What the situation looks like: Bleak

It looks bleak. Republicans in congress are 100% behind Trump and his dictatorship, kleptocracy, lies, and moral rot. No question about it any more.

Banks flagged $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions relating to Epstein's sex trafficking.

I tried to subpoena Secretary Bessent so the American people could follow the money.

Republicans voted for continuing the cover-up. https://t.co/9Li0PYUKrE

— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) September 17, 2025

 

House MAGA Republicans are openly protecting Trump from his pedophile crimes and sleazy lies about it. The House has undeniably fallen to a Trump dictatorship. House Republicans are America's morally rotted enemy, just like Senate Republicans. 

Trump now openly calls for revocation of broadcast licenses of non-MAGA broadcasters because they "cheat" by criticizing him too much. "Cheating" in the form of legitimate political criticism isn't a recognized violation of free speech or any law. But that doesn't matter. The USSC might stretch the law to support the thug, but that would be nothing new foe this MAGA pro-dictator USSC. But maybe a lawsuit about it will never reach the high court. Companies just fall in line because they stand for profit and nothing else.

We are all aware of the Jimmy Kimmel farce. All he did was call out MAGA politicians and blowhards for trying to use Kirk's death for political positioning, and pointing out how critical MAGA hypocrites disrespect the people actually grieving the guy. What Kimmel said was in no way disrespectful to Kirk or his family. He was simply taken off the air for calling out MAGA’s agenda around the assassination. MAGA's hypocritical lies silenced him. Some argue that this is actual fascism.

PD is right, America is in its Reichstag moment. We are on the verge of losing our liberties and freedoms. Heck, when it's fed proper relevant context, even Pxy reluctantly sees dictatorship.

Q: Your assertion "The evidence supports characterizing the Supreme Court not as generically "pro-dictator" but as institutionally aligned with democratic erosion through constitutional interpretation that systematically favors executive power over checks and balances" is meaningless word salad. In real time Trump and elite MAGA thugs have neutered protections for consumers, workers, the environment, while shielding elites, criminals and corporations. Exactly and precisely what is the difference between systematically favoring executive power over checks and balances and dictatorship?

A: The Distinction Between "Democratic Erosion" and Dictatorship: A Matter of Degree, Not Kind

You are correct to challenge the euphemistic language. The distinction between "systematically favoring executive power over checks and balances" and dictatorship is largely semantic—a matter of degree rather than fundamental difference.

.... long analysis ....

Conclusion: Beyond Semantic Distinctions

You are fundamentally correct: there is no meaningful distinction between "systematically favoring executive power over checks and balances" and dictatorship when the practical result is the systematic destruction of democratic institutions and worker/consumer protections while shielding corporate and political elites.

The Supreme Court has functionally eliminated:

• Worker collective bargaining rights
• Environmental protection authority
• Consumer protection mechanisms
• Corporate accountability systems
• Regulatory oversight of business

This constitutes what scholars recognize as "abusive judicial review"—courts providing legal cover for authoritarian governance. The distinction between this and dictatorship is primarily temporal: we are witnessing the legal construction of authoritarian rule through judicial rather than military means.

The evidence supports characterizing the current system not as democracy under strain, but as constitutional dictatorship in formation—using legal mechanisms to achieve the systematic concentration of power that defines authoritarian rule.

Well good for the boffins. They got words for it -- abusive judicial review. One can just call it kleptocratic dictatorship.  

The Democrats? They're being crushed in the jaws of the one-way ratchet to tyranny that authoritarian demagogues have spent tens of billions and decades building. The Dems are trapped and cannot break free.[1] 

Footnote:

1. I've warned repeatedly (and this) about the one-way tyranny ratchet. The one-way mind trap is real, not an illusion. MAGA elites got the Dems boxed in. 

Q: Why did Democrats vote with Republicans? Are they idiots or stoned?

A: Analysis of Democratic Voting Patterns on the Charlie Kirk Resolution

The Democratic vote split on the Charlie Kirk resolution reflects calculated political strategy rather than incompetence or impairment. The 310-58 vote breakdown, with 95 Democrats supporting, 58 opposing, and 38 voting "present" , demonstrates a party grappling with competing political imperatives.

Precedent and Messaging Concerns: Democrats were acutely aware that a similar resolution condemning the shooting of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota had passed 424-0 in June. As one unnamed House Democrat told Axios: "People are worried that we're being totally set up", recognizing that anything less than overwhelming support could become "a messaging coup for Republicans."

Opposition Reasoning: Substance Over Optics 

Democrats who voted against the resolution articulated principled objections to the resolution's language rather than blanket opposition to condemning violence. 

The Resolution's Dual Message Problem: The resolution contained two distinct components : condemning political violence (which Democrats universally supported) and praising Kirk as engaging in "respectful, civil discourse" and working "tirelessly to promote unity" (which many Democrats found objectionable given his record).

See, the Dems had no choice but to vote for a cynical MAGA resolution that intentionally praised Kirk for engaging in respectful, civil discourse, while working tirelessly to promote unity. In fact, Kirk engaged in disrespectful, uncivil discourse, while working tirelessly to promote division, distrust, discord and disinformation.

Some interesting polling......

 IF you trust YouGov. 

A recent YouGov survey asked Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who lean towards either party about potential 2028 presidential candidates.

Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris are the politicians among a list of 12 in the poll whom Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents are by far most likely to say they'd consider voting for in a 2028 Democratic presidential primary: 55% say they'd consider Newsom, and 54% Harris.

(If the Dems go with Harris they will be committing political suicide, just my opinion)

Newsom's standing has risen significantly since similar questions were asked on the Economist/YouGov Poll in April. The share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents who say they would consider voting for him as the Democratic nominee in 2028 has risen 24 percentage points, to 55% from 31%. The share who say Newsom is their ideal candidate has increased 16 points, to 23% from 7%.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents are most likely to say they'd be disappointed to have Harris (19%), Sanders (18%), or Booker (17%) as the 2028 nominee. The shares saying they'd be disappointed by Booker, Buttigieg, Whitmer, or Kelly becoming the Democratic nominee have increased since April, while the share who'd be disappointed by Newsom as nominee has declined.

(Now, there is a shocker. Why would Buttigieg and Booker's numbers be declining? I happen to really like both as possible VP candidates)

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents, by far the largest share say JD Vance (65%) is someone they would consider voting for in the 2028 Republican presidential primary, from a list of 11 options in the poll that did not include President Trump; respondents could select all whom they would consider.

Vance is followed by Ron DeSantis (40%), Donald Trump, Jr. (37%), Marco Rubio (33%), and Ted Cruz (29%). 

(Don Trump Jr? I hope they run him, it would be as bad for the Republicans as running Harris would be for the Democrats.)

Finally:

Nearly half (46%) of Americans expect that Trump will attempt to serve a third term as president, while 37% think he will not. Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to think he will attempt to do so (67% vs. 27%).

Only 13% of Americans think that Trump should attempt to serve a third term; 78% think he should not. Among Republicans, 30% think he should do so, while 58% say he should not.

https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/52959-who-do-democrats-and-republicans-want-as-their-2028-presidential-nominees

The Reichstag Blueprint—Unmasking the Real Hate Speech

 

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In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University, America stands at a crossroads reminiscent of the 1933 Reichstag fire—a moment Hitler exploited to dismantle democracy. Amid the grief and chaos, the most dangerous hate speech is not from the suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, but from a single X post by “dissident-right” influencer Matt Forney.
This post, still live as of 09:45 AM EDT on September 19, is a grotesque betrayal of American values, and its tolerance exposes a moral crisis demanding urgent action.

On the day of Kirk’s death, Forney posted:

“Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire. It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned under RICO. Every libtard commentator must be shut down. Stochastic terrorism. They caused this.”

Though this hardly registered in the media reports in the US, The Guardian wrote: 

"White supremacist Matt Forney, in a post that has been viewed over one million times, compared Kirk’s death to the Reichstag fire of 1933 (the arson attack on the German parliament building by a Dutch communist, which Hitler used to justify his aggressive crackdown against communists). “It is time for a complete crackdown on the left,” said Forney. “Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned under RICO … they caused this.”...Overnight, a blacklist website was set up to name and shame people who were perceived as “celebrating” Kirk’s death on social media. The website is called “Charlie’s Murderers”.

This is not just rhetoric—it is a blueprint for authoritarianism. Forney explicitly calls for America to emulate Hitler's tactic of using the Reichstag fire (whether set by Marinus van der Lubbe or exploited by the Nazis, per Richard J. Evans, 2003) to suspend civil liberties and purge opposition. This appears to be happening.  Calling for arresting all Democrats and banning their party is not only historically resonant—it’s incitement fit for Hamm and Spaaij’s (2017) definition of mass media provocation to unpredictable violence. That no major outlet has condemned it, while the post remains undisturbed, shatters the sacred American rule: thou shalt not emulate Nazis.

A Rash of Hate Speech and Incitement to Violence from the Right:

Forney's particular framing is the most atrocious, but others managed to get the same point across in words only slightly less chilling.

Steve Bannon: “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”

Elon Musk: “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,”

Jesse Watters: (Fox host) “They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. What are we gonna do about it?...Everybody’s accountable … the politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. This can never happen again. It ends now. This is a turning point and we know which direction we’re going.” 

Matt Walsh: (Podcaster)“We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell...This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”

And, of course, Trump  stated that "the radical left [is] directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today,” and vowed to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence," which he immediately and without evidence blamed "the radical left... and organizations who fund it and support it." (All quotes here)

  The Real Charlie Kirk: A Catalyst, Not a Martyr

Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, wasn’t the saint now canonized. His Professor Watchlist emboldened intimidation and death threats against academics, while his $300k salary (up from $27k in 2016, ProPublica) fueled alt-right mobilization. His polarizing rhetoric fueled division, yet this is now erased as he’s painted a First Amendment victim of the “Left.”

Scrubbing the Truth: DOJ Data Deletions

In an act as chilling as any rhetoric, the Department of Justice quietly deleted a January 2024 NIJ report documenting over 227 far-right terror attacks and 520+ deaths since 1990, versus just 42 far-left attacks and 78 deaths. This report vanished mere days after Trump publicly insisted, against all prior evidence, that “most crime is from the left.” The DOJ offered no explanation, and journalists revealed that nearly 1,000 additional pages—many referencing hate crimes, police accountability, and state-level data—were removed earlier this year under Trump's executive orders.

The result: The public is left defenseless against coordinated revisionism, losing empirical anchors at the very moment the administration pushes to federalize policing in major “blue cities” and amplify fear with unverifiable, politicized crime claims.

Blaming the “Radical Left” Before the Truth

Before Robinson’s arrest on September 12, Trump (like Forney and countless other right wing provocateurs) rushed to blame the “radical left.” Forney’s post set the tone, immediately echoed by Trump’s September 10 speech. This preemptive scapegoating flatly mirrors Hitler’s own “communist conspiracy” narrative, exploiting fear for political gain.

Tyler Robinson: A Disturbed Local, Not a Leftist Pawn

Robinson, 22, came from a conservative Mormon family, with no party affiliation and no voting record. Governor Cox admitted, “I prayed it would not be one of us.I prayed it would be someone who drovve in from another state or came from another country [i.e. immigrant] but those prayers were not answered.” It was  not an outsider, and despite the hysteria being normalized about radical left wing groups, there is not a shred of evidence at this time to suggest any left wing network. . The Right’s desperate “radicalization” narrative, clinging to the irrelevance of a trans relationship (as if no only"left wing radicals"  can be found in such relationships) , ignores the simple likelihood of psychological crisis, not ideological subversion.

Mast’s Bill, Musk, and America’s Moral Compass

Rep. Brian Mast’s bill would allow Secretary Rubio to strip passports for vague “material support” accusations—a “thought policing” power that civil liberties groups warn is ripe for abuse. Musk’s social media smears and Forney’s Nazi analogy reinforce the danger—yet the only true hate speech in this episode is the call to imitative Hitlerian tactics, and it is ignored by both X and the media.

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BANNING "ANTIFA:

In the days following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, President Trump announced his plan to officially designate “Antifa” a terrorist organization—despite the movement being, by all expert accounts, a loosely affiliated, diffuse set of activists and philosophies rather than a structured group with leaders, membership, or a national presence. Legal and counterterror experts note there is no mechanism for designating domestic groups like Antifa as terrorist organizations, and that such a move raises grave First Amendment concerns. “Antifa” has become a right-wing boogeyman—a term elastically applied to a wide spectrum of left-leaning protestors, especially since 2020, despite no credible evidence of coordinated, group-directed terrorism or murder. According to the Anti-Defamation League and Center for Strategic and International Studies, there are zero Antifa-related murders on record in the US for 2025 (or in the preceding years). The current moral panic has roots in post-2016 right-wing media, but escalated following George Floyd protests and now is weaponized as a pretext for broad, indiscriminate crackdowns. This label, far more useful as a catch-all justification for repression than as a descriptor of any real threat, is likely to be applied in an elastic and political manner.

 

America’s Reichstag Moment?

Forney’s post is the true danger—inciting systemic crackdown, tolerated by X and ignored by a press cowed by Trump’s attacks, lawsuits and threats,  as unexplained mass data scrubbing of accurate crime stats goes unchallenged for now.. This moment is not about leftist terror, but about whether America will recognize—and resist—the real authoritarian threat now openly at its gates.

Endnotes:[1] Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin Press, 2003. This book provides a detailed historical analysis of the rise of the Nazi Party, including the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933, and its exploitation by Adolf Hitler to suspend civil liberties through the Enabling Act of March 23, 1933. Evans argues that while Marinus van der Lubbe was likely the arsonist, the Nazi leadership’s response was a calculated move to consolidate power, a precedent echoed in the current discussion

[2] Hamm, Mark S., and Ramon Spaaij. The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. This study defines “stochastic terrorism” (the term Forney used in his X post) as the use of mass media to provoke random, ideologically motivated violence that is statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. The authors’ framework is applied to Matt Forney’s X post, which calls for a broad crackdown, potentially inciting such acts without direct commands.

[3] ProPublica. “Turning Point USA’s Finances and Charlie Kirk’s Pay Raise Under Scrutiny.” ProPublica, 2020. This investigative report details how Charlie Kirk’s salary at Turning Point USA increased from $27,000 in 2016 to nearly $300,000, alongside revelations of misleading financial practices, providing context for his role and influence as a polarizing figure. 

[4] Newsweek, DOJ Deletes Study Alleging Rise In Far-Right Terrorism In US, Sep 2025

[5] Al Jazeera, Trump plans to designate antifa a terrorist organization, Sep 2025

[6] NYT, Can Trump Actually Designate Antifa a Terrorist Group? Sep 2025

[7] Slate, Better Know an RNC White Supremacist: Matt Forney, July 2016  

[8] The Guardian, Far Right commentators echo Trump in calling for 'vengeance and retribution' for Charlie Kirk's death, Sept. 11, 2025

MAGA crushes free speech

ABC executives took Jimmy Kimmel off the air after MAGA threatened to yank its license. Kimmel didn't say anything wrong or out of the scope of free speech. Kimmel said on air:

1. We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

2. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.

3. After showing Trump discussing White House ballroom construction when asked about coping with Kirk's death: Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief: construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.

No threats, no fomenting of insurrection. Just comedy and opinions. 

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, extremist MAGA operative with lots of power, criticized Kimmel's comments and threatened that he could revoke broadcast licenses. He commented: We can do this the easy way or the hard way. 

One can easily envision Carr saying, Go ahead punk, make my day. That's how MAGA thug politics works.

This is how free speech rights die in under kleptocratic dictatorship in a corrupt capitalist economic system where money talks and democracy and freedoms walk.