Author: clearandpresentdanger

Which form of cancer do you want to kill you?

That is the question facing today’s Republicans:  Which cancer do you want — Florida’s Ron DeSantis, or, Donald Trump?  Doesn’t matter, either one is fatal.

According to former Rep. Dave Jolly (R-FL) Donald Trump is in danger of being supplanted as the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination due to a surging Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show,” the former lawmaker who once faced DeSantis on the ballot referred to appearances by both Republicans at Saturday night rallies and noted the rousing reception that the Florida governor received.

“David, as a former Republican congressman from your home state of Florida, is it premature to think that Ron DeSantis is gaining any ground on Trump?” host Phang prompted before adding, “That, maybe, the genuine damning evidence coming out of the Jan 6 committee is actually playing a role here? ”

“Not at all, Katie,” the former lawmaker replied. “I think we’re watching Ron DeSantis pass Donald Trump in real-time for the GOP nomination and I would say not because Donald Trump has done anything wrong in the eyes of Republican voters and not because of the Jan 6th committee, but just because Ron DeSantis has done everything right and continues to do that from a strategic standpoint.”

 

There is no real choice here — DeSantis, Trump – – both are fascists who will destroy our Constitutional republic and turn us over to white supremacists and corporations.

The big donors are leaving Trump for DeSantis, so, Trump is keeping his alleged Presidential run alive to milk the MAGAt crowd for every last penny they have.

You really need to read this book

You can get it from Amazon.  Read it, underline, highlight, take notes, recommend it to your friends.

THEY WANT TO KILL AMERICANS:  The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency, by Malcolm Nance.

In fact, read anything by Malcolm Nance — “The Plot to Betray America,” “The Plot to Destroy Democracy,” “The Plot to Hack America.”

ABOUT “THEY WANT TO KILL AMERICANS”

To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor’s or family member’s open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic.

The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS.

The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of “normalcy”―to forget―is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump’s most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege―being white.

They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump-led dictatorship.

 

Jan 6 Committee calls the bluff of a key witness

The January 6 Committee subpoena of Phil Waldron, the retired colonel who was working with Donald Trump’s outside lawyers to overturn the 2020 presidential election, seeks some interesting information:

“All documents supporting the claim that Italian satellites were used to hack voting systems…”
“All documents supporting the claim that voting machines were manipulated through the use of smart thermostats controlled by the Chinese government…”

You may ask “What the hell is this about?”  This is about claims pushed by Retired US Army colonel Phil Waldron and by Trump’s attorneys Sydney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and other Trump supporters that voting machines throughout the US were manipulated by “Italian earth satellites” and by “thermostats on the walls of local voting precincts that were manipulated by the Chinese government.”  Seriously.  I mean it — these MAGAts really, really said exactly that.  And now the Jan 6 Committee wants to hear the story.

Waldron is a retired US Army colonel who has been traveling around the country with a PowerPoint presentation “explaining” how the 2020 election was stolen.

Actually, it’s even worse than “Italian earth satellites” and “thermostats”.  Read the subpoena at this link.

The Western roots of American fascism

When we look at what has happened to our nation, we are not spending enough time on how so much of this has originated in the rural West.   However, a number of scholars are doing exactly that and it’s likely we will see books on the subject.

Leah Sotille, who is an outstanding journalist working on this issue, has a good Slate piece about how the role of the Bundy occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in laying the groundwork for the rise of American fascism in the years since.

But van Tatenhove’s testimony made another thing very clear: Far-right militia groups have, for years, used the Western United States as a testing ground for extremist violence, staging stand-offs on public land to amass followers and experiment with what they could get away with.

Van Tatenhove would know. Sitting before Congress in a Descendants T-shirt and jean jacket adorned with punk pins, the former Oath Keeper told the committee that his association with the group began back in 2014, when he arrived as an “independent journalist” at the Bundy Ranch standoff in the Nevada desert. He was quickly sucked into the cause.

The 2014 standoff was started by the rancher Cliven Bundy, a man who considered himself a member of the 1970s anti-federal lands Sagebrush Rebellion, and who had been vocal since the 1970s about his disdain for federal ownership of land.For 20 years, Bundy had refused to pay the required fees to the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that he owed for grazing his cattle on public land. So, in April 2014, the BLM attempted to round up Bundy’s cattle as a penalty for non-payment. It was a repossession: Bundy hadn’t paid his bills, and the government came to collect.

But Bundy twisted the affair into something else entirely: taking to a right-wing YouTube livestreamer’s channel (someone who also positioned himself as an independent journalist), Bundy told a story of a rural family being attacked by a tyrannical government. He called for “We the People” to take a stand, and many people answered Bundy’s call. Supporters arrived from around the country — New Hampshire, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona — and eventually outnumbered the federal officers. These supporters included the Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members from chapters around the West, who seized the Bundy affair as an opportunity to promote their anti-government worldview. The feds found themselves surrounded: militiamen pointed sniper rifles at the small group of officers from overpasses. Eventually, the BLM let Bundy’s cattle go, and fled.

The moment the Bundys were found not guilty by a jury in Portland in the fall of 2016 was the moment that for me was when I realized that Trump was probably going to win.