Skip to main content

THE FUTURE OF THE USA IF DONALD TRUMP IS RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT

The debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris tomorrow will be the most crucial moment for this presidential campaign, and perhaps also for the future of Democracy in the USA.  This clearly is an-anti Trump site, so here I go expressing my views on this matter.

Rolling Stone, that venerable source of popular music, well says what's on my mind:

  • In Donald Trump's four years as president, he regularly vented a violent fantasy to execute people.  He admired President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and his executing death squads.  Duterte felt that Trump should be re-elected against Biden in 2020.
  • Mass executions did not ocur because advisors and the judicial system were able to make vague promises long enough to let Trump's tyrannical tantrum blow over.
  • But if Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris this November, America will encounter a Trump unbound, a man whose darkest impulses will not be checked by “adults in the room” — ­creating potentially catastrophic consequences for the American experiment. “This election is about whether or not we remain a democratic society or we move to authoritarianism,” Sen. Bernie Sanders tells Rolling Stone, insisting that Trump “does not believe in the basic tenets and foundations of American democracy.” 
  • Trump’s campaign to retain power after losing the 2020 election only collapsed because Vice President Mike Pence proved more loyal to the Constitution than to Trump’s cult of personality. But for 2024, Trump has a vice presidential candidate who appears even less committed to the democratic process than he is. J.D. Vance is a protégé and plaything of the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who has written that “freedom and democracy” are not “compatible.”
  • More dangerous, Trump would reenter the Oval Office with powers that have been supercharged by the ultraconservative Supreme Court, which Trump helped build as president. A partisan 6-3 decision in July placed the presidency beyond the reach of criminal punishment for any acts that can be couched as “official.” The once-outrageous Nixonian maxim “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal” is today a statement of fact, leading Justice Sonia Sotomayor to warn in a fiery dissent: “In every use of official power the president is now a king above the law.” 
  • “Barring his natural time on Earth coming to an end, he will never leave office,” says Ben-Ghiat. “And that’s very clear to everybody who studies autocrats.” Klarman, the Harvard Law professor, argues that even the constitutional prohibition against serving a third term is not an insurmountable obstacle. “There are autocrats in Latin America who’ve managed to circumvent clear term limits,” he says. “I don’t rule it out.”
Out will go Democracy, and in will come Autocracy.  He will become King Trump, with no checks.  Perhaps even a monarchical dictatorship, for if elected, he will become the oldest U.S. president ever.  Trump can establish a succession system restricted to his family, friends and supporters.

Given the above, I find it unimaginable for the American voter to allow for this ghastly future.  Frighteningly enough, polls 54 days from election day show that he can pull this off.

Further, in his mind, Trump must beat Harris, for the alternative is jail-time.  That House report today admonishing the Biden Administration for withdrawing from Afghanistan is but a tidbit.  A lot more will be coming of greater danger to Harris.  From Russia to state election officials to whatever, the Trump MAGA movement will do everything possible, legality not being a matter, to prevail on November 5.

To close, September 26 could help Harris.  Watch MSNBC describe this day when Jack Smith will provide input on the January 6 attack on the Capitol, a day when Donald Trump could well suffer as the worst day any presidential campaign has ever had.

I'll close with the Venice International Film Festival awarding the Golden Lion for best film to The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave a 93 rating.  Vulture says, Moore and Swinton are perfectly imperfect together.

The story kind of reminds me of what I've long been contemplating.  The movie has to do with facing death on your own terms.  John Turturro plays a climate pessimist who has dated both.  While Turturro's character represents doom, Swinton has made peace with death.

- 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo.  We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings  We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo.  So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines.  We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station.  This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site.   It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance.  This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of  ten of those already waiting to enter.  However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that   Oktoberfest   in Germany is mostly in September?  The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3.  Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September?  The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich?  These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11.  Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town.  It was drizzling a bit.  We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served.  We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall.  So no one came to serve us beer.  After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine.  Thus, we might have been the ...