@Cassiodorus

Concerning the "presumption of regularity" in the constitutional functions of the executive branch. The record of the Trump DOJ in the federal court system showed something like 38 cases that fell into the category of the lawyers for DOJ presenting false factual allegations or other deceptions or misrepresentations onto the courts. A second category was totally arbitrary and capricious decision making by the executive branch. The third category was outright disobedience of court orders. This in fact represents the destruction of the federal government itself. There were at least a couple of dozen cases in the last two categories. She cited the resignation of the chief of the DOJ immigration section as potentially a good sign.

A key process in the totalitarian consolidation process is the destruction of all the traditional government structures and institutional traditions to achieve effective centralized control by the party movement cadre. This process is well underway in the legal world as it is abused and destroyed in the party's pursuit of absolute power. The same is true of society's traditional civil institutions, media, universities, school systems, state governments, police, military departments, and investigative and regulatory bodies. These will all be coerced to submit to the movement. The Doge attack on federal structures, and the attack on the institutions of the first amendment were the early stage. The second stage is the attack on cities and states by militarized police with characteristic "low signature" profiles, no badge numbers, no names, masks etc., characteristic of secret special forces. The normalization of military or military like personnel in city streets with automatic weapons, body armor, etc., characteristic of dictatorships is well underway.

To a certain extent this may be viewed as a futile observation, but the argument is, that the executive is no longer entitled to a presumption of regularity, but has in fact, earned a "presumption of irregularity." In other words the institutions, customs and traditions of the government itself either no longer exist or are in the active process of being deliberately destroyed. I would argue the titular head of government no longer exists in the civic sense. There is only the movement leader and his inner circle.

The resistance of lower level Federal judges is important morally and constitutionally, as it implies a civil existence and secular order still has potential, but the reality of the Supreme Court, indicates that such a prospect has a clouded future. This court may ultimately go the way of courts in Nazi Germany. With regard to the legislature, It is actually preferable to the movement that the government be "shutdown." It will collect taxes, impound monies, spend, hire and fire, whether Congress is in session or not. Why provide a platform for opposition no matter how feckless it is contended to be? No opposition is tolerated, period.

The WWE manipulation of spectacle has application as it based on the concept of mass mind or mass id, understood in the literature of propaganda and totalitarian movements. In the later, government is irrelevant, only the party, the so called "movement" and its representation of reality, that is its mythic structure, matter. The cadre matter far more than the followers as they proceed in the destruction of civil society as well as government to suit the party tastes. The followers feel empowered by the symbolism and slogans of the movement, "stop the steal," MAGA, China Out, and the associated racism and xenophobia. The destruction and renovation of the white house, symbolizes the superiority of the movement to the institution and its tradition.

Meanwhile, minorities, immigrant communities, etc., as the sacrificial victims of the movement, live in fear. As they are publicly attacked and taken off to concentration camps by militarized thugs in the streets, appropriately televised widely, a general atmosphere of terror is created. The executions and genocide abroad further terrorize the domestic mass mind. The government shutdown, firing of government workers, cancelation, or threatened cancelation of government benefit programs, health insurance subsidies, etc., create the sensation in the public at large, except for the truly wealthy, that the ground beneath their feet is falling away. The inner movement cadre are clearly following a technique, formula and script articulated by earlier totalitarian leaders. imo

I'll leave the observations on the US religious far right for Hedges. It's a minefield. I know the party movement related NGOs, KPAC, CPAC, and people directly tied to the party inner circle in the US are supporting the far right Christian groups in South Korea against the elected democratic government. They carry stop the steal, pro Yoon, anti China signs, wave US flags, Israeli flags, etc. Signs in English are often carried. They are regarded as heretics by the mainstream religious conferences in South Korea.

The Unification Church and the Sarang Jaeil Church (led by demogogue Pastor Jeon Gwang-hun) and the Moonie like Sincheonji Church are cults. The younger people who support the far right causes are actually relatively low in number in South Korea, and are provided by these organizations for street demonstrations. political campaigns, who actively recruit them, house them, pay them and transport them. Most far right evangelical believers are elderly in South Korea who come from Christian congregations similar to those that supported the South Korean dictatorships.

Hitlerism, Trumpism, Netanyahuism, Le Penism, Macronism

An observation:

In my opinion, Trumpism’s radical pro-Israel stance masks a visceral and vicious anti-Semitism: the identification of all Jews with Netanyahuism, a truly monstrous historical phenomenon and a cancer in Jewish history, will only serve to renew the Nazi conception of a monstrous Jewish people.

He predicts:

One day, inevitably, Christian nations will make peace with 1.6 billion Muslims. The Jews will then be abandoned by their fans and, now alone, thrown to the wolves of other angry peoples.

People might wonder from time to time why Max Blumenthal does what he does. Here's a motive: survival. Blumenthal hopes to put off the Day of Reckoning.

Oh, and as for Trump, now the primary instigator of genocide according to Todd?

Nazism was simply and explicitly anti-Christian. Trumpism claims to be religious, but in the manner of a satanic cult, through the inversion of values. Evil is good, injustice is justice. Hitler was only the Führer, the guide of the German people to their martyrdom; Trump is not Satan, but I suspect that for his Satanist fans, his red cap is that of the Antichrist.

Trump is, in short, the heel, and the WWE crowds cheering on his every move are cheering the heel. But, unlike WWE, the politics of empire in decline has a lot more to offer in the way of consequences than an occasional murder-suicide. And we're going to see those consequences soon.