Tuesday, May 30, 2023
Neo-Nazis and Leftism
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Hillary Was Right
If anyone of sound mind and morals sat through the Trump/CNN debacle last night, I offer them both my pity and congratulations. Witnessing fascism's voice being amplified for over and hour, spewing a stream of lies and hate is exhausting and depressing.
We can only ask ourselves, "What the hell is wrong with our country?"
This is the question I've been writing about since Bush and Cheney lied us into war and were reelected for their war crimes.
Trump is but the logical consequence of the moral decline and willful ignorance in a large percentage of our citizenry. White nationalism has taken over the American Bible Belt. We're watching good people be deceived by sociopaths and allowing their racial resentments, bigotry and fears of being replaced to dominate their politics. Now the question is, are they still good people?
Were "good Germans" still good people after willingly swearing an oath to Hitler? Sure, they may have still been good parents, and good neighbors and friends to fellow Nazis, but is that enough for them to remain good people?
The answer is no. Their willing embrace of anger and hate in service to evil cancels what might remain of any conscience or decency.
I'll leave it to others to fact check all his lies, and denounce his vile hate and outrageous behavior. We've seen quite enough of it already.
Instead of my usual ranting, I want to share the important observations of former naval aviator Brynn Tannehill.
She knows her subject, and is the author of “American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting Democracy".
This is what she tweeted regarding CNN's horror show last night:
A ton of ink (virtual or otherwise) has already been spilled on Trump and CNN. Obviously it was Trump at his most awful. And obviously CNN did our country a disservice by hosting what was effectively a Trump rally. But, there's an angle that's missing from the discussion.
Namely, the audience. These were all Trump supporters. Republicans and independents who were supporters of the former President. Clinton called them a "basket of deplorables" in 2016, and they got offended.
Last night was a reminder she was right.
They laughed and cheered as Trump mocked the woman he was found liable for sexually assaulting. He was cheered when he called "moderator" Kaitlan Collins "a nasty woman." They eagerly devoured the myriad of lies he told about EVERYTHING.
It was a Gish Gallop, right down to claiming he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours without giving details. (Hint: there's no way the US could do that, even if we cut off aid immediately. Ukraine would keep fighting and looking for alternate suppliers of arms.)
And they believe it all. They LOVE it all. The cruelty is the point. They love Trump and Putin and Orban. They love Jesus too, and have claimed all of American Christianity for their own. They've destroyed its reputation in the process.
For most decent people, who don't laugh at people for being raped, seeing someone wearing a cross is a big warning sign: this person is not safe. This person is not kind. This person does not even vaguely live in the same reality the rest of us do.
And yes, this thread will get a lot of "not all Christians" messages here. But these folks are at the spearhead a fascist movement that revels in cruelty, domination, and abuse of power. Not everyone that wore a swastika pin was bad, but there weren't many Oskar Schindlers.
But, above all else, last night was a reminder of what America under Trump was, and will be again if we put him back in office. Cruel, theocratic, vulgar, misogynistic, unmoored from reality, ignorant, immune to evidence, and racist.
These
are not good people, even if they believe their religious beliefs make them
inherently good. This is a movement centered on grievances and vengeance
against enemies of the herrenvolk. What we saw are the true believers Milton
Mayer wrote about.
Hardly anyone will read this. And even if it goes viral, it still isn't enough. But for those that do read it, I hope it reminds you that what is coming is dark beyond all belief. They want vengeance on those they believe they have tolerated for too long.
There is no bottom: there is no point at which his supporters will say, "No, we're going too far, this is wrong." These are people with an axe to grind, and without empathy for anyone who seen as an enemy.
If the 2nd Trump administration was putting trans people through tree shredders, his supporters would demand that they be dipped in lemon juice first.
Last
night was a chilling reminder not only can it happen here, it WILL happen here
if we get a second Trump term.
Monday, April 17, 2023
Paranoid By Default
It happens every day.
Insanity is becoming the norm now. Paranoia is the default
state of mind in too many Americans.
The only good news is this victim of insanity survived.
“A teenager was shot by a homeowner after going to the
wrong house to pick up siblings”
Ralph Yarl, 16, was “shot twice and struck in the head and
arm,” his family’s attorneys said in a statement.
The teen was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable
condition Sunday, police said.
“Despite the severity of his injuries and the seriousness
of his condition, Ralph is alive and recovering,” civil rights attorneys S. Lee
Merritt and Benjamin Crump, who have been retained by Yarl and his family, said
in the statement.
Police learned the teenager’s parents had asked him to pick
up his siblings at an address on 115th Terrace, but he accidentally went to a
home on 115th Street, where he was shot.
“Ralph Yarl was picking up his younger brothers when he
mistakenly rang the doorbell at the wrong house. A man shot Ralph twice and now
he’s in critical condition. His family needs support during this tragedy,”
Crump tweeted.
The homeowner – who has not been identified – was taken
into custody and placed on a 24-hour hold, then released while police work to
get a victim statement and gather more forensic evidence.
Under Missouri law, a person can be held for up to 24 hours
for investigation of a felony, at which time they are required to be charged or
released, Graves said at the news conference.
Asked whether the shooting may have been racially motivated,
the police chief said, “the information that we have now, it does not say that
that is racially motivated. That’s still an active investigation. But as a
chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case.”
Believing the "Militia Amendment" endows them the constitutional right to shoot people they fear and overthrow the government, the NRA/Republican
Cartel, paranoid white bigots, Radical Right conspiracy nuts, and racist
neo-Confederates have all contributed to arming a nation of criminals, idiots
and sociopaths.
Too many want to revive vigilantism and relive the Civil War
and the movie version of the wild west. Too many are clinging to their weapons in
the hope of an opportunity to kill people they hate.
I'm convinced the human species is genetically
pre-programmed for self-extinction. We are infected with essentially the
equivalent of angry book burning primates running amok with dynamite.
People gifted with good sense, a conscience and
consciousness will have to live, and survive, among them for as long as there
is a Republican Party.
Will we last that long?
Monday, March 27, 2023
"What Is Wokeness?"
A concerned reader, or just someone I irritated, decided to respond to my previous post "CRT and Woke", and inform us “Wokeness is Marxism in the 21st Century”. Despite the mysterious origin of this screed, I’ll take it as the best argument the radical Right can muster on the topic.
I’ll post it for all to review, then give my response.
WHAT IS WOKENESS?
There
are those on the "woke" left who seem to believe conservatives cannot
define what wokeness is. Well, let me help by taking a swing at it.
Karl
Marx and his early followers often referred to "class consciousness."
Since Marxism holds that all human relationships are class based, "class
consciousness" referred to propagandizing the people to make them
"conscious" of these class distinctions as the root of all their
problems. "Woke" is just another word for consciousness. There's more
to it, so if you're interested, read on.
Marxists
like all tyrants, always want to control language because they know if they can
control what people can say, they can control how they think and eventually how
they behave. This all began with "political correctness." Look where
that's gotten us. Certain words are effectively banned. But not all banned
words are banned for everyone. We now accept a double standard and believe we
continue to have freedom of speech. Certain words are off limits to some, while
others use the same words and earn a king's ransom. Odd, isn't it?
After
the 2nd World War, the Marxist use of the term "class consciousness"
seemed anachronistic and dated. Then came Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt
School. He, along with many others refined Marx's class consciousness theory
with a tool called "Critical Theory". This theory proposed to raise
"consciousness" or more colloquially, "wokeness", by
applying Critical Theory to societal institutions. Marx believed all existing
institutions had to be destroyed in order for socialism and communism to be
realized. He reasoned that all existing institutions served the status quo
interests controlled by the dominant capitalist class who subordinated, exploited
and enslaved all other classes.
Critical
Theory is the overarching term applied to a panoply of Critical Theories
applied to different institutions Marxists target for attack. Therefore,
Critical Gender Theory is actually an attack on the nuclear family and
heterosexuality, by making people conscious or if you prefer, "woke"
and supporting of the systematic degradation and deconstruction of the
traditional family as a foundational institution. That's what "woke"
means in that sphere. The appeal to rights for transgenders is only the vehicle
employed for the destruction of women, motherhood and the traditional nuclear
family.
Critical
Race Theory is also an attack, but simply based in race. All the different
Critical Theories endeavor to control speech and actions through suppression of
any alternative views. We see examples of this on college campuses every day
where the neo-Marxist chant "speech is violence." This is upside
down. It can be said that violence can be a form of speech, but it's absurd to
suggest that speech itself is violence. This is how the suppression of speech
becomes justified in the minds of these militants.
Each
version of Critical Theory has its own version of "wokeness". It's
just dishonest to suggest it defies description. Anyone familiar with Marxism
and the Frankfurt School and Herbert Marcuse in particular understands this.
This isn't ambiguous. Wokeness is Marxism in the 21st Century.
It
attempts to distance itself linguistically from the classic Marxist
terminology, making it appear different in form only. There is no difference at
all in substance. The important point here is this: all of this was enabled by
accepting the cancer of political correctness.
The author’s take on the question “What is woke” leads us to ask our own questions. How will we ever know who asks, and declares, “What is Wokeness?”
The anonymous troll didn’t credit his copy-and-paste white nationalist “definitions”.
Who is the “me” who is “taking a swing at it”?
Why won’t he have the integrity to put his name to that piece? I suspect it’s because he lacks the ability to compose it. Then there’s the additional apparent lack of integrity in withholding the name of the actual author.
This lack of integrity and honesty sets up our case and obviously weakens his.
Everything the radical Right hates is “woke” “CRT” or “Marxism” because they will ALWAYS unilaterally redefine anything they hate as “woke” “CRT” and “Marxism”.
I thank him for proving my point that they need to disregard or dismiss any definitions they don’t like and make up new ones to suit their prejudice and hate.
Make no mistake. Hate and bigotry are at the core of this nonsense, expressing moral panic, bitter grievances, and paranoia through the manufactured horror of the “destruction of women, motherhood and the traditional nuclear family”. This expresses the fear, anger and resentments fomenting within the reactionary FEELINGS of the radical white Right. In fact, this tirade would resonate with every American white supremacist and neo-Nazi.
Hundreds of armed radical Right bigots, including "Sieg Heil" chanting neo-Nazis, joined by right-wing Christian groups, converged on a park in Ohio where parents were and children had gathered to enjoy a drag queen story event. (Hint: Idiots with guns kill children, drag queens do not.)
Let’s remember on February 1, 1933, Hitler proclaimed, “The National Government...regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."
Every white nationalist fascist ideology must also embrace a false sense of victimhood. Hitler was a “victim” of the Jews. Trump and his cult are “victims” of the “Marxist radical Left”, aka “racist” Black prosecutors, the “deep state”, Democrats and “RINOs”.
The election was “rigged”. Justice is “weaponized”. These are just two of their bitter projections to deflect from Trump’s efforts to interfere with states’ election counts by fake electors, strong-arming a Secretary of State, and his efforts to have his DOJ “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and House Republicans”
Of course, they see no “political correctness” in parroting Trump’s fascistic swill of lies, lest they fall into their Dear Leader’s disfavor. “Disloyal RINOs” beware.
The other blatant projection is Marxists “want to control language because they know if they can control what people can say, they can control how they think and eventually how they behave”. And there’s their reason for redefining terms to fit their prejudice and hate.
The other big giveaway of this racist “definition” is glaring.
Notice the “definitions” of woke and CRT completely ignore the existence, history and effects of slavery and racism, the essential roots of the original meaning of woke and CRT. This is why the radical white Right insists they alone have authority to whitewash racism, woke, and CRT.
“The Life of Rosa Parks,” a biography of a civil rights hero who fought segregation, is one of 176 titles that schools in Duval County, Florida, removed from classrooms for review, per Business Insider. According to nonprofit PEN America, the books in review have been in storage for months “with little indication of when they might return to classrooms."
A textbook publisher used in 45,000 Florida schools recently removed any reference of Rosa Parks’ race in a draft lesson plan, per The New York Times. The publisher, Studies Weekly, said this was done to comply with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) “Stop WOKE Act."
“In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” said DeSantis in his 2021 proposal of the law. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching our kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”
One more radical Right projection, deflecting from THEIR efforts to teach kids and adults to deny white American racism and hate others who see it for the reality it still is.
When they tell us it’s
all a “commie plot to destroy America”, they really see a "plot to threaten white
supremacy".
Friday, March 10, 2023
CRT And Woke
Merriam-Webster - Woke: aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)
Conservative writer Bethany Mandel: “It is sort of the understanding that we need to totally re-imagine and redo society in order to create hierarchies of oppression.”
As
they’ve shown over the years, the radical Right notoriously refuses to discuss
or debate in good faith. Every high school debate team learns a debate depends
on mutual agreement on definitions of terms.
This
becomes a problem in today’s political discourse. The Right will often reject
accepted meanings of terms to suit their bias, dishonesty, bigotry, racism, and
political agenda.
They
have usurped the unilateral authority to redefine terms. It's one of their
primary propaganda tools. An early example is their suppressing the accurate
term “Estate tax” and redefining it as the “death tax”. Estates are taxed,
death isn’t. Patriotism itself was twisted into loyalty to Trump and seeing progressives and Democrats
as "communists who hate America". Anything tinged with fear and anger is useful
for their purposes. They know fear and anger motivates uninformed and
uneducated Americans to support them.
More recently radical Right white Republicans have been relentlessly redefining and demonizing terms like Critical Race Theory and “woke”. Their goal is to use these terms as emotional triggers to frighten and infuriate white conservatives into racial resentments and to inflame bigotry. That’s what wins elections for them. Their duplicitous culture war must be vehemently challenged.
Now we see almost everything that annoys conservatives is "woke". Every academic discussion of the history and effects of slavery and racism is “Marxist CRT”. It forces white children to be "uncomfortable" and teaches them "America is racist and you are to blame".
In their propaganda, only white conservatives are allowed to define woke, CRT, and even racism. This has gone to the extreme absurdity that conservative white Americans are being told by their leaders THEY are now the “real victims” of racism.
On
the other hand, there’s the fringe on the Left that do no favors for their
concept of woke. Protesting racist police brutality is woke. Rioting and
destruction isn’t. It is criminal, and it will be falsely branded as “woke” by
the Right.
Desecrating
or tipping over statues of Lincoln or the founders who owned slaves isn’t woke.
It’s vandalism and a crime. It dishonors the legacy of their own wokism of
their time. Abolishing slavery and establishing a democratic republic were
their responses to systemic injustice.
When
Blacks and educators dare discuss CRT and the real history and effects of
slavery and racism, they are smeared as promoting “wokism”, as if they are the
“evil commie racists”. Behind their howls about CRT lurks the stench of racism.
Behind their howls about “woke” lies bigotry.
It
is woke to understand members of the LGBTQ community have been victims of
bigotry and abuse. But when some of them demand special accommodations and
conformity to their chosen pronouns, they should understand this can confuse
and upset people who never had exposure to their culture and lifestyles. They
might want to consider whether they are forcing too much on other’s beliefs and
sensitivities. Most Americans aren’t comfortable with teens or their parents
deciding on transgender surgeries.
Many
are uncomfortable with trans kids in school sports, or what bathroom they use.
Vandalism
and demands for conformity become counterproductive. What happens next is any
criminal and aggressive behavior will be what the Right calls “woke”, only to
result in more bigoted and racist reaction. Progressives shouldn’t let the radical
Right bigots and racists define woke, CRT, and racism. It is not their right to
do so.
The
sole purpose of these deceptions and outright lies is to fuel division, racism,
anger, and hate in their white conservative base. All to get votes so they can
have power. This reveals them as basically sociopathic con artists. If they
can’t have power, they are more than willing to tear the country apart. Some
Texas Republicans even want a vote on secession.
Woke
originated as a term for conscious awareness of injustices against Blacks, and
efforts to address it in good conscience. These have never been valued by the
power seeking Right, so they need to dishonestly distort and redefine woke,
CRT, and racism.
The
good news is most Americans don’t seem to be buying into the Republicans’
distorted politicized definition of woke:
Republican
presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on "woke," but a
new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the
word as a positive attribute, not a negative one.
Fifty-six percent of
those surveyed say the term means "to be informed, educated on, and
aware of social injustices." That includes not only three-fourths of
Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans.
Overall, 39% say
instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition,
"to be overly politically correct and police others' words." That's
the view of 56% of Republicans.
Why
would Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis pass a “Stop WOKE Act”? So he can demonize
and redefine it to his political advantage. The same is true for the entire
Republican Party.
When
DeSantis’ lawyers were forced by the court to define “woke”, the lead lawyer
correctly described it as “The belief there are systemic injustices in American
society and the need to address them.”
The
founders, abolitionists, Lincoln, Native American leaders, suffragettes, Martin
Luther King and civil rights advocates, as well as the voting rights and civil
rights acts were all “woke” by this definition. Many of these Americans were
murdered for what the Right now calls “wokeism”. Even Jesus was crucified for
his “woke” compassionate teachings about loving your neighbor, welcoming the stranger, visiting
prisoners, feeding the poor and healing the sick, the “least of my brothers”.
What
did they all have in common? Contemporary conservatives hated them all.
Saturday, March 4, 2023
GOP Fascism
"We are in an epic struggle to rescue our country from the people who hated it, and want to absolutely destroy it."
Trump or Hitler? What's the difference?
Not every Republican is a fascist. Some may even have a
modicum of conscience, but it’s never their primary concern, as they primarily coddle
the rich and deprive the sick and poor. (And they think they’re being
Christians.)
The Republican Party isn’t the American Nazi Party. Not
yet. But they are being taken over by the same fascist fringe ideology that
spawned Hitler’s regime.
Some people are annoyed
by any comparisons I’ve made. “But Republicans aren’t putting people in
camps”, I’m told.
This is correct. But that’s not where German Nazis
started in their path to power, either. It was from the same roots of racism,
lies, extreme nationalism and will to dominate.
Only Republicans fly the Confederate Flag. That alone should tell the story.
History has supplied ample evidence of what fascism is
all about. Banning books, demonizing and scapegoating minorities and educators,
boasting of their superiority, and endless lies and hatred are all elements of
a toxic authoritarian political cult.
They would dictate what can be taught in schools. They
would demand purges in academia for those who do not conform to their ideology.
They would frame their racism to fit their twisted definitions
of terms. Every time Republicans invoke “CRT” and “woke” they barely conceal
their racism, an essential foundation of historical and current Nazi ideology.
And Nazis of the past and present will ALWAYS falsely
accuse their opposition of being “Marxists” and “Communists” who “hate” their
country.
In reality the hate is their projection.
Their goal is one-party rule, and inflicting as much
suffering as possible on anyone who stands in their way.
Radical Right neo-Nazis and white supremacists now see
all pro-democracy advocates as "Marxists". Who else did that? Adolf
Hitler. And like Hitler’s Nazis, they feel the same false sense of victimization. In fact; too many white nationalist bigots believe THEY are the "real
victims" of racism. "More than half of Republicans think minorities
are favored over Whites in the United States".
Hate, vengeance and white identity grievance have infected today’s Republican Party to frightening levels.
Another fair comparison is the fact Trump and Hitler both
incited a Putsch to seize power. Trump even praised his thugs for their
violence, saying, “You’re very special. We love you”. That day alone should
cement his evil into the historical annals of fascism.
One more direct comparison between Nazis and Republicans
is this: On October 10, 1936 Heinrich Himmler created the Reich Central Office
for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion. In this assault on freedom and
equality there is no distinction between them.
We see this fanaticism growing like a tumor in the Trump
Cult, the US Congress, and in the states controlled by Republicans.
The catalog of radical Right extremism has become too
vast to document here, so I’ll just focus on a few more examples of their
fascistic war on democracy, truth and decency.
In one raging neo-Nazi diatribe Marjorie Taylor Greene
called Ilhan Omar, Maxine Waters, Ayanna Pressley, Adam Schiff, Joe Biden,
Rashida Tlaib, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren, “Communist Democrats
who hate America, hate God, and hate our way of life.”
This enemy of truth decency and democracy howled, “You
can’t allow it, to just transfer power ‘peacefully’ like Joe Biden wants.”
“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a
Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.”
Ranting further about her failed coup on January 6, 2021,
MTG boasted, "I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had
organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would've been
armed."
And of course what neo-Nazi would be worth their swastika
if they didn’t project the evil darkness within their authoritarian amygdala?
"I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans
dead and they have already started the killings."
This insanity is from the newly empowered and profoundly
nasty QAnon Queen of Congress. There’s so much more, but let’s move on to
examples from the most extreme state of the Union.
A Florida Republican state senator proposed a bill that
would require bloggers who write about DeSantis, his Cabinet officers, or
members of the legislature, to register with the state.
Another authoritarian Florida fascist proposed outlawing
the Democratic Party.
Per Orlando’s Spectrum News 13:
A new proposed bill could pave the way for the official
removal of the Democratic Party from official voting information if passed in
this year’s legislative session in Tallahassee. The bill, currently titled SB
1248, calls for the state Division of Elections to cancel the “filings” of a
political party, to include party registration and approved status in any and
all elections if that party’s platform had previously advocated for slavery, or
involuntary servitude.
Although not explicitly listed, the Democratic Party,
which was popular in the nation’s South during Reconstruction, would fit the description. Economics
and civil rights fueled significant changes in both parties in the years since.
The bill includes language that would require any voter currently registered as
a member of a canceled party to be notified by that political party to update
their voter registration to an approved and active political party.
The bill was filed by Florida state Senator Blaise
Ingoglia.
Finally I present the latest neo-Nazi bile from the man
the Republican Party cannot stop from running for president again.
"This Animal Prosecutor that they stuck on me over
the Boxes Hoax is trying to TORTURE my people into telling lies. It’s all for
political reasons, and the fact I’m leading big, in all the polls. He’s flying
people from all over and throwing them in front of a D.C. Grand Jury. They are
confused and scared – they’ve never done this before. These Democrat Marxist
Pigs should be the ones that are investigated. The nice guy prosecutor in the
Biden documents case hasn’t even started yet!"
Along with the perversion of justice, the victim card, the commie card, and the projection card
are all there, lifted directly from Hitler's playbook.
If not for our fragile Constitution and weakened
democratic institution of fair elections and representation that allow us to
vote them out, these monsters would be even more destructive. How can anyone
doubt what horrible violence and bloodshed they would inflict if they thought
they could get away with it?
Past warnings are forgotten at our own peril.
"I
could hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." – “Robber
Baron” Jay Gould
Fascism
is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of liberalism, both in
the political and economic sphere. - Benito Mussolini
“Three
great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear, and greed.” - Albert
Einstein
“There
is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain
of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our
political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means
that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” - Isaac
Asimov
Do
not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and
stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again. - Bertold
Brecht 1941
First
they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a
socialist.
Then
they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a
trade unionist.
Then
they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then
they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
- Pastor Martin Niemöller’s words at the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Patriot v Fascist
Here’s now a neo-Nazi
would try to smear Democrats as commies, and how a patriot would respond. Rep.
Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) went after Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) during a House
Rules Committee hearing on a resolution that “denounces socialism in all its forms,
and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of
America.”
Reschenthaler was one of the 147 Republicans who voted to throw out the results of the election based on Trump’s Big Lie about widespread voter fraud. This lie motivated a violent pro-Trump mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After hours of refusing to order them to leave, Trump PRAISED the mob of thugs saying, “You’re very special. We love you.” (Yes, like Hitler’s 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, this is exactly how fascism raises its ugly head to stoke hate and violence.)
Key excerpts:
Waters: “The American
public is going to wonder why Republicans are wasting our time today with this
divisive resolution instead of focusing on the real threats to our economy and
democracy. What is this all about? Is it about saying you want to cut Social
Security? You want to cut Medicare? You don’t care about the debt ceiling?
Please.”
Reschenthaler: “You
can’t condemn socialism? In your opening remarks, you were talking about Putin,
Kim Jong Un and Xi. You know what they all have in common, right?”
Waters: “Trump,” she said flatly to a few laughs in the room.
Reschenthaler: “Trump? North Korea, China and Russia?”
Waters: “He loves Kim
Jong Un, who is condemned in the resolution. Regarding North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un, Trump said Kim ‘wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters
and we fell in love.’ You sure you want to hear the rest of this?”
Reschenthaler: “Do you denounce that?”
Waters: “But Trump loves
him. That’s your leader.”
Reschenthaler: “Do you denounce the genocide and starvation in communist China?”
Waters: “Trump is your
leader. He speaks for you. He says he loves him.”
Reschenthaler: “Stalin.
Tens of millions died. Do you want to denounce that?”
Waters: “I’m sorry, I don’t deal with yes or no questions."
Reschenthaler: “Why
don’t you explain your support of Stalin.”
Waters: “No, why don’t
you explain it? Your Republican leader, Donald Trump, is friends with, supports
Putin. Kim Jong Un, he loves him. And he led this country in being basically
undermined by Jan. 6, including … telling his supporters to go after our own
police officers here and use the American flag. I haven’t heard one
denouncement on the Republican side. Nobody has denounced that. Are you afraid
of Trump? Do you agree with Trump? Ask him the questions, don’t ask me.”
Reschenthaler: “Do
you denounce the killing fields of Cambodia or not?”
Waters: “Don’t ask me silly questions. I told you, I’m a capitalist. I’m not like Donald Trump. I’m not like Republicans who claim to support this democracy but at the same time refuse to condemn those who attempted to destroy this democracy. You need to talk to your leader, Donald Trump, about what he’s doing, about why he loves Putin so much, why he loves Kim Jong Un so much.You ask him the questions.”
Reschenthaler: “For the
record, you’ve refused to denounce Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hugo Chavez. That’s
amazing.”
Waters: “For the record,
you refuse to denounce Donald Trump. You refuse to denounce the insurrection
that tried to destroy our democracy. You refuse to denounce the Proud Boys, the
Oath Keepers, QAnon, the KKK. You refuse all of that. When you do all of that,
then we can talk.”