Smirking Teen's Libel Suit Against Washington Post Gets Thrown out of Fed Court on First Amendment Grounds

Parents must be proud. Video of
Trump-supporting, young racists
sent chills across the world.
YouTube

In a win for the First Amendment, an aggrieved young racist's libel suit against the Washington Post was dismissed in United States District Court yesterday, (Huffington Post, Washington Post).

The case grew from videos of a young man in a red Make America Great Again hat and fellow high school students caught on video taunting and smirking at Native American elder and Vietnam Veteran, Nathan Phillips in January 2019, (Schilling, Indian Country) at an encounter in D.C. Different groups participating in different protests had encountered each other in the resulting confrontation.

The case was filed on behalf of Nicholas Sandmann. Sandmann was a student at Covington Catholic High School of Kentucky, and attended a rally in Washington D.C. in  January 2019, the March for Life, an annual anti-choice rally for misogynists and the religious right.

Sandmann claimed he was defamed in the Washington Post's coverage of the confrontation that spread across the world on social media.

The case is Nicholas Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, d/b/a [doing business as] The Washington Post (2:19-cv-00019).

The case was heard by Judge William Odis Bertelsman in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Opinion and Order is linked here in a Washington Post document.

"One reason that [Sandmann] video is cutting so deep today: The smug, fixed, chilly smile. That's not a teenager out of control. It's the familiar gleam of a zealot. Never in the history of this country has that look portended anything but bad news," commented Mark Harris on Twitter after videos of the confrontation went viral in January.

Sandmann and his family hired a Republican Party-connected public relations firm, RunSwitch Public Relations, and then filed a federal defamation suit of behalf of the teen who objected to how he was portrayed by sources in the Post's coverage.

From the Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman ruled that seven Post articles and three of its tweets bearing on Nicholas Sandmann — who was part of a group of Catholic students from Kentucky who came to Washington to march against abortion — were protected by the First Amendment. In analyzing the 33 statements over which Sandmann sued, the judge found none of them defamatory; instead, the vast majority constituted opinion, he said.

'Few principles of law are as well-established as the rule that statements of opinion are not actionable in libel actions,' Bertelsman wrote, adding that the rule is based on First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech. 'The statements that Sandmann challenges constitute protected opinions that may not form the basis for a defamation claim.'

Sandmann’s parents, who brought the suit on their son’s behalf, said they would appeal. 'I believe fighting for justice for my son and family is of vital national importance,' Ted Sandmann said in a statement. 'If what was done to Nicholas is not legally actionable, then no one is safe.'

The libel action brought by this Republican family may represent a coming priority of the Republican Party to overturn a foundational First Amendment case, New York Times v Sullivan, in accordance with President Donald Trump's oft-expressed criticism of speech critical of Republican Party-connected citizens and public figures, (New York Times, Mal Contends).
---
In Wisconsin, a public figure, Manitowoc County Sheriff Lt. Andrew Colborn (ret), has asked a federal court explicitly to overturn New York Times v Sullivan, (Mal Contends).

The federal case is: Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484).

The case is being heard by Judge Pamela Pepper, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Colborn's case is intended to shield police against citizens' speech, negative coverage in the press and analysis and reporting in documentaries such as Making a Murderer.

Plaintiff Colborn's action accuses Netlix, Inc and other defendants of having "omitted, distorted, and falsified material and significant facts in an effort to portray Plaintiff [Andrew Colborn] as a corrupt police officer who planted evidence to frame an innocent man," (Appleton Post-Crescent).

Netflix' and other defendants filed a May 9, 2019 motion to dismiss. The Netflix motion to dismiss argues in part the failure of Colborn to meet the low threshold of stating a claim upon which relief can be granted, citing Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 12(b)(6).

This week Judge Pamela Pepper published a NOTICE of Hearing on pending motions set for December 19, 2019.

It appears likely Judge Pepper will dismiss Colborn's legal action, Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484).

Just as likely, Colborn will appeal the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Trump Gives White Supremacist Seal of Approval to MAGA Teens Harassing Native American

Donald Trump has weighed in on the white teens featured on video accosting and trying to intimidate a Native American Vietnam War veteran who works for peace, Nathan Phillips.

All the video of Hitler youth adorned in Make America Great Again caps is "fake news," said Trump.

Trump's comment comes one day after the youth's family hired a Republican-connected public relations firm, RunSwitch Public Relations.

Writes Trump:

Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019

All one has to do to win an entry ticket into the racist Republican Party is posture that you do not like non-whites. In like Flynn.

Trump had no words for the Vietnam War veteran, Nathan Phillips.

MAGA Teen Hires GOP PR Firm, Says He Was "Startled" by Native American

Updated - Misunderstood teen in a Make America Great Again cap stuck his face 18 inches from a Native American's, then smirked, glared, and held his malicious gaze against the Marine peacemaker in front of the Lincoln Memorial last weekend.

But that was just the Trumpist way of making friends and trying to calm the situation at a D.C. political rally.

We know this because the young Trumpist, Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Kentucky, did what any young activist would do.

His parents hired a Republican-connected public relations firm, RunSwitch Public Relations, "founded by advisor to Sen. Mitch McConnel’s Super PAC, Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and longtime GOP operative Scott Jennings," reports Heavy.com.

Either this kid is an excellent writer or the PR firm drafted the spin. (NBC News). Hmmm.

RunSwitch did some excellent work; most news networks are running the Trumpist spin.

And rightwing media, led by The National Review, assures us of the young Trumpist's good intentions who was just trying to make a rally peaceful again as an "ambassador."

War is peace. Black is white.

And Nick Sandmann and fellow Trumpists are victims, amid the outright lies spun about their good work.

These young go-getters are just what we need to make American great again.

Sam Stein, a pundit contorting himself to win approval of corporate media, said Sandmann's conduct is "inexcusable," just before Stein assured viewers on the Kasie DC show that video of the MAGA confrontation has no objective fact and reality depends on one's partisan identification.

Don't worry, kid. Your life is not ruined by being exposed as a racist xenophobe. Now-a-days, it's an entry ticket to Republican Party politics.

Video of Ambassador Sandmann and the Covington Catholic diplomatic corps is below:

Smirk Seen Around the World Didn't Come out of Nowhere

Parents must be proud. Video of
Trump-supporting, young racists
sends chills across the world.
YouTube

Madison, Wisconsin—Video of a young, white man harassing Native American elder and Vietnam Veteran, Nathan Phillips, has defied description, so zealous is this face of white-power consciousness adorned in a red Make America Great Again cap (Schilling, Indian Country).

Phillips holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans every year at Arlington National Cemetery. Phillips is a keeper of the sacred pipe on the hallowed ground.

The young racist is from Covington Catholic High School of Kentucky. The racist was in town to attend the March for Life, an annual anti-choice rally for misogynists and the religious right.

Surveying reactions to several videos, it seems describing this unabashed hate is beyond the ability of commentators to characterize. The visage of hate and ignorance is surreal.

The spectacle seems indescribable, but we all know this young racist, very well if you live in Wisconsin.

The racist grows up to be chief of police in Deforest, Wisconsin— Daniel Furseth. The racist is welcomed to serve in the town, (not city), of Madison, Wisconsin Police Dept.

He gives a Nazi salute in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

He joins the police force in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He thrives in the Fitchburg, Wisconsin Police Dept. and in Wauwatosa, the Fox Valley, and Iron County.

He joins the Republican Party of Wisconsin. He can become president or a Supreme Court justice.

This unidentified white malice of Trump country did not come out of nowhere.

He's hiding in plain sight amid an intolerable herd of sheep blind to underground movements that are  mobilized and enthralled.

Says Mark Harris:

One reason that video is cutting so deep today: The smug, fixed, chilly smile. That's not a teenager out of control. It's the familiar gleam of a zealot. Never in the history of this country has that look portended anything but bad news.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 20, 2019

We know the smirking racist.

Know Nathan Phillips.

HERO

Nathan Phillips
Omaha Elder
Vietnam Veteran
Former director of the Native Youth Alliance
Keeper of a sacred pipe
Honoring Native American Veterans at Arlington National Cemetery
Water Protector at Standing Rock ND

KNOW HIM

RETWEET THIS! pic.twitter.com/X5wxpwaA3L

— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) January 20, 2019

Trump's Agents in Full Fascist Mode

A girl from Honduras, part of the migrant caravan
in Tijuana, Mexico, cries after US agents in California
deployed tear gas across the San Ysidro border,
(Reuters, via BBC).

Update: If you are a thinking human being, you owe it to yourself to read Richard Falk's analysis on Israel's ongoing human rights obscenity, from which Trump appears to take pointers on American fascism. Military and police units of the loyal state-friend of Trump shoot children, and Israel and assorted dopes emit the argument that criticizing violators of human rights implicates the critic.

Writes Falk:

In 2014 Noam Chomsky explained the false logic of such an allegation with typical moral and intellectual clarity: "Actually, the locus classicus, the best formulation of this, was by an ambassador to the United Nations, Abba Eban, […] He advised the American Jewish community that they had two tasks to perform. One task was to show that criticism of the policy, what he called anti-Zionism — that means actually criticisms of the policy of the state of Israel — were anti-Semitism. That’s the first task. Second task, if the criticism was made by Jews, their task was to show that it’s neurotic self-hatred, needs psychiatric treatment. Then he gave two examples of the latter category. One was I.F. Stone. The other was me. So, we have to be treated for our psychiatric disorders, and non-Jews have to be condemned for anti-Semitism, if they’re critical of the state of Israel. That’s understandable why Israeli propaganda would take this position. I don’t particularly blame Abba Eban for doing what ambassadors are sometimes supposed to do. But we ought to understand that there is no sensible charge. No sensible charge. There’s nothing to respond to. It’s not a form of anti-Semitism. It’s simply criticism of the criminal actions of a state, period."

Look for a similar line from the Trump administration soon: Those objecting to imprisonment, gassing and disappearing of children are the real culprits, perhaps to be dealt with by the state through means other than rhetoric.
---
What human garbage Trump is.

The white supremacist administration is gassing children across the US-Mexican border, following its program of state-kidnapping and disappearing of children implemented last Spring.

Trump administration announced earlier this year imprisonment and forced separation of children from parents are deterrents intended to discourage asylum seekers fleeing carnage in central America.

It is clear that brutality against brown children is an objective in itself apart from other stated aims.

The deployment of the military on the US-Mexican border is also another objective apart from any stated mission.

Parallels exist in rightwing Israel where Israeli border troops shoot off the legs of Palestinian teenagers in its shoot-to-maim policy, (The Independent, Washington Post).

Meanwhile, rightwing violence is on the rise in the domestic United States, (Washington Post).

Witness America:

BREAKING A girl from Honduras, part of the migrant caravan in Tijuana, Mexico, cries after US agents in California deployed tear gas across the San Ysidro border.
📷 @Reuters/@topixkim pic.twitter.com/sGs4rjG4Oz

— James Cook (@BBCJamesCook) November 25, 2018

BREAKING US agents have fired tear gas at migrants trying to breach the border between Mexico and the United States.
📷 @Reuters pic.twitter.com/d7fTNnbxxS

— James Cook (@BBCJamesCook) November 25, 2018

Let it be known that the @GOP owns every last bit of this.

Tear gassing women and children will be part of your legacy, you incompetent, inhumane, awful excuses for human beings.

History will not be kind to a single one of you.

🖕

— Stacie (@h8Wankmaggot45) November 26, 2018

Trump's 14th Amendment Nonsense Made Fool of Gov Scott Walker in 2015

Brown people are invading and the Jews are helping.
So say Trump, Scott Walker and the whole bunch of
mass-murdering, anti-Semitic whacks, (Twitter).

Madison, Wisconsin — In 2015 Donald Trump was scoring points with white supremacists voicing his intentions to somehow halt the 14th Amendment citizenship guarantee.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said, me too, making a fool out of himself in the process, (Mal Contends).

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post had fun at Walker's expense, reporting the Wisconsin governor's multiple interpretations of the14th Amendment, weeks before Walker ended his campaign for the Republican Party nomination for president amid God's calls for Walker to quit the race.

Reports Johnson:

Walker said Monday that he supports ending birthright citizenship, then said later in the day that the problem could be addressed by enforcing other laws. On Tuesday, a prominent donor confronted Walker on the topic and walked away satisfied that the candidate wouldn't do away with birthright citizenship. On Friday, Walker said he didn't have a position on the issue. Then Sunday, Walker said he does not want to alter the 14th Amendment.

And writes CNN's Eric Bradner at the time:

The Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate was asked on ABC's 'This Week' whether he backs Trump's push to end the 14th Amendment's mandate that all children born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship.

'Well, I said the law is there. And we need to enforce the laws, including those that are in the Constitution,' Walker said

Laws in the Constitution?
 ---
Now, Trump is hoping to excite Republican Party racists for the midterm elections by claiming the power to change citizenship law and the 14th Amendment through executive order.

Trump and Walker are racists.

While this Trump stunt may seem a distraction to some, there is a fight to be had as events the last week make abundantly clear.

It's the fight Trump and Walker want. So be it.

Opposing Trump is a civic duty and moral responsibility.

And these people are racist lunatics.

Trump wants to unconstitutionally end birthright citizenship but add a discriminatory question about US citizenship to the 2020 census. That tells you everything you need to know

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 30, 2018

Under Trump, DoD Is Abruptly Discharging Immigrants Serving in Army on Scurrilous Grounds

The white supremacist Trump administration has abruptly discharged dozens of immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits, the Associated Press reports.

Martha Mendoza and Garance Burke report:

The AP was unable to quantify how many men and women who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been booted from the Army, but immigration attorneys say they know of more than 40 who have been discharged or whose status has become questionable, jeopardizing their futures.

'It was my dream to serve in the military,' said reservist Lucas Calixto, a Brazilian immigrant who filed a lawsuit against the Army last week. 'Since this country has been so good to me, I thought it was the least I could do to give back to my adopted country and serve in the United States military.'

An Army report obtained by an immigration attorney, featured in an AP video, notes that one servicemember was discharged after Army investigators discovered an American flag on the man's cell phone and an Army bumper sticker on his car, activity that the Army claimed in a report is "suspicious."

This is more purging of American society by the Trump adminstration which has become openly racist and aggressive in the preceding weeks following its targeting of immigrant families and the forced relocation of children into internment centers and cages.

Video: Chris Hedges Warns Against Trump Fascism in Vancouver Talk from March 2017

'Warning sighs on road to tyranny'

Six weeks into the Trump administration last year, Chris Hedges spoke at an anti-Trump event in Vancouver, British Columbia, March 3, 2017.

Hedges warned about the prospect of militarized federal and local police "terrorizing and deporting" immigrants living in the United States, waging a "race war" against black and brown folks, more racial profiling, random police stops, wanton human rights violations and abandoning the common good.

All of which existed and have been accelerated by Trump in a broad project to make America white.

Said Hedges:

White Europeans who are undocumented are not being targeted. The executive orders of Trump are directed against people of color. They begin from the premise that white Americans are the true victims of neo-liberalism, deindustrialization, and falling living standards. The Trump orders are written not to make America great again. But to make America white.

They are an updated version of the NAZI's Nuremberg laws, the Jim Crow laws, the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Naturalization Act of 1870. They are intended to institutionalize an overt racial hierarchy in the United States, one already far advanced in the miniature police states where people of color live in marginal communities.

In these impoverished enclaves there is no right to trial or due process. Militarized police kill with impunity, and the courts lock people away often for life. Rights are treated as privileges that can instantly be revoked. The poor, especially poor people of color, are exempted from moral consideration. They are attacked as impediments to social cohesion. And these impediments must be eliminated.

Hedges warned about the cruel consequences of insane social movements finding an oasis in the Trump adminstration, welcoming the dispirited and politically alienated.

Sane Americans saw this coming, but too many did nothing.

From March 2017:

Police State America

Armed and dangerous, ready-to-kill agent checks passports

"What no one seemed to notice was the ever widening gap ... between the government and the people. ... What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security."
— Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (University of Chicago Press. ©1955).

Police-state America is a leviathan into which America stumbled.

Plenty of racists and fascists around, check your local municipal cops, but the hostility of the 1,000,000s of cops happened slowly, with silent accent or loud complicity from liberal mayors and the local corporate press.

On the national front, Dave Lindorff, a writer returning from the Philippines, Hong Kong and China, was subjected to, and witness to where the United States now stands vis a vis other authoritarian countries around the world.

Give Lindorff's piece a good read because the Untied States is going to get worse before it gets better.

Cops Push New Draconian Laws Squelching Protests

George Grosz, God of War, 1940,
Fear of the Other

'You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things'

Madison, Wisconsin — President* Trump holds occasional rallies with cops, noting his political support from the local police gangs in blue and military-black.

The police-anti-liberty-Trump movement does not draw much attention.

It should. Ever wonder why cops are so in thrall of Trump?

Trump and cops share the same values: Fascistic distaste of civil liberties, hostility towards ethnic minorities and disdain towards open expression.

Consider Trump's administration* is the first openly white-supremacist executive branch in modern America.

Its pro-white, anti-human rights values are shared by most American cops.

Simon Davis-Cohen and Sarah Lazare report at In These Times a new front against Americans from cops.

Across the country cops are working for new legislation to devastate Americans who protest increasingly fascistic policies and misconduct, especially protests against police violence.

Report Davis-Cohen and Lazare:

'Cops are going to keep pursuing ways to keep themselves above the fray and unaccountable for the things they do,' says Tony Williams, a member of the MPD150, a police abolitionist project that recently released a "150-year performance review of the Minneapolis Police Department. 'It's a naked case of self-interest more than anything else.'

Minneapolis police aren’t alone: According to research conducted for In These Times in partnership with Ear to the Ground, law enforcement in at least eight states—Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington and Wyoming—lobbied on behalf of anti-protest bills in 2017 and 2018. The bills ran the gamut from punishing face coverings at protests to increasing penalties for 'economic disruption' and highway blockage to criminalizing civil protests that interfere with 'critical infrastructure' like oil pipelines.

Victory, power, freedom, safety, greatness, the Trump-police alliance against disruption and terrorists is becoming more ambitious as a nation sleep-walks its way into the Spring 2018.
--
One book to suggest to America's youth, to anyone, it is Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (University of Chicago Press. ©1955).

Mayer, an American Jewish writer who had gone to Germany in the 1930s, made friends with 10 people, all of whom were members of the NAZI Party. He found them courteous, funny, genuine human beings whom he called "friends." They were also fools and certainly were guilty.
---
From Milton Mayer:

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

"You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time." ...

A community member holds up a fist outside the Minneapolis Police Federation
union office, following the raid eviction of demonstrators camped out in front
of the Minneapolis Police Department's 4th Precinct location, blocks from
where Jamar Clark was killed by police weeks prior.
(Tony Webster/Flickr/Creative Commons)

Trump Still Silent on Serial Bomber Assassinating Black and Brown Folks in Austin

Austin, Texas police chief speaks to reporters after bombing
last week, (Huffington Post)

Last night the fourth terrorist bombing in Texas claimed two more casualties.

Two weeks and four bombs. But there is an element here that makes these crimes even more spectacular: The victims are black and brown, so Donald Trump is silent.

Imagine if the victims were white and lived in small-town Pennsylvania and Wisconsin?

From Shaun King at The Intercept:

Here’s what I know and what makes living in this country so damn exhausting: If the victims were white and the suspects were known to be Muslims, the president of the United States would care. In these cases, however, with no profile of the attacker available and a trail of black and brown victims, it seems like this square peg doesn’t fit into the round hole of Trump’s agenda. 

The United States has a white supremacist in the White House, with an emboldened base of white supremacists cheering this lunatic on.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Targets Activists for Political Views

Trump is keeping us safe from brown people with
disloyal political views, probably flag-haters too.

ICEing the disloyal among us

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) agency is a favorite of President* Trump's.

Ignorant and hateful, ICE is leading the way to making America white again.


Nick Pinto from The Intercept has the story:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is unconstitutionally using its power to suppress political dissent by targeting outspoken immigration activists for surveillance and deportation, according to allegations in a federal lawsuit filed on Friday by immigration rights groups.
'Defendants have investigated, surveilled, harassed, raided, arrested, detained, and even deported these activists in order to silence them,' the complaint alleges. 'This sharp spike in immigration enforcement specifically targeting the most vocal immigration activists is intended to stifle dissent.'

Think fascism is not here just yet.

Surf the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) site and you will be disabused of this notion.

At the ICE site, readers are treated to the Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office. VOICE, that's a catchy acronym.

If you wish, you can use the toll-free, ICE tip-line number and report facts about suspected "criminal aliens" among us.

One can identify these scary aliens because they are brown, with a piercing, hate-America visage.

ICEing, the federal equivalent of SWATTING, is also an exciting, new activity that loyal, white Americans can do anywhere with phone service.

See one of those brown, civil liberties types? ICE em. That will teach the tacos to be outspoken in our country.

Readers can also learn to display a National Terrorism Advisory System widget on their websites.  Just follow the link with our glorious, American flag.

Thank you, Donald Trump for keeping us safe.

Trump Admin Should Be Call to Arms for Decent Americans

Another perceptive commentary on Trump and the Nuremberg-lite State of the Union comes from Roger Cohen in a New York Times op-ed column.

The piece entitled, Trump’s Volk und Vaterland, explains and denounces the mocking, racist call for nationalism, more walls, prisons, police, military against the dark enemies within and without our glorious borders.

Cohen's use of the German words Volk and Vatherland refers to mythical and virtuous German people, the Volk, propagandized as beset by foreign, Jewish, Communist and other unclean agents of evil despoiling the fatherland, Vaterland.

Writes Cohen:

President Trump declared in his State of the Union speech. 'There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream.'

But which American Dream? Trump portrayed a dark and menacing world in which immigrants, who stand at the heart of the American idea, were equated with gangs, murderous criminals and 'horrible people.'

In his 80-minute speech, the word 'woman' did not come up once. Other words or phrases never mentioned included 'peace,' 'human rights,' 'equality,' 'Europe,' 'multilateral,' 'civil rights' and 'alliance.' The Constitution flitted onto Trump’s radar chiefly in the context of appointing his kind of judges.

If there was a theme, it was the demonization of immigrants and of the rest of the world, combined with an exaltation of American might. ...

He spoke of building a 'Great Wall' on the Mexican border, but it may as well have been against the rest of humanity. Trump once again put the world on notice that the rules-based, post-1945 world order founded on alliances like NATO and American-backed multilateral organizations is one he would rather shred than bolster. ...

Trump spoke of American grit, of 'total American resolve,' of American heart and American hands, whipping his audience into chants of 'USA! USA! USA!' Trump’s America is, in the end, a reflection of himself: male, militaristic, white, mean and macho. ...

This was 'Volk und Vaterland' in American guise, stamped with his speechwriter’s clunky and cliché-ridden prose. ...

In the place of hope, Trump needs fear, a lot of it, to build the cult of his personality. His so-called American Dream is made up of the nightmares he imagines and that now hang over the world.

Like all dictators, Trump remains a frightened, immature child, not capable of perceiving humanity in other people.

Classical liberal values were never learned, so Trump concluded his address with his partisan slogan:

[I]t is the people who are making America great again.

As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.

Our families will thrive.

Our people will prosper.

And our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.

Thank you, and God bless America.

Fuck Trump, this white supremacist human garbage is an continuing assault.

Any member of Congress who legitimized this crap by attendance owes his or her constituency a long list of explanations why.

Only 12 members of Congress boycotted the State of the Union.

None were from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

David Duke: Thank you President Trump. Americans are "Dreamers" too

America's first white supremacist president* hit his applause lines well last night.

Fascist overtones, explicit demonizing of immigrants, calls for increased militarization and policing of our country, this repulsive display by Trump continues.

David Duke, Stormfront and myriad other white supremacists were listening.

The reviews are in:

Thank you President Trump. Americans are "Dreamers" too.

— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) January 31, 2018

Charlie Pierce in Esquire offers words of sanity, commentary that is succor roughly one year before we declare war with Iran.

It was the most elaborate of charades, the most sophisticated of masquerades, that played itself out in the chamber of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night. The amount of pretense required to keep all sensible people—which is to say, any person who was not a Republican—in their chairs must have been heroic.

All involved had to pretend that Donald Trump makes sense as a president, that his administration makes sense as a government, and that his first State of the Union address made sense as either a description of national policy, or as a rhetorical summons to national unity. All involved had to pretend that his thoughts were coherent, that his words made sense, and that the complete and universal collapse of civic responsibility that propelled him onto the podium was not the most singularly destructive event in the history of American democracy since the Civil War. Everyone had to pretend that a freak show was Shakespeare, and that a rumbling, stumbling geek was Lincoln, and that the whole tableau unfolding before the Congress was somehow made noble despite the obvious fact that the whole event was an endless procession of lies and half-truths, and that the only truly remarkable thing about the speech was that it was such a perfectly round and complete crock of shit.

I don’t know how long the institutions of the republic can sustain this much pretense. Over my lifetime, the American presidency has tested what were believed to be the outer limits of counterfeit grandeur, but now we see that there is a vast universe of untruth and malignant fantasy of which we were painfully unaware. It is a burden to maintain the masquerade. It is beyond the strength even of the sturdiest democracy to be led by such a vanguard of unreality. Why anyone showed up on Tuesday night is a mystery to me.

Yes, Trump is happening, right now. Norman Cohn would have been impressed.

Trump Was Detached from Reality, then Let Loose with Vindictive Shot at Children

Bernie Sanders delivered multiple responses to the fear-
mongering Trump in SOTU address, (Twitter)

The only serious question in President* Trump's first State of the Union address was whether the smirking psychopath was going to reveal himself amid the unity rhetoric and his basking in the valor of Americans receiving SOTU nods.

Following Trump's hollow assurance that he would "protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed," the racist garbage promptly took a shot at the children and young adults who were protected by President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order, the Dreamers.

"My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans -- to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream. Because Americans are dreamers too," said Trump, (CNN).

Not just those immigrants, but Americans too.

The address was predictable, including near-constant fear mongering and race-baiting from this white supremacist garbage,

Fuck you, Trump.

President Trump: “African American unemployment lowest ever recorded....”

CBC members: A picture is worth a thousand words. 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/b2Hp96C4J9

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) January 31, 2018

Kudos to Joe Kennedy and Bernie Sanders, needed tonic after the lunatic:

“Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.” #SOTUResponse

— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) January 31, 2018

President Trump’s State of the Union needs a response. Here’s mine. https://t.co/8YZW8JCl2V

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 31, 2018

Senators Force GOP Hand to Open Government, Vote on Immigration

From NBC News:

JUST IN: There are enough votes to reopen the government, sources tell @kasie

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 22, 2018

Trump Shutdown Continues as White Supremacist-in-Chief Goes MIA

Hundreds of thousands marched against fascism across
America over the weekend, (Twitter).

White supremacist messaging accompanies the Trump shutdown

Updated - President* Trump looks like someone who hates football and got stuck at a Super Bowl party where he fails at hiding his contempt for the game beyond railing against non-whites he sees on TV.

America's leading white supremacist achieved his shutdown and his desired state of crisis.

Now, Trump and white supremacists charge those opposing government by racist spasm are complicit in murder for opposing Trump and the White Party, and our great military.

The stench of fascism is overwhelming. Every journalist should be rereading Norman Cohn and Milton Mayer.

The White House and its collaborators dished out racist messages over the weekend charging that more non-whites are pouring into our country to kill us as the abschaum, (anti-NAZIs), forces accumulate support among disloyal Americans.

But Trump would prefer not to engage beyond Tweeting; so he lets the openly racist and uber-nationalist Stephen Miller take point.

Reports NBC News this morning:

In the 56 hours and counting since the federal government has been shut down, President Trump hasn’t held a public event and isn’t scheduled to have one today. He hasn’t spoken with reporters or even left the White House. And he hasn’t been a real player in the negotiations to reopen the government.

Bottom line: Trump, who campaigned for the presidency on his deal-making skills, has been missing in action. 

All Trump can do is emit words.

This lunatic cannot think on his feet and cannot hold coherent positions over time beyond racist hate.

So we have the White Party demonizing non-whites as most of the country looks on in disgust at Republicans' gutting anything serving the 99 percent.

Fascists, incompetents, and lunatics are running our country after creating the budgetary crisis.

Bernie Sanders, the leading voice in Congress against the Trump regime, offers words of wisdom that the White House staff likely cannot comprehend.

Republicans:
✅ Control the House
✅ Control the Senate
✅ Control the presidency

Do your job. Run the damn government. Pass a budget that protects working families.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 21, 2018

To have a president of the United States who says such outrageous nonsense, it is really sad. pic.twitter.com/Y52Eemwoae

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 21, 2018

Trump and White House Staff Showed Laughing in Photo after Shutdown

Trump and White House staff shown smiling on Jan 20, 2018
hours after the government shutdown. Official White House
photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.

For President* Trump and Republicans, their shutdown is "kind of cool," (Mick Mulvaney, director of White House Office of Management and Budget).

Last year Trump said several times he was in favor of a shutdown, calling the shutdown "good" and politically advantageous for Republicans:

May 2, 2017:  Trump writes: "Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September (2017) to fix mess!" (CNN), (Twitter).

either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good "shutdown" in September to fix mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017

November 30, 2017: President Donald Trump has told confidants that he thinks a shutdown of the federal government might be positive for him politically, according to The Washington Post, (CNBC).

Why are Trump and White House staff smiling in the White House photo released just hours after the shutdown?

They got what they wanted, and it's no skin off of them, they beleive; in fact they believe the shutdown helps Republicans.

Trump and Republicans are playing games and enjoying themselves at our country's expense.

Meanwhile, the White House is embarrassing itself again in an effort to show Trump hard at work leading the fight for a solution to their shutdown.

As usual, the message is mixed and unconvincing.

White House portrays Donald Trump hard at work during government shutdown

I too conduct most of my most important work with a phone in my hand and nothing on my desk, while staring vacantly off into space https://t.co/XrYVv3YEae

— janu-erin (@morninggloria) January 20, 2018

White House emails: “Photos of President Donald J. Trump working in the White House during the shutdown he is responsible for” pic.twitter.com/TcmJrSuvDc

— Antonio Bonanza: more myth than man (@AntonioBonanza) January 21, 2018

Black Folks Flacking for Trump at MLK Holiday Events Disgrace Themselves

President* Donald J. Trump, with Alveda King, center, niece
of slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
and joined by Isaac Newton Farris Jr., left, nephew of
Dr. King, and Bruce Levell of the National Diversity
Coalition for Trump, right, signs the Martin Luther King Jr.
National Historical Park Act, Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, aboard
Air Force One, in Atlanta, Ga.
(Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018

President* Donald Trump is a vile, repulsive human being.

But Trump could not proceed in his reign without the help of a handful of black folks who flack for Trump against the cause of justice and equality.

This human garbage was brought out by the White House this last week.

Two presidential* events marking the 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday and the designation of King-related historic sites—during which only a reporter's shouted and unanswered questions brought up Trump's racism—tell the story of black collaborators with Trump, (White House Jan 12 remarks at signing of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day proclamation; Roosevelt Room; Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act of 2017, (H.R.267 — 115th Congress (2017-2018); President Donald J. Trump Signs H.R. 267 into Law, Jan 8, 2018).

For example, at the the Jan 8, 2018 event aboard Air Force One, three black attendees flacking for Trump are Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., Isaac Newton Farris Jr., nephew of Dr. King, and Bruce Levell of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, (White House).

Said Farris at the Jan 12 remarks at the presidential* King-holiday proclamation:

So, President Trump, thank you for taking the time to acknowledge this day. Thank you for remembering that we’re all Americans and, on this day, we should be united and love for all Americans.

Love? Right

Then there's the worst of the black Trump flacks: Alveda King.

"I do not believe President Donald John Trump is a racist. The economy’s up. Jobs are up in the black community. There is great promise to get a lot of people who have been unfairly incarcerated out," Alveda King told 'Fox and Friends' today, continuing her flacking for the most racist president in American history, (Washington Examiner).

See The Root for more commentary on this garbage.

Today, Trump will observe King's holiday at his golf course.

And from 2012:

An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012

Maybe Alveda and Isaac Newton Farris will look up the source and set the record straight.

Trump's Racist Shithole Comment Defines Modern Republicans

From Patrice Piard and a Hatian shithole comes art

A shithole is the home of the Republican Party

Madison, Wisconsin—In American politics, President* Trump's descent into racist vulgarity is as Republican as stopping women from deciding if they wish to bear children, a deliberation Republicans believe belongs to the state.

A deep pit of psychopathology is where modern Republican politics reside in the grand tradition of American white supremacy. Trump is simply less subtle and openly proud of the gutters in which he takes residence.

Variants of nigger jokes and rhetoric among self-loathing whites have always played well in Wisconsin for example, and without the specific support of the white supremacist vote, we would not have this lunatic in office today.

In 2018 Scott Walker seeks reelection.

Following the example of Gov. Tommy Thompson, (1987-2001), Walker may think himself a political savant in appealing to racist sentiment to get elected, but sounding racist dog whistles takes no more acuity than telling racist jokes and loudly musing those blacks should get a job and feed their own kids.

Shitholes?

A shithole is the home of the Republican Party.

The slow-motion pogrom led by Trump, Ryan and assorted
billionaires. Victims are black and brown and white.
Image: George Grosz, God of War, 1940