Garland knows that Smith will discover RICO co-defendants WITHIN THE FBI/DOJ. Garland estimated that he needed "bureaucratic distance" to avoid the perception of political partisanship.

who made the decision to order the removal of the magnetometers inside the Capitol? With neither party in control of the House, how did this happen?

in the House. It’s his only path to regaining power. He is a master at creating conflict. (Remember his response to a press question about whether or not he supports McCarthy: We’ll see what happens.) He is likely communicating with both McCarthy and the coup plotters, giving them conflicting orders. He WANTS FAILURE.

Trump's a master at transforming an internal plan into a projection of his enemies' plan.

Trump is doing whatever he can to get re-elected and stop prosecutions. He will demand that a GOP Congress do everything he tells them to do to stop prosecutions. That's guaranteed. It's essential that he be prosecuted by at least one jurisdiction before the election. If the GOP wins either house, Trump gains power.

Our Golden God claims that the elections are rigged if his fascist movement doesn't win. He has all of his acolytes who are running for office saying the same thing. But there's a real possibility that Trump's fascist movement are REALLY the ones who are fixing the elections. In a general way, we're seeing that gerrymandering and recent voting restrictions are working, but it's limited. But we also know that Trumpers have broken into voting machines and have stolen code. We know that GOP nerds have now worked on the software and hardware to learn how they work, and how to take control of them. IOW, Trump has been working for years on ways to steal elections-- both before and after 2020. The biggest foil to his plan is... prosecution. He has to get indicted BEFORE the votes are counted by any jurisdiction that's investigating.

McCarthy is advertising that the GOP will destroy Social Security and Medicare (plus Medicaid) if they control Congress after the mid-terms. He's saying it in plain daylight.

So it takes perhaps 60 words for the Dems, nationwide, to pitch their candidates, in the most effective campaign theme ever concocted:

TELL THE VOTERS: The GOP wants to destroy your Social Security AND your Medicare and Medicaid. They pledged to do so. They also want to eliminate student loan debt forgiveness. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT. What do YOU want?

We know the story well. McCarthy, for several days after the January 6 coup attempt, spoke like a moral, principled person. Then he visited Trump in Florida. After that, McCarthy acted as if he still supports Trump and believes The Lie.

But here's what likely happened in Florida:

Trump told McCarthy that the only way he'll ever become Speaker is if he'll be loyal to Trump, and only Trump. That's because presumably, Trump told McCarthy how many people in Congress would be implicated and/or directly connected to the conspiracy if it went public. Trump told McCarthy exactly who was on the bubble for complicity and who would be charged for direct aid in the coup attempt. There were enough Trumpian members so disgraced that an electoral purge in Congress would seem natural to all. Then it hit McCarthy that his party was really vulnerable and would lose all power quickly if the GOP joined with Democrats to get rid of Trump. So McCarthy took the survival road and switched to a positive spin regarding the coup. Now is the time that he pays the price.

Some of us often wonder what it looks like when fascism stares you in the face. What is it, exactly, that occurs when the inevitable conclusion is that fascism is an operating mechanism in our everyday lives. I have an illustration. And it's as plain as the likeness of Jefferson on a 20.

We should know when we, as a nation, are in real trouble. It's when business interests CONTROL the levers of government. In this world, it's the gun industry. They have control over government on the federal, state, and local level. The gun industry is telling the government what to do, and the government is doing it.

Vast majorities of US citizens want a curb on the reckless proliferation of killing weapons. We know that the gun/assault weapons abuse is beyond anyone's control. Nothing can stop it, we fear.

But the fact is that the gun industry, and not just the NRA, controls government and is telling government, don't touch this issue. So the government doesn't touch.

We can blame the extreme right. We can blame Trump. We can blame Pelosi or Schumer. We can blame the money bags. It doesn't matter. When business controls government, we can assess blame in ten thousand places. But it's the whole of government, the whole of the electorate, that doesn't grasp the issue.

Business is controlling government. Business (the gun industry) is telling government what (not) to do, and the government is obliging.

The government CAN outlaw assault rifles. But it won't because the gun industry is too powerful. And government refuses to seize control because government (OUR government) is too weak to do anything. To be fair, this is what "conservatives" have always wanted. They want strong business and weak government. They are having their way with the help of the media arm of their movement. The consequences, intended or not, include fascism. There are only so many roads that a government can follow. This is one of them.

The gun industry's control over government isn't an abstract notion. It is engraved on every stone that sits atop the grave of every victim of gun violence and mass murder. It is very real. Assault rifles are in the public domain because the gun industry wants it so. All of those deaths are the direct result of the gun industry's dominance over government. We let all of them die. We do nothing about it. And remember, WE are government. We are not demanding representation. Assault rifles in open society is due to the gun industry's representation inside government, not that of the people. The data is stark here. There is no question that the nation's people are not being represented by government.

We the people do NOT put the GOP to bed, never to awaken. We the people are still enamored with Republicanism as part of Americana. But the Republican Party has long gone away and been co-opted by those who no longer want free and fair elections. It's a simple fact that is evident everywhere. Yet GOP voters, longing for a time that never was, vote for a romantic fantasy about small government's benefits when the GOP's mission is to eliminate voting as a meaningful exercise. The coup attempt is still with us, and big money is still fueling the effort. Yet millions are willing to throw the Constitution away.

"While it's deeply disturbing and horrifying Mr. Putin's behavior as commander of his armed forces in Ukraine, what's even more disturbing is the complicity of those who live, work around and advise Mr. Putin on his short term mission in Ukraine. They all know what is being done. And they stand down."

I'm going to just leave this alone and let it go.

1. Narrow the gap between rich and poor. Shift wealth downward. You can call it anything you want, as long as you shift wealth downward. If you want political and socioeconomic stability, you must shift wealth downward. Paradoxically, the wealthy would benefit more than could ever be imagined right now.

2. Do #1 by virtually giving away or heavily subsidizing education. Educating the workforce can't just be a campaign slogan. Make education a defining value in the 21st century. Raise the status of educators. The downward shift of wealth can materialize as a vastly educated workforce on the cusp of a coming technological leap. Liberal Arts and Humanities improve our quality of life beyond an increase in income. Say it and back it up with money.

3. There must be a real promise of prosperity for a growing middle class. Voters have to feel invested in the system and should expect real benefits from their place in the world. Voters are investors in a system that works for them.

4. Governments have a tendency to get pushed back on their heels in the face of "anti-government" instability and fascism. They need to listen to the instability and ask questions about how to enable stability. We cannot advance with a lopsided rich/poor gap. It won't work.


Fascism is rising for reasons. Reacting with rigidity will make matters worse. If governments don't do something about it, they'll get swallowed.

If so, then fact-driven information on the COVID pandemic can reach those in the TrumpWorld bubble who do not hear fact-driven information. Even if cable channels do not get an FCC license (do they?), requiring public service COVID announcements to air on broadcast channels alone would save more lives.

If at present, the FCC cannot require cable channels to run public service announcements, SOMEONE in Congress should be willing to get the bright idea that airing fact-driven COVID public service information should be on cable channels, and that a law should be litigated in Congress on the efficacy of enacting legislation to that effect.

Does this make sense?