The Witness Chronicles, 12/11/24

Trump acts Presidential while blatantly lying, and other stories

The Lies Continue as Trump is Interviewed on NBC

The extent of his belief in the false statements he made is difficult to assess, but it is clear they will be the basis for his creation of a police state

As I’m writing this on Monday afternoon, the news is coming out that the NYPD, with the help of multiple agencies across the country, has a person of interest in custody in the shooting death of the CEO of United Healthcare Insurance in Manhattan last week.

For once we have a police story that illustrates the system at its best. It also highlights the bravery and fast thinking of a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, PA who spotted the suspect in the restaurant and called it in. The evidence found on his person is pretty damning, including a weapon matching the gun used in the murder.

I’m mentioning this because I have been disturbed by the acceptance of some of his actions as a legitimate protest of the business practices of the insurance industry. While I hope this leads to investigation of those practices, any acceptance of murder as a legitimate protest action is despicable and unacceptable by any civilized human.

We’ve seen clips of those angry people who feel their lives have been ruined by the callous disregard for human life by for-profit businesses. Their anger is completely understandable, but in today’s environment of flouting the rule of law by many in leadership positions, encouraging illegal and deadly behavior is a terrible precedent.

It’s a sad statement, on many levels, of where we may be headed as a society, encouraged by politicians on the right and some progressives on the extreme left. It only displays how extremism works the same on both sides.

On Sunday morning Kristen Welker’s interview with the President-elect showed him playing presidential and reasonable while using a threat of outright falsehoods to justify his plans. These include myths about criminal illegals, who have been routinely deported for years and his claims that crime is skyrocketing. Crime is down steeply across the country, including murders, gun crimes, violent crimes, and other categories across the board.

The combination of his demeanor and the lies he states as facts is well planned to make those falsehoods sound true coming from his mouth, in an authoritarian voice. It’s a brilliant shift from his bombastic delivery of the same lies during the campaign, using the weight of the incoming presidency to sell untruths to the public as facts, with no proof.

And once again we will see the willingness of many to accept statements from Trump without question. This is the failure of the American public that led us to where we find ourselves. And Trump is masterfully taking advantage of that willful ignorance.

One startling statement was his assertion that he can use executive orders to negate birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the Constitution in the fourteenth Amendment. Constitutional Amendments cannot be undone by executive action.

Birthright citizenship is a basic right of being born in the US, a fundamental right whose removal could mean anyone’s citizenship could be revoked for virtually any reason, giving the president unlimited power to deport anyone by declaring them illegal. Essentially, that would be martial law.

Just one of the beginnings of the end. And Trump made it clear he will act on all his threats of retribution and vengeance and act fast. It was a chilling performance. Whether anyone is paying attention is another question. Many democracies have fallen through the complacency of their citizens.

The news of Syria’s Assad government falling after a rapid defeat by rebel forces is welcome good news for the Middle East, if those rebels reject their terrorist past. A big if. They saw a perfect storm coming with Iran weakened as Hezbollah suffered defeats in Lebanon and Russia over stretched in Ukraine, leaving Assad defenseless. It’s the Russian connection that interests me.

It appears they simply could not commit to defending Assad, as they are having serious economic problems domestically due to increased sanctions and the cost of the war. Rumors are starting to fly of some kind of resolution in the Ukraine war but they are far too vague to take seriously right now.

That war never made any sense, except to Vladimir Putin who had dreams of regaining superpower status and needed a boost to his support, which was declining. But I can’t see how either side extracts themselves without some kind of compromise. Compromise is not Putin’s strongpoint, to put it mildly. But widespread economic hardship has a way of changing things.

We saw that here in the recent election as people reacted to high prices at the grocery store even as inflation was down drastically. It was perception vs reality for the average person, not logic and facts, that won Trump the election by a hair.

But if he carries through with his threats about tariffs he may find himself facing the same threats from high prices that benefited him. I’m not sure he cares. Which may be the scariest thing about his plans and actions in the near future. He literally has nothing to lose since his legal cases have been dropped.

Strange world right now, with so much unpredictable change in the air.

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