Notes from the Autocrat’s Handbook (Official 2019 U.S. Edition)

1.  Make sure you have enough senators who approve of your autocratic agenda to confirm your appointment of flunkies to key cabinet posts and judgeships.

2.   Make sure you can count on your flunky appointees to support you rather than get hung up on their Constitutional duties. Fire ones, like former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who turn out to have a honorable streak.

3.  Tell your reliable flunky Attorney General –– in this case William Barr –– to deny Congress and the public access to any material in the Special Counsel’s Report that would reflect badly on you and to make up phony excuses for withholding it.

4.  Tell your reliable flunky Treasury Secretary –- in this case Steven Mnuchin –– to refuse to release your tax returns to the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee as required by law and make up a phony excuses for withholding it.