Why the FBI searched

 Some preliminary details revealed in the highly redacted affidavit authorizing the warrant to seize intelligence documents from Trump.  

“ In those initial 15 boxes, FBI personnel found 184 classified documents. Sixty-seven were labeled CONFIDENTIAL, 92 were SECRET, 25 were TOP SECRET. Some were marked SCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI, the very highest levels of security, involving human intelligence, foreign surveillance, intelligence that cannot be shared with foreign governments, and intelligence that is compartmented to make sure no one has full knowledge of what is in it. The former president had made notes on “several” of the documents.”

“ The person who made the affidavit said they were a special agent with the FBI, “familiar with efforts used to unlawfully collect, retain, and disseminate sensitive government information, including classified N[ational] D[efense] I[nformation].” They swore that “there is probable cause to believe” that locations at Mar-a-Lago “contain evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed.” 

“… relevant to an ongoing investigation and the FBI has not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”

This could be beyond criminal activity.  This could be aiding and abetting a hostile foreign power. By the way, has he praised any hostile foreign powers in the last six years?

What was in it for HIM?

 Has Trump already sold American Intelligence for millions?  Is he just a really dumb patsy security risk?  Was he holding catastrophically important secrets in Florida as a way to blackmail America to stay out of prison?  … if you imprison me I will destroy America by telling your enemies what they need to destroy your country?  Are there any redeeming excuses that anyone can think of for him to have this kind of explosive information?  

“ A woman claiming to be Anna de Rothschild, a member of the European banking dynasty, was invited to Mar-a-Lago last year where she mingled with Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). But the woman’s real name is Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian immigrant fluent in several languages who is now the subject of a widening FBI investigation into her financial activities and the chain of events that led her to Trump’s Florida estate. Law enforcement agents in Canada have also confirmed that she has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February. The ease with which Yashchyshyn was able to bypass the security at Mar-a-Lago—multiple trips in and out of the club grounds—demonstrates how vulnerable the facility was and is.” 

What was in it for him?  That is really the only question ever to ask about Trump motivation.  

For HIM…

Another football CTE tragedy

Another of the endless reports of ex football players who end their lives with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy CTE. This game is like boxing. It damages the brain. Often causes the tragedy of dementia. 

This story is about the great Alabama powerhouse teams of Bear Bryant. Including Ray Perkins and Ken Stabler. I can’t watch football any more. 

“…at least four fixtures of Alabama’s fearsome, Bryant-led teams of the 1960s, including at least one from each of Alabama’s three national-champion squads that decade, developed C.T.E”

Autocratic minority domination

 The white Christian nationalists are dedicated to the overthrow of democracy in America.  This is serious. They know they are in the minority so they are desperately trying to establish minority autocratic rule.  I think they literally saw Trump as a godsend to be used to accelerate their autocracy.  (By the way, the history of political leaders installing and thinking they can control pathological dictators is not a happy one)  Heather Cox Richardson wrote today:

Edward Luce of the Financial Times observed today: “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”

Shocking though that observation was, it was nothing compared to what came next. General Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, retweeted Luce and commented: “I agree. And I was the CIA Director[.]”

I can feel some sympathy for a fading hierarchy desperate to cling to and extend their domination, but the world is turning, time passes, and it all changes. I believe democracy can and will prevail, but only if we are awake to the attempt at autocratic domination. And we say no.

Phony passports claim by Trump

 Golly, it turns out Trump didn't tell the truth about the FBI taking his passports.  I had thought it was true and that it implied that taking the passports was connected to crimes he was under investigation for.  Wrong.  It wasn’t taken intentionally and was returned.

"As suspected, the story was nothing like what Trump said," tweeted Robert Maguire, research director at the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Two of the passports were expired. One was a diplomatic passport. And the DOJ alerted him when the filter team found it. It wasn't taken intentionally…DOJ discovered the passports and returned them before Trump even made his claim to attack law enforcement."

"In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes," an FBI spokesperson told NBC.

Never believe anything the Former Guy says. 

Search warrant also took passports

The former president complained that his three passports were removed in the search warrant of his Florida residence.  That tells us a lot about what the Justice Department expected to find during the search.

One of the passports was expired.  

One of the passports was likely a special diplomatic passport which he is not supposed to have since he is no longer in the government.

One of the passports is likely his personal passport.

The fact that the Justice Department took the passports seems to communicate that he is considered a flight risk.  Why would he be considered a flight risk?  Because he knows what they are likely to find.  And he knows he could end up in prison.  And he could just decide to go to his dear friends in Russia or Saudi Arabia and hide out for the rest of his life.  

At any rate, the removal of his passports was certainly not some random act.  They had to be part of the affidavit authorizing the search warrant.  That very fact suggests imprisoning evidence was sought.  And given the Former Guy's reaction, he likely knows exactly what they found.

I believe the seizing of the passports may have been a second search warrant issued in response to a affidavit laying out probable cause to discover evidence of a crime committed by the Former Guy and which having and using these passports would be an actual part of the crimes.  Not just that he was a flight risk. This is speculation by former federal prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner. So, it could be that part of this particular crime would be fleeing the country - to his dear friends in Russia or Saudi Arabia?  Someplace with no extradition treaty with America?  

The MAGA Cult, also now known as the Republican Party, could be sticking their foot in it by screaming so loudly that this is a political event.  It looks to me like it is a very serious step toward a real indictment of a real crime that perhaps even the MAGA Cult will have to disavow.  

Update. The FBI returned his passports. So I guess he can fly. A puzzlement. 

Adverse inference and the fifth amendment

 Meanwhile back at the Southern District of New York’s civil case against the former president for tax fraud and bank fraud, the former president pled the fifth amendment well over 400 times. So what? You say. Is it not a constitutional right that you do not have to testify against yourself? Well…

In a criminal case you can plead the fifth and the prosecution cannot use that against you and the judge will confirm that there is no adverse inference in a person pleading the fifth amendment by refusing to testify against himself. But…

These charges of financial fraud are not a criminal case. These charges of financial fraud are a civil case. A ruling that could be made is that a person is Liable - not Criminal. And in civil cases the principle of Adverse Inference applies. That is, the prosecution can and will charge that the refusal to answer questions on the grounds that the answer would tend to incriminate the person is by itself an act of admission of guilt. And the final summary to the judge would include a list of all the civil violations performed by the accused with the summary statement that none of these allegations have even been contested, and have been de facto confessed to by the accused by the pleading of the fifth amendment  

The former guy, pretty obviously guilty on all counts, went to court and confessed over 400 times to his guilt.

No one ever said this man was smart. And since he doesn’t pay his lawyers, the only ones who will work with them appear to be not too smart either..

The massive fines that he will pay, or I hope should pay, for his bank fraud and tax fraud will be very important to him, but not nearly as important as the possible charges of espionage that seem to be impending as a result of the recovery of stolen documents from the White House hidden in his Florida residence. Rest assured that the warrant for that search was meticulous, the chain of custody will be meticulous, and if they find evidence of espionage - selling vital national secrets to hostile foreign powers - he will be prosecuted, just like any of us would be. 

Huge fines please.

Prison please. 

Espionage?

 Some current conclusions about the execution of the search warrant at the Trump property. 

The crime being investigated is a very serious crime. The search warrant had to go through extreme scrutiny before it was executed. This is not political. This is criminal. Prison is likely to be involved.

It looks like espionage may be the charge. Espionage. Stealing classified secrets about America’s nuclear armaments, procedures, protocols? and selling them to Putin? Saudi Arabia? China?

Signals intelligence! It looks like some of the stolen documents are what is classified as signals intelligence. What that means is information about signals, transmission of spy information. Revealing these secrets ends up in the death of the spies sending the signals. Everyone with security clearance knows that signals intelligence is sacredly protected. Selling this information could (already did?) be worth a fortune to our enemies. 

I believe that intelligence officers often did not share some highly classified information with this deeply corrupt man when he was in the White House because they considered him to be a security threat.

This is a man with absolutely zero integrity or character. This is a man who would sell his mother for money. Well his mother is dead, but America is still alive. Even though he is doing his best to kill her.

This is speculation on my part at this point. and we shall see what the charges are levied soon enough. The Maga Cult propaganda bubble is trying to incite violence against the FBI and America in order to protect this deeply corrupt and disgusting human being. Why?

Prison please.

“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” —Donald Trump

 In 2016 Trump infamously bragged about grabbing women by the pussy:

• When you’re a star, they let you do it - grab 'em by the pussy

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat the banks

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat on taxes

• When you're a star, they let you do it - commit impeachable crimes

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat at golf

• When you're a star, they let you do it - launder Russian money

• When you're a star, they let you do it - be a total ignoramus about foreign policy

• When you're a star, they let you do it - be a total ignoramus about pandemics

• When you're a star, they let you do it - lie 30,000+ times while in office

• When you're a star, they let you do it - steal classified documents

• When you're a star, they let you do it - try to overthrow the government 

Oops... try to overthrow the government?  Really?  Maybe not.  Maybe not. 

This entitled witless "star" has always done whatever he wanted to do and has always gotten away with it.  He is the definition of an overgrown spoiled brat.  It could be that the real world is finally catching up with him.

FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort

 The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.  This is after presenting evidence of a suspected crime to a judge who authorized the search.  The right wing propaganda world is calling it a political act but that is nonsense, of course.  There is evidence of criminal activity that is being investigated.  The FBI is not a wing of the Democratic Party - even though Trump did his best to make the entire Justice Department a wing of the Trump Kingdom while he was in office.

We don't know what criminal activity at this point (Trump's lifetime of crime is a pretty target rich environment).  But it could be the documents he illegally stole from the White House when he left which he has refused to return - some of which was highly classified, and some of which may well have been connected to his treasonous planning and execution on January 6, 2021.  

I am hoping that the crime they are investigating is serious enough for an indictment and prosecution and imprisonment. I most hope that there is solid evidence of his treasonous coup attempt leading up to and during the assault on the Capitol.  And perhaps evidence of his ongoing attempt at his next coup attempt.

Deep red Kansas protects women's right to shape their own lives

White Christian Nationalists succeeded in taking away the rights of women to make their own decisions and choices about if and when to be pregnant and bear children with their atrocious Supreme Court victory.  It is not working well for the Republican Party.  

Deep red Kansas just voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights in Kansas.  This after the Republicans tried to bias the vote by having that vote be held on the day of Republican Primaries rather than the normal November election day on the expectation that more Republicans than Democrats would go to the polls yesterday compared to November.  

Oops.

If I were a Democrat running for office in November I would make the Republican assault on the freedoms of half the population in America front and center in my campaign.

New tax break for The Former Guy

 So much of The Former Guy is repulsive it is hard to be newly repulsed. But he managed to do so, again.  

Technically, his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., is now acting as a “cemetery company.” (Suggested slogan: “People are dying to get into Bedminster!”) And he has already landed his first occupant: He just buried his late ex-wife, Ivana Trump, right near the first tee….operating a cemetery at the Trump National offers “a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.” She tweeted that it “looks like one corpse will suffice to make at least 3 forms of tax vanish.”

I know some people voted for The Former Guy (twice) so they could get lower taxes.  Wow!  They now have a new model for tax evasion - bury your family in your back yard and declare it a cemetery.   

What a really really really SMART GUY, kind of a genius really....

Vomit. 

Trying to understand fascist impulse

We live in chaotic and destructive times.  I get very upset when White Christian Nationalists go full fascist and impose their limited "Christian" values on the nation.  I put "Christian" in quotation marks because so many of their values are so contradictory to the teachings and life of Jesus Christ himself - from declaring the white race to be superior to all others (Christ himself was a brown skinned Jew who saw the divinity in all of people), to crushing women's lives by trying to eliminate women's ability to choose if and when they become pregnant, to violating the First Amendment and establishing their own brand of Christian dogma as the law of the land.

But I can identify with the desire to drop an anchor in a stormy sea.  Especially if you think God is punishing America for immoral behavior and you see any behavior that does not conform to your own dogmas as punishable.  

Our times are wildly chaotic and the desire to make the boat stop pitching and yawing by dropping anchor and establishing rigid rules and order is something I can understand.  But their "anchor" is what has become a very un-Christlike Bible Belt dogma.   

I can have some understanding of the desire, but the terrible damage they are doing to the lives of all of us is not OK.  

Women get to choose to shape their own lives.  Gay men and women get to love in ways that are natural and normal to them.  Races are allowed to intermingle and intermarry.  Democracy gets to have all votes counted.  No matter how scary any of that is to the White Supremacist Christian Nationalists.

The way to sail the stormy seas is not to drop anchor and be capsized, but to ride the waves and let things become new.

Chips

 Good news!  The American Government actually got something done that will help America - Congress passed a bill to finance probably the most important technology in the world - semiconductor manufacturing.

“The United States has invested “nearly nothing” in semiconductor manufacturing, she said, while China has invested $150 billion to build its domestic capacity.”

A moment of sanity.  Thank you.

Sig Sauer because AR-15s aren’t violent enough

 I believe that there were approximately 40 million AR-15s in America. These are semi automatic assault rifle weapons of war. I expect that about 95% of the owners of these horrible weapons of slaughter are Trump supporters, ready and willing do use them in political warfare. 

But wait! These weapons which are so destructive that some of the children killed in the Uvalde massacre were unrecognizable and had to be identified using DNA evidence are about to be replaced with an even more destructive assault weapon. Welcome to the world of Sig Sauer  

SIG Sauer’s new MCX-SPEAR fires bullets with twice the kinetic energy of those from an AR-15. That means double the horrifying force that mangled the victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and left one youngster essentially decapitated. 

 Guaranteed to penetrate law enforcement body armor  

Fascist violence locked an loaded  

Shit. 

Pence's security members called their families to say goodbye

The eighth presentation of the January 6 Committee was given last night.  VP Mike Pence's security forces were so threatened by the coup rioters searching to find and kill the VP that they called their loved ones to say goodbye in case they did not survive.  

They thought they might be killed.  

They thought that Mike Pence might be killed.

One way you can look at Trump's behavior on the 6th was that he "did nothing".  Absolute nonsense. Trump very actively "did something" - he kept the military from intervening in the coup attempt - he refused to call the Military of any kind to come to the aid of the White House police to put down the rioters. That is an active action to aid and abet the attempted Coup.  Eventually, Mike Pence did call the military and the violence was ended.

Trump sat his filthy fat ass in the Dining Room next to the Oval Office and watched it all on Fox News (where else?).  Trump was pleaded with by virtually everybody on the White House staff in the White House to call off the violence.  He VERY ACTIVELY let the violence continue because they were doing exactly what he asked them to do - trying to overturn the election.  

All the phone logs and diary entries for that day while he was in the White House were wiped out - admission of guilt via coverup.

He allowed no photos in the White House on that day - admission of guilt via coverup.

These are admissions of guilt via coverup of his ACTIVITIES that day.  He did NOT "do nothing".  He actively stoked and promoted the violence. 

At a critical juncture he tweeted that Mike Pence was a coward and didn't do what he was supposed to do.  That tweet was read as it was intended - an order from Trump to the rioters to go find Pence and kill him.  

At one point Trump tweeted to stop attacking the police - and that was understood by the rioters to go after the Congress People, not the police, and do them harm.

One fabulous image was the despicable Josh Hawley running for his life along the halls as police watched him go.  This after he raised his fist in defiant solidarity with the rioters-to-be prior to the violence.  Hawley is apparently making his presidential run on the notion that real manly manly men are no longer allowed in this country because of ??? liberals ???  Nice to see the manly manly man turning tail and running.

Finally Trump was forced by fear of the invoking of the 25th amendment that would remove him from office because of mental incompetence, he robotically read something telling the rioter to go home, that he loved them, that the election was stolen, stolen, stolen, he loved them, loved them, loved  them.

Fascism in action.  It is still ongoing.  The Party that Used to be called The Republican Party has become the fascist party dedicated to ending democracy in America - limiting votes of color, installing fascist operatives to "count" the votes, and "certify" Republican victories.

America is in trouble.

Prison please.

When you eliminate the right to privacy, don’t be surprised that your privacy is disturbed

 I don’t approve of nor condone protestors disrupting Supreme Court Justices at restaurants or their homes. I believe in civility. But didn’t these justices just declare that there is no constitutional right to privacy?

Trump commits the crime of witness tampering

 When you have always “gotten away with it” all your life, what do you do when the noose  tightens?  Well, the Former Guy just commits another crime. In this case - witness tampering. He has very publicly witness tampered throughout his presidency by praising witnesses publicly who would not testify against him and publicly threatening those about to testify. And I guess he thinks he got away with it. Liz Cheney revealed at the end of today’s seventh presentation that a witness we have yet to hear from got a call that they refused to answer from the Former Guy but turned it over to their lawyer who turned it over to the Committee who turned it over to the Department of Justice. It’s a crime.  One of thousands. 

Take him down, please. 

Today’s hearing detailed the military style planning to use weapons to overthrow the government by radical white supremacist fascists. Compelling. At the request and direction of the Former Guy. 

Take him down, please. 

Europe appalled by U.S. Supreme Court

 It is not just American liberals that are shocked by the American Christian Fundamentalists crushing of women's freedom to choose and shape their own lives.  The European Parliament condemned such tyranny and offers themselves as a safe haven for reproductive health care for all.

"There was international condemnation of right-wing policies in the U.S. today, when the European Parliament voted 324 to 155, with 38 abstaining, to condemn the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion. It also demanded that the European Union recognize the right to abortion in its charter, and to provide “safe, legal and free abortion services, pre-natal and maternal healthcare services, voluntary family planning, youth-friendly services, and HIV prevention, treatment and support, without discrimination.” 

America and Europe have been moving toward individual liberties for decades and it is pretty distressing to me to see America stripping freedom from over half of its population.  It would be so nice if Christians focused on trying to enroll people into their churches rather than turning America into their church.  

The Land of the Free

 It is hard to celebrate the 4th this year right on the heels of the Supreme Court severely restricting the freedoms of women and couples to choose the shape of their own lives by being the ones who make their own personal decisions about family size. 

Of course The Land of the Free wasn’t very free for Native Americans, black slaves, Jim Crow blacks and browns, women’s endless supressions, or Chinese being hunted for scalps in early California.  

But the American Dream of freedom has always been stronger than the tiny, petty little tyrants trying to kill freedom.  And this too shall pass.  

Screw the Supreme Court  

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.