Donald Trump and Two Weeks of Chaos

 It has been two weeks and a day since Donald J. Trump--or, as author John Wooley likes to refer to him, the Mango Mussolini--returned to the White House. During this fortnight of chaos, as promised, Trump and his henchman, Elon Musk, has launched an all out blitzkrieg against not only agencies who might get in his way (nearly all of them) but the constitution itself. 

During this brief time frame, thanks to a republican party full of fascists and cowards, he managed to get a second string Fox News host, Pete Hegseth named as head of the Department of Defense. Hegseth, is by many accounts, a raging alcoholic and serial abuser of women. His main qualification for the job seems to be his unflinching willingness to do whatever Donald Trump wants him to do. That includes gutting the military of all women and people of color who are in positions of responsibility and leadership. This purge comes to us under the guise of ridding the nation of the dreaded DEI rules which addresses hiring and promoting qualified candidates no matter what their gender and race. 

Trump and his supporters consider these rules unfair to hard working white guys, not to mention dangerous to our military might and national safety. They are firmly convinced only these types are qualified to run the armed forces. You know, because white dudes like Walt Short and Ed Kimmel did such great jobs at Pearl Harbor and the name George Custer is synonymous with tactical wizardry.  

Then there is Kristi Noem, the newly minted head of Homeland Security. She is a former Governor who managed to get banned from Tribal Lands in her home state, gained fame for killing her dog, and most recently toured the southern border on horseback while dressed as a rodeo barrel racer. 

There are others, of course, Robert Kennedy Jr. who, according to his first cousin used to dump baby chickens and mice into a blender so he could use the remains to feed his hogs. In the past he gave kids a little scholastic tip by telling everyone his grades in school improved dramatically after he started using heroin. Then there is Tulsi Gabbard who has blamed Europe and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While in Congress she also cozied up to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad--a man so ruthless and corrupt even the Russians refused to save him from being forcibly ousted. 

Then there is South African, turned Canadian, turned American, Elon Musk. Musk's office was created by Executive Order. He has never been elected to anything and is, if you believe him and Trump above Congressional oversite and approval. He is head of the Department of Government Efficiency which was created by Donald Trump to purge any department, or personnel who won't do exactly what he wants. Musk's latest attack was on the United States Agency for International Development. It was established by John F. Kennedy during the middle of the cold war with the Soviet Union. Its mission was and has been to not only deliver medical and infrastructure aid to developing countries, but to prove to them the U.S. was the model to emulate rather than a totalitarian state. 

Kennedy came up with the idea, but the department was created and funded by Congress. In theory only Congress can eliminate it. In a social media post Musk called USAID a criminal enterprise and ordered all assistance to developing countries to cease immediately. In support of the move Donald Trump said his pal Elon wasn't doing anything he didn't approve of, as if that made the action legal. The new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sensing a potential constitutional problem, quickly announced the agency would now become part of the State Department. How long it lasts once the noise dies down is anyone's guess.

All of which brings us back to the Mango Mussolini. His weapon of choice the last two weeks has become the Executive Order. He hasn't the time, or the taste for Congressional approval. In the first fourteen days of his second term he has only signed one bill approved by both houses. Everything else he has done, or tried to do, with the exception of cabinet secretaries, has been thanks to Executive Orders and Presidential Pardons. He and Musk are, in effect, saying to the nation, "Congress, we don't need no stinkin' Congress." 

And it's working. Despite the outrage displayed by the ever shrinking number of left leaning media outlets (who are owned by corporations, or billionaires who don't want to cross him) Donald Trump is getting away with this mad dash into authoritarianism. He has the full backing of the right wing propaganda machine and online, "celebrities and influencers."

Tragically, that means more than you might think. We now live in an age when most members of Gen Z and a huge chunk of the Millennials get their news, not from TV, or print sources, but rather social media sites. Those would be sites owned and operated by the same bunch of robber barons who were sitting in box seats during Trump's inauguration. 

Indeed, Trump's power grab is working, at least in part, because he and his allies now control the flow of information to millions of people--people, who, either through ignorance, or prejudice, are increasingly convinced a dictatorship sounds like a pretty good idea. Or, at least one which couldn't hurt and is worth a try.

To many of those clods it is time to move on to a new paradigm--or as Kellyanne Conway might put it, "an alternate democracy." Yeah, that's right baby, fuck the Danes and everyone else. First Greenland and Panama. Then, by God and Donald, onward to Ottawa!

The ghost of Herr Hitler is proud. 

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