Former President Donald J. Trump over the weekend escalated his vows to prosecute his political opponents, circulating posts on his social media website invoking “televised military tribunals” and calling for the jailing of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other high-profile politicians. Mr. Trump, using his account on Truth Social on Sunday, promoted two posts from other users of the site that called for the jailing of his perceived political enemies — Chris Cameron #quotes#quote#Trump#Authoritarianism#Retribution#Vengeance#Repression
And gives him permission for a despotic second term.
By Adam Serwer
Near the top of their sweeping, #lawless opinion in Trump v. #UnitedStates, Donald Trump’s defenders on the #SupremeCourt repeat one of the most basic principles of American constitutional government: “The president is not above the law.” They then proceed to obliterate it.
…The #Trump Court’s decision is not only cover for his actions following the #2020election. The ruling must be understood as a permission slip for the despotic power that Trump has vowed to assert if he is reelected. It is not just a grant of #immunity for past #crimes, but an enthusiastic endorsement of the ones he will commit if given the chance. Trump has said he would be a “#dictator on day one” & has vowed “#retribution” against his political opponents.
FLAG: Steve #Bannon, weeks before he goes to prison, says a 2nd Trump term will target Biden officials: "We're coming after Lisa Monaco, Merrick Garland, the sr members of DOJ that have prosecuted Pres Trump. Jack Smith. This is not about vengeance … it's not about retribution. This is about saving this republic."
"We're going to use the Constitution and the rule of law to go after you and hold you accountable. Nov. 5 is judgment day. Jan. 20, 2025 is accountability day."
It’s clear to anyone paying a whit of attention that the House GOP is the forward operating base for Trump’s campaign of retribution. He has set out to avenge all of the perceived slights, attacks, and legal accountability directed at him in part because he’s characterologically incapable of anything else. …
Holding Merrick Garland in contempt is just a small part of that larger revenge agenda."
#Trump Tues night on the conservative network #Newsmax:
“I said, ‘Wouldn’t it really be bad? … wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife & the fmr secretary of state — think of it, the fmr secretary of state — but the president’s wife into #jail? … But they want to do it … So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, & it’s very possible that it’s going to HAVE TO HAPPEN to them.”
#Trump has made #payback for opponents central to his campaign, at one point declaring to a crowd: “I am your #retribution.” In private, has told advisers & friends that he wants his #DOJ to investigate specific fmr aides & allies who are now critical of him. And he has promised to appoint a special prosecutor to scrutinize #Biden & his family.
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
#Trump allies are demanding #retribution, & calling on #Republican prosecutors to go after #Democrats. One of Trump’s close allies, the influential #RightWing#ChristianNationalist#CharlieKirk, wondered on X how many Republican AGs & DAs “have stones.” “We aren’t a serious political movement until we are ready to fight fire with fire,” Kirk wrote. “Indict the left, or lose America.”
#GOP elected ofcls are at it too. Rep Mike Collins of Georgia: “Time for Red State AGs & DAs to get busy.”
2 fmr snr FBI employees have reached a tentative agreement w/the #DOJ to largely settle their consolidated lawsuits alleging that they were illegally targeted for #retribution by the #Trump admin after the #FBI investigated #Russia’s #ElectionInterference in 2016, acc/to a court filing Tues.
"Bereft of any vision of positive change, this is a man who is only capable of exploiting an aggrieved people’s worst instincts—who has figured out that he can get what he wants by stoking the fear, hatred and anger of others. He uses violence, not imagination. Conflict, not collaboration. Cruelty, never kindness. Retribution, not affirmation."
"These are the tools of a weak man inciting the mob to satisfy his hunger for carnage.
A man like this sells bibles wrapped in an American flag. Desperate for dollars and loyalty, he laughably claims the bible is his 'favorite; book and that he has many of them. Empty and broken inside, he needs to compare himself to Jesus Christ on the holy weekend of Easter."
Donald Trump represents the absolute worst of us. Yes, it’s important to understand how he came to power and why so many people support him. But make no mistake. He does represent the absolute worst of us. He’s the ugly result of a broken, out of touch media and political system — Joe Walsh #quotes#quote#Trump#Hate#Revenge#Retribution#Vengeance#MAGA
"#Forensic Architecture has documented the mass displacement of Palestinian civilians being carried out by the Israeli #military [… which] has repeatedly abused the humanitarian measures of evacuation orders, ‘safe routes’, and ‘safe zones’, and failed to comply with the laws governing their application within a wartime context. These patterns of systematic violence and destruction have forced Palestinian civilians from one unsafe area to the next." https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/humanitarian-violence-in-gaza@israel
Noting that Republican senator James Lankford has stated that he was threatened by a right-wing media personality if Lankford tried to move a border bill before the election, Heather Cox Richardson says,
"It is not a normal part of our political system to have members of Congress deciding what laws to support on the basis of threats."
"Trump’s actions are not those designed to win an election by getting a majority of the votes. They are the tools someone who cannot win a majority uses to seize power.
Trump’s base is shrinking as his actions become more extreme, but he has a big megaphone, and it is getting bigger."
#Israel on trial?
This is not what the #ICJ organises. Its role is to establish the law.
A halt of invasion?
In 2022, the ICJ issued a condemnation on the #Russia invasion, to no consequence.
Kate Ferguson: “Will it be enough to stem the tide of atrocity crimes? No, of course not.” https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-kate-ferguson@israel
“Israeli long-range missiles and exploding drones known as loitering munitions have made up for Azerbaijan’s small air force, even at times striking deep within #Armenia itself. Meanwhile, #Israel Barak-8 surface-to-air #missiles have protected #Azerbaijan’s airspace in shooting down missiles and #drones,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks #arms sales.
"Just as various international humanitarian and state-building interventions into Mogadishu have stifled true political alternatives, thus leaving extremist groups such as al-Shabaab and the Islamic State to fill the void with their own nihilistic projects, so too may we come to find that whatever emerges from the ruins of Gaza will be equally as monstrous, if not more so."