The president has tried to leverage the power of the federal government against his political opponents and legal adversaries, sending the Justice Department after James Comey, a former director of the F.B.I.; Attorney General Letitia James of New York; and one of Trump’s former national security advisers, John Bolton. Trump also wants to use the I.R.S. and other agencies to harass liberal donors and left-leaning foundations. He has even tried to revive lèse-majesté, threatening critics of his administration and its allies with legal and political sanctions. With Trump, it’s as if you crossed the bitter paranoia of Richard Nixon with the absolutist ideology of Charles I.
Today’s protesters, in other words, are standing for nothing less than the anti-royal and republican foundations of American democracy. For the leaders of the Republican Party, however, these aren’t citizens exercising their fundamental right to dissent but subversives out to undermine the fabric of the nation.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said of a planned No Kings protest that it would be a “big ‘I hate America’ rally” of “far-left activist groups.” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana also called No Kings a “hate America rally.” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he expected to see “Hamas supporters,” “antifa types” and “Marxists” on “full display.” People, he said without a touch of irony, “who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.” And all of this is of a piece with the recent declaration by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, that “the Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals.”
This, I should think, is news to the Democratic Party.
... much of Trump’s effort to extend his authority across the whole of American society depends on more or less voluntary compliance from civil society and various institutions outside of government. And that, in turn, rests on the idea that Trump is the authentic tribune of the people. Reject Trump, and you reject the people, who may then turn on your business or your university or, well, you.
Nationwide protests comprised of millions of people are a direct rebuke to the president’s narrative. They send a signal to the most disconnected parts of the American public that the president is far from as popular as he says he is, and they send a clear warning to those institutions under pressure from the administration: Bend the knee and lose our business and support.
Nationwide protests comprised of millions of people are a direct rebuke to the president’s narrative. They send a signal to the most disconnected parts of the American public that the president is far from as popular as he says he is, and they send a clear warning to those institutions under pressure from the administration: Bend the knee and lose our business and support.
by Jamelle Bouie, NY Times | Read more:
Images: markk
[ed. So proud of my little (red) town. Over 1500 patriots coming together in support of democracy and a United States for All. America will never be great again if we continue to let one administration, one party, one media channel, and a slew of billionaire elitists divide us. China and other adversaries will only get stronger while we're busy shooting ourselves in the foot. For example: America could win this trade war if it wanted to (Noahpinion):]
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China has unveiled broad new curbs on its exports of rare earths and other critical materials…Overseas exporters of items that use even traces of certain rare earths sourced from China will now need an export license…Certain equipment and technology for processing rare earths and making magnets will also be subject to controls…[China] later announced plans to expand export controls to a range of new products…[these] five more rare earths — holmium, europium, ytterbium, thulium, erbium — plus certain lithium-ion batteries, graphite anodes and synthetic diamonds, as well as some equipment for making those materials.Trump immediately responded with bellowing bravado, announcing new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, as well as various new export controls. Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, joined in, calling China’s trade negotiators “unhinged”.
But just a few days later, Trump and Bessent were already backing down in the face of China’s threats. Trump admitted that 100% tariffs on China were “not sustainable”, and declared that “[W]e’re doing very well. I think we’re getting along with China.” Bessent offered a “truce” in which the U.S. suspends tariffs on China in exchange for China suspending its threat of export controls.
The most likely outcome, therefore, is that China simply wins this round of the trade war, as it won the last round. In April, Trump announced big tariffs on China. China retaliated by implementing rare earth export controls, causing Trump to back down and reduce tariffs to a low level. But China didn’t reciprocate — it kept its export controls in place, allowing America to keep buying rare earths only through some short-term conditional arrangements. China then used these controls to extract even more concessions from the hapless Americans: (...)
This was also entirely consistent with the pattern of Trump’s first term, in which he agreed to suspend planned tariffs on China in exchange for empty promises of agricultural purchases that China never ended up keeping. It fit the common caricature of Trump as a cowardly bully who acts with extreme aggression toward weak opponents, but who retreats from any rival who stands up and hits back.
If the pattern holds this time, then Trump will retreat from his threats of sky-high tariffs, but China will keep its new export controls in place. Lingling Wei and Gavin Bade report that China’s leaders believe they have the American President over a barrel: (...)
Meanwhile, op-eds in Chinese state media portray the U.S. as weak and irresolute. This is the TACO trade, but it probably isn’t just that. Dictatorships — and China now truly deserves to be called by that name — tend to flatter themselves with the idea that their unity of command gives them a consistency and willpower that democracies, enslaved to their fickle electorates, naturally lack. That assumption proved disastrously false for the Axis and the communist bloc in the 20th century, but with American society divided by various political and social conflicts, it might prove correct this time.
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[ed. Also, this:]
If you’re a Trump-backing Republican, there is nothing you can say vile enough that the party will cut you loose. If you’re publicly opposed to Trump, on the other hand, it doesn’t matter how peacefully and patriotically you express that opposition—it’s an article of faith on the right that you’re an America hater at best and a literal terrorist at worst.
How can this go on? It’s not just that the president of the United States looks at literally half the country with the purest disdain and hate—it’s that he has now built a movement around himself that makes that disdain and hate its organizing principle. We’ve come a long way from the days when a politician calling her opponents’ supporters “a basket of deplorables” was a years-long outrage against the American people, evidence of an intolerable contempt for her fellow Americans. “Basket of deplorables” would be one of the milder ways that the Trump movement—and, for that matter, the entire federal government now—talks about its enemies today. ~ via:
