“Madness everywhere. Just glance at the headlines leading The New York Times this morning:
A Disregard for Rules Trickles Down From Trump to His Aides
Trump Takes Government Secrecy Seriously. But Only When it Suits Him.
10,000 Federal Health Workers to Be Laid Off
President Trump Moves to Punish the Law Firm Where Robert Mueller Worked
There’s more, but you get the picture. The Washington Post adds a hot scoop:
Internal White House document shows agencies preparing to cut between 8% and 50% of staff.
That’s a lot of mayhem, and it barely scratches the surface. The Social Security Administration is being destroyed. ICE is throwing people out of the country for what look to be obviously political reasons, notably a scientist at Harvard Medical School who was detained in Boston and told she’s being sent back to her native Russia. She protested Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion and called for his impeachment. Wonder what’s in store for her.
Across human history, fascism has been imposed upon democracy mostly in one of two ways. First, by brute force—a military coup, that sort of thing. Second, a bit more stealthily, and legally—through legislation, executive decrees, and court decisions that hand more power to the leader.
Donald Trump is inventing a new way. Call it chaos fascism. Destroy the institutions of democracy until they’re so disfigured or dysfunctional that a majority no longer cares about them.”
We assumed that the destruction of democracy would be done by rewriting laws. That’s so twentieth century.
newrepublic.substack.com
Trump’s chaos fascism also manifests with his clown cabinet, with incompetence, stupidity, ignorance, and reckless disregard for democratic norms and institutions.