Today’s big story is the growing threat of violence on the part of Trump loyalists in the administration, including the president himself. On September 10, Trump's friend and adviser Roger Stone appeared on Infowars, the show run by the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses before they testified concerning the ties of the 2016 Trump campaign to Russia, Stone publicly asked Trump to commute his sentence and, in exchange, promised to campaign for him.
This is the only forum I participate in, so please indulge me for a lengthy note.
As a former debating teacher and so-called expert, I want to put out my general rules of debate in the hope that one of you will be able to pass this on to JB's advisers within the next two weeks.
The first debate is crucial, for it sets the tone; remember Kennedy vs Nixon. Here is my advice:
1. To be on the Defensive means you are losing the debate. To be on the Offensive means you are winning. It's like football; you can only score points when you are on the offense. Don't waste time defending; respond and counter attack. Always try to dictate the topic and direction of discussion. Mohammed Ali won many of his fights by learning his opponent's vulnerabilities and going for them; make a checklist of the most important ones which will score points.
2. Get the audience on your side; remember Ronald Reagan and "There you go again". Your opponent will try to score points by attacking you, twisting facts, making spurious accusations, denying failures, claiming untrue successes, etc. Don't simply deny; that is a mug's game. Laugh and say "There you go again, there's lie number 2,760" or similar. Puncture his balloon.
3. The best precedent you can call upon is Joseph Welch, during the McCarthy hearings. His quote, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" made nationwide headlines and brought McCarthyism to an abrupt end. When confronted by an outrageous lie or false accusation, simply reply "You know that is totally untrue and it is an insult. Have you no sense of decency, sir?" (I can guarantee it will be the headline of every newspaper the next morning.)
4. If he does not treat you with respect, respond accordingly. Do not call him "Mr President" if possible. If he calls you "Sleepy Joe", use a similar appellation in response; the terms "Conman", "Devious" and "Dopey" come to mind. Remember that he has a very thin skin and is easily riled. He cannot stand confrontation.
5. The final rule of debating is "He who loses his temper loses the argument."
Once again, apologies for this lengthy treatise, but I felt I must somehow make my thoughts public.
Today seems like the perfect day for this. Here is what Cult45 RRALLY thinks about us and about Trump. (Full of fucks, so if you’re easily offended by language you might want to sit this one out. Even though you really shouldn’t)
From a FB friend who escaped the Trump cult:
“You all don’t get it. I live in Trump country, in the Ozarks in southern Missouri, one of the last places where the KKK still has a relatively strong established presence. They don’t give a shit what Trump does. He’s just something to rally around and hate liberals, that’s it, period. He absolutely realizes that, and plays it up. They love it, he knows they love it, and the fact that people act like it’s anything other than that just proves to them that liberals are idiots, all the more reason for high fives all around.
“If you keep getting caught up in why do they not realize blah blah blah and how can they still back him after blah blah blah, you are not understanding what is the underlying motivating factor of his support. It’s fuck liberals, that’s pretty much it.
“Have you noticed he can do pretty much anything imaginable and they’ll explain some way that rationalizes it that makes zero logical sense? Because they’re not even keeping track of any logical narrative, it’s irrelevant, fuck liberals is the only relevant thing, trust me, I know first hand what I’m talking about. That’s why they just laugh at it all, because you all don’t even realize they really, truly, don’t give a fuck about whatever the conversation is about, it’s just a side mission story that doesn’t really matter anyways. That’s all just trivial details- the economy, health care, whatever. Fuck liberals.
“Look at the thing with not wearing the masks. I can tell you what that’s about. It’s about exposing fear. They’re playing chicken with nature and whoever flinches just moved down their internal pecking order, one step closer to being a liberal.
“You gotta understand the one core value that they hold above all others is hatred for weakness, because that’s what they believe strength is, hatred for weakness. And I mean passionate, sadistic hatred. And I’m not exaggerating. Believe me. Sadistic, passionate hatred, and that’s what proves they’re strong, their passionate hatred for weakness. Sometimes they lump in vulnerability, a compromised circumstance, or an overwhelming circumstance in there with weakness, too, because people tend to start humbling themselves when they’re in those circumstances and that’s an obvious sign of weakness.
“Kindness=weakness. Honesty=weakness. Compromise=weakness. They consider their very existence to be superior in every way to anyone who doesn’t hate weakness as much as they do. They consider liberals to be weak people who are inferior, almost a difference species, and the fact that liberals are so weak is why they have to unite in large numbers. Disgust is a true expression of their natural superiority.
“Go ahead and try to have a logical, rational conversation with them though. Just keep in mind what I said here, and think about it.”
The below is by another author regarding the above:
“This summed up something I’ve been trying to say for years. Because, yes, the cruelty is the point for trump supporters but this is why. “
“This is why there is no bottom of the barrel and why so many of them will tell you he’s been such a successful president. They don’t care that he’s the reason they’re getting fucked in taxes or that his border wall is a failure, they don’t care that he hasn’t managed to really pass any landmark legislation or make good on the promises he made during his campaign. They don’t care because the ONLY measure they’re using to determine how successful he’s been and how much they support him is how much he pisses off or hurts liberals and the more he does it the better he looks to them, the more support they give him and the more bullshit he doubles down on. It’s a never-ending feedback loop and it’s ALL about "the performance" rather than his political promises & results. It’s why we’ve devolved into whatever mess of a country in 2020 with seemingly no rock bottom."
“These are people who don’t understand politics as an entity that actually affects them, they can’t be reasoned with because they know being like that pisses off liberals. It’s honestly the most juvenile, immature tactic that elementary school-aged bullies use, but just as long as they get a rise out of liberals, repeatedly, they'll do it. It’s why so many of them comment on social media “trump 2020″ on posts that aren’t even about politics: because they know just posting that on a tasty video or something will piss off a bunch of liberals. We need to just stop responding to them when they say this type of shit, we need to ignore them, we need to stop giving them the outrage they want. “
“But, of course, we CAN'T do that because ignoring fascism is the same as and just as dangerous as ENABLING it.”
“Most of them don’t even pay attention to what he’s actually does and says; ask them about it–half the time, they don’t even know what you’re taking about. But so long as he’s pissing off liberals (and I’m using the colloquial US definition of “opposite of conservative” here), he’s doing everything they want.
Conservativism in this country has devolved into a movement with no ideals, no principles, nothing at all beyond - hurt the enemy at all cost.”
American history has managed to largely write out a significant part of antebellum southern history that has a major effect on the Civil War. There were in fact two Souths - the south of the coasts that spread inland with their slaves, and the South founded by the Scotch-Irish who came down through Appalachia from Pennsylvania, the people derisively called "hill billies" by the slaveowners. It's not widely known, but it took Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee several tries before they suppressed the "hill billy" voters and their anti-slavery representatives so their rump legislatures could pass articles of secession. East Tennessee, northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia nearly seceded to create the "State of Nickjack" (based around the Nickajack river). A civil war was fought in the south to fight the Civil War, and in fact about 35-40% of the white southerners fought for the Union. They were suppressed after the war and their history wiped out until it was rediscovered in the late 70s. The South's "history" of the Civil War is nearly completely lies.
As to where we find ourselves today, it's a good idea to keep up with the news from Belarus, because that could be a preview of our Main Attraction.
I would love to put all of you who comment here in one area and make sure I live there also. I want to be among those who are thoughtful and intelligent.
I am a daily reader of the letter (thank you HCR); however, I do not typically read the comments. Today’s letter in reaction to the ever-increasing dark tenor of the right-wing rhetoric, had me go to substack and read all the comments.
This is my first post on this forum. I will apologize in advance if my comments have already been addressed on other days.
People are different...some think and feel differently than others. Some people are curious (this crowd) some, not so much. Throughout history, there is always a segment of the population that is authoritarian...they respond to power and use power, physical and mental, in their own lives. It is also a religious activity as Jeff Sharlott describes. Trolling is always an affirmation of their beliefs without any pushback that they have to emotionally digest. So yes the hashtag #Cult45 is applicable for today’s right-wing crowd. However, if Twitter existed when the Roman republic was transforming into Imperial Rome, #CultCeasar would be trending. I am sure there are historians that will point us to the graffiti saying the same. Therefore, there is always a segment of any population that is easily susceptible to manipulation. Who pulls and how hard is the pulling of their string is the next part of the equation. Cult members are VERY tribal...mine is good, yours is bad -- Black or white.
Divide and conquer is as old as history. The powerful will always use whatever tools available to them to manipulate the population to stay in power and gather more riches.
Starting in the ‘70s, after the turbulent ‘60s, the powerful developed and have enacted a plan to take control of the country. Politics is at its core about money and power.
It takes a concerted effort and a whole lot of money to buy control of the country.
The media has been concentrated into the hand of a very few right-wing owners, Out in the hinterlands, the majority of the media landscape is plutocratic funded propaganda. All of the outlets were not initially profitable, requiring continued fud and many still aren’t profitable.
Radio. Rush is on in every tractor and house on a concentrated right-wing radio network very weekday afternoon. Multiple Rush wannabe shows out there as well.
TV. Fox News is in every house. Sinclair TV stations masquerading as local news with the editorial content provided by a right-wing hack. Infotainment vs news is on all outlets on cable news.
Internet: Multiple right-wing internet sites and shows continue to get funding to exist. Social media is home for right-wing propaganda. The right brain craves confirmation.
Books. The right-wing book market is huge. Mix that in with the religious books as well.
Religion. Sundays are not a day of rest from propaganda. The preachers are now very much into politics. Some living in > $10M homes. The prosperity gospel rules. The right brain craves someone powerful to tell them what to do.
Washington There are multiple right-wing plutocratic funded think tanks: Heritage, Club for Growth etc.. The Supreme Court has been bought to assure corporate power and the wealthy are taken care of. Congress has been bought such that there are not any real anti-monopoly worries. Tax laws are promulgated to enrich the already uber-wealthy. Degreulate vs protection to allow the companies to socialize their externalities. The IRS has been kneecapped so that it does not have the resources to track the wealthy and their tax avoidance schemes. Can’t imagine the amount of money in off-shore tax shelters. There are multiple other examples of regulatory capture that benefit the wealthy. Privatize the profits, socialize the costs.
There has been an all-out assault on the American people for the past 50-60yrs and we see the result.
I am mad as hell and won’t take it anymore. However, I will focus my FDR hate on the pullers of the strings vs the people who are getting their strings pulled. It does not mean that we should not be VERY strong in how we respond to evil or wrongdoing. So many people have had their brains altered. It makes me sad to see extended family members emersed in cult behavior.
Since we are the hopeful types, I see do see hopeful signs out there. It is a good thing that many young folks do not take in a lot of main street media and are less tainted by propaganda. I see hope in the overall reaction to the BLM movement so the bulk of the population is moving in the right direction. We need to focus on the elimination of the corrosive force of the uber-wealthy in our politics.
Thank you, once again, for the clarity and concise recap of the day's doings.
Amanpour & Co. had an interview on recently about how we are being manipulated by algorithms, from Facebook to Youtube, and are being offered our own personal realities. We've talked about this in this forum before, but according to the guests, who have done a documentary (The Social Dilemma) on it, we are in deeper danger than most of us have realized. You can catch the clip here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKHGrhZxE3Y&t=1s
We often chalk up the current polarization to Fox News, etc., but the ability of social media to micro-target each user is astounding. Because of the human proclivity to gravitate to people, situations, etc. that reinforce our beliefs and prejudices, the algorithms do, in fact, create not just broad bubbles of belief, but individual bubbles for us to swim in.
When I was a young adult, there was a fear about government learning too much about you, and the power that would give them over our lives. Now we give away this power - this personal, intimate information - to corporations without a second thought. And they monetize it to reap profits off our clicks!
The Michael Caputo story really brought this home to me. Not that I wasn't aware of the silos we're all living in, but somehow I guess I minimized the danger until now. No wonder we can't talk to Uncle Henry at Thanksgiving!
Martial law is something that in the 1970s, I read was happening in Third World countries far away.
Now looking at the spectre of martial law in November 2020, my first thought was how to prepare. I am not an alarmist, but I do prefer to err on the side of caution. The ultra right preppers are prepared. Stock up at home, have alternative electric power back up, gas in the car, network with friends and family...
And look up the definition on Wikipedia. But first in the search came this article titled "Martial Law in the United States: Its Meaning, Its History, and Why the President Can’t Declare It" with the introductory summary, "the president lacks the authority to declare it." Relief! Except...
The author answers the question, can the president unilaterally declare martial law, with a "no:"
"Because the Constitution does not give the president 'conclusive and preclusive' authority over the domestic use of the military — and, on the contrary, explicitly vests power in the legislative branch — the president cannot act against Congress’s wishes in this area. Accordingly, a unilateral declaration of martial law by the president today — on the southern border or elsewhere — would not survive a legal challenge under Youngstown."
The author has a more recent brief article titled "Martial Law Explained," in which he reiterates, " "under Youngstown, the president would not have the constitutional authority to override the restrictions Congress has put in place, and a unilateral declaration of martial law would not survive a legal challenge."
Reasonable people see that an action will not be upheld in a court and therefore don't do it. We have see that trump aggressively disregards the law and acts first with no regard. Trump's minions are currently setting it up. Don't we have to assume that trump will unilaterally declare martial law to create chaos and destruction until a court issues a finding--after the fact--that the president does not have such authority?
In any event, separate from deploying the Armed Forces, we have seen this year how trump will exploit executive branch authority over federal law enforcement to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act whereby it is unlawful for federal military forces to engage in civilian law enforcement activities. Federal agents in high tech commando gear snatched civilians off the street, and I, for one, never heard explanation of what happened to these people while detained. The events were closer to martial law than any of us wants to see.
I am hoping that HCR and fellow readers dive into this issue, hopefully with assurance of how it cannot happen, or at least with clarity as to how it would be possible so that we can best prepare.
Ugh. This is getting uglier by the day. It's going to be a long couple of weeks until election day. Who knows what after that...
The killing of Reinoehl certainly looked like retribution from a federal hit squad when it happened, but seemed to pass from the news cycle without much interest. This is the first detail of the incident I'm seeing, and it's frightening and shocking.
What's really sticking in my craw is Roger Stone. That man is truly a public menace. Not only should he be jailed, he ought to be exiled from this country as well. It's not at all surprising he was involved in the Brooks Brother riot of the 2000 election. That entire Florida vote was a sham and a farce, and grieves me to this day. Imagine if 20 years ago the presidency went to Al Gore, the likely winner of most votes, who wrote a book and made a movie about the danger of global warming, instead of handing it to a bumbling shill for the petroligarchy, who took us to war in the middle east to try to lock down the supply of crude oil for our insatiable thirst? This question haunts me. And the Brooks Brothers riot was the turning point, where those ideological bastards, pardon my French, physically interfered in the vote count to stop the fair election result from becoming known. By stopping the count at that crucial moment allowed for the introduction of legal arguments to discontinue the count that went right up to the Supreme Court, where Bush effectively won that election by one vote. And now the West Coast burns. Thanks Roger :/. I have nothing but bad feelings toward that despicable person.
Heather - this is the most frightening post that I've read of yours, and it completely tracks my understanding of what is going on. They've done the work to completely undermine the free press and to distrust all the fundamental institutions that we rely on for civil society, and they are now laying the ground work for violence in the streets and to ignore the results of the election. We are on the verge.
I read an article in The Guardian yesterday about the rise of QAnon and it really set me off. I read about the unhinges rant that Caputo went on. I took half an Ambien, just to try to sleep. Today’s Letter, as always, helps me put it all in context. Never give up. Thinking of all of you in the path of Hurricane Sally and the fires out West.
Our Challenge Is To Hold Onto Our Hope And Our Outrage Without Being Hijacked By Our Fears.
I take inspiration from John Lewis. He never gave up hope, even after being arrested 40+ times, and suffering numerous beatings. Stay Strong! We can do this!
This morning I watched Morning Joe. Guests were Masha Gessen, Jeffrey Goldberg and Anne Applebaum. All three have newly released books about authoritarianism and how tRump is moving toward that. And I cried OUT LOUD to the TV: enough already. My consciousness is raised almost to the point of panic. What I want now from all these people and the interviewers and the mainstream media is a damn plan. What are we going to do now? Not just vote. Last time the media covered every fart that tRump made and he got so much exposure that it helped get him elected. Now, knowing that our democracy is on the line all these folks have the responsibility to do something. Yes, we can vote, but with the voter suppression and other nasty tactics it may not be enough and with these maniacs advocating violence, we are entering a very dangerous time.
Sounds like we have a bunch of cornered rabid dogs here: boast, bluster, threat, rage, foaming at the mouth and ranting. Keep them surrounded in the corner and clinically pick them off one-by-one while protecting everyone from their murderous intentions.
There's is not a cureable disease once the infection gets to this advanced stage. They need to be permanently isolated from society....as we would with any member of a group betraying attacking and killing his fellows. Thereafterwards a program of vaccination can truly begin to ensure the disease is eradicated and no one ever sinks into such a pitifull state of intellectual inertia, material decadence, emotional chaos and spiritual decay again.
Heather, thank you again for the clear road map. I am finding it harder as the days progress to keep a positive outlook. Oddly, as long as trump opens his mouth, the more he shovels shit over facts. I know there is nothing that would change the mind of a trumper at this point, unless trump were to wake up one morning as a black man, so I've basically written then off. I feel the violence, or atleast the idle threat of which may get those Democrats off the couch and out to the polls to vote. The expression "vote as if your life depends on it", should be the battle cry for 2020. More than ever before.
The West Coast is facing multiple and raging forest fires which are threatening communities throughout the region and my heart goes out to those having to flee their homes, the animals trapped and panicking, surrounded by flame and incinerated, those that are further away and put themselves in danger with every breath they take. From this distance seeing photographs of "red sky" in San Fransisco, and not just at night but 24hrs a day, leave me with a similar feeling to the fire at Notre Dame in Paris.
However, on this issue we would be well to remember a couple of less convenient things that are perhaps thought a little inconvenient.
Firstly, any biologist will tell you that the destruction of trees by fire from California to Oregan and beyond is part of the natural process of regeneration. Some trees seed cones only break open under extreme heat! Human settlement is not a factor that nature takes into account. I'm afraid that it is up to us to adapt to nature on this and fit in with its rules.
Secondly, we are not the first peoples to inhabit the west coast and a good look should be taken at the methods used to control the destruction of forests developed by the Native Peoples who have been managing these forests for the last 12-40000 years, depending on which archeologist you follow. They systematically used fire to create small burns that cleared the brush, stopped overcrowding by new shoots aand saved the mature and maturing trees in a relatively open forest. At the time the had the manpower to do the job and maintain their boreal agribusiness. Its is difficult to do this by machine and chemicals create other problems. Man has to get out there to do his bit and allow coexistence in harmony between his activities and the omnipresent and overarching forces of nature. (Those want to read further on this might try Kat Anderson's "Tending the wild". She has been trying to get California to move in this direction for some time.)
It is of course evident that our global economic activities and its effect on climate are making the forest fire problem significantly worse. However, for once there is also a grain of truth that cannot be ignored in what Trump is saying this time about poor forest management and the need to clear the unwanted brush which is feeding the blaze.
This is the only forum I participate in, so please indulge me for a lengthy note.
As a former debating teacher and so-called expert, I want to put out my general rules of debate in the hope that one of you will be able to pass this on to JB's advisers within the next two weeks.
The first debate is crucial, for it sets the tone; remember Kennedy vs Nixon. Here is my advice:
1. To be on the Defensive means you are losing the debate. To be on the Offensive means you are winning. It's like football; you can only score points when you are on the offense. Don't waste time defending; respond and counter attack. Always try to dictate the topic and direction of discussion. Mohammed Ali won many of his fights by learning his opponent's vulnerabilities and going for them; make a checklist of the most important ones which will score points.
2. Get the audience on your side; remember Ronald Reagan and "There you go again". Your opponent will try to score points by attacking you, twisting facts, making spurious accusations, denying failures, claiming untrue successes, etc. Don't simply deny; that is a mug's game. Laugh and say "There you go again, there's lie number 2,760" or similar. Puncture his balloon.
3. The best precedent you can call upon is Joseph Welch, during the McCarthy hearings. His quote, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" made nationwide headlines and brought McCarthyism to an abrupt end. When confronted by an outrageous lie or false accusation, simply reply "You know that is totally untrue and it is an insult. Have you no sense of decency, sir?" (I can guarantee it will be the headline of every newspaper the next morning.)
4. If he does not treat you with respect, respond accordingly. Do not call him "Mr President" if possible. If he calls you "Sleepy Joe", use a similar appellation in response; the terms "Conman", "Devious" and "Dopey" come to mind. Remember that he has a very thin skin and is easily riled. He cannot stand confrontation.
5. The final rule of debating is "He who loses his temper loses the argument."
Once again, apologies for this lengthy treatise, but I felt I must somehow make my thoughts public.
Today seems like the perfect day for this. Here is what Cult45 RRALLY thinks about us and about Trump. (Full of fucks, so if you’re easily offended by language you might want to sit this one out. Even though you really shouldn’t)
From a FB friend who escaped the Trump cult:
“You all don’t get it. I live in Trump country, in the Ozarks in southern Missouri, one of the last places where the KKK still has a relatively strong established presence. They don’t give a shit what Trump does. He’s just something to rally around and hate liberals, that’s it, period. He absolutely realizes that, and plays it up. They love it, he knows they love it, and the fact that people act like it’s anything other than that just proves to them that liberals are idiots, all the more reason for high fives all around.
“If you keep getting caught up in why do they not realize blah blah blah and how can they still back him after blah blah blah, you are not understanding what is the underlying motivating factor of his support. It’s fuck liberals, that’s pretty much it.
“Have you noticed he can do pretty much anything imaginable and they’ll explain some way that rationalizes it that makes zero logical sense? Because they’re not even keeping track of any logical narrative, it’s irrelevant, fuck liberals is the only relevant thing, trust me, I know first hand what I’m talking about. That’s why they just laugh at it all, because you all don’t even realize they really, truly, don’t give a fuck about whatever the conversation is about, it’s just a side mission story that doesn’t really matter anyways. That’s all just trivial details- the economy, health care, whatever. Fuck liberals.
“Look at the thing with not wearing the masks. I can tell you what that’s about. It’s about exposing fear. They’re playing chicken with nature and whoever flinches just moved down their internal pecking order, one step closer to being a liberal.
“You gotta understand the one core value that they hold above all others is hatred for weakness, because that’s what they believe strength is, hatred for weakness. And I mean passionate, sadistic hatred. And I’m not exaggerating. Believe me. Sadistic, passionate hatred, and that’s what proves they’re strong, their passionate hatred for weakness. Sometimes they lump in vulnerability, a compromised circumstance, or an overwhelming circumstance in there with weakness, too, because people tend to start humbling themselves when they’re in those circumstances and that’s an obvious sign of weakness.
“Kindness=weakness. Honesty=weakness. Compromise=weakness. They consider their very existence to be superior in every way to anyone who doesn’t hate weakness as much as they do. They consider liberals to be weak people who are inferior, almost a difference species, and the fact that liberals are so weak is why they have to unite in large numbers. Disgust is a true expression of their natural superiority.
“Go ahead and try to have a logical, rational conversation with them though. Just keep in mind what I said here, and think about it.”
The below is by another author regarding the above:
“This summed up something I’ve been trying to say for years. Because, yes, the cruelty is the point for trump supporters but this is why. “
“This is why there is no bottom of the barrel and why so many of them will tell you he’s been such a successful president. They don’t care that he’s the reason they’re getting fucked in taxes or that his border wall is a failure, they don’t care that he hasn’t managed to really pass any landmark legislation or make good on the promises he made during his campaign. They don’t care because the ONLY measure they’re using to determine how successful he’s been and how much they support him is how much he pisses off or hurts liberals and the more he does it the better he looks to them, the more support they give him and the more bullshit he doubles down on. It’s a never-ending feedback loop and it’s ALL about "the performance" rather than his political promises & results. It’s why we’ve devolved into whatever mess of a country in 2020 with seemingly no rock bottom."
“These are people who don’t understand politics as an entity that actually affects them, they can’t be reasoned with because they know being like that pisses off liberals. It’s honestly the most juvenile, immature tactic that elementary school-aged bullies use, but just as long as they get a rise out of liberals, repeatedly, they'll do it. It’s why so many of them comment on social media “trump 2020″ on posts that aren’t even about politics: because they know just posting that on a tasty video or something will piss off a bunch of liberals. We need to just stop responding to them when they say this type of shit, we need to ignore them, we need to stop giving them the outrage they want. “
“But, of course, we CAN'T do that because ignoring fascism is the same as and just as dangerous as ENABLING it.”
“Most of them don’t even pay attention to what he’s actually does and says; ask them about it–half the time, they don’t even know what you’re taking about. But so long as he’s pissing off liberals (and I’m using the colloquial US definition of “opposite of conservative” here), he’s doing everything they want.
Conservativism in this country has devolved into a movement with no ideals, no principles, nothing at all beyond - hurt the enemy at all cost.”
American history has managed to largely write out a significant part of antebellum southern history that has a major effect on the Civil War. There were in fact two Souths - the south of the coasts that spread inland with their slaves, and the South founded by the Scotch-Irish who came down through Appalachia from Pennsylvania, the people derisively called "hill billies" by the slaveowners. It's not widely known, but it took Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee several tries before they suppressed the "hill billy" voters and their anti-slavery representatives so their rump legislatures could pass articles of secession. East Tennessee, northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia nearly seceded to create the "State of Nickjack" (based around the Nickajack river). A civil war was fought in the south to fight the Civil War, and in fact about 35-40% of the white southerners fought for the Union. They were suppressed after the war and their history wiped out until it was rediscovered in the late 70s. The South's "history" of the Civil War is nearly completely lies.
As to where we find ourselves today, it's a good idea to keep up with the news from Belarus, because that could be a preview of our Main Attraction.
I would love to put all of you who comment here in one area and make sure I live there also. I want to be among those who are thoughtful and intelligent.
I am a daily reader of the letter (thank you HCR); however, I do not typically read the comments. Today’s letter in reaction to the ever-increasing dark tenor of the right-wing rhetoric, had me go to substack and read all the comments.
This is my first post on this forum. I will apologize in advance if my comments have already been addressed on other days.
People are different...some think and feel differently than others. Some people are curious (this crowd) some, not so much. Throughout history, there is always a segment of the population that is authoritarian...they respond to power and use power, physical and mental, in their own lives. It is also a religious activity as Jeff Sharlott describes. Trolling is always an affirmation of their beliefs without any pushback that they have to emotionally digest. So yes the hashtag #Cult45 is applicable for today’s right-wing crowd. However, if Twitter existed when the Roman republic was transforming into Imperial Rome, #CultCeasar would be trending. I am sure there are historians that will point us to the graffiti saying the same. Therefore, there is always a segment of any population that is easily susceptible to manipulation. Who pulls and how hard is the pulling of their string is the next part of the equation. Cult members are VERY tribal...mine is good, yours is bad -- Black or white.
Divide and conquer is as old as history. The powerful will always use whatever tools available to them to manipulate the population to stay in power and gather more riches.
Starting in the ‘70s, after the turbulent ‘60s, the powerful developed and have enacted a plan to take control of the country. Politics is at its core about money and power.
It takes a concerted effort and a whole lot of money to buy control of the country.
The media has been concentrated into the hand of a very few right-wing owners, Out in the hinterlands, the majority of the media landscape is plutocratic funded propaganda. All of the outlets were not initially profitable, requiring continued fud and many still aren’t profitable.
Radio. Rush is on in every tractor and house on a concentrated right-wing radio network very weekday afternoon. Multiple Rush wannabe shows out there as well.
TV. Fox News is in every house. Sinclair TV stations masquerading as local news with the editorial content provided by a right-wing hack. Infotainment vs news is on all outlets on cable news.
Internet: Multiple right-wing internet sites and shows continue to get funding to exist. Social media is home for right-wing propaganda. The right brain craves confirmation.
Books. The right-wing book market is huge. Mix that in with the religious books as well.
Religion. Sundays are not a day of rest from propaganda. The preachers are now very much into politics. Some living in > $10M homes. The prosperity gospel rules. The right brain craves someone powerful to tell them what to do.
Washington There are multiple right-wing plutocratic funded think tanks: Heritage, Club for Growth etc.. The Supreme Court has been bought to assure corporate power and the wealthy are taken care of. Congress has been bought such that there are not any real anti-monopoly worries. Tax laws are promulgated to enrich the already uber-wealthy. Degreulate vs protection to allow the companies to socialize their externalities. The IRS has been kneecapped so that it does not have the resources to track the wealthy and their tax avoidance schemes. Can’t imagine the amount of money in off-shore tax shelters. There are multiple other examples of regulatory capture that benefit the wealthy. Privatize the profits, socialize the costs.
There has been an all-out assault on the American people for the past 50-60yrs and we see the result.
I am mad as hell and won’t take it anymore. However, I will focus my FDR hate on the pullers of the strings vs the people who are getting their strings pulled. It does not mean that we should not be VERY strong in how we respond to evil or wrongdoing. So many people have had their brains altered. It makes me sad to see extended family members emersed in cult behavior.
Since we are the hopeful types, I see do see hopeful signs out there. It is a good thing that many young folks do not take in a lot of main street media and are less tainted by propaganda. I see hope in the overall reaction to the BLM movement so the bulk of the population is moving in the right direction. We need to focus on the elimination of the corrosive force of the uber-wealthy in our politics.
Thank you, once again, for the clarity and concise recap of the day's doings.
Amanpour & Co. had an interview on recently about how we are being manipulated by algorithms, from Facebook to Youtube, and are being offered our own personal realities. We've talked about this in this forum before, but according to the guests, who have done a documentary (The Social Dilemma) on it, we are in deeper danger than most of us have realized. You can catch the clip here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKHGrhZxE3Y&t=1s
We often chalk up the current polarization to Fox News, etc., but the ability of social media to micro-target each user is astounding. Because of the human proclivity to gravitate to people, situations, etc. that reinforce our beliefs and prejudices, the algorithms do, in fact, create not just broad bubbles of belief, but individual bubbles for us to swim in.
When I was a young adult, there was a fear about government learning too much about you, and the power that would give them over our lives. Now we give away this power - this personal, intimate information - to corporations without a second thought. And they monetize it to reap profits off our clicks!
The Michael Caputo story really brought this home to me. Not that I wasn't aware of the silos we're all living in, but somehow I guess I minimized the danger until now. No wonder we can't talk to Uncle Henry at Thanksgiving!
What is martial law?
Martial law is something that in the 1970s, I read was happening in Third World countries far away.
Now looking at the spectre of martial law in November 2020, my first thought was how to prepare. I am not an alarmist, but I do prefer to err on the side of caution. The ultra right preppers are prepared. Stock up at home, have alternative electric power back up, gas in the car, network with friends and family...
And look up the definition on Wikipedia. But first in the search came this article titled "Martial Law in the United States: Its Meaning, Its History, and Why the President Can’t Declare It" with the introductory summary, "the president lacks the authority to declare it." Relief! Except...
The author answers the question, can the president unilaterally declare martial law, with a "no:"
"Because the Constitution does not give the president 'conclusive and preclusive' authority over the domestic use of the military — and, on the contrary, explicitly vests power in the legislative branch — the president cannot act against Congress’s wishes in this area. Accordingly, a unilateral declaration of martial law by the president today — on the southern border or elsewhere — would not survive a legal challenge under Youngstown."
The author has a more recent brief article titled "Martial Law Explained," in which he reiterates, " "under Youngstown, the president would not have the constitutional authority to override the restrictions Congress has put in place, and a unilateral declaration of martial law would not survive a legal challenge."
Reasonable people see that an action will not be upheld in a court and therefore don't do it. We have see that trump aggressively disregards the law and acts first with no regard. Trump's minions are currently setting it up. Don't we have to assume that trump will unilaterally declare martial law to create chaos and destruction until a court issues a finding--after the fact--that the president does not have such authority?
In any event, separate from deploying the Armed Forces, we have seen this year how trump will exploit executive branch authority over federal law enforcement to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act whereby it is unlawful for federal military forces to engage in civilian law enforcement activities. Federal agents in high tech commando gear snatched civilians off the street, and I, for one, never heard explanation of what happened to these people while detained. The events were closer to martial law than any of us wants to see.
I am hoping that HCR and fellow readers dive into this issue, hopefully with assurance of how it cannot happen, or at least with clarity as to how it would be possible so that we can best prepare.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/martial-law-united-states-its-meaning-its-history-and-why-president-cant
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/martial-law-explained
Ugh. This is getting uglier by the day. It's going to be a long couple of weeks until election day. Who knows what after that...
The killing of Reinoehl certainly looked like retribution from a federal hit squad when it happened, but seemed to pass from the news cycle without much interest. This is the first detail of the incident I'm seeing, and it's frightening and shocking.
What's really sticking in my craw is Roger Stone. That man is truly a public menace. Not only should he be jailed, he ought to be exiled from this country as well. It's not at all surprising he was involved in the Brooks Brother riot of the 2000 election. That entire Florida vote was a sham and a farce, and grieves me to this day. Imagine if 20 years ago the presidency went to Al Gore, the likely winner of most votes, who wrote a book and made a movie about the danger of global warming, instead of handing it to a bumbling shill for the petroligarchy, who took us to war in the middle east to try to lock down the supply of crude oil for our insatiable thirst? This question haunts me. And the Brooks Brothers riot was the turning point, where those ideological bastards, pardon my French, physically interfered in the vote count to stop the fair election result from becoming known. By stopping the count at that crucial moment allowed for the introduction of legal arguments to discontinue the count that went right up to the Supreme Court, where Bush effectively won that election by one vote. And now the West Coast burns. Thanks Roger :/. I have nothing but bad feelings toward that despicable person.
Heather - this is the most frightening post that I've read of yours, and it completely tracks my understanding of what is going on. They've done the work to completely undermine the free press and to distrust all the fundamental institutions that we rely on for civil society, and they are now laying the ground work for violence in the streets and to ignore the results of the election. We are on the verge.
I read an article in The Guardian yesterday about the rise of QAnon and it really set me off. I read about the unhinges rant that Caputo went on. I took half an Ambien, just to try to sleep. Today’s Letter, as always, helps me put it all in context. Never give up. Thinking of all of you in the path of Hurricane Sally and the fires out West.
Our Challenge Is To Hold Onto Our Hope And Our Outrage Without Being Hijacked By Our Fears.
I take inspiration from John Lewis. He never gave up hope, even after being arrested 40+ times, and suffering numerous beatings. Stay Strong! We can do this!
The Biggest story today is Trumps denial that the science of climate is not accurate!
Trump has proclaimed that he will decide if science is accurate and as such he will not lead America and the world toward a slower extinction.
Climate justice must be named,enabled and fought for all of our days that we have left.
This morning I watched Morning Joe. Guests were Masha Gessen, Jeffrey Goldberg and Anne Applebaum. All three have newly released books about authoritarianism and how tRump is moving toward that. And I cried OUT LOUD to the TV: enough already. My consciousness is raised almost to the point of panic. What I want now from all these people and the interviewers and the mainstream media is a damn plan. What are we going to do now? Not just vote. Last time the media covered every fart that tRump made and he got so much exposure that it helped get him elected. Now, knowing that our democracy is on the line all these folks have the responsibility to do something. Yes, we can vote, but with the voter suppression and other nasty tactics it may not be enough and with these maniacs advocating violence, we are entering a very dangerous time.
Sounds like we have a bunch of cornered rabid dogs here: boast, bluster, threat, rage, foaming at the mouth and ranting. Keep them surrounded in the corner and clinically pick them off one-by-one while protecting everyone from their murderous intentions.
There's is not a cureable disease once the infection gets to this advanced stage. They need to be permanently isolated from society....as we would with any member of a group betraying attacking and killing his fellows. Thereafterwards a program of vaccination can truly begin to ensure the disease is eradicated and no one ever sinks into such a pitifull state of intellectual inertia, material decadence, emotional chaos and spiritual decay again.
Heather, thank you again for the clear road map. I am finding it harder as the days progress to keep a positive outlook. Oddly, as long as trump opens his mouth, the more he shovels shit over facts. I know there is nothing that would change the mind of a trumper at this point, unless trump were to wake up one morning as a black man, so I've basically written then off. I feel the violence, or atleast the idle threat of which may get those Democrats off the couch and out to the polls to vote. The expression "vote as if your life depends on it", should be the battle cry for 2020. More than ever before.
The West Coast is facing multiple and raging forest fires which are threatening communities throughout the region and my heart goes out to those having to flee their homes, the animals trapped and panicking, surrounded by flame and incinerated, those that are further away and put themselves in danger with every breath they take. From this distance seeing photographs of "red sky" in San Fransisco, and not just at night but 24hrs a day, leave me with a similar feeling to the fire at Notre Dame in Paris.
However, on this issue we would be well to remember a couple of less convenient things that are perhaps thought a little inconvenient.
Firstly, any biologist will tell you that the destruction of trees by fire from California to Oregan and beyond is part of the natural process of regeneration. Some trees seed cones only break open under extreme heat! Human settlement is not a factor that nature takes into account. I'm afraid that it is up to us to adapt to nature on this and fit in with its rules.
Secondly, we are not the first peoples to inhabit the west coast and a good look should be taken at the methods used to control the destruction of forests developed by the Native Peoples who have been managing these forests for the last 12-40000 years, depending on which archeologist you follow. They systematically used fire to create small burns that cleared the brush, stopped overcrowding by new shoots aand saved the mature and maturing trees in a relatively open forest. At the time the had the manpower to do the job and maintain their boreal agribusiness. Its is difficult to do this by machine and chemicals create other problems. Man has to get out there to do his bit and allow coexistence in harmony between his activities and the omnipresent and overarching forces of nature. (Those want to read further on this might try Kat Anderson's "Tending the wild". She has been trying to get California to move in this direction for some time.)
It is of course evident that our global economic activities and its effect on climate are making the forest fire problem significantly worse. However, for once there is also a grain of truth that cannot be ignored in what Trump is saying this time about poor forest management and the need to clear the unwanted brush which is feeding the blaze.