In yet another step toward Trumpist fascism, Trump has announced he’s signing an executive order to curb Twitter’s (and other social media platforms) ability to moderate content posted there.  Trump has regularly violated community standards on Twitter, spouting lies, conspiracy theories, personal attacks, and even accusations of murder.  Twitter, and Facebook for that matter, regularly police their platforms for fake news, bots, trolls, and threats.  Frankly, the job they do is inconsistent and generally piss-poor, allowing shocking content to stay posted.   The cancer within social media is the persistent presence of bots and troll which sow discontent, conflict, and dis-information to billions of users.

Up until this weekend, Twitter has allowed Trump to run rampant with no moderation, spreading bile sometimes hundreds of times a day.  The tipping point was his posting of lies and conspiracy theories this weekend about voting by mail.  Trump knows that the more people who vote, the less his chance of being reelected.  Let’s be clear about his intent.  He’s not concerned about non-existent voter fraud. He’s concerned about Americans voting. Period.  If there were free and fair elections with easy access to a ballot Trump will get walloped by double digits.  He and this toads know that, so he’s waging an all out war against voting by mail, even illegally threatening states by withholding appropriated funds from them (just like he did when he has attempting to extort Ukraine to get at Joe Biden).

My belief is this executive order will be just more Trump double speak to rile up his base and give him and Press Room Barbie more bile they can spread on national television and Twitter.  Trump is an ignorant, boorish, self-centered blowhard and everyone knows it, including actual lawyers.  Those lawyers know that the President of the United States attempting to stifle private parties that displease him is the textbook example of government violation of free speech rights.

Let’s review.  The First Amendment says,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The highlight is mine.  The First Amendment is designed to prevent the Congress from passing laws that abridge freedom of expression,  but case law over the centuries has established a general foundation that prevents the government from controlling what individuals can say or do.  Twitter and other social media platforms are private and establish terms of service and community standards of conduct.  Trump isn’t forced to use Twitter, he CHOSE it rather than what previous presidents have done by communicating to the People through press briefings and official statements.  He has cynically used Twitter specifically to spout bullshit that the press would (and does) immediately call him on.  He hates that, continuously trying to circumvent any fact checking by spewing his bile directly through the platform.

If Twitter is guilty of anything, it’s allowing this to go on far too long.  Any other individual spreading the kinds of personal attacks, libel, and outright falsehoods would have been banned long ago.  If Twitter would just cut him off, he would be forced to go back to conventional means of communication.  They opened this can of worms to drive more traffic to the platform and have looked the other way for years, so this crisis is as much their fault as Trump’s.

Trump’s executive order won’t really change anything except intimidate Twitter from any further attempts at moderation of his stream of daily manure that he spews.  I predict that, like his other jaw dropping conduct, will work and Twitter will back down, even though they should ban him today.

First, let me say that CNBC is generally more informative with the sound turned off.  I’ve actually stopped watching it during market days because the schedule is filled with talking heads (usually option and/or futures traders spewing bullshit trading strategies that nobody outside of specialists make any money doing.  The end of each day is polluted by Jim Kramer, who’s antics never produce any factual or useful information.  Yesterday morning, though, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen host the morning turned the sound way up, finally clashing after months of pandemic coverage where Sorkin raised genuine, thoughtful concerns and Kernen spouted pablum and was one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders, covering up his massive failure in leadership or thinking of anyone but himself.  He made the mistake of lecturing Sorkin and spouting Trumpist talking points when Sorkin decided he’d had enough.  I’ve now watched it three times – it’s most entertaining.

Have a look here:

Millions of Americans have known for decades that our government was broken, but I don’t think any of us realized just how badly is was broken.  The Trump infestation of the WH has exposed the manifest weaknesses in our system of government which cynical career politicians have exploited for personal and ideological gain.  When the Framers established our Constitution and supporting laws, the assumption was that that those who governed would uphold the public trust; if an elected official betrayed that trust, they provided a provision for impeachment and removal from office.  They didn’t envision a time that the majority of representatives would be abjectly corrupt.  We’re there.

The most shocking feature of the Trump regime is the amount of damage one president can inflict with virtually zero accountability.  In three short years, Trump took over the Republican party, the Congress, the courts, and even the Justice Department.  He has pardoned criminals, unilaterally withdrawn from longstanding treaties, started trade wars, attacked countries, disbanded entire agencies that blinded us to massive threats like the Coronavirus pandemic, has undone decades of environmental, education, employment, and safety regulations, wrecked dozens of alliances, sidled up to murderous dictators, and ceased funding global efforts that support healthcare, security, and human rights.  He illegally extorted a foreign leader for to damage a political opponent.  He is actively trying to whip up a scandal in the Obama administration which is invented from whole cloth with zero basis in fact.  He personally profits from his presidency on a daily basis, and makes public policy to advantage himself and his family.

Worse, anyone who gets in his way is either fired, slandered, or both.  He’s now fired an FBI director, two Attorneys General, and five Inspectors General.  He continues attempts to illegally out the whistleblower in the Ukrainian extortion effort.  His current AG is violating the public trust and the law by covering up major crimes and participating in smearing Trump’s political opponents by initiating “investigations” of non-existent crime. As he does this, he willfully ignores the tsunami of actual crimes being committed by Trump and his cronies.

How did we get here?  In a word, corruption.  The US is no longer a functioning democracy and the majority of our elected representatives no longer actually represent Americans.  Over the last 4 decades the money has gotten so big for congressmen and senators that making money has taken over from representation.  To avoid responsibility, congress has steadily ceded authority to the president.  For example, Article 1 of the Constitution specifically authorizes the CONGRESS to determine international trade policy, but for years that authority has been delegated to the president under “expedited” rules.   Trump has run wild with that authority, starting and inflaming global trade wars while the Congress (especially the Senate) just sits there doing nothing.  The Constitution also assigns authority to declare wars on other nations, but through legislation has also delegated that to the president, leading to never ending war and deadly attacks on other countries without so much as a “Go to hell” to the Congress.  It goes on and on, from selling off federal land to private interests to unwinding decades of environmental protections to shutting down agencies and engaging in abject corruption which lines the president’s and his children’s pockets with zero oversight.  Add all that to a now hands-off anything political judiciary and we don’t even remotely resemble the federal structure envisioned by the Framers.

The Framers designed a system of checks and balances to prevent rule by one branch and corruption.  Over the years all three branches have altered that design and what we now have is a zombie version of the federal system.  Add a profoundly corrupt president with evil enablers and you get what we see today, a president unilaterally wrecking the US government, the economy, the healthcare system, the federal safety net, anti-corruption legislation, international treaties, global alliances, and even the rule of law.

The system is broken.  Even when we rid ourselves of the Trump infestation, massive damage will have been done chances are remote that anyone left in authority will have incentive to fix it.  Yeah, it ain’t pretty.

Every once in a while, the Gameshow President inadvertently blurts out the truth during his streams of unconsciousness. It happened again this last week, when he admitted this:

“If we did very little testing, [America] wouldn’t have the most cases.  So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad.”

There it is.  Trump has been promising millions of “beautiful tests” since February. It’s mid-May, and we’re still testing at extremely anemic rates.  In Texas, for example, our current testing rate is 2%, and that rate ignores possible multiple tests who have already tested positive.  Every single medical expert I’ve heard speak repeats the mantra that massive testing is mandatory for opening economies.  Without it, we’re all flying blind.

The problem? Trump is playing a gameshow and in this game, the smallest number wins.  The prize is another 4 years to tear the US apart and avoid felony indictments from the State of New York.  We’ve been calling this for months, and, once again Trump admits that he doesn’t want testing.  He’s literally risking millions of lives for a win.

Louis DeJoy, a Trump crony and mega donor to his campaign, has been named Postmaster General.  That’s correct – the agency first headed by Benjamin Franklin is being turned over to a Trumpist stalwart who I predict will begin dismantling it prior to the November election to thwart efforts for vote by mail.  The speed at which Trump has been able to take over the entire US government without so much as a sigh from the Congress or the courts is nothing short of breathtaking.  Trump’s petty grudges are doing real long-lasting damage to our country while invertebrates like Ted Cruz and John Cornyn just sit there.  Corruption in the GOP is complete.

The US is now unrecognizable to me.

Leaving for Arizona yesterday, a reporter asked Trump why he supported reopening even as cases increase.  He said, “”The whole world is excited, watching us, because we’re leading the world.”  Yes, we are leading the world:

Trump’s delusion is complete.  I would think that the only thing the world is excited about is ridding itself of Donald Trump on November 3 (but only if we do our job).