I'm not gonna lie, I think all the maudlin hand-wringing about political violence, injured murderpigs, and "eroding democracy" in a rigged oligarchy owned and operated by rich fascists regardless of which party they claim to support, is a bit much. Despite their borderline fanatical adherence to polite fictions however, the media *is* correct in pointing out that Trump's January 6th pardons are a very ominous sign; they just lack either the language, or the courage to properly explain why.

commondreams.org/news/jan-6-pa…

'Rewarding Political Violence,' Felon Trump Pardons Jan. 6 Insurrectionists

"This move not only erases accountability for one of the darkest days in our nation's history but also emboldens far-right extremists and grants them free license to continue their ideological reign of terror."

"These are not patriots, these are traitors who will now be free to recruit others into what Trump views as his own personal militia," he asserted. "By granting clemency to these individuals, who sought to overturn the peaceful transfer of power, Trump is signaling that political violence and the rejection of democratic norms are acceptable tactics in service to his authoritarian agenda. This is a direct threat to the foundations of our democracy and the safety of our communities."

Although it's not properly taught in Pig Empire history class, the reality is that every single "successful" fascist movement in history has relied on the violence of "irregulars" or "Brownshirts" to maintain control and further a fascist political and social agenda that is invariably unpopular and would be resisted by the populace at large, without the threat of force to keep them in line. It's literally "how to install a fascist dictatorship 101." What Trump is doing here is making it 100% clear to fascists that the ruling party is totally fine with whatever violent crimes they commit as long as they serve the purposes of the larger American fascist movement. And he's not the only one; racialized fascist violence has already received strong support and similar pardons in places like Texas, New York, and even at one point California (although that was ultimately unsuccessful and cost a judge his position on the bench.)

If you want Brownshirts, this is how you create them; and for all the whining about a democracy that isn't real and murderpigs who side with the nazis the vast majority of the time, that's the real danger here. Letting 1,500 fascist rioters go for their part in a coup attempt isn't about the rule of law - it's an open signal that Trump WANTS these freaks to commit violence on his behalf, and will prevent the American police state from doing anything about that if necessary. This doesn't end here.

#Fascism #Trump #Coup #January6th #Pardons #USPol

'Rewarding Political Violence,' Felon Trump Pardons Jan. 6 Insurrectionists

"This move not only erases accountability for one of the darkest days in our nation's history but also emboldens far-right extremists and grants them free license to continue their ideological reign of terror," said one critic.

^{jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)}

The mistakes we're making now are the same that people made when Hitler rose to power. It's not that they didn't care, or that they didn't try to stop him. But what they did was ineffective. They relied on the normal processes to work ... like elections and political parties.

Political parties will always let us down when we really need them because the party protects the party's political power. It makes more sense for the Democrats to go along with Trump rather than to challenge Trump. Challenging Trump is hard and a lot of people will say mean things to you, particularly the donors/oligarchs who fund both parties but who really like Trump for the tax cuts and deregulation.

For Dems, it's easier to go along, and that's largely what happened in Germany when Hitler took over. The communists and anti-fascists told everywhere Hitler was a maniac, but the rest all hoped it would work out. In their defense, they really couldn't have predicted what Hitler would ultimately do, but we can predict what Trump will do. We have history as our guide, right?

Yes, the fires in Los Angeles are far worse than they would have been because global heating has made winters warmer, fuel drier, droughts worse.

noaa.gov/noaa-wildfire/wildfir…