Enough is enough.  TFG, who has done, and continues to do more to destroy our country than anyone in US history, should have his bail revoked and jailed until trial.  Not only has he made fascism and authoritarianism acceptable in polite society, he is intentionally stepping over the limits of the law by defaming and threatening judges, their staffs, prosecutors, and witnesses.  Worse, he regularly defames their families with intensely personal and childish attacks insulting everything from their looks to their politics, which are definitely off limits and none of his fucking business.

Last week, almost immediately after NY judge Juan Merchan, who’s presiding over TFG’s hush money case, imposed a limited gag order against him, he attacked the judge’s 30 something year old daughter, calling her a “Trump hater”, among other vile accusations.  Yesterday, he posted a video of a pickup truck festooned with Trump flags including a tailgate mural of Biden hogtied in the bed of the truck.  The post went viral instantly, blowing up the internet.  Contrary to normal conduct, his lawyers are actively enabling this behavior by filing a continuous stream of idiotic motions demanding that TFG be given special rights because being forced to not threaten others is required because doing so is “election interference” and a violation of his “First Amendment rights”.

TFG regularly and loudly complains that he’s being singled out while falsely claiming that Biden is behind all the prosecutions, including the state cases.  That’s all bullshit, of course, except for the being singled out part; but it’s not like he says.  He is definitely being singled out, allowed WHILE ON BAIL to freely travel, use social media to attack his perceived enemies, shoot off his mouth, spread vicious lies about witnesses, attorneys, judges, and their families, and generally be a 24 karat gold asshole.  No other indicted felon on bail would be allowed to do anything close to what he does on a daily basis.  Yesterday, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said that if anyone else had posted a picture of Biden being kidnapped the Secret Service would be knocking on that individual’s door within hours.  TFG gets a pass because he’s, well, TFG.  She also said this about TFG conduct:

“Actions have consequences. Judges have the ability to compel good behavior from defendants on bond pending trial in their court. They can go so far as taking away their guns once they’re indicted or prevent them from contacting and threatening witnesses and victims. They should tell him he can’t threaten the President of the United States. It’s time for the courts to stop bending over backward to protect Trump. He’s entitled to all the constitutional protections any other criminal defendant receives, but he’s not entitled to more.”

TFG is a threat to the nation, to individuals personally, and to the rule of law.  And we know why he’s doing what he’s doing – he’s trying to run out the clock to the election, AND is working hard to intimidate witnesses and the jury pool in 4 different jurisdictions.  It’s simply go to stop.  As Vance says, the courts are bending over backwards to accommodate his behavior.  Judge Cannon is actually in the bag for him as well as more than a few of SCOTUS justices.  It’s up to the state or federal judges to take action.

Take custody of this shitbag and confiscate his phone.  Let him sit in jail wearing an orange jumpsuit until his trials.  If they do that, I’ll guarantee his lawyers will then stop the delaying tactics.  Time to return to the rule of law.  Jail him. NOW.

If you have any doubt about what the US would look like under a second TFG administration, just look at Israel.  The parallels are uncanny.  Think about it – Bibi Netanyahu, the country’s totalitarian leader, is under indictment for corruption, bribery, and breach of trust; sound familiar?  Despite these charges, he was re-elected in 2022 with a tiny 4 seat majority in parliament; sound familiar?  Despite this tiny majority he’s rammed through a number of “reforms” which are nothing but power grabs.  Since Netanyahu controls both the executive office and parliament, the only check on his power has been Israel’s supreme court, which has made life inconvenient in his takeover.  He fixed that yesterday by ramming through a very unpopular bill stripping the court of much of its oversight authority; Israelis are now rioting in the streets.

Netanyahu is backed by ultra-right and ultra-religious radicals who are protecting him; sound familiar?  Since 2022 they’ve been consolidating their power and are now in the process of taking over the West Bank and expanding Israeli settlements by stripping land from Palestinians, limiting the civil rights of Palestinians, inserting religion and limiting the rights of secular Israelis, and limiting LGBTQ rights.  The military has stepped up persecution of Palestinians with violent attacks on their settlements and refugee camps, claiming to be rooting out “terrorists”.

TFG’s henchmen are already laying plans should he take office again; their intent is to consolidate all government power under the president, stripping independence of the DOJ (especially the FBI), the IRS, the EPA, the FCC, FTC, and all functions independent of the White House.  They also plan to strip government employee protections, purge the agencies and install loyalists throughout the government.  It’s exactly what Netanyahu is doing in Israel, but on a much larger scale.  Both plans are the same, and that is to institutionalize corruption.

The only real difference between Netanyahu’s takeover of Israel and TFG’s plan?  He already controls the SCOTUS.  That should send cold chills down your back.

After the last month, this one speaks volumes about our plunge backwards to the 1940s.  The court was our last line of defense against fascism.  Now that it’s now a tool of extremists, we’re on our own.

Yesterday, the Texas Supreme Court cemented in vigilante law by affirming that SB8, which our radical rightwing government rammed through during the last legislative session and permits anyone to sue any person they accuse of getting, giving, or assisting in any abortion anywhere in Texas.  The law exposes ALL Texans to vigilante action with zero protection of the personal rights of anyone deemed to be involved in a medical procedure that is constitutionally protected.

The notion that his law passes any legal test is outrageous on the face, yet the radicalism that has taken over the courts has driven them to look the other way while lawlessness of a tiny group of partisans wreak havoc to everyone else’s lives.  The Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court now say that they have no role in protecting the individual rights of Americans including privacy, equal protection, or voting.

I say, OK, let’s play.  If vigilanteism is now the rule of law in Texas, let’s go after:

1. Fox News, OANN, and Newmax – allow anyone to sue anyone else they accuse of watching those channels.
2. Carrying firearms – allow anyone to sue anyone else they accuse of carrying a firearm.
3. Loud  Pickup Trucks – anyone can now sue others who they believe are driving a truck that’s too loud.
4. Voting – let’s sue anyone who can’t prove they voted in all elections.
5. Donuts – let’s sue people who eat donuts because it’s not healthy.
6. Churches – let’s sue people who darken the doors of churches we don’t like.  Plaintiff’s choice as to which church they don’t like.
7. Snow shovel brims on cowboy hats and goofy square-toed boots – let’s sue anyone wearing those because they’re morons.
8. Flags on pickups – $10,000 per flag, $50,000 if the word “Trump” appears on any flag.
9. Toby Keith songs – because I’m sick of them
10. Dancing with the Stars – $10,000 per episode because you’re an idiot to watch and it causes brain damage.
11. Any piece of clothing that has a MAGA logo – because…you know why.

You get the point.  The courts are now nothing more than observers to single party rule and fascist laws that permit spying on fellow citizens and accusing them of whatever the plaintiffs don’t like.  Let’s turn it around on them.

Texas is lost.

Tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, but just commemorating that violent event is not enough and doesn’t address the real problem today in America.  The problem is much deeper than a couple thousand dumbasses brainwashed by a carnival barker and career liar.  Our system of government is now under constant threat.  That threat comes from what was once a national party that has morphed into a fascist regime which is striving for permanent power in defiance of the will of Americans.  THAT is the problem.

This has been coming for decades, fueled by increasingly radical media that is unconstrained by any regulation, especially the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan destroyed at the behest of Rupert Murdoch who was also provided fast track US citizenship and allowed to monopolize US media by a compliant FCC, also under Reagan.  That started the drain of fair journalism, and the rest is history.  Murdoch’s empire has rotted American democracy from the inside, moving from ranting about taxes at their historic lows to Bill O’Reilly’s idiotic “War on Christmas” trope to lying about everything not Right Wing Nut Job.  Murdoch offered up Fox as the official press office for TFG during his infestation of the Oval office, and still amplifies his lies ’round the clock.  The entire goal was to piss off one demographic, and that has succeeded.

We now live in a society where civil discourse and fact based policy decisions no longer exist.  Politics is now more than blood sport – it has become a death cult, from the radical gun culture that has successfully injected armed thugs into the political arena to losing candidates who will NEVER concede defeat, no matter how obvious that candidate’s loss is.  I recall 2008 when Al Franken beat incumbent Norm Coleman by 312 votes.  The votes were counted and counted and counted, and Franken’s win was close, but certain.  Coleman never conceded, fighting in court for 8 months until a 3 judge panel declared Franken the winner.  Since then, virtually no Republican has conceded defeat.  Every election is a battle to the death, and concession speeches from GOP candidates are almost non existent.  Trump has now normalized that behavior by lying and lying and lying and lying.  The Big Lie has now been embedded into the DNA of Republicans, and all over the country they are taking election administration out of the hands of non-partisans and putting it into the hands of radical partisans, even legislating overruling free and fair elections if they don’t like the results.

The real tragedy is that now both sides of the political spectrum have no confidence in the system.  Over 80% of Republicans have lost confidence because they believe The Big Lie and that the system is full of fraud.  Over 80% of Democrats have lost confidence because over 80% of Republicans believe The Big Lie and are trying to rig the system in their own favor.

All of this adds up to every election now being contested to the death especially if the Republican candidate loses.  Armed goofballs will show up at polls, counting locations, city halls, county seats, state capitols, and, yes, even the US Capitol if the election goes against their candidate.  Though TFG is the heartbeat of this massive delusion, it has now grown beyond his own cult of personality.  Oh, sure, every right winger will run to Mara Lago to kiss the ring, but The Big Lie is so engrained that it has taken on a life of its own.  People who were reasonable folks 10 years ago are now ranting maniacs spouting bullshit and even QAnon conspiracy theories.  All reason and critical thinking has all but vanished.

My greatest fear is that this won’t end well, and not until violence and fascism touches most Americans will people wake up and demand accountability from elected leaders.  Add the metastasized cancer that is TFG to the political mix, and the patient could easily die. That is the risk that we really face.

Remember back in 2008 when Sarah Palin’s lie about “death panels” in the proposed Obamacare legislation took on a life of its own?  How the entire red state noise machine took it and ran with it?  Well, irony kicked in this weekend when Palin, talking at the Turning Point USA convention brainwashing, said she’d get a vaccine “…over my dead body“.  The crowd of young conservatives fascists cheered, completely missing the irony of her statement.  Dana Milbank hit the nail on the head pointing out that Palin was an active participant in what can now only be called a death cult.

The death cult also showed its ugly head when the few people who actually paid for seats to the  Traveling Bullshit Tour stop in Dallas booed their Dear Leader, none other than TFG, when he told Bill O’Reilly that he got the booster to protect himself.  The Trumpified GOP is now actually getting people killed as the death rate from COVID in Trump counties is 5 times that of the death rate in blue counties.

The Darwin Club is actually a thing.