We Are All Don Bacon’s Wife: The Threats Trump Elicits for Personal Gain
I’ve been staring at a screen all morning trying to get my mind around the way that WaPo reported that emergency response personnel in North Carolina had to relocate after threats from an armed militia … without once mentioning lies from Donald Trump or Elon Musk.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday, an official with the U.S. Forest Service, which is supporting recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sent an urgent message to numerous federal agencies warning that “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately. The message stated that National Guard troops ‘had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA.’”
“The IMTs [incident management teams] have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county,” the email added.
Armed militias didn’t start hunting FEMA personnel in a vacuum. They did so after Trump launched a deliberate campaign of lies about FEMA to serve his own personal needs.
And yet, WaPo simply disappeared Trump’s role in deliberately creating threats so serious they’ve interrupted disaster response.
Donald Trump deliberately made disaster relief harder as part of his campaign. Donald Trump deliberately disrupted the quiet success of Springfield, OH, to serve his campaign. Donald Trump deliberately harmed Aurora, CO, to serve his campaign.
Former spooks warning about Russia
Republicans who vote to impeach him or who investigate his riot
Republicans who uphold democracy
Ruby Freeman and other election workers
No one is safe from Trump’s threats. Yet a naive belief among Trump supporters can benefit from being part of Trump’s in-group nevertheless makes precisely these threats popular.
Without penalties for lies and threats of violence, these people are rewarded for their nefarious activities. The press and media are now enablers for our country’s destruction. Do they think they will survive a dictatorship by these people?
Without penalties for lies and threats, lies and threats become legal. IOKIYR
They don’t become legal, because legal doesn’t enter into it.
Is it just our press and media who are enablers? Could it simply be the legal system is responsible for Trump? Our legal system is bought and paid for. It needs a complete redo, update, improved… If you are rich you don’t go to jail. You get to pick the judges and jury when you are rich.
And just one more other fucking thing! Health care. If you are rich you get health care. If you are poor you don’t deserve it. So, yup, the affordable care act is unaffordable.
I wonder what it is like to live in a real democracy?
If you are poor in this fucking place, you are trapped in a world of “you can’t have it, it is someone else’s”
It is our legal system that is preventing democracy.
“I’ve been staring at a screen all morning trying to get my mind around the way that WaPo reported that emergency response personnel in North Carolina had to relocate after threats from an armed militia … without once mentioning lies from Donald Trump or Elon Musk”
At least retired Appeals Court Judge Luttig calls it out correctly once:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5020277/judge-luttig-warns-president-trump-allies-clear-present-danger-american-democracy
EW, your list, combine with Luttig s warning, should be a Clear and Present Danger 101 class. In fact, it should be made into a political ad.
I entirely agree.
We in this community are close followers of Trump’s doings.
In particular we have followed normalisation of political violence which is an inherent part of his agenda.
Nevertheless going through this list forced me to consider the breadth and depth of what Trump has done to effect the normalisation of violence.
One becomes accustomed to acknowledging to oneself “here he goes again”, and the outrage fatigue means that is becomes difficult to retain a sense of both the trees and the extent of the wood.
I know the list is not intended to be a complete and comprehensive survey, but it very usefully sets out the scope and breadth of the problem in a way which should shock yet should not surprise,
For completeness, I’d add the women that he abused and then threatened. And, oh yea, the minor girls he raped and threatened.
I could go on.
Most of my friends, family, are ardent Democrats, Harris supporters, and fairly well read. None of them are aware of the number and danger of these overt threats. Many thanks to Marcy for documenting and nailing down the details of what is happening. It is just so easy to dismiss or miss the severity of the threat posed by Trump and his enablers and hangers-on.
I guess too much for local authorities to arrest Trump for inciting violence at a 2016 rally; but the press could care less as well. It was fun! Never seen anything like it!
Civil claims dismissed on amongst other things 1A grounds, by Kentucky Appeal Court.
Seems a criminal case was likely to have suffered same fate.
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-wins-dismissal-of-inciting-to-riot-lawsuit-over-2016-rally-idUSKCN1LR2B9/
CNN reported that Ash County N.C. was also affected and quoted the Sheriff who issued a statement urging residents “to stay calm and not stir the pot”
The report linked the problem to disinformation on social media, but failed to call out anyone, whether MAGA republicans in a generalised way, or Trump or Musk in particular for stoking the disinformation.
https://youtu.be/AyOxSb65hNQ
Such avoidance of identifying the cause(s) of and the persons responsible for the disinformation, treats the disinformation as if it is an extreme but naturally occurring event.
I appreciate that there’s a journalistic calculus involved in avoiding talking up the problem, when the broader context of disaster relief across many districts in several states is in some senses the most important matter
But the effect of not pointing to the political causes of disinformation and potential violence is to take one more step towards the normalisation of violence as an expected response to any perturbation of social order, and normalising the weaponisation of disaster management as an occasion for armed political groups to flex their muscles.
Last time I looked, “social media” is (a) hardly monolithic, and (b) contains specific markers [whether real IDs or pseudonyms) that differentiate the authors and those who forward things.
Pro online veterinary tip: to castrate a troll, you name them.
Has the militia report been confirmed yet? I’ve been looking but so far all I find at all reliable is a lone nut.
I posted this https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/10/14/we-are-all-don-bacons-wife-the-threats-trump-elicits-for-personal-gain/#comment-1074192
In the next thread down because the reportage had moved on, and Rayne linked to the WaPo coverage
Given the proximity of that comment I didn’t think it was necessary to update the sub thread I started .
Apologies if I have caused confusion by not clarifying this sooner.
“I’ve been staring at a screen all morning trying to get my mind around the way that WaPo reported that emergency response personnel in North Carolina had to relocate after threats from an armed militia … without once mentioning lies from Donald Trump or Elon Musk.”
They finally got around to it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/14/militia-threats-trace-to-trump-conspiracies/
Two hour lag – at least the relevant analysis immediately follows the story on front page.
So lone wolf/big mouth not armed group it would seem.
“Sheriffs in Rutherford County responded to reports of what they called “credible threats” against relief workers and arrested a suspect, William Jacob Parsons, during a traffic stop on Saturday.
Mr Parsons allegedly made the threats at a local store
…
Mr Parsons was charged with “going armed to the terror of the people,” a crime under state law punishable by a maximum of 120 days in jail, with bail set at $10,000, authorities said.
…
Lt McComas told the BBC that a single individual was behind the threats directed at aid workers in the county…
There were initial reports that a “truck load of militia” were involved with the threats, but the sheriff’s office said it determined Mr Parsons acted alone.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgndn8zdreo.amp
However, that this turned out to have been not the organised group threat that was first feared, does not mean that such potential consequences of deliberate disinformation should be ignored.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the facts of this incident will serve as a basis for Trumpers to claim that the media blew up the story in order to attack Trump and MAGA legitimate political speech etc etc.
120 days in jail as a maximum sentence? Shouldn’t there be deterrence for threatening federal employees?
Of course “heroes” musk and trump do it daily so it’s normalized.
Don’t these sheriffs in right wing states and counties get tired of the danger thier party puts them in?
How stochastic terrorism works: you only need one. In this case, Mr. Parsons.
Trump is a typical terrorist leader. Implausible deniability gets them power, which gets them unquestionable deniability.
Couldn’t take anymore from the Washington Post. Way past my endurance for bullshite consumpton.
Imaging how bad they are if I cancelled weeks before the election.
Although I miss Jen Rubin.
That didn’t last long. Sigh. As of 6:30pm EDT, The Fix “…trace to Trump-fueled misinformation” is no longer adjacent to the updated article noting the arrest of one man. It can only be found by scrolling way down, past the “Better Living” section to Politics.
It figures. Makes me wonder if this is their internal convention or if they received nasty phone calls.
Sadly, a significant number of the sheriff and/or deputies in NC are in the MAGA camp. they definitely ignore any misbehavior as long as possible…
I have wondered in particular this weekend on the actions of Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and the whole “3rd assassination attempt” narrative he created which managed to suck up a lot of media coverage.
Bianca is/was an OathKeeper
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/06/1043651361/oath-keepers-california-sheriff-chad-bianco-january-6-us-capitol
He is MAGA to the core, openly supporting and campaigning for Trump and MAGA republicans in upcoming elections. His term of office runs till 2028, but he is also known to be considering running for California Governor in 2026 see “Firebrand sheriff and Fox News favorite considering run for California governor”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/11/bianco-california-governor-00151890
So pure self aggrandisement and getting himself on the National News can’t be ruled out as the sole motive. But running interference in the News cycle, and or adding to the myth of Trump the Martyr would surely get him points with people he wants to impress and gain favor from.
“Yet a naïve belief among Trump supporters can benefit from being part of Trump’s in-group nevertheless makes precisely these threats popular.” The supporters I know (or better put: the opponents of Hillary, Biden, Harris) are not naïve so much as transactional, just like Trump. They’re counting on being well down the list of people who’ll become collateral damage. Sure, it’ll be a shock when they realize they’ve played themselves, but that’s what the illegal machine gun behind the bookcase is for. (I may have at least 2 relations with illegal machine guns.)
I’m no fan of Churchill, but this comes to mind: “Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.” (While England Slept, 1938)
I recall before Trump even took office in Dec, 2016, that the leader of the steel workers union at Carrier was getting those Trump inspired threats. All for merely pointing out that Trump was lying about the jobs he was saving.
“Fight, fight, fight” is the call to action from Trump. Followers and political Republican pals drink the drug of hate to fight his battles. Angry, aggressive, abusive and violent behavior is rewarded fueled by bigotry is dangerous and threatening to peoples lives. Heightened hateful words giving permission for bully behavior leading to violence.
Trump’s bully tactics is the political objective. He is sadistic, an exploiter of humanity lacking emotional intelligence. The GOP have been and continue to be an advocate for abuse rewarding and excusing violent behavior. They are complicit to the core.
Republicans had an opportunity to impeach him twice plus speak out against his cruelty to hold him accountable. They did not. The party of family values have become the party of abuse.
“Violence is a tool of the ignorant.” Flip Wilson
well, to be truthful, they never were the party of “family values”. It was mostly a smoke screen to use the culture wars to hide the ball about taxes and deregulation.
They weren’t the party of morality, or law’n’order either, except as they wanted to impose their values on everyone else.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
-Isaac Asimov
it is infuriating that we are riding the first amendment to out destruction.
I lived in dread during the early pandemic, not just because of the virus but because of the violence against east Asian Americans incited by Trump’s repeatedly calling COVID the “Chinese Virus”, “China Virus” and “Kung Flu” and not discouraging his staff from doing the same racist crap.
People died because of this fearmongering — it’s like everyone has forgotten the women murdered during a mass shooting in Georgia.
Looks like EW readers keep at it! Two references in the comments with receipts of other “Don Beacon’s Wife” threats to update the list!
Thank you Rayne and Memory hole!
In the comments of the previous post, Inner Monologue added a link to a Harpers Mag article from 1941. Something about “who will go nazi?” The author made a thinking game about who would become a nazi. In a similar vein, I imagine the community here could come up with a long list of individuals threatened due to Trumps intentional comments and tweets.
Inner Monologue did us a real favor with that link.
I’ve been musing about the upcoming rally at the Madison Square Garden.
Like…who’s gonna’ attend?
I’m thinking about an earlier insight shared by a fellow traveler. The question asked is “What do you call the audience, when the speaker is a Nazi/”
Answer: Nazis
I can’t look into this now but I suspect there was an uptick in anti-Hispanic/anti-Latino violence as well because of Trump’s fearmongering about the border.
Enforcement did its own share of violence, like deporting persons who were legally here in the US. I can think of one veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth went to bat for: https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases/one-year-after-trump-administration-deported-illinois-veteran-duckworth-re-introduces-comprehensive-bill-package-to-protect-veterans-and-servicemembers-from-unfair-treatment
Pretty sure there was at least one more veteran in Michigan and another in Florida — there had been that stupid push for ICE to demand proof of citizenship from persons in states within 100-mile federal border. I recall a case where a couple women speaking Spanish in upper Midwest were harassed on the same basis; I want to say it happened in Montana but I can’t be certain.
When Trump gave his shock troops within DHS permission slips to be dicks, MAGAs took note and went along. Ditto for other lapses in law enforcement to protect civil rights, like the Unite the Right “good people on both sides” bullshit which led to a protester’s death when a white nationalist ran her over and at least one protester being beaten.
*shudder* I don’t want to go back. I’m nauseated just thinking about how bad it’s already been and how insanely bad it could be if Trump-Vance should take the White House.
Don’t forget this mass shooting in El Paso. Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting
“The deadliest attack on Latinos, in modern American history.”
Lots of common purpose with Trump.
To the question you pose, Dannyboy, Madison Square Garden also has been the venue for fight nights – the UFC and other mixed martial arts show. This article in the NYT provides the framework for how Trump conceives of his campaign, as well as revealing the connections to folks like Dan Bongino, Candace Owens, Joe Rogan, who appeal to that demographic group of young white men.
Quite clarifying; no paywall:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/14/business/dana-white-ufc-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QU4.-EUY.Npfj_NMjeD-a&smid=url-share
Thanks for getting me current; where I left off, Trump was WWE, but now I’m up-to-date.
Dana White strikes me as just another sociopath in Trump’s orbit (Or do I underestimate, and should know of his psychopathics?)
This article is great, as a tease for other commenters, there’s this:
“Did he fill a need or create one? Did he anticipate America circa 2024 — the collective stomach for a certain kind of gruesome spectacle, the period of national combat beyond the cage — or did he help make it so?
The answers are yes, friends say, and Mr. White’s explanation is simple.
“America has become so soft,” he told an interviewer last year, pinching his fingers together. “If you even have this much savage in you, everything out there right now is for the taking.”
Here’s White’s Best Moment: “He has survived scandals that might have felled most contemporaries, suffering little consequence last year after he was videotaped slapping his wife at a nightclub.”
Another addition, which comes under the rubric of attacks on the justice system, but deserves a specific mention IMHO
Attempts to Dox Jurors and Grand Jurors
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/05/31/tech/threats-doxxing-trump-jurors
Guest Essay
I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield.
Sept. 20, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/opinion/springfield-haitian-migrants-ohio.html
“Bomb threats — all hoaxes — continue and temporarily closed at least two schools, put the hospital on lockdown and shuttered City Hall. The two local colleges have gone remote. I have posted Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in each school building in Springfield so the schools can remain open, teachers and children can feel safe and students can continue to learn. On the troopers’ first day in the schools, Fran and I visited Simon Kenton Elementary, where reassured teachers told us: ‘Yesterday was rough. Today was a good day.’
As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there. . . . ”
With all that he says in that op-ed, how can he call himself a “supporter” of the demagogues?
If you’re looking for courage from Mike DeWine, or any other current Republican elected official, you’re looking in the wrong place.
“If you’re looking for courage from Mike de Whine, . . .”
Fixed it for you.
I wouldn’t even say that miserably pathetic op-ed was whining. Merely whimpering.
It’s sadly funny, the performative masculinity from the GOP, when not a single one of these RepubliKlowns ever stands up for anything.
I just don’t understand anyone who can still support Donald Trump after watching him spread division, lies and hate throughout the U.S. body politic for the last 9 years.
Transactional may describe these people who still support Trump. But I think “anti-social assholes” may also describe them.
Anyone who still supports Trump after all the harm he’s caused, fails my decent-human-being test. I think Trump supporters are just lousy people, and I resent having to share a planet with them.
‘I just don’t understand anyone who can still support Donald Trump after watching him spread division, lies and hate throughout the U.S. body politic for the last 9 years.’
Agreed.
Trump puts it all out in front of us: he tells us he wants to lock up everybody who ever crossed him; he tells us he will use the army against anybody he doesn’t like; he tells us he wouldn’t rape a woman who wasn’t his type. What more do you need to know? If you are supporting that asshole, you are not a nice person.
I hope Harris’s attempts to reveal, showcase, demonstrate, publicise that sort of crap out to the public cut through.
“Ruby Freeman and other election workers” [including elected officials]:
Colorado’s Elections Chief Took on Trump. She Needed Extra Security As She Gave Birth Jena Griswold, Colorado’s [Democratic] secretary of state, can say with certainty: “The MAGA threat environment follows us through every step of life” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-jena-griswold-colorado-elections-security-birth-1235132716/
Asawin Suebsaeng October 13, 2024
DOJ has an Election Threats Taskforce:
https://www.justice.gov/voting/election-threats
Under “Recent Taskforce Cases”, #17 is the man charged related to the above case:
United States vs. Teak Brockbank [link] (District of Colorado): Charged in connection with a series of online threats he made toward election officials in Colorado and Arizona, a Colorado state judge, and federal law enforcement agents. Preliminary and detention hearings were held on Aug. 28, 2024.
Some quotes from Michael FANONE which were cut from the article:
https://bsky.app/profile/swin24.bsky.social/post/3l6fp5turoy2k
October 13, 2024 at 11:21 AM
Whenever Trump inciting violence or other illegal actions, but especially violence, is an issue, the Michael Cohen hearing before the House in February, 2019, comes to my mind again: Cohen’s description of how Trump knows to give orders without giving direct instructions, but those close to him know what he means. Since the fall of 2020 with the “stand back and stand by” it’s known that the members of the spreading right-wing militias understand this language. Unfortunately, many media people still go for Trump’s wordings literally instead for the not-so-hidden meaning.
ew: “Donald Trump deliberately harmed Aurora, CO, to serve his campaign.”
According to this person who was reposted by Helen Kennedy,
TRUMP and RABBLE were in the outskirts of the city.
https://bsky.app/profile/thx4sharingjerk.bsky.social/post/3l6bggj4wey2m
October 11, 2024 at 6:35 PM
How like Trump to arrange his travel with a quick getaway in mind. But you don’t have to be in Aurora to trash it.
The main airport in Denver is technically part of the city, but 10-15 miles NE of it, with little around it. Aurora is a dense suburb, about 8 miles due east of the city center.
For comparison, Boulder is about 25 miles NW, on the edge of the Front Range. Golden, the original home of Coors Beer, is about 15 miles west. And Colorado Springs, home to fundamentalist separatists and the Air Force Academy, is about 65 miles due south.
Thanks for the info, EoH!
But, yeah…you don’t actually have to know anything about Aurora to trash it.
And the RABBLE [from who knows where] doesn’t either.
For fun, use google maps, search for “Aurora, CO” to get the city boundary, and turn on Satellite View. The Gaylord Resort where he held his rally is only in Aurora because of that rather convoluted pattern of annexation and non-annexation of prairie to the east. That pattern tells me that large land developers have sway with the city government, and are willing to start paying minimal property taxes to get infrastructure & utilities for their forthcoming subdivisions, presumably cheaper than they could build the infrastructure themselves. In other words: it ain’t Venezuelan migrants taking over the city and costing a huge chunk of the city budget.
I agree this is all unnerving but at 73 years old my insight into past presidential elections is IMO at this point TFG & his gangster smooth Vance are running scared and promoting disorder, to fire up their base for lack of having a plurality, i.e. a majority without cross voters. I don’t see any Democrats or Independents wanting to weigh in on a sinking ship adding in even Republicans are not going to vote for them.
My point is I think these cross vote type of voters + will be turned off from this insanity. I think climate change factors into who in a hurricane disaster would want their help & resources threatened? Most people have some common goodness sense. United States of America. If memory serves me.
“We are all Don Bacon’s wife!”
Should be a t-shirt.
Or a billboard.
This curiously correlative connection between Trump and ultra-aggressive followers is by no means new. Some years ago, when Trump was seeking permission to trash a site of special scientific interest in NE Scotland to build a golf course*, his original obstacle was a planning committee of the local council that decided it was in no way in the public interest to proceed. As if by magic the councillors who voted the request down were suddenly the targets of all sorts of aggression, merely verbal in the letters columns of local newspapers but also angry people turning up on their doorsteps. Locals who stood their ground against Trump mysteriously had their water supply interrupted, among many other unpleasant things.
Since then, Trump seems to have developed this mysterious “con-fluence” to a fine art. Plus guns.
*(An originally-supportive Scottish Government let him have his way, but the promised riches and vast job opportunities – naturally! – never materialised. It had the last laugh, though. It allowed a major windfarm to proceed directly offshore, in full view. His legal cases all failed. Hence Trump’s ongoing ramblings against wind turbines.)
You’ve Been Trumped Too (2020) | Full Film (The film Trump Organization tried to suppress) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9RweR9EUSg)
Investigative journalist Anthony Baxter travels between the US Presidential race and the Scottish countryside to chronicle the troubling confrontation between Donald Trump and a feisty 92-year-old widow, Molly Forbes, as she refuses to make way for his golf course. This shocking insight to a David and goliath battle is a remarkable document of the disconnect between political rhetoric and the lives of ordinary people.
Yes, and ironically, average rural MAGA cultists have way more in common (in situation if not in belief) with ordinary people like the Forbeses than with high-dealing shysters like Trump.
If only they realised.
Reminds me of the movie Local Hero (1983).
Local Hero turned out differently — Donald Trump is no Burt Lancaster — as Trump ultimately won and will build his course, no matter the environmental degradation. “Donald Trump to open second Aberdeenshire golf course in 2025.” Tie that in with this second news article, which is for Rayne. “Trump hands Scottish golf course £5m loan as losses double.”
Also useful to know that greens fees at Trump’s other Scottish course are the highest in Scotland: a thousand pounds a round. Top greens fees in the USA, at a nominally accessible course, Shadow Creek, are about $1250, making Trump’s fees higher by about $50. TPC Sawgrass goes for a mere $900/round.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr3jyynxx8o
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/15/trump-hands-scottish-golf-course-5m-loan-losses-double/
https://clubhouse.swingu.com/lifestyle/15-most-expensive-public-course-greens-fees-in-the-us-2024/
And what about the Biden campaign bus incident in Texas, and was it in Arizona, where a bird sanctuary had to close because of threats by right wing militia types who accused the birdwatchers who tended the place of providing aid to migrants crossing the desert?
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Here’s a quote I just encountered today. It seems pretty apropos:
-Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932
I think he’s saying violence is the highest human calling. Sounds like something Trump would like, right? I mean, Bannon is practically quoting this, isn’t he?
Mussolini’s attitude to political violence was evident from early in his political career and in the adoption of the Roman fasces as his party’s symbol.
https://blog.oup.com/2022/10/the-radical-reinterpretation-of-the-fasces-in-mussolinis-italy/
Prior to Mussolini, fascio was a term in common political use in Italy, and referred to the bundle = group. So many groups of the right and left were referred to as fascisti.
November 1914, when Benito Mussolini, then prominent as a revolutionary socialist, tried to mobilize popular opinion for Italy to intervene in World War I, he gave the name “Autonomous Fasci of Revolutionary Action“ to his then group.
As early as February 1918 he had been pressing for the appointment of a dictator in Italy, ‘a man who is ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep’.
When Mussolini first formed his new paramilitary political group in May 1919 he called it Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (The Italian Combat Squad/Group), months later Mussolini entered the group as “Fascist Bloc” in the Italian general election of 16 November 1919.
In late October his campaign proclaimed that “the Fascist emblem signifies unity, force and justice” when he adopted the Roman symbol of the fasces as the party emblem. Notably the Mussolini version of it showed Roman fasces with cords loosened at the base of the bundle, evidently in the process of being readied for punitive use.
As I recall from George Seldes’ Sawdust Caesar, Mussolini was against Italy joining in WWI until he was paid not to have that opinion.
From my reading of history, world Socialism lost almost all its momentum when it stopped being internationalist as a movement and the national Socialist parties lined up with their countries on both sides of WWI. Even in USAmerica. The high point of Socialism here was the election of 1918 and it’s been all downhill since then for Socialism (with the machinations of the Comintern not helping).
He’s also avoiding the consequences of his philosophy. The widespread death, maiming, and destruction. The utter physical and emotional exhaustion of the population. Its reduction to being cogs in a machine, whether capitalist or dictatorial. There’s nothing noble about it.
‘There’s nothing noble about it.’
I agree, I hate the loss of life and potential for human creativity/potential. But there are a surprisingly large number of people who think that war brings out some mythical quality of manhood. For others, it’s a money-making machine.
But I think there is some hope: I don’t think younger folks are as sold on those values as Trump and his ilk would like. I still have some hope in young people :-)
America is for everyone.
The GOP no longer considers The Handmaid’s Tale as dystopian fiction but as an attainable goal.
It’s an instruction manual.
Yeah, your country is in trouble. Not red alert just yet, but close to.
Will the election outcome suspend it,
shut it down? I hope so. But don’t expect so.
Many many people will need to remind Americans of their Constitution and much else. You can do that.
Threatening FEMA staff? That is a new weird one.
The sewage flowing from Trump’s mouth is so weird it hard to wrap my head around. Its not that I’ve never heard things like this, but never some one running for President of the U.S.A.
Trump and some of his maybe transactional but what happens when people have nothing left to trade. People ought to give some thought to falling out of favour with Trump if he goes down his road of threats and turns it into reality.
Jim Jordan threatening people? Threatening the wife of another Republican official? Always suspected the man was weird but that is over the top. Jordan may think he is tough, but he is more like what the sibling used to call a “pip squeak”. People like Jordan threaten spouses because they are weak.
What comes out of Trump’s mouth would be considered “hate speech” in other countries. Trump has threatened to use the national guard against people if he is elected and if that won’t work he’ll use the American military. Only idiotic dictators do that.. Trump might want to be careful about relying on the military to silence American citizens. They could just refuse to kill their own.
Don’t know where this is going to end if Trump is elected.
Harris is a much better candidate. she is also smarter, kinder, nicer, better mannered
Thank you for this post.
“Trump might want to be careful about relying on the military to silence American citizens. They could just refuse to kill their own.”
One would hope so. But you will recall the Joint Chiefs felt it necessary to remind the entire military of their oaths to the Constitution
https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/01/12/956170188/joint-chiefs-remind-u-s-forces-that-they-defend-the-constitution
That is because the hard right deliberately seek to recruit military veterans (following the historical precedents of fascist movements everywhere)
The purpose is two fold.
1 to create cadres of skilled and at least semi disciplined street fighters inured to violence
2 as a bridge to influence and infiltrate their politics into active military units, and sow disaffection/encourage active support for disaffected veterans.
And see
Ken Harbaugh film
•Against All Enemies•
https://youtu.be/D2uwOZhqGS0
Which documents the recruitment of vets to the extreme right.
‘Why would US military veterans take up arms against the country they swore an oath to protect? Through gripping personal perspectives from all sides of this ongoing crisis, Against All Enemies goes deep inside the violent extremist movement in America, alongside the Proud Boys, 3 Percenters, and with never-before-seen footage of the Oath Keepers.’
Thanks, SteveBev.
Just for timing purposes, this film premiered on 8/5/24.
We are not only All Don Bacon’s Wife, but
We are NOW “All TRUMP’s Enemies”.
See HARRIS in Erie, PA, link and transcript here:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/10/14/jd-vance-asserts-that-he-and-trump-cannot-win-legitimately/#comment-1074295
TRUMP’s phrase: “The enemy within.”