Fogdog
Well-Known Member
When I was confronted with the fact that 70 million people voted for Trump and admitted I could not understand these people, DIY suggested I read up on authoritarianism. The book I chose, Authoritarian Nightmare, Trump and His Followers was available in my local library, so I checked it out. It's a pretty stale read but gave me some insight into what's going on with not just Trump but the kind of people who can still aggressively and violently support That Man after all that has happened. Another significant read, Kleptopia, which documents how dirty money from dictators and their oligarchs is corrupting financial and political systems around the world gave me insight into how dirty money is corrupting governments around the world..As I ponder the foul that brought the harm, the one thing that shocks me right down to my soles is his acting on the considered disregard for the lives and welfare for our agents in hostile lands, who are laying it all on the line to get us otherwise unavailable intel. In this regard, the sociopath-in-chief’s attitude and actions are an evil without parallel or precedent in the two-plus centuries of presidential history.
What gets me most of all is that some of his staffers must have been aware of his disclosing (and probably selling) the information that led to the spike in the losses of our “illegal” agents overseas. Yet nobody said a thing. That is to me an Iowa-class headscratcher. He cannot have taken the documents unobserved. He cannot have disclosed them to foreign nationals unobserved. Somebody witnessed him engaging in probable conspiracy to arrange the premeditated murder of perhaps the bravest people in Federal service, and told nobody.
I can only hope that if that man is indicted for this betrayal of lives in his trust, the so far silent witnesses will testify. That man has betrayed the office and the nation in a variety of ways, but this is on a level all its own. It eclipses the famous treason of Benedict Arnold, the byword for high treason in our history until now. I estimate it as bigger even than the bombshell news about his possessing the document about a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities. We should all be infuriated, and vote accordingly in a few weeks. My opinion.
How Donald Trump Documents Investigation Could Impact the U.S.
Experts have warned of the danger to human sources used for intelligence gathering, and that classified documents could have been vulnerable to spies.www.newsweek.com
I must admit that despite the warnings Dean and Altmeyer gave in their book, I was not completely prepared for what happened on Jan 6. And again, now that the story regarding Trumps pillage of the National Archives begins to be told, the warnings in Kleptopia had not sunk in enough. As in Jan 6, I am dumbfounded by the tale of betrayal of the US by Donald Trump, a billionaire sociopath who is completely centered on himself and without empathy or compassion to come. The US has been nothing but good to That Man and yet, look at what he has done. Not just to the US but as you point out, apparently That Man betrayed people serving the US's national security interests, causing them to be killed or worse.
So, I can read up on these subjects. Cite facts, figures, and what experts predict what will happen. But I don't and will never understand people like him. How can he have done those things and come back to face the cameras claiming his innocence? I felt a hot rage after Jan 6. Years later, now that the new betrayals to the people of the US and to those who serve in our interest, I feel my anger has cooled, but remains, awaiting the dish that is best served cold.
And yet, the danger remains. Trump has managed to corrupt our judicial system to the point where a very junior judge is writing law from the bench and its quite possible that the SCOTUS will eventually confirm that an ex president who moonlights as a spy for nations hostile to the US has executive privilege. I predicted that these early to middle years in the 2020's would be the nexus for this country. Will the radical right minority prevail or will our democracy prevail?
So, bravo for Biden and his blunt words last Saturday. He's saying what needs to be said. But it's my guess there are a lot of people who, like me, can't really understand what's going on. Because what Trump and other malicious sociopaths are doing is incomprehensible. When we look for explanations within the context of our own behavior, what Biden says sounds just as outrageous as what Trump says. Trump and his lying liars can still win the day.
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