“. . . the measure of a man . . . is where he stands at times of challenge

One month after the election of Donald Trump I feel more certain about who he is and what he aims to achieve but less certain about who stands in opposition to him. Trump is an aspiring dictator who aims to aggregate his power to reward his friends and punish his enemies.

His nominations are neither surprising nor unexpected. He is elevating his henchmen to key positions without shame or explanation. He seeks to convert the power of the state to a personal arsenal. He wants to transform government policy to enrich himself, his family and his cronies.

None of this is unexpected. It was both predictable and predicted by countless politicians, journalists and civic and business leaders. For months leading up to Election Day there were warnings nearly every day of what would happen if he was returned to power — Project 2025, weaponizing the government, staffing his cabinet with unqualified people loyal to him rather than the nation.

What has surprised me, depressed me and ultimately angered me are the voices that have gone silent. So many who were so loud in warning about the dangers of Trump now speak only in whispers if at all. The critics who were bold and brash when they thought Harris would win are now tamed and seeking accommodation. Media figures who claimed to be the bastion of protection for our democracy now make pilgrimages to temper Trump’s anger.

Martin Luther King Jr. said “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge.” We are in a time of challenge. The question for every leader, every citizen is where do you stand?

One of the most common refrains I now hear is that people are exhausted and want to tune out politics. I’m sorry you are tired, but you don’t get to claim you are fighting for democracy only when you think your side will win. It is a fight precisely because the other side may prevail. It is exactly in those times that we need your voice, your energy and your action.

Others confess they want to avoid the fight because they are scared. They worry about what Trump might do to them, their families and their jobs. They take Trump literally and seriously when he talks about retribution. They fear the financial, emotional and legal toll of a politically motivated investigation.

It is okay to be afraid. It is natural to worry about what Trump and his minions might do. It is productive to plan to stay safe, secure and sane in a time of uncertainty and insanity. But do you think you will survive that way for four years? Do you really think Trump will spare you because you now show obedience?

He won’t. Trump is a bully and bullies prey on the weak. They understand the power of fear and exploit it. Capitulating to Trump now — even before he has been sworn in — makes you more vulnerable, not less.

When he was 28 and living in the Jim Crow South, King gave another, less famous speech that speaks to our times. He spoke about the need to confront fear with courage.

What we must do is this: do not disengage. It is okay to be fearful, but don’t let it rule you. As King said, “build dikes of courage to ward off the flood of fear.” Start with a simple act of telling a friend that what Trump is doing is wrong. When you have built up the courage, tell a larger group or post it online. When you are ready, join a group or civic organization aimed at protecting our democracy.

If you are a leader who previously boasted about your pro-democracy positions, you have a greater obligation. If you feel obliged to obey Trump, spare us your justifications and rationalizations and just tell us you are too scared to continue the fight. If you feel the need to bow down, then stand down and let someone else with more courage take your spot.

Unfortunately, too many legacy media outlets may have catchy slogans but have already chosen to bow down. They hide behind false neutrality and journalistic “ethics” as an excuse to do nothing.

Donald Trump has not yet taken office. The abuses of his administration have not yet begun. It is going to get worse, much worse. We need to stand up an opposition not for a month or two but for four years or more. To do that, we cannot allow ourselves or our leaders to be too tired. We must insist they have courage or get out of the way.

The political high road is a myth

Joe Biden’s Hunter lesson: The political high road is a mirage
Trump has gone to war against the America we have known. Democrats must be prepared to use any weapon to fight back

By Lucian K. Truscott IV
Columnist
Published December 3, 2024 8:57AM (EST)

(Salon) How quickly we forget. On the morn of President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, there is nary a column inch about who Trump pardoned before he left office. All the pearl clutchers — elected Democrats and liberal political commentators alike – have been lamenting that Biden “lied” or “broke his promise” not to pardon his son. Meanwhile, Trump’s pardons of multiple figures who could incriminate him criminally or merely for political corruption are going unmentioned. So, let’s take a little trip down the Trump pardon memory hole:

We will start with the odious Paul Manafort. He had all kinds of connections to possible Trump crimes. Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska hired him to run his influence operation in Ukraine, which included lobbying for an accused murderer seeking investment opportunities for his corrupt company, as well as running the political campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, the corrupt Ukrainian politician who would be elected president and then ousted in a peaceful revolution. Manafort met repeatedly with a Russian GRU agent working for Deripaska, Konstantin Kilimnik, while serving as Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and even transferred Trump polling information to him. Manafort was convicted on multiple counts of bank fraud and money laundering associated with his corrupt work in Ukraine. He lied to investigators looking into Trump’s Russia ties. He had connections to Trump’s so-called foreign policy adviser, Michael Flynn, whom Trump appointed as his first national security adviser, and who was ousted from that position after serving just two weeks for lying to the FBI about his connections to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Trump pardoned Flynn, too.

….(snip)….

Are we seeing a pattern here? You bet. Each of Trump’s pardons listed above was to benefit himself. During his time in the White House, Trump repeatedly waved the promise of pardons to keep his co-conspirators from cooperating with investigations he faced. Shutting up Manafort alone helped him in his first impeachment for attempting to blackmail Ukrainian President Zelenskyy into opening a fake investigation in Ukraine of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. This created a savage backlash against Hunter Biden that was carried out for years by James Comer and his House Oversight Committee, which held countless hearings into what Comer called the “Biden crime family.”

….(snip)….

It is a cliché to say that the gloves are off, but that is the situation Donald Trump has purposefully created. He has threatened to investigate and prosecute anyone who was ever involved in investigating and prosecuting him. That would include Robert Mueller and his entire team of investigators and federal prosecutors. Of course, special counsel Jack Smith and his entire office, which includes FBI investigators and federal prosecutors, some of whom came out of retirement to work on the Trump investigation, are on Trump’s list for retribution. Kash Patel, Trump’s prospective FBI Director, has given several interviews about his plans to investigate anyone who has ever so much as picked up a pencil to bother his master. ………………..(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/03/joe-bidens-hunter-lesson-the-political-high-road-is-a-mirage/

Convicted felon and liar Dinesh D’Souza admits it: Movie “2,000 Mules” is all lies and bullshit

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/dinesh-dsouza-movie-apology-pardon-b2657368.html

Far-right provocateur and pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza has issued an apology over false accusations he made in his 2022 election conspiracy theory movie 2000 Mules, acknowledging that his claims about illegal “ballot trafficking” during the 2020 presidential election were misleading and inaccurate.

In a lengthy statement posted to his website on Sunday, D’Souza said that his movie — which asserts that “mules” were paid to fraudulently deposit harvested ballots in swing states — had relied on “cell phone geolocation data” provided by conservative non-profit group True the Vote. That data, D’Souza noted, had turned out to be false.

“We were assured that the surveillance videos had been linked to geolocation cell phone data, such that each video depicted an individual who had made at least 10 visits to drop boxes. Indeed, it is clear from the interviews within the film itself that True the Vote was correlating the videos to geolocation data,” he wrote. “We recently learned that surveillance videos used in the film may not have actually been correlated with the geolocation data.”

Adding that his movie and companion book created the “impression that these individuals were mules that had been identified as suspected ballot harvesters” based on True the Vote’s cell phone data, D’Souza conceded that these people were wrongfully accused of misconduct.

“While all of these individuals’ images were blurred and unrecognizable, one of the individuals has since come forward publicly and has initiated a lawsuit over the use of his blurred image in the film and the book,” he stated. “I owe this individual, Mark Andrews, an apology. I now understand that the surveillance videos used in the film were characterized on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team.”

After the Georgia Bureau of Investigation exonerated Andrews of any illegal activity, finding that he was legally dropping off ballots for members of his family, Andrews filed a defamation lawsuit against D’Souza, True the Vote and Salem Media, the publisher of 2000 Mules. In his lawsuit, Andrews alleged that the baseless claims made in the film led to violent threats against him and his family.

Settling its end of the defamation suit, Salem Media apologized to Andrews in May of this year and halted distribution of D’Souza’s film and book on all of its platforms. In its statement, the conservative media company said it “relied on representations made to us by Dinesh D’Souza and True the Vote.”

Even before Andrews filed his lawsuit, 2000 Mules had been widely debunked over the “categorically false” claims and conspiracy theories it peddled in service of Donald Trump’s repeated and groundless assertions that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

True the Vote, for instance, insisted that its geolocation data was so accurate that it had been used to solve a murder. NPR found that was far from the truth. In the end, the right-wing organization admitted to a Georgia judge earlier this year that it does not have the evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing.

Additionally, just before it hit shelves, the 2000 Mules book had to be abruptly pulled to remove false claims made about other nonprofits amid threats of legal action.

Despite admitting that the data he relied on from True the Vote was bogus, D’Souza — a known conspiracist with a long history of peddling falsehoods — insisted that “the underlying premise of the film holds true.” He also claimed that he continued “to have faith that True the Vote’s underlying geolocation data and analysis” found suspicious voting activity.

 

Five of the most absolute bullshit lies that Republicans believe

The modern conservative movement has long embraced a host of outlandish and nonsensical conspiracy theories. To its most diehard supporters, nothing is ever quite what it appears to be, but at the same time, the “explanations” defy common sense, logic, and sometimes even the laws of physics. And those outlandish beliefs have had a very real effect at the ballot box. 

Here are just five of the many, many, many, many conspiracy theories that far too many people on the right actually believe.

Conspiracy No. 1: The Clinton body count

According to this conspiracy, there are a pair of serial killers that have been cutting a path across America from Arkansas, to Washington, D.C., to New York and back—and they have been on a spree for probably 50 years. Oddly enough, the two killers are two of the most well-known people not just in the country but in the entire world: President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“The Clinton Body Count” is a list that has circulated since at least the mid-’90s, around the time when Bill Clinton was first elected president, in 1992. Starting from his time as an up-and-coming politician in Arkansas, the list essentially includes every person who ever came into contact with the couple and who later died. Considering the number of people whom the Clintons likely met just during their time as the first family of Arkansas, it should probably be clear to you that many of those people were going to die regardless, and not because the Clintons operate like Hannibal Lecter.

The outlandish list took on a new life when anti-Clinton Republicans in Congress began to consider it seriously, and tragic events like the death of Clinton aide Vince Foster were used to bolster the nonsensical allegations.

Beyond the rigorous debunking of the conspiracy, its logic fails when one considers the fact that, despite supposedly murdering so many people, the Clintons didn’t kill their way to victory in either the 2008 Democrat presidential primary or the 2016 presidential election. Why, all of a sudden, after their cross-country murder spree, did the duo stop when they could kill their way to the most important position in the world? Maybe because the conspiracy was nonsense?

Conspiracy No. 2: Obama’s “hidden hypnosis” of voters

After eight years of George W. Bush in the White House, the right had a hard time reckoning with Barack Obama’s massive win in the 2008 presidential election. How to explain it? One word: hypnosis.

During that election cycle, a document titled “An Examination of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches” circulated, claiming that Obama used advanced hypnotic techniques to seduce millions of people to vote for him. The document alleged that Obama used incantations like “change is in the air” and “turn the page” to control minds.

But if Obama won in 2008 and 2012 due to his dastardly powers of suggestion, why didn’t he use the power of mind control in elections where Democrats lost? Why didn’t Obama cloud minds in the 2010 or 2014 midterms, to say nothing of 2016 and 2024? Hmm.

Conspiracy No. 3: A weather weapon exists—but only Democrats can use it

In the real world, meteorologists understand how weather forms and often make educated predictions—based on data—about what will happen (though sometimes the predictions are wrong!). But in the right-wing world, that is an archaic way of thinking because the U.S. government has access to the type of weather weapon that is usually in the domain of The Avengers or Justice League.

Back in 2013, right-wing conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump superfan Alex Jones floated the idea that the federal government, then led by President Obama, had supposedly deployed a weather weapon to create a tornado in Oklahoma.

Just a few months ago, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia alleged that President Joe Biden had directed the nefarious weather weapon at the southeast. Discussing the allegation, Biden said, “It’s so stupid.”

But it’s even dumber than that. If a weather weapon exists (it doesn’t), then why is it that only Democratic presidents use it? Why didn’t Trump use it against The New York Times or against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California? Or why didn’t former President George W. Bush wield the weather weapon to silence critics of the Iraq war beneath a layer of snow and/or rain?

Conspiracy No. 4: Obama’s United Sharia States of America

When he took the oath of office, Obama was very different from every previous president in American history. As the first Black person to be elected president, the right went hog wild with every sort of conspiracy, with perhaps their favorite for eight years being that Obama would implement Sharia law.

This lie was based on the unfounded notion that due to his family’s background in Kenya, Obama was a secret Muslim. And purportedly, as a secret Muslim, he intended to twist American laws to become a version of extremist Sharia law, like in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The right had a very hard time explaining how Obama would do this, though, because the president does not have a magic wand to convert all laws to religious orthodoxy.

The bigoted roots of this sort of thing are further undermined by the fact that Kenya, the birthplace of Obama’s father, is not a Muslim-majority nation but is mostly Christian (nearly 86%, according to 2022 data from the State Department). Also, Obama is a practicing Christian and, as president, repeatedly urged religious coexistence and tolerance.

Not very Sharia law of him.

Conspiracy No. 5: The Clintons’ sexual Christmas decor

In the 1990s, there was a lot of money to be made in the world of conservatives by saying the craziest things possible about the Clintons (see the murder spree above). Enter disgruntled former FBI agent Gary Aldrich.

In his 1996 book, “Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House,” Aldrich claimed that the team decorating the White House Christmas trees put up ornaments resembling “drug paraphernalia” and a gingerbread man ornament with a “cock ring.”

Keep in mind, these were the trees on display for White House visitors and media—highly photographed objects that are seen every Christmas season under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

Needless to say, reporters covering the White House said they saw no such display—but the people who always believed the Clintons were dastardly hippies destroying the White House (when they weren’t doing murder) bought the lie.

The right is predisposed to believe the worst, and conservative media sells it to them on a daily basis. No matter how easily debunked or how far out there the conspiracy is, Republicans will believe it.

Why Pam Bondi as AG is just as bad . . . maybe worse . . . than Matt Gaetz

After some nomination drama — with Trump’s original attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz, removing himself from consideration amid scandal — the president-elect then named former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his pick to lead the DOJ. Though some breathed a sigh of relief that a DOJ led by Gaetz is no longer on the table, Bondi is by no means a better choice. And in some regards may be worse.

Bondi is a longtime close ally of Trump. She was involved in his 2016 campaign and was one of his main attorneys during his 2019 impeachment over his quid pro quo phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She also occasionally advised Trump on pardons during his first administration — including the woman who orchestrated one of the biggest Medicare frauds in history.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Bondi was one of several Trump lawyers who was spreading voting conspiracy theories and false allegations of election fraud. She was part of the Trump campaign’s legal effort to challenge ballots in Pennsylvania in 2020 and went on to spread false allegations of election cheating in the state.

But what makes her a more troubling AG pick than Gaetz is her work after Trump’s first presidency.

Since 2021, Bondi has been chair of the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) center for litigation and co-chair of its center for law and justice. As one of AFPI’s leading figures, Bondi spearheaded the group’s efforts to disenfranchise voters around the country. Under Bondi, AFPI led a multistate legal effort to overturn a pro-voting Biden executive order that expands voting access. AFPI also got involved in several election lawsuits in Arizona, challenging parts of the state’s Elections Procedural Manual.

I bring all of this up to quantify why I think Bondi is a more troubling pick than Gaetz to lead the DOJ. It’s no secret that Trump wants to radically reform the DOJ.

When Trump launched his third presidential campaign in 2022, he promised to “immediately demand voter ID, same day voting, and only paper ballots if elected.” Now that he has been reelected, Trump picked perhaps the best person, in Bondi, to help fulfill that promise.

American will die on the sacred altar of compromise

Democrats have spent 50 years trying to find “common ground” with a political party and movement that would gleefully murder our families while they sleep.

Democrats believe that the ONLY way American democracy survives, is if we can find some “compromise”.

It explains why Dems can win the presidency, and majorities in the House and Senate, and gladly give a “seat at the table” to Retrumplican policy goals; but, when Retrumplicans win with less than 50% of the voters, it’s “my way, or the highway snowflakes”.

I don’t know about you, but my desire to compromise for the “common good” died the first time this FUCKING fascist moron was selected.

We’ve been at war with people, including some of our own “friends, families and neighbors”, that would gleefully murder us if it would make eggs a dime cheaper.

There will be no “coming back from this”.

History will show if American democracy is worth fighting for. It will show if decency, respect, empathy, compassion, honor, integrity, law and freedom survive, or are murdered by Trump and his criminal gang.

Thankfully, I am old and likely will not be around to see how it all works out, but let’s just say I’m not hopeful.

 

Virginia, 2025

For a few minutes, let’s turn our attention to the Nov. 2025 election in Virginia when the state will elect Governor, Lt Governor, and Attorney General.

Virginia was turning blue when, in 2021, we ran a weak, not-too-bright candidate for Governor while the Republicans ran a political novice who raved about “CRT” being taught in schools, kids being told by teachers to change their gender, and other bullshit.  It worked so well that a state that had gone strongly for Biden in 2020, elected damn fool incompetents as Gov, LtGov, and AG in 2021.

And now here’s what’s shaping up for 2025 — VA is one of three states that has state elections in off-years, following the Presidential election.

  • Very popular Abigal Spanberger, former member of Congress, is the Democratic candidate for Governor.  (In VA, governor is limited to one term.)
  • Two strong Democrats have announced their interest in the LtGov seat.
  • Ditto — two strong Democrats have announced their interest in running for Atty Gen.
  • Meanwhile:
    • Thank God our Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, cannot run again.  He likely will be given a job in the Trump administration.
    • Current LtGov Winsome Sears has announced her run for Governor and it’s looking as though she will be the Republican nominee.
    • Current Atty Gen Jason Miyares has announced his run for re-election.  He needs to be defeated so he can go back to chasing ambulances.

Meanwhile, here’s LtGov Winsome Sears, soon to be Republican gubernatorial nominee.

 

Here’s a link to the nutty shit she has propounded.