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Not all Trump supporters are Nazis
but all the Nazis are Trump supporters

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Today's Stochastic Threat

I think we all know what "guard the vote" will mean to the MAGA thugs.

Trump calls on supporters to 'guard the vote' in Democratic-run US cities

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, told his supporters on Saturday to "go into" Philadelphia and two other Democratic-run cities to "guard the vote" in 2024, repeating his unfounded claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 as justification for the call to action.

Speaking at two events in Iowa, Trump also sought to counter growing concern among Democrats and some Republicans that his potential return to the White House posed a threat to democracy.

Even as he faces criminal charges over his efforts to reverse his 2020 loss, Trump attempted to flip the script and paint the winner, President Joe Biden, as a dangerous autocrat, calling him a communist, fascist and a tyrant.

A spokesperson for Biden's re-election campaign said Trump's comments portraying Biden as a threat to democracy were an attempt to divert the public's attention from his own problems.

Looking ahead to next year's general election, Trump said it was important to scrutinize the vote in the battleground states likely to determine the outcome. He singled out the biggest cities in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia - all Democratic strongholds at the center of the blizzard of false voter fraud claims made by Trump and his allies three years ago.

"So the most important part of what's coming up is to guard the vote. And you should go into Detroit and you should go into Philadelphia and you should go into some of these places, Atlanta," Trump said in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.

Trump's comments foreshadow what is likely to be a contentious election in November 2024. Despite the failure of dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies challenging the 2020 outcome, Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that he lost to President Joe Biden due to fraud.

Trump did not specify who he was asking to "go into" the battleground-state cities. A campaign aide, when asked to clarify, said he was referring to poll-watchers and volunteers whose objective would be to ensure a secure election.

That would mesh with plans outlined by the Republican National Committee, which is aiming to recruit and train tens of thousands of poll workers and watchers in states that are hotly contested because their voting preferences could swing either to Republicans or Democrats.

'VOLATILE PERIOD' FOR DEMOCRACY

The comments by Trump, president from 2017 to 2021, come amid growing scrutiny over his recent rhetoric on the campaign trail, which has included referring to his political enemies as "vermin," a word some historians said echoed the language of Nazi Germany.

Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, said Trump's comments calling for scrutiny of elections in large Democratic-controlled cities were concerning because he made them while seeking to undermine trust in U.S. elections.

"We are in a very volatile period in our democracy," Naftali said. "If he is seeking to increase trust in our system, he should be more explicit. But what he said today was in the context of his mistrust of our system."

In recent weeks Biden's re-election campaign has more aggressively gone after Trump, highlighting his mounting legal troubles and likely policies it argues would hurt the economy and damage the foundations of democracy. Trump, for instance, has vowed to use his power to imprison his political enemies.

"Donald Trump’s America in 2025 is one where the government is his personal weapon to lock up his political enemies,” campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in response to Trump's Iowa remarks.

"After spending a week defending his plan to rip health care away from millions of Americans, this is his latest desperate attempt at distraction — the American people see right through it and it won’t work.”

Trump is facing four criminal trials, including two accusing him of seeking to subvert the 2020 election, helped by a mob of his supporters who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

At an event in Cedar Rapids, Trump's campaign passed out signs reading 'BIDEN ATTACKS DEMOCRACY'. During his speech Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claim that Biden was using the Justice Department to go after him, among other alleged transgressions making Biden the threat to democracy.

"Joe Biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms," Trump said. "This campaign is a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Biden and the criminals."

Also on Saturday, Trump doubled down on comments made a few days earlier indicating he wanted to make significant changes to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, calling the healthcare insurance program used by millions of Americans "a disaster." He did not provide specifics.

Today's Instagram

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A Thought

Life is said to necessitate

finding your tolerable level

of permanent unhappiness.

Living requires

a constant effort

not to tolerate

being unhappy.

The Non-Debate Debate

Again - it's not a debate. It's a series of prepackaged ads and sound bites, punctuated by the occasional shout fest - basically, an episode of The Real Wives Of MAGAville.

Key takeaways from the fourth Republican debate

As the 2024 GOP primary field narrows, four contenders sparred on gender-affirming care for minors, fentanyl, military aggression toward China and more

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Four Republican presidential contenders clashed in Wednesday’s presidential primary debate, as former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to solidify their second-place position with less than six weeks left before the Iowa caucuses. Former president Donald Trump once again skipped the showdown.

Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
Haley, who has surpassed or tied DeSantis in early state public polling, found herself the target of attacks early on, and at one point former New Jersey governor Chris Christie came to her defense. Haley and DeSantis continued to tussle on China, while Christie used his airtime to hit Trump for skipping the debates. Christie accused his opponents onstage of being hesitant to cross Trump, who holds a dominant polling lead in the primary race. Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy espoused conspiracy theories and leveled personal attacks on his rivals.

The winners and losers of the fourth Republican debate

While moderators asked a range of questions from border security to gender-affirming care to Trump’s fitness for office, the candidates were not asked about abortion — an animating issue for conservatives and one of the most divisive issues of the 2024 cycle.

The debate, held here Wednesday at the University of Alabama, may be the final forum sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, as the party considers releasing the candidates to face off in other events.

Here’s what else stood out last night:

Trump’s absence overshadows the debate

The former president’s dismissal of the debates has continued to deny any of his rivals the opportunity to challenge him directly and diminished the events’ draw. Though considered risky at first, there is no sign Trump has paid any political price for skipping the debates — Wednesday he picked up the endorsement of host state Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R).

Christie used his first chance to speak, which didn’t come until roughly 17 minutes into the debate, to go straight for Trump, and argue that his 2024 rivals’ failure to attack Trump directly was the problem. Christie called Trump unfit for office, echoing alarms that the former president would govern as an autocrat based on his recent threats to send the Justice Department after his critics.

“They don’t want to talk about the fact that when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, or bully, who has taken shots at everybody,” Christie said of his rivals. “I’m in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit.”

Toward the end of the first hour, Haley said Trump deserved some blame for adding to the national debt during his administration. DeSantis then agreed that Republicans were responsible for deficit spending, but he did not single out Trump.

Moderator Megyn Kelly teased opening the second hour with more discussion of Trump, but she kicked it off by asking the candidates to respond to Trump’s proposals on blocking migrants based on ideology or religion. Christie took another opportunity to turn back to Trump’s character, drawing a mix of cheers and boos from the audience despite their being instructed to watch quietly. DeSantis offered a mix of critiques, from Trump’s age and electability to his conduct during the pandemic.

While Trump sought to upstage those gatherings with his own counterprogramming, he treated this one as not even worth competing with, spending the evening at a private fundraiser instead. Viewership declined over the course of the previous debates, and because last night’s debate was hosted by an upstart network and sponsored by an alternative video-hosting site, it was likely to draw a still-smaller audience.

Haley faces an onslaught and holds her ground

During the Republican primary debate on Dec. 6, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy held up his notebook that said “NIKKI= CORRUPT.” (Video: NewsNation)
Since the last debate about a month ago, Haley’s star has risen as the leading Trump alternative in the race, surpassing DeSantis for a distant second place in the three early states. Strong debate performances have fueled her ascent, earning second looks and powerful endorsements from both donors and voters.

That momentum has provoked fresh attacks from DeSantis, Christie and Ramaswamy that were all on display Wednesday night. Out of the gate, DeSantis accused Haley of caving to pressure from the left, the media and donors. Ramaswamy criticized her for taking donations from Democrats, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and for her proposal that all social media users should be verified, which she later walked back.

Haley appeared unruffled and hit back hard, calling the other candidates jealous of the support she’s gaining. “I love all the attention, fellas, thank you for that,” she said.

Christie came to Haley’s defense after Ramaswamy insulted her intelligence. Christie said he and Haley disagreed on policy but “what we don’t disagree on is this is a smart accomplished woman.” Both former governors have made inroads with the same group of independents and anti-Trump Republican voters in New Hampshire. Haley polls second behind Trump in the state, but Christie is pulling more than 10 percent of potential primary voters — a share that could prove essential to GOP consolidation efforts against Trump. Leading up to the debate, Christie called out Haley for shifting positions and accused her of trying to have it both ways on Trump.

Everybody hates Ramaswamy

During the Republican primary debate on Dec. 6, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie slammed businessman Vivek Ramaswamy for making personal insults. (Video: NewsNation)
Ramaswamy repeatedly used his time for outrageous provocations, promoting conspiracy theories that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was staged and that the 2020 election was stolen. As in previous debates, he made personal attacks on the other candidates, including calling Haley a “fascist,” drawing clear exasperation from them, the moderators and the audience.

After Ramaswamy insulted Haley’s intelligence, Christie came to her defense and seemed to capture the collective animosity onstage toward the political newcomer, engaging in a heated exchange.

“This is the fourth debate that you would be voted, in the first 20 minutes, as the most obnoxious blowhard in America,” Christie said. Ramaswamy swiped back with a dig at Christie’s weight.

Later, Ramaswamy held up his notepad where he’d scrawled in large print: “NIKKI = CORRUPT,” drawing boos from the crowd.

Asked by moderators whether she would like to respond, Haley replied, “No. It’s not worth my time.”

Christie goes on offense

After struggling to get words in during earlier debates, Christie established a clear role for himself in demanding accountability from Trump, as well as the other candidates.

Other than a detour to scrap with Ramaswamy, Christie was disciplined in finding ways to bring his answers back to Trump. In response to a question about restoring public confidence in federal law enforcement, Christie drew on his own experience as a U.S. attorney and proposed appointing an independent, well-respected attorney general and keeping politics out of prosecutions — a striking contrast to Trump’s threats to respond to his prosecutions by turning federal power against his political opponents.

Christie twice dinged DeSantis for dodging questions, first for not specifying what steps he would take to rescue American hostages in Gaza, and later for avoiding a clear answer on whether Trump is too old to serve.

The receptivity for such answers in today’s GOP remains unclear. Christie narrowly met the polling threshold to be included in the debate.

In the end, they're all down with fucking over brown people, and playing to the overall bigotry that's come to dominate GOP politics.

Candidates voiced hostility toward immigrants and foreign powers

Haley joined Trump in supporting a ban on migration from Muslim countries. Of Iran, she said, “You’ve got to punch them, you’ve got to punch them hard,” but said she didn’t mean bombing the country at this time. DeSantis also supported restricting Muslim immigrants and accused European countries of “importing” antisemitism. He even referred to traditional Arab clothing as “man dresses.” Ramaswamy threatened to “smoke the terrorists” on the southern border, repeated his proposal to provide the Taiwanese people with firearms, and suggested the United States should change its long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” in favor of committing to defend the island nation from China. He also gave credence to the “great replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy theory that posits that Jews, racial minorities and immigrants are seeking to replace White Americans through higher fertility rates and migration.

Ya Doesn't Hasta Call Me Johnson

• If Mike Johnson wants "transparency", then he wouldn't be hiding people's faces
• Because if we can't see their faces, and they've been busted, how do we know "the deep state" is doin' 'em dirty when we don't even know who the fuck they are?
• DOJ already has the un-blurred version of all 44,000 hours of video

Oh wait - if we don't know who the rioters are, then Johnson & Co can go on making up even more shit, thinking nobody's going to be the wiser. I think I get it now.

MAGA leaders understand how gullible the unwashed MAGA masses are, because MAGA leaders are The Daddy State, and they've spent decades and billions making more and more Americans dumber and dumber every day.

Daddy State Awareness

THE BASICS:

• The Daddy State lies as a means of demonstrating power.
• The lies have practically nothing to do with the subject of the lies.
• Lying about everything is a way to condition us - to make us accept the premise that they can do anything they want.

The goal is to dictate reality to us.

Today's Keith

No fair remembering stuff! (thanks, Professional Left)

Trump's ravings about "rigged elections" did not start in 2020, or 2016 - Olbermann chronicles that shit all the way back to 2012.

Dirtbag Donald

From October:

Jake Tapper outlines the problem, and identifies the threat.

Today's Keith

SERIES 2 EPISODE 84:

A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT:

Here's an idea. What if - instead of waiting for Trump to manipulate our system and get elected again and use The Insurrection Act against AMERICA, we just used it against him - today?

It's not like he's not guilty of... you know... INSURRECTION.

B-Block (28:03) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS:

Deadline nears on Ukraine $: How could the GOP be anti-gun? Witness tampering in the Georgia Trump case (with singing). The online Mehdi Hasan petition exceeds 15,000. Trump calls Jimmy Carter "The First Lady" and never even notices.

(33:13) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD:

COP28 actually put a UAE Oil Sultan in charge and they're all shocked he denied fossil fuels are killing the planet. Trump Diapers now on sale. And Christian Ziegler is not only in huge legal trouble, but the other woman was only really interested in his Missus.

C-Block (38:36) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL:

I guess because I'm suggesting using The Insurrection Act to SAVE America rather than leaving it for Trump to use to DESTROY America, I want to tell the saga of "A Christmas Story" and how Little Ralphie finally figured out how to defeat the bully, Scut Farkas (by invoking the insurrection act!)

War Sucks

And "holy wars" suck the worst.

If you say atrocities committed in the name of religion can't be blamed on religion because it's an individual person committing the acts, then you can't credit religion as being the reason for a person's moral acts done in the name of religion.

“Ideas which divide one group of human beings from another, only to unite them in slaughter, generally have their roots in religion.”

--Sam Harris 

Hamas gang raped and beheaded women at rave massacre, fresh testimony reveals

Almost two months after the attack, the international community is beginning to act on reports of Palestinian sexual violence

Survivors of the Supernova massacre witnessed women being gang raped and beheaded, new testimony has revealed.

Yoni Saadon, who escaped execution by hiding underneath a stage, said: “I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her.

“She was screaming, ‘Stop it—already I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!’ When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head.

“I kept thinking it could have been one of my daughters. Or my sister—I had bought her a ticket but last minute she couldn’t come.”

Speaking to The Sunday Times at Sitria, a support area set up for festival survivors southeast of Tel Aviv, Saadon said he also witnessed the brutal murder of women who resisted Hamas attackers.

“They had caught a young woman near a car and she was fighting back, not allowing them to strip her,” he said.

“They threw her to the ground and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her and her head rolled along the ground. I see that head too.”

Discussing another woman who was killed in front of him, Saadon added: “She fell to the ground, shot in the head, and I pulled her body over me and smeared her blood on me so it would look as if I was dead too.

“I will never forget her face. Every night I wake to it and apologise to her, saying ‘I’m sorry’.”

Haim Outmezgine, commander of a special unit of Zaka, which collects the remains of the dead, told The Sunday Times it was clear Hamas terrorists aimed to sexually assault women.

“We collected 1,000 bodies in ten days from the festival site and kibbutzim,” he said.

“No one saw more than us. It was clear they were trying to spread as much horror as they could — to kill, to burn alive, to rape … it seemed their mission was to rape as many as possible.”

In one field, he said, he found the bodies of two girls with their legs apart who had both been shot in the head. One had her shorts ripped and had been shot in the vagina, the other had her jeans pulled down and bruises on her legs.

Architect Shari, who has volunteered at the Shura military base to help identify and prepare corpses for burial, said she was horrified at the scale of the violence inflicted upon women by Hamas.

“Opening the body bags was scary as we didn’t know what we would see,” she told The Sunday Times.

“They were all young women. Most in little clothing or shredded clothing and their bodies bloodied particularly round their underwear and some women shot many times in the face as if to mutilate them.

“Their faces were in anguish and often their fingers clenched as they died. We saw women whose pelvises were broken. Legs broken. There were women who had been shot in the crotch, in the breasts … there seems no doubt what happened to them.”

Israeli police investigating sexual violence committed on October 7 say they have collected thousands of statements, photographs and video clips documenting Hamas’s crimes.

Shelly Harush, the police commander leading the probe, said: “It’s clear now that sexual crimes were part of the planning and the purpose was to terrify and humiliate people.

The fresh revelations come as mounting evidence of brutal atrocities committed against women on October 7 has spurred the international community to react.

57 days after the massacres, UN Women have issued a statement condemning the "brutal attacks" launched by Hamas against Israel.

The international body said: “We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks. This is why we have called for all accounts of gender-based violence to be duly investigated and prosecuted, with the rights of the victim at the core.”

Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who spent 12 years as a committee member on the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, told The Sunday Times: “This is the statement they should have issued two months ago. “It’s mindblowing.

“We were there for our sisters when terrible things happened across the ocean, when they took away abortion rights in US, the killing of women in Iran, the abduction of Yazidis … but with us they looked away and I can’t think of a reasonable answer.”

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has meanwhile spent the last two days in Israel meeting survivors and hostage families.

He says he will investigate crimes within his jurisdiction, which is expected to include sexual violence.