Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

'The dictionary definition of fascism': Conservative columnist condemns Donald Trump's MAGA 'cult'



MAGA Republicans have been attacking Robert Reich as a “coastal elitist” in response to an August 23 tweet in which the liberal economist, UC Berkeley professor and former secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration described far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a “fascist.” Reich’s MAGA critics have been arguing that his condemnation of DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans is painfully out of touch with Main Street America — and that Reich and other liberals and progressives simply don’t understand conservative values.

But Reich’s MAGA critics are ignoring or overlooking the fact that anti-MAGA arguments are hardly confined to the left. A long list of right-wing Never Trump conservatives, from attorney George Conway to The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes to Washington Post columnist Max Boot to former Nancy Reagan speechwriter Mona Charen to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough (a former GOP congressman), have been attacking MAGA as a movement that favors far-right authoritarianism rather than traditional Reagan/Goldwater/McCain conservatism. And William Saletan, a writer for the conservative website The Bulwark, defends President Joe Biden’s anti-MAGA use of the term “semi-fascism” in an article published on September 1.

“Republicans are furious over President Biden’s recent remarks linking Donald Trump and his supporters to ‘semi-fascism,’” Saletan writes. “For days, they’ve been all over TV and social media, denouncing Biden’s use of the F-word. But Biden was right. Many of the ideas and tactics deployed by Trump and his apologists, including those who decry Biden’s comparison, fit the dictionary definition of fascism.”

Saletan stresses that refusing to accept democratic election results, which is what Trump and his followers did after the 2020 election, is an “authoritarian” act.

“A stickler might say that an attempt to overturn an election isn’t really fascist unless it involves the use of state power or mob violence, but Trump and his allies tried to use both,” Saletan explains. “Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s right-hand man in several abuses of power, says it’s Biden, not Trump, who runs America like ‘a damned dictatorship.’ But in December 2020, after the Electoral College had certified Biden’s election, Giuliani — at Trump’s direction — phoned the acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security to ask whether DHS could seize voting machines from states. Then, at Trump’s January 6th rally on the Ellipse, Giuliani exhorted the crowd: ‘Let’s have trial by combat!’”

Saletan adds, “Giuliani didn’t just help to incite the attack on the Capitol. To this day, he continues to whitewash it and excuse the perpetrators.”

The Bulwark writer cites other examples of “authoritarian” behavior from MAGA Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wondering how long it would be before “we get to hang” former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be executed for treason.

“The dictionary definition of fascism doesn’t just talk about autocracy,” Saletan notes. “It also includes ethnic nationalism. But by this standard, too, Trump and many of his propagandists are semi-fascist. Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary, calls Biden’s reference to fascism a baseless ‘message of hatred.’ But in the summer of 2016, Trump, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, declared a federal judge unfit to preside over a fraud case against Trump University because ‘he’s a Mexican.’ And McEnany defended this attack…. You could argue that an out-and-out fascist would use nationalist bigotry to persecute a whole minority group, not just a single judge. That’s what Trump did in 2015, when he called for a ‘complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.’”

According to Saletan, “Trump’s cult” contains many “components” of fascism, including “paranoia, fantastic lies, anti-intellectualism, a mythologized national past, selective appeals to law and order, and propaganda about enemies of the state.” Another is “invocation of mob violence to protect the movement’s leader.”

“But the clearest illustration of the MAGA elite’s descent into fascism might be its embrace of a like-minded leader from another country: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,” Saletan writes. “As Cathy Young, Charles Sykes, David Baer, and other writers have explained in The Bulwark, Orbán is an increasingly authoritarian ethnonationalist. In a speech on July 23, he warned, ‘There is a world in which European peoples are mixed together with those arriving from outside Europe.’ Orbán called this a ‘mixed-race world’ and concluded, ‘We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race.’”

Saletan continues, “Orbán’s speech was so grotesque that one of his own advisers resigned, calling the speech ‘a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels.’ But a week later, Orbán was welcomed as the keynote speaker at a Dallas meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which reveres Trump and is one of his favorite venues. Two days after that, Trump spoke to the same gathering. The two aspiring autocrats were warmly applauded. This past Monday, CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp stoutly defended Orbán.”

https://www.rawstory.com/the-dictionary-definition-of-fascism-conservative-columnist-condemns-donald-trump-s-maga-cult-2658013651/

[Rick Plant]

'I don't know what to make of it': Pro-Trump attorney struggles to defend former president's lawyers on CNN

Attorney David Schoen, who defended former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial, struggled to defend some actions taken by Trump's lawyers in the current dispute over top secret government documents being kept in Mar-a-Lago.

During an interview on CNN, host John Berman asked Schoen what he made of attorney Christina Bobb signing a sworn affidavit saying Trump had handed over every piece of classified information the National Archives had requested, despite the fact that Trump was actually still hoarding several boxes worth of classified documents.

"We don't know exactly what went on behind the scenes," Schoen began. "It's a question that's going to have to be answered. I can tell you this, I know Evan Corcoran, local counsel for me in another case... he is as honest as the day is long. I don't believe -- I have no reason to believe he would have done anything dishonest or otherwise."

That said, Schoen also couldn't come up with a plausible explanation for why Trump's lawyers had signed an affidavit that had proven to be clearly untrue as evidenced by the fact that the FBI recovered several boxes full of classified documents that they had sworn were not there.

"I don't know what to make of it," he acknowledged. "There is, again -- the question that's going to have to be answered."

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

'Corrupt as hell': Demands for Clarence Thomas to resign follow new details of wife's election scheming



U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas faced fresh calls to step down Thursday after new reporting revealed that his wife's involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election was broader than previously known, extending to the battleground state of Wisconsin as well as Arizona.

"Reminder that Clarence Thomas heard election cases while his wife conspired to overthrow democracy."

Emails obtained by the Washington Post and the organization Documented show that Ginni Thomas, a longtime far-right activist with close ties to the conservative dark money network, "messaged two Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin: state Sen. Kathy Bernier, then chair of the Senate elections committee, and state Rep. Gary Tauchen," the newspaper reported.

"Bernier and Tauchen received the email at 10:47 a.m. on November 9, virtually the same time the Arizona lawmakers received a verbatim copy of the message from Thomas," the Post added. "Ginni Thomas' political activism is highly unusual for the spouse of a Supreme Court justice, and for years it has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest for her husband. She has said that the two of them keep their professional lives separate."

But watchdog groups and Democratic lawmakers have questioned that claim and demanded that Thomas, at the very least, recuse himself from election-related cases—something he notably didn't do while his wife was engaged in attempts to keep former President Donald Trump in power.

"Reminder that Clarence Thomas heard election cases while his wife conspired to overthrow democracy," Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) tweeted Thursday. "Clarence Thomas is corrupt as hell and should resign from the Supreme Court."

House Democrats have also called on the party leadership to launch impeachment proceedings against the right-wing justice, a demand backed by more than 1.2 million people across the U.S.

Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America, said in a statement Thursday that "if Clarence Thomas had any shame, he would resign immediately."

"But he doesn't," Harvey continued, "so Congress must act immediately to pass a code of ethics for the Supreme Court that would require justices to recuse themselves in cases where they have an actual or apparent conflict of interest."

The latest revelations from the Post add to the newspaper's previous reporting about Ginni Thomas' messages to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Arizona Republicans in the wake of Trump's election loss.

"Ginni Thomas didn't just push Mark Meadows to overturn the election or urge lawmakers in Arizona to ignore the popular vote," tweeted the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "She also pushed Wisconsin lawmakers to ignore Biden's victory in the state."

"Despite all this, she's still on a federal board," the group added, referring to Thomas' spot on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board. Trump appointed her to a five-year term on the board in May 2020.

Thomas' actions in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential contest have drawn the scrutiny of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, an attack fueled by Trump's lies about the presidential election.

The Post reported Thursday that the House panel "asked Thomas to sit for a voluntary interview in June."

"The committee also sought a broad range of documents from her, including any related to plans to overturn the election and all communications with members of Congress and their staff and Justice Department employees," the Post noted. "At the time, Thomas indicated she would comply. 'I can't wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them,' Thomas told the Daily Caller, her former employer."

"Less than two weeks later, on June 28, Paoletta told the committee that while Thomas remained willing to sit for an interview, he did not believe there was 'sufficient basis' for her to do so," the Post added.

The House committee is expected to kick off a new series of hearings on the January 6 attack this month.

Read More Here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/09/01/ginni-thomas-wisconsin-bernier-tauchen/

[Rick Plant]

'That’s the ball game': Former prosecutor shoots down Trump’s latest claim of executive privilege



Donald Trump has vacillated between attorney/client privilege to executive privilege and at times he merely says "privilege" as the justification that the FBI shouldn't have access to the government documents he retained when he left the White House.

Former Justice Department lawyer Harry Litman explained that Trump's recent rant of executive privilege makes it clear that the game is over. At the same time, none of the information that was revealed by the recent Justice Department response would have been available without Trump's demand for the special master. Over and over, Trump appears to miscalculate and the Justice Department appears to be several steps ahead of him.

"It's been a series of self-inflicted wounds, each one worse than the last," Litman explained. In "this last one they were able to really give some more detail because Trump did a little forum shopping to get another judge. They said to that judge you haven't seen the affidavit so let us tell you a thing or two, and the thing or two was really extremely damning."

The idea of "smashing together" the various types of privilege, "is the ball game here," Litman continued.

"All their case is asking for a special master involves attorney/client privilege. Trump could have attorney/client privilege with his own personal lawyers. What he doesn't have is any kind of standing about these documents, the public documents and the very first legal argument that DOJ made and that Trump will have to answer in an hour is why do you have any interest in these documents at all to even be here?" he revealed. "You've got no right, no interest. These don't belong to you any more than to any other citizen. It's a tough argument and his submission last night really doesn't begin to answer it."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Bill Pascrell, Jr. @BillPascrell

The speech Pres Biden just gave is one of the most extraordinary orations ever by a US President. Every word. The republican party today is an unprecedented threat to our democracy and all of us need to see it, say it, and fight it.

https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1565496864987922433


Congressman Pascrell is 100% correct.

The Republican Party has been hijacked by a bunch of violent far right wing radical extremists.

Hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, neo Nazis, and white supremacist hate groups have become the base of MAGA Republicans.

Far right wing violent militia groups are praised by Trump and his MAGA's in Congress.

QAnon conspiracy theorists are running for political office as Republicans. Some currently hold seats as Republicans.   

MAGA Trump supporters violently beat Capitol Police officers with dangerous objects used as weapons. Some even brought guns to the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the government and end democracy.         

This is who the Republican party is today and any decent Republican who objects to what is happening to the party is viciously attacked and banished from the party at the behest of Donald Trump.

This isn't a political party, it's a far right wing extremist religious conspiracy cult that's taking away freedoms and rights from the American people.     

MAGA Republicans lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Donald Trump became angry that he lost in a blowout so he refused to leave office and made up election lies and conspiracies in order to illegally stay in office. Republicans in government peddled those same election fraud lies including the right wing media like Faux News trying to illegally keep Trump in power.

When that didn't work, they attempted a coup by violent force to overthrow the government to illegally keep Trump in power.

And these same election fraud lies still continues today by the radical right. When they win an election everything is ok, but when they lose, they scream "voter fraud" trying to steal an election they lost.

This is what you see happening in fascist countries, so it's appropriate to call MAGA fascists because they are indeed promoting fascism.

Their attempt to undermine our free and fair elections is being done on purpose because they only want to have elections that they win.

QAnon conspiracy theorists like Doug Mastriano, who is running for the Governor of Pennsylvania, has already stated that he will seek to overturn elections that Republicans lose if he wins. He is not the only radical right winger who has said that. There's several MAGA Republicans who are running for Secretary of State in several states who have said the same thing. They said "if Republicans lose they will seek to overturn elections they lost".

That is not a democracy, that is fascism. Their goal is to put their own people in power even when they lose and that is exactly what happens in authoritarian countries.                       

President Biden spoke clearly about the danger and threat MAGA represents to our democracy. We already witnessed it first hand on January 6th when they tried to end our democracy. These are the same people who want to control our government so they can shove their conspiracy theories and radical religious fanaticism down our throats.           

Look at what MAGA has done to women by taking away their right to control their own bodies. And these are the same MAGA's that refused to wear a mask during the worst part of the pandemic to keep a virus from spreading. These MAGA's are forcing women to give birth even when their life is in danger all because they claim that's what their evangelical religion dictates.

MAGA is the minority of the country but they are forcing their radical extremism on to the majority of Americans who reject it.

MAGA QAnon freak Lauren Boebert said she "is tired of this separation of church and state junk".       

And that quote from her represents the danger to our democracy that President Biden spoke about last night.

These MAGA's don't respect our Constitution, freedoms, or our democracy. Our nation is founded on the separation of church and state. MAGA's like her want to end democracy and force us to live how they want us to live based on their extreme ideology. That is fascism folks, and MAGA Republicans are very open about it.

That's why MAGA promotes and invited the fascist leader of Hungary Viktor Orban to speak at their right wing political conferences. Tucker Carlson can't get enough of the fascist leader Orban as he slobbers over him on television. MAGA Republicans want to turn America into a fascist country like Hungary where only they have the power to rule.

When you see a political party like the MAGA Republicans using violent force to overthrow the government to steal an election, that is fascism.

When you hear MAGA Republicans saying they will overturn election results they don't like to keep their own people in power, that is fascism.

When you hear MAGA Republicans saying they are "tired of separation of church and state junk" and want to force their own beliefs on you saying "that's how you have to live your life", that is fascism.

So, MAGA Republicans have no business getting angry when they are called "fascists" because that is exactly what they are.

In order to save our democracy, this fascism must be defeated at the ballot box.                         

[Rick Plant]

Trump may threaten to reveal state secrets to manipulate legal proceedings if he’s indicted: reporter



Former President Donald Trump appears to have a weak defense if he's prosecuted for taking classified documents to Mar-A-Lago, but he may be able to hold the court hostage by threatening to reveal some of that top-secret information.

The FBI found boxes of highly sensitive materials in Trump's office and other areas of his private resort, and his attorneys have asked for them back, or at least an inventory of what was taken -- which NBC News reporter Marc Caputo told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" signaled his possible strategy.

"I'm being led to believe it's not detailed, it's not the stuff we'll want to see," Caputo said. "We'll want to see, like, okay, which foreign leaders potentially were in these classified documents he allegedly had or whatever. However, it's going to be more detailed. How much? We have no clue. The judge yesterday said she would start to unseal it after the court hearing, today is technically after the court hearing -- we'll see."

"I think a broader issue here is what you're also going to see in cases, again, if there's a prosecution, of something called graymail, which is where a defendant in a case where there's classified information tries to push the release of that classified information, knowing the government doesn't want it released," Caputo continued, "and that can sort of psych the government out of wanting to release that highly classified or sensitive information. Now there is a Classified Information Procedures Act, which allows for the courts to kind of go through and handle these issues and release redacted information. But the fact of the matter is we've never had a former president and future presidential candidate, likely future presidential candidate, on trial, especially over stuff like this regarding issues related to his presidency or his past presidency, so, we're, as I said, we're in uncharted waters."

"We should just expect a lot more of this," he added. "Whether it's in motions or in appeals or, again, sending things all the way up to the Supreme Court if it starts to really steamroll in that direction."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

MAGA Republicans have no problem with this and instead are defending Trump's treason.

Trump Having 48 Empty 'Classified' Folders at Mar-a-Lago Raises Suspicion



Some legal experts have expressed suspicion over the empty folders with classified markings in the newly-unsealed inventory list showing what FBI agents seized during their search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home last month.

The list of items showed that dozens of empty folders described as having "classified" banners were recovered in the raid. A Newsweek count found that the list included 48 empty folders in total with this banner. Dozens of empty folders labeled "Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide" were also listed in the inventory.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner tweeted about the inventory list on Friday, writing that the former president "didn't pack up EMPTY folders to take with him to FLA [Florida]."

"Things just went from bad to worse to unfathomably dangerous," he added.



Former U.S. attorney Harry Litman said that the empty folders were a sign that Trump may have "riffled (sic) through the classified docs to see what he had."

"This undoes the image of just scooping them up along w/ shirts and M&Ms and keeping them in boxes," he added.

Friday's unsealed inventory list provided the closest look yet at what the FBI seized when it went through Mar-a-Lago, a search that the former president and his allies have condemned as politically motivated. In addition to the various empty folders, the list also shows that various government documents with and without classification markings, articles, clothing items, and books were also taken. The judge, who unsealed the list, is considering Trump's request to have a special master appointed to oversee the review of the records seized during the raid.

Responding to a breakdown of what was on the list, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann tweeted that the empty classified folders "are of most concern."

"Where are the contents?" he asked. "Trump has not addressed that at all in all his bluster and obfuscation. What were you doing with these?"

Hugo Lowell @hugolowell

NEW: Unsealed detailed inventory of what FBI seized from Trump’s office includes:
— 7 TOP SECRET marked docs
— 43 Empty CLASSIFIED folders
— 28 Empty Return to Staff Sec/Mil. Aid folders
— 26 Magazines/Press Articles 1/2020-11/2020
— 99 Magazines/Press Articles 1/2017-10/2018

https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1565709167964340227

The inventory list also prompted Mike Sington, a former senior executive at NBCUniversal, to ask what had happened to any materials that may have been inside the folders.

"What did Trump do with the contents of the folders?" he tweeted. "Did he sell them? Are they hidden at his other properties?"

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in regard to the documents, including by saying that any classified documents that he took had been declassified. However, some have cast doubt on this explanation.

Mick Mulvaney, who was Trump's acting chief of staff from January 2019 to March 2020, told Newsmax last month that while a president has broad authority to declassify documents, "there's a formal structure to doing that." Mulvaney said that there was not a standing order to declassify documents when he was chief of staff, but said that one could have been implemented later.

Even if the documents Trump allegedly took were all declassified, that may not matter if he was charged with any crimes, according to a former U.S. attorney. Barbara McQuade said on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show last month that the laws listed as potentially being violated on the search warrant don't require the documents to be classified.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-having-48-empty-classified-folders-mar-lago-raises-suspicion-1739520

[Rick Plant]

MAGA Republican elected officials refuse to accept the results of free and fair elections.

147 Congressional Republicans voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That is fascism folks and it's what MAGA Republicans represent.