No one expects Donald Trump to be consistent, And no-one should be surprised as the USA descends into barbarism in its attempt to emulate the world’s worst human rights offenders.

Those well known democracies, North Korea and Iran perform public executions of those convicted of crimes under their laws. Donald Trump has spoken out against that practice in Iran – it was one of the pretexts for the ongoing war the US appears to be losing.

But he has approved it for the US military, who in just a few weeks will livestream the execution of a mass murderer. It used to be that snuff films were considered criminal and circulated only on the deep web. This one will be government sponsored.

Will children be watching? Of course. Kids are very good at circumventing parental controls when they want to watch something online.

Will the execution be botched, as Christa Pike’s was in Tennessee last week? I’m sure the online gaming platforms are already taking bets on that.

Will people be hoping for a botched execution? Is it more entertaining to see someone suffer as the bullets enter their body than to watch a clean kill? I don’t know.

Many years ago one of my friends decided to watch the video of the beheading of American Journalist Daniel Pearl by terrorists. the images haunted him for a long time afterwards. What will watching a firing squad in action do to the American psyche?

Or is the country already so far gone that it doesn’t matter?

Two thousand years ago Christians were thrown into Roman arenas to be torn apart by lions, just to entertain the citizens. in “modern” America criminals are executed live with a whole nation watching.

Or maybe not a whole nation. Certainly Donald Trump can figure out a way to make some money from this. Why not give the rights to The Trump Organization and he can turn it into a pay-per-view event. He’ll probably host it himself – he has experience in “reality” television.

I am sure there are millions of Americans appalled by this barbarism being perpetrated in their name by their government. I keep wondering when there will be any significant pushback against an administration that respects neither the law nor common decency.

I’m not holding my breath in anticipation though.

There is a political theory that people get the government they deserve. What does a livestreamed execution tell you about America?