A One hundred percent certain way to be sure American tourists stay far away from El Salvador

Echo opinion by Rex Huppke

We here at the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office are proud to announce our new slogan: 'Come to America! There's only a small chance you'll be detained indefinitely!'

Greetings, international tourists.😁 I’m here to persuade you to ignore the fake news media and spend your vacation time this year in MAGAmerica, formally known as “America.”

Republicans are allowing an unelected South African immigrant to change every aspect of our American way of life.💨💥😡 

Under the stunning (RESIST❗)  of President/King Donald Trump and his billionaire regional manager Elon Musk, the United States has been transformed from a violent and deteriorating third world nation to the greatest place on earth. (Please note: “greatest place on earth” does not apply to people who say bad things about Teslas.)

In honor of the return of American exceptionalism, we here at the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office are proud to announce our new slogan: “Come to America! There’s only a small chance you’ll be detained indefinitely!”

We have, of course, seen the reports that fewer Canadians are traveling to America, despite President Trump’s gentle trade war and generous offer/threat to annex their country. U.S. data showed a nearly 13% drop in Canadians crossing into our country in February compared with last year, but the Trump administration is working to swiftly eliminate Marxist “data” like that, so we’re not concerned.

And yes, we saw research firm Tourism Economics' recent estimate that international “inbound travel to the US is projected to decline by 15.2% compared to baseline projections,” which will result in “a $22 billion annual loss” in inbound travel spending. 

But again, those are “words” and “numbers,” and President Trump has made it abundantly clear those are illegal unless he likes them.
Consider all MAGAmerica has to offer foreign travelers

So forget that silly nonsense and think about what MAGAmerica has to offer you, the fabulous foreign traveler.

For starters, there are our beautiful national parks, which will be less crowded this year thanks to Mr. Musk firing about 1,000 U.S. National Park Service employees. No more bothersome “park rangers” telling you woke stuff like “please stay on the path so you don’t destroy delicate ecosystems” and “please don’t pee in Old Faithful.”

But it’s not just the natural parks or the numerous Trump-owned properties you will be required to stay at. International visitors coming to America this year could win … a free trip to El Salvador!

Depending on your accent and the color of your skin, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could deem you a foreign gang member and then use the Alien Enemies Act to ship you off for a free stay at an El Salvadoran fitness facility, something the liberals lamely call “a labor camp.”

You and your family could be next❗

While only a select number of lucky visitors will receive what we’re calling “the El Salvador package,” every foreign tourist will get to experience America’s new-and-improved First Amendment, which gives all people the right to speak freely, as long as they aren’t critical of President Trump and don’t engage in the kind of protected free speech that makes South African immigrant Elon Musk angry or sad.

Maine Writer postscript:  Although many adventerous tourists like to explore exotic and off the tourist map places, the government of El Salvador has now created a fool proof way to be sure American tourists find other places to visit. Obviously, President Nayib Bukele would rather keep his nation's horrible prisons full than to support his poor country's destination tourism businesses. 

Elon Musk never put a dime into Social Security but creating fear among beneficiaries who earned their pension

 An unelected South African immigrant and billionaire is gunning for Social Security. Get Musk out, now. | Echo opinion published in USA Today by Rex Huppke.

No reasonable person will disagree with the idea of targeting actual waste or fraud, but Musk's half-trillion-dollar estimate is outlandish.

Americans must demand Elon Musk’s removal from the federal government, before his slash-and-burn nonsense and warped views about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cause a spike in the sale of pitchforks❗🔱

In a recent interview on Fox Business, the federally funded billionaire Donald Trump put in charge of a made-up thing called the Department of Government Efficiency said: “The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements, so that’s like the big one to eliminate, that’s the sort of half-trillion, maybe six or 700 billion a year.”

That garbled sentence is just the kind of clarity you want from an unelected rich guy who has taken a “break it first” mentality to the federal government. The most charitable interpretation of Musk’s comment is that he’s saying “waste and fraud” – a favorite blanket term for Republicans who want to get rid of programs that help people – need to be eliminated from programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The 'waste and fraud' seems to be coming from Musk's mouth 😮❗

No reasonable person will disagree with targeting actual waste or fraud, but Musk’s half-trillion dollar estimate is outlandish. 

As The Associated Press reported: “Musk’s estimate for the level of fraud in entitlements far outpaces figures from watchdogs like Social Security’s inspector general, who previously said there was $71.8 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015, through 2022. That’s less than 1% of benefits paid out during that time period.”
So, to ballpark, that’s about $10 billion a year compared with Musk’s highest estimate of 💲700 billion a year.

The bottom line is this: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And he's already demonstrated his animosity toward Social Security, calling it "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time."

If you have paid into Social Security, or if you rely on Social Security checks, or if you benefit from Medicare or Medicaid, the last thing you want is an ignorant billionaire who can’t comprehend budgeting on a fixed income using the word “eliminate” or the term "Ponzi scheme" around any of your federal programs.

Musk-O-Vite's DOGE has been calamitous, and he's just not a nice guy.💥

The cuts and firings that have happened under Musk’s DOGE operation have already shown themselves to be ham-handed.

They’ve fired people who perform crucial jobs, then had to turn around and rehire them.

They’ve wildly overinflated (aka "lied" about) the amount of money they claim they’re saving.

And this team of unknown techies has been fighting to get access to some of the most carefully guarded private data – YOUR data – the government holds.

On top of all this, Musk has proved himself time and again to be an absolute jerk.

In his Fox Business interview, he repeated the ludicrous white-nationalist lie that federal programs like Social Security are "a mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants, by essentially paying them to come here, and then turning them into voters."

The "Democrats are importing voters" line is conspiratorial garbage, and the notion that undocumented immigrants are collecting Social Security is a long-ago debunked claim.  😪🤥

The purpose of Musk's comment is simply to demonize immigrants and spread the insidious "great replacement theory."
Musk calls combat veteran Sen. Mark Kelly a 'traitor'

If you need additional proof of Musk's oafishness, he recently labeled Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona a “traitor” on social media after the senator posted a photo of his recent visit to Ukraine.

As a U.S. Navy pilot, Kelly flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm. He’s also a former NASA astronaut.

Musk is a South African-born (aka "immigrant") billionaire who routinely peddles conspiracy theories on the social media platform he bought and, most recently, ushered in the firing of tens of thousands of U.S. government workers.

Kelly is the opposite of a traitor. (IMO Senator Kelly is a national treasure.)

Musk, on the other hand, is obviously a poster boy for jerks.

If you trust him, you’re not paying attention. And if you value the so-called entitlements you’ve worked for, you’d be wise to join the other Americans loudly demanding that Musk be stripped of the power nobody ever voted to give him.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

Truth be told- If Vice-President Harris rambled incoherently like DonOLD Trump does, would the New York Times notice?

Opinion: Harris' economic speech lacked anger and racism. 

So Harris can stay focused and complete a sentence❓ So what🤷❓ Who knew you could give such a speech❓😉😁😲

Tongue in cheek echo opinion essay by Rex Huppke published in the Tennessean newspaper

What's wrong with her❓ Harris' thoughtful rhetoric on the economy does nothing to make me hate people who are different than I am. Useless!

Comrade Kamala Harris (aka- the Vice-President) gave an economic speech in Pittsburgh, and let me tell you, it was light on the two things I demand out of a serious leader: rambling stories that have nothing to do with the economy and rabid xenophobia.

Ms. Harris wasted my time by using her speech to detail a plan and vision for the American economy, promising things like a middle-class tax break for more than 100 million Americans that includes $6,000 for new parents during the first year of their child’s lives; working with builders to add 3 million more homes to the market, bringing home prices down, and helping first-time home buyers with $25,000 in down payment assistance; and doubling the number of registered apprenticeships while eliminating degree requirements for federal jobs.

Oh yeah? Well, what about the damn battery-powered boats that keep sinking and the people getting eaten by sharks 🦈, huh❓ What about the fact that GOP presidential candidate DonOLD Trump has told me, and (fake❗)Fox News host Sean Hannity has confirmed, that America is a dystopian, third-world hellhole and the only way to fix it is to yell “TARIFFS!” as loud as possible?

What, Madam Vice President, do you have to say about the late, great Hannibal Lecter❓ No answer❓ It figures.

Harris' economic speech may have had details, but Trump\'s had anger.

Shortly before Harris took the stage in Pittsburgh to speak with highly suspicious clarity and compassion, Trump was in North Carolina showing REAL AMERICANS how it’s done.

Trump, under a banner that read "JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!", showed us his plan to boost the economy by being mad that former President Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize, promoting his nearby golf course and suggesting that the Iranians want to kill him because he might harm their furniture-export operations.

“All of your furniture-makers are going to come back and come back bigger and stronger and better than ever before,” Trump said. “They’re mostly gone. They're all coming back. This is why people in countries want to kill me. They’re not happy with me. It is, it’s a risky business❓ presidents, remember that.”

Right on! So Harris Wow! She can stay focused and complete a sentence So what?

Trump continued to masterfully demonstrate how a real he-man leader stays on topic: “I will end the chaos in the Middle East quickly, and I’m the only one that's gonna do this. We have never been so close to World War III as we are right now, we are so close. I will be sure that World War III will not happen, I’m the only one who can say it, won’t happen. But you’re very close, and that will be a war like no other because I always say it’s not going to be two army tanks, two tanks, which by the way our country wants to convert to electric, I’m not going to let that happen. They want electric tanks. 😫😳😰😜 But...They don’t work well (ya'think❓). The battery size is so big you’re going to have pull a trailer behind the tank, can you believe this, they want electric tanks, they don’t care, they want to have a nice, free, beautiful for the environment as we blast our way through countries. These people are crazy, they’re crazy.”  (Correctamundo❗ As TV character Fonzi would say.... because, DonOLD Trump is obviously mentally ill.😵😕)

Right! ☝ Vice-President Harris can stand there all she wants and “discuss actual policies” while “not sounding like her brain fell out of her ear” and “appear to care about people other than herself.”
Harris spoke with compassion. And that makes me very angry.

She can say things like: “I remember being there when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Cooking meals for her, taking her to her appointments, just trying to make her comfortable, figuring out which clothes were soft enough that they wouldn’t irritate her, and telling her stories to try to make her laugh. I know caregiving is about dignity, it really is. And when we lower the cost and ease the burdens people face, we will not only make it then easier for them to meet their obligations as caregivers, we will also make it more possible for them to go to work.”

That kind of thoughtful rhetoric does nothing to make me hate people who are different than I am. Useless! Trump gives us specific details about made-up immigrant stories.  Trump caused the hate circuit in my brain to light up during his speech when he said: “But Kamala should have closed the border years ago and we wouldn’t have hostile takeovers of Springfield, Ohio; Aurora, Colorado; where they are actually going in with massive machine gun-type equipment. They are going in with guns that are beyond even military scope, and they are taking over apartment buildings, they’re taking over real estate, they’re in the real-estate development business, congratulations. ... In that case, people from Venezuela, young street gang members that were sent here by the Venezuelan government.”

The fake news media will tell you that’s all nonsense, but it sounds exactly like a fever dream I had the other night after spending 17😒😞😩😪 hours watching (fake❗)Fox News, so I believe it’s absolutely true.
(fake ❗) Fox News didn\'t air Harris' speech, but for some bewildering reason it showed some of Trump's incoherent rambling.

And speaking of (fake ❗)Fox News, I know from watching that network that Harris is a complete mystery candidate who never gives any details about her policies and economic vision. So, did (fake ❗)Fox News cover Harris’ speech, when she gave details about her policies and economic vision❓ 😧No. It wasn’t even mentioned on the network’s "X" account, while the speech was going on.

That makes perfect sense to me. Real Americans have better things to do than listen to a liberal speak rationally about the economy. Instead, we’ve got plenty to worry about, with electric tanks and immigrants with massive machine-gun-type equipment coming to take over our apartment buildings and who we are going to get irrationally mad at next and which of Trump’s golf properties that we can’t afford to visit is the best. You know – the stuff that matters.

Stay away from the dangerous green and chaotic mind of Marjorie Taylor Greene

Echo opinion: Marjorie Taylor Greene is not normal!

Echo opinion by Rex Huppke in USA Today

Stop trying to make sense of Marjorie Taylor Greene. She inhabits a world of nonsense. Dealing with her chronic political duplicity can drive the analyst crazy, because you can't apply logic to something wholly illogical. You'll never pierce the membrane of the right-wing bubble Greene inhabits, as she speaks a language most Americans will never understand.

Whether through a Faustian bargain or the unwitting possession of a cursed monkey paw, the Republican Party has taken Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — arguably the most ludicrous lawmaker in an age of pervasive ludicrousness — and #falsly awarded her legitimacy.

Marjorie Taylor Green logo

She now sits on important congressional committees. Her I’d-like-to-speak-with-your-manager voice will be heard, and the questions that lurk in her mind, a place of cobwebs and dust, will be asked. She has become, to the consternation of a dwindling number of "normal" Republicans, the face of the GOP. 

One Democrat brought up the horrific beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers as an example of why the civil rights subcommittee was still necessary.

Greene responded in a way that suggested she had swallowed a Fox News’ Tucker Carlson pill whole: “I’d like to also point something that I’d hope you share with me: There’s a woman in this room whose daughter was murdered on January 6, Ashli Babbitt.”

Last week, during a House Oversight and Accountability Hearing, she asked U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro how much COVID-19 relief money was used to teach critical race theory.

She explained that critical race theory is “a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education,” which sounds like something an ignorant and mildly racist white person would say if you asked them to define critical race theory and they tried, and failed, to make up a definition. And therein lies the problem.

For those who don’t consider algebra a form of liberal indoctrination, Greene’s unerring stupidity and ease with dishonesty are frustrating. How on earth is a person like this being taken seriously?

Republicans have built a false Marjorie Taylor Greene pedestal

Hypocritical Rep. Margorie Taylor Green (R-GA) stages a photo op as she pretends to console Brandon Straka* who is pretending to cry in a cell at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference in Dallas on April 5th 2022. 

I’d argue we need to stop asking that question. It’s an attempt to apply logic to something wholly illogical, and it’s an inquiry that will never pierce the membrane of the right-wing bubble Greene inhabits.
Marjorie Taylor Greene and the mysterious $5.1 billion Illinois school

She then told Dodaro, with great confidence, that one Illinois elementary school received $5.1 billion for “equity and diversity.”

I live in Illinois. That figure is more than half the entire state budget for K-12 education, and unless there’s an elementary school with solid gold stairwells and limousine bus service that I’m unaware of, that number is nonsense.

Stop trying to make sense of her, because she lives in a world of nonsense and speaks a language most regular Americans will, thankfully, never understand.

Comparing Tyre Nichols to Ashli Babbitt? During a House Oversight Committee meeting last week, Republican lawmakers decided to do away with the civil rights subcommittee, because apparently America faces no more civil rights issues.

Preparing for this (hypocritical!) performative moment, Greene had invited Babbitt’s mother to the meeting. Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a police officer during the domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. She and other members of a mob seeking to overturn the 2020, presidential election faced off with police officers near the Speaker's Lobby. 

Warned to stop by the police, Babbitt tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door when she was shot.

(Maine Writer- Ashli Babbitt is an unfortunate example of the delusional January 6th rioters.  I suspect Ms. Babbitt felt like she was invincible, or else she should have obeyed the warning and retreated from the door.)

Nichols, on the other hand, was brutally beaten by a group of police officers for no apparent reason.

Reality means nothing to lawmakers like Greene

Greene continued to dissemble about Babbitt: “As a matter of fact, no one has cared about the person that shot and killed her. And no one in this Congress has really addressed that issue. And I believe that there are many people that came into the Capitol on January 6, whose civil rights and liberties are being violated heavily.”

That’s a bunch of pro-insurrection gibberish. Babbitt’s death was thoroughly investigated, the police officer’s action was deemed lawful and, in fact, an internal U.S. Capitol Police investigation said the shooting “potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away.”

There is zero equivalence between a Black man getting beaten to death by police officers following a routine traffic stop and an insurrectionist, part of a group that had already beaten several police officers half to death, getting shot because she and her mob were literally attacking the U.S. government.

Anything can make sense if Fox News tells you it makes sense

#FakeFoxNews

But in Greene’s world, this is a legitimate gripe. It’s as if she doesn’t speak our native tongue, but spins words and conspiracies embraced as gospel among an insular swath of Americans whose lives are defined by lies and bent reality.

Feeling exasperated that Greene is where she is, that she somehow overcame Jewish-space-laser comments and an obvious absence of intellect, is a waste of energy. She won’t make sense to people outside that spooky, Fox News-fed world any more than the rest of us will make sense to them.

Stop trying to figure out people like (greenie!) Greene - just give them the (mockery) derision they deserve.

IMO Marjorie Taylor Greene has an easy choice for creating Halloween costume fashion.

We should mock Republicans like Greene, as they are unerringly mock–able and undeserving of respect. We should fight against their bizarro worldview and invariably white-centric policies and do all we can to elect lawmakers who recognize fact from fiction.

But slapping our foreheads in frustration over the pedestal Republicans built for Greene, trying to figure out how anyone with a pulse could possibly take her seriously? 

That’s just a waste of time. That requires a deeper understanding of the fever swamps Greene and other likes her call home.

And trust me, you don’t want to go there. You’ll end up dumber, wet and covered in muck.

*Straka pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct on January 6th, in the Capitol Building or grounds, avoiding jail time and receiving 90 days of home confinement and three years of probation at his sentencing. It was later reported he provided "significant information" about pro-Trump "Stop The Steal" organizers, including Ali Alexander, Amy and Kylie Kremer, and Cindy Chafian, providing information that was "valuable in the government's prosecution."

Governor Ron DeSantis Bible Study 101: Matthew- "When did we see you a stranger...?"

God views our compassionate treatment of refugees as an indicator of our true Christianity.

Bible Study 101- Matthew: “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (New International Version).

Florida's failed Governor Ron DeSantis' - leads the cruel Martha's Vineyard stunt: Uses innocent migrants as human pawns, helping no one.

It’s possible to believe America’s immigration system is broken while also condemning the behavior of governors shuttling migrants across the country like cattle to score political points.

Brace yourselves for Rex Huppke reports in USA Today:

"I believe that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to use Florida taxpayers’ money to fly two planes of Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, dumping them on the island without advance notice, is morally reprehensible and an inhumane political stunt."

Martha’s Vineyard resident quickly stepped up to help the migrants, Governor Charlie Baker may move the migrants to Cape Cod.

Although the refugee/immigrant crises at the U.S. southern border continues to grow, The New York Times editorial reports, "The Trump administration tried a number of methods to discourage people from filing new asylum claims, including forcing some people to remain in Mexico while they applied for asylum in the United States. Nevertheless, asylum claims actually rose steeply under President Donald Trump, partly because of a surge in migration but also as a defense against his stepped-up effort to deport people".

"They feel lied to and they feel betrayed....", migrants sent by DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard.

Migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard given misleading information, lawyers say: Volunteers continue to help the dozens of Venezuelan migrants who were brought to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, immigration attorneys speaking with the men, women and children are getting a better understanding of how they ended up on two chartered planes.

"They were told in Texas that they were coming to a place that had jobs and homes and shelter waiting for them," said Larkin Stallangs, with Maratha's Vineyard Community Services.

Frankly, Republicans are engaging in a humanitarian zero sum game. They will not benefit from their political resettlement stunt. In fact, the GOP cannot fix our nation's broken immigration system. But, nevertheless, they are responding with cruelty directed to innocent migrants, refugees and immigrant asylum seekers, but the GOP has zero plan to improve the situation, while a growing humanitarian ground swell of desperate people are fleeing from Central and South America.  

Beware of history relived - January 6 and the Beer Hall Putsch

Opinion echo Column: We can’t let ongoing election lies become political white noise. A Jan. 6 defendant’s words show why.

By Rex Huppke published in The Chicago Tribune

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, one of the hundreds charged in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, broke down in tears while speaking to FBI agents: “I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy.”

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. A pro-Trump mob later stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Five people died as a result. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

But, of course, Rodriguez was neither awesome nor a good guy. 

Rather, he was just a dupe. Yet, as simple as the con may be, we ignore it at our own peril. (Maine Writer- history redux:  Beer Hall Putsch!*)

Like many who have embraced former guy Donald Trump’s ongoing lie that the 2020, presidential election was stolen, Rodriguez embodied the old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.”

Now the California man stands charged with, among other things, tasing U.S. Capitol police Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and suffered a heart attack during the insurrection. Rodriguez is facing the possibility of decades in prison and nobody should feel sorry for him.

But it’s worth reading the nearly 200-page transcript of Rodriguez’s March 31, interview with FBI agents to see the shameless mental havoc wreaked by people like Trump and every Republican politician and pundit pimping, or even playing footsie with, a profoundly false election narrative.

Most recognize that, (truth!)but those who continue spreading it are unconcerned with collateral damage to people or democracy, and those rolling their eyes, and letting it become political white noise are missing the urgency and tragedy of the matter.

The transcript of Rodriguez’s interview with federal agents was filed Friday by his attorneys as part of a motion to suppress the interview, alleging the man was not properly Mirandized. 

Rodriguez was arrested earlier this year after he was identified by online sleuths at Huffington Post, an example of the so-called sedition hunters who have scoured photos and videos from the Jan. 6 attack and traced the identities of many insurrectionists.

In the interview, Rodriguez explains why he left his home in California and traveled to Washington for the “Stop the Steal Rally.”

“Trump called us,” he said. “Trump called us to D.C.”

He later said: “My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

It’s a con transparent as a freshly cleaned window. And it’s dangerous.

Rodriguez revealed he had been told by conspiracy sites such as Inforwars — which he had followed for years — that a civil war was about to happen. Trump and other prominent Facebook conspiracists had fully convinced him the election was stolen.

He told the agents “we felt that they stole the election. We thought they — we felt that they stole this country, that it’s gone, it’s wiped out. America’s over. It’s destroyed now.”

“I thought that Trump was going to stay president and they were going to find all this crooked stuff and … we thought that we did something good,” Rodriguez said. “It was rumored that Nancy Pelosi got her laptop stolen and that they found all this evidence on it and it was a secret plan. … And then we could just bust everything and find the truth and it’ll be all exposed and we’ll see that she’s corrupt or some kind of evidence. And we thought we were being a — we were part of a bigger thing. We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save the Constitution, and the election, the integrity.”

There are moments in the interview when you almost feel Rodriguez’s mind wrestling with the poison that consumed it: “We just thought that — damn, dude. I don’t know. I understand what it ― it’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we were going to save this country, we were doing the right thing and stuff. I get it.”

You see similar statements in the transcripts of other law enforcement interviews with Jan. 6 attackers and you hear similar words in court hearings. Again, I have no sympathy for these people. They tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power and directly attacked the heart of our democracy. Throw the book at them.

But beyond the crimes of these individuals, it’s important to pay close attention to these cases and see the insidious mental games an entire political party is playing with a huge swath of American voters.

Rodriguez, like most who attacked the U.S. Capitol, was convinced — by Trump, by the things he heard in right-wing media, by the like-minded people he associated with online — that an election was stolen and America was on the brink of a new civil war. He was willing to risk his life to that end and in doing so felt he was part of something bigger than himself.

It’s clear from the interview that it gave him meaning and purpose. You need only scan social media a few moments to see how these lies do the same for so many. And, on Fox (fake!) News, and on Infowars, and in the Facebook feeds of conspiracy profiteers, and in the words and tweets of many gutless elected Republicans, you see those lies still tossed out like chum.

It’s unconscionable what these people are doing to Americans they know will be susceptible to such lies. Their words are turning citizen against citizen, and warping minds for nothing but money and power.

Trump sent out a statement showing his continued delusion and scorched earth approach to making a buck: “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented) Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24.”

Days later, his Super PAC sent a note to supporters quoting that statement. It added: “The truth is, we need $45 from EACH Patriot reading this email if we are going to have the necessary resources to solve the election fraud of 2020.”

There’s a sucker born every minute. (Maine Writer- Beer Hall Putsch warning!)

*The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicized and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation.

Republicans on the down staircase - A quid pro quo echo opinion!

Republicans descending the "down"political staircase

This echo opinion was published in the Chicago Tribune by Rex Huppke

Devoted diplomat saw quid pro quo, dishonest Trump says all was ‘perfect.’ Guess who we should trust?
HUPPKE- Trump says he never pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, or to (require) a chase down a harebrained conspiracy theory about interference in the 2016 election.

Taylor said that Trump absolutely did all of those things and, in fact, refused to release desperately needed U.S. military aid — money that had already been approved by Congress — until Ukrainian officials publicly announced an investigation into Biden and the harebrained conspiracy theory.

Former Ambassador William Taylor leaves a closed-door meeting after testifying as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Oct. 22, 2019. (Andrew Harnik / AP)

Trump is a 73-year-old real estate developer with a long history of dishonesty and a president who, according to the Washington Post’s fact-checking team, has made more than 13,000 false or misleading claims since taking office.

Taylor, on the other hand, is a 72-year-old diplomat who described his credentials, under oath, to Congress like this:

“I have dedicated my life to serving U.S. interests at home and abroad in both military and civilian roles. My background and experience are nonpartisan and I have been honored to serve under every administration, Republican and Democratic, since 1985.

“For 50 years, I have served the country, starting as a cadet at West Point, then as an infantry officer for six years, including with the 101​st​ Airborne Division in Vietnam; then at the Department of Energy; then as a member of a Senate staff; then at NATO; then with the State Department here and abroad — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jerusalem, and Ukraine; and more recently, as Executive Vice President of the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace.”

That sounds good, but then the Trump administration released a statement following Taylor’s testimony describing people like him as “radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution.”

Boy, I don’t know! Yup, it’s a tough call. Do you trust the Vietnam War veteran who has dedicated 50 years of his life to serving the country in military and civilian roles, or do you trust the inveterate liar who has dedicated his life to self-aggrandizement and thinks it’s fine to call an unimpeachable public servant a “radical” who is “waging war on the Constitution”?

What about the other evidence that Trump used taxpayer money and the office of the presidency to pressure a foreign country to interfere in the upcoming presidential election? (Wow, it sounds bad when you put it all together like that.)

Well, there’s the White House’s rough transcript of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president.

On one hand, people who can read words and understand what they mean can see that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asks Trump for more military aid, to which Trump says, “I would like you to do us a favor though.”

Trump then says Ukrainian officials need to investigate a wholly debunked conspiratorial tale about a mysterious computer server that will prove Ukrainians were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, not the Russians. And he also wants Zelenskiy to investigate another debunked scandal involving Biden and his son, who served on the board of an energy company called Burisma.

That sure sounds like Trump is pressuring Zelenskiy to do this “favor” in order to get the military aid and a possible meeting at the White House.

On the other hand, Trump, the aforementioned extremely dishonest person, says it was a “perfect phone call” and Republican lawmakers — at least those still able to speak while their integrity is exiting their bodies — say it’s clear there was no “quid pro quo,” and even if there was, who cares?

Hmmmm. Words released by the White House itself that clearly show a president with mob-boss envy pressuring another world leader to dig up dirt on his political opponent versus that same president and his slavish supporters saying, “Nothing to see here!”

It’s tricky.

Because on the one hand you have acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney standing in front of the press corps and admitting the president made military funding contingent on a Ukrainian investigation into the mysterious nonsense server.

In an attempt to clarify that admission, a reporter asked Mulvaney: “But to be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo: The funding will not flow unless you’re getting an investigation into the Democratic server.”

To which Mulvaney replied: “We do that all the time with foreign policy.”

On the other hand, Mulvaney later said that he didn’t say that. So who can you really trust in this scenario? The Mulvaney who said it, or the Mulvaney who said he didn’t say it?

This is a conundrum.

I want to believe Taylor, the West Point graduate and war veteran, who on Tuesday described under oath a September phone call he had with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union: “During that phone call, Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskiy to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelenskiy was dependent on a public announcement of investigations — in fact, Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.”

But then there are people like Trump who call war veterans like Taylor “radical unelected bureaucrats,” and those people all promise nothing bad happened and say we should just get over it.

Who do you believe in this situation?

Heck if I know.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com