#Steven Bannon

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Martin Pengelly at The Guardian (08.02.2024):

A spokesperson for Donald Trump blamed “Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors” for a bombshell report on Friday about a secret criminal investigation into whether Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the authoritarian ruler of Egypt, sought to give the former president $10m during his victorious 2016 White House run.

“The investigation referenced found no wrongdoing and was closed,” Steven Cheung told the Washington Post, which published the report on Friday. “None of the allegations or insinuations being reported on have any basis in fact. The Washington Post is consistently played for suckers by Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors peddling hoaxes and shams.” The deep state conspiracy theory holds that a permanent, shadow government of agents, operatives and bureaucrats exists to thwart Trump. One of the theory’s chief propagators, Steve Bannon, has said it is “for nut cases”. Nonetheless, it remains popular on the US right and among Trump’s aides. Bannon was Trump’s campaign chair in 2016. According to the Post, five days before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, an organisation linked to Egyptian intelligence services withdrew $10m from a Cairo bank.

“Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt,” the Post said, “employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags.” Four men “carried away the bags, which US officials later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds and containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of US currency”. According to the Post, US federal investigators learned of the withdrawal in 2019, by which time they had spent two years investigating CIA intelligence that indicated Sisi sought to give Trump $10m. Such a contribution would potentially have violated federal law regarding foreign donations.

A Washington Post report from August 2nd reveals that Egyptian’s autocratic leader Abdel Fatah al-Sisi sought to give Donald Trump $10M during his 2016 run for the Presidency that he was successful.

See Also:

MMFA: Broadcast news and major papers failed to cover WaPo report of possible Egyptian bribery involving Trump

[m-50a]

Top Trump Ally Goes OFF THE RAILS With THIS New Claim

[gusty-wind]

Julian Assange • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Edward Snowden • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Seth Rich • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Gonzalo Lira • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Donald Trump • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Elon Musk • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. General Mike Flynn • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Steve Bannon • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Peter Navarro • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Tucker Carlson • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Steve Baker • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Alex Jones • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Kyle Seraphin • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Steve Friend • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. James O’Keefe • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Steve Kirsch • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Robert Malone • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Owen Shroyer • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Joe Rogan • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Gina Carano • targeted bc of her dissenting voice. Russel Brand • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Candace Owens • targeted bc of her dissenting voice. Jack Posobiec • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Tim Pool • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Benny Johnson • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Rogan O’Handley • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Scott Adams • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Hans Mahncke • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Tracy Beanz • targeted bc of her dissenting voice. Steven Crowder • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Tommy Robinson • targeted bc of his dissenting voice. Journalists/Reporters • targeted bc of their dissenting voices. Medical Professionals • targeted bc of their dissenting voice. Conservatives/Trump Supporters • targeted bc of their dissenting voices. Parents • targeted bc of their dissenting voices. Professors/Teachers • targeted bc of their dissenting voice. The Unvaccinated • targeted bc of their dissenting voices. Whistleblowers • targeted bc of their dissenting voices. and many more... When you oppose the narrative, you become the target.

[tomorrowusa]

A MAGA think tank (sort of an oxymoron) published a document with the official title Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise but is widely known as Project 2025 after the name of the group inside the Heritage Foundation which compiled it. Whatever you call it, it is a bloodcurdling blueprint of the shape a second Trump administration would take.

Carlos Lozada of the New York Times read 887 pages of it so we don't have to.

[W]hat is most striking about the book is not the specific policy agenda it outlines but how far the authors are willing to go in pursuit of that agenda and how reckless their assumptions are about law, power and public service. “Mandate for Leadership,” which was edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation, is not about anything as simplistic as being dictator for a day but about consolidating authority and eroding accountability for the long haul. It calls for a relentless politicizing of the federal government, with presidential appointees overpowering career officials at every turn and agencies and offices abolished on overtly ideological grounds. Though it assures readers that the president and his or her subordinates “must be committed to the Constitution and the rule of law,” it portrays the president as the personal embodiment of popular will and treats the law as an impediment to conservative governance. It elevates the role of religious beliefs in government affairs and regards the powers of Congress and the judiciary with dismissiveness. And for all the book’s rhetoric about the need to “dismantle the administrative state,” it soon becomes clear that vanquishing the federal bureaucracy is not the document’s animating ambition. There may be plenty worth jettisoning from the executive branch, but “Mandate for Leadership” is about capturing the administrative state, not unmaking it. The main conservative promise here is to wield the state as a tool for concentrating power and entrenching ideology.

We hear a lot of far right rhetoric about destroying "the deep state" or "the administrative state" – particularly from the odious Steve Bannon. But what's clear from Project 2025 is that what MAGA really intends is an unfriendly takeover of "the administrative state".

Executing a conservative president’s agenda “requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it,” the document says on its opening page. The phrasing quickly grows militaristic: The authors wish to “assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day 1 to deconstruct the administrative state.” That deconstruction can be blunt. Portions of “Mandate for Leadership” read as though the authors did a Control-F search of the executive branch for any terms they deemed suspect and then deleted the offending programs or offices. The White House’s Gender Policy Council must go, along with its Office of Domestic Climate Policy. The Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is a no-no. The E.P.A. can do without its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should be dismantled because it constitutes “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

Making the US safe for fossil fuel companies is a HŪGE Trump priority which gets too little attention. Remember "drill drill drill" from Trump's dictator interview? If there's any hope of reversing climate change, you can kiss it goodbye if Republicans win in November.

Of course abortion is a target of Project 2025. Christian nationalism would become the semi-official ideology.

If “Mandate for Leadership” has its way, the next conservative administration will also target the data gathering and analysis that undergirds public policy. Every U.S. state should be required by Health and Human Services to report “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence and by what method.” By contrast, the government should prohibit the collection of employment statistics based on race or ethnicity, and the Centers for Disease Control should discontinue gathering data on gender identity, on the grounds that such collection “encourages the phenomenon of ever-multiplying subjective identities.” (Why the executive branch might concern itself with the subjective identities of American citizens becomes clearer some 25 pages later, when the document affirms that the government should “maintain a biblically based, social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”)

A far right army of ideological zealots is to be recruited to replace anybody in the federal government not sufficiently pro-Trump.

One of the “pillars” of Project 2025 is the creation of a personnel database — a sort of “right-wing LinkedIn,” The Times has reported, seeking to attract some 20,000 potential administration officials. “Mandate for Leadership” maintains that “empowering political appointees across the administration is crucial to a president’s success,” and virtually every chapter calls for additional appointees to wrest power from longtime career staff members in their respective departments.

In short... (emphasis added)

This book does not call for an effort to depoliticize the administrative state. It simply wishes to politicize it in favor of a new side. Everybody does it; now it’s our turn. Get over it.

The book is hardly a secret. The far right is quite open about its intent.

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (PDF)*

As with Mein Kampf, we know ahead of time what the bad guys will do if they hold power. We need to take the danger more seriously than Germany of the early 1930s.

What's needed to defeat Trump is a pro-democracy mobilization of the United States. That means putting aside ideological quibbles with other anti-Trump groupings and becoming more politically active in real life.

EDIT*: Tumblr is telling me that the link to Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise isn't working and refuses to let me post it. But I just checked it twice and it's fine. Until this peculiar glitch gets fixed, go to this Substack article and click "Mandate for Leadership" in the middle of the first paragraph.

[originalleftist]

I did not watch the Presidential debate tonight because, as I previously stated, I believe Trump should not be eligible to run, should not be given a platform to spread lies and hate and incitement of violence, and should not be in the same room with the President of the United States because he is an insurrectionist terrorist. However, I have seen and heard some responses to the debate, which I would like to address.

So, the general consensus seems to be that Biden did badly, and now folks are once more trotting out all the "he's too old" and "he's senile" and "we should replace him with someone, but we definitely won't say the obvious name of Kamala Harris".

So, let's address this, yet again.

Let us ignore, for the moment, Biden's excellent, energetic, quick-witted, and wide-praised performance at the State of the Union address just a few months ago.

Let us also ignore that it is far too late, practically-speaking, to replace him as the nominee, that the primaries are nearly over, that we are running up on state deadlines to get candidates on the November ballot, and that a floor fight over the nomination at the convention would be an unmitigated disaster that would make the entire Democratic Party appear unfit to govern, and deeply divide the party just a few months before the general election.

Let us also ignore the fact that none of us have performed an in-depth examination of Biden's physical or mental state, that the vast majority of us are not qualified to do so, and presume that lay people can accurately deduce a man's mental and physical health from observing one debate performance. Let us assume that Biden is both physically frail, and mentally deteriorating.

And my response is:

SO FUCKING WHAT?

Seriously, SO WHAT?

Suppose Biden is infirm. Is some lapses of memory, or difficulty speaking (from a man who has had a life-long stutter) a greater infirmity that Trump's lifetime of narcissism, psychopathy, and pathological lying?

Suppose at some Biden finds himself struggling to keep up with the job? Is that a greater concern than a man who we KNOW was NEVER fit to do it? A man who's idea of dealing with a hurricane was to suggest nuking it, and who proposed dealing with an airborne pandemic by telling people not to wear masks, but to instead consume bleach? Would you rather have Joe Biden in that position, who will be surrounded by the host of highly competent professionals with decades of experience who he has appointed to assist him? Or Donald Trump, who will be surrounded by the likes of Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn, a who's who of convicted felons, seditionists, white supremacists, and foreign agents?

Suppose the worst happens, and Biden has to step down or, God forbid, dies in office. Biden will be replaced by the eminently qualified Kamala Harris. Who would replace Trump? We don't know yet, but we can be sure that it will be someone willing to take a job who's last occupant Trump tried to have lynched for not following his orders.

Of course, as I alluded to above, that's really what a lot of people are getting at when they talk about Biden's age: the idea that a vote for Biden is actually a vote for Kamala Harris. And either they do not want a Black woman as President, or they are worried that voters will not accept her.

But you know, it's always a possibility that the Vice President will have to take over. It's happened 8 times in American history, just shy of 20% of all Presidencies. It could happen with Trump too. And it was a possibility four years ago, when voters decided that Kamala Harris was an acceptable Vice President. Hell, Kamala Harris DID officially assume Presidential powers for 85 minutes back in 2021, while Biden was anesthetized for a minor medical procedure. And, surprise, the world didn't end.

We all made this choice already in 2020. So don't try to scare me with the possibility of a Harris presidency now. And if you ARE that offput by the possibility that a highly competent, experienced centre-left Black woman might succeed Joe Biden... then maybe Trump is the candidate for you.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Cathy Wilcox, Sydney Morning Herald

* * * *

GOP in full panic mode.

June 6, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Republicans are scared. They understand that Trump's conviction for election interference is a devastating blow that threatens their prospects in November. If they lose—and they should—their eight-year delirium will come crashing to an end like a bad acid trip. MAGA extremism will not recede entirely, but its high-water mark will be in the past.

That prospect frightens MAGA to its core because they understand they have no vision, no organizing principles, no plan other than revenge—Trump's revenge to be exacted in a second term. If they lose that dark animus, the GOP’s reason for existence evaporates.

The surest sign of the GOP’s panic is the apoplectic rage that characterizes the ugly threats of Republican officials and surrogates after the guilty verdicts. They have lost their collective minds and their grip on reality, history, humanity, decency, and rationality. Their threats are a sign of weakness—not strength! Like the threats of schoolyard bullies everywhere, they emerge from deep-seated fear and insecurity; they are designed to conceal the underlying panic of imposters worried they will be found out for who they really are.

Still, Trump and his surrogates' parade of threats and lawless actions is difficult to bear—especially when they pile upon one another as they did on Wednesday. But as we review those actions, remember that they are signs of desperation and fear by a party on the run. All it took to put the GOP into full panic mode was a verdict by twelve randomly selected citizens who heard the truth about Trump's corruption.

We should not dismiss the revenge fantasies of the Convicted Felon and his pathetic homunculi. But we must keep them in perspective. For all the wild talk about retribution, House Republicans could not impeach Joe Biden despite holding control of the House for the last two years. And after a four-year investigation of Hunter Biden, the best (or worst?) the Trump-appointed special counsel could do was allege that Hunter denied he was an addict on a standard form gun purchase application and paid four years of taxes late.

So, we should take the Convicted Felon’s threats seriously, but we should recognize that MAGA has a dismal track record of delivering on their revenge fantasies.

With that preface, let’s look at the various ways that MAGA extremists are seeking to protect Convicted Felon Trump after 34-guilty verdicts.

Speaker Mike Johnson floated the idea of defunding special counsel Jack Smith, something he rejected in early May (before the guilty verdicts).

Senate Republicans have signed a letter vowing not to cooperate on any legislation that does not directly relate to public safety.

Convicted Felon Trump said that “it’s very possible that it’s gonna have to happen”—referring to locking up his political enemies.

Steve Bannon—a surrogate of the Convicted Felon—said that District Attorney Alvin Brag “should be—and will be—jailed.”

Bannon also said that “media allies” of Biden should be “investigated.”

The Felon’s architect of the Muslim ban—Steven Miller—asked, “Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? Is every Republican DA starting every investigation they need to right now.”

GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson said “he would encourage Congress to ‘aggressively go after’ President Biden and his family.”

The Felon’s judicial allies are also doing their best to protect him from further criminal jeopardy:

First, the US Supreme Court continues to delay its ruling on Felon Trump's baseless claim of presidential immunity for his attempted coup and insurrection. Every day that the Court delays its decision makes trial in the DC election interference case less likely. The Court’s glacial response to a matter of national urgency is reprehensible. And transparently partisan.

Second, the Georgia court of appeals issued a stay of the trial proceedings in the state RICO prosecution of Felon Trump for interfering in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. See CNN Politics, Donald Trump election subversion conspiracy case indefinitely paused by Georgia appeals court.

The stay of the Georgia case is worrisome. Per the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the court of appeals issued a stay on its own motion. AJC writes:

Because none of the defendants had requested a stay, this means the appeals court decided on its own to issue the stay, leading some observers to speculate the court may ultimately reverse McAfee’s decision and disqualify Willis and her office. The appeals court, if it agrees to hold oral arguments, has indicated it will do so some time in the fall, and it must issue its decision by mid-March [2025].

As Joyce Vance noted,

“Unlike federal courts where judges are appointed for life, Georgia elects its judges in races that are non-partisan in name only, with predictable results.”

So, unless and until a different prosecutor replaces Willis, the Georgia case is going nowhere. And if Fani Willis removes herself, it is not clear that a different prosecutor would pursue the case. I do not know how Willis would be replaced if she voluntarily steps down, but per NBC,

Under a 2022 Georgia law, when a district attorney is disqualified, the case is referred to the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, who is tasked with finding another prosecutor for the case.

If Willis is disqualified on appeal, we should expect the appointment of a prosecutor who will dismiss the case.

Third, Judge Aileen Cannon has dropped all pretense of presiding over a criminal trial involving unlawful retention of defense secrets and is converting her courtroom into a theater-in-the-round for right-wing attacks on the special counsel appointment process. In a move so unusual it has never happened before, Judge Cannon invited strangers to the Trump defense secrets case to submit briefs and present oral argument over a day-and-a-half hearing.

The challenges to the appointment of Jack Smith are baseless. Similar challenges have been rejected numerous times. But Cannon seems intent on fabricating a record to justify removal of Jack Smith. See Salon, "Not normal at all": Legal experts say Judge Cannon's "absurd" ruling shows she's an "absolute hack".

Meanwhile, Cannon has not ruled on Jack Smith’s request for a protective order to protect FBI agents and other witnesses from Felon Trump's dangerous accusations that they had orders to “shoot to kill” him during the search of Mar-a-Lago.

It is difficult to describe how inappropriate and unprecedented Cannon’s actions are. While we should avoid falling into conspiracy theories, it seems doubtful that Cannon came up with the stagecraft of a right-wing assault on the special counsel in her courtroom on her own. A plausible explanation is that she is being coached by political operatives working for Convicted Felon Trump.

All the above reeks of desperation to protect Trump from further political damage. Those who humiliate themselves and undermine democracy to protect Trump will be remembered by history alongside those faithless servants who abandoned America during prior crises. In the meantime, recognize that their angry outbursts are signs that they are running scared. They can visualize life after the Convicted Felon has been defeated and they understand they have given up everything for the worst president in American history.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[realtalkingpoints]

https://rumble.com/v510rus-steve-bannon-responds-to-being-ordered-to-prison.html

The link above is a Tucker Carlson segment with Steve Bannon shared from Rumble.com. The links I share from Rumble.com usually don't work when shared using the standard dashboard buttons here on Tumblr. As the links I share from Rumble are often political in nature, I wonder if this is some sort of political censorship. Whatever the case, I have included a screenshot, and a second attempt at a link below, which usually work. It's a powerful segment. Please watch.

"Steven Bannon is the former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to President Donald Trump. He hosts The War Room podcast. WarRoom.org."

In this segment, Tucker and Bannon discuss Bannon's conviction and sentence for contempt of congress and the contradiction to Obama officials who simply walked away from very similar contempt of congress rulings.

Try this link:

Link to Tucker on Rumble -> ( Tucker with Bannon )

If that doesn't work, go to Rumble.com, search for Tucker Carlson, and watch the segment with Steve Bannon as mentioned above.

[unfug-bilder]

Jeder Tag, an dem Steven Bannon in einem Gefängnis sitzt (UND von der Kommunikation mit der Außenwelt abgeschnitten ist), ist ein guter Tag.

[garudabluffs]

"Trumps Criminal Associates from A to Z”

Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump; >>> Greg Abbott, Ali Alexander, Samuel Alito, Rick Allen, Brian Babin, Jim Banks, Steve Bannon, Kathy Barnette, Bill Barr, Tom Barrack, Maria Bartiromo, Glenn Beck, John Bennett, Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Christina Bobb, Lauren Boebert, John Bolton, David Bossie, Kevin Brady, Mike Braun, Mo Brooks, Taylor Budowich, Ted Budd, Aileen Cannon, Madison Cawthorn, Tucker Carlson, Matthew Calamari, Kenneth Chesebro, Andrew Clyde, Jeffery Clark, Robert Cheeley, Chris Christie, Chris Collins, Susan Collins, James Comer, Kellyanne Conway, John Cornyn, Thomas Bryant Cotton, Kevin Cramer, Dan Crenshaw, Steven Crowder, Raphael Edward Cruz, Ken Cuccinelli, Warren Davidson, Louis DeJoy, Carlos DeOliveira, Ron DeSantis, Betsy DeVos, Lou Dobbs, Byron Donalds, John Eastman, Larry Elder, Jenna Ellis, Michael Ellis, Tom Emmer, Boris Epshteyn, Julie Jenkins Fancelli, Nigel Farage, Tom Fitton, Harrison Floyd, Michael Flynn, Matt Gaetz, Bob Gibbs, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Louie Gohmert, Sebastian Gorka, Paul Gosar, Trey Gowdy, Lindsey Graham, Charles Grassley, Mark Green, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ric Grenell, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Alina Habba, Harriet Hageman, Misty Hampton, Liz Harrington, Nikki Haley, Scott Hall, Sean Hannity, Josh Hawley, Jody Hice, Hope Hicks, Thomas Homan, Richard Hudson, Duncan Hunter, Laura Ingraham, Kay Ivey, Ronny Jackson, Jim Jordan, Mike Johnson, Ron Johnson, Alex Jones, Fred Keller, Keith Kellogg, Mike Kelly, Bernard Kerik, Charlie Kirk, Kim Klacik, Kenneth Klukowski, Jared Kushner, Trevian Kutti, Tomi Lahren, Kari Lake, Cathleen Latham, Bill Lee, Mike Lee, Stephen Lee, Mark Levin, Corey Lewandowski, Christopher Liddell, Mike Lindell, Billy Long, Barry Loudermilk, Cynthia Lummis, Nick Luna, Nancy Mace, Paul Manafort, Roger Marshall, Thomas Massie, Douglas Mastriano, Angela McCallum, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Ronna Romney McDaniel, Kayleigh McEnany, Johnny McEntee, Mark Meadows, Molly Michael, Chris Miller, Jason Miller, Stephen Miller, Barry Moore, Steven Mnuchin, Rupert Murdoch, Greg Murphy, Heather Nauret, Waltine Torre Nauta Jr., Peter Navarro, Carl Nichols, Kristi Noem, Ralph Norman, Oliver North, Devin Nunes, Bill O’Reilly, Candace Owens, Stefan Passantino, Kash Patel, Dan Patrick, Rand Paul, Ken Paxton, David Perdue, Scott Perry, Rick Perry, Mike Pence, Judge-Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Mike Pompeo, Erik Prince, Vladimir Putin, Sidney Powell, Kim Reynolds, Karrin Taylor Robson, Michael Roman, Chip Roy, Marco Rubio, Anthony Sabatini, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, George Santos, Steve Scalise, Dan Scavino, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Jeff Sessions, David Shafer, Ben Shapiro, Bill Shine, Kyrsten Lea Sinema, Ray Smith lll, Victoria Spartz, Sean Spicer, Todd Starnes, Elise Stefanik, William Stepien, Shawn Still, Roger Stone, Jason Sullivan, Clarence Thomas, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Turner, James David (JD) Vance, Herschel Walker, Kelli Ward, Jesse Watters, Allen Weisselberg, Matthew George Whitaker, Susan Wiles, Ben Williamson, Chad Wolf, Lin Wood, Todd Young…Just to name a few. “Vote Blue in November: In numbers too big to rig, in numbers too real to steal….

381 Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8rIL3xUKc

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Steven Beschloss at America, America:

In the last few days, I have received a number of messages from readers who told me they are disengaging. “I am retiring from politics,” one said. “I’m avoiding the news,” said another. And this: “I’m too old for another Trump term and do not want to even see anything political for a long time. Steven, I’ve enjoyed your content, but in order to live to 78 [I’m] going cold turkey on politics.”

I get it. Trump’s emphatic win and Harris’ loss is heartbreaking, especially after all the effort so many of us have made to achieve a different outcome. This defeat is made harder by the awareness of the dark and disturbing days to come with Donald Trump back in the White House. There are many high-profile critics who are wondering about their safety now in a world where Trump fanatics like Steve Bannon echo his leader’s fervor for retribution by promising “rough justice.” It would be a mistake to assume that Trump wasn’t serious with all his violent, vengeance-inciting verbiage. Anyone who assumes the next Attorney General will act with the reluctance and politeness of Merrick Garland toward the ex-president—resulting in his not being held account for inciting a deadly insurrection on Jan. 6—is sorely underestimating Donald Trump’s endless capacity for cruelty, attraction to carnage and hunger to punish anyone who crosses him. But it would be a misfortune if many of us meet the coming months only with fear and reluctance, disengaging from the necessary opposition to Trump’s authoritarian enterprise. That’s what Trump hopes to achieve with his angry, aggressive intimidation.

It’s appalling to see how the billionaires have quickly fallen in line. This arrived yesterday from Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who spinelessly deep-sixed his newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris: “Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” he posted on what was Twitter. “No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing Donald Trump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.” In a normal world, of course, that would read like a warm and magnanimous gesture, not a kowtowing plea from a self-interested businessman who fears the consequences of crossing Trump. And he was not alone.

Meta/Facebook owner Mark Zuckerburg, who’s been threatened with prison by Trump, posted this on his social media site, Threads: “Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory. We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country. Looking forward to working with you and your administration.” So again: I get it if you’re feeling utterly discouraged and doubtful if you should stay involved. If the billionaires are rolling over, why should anyone take any risks? That’s understandable, especially in the wake of this awful defeat, and a reason why some of us will choose to disconnect. But I urge you to take to heart the closing words of President Joe Biden yesterday in graciously accepting the election’s outcome: “Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable…We are going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged.” I also urge you to listen to every word of Kamala Harris’ concession speech Wednesday from Howard University (you can watch it here). I was particularly interested in her guidance as we look forward.

“While I concede this election,” she said, “I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.” She also talked about not giving up the fight for reproductive freedom, for protecting our schools and streets from gun violence, and for democracy, the rule of law and equal justice. “And we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square. And we will also wage it in quieter ways: in how we live our lives by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve.” We will need to hear more thoughts like this as Trump and his enablers drag us through their world of hostility and degradation. The vice president made a particular plea to young people, including students in the audience from Howard, a historically Black university: “To the young people who are watching, it is OK to feel sad and disappointed. But please know it's going to be OK…Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place…the fight for our country is always worth it.”

[...] I will not give up the effort to pursue a better, more just, more equal, more democratic, more decent and kind America. It will take plenty of energy and effort to keep clear about what is true and what is false, what is right and wrong, what is normal and what is insane—and to inform myself and you about what’s happening and what we might do about it.

The temptation is there to disengage., but it’s the definitive time to stay in the fight.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: The Imitation Game

Rating: PG-13

Director: Morten Tyldum

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, James Northcote, Tom Goodman-Hill, Steven Waddington, Ilan Goodman, Jack Tarlton, Alex Lawther, Jack Bannon, Tuppence Middleton

Release year: 2014

Genres: history, drama, war, thriller

Blurb: Alan Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers are in a nail-biting race against time at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park during the darkest days of World War II.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The Surprising Strength of Brazil’s Democracy

Seeming similarities between the attack on the presidential palace in Brasilia and the US Capitol abound. But Brazilian democracy has proved more resilient.

From the angry mob’s chants about a stolen election to the physical desecration of edifices of democracy to a shaken national political class trying to make sense of how things descended into political violence, seeming parallels between the violent attack on the Brazilian Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court and Congress buildings by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro this January 8 and the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, abound. But appearances can be deceiving. Unlike January 6—which delayed the peaceful transfer of power in the United States for the first time in the country’s history—nothing of substance was interrupted in Brazil. The rioting in Brasília unfolded after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had taken place, on January 1. The rioters stormed empty public buildings in Brasília, as Brazilian politicians enjoyed the weekend elsewhere. As for Bolsonaro, the so-called Trump of the Tropics, he had already decamped for Florida.

More important, there is no Brazilian equivalent to “Stop the Steal,” the movement that powered January 6. Devoted to undermining the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election, the movement enjoys widespread support within the Republican Party and among conservative media outlets. At least 150 election deniers were elected to the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms, an increase over the 139 Republicans who voted against the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021. By contrast, election deniers in Brazil appear to lack political patrons. No major Brazilian politician is on record as denying that Lula won fair and square, and a reported 92 percent of Brazilians rejected the attacks. Indeed, the most prominent voices questioning the Brazilian elections are in the United States, including former Trump adviser Steven Bannon. Even though political violence driven by conspiracy theories and mass delusion about a stolen election will forever unite the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations, Brazilian democracy fared better than American democracy under a president who was hell-bent on undermining the institutions and norms that he was elected to protect. There’s much irony in this turn of events, since Brazilian democracy only dates to 1988.

Continue reading.

[maswartz]

What kind of person gets UPSET when people tell them they're satisfied?

[cherryblossomshadow]

@picture-of-grace

just watched a video on this last night that said this is a documented pattern because most red districts are rural areas with les votes to count, and more blue districts are densely populated, so in the beginning it looks like most of a state is red bc all the rural districts finished counting their votes first, and then the blue districts finish counting and that's where most of the states population lies

here's the video

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By the way, Robert Reich also gave much of the same information in his substack today, but with links!

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Transcript of the video below the cut:

Beware Trump’s Election Night Trick | Robert Reich

Robert Reich

There's a dirty Trump trick you need to look out for. He used it in 2020 to try to overturn the election, and he's going to do it again. But it doesn't work if you know it's coming.

Watch out for Trump to exploit something elections experts call the Red Mirage, to prematurely declare victory before all the votes are counted. You see, in almost every election, Republicans appear to take an early lead. That's the Red Mirage.

Then, that lead gets smaller throughout the night, which is called the Blue Shift.

This happens because Republican votes tend to be counted before Democratic votes.

It's not magic.

Votes are counted by precinct, and Democrats tend to live in more densely populated, urban precincts, while Republicans tend to live in more sparsely populated, rural ones. It just takes longer to count the votes in a precinct with a lot of people than in a precinct with fewer people.

In Georgia, for example, there are more than 300 times as many people living in Fulton County as in deep-red Glascock County. If Fulton County has 300 times as many ballots to count as Glascock, obviously Glascock is going to finish counting first.

In 2020, when numbers came in from counties like Glascock first, it made it look like Trump was leading in Georgia, when he really was not.

It was a Red Mirage.

Also, Democrats are more likely to vote by mail, and mail-in votes take longer to count.

Anyone who follows elections knows about the Red Mirage and the Blue Shift, as the former political director of Fox News has testified.

Chris Stirewalt: So in every election, and certainly a national election, you expect to see the Republican with a lead, but it's not really a lead

Ms Lofgren: So this Red Mirage, that's really what you expected to happen on Election Night?

Chris Stirewalt: Happens every time.

Robert Reich: But in 2020, Trump pretended the Blue Shift was surprising and suspicious.

Trump: We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually. And then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret.

RR: No! There was nothing miraculous or secret about it. But it's easy to see why people who don't know about the Red Mirage could be tricked into thinking that something unusual had happened.

According to Trump ally, Steve Bannon, that's exactly what Trump was counting on.

Steve Bannon: And what Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner

Steven Bannon, via Mother Jones: The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count. Theirs vote in mail. And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump’s going to take advantage of it —that’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.

RR: Bannon said that in October of 2020 — before the election! And that's just what Trump did on Election Night.

Trump: We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.

RR: Trump's nonsense claim that the votes counted earlier in the night were more legitimate than those counted later became the underpinning of the entire Big Lie, culminating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

The 2024 election will be close, and early in the night, Trump is likely to appear to be ahead and, again, use that early lead to falsely claim victory.

Mirages can be confusing, but if you know what they are, you won't be fooled by them.

Please, help spread the word about the Red Mirage, so people know exactly what to expect on Election Night.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but it has been a central Republican strategy in the final week before an election to claim that the polls are breaking their way, that a red wave is coming, that Republicans are engaging in victory tours at least since the presidential election of 2000. (That's when I stopped watching CNN regularly, as the network promoted this line despite the fact that Gore would go on to win the popular vote.)

Given that Republicans have, in fact, only won the popular vote once in this period (2004), this is a strategy, not a statement of fact.

Don't sweat the narrative. Vote. Turnout wins, not news stories.