Below, find a link to an essay published by Steven Dundas in his Dedicated to the Proposition that All Men are Created Equal substack..As always, Steven is insightful in diagnosing the causes leading up to Trump’s election to a second term as President of the United States of America, as well how we must act to thwart Trump’s promises and threats to attack and prosecute those who oppose him.
Resistance to the undemocratic and unconstitutional actions is essential even though it will be difficult and fraught with danger for us. I firmly believe that millions Trump voters bought the lies he was trying to sell us or did not believe that he really meant what he said about actions he intended to carry out very quickly once he is sworn again as President ( An oath. by the way, that he violated repeated in his first term, and will violate even more forcefully this time around.
We cannot stand by silently and allow Trump to get away with his fascist agenda.the way the Senate did by refusing to convict him after an unprecedented two impeachment trials. Millions of Germans did just that for Hitler during the 1930’s and ’40’s. The United States and cannot afford to let the same or worse happen again now.
I encourage everyone to subscribe to Steven Dundas’s substack. He knows what he’s talking about. – rjc
Source: (13) Dictators and Autocrats don’t ask Why? They ask Why Not.
Below is a link to the full transcript of Vice President Kamala Harris’s concession speech after being defeated by Donald Trump in Tuesday’s Presidential election. The speech was delivered Wednesday afternoon. Harris obviously did not pattern her speech after the one Trump delivered after losing to President Biden in the 2020 election, because that speech never happened. To this day, Trump will not admit that he was defeated in that election.
Time will tell if Donald Trump believes he is to be sworn in for a four-year term as President of the United States of America or for a more open-ended term as our authoritarian dictator. Either way, it should not take long to determine how he intends to implement Project 2025, start mass deportations and prosecuting those he identifies as his “enemies within”. I hope he doesn’t mistake a lack of a riot at the Capitol on January 6th as evidence that we will roll over and allow him to do as he pleases while in office this time around.
First things first. What is to come of the criminal indictments pending on Donald Trump? Also, what is to come of sentencing for the 34 felony convictions he already has, or the multi-million dollar civil judgments he was handed for defamation and fraud? Stay tuned… -rjc
Source: Kamala Harris Concession Speech: Read the Full Transcript | TIME
Below find a link to the speech delivered by Vice President Kamala Harris that has been hailed as closing arguments for her campaign to be elected President of the United States of America on November 5, 2024. She delivered the speech at the same place that Trump held his infamous rally on January 6, 2021 that preceded, and many contend incited, the violent attack on the Capitol shortly thereafter.
The speech by Harris contrasts strongly with the rally held by Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York City earlier in the week, conveying the former President’s closing arguments for putting him back in the office he won in 2016 but lost in 2020. Where speakers preceding Trump seemed determined to spew racist and anti-immigrant themes designed to fire up the MAGA base, Harris sought to unite, rather than further divide the American people.
The Vice President pointed out that she would support the sort of bipartisan border security bill that Trump effectively squashed by ordering his Congressional lackeys to vote against it in order to give him an important issue to campaign on. She also pointed out the ways in which Trump has promised to run the government when he regains power. Where he sees all those whose opinions differ from his to be “the enemy within” and deserving to be prosecuted and punished by “his” Department of Justice as enemies of the state, she offered those of differing opinions a seat at the table.
Despite denials that he had anything to do with the Project 2025 agenda of turning our government into a fascistic Authoritarian dictatorship, he certainly has done nothing to allay the fears of many that he will govern in that fashion if sworn in for a second time. He offers the vast majority of us nothing other than a loss of freedoms we have grown to take for granted. Rights such freedom of speech and reproductive rights have been attacked by Trump and his supporters – starting with the reversal of Roe v. Wade (made possible by allowing Trump to appoint 3 extremist justices to SCOTUS) and growing increasingly worse with even more extreme laws in many individual states.
The positive spin the Harris campaign has projected, along with the negatives of Trump’s threats to large segments of the American populace lead me to believe that, for a third time, Trump will lose the popular vote by millions. Hopefully, for the sake of our future, the electoral vote will follow suit. Even then, Trump is much more likely to incite his followers to violence than urge a peaceful transition to a Harris Administration. He has done nothing but state in every campaign since 2016 that he is impossible to beat unless the election is rigged. This year has been no exception.
Many people have already voted in this election – myself included. For those who have not, I urge you to compare Trump’s speech at Madison Square Garden to Harris’s at the ellipse and decide for yourself who is most fit to serve as our next President. One further note: Given Trump’s age and mental state, keep in mind who the two running mates are. I suspect that Vance would make an even worse chief executive of a democratic government than Trump, especially considering his relative youth.
Vote your conscience with the future in mind for the sake of our children and their children. I’m counting on being on the winning side of this election as I was in 2020, but we can’t take anything for granted – even as the results are tabulated on Tuesday and the days that follow.
Source: Watch Kamala Harris’ full closing argument on 2024 election at D.C. Ellipse
Below find a link to speech delivered by Donald Trump at his much anticipated rally held at New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024. It was the final act of the rally and the speeches leading up to Trump’s grand finale have been strongly criticized by a wide-ranging and bipartisan assortment of politicians, media personnel due to racist comments, personal attacks and insults directed against VP Harris and anybody else he felt were opposed to his authoritarian dreams for the Administration he will install if and when he comes to power again after the 2024 election.
Several hours (including over one hour by Trump himself) of nothing but regurgitated MAGA conspiracy theories and hate-filled attacks on immigrants, elected Democratic politicians and other so-called “enemies within” whom he vows to persecute, prosecute and otherwise punish as domestic terrorists merely because they refuse to kneel down and pledge their undying allegiance to – US Constitution be damned.
The vicious rhetoric was reminiscent of the speech he gave on January 6, 2021 inciting the riot at the US Capitol which intended nothing less than overturning the 2020 election and keeping him as President with all the powers of the dictators he openly admires. He seemed to be firing up his followers and giving them his personal encouragement to do more of the same if this election shows he lost again. Far from trying to persuade new people to vote for him, he was stating categorically that he intends to take over again after he loses.
Trump has vowed in advance that the only way he can lose is if his opponent cheats and/or rigs the election to keep the only person qualified to be President – Donald J. Trump – out of the White House. He did the same prior to the 2016 election but didn’t need to resort to violence to take over. In 2020, he refused to accept defeat – despite all the court challenges he filed being thrown out as simply false allegations and the fake electors he schemed to reverse the election failed to accomplish his desired result.
Now, in 2024, he talks about little else but how he will take the office by force if necessary. He will have to. The American people are increasingly seeing Trump for what he really is – a wannabe dictator hellbent on achieving through force what he can no longer achieve at the polls. We need to vote against Donald Trump and to save our democracy. As I said in another post recently, we don’t need no stinking dictator. We need a democratically elected President who serve the Constitutional principles of a government of the People, by the People and for the People.
Donald Trump must face the consequences of the actions he took while in office and leading up to this one which were illegal and flagrant violations of the oath of office he swore to when he took office in 2017. The fact that insufficient numbers of Republican senators voted to convict him at two different impeachment trials demonstrates that he is not the only elected office holders who refused to take their oaths seriously. We, the voters, need to rectify this injustice for once and for All. He needs to stand trial for his other indictments and sentencing for those he has already been convicted of. That obviously will not happen if he becomes President again.
Source: Donald Trump full speech at Madison Square Garden (Oct. 27, 2024) | wfaa.com
Below is a link to Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s redacted court filing as released on October 2, 2024 by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Former President Donald J. Trump’s federal election case. The filing was in response to the now infamous Supreme Court Presidential Immunity decision and makes public some new information pertaining to the case and addresses how the prosecution seeks to continue the case despite that decision due to perceptions of acts made by the then President that his attempts to actions were strictly performed as part of his official duties as President of the United States of America.
Donald Trump has done everything in his power to delay and postpone this and every other criminal and civil case against him, hoping to be able to have all the cases dismissed or overturned subsequent to his return to the Oval Office following the election this coming November 5th. He has already been convicted of 34 felony counts pertaining to fraud committed to hide hush money payments in the days preceding the 2016 election. He also currently owes hundreds of millions of dollars in civil damages for fraud and defamation in New York.
After the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots attempted to overturn Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election, Trump was acquitted by the US Senate in his unprecedented second impeachment trial. One excuse given by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell for voting against Trump’s conviction in the second trial was that it was already a done deal that Biden would be in office in a matter of days and Trump would then be subject to criminal charges. Every Senator who used this excuse to vote against conviction violated their oath of office, in my opinion.
Despite Trump’s insistence that he should be immune from any and all prosecution, criminal and civil penalties of any kind, I believe the President of this country should be held to the same standards of conduct as the rest of us. Trying to avoid being held accountable for criminal behavior is understandable, especially when the potential penalties are so severe, but pretending everything this person has done is excusable because he doesn’t think anything he does is wrong doesn’t pass the smell test.
Ideally, all this should have concluded before the GOP made the mistake of nominating the same person for the same job (for which he is unfit to serve) for the third consecutive time. Since it has not, we need to ensure that Trump is defeated soundly at the polls in November and that justice can be served in the aftermath with as little Trump-incited violence as possible. We don’t need no stinking dictator. – rjc
For those who either missed the speech by Presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris or would like to see it again, below is a link to her acceptance speech at the 2024 DNC on August 23, 2024. The contrast between this speech and the acceptance speech of Former President and current Republican nominee at the RNC held earlier this year is striking.
Less than three months from now, people will be voting to determine who will replace current President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Hopefully, people will be able to sift through the true and false ads, debates and campaign rallies on both sides and come to a conclusion as to which candidate is most likely going to act in their interests. The key then is to actually vote for that person and encourage others to do likewise.
I have no doubt that this will be will the most important Presidential election of my lifetime (I first voted in the 1976 election). The choice between the two is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism is facing us for the third consecutive election. For what it’s worth, electing Trump again would most likely result in even more pronounced anti-democratic rule than resulted in the aftermath of his inauguration following the 2016 election.
Project 2025 will be Trump’s blueprint for ruling should he be elected again in November. His denials of having anything to do with Project 2025 ring hollow – especially in the wake of his conduct leading up to the Capitol insurrection he incited on January 6, 2021. His adamant refusal to admit that he can only be defeated in a fraudulent election will likely result in more violence by his supporters. Nevertheless, we must vote to preserve our democracy and deny Trump yet another opportunity to wreak havoc on this nation even worse than his previous administration delivered.
Learn what you can before voting and vote for the candidate most likely to create a future for ourselves and those who follow us that is preferable to the dystopia that Donald Trump seeks to impose upon us. -rjc
Source: Watch: Kamala Harris’ full speech at the 2024 DNC – CBS News
Below is a link to fact sheets compiled by Colin Seeberger of the Center for American Progress of the effects that enacting Project 2025 would have on the American people. It seems that the more people learn about Project 2025, the more they dislike it. Donald Trump, who would seem to gain the most from it if he was elected President again, appears to realize this fact, since he has tried to distance himself from it since the details have come to the forefront. After all, he would not be able to implement Project 2025 from Mar-a-Lago if he lost in November.
I encourage people to delve more deeply into the intricacies of Project 2025 and its implications on the lives of all Americans should it be implemented. Rhetorical tricks by Trump notwithstanding, this document fits right in with his stacking of the Supreme Court to grant himself immunity from prosecution and his stated desire to invalidate any election he does not win.
I, for one, do not picture life in a United States of America governed by the principles outlined in Project 2025 as ideal in any way. Invalidating the U.S. Constitution in this manner and eliminating the rights and freedoms protected therein is unacceptable to myself and, I believe, the vast majority of the American people. The vast majority of people living under governments with similar principles would undoubtedly expressed the same or similar opinions if they didn’t face imprisonment or execution for expressing them.
Hopefully enough information about Project 2025 will reach enough voters to ensure that Donald J. Trump, a man who by all rights should have been thrown out of office as the result of either of the two impeachment trials he faced, and should be in prison for the 34 felony convictions he has received (not to mention the trials for other indictments which have been delayed numerous times by judicial decisions from the Supreme Court down) will lose this November’s election. He wasn’t kidding when he promised a bloodbath if he loses. Just like the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, he will no doubt attempt to incite another coup to gain the power he needs to turn this country into a dictatorship ruled by himself.
When he does, he will lose again. -rjc
Source: Fact Sheets: The Harmful Effects of Project 2025, by State – Center for American Progress
Below is a link to the speech made by Former President and current nominee of the Republican Party for this November’s election for President of the United States of America – Donald J. Trump. The speech was late in the night on Thursday and was even longer than expected (ending after midnight on the East Coast. This gives those who missed the speech a chance to watch it, and those who only saw part of it a chance to fill in the parts they missed.
If this was his attempt to unify the country in the wake of the assassination attempt of last Saturday, he fell far short of that goal, in my opinion. Nothing in it allayed any of my fears that electing him President of this country again would better for the vast majority of Americans than re-electing President Biden. In fact, it strengthened the notion that a second Trump term in office would result in more authoritarian moves than he was able to achieve in his first term – especially given the recent Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion and his personal immunity from prosecution for action taken in some loosely-based concept of his “official” duties as President of the nation.
The recent decisions of the Supreme Court will definitely make it easier for civil and human rights to be destroyed or at least severely limited for large segments of our society (way more than half, in fact, considering it would include all women). Nothing in the speech dismisses the authoritarian aims included in Project 2025. It’s a shame that the Party of Lincoln has degenerated into something resembling very closely a cult subservient to the whims of a modern day dictator, but that does seem to be what has taken place.
The election takes place in less than four months. Supporters of democracy need to do all we can – nonviolently – to ensure that our democracy remains intact and even more robust for future generations as well as those of us who have to live with the results of that election in the near future. Vote as if your life depends on it. It will. -rjc
Source: WATCH: Donald J. Trump’s 2024 RNC acceptance speech : NPR
Below find the video of President Biden’s prime time speech in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Former President Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.
The campaign rhetoric feeding the potential for further escalation of political violence has now resulted in such violence targeting Former President Trump as he prepares to become the GOP Presidential nominee for the third consecutive election. In the past, many have seen Trump’s rhetoric as inciting his devoted supporters to react violently against his perceived enemies. The most visible instance of this occurred on January 6, 2021 – when he held a rally that resulted in a riot of Trump supporters who Threatened members of Congress (as well as his own Vice President) while delaying certification of the election which Trump lost to Biden in November 2020.
I have no doubt that President Biden was sincere in his call to ratchet down the calls to violence in the days leading to this November’s election. Donald Trump has a long way to go before he’ll convince most Americans that he also abhors the violence that occurred on 1/6/21 as well as what happened to him more recently. He has shown throughout his public pronouncements on the campaign trail as well as during the Manhattan trial when he was convicted of 34 felony counts in the so-called “Hush money” trial when he falsify company records to cover up payments made to silence his behavior with Stormy Daniels in order to make victory in the 2016 election more likely.
He did nothing to quell the riot on Capitol Hill for hours after saying things at his rally that were designed to rile up his supporters to violence to aid their preferred candidate by correcting the wrongs that corrupt election officials in various states were committing to put Biden in the office of President that Trump was being robbed of.
I hope that Trump can forego the wholesale lying he has displayed on a regular basis since he entered politics as a candidate in 2015 to allow the American people the opportunity to vote on the merits in November without fear of similar scenes next January. He needs to be able to admit defeat should it happen again. – rjc
Below is a link to the transcript of the speech delivered by President Biden on May 31, 2024 regarding the latest hostage and ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war. What, if anything will come of this effort remains to be seen. Because of when the speech was delivered ( mid-afternoon on a Friday), many interested people no doubt missed it. Coverage was also somewhat muted by the fact that the guilty verdict in the Trump hush money case (which is actually more accurately described as the Trump election interference case regarding the 2016 election) was announced the day before.
-rjc
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