The first six weeks of Trump have been much worse than I anticipated. His fascist henchmen are better organized and things are moving much faster and in some exceptionally dangerous ways (quite apart from the serial lawlessness, which is what one would epxect from a Holmesian Bad Man). Pardoning the miscreants involved in the stormtrooper riot at the Capitol was grotesque, of course, but even more concerning is the transparent effort to politicize the military and federal police, and insulate them from legal review.
President Trump’s decision to fire senior military leaders without cause is foolish and a disgrace. It politicizes our professional military in a dangerous and debilitating way. What frightens me even more is the removal of three judge advocates general, the most senior uniformed legal authorities in the Defense Department. Their removal is one more element of this administration’s attack on the rule of law, and an especially disturbing part....
I am worried about political loyalty becoming a criterion to hold high military positions. For now, I have confidence that our professional military has nurtured dozens of highly qualified senior officers capable of holding positions of trust and responsibility, people who can provide leadership at the Pentagon and offer sound military advice to our civilian leaders.
But that optimism doesn’t extend to the consequences of removing the military’s top judge advocates general, the senior military professionals who interpret and enforce the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the rules that guide troops in the field. They have the independent legal authority to tell any military commander or political appointee that an order from the president or the secretary of defense is unlawful, cannot be given and should not be obeyed.
Of the three JAGs who were dismissed, I know Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer and worked with him for more than three years. His legal advice was always sound, professional and well supported. It is hard to imagine there was any reason to remove him, other than the obvious one of replacing him with someone more loyal to Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — and therefore more willing to interpret the law consistent with their desires.
If there is one characteristic of this president and this administration, it is the utter lack of respect for legal constraints [BL: of course, he's a "Bad Man"]...
Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth will now get to choose the JAG leadership for all three military departments. One has to ask why JAG leadership was singled out for replacement. This is part of a much larger pattern of disrespect, even disdain, for the rule of law....
The meaning of all this is crystal clear: Trump, and his fascist lackey Hegseth, want a military that will obey the unlawful orders of the "Boss of Bosses," i.e., Trump, including, e.g., repressing domestic dissent, policing "Democratic" cities, and ultimately, keeping Trump, or Trump lackeys in power, when he loses the next elections.
And then there's the federal police, i.e., the FBI. Its two top leaders, Kash Patel and Dan Bogino, are transparently sick people, with no regard for the rule of law. As a NYT columnist aptly observed:
In writing about our country’s rapid self-immolation, I try to ration Hannah Arendt references, lest every column be about the ways “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” published in 1951, foreshadows the waking nightmare that is this government. But contemplating Bongino’s ascension, it’s hard to avoid the famous Arendt quote, “Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” Trump could have found a smoother and more sophisticated ideologue to help him transform the F.B.I. into a tool of his will, perhaps someone from the Claremont Institute ready to put an erudite spin on authoritarianism. He wanted the jacked-up hothead.
This administration professes a devotion to merit-based hiring, blaming diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for fostering mediocrity. It should go without saying, however, that excellence is of little interest to the Trumpists, who delight in scandalizing a meritocracy that spurned them. Writing of the conditions in which both Hitler and Stalin arose, Arendt described a spirit of deep, corrosive cynicism and nihilistic glee at the inversion of old standards. “It seemed revolutionary to admit cruelty, disregard of human values, and general amorality, because this at least destroyed the duplicity upon which the existing society seemed to rest,” she wrote. Sound familiar?
We’re in an uncanny interregnum where Trump and his coterie are laying the foundation for autocracy but have yet to fully consolidate their power. The liberal democracy most of us grew up taking for granted is brittle and teetering, but its fall still feels unthinkable, even if it also seems increasingly inevitable. Perhaps this is one reason Democrats, with a few admirable exceptions, seem so frozen. People who’ve spent their lives working within a system of laws and civic institutions may be particularly unsuited to respond to that system’s failure. But an F.B.I. run by Patel and Bongino is a sign that the system — which for all its manifold flaws has provided Americans a level of stability uncommon in history — is falling apart.
The capitalist class is fully behind Il Duce. We are now at the mercy of the professionals in the FBI and the military, and there are many of them. But unless the political class organizes effectively, the writing is on the wall. I've written for many years that America is doomed: the gun nuts, the religious fanatics, the FOX propaganda network, the rapacious and imprudent wing of the ruling class. The moment has arrived, I fear. Make your plans!
ADDENDUM: PhD students, who are in an especially vulnerable position, should apply for jobs outside the US. Universities are expanding in many countries, and there are opportunities.
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