How scary is Donald Trump?

[Admin]

Is Trump a fascist, Kagan seems to think so, and he has some arguments to back it up

We’re supposed to believe that Trump’s support stems from economic stagnation or dislocation. Maybe some of it does. But what Trump offers his followers are not economic remedies — his proposals change daily. What he offers is an attitude, an aura of crude strength and machismo, a boasting disrespect for the niceties of the democratic culture that he claims, and his followers believe, has produced national weakness and incompetence. His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger. His public discourse consists of attacking or ridiculing a wide range of “others” — Muslims, Hispanics, women, Chinese, Mexicans, Europeans, Arabs, immigrants, refugees — whom he depicts either as threats or as objects of derision. His program, such as it is, consists chiefly of promises to get tough with foreigners and people of nonwhite complexion. He will deport them, bar them, get them to knuckle under, make them pay up or make them shut up.

This is how fascism comes to America - The Washington Post

[Admin]

What would he do, for instance, if America suffered a major terrorist attack — impulsively bomb someone, somewhere, with the same erratic disregard he exhibits on Twitter?

Or what would this petty man, who finds no slight too small or offense too minor to prompt never-ending grudges, do with the nation's massive spying apparatus at his disposal? A bit of tape over your webcam might provide insufficient privacy protection against the all-seeing eye of President Trump.

Donald Trump's economic plan is a complete and utter joke

[Admin]

Is Trump a fascist? Opinions differ..

Trump habitually sees the world in stark “us versus them” terms, and makes wholesale denunciations of entire ethnic groups. Which inevitably raises the question, “Is Donald Trump a fascist?”

An unresolved debate on that query has taken place since Trump launched his candidacy last summer. Writers like Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker and Robert Kagan in The Washington Posthave answered “yes,” citing as evidence Trump’s ethnic demagoguery, his scorn for and ignorance of the existing democratic system, his indulgence in conspiracy thinking, and his open admiration of autocrats like Vladimir Putin.

Other analysts, perhaps most compellingly Dylan Matthews in Vox, counter by noting that Trump’s movement differs from historical fascism in key ways: Trump has organized no paramilitary groups to subvert liberal norms, he hasn’t openly rejected democracy (although perhaps has tried to delegitimize the system by saying it is rigged), and he does not celebrate violence for the sake of violence (even though there is evident glee in his calls to beat up protesters and to torture enemy combatants). 

Is Donald Trump a Fascist? | New Republic

[Admin]

Is a candidate who says this in a campaign rally in the full possession of his faculties?

"You have 38 days to make every dream you ever dreamed for your country come true," Trump said. "Do not let this opportunity slip away or be wasted. You will never ever have this chance again. Not going to happen again. … You have one magnificent chance."

Donald Trump is toying with refusing to concede if he loses. That’s horrifying. - Vox

[Admin]

Quite scary, as it happens..

The New York Times’s report on the last days of the Donald Trump campaign is crammed with telling small details — his aides seem to be employing a lot of wishful thinking when filling out electoral maps; campaign chairman Steve Bannon’s pants literally caught on fire; Trump is still speaking regularly with long-fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — but the overwhelming takeaway is that Trump is obsessed with grievance and vengeance before Election Day.

It’s a scary portrait: Trump’s closest associates don’t even trust him with Twitter, let alone the levers of the campaign to seek presidential power. “Aides to Mr. Trump have finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to colorfully — and often counterproductively — savage his rivals,” Maggie Haberman, Ashley Parker, Jeremy W. Peters, and Michael Barbaro write. “But offline, Mr. Trump still privately muses about all of the ways he will punish his enemies after Election Day.”

Trump is already plotting how he will take revenge, including reviving an idea he floated over the summer, in which he pledged to start a Super PAC to target his political enemies. Back then, he said it would oppose John Kasich and Ted Cruz, his rivals in the Republican primary, and the Times’ report suggests Trump is still nursing those grudges.

The Times presents Trump’s private remarks as a contrast with his resolve in the final week to stay on message and relatively disciplined in public — capitalizing on the FBI letter indicating a renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails just enough, but then moving on.

What it truly demonstrates is just how much effort it takes to get Trump to act anything like a normal presidential candidate, and how damaging he’s likely to be when he’s no longer under those restraints. If Trump seems more subdued on Twitter, it’s because his staff is reading and approving every word he writes. (They may have even physically taken away Trump’s phone or Twitter access; the story isn’t entirely clear on this point, but it describes Trump dictating a tweet to spokeswoman Hope Hicks for Hicks to publish.)

Trump’s thirst for vengeance led him to override his aides’ suggestions that he focus his Oct. 22 speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on policy. Instead, he made threats to sue the women who had accused him of sexual harassment the focal point of the address: “Mr. Trump was adamant. There had to be a severe penalty for those who dared to attack him, he said,” the reporters write. “He could not just sit back and let these women ‘come at me.’”

In other words, the Republican nominee for president is someone whose staff has had to exert Herculean efforts to stop him from going on Twitter tirades. He’s obsessed with getting back at people who have angered him, even at the risk of damaging his shot at the presidency. All the while, he insists he’s going to win. The question the reporting raises isn’t whether it’s safe to entrust the powers of the presidency to such a man. It’s how his own aides, who know better than anyone how hard it is to restrain Trump, are still justifying it to themselves.

In final days, Trump is obsessed with vengeance, kept away from Twitter by staff - Vox

[Admin]

Scary enough, according to his neighbor:

Billionaire real estate mogul Jeff Greene told CNBC on Monday he has grave concerns about a Donald Trump presidency. Greene told CNBC's Closing Bell, "I live two doors away from Donald Trump in Palm Beach. I know enough about Donald Trump to know that I would be scared to death to see him as our president."

Donald Trump’s neighbor: I would be ‘scared to death’ of having him as our president

[Admin]

In August, Dr. Kevin Dutton of Oxford University ranked US president-elect Donald Trump as "above Adolf Hitler" on a standard scale used to measure potential psychopathy in adults, according to the science news site Phys.org

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Take a test to find out whether you're a sociopath - Business Insider

Doesn't mean he's more dangerous than Hitler, of course. Just more of a sociopath, according to one doctor (without access to both 'patients').

[Admin]

Trump's other gift — the one that gets less attention but is perhaps more important — is his complete lack of shame. It's easy to underestimate how important shame is in American politics. But shame is our most powerful restraint on politicians who would find success through demagoguery.

Most people feel shame when they're exposed as liars, when they're seen as uninformed, when their behavior is thought cruel, when respected figures in their party condemn their actions, when experts dismiss their proposals, when they are mocked and booed and protested. Trump doesn't.

He has the reality television star's ability to operate entirely without shame, and that permits him to operate entirely without restraint. It is the single scariest facet of his personality. It is the one that allows him to go where others won't, to say what others can't, to do what others wouldn't. Trump lives by the reality television trope that he's not here to make friends.

But the reason reality television villains always say they're not there to make friends is because it sets them apart, makes them unpredictable and fun to watch. "I'm not here to make friends" is another way of saying, "I'm not bound by the social conventions of normal people." The rest of us are here to make friends, and it makes us boring, gentle, kind.

The rise of Donald Trump is a terrifying moment in American politics - Vox

[Admin]

How scary is Donald Trump? Actually, really scary.

It cannot be stressed enough that here is an incoming president who:

• Argues that massive voter fraud has taken place against him
  
• Provides no evidence whatsoever
  
• When asked to provide evidence he goes on the attack and slams those who ask the evidence
  
• Trump claims are rebuked by election officials in the states concerned
  

So we have an incoming president making completely unsubstantiated claims, basically a made-up story and when people ask for substantiation of these claims he slams those people. 

Good luck with that, USA....

President-elect Donald Trump went head-to-head on Twitter with CNN anchor Jeff Zeleny over Trump's unfounded claims that "millions" of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election.

Zeleny referred to Trump as a "sore winner" in an on-air report Monday night after the president-elect failed to provide any evidence of the rampant voter fraud he asserted. 

In response, Trump promoted a series of tweets from his supporters attacking Zeleny, including one that called the newsman a "part time wannabe journalist."

Zeleny fired back at Trump on Twitter, challenging him to provide proof of his voter-fraud claims: "@realDonaldTrump Good evening! Have been looking for examples of voter fraud. Please send our way. Full-time journalist here still working."

The argument stems from a missive Trump tweeted Sunday without any evidence to back it up: "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

Trump's Twitter followers leaned in on Zeleny, and he promoted several of their tweets:

"@HighonHillcrest: @jeffzeleny what PROOF do u have DonaldTrump did not suffer from millions of FRAUD votes? Journalist? Do your job! @CNN"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

"@JoeBowman12: @jeffzeleny just another generic CNN part time wannabe journalist !" @CNN still doesn't get it. They will never learn!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

"@sdcritic: @HighonHillcrest @jeffzeleny @CNN There is NO QUESTION THAT #voterfraud did take place, and in favor of #CorruptHillary !"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

.@CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don't know what to do.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

Top election officials in states where Trump alleged voter fraud have rebuked his assertions, calling them "unsubstantiated."
The president-elect previously stoked claims of voter fraud in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, urging his supporters to be watchful of irregularities at the polls.

Before the election, Trump and his surrogates openly predicted that it would be "rigged."

Trump rips CNN in tirade over his baseless voter-fraud claims - Business Insider

[Admin]

Real scary..

It a scene that is likely to prove quite familiar during a Trump presidency, Americans woke up Tuesday to discover that the incoming president took to Twitter to expose his ignorance of or disregard for the Constitution.

Donald J. TrumpVerified account‏@realDonaldTrump

Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!

Criminalizing flag burning is unconstitutional, at least when the flag is burned as a political statement. As the Supreme Court explained in Texas v. Johnson, “if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Moreover, there is no indication “either in the text of the Constitution or in our cases interpreting it . . . that a separate juridical category exists for the American flag alone.” If someone chooses to express a political message through flag burning, even if that message is contempt towards the United States, the Constitution protects that speech.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who Trump has held up as a model for his Supreme Court nominee, was in the majority in Johnson.

But even setting aside Trump’s unconstitutional call to criminalize flag burning, which became a staple of American conservative politics long before Trump emerged as a presidential candidate, Trump is calling for something even more extraordinary. He wants to strip citizenship — and with it, voting rights — from political dissidents.

Trump proposes stripping citizenship from political protesters