Donald Trump, in an interview yesterday with a reporter, referred to we, American citizens, as “.. I would like my people” “to stand up” when he wanted them to show obedience just like the North Korean people do for Kim. That is a dictator talking about his role after he has taken power in a coup. He means YOU!
I was going to write a short piece on this theme but then it occurred to me that many of our readers could probably do a better job at it that a 94 year old. So here’s your chance. TCP is inviting all of our readers to submit their views on A VERY AMERICAN COUP in an essay of 5-800 words. We will run all of the submissions that meet the criteria of fact based. Don’t be afraid to show your emotions of living in a ‘post coup’ country. Send us an email at: editor@contraryperspective.com.
Get it off your chest even if you haven’t done this before. b. traven
The Contrary Perspective 
Well, traven, you task us with a difficult challenge! You invite us to unload our emotions, but demand adherence to facts!! I will post a comment I contemplated posting to Facebook, but my posts there garner very little attention or feedback, so TCP shall benefit. Here is a FACT: The official motto of Nazi Germany was “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer.” (“One People, One State [or Nation, if you prefer], One Leader.”) Now, here’s an OPINION: Here in TrumpMerica, an appropriate motto would be “Ein Fuhrer, Ein Fuhrer, Ein Fuhrer.” The most virulently racist and bassackward segment of our society has gifted us, via the ballot box in certain states favored by the Electoral College, with a “Leader” of unprecedented, and very dangerous, E-G-O. His reign can only bring further ill upon our nation and the larger world, and the sooner it comes to a crashing halt the better. Grounds for impeachment are stacking up like firewood for next winter, but the spineless Congress sits on its worthless hands. Suggestions for Miracle Cures welcome!!
I wouldn’t know about any Miracle Cures, Greg, but according to one Russian expatriate survivor of Imperial disintegration: “Having witnessed one collapse, and now witnessing another, the one approach I would definitely not recommend is doing nothing and hoping for the best.” See: 4 Signposts of American Collapse Which Also Occurred in the USSR, By Dimtry Orlov, Russia Insider (Tuesday, June 19, 2018). While I recommend the entire article for its comprehensive sweep of what ails the United States in its own period of imperial decline, I wanted to single out one particular passage because of your comment about “the spineless Congress [sitting] on its worthless hands.”
“The pro-democracy rhetoric is still dutifully spouted by politicians’ mass media mouthpieces, but in practice the US is no longer a democracy [emphasis added]. It has been turned into a lobbyist’s paradise in which the lobbyists are no longer confined to the lobby but have installed themselves in congressional offices and are drafting prodigious quantities of legislation to suit the private interests of corporations and oligarchs [emphasis added]. Nor is the American penchant for democracy traceable in the support the US lavishes on dictatorships around the world or in its increasing tendency to enact and enforce extraterritorial laws without international consent.”
The above passage caught my eye, not because of anything to do with the current occupant of the White House, but because the previous U.S. President, Barack Obama, began his eight years in office by
passively watching Liz Fowler, a corporate vice president and chief lobbyist for Wellpoint, Inc. (now Anthem) — “the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association,” according to Wikipedia — move into the congressional offices of “Democratic” Senator Max Baucus where she drafted President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as “Obama Care,” ostensibly the former President’s signature, if not principal, domestic legislative achievement. The Republican party leadership in Congress publicly swore to make Obama a failed president and they have not given up on that goal simply because the man has left office with scarcely any achievements but a 60 million dollar advance for him and his wife to each write a book about something. Other than the Iran Nuclear Agreement (which the current President has summarily abrogated) and repeal of the anaemic Dodd-Frank banking regulations — which the usual Democratic Dirty Dozen in the Senate assisted in killing — only Obamacare awaits a final gutting, which it will no doubt receive courtesy of whatever help the “Democrats” in Congress — calling themselves “the resistance” — can offer.
And let us not forget those Congressional Democrats who helped their Republican masters pass another whopping 80 billion dollar increase to the already bloated-beyond-belief 700 hundred billion dollar Pentagram Cornucopia Entitlement. If the current U.S. President constitutes such a dire and present threat to the survival of the Republic, then why do the Democrats want to lavish even more billions upon him for his “madman” weaponry and domestic surveillance powers? And what did the Democrats do to prevent the Republicans cutting taxes — again — on the already fabulously wealthy who do not need them while the budget deficit balloons even further? The Democrats in Congress certainly (1) do not fear giving President Trump whatever he and his party demand and (2) have no intention of letting even one “achievement” by the empty-suit rhetoric-reciter, Barack Obama, survive repudiation by the vicious and racist Republicans.
Personally, I wouldn’t call those Congressional hands “worthless.” Someone paid a goodly (although chump-change for the billionaire donor class) sum of money for them. As I like to say:
Buy some Republicans. They’ll shout “Gawd Bless!”
Then rent some Democrats. They’ll lose for less.
Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Something about that Republican guy currently enjoying his stay in the White House while the Democrats “resist” him by blaming “the Russians” for … well … uh … everything wrong with him, the United States, the world, the solar system, and the galaxy …
The death of democracy is one thing; now we’re witnessing the death of truth itself. Trump, the serial liar and tweeting bully, has whipped the “principled” Republicans even as he’s muzzled or befuddled the Democrats. Resistance — what resistance?
In short, Mike, you’re right.
Mike–I had figured out years ago that the Health Insurance industry must have been behind Obama’s successful rise from seemingly “out of nowhere”–though the GOP, of course, claimed he really got his start in living room strategy chats with ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers, yuk-yuk!!–to the highest office in the land. But I hadn’t encountered the name Liz Fowler, so thanks for that tidbit. In the wake of Watergate, a sufficient number of Republicans in Congress realized they could no longer risk continuing to support their incumbent POTUS and impeachment became inevitable. Impeachment of Trump–and yes, I’m fully aware this would bring Bible-Thumper Supreme Pence into the vacated office–will also require the caving-in of Republicans. But given the current situation in the USA–revolution is not on the people’s agenda–impeachment seems to be the only recourse available to remove He Who Believes He’s Above the Law. I’m very well aware of what a pathetic excuse for an “opposition” the Dems are, but voting them in in this year’s mid-terms and the Presidential election of 2020 is perceived as the only alternative to the present administration. That is far beyond my ability, or yours, or anyone’s, to alter any time soon.
traven: remember this article that I wrote in 2010? I didn’t get everything right, but we saw the threat back then. The title was “A very American coup.” http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175193