Amidst the various tangled threads of the whistleblower hullabaloo, perhaps there's one key event, more than any other, that we can't afford to forget: President Donald Trump musing about executing patriotic American truth seekers.
It's just one more illustration of the President's guilt, brazeness -- and provides serious additional fodder to pursue impeachment.
"I want to know who's the person that gave the whistleblower, who's the person that gave the whistleblower the information because that's close to a spy," said Trump at a closed door meeting with diplomats at the United Nations on Thursday. "You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now."
For the record, the United States "used to handle" spies in "the old days" by executing them. In the 1940's alone, America sentenced to death 27 people, many U.S. citizens, for espionage.
So, what the increasingly authoritarian President is suggesting is that maybe we should get the names of the whistleblower informants, who were acting in defense of the remnants of truth and justice in this nation against mounting autocratic control, and you know, possibly try them for treason, or hell, just kill them.
Of course, such talk is on par with the mindset of ruthless dictators like Germany's Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin who abhorred any form of opposition or conscientious objection from their perceived political rivals.
Of course, such talk is on par with the mindset of ruthless dictators like Germany's Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin who abhorred any form of opposition or conscientious objection from their perceived political rivals.
In what's infamously remembered as "The Night of The Long Knives" on June 30, 1934, Hilter ordered the executions of some 85 or more members of the paramilitary SA, known as the Brownshirts, who through violence, secured Hitler's rise to absolute power. Stalin acted similarly, executing or banishing from the country any official or activist he considered a threat. Ultimately, Hitler and Stalin would kill tens of millions of their own citizens.
Clearly, Trump presently doesn't hold such sway. But, the point is, all indications are that he'd like to -- and is persistently striving in pursuit of such absolute power. Demonstrating the narrow-minded intolerance of an autocrat, Trump has ousted, in one manner or another, 55 administration officials, some once considered allies, in just over two and a half years.
The fact that after such political turbulence, oppressive policy, brazen and divisive behavior Trump still celebrates the sychophantic support of Republican congressional leaders defending his occupancy of the Oval Office is deeply concerning to say the least.
Recently, I tweeted about the ironic reliability of Trump's dishonesty: "We can take whatever Trump's says, and I mean absolutely whatever he says, flip it around to its opposite meaning and we'll get the truth."
I suggested this unconventional 'Law of Trumpery' is as reliable as Einstein's Theory of Relativity equation E=mc2. It's infallible.
But I was wrong. Sometimes Trump's deception is more subtle. Like his "spies" comment.
Sometimes the President utters something so seriously inappropriate that it's initially perceived by many as a joke. But in truth, as dark desperation builds and unabashed greed controls in his psyche, he's deadly serious.
Think of then Presidential candidate Trump's televised public request to Russia amidst the inflated rhetoric about Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton's emails in July of 2016:
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said, referring to the Clinton’s deleted messages. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
We now know thanks to The Mueller Report revelations that Russia first attempted to hack Clinton’s email server that very same day.
Coincidence? Or a coordinated act of collusion? Trump said it was a joke. But the evidence suggests otherwise.
Likewise, Trump has repeatedly "joked" about staying in office well beyond 2025 when his Constitutionally mandated two allowable terms as president would end.
But as The Independent reported August 22, the President's comments about staying on as long as "14 more years" as President, "displayed no clear indication he was attempting be humorous." Whether or not the unqualified con ever thought we would win the election, he's got the job now and is emboldened by, and addicted to, the power.
Similarly, it's misguided to think that Trump was kidding around when he spontaneously seemed to daydream about "buying Greenland" in August.
Reported The Guardian in August:
"Greenland, and more specifically its purchase by the US, is being actively discussed in Donald Trump’s Oval Office. But what exactly is it that makes one of the world’s most desolate places such an attractive proposition?
"For the president, it is the real estate deal of a lifetime, one that would secure a land mass a quarter the size of the US and cement his place in US history alongside President Andrew Johnson, who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, and Thomas Jefferson, who secured Louisiana from the French in 1803."
So, when the President raises the specter of spies out to get him, akin to the alarmism of McCarthyism of the early 1950's, we can't afford to dismiss it as just Trump being Trump or some such nonsense. The writing's on the wall in distinguishable, foreboding letters.
Of late, we're supposed believe that this President -- who swindled his way into the Oval Office and has trashed everything worthy about our Republic for his own enrichment -- is suddenly concerned about corruption.
That's one of the key reasons President Trump says he asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to get dirt on a Democratic political opponent in the phone call flagged in the whistleblower complaint.
Trump wanted to help clean up corruption. Once again, the irony and hypocrisy would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. But, still the President actually expects Americans to swallow his snake oil.
Increasingly, Trump and his abetting loyalists like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy prove themselves as the "more equal" pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm -- treating the American people like a bunch of dumb barnyard animals.
To boot, certain White House officials are alleged to have tried to protect the President's abuse of office by concealing the incriminating Ukrainian phone call among
sensitive intelligence.
And Attorney General William Barr, smack at the center of this whistleblower complaint scandal is living up to the moniker of "Cover-up General Barr" first given him by the late New York Times Columnist William Saffire in 1992.
In his first stint as attorney general for President George H. W. Bush, Barr helped defang the prosecution of six indicted or suspected operatives in the Iran-contra affair. Barr also helped bury the Iraq-gate scandal.
In what would become known as the "Christmas Eve Massacre", Bush, at Barr's recommendation, pardoned six administration officials on Christmas Eve 1992, sparing Bush possible indictment just weeks before the end of his single term as President.
"It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences," said Independent Counsel Judge Lawrence Walsh at the time, after six years of investigation to the tune of $30 million spent.
Predictably, Barr appears to be covering up once again for President Trump in this whistleblower complaint controversy similarly to how he eviscerated The Mueller Report and deprived Americans of it's crucial findings.
Noteably, AG Barr, referenced the "spy" word in defense of the President this summer when he testified about The Mueller Report before the House Intelligence Committee. The paronoic seeds of destruction, control are strategically being sown.
In the meantime, acting director of National Intelligence Joseph McGuire testified Thursday before the House Intelligence Commitee that the whistleblower at the center of this scandal was operating in "good faith" and "did the right thing."
This menace to decency, truth and justice is mounting daily. Certainly, for a multitude of disturbing reasons, impeachment of the lawless, erratic President is unavoidable.
And the more we learn about the likes of Barr's and even Vice President Mike Pence's apparent role in this latest attempt at cover-up, the more it appears impeachment of the President's key inside men should be on the table too.
