Fascism may be here

[billy.pilgrim]

"GOP: "How Dare You Tell the Truth!"
The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate"

https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartm ... dium=email



GOP: "How Dare You Tell the Truth!"
The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate. It scares off both researchers, reporters, and opinion writers…


"She thought she was doing the right thing, tracking down the source of deadly lies that killed a half-million Americans and almost led to the overthrow of the US government.

Little did she know that the very people whose behavior she was studying would use the power of government to try to destroy her work, funding, and even her personal life and reputation.

University of Washington disinformation researcher Kate Starbird learned the hard way: according to The Washington Post she’s been sued — along with multiple other disinformation-studying academics — by groups, sites, and people who are, in many cases, affiliated with some of the more prolific purveyors of disinformation on the web.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is using the awesome power of the state to threaten disinformation researchers with jail if they don’t drop what they’re doing and submit to onerous subpoenas for correspondence and testimony.

These demands cost them time and money while elevating them into the crosshairs of rightwing trolls and lone-wolf stochastic terrorists.

How and why is this happening?

The “party of ideas” has abandoned that quaint sobriquet from the Reagan and Paul Ryan eras, replacing it with a vigorous embrace of pure lies:

— The 2020 election was stolen.
— Voter fraud by Black people is rampant and must be stopped.
— Climate change is not caused by fossil fuels.
— Gays, lesbians, and trans people want to “convert” your kids.
— Public school teachers are part of a union-based communist conspiracy.
— Cutting billionaire taxes helps working class people.
— Teaching American history injures white children.
— Covid is like the flu and the vaccine is dangerous.
— Expanding Medicare or regulating Big Pharma will break our healthcare system.
— Russia didn’t help Trump.
— The media has a liberal bias.
— Public schools have failed.
— Abortions and birth control cause cancer, infertility, and regret.
— January 6th wasn’t a traitorous coup attempt.

Little mini-industries are devoted to each of these lies, building profitable niches in the rightwing ecosystem both online and in political spaces.

Often funded by democracy-skeptical rightwing billionaires and online donations from Republican grassroots followers, their messages are amplified by social media algorithms because their very outrageousness increases the screen time they produce.

The lies and misinformation industry really took off with the 2016 presidential campaign, and the academic effort to study it began at the same time, when it was revealed that Russia was using Facebook and Twitter to push anti-Hillary and pro-Trump propaganda.

Since then, people and organizations generating and spreading these lies have moved into public health via Covid and used deception and faux grass-roots groups to go after voting rights and public education with a vengeance.

And they very much do not like being called out for the lies and misinformation they generate and spread.

Most people would rather be punched in the face than served with a subpoena demanding 8 years of correspondence, including notes that may be highly personal, that can then be aired in public by grandstanding politicians.

In addition to the embarrassment, the attorneys’ costs alone can break a middle class person. And being named or dragged before a congressional committee puts a bulls-eye on a person’s back, sometimes leading to death threats, vandalism of their home, swatting attempts, and actual break-ins and physical violence.

"The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate. It scares off both researchers, reporters, and opinion writers.

As William Shirer, the historian who lived in Germany during the early years of Hitler’s rise to power, wrote in his seminal Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:

“In Nazi parlance, ‘educated’ meant ‘intimidated’— to a point where all would accept docilely the Nazi dictatorship and its barbarism.”

In that context, the MAGA wing of the GOP is devoted to “education.”'

[Vrede too]

Federal judge strikes down Florida’s ban on Medicaid funding for transgender treatment

Cool, but Fascist DerSantis doesn't care. Florida taxpayers are footing the legal bills and DerSantis gets RW brownie points twice over - first for the bigotry, then for being a victim of a "librul" judge.

[Vrede too]

Drag-themed burger joint scores win against Ron DeSantis

For a guy who wants to win the presidency in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been doing a lot of losing lately. He’s lost to a cartoon mouse, is losing considerable ground to a twice-indicted cartoon supervillain, lost the plot during a Twitter Spaces event that more closely resembled blindfolded donkey surgery than a campaign launch, and now his robo-chortling ass has been handed to him by a drag-themed hamburger stand.

In May, iconic diner Hamburger Mary’s sued DeSantis and the state of Florida in order to halt enforcement of a new anti-drag law, citing violations of its First Amendment rights and a dip in reservations stemming from the restrictions it faced.

And Hamburger Mary’s has won—at least for the time being. Which is awesome, and nearly as exciting as Ron DeSantis losing. Again....

Tbh, I'm more impressed that a drag-themed burger joint exists than I am that those drag queens beat up Fascist DerSantis. The latter is becoming surprisingly easy to do.

[Vrede too]

https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartm ... -truth-a1b

GOP: "How Dare You Tell the Truth!"
The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate. It scares off both researchers, reporters, and opinion writers…

Did someone say "fascism"?

Trump hits the panic button: Antisemitic attacks on special counsel Jack Smith betray desperation

As detailed in historian George Fredrickson's landmark book "Racism: A Short History," there is a complex and overlapping relationship between the "religious" antisemitism of the European Middle Ages, the racist and white supremacist project of white-on-black chattel slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and then the Nazism and racial antisemitism of the 20th century. This translates into a type of path dependency, if not inevitable outcome: As the "conservative" movement becomes increasingly racist and white supremacist, it then becomes increasingly antisemitic.

(lots of frightening details and insightful analysis)

... Antisemitism, like other forms of racism and white supremacy, must be exposed and directly engaged if it is to be driven out of American life. When Trump or one of his MAGA spokespeople or some other member of today's right-wing "conservative" movement summons up language about "the globalists" and/or "George Soros" and "the deep state" and "puppet masters," simply replace those words and phrases with "Jews." Their claims and language still cohere but the antisemitic intent and menace behind them are revealed. Naked without the camouflage of rhetorical evasion or semantic smokescreens, the implicit and implied are made explicit and clear.

[Vrede too]

Fascist DerSantis and the GQP hurt the FL economy:

Major Pole-Dancing Convention Cancels Florida Event Due To Ron DeSantis' Anti-LGBTQ Laws
The governor and White House hopeful recently signed a flurry of legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including one law that targets drag shows.

[Vrede too]

https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartm ... -truth-a1b

GOP: "How Dare You Tell the Truth!"
The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate. It scares off both researchers, reporters, and opinion writers…

Yeah, it's really bad.

Ron DeSantis Attacks Trump for Promising to Protect LGBTQ+ People from Terrorists

A new ad released by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign celebrates the anger of LGBTQ+ Americans at his homophobic and transphobic policies. Perhaps more disturbing, it also attacks former President Donald Trump for promising to protect LGBTQ+ people from hate crimes and terror attacks.

The latest ad released through the DeSantis War Room account on Twitter opens with Trump’s 2016 speech at the Republican National Convention. There, Trump promised, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.”

While Trump’s comments sparked skepticism at the time, which was later confirmed by anti-trans policies in office, the context when he said them had been unmistakable. Months prior, a mass shooter killed 49 people at Pulse night club in Orlando, Fla., in what remains the deadliest attack ever victimizing LGBTQ+ Americans. The shooter pledged allegiance to ISIS, feeding sentiments the mass murder was both a hate crime and a terrorist attack.

DeSantis now serves as governor of Florida, and earlier this month recognized the anniversary as “a horrific act of terrorism against the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities.”

But it was a slew of other actions by DeSantis that the latest ad chose to spotlight. That included signing a slate of laws viewed as attacks on Florida’s queer and transgender community.

It’s unclear if DeSantis’ campaign made the ad or simply shared it.

The ad, which oddly splices photos of Christian Bale's character Patrick Bateman from American Psycho in with those of DeSantis, relishes in criticism of DeSantis-backed laws....

It’s the early footage of Trump promising a safe America for trans people after the Pulse attack that generated pushback among many conservative media commentators.

“Why is Team DeSantis attacking Trump for… saying he will protect LGBTQ people from terrorism” tweeted Brad Polumbo, editor-in-chief of BASED Politics. “How is that…bad? And would DeSantis NOT protect LGBT people from terrorism as president?!?”

Polumbo, who is out, tagged DeSantis and members of his campaign communications team. None have responded yet.

The ad though seems to relish media commentary that paints him as hateful and soulless.

“This governor does not care,” reads a pull quote in the ad.

That comes before another odd editing choice slicing a photo of Brad Pitt playing Achilles in Troy. Achilles’ story, of note, has been widely read as one of a gay warrior angered by the death of his lover Patroclus.

(ad)

Note: Under the new Twitter rules I can watch the ad in the original DeSantis War Room tweet posted in this article. I'm not able to when some other tweeter posts it and comments as in the articles below:

HuffPo:
GOP Group Tears Apart Ron DeSantis For 'Homophobic,' 'Desperate' Anti-LGBTQ Ad
Log Cabin Republicans, an organization representing LGBT conservatives, described the 2024 hopeful's policy positions as "dangerous."

UPROXX:
Ron DeSantis Seems To Want Everyone To Think He’s A Bigger Bigot Than Trump And Also The New Version Of Patrick Bateman From ‘American Psycho,’ For Some Reason

Ron DeSantis posts most deranged, unhinged, psychotic, homophobic video any candidate has ever posted. Guy is a complete nut job.

Bill Kristol

The DeSantis message is kind of amazing: "You might have thought Trump is a bigot, but occasionally he seems to say non-bigoted things. I'll be all bigotry all the time!"

Jonathan Swan

Truly one of the weirdest videos I’ve ever seen a politician put out. Also, splicing images of DeSantis alongside images of shirtless and masked men… does not quite send the anti-LGBTQ message apparently intended.

DeSantis may not even make it to Iowa. This is embarrassing.

Fta:

... Then again, how tough is DeSantis if he won’t even call Trump out for Jan. 6?

[neoplacebo]

I thought this piece "There's No Such Thing As A Conservative Intellectual - Only Apologists For Right Wing Power" is good. It's a pretty long read, but I found it rather interesting. And sadly true.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/theres-no-th ... 01070.html

[billy.pilgrim]

I thought this piece "There's No Such Thing As A Conservative Intellectual - Only Apologists For Right Wing Power" is good. It's a pretty long read, but I found it rather interesting. And sadly true.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/theres-no-th ... 01070.html

The sample I squinted through looked good. I'll come back after this cataract surgery recovery is over.

"and other right-wing imprints in recent years are almost invariably distinguished by their numbing sameness: a shrill cry of victimhood, a hunt for scapegoats, a tone that alternates between hysteria and heavy sarcasm, and a recipe for salvation cribbed from Republican National Committee talking points and Heritage Foundation issue briefs. The fact that they sometimes hit the bestseller list is principally due to the well-funded conservative media-entertainment complex's bulk-purchase scam.

The vast majority of these efforts are the products of political operatives, talk-show entertainers and the ghostwriters for hack politicians eyeing a presidential run. What is chiefly distinguishable about the output of self-styled conservative intellectuals is that their academic credentials and scholarly pretensions often gain them reviews in the prestige media, presumably on the basis of their importance. This month, the New York Times reviewed "Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future," by Patrick J. Deneen, a lecturer at Notre Dame."

[Vrede too]

I thought this piece "There's No Such Thing As A Conservative Intellectual - Only Apologists For Right Wing Power" is good. It's a pretty long read, but I found it rather interesting. And sadly true.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/theres-no-th ... 01070.html

Wow. Thanks. I am both heartened by the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of modern conservatism and depressed by the power it wields and may wield in the near future.

About the author, interesting Repub: Mike Lofgren.

Found as a result of a concept that billy.pilgrim happened to quote, "the well-funded conservative media-entertainment complex's bulk-purchase scam":

The myth of the conservative bestseller

Related:

Dictatorship? How Hitler, Stalin and Trump show it’s easier than you think
Andrea Chalupa discusses her graphic novel, co-authored with Sarah Kendzior, about authoritarianism and its dangers



Details from Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think! -

[O Really]

"The Triumph of the Age of the Idiot
The Lesson We Refuse To Learn — And Why It’s Destroying Our Civilization at Light Speed"

https://eand.co/the-triumph-of-the-age- ... c3ede7fa32

"Everything the far right touches dies"

[Vrede too]

"The Triumph of the Age of the Idiot
The Lesson We Refuse To Learn — And Why It’s Destroying Our Civilization at Light Speed"

https://eand.co/the-triumph-of-the-age- ... c3ede7fa32

"Everything the far right touches dies"

Thanks.

Thorough. Insightful. Powerful. I'll be shooting myself in the head now.
"Everything the far right touches dies."

[neoplacebo]

Glad some others found my link as intriguing as I did. I thought that it's a pretty accurate critique of what now represents the GQP.

[Vrede too]

Revealed: Florida Republicans target voter registration groups with thousands in fines
Fines on list given to the Guardian were levied by agency created at Ron DeSantis’s behest to investigate voter fraud, which is rare

Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by Governor Ron DeSantis.

At least 26 groups have cumulatively racked up more than $100,000 in fines since September of last year, according to a list that was provided by Florida officials to the Guardian. The groups include both for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as political parties, including the statewide Republican and Democratic parties of Florida.

The fines, which range from $50 to tens of thousands of dollars, were levied by the state’s office of election crimes and security, a first-of-its-kind agency created at the behest of DeSantis in 2022 to investigate voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and the office has already come under scrutiny for bringing criminal charges against people who appeared to be confused about their voting eligibility.

... A crackdown on third-party voter registration groups is also likely to disproportionately affect Floridians of color, who are about five times more likely to register with third-party groups than white voters are.

“The message is clear, [third-party voter registration organizations] are an endangered species in Florida. And it affects this population disparately,” said Smith, who has been retained by the plaintiffs challenging the voter registration restrictions in federal court....

Ticky-tack "offenses". fascist FL Leg and DeSaster.


New Mississippi law discriminates against Black residents, says DoJ
Law took voting authority from Black residents in Hinds county and Jackson, says DoJ, and created ‘two-tiered system of justice’

GoMerrickGo

[billy.pilgrim]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/ ... 45833.html


"DeSantis’ State Guard turn militaristic"

"Many were told they would volunteer for a revived State Guard with a non-military mission: help Floridians in times of need or disaster."

"Instead, the state’s National Guard trained the volunteers for combat."

Newhouse said he and Soler viewed the program as more of a Federal Emergency Management Agency response team than a National Guard unit, shunning ranks and camouflaged uniforms. He said he saw the State Guard as a resume-builder for college students and a way for veterans and others to continue to serve their communities. By March, however, the state’s vision began to change. That month, state lawmakers and the governor revealed that they wanted to assign the State Guard $89 million to buy boats, planes and helicopters. They wanted a specialized unit within the guard to have police powers and the ability to carry weapons. And they wanted to boost the State Guard to 1,500 members. Instead of being activated only during emergencies within Florida, they could be sent to any state to “protect and defend the people of Florida from threats to public safety.”'

"Unlike the National Guard, State Guard members can’t be deployed by the federal government. They answer only to the governor. Lawmakers in 2022 added stipulations saying that members could only be called up in an emergency and couldn’t operate outside the state. Those requirements were dropped a year later."

"On the morning of June 23, a volunteer who was a retired Marine Corps captain stopped Jennison in the barracks to ask questions about the training that he felt “had not been answered,” the report states."

Immediately afterwards in the chow hall

"he was pulled out of line by two National Guard sergeants and ordered to do push-ups. “He refused, saying, ‘No, I can’t!’ because he is 100% disabled and was in pain from a physical fitness test the day before,” the deputy’s report states. “Then you need to leave and go home!” the sergeants yelled at him, he claimed."

"he said he was pulled out of line by two National Guard sergeants and ordered to do push-ups. “He refused, saying, ‘No, I can’t!’ because he is 100% disabled and was in pain from a physical fitness test the day before,” the deputy’s report states. “Then you need to leave and go home!” the sergeants yelled at him, he claimed. He finally agreed, and a white van pulled up. Not feeling safe, he refused to get in,"

"the sergeants “grabbed him and pushed him into the van.” “He protested that they were assaulting an officer as he tried to exit the van and was told he is not an officer, only a recruit,” the report states. When police inquired, a National Guard lieutenant told a deputy" blah blah blah

There was a witness to the assault and kidnapping

"The sheriff’s deputy closed the case, determining that the retired Marine captain was not assaulted or falsely imprisoned. The former captain quit the State Guard that day. So did the witness."

"Neither Haas nor the governor’s office answered questions about the retired Marine captain’s complaint. They also didn’t answer questions about why volunteers received weapons training."

[Vrede too]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/ ... 45833.html

"DeSantis’ State Guard turn militaristic"

Brownshirts

The Sturmabteilung (literally "Storm Detachment" or Storm Troopers) was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party....

[Vrede too]

"Patriot" DerSantis is at it again:

Second plane carrying migrants lands in California, with officials blaming Florida


Lock "Patriot" DerSantis up!

Yet nothing happened DeSantis after the earlier trick.

Way to go merrick

Abbott and the ex-AZ Gov's earlier tricks, too. You're not the only one to notice:

Gavin Newsom Asks DOJ To Investigate Ron DeSantis’ Migrant Relocation Program
The program is “unconscionable,” the California governor and others said.

... The letter from Newsom, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a Texas sheriff who investigated Florida’s transport of migrants from his county urges Garland to follow up on local investigations into the transports with a federal probe.

“Although separate investigations into potential violations of state laws remain active, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) has a unique capability to investigate cases where, as here, the scheme stretches from Massachusetts to California and touches upon no fewer than five states,” Thursday’s letter reads....

“It is unconscionable to use people as political props by persuading them to travel to another state based on false or deceptive representations,” the letter reads....

Texas’ Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, one of the letter’s signatories, filed a criminal case last month recommending charges against DeSantis for arranging to transport migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard. Several counts of unlawful restraint were filed, and potential criminal prosecution is currently pending with the county’s district attorney....

Just do it, Merrick.

[Vrede too]

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
-- John Stuart Mill, 1867
https://www.reuters.com/article/factche ... SL1N2PG1EY

How Paramount buried a Vice documentary on Ron DeSantis at Guantanamo Bay

[Vrede too]

Bad news: Crybaby male white supremacists win a round.
Good news: It's TAMU so no one is surprised.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-m-univ ... 48135.html

[GoCubsGo]

Bad news: Crybaby male white supremacists win a round.
Good news: It's TAMU so no one is surprised.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-m-univ ... 48135.html

Effing Texas.

[Vrede too]

Bad news: Crybaby male white supremacists win a round.
Good news: It's TAMU so no one is surprised.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-m-univ ... 48135.html

Effing Texas.

That should be the official state name. Bad week for TAMU:

Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture

The respected opioid expert made a single vague reference to law enforcement strategies led by the nation's worst Lt Gov being a hindrance to proven harm reduction efforts, which is 100% accurate.
A single student whined to her Texas official parent.
The nation's worst Lt Gov pitched a fit.
TAMU threw the respected opioid expert under the bus.
Penalty eventually revoked, but still.

Patrick and allies = Cancel culture homicidal snowflakes.

She brings in millions in research dollars. She could easily go somewhere else where she will be appreciated. The university will then not have the benefit of her research program.

I am sure other universities are already creating their offer packages.

So according to the students in the classroom who had to speak under anonymity for fear of retaliation, her statements were accurate. That doesn't sound good.

one listener, daughter of a connected person was able to cause this immediate chain reaction. The right will not be happy until every tax funded official walks on pins and needles.

This is reprehensible, but expected from the state of Texas--a state where Republicans are desperate and trying to hold on to power in any way, shape or form. As soon as we fail to maintain free speech for academics, America loses its status as a "free country."

So she was suspended but we don’t know what statements that she made against a politician that hurt his feelings. She was found to not have violated any policy. So this was just used as a form of intimidation to watch what you say because these politicians can dangle the purse strings of how money is sent to these schools. So many things wrong in this whole situation. But, hey it’s Texas.

Another example of republicans of talking out of both sides of their mouths. They wrap themselves as defenders of the First Amendment when it comes to their speech but when anyone else says things critical of them they get censured....censured without a hearing or allowing the professor to provide an explanation of her remarks. This is what happens when you put politicians instead of educators in leadership positions at colleges and universities. Colleges and universities should be bastions of free speech and the free exchange of ideas, thoughts, and opinions without fear of reprisal. Students should feel free to speak their disagreements and or viewpoints without fear.

This is exactly what is occurring in FL. The governor pushes and installs university presidents that have zero background in education. It's all about "woke", his favorite four letter word.