[continued from previous message]   
      
   During Rosh Hashanah, on September 17, Trump shared a meme that read, “Just   
   a reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because   
   you believed false narratives! Let’s hope you learned from your mistake &   
   make better choices going forward!” As my colleague Yair Rosenberg wrote,   
   Trump has often made such offensive remarks about the loyalties—perceived   
   or desired—of American Jews, but this was “particularly ugly in the way it   
   deliberately singled out a specific constituency during that constituency’s   
   holiest season.”   
   8. Suggested executing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.   
      
   Apparently outraged by the Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s   
   profile of General Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed chairman of the Joint   
   Chiefs of Staff, Trump on September 22 accused Milley of treason and   
   suggested that he deserved the death penalty. “This guy turned out to be a   
   Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually   
   dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President   
   of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by,   
   the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote. Trump’s loose and   
   sloppy treason accusations have always undermined the Constitution, and   
   many past comments like this have precipitated threats and even attacks   
   from Trump supporters.   
   9. Accused NBC of treason and threatened to pull it off the air.   
      
   Trump has never had any interest in upholding the First Amendment, but his   
   remarks on September 24 were unusually sharp. Trump wrote that NBC News,   
   and especially MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening   
   Treason.’ Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media   
   companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE?   
   They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE   
   PEOPLE!” This sort of demonization of the press is dangerous per se—as   
   demonstrated by attacks on journalists—as are Trump’s casual accusations of   
   treason, but this one carries a clear threat to try to use the power of the   
   federal government to punish a news organization for reporting he doesn’t   
   like. This contradicts even the most limited, basic understanding of the   
   importance of a free press, as protected by the First Amendment. (Set aside   
   the dissonance of saying this shortly after granting an in-depth interview   
   to NBC News!)   
   10. Promised to lock up political opponents.   
      
   During a September 28 interview, Trump said he would imprison his political   
   adversaries if he is reelected. Glenn Beck asked Trump, “You said in 2016,   
   you know, ‘Lock her up.’ And then when you became president, you said, ‘We   
   don’t do that in America.’ That’s just not the right thing to do. That’s   
   what they’re doing. Do you regret not locking her up? And if you’re   
   president again, will you lock people up?” Trump replied, “Uh, the answer   
   is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.” Because Trump   
   believes, or claims to believe, that he is being prosecuted for purely   
   political reasons, he’s vowing to go after his political opponents for the   
   crime of being his political opponents—a violation of both free-speech and   
   due-process protections.   
   11. Recommended extrajudicial executions.   
      
   At a rally two days later, on September 30, Trump once again advocated   
   going around the criminal-justice system to administer vigilante   
   punishment. “Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be   
   shot as you are leaving that store,” he told the California Republican   
   Party, adding: “Shot!” (The Associated Press, either too nonchalantly or   
   with dry understatement, described it this way: “Trump animates California   
   Republicans with calls to shoot people who rob stores.”) This, too,   
   violates the basic concept of due process for accused criminals.   
   12. Called for a judge overseeing his case to be prosecuted.   
      
   Among Trump’s many fulminations against Justice Engoron, Trump told   
   reporters on October 2 not only that the judge should be removed from the   
   bench, but that he should face prosecution—for no apparent crime other than   
   being assigned to Trump’s case and ruling against Trump. “This is a judge   
   that should be disbarred,” he said. “This is a judge that should be out of   
   office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally   
   for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election.”   
      
   David A. Graham: Donald Trump is any defense attorney’s nightmare   
   13. Told voters not to bother voting.   
      
   During an October 23 rally in New Hampshire, Trump told attendees, “You   
   don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of   
   votes, you gotta watch.” As is sometimes the case with Trump, it’s hard to   
   tell whether this is intended as a joke; or a statement that if all votes   
   were counted, he would win; or as some sort of intimation of stealing the   
   election himself. In any case, discouraging civic participation contradicts   
   the basic principle of a government by, for, and of the people.   
   14. Celebrated the antidemocratic strongman Viktor Orbán.   
      
   At the same rally, Trump talked about his love for one of the most   
   repressive leaders in Europe: “There’s a man, Viktor Orbán, did anyone ever   
   hear of him? He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in   
   the world. He’s the leader of Turkey,” Trump said, adding that he had a   
   “front” on Russia. In fact, Orbán is the leader of Hungary (Trump later   
   corrected himself), and neither country shares a border with Russia. More   
   to the point, Orbán—who proudly describes himself as “illiberal”—is an   
   authoritarian who has become a darling of the Trumpist right, as my   
   colleague Anne Applebaum has explained.   
   15. Promised to indict Joe Biden.   
      
   The biggest headlines out of Trump’s October 29 rally in Sioux City, Iowa,   
   came from his confusing the city with Sioux Falls, South Dakota—the sort of   
   slipup that undermines his attacks on Biden as senile. But the more   
   substantively disturbing thing Trump said at the rally was that his own   
   indictments would give him permission to politically prosecute his   
   predecessor. “They brought our country to a new level, and, but that   
   allows—think of this—that allows us to do it to Biden, when he gets out,”   
   Trump said. “And that would be very easy.”   
      
   In a Univision interview that aired November 9, he added: “They have done   
   something that allows the next party—I mean, if somebody, if I happen to be   
   president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I   
   say ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business, they’d be out of   
   the election.” This goes beyond Trump’s suggestion of going after his   
   opponents in a general way. Few things could be more directly counter to   
   the idea of a democratic republic, and more redolent of a failed state,   
   than a pretextual prosecution of one’s predecessor.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)