A Fascist Oligarchy

 

Recently I was talking to a friend about the state of our country and mentioned, "America is becoming a monster that devours itself". 

It’s taken almost 250 years, but the radical Right fascists have succeeded.

The Republicans have brewed their perfect storm to destroy a republic of, by and for the people. It took some time, but their fascist oligarchy is here now, and the destruction will be devastating and lasting.

Their slow-moving coup was facilitated from the beginning by the founders' antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College and Senate. Those bastions of inequality should have been removed when slavery was abolished. Instead, they allowed the road to fascism to be paved by the "Reagan Revolution" that let the corporate foxes into the regulatory henhouse. They installed into our government shills who stood diametrically opposed to Constitutional taxation, regulation of commerce, and provision for the general welfare 

The radical Right needed to establish a propaganda network to con the public into believing they worked for the working class. Enter Murdoch's FOX(R) and Limbaugh to drive home their divide and conquer strategy. They would dupe millions of poorly educated and semi-literate Americans with their hate and lies. 

Next, they needed to fill the courts with partisan ideologues who would do their bidding. This is how the 2000 election was handed to Bush, the first audible death knell to democracy. That president went on to wage a war based on lies, only to be reelected. The country was proving itself to be easily misled by the radical Right. The next ominous red flag was when, for the first time in memory, rights were curtailed for women.

The time had come for Trump’s Big Lie and crime spree.

From there on the road to fascism was paved by Mitch McConnell's refusal to convict Trump in his J6 impeachment trial and his treacherous theft of the Supreme Court, packing it with a MAGA majority willing to immunize Trump from justice and deny the 14th Amendment's protection against insurrectionists.

But they still needed a weak and divided opposition, which Joe Biden gave them by breaking his promise to not run for reelection. Dropping out after his weak debate only added to the appearance of the party's disarray.

The corporate media's failure to focus on Trump's crimes just to keep their "horse race" ratings up was the final nail in democracy’s coffin. Now they are quickly falling in line to escape Trump’s wrath and retribution.

Already Google has removed Gulf of Mexico from their maps and replaced it with Trump’s decreed Gulf of America. What’s next? The “East American Ocean” and the “West American Ocean” instead of the Atlantic and Pacific?

It shouldn’t be surprising that corporate entities instantly fail historian Timothy Snyder’s first lesson on tyranny. “Don’t obey in advance”.

Trump’s autocratic oligarchy has taken power and is actively dismantling any governing authority that regulates banks and corporations. It has shut down America’s best foreign relations agency USAID. They’d rather see food rot and medicine expire than send to the poor people most in need. 

Greed, hate, power, cruelty, and dominance are their only values. They take joy in inflicting suffering in the people they hate. They will demonize and scapegoat minorities and the powerless. The unelected autocratic oligarch Elon Musk declared USAID is a "criminal organization" without evidence. Trump accused the employees of being "radical leftists".

And here we see the ugly true nature of fascists. They will always seek to scapegoat and punish anyone they hate, including all who oppose or even inconveniences them. Under a convicted felon in the White House the Justice Department and FBI are being purged of competent lawyers and agents who upheld their oath to defend our Constitution and rule of law by investigating the serial criminal president. 

Tyrants value and demand loyalty to the leader. They resent and scorn an impartial judiciary. This is why Trump installed radical right loyalists into the Supreme Court who would advance his political agenda and even grant him blatantly unconstitutional immunity from the law. The noble ideal in the words "Equal Justice Under Law" over the entrance to the Supreme Court no longer applies in the United States. 

Along with equal justice, Trump and his loyalists have also terminated America's tradition of peaceful transfer of power.

It's always dictatorship over democracy for radical right authoritarians. They want to rule, not govern. Having no conscience, cruelty always trumps compassion.

Under their rule they are endangering the health of Americans by muzzling and dismantling the CDC and NIH. Human suffering and death means nothing to these sociopaths.

Provision for the general welfare be damned. Corporate welfare and a police state will be all that remains of a federal government that was once intended to be of, by, and for the people. These days white (un)Christian nationalists are the only "real Americans". 

“We the people” no longer matter. It’s now all about “We the wealthy elites and Trump loyalists” fleecing and subjugating Americans in a deliberately and systematically demolished republic.

Trump's Police State

 

A recent photo of integrity being scrubbed from the FBI Academy at Quantico.

Over that past few decades I’ve been predicting, “When fascism comes to America, we will vote for it, and it will be welcomed and embraced”. America’s march into fascism is now well under way. The radical Right propaganda empire founded by Rupert Murdoch, with allies like Rush Limbaugh, will have done its job. We have more radical Right propaganda outlets than even corporate media outlets, which have already hosted radical Right voices.

This isn’t new for White Nationalist America. These propagandists continue a heritage left them by the likes of the hugely popular pre-WWII radio personality and Nazi sympathizer Father Coughlin. 

The grandchildren of his fans are now all on board the Trump Train to chaos, cruelty and ultimately an economic collapse, if he has his way. So what can we expect to happen to justice and law enforcement under the authoritarian rule of a convicted felon?

We can expect with certainty institutionalized corruption and criminal malfeasance after Trump’s mass firing of independent inspectors general at several federal agencies and of Justice Department/FBI lawyers. We’re seeing the beginning of a massive politically motivated purge of capable public servants whose only “fault” was honest performance of their duty and to not be Trump loyalists. This is the only reason they are being eliminated, and likely to be replaced by loyalist radical Right enablers.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has been institutionalized and infected all branches of the Federal Government. 

The purging of the DOJ and FBI of employees who swore an oath to the Constitution but refuse to swear loyalty to the Felonious Fuhrer is a glaring red flag of fascism. They were sent a letter under the subject “Notice of Removal from Federal Service”. The letter from acting Attorney General James McHenry to the DOJ officials said they cannot be “trusted” to “faithfully” implement Trump’s agenda.

“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates,” McHenry wrote. “Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”

And there it is. The mission of the DOJ and FBI is no longer enforcing the law and indicting criminals by gathering evidence that would stand in a court of law.

It’s now about “implementing Trump’s agenda”. 

For Trump and his authoritarian cartel, upholding the Constitution clearly isn’t their priority.

From the New York Times:

The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York City field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to “dig in” after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack — and praised the bureau’s interim leaders for defending its independence.

“Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,” wrote James E. Dennehy, a veteran and highly-respected agent who has run the largest and most important field office in the bureau since last September.

An F.B.I. spokeswoman declined to comment on internal bureau communications.

The email came after the Justice Department ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to collect the names of bureau personnel who helped investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, raising the possibility that Mr. Trump’s political appointees plan to purge career bureau officials, including rank-and-file field agents. That number could reach 6,000 — or about a sixth of the bureau’s 38,000 employees, according to the F.B.I.

In Trump’s Swamp of liars, criminals, sociopaths, and other such reptilians the FBI’s mission statement no longer applies.

Mission

Our mission encompasses all that we do as an organization—protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.

No more of that. Trump wants a police state to enforce his will and to prosecute and punish those he hates. And it has nothing to do with the rule of law. It is purely a dictator’s purge to facilitate his totalitarian ambitions.

Another red flag was the whole-hearted endorsement of Trump by the Fraternal of Order of Police.

Note how this endorsement completely ignores the fact that they endorsed a convicted felon who had a large number of additional evidence-supported felony indictments. This is the madness that begets tyranny.

How deranged is that? Here we have an extreme case of mass law enforcement Trump Derangement Syndrome. It is the same deranged extremism that sent a violent mob to overturn an election. It is as toxic as the case of the deranged Red Hats on the Supreme Court granting immunity to their fellow corrupt radical Right authoritarian and serial criminal. He just happened to be the career advancement benefactor for enough of them to demolish our nation's core democratic value of equal justice under law. 

And how could they have not known Trump had been promising to pardon his thugs he called “hostages” all along? They certainly had no objection to Trump’s other promise to weaponize law enforcement against officers and lawyers who were honorably performing their jobs by gathered evidence, due process, and restraint.

Ah, but soon the very fine police officers would be troubled when their Felonious Fuhrer did what he clearly intended to do.

The hypocrites at the Fraternal Order of Police KNEW about Trump’s felony conviction, indictments, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election in addition to his promise to release his thugs, but they endorsed him anyway. Note how they "both sides" the issue with false equivalence on Biden.

There was reasonable doubt and trial issues for Biden's pardon cases. There was no doubt as to the guilt of Trump's unrepentant thugs.

Unfortunately, there is also no doubt that there is disturbing percentage of police officers ready to enforce a tyrant’s rule. You can’t have a police state without willing police accomplices who inevitably embrace fascism.  Any dissenting officers will be purged.

Americans voted for a fascist presidency, and it has arrived. Will they learn from this mistake? Probably not, but the next two elections will tell us how much worse it could be,  how many people will suffer, and how much longer this tragedy will darken our republic.

Never Forget!

"Don't take for granted how quiet the Capitol will be today.

It's because today in America, tragically, only one party respects elections. The other party uses and justifies violence to keep power.

Had Harris won, today likely would have been another bloodbath." ~  Senator Chris Murphey

January 6, 2021 was America’s Domestic Day of Infamy. The reaction of the party of Trump and more recently the indifference by the voting public brought the deepest shame and dishonor to our nation since the era of slavery.

We now have a convicted felon and insurrectionist for president! 

Well done, America, home of the duped MAGA cult, low-information voters, and apathetic masses.

The greatest American tragedy of the 21^st Century has been welcomed back, only to be compounded.

Just one example of the turncoat behavior is found in the words and actions of U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

He once delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

 

January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.             

Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.

Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.

The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.

The issue is not only the President’s intemperate language on January 6th. It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged “trial by combat”. It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-President.

I defended the President’s right to bring any complaints to our legal system. The legal system spoke. The Electoral College spoke. As I stood up and said clearly at the time, the election was settled.

But that reality just opened a new chapter of even wilder and more unfounded claims.

The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things. Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally.

This was different. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.

 

Those are some noble and honest words, long since evaporated into the fascist void of MAGA.

But McConnell’s actions spoke louder. He stole and filled two Supreme Court seats with Trump loyalists who defied our Constitution and destroyed our ideal of equal justice under law. 

Then the morally feeble and spineless hypocrite proceeded to vote “not guilty” in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. Finally he supported the convicted felon for reelection. The Republican Party and corrupt Supreme Court went on to renounce truth, decency, and the rule of law.

Sadly, America will not soon recover from their treachery, if ever.

It is up to the people of consciousness and conscience to endure and ultimately prevail over the evil darkness of lies and hate in the halls of power. If not, Putin won and America is lost.

Never forget!

Officer Daniel Hodges

Officer Michael Fanone

An Omen?

Perhaps a metaphor foreshadowing tragedies to come under the imminent Musk and Trump regime, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Las Vegas Trump Hotel.

We're waiting to learn if it was an act of terrorism or not. (CNN reports: "The Cybertruck was rented on the same platform used to obtain the truck involved in a vehicle attack in New Orleans early on Wednesday. Authorities are investigating the possible links between the two incidents.)

1 person died, 7 others suffered minor injuries from the Cybertruck explosion at Trump International today, per LVMPD.

Meanwhile, related to the Las Vegas explosion or not,  another dire omen emerges as Trump attacks immigrants in his reaction to the New Orleans terror attack by a radicalized ex-US Army individual.

MAGA Manifesto

 

The MAGA Manifesto

We White Christian Nationalist Trump supporters are the most oppressed group in the United States. Our sacred cause to rule the country under our religious beliefs is resisted by the godless evil Democrat Party of Socialists, Marxists, and Communists. We are disturbed that most Jews, Blacks, and Hispanics remain their allies, and must also be further dominated and controlled.

As a white male Trump supporter in America I am the real victim of systemic racism.

My rights are being suppressed and denied by BLM, DEI, wokism, democracy when we lose, Marxist educators, drag queens, illegal immigrants, the deep state, and mean libs.

Their so-called facts cannot support their woke ideas of truth, justice, compassion, and equality. I am very angry at them for saying Trump is a pathological liar, fraud, and felon! This means they are the enemy within and hate America! And their verifiable facts and evidence hurt my FEELINGS!

NOT FAIR!

They must ALL be PUNISHED for what they've done to us.

We are still the victims of the STOLLEN 2020 election! Trump said he won and he never lies: 

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution”.

Our beloved patriotic Leader, with God's blessing, knows what must be done, and who we should hate, so this never happens again. He knows those against him are radical leftists who need to be locked up. All liberal media should be shut down for their FAKE NEWS that said Trump lied about the STOLLEN election!

Trump's word is our gospel. He may NOT be contradicted. 

It is time to let the noble, wise, and pure-hearted Donald Trump along with his loyal billionaires like Elon Musk run the country. It just makes sense because oligarchs know what THEY deserve, and what’s best for everyone else.

It is the ONLY way to make America great again.

In Trump We Trust.

Wasted Life

 

A United Healthcare insurance CEO was murdered. 

Innocent victim? Karma? Revenge? Comeuppance? 

Why does this story resonate so much? Because most of us in the "land of the free" are one accident or disease from misery, bankruptcy, and poverty. And of course, when any rich white guy is the victim, it becomes a huge media story.

While I abhor violence and emphatically condemn murder, it is difficult to summon much sympathy for someone who was indifferent to the human suffering he facilitated just so he can make a few more million dollars.

I hope those who mourn his death can at least equally mourn the countless people dying every day from lack of health care and insurance coverage denial.

Insurance companies are as amoral and cold-blooded as any cartel or sociopath. Not only are they legally causing suffering, but they also have lawyers writing legislation to protect their um, interests.

Something drove the killer to do this, and I hope we learn what his motive was. Don't be surprised if the murderer becomes a folk hero if he survives long enough, or even a martyr if he doesn't 

The real story is why this happened in the first place. If nothing is learned, nothing will change, and more people will die. In fact, the only certainty is more Americans WILL die.

But, hey. Business is business, so human life is devalued, and profits are assured by more suffering and death. What SHOULD be learned from this won't be learned. It’s just another wasted life chalked up to institutionalized corporate greed and malpractice.

And there is little hope for any relief from this corporate health insurance cruelty.

 Maybe these bloody parasites are the problem?

No matter how many Americans want more and better public health care, it will be obstructed by Republicans and the dupes who vote for them, despite the fact THEY want and need Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other safety nets. Whether out of ignorance, or just hate for liberals and immigrants, they STUPIDLY vote AGAINST their own interests.

I’d like to share what a Canadian wrote, and the shameless non-response from MAGA dupes at another blog.

I'm a Canadian. This is what I did two days ago. I went to my doctor appointment, gave the receptionist my health card, sat down for 3 mins in the waiting area and was called in by a nurse. The nurse weighed me, took my blood pressure, and heart rate and said the doctor will be with you in a moment. In a moment, the doctor came in, we talking about my prescription, whatever health issue I had, bla bla bla, and gave me a referral to get several types of blood tests. She also gave me a slip to give to the receptionist to book a follow up appointment. After that, I drove down the street, went to the lab for a blood test. Gave them my health card, had my blood taken and peed in a cup and was out the door in 15 mins.

There were no fees, no insurance, zero costs. I will not get a bill in the mail, it will never cost me anything. I am 52yrs old, have lots of health issues, had countless CT, MRI, and many other scans and operations, I have never had a bill in my entire life. If that means I am a socialist, so be it. I would rather be a socialist than be a bankrupted capitalist. 

Insurance CEO's provide zero health care. Why should they get the free money?

“I’m shocked, shocked to find” that not one MAGA dupe could answer this. 

Meanwhile they celebrate Trump's win despite his pal Elon Musk reposting Mike Lee's threat, "It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it out by the roots".

He said the same for Medicare and Medicaid. Just enough Americas are stupid enough to support these ghouls.

The Economy?

 

Remember James Carville’s Clinton era campaign slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid”?

Well, as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does”. None of us are immune from saying and doing stupid things. But many of us seem to enjoy the liberating feeling of being stupid and not knowing it. Enter the Dunning Kruger Effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger. They described the cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a given area of expertise overestimate their abilities.

This applies to our politics more than ever. What many voters think they know is far less than what they actually know. Everyone who took Trump at his word unwittingly embraced this effect. But Trump’s true believers aren’t the only ones suffering from this quirk of cognition. Enough swing voters also fell into the effect. They didn’t bother to educate themselves about Trump’s crime spree and propensity to be a pathological liar. They likely spent less time thinking about how to vote as I did while writing this little essay.

I’m going to argue that believing falsehoods and ignorance of vital information affected the election more than anything else. So naturally the economy has become the media punditry’s explanation for Trump’s win over Kamala Harris. After all, there was a serious rise of inflation. The fact that it was brought down didn’t get the same attention.

Pro-Trump and corpo-media did an excellent job of blaming Biden for post-pandemic supply chain issues that aggravated global inflation, while the Democrats did a poor job in messaging its causes. The economy is strong, manufacturing is up, and unemployment is low, but we are still stuck with the higher prices elevated by global inflation and corporate greed. 

Yes, inflation was a factor, but I reject that simple excuse as the most significant influence.

The reality is Republicans are better at propaganda. They have their own mendacious media empire to catapult the propaganda. Hell, they’ve even had Russia in their corner since Trump came along. The most powerful weapon to destabilize the US was dropped into Putin’s lap.

True to the authoritarian playbook, Republicans and the far-Right mastered scapegoating and the blame game. Democrats were weak in both their own defense and offense, as in framing their opposition as a threat to democracy, decency, the rule of law, and the truth.

Democrats should have run footage of J6 and Trump’s praise for his thugs 24/7 throughout all of October. They didn’t. They failed to exploit the far Right’s greatest flaw.

Merrick Garland’s painfully slow initiative in investigating Trump’s crimes took its toll. The final nail in justice’s coffin was hammered in by Trump’s authoritarian and corrupt partisan allies on the Supreme Court.  “Presidential immunity” was never a thing in the history of the republic, until the derelict Court decided to reject our ideal of equal justice under law and openly enable Trump’s criminal behavior. How the hell did these NOT have profound significance in the election?

I suggest there are several more factors that had far more influence than the economy. Apathy, ignorance, emotional manipulation, and the intellectually lazy and incurious low information voters all took a toll.

It’s the disinformation, stupid.

Trump’s endless stream of lies was amplified by both corporate media and his sycophantic propagandists. Mike Flynn’s Q-Anon domestic psy-ops fed his marks massive troves of lies and wacky conspiracy theories like “Pizza-gate”. Youtube pushed this disinformation exponentially. Gullible people fell for it all.

It’s the hate, stupid.

Trump’s rallies were nothing but extended Orwellian “Two Minute Hate” rallies, inciting constant anger, and fueling groundless scapegoating and blame in the minds of his gullible true believers. The free press was called the “enemy of the people” while Democrats and judges holding him accountable were labeled “the enemy within”.

It’s corporate media’s “horse race” normalization and “sanewashing” of a criminal, stupid.

Age was a critical issue with Biden, but magically not for Trump. Trump’s obvious criminal behavior and resulting indictments were basically ignored after his circus of lies and outrageous rhetoric became the next day’s headlines.

It’s social media, stupid.

Twitter, facebook gossip, and Trump’s so-called “Truth Social” became primary sources of disinformation for duped buffoons who “did their own research”.

Exhibit A: “They’re eating the dogs in Springfield!”, howled the man who sent an angry mob to storm and desecrate the Capitol, terrorize Congress, and beat cops bloody to overturn a fair election he lost.

Exhibit B: Many Trump voters didn't understand the consequences of their support for Trump until it was too late. Buyers' remorse is setting in. Many Arab third party and Trump voters are realizing Trump's ambassador to Israel said, "There's really no such thing as a Palestinian". Google searches for "How to change my vote" and "Will tariffs cause inflation" spiked after Trump won. Searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" popped up on Election Day!

The reality is this: Everyone who voted for Trump is either misinformed, willfully ignorant, believes his lies, or just doesn't care.

In short, “It’s the stupidity, stupid”.