Is Tom Cotton A Fascist Or Just Really F*ckin' Dumb? Yep.

Cotton swears he didn't LITERALLY mean the military should commit war crimes against American citizens. He was saying a slang!

Sometimes people like to think about what it will feel like once Donald Trump, the greatest enemy of the American people, has been pushed out of office forever, in January of 2021. Gonna feel great, we're sure, but we need to remind you that what's left of the GOP, what's coming right behind him, is just full-out fascist. (Not that Trump isn't fascist. It's just that he's so mindfuckingly stupid that he has a hard time translating his fearful rage sharts into actual policy.)

Here is Arkansas batshit fascist Little Man Syndrome senator Tom Cotton, showing you what comes after Trump in the GOP:

Anarchy, rioting, and looting needs to end tonight. If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, let… https: //t.co/SFFOl4rLum

— Tom Cotton (@Tom Cotton) 1591018166.0 

So much to unpack there!

There's the lie about "antifa," when in reality most of the protests are peaceful, led by actual human American citizens who want to put an end to police brutality. Also when in reality most of the violent "outside agitators" you hear lying Republicans like Cotton refer to are actually right-wing white supremacists.

And then there is the part where Cotton suggests bringing in the 101st Airborne, to attack American citizens on American soil. Neat!

Cotton, who strings together sentences a little better than Donald Trump does, but whose big tough man chest-pounding comes across approximately as little-dicked as President Bunky Brewster hiding in his bunker, doubled down:

And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry—whatever it takes to restore order. No q… https: //t.co/8rtNZjgPff

— Tom Cotton (@Tom Cotton) 1591020882.0 

War crimes. He's calling for Trump to order the United States military to commit war crimes on American soil against American citizens. "No quarter," wrote Cotton, suggesting that innocent American citizens -- because again, he's lying when he, like Trump, blames it on "antifa" -- should be attacked by the 101st Airborne and a number of other divisions.

Arkansas state Rep. Nate Bell noted that "no quarter" orders, which Cotton clearly references, are war crimes, illegal under the Geneva Conventions:

A "no quarter" order is a war crime. No quarter in a military action against US citizens is not only unconstitution… https: //t.co/KxEixEs0aL

— Nate Bell (@Nate Bell) 1591028941.0 

David French made it even clearer, that "no quarter" orders are just cold-blooded murder, in an explanation the law experts at Law & Crime say is correctomundo :

A no quarter order is a war crime, prohibited even in actual insurrection since Abraham Lincoln's signed the Lieber… https: //t.co/wZbLjJSoTl

— David French (@David French) 1591026168.0 

You can click French's link, or you can just look at it in the US Department of Defense War Manual, also helpfully flagged by Law & Crime:

Prohibition Against Declaring That No Quarter Be Given. It is forbidden to declare that no quarter will be given. This means that it is prohibited to order that legitimate offers of surrender will be refused or that detainees, such as unprivileged belligerents, will be summarily executed. Moreover, it is also prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors, or to threaten the adversary with the denial of quarter.

This rule is based on both humanitarian and military considerations. This rule also applies during non-international armed conflict.

Kids, we are very close to a place where it's going to be a real question what the military does when Donald Trump, backed up by mouthbreathing sycophants like Tom Cotton, gives blatantly illegal orders. We guess it will just be a surprise to see whether the military follows them, or whether they follow their oaths. (You know, the kind of oath Cotton took. Dunno if he took it seriously.)

In Cotton's state of Arkansas, there is precedent for the 101st Airborne coming in. Eisenhower sent them in when racist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus refused to desegregate the schools, in order to force Central High School to safely allow nine black students to enter. That's not the type of activity Tom Cotton is calling for here.

And it's not the activity Trump was talking about in his unhinged screamy whiny phone call with the governors this morning, where he whined that "weak" governors need to "dominate" the protesters who scare him and make him pee a little on the floor of the basement he's hiding in, allegedly .

And we are pretty sure it's the not the activity Rep. Matt Gaetz is talking about right here.

Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?

— Matt Gaetz (@Matt Gaetz) 1591033708.0 

Cotton, for his part, is doing his best to walk it back, and we should at least consider that maybe he's so fucking stupid he didn't know what he was saying. ( Maybe .) He insists he was just saying a slang, so maybe you should check out a slang dictionary, of slangs!

To the scholars pretending the colloquial phrase "no quarter" means a war crime—check out a dictionary.… https: //t.co/3yxyerpCmw

— Tom Cotton (@Tom Cotton) 1591034642.0 

Cotton has spent the rest of the afternoon Googling actual colloquial uses of "no quarter," ones that don't involve actual war crimes like those he suggested out loud, adding further evidence in favor of the possibility that maybe Cotton is just really goddamned stupid.

Let's just split the difference and call him a dumb fucking fascist. Never say Wonkette isn't fair about these things.

And now it is your open thread!

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