Category Archives: January 6 MAGA riot

Putinism and Trumpism (sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g)

I heard a great podcast yesterday from someone I’ve never heard of, she calls herself the Politics Girl.  She makes all the connections between Manafort, Trump and Putin and outlines Putin’s long-term psy-ops plan, a deliberate and clever information war to sow discord and violent division to destabilize “the West” dating back a decade or more. 

Manafort, of course, worked for a years to the get corrupt pro-Russian, anti-Nato Putinist Viktor Yanukovych, elected president of Ukraine. In 2004 then-Prime Minister Yanukovych lost a second run-off election for president after the first runoff was marked by massive fraud on his behalf. [1] In the new runoff election demanded by the “Orange Revolution”, and ordered by the Ukrainian court, Yanukovych lost 52% to 44% to a candidate who had been poisoned with a high tech toxin during the campaign (and lived) [2]. Paul Manafort arrived too late to swing the 2004 election to Putin’s man, but after six years of grooming the the savvy political dirty trickster helped Yanukovych win the presidency in 2010, only to see him ousted for corruption by a popular uprising, the “Orange Revolution”.  Putin, who had annexed Crimea earlier in 2014 was furious at the setback, and kicked up his radical psy ops/disinformation war against democracy.

Soon after Yanukovych’s ouster Manafort, of course, still in contact with pro-Putin oligarchs in Russia and Ukraine, was managing Trump’s campaign for free. Manafort was in a Trump Tower conference room for that “dirt on Hillary, I love it!” meeting with Don. Jr., Jared Kushner and the Russian lawyer and also, according to Marco Rubio’s Senate Committee, had many communications with and gave sensitive polling data (about key states that would be narrowly won by Trump) to a GRU agent named Konstantin Kilimnik.   The Politics Girl describes Putin’s long psychological war, and his skillful use of social media, including innovative work with bot farms to convince Americans that millions followed Trump early on. Putin did much to effectively sow discord in the US and other western democracies (he did similar yeoman-like work on Brexit). She sadly concludes he did a great job convincing that volatile 39% of our countrymen that lies are truth, that the true enemy of good Americans are anti-fascists and anti-racists, that Putin good, Ukraine bad, that only Trump can save them, etc.   I need to transcribe several sections of that longish talk, there is some great stuff in there, very well-said.

Here’s a slice, from about ten minutes in, explaining why so many on the right are suddenly fans of Putin’s, and support mob violence to oust dangerous radical far-left Communist Joe Biden, after laying out the predicate stuff beautifully:

The whole segment is here.

[1] from Wikipedia

Between the two rounds of the election, dramatic increases in turnout were recorded in Yanukovych-supporting regions, while Yushchenko-supporting regions recorded the same turnout or lower than recorded in the first round. This effect was most marked in eastern Ukraine and especially in Yanukovych’s stronghold of Donetsk Oblast, where a turnout of 98.5% was reportedly claimed—more than 40% up from the first round.[2][3] In some districts, turnout was recorded to be more than 100% than the previous ballot, with one district reported by observers to have recorded a 127% turnout.[2][3] According to election observers and post-election investigations, pro-Yanukovych activists traveled around the country and voted many times as absentees.[2][3] Some groups dependent on government assistance, such as students, hospital patients and prisoners, were told to vote for the government candidate.[7]

[2] Despite his poisoning Yushchenko survived and won the election by a wide margin:

Manafort arrived in Ukraine in the wake of the Orange Revolution, a popular uprising that had blocked the pro-Russian Yanukovych from taking power in 2004. One of the leaders of that revolt, an economist named Viktor Yushchenko, fell suddenly ill as his movement for European integration was gaining momentum that fall; doctors determined that he had been poisoned with dioxin, a substance that turned his telegenic face into a mask of green and yellow scars.

https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/

“strength” versus “weakness” American style

In a smash-mouth culture like ours, ruled by the pernicious myth of the rugged individual, someone who prevails to get billions, after receiving nothing but a modest several million dollar head start, strength is seen as decisiveness (no matter how bad the decision), a willingness to discuss, deliberate and compromise before acting is seen as a vice of the weak.

Strength here is an unhesitating punch in the fucking face. Weakness, pausing to consider the effects of giving in to a strong desire to punch somebody in the fucking face.

The party of Trump has no hesitation to talk about building more gallows, executing traitors, torturing the families of terrorists (as long as they are Muslim terrorists, of course). This kind of tough talk makes frightened people feel strong. You join the lynch mob and now you are powerful, nobody can fuck with you, especially if you are armed and law enforcement is on your side.

You know what strength is here? The power to overturn a 98 to nothing Senate vote to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, signed by a president who shares your conservative views, with an ideologically driven opinion pulled directly from your asshole. Strength is the ability to keep lying to angry crowds, whipping them into a frenzy while pointing out you have never been charged with any crime, ever. Weakness is finding yourself having to explain why no action can be taken yet to stop an insane, violent cheerleader for violence. The “strong” party would be howling to lynch anybody like that on the other side.

This false and prevalent notion of strength and weakness is only possible in a culture where most people have lost the ability to make critical distinctions about anything; a culture where ruthless wealthy bullies are seen as heroes. Well done, Charles Koch.

In the days before Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine the Soviet propaganda network was called Pravda, which translates to “truth”. By a surreal coincidence the compulsive liar Donald Trump’s new post-truth social media app is called, in Russian, Pravda. Very strong, sir!

Call and response — keep it simple

Glenn Kirschner breaks it down very simply these days. Three dates, three incriminating statements, a plan, coordinated actions taken in furtherance of the plan, all the elements of conspiracy to disrupt an official proceeding and other felonies.

Trump recruits a private army, activates them for a future date and launches them January 6th to attack Congress and stop the proceedings, to prevent the constitutional transfer of power. On January 6 Trump’s mob stopped all business in the Capitol after violently assaulting police and breaching the building.

September 29th 2020, Trump shows up at debate with Biden infectious with covid-19, lying about his test results (he’ll be helicoptered to a hospital for emergency covid treatment a few days later) spewing toward a hated opponent in the most vulnerable demographic for death by covid, looks into the camera and grimly says “Proud Boys stand back and stand by.” The Proud Boys shout back at him with gusto for his shout out to them.

December 18, 2020 he activates his most violently inclined followers to assemble on January 6th to fight election fraud. He ends a tweet repeatedly touting knowingly false stolen elections claims with a personal invitation “Be there, will be wild.” They again shout back at him approvingly.

On January 6, 2021 when all these guys show up for a wild time, he launches them toward the Capitol, warning them “we fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Is more proof required to show the desperate defeated candidate’s criminal intent to solicit and unleash a private army to commit this federal crime? More proof needed of a deliberate, premeditated, coordinated action plan and many acts done to carry it out? Merrick? Are we all missing something here?

Another giant of the Senate

A reminder of this great American statesman and defender of democracy, from today’s Washington Post:

Even before Jan. 6 itself, Graham had evaluated and rejected Trump’s claims about fraud. A scene in the Bob Woodward and Robert Costa book “Peril” depicts aide Lee Holmes discussing with Graham purported evidence of fraud passed along by the White House in a series of memos.

“Holmes found the sloppiness, the overbearing tone of certainty, and the inconsistencies disqualifying. The three memos added up to nothing. …”
“Holmes reported to Graham that the data in the memos were a concoction, with a bullying tone and eighth grade writing.”


“Graham looked over the memos. ‘Third grade,’ he said.

Holmes said part of the claim was based on an affidavit.

“Graham said, ‘I can get an affidavit tomorrow saying the world is flat.’ “

You sure enough can, Lindsey, thousands of ’em.

Perfect shills

shamelessness is a virtue
2024? 2024? USA! USA!!!

Barr’s core premise, absolute protection of a “transactional” far-right useful idiot president from all charges, no matter how much evidence of guilt, is untenable — unless you are the top law enforcement officer in the nation who gets to decide what is “tenable”. The lowest circle of hell is reserved for pious, bullying fucks like Barr, now on a sad-faced rehab tour trying to shill for his book on how he was right all along and the real threat facing our nation comes from Commies, anti-fascists, racist Blacks and goddamned hippies intent on forcing their perverted version of “equal justice” on reactionary white people who are the real victims.

Be audacious!

Just four great hits from his tenure as top enabler, and saucy, obliging gunsel (in the Dashiell Hammett sense of the word) of an insane two year old Unitary Executive — there is no institutional racism in law enforcement and Blacks better shape the fuck up and show some goddamned respect if they want protection from the totally non-racist criminal justice system; a peaceful protest may be broken up by force if an insane president demands “domination” of the streets; that massive voter fraud from mail-in ballots during a pandemic would occur was ‘obvious”; the lies that an insane Trump loyalist pled guilty to, twice, were “immaterial”. You know what’s immaterial, Bagpiper? You and your fucking mother. Here’s Glenn Kirschner on our less than perfect shill of the day, Bill Barr:

Bagpiper blows

Heather Cox Richardson, in a post describing the mounting evidence of an extensive seditious conspiracy and an insurrection to keep Trumpie in power highlighted the increased determination of the Republican Party to turn the clock all the way back to pre-Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment days with the so-called Independent state Legislature Doctrine. This doctrine is a variation on the old slavers’ states’ rights argument, publicly embraced by four of the Trump Six so far. The theory would allow Republican-controlled state legislatures to throw out any votes they didn’t like and send their own electors in 2024. They’d use this legal theory, codified in state law, instead of staging a series of frivolous lawsuits and launching a desperate riot. Here’s the fucking religiously and politically zealous bagpiper, William Pelham Barr:

Trump’s attorney general William Barr has just published a book detailing how Trump lied about the election and threatened democracy. And yet, on a tour to sell the book, Barr on Monday told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that he would nonetheless vote for Trump if he were the Republican nominee in 2024. “Because I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic Party, it’s inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee,” he said.

Good op ed on a fat fascist fuck rebranding himself as a defender of democracy

Sample paragraphs from Dana Milbanks:

Barr is just the latest in the parade of former Trump officials to wash their hands of him long after their public condemnation would have done any good: John Bolton, John F. Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Reince Priebus, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Michael Cohen, Anthony Scaramucci, H.R. McMaster and many more.


But nobody in the administration did more to enable Trump’s deceptions and assaults on democracy than Barr. He buried the Mueller report while issuing a public summary that misrepresented it; he alleged the Obama administration “spied” on the Trump campaign, and he appointed a prosecutor who is, years later, still trying to prove true Trump’s paranoid fantasy; he scoured the world for evidence to discredit the Trump-Russia probe; his Justice Department gave credibility to Rudy Giuliani’s ravings about the Bidens in Ukraine; he tried to give favorable treatment to Trump cronies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone; he justified the violent assault on peaceful demonstrators in Lafayette Square; he made unfounded allegations against “antifa” and assembled a militia-like force of often-unidentified federal police in D.C. And on, and on.

Before you bother watching an interview with this pugnacious, ethically retarded culture warrior, take a moment to read the op ed.

https://wapo.st/3HIQ6M3