Sunday Show Rundown: Fascists And The Men Who Enable Them

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This quote often attributed to 18th century Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke couldn’t be more appropriate in describing our current situation. The Sunday shows this week proved it, so let’s dive in.

Tom Homan

We begin with Donald Trump’s border goon czar’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week” with Jonathan Karl.

Karl began by asking Homan about saying recently, “I don't care what judges think,” regarding the extrajudicial deportations of apparently undocumented and documented immigrants to a brutal Salvadorian torture prison. (We don’t know these people’s particular situations, because they didn’t get due process. We’re just supposed to trust the fascists.) Homan, emboldened by an administration that rewards cruelty, doubled down with all the unearned authority and gravitas of a high school PE teacher in charge of the social studies class.

HOMAN: I don't care what that judge thinks as far as this case. We're going to continue to arrest public safety threats and national security threats. We’re going to continue to deport them from the United States. […] The Alien Enemies Act was actually a federal law, it’s a statute, enacted by Congress and signed by a president. Now that's our litigation. But put that aside, we still have Title Eight authority to remove illegal aliens from the United States and we’re going to continue to concentrate on those who are the biggest threat to our communities, the public safety threats.

“Threats to the community” and “public safety” are being used very loosely, as Homan would go on to prove when asked how they verified the backgrounds of the people they sent to be tortured/slaves in a foreign prison.

HOMAN: I think all 240 on that flight were Venezuelan gang members, TDA [Tren De Aragua], and I think we had 21 MS-13 members, and a couple, you know, specific MS-13 cases. But as far as the Venezuelans on that flight, every single one, according to the information given to me from the field, are — are members of the TDA. And TDA has been determined to be a terrorist organization. […] they are now classified as terrorists. So that plane removed 240 terrorists from the United States.

Karl, either naive or genuinely curious, asked Homan how they determined who was a TDA member, instead of just someone darker than a paper bag (or Canadian) before detaining and deporting them. Homan mush-mouthed a long-ass answer that amounted to “trust me, bro.”

Karl drilled down on this more, only for Homan to admit he doesn't give a fuck about rights violations of people he sees as subhuman.

KARL: Do they get a chance to prove that before you take them out of the country and put them into a notorious prison in a country that they're not even from? I mean, do they have any due process at all?

HOMAN: Look, due process --

KARL: Yeah.

HOMAN: -- where was Laken Riley’s due process? Where were all these young women that were killed and raped by members of TDA, where was their due process?

So that’s a no.

That’s why Homan quickly shifted to whataboutism about Laken Riley. In his attempt to sound like a cheap Frank Castle knock-off, Homan gave away that this isn’t about justice or “law and order.” This is bigotry and vengeance as the Trump administration works its way through its version of the “First They Came” poem but from the bad guys’ perspective.

We probably aren’t getting a second single from these morons.

Chuck Schumer

Now that we’ve discussed the evil, let’s discuss the “do nothing” part, as exemplified by the Neville Chamberlain of our times, Senate Minority ‘Leader’ Chuck Schumer on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

Schumer, still using the scheduled media appearances for his shuttered book tour, is continuing to proclaim he did not fuck up after helping pass Trump’s disastrous CR in exchange for zip/nothing/nada/bupkus.

But just in case you were still unsure that Schumer is unfit to lead in these political times, Schumer confirmed it:

KRISTIN WELKER: You know, I'm curious to know what that looks like, because in a recent interview, you said “Democrats will have to take extraordinary action if President Trump defies the courts.” Leader Schumer, can you be specific with me? What exactly is extraordinary action?

SCHUMER: Look, this is an extraordinary moment. It does require extraordinary action. If he defies the Supreme Court, then we are in uncharted territory that we haven't been in for a very long time, and our entire democracy […] I believe that if Donald Trump should defy the courts, public — the public will rise up. We will ri – Democrats will fight it in every single way.

[clears throat] HE’S ALREADY DEFYING THE COURTS!

Also, what is the move if the Supreme Court, whose majority is a gang of captured far-right extremist ideologues that already ruled that Trump is immune from prosecution for breaking the law, says everything he's doing is perfectly lawful for presidents to do? A strongly worded letter? Perhaps another useless Senate floor speech while the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee keeps all-caps emailing voters to “donate now to fight to save democracy”?

When asked about calls for him to step aside, Schumer made it clear he wouldn’t. Which made this observation in a form of question so scary.

WELKER: Democrats are saying they want leadership to show more fight in this moment. […] Are you making the same mistake that President Biden did [by not choosing to seek reelection earlier]?

SCHUMER: No, absolutely not. I did this out of conviction.

Joe Biden thought the same thing. We guess Schumer is willing to repeat November 5, 2024, out of “conviction.”

American fascism is here. There is no sugarcoating it. If you admit we are in a constitutional crisis, then the fight is now. We need leaders, not book tours by feckless dopes.

Have a week.

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