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The greatest high Donald Trump has ever experienced was not “winning” the 2024 election.1 It wasn’t the birth of his children or sexually assaulting grown women or the time he spent with Jeffrey Epstein, raping little girls (allegedly).
No. The greatest moment of Donald Trump’s life was January 6th. That was the day he commanded a mob of violent terrorists to attack the Capitol and attempt to murder hundreds of his enemies. Trump watched the events unfold on TV and laughed and laughed and laughed. It was the most intoxicating drug imaginable for a malignant narcissist. People were willing to kill and die for him.
The sick, twisted, dying addict has been chasing that high ever since. He wants people out in the streets, murdering in his name. So. Fucking. Badly.
Look at Trump’s unhinged, even by his standards, post about Rob Reiner’s tragic death. He blamed it on “the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Trump went on and on about how the murders were actually all about him and how Reiner’s obsession with Trump is what caused him to be killed.
Trump’s post was oozing with barely concealed joy over the murder of Rob Reiner, a beloved figure whose legacy will long outlive the last vacuum-sealed Trump steak buried in a landfill, and Michelle, his wife. Trump was clearly hoping it was one of his followers ridding him of this meddlesome priest.
The most disturbing part of this is that there is a distinct pattern forming to Trump’s behavior if you know what to look for. I was already going to write about it and the Reiner post fits the pattern perfectly. Which is not really a good thing.
In addition to Trump increasingly calling for his enemies to be executed, last month, Trump pardoned all of the people involved with trying to steal the 2020 election through the fake elector scheme. The DoJ dropped the charges after Trump “won” the 2024 election, and yet, Trump pardoned them. Why? Because dozens of Republicans still face state charges.
The Constitution is very clear that presidents can only pardon federal crimes, aka “Offences against the United States.” Article 2, Section 2. The language is very specific. Those crimes committed against the entire country, not an individual state, can be pardoned. JUST those crimes.
Last week, Trump issued a pardon to Tina Peters, a Colorado county clerk convicted of multiple counts of election interference. All of them state charges. Colorado has rejected the pardon, but there’s a very real possibility the regime is going to push forward on this. The hope will be to get the Supreme Court to fabricate new law (like they did with “presidential immunity”) that gives Trump the ability to pardon state crimes.
What happens then, and how does all this tie together?
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Part of this has to do with Trump sending a message: If you help me rig elections, by tampering with polling machines or burning ballots or altering data, I will protect you. That is how most of the press is viewing these pardons. But it’s more than that, and this is the part they would prefer not to discuss.
It’s important to understand that since 2020, Trump has repeatedly called on his mob to come to his defense. He demanded massive protests for each of his indictments, hoping for a show of force to intimidate law enforcement. Nothing happened.
Trump has also been demanding the military and federal law enforcement shoot protesters with real bullets. He’s been doing this for years. Trump really REALLY wants people killed in his name. As I said, there’s no greater high for a malignant narcissist.
But what has been holding his faithful back from obeying the commands of the Great and Mighty Leader? Why have there been no Trumpian Brownshirts cracking skulls and killing activist leaders and prominent Democrats? Federalism.2 That separation of federal and state power that Republicans used to worship and now despise.
Trump has corrupted the federal government, and it is understood that anyone in his regime can commit any and all federal crimes with impunity. They will never be investigated by Trump’s breathtakingly crooked DoJ, and their crimes, when exposed, will be pardoned.
But fear of consequences at the state level has been keeping the right’s mob violence in check. The Proud Boys desperately want to rampage through Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Colorado and every state where they can beat and maim and murder liberals. They want to drive them away from the polls and chase them out of office. They want to enforce their fascist worldview on blue strongholds everywhere.
But they can’t because they will not be protected.
Even in red states, the militias and Nazis and assorted wannabe-Brownshirts do not dare take to the streets to attack protesters in large, coordinated ways. It will all be captured on cell phones for the country to see. Even the most entrenched, gerrymandered, voter-suppressed state government would not be safe if it allowed unchecked mob violence. And if Republicans gave it their blessing with pardons or a refusal to investigate what everyone can see happening on video? It’s hard to call yourself the “law and order” party when gangs of Nazis are beating up senior citizens with anti-Trump signs.
It’s one thing for red states to look the other way when federal agents violate the civil rights of American citizens. It’s quite another when it’s a bunch of incels screaming about how much they hate Jews.
This is why the Trump regime does not have Brownshirts spreading out across the country, attacking "No Kings” protests and assaulting college campuses and punching reporters in the face. He has no way to protect them. Yet. As long as his thugs face real consequences at the state level, they will not dare obey their godking’s orders.
But keep a close eye on Trump’s “pardons” of state-level crimes and how hard they push to make that law. If the most corrupt Supreme Court in history signs off on yet another novel legal theory fabricated from whole cloth, there will be an immediate explosion of street-level violence as Trump orders his foot soldiers to spill blood in his name. The dying junkie will never stop chasing his high.
We can only hope that even this Supreme Court will find Trump’s demands a bridge too far.
I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists in the teeth to protect it. This newsletter exists because of you, so please consider becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!
Fascism hates organized protests. They fear the public. They fear US. Make fascists afraid again by joining Indivisible or 50501 and show them whose fucking country this is!
There are 321 days until the most important midterm election in American history. The regime is afraid, and they should be. We are legion, and they are weak. Stay strong. You are never alone.
It DEFINITELY was not 2016. If you look at pictures of Trump’s face that night, he was absolutely terrified. He didn’t expect to win. He didn’t WANT to win. It wasn’t until afterwards that he realized how much money he could make as the most corrupt president in history.
The Founding Fathers made a lot of really big mistakes but sometimes, you really have to marvel at the genius of the system they designed to keep tyranny from running wild. Their biggest mistake was assuming men of good intent would be elected instead of an entire party of white nationalist scumbags.






