“No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united Cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edmund Burke

The slightest legal control over Trump’s authoritarian decisions is viewed by him and his supporters as a greater evil than the perpetuation of any perceived injustice.

I am not by nature a doom-and-gloom, dark conspiracy theorist. Yet, I cannot help but think that Mr. Trump would like nothing more than for a police officer, soldier, or Marine to be killed in LA so that he would have the “evidence” he needs to justify martial law. He is stymied by roadblocks in the courts, the law, and the Constitution, which prevent him from having a free hand. 

Faced with that, he has only one choice. Remove them.

If we are not hypervigilant, this is what we face,

“Every nation would allow that there are emergencies in which it is the right and the duty of a government to proclaim a state of siege and authorize the suppression of the common rules of remedy by the rapid methods of martial law. Now what Machiavelli did, or what his followers have been doing ever since, is to elevate this principle into the normal rule for statesmen’s actions. When his books are made into a system they must result in a perpetual suspension of the Habeas Corpus Acts of the whole human race. It is not the removal of restraints under extraordinary emergencies that is the fallacy of Machiavelli, it is the erection of this removal into an ordinary and everyday rule of action.” Fraenkel, Ernst; Meierhenrich, Jens. The Dual State (p. 10). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.

Despite his controllers learning lessons from the first administration and insulating the President from competent advice by nominating incompetent cabinet members incapable of offering rational and nuanced input, part of me wants to believe that some adults have managed to remain in deep cover, bringing a semblance of intelligence to decisions.

There may not be any Generals Mattis, Kelly, or Miley there who not only recited their oaths to defend the Constitution but also actually understood and upheld them; however, there may still be someone who respects the rule of law.

Although, in light of the recent acts by this President, the evidence for such hope is bleak. Mr. Trump’s ghostwritten book was called “The Art of the Deal.” What it should have been called is “The Art of Solipsism.”

So here we are, amid a Trump self-fulfilling prophecy–a vertitable baccanalia of solipsism–embraced by the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil group of sycophantic supporters, with our military forces attempting to occupy an American city, supplanting civilian law enforcement, and exacerbating a situation that by all rational measures was nowhere near critical mass–until pushed there by the overreach of this administration.

I’m sure Mr. Trump would take delight in any justification to call in airstrikes, reclaim the waterfront for more failed and bankrupted Trump ventures where only he makes money–if you can have Gaza-a-Lago why not LA-a-Lago– and seal his place as the weapon by which America commits Seppuku.

Trump is no Nero fiddling as Rome burns; he is out lighting the fires, and his supporters are fanning the flames.

This is how empires end, not from the enemy without, but by willful ignorance within. No enemy can ever defeat us as soundly as we may do it ourselves.

The unfortunate part is that all he had to do was follow the law, and no one would have had an argument with his actions.