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Authoritarianism, Not Just Trump, Is Up for Re-Election
Fear of fascism is no longer alarmist.
By Francis Wilkinson
September 20, 2020, 7:00 AM CDT
According to a new report, the U.S. is undergoing “substantial autocratization” — so much so that only one in five similarly damaged democracies has been able to reverse such decline. President Donald Trump’s administration is consuming democratic capacity at about the same pace that wildfire has been destroying the West. The White House has been a source of lies since Trump’s presidency began. Since his impeachment and acquittal by Senate Republicans, his transgressions have grown more aggressive, while being more aggressively supported by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security — together the equivalent of a mighty Security Ministry — both of which are controlled by men who share Trump’s disregard for rule of law.
Under the direction of Attorney General William Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, the state has assumed the form of unidentified men in unmarked vehicles, a hallmark of anti-democratic regimes. Whistle-blowers and protest resignations have become recurring features of both departments. These admirable acts of conscience seek to bring attention to systemic abuses — the corruption of intelligence for political purposes at Homeland Security, and the corruption of law, including favors for friends and vengeance for opponents, at Justice.
But declarations of conscience are not a substitute for rule of law; they are merely proof of its absence. And people of good faith are no match for large bureaucracies severed from ethical norms and lawful rigor.
Fear of fascism was once a luxury political good in the U.S., a fringe obsession rendered trivial by the enduring realities of a stable democracy. The authoritarian drive of the American president — and of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, with the complicity of most of the Republican Party — has altered that.
In a sign of just how self-aware the assault on democracy is, allies of the president now equate opposition to Trump with the “color revolutions” that swept the post-Soviet sphere. In this understanding of the political moment, Trump is cast in the role of a corrupt, Russian-backed dictator. The forces countering him are the masses who take to the streets clamoring for democracy, accountability and rule of law.
The mass action of a popular election, in the midst of a pandemic that Trump allows to rage, is where these opposing forces will meet in November. It’s entirely unclear how that will play out. In recent weeks, Barr has been a source of falsehoods about voting security, which seem designed to serve as a basis for Trump doing exactly what he has threatened to do: Dispute the results of an election that he is on track to lose. Trump has implied that he will deploy force, and encourage armed supporters to do the same, to cling to power.
. . . a democratic election is poised to counter this authoritarian thrust. How the authoritarians will respond, beyond the sabotage of voting access already under way, is unknown. But the notion that this election will fend off an authoritarian regime is incorrect. That regime is already in place.
More at https://web.archive.org/web/20200920174822/www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a
rticles/2020-09-20/trump-s-running-mate-is-authoritarianism
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Gross.
At least they still call pieces like this Opinions and aren't trying to pass the straight up propaganda as News.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Trump and Barr making it perfectly clear that they are both grossly fat:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Gross.
After weeks of attacks on BLM by Trump and Barr, 55% of American adults still say they strongly or somewhat support the Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s about the same share that consistently voices disapproval of Trump’s presidency.
Barr has made it clear that he shares Trump’s view that this American majority should be neutered. BLM is “not interested in Black lives, they’re interested in props,” Barr said in remarks last week. “A small number of Blacks were killed by police during conflict with police — usually less than a dozen a year — who they can use as props to achieve a much broader political agenda.”
In a previous interview with the virulent right-wing propagandist Mark Levin, Barr suggested what this “broader political agenda” entailed. He described Black Lives Matter as “a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They’re essentially Bolsheviks.”
Exaggeration of left-wing violence and the manufacture of nefarious leftist threats is a feature of countries that succumbed to right-wing authoritarianism. “Our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists,” Trump said in June. “Violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.” Barr’s own obsession with the confection of left-wing agitation and right-wing myth-making known as “Antifa” is another indicator that his political views are increasingly untethered to democratic reality. “I’ve talked to every police chief in every city where there’s been major violence, and they all have identified Antifa as the ramrod for the violence,” Barr told CNN.
That Trump and Barr harp on Antifa while ignoring the more violent and pervasive terrorism committed by right-wing vigilantes is another discomfiting sign. Elizabeth Neumann, a Trump appointee who served as an assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention in the Department of Homeland Security before leaving the department in April, said that the Trump administration labeled Antifa as domestic terrorists “for political purposes.”
The ultimate purpose remains opaque. But Barr clearly views the democratic playing field as unfair and conservatives as victims, their righteous claims to power vandalized by secularism’s “unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.” In a speech at the University of Notre Dame last year, he used variations of the word “secular” 21 times to describe the enemy. Those who don’t share Barr’s drive to preserve and extend the most corrupt administration in American history are guilty of pushing the country on a “socialist path” toward certain doom, he says.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Why Trump could possibly end up "behind bars" if he loses
Journalist Jeff Wise examines the type of prosecutions that Trump could face if he loses the presidential election
https://www.salon.com/2020/09/20/why-trump-could-possibly-end-up-behin
d-bars-if-he-loses_partner/
It's at the state level, and in New York especially, where Trump's biggest legal dangers lurk.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., Wise argues, is "likely to pursue" charges of "falsifying business records."
"Unlike the federal court system, which often allows prisoners to remain free during the appeals process, state courts tend to waste no time in carrying out punishment," Wise explains. "After someone is sentenced in New York City, their next stop is Rikers Island. Once there, as Trump awaited transfer to a state prison, the man who'd treated the presidency like a piggy bank would receive yet another handout at the public expense: a toothbrush and toothpaste, bedding, a towel, and a green plastic cup."
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Quote:
Originally posted by reaverfan:
Why Trump could possibly end up "behind bars" if he loses
Journalist Jeff Wise examines the type of prosecutions that Trump could face if he loses the presidential election
https://www.salon.com/2020/09/20/why-trump-could-possibly-end-up-behin
d-bars-if-he-loses_partner/
It's at the state level, and in New York especially, where Trump's biggest legal dangers lurk.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., Wise argues, is "likely to pursue" charges of "falsifying business records."
"Unlike the federal court system, which often allows prisoners to remain free during the appeals process, state courts tend to waste no time in carrying out punishment," Wise explains. "After someone is sentenced in New York City, their next stop is Rikers Island. Once there, as Trump awaited transfer to a state prison, the man who'd treated the presidency like a piggy bank would receive yet another handout at the public expense: a toothbrush and toothpaste, bedding, a towel, and a green plastic cup."
Keep your masturbation fan fic on Deviant Art with all of your other weirdo friends.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump and Barr making it perfectly clear that they are both grossly fat:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Gross.
After weeks of attacks on BLM by Trump and Barr, 55% of American adults still say they strongly or somewhat support the Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s about the same share that consistently voices disapproval of Trump’s presidency.
Barr has made it clear that he shares Trump’s view that this American majority should be neutered. BLM is “not interested in Black lives, they’re interested in props,” Barr said in remarks last week. “A small number of Blacks were killed by police during conflict with police — usually less than a dozen a year — who they can use as props to achieve a much broader political agenda.”
In a previous interview with the virulent right-wing propagandist Mark Levin, Barr suggested what this “broader political agenda” entailed. He described Black Lives Matter as “a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They’re essentially Bolsheviks.”
Exaggeration of left-wing violence and the manufacture of nefarious leftist threats is a feature of countries that succumbed to right-wing authoritarianism. “Our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists,” Trump said in June. “Violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.” Barr’s own obsession with the confection of left-wing agitation and right-wing myth-making known as “Antifa” is another indicator that his political views are increasingly untethered to democratic reality. “I’ve talked to every police chief in every city where there’s been major violence, and they all have identified Antifa as the ramrod for the violence,” Barr told CNN.
That Trump and Barr harp on Antifa while ignoring the more violent and pervasive terrorism committed by right-wing vigilantes is another discomfiting sign. Elizabeth Neumann, a Trump appointee who served as an assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention in the Department of Homeland Security before leaving the department in April, said that the Trump administration labeled Antifa as domestic terrorists “for political purposes.”
The ultimate purpose remains opaque. But Barr clearly views the democratic playing field as unfair and conservatives as victims, their righteous claims to power vandalized by secularism’s “unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.” In a speech at the University of Notre Dame last year, he used variations of the word “secular” 21 times to describe the enemy. Those who don’t share Barr’s drive to preserve and extend the most corrupt administration in American history are guilty of pushing the country on a “socialist path” toward certain doom, he says.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Fuck that polling number psy ops.
The only reason they've even bother bringing it down to near a coin toss is because there's just far too much evidence for anybody to believe it's over 80% support anymore. You goons have been handing out far too many red pills.
Maybe 10%. Maybe.
A staggering win for Trump in November once again should be all of the evidence that you need to see that the polling firms are full of shit. But you didn't learn last time, so I'll just enjoy laughing at your expense for the next 4 years in lieu of expecting that you might actually learn something.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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The NFL learned their lesson pretty fucking quick.
What's your excuse?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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And a completely captive audience who has never been as bored out of their minds as they are in 2020 saw the least watched Emmys EVER.
But keep telling yourself that people are on board with any of this bullshit, and they give a single shit what an actor or an athlete has to say about anything.
You're all a bunch of court jesters. Shut up and dance, monkey.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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“The United States is a white Christian country. Everyone else is here on sufferance.”
There are enough parallels between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in the UK and the US in 2020 that it is worth some comparison.
Trump has been trying to re-establish a reactionary regime of white Christianity by making use of allegedly unchallengeable Executive authority. Like James II, he is trying to establish a standing army in the form of the Department of Homeland Security (see Portland). And like James II, he is applying loyalty tests across the board to purge every agency he can of those who might oppose his goals, including positions of nonpolitical civil servants.
In both cases, the majority of the population is having none of it, the big difference being that James II probably had less than 20% – maybe less than 10% – support when the chips were down (the military either turned on him or simply stood aside), while Trump probably has between 40% – 45% support. Most notably, the US military command is apparently actively resisting trump’s attempts to use it politically.
As a result, the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 resulted in very few actual deaths. With the burgeoning of a right-wing Brownshirt movement in the US, as NRA protests have spread to anti-lockdown and anti-mask protests, and anti-BLM vigilantism, that happy result looks unlikely in the US.
Yet another parallel is likely to be what came afterward. In the case of the UK, to prevent the arising of another James II, the populace insisted that the monarchs submit to Parliamentary authority. Should Biden win the Presidency and the Democrats win the Senate, it is likely – it is *necessary* – that we will see a Constitutional push to prevent another Trump from attempting to assert unchecked Presidential authority.
More at https://angrybearblog.com/2020/09/the-us-is-a-white-christian-country-
everyone-else-is-here-on-sufferance.html
As a warning to Trump, I wished James II was executed, but in reality he fled to Ireland. When he deserted to France, James II became known to the Irish as Séamus an Chaca or James the Shit. Trump the Shit seems a fitting name for Donald when he flees to Florida, since he is not welcome back in New York because of his cheating on the state income tax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England#Glorious_Revolution
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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