So, you don't think we live in a fascist state?

I know. You think I'm being hysterical or overly dramatic. What fascism, right? There are no concentration camps. No one is being marched? Well, that's true. But, people are being killed, people are being intimidated, people are rioting and street fighting, are trying to kill cops and to defund the police (as I've pointed out before, only gangs and other criminals want that) and are trying to make us base policy, law and even personal decisions on ethnicity. 

There are definitely reasons many of you - I would say the overwhelming number of people - don't think we are headed towards fascism. Or autocracy, totalitarianism, etc. It doesn't matter what form it will take, how it happens or what you call it. What matters is that the degree of freedom you have as a private citizen, if there is such thing, has already decreased remarkably in a few years. Remarkably. And the Democrat's are doing everything they can to make this a one party country and to further racism and fascism. 

And, they, the fascists, are winning. Many people haven't recognized or refuse to do so because they can't stop reading/watching our version of Pravda (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, NYTIMES, WAPO, Bloomberg, etc.) and their continuous misrepresentations and propaganda. Or they are immersed in a community - their career, friends, family, neighbors, where it is all one side - the left. Of course, some Trump hating Democrats are very politically knowledgeable, but they are still caught up in what even Rose McGowan (though a Trump hating nut, if you ask me) calls a "cult." Some people just don't want to believe it is possible in the U.S. I get it. I was one of those people and didn't want to, until the evidence became overwhelming. We must fight fascism even if others laugh at or hate us. Even if we should be scared.

I couldn't decide whether to make this post about the extra-ordinary hypocrisy of the Biden administration or the fascism inherent in what I call the "great leap left," that is, when the left started to not continue to drift further left, but to take giant steps in that direction, culminating in the hate and hysteria-fest accompanying Trump's election. I decided to go with fascism. The examples of hypocrisy will take care of themselves.

So, you don't think we are becoming a fascist country? Perhaps it is because you haven't studied how the Nazis came to power (you can read my 9/16/20 post - The Nazi's Playbook, which focuses on the likeness between the left's radicals and the Nazis). Perhaps its because you have always been a Democrat or liberal (or at least identified with them) and it is painful to recognize when your side is wrong. I went through that too many years ago when emerging from the strident liberalism I was raised into and became a moderate. Perhaps you just want to bury your head in the sand and not think about it, and certainly not react to it. I'd like to, but fascism is too dangerous and must be fought.  Perhaps you are fearful for yourself or your family. Who wouldn't be? These are dangerous and violent people or they support those who are. I mean, I can't think of a Republican or conservative that supports the KKK or neo-Nazis, but there are many on the left, most of them, who support BLM, or Antifa or even Maxine Waters. 

One problem I have in doing these posts is that the acts of fascism are happening so frequently and so fast, it is literally impossible to keep up with, probably even on a daily business. So, here I give just some examples of it (though you probably will find it lengthy). Regrettably, I write almost exclusively about fascism now and will likely give more examples soon.

I have no intent to prove anything here. If you open your eyes to the possibility of it and don't just say nyet or bury your head, you can verify everything yourself - easily. You know it just from your own life. If you work in most places, not just for the government, you have probably felt the crush of the cancel culture and fascist pressure. You are forced to listen to lectures on sexual harassment or racism even if you never harassed or discriminated against anyone, or maybe you've even been pro-active helping women or minorities, and you know if you voice an opinion contrary to the speaker you might get fired. You already are judged by your ethnicity, one of the hall marks of fascism. Worse, if you are honest, depending on where you work, you must admit you have to pretend you agree with radical thought or someone will say they don't feel "safe" with you around. 

Certainly, some number of people have told me that they are afraid to make any joke at all in an office anymore in fear of getting reported or just fired. Here's a study showing 62% are afraid to share their political views. Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share | Cato Institute. Not as many, but some men have told me they try not to talk to women alone at work or go to lunch with them. No, not because they can't keep their hands to themselves, but because even innocuous acts or statements can be seen as harassment or discrimination just because someone feels offended, no matter how ridiculous - as with the ridiculous claims against Cuomo right now. Worse, some people who can hire no longer want to hire women or minorities, the opposite of what the left is seeking. I wouldn't recommend that myself, but I get it. They are scared - just like you. 

I can generally state these cancel culture problems in a paragraph or two, but they are countrywide (and other countries too) and and growing. But, you might say, it's not fascism, it's just a culture change. I don't think so. Culture is always changing. With this level of violence, intimidation and personal destruction, fascism applies. Feel free to bone up on the fear of being reported in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. You can look at how I define fascism in my October, 26, 2020 post, What is fascism?

Of course, if you live in a place where BLM or Antifa can't or won't likely get to you, or where the violence stemming from under-policing won't affect you, you might just shrug and say, oh well, it doesn't seem so bad. That's what Portland's idiot mayor, Ted Wheeler thought until Antifa showed up at his house. That's what people often do until its them. You know the famous poem by German Pastor Martin Niemöller that begun, "First they came for the Jews, and I said nothing. . . ." You know what? I wasn't going to, but let me print some of the translation of what he originally wrote in prose, prior to the poem (I pulled this right off Wikipedia, but you can check it out yourself in many sources; there is no doubt it is Niemöller's words and thoughts, but, exactly when he wrote it, in exactly what form, when it became a poem, etc., is really not certain at all. But, that doesn't detract from his message):

["T]he people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians—"should I be my brother's keeper?"

Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? Only then did the church as such take note.

Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible?

The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out.

We preferred to keep silent. We are certainly not without guilt/fault, and I ask myself again and again, what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934—there must have been a possibility—14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, it is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 Communists in the concentration camps, in order to let them die. I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine that we would have rescued 30–40,000 million [sic] people, because that is what it is costing us now."

Remember, fascism is not going to happen the same way it did in Germany or Italy, or any other country which self-destructed by authoritarianism of some sort. Each time it happens it is new, although usually, maybe always, lying and coercion play substantial roles. 

You really don't see the fascism? Are you one of those who says I don't think the media is one-sided or that Big Tech is trying to cancel the right's expression? Really? After reading the open letters of Bari Weiss of the New York Times and the similar letter from Ariana Pekary of MSNBC detailing what the news channels do? After seeing Bloomberg News decide it was not going to investigate any wrongdoing by a Democrat during the last campaign? Are you one of those who thinks our justice system works the same for liberal pols as it does conservative ones? After seeing Hillary Clinton not get prosecuted (after the FBI's director described what she did fitting all the elements of a crime and then making up a new element for it that doesn't even make sense) but watching now as NYC desperately goes through Trump's tax returns hoping to find something it can prosecute on (when did it happen it became okay to investigate a person for political purposes?) New York actually holds political prisoners as it did with Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, after he was given a lengthy sentence by the feds. After watching the judge on Trump supporter Michael Flynn, who the FBI absolutely set up, try to hold him after he was pardoned, you can think this? After watching the FBI investigate Trump's campaign based on information they new was phony supplied indirectly through the Clinton Campaign? After watching the two years of RussiaGate, after the phony over-dramatized impeachment over Ukraine (which Biden looks like he is showing how little the Democrats care about, while during the hearings they wrung their hands over it)? After watching the second phony impeachment, done for no purpose except to get Trump and tar Republicans? After watching the Big Tech companies try to paralyze the conservatives by defunding or de-platforming them? After watching the lies about what was deemed the Capitol Armed Insurrection where there turned out not to be no firearms and only a few idiot insurrectionists. You don't see it? Nothing I can do about it. You either don't know because or won't believe. 

You don't have to believe it. Of course, one day they will come for you unless you totally succumb. Even if you think you are one of them, you can fall out of favor and be crushed, because radicals eat their own. The Nazis did. The French Revolutionists did. The communists did. All murdered many of their own.

The Difference between the Chauvin prosecution and the Capitol prosecution - fascism.

One of the best examples of both the oncoming fascism and hypocrisy stems from some the way different investigations/prosecutions are treated. For example, Derek Chauvin was named and charged with murder in 3 days. Kimberly Potter, an officer with a 26 year career, accidentally shot a young black man who was running from her execution of his warrant, thinking she was tasing him. She warned him and screamed "Taser" more than once, before absent-mindedly grabbing her pistol and shooting him. She was named and charged with Manslaughter II and arraigned in 4 days. Who could have fully investigated them by then. Why did they rush to judgment? To stop rioting, of course. Not protests. Riots. When fear of ethnic or other group riots leads to prosecutions or rushes to judgment - that's fascism. And fascism often works until people, realizing appeasement just encourages fascists, make the sacrifices necessary to stop it.

What's my point? Well, the D.C. officer (I believe a woman, but could be wrong) who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol riot hasn't ever been even named, never mind prosecuted. Not slower than Chauvin and Potter - she was never named or prosecuted ever!  She was never arrested. But, you can watch on video Ashli, among a group of people who had broken into the Capitol Building and were trying to penetrate further, was surrounded by cops with guns, being gunned down by her.  She wasn't warned, or given a chance, just shot. The police don't even shoot Antifa when they are trying to burn cops alive. Are cops now allowed to fire upon trespassers? Do all those rules and cases we heard about in the Chauvin case about using force - mean nothing if you are a white Trump supporter? Of course they don't. And you wonder why they rioted. They've watched the success BLM and Antifa has had with it.

Is there a difference between the the events in Minnesota and the Capitol "insurrection?" Well, hmmm, Potter and Chauvin killed black men. That fits the narrative being perpetrated by BLM, our media and now the federal government - that cops are singling out blacks to shoot (even though every year they kill more whites and everyone kills more cops). George Floyd, whose neck Chauvin kneeled upon, had a record of home invasion and spent 4 years in prison. Daunte Wright, who Potter accidentally killed, was wanted for not showing up in court and fleeing arrest for possessing weapons. Floyd was resisting arrest (I think only he wasn't obeying instructions). Wright also wouldn't listen to the officer and was fleeing. I'm not justifying what happened to them as a result of their history or behavior. It doesn't mean they deserved to die. I'm just saying, these probably weren't good people, even if they are now being lionized and transformed by the media and BLM as saints. 

Ashli was a decorated veteran. Didn't matter. You see, Ashli was a white girl and thereby obviously had the Mark of Cain. She gets little more consideration than a voiceless unborn baby. Ashli was surrounded by armed cops and unarmed herself.  She was not only white but obviously a Trump supporter. No one was going to burn D.C. because she was shot for no reason. No one even tried to arrest her before she was murdered. Not one of the trespassers/rioters brought a firearm into the building. 

It would be hard to be more hypocritical than the left is about the late Officer Brian Sicknick, who died soon after the riot. I have nothing to criticize him about at all. I'm sorry he's dead, but I care about cops. But, the left exploited his death and had a State Funeral while castigating the cops in general, and trying to defund the police. I can't tell you what any individuals might think about that, but one thing the defund the police movement on the left doesn't care about in general is cops. Despite the lies we've been told about Brian Sicknick, he wasn't murdered by rioters, as first reported. He apparently died of a stroke. That is, after they refused to tell us how he died, the truth came out. Even his own family said it wasn't true. Lies that fit the narrative are permitted. And, just as tv personalities will still call George Zimmerman a murderer, I assume they will keep saying he was a hero killed by Trump supporters. My guess, but since I don't watch tv, someone will have to tell me.

The capitol rioters didn't kill anyone. Four of them died. It was not an armed insurrection (no firearms anyway) and it looks like very few of them were actually intending an insurrection at all. The other three than Ashli supposedly died of natural causes - but, given the enormous lies coming from the government about this, can we believe it? I sincerely doubted that Sicknick was murdered for the same reason. I didn't have a pre-cognitive event? I simply recognize we are living in a fascist state and they will lie to further their narrative. No cops died at the hands of the trespassers. 

Narrative, narrative, narrative. Not only do we not know the name of the officer who shot Ashli, but the feds took 3 1/2 months to investigate what was clearly seen on video. Then, they apparently decided shooting a white Trump supporter, even a veteran, in cold blood, because she is trespassing, was not a crime. You know BLM wants to lynch the officer who shot a knife wielding teenager about to end the life of another girl, but, that too is part of the narrative. Ma'khia Bryant was black (as was her intended victim), but that furthers the BLM narrative. They don't care she was going to kill a black person (as they don't care that most murders are black on black or that their nationwide riots and demand for less policing has sent the murder rate skyrocketing - they accept as many victims as necessary to further their aims) but they sure appreciate the fact that a cop shot her because it fits their narrative.  

But, the Capitol Building shooting of Ashli and the lies over the death of Brian Sicknick were not the only hypocrisy about the event. Our President, the "Great Uniter" has further divided our country by another ridiculous lie that follows the narrative the left is perpetrating. After the riot, he said we should imagine how much harder they would have been fought if black. Seriously? They probably would have been given keys and a hall pass. I am only slightly exaggerating. Pelosi and Schumer have already dishonored their country by taking knees in support of BLM. They might have said they understand, just like they understand Antifa and the rioting.

BLM or its supporters, like Antifa, get treated with kid gloves. Though the idiot mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, has learned his lesson about Antifa, he used to lead "Black Lives Matter" chants. Now Wheeler begs for help to take back his city. Good luck to him. Trump tried with federal troops and Wheeler and others complained - called them something like storm troopers (not sure of the exact words). Now, I doubt the feds are coming to the rescue because the DOJ doesn't even consider the cop-murdering Antifa a terrorist group. In the meantime, supposed protesters (why I believe are trying to destroy Portland, if they can't take it over) have won court battles to make the cops be nicer to them. The cops don't kill the rioters even when they are trying to kill cops.

The difference between the way the feds are treating those who rioted at the Capitol and the way rioters on the left are treated is extraordinarily different. I believe the federal government has arrested about 450 or so of them, everyone they can find, making great efforts to locate them and at great expense.  What other riots have any such effort been made. They hold some in solitary confinement without bail. Solitary confinement! The FBI, the media, the pols all ganged up on the Capitol rioters (and, of course, Trump) as the worst rioters ever. 

It was much different in Minnesota than it was for Ashli. But, the narrative of only blacks lives mattering was the same, the narrative is that only the right constitutes a civil threat. There, soon after Floyd died, BLM and its allies went to work trying to intimidate people with threats and violence - their hallmark, despite all the nonsense about their "protests" being mostly peaceful. Hundreds, 500-600 so-called protests across the country were violent in 2020 (recorded by a non-profit organization that counts these things). In Minnesota, because of the death of Floyd, who after all, even if wrongfully killed, is one man, BLM and their allies tried to set Minneapolis afire. Literally. They did set numerous fires - 150 of them. Do we forget how serious even one fire is? If the Nazis set 150 buildings on fire, would we not say - would you not say - those horrible fascists?

The Floyd rioters damaged, according to a local paper, 1300 properties, including - 267 restaurants, 207 retail stores, 114 Service businesses, 85 grocery stores, 63 auto stores, 53 residences, 52 barber shops and 47 health care businesses. What did those people do to them? They looted and assaulted people, doing an estimated $500 million - 2 billion in damage.  They set fire to a police precinct, trying to murder the cops. The largest contingent of Minnesota's National Guard was called out since WWII. This unlawful violence doesn't just destroy the livelihood or lives of the owners of these buildings, but anyone who worked there. If you disagree that you are supporting fascists by sticking with the left's narrative or supporting them, answer this for me - what did those people do to George Floyd? Even Joe Biden had to say that looting wasn't protest at some point before the election (I don't think anymore, but I could be wrong). It's not protest. It's extortion. It's violent. It's fascist. Regrettably, it works. 

And, 2 deaths. What were their names? I didn't know because the media could care less about them. We should know their names. I learned them and I'll tell you - one was Calvin Horton, Jr.  He was in a pawnshop while it was being ransacked and came within a few feet of the owner, who shot him. The mob prevented the EMTs from getting through to him until the police, being pelted with rocks, were finally able to move him. Though the owner was briefly arrested, he was released and never charged. The other to die was Oscar Lee Stewart, Jr., also in a pawn shop. He told his family he was going to watch the "protests." He died of thermal injuries. A 25 year old has been charged for setting that fire. 

I don't know if either of these people were good guys or bad guys, but I know they are dead and not talked about, because they don't fit the narrative. I guess their lives don't matter. Actually, people died during riots all over the country. And many more died as a result of being easily murdered do to the lack of policing. A one year old and a five year old died in NY. Not directly because of BLM, but indirectly. What if it was your child, your spouse or friend who was killed as a result of the rioting or under-policing? Do you think you'd be more likely to call it fascism then? This was Minneapolis's Kristallnacht and BLM is responsible. But, it wasn't just one night. It was many. And it spread all over the country. 

Of course, that wasn't all. They "protested" (hah!) at local authorities houses. They didn't go to hold hands and sing Kumbaya! A mob went last August to the home of an important state senator, Warren Limmer, and banged on his door, demanding he come out (his wife and he had already escaped). Is that protest? They, banged on a drum, screamed through a loud speaker, cursed at little children and frightened the neighbors. In fact, apparently the police who showed up thought better of it and were chased off - probably afraid of being accused of racism and using excessive force. These people aren't fascists? They sound like Nazis to me. You think this is the way Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi conducted actual peaceful protests? 

The same month protesters went to the home of Bob Kroll, the head of the police union and demanded he be fired. Was it peaceful? They hung piñatas up and struck them with bats. Not just a likeness of him, but his wife, who is a reporter and therefore doesn't report on the police. Why did they pick on her too? That's what fascists do. They try and destroy everything in your life if you get in their way. That's what terrorists do. Let you know if they can, and you don't do what they want, you will be beaten like a pinata? Imagine the targets here weren't whites, but a black family and the piñata smashers were the KKK. I do think you'd see it then and call them fascists. 

And what of the trial of Chauvin? How was it possibly fair? A state of emergency was called before the verdict. The State sure wasn't worried about right wingers rioting if there was a conviction (and they certainly didn't). Yet, it was quite clear to everyone if Chauvin was not convicted, possibly of murder, then the city would burn again. Guardsmen were even shot at in a drive by shooting, injuring two of them.

How was that possibly a fair trial? The jury, who wasn't sequestered until they deliberated, was aware of the State of Emergency, aware of the demands that Kim Potters be charged not with manslaughter, even if it was an accident, but murder. They had to be aware of the ends the courts were having to go to to protect their lives (and their own lives) if they made a decision of which BLM didn't approve. Yet the judge wouldn't change the locale or delay the trial.

So, who steps in just before deliberation? One of the leading fascists in the federal government, in my view, Maxine Waters, who has nothing to do with Minnesota, goes to Brooklyn Center, bordering Minneapolis, and makes a speech, even knowing about the arson and deaths and damage after the Floyd killings, and knowing that there were more riots even recently after Kim Potters accidentally shot Daunte Wright, and that the National Guard is called in to prevent further disaster and are being shot at. What does she say? Certainly not, "peacefully march." She says, among other things:

“Well, we’ve got to stay on the street. And we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”

More active? Mean business? More confrontational? Does she mean not enough people died? Not enough livelihoods were destroyed, buildings burned, children and families terrified? Sorry Minnesota, if he's not convicted you pay the price. Didn't the Nazis murder many innocent victims when the underground assassinated one of them? They were going to get their way. No why? BECAUSE THEY ARE FASCISTS! So is she.

She also said she disapproved of the curfew and that SHE wasn't hanging around. Why would she? She just lit a fire.

So, what happens in response to Water's instigation of murder, arson and mayhem (that's what it was)? Pretty much nothing. Yes, the judge in the Chauvin case was miffed at her, said it might cause the case to be overturned on appeal. But, despite the jurors having to know what will happen to the city, perhaps themselves, if they acquit - the judge doesn't do that himself. When's the last time that you heard a Democrat demand her resignation? Never, maybe? Educate me if I'm wrong (but a resolution in the House to condemn her for it was defeated on party lines). I can't even find anything showing Joe Manchin condemns it.

The silence from the left on her remarks is deafening or approving. And it is no surprise. Threats and violence has been the hallmark of the left the last few years and they haven't criticized it. The Democratic Socialists of America and other radical groups, all left wing, have threatened and assaulted politicians in restaurants and on the streets. Waters was one of the pols who encouraged it. Rand Paul literally thought he was going to be killed as a mob attacked. Unlike AOC, he was in the middle of it. For years Antifa and radicalized students have been attacking conservative speakers on college campuses. And Antifa, if you know anything about them, is simply a fascist group (going by an ironic name) that our wonderful DOJ likes to look the other way about, which literally emulates Nazi street fighters or brown shirts. In fact, Democrat politicians on many occasions have either ignored or supported them. One of the candidates during the campaign, when asked about them, pretended (I think - how could he not know) and then virtually ran away.

Of course, most run-of-the mill Ds do not engage in street fighting or even wish anyone harm, at least not out loud (some will admit they hope the opposition dies, but that describes many Rs too). And what do the regular - let's call them normal - Democrats do or say about their militant brothers and sisters? Almost nothing. Rarely anything. At least publicly. If they say it is wrong, they say it to those who already know it. But, they don't risk their jobs over it. Frankly, neither do most people on the right.

Biden, of course, now an electoral hostage of BLM and Antifa after black people literally saved his campaign, made matters worse after the Chauvin trial. He, the self-proclaimed Uniter. He indicated that yes, cops are killing blacks, by stating the conviction "ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see [systemic racism]." So, basically, not only is he backing up our national enemies like China, Russia and Iran when they say that, but he's indicating to police all over the country, we are not on your side. 

What's the difference with how Waters, who faces no consequences (it means nothing that the out of power GOP thinks she did something wrong) to Trump? Trump was vehemently attacked by the Ds, and the press, accused of fomenting insurrection. Here's the truth. He was not speaking to people who had rioted dozens of times, nor hundreds for that matter, burned buildings, tried to murder cops and destroy a city. He told the group that came to here him that they should  "[march] over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." He also tweeted that it should be peaceful. It wasn't, at least for a small portion of the crowd, but clearly, he asked for the opposite - and again, there was no history of violence by his supporters (unless you want to count when they are attacked by the left such as at Charlottesville and many other places). 

And, of course, those who did invade the capitol didn't kill people, didn't burn down the building, didn't kidnap congresspersons (perhaps some intended that - but they didn't get close, so hard to say). They didn't bring guns or shoot at the officers defending the building. It was wrong, of course, even criminal. But, immediately a friend texted me that this proved the right wing is the more dangerous side. One instance as opposed to hundreds in the same past year by the left. How is that more dangerous?

What does the shamelessly hypocritical left do? They impeached Trump a second time - tried him for impeachment even after he was no longer president, which makes no sense (sadly, the large majority of Ds do not care about the law - they simply want what they want, regardless of how far it need be misshaped). I don't believe Nancy Pelosi is stupid. It just fits the narrative that only white supremacists (for them, almost all Republicans and conservatives) are dangerous. It supports their attempt to take assert a one party government (at least one party with power), much the way the Nazis did. And, even those Ds (or anti-Trump Rs) who do not approve of bad behavior, simply shrug at it. It's not so bad. Nothing is going on. Well, again, if they are not at your door, I guess not.

The damage groups like The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others did to the Capitol building is a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what has been done to this country by BLM and their movement, including Antifa. It's a fraction of what has been done in either Portland or Minnesota alone. Still, hundreds of the Capitol street rioters have been arrested, and great effort has been made to scoop up as many as they can. Some are kept in solitary confinement (while even some accused murderers across the country walk out on bail). Even as vicious a democrat as Elizabeth Warren, one of the most duplicitous and nastiest of the Democratic Party, and Dick Durbin (who at least is somewhat civil) said that this was not right. Of course, it's not right. But, these are political prisoners. Why? Because that is what fascists do - take political prisoners.

Now, what do you think will happen to the defendants? Will they be convicted? Of course. The first has already pled guilty. Query this? What happened to the 500 or so rioters, burners, looters at the Trump inauguration who were charged? Nothing. The first two hundred or so were acquitted by the extremely liberal D.C. jurors and they let the rest go because it is obvious nothing resembling justice could be done there. Do you think the same will happen this time. The scales are tipped so far against the right in this country at this time, it is astonishing.

Of course, I am just using what happened in Minnesota and at the Capitol as examples of the fascism and hypocrisy that is now ubiquitous in this country. Anyone could write an entire book about what has happened in this country the last decade, but especially the last 4 years. Even about these two issues I could go on far longer. Here's just one more item:

Dr. David Fowler was Maryland’s chief medical examiner from 2002 to 2019. Someone must have liked him as he was appointed for so long through various administrations and health commissions. 

But, then he did something seen as beyond the pale. He testified for Chauvin. I thought he was a lousy witness. But, that's besides the point. What do fascists do when they disapprove of you? Well, in more developed fascist state where they can ruthlessly exercise power without dissent, they might beat up, arrest or kill you. In our country, where total power has not been attained yet, they will simply try to find some way to arrest you or destroy your career - to cancel you (hence, the cancel culture).*

*E.g., if the administration doesn't like you they might, for example, have the FBI raid your dwelling looking for evidence (probably like NYC with Trump, anything they can call a crime). I hope Giuliani - - by the way, someone I don't like and think is a little deranged - is smart enough not to answer questions for them, because they will take any mistake of fact he makes and claim it is a lie about a material fact to federal agents and therefore a crime.

In Fowler's case, the State of Maryland is on the job, right away. They are investigating Fowler, looking back at 17 or so years of examinations by him. Why? Those people are long dead. There's no indication he would have any motive to give false reports, just because they didn't like his opinion here. They say they must do this, but really, this is what fascists do. They want to intimidate anyone who might testify for a party in an action in a way not favored by the keepers of the narrative. Actually, it is a little reminiscent of an early Nazi law almost immediately after Hitler came to power, a law purging the civil service of Jews, followed by other laws barring them from many professions and parts of German life. Remember, folks, once fascism starts, it tends to get worse.

In our day, conservatives, white men and especially Trump could be compared to the Reich's Jewish victims. By that I mean, they are groups singled out for persecution. Unfortunately for actual Jewish people in America, most who now support the party of fascism (not one thinks he or she is), they will find that they are already in that group too. They should know it already if they are paying attention to 70 percent of the D party voting against including anti-Semitism in a discrimination bill, to BLM more than once rejecting Jews as supporters, to the Biden administration funding an vehemently anti-Israeli group long cut off.  

If you don't think this is happening, explain to me what is happening with the companies My Pillow and Goya. Explain to me all of the companies and people de-monetized or de-platformed from social media. Explain to me Fowler. Explain to me AOC trying to halt free-speech and suggesting that the names of Trump supporters need to be archived. Explain to me the calls for no police or incarceration (though a huge majority of blacks have said on a Gallup poll that they want the same or more police.)

Perhaps this has happened in America before - an expert witness rendering an opinion being persecuted by his own state government for it. Lucky for him, he retired several years ago and they can't fire him. If anyone has an example of this in any country, not just America, please comment and increase my knowledge. Of course, if it has happened before, it is exceedingly rare in our country. 

I'll end like I started. I'm not a natural firebrand. I hate to say bad things about people, even public figures. When I write these posts, I can't help but think of my relative, one of nicest people I know, who stopped speaking with me for a few months because it hurt his feelings that I said he was supporting fascists (though he routinely suggested I was doing the same and had no problem with that). I think of the many extremely intelligent and pleasant people I know today who are Ds or even Rs who hated Trump so much they voted for Biden and other Ds and all they represent. I know you don't want to think you are supporting a fascist party. Trust me, I hate to say it, but, you are, no matter how smart you are, no matter how nice. I write this "stuff," rather than about the art and science and history and top ten lists I used to, because it's really important. And, if I can influence a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of people who read it, that is important enough to deal with close friends and family being angry with me. 

This isn't an advertisement for Rs or conservatives, as I've never been one of them either (though I once was certainly very liberal), and I have had plenty to complain about them. But, they aren't acting like fascists. The D party, which for so many years was the party of slavery, the party of Jim Crow and the KKK, has returned to its root. This time, they are not attacking blacks, who are the most important base in the party. But, they have their victims. 

So, you don't think we live in a fascist state? I bet I've upset some of you.