You're Not Powerless... There's Stuff That You Can Do
-by Harvey Wasserman
When J.D. Vance called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler,” he meant it as a MAGA/Nazi call to arms. Now his billionaire tech bros have designated Vance as their digital messiah, ready to run the world for Musk, Thiel and the rest of the Silicon Valley fascist cabal, with Trump as their front man. But even they can’t hide der would-be Fuhrer’s festering dementia.
“He seems to be progressively cognitively impaired,” says Allen Dyer, a retired George Washington University psychiatry professor who helped create the 1973 “Goldwater rule” that has kept many mental health professionals from opining on Trump for over a decade despite his obviously declining mental health. “I find it concerning that he doesn’t complete his sentences, seems to lose track of the question he is trying to answer, or avoid, and that one thought doesn’t lead to another, but appears to veer tangentially off track.”
Dyer has been following Trump’s case for years, and says he would order a full test regime to find the cause of the ex-president’s declining mental state.
So here are three ways you can help stop the Trump/Vance fascist takeover:
Go to Center for Common Ground and sign up to make phone calls to potential voters in crucial swing states;
2) Go to Communities United for Justice and help sponsor on-the-ground canvassers to help Get Out the Vote where it will make a difference;
3) Search The People’s Hub for Grassroots Democracy Organizing for more than 50 groups that could use your help to guarantee a free & fair 2024.
Amidst a uniquely insane campaign, this year’s realest danger lies with voter suppression and a fake pro-Trump vote count bought by fascist billionaires. The tactic dates to Florida 2000, when the violent “Brooks Brothers Mob” terrorized poll workers to stop the vote count and put George W. Bush in the White House. Their putsch was certified by a Supreme Court where Clarence Thomas still sits. The 2000 Mob’s legal team included current Supremes John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Barrett, all now poised to put Trump back in the White House… with no limitations on his power.
Amidst that 2000 election theft, Greg Palast documented how Jeb Bush stripped 90,000 citizens of color from the Florida voter rolls, handing his brother the presidency. In a race decided by 537, Bev Harris tracked 20,000 dubious digital votes flipping around Volusia and other counties.
In Ohio 2004, Bob Fitrakis and I— with Steve Rosenfeld— showed how Karl Rove’s tsunami of “irregularities” gifted Bush a second term. But John Kerry ignored us. So did Hillary Clinton in 2016, when still more “irregularities” gave Trump swing states Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania… and the presidency.
After two decades of hard work, the election protection movement in 2020 won a free and fair contest based on hand-marked paper ballots, audited with digital scanners.
But in 2024, Team Trump/Vance, coordinated by Steve Bannon, has launched a blitzkrieg with even more massive voter purges and “irregularities.”
Palast’s new film Vigilantes Inc. documents how Trump operatives are again stripping registration rolls in swing states like Georgia.
But there’s no excuse this year for whining that there’s “nothing I can do.” Make phone calls, support a canvasser, see the 50+ grassroots groups. And if you’re supporting a third-party candidate, do a swap to maximize your vote.
But if you do nothing and find yourself in Dachau, don’t blame anybody but yourself.
——————————————————————-
Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Green Grassroots Emergency Protection zooms most Mondays 2-4pm PT, and co-hosts the “California Solartopia” Show at kpfk.org most Wednesdays 5-6pm PT.
I will not discouage those who join in the activities suggested in this excellent post. I applaud their dedication. Maybe I'll join those efforts myself as election day approaches.
For the moment, however, I'm too old, too tired, too beaten down, too disillusioned, and too discouraged to rouse myself. I saw Dems make critical unforced errors in 1988, in 2000, in 2004, and in 2016. They've made more than their share of them this time.
What campaign that needs to rouse its base and knows that its base is largely lukewarm makes Liz Cheney one of its most visible spokespeople? What Dem campaign prominently features JOHN MOTHER F'ING BOLTON in one of its ads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6oQXN2WNtU
Do they actually WANT to…
This anti fascist predominance is better late than never. But awfully freaking late and maybe too late. However, TFGs love of hitlers generals was described years ago. The media yawned then and Kelly did not speak out then. Thank you Bob Woodward for your book War.