The Witness Chronicles, 12/5/24

Hegseth s folly

Trump Gives Us the Finger, Over and Over

Trump’s he-man women hater’s club cabinet choices

What is it going to take to get Pete Hegseth to drop out? His co-workers at Fox News are now talking about him going on air drunk. Co-workers at a not for profit he ran described him drunk at a strip club and yelling ‘kill all Muslims’. His own mother emailed him telling him he needed help because of the awful ways he abused the women in his life, according to the NYTimes. And he paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault, got her to sign an NDA, and the charges were unexplainably dropped. And that, as unbelieveable as it sounds, is not all.

The Trump transition spokesperson, when told of the Fox allegations, called them lies, rather than addressing the growing list of serious stories. It pretty obvious that they did not do any vetting of any of their choices, instead relying on declared loyalty to Trump, first and foremost, and a shared desire to tear the government to pieces.

Note: As I was writing this reports began to emerge that Trump is now considering Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to replace Hegseth as Defense Secretary nominee. Hegseth is currently denying this and says he is staying in contention. But there are half dozen Republican Senators who have indicated they are uncomfortable with his nomination, more than enough to skewer his chances.

This makes me wonder what happens if a majority of Trump’s first picks either drop out or fail to be confirmed. It certainly would not be an indicator of his judgement or interest in creating a legitimate executive branch.

Trump promised vengeance against those he perceived as wronging him will be the start, but it’s obvious his real target is the American people, at least those whose net worth is not measured in hundreds of millions. Not just Democrats, all of us, and yes MAGA, that means you too. You think things are expensive now? Wait till tariffs click in.

But you won’t read this. And Fox won’t cover it.

Is there any good political news? Not so far. The Senate Republicans seem to be circling the wagons and refusing to acknowledge the blatantly ignorant choices they will be asked to confirm. It’s a breathtaking dereliction of duty to the American people they represent, and the Constitution they swore to uphold.

But every cloud has a silver lining, or so the saying goes. It’s pretty hard to see it but one glimmer may happen when Trump’s policies run into the reality of people’s daily lives. It’s one thing to be defiantly ignorant and stubbornly support a man whose life has been an ongoing crime spree, but wait until you start feeling the effects of destroying and politicizing law enforcement and taxing the middle class to give money to those who will never need it.

The unfortunate reality of that silver lining is that it may be too late by the time people realize what they have done. Recent events in South Korea, of all places, a staunch US ally, may hold a lesson for the future.

Their current President, faced with plummeting popularity, impeachment, and corruption charges against his wife, declared martial law on December 3rd in an attempt to stifle his opposition. When protests erupted across the country, he sent in the national guard and military against the protestors.

Those protestors managed to keep the military out of their Parliament and that body voted 190 to 0 to end the martial law. The president had to back down and is now being impeached. If Trump’s policies become unpopular I would not put it past him and the people he has surrounded himself with to declare martial law and make him a dictator.

Unlike the Korean president, Trump is laying the groundwork across leadership in the government to actually pull that off, with his choices these past weeks. Healthcare, law enforcement, the military, business regulation, foreign policy- all these areas will come under the control of absolute Trump loyalists, leaving these areas vulnerable to a power grab.

A dark scenario but not impossible, especially if a large number of Americans continue to pretend all of this is normal, as they appear to be so far. Those in opposition need to make sure we help others understand the direct affects of the inevitable actions unfolding right now and into the foreseeable future.

That Korean president was elected by less than 1% of the vote. Trump won by a fraction more this year, far from the mandate he claims. His hold is not as solid as they will try to tell us it is and they know they must move fast to change as much as possible before the 2026 midterms, where there is likely to be a backlash that could gut Trump’s power.

That’s why he is moving so fast and nominating extremeist believers who have the zeal of a religious cult, regardless of their pasts or the things they plan to do immediately if confirmed.

The only possible blocker to these actions right now is the Republican Senate and this will be a test of whether their loyalty is to the country or Donald Trump. They need to be constantly reminded that the country is what they were elected to support.

Hard to be optimistic about that at the moment. We will soon be in January and the confirmations will begin. I’ll be paying attention. We all should be.

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