Posts Tagged ‘BLOOMBERG’
.GOSPEL MUSIC, ABC NEWS, ADAM, ADAM AND EVE, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARNOLD SCHWARTZNEGGER, ATHIESM, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL, DEATH, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GOD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JESUS, KING OF KINGS (MOVIE), LOT’S WIFE, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NOAH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RELIGION, RESURRECTION, REUTERS, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, SALON, SAMSON, SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE), SATURNALIA, SCIENCE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE BIBLE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (MOVIE), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE, X
In History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on January 9, 2026 at 12:05 am
The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, with approximately 69% of the population—about 235 million out of 340 million people—identifying as Christian.
And Christianity continues to play a major role in American politics.
A study, conducted by the University of Kentucky, found that throughout the world, people distrust atheists. To them, those without faith are more capable of immorality than religious people. In fact, American voters are less willing to elect an atheist than any other category of candidate, including gay or Muslim.
And nearly every President has regularly attended the National Prayer Breakfast. This is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the tradition in 1953.
And yet for all the reverence Americans have for the Christian religion, few of them dare to examine these two fundamental truths about the Bible:
- Its stories cannot be independently proven, and
- Many of its stories violate the most fundamental notions of common sense.
Consider these examples:
- God creates Adam from dust. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a cobra?
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. Sure—untrained wild animals will meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’ll let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.
- Moses parts the Red Sea. Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.
- The will of God violates physical laws. Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.
- Christmas dates to a Roman pagan festival. Many Christmas traditions stem from the pagan Roman festival, Saturnalia, which celebrated the “birthday” of the sun. These included feasting, gift-giving, lighting candles (to ward off evil spirits) and displaying wreaths (as a sign of coming spring).
- Jesus’ alleged birth on December 25. The Bible doesn’t give a day, a month or—even a year—for Jesus’ birth. Early Christians tried to abolish Saturnalia, the Roman festival celebrating the birthday of the sun. When this failed, the Roman Catholic Church, in 336 A.D., “Christianized” the festival by naming Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25, as Jesus’ birthday.
- Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families with five loaves and two fish. If food could be so easily reproduced, the United Nations’ World Food Program would be unnecessary.
- Jesus rises from the dead. There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone returning to life after being buried.
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
Above all, it is the fear of death—not just our own personal extinction, but our ignorance of what, if anything, comes after—that is the driving force behind religious belief.
Science cannot reassure us, one way or the other. Only religion claims to hold the answer to this mystery. And only religion claims to offer us a sure path to not simply survive but to live in paradise.
As a result, the permanence of religious belief is absolutely guaranteed.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, EDUCATION, EPSTEIN FILES, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGIA, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IGNORANCE, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SCIENCE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDERS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on January 8, 2026 at 12:14 am
An Associated Press story posted on January 4 offers useful insights into the mentality of those who support Donald Trump.
The story’s headline: “Marjorie Taylor Greene made waves. Her constituents don’t agree on whether it was worth it.”
Greene served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Georgia’s 14th Congressional district from 2021 until her resignation in 2026. Among the highlights of her career:
- Slandering Democrats as Nazis.
- Attacking masking and social distancing—then the only safety measures against COVID-19—to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
- Attacking Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, for daring to contradict Trump’s ignorance- and lie-riddled statements.
- Praising Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, while claiming that Trump would save the United States from “radical socialism.”
- Supporting Trump’s efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 Presidential election, claiming it had been “stolen” from him.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
She enraged Trump in 2025 by voting to release the Justice Department’s files on convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump, a longtime Epstein friend, had fought bitterly to keep them a secret. As a result, Trump threatened to back a primary challenger to her re-election in 2026.
Rather than slug it out in a primary, she chose to resign on January 5.
When Associated Press interviewed Greene’s constituents, many of them described her as “a fighter.” For them, that was enough.
“We got a lot of satisfaction. She was our voice,” said Jackie Harling, who chairs the local Republican Party in northwestern Georgia.
Her Georgia district is one of the most Republican-leaning in the state. But its residents feel left behind by years of change. As the U.S. becomes more urban, secular, and diverse, they feel “culturally oppressed.”
Georgia’s Congressional districts (Greene’s was the 14th)
“They see themselves as great Americans, proud Americans, Christian Americans, and that doesn’t fit the American model anymore as they see it,” said Jan Pourquoi, owner of Global Works LLC.
Their top priority: Stick it to those who are urban, secular and non-white.
Lisa Adams, another Republican, called her: “Our stand-up person. Look at her stance on transgenderism. That’s a big one.”
Suppressing the rights of others has long been a hallmark of Republican politics. Republicans have accused transgender men of posing a menace to women. But according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law:
- Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault.
- Transgender women and men had higher rates of violent victimization (86.1 and 107.5 per 1,000 people, respectively) than cisgender women and men (23.7 and 19.8 per 1,000 people, respectively).
UCLA School of Law
In late 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors
Lisa Adams: “Abortion. That’s a big one.”
Republicans sought to re-criminalize this medical procedure since the Supreme Court legalized it in 1973. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion and returned regulatory authority to individual states.
This has led Right-wing states to prosecute women who obtain abortions even in cases of rape, incest or when their lives are endangered by pregnancy. Thirteen states have a total abortion ban; 28 states have abortion bans based on gestational duration.
Thus, so long as Greene supported attacking those groups her constituents hated—such as transgenders and abortion-seekers—her constituents loved her.
“The biggest thing that Marjorie contributed wasn’t even in legislation,” said Gavin Swafford, who worked on Greene’s initial campaign. He didn’t care that she had failed to cut bipartisan deals and bring federal money back home.
Nor did her supporters care that her lies about COVID-19 had led untold numbers of men and women to forego wearing masks and social distancing when no vaccines were available. Or to forego getting vaccinated once vaccines became available.
By the last year—2020—of Trump’s first term in office, more than 400,000 Americans had died.
COVID-19 virus
Like Greene, her base is equally motivated by hatred—of the same persons and organizations whom Trump regularly attacks. During the 2016 campaign, countless such voters told interviewers: “He says what I’ve long been thinking!”
Which speaks volumes about the mentality of Stormtrumpers.
* * * * *
The United States has indeed become a polarized country. But it’s not the polarization between Republicans and Democrats, or between conservatives and liberals.
It’s the polarization between
- Those intent on enslaving everyone who doesn’t subscribe to their Fascistic beliefs and agenda—and those who resist being enslaved.
- Those who believe in reason and science—and those who believe in an infallible “strong man” who rejects both.
- Those who cherish education—and those who celebrate ignorance.
- Those who believe in the rule of law—and those who believe in their right to act as a law unto themselves.
- Those who believe in treating others (especially the less fortunate) with decency—and those who believe in the triumph of intimidation and force.
Either non-Fascist Americans will destroy the Republican party and its voters that threaten to enslave them—or they will be enslaved by Republicans and their voters who believe they are entitled to manipulate and undermine the country’s democratic processes.
There is no middle ground.
ABC NEWS, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, ALEXANDER THE GREAT (BOOK), ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIBLE, BIG RIP, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUSINESS INSIDER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTMAS, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DEEP FREEZE, DRUDGE REPORT, EARTH, EASTER, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAT DEATH, HUFFINGTON POST, JEHOVAN’S WITNESSES, JESUS CHRIST, MEDIA MATTERS, MERCURY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RED GIANTS, REUTERS, ROBIN LANE FOX, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, SALON, SATURNALIA, SEATTLE TIMES, SHOPPING, SLATE, SUN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THANKSGIVING, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNIVERSE, UPI, USA TODAY, VENUS, WONKETTE, X
In Business, History, RELIGION, Social commentary on December 17, 2025 at 12:16 am
There are several good reasons for skipping Christmas this year—and for years to come.
Reason #1: It’s based on a pagan Roman festival.
- There is no reference anywhere in the Bible to the month, day—or even the year—of Jesus’ birth.
- There are no sources outside the Bible that give a date for Jesus’ birth.
- Jesus never commanded his followers to celebrate his birth—but he did call on them to remember his death. It’s called Easter.
- Many of the “religious” traditions associated with Christmas stem from the pagan Roman festival, Saturnalia, which celebrated the “birthday” of the sun.
- This was celebrated December 17-25.
- Saturnalia traditions included feasting, gift-giving, lighting candles (to ward off evil spirits) and displaying wreaths (as a sign of the coming spring).
- Early Christians tried mightily to convince their members to stop celebrating the Saturnalia.
- When these efforts failed, the Roman Catholic Church, in 336 A.D. “Christianized” the festival by naming Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25, as Jesus’ birthday.
Reason #2: It’s based on a story that’s patently false.
The story of the Three Wise Men—or Kings—bringing gifts to the infant Jesus was added long after Jesus’ birth.
Realistically, there was no reason why anyone in Israel would have known—or cared—about the birth of yet another Jewish child.
If he had actually been born the son of a king, then his birth might have mattered to people generally.
In his 1973 bestselling Alexander the Great, Robin Lane Fox explains that “in antiquity…life’s perspective was reversed, and youth was mostly described through a series of anecdotes which falsely mirrored the feats of the adult future; proven kings or bishops were remembered as kings or bishops when young.”
Thus, Alexander the Great, the future conqueror of the Persian empire, has been depicted—as a boy—astonishing Persian ambassadors with precocious questions about the innermost workings of that empire.
For followers of the crucified Jesus, it was essential to establish his divinity from the outset of his birth. And what better way to do this than having not one but three Kings show up, uninvited, to declare his reign over them?
Reason #3: It’s actually blasphemous.
Assume, for a moment, that the story of the Three Wise Men—or Kings—is true.
The whole point of the story is to establish that Jesus’ birth was a truly special event—and a recognition of his fate to redeem humanity from sin.
No one else in that story is depicted as giving—or getting—gifts.
No matter how much a child might be loved today, almost no one expects him to be a future savior.
So giving him gifts is essentially a parody of the acknowledgement of Jesus’ divinity.
Reason #4: Christmas is overwhelmingly a commercial—not a religious—event.
- The Christmas shopping season can start as early as September. Some consumers begin shopping even earlier.
- According to Gallup, the average estimated holiday spending for Christmas in 2025 will be $1,007 per person—and thus similar to $1,014 per person in 2024.
- Illustrator Haddon Sundblom, popularized the warm, jolly, rosy-cheeked, red-suited Santa we know today in Coca-Cola ads in 1931.
- A survey by the American Institute of CAPs found that almost half (47%) of people planning to spend on gifts and travel during the 2025 Christmas season expect to take on debt to do so.
- For many stores, holiday shopping accounts for nearly a third of annual sales.
Reason #5: There is no Paradise waiting for the dead.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus will return, cleanse the Earth of sinners, and claim it as a paradise for God’s faithful worshipers—that is, themselves.
They quote Ecclesiastes 1:4: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.”
Except that it won’t.
The Sun will become a red giant in about five to six billion years, when it runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core. Its core will contract and heat up, while hydrogen fusion will begin in a shell around the core. This will cause the outer layers of the Sun to expand significantly.
The Sun will swell to hundreds of times its current size, becoming a red giant.
This will likely destroy Mercury and Venus. Earth could be swallowed entirely or, if it survives, it will be scorched by extreme heat and radiation, making it uninhabitable.
A Red Giant
Then, eons after the Earth disappears, so will the entire Universe.
Scientists debate how this will happen. Some believe it will occur in a Big Crunch (collapse back to a singularity) in about 33 billion years. Other theories favor a Big Freeze, Heat Death or Big Rip.
So don’t count on Jesus to return from a 2,000-year slumber to prevent this from happening.
There are people who insist that Christmas is a religious event that they are commanded to celebrate.
For those people, it’s a good time to remember the advice of 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 [RESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABORTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GULF OF MEXICO, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSPECTORS GENERAL, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on December 16, 2025 at 12:15 am
CBS Correspondent William L. Shirer covered the Third Reich from 1934 to 1940. Writing about the rise of Adolf Hitler in his monumental bestseller, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), he noted:
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.
“At the crest of their popular strength, in July 1932, the National Socialists had attained but 37 percent of the vote. But the 63 percent of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, however temporarily, to stamp it out.”
William L. Shirer (left)
Competent future historians will reach the same verdict about the second coming to power for Donald Trump on November 5, 2024.
- Republicans: Who feared that Trump’s Fascistic supporters would deprive them of political office if they didn’t abase themselves to a lifelong criminal and would-be dictator.
- Republican judges: Who bent and/or broke the law to enable Trump to escape justice.
- Justice Department prosecutors: Whose awe of the Presidency allowed Trump to slander and threaten federal prosecutors and judges.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland: Who refused to appoint Jack Smith Special Counsel until November 18, 2022—giving Trump time to delay justice and again win the Presidency.
- Democrats: Whose cowardice toward Trump encouraged Republicans to ever more extreme measures.
- Blacks: Who voted for a racist in hopes of a bigger paycheck.
- Muslims: Who refused to support Kamala Harris because President Biden wouldn’t stop Israel’s military campaign to free Hamas-captured hostages.
- Hispanics: Who refused to believe that Trump would carry out his threats to deport illegal aliens.
- The Biden administration: Which refused to stem the tide of illegal aliens invading America—and thus enraged millions of law-abiding Americans into supporting Trump.
- Toxic masculinity voters: Whose hatred of women led them to reject a former local and state prosecutor for a 34-times convicted felon.
- American voters: Whose hatred of Hispanic illegal aliens and inflationary grocery prices led them to ignore overwhelming evidence of Trump’s intent to overturn the democratic process and make himself absolute dictator.
On January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump became the 47th President of the United States.
Since then, he has aggressively committed a series of outrages against the country he claims to love, including:
- Granting clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack.
- Signing 26 executive orders reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs, changing the federal designation for the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and initiating a federal hiring freeze.
- Revoking an executive order on Artificial Intelligence safety signed by former President Joseph Biden, to establish safeguards for the rapidly advancing AI technology.
- Firing the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.
- Purging about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations.
- Their “crime”: Investigating Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and illegally holding highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
- Following Trump’s anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) executive order, the Department of Defense deletes content that included the achievements of nonwhites—such as Navajo code talkers, black Tuskegee Airmen, Medal of Honor winners and women veterans.
- Firing the board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appointing himself as chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- James had convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Comey had sought to investigate Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential campaign to ensure Trump’s election.
- Flooding the streets of cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and San Antonio with masked, heavily-armed agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Almost 200 American citizens have been improperly assaulted, arrested and detained.
- Shutting down the Federal Government on October 1, when Democrats refused to agree to his gutting Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), causing 10-15 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
- Among those not getting paid: Air traffic controllers for the Federal Aviation Administration. Owing to many controllers refusing to work, the FAA reduced air traffic by 10% at many airports.
- Shutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the poor to pressure Democrats to support his gutting of healthcare programs.
As John Adams, second President of the United States, observed:
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence and cruelty.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GAZA, GULF OF MEXICO, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INSPECTORS GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMES COMEY, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, Kamala Harris, KGB, LATINOS, LETITIA JAMES, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MERRICK GARLAND, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAVAJO COLDE TALKERS, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PARDONS, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROJECT 2025, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOX, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on December 15, 2025 at 12:11 am
In 2024, President Joseph Biden turned 80—six years younger than German President Paul von Hindenburg when he died—and was capable of dying literally any day.
His Vice President, Kamala Harris, was widely perceived as unprepared for the Presidency.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump—like Adolf Hitler—was waging an all-out campaign to make himself dictator. And—like Hitler—he was using the democratic system to destroy democracy.
Hitler had a list of priorities—such as persecuting the Jews and conquering the Soviet Union—that he intended to carry out.
Adolf Hitler
And so did Trump. Among Trump’s: Implementing “Project 2025.”
This was a collection of policy proposals to fundamentally reshape the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 Presidential election.
Established in 2022 by the Right-wing Heritage Foundation, the project aimed to recruit tens of thousands of radical Right-wingers to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civil servants.
Under Project 2025:
- Republicans consider federal employees to be subversives who comprise the “deep state.”
- Replacing tenured civil servants with thousands of political hacks would arm Republicans with the power to establish an absolute dictatorship under the next Republican president.
- Republicans believed the Department of Justice had “forfeited the trust” of the American people by investigating Donald Trump’s proven collaboration with Russia to win the 2016 Presidential election.
- As a result, the DOJ must be thoroughly “reformed” and tightly overseen by the White House.
- The director of the FBI must be personally accountable to the President—just as the head of the KGB was personally accountable to Vladimir Putin.
Seal of the Justice Department
- Federal employees could be instantly fired for not obeying illegal orders, or on mere whim—including the whim of the President.
- The Department of Homeland Security would be abolished.
- The Environmental Protection Agency would be stripped of its authority to protect the air, water and soil.
- States would be prevented from adopting stricter regulations on vehicular emissions, like California had done.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which the project called “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,” would be abolished.
- Fossil fuels—the leading cause of global warming—would be favored and environmental regulations to combat climate change abolished.
- Federal funding for all public transit systems across the country would be eliminated.
- Traditionally independent federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission would be placed under Presidential control.
- The wealthiest 1% would receive massive tax cuts at the expense of the poor and middle class.
- Conception would be designated as the point where life begins.
- Abortion would be outlawed.
- Access to birth control would be sharply restricted, if not banned.
- Christianity would be designated as the official religion of the United States—the way Islam is designated as the official religion of Saudi Arabia.
- The use of capital punishment would be revived and expanded—and the right of appeals sharply restricted.
Throughout the campaign, Trump denied that he had even heard of “Project 2025.”
According to the Washington Post Fact Checker 2020, by the time Trump left office in 2021, he had told approximately 30,573 lies. Among his most lethal were the ones he repeatedly told in 2020 about COVID-19:
- “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
- “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine.”
- “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”
- “CDC & my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
- “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
As a result of his lies and ruthless attacks on medical professionals trying to combat the disease, more than 400,000 Americans died.
That should have been enough to prove that nothing he said could be trusted. But for 77 million voters who were invested in their own hatred and/or ignorance, it wasn’t.
CBS Correspondent William L. Shirer covered the Third Reich from 1934 to 1940. Writing about the rise of Adolf Hitler in his monumental bestseller, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), he noted:
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.
“At the crest of their popular strength, in July 1932, the National Socialists had attained but 37 percent of the vote. But the 63 percent of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, however temporarily, to stamp it out.”
Competent future historians will reach the same verdict about the second coming to power for Donald Trump on November 5, 2024.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 12, 2025 at 12:57 am
Most Americans believe the United States is immune from the same fates of democracies that have become dictatorships.
Not so New York University historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Appearing on the November 13, 2023 edition of The PBS Newshour, she warned:
“Since 2015, [Donald Trump] started….using his rallies and campaign events for radicalizing people. And he started saying, oh, in the old days, you used to hurt people. The problem is, Americans don’t hurt each other anymore.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Humblewarrior, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“So now he’s going into a new phase of openly dehumanizing his targets so that will lessen the taboos in the future. And we see that, in 2025, he’s got plans for mass deportations, mass imprisonments and giant camps.
“So you need people to be less sensitive about violence, either committing it themselves or tolerating it. And I see that as….the reason he’s using this dehumanizing rhetoric now, to prepare people.”
A historical example: The Weimar Republic, the constitutional federal republic in Germany which lasted from November 9, 1918 to March 23, 1933.
During its 14-year existence, the Republic granted Germans rights they had never enjoyed—and which would be ruthlessly suppressed during the 12-year Third Reich that replaced it.
Among those rights:
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of assembly
- Privacy of mail, telegraph, and telephone
- Free and secret elections
- All citizens were eligible for public office
But the Republic had dangerous enemies—Communists on the Left, and Nazis on the Right. And it was plagued by charges of illegitimacy and even treason—for its members’ having signed the Treaty of Versailles ending World War 1.
Adolf Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party in 1919—the year after World War 1 ended.
Adolf Hitler
In 1923, he staged a coup attempt in Bavaria—which was quickly and brutally put down by police. He was arrested and sentenced to less than a year in prison.
After that, Hitler decided that winning power through violence was no longer an option. He must win it through election—or appointment.
He repeatedly ran for the highest office in Germany—President—but never got a clear majority in a free election.
When the 1929 Depression struck Germany, the fortunes of Hitler’s Nazi party rose as the life savings of ordinary Germans fell. Streets echoed with bloody clashes between members of Hitler’s Nazi Stormtroopers and those of the German Communist Party.
Germany seemed on the verge of collapsing.
Germans desperately looked for a leader—a Fuhrer—who could somehow deliver them from the threat of financial ruin and Communist takeover.
In early 1933, members of his own cabinet persuaded aging German president, Paul von Hindenburg, that only Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor could do this.
Paul von Hindenburg
Hindenburg considered Hitler a dangerous radical. But he allowed himself to be convinced that, by putting Hitler in the Cabinet, he could be “boxed in” and thus controlled.
So, on January 30, 1933, he reluctantly appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor—the equivalent of Attorney General.
On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg died, and Hitler immediately assumed the titles—and duties—of the offices of Chancellor and President.
His rise to total power was now complete.
In 2015, Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President.
At that time:
- The country was technically at war in the Middle East—but the fate of the United States was never threatened, as it had been during the Cold War.
- There was no draft; if you didn’t know someone in the military, you didn’t care about the casualties taking place.
- Thanks to government loans from Barack Obama, American capitalism had been saved from its own excesses during the George W. Bush administration.
- In contrast to the scandals of the Ronald Reagan Presidency, the Obama administration had been scandal-free.
- Nor had there been any major terrorist attacks on the country—as had occurred on 9/11 under President George W. Bush.
Yet—16 months after announcing his candidacy for President—enough Americans fervently embraced Donald Trump to give him the most powerful position in the country and the world.
Donald Trump
The message of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign had been one of hope—“Yes, We Can!”
That of Donald Trump’s campaign was one of hatred toward everyone who was not an avid Trump supporter: “No, You Can’t!”
White supremacists comprised the overwhelming majority of the audiences at Trump rallies. They knew that demographics were steadily working against them. Birthrates among nonwhites were rising. By 2045, whites would make up less than 50 percent of the American population.
The 2008 election of the first black President had shocked Fascistic whites. His 2012 re-election had deprived them of the hope that 2008 had been an accident.
Then came 2016—and the possibility that a black President might be followed by a woman: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
And the idea of a woman dictating to men was strictly too much for them to bear.
So, on November 8, 2016, Donald Trump—lacking any government experience and best known as the host of a reality TV show—was elected President of the United States.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 11, 2025 at 12:10 am
More than two years after he tried to establish himself as a dictator, Donald Trump remained free.
And he was still repeating “The Big Lie”: That he won the 2020 Presidential election but was cheated of victory by widespread voter fraud.
This was on a par with “The Big Lie” that had gripped Nazi Germany after World War 1: That the nation had been “stabbed in the back” by civilian Communists and Jews.
The result: Two-thirds of Republicans still rejected the legitimacy of the 2020 election of Joe Biden.
Facing 91 criminal charges in four criminal cases, Trump—unlike any other criminal defendant—was not even required to post bond.
In Florida, he faced 40 felony counts for illegally withholding highly classified government documents. Yet a judge he had appointed—Aileen Cannon—repeatedly delayed the start of his trial.
According to former United States Attorney Joyce Vance, her goal was clearly to delay the trial past the November, 2024, Presidential election.
Aileen Cannon
Trump repeatedly slandered—and even threatened—prosecutors, witnesses, judges and jurors in the four cases he faced. He claimed he was simply exercising his right to “freedom of speech” as a Presidential candidate.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was overseeing Trump’s election interference case, imposed a limited gag order on Trump in October, 2023. But this was lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals while it heard appeals from Trump’s lawyers, who wanted it removed completely.
Most ominously, an August 29, 2023 story by the Associated Press reported: Right-wing “think tanks”—led by the long-established Heritage Foundation—were plotting to remake the federal government into a Fascist dictatorship:
“With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own….
Heritage Foundation
Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Trump-era conservatives want to gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.
“Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired.”
Meanwhile, Trump openly called for ending Constitutionally-granted freedoms:
On December 3, 2022, he wrote in a Truth Social post:
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
A November 14, 2023 analysis by CNN’s Stephen Collinson warned:
“The former and possibly future commander in chief aspires to strongman power if he wins back the White House next year. He believes his authority would be absolute. He wants vengeance against his political enemies. He’d pose the greatest challenge to the rule of law and the Constitution in modern times, seek to crush press freedoms and gut the machinery of government.
“None of this is speculation. Trump is saying and showing exactly what he would do in his rallies, social media posts, interviews, lawyers’ filings and even appearances in court that he uses to stigmatize the legal system. And Trump’s ambitions should be taken seriously because one year from the election, President Joe Biden’s reelection hopes are far from secure.”
As an example of Trump’s rhetoric, Ruth Ben-Ghiat professor of history at New York University and author of the bestselling book, Strongmen, cites the former President’s address on Veterans Day, 2023:
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible, they will do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”
Speaking on the November 13, 2023 edition of The PBS Newshour, Ben-Ghiat said:
“Since the fascists, authoritarians always want to do two things—they want to change the way that people see violence, making it into something necessary and patriotic and even morally righteous, and they want to change the way people see their targets. And so they use dehumanizing language. And former President Trump is doing both.
“He’s been using his rallies since 2015 to shift the idea of violence into something positive. And now he’s starting to use dehumanizing rhetoric, all these groups who live like vermin. And this is what the original fascists did.
“Hitler started talking about Jews as parasites in 1920. So by the time he got in 1933, Germans had been exposed to this dehumanizing rhetoric for 13 years.
“And Mussolini literally talked about rats. After he had become dictator in 1927, he said, we need to kill rats who are bringing infectious diseases and Bolshevism from the east. And so this matches up with Trump talking about immigrants bringing disease and other such things.
“So this is very dangerous rhetoric with a very precise fascist history.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 10, 2025 at 3:26 am
On January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
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 of the 2020 Presidential election.
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
- One attacker was shot as protesters forced their way toward the House Chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place.
- 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.
- 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.
Stormtrumpers inside the Capitol Building
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 and rage-tweet against Vice President Mike Pence.
- He was “delighted” at the attack—and surprised that others weren’t, as angry Republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said later.
- He initially denied requests to mobilize the National Guard.
- Six hours after the rioting began, Pat A. Cipollone, the White House Counsel and other officials intervened and deployed the National Guard.
- 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.”
His administration was closing with the same contempt for law and democracy that had characterized it from its outset.
Joseph R. Biden legitimately assumed the Presidency on January 20, 2021.
Yet it was only on November 22, 2022, that his handpicked Attorney General, Merrick Garland, appointed Jack Smith as independent special counsel.
Smith had served in the Justice Department as an assistant U.S. attorney, acting U.S. attorney and head of the agency’s Public Integrity Section.
From 2008 to 2010, Smith worked as investigation coordinator for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. He thus oversaw cases against government officials and militia members accused of war crimes and genocide.
Jack Smith
He now became responsible for overseeing two preexisting Justice Department criminal investigations into Trump.
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on seven federal criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents. This marked the first time in American history that a serving or former president had been indicted on a federal criminal charge.
On August 1, a second grand jury indicted Trump on four more federal felony counts for attempting to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and inciting a riot against Congress on January 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, Trump publicly attacked Smith as even notorious Mafia bosses like John Gotti never dared attack their prosecutors.
Trump attacked Smith as “deranged” and a “Trump-hating prosecutor,” adding that “his wife and family despise me much more than he does.”
A typical Trump post on his website, Truth Social, exploded on August 28, 2023:
“It has just been reported that aides to TRUMP prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, met with high officials at the White House just prior to these political SleazeBags Indicating me OVER NOTHING.
“If this is so, which it is, that means that Biden and his Fascist Thugs knew and APPROVED of this Country dividing Form of Election Interference, despite their insisting that they ‘knew nothing.”
Such attacks led the Justice Department to increase the security detail for Smith from two to at least four deputy U.S. marshals on a 24-hour basis.
Many of Trump’s supporters believed that Smith was acting on behalf of President Biden to deprive Trump of the chance to run for the White House a third time.
The January 6 coup attempt proved beyond doubt his followers’ capacity for violence.
On November 14, 2023, the Justice Department urged a Washington, DC, appeals court to uphold the gag order against Trump in his federal election subversion criminal case. Prosecutors charged that Trump’s attacks on Smith and his family demonstrated why restrictions on Trump’s speech were necessary.
“There has never been a criminal case in which a court has granted a defendant an unfettered right to try his case in the media, malign the prosecutor and his family, and …target specific witnesses with attacks on their character and credibility,” Smith’s team told the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LONGEST DAY (MOVIE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREASON, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, VOTERFRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 9, 2025 at 12:10 am
From November 3 to December 14, 2020, President Donald J. Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
They either withdrew their cases or found them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
On November 19, Trump invited two Republican legislative leaders from Michigan to the White House—to persuade them to stop their state from certifying the vote.
The Michigan legislators said they would follow the law.
.jpg/220px-Donald_Trump_August_19,_2015_(cropped).jpg)
Donald Trump
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.
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 had been cast for Biden.
The Supreme Court
With the Senate due to certify states’ Electoral College results on January 6, 2021, Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to flip the results of the election to give him a win. This despite the fact that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 limits the Vice President to a largely ceremonial role.
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.
A total of 147 Republican Congressional members voted to invalidate the Electoral College vote count of the 2020 presidential election: 139 in the House of Representatives, and eight in the Senate.
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 prosecution 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, 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!”
In tweets, he promoted the rally again on December 27 and 30, and January 1.
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
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
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal….
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back….And we’re going to have to fight much harder….
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 8, 2025 at 12:11 am
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he was given a huge cell, allowed to receive unlimited visitors and gifts, and treated with deference by guards and inmates.
Hitler used his time in prison to write his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental 2016 biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
Consider:
It’s June 6, 1944, and the Allies have launched their long-expected attack on the French coast of Normandy. This is an all-out assault on Adolf Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” to drive German armies out of the European countries they had conquered in 1940.
“We can’t take any chances. I want the reserve panzers moved forward,” says Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander of all German forces in France, to his subordinate commander, Major General Gunther Blumentritt.
Gunther Blumentritt
“But we need permission from the Fuhrer’s headquarters,” replies Blumentritt.
And just as Blumentritt fears, permission is denied.
Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Wehrmacht, refuses the request. He will not release the panzers without Hitler’s approval.
And the Fuhrer—who stayed up late at night and slept during much of the day—is still sleeping.
“This is history,” says Blumentritt to an aide. “We are living an historical moment. We are going to lose the war because our glorious Fuhrer has taken a sleeping pill and is not to be awakened.
“Think of it, Kurt. We are witnessing something which historians will say is completely improbable. And yet it is true.”
And just as Bluemtritt predicted, defeat comes soon for the German forces in France.
Future historians may one day write that it’s what didn’t happen that played at least as great a role in destroying Constitutional government—and democracy—in the United States as what did.
Donald Trump
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.
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, falsely 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, 2020, 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.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
.GOSPEL MUSIC, ABC NEWS, ADAM, ADAM AND EVE, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARNOLD SCHWARTZNEGGER, ATHIESM, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL, DEATH, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GOD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JESUS, KING OF KINGS (MOVIE), LOT’S WIFE, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NOAH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RELIGION, RESURRECTION, REUTERS, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, SALON, SAMSON, SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE), SATURNALIA, SCIENCE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE BIBLE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (MOVIE), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE, X
BEAUTIFUL STORIES, UGLY REALITIES
In History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on January 9, 2026 at 12:05 amThe United States has the largest Christian population in the world, with approximately 69% of the population—about 235 million out of 340 million people—identifying as Christian.
And Christianity continues to play a major role in American politics.
A study, conducted by the University of Kentucky, found that throughout the world, people distrust atheists. To them, those without faith are more capable of immorality than religious people. In fact, American voters are less willing to elect an atheist than any other category of candidate, including gay or Muslim.
And nearly every President has regularly attended the National Prayer Breakfast. This is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the tradition in 1953.
And yet for all the reverence Americans have for the Christian religion, few of them dare to examine these two fundamental truths about the Bible:
Consider these examples:
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
Above all, it is the fear of death—not just our own personal extinction, but our ignorance of what, if anything, comes after—that is the driving force behind religious belief.
Science cannot reassure us, one way or the other. Only religion claims to hold the answer to this mystery. And only religion claims to offer us a sure path to not simply survive but to live in paradise.
As a result, the permanence of religious belief is absolutely guaranteed.
Share this: