Tag: fascism
Senate

Will The Senate Save Us From Trump's Cabinet Of Horrors?

Among the sharpest conservative opponents of fascism is George T. Conway III. During a Nov. 14 appearance on CNN, the attorney and activist offered this pithy description of Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz and Bobby Kennedy, the worst nominees (so far) to Donald Trump's cabinet:

"If you were seeking to destroy the country, the Gabbard, Gaetz, and RFK Jr. picks were exactly the ones you'd make. And that's not surprising. Because Trump is a malignant narcissist, and malignant narcissists, subconsciously or consciously, do seek to destroy." (I should note here that Conway is a friend who wrote the foreword to my most recent book, The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.)

There may be even more sinister explanations for what Trump is doing — he appears subservient to a hostile foreign power — but Conway's warning about the potential impact of his bizarre choices is no exaggeration. Many Americans, probably including the ignorant and arrogant Trump, have little idea what the major federal agencies do or why maintaining their operations is so essential to protecting our families, livelihoods, and security. They may be about to find out the very hardest way.

As many observers have noted, it is difficult to imagine a more absurd appointee than Gaetz to head the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over the FBI as well. He has no relevant experience whatsoever, except as an investigative target.

Like his master Trump, former Florida Rep. Gaetz publicly vowed vengeance on the FBI for daring to probe his alleged crimes, which ranged from drug offenses and theft of campaign funds to the sexual trafficking of teenage girls. But the nation's premier law enforcement agency has responsibilities that range far beyond probing the misconduct of a sleazy congressman. While Gaetz, Trump and many of their cronies may be perfectly content to disrupt the FBI's probes of public corruption, thus leaving them unmolested, the rest of us would surely suffer if it is no longer able to investigate violent gangs, prevent terrorist bombings and cyberattacks, and maintain a counterintelligence cordon against enemy spies (although that would surely gratify those Trump fans in the Kremlin).

The thugs, traffickers, and spies apprehended by the FBI are prosecuted by DOJ attorneys, either in Washington or by U.S. attorneys around the country, whose operations certainly need no interference from the likes of Gaetz or anyone whom he might choose as his underlings.

So when Gaetz proclaims his desire to dismantle the FBI and DOJ, he may have his own petty reasons — but the impact of this clown on the rule of law, public order and Americans' ability to conduct our lives in peace and security could be devastating.

In certain ways Gabbard resembles Gaetz. She too is a peculiar and discredited figure with no discernible ability to perform the role assigned her by Trump, overseeing the world's largest and most vital intelligence network. That network includes the CIA, the National Security Agency, the intelligence divisions of the armed forces, and the FBI (which she can assist Gaetz in wrecking). She is a veteran and a former member of Congress, but perhaps just as important is her pedigree as an acolyte of a destructive cult that spun off from the Hare Krishna organization.

Worse still, she has repeatedly demonstrated her allegiance to some of this era's bloodiest dictators — not just Vladimir Putin, whose propaganda about Ukraine she tried to spread, but Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian despot, mass murderer, and Russian client, to whom she provided similar assistance. Russian state television, which has often garlanded Gabbard with favorable coverage, is celebrating her appointment — but allied intelligence agencies around the world are being forced to reconsider their ties with American counterparts, potentially crippling our capacity to obtain information vital to U.S. national security.

Kennedy, the conspiracy monger and anti-vax profiteer, presents a different kind of menace to our future. He is a proved and inveterate liar, who now claims he isn't an opponent of vaccination when there are hours of video and other indisputable records confirming that fact. More than once he has sat stone-faced while someone played that proof in his presence, and then continued to lie.

Should he actually be confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services, with jurisdiction over such agencies as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health, the likely damage he will inflict on our health and safety is incalculable. We know what he is capable of doing — what he yearns to do — because he has left a legacy of human wreckage over the past two decades. His campaign against vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to foster the fears that left millions vulnerable and eventually dead. Although Kennedy alone cannot be held accountable for those excess deaths, as statisticians call them, he definitely did his worst.

We may somehow avoid another pandemic, despite the imminent threat from bird flu, but Kennedy's anti-science ideology could soon bring on an epidemic of measles, if he can get the vaccination rate low enough. He and his anti-vax cronies achieved that deadly goal in Samoa several years ago — with lethal consequences for dozens of little children. If he can scale that campaign here, the toll could be in the tens of thousands.

Bobby also seemingly aims to increase tooth decay among children by doing away with water fluoridation. He plans to undermine our decades-long effort to cure cancer and other modern plagues with a mad eight-year "moratorium" on scientific research. He has a roster of likeminded kooks he wants to name to top positions in the federal health agencies — and it's mostly comprised of far-right quacks, discredited academics and supplement grifters, with a couple of neo-Nazis sprinkled among them. If he is confirmed, he will bring this rogue's gallery with him.

What stands between our country and the national wreckage portended by these abominable Trump appointees is the U.S. Senate. There is no more important function outlined in the Constitution for that deliberative body, and there has never been a more urgent need for senators to stand up and protect the nation. There are only a handful of Republicans with the courage, integrity and wisdom to stop this catastrophic process — but only a handful need to act. Nothing less than the fate of the nation is at stake.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Grisham

Fascism Lite? Trump Regime May Use 'Bureaucratic Bullying' Against Critics

In aThis American Life report aired on National Public Radio (NPR) stations in June, some prominent Donald Trump critics — including former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and the Lincoln Project's Fred Wellman — revealed that they have been looking at possible countries to move to if Trump wins the 2024 presidential election and returns to the White House in January 2025. Grisham and Wellman both said they fear the possibility of retaliation during a second Trump Administration.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his wife Rachel Vindman were also interviewed for that segment. Rachel Vindman, fearing retaliation as well, has been urging her husband to consider relocating to another country if Trump wins the election, but he told "This American Life" that he is determined to stay in the U.S. regardless of the election's outcome.

In an in-depth article published on September 12, The New Republic's Greg Sargent examines the possible shape that retaliation against critics could take in a second Trump administration — and how those critics are "bracing to be victimized."

Trump's critics have been debating whether Trump 2.0 would resemble the full-fledged fascism of Chile under Gen. Augusto Pinochet and Paraguay under the Alberto Stroessner dictatorship or the so-called "illiberal democracy" of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

"One set of oft-floated worst-case scenarios looks something like this: Trump orders his pliant pick for attorney general to prosecute Liz Cheney and other high-profile critics and frog-march them before the cameras," Sargent explains. "Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to dispatch the military into cities to crush mass protests. Trump unshackles deportation forces to drag millions of undocumented immigrants from homes and workplaces. Trump purges our nation's intelligence services, stocks them with loyal foot soldiers, and unleashes them as a domestic spying force to gather information on designated enemies of the MAGA movement."

Sargent continues, "It would be folly to dismiss these possibilities, since Trump has repeatedly threatened to carry out something resembling every one of those things. He has vowed to prosecute his political opponents without cause. He has loudly called for the indictment of members of the congressional committee that investigated his January 6, 2021, insurrection attempt. He has mused aloud that he might send the military into Democratic-run cities."

But Sargent emphasizes that a second Trump administration could also bring a "less garish scenario" with a "lower-profile, slow-burn authoritarianism" that "unfolds much more quietly and largely behind the scenes."

Trump critics, according to Sargent, has been consulting lawyers who "are advising them to gird for low-grade bureaucratic bullying."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) told Sargent, "We are organizing to win this election, but if, God forbid, an authoritarian MAGA clampdown comes, it may not be tanks in the streets and midnight disappearances. It may be more akin to a corrosive long-term campaign of constant official and vigilante harassment against perceived political adversaries of the president-king."

Washington, D.C. attorney Mark Zaid is sounding the alarm as well.

Zaid told Sargent, "A second Trump administration will not hesitate to exercise every executive branch weapon it can against those it considers enemies, real or otherwise. We expect a very targeted approach designed to drain the financial resources of perceived adversaries, designed to leave them neutralized and isolated."

Zaid, according to Sargent, "has been advising clients who are high-profile critics of Trump" to "prepare for IRS audits directed at their personal finances" or deal with "the threat of revoked passports."

One of Zaid's clients is former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye, a conservative Republican who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris when she spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Troye told Sargent, "Nothing is off the table for what they could do to me. I'm looking at other countries where I could potentially reside."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Fascism

Poll Shows Rising Fascism And Extremism Is Top 2024 Voter Concern

A recent Marist poll for NPR and PBS NewsHour surveyed Americans' biggest concerns for the country's future, finding that "the rise of fascism and extremism" topped the list, at 31 percent of U.S. adults.

The partisan breakdown, as usual, was illuminating, with a plurality of Democrats and independents choosing the rise of fascism and extremism, at 47 percent and 32 percent respectively, as their primary concern.

The issue dominated with Democrats—nothing else even broke 20 percent. But among independents, "a lack of values" came in second at 24 percent with "becoming weak as a nation" just behind at 23 percent.

Republicans’ top two concerns were "a lack of values," at 36 percent, and "becoming weak as a nation," at 30 percent, while the rise of fascism was a distant third at 15 percent.

Notably, 35 percent of those who cited rising fascism and extremism as their top concern said they are "definitely voting in November's election." Meanwhile, a lack of values and the nation becoming weak stayed static among “definite” voters at 24 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Simply put, the rise of fascism and extremism is the most concerning to Americans, particularly those who are "definite" voters, and the feeling is most pronounced among potential Democratic voters (i.e. Democrats and independents). On the other hand, it is not a primary motivation for Republican voters.

Additionally, the survey's findings suggest that abortion could be a more powerful issue than some analysts suggest because of GOP abortion bans sweeping the South. These bans serve as a real-life example of the loss of freedoms and autonomy associated with fascists and autocratic regimes.

While attendees of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference are outright welcoming "the end of democracy," the GOP’s quashing of abortion care in an entire region of the country serves as a tangible reminder of what an end to democracy means.

Among analysts, the economy and immigration are often touted as the two main policy issues driving the election, with abortion lagging, polled separately, or even excluded from the issue polling.

That was also the case in the 2022 midterms, when Democrats were supposed to be swept away by a red wave but instead wildly outperformed expectations.

In October 2022, a Civiqs poll showed exactly why analysts misread the issues that would dominate the election. While 58% of voters overall chose the "economy/jobs/inflation" as their top issue, the partisan breakdown of issues showed that 52% of Democrats chose abortion as their No. 1 issue while 43 percent said "fair elections/democracy" was their No. 2 issue.

These two issues proved to be decisive and incredibly motivating among Democratic voters' and some independents who turned out to beat back the red wave.

The latest Marist polling suggests that anyone who underestimates them in this election does so at their own peril.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Ronna Romney McDaniel

'Handmaid Of Fascism': Ronna McDaniel's New NBC Gig Provokes Fury

Exactly two weeks after her Trump-engineered exit as chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel has been hired by NBC News and MSNBC as a political commentator, fomenting fury among journalists, press watchers, and ordinary Americans.

Declaring that the network has a “crucial mission,” which it “performs like no other,” NBC News senior vice president of politics Carrie Budoff Brown announced McDaniel’s hiring to employees in a memo Friday, which ws published by The Hollywood Reporter.

“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Brown wrote. “As chair of the Republican National Committee, she spent nearly eight years at the highest levels of American politics before stepping down earlier this year. As we gear up for the longest general election season in recent memory, she will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party — which she led through some of the most turbulent and challenging moments in political history. And as a longtime Michigan resident, she’ll be an important voice from one of this year’s key battlegrounds.”

Critics shared a different version of McDaniels’ résumé – and NBC News’ responsibilities.

“NBC is and must be, first and foremost, in the credibility business. She will compromise that every time she appears on air. She cannot be trusted,” wrote David Rothkopf, a journalist, author, and foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator. Rothkopf is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also called it “a terrible decision” and McDaniel “a proven serial liar.”

Media Matters ran this headline: “NBC News hires Ronna McDaniel, who played a key role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to NBC News.”

The sub-head: “Even participating in an attempted coup can’t disrupt the politics-to-pundit pipeline.”

“Prosecutors argued that, as NBC News characterized it, McDaniel has ‘unique knowledge’ about ‘the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election,'” writes Media Matters’ John Knefel. “NBC News executives can perhaps be forgiven for these repeated oversights, though. After all, the network laid off dozens of its news staffers in January, so maybe there aren’t enough researchers around to dig into the network’s own coverage of its newest contributor.”

Others also pointed to McDaniel’s credibility and alleged actions to undermine democracy and overturn the 2020 election.

“McDaniel lied about the 2020 election result, was involved in a pressure campaign to get Michigan officials not to certify the vote, and has accused MSNBC of ‘spreading lies’ and employing ‘primetime propagandists,'” declared former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, now editor-in-chief of Zeteo News.

Political strategist Rachel Bitecofer, talking about McDaniel’s work during the 2020 election, wrote: “Ronna McDaniel was balls deep in the coup plot. She flew to swing states to encourage Republican state legislators and Republican election officials to submit fraudulent electors to steal the election from Joe Biden. If I was an @NBCNews employee I’d be pissed.”

The Daily Beast’s senior media reporter Justin Baragona dug up a social media post by McDaniel that disparages the network she will now be working for.

Attorney and MediasTouch.com editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski posted video of McDaniel “saying she hopes the US defaults on its debt because that will help Republicans.”

Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob served NBC News this dire warning: “A MAGA dictatorship would crush legitimate news organizations and embrace propaganda outfits. By hiring a fascist liar Ronna McDaniel, NBC has shown which one it wants to be.”

“Carrie Budoff Brown is a traitor to democracy,” continued Jacob, who writes the Stop the Presses newsletter. He added: “This is what media complicity with fascism looks like. NBC is paying a co-conspirator in the Jan. 6 insurrection to keep deceiving the American people.”

Current MSNBC columnist Marisa Kabas wrote Brown a letter in which she says, “As we approach the 2024 election, it has never been more important for viewers and readers to have trust in their news outlets. Rehabilitating the reputation of an enabler of a government coup will completely undermine that trust.”

“As RNC Chairwoman,” Kabas continued, “McDaniel was quite literally on a phone call with former President Trump when he pressured two local Michigan officials not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election. McDaniel told the officials, ‘If you can go home tonight and do not sign it… We will get you attorneys.’ She also called for an erroneous investigation into another Michigan county’s voting procedures which was so riddled with false claims, the Michigan Department of State issued a statement saying her claims had ‘no merit.'”

Dash Dobrofsky, who writes The Gen Z Perspective, posted: “MSNBC just hired Ronna McDaniel — an election-denying, racist, pro-fascist, homophobic pathological liar — as their latest political contributor/commentator. In other words, they will pay her to lie for Trump during an election year. MSNBC is not a legitimate news organization.”

From McDaniel’s home state, Craig Mauger of The Detroit Newswrites: “Here’s our reporting from December about her involvement in a call to pressure the Wayne County canvassers not to sign the 2020 election certification,” as he points to this story that reads in part:

“On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they’d look ‘terrible’ if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county’s election results, according to the recordings.”

Puck News founding partner and Washington correspondent Julia Ioffe summed it up:

“Real journalists are losing their jobs, but the handmaids of American fascism are getting plum spots in legacy American media organizations. Shame on you, @NBCNews.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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