You Say You Want a Revolution, Well, You Know...

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by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post’s Samantha Schmidt via the Denver Post on the recent escalation of rhetoric as investigations targeting the Trump administration get closer to the top, escalation that’s starting to feature terminology unfamiliar to most Americans–very disturbing terminology–to describe the course of events:

Conservative commentators on Fox have compared the FBI to the KGB, the notorious Soviet-era spy organization that routinely employed torture and summary executions. Fox News legal commentator Greg Jarrett argued on a segment of Hannity earlier this month that Mueller “has been using the FBI as a political weapon. And the FBI has become America’s secret police.”

“Secret surveillance, wiretapping, intimidation, harassment and threats. It’s like the old KGB that comes for you in the dark of the night banging through your door.” Hannity assured viewers “this is not hyperbole you are using here.” Tom Fitton, president of the conservative organization Judicial Watch, made the same comparison on Fox News on Wednesday, saying, “Forget about shutting down Mr. Mueller. Do we need to shut down the FBI because it was turned into a KGB-type operation by the Obama administration?” [Pols emphasis]

Apparently these strong words weren’t strong enough. Saturday night, Fox suggested that the Mueller probe might be “a coup in America.”

Of course, any sane person who understands the correct definition of these words knows that a legally sanctioned investigation by law enforcement cannot be accurately described as a “coup.” It is an investigation by law enforcement, and no one in America is above the law. And we would make the comparison between Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration and Ken Starr’s thoroughly partisan years-long investigation of far less consequential matters regarding Bill Clinton Republicans took so seriously–but frankly the comparison is laughable enough to be an insulting distraction to Mr. Mueller.

Yet here is the nation’s #1 conservative news network telling its viewers Mueller’s investigation is a coup.

In our thirteen years of covering Colorado politics, we’ve become accustomed to the occasional unhinged voice calling for insurrection, revolution, or some other extraconstitutional form of radical change to the American system of government. Once in awhile, like with former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez’s regrettable musings about President Barack Obama “pushing the boundaries” toward civil war back in 2012, that kind of talk gets dangerously close to being legitimized by individuals with real political clout.

Now fast-forward to December of 2017, when it’s coming from the White House.

We don’t want to add any more incendiary rhetoric to an already raging fire, but this is not good. And if you’re not seriously concerned about where this rhetoric could be leading, check your history books.

You should be.

13 thoughts on “You Say You Want a Revolution, Well, You Know…”

Diogenesdemar says:

December 18, 2017 at 12:35 pm

Now appearing on FOX News five times a day:

Kneel on your MAGA hats and repeat after me:

“There is no Donald but Donald, and Hannity is his prophet.”

Please stay tuned for our next broadcast prayer, Donald willing.

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1. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 12:39 pm
  
  Also appearing on the Sinclair-owned stations…………..
  
  It all seems like a throwback to former V.P. Dick Cheney and his Patriot Act.
  
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Davie says:

December 18, 2017 at 1:41 pm

In other words, Mueller's investigation is hitting pay dirt and Trump and his sycophants are crapping in their pants.

Look for some RWNJ to try something like this

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Zappatero says:

December 18, 2017 at 1:48 pm

And yet D senator after D senator after D governor don’t want to be rude and point out the disgusting hypocrisy and epic horribleness of Republican after Republican. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations_us_5a3804e3e4b040881bed15bd

Leo Durocher said it best: Nice Guys Finish Last – something Dems have yet to, and may never, learn

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1. Gilpin Guy says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 3:31 pm
  
  So sad.
  
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Moderatus says:

December 18, 2017 at 3:42 pm

Isn't Joe Scarborough saying the same thing if they fire Mueller, but from the left? Colorado Pols should make sure they know what leftists are saying themselves before you start pointing fingers. The left hates Trump so much I do fear violence at some point, and that would be tragic.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 3:45 pm
  
  Probably not. You lie more, and have less comprehension of factual reality*, than TwoScoops . . .
  
  . . . care to put up a link, Fluffy?
  
  (*like trying to put Scarborough on “the left” . . . )
  
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2. unnamed says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 3:58 pm
  
  Kind of like fears we had of right wing terrorism when a Black man dared to become President? You know. People lynching Obama in effigy, or a white supremacist killing people in South Carolina or Virginia.
  
  Btw, how's your friend Cornholio doing? Does he communicate with you from jail?
  
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  1. Conserv. Head Banger says:
    
    December 18, 2017 at 4:19 pm
    
    I'd be far more concerned about violence coming from far right wing militia thug groups that love the Bundy clan and brought us Charlottesville, than I would any leftist violence.
    
    Side note for Moderatus: I don't consider anarchists to be leftists.
    
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    1. Moderatus says:
      
      December 18, 2017 at 4:23 pm
      
      Tell that to Steve Scalise.
      
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      1. unnamed says:
        
        December 18, 2017 at 4:27 pm
        
        Fine go talk to the family of Heather Heyer who was killed in Virginia by someone marching with your White Supremacist friends that a lone nutjob who acted alone is more dangerous than White Supremacists that killed their daughter.
        
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3. mamajama55 says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 8:27 pm
  
  What will leftists do if Mueller is fired? March peacefully, in the streets, millions strong, all across America. Like we did on January 20. No violence, not a single incident of it. Just using those first amendment rights while we still have them.
  
  MoveOn.org link from October
  
  #ProtectMueller twitter tag
  
  #Trumpisnotabovethelaw and Nobody is above the law.org
  
  Notice the common thread of "respect / protect the law"? That's because, unlike Trump and his disappearing Cabinet, we do. And to sign up for a rapid response protest of Mueller's firing, any individual would have to agree to the ground rules, which also include obeying police and laws.
  
  But of course Scarborough is ginning up hysteria – it's his bread and butter. The only buzz he could generate by factually stating, "People in 48 states have said that they will rally and march in protest if Mueller is fired"? is this one: ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz………
  
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Davie says:

December 18, 2017 at 4:41 pm

Two former advisers to three Republican Presidents speak their minds as Year One of Trump comes to a close:

Both men, lifelong Republicans and historically minded policy intellectuals, offered unequivocal yeses in a joint interview for this week’s Global Politico podcast – and castigated former friends inside the party they’ve both now renounced as “Vichy Republicans” for collaborating with a president they believe is not fit to hold office.

Boot pronounced Trump both “incredibly erratic and unpredictable,” though he allowed that “some of the worst-case scenarios that we imagined have yet, mercifully, come to pass.” Just because Trump has not yet destroyed NATO, launched a trade war with China or torn up NAFTA, lifted sanctions on Russia in a grand bargain with Vladimir Putin, or started a war with North Korea, Boot argued, does not mean he won’t.

“It’s true, they haven’t started World War III yet,” Cohen added. “That’s a pretty low bar.”

“In many ways,” Boot said, “the damage he’s doing at home is even worse, where he’s undermining the rule of law. He’s obstructing justice. He’s lending the support of the presidency to monsters like Roy Moore. He is exacerbating race relations. He is engaging in the most blatant xenophobia, racism and general bigotry that we have seen from the White House.”

“All these things,” he added, “are very corrosive to the future of American democracy.”

“Look,” he responded, “the good news story of the first year of the Trump presidency is that there are checks and balances…. Trump as a personality type is probably no different from a Mussolini, a Peron, a Chavez. And if you were operating in Argentina or Italy, he would probably be a dictator by now. But luckily, he’s not operating in those countries.”

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