Hold Onto Your Hat

So now comes the dangerous part.

With the loss of the House of Representatives, der Sturmtrumper may have finally figured out that there are people in this nation who not only have the power to stand up to his thuggish misrule but may – the jury is out, but given the election results and the anger behind them the possibility does exist – also have the backbone to do so.

This is not going over well with the petit-Fascist in the Oval Office.  No, not one bit.  He is, according to news reports, “very depressed.”

The House of Representatives will soon have the power to investigate all of the criminal acts that the GOP willingly accepted as the price of their absolute rule.  They will have the power to subpoena all of the records that the GOP tried to hide – der Sturmtrumper’s tax returns, for example.  They will have the power to hold public hearings that the GOP cannot squash, hear witnesses that the GOP can’t silence, and enforce laws that the GOP was happy to break.

There is nothing so dangerous as a cornered rat.

Der Sturmtrumper has already started the process of disintegrating.  He fired Our Confederate Attorney General today – the worst AG in modern history, according to the ACLU, but one who at least had the legal acumen to recuse himself from the investigations into Russia’s ownership of der Sturmtrumper and allow Mueller’s investigations to proceed largely unhindered.  In his place, der Sturmtrumper has appointed a “loyalist” – a strange word to be applied to an American official, and one that is usually found in the context of tin-horn dictatorships in the dark corners of the world.  Said “loyalist” is on record as being one of the stupidest, least informed people in America.

The “loyalist” thinks Marbury v. Madison was wrongly decided, for example.  For those not up on their foundations of American legal practice and Constitutional thought, Marbury v. Madison was the case that confirmed the Founding Fathers’ express intent that the federal courts could judge the constitutionality of legislative and executive acts and overturn them if those acts were found wanting.  This power is central to a well-founded republic, and to repudiate this is to admit that tyranny is your goal.

He also thinks that Mueller’s investigation is illegitimate, because reasons.  Apparently presidents are supposed to be allowed to commit any crime they want without repercussion, at least as long as they are Republican presidents.  In this he has the support of new Associate Supreme Court Justice Party Boy, so that ought to be interesting when it comes before the Court.

This is only the first assault by an increasingly desperate president on the forces of law and order that are closing in on him, and it won’t be the last.  He is frantic to stop the Mueller investigation before it can make its findings known.  He has already demonstrated a willingness to use the US military as a political pawn (anyone want to take a guess as to whether those troops will actually head to the border now that the election is over?).  He has already shown an utter disregard for the law, for the Constitution, and for basic human morality.

One of his first acts today, in fact, was threatening the House of Representatives with political retaliation and fabricated investigations should they choose to look into his crimes, a bald-faced attempt to intimidate federal investigators that is itself a criminal act.  But hey – live by racketeering, die by racketeering.

It’s only going to get worse from here.  The rat is cornered and lashing out.  He still commands the support of the nearly 40% of the American public who apparently approve of lawless dictatorships, many of whom have publicly stated that they were willing to use violence on any who disagree with them.  Der Sturmtrumper is on record as encouraging violence against people he regards as political threats, and federal law enforcement agencies are publicly warning that this has already led to an unprecedented increase in right-wing terrorism in this country – a threat they classify as more serious to national security and stability than any foreign radicalism.

Watch your back, folks.

It’s about to get ugly.