This blog post has been a long time coming. The truth is that I have wanted to write this for weeks now, but until a certain series of technical adjustments were made, I dared not publish this as an American citizen. That’s because our president, Donald J. Trump, is a traitor to the republic. Despite that his quest to devolve our nation into a fascist state appears to be, at least for the moment, experiencing success.
This of course is a prelude to me telling you that I can no longer speak freely thus why it has taken this long for me to get to this point. Calling the American President a traitor is one thing. Calling our fascist dictator a lying sack of shit who is hellbent on destroying what’s left of our country is entirely different thing. The first generally doesn’t produce negative consequences whereas the second can get you black bagged and shipped to a concentration camp in El Salavador.
With that being said, today we are going to take a brief tour through the Bill of Rights and I’m going to detail how Trump in three brief months has already managed to shit all over most of them. He’s a traitor. He doesn’t value the principles this nation was founded and built on. He’s a cult leader. He’s also an easily manipulated moron who values ego and vanity above all other things.
Now without further adieu, here we go:
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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Trump has shredded this amendment. He’s constantly trying to shut other people up. He is attempting to deport legal immigrants who speak out against his policies or the policies of his fascist genocidal friends (including Benji Netanyahu of Israel). As for religion, this is the same asshole who decided to institute a Muslim ban during his first term. But he didn’t learn his lesson because he’s right back at it.
He’s also assaulted the freedom of the press by attempting to kick legitimate news organizations like the Associated Press out of the White House Briefing room. In addition he’s planning on pulling funding from NPR and PBS. Imagine being such a thin-skinned little bitch that you are threatened by the news coverage from either of these outlets. In regards to the right to peacefully assemble, do I really even have to go there? This is the same sad sack of a human being that ordered his storm troopers to break up a legitimate peaceful protest during his first term just so he have a photo op in which he held a bible upside down.
As for our ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances, his SAVE act promises to knock up to 70 million women off the voter rolls. Our primary mechanism for petitioning the government centers around our ability to elect new representatives to replace the shitty ones or re-elect the good ones who are doing their job.
Trump and his cronies are hell-bent on taking that right away from us.
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“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Most people focus on the last part of this, but screw those wannabe weekend warriors. Let’s focus on the first part here. “Well-regulated militia”. Does anybody here really believe that nominating a drunken frat boy Fox News talking head who beats his wife and horrifies his own mother to run the DoD allows anything they are doing to qualify as well-regulated?
Obviously it doesn’t. It’s a joke. Donald Trump doesn’t care about the security of a free state. His choices more than demonstrate that. How about his nomination of Kristi Noem to run the Department of Homeland Security? It’s no coincidence that her skills at murdering defenseless puppies on her farm somehow made her qualified to run DHS in the eyes of Trump.
That’s because much like how Kristi views dogs, that how Trump views people who aren’t aligned with him. As sub-human servile obstacles that need to be removed in the most expedient way possible.
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“No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
He hasn’t broken this one yet… but all indications are that it’s only a matter of time. Trump has been gearing up to invoke the Insurrection Act which would allow him to deploy the military in a domestic capacity and the deadline for his department heads to submit their “findings” on whether or not he should are due on April 20th, 2025. Today.
Strap in because this fascist hellscape party is just getting started kids.
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“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
He’s literally been pulling people off the streets and out of their homes and putting them on planes to El Salavdor. He never got a warrant. He never made the case. He just tells lie after lie to try and justify it after the fact. His people are even doctoring photos in some cases.
If it can happen to them, it can happen to any of us. In fact that’s EXACTLY what he is “looking into doing” as we speak.
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“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Again all I need to do is reference Trump’s war on legal immigrants to show how he has shredded this amendment. He isn’t granting these people due process. He’s just tossing a black bag over their heads, forcing them onto a plane full of ICE storm-troopers and sending them to an El Salavdorian concentration camp. There were no indictments. There were no juries. There was no judge.
Why does that matter? Because one of the most core principles to the United States government is that its supposed to be comprised of three co-equal branches of government. That’s why the President isn’t allowed to unilaterally make decisions and do whatever they want. The other branches have to be in agreement. If they aren’t it’s generally not considered legal. When the branches disagree, there is a system in place that allows for those disagreements to be ironed out.
That’s how it is supposed to work. Based on the rulings from a long string of federal courts and now the Supreme Court itself, it would appear that the judiciary does not agree with the actions being taken by the executive branch. That means those actions are no longer legal.
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“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”
Once again, Trump’s treatment of legal immigrants and denying them their rights to due process is quite relevant. They didn’t get trials. There were no indictments. There were no juries. There was no judge. He’s even going so far as to use photo-shopped photos to justify his obviously illegal deportations of legal immigrants.
He has stripped our fellow citizens of their basic rights because they aren’t white and / or because they aren’t aligned with him. How long until he decides that you or I are also worthy of the same treatment? What recourse will we have?
Think about it.
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“In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”
Again are you seeing a theme here? The right of the accused to have their interests aggressively represented and defended in a public court of law has been mentioned in quite a few of the core amendments which comprise the Bill of Rights.
Trump doesn’t respect that right, despite the fact that he was afforded the benefit of that right. That’s because the only person he cares about is himself. He is a true believer in the most tried and true tenet of hypocrites throughout history:
“Rules for thee, but not for me”
Trump and his entire history is the very embodiment of a double standard. He managed to weasel his way out of the Vietnam draft thanks to the influence of his crooked father and his alleged “bone spurs”. He has constantly measured himself against a different standard than what he measures others against. He claims that the immigrants he is deporting are criminals, but he and his so-called administration can’t be bothered to prove that in a court of law. Yet he himself is a convicted felon and a proven rapist. He has robbed many vendors and contractors over the years. He has even stolen from children with cancer.
He is an abomination of a human being… despite that legions of so-called “Christians” continue to blindly support him and his fascist policies. The harsh irony of their obliviousness is even more impactful on Easter Sunday, which may be the most scared holiday of all to modern Christians. According to them Jesus, a sandal wearing hippie who basically had no possessions and wandered around the countryside ministering and serving to those less fortunate free of charge, would support and approve of this dumpster fire of a man.
How far they have fallen.
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“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Well if you aren’t going before a judge, bail becomes a non-issue so I can’t very well claim that he has violated that particular part of this particular amendment. However the rubber hits the road with the “cruel and unusual punishments” part of it.
Trump loves to make other people suffer. He has publicly reveled in the suffering of others for almost as long as he has been in the public eye. For example on his very first day in office in his second term he issued an executive order that restored the federal death penalty. And yes his expulsions / deportations of legal immigrants also qualify as cruel and unusual.
So does the death penalty.
He is not a complete human being. He lacks empathy. He views the entire world through a lens in which the singular consideration is how events and decisions benefit him personally.
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“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Trump violates this amendment by merely being in public office. His entire view of government is that his rights, as THE person in power (kindly note that he affords none of the rights he claims for himself when he is president to any other president) his rights supersede the rights of others. That is not how this government is supposed to work. There is a famous quote on this topic that I have referenced for years and I will now reference it again in this context:
Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins
There is debate on where this quote came from - but the principle it describes remains unimpeachable. We are a society of free people. None of those freedoms extend so far as to curtail the freedom of others around us. That’s a noble concept and one I’m proud to support.
Q: “The president has long said that it would be an abuse of power for a president to direct prosecutors to investigate him. Last week, President Trump explicitly directed the Justice Department to scrutinize Chris Krebs to see if it can find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing,” asked Swan. “How is that not an abuse of power, to direct the Justice Department to look into an individual—a named individual?”
A: “Look, the president signed that executive order. It’s the position of the president in this White House that it’s well within his authority to do it, otherwise he wouldn’t have signed it. And he signed it, and that’s his policy,” Leavitt said.
Again - the trend remains clear. The only thing he cares about is himself. He believes in no principles thus no principles are worth preserving. He acts only on his own behalf, everybody else be damned. That is how and why he can simultaneously claim that is illegal for Biden to theoretically perform an action while asserting the legal right to perform it himself in real life.
This position goes against the very core of what public service is supposed to represent, thus he is a traitor.
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“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
As Trump continues to claim and subsequently amass more power, the ongoing violation of this particular amendment grows. Either you believe the president has absolute power or you don’t. If you do, then you have no problem with this. If you don’t, you are horrified by it. If you claim that you don’t believe this and yet still support Trump at this stage of the game, then you are hypocrite. Either that or you just aren’t paying enough attention to see the truth of it.
Well I am here to say to those of you who find yourselves in this particular trap, wake the fuck up. Start paying attention. Because eventually he’ll come for you too. The prices of everyday goods are surging thanks to his idiotic trade war. The economy is starting to circle the toilet. The stock market is in chaos. The US Dollar is cratering. Our reputation on the world stage is in ruins.
…and it’s only been three fucking months.
Okay so now that we’ve covered all ten amendments, I can hear you asking, what’s to be done? Well that’s a tougher nut to crack. There is an obvious solution, but I’ll leave that one to your imaginations as I’m not quite at the point where I am willing to publish those words. I gotta work up to that. Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you.
Congress isn’t pushing back and they are really our best hope. Trump has got them scared shitless and in a position where most of them have decided that preserving their position, even as only figureheads who wield no real power, is preferable to fighting for this nation and it’s people and run the risk of losing their position in the process. Lisa Murkowski isn’t a hero, no she’s just the vanguard of a new generation of next level spineless American politicians who have opted to preserve their own position at the cost of everything else they once claimed to have held dear.
The courts are trying, but in reality they don’t possess the power of enforcement. The parts of the federal government that do possess that power, at least for the moment, appear to be fully controlled by Trump. It remains to be seen whether or not they will act once Trumps ongoing and increasing disregard for the courts finally hits a tipping point.
We live in dark times friends. The best advice I can offer is that you all take the time to be careful and to grow eyes in the back of your head. Trump and his army of fascist psychopaths are coming for us and the longer we can keep them from kicking down our doors is more time we’ll have to try to mount an effective resistance.
Good Luck and Godspeed!