TRUMP'S THREATS

Over the years he has held a public spotlight, Donald Trump’s amazing luck has led many to conclude he will never see the inside of a jail cell, no matter what crime he is accused of.

This is an illusion. It’s one created by Trump’s own incredible reality-distortion vortex.

With events coming as they have in recent weeks, there are now very good reasons to think Trump will spend his final years in prison. Trump’s own words and actions say he definitely believes this likely. This is creating such stress on his mind to think he might end in a “bad” prison that he is coming increasingly unglued.

The ever-increasing threats of violence and vengeance against perceived enemies and those he calls “disloyal”are the proof of this. The horror that would be his potential return to power, as he details ever-crazier actions, is driven by his fear and desperation. He feels himself besieged and endangered on every front - with the standard lies, ruses and gambits he’s used in the past failing to have their intended effect again and again.

That does not mean he is not the threat he makes himself out to be. An animal is always at its most dangerous when it feels itself cornered.

The mounting existential threats to his freedom and finances Trump faces fuel his escalating threats of violence, authoritarian crackdowns and extra-constitutional actions if he is returned to power.

However, the truth is that Trump’s current posture of bravado and menace - while a definite threat - is just his latest con, his desperate attempt to conceal a weaker, more terrified reality. It a continuation of the kind of over-the-top aggression that in his earlier history allowed him to overawe and cow more conventional business titans when actually he held no cards at all.

While the United States is not immune from the effects of political violence, it has no special ability to put the toothpaste of political violence back in the tube once it’s unleashed.

And make no mistake: It has been unleashed.

As Juliette Kayyem rightly observed in The Atlantic:“Trump’s real, enduring legacy is his successful introduction of violence, the threat of violence, and targeted harassment into the dynamics of our political system, as if they were all just a natural extension of democratic disagreement,”

The past few days have demonstrated how unhinged Trump has become and how political violence is the core of his message.Since Friday, Trump has:

Suggested General Mark Milley, the country’s top general, be executed for treason;

Threatened retaliation against NBC and MSNBC for “Country Threatening Treason“, claiming he will shut them down after he is elected.

Called on the House Republicans to shut down the government, as “the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots,” and later ominously said: “It’s time Republicans learned how to fight!” against “the Radical Left Marxists, Fascists and Thugs – THE DEMOCRATS.”

Trump today is not the same as Trump 2019 or even Trump Jan. 6. He really is cornered, under indictment, facing the deprivation of his liberty if convicted. Winning the presidency is his only way out. He will stop at nothing, do anything, and tear down everything to protect himself.

Add in that his business income has just been cut off in New York, he needs the presidency to keep getting donations from the rubes and the hayshakers.

Nick Catoggio at The Dispatch had a thoughtful post on these developments:

“Strive to resist numbness. Because despite all the blather about Biden and Trump being the two most known ‘known quantities’ in politics, we actually don’t know how dangerous and destabilizing Trump might prove to be as his mind bends under the strain of an election and four indictments. Or whether it’ll break entirely once he’s back in power and surrounded by the most obsequious fascist toadies he can find.”

Since last Friday, Trump's daily torrent of online grievances has crossed into musings about "treason" and the execution of his political enemies. He is coming unglued.

Despite claims that he’s made a strategic "pivot" to the general election, he remains committed to the same unrestrained, sometimes violent rhetoric that alienated many in 2020.

Trump's incendiary statements no longer command headlines to the extent they once did, with elected Republicans frequently waving them away as "Trump being Trump." When the media follows this deflection, and the question of Senator Fetterman’s hoodies and shorts on the Senate floor gets more coverage than Trump theatening to kill General Milley or shut down NBC, the media is failing its job to inform and warn the public.

Read these Trump posts:

“The Republicans lost big on Debt Ceiling, got NOTHING, and now are worried that they will be BLAMED for the Budget Shutdown. Wrong!!! Whoever is President will be blamed, in this case, Crooked (as Hell!) Joe Biden! Our Country is being systematically destroyed by the Radical Left Marxists, Fascists and Thugs – THE DEMOCRATS. UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN! Close the Border, stop the Weaponization of “Justice,” and End Election Interference – WE MUST HAVE HONEST ELECTIONS. It’s time Republicans learned how to fight! Are you listening Mitch McConnell, the weakest, dumbest, and most conflicted “Leader” in U.S. Senate history? HE’S ALREADY GIVEN THE DEMOCRATS EVERYTHING, THEY CAN’T BELIEVE HOW LUCKY THEY GOT. WE NEED NEW, & REAL, REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, NOT A CLONE OF MITCH, & WE NEED IT NOW!!!”

“They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its “Country Threatening Treason.” Their endless coverage of the now fully debunked SCAM known as Russia, Russia, Russia, and much else, is one big Campaign Contribution to the Radical Left Democrat Party. I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country! “

Pull back the curtain on his threats, projections, and bravado, and what’s left is a frightened man desperately trying to outrun reality, and now the law. There’s nothing quite like seeing a con man get backed into a corner by the truth.

The problem is that he’s a stochastic terrorist. As Jack Smith laid out in his motion for a gag order on Trump, what he says has resulted in his more unhinged followers attempting to follow his orders.

He needs to be silenced. Hell, he desperately needs termination with extreme prejudice: a massive fatal myocardial infarction, preferably in front of the deplorables mid-rant; the fatal hamberder; choking on a pink Starburst; an errant golf ball to the head. Whatever. Make America Truly Great Again with his permanent departure. Sooner rather than later!

A cornered rat is dangerous.

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