Stephan: More and more I am seeing comments from Republicans advocating secession. I don't believe for a minute, as this article confirms, that what they actually want is to split up the U.S.. For one thing, Republican governance is so inferior that the Red value states could not function if they were not underwritten by the Blue value states. For every dollar a Blue state puts into the treasury it takes out less than a dollar in federal benefits. For every dollar a Red state puts in they take out more than a dollar. The difference is the amount the Blue states underwrite the Red states.
What the Red states do want is a christofascist authoritarian government in which White men are always in command.
The Republican drive for Secession
As MAGA World’s hopes for an election redo have slipped away, an equally improbable idea has begun to percolate among Donald Trump’s most bitterly disappointed followers: secession.
Texas GOP chair Allen West floated the idea of a new union of “law-abiding states,” and Texas State Rep. Kyle Biedermann—previously best known for dressing up as “gay Hitler”—pledged to file a bill in Austin to put the question of Texas secession to voters. Rep. Randy Weber also posted pro-secession material on his Facebook page, becoming the first official in Washington to advocate for disintegrating the U.S. Trump’s most reliable media supporters have likewise spread the idea nationally. Rush Limbaugh, recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this month claimed the country was suddenly “trending toward secession.” Fellow arch-conspiracist Glenn Beck echoed the argument a few days later, as did a raft of blue-check authoritarians. American militias have now begun picking up the scent; one just the other day
Winston Ross and Pilar Melendez, Reporters - Daily Beast
Stephan: I am seeing more and more stories about right-wing militia thugs, the modern American equivalent of Hitler's Brown Shirts, stirred up by Trump, coming out of their sewers to threaten democracy. Here is the latest story from this trend, this one from Oregon.
Oregon militia thugs
SALEM, OREGON — A group of about 300 demonstrators attempted to force their way into two separate entrances of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, outraged lawmakers were holding a special session closed to the public.
The crowd was a loose collection of members of the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups, many of them are armed with pistols and rifles. At one point during the demonstration, which began around 9 a.m., a woman tried to climb in a window on the west side of the government building. Oregon State Troopers, however, repelled her—before two more troopers showed up to insist that she get off the ledge.
Those troopers were quickly chased off by screaming protesters, many of them toting long black rifles.
Minutes later, the crowd moved to the building’s north entrance and attempted to push their way in. A dozen more troopers arrived at the door, declared it an unlawful assembly, and pushed the crowd back, using some kind of deterrent in a series of “pop” sounds, at which point the protesters […]
Stephan: Unless you read right-wing websites, or watch faux news operations like Fox, NewsMax, and the like you really can't get an accurate sense of how active, organized, and expanding right-wing male dominant White militias have become. Even in my rural community, we are seeing this. This is a very alarming trend because it suggests that we are heading to a period of extensive civil violence.
A man hold his hand to his heart as a Proud Boys organizer recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a Proud Boys rally at Delta Park in Portland, Oregon on September 26, 2020. Credit: Maranie R. Staab/AFP/Getty
The year 2020 has been defined by the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the US presidential election.
These massive news events also fuelled a growing far-right movement across the United States and the world.
From The Proud Boys to the Boogaloo movement, 20 photos show how far-right groups found the limelight this year.
The far-right movement came out of the shadows in the last year.
The year 2020, defined by a global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, brought white supremacists, right-wing extremists, and other groups promoting social unrest into the limelight.
From the Proud Boys to QAnon, the armed militias, and the Boogaloo Bois, scroll down to find out more about how far-right extremism made its way back into the limelight in 2020.
The year 2020 has been defined by white supremacists’ rapid […]
Stephan: We have 30 more days of madness and, given what has happened since the election in November, we can expect much evil to be attempted by Trump before he is forced to leave. Just today, Trump is still trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn the election.
As all of this has gone I keep wondering what would have happened if the Senate Republicans had had the spine and integrity to convict Trump of his impeachment and removed both him and Pence from office. Pelosi would have become President. A very different election would have occurred; the Covid-19 Pandemic would have been handled competently, and tens of thousands, perhaps a hundred thousand of our friends and family would still be alive; America would still be respected in the world; and, the economy would not have tanked in the way it has, and millions would not have been reduced to hunger and poverty. History will condemn the Republican senators, but that will be small comfort to those of us who have been forced to live through these months because of the failure of Mitch McConnell and his Republican Senate colleagues.
The Supreme Court
President Donald Trump’s campaign said on Sunday it would again ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn results from the Nov. 3 election, its latest long-shot effort to subvert the electoral process and sow doubt over the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
In a statement issued by the campaign, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the campaign had filed a petition asking the high court to reverse three rulings by a Pennsylvania state court interpreting the state’s rules for mail-in ballots.
“The Campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud,” Giuliani said in a statement.
Giuliani said the filing sought all “appropriate remedies,” including an order allowing Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature to award the state’s 20 electoral votes to Trump. Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes.
The petition is “frivolous” and is not going to stop Biden from becoming president on Jan. 20, said Joshua Douglas, an election law professor at the University of Kentucky.
“The Court will shut it down quickly,” Douglas said.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 11 rejected a lawsuit […]
Stephan: I think historians in the future will be very clear that if Trump was not an active Russian agent, he was what Lenin called "a useful idiot." The facts proving this are clear and undeniable. Here they are.
Putin and Trump his Russian asset
One need not dabble in conspiracy theories to ask a simple question today: What should be done about Donald Trump having served as a Russian asset for the past four years?
Today’s 24/7 news cycles are not suited for this task. They rely upon the instant gratification of breaking news stories as they present themselves, not analysis of how events might […]
