Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Several writers discuss the drift toward authoritarianism by neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump, starting with E.J. Dionne, Jr.:

The past week has shown that those who feared Trump’s despotic inclinations were neither deluded nor alarmist. His shameful indifference to the killing and dismembering of the Saudi journalist and Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi was an act of cold collaboration with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s coverup. [snip] 

On the same day Trump was standing in solidarity with a regime implicated in assassination, the New York Times reported that the president told White House counsel Donald McGahn this spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James B. Comey. 

McGahn held Trump off, but nothing could be more autocratic than proposing to corrupt the criminal-justice system by weaponizing it against political opponents.

Karen Tumulty focuses on the appointment of Rump stooge Matthew Whitaker as "Acting Attorney General following the revelations about Rump wanting to prosecute Clinton and Comey:

The presidency is an institution invested with enormous power and enormous leeway for how to use that power. Trump’s two years in office have revealed how few legal and political tools there are for curbing a chief executive who does not feel constrained by norms — or, for that matter, by shame, ethical standards or fear of public backlash. 

Nowhere is the potential for overreach more dangerous, however, than in the application of our laws. Using that power to reward friends and punish adversaries marks the dividing line where a president becomes a tyrant — and it is one that Trump seems determined to cross.  (our emphasis)

The more he feels threatened, the closer we are to him crossing that line.  We each need to be prepared to do what our consciences tell us to do when that time comes.

You know who else has been emboldened by Rump's kowtow to Sawdi Crown Prince Bone Saw?

Russian warships seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Sunday in a narrow waterway that provides access from the Black Sea to the much smaller Sea of Azov near Crimea, ramping up already bitter tensions between the two countries. 

On Sunday, Russia dispatched warplanes to patrol the area after the Ukrainian navy tried to send the ships through the Kerch Strait, a waterway with strategic significance for both countries that passes under a newly built Russian bridge. 

In May, President Vladimir Putin personally opened the bridge over the Kerch Strait, connecting the Crimea peninsula — which Moscow seized in 2014 — to Russia's mainland. 

The 12-mile-long span has been touted by Russia as a claim to Crimea. Ukraine, along with nearly every other country in the world, refuses to recognize that claim. 

Russian vessels rammed one of the Ukrainian boats and opened fire on the other two before seizing all three, along with their crews. Ukrainian officials have said six of its sailors were injured; Russia has said three. The boats were towed to a nearby port.

Putin knows full well that Puppet Rump isn't going to intervene in any meaningful way to stop Russian aggression.  The Putin Puppet will deny, delay and defuse any actions the U.S. government might take to constrain Putin's expansionist designs on Ukraine (see "Sanctions, Trump dragged kicking and screaming").  The 2016 election is the gift that keeps on giving for Putin.

On the day that the Nazi pig who killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville goes on trial, there's a WaPo analysis of global terrorism that shows, well, you probably already have guessed:

Over the past decade, attackers motivated by right-wing political ideologies have committed dozens of shootings, bombings and other acts of violence, far more than any other category of domestic extremist, according to a Washington Post analysis of data on global terrorism. While the data show a decades-long drop-off in violence by left-wing groups, violence by white supremacists and other far-right attackers has been on the rise since Barack Obama’s presidency — and has surged since President Trump took office. 

This year has been especially deadly.Just last month, 13 people died in two incidents: A Kentucky gunman attempted to enter a historically black church, police say, then shot and killed two black patrons in a nearby grocery store. And an anti-Semitic loner who had expressed anger about a caravan of Central American refugees that Trump termed an “invasion” has been charged with gunning down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest act of anti-Semitic violence in U.S. history. [snip]

Terrorism researchers say right-wing violence sprouted alongside white anxiety about Obama’s presidency and has accelerated in the Trump era. Trump and his aides have continuously denied that he has contributed to the rise in violence. But experts say right-wing extremists perceive the president as offering them tacit support for their cause. (our emphasis)

"White anxiety."  So, it's not "economic anxiety" any more?

We close with our usual recommendation to check out Infidel 753's outstanding link round- up.  Among our many favorites, check out the slingshot (that's all we're saying -- you have to go find it!).