Trump’s Endgame: Capture Greenland and Destroy NATO

Photo by Lara Jameson on Pexels.com

To understand Trump’s Greenland Fixation, you have to go back to his 1987 trip to Moscow when he first spouted anti-NATO positions that were precisely aligned w/ the KGB. He even boasted about it in newspaper ads!

These are the statements made by Craig Unger in an article written on January 13th. Trump’s obsession with conquering Greenland has many purposes, aside from his claim of national security. The island has rare minerals uncovered. And his thirst for dominance in the Americas is well known. Yet his obsession comes with his disdain towards NATO, the organization that the US and European allies created in 1945. And this has to do with his decades long ties with Russia (Soviet Union before 1991). In the piece presented below, Trump’s conquest is a collaboration with Putin which serves as a fork: gift the Russian dictator with the most precious resources and destroy the alliance of NATO. Already Trump is now in a trade war with eight of NATO’s allies for defending the island controlled by Denmark.

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I have read EVERY BOOK he has written over the years and he sheds so much light on so much truth to DJT.
As a rule, I try to avoid re-upping material I’ve written before. But occasionally it is unavoidable because we are locked in a long term battle—a war, of sorts, with Russia— that transcends the mind-numbing news cycles that are on rapid rotation and frequently obscure what is really going on. And to understand that war, you have to understand how it started.

I’m referring to the origin of Trump’s policies of seizing the president of Venezuela, of threatening to takeover Greenland, of abandoning Ukraine and God knows how many other overtures that threaten to destroy NATO, the Western Alliance, and overturn the entire world order.

Yes, the world order.

Let that settle in for a moment: Since the end of World War II in 1945, the United States—Republicans and Democrats alike— has had a policy that helped foster strong democratic institutions, strong market economies, and a powerful military alliance in Europe. To be sure, it has had its failures and controversies—Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan, etc. But since it was established in 1945, the Western Alliance has become a fundamental cornerstone of the world we live in, and, especially with regard to Europe, it has been incredibly successful.

To millions of Americans, NATO, the Western Alliance, and foreign policy initiative are nothing more than vague abstractions. But in this very rare case, the United States implemented policies that were spectacularly successful. Whether it is consumer goods, travel, or military allies, Europeans were our friends.

Until now.

That’s because Trump wants to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark. And since Denmark is a NATO ally, Trump would, by attacking it, militarily or other means, in effect be destroying NATO and throwing away the most successful foreign policy alliances in American history.

All of which means he would be fulfilling Vladimir Putin’s wildest dreams. From a geo-strategic point of view, it’s nuts.

So where the hell did Trump get the idea to do this?

Well, I discovered the answer nearly ten years ago when I wrote House of Trump, House of Putin, and I reported that Trump’s articulation of this policy, or one very similar, originated in 1987, almost immediately after he returned from his first trip to Moscow.

The first hint that something untoward was going on surfaced on July 24, 1987, just after Trump returned from the Soviet Union, when an article appeared in a highly unlikely venue, the Executive Intelligence Review, that strongly suggested something mysterious was going on between the Kremlin and Trump, : “The Soviets are reportedly looking a lot more kindly on a possible presidential bid by Donald Trump, the New York builder who has amassed a fortune through real estate speculation and owns a controlling interest in the notorious, organized crime linked Resorts International. Trump took an all-expenses-paid jaunt to the Soivet Union in July to discuss building the Russians some luxury hotels.”

Donald Trump running for president? That sounded ridiculous. At the time, he was known largely as a brash playboy who had started making a killing in real estate. Moreover, the Executive Intelligence Review was an obscure publication that was the voice of the late Lyndon LaRouche, a conspiracy theorist who the Washington Post characterized as “an extremist crank,” so the idea that he would be running for president was hard to take seriously. Nevertheless, the EIR was also said to have strong ties to the Kremlin. And in this case, it happened that they were right.

At the time, thanks to his mentor, Roy Cohn, the dark, Satanic prince of American politics, Trump had hooked up with political strategist and lobbyist Roger Stone, who was cut from the same ethically challenged cloth as Cohn. Under Stone’s tutelage, on September 1, 1987, Trump suddenly went full steam ahead promoting his newly acquired foreign policy expertise, by paying nearly $100,000 for full-page ads(see above) in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, and New York Times calling for the United States to stop defending allies who were taking advantage of it.

READ MORE: ttps://craigunger.substack.com/p/when-did-donald-trump-decide-he-wanted?r=d3y8v&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

EU Leaders Unite Against Trump’s Tariff Threats

European leaders have pledged to maintain unity in response to an unprecedented development: President Trump has threatened new tariffs unless Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the United States. This escalation has significantly heightened tensions between the US and Europe. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen underscored the European Union’s determination to defend its […]

EU Leaders Unite Against Trump’s Tariff Threats

Trump is imposing additional tariffs on eight European countries ( including Germany) for (get this) defending Greenland! The EU and US are now at heads again. Details in the article:

🇪🇺 THE FLENSBURG FILES

Stop the DHS Spending Bill

GUEST COMMENTARY

Save the date, folks: January 30th!

That is the day where the US government will run out of funds to keep operations open. The stop-gap budget bill that ended a 42-week shut down is now being debated on Capitol Hill. And with that, a need for (gasp!) $1.7 trillion to fund the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE belongs to that department!!! This is something where after watching the atrocities of ICE pulling people out of cars, trashing houses and assaulting people, let alone deporting them, that this scurge must and will stop. Funding needs two thirds approval by the House and Senate. According to Robert Reich in this guest post, we can do something about it- even if it means shutting down the government again! Here’s a look at how you can help:

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Since Renee Good’s death, clashes between ICE and the residents of Minneapolis have escalated. On Wednesday night, an ICE agent shot and wounded someone who, ICE claimed, was fleeing arrest. (Sure, just like Good supposedly was trying to run them over when she turned her car away from them and said, moments before an agent fired three bullets into her chest and head, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”)

I’ve always loved Minneapolis. Its people have midwestern common sense. They also have a deep sense of fairness and justice.

On Wednesday, Trump threatened that if Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota didn’t stop the protesters, whom he referred to as “insurrectionists,” he would “institute the INSURRECTION ACT… and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”

Let’s be clear. The problem is not the protesters. It’s the armed thugs who are shooting and murdering them. (Trump seems capable of seeing a similar dynamic playing out in Iran and vows to protect the protesters there, but not in America.)

A friend who knows a lot more than I do about America’s armed forces recently wrote:

“There are four kinds of people who join the armed forces: those from a traditional military family, true patriots who want to serve their country, those with no other prospects who need a job, and psychotics who just want to kill people.The armed services do a pretty decent job of screening out the fourth group, but that group is now the prime recruitment pool for ICE. Racists, haters, gun nuts, and cage fighting fans who want to shoot anyone the least bit different from them. They are becoming America’s Gestapo. That is no exaggeration. We’re slipping into Nazi Germany.”

He’s exactly right.

ICE is reportedly investing $100 million in what it calls “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed.

It has lowered its recruitment standards to meet the deportation targets set by Stephen Miller (Trump’s deputy chief of staff for promoting bigotry and nativism), thereby increasing the numbers of untrained and dangerous agents on the streets.

ICE’s recruitment is aimed at gun and military enthusiasts and people who listen to right-wing radio, have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races.

It’s seeking recruits who are willing to perform their “ sacred duty ” and “ defend the homeland ” by repelling “ foreign invaders.”

If I had my way, ICE would be abolished and Border Patrol agents sent back to the border. But this isn’t going to happen under Trump and his Republican lapdogs in Congress. Too many Democrats are almost as spineless when it comes to abolishing ICE.

But Congress can still take action to rein in ICE. At the very least, it must disarm ICE.

The Trump regime is allowing ICE officers to use lethal force in self-defense. But we’ve seen how readily ICE and Border Patrol agents claim self-defense when they’re shooting our compatriots.

How do we disarm ICE?

Congress is now considering the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding runs out at the end of January.

Please demand—call your members of Congress and tell them in no uncertain terms—that the DHS spending bill prohibit ICE and Border Patrol agents from carrying guns and that it unambiguously declare that agents do not have absolute immunity under the law if they harm civilians.

Do this as soon as you can.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee (and an old friend), said Tuesday that she’s seeking to put limits on ICE in the DHS spending bill. “I am looking for policy riders in the Homeland Security bill to [be] able to rein in ICE.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that Democrats will oppose the bill unless Republicans agree to new rules governing ICE officers. “ICE cannot conduct itself as if it’s above the law.”

There is no reason for ICE agents to be armed. If they are shot at—and there’s no record of this ever actually happening — they could readily summon state or local police to protect their safety.

ICE was designed to be mainly an investigative agency, not a militarized arm of the presidency. ICE agents are not adequately trained to use deadly force.

In addition, ICE agents prowling our streets in unmarked cars, wearing masks, clad in body armor and carrying long guns, are a clear provocation to violence—both by them and by otherwise law-abiding residents of our towns and cities who feel they must stop their brutality.

Trump, Vance, and Miller want to provoke violent confrontations so they can justify even more oppression — including invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to call in the regular military. “I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said in October, referring to the act, “and the courts wouldn’t get involved, nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I can send anybody I wanted.”

Please: tell your members of Congress not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it stipulates that ICE be disarmed.

Also tell them that the bill must restrict ICE and Border Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based on their race, language or accent. And the bill must clarify that ICE agents are liable under civil and criminal law if they harm civilians.

The Trump regime is telling agents they have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits if they kill or maim or otherwise hurt civilians. “That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” JD Vance said of the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. “He was doing his job.”

DHS went so far as to post a clip of Stephen Miller saying, “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”

Rubbish. There’s no such absolute immunity under the law. Regardless of what the FBI concludes, I hope and expect the state of Minnesota will open a criminal investigation of the agent who murdered Renee Good and, on the basis of the evidence uncovered, prosecute him for murder under state law.

It would be useful for Congress to make it crystal clear in the DHS spending bill now under consideration that ICE agents do not enjoy absolute legal immunity.

Please call your representative and senators today and tell them not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms ICE agents, (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language, or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under criminal and civil laws.

To reach your representative or senator, call the US Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them the state and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.

—

Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, “Coming Up Short.”

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The Contingency Plan for American Expatriates living in Europe

Following up on yesterday’s post, I would like to speak on behalf of all the Americans living overseas, be it temporarily or permanently, to look at the current situation and provide a response from a realist, and positive perspective. So without further ado, here we go:

Coming to Germany almost 27 years ago, I walked into a world that was far different than the world I grew up in, in rural America. It was a world full of people of multiple nationalities, having different social and religious backgrounds, and having different viewpoints. We came from different aspects of life and still all we did was sit down for a good beer at the Irish Pub, talking about sports, culture, our childhoods, and talking about the futures. We contributed our deal to Europe in terms of our expertise and the like, opened our own businesses, had our children go to school in a European country, learn multiple languages and integrated ourselves into society. No matter where I went- Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Copenhagen, Malmö, London, and even small towns like Jena, Flensburg and Bayreuth, it was all the same. We came, we made friends, and we became a melting pot that makes Europe not only a great federal state, but also a poster boy for democracy. With all the advantages that Europe has, including a prosperous life, we have become a large community as colorful as ever.

Unfortunately, despite our successes, we’re being threatened from both sides. On one side, we have the Russians who want to take back what was lost, see Ukraine, for example. But now on the other side, America wants to grab Greenland, despite Denmark and the EU sending a clear-cut message of “NO and that is an order!” It’s no secret that America sees Europe as a thorn in its eye because they do not view Europe as we do. They would like to see a fascist Europe where it is cleansing the country of non-natives, intellectuals and those who do not see Trump, eye-to-eye, let alone those from the far-right parties; in Germany we have the Alternatives AfD.

But what happens if Trump did indeed take Greenland, and how would it impact us American expats? Would we be expelled as it happened with the Germans in Eastern Europe after WWII? Would we have our assets frozen like we’re doing with Russia? Would we lose our jobs just because we originated from the wrong country?  

From my point of view, it would be impossible to cull the ranks, especially as the majority of Americans have settled down and have families and lives of our own, myself included. One also has to add the benefits of doing business in Europe and contributing to the state social systems, such as health care, taxes, social security and other items. And Europe has imported a lot of American culture that has become part of European fabric, be it with food, American football and basketball, plus our flexibility, kindness, and creativity, three of the many traits that have broken down many barriers between natives and foreigners and within two different foreign entities. Discriminating Americans, let alone throwing them out, would uproot European culture in ways unimaginable. Imagine the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in WWII and multiply that by two per country and add the population of each one! It would definitely put Europe back 200 years to times where nationalism and nativism would balloon out, and the European Union, let alone any form of internationalism, would cease to exist.

The creation of the EU was made with the promise where we would integrate our ideas, language and culture into one entity with the purpose of creating a democracy that functions on all levels of government and people are allowed to have a say in them. From my point of view, subtracting Hungary and Slovakia, we’re doing just fine. But as we see in Budapest, Viktor Orban’s era is about to come to a close in April and it has to do with the people wanting the democracy Europe has to offer.

So learning our lessons from WWII, where expelling people created psychological effects that are still lingering to this day, we should come up with a plan to ensure that Americans who wish to stay in Europe can do so without facing any backlash. After all, 80-90% of the Americans living here are against Trump, his policies of expansionism, his Donroe Doctrine, let alone his marketing of fascism around the world. We have seen a sharp rise of Americans protesting the Trump regime here in Europe, no matter where, with Europeans joining in the cause. It was clearly noticeable when my family and I were at our last demo in Frankfurt last fall, and was talked about at the book fair even. And there are people, like yours truly, who have taken to the laptop to express our disgust in the media. If we were all pro-Trump, you would not see this. Americans have capital and can help Europe thrive. The military would still be part of NATO, even if they cut ties with Hegseth. We would live as if Trump never existed. We are the engines that keep Europe in tact, and the far-right activists out of the state parliaments. And there will be more coming to help us, for they too are fed up with Trump’s America and would like to have a better life. Perhaps we should all work together to make that happen and make Europe strong and a beacon of democracy for years to come.

What can be done to ensure that Americans feel like home and not discriminated? There are several options but I will name three for starters:

1. Accelerate the citizenship process in European countries. Instead of a five-year waiting time, like in Germany, make it one year after arrival with proof that people can work and make a living. For students, they could qualify automatically under similar conditions.
2. Provide start-up benefits for Americans wanting to start a business with favorable rates for paying them back. At the same time, provide incentives for those who want to go to college, let alone continue their careers, from back home.
3. Integrating them through foreign language courses, first as the language of the country of residence and then others to follow once they have achieved proof that they can use the language to take care of the basics, including some of the bureaucracy. But as a reciprocal, make English the lingua franca and second language for all countries, especially when dealing with the bureaucracy.

But the last one should be the most important: stand together in solidarity. What we are seeing right now in the US is Un-American in every aspect. Europe has gone through centuries of war and the people there feel our pain. But what I find great about Europe is that they have learned the lessons of war and how it can impact lives in so many ways possible. They know that walls have never worked, nor will dominance by another country. They also know that American kindness and empathy have solidified Europe and its culture to what it is today. We help one another, we make Europe stronger, and we make sure everyone has their place where they want.

And that is why I will always be a European. We have what America should have too.

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The Suicide Pact: What Happens the Moment We Touch Greenland…

Photo by Lara Jameson on Pexels.com

In the past 24 hours, we have seen attempts to resolve the Greenland dispute between Denmark/ EU and the US blow up in Washington, as the Danish government has underscored the importance of Greenland becoming part of Denmark and not the US. In addition, Germany, France and the Nordic Countries are sending troops to the region to protect it from further military invasion. Here’s a summary about that: https://cde.news/fundamental-disagreement-with-us-over-greenland-remains/

Still, Trump wants Greenland and contrary to what was mentioned with Russia and China not encroaching the island, he still insists it’s for national security. All options for annexing Greenland are still on the table, even with military force.

The question is what would happen if the US was to take Greenland by force. Brent Molnar wrote a piece about it (bearing the title above) and looks at the grave implications the forceful occupations would have on the US, NATO and Europe. Even closely would be the impact on American business and commerce overseas, let alone Americans living in Europe, including yours truly.

This one should be read from top to bottom. And for Americans living abroad, you may want to consider several options for ditching your US citizenship if you wish to remain outside the country:

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If the United States follows through on the threat to invade Greenland, we need to be crystal clear about what happens the next morning. This is not a real estate transaction or a routine military exercise. It is the geopolitical equivalent of pulling the pin on a grenade in a crowded elevator. The moment American boots hit the ground in Nuuk to seize territory from a fellow NATO member, the world as we know it ends. The consequences will not be temporary sanctions or angry letters. They will be total, permanent, and devastating.

The first domino to fall is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization itself. NATO is built on the sacred promise of Article 5, that an attack on one is an attack on all. If the U.S. attacks Denmark, we are not just breaking the treaty; we are triggering it against ourselves. NATO dissolves instantly. The alliance that kept the peace in Europe for 75 years evaporates, leaving the continent to rearm and realign against the new aggressor across the Atlantic. We don’t just lose an ally; we create a unified enemy.

The military repercussions will be swift and humiliating. Europe will immediately demand the closure of every U.S. military base on the continent. Ramstein in Germany, Aviano in Italy, Lakenheath in the UK, all gone. Our ability to project power into the Middle East and Africa vanishes overnight. We will be evicted from the very soil we helped liberate and defended for decades, forced to retreat to our own shores as a fortress nation, isolated and friendless.

Then comes the economic nuclear option. The European Union is the largest single market in the world, and they will weaponize it. Europe will likely move to call in U.S. debt and dump their dollar reserves, sending the value of our currency into a death spiral. The U.S. economy, which relies on the dollar being the global reserve currency, will collapse. Inflation will make the post-COVID spikes look like a rounding error. Your savings will be worthless before the ink dries on the invasion orders.

Corporate America will face an extinction event. U.S. companies will be expelled from the European market. Apple, Google, McDonald’s, and Tesla will see their assets seized or their operations banned. Trillions of dollars in market capitalization will be incinerated in minutes. The stock market will not just crash; it will close. We are talking about the complete de-globalization of American industry, cutting us off from the wealthiest consumers on the planet.

The skies will go silent. European aviation authorities will almost certainly ground all Boeing jets and ban U.S. airlines from their airspace. Transatlantic travel will cease. If you are in Paris or Berlin, you are stuck there. The logistical arteries that feed our supply chains will be severed. We will be cut off from European medicine, machinery, and technology. We will be an island nation in the worst possible sense.

The cultural isolation will be just as stinging. The International Olympic Committee and FIFA will have no choice but to bar the United States from competition, just as they did with Russia. There will be no World Cup matches in New Jersey. There will be no Team USA in the Olympics. We will be treated as a pariah state, unwelcome on the global stage, forced to watch the world celebrate without us.

For individual Americans, the consequences will be personal and painful. Visa-free travel to Europe will end immediately. Americans currently living or working in Europe will lose their legal protections and residency status. They will become persona non grata, potentially facing deportation or internment. The “blue passport” that used to open every door will suddenly be a red flag at every border crossing.

This is the end of trust, and it does not reset. You cannot invade a democratic ally and then say “my bad” four years later. The psychological break will be permanent. Europe will realize that the United States is no longer a partner but a predator. They will build their own defense architecture, their own financial systems, and their own alliances that specifically exclude us. The West will continue, but the United States will no longer be part of it.

Invading Greenland is not a show of strength; it is an act of national suicide. We are trading our reputation, our economy, and our security for a frozen island and a handful of minerals we can’t even process. The price of this real estate deal is everything we built over the last century. If we cross this line, there is no going back. We will be the lonely superpower, ruling over nothing but our own decline.

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You will find his column online via substack here under Voice of Reason:

https://substack.com/@brentmolnar?utm_source=global-search

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Global warming reaches 1.4C after third-hottest year on record

The world is rapidly closing in on the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit that serves as a threshold for ever more dangerous climate change, European scientists have warned.  Average global temperatures are now around 1.4C higher than during the pre-industrial era, according to data released Wednesday by the European Union’s Copernicus planetary observation service. The scientists […]

Global warming reaches 1.4C after third-hottest year on record

But of course we’re not allowed to talk about this. Ignorance to global warming is coming at a price we may not be able to afford. Details here. 👆

🌎 THE FLENSBURG FILES

Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ Creator, Dies at 68

Scott Adams, creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, who became controversial for his right-wing statements, has died following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 68.



Members of The Scott Adams School (formerly called Coffee With Scott Adams) shared the news of Adams’ death on Tuesday.



Adams started writing blog posts praising Donald Trump in 2015, and his daily video podcast featured a range of conservative guests. His writings and podcasts began to question the Holocaust and oppose the COVID vaccine.



In February 2023, “Dilbert” was dropped from syndicated newspapers in the United States following comments made by Adams on his “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” livestream that Black people were a “hate group.” In March 2023, Adams relaunched “Dilbert” as “Dilbert Reborn” on the subscription site Locals.



Adams revealed his cancer diagnosis in May, the same day former President Joe Biden announced he had an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. “I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones, but I’ve had it longer than he’s had it — well, longer than he’s admitted having it,” Adams said. “I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.”



Although he endorsed Trump twice, he added, “I’d like to extend my respect and compassion for the ex-president and his family. They’re going through an especially tough time, it’s a terrible disease. If you’re wondering if I’ll get better, the answer is no, it will only get worse,” he said. “There’s only one direction this goes now.”



Born in Windham, New York in 1957, Adams started drawing comics at age 6, citing the “Peanuts” comics as an early inspiration. Adams graduated with a BA in economics from Hartwick College in 1979, moving to California that same year to begin his career. From 1979 to 1986, Adams held various office jobs at Crocker National Banker, including computer programmer, budget analyst and teller.



In 1986, Adams earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and began working at Pacific Bell, during which time he created the “Dilbert” comic, whose title was suggested by Adams’ former boss. Adams launched the comic with United Media while at Pacific Bell, and would go on to draw inspiration from his Pacific Bell coworkers for a number of “Dilbert” characters.



By 1994, “Dilbert” was syndicated in more than 400 newspapers, and in 1995, Adams left Pacific Bell to become a full-time cartoonist. In 1996, he published his first book, “The Dilbert Principle.” In 1997, Adams was awarded the National Cartoonists Society‘s Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist and Best Newspaper Comic Strip.



The “Dilbert” comic was adapted as a television series in 1999, for which Adams served as executive producer and showrunner. The series ran for two seasons on UPN and was nominated for a 1999 Primetime Emmy. In addition to his work as a cartoonist, Adams also wrote books on theology, including “The Religion War.”



Adams married Shelly Miles in 2006 and was the stepfather to her two children, Savannah and Justin, the latter of whom died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018. Miles and Adams divorced in 2014. In December 2019, Adams announced his engagement to Kristina Basham; the two were married in July 2020 and divorced in March 2022.

Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ Creator, Dies at 68

The Joke That Wasn’t: When a President Treats Elections as Optional

If there is one thing that is telling in connection with the surge in ICE troops and the subsequent oppositional protests in Minnesota, it is this: Trump is desperate to keep hold of power, even if it means declaring martial law. Instilled violence against citizens to intimidate and oppress, demonizing the state for fraud that does not exist and normalizing violence is all part of the game. And it is no secret that he has hinted at cancelling mid-term elections in November.

And as Tony Pentimalli explains in this guest post, even if Trump jokes at not having elections or even considering them optional, it should raise alarm bells among Americans and also overseas, for the thought of cancelling elections would be the one of the last hurdles cleared for an authoritarian regime.

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If a sitting president tells a room of lawmakers that elections may no longer be necessary, that should be the lead story everywhere. Front page. Top of the hour. Boston to Los Angeles. No qualifiers. No euphemisms. No burying the line beneath polling analysis or personality profiles. And yet that is exactly what happened. The comment landed, drew laughter, and drifted through the news cycle as if it were color rather than a statement about how power should function.

That response is not incidental. It is functional. Silence is not just neglect here. It is the condition that allows momentum to continue uninterrupted.

Speaking to roughly seventy Republican lawmakers at the Kennedy Center, the president said their policies were so good that elections should not even be necessary. He added that the media would call him a dictator for suggesting it. The room laughed. The press paraphrased. Editors and producers made choices. Political leaders made choices. The moment passed not because it was misunderstood, but because it was treated as manageable.

That decision matters more than the joke itself.

This was not rally theater. It was a closed room test. A president measuring whether the idea that elections are optional would provoke immediate resistance. It did not. No interruption. No correction. No walkout. Silence functioned as permission.

The political context explains why. Trump’s approval rating has hovered around forty percent. He dismisses polls publicly while responding to their implications privately. He complained about polling. He warned Republicans that losing the midterms would lead to impeachment. “If we don’t win the midterms, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” he said. Elections were framed not as democratic accountability, but as a threat vector.

The law is clear. A U.S. president has no authority to cancel or suspend congressional elections. Congress sets the timing. States administer them. Courts oversee disputes. Even during war or national emergency, there is no mechanism allowing a president to halt them unilaterally. That structure exists because accountability, once treated as optional, evaporates quickly.

But law does not explain behavior when power is already consolidating.

Here is the elephant the coverage keeps skirting. Since Trump’s return to office, his agenda has not stalled. It has accelerated. Project 2025 is no longer a theoretical roadmap. It is being executed. Stephen Miller’s immigration machinery is embedded across agencies. Russell Vought’s campaign to dismantle administrative independence is underway. Civil service protections are being stripped. Regulatory rollback is accelerating. Loyalists are being installed. Enforcement is being centralized.

This is not chaos. It is momentum.

It is working because it is moving quickly, through executive power, before opposition can recover. It is working because democratic friction has been weakened. It is working because aligned billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel provide capital, infrastructure, and ideological cover.

From that vantage point, elections are not sacred rituals. They are interruptions.

A midterm loss would slow the project, trigger oversight, reopen impeachment, and reintroduce resistance. Why risk that when the agenda is advancing, the bureaucracy is bending, and the courts are lagging behind the pace of change?

Seen this way, the remark about elections was not frustration leaking out. It was strategic clarity. Elections are inconvenient when you are winning without them.

Trump has made this logic explicit before. He suggested delaying the 2020 election. He praised Ukraine’s suspension of elections under martial law. “So during war, you cannot have elections,” he said. “So if we happen to be in a war, no more elections. That’s good.” The pattern is consistent. Democracy is tolerated when it cooperates.

January 6 was not an aberration. It was an enforcement action when democracy refused to comply.

At this point, there is no good faith interpretation left. When a president who attempted to overturn an election suggests elections are unnecessary while his agenda consolidates power unchecked, it is not humor. It is strategy revealed.

What matters now is not whether democracy might fail someday. The system is already compromised. The patient is already ill. And the forces reshaping it are not losing ground. They are gaining it.

If elections can be treated as optional without immediate institutional resistance, the boundary has already moved. The next justification will come wrapped in emergency, efficiency, or national necessity. Each step becomes easier because the last one carried no cost.

The obligation now is clarity. If the right to choose our leaders is non-negotiable, then any agenda that treats elections as an inconvenience must be confronted for what it is.

And silence, at this stage, is not caution.

It is collaboration.

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*Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques on BlueSky: @tonywriteshere.bsky.social

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