Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch writes about the severe damage wrought by the constant promotion of lies by Fox "News," including the Big Lie, "Biden crack pipes," and the "worse than Watergate" faux Clinton "spying" nothingburger:

For an embattled Donald Trump, the news that scrolled continuously this week across the bottom of America’s most-watched cable news network — the Fox News Channel — could not have come at a more welcome time. The 45th — and hopeful 47th — president had been battered in mainstream outlets over his habit of destroying government documents and the hasty retreat of his business empire’s long-time accounting firm. But those stories weren’t airing on Fox, because its primetime hosts were pushing what they saw as a much bigger scoop.

Calling it “the biggest election and presidential spying scandal in the history of this great country,” Fox News veteran host Sean Hannity went large with a claim that the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton had paid operatives to spy on rival Trump by “infiltrating” his computers at Trump Tower and even at the White House. Hannity’s breathless report on the alleged scandal was backdropped by a graphic calling it “Worse Than Watergate,” while his higher-rated colleague Tucker Carlson went with “Clinton campaign paid to ‘infiltrate’ Trump orbit.”

But these claims were 99% adulterated baloney. The so-called “Hillary spied on Trump” storyline was based on a new court filing by federal prosecutor John Durham, who was tasked by then-Attorney General William Barr during the Trump years to investigate their theory that the Trump-Russia probe was rife with official misconduct — and who has little to show for his work so far.

It always seems they come up with the most fabulous bullshit just when their cult leader is in the greatest peril.  Coincidence no doubt.  (We would note Fox "News'" fabricating fascists have backed off the Clinton tale after she threatened them with a malicious defamation lawsuit.)

Bunch goes on to explain why this firehose of falsehoods pumped into the heads of millions of gullible Americans every day is a precursor to installing an autocratic, anti- democratic regime that practices just this kind of thought control.

Thomas Lecaque at Religion Dispatches has an alarming look at the Christofascist "Jericho Marches," their role in the recent Canadian trucker Freedumb Convoy, and their participation in insurrection movements here and worldwide:

Jericho Marches are organized by a group by the same name. They were created by a coalition of Christian nationalists in the US. They are co-led by a Catholic think-tank writer, Arina Grossu of the Family Research Council, and an evangelical businessman, Rob Weaver. 

The Jericho Marches rose to prominence recently. Supporters have been marching around the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa for around 20 days. They are, for Americans, a gothic reminder of what had been brewing in the lead up to the J6 sacking and looting of the US Capitol. [snip]

Jericho March, the group, is one of the religious groups, movements and ideologies at play in the insurrection. The Uncivil Religion project has uncovered a bevy of beliefs. The Jericho Marches, however, were the principal symbol of J6 and the Christian nationalism at its heart, not only in DC but at state capitols around the country.

Christian nationalism is a religious idea that transcends borders, attracting a lot of support from like-minded insurrectionists abroad. 

Last year, when journalist Emma Green wrote “A Christian Insurrection” for The Atlantic, it was subtitled, “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will,”while the CBC Investigates’ piece on the Ottawa convoy this week is titled, “For many inside the Freedom Convoy, faith fuels the resistance.”

The links are quite clear between groupings. And now, organizing in small groups and marching around Parliament, is a new Jericho March. 

He concludes:

The elements of spiritual warfare—repeatedly deployed by Christian nationalist groups before in service of Trump and elsewhere—on the borderline of where it crosses over into physical violence, the Jericho Marches, the violent commentary supporting it, the prayer, the shofars, the echoes of J6 expressed from abroad and divorced from the actual Canadian context—these are a symptom of a broader problem. 

Illiberalism is growing. The variant around Trump—conspiracy-laden, seditionist, Christian nationalist—is getting stronger by the minute. 

Last year, it was in Washington.

This year, Ottawa. 

Next year? We should worry.

We should go beyond worry and prepare to engage and counteract.

Sasha Abramsky writed in The Nation about how the far right is targeting schools and education policy, and crime rates, to draw people to its side (and to the ballot box), sometimes with help from progressives:

Right-wing organizers regard schools both as epicenters of political battles and as arenas that draw more people into the wider conservative orbit. At times, so-called progressives have made life much easier for the conservatives in this task; witness the blithering stupid actions of the San Francisco school board over the past couple of years: debating name changes to several dozen schools instead of working to get students safely back into classrooms during the pandemic, and, with only a minimum of public comment and input, gutting the school system’s gifted program by introducing a lottery for entry into those supposedly selective schools—which resulted in this week’s recall of three school board members. In one of the country’s most liberal cities, the result wasn’t close: 70 percent of those who cast ballots voted yes on the recall question. 

Which brings me to a larger point: Right-wing organizers are showing themselves to be rather talented at harvesting popular resentment and/or fears to tarnish the entire progressive agenda. And, unfortunately, at times these days progressives are giving them ample fodder. Yes, the anti-CRT effort is both disingenuous and often laced with racist undertones; but when San Francisco school board members behave like caricatures, they provide grist to the conservative mill. 

Abramsky also discusses crime and criminal justice as another front in the emerging battle, where the right has been on the offensive:

The right has gotten criminal justice wrong for decades. They have preached punishment over rehabilitation, and promoted violent, coercive institutions as a default response to all the societal problems that lead to crime. Their solutions tend to be nonsolutions, but they do come across as “tough”—and thus viable—to a scared public.

Progressives can’t afford to ignore the rising fear that accompanies rising crime; nor can they, or should they, wash their hands of the problem of a bloated criminal justice system simply by releasing thousands of people onto the streets and into homeless encampments without wraparound, and, if need be, mandatory, services. 

It's a fair and pointed critique that progressive would do well to heed now rather than later.

So you think CNN has problems now?  Clare Malone at The New Yorker thinks you may want to fasten your seatbelts for what may be coming following a merger later this year between WarnerMedia and Discovery, with its far- right" libertarian" billionaire mega shareholder John Malone (no relation to the writer):

There are also concerns at CNN about Malone’s potential influence on the network’s editorial tone, which, during the Trump years, centered opinion in prime time more than it ever had. Some at the network have argued that the Trump Presidency and its assault on fact and the press necessitated that change in tone and emphasis. A few months ago, in another interview with CNBC, Malone said, “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with and actually have journalists—which would be unique and refreshing.” CNN’s chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, interpreted the remark ominously, writing, “Malone’s comments stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice.” Malone once praised Rush Limbaugh for his willingness “to say politically incorrect things” and told Ken Auletta, in the 1994 New Yorker Profile, that he and his wife were “not socialistic.”

Last but not least, please take time to check out Infidel 753's link round-up for the best collection of links to posts of interest from around the Internet.  Check it out, as well as his essays posted throughout the week.