The Plan

While I’ve tried in different ways to say this several times in the past, I’ve never fully succeeded. So I’ll try again.

America is on the brink of becoming an authoritarian state. That means that after almost 250 years, our experiment with democracy would be dead.

This is not hyperbole. This is not scare-mongering. This is not partisan rhetoric. This is reality.

Should Donald Trump succeed, and it increasingly appears that he will, to be elected president in November, our cherished period of self-rule will be over. We will have voted it into extinction.

Armed with this week’s shameful ruling on presidential immunity by a Supreme Court packed with right-wing puppets, the would-be dictator now has the highest court’s blessing to proceed with his plan to dismantle our democracy.

Trump has forecasted clearly how he intends to proceed once elected. He identified which leaders are to be arrested and sent to prison camps.

As reported by the New York Times, “Trump over the weekend escalated his vows to prosecute his political opponents, circulating posts on his social media website invoking ‘televised military tribunals’ and calling for the jailing of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other high-profile politicians.”

The article continues: “One post that he circulated on Sunday singled out Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman who is a Republican critic of Mr. Trump’s, and called for her to be prosecuted by a type of military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals. ‘Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason,’ the post said.”

There is more: “A separate post included photos of 15 former and current elected officials that said, in all-capital letters, “they should be going to jail on Monday not Steve Bannon!” Those officials included Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, Mr. Pence, Mr. Schumer and Mr. McConnell — the top leaders in the Senate — and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker.”

And; “The list in the second post also had members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Ms. Cheney and the former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, another Republican, and the Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Pete Aguilar, Zoe Lofgren and Bennie Thompson, who chaired the committee.”

HEADLINES:

• Trump seeks to set aside his New York hush money guilty verdict after Supreme Court immunity ruling (AP)

• Trump immunity ruling poses risk for democracy, scholars say (WP)

• Trump Amplifies Calls to Jail Top Elected Officials, Invokes Military Tribunals (NYT)

• The U.S. Supreme Court's decision that Donald Trump has full immunity for "official acts" he took as president is so sweeping that it opens the door for sitting presidents to do whatever they want without any accountability, legal experts said. “Presumptively, he has the power to assassinate a rival,” said John Dean, White House counsel to former President Richard Nixon. [HuffPost]

• Who could replace Biden as Democratic nominee? (BBC)

• It’s Not Too Late to Replace Biden and Defeat Trump (Politico Mag)

• 4 in 10 Democrats say Biden should not be party’s nominee after debate: Survey (The Hill)

• Trump’s sentencing in N.Y. hush money case postponed until September (WP)

• Rudy Giuliani officially disbarred in New York for Trump election interference efforts (CNN)

• The Center Collapses in France, Leaving Macron Marooned (NYT)

• Hurricane Beryl on path to Jamaica after monster storm with 165mph winds flattened tiny island in half an hour: Live updates (Independent)

• Yes, you should be a little freaked out about Hurricane Beryl (Ars Technica)

• Death toll from India stampede rises to over 100, says official (Al Jazeera)

• California Is Showing How a Big State Can Power Itself Without Fossil Fuels (New Yorker)

• Supreme Court Declines to Rule on Tech Platforms’ Free Speech Rights (NYT)

• Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows (Guardian)

• AI is learning from what you said on Reddit, Stack Overflow or Facebook. Are you OK with that? (AP)

• Apple’s AI features will create groundswell of demand, says Deepwater’s Gene Munster (CNBC)

• Supreme Court Overturns 'Right v. Wrong' (The Onion)