Ordinary men in 1940s Germany for sure; but in 2025 America? Hell NO!

The first video is from a year ago. Not anyone reflecting on what Trump said in Ohio about a bloodbath last weekend.

Trump has publicly, emphatically and prominently PROMISED RETRIBUTION in 2025 if he reascends to power. 

Maybe it's easy to think corporate (aka mainstream) media has dropped the ball as far as telling the truth (the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth) about HOW FREAKING BAD Trump is and would be IF he is able to return to the most powerful office in the world.

But corporate media does have to cope with a constant firehose of "stuff" from and about Trump.

In SOME cases, including local Arizona nonprofit media outlet Arizona Mirror, managing editor Jim Small, has said he will ditch "junk food" coverage to instead focus on the stakes of the 2024 election. I commend Jim and the Arizona Mirror for doing so. I donate to support it. It's an incredibly important enterprise in the current moment. Please join me in doing so. 

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Today, Arizona held it's "presidential primary," technically and specifically called the Presidential Preference Election. 

Unsurprisingly, Biden and Trump won decisively the race for convention delegates from our state.

The STAKES are very high this year. Nothing less than whether America will remain a nation allowing self-determination on a personal and community level.

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Project 2025 holds the essence of how Trump intends to implement that promise of retribution

It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day One of the next conservative Administration.

"Rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left..." is an extremely stark statement couched in euphemistic rhetoric. They mean business. Trump regularly uses violent imagery in the demagogic language he spouts.

There is a very short straight line between the John Birch Society (the Koch brothers' father Fred was very deep in JBS). The Kochs have provided funding to the Heritage Foundation. 

The Heritage Foundation is an associate member of the State Policy Network, founded in 1992, a network of conservative and libertarian organizations financed by the Koch brothers, Philip Morris, and other corporate sources.

Since August 2023, the foundation has led a constellation of groups participating in Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. In addition to laying out policy proposals, the project is recruiting thousands to staff and reshape the federal government in ways closer to Heritage preferences should a Republican president be inaugurated in January 2025. Former Trump administration official Russell Vought, who is involved in the project, said, "The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state." The project's policy proposals include changes "for nearly every agency across the government", including undoing the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, shutting down the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, boosting the extraction and use of fossil fuels, and other measures that could have significant impact on how the administration approaches global warming and climate change.

If you think Ordinary Men cannot or would not do Trump's bidding which he has euphemistically claimed is to begin a mass deportation of anyone he affixes labels to as a hated Other, you might want to view this documentary.

Regardless of Project 2025, Trump or MAGA, YOU and I have AGENCY.  

noun The state of being in action or of exerting power; action; operation; instrumentality.

noun A mode of exerting power; a means of producing effects.

You and I have a VOICE.

You and I will RAISE our VOICE increasingly in 2024.

You and I will defeat the orange and red capped monster, will defeat Project 2025, and will reelect Joe Biden to a second term, and God (the VOTERS) willing, we will flip the Arizona Legislature.

THIS is within our grasp. I do not write these words with even one iota of uncertainty.

We Rise UP! with One VOICE, we WIN.

 

One in the Chamber? Elijah Crane's Congressional newsletter

 Yesterday, March 16, Arizona Congressman Elijah Crane (R-CD2) delivered his latest newsletter to me by email.

The first several sections or blurbs in Crane's newsletter seem to exclusively contain both unverified/unverifiable and clearly unsupported claims which, on the surface, insult the intelligence of every reader who possesses critical thinking and analysis skills. Case in point: 

"Record-high inflation..." really? Data reported by US Inflation Calculator, sourced from US Dept of Labor on March 12, 2024, 

The annual inflation rate for the United States was 3.2% for the 12 months ending February, compared to the previous rate of 3.1%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on March 12, 2024. The next inflation update is scheduled for release on April 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET, providing information on the inflation rate for the 12 months ending March 2024 

Shown graphically also on the same US Inflation Calculator page,

Nevertheless, Bidenomics IS working for small businesses and working Americans, as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spelled out in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed which demonstrates and backs up her claims.

The American economy has improved significantly over the past year, especially for the middle class. In December 2022, I shared my optimism in these pages about our country’s economic trajectory: We had gotten our economy back on its feet after weathering significant shocks and were poised for growth. It’s now clear that optimism was justified. While some forecasters predicted a 100% chance of recession this year, that didn’t happen. During the first three quarters of 2023, annualized growth averaged around 3%. Americans are applying to start businesses at a record pace, consumers are buying more, and inflation has come down substantially.

Regarding Biden administration responsibility for inflation, consider that Fed chair Jerome Powell began raising interest rates two years ago this month. As reported by NPR, 

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time since 2018, kick-starting its efforts to tackle the country's highest inflation in four decades.

The central bank raised its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, marking the beginning of the end of the ultra-easy money policies that have been in place since the early days of the pandemic.

By the way, who was the chief executive of the US federal government in the early days of the pandemic?

Regarding "senseless regulations" crushing small businesses, that's an incredibly VAGUE claim. Due to vagueness, it would be senseless for me to even begin to rebut here.

Regarding "rising crime in Biden's America," the Washington Post in an editorial today (gift article), noted that crime is falling throughout the country, except in Washington, D.C. (Read the well documented argument for free because I subscribe) Briefly, however, the editorial makes these points.

Violent crime declined in nearly every major U.S. city last year. The District was a tragic outlier. [and]

Many perpetrators apparently believed they could get away with breaking the law, and they were somewhat correct. The D.C. police force was the smallest in half a century.

Effective law enforcement requires that those who have the authority to combat crime also take responsibility for doing so. This is hard to achieve in the unusual hybrid system of government in the nation’s capital, with multiple federal and local agencies (and differing elected officials) in control of various aspects of criminal justice.  

Can a case be made showing the D.C. police force staffing problem being related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection? I don't know. 

However, rather than Mr Crane flippantly pointing fingers at the Biden administration, maybe he would do well to direct whoever writes his newsletters to be a bit more diligent about backing up specious allegations of policy concerns. That is, IF Crane's "one in the chamber" hopefully metaphoric newsletter title really wants to hit his rhetorical targets at all.