While anxiously waiting for Trump's next move on his dictatorial juggernaut I found two small things to be pleased about. By Hal M. Brown

 

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I was looking at my friend Sabrina Haake’s Facebook page.  She writes the Substack The Haake Take.

This is what I saw:

I wrote the following comment:

Last night watching Stephanie Ruhle's MSNBC show with her talking to Jon Meacham about LA and Trump, and at the end of a long segment she (I'm paraphrasing) said we should get alarmed yet and he (again parphrasing) said it is acceptable to be alarmed. On Lawrence O'Donnell's long first segment about this, I was pleased that for the entire time he had this photo on the screen. Trump is known to watch the show and I suspect this was done just to piss him off. I'd seen the photo on the lower left but not this one. (click image to enlarge) I still haven't decided what to write my Substack about - this is hardly a big story but I am tempted to share it if I can't think of something else. Here's an article about the tripping video going viral. (The photo I posted with my comment is on the top of this page.)

I wonder whether there was any debate among staff at Lawrence’s show about which photo to feature. The photo of Trump’s face is one of the least flattering I’ve seen recently, but the one from the back shows how badly he tripped. Lawrence showed a video of Trump walking up the stairs to Air Force One and said that this was the video Trump did not want you to see.

Back to Jon Meacham and what he said to Stephanie Rhule.

I’ve referred to the impact Walker Chronkite had on LBJ and the country when he editorialized about the Vietnam War and how this is considered by historians to have been a seminal event leading to the United State’s withdrawing from Vietnam.

Excerpt:

It may be hard to believe in the current era of declining media credibility and amid President Donald Trump's bitter condemnations of "fake news," but mainstream journalists once were trusted figures in society who could sway public opinion in a major way.

A historic example occurred 50 years ago this week: the stunning commentary of CBS anchor Walker Cronkite on Feb. 27, 1968, in which he dissected the U.S. role in Vietnam, stepped away from objectivity, and came to a very negative conclusion. He crystallized public opposition to the Vietnam War and dealt a setback to the credibility of the U.S. government.

Today we don’t have any one person with the influence and credibility of Walter Chronicle. If I could chose one it just might be Jon Meacham.

Of course, back in the Chronkite days we didn’t have cable news. There were three networks. Of the three networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC, in the 1960s and 70s, CBS News was widely considered to be the best in the business (reference).

For those too young to remember here’s an article:

Note that the above article is from CNN and entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner (who was married to Jane Fonda for 10 years) didn’t launch the first 24 hour news network until 1980.

With all the horrible news at least I was pleased to see how Lawrence O’Donnell may have sent a message to Trump that would piss him off, and I was glad that Jon Meacham gave permission, of a sort, to Stephanie Ruhle and her audience not only to be alarmed, but basically said that they should be alarmed.

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Should we laugh at things like this, should we cry, or should we scream? By Hal M. Brown

 

I had nothing to write about a few minutes ago, but then Ann’s sister, Nancy, sent her this and she showed it to me. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream.

I had the same feeling when I saw online what, with my perverse sensibility, I thought was the best anti-Trump protest sign (click for footnote: 1

Look at the editorial cartoons by Ann Telnaes (here).2 They are definitely not amusing They are somewhere between cry or scream inducing. Don’t look to Ann Telnaes or any of these editorial cartoonists to get a good laugh. If you want to laugh look at these New York cartoons.

Editorial cartoons reflect where the country is. Consider these cartoons and Biden. Here’s a search for Obama cartoons.

While many are critical none suggest that Biden or Obama were hellbent to utterly destroy democracy.

Whether in cartoons (some with words and others without words) protest signs, in articles, or on TV, the messages about what Trump is doing to wreak havoc on both democracy and what used to be considered the underpinnings of social order and common sense must be sent out across the nation in a way that the people who need to hear it pay attention before it is too late. It has to come as if it is the thundering word of God from sky.

Our rights to tell in any way we choose to do so what we sincerely believe is true are embodied in the First Amendment. 

This is the relevant, the crucial part, related to my Substack today:

Freedom of Speech / Freedom of the Press

The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right to freedom of speech. Freedom of speech may be exercised in a direct (words) or a symbolic (actions) way. Freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without government interference or regulation . The Supreme Court requires the government to provide substantial justification for interference with the right of free speech when it attempts to regulate the content of the speech. Generally, a person cannot be held liable , either criminally or civilly for anything written or spoken about a person or topic, so long as it is truthful or based on an honest opinion and such statements.

A less stringent test is applied for content-neutral legislation. The Supreme Court has also recognized that the government may prohibit some speech that may cause a breach of the peace or cause violence. For more unprotected and less protected categories of speech see advocacy of illegal action , fighting words , commercial speech , and obscenity . The right to free speech includes other mediums of expression that communicate a message. The level of protection speech receives also depends on the forum in which it takes place.

Despite the popular misunderstanding, the right to freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment is not very different from the right to freedom of speech. It allows an individual to express themselves through publication and dissemination. It is part of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. It does not afford members of the media any special rights or privileges not afforded to individuals in general.

As long as we have a democracy this means we can get the message out that Trump is trying to undermine democracy. We can use whatever methods and means we have to educate, motivate, and inspire people to wake up from their “what me worry” sleepwalking through life and realize they must actually do sonething before the First Amendment, and in fact the entire Constitution, is rendered irrelevant.

Update:

My friend Sabrina Haake and I must have a cosmic connection since we wrote about similar topics today. Like I wrote yesterday (here), when it comes to a later stage of the round-up of Trump enemies the MAGA Gestapo will be knock at (or busting down) out doors. Read Sabrina’s Haake Take here.

She also references the First Amendment:

Social media vetting is viewpoint discrimination under the 1^st A

When the government engages in viewpoint discrimination, it singles out a particular opinion, perspective or “viewpoint” for treatment that differs from how other viewpoints are treated. Viewpoint discrimination, where the government persecutes or otherwise punishes someone for expressing views it dislikes or disagrees with, is illegal.

In 1995 the Supreme Court explained: “When the government targets not subject matter but particular views taken by speakers on a subject, the violation of the First Amendment is all the more blatant. Viewpoint discrimination is thus an egregious form of content discrimination. The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.”

She concudes:

Scared yet? Sabrina has a link to NPR story about Trump jailing and deporting US citizens abroad.

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1

You have to scroll down Stormy Daniels’ X page to find any posts about Trump. Mostly she promotes her shows there. I keep posting to her account hoping that she reposts something I write. This could get me many more followers. 

2

Telnaes made the news when she quit as the editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post when Jeff Bezos spiked this cartoon showing him to be a Trump tool. That backfired big time on Bezos since prior to that only subscribers could see the cartoon and then it was all over the news (Google search here).

If you can't taste the Democracy killing poison in Trump's Kool-Aid there's something wrong with you.

 

Sabrina Haake wrote Governance by deception and this prompted me to respond with the comment below.

Drinking the Kool-Aid, indeed, but this well known phrase coming from Jonestown prompted me to wonder what it would taste like. I doubt even Kool-Aid would mask the taste. The following is from a 2006 newspaper article in Australia.

....

The case is a tragedy, but a doctor says it solved a long unanswered question - what does the deadly poison cyanide taste like?

An Indian man who committed suicide left a hastily scrawled note describing the taste of the fatal toxin, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported on Saturday.

"Doctors, potassium cyanide. I have tasted it. It burns the tongue and tastes acrid," he wrote, according to the paper.....

This leads me to wonder how brainwashed those who are drinking both his cyanide laced economic Kool-Aid and all his other poisonous policies have to be not to taste it. The sickly sweet drink may or may not mask the taste of the poison Trump is feeding the country.

Trump is using his poison to murder democracy. We don't need a taste test to verify this. We just need common sense.

Addendum: There are ways to test for actual cyanide.

To 500 to 1000 cc of the solution to be tested add 1 to 2 cc ammonium sulphide, (NH4)2S, and evaporate just to dryness. The final stages of evaporation should be done slowly. Cool, add 10 cc water, stir well, let settle, and filter. To the filtrate add 2 drops of saturated ferric chloride, FeCl3, solution. A red coloration indicates the presence of cyanide.

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You don't have to be another Hitler to be Hitlerian, by Hal M. Brown Trump's agenda is Hitler without death camps and starting a war that would kill 75 million.

Today Sabrina Haake wrote Contempt of Court (here).

She references Hitler twice:

Bukele’s ‘States of Exception’ are the legal cover he employs to silence his critics and send people to concentration camps with no legal process. States of Exception were also Hitler’s initial cover for controlling the media, dispatching SS henchmen, and sending millions of innocent people to unthinkable deaths.

Like Bukele, Hitler, and other autocrats throughout history, Trump is also fond of declaring “national emergencies,” which are precursors to states of exceptions. After only three months in office, Trump has already declared six new national emergenciesranging from the “US border emergency” to a “National Energy Emergency,” to a national emergency designating “Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

For my own Substack today I am expanding on what I posted as a comment to her Substack:

For some time people like Sabrina and me have not been reluctant to compare Trump, and people like Bukele, to Hitler when appropriate. Others with a public forum treat mentioning his name like uttering the name of the evl Voldemort. Only Harry Porter dared to do this. When Trump does something Hitlerian and we point this out we do so knowing full well that to say that this does not diminish the worst in history genocide and a war that killed some 75 million people. One doesn't have to be literally a modern day Hitler to be Hitlerian which is defined as "relating to or characteristic of Hitler or the policies of the Nazi party."

Wiki defines blitzkrieg as follows:

Blitzkrieg is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air assault, and close air support. The intent is to break through an opponent's lines of defense, dislocate the defenders, confuse the enemy by making it difficult to respond to the continuously changing front, and defeat them in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht: a battle of annihilation.

Ironically, considering the failed Russian attempt to defeat Ukraine in their own blitzkrieg, this is the photo Wiki used as their illustration:

The German bliztkrieg began in 1939 and had achieved the Nazi goal of conquering Europe by 1941. It included the invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.

Trump, in a matter of months, has been engaged in his own blitzkrieg to achieve the Hitlerian end of turning the country into his dictatorship where the rule of law is what he says it is.

Trump is engaged in a juggernaut to cement his power. A juggernaut, in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. (Wiki). (The word may sound German but it is really an English version of Jagannath, an important deity in the Hindu traditions of eastern and north-eastern India. The meaning originates from the Hindu temple cars.)

Trump has decided to flex his 78 year old golf tournament winning muscles by coming up with things to attack that have little if anything to do with achieving his ultimate goal. Chief among them are the entire DOGE agenda and his trying to wipe DEI from the country. Neither of these needed to be done to become ruler of an authoritarian country. But, back to Hitler, I wonder if the Nazis needed to exterminate the Jews to take over Europe.

What that seems to add up to is my concluding, not as an historian, but as a psychotherapist, that ruthless dictators are a strange breed with both quirks and psychopathology that may differ from one to another. For example, I doubt Hitler ever had anything like a Trump Cabinet meeting, with cameras rolling, going around the room having everyone praise him effusively. I haven’t read anything about Hitler being a grandiose narcissist needing to be effusively praised by his subordinates. He was, however, ruthless in using the force of arms to achieve his goals.

Trump’s armed troops don’t enforce his dictates by rumbling down the streets in tanks. Instead they drive up in black SUVs and his ICE version of the SS are just as intimidating as the Waffin SS were.

Imagine ICE officers like the SS troops below standing on your street and wondering which of your neighbors they were coming to take away, or whether it might by you.

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