The chilling prospect of armed right-wing "militias" (AKA gangs) training for a post-election apocalypse in the upper midwest is being raised by law enforcement informants and anti-terrorism experts. If true, that would make Michigan's kidnapping plot just the opening salvo of what could be an extended period of unrest.
Until recently, the murmurs that a new civil war was coming seemed like the ranting of conspiracy theorists who confuse fantasy with reality to a clinical degree. But with the President stoking their fears, the poorly informed but heavily armed members of his base appear unwilling to accept the decision of the majority when and if Joe Biden wins the election in November.
The polls are clear and unmistakeable; Trump is losing the popular vote by a huge margin and is behind in the key battleground states like Michigan, where the militias are based.
Unless the political dynamics change in a profound way in the next 25 days, the Biden-Harris ticket will prevail. Democrats will also control the House -- that is not in doubt -- and very possibly the Senate as well.
This prospect has freaked Trump out. Perhaps jacked up of steroids administered to battle his serious case of Covid-19, he is increasingly striking out at anyone standing in his way. Perhaps the most pathetic report has him roaming the nearly empty White House, asking why his political opponents Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are not in jail.
He seems unaware that they are not in jail because they have committed no crimes, were charged with no crimes, and are decent law-abiding citizens like the great majority of Americans. No one apparently has told Trump that in a democracy you can't just throw those who oppose your ideas in jail. That would be called a dictatorship.
But of course Trump is the one who in his 2016 campaign repeatedly led angry crowd in chants of "Lock Her Up," referring to Clinton and the baseless charge that she had used her private email account for illegal purposes.
Of course she did no such thing, that was simply another conspiracy theory peddled by the fringe right-wing in this country.
And it is precisely that fringe right-wing that is the main criminal element endangering all of our security and safety now.
So now more than ever, it is time for clear-thinking Republican voters to come to grips with a central truth: Donald Trump is a madman. His regime must be eliminated and the lawful way to do that is at the polls. His administration will end, as all previous administrations have ended -- at the polls.
Vote, America!
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* Trump was hoarse throughout an extended telephone interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, yet insisted he was feeling great. The president lost his voice while accusing Democratic challenger Joe Biden of “choking like a dog” during their debate last week. He also struggled and coughed while discussing absentee ballots. Although Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 1, he ducked a question about his testing and virus levels, claimed he was in “great shape” and talked up his medication. He said he wants to hold a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday. [HuffPost]
* Trump Lashes Out at His Cabinet With Calls to Indict Political Rivals -- The pressure on his top administration officials to take action came as President Trump bristled at the restraints of his illness. (NYT)
* Both parties prepare for chance of contested election as chaotic race hurtles to a close (WashPo)
* In Michigan, authorities charged 13 men, some of whom were accused of plotting to storm the State Capitol building and planning to start a civil war. (NYT)
* On the same day that federal and state officials announced charges in an alleged domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Trump accused the Democrat of "complaining" and again attacked her over her handling of the pandemic, accusing her of having "locked down" her state. (CNN)
* Michigan kidnapping plot, like so many other extremist crimes, foreshadowed on social media (WashPo)
* President Trump's increasing political desperation is raising concerns about his judgment following his aggressive Covid-19 treatment and as suspicion mounts that the White House is not telling the truth about his health.In a day of chaos Thursday, Trump repeatedly shifted his position on a new plan for a virtual second presidential debate and suddenly decided to back negotiations over a coronavirus economic rescue package he had killed off earlier in the week. His actions suggested a campaign in disarray as he trails Democratic nominee Joe Biden by double digits only 26 days from Election Day. Trump's erratic conduct only emphasized an alarming leadership vacuum in a White House hollowed out by sickness as the pandemic takes an ominous turn amid fresh signs that a fragile economic rebound is slowing. (CNN)
* Protests Spread Across Indonesia Over Jobs Law -- The government hopes the measure will draw investment. Labor leaders say that workers’ protections will be slashed, particularly for women. (NYT)
* Trump’s frantic desperation will only get worse (WashPo)
* In recent days, including in a manic Fox Business interview Thursday, Trump has wondered aloud why his foes --namely Hillary Clinton, Biden and former President Barack Obama -- are not in jail. The President incredibly raised the possibility that the relatives of fallen US service members infected him at the White House, absolving his team of responsibility for their negligent measures to keep staff and visitors safe from the virus. (CNN)
* Trump’s Covid Treatments Were Tested in Cells Derived From Fetal Tissue -- The “cell lines” used to develop monoclonal antibodies, as well as remdesivir and vaccines, began with fetal tissue decades ago. (NYT)
* Broadway to Stay Dark Through May (WSJ)
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And I say to you today my friends, let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we're free at last!
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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