QOTD -- Strongmen And Corruption

 

"...The Trump administration is a laboratory for a 21^st century authoritarian politics of plunder: extreme environmental destruction, protection of sex traffickers who use and discard women, the privatization of foreign and other state policy, integrating oligarchs into governance, massive corruption, and the ruination of public health, accurate information, and other areas vital to human thriving. 

"This is why Trump and MAGA will be defeated. Dictatorships are not built to navigate a future in which survival of climate-change, disasters, resource scarcity, a shrinking labor force, and armed conflict will require fact-based communications, community, care, altruism, and other things such states work hard to suppress. We who resist dictatorship, wherever we are located in the world, are the wave of the future." -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, in her "Lucid" Substack on how "Strongmen Fall When Corruption Is On The Ballot."  Following the defeat of right-wing autocrats Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia and Flavio Bolonsaro in Brazil, Ben-Ghiat makes the case that the Malignant Fascist's fellow autocrats' corruption was a key to bringing them down, and Democrats are wisely tying the MF's unprecedented corruption ("plunder") to the struggles of everyday Americans.  Fortunately for Democrats, they're not alone in making the case:  the moron MF is helping make the case for them with his billion-dollar-plus, over-the-top vanity projects and bragging about how Epstein class oligarchs are getting rich off of high oil prices.  And, yes, the corruption of concealing the MF and his cronies' coverup of the Epstein sex trafficking files.  So, please proceed!

QOTD -- White Christian Ethnostate

 

"... This administration will never succeed in wrecking our multiracial and multifaith society, no matter how much damage it does to our democratic political system. It is who we are. Our identities cannot be taken away from us. And the attempts at mass disenfranchisement will backfire; a new civil rights movement is already starting.

"In trying to create a homogeneous society and ban talk of diversity, this government is merely drawing attention to what makes the United States special, and the power of our roots, identities, and traditions. These will serve us well in the coming years as we pursue peaceful resistance to restore our democracy." -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, at her "Lucid" Substack, on "A Holistic Plan for a White Christian Ethnostate."   Ben-Ghiat tracks the project to transform our multi-ethnic/ multi-faith democracy into the fascist MAGAt goal of a White Christian ethnostate by trying to "achieve greater cohesion of government policy around that goal."  She concludes with the paragraphs above, expressing her belief that this will backfire on the MAGAt White Christian nationalists.  We're not as sanguine, though, that "peaceful resistance" will win the day for democracy in America, especially if the MAGAt fascists escalate their reaction to resistance (in, for example, an effort to alter or deny the results of the mid-term elections).  The corrupt SCOTUS' partisan gerrymandering us back to Jim Crow in the South has shown us that there is no law or precedent that they'll recognize in their dash to help their Republican Party install a permanent fascist MAGAt Republican state.

We always say, forewarned is forearmed.

The Make Russia Great Again "Summit"

 

 

"... It is a disservice to the public not to be clear about the nature of the relationship of Trump and Putin, and we must acknowledge that Trump is in office to solve Putin’s problems. [snip]

"The “summit” in Alaska is one such performance. Clapping for Putin on the tarmac, and allowing him to ride in the presidential limo, with no translator or aides present, is unprecedented. I read this as proclaiming to the world that Putin has total access to Trump and there is no presidential space that is off-limits to him. 

"The open-arms welcome also reminds us that Trump is under pressure to redeem himself as a “fixer” for Putin.

"You may recall that, during the February Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, Trump felt the need to evoke the difficulties that the Russia investigation of his first term created for Putin because Trump did not have sufficient power in his first term to shut down the investigation. 

"We may see Trump’s extraordinary statement in the light of the “self-criticism” Communist operatives were required to engage in when they displeased the regime.

"Let me tell you. Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said. “He had to suffer through the Russia hoax…He went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt…It was a phony Democrat scam. He had to go through it. And he did go through it."

"No wonder that, as soon as he got back into power, Trump scurried to redeem himself. He soon signed orders to disband TaskForce KleptoCapture, which targeted Russian oligarchs, disband the FBI’s Foreign Influence Taskforce, and relax enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including digital actions..."  (our emphasis) -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, in her "Lucid" Substack, on Putin's performance review last Friday for our weak, ignorant, buffoonish Malignant Fascist.  The meeting was a total win for Putin and a total calamity for the US, as it welcomed the war criminal onto US soil, with a red carpet no less! 

The word Russian word "kompromat" comes to mind once again, much as it did during the Russian influence campaign on behalf of the Malignant Fascist in 2016.  The abrupt reversal of the position he held mere hours before the meeting might, using Occam's razor, be best explained by some kompromat being brought to his attention -- perhaps an old piece of pee tape leverage, or a newer one involving the Epstein files?  Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.

(Photo:  "Is that a tiny kolbasa in your pocket or are you happy to see me?" / screenshot via BBC News)

QOTD -- Abusing The Military

 

"...In the space of a week, the American public has been treated to two highly unusual sights: first, federalized National Guard members and active-duty Marines dressed for combat on the streets of Los Angeles, ready to stand opposite civilians protesting ICE roundups; then an extravagant military parade in Washington on the 250th anniversary of the Army’s founding — and on Mr. Trump’s birthday — generating footage of tanks massed on the streets in numbers more often seen in countries where a coup is underway.

"Mr. Trump appears eager to create optics that support his claim that public dissent constitutes an existential threat to the nation. He also apparently seeks to get the American public used to seeing our armed forces in a new light. In the president’s version of America, the military should be seen less as an apolitical body loyal to the Constitution. Rather, it should be viewed as an institution that serves at the behest of a leader and his ideological and political agendas, regardless of how much these depart from democratic understandings of the military’s role..." -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, in the New York Times, discussing why the Malignant Fascist wants us to get habituated to scenes of the U.S. military being used as an extension of his authoritarian domestic power grab.  In her essay, she compares our situation to that in dictator Augusto Pinochet's Chile in the 1970's as a cautionary tale for America and the U.S. military under the Malignant Fascist in 2025.  It's a sobering read.

Quotes Of The Day -- Battlegrounds

 

"It is sometimes said that corporate America is a battleground in the culture wars. This has taken on ugly new meaning in the case of Target, which just announced that it will pull some LBGTQ-friendly merchandise from shelves after experiencing threats that affected its employees’ 'sense of safety.'

"Target’s surrender — which came after concerted attacks from MAGA media personalities — points to a bigger story: The anti-woke right is increasingly wielding heavy-handed tactics — including state power and violent threats — to block corporations from making their own decisions about how to adapt to social change. Though the right is losing this battle at large, it is innovating and having some success..." -- Greg Sargent in the Washington Post, leading off a column "Target's surrender to MAGA rage shows how anti-wokeness really works."  Sargent discusses how the revanchist culture war the MAGAts are engaged in targets (no pun) corporations and institutions that are simply responding to shifts in the culture at large, toward more tolerance and inclusion (yes, propelled by profit considerations).  Expect more heavy- handed, violent tactics.  Why?  Read on.

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“When authoritarian leaders lose office, they come back, like, 10 times worse — they never get less extreme, they always get more extreme.  January 6 was a profoundly radicalizing event for the base, for the GOP and for Trump himself, because even assaulting the Capitol you could get away with. His campaign events have to be seen as that of an extremist radicalizing people and emotionally reeducating people to hate people.”... --  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University and scholar on authoritarianism, quoted in another Washington Post article, "The deepening radicalization of Donald J. Trump."  The "reeducation" of people to employ violent acts against people they've been taught to hate is a method used by fascists throughout history to gain or maintain power.  What we've seen in the  Republican /Seditionist/ Shooters Party is this "reeducation" has been part and parcel of the radicalization of the party and its base for more than half a century, culminating in its lizard id, the Malignant Loser.  It preceded him and will outlast him.