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.

In a curious turn today, Rootin’ Tootin’ Rick Perry was named as the author of a text to Mark Meadows titled “AGRESSIVE STRATEGY” outlining how Trump, through a compliant Mike Pence, could steal the 2020 election for himself, overturn the will of the US electorate, and return himself to the office that he had just lost in a free and fair election.  A source knowledgeable about the investigation confirms that the text was sent from Perry’s personal phone.

With the misspelled title, I can believe it was Perry who sent the text, but I don’t believe he actually authored it.  Why?  Because Rick Perry is a dumbass who’s never had an original thought during his entire career.  I can believe that a staffer or right wing operative wrote it, and Perry sent it to get Meadows attention.  Perry’s office has already denied anything to do with it…next Perry will say that his phone was hacked a’ la Anthony Weiner’s denial of his dick pic.

Besides the poor spelling, it’s totally believable that Perry sent the text.  After all, after 4 years brown nosing and groveling to Trump, Perry fully expected another 4 years on the government tit before joining the ranks of lobbyists and wanted to stay in office himself.

I think I’m going to pop some popcorn.

Thanks to Horace down at the Phillips 66 for the tip.

Several books, published and soon to be published, have reported how Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, fought a full time battle after Trump lost the election to keep him from using the military to attack Americans and even start a war with Iran to stay in power.  Even thought Milley hasn’t publicly confirmed this story, enough journalists have, including Susan Glasser of The New Yorker who independently confirmed what others have reported.  This story gave me chills down my spine.

Despite his supporters’ delusions and continued support of Trump’s Big Lie, the rest of us have to make sure that he never comes near the White House again.

Rightwing extremists who continue to support the insurrectionists arrested in the aftermath of the attack on the US government at the Capitol on January 6th are organizing a “rally” at the Capitol for tomorrow to protest the arrests, charges, and detention of hundreds of criminals who destroyed property, assaulted police, and attempted to stop the Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.  To publicize their rally, they’re spreading the hashtag #JusticeforJ6 all over social media.  Ironically, supporters of insurrectionists are calling these criminals “political prisoners”.  Worse, The Former Guy took a break from golf and commentating at cheesy boxing matches to publicly support the insurrectionists and the rally.  Yesterday, still banned from social media, he issued a statement saying:

“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election.  In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”

So, the guy who incited the riot and attack on the US Capitol is STILL fomenting violence against the US, the country he’s trying to take over again for his own benefit.  The Great Unwashed Brainwashed white supremacists are beyond redemption, believing they are in the right and following a dangerous ideology where they actually the “patriots” when they are actually the problem.  The fact that the police and national guard are being called on to reinstall the perimeter fence around the Capitol with HD cameras and 24 hour patrols should tell normal people everything they need to know about the danger of disinformation and hate.

Trumpists are using #JusticeforJ6 for publicity. I say that’s fine as long as you add #JusticeforJ65to20 to represent the prison sentences they should receive. I’ve got another idea, also; in June, Facebook banned Trump for 2 years with reinstatement conditioned on him changing his behavior.  They should modify the ban by extending it for 2 years from the date of his latest self-serving, anti-government rant.  That should do it.

#JusticeforJ65t020

Yesterday, notable public figures paid their respects at solemn ceremonies at Ground Zero, Shanksville PA, and the Pentagon to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  At ground zero, the Bidens, Obamas, and the Clintons were all present plus Schumer, Pelosi, Bloomberg and other well known public figures.  Bruce Springsteen even played and sang at the ceremony.  GWB & Laura, along with Harris attended the Shanksville ceremony, and Biden later stopped there and laid a wreath at the Pentagon late in the afternoon.

The glaring absence? Trump.  A spokesperson for the 9/11 Museum and Memorial confirmed to the NY Times that all former presidents were provided the same information about the ceremony, but Trump mercifully didn’t show.  How did he spend his day remembering 9/11?  Indeed he was also in New York, but he spent his day releasing statements attacking Biden about Afghanistan and playing some of his greatest Oldies, then visited a NYPD precinct and a firehouse, where he continue talking about himself and Rudy Giuliani and attacking Biden.

After, Trump was scheduled to address a religious rally virtually on the National Mall in DC called Let Us Worship led by religious nut and anti-government activist Sean Feucht, whose security team has included at least one of the insurrectionists charged in the January 6th attack on the Capitol as his security team.  I haven’t heard how that went, and actually don’t care.

Keeping it classy to the end, Trump finished his day commemorating 9/11 by…wait for it… guest hosting a Pay Per View boxing event with Jr. at a casino in Hollywood Florida hired by Triller, a social media competitor to TikTok.  The fight night included a “professional match” between 58 year old Evander Hollyfield and some mixed martial fighter. Oscar De La Hoya had been scheduled to fight, but is hospitalized with COVID.  Hollyfield was a last minute addition, and the results were as you might expect.  The event really wasn’t a fight night, it was really a publicity stunt by Trump for Trump, as the crowd at the casino was waving printed signs saying “Bring Back Trump” and “Trump Won”.  Watchers also participated in a live chat where viewers floated QAnon conspiracy theories, insults about Hunter Biden, etc, etc.  Since the entire evening was the cheesiest of cheesy, Trump, the King of Tacky, was right at home commemorating one of the most solemn days in modern US history.