Trump Bets On 'Law & Order' And Swing Voters To Grab Another 4 Years? Beyond Unthinkable

"The president and his campaign are trying to project the sense of unease and violence taking place under his reign onto a hypothetical Biden administration—including by using footage of protests not in the U.S., but in Barcelona.   Is this the sign of a failing campaign deeply behind in the polls, responsible for an unprecedentedly disastrous response to a pandemic and a tone-deaf answer to protests against police violence? Yes, certainly. But there’s also a deeper subtext: Trump is implicitly promising a no-holds-barred authoritarianism if he wins a second term."   David Atkins, 'Trump's Message Isn't Confused. He's Promising A Dictatorship', Smirkingchimp.com

"The Republican party claims to be a party of law and order. But respect for law and order does not consist of what you can get away with.  The GOP's cynically illegal acts offend our core principles of democracy." -  Letter writer in Denver Post

Amidst the holocaust of erosion in national honor, unity, truth and decency that has been the Trump criminal cabal, it is unthinkable they could snare another 4 years based on "law and order".    And yet a WSJ article from today (p. A4) poses that as a potential reality, e.g.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-bets-on-law-and-order-message-to-sway-swing-voters-11598673661

Excerpt:

"With Mr. Trump trailing the former vice president in national polls, and by a smaller margin in many battleground states, his team is banking that the chaotic images from places such as Kenosha, Wis., and Portland, Ore., won’t just rally their base, but sway undecided voters and suburban voters who had been moving away from Mr. Trump. “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News this week."


Law  and order?  Trump?  This is a guy who's paid hush money to porn stars, used his office to get dirt on political opponents (using other nations like the Ukraine) and openly conspired with the Russkies to toss the 2016 election his way, as a recently released Senate intel report confirms.  This is a dirtbag surpassing all historical dirtbags in degeneracy as well as pathology.  Well, okay, maybe with the exception of Adolf Hitler!

Even given that up to 60 percent of swing voters are known as "low information"  (i.e. get most of their news from Facebook or other social media) it is incomprehensible they would bite on the above Kellyanne Conway dreck and vote the most lawless white trash in U.S.  history back into office for another chaotic, hideous and LAWLESS term. 

A Biden presidency would usher in "more chaos, anarchy and vandalism"? Hello!  That is happening NOW under Trump!  Hence, as Chris Hayes put it on 'All In' Friday night, "the greatest  political Jedi mind trick ever would be to get enough people to believe the chaos we now see under Trump is somehow connected to Biden - or will be."   

To quote Janice: "It would take an especially low I.Q. to believe that!"  Yeah, but no one ever lost money - as H.L. Mencken once wrote - by underestimating the intellect of the American voter.   That includes believing that the social unrest widespread now is somehow the Democrats' fault when pro-Nazi and KKK  prez Trump has fanned the flames of bigotry to the point of encouraging right wing vigilantes to show up at peaceful protests and incite violence - by displaying long guns and even firing them. 

Are undecided voters truly dumb enough to put this infernal maggot back into office when they have to know deep down he will only make things worse? Especially the U.S. response to the pandemic - which I already predicted will see more fatalities than the Civil War deaths (675,000) if Trump gets in again. DO the 'swing' voters really want that, as well as the unending chaos, rage tweeting and FOX TV -watching that marks Trump's existing presidency, far less another term?   Can they really abide another ten million jobs lost and a total cratering of the economy into a Depression because Trump and his cabal still haven't dealt with the pandemic?

Clueless Peggy Noonan, vying for the journalist 'weasel of the year' award, scribbled in her latest WSJ column re: the RNC - (Aug. 29-30, p. A13):

"The Republicans confronted what the Democrats at their convention glossed over: rising crime, looting and rioting in city protests."

Conveniently omitting the vicious right wing elements who've descended on the peaceful 1st amendment protected protests, in order to wreak havoc,violence and even deaths - using the peaceful protests as shields.  The Denver Post drew attention to this in a piece (Aug. 28, p. 5A) noting how in the very minutes after the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, right wing sites were summoning  "militias" to  travel to Kenosha  - and use the ruse of "protecting businesses" to arm themselves and shoot protesters.   Well, Kyle Rittenhouse, a self -professed pro-Trump punk heeded the call to arms, traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, and blew away two protesters (one of whom was attempting to stop him after he'd already fired off a few rounds). 

This deranged right wing imp actually paraded along an avenue in Kenosha with his long gun in the open with nary a cop trying to stop him - and certainly not firing seven rounds into his back like they did with Blake.  


Clearly demonstrating one set of laws for white punk right wingers, another for black men instantly marked as public enemy No.1 for allegedly holding a knife.  How many other KKK'ers, Aryan Nation creeps, Proud Boys, Boogie Bois et al were in Kenosha that night, we have no way of knowing. More than likely, as Janice opined, the others went into hiding or left after the Illinois terrorist (Rittenhouse) fired off his rounds killing two.  But does Peggy Noonan factor in any of this? Hell no.

She also has the nerve to write (ibid):

"Republicans hit on the one shared fear shared equally now by the rich, the poor and the middle: that when you call 911 you have to go to voicemail."

Again displaying a cluelessness unbecoming of a journalist.   If she'd done even limited research she might have been able to trace that defect to the lack of funding for public - state and local- emergency and other services.  That was earmarked in the HEROES act, but Mitch McConnell has sat on it, refusing to let it pass.  The lack of action has caused state and local economies - subject to Covid lockdowns - to crater leaving precious little in the 'pot'.  Yet Noonan mentions none of this.  However, I do give her props for at least writing:

"This country is full of law -abiding people of all colors who are appalled by Donald Trump.  It is political malpractice to push them toward him."

Indeed it is.   So that means when writing your op-ed columns to deliver the details of the truth, not the "post truth" Trumpie version of events!

As I wrote in a previous post, "no good thing can really be said of our nation until and unless the Trump interregnum is totally canceled, extirpated." Why is this? It's because Trump and his cabal have turned the state into a criminal enterprise and which promises to metastasize if he's given a 2nd term, out of voter ignorance, laziness (not voting) or indifference.     A core problem also, which resides mainly in the media, is that for decades Western legal thought had viewed the state as the ultimate guarantor of safety.   This is why Obama and other Dem critics of Trump have echoed the same refrain, "A president has one job to do, to protect the American people".  Well, not just the president but the whole infrastructure with which he governs (including agencies like DOJ, FDA, FBI, CIA, etc.)  as well as congress.   

 The problem is that the U.S.  media, as well as many legal theorists (and even some historians),  have problems when a developed state - like the U.S. - itself turns into a criminal entity.   This is beyond their imagination despite the fact it already happened when - under Adolf Hitler- the German state  became the agent of criminality as well as the principal perpetrator of crimes, e.g. the slaughter of 6 million Jews and many others.   Most distressing to read was the opening paragraph of a recent review on the book, 'Hitler- Downfall: 1939-1945', in The Denver Post, e.g.

"The impulsiveness and grandiosity, the bullying and vulgarity, were obvious from the beginning.  If anything, they accounted for Adolf Hitler's anti-establishment appeal for Germany's unpopular conservative elites.  Hitler's energy and theatrics made him an enticing partner when they appointed him Chancellor in 1933.  But anyone who thought Hitler and the Nazis would rise to the occasion were summarily purged from the system as an utter impossibility became indomitable reality: The Weimar Republic had become the Third Reich.

It would take another world war, a genocide and millions of dead before the dictatorship finally collapsed in 1945, a full 12 years after Hitler was invited into power.""

A kind of repeat of history is on the verge of happening again with Trump. if U.S. citizens become too besotted by fear to think clearly, or believe this criminal tyrant in waiting really has their interests - and safety - at heart.   Fortunately, the distinction is we have the chance for a do-over of the horrific mistake that brought Trump to power in 2016.  The Germans didn't once Hitler was appointed Chancellor.  But we cannot afford to fuck this up, not again!

 The fact of over 180,000 dead from the pandemic ought to convince any thinking - hell sentient person-  that Trump is not their friend.  Or their protector. He is their Alpha predator merely waiting for the chance to rip their throats out.

See also:

Donald Trump

Trump’s Message Isn’t Confused. He’s Promising A Dictatorship.

by David Atkins | August 30, 2020 - 6:30am | permalink

— from Washington Monthly

And:

White Supremacists Are Invading American Cities To Incite a Civil War

by David Atkins | permalink— from Washington Monthly

And:

Donald Trump

Trump Desperately Wants Voters to Blame Biden

And:

Peace & Justice

Murdering Democracy in Kenosha

And:

2020 Elections | Donald Trump

Trump Is Campaigning on a Fiction. That Doesn’t Mean He Won’t Stay President.

And:

• Republicans see immediate post-convention bounce...in COVID cases: Attendees start testing positive

Trump Proves He's A Congenital Liar With Zero Credibility

"The President has one of two choices: either retract  his claim or provide the information that the American people deserve. Because if his predecessor - President Obama - violated the law, we've got a serious issue here to say the least." - Sen. John McCain, Sunday on CNN

If Trump announced today or tomorrow that North Korea shot down a U.S. plane over international waters and it was a cause for war, would you believe him? I sure as hell wouldn't, not without ironclad evidence because of the shameless history of lying this turd has shown. The latest coming from his Twitter account the Saturday before last when he  launched a series of tweets that began at 5.35am audaciously accusing Barack Obama of an impeachable offense.

In one he wrote: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wire tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

Note the demented asshole used the specific term "wire tapped" which has a specific meaning. In fact, he reinforced that meaning (and intent) when he went on to  make the  comparison of the alleged surveillance of his Trump Tower communications to Watergate.  As any history nerd knows, actual wire tapping -specifically of phones - was big around that time, and Nixon did it with impunity. This was before the FISA law that required warrants for any action and these had to come out of the Dept. of Justice.

Every manjack with half a brain knew all this, which is why Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham called Trump's bluff by demanding the DOJ produce evidence (it must have if they exist) of said, claimed wiretaps.  But by the end of Monday they were unable to, only offering a weak, measly excuse that they "needed more time".  Actually, they could have all the time in the world but it is clear they will no more find such evidence then I will find evidence of an alien visitation in my backyard right now. It is just stonewalling for no purpose, plain and simple.

Then there were Trump's asinine acolytes like Sean Spicer  (whose former "job" was acting as Bush Jr.'s Easter Bunny for the WH Easter egg hunt)  yesterday trying to spin it away by insisting Trump shouldn't be taken literally because he tweeted with "wiretaps" in quotes. As if we are at the level of such imbeciles we'd all agree that a tweet from a cartoon medium has any gravitas at all. Apart from which, only a certified imbecile would accept such nonsense ....or ...the gibberish expelled from Kellyanne Conway's mouth that he meant wiretapping in a generic way. It was really done via microwaves and TV.

Do these inveterate liars truly believe the rest of us are as dumb and gullible as their fake news groupies and most of their voters? 

But this is something that can't be laughed away because it impacts on the very basis of presidential credibility. This unqualified stooge, basically a failed businessman who exploited bankruptcy laws, made a serious attack on the legitimate extant government of the United States, predicated on the Constitution, legal evidence in jurisprudence and adherence to civil and national law.  Hence, this attack cannot go down any memory "holes" like his stupid other claims, including that he didn't really lose the popular vote by nearly 3 million, or that he had the biggest inaugural crowd in history.

If then Trump doesn't retract his charge, and admit he shot from the hip unthinkingly, or lied openly, then we can only conclude nothing he says can be trusted. Hence, even if he makes a claim for war, it can't be trusted. Not without absolute evidence to back it up. Indeed, the evidence, given his stream of lies since Jan. 20th, must now be of a vastly higher standard than for any other President. This is because he has himself painted himself into a corner by crying 'wolf!' too many times. 

It is therefore essential not to allow this reckless charge to just pass into oblivion, with no one held accountable.  Indeed, Trump's tweets also suggested agents of the Justice Department also engaged in a felony, as well as the FBI. So ALL of these have the obligation to pursue this charge through every channel - either proving it valid, or proving Donald J. Trump is the congenital, psychotic liar he always has been.  As Chris Matthews put it yesterday: "I don't understand how a sitting president can get away with accusing his predecessor with a felony and get away with it."

Indeed, because as I pointed out a president can't just order a wiretap after the passage of the 1978 FISA law. IF there was a wiretap it was more plausibly ORDERED by a judge on account of suspicion of criminal activity in Trump Tower or collusion - possibly with a foreign power.  So in fact, Trump's tweets - as opposed to any victimization - may actually be open admissions that he has something to be guilty about, if such wiretaps were actually FISA -warrant approved.

Trump's inability to deliver hard evidence, combined with his DOJ's inability to find any wiretap evidence, shows this deranged mutt doesn't deserve to be president. Hell, he isn't even fit to run a landfill or a dog kennel.  Any so-called commander-in -chief who lies habitually like this asswit, can't be trusted to ever tell the truth. And if he can't he will not be believed even if there is a real national emergency.

His howling and vehemence for support will simply be interpreted as histrionic exploitation for more lies. Ditto with his wild, exuberantly exaggerated positive claims for health care (the Ryan Repuke 'make America sicker' plan) e.g.

"I will see that everybody gets covered! No one will be without!"

when there will actually be 14 million more without the ACA next year, and 24 million without care in less than ten years. (According to the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office's assessment yesterday).

Again, nobody but an outright fool can believe anything coming out of his mouth.

It is now time the media go on the offensive against this lying swine, and that means - as per a piece in The New Republic (April,  pp. 16-17) - that the pretense of objectivity be dropped. From the article:

"What if, instead of assuming its reflexive posture of 'objectivity', the press embraced the opportunity to go full on offense?"

This is predicated on the fact that any noncommital parsing of the blizzard of lies, falsehoods issuing from the reprobates in power is woefully inadequate to keeping citizens abreast of what's going down.  Instead, adopt  ab initio the POV Trump is a compulsive liar and put every news story or Trump tweet in that framework. Cease trying to chase down these tweeted turds as "true", always adopt the take they are false from the get go.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-boehlert/71626/trumps-lies-are-no-laughing-matter-for-the-press

Orwell's "1984": The Novel To Read For The Trump Era

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge truth or falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."- John F. Kennedy

Emmanuel Goldstein - below- the Ultra "terrorist" in '1984'. Oceania's enforcers went crazy trying to ferret out all his allies for 'thought crimes'. Are we near such a future in the U.S.?


With Kellyanne Conway's recent defense of "alternative facts", it should  come as no surprise that sales of George Orwell's "1984" (written in 1949) are spiking beyond all expectations. It appears sensible people in the country wish to understand how governments can debase and mutate language in order to control thought. If a government is successful in controlling thought then it has a clear path to spreading propaganda and brainwashing many of its citizens.

In previous posts I've given examples of assorted deformations of language, mainly the substitution of political euphemisms for events or actions that don't need any soft soaping, because they are what they freaking are. Some examples:

"enhanced interrogation" for torture

"rendition" to remove someone to a hidden site for purposes of "enhanced interrogation"

"Collateral damage" - deaths caused to civilians when bombings or attacks are indiscriminately launched

And the classic:

"war on terror" - when one cannot make war on a mode or strategy. One makes war on a nation state.

Other examples of the uses of euphemism are well known - mostly employed by Republicans and conservatives for the purpose of mind-fucking, such as "DEATH taxes" for estate taxes, and "entitlements" for Social Security and Medicare, when people have to actually pay in for the former (out of each paycheck) and have to pay nearly $250,000 over a lifetime for what Medicare doesn't cover, including dental care.

Then there is the more recent  use of  "scandal" to replace "conspiracy". Thus, we are now supposed to accept "the Watergate scandal" as opposed to Watergate conspiracy, and the "Iran-Contra scandal" as opposed to Iran-Contra conspiracy. The effort here clearly to expunge the concept of political conspiracy from public consciousness.

More to the point, the society of Oceania is controlled by an omnipresent, totalitarian agency (INGSOC) which monitors citizens comings and goings, as well as erasing and altering evidence of the past as it distorts the truth by continually altering the language - even in dictionaries. (The defining language being Newspeak).    Kids in INGSOC uniforms are mandated to report every bit of odd behavior detected in adults - whether 'proles' or those like Winston Smith, charged with altering the language to Newspeak in their little agency cubbyholes.

To fix ideas, throuWith the ascension of Trump to power, along with the appointment of a long time propagandist (Steve Bannon) to a top security post, we are in a language skewering era that rivals or exceeds anything that came before, and may be one of a kind.  Trump's assorted spielers, like Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway, can seemingly blurt anything they want without most media doing due diligence. Spicer actually had the chutzpah to accuse former deputy AG Sally Yates of "betrayal" for her principled stance to defend the constitution from a clearly lawless executive order. Some Trumpies, so smitten with language mutation, have actually gone off the rails totally and called it "treason". Well, they need to read Orwell's "1984" to get a grip. Taking a principled stand of dissent to defend the core of American values (in the Constitution) is emphatically not "treason".

The plot of the Orwell novel follows an everyman drone who lives in Oceania, specifically in a region formerly known as England. The tenor of the scenes and descriptions clearly shows a society in a state of perpetual war. There are bombed out shells of buildings all around, and Winston himself lives in a dilapidated apartment.

Throughout the novel readers are introduced to a litany of phrases and terms describing the Oceania government's actions such as: "doublethink" (believing contradictory things and "Big Brother" the ever present controlling image on every citizen's monitor screen.

The arch villain of the Oceania state and Big Brother is intellectual Emmanuel Goldstein. One sees that  at every interlude the hapless denizens of Oceania must sit in vast halls  as Goldstein's face appears on a screen  - whereupon they begin screaming  'TRAITOR!' until they're delirious and emotionally spent.

What vile deed did this "traitor" Goldstein commit? Well,  insisting that citizens think and reason beyond Big Brother's endless lies such as "war is peace'.  Instead Goldstein argued that continuous war was used to siphon off the wealth of society to keep people living at bare subsistence. Goldstein's exact words:

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

What or who represents Goldstein in the Trump era?  From what we've seen, it is anyone, or any group that  challenges what it is being told to believe by the so-called authority. Such dissenters  would be the "liberal" media as well as reflective politicians and all intellectuals worth the name. Thus, when Kellyanne Conway and other Trump lackeys (e.g. Sean Spicer) insisted the rest of us were wrong when we said his inauguration crowd was less than those for Obama (in 2009, 2013), it evoked the words from "1984":

"The party told you to reject the evidence of  your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

Compare that to Spicer's claim of "record breaking crowds" at his inauguration despite clear evidence to the contrary.

The takeaway here is that those who read "1984" are likely to be more prepared as the Trump blitz on language and evidence continues. These readers will see a fictional portrayal of what is playing out on many levels right now.

Professor Heath Brown, an expert in presidential translations at John Jay College in New York, quoted in today's Colorado Springs Independent, observed:

"The Trump administration is obsessed with controlling the message".

This we must resist with every fiber of our intellectual being. Those who haven't read Orwell's book, you might want to do so before the Trump first term runs to the conclusion of its first year. By then who knows how much havoc will be wrought on thought and  intellectuals who are the embodiment of 1984's Goldstein.

Another Trump 'Bait & Switch': The Mexican Wall Now To Be Paid For By U.S. Taxpayers

Trump shows original elaborate Mexican Wall plans during campaign. Now, he wants Americans to pay for it.

It turns out now that all of Donald Trump's gullible groupies have been played yet again, as he's done a turnabout on the much ballyhooed Mexican Wall - which construction cost he vowed to put on Mexico during his idiotic campaign.   How many people swallowed this bullshit is hard to say, but given so many Trump voters have virtually believed everything this blowhard has said, the proportion is likely stupendous. (They also likely swallowed Trump's bilge about "lock her up" and he can replace Obamacare while leaving certain provisions in place, like kids remaining on parents' plans until age 26).

Again, Trump  originally vowed to build an impenetrable, concrete wall along the southern border and insisted Mexico was going to pay for it - despite a former Mexican leader (Vicente Fox) telling him  to "fuck off".   Now, as reality seems to be descending,  Trump has changed his tune to a plan in which American taxpayers — at least initially — would foot the bill.  Sorry, but I did not vote for this fucker, and have NO intention of paying for any dumb,  fuckin wall.  If Trump and his minions want it that badly let them get the dumb Trump voters who fell for his BS to pay for it.

Never mind, like their other walk backs, the Trump shills are trying to spin this too, insisting that "no campaign vow has been broken". Huh? I guess they can get that past their dumbass, comatose followers and gaggle of groupies, but for those of us paying attention it was a classic bait and switch.

Top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway in an interview with CBS yesterday morning claimed "Nothing has changed from our perspective" and that Congress was"taking it on themselves to explore different options to pay for the wall."

What options? There are only two: Either American taxpayers have to pony up for this Rube Goldberg scheme, or the Mexicans. And as per Vincente Fox's follow up tweet this a.m. ('How many times must I tell you Trump, we aren't paying for your fucking wall!') it is clear the Mexicans  aren't signing on. Nor can Trump, despite all his bluster, make them.

That leaves Americans holding the bag. How much will this farce cost? John Oliver about four months ago did a rough 'back of the envelope'  estimate -  based on Trump's early specs (solid concrete, 20' high, 2' thick, 750 miles long)  - that it would come to over $50b. Just imagine how many teachers' salaries that $50b could pay, and Trump wants already burdened taxpayers to foot the bill. Especially when they'll have to pay enormously high deductibles, e.g. $5k a year, once the ACA is repealed and the new Repub plan put into place. As we know, Tom Price, the guy appointed to HHS to dismantle it, loves huge deductible plans (Denver Post, today, p. 17A, 'Obamacare Repeal Winners: The Young, Healthy and Wealthy')

But hey, I guess the Trump voters don't mind being played for fools over and over again. I suppose in their spare time they can come up with all sorts of rationalizations for why Trump would never really carry out his appalling bait and switches. Dream on, Trumpsters!

Or perhaps they are gullible enough to swallow the codswallop in Trump's tweet:

"The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!"

Ah yes, "dishonest media". Whenever the verifiable (non fake news)  media hold his feet to the fire and out his BS, they are "dishonest". But when the Mexicans spit in his foolish face, as they will, I suppose Trump's next tweet will read:

"Dishonest media refuses to say I have Tau Ceti extraterrestrials ready to build wall at NO cost to Americans! Forget Mexicans!"

According to an AP report filed yesterday,  under the plan being discussed, the new construction would be pushed through without any new border legislation, relying on a 2006 law that authorized more fencing along the southern border. Congress would pay for it in its annual spending bills.

Again, note the secondary 'bait and switch':  you Trumpies are now reduced to having a FENCE, not a wall, and certainly not the $50b extravaganza initially envisaged by The Donald.  But it's estimated even this fence will cost from $300m to $1b and have to be paid by taxpayers, because neither Mexicans or ETs are going to pay up.

Trump told the New York Times in an interview Friday that the spending plan would help "speed up the process," and insisted that even if taxpayers pay upfront, "We're going to get reimbursed."

By whom? Tau Ceti aliens? Santy Claus?    Idiot that Trump is, he insisted the money would likely be recouped through a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he had criticized often in the past.  So let's get this straight:  as opposed to repealing and ditching NAFTA - which he also promised his troupe of follower fools - he now wants to retain it as a vehicle for getting Mexico to renegotiate and pay for the wall.

And if you really believe that will go down, I have a plot of seaside land in Barbados for you at the fire sale price of one buck! (Sargassum not included)

Never mind, Trump - lost in a different, separate reality, maintains: "Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent. They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for the wall."

Oh, and I suppose the ETs don't know it yet either, that they will be the default builders when Mexico tells you to shove it where the Sun don't shine.

Bear in mind, for those who forgot, this is the same loon that tried to tie Ted Cruz' dad to Lee Harvey Oswald in the Kennedy assassination. This despite all the evidence shows Oswald wasn't even involved, and the guy (in a blurred photo) Trump took to be Cruz' dad was another member of the Cuban group run by Carlos Bringuier.

I mean, Trump is so steeped in his own fake news orbit he no longer is able to distinguish fantasy from reality. In this respect, the guy is absolutely the wrong person to occupy the most powerful position in this country in 2 weeks.

But, as if by some karmic justice, the plague the Trump dolts have visited upon us, will now come down on them too. There has to be some schadenfreude in that!

DOE Defiance of Trump Witch Hunt Shows Charles Blow Is Correct: That Resistance Is Needed

The news yesterday that at least one federal agency, the Department of Energy (DOE),  is resisting pressure from the Trumpists is music to the ears of many. As most may recall, the Trump team had issued orders to the brain trust at DOE to name all those who attended any meetings about climate change. However, those at the agency (mainly scientists) have now declared 'No way!' and they will not cooperate, given this is an obvious witch hunt - analogous to when Hitler's goons demanded the names of all sources who had been spreading "lies" about the Fuhrer to the non-German media in the 1930s.

As ABC's Brian Ross reported last night:

"At the Department of Energy tonight, fears by employees and scientists had spread that they would be targets of witch hunt by a new President who has repeatedly insisted climate change is a scam. Concerns came to a head when the Trump team sent a list of 74 questions to the Department of Energy.  In particular question 27:

Can you provide us a list of all Department of Energy Employees or contractors who have attended any interagency Working Group meeting on the Social Cost of Carbon?"

But now they have refused to comply, the first act of many of multiple resistance which will be needed by courageous citizens under a fascist Trumpista regime. Anthony Reardon, President of the National Treasury Employees Union, gave the reasons in a segment for the same news piece:

"They are scared about the ability to carry out their duties, their work, their research, with integrity. But also with independence."

This is indeed critical, because without independence research teams become merely rubber stampers for whoever is in power.

As Ross at ABC further reported, "In a show of defiance the DOE  responded to the letter and questions: ''We received significant feedback from our workforce  We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information. We will not be providing individual names...' "


This is because individual names are not part of publicly available information. Hence, the Trumpists are not entitled to it and all they really merit is what the DOE is prepared to give, publicly available material.  This also comes as the asshole- in - waiting announced as head of the DOE none other than Reeptardo Rick Perry, e.g.
 
This is the ignorant yokel who in a 2011 Reepo debate could not recall the name of the DOE, which was one of the federal agencies he wanted to eliminate. Process that for a bit!

All of which shows that Trump and team of abominables is merely out to troll decent and rational citizens, and why - more than ever- the Hamilton elector movement must succeed in preventing these degenerates from reaching power. Especially in the wake of Trump's own attack on the intelligence agencies who now - by any register - ought to be willing themselves to take him down.


To put it another way: putting Rick Perry in as Secretary of the Department of Energy is like putting Bozo the Clown in charge of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.    To firm up that analogy, the ignorant dope Perry who couldn't even remember the name of the DOE in 2011, will now take over an office held by....wait for it!....a nuclear physicist!

Despite this, the Trump team and its paid hacks continues to spread offal and false information, like one dimwit bloviating from Trump Tower a few days ago that: "There used to be an overwhelming science that the world was flat". Actually attempting to analogize flat earthers to global warming scientists in a clueless display of astounding ignorance as well as low IQ.

In fact, as far back as 240 B.C. it was known by the much more enlightened Greek astronomers, in particular Eratosthenes, that the Earth was spherical, not flat. This was opposed to the primitive flat Earth perceptions (NOT science!)  embraced by the sheep herder tribes of Judea, many of whom scribbled down their Bronze Age myths in the Bible.


This is all very relevant now as we can expect to hear, as Trumpistas take office, more and more lies try to justify jettisoning existing climate science. But it also alerts us of the need to resist.

NY Times columnist Charles Blow hit the nail on its head in his recent piece that we are obligated as citizens to defy a Trump presidency. Granted, 62 million odd knuckle draggers and imps voted this turd into power but that doesn't mean we have to respect it, or kowtow to their insane impulsive choice. As Blow writes:

"It is not the job of the defiant to conform to a future president who makes them completely uncomfortable. The burden of unity lies with Trump, not his detractors."

Bingo!

“Just wait and see.” “Give him a chance.” But what if what you’ve already seen is so beyond the pale that it’s irrevocable? What if Trump has already squandered more chances than most of us will ever have?

What if Trump has shown himself beyond doubt and with absolute certainty to be a demagogue and bigot and xenophobe and has given space and voice to concordant voices in the country and in his emerging Legion of Doom cabinet? In that reality, resistance isn’t about mindless obstruction by people blinded by the pain of ideological defeat or people gorging on sour grapes. To the contrary, resistance then is an act of radical, even revolutionary, patriotism. Resistance isn’t about damaging the country, but protecting it.

Blow is also spot on when he writes:

"Furthermore, the emergence of Donald Trump as a political figure has threatened to kill many of the ideals that we hold dear: decency and decorum, inclusion and empathy, truth and facts themselves.

Trump and his agents of idiocracy are now engaged in an all-out crusade to exaggerate the scope of his victory, rewrite racial history, justify their vendettas and hostilities and erase the very distinction between true and false.

At a fiery exchange during a panel at Harvard, Hillary Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, rightly accused the Trump campaign of emboldening “white supremacists and white nationalists.”

The Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway , tried to defend this idiocracy but what would you expect. This harridan is a member of it.  As Blow pointed out, truth and facts are now under major assault, i.e.  "everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true.”

He continued, quoting Conway: “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts.”  And Blow added:

"Folks, Dimwit-ism is a disease easily spread and denigrators of the absolutism of truth are its vectors.This is why resistance isn’t only principled, but essential and even existential. We are not in an ordinary postelection period of national unity and rapprochement. We are facing the potential abrogation of fundamental American ideals. We stand at the precipice, staring into an abyss that grows darker by the day."

Already, at a meeting this week of climate scientists in San Francisco there is outrage at what is happening. How Trump and his band of appointed assholes are clearly ready to dismantle all progress on global warming research leaving us all for the high jump.  The scenes last night on ABC showed the scientists with signs "Stand up for science!" and shouting "Stand up, fight back!"

This is advice we all need to heed as we lurch ever nearer to zero hour and being hurled back decades in critical climate science and other work. It means we also have to be prepared to resist as the climate scientists and columnist Charles Blow have admonished us to do and forge a consistent and unified means of obstruction. This means never accepting Trump or his administration as our own, and fighting in whatever form we can,  every step of the way. Especially by refusing to swallow the media rot that tries to normalize this swine or that we must now "all come together". No, absolutely not! And we have to hope - if the Hamilton elector movement fails - the Dems grow some balls too (especially Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi) and refuse all enticements to "bipartisanship".  Recall former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) famously said, "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."

We must be every bit as obstructionist and uncompromising as the Repukes and their followers were after Obama was elected.  Sorry, folks, this is now the Divided States 0f America and it cannot now be otherwise!

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/richard-eskow/70295/by-picking-tillerson-and-perry-trump-s-pretty-much-just-trolling-us-now

YES! Let The Election Recounts Begin In Three States!

Former Green candidate Jill Stein, has raised more than $4 million to do election recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Americans, by and large, are too gullible and accepting of democratic process - and despite painting themselves as fierce "patriots" - they often fall short where the rubber meets the road. I am talking here about the basic processes for electing our highest officials including for President - an office that arguably is the most powerful on Earth.  Such an election is particularly critical if the capture of the Presidency, for example, represents the final linchpin in one party having total control of government. Hence, by its appointments  (including Supreme Court) and agendas it can then literally affect the lives of tens of millions for good or ill. If the wrong person gets in, sneaks in, really by failure of election processes, it can mean upending the lives of a majority of citizens.

Author Greg Palast, who investigated the 2000 fake Florida (Choicepoint) voter felon rolls, has noted the stark consequences:

"No way around it, this is one frightening moment.  Decades of progress created with sweat and determination face destruction.  Within the next six months, we may see the Voting Rights Act repealed—and civil rights set back 50 years; the entirety of our environmental protection laws burnt in a coal pit; police cruelty made our urban policy; the Education Department closed to give billionaires a tax holiday; and a howling anti-Semite as White House Senior Counselor.."

In respect of this 2016 Presidential election, many critical eyes - not just on the left - have looked askance at what has transpired, especially in view of the Supreme Court's torpedoing of voter protections hitherto assured under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  But beyond those issues, there is the one that overshadows the use of electronic voting machines and whether, indeed, they can be trusted in giving reliable results.

For any who gullibly believe Diebold machines - for example- are as good as paper ballots, I invite you to take a gander at the machine below showing vote switching (from 2012) in action, e.g. at: http://wonkette.com/488754/watch-this-pennsylvania-voting-machine-hilariously-refuse-to-accept-a-vote-for-barack-obama

Arguably, if the total election results had been much closer, a much narrower margin for Obama, it is quite conceivable the 2012 election could have been stolen. The narrower margins would have made election theft more successful, effective.

The incident shown in the link was not unusual, or exceptional. On Nov. 6, 2012, at  precisely 8.30 a.m. Mountain time, wifey and I stared spellbound while watching KOAA-TV, as the newscaster noted two electronic machines in Adams County had 'switched' voters' choices for President - from Barack Obama to Mitt Romney! Like smart citizens who check their grocery receipts for errors after each purchase, the voters checked their paper printouts and sure enough.....there on the paper was 'Mitt Romney (R)- Paul Ryan(VP)' instead of 'Barack Obama(D)- Joe Biden (VP)'. The voters complained and precinct specialists attempted to replicate the errors, but to no avail.  However, they then performed the legit fail -safe action (demanded) of taking the machines out of commission.

Had the Colorado electoral vote total been determined by those voting machine differences, Colorado would have gone for Romney instead of Obama. THAT is why electoral processes need to be examined especially in close, nail biter elections. It is stupid to just say "Well, the election is over, deal with it!". No, uh uh, not when so many millions of lives are at stake in terms of their life quality.
This is why I am vexed and impatient by people why assert we need to "move on" or those like Kellyanne Conway saying HRC voters "can't accept the results of this election". Yes, they can- IF it is fair.

Recall that back on April 19, I warned of a possible heist using electronic voting machines in Repub states, i.e. states in which Republican governors had control of the voting stations, regulations, accessibility etc. The header of my post was 'The Fix May Already Be In For Gooprs to Steal the 2016 Election'. Therein I cited a blog post by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman  on smirkingchimp.com:

There are two things we all need to know about the upcoming 2016 election:

1. Millions of likely Democratic voters have already been stripped from the voter rolls in critical states like Ohio. The key reporting on this has been done by the great Greg Palast, who has shown that a computer program coordinated by the Republican secretary of state of Kansas is being used in some two dozen states to steal from a substantial percentage of the citizenry their right to vote. The raw numbers are high enough that they could have a significant impact on the presidential, US Senate, House and many other elections this fall. The ACLU has now sued Jon Husted, Ohio’s secretary of state, over the stripping of two million citizens from Ohio's voter rolls.

2. There is no way to verify the official tally on the electronic machines on which the majority of Americans will vote this fall. Nearly all the machines are a decade old, most are controlled by a single company (ES&S, owned by Warren Buffett) and the courts have ruled that the software is proprietary, making the vote counts beyond public scrutiny. In fact, they are beyond all independent monitoring altogether. In many key swing states (including Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Arizona) GOP governors and secretaries of state will have a free hand to flip the vote count to whatever they want it to be without detection or accountability. This could turn control of our government over to the GOP come November, as it did in 2000 and 2004.

These two critical markers of the upcoming national election were at center stage in their upcoming report :  The Flip & Strip Selection of 2016: Five Jim Crows and Electronic Election Theft (www.freepress.org / www.solartopia.org),

In the wake of the historical findings and proof that electronic voting machines CAN switch votes and given the close (as well as suspicious)  results in three industrial states - two of which flipped, and one still close to call - it boggles the mind the media is in such a rush to foreclose the election. This is why Jill Stein merits kudos for undertaking a task that Hillary wouldn't. This despite Hillary getting hundreds of millions of bucks in campaign donations more than Stein.  But obviously, the Clinton campaign is more invested in the "optics" of looking graceful in defeat and honorable - despite the fact many more (2.2. million at last count) voted for her and therefore over 62.5 million stand to have their votes trashed in the dumpster of history. (Even as our nation risks having its reputation and integrity trashed by a Trump administration.)

I applaud Stein's efforts, as everyone should,  and that basically means doing a very simple thing in the three states noted: comparing the electronic vote results with the paper ballot records.  If the totals square off with each other and whatever differential doesn't lead to a reversal in the state's electoral votes, then fine and dandy. award that state's electoral votes to Trump. If not, then no, you can't do that.

As for Hillary, she's being urged by many to officially request a recount in those states. But don't hold your breath, it was far easier for her campaign to grab donated money for the initial run than to protect the integrity of the results after the fact. Also, according to a UK Guardian report "several senior Democrats are said to be intensely reluctant to suggest there were irregularities in the result because Clinton and her team criticized Trump so sharply during the campaign for claiming that the election would be “rigged” against him."

Yes, and well, don't you think if the situation was reversed Trump would be calling for recounts now, and in more than 3 states? Again, it doesn't pay to be faux honorable or gracious when so much is on the line. Hillary needs to drop the pretense of just silently accepting the loss and come out fighting like she besieged her voters to do for her in her 'Stronger Together' campaign.

At the same time, according to the same report, others have spoken publicly, including the sister of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide who pointed out. “A shift of just 55,000 Trump votes to Hillary in PA, MI & WI is all that is needed to win,” Heba Abedin said on Facebook, urging people to call the justice department to request an audit.

Again, this issue goes beyond the claims of "Russian hacking" which I doubt was responsible. It is more a matter of investigating whether the electronic votes cast via Diebold, ES & S voting machines were "true" and not switched. Also, that all the voters (especially African Americans) in key states who tried to vote - including using provisional ballots - were allowed to do so.

Update:  Ted Olson Pitches Hissy Fit Over Recount:

Yep, the same dolt and hired hack who represented Bush Jr, in Bush v. Gore, now claims (TIME. Dec. 12, p. 18) "Jill Stein's recounts are destructive to democracy".. But how can a process that validates democratic choice be destructive to it? This is total nonsense but we shouldn't be surprised by such loopy logic from a guy who insisted the FLA recounts in 2000, were against "equal treatment" for his client.  He also bitched and moaned about Stein being a "bit player" and yet demanding recounts. Sorry, Roscoe, that is what the STATE laws allow- for any candidate no matter what the % of votes! Seems like this punk just can't handle true democracy.

What I'd like to see instead is an uproar over the refusal of official to do recounts of African -American votes in Michigan, see e.g

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/steven-rosenfeld/70158/michigan-election-officials-refuse-to-recount-thousands-of-ballots-in-states-communities-of-color

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/steven-rosenfeld/70016/recount-or-bust-its-the-only-way-to-verify-who-won-the-2016-election


Excerpt:

Any functioning democracy should involve the verification of the vote. That, in this case, involves a recount process. The candidates who are on the ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin can call for the recount. In Pennsylvania, it’s voters who can. It doesn’t have to be the runner-up candidate. Third-party candidates can call for the recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin. And three voters per county in Pennsylvania can call for them. There were serious concerns leading up to the election about the vulnerability of our voting systems. There were anomalies that occurred on Election Day and all those give rise to the basis of why we make sure we verify the vote.

And:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/jill-stein-election-recount-fund-michigan-wisconsin-pennsylvania

Trump's Appointment Of Extremist Fruitcake Bannon Warrants Alarm Bells For Sane Americans

Let us agree at the outset that, logically,  a President Elect's staff appointments signal how he plans to act in governance. If those appointments - say to White House staff and key cabinet posts (Defense Secretary, Secretary of State) - are moderate,  then one can reasonably expect a moderate governance. But  the opposite is true with Trump, after an extremist  bomb thrower like Stephen K. Bannon  the former head of Breitbart News, was  hired (as Chief "Strategist") .   So given that an anti-Semitic, racist hate monger is now steps from the Oval Office, we must assume that Office is now contaminated, captured by proto-Nazis and pro-Confederate KKK'ers.

Hell, don't take my word. Hear what former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said of Bannon’s hire;

“I think that’s excellent,”

And then the chairman of the American Nazi Party exulted,

"Perhaps The Donald IS for ‘REAL’. Time will tell."

To cap it off, white supremacist Jared Taylor cheered Bannon’s hire, saying he suspected Bannon will serve as an “anti-waffler” to "maintain Trump’s ideological and racial purity."  Say what? So, uh, he is a clone of Adolf after all.

Little wonder that all sensible people have reacted vociferously, unwilling to wait until this jackal actually muddies the carpets of the People's House, never mind Obama's conciliatory remarks which disappointed supporters.  But others were not so averse. Civil rights groups, senior Democrats and some Republican strategists have assailed Trump, saying that Bannon will bring anti-Semitic, nationalist and racist views to the West Wing.  This is not an exaggeration and people - though they may aspire for national unity - cannot so easily resign themselves to "making the abnormal normal" in the words of John Oliver last Sunday night.  (One thing that will be intolerable over a Trump administration is the media making the "abnormal normal" including being too squeamish or PC to call Bannon a Neo-Nazi or white supremacist. As for me, I am not the least bit diffident about it.)

For reference, former Breitbart editor  Ben Shapiro resigned from the website in March calling it a "cesspool for white supremacist meme makers". John Weaver, who served as strategist for John Kasich's campaign also shamed the media for using the vanilla term "alt Right" trying to normalize this racist, fanatic extremist bunch. Incredibly, some confused Trumpies have insisted there is also an "alt Left", but if so, I'd like to know exactly where their big website is and who is espousing left wing nationalism on a par with Breitbart.com's right wing nationalism. But false equivalence appears to be a common disease these days, especially among the deluded and desperate. As an indication of that, they cite Clinton's turning away from the Keystone pipeline as "bad science" when in fact her move was the first toward GOOD science she made (given she'd been a heavy fracker backer), see e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/02/of-morons-in-milwaukee-and-why-obamas.html

Back to John Weaver, not a leftie by any means. He delivered this stark warning to a nation with too many political sleepwalkers:

"The racist fascist extreme Right is represented foot steps from the Oval Office. Be very vigiliant, America"

And lest fellow citizens forget, let's bear in mind "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom". Would that the German people had been more aware of that before Hitler disposed of their liberties with the Enabling Act.

Even Glenn Beck called Bannon "quite possibly the most dangerous guy in all of American politics" Strong words, and coming from a guy that used to inhabit Reich Kooksville.

Then there is Trump former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who saw no problem and even defended Bannon in brief remarks to reporters in New York, describing him as the “general of this campaign” and saying that “people should look at the full résumé.”

And what, pray tell, is in the full resume?  According to Conway:

“He has got a Harvard business degree. He’s a naval officer. He has success in entertainment,”

Which merely shows that a Harvard education provides no guarantee one will not end up a loopy, extremist twit with his investment a costly waste.

Conway also denied that Mr. Bannon had a connection to right-wing nationalists or that he would bring those views to the White House.  She barked in indignation:  “I’m personally offended that you think I would manage a campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies,”.  But truth and reality is a bitch.

Bannon's own take is even more choice, as he spun this PR gem yesterday:

"These people are patriots. They love their country. They just want their country taken care of.”

Ah yes, by sending all the "Spics" back to Mexico, the "kikes" back to Israel, the "ragheads" to Guantanamo (for water boarding) and the "black apes" back to Africa. And so Marine Le Pen, head of the extreme right Nationalist Front in France, said she "welcomed" Bannon's invitation to cooperate and talk strategy. This, by the way, effectively shows that Trump has made the White House the focal point of white power nationalism and  extremism in the world. Not to mention the fact he's already appointed a holocaust denier (Joseph Schmitz) as foreign affairs advisor.  (See the followup post).

In the wake of this political maelstrom, the Council on American-Islamic Relations  has rightly said the selection of Bannon “sends the disturbing message that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House.” That view was also echoed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. The SPLC didn't mince words in saying  Trump “should rescind this hire.”

Meanwhile, The Denver Post in its editorial yesterday ('Alt Right Choice Is Not All Right') delivered this broadside and warning, underscoring Weaver's:

"The alt-Right will celebrate Bannon's appointment. The rest of America should be extremely concerned and vigilant. A figure like Bannon closely advising an American President is in no way normal or acceptable."

Indeed, it highlights the worries of former Bush security official Michael Chertoff who four  weeks ago declared Trump lacked the proper judgment to be chief executive. And what works for a corporate shill brander doesn't work as governance or leadership for a nation. The Post in its editorial decried Trump's decision not to disavow the alt Right and Bannon as "reckless" adding that it "gives voice and legitimacy to an ugly corner of American political thought".

If Trump did rescind Bannon's appointment, it might show he at least partially means what he's said about it being "time to come together as one united people."  Also saying:

"I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans. And this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country."

Well, a nice speech. But if you really want to be "president for all Americans" you have to reject those who hate most Americans as being "other" or uh, too brown or black in skin tone.. Right now, with the likes of Jeff Sessions and other hard right fanatics leading Trump's transition (even doing a "Stalinesque" purge of Christie and his picks) we are well on the way to a fucked up. nutso extremist, toxic  executive branch. This will be evidently run by a crass, clueless pussy grabber and a right hand man who dabbles in extremist conspiracy theories and racist homage.

The deluded voters who chose Trump, believing they will now live better lives,  get better jobs and finally experience "real freedom", could do themselves a favor by checking out Milton Mayer’s classic, They Thought They Were Free.  It's about how the Germans who chose Adolf Hitler came to rue their decision and bitterly as their nation was later swept into mass destruction and international rebuke.

They might also wish to check out Martin Wolf's Financial Times piece ('Donald Trump's False Promises To His Supporters') e.g.

https://www.ft.com/content/31b062e8-a842-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6


Buckle your seat belts because the D.C. shit storm is just beginning.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/richard-eskow/69885/welcome-to-trump-swamp-please-don-t-feed-the-gators

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/steven-rosenfeld/69881/white-house-propagandist-bannons-gravy-train-is-secretive-radical-right-wing-billionaire-hedge-fun