Tracker

‘He's Going To Be More Unleashed And Unhinged Than Ever’. A scholar of authoritarians discusses the MAGA insurrection and how the end of Trump’s presidency might be the beginning of a phase of extremist violence. President Donald Trump had been laying the groundwork for the insurrection at the Capitol for years, according to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who says this "cultivation" of far-right extremists has been "entwined with this victim cult." This week a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Five people died in the chaos, including a police officer. This historic insurrection was the culmination of five years of fascist rhetoric from the president, who now has less than two weeks left in his disastrous sole term in the White House. Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a history professor at New York University and author of the book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.” She talked to HuffPost about how she thinks Trump might act once he’s out of office and how America could be headed for even more violence and political unrest. You’ve been at the forefront of identifying and documenting how Trump and the “Make America Great Again” movement represent a real authoritarian or fascist insurgency. Were you still surprised to see what you saw Wednesday? No, I wasn’t surprised. I was extremely calm when it happened because I just kind of expected it. Of course, it was shocking to then see the lawmakers cowering, and then I became very angry at the arrogance and lawlessness, and the fact that the police didn’t do anything and that these guys went out for drinks later, these insurgents. But no, this has been set up since Trump’s presidential campaign, when he actively cultivated all of these various militias and far-right forces, so it’s that cultivation entwined with this victim cult. Because this doesn’t work if you don’t have the cult leader. And the leader is the victim. So the leader is the protector, he’s going to save the nation, blah, blah, blah, but once they bonded to him, it’s very fascistic. It’s very fascist. If he’s in trouble, their duty is to save him. And so Trump has played them like a violin all these years, doing exactly what he needs to do to string them along and keep them loyal. Give them just enough crumbs of affirmation. And then he called on them because the other things that he was trying to do didn’t work. ‘He's Going To Be More Unleashed And Unhinged Than Ever’ | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

Trump regrets committing to a peaceful transfer of power and will not resign: report. Trump's recent behavior 'would meet criteria for an involuntary mental health hold': mental health expert One day after President Donald Trump released a video committing to a peaceful transfer of power, he was banned from Twitter—his strongest form of communication with his base. As expected, the new directive did not go over well with Trump and now, according to The New York Times, he regrets committing to a peaceful transition. Amid calls for Trump's resignation or impeachment, the isolated lame-duck president is reportedly seething behind closed doors at the White House and has made it clear that he will not resign. The publication reports: At the White House, Mr. Trump struck a defiant tone, insisting that he would remain a potent force in American politics even as aides and allies abandoned him and his post-presidential prospects turned increasingly bleak. Behind closed doors, he made clear that he would not resign and expressed regret about releasing a video on Thursday committing to a peaceful transition of power and condemning the violence at the Capitol that he had egged on a day before. The latest report comes shortly after Trump's commitment to a peaceful transfer of power. In a perplexing video message, the president offered a tone completely different from his typical attacking rhetoric. While he did not make any apologies for his involvement in the siege on the U.S. Capitol, he called for calm as he finally admitted that a new administration would be taking over on Jan. 20. "Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem," Trump said in the video. He also claimed: "the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy." He added, "To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay." As Inauguration Day nears, lawmakers are on edge as they are concerned about more potential damage an unpredictable Trump could cause in his final days at the White House.

Trump is as much a symptom of the rot in America as the cause, and that is why, barring a conversion on the road to Damascus , we are witnessing the end of the American empire and a devolution into chaos and tribalism. All self-inflicted.

Blanche was in top form. Many farms could use a manure spreader like that.

America has January 20th to look forward to, and the lunatic fringers have promised more violence to come.

Fired Trump Official's Ominous Warning: 'There Will Be More Bloodshed' Before Inauguration Trump “has to declare that this was a free and fair election,” urged Chris Krebs. “He still has time to do what’s right.” Chris Krebs, the fired former chief of U.S. cybersecurity, warned Friday there will be more bloodshed from supporters of President Donald Trump in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Krebs told CNN’s Don Lemon there had been no question in his mind that violence would erupt on Wednesday, when a mob of pro-Trump rioters — incited by the president and his allies ― stormed the U.S. Capitol in disgraceful scenes that shocked the world. And Krebs cautioned: There’s going to be more violence. There is going to be violence in the run-up to the inauguration. This is not over. There will be more. There are steps that can be taken by various individuals, and I hate using the passive voice there, so I’m just going to call it out. The president has to declare that this was a free and fair election. He lost. He still has time to do what’s right. It has to happen. There will be more bloodshed. Fired Trump Official's Ominous Warning: 'There Will Be More Bloodshed' Before Inauguration | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

The Democrats have a once in a generation chance to change America irreversibly and for the better. They need to aggressively and legally prosecute all the GOP people who have broken the law with impunity so far. Simultaneously, strengthen their Medicare program. They can then impeach Clarence Thomas, extend statehood status to Washington DC and Puerto Rico, do away with gerrymandering, and restore voting rights protection. Then withdraw all US forces from non-critical areas. If they institute most or all of these, the GOP and their neo-fascists will die off or adapt to a better, kinder America.

The GOP is long past caring what looks bad or what the voting public or the courts think.

Fixed it for you.

Trump is trying to manipulate his way out of consequences — it can't be allowed to work Thursday night, a clearly reluctant Donald Trump released a video, promising, "My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power." Of course, his focus just the day before was on stoking a violent insurrection, making any hope of an "orderly" — much less a "seamless" — transition of power impossible. It was a little like throwing someone's pet off a balcony, and then promising that, from here on out, you're going to be the most responsible of dog sitters. Still, there is no doubt many will be tempted to believe Trump, especially as it's only 10 days until the inauguration of Joe Biden removes him from office. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has threatened to impeach trump if Vice President Mike Pence doesn't remove him through the 25th Amendment procedure. The latter is doubtful to happen, the former likely, but in either case, it takes time. The promise that Trump is done acting out and will be a good little sociopathic narcissist is appealing, because any effort to hold him accountable in this short amount of time is a logistical nightmare. That, however, is what Trump is counting on. Trump's video, was not an earnest promise to finally behave, at this late date in his presidency, like a responsible statesman. (Also, too late!) He made no mention of the president-elect nor uttered any variant of the word concession. It was yet another manipulation from Trump, who is trying to avoid paying the piper for inciting an insurrection. This is the political equivalent of the wife-beater pleading with his battered spouse to give him another chance, and promising never to do it again. But they always do it again. And Trump cannot be trusted to keep his word about "a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power." There are many reasons that impeachment must go forward, of course, starting with the fact that it's important to take a stand, even if it's just symbolic, against politicians fomenting anti-democratic insurrections. The death of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who appears to have been murdered by an insurrectionist armed with a fire extinguisher, only heightens the moral necessity of impeachment. Impeachment is also a matter of prevention. Trump, as Pelosi said in her press conference Thursday, is "a very dangerous person" and "any day could be a horror show for America." As Biden's inauguration grows nearer and the fact that he really is going to have to leave becomes more real to Trump, he will grow more frantic. And his impulse — to lash out, to insist that he's the real winner, and to stoke more violence — will rear its head again. We've been down this road countless times with Trump: He escalates and escalates until things get really bad enough to get politically dodgy for him. And then he pulls the wife-beater-brings-roses act, giving in to pressure from aides and other Republicans to at least pretend to be presidential and do the right thing. He then sits and stews in anger at the supposed humiliation for a few days, or even hours. Eventually, he lashes out, returning to his desire to push conspiracy theories or incite nonsense or otherwise be the same tedious ******* he was before the brief bout of acting "presidential." How many variations on this theme did we get from the coronavirus pandemic alone? Trump would ride some hobbyhorse — suggesting it was being exaggerated to hurt him politically, denying that masks were effective, insisting that people should ignore stay-at-home recommendations, hyping hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure. Eventually, the political heat would build-up and his aides would persuade him to pay some lip service to reality, by wearing a mask in public or reading a statement asking people to follow health recommendations. But it was only ever a temporary effort to manipulate the press into giving him good coverage — he always regressed right back to where he wanted to be, raving about how it's all a hoax and masks are unmanly. He followed this predictable pattern even when he himself got COVID-19. After a brief bout of submitting to pressure to take it seriously, Trump went right back to his denialist antics, staging a White House event meant to imply that the disease, which resulted in his hospitalization and has killed 365,000 Americans so far, is no big deal. Trump's statement must be assumed to be more of the same: An effort to lull the press, the public, and various D.C. officials into complacency. But there is no reason to believe a word of it. For one thing, he still refuses to admit he lost the election to Biden. For another, he is refusing to take responsibility for what he did. And for yet another reason, he told likely lies in the video, such as taking credit for calling the National Guard, when reports suggest that Pence was the one who did it, against Trump's wishes. Indeed, the first signs of the predictable Trump backslide are emerging. Twitter, in an idiotic move, let Trump have his account back and sure enough, he's already raving about how many votes he got and how his voters "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" Less than 24 hours after he disingenuously acknowledged "this moment calls for healing and reconciliation," Trump tweeted that he would break with a centuries-old custom and not attend the inauguration. Trump is, above all other things, a liar. His assurances he will oversee an orderly transition should not be believed. Indeed, when Trump says a thing, it's wise to assume that the opposite is true. He's just trying to buy time to avoid facing consequences. It's possible he's even anticipating some other stunt, even though his last one led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer guarding the Capitol. Nothing has changed. As Pelosi said on Wednesday, if Pence and Cabinet will not remove Trump, he must be impeached. Trump is trying to manipulate his way out of consequences — it can't be allowed to work - Alternet.org

With the situation and attitudes the way they are in the US, I doubt if they will make any dent in the COVID for a long time to come.

If this is Trump, which I doubt, he is monumentally stupid. This is the same persona he used to try to provide fake praise for himself.

Pretty much the same output coming out of both ends.

I have little doubt that he will set up proxy accounts.

But, but. but that's the first honesty in decades from the CPC.

Sadly, no.

Clarence Thomas perjured himself in 2018 when he was obliged to report any and all financial interests that might conflict with his impartial judgements. He misrepresented his holdings and ought to be removed from the bench.

From reports coming from White House staff, Trump is very close to becoming psychotic and is being managed/restrained from doing really destructive things by his staff. The military is keeping as great a distance from Trump as possible but if he gives a direct command for a bombing raid or raids on Iran (as he wanted to do in October), they will be in a real quandary.

Pelosi In Talks With Top General About Stopping Trump Military Strikes “This unhinged President could not be more dangerous,” the House Speaker told colleagues. WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing President Donald Trump from initiating military actions or a nuclear strike. Pelosi said in a statement to colleagues that she spoke with Gen. Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” She said, the situation of “this unhinged President could not be more dangerous.” Pelosi In Talks With Top General About Stopping Trump Military Strikes | HuffPost

Pro-Trump extremists sought to kill the vice president during DC insurrection: ‘Hang Mike Pence’ Vice President Mike Pence has been one of President Donald Trump's most unwavering loyalists and apologists, but when Trump asked Pence to find a way to overturn the Electoral College results at a joint session of Congress held on Wednesday, the vice president maintained that he didn't have the power to do so. And when far-right pro-Trump extremists filled the streets of Washington, D.C. that day, some of them were calling for Pence's execution. Chants of "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!" on Wednesday were heard by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, who interviewed some of the extremists that day. Goldberg reported that they felt betrayed by Pence because he was unable to stop Congress' certification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Pro-Trump extremists sought to kill the vice president during DC insurrection: ‘Hang Mike Pence’ - Alternet.org

Punitive lawsuits like this are the only way that Fox. and its ilk will be brought to justice.

Figures. She has always been a coddled, privileged spoiled child who has been insulated from reality by money and fame.

That ought to fix whatever is wrong with the USA. And just in the nick of time, too.

Sadly, despite overwhelming evidence from multiple sources, some of the GOP continue to pretend that the forces they have supported and legitimized are somehow not responsible for the riots and attending losses of life. So long as these cretins keep this up. America will neither heal nor move forward.