title: syrian army wins control over terrorists operations room in aleppo
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  credit iosonounafotocamera  flickr
  when the dust settled on the nov  election we learned that a completely unpredictable egomaniacal narcissistic buffoon would inherit the white house and the vast powers that go along with it this deeply offended many people who see donald trumps racist and misogynistic rhetoric as unpresidential liberal new york times columnist charles blow summed up this view i respect the presidency i do not respect this presidentelect that the presidentelect should not be respected is a given but why should we respect the presidency
  the imperial presidency of the united states has evolved over the last century to the point that the executive holds certain powers that can be considered dictatorial arguably the most consequential decision in politics is to wage war the constitution specifically reserves this right for congress the president as commanderinchief directs the wars that congress declares however starting with trumans intervention in the korean war in  and continuing with invasions of vietnam grenada iraq and afghanistan and the bombings of dozens more countries the presidents ability to unilaterally initiate war with a sovereign nation has been normalized congress has not declared war since  despite the fact the us military has intervened in nearly every corner of the world
  in recent years george w bush assumed the power to kidnap torture and assassinate any individual anywhere in the world at any time without even a pretense of due process upon replacing bush barack obama legitimized bushs kidnapping and torture by refusing to prosecute the perpetrators or provide recourse to the victims while enthusiastically embracing the power to assassinate at will noam chomsky said obama has trashed the yearold magna carta which king john of england would have approved of
  can there be anything more dictatorial than the power of a single individual to kill and make war at will while american presidents thankfully do not have the power to unilaterally impose taxes pass legislation or incarcerate without charges inside us borders the illegitimate authority they do possess to carry out unrestrained violence across the world is unquestionably one feature of a dictator
  there has not been a single american president since world war ii that has not exceeded his constitutional authority by committing crimes that would meet the standard by which officials were convicted and executed at the nuremberg trials
  roosevelts executive order  to imprison japanese americans in concentration camps was a flagrant violation of the fifth amendment right not to be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law
  more wayne madsen the cia has always served the interests of wall street trump won now what will america survive the next  years defeating white liberalism in the age of trump trumans firebombing of tokyo nuclear bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki and invasion of korea violated provisions of multiple treaties that are considered the supreme law of the land per article vi of the us constitution
  eisenhowers use of the cia to overthrow democratically elected presidents in iran and guatemala as well as the initiation of a terrorist campaign against cuba violated the un charter another international treaty that the constitution regards as the supreme law of the land
  kennedy was guilty of approving the creation of a mercenary army to invade cuba as well as covert warfare in vietnam johnson massively escalated us military involvement in vietnam with the introduction of ground troops which he fraudulently justified to the public through misrepresentation of the gulf of tonkin incident
  succeeding johnson nixon waged a nearly genocidal air campaign against not only vietnam but cambodia and laos killing hundreds of thousands of people destroying ecosystems across indochina and leaving an unfathomable amount of unexploded ordnance  which continues to kill and maim hundreds of people each year
  ford covertly supported the south african invasion of angola and overtly supported the indonesian invasion of east timor carter continued support of the indonesian occupation of east timor as well as providing military support to military dictatorships in guatemala and el salvador reagan oversaw the creation and operation of a terrorist army in nicaragua sponsored military dictatorships throughout central america and directly invaded grenada
  bush the elder invaded panama and iraq clinton oversaw sanctions in iraq that killed as many as  million people carried out an air war from  feet against serbia and bombed a pharmaceutical plant in sudan that produced medications for half the country bush the lesser invaded and occupied afghanistan and iraq obama continued both of those wars as well as dramatically expanding the drone assassination program in as many as seven countries
  so i beg to differ with blow and anyone else who claims the presidency deserves respect any institution or position that permits such illegal and immoral actions unchecked should be eradicated and replaced with some alternative that does not allow such concentration of power in the hands of a single person
  liberal clinton defender matt yglesias argues that from a historical perspective trump is uniquely dangerous past presidents yglesias writes have simply been restrained by restraint  by a belief that there are certain things one simply cannot try or do
  it is hard to take such vacuous proclamations with a straight face as we have seen every single american president since at least wwii has engaged in serious violations of international and domestic law to cause death destruction and misery across the world from murdering individuals without due process to unleashing two nuclear bombs on civilian populations in a defeated country that was seeking to surrender
  when trump assumes the presidency he will inherit a frightening surveillancemilitaryincarceration apparatus that includes a targeted killing program a vast nsa domestic and international spying network a death squad the joint special operations command and an extralegal system for indefinite kidnapping and imprisonment at guantanamo bay
  partisans see a problem only when the presidency is in the wrong hands if obama is at the helm liberals are fine with unconstitutional mass surveillance or killing an american citizen without charge or trial every now and then conservatives trusted bush to warrantlessly surveill americans but were outraged at the snowden revelations
  principled opponents recognize that no one should be trusted with illegitimate authority the handwringing and hyperventilation by liberals about the dangers of a trump presidency ring hollow and hypocritical
  american presidents long ago became the equivalent of elected monarchs beyond the democratic control of the those they purportedly serve the occupant of the office is able to substitute his own judgments and whims for a universally applicable set of laws and limits on the exercise of power it is what dolores vek describes as actually existing fascism both parties have contributed to it the media has normalized it and the public has accepted its creation and continued existence without rebelling against it its time to stop treating the presidency itself with respect and start actively delegitimizing it