Mike Klonsky writes that his blood began to boil when he saw the pictures of thugs and fascists marauding in the streets of the nation’s Capitol, expressing the allegiance to their defeated leader, who happens to be the President of the United States. This is what fascism looks like. What’s worse than Trump, as Mike Klonsky notes, is the cowardice and complicity of the majority of Republicans, who cower before this would-be dictator, this man intent on destroying our democracy. Trump has lost 50 cases filed in state courts, and has lost twice in the Supreme Court. Yet he vows to continue his fight to overturn an election that he lost by overwhelming margins. He could not even persuade the federal judges he appointed to accept his claims of fraud. This man belongs either in a mental institution or in prison as an inciter of sedition.
Klonsky begins:
My blood is boiling after seeing news and videos of violent American fascists (“Proud Boys) being turned loose on mask wearers and counter-protesters in D.C. yesterday.
This follows by days 126 Republican congressmen and 17 red-state attorneys general signing on to the Texas lawsuit aimed at disenfranchising millions of voters, especially voters of color. As expected, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the suit — with only wingnut justices Alito and Thomas mumbling their dissent — but not before more than 60% of House Republicans had signed onto the effort. This group of election deniers reached beyond Trump’s staunchest allies and included powerful figures such as the chamber’s top two officials and the leaders of influential committees, all of whom put their official stamp on this fascist measure.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ah, but you see, while the “legal Challenges” continue, Trump is collecting millions of dollars in donations, any contributions under $8,000 go directly to Trump to use as he see fit. (Those over $8000 will be spit with a tiny fraction going to the GOP.)
The shameful thing is Republicans are still supporting Trump as he continues to grift for personal game.
BLM protesters have been beaten, tear-gassed, run over by squad cars and police horses, kettled and mass arrested for simply violating curfew (a made-up, unConstitutional law used solely for power and control). The Proud Boys assault people and vandalize property, yet the police do nothing to stop it. The majority of major cities, including DC, are Democratically controlled. This is not just a Republican problem.
The majority of police unions in major cities are Republican-controlled and endorse Republicans.
Progress is too slow under Democrats, but it goes backwards under Republicans. After 12 years plus of African Americans being stopped and frisked at will in NYC because Republicans insisted that it was absolutely necessary to do that, it took a Democratic Mayor to end it.
I agree with you that this is not just a Republican problem but it is clear it will only be solved when Republican politicians are marginalized and disempowered and Democrats and progressives are elected.
Putin is involved!
33 people were arrested in Washington, DC. Black lives matters banners and signs were torn off black churches, and some banners were burned. Some people were also treated for stab wounds. Trump continues to fight to overturn the election, but he has run out of legal options. As Yvonne noted, Russian bots continue to sew seeds of discontent through disinformation. Their objective is to cause chaos and mistrust in the government.https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/protests/proud-boys-burn-black-lives-matter-flag-from-oldest-methodist-church-in-dc/65-623e8867-e61d-4238-b6d6-06bd754c2636
What is wrong with these people? Maybe they are bored with the COVID life and want some action. However, the Trump Train just leads to death and destruction. I wonder how many protesters will end up in the hospital, or worse, lose a loved one due to their misguided antics.
Can we all be clear that there is no reaching across the aisle or bipartisanship with fascists.
Arthur Camins ” . . . there is no reaching across the aisle or bipartisanship with fascists.” No, but it still sounds like a prescription for gridlock . . . . or the end of democracy as we know it. CBK
Amen, Arthur! I agree completely. No compromise with fascists.
Alex Jones: “Joe Biden is a globalist, and Joe Biden will be removed, one way or another!” One of the many crazed howling loons who is calling for insurrection and the violent overthrow of a duly elected president. Beyond despicable and a very dangerous right wing nut job.
Joe Scarborough said this morning that, instead of keeping Mien Kampf on his bedside table, Trump should have placed a copy of the Constitution there instead.
I actually feel sick when Trump says–bad enough that he won the election “by a landslide,” but then he follows with “and everyone knows it,” as if we are all just Trump-haters on principle; as if we have no reason because HE has done nothing wrong; and as if WE are all just lowlife liars . . . like him.
I have to go puke now. CBK
Joe,
Alex Jones wasn’t the only speaker at the Jericho rallies which were held on Sat. in D.C., Georgia, Penn.,Mich., Wis., Nev. and Az.
It’s a “shame” people in a democracy limit themselves to the information they prefer to hear.
Rod Dreher, 12-20-2020, in the American Conservative, exposes the full enemy not the most convenient and palatable ones.
Huh?! What’s convenient or palatable about Alex Jones? Who said Alex Jones was the only enemy? Not I. Alex Jones is a “star” in the far right wing nut world with a big following. Trump even called into his show in 2016 and complemented Jones for what he was doing. I just brought up Jones because the statement he made which was a call for the violent overthrow of the election. Your objection to my comment is silly.
the clergy of the protected religion…still no exposure
Alex Jones is a recognizable villain like Betsy DeVos. The cover-up for the Bill Gates and conservative religion variety of “altruism” stays in place.
Linda by beginning your reply with an insult you buried the lead, your reference to Rod Dreher’s essay. It’s thorough coverage of the Jericho march, and more: a thoughtful analysis of the mentality that pervades the bizarre marriage of rw religion with Trumpista politics. Good coverage there of the vigorous effort to include hard-right Catholics and Jews under the tent established by Evangelicals. All from a rare source: a political and Christian conservative thinker . What I found most interesting was his main point: conservatives have bought into a movement that displays precisely the sort of intolerance of dissension that they decry in “critical theory” progressives.
Thanks for reading the article.
The media’s selective coverage (few who watched major network news learned that Trump rallies on Sat. were organized as Biblically referenced Jericho marches and featured speakers who are clergy), when it is coupled with the practice of deliberate denial by some citizens and, attacks on those who report it …
Klonsky should read Rod Dreher’s American Conservative article, 12-12- 2020, about the rally.
Klonsky could tell his blog readers about religious leaders who spoke at Sat.’s Jericho marches.
He could provide context by describing who opposed the protesters asking for the removal of the statue of King Louis IX from St. Louis this summer.
He could tell readers about the Jericho march speakers at the rally i.e. Ali Alexander and Eric Metaxas.
The so-called “Jericho March” was based on this passage from Joshua 6, in the Bible:
3 And ye shall compass [walk around the circumference of] the city, all the men of war, going about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
4 And seven priests shall bear seven rams’ horns before the ark; and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the horns.
5 And it shall be, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the horn, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.
These morons think that they are fighting a Holy War. What, exactly, they want to have fall down flat is no less than our nation and our democratic system. This is treason.
The book of Joshua is historically inaccurate.
It was created for the purpose of promoting nationalism.
One of the speakers at the Jericho D.C. march was Ari Alexander. His fans credit him with Trump’s win. He wrote a multi-point tactical plan which has been described as going viral in GOP circles. One of his suggestions was to focus on getting black millennial men to vote GOP. Another related to the statistics he identified, “Wis. is 25% Catholic, Penn. 24%, Mich, 18%, Ohio, 18% and Iowa, 18%”. Other recommendations, “fund pandemic closure lawsuits”, add staff in Pa., target Jewish neighborhoods in Fl., N.Y., and N.J., create ads about Antifa violence and, create ads for Scalise that feature riot photos….
Yes. The foundational story of Israel, told there, accords neither with the archaeological evidence nor with the written evidence (from Egypt, which controlled part of Canaan at that time.
It’s a heckuva great story, though. LOL.
Linda A technical note: One of the MAJOR forms of ignorance pervasive to American thinking is the habit of reading history and historical texts through a lens that doesn’t take into account history itself.
To put it mildly, it’s a form of gross provincialism that can only omit and distort; and so, while revealing nothing useful about those texts, provincialism provides an excellent window into the writer/speaker’s own similarly gross lack of understanding and, worse, the dogmatic clamp that seals their closure of mind. CBK
To be fair to the ancient Israelites, these stories emerged over time from both oral and written traditions, and the redactors didn’t have the benefit that modern historians have of modern archaeology, philology, and other techniques.
Bob . . . the writers of old texts were dealing with a whole set of different, and differently conceived questions, in a very different set of cultural settings, as your note suggests.
In our present time, however, even the field of history has taken on critical methods appropriate to the subject matter, and made inroads into how we can address those texts with OUR questions in mind. However, it has left the common sense of OUR culture in a horrible state of provincialism. Enter the default of: public education.
If public education needs to do anything, it needs to address the problems of provincialism . . . which is not knowledge as one knows physics, but is about personal development and a broadening of horizon . . . and so provide students with critical interpretive lenses . . . so they don’t fall into the pit of ignorance we see so much of today.
I don’t blame teachers of public education for its present state . . . far from it. The neo-liberal movements over the last several decades have put education and teachers . . . even culture as such . . . in the jackpot of just trying to defend themselves against several contradictory and badly conceived whirlwinds, mostly concerned with hubris injected into movements of political power.
The end run is that, for instance, a provincial-minded teacher can hardly be successful at educating their students out of provincialism, or any other kind of oversight and bias that they haven’t cleansed from their own comportments; and so over the decades, we can see a spiral downward going on.
The upshot for public education is, first, to get hold of itself as a powerful political force worth defending (including through unions); and then to be courageous enough to self-criticize . . . with eyes that take in the past 6 decades, at least (ask Ornstein about this); as well as an overall view that, for the future, takes in the great differences between the knowledge of the sciences and their scientists, on the one hand, and the power and dynamism of wisdom needed by teachers, on the other. CBK
public education . . . needs to address the problems of provincialism
oh, yes!
Bob Where might teaching about provincialism, or any kind of interior development, fit in with STEM? CBK
Yeah, you know, some teachers actually have students wasting time studying Art or Biology or reading Wuthering Heights or “The Lottery” or “The Birds.” Hey, Emily Brontë, Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier. No body gives a **** how you feel. What about your exercises on CCSS.Math.Content.WTFC.666?
Bob Feelings? It’s not only about feelings. It’s about how we think, and from what horizon . . . the state of our interior dialogue. Provincialism, for instance, is a horizon . . . a viewpoint of thought which can change and broaden according to new experiences, etc. As you probably know, many colleges and universities, for instance, require that students spend a semester or a year living and going to school in a host country . . . this changes much more than feelings. It gives students a different way to think about the world, themselves, and the home culture they were originally “provincial” about. The quality of the interior life increases. The same with reading those texts you mentioned. STEM is without its essential flower? CBK
STEM is without its essential flower?
So beautifully put, CBK!
And when the walls fell genocide was the order of the day. when these folks call themselves the Walls of Jericho, that means they don’t want the rest of us around anymore.
Paul Bonner ” . . . genocide.” Funny you should mention it. CBK
Yeah. I thought about that immediately when I read the name “Jericho March.” “So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed.” Josh. 10:40 Quite a model to follow! Ofc, those who became the Israelites did no such thing. They were themselves a mixture of Canaanites; Egyptians (Hab piru), including escaped slaves, and the Pelast, or sea peoples, who fled wars on the other side of the Mediterranean and settled along the coast of what would become Israel.
It is critical that the Lincoln Project, The American Enterprise Institute, and the Democratic Party stick to their principals and root these people out. That includes prosecuting any criminal behavior by Trump and his minions while punishing those who have so brazenly defied our Constitution and Democratic institutions. The one legacy of the Watergate era that cannot be repeated is the effort to sweep all of this malfeasance under the rug in the effort to help the nation heal. All should have their day in court, but to court they must go.
You are joking about AEI, right? It’s no different than the Hoover Institute with whom Scott Atlas is associated.
see my note below
Paul, AEI is a rightwing think tank dedicated to free enterprise.
I think that Paul is referring to the fact that the AEI has not been a fan of Donald Trump. It has called Trump’s election lawsuits and other attempts to undermine the election “Trump’s Farewell Fiasco.”
Correct. I do realize that they are conservative, but there is a big difference between free enterprise conservatism that values the constitution and the libertarian radicalism that comes from Koch, Walton et al. It’s going to take all of us to overcome this rabid manipulation of institutions for the sake of the grift. There has to be accountability for the 126 representatives that signed on to the Texas coup. So liberals need allies in this fight. Norman Ornstein has been particularly critical of Republicans since the rise of the Tea Party. I do agree that AEI is a problem for public schools, but so is most of American polity. If we have any hope of transforming the public schools or developing a balanced economy we have to get our representative government back with the help of those who are willing.
Betsy DeVos is a major founder of AEI.
I am not surprised. again, I do realize that AEI is conservative, I do get the sense that many of their participants want to get back to representative balance. Betsy DeVos is obviously working to buy everyone off and once she leaves office those efforts will continue.
I presume there is no shortage of groups who get in bed with AEI under the banner of “those who are willing” to help us, often also defended as “getting a seat at the table”. AARP used a similar excuse when it settled in with ALEC. Then, there was public outcry. CAP joined with AEI on education issues and that has been disastrous for America’s most important common good, public education which unifies the nation.
Liberals going to bed with AEI is no different than the situation where the chair of CAP’s board created the BiPartisan Policy Center and took money from Gates and John Arnold for its education sessions.
No doubt AEI is trying to reposition itself now that a Democrat is President. I hope no one at this blog or in public education falls for the subterfuge that AEI serves the 99%.
The best strategy to eliminate AEI is to expose them for what they’ve done to America- concentrated wealth at unsustainable levels, attacks against common goods to benefit billionaires, etc.
BTW- when right wing Chuck Todd has his usual panel member from
AEI, I haven’t heard her say ANYTHING negative about the GOP.
Those who are willing to help us. I am reminded of the Great Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which pictured a native with a banner coming from his mouth reading, “Come over and help us.” Well, we know how that “help” turned out.
Bob- you’re right. AEI’s intent, lack of conscience and arsenal are reminiscent of the colonialists who preceded them.
Here is a relevant aside from today’s Washington Post:
“America’s biggest companies flourished during the pandemic, but put 100,000 out of work and rewarded investors, analysis shows
“Between April and September, one of the most tumultuous economic stretches in modern history, 45 of the 50 most valuable publicly traded U.S. companies turned a profit, a Washington Post analysis found.
“At least 27 of the 50 largest firms laid off employees this year, cutting more than 100,000 workers. Meanwhile, the top 50 firms collectively distributed more than $240 billion to shareholders during that time.”