Since–gee, gosh!–we can't find any real problems with the sterling academic and personal record of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, let's find a fake one!
And so we have…the "Fascism Forever Club."
The U.K. Daily Mail broke the story after riffling through Gorsuch's high school yearbook:
Gorsuch founded the ‘Fascism Forever Club’ during his freshman year at Georgetown Preparatory, a now-$30,000-a-year private Jesuit school that is one of the most selective in the United States.
He served as president until he graduated in 1985, according to his senior yearbook.
Had the Daily Mail staff looked at little more carefully at that yearbook entry, it would have noticed that the the "Fascism Forever Club (Founder and President) 1, 2, 3, 4" entry was preceded by an obviously imaginary award "'Lousy Spanish Student' 2, 3, 4."
But no matter. U.S. News & World Report intoned:
The report was published just over 24 hours after President Donald Trump announced Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee from the White House, and – regardless of Gorsuch's intent in using the term in his high school club's name – comes at a time when accusations of fascism have been aimed at Trump.
And we have this from Vice:
That's not to say that Gorsuch—a lifelong conservative and the youngest SCOTUS nominee since Clarence Thomas—was actually flying the fascist flag as a freshman. The whole thing was mostly just a way to troll his left-leaning teachers. But still.
And the Daily Kos:
Little wonder that Trump picked Neil Gorsuch for the stolen Supreme Court seat. Gorsuch joked/bragged he founded and was president of the “Fascism Forever Club” at Georgetown Preparatory School….
The Kos also included this horrifying revelation:
Also of note is the quote, Gorsuch included on his yearbook page from Henry Kissinger, which is “The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” He graduated from Georgetown Prep in 1985.
Gorsuch liked that Kissinger quote so much, he also used it again in his yearbook from Columbia University….
And George Takei (yes, he's still around) tweeted:
The Daily Mail reports that Gorsuch founded a "Facism Forever" club while in high school. Quite disturbing if true.
But then–darn!–the Jesuit magazine America reported this:
"It was “a total joke,” said Steve Ochs, a history teacher at Georgetown Prep who was the student government advisor during Mr. Gorsuch’s junior and senior years at the Bethesda, Md., school.
“There was no club at a Jesuit school about young fascists,” he told America. “The students would create fictitious clubs; they would have fictitious activities. They were all inside jokes on their senior pages.”
But no matter: The Daily Mail headline also reported that Gorsuch prayed with president and [decased Supreme Court Justice Antonin ] Scalia's son, a Catholic priest, before being named as nominee on Tuesday night."
He prayed! Violation of separation of church and state! Let's run with that one, fellow progressives!