Trump is engaged in two fights against democracy. Both involve agents armed with guns. Are we a nascent police state? By Hal M. Brown

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This is the main page of HUFFPOST this morning:

The news about Trump defying a federal judge’s order is all over the media. There are lotsa guns in that story. In this instance it is ICE agents. There’s another story with lotsa guns. Rachel Maddow reported on it last night. You can see the 10 minute segment in the RawStory article here.

This is from The New York Times (subscription):

Musk’s Team Evicts Officials at the U.S. Institute of Peace

A bubbling dispute broke into a dramatic standoff that ended with police involvement and the Department of Government Efficiency taking up residence at the independent agency.

Excerpt:

A simmering dispute between the Department of Government Efficiency and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace broke into an open standoff involving the police on Monday, as Elon Musk’s government cutters marched into the agency’s headquarters and evicted its officials.

The dramatic scene played out in Washington on Monday afternoon as Mr. Musk’s team was rebuffed from the U.S. Institute of Peace, an agency that President Trump has ordered dismantled, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that because the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority to gut its operations.

“DOGE just came into the building — they’re inside the building — they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” Sophia Lin, a lawyer for the institute, said by telephone as she and other officials were being escorted out.

George Moose, who was fired as the institute’s acting president last week but is challenging his dismissal, accused Mr. Musk’s team of breaking in. “Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” he told reporters. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.”

If anyone still disputes the evidence that Trump is now a dictator who, when defied, is willing to use his own Gestapo and SS they have their head so deeply in the dirt that it may be poking into the Earth’s substrata. If they bury themselves too much deeper in denial it will get pretty damn hot for them.

How far will this go? There’s a name for the kind of country we could become. It is called a police state. At it’s extreme it looks like this.

This is the Wikipedia defintion:

A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive, and the deployment of internal security and police forces play a heightened role in governance. A police state is a characteristic of authoritarian, totalitarian or illiberal regimes (contrary to a liberal democratic regime). Such governments are typically one-party states and dominant-party states, but police-state-level control may emerge in multi-party systems as well.

Originally, a police state was a state regulated by a civil administration, but since the beginning of the 20th century it has "taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning" by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of civil authorities. The inhabitants of a police state may experience restrictions on their mobility, or on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state. Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the anti-aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state").

Russia and other totalitarian countries have their own versions.

Some of my friends say “it can’t happen here.” Others say it can happen here. I am seeing indications it is already happening and what we have is a nascent police state. Trump is testing the limits. Trump and Musk and their lieutenants want to see how far they can go. They don’t know what will happen but I am certain they have considered the possibility that there will be massive protests. I am just as sure that they have a contingency plan for this. They will wait until there’s a protest that gives Trump an excuse to say it is a national emergency and declare martial law.

From Wikipedia:

Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties may be suspended for as long as martial law continues. Most often, martial law is declared in times of war or emergencies such as civil unrest and natural disasters. Alternatively, martial law may be declared in instances of military coups d'état.

This would put the onus for carrying out unconstitutional, illegal, and un-American presidentiall on true patriots in the military. Would they bend to Trump and Hegseth or could we actually have a military coup d'état?

Update:

This is in response to Trump. But Trump has the guns. Roberts doesn’t. He depends on the respect for the rule of law.

Read my related Substacks below.

Read all of my Substacks.

A tale of the DOGE destruction disruption and more unintended consequences. By Hal M. Brown

"

Ready, fire, aim," is how David Ignatious put it on "Morning Joe" today talking about the unintended consequences of the DOGE cuts. 

This pretty much sums up what has happened because of Trump's manic rush to initiate everything that is laid out in Project 2025 and make himself into a dictator. The authors of Project 2025 were sane, so a other things that the authors of the blueprint for autocracy hadn't thought of were added by Trump: Greenland, Panama, making Canada a state, Gaza, and a social media post justifying being a Napoleonanic dictator, for example. 

Here are some illustrations from various websites and photos I took while I had MSNBC and CNN on while I was writing this:

I wonder how many viewers and readers of far-right media even know about any, let alone, all of these. Some of them may not be disabused of their belief that Trump walks on water until, if they depend on Medicaid for crucial medical treatment, they look at their monthly payment and don’t understand why it’s been drastically cut. Others may have personal connections to the fired federal workers. A few may be friends with, or employed, immigrants who have been deported, or are fearful of being deported. Some may be parents of unvaccinated children who get the measles. The list goes on.

When an aggressor army is actually invading a country shock and awe is often effective. The Nazi blitzkrieg is an example of a success. Putin tried it against Ukraine but failed. Trump is only figuratively invading a country called Democratic America. He didn’t have to come on like gangbusters.

Trump could have avoided shooting himself in the face if he was prudent instead of reckless when he went about trying to become the dictator he aspires to be. He could have stiffed Musk after what was supposed to be a reward for his donations. He could have kept him out of the Oval Office and never allowed DOGE to exist. But Trump gets something about having the richest person in the world (or the second richest after Putin whose net worth is hard to determne), someone reviled by his enemies, as his co-president. He enjoys all the mockery coming from liberals about this. Trump is happy when he thinks he owns the libs.

It would have been difficult to find them, but he could have found competent loyalists to nominate for Cabinet positions and top jobs. Instead we have RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabard, and Pete Hegseth.

He could used strategic instead of mass firings.

He could have actually made sure that the only immigrants deported were violent criminals. He could have told Thom Homan not to be such a macho asshat and to stay away from Dr. Phil.

He could have just ignored the plight of Eric Adams.

He definitely shouldn’t have posted his Napoleon message. I expect that even some of his allies on the Supreme Court think this will make it harder to rule in his favor in certain cases. He just told them that if he disagrees with any other their decisions he can ignore them.

If Trump had just stuck with Greenland, Panama, and Canada, he’d have been better off. He could have moved slowly on everything else. He could have been judicious, a concept that shouldn’t even be in the same sentence with Trump.

Thankfully for democracy in America, he’s so thrilled by his reckless ride into a Caligula like monarchy that he can’t stop himself. He hasn’t had visceral feelings like this since Stormy Daniels agreed to go to bed with him.

Trump and Musk's effort to expose fraud is all sizzle and no steak. They are preeminent American fraudsters themselves, but it's worse than this. By Hal M. Brown

'A tiny drop in the bucket': DOGE claims of fraud fall apart under WaPo scrutiny

Here’s the excerpt that prompted me to take the photo on top of the page:

Despite claims from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has uncovered massive fraud being committed against taxpayers, an analysis by the Washington Post called the assertions all sizzle and no steak.

In an analysis by the WaPo's Aaron Blake, he made a distinction between accusations of criminal fraud –– of which there is little evidence –– and waste which has long been an obsession on both sides of the aisle.

More importantly, he noted that Trump and his allies are conflating fraud with programs the president "simply doesn’t like or agree with."

The bullet points below are the sizzle from The Washington Post:

By Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed on the supposed evidence of fraud — and seemingly came prepared.

“As for the actual receipts, we are happy to provide them, and I actually brought some today,” Leavitt said, as she waved around printouts.

She proceeded to mention four things:

• A $36,000 contract for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

• A $3.4 million contract for “inclusive innovation” at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

• $57,000 for climate change programs in Sri Lanka.

• A limestone mine in Pennsylvania where federal employee retirements are processed on paper.

Truly, in a huge government, where’s the steak? I’d say this is barely even a sizzle.

Hiring an honest hacker to catch hackers makes sense, so why not have a fraudster expose fraud? To answer this question we have to consider the difference between a hacker and a fraudster and look at their motivations. Some hackers hack for fun and to feel superior, not for profit or nefarious reasons. Fraudsters generally commit fraud for profit or, like both Trump and George Santos did about their accomplishments, for personal gain. Trump managed the fraud, possibly of all time, that propelled himself to the presidency. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, he convinced voters he was a genius businessman.

The word "irony" has become as ubiqiutous as the word "coup" when writing about the Trump and MAGA march to monarchy.

Leaving aside why I'd rather not call what Trump is doing a coup, prefering the word blitzkreig (I explained this here), let me call out the fraudsters who have declared themselves, not in so many words, to be like big game hunters gunning down stampeding elephants who are about to crush innocent villagers.

They want to convince us that they are gunning down rampaging fraudsters before they trample over innocent taxpayers.

In the legal sense, Trump is a convicted fraudster. Musk is a fraudster too.  This is still on the SEC website. I'm going to post it on the bottom of the page so if it is taken down you can refer to it.

Both Trump and Musk are fraudsters in much more important ways than this. They both have, and continue to, perpetrate a fraud as deadly to democracy as lethal as Zyklon B on freedom loving American people.

They believe, and want you to believe, that they are the smartest people in the world who, uniquely, are the only people who have the answers which will solve all of the country’s, and all of the world's, problems.

Trump, the fraudster who lies about crowd sizes, has repeatedly bragged about his "very, very large brain (here for example). Musk is secure enough so he doesn’t feel the need to brag about his intelligence. On an IQ test Musk might score in the very superior range, in my opinion Trump would, at best, score above average, though I have some doubt about this. (Here’s what IQ tests measure.)

Hitler has been considered by experts to have been very smart, but not a genius. (Reference). Putin is considered to have an IQ of 145. This puts him in the very superior range, smarter than 2% of all people. (Reference)

IQ’s aside, both Trump and Musk are frauds in other ways. They are spewing out lies like unrelenting projectile vomit to convince the public that there is rampant fraud in the federal government that justifies eliminating entire departments and agencies. Musk just said that this is akin to making sure you pull out the roots of a weed to make sure it doesn’t grow back. He wants everyone to believe that because there may be some fraud (he won’t call it waste) in a department or agency the entire department or agency must be eliminated.

What Trump and Musk are really trying to do is an extension of the war on Woke and DEI. They want to get rid of any government entity which works to foster compassion and empathy. They know that the employees in certain agencies are either Democrats or anti-MAGA Republicans. Once they are done with this, they will purge other departments and agencies of anyone who isn’t a MAGA loyalist. They will make sure agencies like the SEC and IRS bend to their will. Worse, they intend to turn the Department of Justice and the FBI into their own Gestapo. 

Virtually everything Trump and Musk are working together as president and his smarter co-president are trying to do is to turn America into a dictatorship ruled by toadies, psychopaths, and oligarchs.

When it comes to the claimed fraud, there is barely sizzle. When it comes to the effort to destroy democracy, there are flames coming out of the skillet.

Addendum:

From the SEC: Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Charges; Tesla Charged With and Resolves Securities Law Charge

Settlement Requires Musk to Step Down as Tesla’s Chairman; Tesla to Appoint Additional Independent Directors; Tesla and Musk Agree to Pay $40 Million in Penalties

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2018-226

Washington D.C., Sept. 29, 2018 —

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman of Silicon Valley-based Tesla Inc., has agreed to settle the securities fraud charge brought by the SEC against him last week. The SEC also today charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets, a charge that Tesla has agreed to settle. The settlements, which are subject to court approval, will result in comprehensive corporate governance and other reforms at Tesla—including Musk’s removal as Chairman of the Tesla board—and the payment by Musk and Tesla of financial penalties.

According to the SEC’s complaint against him, Musk tweeted on August 7, 2018 that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share — a substantial premium to its trading price at the time — that funding for the transaction had been secured, and that the only remaining uncertainty was a shareholder vote. The SEC’s complaint alleged that, in truth, Musk knew that the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies. Musk had not discussed specific deal terms, including price, with any potential financing partners, and his statements about the possible transaction lacked an adequate basis in fact. According to the SEC’s complaint, Musk’s misleading tweets caused Tesla’s stock price to jump by over six percent on August 7, and led to significant market disruption.

According to the SEC’s complaint against Tesla, despite notifying the market in 2013 that it intended to use Musk’s Twitter account as a means of announcing material information about Tesla and encouraging investors to review Musk’s tweets, Tesla had no disclosure controls or procedures in place to determine whether Musk’s tweets contained information required to be disclosed in Tesla’s SEC filings. Nor did it have sufficient processes in place to that Musk’s tweets were accurate or complete.

Musk and Tesla have agreed to settle the charges against them without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations. Among other relief, the settlements require that:

• Musk will step down as Tesla’s Chairman and be replaced by an independent Chairman. Musk will be ineligible to be re-elected Chairman for three years;

• Tesla will appoint a total of two new independent directors to its board;

• Tesla will establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications;

• Musk and Tesla will each pay a separate $20 million penalty. The $40 million in penalties will be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process.

“The total package of remedies and relief announced today are specifically designed to address the misconduct at issue by strengthening Tesla’s corporate governance and oversight in order to protect investors,” said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.

“As a result of the settlement, Elon Musk will no longer be Chairman of Tesla, Tesla’s board will adopt important reforms —including an obligation to oversee Musk’s communications with investors—and both will pay financial penalties,” added Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “The resolution is intended to prevent further market disruption and harm to Tesla’s shareholders.”

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Walker Newell, Brent Smyth, and Barrett Atwood and supervised by Steven Buchholz, Erin Schneider, and Jina Choi in the San Francisco Regional Office and Cheryl Crumpton in the SEC’s Home Office.