By Donald A. Collins | 26 August 2023
Church and State

In the 1943 movie The Oxbow Incident starring Henry Fonda or the 1954 play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, we saw the fate of two fictional innocent men played out in dramatic fashion.
On Thursday August 23rd, what we saw was not fictional although it almost seemed fictional when it played for hours on CNN, but its central character was surely proven symbolically guilty beyond a shadow of doubt, illuminated by the constant presentation in the RICO context of his criminal conspiracy. Central to the case is that after audio leaked from a January 2021 phone call during which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to question the validity of thousands of ballots, especially in the heavily Democratic Atlanta area, and said he wanted to “find” the votes to erase his 2020 loss in the state.
Read the full extent of the Trump charges here.
Breaking news: Trump and 18 others are charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn 2020 election results.
It’s Trump’s fourth criminal indictment this year following a 2½-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis. https://t.co/xovupzN758 pic.twitter.com/3fTERIHH33
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 15, 2023
Here is Donald Trump’s real mugshot. He looks like shit. pic.twitter.com/F9XV8a4sLo
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) August 25, 2023
The cast of characters in this real-life play included known conspirators such as Rudy Giuliani whose lying has already been extensively exposed and whose role in the overall coordination of this historic conspiracy by Trump, the master felon, stands starkly exposed to all America!
The profound embarrassment to the GOP will continue to be ignored by many of their elected representatives but most of us better not fail to understand the importance of where our democracy stands as this real-life soap opera goes forward.
Read here the Washington Post article on Trump’s arraignment.
BREAKING: Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in American history surrenders to authorities at the Fulton County Jail.
The irony of a man who ran his campaign with the slogan “lock her up” is now been arrested for the 4th time this year. pic.twitter.com/unupjFJHX0
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 25, 2023
Trump willfully decided to ignore the truth from his long time advisors such as his Attorney General Bill Barr and certainly Trump knew very quickly after the 2020 election that he had lost as testimony from his advisors showed. The coup crime was underway, probably even before as he claimed fraud would affect the 2020 outcome before election day.
Read here his advisors ignored advice.
Whether any of his 4 indictments produce a trial prior to Trump’s possible nomination or before the November 2024 election is not known but there’s no doubt about his guilt.
Most of the voting public savors such a coherent and plausible story. Thus, Trump’s real story of his activities has become more and more obvious since the US House of Representative January 6th hearings. These hearings produced major testimony of wrongdoing from key Republican officials who had direct knowledge of Trump’s activities.
Trump’s constant victimhood argument has lost all credibility and increases the prospect for violence as Eugene Robinson’s 8/24/23 Washington Post op ed notes.
"This is the party Trump has wrought," @Eugene_Robinson writes.
"In order to save the GOP, voters need to destroy it — with a crushing defeat in 2024." https://t.co/Pdfqc3AmQw
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) August 25, 2023
All this embarrassment and disruption could have been avoided if Trump had simply acknowledged defeat after his loss was fully documented.
The National Academy study of the 2020 voting fraud claim offers exhaustive evidence that substantiates that no meaningful fraud occurred. Read here.
We know his motivation as his behavior as a fascist seeking power was so well described by Robert Reich’s TV which is posted below.
I found fascinating the 2019 analysis by NYU Professor Burt Neuborne a well-regarded civil rights attorney who identified Trump’s fascist tendencies in a stunningly early recognition of his fascism which got scant attention.
Read his biography here.
The author made 20 examples comparing the early Hitler and Trump, examples of what aspiring fascists do to secure power which I summarize here:
1. Neither was elected by a majority.
2. Both found direct communication channels to their base.
3. Both blame others and divide on racial lines.
4. Both relentlessly demonize opponents
5. They unceasingly attack objective truth.
6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media.
7. Their attacks on truth include science.
8. Their lies blur reality–and supporters spread them.
9. Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.
10. They embrace extreme nationalism.
11. Both made closing borders a centerpiece.
12. They embraced mass detention and deportations.
13. Both used borders to protect selected industries.
14. They cemented their rule by enriching elites
15. Both rejected international norms.
16. They attack domestic democratic processes
17. Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.
18. Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.
19. They proclaim unchecked power.
20. Both relegate women to subordinate roles.
Each one of the above list is amplified by a narrative of how they compare. Here are only 2 examples:
1. Neither was elected by a majority. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, receiving votes by 25.3 percent of all eligible American voters. “That’s just a little less than the percentage of the German electorate that turned to the Nazi Party in 1932-33,” Neuborne writes. “Unlike the low turnouts in the United States, turnout in Weimar Germany averaged just over 80 percent of eligible voters.” He continues, “Once installed as a minority chancellor in January 1933, Hitler set about demonizing his political opponents, and no one–not the vaunted, intellectually brilliant German judiciary; not the respected, well-trained German police; not the revered, aristocratic German military; not the widely admired, efficient German government bureaucracy; not the wealthy, immensely powerful leaders of German industry; and not the powerful center-right political leaders of the Reichstag–mounted a serious effort to stop him.”
6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media. Trump’s assaults on the media echo Hitler’s, Neuborne says, noting that he “repeatedly attacks the ‘failing New York Times,’ leads crowds in chanting ‘CNN sucks,’ [and] is personally hostile to most reporters.” He cites the White House’s refusal to fly the flag at half-mast after the murder of five journalists in Annapolis in June 2018, Trump’s efforts to punish CNN by blocking a merger of its corporate parent and trying to revoke federal Postal Service contracts held by Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.
Read his full article here.
Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies – https://t.co/H4vqoLYyoH pic.twitter.com/ij6QFAfdsG
— 💧 Russell Darnley OAM maximos62@mastodon.au (@maximos62) November 16, 2020
The die is cast. Do we allow this felon and his friends to takeover, or can we look at where America is today and go forward? Biden may not be your first choice, but he is a person of honor and his first term gave America stability and purpose after the aspirant fascist tried to destroy our republic.
Does promoting hate, racism, and all the freedoms offered by the GOP listed in my August 18th op ed suit our majority? I have hope it does not.

“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
The dog that didn’t bark: Trump’s calls for massive protests go unanswered
“A travesty of justice”, says Trump after Georgia jail surrender
Joe on Trump plans to expand power: Exactly what fascists do
Mehdi: Fascist Is An Increasingly Apt Label For Today’s GOP | The Mehdi Hasan Show
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