The media and brave politicians hold the key

The media must explode this generation's Big Lie: Donald Trump's assertion that he really won the election and "voter fraud" handed a false victory to Joe Biden.

Trump and his handmaids on Fox, et al, have pushed his Big Lie so hard and so far that more than half of Republicans fully believe it -thus some are predictably acting on it, from the January 6th failed coup to armed protests at state capitols all around the nation. As long as they believe the Lie, they're not going to stop or go away.

In the process of killing the $2000 Covid survival checks, Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans resurrected their Party's longest-running scam, an idea laid out by Jude Wanniski back in the 1970s to use the deficit to destroy Democrats.

The history is fascinating, and not only tells us how they'll be re-running this long con but also what Democrats can do to expose it.

If their true scam is admitted, the GOP could wander in the wilderness for two generations

It seems inexplicable.

A group of Americans invaded the US Capitol with a plan to kidnap and kill the Vice President and the Speaker of the House, hoping that would throw the Electoral College vote to the US House, where Republicans would declare Donald Trump the winner.

Hint: It's all about the money

Some very wealthy people helped put Donald Trump in office, and have continued to subsidize the Trump presidency and those Republicans who enable it.

The GOP's Big Lie is tearing America apart, as Trump expanded it to assault American democracy.

A 40-year Republican Big Lie brought us to this crisis point in America.

When Ronald Reagan was running for president in 1980, one of his biggest boosters was the political heavy hitter Paul Weyrich, who was also a cofounder of the Heritage Foundation and multiple other rightwing think tanks and operations.

Weyrich told a group of political activist in a church basement in Dallas that the GOP was changing their strategy to win elections.

As is laid out in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy, this has been a recurrent battle through the history of America.

It's all one thing, and the oligarchs and fascists aren't done yet. They want complete control of America.

When Donald Trump first ran for president, it was a stunt to squeeze more money out of NBC and to polish his brand.

But when he was unexpectedly elected, he took cues from the corrupt oligarchs he admired around the world and began a serious project to remake and remold America in their image.

While everybody is discussing how the FBI is trying to hold to account those who invaded the US Capitol building and several state capitols on January 6, very few national media outlets are supporting or even discussing the idea of holding the true perpetrators to serious account.

The media narrative today is that "right wing crazies" are the only people involved in this attempt to disrupt Congress and even kidnap or murder some of our elected representatives. But they're missing, almost entirely, the big question: Why did so many people show up?

Many people think we've hit peak fascism, but Wednesday was only a bump in the road. Trump, his neofascist followers, and over half the congressional Republican caucus were just pushing the limits to see what they could get away with.

And in the US Capitol, and state capitols around the country that were similarly attacked, Trump's fascist followers learned that the personal price they'd pay for sedition and treason is less than the penalty for drunk driving.

Tyrants very rarely leave power voluntarily. In almost every case they've committed so many crimes in the process of acquiring and holding power, and exploiting that power to enrich themselves, their friends and allies, that they know if they step down they will be facing, at the very least, a long stretch in prison.

This is why it's so vital that Donald Trump be removed from power immediately. Be it through the 25th Amendment or immediate articles of impeachment and a vote in the Senate, it must be done.

The New York Times just published a truly shocking article detailing conversations between Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Essentially, Trump asked Pence to ignore the electoral college votes from a few swing states and thus declare Trump president for the next four years.

The pharmacist in Wisconsin who destroyed 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine did so because he believed they would "alter human DNA," reflecting a popular conspiracy theory on Facebook that has absolutely no basis in fact.

Science, religion, and conspiracy theories are all, essentially the same thing: systems or attempts to explain the unknown, to make sense out of things beyond our senses or immediate, touchable reality. Thus, our vulnerability to conspiracy theories and con artists like Trump.

It's impossible for any individual to know or understand everything. We believe electrons make our computers work, but for all but a few scientists who've actually seen and measured electrons, it's only a belief. We must trust their word.

Pundits across the American political spectrum are wringing their hands about the fate and future of the "dirty dozen" Republican senators challenging Biden's election.

One of the most widespread stories about their motivation is that they're "afraid of Trump" or are "worried about being primaried." Both ideas are wrong.

Donald Trump's phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is the latest illustration of his lifelong criminality. Over the last 40 years, career criminals like Trump have increasingly moved out of the business world and the streets and into politics, something for which we can thank the Supreme Court.

There are, among us, a small number of individuals who are career criminals. They have literally spent their entire lives skirting or outright breaking the law, and not only believe the law doesn't apply to them, but actually delight in getting away with their crimes.

Covid has now killed 1 in 1000 Americans in less than a year.

How is it that in Australia it's 3 out of every 100,000 people, and in New Zealand it's 1 out of every 200,000 people, but here in America we're dropping like flies?

Chalk it up to Republican racism and a libertarian indifference to the notion of society.

TS Eliot famously said that the world will end "not with a bang, but a whimper." It's also how strongman dictator reigns typically end, and Trump is no exception. He's having his "Downfall bunker moment," and it could be very dangerous.