QOTD -- The New Dark Age

 

"... The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on knowledge itself, a war against culture, history, and science. If this assault is successful, it will undermine Americans’ ability to comprehend the world around us. Like the inquisitors of old, who persecuted Galileo for daring to notice that the sun did not, in fact, revolve around the Earth, they believe that truth-seeking imperils their hold on power.

"By destroying knowledge, Trumpists seek to make the country more amenable to their political domination, and to prevent meaningful democratic checks on their behavior. Their victory, though, would do much more than that. It would annihilate some of the most effective systems for aggregating, accumulating, and applying human knowledge that have ever existed. Without those systems, America could find itself plunged into a new Dark Age." -- Adam Serwer, writing in The Atlantic, on the Malignant Fascist's furious assault on knowledge (and truth), as seen by his punitive and destructive actions toward higher education, government- supported science and technology, public health, cultural institutions, libraries (!), and more.  The retreat into a New Dark Age is also mirrored on the world stage by the Malignant Fascist's bullying and abandonment of traditional allies, his cutting off of international aid, and his wrecking of America's trading alliances with his illegal tariffs (and the subsequent wrecking of our economy).  At the same time, he admires and models the behavior of authoritarian regimes whose countries have already fallen into their own Dark Ages.  It can't get much clearer.  His determination to wreck America is so comprehensive and sustained that it lends more credence every day that the Malignant Fascist is, wittingly or unwittingly, Putin's puppet.

QOTD -- "The Great Resegregation"

 

"If the Great Resegregation proves successful, it will restore an America past where racial and ethnic minorities were the occasional token presence in an otherwise white-dominated landscape. It would repeal the gains of the civil-rights era in their entirety. What its advocates want is not a restoration of explicit Jim Crow segregation—that would shatter the illusion that their own achievements are based in a color-blind meritocracy. They want an arrangement that perpetuates racial inequality indefinitely while retaining some plausible deniability, a rigged system that maintains a mirage of equal opportunity while maintaining an unofficial racial hierarchy. Like elections in authoritarian countries where the autocrat is always reelected in a landslide, they want a system in which they never risk losing but can still pretend they won fairly..." -- Adam Serwer, in The Atlantic, writing about the Malignant Fascist and his white nationalist grievance campaign to expunge "DEI" and "wokeism" from America's politics and culture after 60 years of incremental progress on civil rights.  

One high-level official in the Malignant Fascist's State Department recently said the quiet part loud:

 

 

This is what they mean when they talk about "DEI" and "wokeism" when the shields are all the way down.  As Serwer says, this is their goal: to ensure a perpetual system of racial and gender inequality.  

QOTD -- Republicans' Bait And Switch On Abortion

 

"... The GOP platform is an obvious bait and switch, and it doesn’t even try very hard to hide the switch. As the writer Jessica Valenti notes, 'The platform doesn’t change a single thing about what Trump would do if elected, nor does it mean that there’s an actual rift between his campaign and the anti-abortion movement. This is political theater, and the mainstream press is handing out programs.' The GOP platform on abortion does not show Trump or the GOP 'softening' or shifting on abortion rights; it shows them trying to avoid the political consequences of their position on the matter by hiding them in plain sight.

"It has been clear from the beginning that Trump regards abortion rights as a political vulnerability for Republicans and would seek to seem moderate on the issue, just as it’s clear that the anti-abortion camp understands that Trump will do its bidding when in office, as he did last time. One reason he may get the chance is mainstream press organizations’ embracing the narrative of Trump as an abortion moderate—despite all available evidence to the contrary." (our emphasis)--  Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, telling the media to "Stop Soft- Pedaling the GOP's Extreme Positions."  Serwer notes earlier in his article the many examples of the media (NYT, WaPo, NBC News, etc.) falling for the MAGAt spin on its radical abortion platform, cloaking it as a "moderation" when anyone other than a credulous (or biased) news organization would see it for what it is:  a cynical effort to dilute the toxicity of the MAGAt Republican cult's real reproductive freedom agenda.

QOTD -- Amending The Constitution By Fiat

 

"... The thing to understand about this [Colorado ballot eligibility] case is that, with the exception of the ruling’s partial unanimity, it is little different from many other recent big cases in which “originalism” supposedly carried the day, whether the topic was abortion rights, guns, voting rights, or something else. The conservative justices have a majority, and they may work their will. But the originalism they purport to adhere to is nothing more than a framework for reaching their preferred result in any particular circumstance. They felt that a plain reading of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment would lead to chaotic or adverse outcomes, so they not only ignored it but also essentially amended the Constitution by fiat.  [snip]

"The message Americans should take home from this case is that when Justice Samuel Alito says, 'I do think the Constitution means something and that that meaning does not change,' what he means is that the Constitution changes to mean what he would like it to mean. They should take home the recognition that when Justice Neil Gorsuch says, 'Suppose originalism does lead to a result you happen to dislike in this or that case. So what?' he would never allow such a thing to happen if he could avoid it. And they should understand that when Barrett herself says that the Constitution 'doesn’t change over time and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it,' she is not telling the truth, but she would prefer you not point that out..." -- Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, on the "fraud of originalism" as practiced by the politicians- in- robes on the Republican Supreme Court, and as seen in their ruling on the insurrectionist Malignant Loser's ballot eligibility in Colorado (and elsewhere by extension).  Once again, to mistake any of the Republicans on the Court as jurists who just call legal "balls and strikes" based on a strict reading of the Constitution is a grave misunderstanding of the reality of this corrupt Court.

QOTD -- Free Speech For Me, Not For Thee

 

"Across the varied arguments advanced by conservatives in recent decades, one consistent principle is readily discernible: Where a speaker is engaging in activism on behalf of conservative causes, they have an unfettered right to freedom of speech. Where they are not, or where they actively oppose those causes, their speech is subject to state suppression. This holds true for all of these “free speech” controversies: Citizens United, education gag laws, attacks on public libraries, hand-wringing over “cancel culture,” and the latest demands for state control of social media..." -- Adam Serwer, writing in The Atlantic on "Why Conservatives Invented A 'Right To Post.'" Serwer's piece is a detailed read on how we got to the point where, as he writes, multi- billionaire troll Elon Musk "asserted a First Amendment right to see the president’s son’s penis, an argument that the Framers likely did not anticipate."  It's no wonder Musk is confused about the First Amendment, though, since he was born and lived in South Africa until age 18, then was a citizen of Canada before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen only 20 years ago.  Wonder who he paid to take his citizenship test?

Quotes Of The Day -- Eroding Democracy

"Florida’s move to censor academics employed by its state university makes clear that, for many, the arguments about free speech that have dominated the political conversation over the past few years have never truly been about the right to speak. They have, instead, been about providing a predicate for conservatives to use the power of the state to settle political arguments. The campaigns of censorship and disenfranchisement must thus be understood as two halves of the same whole. The former erases the historical memory of the effect such restrictions have had in the past, and the latter prevents the public from acting on the knowledge of the discriminatory past that GOP leadership is attempting to erase."-- Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, on the University of Florida's censorship of professors wishing to testify in a lawsuit fighting Florida Republicans' voter disenfranchisement measures.

____________________

"There isn’t going to be anything resembling a normal election in 2024, because the right wing in this country is now completely committed to living their truth, which is that Democrats don’t win elections legitimately. This started out as a paranoid delusion, but now it’s an Article of Faith, that can’t be abandoned, because it’s become so intimately connected to their tribal identity.

"They won’t accept defeat, period, and we need to be ready for that." -- Paul Campos, LGM, re- stating what has become increasingly clear over the past several election cycles.  Maintaining power by any means necessary is existential for Republicans, whose disdain for democracy and pluralism has become a menace to us all.

QOTD -- Usurpation

 

"... Republicans are not blocking a bipartisan January 6 commission because they fear Trump, or because they want to “move on” from 2020. They are blocking a January 6 commission because they agree with the underlying ideological claim of the rioters, which is that Democratic electoral victories should not be recognized. Because they regard such victories as inherently illegitimate—the result of fraud, manipulation, or the votes of people who are not truly American—they believe that the law should be changed to ensure that elections more accurately reflect the will of Real Americans, who by definition vote Republican. They believe that there is nothing for them to investigate, because the actual problem is not the riot itself but the unjust usurpation of power that occurred when Democrats won. Absent that provocation, the rioters would have stayed home. [snip]

"For the Trumpist base, defined by the sense that a country that belongs to them is slipping away, a future full of elections contested by a right-wing party and a slightly less right-wing party would be an ideal outcome. Trump’s election was, among other things, a gesture of outrage from his supporters at having to share the country with those unlike them. Successfully restricting democracy so as to minimize the political power of rival constituencies would mean, at least as far as governing the country is concerned, that they would not have to. Most elected Republicans have repudiated the violence of the Capitol riot, but they share the belief of the rank and file that the rioters’ hearts were in the right place." -- Adam Serwer in "The Capitol Rioters Won," in The Atlantic.  For those of us who've been around for a while, this belief on the part of Republicans is nothing new.  But it was weaponized as never before by the former guy's Big Lie, which Republican officials and rank- and- file numbnuts easily internalized.  The fight over voting rights is an existential struggle in the minds of Republicans, who see free elections as a dagger pointed at their shriveled hearts.

Monday Reading

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

The successful OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's mission to the ancient asteroid Bennu, an Empire State Building sized object over 200 million miles from Earth, has resulted in the collection of enough asteroid material to stow:

Two days after touching down on asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission team received on Thursday, Oct. 22, images that confirm the spacecraft has collected more than enough material to meet one of its main mission requirements – acquiring at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of the asteroid’s surface material.

The spacecraft captured images of the sample collector head as it moved through several different positions. In reviewing these images, the OSIRIS-REx team noticed both that the head appeared to be full of asteroid particles, and that some of these particles appeared to be escaping slowly from the sample collector, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head. They suspect bits of material are passing through small gaps where a mylar flap – the collector’s “lid” – is slightly wedged open by larger rocks.

“Bennu continues to surprise us with great science and also throwing a few curveballs,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “And although we may have to move more quickly to stow the sample, it’s not a bad problem to have. We are so excited to see what appears to be an abundant sample that will inspire science for decades beyond this historic moment.”

The team believes it has collected a sufficient sample and is on a path to stow the sample as quickly as possible. They came to this conclusion after comparing images of the empty collector head with Oct. 22 images of the TAGSAM head after the sample collection event.

The spacecraft will eventually return to Earth in 2023.  Hats off to the scientists, engineers and all who contributed to this major achievement for mankind.

Our QOTD yesterday from E.J. Dionne, Jr., argued rightly for the re- balancing of the Supreme Court (and, we might add, lower courts).  Adam Serwer has an important read detailing the long, racist history behind Republican efforts to use the courts to disenfranchise Democratic constituencies and rig the vote:

[Justices] Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh have made no secret of their commitment to allowing Republicans to disenfranchise Democratic constituencies. On Monday, all four indicated their support for a GOP lawsuit seeking to overturn a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling allowing absentee ballots postmarked November 3 to be counted, even if they are received up to three days after the election. Roberts, in one of his rare breaks with the right wing of the Court, joined the liberals in a split 4–4 decision that allowed the original ruling to stand.

The message is clear: There is no constitutional amendment, no federal statute, no state law, no half-baked legal philosophy, and no federalist principle that will prevent the conservatives on the Court from upholding Republican efforts to sever Democratic constituencies from the franchise. Whether Trump wins or loses in November, they will pursue this agenda in earnest. And with Barrett on the Court, it is unlikely that even Roberts’s rare defections will be an obstacle to them.  

The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has refused to rule out the possibility of expanding the Court, and Republicans have responded with considerable alarm and anguish. They sacrificed their dignity, their House majority, and their principles to elevate a clownish reality star to the presidency, a would-be strongman whose disastrous tenure has seen hundreds of thousands of deaths, the collapse of the American economy, and the nadir of American global influence. Everything Republicans have done for decades has led to this moment, and the possibility of that victory becoming Pyrrhic is terrifying for them.

After reading Serwer's piece, if you remain unconvinced that the Democrats need to make re- balancing the courts should they sweep the election, we don't know what else to say except please get out of the way.

Along those lines, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had some sage advice for Joe Biden:

Former Senate leader Harry Reid says if Democrats win the presidency and the Senate, Joe Biden should take “no more than three weeks” to test bipartisanship before ending the filibuster so Democrats can overcome what they call Republican obstruction and pass bills.

The retired Nevada Democrat told The Associated Press in an interview that he understands Biden wants to work with Republicans, as the former vice president and Delaware senator has in the past. But Reid said there is just too much that needs to be done in the country to wait around trying to reach agreements under the decades-old Senate practice of requiring 60 votes to advance legislation.

ICYMI, the 60 Minutes interview with COVID Donnie aired last night.  As might be expected, before he petulantly ran away from Lesley Stahl, there were lots of lies.  If you're inclined, the excellent Daniel Dale has 16 of them from both the aired and unaired footage.

Here's today's dumbass drunk Trumpanzee Floriduh man:

Residents in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Haines City, Fla., knew something was off on Saturday when they saw a young White man driving a bulldozer on the street. As he made his way down the block, the man began running over every lawn sign in sight supporting Joe Biden.

“This man came onto my property, took the two Joe Biden signs I had in my yard and then came back with a bulldozer to run down my fence,” Adam Burgess, a local homeowner, told Bay News 9.

The man, later identified by police as 26-year-old James Blight, was charged with grand theft auto and trespassing, according to the outlet.

He's a blight, all right.  Sounds like some public intoxication and destruction of private property charges should be thrown in there, too.

Finally, we once again urge you to continue your reading adventure by visiting Infidel 753's link round-up (or "Collection des liens pour le 25 Octobre 2020") for a really comprehensive set of links to items of interest from around the Internet -- en anglais! There isn't a better round- up, so don't even bother looking.

QOTD -- Toxic Fruit

"... Trump’s authoritarian cult of personality persists, and where maintaining the image of the infallible leader conflicts with the needs of Americans affected by the pandemic, the former will take precedence. The president is a relentless scammer at heart, and even during a pandemic he will attempt to get what he wants while providing as little as possible in return, as though he were trying to save cash by stiffing a contractor.

"Having failed to will the coronavirus pandemic into nonexistence, the president, his party, and his propaganda machine will seek to rewrite history to render the false impression that Trump was aware of the threat of the pandemic all along, and that he acted decisively to address it. The truth is that, in the weeks and months Trump and the conservative press were busy pumping stocks, juking stats, and misleading the public, valuable time to prepare for the pandemic was lost. Americans, both those who get sick and those whose workplaces and businesses will close as a result, will suffer dearly.

"A global pandemic would have been a challenge for any administration, for any government. But the scale of this tragedy was not inevitable. America’s shuttered storefronts, overflowing emergency rooms, and shattered families are the toxic fruit of a political culture in which Donald Trump’s image, as the avatar of the will of the people, matters more than actual people do." --  Adam Serwer in The Atlantic, from March 20, on how the cult of Donald "Moron Vector" Trump was responsible for the hellscape we find ourselves in today.  The situation has only gotten worse in the two weeks since this was written.

Monday Reading

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

Leonard Pitts, Jr., discusses the impeachment inquiry testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, specifically his belief that speaking the truth because "right matters" is an American virtue:

... His words were a veritable balm in Gilead for a nation sickened to its soul by the orgy of lies and alibis that now passes for leadership. And it hardly seemed worth it (indeed, would have been beside the point) to bring up all the times right has not mattered in America, to subpoena the ghosts of genocide, enslavement, exploitation and imprisonment haunting our history and ask them to testify against Vindman’s evocation of national virtue.

Because what he invoked was not America the actual, but America the aspiration — the more perfect union. And give us credit. If it’s true this is a country that has frequently betrayed its noblest ideals, it’s also true this is a country that had noble ideals to betray in the first place. It was to that America, that dream of America, that Vindman referred.
But even it has seen better days. Even the dream of who we are has been ransacked by the president and his defenders, men and women who would rather walk through fire in gasoline-soaked underwear than admit the truth of his malfeasance.

(We quoted Paul Krugman at length yesterday on the utter corruption of the Republican Party, and would suggest reading his full op/ ed again as a companion to Pitts's op/ ed.)

To no one's surprise, the servile rats in the regime of nitwit crime family boss Donald "Donnie Little Hands" Trump were working overtime to concoct a reason for the withholding of military aid to Ukraine (other than the true reason, that it was extortion/ bribery for Ukraine manufacturing dirt on the Bidens):

A confidential White House review of President Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records.

The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after the president had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. [snip]

In the early August email exchanges, Mulvaney asked acting OMB director Russell Vought for an update on the legal rationale for withholding the aid and how much longer it could be delayed. Trump had made the decision the prior month without an assessment of the reasoning or legal justification, according to two White House officials. Emails show Vought and OMB staffers arguing that withholding aid was legal, while officials at the National Security Council and State Department protested. OMB lawyers said that it was legal to withhold the aid, as long as they deemed it a “temporary” hold, according to people familiar with the review.

Is Chief of Rats Mick Mulvaney lawyered up?  You better believe he is (he's got Russian spy Maria Butina's lawyer representing him -- you can't make this stuff up)!  And, it doesn't help that Mulvaney works in a back- stabbing, CYA snakepit:

Cipollone, who wants Mulvaney’s job, launches review that finds Mulvaney up to his neck in Ukraine scandal, and the results leak. The WH is not a fun place to work right now. https://t.co/xlufItHBRe

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) November 24, 2019

Adam Serwer writes about Trump's (and his rotted out party's) conspiracy against democracy, and how the Ukraine scandal fits a pattern:

The Republican Party has responded to the increasing diversity of the electorate with an accelerating intolerance for ethnic and religious minorities, and with elaborate schemes to disenfranchise rival constituencies and rig election rules to its advantage. Crucial to this effort is its conviction that the Republican electorate is the only one that can confer legitimacy on elected officials, and that the party’s political opponents are no longer wrong but fundamentally illegitimate, faithless usurpers with no right to determine the direction of the country. This has manifested in the quasi-religious dogma that Trump represents the will of Real America, and therefore defiance of his will is itself a form of treason.

Believing that Republican officials will be convinced by the evidence proffered by Trump’s own staff and political appointees is a mistake, because the underlying facts are not genuinely in dispute. Trumpists are not operating from an ethical framework that even allows acknowledgment that the president is capable of being guilty. Trump is the nation, and the nation cannot commit treason against itself. On the contrary, it is Joe Biden who is guilty of betrayal, defying the tribune of the people by seeking to run against him, and it is Trump’s treacherous staff who convict themselves of treason with every statement that implicates the president. The more evidence of Trump’s misdeeds the Democrats uncover, the more they reveal themselves as traitors. For Trumpists, there is no higher patriotism than bending to Trump’s will, and no more base corruption than defying it.

 The most recent example of the latter being the sacking of Navy Secretary Spencer.

As always, we close by highly recommending you check out Infidel 753's link round-up (and bookmark his blog, by the way), for the most comprehensive array of "various interesting stuff" that he's found searching the Internet.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article237674689.html#storylink=cpy

 

Monday Reading

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

We have a theme today, growing out of the horrific events in New Zealand.

Amanda Sakuma discusses the failure of tech companies to weed out  far right- wing hate speech and violent content, following the latest example of the white supremacist who used social media platforms to upload his "manifesto" and video of his murdering 50 Muslims worshiping in Christchurch, NZ:

At this point, in theory, tech companies should be well-practiced in the art of blocking far-right hate speech and violence from their platforms. They’ve been having to deal with it for years.

After the 2017 Unite the Right rally of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — where a woman was mowed down and killed by an avowed Nazi sympathizer — tech companies faced intense public pressure to block prominent instigators of explicit far-right extremism. Twitter suspended a bunch of white supremacists and prominent provocateurs — including Milo Yiannoppolis, Alex Jones, and Gavin McInnes — but was hesitant to target other alt-right leaders like Richard Spencer. Gab and the Daily Stormer, two havens for neo-Nazis, were similarly banished to the darker recesses of the Internet. Reddit quarantined hate-fueled subreddits, while other companies like PayPal, GoDaddy, Squarespace blocked white supremacists from using their services.

In effect, individual leaders and groups were targeted in response to a high-profile flashpoint in American politics and culture. But for many critics, those actions were hollow in addressing the underlying proliferation of racist and white supremacist ideas that are peddled online.

Sakuma highlights an issue with self- policing right- wing hate speech, ignoring the danger it presents (our emphasis):

Friday’s massacre exemplified a larger problem that’s plaguing the internet. Platforms are struggling to self-police problematic content created by its users, while the lawmakers who would ostensibly impose regulations are either too reluctant or ill-equipped to do so — and many in both camps are predisposed to treat far-right rhetoric less seriously than other forms of extremism, to boot.

Will Bunch discusses the rising tide of white nationalism, enabled by certain familiar players:

It’s ironic that -- in a time when the American political debate centers on Trump’s made-up emergency about a border wall -- there ain’t no mountain high enough to keep the most vile, racist propaganda from spreading from Europe to the United States to Australia and echo back again in a matter of nanoseconds, and to keep that bile from inspiring the kind of deadly violence you’d never see from Central American immigrants.

After the banality of the wanton violence and the killer’s live broadcast, the second most shocking thing about the New Zealand massacre was how well versed the perpetrator was in right-wing tropes that aren’t just common on the American internet but find their way to “mainstream” venues like the Fox News Channel or the halls of Congress.

The Australian gunman said he wanted to spark more debate about our Second Amendment, invoked (perhaps sarcastically) the right-wing media celebrity Candace Owens, and spewed a range of warped theories about the threats to Western civilization from “invaders” that -- while horrible -- were only a degree or two more extreme than what we’ve heard from an Iowa congressman, Steve King, or from the good citizens of Old Forge, Pa. Or from certain quarters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Speaking of Steve King,

Just white supremacist congressman   Steve King joking about civil war pic.twitter.com/AqpXkzIvRC

— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) March 17, 2019

How many more strikes does this vicious clown get before he's expelled from Congress?

Adam Serwer takes a deep dive into the antecedents of neo- Nazi white supremacist ideology in the U.S., and one of its most influential 20th century purveyors:

The seed of Nazism’s ultimate objective—the preservation of a pure white race, uncontaminated by foreign blood—was in fact sown with striking success in the United States. What is judged extremist today was once the consensus of a powerful cadre of the American elite, well-connected men who eagerly seized on a false doctrine of “race suicide” during the immigration scare of the early 20th century. They included wealthy patricians, intellectuals, lawmakers, even several presidents. Perhaps the most important among them was a blue blood with a very impressive mustache, Madison Grant. He was the author of a 1916 book called The Passing of the Great Race, which spread the doctrine of race purity all over the globe. 

Serwer discusses the pseudoscience behind Grant's "race purity" crackpottery and "race suicide" alarms, which is echoed today by the knuckle- draggers talking "white genocide" in relation to the current immigration debate:

...to recognize the homegrown historical antecedents of today’s rhetoric is to call attention to certain disturbing assumptions that have come to define the current immigration debate in America—in particular, that intrinsic human worth is rooted in national origin, and that a certain ethnic group has a legitimate claim to permanent political hegemony in the United States. The most benignly intentioned mainstream-media coverage of demographic change in the U.S. has a tendency to portray as justified the fear and anger of white Americans who believe their political power is threatened by immigration—as though the political views of today’s newcomers were determined by genetic inheritance rather than persuasion.

The danger of Grantism, and its implications for both America and the world, is very real. External forces have rarely been the gravest threat to the social order and political foundations of the United States. Rather, the source of greatest danger has been those who would choose white purity over a diverse democracy. When Americans abandon their commitment to pluralism, the world notices, and catastrophe follows.

Finally, please check out Infidel 753's blog round- up for the best survey of interesting recent posts from around the Internet.  It's always worth the time, in our opinion.

"He's Only Going To Get More Dangerous"

Anyone watching the unhinged, threat- filled performance by narcissistic sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump at his "press conference" yesterday was witnessing Rump in his threatened/ empowered mode:  empowered by a more Trumpian Senate majority, and threatened by the new Democratic majority in the House.  Within a few hours after being asked directly whether he had plans to fire Attorney General and evil elf spokesperson Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and responding with an evasion, Rump finally fired Beauregard in order to install a dangerous flunky whose loyalty was to Rump and not the Constitution and the rule of law.

Adam Serwer provides an overview of the threatened- yet- empowered mindset of the catastrophe occupying the Oval Office:

Trump’s losses in the midterms will not make him more cautious; they will only make him more dangerous. Trump’s only true ideological commitment is to his racially exclusive vision of American citizenship. His authoritarianism is more instinctive than ideological, closely tied to his desire to enrich himself and his allies without facing legal consequences. If the only way the president can save his own skin or that of others implicated in his corruption is to violate the rule of law, then he has no compunctions about doing so...  [snip]

... Trump believes that he and his friends and allies are above the law. There is no act they could commit that would warrant prosecution or sanction. At the same time, there is no act committed by his critics or rivals that could not be subject to prosecution, should he so choose. It is not simply that the president does not believe in the rule of law. It is that he believes the law is a shield that protects him, and a sword that can be used to impale his enemies. Nothing has made this clearer than his constant demands for prosecution of his critics, and his decision to issue federal pardons to men like Dinesh D’Souza and Joe Arpaio, whose violations of the law he regards as trivial because they are pro-Trump sycophants.

Rump rightly sees the existential threat on the horizon approaching fast, hence the firing of Sessions within hours of the polls closing. But that act, of itself, will surely be seen as yet another count of obstruction of justice by the Special Counsel. (Rump, of course, believes there's been no obstruction of justice;  he's only been "protecting himself"!) But attorney and former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa notes some obstacles still in the way of Rump and his flunky obstructing or shutting down the Mueller probe, including provisions in the special counsel regulations for documenting and justifying any actions taken to deny a request or recommendation by Mueller.  With Democratic control of the House starting January 3, the flunky would be called to testify under oath about any such actions, exposing him to obstruction of justice charges himself should he provide false or flimsy excuses.

None of this is to minimize what we believe Rump would do to protect himself:  anything. He's a mortal danger to American democratic institutions now more than ever.  The majority of Americans did what they could to erect a firewall on November 6, so at least now there'll be one part of government that's not going to shelter him and can maybe see to it that the truth about this ugly, unfit, un- American monster comes out.

BONUS:

It cannot be said too often: A 71-year-old narcissistic autocratic sociopath cannot and will not change. Put him in a stressful situation and it is dangerous for all of us

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) November 7, 2018

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full article/ op ed.

Adam Serwer has an excellent read on the racist hysteria generated on the far right about the migrant caravan that led directly to the horror at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday:

The Tree of Life shooter criticized Trump for not being racist or anti-Semitic enough. But with respect to the caravan, the shooter merely followed the logic of the president and his allies: He was willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent an “invasion” of Latinos planned by perfidious Jews, a treasonous attempt to seek “the destruction of American society and culture.”

The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread and that his followers chose to amplify. (our emphasis)

Leading the racist hysteria as part of that political fiction were those vicious organs of the Big Lie -- Fox "News" and Fox Business "News." Here's a snippet of Josh Marshall's take:

I managed to involve myself this weekend in a tiny eddy in the storm around the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. As you can see below, early yesterday evening I happened upon this interview on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business News show in which a guest, Chris Farrell, claimed the migrant caravan in southern Mexico was being funded and directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department.” This is, as I explained, is straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the foundational anti-Semitic tract, first circulated and perhaps authored by the Czarist secret police in the first years of the 20th century.

Here's what Marshall is referring to (video embedded in tweet):

Political scientists are generally not massive Fox News fans, but in our efforts to come across as relatively unbiased, I actually think we downplay the extent to which it is a force for the absolute worst impulses of racism, illiberalism, and extremism in American society. https://t.co/dMKTMERmLB

— Steven White (@notstevenwhite) October 28, 2018

There are National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) ads still running using George Soros ("Connoisseur of Chaos") as the boogeyman responsible for the caravan and other heinous activities.  

It's an entirely unsubtle conjuration of the hoary and hateful lie that wealthy Jews are the puppet-masters of the left, because of course, decent white folk would never espouse liberal beliefs unless they were getting paid to do so. It's totally disgusting, but Republicans are waging an internal arms race to see who can plaster the most bigotry on the airwaves. Right now, the NRCC is winning.

These are lying, vicious agitprop droppings intended to divide by telling us to fear "the other" -- whether brown, black, Jewish, etc. The rotted out Republican Party is immersed in this stinking garbage. Remember that for as long as you live.  And vote, goddammit!

In a column written before the arrest of the #MAGAbomber and before the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Leonard Pitts, Jr., writes about the key instigator of violence in America today and his cultists:

This ongoing insult of reality, this daily denigration of truth, is epidemic among Trump’s people. Unable to face what is, they live in a kingdom of lies, seek sanctuary down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Indeed, Trump cultists — Lou Dobbs, James Woods, Rush Limbaugh, Candace Owens and more — have already suggested the bombs were part of a Democratic plot to sway the coming election. [snip] 

Meantime, this guy, this morally deformed 72-year-old brat, had a theory of his own. After bombs were sent to people he has spent years insulting ( “low IQ,” “crooked,” “ignorant”) and to a network he has spent years condemning (”enemies of the people”), Trump tweeted that the “anger” in our society is a result of media’s “false and inaccurate reporting.” 

So in other words, if reporters would just stop challenging him, stop questioning him, stop behaving as if words have meaning and people, memories, all will be well. He probably even believes that.

But the issue here is not news media. Nor is it civility or Republicans being yelled at in restaurants. 

No, the issue is reality and the fact that it becomes no less real because you don’t acknowledge it. That’s what the Trump cult has never figured out. Reality will always have the last word. And you may run from it, but you can never escape. 

Not even down a rabbit hole, not even in a kingdom of lies.

As of this morning, the vile shitgibbon is still at it.  Surprise!

We close as usual with our recommendation to check out the excellent blog link round- up at Infidel 753. He takes care to find some really interesting items that you might otherwise never hear about. Always thought- provoking.

Tribal Rage

Adam Serwer looks at a deeply embedded delusion in the media, in parts of the broader society, but especially at the core of the Republican base that supports neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump:

... What I found was that Trump embodied his supporters’ most profound beliefs—combining an insistence that discriminatory policies were necessary with vehement denials that his policies would discriminate and absolute outrage that the question would even be asked. 

It was not just Trump’s supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who, as had been the case with those who had backed Duke, searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face. The frequent postelection media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump’s most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake. These supporters will not change their minds because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of.  (our emphasis)

You need look no further to understand what fuels the supporters for Republican pedophile peckerwood Roy Moore. Their rage is directed against everyone and anything standing up for a diverse, tolerant society that defends the separation of church and state. Get a load of this, from Moore supporter "pastor" Mike Allison:

"He has staunchly defended the Constitution of the United States, he has stood for the word of God ... he is against the murder of the unborn by abortion. He is for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. He is against a redefinition of marriage and believes firmly that it is only between a man and a woman. And he is against all threats against the traditional family," Allison said. "He is a fighter and a champion for right ...."

See if you can spot magic dog whistle words in this Moore supporter's rationalization:

"Every election cycle there's this tendency among the electorate to say 'Let's get rid of these rascals. They say one thing and govern another way,'" said [John] Giles, who runs a super PAC that supports Moore. "The one thing about this man is what he says he means, and at all cost." 

Did you catch that?  "... what he says he means..."  If we had a nickel for every Republican voter who rationalized their vote for Rump by saying some variation of "he says what he means," we could get a big Republican tax cut.  As Serwer and others have pointed out, that's Republican- speak for, "He hates/ fears the same people I do and he's not afraid to say it. So I'm validated!"

People who support Rump and Moore and all the rest of that rotted out party are, of course, not unique to our times.  Getting back to Serwer's article (please take time to read it in its entirety), he frames what we're seeing as, unfortunately, profoundly American:

Trumpism emerged from a haze of delusion, denial, pride and cruelty—not as a historical anomaly, but as a profoundly American phenomenon. This explains both how tens of millions of white Americans could pull the lever for a candidate running on a racist platform and justify doing so, and why a predominantly white political class would search so desperately for an alternative explanation for what it had just seen. To acknowledge the centrality of racial inequality to American democracy is to question its legitimacy—so it must be denied.

Think about that the next time you read or hear another "safari into Trump Country" story by our broken media.