Trump’s doctor during his first term (and current Texan Congressman) Dr. Ronny Jackson speculated that Trump could live to be 200 years old.
Well . . . the people who voted or non-voted to permit Trump’s victory decided to “F#ck Around and Find Out”.
So they F#cked Around and now they will Find Out.
The non-voted didn’t vote and support genocide, the proxy-war against Russia, the “two-party” system, censorship, a pol who slept her way to the top, 10% to the Big Guy, or acceptance of the status quo…
People who voted for Harris gave their approval to all of the above.
Bold of you to assume Biden’s heir wouldn’t be the figurehead for a cabal of people equally interested in destroying democracy.
Rachel Maddow was “right all along” in the same way as the boy who cried wolf was. Even if Kamala was elected, the Dems would have done nothing to reverse course. Indeed, as many here have already noted, many of the abuses of power done here, had already been made presdence by Democrats in the past. You don’t rig two primaries and cancel the third while claiming to be the defenders of democracy.
Thank you for this comment. Completely agree that the dems would have done nothing to reverse course if kamala had been elected. That someone like trump would be elected has been baked into the cake over the last 40+ years that the dems abandoned the working class in order to join in on the Big Grift.
My wife is firmly in the lesser evil camp (doesn’t like Dems, but feels people need to vote for them pragmatically if the alternative is much worse).
She has been in ‘I told you so’ mode since the election. Much of what’s going on is stuff she had been afraid of during the campaign. I thought she was being alarmist and expected more of a continuation of his first term.
I think it’s inarguable that Trump has been worse than a hypothetical Harris administration, which would simply have continued the status quo in most respects. See the shortlist of Trump actions summarized by Yves just below. Harris would not have done any of these things. The one area I can think of where Harris might have been worse was continued escalation to infinity with Russia, but I think we all had a good idea that Trump was going to botch it with Russia and then go into vengeful mode (which has all played out as expected so far) so even that might not be much of a difference.
I’m not a voter, so it’s an academic question for me, but even if I was, recent events might have given me pause. I’m in the ‘pox on both their houses’ group, and I believe Democrats will never change until people start withholding votes. But Trump has managed the difficult feat of making the Biden era policies look good by comparison.
Perhaps, but it’s administrations like what Harris’ would have been that got us here.
So we kick the can down the road, make things even more volatile, and have a Trump 2.0 on steroids instead of what we have now.
Just proves that there is no lesser evil.
Your comment makes multiple violations of our written site Policies.
1. Ad hominem, (as in equating Murphy with Maddow as opposed to addressing his argument).
2. Flouting our overarching comments rule:
3. An assignment (your closing sentence).
Have you been asleep while Trump has repeatedly and flagrantly violated court orders? Used ICE to threaten immigration lawyers? Gutted the First Amendment? Attempted and largely succeeded in dictating significant policies and operating, including forcing firings, at top universities and law firms? Destroyed the US science infrastructure? Set about to destroy livelihoods and living standards with tariffs that go well beyond his legitimate power (as in now finally being challenged by California)? Started a process to deprive many if not most Social Security beneficiaries of their pensions by wrecking its infrastructure? And you dismiss these and other concerns as silly?
You need to up your game if you want to preserve your comments privileges.
Your handwave doest not even begin to deal with rampant evidence that counters your airy dismissal. You are too smart not to know your position is intellectually dishonest. I have no tolerance for sophistry, particularly when the stakes are so high. People need to start thinking about protective action given these givens.
If you feel like I have violated site policies then I apologize. There’s no question whose blog this is and I respect that.
However I would dispute that I am not providing an informed opinion because I’ve spent my life living in the Red state heartland that supposedly would support a Trump cancellation of democracy and it is my view that this would never happen. I grew up in a Baptist church and know quite a lot about the evangelicals described in my link. People in places like this collect guns out of a paranoia about government, not in support of it.
So it’s a serious opinion if sarcastically expressed and if taken as merely flip then once again, apologies.
“It can’t happen here” is an opinion, but IMO not one informed by a study of history. Americans are not any more immune to fascism than any other nation.
I had a rural, conservative, gun-owning colleague who insisted on his proud anti-authority bent. He was also a retired officer who went back to work for the military as a civilian. And insisted on the inerrant authority of his church.
Carolinian, I wish that I shared your optimistic conviction that all those Dominionist evangelicals, cos-playing militias, and stone-cold KKK revivalists would never tolerate cancelling democracy. The history of the post-Reconstructionist Carolinas prior to 1970 or so says otherwise.
The silence of all of those people who were screaming about the imminent Democratic threat to democracy a few short months ago is deafening. Most of them won’t be the night riders. They will just be the ones who do nothing.
This is not a refutation. In fact it’s consistent with Murphy’s proposed scenario.
If Trump declares military law and the military refuses it (backed up by the other branches of government) it would be child’s play for him to paint it as overreach by the establishment and call upon a ‘militia’ to resist it. If the TV starts to fill up with scenes of armed ‘protests’ by Trump loyalists being suppressed by the military, which way do you think the government paranoia types will jump?
This is now an argument from authority, which is another invalid form of argumentation. You are doubling down, which is generating more troll points. An apology whiled persisting in bad faith argumentation is empty.
Not dog pilling here Carolinian …. but …
I’ll just stick with the red state religious angle. That link was all over the shop as a reference, so personally anecdotal its painful. Bloke has no clue and taken his environmental optics out on a walk about for bucks and notoriety film making – woke reverse gear style.
Heck the guy does not even know his own religion or the bible and now is confused about Trump and how it happened to his life.
Heads up mate … Southern Baptists and rabid evangelicals love authoritarianism … its what the rebirth of the savor is all about … slaying all the non believers and sinners so the pure take over …
Majorities don’t matter. Maybe elections (but of limited choices). In reality most authoritatian states took charge without having majority support. Most people have no clue how to resist what happens to them. People might spout off or protest but it will be scattered and disunited and easy to pick off if gets too effective.
Forgive me but isn´t most of what Murphy suggests mere speculation?
Of the similar kind which we had throughout the last administration?
Trump this, Trump that?
Those who were riding that horse (I don´t remember if Murphy belonged to those) are not going to stop now.
Yves mentions the rendition “era” in the comments.
Thanks for that.
Almost nobody does any more. It´s actually pretty shocking.
Everyone speaks about 9/11 but the horrible consequences and what those meant for mutual trust, accountability, lack of control over law enforcement and so on.
I remember the post-9/11 hysteria well.
Muslims became the new class of persona-non-grata. (Same happening in Germany.)
Patriotism and denounciations became a normal thing.
Media as PR agencies of the government.
Black sites, torture – all outside the US.
Just like with El Salvador now.
The Patriot Act did run out but I guess that the major features beloved by DHS, NSA and FBI were kept in place and moved into less visible spaces.
And considerably expanded.
The fact that we have had no serious whistleblower in years is a bad sign.
I somehow tend to not don´t believe in this democracy-at-peril-thing.
As Trees&Trunks writes, when was it a democracy?
(hysteria over Jan. 6th.?)
This merely a gut-feeling by a foreigner who is observing through the keyhole.
But a look back into the early Aughts might be instructive.
It´s bad. But it has been for decades.
edit:
“Everyone speaks about 9/11 but NOT ABOUT the horrible consequences and what those meant for mutual trust, accountability, lack of control over law enforcement and so on.”
I agree it hasn’t looked like democracy in a long, long time.
Systemically, however, the breakages being implemented, while thus far largely invisible, will by the time they surface be deadly on a massive, Soviet collapse or greater, scale.
The increased mortality from “deaths of despair” may have tapered with the exhaustion of a particular demographic, but the abandonment of “Public Health” as a concept in favor of the “medical market” has already ramped mortality from Covid, subsequent pandemics will compound. Bricking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is an obviously eugenicist bid to put tax rates before human life. What tariffs are going to do for the machinery that underpin American life, things like air conditioning, the military and medical industrial complexes, and supplies pharmaceuticals won’t be felt for 3 to 6 months and by then, due to path dependencies across the supply chains, there’ll be no going back, it will be re-building from a much lower base.
Personally, I think Trumps economic policies are a “heads, I win”, tariffs create manufacturing, innovation and jobs, “tails, you lose”, they create shortages, inflation, mass bankruptcy, homelessness, unemployment and starvation. In either case he and his oligarch buddies will be just fine. That in the later case the cull begins with the most vulnerable is fully aligned with the Dark Maga eugenicist ethos.
What we are seeing is “The Market State” externalizing its human population: to the extent what you as a human do serves the profitability of the oligarchs of the technosphere, you’re a useful part of the machine. To the extent you are not, from their perspective, we’ve arrived at the logical reductio ad absurdum of NeoLiberalism: go die.
I think we need to turn attention to how Mr Trump responds when things start falling apart. Judicial attempts to hamstrung his tariff powers are going to be too late to stop real economy dislocations even if successful. How is he going to get China to bail him out ? Will they do so ? At least the 16 named weapons makers will probably never be connected back up to the high tech materials they need from China, but what about the consumer stuff and the supplies needed to keep the fracking rigs going because the fracking fields are not drill and forget, they need regenerating constantly, not like ordinary oil and gas holes. Obviously other sources will be tapped, but can they operate on a Chinese scale and in a timely manner ? China, like Russia probably can’t believe it is getting an opportunity to uncouple from the US without a war, they should be jubilant.
He could easily be limping into the mid-terms with double digit unemployment and extending benefits in the US when things go pear shaped is on a case by case basis. Will he start blaming others and sacking Ministers like last time or have his backers this time have a tighter hold on him and his family ? Noises about Iran are starting to made reminiscent of the Iraq war wind up which is probably the distraction they plan, but it may not happen if they get into enough domestic trouble.
There are more than enough emergency provisions in most legislation to let him flail around constantly but if the Democrats sweep the House in the mid-terms and he continues on in this vein or tries to use the insurrection act to stop the elections there will be no doubt that a future Constitutional Convention will severely trim the discretionary powers of future Presidents, but there is no substitute for the Democrats to get this done because free money is free speech in the US and only a full scale depression will change that by taking money out of the equation.
Thank you Jsn.
Very well put indeed.
Bizarro World rules of mutual collapses are so interesting, we have teetotaler Trump filling in for drunkard Yeltsin, with the spoils going to a select few, how fitting.
teetotaler Trump filling in for drunkard Yeltsin
I had that very same thought.
Fairly clearly, Bessent, Miran, et al seem to be trying to front-run the collapse of US preeminence and the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ by triggering that collapse early, using Trump as a blunt instrument. Some of them have even described it openly as a ‘controlled demolition’ so as to ‘rebuild the greatest era of US power ever.’
Naturally, this will be implemented by privatizing everything that can be privatized. In short, ‘shock therapy’ much akin to what US elites implemented in the former USSR during the 1990s. Another analogy would be a Mafia ‘bust-out’.
In short, this is an elite reactionary pre-emptive counter-revolution aimed at cramming the consequences of the last 40 years down on the non-elite. And not just the non-elite. There will be the screwing of a bunch of folks who thought they were along for the ride and part of the ownership class and governing elite, but in the opinion of the crew using Trump, are not or don’t need to be.
The lifeboat may be luxurious, but too small for everyone who expected a place. Besides, why share?
The Duke said it best:
There you have it!
But I thought he was jacked up on speed (Adderal) and/or other drugs. And Elmo is whacked out on Ketamine. This is not to excuse their mendacity, corruption or lawless behavior, however.
Cognitive decline, whether accelerated by drug use or not, appears to be progressing as well.
new:
USEFUL IDIOTS interview with civil liberties lawyer Jenin Younes:
Why Dems AND the GOP Secretly Hate Free Speech
TC: 20:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvE1ACdNLSQ
“Attorney Jenin Younes has a long career defending free speech. This has brought her across both sides of the political aisle, with Democrats and Republicans trading places on civil liberty abuses. After four years of defending conservatives against Joe Biden, she’s now leading the fight against Donald Trump and his administration as they censor, kidnap, and deport foreign nationals who stand up to genocide.”
Younes states, worst freedom of speech violations in her lifetime.
p.s. funny asymmetrically positioned eyes the lady has
As a layman I found this a very good one on the law.
p.s. The judge who decided against Trump on Khalil is Trump´s sister.
A quick check shows that Maryanne Trump Barry was a U.S. federal judge and the eldest sister of former President Donald Trump. She served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1999 until her retirement in 2019. She died in 2023.
Thanks. Odd of course.
I was quoting from the conversation while listening. Not re-checked it yet.
I used to teach European history, and the lessons of the mid 20thC have been well learned by your current regime.
When Hitler finally came to power in winter 1933 his first aim was to weaken and then neuter the separation of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary which permitted and then immediately consolidated his personal power as dictator.
His voter support level of around 40% ‘ish in the following “election” was not arithmetically so different from 47s level of base support.
On Hitler’s behalf post Reichstag fire, Hindenberg applied Article 48, the Weimar constitutional catch all in terms of ’emergency powers’ that allowed Hitler to over-ride other branches of government. He then acted quickly and decisively, as this was almost immediately followed by the Enabling Act which consolidated his absolute power. All this took under three months. 47 has been moving with similar urgency. It does look planned, with contrived ‘national emergencies’.
The template provided by Project 2025 has actually provided as much equivalent warning of intent for 47 as Hitler’s own writings and propaganda. Why are you all so surprised ?
Adolf’s own personal militia of the SA’s Brownshirts had acted as his everyday muscle for many years, building from the relatively small power base surviving after the 1924 Putsch, so he didn’t immediately need much additional military assistance to fill Dachau which opened in March 1933, a mere ten weeks after his succession to power. It was conveniently close to Munich. A lot of critical journalists, academics and other opposing public figures soon ended up there as well as his Jewish and left “woke” targets.
Quite a few people in the States now do seem genuinely fearful of the knock at the door, which is exactly how Jewish people, trade unionists, socialists and even the more centrist social democrats and underclass felt in Germany in winter and spring 1933.
In 2025, ICE do seem to be acting as surrogate Brownshirts in feeding the USA’s extra national concentration camps.
The US now has El Salvador proving willing facilities as well as its own rendition centre at Guantanamo in Cuba.
Hasn’t the number of 100,000 more camp places been mentioned recently for Phase One ?
That’s very close to the first tranche of 1933 concentration camp imprisonments.
Add to that the steps 47 has recently taken to install military leadership that is loyal to him personally, and rid him of criticism from officers of integrity within the higher echelons of the US armed services. Risibly, even the Greenland Pittufik base leader has been purged.
So, does the Insurrection Act equate to Article 48 ?
Well, any legislation that allows emergency powers that supersede the usual separation of powers and consolidates control by a small leadership clique will do.
And we have the Garcia rendition as the test case of whether the regime simply ignores the judiciary anyway, even SCOTUS, when they challenge the executive.
If the judiciary cannot implement their decisions then they are toothless.
Pamela Bondi, as loyal acolyte, is hardly raising an eyebrow regarding the independence of the judiciary.
Then, does the background of SCOTUS having already bestowed virtually total immunity to the POTUS plus the intensive use of Executive Orders and DOGE have equivalence with the Enabling Act and consolidate 47s absolute power ?
47 already has control over Congress, and as long as the GOP is supplicant, then the writ of 47 will countermand the niceties of any theoretical Congressional oversight, at least until the mid terms, by which time it is way too late. What mid-terms anyway ?
If you add all these elements of the White House regime’s actions since January 20th 2025 together you have some very obvious parallels with Hitler’s actions after January 30th 1933, and some very close timescaling in taking over all three branches of the state, plus strengthening powers of enforcement.
If it walks like a fascist, talks like a fascist and has the mindset of a fascist then there is little hope it is just a duck.
As for how long you have got to react, that’s down to you, but fragmented pushback is unlikely to succeed.
“Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.”
~ Carl Schmitt
There is not going to be a United Front against 47. By default the Democratic party would supposedly lead the front but they obliterated their legitimacy for the past twelve years. On paper I’m just an old school FDR New Dealer but it’s a grim recognition that branch of the Democratic party is dead. It’s all just oligarchic psychopaths. They simply won’t put up the fight against 47.
Even if they ‘win’ against 47, they will continue the slow death march of censorship, authoritarianism, austerity, and war. 49 and 50 will just be the next Caesar to finish off the republic.
The left has been shattered for about 40ish years now. Admittedly they like to engage in circular firing squads but have been devastated by decades of state propaganda. It’s not impossible with enough desperation and hunger, a new left and worker’s movement will form but that’s a gamble.
Soooo… it’s an impossible choice. I can’t crawl back to the Democrats, part of it’s pride. I’m not being made a fool a third time. I’ve game theorized this, Democrats lead to destruction. Of course the Republicans as well.
Revolution, exile, or death.
Or separate survival in stealth self-separating Survivalism Zones? That’s a possibility too, in the minds of those who can envision it. Which might be a first step towards working to make such Separate Survivalism Zones real, here and there.
> It’s not impossible with enough desperation and hunger, a new left and worker’s
> movement will form but that’s a gamble. … Revolution, exile, or death.
Thank you, EMT. As a longtime accelerationist, I would have liked to be encouraged by all the doom and gloom expressed in this thread. Unfortunately, it is almost entirely fear verging on panic. I think sean sums it up very well below (April 18, 2025 at 10:45 pm); his characterisation of the discussion as ‘hair on fire’ is, regrettably, not inapt.
The sad part is that it doesn’t have to be this way if a modicum of courage and determination could be found. I vaguely remember … there used to be some kind of motto or something … I think it inspired people … what was it now? Oh, yeah: ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’
Benito Mussolini was the originator of “fascism”. You might mean extreme authoritarian, extreme right-wing, tyrant? Neo-fascist? Proto-fascist? Wannabe fascist? The DT appears to have studied Il Duce’s facial contortions and body language, but this is a bit different. Folks throw around terms that have become simply pejorative and polemic.
I don’t find comparisons to Adolf Hitler useful. The corruption here is endemic in all three branches of govt., as well as our financial and legal institutions – it is as American as apple pie. As you alluded to, a long series of what we could call institutional rot and corruption was necessary to make it possible for the current kakistocrat in the WH to get away with all this. Political bribery is legal, our financial system and institutions are “criminogenic” as well as TBTF Above The Law, Bush Jr. and Tony Blair got away with starting a war/massacre based on a pack of willful lies etc. The Bush Jr. regime got away with “extraordinary rendition” torture and what not. The list goes on…
And the elephant in the room that many willfully ignore: Genocide
One thing that is historically ironic in spades: the US funding, support and enabling of genocide is putatively being done in the name of The Jewish People (of course the state of Israel does not speak for worldwide Jewry).
This genocide is ongoing and supported by BOTH factions of the uniparty dictatorship. If we are going to throw around “fascist” as a general perjorative, the US has been a “fascist” country for a long time.
Another great comment! The conservatives may well have learned the lessons of the twentieth century, as Tipi observes, but it’s a very different time and place.
It is absolutely fascist and you’re historical analogs ring true, but 1933 Germany was still a major industrial power, we are not.
Hitler was able to seize a vital, creative, industrial powerhouse and use that to wreak havoc. We may well end up on the receiving end of havoc sooner than later with current direction.
Trump is breaking the domestic economy, it’ll be impossible to mobilize the wreckage.
Great comment!
A few thoughts on some historic „fascist“/”Nazi” tropes:
1) If we speak about fascism we cannot remain silent over the use of brutal force. Former never comes without the latter.
2) We wouldn´t be talking about Hitler today if Germany hadn´t conquered all of Europe and if there hadn´t been a war in which Germans killed e.g. 27M+ civilians and POWs.
So why make the comparison with Trump at all? Why can´t it be some other comparison but always Nazis? As if 1945 had been followed by 2024 and there wasn´t anything else.
3) Political murders in the early Weimar Republic 1919-1922:
350+ political activists and politicians killed by rightwing
22+ killed by leftwing
(see Emil Julius Gumbel: “Vier Jahre Politischer Mord”, 1922)
High profile names of killed by rightwing: e.g. Kurt Eisner, Matthias Erzberger, Gustav Landauer, Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Walther Rathenau.
This spiked again with 1929.
However historians such as Dirk Schumann or Reinhard Opitz have pointed out that political violence was used as a strategic means throughout the entirety of the Weimar Republic. And mainly so by the rightwing, i.e. above all SA.
SA subjugated public life in terms of street presence, rallies, public discussions, culture.
This intimidation was clearly intended to exclude and scare away the majority of those citizens who wanted to engage meaningfully without being forced. You were supposed to either be an ally or an enemy.
Throughout 1923-1929 there was a constant presence of street and stage violence thereof.
4) One should also consider that the NSDAP within was a party not unlike present-day cartels. Mass murder and the constant threat of assassination were regular means of control. (This is for instance a very mature look that Bert Brecht took. An insight that got lost post-1945.)
We have discussed this issue here mentioning people like the Strasser brothers. The more important one, Gregor, the only serious rival Hitler once had got killed too. His brother fled Europe.
In the Night of the Long Knives 1934, when Ernst Röhm was killed and SA was disempowered, 200+ cadres of the SA got killed.
This is how Hitler established a dictatorship and not because he had written an odd book in prison or because he carried a small moustache. Or because behaved like a madman on stage. Or because he was an antisemite.
None of this had mattered the slightest had his opponents outside and inside the party not been murdered and had his party not become the major political ally of the most powerful industry in Europe.
Fascism is not a word. It´s actions of an undeniable and undisputable brutality.
So until the GOP starts to murder its own and the DNC, until protest gets suppressed by constant, brute force (not new however to G8 summits) and until people start to get dragged off the streets and put into black sites the way it already happened in the rest of the world after 9/11where they got tortured and killed – I would be cautious with a sudden surge of such trinities as Hitler, Fascism and Trump.
The US has killed enough human beings since 1945 on this planet to make a name for itself as the prime fascist power. Just since 9/11 6 million.
But who would dare to compare Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, or Bush II and Obama with Hitler? Except may be a Noam Chomsky.
5) Nazi Germany planned to go to war. They realized it was the only way to save their industry. Which was eventually one reason for the murder of Röhm. This is not comparable to today. So to what purpose does a “fascism” serve? How much of it in fact makes sense? If you cannot assume to utilize it to take over the world. Because that´s not how the world works any more.
6) Interesting: Fascist Japan and its victims such as China (35M killed since 1931) or Korea, Indonesia, Philippines almost get never mentioned in this context. I wonder why that is.
Fascism requires internal repression. It is not simply a form of colonialism and extraction of resources, although the notion of client states is well established in Pax Americana, (our oil is under your deserts) and being reinforced by 47s inability to think beyond transactionalism.
As Arendt postulated, authoritarianism (as much in 47s actions as with any other wannabe dictator ) becomes totalitarianism when there is compulsion to think and act in certain ways, and other ways of thinking and acting are punished. She cited both Nazism and Stalinism as examples.
That Pax Americana has involved military adventurism and neo-colonialism since WW2 does not mean the USA was fascistic in 1945, although Jim Crow had all the elements of suppression of ‘others’, and racism was well established.
You already had an American society founded on the principle of Untermenschen.
As well as those actions since January 2025 intended to weaken and remove the balances of power between executive, judiciary and legislature, the transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism is very evident in the actions of the current regime.
Intensified attacks on ‘woke’ and liberalism; increased emphasis on propaganda through media manipulation; suppression of educational freedom, imposition of a specific set of values; removal of critical thought and factual material that might allow alternative philosphies, is all very Nietzschean. The level of oppression internally is being intensified very rapidly, and that is entirely fascistic.
That these same trends are evident elsewhere, including Europe, and definitely build on increasing US illiberalism over the last couple of decades, does not alter the argument that the USA is a long way down the slide into fascism.
If Judge James Boasberg sends a few lawyers to prison next month for contempt, then can the President pardon them, repeatedly?
I have already said before but the endgame is something along : “You are cordially invited to the upcoming nuptial of Elon Musk Jr to Princess Ivanka Trump Jr”. The shining beacon on the hill that you can see from afar is nothing more than Mars a Largo 2.0, a sprawling castle built on top of the recently demolished White House.
During the 30 days long (up yours, Ambani) celebration, all muppets (there are no more citizens) will be eligible to receive two free eggs + one can of fresh air every single day. A fitting ending indeed to a nation filled with delusional people.
Nah, the US will be in no shape to support such people. If anything, they might be on a watch list as enemies of the state.
The ship is going down and going down hard.
The incoherence of the author’ argument, based largely if not solely on his fears alone, mark this author as hysterical, frightened and quite possibly in need of some good talking therapy. What is next, Trump colluding with space aliens, perhaps the Lizard People of David Ecke’s musings, in an attempt to slay Trump’s detractors?
I remember when this site was good for solid economic analysis and interesting left leaning political positions. If this article represents the latest Dem/Left/Progressive perspective then all may be lost. I am still baffled how Tesla went from the leading beacon of industrial leadership on saving the environment to a revolutionary target of Molotov Cocktails. As a vocal opponent of neocon wars since 1972 and a firm supporter of the 1st Amendment, I am glad to say I have not changed my positions. Consistency and clarity of thought are hallmarks of reasoned debate.
Please advise as to why, after years of Russia-gate’s slow roll to commit a political coup, undergirded by collusion between the Dems and the Intelligence Community, this site loses its mind over actions by a sitting, fairly elected President whose actions can be litigated, and goes all hair on fire looney about what might happen?
The Lizard People scare me only a wee bit less than an emotionally unmoored back bench crowd whose fever dreams of the NEXT HITLER never come to fruition, but which provide a constant drumbeat of background noise with which to scare people. I suppose all the Covid fear had to got somewhere.
Mostly agree. Personally, way before Trump 2.0, what always struck me as akin to kowtowing to a dictator was the Reichstag-like behavior of a spineless, dishonest, and bipartisanly corrupt Congress that more than once invited a foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to speak and then repeatedly leapt up like puppets on strings to give him dozens of standing ovations.
We seem to be in the middle stages of a Yarvinite revolution [not a pure one; obviously the oligarchs are in it for themselves & obviously there are other factions]
The next step of that would be replacing the Presidential role with a CEO/Monarch role, first through opportunism, then making it formal.
It’s a “restoration” (sigh) not a “revolution” from their perspective.
To expand:
Yarvin’s RAGE (retire all government employees) closely maps to part of DOGE’s work.
DOGE (with help from Palantir etc al) is also installing the Technocratic Oversight bit.
DEI is defeated.
The delegitimisation of legacy system/institutions has arguably mostly already succeeded over the last 15 years.
The Cathedral, is being dismantled (rhetorically, legalistically, and through funding withdrawal).
Other power nodes & checks in executive power are being ignored or removed. The process of Formalisation of this has begun.
Importantly, depoliticisation is underway, meaning the elimination of mass political involvement or action (first in the form of anti-genocide actors, but I suspect that’s stage 1). “Politics” is undesirable to NRx. People are shareholders, or subjects not citizens and the CEO is responsible for decisions (neocameralism?).
The whole process should be a top-down implementation. There is no need for a mandate or public approval.
Absent his pet tariffs, there is almost nothing I’ve seen from Trump2 that doesn’t closely maps to Yarvinism.
Once this is formalised, Trump becomes the 80 year old kind surrounded by venal sociopath princes.
—–
Those who have lived all their lives in Western democracies (sic) can find it hard to understand how fragile democracy is. It doesn’t actually take much to overthrow it. Those who have lived through coups, or in undemocratic systems know how fragile it is.
—-
All of this is a very long way of saying I don’t find Murphy’s thesis unlikely.
Final thought: the Palantir advert appearing at US universities mentioned in the 404media article (yesterday’s links) fits with a very dark future:
“A moment of reckoning has arrived for the West.
Our culture has fallen into shallow consumerism while abandoning national purpose. Too few in Silicon Valley have asked what ought to be built – and why.
We did.
We built Palantir to ensure America’s future, not to tinker at the margins. On the factory floor, in the operating room, across the battlefield – we build to dominate.
Join us.”
The propaganda necessary for “national renewal and purpose” evolves.