Are we allowed to call Trump's regime fascism now?

[Skeptic Ginger]

Its not so much the EC as the corruption of the R Party and the courts.

Not something unknown either. But tell me this, how did Trump corrupt all those state Republican Houses? He didn't appoint any of them. DeSantos is Trump's friend from way back, and FL was the key state in Bush v Gore.

Is Ken Blackwell still running the Ohio elections, or has he retired yet.

How did Trump manage to own 7 state houses? That's news to me and I'm pretty sure I've been paying attention.

 

[Trebuchet]

Not something unknown either. But tell me this, how did Trump corrupt all those state Republican Houses? He didn't appoint any of them. DeSantos is Trump's friend from way back, and FL was the key state in Bush v Gore.



Is Ken Blackwell still running the Ohio elections, or has he retired yet.



How did Trump manage to own 7 state houses? That's news to me and I'm pretty sure I've been paying attention.

As I've been saying here for several years, its not Trump, its the party. Trump is just the most visible symptom of the rot that started at least 50 years ago.
The Southern Strategy, tax cuts for the rich, voter suppression, militarism, the religious white, the alt-right, all predate Trump.
They have, however, rather lost control of him. He's the tail wagging the dog. That may be the only hope we have; that he says the quiet part out loud. Decent people will vote against him.
We can only hope for enough decent Republicans to object when he tries to overturn the election results.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

...
Educating people to the current social media propaganda seems a tad more promising than fear mongering about Trump already having the corrupt state governments in the bag.

The broader issue, apart from partisan politics in the USA, is the continuing saga of the age-old conflict between wealth and political power whenever the two are not held by one and the same interests. That is what is visibly moving major affairs among nations since the Age of Discovery.

Telegraphically, colonialism gave birth to mercantilism, and mercantilism represented the first major challenge to land (feudalism, monarchy) as a source of wealth, and so power. The workings of royal whim eventually led to opposition to absolute monarchy, and so, e.g., movements such as the American Revolution, neatly summarized by the revolt against taxation without representation ("money and property deserve their fair say"). Not in a vacuum was there a debate in the Colonies about whether political rights should depend solely on property, not personhood.

Fast forward, and the growth of taxation and social spending led to reactionary support, e.g., among the German elite for populist leadership and anti-left propaganda. Hitler was the champion, witting or no, of this elite, but soon, as is inevitable in dictatorship, exhibited all the flaws of royal whim, and favoristism/cronyism replaced merit, etc. Once Hitler was defeated, renewed support for rule-based governance came once again to the fore. Fast forward to the Great Society, and you have the long pattern of reaction against any social spending led by the GOP. First major "intellectual" attack: "There is no society, there are only individuals". Reagan/Thatcher inaugurate the frontal attack on a rules-based society ("regulations").

And so on with many twists and turns. Until such time as this underlying conflict between wealth and proper governance is brought out explicitly and dealt with, there will forever be more of the same. Time to drop 18th, 19th, and 20th century ideological economics and begin to realize, and argue for, a properly run economy that manages flows in a manner to maximize flow rates and accumulations. Investment and consumption are both critical, as is tax-and-spend (in every company, total wages < total revenues, meaning there is a structural shortfall in monies needed for a level of demand leading to close to full employ, etc.).

TLDR: Trump is nothing. Today's conflicts are the same conflict that has been waging for centuries. Moralizing from the right about the sanctity of property and from the left about a mistaken notion of economic equality are not helping at all, and in fact only make things worse.

 

[The Don]

Not something unknown either. But tell me this, how did Trump corrupt all those state Republican Houses? He didn't appoint any of them. DeSantos is Trump's friend from way back, and FL was the key state in Bush v Gore.

Is Ken Blackwell still running the Ohio elections, or has he retired yet.

How did Trump manage to own 7 state houses? That's news to me and I'm pretty sure I've been paying attention.

Trebuchet covered almost all of it IMO but to add my 2c.

Any elected GOP politician facing anything even approaching a competitive race - for the sake of argument let's call that anyone with a less than 20% margin over their Democratic opponent - is dependent on President Trump's base to get re-elected. That's quite an incentive to do as he wishes.

If President Trump withdraws his support, his base will either stay at home or vote for someone else.

Please remember that the efforts to exclude mail-in votes, ballots from minority districts and other voter suppression exercises also benefits the down-ticket candidates as well. Exclude a vote for Biden for President and like as not you're also excluding a ballot for a Democratic Senator and a Democratic representative.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

I wish I could share your optimism, Ginger.

Same.

By all means, I hope Trump will have to step down in January as much everyone else, I just dare not believe it's a sure thing. I think the days and weeks after the election, and the transition period will both get ugly if/when Biden wins. I'm not a doom prophet who's convinced Trump will steal the election, but I still fear for November.

Of course, if everything goes smoothly, no one will be happier than me and I'll be more than happy to admit to Ginger that they were right .

 

[varwoche]

Pompeo is solidly onboard the concept of the arms of government taking an active role in Trump's election. Roughly from 5 minute old, just woke up memory:

Question: Will Clinton emails be released?
Pompeo: We're working on it... blah blah
Question: Will that be before the election?
Pompeo: Well have something <grin>

 

[varwoche]

Ginger, what can I do about the propaganda campaign, other than become informed and discuss the threat with y'all on this sleepy internet backwater?

If those actions are more effective than these asinine hand written postcards I write to swing state voters every damn night, sign me up.

If and when I'm assigned Florida, I'm going to add a tiny symbol as a special message, details To Be Determined (that acronym just isn't usable anymore, here) just in case it goes to Joe M because it would be biblically hilarious if he actually was a recipient.

 

[JoeMorgue]

If and when I'm assigned Florida, I'm going to add a tiny symbol as a special message, details To Be Determined (that acronym just isn't usable anymore, here) just in case it goes to Joe M because it would be biblically hilarious if he actually was a recipient.

Sorry my vote has already been counted and is no longer for sale.

Preorders for my 2022 Midterm vote and 2024 vote will start soon. If you order before the end of 2021 you can a free unlockable DLC skin for your voter.

 

[varwoche]

Snort. Not a factor. They don't know who has voted and who has not.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Not a factor. They don't know who has voted and who has not.

Oh believe me I'm aware. Not only am I in Florida I'm in the a county that contains the only major urban area in Florida that voted for Trump in 2016 and that was by a razor thin margin. This high political battleground area right now.

 

[varwoche]

I was working in Florida during the 2012 election cycle. Before that, I thought I had sense of what it was like in a swing state.

Ok pardon me, back to fascism.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Ok pardon me, back to fascism.

Well we really don't have anywhere else to go with that.

He's openly bragging about how he's not going to accept it if he loses, he daily calls for his political opponents to be jailed, he unapologetically puts people into positions of power under the sole requirement that they protect him. He has rallys and they are scary.

What does he have to do to be fascist? Is it because he doesn't have a beard? Doesn't wear a military uniform?

 

[Trebuchet]

Trebuchet covered almost all of it IMO but to add my 2c.

Any elected GOP politician facing anything even approaching a competitive race - for the sake of argument let's call that anyone with a less than 20% margin over their Democratic opponent - is dependent on President Trump's base to get re-elected. That's quite an incentive to do as he wishes.

If President Trump withdraws his support, his base will either stay at home or vote for someone else.

Please remember that the efforts to exclude mail-in votes, ballots from minority districts and other voter suppression exercises also benefits the down-ticket candidates as well. Exclude a vote for Biden for President and like as not you're also excluding a ballot for a Democratic Senator and a Democratic representative.

Good point. Also don't forget: Any of the other 16 Klowns in the 2016 Kar would have done 98% of the same stuff Trump has done, particularly regarding appointment of judges. They'd just have done it in a more normal-appearing manner.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Ginger, what can I do about the propaganda campaign, other than become informed and discuss the threat with y'all on this sleepy internet backwater?

If those actions are more effective than these asinine hand written postcards I write to swing state voters every damn night, sign me up.

If and when I'm assigned Florida, I'm going to add a tiny symbol as a special message, details To Be Determined (that acronym just isn't usable anymore, here) just in case it goes to Joe M because it would be biblically hilarious if he actually was a recipient.

Increase awareness. Spread it on social media. Point it out to people and they will spread it further.

If you see any news opinion pieces claiming Hispanics wonder what the Democrats have done for them, write a rebuttal to the editor.

Write your own letters to the editors asking them to investigate the flurry of propaganda, ask why it's not getting the attention it should be getting considering what happened 2016.

I wrote to KIRO not that long ago asking them to investigate astroturf groups supporting DeVos:

To:
[email protected]

Sun, Apr 19 at 7:34 AM

Please investigate these astroturf organized protests. There is DeVos money behind them, they are organized by the same group specifically against Democratic governors and they are really campaign rallies. This is dangerous. They need to be exposed for what is behind them.

Remember 2016 when Russia organized protests?

r/maryland - Comment by u/Dr_Midnight on ”I simply cannot believe that people are protesting in Annapolis today.”

Links embedded in the post
Dr_Midnight

There's an imperial ton of astroturfing going on, and it's quite visible in how those groups popped up literally overnight (hint-hint). The thing is that they targeted groups who were... how does one say... more receptive to the message who wouldn't be inclined to look any deeper into what they were joining.

As an example, right now, this is happening in Orange County, CA.

Now, here's a screenshot of the description of the "Operation Gridlock Los Angeles" group when it was first spotted by Buzzfeed News.

Concurrently, here's a screenshot of the description of the "Operation Gridlock Tennessee" group.

But, hey... it's Buzzfeed News right? Cool-cool-cool-cool-cool...

Here's a link to the group "Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine" - sitting 55,281 members deep at the time of this post.

Okay...

Now here's a link to the group "Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine" - presently with 18,938 members.

WHY DO THESE GROUPS HAVE THE EXACT SAME DESCRIPTION?
Let's not stop there. Following their own links: one is from the "Pennsylvania Firearms Association", and the other is from the group "Minnesota Gun Rights" - both with the exact same layout.

BOTH OF THESE DOMAINS REGISTERED WITH THE SAME REGISTRAR and were registered ON THE SAME DAY AT THE SAME TIME." (Caps mine)

PR Watch
Devos-Funded Group Organizes Protest Against Michigan Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order

Devos-Funded Group Organizes Protest Against Michigan Governor’s Stay-at...
Right-wing protest in Lansing against Governor Whitmer’s coronavirus-related restrictions draws Confederate flag...

"A political group heavily funded by the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos organized a raucous rally against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order on Wednesday. Roughly 3,000 conservatives, including members of the Proud Boys hate group and Confederate flag-waving right-wingers, descended on the state Capitol. Most participants did not wear protective masks or observe social distancing recommendations.

The protest was organized by the DeVos-funded nonprofit Michigan Freedom Fund (MFF) and a far-right organization called the Michigan Conservative Coalition...."

PLEASE EXPOSE THESE ASTROTURF PROTESTS
​

The email had links to everything.

I wrote to The Hill complaining about John Solomon.

Maybe to news organizations like The Hill I'm lost in a sea of emails, but KIRO was interested.


I only became aware of the Hispanic propaganda surge last week. I haven't composed my letters yet but when I do I'll share them here and a list of addresses I've emailed.

 

[varwoche]

Thank you

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Trump on TV bragging that he ordered a retaliatory hit by the feds, in reference to the Reinoehl killing.

Trump: We sent in the US Marshals, took 15 minutes and it was over... They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1316801262277455872

Witnesses of the killing claim the police made no effort to announce themselves before opening fire. There is no dash cam or body cam from any of the officers on the scene.

 

[Ziggurat]

Trump on TV bragging that he ordered a hit by the feds, in reference to the Reinoehl killing.



https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1316801262277455872

Witnesses of the killing claim the police made no effort to announce themselves before opening fire. There is no dash cam or body cam from any of the officers on the scene.

Yeah, no.

That's a truncated quote which removed critical context. "They" as in "They didn’t want to arrest him" isn't referring to the federal marshals, it's referring to the state police. He wasn't saying the marshals wanted to kill him instead of arrest him. Trump was saying that the state police didn't want to arrest this guy for days, so he sent in the federal marshals and they got him right away.

You can see the whole speech here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3dtcnujak
He talks at length about civil unrest that he says could be solved quickly with law enforcement intervention. The part specifically about Reinoehl starts at about 17:25. Here's a fuller transcript:

"And the man that shot another innocent man, this was an innocent man shot, killed, instantly killed. I said, "what happened?" "Well we haven't arrested him". Two days, three days went by. We sent in the US Marshalls. Took 15 minutes, it was over. 15 minutes it was over, we got him. They knew who he was, they didn't want to arrest him. 15 minutes that ended."

It doesn't actually make sense that Trump would brag about a hit, and not surprisingly, he didn't. The fact that you believed the lie so easily, though, that's a problem. Will you try to solve it? Stay tuned....

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Yeah, no.

That's a truncated quote which removed critical context. "They" as in "They didn’t want to arrest him" isn't referring to the federal marshals, it's referring to the state police. He wasn't saying the marshals wanted to kill him instead of arrest him. Trump was saying that the state police didn't want to arrest this guy for days, so he sent in the federal marshals and they got him right away.

Every once in a while you remind me why I don't have you on ignore.

 

[ponderingturtle]

It doesn't actually make sense that Trump would brag about a hit, and not surprisingly, he didn't. The fact that you believed the lie so easily, though, that's a problem. Will you try to solve it? Stay tuned....

Encouraging police brutality and condoning the murder of protestors doesn't make sense either, yet he has repeatedly done that and is a big fan oh Kyle Rittenhouse. It really matters who get killed.

As for sense, remember this is a man who endorses the Chinese government actions in Tiananmen square because it made them look strong. Why should it suddenly change now?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Yeah, no.

That's a truncated quote which removed critical context. "They" as in "They didn’t want to arrest him" isn't referring to the federal marshals, it's referring to the state police. He wasn't saying the marshals wanted to kill him instead of arrest him. Trump was saying that the state police didn't want to arrest this guy for days, so he sent in the federal marshals and they got him right away.

You can see the whole speech here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3dtcnujak
He talks at length about civil unrest that he says could be solved quickly with law enforcement intervention. The part specifically about Reinoehl starts at about 17:25. Here's a fuller transcript:

"And the man that shot another innocent man, this was an innocent man shot, killed, instantly killed. I said, "what happened?" "Well we haven't arrested him". Two days, three days went by. We sent in the US Marshalls. Took 15 minutes, it was over. 15 minutes it was over, we got him. They knew who he was, they didn't want to arrest him. 15 minutes that ended."

It doesn't actually make sense that Trump would brag about a hit, and not surprisingly, he didn't. The fact that you believed the lie so easily, though, that's a problem. Will you try to solve it? Stay tuned....

Sorry, I don't see how you get that from what he said. You are stretching your love of trump here.
It's not obvious that's what he meant.

Of courtse it makes sense that he would brag about it. he's a ******* psycho!