Will the Supreme Court's legacy be they killed off democracy?

Will the Supreme Court's legacy be" they killed off democracy'?"Trump's "I can do anything I want" attitude had at first been fed by the friendly Supreme Court ruling that he cannot be prosecuted for a crime while in office, and recent 6-3 Court decisions. Those are now on full display and a matter of public record. Trump is now consolidating power and seeking more, acting and ruling as if he is already a dictator, with little in sight to stop him. Over the years, during and since Trump's first term, the GOP Senate leadership has managed to install a Court dominated by ideologues of various extreme think tanks, such as those favored by the Heritage Foundation and screened by other think tanks for ideological purity. With this kind of control by ideologues who want a unitary or much stronger executive branch, no wonderTrump feels comfortable he can gamble by letting "his' Supreme Court decide whether his power grabs have gone too far. In the upcoming session, the Supreme Court will decide whether its 6-0 majority, with a recent track record of usually granting the power he desires whenever the issue is before it, will continue to do so. Three major decisions will be looming, if not more, that will decide if the Court caves to his power grab or not. The Supreme Court's heritage could be known as the enabler of the end of democracy, of, by, and for the people, and instead gives the permission slip to a power-hungry president, allowing it to become a government of, by, and for Trump. There are some crucial tipping point decisions soon before the Supreme Court this fall. With such power in his hands, Trump has the luxury of being able to ignore the economic needs of those who voted for him and other campaign promises made in 2024, especially those thinking that he would reduce their cost of living. 

This is a Supreme Court, comprising those with a 6-3 Trump-favoring majority, packed over recent years with ideologues who are presumed to be loyal to the concept of a more powerful executive branch, a unitary system that undermines checks on executive power. They were screened by "conservative" think tanks like the Federalist Society for their tilt before they were nominated, and their Senate approval process was strategized by GOP leadership to prevent even other nominees from being considered. 

Those who have advocated for years for the extremist goal of turning the executive branch into a "unitary" government, which is another term for eliminating the checks and balances that Congress and the Judiciary once had, is a goal of the Heritage Foundation. Until the emergence of Trumpism and Trump himself, who seeks to accumulate more power and wealth for himself (no secret at all), the inclination of the Court was to prevent a wannabe from becoming a full-blown dictator. They are now in control of the appointments to keep power positions, and fellow traveler Trump is using the hammer of a totally politicized justice department to threaten and control past and present "enemies".

 The goals of the Heritage Foundation in the 2024 elections were also no secret. It was in print and online, available for all to read.  The irony is that the name of this foundation is not a reflection of the democratic heritage of the republic founded by our forefathers, but rather the opposite. It has been the promotion of the executive branch's power, aiming to turn it into a form of dictatorship, while maintaining the form of checks and balances, yet subverting the judiciary's and legislature's ability to effectively check the executive branch's power. The founders of our Republic warned us against exactly what Trump is trying to do and set up a form of government that kept the executive branch in check, giving the power of the purse to Congress, and an executive branch that was concerned about whether laws or governmental actions were in keeping with the intent of the Constitution. The Supreme Court and the independent judiciary were tasked with ruling on whether laws conformed to the Constitution. The duties of the executive branch were outlined in the "take care" clauses throughout the document.

 It was the rule of law, not the rule of a king, a tyrant, foreign or domestic, that shaped the founders in devising the Constitution in 1789. Kings and tyrants were to be feared and prevented. That is the heritage we have, not the one the Heritage Foundation's deceptively named think tank supports and now dominates the Trump administration, in tune with their leader, who also wants to be an autocrat, too. (Autocrat: another name for a dictator, as "autocrat" sounds to a degree to be less all-powerful or threatening). 

  Trump is now consolidating his power in various ways that resemble those of a dictator, testing the limits of his authority until the Supreme Court intervenes.  He has indicated he will stand by what the Supreme Court rules, but on that promise, we should not trust, as he has a history of breaking promises to get elected. (i.e., I will reduce your cost of living, end the Ukraine war on day one). Instead he has been obsessed and consumed by getting revenge and frightening with threats into keeping mouths shut or into actual verbal compliance with his purposes

.Now Trump is hell bent by tariffs, labor shortages due to mass deportation, and making sure everyone in government or receiving federal funds, top to bottem is loyal to him but not to the empty pledges of loyalty oaths to the constitution, his attempt to put the federal governent in control of tabulation and methods of voting instead of the states, his attempted firing of officials of once hands off independent agencies, his trampling of civil rights and due process, his attempt to frighten so many into subservience to him by using his department of justice to launch investigations without probable cauise except for the crime of being disloyal to him. and his ordering state governors to rediscrt to give him continued control of the House..  

Update: 9 9 2025. The 6-3 Supreme Court just gave the green light to ICE to snatch people off the street because they look Hispanic and sound Hispanic. It is racial profiling, pure and simple. I am disgusted. The voice of dissent, Justice Sotomayor, wrote:"We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job," she wrote. "Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent." Trump's Supreme Court is chipping away at civil rights with no explanation other than "it's not our job to set immigration enforcement policy," and we need to call them out. That should send a chill through anyone who does not look white.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: So is Trump now appealing for the pro dictator vote while he says he is not one?

 The Supreme Court has expanded Trump’s power. He’s seeking much more.

Full List as Supreme Court Rules for Donald Trump 15 Times in a Row - Newsweek

Supreme Court Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor, but Doesn’t Say Why - The New York Times

Project 2025 Tracker | 

Meet the powerful group behind Trump’s judicial nominations   about the Federalist Society

McConnell went 'nuclear' to confirm Gorsuch. But Democrats changed Senate filibuster rules first.

Yes, my friend, if Trump loses in November, so does Project 2025

 A friend of mine for many years had become alarmed by the provisions of Project 2025 and asked me a question that made me realize not everyone had gotten the memo. She asked if the way to stop Project 2025 was to not elect Trump. Yes, I replied. Trump is the key to it. They need him to sign the executive orders and appointments needed to implement it. If he isn't elected, Project 2025 will not be implemented. It makes no difference if he read Project 2025 or claims he disagrees with some of it, unspecified or not. Here, my friend, is the memo you may have missed. Yes, my friend, if Trump loses in November, so does 2025. In short, a vote for Trump is a vote for Project 2025.

If Trump is elected, which parts of Project 2025 do you think he will not enact? If he gives any answer, would you believe him? He has had at least 5 positions on women's health and choice alone since Spring. His most recent about-face was at first refusing to say how he would vote on the 6-week abortion ban on the ballot in Florida; he got such a blowback from staff and others, he backed the 6-week ban. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-damage-control-abortion-backlash-conservatives-rcna168922 He who pays the fiddler calls the tune, regardless of what Trump believes.

While Trump is constantly boasting he appointed the three justices that provided the Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe v Wade., take your pick of which of his positions or none he proclaims. It appears that he takes positions that depend on the roar of his groupie rallies, FOX viewers, and current polls. Per the Associated Press fact checker 8/24, he told Fox and Friends on Thursday he would never enact a federal abortion ban, but in an April video in Truth Social, he would leave it up to the states (and we know what that means), and a few days later, he said he would not. However, a month earlier, he had said he would consider banning abortions at 15 weeks. In another "update", he tried to get out of his party's position on IVF. https://www.npr.org/2024/08/29/g-s1-20187/trump-ivf-funding-abortion-reproductive-rights-election-2024

However, if he removed current staff at Health and Human Services on day one and replaced them with appointees approved by the Heritage Foundation, that would have the same effect as banning women's choice by a law. The Heritage Foundation, the mothership of Project 2025, and the implementing action plan has

its lists of appointees screened and ready to be appointed and drafts of executive orders ready for Trump to sign. Abuse of Schedule F is key to placing personnel friendly to Christian nationalism in place of thousands of civil servants. Trump began the process shortly by reclassifying many positions once filled by career employees and replacing them, thousands of them, with his political appointees, including lists already compiled by the Heritage Foundation of political appointees screened for their ideological litmus tests, including the "culture of life". Biden stopped this reclassification process sith an executive order, easily overturned by another administration. Trump/Project 2025 would finish it for tens of thousands of positions.. To stop allowing mail-order medical abortion pills and certain kinds of birth control methods, Trump's appointees only need to begin enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act, which forbids mailing such methods used by women to control their reproductive health.

These appointees loyal to Project 2025 in all of its other public policy plans are also pledging loyalty to the "culture of life ', the code word for life begins at conception, defacto controlling access to women's health services, and collecting women's private information about whether they had an abortion, when, and why that would become information in a national register. You get the picture and all that follows that extreme view, including banning certain kinds of birth control and abortions without even having Congress pass legislation. The punchline, opposing all abortions with a federal ban, did not appear in Project 2025. They know that would be a poisonous soundbite and opposed by 60 to 70 percent of voters. They instead described how they would accomplish it in other ways with Trump's appointees. Yes, my friend, if Trump loses, so does Project 2025.

If you still think Trump's policy positions are no lie, here is a study that shows where his current positions overlap with Project 2025 and the personnel connections that are the smoking gun: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-proposals-trump-policies/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/01/us/politics/project2025-heritage-foundation-administration-application-questionnaire.html

What does the Heritage Foundation have to do with Trump's campaign? My answer, updated.

 On a private Facebook site, a rare one where the entire spectrum of political thinkers can meet, one posting asked what the Heritage Foundation has to do with Donald Trump's campaign.  This is my response. The backup documentation and details have been frequently posted on this blog. Search Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.   Update: 8/12/24    ProPublica just released training videos of Project 2025 if you had any doubts about connections to JD Vance, the Trump campaign, and the "How to" training of how the Christian right plans to take over the executive branch, destroy references to global warming and climate change, and civil and affirmative rights beginning Day One. Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos — ProPublica

There is also an action plan for the first 180 days of the 2nd Trump administration, courtesy of Project 2025.. Both this and the training of course are dependent on Trump being elected in November 2024. From Google:  "The time is short, and conservatives need a plan. The project will create a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left's devastating policies.

180-Day Playbook - Project 2025"

Project 2025

https://www.project2025.org › playbook

  

 The key is getting Trump elected in 2024 because he is the tool to execute the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. Trump attempted to do it with Schedule F changes but failed when he was President. It is a takeover of the administrative state, which MAGA calls the deep state, by ideological loyalists.. The Heritage Foundation's Project Project 2025, 150 right-wing and Christian nationalist and former Trump staffers plan funded by $150 million to get rid of potentially two million civil service employees and to replace them with those pledging to and passing their ideological litmus test in the federal executive branch. Personnel applications and screening are already ready in the process.. The purpose is in all branches of government to have all employees and presidential appointees apply administrative decisions that are ideologically based and uniformly practiced and no longer pledged to the Constitution and the rule of law, as they are now, but to carry out their extreme religious convictions. It is a way to sabotage the intent of the legislation and laws. The impact would last for years, long past any Trump occupation of the Oval Office.

Project 2025 head steps down, but their crusade continues with Trump their tool

The ideological shaping of the Project 2025 text may be stopped with a change in leadership of its authors, as Trump denies any connection. As a project of the Heritage Foundation, the recruiting and screening of applicants to replace civil servants with right-wing Christian ideologues continue, and Project 2025 remains the blueprint for any future president to use is still available. Trump looks like their tool to enact this subversion of the executive branch. Remember, he tried to replace career service employees with loyalists to him by abusing Schedule F when he was president, but his staff had convinced him it was against the law. In a Trump second term, with immunity from criminal prosecution Trump and a compliant Supreme Court could take a different take.

The Democrats need to take a stronger line of attack to keep Trump from distancing himself. Trump so far denies he knows anything about it, but his former staff wrote it. Trump should not get away with such vague or deceptive denials and be needs to be pinned on how he has supported specific parts of Project 2025, including replacing civil service, by using evidence and video clips documenting it.

 https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/30/politics/project-2025-paul-dans/index.html

On becoming a theocracy: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/06/project-2025-and-christian-nationalism.html

How it works in a dictatorship for ordinary people; a story my husband told me

This is a message to political moderates who may think that dictatorships can be worked around and tolerated. It is also a message to advocates of democracy over autocracy to sharpen their message.  How Trump has seized control of the GOP, the Supreme Court, the House, using the tools of  fear and retribution, threatening loss of power position and income, is instructive. Calling this names like fascism may only inflame. Should Trump be called a wannabe dictator? Yes. That is fair. He has called himself one for a day.Trump is  making inroads in convincing ordinary persons that dictatorships are a good thing for them. 74% of Republicans approve of Trump being a dictator for a day. Fools. Trump only needs one day to sign the executive orders already prepared by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025  to get his dictatorship ball rolling.   Democrats need to hit that BS head on and they have not. The message to those willing to ignore Trump's promise to be a dictator is you lose control of who governs you, and in a dictatorship (or an autocracy), your vote is meaningless, and you lose your ability to voice any dissent if you feel you are treated unfairly. To survive, you learn to keep your mouth shut and your head down. The rare birds are Navalany and Liz Cheney, willing to fall on their swords for advancing their beliefs, sounding alarms, and even crying from the ranks, "The emperor has no clothes." Those are lessons from those once in powerful positions.  

Democrats need to get voters  who still have the power through the ballot to  imagine how it would be for ordinary people to be treated if that is how Trump gets power and runs the government. It is also a message for those with some power now  seeking favors and help from a government, local, state, or national public policy issues, but the impact of living in a dictatorship as an ordinary person needs greater emphasis.  However, to expand that view to the swing voters mulling choices over, and weighing the pros and cons in their own lives, I fear democracy v autocracy  still sounds poli sci abstract and  they do not grasp what it is like to be an ordinary person in a dictatorship.  Independent thinkers have no place in a MAGA land. So imagine Trump running the country the same way he has taken over and controlled the GOP, the Supreme Court, and the House of Representatives while in exile at Mar-A-Lago.

How bad a dictatorship can be for  ordinary citizens  is rarely understood by those with no familiarity or personal experience except for Orwell's novels and dystopian movies.  Few like me have had personal experiences with dictatorships or know those who have. It has touched my own family. One  example comes to mind of what happened when my late husband, Dr. Mike Muftic, was a medical student in Zagreb, then Yugoslavia, and at that time led by dictator Comrade Josip Broz Tito.  The Tito regime had been in power for nearly ten years. It was a communist regime allegedly dedicated to all people being economically equal, a revolt from the time of the King and privileged classes. Milovan Djilas, a comrade in arms and close friend of Comrade Tito, was considered to be the ideological guru of the regime and, at one time, Tito's successor. He was a dedicated believer in Marxist ideology in its purest form. The dictatorship of the proletariat to him meant that the workers were in charge, not the apparatchiks, not the bureaucrats. He had become appalled at fellow high government officials and overbearing government red tape administrators who were becoming the new privileged lords, chauffeured Mercedes-driven, with better housing, and vacationing at seaside resorts on the government's dime. Djilas wrote a book, "The New Class," to express his criticism.  Mike arrived for the class  at medical school  as the communist party commissar in charge of keeping the faith by medical school students was praising Djilas' book and righteously criticizing the privileged class.  In response, though, Comrade Tito was not pleased, saw it as a threat to his power since he relied on support by those he favored and to who he gave employment and perks, the new class, and put out the word.  The next morning, the same communist party commissar was holding forth, repeating Tito's criticism and telling the crowd of students around him how terrible Djilas was.  It was heresy, and this was and is the party line the students had to repeat Djilas was wrong. Failure to utter the party line  could lead to loss of future desired hospital appointments, loss of choice professors, or worse. Djilas spent years in prison. To get ahead, you had to repeat the party line in public and in private because there were loyalists everywhere who would report you to their upstream handlers. Criticisms of government stupidity and incompetence were disguised in ethnic jokes, never faulted  to the Boss, of course.. The one I heard often was this: Only a dumb ethnic like a (fill in the blank)would have 3 people screw in a light bulb, for example. (One to hold the bulb, one to hold the ladder, and one to turn the ladder to screw the bulb in) The only safe topic was sports. All media, TV, and print were government-controlled and repeated Tito's line, up to date. Any information to the contrary came from foreign short-wave radio, Voice of America, or US Armed Forces radio, which managed to avoid jamming. (China has become masterful in today's domestic cyber  content control) .Dr. Mike, not yet 30 years old, defected from the Yugoslavian dictatorship of Tito, emigrated to the US, and eventually became a US citizen and even a Democratic National Committeeman. His greatest pleasure in living in a democracy was his ability to speak his mind. To him, that was the meaning of freedom. 

That is how it works in a dictatorship and in even in MAGA/GOP land now. Trump has already seized control of the state, local, and national GOP structures. Treasured members are expected to be bobbleheads nodding only up and down in the affirmative and to repeat the party line of the day whether or not they agree.  This past week, we saw it in action when the RNC attorney , Charlie Spies,who dared question whether the 2020 election was stolen, was purged. Sen. Tim Scott refused to answer the question if he would accept the 2024 results if Trump lost. Now imagine Trump wins in November and carries forward his plans to replace all advisors and staff, cabinet heads, and department heads with his bobbleheads who only nod up and down,"yes, Boss."   The way for ordinary people to succeed yet object to what the government is doing is to keep their heads down and shut up. They just might not get the job promotion they seek or to influence a policy they deplore. 

The view of the threatening Trump dictatorship still has meaning and relevance for those who feel the federal government touches their lives. They get it. Frustration with the Supreme Court, now in the hands of a supermajority of MAGA, is another example of how MAGA has taken over the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution. Lower courts may rule one way but find themselves at a dead end in the MAGA Supreme Court.  MAGA has also gotten control of the Government purse strings in the House, as the vote on Ukraine illustrated and the current attempt to oust the Speaker who is not MAGA enough. Now, Trump wants to control every aspect of the executive branch, including what he calls those who are not loyal to him, the civil servants of the"deep state".  In so doing, he openly stated he would use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies and deny broadcast licenses to those he considers oppposition press. Harrassment, fear of prosecution of those who would otherwise be proven innocent in a court of law, is enough.   What this means for all Americans is to shut up and keep your heads down if you have a beef about Trump's execution of his agenda. You have lost your voice; your vote is useless because the newly minted dictator controls both the message, the election process, and the execution of public policy. 

 Update:July 2024 moved to part of a July 16 3024 posting, too. Project 2025 is the vehicle that gives Trump the ability to be a dictator beginning on Day One: By executive order, he will try to replace the entire executive branch with the spoils system of those pledged loyalty to Trump, not to the constitution. He tried it when he was in office using schedule F, told it was illegal, and now, he can get a way with it thanks to his friends on the Supreme Court.If he commits a crime, trampling laws, ignoring them, the Supreme Court has given him immunity from prosecution for committing them during official acts (now already underway in overturning every jury trial that found Trump liable or guilty for acts he committed during his presidency).  If he sees demonstrations, even peaceful ones, objecting to his policies, he will use violence to crack down on them, as he tried to do when he tried to force the military to sed in their active troops,  summoned known violent militias to intimidate Congress on January 6, and called neo Nazis fine people who mimic Nazi Germany's violence in the 1930's.  

An excellent bio ofy Djilas is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_Djilas

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-purges-election-lawyer-saying-154146265.html

A slanted Rasmussen poll claims the GOP is winning the battle for who would be better for democracy: Trump wins                    Democrats lose another argument: Who’s better for democracy? (msn.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeuagPSVQc

Do not be so sure the election will be decided on the issue of Democrcy v Autocracy

Do not be so sure if the election will be decided on the issue of democracy v autocracy or democracy vs. dictatorship. Yes, democracy will be on the ballot in November, but it is not a given. It will succeed as the determining issue in November.  Using the term "autocracy" only describes degrees, a range of rules by a person instead of the rule of law. It is a weak term that needs to be replaced by what Trump has already publicly promised if he is elected in November: a "dictatorship."  Even then, Trump has made the term "dictatorship" into a positive for his followers' benefit, not one to be afraid of, because it will "get their stuff done."His lulling words it is only "dictatorship for a day." Only fools believe that. That is all he needs to get the ball rolling for becoming a dictator quickly and, in the transition, throw this country into destabilizing chaos and uncertainty until he consolidates the power in lusts in his own hands. The April 27 white house correspondents' dinner dramatized the importance of the freedom of the press. (more below).

 What is not clear is whether American voters understand there is a link between "blanket immunity" and the continuation of democracy, the issue before the Trump-dominated Supreme Court.  Trump wants the power not only to get himself out of the January 6 criminal case filed by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith but to give him the power to become a dictator, a get-out-of-jail card, able to ignore any threat of criminal prosecution for breaking laws, as he assembles dictatorial powers for himself.  If he can even get the Court to decide he can break laws if it is in his "official duties" capacity, as Trump's loyalists on the Supreme Court are arguing, he is well on his way to claiming any action he performs is official and throwing the US into chaos as this claim is challenged in federal courts and make its way through the judicial appeal system to his Trmmp Supreme Court.  How do we know that will happen? It is happening now, and Trump is not even back in the Oval Office. 

 In December, a YouGov poll revealed that when asked if they supported a dictatorship over democracy, the result was that only a small percentage agreed with having a dictatorship. https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/48238-most-americans-support-democracy-and-oppose-dictatorship However,  by February, Trump embraced the concept of being a dictator and his loyalists fell in line. Trump's own promise he "would be a dictatorship for a day" was ok for 3/4 of those who identified themselves as Republicans.   https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4453457-74-percent-of-republicans-say-its-fine-for-trump-to-be-dictator-for-a-day/ 

What a bunch of fools If Trump had immunity from committing crimes,  he could run rampant over existing laws that restrict presidential power, from bribery to assassination of rivals to oppressing press freedom to putting down any peaceful protests and gatherings.  In one day, he could sign the documents already prepared by the Heritage Foundation to allow him to fire thousands of federal employees and replace them with his loyalists, as well as replace those heading regulatory agencies with his sycophants such as licensing media outlets and protect consumers from environmental catastrophes, dangerous products, unfair business practices, and loan sharks. withdraw the US from NATO and throw the economy into a tailspin by sabotaging the only institution that could control inflation, the Federal Reserve. He has already promised to do all of this. and the Heritage Foundation, with millions in the bank, is already at work lining up those replacement loyalists to Trump. The lists will be ready to go on day one.   With a Trump Supreme Court, forget the guardrails of the justice system, and with such power of appointments, a jubilant business community and any GOP opposition to Trump will be hailing "the boss" if they want to have any political power.  The raised clenched fist palms forward will be the 2025 version of the old nazi salute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gestures#:~:text=Clenched%20fist%20is%20used%20as,%2C%20%22a%20thumping%22).

The April 27 white house correspondents' dinner dramatized the importance of the freedom of the press. In Trump's dictatorship, it is already stated by him as a promise to eliminate opposition press as treasonists.. In a post on his Truth Social platform in September, Trump repeated both phrases and vowed to investigate NBC News and MSNBC for “Country Threatening Treason” and try to curb their access to the airwaves.“I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events,” Trump said in the post. “Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/25/trump-nbc-msnbc-comcast-country-threatening-treason  He could do this by controlling the Department of Justice to selectively prosecute opposition press and delicensing opposition media,, and using his flunkies running the Federal Communications Commission.  Trump may be a proven liar, but he has always been upfront about what he promises he will do, can effectively keep his promises,  even without blanket immunity for breaking criminal laws, and if elected again, he has the power to get it done.   If he controls the Supreme Court, as he already seems to do, legal action to protect First Amendment rights would have a rough go. His MAGA supporters would love to muzzle opposition.  So what about the rest of us who do not rely on FOX News?

Why Trump only needs to be dictator on day one to be dictator for years to come update 4 4 2024

Update 4 4 24   This is an attempt to block Trump's day one implementation of Project 25, making it harder to replace career service employees with Trump loyalists. This is rule making, but if Trump also controls the Supreme Court, he can get around this, too.  It would make it a bad day on day one for him, though.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=share  Former President Donald Trump has plans to radically reshape the federal government if he returns to the White House, from promising to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to firing tens of thousands of government workers. 

Cont'd.Here is why Trump only needs to be a dictator on day one to be a dictator for years to come. He is old, just turning 80. The biological clock is ticking. There is a plan to accomplish much of that in the first 180 days of his administration. This is no "conspiracy theory" but a plainly written and documented plan, Project 2025, that is well funded and already being implemented to be ready to go on Day One 2025. The executive orders and appointments signed on Day One triggers the rest of the Project 2025 implementation and both  kinds of documents are now being prepared. This gives Trump the ability to execute the laws of this land, but not faithfully to the intent or the purpose of those laws, but to manage them to implement policy dictated by an ideology influenced by White Christian nationalism and self-serving corporate anti-environmental interests. The power it gives him will be policies that last years beyond the four years he is in the Oval Office with plenty of leverage and ability to keep himself or his successors in power with  appointments to the "administrative state."  

 Most current dictators, Orban of Hungary, Putin of Russia, and Erdogan of Turkey, took several years and some traumatic events to exploit (mass migrations ethnics fleeing Middle Eastern violence (Hungary, Turkey, Russia (Breslan massacre by Islamic terrorists..related to the concert hall massacre this past week) to amass enough power to qualify for the title of dictator.  All three are there for life, not for four years. Once they controlled all levers, judiciary, legislative, executive,  and media, they maneuvered the constitution and laws to eliminate any term limits. Getting there was subtle, nonviolent,  and, like a frog in ever-increasing hot water, finally reaching the boil and death, in this case, the death of democracy. 

 The Heritage Foundation, with $150 million in the tank, is already training, recruiting, and drafting executive orders for Trump to sign on Day One. Heritage Foundation is one of the US's largest and most influential think tanks. This is no "conspiracy theory,"  and it is not just thinking and planning, but it is already being implemented with training and recruitment of participants to put into practice of a theory underway to be ready to go on Day One 2025. The goal is to eliminate "the administrative state" and to replace all parts of the executive branch and an estimated 50 thousand civil servants with loyalists to a highly conservative agenda.   It would keep the form of the executive branch. Still, it would sabotage their agenda by replacing it with loyalists pledged to a highly conservative one instead of adhering to the intent and purpose of the rule of law. This is the Orban playbook on steroids and fast track. The long-term impact will last even after Trump is ousted.  Will it work?  If you remember how the Federalist Society engineered the MAGA takeover of the Supreme Court with ideologues still in place after Trump left the Oval Office, you will get an idea of the long-term impact of having loyalists to Trump or vetted and proposed by the Heritage Foundation in place in the federal bureaucracy for years.  It is not just the federal executive branch that the Heritage Foundation has as their target. It is state and local governments, as well.

https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-raises-more-150-million-record-breaking-fundraising-year

https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-announces-the-launch-the-presidential-administration-academy

Read it from the Heritage Foundation itself: Playbook | Project 2025

2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf (thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com)

newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/how-the-federalist-society-won

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/04/20/4-pillars-project-2025-conservative-plan-undermine-liberal-behemoth-washington/

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-trump-plans-for-his-second-term.html

Crony capitalism: MAGA's threat to consumer product safety and consumer protections

 Core to MAGA plans, if they win in November 2024, is to upend US free market capitalism and replace it with crony capitalism, which is regulated and supported by political loyalists with their allegiance not to the rule of law but to Trump and his think tank planners at the Heritage Foundation.  Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation think tank plan already poised to be executed upon Trump's election, proposes to fire and replace thousands of civil servants with political loyalists.  The result will be a blow to consumer safety, the environment, finances, and prices, as Trump proposes charging a 10% import fee, which will be passed on to consumers. Wait, there is more. 

Trump has a history of sabotaging consumer and environmental protections: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/trump-economic-unpopulist.html

Update 5 17 2024: One of the most significant upgrades to consumer protections is contained in the watchdog over consumer finance, was upheld by the Supreme Court but still faces defanging by MAGA  https://www.reuters.com/legal/despite-consumer-watchdogs-us-supreme-court-win-agency-powers-still-chopping-2024-05-17

Update: 5 12 2024 Crony capitalism is also a characteristic of modern dictatorships, from Hungary to Russia. Perhaps a better word is the Russian one for crony capitalists:  Oligarchs.  

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-again-attacks-new-york-prosecutor-floats-economic-plans-new-jersey-rally-2024-05-12/

Update: 4 9 2024: The company Trump keeps and to whom he owes, and his record of a fraudster means heads up for consumers. He is not your friend. The businessman Don Hankey, who provided the money for Donald Trump's $145 million bond, has a reputation as what we used to call in a white collar prosecutors unit a high-risk loan shark, a lender of last resort, and a repo man in car loans who got rich providing loans to high-risk customers and charging fees skating usury.  His practices are not consumer-friendly, to put it mildly, and has had run-ins with regulators. Trump owes him a big one since, given Trump's practice of going bankrupt and court processes around fraudulent business practices that bring into question Trump's financial worth, make him a high-risk borrower. Trump claimed he could not find anyone to give him the bond he needed as he appealed a $400 plus judgment for financial fraud. Hanky and Trump deserve one another.  https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/trump-investigations-civil-criminal-tracker/index.htmlm  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-don-hankey-billionaire-175-million-bond-who-is-he/  He also defanged the new financial consumer protection bureau. https://www.npr.org/2018/02/12/584980698/trump-administration-to-defang-consumer-protection-watchdog

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/billionaire-don-hankey-trump-175-million-bond-subprime-car-loans-rcna146232

Original posts continue:

Crony capitalism is a feature of every autocracy from Hungary to Russia. Crony capitalism is institutionalized corruption.  In fact, that is how Viktor Orban accumulated is political power with promises and favoritism to loyalists. . It is the same model that CPAC and Trump salivate after and advocate to install if elected to power. Instead of "keeping us safe at any speed," regulatory law will decide who and which businesses have proved their loyalty, either in campaign contributions or in loyalty pledges, and how towed to the party line. The standard in crony capitalism is no longer market competition based upon the survival of those with best practices. and price/value fair standards within regulatory constraints even their competitors are bound to obey. There is no level playing field where all must abide by the same rules. Instead, it is based on the favoritism given to businesses that have paid for in political contributions or sworn to loyalty to their regulators.

 Those who have faith that the medication they take they can afford and they are warned of side effects and labels and advertising cannot lie will be destroyed if the decisions favor manufacturers and producers who are looking after their self-interest and profit instead of having to toe the line of regulations designed to protect consumers from being ripped off or endangered.  That anti-trust action to protect consumers from price gouging and price fixing. Truth in labeling and disclosure requirements will be ruled by those who have shown loyalty to MAGA and Trump.    That affordable access to health care and prescription drugs by MAGA and Trump, already advocating the end of Obamacare and cutting Medicare and Medicaid, will now be decided by MAGA loyalists who have already promised to cut,  subvert, or end them.  

One of the dumbest and most harmful proposals by Donald Trump is to slap a 100% tariff on every import care. This means that to cover the import costs and keep their profit margins, manufacturers will simply increase the cost of the imports to customers or go out of business..  that will not only kill off the import market, but it will also give cover for domestic car manufactures to raise their prices too, and still be lower than the import competition.  

Even more profound, foreign and domestic investors who counted on the stability of the rule of law provided them will no longer see the US as a stable place to put their money and invest in improvements or that the free market will even be the level playing field in which they can compete. Instead, their advantages will go to the loyalists, not those whose price, manufacturing efficiency, and consumer appeal have the advantage in a free market system. 

Felicia Muftic is the author of the Colorado Consumer Handbook and has a career spent in prosecution, regulatory agency oversight,  and consumer advocacy of consumer protection and support of ethical business practices and practitioners.   She is also the president and principal partner of a small business subject to FDA and FTC rules and regulations. She appreciates the level playing field in a competitive business environment. 

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/08/how-heritage-foundation-plans-to-turn.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/grocery-price-inflation-biden-is-taking.html

https://fortune.com/2024/03/16/trump-100-tariff-for-cars-made-in-mexico-by-chinese-firms/

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/victims-of-trump-v-2-would-be-us.html

Messaging again. How Biden can hit a nerve in fence sitting voters updated 12/26/2023

Biden can make the contrast that he is about hope and Trump is about with some simple words like Hope v Hate and Help vs. Harm,.Healthy democracy v Havoc and fear. Hope is a word that has worked well for candidates like Obama and Carter (the man from Hope). Chaos, revenge, and oppression are not positive promises for any one trying to cope with the daily demands of life. The challenge question put to those considering still voting for Trump is what good is he going to do for you and your lives?

 In spite of demonstrating an enormous amount of vigor and effectiveness in getting stuff done, casual observers are still giving the thumbs up to Trump, and it seems to be getting worse as Biden's approval dips below 40%. Biden has failed to communicate how a Trump victory would hurt the lives of so many. He has accentuated his positives and hoped Americans will see the negatives independently.  The problem is that not enough Americans have drawn the contrasts on their own because they only listen to news outlets in their comfort zones that distort and report one side's views.   Part of the effectiveness of such one-sided media is to paint the other side as fake or immoral or lapse into cynicism that everyone and everything in politics is BS, lots of noise that has nothing to do with their own lives.  Biden needs to break through media silos that only present viewpoints that are critical to him or to reach a public that is neither focused nor caring about how they would be harmed in their own lives by a Trump victory. But how?  Biden needs to rephrase how a Trump/MAGA would hurt individuals in their personal lives in his negative message while reminding them of what Biden/Democrats would help.  He has begun to make that contrast, but he has failed to bring it down to the level of daily, self-interested life of non-Maga; those among the other 60 percent who are unalarmed and turned off of news chatter who don't understand it could be a lot worse for them personally if Trump and MAGA win.

  The irony is Trump's public policy plans for his second term only have the support of 40% of voters.  Biden's too old, he's too feeble, etc., yet Biden has delivered while his presumed opponent beats his golf-swinging macho chest with dangerous plans to harm the self-interest of all but those loyal to him.  That is where we are and in spite of Biden's efforts, he has a long way to go, time to do it, to ring the chimes of the 60% potential.  The GOP has provided enough fodder and rich material to do it, but to put it has not through to non-MAGA voters.  MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: We are no longer a 50-50 nation but a 60-40 one on public policy issues

First, Biden needs to give up on those who are an estimated 30 to 40 percent who are probably a lost cause, listening only to a few pro-Trump media outlets and have closed minds for whatever reason or non-reason.

Second, Biden needs to make the campaign about more than just the two combatants.  It is not only about Biden v Trump.  It is also about the extremist MAGA movement as a whole up and down the ballot. It is about all of the other MAGAs who would be swept into power from the White House and federal administrations down to the state houses and local election officials. Note: The attack is against everyone who identifies as a Republican but the MAGA movement/Trump.   

Third, challenge voters to think about how a Trump presidency, or even a MAGA-dominated government, would hurt their own personal lives.:Do it with a series of questions, followed by how Biden/Dems second term instead of a Trump second term would do differently, and use current examples of such attempts or plans from MAGA/Trump own mouths. These are also Biden rally/response platform questions. Here are some challenge questions.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump plans for his second term and how he

Do you want elected men to make medical decisions about childbearing or some federal government to do it, too? MAGA does.  They want a federal law to ban abortions and be just like Texas is now.

Do you want elections and processes to be controlled by MAGA loyalists?  They are using the lie that the 2020 elections were stolen to give reason to do this, though, after 3 years of trying, they cannot prove it.

Do you want Obama care you may have or the sense of security you can afford health insurance if you lost employer insurance repealed? MAGA does.

Do you want a government to deny licenses to media deemed not loyal to Trump? Trump does.

Do you want protests put down by active military, tanks, etc? Trump says he will invoke the insurrection act on day one to enable to be on the ready to do it, and he will fire any military brass who objects. 

Do you want federal civil service employees replaced with MAGA loyalists? Trump and the Heritage Society already have funding and a plan to do that beginning day one.

Do you want federal laws to tell you who you cannot love or marry?  MAGAS do.

Do you want Trump to rip up the Constitution? Trump: Constitution should be terminated due to "massive" election fraud (axios.com)

9 out of 10 Republicans silent on Trump's calls to terminate the Constitution - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (citizensforethics.org)

After each question, Biden should confirm his contrasting position and if necessary, repeat when, who, and what ..

Updated: 12/26/23

Biden still has to make the case he will deal with unfinished business that helps ordinary people with their future, not only addressing student loans, border chaos, and leading the free world but also protecting their freedoms that Trump et all who would take away from them. Those include women's choice over their healthcare, the sanctity and ability to vote and have their votes counted, their ability to gather to address grievances, and laws that apply to everyone, not just a few Trump favors.. (That is called "democracy", but we forget what that means to be able to have a voice in our governance. ) He should also say he cannot do it alone. He needs a willing Congress, not one dominated by MAGA. It is not just drawing a contrast of past actions with what Trump promises for the future, but that Biden's past and future plans give hope and promise for the future instead of hate, conflict, and an aristocracy/dictatorship that would destroy hope for a better future or a future that represents MAGA's oppressive and hate-motivated attempt to take away the freedoms and rights you have taken for granted.. until now. "Now" means these freedoms are not forever and would be lost if Trump had his way., using the power he would give himself.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump plans for his second term and how he

From my December 16 posting: A word to those on the left from one who is hardly viewed as right-wing on civil rights and domestic issues. This initiative from the extremists on the right has nothing to do with the immorality of war; it is a political strategy to give them more power and an anti-democratic ideology. Playing their game of Putin love/isolationist/ appeasement will only lead to the possibility of getting ourselves involved in a hotter, wider war, not with a proxy like Ukraine, but actively ourselves. If we reduce our defense budget by the 10% Ukraine is costing us, do you really think the savings will be applied to domestic social programs instead of reducing taxes on the rich?    Do not be played.  The reason we are in this position now is because of a power-mad hyper-nationalist Putin, determined to recreate an empire they lost in ending the Cold War. Putin’s plan for a new Russian Empire includes both Ukraine and Belarus - Atlantic Council 

 

No more pussyfooting around. Time to call Trump a " wannabe fascist dictator?"

The New York Times today made a case for calling Trump a fascist, though they still tagged him with being a wannabe "autocrat. It was front page. While  The Times itself did not call Trump a fascist, it instead presented the evidence of how he fit the definition. Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent - The New York Times (nytimes.com) Too bad America cannot get the full article because of the paywall. Still, the probability is frightening he could get his hands on the ability to carry out his plans.  This is not bloviating by a crazy, out-of-control megalomaniac. The Heritage Foundation has the money and the pre-vetted lists of loyalists who will replace the executive branch appointees not pledging loyalty or having a history of disloyalty to Trump. They are ready to go the minute Trump takes the oath of office and to get the job done within his term. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How the Heritage Foundation plans to turn us into a one party autocracy There is a large mass of Americans who already buy into\, ignore, or even applaud what he promises to do if he gets into the White House again.  They tacitly or consciously approve of his breaking the rule of law to do what he promised.  FromThe Times article:" A survey released last month by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 38 percent of Americans supported having a president willing to break some rules” to “set things right” with the country. Among Republicans surveyed, 48 percent backed that view."  Once Trump is successful in implementing his plans for citizens to take back democracy as they once knew it,  it is too late. Citizens have, by then, lost the power to do it through the ballot because the ballot is also under the control of Trump and his followers. There are plenty wanting to take his place if age overtakes Trump. If you are applauding what Trump is planning, you need to look in the mirror and wonder if you, too, have earned the tag of fascist.

 The Times article includes evidence of how Trump fits the definition. But first, the definition is based upon an analysis of past and current dictators (whatever their rationalization to garner personal power) .  "Fascism is generally understood as an authoritarian, far-right system of government in which hypernationalism is a central component. It also often features a cult of personality around a strongman leader, the justification of violence or retribution against opponents, and the repeated denigration of the rule of law", said Peter Hayes, a historian who has studied the rise of fascism...".   Another export source quoted in the Times article also said such fascist dictators rose to power by catering to those who think they have been victimized. "Past fascist leaders appealed to a sense of victimhood to justify their actions, he said. “The idea is: ‘We’re entitled because we’ve been victimized. We’ve been cheated and robbed."

My comment follows: Getting really close to Trump earning the tag: "wannabe fascist dictator". The pussyfoot term in use in the polite and liberal press has been "autocrat."  Way too kind for someone who now promises to imprison his opponents and is already making his enemies list that he will use for (his) Department of Justice loyalists to indict and jail, which he adds to daily. Maybe just "dictator" will do.  On the other hand, if the bird walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Trump is quacking like a fascist, and others are walking and acting like fascists on his behalf.  Today, it is Liz Cheney.  When he threatens to imprison any general who refused to call up the active military to put down demonstrations against him abusing the insurrection act, what does that describe?  If he promises to use the FCC to shut down media news who does not support him, where have you heard that before?,   If he describes those opposing him as "vermin"n" and says that illegal immigrants will contaminate "our blood",  he took a page from the German fascism of Goebbels and Hitler? That is how fascists get citizens to go along with their persecution by making them these targets less than human or lesser than their ruling class. Empathy has no place in that society. Even better, make the lesser than your race or class to blame for your ills and deserving your hatred. and oppression. Examples of that are Jewish bankers and, now, personified by George Soros by contemporary anti-semites. For Trump, the target is the "deep state, who dared during his first term to tell him "no."  That includes Genera Milley who refused to use active military to put down domestic protest. Root it out, he says, and replace it with his loyalists.   And if you tend to excuse this as just demagoguery, bloviating, and entertaining, you are a fool because the plans are already there and being funded to replace every executive decision appointee identified as "disloyal to Trump", including more of the judiciary, and lists of the loyal are being gathered, he can do it within four years.  Won't the Civil Rights Act or the Constitutional amendments protect minorities' access to the ballot? Not if yesterday's federal judges ruled that complaints about such violations can only be brought by the Justice Department, not citizens. That one will eventually make it to the Trump-appointed Supreme Court, which already gutted the rest of the Voting Rights Act.  Violence in support of Trump is approved and justified, not just on January 6.   If there is no ruile of law, there is the rule of Trump, and that one raised alarm bells even among conservatives. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/21/anti-trump-conservative-lawyers

Trump Vows to appoint special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Biden if former president wins in 2024 | The Hill

Federal court threatens to deal a death blow to the Voting Rights Act (nbcnews.com)

MAGA Calls for Liz Cheney to Be Jailed: 'Guilty of Treason' (newsweek.com)

Trump suggests Mark Milley should be executed in possible breach of pre-trial release

 conditions (yahoo.com)

Trump Attacks 'Gutless Pig' Bill Barr for Calling Indictment 'Damning' (rollingstone.com)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump fans the flames of violence, yet calls himself the law and order president updated

Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

After Calling Foes ‘Vermin,’ Trump Campaign Warns Its Critics Will Be ‘Crushed’ - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump plans for his second term and how he will do it

 

What Trump plans for his second term and how he will do it

 This is not the prattling of a madman, but it is what he plans to do and the plank he will run on, with stealth or right out in the open for all to see.  He learned much from his first term and is determined not to repeat it.  His plans are straight out: to end democracy as we have known it and to become a dictator within four years.   This is not a fantasy; he could pull it off. Poll: Biden’s standing hits new lows amid Israel-Hamas war (nbcnews.com).Trump: 46%; Biden 44%. Believe him; he has been upfront on it, and it is being used as a sales pitch to recruit his campaign workers now.  The groundwork is already being laid by the misnamed Heritage Foundation, and money is being raised. Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025 (nbcnews.com)  The related groups have issue agendas that would roll back any legislation that hurt their special interest groups or ideology.  Project 2025's issues agenda: Analysis Exposes Trumpian Project 2025 as 'Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism' (commondreams.org)  in which it finds their agenda is to elevate Christian nationalism, gut civil service, reverse progress on racial, eviscerate LGBTQ+ rights, restrict reproductive freedom, roll back climate action, end "woke" military, overhaul public education, and curb human rights?  These are the money backers that would come into power as Trump, on his part, replaces those who are disloyal with his appointments, including replacing 50 thousand civil servants who do not pass the loyalty to Trump and MAGA and get purged and using the FBI and DOJ to go indict opponents, and continue to use fear of retribution to any in the federal government who would oppose him, while using the military to put down public demonstrations who object.  The damage to our foreign policy and the fear a Trump repeat would do to national security and the security of our allies is also major. Alarm bells are ringing worldwide..Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024 (economist.com).    Donny Deutsch, 11/20/23 on Morning Joe, the advertising guru, rang a bell with me when he said "to go for the gut" in Biden's campaign. "Trump is dangerous; Biden is safe". This depends on Biden and backers educating voters about why Trump is dangerous and convincing them, as well.  So far, not enough voters have gotten that message and will not, until Biden and his supporters start drawing that contrast as a major theme.

 The Heritage Foundation wants to bring to the end the heritage of our kind of democracy.  It is the diametric opposite of the Federalist Society, which was basically state rightist. Trump's plan is to make the executive branch the governing tool over all the other branches, judiciary and legislative..  His first order of business is to get revenge against those who had and are opposing him.  It has nothing to do with issues or improving citizens' lives. Justice for him means getting revenge against his opponents of the past.  However, those organizations backing his proposals also have an issues agenda that is just plain scary.

From the New York Times article section headings: https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-2025-second- If you can get the article, each paragraph contains links to Trump's own words made in public and how he tried before to do something similar.  If you get hit with the paywall, here is a summary, with some comments by me in italics.:

"Trump wants to use the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political adversaries."..  In an interview with Univision he declared" he could, if someone challenged him politically, have that person indicted,"   ‘That’s insane’: CNN panel on what Trump said he would do if re-elected (msn.com)

Alarm bells are ringing as Biden's support among Hispanics is eroding .  Biden's surprising vulnerability: non-white working-class voters (axios.com)(my own comment: Univision's new owner is aiming to turn Hispanics into Trumpsters on the basis that the ills they are escaping are socialism. The real evil is a dictatorship, socialist or communist or fascist, and the message to Hispanics is that they are trading one dictatorship for another one. (This mindset, fear of "socialism" as in Venezuela and Cuba, played a major motivation for Miami turning red and in Florida as a whole:  Listen up, Hispanics: Trump considers their kind who are here "illegally" as "vermin" who are adulterating "our blood". What sort of fools are Hispanics to swallow this?s.) Univision Anchor Leon Krauze Exits After Network's Trump Interview (variety.com)  However, Biden's loss is now reaching past those recent immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela, per the Axios article, but not as much as the Florida situation reflects in other states. GOP rides Latino support in Florida as Miami-Dade turns red | AP News

Related  NYT article section head: "He intends to carry out an extreme immigration crackdown"  with sweeping raids, using military funds to camps to hold undocumented detainees (including those already here for decades), declaring public-health emergency law to shut down the border, ending birthright citizenship.     (My comment: Nearly every family I know with documented and legal members also has those Trump would consider illegal and subject to being sent to his detention camps, including Dreamers)

From the NYT section heading: "Trump has plans to use US military force closer to home", including using federal troops to crack down on protests and to intercept and detain undocumented migrants, using the insurrection act to get around possie comitatus laws forbidding using the active military to enforce domestic laws.  (My comment: General Mark Miley refused to use active troops either for January 6 or against civil unrest, but Trump has already said he should be executed for his treason ...committed against Trump: Mark Milley says Trump disrespected US military with execution comment | CNN Politics )

NYT section head: " Trump and his allies want greater control over the federal bureaucracy and work force"...which to alter civil service rules and "enabling him to fire thousands of federal workers and replace them with loyalists" and a related NYT section head: "Trump allies want lawyers who will not restrain him:" including replacing Federalist Society lawyers. 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: 2024 is about Putting Trump First, not about putting America First,

Trump called his political opponents 'vermin' echoing language used by Hitler : NPR

Trump's anti-immigrant comments draw rebuke | CNN Politics

Trump heads to US-Mexico border as he escalates anti-immigrant rhetoric | CNN Politics

Trump Threatens Wide Use of Military Force Against Protesters (voanews.com)

Trump Suggests That Mark Milley Deserves Execution - The Atlantic

Opinion | A short history of President Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry - The Washington Post

Trump's second-term agenda: deportations,  trade wars, civil servant firings | Reuters

Trump compares political opponents to 'vermin' who he will 'root out,' alarming historians - ABC News (go.com)

Are Florida’s Hispanic voters moving more to the right? – WFTV

A personal note: Why am I so interested in the Hispanic community.  My father's grandmother was from Spain, and as a child in eastern Colorado (Brush, Ft. Morgan, Hillrose), his family was bilingual. When I moved to Colorado in 1963, I made it my mission to help Hispanics get a leg up politically and economically in the community, and I began volunteering. My physician husband's closest associate was a Hispanic GP from southern Colorado practicing in Denver. His OB-GYN  practice was bilingual, as well. He was from southeastern Europe and a culture similar to his patients. Every governmental agency I headed or provided community relations services non-profit and private, offered bilingual services, and involved local Hispanics on staff.  I was cabinet and staff for nearly 8 years in the Federico Pena administration when he was Denver's mayor. My largest client as a PR consultant for almost 15 years was auto dealer Mike Shaw, who hailed from the Rio Grande Valley with deep Hispanic roots in Texas. He is a philanthropist at heart, focusing on helping Hispanic youth, among many other disadvantaged, get an education.  A few years ago, he was named National Dealer of the Year by his trade association (NADA) and was the first minority owner of dealerships to be so honored.  We did not share the same political party affiliation, but we shared his philanthropist goals. 

Why should business interests support Joe Biden

Why should business interests support Joe Biden in 2024? Consider the alternatives: autocracy, instability,  and crony capitalism.

One of the most memorable converations I had shortly after the November 2020 election (and before the "stop the steal" Trump impetus and January 6) was with a businessman who said he had voted for Trump even though he was "an A-hole" because he liked his tax policies, among other government policies toward his business.  He agreed with me that Joe Biden was the only Democrat who could have beaten Trump. There is a case to be made that in the longer run, Biden's win in 2024 would be far more favorable to business interests than Trump and his allies' policies. Peace and domestic stability are bedrocks of a prosperous business climate, and Trump and his allies would guarantee years of conflict and instability in the face of enormous generational and demographic shifts. The Brookings Institute noted " The simple fact is that it is hard (for private businesses) to plan and invest for the future in volatile, unstable circumstances," and Brookings agreed with the need of an accountable, capable government that sets rules of the game fairly which only democracy can insure with accountability. Free trade and keeping access to international markets are public policy plusses, but an unaccountable strong leader may or may not support with diplomacy and military power, depending upon the benefits to him.  Trump and his allies are determined to upend democracy and replace it with an autocracy. Crony capitalism is emerging in autocracies in many parts of the world.  Is democracy failing and putting our economic system at risk? | Brookings

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/07/presidential-centers-unite-to-warn-about-danger-to-u-s-democracy/70788967007/

Democracy has kept government power and crony capitalism in check for 250 years. and provided the ability for businesses to thrive and innovate.  The alternative and polar opposite to democracy is autocracy. Autocrats pick business winners and losers with favoritism dependent on loyalty to their political ideology, goals, and world views. Autocrats are fueled by greed for more power and wealth, and criteria for government favors and decisions depend on loyalty to the leader, not to a law to which they give lip service with a wink and a nod.  

  The free market,  innovation,   and competition struggle in such an atmosphere where business decisions depend upon political favoritism granted by one powerful leader, an ideologically based political party. Innovation is stolen from the innovators and then applied in business favored by the reigning powers. China is the template of how that works..   That alliance between loyal businesses and an autocrat is the model personified by Orban of  Hungary and in Russia's Putin and his oligarchs. and China.   That is how autocrats have gained and then maintained power. Crony capitalism works for them.  That is a lesson from history as even the 1930''s fascist rulers rose to power by fostering such alliances with favored businesses, as well..  Once in power, they are nearly impossible to unhide because the power centers of government are controlled by the economic self-interest of the loyalists.  

The chaos factor and instability:  The use of violence to accomplish such MAGA goals has not been denied, and Trump himself has a history of approving such tactics, including weaponizing active military and replacing the Department of Justice with yes people.    Trump is a front man of a very strong movement behind him and goals shaped by "think tanks" such as the  Heritage Foundation and an Orban-boosting CPAC.. It is also the elements of white supremacy and Christian nationalism that form part of his and the MAGA support that guarantees future domestic and internal conflicts as opposition grows. Instability and uncertainty are enemies of business. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How would being anti-woke unify the country? Updated 9 5 23

Accountability to keep corruption in check. Regulation by the government of business practices that support a level, fair playing field needed for a thriving, competitive business climate is possible in a functioning democracy.  Such accountability requires a free press, nosy reporters, and whistle-blowers. In an autocracy, a strong leader fears them and will attempt to suppress the opposition press at best by starving their advertising dollars. buying them out (Orban) and, at worst, poisoning and staging their murders. (Putin).   In crony capitalism empowered by a government having replaced civil service, law enforcement, and the judiciary with their loyal appointees,  favoritism toward loyal businesses and corruption, bribery, grift,  and graft, flourish. The public remains in the dark, with few who see the corruption daring to be outraged. because of the repercussions. (Navalny, one of the most extreme examples of Putin's policies.) Legislators fear being primaried or losing power, and voters are left with few or no choices.

Isolationism:  In a  second term, we expect Trump to continue with his attempt to destroy international alliances such as NATO and withdraw into isolationism. In addition, he would install high tariffs, the opposite of a long-held conservative value of free trade. Many of our US businesses are global.  Many depend on access to markets to conduct their business to sell and grow abroad.  Biden's foreign and military policy is particularly geared to maintaining trade and supply lanes as a check on Chinese efforts to control them in southeast Asia.

 Instead of punishing with high tariffs, Biden is emphasizing making critical industries competitive and benefitting from "buy America.. make it in America" government policies. He has given positive reinforcement of green energy manufacturing(Chips ac, green energy plan) while beating Trump's oil drilling records and moving us to energy independence to a level not seen in the past 70 year,.The US has become a net exporter of crude oi and natural gas via liquified natural gas (LNG).  Biden is a realist. He recognizes fossil fuels are a current and national security necessity.  Biden has little ability to control prices at the pump, though he gets blamed for price increases. That debt, deficit and inflation are worrisome to the business community, the problem is bi-partisan and the reasons are complicated. None the less, Biden can boast the US is the strongest economy in the world:7 Reasons the U.S. Economy Is Among the Strongest in the G7 - Center for American Progress

US Debt by President: Dollar and Percentage (thebalancemoney.com)  

Yes, inflation is down. No, the Inflation Reduction Act doesn't deserve the credit | AP News  

Many realize, too, that our economy is interdependent with Europe and that Russia is intent on reconstituting the power of the former USSR and control of former satellites. That is the stated goal of Putin..MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What is wrong with "America First" and isolationism? It depends; updated 9/9/23

Trump Says He'll Impose Huge New Tariffs If Elected in 2024 (businessinsider.com)

Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle U.S. government - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) 

NPR

https://www.npr.org › 2022/08/04 › why-hungarys-auth...

The CHIPS and Science Act: What is it and what is in it? | McKinsey

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2020/09/06/the-highlights-of-joe-bidens-energy-plan/?

sh=4aa171e53bfe

Under Biden, US oil production is poised to break Trump-era records | CNN Business

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2023/05/02/us-energy-independence-soars-to-highest-levels-in-over-70-years/?sh=53ce0eea977f

EIA: US to remain net exporter of petroleum products through 2050 | Oil & Gas Journal (ogj.com)

Natural gas imports and exports - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

https://www.convenience.org/Media/conveniencecorner/Does-the-President-Control-Gas-Prices

That debt, deficit and inflation are worrisome to the business community, the problem is bi-partisan and the reasons are complicated. None the less, the US is the strongest economy in the world:7 Reasons the U.S. Economy Is Among the Strongest in the G7 - Center for American Progress

US Debt by President: Dollar and Percentage (thebalancemoney.com)  

Yes, inflation is down. No, the Inflation Reduction Act doesn't deserve the credit | AP News