Whew!

Finally made it back before the election. (The Classic and Gutenberg were dueling and not everyone had that problem, but I hope it’s smooth sailing now.)

We were going to see what kind of diary this was going to be. When I heard Trump talking about moving out of the country I had hopes he was ready to move on, in which case this would turn out to be an adventure diary/novel.

Then I read the article in November’s Harper’s magazine called “The Enemies Briefcase — Secret Powers and the Presidency” (p 53-57) by Andrew Cockburn, in which William Barr fortified by a legal opinion the legitimacy of George H. W. Bush’s attack on Panama without congressional approval. During the Iran-Contra scandal Reagan’s minions underwent rehearsals for mass roundups of “subversives.”

Among others, a conservative young lawyer named William Barr was assigned the task in the CIA’s legislative office of designing accommodation measures to keep Church Committee investigators away from its most important records. An article in Politico in June warned that in the event of a national emergency on the grounds of national security, the president would have more than 120 statutory emergency powers at his disposal.

Ignoring the above concerns (didn’t the courts find fault with calling the need for a southern “wall” due to an emergency, in retrospect?), I have to wonder if Trump could rein in his paramilitary troops even if he wanted to. They’ve been practicing. What’s their payoff?

Trump will be concerned about the prospect of Prison if he should lose. EXCEPT that Attorney General Barr has said the president has the power to pardon himself and his friends. (I assume this covers his family, too.) I might see him high-tailing it to a dictatorship, except for the danger to the current dictator, and Trump’s knee-jerk tendency to play “Gotcha.”

Unless we’re VERY LUCKY, I’m thinking this could turn out to be a tragedy instead of an adventure or comedy.