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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Forecast for 2024: fascism, with a 100 percent chance of stupidity/gullibility/mis- and disinformation

The final hours of a tumultuous 2023 are upon us, and in the past few days we've seen many signs and reminders that we'll be facing even stormier weather in 2024. And I'm not talking about weather in the meteorological sense, although that will very likely be newsworthy too, but about social and political weather. The driving forces behind the sociopolitical tempests -- a dangerous combo of fascism and stupidity/gullibility/mis- and disinformation -- are the sorts of things that all too often keep me awake at night. It can't be stated often enough or loudly enough: American democracy has never been in greater danger than it is now, and that is thanks in large part to the Mango Mussolini and his MAGA minions. I was reminded of this fact yet again just yesterday; more on that in a moment.

But first, a confession. Believe it or not, I had every intention of closing out 2023 on this Whirled on a positive, or at least a neutral, note, especially in light of the fact that
many of the events and discoveries of 2023 have been positive, if not outright wondrous when viewed from a scientific, big-picture perspective. But when I sat down to begin writing a celebratory or at least a relatively neutral '23 closeout post, I just couldn't do it. Time was running out for me to keep my 17-plus-year commitment to write at least one post per month, and yet I was at a loss.

True, I could have just typed out a few sentences and ended with a promise to be back with more substantial fare in the new year, as I've done numerous times on New Years' Eves past, but that seemed kind of lame. What to write, then? The problem wasn't that there was a dearth of possible topics; on the contrary there were, as usual, too many potential topics competing furiously with each other across the Interwebs.

And then... inspiration, if you want to call it that, struck in the form of a Facebook post on the timeline of a devout Trumpster and all-around conspiranoid who, like so many other Trumpsters/conspiranoids, seems to also worship at the altar of Vladimir Putin (and every other reich-wing authoritarian asshole on the planet). The composite graphic at the top of this post includes a screen grab, with profile pics redacted and names changed to protect privacy.

The Trumpster began with a proud, tricked-out announcement about "Vladimir Putin's letter to the world." Immediately following the main post was a link to
a fringe-site article quoting this alleged letter from Putin.

Dear inhabitants of our beautiful planet Earth,

I, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, decided to address all of you directly, bypassing diplomats, your leaders and journalists. In Russia, there is a so-called “Ural exchange”, where it is forbidden to lie, deceive and exaggerate. Therefore, I will speak very honestly so that everyone will be convinced of the truth of my words.

Russia is a big and rich country, its most important value is more than 150 million people who live in a territory where justice is above all. We don’t need new territories.

We have energy and all other resources are abundant.

Since the time of the Great Tartar and the Great Mughals, the peoples of Northern Eurasia have not developed because of the onslaught of the Crusades and the colonization of America, Africa, India, or the drug addiction of China, but because of their hard work and pacifism.

Anyone who knows Russian understands that “Russian” is an adjective that refers to all the peoples of our country. Russian Slavs, Russian Tatars, Russian Jews, Russian Evans, etc. All Russian at heart, even if their culture, language and way of life differ. We honor this diversity of unity.

The Russian people are once again forced to sacrifice their lives to protect the world from Nazism and fascism. We exchanged 50 of our prisoners of war for 50 Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers were treated in our hospitals, given three full meals a day and returned home.

We received Russian soldiers who had their fingers and genitals cut off. Not even the Nazis did that in the last war.

We will present this evidence in a future process. Shame on everyone who supports these scumbags now.

Your leaders in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere have sided with these subhumans who put civilians, pregnant women and children above themselves in combat and deliberately want POWs. I can’t imagine any sane person supporting these monsters.

And your Bidens, Scholz, Macron and other dark democrats * not only protect criminals, but actively arm them, provide them with money that is not enough to lower prices in your countries. Prices are rising, the world is collapsing, but not because the Russians are cleansing Europe of Nazi evil spirits, but because you are silent and even support the new wave of Nazism. This time we will not go to Berlin, we will stop at our historical borders, and all the Nazi evil spirits that your leaders open the door to will give you a new “crystal” life, as the Nazis did, adding circumcision of the reproductive organs to it.

I appeal to all who want to live and work in the world, raise children and socialize with people all over the world. Help Russia fight the new cancer – Ukrainian Nazism. Not Ukraine, where peaceful and hard working people live, but Nazism, fueled by your US taxes and NATO hawks. If your leaders support Nazism, push them over the edge, take power into your hands.

Ukrainian Nazis are protected from bullets by civilians, your rulers also decided to transfer the burden of high prices and future troubles to the population under the pretext of terrible Russia. In Ukraine, just like you, the Nazis live well behind the backs of ordinary citizens, and ordinary citizens have to suffer – these are the same crimes in Ukraine as in the West. We have not broken any of our promises and your leaders have stolen 300 billion dollars and Euros from the Russian people.

They steal the property of our country’s citizens all over the world, you deliberately want our soldiers, ban the Russian language, attack the Church of God. I see that in countries where leaders are tightening sanctions against Russia, there is a growing awareness of what is happening and a wave of protests is spreading”.

Though fairly consistent with the general narrative of lies and disinformation spewing from Putin and his army of Russian bots, the whole thing looks and sounds phony-baloney to me. A fairly extensive Web search to verify the authenticity of the letter revealed nothing but the fact that the screed was posted on numerous reich-leaning fringe web sites. There were a couple of non-mainstream sites that at least acknowledged that the letter might not have been penned by Putin (even though the writers of those posts said the letter made sense), but so far there is zilch on the mainstream news sites or the fact-checking sites. (I will continue to search for info and will update this post as necessary.)

I can just hear the smug conspiranoid chorus now: "Well, of course there's nothing about this powerful message on the MSM! What do you expect from them? They're afraid of the truth!"

But if you ask me, anyone who places her or his faith in Trump or Putin wouldn't know "truth" if it sat on their smug faces.

Regardless of the letter's origins, the worship of Putin and the scapegoating of Ukraine is playing right into Vlad's evil, blood-stained hands.
This December 28, 2023 piece on the EUvsdisinfo site accurately paints Putin as the "Bad Santa" of disinformation, and sums up many of the reasons that it is utter folly to believe the Putin party line about Ukraine and the state of the world.

For example, not surprisingly in the Kremlin’s twisted alternative reality, Ukraine is still very bad and doing very, very, very bad things. It’s still a Nazi (opens in a new tab), terrorist (opens in a new tab), Satanic country that commits war crimes, fakes Russian war crimes, exploits children for sexual trafficking, harvests and sells human organs and even children’s organs, and is preparing covert biological and nuclear attacks to order to blame their consequences on Russia. Not exactly the sort of thing that puts one in the holiday spirit.

Yet more ridiculous whoppers lie at the bottom of this sordid stocking. According to the spinners of Russia’s nightmarish fantasy tales, Western countries are also still very bad and doing bad, bad things. Devious Westerners have nothing else to do than to be
Russophobic and to spread instability and chaos (opens in a new tab) wherever they can. In case you’re wondering, when pro-Kremlin commentators call you Russophobic, it often means you are daring to oppose Russian bullying of the country’s smaller neighbours...

For additional factual perspective on the specific concerns that our Facebook Trumpster has about Ukraine, here's something from USA Today, published on July 24, 2023. The point of reference in the article is a viral social media post supporting the ludicrous claim that Putin invaded Ukraine to stop bioweapons, child trafficking, and money laundering.

This post misstates the reasons Putin put forth as justification for the Ukraine invasion, though Putin's real reasons have also been based on false claims.  Statistics also show that Ukraine is far from the world's capital of money laundering or child trafficking. And the claim about bioweapons labs has been disproven as a conspiracy theory.

On the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, Russia
launched its invasion into Ukraine, with Putin dubbing it a “special military operation.”

Putin did not make any statement that Ukraine was the “main hub” for money laundering, child trafficking or bioweapons labs. But his stated reasons for invading
were also false.

And once again I can hear the smug chorus: "USA Today? Mainstream propaganda. What a gullible sheeple you are, Cosmic Connie."

But Putin is an evil SOB, no matter how intelligent and rational the reich-wing conspiranoids believe him to be, and no matter how much the culture warriors on the American reich want to see him as a humanitarian and a brave defender of "traditional" Western social and spiritual values. An August 21, 2023 opinion piece from The Messenger sums it up well.

Let’s not mince words. Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, and his regime are evil. They are, according to several dictionary synonyms, morally bad, wicked, depraved, harmful, injurious and offensive.

But there’s more to Putin and his regime than simply being defined by these modifiers. Putin and his comrades know they are evil, and they openly admit to and revel in this fact.

They know they are killing thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians, destroying hospitals, schools and museums, kidnapping children, and poisoning Ukraine’s environment. They know they are starving millions of people in the Global South. They know they’ve killed scores of Russian oppositionists and jailed thousands. They know that Ukrainian and Russian prisoners are being tortured and executed. They know they’ve
amassed fortunes while the population of Russia has gotten poorer.

Neither Putin nor his minions denies these facts. They only deny that these atrocities are, in fact, atrocities. Quite the contrary, Putin and Co. — and their Western apologists — claim that theirs are actions of mercy and liberation and goodwill. That’s not surprising. Adolf Hitler also believed he was doing the world a favor by exterminating Jews, Roma and Slavs.

And there's no doubt that Putin has an entire army of useful idiots in the American reich. From The Guardian, March 16, 2023:

As Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine has faced major setbacks since it began a year ago, the Kremlin has deployed new disinformation themes and tactics to weaken US support for Kyiv with help from conservative media stars and some Republicans in Congress, according to new studies and experts.

Moscow’s disinformation messages have included widely debunked conspiracy theories about US bioweapon labs in
Ukraine, and pet themes on the American right that portray the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as an ally in backing traditional values, religion and family in the fight against “woke” ideas...

...Russia experts warn that Putin’s rhetoric and Kremlin messaging on these themes is far removed from the reality in Russia.

“One of the glaring mistakes of far-right propagandists is to view Vladimir Putin as some kind of defender of Christendom, of family values and as a protector of the white race,” said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They repeat the Kremlin talking points and get excited about the Russian ‘gay propaganda’ law. Nothing could be further from reality.

“Today Russia is the leader in Europe of high divorce rates, HIV infections, and low church attendance and practice.”

[Democratic Senator Chris] Murphy expects Putin to count “on the [American] right wing to advance Russian propaganda and exploit our internal divisions.”

You get the idea. The big takeaway here is that if they're eligible and registered, stupid, gullible, misinformed, and disinformed folks can vote too -- so we have to outvote them. Together, I think, we can face the storms that are coming.

I needn't belabor the point any further for now; it's getting late, and I have some
black-eyed peas and collards to cook up (no cornbread, though, because we forgot to pick up a mix at the store). And later on Ron and I are going to watch the corny, sometimes eye-rolling, but nonetheless lovable Garry Marshall flick, New Year's Eve, while we try to keep our dogs from getting too hysterical over the fireworks. I hope you have a safe and happy New Years Eve and a great start to your 2024, and I'll see you next year.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Trump 2.0, Project 2025, and Agenda 47: a truly fascist nightmare in the making

 ...Donald Trump... is now so openly fascist he may soon start wearing his Mussolini Underoos on the outside of his pants.
~ Aldous J. Pennyfarthing,
Daily Kos, November 9, 2023

You might have noticed that the quiet parts are no longer merely being said out loud, but are now being shouted from the rooftops, in re the fascist aspirations (fascpirations?) of 2024 GQP (un)presidential front runner Donald John Trump and his cartel of powerful, deep-pocketed allies. Trump and gang have made no secret of the many ways in which they intend to crap all over the United States Constitution, and totally dismantle American democracy, if Trump wins another term in the White House.

Together, the Trump campaign's disturbingly authoritarian
Agenda 47 and the alarming Project 2025 have all of the makings of a fascist nightmare in progress, a dystopian novel come to life. Moreover, in the unlikely event that Trump does not win the rethuglican nomination, we're still not off the hook; the backers of the extremely well-funded and well-organized Project 2025 -- the theocratic Heritage Foundation -- have briefed not only the Trump campaign but those of the distant-second rethuglican candidates, Nikki Haley and Free State of Floriduh Governor Ron DeSantis. It seems pretty clear that the Heritage Foundation is determined to force its Christofascist agenda on the American people in the event that any rethuglican wins the White House in 2024.

The nightmare features of Trump 2.0, including the plot to dismantle America and recreate it in the Trumpublican/Talibangelical image, are not really new news, of course, but they were pushed to the front in the news cycle again due to
a report earlier this month from Washington Post. By now, everyone who has been paying even superficial attention to reports and commentary across the media spectrum has at least a glimmer of a notion that a second Trump term would be a vicious revenge tour. Unfortunately, it appears that many folks are totally fine with this. Trump may be an authoritarian asshole, but he's their kind of authoritarian asshole.

Behind the curtain there's not a timid little bald man, but an army of aggressive Trump loyalists
In case you can't get past the WaPo paywall to read the report cited above, there are scads of other sources covering this matter. Axios,
in a piece published on November 13, 2023, is a good place to start if you want to catch up. The article provides a disquieting summary of the preparations being made behind the metaphorical curtain for a second Trump term.

If Trump were to win, thousands of Trump-first loyalists would be ready for legal, judicial, defense, regulatory and domestic policy jobs. His inner circle plans to purge anyone viewed as hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls "Agenda 47."

  • The people leading these efforts aren't figures like Rudy Giuliani. They're smart, experienced people, many with very unconventional and elastic views of presidential power and traditional rule of law.

Behind the scenes: The government-in-waiting is being orchestrated by the Heritage Foundation's well-funded Project 2025, which already has published a 920-page policy book from 400+ contributors. Think of it as a transition team set in motion years in advance.

  • Heritage president Kevin Roberts tells us his apparatus is "orders of magnitude" bigger than anything ever assembled for a party out of power.

The late poet Maya Angelou is often quoted as having said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Although many folks voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020 -- and plan to vote for him again in 2024 -- because he repeatedly showed the world exactly who he is, there were many others, at least in 2016, who were in a state of denial, not believing that he would be all that bad once he assumed the office of POTUS. But he was by most measures far worse than even many of the "alarmists" had expected, and a second term would be even more ghastly. From Axios again:

Here's what the early days of a second Trump presidency would look like, based on his words and our conversations with Trump insiders:

  1. His top obsession will be the Justice Department, the FBI and the intelligence community — all of which he thinks conspired to investigate him, thwart him, screw him. He's been very clear that he's willing to unleash these agencies against political enemies.
  2. The next priority will be the Department of Homeland Security and the border, with plans to erect sprawling detention camps, "scour the country for unauthorized immigrants," and "deport people by the millions per year," The New York Times reports. We're told Trump's top criterion for immigration officials will be whoever promises to be most aggressive. Trump has told allies he's confident the Supreme Court will back his most draconian moves.
  3. As first reported by Jonathan Swan for Axios last year, a key tool for Trump's "revenge term" would be the use of Schedule F personnel powers to wipe out employment protections for tens of thousands of civil servants across the federal government. Trump allies want a deep and wide purge of the professional staff that often serves across new administrations.
  4. Officials close to the Pentagon tell us they're worried about a plan, articulated by former Trump official Russ Vought in the Heritage document, to direct the National Security Council to "rigorously review all general and flag officer promotions to prioritize the core roles and responsibilities of the military over social engineering and non-defense related matters, including climate change, critical race theory [and] manufactured extremism." Indeed, the Trump allies see obstacles to remove at every level of every agency.

The fourth item on that list, regarding the military, should be a matter of deep concern for anybody who cares about national security. And since we're on the topic of the military for the moment, anyone who thinks that Alabama GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville's ongoing blockade of military promotions is really just about abortion access isn't paying attention. On November 7, 2023, The Guardian published an opinion piece detailing the ways that Tuberville is in reality the useful idiot of both Trump and the Heritage Foundation, with goals much more far-reaching than merely sabotaging reproductive rights.

Idiots can still be useful idiots. There are larger purposes involved in [Tuberville's] scam kulturkampf. His subversion of the military is not just collateral damage. It is not the unintended consequence, but the overriding motive. His abortion ban is both context and pretext. Tuberville has opened Trump’s strategy for a second term to replace the professional class of officers pledged to the constitution with a collection of flunkies who will salute his command, legal or not. Tuberville is a blunt instrument, but, however crude, he is the available tool.

The Heritage Foundation – which has produced a
blueprint for a Trump second term, the 2025 Transition Project, which includes firing the entire federal civil service and replacing it with Trump loyalists, and invoking the Insurrection Act on day one of Trump II to deploy the military against political dissidents – has evidently been behind Tuberville’s attack on the military. It circulated a letter of several far-right ex-military figures to Senate leaders demanding that they “Support Senator Tuberville’s Fight Against Woke Military”, which they denounced for “advancing the leftwing social agenda”.

Heritage published an
article by one of its fellows claiming that Tuberville is the “one man” standing in the way of a dastardly conspiracy led by Biden: “Replacing the officer class of police and military ranks with politicized ideologues who will bend to a transformative dogma is a strategy that has worked in places like the Soviet Union, Cuba and Venezuela … Tuberville, thus, is stopping the promotion of woke apparatchiks.” Like Trump, the Heritage cadres project their own scheme on to their enemies.

There are indicators that even the republicans in the Senate are finally growing impatient with Tuberville, but he has already done significant damage.

The
Axios report concludes with a dire warning.

The bottom line: This Trump-allied machine has the most power over the formation of a potential future government of any group in U.S. history. Trump, if elected, will leverage it to do things with government that none of us has seen in our lifetime.

That's the kind of stuff that should be keeping you awake at night.

The gaffes are good for laughs, but the plans (and the fetish for brutality) are anything but funny
The conservative Bulwark has had a lot to say as well about Trump's dick-tatorial wet dreams. In
a November 13, 2023 piece, Charlie Sykes warned that while Trump's numerous verbal blunders are a target-rich environment and provide ample fodder for comedians of all stripes, we really should be focusing on his clearly stated plans as well as his fetish for brutality. Sykes wrote:

Understandably, it’s tempting to focus on Trump’s gaffes, which are, indeed, a target-rich environment. The stumbles, the bumbles, the confusion.

But the problem with Trump isn’t the gaffes — underneath the verbal clownishness Trump is telling us who he is and exactly what he intends to do.

He genuinely admires the brutality of the Chinese; he finds violence exciting; and he’s a sincere fanboy of the world’s fascists. And he keeps tell[ing] us what his presidency will mean if and when he regains power. There’s no subtlety here.

It’s also no secret what he thinks about his fellow Americans.

To illustrate the latter point about Trump's regard for his fellow Americans, Sykes compared the November 11 Veteran's Day social media messages from Trump and from President Joe Biden. Biden's message on Xitter was clear and simple and decent:

Today, we honor the story of our veterans -- the story of our nation at its best.

On Veterans Day, let's recommit to fulfilling our one sacred obligation as a nation: to prepare those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home.

Trump, on the other hand, had this to say on his exceedingly ill-named platform, Truth Social:

In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran's Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within. Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our Country, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

And Trump amplified his message in a Veterans Day speech, in which he not only repeated the "vermin" comment but also claimed that undocumented immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." He got a lot of blowback for these comments, which are eerily similar to the rhetoric of Hitler and Mussolini, but he and his army of defenders have, not surprisingly, dismissed the criticism. Trump campaign spokesmonster Steven Cheung, for example, told the Washington Post that the critics are snowflakes. From Axios, November 13, 2023:

  • "[T]hose who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Post in a statement.
  • Cheung later said he was referencing their "sad, miserable existence" instead of their "entire existence," the Post noted.
  • Oh, okay. So that makes it all right. Trump and his authoritarian army will only crush the "sad, miserable" existence of critics instead of the critics' "entire" existence.

    On
    the Bulwark piece, Charlie Sykes continued:

    So, once again, it is essential to pay attention. Trump may be clownish, but the clown car is carrying a neutron bomb. Possibly several.

    Last week,
    the Washington Post detailed how Trump and allies are planning to weaponize the Justice Department to go after his opponents and critics. Trump himself confirmed as much.

    This weekend, we got a deeper glimpse at Trump 2.0 from the NYT: “
    Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans.”

    Former President Donald Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up people living in the United States without legal permission on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

    Camps.

    Sykes later added, "You can't say we have not been warned."

    Asleep or awake?
    The big mystery to me is why so many people still don't seem to be particularly concerned about this whole mess. Whether they consider themselves to be conservative or liberal, republican or Democratic, or essentially apolitical, anybody who really cares about American democracy should be sounding the alarms full blast.

    I hate coming across like one of those intensely annoying conspiranoids who claim that only they and a few others are totally awake and aware, while the masses of sheeple snooze on unaware. Truth is, I don't consider myself to be totally awake and aware about anything. But I am awake and aware enough to understand what Trump and his backers are trying to do to the country I love.
    And so, of course, are millions of other people, but there are also millions for whom all of the above is NBD.

    Like most of us who have been blaring warnings about Trump for years and years, I have been repeatedly accused by Trumpanzees of being an alarmist, a snowflake, a libtard, and a victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome (when in fact supporting Trump is the true derangement). The accusations don't bother me.

    What does bother me is that the US as a nation appears to be sleepwalking towards authoritarianism, in the words of Professor Brian Klaas on a recent episode of "Morning Joe." Klaas said:

    I study the breakdown of democracy, and I don't know how to say this more clearly. We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism, and people are not waking up to this. And the Constitution is not written with magical ink. It is protected by the people who make brave choices during moments of political peril and we are in one of those moments.

    So the question is, do voters wake up as well? Because our political class is not rising to the challenge. They're not distancing themselves and the Republican Party from this rhetoric. They're just sort of pretending like it doesn't exist. And we are literally walking towards a world in which Donald Trump is going to consolidate power, politicize the rule of law, and break down democracy one day at a time, and I think that's something that we have to really grapple with as we head towards the election next year because that is the biggest story in American politics and nothing else comes close.

    It's definitely time for more folks to wake up and smell the fascism.

    The next Big Lie is adding fuel to the fire
    America is still reeling from the effects of Trump's initial Big Lie, i.e., his repeated, obsessive claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen (or "stollen," as he has put it more than once) from him. But as Amanda Carpenter and Deana El-Mallawany wrote in
    a November 15, 2023 report on The Bulwark, Trump's next Big Lie -- his tall tale about "weaponization" of various institutions whose purpose is to uphold the rule of law -- is already here. And not only is it adding fuel to the fire that led to January 6th, it is in certain fundamental ways more dangerous than the original Big Lie.

    The authors warn that we should recognize the power the second Big Lie may hold over the 2024 campaign, as well as its potential to inspire violence the way the original lie did on January 6, 2021. In fact, as detailed on Carpenter's and El-Mallawany's Bulwark piece, the false weaponization claims have already inspired disturbing and credible threats of violence to witnesses and prosecutors in Trump's various legal dramas.

    But the danger to the rule of law cannot be overstated.

    TRUMP’S 2020 LIES WERE AIMED at holding on to power; the damage they caused to the rule of law was collateral. With his 2024 lies, opposition to the rule of law is the very purpose. No one is supposed to be above the law, not even former presidents. Yet Trump resists any form of legal accountability for his acts because, as he has said, “I was always of the opinion that a thing like this couldn’t happen. In other words, you protect your former presidents.”

    Like many aspiring autocrats, Trump is engaging in the democratic process in hopes of becoming powerful enough to subvert it. Should he win the presidency, he will use his powers as both a spear and a shield—both to “
    dismantle” the government and to protect himself from accountability.

    Anyone who is either unconcerned by, or actively supports, Project 2025, Agenda 47, and Trump's whole body of lies and his revenge agenda is very much a part of the problem, and is either willfully blind or not very bright... or is a fascist too. And as I've said many times before and will no doubt say again, anybody who still supports Trump and his allies specifically because of their rhetoric, actions, and plans deserves to live under an authoritarian, fascist regime... but the rest of us do not.

    We have to outvote them.

    Update: December 1, 2023: In a followup to its disturbing November 13 report, Axios revealed on December 1 that it has obtained copies of the exact questionnaires Trump allies are using and that then-President Trump used himself during his final days in office.

    The 2020 "Research Questionnaire," which we obtained from a Trump administration alumnus, was used in the administration's final days — when most moderates and establishment figures had been fired or quit, and loyalists were flexing their muscles. Questions include:

    • "What part of Candidate Trump's campaign message most appealed to you and why?"
    • "Briefly describe your political evolution. What thinkers, authors, books, or political leaders influenced you and led you to your current beliefs? What political commentator, thinker or politician best reflects your views?"
    • "Have you ever appeared in the media to comment on Candidate Trump, President Trump or other personnel or policies of the Trump Administration?"

    Axios noted that similar questions are being asked for the Talent Database being assembled by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.

    An alumnus of the Trump White House told us both documents are designed to test the sincerity of someone's MAGA credentials and determine "when you got red-pilled," or became a true believer.

    • "They want to see that you're listening to Tucker, and not pointing to the Reagan revolution or any George W. Bush stuff," this person said.

    Both documents," Axios added, "are striking for their emphasis on what you believe rather than your credentials or accomplishments." Copies of both docs can be viewed at the end of the Axios article (here's that link again).

    Reportedly, Trump himself has been irritated by
    all the attention Heritage and other outside allies have received for, as Axios puts it, "the prefab administration that's being assembled."

    • The Trump campaign's top two officials, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, issued a statement in mid-November saying that "none of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign. We will have an official transition effort to be announced at a later date."
    • "Unless a second term priority is articulated by President Trump himself, or is officially communicated by the campaign," they added, "it is not authorized in any way."

    Um...okay. But I think we've heard and seen enough from Trump himself (and his campaign) to know that he poses a threat of the highest order to American democracy.

    Sunday, October 22, 2023

    Old Glory: banking on reich-wing conspiranoia

     

    Old Glory Bank wraps itself in the American flag and the bogus banner of anti-wokeness to appeal to reich-wingers' grievances and fuel their conspiranoia.

    For years I've been harping on the theme of reich-wing/"conservative"/Christofascist whining -- members of those interrelated tribes are perpetually griping about being "censored" or "cancelled" or "deplatformed" or some such -- so The Great Debanking Narrative, one of the more recent vintages of the same tired old red whine, comes as little surprise.

    The Great Debanking Narrative holds that good, patriotic, law-abiding Americans are being "cancelled" by big banks solely because of their political and/or social and/or religious values. A driving force in this narrative at the moment is a relatively new digital financial institution, based in Oklahoma, that calls itself Old Glory Bank, which uses the debanking issue as its primary marketing hook.

    Formerly the First State Bank of Elmore, Oklahoma, Old Glory was founded by a quartet of reich-wingers. These include conservative political commentator, radio host, former GOP presidential candidate and ardent Trumper/election denier Larry Elder; country music singer and reich-wing zealot/Trump supporter/former Celebrity Apprentice winner John Rich; former Trump HUD secretary "Sleepy" Ben Carson; and former two-term Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin-Christensen, a woman with impeccable reich-wing credentials (anti-LGBTQ... anti-public-school-teachers... anti-affordable-health care... anti-reproductive-rights... but pro-Big-Oil and a Trump ally to boot).

    Old Glory proudly declares that its mission statement is the United States Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, with a focus on the First and Second Amendments. Judging from examples cited in the press release linked to in the previous sentence, that focus is framed in a host of imaginary grievances:

    If the government requests that Old Glory Bank punish or cancel a customer for lawfully attending a protest, Old Glory Bank confirms it will not comply. If the government requests that Old Glory Bank cancel a customer for participating in the American lifestyle and using fossil fuels and lawful firearms, Old Glory Bank states it will not comply.

    I noticed that the press release neglects to mention customers who -- armed with tear gas, stun guns, pepper spray, bear spray, metal bars, flagpoles, baseball bats etc. -- attend a "peaceful tour" of the United States Capitol Building (which is, after all, the people's building!), and break its windows, smear feces on its walls and floors, threaten to murder legislators and the vice president, beat police officers within an inch of their lives, and attempt to violently overthrow the United States government in order to keep their Cheeto Jesus in power. But maybe that wasn't mentioned because it goes without saying that the J6 "patriots" are among the oppressed/repressed/censored/egregiously wronged target market for Old Glory.

    Old Glory Bank has been popping up on my Xitter feed frequently of late, due to its paid ads, most notably
    this one from October 17, 2023:

    Too many law-abiding Americans are having their bank accounts canceled simply because their bank doesn’t like what they stand for. That’s un-American. Old Glory Bank’s mission statement is the Constitution. Open your account today at [old glory bank dot com].

    When one reader expressed cynicism about Old Glory Bank's allegation, the bank responded with a flustercuck of multiple links defending its opinion that good, God-fearing, patriotic Muricans are in fact getting debanked solely because of their anti-woke beliefs and values. That response was copied and pasted several additional times on the thread, and on other Old Glory posts where the bank's allegation was challenged.

    Links that prove... not much at all
    Since I don't believe in presenting multiple links as a flustercuck, I'll break them down for you here [with annotations by me], in the order in which they were (repeatedly) presented by Old Glory Bank. You can follow the links and decide for yourself whether or not they actually prove the allegations or merely document them.

    Before you accuse me of engaging in ad hominem arguments and failing to prove my point, I'll add that I am aware of the fact that my annotations to the link list and my criticisms of the debanked accusers do not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were not targeted by their banks purely for their personal values and beliefs. That said, the only completely honest statement about the accusations against the banks is that we just don’t know for sure. Anecdotal evidence and opinions do not constitute proof.

    Much to the credit of Xitter-at-large, there has been plenty of trolling on the Old Glory ad cited above. Overall the responses are skeptical, with several folks declaring that OGB is most likely just another Trumpian grift. (One naughty wag expressed distrust in a bank that was named after a glory hole.) Apparently Old Glory gave up on responding to every one of the doubters. But at least the remarks have been allowed to stand, so far, so it could be said that OGB is at least honoring its stated commitment to free speech.

    * * * * *

    As you can imagine, the reich-wing media were all agog at the news about the formation of Old Glory Bank. For instance, Western Journal had this to say:

    Financial organizations including PayPal, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, and online fundraisers including GoFundMe have all canceled customers merely because they support conservative causes or traditional American values.

    In June of last year, for instance, two Florida-based banks, BankUnited and Professional Bank,
    canceled President Donald Trump’s accounts after the left falsely accused him of fomenting an “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2020.

    "Falsely" accusing Trump of fomenting an insurrection... yeah, okay. Totally objective reporting there.

    The American Tribune wrote:

    A group composed of Larry Elder, Ben Carson, John Rich, and other American patriots has banded together to buy a bank in Oklahoma, First State Bank of Elmore City, so that they can run it as a bank that caters to ordinary Americans that don’t want to be “debanked” for supporting the same values as their ancestors, as many conservatives, particularly those in the punditry and firearms industries, have been in recent years.

    So it's all about the guns and the punditry (gunditry?).

    The Daily Wire focused its announcement about Old Glory Bank on the evil censorship and "cancellation" of conservatives by Big Tech. Other outlets basically parroted the Old Glory Bank press releases. Press releases are the eternal blessing for lazy journalists.

    Real values or empty words?
    Some might argue that there’s nothing inherently bad about establishing a business based upon specific political/social values or principles, nor with choosing that company’s products or services based on one’s support of those values. It happens all the time, and certainly there are businesses --
    yes, even financial institutions -- that are based on or cater to progressive or liberal or "woke" values such as environmental friendliness or social responsibility. Live and let live, give consumers a wide range of choices, let the market decide, and so forth. And, in general, I would agree with these arguments, but in the case of blatantly right-wing factions these days, there seems to be a glaring double standard.

    For instance -- and I hope you'll pardon what might appear to be a digression -- consider
    the intensive effort by red (MAGA-poisoned) states in the US to seriously restrict ESG (environmental, social, governance) investment of public funds. ESG investing means, in theory, that in addition to financial analysis of the investment, environmental, social, and corporate governance factors are also taken into account.

    Never mind the credible argument, calmly and rationally laid out in
    this February 2023 piece from The New Republic, that the whole "woke investors" thing is mostly a fabrication (the CRT of the investment world?), since the so-called "woke" money managers really care only about their bottom line. The red pols have deemed ESG to be "woke" and they don't like it at all -- partly on general [fascist] principle, and partly or mostly because they reflexively fight anything that might possibly smooth the transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy. Mustn't let the big oil and gas companies down.

    Accordingly, red states from Texas to Florida to West Virginia have labored mightily to stop public pension funds from using ESG as a consideration when making investment decisions, and they have pulled billions from asset management firms such as BlackRock, despite concerns that doing so would cause financial harm. To them, anti-woke values are clearly more valuable than woke ones, potential adverse financial consequences be damned.

    Since we're on the topic of values and principles, let's get back specifically to Old Glory Bank, which proudly proclaims its own values as "American" ones while flagrantly catering specifically to the reich. I wonder, as it seems that others have wondered (judging from the Xitter trolls) if the bank would be equally willing to embrace individuals or companies with blatantly “woke” values such as LGBTQ rights, racial equality, reproductive choice, assault weapons bans and other sensible gun safety measures, the phasing out of fossil fuels in order to address the climate crisis, and the like. And what about flag burners, who are only exercising their First Amendment rights, after all? Or advocates of police defunding/abolition? Would OGB remain true to their slogan, “We stand with you, no matter where you stand”?

    Finally, I think it's appropriate to address Old Glory Bank's general branding as having the customer's best interests at heart, as opposed to the evil big banks. I have to wonder why the reich/republicans -- whose base is clearly the target market for Old Glory Bank -- seem so determined to undermine larger efforts at real, widespread banking reform and consumer protection in general. Yes, I know that unfortunately the banking lobby is so powerful that
    even some Democrats, fearing their reelection chances, joined forces with the republicans in 2018 to weaken banking regulations. But by and large it's the republicans who fight regulation of the banking and finance industries, mainly because they're deeply beholden to Big Banking. Repubs are even trying to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other hard-fought-for consumer protection agencies and initiatives.

    For that matter, the reich/republicans and their allies seem hellbent on
    destroying as many consumer protection agencies, laws, regulations, and practices as possible, taking us back to the bad old daze. Xitter owner Elon Musk has been preaching the word about the urgent need for "comprehensive deregulation." One of my favorite Xitter wags, Mrs. Betty Bowers, responded to one of Musk's tweets a couple of days ago:

    Bring back: Lead paint. Asbestos. Flammable pajamas. No seatbelts. Canned tuna fish with mercury. Grocery stores bleaching chicken to make it look less rancid. Car companies, like Tesla, endangering drivers with exploding cars. Payday loans that steal from people.

    Viewed in that greater context, Old Glory Bank's expressed concern for protecting their customers in any substantial way is hypocritical, and their overall mission amounts to little more than grandstanding on behalf of reich-wing identity politics. They may be fooling MAGAts, but they aren't fooling the rest of us.

    "Anti-wokeness" is a growth industry
    The marketing strategy for Old Glory Bank is rooted in two intertwining myths: (1) that the American reich holds the undisputed monopoly on patriotism, faith, support for liberty and freedom of speech, support for first responders and the military, concern about national security, and every other fine American value you could name; and (2) that because of their embrace of these stellar values, the reich are being grievously oppressed by the government, the courts, the media, Big Tech, the education system, and now, the financial system as well. In this garbled hero/martyr narrative, every aspect of American life has been "weaponized" against the good guys.

    As it happens, Old Glory Bank wasn't the first bank to attempt to do the very thing they accuse big banks of doing: weaponizing the financial system. In late 2022, a banking startup called GloriFi collapsed before it had even begun.
    From Rolling Stone, November 21, 2022:

    Pitching itself as a financial institution that allowed one to be “free to celebrate your love of God and country without fear of cancellation,” GloriFi’s marketing read more like a campaign ad than an enticing APR offer on a new credit card. Highlights from the “about us” page include: “OUR BILL OF RIGHTS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE” and “WE ARE ONE NATION UNDER GOD.” 

    In its short tenure GloriFi, managed to launch checking and savings accounts as well as credit cards, with plans to offer mortgages and insurance in a future that will no longer take place. Founder and CEO
    Toby Neugebauer pitched plans to offer gun owners discounts on home insurance, credit cards made of shell casing material, and assistance paying legal bills if customers shot someone in self-defense. Over the summer, GloriFi secured conservative commentator Candace Owens as a co-founder and spokesperson for the brand. 

    Wow... there are those gun-nut/ammosexual values again. These people are obsessed with their firearms. Alas, GloriFi was unable to put its real-world money where its grandstanding mouth was. Reported chaos among staff and financiers, and clashes with Texas financial regulators, caused it to miss its planned launch date several times. The drinking habits of Toby Neugebauer, who converted his Dallas mansion into the company headquarters, didn't help matters at all. In the end, GloriFi went down in a blaze of... well, not exactly glory.

    But the idea of "anti-woke" banking just wouldn't die, and along came Old Glory, proudly waving its colors and its ideology. And it's not just banking that has captured the anti-woke crapitalist imagination. There is a whole parallel economy developing in America, composed of firms whose stated mission is to fight the perceived threat of "wokeness" -- you know, such devilish concepts as LGBTQ rights, racial and ethnic diversity and equality, reproductive autonomy for women, rational gun safety laws, acceptance of climate science, and so on.

    But again... not surprising. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, fascists gotta fash.

    Debunking the debanking narrative? Maybe it's just the algorithms
    Reich-wing whining aside,
    there are plenty of reasons to hate big banks. I get it. At one time or another, many if not most consumers (me included) have been frustrated by banking policies and practices, such as outrageous fees for every activity or mistake; incomprehensible and seemingly arbitrary terms and conditions; lousy customer service; systemic racial bias in loan practices; big banks' support of predatory lenders; lack of transparency; data breaches; and on and on. And yes, banks have been known to close customers' accounts for reasons that don't make sense and/or that the banks refuse to divulge to bewildered account holders.

    And, indeed, if any of the above-mentioned reich-wing whiners' accounts were closed solely because of their political beliefs or their faith, that is unacceptable, no matter how strongly I may disagree with those beliefs.

    But from what I have seen so far, there is no hard evidence that right-wingers/conservatives/religious (translate: right-wing Christians) are being targeted for those reasons. What we have instead is only their own and their allies' anecdotal evidence, rooted, as always, in
    an intractable persecution complex.

    More importantly, suffering consumers are not, in fact, limited to members of the conspicuously righteous reich. In recent years, banks have been suspending, restricting, or closing accounts belonging to a broad demographic of hapless consumers, oftentimes citing "suspicious activity" as a reason but refusing to offer the account holders any further explanation.

    And while some may claim that attributing the arbitrary actions to "algorithms" is a convenient coverup for nefarious activities on the part of the banks, in many cases the problems may very well be rooted in algorithms, and exacerbated by confusing and conflicting laws and regulations as well as plain human incompetence.
    An article in the New York Times (April 8, 2023) went into these issues in some detail.

    Whatever your opinion may be of the Times, the article is worth reading if you can get past the paywall. For those who can't,
    here's a Bing search results link to other resources.

    But I really don't expect my little shout into the void to make any difference at all in the reich-wing persecution narrative, which has become such rich marketing/fundraising fodder not only for politicians and theocrats but also for "anti-woke" businesses such as Old Glory Bank. Reality is nuanced and complex, but marketing strategies almost never are. The ongoing attempt to repress the righteous is their story, and by golly, they're sticking to it.