Immigration

Trump to send troops to the border in manufactured fake ‘caravan crisis’

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As I noted in the previous post, Trump is angry all this ‘Bomb stuff’ has disrupted his fake ‘caravan’ crisis:

Donald Trump has a habit of hearing something and then spewing out his gut reaction on Twitter, and here’s part of what spilled out Friday morning.

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Let’s start with the obvious—this tweet is the despicable work of a sociopath casting a life-threatening national crisis as political victimhood.

But let’s focus for a second on what Trump’s unconscionable stream of consciousness is revealing: Trump’s political people aren’t giving him happy news at the moment and he wants Republicans to “go out and vote!” Trump was clearly seething about being knocked off his fake crisis message about the “caravan” of several thousand refugees. That’s the message Trump hoped would drive the day.

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LD 11 Democratic Senate Candidate Ralph Atchue Fights back against the Lies being spread on TV by Vince Leach

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LD 11 Democratic State Nominee Ralph Atchue

Vince Leach, a person regarded as a reactionary anti-democratic zealot in most state Democratic party circles, has been conveying blatantly false information about his opponent in the race for the LD 11 Senate seat, Ralph Atchue, lying about his positions on border security and taxes on television commercials on CNN and Fox.

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The survival of democracy is on the ballot in November – repudiate ‘Trumpism’, the new American fascism

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The malignant cancer of Trumpism, the new American fascism, has now fully emaciated the decaying dead carcass of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is no more, it is history.

The former Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, the party of white identity and white grievance and white nationalism.

At last night’s rally in Texas for “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz, Russian asset Donald Trump formally embraced fascism:

Donald Trump: You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It’s called a nationalist. And I say really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I am a nationalist. Use that word.

In response, the Houston crowd roared back with a defiant chant of “USA! USA!” They fully understood Trump’s dog whistle of “white nationalism.”

This is the result of the conservative movement’s decades-long embrace of Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America that professor Bertram Gross presciently warned us of in 1980.

Fascism doesn’t descend on a nation overnight. A nation has to be prepared for it first. Doctor Steven Jonas correctly noted in his 2015 essay, Fascism in the 21st Century:

When we are looking at 21st century fascism, in the context of what is happening in certain of the capitalist states, at the present particularly in the United States, it should be noted that it is entirely possible that wholesale violence will not be required for its introduction.  Nor will a maximum leader necessarily be required.  Like the fog in the famous, ultra-short poem by the U.S. person Carl Sandburg, it may well come in “on little cat feet.”

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What Kind of Arizona and America do you want to live in?

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David Brooks
David Brooks asks, “Are the behavior and actions of the President and the Republicans what you want to see in your public servants?”

During the Shields and Brooks segment of the PBS Newshour on October 19, 2018, David Brooks, the center-right commentator from the New York Times rightly suggested that a closing argument for the Democrats should be “Are the behavior and actions of the President and the Republicans what you want to see in your public servants? Is their belief in what America should be your beliefs in what America should be?”

In the end, it does come down to that. Mr. Brooks is right and this can be applied to Arizona and our state leaders over the last two years as well as America and its leaders over that same period. People need to consider if they want to live in a state or a country where the trajectory over the last two years is taking us backward as opposed to forwards. Please consider:

Do we want to live in an Arizona and America where the leaders behave like demagogues, self-serving oligarchs, and, in the case of the current occupant of the White House, petty dictators, dividing us with the “big lies” and pitting us against each other?

Do we want to live in an Arizona and America where the wealthy are catered to and the poor and unfortunate shunned?

Do we want to live in an Arizona and America where corrupt oligarchs and plutocrats pay equally corrupt public servants behind the scenes with dark money to achieve their ends?

Do we want to live in an Arizona and America where our women are potentially denied the right to choose when needed?

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The Arizona Republic endorses Governor Doug Ducey (but of course they do)

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To the best of my recollection, The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican has endorsed a Democrat for governor only once – in my lifetime at least – Governor Janet Napolitano for reelection in 2006. And that was only because Republicans nominated Len Munsil from the Center for Arizona Policy for governor that year. A Dominionist who would impose a theocracy in Arizona was a bridge too far even for them.

So it comes as no surprise that The Republic endorses Governor Doug Ducey for reelection. But of course they do.

What I find curious is that there is no discussion of whether Ducey intends to complete another term as governor. There is speculation that he may run for Senator McCain’s senate seat in 2020, or take a position in the Trump administration, or if President Trump does not run for reelection in 2020, to become the next son of Arizona to be a failed candidate for president. “Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don’t tell their children that someday they can grow up and be president.” – John McCain.

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