Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

I’ve been avoiding this issue for months. I just got tired about writing about Donald J. Trump. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought that he simply could not keep up the pace. He could not commit, every single day of his administration, a bigger travesty than the one he had committed the day before.

I was wrong.

So here is the first of what will be a long stretch of blogs on Trump and the nation. The Trump reaction to a week of protests is just the latest manifestation. The groundwork had already been laid and was in the open for everyone to see. Take a look at April 17, 2020, the day a sitting President of these United States incited violent revolution. Here were Trump’s tweets:

Three calls to arms, to “LIBERATE,” one invoking the 2nd Amendment on gun ownership, all directed at states with popularly elected Democratic governors, who just happened to offend Trump in one way or another.

In the last week of May the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police in Minneapolis led to protests which led to looting and arson. When the nation needed a calming voice, this is what Trump and then the official White House Twitter account tweeted:

Trump’s comment, “When the shooting starts…” is a 1967 quote from white Miami police chief Walter Headley, who targeted blacks ahead of the Republican convention. The words were repeated in 1968 by George Wallace, the staunch segregationist who was four time governor of Alabama. With these words Trump threatened to shoot his own citizens. A week later, he did just that.

Twitter initially blocked Trump’s tweet for “glorifying violence.” When the official White House account repeated the tweet, Twitter flagged it with the warning seen above. In response to Twitter’s decision to flag these tweets and others from Trump which the company believes promote lies or violence, Trump issued an executive order asking the Justice Department to look into legal remedies. Just what Trump’s lap dog attorney general will do is anyone’s guess. But while most legal scholars do not see the government having grounds to interfere with a private company such as Twitter, with the right wing zealots Trump and his Senate henchman Mitch McConnell have been putting on the federal bench in recent years who knows what will happen in the courts.

Remember, before he was elected Trump is the guy who bragged about having a concealed carry permit and often carrying a firearm although he was always in the company of a bodyguard who was built like an NFL defensive lineman. Now of course tough guy Trump is surrounded by the U. S. Secret Service. Typical of hypocrites, people who attend Trump rallies are not allowed to bring guns. Nor are visitors to the White House or the Senate’s public gallery. In fact, you can’t bring any guns to Capitol Hill.

But the Trump mob protesting state lockdowns to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 have no problem bringing assault rifles to the capitols of Michigan and Kentucky. Trump has repeatedly encouraged them and also supported protestors carrying guns and Nazi symbols because, in his mind, some of them are “good people.”

Trump is the guy who called out reporters during his campaign rallies and pointed them out to the crowds, prompting the Secret Service to escort the reporters to their cars after the rally to protect them on several occasions.

Even now, after the Secret Service had to temporarily lock down the White House because of unruly crowds gathering outside to protest Floyd killing, Trump was almost drooling at the thought of the agents engaged in violent confrontation with the protestors.

These are not the writings of a sane man. These are graphic descriptions of what he likes and how he would like things to be. This is not hyperbole, or speech uttered with a wink and a nod meant to solidify support from his “base.” This is “inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action,” which the Supreme Court says is not entitled to free speech protection.

The current massive mobilization of the innumerable Federal agencies authorized to physically enforce their own “rule of law” on the general population goes beyond anything a so-called government of the people has a right to implement.

Trump is a clear and present danger to the Constitution and the nation.

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