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Trump-loving Doug Mastriano aired 'poisonous' conspiracies in old thesis calling for military takeover of US society
May 20, 2022
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano wrote a master's thesis two decades ago warning of a left-wing “Hitlerian Putsch."
The Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate published the highly unusual thesis in 2001, when he was a major at the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, from the point of view of a colonel living in 2018 who has taken refuge in an "isolated cavern" following the collapse of the U.S. military and the deaths of millions of Americans under a left-wing leader by the United Nations and the European Union, reported the Washington Post.
“Domestically, life was bleak with a rampant drug culture, hedonism and a plethora of ‘alternate’ religions dominating the American youth,” wrote Mastriano, in the voice of his fictional colonel. “We were a people without vision or direction.”
Mastriano concluded the military must take action to "prevent the destruction of the republic," which he linked to “aberrant sexual conduct,” and the thesis foreshadows the right-wing conspiratorial worldview that fed his claims about Donald Trump's election defeat and the Jan. 6 insurrection.
READ MORE: Trump-endorsed GOP candidate says she'd 'absolutely' vote to ban all birth control
“This thesis proves that Mastriano’s embrace of activity that undermines the U.S. Constitution is no recent corruption,” said Peter Feaver, a former senior White House official under George W. Bush. “It stems from poisonous views and misunderstandings that he has held for a very long time.”
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'This has to stop': Michigan official whom Trump said should be executed speaks out against violent threats
May 20, 2022
On CNN Friday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson slammed the ongoing election lies that are fueling violent threats against elected officials.
This comes after new reporting that former President Donald Trump privately called for Benson to be arrested and executed for treason over his election loss in the state.
"Your opponent, Kristina Karamo, said in the past she felt as an overseer in 2020, an observer, that she had seen some election irregularities," said anchor Erica Hill. "She said, actually, that you should go to jail. She's accused you of election corruption, as we know. What are the conversations happening right now on the ground in Michigan?"
"The conversations I'm having are with our election officials, with law enforcement, with lawmakers, are about how we can protect our democracy, and how we can protect those who run it in times like these," said Benson. "I myself allocated $8 million in security funding for our local election officials and clerks so that they can invest in improvements to the security of our processes, and our staff, and I've also called on our state legislature and lawmakers to increase the penalties for those who threaten election officials, because, again, this has to stop, there is no place for rhetoric like this in our democracy."
READ MORE: WSJ editors smack down Trump for pushing 'Stop the Steal 2022' in Pennsylvania race
"We should be talking about issues that affect our state, the American people, as opposed to continuing to spread conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election and about the security of our processes," continued Benson.
Karamo, in addition to promoting Trump's "Big Lie" and calling for the arrest of Benson, has claimed the January 6 insurrection was a false flag and has spoken at a QAnon conference.
Watch below:
Jocelyn Benson speaks out after Trump execution demand revealed www.youtube.com
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The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has taken former president Donald Trump to task for once again resorting to complaining that an election has been stolen because his anointed candidate to be the Republican Party nominee for a U.S. Senate seat representing Pennsylvania may be headed for a recount.
As the editors note, as of Friday morning the ballot counting is still ongoing and yet the president is already complaining and urging controversial Dr. Mehmet Oz to declare victory.
In posts on his own Truth Social, Trump has written, "Here we go again! In Pennsylvania, they are unable to count the Mail-In Ballots. It is a BIG MESS," adding, "Dr. Oz should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find.’”
According to the editors, what Trump is doing is nothing less than "Stop the Steal 2022," a reference to the 2020 rally that led to a riot and insurrection attempt by his supporters.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump-endorsed GOP candidate says she'd 'absolutely' vote to ban all birth control
"If [Oz opponent David] McCormick wins the final count, will Mr. Trump smear him as an election thief?" the editors ask "Would GOP voters believe that nonsense? Pennsylvania has closed primaries, so everybody who voted for Mr. Oz or Mr. McCormick must be registered as a Republican," the editors added that the former president could end up crippling Republican voting efforts when the n November midterm election rolls around.
"By taking a political hatchet to Mr. McCormick, Mr. Trump could discourage Republicans from supporting him in November, giving away a winnable Senate seat," they wrote.
As evidence of their worries, the editors cited Trump's interference in Georgia in the 2020 election that resulted in run-offs for both Senate seats which the Republicans subsequently lost.
"Don’t bet what’s left of your 401(k) on whether Mr. Trump has learned his lesson. His advice to Mr. Oz is also a warning about how Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, might react to a loss in the fall. Mr. Mastriano is the underdog against Democrat Josh Shapiro. If Mr. Mastriano falls short, will he and Mr. Trump claim it was due to some kind of massive coordinated fraud scheme that amazingly can’t be proved?" they speculated, before adding that candidate Oz should -- unlike Trump -- accept his loss if that is what the voters decide.
"GOP candidates are understandably eager to win Mr. Trump’s endorsement, but it could come with pressure to shout fraud when zero evidence for it exists. Whether Mr. Oz wins or loses, he would do his country a service if he publicly refused this turn toward conspiracy politics," they wrote.
You can read more here -- subscription is required.
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