Does this sound painfully familiar? It is the new conservative explanation for past, present, and future losses. Apparently, the U.S. isn’t unique in having to deal with fascists.
Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
RIO DE JANEIRO — Standing atop a trailer with the Atlantic Ocean behind him, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro complained to a crowd of roaring supporters about a vast conspiracy against him.
Two women carried a banner calling on the armed forces to “protect our constitution, our liberty and our elections.” Demonstrators griped about “fake news” and the journalists who had slandered their candidate.
Bolsonaro had summoned tens of thousands of his supporters to this city’s signature Copacabana
beach Wednesday to protest what he insisted was a rigged vote.
Never mind that the election hasn’t actually taken place yet.For months, Bolsonaro has been preempting his own expected loss in October’s presidential vote by borrowing from the playbook of former President Donald Trump, whom he describes as his “idol”and with whom he shares several political advisers.
He has repeatedly criticized the integrity of Brazil’s voting system and has suggested that he may not accept the results of the election, which most polls predict he will lose decisively in a runoff with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula.
Is it possible that Balsonaro also has started a fake university like Trump, cheated on his taxes like Trump, and cheated on his three wives?
Oops, believe it or not, this guy has had 3 wives, just like Trump!
“If needed,” Bolsonaro has said, he and his supporters “will go to war.”
What exactly that means is anybody’s guess. Some analysts fear that Bolsonaro, a former army officer who praises Brazil’s not-so-distant military dictatorship, could be plotting a coup or an insurrection modeled on the attempted takeover of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump.
Attention, MAGAs. Bolsonaro is the perfect guy for you. Please move to Brazil, and save the sane Americans more grief.
They place Bolsonaro among a global tide of leaders with authoritarian leanings who have weakened democracies in recent years, from Hungary to El Salvador.
“We have learned the hard way over the years to listen to these kinds of leaders when they tell us what they’re going to do,” said Brian Winter, vice president for policy at the Council of the Americas, who predicted that Brazil is headed for “an institutional crisis.”
With the president and his family members facing a number of corruption investigations, Winter said, “Bolsonaro has a lot to lose.”
Hmm, corruption investigations, just like Trump.
Many here believe that if Lula wins — polls currently show him with a 10-point lead — a peaceful transition of powerwill depend on the depth of Bolsonaro’s backing within the military — and the reaction of his supporters.
Trump, like Bolsonaro, wanted to hold a vast military parade, but the generals wouldn’t do it. Thank goodness our military leaders recognize Trump for the psychopath he is and didn’t go along with his lies. Very Hitlerian.
Bolsonaro criticized efforts to legalize abortion, complained about what he calls “gender ideology” and warned that if the left takes power, Brazil will become like “Venezuela and Nicaragua.”
He called the opposition “evil” and warned that his rival would flout the constitution.
And the beat goes on. The parallels between Trump and Hitler and Mussolini are remarkable.
Not unlike the United States, political polarization has risen markedly here over the last decade, with political conflicts and culture wars shattering friendships, ruining family gatherings and on occasion spilling violently into the streets.
IF IT ALL SOUNDS FAMILIAR, IT IS FAMILIAR. NOTHING IS NEW
Trump’s followers believe they have discovered the final solution and that Trump would save them from the “swamp.”.
Through the centuries, all dictatorships begin and end the same way. They start with a man, usually a man, claiming that times were great in the past and things are terrible now, but he can make them great again.
Whether the soon-to-be dictator courted communists, fascists, Maoists, religious extremists, or conservative extremists, the problems always were blamed on “outsiders” or those who were “different.”
Hitler and Mussolini had the Jews and Gypsies. Stalin had the “Bonapartists,” Mao had the “intellectuals,” and Trump has his Mexican and Muslim immigrants to blame.
All dictators love the military, for it is the military that could aid, resist, or depose them. Trump loves the trappings of the military so much that he wanted to have that massive military parade in his honor. Strangely, he dissed the families of soldiers and the soldiers themselves who had died in service.
All dictators trust no one. They surround themselves with weak, immoral incompetents, often relatives, who would not be a threat to their own power.
Trump’s astoundingly long list of the weak, inexperienced, immoral, incompetent, or convicted swamp characters includes Joe Arpaio, Conrad Black, Ben Carson, Michael Cohen, Chris Collins, Dinesh D’Souza, Scott DesJarlais, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Dustin Heard, Duncan Hunter, Jared Kushner, Evan Liberty, Paul Manafort, Tom Marino, George Papadopoulos, Lynne Patton, Rob Porter, Scott Pruitt, Tom Reed, Wilbur Ross, Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Steve Stockman, Roger Stone, Ivanka Trump, and Alex van der Zwaan.
Some he pardoned to gain their loyalty. Even today, he promises to pardon the felons who invaded Congress, threatened the life of the Vice President, and tried to overthrow the U.S. government. Trump claims these traitors are “badly treated,” though people have spent decades in jail for less serious crimes.
Dictators get very rich and keep close to a few who become very rich. We see it in Russia’s oligarchs and China’s billionaires. All are pals of the leader. The rest of the country suffers because dictators don’t care about the country but about personal power.
In short, Trump is nothing new.
He follows the modus operandum of all the dictators. And the MAGAs are not new, either. They follow in the footsteps of those who believed what Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Kim, Castro, et al. told them.
The outcome is always the same: A brutal dictatorship overthrown with much bloodshed and replaced by an even more brutal dictatorship. 
Message to the MAGAs: When the dictator gains power, his followers are not spared. They suffer the same brutality as the rest of the population.
Be careful what you wish for and open your eyes. Dictators are psychopaths. None of them have mercy or loyalty. Trump is a proven psychopath.
What you do for Trump will not be rewarded or appreciated by Trump. You will be punished with the rest of us.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
I just started receiving the typical “Both sides are to blame” comments, that generally come from the side that really is to blame.
“Both sides” are not to blame, at least not anywhere near equally.
No American political party ever has harbored so many criminals as does the GOP.
No American political party ever has offered so few benefits to the common person while offering some much to the very rich as has the GOP.
No party is so relentless in its hate-mongering against minorities.
No party ever has been so dismissive of scientific facts as has the GOP.
No party has so lovingly embraced conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists as has the GOP
The Nixon Republicans had the morals to revolt against his lying about a small burglary. The Trump Republicans, devoid of morals, accept a fake “university” cheating thousands of students out of millions of dollars, a phony foundation tax cheat of millions, and a blackmail attempt of another nation’s president.
We rightfully bemoan the deaths of three thousand Americans on 9/11, but today’s GOP accepts the deaths of a hundred times that number because Trump chose to claim COVID was just a “common cold” and soon would “go away.”
Todays’ GOP accepts Trump’s continual marriage infidelities while railing against gay marriage.
Today’s GOP blithely accepts the cancellation of a treaty that prevented Iran from creating atomic bombs, which it now will have.
Today’s cowardly GOP accepts Trump’s demeaning of war dead, the stealing of classified documents, an attempted coup, and numerous other transgressions.
No party ever managed to corrupt an entire religion as the GOP now has.
No party would have claimed to love white supremacists and other violent traitors, and the compliant GOP now accepts..
In total, no party ever has been so cowardly, immoral, and traitorous as the GOP has become. Not even close.
So please, don’t make yourselves look even more stupid and immoral by not only backing Trump but by claiming both sides are equally evil.
That’s just plain nuts.
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Lest you believe ultra right-wing nuts are not a danger to America, read this from AXIOS:
Some GOP candidates are softening their rhetoric and scrubbing their campaign websites of hardline positions as the midterms get closer.
But Doug Mastriano is doing the opposite in the Pennsylvania governor’s race, one of the nation’s most important contests, Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Josh Kraushaar and Lachlan Markay report.
The Trump-endorsed state senator has doubled down on false claims about the 2020 election. He’s ghosting the mainstream media — and spending nothing on TV advertising, relying instead on Facebook livestreams and far-right media.
He has a small staff largely unknown to Pennsylvania politicos. And he may tap a woman who has described QAnon as a “very valuable resource” to be the state’s top election official.
Why it matters: Mastriano, who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is a new model of an ultra-MAGA candidate.
If Mastriano achieves an unlikely victory in November, he would control election machinery of a key battleground state in 2024.
Mastriano completely avoids the mainstream media. He rarely appears even on Fox News.
When Mastriano does do interviews, it’s almost entirely with far-right personalities like Steve Bannon. Until recently, Mastriano refused to even allow mainstream news reporters into his events.
Mastriano appears to have very little money:
His opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has already committed around $35 million to TV advertising, including $16.9 million for the fall. Mastriano has so far reserved zero dollars in fall advertising spending, according to a Pennsylvania operative closely monitoring campaign advertising data.
Instead, Mastriano has built an organic grassroots following through Facebook.
The MAGA base loves Mastriano. At Saturday night’s Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Mastriano connected powerfully. His speech was frequently interrupted by roars from the crowd.
Mastriano has made no apparent effort to pivot to the center — a common tactic for candidates as they end their primaries and face a broader electorate.
Mastriano expanded his website’s section on “election integrity” after winning his primary. He has also talked about how the election is crucial because the winner will choose the secretary of state, who’ll oversee Pennsylvania elections in 2024.
Mastriano has said he’s already chosen this person, and let slip that it’s a “her.” Pennsylvania operatives following the race closely speculate he’ll pick Toni Shuppe, co-founder and CEO of Audit the Vote PA, who claims the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump.
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In theology, ponerology (from Greek poneros, “evil”) is a study of evil. “Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism” https://www.amazon.com/Political-Ponerology-Science-Psychopathy-Totalitarianism/dp/1734907452/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=political+ponerology&qid=1662933190&sr=8-1
Psychopaths create pathocracies when they come to power.
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