2 + 2 = 5

Day Ten.

From The Guardian:

The Trump White House’s 27-year-old press secretary staunchly defended an abrupt freeze on federal grants and proclaimed a new era of aggressive immigration enforcement on Tuesday, marking a confrontational return to Trump-era media relations in the administration’s first official briefing.

Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, insisted the controversial funding pause set to activate on Tuesday evening would not affect individual benefits like social security and Medicare, but would target what she called “illegal DEI programs” and the “green new scam” initiatives that she claimed waste taxpayer money.

“The American people gave President Trump an overwhelming mandate on November 5, and he’s trying to ensure that the tax money going out the door in this very bankrupt city actually aligns with the will and priorities of the American people,” Leavitt said.

Let's pause right there. 

According to the FEC, Trump received 49.8% of the votes cast - not even a majority. It was only about 2.3 million more votes more than were cast for VP Harris.

This is not an "overwhelming mandate" in any definition of that phrase.

In other words, this is a lie.

Here's another:

She also defended Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship, despite legal challenges from 22 state attorneys general. “This administration believes that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional,” Leavitt said, vowing to take the fight to the supreme court.

And here's what's in The Constitution: 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

 2 + 2 = 5

A Judge Responds

Let's start with Trump's assault on the 14th Amendment. 

It contains these paragraphs:

The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift.  The Fourteenth Amendment states:  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race. 

But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.  The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”  Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text.  

To understand Trump's error here, let's head over to Hah-vahd, to some actual legal experts:

[Harvard Law Today]: The relevant portion of Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The new administration argues that the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” does not apply to children of those who are undocumented or who are on temporary visas. What do you make of that claim?

[Gerald L. Neuman, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law]: The argument is either a crazy theory or dishonest interpretation of the Constitution. The Supreme Court explained what those words mean in the Wong Kim Ark case. It reflects the fact that there are these traditional exceptions that really do involve people who are not subject to the nation’s jurisdiction. The leading example in the 1860s debates was foreign diplomats, who have diplomatic immunity, who are for the most part not subject to our laws, and who retain the citizenship of the country that sent them and which they are serving. Their children share the immunity and would not qualify. There is also the example of a foreign warship visiting a port of the United States — the country does not exercise jurisdiction over foreign warships, and therefore children born on the foreign warships are not citizens of the United States.

With respect to undocumented workers, they are people who come to the United States to work, to participate in our economy, to live in our society, to live safely in our territory. They are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Further, the thing that makes the immigration laws so enforceable against them is that they are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

Note that last sentence.

Anyway, Trump's executive order was temporarily blocked quickly after it was pinched out of Trump's Oval Office.

From The NYTimes:

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order to end automatic citizenship for babies born on American soil, dealing the president his first setback as he attempts to upend the nation’s immigration laws and reverse decades of precedent.

In a hearing held three days after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, a Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided with Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, the four states that sued, signing a restraining order that blocks Mr. Trump’s executive order for 14 days, renewable upon expiration. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said.

“Frankly,” he continued, challenging Trump administration lawyers, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.”

Mr. Trump responded hours later, telling reporters at the White House, “Obviously we’ll appeal it.”

Of course he will. Not that this part of the judge's order means anything to the MAGA-cult:

There is a strong likelihood that Plaintiffs will succeed on the merits of their claims that the Executive Order violates the Fourteenth Amendment and Immigration and Nationality Act. See United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169  U.S.  649, 694-99 (1898); Regan v. King, 49 F. Supp. 222, 223 (N.D. Cal. 1942), aff'd, 134 F.2d 413 (9thCir. 1943), cert denied, 319 U.S. 753 (1943)  see also Gee v. United States, 49 F. 146, 148 (9th Cir. 1892). 

But when has Trump ever let the law get in the way of his plans?

 

 

 

 

Trump Pardons

Day Two

From The Hill:

President-elect Trump told NBC it was disgraceful President Biden issued pardons to Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and other members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“It is disgraceful. Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES! DJT” Trump texted NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.

Two folks at HuffPost didn't like the Biden's Pardons, either: 

While these pardons may well save these people from months, if not years, of costly litigation for committing no crimes, they were a terrible idea. They create the appearance of corruption, even where none exists. To those marinating in the Trumpian conspiracy swamps, and even for those who do not closely follow politics, they look like a cover-up. Why pardon someone if they didn’t do something wrong? In feeding the conspiracy, they affirm Trump’s argument that politics is just an elite protection racket, so why shouldn’t he get to do the same?

That argument leaves out one little point. From NPR December, 2020:

President Trump issued dozens more pardons on Wednesday evening to many wealthy and well-connected convicts with ties to his innermost circles, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Republican operative Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump.

And:

The case against Stone was brought by then-special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible ties between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Stone was indicted on charges of lying to Congress about what he and then-candidate Trump knew about Russian efforts to discredit Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign, witness tampering and obstruction. The charges related to his efforts during the 2016 presidential race to act as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks.

But days before Stone, who is Trump's longtime friend and political confidant, was to report to prison in July, the president commuted the 40-month prison sentence.

Trump's already done it.

To their credit, I suppose, the HuffPost duo did acknowledge:

These [pardons] appear to be purely prophylactic pardons meant to protect these individuals from the threat of investigations launched by President Donald Trump, who had promised vengeance through investigation and prosecution against all of the pardoned individuals.

He was going to go after Fauci, et al, anyway. 

In any event, here's some Day One news from the NYTimes:

President Donald J. Trump, in one of his first official acts, issued a sweeping grant of clemency on Monday to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, issuing pardons to most of the defendants and commuting the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Mr. Trump’s moves amounted to an extraordinary reversal for rioters accused of both low-level, nonviolent offenses and for those who had assaulted police officers.

And they effectively erased years of efforts by federal investigators to seek accountability for the mob assault on the peaceful transfer of presidential power after Mr. Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. As part of his pardon order, Mr. Trump also directed the Justice Department to dismiss “all pending indictments” that remained against people facing charges for Jan. 6.

He pardoned them or commuted the sentences of people who committed some MAJOR CRIMES, didn't he? 

For example:

The pardons will also wipe the slate clean for violent offenders who went after the police on Jan. 6 with baseball bats, two-by-fours and bear spray and are serving prison terms, in some cases of more than a decade.

Moreover, Mr. Trump pardoned Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, who was serving a 22-year prison term after being convicted at trial of seditious conspiracy — a crime that requires prosecutors to prove that a defendant used violent force against the government.

Sure, but Biden's pardons absolutely reek of political corruption. 

The riot of January 6, 2020 was an act of love simply because The Leader said so.

 

 

Biden Pardons

 Good for him.

From The Biden White House:

I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.

That is why I am exercising my authority under the Constitution to pardon General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee. The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.

Good for him.

Resist.

Day one.

George Orwell famously wrote:

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Elsewhere, he wrote:

And yet the peculiar horror of the present moment is that we cannot be sure that this is so. It is quite possible that we are descending into an age in which two and two will make five when the Leader says so.

In this case, "the Leader" is being inaugurated President of the United States later today.

He's a criminal, found guilty on 34 felony charges in the state of New York. He was also found liable to have committed real estate fraud and sexual assault. He owes hundreds of millions in fines for the fraud and for defaming the woman he assaulted.

These are facts. His MAGA cult will tell you they're lies - and that is just because their leader says so.

Protect your self. Protect your sensitive communications. Especially if you are in any of the communities soon to be targeted by The Leader's second administration.

Get a Proton Mail account.

From PCMag:

You can use Proton Mail at no charge, while paying for an account removes some limits and enables advanced features. Proton Mail stores your data using zero-knowledge encryption, meaning only you can access it. A disgruntled employee can’t rummage through your Proton Mail messages, and the best subpoena in the world can’t force the company to turn over your account.

So if two people are communicating via Proton Mail, it's end-to-end encrypted. You can send encrypted email (password protected) out of Proton Mail as well.

You can store documents there as well - just go to Proton Drive.

Proton also has a VPN.

What's a VPN?

Again, PCMag:

A private network configured within a public network such as the Internet or a carrier's network. A VPN provides anonymity and privacy for every desktop and mobile device that accesses the Internet. VPNs use so-called "tunneling" protocols because they tunnel a private channel through a public network.

Get a Tor Browser.

From PCMag:

The easiest way is with Tor Browser. Tor, which stands for The Onion Router, is more than just one of the best web browsers. It's a technology stack that hides your web activity by routing and obscuring it through multiple nodes, like the layers of an onion. Its use for nefarious activities is well chronicled, but it's your best option if you want real privacy online. Tor Browser is a free, open-source project that simplifies protecting your identity online.

All of the above are available in free versions, though you can upgrade the Proton stuff.

I have no financial interest in any of it. I'm using the free versions.

This is Good-Bye - For Now

I've been at this for a little more than 20 years and it's a wonderful journey. 

I tried my best to fact check and offer commentary (with an attitude, as one friend told me early on) in order to clear the political haze that constantly surrounds us.

And yet, here we are.

It's just too overwhelming right now. I need some time off and I have no idea how much.

Until I come back, I won't be blogging any more.

Best of luck to you all.

David

PS: The blog will remain on line.

Thinking About This Piece - A Few Days Before The 2024 Presidential Election

Some text highlights (from Lincoln's SOTU, 1862):

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.... The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.

And (this is from the Lincoln-Douglas debate):

It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

And (this is from the Gettysburg Address):

That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Vote for Harris. Vote Against Trump (and every one of Trump's enablers).

Save the country.

Republicans For Harris

We'll start with these names from Time:

• Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger 
• Former Vice President Dick Cheney 
• Former Representative Adam Kinzinger 
• Anthony Scaramucci 
• Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan 
• Former Senator Jeff Flake 
• 200 former Bush, McCain, and Romney staffers 
• Alberto Gonzales 

And add these names from CBS:

• Former Rep. Liz Cheney 
• 17 Former Reagan staffers 
• William Webster 
• John Negroponte
  

Add these names from The Washington Post:

• Barbara Pierce Bush (daughter of George W. Bush) 
• 114 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials 
• A dozen lawyers who served under Republican presidents
  

And so on.

 

VP Harris At The Ellipse

 

From CBS News:

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night delivered her closing argument against former President Donald Trump at the same site he encouraged his supporters to "fight like hell" on Jan. 6, 2021, before they marched to the U.S. Capitol and tried unsuccessfully to halt the certification of President Biden's victory. 

"We know who Donald Trump is," Harris said. "He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election, an election that he knew he lost."

"America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote," she said. 

Good enough for me.

The Joke: Two Views

First, from JD Vance:

Vance: I have heard about the joke… Maybe it's a stupid, racist joke.. Maybe it is not. But we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing can a United States of America. I’m so over it pic.twitter.com/I93s68plT8

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 28, 2024

Message: To all the easily offended snowflakes out there, just get over it.

Second, from the Archbishop of Puerto Rico:

The Archbishop of Puerto Rico formally rebukes Donald Trump, demanding that he personally apologize: “It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize. It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments.” pic.twitter.com/fK1qR9Vukg

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) October 29, 2024

Cleta Mitchell And Stop The Steal

If you have a chance, head over to The NY Times and read this article.

Here's how it starts:

In the aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s defeat in 2020, one of his election lawyers set out to keep the lies about his loss alive.

The lawyer, a well-connected conservative named Cleta Mitchell, knit together grass-roots activists, Republican lawyers, party officials and deep-pocketed advocacy groups into a vast national network. The aim was nothing less than remaking American elections.

Over the past four years, Ms. Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network has done more than any other group to take Mr. Trump’s falsehoods about corruption in the democratic system and turn them into action. 

As is usually the case in stories like these, I read them to see if they mention any of the usual suspects I track at this blog - or if there any sorts of connections to those usuals.

Found one - that well-connected conservative lawyer, Cleta Mitchell.

Page 4-5 of the Senate Judiciary's Staff report, Subverting Justice:

FINDING 4: Trump allies with links to the “Stop the Steal” movement and the January 6 insurrection participated in the pressure campaign against DOJ. In addition to Trump White House officials, including the President himself, outside Trump allies with ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement and the January 6 insurrection also pressured DOJ to help overturn the election results. They included:

• U.S. Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, who led the objection to counting Pennsylvania’s electoral votes on the House floor in the hours immediately following the January 6 insurrection. Perry has acknowledged introducing Clark to Trump, and documents and testimony confirm that he directly communicated with Donoghue about his false Pennsylvania election fraud claims.
• Doug Mastriano, a Republican State Senator from Pennsylvania who participated in Rudy Giuliani’s so-called election fraud “hearings,” spent thousands of dollars from his campaign account to bus people to the January 6 “Save America Rally,” and was present on the Capitol grounds as the insurrection unfolded. Documents show that, like Perry, Mastriano directly communicated with Donoghue about his false election fraud claims.
• Cleta Mitchell, a Trump campaign legal adviser, early proponent of Trump’s false stolen election claims, and participant the January 2, 2021 call where Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.” Mitchell emailed Meadows a copy of Trump’s lawsuit against Raffensperger and offered to send DOJ 1,800 pages of supporting exhibits; Meadows sent the materials to Rosen, asking DOJ to investigate.

The Times piece spends some time on Trump's "fake electors" scheme:

Ms. Mitchell and others who played pivotal roles in Mr. Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election, including the former law professor John Eastman, the architect of the fake electors scheme, advised the ranks of activists as they sought to remove thousands of voters from the rolls and pushed to reimagine how elections are certified.

And later:

Ms. Mitchell had been a prominent Republican election lawyer for decades, a veteran of the long-running debates over tightening voter ID requirements and cleaning up voter rolls.

But in 2020, working as a lawyer for Mr. Trump, she took her work in a different direction. She supported the plan to send Trump electors to Congress from states where he lost the vote. She was on the call with Mr. Trump as he badgered Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes he needed to win. 

Since we already know that:

As they organized the fake elector scheme, lawyers appointed a “point person” in seven states to help organize those electors who were willing to sign their names to false documents. In Pennsylvania, that point person was Douglas V. Mastriano, a proponent of Mr. Trump’s lies of a stolen election...

So I gotta ask, was Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (or anyone on his staff, or attached to his campaigns or anyone else connected to him) in on any of these meetings of the Cleta Mitchell's so-called Election Integrity Network?

An attempted coup happened. It's kinda important to get to the bottom of it and hold all those responsible accountable. No one should get a pass.

 

Michelle Obama's Speech

First, the speech itself:

And this is how The New York Times framed it:

Michelle Obama issued an impassioned plea to American voters on Saturday — and, in particular, American men — anchored in a searing and intimate depiction of women’s bodies and reproductive health, and what she described as the life-or-death stakes of returning former President Donald J. Trump to power.

In her first appearance on the campaign trail during this election, Mrs. Obama, long reluctant to engage in the political arena, described the far-reaching consequences of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, in the concrete terms of personal tragedy.

“If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood, or some unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren’t sure if they can act, you will be the one praying that it’s not too late,” Mrs. Obama said. “You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something.”

And: 

And she castigated the media and many voters for holding Ms. Harris to a higher standard than her opponent, for “choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence, while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.”

“We expect her to be intelligent and articulate, to have a clear set of policies, to never show too much anger, to prove time and time again that she belongs,” Mrs. Obama said. “But for Trump, we expect nothing at all, no understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals.”

The crowd roared in approval.

Let's remember that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, a criminal who owes a half billion in fines for real estate fraud and for defaming a woman he sexually assaulted.

No understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals.

And here's a view from the other side of the Atlantic:

With the race virtually deadlocked, Obama said she was in the Midwestern battleground heeding her own advice to “do something” to support Harris bid to be the country’s first female president. In raw and strikingly personal terms, she asked why Harris was being held to a “higher standard” than her opponent. Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and his failed attempt to cling to power after losing the 2020 election should alone be disqualifying, Obama argued. But now the people who worked closest with him when he was president – his former advisers and cabinet secretaries – had stepped forward with a warning that he should not be allowed to return to power.

And:

Abortion bans, she argued, affected men as well. If something happened during a pregnancy or a delivery and the doctor was prevented from providing care, “you will be the one praying that it’s not too late. You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something, and then there is the tragic but very real possibility that in the worst-case scenario, you just might be the one holding flowers at the funeral,” she said.

 Meanwhile, Trump is still lying about his 2020 election loss. This time it's with moon-unit Joe Rogan.

 

Trump's MAGA Forced Birth Legacy. The Cruelty Is The Point

This recently bubbled up again:

You can find the study here.

CNN reported at the time:

Tens of thousands of pregnancies have resulted from rape in states where abortion is not a legal option, researchers estimate in a new study.

In the study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from Planned Parenthood, Resound Research for Reproductive Health and academic institutions across the US used a combination of federal surveys on crime and sexual violence to estimate that there were about 520,000 rapes that led to 64,565 pregnancies in the time since abortion bans have been enacted in 14 states – ranging by state from four to 18 months ago. 

Other research has found that there have been fewer than 10 abortions each month in states with bans, suggesting that most, if not all, victims were not able to get abortions in the states where they live, even those where the law allows exceptions for rape.

“Restricting abortion access to survivors of rape can have particularly devastating consequences,” the medical journal’s editors wrote in a note about the new research. “Whether these survivors of rape had illegal abortions, received medication abortion through the mail, traveled to other states, or carried the child to birth is unknown.” 

And:

“Like many exceptions written into abortion bans, an exception for rape victims may appear to be a reasonable solution but in practice can create more trauma and danger for patients who have already experienced a traumatic event,” said Dr. Sami Heywood, an ob/gyn in Illinois and fellow with the advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health who was not involved in the new research.

“No other health care is reserved only for people who can prove a crime took place. That’s not an ethical way to practice medicine. It is cruel to force people who have already been victimized to jump through legal and logistical barriers that cause further harm.”

But as we've seen in most other MAGA forced-birth realities, the cruelty is the point. 

And if you want to take a peek into a possible future, Project 2025 lets you have it, right between the eyes:

Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method. It should also ensure that statistics are separated by category: spontaneous miscarriage; treatments that incidentally result in the death of a child (such as chemotherapy); stillbirths; and induced abortion. In addition, CDC should require monitoring and reporting for complications due to abortion and every instance of children being born alive after an abortion. Moreover, abortion should be clearly defined as only those procedures that intentionally end an unborn child’s life. Miscarriage management or standard ectopic pregnancy treatments should never be conflated with abortion.

That last point is moot, however, as there are those who would not allow any sort of abortion (or abortion adjacent) health care procedures to be utilized to protect the life of the pregnant woman.

But you'll note how "small government" GOP has now shifted to a group now  requiring added levels of HHS/CDC surveillance of half of the population's most basic biological realities.

Why? Because to them, the women don't matter. Not enough, anyway.

Or as was stated so much more wisely than I ever could:

[A woman's right whether or not to bear a child] is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a decision that she must make for herself. And when Government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices. Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg at her Senate Confirmation Hearing, 1993

The cruelty is the point - to keep 'em in their place.

More On Trump's Hitler Crush

From The Atlantic:

Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience. As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” 

Of course Trump's spokesface, Alex Pfeiffer, denies this ever happened. 

You'll note, however, that what Trump was interested in was (total) loyalty in his generals. That was the important part - not that they had to be Nazis or whatever.

The fact that at least some of Hitler's generals were, in fact, Nazis  (and I have no idea how many of them were) did not invalidate Trump's admiration for them. Or desire to replicate the total loyalty scenario he so obviously desired.

The man is a fascist.

Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly

From The New York Times.

The frame:

Few top officials spent more time behind closed doors in the White House with President Donald J. Trump than John F. Kelly, the former Marine general who was his longest-serving chief of staff.

And now the goods:

He said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.

He discussed and confirmed previous reports that Mr. Trump had made admiring statements about Hitler, had expressed contempt for disabled veterans and had characterized those who died on the battlefield for the United States as “losers” and “suckers” — comments first reported in 2020 by The Atlantic.

Details: 

Kelly said Trump chafed at limitations on his power.

“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Mr. Kelly said.

Mr. Trump “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted,” Mr. Kelly said.

And:

Trump told him that “Hitler did some good things.”

Mr. Kelly confirmed previous reports that on more than one occasion Mr. Trump spoke positively of Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump told him.

And: 

He said Trump called service members who were injured or killed “losers and suckers,” despite denials from Trump and some aides.

Confirming a statement he gave to CNN last year, Mr. Kelly said that on multiple occasions Mr. Trump told him that those Americans wounded, captured or killed in action were “losers and suckers.”

“The time in Paris was not the only time that he ever said it,” Mr. Kelly said, referring to reports that Mr. Trump told him that he did not want to visit a cemetery where American service members killed during World War I were buried.

Donald Trump.

 

Trump "Works" At Mickey Dees!

Let's start with some reporting that the Trump campaign wants the world (MAGA and otherwise) to see.

From (of course) Fox "News":

Former President Donald Trump took on a new role as he cooked and served french fries to customers at McDonald's on Sunday afternoon in Pennsylvania, while dishing out plenty of jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Hello, everybody. It's my first day at McDonald's, I'm looking for a job," Trump said as he entered the establishment and shook hands with the owner. 

Thousands of Trump supporters surrounded the McDonald's restaurant as Trump spent the afternoon working as a fry cook after accusing Harris of lying about working at the fast food restaurant.

And so on. He worked the frier, he worked the drive-through window and so on.

Here's what was left out.

From The NYTimes:

Donald J. Trump walked into one of his favorite restaurants on Sunday and declared he was “looking for a job.”

He certainly is, though not the one that he occupied during the photo op that followed. Mr. Trump’s stop at the McDonald’s in suburban Philadelphia, which was closed to the public during his visit and where he briefly worked the fryer and handed bags of food to preselected drive-through customers, was a play meant to attack his opponent and give the billionaire candidate some credibility with the working-class voters he needs to win back the White House. [Emphasis added.]

See that? It was a pre-arranged, pre-selected photo op.

Proof:

So the place wasn’t even open. It was all staged and fake. He didn’t work for real at a McDonalds. It was a staged fraud just like every other event. pic.twitter.com/FLEqnrZ7Tw

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 20, 2024

Look at the signature on the statement. Now let's travel back to Fox:

The owner of the Feasterville McDonald's shared a statement with Fox News Digital, highlighting the importance of the former president's visit.

"As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community. That’s why I accepted former President Trump’s request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s," owner and operator Derek Giacomantonio said. 

"As a former crew member, I can attest this job is more than burgers and fries, but a meaningful pathway to opportunity. Local Pennsylvania franchisees like me are proud to provide more than 25,000 jobs across the state and I'm honored to showcase my restaurant and the incredible impact of the franchise business model here today," Giacomantonio continued.

His statement to Fox comes very close to being word for word from the statement. Did Fox "News" know that the store was closed for the Trump event?  If not, then why not? If so, then why didn't they report so that we can decide?

 

What Does "Columbus Day" Mean (A Repost)

This was first posted in 2020. Then tweaked a year later.

Here's the original:

I'd like to take a break from watching our slow-motion Trump-led social suicide and talk a little about this: 

The Pittsburgh Art Commission unanimously voted on Wednesday to schedule a special hearing for the public to voice their opinions on the potential removal of the Christopher Columbus statue in Schenley Park.

Mayor Bill Peduto asked the commission in a letter Tuesday to begin a public review to determine the future of the statue.

The statue, which was erected in Schenley Park in 1958, was vandalized in 2010, 2017 and most recently again in June and July as part of nationwide protests against monuments honoring Columbus.

After the statue was vandalized in June, an online petition was created calling for its removal.

Let me say as a proud Italian-American that it's probably time for the statue to be removed.  As a cultural signifier, "Columbus" has way too much negative baggage to support it's continued presence in Oakland.

But instead of talking about the statues, let's talk about Columbus Day - something with similar calls for removal. What does "Columbus Day" mean? Evidently, different things to different people at different times.

From The New York Times:

Few who march in Columbus Day parades or recount the tale of Columbus’s voyage from Europe to the New World are aware of how the holiday came about or that President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed it as a one-time national celebration in 1892 — in the wake of a bloody New Orleans lynching that took the lives of 11 Italian immigrants. The proclamation was part of a broader attempt to quiet outrage among Italian-Americans, and a diplomatic blowup over the murders that brought Italy and the United States to the brink of war.

Here's the story:

It began with the murder of David Hennessy. A popular police chief, Hennessy was shot down by gunmen while walking home from work. As he lay dying, a witness asked him who did it. “Dagoes,” he reportedly whispered, using a slur for Italians.

And so, more than a few Italians were rounded up and put on trial. The trial ended in a way that the public didn't like (six not guilty verdicts and 3 mistrials) and then:

In response, thousands of angry residents gathered near the jail. Impassioned speakers whipped the mob into a frenzy, painting Italian immigrants as criminals who needed to be driven out of the city. Finally, the mob broke into the city’s arsenal, grabbing guns and ammunition. As they ran toward the prison, they shouted, “We want the Dagoes!”

A smaller group of armed men stormed the prison, grabbing not just the men who had been acquitted or given a mistrial, but several who had not been tried or accused in the crimes. Shots rang out—hundreds of them. Eleven men’s bodies were riddled with bullets and torn apart by the crowd.

It's not surprising that the crowd rejoiced. The Italian government, evidently, did not.

Back to The Times on President Harrison's proclamation:

President Harrison would have ignored the New Orleans carnage had the victims been black. But the Italian government made that impossible. It broke off diplomatic relations and demanded an indemnity that the Harrison administration paid. Harrison even called on Congress in his 1891 State of the Union to protect foreign nationals — though not black Americans — from mob violence.

Harrison’s Columbus Day proclamation in 1892 opened the door for Italian-Americans to write themselves into the American origin story, in a fashion that piled myth upon myth. As the historian Danielle Battisti shows in “Whom We Shall Welcome,” they rewrote history by casting Columbus as “the first immigrant” — even though he never set foot in North America and never immigrated anywhere (except possibly to Spain), and even though the United States did not exist as a nation during his 15th-century voyage.

Seems obvious that the establishment of Columbus Day was initially intended to appease an angry Italian government in light of a brutal Southern lynching and not necessarily a celebration of Columbus himself, who, let's remember, was a man of his time and thus could scarcely be seen today as anything but ignorant and vicious.

Harrison was also a calling for patriotism. From the proclamation:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, in pursuance of the aforesaid joint resolution, do hereby appoint Friday, October 21, 1892, the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus, as a general holiday for the people of the United States. On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.

Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.

In order to push the patriotism of the moment, Harrison had to shoe-horn Columbus into something he definitely (and absurdly) wasn't: an enlightenment-age "pioneer of progress." But what about all those who have since felt that the day is not about the misery brought by Columbus (and many others after him) but cultural pride in being written into the American origin story? The day means one thing if you see it as a celebration (or commemoration) of the beginnings of what turn out to be some very bad long-term abuses and another if you see it as a de facto Italian American heritage day and not a celebration of the misery and pestilence that followed Columbus' "discovery" of Hispaniola.

So we're at odds. What does "Columbus Day" mean? Who gets to define its meaning for everyone else? Those pushing for the "heritage day" risk offending those focusing on the very real abuses and those focusing on those abuses risk offending the cultural pride of a large swath of the population.

I don't know the solution.

Here's my domanda piuttosto pericolosa: is an Italian-American Heritage Day even necessary at this point? The fact of the matter is that every ethnic/cultural group deserves recognition for its unique contributions to The American Experience.

Perhaps it's time retire the day and use the temporal space it inhabits to make election day a national holiday instead. Perhaps we can all celebrate the American Experience that way.

Ah, Those 2nd Amendment Solutions - Ain't They Grand?

From The Washington Post:

Federal emergency response personnel on Saturday had employees operating in hard-hit Rutherford County, N.C., stop working and move to a different area because of concerns over “armed militia” threatening government workers in the region, according to an email sent to federal agencies helping with response in the state. Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Around 1 p.m. Saturday, an official with the U.S. Forest Service, which is supporting recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sent an urgent message to numerous federal agencies warning that “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately. The message stated that National Guard troops 'had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA.’”

And The NYTimes:

A meteorologist based in Washington, D.C., was accused of helping the government cover up manipulating a hurricane. In Houston, a forecaster was repeatedly told to “do research” into the weather’s supposed nefarious origins. And a meteorologist for a television station in Lansing, Mich., said she had received death threats.

“Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes,” wrote the forecaster in Michigan, Katie Nickolaou, in a social media post. “I can’t believe I just had to type that.”

And:

Last summer, Chris Gloninger, the chief meteorologist of a television news station in Iowa, left his job after he received a string of harassing messages — including a death threat — for his on-air discussions of climate change. He began incorporating the topic into his forecasts after being stunned by Hurricane Sandy.  

Back to The Post on how damaging this is:

The heightening tension has resulted in residents harassing federal employees, said Riva Duncan, a former Forest Service official who lives in Asheville.

Duncan, who is also a representative with the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said people have been yelling at federal employees delivering aid or showing up to do repairs, saying, “We don’t want your help here.”

One Forest Service employee, she said, was pulling into a gas station when someone yelled at him to leave, saying “We don’t want the government here.”

“It’s terrible because a lot of these folks who need assistance are refusing it because they believe the stuff people are saying about FEMA and the government,” Duncan said. “And it’s sad because they are probably the ones who need the help the most.”

Yea. And then what happens next?  They complain that they're not being helped.

Reality:

Claim: The federal government isn’t helping Republican areas of western North Carolina.

“They’re being treated very badly in the Republican areas,” Trump said in a Fox News interview on September 30. “They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything.”

Reality: FEMA administrator Criswell has described these allegations as “frankly ridiculous and just plain false.” 

And so on.

So Trump lies to his flock, the flock believes the lies and then refuses guv'ment help - or worse threatens the lives of those delivering it.

 

 

 

THIS Is Criminal. Anyone Else See It?

We'll start here:

🚨 At Moonies gun cult Rod of Iron Ministries, Flynn Org terrorist Ivan Raiklin announces plan to interfere with electors in PA, including a plan to confront state legislators echoing J6 — on 12/1/24 at the State Capitol, in Harrisburg, PA 🚨

This is criminal seditious… https://t.co/E3oE5hejZV pic.twitter.com/UY5ryYuJpT

— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) October 12, 2024

For those who've forgotten about "Rod of Iron" here's some background.

I found a few RoI FB pages announcing how PA State Sen Doug Mastriano was set appear there.

But what about this Ivan Raiklin guy?

There's ties to Doug, too.

Take a look.

Especially this:

Election fraud conspiracy theorist and GOP nominee for PA Gov Doug Mastriano celebrating his win tonight with decertification memo author Ivan Raiklin, who says:

“20 electoral votes!”

Curious … pic.twitter.com/liYB77NJFV

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 18, 2022

Yep. That's Ivan Raiklin.

And then this:

Ivan Raiklin posted to his Telegram from the Dog Mastriano rally.

Next to him sits the leadership of the Patriot Caucus, which @EverettStern1 has pointed to as a group willing to commit acts of political violence and chaos to advance their goals.
H/t @clayberg pic.twitter.com/2bOjbo8wwo

— Gal MF (@gal_suburban) January 8, 2022

Yep. That's Ivan Raiklin, too!

Does Doug Mastriano have any comment about how his friend Ivan Raiklin was speaking before a crowd at the Rod of Iron ministries urging them to interfere with the 2024 election?

BTW, Raiklin is the source of the so-called "Operation Pence Card."

That was the part of Trump's coup to pressure VP Pence into not certifying the electors.

And let's remember what happened the night before Trump's mob stormed the Capitol:

The committee also released call logs from the days leading up to January 6, 2021 painting a fuller picture of who the former president was speaking to as he and his allies were plotting for him to stay in office, the first time the panel is releasing White House call logs in their entirety.

The logs have been crucial to the panel’s investigation in piecing together a timeline of events. While the log for January 6 has a seven-hour gap, the committee has gone to great lengths to fill in that part of the timeline through witness interviews and other records.

The day before the US Capitol attack, Trump spoke to then-Vice President Mike Pence. After that conversation, Trump spoke with Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who helped fuel Trump’s election lies in the state, and then the switchboard operator left a note “that Senator Douglas Mastriano will be calling in for the Vice President.”

What did they talk about?

Has Doug Mastriano EVER explained this to the people of Pennsylvania?

This.

This moment from @BarackObama 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UbKo7g0sif

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 11, 2024

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