In July 2017, Foreign Policy dot com published a piece very well developed by Stephen M. Walt.
Herewith are Mr. Walts ten signs and a link to the piece.
How about visiting a few of the ten& signs just over a year later?
- Systematic efforts to intimidate the media: Check
- Building an official pro-Trump media network: Partial check
- Politicizing the civil service, military, National Guard, or the domestic security agencies: Partial check.
- Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents: Nothing yet.
- Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents: Worrisome, but not a big problem so far.
- Stacking the Supreme Court: Partial check.
- Enforcing the law for only one side: Blinking red.
- Really rigging the system: Blinking red.
- Fearmongering: Check.
- Demonizing the opposition: Check (but he’s not alone).
Random Unordered
Point 6: While anyone with a modicum of common sense knows either political party and US President will nominate SCOTUS Justices with like political an ideological lean. That stated, Trump's latest appointee to the Justice Roberts SCOTUS is a clear example of "stacking" the Supreme Court: Kavanaugh wasn't a name mentioned by Trump during his campaign for the Oval Office.
On December 2, 2016, mere weeks before his inauguration, Trump made public a list of 21 potential nominees to follow his strategic placement of Gorsuch on the Robert's Court. USA Today and Trump's list of "stellar judges". No Kavanaugh? Is it possible Trump's cabal located Kavanaugh and advanced his nomination based on research which yielded he seems to harbor views the US President is beyond scrutiny which could include criminal of impeachable acts (my words)? Stacking? (AKA Get Out Of Jail Card)
We suggest Mr. Walt move Point 6 to a big red "check."
Point 2: Since July 2017 the Trump media ministers have without question deployed strategies which include high jacking local TV network news operations via supportive and elitist affiliations. Sinclair Broadcasting is the penultimate example after Rupert Murdoch's' over-the-top Trump media on Fox News.
Salon
The New York Times
The need to post any validation of Fox News as Trump's prime media tool is totally unnecessary. You either by now know such or you are a supporter and have learned to consider Trump's Earth flat instead of round. You may even own a MAGA Cap.
We would be remiss if we did not also identify an example of CNN's business model which includes panels that at times appear straight from the Jerry Springer Show. The link posted here includes a particularly noteworthy example of a GOP operative on a panel with a clear mission to label anyone who is antiTrump part of a mob. Watch as the operative, Matt Lewis declared himself "...not a Republican" and while being asked to settle-down via the show host, snipped like a child about whether he could take a drink of water. The segment is a bit long and may not be worth the full eight minutes of viewing.
Point 10: A "Both Sides" issue..and that will not change until the US suffers another national catastrophe.
These Points are worthy of deep scrutiny. I believe I am hearing snippets of the administration past dealing with Russia which may have touched into domestic surveillance or something of the sort. Points 3 and 4.
Using government surveillance against domestic political opponents: Nothing yet.
Using state power to reward corporate backers and punish opponents: Worrisome, but not a big problem so far.
NYT reports former Trump Campaign Adviser Rick Gates, "requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence” against President Trump's political opponents. https://t.co/EkEffuOQmB— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 10, 2018
Trump authoritarianism is as sure as his penchant for lying daily lies. I believe the total of lies from 45 has surpassed 5200 in his short time in the Oval Office.
