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The republicans used Bin Laden for years until Obama brought him to justice, the funny part is that justice brought Bin Laden to the people in a bottle – a myth. Republicans were furious because they couldn’t use his carcass any more, much like when Jesse Jackson delivered the hostages – ouch, even his seed paid for that one. If in fact the justice system does not make a strong show of intolerance for these events, one can only deduce that a light sentence was agreed and Trump was simply acting at the behest of a greater plan. The null hypothesis must hold that if this government is for the people, then no leader will ever be held accountable, only the people. Heck, even Napoleon was exiled to Elba, Idi Amin had similar fate and they searched for Hitler for years in South America because Israel was certain he was still alive. In this light, our government has focused efforts to charge the participants in this insurrection, all except Trump, who went to Camp David for a vacation and his protection and as you say, won’t be charged. Hawley, Cruz, McCarthy, Scalise and many other republicans are complicit and it’s impossible to be sure how deep that rabbit hole goes, they will likely go the way of Oliver North. Trump being banned from twitter and having a radioactive name is a slap in our face. That status attracts people in today’s world, incentivizes Trump to further betray us to those who welcome him with open arms and want to toast him for his blow to democracy.
The GOP sponsors domestic terrorism, and provides sanctuary to domestic terrorists. Trump, and his millions of republican supporters and officials prove this.
Jail these perpetrators and actors. There’s plenty of room in Guantanamo. They’ll be comfortable next to ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Taliban terrorists.
Chop the remainder in pieces, and blow torch it into oblivion. They deserve all this.
You are with democracy, or with the terrorists.
Trump's pardon palooza better kick into high gear or else he'll run out of time to clean up all the MAGAts feeding off the carcass of his White House racketeering enterprise. Now he's got hundreds of insurrectionists to add to the slimy pile. Gotta keep his future customers happy.
Hey Cuz, at least ANTIFA & BLM were protesting a reality, whatever their faults, not a total LIE.
Trump gave us Congress in 2018. He gave us the Senate in 2020. He gave us the Executive office in 2020. He has done as he said he would and Made America Great Again.
This is going to go a lot deeper. Under oath the Secretary of Defense needs to expalin no National Guard. Virtally all in the Trump Administration and family need to testify under oath.
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Trump considering Giuliani and Dershowitz for impeachment defense team
Looks like the “TRUMP” name will be treated like a deadly virus by respectable law firms too.
Scraping the bottom for bottom feeders.
One possible ray of sunshine as a result of Trump’s lynch mob storming the Capitol Building, is that now Trump may well have destroyed his most valuable asset. Apparently, the “TRUMP” name has now become radioactive and future efforts to license his name for hotels, golf courses, and other enterprises will be considered toxic and will also certainly negatively affect any of his current holdings for generations to come.
In other words, Trump it’s over!! Instead of building an empire. The “TRUMP” name will be treated like a deadly virus that will follow you wherever you go, and you will be considered untouchable by investors from now on.
Congratulations Trump. At least you still have Donny Jr.
One can dream.. But based upon history and the null hypothesis, or maybe systemic intertia, Trump will face no consequences. Half of America still believe in the propaganda machine. Trump will do just fine. So far, all I observe is a lot of yappin and nothing hap'nin. Heck the Capitol hasn't been secured-- not even close. The security will all have to be furloughed without pay (hey, if they worked in a correctional setting they would have already been fired... no questions no excuses as I have seen plenty of times for any security breach). The National Guard and secret service may be options. But the Capitol Police have been compromised, and require extensive and exhaustive background checks focusing on RIGHT WING associations and participations. This alone will take several months. Too bad, that's the cost of failure and corruption. The building will require extensive searches for bombs, listening devices, and other security exploits. Every room and nook. All the perpetrators who gained access will have to be arrested and tried for treason and sedition. Of course, since most were let go without any discouraging word, this will take several years. Since the crime scene was not secured, any physical evidence outside of video will be challenged. Even the video will be challenged. At the end of the day maybe 2 or 3 perps may see the inside of a cell for 10 minutes or as long as it takes for the MyPillow guy to post bail. That's the cost of not securing and containing a crime scene and immediately arresting criminals. Evidence has a very short shelf life. Every document possibly viewed and/or touched by unauthorized persons will have to be cataloged and assessed for any security breaches especially breaches of classified docs (oh..add espionage charges to the sedtion charges). Of course murder and accessory to murder, assault and murder of peace officers, etc. etc. Now all of that is what a semi-competent borderline functional criminal justice system would do. Tall order, very expensive, and likely to make the Capitol barely usable for months, if not, years. The cost of electing a sociopath as President. The good news is that none of this will happen. Fascism will have a huge party. The cost, of course, will be democracy and the rule of law. Equality is already dead. Good deal for the 1%. Big cost savings, and all that democracy rule of law stuff just gets in the way. We the people, of course will foot the bill for all of this. Biz as usual.
Mitch has responded to calls for impeachment by saying that he will not hold a Senate session until after the inauguration. Mitch hid in some sort of emergency capsule during this insurrection. If they had found him he was on their list to hang. Pence refuses to do Amendment 25. They were chanting to hang him. These people are incredibly afraid of Trump. I say arrest Trump on the 20th at 12:01 PM for inciting a riot. Along with others.
Most of what you read on this appears to see these events like a common cold that will heal and be gone in a few days, but it’s more like a political pandemic. Trump has spent the past 4 years building out his mafia style foundation network of national and international political allies, criminals, police and military officials, and every day citizens backed by a funding network that cannot be crippled by simply arresting a few of his lemmings and removing him from office. This needs to be answered by seizing all of his assets and squashing the network like a bug or we will feel the sting of his terrorism for years to come. As you see the defection of republicans, it’s not a come to Jesus moment for them, they are simply slipping quietly into the shadows until they regroup to launch other waves in the future and should go down with number one. One thing has been tested and proven over the past 4 years, there is no lack or limit of commitment to the cause.
P.S. And, after all the BS from wherever, will whoever we "elect", actually speak for the interests of the majority, or their donors?
A sound mind would think Trump is so absurd in his behavior that he could only lose; however, humans do, and have acquiesced, and will again acquiesce to the force and violence of those who are authoritarians, if we do not reserve within ourselves our freedom to oppose them for overreaching -equality- as the limit and definition of our freedoms. We must enforce the law of equality if the law leans towards fascism. We must not become animals of husbandry owned by those willing to force or coerce others into submission, or a sound mind will not rule over us in our democracy as Plato pointed out in his republic.
Well said!! Second that. Funny thing is that the police/ criminal justice system and the military both failed to "protect" the citizens of this country in a very spectacular fashion. The military on 9/11; the police/ criminal justice system on Wednesday. So why does this country invest so much money in these failed organizations who are either simply incompetent, corrupt, or both? Just sayin'
Not to change the subject, but I got more info on the Covid Vaccine distribution. Colorado has been mostly doing the front line workers. Which I am fine with. Colorado is receiving 70000 doses per week. It is now starting on people living in close quarters such as Assisted Living and Prison facilities. Then starts 1B which is people over 70. There are 570000 people over 70 in Colorado. So if you have perfect distribution it will take 8+ weeks to do the 70+ crowd. Colorado is 5900000 population so this is going to take awhile.
Head of the Proud Boys visited the white House a few weeks ago. Initial contact? This thing has Jared written all over it. Jr. and Eric were making threats prior. They were after Pence and others.
As they make arrests and they will make a lot. FBI can use many methods to track you down. They will get jail time and large legal fee's. Plus convicted felons cannot possess guns. At least some will live to regret their actions. Brainwashed by right wing media. What will be more interesting is to see where the arrests go within our Government (this article is 7 years old but shows how long they have waited for this). This was well organized and most likely heavily financed.
Here is one that regrets it.
Another that will.
2 more.
I wonder how she will feel if the next target is the Supreme Court?
Steve Bannon from 2 months ago.
So much of this is based on Trumps lies that get told enough that people believe them. Then they are outraged at what they think is going on. Then they are outraged that they are called lies. It is happening at all levels of our society. Politicians repeat them, media repeats them. His Lawyers repeat them. Evangelicals repeat them. If you listen to Trumps 1 hour phone call to the GA Secretary of State you hear lie after lie. This is classic brainwashing.
Read https://www.mediamatters.org/ everyday. The right wing media (which is 90% of the mainstream media) is changing the whole story of what happened. Yeah sure it was Anatifa dressed up like Proud Boys. Antifa is smart enough to wear masks.
254 more hours more of scorched earth. You can update it by clicking on it.
Our era of the "got away with it" mentality needs to end. GAWI was raised to new levels during the 80s "me" generation of “Gordon Gekko"-like avarice that emboldened people who were either already rich or well-off, but the even more dangerously different aspect of today's version is that it has been willfully instilled in low or middle-class people by a fascist leader and his governmental and media cult followers: the GAWI trickle-down.
You have "freedom lovers" breaking down doors that clearly represents capital vs. Capitol - not to mention cops in the street who beat the rap by beating the rappers.
The way to begin erasing this mental aberration is to replace the people in prison who have minor drug charges with the people who pride themselves in being GAWIs - people who go to various lengths evading the consequences of criminal actions. Maybe after we get the ball rolling with that, we can then learn to temper their moral misdeeds as well.
If you're a black peaceful protester, you're a rioter.
If you're a white angry protester, you're just a "freedom lover."
It might be instructive to remember James Madison's originalist description of people engaged in fascism, only he called them factions and defined them as:
"a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
Whether is the collusion of corporate and state leaders to seize wealth and power from our citizens (fascism), or our power companies or any of the other businesses of extraction that force our citizens to pay for their messes with our tax dollars and our health, they are all forms of factions and they do things adverse to our citizens rights and our communities interests. At the Constitutional Convention in 1788, Alexander Hamilton observed
“We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.”
When it comes to the purpose of our government, no one has done a better job of describing it, and if you accept that it should abolish factions (essentially protect us from those threats to our citizens rights and communities interests) and unite all parties for the general welfare, you can see that it is failing us miserably. In addition, it will continue to fail us, and as long as the factions control the three branches of our government, things are not going to get better. Fascism is a subset of faction-type behavior, just like the Trump crime family , Wall Street flimflammers and the evil oligarchs of carbon, war, drugs, health insurance, etc are all factions. We need to frame this struggle for control of our government as our citizens vs. the factions and take away the factions ability to buy our elected and appointed public sector officials.
#6-deepspace
I always appreciate intelligent information, so thanks and keep it coming. Please take this good natured advice and look-up my user name on "the" Google. Wouldn't it be funny if I was a Latin teacher? There must be a few of those left in the world.
On a somber note, Rahm Emanuel was in tears on Nightline. There was a fascist in the Capitol mob with a shirt slogan Rahm never thought he would see in that building. It had CAMP AUSCHWITZ printed on it. Seems there are two versions of these themed garments. He mentioned the one that has 6MWE (6 Million Wasn't Enough) on it. The other version has the phrase "Work Brings Freedom", and it was seen on another of the fascists. He was caught on camera inside and out of the Capitol. I don't think his lawyer will let him wear it to court.
Last I heard, when you commit a crime, you're a criminal. The Trumpies who attacked, vandalized, committed insurrection, possibly espionage due to being allowed to break into offices without any security, and commit acts of sedition are criminals. I worked in max security prisons for over a decade, and guess what? Nobody in prison is guilty. Of couse their CII report states they were involved in murders, rape, robbery, dismemberment, ya know. Now they will tell it they were all set up. Point is: criminals never show remorse, and if they get away with it, WILL do more crime. Way it goes. If you are white and right wing, there is no cost/ no penalty. How many of those Trump Thugs will ever see the inside of a cell? How many will even get arrested? Even if arrested, they are NOT going to get 10 years. Maybe 10 minutes with donuts and coffee maximum. That's it. All the Capitol Police should be placed on unpaid furlough pending thorough exhaustive investigations into links to right wing groups HUAC style. Names, connections, associations. 3 to 6 months of investigations, and they might keep their jobs. Same for those higher ups who resigned. Retirement account payouts should be suspended pending in-depth documented investigations. And that's getting off light. Of course none of this will happen. Just going to arrest the usual suspects (i.e., black, brown, BLM, Antifa, etc), and that will be that. Living down to expectations. Disgraceful. May these thugs and clowns live in infamy.
chucklynd #2:
How many heroic national myths would have been taught to their children had Hitler won the war? It's hard not to think of that when the right-wing in our country perpetually rails against the so-called "liberal" public education system, forever wanting to privatize it. What American fables and fantasies are they weaving into the curriculum of the Christian brand of madrasas right now? If radical Republicanism ultimately succeeds in the battle for the minds of our youth, how many of the hard truths of our age would be forever lost to revisionist history?
@ alis volat #3:
"Benito Mussolini coined the term “fascism” in 1919 to describe his political movement. He adopted the ancient Roman fasces as his symbol. This was a bundle of rods tied around an ax, which represented the power of Rome."
The idea was that one stick could be easily broken, but a bundle of sticks could withstand the strike of an ax.
Although the word fascism has evolved over the decades to mean different things to different people, I think Thom's lectures (correct me if I'm wrong) have mostly interpreted it through Mussolini's original viewpoint: the interests of the state and private industry become one and the same -- a match made in hell. In other words, the power of government becomes the power of big business, and the titans of industry become the politicians. Modern America's corrupt system, with a public/private "revolving door" and with billionaires of Wall Street buying politicians, seems pretty close to that particular concept.
The risk is real and here now, as you note.
Calling this out clearly for what it is must happen.
Mega countries create a risk of devaluating democracy because one cannot logically understand how a single vote makes a difference or a single voice is heard. We have to move away from the 75 years of centralization around the Federal government. When the government is more local, meaningful participation and voting should be more sensible.
Jefferson is quoted as saying "The government closest to the people serves the people best."
How do we get there from this current mess? Forget about constitutional amendments to solve the problem. The country has outgrown the amendment process. Instead, responsible models of federalism with delegation to regions, not states, need to be undertaken. Federally directed interstate compacts may be an option that can work.
Plenty of problems could be solved with regional groups working locally. Sustaining the high turnout of 2020 will require not just waiting for the next national election.
Thom,
Many thanks for the perspective and history; It is Grave indeed!
Blessings, MJ
Although I feel like Thom is my brother from another mother, I have to admit I am not crazy about fascism discussions. Here is a description from Britannica.com:
Although fascism is a notoriously difficult ideology to define, many 20th-century fascist movements shared several characteristics. First, these movements sourced their political strength from populations experiencing economic woes, real or imagined. Fascists tended to capitalize on these economic anxieties by shifting the blame away from government or market forces. Jews, immigrants, leftists, and other groups became useful scapegoats. Redirecting popular anger toward these people would, in theory, rid a country of its ailments.
To unify a country, fascist movements propagated extreme nationalism that often went hand in hand with militarism and racial purity.
OK, I think I can tick all those boxes and see more of what he is referring to.
America is a project as well as an experiment. Has it totally gone off the rails because of a sociopathic president and his fascist cult? Did they do the last bit of damage needed? I'd like to think we will get back on-track in time. President Elect Biden's attitude of we-can-do-this is good for "starters". I am glad he picked the already vetted Garland for AG. A big slice of justice would be delicious for "dessert". Life is a banquet, after all.
It's going to be wonderful to watch VP-Elect Harris become one of the most interesting vice presidents that have ever served (thank you Georgia!). It's a good thing she runs. She might be "running" back and forth to the newly repaired and protected Capitol a LOT!