If this is satire it’s spot-on and well done. No one likes being the guy who didn’t get the joke. But a writer, I forget who, once related the story of how he let a fellow writer read a manuscript into which writer A had poured his heart. The second man read it and complimented writer A on how humorous and witty, in a satirical way, the story was. The reviewer ended his analysis with the statement, in effect, that he also had considered the unfortunate possibility that writer A had intended the story to be taken seriously. I am in the position of that reviewer.

“Media outlets, including social media online, will be seized and censored. Lists of potential critics and opponents — leading Democrats, academics, intellectuals, pundits, even political cartoonists — will be drawn up. Those on the list will be arrested, or worse.”

The delusion is so beyond the pale. People losing their livelihoods over social media posts – was that a fever dream that I had?

“Black Lives Matters protests were winding down before he sent FPS to Portland and Seattle. Thanks to these violent agent provocateurs, the crowds of angry protesters are growing; buildings are burning; and people are getting killed. He wants to send thugs to Chicago and other cities. By October, they could be all over the country, spreading chaos.”

Yep, you’re insane. I suppose the federal government is supposed to allow courthouses to be destroyed and ignore record high homicides? The drug addled degenerates blinding federal agents are actually meek civil rights protestors huh? Were buildings not burning in Minneapolis immediately following the overdose of George Floyd? Please, tell me what orange man has to do with hordes descending upon downtown Chicago to pilfer high-end stores.

“They say it: Fascism, authoritarianism, can’t happen here.”

Authoritarianism can happen here, it’s been happening here, it will blossom under a Harris presidency when she imposes gun confiscation. Tech companies love controlling our dialogue, are they doing that for Trump? What a crock of shite. Why was this published here?

These

New York-based inquiries by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York’s attorney general and the Manhattan D.A.’s office into hush payments former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film actor Stormy Daniels, violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause and Trump’s business practices in general.

complement the supposed ongoing heroics of Barr Durham, who will soon, just you wait, see “frog-marched into a police van” a Deep State gang of seditionists.

Like that of pro wrestling, this script has to grow more absurd and strident to keep the gullible voting for change and ensuring none. When things really matter to the real constituents, you might notice out of the corner of your eye things like that 96-0 Senate vote using a virus to keep bailing out Wall Street. But when the people in Red and Blue tights resume body slamming each other, you stay tuned and get off the couch only to vote. (In fairness, Mr. Rall has previously said that he won’t be voting for either Trump or Biden. But he remains an NPRoggy believer in the system.)

Here’s a much better prediction from a more thoughtful columnist about the previous Most Important Election Ever:

In 2008, Obama was touted as a political outsider who will hose away all of the rot and bloody criminality of the Bush years. He turned out to be a deft move by our ruling class. Though fools still refuse to see it, Obama is a perfect servant of our military banking complex. Now, Trump is being trumpeted as another political outsider.

A Trump presidency will temporarily appease restless, lower class whites, while serving as a magnet for liberal anger. This will buy our ruling class time as they continue to wage war abroad while impoverishing Americans back home. Like Obama, Trump won’t fulfill any of his election promises, and this, too, will be blamed on bipartisan politics.

Linh Dinh, “Orlando Shooting Means Trump for President,” June 12, 2016, @ The Unz Review.

Lefty-lib Ted Rall is omitting that the key elements of presidential authoritarian control in the USA, were put in place by Barack Obama. The President is able to seize control over all food, water, energy and transportation in the USA, and the entire internet.

From the White House website:

Following a catastrophic national emergency, the President, or his successor can authorize the establishment of a temporary “shadow government” to maintain control of the essential functions of the Federal Government.

In 2012, President Obama issued two Executive Orders that will greatly expand the presidential powers in the event of a national emergency.

The March 2012 Executive Order gives the President the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic resources, including food and water, and seize all energy and transportation infrastructure within the United States. The order also allows authorizes the U.S. Government to force its citizens to fulfill labor requirements for the purposes of national defense.

The July 2012 Executive Order gives the Department of Homeland Security authority over private communication networks in emergency situations.

https://whitehouse.gov1.info/continuity-plan/

And left in place by the current 24/7/365 Commander In Chief?

It happened here a long fucking time ago, Ted. Like 1913. Love your work outs on Shithead and Cheney but you’re lost on the modern situation. Go back and read Louis McFadden, Henry Ford’s International Jew, and Father Coughlin. Oh, don’t miss Stanton Evans’ book, Blacklisted by History.

You know it just might be easier for Trump to retire to some friendly dictatorship that has no extradition treaty with the US. He’s not some power-mad troll, he’s just your garden variety con artist that the Democrats stupidly lost an election to.

All this reminds me of the final century of the Roman Republic, when the political traditions broke down one by one because they no longer served a purpose. Both governments were designed to administer small agrarian republics. Neither could manage the corrupting influence of the flood of wealth that poured in from the ever-expanding empire. Like us, a cabal of perhaps a hundred powerful men in Rome eventually owned and controlled everything, and they guarded their privilege ferociously. Like us, they retained the institutions of the republic but stripped them of their power to safeguard the body politic. When the empire was established, the decentralizing of authority from them into many administrative bureaucracies allowed some semblance of normalcy to return, and Rome expanded and prospered for four hundred years. Our republic is over, but the empire is nowhere near ready to fall, as so many seem to think. It’s barely just begun.

Perhaps his pal, Jair Bolsonaro, could appoint him to a position in the government of Brazil and quash all attempts at extradition. Some other governments might do the same. On the other hand the Donald might find out how many friends he really has.

We can only hope that Rall will be one of the first to be rounded up and thrown in a camp. He is a Leftist subversive and has been since he could walk. The current condition of this country is the fault of idiots like Rall. They deserve all they get. I don’t want a police state but if a temporary crack down on crackpots like Rall is the only way to clean out the sewer America has become, so be it.

Biden Must Steal Election or Face Prison

Rall has an interesting concept but is 100% wrong on the people.

The Durham investigation of Obama Administration crimes is beginning to reel people in. Those with dirt on DNC criminal activity are starting to cut deals to save themselves. Those at the higher levels of the Democrat Party criminal pyramid have one chance. Running out the clock before it reaches them.

The Democrats know that they cannot win on the merit with Quid Pro Joe. That is why the anti-democracy DNC is already undermining the integrity of the system.

For example, Virginia sent out over 500,000 bogus absentee voter requests. (1)

A non-profit group says more than a half-million inaccurate applications for absentee ballots were mistakenly sent across Virginia this week — including to dead voters, errant relatives and even a pet — in an unprecedented mailing flub that has heightened concerns about the integrity of expanding mail-in voting efforts.

The mistakes raised alarms with recipients as diverse as election monitors, members of the League of Women Voters and a retired FBI agent. The Center for Voter Information, the nonprofit group that sent the mailers with pre-filled absentee ballots, is now apologizing.

How many people believe the cover story about “vendor error”?
_____

I feel safe making two predictions:

-1- There will be more of these intentional, non-accidental “accidents” every week.
-2- These non-accidents will be 90%+ in favor of the DNC.

There should be 5 Supreme Court votes to protect the U.S. Constitution and the American people from DNC criminal activity. Unfortunately, Roberts is not a strong defender of the Constitution.

PEACE 😇
_______

(1) https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/virginia-absentee-ballot-applications-sent-dead-people-and-wrong

I hope you’re right! We’ve been waiting for Trump to become the person progressives warned us about.

Like Tiny Duck’s, Ted Rall’s lampoons of prog think can sometimes verge on the too subtle. I was mistaking this piece for a serious op ed, until I hit this:

“Black Lives Matters protests were winding down before he sent FPS to Portland and Seattle. Thanks to these violent agent provocateurs, the crowds of angry protesters are growing; buildings are burning; and people are getting killed. He wants to send thugs to Chicago and other cities. By October, they could be all over the country, spreading chaos.”

For fuck’s sake. This is the most obtuse article here yet. It did happen here, 71 years ago. With the Central Intelligence Agency Act. Your state created a security apparat with impunity. Before you were born. You lived your whole life under this.

The Supreme Court affirmed the implication of absolute sovereignty in 1993, in Saudi Arabia v. Nelson. They told you the state is above the law. Where the fuck were you?

This is the hallmark of state brainwashing: these obsessive warnings of prospective totalitarianism, with no vestige of awareness of the totalitarian state that’s got its hooks in you right now.

The whole Trump family will move to Israel on Jan. 20, 2021. They’ll be safe from extradition there.

They say it: Fascism, authoritarianism, can’t happen here.

If this author wasn’t a cartoonist, he’d be a clown in a circus.

The USA has incontrovertibly been a fascist dictatorship, by the rich for the rich, for decades. That’s plain as dog balls to anyone on the outside looking in. Apparently not so much for those on the inside looking out.

How detatched from reality can someone be? As Dr. Paul Craig Roberts might say, this character is trapped in the Matrix.

If Joe Biden maintains his double-digit lead in the polls, however,

Are we talking about the same polls that predicted a win for Hillary Clinton?

The USA has incontrovertibly been a fascist dictatorship, by the rich for the rich, for decades.

Had it been a fascist dictatorship, the Fed would have been nationalized and the dictatorship would have implemented universal health care and legislated the highest employment standards in the world that are actively enforced. Part of those employment standards would be worker councils with teeth, where, if the company did not address worker concerns or complaints about the workplace, the government would investigate.

It is a myth that the rich and corporations liked fascism. They were forced to work with it in order to survive. If they worked well, they thrived. If not, they suffered.

Are you saying Trump should flee to Iran?

Trump, former president and now dictator, will censor and suppress dissent to protect his regime. Martial law will be declared. Media outlets, including social media online, will be seized and censored. Lists of potential critics and opponents — leading Democrats, academics, intellectuals, pundits, even political cartoonists — will be drawn up. Those on the list will be arrested, or worse.

Anytime you’re wondering what a leftist wants to do, just check out what he’s claiming that the right wants to do.

It’s all projection, all the time, with these people.

Authoritarianism can happen here, it’s been happening here, it will blossom under a Harris presidency

Nailed it

Take your meds.

Yeah I’m sure Zion Don wants to become a fascist dictator, and not only that, has the support of the deep state in doing so. This is the dumbest article I’ve read on this site. They want you to have faith in the system, of course they wouldn’t let that happen.

Staying in the White House would be untenable by any means. The Deep State has thrown everything they legally can at a duly-elected Trump; they can take the gloves off if he even hints at going down the road you suggest he might. On the other hand, he could simply flee the jurisdiction to a no-extradition country. Brazil is one possibility. Who knows, Moscow has lots of hot chicks, and doesn’t it have a Trump property or two?

Agree.
Never trust a woman who chose to not have children.

God, I wish he would.

DJT may be no saint, but if he calls, I’ll be there with at least a million veterans ready to have a go at those who’re destroying our country. When the white reaction comes, as it’s been prophesied by a black American bishop, it will be as unstoppable and lethal as fire raging across dry grass. We don’t give a rat’s ass what you think.

Projecting.

It is a myth that the rich and corporations liked fascism.

We need an agreed baseline to make sense of this discussion.

FWIW I subscribe to simplistic definitions for the sake of pigeon-holing, eg:

Fascism -> Where government policy is determined by corporate interests. Generally starts out benignly (the frog in the pot) but progresses to control of all the machinery of government, including mobilization of military apparatus to achieve corporate objectives. Designed for the benefit of the wealthy, not the common folk.

Socialism -> Where government policy is determined by the interests of the common folk. Typically intended for the benefit of the common folk.

Dictatorship -> Where the common folk don’t get to choose their government.

Democracy -> Where the common folk decide the government’s policies.

This doesn’t consider issues of “capitalism” or “communism” – those are independent parameters.

So yes, in my simplistic view, the USA has incontrovertibly been a fascist dictatorship, by the rich, for the rich, for decades (if not longer).

Classic projection…Rall is accusing us what his side is doing now….

Yeah, among the various Deplorablegates, Russiagates, Special Prosecutors, Special Spy Inventions, Pussy Hat CIA Pink Color Revolution and other Spontaneous Popular Revolutions, a preventative SPR to pre-empt a Trump refusal to step down had already been announced in 2017. It is fully expected, Ted, just don’t give the game away too early.

Mind you, It Can’t Happen Here was not this.

Tosh.

If Mister Trump wanted so desparately to win this election he would build a border wall with the global south, deport illegel aliens like Ike did, keep black criminals in prison and close the borders to visa immigration and get Americans back to work.

I kept an open mind until “the protests are winding down.”

The author really should have read the morning news from Portland before hitting “send.”

I wonder if Ted is grinning like a maniac as he scribbles this bilge.
Hooting with laughter at his mendacious audacity, or like Stiltskin Nadler does he believe in myths.
We live on a turkey farm and Christmas is coming.

Ted Rall is emblematic of why the left ultimately fails: mediocrity rises to the top. This is a result of the inherent lack of self-scrutiny that exists in both leftism and radicalism. Only the simpleness of mind of leftism can start from the premise, we are so moral that we are incorruptible, and, therefore, find validity in the Trump-declares-himself-king conspiracy theories of people as warped as Hillary Clinton. Or think that Stormy Daniels will still bring Trump down.

Ted, stick to drawing pictures. You’re not very good at that, either, but it’s less embarrassing than this mess you’ve conjured up. (That would be obvious to you if you had sufficient self-scrutiny.)

He wrote

Black Lives Matters protests were winding down before he sent FPS to Portland and Seattle.

‘Were winding down’, and not ‘are winding down’. They were, since people unused to the hard life of self-reliance and tribal cooperation and without a lifelong commitment to a higher cause failed to sustain the massive turnouts that marked what the end of May looked like. But Rall’s point is that the protests took on a new life due to the Federal “goons” and “thugs” sent in to harass, intimidate, and disrupt the protestors, so for Rall’s argument here, your point that the protests are getting more intense is not inconsistent with his point. You are both in agreement: the protests are intensifying and starting to reach self-sustenance. They were given an enemy to rally against anew.

I’m not saying Rall is right overall, just that you shouldn’t close your mind so soon.

I mean, would you disagree that there’s a totalitarian interest in keeping the protests going? A police state manufactures criminal enteprise in order to justify itself, and the USA is on record over multiple instances in many places using agents provocateurs to harass, intimidate, and disrupt people, preferably into attacking their own and others. Do you agree with this, or do you see it differently altogether?

I did not know unz did satire, i do hope that unz will stop trying to compete with the babylon bee tho..

Oh, I agree completely. It seems likely that it’s all intentional provocation and distraction by an elite who could care less about the various ideologies in conflict. Wealth and power are only affected by a concerted effort; between the sides that fight, the sides that will simply never work together, and the regular people who keep getting screwed but are turned off by the rhetoric of the escalating extremes, it looks like clear sailing for the few true masters of the West.

Seen in that light, Trump was a better choice than Hillary, who could only really anger we powerless deplorables. Then again, if it goes too far, civil war might actually hurt the elite class, so I’m sure they’re motivated to get him out before he gets any ideas about going rogue during a second term.

Yes, it’s unfortunate that so few are able to step back and see all of this as Divide & Conquer.

But are you, with your last few words,

so I’m sure they’re motivated to get him out before he gets any ideas about going rogue during a second term.

priming yourself and others to push back by picking one of the two crayons on offer? The Establishment doesn’t care whether you vote Red or Blue or why, only that you do.

And if I were trying to figure out who “they” prefer, the rioting, etc., and the selection of such a wretched pair of Democratic candidates indicate a desire to keep President Trump for another four years of what Linh Dinh (“Orlando Shooting Means Trump for President,” June 12, 2016) foresaw in the last Most Important Election Ever.

vinteuil-I like your point and learn a lot from the comments here. I usually ignore “the hate Trump no matter what” crowd.
Much of the Freud stuff was thrown out but good stuff retained and that includes the defense mechanisms. Projection is known as the most primitive defense mechanism and we have seen it being used by Trump haters, that is, the Democrat party and the big media since he took office.
It is well worth it for the young and older to know what projection is because when a person uses it on you, you will be confused and angry.
It makes the victims of it angry. It perplexes them until someone explains what is being done and it reflects the disordered personality of the people using projection on others.

J1234- excellent response.

If I was voting with my reason and conscience, I’d just not vote. I’m usually a third-party guy, but I’m sick of being blamed for whoever’s defeat.

But voting for spite and entertainment value is still on the table. If I’m going to be called a spoiler anyway, I might as well earn it. So… Kanye or Trump?

“Despite claims that the executive order provided the President with unprecedented new powers such as declaring martial law, seizing private property, implementing the rationing of food, gasoline, and drugs, restarting peacetime conscription, and nationalizing American industry, merely by declaring a national emergency, the National Defense Resources Preparedness EO issued by President Obama was simply a minor updating of a similar order issued by President Bill Clinton in 1994 (which itself had decades-old predecessors) and amended several times since.” — Snopes.com

To the degree that this comment is coherent, it seems that J1234 disagrees with what Ted Rall says.
However, J1234 doesn’t attempt to tell us why he disagrees, he just offers ad hominem slams.

“…an elite who couldn’t care less…”

You’re absolutely right, I’m a little ashamed of myself for making that basic blunder.