February 10, 2021- This is one time I am glad to have been wrong. Thankfully, Trump thought his continuous lying about the election being “stolen” would carry the day. His attempts at a coup failed, though it cost five people their lives. Thank God for Trump’s incompetence.
March, 2020- Two scenarios: One, Trump wins reelection, the nation’s administration continues its slide into corruption fed from the top down, affecting almost all aspects of American life as free speech, free press, and other civil liberties are limited and curtailed by a Justice Department not constrained by the rule of law. Further, public lands and National Park lands will be sold, or mineral rights leases made available to the highest briber without regard for natural beauty or Native American rights. Elimination of federal regulations will allow air and water pollution to an extent not seen since the early years of the industrial age.
Scenario Two: Trump loses the election; declares the election rigged, SCOTUS agrees and terms the election invalid, Trump continues his corrupt regime. Alternatively, SCOTUS says Trump lost, Trump declares a state of emergency and determines he should stay in power. Who can tell him otherwise? His Justice Department under William Barr will go along with this. If the Justice Department will not tell Trump to leave office, who will? Anti-Trump demonstrations will prove about as effective as the Hong Kong demonstrations. Trump will simply say the demonstrations are why he should declare martial law. The Armed Services now being led by sycophantic Trump toadies, they will move troops to disperse demonstrations.
It will come out that Trump’s fortune is backed by loans from Russian oligarchs, laundered by Deutsche Bank , but no consequences will be forthcoming, again because of William Barr. The strong support of Trump by Vladimir Putin will be hidden by Barr and by the intelligence services, again because of top-down corruption. This will lead to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which will be ok with Trump, again because of his indebtedness to Russian oligarchs. An emboldened Putin will set his sights on re-occupying eastern European countries, while Trump distracts NATO by talking about expanding NATO into the Middle East, which would of course be difficult, since every European nation realizes the U.S. could not be counted on for support of any resistance to external (to NATO) threats.
With the U.S. occupied with internal strife, China will declare its rule over the South China Sea, restricting shipping and energy development by other countries in the area. The U.S. will make no attempt to moderate this power grab by China, further reducing U.S. influence in world affairs. See “The South China Sea in Strategic Terms” by Marvin Ott. Remember that limitations on Japan’s ability to get oil through or from the South China Sea was one of the causes of World War II. (Hickman, Kennedy. “Heading Toward World War II in the Pacific.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020,).
In general, Trump turning the U.S. into a dictatorship will have far-reaching consequences, both at home and abroad.
I despair for our future