Threatening one's (political) opponents and critics with all sorts of - however undefined, vague and tacit/implicit - potentially scary and violent consequences/repercussions...
...simply for speaking their mind and voicing those criticisms and that opposition...
...is the stuff and traditional territory of tyrants, thugs and the like...
-the equivalent in the public square and political sphere of ye traditional schoolyard bully...
...only too used to and keen upon (pretty well literally) throwing *'his' not inconsiderable weight around...
It is - or was - the well-frequented haunt of such former Western leaders as New Zealand's own Rob (**Sir Robert David) 'Piggy' Muldoon and America's own Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, 'alongside' such international 'luminaries' as the likes of Mao Tse-Tung himself - the 'Great Leader' himself of China's Cultural Revolution - had the habit of keeping 'little red books'...in the former two instances containing the names (and addresses and contact details etc) of vocal critics and political opponents...
Yes, none of these (three), to mention but a few, were themselves strangers to employing the full armoury of the state - and some pretty fancy personal footwork in Nixon's and Muldoon's cases - when it helped in furthering, in prosecuting their own (generally small and sordid) agendas...
No, they each/all had no, or at least very few, qualms whatsoever about engaging the not inconsiderable power, leverage and tools/weapons of the state (security apparatus - and all the rest) in forwarding their own personal vendettas at whosoever they perceived as standing in their way...
Likewise - yes, at last the penny drops, for those held in a state of now intolerable suspense - 'the Donald' (i.e. United States President Donald J Trump) has once again wandered - quite knowingly and deliberately - into some dangerous, if not altogether unfamiliar, territory...
...by - rather explicitly and even with no holds barred at all - giving it to and sticking the boot into his former National Security Advisor, (the extremely hawkish) John Bolton...as the latter (at least for a brief spell; that's now all of course well and truly ended), following the public release of his book, was used by the media and Senate/Congressional Democratic lawmakers as a foil against Trump as the prospect of his being subpoena(e)d to serve as a Senate witness in his (now soon-to-end) impeachment trial/s temporarily approached high dudgeon...
...just as the President had ***previously 'served it' to the likes of former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson...
- hey, is there some sort of pattern emerging here?
In the process, naturally enough, Trump readily evoked (fairly just-below-the-surface) memories of his 2015/2016 presidential election campaign rallies... in which, you'll well remember, he 'outed' various highly vocal and disruptive individual protestors, openly threatening them via his lackeys and rally attendants with some rather unsavoury and thuggish repercussions, even outright violence...
But yes, though it seems a supreme understatement and anticlimax to state so now, that is - however typical and even predictable Trumpish conduct and modus operandi - plainly and simply completely unacceptable and intolerable behaviour for any leader anywhere in any sphere of public activity...
...but of course all the more so for any sitting President of the United States of America, one who in the very next breath is boasting he not only warrants re-election to arguably the world's highest political position, but declaring it's effectively a fait accompli, even a 'slam dunk' sort of a thing...
*Though, hey, let's not be sexist here...the most egregious example thereof during this particular pleb's high schooling was 'one' of three gals ('classmates'), who, back in the halycon years of 1979-1980 or so, successively reduced three female music teachers virtually to tears - and, no doubt alongside a nervous breakdown in each instance, certainly an early retirement...as we went through that many in just the one year...
**No, honorary titles are sure as heck no respecter of persons, that's for sure...
***Doubtless now among numerous - innumerable - others, and yes, at this stage I've lost count...
...simply for speaking their mind and voicing those criticisms and that opposition...
...is the stuff and traditional territory of tyrants, thugs and the like...
-the equivalent in the public square and political sphere of ye traditional schoolyard bully...
...only too used to and keen upon (pretty well literally) throwing *'his' not inconsiderable weight around...
It is - or was - the well-frequented haunt of such former Western leaders as New Zealand's own Rob (**Sir Robert David) 'Piggy' Muldoon and America's own Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, 'alongside' such international 'luminaries' as the likes of Mao Tse-Tung himself - the 'Great Leader' himself of China's Cultural Revolution - had the habit of keeping 'little red books'...in the former two instances containing the names (and addresses and contact details etc) of vocal critics and political opponents...
Yes, none of these (three), to mention but a few, were themselves strangers to employing the full armoury of the state - and some pretty fancy personal footwork in Nixon's and Muldoon's cases - when it helped in furthering, in prosecuting their own (generally small and sordid) agendas...
No, they each/all had no, or at least very few, qualms whatsoever about engaging the not inconsiderable power, leverage and tools/weapons of the state (security apparatus - and all the rest) in forwarding their own personal vendettas at whosoever they perceived as standing in their way...
Likewise - yes, at last the penny drops, for those held in a state of now intolerable suspense - 'the Donald' (i.e. United States President Donald J Trump) has once again wandered - quite knowingly and deliberately - into some dangerous, if not altogether unfamiliar, territory...
...by - rather explicitly and even with no holds barred at all - giving it to and sticking the boot into his former National Security Advisor, (the extremely hawkish) John Bolton...as the latter (at least for a brief spell; that's now all of course well and truly ended), following the public release of his book, was used by the media and Senate/Congressional Democratic lawmakers as a foil against Trump as the prospect of his being subpoena(e)d to serve as a Senate witness in his (now soon-to-end) impeachment trial/s temporarily approached high dudgeon...
...just as the President had ***previously 'served it' to the likes of former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson...
- hey, is there some sort of pattern emerging here?
In the process, naturally enough, Trump readily evoked (fairly just-below-the-surface) memories of his 2015/2016 presidential election campaign rallies... in which, you'll well remember, he 'outed' various highly vocal and disruptive individual protestors, openly threatening them via his lackeys and rally attendants with some rather unsavoury and thuggish repercussions, even outright violence...
But yes, though it seems a supreme understatement and anticlimax to state so now, that is - however typical and even predictable Trumpish conduct and modus operandi - plainly and simply completely unacceptable and intolerable behaviour for any leader anywhere in any sphere of public activity...
...but of course all the more so for any sitting President of the United States of America, one who in the very next breath is boasting he not only warrants re-election to arguably the world's highest political position, but declaring it's effectively a fait accompli, even a 'slam dunk' sort of a thing...
*Though, hey, let's not be sexist here...the most egregious example thereof during this particular pleb's high schooling was 'one' of three gals ('classmates'), who, back in the halycon years of 1979-1980 or so, successively reduced three female music teachers virtually to tears - and, no doubt alongside a nervous breakdown in each instance, certainly an early retirement...as we went through that many in just the one year...
**No, honorary titles are sure as heck no respecter of persons, that's for sure...
***Doubtless now among numerous - innumerable - others, and yes, at this stage I've lost count...
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