That is a stunning accusation, and completely inaccurate. Senator Joe McCarthy & Roy Cohn....

...lived in a fever-swamp of paranoia about Communism. "Are you now, or have you ever been..." became bywords of terror. Blacklists drove artists out of work. Accusing social justice groups, labor unions, and the like of being "front organizations" was enough to drive supporters away in fear and ruin whatever they had been trying to achieve.

Christ on a trailer hitch. Rachel Maddow is reporting the actual truth as it appears, not "alternative facts." Russia, in actual FACT, interfered with our election. They had ALREADY interfered in three other national elections prior to ours. They are, in actual FACT, attempting to destabilize democratic governments across Western Europe.

How the ever loving fuck does Rachel's reporting of these FACTS, including Trump's connections to Putin, in any way resemble McCarthy's persecution of innocent people?

Trump is connected to Putin, as are his handlers. This is not something that "went on between Putin and Trump" in the past. It's happening NOW.

Aegis, this is beautifully done. I hope many people read it.

It's not a silly reference. When I read it I knew JKR was explicitly describing an authoritarian...

...takeover of a society, and I hoped her millions of young readers would remember. I read those books to my grandson, so it's not like I was one of the youngsters myself -- I just knew then, and I've been saying it here in the last few months. My grandson, now 12, is going to be visiting us this week. His mom has been taking him to protests. If I get a chance, I'll ask him what it is he remembers about DA.

Oooga booga. Those traitors just HAVE To have an enemy or they can't function....

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are straight-up, and will be doing everything they can within the law to mitigate the coming damage and right this nation if humanly possible.

Anyone who wants to talk about a shadow government should look no further than Steve Bannon. Just follow the stench.

Agreed. And as I will not cease to point out, the leader of Calexit has an address in San Diego BUT

....his headquarters are in Russia. It doesn't take a genius to see Putin's malign hand in yet another attempt to divide this nation -- this time, literally.

"Paramilitary" is not a fashion statement. It's a mode of training that affects how you walk...

...how you move with your cohort, how you coordinate your activities within your group to achieve maximum violent effect. That takes practice practice practice. You get muscles.

Back in the mid-1960s some of my classmates used to play Spot the Narc. It wasn't that hard. There was something about the combination of love beads, fringed jacket, close haircut, and shiny shoes that was a tipoff. My boyfriend used to play Spot the FBI agent. He said it was the bulge under the armpit that gave him a clue.

What about these so called "Millenials" makes them stand apart from the crowd? I only saw a short clip of them rushing into the peaceful noisy protest. They took immediate coordinated violent action. I immediately said to my husband: "They're not ours. Who the hell are they working for?"

If they had really been "students" I would have expected to see their mugshots plastered all over the news, after seeing them cuffed and slapped around. Instead, nada.

Reich is not stupid. He saw the same thing close up and he has the guts and stature to speak out.

Reich was a very forthright eyewitness. He said they looked "paramilitary," and I believe him.

I listened to what he had to say last night, and I respect him very much for speaking out and not backing down when challenged.

Agents provocateur in the Time of Bannon -- whoda thunk it?

Thank you for your OP. I just didn't have time to post it myself.

Am I the only person here who remembers Spiro Agnew?!

He was Richard Nixon's VP, and they got rid of Agnew first. There were no double vacancies because as soon as they got rid of that bribe-taking crook Agnew, the House picked Jerry Ford to be VP. Then they went after Nixon.

Stop worrying about Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan has a powerful career, and he doesn't want to wreck that by stepping in to the kind of mess this bunch will leave. He'll run for POTUS in his own good time.

Also, as far as Pence goes, what has he done that's actually illegal? I would love it if someone, anyone, would come forward with some genuine dirt on the guy, but no one has.

Trump reinstated the Global Gag Order on Day One. The Women's March was already planned....

...but we knew in advance. Team Trump TOLD us what they planned to do all along. Hence the Women's March.

As regards the Global Gag Order, it is a political football. I think Reagan started it. Then every time the WH changes parties, it gets yanked (Bill Clinton) or reinstated (Dubya) or yanked again (Obama) and finally reinstated yet again (Trump).

This is indeed done by Executive Order. The reason for this is that neither party has a sufficient majority any any one time to simply pass it as a law. Especially the Dems. So this is quick and easy and makes a statement that the Men in Charge are pro-life or conversely pro-woman.

It is a political football with women's very lives.

Tim Kaine spoke splendidly on the issue of Holocaust Denial.If saying it never happened doesn't work

....Deniers move into false equivalency by saying only a few Jews were exterminated and the rest were all kinds of other Europeans.

When you frame it this way, erasing the Jews from the Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation makes perfect sense. And Bannon is a white nationalist anti-Semite.