The sociopathy in the executive branch is widespread and will lead this country into perdition. This “shoot first, ask no questions later” stance has murdered non-combatants. If not cauterized, this bloodletting will continue and eventually extend to the citizenry. How can we rid ourselves of these troublesome maniacs?
He rants about executing drug dealers, but he’s the real addict...hooked not on narcotics, but on spectacle, grievance, and the rush of power. His rallies are his fix, chaos his high, attention his drug. The “war on drugs” is just stagecraft to mask his own dependency. The danger isn’t the dealer; it’s the addict in office, chasing his next hit of control. Wacko sicko.
Justin's piece properly focuses on the fundamental substance of Trump's tyranny (it's not merely about murdering non-combatants). No matter how much Trump pretends otherwise, Trump isn't using our Armed Forces for anything the People treated as "war" in our Constitution.
As Justin highlighted, Trump's tyranny flies in the face of something much more fundamental that our Constitution addressed repeatedly and emphatically: the abuse of federal power (and the usurpation of powers that expressly and emphatically were not granted to the federal government by our Constitution) against people accused of crimes.
Trump and Hegseth are knowingly and deliberately undermining some of the most vital principles and safeguards of our own lives, liberty and property in our Constitution. For the first time in history, in the 1780's constitutions governing the conduct of all government employees were written and ratified by the People to turn public officials into public servants and to require the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. All this and much more was done to protect the People from abuses of powers that had been granted or usurpations of powers that had not been granted by the People to our public servants.
Trump is killing people for obviously political purposes based on his ipse dixit that they're narco-terrorists (because he merely designated a mere organization as a "foreign terrorist organization"). Nothing about that designation could authorize the use of deadly force against anyone for anything. See "Legal Ramifications of Designation" in https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/
By Trump's own public admissions, Trump and Hegseth are killing people outside U.S. jurisdiction because Trump is merely pretending to predict a future crime in a U.S. jurisdiction (mere purported drug smuggling) by unidentified people at some unidentified time and some unidentified part of our borders. Nothing in our Constitution vested power in Trump or Hegseth to merely pretend to predict a future crime in a U.S. jurisdiction and summarily execute anyone they merely contend is guilty of such crime while they are far outside U.S. jurisdiction.
Our original Constitution (Article III) commanded the following:
"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
"The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed."
The people who wrote and ratified our Constitution realized that the foregoing statements of the due process of law weren't adequate to protect us from tyrants like Trump. So they very promptly and profoundly amended our Constitution to emphasize and elaborate on the process of law that was due to all persons who might otherwise be killed by federal officials for purportedly committing crimes.
Amendment V:
"No person shall . . . be deprived of life [or any] liberty [or any] property, without" all "process of law" that is "due."
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury." Clearly, no criminal prosecution for any "capital, or otherwise infamous crime" can even begin without the approval of the people on a grand jury.
Amendment VI:
"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 defence."
Amendment VIII:
No "cruel and unusual punishments" may be "inflicted."
Trump and Hegseth also necessarily are violating federal criminal law because they are imposing a punishment (death) that was not authorized by Congress in whatever statute they are pretending to enforce.
The primary and most fundamental problem with the presumption or pretense that Article II somehow put all the powers of government into the hands of Trump is that it makes legislators, judges, grand juries and trial juries entirely irrelevant. That is exactly what all the founders expressly opposed vehemently. In The Federalist No. 47, for example, James Madison emphasized the following (and even more):
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many” is “the very definition of tyranny.” “[T]he preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”
Madison quoted Montesquieu (in the Spirit of the Laws published in 1754) saying, "There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates," or, "if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers."
"The reasons on which Montesquieu grounds his maxim are a further demonstration of his meaning. 'When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or body,' says he, 'there can be no liberty, because apprehensions may arise lest THE SAME monarch or senate should ENACT tyrannical laws to EXECUTE them in a tyrannical manner.' Again: 'Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for THE JUDGE would then be THE LEGISLATOR.
Were it joined to the executive power, THE JUDGE might behave with all the violence of AN OPPRESSOR.' "
With the foregoing in mind, our Constitution divided and distributed powers very carefully and emphatically. Our Constitution emphasized that no public servant was given any power to violate our Constitution. Article VI established that our Constitution was paramount as the "supreme Law of the Land," and it emphasized that all state and federal legislators and "all executive or judicial Officers" are "bound" to "support" our "Constitution." Article II further emphasized that the president's powers were limited to those necessary to "preserve, protect and defend" our "Constitution" to "the best of" the president's "Ability."
As Justin highlighted, Trump and Hegseth are violating our Constitution and their oaths of office by summarily executing unidentified people (without due process of law) whom they have merely very vaguely accused (not even in any indictment) of merely planning to commit an unspecified crime at an unspecified time in the future at an unspecified location under U.S. jurisdiction.
The world is pathetic when it lines up to flatter a dictator. FIFA handing Trump awards, Switzerland showering him with gifts, governments bending over backwards to prove they have no values, only money and power.
These aren’t leaders, they’re courtiers, blowing smoke for a man who thrives on degradation. Every time they bow, they prove how hollow they are, how little humanity remains in their politics. It’s not strength, it’s servitude.
And my last piece, We Got Rich, Now What?, is a reminder of why we must think about what actually matters, because if we don’t, we’ll keep watching the world debase itself for spectacle and cash.
The entire administration is scum and the head scum is quickly losing whatever brain cells he had from birth (which clearly wasn’t a lot to begin with).
Excellent insights! The consistent themes in the conduct of Trump and the people who are supporting Trump (or just using Trump) include the usurpation of power that was not vested in our public servants by our Constitution and, to support such usurpations, the manipulation of the minds of supporters.
Trump and the people supporting him (or using him) are the kind of people whom the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution feared most. As you highlighted, Representative Van Orden said, “my primary concern, and I will never apologize for it, is protecting American citizens and I know that Donald Trump is doing that too.”
Van Orden publicly admitted that he is violating our Constitution and his oath of office. Our Constitution (our first and most important words as a nation) started by emphasizing that "We the People" did "ordain and establish [our] Constitution" to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves." The People expressly acted as the supreme legislative body in the U.S. (as Article VI emphasized) to establish "the supreme Law of the Land."
Article VI and all legislators' oaths of office emphasized that the primary concern of every legislator and of every executive officer (including the president) is "to support [our] Constitution." The oath of office of members of the U.S. House of Representatives was enacted into law by Congress (most recently in 5 U.S.C. Section 3331). See https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Oath-of-Office/. It requires every legislator to publicly promise (and publicly acknowledge that his first, foremost and constant duty is) to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to" our Constitution.
Oaths of office were included in Article VI (and in Article II for the president (emphasizing that his first and constant duty was to "preserve, protect and defend [our] Constitution" to "the best of [the president's] Ability")) because the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution greatly feared demagogues (like Trump and Van Orden) who would pretend to care about protecting particular people while attacking and dangerously undermining our Constitution.
The Federalist Papers, for example, repeatedly emphasized that one of the greatest fears and concerns of the people who wrote and ratified our original Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) was tyranny imposed by tyrants just like Trump. In the first of the Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 1), Alexander Hamilton highlighted this particular point:
"a dangerous ambition [even] more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."
This paragraph says it all: “Trump’s hypocritical pardon of Hernandez and the deadly strikes could simply be more evidence of an administration that is being run by whomever has Trump’s ear at a given moment as he slips further into senility and irrelevance.”
The sociopathy in the executive branch is widespread and will lead this country into perdition. This “shoot first, ask no questions later” stance has murdered non-combatants. If not cauterized, this bloodletting will continue and eventually extend to the citizenry. How can we rid ourselves of these troublesome maniacs?
He rants about executing drug dealers, but he’s the real addict...hooked not on narcotics, but on spectacle, grievance, and the rush of power. His rallies are his fix, chaos his high, attention his drug. The “war on drugs” is just stagecraft to mask his own dependency. The danger isn’t the dealer; it’s the addict in office, chasing his next hit of control. Wacko sicko.
Justin's piece properly focuses on the fundamental substance of Trump's tyranny (it's not merely about murdering non-combatants). No matter how much Trump pretends otherwise, Trump isn't using our Armed Forces for anything the People treated as "war" in our Constitution.
As Justin highlighted, Trump's tyranny flies in the face of something much more fundamental that our Constitution addressed repeatedly and emphatically: the abuse of federal power (and the usurpation of powers that expressly and emphatically were not granted to the federal government by our Constitution) against people accused of crimes.
Trump and Hegseth are knowingly and deliberately undermining some of the most vital principles and safeguards of our own lives, liberty and property in our Constitution. For the first time in history, in the 1780's constitutions governing the conduct of all government employees were written and ratified by the People to turn public officials into public servants and to require the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. All this and much more was done to protect the People from abuses of powers that had been granted or usurpations of powers that had not been granted by the People to our public servants.
Trump is killing people for obviously political purposes based on his ipse dixit that they're narco-terrorists (because he merely designated a mere organization as a "foreign terrorist organization"). Nothing about that designation could authorize the use of deadly force against anyone for anything. See "Legal Ramifications of Designation" in https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/
By Trump's own public admissions, Trump and Hegseth are killing people outside U.S. jurisdiction because Trump is merely pretending to predict a future crime in a U.S. jurisdiction (mere purported drug smuggling) by unidentified people at some unidentified time and some unidentified part of our borders. Nothing in our Constitution vested power in Trump or Hegseth to merely pretend to predict a future crime in a U.S. jurisdiction and summarily execute anyone they merely contend is guilty of such crime while they are far outside U.S. jurisdiction.
Our original Constitution (Article III) commanded the following:
"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
"The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed."
The people who wrote and ratified our Constitution realized that the foregoing statements of the due process of law weren't adequate to protect us from tyrants like Trump. So they very promptly and profoundly amended our Constitution to emphasize and elaborate on the process of law that was due to all persons who might otherwise be killed by federal officials for purportedly committing crimes.
Amendment V:
"No person shall . . . be deprived of life [or any] liberty [or any] property, without" all "process of law" that is "due."
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury." Clearly, no criminal prosecution for any "capital, or otherwise infamous crime" can even begin without the approval of the people on a grand jury.
Amendment VI:
"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 defence."
Amendment VIII:
No "cruel and unusual punishments" may be "inflicted."
Trump and Hegseth also necessarily are violating federal criminal law because they are imposing a punishment (death) that was not authorized by Congress in whatever statute they are pretending to enforce.
The primary and most fundamental problem with the presumption or pretense that Article II somehow put all the powers of government into the hands of Trump is that it makes legislators, judges, grand juries and trial juries entirely irrelevant. That is exactly what all the founders expressly opposed vehemently. In The Federalist No. 47, for example, James Madison emphasized the following (and even more):
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many” is “the very definition of tyranny.” “[T]he preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”
Madison quoted Montesquieu (in the Spirit of the Laws published in 1754) saying, "There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates," or, "if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers."
"The reasons on which Montesquieu grounds his maxim are a further demonstration of his meaning. 'When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or body,' says he, 'there can be no liberty, because apprehensions may arise lest THE SAME monarch or senate should ENACT tyrannical laws to EXECUTE them in a tyrannical manner.' Again: 'Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for THE JUDGE would then be THE LEGISLATOR.
Were it joined to the executive power, THE JUDGE might behave with all the violence of AN OPPRESSOR.' "
With the foregoing in mind, our Constitution divided and distributed powers very carefully and emphatically. Our Constitution emphasized that no public servant was given any power to violate our Constitution. Article VI established that our Constitution was paramount as the "supreme Law of the Land," and it emphasized that all state and federal legislators and "all executive or judicial Officers" are "bound" to "support" our "Constitution." Article II further emphasized that the president's powers were limited to those necessary to "preserve, protect and defend" our "Constitution" to "the best of" the president's "Ability."
As Justin highlighted, Trump and Hegseth are violating our Constitution and their oaths of office by summarily executing unidentified people (without due process of law) whom they have merely very vaguely accused (not even in any indictment) of merely planning to commit an unspecified crime at an unspecified time in the future at an unspecified location under U.S. jurisdiction.
This is an excellent summary.
The world is pathetic when it lines up to flatter a dictator. FIFA handing Trump awards, Switzerland showering him with gifts, governments bending over backwards to prove they have no values, only money and power.
These aren’t leaders, they’re courtiers, blowing smoke for a man who thrives on degradation. Every time they bow, they prove how hollow they are, how little humanity remains in their politics. It’s not strength, it’s servitude.
And my last piece, We Got Rich, Now What?, is a reminder of why we must think about what actually matters, because if we don’t, we’ll keep watching the world debase itself for spectacle and cash.
How on earth did this (morally repugnant) clown show ever get elected????
Keep asking those lazy fools who didn't bother voting for Harris last year!
The entire administration is scum and the head scum is quickly losing whatever brain cells he had from birth (which clearly wasn’t a lot to begin with).
While he pardons them with his other hand
Excellent insights! The consistent themes in the conduct of Trump and the people who are supporting Trump (or just using Trump) include the usurpation of power that was not vested in our public servants by our Constitution and, to support such usurpations, the manipulation of the minds of supporters.
Trump and the people supporting him (or using him) are the kind of people whom the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution feared most. As you highlighted, Representative Van Orden said, “my primary concern, and I will never apologize for it, is protecting American citizens and I know that Donald Trump is doing that too.”
Van Orden publicly admitted that he is violating our Constitution and his oath of office. Our Constitution (our first and most important words as a nation) started by emphasizing that "We the People" did "ordain and establish [our] Constitution" to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves." The People expressly acted as the supreme legislative body in the U.S. (as Article VI emphasized) to establish "the supreme Law of the Land."
Article VI and all legislators' oaths of office emphasized that the primary concern of every legislator and of every executive officer (including the president) is "to support [our] Constitution." The oath of office of members of the U.S. House of Representatives was enacted into law by Congress (most recently in 5 U.S.C. Section 3331). See https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Oath-of-Office/. It requires every legislator to publicly promise (and publicly acknowledge that his first, foremost and constant duty is) to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to" our Constitution.
Oaths of office were included in Article VI (and in Article II for the president (emphasizing that his first and constant duty was to "preserve, protect and defend [our] Constitution" to "the best of [the president's] Ability")) because the people who wrote and ratified our Constitution greatly feared demagogues (like Trump and Van Orden) who would pretend to care about protecting particular people while attacking and dangerously undermining our Constitution.
The Federalist Papers, for example, repeatedly emphasized that one of the greatest fears and concerns of the people who wrote and ratified our original Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) was tyranny imposed by tyrants just like Trump. In the first of the Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 1), Alexander Hamilton highlighted this particular point:
"a dangerous ambition [even] more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."
This paragraph says it all: “Trump’s hypocritical pardon of Hernandez and the deadly strikes could simply be more evidence of an administration that is being run by whomever has Trump’s ear at a given moment as he slips further into senility and irrelevance.”
For another truly terrifying and very quiet Project 2025 achievement: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-5-2025
It seems to have slipped through all the other betrayals of the country that this administration is doing. God help us all!
Are other people thinking that this is displaced anger at his drug-addicted children?