The Trump Chronicles, 2018
"Either this nation will kill racism, or racism will kill this nation" (S. Jonas, Aug., 2018)
Donald Trump. .Ah me; gotta love me..
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Introduction
As I said as the beginning of my previous column for OpEdNews, as we come to the end of the first proto-fascist Presidency in U.S. history, in this series of four columns, I will be listing the "columns on Trump and Trumpism" that I have published in this space, one column for each of the four Trump-years, with a brief comment on each one. I say "proto-fascist" because of course Trump did not achieve even a modified version of fascism at the governmental level. But it has been clear for quite some time that that is what he and the forces behind him were aiming for. And depending very much on how he is and/or is not prosecuted for his many crimes (Federal, state, and local*), he may well be a major fixture in U.S. politics for some time to come. And of course, if he doesn't make it to the role of First Fascist Dictator for the U.S., a position for which he hopes to be running in 2024, there are many true Republicans more than ready to stand in in his place, beginning with Ted Cruz (from whom the fascist-wizard Steve Bannon --- and he is a real wizard, not like the one in "The Wizard of Oz" --- originally came to Trump, along with Kellyanne Conway). This all depends, of course, in which direction the dominant sector of the U.S. capitalist ruling class wants to go.
And so, to the list:
1. "21st Century Fascism: Trump Style -- Part 2" (Note to the reader. Part 1 of this series was published in 2017.)
Click Here. This column was the second in a four-part series on fascism with which I led off my writing for OpEdNews in 2018. Obviously, it applied specifically to Trump.
2. "21st Century Fascism -- Republican/Trump Style, Part 3: What Can be Done, An Introduction"
Click Here. This column considered a variety of approaches to the problem.
3. "21st Century Fascism, Part 4: How To 'Repeal and Replace' Trumpite 21st Century Functional Fascism -- Some Thoughts"
Click Here. This one continued my speculation along those lines.
4. "Trump-Russia: 'Qui Bono?' "
Click Here. This column summarized the evidence of the Trump-Russia-Putin connection that was clear to anyone who wanted to see it, well before, for example, "Mueller." And then it goes on to offer some possible answers to the question posed.
5. "21st Century Trumpite Fascism, the Previously Published Parts 1-4, Plus a New Introduction"
Click Here. This column presented what its title says it presented.
6. "The Centrality of Carter Page and the Trump/Russia Connection"
Click Here. This column is one of my all-time favorites, because the little fella shows up on such a regular basis whenever "Trump-Russia" comes up, right down to the present time.
7. ""A Sometime Guide to Jane Mayer's New Yorker Column on Christopher Steele and 'The Dossier' "
Click Here. Being just what it says, that in it a very careful journalist comes to the conclusion that "Trump/Russia" was real and deep and that goodly parts of the "Steele Dossier" are a reliable representation of reality. Assuming that the Biden Administration will at some point release the full Mueller Report, with all of the reacted (read "really juicy") portions, except for Grand Jury testimony, unredacted we are going to get a very good idea of just how wrapped up Trump was (? is?) with Putin/Russia. After all, Barr did not, a) have huge sections of the Report redacted and b) write up a nice piece of fiction, worthy of one of the late John Le Carre's more unsavory characters, with which he introduced the Mueller Report to the general public well before anyone could have a chance to read it for themselves.
8. "Trumpite Functional Fascism: On the March"
Click Here. This column did what the title says it did: it described the functional fascism being created by Trump and all the little Trumpites in his Administration (and parts of the Congress too).
9. "Trump in Trouble: Circling the Wagons. Why now?"
Click Here. Anyone else might have been gone by now. But with the facilitators/enablers with which he is still surrounded, not a chance.
10. "Trumpite Foreign Policy: Determined by Campaign Slogans"
Click Here. Indeed, it was.
11. "Election Planning: Trump Style"
Click Here. Trump was desperate to avoid having to deal with a Democratic House, and in particular one Adam Schiff. He wasn't able to. Although he did manage to avoid impeachment, it may well be that at least some of what came out in the Trial helped top beat him this year.
12. "The Ruling Class and Donald Trump: Reaping the Whirlwind"
Click Here. The pros and cons of Trump, for the U.S. ruling class.
13. "What the U.S. Ruling Class and the Repubs. are Most Afraid Of: Voting"
Click Here. And of course, the last election showed why Trump, and his ruling class allies, are so afraid of wide-spread voting (as contrasted with widespread fraud): when you have it, they lose.
14. "Race remains the Trump Card"
Click Here. No further comment is necessary here.
15. "Trump. The Art of the Con: Is There a Method to His Madness?"
Click Here. In History's Great Con Man? Are you kidding me?
16. "Trumpite Governance, 2018-21, if there is no 'Blue Wave' in 2018"
Click Here. The most important sentence in this column is: "It is becoming ever more obvious that Trump would really like to become a Constitutional Dictator, most especially one who could retain the Constitutional forms, on paper that is."
17. "There is no 'Middle Ground:' It's Either the Second Civil War or Partition"
Click Here. Eventually, I think that it will come to this. After all, it is the Republican Far Right that is now talking of secession: Click Here.
18. "The Day After*"
Click Here. In the intro. to this column, I said that "In my view, the mid-term election of 2018 will go down in U.S. history as the most important one since the Presidential election of 1860." Well, it now has been replaced by the Presidential election just passed AND the Georgia twin-Senatorial elections. Given that, for example, doing something serious about global warming hangs in the Georgia-balance, we are now talking about the future of the world hanging on that election, even if Trump is gone.
19. "The Art of the Con: Failure 1 and the Further Turn Towards Fascism"
Click Here. Trump was already yelling about "rigged" back then, and, as the tile of the column says, truing even more towards fascism (which word an increasing number of observers, including the Odd Couple of Joe Scarborough and Paul Krugman began using to describe him).
20. "The Repubs. and the Rightward Imperative: Gets Them to Trump --- And Then?"
Click Here. And then, indeed? See after Trump leaves the White House (or is forced out).
21. "Is There a Slow-Motion Coup Underway?"
Click Here. It turns out that there wasn't one then, but Trump surely has been trying hard for one now, according even to a number of Never-Trumper former Republicans.
22. "Hair Trump or Herr Trump, Revisited"
Click Here. I finished up the Trump-2018 series with a revisit to the very first column I wrote on Trump and fascism.
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Just for the record, here is an incomplete list of the crimes with which Trump could be charged, at the Federal, state, and local levels, upon leaving office. Particularly on the civil suits, the process servers might be lining up, as close as they are allowed to get, at the entrance to his escape-helicopter: income tax evasion, tax fraud, (possibly) rape, obstruction of justice, violation of the Emoluments clause, insurance fraud, campaign financing violations, money laundering, bank fraud, colluding with a foreign power to influence an election, treason (failing to do anything about the "Russian bounties" program, breach of contract, loan defaults.