They’ve read their history: if they can embed fascism deeply at every level of American government, business, and civic life, it will take generations to rip it out…
Trump et al. have spent their entire lives stealing from us and taking bribes from Russia, the Arab states. They are rich and don't give a SH!t about anyone else. The formula works for them. All of the MAGAT have their sick, little predilections that they need to feed. The rest is cover. Hitler was one sick dude and so were his brown shirt pals.
Ultra-conservatives have known for a long time that their ideas were and would always be extremely unpopular outside white oligarchic circles and would have to be imposed upon the country, since the electorate at large would never choose them in open elections.
The surge of white-supremacist christo-fascism in the US that we're seeing today is the fruit of efforts dating back to Fred Koch and the early days of the John Birch Society and consistently funded and amplified by Charles and the late David Koch and numerous other extremist ultra-conservative billionaires (Mercer, Scaife, and Olin, inter alia). Their strategy has long been to own politicians via "campaign contributions"; permeate the courts with far-right ideology by funding and supporting law schools that would churn out very conservative lawyers, some of whom would eventually attain judgeships; create and fund organizations such as the Federalist Society to promote the progress and visibility of sufficiently conservative young lawyers; create and fund "think tanks" to pollute the public square with ultra-conservative policy advocacy disguised as "research"; and funding and supporting certain universities and university departments to ensure the teaching flowed in a sufficiently conservative vein. Look no farther than the George Mason University Economics Department for a classic example.
The ideology stems directly from John Calhoun in antebellum South Carolina and flows through the work of James M. Buchanan, an ultra-conservative economist and professor at -- wait for it -- George Mason University. Buchanan provided the theoretical basis for libertarians' and then Republicans' dogma about the need to suppress democracy, eliminate taxes, all but eliminate government, etc. etc.
For full treatment of all this, read _Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right_, by Jane Mayer, and _Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America_, by Nancy MacLean. The former focuses more on the stealth-funding work from roughly the mid-20th century onward; the latter lays out the history of the oligarchic, anti-democratic thinking and the developing of an ostensibly legitimate intellectual basis for it via Buchanan's work.
It's no accident we're now seeing overtly fascist and hate-filled statements and policies, judicial decisions supported by tortured logic and bizarre interpretations of history and legal precedent to justify pre-determined outcomes, openly corrupt politicians and judges and justices, corporate profits at unprecedented levels, constraints and regulations on capitalism watered down or destroyed as fast as possible, and the separation between church and state completely ignored.
The far-right's goal has long been the permanent imposition of white-supremacist, oligarchic, theocratically-infused control on the country. They've made very deep inroads; TBD whether the electorate will wake up in time and in sufficient numbers to prevent the complete and irreversible takeover.
We have never had a democratic form of government which is a big part of the problem. Who gets on the ballot is determined by the party bosses. In 1943 three-term vice president Henry A. Wallace was replaced by Harry Truman on the ticket with FDR who was gravely ill. Early in 1945 when FDR died as expected, Truman became the president of the United States. We have the same taking place in recent years with the progressive Bernie Sanders kept off the presidential ballot in 2008, 2016, and 2020. It is a choice between two neoliberal candidates for the American people.
People are largely unaware as the school textbooks are heavily censored and many come out of Texas and the corporate media since the Reagan presidency has become very concentrated with single owners controlling all the media (print, radio, televison, streaming) in most markets. The Democratic Party has become shills for the Republican Party in support of the elite overclass.
Starting in 1947 with the anti-union Taft-Harley Act so the federal government encouraging the exporting of union jobs under Reagan and Clinton (with NAFTA) there is no one to support the workers and their families in government. So both parties compete at the corporate trough for campaign money and none of them represent the American working class.
With the elite overclass controlling all three branches of the government and the military and all the media, any hope is based on wishful thinking and ignores the current reality.
There is an error in this article. There was a court ruling and PA was required to draw new congressional districts as of the 2018 election. Our house delegation is now evenly divided: 9 Democrats and 9 Republicans. We also got 3 congresswomen in 2018: Chrissy Houlahan, Madeline Dean, Mary Gay Scanlon and Susan Wild
3. Use selective prosecution to punish those who speak out.
Well it isn't the Trump humpers who have monopolized this tactic.
Biden's DHS is still tracking progressives, and recently arrested protesters against Cop City being built in Atlanta, GA and they still expend resources on tracking progressive movements like antifa(scism)
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Reality Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the news website The Intercept. She was arrested and imprisoned by Trump, yet she is still in prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Winner
Then there was this dude who leaded info about a National Security (GESTAPO) state, he was forced to find safety in Russia, but did America a huge favor by disclosing this top secret neo GESTAPO government.
Ironically the same situation with Julian Assange, when he leaked info about the National Security State and DHS, he was hailed as a hero by liberals, until he worked with Putin to release Hillary's emails.
Then he became anathema to liberals. And he did so why, because Hillary had been trying to extradite him to America when Secretary of State.
So we have a history of "liberals" chasing after and condoning the persecution of people who expose the national security state, in this way Democrats become enablers of their own enemies.
And we have the treacherous right winger Christopher Wray running the FBI, and Trump humpers running or embedded in vital cabinets from DHS, to NSA, DOD and Customs and Border Patrol.
Trump gave Biden a tool which he could use to purge these departments of these tools, but revoked EO 13957, which created Schedule F civil servants from political appointees, with the first EO he signed EO 14002
I just wish you were better known. You educate that portion of the public that knows who you are and reads you. Unfortunately that leaves FAR too many who are more deluded & deceived than informed --which is exactly how the powers that be want it; and even if Chris Hedges was quoting someone else, it's still encouraging to be reminded, "I don't fight fascists because I'll win, I fight fascists because they're fascists." High schools would do well to teach seniors a course in your take on recent history.
Good to know more about Orban. Everyone should read this and 'the Power Worshippers' reg the Christian Nationalism that has already invaded all systems. Thanks again Thom H
There is a HUGE regulatory proceeding at SEC, everybody from kochs to state attorney s general to progressive organizations are contributing comments to this proposed rule.
With the exception of a few nyt articles buried somewhere - this federal regulatory proceed goes unnoticed by both the mainstream and lefty media.
It's not crazy to characterize this as the single most popular and significant us govt initiative on saving the planet and future for billions of people.
Put on msnbc if you want three stories about trump.
If this was in nyt every day and on nightly news many people would have a different perspective.
But nyt and tv, and even joe biden, project a very different message. Things are fairly normal, 2 political parties one is conservative, biden knows them and they are not all maga.
Smart, kind, fairly decent people are loath to vote for progressive democrats. My neighbors have "biden/Harris" sticker on their car, read nyt eagerly day, and do NOT support reform of Supreme Court. It's absurd.
Biden gets a big win for debt ceiling fight in which forces of neoliberalism prevail, human safety net reduced, and good results for pipelines.
When enough people see neoliberalism as the main villain, when there's a young energetic candidate against it that becomes popular, when there's big broad support to reject products of, and boycott companies based on their political activities and donations, things may change.
We have pride month and we have Juneteenth but as we rewrite constitution we lose the 14th amendment and entire legacy of Lincoln.
The idea of Bernie / progressives "taking over the Democratic Party" wasn't as easy as it sounded. We need to consider third party strategies.
It may not take generations to rip it out. Given a MAGAT fascist state will likely persist in the climate degradation, it will destroy the planet diversity and itself. I guess, I wouldn't be surprised that humanity was a failed experiment.
New ideas can help stem the tide of fascism. The so-called progressive left needs to save money and be more humane to the poor at the same time. The criminals in our prison system and the homeless and the impoverished, need a new system. Today in Phoenix Arizona, a suspect shot a police officer and went on a wild car chase, ending up with him being shot. The prison system does not work. Self- supporting penal colonies for life need to be pushed by the left, in order to save money and be more humane, by segregating the prisoners into their races and the crimes. They can either all get along or kill each other, it will be their decision. Flogging minor criminals the first 10 times would also be a lot cheaper and make the rich think twice also. Especially for lying. Self supporting work farms are also needed for the homeless, which would be good for the cities and the businessman. The purpose of government is to keep the peasants civilized, while the merchants prosper. It has been quite a while since either party have even attempted to fix any social problems. It is as if the left is not being represented? Whoever Bidens advisors are, they certainly don't seem progressive. The Democratic candidate for president needs to invent solutions, not throw their hands up in despair, and not use the bully pulpit. When the right wing fascist get control of the military and police departments, it will be too late. The fascists intentions are just to steal as much money as possible and have lifetime job security, while torturing those they do not like. For telling them what they do not want to hear, even though it is the truth. If America had plenty of oil or was still the largest manufacturer on Earth, the fascists could go on for possibly 10 decades in my opinion, but with a 30 trillion dollar debt and the thieves in charge, America will be lucky to last 10 years. With each year getting progressively worse for the poor, which will be over 150 million Americans in my opinion. Our current allies will not help us, because the fascist will have weakened NATO dramatically. And they don't like fascists.
Revealed: The MAGAT* Republicans’ Three-Step Plan for Classic Fascism
Trump et al. have spent their entire lives stealing from us and taking bribes from Russia, the Arab states. They are rich and don't give a SH!t about anyone else. The formula works for them. All of the MAGAT have their sick, little predilections that they need to feed. The rest is cover. Hitler was one sick dude and so were his brown shirt pals.
I believe that the largest tool they have is the Supreme Court and the ruling of Citizens United.
Ultra-conservatives have known for a long time that their ideas were and would always be extremely unpopular outside white oligarchic circles and would have to be imposed upon the country, since the electorate at large would never choose them in open elections.
The surge of white-supremacist christo-fascism in the US that we're seeing today is the fruit of efforts dating back to Fred Koch and the early days of the John Birch Society and consistently funded and amplified by Charles and the late David Koch and numerous other extremist ultra-conservative billionaires (Mercer, Scaife, and Olin, inter alia). Their strategy has long been to own politicians via "campaign contributions"; permeate the courts with far-right ideology by funding and supporting law schools that would churn out very conservative lawyers, some of whom would eventually attain judgeships; create and fund organizations such as the Federalist Society to promote the progress and visibility of sufficiently conservative young lawyers; create and fund "think tanks" to pollute the public square with ultra-conservative policy advocacy disguised as "research"; and funding and supporting certain universities and university departments to ensure the teaching flowed in a sufficiently conservative vein. Look no farther than the George Mason University Economics Department for a classic example.
The ideology stems directly from John Calhoun in antebellum South Carolina and flows through the work of James M. Buchanan, an ultra-conservative economist and professor at -- wait for it -- George Mason University. Buchanan provided the theoretical basis for libertarians' and then Republicans' dogma about the need to suppress democracy, eliminate taxes, all but eliminate government, etc. etc.
For full treatment of all this, read _Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right_, by Jane Mayer, and _Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America_, by Nancy MacLean. The former focuses more on the stealth-funding work from roughly the mid-20th century onward; the latter lays out the history of the oligarchic, anti-democratic thinking and the developing of an ostensibly legitimate intellectual basis for it via Buchanan's work.
It's no accident we're now seeing overtly fascist and hate-filled statements and policies, judicial decisions supported by tortured logic and bizarre interpretations of history and legal precedent to justify pre-determined outcomes, openly corrupt politicians and judges and justices, corporate profits at unprecedented levels, constraints and regulations on capitalism watered down or destroyed as fast as possible, and the separation between church and state completely ignored.
The far-right's goal has long been the permanent imposition of white-supremacist, oligarchic, theocratically-infused control on the country. They've made very deep inroads; TBD whether the electorate will wake up in time and in sufficient numbers to prevent the complete and irreversible takeover.
We have never had a democratic form of government which is a big part of the problem. Who gets on the ballot is determined by the party bosses. In 1943 three-term vice president Henry A. Wallace was replaced by Harry Truman on the ticket with FDR who was gravely ill. Early in 1945 when FDR died as expected, Truman became the president of the United States. We have the same taking place in recent years with the progressive Bernie Sanders kept off the presidential ballot in 2008, 2016, and 2020. It is a choice between two neoliberal candidates for the American people.
People are largely unaware as the school textbooks are heavily censored and many come out of Texas and the corporate media since the Reagan presidency has become very concentrated with single owners controlling all the media (print, radio, televison, streaming) in most markets. The Democratic Party has become shills for the Republican Party in support of the elite overclass.
Starting in 1947 with the anti-union Taft-Harley Act so the federal government encouraging the exporting of union jobs under Reagan and Clinton (with NAFTA) there is no one to support the workers and their families in government. So both parties compete at the corporate trough for campaign money and none of them represent the American working class.
With the elite overclass controlling all three branches of the government and the military and all the media, any hope is based on wishful thinking and ignores the current reality.
America used to denounce Fascism, now parts of her want to embrace it. Under which form of gov't will the US celebrate her 250th birthday in '26?
There is an error in this article. There was a court ruling and PA was required to draw new congressional districts as of the 2018 election. Our house delegation is now evenly divided: 9 Democrats and 9 Republicans. We also got 3 congresswomen in 2018: Chrissy Houlahan, Madeline Dean, Mary Gay Scanlon and Susan Wild
3. Use selective prosecution to punish those who speak out.
Well it isn't the Trump humpers who have monopolized this tactic.
Biden's DHS is still tracking progressives, and recently arrested protesters against Cop City being built in Atlanta, GA and they still expend resources on tracking progressive movements like antifa(scism)
On June 3, 2017, while employed by the military contractor Pluribus International Corporation, Reality Winner was arrested on suspicion of leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the news website The Intercept. She was arrested and imprisoned by Trump, yet she is still in prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Winner
Then there was this dude who leaded info about a National Security (GESTAPO) state, he was forced to find safety in Russia, but did America a huge favor by disclosing this top secret neo GESTAPO government.
Ironically the same situation with Julian Assange, when he leaked info about the National Security State and DHS, he was hailed as a hero by liberals, until he worked with Putin to release Hillary's emails.
Then he became anathema to liberals. And he did so why, because Hillary had been trying to extradite him to America when Secretary of State.
So we have a history of "liberals" chasing after and condoning the persecution of people who expose the national security state, in this way Democrats become enablers of their own enemies.
And we have the treacherous right winger Christopher Wray running the FBI, and Trump humpers running or embedded in vital cabinets from DHS, to NSA, DOD and Customs and Border Patrol.
Trump gave Biden a tool which he could use to purge these departments of these tools, but revoked EO 13957, which created Schedule F civil servants from political appointees, with the first EO he signed EO 14002
I just wish you were better known. You educate that portion of the public that knows who you are and reads you. Unfortunately that leaves FAR too many who are more deluded & deceived than informed --which is exactly how the powers that be want it; and even if Chris Hedges was quoting someone else, it's still encouraging to be reminded, "I don't fight fascists because I'll win, I fight fascists because they're fascists." High schools would do well to teach seniors a course in your take on recent history.
Good to know more about Orban. Everyone should read this and 'the Power Worshippers' reg the Christian Nationalism that has already invaded all systems. Thanks again Thom H
There is a HUGE regulatory proceeding at SEC, everybody from kochs to state attorney s general to progressive organizations are contributing comments to this proposed rule.
With the exception of a few nyt articles buried somewhere - this federal regulatory proceed goes unnoticed by both the mainstream and lefty media.
It's not crazy to characterize this as the single most popular and significant us govt initiative on saving the planet and future for billions of people.
Put on msnbc if you want three stories about trump.
https://www.sec.gov/sec-response-climate-and-esg-risks-and-opportunities
If this was in nyt every day and on nightly news many people would have a different perspective.
But nyt and tv, and even joe biden, project a very different message. Things are fairly normal, 2 political parties one is conservative, biden knows them and they are not all maga.
Smart, kind, fairly decent people are loath to vote for progressive democrats. My neighbors have "biden/Harris" sticker on their car, read nyt eagerly day, and do NOT support reform of Supreme Court. It's absurd.
Biden gets a big win for debt ceiling fight in which forces of neoliberalism prevail, human safety net reduced, and good results for pipelines.
When enough people see neoliberalism as the main villain, when there's a young energetic candidate against it that becomes popular, when there's big broad support to reject products of, and boycott companies based on their political activities and donations, things may change.
We have pride month and we have Juneteenth but as we rewrite constitution we lose the 14th amendment and entire legacy of Lincoln.
The idea of Bernie / progressives "taking over the Democratic Party" wasn't as easy as it sounded. We need to consider third party strategies.
As I have stated and written, recently I am locked and primed for the upcoming battle for our very existence.
It may not take generations to rip it out. Given a MAGAT fascist state will likely persist in the climate degradation, it will destroy the planet diversity and itself. I guess, I wouldn't be surprised that humanity was a failed experiment.
New ideas can help stem the tide of fascism. The so-called progressive left needs to save money and be more humane to the poor at the same time. The criminals in our prison system and the homeless and the impoverished, need a new system. Today in Phoenix Arizona, a suspect shot a police officer and went on a wild car chase, ending up with him being shot. The prison system does not work. Self- supporting penal colonies for life need to be pushed by the left, in order to save money and be more humane, by segregating the prisoners into their races and the crimes. They can either all get along or kill each other, it will be their decision. Flogging minor criminals the first 10 times would also be a lot cheaper and make the rich think twice also. Especially for lying. Self supporting work farms are also needed for the homeless, which would be good for the cities and the businessman. The purpose of government is to keep the peasants civilized, while the merchants prosper. It has been quite a while since either party have even attempted to fix any social problems. It is as if the left is not being represented? Whoever Bidens advisors are, they certainly don't seem progressive. The Democratic candidate for president needs to invent solutions, not throw their hands up in despair, and not use the bully pulpit. When the right wing fascist get control of the military and police departments, it will be too late. The fascists intentions are just to steal as much money as possible and have lifetime job security, while torturing those they do not like. For telling them what they do not want to hear, even though it is the truth. If America had plenty of oil or was still the largest manufacturer on Earth, the fascists could go on for possibly 10 decades in my opinion, but with a 30 trillion dollar debt and the thieves in charge, America will be lucky to last 10 years. With each year getting progressively worse for the poor, which will be over 150 million Americans in my opinion. Our current allies will not help us, because the fascist will have weakened NATO dramatically. And they don't like fascists.