Robert Reich made a cogent argument the other day; Jeffrey Lord's apologist responses dismissing the problem of Trump's tweet about Chuck Jones was just more sycophant clap-trap.
Jones was getting death threats after the exchange began with his criticism of Trump.
It was despicable that Trump would stoop to this sort of intimidation. Reich argued that Trump will have CIA, FBI, IRS and other federal agencies at his disposal.
So where are we with this? One would have to anticipate some path toward usurpation of power to do the things people here insinuate. A step in this direction would involve some crisis, perhaps leading to a declaration of martial law. That's just my guess.
But this sort of thing had happened before when Nixon was Prez. If you had been associated with a young coed with activist membership in SDS, and you looked toward a career in law-enforcement, you might have found it impossible to get an entry-level position at FBI.
Then there was Nixon's "Enemies List." Before Nixon, I lived across the street from a journalist whose career had begun in DC and took him back to DC from Illinois. He was targeted because he had criticized the Vietnam War.
We could all worry about our taxes, or social security checks and other things we depend on that reduce the risk of our circumstances.
If it amounted to locking up a journalist or something of that nature, I'd say bring it on. It might precipitate a massive wave of resistance.
What bothers me about the Chuck Jones affair so far is this. Not only was Jones targeted by the tweet resulting in threats, but it shows Trump for what he is.
He was never more interested in the Carrier "deal" for anything more than his self-promotion. He always exaggerates the numbers. In so doing, he gave false hope to the some 400+ employees, who -- assuming their jobs were safe for the time being -- went forward with holiday spending plans. It proves that Trump didn't really care about those employees at all. And that's just another symptom of his toxic personality.