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   -=> Lee Lofaso wrote to Dennis Katsonis <=-   
      
    LL> Hello Dennis,   
      
    LL> [..]   
      
    >LL>Steve Schmidt is a former Republican, having left the party in 2018.   
    >LL>He is the person who ran John McCain's campaign for president in 2008.   
    >LL>Today he is an Independent, as many other Republicans have also left   
    >LL>the party. I am not affiliated with any political party, and choose   
    >LL>to remain so.   
      
    >Well there you go, someone who thought McCain would be a good president!   
      
   He seemed to me the kind of guy to start a war.   
      
    LL> There is absolutely no doubt he would have been a far better president   
    LL> than what we have sitting in the White House today.   
      
    >Would you in 10 years time, old highly the opinion of someone who ran Trumps   
    > campaign?   
      
    LL> Which one? Two of them went to jail, and the third one quit and   
    LL> is awaiting trial.   
      
    >He's changed his views maybe, I don't know.   
      
    LL> Steve Schmidt is the same Steve Schmidt he has always been.   
      
    >I don't really care, its one opinion and I don't know what his motives are.   
      
    LL> One of his motives is to get rid of Trump.   
      
    >If we are talking of a politician here, the motives are likely self-serving.   
      
    LL> Trump is a politician. Schmidt is not.   
      
    >>Up until 2016, when the Democratic party thought that Hillary would be a   
    >>good president, I would have (if I was a US citizen) not wanted to vote   
    >>Republican.   
    >   
    >LL>Although some Democrats did vote for Trump in 2016, many of those   
    >LL>same Democrats regret having done so. Will they vote for Biden? Or   
    >LL>will they choose not to vote at all? That is the question.   
    >   
    >LL>As for Republicans, their Republican Party no longer exists. Today   
    >LL>it has become nothing more than a polite fiction. What Republicans are   
    >LL>voting for is dictatorship under Trump & Co.   
      
    >I agree it has changed dramatically.  I can't see the dictatorship though.   
      
    LL> Authoritarianism = Dictatorship   
      
    >You know, here in Melbourne, Australia, we are subject to curfews and the   
    > harshest lockdown.   
      
    LL> The governors of several states in the USA, including Louisiana,   
    LL> issued mandatory curfews and harsh lockdowns as the pandemic is a   
    LL> public health issue.   
      
   I note the current governer of Louisiana is a Democrat.  I have my doubts that   
   broad lockdowns are the most effective solution.  It has failed in Victoria.    
   The problem is, casting your net too broad means you miss focusing on the areas   
   where you need to focus.   
      
   I can't go out for a walk at night, alone, but somehow, a hotel where infected   
   people where quarantined couldn't keep people from walking around to the shops   
   becuase they simply though contractor security guards would do.   
      
      
    >We don't have constitutional freedom of speech, or the same right to bear   
    > arms.   
      
    LL> Australians have similar rights. Not the same, but similar.   
      
   No, we don't.  Australia has no constituational right to free speech.  Have a   
   look at the UK, where people are ARRESTED simply for a tweet.  The state is   
   able to make laws limiting speech.  The one thing it cant do, is speech   
   directly related to a political campaign.   
      
    >People go on and on about this fascistic dictatorship, but I can't see what   
    > rights and freedoms you have actually LOST.   
      
    LL> The thing about fascism is one never notices until it hits you   
    LL> in the face. Look at fascism as a form of weakened democracy.   
    LL> Once a democracy has been weakened to the point where it no longer   
    LL> matters, it is no longer a democracy but something else. And we   
    LL> all know that power cannot exist in a vacuum.   
      
    >What freedom has Trump taken from you that you had under Obama?   
      
    LL> Where's the check? With no check, Trump can in effect rule by decree.   
      
    >The only thing I see is that you are less free to hold an opinion which   
    >contradicts orthodoxy, but I don't see Trump destroying the lives of people   
    > who hold these opinions, but others.  I see Big Tech censorship, companies   
    > firing people, cancel culture, things which affect the population at large.   
    >  Please enlightenment how Trump is limiting your movement speech or action?   
      
    LL> Earlier this year, by presidential proclamation, Trump told the world   
    LL> who could, and could not, travel to the USA. He did not need approval   
    LL> from anybody else. Not his cabinet. Not the Congress. Not the American   
    LL> people. Not the UN. He acted on his own.   
      
      
   Australia did that too.  In fact, we can't travel between states.  I cannot   
   travel more than 5km from home, except for work, or even LEAVE MY HOUSE after   
   8PM.   
      
   The reason Trump did this?  COVID.  Just before, you were talking about a   
   public health crisis in response to my comment about curfew, now you are   
   charging Trump with closing borders to people coming in.   
      
   If that makes Trump a fascist, what does it make my state Premier, who's   
   impositions are much, much harsher?   
      
    LL> Those presidential proclamations remain in effect today. Unchallenged.   
      
    LL> So yes, my Australian friend. Trump is very much limiting your movement   
    LL> speech or action. In every which way he wants and can.   
      
   As are most government, often to a greater degree.  Does that make then Fascist   
   too?   
      
   By the way, that is limiting FOREIGNERS coming in.  Not you.   
      
    >>I'm not a US citizen, but I'm just saying, that if I was in the US, I   
    >>couldn't have voted for the party of McCain or Romney, and I would have   
    >>preferred to see them lose.   
    >   
    >LL>You got your wish in 2008, when Barack Obama won.   
    >LL>And again in 2012, when Barack Obama did it a second time.   
    >   
    >I didn't wish for Obama to win, as I'm not a US citizen it doesn't affect me   
    > to greatly.  Also, not wanting one candidate to win doesn't mean you wish   
    > the   
    >other would.  If I was a voter, I would have preferred a candidate who is a   
    >cross between Nader and Buchanan, perhaps more Nader than Buchanan.  But   
    > McCain was in my mind unfit and dangerous.   
      
    LL> Steve Schmidt was McCain's campaign manager in 2008. Schmidt is a   
    LL> political consultant, John McCain his client at the time. Sometimes   
    LL> your client wins, sometimes not. It is the nature of the game.   
      
    >>The Republican party doesn't represent the interests of working Americans,   
    >>it hasn't for a long time.   
    >   
    >LL>Republicans holding office represent the interests of Donald Trump,   
    >LL>not the interests of the American people.   
    >   
    >Both parties act in a self-serving manner.   
      
    LL> One more time. The Republican Party exists no more as a viable   
    LL> political party. It has been taken over by Donald Trump.   
      
    >>Pooh to them I say!   
    >   
    >LL>And those who continue to support them.   
    >   
    >>Must be desperate if we are referring to the opinions of Republican party   
    >>hacks now.   
    >   
    >LL>Steve Schmidt is not a Republican. After he left the party, he   
    >LL>decided to have some fun, founding The Lincoln Project.   
    >   
    >LL>Republican party hacks hate him for that. So does Donald Trump.   
    >   
    >>What is Trumpism anyway?   
    >   
    >LL>A death cult.   
    >   
    >You guys are worked up over very little and seem to be overreacting.  He's   
    >boorish, but not a disaster.  I keep in touch with a few people in the USA,   
    > and none of them have noted any new fascistic laws or impositions from the   
    >government.   
      
    LL> Nobody objected when Adolf Hitler did the same thing in Germany.   
    LL> Until it was too late. That is the problem with fascism. Nobody   
    LL> notices what it is until it is too late. Weakened democracy. That   
    LL> is my definition of fascism. What is yours?   
      
   Here is my prediction.  Trump will not implement a Hitlerian fascism.   
      
   I'm willing to bet money on it.  In fact, I think he will win the election.   
      
   There isn't a president, or Liberal Prime Minister here, who hasn't been   
   compared to Hitler.  It's so, so tiresome.  It's just a dumb comparison.   
      
   You should relax.   
      
   If you are worried about the next Hitler, maybe look accross the Pacific.   
      
    >I mean, seriously, you are posting here, under your REAL name, calling Trump   
    > a leader of a death cult, a fascist, that he needs to go, and are free to   
    > do so without consequence.   
      
    LL> One more time. I said Trump is the symptom. Not the disease.   
    LL> Do keep up.   
      
   Then attack the disease, not Trump.   
      
    >AS IS EVERYONE ELSE.   
      
    LL> Hitler asked the world to take in Germany's Jews. The world refused.   
    LL> So Hitler sent the Jews to work camps. So they could all make money for   
    LL> the Reich. Unfortunately, they did not work hard enough to enjoy their   
    LL> long-deserved reward ...   
      
    >If you really WERE living under a fascist regime, you would dissapear, or   
    > suddenly find yourself imposed upon, or be threatened, or your family   
    > threatened, or as happened in Communist Russia, if you were lucky, only   
    > moved to a crapper job or lost your residence.   
      
    LL> Oh, come now. Everybody knows Hitler hated Commies. And Jews.   
    LL> And gays. And blacks. And just about everybody else who wasn't   
    LL> German or Aryan. Especially those who were mental. No telling   
    LL> what he did with those who were mental ...   
      
      
    >None of that is happening.  It is ONLY the Cancel Culture mob doing that.   
    > For that reason, I call BS on your claim.   
      
    LL> Hitler never conceded. Had to be forced out of office. By an   
    LL> invasion of Russkies. But he made sure no secrets would be spilled.   
    LL> First thing he did was to off his beloved German Shepherd "Blondie"   
    LL> with a pill. Then give his girlfriend a shot. Next step on board   
    LL> a Geman U-boat headed straight for South America.   
      
    LL> Some claim he is still alive and well.   
      
    >Get a grip.   
      
   Who is still alive? Hitler?   
      
    LL> Well, you never know. Germans did have very good doctors ...   
      
    LL> --Lee   
      
   I think you have more important things to worry about.  Yes, Trump is the   
   symptom, but he is in the end, a historical footnote.  The fuss against Trump,   
   and the social chaos that people are creating, will leave a longer and larger   
   legacy, than anything that Trump himself actually did.   
      
      
   ... Insufficient facts always invite danger. Spock, stardate 3141.9.   
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