We are moving ever more rapidly toward dictatorship. Donald trump knew long ago that he would face a wall of opposition because he means harm and hurt and harm and hurt are evil and Democrats, for all their failings, tend to be civil and humane. The GOP has no such compunctions so he can assume they will bow to his imperial will. Is dictatorship too strong. Think Italy, not Germany. Regardless of the president's reported affection for a classic fascist text, he knows the virtues of false benignity.

A dismal tweet

Here in one tweet is the text for an American-style dictatorship.

If you did not see Steve Bannon and Pam Geller as signs, if you didn't believe Trump was police-stating when he threatened states with funding loss if they did not set the police on immigrants, let me parse this out for you.

First, let's take the mess. There was no mess until Trump invented it. There were things that could have been fixed and made right if the Democrats and a few humane Republicans had been willing to work together and if Obama had not met the wall of resistance he encountered on the eve of his first inauguration.

The mess is a fiction which is presently being turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

51%

Quiz: Anyone know why the move to a simple majority -- the Nuclear Option -- in the Gorsuch matter was a big deal? Because the US Senate was created as a genius move to ensure that dictatorial impulses could not roll over the country and end our democracy.

The House was for straight majority rule. The Senate was to ensure precisely in the event of an even split that a simple majority would not be enough to run roughshod over the will of at least half of the American people. A dictator does not give a nickel for the feelings of half the people.

Trump is making a bigger and bigger mess

The people must act to stop this madman from being the Pied Piper who cons us all into thinking he knows best. He knows that Andrew Jackson, a Trump-like bully slaveholder could have averted the Civil War. He knows Mexicans are rapists, this man who barely escaped a rape charge turned into a trial. He knows everything and can do no wrong. He can fire a gun and his followers would applaud. This is sick. We should tell him we are tired of it.

Depressing

It is depressing to see these items and to know they will be big news and to watch such opinions go into the ether with little or no attention paid. I could care less personally. I detest the idea of being known and appreciation leaves me cold. But I do care about the Senate. I once sat there as a boy reporter and watched JFK in the back row playing jokes on Stewart Symington.