Opinion

One of Donald Trump’s Big Lies has just been debunked, no less than by a federal jury. For years, Trump has been claiming that he is the blameless victim of what he derides as the “Russia Russia Russia hoax” – a sinister conspiracy perpetrated by former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as well as a host of other Democrats, aided by shadowy figures in the FBI.

Now America can be certain that this is all untrue because, after days and weeks and months of costly probes and prosecutions, a jury has decisively rejected Trump’s conspiracy claims this week – for the second time. It was a humiliating verdict, with ramifications both domestic and global.

All thanks to Elon Musk, who has revived the perfect word to describe what the Republican Party has in mind for us if they take over either or both houses of Congress in January: Hellscape. That's what they're planning to turn this country into — a nation that is already struggling with issues of race, economic inequality, gender, immigration and, yes, crime. They've got plans for the hellscape they dream of: More guns on the street will solve the crime problem; going colorblind will wipe out issues of race; keeping the minimum wage right where it is will take care of economic inequality, which is exactly where they want it; passing laws against gender-affirming medical care will handle those scary trans kids; and accusing Democrats of "opening the border" should keep all those brown people on the other side of the wall they (sort of) built but have already forgotten is there, probably because it's a total failure.

This article first appeared in Salon.

Fox News has spent much of the day finding ways to not blame Republicans for right-wing media creating an environment in this country that fuels right-wing violence.

As it stands now, a believer in right wing conspiracy theories broke into the home of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, chanting, "Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?" viciously beat her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, and attempted to tie him up until she arrived back home.

Just when it looked like former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. was fully settled in as a full-time automotive industry executive, up he pops in a last-ditch television commercial endorsing Sen. Mike Lee for re-election. I’d like to say it was great to see him again, but it wasn’t. Far from it.

The Jon Huntsman Jr. I knew—and liked and voted for—was not a person who built his reputation on toxicity. But, these past nights, watching him flippantly tossing his integrity aside for Mike Lee, signals that Jon has traded his cross-party, good guy white hat for the conniving stiletto that is the Lee campaign. He thus becomes but one more former icon who has done the math and concluded that it’s easier to kowtow to party than to stand on principle.

With Republicans convinced that they have the midterm elections in the bag they are hauling out their big guns. As I've mentioned before, they have unveiled plans to hold the debt ceiling hostage in order to force President Biden to give tax cuts to their wealthy benefactors (which explains why so many of them are pouring late money into the campaign) and also to reestablish their old-time conservative movement bonafides by gutting Social Security and Medicaid.

In that article, I also mentioned in passing that a GOP House majority will have investigations and impeachments on the front burner. Yes, I do mean plural. They've got a long list of Biden administration official they believe should resign or face impeachment. They've been talking about doing this since Biden's first few months in office when the Freedom Caucus (which should just rename itself the MAGA Caucus at this point) held a press conference to announce its plans.

Donald Trump is a white terrorist. This is true in both the literal sense and on a more metaphorical level. As part of Trump's coup plot he incited his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. It's also true that throughout his presidency and beyond, Trump and his agents have used the propaganda tactic known as "stochastic terrorism" — in which a leader encourages violence while maintaining vaguely plausible deniability.

This is part of a larger pattern of behavior. Trump's language and rhetoric repeatedly emphasize destruction, violence, conspiracy theories, apocalyptic imagery and threats of other dire outcomes if he and his neofascist movement are not returned to power.

Many of the biggest issues affecting our day-to-day lives are determined by state and local officials who are running for office down here — as well as ballot measures.

But these races at the bottom of the ballot often receive less attention — and fewer votes — than federal positions that appear at the top of your ballot.