1
0
In writing Kruscontrol, I usually try to keep things light. It’s fun to take sarcastic shots at the Idiot-in-Chief and to mock his foolishness. But there’s nothing funny about what’s going on. We are being transformed into a police state, a nation ruled by authoritarian control. From the grave, Joe McCarthy is asking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” and George Orwell is saying, ”Wow–these guys read my book. It took a little over 40 years for it all to come true, but they’ve got my ideas down pat and even raised the anti.”
Making life difficult for all Americans through his ridiculous tariff policies, blathering on about annexing Canada or making Gaza a vacation paradise might be cause for concern, but they are all distractions, smoke screens to take our attention away from the fundamental intrusions of the Trump “agenda” into our fundamental freedoms through intimidation, threat, and power.
Remember a time when we had freedom of speech, no matter how disgusting or unpleasant the content of what was said. No more.
Remember a time when there were actually three operating branches of government. No more.
Remember a time when people could walk the streets without the fear that a gang of government thugs might grab them and send them away, never to be seen again. No more.
Remember a time when “due process” meant something. No more.
Remember a time when public school teachers were free to remind children that slavery actually existed in the US, and that this country has a past that is far from perfect. There is now a federally-sponsored website for students and parents to inform on their teachers if they feel that something said has even a hint of DEI. (No kidding. It’s https://enddei.ed.gov). Wherever you are, whatever you say–Big Brother is watching.
Remember when Harvard was thought of by so many as a snooty, elitist institution, not the sort of place that might take a courageous stand against tyranny. Fight fiercely, Harvard, as those of you who remember Tom Lehrer would say. Why isn’t every other private (and public) college president in the country lined up to state emphatically that they too believe that government cannot and should not be regulating what happens in our institutions of higher education.
But it never ends. After calling for CBS to lose its license because he didn’t like its editing of a Kamala Harris interview on 60 Minutes, Trump has now doubled down after 60 Minutes dared to explore who is responsible for the war in Ukraine and whether Greenlanders are in favor of a US takeover. Taking this one step further, just this morning Brendan Carr, the Chair of the FCC, went after MSNBC for failing to cover a briefing on the Trump deportations, all the while mischaracterizing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Abrego Garcia case. (Isn’t Fox News lucky that it has never ever misrepresented anything.)
Lessons to be learned in the New (Ab)Normal:
When government speaks, it speaks absolute truth.
When government demands, it requires absolute obedience.
If you differ, fear for your actual existence, as a person or an organization. We will come after you with vengeance and unlimited restraint, and make you sorry that you dared to disagree, no less to speak your mind in public. Just test us, we’re not kidding.
George Orwell, prophet. You saw it all coming.
well put, Ed.