Trump Plans To Win 6-3 Or 5-4… In Overtime

 

From Newsmax

-by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Trump's Kampf (German for struggle) has been clear since before he got in the White House:

Endlessly scream Big Lies about a “fake” election.

Pack the Court with flunkies, culminating with Amy Barrett.

Create chaos in the swing states.

Use gerrymandered TrumpCult state legislatures to override the popular vote (see below for the 1887 Electoral Count Act).

Sabotage the Electoral College past its “Safe Harbor” date. Let all the deadlines pass.

Get the whole mess in front of the Trump-owned Supreme Court. Win either 6-3 or 5-4, depending on a wavering John Roberts.

The stage was set in 2010, when the Koch Brothers gerrymandered fascist legislatures into 29 states, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other Electoral College pivots.

In a well-funded covert operation known as the Redmap Coup, GOP agents took state power throughout the US. The Obama Democrats said and did nothing (see David Daley’s Ratf**ked).





Since 2016, Trump has screeched that millions of Mexicans swam the Rio Grande to vote for Hillary Clinton. Defeated by obvious election thefts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Clinton said and did nothing.

From 2010 to now, GOP Dirty Tricksters have filched a thousand elected offices, including at least six US Senate seats and those three on the Supreme Court. The Democrats have said and done nothing.

A Florida referendum decisively re-enfranchised more than a million ex-felons, only to be trashed by a governor and legislature empowered in a stolen 2018 election.

Nationwide, the TrumpCult has stripped some 17 million citizens from the voter rolls.

It has budgeted $20 million for 50,000 armed White Supremacist militias to intimidate voters.

It has assaulted vote-by-mail, gutted the US Postal Service, obliterated drop boxes, misdirected voters, subverted ballots, intimidated citizens, trashed precincts, sabotaged reception and recount deadlines, and done all else possible to sabotage this year’s vote count.

Inside the voting centers, they’re disqualifying countless ballots without significant opposition from the supine Democrats.

And they’re sabotaging digital scanners set to count virtually all of 2020’s ballots, illegally destroying electronic ballot images, which can supply an accurate vote count quickly and easily.

Instead, in virtually any state, those machines (many linked to the internet) could be hacked to produce any tally the TrumpCult might want.

Trump does face significant opposition.

Polls showing a massive public rejection may understate the power of 86 million millennials who generally despise Trump, but have been slow to vote. Their younger Gen Z siblings also hate him, but are just starting to come to the polls.

Overall, Trump’s imperial white misogynist hate-base is on a demographic death march. Whites will soon be a minority in this country. A strong woman of color like Kamela Harris-- a “monster” in Trump’s eyes-- embodies their worst nightmare... and the tangible future they will fight to resist.

So the Millennial/Z’s diverse, tolerant, Solartopian mega-generation must flood the polls to overcome Trump’s election theft breakwater.

To start, as elders shun infectious voting centers, Millennial/Zs may transform the ranks of poll workers.

The epic shift to vote-by-mail and early voting is at last moving our elections away from hackable electronic touchscreens and onto hand-marked paper ballots.

With protected chains of custody and preserved digital images, we could get quick, accurate, reliable vote counts.

But tens of millions of youthful voters must arise, especially in the gerrymandered swing states.

Only overwhelming margins like those run up by Obama in 2008 and 2012-- at least 5%, probably more-- can prevent these fascist legislatures from voiding the popular vote and sticking Trump delegations into the Electoral College.

That means winning the 2020 Trifecta by restocking the registration rolls, protecting early voting and vote-by-mail, and preserving the digital vote count.

Otherwise, amidst the choreographed chaos, by a count of 6-3 or 5-4, Donald Trump will become President for Life.

Postscript: The Electoral Count Act of 1887

The US Constitution gives legislatures the power to choose their state’s Electoral College delegations, no matter what the public wants.

This became an issue when the 1876-1877 election devolved into the kind of chaos Trump aims to create this year.

Democrat Samuel Tilden got 250,000 more votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, whose Republicans stole enough Electoral College votes to force a five-month stalemate. Hayes finally cut a deal to end southern Reconstruction, disenfranchising the African-American population.

Ten years later, the Electoral Count Act set a “safe harbor” date-- this year an entirely unworkable December 8-- by which legislatures must certify their state’s Electoral College delegation. The role of the state governors is murky and untested.

An obvious Trump strategy would be to sabotage state vote counts and delay definitive tallies beyond the legal deadline. The Roberts-Kavanaugh-Barrett “Brooks Brothers Mob” did that in 2000 by physically assaulting Florida’s recount, allowing the Supreme Court to throw the election to George W. Bush.

This year, Trump could repeat history in Florida (not to mention Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and/or Arizona) delaying the certification of enough Electoral votes to deny Biden the presidency, even if he wins the popular vote by many millions.

Electoral votes must be delivered to the Vice President by December 23. On January 6, a joint session of the newly-elected Congress counts them, with a dizzying array of variables in between.

Any Senator can join with a Representative to force a closed two-hour joint session evaluating any state’s Electoral College delegation.

In 2001, then-VP Al Gore prevented the Congressional Black Caucus from challenging the Florida delegation that had been seated by armed thugs who got the Supreme Court to stop the Florida recount. Gore also stopped Rev. Jesse Jackson from staging a national demonstration demanding the popular vote be honored.

In 2005, with then-VP Dick Cheney presiding, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Cleveland) to challenge Ohio’s fraudulent delegation. Congress didn’t care. Bush got a second term.

This year, Trump has his armed White Supremacists-- his Hitlerian Brown Shirts-- on “standby.”  Their orders are to create chaos at the polls and in the vote count.  The country’s laws are antiquated, contradictory, often incomprehensible.

But Trump's “November Surprise” bottom line is obvious: delay the vote counts, hijack the state legislatures, steal the Electoral College delegations, get it all to his “safe harbor” Supremes, who will crown him 6-3 or 5-4... or at least try.

Because the key questions have now become:

Could a huge popular landslide prevent this coup from happening?  How big does it need to be?  How much election protection will it require?

What (if anything) will the Democrats do about all this?

And, most importantly...what will YOU do about it?


 

 
 
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Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman co-wrote The Strip & Flip Disaster of America’s Stolen Elections, which resides at www.freepress.org along with Bob’s Fitrakis Files.

Trump Would be America’s Hitler

 

-by Harvey Wasserman

As The Donald unleashes his inner Adolf,  there must be no illusions about what we face.

Through his COVID/drug-induced madness (like Hitler's addiction to crystal meth) Trump’s  White Supremacism incites his violent fascist cadres. It’s all a terrifying re-run of Adolf’s rise to power in 1933 Germany.

The terror is escalating at the voting centers, inside and out. The Brown Shirts have blocked voter access at Alexandria, Virginia. Inside they pitch ballots on whatever pretext they can find.

This is  the most critical juncture of the election-- where an election board decides whether to disallow mailed-in ballots.

Prepare to see them gather when the votes are counted.

Trump’s fascist rhetoric has sunk to a whole new level in demanding the arrest of his electoral opponent, Joe Biden. No other major party candidate has done that, not even Dick Nixon. Given AG Barr’s sycophantic contempt for the rule of law, take this threat at face value. Terrified of any strong woman of color, Trump has called VP candidate Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) a “monster.”

Yelling at right-wing militia groups to “liberate Michigan,” he’s got nothing to say about the armed fascist alleged plan kidnap duly-elected governor Gretchen Whitmer. Got that? Kidnap the Governor of a major state!!

At the Mexican border, stealth sterilizations mirror what Hitler did to Jewish, Roma, and eastern European women.

Many of these refugees have come here fleeing Latin American dictatorships installed and maintained by US forces.  Some are U.S. citizens. Their children are held in cages.

All face Trump's COVID. None will get anything resembling his multi-million-dollar medical care we pay for. Death and disease rates are state secrets.

Hidden from the public and media, those who’ve seen the camps compare them compare them to Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and other Nazi concentration camps.

Journalists, labor organizers, feminists, LGBTQ individuals, and progressive activists might remember that Hitler used such camps to “settle scores” once he consolidated power, a virtual inevitability with Barr by Trump’s side.

Like his racist, anti-semitic, Klan-lovting father, The Donald openly touts the “good genes” of his white followers. He attacks African-American, Mexican-American, and other citizens and immigrants of color as “murderers” and “rapists.”

Trump openly lauds Hitler's “racehorse theory,” arguing that human beings can be selectively bred like animals to produce a Master Race.

Here’s what Trump seig-heiled to a virtually all-white crowd in Bemidji, Minnesota, on September 18:

“You have good genes, you know that, right? ou have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”

Says Rabbi Mark Diamond, a senior lecturer on Jewish studies at Loyola Marymount University: “To hear these remarks said at a rally in an election campaign for the presidency is beyond reprehensible...

“This is at the heart of Nazi ideology. This has brought so much tragedy and destruction to the Jewish people and to others. It’s actually hard to believe in 2020 we have to revisit these very dangerous theories.”

Steve Silberman, a best-selling New York Times author, adds: “As a historian who has written about the Holocaust, I’ll say bluntly: This is indistinguishable from the Nazi rhetoric that led to Jews, disabled people, LGBTQ, Romani and others being exterminated. This is America 2020. This is where the GOP has taken us.”

At Trump’s core is contempt for what Hitler called “Jewish values”: compassion, empathy, remorse-- democracy itself. As reported by his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, Trump thinks such beliefs (like science) are for “losers” and “suckers.”  “You’re brutal people, not nice people at all,” he once told a room full of Israel supporters, referring to how Jews allegedly do business.

Trump’s backers love his ties to Jews like Cohen; his mobster mentor Roy Cohn; his son-in-law and fellow real estate grifter, Jared Kushner; consigliere Stephen Miller; and mega-backer Sheldon Adelson. His daughter has converted to Judaism, they say. His grandchildren are technically Jewish.

They might remember that Hitler personally signed waivers saving at least 77 Jewish officers who were useful to him while serving in the Nazi Army. Then he exterminated many of their families.

 

Some still dismiss Trump as a mere Mussolini, calling him a “clown,” as did many American journalists when they first encountered Hitler.

They ignore his utter lack of care for the 220,000-plus Americans who’ve died from his denial of the deadly realities of the coronavirus.

Trump’s hard-core followers suffer no such delusions. They proudly flaunt their swastika flags and Nazi tattoos. They happily salute him as der Fuhrer and loudly hate both Jews and people of color.

These are the “fine people,” who killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. This is the “hero” 17-year-old who killed two peaceful demonstrators in Wisconsin (imagine if that kid had been black, how quickly the cops would’ve shot him to pieces, and what Trump would be saying about him now).

Now he’s urged his Proud Boy storm troopers to “stand back and stand by” in anticipation of a coming coup.

Approaching humankind’s most consequential election since 1933, Yale historian Timothy Snyder warns: “That the next atrocity will be different than the last one is not a reason to let it happen. It will be ours, and we have been warned.”

Our Election Protection campaign has become a terminal life/death struggle for our nation and our species.

It will take every ounce of our collective solidarity and strength to defeat Trump’s Hitlerian madness. Our survival demands we shed all illusions about what we face.

Never Again!!

-------------


Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Grassroots Election Protection Coalition Monday zoom (www.grassrootsep.org). His California Solartopia broadcasts at KPFK/Pacifica 90.7 fm Los Angeles; Green Power & Wellness podcasts at prn.fm. His People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at www.solartopia.org.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

 

by Noah

Politically, President Donald J. Biohazard is a lot more like his role models Mussolini and Hitler, but, as a Diva with a capital D, he certainly resembles Evita Peron on her Buenos Aires balcony more and more with each frightening passing day. No wonder Lindsey Graham and Miss Moscow Mitch love him so much.

As I've said before, I remember watching the Orange Menace To Society during the 2016 campaign and wondering how anyone could watch the now president for two minutes and not realize that he is very mentally ill, even more so than other politicians in my lifetime, even more so than easily half the people who have ever been committed to an insane asylum. I shouldn't wonder how people could vote for him, though, when all I have to do is go outside and listen to the idiocy of any number of typical conversations I hear as people walk by me. People clearly either want someone who is a mental case or they are too damn stupid to notice. Maybe both. I feel like the medical equipment manufacturers have to come up with a variation of those little plastic guns that are being used to take temperatures just by holding them up to our foreheads. You know, we need something like that, except it reveals your IQ and/or your level of sanity or mental acuity. We've put humans on the moon. We can do it. Is it too much to ask?

As it is, Donnie Psychopath's mental stability has deteriorated steadily since his inauguration. In his speech that day, he referred to what he called "American carnage" and has gone about doing his best to increase American carnage every day of his term. The entire Republican Party has joined him and become the Death Cult it has aspired to be for several decades. Now, the leader who that party adores, the president, has added to his and their attempts to take health care away from Americans and called for an end to any COVID-19 relief and he's even deliberately contaminating his own staff and Secret Service guards. He couldn't wait to rip off his mask upon his return to the White House virus hotspot that he himself created. He wants to make the hotspot hotter. He knows he's got COVID-19 and makes great efforts to spread it. He knew he had it when he went to that fundraiser in New Jersey. Maybe he even knew it when he went to Cleveland for the debate. That would be very Putin-like. You know; poison your rivals. Would you put it past him and the mask eschewing cultists he brought with him?

What did Trump know and when did he know it? He might even think he can get rid of his own infection just by passing it on to someone else. He certainly wants to spread it. He forces his guards into hermetically sealed SUVs with him just so his fans can gaze rapturously at him and cheer his efforts on. More and more people on his staff are testing positive every damn day. The initial spreading event may have even been when he introduced his anti-voting, anti-healthcare, pro-coathanger back alley abortion judge, aka Back Alley Amy, to the country.

At this rate, in ten days, Trump will be emptying gas cans all over the White House and burning it to the ground, claiming "I did a tremendous job, a better job of it than the English did." His fans will cheer that, too. Sean Insanity and Tucker Tiki Torch will wave Russian and Confederate flags on their shows and say he did the right thing. Or, maybe they'll all just claim that a group made up of the NAACP, teachers unions, LeBron James, "Antifa" and "top Satan-worshipping Democrat pedophiles" did it.

Trump: Crook? Buffoon? Fascist? All Of The Above?

The Wall by Nancy Ohanian

It seemingly took forever, but journalists and a few tv anchors are finally calling Trump a liar. Next up, I suppose, is "mentally ill." But when will they get to "fascist?" It's not easy for corporate media to go that far, is it? But it's important that they do. Yesterday, the Washington Post published an essay by investigative financial journalist Jonathan Greenberg, The 6 Essential Cons That Define Trump's Success." It's spot on from beginning end but the section I want to get to in his long, well-argued essay is the fascism part towards the end.

First a little background, though. Greenberg confesses that almost 40 years ago Trump deceived him into including him on the first Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. He claimed a net worth of $100 million but was actually worth less than a tenth of that. In the 1980s, a real estate insider told Greenberg that "Trump's win-at-all-costs father, Fred, 'loves a crook and he loves a showman.' Donald Trump has built his extraordinary career by exhibiting the characteristics of both. He is a self-promoter willing to lie, swindle and destroy to advance his insatiable self-interest. I am not the first journalist to observe that for Trump, the Art of the Deal has been the art of the con. But as the first journalist to enable the consummate con man's career-boosting deceptions, I have a completist's view of the pernicious racket that is his playbook."

Con No. 1 was that in order to borrow billions, Trump lied to inflate his net worth and that "as Trump's power has grown, his lies have become bolder and more apparent... The failure of our imagination to respond to Trump remains true to this day. It is not that we underestimate his capacity as a businessman, candidate or president of the United States. It is that we cannot imagine-- and are unprepared to respond to-- anyone who lies and cons as shamelessly and effectively as he does.

Trevor Noah of The Daily Show framed Trump's Forbes 400 scam as his "origin lie," the foundation he built his entire career on. That's because, as Tim O'Brien wrote in his book TrumpNation: "The more often Forbes mentioned him, the more credible Donald's claim to vast wealth became... The more credible his claim to vast wealth became, the easier it was for him to get on the Forbes 400-- which became the standard that other media, and apparently some of the country's biggest banks, used when judging Donald's riches."

...Although Trump has threatened to sue reporters many times, the only time he followed through with a libel suit was in 2006, after O'Brien, in TrumpNation, reported that three experts close to Trump believed his true net worth to be between $150 million and $250 million - far from the $6 billion he claimed he was worth at the time.

Trump lost the suit, appealed the ruling, then lost the appeal in 2011. This was the same year he again demonstrated how important his illusory billionaire status was to him. As noted in Trump Revealed, while cooperating with a Comedy Central “roast” of him, Trump insisted that the show’s comedians agree to keep only one subject off-limits. “Don’t say I have less money than I say I do,” Trump insisted, according to comedian Anthony Jeselnik. “Make fun of my kids, do whatever you want. Just don’t say that I don’t have that much money.”

Con No. 2: To avoid taxes, Trump lies to deflate his net worth.

The only people Trump ever wanted to convince that he had less money than he did were those who worked for the Internal Revenue Service. And somehow, despite his inflated public claims of income and valuations, he managed to do just that. Last year, the New York Times published the results of a painstakingly researched investigation into Trump’s tax dodges. The article stated: “President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents... He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents... He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings… . The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances.” Instead, the Times reported, “the Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent.”

Virtually every aspect of the Trump family empire operated like a tax evasion scheme...

Con No. 3: To be a winner, Trump makes losers of those he does business with.

To make every business deal with him sound sweeter than it was, Trump marketed his name as synonymous with gold-plated luxury. But few of his deals had happy endings. His narcissistic need to be a winner every time meant that there were losers every time. This included just about anyone who made the mistake of signing a contract to lend or partner or supply goods or services to him. After stiffing his partners and lenders in Atlantic City in 1991 by declaring bankruptcy and forcing them to write down billions of dollars in losses, Trump soon retook control of the properties by creating a public casino company in 1995 and selling the stock to suckers attracted to his name. According to a MarketWatch columnist, “Donald Trump was a stock market disaster,” with Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts racking up more than $1 billion in losses during his 13 years as chairman, while its stock fell from a high of $35 to just 17 cents. But despite making losers of the poor saps who invested with him, Trump emerged a winner, soaking the bankrupted public company for what Fortune magazine estimated was $82 million in compensation.

Trump has bragged: “Does anyone know more about litigation than Trump? I’m like a PhD in litigation.”

...Understanding special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and Trump’s long relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia begins with recognizing that Trump has among the worst reputations of any businessperson in America. As investigative journalist Craig Unger explained in House of Trump, House of Putin, after burning so many major financial institutions by losing more than $3 billion in Atlantic City and overpriced New York properties, Putin’s “oligarchs and Mafia kingpins” were some of the only investors willing to do business with Trump, through untraceable offshore entities. Unger wrote that Trump’s real estate was “used as a vehicle that likely served to launder enormous amounts of money-- perhaps billions of dollars-- for the Russian Mafia for more than three decades.”

...Russian oligarchs were not the only money launderers to fund Trump’s properties. Global Witness, a nonprofit watchdog organization, headlined a scathing expose a few years ago: “Narco-a-Lago: Money laundering at the Trump Ocean Club in Panama.”

Con No. 4: To win in politics, Trump makes voters believe that his presidency benefits them.

One of the great mysteries of Trump’s ascension to power is his support among working-class Americans. He is far from being a person who mingles with the masses. Trump’s social and professional activities have been limited to those who are superwealthy, famous or influential. To the extent that he has interacted with common Americans, it has been as a commercial icon: He sells them chances to lose money at his casinos’ slot machines; he grants them admission to real estate society through the scam that was Trump University; he offers them armchair viewing of crass demonstrations of cruel power in The Apprentice.

As part of candidate Trump’s campaign to attract working-class Americans to vote against their economic self-interest, Trump bragged that he was “very highly educated … I have the best words,” while continually railing against those he calls “the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites and media elites.” He is easily the most successful anti-government populist to have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. It is no coincidence that at the same time, he is a prolific liar.

Accepting Trump’s endless deceits have become articles of faith to any number of the 64 million Americans who, in 2016, were led to believe that his election would benefit them and their families. That Trump frequently lies about something he himself has been recorded saying in the recent past makes no difference to his base. Although the “Make America Great Again” prosperity he promises is available only for those who are part of the club of ultrawealthy elites on whose behalf he legislates, Trump supporters willfully listen only to their leader’s words instead of his actions in office.

As Trump’s supporters march toward an illusory future with their hate-mongering leader, they remain oblivious to the trillions of dollars that Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1 percent and their corporations will add to the federal debt, or to the forecasts of diminished spending on programs that help most working and middle-class Americans.

Trump told a Missouri audience in November 2017 that his tax bill was created to help the middle class and that it “is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me.” In reality, most of the long-term tax savings will go to major corporations and the superwealthy. According to a Forbes estimate, Trump could personally save $11 million annually. Yet his base of working-- and middle-class supporters remains blind to the fact that Trump is making America great for himself and not them.

That Trump’s lies are believed by so many is a testament to his manipulative mastery of the art of the con. In supporting his wall on the border with Mexico, Trump says that more than 3,000 terrorists were apprehended at the southern border. Yet our government’s own statistics show that the number was zero. Zero! Trump promised that Mexicans would pay for the wall again and again, then denied that he had ever said it and shut down the federal government because Congress refused to pay for it. Trump has even scammed his followers out of core Judeo-Christian values such as compassion. Thousands of children will suffer lifelong trauma because they are being separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s “zero tolerance” border policy. When I asked a white, 82-year-old Trump-supporting Floridian grandmother how she supported this policy given her Christian faith, her face seethed with anger: “It’s their parents’ fault for bringing them!”

Scapegoating foreigners for political gain is as old and tragically effective a tactic as appealing to racism. It is the same hatemongering tune that stirs disempowered working-class white people to blame African Americans for their economic challenges. As President Lyndon Johnson said to his young aide Bill Moyers in 1960: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Con No. 5: To avoid accountability, Trump makes the media, and truth, the “enemy of the people.”

Truth is the greatest threat to Donald Trump. He despises the transparency and accountability that flows from a free press. He continually attacks the media as “the enemy of the people,” despite increasing violence against journalists by some of his supporters, repeating the phrase in a Wednesday tweet in reference to the Times. Gabriel Sherman, national affairs editor at New York magazine, described Trump’s use of this term as “full-on dictator speak.” For opponents of Joseph Stalin, being branded an enemy of the people was a death sentence. In Nazi Germany, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels also favored the term, arguing in 1941 that “each Jew is a sworn enemy of the German people.”

In an interview on Sept. 6, 2018, Trump responded to a critical Times editorial by stating, “The Times should never have done that, because really what they’ve done is, virtually, you know it’s treason.”

Trump regularly insults or threatens to sue journalists who refuse to act as stenographers for his lies. “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it,” he said, referring to NBC News on Oct. 11, 2017. “Network news,” he tweeted that day, “has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked.” This prompted Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to note that the comment was “how dictators get started.”

Repeat a lie often enough, the saying goes, and it takes root as the truth. The Post has documented (and updates each day) every “false or merely misleading” claim that Trump has made since his election, and found that the president has lied more than 8,700 times. The rate of reckless falsehoods uttered per day has accelerated with his time in office – and with the convictions of his associates stemming from the Mueller investigation.

With the help of Fox News, Trump’s relentless deceptions have been successful in attracting and maintaining his core supporters. Trump boasted about the power of the deception of his Fox News-misinformed supporter base when he said, on the campaign trail, “I love the poorly educated,” and also, famously, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

In his cautionary short handbook, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder identifies core components of fascism that are echoed in Trump’s ability to win and sustain the support of his political base. Snyder reflects on the extraordinary diaries of Victor Klemperer, a professor who survived Hitler and lived to write the tale. “Once truth had become oracular rather than factual, evidence was irrelevant,” Snyder wrote. “At the end of the war, a worker told Klemperer that ‘understanding is useless, you have to have faith. I believe in the Fuhrer.’”

Post columnist Greg Sargent believes that Trump’s war on the truth is worse than simple self-aggrandizement. “When Trump insists on his own invented ‘facts,’ ” Sargent wrote, “he makes reality-based political dialogue impossible. His utter disregard for truth is a subversion of our democracy and a dereliction of his duty as president.”

“Fascists,” Snyder writes, “despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism. They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts. And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share… . Post-truth is pre-fascism.”

Con No. 6: To stoke fear, Trump recasts perpetrators as victims.

As president, Trump’s primary governance strategy relies on the same deceptive manipulation of human fear that brought him victory as a candidate. He has proved himself masterful at playing the white Christian male grievance card. Whether it is the foreigners streaming across the border to take American jobs, the dark-skinned urbanites coming for rural Americans’ guns or empowered women upending patriarchal traditions, Trump and his Fox News echo chamber let white Christians know that they are being victimized and that far worse will follow if they do not fight for their right to oppress others.

A few months before the 2016 election, Molly Ball published an extraordinary article in The Atlantic predicting how Trump could use fear to win. “Ratcheting up fear,” Ball wrote, “helps Trump… . The fear reaction is a universal one to which everyone is susceptible … fear makes them cower from the unfamiliar and seek refuge and comfort. Trump channels people’s anger, but he salves their fear with promises of protection, toughness, strength. It is a feedback loop: He stirs up people’s latent fears, then offers himself as the only solution.”

Ball quoted a top Republican admaker who explained: “Fear is the simplest emotion to tweak in a campaign ad. You associate your opponent with terror, with fear, with crime, with causing pain and uncertainty.” Trump’s argument for building the wall with Mexico, even at the cost of the largest-ever abuse of the doctrine of eminent domain to seize private property, has no basis in rational analysis. All it has going for it is the con man’s relentless playing of the fear card.

“The Democrats,” Trump warned last October, “will open our borders to deadly drugs and ruthless gangs. The Democrats-- and I say this-- and I’ve dealt with it-- the Democrats are the party of crime.”

Nazi leader Hermann Göring once said: “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

Blaming the victim also works for sexual assault. At least 22 women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Trump has denied every accusation, proclaiming that these “false allegations” were made by “women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me.” At a 2016 campaign rally, he told his supporters who the real victim was. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” Trump said. “Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”

When it came time to rescue his controversial choice of Brett M. Kavanaugh as Supreme Court justice, Trump repeated the perpetrator-as-victim strategy that had worked so well for him. Bill Shine, Trump’s recently hired deputy chief of staff for communications, was just the right man for the job. Until being forced out of Fox News in 2017, Shine was the right-hand man of Fox CEO and alleged sexual predator Roger Ailes. There, as Vox observed, Shine was “a man with 20 years of experience enabling and covering up rampant sexual harassment, assault, and abuse.” After coaching sessions orchestrated by the White House, Kavanaugh appeared in an exclusive interview on Fox News arguing what the writer Jacob Weindling of Paste termed “the Bill O’Reilly defense,” the “standard Fox News sexual harassment playbook of denying everything while painting yourself as the victim.”

By the time Kavanaugh faced Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused him of sexual assault while they were in high school, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was arguing that her testimony was part of a “shameless smear campaign” by Democrats to destroy an innocent man’s life.

White Christian men are not the only victims in Trump’s imaginary world. America itself is being victimized-- though not by the usual suspects. For more than 60 years, Republican Party voters and their leaders have been the most outspoken enemies of totalitarian Russia, denouncing nuclear disarmament while fanning the fires of murderous foreign wars to stop the expansion of Soviet influence. Now, quite suddenly, Trump has recast Putin, the most ruthless dictator to control Russia since the dark days of Stalin, into America’s friend, while denouncing NATO allies as freeloaders and America’s CIA and FBI as “deep state” enemies of the American people. Given Russia’s role in propping up his candidacy and real estate empire, it is easy to understand why Trump has done everything in his power to support Putin’s efforts to weaken the NATO alliance. What is tougher to understand are the self-identified conservatives and patriots who suddenly reversed a lifetime of political beliefs to suit the worldview of their corrupt leader. In George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984, the empire of Oceania is in an endless war with Eurasia. Then, without notice, in the middle of “Hate Week,” the all-powerful Party decides to join with its longtime enemy and be at war with Eastasia, its longtime ally. Once Big Brother makes known its decision, it becomes treason to disagree-- or even to recall the past.

Trump’s seemingly limitless power over his core supporters allows him to justify even the most reprehensible behavior and manipulate their fear as he transforms friends into enemies and compassion into hatred. This power is as ominous as Big Brother’s.

Fear of a fascist future is what led me to write my new dystopian novel, America 2034: Utopia Rising, a spinoff of 1984 set in Trump’s nightmarish fifth term as President for Life. The story opens by describing how Trump declares his second state of emergency the day before the 2020 election, ordering a communications blackout to take control of polling places nationwide. This cautionary tale reflects what I fear may be Trump’s seventh, and most far-reaching, scam: conning Americans out of our democracy.

2018 In Review: Special NAZI Edition-A Holiday Cornucopia Of Republican Wackos. The Whole World Is Watching, Part 9

by Noah

Well, the year is almost over and my annual year in review will soon come to an end. But, before I get to that point, I thought it might be nice to shine a light on some of the other lesser republican nutjobs, assorted party luminaries, up and comers, relative unknowns, and ordinary Republican citizens alike. Today’s installment is a small sample of Republicans who really let their Nazi flag fly in 2018. That’s not to ignore the fact that to be a Nazi is to be a Republican and vice-versa, but I’ve chosen these few Hitler worshipers for special mention. They are just choice examples of what it is to be a republican in 2018.

1. Rep. Steve King (KKK-IA) – How could I not start with the pride of Iowa himself, Steve King. This Steve King is not to be confused with the famous author Stephen King. That Steve King is a swell guy and a progressive. He writes horror stories. Iowa’s Steve King IS a horror story. He is proud of what he is and so are Iowa voters who keep re-election him no matter what he says of or does. He is a racist par-excellence and that sits fine with them. King may be best known for his 2013 statement that immigrants are mostly evil marijuana smugglers with “calves the size of cantaloupes.” But this year he gave a whole charred hearted endorsement to a white supremacist mayoral candidate in Toronto.

King also made some headlines this year when he said that members of an Austrian Nazi party called Austria’s Freedom Party would all be Republicans if they came to the U.S. He’s correct of course. None of this fazed Iowans one bit. He was reelected in November.

2. Arthur Jones - Arthur Jones was the Republican Party’s nominee in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District in the 2018 Midterms. Jones received over 20,000 votes in the local GOP Primary after, amazingly or not, running unopposed. He was picked to run against incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski. After the primary the fact that Jones is a Nazi and a Holocaust Denier made the national news. Local Republicans suddenly claimed to be shocked and appalled. It was “We had no idea wink wink” time. Some even suggested that Republicans abstain from voting. Of course, they could, if they had wanted to make sure their guy didn’t win, recommend that their voters vote for Lipinski who might as well be a Republican anyway. Jones got over 56,000 votes from Nazi-supporting Republicans (very fine people) in his district but he lost. Sounds like the Illinois 3rd isn’t a great place to live or even pass through.

Oh, and Jones wasn’t the only Neo-Nazi who ran as a Republican in 2018. There’s Sean Donahue, Republican House candidate in Illinois, Paul Nehlen Republican House candidate in Wisconsin, and Patrick Little Republican Senate candidate in California; just to name 3. Fortunately, they didn’t get to their goal but just the fact that they were able to run in the Republican Party speaks volumes.

3. Susan Lamerton – And speaking of Nazi-supporting republicans (very fine people), Tampa, Florida TV station WFLA reported that neighbors described the decorations outside realtor Susan Lamerton’s house in New Port Richie, FL as “pure hate.” The Nazi-themed decorations featured skeletons dressed as concentration camp victims, replete with Stars of David on their chests and tattoos. Some of the skeletons were seen giving a Heil Hitler salute, and a sign near them reads “Arbeit Macht Frei,” the German phrase translating to “work sets you free” that was emblazoned on the gates of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. A search of Lamerton’s social media accounts revealed that last year, she shared posts from the Angry Patriot Movement blog, a pro-Trump fake news website.

“Drain the swamp and send the idiots home,” the realtor wrote alongside a link that claimed Donald Trump got “the final laugh” during a battle of words with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Lamerton’s “Liked” pages include “Team Trump,” her county’s Republican Party page and pages for Melania Trump and Donald Trump Jr. There was no word as to whether or not Lamerton would be hired to design the staging for the 2020 Republican National Convention.

4. Walter Kanzler - Or should we call him Walter KKKanzler? KKKanzler, a Florida (There’s that state again!) gun dealer celebrated National Gun Day by openly selling his wares at the Kentucky Expo Center. He offered Nazi Christmas ornaments and KKK robes at his table. KKKanzler’s homepage features a Nazi hat with a swastika. KKKanzler claims he has no political agenda. The Kentucky State Fair board says it is now, finally in 2018, considering a ban on such items at its venues.

5. Tucker Carlson – Tucker Carlson, the prime time pride of FOX “News” and Neo-Nazis all across the land! Carlson has made a career of fighting the idea that diversity of any kind is an American value, has repeatedly attacked the NAACP and called it a joke, and often tried to play down the effects of slavery on the human psyche. In Carllson’s disturbed mind, “the Mexicans” are interfering with our elections by “packing the electorate.” But, his top moment of Nazism this year was his claim that “white genocide” is going on right now in South Africa. In your deluded dreams, Tucker. In your deluded dreams. Carlson has gotten so encouraged by his viewers and FOX “News” employers that even one top conservative (just one apparently), Bill Kristol, stated in his blog that Carlson’s show is now “close to racism.” Really? Ya think? Close?

6. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) – So often it’s Florida! What a shocker. When it came time for the 2018 State Of The Union Address back in January, most people in congress invited their wives, husbands, hurricane victims, recently returned military personnel, a person from their district who saved innocent lives… you get the picture. Not Rep. Gaetz of Florida’s 1st District! Of all of the people he could have invited, he invited a real Holocaust-denying, white nationalist NAZI named Chuck Johnson! Way to go Gaetz! You just took that giant leap out of your Nazi closet and showed the world what you are! Were you just trying to curry favor with Trump and the rest of the Republican Party leadership. Was that it? If so, I’m sure you succeeded. I’m guessing your district is quite a bunch of goosesteppers. When the controversy over his guest surfaced, Gaetz said he didn’t know about Johnson’s Nazi beliefs. Qutoe, “I had no idea who he was.” Yeah, right. You invite the guy to be your guest at an ultra high profile national event and you just didn’t know much about him. Sure. Gaetz’s love of Nazis didn’t perturb voters in his district at all. In fact, it probably helped. He was reelected in November. Flor-i-duh.

Right Wing Terrorist In The Washington State Legislature Explains How To Divide Up The Booty They Steal After They Kill The Jews And Gays And Liberals

2018 Republicans-- Matt Shea and Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Between Spokane and the Idaho border you'll find the 4th legislative district. It's very rural. There's got to be a town there but I can't find one, although there was a post office of sorts in a town called Drygoon and in 1902 they changed the name from Drygoon to Colbert in honor of a postmaster named Harry Colbert. But I'm not certain if it's inside the district or not. Like I said, it's very rural. The state Rep from the 4th, Matthew Shea, is 44. He's beyond conservative. When his wife Lisa divorced him, she applied for an application of protection because he considered her a possession, not a possession like a lamp but a possession like the way it was in the Old Testament. Her court papers say he was very abusive, physically and emotionally and that he "insisted she walk on his left side because his sword, if he had one, would be on his right side." Refusing to get a job, he hosted a hate talk radio show on Patriot Radio twice a week. In 2008 he was elected to the state legislature, where he defines the far outer fringes of a Republican Party, whose uneducated and drugged-up base is consumed by insane conspiracy theories.

Why should Matt Shea matter to anyone out side of eastern Washington? Two reasons. On Wednesday, Shea admitted he had distributed a manifesto that strongly smacks of right-wing domestic terrorism, The Biblical Basis for War, and certainly makes it clear that Shea has been promoting violence against people who don't adhere to his extremist-- many would say psychotic-- ideology.

The Spokane County Sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich, sent the manifesto, which was written by Shea, "straight to the FBI" and noted that it "is not a Sunday school project or an academic study. It is a 'how to' manual consistent with the ideology and operating philosophy of the Christian Identity/Aryan Nations movement and the Redoubt movement of the 1990s." Shea prophesizes he will be elected president (of the U.S.) and that his assassination will lead to a civil war. You tell me, does this crackpot manifesto of his look like a call to prepare for violence and civil war? You can't put someone in prison for this stuff-- or even in a mental institution. It's up to his constituents to remove him from office, though.

Biblical Basis for War


1. God is a Warrior.

2. When is the time for war? When God says its time...Prayer Council.
3. Fight to win so you don’t have to fight again.

4. 4 Things to stay within God’s will:

a. Holy Cause;

b. HolyLeader;

c. Holy Army; and

d. HolyCamp.

5. 4 Ways to know its time to fight:

a. God reveals His will to the leader;

b. LeaderinquiresofGod...PrayerCouncil;

c. God puts it on the hearts of the people; or

d. Godstartsthefight.

6. Things for a Holy Army

a. Sacrifice/Worship/Prayer;

b. Circumcision/Saved;

c. Vow (consecration to the Lord);

d. Trumpets/Ark;

e. Atonement/Money; and

f. Praise to God Before/During/After.

7. 5 Facts of War:

a. War is a fact of life.

b. GodiswithusandthebattleisHis.
c. Numbers are inconsequential.

d. Armamentsareinconsequential.

e. Isaiah 57:1 – Why Righteous Men are Killed...

8. 4 Qualifications of a Warrior:

a. 18 years old or older;

b. AblebodiedMan;

c. Single Minded in Battle; and

d. StableHome.

9. 5 Exemptions from Service:

a. Training Family – New Home;

b. Newlyweds–NewWife;

c. Farmer – New Crops;

d. Scared–FearMeansaLackofFaith(OffertoLeave);or

e. Priests – Duty to Ministry in Temple.

10. Rules of War

a. Conduct a census of all able bodied males (18-45).

i. Identify Exemptions (see above).

ii. Appoint Captains of 10’s, 50’s, 100’s and 1000’s.

b. Avoidbloodshedifpossible.

c. Make an offer of Peace before declaring war.

i. Not a negotiation or compromise of righteousness.

ii. Must surrender on terms of justice and righteousness:


1. Stopallabortions;
2. Nosame-sexmarriage;
3. Noidolatryoroccultism;
4. Nocommunism;and

5. MustobeyBiblicallaw.


 iii. If they yield – must pay share of work or taxes.

 iv. If they do not yield – kill all males.

d. Warisnotwagedagainstnationsbutagainstman(noscorched 
earth or Sherman’s march to the sea).

 e. Cut down only non-food trees necessary for supplies (safeguard 
production over politics or retribution).

 f. Do not attack or kill productive citizens. They are your base of 
support after the enemy is defeated.

 g. Law of Booty

i. 1/2 went to those who fought.

ii. 1/2 went to those who didn’t.

iii. Divide evenly to the individuals...each gives tribute to Lord.

1. TithetoChurch&Ministry

2. NonetoGovernment–Removestemptationtofight.

3. Mayuseyourparttogivetothosewhohelped.

4. Commanders received the same portion. If a greater portion then they would have an incentive to fight.

11. Organizational Structure for War

a. Captains of 5/10/50/100/1000

i. 5 = Team Leader (Corporal)

ii. 10 = Squad Leader (Sergeant)

iii. 50 = Platoon Leader (Lieutenant/Sergeant First Class)

iv. 100 = Company Commander (Captain/First Sergeant)

v. 1000 = Battalion Commander (Colonel/Sergeant Major)

b. SmallStandingArmy(QuickReaction&ShellLeadership).

c. Only Muster in War Time.

12. Biblically Dealing with Tyranny

a. Tyranny is never a divinely appointed means of government.

b. AtyrantissomeonewhoruleswithoutGod.

c. Tyranny is not a lawful form of government.

d. “Godless civil rulers are no more than bands of robbers.” St. Aug.

e. When the rule of law dies as sin prevails throughout the land, 
tyranny is not far behind.

f. Book of Judges – Sin = Tyranny.

g. Deuteronomy 28:1 – Blessings for Obedience.

h. Deuteronomy28:15–CursesofDisobedience.

i. Judges 3 – The Lord will test you to see if you Obey Him.

j. No such thing as “rebelling against tyranny.” RESTORATION

k. Deuteronomy 4:34 – God brings His people out of tyranny.

i. God doesn’t use majorities. The majority is usually wrong.

ii. Hebrews 11:32 – Heroes of Faith that conquered tyrants.

l. Options:

i. Use of Deception


1. Notgenerallyspeakingonlyveryspecifically.

2. Avoidingbeinganaccomplicetosin.

3. Donotowethetruthtosomeonewhowillabuseit.


 ii. Avoidance

1. Thisdoesnotmeancowardice.

2. Conflictwithtyrannyalsoispreventingwickedness 
from harming property, lives, family when you don’t 
have the strength or resources to overcome.


 iii. Assassination & Sabotage


1. Assassinationtoremovetyrantsisjust,notmurder.

2. 2Chron.23:12–DietrichBonhoeffer–PlotforHitler.


 iv. Armed Resistance & Guerilla War.

m. Considerations Before Beginning War – Prayer & Contemplation

i. Strength and Resources.

ii. Ability to go full-scale on a long-term basis to win.

iii. Not a temporary action based on emotion.

iv. Review the Declaration of Causes and Necessity.

v. Reasonable hope of winning, God is on your side. If not wait.

vi. Is God directing? Ex. 33:14-15, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Gamaliel.

vii. People are tired of tyranny & sin w/ hearts set on Freedom? OR People accustomed tyranny and don’t know who God is?

viii. Micah – Patriots who want to serve God not “libertine.”

13. Warrior Priests

a. Living Sacrifice.

b. Intercessionthroughprayerandaction.

c. Adam was told to tend and guard (“Abad & Shamar”).
d. Warrior=Guardianship.
e. 2 Chronicles 23:8-9 – Armed Guards & weapons in the tabernacle.

f. Prayer Humility, Wisdom, Courage, and Protection.

g. James 4:8 – Draw near to God and purge double mindedness.

h. James4:17–Notdoingtherightthingissin.

i. Proverbs 21:31 – “Prepare your horse for battle, but the battle is 
the Lord’s

14. Freedom is in Jesus Christ.
 Where the Spirit of God is, there is Liberty.

Last month, writing for Rolling Stone-- and before the deranged manifesto leaked-- Leah Sottile reported that Something’s Brewing in the Deep Red West. Shea is the chair of the state Republican caucus and he's batshitcrazy, frothing at the mouth for a race war or a religious war, or a war against the media, or a war of independence... just some kind of war. Sottile reported that "in his nine years in office he has allied with some of the most high-profile conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists in the American West: from Cliven Bundy and his sons to a neo-Confederate Idaho preacher to the head of the Oath Keepers, an extremist group that believes “the United States is collaborating with a one-world tyrannical conspiracy called the New World Order.”

“I don’t think that the extent of [Shea’s] connections are widely known,” says Rep. Marcus Riccelli, a three-term Democrat in the state legislature who represents Spokane. “It’s a real statement of the Republican Party that someone with his extreme views has risen in the ranks of leadership.”

Long before President Trump deemed the press the “enemy of the people,” Matt Shea was refusing to speak with the media and airing his concern over conspiracy theories like FEMA camps with InfoWars’ Alex Jones. Shea also organized the Spokane chapter of the anti-Muslim ACT for America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group. And for the past few summers, Shea has spoken at a secretive religious community run by a man who was a foundational figure in the Christian Identity movement, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, believes white Europeans to be the lost tribes of Israel and considers Jews to be the offspring of Eve and Satan.

...People have been talking about hacking off the eastern part of Washington-- from the Cascades to Idaho-- since at least 1915. But recently, creating a bastion of God-fearing, gun-toting, canned-food eating whiteness where conservatives can survive the End Times has been embraced by survivalists and dubbed the American Redoubt-- an idea that’s gained enough interested parties to demand an actual corner of the real estate market. Though Shea’s Liberty idea hasn’t gained much traction in the Statehouse, it’s red meat for anti-government extremists at a time when some Americans really are viewing this area of the country as the last remaining holdout for the type of America they think can be great again... “There’s a deep divide within the Spokane County Republican Party between its mainstream wing and its more constitutionalist wing,” Clayton says. “The constitutionalist wing is heavily influenced by Christian nationalists and some white-supremacist elements… they have a particular view of the Constitution and it’s all steeped in this idea of liberty. It’s anti-statism. It’s anti-government.”

Last August, Daniel Walters painted a picture of how the seemingly "mainstream conservative," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a key Ryan lieutenant and Trump enabler, plays footsie with these racists, Nazis and terrorists.

This year, one of the crazed fascists, Jered Bonneau, ran against McMorris Rodgers in the primary. Shea hadn't endorsed her in 2014 or 2016 and Bonneau expected fellow lunatic Shea to endorse him this year. But McMorris Rodgers wanted Shea's endorsement against Bonneau and, for some reason no one seems to know, Shea gave it to her.

It shows how, even as McMorris Rodgers has distanced herself from the alt-right, she's been aligning herself more closely with a different part of the GOP fringe-- the patriot movement-- as she gets ready to face her first truly competitive election.

Even though McMorris Rodgers is nearly certain to survive the top-two primary, her performance-- and the performance of her Democratic competitor, former state Sen. Majority Leader Lisa Brown-- could have major impacts on fundraising and voter enthusiasm. If McMorris Rodgers crushes Brown in the primary, it could hobble the Democrat for the general election. But if Bonneau-- or fellow Trump-loving conservative Dave Saulibio-- gained traction it could split the vote.

...“I reached out to Matt Shea to talk about some of the others that were in the race," McMorris Rodgers told the Spokesman-Review. “And in the course of that conversation, he let me know that he was going to be supporting me.”

Read the rest of the eye-popping story. Or don't. But, if you can, vote for or, in any way you can, support Lisa Brown, who would be a great candidate for Congress even if there were no Matt Shea or Cathy McMorris Rodgers. On Tuesday, here's another race where Nate Silver's model should be proven woefully inadequate for accurate political forecasting.