I don’t like clickbait headlines. In trying to get clicks it’s often true that at some point, the highlight of the headline becomes… “less than true.” I saw an article in the AP this morning. The headline? “Secret Service agents protecting Biden’s granddaughter open fire when 3 people try to break into SUV.” Sounds ominous, right? Holy gods, they’re going directly after Biden’s granddaughter?

Um, no. Turns out, Biden’s granddaughter wasn’t even in the van. Neither were the Secret Service agents. Turns out, it was just three car thieves working a potential score. They likely didn’t even know it WAS the President’s granddaughter’s van. To them, it was just another van they could break into and steal or steal from. A Secret Service agent opened fire. Bad guys skedaddled. No one was hit and the Metro Police are looking for the perpetrators. Oh, and AP is left with a credibility hit…for clicks…

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I just finished watching, “All The Light We Cannot See” on Netflix. It’s very good and I heartily recommend it. Here’s how it ends. No, that’s a joke. I won’t do that to you. Just watch it. The reason I mention it is because it’s set in Europe (France, to be exact) in 1944, when the Nazis were in charge. As I watched, I could not stop thinking of the parallels between Nazi and MAGA. It’s really quite frightening.

Handing a bunch of small-minded, little people tremendous power and authority was devastating to the world, then and ever since. Doing it again seems like the dumbest thing in the world people could do do themselves, their loved ones, and their progeny.

MAGA would pretend to be outraged by the comparison, of course. THEY haven’t killed 6 million Jews so they COULDN’T be the same. They’re unable to grasp that while the Nazi’s were rising to power, THEY hadn’t killed anybody, either. One CANNOT compare the end of the Nazi’s with the beginnings of MAGA and declare them different based on outcome so far. ALL of the seeds of “same” are there.

The show is built around radios and at one point of of the Nazis says, plainly, that the Nazis could not have come to power without radio. That character is right. In history, once they gained control of the airwaves, they had control of the narrative and spread misinformation and fear that helped propel Hitler to power. As Mark Twain is sometimes credited with saying, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get it’s shoes on.”

Now we’re watching MAGA come to power through control of their narrative and the spread of misinformation and fear that helped propel trump to power – and threatens to do so again – via the internet. All of it, based on a raft of lies. The truth finally has it’s shoes on, though, so…

I’ll tell you this: the MAGA/Nazi similarities are too scary to ignore. We, the people who still love the actual United States of America, CANNOT let this happen…

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Speaking of tools of evil, Trump! He’s out saying he wants to allow cameras in his Federal trial. No, not that one. No, not that one, either. No, that one’s State. The DC trial. News outlets have already sued to allow cameras in the courtroom. In Federal court, cameras are not usually allowed. Usually. It DOES happen sometimes and, I think, it should happen this time.

I’ve been paying attention to his current NY fraud trial. He’s done everything he can to turn it into a circus. Then, he comes out and lies about everything that happens inside the courtroom. Yes, he knows there are reporters in there who will report the truth but he ALSO knows MAGA will never see those reports. The conservative media bubble will focus on his “statements” (read: lies), instead. MAGA will continue to walk around terrified, furious, and completely oblivious to the truth.

I suspect 45 might be bluffing but it could be true he just doesn’t understand how much harder it is to support his lies when the whole world (except MAGA, of course) watches the trial as it unfolds. In the NY trial, he and his “lawyers” have been as disruptive as they can possibly manage. They’re planning a “defense” of tedium, trying to bring in over 100 witnesses, NONE of whom can change the facts but, likely, ALL of whom will likely try to “testify” that Donny is an innocent angel and won in 2020. The court is busily trying to sift through the “witness” list to see who has something relevant to add and who just wants to posture for their public. All of that without cameras.

So if he gets his cameras, HE thinks he’s going to walk into the DC courtroom and take it over, Chutkin being “only” a woman, as she is. I suspect Judge Chutkin will control her courtroom, and herself, just as professionally as Judge Engoron has done. But what THAT means is that the cameras he’s asking for will simply show him being slapped down time after time after time.

45 isn’t smart but he is clever, in an evil way, and he knows his audience. He sells shirts to these people that show his mug shot taken immediately after his surrender to authorities with the words ‘Never Surrender’ emblazoned on them and his supporter never catch the irony. Perhaps he can find a way to convince those same people – who desperately want to be convinced – that when he’s getting slapped down he’s actually “winning.”

I’ll tell you this: now that she has his “permission” as well as the lawsuit from news agencies that want to broadcast the trial, I hope Judge Chutkin allows the cameras. I suspect they won’t work for 45 the way he hopes they will and it’s better for ALL of America (and the world, for that matter) to watch this thing play out in real time…