Jan. 6, 2021 Timeline

Trump's Putsch to overturn our election was American fascism's most powerful assault on our Constitution. 

So far. 

Trump's Big Lie and violent mob of terrorists ended the nations proud history of peaceful transition of power. 

Instead of  abandoning and denouncing Trump, the Republican Party deflects and turns away, or openly embraces the perpetrators. The poison of the Big Lie continues to rot out the core of the republic as a Republican tool to seize party control of elections. What remains of a representative democratic republic to slowly suffocated to death.

American ideals like consent of the governed and the will of the people are not the values of the radical Right, They are fascists.

Taking and holding political power by force, as it dismantles democratic representation, is how fascism strangles a republic. 

What it was:

Insurrection: an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.

Merriam-Webster- Coup d'état: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics, especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.

Merriam Webster- Terrorism: the unlawful use or threat of violence especially against the state or the public as a politically motivated means of attack or coercion

(FBI) Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.

United States military’s Guide to Terrorism in the 21st Century defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological.”

Under the Terrorism Act 2000 terrorism is currently defined as “the use or threat [of action] designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and the use or threat is made for the purposes of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.”

What is is:

Fascism.

American Heritage Dictionary Definition

 “A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government. Oppressive, dictatorial control.”

And:

"Fascism is not a specific ideological system with particular content. It's just a strategy for taking power and maintaining power against the rule of law, and against the majority in a democracy."  - Rep. Jamie Raskin

Orwell’s conclusion on fascists, from his 1944 piece, “What is Fascism?”

By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.

 ~~~~

Sean Illing:

When you use the term “fascism,” what exactly do you mean?

Madeleine Albright:

Well, first of all, I’m troubled by how thoughtlessly people throw around that term. At this point, anybody who disagrees with us is a fascist.

In the book, I try to argue that fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power. A fascist is somebody who identifies with one group — usually an aggrieved majority — in opposition to a smaller group. It’s about majority rule without any minority rights. Which is why fascists tend to single out the smaller group as being responsible for or the cause of their grievances.

The important thing is that fascists aren’t actually trying to solve problems; they’re invested in exacerbating problems and deepening the divisions that result from them. They reject the free press and denounce the institutional structures within a society — like Congress or the judiciary.

I’d also add that violence is a crucial element of fascism. Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power. It’s a bully with an army, really.

~~~~~

Timeline: January 6, 2021, an American fascist coup.

8:17 a.m.: Trump tweets: "States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!"

10:00 a.m.: Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally is underway. Addressing the crowd, Donald Trump Jr. says, "If you're going to be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you, and we're going to have a good time doing it."

11:15 a.m.: A mile-and-a-half from the rally, a group of 200 to 300 protesters arrives at the Capitol reflecting pool area near the west side of the building.

10:50 a.m.: Speaking at the rally, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani says, "Let's have trial by combat."

Noon: Trump begins to address the mob and continues speaking for more than an hour.

 "We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved."

 "We won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election."

 "I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election… All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people."

12:30 p.m.: As Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) enters the Capitol for the joint session of Congress that will certify Biden's election, he gives a thumbs up, a fist pump, and a wave to Trump's mob.

1:00 p.m.: While Trump continues his rant to the mob, some members of Trump's crowd have already reached the US Capitol building where Congress assembles in joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory. An initial wave of protesters storms the outer barricade west of the Capitol building. As the congressional proceedings begin, Pence reads a letter saying that he won't intervene in Congress's electoral count: "My oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority."

1:09 p.m.: DC Capitol Police Chief Sund tells his superiors – House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger — that he wants an emergency declaration and to call in the National Guard.

1:11 p.m.: Trump ends his speech by urging his followers to march down Pennsylvania Avenue: "We fight like hell. If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore… Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun… We're going to the Capitol. We're going to try and give them [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

 

The Attack

 

If the District of Columbia were a state, its governor alone could have deployed the National Guard to crush the riot. Instead, Trump and his Defense Department had that responsibility, and an unprecedent assault on a sacred institution of government succeeded, if only for a few hours.

(DoD Memo) 1:26 p.m.: The Capitol Police orders the evacuation of the Capitol complex.

Among those later arrested is Federico Klein, who is a US State Department political appointee with a top-secret security clearance. In March 2021, Klein, a former Trump campaign employee before joining the State Department in January 2017, is charged with numerous felonies that include storming the Capitol and assaulting an officer with a riot shield.

1:30 p.m.: The crowd outside the building grows larger, eventually overtaking the Capitol Police and making its way up the Capitol steps. Suspicious packages – later confirmed to be pipe bombs – are found at Republican National Committee headquarters and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington.

 As the attack unfolds, Trump is initially pleased and disregards aides pleading with him to intercede. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) later says that, according to Trump aides, he is "delighted," while "walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team [are]n't as excited." Trump initially rebuffs and resists requests to mobilize the National Guard.

 (DoD Memo) 1:34 p.m.: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asks Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy – who reports to Miller – for more federal help to deal with the mob.

Bowser is told that the request must first come from the Capitol Police.

(DoD Memo) 1:49 p.m.: The Capitol Police chief asks the commanding general of the DC National Guard for immediate assistance.

*The commanding general, Maj. Gen. William Walker, later testifies that he immediately notifies Army senior leadership of the request. The previous day, he had received an unusual restriction on deploying any quick reaction force service members unless Army secretary McCarthy explicitly approves is. Anticipating such approval, Walker begins to move National Guard members closer to the Capitol.

Also at 1:49 p.m.: Trump retweets a video of the rally, which includes his previous statements that: "our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that's what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you came up with, we will stop the steal. . . You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

1:59 p.m.: Sund receives the first report that rioters have reached the Capitol's doors and windows and are attempting to break at least one window.

2:10 p.m.: Text and email alerts to all congressional staff warn those inside to stay away from windows and those outside to seek cover.

2:11 p.m.: Trump's mob breaches the Capitol building – breaking windows, climbing inside, and opening doors for others to follow.

2:13 p.m.: Pence suddenly leaves the Senate floor and is moved to a nearby office.

2:14 p.m.: Rioters chase DC Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs and arrive on the landing near the office where Pence and his family are hiding. Goodman runs in the opposite direction – luring them away from Pence and the Senate chamber.

2:18 p.m.: Another text alert goes out to Capitol staff: "Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter."

Around 2:20 p.m.: Hiding in a barricaded room, members of Congress and their aides make pleas for outside help. Among them is a senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who reaches a former law firm colleague, Will Levi. Levi had served as Attorney General William Barr's chief of staff. From his home, Levi then calls FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich at the command center in the FBI's Washington field office. Bowdich dispatches the first of three tactical teams to the Capitol, including one from the Washington field office and another from Baltimore.

During the attack: Among the members of Congress appealing directly to Trump for help is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). According to a later statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), "When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol. McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'" [Emphasis in original]

(DoD Memo) 2:22 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy discusses the situation at the Capitol with Mayor Bowser and her staff.

They are begging for additional National Guard assistance. Note the time. It's been almost an hour since Bowser requested help.

2:24 p.m.: Trump tweets: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

After erecting a gallows on the Capitol grounds, the mob shouts, "Hang Mike Pence." Rioters create another noose from a camera cord seized during an attack on an on-site news team.

2:26 p.m.: While the senators are in a temporary holding room after the Senate chamber is evacuated, Trump tries to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), but mistakenly reaches Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who hands the phone to Tuberville. Trump then tries to convince Tuberville to make additional objections to the Electoral College vote in an effort to block Congress' certification of Biden's win. The call is cut off because senators are asked to move to a secure location. "Mr. President, they've taken the vice president out," Tuberville says. "They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go.'"

2:26 p.m.: Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund joins a conference call with several officials from the DC government, as well as officials from the Pentagon, including Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff. Piatt later issues a statement denying the statements attributed to him.

"I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance," Sund says. "I have got to get boots on the ground."

The DC contingent is flabbergasted when Piatt says that he could not recommend that his boss, Army Secretary McCarthy, approve the request. "I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background," Piatt says. Again and again, Sund says that the situation is dire.

The commanding general of the DC National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, later testifies that the call includes Lt. Gen Charles Flynn – brother of former national security Mike Flynn, whom Trump pardoned after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign. Piatt and Flynn relay to Walker: "It wouldn't be their best military advice to send uniformed guardsmen to the Capitol because they didn't like the optics. And they had also said that it could 'inflame' [the protesters]."

2:28 p.m.: Rioters storm House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) suite of offices, pounding the doors trying to find her.

(D0D Memo) 2:30 p.m.: Miller, Army Secretary McCarthy, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff meet to discuss Mayor Bowser's request.

2:33 p.m.: A broadcast on the emergency management agency channel in DC requests that all law enforcement officers in the city respond to the Capitol.

2:42 p.m.: As lawmakers are evacuating the House chamber using the Speaker's Lobby, rioters breach the Lobby threshold.

2:52 p.m.: The first FBI SWAT team enters the Capitol.

2:53 p.m.: The last of a large group of House members has been evacuated and is headed for a secure location.

(DoD Memo) 3:04 p.m.: Miller gives "verbal approval" to full mobilization of the DC National Guard (1,100 members).

It has now been more than 90 minutes since Mayor Bowser first asked Army Secretary McCarthy for assistance. It took an hour for Defense Department officials to meet and another half-hour for them to decide to help. And Bowser still doesn't know the status of her request.

(Memo) 3:19 p.m.: Pelosi and Schumer call Army Secretary McCarthy, who says that Bowser's request has now been approved.

(Memo) 3:26 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy calls Bowser to tell her that her request for help has been approved.

The Defense Department's notification of approval to Bowser came two hours after her request.

While Miller and his team were slow-walking Mayor Bowser's request, she had sought National Guard assistance from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R). At about the same time, Speaker Pelosi called Northam directly for help and he agreed.

3:29 p.m.: Governor Northam announces mobilization of Virginia's National Guard. But there's a hitch. Federal law requires Defense Department authorization before any state's National Guard can cross the state border onto federal land in DC. That approval doesn't come until almost two hours later.

(DoD Memo) 3:47 p.m. Governor Hogan mobilizes his state's National Guard and 200 state troopers.

The Defense Department "repeatedly denies" Hogan's request to deploy the National Guard at the Capitol. As he awaits approval, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) calls Hogan from the undisclosed bunker to which he, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have been evacuated. Hoyer pleads for assistance, saying that the Capitol Police is overwhelmed and there is no federal law enforcement presence.

4:17 p.m.: Trump tweets a video telling rioters, "I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side… It's a very tough period of time. There's never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us — from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil."

(DoD Memo) 4:18 p.m.: Miller gives voice approval to notifying surrounding states to muster and be prepared to mobilize their National Guard personnel.

(DoD Memo) 4:32 p.m.: Miller gives verbal authorization to "re-mission" DC National Guard from city posts where most have been directing traffic and monitoring subway stations "to conduct perimeter and clearance operations" in support of the Capitol Police force.

4:40 p.m.: More than 90 minutes after Governor Hogan had requested federal approval to send his state's National Guard troops to DC, Army Secretary McCarthy calls and asks, "Can you come as soon as possible?" Hogan responds, "Yeah. We've been waiting. We're ready."

5:08 p.m.: More than three hours after Maj. Gen. Walker's request for approval to deploy the National Guard at the Capitol, he receives approval.

 5:20 p.m.: After being ready for hours, 155 members of the National Guard arrive at the Capitol. According to Maj. Gen. Walker's later testimony, earlier assistance "could have made a difference" in pushing back the crowd.

(DoD Memo) 5:45 p.m.: Miller signs formal authorization for out-of-state National Guard personnel to muster and gives voice approval for deployment to support the Capitol Police.

The first Maryland National Guard personnel don't arrive at the Capitol until January 7 at 10:00 a.m. The first Virginia National Guard members arrive at Noon.

6:01 p.m.: Trump tweets: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

7:00 p.m.: Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, intends to call Sen. Tuberville but, like Trump five hours earlier, he reaches Sen. Lee. Unaware that he has reached the wrong number,

Giuliani leaves a voicemail message saying, "Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the President's lawyer. I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow."

When Congress resumes the session at 8:06 p.m., Tuberville votes in favor of objections to certifying Biden's election.

(DoD Memo) 8:00 p.m.: The DC Capitol Police declare the Capitol building secure.

Are They Fascists?

 

The AP reported out of over 159 million votes cast, there were only 475 cases of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

That is nowhere near enough to change the results of the election.

And most of the fraudulent votes were for Trump.

Who's surprised?

Trump’s Big Lie has been disproved at every turn, every recount, every study, every Republican partisan “audit”, and in every court.

But a cult is a cult. And a cult isn’t a cult to a cult. The Trump Cult are true believers in their Dear Leader.

They are told, and they believe, they are victims. It is essential for a cult to cut off its members from all real world information that doesn’t conform to the cult’s ideology and indoctrination.

So are Trumpists fascists? Dare we compare them to Nazis?

Let’s have a look at why the answer to both questions is “yes”.

Let’s start with this news:

The January 6th committee has subpoenaed the phone and social media records of Marjorie Taylor Greene and other “sedition caucus” members of Congress: Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and Louie Gohmert.

Mean Margie Green is got very upset, and tweeted on December 14th:

"The job of Congress is make laws, not enforce them. But the Communists in charge of the House are purposely abusing the Constitution and the institution of Congress. The J6 Committee is a kangaroo court & a total abuse of power. I will vote NO to hold @MarkMeadows in contempt."

These hateful bigots are desperately trying to whitewash Trump's fascist Putsch.

On January 6th, some of Trump’s cult worried he’d gone too far. We now have their texts from that day.

“We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.” — Donald Trump Jr.

“Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.” — Fox News host Brian Kilmeade

“This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.” — Fox News host Laura Ingraham

They quickly fell back in line and sung a different tune to their viewers. They passed on more lies about “Antifa” and “BLM” being in the mob. Since then the lies have gotten even more absurd, blaming the FBI for the coup.

Before it all hit the fan, Gym “Rat” Jordan sent a text that amounted to a push to overturn the election by blatantly unconstitutional means.

“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence..."

No, Gym Rat.

"Believing" Trump's Big Lie does NOT allow anyone to overrule the Constitution and cancel the votes of the American people. Even Pence knew that, only to have his life threatened for following the Constitution.

But that wasn't enough. Trump allowed his mob to storm the Capitol, literally following their Fuhrer like brownshirt storm troopers did for Hitler. It was pure fascist thuggery.

The violent insurrectionists were actually PRAISED by Trump, and now they squeal like pigs, "Witchhunt!"

A few individuals may think it isn’t fair to compare the rise of the American radical Right to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, despite the obvious similarities in behavior and radical Right racist extremism.

To be clear, I am not equating Republicans to Hitler and his Nazis. I’m not calling them Nazis, nor am I comparing Trumpism to the Holocaust, like so many radical Right wackos do with vaccination requirements.

I’m calling them out for emulating Nazis before they rose to power. I’m noting their common roots of white nationalism, hate, scapegoating, and bigotry. Both groups are power mad authoritarian liars who lie and accuse anybody against them of being "communists". I’m noting how both Nazis and Trumpists attempted a violent overthrow of a government.

The essence of fascist propaganda and indoctrination is summed up by Trump’s own words, "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening,"

The German Nazis used the term “Lügenpresse”, or lying press, in their campaign to undermine truth and journalism. Now American fascists cry “liberal media” and “fake news” when the facts threaten their agenda. Trump accuses the press as being “enemies of the people”.

Fox News deleted a cartoon of George Soros from its social media accounts Wednesday after the Anti-Defamation League accused the cable network of “casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes.”

There is no denying this fact. Trumpists are emulating Nazis before they took power in Germany.

They are just as fascistic as German Nazis were before they took power.

Not only has the radical Right become the greatest domestic threat ever to equality, truth and democracy, they’ve become the greatest force of evil in America since slavery. The threat of more radical Right terrorism is higher than ever.

Their Dear Leader praises terrorists, and they LOVE him. They CHEER his hatred and lies.

This is a tyrant and his cult of angry fanatical bigots.

Some may even disagree if we call it fascism, if we apply the definition strictly to government policy only.

Were Nazis fascists before they took power? Were they fascists before joining the Nazi Party?

Hell, yes.*

But decency, common sense, and some understanding of history will apply a more accurate term.

The word for that is evil. We ignore their evil at our own peril.

~~~~

 *From George Orwell’s 1944 article titled, “What is Fascism”.

Of all the unanswered questions of our time, perhaps the most important is: ‘What is Fascism?’

One of the social survey organizations in America recently asked this question of a hundred different people, and got answers ranging from ‘pure democracy’ to ‘pure diabolism’. In this country if you ask the average thinking person to define Fascism, he usually answers by pointing to the German and Italian régimes. But this is very unsatisfactory, because even the major Fascist states differ from one another a good deal in structure and ideology.

It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as Fascist...

 ... By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.

Thankful? For Now

 

I suppose we should be thankful today for a semblance of justice, delayed and obstructed as it was, for the racist murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

Arbery’s killers, along with the likes of fellow predators Zimmerman and Rittenhouse, are showing us how American vigilante racists want the right to hunt, provoke, and kill human targets.

And talk about white privilege and entitlement.

"Self defense! That Black guy tried to grab mah shotgun from me... after I shot him with mah rifle! I'M the VICTIM, here!"

Now the racists are saying the verdict proves the US is "not a racist country", ignoring the systemic racism that would have never brought them to trial.

All it proves is racism is real, and finally thanks to videos, more guilty verdicts are reached.

If local authorities in Georgia had their way, no one would have been charged for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

The original prosecutor called the murder "justifiable homicide". She’s been indicted for interfering in the arrest of the defendants.

The public saw the video. There were weeks of protests before charges were even brought in the case.  74 days passed after Arbery was shot and killed in February 2020.

What decent person wasn’t shocked by the nasty racist defense attorney when she demonized the victim with her "long, dirty toenails" crack? It's not hard to imagine she'd have said "filthy animal" if she thought she could get away with it.

Racism isn’t racism to racists.

At least there will be three less Trump/Republican voters in Georgia for the next few elections.

Radical right Republicans, white nationalists, and other racists and bigots still want to deny such systemic racism exists. So they’re banning the study and teaching of the history and effects of slavery and racism, calling it "Marxist CRT".

And they have no frickin' idea what Critical Race Theory even is. It’s their perfect warped and ill-defined tool to elevate white fright. If it scares, it fares. Just ban it.

Ignorance is strength. - Big Brother 1984

MAGAts would prefer to take us back to the good old days when nobody was charged for lynching or for the Tulsa Massacre.

Trump is calling Democrats communists, as his House fascists share their fantasies of killing them.

Man. That's a LOT of hate. In fact, it's stochastic terrorism. It's way more than just a war on voter rights and democracy. Armed violence is being brazenly pushed, and condoned, by the Republican Party.

How many more Americans will be slaughtered by radical Right domestic terrorists?

Trumpism's continuing "gift" to America is escalating dishonesty, division, rampant racist hatred and fascistic demonization of any opposition.

What we need is more justice, more voter protections, more democracy, and more accountability for Trump’s Big Lie and coup.

If we don’t get that soon, the US will be turning a corner into a deep darkness of political violence and tyranny.

For the moment, we need to be thankful for our right to vote and steer the country back towards sanity and decency.

Unlearned Lessons

Another Veterans Day has come and gone, each time seeing fewer remaining veterans from World War II.

We are appropriately accustomed to thanking them for their service, but we rarely discuss why they fought.

My father-in-law earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star when he served in Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge and liberation of Buchenwald. He saw the end results of unchecked fascism.

Those inmates were all "enemies of the state", enemies of the “Deutshce Volk”, (German people). They were communists, socialists, educators, non-heterosexual people, and members of the wrong religion/heritage.

Even if someone wasn’t in any of those groups, he could still be labeled an enemy of the people and sent to the camps. The “law” allowed this.

Every atrocity the Nazis committed was "legal". The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany's parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society.

Echoes of Hitler's racist fascism are now ringing across America. As with the Third Reich, the resentments and anger of white nationalist bigots have fueled the rise of the radical Right and Trumpism.

We're on the precipice of a one-party dictatorship if voter rights are not protected and gerrymandering is allowed to continue.

This is the party that still supports a leader who calls democrats communists. He calls the press the enemy of the people. He makes scapegoats of immigrants and minorities. He rose to power by fueling racism and hate.

The leader is a criminal sociopath who incited a violent coup and praised the mob of thugs for their efforts.

His party of radical Right American fascists constantly employs propaganda tactics to portray liberals, Democrats, Socialists, educators, atheists, immigrants and minorities as repugnant and evil as possible. They deliberately cultivate resentment and hate for them in their white nationalist supporters and duped base.

They organize and stage a coup, attempt to bully the Justice Department and state officials to overturn an election, plot to kidnap a governor, threaten congress and political opponents, threaten election officials, engage in vigilantism, and openly intimidate others by brandishing weapons.

They seize power to suppress voters, nullify elections, ban books, and ban teaching the history of racism and slavery.

His party is getting away with it all. See any parallels here?

This is fascism.

Never forget these crimes against freedom and democracy.

Let’s also not forget our Constitution didn't prevent Bush from starting a war based on lies, locking people up without charges, and implementing torture.

And always remember the US Holocaust Museum list of the early warning signs of fascism:

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
4. Rampant sexism
5. Controlled mass media
6. Obsession with national security
7. Religion and government intertwined
8. Corporate power protected
9. Labor power suppressed
10. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
11. Obsession with crime and punishment
12. Rampant cronyism and corruption

This is radical Right Republican Trumpism, folks. And it is fascism.

Too many Americans fail to see this ongoing domestic threat to our republic, and fail to learn the lessons of history. Either American fascists are held accountable by the rule of law, or there will be no rule of law to constrain the authoritarian party of Trump.

If the rule of law doesn’t apply to the rulers, there can be no rule of law, and no democratic republic, and the future will certainly be further darkened by American Radical Right fascism.

I guarantee it.

Sorry, Kids

 

Is it just a passing mood, or clear insight into a grim forecast?

Future American fascists will do what they are doing now. Appeals to greed and inflaming resentment, anger, and hatred have always nurtured the radical Right. They know the “Big Lie” will deceive and radicalize enough Americans into supporting a tyrant and his coup. Despite, or because of, his praise for his violent mob of insurrectionists, Trump will be their revered hero and they will build statues of him. This is the irrefutable identifying mark of a fascist leader and his movement.

1/6 will never have happened. The history of slavery and racism will be expunged. The corrupt and radicalized white Right minority will rule, as they portray themselves as victims, in order to suppress democratic opposition.

Hate crimes will continue to rise in number and intensity. Mobs will swarm and intimidate every level of government function, from local school boards, county offices, state capitols, up to the nation’s Capitol 

They will continue their minority rule, and seize increasing power through their disproportionate representation, suppression of minority and democratic voters, and control of elections. Minority rule is exactly what corporate interests have been buying all along. Their partnership with the radical Right will assure fascism’s future in the United States.

Equal justice under law will be a forgotten concept.

They will continue their lies, smears and demonization of dissent and opposition, and eventually criminalize it. They already falsely and viciously accuse Democrats of being communists and progressives as “commie/fascists”. The press is the “enemy of the people”. It doesn’t take any special psychic ability to envision where fascistic scapegoating and false accusations will take us.

The lessons of history will be banned and erased as if they were Critical Race Theory. Orwell’s Big Brother will be their role model. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

And above all, “Ignorance is strength”.

This is America's present and future. The Right's dominance is already assured by their disproportionate representation and power in the Senate, their gerrymandered House, their stolen Supreme Court, and the antiquated Electoral College.

Our future was written in the past. Ironically, our Constitution was drafted with flaws that would become toxic to democratic representation.

This is NOT, nor has it EVER been, a democratic representative republic.

Sorry kids, it was rigged for rich white people from the beginning. It was only a matter of time when corporate elites and their crooked and corrupt white authoritarian enablers would lock their grip on the throat of democracy and establish the power of American fascism.

Please feel free to change my mind. Or if that’s impossible, I’ll settle for a slight elevation of my mood.

Prime Doctrines

I've recently been banned from a certain Trumpist's site, despite our having a long history of commenting at each other's blogs. (He and his loyal pals may still comment here.)

"Prager U" is one of his go-to sources of information and opinion. It is his gospel, of course. It is all believed 100% beyond question.

Ever since he drank the Big Lie koolade, he's been self-radicalizing to the extreme.  He finally had enough of my repeated requests for evidence showing the election was stolen. (Oh, me of little faith.)

After years of  lecturing me on how much I was being "Marxist, Leftist, Socialist”, etc, he's now all aboard the "Leftists Are Fascists" train. 

Well, that train derailed. Do they know fascists have always hated communists?

Do they know, or care, what those words even mean? Or is it just about the hate? 

Exhibit A: "Anyone that simply wishes to throw "Nazi" and "fascist" firebombs as a means of debate is not a useful source at all, other than as an example of how low the militant left has descended."

Of course, it was also acceptable discourse to be called "Commie racist Dave".

Their Leader recently declared, “Slobs and Radical Left maniacs at the View” are the “Communists” Meghan McCain should fight.

And at the radical Turning Point rally:

 “Like it or not, we are becoming a communist country. That’s what’s happening...The radical left democrat communist party".

That’s also when his standard Trumpian projection echoed Goebbels:

“That’s what they’re doing. You know what it’s called? Disinformation. They make up a lot of crap and they say it over and over and over…”

Like someone being a commie AND a fascist. 

Of course our Trumpist friend has been conditioned to reflexively ignore, dismiss, or deny all information from the “Liberal Media, Fake News, Enemies of the people”. He can believe only pro-Trump media. 

It was only a few years ago he agreed Trump wasn't morally fit to be president.

He grew weary of ignoring facts and dismissing appeals to reason, of course. It may even have made him uncomfortable. That made me a "hater". Well, that and being such a dirty, lying Socialist/Leftist/Commie/Fascist.

I think what really snapped his girdle was when I challenged him for still supporting Trump, knowing he praised the violent 1/6 terrorists AFTER their failed coup.

It did not compute.

He was utterly incapable of disagreeing, or even recognizing the statement.

So he had to ban me for my "hate".

I’m not so sad to leave as so happy to have been there.

Really. I’ve learned a bit. Those on the radical Right have strong FEELINGS, and beliefs beyond introspection. Beyond facts, logic and reason.

And I have gained a belief of my own, albeit open to as much question as my fascist tolerance allows.

I believe there are two important things to understand about cults like the American far Right.

The radical Right and Trump Cult have two Orwellian operating "principles".  

The Two Prime Doctrines of the American Radical Right:

1. The Doctrine of Flexible Morality and Ethics. “It's OK if you’re a Republican.”

“Anything and everything. Identical words and actions are evil if by a Democrat, but never if by a Republican.”

 (Right. My body. My choice. If not for double standards, they’d have none.)

2. The Doctrine of Flexible Reality.*

“Everything is as we say, contradictions included, and everyone else is lying.”

* (Corollaries) “There is no such thing as a Doctrine of Flexible Morality and Ethics. There is no such thing as a Doctrine of Flexible Reality. Unless we say there is.” 

(This doctrine was established and expanded upon by their propagandists over the decades, and employed every day across their cult. They were now ready for Trump, their Dear Leader of infallible words and deeds.)

I can’t think of anything these “principles” can’t cover in their deranged and delusional cult bubble.

Ignorance is strength. 

2+2=5, comrades.

Random Tweets

 

Well, maybe these tweets of mine are not quite so random samples, but they are important points on how our republic is failing, and falling into authoritarianism.

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell 

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people, especially in large groups." - George Carlin

"Just find me 11,780 votes." "Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me." They are criminals and enemies of democracy. Period.

They are seizing the power to invalidate every election they lose. Fair elections and fair representation are the antithesis of the radical Right and Trumpism. A system already rigged for minority rule isn't good enough for them.

The country was founded on anti-democratic roadblocks like the Electoral College , the Senate, and now the gerrymandered House 

The majority voted for the Democrat in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections. The Senate, gerrymandered House, and Electoral College are biased for the minority. Thus the majority of Americans, not conservatives, are marginalized.

Systemic denial of systemic racism is actually systemic racism. The radical Right sees the study of racism and its effects as a Marxist assault on our freedom, and is why they want to ban the 1619 Project and anything that looks like CRT.

The radical Right have more tolerance for Trump's gang of racist vandals, felons, thugs, white nationalists, Q-Anon believers, Proud Boys, Nazis, Oath Keepers, etc. than they do for those investigating them. It is the "Authoritarian Way".

Sociopaths can thrive in system that rewards their manipulative machinations. They will have the support of the 30% of humanity with authoritarian personalities. Apathy is the ally of authoritarians.

Magat brains are poisoned with not only the lies, but animosity for everyone who isn't in their cult. They are being indoctrinated to hate and fear us as America-hating Leftists, on the cusp of a communist takeover. They are that nuts. And evil.

It is a cult, with a leader revered beyond question, and all outside information is rejected. Journalism went from "liberal media", to "fake news" and finally to "enemy of the people". The Right has always depended on falsehoods, and a gullible base, so this was inevitable.

Facts still matter to honest and rational people. Unfortunately "alternative facts" matter more to dishonest and irrational people.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. "The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived."

“The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste that few acquire…. ….The world winks at dishonesty.” ― Walter Kaufmann.

Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."  Absurdities like witch trials, inquisitions, the "final solution", war based on lies, torture as "enhanced interrogation" and a "Stop the steal" coup.

Their fear of democracy and equality drives the radical Right into fits of lies, false accusations, demonization, and denials of election results. To hold power, they STILL need to cheat, suppress voter rights and seize control of elections.

They can't seem to imagine how much they’d screech and howl, “Impeach”, “Traitor”, “Liar”, and “Commie!”, if President Obama or President Biden had done or said exactly what Trump did and said.

If his 1/6 coup didn't make it clear enough, what will it take for the corporate media to admit Trumpism IS fascism? He PRAISED the TERRORISTS! Why isn't this fact included in every report about that man?