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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on September 27, 2023 at 12:12 am
“The Holocaust never happened.”
“The Sandy Hook massacre never happened.”
“The MAGAbomber is a Democrat who’s mailing letter-bombs to make Republicans look bad.”
These are among the lies regularly hurled by “lunatic fringe” Right-wingers—and, more importantly, “mainstream” Republicans.
Many liberals believe Right-wingers simply lack correct information.
They assume that, if only Right-wingers knew the truth about such matters as:
- The millions slaughtered during the Holocaust;
- The horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School; and
- The pro-Trump motives of the MAGAbomber
they would be telling the truth.
There are two motives behind such blatant lying—and mere ignorance is not one of them.
Motive #1: Right-wingers don’t want to admit the truth about events most people instinctively believe are evil.
Right-wingers intuitively know that shoving huge numbers of naked men, women and children into gas chambers is the arch-example of evil. And so is spraying scores of bullets into scores of helpless men, women and children in churches, nightclubs and schools.
They know they can’t convince decent people that such atrocities are really acts of humanity. So it’s easier (for them) to simply deny that they actually happened.
The tobacco industry paved the way for such arguments.
The Tobacco Institute—a trade association created in 1958 to pose as a “smoking research” center—cast doubt on scientific studies linking smoking with lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease.
Tobacco Institute ad
Its premise: “We really don’t know if smoking causes cancer. We need more studies to make certain.”
And, for the Tobacco Institute, there could never be enough studies to prove that smoking was a thoroughly deadly habit—that reaped billions of dollars every year for the tobacco industry.
The longer they could convince the public of their lies, the less likely they were to be regulated.
Motive #2: Right-wingers claim Right-wing atrocities didn’t happen to put the victims of such atrocities on the defensive.
This, too, was a major aim of the tobacco industry. By constantly demanding “Prove to us that smoking is deadly” and then arrogantly dismissing all evidence put forward, tobacco executives put the onus on their opponents.
From October 22 to November 1, 2018, Cesar Sayoc mailed pipe-bombs to 10 prominent Democrats—including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After Sayoc was arrested and his van was found plastered with pro-Donald Trump stickers, Right-wingers reflexively seized on a series of lies to “cleanse” themselves:
- “He’s a liberal put up to it by other liberals.”
- “The bombs were fake, to stir up sympathy for liberals before the November elections.”
- Right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh: “Would it make a lot of sense for a Democrat operative or Democrat-inculcated lunatic to do it? Because things are not working out the way they thought.”
- Right-wing propagandist Dinesh D’Souza: “I hear the FBI squeezed lemon juice on the suspicious packages and a very faint lettering revealed a single word: DEMOCRATS.”
Totally ignored was that FBI Director Christopher Wray—a Trump appointee after the firing of James Comey in May, 2017—publicly stated that the bombs were real: “Though we’re still analyzing these devices in our laboratory, these were not hoax devices.”
Christopher Wray
So how did Right-wingers react to Wray’s no-nonsense rebuttal of Right-wing conspiracy lies?
They attacked the FBI as part of the “deep state” determined to thwart and, if possible, impeach Donald Trump.
According to one Rightist theory: The FBI made the bombs and sent them out to implicate some poor Trump supporter—if not the President himself.
So how can such liars be defeated? Lawsuits based on the truth.
On August 1, 2018, families of four students and two educators who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre filed a defamation lawsuit against Right-wing broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas. He had claimed the mass shooting was fake.
Twenty children and six adults were killed in the December 14, 2012, attack by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
On his program in January, 2015, he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.”
Alex Jones
Michael Zimmermann [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D
According to the complaint:
“The Jones defendants concoct elaborate and false paranoia-tinged conspiracy theories because it moves product and they make money. Not because they truly believe what they are saying, but rather because it increases profits.”
Thus, a reasonable person would understand that Jones meant the massacre was staged and the deaths were fabricated.
So Jones responded with another lie: “This is all out of context….And it’s not even what I said or my intent,” he said. “I’m not going to get into the real defects of this, I’m going to wait until it’s thrown out with prejudice.”
Jones’ lies did him no good. On August 4, 2022, a Texas jury ordered Jones pay two plaintiffs $4.1 million in compensatory damages. The following day, he was ordered to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages.
Other trials are pending.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 25, 2023 at 12:08 am
The governments of Central and South American countries use the United States as a dumping ground—of those citizens who might demand reforms in their political and economic institutions.
As a result, America is facing an invasion of illegal aliens which is overwhelming its schools, hospitals and housing.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR): “As of June 2023, FAIR estimates that approximately 16.8 million illegal aliens reside in the United States. This is significantly higher than our January 2022 illegal alien population estimate of 15.5 million.”
In New York City, for example, the arrival of more than 100,000 illegals since spring 2022 has overtaxed shelters and forced the city to house people in tents.
With more than 60,000 illegals in the city’s care, Mayor Eric Adams has made an unprecedented decision: The city will stop sheltering single adults after two months, and thousands will start being evicted on September 23.
“Never was it envisioned that this would be an unlimited universal right or obligation on the city to have to house literally [the] entire world,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration refuses to treat this onslaught for what it is: An invasion.
But one approach could strike a meaningful blow against illegal immigration. And it might well be called “The Zanti Option.”
Viewers of the 1960s sci-fi series, The Outer Limits, will vividly recall its 1963 episode, “The Zanti Misfits.”
In this, soldiers at an American Army base in a California ghost town nervously await first-contact with an alien race that has landed a space ship nearby.
The soldiers are warned to steer clear of the ship, and they do. But then an escaped convict (Bruce Dern, in an early role) happens upon the scene—and the ship.
The Zantis, enraged, emerge—and soon the soldiers at the military base find themselves under attack.
A “Zanti”
The soldiers desperately fight back—with flamethrowers, machineguns or just rifle butts. Finally the soldiers wipe out the Zantis.
But now the base—and probably America—faces a wholesale invasion from the planet Zanti to avenge the deaths of their comrades.
So the soldiers wait anxiously for their next transmission from Zanti—which soon arrives.
To their surprise—and relief—it’s a message of thanks: “We will not retaliate. We never intended to. We knew that you could not live with such aliens in your midst.
“It was always our intention that you destroy them…We are incapable of executing our own species, but you are not. You are practiced executioners. We thank you.”
Meanwhile, the United States braces itself for a real-life onslaught of tens of thousands—if not millions—of aliens.
Illegal aliens invading the United States
The reason:
Rather than deport them to countries in Central America—from which they would easily sneak back into the United States—the Federal Government could ship them off to more distant lands.
Like Afghanistan.
Or Iraq.
Or Syria.
Such a policy change would:
- Close the Mexican revolving door, which keeps illegal immigration flowing; and
- Send an unmistakably blunt message to other would-be illegals: “The same fate awaits you.”
Although this might seem a far-fetched proposal, it could be easily carried out by the United States Air Force. According to its website: “The C-5 Galaxy is one of the largest aircraft in the world and the largest airlifter in the Air Force inventory.
“The C-5 has a greater capacity than any other airlifter. It [can] carry 36 standard pallets and 81 troops simultaneously.
C-5 transport plane
“[It can also carry] any of the Army’s air-transportable combat equipment, including such bulky items as the 74-ton mobile scissors bridge.
“It can also carry outsize and oversize cargo over intercontinental ranges and can take off or land in relatively short distances.”
The C-5 Galaxy’s maximum cargo weight: 281,001 pounds
Instead of being stuffed with cargo, these planes could be stuffed wall-to-wall with illegal aliens.
The United States Air Force has a proud history of successfully providing America’s soldiers—and allies—with the supplies they need.
From June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949, only the Berlin Airlift stood between German citizens and starvation.
The Soviet Union had blocked the railway, road, and canal access to the Berlin sectors under allied control. Their goal: Force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to supply Berlin with food, fuel, and aid.
This would have given the Soviets control over the entire city.
Air forces from the United States, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa flew over 200,000 flights in one year, dropping more than 4,700 tons of necessities daily to the besieged Berliners.
The success of the Berlin Airlift raised American prestige and embarrassed the Soviets, who lifted the blockade.
The Berlin Airlift
A similar triumph came during the Yom Kippur War after Egypt and Syria attacked Israel without warning on October 6, 1973.
For 32 days, the Air Force shipped 22,325 tons of ammunition, artillery, tanks and other supplies. These proved invaluable in saving Israel from destruction.
So the mass deportation of millions of illegal aliens lies within America’s technological capability.
In 1980, Cuba shipped thousands of hardened criminals to the United States via the Mariel Boatlift.
The United States should feel similarly free to deport those who violate its immigration laws.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 19, 2023 at 12:21 am
On September 5, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years to federal prison for his role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt.
But before he was hauled away by deputy U.S. marshals, Tarrio, 39, had his beg-a-thon moment with the judge who sentenced him: “On November 3, 2020, something that I never expected happened—my candidate lost. I felt like something was personally stolen from me.
“Every media channel that I turned to told me I was justified.”
Enrique Tarrio
He claimed that he was “not a political zealot” and denied that changing the outcome of the election was his goal on January 6.
Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on January 6. He had been arrested on January 4 in a separate case. Still, he was convicted for organizing the Proud Boys’ role in the riot and for encouraging the violence that interrupted the counting of Electoral College votes.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and escorted by deputy U.S. marshals, he blamed himself and apologized to the officers who were injured during the riot—of which he was a proud instigator.
“Today I stand before you a different man… I wish to reorient my life’s purpose… I want to rejoin my local church and be an active part of helping others. I hope your honor can hear the sincerity. Please show me mercy. Do not take my 40s from me. God bless this entire court.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly wasn’t buying it:
“That day broke our previously unbroken tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which is truly among the most precious things that we had as Americans. That previously unbroken string is now broken. And it’s going to take time and effort to fix it.”
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
Kelly was especially disturbed by Tarrio’s comparing the January 6 traitors to the country’s Founding Fathers:
“You apologized here today, but I must say, comparing what Dominic Pezzola [another Proud Boys member who attacked the Capitol Building] did to George Washington—the man who helped encourage the notion of a peaceful, orderly transfer of power—by relinquishing power to let someone else be chosen. It slanders the father of our country.”
Just as Zachary Rehl’s lawyer had found excuses for his client’s treasonous behavior, so, too, did Tarrio’s legal team find excuses for his.
According to them, Tarrio was simply a “misguided patriot” instead of a terrorist, and was simply being a “Keyboard Ninja, saying things he shouldn’t have.”
Tarrio’s pleadings for leniency didn’t stop with himself. He also enlisted the aid of his aunt, godmother, mother, fiancée and younger sister.
His aunt and godmother sent in letters pleading for leniency which were read by defense attorney Nayib Hassan.
“Henry [Tarrio’s birth name] is not a monster like he’s made out to be,” one letter read.
Stormtrumpers inside the Capitol Building
Tarrio’s mother, fiancée, and his younger sister also spoke of Tarrio’s character as they asked for leniency, saying his incarceration has greatly affected his family.
“This mother stands before you today begging you for leniency for Henry,” his mother told Judge Kelly. “We need him home as soon as we can. The Henry that came into the system is not the Henry that’s here today.”
The younger sister cried as she spoke: “He is the glue that keeps us together. The idea of him not being around for all the milestones is hard to bear.”
Apparently, it didn’t occur to Tarrio—when planning the January 6 coup attempt—that there might be consequences for his treason.
Tarrio’s fiancée said the couple wanted to start a family together and asked the judge to consider the “direct effect” a long prison sentence could have on those ambitions: “Henry is a flawed man, as are we all, but he is not blind to it.”
In getting a prison sentence of 22 years, Tarrio proved lucky: The Justice Department had asked for a sentence of 33 years.
Tarrio’s sentencing is the last in a series of historic seditious conspiracy cases brought by the Justice Department after the Capitol Building was attacked.
* * * * *
History teaches us that republics that tolerate treason soon become former republics.
For Republicans, gaining—and retaining—absolute power has become their foremost reason for existence.
It isn’t enough for them to create voter suppression laws to prevent their opponents from voting. They now insist on the right to violently overthrow any Democrat who somehow manages to win the Presidency against them.
Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” episode, “Death’s Head Revisited,” reveals how Republicans react when confronted with overwhelming evidence of their evil.
In that episode, a former Nazi SS camp captain returns to the Dachau concentration camp to savor the torments he once inflicted on helpless men and women. To his horror, he’s greeted by the ghosts of those victims.
To one of them—Becker—he says: “That was such a long time ago. Let’s forget about all that—unpleasantness—and move on.”
Thus have Republicans reacted when confronted with overwhelming evidence that President Donald J. Trump, having lost the 2020 Presidential election, incited violence against the Government of the United States.
And just as most of the Original Nazis were forced to confront their past “unpleasantness”-–and were punished for it—today’s Republicans must face punishment for their own.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 18, 2023 at 12:38 am
“The Germans are always at your throat or at your feet.”
So said former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after Nazi Germany had destroyed most of Europe and now lay begging for mercy from its former victims.
And what held true for Germans after World War II holds equally true for Fascistic supporters of Donald Trump when they face justice for their crimes.
Nothing better demonstrates this than the reactions of three members of the notorious Proud Boys terrorist group at their sentencing on August 31.
Their crime: Seditious conspiracy for their role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
On January 6, 2021, they launched a violent attack on the nation’s Capitol Building to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes. That count—as they knew—was certain to establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
Stormtrumpers scaling Capitol Building walls
Which meant an end to Donald Trump’s ambitions to become “President-for-Life.”
Self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs received a sentence of 17 years.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced. He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly wasn’t having it, saying that American elections must be respected: “You did play a role in riling up the crowd. If you don’t like how an election is being conducted, you can speak out, call, write or meet with election officials. You can engage in peaceful protest. File a lawsuit.’
The judge ruled that Biggs qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he tore down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Joe Biggs
Biggs, a veteran who sustained a head injury while deployed in Iraq, worked for Alex Jones’ conspiracy website Infowars.
A second member of the group, former Marine Zachary Rehl, got 15 years in prison.
“I know that I have to be punished and I understand,” said Biggs, who then pleaded: “Please give me the chance, I beg you, to take my daughter to school and pick her up.”
He added: “I know that I messed up that day, but I am not a terrorist.”
Fortunately, the judge did not agree with him.
“The nature of the constitutional moment we were in that day is something that is so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence,” said Judge Kelly.
“Our Constitution and laws give you so many important rights that Americans have fought and died for and that you yourself put on a uniform to defend. People around the world would give anything for these rights.”
Rehl, 37, of Port Richmond, Philadelphia. described Jan. 6 as a “despicable day” as he read from a prepared statement through tears. With his lawyer, Norman Pattis, consoling him, Rehl told the judge he fell “hook, line, sinker” for politicians spewing lies about the 2020 election, causing him to lose sight over what was truly important in life—his family.
Zachary Rehl
A sobbing Rehl told the judge that he had lost his military pension and much more since his arrest: “For what it’s worth, I stand here today and say that I am done with all of it. I am done with politics; I am done peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me.”
Rehl had a considerably different attitude on January 6, 2021, when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol Building. Newly surfaced body camera footage shows him pepper-spraying police.
At his trial, confronted with that footage, he said he couldn’t recall attacking police during the attempted coup: “If you believe I did anything wrong that day,” he told the jury, “I really do truly apologize.”
In the days prior to the coup attempt, Rehl advocated “firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal the election” on social media.
After the riot, Rehl regretted that the mob hadn’t stopped Congress’ certification vote—which correctly documented that former Vice President Joe Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
“Looking back, it sucked,” he texted other members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter on January 7. “We should have held the Capitol. Everyone shoulda showed up armed and took the country back the right way.”
Reading that text in court, Judge Kelly was appalled: “I mean, my God. My God.”
The January 6 coup attempt wasn’t Rehl’s first violent outing on Trump’s behalf. In 2018, he led a pro-Trump “We the People” rally outside Independence Hall that provoked violent clashes with anti-Trump demonstrators.
Norman Pattis, Rehl’s attorney, did his best to whitewash his client’s treasonous behavior: “If there’s a direct threat to democracy greater than an insurrection, I’d say it’s a stolen election. They decided to engage in behavior that reflected our highest ideals.”
He compared the Proud Boys’ actions to those of the Founding Fathers who took up arms to fight tyranny.
He said that the 30-year sentence prosecutors sought “will not promote respect for the law. It will create a martyrdom syndrome.”
The judge sentenced Rehl to 15 years’ imprisonment.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 31, 2023 at 12:30 am
“The Republican Party has weaponized its supporters, made violence a virtue and, with almost every pronouncement for 50 years, given them an enemy politicized, radicalized and indivisible.”
So wrote a Rolling Stone writer in a blistering June 19, 2017 editorial. The touchstone was the slaughter of nine black worshipers by a white supremacist at a South Carolina black church.
A little more than one year later, on October 24, 2018, pipe bombs were mailed to:
- Former President Barack Obama
- Former President Bill Clinton
- Former First Lady and United States Senator Hillary Clinton
- Former Attorney General Eric Holder
- Congresswoman Maxine Waters
- Billionaire George Soros
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Actor Robert De Niro
- Former CIA Director John Brennan
- Former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz
All of these intended victims had one thing in common: All of them had been brutally and repeatedly attacked by President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
But the proof of Republican culpability in political violence goes back much further.
Gabrille Giffords, 40, is a moderate Democrat who narrowly wins re-election in November, 2010, against a Republican Tea Party candidate.
Her support of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law has made her a target for violent rhetoric–-especially from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
In March, 2010, Palin releases a map featuring 20 House Democrats that uses cross-hairs images to show their districts. In case her supporters don’t get the message, she later writes on Twitter: “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!”
As the campaign continues, Giffords finds her Tucson office vandalized after the House passes the healthcare overhaul in March.
At one of her rallies, her aides call the police after an attendee drops a gun.
On January 8, 2011, Giffords is shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. She survives and vows to return to her former Congressional duties, but is forced to resign for health reasons in 2012.
Increasingly, Republicans have repeatedly aimed violent—-and violence-arousing—-rhetoric at their Democratic opponents. This is not a case of careless language that is simply misinterpreted, with tragic results.
Republicans like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump fully understand the constituency they are trying to reach: Those masses of alienated, uneducated Americans who live only for their guns and hardline religious beliefs—and who can be easily manipulated by perceived threats to either.
If a “nutcase” assaults a Democratic politician and misses, then the Republican establishment claims to be shocked—-shocked!—that such a thing could have happened.
And if the attempt proves successful—as the January 8, 2011 Tucson shootings did—then Republicans weep crocodile tears for public consumption.
The difference is that, in this case, they rejoice in knowing that Democratic ranks have been thinned and their opponents are even more on the defensive, for fear of the same happening to them.
Consider the following:
- Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) yelled “baby killer” at Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) on the House floor.
- Florida GOP Congressional candidate Allen West, referring to his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ron Klein, told Tea Party activists: You’ve got to make the fellow scared to come out of his house. That’s the only way that you’re going to win. That’s the only way you’re going to get these people’s attention.”
- Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said Tea Partiers had “every right” to use racist and homophobic slurs against Democrats, justifying it via Democrats’ “totalitarian tactics.”
- Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she wanted her constituents “armed and dangerous” against the Obama administration.
- Sarah Palin told her supporters: “Get in their face and argue with them. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!”
- Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building.”
- Senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) “We’re going to keep building the party until we’re hunting Democrats with dogs.”
- Rep. Louisa M. Slauter (D-NY) received a phone message threatening sniper attacks against lawmakers and their families.
Steve Schmidt, a former Republican campaign strategist for President George W. Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarznegger, summed up Trump’s responsibility for this latest wave of political violence.
Steve Schmidt
Josh Sam, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In a series of tweets on the day of the attempted bombings, Schmidt wrote:
“Trump has stoked a cold civil war in this Country. His rallies brim with menace and he has labeled journalists as enemies of the people.
“That someone would seek to kill their political enemies is not aberrational but rather the inevitable consequence of Trumps incitement.
“The targets are political not coincidental. Trump, the greatest demagogue in American history has celebrated violence over and over again. It looks like someone finally took Trump both literally and seriously. The WH will feign outrage when this obvious point is made.
“No journalist or commentator should be intimidated from making this point. The stoking of hatred and sundering of the American people was always going to lead to terrible consequences. Chief amongst them would be the initiation of partisan or sectarian violence within our country.”
Schmidt was one of the few commentators to courageously lay responsibility for yet another wave of political violence on the man who instigated it: President Donald Trump
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 30, 2023 at 12:14 am
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is furious.
Not at Donald Trump—who, as President, incited a violent attack on Congress. Its purpose: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes which would determine the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
And Trump knew who that winner would be: Former Vice President Joe Biden.
No, Jordan (R-Ohio) isn’t furious at Trump for committing treason against the United States.
Jim Jordan
He’s furious that Trump is being prosecuted for trying to coerce Georgia public officials to “find” Electoral College votes which did not exist.
Specifically, Trump is charged with 13 felony counts:
- 1 count of violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act (conspiring to overturn the vote count of the 2020 Presidential election);
- 3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents;
- 1 count of filing false documents;
- 2 counts of making false statements and writings.
Donald Trump
This makes Trump the only former President to face criminal trial as—officially—a racketeer.
And it makes Jim Jordan—who defended Trump’s rampant criminality throughout his four years as President—determined to act as his savior.
Thus, on August 24, he sent a letter to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has brought the charges against Trump and 18 other defendants.
It opened:
“On August 14, 2023, you brought a 41-count indictment against 19 defendants—including a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office, his attorneys, a former White House Chief of Staff, and a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official—related to the 2020 election for President of the United States.
“Among other things, you have alleged that these 19 individuals, 30 unindicted co-conspirators, and others were part of a ‘criminal enterprise.’ And you have identified a number of acts that you claim were committed in furtherance of this purported criminal enterprise, including:
“(1) the then-White House Chief of Staff asking a Member of Congress for the phone number of the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives;
“(2) the then-President tweeting that hearings in the Georgia legislature were being aired on a news channel and commenting on those hearings; and
“(3) numerous acts taking place in other states not involving the conduct of the 2020 election in Georgia or the counting of the votes cast in Georgia.
“Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated.
“Turning first to the question of motivation, it is noteworthy that just four days before this indictment, you launched a new campaign fundraising website that highlighted your investigation into President Trump….
“Last week, the Fulton County Superior Court’s Clerk publicly released a list of criminal charges against President Trump reportedly hours before the vote of the grand jury….
“And unlike officials in other jurisdictions, Fulton County officials ‘have suggested [they] will process [the former President] as [a] typical criminal defendant[], requiring mug shots and possibly even cash bond.'”
In short: Fulton County officials intended to treat Trump the same way that any other indicted criminal would be treated.
Jordan then demanded:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s receipt and use of federal funds;
2. All documents and communications between or among the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and DOJ and its components, including but not limited to the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, referring or relating to your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above; and
3. All documents and communications between the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and any federal Executive Branch officials regarding your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
In the past, Republicans—including Jordan—have held sacred the separation of powers between Federal and state governments.
- In 1962, a Democratic President—John F. Kennedy—sent deputy U.S. marshals to ensure the safety of James Meredith, the first black student ever admitted to the all-white University of Mississippi. Republicans howled in outrage at this “violation” of “states’ rights.”
- In 1964, another Democratic President—Lyndon B. Johnson—signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Republicans were outraged at its demands that blacks be treated as equal citizens.
- And when Johnson ordered FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to “go after the Ku Klux Klan the way you do after the Communists,” Republicans again attacked him for “interfering” with “sovereign” states.
But now a local Georgia prosecutor has dared hold accountable a former Republican President for trying to disenfranchise the voting rights of 2,473,633 Georgia citizens.
So, for Jordan, the voting rights of those citizens must naturally take a back seat to the “right” of a losing Republican President to illegally remain in office as “President-for-Life.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on August 29, 2023 at 12:31 am
There were plenty of disagreements at the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy declared: “We are in the middle of a national identity crisis.”
To which former Vice President Mike Pence replied: “We don’t have an identity crisis, Vivek. We are not looking for a new national identity.”
Mike Pence
On the most contentious issue for Republicans—abortion—former North Carolina Governor Nikki Haley pushed for consensus on encouraging adoption and allowing doctors and nurses with moral objections to the procedure the right not to perform them.
“Consensus is the opposite of leadership,” disagreed Pence.
But there was one issue on which six of the eight candidates made it clear they agreed: They would support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee even if he were convicted on any one of the 91 felonies he’s now charged with.
Donald Trump’s mug shot
DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgam and even Pence—whose life was endangered by Trump’s mob during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol Building—all raised their hands when asked if they would support Trump as the nominee.
DeSantis, for instance, complained that Republicans should stop talking about what happened on January 6, 2021, and instead address what will happen on January 20, 2025, when the next president takes office.
It was a typical ploy for DeSantis, who has desperately avoided any but the lightest criticism of Trump—who, by contrast, has repeatedly dubbed him “Ron DeSanctimonius.”
Scott accused President Joe Biden of “weaponizing justice” against Trump. In doing so, he totally ignored Trump’s own weaponizing of government—such as by firing FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential campaign on Trump’s behalf.
Only the two former federal prosecutors on the stage—former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson—said they would not support Trump.
“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” Christie said about Trump’s effort to illegally stay in office despite losing the 2020 Presidential election. “Whether or not you believe the criminal charges are wrong, the conduct is beneath the president of the United States,” he said.
This was met with loud boos from the Trump-supporting audience.
“And, you know, this is the great thing about this country,” continued Christie, who polls in the low single digits. “Booing is allowed. But it doesn’t change the truth. We have to dispense with the person who said we need to suspend the Constitution to put forward his political career.”
Chris Christie
Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Hutchinson said Trump was “morally disqualified from being president again”-–and might also be disqualified under the 14th Amendment “as a result of the insurrection” at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Written just after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment includes a “disqualification clause” holding that no one who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States may “hold any office” in government.
When he said he would support Trump if he were the Republican Presidential nominee, Pence said he hoped “it couldn’t come” to criminal charges.
Still, wanting to have it both ways, he added that “no one’s above the law” and that Americans needed to know that “I kept my oath to the Constitution” on January 6, 2021, when Trump urged him to flip the results of the election to give him a win.
* * * * *
Driving this fanatical support of Donald Trump—even while he’s facing 91 criminal charges—is the Republican base: Those masses of aging, White, ignorant, hate-filled, Right-wing Americans.
They like Trump’s coarse personality, and cheer when he declares his love for torture. They see themselves at war—not just with foreign enemies but most of their fellow Americans. Countless numbers of them have told reporters: “He says what I’m thinking.”
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator:
“Ultimately, the responsibility for the rise of Hitler lies with the German people, who allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….
“He promised them what they had already promised themselves—power, dominion, Lebenraum—and they followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content.
“They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims….If he answered their suppressed desires, it was not because he shared them, but because he could make use of them. He despised the German people, for they were merely the instruments of his will.
“Many Germans voted against Hitler, but few fought actively against him. And of those even fewer fought with clean weapons and clear consciences….
“They worked to save their own skins and their traditional way of life. And when they spoke of “saving Germany’s honor” they were speaking about something that was beyond saving. The Germans who fought cleanly against Hitler were so few that they can be counted on the fingers of two hands.”
Everything Robert Payne wrote about the Germans who supported Hitler applies to the Americans who support Trump.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 24, 2023 at 12:40 am
On December 8 and 10, 2020, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear two cases brought by supporters of President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
In the first case, Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a Trump ally, argued that Pennsylvania’s 2.5 million mail-in ballots were unconstitutional—and should be invalidated.
In the second case, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to overturn the results in four battleground states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Even worse: Seventeen Republican state Attorney Generals—and 126 Republican members of Congress—rushed to support the case.
The reason: They feared Trump’s fanatical base would turn them out of office if they didn’t.
The Supreme Court
Had the Court acted on either request, the results for democracy would have been catastrophic.
For the first time in American history, a President who falsely accused his victorious rival of fraud would have invalidated the votes of 80 million Americans.
Then, on December 30, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley announced that, on January 6, 2021, he would object to the certification of some states’ Electoral College results. As many as 139 House Republicans and eight from the Senate joined him.
Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse bluntly offered the reason for this effort: ‘”We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage. But they’re wrong—and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions.”
Having lost in 59 court cases to overturn the election results, Trump opted for some old-fashioned arm-twisting.
On January 2, 2021, he called the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The reason: To pressure him to “find” enough votes to overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Trump lied.
He even threatened Raffensperger with criminal prosecuted if he did not change the vote count in Trump’s favor: “That’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen.”
Raffensperger insisted there hadn’t been any voter fraud—and refused to change the official results.
By January 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump had almost run out of options for illegally staying in power for the next four years.
On January 6, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
That morning, Trump urged Pence to flip the results of the election to give him a win.
Pence replied that he lacked the power to overturn those results.
But as Pence went off to the Capitol Building housing the Senate and House of Representatives, Trump had one last card to play.
Mike Pence
For weeks Trump had ordered his legions of Right-wing Stormtrumpers to descend on Washington, D.C. on January 6.
On December 20, he had tweeted: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence. A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results.
Donald Trump addresses his Stormtrumpers
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents or lead pipes.
- A Capitol Hill police officer was knocked off his feet, dragged into the mob surging toward the building, and beaten with the pole of an American flag.
- One attacker was shot as she forced her way toward the House Chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
- Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly intending to take hostages.
- Others carried treasonous Confederate flags.
- Shouts of “Hang Pence!” often rang out.
- Improvised explosive devices were found in several locations in Washington, D.C.
- Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
More than three hours passed before police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
And Trump? After giving his inflammatory speech, he returned to the White House—to watch his handiwork on television. He initially rebuffed requests to mobilize the National Guard.
This required intervention by Pat A. Cipollone, the White House Counsel, among other officials.
While the rioting was still erupting, Trump posted a video on Twitter: “I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us….But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order….So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
“It was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life,” the Duke of Wellington said about the battle of Waterloo.
The same could be said for America’s escaping Donald Trump’s attempt to make himself “President-for-Life.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 23, 2023 at 1:05 am
On November 3, 2020, Joe Biden became President-elect of the United States by winning 81,283,495 votes, or 51.4% of the vote, compared to 74,223,755 votes, or 46.9% of the vote cast for President Donald Trump.
In the Electoral College—which actually determines the winner—the results were even more stunning: 306 votes for Biden, compared with 232 for Trump.
It takes 270 votes to be declared the victor.
From the moment Biden was declared the winner, Trump set out to overturn that verdict.
Joe Biden
Speaking from the White House in the early hours of November 4, Trump sounded like a petulant child whose planned outing has been suddenly called off:
“We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off. The results tonight have been phenomenal…I mean literally we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good, such a vote, such a success.”
For the first time in American history, a President demanded a halt to the counting of votes while the outcome of an election hung in doubt.
States ignored his demand and kept counting.
Next, Trump ordered his attorneys to file lawsuits to overturn the election results, charging electoral fraud. Specifically:
- Illegal aliens had been allowed to vote.
- Trump ballots were systematically destroyed.
- A sinister computer program turned Trump votes into Biden ones.
Throughout November and December, cases were filed in Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Georgia challenging the election results. None were supported by evidence of fraud—as even Trump’s lawyers admitted when questioned by judges.
On November 13, nine cases meant to attack President-Elect Joe Biden’s win in key states were denied or dropped. A law firm challenging the vote count in Pennsylvania withdrew from the effort.
In Michigan, Trump’s attorneys dropped their federal suit to block the certification of Detroit-area ballots.
By November 21, more than 30 cases were withdrawn by Trump’s attorneys or dismissed by Federal judges—some of them appointed by Trump himself.
Ultimately, from November 3 to December 14, 2020, Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court, either withdrawing cases or having them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
Donald Trump
On November 19, losing in the courts, Trump invited two Republican legislative leaders from Michigan to the White House. The reason: To persuade them to stop the state from certifying the vote.
The Michigan legislators said they would follow the law.
On December 5, Trump called Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and asked him to call a special legislative session and convince state legislators to select their own electors that would support him, thus overturning Biden’s win.
Kemp refused, saying he lacked the authority to do so.
On December 8, the Supreme Court refused to hear Trump’s bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a Trump ally, argued that the state’s 2.5 million mail-in votes were unconstitutional.
The Court’s order read, “The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.”
Although Trump had appointed three of the Court’s Justices, not one of them dissented.
On December 10, the Supreme Court refused to let a Texas lawsuit overturn the results in four battleground states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The majority of their votes—cast for Biden—were critical to Trump’s defeat.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections,” the court said without further comment. It dismissed all other related claims as moot.
The request for their overturning came in a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. A Trump ally, Paxton has been indicted on felony securities fraud charges. He might have been seeking a Presidential pardon as reward for his effort.
Seventeen Republican state Attorney Generals—and 126 Republican members of Congress—supported the lawsuit. They feared Trump’s fanatical base would “primary” them if they didn’t publicly declare their loyalty—to a man they knew was slated to leave office within two months.
Had the Court acted on Paxton’s request, the results for democracy would have been catastrophic.
“Texas seeks to invalidate elections in four states for yielding results with which it disagrees,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told the justices in legal papers. “Its request for this court to exercise its original jurisdiction and then anoint Texas’s preferred candidate for president is legally indefensible and is an affront to principles of constitutional democracy.”
Meanwhile, top Republicans—such as Vice President Mike Pence, Missouri United States Senator Roy Blunt and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—refused to congratulate Biden as the winner.
Mitch McConnell
In fact, the vast majority of House and Senate Republicans refused to publicly acknowledge Biden as President-Elect of the United States. The reason: They were still in thrall to Trump’s fanatical base.
They feared that if they broke with the soon-to-be-ex-President, they would be voted out of office at the next election—and lose their cozy positions and the power and perks that come with them.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 22, 2023 at 12:12 am
On August 14, for the fourth time this year, Donald Trump found himself the first ex-President to be indicted for crimes committed during his four-year administration: 2017-2021.
He faces 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions: Georgia, Florida, New York and the District of Columbia.
Two of those cases have already been mentioned. Here is a breakdown of the remaining two:
(3) Federal documents indictment (Florida)
Filed on June 9, 2023, it charges Trump with 40 felony counts for:
- 32 counts of willful retention of national defense information;
- 1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice;
- 1 count of withholding a document or record from an official proceeding;
- 1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record from an official proceeding;
- 1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation;
- 1 count of scheming to conceal information the government is seeking;
- 1 count of making false statements;
- 2 counts of altering, destroying or concealing information the government is seeking.
Before leaving office, Trump endangered the country’s national security by taking and haphazardly storing highly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He then refused to return them when asked by the Justice Department—forcing the agency to send in an FBI force to retrieve them.
(4) Georgia election indictment
Filed on August 14, 2023, it charges Trump with 13 felony counts for:
- 1 count of violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act (conspiring to overturn the vote count of the 2020 Presidential election);
- 3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents;
- 1 count of filing false documents;
- 2 counts of making false statements and writings.
This is on a par with the importance of the Federal 2020 election indictment. Trump was trying to illegally remain in office by coercing Georgia public officials to “find” Electoral College votes which did not exist.
Which, in this case, meant creating Electoral College votes which did not exist.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Republicans have abandoned their traditional “law and order” mantra to attack those investigators and prosecutors who are trying to hold Trump accountable for his litany of crimes.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy: “Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election.”
Referring to Fanni Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, who indicted Trump for election interference, McCarthy said: “Now a radical [district attorney] in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham.”
Republicans have proven themselves masters of projecting their own planned or attempted crimes onto their opponents.
Since it was Trump who weaponized the Justice Department during his Presidency, Republicans now accuse—without evidence—President Joe Biden of doing the same.
Kevin McCarthy
New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik: “[Donald Trump] had every legal right to challenge the results of the election. This blatant election interference by the far left will not work, President Trump will defeat these bogus charges and win back the White House in 2024.”
Trump did in fact have “every right to challenge the results of the election.” What he did not have was the right to try to illegally overturn its verdict.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham: “The American people can decide whether they want [Trump] to be president or not.
“This should be decided at the ballot box and not in a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail. They’re weaponizing the law in this country. They’re trying to take Donald Trump down.”
Biotech entrepreneur and Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: “I’d volunteer to write the amicus brief to the court myself. Prosecutors should not be deciding US presidential elections, and if they’re so overzealous that they commit constitutional violations, then the cases should be thrown out and they should be held accountable.”
During the 2016 Presidential race between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump repeatedly called for her to be “locked up” for using a private email server for official public communications.
She was accused of endangering national security by not using official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. A years-long FBI investigation determined that Clinton’s server did not contain any information or emails that were clearly marked classified.
Hillary Clinton
Now, faced with overwhelming evidence that Trump’s behavior had posed threats to American democracy, Republicans are adhering to a double-standard to ignore his multiple crimes.
Among Republican voters, Trump remains the odds-on favorite for the 2024 Republican nomination for President.
A major reason for this: Since Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, he has repeatedly lied that he was actually the winner—and was cheated of victory.
He began repeating what CNN and other news sources have termed “The Big Lie” on the night of November 3, 2020.
Joe Biden had become President-elect of the United States by winning 81,283,495 votes, or 51.4% of the vote, compared to 74,223,755 votes, or 46.9% of the vote cast for President Donald Trump.
In the Electoral College—which actually determines the winner—the results were even more stunning: 306 votes for Biden, compared with 232 for Trump.
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THE TRUTH ABOUT LIARS
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on September 27, 2023 at 12:12 am“The Holocaust never happened.”
“The Sandy Hook massacre never happened.”
“The MAGAbomber is a Democrat who’s mailing letter-bombs to make Republicans look bad.”
These are among the lies regularly hurled by “lunatic fringe” Right-wingers—and, more importantly, “mainstream” Republicans.
Many liberals believe Right-wingers simply lack correct information.
They assume that, if only Right-wingers knew the truth about such matters as:
they would be telling the truth.
There are two motives behind such blatant lying—and mere ignorance is not one of them.
Motive #1: Right-wingers don’t want to admit the truth about events most people instinctively believe are evil.
Right-wingers intuitively know that shoving huge numbers of naked men, women and children into gas chambers is the arch-example of evil. And so is spraying scores of bullets into scores of helpless men, women and children in churches, nightclubs and schools.
They know they can’t convince decent people that such atrocities are really acts of humanity. So it’s easier (for them) to simply deny that they actually happened.
The tobacco industry paved the way for such arguments.
The Tobacco Institute—a trade association created in 1958 to pose as a “smoking research” center—cast doubt on scientific studies linking smoking with lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease.
Tobacco Institute ad
Its premise: “We really don’t know if smoking causes cancer. We need more studies to make certain.”
And, for the Tobacco Institute, there could never be enough studies to prove that smoking was a thoroughly deadly habit—that reaped billions of dollars every year for the tobacco industry.
The longer they could convince the public of their lies, the less likely they were to be regulated.
Motive #2: Right-wingers claim Right-wing atrocities didn’t happen to put the victims of such atrocities on the defensive.
This, too, was a major aim of the tobacco industry. By constantly demanding “Prove to us that smoking is deadly” and then arrogantly dismissing all evidence put forward, tobacco executives put the onus on their opponents.
From October 22 to November 1, 2018, Cesar Sayoc mailed pipe-bombs to 10 prominent Democrats—including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After Sayoc was arrested and his van was found plastered with pro-Donald Trump stickers, Right-wingers reflexively seized on a series of lies to “cleanse” themselves:
Totally ignored was that FBI Director Christopher Wray—a Trump appointee after the firing of James Comey in May, 2017—publicly stated that the bombs were real: “Though we’re still analyzing these devices in our laboratory, these were not hoax devices.”
Christopher Wray
So how did Right-wingers react to Wray’s no-nonsense rebuttal of Right-wing conspiracy lies?
They attacked the FBI as part of the “deep state” determined to thwart and, if possible, impeach Donald Trump.
According to one Rightist theory: The FBI made the bombs and sent them out to implicate some poor Trump supporter—if not the President himself.
So how can such liars be defeated? Lawsuits based on the truth.
On August 1, 2018, families of four students and two educators who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre filed a defamation lawsuit against Right-wing broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas. He had claimed the mass shooting was fake.
Twenty children and six adults were killed in the December 14, 2012, attack by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
On his program in January, 2015, he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.”
Alex Jones
Michael Zimmermann [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D
According to the complaint:
“The Jones defendants concoct elaborate and false paranoia-tinged conspiracy theories because it moves product and they make money. Not because they truly believe what they are saying, but rather because it increases profits.”
Thus, a reasonable person would understand that Jones meant the massacre was staged and the deaths were fabricated.
So Jones responded with another lie: “This is all out of context….And it’s not even what I said or my intent,” he said. “I’m not going to get into the real defects of this, I’m going to wait until it’s thrown out with prejudice.”
Jones’ lies did him no good. On August 4, 2022, a Texas jury ordered Jones pay two plaintiffs $4.1 million in compensatory damages. The following day, he was ordered to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages.
Other trials are pending.
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