Categories: Donald TrumpFeatured NewsIssues

In Donald Trump’s America There is No Free Speech Without a Permit

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:54 pm

Donald Trump doesn’t’ seem to be aware that you can’t “executive order” away the Constitution; it’s still the Constitution; it’s still in force. It, and not Donald Trump’s executive orders are the law of the land. Trump is going to require the constant reminder of courts.

Ana Navarro observed last night that his headlong charge into “Trumtatorship” leaves the rest of us little choice:

Resistance is not always so easy, however. We have already seen Kellyanne Conway demand the firing of anyone in the press who “talked smack” about Trump.

We’ve seen the acting attorney general fired not for disagreeing with Trump but for “betrayal.” As The Washington Post‘s Ann Applebaum puts it,

And Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper may have joined the chorus of those condemning Trump’s Muslim ban, but if you were protesting at Denver International Airport Friday you were informed by Denver Police Commander Tony Lopez,

“Stop doing anything that could be construed as free speech without a permit.”

Yes. He said that.

Watch courtesy of Darren O’Connor:

Makes it sound like free speech is a crime because that’s how we usually speak of crimes, as in “Don’t do anything that could be construed as a crime, kids.” Lopez even told protesters they needed a permit to carry a copy of the Constitution.

Protester: “I cannot carry a copy of the Constitution without a permit?”

Lopez: “Correct.”

It’s bad enough that the guy who seems to be running the country, Trump’s “bloated, alcoholic Nazi” Steve Bannon, looks, as John Fugelsang put it, “like a guy who stayed up watching porn until 6:45am and his alarm went off at 7.”

At least Hitler’s go-to guy, Martin Bormann, was a natty dresser. Yes, Hitler had better-dressed Nazis.

If we look further into the box of horrors that is the Trump administration we have seen questions raised as to whether Trump even understands his own executive orders. He says he’s a smart guy but you have to wonder.

And his fact checker, the Toronto Star‘s Daniel Dale (safely removed from Kellyanne Conway’s demand to fire Trump’s critics in the press) pointed this out:

So is it, or isn’t it? Are definitions so malleable for Trump that they can mean one thing one minute and another thing a minute later? Does “extreme” have “alternate definitions” so it can mean both “extreme” and “not extreme” depending on what is needed?

That is certainly in line with how Trump’s morals seem to work. Not well. Like his command of quotation marks, capitalization and the meaning of various words.

And then there is the little fact that extreme vetting already exists. There is a reason no refugees on Trump’s list have killed anyone in terrorist attacks on American soil.

And while Sean Spicer claimed Trump’s ban affected only 109 people, we all know it’s more than that. At Chicago O’Hare alone 40 people were still being held as of late Monday afternoon.

In fact, the Chicago Tribune did some fact-checking and discovered it affected more like 90,000.

It would be nice to have an honest dictator, at least. Or one who counted better than he used punctuation.

Trump has been president for only a few days but he has already shown us how tenuous is our Constitutionally-guaranteed freedom. As Joy Reid tweeted,

Not only does Trump lack the chops, he has less respect for the Constitution than even Richard Nixon, as Andrew Coyne pointed out:

Ann Applebaum remarked, “Am about to spend the whole day at the British library reading about the Bolsheviks. Are Trump’s critics ‘Enemies of the People’ now too?” The short answer seems to be “Yes.”

And that’s the scary part. When push comes to shove, Donald Trump seems to sincerely believe he is above the law. We used to say George W. Bush wiped his backside with the Constitution but Trump doesn’t’ seem to be aware it even exists as a roll of toilet paper.

Let’s face it: the only thing worse than a dishonest Trumptator is a stupid Trumptator, and ours is both.

Author
Recent Posts

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

Latest posts by Hrafnkell Haraldsson (see all)