Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Sure are a lot of pictures of Rudy with well known criminals like Lev Parnas tied to the Russians.

Lev Parnas is a small-time Trumpomobster who worked with Igor Fruman & Giuliani to damage US relations with Urkaine, on behalf of Putin. He was caught on funneling Russian money to Trump & GOP, went to court & lost.

Igor Fruman & Lev Parnas were caught at Atlanta airport after meeting Giuliani, on their way to Vienna, related to Ukraine in Oct 2019. Charged with 10 counts.

Igor pleaded guilty to 1 count. Will be sentenced in January. Faces 3-5 years in prison.

Lev Parnas attempted to cut a plea bargain with Feds. They negotiated for 9 months. So Lev was serious about trying to flip. Had excellent evidence.

The Feds lost interest in Flipper in May. So negotiated about Sept 2020 - May 2021. What happened?

We know what happened in April 2021. Merrick Garland as new AG approved the raid by FBI of Giuliani office, that corrupt AG Bill Barr had blocked in 2020.

Whatever powerful evidence Lev held, became worthless the moment FBI raided Rudy Colludy.

We know Lev was trying to negotiate a deal where he does not serve time inside (so out on probation on a suspended sentence). Feds were having none of that regardless of what evidence Lev held.

And the Feds were wiretapping Rudyhairdye.

If Lev had taken the deal on the table, he would have gotten LESS than Igor Fruman, who gets 3-5 years. Lev would have gone inside, like Michael Cohen, and released early. Probably 2-3 years inside.

Lev Parnas BADLY miscalculated in his gamble.

Parnas was found guilty by a jury in remarkably fast 5 hour deliberation, on all 6 counts. He faces 5 years on 5 of the counts, up to 20 years on the 6th. Theoretical maximum 45 years. Realistic final count 8-15 year sentence. Much more than Igor.

It gets WORSE for Lev Parnas. He has SECOND trial, where he now will be a criminal convict defendant. It has 4 more counts.

It can add another decade of prison time - not to run concurrently. Lev likely receives 16-25 years: a BAD miscalculation.

But wait! There's more. These 10 counts were in 2019 charging document. They are NOT the full Giuliani crime spree in Ukraine. Rudy had CONSPIRATORS. When America's Vampire goes to trial, MORE crimes will emerge and Lev can be - WILL be - charged.

Lev's role in Ukraine Giuliani crimes will add a decade to his time, and it will not run concurrently. Total time of the Lev Parnas miscalculation leads to about 25-40 years, instead of under 3 years.

[Rick Plant]

Pro-Trump Professors Are Plotting an Authoritarian Comeback
Conservative intellectuals’ plans to erode liberal democracy are just getting started

On Halloween, the second National Conservatism conference, or NatCon II, will kick off in Orlando, Florida. It is hard to know quite what to make of the lineup for the three-day fest, which boasts a few household names (Senators Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio are both keynote speakers), but also features conspiracist Jack Posobiec of Pizzagate fame. One through line, with a few exceptions, is support for Donald Trump. But the animating ideas come less from the ex-president than from a disparate group of formerly obscure academics.

Media coverage of the Trump phenomenon typically begins and ends with the base—the coal miner at the Midwestern diner, or the MAGA rally crowd. We don’t talk much about the professors.

Since 2016, an array of little-known conservative intellectuals and think tank sorts have emerged as powerful voices in Trump’s Republican Party. Zealous opposition to immigration and so-called woke culture stoked their political ambition. They lent a veneer of much-needed respectability to the Trump administration. And now, despite some genuine theoretical differences, the group is coalescing around an illiberal political project—not just espousing typical conservative policy preferences, but standing against liberal, constitutional democracy in the traditional, nonpartisan sense. Some of the most prominent intellectual voices on the right are openly consolidating around the notion that America needs a radical political transformation, away from rule by and for “We the People” and toward something more top-down and monolithic. At its essence, NatCon II is an opportunity for the big names in this movement to offer a dressed-up, sublimating version of Trumpism.

Today, the conservative intellectuals who first came together in defense of Trumpism and under the banner of National Conservatism are preparing the ideological terrain for a post-liberal America. Not to take them seriously betrays a historical naïveté and a fetishization of the intellect—as if intelligence has never walked alongside moral and political horror—as well as a dreadful overconfidence in the immediate appeal of the liberal democratic worldview.

At first glance, Trump seems like an unlikely champion for any group of intellectuals, and it’s true that many hold him at arm’s length. But some came to appreciate Trump’s irreverence, or what Charles R. Kesler of the Claremont Institute has called Trump’s “courage,” in standing up to the left. A small conservative think tank founded in 1979, the Claremont Institute positions itself in defense of the American Founding and the tradition of natural right and became an early intellectual champion for Trump. In September 2016, the institute published the “Flight 93 Election” essay, which argued, in effect, that it was time for conservatives to put their money where their shock-jock mouths had been for decades. As the author put it, “a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.” Rush Limbaugh devoted one of his shows to promoting the piece, and its author, Michael Anton, would later join Trump’s National Security Council. Anton now works for Hillsdale College, whose current president, Larry P. Arnn, chaired President Trump’s 1776 Commission Report, which argued for the promotion of “patriotic education,” prefiguring current Republican attacks on critical race theory.

During the Trump era, the Claremont group took a deliberate turn toward more active political engagement. What once could pass as jingoism and racial ignorance within the institute soon descended into open racism and rank conspiracism. By 2020, Anton and other leaders at ­Claremont were actively promoting the idea of a “Biden coup,” and John C. Eastman, the founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, wrote for Trump a six-point plan explaining how Mike Pence should overturn the election on January 6.

Far from operating in isolation, the Clare­mont contingent has a solid presence in the emerging National Conservatism movement, which is organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation (a new group chaired by Israeli American scholar Yoram Hazony, author of the 2018 book The Virtue of Nationalism). The broader conference is more ideologically diverse than Claremont and includes a good number of religious traditionalists, many of whom take a more decorous approach to politics. But they’ve found common cause. In March 2019, First Things magazine published an open letter entitled “AGAINST THE DEAD CONSENSUS,” which served as an early cri de coeur for the movement. Signatories include Sohrab Ahmari, the opinion editor for the New York Post, and Patrick Deneen, author of the popular 2018 hit Why Liberalism Failed and a professor at the University of Notre Dame. The letter blamed the conservative establishment for its failure to stem the tide of “tyrannical liberalism,” and praised “the Trump phenomenon” for opening up space for new kinds of political inquiry and practice. NatCon I took place in July 2019—Tucker Carlson and John Bolton were featured speakers—and in February 2020 there was a National Conservatism conference in Rome.

The camps are unified behind a divisive and dehumanizing account of their political opponents. On the more temperate end, men like Deneen and Hazony espouse dismissive accounts of how liberal elites’ deepest relationships—with their spouses, their parents, their offspring—are mercenary and free of real love and loyalty. At the other end, there’s the boundless cynicism of the Claremont Institute, which publishes writers who refer to Black Lives Matter activists as evil and liken left-leaning Americans to zombies and human rodents. Across the continuum of illiberal intellectualism, there are apocalyptic cries about the imminent collapse of Western Civilization. The passionate rhetoric abandons any pretense to liberal ideals of reasoned deliberation and contestation within a shared constitutional framework.

Instead, these intellectuals have embraced various alternatives to American pluralism. Deneen has advocated for a political form called “Aristopopulism,” which aims to replace today’s elites with “genuine aristoi,” and he’s defended the idea of using “Machiavellian means to achieve Aristotelian ends.” J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy and a current candidate for a Senate seat in Ohio, echoed the thought on Fox News. “If we want a healthy ruling class in this country,” Vance told Tucker Carlson in July, “we should support more people who actually have kids.” The Claremont Institute sees itself as engaged in a world-historical defense of America, which means standing in strident opposition to multiculturalism (the institute likes to call it a “war”).

In searching for real-world alternatives, these intellectuals—especially the traditionalists—have looked abroad, latching on to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as the best concrete example of their ideal. An open proponent of “illiberal democracy,” Orbán has become increasingly autocratic since he became the country’s prime minister in 2010, consolidating his power around staunch anti-immigration policies and Christian nationalism, asserting state control over the media, bending the judiciary to his will, exerting new controls over public education, and manipulating elections. America’s illiberal intellectuals often speak highly of Orbán, who was an honored guest at the National Conservatism gathering in Rome. Patrick Deneen and American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher visited Hungary in June, and were full of praise. Dreher sees the country as exemplifying “a sustained pushback to the inevitability of global progressivism” and finds it “tremendously encouraging.” Deneen thinks Hungary has a lot to teach America about how the law can be used to support traditional family life and a “genuine kind of human flourishing.”

Meanwhile, the Claremont Institute intellectuals indulge in bizarre, violent imagery and militaristic language. In addition to the notorious deeds of Eastman, they were an important nexus for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” lies and openly flirt with secessionism. In March, one of Claremont’s senior fellows published an essay proclaiming the need for a counterrevolution against the American majority who didn’t vote for Trump. In late May, the think tank produced a podcast that gamed out how a future president might convert herself or himself into a new Caesar.

It’s tempting to think that the worst is behind us. Joe Biden’s Washington is consumed by debates over infrastructure and the social safety net. Republicans in Congress may refuse to acknowledge the realities of what happened on January 6, but for now they can’t implement further anti-democratic measures nationally. However, away from D.C., these intellectuals have taken up Trump’s illiberal baton with gusto. For them, Trump was a trial balloon for what they hope will be an altogether more serious and deliberate political project.

This isn’t just abstract hypotheticals. National Conservatism has ties to prominent GOP politicians. Beyond Hawley and Rubio headlining the NatCon II conference, the Claremont Institute is set to honor Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at its annual gala in late October. Tucker Carlson and former Vice President Mike Pence recently paid separate visits to Budapest. And the arguments coming from the illiberal right are entirely consonant with recent state GOP efforts to limit voting rights, control public education on race, and strictly curtail abortion access. These all cut against the core principles and spirit of American constitutionalism, and yet it is easy to imagine their being deployed by more staid and respectable politicians than Trump; from there, it’s not hard to imagine a more serious autocratic turn for the Republican Party, with violent implications for the country.

https://newrepublic.com/article/163939/pro-trump-professors-plot-authoritarian-america

[Rick Plant]

'Someone is going to get shot': Secretaries of state are living in fear thanks to Trump’s election lies



Secretaries of State and other election officials across the country are speaking out about the alarming increase in harassment and violent threats they've faced since former President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) detailed her encounter with "armed protesters" that organized outside of her home. Following Trump's loss, protesters reportedly told Hobbs, "Katie come out and play. We are watching you."

The Democratic official has also received vicious voice-mail. "You will never be safe in Arizona again," an unknown caller warned in one of the messages.

Hobbs also discussed the alarming encounter. "As an elected official, I expected that sometimes I would have constituents who were unhappy with me," Hobbs said. "But I never expected that holding this office would result in far-right trolls threatening my children, threatening my husband's employment at a children's hospital or calling my office saying I deserve to die and asking, 'What is she wearing today, so she'll be easy to get.'"

As Trump continued to push the "big lie," election officials on both sides of the political aisle were faced with harassment. Although the numbers, and even audit outcomes, have made it clear that Trump lost the election by a substantial margin, his followers' blind faith has not waned.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) has also faced similar treatment. Speaking to CNN last week, she revealed whether or not she felt safe doing her job. The state official took nearly 30 seconds to speak.

"I take these threats very seriously," she said after carefully choosing her words. "It's absolutely getting worse."

"When I'm at the center of a national QAnon conspiracy and the very people who have stormed the Capitol are threatening me, it is very concerning," Griswold said. "When someone says they know where I live and I should be afraid for my life, I take that as a threat and I believe the state of Colorado should, too."

The latest concerns also come months after Gabriel Sterling, the top-ranking Republican for Georgia's voting system, also echoed similar sentiments about accountability during a Dec. 1, 2020 news conference last year. At that time, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) was being targeted amid pressures to overturn the election results in his state.

"It has to stop," Sterling said at a December press conference. "Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it's not right."

For Michigan Secretary of State Joycelyn Benson (D), it's become a way of life to live with looming threats. "It creates an air of apprehension everywhere you go and over everything you do. You're always looking behind your back and over your shoulder," she said.

"The lack of accountability means one thing: we have to anticipate that it will continue," Benson said. "And then as we close in on next year's election and 2024, I think it will simply continue to escalate, unless there are real consequences."

https://www.rawstory.com/secretaries-of-state-detail-how-their-lives-have-changed-from-violent-threats-and-harassment-thanks-to-trump-s-big-lie/

[Rick Plant]

Don't forget Criminal Donald called these neo Nazis "very fine people". His base is made up of white supremacists and various hate groups.

Attorneys vow to prove neo-Nazis 'planned for violence' during start of Charlottesville trial

Lawyers for nine people injured in the 2017 Unite the Right rally laid out their case in federal courtroom in Charlottesville that organizers of the violent white nationalist gathering conspired to commit racially motivated violence.

"They are going to tell their stories directly to you because they believe the truth about what happened in Charlottesville must be told," Karen Dunn, one of the lead attorneys, told the 12 jurors. "These plaintiffs will tell you this is a case about justice and accountability — accountability for these defendants who planned and perpetrated violence thinking they would always get away with it."

In a riveting 90-minute opening statement that included video footage, audio recordings, Dunn and fellow lead attorney Roberta Kaplan presented a searing diorama of a white nationalist movement in 2017 bristling with violence in text messages exchanged by leaders and escalated into eliminationist lust as they hurtled towards the appointed date of Aug. 11 and 12 in Charlottesville.

They told the jurors about the defendants — locals that included a pastor, a landscaper and students at the University of Virginia — who took a nonviolent stand against white supremacy and were subjected to ghastly attacks, racial slurs and a car attack that left them with lasting injuries.

"We will show you that the violence on August 11th and August 12th was no accident," Dunn told the jurors. "They planned for violence. They executed violence. They celebrated and ratified the violence, after the fact. That is what we're going to prove to you."

Emphasis on prior planning, acts of violence by some of the defendants and celebratory statements by the organizers after the fact provided a common refrain in the plaintiffs' opening statement, underscoring that they need to prove that the defendants shared an unlawful objective to prove a conspiracy, even if other aspects of their activity such as publicly demonstrating to promote their white supremacist and anti-Semitic views are protected under the First Amendment.

In her portion of the opening statement, Dunn attempted to draw a tight connection between leaders like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, respectively the most prominent white nationalist in the country at the time and the rally's local organizer, and James Fields, an Ohio man who sped his Dodge Challenger into a peaceful antiracist march, killing Heather Heyer.

Dunn told the jury that when Kessler decided to organize Unite the Right, he reached out to three men: Spencer; Matthew Heimbach, leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party; and Elliott Kline (then known as Eli Mosley sp), an organizer with Identity Evropa. Kline, who helped organize the rally alongside Kessler, reached out the Vanguard America, another neo-Nazi group.

"James Fields has admitted he was inspired by Richard Spencer to go to Charlottesville," Dunn said. "He marched with Vanguard America. He was wearing the Vanguard America uniform. He carried a Vanguard America shield. Dillon Hopper was the leader of Vanguard America and had communications with Kline. Thomas Rousseau also had communications with Kline and took control of Vanguard America just before August 12th. He led the soldiers on the ground."

Neither Hopper nor Rousseau are defendants, although the defunct Vanguard America is.

Previewing the plaintiffs' case that the defendants used the First Amendment as a ruse to cover for racist violence, Dunn quoted from a text message Kessler sent in response to Spencer's confirmation that he would speak at Unite the Right: "We're raising an army, my liege, for free speech, but the cracking of skulls if it comes to it."

Dunn also previewed testimony from Samantha Froehlich, who is the former girlfriend of Elliott Kline.

"Mr. Kline was actually working for an exterminator, as unbelievable as that sounds," Dunn said. "Samantha Froelich, she will testify that Mr. Kline wanted to kill Jews instead of cockroaches. He would say, 'Gas the kikes forever.'"

Dunn cited messages exchanged among the defendants and co-conspirators discussing using sticks and shields as weapons, and celebrating weaponizing cars, including a message by defendant Matthew Heimbach with the hashtag #HitTheGas.

"While watching someone run over counter-protesters may seem shocking to most of us, you will come to see it was reasonably foreseeable that a car would run over counter-protesters," Dunn said.

https://www.rawstory.com/charlottesville-lawsuit-nazis-2655429685/

[Rick Plant]

GOP voters are a ‘tinderbox’ that Republican leaders are enflaming with violent rhetoric: analysis



Leaders of the conservative movement in America are echoing Donald Trump by using violent rhetoric to enrage their base, according to a new analysis in The Washington Post.

"During his five-plus years as a politician and president before Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump repeatedly and suggestively alluded to the prospect of violence by his supporters. Then it happened. Those supporters took the hint and stormed the U.S. Capitol, intent on overturning a democratic election on the basis of false claims that it had been stolen from them," Aaron Blake wrote.

He noted that Trump was impeached for inciting insurrection.

"Trump was acquitted despite the fact that many high-profile Republicans had preemptively warned Trump's violent rhetoric could one day lead to just such a scene. Despite it all, nearly 10 months after Jan. 6, suggestions of legitimized violence continue to permeate the GOP and the conservative movement. Trump has faded into the background somewhat, thanks to his social-media bans and being out of office, but others have gladly picked up the torch, with almost no pushback from their party leadership," he wrote.

He noted recent comments by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) likening the assault on the Capitol to the Declaration of Independence.

"Greene's comment reflects how some Republicans like her spoke about Jan. 6 beforehand. As The Post reported at the time, several Republicans had compared the situation to 1776 and otherwise suggested the necessity of violence. These were not allusions to peaceful efforts to overturn an election; they were about armed revolution," Blake explained. "But while the fervor understandably died down for a while, you needn't look far to see this kind of rhetoric continuing to rear its ugly head. Trumpian allusions to the prospect and even necessity of political violence and a 1776-esque revolution are coming up with increasing frequency."

@laurenboebert Today is 1776.
5:30 AM · Jan 6, 2021

Blake also called out rhetoric by Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Louie Gohmert (R-TX). He also listed violent rhetoric by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and OAN host Pearson Sharp.

"While we should never oversell anecdotes, we probably shouldn't ignore it when an activist earnestly asks a leader of the young conservative movement in public, as one did this week, 'When do we get to use the guns?' Despite the lessons of Jan. 6, key members of the conservative movement are still wandering around that tinderbox with a lit match and nary a fire extinguisher to be found," Blake concluded.

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-voters-are-a-tinderbox-that-republican-leaders-are-enflaming-with-violent-rhetoric-analysis/

[Rick Plant]

Trump could have his finances investigated following decision by Scotland's highest court
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/trump-could-have-his-finances-investigated-following-decision-by-scotland-highest-court

[Rick Plant]

Biden Pushes ‘Build Back Better’ Plan To Help Small Businesses
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rohitarora/2021/08/25/biden-pushes-build-back-better-plan-to-help-small-businesses/

[Rick Plant]

Here's what a REAL President looks like. Representing America with dignity, class, honor, integrity, respectability, and with intelligence. A President that doesn't embarrass America on the National Stage like Criminal Donald did and has the world respecting us as a great nation once again.