#enabling act

Be careful what you are voting for II tomorrow you could be the "deviant”! - KZ Natzweiler -

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Donald Trump is by design making our nation less safe from potential terrorist attacks. That is not just my opinion, but that of two experts I spoke to this week, Frank Figliuzzi—who served as FBI’s Assistant Director for Counterintelligence—and Rep. Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who now serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security. We have all seen the headlines about Trump purging our national intelligence agencies of seasoned, non-partisan public servants—including some of the FBI’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations. On Friday, Trump vowed to fire even more FBI agents who worked on his cases and prosecuting his supporters who waged the Jan. 6 terrorist attack. Trump has also taken the unprecedented and dangerous effort to gut the CIA and National Security Agency by offering buyouts to every single employee there.

Worse, the replacements being hired at our intelligence agencies—as the Washington Post reported Sunday—must pass in essence a Trump loyalty test by answering whether the 2020 election was “stolen” and was the Jan. 6 attack was an “inside job”? As The Post detailed, candidates “who did not give the desired straight “yes” answers, were not selected.” Rep. Goldman told me point blank that these Trump actions are “making our nation less safe.” The New York representative passionately explained, “by removing senior officials, you are removing hundreds and hundreds of years of expertise and experience and institutional knowledge, and that jeopardizes every single American.”

Figliuzzi-who served in the FBI for more 25 years—echoed that very sentiment, noting that purge of senior intelligence figures and replacing them with unqualified Trump loyalists has already made “America less safe.” Figliuzzi explained that the key to effective intelligence work is developing relationships with people in other nation’s intelligence communities. But with Trump removing so many senior people, the result is our intelligence counterparts in other nations are going to be reluctant to share info that could prevent attacks on our nation for fear that the information will not be protected. Figliuzzi—who serves as MSNBC’s national security expert--noted this is especially true given Trump was criminally charged with “squirreling away hundreds of classified documents at the top-secret level--some of them from foreign powers.”

[... The bottom line-as Goldman warned—is that the US under Trump is “going to get so much less critical intelligence that we use every day to stop terrorist attacks, to stop massive drug transactions and criminal enterprises. Goldman bluntly concluded that Trump is now “jeopardizing our daily public safety and national security.”

This is where we find ourselves as a nation. And there is no doubt Trump and “President Musk” get this as well. The question is why? I have no evidence that Trump is actually rooting for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. (Although that is fair question.) But what I can say with absolute certainty is that if one were to happen, Trump would follow the fascist/authoritarian playbook to grab more power, reduce what little checks remain on him and silence dissent. The reason I can say that with confidence is because history tells us that is exactly what aspiring tyrants do as Yale Professor Timothy Snyder lays out in his book, “On Tyranny.” Snyder writes, “When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power.” [...]

Snyder offers a famous example of the 1933 fire that struck the German parliament—known as The Reichstag--one month after Hitler became chancellor of Germany. While historians have debated who actually started the fire, it’s undisputed that Hitler saw an opportunity to grab power. He quickly issued a decree that suspended the basic rights of German citizens--allowing them to be “preventively detained” by the police. And with the Nazi party in control of the Parliament, less than a month later they passed the “Enabling Act,” known formally as “The Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich.” It was this law that empowered Hitler to rule by decree making him a dictator. From there, the first group Hitler imprisoned in concentration camps in early 1933 were his political opponents and critics. By July 1933, nearly 27,000 political prisoners were incarcerated in these camps. Snyder writes, “For tyrants, the lesson of the Reichstag fire is that one moment of shock enables an eternity of submission.”

We will know soon

There is much happening in the Federal Courts. Both sides left and right have weighed in on the various issues and expressed their opinion of what the opinion of the Judges or Justices will be and why. There is one thing at stake that few have even thought about. One as important as life and death. The vaccine mandate issued by OSHA through the Department of Labor. For now, it is on hold thanks…

According to Greek mythology, Cassandra, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, spurned Apollo’s sexual advances and was cursed by the god with the gift of uttering prophecies (about the fall of Troy, the assassination of Agamemnon, etc.) which were unfailingly accurate … but which no one ever believed. I can sympathize.

Cassandrfa mourning the burning of Troy

If you read nothing else I…