Subj : Weakling
To   : Dennis Katsonis
From : Lee Lofaso
Date : Wed Sep 09 2020 02:12 am

Hello Dennis,

[..]

>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!

There is absolutely no doubt he would have been a far better president
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?

Which one? Two of them went to jail, and the third one quit and
is awaiting trial.

>He's changed his views maybe, I don't know.

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.

One of his motives is to get rid of Trump.

>If we are talking of a politician here, the motives are likely self-serving.

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.

Authoritarianism = Dictatorship

>You know, here in Melbourne, Australia, we are subject to curfews and the
> harshest lockdown.

The governors of several states in the USA, including Louisiana,
issued mandatory curfews and harsh lockdowns as the pandemic is a
public health issue.

>We don't have constitutional freedom of speech, or the same right to bear
> arms.

Australians have similar rights. Not the same, but similar.

>People go on and on about this fascistic dictatorship, but I can't see what
> rights and freedoms you have actually LOST.

The thing about fascism is one never notices until it hits you
in the face. Look at fascism as a form of weakened democracy.
Once a democracy has been weakened to the point where it no longer
matters, it is no longer a democracy but something else. And we
all know that power cannot exist in a vacuum.

>What freedom has Trump taken from you that you had under Obama?

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?

Earlier this year, by presidential proclamation, Trump told the world
who could, and could not, travel to the USA. He did not need approval
from anybody else. Not his cabinet. Not the Congress. Not the American
people. Not the UN. He acted on his own.

Those presidential proclamations remain in effect today. Unchallenged.

So yes, my Australian friend. Trump is very much limiting your movement
speech or action. In every which way he wants and can.

>>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.

Steve Schmidt was McCain's campaign manager in 2008. Schmidt is a
political consultant, John McCain his client at the time. Sometimes
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.

One more time. The Republican Party exists no more as a viable
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.

Nobody objected when Adolf Hitler did the same thing in Germany.
Until it was too late. That is the problem with fascism. Nobody
notices what it is until it is too late. Weakened democracy. That
is my definition of fascism. What is yours?

>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.

One more time. I said Trump is the symptom. Not the disease.
Do keep up.

>AS IS EVERYONE ELSE.

Hitler asked the world to take in Germany's Jews. The world refused.
So Hitler sent the Jews to work camps. So they could all make money for
the Reich. Unfortunately, they did not work hard enough to enjoy their
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.

Oh, come now. Everybody knows Hitler hated Commies. And Jews.
And gays. And blacks. And just about everybody else who wasn't
German or Aryan. Especially those who were mental. No telling
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.

Hitler never conceded. Had to be forced out of office. By an
invasion of Russkies. But he made sure no secrets would be spilled.
First thing he did was to off his beloved German Shepherd "Blondie"
with a pill. Then give his girlfriend a shot. Next step on board
a Geman U-boat headed straight for South America.

Some claim he is still alive and well.

>Get a grip.

Well, you never know. Germans did have very good doctors ...

--Lee

--
Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trump has got to go!

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