They're not here to hurt ME

The January 6 committee held a sudden January 6th hearing where they questioned and revealed video of earlier under oath testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, 25 year old former aid to Trump Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.  It was strong.

Meadows told her on Jan 5 that it might get real bad on Jan 6.

Trump was furious (he seems always to be furious) that security kept several thousand who came to see him in the Ellipse from entering because they had weapons (knives, batons, body armor, gas masks, AR-15s, pistols, bear spray, spears on the end of flags, etc.) on them and refused to go through the mangetometers.  Was he concerned that they had weapons? Of course not, the weapons were meant for others...

“I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f-ing mags away.”

So what did the president do when he discovered so many in his crowd were carrying weapons?  Sent them to the Capitol and told them to fight like hell. This is a premeditated weaponized assault on the people guarding and in the Capitol as far as I can see.  And he promised to go with them.  And he was prevented from going down to the Capitol by his security when he was in "The Beast" (the presidential armored vehicle) and he lunged forward to grab the wheel, had his arm restrained and used the other hand to attack his security man's "clavicle" (probably neck).  They drove him to the White House.

In the White House some approached Mark Meadows and told him that a violent, armed crowd was approaching the Capitol and that he should do something.  Meadows was unconcerned and just said that Trump didn't want to do anything.

By the way, this same Mark Meadows - Chief of Staff, former founder of the Freedom Caucus in the House to obstruct and cripple as much of the Federal Government as he could - was going to join the War Room on the 5th at the Willard hotel with "lawyers" Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but eventually was talked out of it and said he would dial in instead.  The War Room pretty clearly were part of the planning of the coup.

During the riot inside the Capitol the rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and Trump was implored to calm the rioters, but instead he sent out an inflammatory text expressing his "disappointment" in Mike Pence.  The rioters read out the text over a bullhorn.  When Meadows was told he had to do something to affect Trump, Meadows said that the president didn't think the rioters were doing anything wrong, and that Pence "deserves it."

Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser decided to quit the moment he saw that tweet.  Others decided to quit that day as well.  

Hutchinson categorized people in the White House as falling into three categories in their reaction to that day

1. Urged Trump to take action to quell the riot - like Herschmann and Ivanka
2. Neutral group that knew something had to be done even though he didn't want to
3. Those who immediately shifted to deflecting and blaming others (BLM, Antifa) - Like Meadows

Hutchinson heard that Cabinet Members were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment declaring the president mentally incapable of governing.

Eventually Trump was forced to give a speech on the 7th to calm things down but was talked out of offering a pardon for all those in the coup (Meadows wanted that as well ... including himself clearly), but it looks like he did this to keep from being removed from office via the 25th amendment.

When Hutchinson was finished, Liz Cheney read a couple of sworn statements from other witnesses who testified to the Committee showing illegal and frightening witness tampering.  One said they got a call "as long as you continue to be team player, and protect who you need to protect, you will stay in good graces with Trump, who reads the transcripts, so keep that in mind in your depositions".  In case you missed it, this is a Mafia style death threat.

It just gets more and more nauseating.  Unhinged madman megalomaniac inciting unhinged cult followers.

Why are fascists fascists?

 The radical right wing is becoming more and more fascist - from the former Republican president who spent his four years in office defying the rule of law all the way up to his attempted coup (which continues today) and including the Republican Parties in many red states overtly impeding the votes of brown and black citizens and installing electoral systems that can and will ignore actual vote counts and replace them with Republican appointed fictitious vote counts instead.

Why?  Why are fascists fascists?  We have nearly two and a half centuries of contentious democracy behind us and why are we now confronted with authoritarian takeover of our democracy?

Ezra Klein has a podcast dated May 17,2022 with Pulitzer Prize winning historian, Anne Applebaum, discussing the Hannah Arendt's 1951 book "The Origins of Totalitarianism" where the German holocaust survivor Arendt presented her brilliant understanding of how the Nazis and Soviets emerged.  Here are some essential points that they made:

• Loneliness - it starts with young men and women being in a deep state of loneliness, feeling alienated, dispossessed
• Belonging - this creates a desperate longing for belonging - to be part of people
• Meaning - the craving to be part of something meaningful, something larger than their own isolated disconnected lives, a cause, a movement, something more than themselves
• Corruption - they see the existing established power structures as deeply corrupt and imposing its corrupt mandates in their own powerless lives
• Violation of norms - since the existing power structure is itself corrupt, actions that violate the norms of that structure are considered morally acceptable and even necessary - for example be violent since that is a norm breaking act, cheat since that is a norm breaking act, steal since that is a norm breaking act, destroy property and kill since these are norm breaking acts
• Myth - The authoritarian/autocratic/tyrannical/dictator leaders provide belonging, meaning, and channel the violence to their own ends by creating a Myth to capture a political/anarchic/violent movement that empowers the tyrant - Hitler had the Myth of the white supremacist Third Reich that would last a millennium - Lenin and Stalin had the Myth of a New Man that would emerge in a Communist Utopia once the corruption of Capitalism was overthrown - Trump and Putin have the Myth of Making America Great Again and Restoring a Russian Empire to what the Soviets and Peter the Great did
• Threat of Civil War - the tyrant tries to create a sense of life and death stakes inside the country to normalize the idea of violence in his movement and the need for the followers to be safe from dangerous "others" inside the movement
• Guns, flags, Military parades and rallies - using elaborately staged military displays of power and strength to invigorate and propel the newly recruited cult followers to follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow 

It all starts with lonely people needing to belong, saturated in their own pain and alienation, willing to strike out and destroy it all, just like their lives have already been destroyed.

America is in trouble and Trump rode the wave of alienation and destruction to his own power, but the MAGA Cult does not need the Former Guy, they are charging with a full head of steam toward the American Autocracy where the white man with a bible and a gun is "once again" in charge of everything, and democracy becomes just an empty hollow word, a fig leaf for pretend elections.

But, we can expose it, we can stop it, and we can call upon the Spirit and Soul of America to triumph in the face of incipient despotism.  

We need to wake up.  Vote.  This election could be the last actual election in American history.  Wake up, please.

The real “Great Replecement Theory”

 White supremacists have aroused the Republican Party with the idea that Jews and liberals are trying to replace white people with brown people by bringing them across the border. This of course is total racist fear mongering crap. 

But there is a new actual white replacement theory being enacted now by the Republican Party. By overturning Roe v Wade it is clear that those women least likely to be able to find a way to get an abortion will be poor brown and black people. 

Birth rates of poor babies of color are going to skyrocket. 

Somehow some white supremacists seem to think they have cleverly found a way to create more white babies. But clearly the more resources women and couples have to control their own reproductive choices the more they will use them. White educated women and couples with some bit of money and resources will have fewer children than poor women, whether white or of color. 

Both cruel and stupid - perfectly in alignment with everything that the Former Guy touches. 

Goodbye to the right to make personal decisions

Here is a partial list of personal freedoms Clarence Thomas and his band of Theocrats are targeting to take away from us:

•  The right to choose whether to have a child (take away abortion)
• The right to use contraception (a different way to remove your right to choose whether to have a child)
• The right to choose who you have sex with (no gay sex - no inter-racial sex)
• The right to choose whom you marry (no same sex marriages - no inter-racial marriages)
• Any right to choose which is protected by the right to privacy which has been removed from our rights as citizens - I am sure the Clarence Thomases have a much longer list.

Puritans (theocrats) want to control your genitals. And once they have you by the short hairs they have you in everything else as well.

It isn’t just abortion.  Stay tuned. 

The only remedy is to elect politicians who will pass laws that decriminalize abortion. Fuck the Supreme Court. 

The Catholic Supreme Court

 Six Catholic Supreme Court Justices overturned Roe v Wade. Imposing their religious belief on America. A religious dogma created by priests, bishops, and Cardinals who are not allowed to marry and who forbid women from becoming priests of having power in their organization. And , oh yes, did I forget to mention the high incidence of pedophilia?

Theocracy by unelected religious fanatics  

Christian “Taliban”

 The Christian version of the Taliban has stripped American women of their fundamental right to control their own lives by overturning Roe v Wade. 

Next up?  Contraception, gay marriage, gay sex. 

Burkas for women?  Branding scarlet letters on foreheads?  Stockades?  

Crap. 

Criminal intent revealed

Donald Trump revealed his criminal intent – that is his knowledge that he was committing a crime and his intent to commit that crime – when he said the following to the department of justice in his attempt to stage a coup call

Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” Donald Trump said, in words read aloud by Jan 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger, who then asked: “That’s a direct quote from President Trump, correct?”

“That’s an exact quote from the president, yes,” Mr Donoghue responded. 

Prison please. 

Threaten the January 6 Committee members

 Committee members are getting threats on their lives and on the lives of their families.  This is how fascism works.  The Republican Party has been usurped by fascists - MAGA Cultists, white supremacists, white Christian Nationalists, the American version of Nazi Brown Shirts.  Democracy has been severely damaged and is on life support.

"In the past 24 hours, there has been an uptick in the number of violent threats against lawmakers on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and all lawmakers on the committee are likely to receive a security detail..."

Picture of deadly threat to Adam Kinzinger:

Christian in name only fascists threaten and commit violence.  What would Jesus say?  You know, the actual Jesus, not the strange dogmas being shouted by Evangelical preachers.  

I firmly believe that the Spirit and Soul of America will prevail over the terrible darkness that is gripping this country.  The more we can expose the terrible ugliness the better chance we have of Making America Good Again.

Threaten the vote counters

The fourth January 6 Committee presentation showed how the MAGA Cult harassed, intimidated, and threatened the vote counters - from the Secretary of States, to State officials, to patriotic ballot counters. Accusations, threats.  These threats continue today and will continue going forward. 

The Nazis had their Brown Shirts. “Republicans” have MAGA Cult, Qanon, multiple collections of white supremacists and Christian Nationalists... threaten, intimidate, end democracy in America.  

Welcome to MAGA America. 

We will expose them and defeat them at the polls, and in the courts, and in the hearts of Americans. When will real Republicans be disgusted enough to walk away?

Texas wants to secede - a good idea?

 The essential read of historian Heather Cox Richardson revealed something astonishingly awful yesterday - the Platform of the Texas Republican Party.  This reads like a Saturday Night Live skit mocking Republicans, but it is what these actual Republican politicians in Texas did. Per her "Letters From American":

"...delegates to a convention of the Texas Republican Party today approved platform planks 

• rejecting “the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and [holding] that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States” (the Big Lie to the end); 
• requiring students “to learn about the dignity of the preborn human,” including that life begins at fertilization (the Evangelical minority rules); 
• treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice” (what are they afraid of in themselves?); 
• locking the number of Supreme Court justices at 9 (until they want to change it); 
• getting rid of the constitutional power to levy income taxes (bankruptcy for all); 
• abolishing the Federal Reserve (conspiracy forever); 
• rejecting the Equal Rights Amendment (what could possibly be scarier than women with rights?); 
• returning Christianity to schools and government (fuck the First Amendment) 
• ending all gun safety measures (everyone thinks they're Clint Eastwood, but they are actually Fredo Corleone); 
• abolishing the Department of Education (who needs to know anything?); 
• arming teachers (have you ever seen grade school teachers?);
• requiring colleges to teach “free-market liberty principles” (you never heard of Business School, or MBAs?); 
• defending capital punishment (front row seats and sell popcorn); 
• dictating the ways in which the events at the Alamo are remembered (now their just making jokes);
• protecting Confederate monuments (does Germany have statues of Goering or Rommel?); 
• ending gay marriage (they can't stop thinking about penises and assholes); 
• withdrawing from the United Nations and the World Health Organization (nobody tells Bubba what to do, y'hear?); 
• and calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation (that could be a pretty good idea!).”

The problem with this is that it is not a SNL skit mocking Republicans.  It is real Republicans being as serious as an AR15.  At the heart of these platform planks are a couple of things - a twisted version of what it means to be a man (to be violent, dangerous, dominating, cruel) - and a twisted version of Christianity based on the twisted violent picture of a man which is so remarkably contrary to the actual life and teachings of the actual Jesus Christ.

Our country is in a very sad place, and tragically it is more than sad, it is dangerous.

The real Russian war

 The Russian war in Ukraine is not a Russian war against Ukraine. It is the Russian war in Ukraine against the West. It is the Russian war against democracy. Putin’s Russia is an autocracy. Putin promotes autocracy around the world from Ukraine to Hungary to the United States (helping Trump and the Putin Wing of the Party formerly known as the Republican Party).

The Putin Wing of the “Republican Party” has already voted against military aid to Ukraine, and the most influential voice in the Right Wing disinformation bubble, Tucker Carson, openly opposed opposing Putin’s invasion. 

If Putin, and/or the Putin Autocrats if he dies, are able to feel they have won in Ukraine then all of the former Soviet crushed countries will be crushed again. 

If you have no other reason to vote for Democrats in 2022 and 2024 please vote to save democracy in Ukraine, in the Baltic States, in the world, and in America. Because the Putin Wing in the party that used to be known as the Republican Party is a party wholly committed to the end of democracy and the permanent, violent enforcement of autocratic rule. 

Fascism is as fascism does

The third presentation by the January 6 committee was yesterday.  It showed that Trump put enormous pressure on Pence to refuse to accept the legal ballots from some states and thus overthrow the election to stay in office.  And it showed that lawyer John Eastman tried to put a phony legal justification for this pressure.  This, of course, is pure fascism.  

Fortunately, Pence conferred with many people who told him what he already knew, which was that all the Vice President and Congress were authorized to do on January 6 was accept the count of the votes and certify the winner, Joe Biden.  One of the men that Pence turned to was one of the most highly esteemed conservative lawyers, Michael Luttig, who told him what his constitutional duty was.  Luttig's said that the Trump coup attempt was a clear and present danger to democracy in America, and that that danger continues today from Trump and his MAGA cult. He responded to the deranged "legal theory" pushed by MAGA cult fanatic lawyer, John Eastman, that supposedly justified the VP rejecting electors from the states.  Eastman had reluctantly acknowledged that his theory was unconstitutional in a discussion with Pence's lawyer, Greg Jacob, according to sworn testimony by Jacob, shown at the presentation. Luttig said he would have laid his body across the road before he would have let Pence overturn the election.  Eastman later tacitly acknowledged that he was guilty of criminal activity when he begged Trump for a pardon for his actions where he was trying to force a coup and end democracy in America.

After Pence refused to bow to the demented will of Trump, Trump sent his mob to the Capitol to hang him.  Trump's texts attacking Pence during the riot were read aloud at the riot over a bullhorn. The crowd chanted "Hang Mike Pence".  A gallows was constructed on the grounds to do just that.  The rioters also mockingly chanted "Nancy" as they flooded the halls of the Capitol, a clear intention of capturing her to do her harm - Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House.

The coup failed on January 6, 2021.  The coup attempts continue.  America remains in danger.  But the Spirit and Soul of America will prevail, I firmly believe.

I am sure that most of my conservative friends have little or no idea of any of this since they either ignore the news or stick to Fox News and other MAGA propaganda "news" outlets, which does all it can to ignore or distort these investigations.  I hope that some of these horrors are penetrating their info bubbles.

The heart of fascism

It is clear to me that the essential operating belief of fascism/autocracy/authoritarianism/dictatorship is the conviction that the will of the fascist cult will be able to dominate the will of the people, and thus rule with impunity.  Trump's MAGA cult very openly defy the rule of law and do their best to implement the rule of domination and force.  

America also has a will, and I firmly believe that America will prevail over the diseased fascist MAGA cult.

$250,000,000 fraud

 The second presentation by the January 6th Committee showed numerous clips of Republicans close the Trump telling him that he had lost the election and it had not been stolen from him. This included his Attorney General, Bill Barr, who told him that the idea that it was stolen was “bullshit”. At one point Barr said he didn’t know if Trump was just pushing the Big Lie or did he actually believe that nonsense, and if he believed it that meant he had lost touch with reality.  Well Trump’s connection to reality has never been very convincing, but in this case we have two clues that show us he knew and continues to know he is lying.

The first clue is the violent attempt to overthrow the election on January 6 itself.  The lie did what he wanted it to do - have his Cult followers do his bidding to keep him in office.

The second clue is the $250,000,000 he fraudulently raised for a non-existent “Election Defense Fund” - thanks for the money suckers!  The lie was just another criminal scam by this disgusting corrupt excuse of a human being. 

He knows it is a lie.  Just like  propagandist autocrats always know they are lying. The only question is how do people become so gullible that they believe theses Big Lies?

The Republican politicians all pretend to believe the Big Lie because the Republican voters believe it. As James Carville says, Republican voters want to be lied to. I am hoping some of my conservative friends are actually watching these hearings. They actually may not know some of this terrible story. 

It was planned and coordinated

 The first public January 6th hearing was last night.  Here are my notes on the highlights:

• "Mike Pence deserves it" - This is what Trump said when the TV coverage showed the rioters chanting "Hang Mike Pence" and those in the oval office surrounding Trump begged him to stop the assault.
• There was a seven part plan to invade the Capitol and overthrow the election - details to be revealed in subsequent public hearings
• Some Congresspeople felt they needed Presidential pardons for anything related to the the attempted coup - and were denied by Trump - names to be revealed later, I hope
• Leaders of the coup attempt communicated with White House fellow coup operatives up to and during Trump's speech which directed the mob to the capitol
• Oath Keepers and Proud Boys organized and led the coup attempt, fully dressed in riot gear with helmets, bullet proof vests, etc.
• Oath Keepers had stored arms in key buildings around D.C. and were on call as armed quick reaction forces if called upon
• About 200+ Proud Boys marched toward the Capitol at 10:30 AM rather than go to watch Trump speak.  They cased the Capitol to discover the weakest lines of defense for their planned attack.
• Sworn testimony by a documentary film maker and the video footage of the Proud Boys coordinated move to the Capitol and the subsequent violent combat with local police showed astonishing hatred and violence
• An officer testified to her hours' long hand to hand combat with the violent assault, noting that police are not trained for war or hand to hand combat that lasted for hours.
• Trump was repeatedly told that his claim that the election was stolen was a lie, including by his Attorney General, Bill Barr, who told him it was "bullshit".
• Liz Cheney addressed Republicans supporting the Big Lie and the ongoing attempt to overthrow democracy that someday Trump would be gone, but their dishonor will live on

This was a fascist coup attempt.  It is ongoing.  We have a Republican Party dedicated to the overthrow of American democracy.  People have died.  January 6 was a failed coup, but just practice for the next coup.  

America is not going to let the MAGA fascist cult take over this country.

Please watch the January 6 hearings tomorrow, Thursday

 There has never been an attempted coup in America before Trump refused to peacefully turn over power to the winner of the election. It is the greatest crime against democracy since the Civil War. 

Please watch. 

Saliva swabs

Imagine being parents desperate to see if your little child survived the slaughter of a gunman with an AR-15 assault weapon, only to be told that the bodies are so mutilated that they are unidentifiable and you need to give a DNA saliva sample to see if one of the remaining bloody pieces of meat is your child. 

Imagine it. 

And then imagine that every Republican politician will DO NOTHING to ban these horrendous abominations of slaughter. 

Imagine it. 

And then imagine that these same Republican politicians DO NOTHING in the name of James Madison and the Founding Fathers. 

Imagine it.

Are you kidding?

Assault weapons - greed - death

Political consultant James Carville makes a telling point about assault weapons in America.  In 1994 Senator Joe Biden passed an Assault Weapons ban, signed by Bill Clinton.  At that time there were 400,000 assault weapons in the U.S.  Then that law was repealed in 2004 by George W Bush.  And now there are 20,000,000 assault weapons in the U.S.

In 1994 the gun people had enough guns to protect themselves, hunt, target practice, have their little gun adrenaline boosts.  They didn't need military slaughter weapons.  But, hey, they look cool, right?  Makes you look tough, right?  Disgusting.

Disgusting.  Greed greed greed - money money money - votes votes votes - death death death. 

So - you know - thoughts and prayers, again and again and again - keep the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ coming in.