Names and companies to remember: Patrick M. Byrne, former CEO of Overstock. com, et al.

American fascists

By now it is clear that most of the fascist GOP (FGOP) and most of its rank and file want to reject the 2020 election and just install the ex-president by fiat. The most common "reason" is the blatantly false claim there was widespread election fraud  and Biden is illegitimate. The 2nd most common is "to reassure voters that the election was not fraudulent." Neither excuse amounts to anything close to honest or persuasive based on the evidence in the public record so far. For example, the need for voter "reassurance" is based on a continuous torrent of FGOP lies that the election was stolen. 

So, when names of rich and powerful backers and companies of this new American brand of fascism pop up, it seems reasonable to at least mention them. Not surprisingly, most try to hide, downplay or deny their immoral role in fomenting American fascism. They like to invoke plausible deniability and pretend they are patriotic and pro-democracy. Instead, they are fascist thugs lying to the American people to manipulate and betray them and democracy. As usual for autocrats and kleptocrats, they rely heavily on toxic but legal dark free speech.

The New York Times writes today about the fraudulent "vote audit" the FGOP-corrupted state of Arizona is pretending to conduct:

It had been apparent since the review began in April that supporters of Mr. Trump were both donating money to the effort and recruiting volunteers to work on it. But the sources and size of the donations had not been disclosed until Wednesday.

According to the Cyber Ninjas statement, the largest donation, $3.25 million, was made by a newly created group, The America Project, led by Patrick M. Byrne, the former chief executive of the Overstock. com website and a prominent proponent of false claims that the November election was rigged.

Mr. Byrne resigned his post at Overstock in 2019 after it was disclosed that he had an intimate relationship with Maria Butina, a gun-rights activist who was jailed in 2018 as an unregistered foreign agent for Russia and later deported. He later said he had contributed $500,000 to the Arizona review, and produced a film featuring [Cyber Ninja CEO] Doug Logan that claimed the November election was fraudulent.

The statement said that another pro-Trump group, America’s Future, contributed $976,514 to the review. The group this year named Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser, the retired Army officer Michael T. Flynn, as its chairman. Mr. Flynn is a vocal conspiracy theorist who once called for the military to “rerun” the 2020 election.

An additional $605,000 came from Voices and Votes, a group organized by Christina Bobb, an anchor for the pro-Trump cable channel One America News, who solicited donations for the review while covering it. A fourth group that was reported to have donated $550,000, Defending the Republic, is tied to Sidney Powell, the former attorney to Mr. Trump who led a failed legal campaign to overturn the election results.

The last reported donor, the Legal Defense Fund for the American Republic, was reported to have donated $280,000. The fund was established by a Michigan lawyer, Robert Matheson, to help finance Ms. Powell’s lawsuits, but since has launched other fund-raising efforts.

Of course, one cannot overlook the fascist company Cyber Ninjas and its fascist CEO Doug Logan. Logan is a well-known spreader of the anti-democracy stolen vote lie. He is making money from doing the faux vote audit in corrupted Arizona. The NYT reported that although Logan claims the identity of its funders was being made public “as we continue our commitment to transparency,” that is yet another lie. The audit has been opaque. Logan fought efforts to allow observers of his sloppy, faux audit. 

Logan was forced to reveal the funders in response to an Arizona county court order two weeks ago that the sources of the review’s funding be released to the public. That court order came after fascist Republicans in the state Senate fought against making them and other records of the faux audit process public. That's fascist "transparency" for you. The rest of us call it opacity hiding lies, corruption and anti-democratic sleaze.

American fascism

To summarize, here's the list of corrupt FGOP fascists and their lying fascist groups and companies from this article:

Patrick M. Byrne, traitor, liar and fascist former CEO, 

Overstock. com, The America Project

Doug Logan, liar and fascist CEO, Cyber Ninjas

at the "audit" in Arizona

Logan without the mask

Michael T. Flynn, traitor, liar and fascist pardoned felon, 

America's Future

Christina Bobb, liar and professional fascist propagandist, 

One America News, Voices and Votes

Sidney Powell, liar and fascist lawyer, 

Defending the Republic

Robert Matheson, liar and fascist lawyer, 

Legal Defense Fund for the American Republic

Notice how some of the fascist political groups involved in attacking the Republic and democracy have names that imply or are the literal opposite of what they actually do, e.g., "Defending the Republic" is attacking the Republic. That tactic is common in politics. To mislead people, all kinds of things get named to invoke the opposite of what they want and work for. Even the names of these groups constitutes a lie. Lies are everywhere in American fascism. More honest and transparent names would be:

The America Project = The American Fascism Project

America's Future = America's Fascist Future

Voices and Votes = Fascist Voices and Votes

Defending the Republic = Building a Fascist Republic

Legal Defense Fund for the American Republic = Legal Defense Fund for a Fascist America

And, it's tax exempt!

Unfortunately, all of the groups are (probably) tax exempt "non-profit" organizations under tax law. In essence, the American Tax code subsidizes fascism in its attempt to overthrow democracy and the rule of law in America. And, it just might succeed. That is really screwed up.

American fascists

Questions: Is the emphasis here on fascism over the top or warranted in view of the evidence in the public record so far? Whatabout Antifa?