His tweets have always been impulsive, but in the last days Trump’s desperate need for ‘credit’ (commercial air safety? really?) and now with Bannon abandoning ship, his support is unravelling and it appears, so might he. Time to prepare for the worst?

We’ve all been exposed to the endless number of tweets, some of them would be hilarious if it weren’t that Trump is President in a seat of inestimable power. One of the trends to the tweets has been an utterly insatiable need for praise and credit. It has been a theme throughout the campaign and continued after the election. One would hope that being elected President would sufficiently feed the most insatiable ego, but the day after the election he began his implausible claims of at least 3,000,000 instances of voter fraud. It continued after the inauguration with Trump claiming a huge crowd well beyond Obama’s. After his trip to China, he claimed there has never been a greater reception of anyone in the history of China. He claims responsibility for stock market gains, job growth, the absence of commercial jet crashes in 2017, and almost anything on earth that could be viewed as positive. It never stops, despite what would be unassailable evidence to the contrary for most any rational person, he claims:

• The polls are all wrong, he is popular,
• His tax bill is also popular;
• He was responsible for almost electing a pedophile in Alabama; they love him in Alabama;
• He has passed more bills than President ever, except that he hasn’t. He has actually passed few bills than any president since Eisenhower. And of course,
• The least plausible of the implausible: his tax bill will hurt his wealthy cronies while lifting the middle class.

The theme that winds through all of this is: He, He, He.

All of this would be humorous, but, as noted above, he is President. He has access to the button that could launch a nuclear war.  I wrote extensively about his unraveling stability, but that was weeks ago.  Now the threats to his presidency seem far greater than then. With Bannon’s book now published, with the release of extraordinarily damaging claims about Kushner and Trump Jr.’s involvement in collusion with the Russians, bringing collusion ever so close to Trump himself. Jr. With the likelihood of a book tour and continuing headlines, the noose and the pressure will mount. And high levels of pressure among individuals of fragile mental health is not correlated with anything good. Click here to get a concise summary of Bannon’s claims.

For an excellent albeit longer summary of all of the incredible assertions, claims and an insider’s view of the Trump White House, it is really worth your time to review the article from the Reporter by Michael Wolff. He spent the first year of Trump’s Presidency sitting on a couch outside the Oval Office watching the trail of sycophants enter and exit. He witnessed eyes rolling, looks of shock, and comments off the record from the inside. And the guy has both a sense of perspective and a sense of humor. Both help. It is definitely worth a read. click here.

So what we have, is a President with an insatiable need to be appreciated, a willingness to ignore reality and construct an alternative universe that feeds his ego. Only today, The Daily News reported that the internationally recognized psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee stated: “From a medical perspective, when we see someone unraveling like this, it’s an emergency,” and noting the danger of someone so unstable a arms’ length from the nuclear button, Lee said. “We’ve never come so close in my career to this level of catastrophic violence that could be the end of humankind.” All of this reminds me of King Lear, a man of immense power who was inordinately susceptible to praise and vulnerable to any vestige of criticism, was easily pushed to madness. If you’ve seen King Lear, that can’t be a reassuring analogy.

If you are looking for reassurance from GOP leadership. That is becoming harder to find. As reported in the Daily News, Richard Painter, the former ethics attorney for George W. Bush commented in relation to R Trump’s tweet about his nuclear button:  “This tweet alone is grounds for removal from office under the 25th Amendment. This man should not have nukes.” Bill Kristol, a leading conservative and co-founder of The Weekly Standard, also tweeted, “I trust @VP has asked his Counsel to prepare a draft document transferring power in accord with Sec. 4 of 25th Amendment in case it’s suddenly needed, & that he’s discussed this with COS Kelly.” So it isn’t just the radical left who are wondering how stable our President is.

Given all of this, it seems even more likely than ever that something warranting a massive and immediate response is likely. Indeed, in a new article from Vox, this:  “One of Trump’s most under-appreciated political achievements of the year: consolidation of power over a party to which he had scant personal or institutional ties. And all signs are that if Republicans win in 2018, slavish loyalty to Trump will only grow more ingrained, especially because Trump himself makes no secret that loyalty to him is the key to access, and access is the key to policy influence.” The article goes on to assert that should the Dems not capture at least one of the two houses, all bets would be off as to the degree to which any vestiges of democracy, truth, facts, science, honesty, or integrity would be in play. A megalomaniac would be our President and he would be unchecked.

Are you motivated yet to get more involved?  While right now Retake is taking a decidedly local and state focus, with our involvement in the Poor People’s Campaign and our support for the Mueller Rapid Response, Retake is preparing for calls for civil disobedience. We want to have a plan here in Santa Fe to voice our outrage and quickly, should Trump disband Mueller’s investigation or begin carte blanche pardoning of those indicted. Information on the Mueller Response is below.

National Action If Mueller is Fired. We will need to be ready at a moment’s notice. Read On for Santa Fe Plan.  RISE Stronger New Mexico has scheduled a rapid response #Resistance Action in Santa Fe if special prosecutor Robert Mueller is fired. The local event details will mirror national plans which can be found here: https://act.moveon.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/search/?source=MFT/ The Santa Fe rally will begin hours after news breaks of a Mueller firing: If Mueller is fired BEFORE 2 P.M. local time —> events will begin @ 5 P.M. local time, If Mueller is fired AFTER 2 P.M. local time —> events will begin @ noon local time the following day. Our gathering place will be the bandstand on the Santa Fe Plaza.   Click here to RSVP for this event. It is not a Facebook event, so anyone can sign up.

Another movement, the Poor People’s Campaign launched by Rev. William Barber, is also coming to New Mexico. Retake is playing a coordinating role in this effort and it will launch on May 13, with 40 days of sustained civil disobedience planned across the nation. It could provide a lightning rod to awaken a surge of activism across the country. Want to be part of it?  Sign up here and you will get notifications on plans for training, actions, etc.

We will keep you posted on how all of this unravels and how we need to ready ourselves for some potentially really rough going. I am also working on a blog that identifies the numerous instances of Trump and his cronies behaving as if Trump is King, there is no Constitution, and they can do anything they want.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Election, Political Reform & National Politics, Personal & Collective Action

Tags: Featured, read more