A recent interview in Current Affairs by editor Nathan J. Robinson with New Yorker, and former Oklahoma interior designer and outspoken progressive voice, Jennifer Welch, has a rather disarming title: ‘The Only Way Out is Revolution — Why Moderation Won’t Beat MAGA.’ Welch has gained notoriety in her fiery commentaries on her Substack podcast, ‘I’ve Had It‘, and is willing to take aim at both Republicans and Democrats as a “rage-filled progressive” as she calls herself. In a previous life she describes herself as a “corporate Democrat with faith in the establishment,” but has grown disillusioned with a party she believes has failed to meaningfully resist the rise of the far right. In her conversation with Robinson, she discusses her new book, ‘Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us.’

Welch details what it was like to grow up in the Bible Belt, what it taught her about Christian nationalism and the rise of MAGA, and why the Democrats stay on the losing path to a Republican Party with deeply unpopular policies. She tells Robinson that those she associated with when growing up had their whole identity in being Christian AND Republican, “It’s very fused together. There’s hardly any separation from those two entities, and even before Trump the idea of Christian nationalism in the Bible Belt was ubiquitous. The political right brilliantly projected themselves into churches because the number one indicator to determine if somebody votes is church attendance.” With so little daylight between the two entities, she wasn’t surprised to see Trump’s rise with all the evangelicals racing to his side, not as a Christian man but an evangelical Christian man, a Southern evangelical. “Think about a megachurch pastor, and then think about Donald Trump. There’s not a big difference there.”

Robinson asks Welch about her comments about church hypocrisy, when outsiders fail to see the adoration of Trump in these communities: “But how do you explain the fact that he’s a totally un-Christian and sinful man?” Welch’s view is that “These people are THAT. These people are exactly like him.” She says she can’t begin to tell how many such scandals she grew up with, growing up as an atheist whose friends wouldn’t let up on trying to convert her. “They wanted me to get saved, and their pastors were always involved in some grab-ass with the secretary or some person who went to the church. There was always some sort of scandal, and how they deal with this in evangelical Christianity is forgiveness with zero accountability. Monday through Friday, it’s play with the secretary, maybe do gay stuff, and come Sunday, ‘Jesus, please forgive me,’ then rinse and repeat.”

Welch sees the familiarity to Trump’s moral depravity and all his problems, to where it became easy for evangelicals to forgive him for the Access Hollywood tape or any of his shortcomings, because their own culture is moral depravity. Saying the mantra, “Oh, I’m sorry, Jesus, forgive me,” then sweeping it under the rug before moving down the road to the next scandal. Robinson points out that Trump seems to be leaving out the part where forgiveness is sought on Sunday. He asks Welch if she sees red states turning blue without a kind of progressive politics fusing with Christianity, and refers to James Talarico in Texas, speaking in a Christian register with democratic and progressive values — “How do you think progressives should approach religion?” Welch expresses her hope that Talarico has the “magic potion” to accomplish that, but is skeptical of the electorate who keeps returning Ted Cruz to office.

And, this is where Welch offers one condemnation of the Democratic Party, feeling they have abandoned the 50-state strategy. Offering her home state of Oklahoma, she claims, “Everybody says, ‘We need to make Oklahoma better, blah, blah. Well, if you don’t like Oklahoma, Alabama, Lousiana, or any of these supermajority states, it’s a Republican’s fault. This is Republicans’ policy. But there’s no Democratic Party there to message this because they’ve abandoned all 50 states. So then that leaves these crazy-ass Republican primaries where they out-crazy each other, and it’s a race to the bottom. I would be interested to see if a progressive — and it might take four or five election cycles — really went to all of these states and simply say these MAGA politicians or Republican politicians are liars. They’ve been lying to you. They use your faith to lie to you.”

Her solution is to play offense instead of defense, instead of capitulation to the narrative that we have to be religious — something Democrats are overlooking. Tell people plainly that Ted Cruz is a liar — “Lying Ted Cruz” as Trump calls him! She sees the Democratic Party with too many “bought and paid for” officeholders, who offer only word-salad non-answers, which doesn’t fly in flyover America. She agrees with Bernie Sanders who believes the idea of right-left spectrum wins by being closest to the political-median view is wrong, and that Bernie has more of a chance in appealing to Trump voters. In her estimation, people such as Bernie, or Abdul El-Sayed, or Zohran Mamdani can make the case because “they’re not political prostitutes,” when they explain the problem that neither party has delivered the goods, that voters have been lied to.

Robinson questions Welch on her opinions of Kamala Harris after reading comments in her book that Kamala’s platform was anything but leftist. “It was pro-police, pro-Israel, and pro-business, as she reversed her original promises to ban fracking and decriminalize illegal border crossings, not as an abdication of values, but in the interest of seeking consensus,” she wrote. Welch views Harris as an accomplished, exceptional, and incredibly smart human being, and she was all-in to advance her to the presidency as the first Black female to hold the office, being completely mystified how Trump got elected twice. She concluded that one of the reasons was the capitulation to right-wing framing by Harris, with voters failing to see much of a difference between her and Trump. Welch says Harris should run again if she wishes, but will not get her support in the primaries unless she comes out with some different tactics — any sort of corporate Democrat or focus group messaging is not going to play well with the electorate as we have seen.

Welch has been outspoken in telling Democrats to be honest and courageous in calling things what they are, specifically, the Israel-Palestine issue — referring to Kamala Harris‘ agreeing with the Biden administration’s refusing to have a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic convention. In going forward, the Democrats must forthrightly confront the genocide in Gaza, necessary if they want to be a party of moral values. To Welch, the US is funding a bad movie where they are the bad guy responsible for putting sniper bullets into the bodies of toddlers, with total impunity. She refers to the rural towns of Oklahoma where schools are so poorly funded students are lucky to attend four days a week, and even luckier if they get a free lunch — the state ranks 50th in education.

She thinks of the families from which those students come, who might have to forego cancer treatment and file medical bankruptcy because tax money is prioritized to assist Israel in killing Palestinians. “And there’s no room for daylight on this. The United States of America is on the wrong side of history — we are the bad guys in this story. It’s crystal clear, and the more you look into it the worse it gets.” Robinson tells Welch her book is appreciated, along with her perspective and dedication to criticizing and exposing Christian nationalism and the right — the Christofascist state in her terminology. He reads her conclusion: “The only way out is revolution,” as she writes of Republicans joining hands with the Evangelical Church, preying on the faith and the worst impulses of the devoted. “The Democratic establishment rolled out the red carpet by refusing to put up a fight. I’m filled with rage and I’m not holding any of my punches. America deserves better than the Democratic leadership that colluded with the right to bring this authoritarian takeover, playing patty-cake with the fascists and writing strongly worded letters,” she wrote, telling Robinson that hearing him read those words only makes her mad all over again.

Welch says there are not enough words that can describe how Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are NOT the men of this moment, describing how Jeffries secretly met with Jared Kushner, and Schumer telling donors, “My job as Senate Majority Leader is to make sure Israel gets every cent they can get.” She talks of evil fascists being propped up by evil billionaires, while bringing up the big party with visiting communist Xi Jinping — “Oh, the communists are coming to get us,” as if they haven’t already! The lack of resistance from the Democratic leadership angers Welch, especially the way supporters receive treatment in such a patronizing way — “We’ll give you your marching orders. Here’s who you can listen to, here’s who you can’t listen to,” which works for MAGA, but the Democratic side is now waking up as they see funding for both sides coming from the same sources. Welch is hopeful for a rebellion within the Democratic House, seating someone other than Hakeem Jeffries; she sees no way Democratic Senators will continue with Schumer, and he knows it.

Robinson asked Welch to talk about her radicalization process, being an unlikely revolutionary type as a once-corporate Democrat, just a simple interior designer from Oklahoma. The eye-opening moments for her were in hearing Biden’s insistence that he was a candidate for reelection, as she saw fascism sitting on the deck. “He finally did the right thing and Kamala was in,” but another flash hit her — “This is b.s.,” as she saw Kamala parading around with Liz Cheney, “a great incubator of all of this fascism,” who voted with Trump 90-something percent of the time, the only disagreement being his January 6 coup attempt. Welch recalls the clip of Cheney, standing with a right-wing GOP Bible thumper, verifying that fourth-term births were resulting in baby killings, sort of like Trump’s charge that kids were getting sex changes in school. “You can’t even get an aspirin for a kid in school, much less a sex change,” she asserts.

“Cheney makes the statement with such impunity, little pushback from the Democratic Party, feeding into Oklahomans who would rather vote for a rapist to have more rights than themselves, or for their daughter — Liz Cheney incubated that. Cheney is in her position because of the progressive feminist movement, climbing the ladder that so many people fought for her, then promoting a lie from her top position that feeds the horrific anti-women erosion of women’s rights,” rages Welch. In seeing Kamala participate in fundraising with Cheney, she saw this one thing: “They’re never going to like you, Kamala, for capitalizing to their framing.” Her rage over this was almost released on her podcast at the time, but wanting Harris to win took precedence, and not wanting to be a bad messenger, it was cut. After the election, Welch started reading more independent journalism, stopped watching MSNBC, concluding that funding for both parties was out of control, which led to her radicalization.

Welch concurs with Robinson in his summation of the Obama years, which were a big wakeup call for the moderator, seeing Obama as a compromiser in his development of a health plan, and being pro-Israel — even though Netanyahu called him an antisemite. “With Obama, who gave Republicans so many concessions that they came back and said, ‘Thanks, but you’re a communist who’s destroying America,'” observes Robinson. Despite her agreement, Welch says she was “100% in the tank for Obama,” and still has a strong affection for him; yet, we should still lodge strong critiques of past administrations, such as Bush’s Abu Graib tortures and his lying to get us into the Iraq War, acknowledging that the Democrats had a big part in that, as well, with little to zero in accountability.

The lesson for Democrats is to examine what they are doing now, but go in and govern — put your accelerator to the floorboard and go full tilt like Mamdami is doing in New York without ceding points to depraved fascists — tough if they don’t like it! We have to fight for better healthcare, better pay, a better infrastructure, so why do we need approval from Republicans who make a complete catastrophe of government when they’re in charge? Welch says in her lifetime, it’s been war, deficit, recession — rinse, repeat — every single time the GOP is in office. Robinson sees Trump’s unpopularity rising because the electorate sees that electing someone manifestly incompetent and corrupt produces a country nobody wants to live in, yet he sees no promising Democratic contenders that people could support. In her book, Welch’s perspective is that fascists can be defeated because they are horrible, pushing through things people don’t want or like, but without a meaningful alternative, they might continue in power.

Welch says, “We need to take it back to the way it was, and we just need to govern incrementally; both parties contributed, Republicans more so, but both contributed to favoring corporations over human beings, favoring money over human beings, and not delivering for the middle class and working class Americans materially.” She says we may elect someone like Newsom in 2028, who will serve one term, to be followed by a “Tucker Carlson or some other nut because the country is so desperate.” Welch is convinced that the only thing saving us from Donald Trump is just how stupid and incompetent he is — if he were smart he wouldn’t be so brazen and going so fast, “but the fact that he’s so emboldened and moving at such a fast click, being so incompetent in his execution, that may very well save us.” Taking a page from Trump, the Democrats must learn that when you have power, use it, every bit of it, and GOVERN.

Robinson expressed his opinion that the lesson of 2020 wasn’t learned, only allowing Biden to squeak into office, probably because of COVID — almost an act of God? Trump’s virus response totally discredited his administration, barring his reelection. With a contiguous second term, it probably means that Democrats would have had no strategy for beating MAGA in succeeding elections. Welch says Trump 2.0 has been so devastating because he surrounded himself with incompetent, disqualified people — sycophants all, with complete obsequiousness to him. And she is still at a loss of why industry titans rushed to prop up a fascist. “They’re making trophies for him. Apple’s Tim Cook presented Trump with a trophy in what I liken to a humiliation ritual and debasing himself. You’ve got a net worth that could choke a bull, and you’re making up some c.s. award and taking it to this toddler to appease his ego?” Once upon a time, Welch says she regarded phrases like ‘billionaires shouldn’t exist‘ to petty jealousy, but now she agrees that “this class of billionaires should not exist. They are horrible people, horrible.”

On the Supreme Court, Welch says it’s insane that we have a court that is so reckless and so immoral in what they value — most claiming to be Christians. “They lead with their faith, yet value money over people. We constantly think the Supreme Court is protecting Trump, but no, they are protecting corporations, protecting a future where they want this type of rule that plunders democracy,” she charges. If there is the predicted blue wave in the midterms, she is hopeful that the oversight committee will impeach Thomas, Alito, and Roberts, and not ending up with a bunch of Democrats who “don’t want to upset the structure of the court.” She says the court is an evil entity with nobody to report to, the only people on the globe that don’t have a boss, and she would like to see the Democrats completely restructure the Supreme Court.

Robinson tells Welch that he has written a book on JD Vance, who he went to law school with, though never interacting with him personally, and that Vance follows him on Twitter. His book is entitled ‘Hillbilly Hypocrisy – JD Vance and the Dark Future of MAGA Politics,’ which deals with JD’s political transformation, while arguing that the post-Trump right will serve oligarchs and Christian nationalists seeking power and wealth. He still questions whether or not Vance will be a successful heir to Trump, or if his awkward ass-kissing will cause him to fumble the ball. Welch says he has no identity at all, changing his name three times, and ditto for his religion. “He has an Indian wife and mixed-race kids, and he refuses to condemn a racist Nazi group chat, and says stuff like, ‘Usha can’t help it that she’s not white.’ It’s just the weirdest. He’s the weirdest guy, ” she offers.

Welch recalls that Ron DeSantis was going to be the new Trump before his spectacular face-plant,  predicting that Vance is on the same track. She reminds us that Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel took Vance, a chubby, sloppy, poorly dressed guy, and combed his hair, thinned him down, remaking him into the “country’s top prostitute, and that’s really saying something considering who our First Lady is.” Both Vance and Ted Cruz have both hit on the fact that “if you have a face that people consider punchable or inherently repulsive, get a beard. Cover the face, and all of a sudden you look like kind of a normal guy. Vance has said that the most important moment of his time in law school was meeting Peter Thiel, which is really funny because he also met his wife in law school.”

“While shocking, it actually comes as little surprise that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the department will live-stream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan,” says, Paul Blementhal of HuffPost. “Since taking office, Hegseth has been preoccupied with death. To be more precise, he has been preoccupied with the aesthetics of killing.” Since the announcement of the December 3 execution of Army Medical Corps psychiatrist Hasan, it has received an eruption of critical commentary, although it is far from the only public celebration of state violence, whether real or imagined, from the Trump administration. We can quickly look back at the highly publicized ‘drug smuggling’ Caribbean boat annihilations, the A.I. (S.I.?) depictions of Trump’s personal attacks on protestors and political ‘enemies’ or other countries (even former allies), and glossy videos of detained immigrants subjected to ICE brutality.

Should it go forward, the execution will be the first public execution in this country in 90 years, a first for live-streaming; but the violent display emphasizes that an essential part of Hegseth’s political vision has also become an ever more intimidating image of power and state-sanctioned violence for Trump’s drive to change the country. Active duty troops and veterans are wary of the plan, asserting that it could cause lasting psychological harm to the specific unit selected to carry out the order by targeting a paralyzed and immobile sixty-something-years-old man confined to a wheelchair while being videoed. Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, as a “slobbering, incompetent boob is thrilled,” writes Mike Nellis on Endless Urgency. Nellis is convinced very few Americans actually want this, outside a handful of incels who worship guys like Hegseth and the Tate brothers. “So, why are we pandering to those losers in tolerating this?,” he asks.

Even Vice President JD Vance is casting doubt on the livestream cruelty, and announces he won’t be a part of the audience. William Kristol wrote on The Bulwark, “It’s all political bluster. But it’s a particular kind of political bluster. It’s Neo-fascist bluster,” citing Hegseth’s celebration of irrationalism and machismo, which Umberto Eco calls “Ur-Fascism.” “Fascism wants to reduce active citizens to passive observers, indeed into voyeurs — especially voyeurs of cruelty and death. Such degradation of a democratic public is key to fascism’s project and to its success,” he asserts. Kristol questions whether or not Americans would fail to understand that the death penalty has been carried out even if the execution weren’t live-streamed. An official in Revolutionary France justified public executions, saying, “It takes a terrifying spectacle to hold the people in check.” Which, perhaps, is so, but it’s also about degrading the populace, desensitizing the public, and normalizing cruelty as the voyeurs view a snuff film.

There is the possibility that Hasan could choose resistance to his fate and file a habeas petition — a legal request to review the legality of a detention — in civilian court, bringing about a significant delay that could outlast the Trump administration, according to Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law. According to Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova Law and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, says firing squads are coming to be seen as a less inhumane alternative, based on the recent failed executions in Arizona and Tennessee, which have raised questions about the manner by which criminal defendants are put to death for their crimes. “Firing squads can be quicker, cleaner, a more precise way to execute a prisoner, but I don’t think that’s what’s motivating this. There’s a perceived masculinity and military-ness to firing squads that is part of the aura Hegseth is trying to emphasize — the ‘lethality culture’,” Fissell judges. Army rules allow for at least two media outlets to be present for an execution, but none has ever been broadcast live in the USA.

Elisabeth Semel, co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, says Hegseth’s announcement raises a host of questions, but, “This is a president who’s about spectacles and that’s precisely the message that he intends to deliver.” The White House referred questions about the plans for the live-streaming to the Pentagon. When Hegseth was asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, he replied, “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3.” One logistical detail remains conspicuously missing: nobody has said where this would stream — a broadcast with no broadcaster, seven weeks out?! A couple of verses from Bob Dylan’s ‘Highway 61‘ might offer them some interesting guidance:

Oh, God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God said, “No” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want, Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’, you better run”
Well, Abe said, “Where d’you want this killin’ done?”
God said, “Out on Highway 61”
Now, the roving gambler he was very bored
Trying to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said, “I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes, I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61”

“I can do whatever I want, if I want,” said Donald Trump last week, before dozing off, telling reporters he “could’ve done very bad things” to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, but only held back out of “respect for the office.” No mention that his administration has already gone after his political opponents — “enemies” — as he openly braces for a Democratic House takeover and the oversight that is expected, beginning with articles of impeachment. Part of his ‘bracing’ has been to send ICE agents to investigate hundreds of voter registration groups, as he considers sending undercover agents to infiltrate. Nearly 1,000 armed private guards from Prosegur Security have been deployed to at least 55 post offices across the country ahead of Election Day, already having gutted the government offices meant to protect our elections from foreign interference, and prompting a Republican election official in Utah to comment that the biggest threats are “mostly from our own government.” The Daily Dose of Democracy blog commented, “Every single day we are forced to confront the fact that our aging, pedophile-protecting president is sundowning before our very eyes, and it is a borderline act of treason that the Republican Party continues to enable his every psychotic whim. 25th Amendment now, please!”

Before a footrace between Donald Trump and Barack Obama, Trump boasted how amazingly well he would perform, and how poorly Obama would do. Of course, Obama wins the race handily, with Trump posting to Truth Social: “As predicted, I did amazingly in the race and Obama turned in a shameful performance. I won second place, and Obama finished next to last.”

For the second year in a row, President Trump is licking his Nobel-snub wounds and is lashing out, not only at the winner, South African jurist and former UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, but the country of Norway. Jimmy Kimmel said he would have liked to see Peace Prize finalist, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney the winner, “just to see Trump go nuts and eat his golf clubs this weekend,” adding, “I know also [if Carney had won] he’d bomb every Tim Hortons from coast to coast.” Attorney David Schoen, who defended Trump during his impeachment trial after the January 6 attack, posted on Truth Social after the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, “Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay, an unabashed hater of America and Israel…She has no credibility in any normal sphere and has never done a thing to foster peace.” The 85-year-old Pillay took a shot at the president when she arrived to applause  at a legal conference at the Nuremberg courthouse, telling the gathering, “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”

Trump had spent the week prior to the award announcement making a case for himself, telling reporters that he’d “done stuff nobody else has done before,” while claiming that “no president has probably ever settled any wars,” as he boasted that he has eight to his credit. Tell it to Number 26, Teddy Roosevelt, whose Nobel is on display in the West Wing for his settling the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Donny-boy! Trump reposted Schoen’s rant without as much whining as last year, when winner María Corina Machado of Venezuela presented her medal to Trump for “recognition for commitment with our freedom.” Don’t expect Pillay to do likewise! Christiane Amanpour recalled asking Pillay in 2014 what apartheid taught her, answering that she learned “to be persistent and be totally positive that you will win one day.”

Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch posted, “What?? You’re telling me the guy who massacred dozens of little girls at a school in Minab and has threatened just about all our allies didn’t win? Cue my shocked face!” You can bet that Republicans are cringing that this is Trump’s biggest concern just weeks before the midterms, as he spent at least ten minutes just ranting about his loss at the Syracuse rally. Kyle Kulinski posted on Daily Dose of Democracy that he sees “Trump’s dementia clearly taking over in the midst of his narcissistic collapse.” He says Trump demanded the Nobel despite: murdering 238 fishermen in boats in international waters; abducting a world leader and stealing the country’s gold and oil; bombing Somalia over 80 times in this term; bombing a girl’s school and their volleyball practice; attacking Yemen, Nigeria, Ecuador; arming and funding Israeli genocide; threatening Greenland, Canada and Mexico; building ICE concentration camps; and green-lighting torture. That’s only nine, so hold up the correct finger to add your own number ten!

Trump wrote on Truth Social in a 600-word tantrum, that his so-called “ending any one of the eight wars would be far more than necessary to win the Nobel Prize. In actuality, I should have won 8 Nobel [or Noble as he actually posted] Peace Prizes, not just 1.” We can all likely agree on the award of at least one prize — the one for lying! John Stoehr, who writes on The Editorial Board says that Trump really does believe “there has never been anybody” more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than him, and that he stopped “the total obliteration of the world” by going to war with Iran — and anyone who doesn’t share this belief will be punished. So, within hours, the administration placed economic sanctions on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, preventing US businesses from providing services. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the ICC “a rogue court“, with sanctions in effect until “allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, rein in the court.”

Perhaps Rubio hasn’t noticed, but since Iran has dealt so effectively with the US in the war, US allies have not relied on this country as in the past, seeing a superpower brought to its knees. “More importantly,” says Stoehr, “Trump’s sanctions are an obvious attempt to compel belief in his fantasies. The Washington press corps has ‘normalized having an insane president’ says Aaron Rupar; but allies must see it clearly — they don’t have the luxury. As the economic fallout from the Iran war continues, reporters seem to be getting increasingly blunt with voters as well as administration officials, not necessarily becoming adversarial, but becoming less inclined to play along with the White House line.” The transcript of a recent Times magazine interview with Trump revealed a broken brain to some readers, raising questions as to whether the president can actually tell the difference between fact and fiction.

The New York Times’ Katie Rogers sees strong evidence that the dementia taboo is fading, seeing Trump’s recent rallies with a “feel of the first stops of a farewell tour” with fewer in attendance, swaths of empty seats, which means less press coverage. Rogers reports, “The events are a ritual. He will attack Democrats. His words will probably stop making actual, logical sense for a moment, or for many moments [the “weave”]. He will accuse the Democrats of rigging the 2020 election, he will attack the news media. Then he will dance to a Village People song.” The notorious Mar-a-Lardo moves. Stoehr says critics are pushing harder, with MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell going farther than anyone so far, telling his audience, “If the president of the United States is insane, that is the biggest news of the day or any day. That is what will live in history. That is what historians will devote their attention to if the president of the United States is insane. If the president of the United States’ mind is crumbling before our very eyes, that is the most important story of the day because everything else follows from that, everything!” Stoehr concludes with, “The times, they are a-changing. Normalized insanity won’t last much longer.”

Trump was scheduled to host a celebration of Christopher Columbus at the White House this week where a 13-foot Columbus statue was to be unveiled, and ICE celebrated Columbus Day, sort of like Columbus would have done, by walking into someone’s house, announcing, “We live here now!”

No word on whether or not Homeland Security’s search of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home on Monday was part of their Columbus Day activity, but the escalation in a criminal investigation emphasizes Trump’s renewed scrutiny of her in the final weeks of her reelection campaign — more of an early Election Day activity, perhaps? The Justice Department provided no other details, other than that a judicially authorized search warrant was executed in the Washington, DC area in an ongoing federal criminal investigation, the nature and scope of which were not clear. Omar is a Somali-born Democrat whose immigrant status and left-leanings have been constantly attacked by the GOP and the Trump administration, with Omar responding to Markwayne Mullin’s statement that “something’s going to happen” as simply an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She claims, “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

The Associated Press reported last week that Trump mentioned Omar at one of his rallies, attacking her up upbringing, saying that VP Vance “and our people” were investigating her. Omar has been a target of Vance in the past, indicating that he and “a top White House official were trying to figure out how to investigate her.” Welp, it looks like he and Markwayne, and/or Stephen Miller, figured it out, as agents blocked off the street near her home to carry out their search! Omar’s office dismissed any of Vance’s claims as fabricated and defamatory, with chief of staff Connor McNutt stating, “This is rich coming from someone who literally said they were trying to ‘create stories’ to redirect the media. This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers.” Omar added, “The point is to waste everyone’s time and resources, and generate negative headlines for his opponents, further proof that he is willing to use the power of the federal government to intimidate and silence anyone who stands up to him.”

Novelist Ocean Vuong wrote, “Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the prey.” Let’s not be the prey — VOTE!