Anti-Commie

<h1 class="title"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></h1><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see new  2 socialist</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">not sure why i am surprised 3/18, given agenda 21 and trump anti-globalism, but odd to hear lapierre and stickman chapman ranting about neo-marxist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see also Agenda 21</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">somewhat neglected category,revived somewhat with Putin in Ukraine (except that chapman applaud ak47 guys)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha 1120:  rooted in hofstedter paranoid style?  trump trial balllonong lots of anti-socialist, extremeist BS in campaign, trying to make us afraid of green new deal AOV The Squad antifa arsonists who are coming to your burbs;  (not so much socialized medicine?)  commie sorta replaced by globalist global elite // coastal elite but sorta evokes Illuminati trilateral bilderbeg anti-sem BS [note SOROS in stop the steal clown car legal BS, also Hugo Chavez; Agenda 21 was anti-green TP reincarnation.  TP is core of trumpistas?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">sparked by</div><div><p class="ruleAbove" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stop the steal clown car elite strike team:</font></p><p class="ruleAbove"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</font><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After Giuliani's segment ended, Powell took the lectern and alleged without evidence that an </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">international <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist" class="mw-redirect" title="Communist" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Communist</a> plot had been engineered by Venezuela, Cuba, China, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez" title="Hugo Chávez" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Hugo Chávez</a> (who died in 2013), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros" title="George Soros" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">George Soros</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Foundation" title="Clinton Foundation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Clinton Foundation</a>, to rig the 2020 election</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-:8_9-1" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Powell#cite_note-:8-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Powell#cite_note-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"> She also alleged that </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems" title="Dominion Voting Systems" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Dominion Voting Systems</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"> "can set and run an algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden."</span><sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Powell#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup></p></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha conspiracy theories just this stew of memes that get recycled and combined?  related to pseudo-populism? the system is rigged, just not in the way you think.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-voters-2649007931/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-voters-2649007931/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">roger s salon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Plaintiffs in a number of the Trump campaign's <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/19/trump-called-two-gop-officials-before-they-tried-to-rescind-their-votes-to-certify-election-results/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lawsuits challenging the president's electoral defeat</a> have peddled conspiracy theories and made <a href="http://www.salon.com/2020/11/19/trumps-michigan-con-his-supporters-are-so-blinded-by-racism-they-keep-falling-for-it/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">racist comments</a>. One of them, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/17/giulianis-disgraceful-courtroom-election-fraud-arguments-are-from-a-fantasy-world-defense-says/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a plaintiff represented by Rudy Giuliani</a> in federal court this week, was even implicated in an election fraud scheme of his own.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new revelations, first reported by Salon, add another dimension of doubt to President Donald Trump's widely discredited, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2020/11/20/fox-news-reporter-calls-out-rudy-giuliani-after-crazy-press-conference-so-much-was-not-true_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">last-ditch legal challenges</a> to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/06/joe-bidens-victory-is-imminent-after-he-pulls-ahead-in-pennsylvania-georgia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are through the looking glass when Rudy Giuliani is appearing in court to allege voter fraud in the presidential race on behalf of a plaintiff who has previously been implicated in election fraud schemes himself," Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US, told Salon in a statement. "The plaintiffs in these cases have long histories peddling conspiracy theories online. It is time for this legal freak-show to exit the courtroom and go back to the chat room where it belongs."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the more recent of the campaign's lawsuits is a complaint filed in Pennsylvania, which seeks a court order to block the certification of votes in the state. Giuliani <a href="http://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/11-17-20-Giuliani-Pro-Hac-Application.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">took over</a> that case on Tuesday, when he <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/17/giulianis-disgraceful-courtroom-election-fraud-arguments-are-from-a-fantasy-world-defense-says/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">made his first arguments</a> before a federal bench since 1992.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The amended <a href="http://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/125-1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">complaint</a> to that case includes allegations from a Uniontown resident named Larry Roberts, who claims the state did not notify him after his ballot was canceled.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are through the looking glass when Rudy Giuliani is appearing in court to allege voter fraud in the presidential race on behalf of a plaintiff who has previously been implicated in election fraud schemes himself," Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US, told Salon in a statement. "The plaintiffs in these cases have long histories peddling conspiracy theories online. It is time for this legal freak-show to exit the courtroom and go back to the chat room where it belongs."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the more recent of the campaign's lawsuits is a complaint filed in Pennsylvania, which seeks a court order to block the certification of votes in the state. Giuliani <a href="http://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/11-17-20-Giuliani-Pro-Hac-Application.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">took over</a> that case on Tuesday, when he <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/17/giulianis-disgraceful-courtroom-election-fraud-arguments-are-from-a-fantasy-world-defense-says/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">made his first arguments</a> before a federal bench since 1992.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The amended <a href="http://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/125-1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">complaint</a> to that case includes allegations from a Uniontown resident named Larry Roberts, who claims the state did not notify him after his ballot was canceled.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Roberts is a former Pennsylvania <b>Democratic state representative,</b> who served <a href="http://www.heraldstandard.com/election/trump-lawsuit-amended-before-hearing-in-court/article_c5258204-2851-11eb-bcec-f397675c8d86.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">from 1993-2006</a>. During that time, he was accused of violating campaign laws multiple times, including election fraud.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2004, Roberts was <a href="http://archive.triblive.com/news/roberts-staff-member-testifies/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">accused</a> of bribing a stalking-horse candidate to siphon primary votes from a Democratic challenger. That spoiler candidate, Michael Ciampanelli, at the time 20 years old, told the local board of elections that Roberts had paid him $200 to put his name on the ballot. A state grand jury investigated the claims, as did the attorney general, but what became of the probe is unclear.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That same year, the rival also accused Roberts of forging 33 signatures on his own nominating petition. The allegation was backed up by a woman who worked in one of Roberts' offices. The woman said Roberts staff told her to lie about the matter, warning her she could face jail time "if the real story came out," according to the <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/33654628/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Associated Press</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2007, the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission slapped Roberts with a $600 fine for <a href="https://www.heraldstandard.com/news/local_news/ethics-violation-outlined/article_c8b3894a-1a7d-5925-9f59-26b12f050dbe.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">violations</a> in 2001 and 2004, including unlawfully using legislative staff to organize campaign events and co-opting his legislative office as a drop-off point for campaign materials.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A separate </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pennsylvania lawsuit dropped on Thursday by the campaign </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">featured Ted Dannerth as a plaintiff, a man who has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories online.</span></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For instance, Dannerth has <a href="http://twitter.com/Trumpet1776/status/1271433468132691970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tweeted</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/Trumpet1776/status/1271433468132691970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">multiple</a><a href="http://twitter.com/Trumpet1776/status/1262810644660850688" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> times</a> this year <a href="https://twitter.com/Trumpet1776/status/1262237790093393921" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">about "Project Blue Beam,"</a> an apparent reference to <a href="http://www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/10-craziest-conspiracies-theories-disturbing-number-people-believe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a fringe conspiracy theory</a> falsely claiming that a NASA-Illuminati joint effort is engineering earthquakes in order to establish a new-age religion led by the antichrist. Dannerth has also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Tedzilla/posts/10221617882773006" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">called</a> women a "weapon" against what he considers to be the "imminent threat" of sterility that would accompany a COVID-19 vaccine.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The Trump campaign plaintiff stitched a number of baseless fringe, QAnon-adjacent theories together in a lengthy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Tedzilla/posts/10221133320699257" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Facebook post</a> this April. Among other things, he claimed that Oprah Winfrey's house had been raided in a sex-trafficking sting and the media had brainwashed Americans against the president, who "is working from the bottom up, to remove the Democrat/Communist/Socialist Epstein/Deep State/CCP scourge from the planet."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dannerth was also involved in a previous 2020 election lawsuit challenging public use of a private grant to fund election initiatives over his opposition to "the election of progressive candidates in local, state and federal elections." That suit was dismissed by District Judge Matthew Brann, who is presiding over the Trump campaign's current lawsuit.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Several plaintiffs in the campaign's challenge to block Michigan canvassers from certifying Detroit-area ballots present similar personal histories.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Eric Ostergen, a Republican poll challenger named in the suit, has repeatedly pushed misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic</b>. This April, he shared a Washington Times op-ed calling coronavirus "the biggest hoax in political history," <a href="http://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10207358254712686" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">on Facebook</a>. In a separate post, he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10207224716934325" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">endorsed</a> the since-discredited treatment hydroxychloroquine.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ostergen posted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10207941501733497" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">two</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10207974590920706" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">times</a> on Facebook about lawsuits he filed against Gov. Gretchen<strong> </strong>Whitmer, D-Mich., over coronavirus measures, saying that "the tyrants will now be reeled in." He has also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10202782562043229" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">denied</a> climate change science on Facebook, a platform where he has also posted baseless claims about <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10208064838536840" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Hunter Biden's laptop</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.ostergren.5/posts/10202547043595415" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">voter fraud</a> in Detroit's 2016 election.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump campaign's Michigan case also features another coronavirus truther, Marian Sheridan, <a href="https://www.migop.org/about" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">head of the Michigan Conservative Coalition</a> (MCC), who in October <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/crush-poll-watchers-expected-michigan-election-raises-intimidation-fears" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">led</a> a "guard the vote" project after Trump's calls to recruit an <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/01/k-pop-fans-infiltrate-armyfortrump-after-trump-recruits-army-to-show-up-at-polls-on-election-day/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"army" of poll-watchers</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In April, Sheridan's group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/marian.sheridan.5/posts/3087434227946605" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">staged "Operation Gridlock,"</a> where thousands of protesters <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/16/trumps-tea-party-are-right-wing-open-the-country-protests-an-astroturf-operation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">jammed the streets of Lansing</a> with their vehicles to express displeasure with Whitmer's stay-home orders.</b> MCC also <a href="https://statenews.com/article/2020/05/michigan-conservative-coalition-hosts-operation-haircut-protest-in-support-of-small-businesses" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">launched "Operation Haircut"</a> in defense of a barber who opened his shop for illegal haircuts amid the state's lockdowns. And Sheridan hosted a Tea Party <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/3139035436116373/?active_tab=about" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">event</a> to educate the public about "the common roots of COVID-19 hysteria and climate change."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A third plaintiff in the Michigan lawsuit, Grosse Pointe City Councilman Matt Seely, has mocked allegations of sexual assault in social media posts, including against Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'M SORRY THAT BAD MAN TOUCHED YOU INAPPROPRIATELY," read one meme, featuring a crying woman, <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2019/09/23/grosse-pointe-shores-facebook-memes-squad-matthew-seely/2392330001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">which Seely shared</a> during the Kavanaugh hearings. "LET'S WAIT 30 OR 40 YEARS … UNTIL HE RUNS FOR OFFICE … AGAINST A DEMOCRAT."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seely also <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2019/09/23/grosse-pointe-shores-facebook-memes-squad-matthew-seely/2392330001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">drew criticism</a> for a social media post in which he connected four Democratic Congresswomen of color, known collectively as "the Squad," to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the post — which was published on the 2019 anniversary of the attacks — Seely said the elevation of those women to Congress was "proof we have forgotten" about 9/11. The words accompanied a picture of the Twin Towers on fire.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seely pushed back against criticism over the post, saying he could express political views on his private Facebook page. In doing so, he was backed by the mayor of Grosse Pointe Shores and other city council members.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Nevada, former Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle — who already had a mail-in ballot case tossed in October — filed a <a href="https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1328508301294886912" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lawsuit</a> parallel to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/05/judges-are-tossing-out-president-trumps-last-minute-attempts-to-sue-his-way-to-victory-one-by-one/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">other GOP election challenges</a> in the state, asking the court to stop the state from certifying its votes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Angle is known for repeatedly pushing right-wing conspiracy theories, such as <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/mayor-to-angle-no-sharia-law-here-043451" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">warning</a> that American towns would fall to Sharia law and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sharron-angle-nevada-cand_n_605754#s98582" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">claiming</a> fluoride in drinking water is a "communist plot to undermine Western democracy."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a radio interview ahead of the 2010 midterms, Angle, who at the time was running against Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/06/sharron_angle_floated_possibil.html?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">alluded</a> to armed insurrection as a remedy for a liberal Congress, saying — citing Thomas Jefferson — that "it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those <b>Second Amendment remedies</b> and saying, 'My goodness, what can we do to turn this country around?" Angle said. "I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/17/20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: authoritarian/ coup needs either massice econ failure or mult failures/crises? (death spiral?); massive and growing inequality amplifed (accel) by covid; note below two stories: </font><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> economic factors were probably a "wash" in terms of the 2020 election, with some American voters likely blaming Trump for the current bad economy (<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/the-science-is-clear-trump-bungled-the-pandemic-response/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">and correctly so</a>) while others may have blamed the COVID-19 lockdowns and supported Trump's opposition to them</span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">.</span></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"He's taken advantage of being president to further his white nationalism, but I don't think that's his main goal," Wilderquist told Salon. <b>"I think Trump's main goal for his entire life is to convince as many people as possible that he's a winner that he wins and wins and wins, and that he's the world's biggest winner. </b>And like a lot of us, he doesn't want to be a loser. The way to step down without feeling like a loser is to convince his echo chamber that he didn't lose. He won and that it was stolen from him. He doesn't need a coup to do that. He just needs to complain a lot."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">aha K: story 1 capitaLISM is awesome and so is USAUSA, so if we are not winning it is b/c limp lefties betrayed us in trade talks so our natural inevitable winners hobbled.  Story 2: we used to be the colinial imperal power sole superpower but [corp dems]either antiipinko BS kept us from having a nat'l econ strategy like Japan and now china, or corps so corrupted politics that rules favoered max profit = outsourcing, so now (rural?) am abandoned or colonized (no unions in So).</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/experts-explain-the-economic-situations-that-beget-successful-coups/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/experts-explain-the-economic-situations-that-beget-successful-coups/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">matt r</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha</b> dr video especially potent b/c selective POV pick of content helps with alt fact post truth BS, PLUS seeing is belieiving, looks like raw unfakeable reality verite right there on the screen, PLUS images bypass rational brain; PLUS  designed to go viral, and even if debunked [and we have ppl dying of covid who think it's bs, stop cursing tyhe nurses for wearing ppe only when intubated], plus it's made to support existing BS narrative (or combo, some cultivated for decades like myth of liberal press [death spiral?]; and even if debunked it still has emotional effect [ampl by alogithms] even after rational mind accepts it was not true/never happnened?!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/ivanka-trump">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/ivanka-trump</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">roger salon</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/08/watch-proud-boys-brutally-beat-black-lives-matter-protesters-after-trump-rally_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">right-wing groups</a> clashed with counter-protesters at <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/06/inside-stop-the-steal-how-right-wingers-are-organizing-to-spread-baseless-claims-of-voter-fraud/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">pro-Trump demonstrations</a> over the weekend, <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/ivanka_trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ivanka Trump</a>, the senior <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/30/no-question-about-it-former-watergate-prosecutor-predicts-trump-and-ivanka-may-end-up-behind-bars/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">White House adviser and daughter</a> of <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/10/trump-is-already-using-his-electoral-loss-to-raise-money-for-his-new-leadership-pac/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">outgoing President Donald Trump</a>, condemned the media on Twitter for "near total silence" over alleged assaults on conservatives. The tweet came as selectively edited video wrongly portraying Trump supporters as victims of violence circulated online in right-wing circles.NOTE THIS SETS UP RATIONALE FOR MORE RW VIOLENCE]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The media's near total silence about the </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/30/were-readywhite-supremacist-proud-boys-activated-after-president-trump-tells-them-to-stand-by/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">physical violence being perpetrated</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> against conservatives is shameful & dangerous. Just image the outrage and indignation if this went the other way," Ivanka </span><a href="https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1327964915752169473" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tweeted</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. "Violence is never the answer and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">instigators must be condemned and prosecuted." ATLAS, BANNON BOOGALOO...]</span></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump Jr. one-upped his sister's allegation an hour later by claiming, without evidence, that the media was "complicit." He also suggested that "they might as well" put Trump supporters on a non-existent</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Gulag</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> list </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">controlled </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by Rep. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, D-N.Y. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[THE NEW PELOSI?]</span></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The media's silence on the violence against Trump supporters is deafening. <b>After four years of calling them Nazis, at this point they might as well just dox them all</b> or add the[m] to AOC's lists for the Gulags," Don Jr. baselessly <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1327978466101190656" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tweeted</a>. "They are complicit in the violence. They are the worst of the worst."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump supporters and right-wing groups marched in several cities on Saturday in protest of the president's recent electoral loss to President-elect Joe Biden. The demonstrators echoed the president's evidence-free allegations of a stolen election.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Many of these groups were met by counter-protests, and violence broke out in some instances. The most serious of these incidents took place in Washington, where <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/30/were-readywhite-supremacist-proud-boys-activated-after-president-trump-tells-them-to-stand-by/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Proud Boys</a> and other right-wing groups and militia members clashed with counter-protesters, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54945154" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">multiple</a> <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x_aWtZeolB0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reports</a>. Contrary to the Trump family's assertions, conservatives were <a href="https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1328113186747396096?s=21" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">filmed</a> launching <a href="https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1327792933219799045?s=21" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">attacks.</a> 2 STABBINGS ONE PROUD?]</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It was not the first time Ivanka had misleadingly tweeted about political violence. In a tweet referencing "inner city communities," the first daughter <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/08/06/lightfoot-slams-ivanka-trump-over-nonsense-tweet-with-incorrect-information-about-chicago-violence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cited</a> the wrong number of people killed and wounded in the wrong location ("near a playground") over the course of a weekend in Chicago in August 2019.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In his first debate with Biden, President Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back, and stand by." Unlike his offspring, the president outwardly applauded Saturday's violence in the streets.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>"ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills today</b> when they tried attacking the people at the Trump Rally, because those people <b>aggressively fought back</b>," he <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1327828007311073280" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tweeted</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The president also shared a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> selectively edited video posted by Andy Ngo</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a right-wing sympathizer with a </span><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/andy-ngo-right-wing-troll-antifa-877914/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">history</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of wrongly framing left-wing groups. The </span><a href="https://twitter.com/mrandyngo/status/1327765440001503232?s=21" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">clip</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> showed a man getting knocked out by a counter-protester after being attacked from behind.</span></b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"A close-up angle of BLM rioters knocking a man unconscious who was leaving the #MillionMAGAMarch in DC earlier today," Ngo wrote. "They also steal his phone when he's on the ground."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Human Radical Left garbage did this," the president added, quoting Ngo's original tweet. "Being arrested now!"</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But an <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielNewman/status/1328045470640435200" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">extended clip</a> appears to shows the man was with a group of Trump supporters who earlier attacked a counter-protester holding a bullhorn by pushing him down to the street and stepping on his head.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">D.C. police on Sunday said they had<b> arrested nearly two dozen people, many of them on gun charges, according to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maga-million-march-washington-violence/2020/11/15/93edc480-2748-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Washington Post</a>. One person was stabbed,</b>and four officers were injured.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Police Chief Peter Newsham told The Post that groups on both sides had descended on the city "intent on clashing," and "the police department was put directly in the middle of it."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In Sacramento, Calif., a group of Proud Boys met counter-protesters with bear spray,</b> according to the Bay Area's <a href="https://abc7news.com/million-maga-march-trump-rally-sacramento-california-president-donald/7972098/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ABC7 News</a>. Police broke up the incident.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Trump urged police to use force on counter-protesters, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1327828007311073280" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tweeting</a>: "Antifa waited until tonight, when 99% were gone, to attack innocent <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">#MAGA</a> People. DC Police, get going — do your job and don't hold back!!!"</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no evidence to support the protesters' accusations of widespread electoral fraud in the presidential election. Courts have summarily dismissed the vast majority of the Trump campaign's lawsuits.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: herd immunity latest fallback , magical thinking?  does not req admit fail, how admit dumb lack vision do not undersatand # sci killed 100x 911?</font></div><div>
</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">250k KIA azar praise</font></div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-herd-immunity/" aria-label="The Trump plan for mass death is unfolding before our eyes" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"> Trump plan for mass death is unfolding before our eyes</font></a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/cody-fenwick" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Cody Fenwick</font></a></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2648898591" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; margin-bottom: 15px; display: -webkit-box; text-overflow: ellipsis; line-height: 23px; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Friday, the <a href="https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1327400656328507392?s=20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;">COVID Tracking Project</a> reported that the number of positive coronavirus infections in the last day had reached 170,000, the highest record ever and a number tha...</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">aha yikes herd idiocy is all we have left when freeDUMB rules, plus // w/ darwin libtard reductionist BS</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">aha: scotus attack on unions is 2x whammy ~ moderation; McConn ct packing :he's amplifying polarization, whih will cripple self-correction of sys, increase instability --> crises/sys fail; moderation = DEMOC?!  maybe not 2x whammy so much as cascade fail?</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 1120</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The core of the Republican Party strength is concentrated in the 27 Right to Work states. </b>As discussed in a previous article, Right to Work laws are designed to weaken unions by cutting their revenue and membership. Unions represent just 7.5% of the workforce in right to work states but almost 16% in "fair share" states. The 27 "right to work" states account for 83% of the currently seated Republican Senators and 70% of their Representatives.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> In 2016, Trump carried 25 of the 27 these states.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JUDICIAL BRANCH – Anti-Union/Pro Business Judges Dominate the Supreme Court and Appellate Courts</font></b></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican Party has worked for a long time to ensure that the federal court system is dominated by conservative, pro-business/anti-union judges over the long term. Indeed, Republicans basically packed the court system when Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to allow the Senate to vote on 105 judicial vacancies during the Obama administration which were later filled by Trump appointees.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supreme Court. The Supreme Court now has 6 Republican appointed justices and 3 Democratic Justices. Each of the three Trump appointees had a proven anti-union/pro-corporate bias before being nominated.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Amy Coney Barrett.</b> During her term on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett ruled in favor of corporate interest more than 75% of the time. She ruled that corporations are entitled to set job requirements that exclude older workers and that they may segregate workers at different locations by race. She has also expressed support for striking the entire Affordable Care Act which would deprive health insurance for 20 million people and end protections for 100 million people with pre-existing conditions.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>Neil Gorsuch.</b> During his term on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Gorsuch repeatedly ruled against workers and in favor of corporations.</span> For example, Gorsuch dissented from a majority ruling upholding a National Labor Relations Board decision that an employer must give full back pay to workers it illegally fired for union activity. Gorsuch dissented in cases in which the circuit court majority supported pro-worker NLRB decisions stating that the NLRB exceeded the scope of its authority. However, Gorsuch made no such dissent when the court ruled in favor of NLRB decisions that supported management.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Brett Kavanaugh</b>. Kavanaugh served on the extremely important US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This court is second only to the Supreme Court in terms of prestige and power because it has jurisdiction over Congress and most federal regulations and agencies. The People for the American Way compiled a list of rulings showing that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Kavanaugh consistently ruled against workers and for corporations during his 12½ years on the DC Circuit Court. Examples include Kavanaugh's opinions that would "entirely eviscerate collective bargaining;" his support for corporations seeking criminal citations for lawful union protests; and support for corporations that failed to protect workers health and safety.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Other Federal Courts.</b> In almost 4 years Trump and the Republican Senate have <b>appointed 24% of all active federal judges (194 of 792). There are 35 more nominations currently pending</b>. Trump has appointed 30% of all active federal appeals court judges (54 of 179). This is more than any other president over the last 40 years</span>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Overall, Republican appointees now account for 54% of all federal circuit court judges.</span> <b>The circuit courts are especially powerful because they function as final arbiter for the vast majority of cases since the Supreme Court accepts fewer than 2% of the 7-8,000 cases filed with it annually.</b> These courts ultimately determine what the federal government can and cannot regulate – this is especially important to unions in relation to the right to organize and collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions as well as the relative power of unions and corporations....</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha:</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> i got that this was transactional before, but now i see also extraction/extortion; capitalism, he is ultimate / apotheosis of me vs we.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">grifter libtards decry gubmint but 1st to line up to suck off taxpyer resouces/ buffer/commons</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/donald-trump-hunger-games-meme/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/donald-trump-hunger-games-meme/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">truscott 4</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember this number: $3.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's how much Trump charged the federal government for a glass of water in April of 2018 when he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ballrooms-candles-and-luxury-cottages-during-trumps-term-millions-of-government-and-gop-dollars-have-flowed-to-his-propertiesmar-a-lago-charged-the-government-3-apiece-for-glasses-of-water-for-trump-and-the-japanese-leader/2020/10/27/186f20a2-1469-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><u>According to the Washington Pos</u></a>t, Trump's company also charged the government "$13,700 for guest rooms, $16,500 for food and wine and $6,000 for the roses and other floral arrangements," over the two days he held meetings with Abe at the resort. But one day, Trump was scheduled to meet with Abe without aides and advisers, with no meal service or cocktails or any other celebratory nonsense. Just the two leaders, alone in a room, talking. According to the Post, the bill for that day contained a line item reading, "Bilateral meeting. Water. $3.00 each."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Donald Trump has been paid "at least $2.5 million by the U.S. government," since taking office, according to official documents obtained by the Post</b>. Trump has made more than 280 visits to his own hotels and golf clubs over the last four years, and the payments covered costs for "hotel rooms, ballrooms, cottages, rental houses, golf carts, votive candles, floating candles, candelabras, furniture moving, resort fees, decorative palm trees, strip steak, chocolate cake, breakfast buffets, $88 bottles of wine and $1,000 worth of liquor for White House aides." according to the Post.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And water. A total of six bucks for water, no charge being too small to make it onto a bill to the government for a payment going straight into the pocket of the man who owns the Trump Organization and everything it comprises, including his resort in Palm Beach.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's apparently a good part of what the Trump base likes about him — his appetites, his pure, unadulterated, money-grubbing-right-down-to-$3-for-water greed. Trump has wanted more his entire life. He wants more money, of course. He has spent a lifetime in pursuit of more money, and then some more, and more and more. He borrowed so much money in pursuit of even more money that it drove him into bankruptcy, several bankruptcies in fact. Today, as president, he is said to be in debt for nearly $1 billion to banks and other lenders, a debt that will come due within the next few years, according to the New York Times and other reports.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump wants more fame, a drive that started off with mentions in gossip columns like the New York Post's "Page Six," during the years he was coming into his own as a builder in New York City. He used to call gossip columnists and plant items about himself, posing as a PR person, and then he would call the columnists the next day and comment on their mention of him in order to gain yet another column inch or two in the tabloids. Some said he ran for president back in 2016 to "burnish his brand," to achieve even more fame and use it to make even more money. Since he became president, he has been relentless in his pursuit of attention, tweeting at all hours, criticizing cable networks who don't give him enough coverage, calling in to shows like "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" both to reward them for the coverage they've already given him, and to get more coverage.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wants more women, from wife No. 1, Ivana, when he was just starting out, to wife No. 2, Marla Maples, after he jettisoned Ivana, and now wife No. 3, Melania, who replaced No. 2 when he determined she had a few too many miles on her. And then there were all the women in between, in and among his marriages, the women he groped on airplanes and at bars and during parties, the women he (allegedly) raped in places like a Bergdorf's dressing room or a hotel room or a bathroom during a party, the women whose mouths he forced his tongue down, the women he pushed up against walls and pressed himself against, the women whose bodies he commented on in offices or across rooms, the women whose skirts he put his hand up at restaurant tables, the women whose breasts he grabbed at tennis tournaments and beauty pageants, the women whose rear ends he grabbed in green rooms before television show tapings, the women he dragged behind curtains at New Year's Eve parties and forcibly kissed and groped. All of those women. Trump wanted their bodies and their mouths and he took them without asking permission because he was Donald Trump, and he took what he wanted.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wanted more golf, so he played more golf more frequently than any president before him. He wanted so much golf that he went around the world buying and building his own golf courses, and then he played them, because he owned them, and because he owned the golf carts, as president he could charge the government for his own Secret Service agents. He could even charge the government for the hotel rooms the agents stayed in while they protected him. He charged the government $17,000 a month for a cottage at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course, which the Secret Service had to rent month after month just in case he had a mind to play a round of golf.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump wants more adulation, more love from the "base," and when he feels he isn't getting enough, he tweets. There aren't enough hours in the day for Donald Trump. He was up at 3 a.m. this week, tweeting about the Supreme Court, the court to which he has appointed three arch-conservative justices, yelling at them for their recent decisions allowing mail-in votes to be counted after Election Day, because of course, he wants more votes. He's been up at 3 a.m. tweeting before, taunting a Miss Universe contestant for a "sex tape," taunting CNN as "low rated," bragging about his debate performance, yelling at polls that show him losing.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And now Trump is making his final campaign swing through the "battleground states," feeding the insatiable need of his base for more of himself. "Four more years" has become "12 more years." Somehow Trump is owed more years of the presidency because "they" took two or three years away from him during the Russia investigation, because "they" spied on his 2016 campaign, because "they" don't deserve to win. The red-hat-wearing mobs of un-masked fans at his rallies want more of the America they think Trump is bringing back to them. It's an America that is more white, has more guns, has more churches, more of "us," less of "them."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That's what they like about him. They want it all, the same way he does. That's what opposition to affirmative action has always been. They don't want some of the college admissions, they want them all. That's what Shelby County v. Holder was about, that's what voter IDs and all the restrictive rules about voting by mail are about. They want <em>all</em> the votes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
For the Trump base, making America great again means making America <em>ours</em> again, but he's going to make sure he puts it on their tab, right there with $3 for water and $546 for rooms and $50 for decorative palm trees for table decorations and $1,005.60 for 26 servings of Patron and Don Julio tequila, 22 Chopin vodkas, and six glasses of Woodford Reserve bourbon consumed by White House staffers at the Mar-a-Lago bar. It's going to cost us more than votes to get our country back. We're going to be paying for Trump's insatiable greed long after he's gone. More than 228,000 of us have already paid with our lives. If the Friday totals keep up — 98,500 new cases and more than 900 dead — a half million of us may perish by the time Trump walks out of the White House for the last time.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha, no accident this is most pronounced on youtube? post-literate, video enflames emotiions more than print, bypass brain, plus algo amplification:</font></span></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/are-fox-news-viewers-racist/" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/are-fox-news-viewers-racist/</a></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">t's no secret that U.S. politics</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/interactives/political-polarization-1994-2017/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">has become highly polarized</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even so, there are probably few living Americans who ever witnessed anything that quite compares with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-virus-outbreak-donald-trump-health-aeab14ec95426d4161f1cff966a26a1f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">this fall's first presidential debate</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Was it really the case that the nation could do no better than a verbal food fight, with two candidates hurling fourth-grade insults and talking past each other?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>To us, the discordant debate was just one more symptom of the nation's fraying civic discourse, which, in a recent study, we were able to show extends to the words we use to talk about politics.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier this year, we started constructing a data set that consists of all of the viewer comments on YouTube videos posted by four television networks — MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/oann-trump.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">One America News Network</a> — that <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">target slices of the political spectrum</a>. Together, the data set contains over 85 million comments on over 200,000 videos from 6.5 million viewers since 2014.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">We studied whether there are distinct variants of English written in the comments sections, akin to the distinction between <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/british-english-bre-1689039" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">British English</a> and <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/American%20English" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">American English</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Using machine learning methods, we found these permutations do exist. Moreover, we can rank them in terms of the "left-ness" and the "right-ness." To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical demonstration of quantifiable linguistic differences in news audiences.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Our second finding, however, was even more unexpected.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Our machine learning translation system found that <b>words with vastly different meanings, like "KKK" and "BLM," were used in the exact same contexts depending on the YouTube channel being analyzed.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The company a word keeps</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When translating two different languages — say, Spanish and English — automated translation systems like Google Translate begin with a large training set of texts in both languages. The system then applies machine learning methods to become better at translating.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Over the years, <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.03859.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">this technology has become increasingly accurate</a>, thanks to two key insights.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The first dates back to the 1950s, when linguist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rupert_Firth" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">John Rupert Firth</a> came up with the aphorism "<b>You shall know a word by the company it keeps."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To modern machine translation systems, the "company" a word keeps is its "context," or the words surrounding it. For example, the English word "grape" occurs in contexts such as "grape juice" and "grape vine," while the equivalent word in Spanish, <em>uva</em>, occurs in the same contexts — <em>jugo de uva</em>, <em>vid de uva</em> — in Spanish sentences.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The second important discovery came rather recently. A <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1309.4168.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2013 study</a> found a way to identify — and thereby link — a word's context in one language to its context in another. Modern machine translation depends heavily on this process.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What we have done is to use this type of translation <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.02339.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">in an entirely new way</a>: to translate English to English.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When "Trumptards" become "snowflakes"</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That may sound bizarre. Why translate English to English?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Well, consider American English and British English. Many words are the same in both languages. Yet there can be subtle differences. For instance, "apartment" in American English may translate into "flat" in British English.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For the purposes of our study, we labeled the language used in each network's comment section "MSNBC-English," "CNN-English," "Fox-English" and "OneAmerica-English." After analyzing the comments, our translation algorithms uncovered two different patterns of "misaligned words" — terms that aren't identical across the comment sections but are used in the same contexts.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One type was similar to "flat" and "apartment," in the sense that both are describing ostensibly the same thing. However, the word pairs we uncovered have different intonations. For example, we found that what one community calls "Pelosi," the other one calls "Pelousy"; and "Trump" in one news-language translates into "Drumpf" in another.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A second — and deeper — kind of misalignment occurred when the two words refer to two fundamentally different things.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">For example, we found that in CNN-English, "KKK" — the abbreviation for the Ku Klux Klan — is translated by our algorithm to "BLM" — shorthand for Black Lives Matter — in Fox-English. The algorithm is basically finding that the comments made by one community about KKK are very much like the comments made by the other about BLM. While the belief systems of the KKK and BLM are about as different as can be, depending on the comment section, they seem to each represent something similarly ominous and threatening.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN-English and Fox-English are not the only two languages displaying these types of misalignments. The conservative end of the spectrum itself breaks into two languages.<b> For example, "mask" in Fox-English translates to "muzzle" in OneAmerica-English, reflecting the differing attitudes across these subcommunities.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There seems to be a mirrorlike duality at play. "Conservatism" becomes "liberalism," "red" is translated to "blue," while "Cooper" is converted into "Hannity."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There's also no lack of what can only be called childish name-calling.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Trumptards" in CNN-English translates to "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/28/snowflake-insult-disdain-young-people" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">snowflakes</a>" in Fox-English; "Trumpty" in CNN-English translates to "Obummer" in Fox-English; and "republicunts" in CNN-English translates to "democraps" in Fox-English.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uncharted territory</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Linguists have long emphasized how effective communication among people with different beliefs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020867916902" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">requires common ground</a>. Our findings show that the way we talk about political issues is becoming more divergent; depending on who's writing, a common word can be imbued with an entirely different meaning.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">We wonder: How far are we from the point of no return when these linguistic differences begin to erode the common ground needed for productive communication?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Have <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-twitter-echo-chamber-confirmation-bias/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">echo chambers on social media</a> exacerbated political polarization to the point where these linguistic misalignments have become ingrained in political discourse?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">When will "democracy" in one language variant stop translating into "democracy" in the other?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-kamlet-1165389" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mark Kamlet</a>, University Professor of Economics and Public Policy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/carnegie-mellon-university-970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Carnegie Mellon University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ashique-khudabukhsh-1165393" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ashique KhudaBukhsh</a>, Project Scientist at the School of Computer Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/carnegie-mellon-university-970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Carnegie Mellon University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tom-mitchell-1165390" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tom Mitchell</a>, Founders University Professor of Machine Learning, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/carnegie-mellon-university-970" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Carnegie Mellon University</a></font></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">aha: both putin meddling and trump is trying to undermine confidence in system // tobacco FF corps denial to sow doubt?!</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">who broke America:  RR, grover, gingrich koch libtards, beck limbaugh, jbs larouche, everyone who has been systematically attacking govt so now we have gubmint wackos xian ammon bundy but also wolverines saying tax = theft, traitors FEMA camps jade helm bill gates microchips in the vax.</span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1020 cdv</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tim snyder yale:</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I think your word "fear," though, is very well taken. But I'd push that out in a different direction.</span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Fear is also an important concept here. Trump is running for reelection based on fear – much more so than in 2016.</b> In 2016, it was a mix. Trump and his campaign were talking about infrastructure. They were trying to go to the left of the Democrats on some issues. Whereas in 2020, it's now just pure fear. A fear that Black people are going to rape white women in the suburbs, and they are going to burn down the cities. The pandemic is either Black people's fault or it is a conspiracy, or it is not really happening. Fear is being consciously created and then manipulated. The Democrats are really running against a Reichstag Fire. The Democrats are not really running against a political party and Donald Trump's campaign.</span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">...</span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What do we know about the connections between a humane society and authoritarianism?</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>There is a strong connection. In my new book "Our Malady" I explore this.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For example, on an individual level, when you can't talk, you do not have freedom of speech. When you can't move, you do not have freedom of assembly. When you do not think that you are going to have a future, then freedom is no longer a meaningful concept.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If you cannot afford health care, you're afraid. If you're ashamed to talk about health care, you're less free. If you're aware of that the access to health care is going to be competitive and somebody who's less sick than you might come ahead of you because they have better insurance and better connections or whatever it might be, then you are less free. Pandemic or not, it all creates a situation where there is not an unnecessary reservoir of anxiety and fear. And that totally unnecessary <b>reservoir of anxiety and fear can be directed to other places.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The talent that Donald Trump has is to either generate that anxiety or to take the anxiety and fear that already exists in America and to direct it in the ways that he wants to. Authoritarianism works through taking abuse and trauma and pushing it in other directions.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Donald Trump understands that he cannot win a free and fair election.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b> Trump knows that the pandemic and the economic downturn can give him the sources of energy that he just might be able to use to stay in power some other way than an election. Donald Trump is in "the worse, the better" territory now, because he understands abuse, pain, trauma, fear and related things. Evil understands evil</b>. Trump understands that the more anxiety and fear is out there, the larger the chances he must <b>somehow turn the election in his direction and then pick up the pieces.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>Election Day is imminent. How do you respond to those critics who would say that, "You were talking about a Reichstag Fire! It didn't happen! You are an alarmist. Hysterical! None of that happened!" What would you tell such people?</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Obviously, we are in a slow-motion Reichstag Fire right now. That is what is happening. Donald Trump is not as skilled as Hitler. He doesn't work as hard as Hitler. He doesn't have the same level of confidence as Hitler, but he's clearly looking for that Reichstag Fire emergency. Trump tried to make Black Lives Matter into that emergency. "Antifascists" and "thugs" and "law and order" and so on is part of that effort. Donald Trump keeps trying to make the Reichstag Fire work.</span></div><div>
</div><div>If Trump is not successful, then that is a credit to the people who are resisting. Donald Trump is not involved in a political campaign; it is emergency politics in the constant search of an emergency. Whether Trump and his allies can line up the emergency politics with the emergency, I do not know. But that is all that Trump and his allies have got on their side — and it all they are going to have through to Election Day.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: who broke America:  RR, gramms, gingrich---> REPAIR THE COMMONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RR: fairness doctrine kill --> Rush, Fox  anti-trust --> FANG  1 plus 2 --> Qanon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gubmint useless/wasteful if not evil --> aGENDA 21, 2 santas , militias boogaloo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">student debt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">libtard financialization, militarization, criminalization War on Drugs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">death squads MS13</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CU, cheney</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">graham OIRA tozzi DQA, DEREG PVT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">xian</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gang of 5 manafort, atwater</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wise use</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">risk assess</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vigurie direct mail</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">yaf/leadership inst?</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RW has PR advantage b/c of four simple<b> interlocking isms:  xian, free mkt, anti-commie, pro-milita</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trump pays lip service to xian (uses them, but  pvtly despises as suckers, // to KIA/vets USSR putin bounty; pretends to be capitalist but repeated fails, subsidies avoids taxes (also for suckers); massive corp socialism in CARES?  kush covid grifter?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VP buys god loves capitalism?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OMG INTERLOCK STORY DOVETAIL, property and wealth are sacred? thus kyle mom standing O</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sparked by </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/mike-pence-is-a-reminder-that-destructive-leaders-are-symptoms-of-an-anti-democratic-status-quo/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/mike-pence-is-a-reminder-that-destructive-leaders-are-symptoms-of-an-anti-democratic-status-quo/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">norm s</font></div><div style="font-weight: 700;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If President Trump dies from the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans largely due to his deliberate negligence, the man replacing him will be no less dangerous. While Mike Pence has eluded tough media scrutiny -- in part because he exhibits such a low-key style in contrast to Trump -- the pair has been a good fit for an administration that exemplifies the partnership of religious fundamentalism and corporate power.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The vice president, a former Indiana <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">talk-show host </span>who went on to become a six-term congressman and then governor, has described himself as "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.</b>" But he remains at cross-purposes with the biblical admonition (Matthew 6:24) that "you cannot serve both God and money." Whether Pence has truly served God is a subjective matter, but his massive service to money—big money—is incontrovertible.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pence ranks high as a Christian soldier marching in lockstep with Trump on all major policy issues, a process that routinely puts business interests ahead of human lives. Whatever his personal piety might be, the results of Pence's fidelity to right-wing agendas have further consolidated a de facto coalition of those seeking <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/15/news/economy/pence-taxes/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ever-lower taxes on wealth</a> and corporations; <a href="https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/RealMikePence-2018-FinalReport.pdf?ga=2.82031572.393311459.1601844325-725737978.1601844325" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">denial of LGBTQ rights</a>; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/politics/pence-abortion-trump.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a ban on abortion</a> and <a href="https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/tracking-trump/player/mike-pence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">severe restrictions on other reproductive rights</a>; <a href="https://www.diversityinc.com/mike-pence-voter-suppression/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">voter</a> <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/1016/Did-Mike-Pence-engage-in-voter-suppression-in-Indiana" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">suppression</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/background-trumps-voter-fraud-commission" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">barriers to voting</a> by people of color; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/31/politics/medicare-medicaid-mike-pence-iowa/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">obstruction of healthcare</a> for low-income people; and on and on.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pence embodies the political alliance of very conservative evangelical forces with anti-regulatory forces of corporatism.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In the arenas of elections and governance, that coalition is the present-day Republican Party, dedicated to <b>imposing the edicts of religious dogma, rolling back democratic reforms and serving the rich at the expense of everyone else.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"As vice president, Mike Pence is doing everything in his power to control people's bodies," the Planned Parenthood Action Fund <a href="https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/tracking-trump/player/mike-pence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">declares</a>. Meanwhile, those who are inclined toward racism or outright believers in white supremacy are bolstered. And Wall Street has never had a better friend in Washington.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pence's most consequential role during 44 months as vice president has been as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Since late February, he has functioned—in effect—as Trump's willing executioner, standing by and blowing smoke while Trump obfuscated and lied as the death toll kept mounting.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The truth is that we've made great progress over the past four months," Pence proclaimed in a mid-June <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/vice-president-mike-pence-op-ed-isnt-coronavirus-second-wave/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">statement</a>, "and it's a testament to the leadership of President Trump." Pence charged that "the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a 'second wave' of coronavirus infections"—but "such panic is overblown."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To underscore his full devotion to Lord Trump's downplaying of the virus, the vice president concluded with a <b>blame-the-messenger flourish: "The truth is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success.</b> We've slowed the spread, we've cared for the most vulnerable, we've saved lives, and we've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. <b>That's a cause for celebration, not the media's fear mongering."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pence's June 16 statement made its way into the Wall Street Journal as a prominent op-ed piece whistling past Covid graveyards.</b> "It was so clearly wrong back then and has turned out to be so clearly wrong since that I hope there's some part of him that's embarrassed," Ashish Jha, the head of the Harvard Global Health Institute, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-401862" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a> in late summer. "I had already been seeing data for a good week that things were really heading in the wrong direction." The Washington Post editorial board immediately responded with a denunciation under the headline "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mike-pence-is-a-case-study-in-irresponsibility/2020/06/17/0bf8401a-b0c3-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mike Pence Is a Case Study in Irresponsibility</a>."
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No one with any discernment would associate Trump with religiosity because he held up a Bible at a photo op. But the other half of the ticket is a very different matter. Days after the November 2016 election, <b>Jeremy Scahill <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/mike-pence-will-be-the-most-powerful-christian-supremacist-in-us-history/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote</a> that Trump is "a Trojan horse for a cabal of vicious zealots who have long craved an extremist Christian theocracy, and Pence is one of its most prized warriors."</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: 400;">Scahill quoted an author of books on far-right fundamentalism, Jeff Sharlet, who said that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"when they speak of business, they're speaking not of something separate from God, but they're speaking of what, in Mike Pence's circles, would be called biblical capitalism, the idea that this economic system is God-ordained."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What does all this mean for progressives? The case of Mike Pence should be an ongoing urgent reminder that—as toxic and truly evil as Donald Trump is—the current president is a product and poisonous symptom of an inherently unjust and anti-democratic status quo.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Instead of focusing our rage on the persona of one destructive leader, we should remember that <b>corporate domination provides an endless supply of destructive leaders.</b>While they come and go, <b>the system of corporate power remains</b>—and we must replace that system with genuine democracy.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">boz omg /aha yikes: two robots meld: LLC corp and algorithm / AI:   // danny h</font></span></p><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small;"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://mainebeacon.com/anonymous-maine-news-site-tied-to-conservative-pac-funded-network/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://mainebeacon.com/anonymous-maine-news-site-tied-to-conservative-pac-funded-network/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">at  first glance, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Maine Business Daily</a></em> seems like some kind of local corporate newsletter, combining <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/513008204-wood-products-industry-s-q1-retained-earnings-down-0-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">niche industry reports</a>, <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512330705-analysis-zip-code-04538-in-boothbay-harbor-has-865th-highest-home-vacancy-rate-among-u-s-zip-codes" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">localized data summaries</a>, and press releases from regional Maine Chambers of Commerce. The earliest articles on the site date back to spring 2018 and the vast majority of the articles are attributed to anonymous bylines “Maine Business Daily reports” or “Local Labs News Service.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, nestled amid the banal business reporting are <a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/tag/3-public-policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">two recent stories</a> on the allegations that Democratic Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, who is mounting a challenge to U.S. Senator Susan Collins, violated campaign finance rules. <b>Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine GOP, is quoted heavily in the posts, which are attributed to West Virginia-based freelance journalist Kyla Asbury</b> (and are the only stories on Maine Business Daily that have an actual name as a byline).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The publication and promotion of these pieces raised some flags for Maine readers, with one Reddit user <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/coxv7l/calls_to_investigate_sara_gideon_over_illegal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">writing</a> “I’ve never heard of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Maine Business Daily</em>, but two of the top three articles in their ‘public policy’ section right now are <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">political</em> articles about Sara Gideon that have nothing to do with policy.”</font></p><div id="attachment_16924" class="wp-caption alignright" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 20px 20px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); padding: 10px; max-width: 100%; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: 502px;"><p id="caption-attachment-16924" class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Screenshot of a portion of the Maine Business Daily website featuring stories on House Speaker Sara Gideon.</font></p></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Maine Business Daily</em>’s “About” section also provides scant information about who is operating the site, though it does note that part of its mission is to “inspire <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">productive</span> discussion among policy makers, business leaders and the public.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Maine State Chamber of Commerce told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Beacon</em> that, despite the reposting of local chamber releases, it is not affiliated with the website.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The homepage of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Maine Business Daily</em> includes a link to the<b> <a href="https://metrobusinessnetwork.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Metro Business Network</a>,</b> which lists 30 other state-based sites as part of its organization. According to its website, the Metro Business Network “provides a fresh take on business news. Launching in all 50 states plus DC, we aim to cover news from Fortune 500’s to SMB’s on Main Steet [sic].</span>”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Matt Gertz, a senior fellow with Media Matters for America who specializes in conservative media infrastructure, says that these kinds of networks have flourished amid the decline of local news.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“As local newspapers get wiped out or bought out by big chains and reporters get laid off and chains try to seek efficiencies, you see a void around local news and these news networks try to fill that void,” Gertz said. “A lot of sites are providing information about local events that previously you would get from local newspaper, so you come for information about a local event and if you end up with some sort of ideological screed about the terrors of government, it’s a win for them.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Metro Business web</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Metro Business Network sites are uniform in appearance and content. The same stories appear across the entire network, with each “Education” page filled with versions of this story: “<a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512868444-graduates-earn-91-degrees-certificates-from-the-university-of-maine-at-machias" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Graduates earn 91 degrees, certificates from the University of Maine at Machias</a>” and each “Public Policy” section has a regional version of this one: “<a href="https://mainebusinessdaily.com/stories/512834294-maine-ranks-3rd-for-rental-car-tax-rates-study-finds" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Maine ranks 3rd for rental car tax rates, study finds</a>.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gertz said the content is likely being generated by an algorithm, which provides “a way to mass produce seemingly local content almost with no overhead, because you are paying no reporters to write stories but you can pump out a huge amount of stuff.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Buried amid the posts, however, are partisan landmines such as this <a href="https://palmettobusinessdaily.com/stories/511321581-opinion-next-step-in-dismantling-obamacare-ipab" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">op-ed</a> that appeared on numerous publications in the network, “Next Step in Dismantling Obamacare: Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB),” that concludes: “This is America. <b>Rationing is for commies.</b> Repeal IPAB now!” The column is written by notorious <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/11/unskewed-polls-founder-dean-chambers-on-polling-bias.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">fake pollster</a> and <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/dean-chambers-original-unskewer-returns-to-tackl" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">right wing conspiracy theorist</a> Dean Chambers.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other articles are more subtle, such as this <a href="https://ilbusinessdaily.com/stories/511456622-community-group-argues-proposed-wilmette-wage-hike-would-be-a-burden-to-small-businesses" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Illinois news story</a> arguing against the local minimum wage increase.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anonymous news with a worldview</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The website’s privacy policy states that Maine Business Daily and these other business <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">news sites are operated by the<b> Delaware-based Locality Labs, LLC,</b> which, according to an <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-conservative-news-20180327-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">April 2018 investigation</a> by the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chicago Tribune</em>, is owned by the conservative Chicago-based media entrepreneur Brian Timpone.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“A firm of Timpone’s called Journatic once used database mining and low-cost freelance writers to create hyperlocal news stories for the Tribune until complaints <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-13/news/ct-chicago-tribune-suspends-use-of-journatic-07132012_1_weekly-print-editions-town-websites-editorial-ethics-policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">emerged </a>of plagiarism and faked bylines,” the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tribune</em> reported. That firm is “now known as Locality Labs.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An <a href="https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/illinois_pac_newspapers.php" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">earlier piece</a> published in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Columbia Journalism Review</em> in 2016 revealed that Locality Labs, or Local Labs as it is often called, is part of a web of content creators, online and print publications run by Timpone and his cohorts that were accused of electioneering due to their coverage of and connection to candidates and political action committees. Some of Timpone’s news ventures received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the<b> Liberty Principles PAC,</b> whose objective is to “support candidates for state and local offices who are committed to the economic liberty policy agenda.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ashbury, who authored the two stories on Gideon, has bylines published on other Locality Labs-owned sites, including the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cook County Record</em>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">West Virginia Record</em>, and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Legal Newsline</em> — the website of which <a href="https://legalnewsline.com/about_us#" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">explains</a> that its <b>coverage is focused on how state court rulings impact the “legal landscape for corporate executives.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Asbury’s LinkedIn profile says that for the past year she has worked as a freelance writer for a company called Interactive Content Services. The 2018 Tribune article said that another Trimpone-owned firm <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Newsinator</em> “has a history of doing paid political work and offers marketing services to companies under the name Interactive Content Services.”...</font></p><div class="page-link" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" em="em" important="important" style="margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9/20  "weaponize": ok i have used the term myself for rw taking something good/true/benign and pervert/evil it for political gain, going on offense in an unfair way</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but now they are mirroring/co-opting our term, just like Fake News, an applying it to any (scientifc evidence, in this case wildfires, maybe the most in your face of AGW, eg Australia, amazon rainforest</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">this may be extension of thoughts and prayers now is not the time in our grief over mass shootings we cannot be rational in our decision (to increase gun control regulations)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">how sleazy is the left that they would use the lives of children and grief of parents to score political points</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">not so much a myth as a tactic; note it also gets to play on some sort of xian piety, mass shooting is mindless act of crazy gunman, part of god's plan? we are calm strong contemplative ppl of faith, must no yeild to irrational lefties</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">aha 3 forks marg mead</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha/yikes:  the ppl's tools PROPS ~ corps hijacked by them; jiu jitsu?  asset/buffer flips to liability/vulnerability?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note gun to head soda tax, juul fail on local prop b/c of bad PR at inopportune moment? prop 37 beat by last minute TV ads?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">relentless ads on roku "free" tv: </font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1020 also lyft and doordash</font></p><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/expert-uber-funded-ballot-measure-in-california-would-create-permanent-underclass-of-workers/" aria-label="Expert: Uber-funded ballot measure in California would create 'permanent underclass of workers'" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Expert: Uber-funded ballot measure in California would create 'permanent underclass of workers'</font></a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="font-size: small; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/nicole-karlis" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Nicole Karlis</font></a></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2648054594" style="font-size: small; margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; margin-bottom: 15px; display: -webkit-box; text-overflow: ellipsis; line-height: 23px; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; overflow: hidden;"><div class="body-description"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those who took high school civics may recall that our democracies lives on fractions. A majority vote — one-half plus one — is what it takes to pass a bill in most legislative bodies.</font></p></div></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha/DOH:  trump is VERBAL in insult nickname demonization diminish the weak [fashy] in tweets and i guess speak to press; but <b>visual (escalator ride [down? should have known ;  god deigns to descend and be among the little ppl?), trump tower gold;  Kremlin eagles crest and soldier door reveal; RNC convention = TV, fireworks (patriotic, war?) craves North Korea parade</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">XO</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9/20 aha, fash-y, strong man acting alone: trump loves signing things<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> foto op</span> with fawning followers (he leaches gravitas, assent/ applause from them) maybe experts who look like they know what they're doing, but congress deadlocked/polarysys (in pocket of corps that want to continue extract $ HMO]  and does not want to ACT, just make it look like he HAS many eg neglected but typical: gop beat up bad 2018 blue wave on pre-existing conds, to trump pretends to defend AT THE SAME TIME still trying to kill ACA that actually provides;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> also visual, reality TV apprentice-like</span></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/trump-mocked-for-finally-releasing-health-care-plan-which-is-really-a-toothless-executive-order/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">rump mocked for finally releasing ‘health care plan’ — which is really a ‘toothless’ executive order</a></font></div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 25, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For at least four years President Donald Trump has been promising the American people a health care plan. He famously sat for the “60 Minutes” cameras just days after the…</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-breaks-out-all-tools-denier-playbook-downplay-climate-changes-role-western-wildfires" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-breaks-out-all-tools-denier-playbook-downplay-climate-changes-role-western-wildfires</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox breaks out all the tools in the denier playbook to downplay climate change's role in western wildfires</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">09/17/20 12:15 PM EDT</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate denial, conspiracy theories, and misleading information -- Fox recycles old arguments year after year in wildfire coverage</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Special PROGRAMS</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CLIMATE & ENERGY</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED 09/17/20 12:15 PM EDT</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ignoring the clear scientific links between the climate crisis and this year’s apocalyptic wildfires on the West Coast, coverage on Fox News and Fox Business has downplayed and denied the role of climate change in these devastating fires, deflecting from climate science while pushing President Donald Trump’s perennial claim that forest mismanagement is to blame. <b>At least two Fox programs have even falsely suggested that an organized campaign of arson is responsible for igniting the fires in the Pacific Northwest -- a harmful conspiracy theory that has also quickly spread across social media platforms.</b></font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox shows are following a playbook that they have used with other major fire disasters linked to climate change, including last year’s catastrophic bushfires in Australia and previous catastrophic fires in California.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The goal of Fox’s coverage is always the same: deflect from the scientific reality of climate change and paint Democratic policies as the true culprits in worsening the wildfires.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deny and downplay the climate crisis</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson is leading the network on denying the indisputable connection between climate change and the catastrophic fires burning on the West Coast</span>. On three recent episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host and his guests spread dangerous disinformation about the fires.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On September 10, Carlson claimed that “there’s no evidence” climate change contributed to the western wildfires, instead arguing that state regulations and energy grid mismanagement were the real problems responsible for the blazes. Carlson took this a step further on September 11, when he called climate change “systemic racism in the sky” and stated with a straight face that “there is not a single scientist on Earth who knows whether or by how much these fires may have been, quote, ‘exacerbated’ by warmer temperatures caused by climate change.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To top it off, Carlson invited <b>Marc Morano </b>-- perhaps the most notorious climate denier in the U.S. -- on the September 15 edition of his show to falsely claim that these fires are “not unprecedented” and that it’s really just <b>“climate ambulance-chasing at its core” and “weaponizing weather events” to link them to climate change.</b></font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The exact same line of “weaponizing weather” was used on an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight last year to dismiss climate connections during the Amazon fires. During a segment discussing those fires in August 2019, climate-denying meteorologist <b>Joe Bastardi claimed that “if humans are causing climate change, it's very, very slight,” and said that any attempts to pin the Amazon fires on climate change was “weaponization of the weather.”</b></font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s climate-denying rants fly in the face of well-established scientific evidence that climate change is both prolonging the fire season and intensifying the size and scale of the fires. Climate scientists have also called these wildfires “unprecedented” and linked a climate-fueled drought to conditions worsening the fires.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Additionally, Carlson’s claim that “not a single scientist” can link the fires to climate change is also demonstrably false -- and taken laughably out of context. Climate scientist Daniel Swain addressed this point on Twitter, noting that his featured quote from Carlson’s show was “fundamentally misrepresenting climate scientists' public statements on wildfires and climate change”:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Carlson is no stranger to peddling dangerous climate misinformation. Just last year, he invited <b>Morano </b>to hype a silly, debunked document that claims clouds are responsible for global warming</span>. <b>In March 2019, he stated without evidence that if climate change is affecting natural disasters, “it might be making them in some ways better too.</b>” (Earlier that same month, the Fox host also baselessly accused undocumented immigrants of killing more people in the U.S. than climate change.)</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to outright denial, the network has regularly downplayed the connection between climate and the catastrophic fires. A Media Matters study from 2018 found that Fox ran only two segments on California’s wildfires in November of that year that mentioned climate; both of those segments downplayed the role of climate change.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent days, Fox shows have attempted to downplay climate’s role by politicizing the climate argument and purposely shifting blame for the fires to other issues. Neil Cavuto did just this on the September 10 edition of Fox Business’ Cavuto: Coast to Coast:</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On the September 14 edition of Special Report with Bret Baier, correspondent John Roberts provided cover for Trump’s outright denial of climate change by calling it a “glaring difference of opinion” with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom</b>. Later on in the show, Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt attempted to pass off Trump’s clear climate denial as a problem for both sides of the political aisle, calling his response an example of “why people hate our system, because when bad things happen, the two parties want to pick and choose what’s to blame. … Instead, what they hear is politicians picking and choosing the things they like from the menu.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This strategy of partisan obfuscation also has precedent on Fox: During California’s 2019 fire season, Fox & Friends responded to Newsom criticizing Trump’s assault on climate action by bringing a talk show host with no background in science, Mike Slater, to explain why “liberal policies are really to blame” for that year’s massive wildfires in California.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jumping to blame “forest management” practices for the fires, while generally ignoring the role of climate change</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the September 14 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant dropped a rare example of climate truth on Fox:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DANIEL BERLANT (CAL FIRE): In California, there really is no debate that our fire seasons are getting longer. We are seeing larger fires and more explosive fires. In fact, on average right now, our fire season is on average 75 days longer than they were just four decades ago. And so, you know, we can debate all we want, but I can tell you here on the ground, we are seeing fires that are incredibly destructive and incredibly fast moving.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But right after this segment, guest host Sandra Smith interviewed Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) to downplay climate’s role in the fires and instead promote “sound scientific management” of forests and his Trillion Trees Act, which climate scientists say is absolutely not a way of solving climate change, as the best solutions to worsening wildfires.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Poor forest management has played a role in California wildfires along with climate change and the expansion of people moving into the wildlife-urban interface, which “has increased the likelihood that wildfires will threaten structures and people.” But from watching coverage of the fires in numerous Fox segments, one would probably come away with the idea that it’s been only California’s forest management policies driving the worsening fires.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The jump by Fox to assign blame to the state for poor forest management as a tactic to downplay climate change goes back to at least 2018, when Trump first blamed California’s forestry policies while touring the aftermath of the deadly Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. At the time, Trump’s response was parroted by Fox News host Sean Hannity, who stated that he was “right” to blame California wildfires on poor forest management, and Fox’s Laura Ingraham, who on her radio show cherry-picked a BBC article to claim that “Trump was right” about wildfires and forest management.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neither of these segments mentioned climate change. Even worse, Ingraham glossed over the major mentions of climate in the BBC article, which specifically stated that “many experts point out that climate change has made things worse” in relation to those fires.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This framing of the fires by zeroing-in entirely on forest management doesn’t hold up to what climate science is saying -- especially this year. Fire scientists have said that “climate change, not forest management, is a driving factor behind the state’s fires becoming worse and more deadly.” Wildfire expert Stefan Doerr has also stated, “The bottom line remains that the extreme meteorological conditions are the main drivers for these extreme fires,” and he specifically noted hotter, drier, and windier conditions with climate change “has now created a tinderbox of vegetation.” Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe also pointed out on Twitter that it’s a myth to suggest that “the only reason wildfires are burning more area is because of poor forest management.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox’s attempts to cast blame solely on the state’s leadership for poor forest management also fall flat when you consider that the federal government owns the majority of land out west -- in California, 57% is owned by the federal government, while the state government only owns 3%.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The network’s discussion of forest management hit a high point during midday of September 14, when Trump visited California and once again blamed forest management for the wildfires, ignoring climate change. In one example on the September 14 edition of Outnumbered Overtime, Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz called Trump “absolutely right” and blamed the wildfires primarily on a lack of clearing brush, saying “Democrats have been the biggest impediment to doing so.” Later on The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld stated that forest management is “the problem in California. It's not climate change. It’s forest management.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Other examples abound. On two separate occasions in the past week, Fox Business’ Varney & Co. hosted conservative talk radio host Larry Elder to talk up poor forest management.</b> On the September 8 edition, he agreed with Trump’s comments and said, “You can’t do a whole lot about the weather but you can do something about the fuel that these fires feed upon that makes these fires so intense and so serious.” Again on the September 14 edition, he repeated that forest management is the biggest issue in fighting the fires and said that “Donald Trump does not believe in climate change alarmism.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Fox News, Environmental Progress president and climate contrarian Michael Shellenberger appeared on the September 10 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk up the role of poor forest management at the expense of climate change, claiming that the media’s climate coverage of the fires “has been really irresponsible.” He largely dismissed climate change again on the September 14 edition of Fox News @ Night, when he falsely stated that saturated wood fuel “is driving the intensity of these fires. It's not climate change.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later that night on Hannity, host Sean Hannity again made forest management the focal point of blame for the fires, calling it “an important piece of the puzzle.”</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Advancing the dangerous arson conspiracy theory</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the conspiracy theory that arson is behind the wildfires has not yet been as pervasive on Fox News as it was in January, when the network’s prime-time hosts pushed the debunked idea that arson was driving the Australian wildfires, it has already been pushed by at least two of Fox News’ shows covering the West Coast fires.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Media Matters reported on September 14:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the month of September, record wildfires made worse by climate change have raged across California, Oregon, and Washington. As the fires have spread and officials have tried to contain them, a conspiracy theory claiming that “antifa” has been behind the wildfires has spread across major social media platforms. In reality, as NBC News noted, incidents like “lightning, faulty or knocked-down power lines and accidents” have been reported as the cause of many of the fires. Authorities, including the FBI, have been forced to rebut the false “antifa“ claim as people have refused to evacuate and militia groups are getting active.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The use of focus on arson as a counter-narrative to climate change follows the exact same playbook used during Australia's deadly wildfires from late 2019 into early 2020, when Murdoch-owned media and other right wing outlets peddled false claims that arsonists were to blame for the historic blazes, and not climate change. However, this talking point was debunked; as one study found, only a handful of blazes out of 11,000 were deliberately set. Notably, the arson conspiracy theory now not only distracts from the climate crisis, but is also an attempt to vilify activists protesting police brutality. For right-wing media, this false narrative is the proverbial killing of two birds with one stone.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">....</div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div></div></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: <b>values</b> /freedom/liberty trinity (taught/enforced by strict fr vs godless commies and hippies</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Aha: this is an extension of pinko prof brainwashing and campus conserv student silencing b/c of PC cancel culture; gin up hype in front of election (TP kirk bloody revenge coming for your kids?! also reaction to BLM for end of systemic racism.</span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/loving-your-country-is-not-the-same-as-loving-trump-how-the-right-makes-a-mockery-of-us-patriotism" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/loving-your-country-is-not-the-same-as-loving-trump-how-the-right-makes-a-mockery-of-us-patriotism</font></a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">on September 17, in a speech delivered at the National Archives Museum,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="https://twitter.com/i/events/1306673991684255745" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">President Trump announced</a> he was signing an executive order establishing the 1776 Commission, </span>aimed at promoting what he called a “patriotic” and “pro-America” education.  The announcement was a <b>direct attack on the 1619 Project</b>, a New York Times initiative that explores the legacy of slavery in the United States. For Trump, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">teaching critical race studies is akin to committing child abuse </span>“in the truest sense of those words.”</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and souls,” Trump announced. He accused the left of destroying children’s love of their country by teaching the facts of its history — facts, he claimed, wrongly “rewrite” American history as founded on oppression rather than freedom. <b><a href="https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/09/trump-left-wing-indoctrination-child-abuse-1619-project.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">He’s demanded that</a> schools “teach American exceptionalism” and said that schools are teaching students to “hate their own country.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">This was just the latest show of Trump’s blatant conflation of racism with patriotism </b><b>and it served as yet another example of how Trump has turned patriotism into a self-serving performance free of any connection to facts</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> From the start, Trump has attempted to define patriotism not as loving the country, but rather as loving Trump. All we need to do is remember that the same man who dodged military service <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/41341368-9ddb-11e9-b8ce-8b459ed04726" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spent over $2.5 million</a> on a Fourth of July military parade designed to be primarily a celebration of himself.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Before analyzing the damage Trump has done to U.S. patriotism, let me be blunt: “loving” your country is stupid. Patriotism, when it is nothing more than blind adoration of a country, is idiotic at best and fascist at worst. Countries don’t need to be loved; they need to be built, critiqued, developed and improved. They need to be held to the highest ideals and they need to face their shortcomings so that they can strive to be better.</b> The relationship citizens have to their nations may always include some affect, but real support for a nation thrives when citizens emote less and reflect and engage more. So, when patriotism is synonymous with loving your country, it is always, already a bad idea. b</font><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ut setting aside the question of whether it even makes sense to debate who does or doesn’t love their country, there seems little doubt that the time has come to push back on the way that the right has conflated loving the United States with loving Trump....</span></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: reduction = retaliation = transaction</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">terministic screen/tunnel vision limits to small number of visible things right here and now <b>vs larger complex system/ long term</b>; also zero sum</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/americas-enemies-perceive-weakness-in-donald-trump-foreign-policy-expert-explains-how-the-president-squandered-us-exceptionalism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/americas-enemies-perceive-weakness-in-donald-trump-foreign-policy-expert-explains-how-the-president-squandered-us-exceptionalism/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx audio</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div> c de v</div><div>
</div><div>bot line chaotic makes him weak/played</div><div>
</div><div> president of the United States takes the following oath at his or her inauguration: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”</div><div>
</div><div>Donald Trump has repeatedly betrayed this promise, and should long since have been removed from office for doing so.</div><div>
</div><div>The Constitution deems that the president is commander in chief of the military. As revealed in famed journalist Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage”, Donald Trump believes that members of the U.S. military who have been wounded or killed in battle are “suckers” and “losers” for not being as selfish and cowardly as he is. Trump also believes that disabled veterans should not be seen in public because they somehow shame or embarrass the country.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump also has no respect for the United States military’s role as defender of the country’s democracy from threats both foreign and domestic. To that end, he attempted to order military commanders to attack Americans who were (and are) exercising their constitutionally-guaranteed civil rights by protesting against his regime in response to the police killing of George Floyd, as well as in support of social justice more generally.</div><div>
</div><div>Fortunately, military commanders put the institutional legitimacy of the armed forces ahead of the president’s whims by deflecting his orders. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also apologized for appearing alongside Trump on the streets of Washington.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump has repeatedly suggested that he is likely ignore the results of the 2020 election, and may seek to use the military to quell protests or other acts of resistance, perhaps by invoking the Insurrection Act.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump has also pardoned accused or convicted war criminals because he idolizes cruelty and lawlessness. Trump and his regime, in fact, views war criminals as useful tools in his authoritarian campaign against American democracy.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Many of the United States’ most senior retired military personnel, members of the intelligence community and diplomats, as well as other elites in the national defense community, have publicly condemned Donald Trump as an extreme threat to the country’s safety, security and democracy.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Overall, Donald Trump has made the United States less safe, less respected, less powerful, less influential, and less respected as a world power. In the Age of Trump and the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. has become a pariah nation, shamed before the world.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Is there any strategic logic to Trump’s decision-making about the United States and its role in the world? How do Trump’s ignorance, selfishness and authoritarian beliefs, combined with his conviction that his own personal interests are identical to the nation’s, imperil our safety and security? Does the Trump regime’s contempt for the truth and empirical reality endanger the long-term future of our nation?</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In an effort to answer these questions, I recently spoke with Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent and co-anchor of “CNN Newsroom</b>.” Sciutto previously served as ABC News’ senior foreign correspondent and during his extensive career has reported from more than 50 countries, including Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. His new book is “The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the end of this conversation Sciutto warns that the consensus among many of the country’s senior defense and intelligence professionals is that Donald Trump idolizes Vladimir Putin, and is somehow personally bound to him. If this is true, Trump’s fealty to a foreign leader has fatally compromised his ability to make decisions in the best interests of the United States and the American people.</span></div><div>
</div><div>You can also listen to my conversation with Jim Sciutto on my podcast “The Truth Report” or through the player embedded below.</div><div>
</div><div>How are you feeling, given all that is happening and has happened with Donald Trump and his administration?</div><div>
</div><div>I’m feeling stress for my country. That is not a political sentiment. I love my country. I’ve spent a lot of time outside of it for professional reasons. As a foreign correspondent, you end up loving America more because you live in places where they do not have our freedoms or institutions, many of which we take for granted. When I see those institutions being undermined here in the United States and people losing confidence in their own country, I am very concerned. I am still an optimist, but there is much to be concerned about here in the United States because of Donald Trump and all that has happened.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How does America look from abroad?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is not a lot of respect right now for the United States. I do not want to overstate that because, frankly, there are many countries in the world with much bigger problems than this country right now.</span></div><div>
</div><div>For example, the COVID outbreak. The U.S. has certainly been one of the worst in terms of responding to it. That is not a political statement. It is based on the data. Europe is doing much better for example than the United States with the pandemic and its deadly consequences and other problems.</div><div>
</div><div>The state of the country’s political discourse is also not good. Is the United States able to solve problems in the way it did not too long ago? Pew polling shows that the world’s opinion of the United States has greatly diminished. The world is viewed much worse than it was during another low point, which was during George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.</div><div>
</div><div>How are career diplomats and other public servants reacting to the Trump regime and its assaults on norms and values? These are government professionals who have served in multiple administrations. How are they making sense of this tumult?</div><div>
</div><div>Here is what is different. There have always been disagreements about policy and how best to accomplish those goals. What is different now is that there is an assault on the truth. There is not an agreed-upon set of facts. At first, I thought that maybe having to confront a pandemic would do that. Another example would be Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. There was a bipartisan judgment that Russia interfered, and that the Russians did so to help Trump win.</div><div>
</div><div>It came out of committees, as well as the intelligence agencies. Trump attacked those findings and took them personally. That was a consensus not just of a bipartisan committee but the country’s intelligence community as well. Intelligence findings can be attacked more easily because it is still a matter of interpretation.</div><div>
</div><div>But in the middle of a pandemic, there are hard facts. People are dying. You can count the number of people dying. You can count and document the positive infection rates.</div><div>
</div><div>You can count the number of infections. One can easily disprove Donald Trump’s claims that cases are only rising because there is more testing, because the percentage of people testing positive is also going up. But not in this environment where even the facts are disputed. Conspiracy theories existed well before Donald Trump, but he has super-turbocharged them to the point where they are leaking more and more into mainstream conversation. Democracy cannot operate without an agreed-upon set of facts and the country is miles down that rabbit hole right now.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Does Donald Trump have an ideology? Is his administration guided by some overriding principle that orients its approach to the world?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He has an approach and a view of the world. It is an open question as to whether he has a strategy — and that is a question raised by people who worked for him. For my new book, I spoke only to people who worked for Trump and were appointed by him at the highest levels.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When I asked those officials to describe </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Trump’s view of the world it was described as transactional</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">: “</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What can you do for me? I scratch your back. You scratch mine.” Trump has done that equally with adversaries and allies. Trump has no worldview beyond that. There is no understanding of the ancillary benefit of friendships and alliances.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>[Former national security adviser] H.R. McMaster told me how much trouble he had convincing Trump that there was more to alliances than just some sort of <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">quid pro quo bottom line. </span></b>These include shared history, shared values, a shared interest in the rule of law, sharing of intelligence to fight terrorism and other understandings. Trump does not see the world and alliances in that way.  As such, Donald Trump will just as easily upend a friendship as he will antagonize a competitor. The United States is on a path of confrontation with China. But the United States also has highly antagonistic relationships now with our closest allies in Europe. With South Korea, the president is demanding they quintuple their contribution to the deployment of U.S. forces there and is threatening to take those forces away in the midst of the worsening standoff with North Korea.</div><div>
</div><div>Or even consider Canada, arguably one of our closest allies. Trump has used national security powers to impose economic sanctions on them including tariffs. In essence, Donald Trump has labeled Canada a national security threat.</div><div>
</div><div>Donald Trump does not read. He is proudly ignorant. He is a malignant narcissist. How is it even possible to have a coherent foreign policy with such a president?</div><div>
</div><div>Trump’s national security advisers knew and realized that he was not reading any of the briefing notes. So early on, McMaster’s team came up with the idea of boiling the briefings down to note cards with just three bullet points, thinking that would get through to Trump....</div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AHA: schiff impeach oversight is MODERATION  checks and balance = diversity</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-who-warned-trumpism-could-destroy-us-democracy-in-2018-are-even-more-worried-now-we-werent-alarmist-enough/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-who-warned-trumpism-could-destroy-us-democracy-in-2018-are-even-more-worried-now-we-werent-alarmist-enough/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">alex h</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s book, “How Democracies Die,” was released in January 2018, critics of the Harvard University political science professors described them as alarmists. The book had a dire warning: the United States’ liberal democracy was in danger because of Trumpism. But two years later, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-republicans-democracy-at-risk_n_5f5fb18fc5b6e27db1314744" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Levitsky and Ziblatt</a> have not backed down from that message — in fact, they are now saying that they should have been <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">more</em> worried in 2018.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Levitsky told HuffPost, “Joe Scarborough ridiculed it on TV, saying, ‘These guys are alarmists.’ It turns out we weren’t alarmist enough.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scarborough, the Never Trump conservative who hosts MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” is no fan of President Donald Trump — who he bashes consistently. But when “How Democracies Die” came out, Scarborough argued that the United States’ democracy was robust enough to withstand Trump’s train wreck of a presidency. Scarborough, in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/many-think-our-democracy-wont-survive-trump-theyre-wrong/2018/03/15/a646f8de-2883-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">March 15, 2018 op-ed</a> for the Washington Post, argued that American democracy was much stronger than Trump’s chaotic administration.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist Travis Waldron, in HuffPost, notes that Levitsky and Ziblatt aren’t the only “political scholars” or “political leaders” who are “warning that 2020 is a referendum not just on Trump, but on the nation’s democratic experiment as a whole.” But Levitsky fears that too many Americans aren’t as worried as they need to be.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">"People are getting killed over politics,” Levitsky told HuffPost. “There’s questions about whether the election will be free. Law enforcement bodies are being manipulated to protect allies of the president and go after rivals of the president. Things are happening on various fronts, and we’re not putting it all together and realizing that our democracy is on the line.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Liberal democracies don’t necessarily come to power because of an armed <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">coup d’etat</em> or <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">golpe de estado</em>: in some cases, authoritarians are voted into office and gradually<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">undermine a country’s checks and balances.</span> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an obvious example. And Waldron cites Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as an example of a far-right authoritarian who was elected in a liberal democracy, warning that democracy in the U.S. is also in danger.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“Republicans in Congress have done whatever they can to protect Trump,” Waldron explains. “They blocked his removal from office after House Democrats impeached him and have kept administration officials from facing consequences for shirking their oversight duties.<b> Without those checks, Trump has proceeded to do whatever he wants: fire inspectors general, attack the judiciary, violate laws and profit off his own office.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Levitsky told HuffPost, “U.S. democracy has proven weaker and more vulnerable than I thought.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amy Erica Smith, a political science professor at Iowa State University, warns that some countries pretend to be democratic and have elections but are actually authoritarian states — or as she calls them, “hybrid regimes.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The number one defining feature of a hybrid regime is that the incumbent is using ― and I’ll say ‘his’ because almost always ‘his’ ― all of the benefits that come from office to get himself reelected in an unfair way,” Smith told HuffPost.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Waldron points to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán as examples of authoritarians who pretend to hold fair elections and argues that Trump is trying to do the same type of thing in the U.S. “through his efforts to undermine the U.S. Postal Service and discredit the election as fraudulent before it even takes place — an admittedly odd tactic for a leader already in power…. Trump’s attacks on democracy are in effect the<b> final shattering of the idea of American exceptionalism.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">aha: fox is a corp, and like all psychopathic robots, its function is maximize profit which means max ratings [instant quant fdbk]  which means max activation of trumpistas via red meat; this is in conflict w/ mission/function of jrnlism, straight news provides cover/fig leaf; successful red meat hypes fear and anger, and includes energizes the RW trump story/schemas of victimization. murdoch war crimes on AGW amd covid?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/media-critic-fox-news-is-bigger-than-trump-if-he-fights-the-network-hell-lose">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/media-critic-fox-news-is-bigger-than-trump-if-he-fights-the-network-hell-lose</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">do executives at Fox News secretly hope that Donald Trump loses this November because that would be good for the network’s ratings? Before you dismiss that as crazy talk, given the record ratings Fox News has seen during Trump’s presidency, realize that Fox could see even higher ratings when it no longer has to defend Trump’s unpredictable words and deeds and can solely focus on what Brian Stelter calls its “secret sauce”: attacking Democrats and liberals.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Stelter, the host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” and author of the new book, “<a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2464/9781982142445" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth</a>,</b>” raised that very scenario during our “Salon Talks” conversation. As he explains it, Fox News has always been more comfortable attacking Democratic administrations, which traditionally has yielded a ratings boon for the network. “The network in a Biden presidency is almost a situation where tails you win and heads you win,” he said. Fox News might face other problems with Trump as a former president, however. Stelter describes Trump as the Frankenstein monster that Fox News helped create, and as in the tale of Frankenstein, he could end up turning against his creator and starting a competing right-wing network.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In our recent conversation, Stelter also addressed Trump’s nonstop attacks on the media, which Stelter says have taken a toll on the credibility of the Fourth Estate: “He has said ‘fake news’ and ‘hoax’ so many times that it has poisoned the public discourse. It’s like a slow-acting poison that kind of gradually moves to the veins of the American body. And we can’t fully know what the impacts are of that yet.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch my “Salon Talks” interview with Brian Stelter below or read the following transcript of our conversation — lightly edited for length and clarity — to learn more about “Hoax,” his harsh words on the Fox News obsession with ratings and his blunt advice for how larger media outlets can rehabilitate their credibility in a post-Trump America.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Your book “Hoax” is like a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> feedback loop. Does Trump drive Fox News, does Fox News drive Trump, or does it move back and forth all the time?</span></font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is hard to tell where Fox ends and Trump begins. But if I had to choose one side of this, I would say Fox drives Trump more than Trump drives Fox</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">. <b>Fox has more of an agenda setting role than the President does, </b>which is an astonishing thing to say. But when you look at the power of “Fox & Friends,” when you look at the power of Sean Hannity and recently Tucker Carlson, who is achieving policy goals based on segments he produces on his show. I think it’s clear that Trump is usually in a reactive mode, reacting to what he sees and hears on Fox.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just this morning Trump was tweeting again about what was going on on “Fox & Friends.” It really is his morning briefing. You mention in the book that Fox News does not have a traditional standards-and-practices department like other news organizations do. Even I have encountered this as a columnist for CNN Opinion. Just this past weekend, the standards department made me rework an op-ed. I was like, “But it’s an opinion piece!” They still had issues because they had our common best interests in mind. Could you share with people what standards and practices do traditionally? And by contrast what is going on at Fox News?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox is described as a news operation, a news network, but it’s also a political operation. And right now the propaganda is winning and the news is losing. I had staffers at the network say to me that it’s like working at a place that’s anti-journalism. </span>So you’re trying to produce journalism at a place that’s anti-journalism. I’m wearing my CNN hoodie right now. It says “The World Needs Journalists.” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The sense that the world needs journalists, that should be a pretty basic concept. It’s hard to disagree with that idea. However, at Fox, there is disagreement. So Sean Hannity says journalism is dead. You’ve got all these folks on Fox denigrating the media every single day and saying the world doesn’t need these journalists.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That creates a real hostile environment for the actual reporters who do still work at Fox. I point out in “Hoax” that many have left. And I have a lot of stories about people that have left for various reasons, including Shep Smith, but a lot of other names you might not know. For the journalists who remain there, it’s this really awkward, tough, sometimes hostile environment.</span> I think the lack of standards and practices speaks to this problem. There is not a unit, a desk or a division that’s charged with vetting news before it gets onto the air. There are some informal processes, but there’s not that official checks and balances system that CNN has. And every other outlet has — forget about CNN — at the New York Times or Washington Post, there are reasons why there are editors and vetters and researchers. That structure just doesn’t exist at Fox.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">You make the point that at Fox, ratings are everything. Everyone is profoundly afraid of losing the audience. Does that then mean that the people bringing in a lot of money, Hannity or Tucker Carlson or Laura Ingraham, can literally say anything they want on air, as long as it feeds the audience?</span> Is there no one at Fox News who will say, hey, that’s beyond the pale of what’s acceptable?</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There are some exceptions, but what you just said is broadly correct, broadly true and really problematic. There is not this kind of follow-through or accountability that I know happens at other networks and should happen everywhere.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> This is really most clear in primetime with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When something really bad happens, when something really outrageous or racist happens on the air, there’s finger-pointing that goes on inside Fox. Some people will point the finger at the <b>head of the network, Suzanne Scott</b>. Others will point at a woman named <b>Meade Cooper, who’s the executive vice president of primetime</b>. Others will point at the executive producers for those specific shows, right? So they’ll shift the blame, no one agrees on who’s responsible or who’s at fault. And then there’s an attempt to move on and pretend that these embarrassing episodes didn’t happen.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s when they go on vacation, right. All of a sudden <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/21/confirmed-fox-knew-of-allegations-against-tucker-carlson-before-his-pre-planned-vacation/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Tucker Carlson is on a pre-planned vacation</a>?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sometimes. Although I promise some of these vacations are actually scheduled, they’re just at bad times. Bill O’Reilly truly was always going to go to Italy when the scandal erupted about his secret settlements with women that accused him of harassment. So he decided to go on the vacation that he already scheduled, and then of course, he never came back. He was forced out when he was in Italy. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But there are other times, yes, where Fox uses this vacation illusion where they’ll say someone’s going on vacation to let the noise subside around their program and try to preserve their advertisers.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the really interesting things in the book are the little details. You mention<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Bill O’Reilly going to Italy and meeting with the pope. It seemed like, at least the way you were shaping it, that perhaps the pope could save his job</span>. Even that didn’t work out. </font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think there’s so many stories about the last five years, these big stars at Fox, who thought they were kings of the world, who thought they were bigger than the network. And it turns out no, Fox is the star, not these individuals. No matter who’s on at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., Fox’s ratings are going to remain really high. It speaks to the fact that Fox has a monopoly position in this area of the media.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You write about how Fox got sued because of what some people viewed as misinformation regarding COVID-19 by some of the hosts. When it comes to Fox News and the misinformation that it has shared about COVID, do you feel that the network has responsibility for misleading Americans?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think there’s a lot of blame and a lot of responsibility to go around about the pandemic, but Fox had the biggest platform on cable and President Trump had the biggest platform in the country. He has the loudest megaphone and he knows how to use it. So the failures of Trump and his media allies to warn the country and prepare the country for what was coming were absolutely shameful. That’s why we called the book “Hoax.” We were originally going to call it “Wingman.” But when Trump came out and said, “These Democrats, they tried to impeach me, now they’re hyping coronavirus, they’re politicizing the virus. It’s their new hoax.” And Sean Hannity said something very similar a week and a half later. They were viewing this as politics, not as a medical emergency. That was the fundamental problem.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And they were always two or three weeks too late, meaning that when Trump finally took action involving flights from Europe, the virus had already gotten in and it was spreading silently across New York City and several other states. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And of course, when he announced the European restrictions, there were these long lines of people all shoved together at airports. Fox, to its credit, had a reporter who called that out and criticized the government for it. There were these moments on Fox where there was great reporting, excellent medical advice, excellent segments with doctors. But I think those segments were drowned out by the downplaying of the disease, by the attempts to politicize this and downplay it.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve never seen a president make life and death a partisan issue. And it’s not over. In North Carolina, he and his supporters were not wearing masks<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Donald Trump Jr. has been out there attacking the media saying that it’s a lie, that people were wearing masks</span>. Last week, Trump made fun of Joe Biden for wearing a mask. If you take a step back and look at this is, does it feel surreal that you have a president dealing with a life-and-death pandemic in this way, where it’s all about him? Everyone’s doing things to hurt him as opposed to wanting to simply save lives.</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s embarrassing. And sometimes you need a little bit of perspective, you need to zoom out a little bit. You need to think back six months — it’s been about exactly six months since all our lives changed and these lockdowns began. Now we’re slowly coming out of it and looking around and seeing what the world is like. And the words from the president six months ago sound even worse now, right? We had a sense when he was contradicting his science experts and health experts that he was doing damage. We had a sense when he was downplaying the disease that it was dangerous. We know now, much more clearly, how dangerous and damaging it was.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is true for his media allies as well. His pro-Trump propagandists. Trump was calling up Hannity at the end of March and saying, “How are my ratings? How do we rate? I called into your show, Sean, how did I rate?” A good friend would have said to him, “Donald, don’t ever ask about that again, we’re in the middle of a crisis. We’ve got hospitals overwhelmed by the surge, we’re trying to order body bags. Don’t ask about your ratings. Please don’t tweet about your ratings again. Please don’t do it, it’s bad for you.”<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> But instead, his so-called friends feed his ego rather than trying to actually help him</span>. I would argue that they actually hurt him when they claim to help him by telling him about his ratings.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The book could have been called “Ratings, Ratings, Ratings” because that’s what Fox News is moved by. It’s a profit machine. When your only touchstone as a news outlet is ratings, what compromises do you end up seeing on screen?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let me be clear, I’m in television, I’m on CNN. I care about ratings. I care about my show doing well. I look at the ratings every day. But there’s much more of a fixation at Fox on winning because this network’s been No. 1 for 18 years. Everybody knows what’s at stake and what’s on the line, and there’s this intense desire to feed the audience what it wants and keep the audience at all costs. I had producers at Fox describe this as a really unhealthy relationship, where sometimes they fear the audience. Sometimes they don’t respect the audience<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, but they’re desperate to keep the audience’s attention. What that leads to is Trumpier and Trumpier segments. Segments that are unhinged from reality, that are based in conspiracy theory, that are feeding the audience’s wants and desires and not what they need. And again, this is the problem across television. It is much more severe at Fox.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As you mentioned, at <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">CNN, MSNBC and all the big media outlets, ratings are important. They are connected to profits. But when your only goal is ratings, it’s going to cause massive compromises. </span>Shep Smith and others behind the scenes at Fox News understood that they were putting their careers on the line given that ratings are everything.</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Well, also, the ratings also tell you what the audience wants, what the audience expects<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Shep Smith’s show at 3 p.m. was the lowest-rated show in daytime, the lowest-rated hour of the day on Fox. It meant that viewers were turning the channel actively when he came on. They did not want to hear him with his corrections to what was aired earlier in the day and his fact checks of the president’s lies.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the ratings for notable Democratic events, like Joe Biden’s speech or the funeral of John Lewis, you see dramatic declines in Fox’s ratings. Viewers turn it off when the Democrats are speaking and they turn it back on when the rebuttal from the Republicans is starting. So you end up thinking that the audience has been radicalized. What else can you say?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They’ve been served a diet of red meat. Fox News should come with a warning: It serves so much red meat that it’s not healthy. I mean, look, Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, they’re more news journalists. On some level, though, they’re part of the Fox News machine. Is it fair to say they’re also complicit in what is going on?</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Well, that’s certainly what some of their friends say, or their former friends. The Trump era has done damage to those kind of gentlemanly, old-fashioned, courteous relationships that you see between television anchors and rivals and all that. And certainly throughout my reporting, talking to dozens of people that were complicit that came up a lot, this sense that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">news anchors there are like fig leaves of respectability.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> One person once said to Chris Wallace at a Columbia event, “Do you think you are there to truth-wash primetime?” That was an interesting term, “truth-wash.” Wallace is on one hour a week, Sean Hannity’s on one hour, five nights a week, in a much, much higher-rated program. You’ve got to look at Fox and say that the identity of Fox is Hannity and “Fox & Friends,” these bigger shows</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But I still think the journalists there do serve important purposes. I understand why they stay. They want to be there for big events. They want to provide a reality check, a fact check to the rest of the programming. But let’s say <b>Bret Baier’</b>s show, for example, is on at 6 p.m. “The Five” is much higher rated at 5 p.m., and then the ratings drop at 6. Not everybody wants to see a newscast, but even his newscast is tilted to the right toward Trump. His panels, for example, in the back half of the show, are tilted to the right. Sometimes the lefty will be a journalist and then he’ll have a pro-Trump person and another right-wing figure.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He tells people that he does this because he wants to have left, right and Trump. And I get it that sometimes “right” and “Trump” are not the same thing, but those panels are not balanced. Those panels are not representative of where the country is, right? If you want to have a panel that represented the country, that’s not how it would look. My point is, even on the newscasts, these programs are tilted in Trump’s favor.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clearly, Trump has had an impact on Fox News. You’ve mentioned that Trump is their Frankenstein monster, but I want to get a sense from you on how the rest of the media is doing. Do you think the media is better at covering Trump this time, in terms of using the right language? For a long time, people didn’t want to call him a liar, you probably remember that. Now we’re beyond that. We’re two months out from 2020, using terms like “white supremacist” about Donald Trump, using the term “fascist” in an academic sense, not a hyperbolic sense. Are we at the point where the media can speak bluntly about it? ...[much more]</font></strong></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha/sum/analysis 9/5/20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">anarchism is a real actual historical thing, but often mischaracterized; latest incarnation blends with Antifa, which basically says we cannot afford to give the streets/public space to brownshirts, alt rt/ militias, and we must be prepared to meet the force/violence they explicitly want and have come equipped for [note f/u portland guy killed, he said defend AA friends/allies, ~ // kyle self-defense]; we cannot depend on the police to stop their violence, because they are allies, and the police also use force/violence against AA POC peaceful protesters;  Black Bloc says power never gives up power voluntarily; people and their rights do not matter, but OUR property must be protected at all costs (AA lives have no value/importance); BB says we will impose [a transaction?] cost, if you ignore the will of the ppl, it will COST you in terms of property damage [if you lock us in ghetto/poverty/ lower working service gig economy class, we will destroy your stuff/ability to do biz/make more $</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARSON metaphorical: anger /rage physical manifestation, // trump 2016 hand grenade the system is rigged against us, so let's blow it up/burn it down (if we cannot benefit, neither can you]; most good sized/ rowdy protests will have garbage set on fire, this inevitably portrayed by rw fox news as VIOLENCE; next level is smash windows, next level is loot;  kyle R responded to militia facebook post to protect property (gas station/ car dealer/repiar?) he was initially reported to be a property/biz [small biz entre hero backbone meritocrisy] defending his property / stand your ground mcCloskey suburb heroes rnc for gun brandish; --> thugs on a plane foment riots as coup to get rid of trump [add to long list of failled attempts, impeach, fake covid ...]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">all get conflated into enemy mob who hate america/western civ: anarchist = socialist = communist = violent left-wing extremist = thug = AA= paid protester = soros/jew </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">is this product of being baffled/ ~ to intersectionality?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">=</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">WHEELER BS FIX EJ: BUT FREE MKT FUNDAMENTALISM IS THE CAUSE NOT THE CURE</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">one upon a time, LBJ was able to harness the pressure of CRM, and maybe 60's ctr-culture, and perhaps the martyrdom of JFK, MLK and RFK to jam thru civil rights and voter rights acts, as well the the Great Society, oft wrongly seen as a failure; it did affirmative/ active programs that gave poor ppl money, education, job training...[RR cut housing 80? rick p WITH pod 920)</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Later affirm action lost in ct? Bakke? UC? 187? RR attack mythical welfare queen, so direct assistance became taboo [BC did welfare reform, 3 strikes superpredators?]</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">But must at least be seen to do something for inner city POC, so we get opportunity/empowerment zone, tax breaks for real estate dev in crappy parts of town; </div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">so not giving cash to poor ppl, but only a tax/break incentive to competent rich white guys, then the benefits will tricke down on poor ppl.  // urban renewal?  gentrification?  sports stadiums?</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">NOW 920 Wheeler needs cover because the massive EPA rollback on regs clearly hurt POC, especially kids, so extends paul driessen  Green blk death energy poverty BS  or maybe more generally and slightly less cynically, cut red tape will allow economy to thrive, blk ppl will get some of that $, and can then afford to move away from toxins?</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">...“Communities that deal with the worst pollution in this country—and tend to be low-income and minority—face multiple environmental problems that need solving,” Wheeler said. He suggested President Donald Trump’s “<b>opportunity zones</b>” plan—recognized by experts as a giveaway to the rich—as a remedy to environmental injustice....</span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">=</span></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[[[cascade update:</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">404</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 920</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">t<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the--has-only-made-the-opioid-epidemic-worse/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">he coronavirus pandemic has only made the opioid epidemic worse</a></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-conversation/" title="Posts by The Conversation" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Conversation</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 3, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Elizabeth Chiarello, Saint Louis University COVID-19 has overshadowed the U.S. opioid crisis, but that doesn’t mean opioid addiction has gone away. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis has…</font></p></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cascade / compound/ interacting factors</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/hurricane-laura-worsens-already-inhumane-ice-conditions/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Hurricane Laura worsens already inhumane ICE conditions</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/gabe-ortiz/" title="Posts by Gabe Ortiz" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Gabe Ortiz</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Detained people already suffer dangerous conditions while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, including inhumane living arrangements, medical mistreatment or no treatment at all, and systemic patterns of abuse. The novel coronavirus pandemic has only piled…</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cascade interactions: AGW --> drought --> bark beetle = fuel  --> fire --> move infected ppl into confined large shelter and pollutes air /aggravates lungs --> infections</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">820 <span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ew ]]]</span></font></div></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">STORY  (btw left/commie infidels who do not believe this story of Am exceptionalism hate america/freedom and want destroy/supplant it}</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see strict fr</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">see god/devil terms</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">cf 4 horse dovetail ism pattern match experiment vs phobias; --> coherent story?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">aha 820 entrepreneur as CONCEPT/GOD TERM: sparked by rnc convention: entre is also a GOD term, ties into Yankee ingenuity/ am exceptionalism sil valley garage mystique: affirms meritocrisy [sic] that racism will fix itself when AA POC start small biz that expand (cain godfather pizza 999 RIP?] overlooking the fact that redlining by gov't and banks deprived of capital for decades; but of course you have to get rid of burdensome regulation/red tape that stiffle [when in fact corps/amazon will use data to steal your idea/product and crush you or buy you out. small biz and gig economy means own boss thus in control thus = freedom --> fix for INEQUALITY THUS RACISM</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">but of course to be an entre you must have skills/a good education but socialist dems want to trap poor kids in failing public/gov't schools to serve big corrupt union bosses, so devos waNts FREEDOM TO CHOOSE/SHOP voucher/charter b/c free mkt will create better schools [vs suck/extract from big part of public budget/ schools are the COMMONS THAT MADE DEMOC AND PROSPERITY POSSIBLE;  --> scam online virtual classes [jail the blk girl who refuses pointless jumpthruhoop fill in the blanck</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">aha: concept of control = freedom, loss of control = slavery</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">commies want to control your mind, your actions, your energy use (as a way of controlling your behavior)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">control is also law and order, which the strict father must impose/ punish transgression because children / POC do not have discipline (or intelligence) to control their own actions/base impulses</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">order is enforcement of hierarchy; the job of the strict father is to instill discipline in sons who can handle it and marry off daughter, outsource/delegate  the job of control/disc of women</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">eg</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/rnc-review-speakers-described-an-alternate-reality-in-which-chaos-and-violence-of-the-trump-era-is-joe-bidens-fault/</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx twt</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RNC review: Speakers described an alternate reality in which chaos and violence of the Trump era is Joe Biden’s fault</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Once Upon a Time </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the pilgrims were being discriminated against [by a Prot?] King geo III, so like good entrpreneur/pioneer/explorers they sailed to New World discovered by Columbus to bring God to America; friends w/ Nat Am first thxgiving, Boston Tea Party no Tax w/o rep, Lexington Minutemen militia w/ musket beat dumb/dainty Redcoats, Dec Indep, Sacred Const by Founding  fathers all men created equal, gave th gift of democ/freedom/light to world,</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">undergd railroad, civil war for states rights (freedom from gubmint tyranny; rebs underdogs fought well but beat (by industrial/banker?) north, emanc proc freed slaves, reconciliation, all americans.  </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Railroads, robber barons fixed by trustbuster Teddy; we stayed out of endless pointless Eur wars, till WWI (WW promised to keep out in ca,pign) now war to make world sagfe for democ? war to end all wars [jail/deport reds who said war for capital/bosses via espionage act].  Yanks won war, no L of N but after Gt Depression we won WWII [UN? boo] became superpower vs USSR; Reagan thatcher won the cold war, socialism forever discredited, some tyrants manage to hold on Cuba and even export to S Am Chavez and Central Am [guate coup 1954, Iran year before]; MLK > Malcolm/panthers fixes racism; Contras beat by Ollie and Reagan; End of History, Free Mkt fundamentalism Ayn Rand Greenspan.  tax and spend liberal dems cripple our economy with regulations to solve non-existent problems like asbestos, carcinogens, AGW [Heartland says hoax, reverse engineer, Agenda 21 comie one world plot to take our freedom]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">unions are corrupt and hinder economy; teachers unions control dems and trap our/POC kids in failing schools; a few bad cops shot AA men, but look they shoot each other all the time selling drugs; Blue Lives matter, Biden and KH want to get rid of cops, so no protection so you need a GUN.[also to fight off gov't tyrannt like woam dem gov of Mich who takes away your Const freedom by forcing you to wear a mask, worst kind of nanny state;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Biden son corrupt, sol us out to ChiCom who sent covid virus, which djt quickly took action by shutting border // caravan/muslim; he created prosperity by rolling back regulations and gave massive tax cut to the job creators;  the lazy/dumb/sinful deserve to be poor; [opportunity zone actually real estate scam for rich?]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">but now the godless commies have come back for your guns, and the gov't will destroy your white quality of life suburbs by rezoning low quality apts (which bring low quality POC criminals/gangster] who will make you unsafe and drive down the value of your house/property/equit/ retirement nest egg.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">trump the strong man/strict fr will protect us from godless irrational muslim extremeist jihadi terrorists, the brown horde at southern border WALL and from antifa extrmeisty terrorists who want to loot and burn even small biz of POC entre.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">dems will let crims out of jail. invite MS13 into suburbs, coddle anarchists/antifa; trump will send in the tough guys to restore law and order/control, put those ppl back in their place [and deploy at polls to ensure not rigged/cheating]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BLM is identity politics, put me at head of line give me a handout i do not deserve b/c i'm lazy; worst form is reparations for sin of slavery [nikki h at UN tyrants defy us and then demand $, a lot of it that we could use to build our country MAGA] </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">trump master negotiator will make better deal (nafta the worst deal in the history of the world don jr rnc], NATO pay fair share we will not be chumps to freeloaders.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">this story has to explain how we lost power/prestige/leadership/prospeirty and how we will get it back</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha 820 entrepreneur as CONCEPT/GOD TERM: sparked by rnc convention: entre is also a GOD term, ties into Yankee ingenuity/ am exceptionalism sil valley garage mystique: affirms <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">meritocrisy</span> [sic] that racism will fix itself when AA POC start small biz that expand (cain godfather pizza 999 RIP?] overlooking the fact that redlining by gov't and banks deprived of capital for decades; but of course you have to get rid of burdensome regulation/red tape that stiffle [when in fact corps/amazon will use data to steal your idea/product and crush you or buy you out. small biz and gig economy means own boss thus in control thus = freedom --> fix for INEQUALITY THUS RACISM</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but of course to be an entre you must have skills/a good education but socialist dems want to trap poor kids in failing public/gov't schools to serve big corrupt union bosses, so devos waNts FREEDOM TO CHOOSE/SHOP voucher/charter b/c free mkt will create better schools [vs suck/extract from big part of public budget/ schools are the COMMONS THAT MADE DEMOC AND PROSPERITY POSSIBLE;  --> scam online virtual classes [jail the blk girl who refuses pointless jumpthruhoop fill in the blanck</font></div><div>
</div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: concept of control = freedom, loss of control = slavery</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">commies want to control your mind, your actions, your energy use (as a way of controlling your behavior)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">control is also law and order, which the strict father must impose/ punish transgression because children / POC do not have discipline (or intelligence) to control their own actions/base impulses</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">order is en<b>force</b>ment of hierarchy; the job of the strict father is to instill discipline in sons who can handle it and marry off daughter, outsource/delegate  the job of control/disc of women</font></div><div><div>
</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">eg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/rnc-review-speakers-described-an-alternate-reality-in-which-chaos-and-violence-of-the-trump-era-is-joe-bidens-fault/</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RNC review: Speakers described an alternate reality in which chaos and violence of the Trump era is Joe Biden’s fault</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Igor Derysh / Salon August 25, 2020 Commentary</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first night of the Republican National Convention featured a diverse lineup that defended President Donald Trump from charges of racism, even as other speakers sought to stoke racial fears and push conspiracy theories.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The convention, largely consisting of a mix of live and pre-taped speeches before an empty auditorium, appeared to take place in an alternate reality where Trump had successfully beaten back the coronavirus pandemic, and where the protests, violence and racial division seen during Trump’s presidency would only get worse Democratic nominee Joe Biden is elected. <b>It was a wildly dishonest night, with the New York Times fact-checking team counting at least 30 false and misleading claims</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This one half-night of Republican programming so far has been exponentially more dishonest than the entire four nights of the Democratic convention,” wrote CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Republicans insisted that their convention would be optimistic, and headliners like former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina delivered speeches on the promise of America that could have taken place under any other Republican president, the tone of the night was dark and the theme was racial fear-mongering.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The night kicked off with a speech by Charlie Kirk, founder of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA, who described Trump as a “bodyguard of Western civilization” — a common white nationalist dog whistle — who is defending America against a “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life</span>, our neighborhoods, schools, churches and values.”</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio gave a speech riddled with falsehoods accusing Democrats of stoking “crime, violence, and mob rule.” </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of Trump’s most loyal followers in Congress, bizarrely warned that Democrats will “disarm you, empty the prisons, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">lock you in your home,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> and invite MS-13 to live next door.”</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who threatened Black Lives Matter supporters with guns, delivered a gloomy, downbeat chat accusing “radical Democrats” of trying to destroy the suburbs.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They are not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities<b>. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning,” Patricia McCloskey said. “This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into thriving suburban neighborhoods.</b></font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These are the policies that are coming to a neighborhood near you,” she added. “So make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> radical </span>Democrats’ America.”</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These divisive speeches were interspersed between people of color who insisted that neither Trump, the Republican Party nor the nation had a problem with racism.</font></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former NFL player Herschel Walker — who once played for the New Jersey Generals, a long-gone USFL team owned by Trump — said it “hurt my soul” to hear people call Trump “racist,” noting their long friendship. Haley, speaking of her own experience as the daughter of Indian immigrants, said that “America is not a racist country” but a “work in progress.”</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott, the night’s <b>keynote speaker,</b> [heh appt by nikki] delivered a powerful speech on the promise of America and his own experiences with racism. Scott urged viewers to “not look simply at what the candidates say” before listing a number of remarks made by Biden to suggest that he, and not Trump, would ignore minority communities. Scott repeatedly insisted that Biden wants to turn the U.S. into a <b>“socialist utopia,”</b> which would be news to Biden and the progressive primary challenges who repeatedly criticized him for being too conservative.</font></span></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But while the headliners tried to ignore the division stoked by Trump since long before he launched his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, stole the show with stunningly dark and loud diatribes that prompted viewers to question whether cocaine was involved.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Guilfoyle, who earns $180,000 per year from the Trump campaign, shouted an amped-up speech into the empty auditorium comparing Democrats to <b>socialists </b>in Cuba and Venezuela. Guilfoyle, who was formerly married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, claimed that Democrats (including her ex-husband, apparently) had turned California into a “land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.”</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">control </span>how you live,” she warned. “They want to <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">enslave</span> you to the weak, dependent liberal victim ideology to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself.”</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Biden, Harris and the rest of the socialists will fundamentally change this nation,” she continued. “They want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty, and will selfishly <b>send your jobs back to China while they get rich</b>. They will defund, dismantle and destroy America’s law enforcement. When you are in trouble and need police, don’t count on the Democrats.”</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump Jr. gave a speech touting his father’s response to the pandemic, albeit one that was entirely detached from reality.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He claimed that the president had “acted quickly,” even though Trump spent the crucial early weeks downplaying the threat, and that the administration had delivered supplies to “hospitals that needed them most,” even though the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general found rampant shortages of vital supplies. Six months into the pandemic, such equipment remains in short supply.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The night also featured segments in which Trump hyped hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has repeatedly been found ineffective in treating the coronavirus, and a video that touted Trump’s “rapid policy changes” in the face of the pandemic.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC broke away from the broadcast to fact-check the claims.</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“To say that 170,000 souls lost in our country up to now is a success by any measure is fantasy,” Dr. Vin Gupta,</b> a disease expert at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said during the segment. “It’s disrespectful to the families who lost loved ones, to frontline clinicians who put their lives at risk. It’s just fantasy. It’s propaganda.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During another segment, Trump spoke with a group of Americans who had been freed from overseas prisons, including <b>pastor Andrew Brunson, who was arrested by Turkey during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan</b>’s purge following an unsuccessful coup attempt.</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>“To me, President Erdogan was very good,</b>”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Trump told the pastor, who was detained for two years.</span></font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though all of the major news networks break away during portions of the convention for analysis and ads, Fox News host Sean Hannity warned his viewers that “the media won’t cover large parts of the RNC that we’ll be showing.”</font></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter users couldn’t help but notice that Fox News actually aired fewer segments from the convention than CNN and MSNBC. Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted his complaints at Fox News.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Can’t believe I have to watch the convention on @CNN,” he wrote. “Unbelievable.</span>”</font></div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tentative nodes: asymmetry and projection:</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha:  I try to stay away from pop psych, but trump seems to obviously be doing projection i know i am but what are you?  so biden and hunter are corrupt etc etcv, massive voter fraud by dems poc...but triggering the libs means pushing their PC buttons, perhaps saying shit you don't mean/beleive; but here's the projection part: conservative are hard-wired to be afraid, and fox stock in trade is to stoke fear and hatred of dems, but triggering wants to portray the DEMS as FEARFUL (or just naive?)</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">520 aha; strange how much grift around god, guns, patriotism, televangelist, NRA, hype/ fear good for fundraising cf direct mail funding fr vigurie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: fraud often targets older ppl who might be less web savvy, but it's also easier to scare them; conservatives in general are easier to trigger re threat; if in an info silo/bubble easier to scare and harder for them to get better/~ info</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha wall grift: fear involved b/c we ned protective barrier to keep THEM POC mex rapists out; but wife in Hamptons said about WINNING which means have money and pref fame; LOSERS deserve their fate, not smart hardworking thus moral, thus do anything /crime to not be in lower cat;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stock market supposed  to be ultra smart # guys making rational decisions, but often said driven by two base  emotions: fear and greed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">[[ aha: anez bolivia evang // bolsonaro re-assert rightful place above uppity indigenous?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">has doing god's will earned him "magical authority? see below</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-and-white-evangelical-christians-are-bonded-by-sadism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-and-white-evangelical-christians-are-bonded-by-sadism/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">john s eb</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">there’s still too much confusion over the president’s bond with white evangelical Protestants (WEPs). I suppose there will always be as long as outsiders presume that Donald Trump’s strongest supporters believe in<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> loving thy neighbor as thyself. Once you see that WEPs do not apply the Golden Rule universally and unconditionally, things become clearer. Once this Christian concept is removed from the discussion, “paradoxes” melt into the air. What’s left is a natural alignment of political interests.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How do I know WEPs don’t truly believe in the Golden Rule? From life experience. I know what I’m talking about. All you have to do is listen carefully, however, and know what to listen for. Elizabeth Dias wrote a big piece in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Times</em> last week trying to clear up the “contradiction” of WEPs standing by Trump “when he shut out Muslim refugees. When he separated children from their parents at the border. When he issued brash insults over social media. When he uttered falsehoods as if they were true. When he was impeached.” A source explains helpfully that there’s no contradiction at all.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The years of the Obama presidency were confusing to her,” Dias wrote of her source. “She said she heard talk of giving freedoms to gay people and members of minority groups. But to her it felt like her freedoms were being taken away. And that she was turning into the minority.</b>” The source: “I do not love Trump. I think Trump is good for America as a country. <b>I think Trump is going to restore our freedoms, where we spent eight years, if not more, with our freedoms slowly being taken away under the guise of giving freedoms to all. Caucasian-Americans are becoming a minority. Rapidly.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This makes no sense to outsiders. Freedom for “gay people and members of minority groups” is not taking anything away from anybody. This makes no sense, because outsiders do not generally accept a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> worldview in which power is ordered. First God, then man, then woman, then child. White over nonwhite. Heterosexual over LGBTQ. Christian over non-Christian. When you believe with your whole being that power is ordered according to God’s will, “giving freedoms to gay people and members of minority groups” is not political <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">equality</em>, as outsiders would often see it. It’s knocking you out of the order of power. It’s taking something away. Equality is literally <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">theft</span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">when political equality is theft, you cannot apply the Golden Rule universally and unconditionally. If you did, you’d be complicit in a crime. The Golden Rule demands white people share power with nonwhite people. It demands husbands share power with their wives. Neither can </span><em times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding">ever</em><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> be done.<b> A wife, according to the same source in Dias’ reporting, must “submit” to her husband in accordance with God’s law. If she does not, she’s trying “to rule over him.”</b> Same for whites and nonwhites. If white people are not at the top of the order, they are being ruled over. This is why Dias’ source says that, “Caucasian-Americans are becoming a minority. Rapidly.” The more for “them,” the less for “us.” They believe Trump prevents that from happening.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>They believe Trump is “restoring their freedom.</b>” Utter nonsense. What they are really saying is that the president will prevent people lower down the order of power from achieving more freedom and equality, “violating” their “freedom.” He must do that by any means, even if he confiscates kids from their mothers, bans a world religion, or<b> commits treason. None of that matters as much as maintaining the supremacy of a religious identity built on sand. </b>And make no mistake: this is a religious identity. These are very real anti-democratic Christians hostile to critical thinking, modernity, pluralism, and all forms of equality. “It’s almost like it is a reverse intolerance,” a WEP source told Dias. “<b>If you have somebody that’s maybe on the liberal side, they say that we are intolerant of them. But it is inverse intolerant if we can’t live out our faith.”[ // reverse discrimination]</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>If WEPs believed in the Golden Rule, they’d never tolerate other people’s pain. They do tolerate it, however. Indeed, they like it. It feels good to see the president “restoring their freedom.”</b> When WEPs say they want to “live out our faith,” what they mean is sadism is and should be a natural consequence of the natural order of things in which God’s people are chosen to rule in God’s name. <b>“Evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is,” Dias wrote. “They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are.”</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That’s correct, but take that to its logical conclusion. His enemies are their enemies. His pleasures, their pleasures. Their bond is far from a contradiction. It’s an alignment of political interests in which sadism is the point.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">----</span></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">has doing god's will earned him "magical authority? ends justify the means? see above</span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mis-spoke? made up extreme exec priv or somesuch? invokes article II? or somesuch?that <b>chosen one </b>was a goof/joke? tho rw in bolivia ~ evo m claims she is restoring xian thus doing god's will? reasserts hier over indig prez</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/former-dhs-staff-trump-claimed-magical-authorities-to-break-the-law/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/former-dhs-staff-trump-claimed-magical-authorities-to-break-the-law/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt text</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Former DHS staff: Trump claimed ‘magical authorities’ to break the law...]]</b></font></div></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LOIO </font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">8/20 orphan, sparked by?  // amplify? accelerate?proliferates geometrically/  [kids say, exponentially [ incorrectly for increase = rate on increase increases?</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">aha 820 spark 2 is "streisand effect" hydra-head whackamole on de-platform; it's a network resilience effect</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">eg Qanon:</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><a href="https://www.axios.com/qanons-2020-resurgence-41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.axios.com/qanons-2020-resurgence-41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad.html</font></a></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aug 4</font></p><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> strange realities of 2020 have perfectly played to the kind of fear QAnon thrives on, driving record online interest in the conspiracy theory.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Why it matters:</span> QAnon is not just one fringe conspiracy theory — it's a sprawling network of falsehoods that's seeping into the mainstream. Its growing influence is sowing fear and confusion around some of today's most important issues, such as election integrity and the coronavirus pandemic.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Catch up quick: </span>QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that alleges the "deep state" is engaged in a global fight to take down President Trump.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QAnon rose out of the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory and has grown into a decentralized network that analyzes cryptic prophecies dropped in remote online forums by "Q," who claims, without ever offering evidence, to be a Trump administration official with high-level clearance.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q maintains President Trump is secretly fighting a child-selling cabal in the U.S., though the conspiracy has spiraled to cover a vast array of claims, from JFK Jr. having faked his death to help Trump behind the scenes to the coronavirus being a hoax or a biological weapon engineered in either case by sinister elites.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">By the numbers: </span>Conspiracy theories tied to QAnon are growing more popular.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">There was<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> more than 10 times </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">as much Google search interest in QAnon in mid-July than in mid-January, according to Google Trends data.</span></font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">QAnon pages and groups on Facebook</span> <span style="font-weight: 600;">had nearly 10 times</span> more likes at the end of last month than they did last July, according to data tracked by the Atlantic Council and shared with Axios.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">There has been a 190% increase</span> in the daily average number of tweets with popular QAnon hashtags since March as compared to the seven months prior,</span>according to data from GroupSense provided to Axios.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Parts of the mainstream Republican party have latched on, </span>helping drive its conspiracy theories mainstream.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11 QAnon supporters <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="are now 2020 Republican Congressional nominees" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/qanon-nominees-congress-gop-8086ed21-b7d3-46af-9016-d132e65ba801.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/qanon-nominees-congress-gop-8086ed21-b7d3-46af-9016-d132e65ba801.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">are now 2020 Republican Congressional nominees</a>.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump himself has retweeted QAnon followers at least <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="90 times" data-vars-click-url="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">90 times</a> since the pandemic began, and others in Trump's inner circle have also shared Q content.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Between the lines: </span>For all its twisty logic and branching details, Qanon is premised on a simple narrative of the good working to vanquish the evil, who are responsible for all the world's ills. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There are very real concerns that may be driving more people to that narrative.</span></font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">2020's battered economy </span>has spurred wide-ranging anxiety and uncertainty.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Child trafficking</span>, central to QAnon, has seen greater visibility, with the Jeffrey Epstein saga working as "gasoline poured onto QAnon embers, springing the theory back to life at a moment when some believers were suffering doubts," said Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT's Center for Civic Media.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Coronavirus</span> has funneled what might otherwise be disparate conspiracy theories about cover-ups and global vaccine schemes into the grand unified theory offered by QAnon.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">QAnon could pose real-world danger </span>as it grows,<span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>scholars and analysts worry.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Experts are particularly concerned it could undermine faith in democracy, with recent Q posts questioning vote-by-mail and election integrity.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> web of misinformation expanding from within QAnon "definitely has real teeth</span>," said Bryce Webster-Jacobsen of cyber intelligence firm GroupSense.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">What to watch: </span>Tech giants are starting to crack down on QAnon, but policies around it are inconsistent and may in some cases be easily dodged.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Twitter recently shut</span> <span style="font-weight: 600;">down</span> <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="7,000 Q-related accounts." data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/twitter-qanon-misinformation-crackdown-08d59aa5-de6d-444c-8a2b-1c40703f899e.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/twitter-qanon-misinformation-crackdown-08d59aa5-de6d-444c-8a2b-1c40703f899e.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">7,000 Q-related accounts.</a> It expects broader policy changes to limit the reach of another 150,000 accounts, per <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="NBC News. " data-vars-click-url="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">NBC News.</a></font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Facebook removed </span>five pages, 20 accounts, and six groups associated with QAnon <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="for violating its content manipulation" data-vars-click-url="https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/April-2020-CIB-Report.pdf" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/April-2020-CIB-Report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">for violating its content manipulation</a> policies in May.</font></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">TikTok blocked several hashtags </span>related to QAnon last month <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="from its search results" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53528400" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53528400" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">from its search results</a>, although some of the videos that originally had the hashtags may still be available on the platform.</font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Yes, but: </span><a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="Studies have shown" data-vars-click-url="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/how-much-does-fake-coronavirus-news-affect-peoples-real-life-health-behavior/" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/how-much-does-fake-coronavirus-news-affect-peoples-real-life-health-behavior/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Studies have shown</a> that users are more likely to seek out bad information when a Big Tech platform <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="flags it as false" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/facebook-stops-putting-disputed-flags-on-fake-news-because-it-doesnt-work-1515110861-46227b6c-8949-4c8d-bca8-f5419f8fc2b7.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/facebook-stops-putting-disputed-flags-on-fake-news-because-it-doesnt-work-1515110861-46227b6c-8949-4c8d-bca8-f5419f8fc2b7.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">flags it as false</a>.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There's sort of this censorship backfire that happens, and people start becoming outraged that [a video is] being taken down and then sharing it more and more and more," said Zarine Kharazian, assistant editor at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.[</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">// STREISAND EFFECT?!</span></font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Meanwhile: </span>New platforms such as Parler and TheDonald.win are giving the conspiracy theory places to spread unchecked.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Parler, which has <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="attracted conservatives" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/parler-donaldwin-gab-trump-social-media-facebook-9272128a-1bf1-4883-9022-fe8d9ce62365.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/parler-donaldwin-gab-trump-social-media-facebook-9272128a-1bf1-4883-9022-fe8d9ce62365.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">attracted conservatives</a>, Webster-Jacobsen said there are 10,000 to 15,000 new posts every day with the hashtags #QAnon or #WWG1WGA — which stands for the Q catchphrase "where we go one, we go all."</span></font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600;">The bottom line: </span>Trust in U.S. institutions is dangerously low, which creates a ripe environment for big-tent conspiracies such as QAnon.</font></p><ul https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem" style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url("");"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"In some senses, the QAnon conspiracy is a deeply comfortable one: the idea that pedophile alien lizard people led by Hillary Clinton are running everything is more comfortable than the truth that no one has their hand firmly on the tiller,</span>” Zuckerman say</font></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[[ child molesters:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doh pizzagate/qanon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oddly // voter fraud, the gop decry it but only ones doing it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: anti-semitism is root of conspiracy (right behind masons and the Bavarian Illuinati see idiot Am bk), blood libel xian babies drink blood; 60 min ripoff To Catch a Predator basically sting, proto Reality TV?  also Internet new scary thing; child molesters routinely killed in prison by murderers and rapists?  Maybe since the list of RW and televangelists crimes and sins so long, they have to prove THEY enemy Dems/infidels are worse.  lack of proof is proof [meadows on voter fraud]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roman catholic fail; oddly both a reaL THING and a delusion? // urban legend, a new thing we fear;  helicopter parents?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"gym" jordan</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">west wing: ~ pension plan only way to end career in in DC is a live boy or a dead woman; [don't lick the pages]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/jeffrey-epstein-showed-off-14-year-old-victim-to-trump-at-mar-a-lago-lawsuit/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Epstein showed off 14-year-old victim to Trump at Mar-a-Lago: lawsuit</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/brad-reed/" title="Posts by Brad Reed" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Brad Reed</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Raw Story</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);">August 17, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new lawsuit claims that late alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein brought one of his victims to see President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort when she was just 14 years…[el moz pref 12 yo]</font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/20? trump wishes female enabler well</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/rachel-maddow-details-the-disturbing-new-ruling-against-trumps-labor-secretary-in-the-case-of-an-alleged-billionaire-child-molester/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/rachel-maddow-details-the-disturbing-new-ruling-against-trumps-labor-secretary-in-the-case-of-an-alleged-billionaire-child-molester/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/jim-jordan-dennis-hastert-ohio-state-alleged-sexual-abuse-bill-maher-1472204"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.newsweek.com/jim-jordan-dennis-hastert-ohio-state-alleged-sexual-abuse-bill-maher-1472204</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx pix</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>U.S.</div><div><b>Bill Maher Compares GOP Congressman Jim Jordan to Dennis Hastert Amid Sex Abuse allegations...]]</b></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha/doh see novels! = STORY </b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> BLM 1619 Project invite a questioning of am exceptionalism/chosen by God to spread freedom vs colonial/racist/PIC</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/white-evangelicalism-is-in-decline-and-qanon-could-take-its-place/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/white-evangelicalism-is-in-decline-and-qanon-could-take-its-place/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember the “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2002/07/29/left_behind/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Left Behind</a>” series [<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">story]</span>, about how the Rapture would whisk away all devout right-wing Christians before Jesus Christ unleashed the apocalypse on the unbelievers? <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/how_i_left_the_purity_movement/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Purity rings</a>? <a href="https://www.salon.com/2006/09/21/btm_80/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jesus Camp</a>? Breathless stories about “<a href="https://www.npr.org/books/titles/138291150/girls-gone-mild-young-women-reclaim-self-respect-and-find-its-not-bad-to-be-good" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">girls gone mild</a>,” giving up sex and tank tops for the Lord? A federal health official <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2006/11/eric-keroack-the-new-bush-hhs-appointee.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">who believed that women who had premarital sex couldn’t feel love</a>? Jerry Falwell Sr. and Pat Robertson <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121322&page=1" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">blaming 9/11</a> on the “pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way”?</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There can be no doubt that the heyday of Christian fundamentalism in America was the George W. Bush administration. Conservatives craved reassurance that they were defenders of “morality”, despite supporting an indefensible invasion of Iraq <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/20/15-years-after-it-began-the-death-toll-from-the-iraq-war-is-still-murky/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands</a></b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> These claims to moral superiority over liberals mainly came in the form of policing hymen status, harassing women at abortion clinics and claiming a right to Christian forgiveness (for yourself) when<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senator-caught-in-dc-madam-scandal/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> caught with prostitutes</a> or <a href="https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/special-reports/larry-craig/article40685193.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">soliciting gay sex in public bathrooms</a>.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>White evangelicals still hold considerable political power, which is why Donald Trump occasionally tries to get photographed fondling a Bible in ways he vainly hopes are convincing. Abortion and LGBTQ rights are still under serious threat, as the Christian right has made major inroads into the federal judicia</b>ry.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Perversely, however, the cultural power of white evangelicals is clearly fading, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/09/11/white-christians-are-now-a-minority-but-theyre-getting-more-isolated-and-less-tolerant/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">both in terms of numbers</a> and relevance, and that process started long before <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/11/jerry-falwell-jr-is-the-true-face-of-white-evangelicals--and-dumping-him-changes-nothing/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr.’s name </a>was ever associated with a “pool boy.” Bibles have been largely replaced with Pepe the Frog memes. Public prayer has given way, among right-wingers, to chants of “Lock her up.” You hardly hear anyone on <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/waiting-till-the-wedding-night-getting-married-the-right-way" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Fox News these days talking up premarital abstinence</a> anymore. They’re too busy arguing that it’s no big deal that <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/fox-doesnt-know-how-react-giulianis-stormy-daniels-bombshell" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump has routinely cheated on his wives,</a> or that it’s “pearl-clutching” to be angry that <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/foxs-media-criticism-show-claims-other-reporters-are-overplaying-trump-tapes" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">he has bragged about committing sexual assault</a></span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">white evangelicalism is in decline, but another movement is rising to take its place, a movement that scratches that same right-wing itch towards false piety and elaborate tribalist mythologies that are incomprehensible to outsiders: QAnon.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yes, QAnon, the bizarre paranoid conspiracy theory that holds (more or less) that behind the scenes of observable reality lies a shadowy worldwide pedophile ring run by Democrats and prominent celebrities, and that <b>Trump’s bizarre and self-serving authoritarian behavior is actually an elaborate ruse to hide his secret fight to destroy this elite child-abuse conspiracy.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QAnon has grown rapidly since it first emerged in 2017, morphing from an online conspiracy theory to an<b> explosive political and cultural phenomenon, one that can probably be considered a cult — although it lacks leaders in any conventional sense</b>. While there hasn’t been systematic research into how many Americans are QAnoners, an <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NBC News study earlier this month <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-groups-have-millions-members-facebook-documents-show-n1236317" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">discovered that QAnon accounts on Facebook have more than 3 million followers</a>.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An estimated <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-is-qanon-how-the-conspiracy-theory-gained-traction-in-2020-campaign" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">20 QAnon adherents are running for congressional office</a> this year. One of them, Marjorie Taylor Greene, just won a primary race for the Republican nomination in a Georgia district that is nearly certain to go red in November, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/12/trump-says-qanon-supporter-condemned-by-gop-leaders-for-racist-videos-is-future-republican-star/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">i</a>n a landslide that suggests, at the very least, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/12/trump-says-qanon-supporter-condemned-by-gop-leaders-for-racist-videos-is-future-republican-star/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">that her wacky beliefs didn’t scare off Republican voters</a>. <b>While some Republicans have publicly expressed reservations about Greene — who has apparently made racist comments and used sexist slurs — Donald Trump just called her a “future Republican Star”.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s a measure of our bizarre political climate that the Trump campaign sees QAnon as the future, but it’s hardly a surprise. Trump hasn’t been shy about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-trump-campaign-came-to-court-qanon-the-online-conspiracy-movement-identified-by-the-fbi-as-a-violent-threat/2020/08/01/dd0ea9b4-d1d4-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">courting QAnon</a> followers, frequently <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/12/trump-tweeting-qanon-followers-357238" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">retweeting its adherents</a> (while later suggesting he doesn’t know much about it). But this public endorsement of a QAnon candidate brings the public embrace of the movement to the next level. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-campaign-marjorie-greene-kinzinger" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump’s campaign is publicly attacking</a> at least one Republican congressman who committed the sin of criticizing QAnon, with Trump’s deputy communications director arguing that the “real” conspiracy theory is the Russian collusion story. (<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/02/as-russian-bounty-scandal-unfolds-remember-this-robert-mueller-found-plenty-of-collusion/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">That’s actually true</a>, even if Team Trump has the story upside down.)</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As ridiculous as all of this is — in the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/22/trump-on-alleged-abuser-ghislaine-maxwell-ive-met-her-numerous-times-and-i-wish-her-well/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">real world, Trump has wished accused child-sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell “well,”</a> and has shown no particular interest in the issue </span>— the rise of QAnon as a more secular replacement for evangelical Christianity makes a lot of sense.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>By claiming to pursue a crusade against the sexual abuse of children, QAnon gives its adherents a feeling of self-righteousness, one that allows them to ignore the reality that they support a deeply immoral and sociopathic president who is <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-postal-service-usps-mail-in-voting_n_5f3537a9c5b64cc99fe32d58" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">bragging about his efforts to steal the November election</a>, and whose malicious mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has destroyed our economy and led to 166,000 deaths and millions of damaged lives</b>. It lets them construct a story where they’re the good guys who oppose sexual exploitation, when in fact they are fiercely loyal to a man who <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-running-list-of-the-women-whove-accused-donald-trump-of-sexual-misconduct_n_57ffae1fe4b0162c043a7212" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has been credibly accused of sexual assault by two dozen women</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Evangelical Christianity played the same role for conservatives in the pre-Trump years, letting them feel holy and moral despite openly backing politicians who promoted immoral policies</b>. But it came with a bunch of downsides, like being made to feel guilty for premarital sex, divorce or even (as Falwell Jr. found out) drinking and partying. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With QAnon, you get to sleep in on Sunday and have all the sex you like, without giving up that pious assertion of moral superiority or the presumption of secret knowledge.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>QAnon even swipes a central tactic from the Christian right: Focusing its concern on imaginary threats to children, while ignoring the very real threat to children (and everyone else) posed by their beliefs and actions.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>With the Christian right, it’s all about melodramatic appeals that abortion supposedly “kills babies,” rhetoric that allows them to feel righteous while they undermine the services — social welfare, health care, housing and education — that allow parents to raise actual living children in safe, healthy environments</b>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">QAnon claims to be fighting for children, but the child sex-trafficking victims they speak for are exclusively in their heads. In fact, QAnoners not only ignore the real cases of sex trafficking that exist, which have nothing to do with their conspiracy theory, but <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/technology/qanon-save-the-children-trafficking.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">get in the way of activists who fight the real problem </a>by clogging up phone lines, confusing their fundraising efforts, and interfering with social media campaigns. </b>And they certainly don’t give a damn about the real-life children that Donald Trump <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/17/family-separation-under-trump-administration-timeline" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">separated from their parents</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p06bfvpc/44518942" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">stuffed in cages along the border</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Embracing ridiculous beliefs, whether in the Rapture or in Pizzagate, seems to be a part of American right-wing DNA, perhaps because <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">wild fantasies</span> are the only way they can distract themselves from the real evil they do in the world. </b>In light of that, the rise of QAnon makes sense. It’s the perfect mechanism, in Trump’s America, for conservatives<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> to tell themselves a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">story about how they’re<b> noble warriors for truth and justice in the face of overwhelming evidence that they’re not.</b></span><b> Hardly anyone likes to face the genuinely bad things they’ve done, and QAnon provides Trump-loving conservatives a fable to justify all their dreadful choices.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>---</b></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha? turner d </b>is a compensatory fable for powerlessness (ppl will not buy racism/ anti-semite) but a fantasy about triggering a cascade effect, notion that popularity of their ideas/power is latent and must be catalyzed [cataclysm? =  orgasmic climax? an orgy of violence when others/they will be put in their lower place or obliterated but also a blueprint. who is the hero?  takes action/command in the name of? by right of?]</font></div><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha /yikes</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">does a factual basis for a bigger lie disable fact check capability eg this on twitter?  rhet: note slippage : the flag and bible are sacred (and conflated, see dovetails) but they are objects/property, but their destruction is violence, destruction/desecration; thus the enemy is evil, irrational, cannot be reasoned with so force is essential; plus kirk sez war on US/XIAN by new bogeyman (who are btw the old one, commies extremist/radicals)</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">escalator, activ meas WT/WE as crossover</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="outline: none;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/how-trump-is-once-again-colluding-with-russia/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/how-trump-is-once-again-colluding-with-russia/</a></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">how  Trump is once again colluding with Russia</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly August 14, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost two weeks ago, a story circulated that Portland protesters were burning Bibles and American flags. It spread via social media and was picked up by conservative outlets, such as the Washington Examiner. Of course, several Republican leaders joined the bandwagon.</font></b></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DOUBT CORROLLORY: DELAY IS A WIN  SEE FALLBACKS:</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>1) it's not real</div><div>
</div><div>2) it's real but just natural variation (sunspots, medieval ice age...)</div><div>
</div><div>3) it's real and human caused, but too expensive to fix (wreck economy)</div><div>
</div><div>3a) Lomborg: more efficient to do Y  (or do evil in the guise/name of green: frack, nuke)</div><div>
</div><div>3b: wheeler many decades out, 3rd world clean water (ignores that coal poisons am water/kids, coal ash, arsenic...)</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>see lomborg shuffle (clintel covid fight covid not carbon) ALSO SHILLENBERGER</div><div>
</div><div>820 aha: this is variant last stage of fallback strategy: 1) not real  2) real but not anthro  3)  agw but too expensive to fix (wreck gnp) 4: we can afford to fix it, but we must be smart/targeted w/ $  4a we cvan't really afford to fix big global warming, but we can do smaller green humanitarian stuff [WHEELER CLEAN WATER IN 3RD WORLD] that will make some ppl's lives better and might let us move incrementally to fix climate [and BTW the worst effect/chaos in in far future if ever]</div><div>=</div><div>evil crypto because to promotes denial IN THE NAME OF  humanitarianism/ EJ when in fact poor POC in 3rd world will bhe hit 1st and worst, and have least ability to cope and made least contribution to the problem</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha-ish:  Bannon promoted djt as disruptor, the system is sick/rigged so he will blow it up and give us something better; he will fight your enemies (the chinese, the godless commies/boomers, drain the swamp, restore American prode/dominance [coal mfg]; relatd to throw the bums out they are all crooks?  What do trumpistas think the swamp is?  they atre fine with crony capitalism b/c bizmen are tough minded, numbers-based tough realists who will bwe efficient and stop wasting our tax money on losers/POC lazy welfare queens.  so we should not be surprised when system crashes, because trump ppl know nothing, and are grifter rent-seekers.  all they know about gov't is how to leech off it and dump their messes on it. short term / self-ish thinking: how do I/the books look good for next qtr (or for trump the next news cycle, which is 12 hours?!)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">as someone else recently observed (burn dwn hs gingrich?) gop has built in political/rhet advantage b/c willing to crash the system to maintain power. (gives them leverage in negot? BUT lost votes in gov't shutdowns?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-derangement-syndrome-those-of-us-who-warned-america-that-fascism-was-coming-were-called-hysterical-alarmists-we-were-right-all-along/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-derangement-syndrome-those-of-us-who-warned-america-that-fascism-was-coming-were-called-hysterical-alarmists-we-were-right-all-along/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Do <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">you remember “</span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/01/08/you-have-been-warned-trump-derangement-syndrome-will-be-a-cudgel-used-to-silence-his-critics/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump Derangement Syndrome</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">?”</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was a cute phrase that likely first appeared in 2015, deployed by prominent voices across the political spectrum to demean, mock, reject, dismiss and deflect the warnings that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/23/ruth-ben-ghiat-on-trump-and-the-bitter-american-truth-we-do-not-have-a-real-democracy/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Donald Trump was a fascist, an authoritarian and a white supremacist</a>, not to mention a vile and dangerous human being with <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/31/dr-justin-frank-it-is-terrifying-to-have-a-president-who-is-psychotic/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">apparent mental pathologies</a> who posed a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/03/trump-is-getting-truly-desperate--and-that-means-hes-increasingly-dangerous/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">massive threat to American democracy</a>....</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Do you remember “Trump Derangement Syndrome?”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It was a cute phrase that likely first appeared in 2015, deployed by prominent voices across the political spectrum to demean, mock, reject, dismiss and deflect the warnings that Donald Trump was a fascist, an authoritarian and a white supremacist, not to mention a vile and dangerous human being with apparent mental pathologies who posed a massive threat to American democracy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Such truth-telling patriots were called “hysterical” and “alarmist,” or told they were “out of touch” and overly “bitter” about Hillary Clinton’s defeat thanks to the antiquated mechanism of the Electoral College and Russian interference. Those who first raised the alarm about Trumpism as a new version of fascism were also assured that ” the institutions were strong” and fascism could never take hold in America — and most certainly not in the form of a proudly ignorant wrestling-heel wannabe and reality-TV huckster.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">When Trump won the presidential election in 2016, there were some on the left eager to dance on Hillary Clinton’s grave. A few even gave Trump the totally unearned benefit of the doubt: He claimed to oppose globalization, neoliberalism and “endless war,” and to speak for the “white working class”.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Centrist Democrats and the so-called mainstream American news media also rejected the existential threat to democracy that Trump represented. They convinced themselves, over and over, that the supposed power and gravity of the office would normalize and mature him. He was a “businessman” and a “pragmatist” eager to make deals, not an ideologue — so why worry? Trump was “brash” and “unconventional,” but America’s political institutions were strong.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The stenographers of current events and the other hope-peddlers, with their horse-race journalism, false equivalence “both-sides-ism” and obsession with meaningless controversies would not let themselves see the truth of Trump’s danger or that of his neo-fascist movement</b>. To admit the truth about Trump would mean that the old habits of writing and thinking about American politics are obsolete. Moreover, such an admission would demand speaking truth to power in a way that many members of the mainstream news media, specifically, are too afraid to, for both professional and personal reasons.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republicans and other members of the Trump movement used “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to bully their critics into silence. The American right celebrated drinking “liberal tears” and loved the way Trump’s victory had made Democrats and so-called progressives go “crazy.”[// to the fed art'l that mollie h etc do not defend djt cos can't but own the libs/ hit bogey[wo]men]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Trump Derangement Syndrome is weaponized language in the same vein as the myth of the “liberal media.</b>” Both lies put Democrats and the mainstream news media on the defense. While the American right and the Republican Party (and now Trump’s neo-fascist movement) drag the issue-space further and further to the right — and have done so for decades — the “liberal media” tries to find an imaginary balance by presenting right-wing extremism as somehow a “reasonable” alternative point of view.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Trump Derangement Syndrome was also a smokescreen for Donald Trump’s wild success in advancing the agenda of the plutocrats, gangster capitalists, Christian nationalists and “Dominionists” — as well as overt white supremacists — in destroying the very idea of government itself as well as American multiracial democracy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Of course, it was not Donald Trump’s most vocal critics who were “deranged” but his followers, enablers and allies. As I explained in January 2017, shortly before his inauguration:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is not those who oppose Trump who are deranged, but rather those voters who convinced themselves that a plutocrat authoritarian reality TV star con man and professional wrestler wannabe with no experience in government at any level was qualified to be president of the United States.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This is America’s great national derangement. Those who stand against and oppose Donald Trump are patriots who are trying to return the country to sanity.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Now, some three months away from another Election Day, Donald Trump has finally arrived at the moment which those of us who were slurred as “hysterical” and “alarmist” have warned about for more than five years.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Last Thursday, Trump issued this now-infamous tweet:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Delay the Election</b> until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? [// muslim ban "whAT'S GOIng on" = agenda/ deep state]</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That same afternoon, when questioned about Trump’s threats to interfere with the 2020 election, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.S. Senate: “In the end, the Department of Justice and others will make that legal determination.” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is not true. The Department of Justice and the president possess no legitimate authority to delay or cancel a federal election.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Later in the day, Trump continued to work from the authoritarian’s playbook, attempting to pivot away from his earlier statements. During a White House press event, Trump said:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Do I want to see a date change? No. But I don’t want to see a crooked election.  </font><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">What will happen in November – it’s a mess. I want a result much more than you… I don’t want to be waiting around for weeks and months.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This is a familiar strategy in which the authoritarian challenges norms and boundaries by floating trial balloons and then pretends to change his mind as a way to make the heretofore-unthinkable into something acceptable.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump’s most recent threats are but another crescendo in he and his servants’ efforts to subvert and eventually overturn secular multiracial democracy and the rule of law in America.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Only weeks ago Trump began deploying his own <b>personal secret police force</b>, hoping to enforce his will by suppressing dissent and free speech in Democratic-led cities all over the United States. The events in Portland, Oregon, are but a prelude to Trump’s national terrordome.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump’s own personal secret police force along with his <b>civilian “watchdogs,</b>” may well be used to intimidate Democratic voters on Election Day and beyond. Trump has repeatedly asked hostile foreign countries to interfere in the 2020 presidential election on his behalf. He was impeached for doing just that with his attempt to blackmail the government of Ukraine to launch a phony investigation of Joe Biden.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump continues to threaten senior Democratic leaders, including Biden, Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others with</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> treason </b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">charges, potential imprisonment and perhaps even execution.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Former national security adviser John Bolton’s recent book includes details of Trump’s lurid fantasies about having journalists killed. According to Bolton, Trump supports imprisoning his “enemies” in concentration camps — something he is already doing with brown and Black migrants and refugees from Latin America, the Caribbean and other parts of the nonwhite world.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Donald Trump, has repeated his threats, ever since the 2016 campaign, that he will not respect the will of the American people if he loses a presidential election.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In sum, Donald Trump is not pretending. None of this is a game. He is a neo-fascist. Such observations and warnings are not hysterical. They are plain observations based on a consensus of the available facts.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"> [also he can be prosecuted, just today info DA new charges?]</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained in a 2017 essay at The Washington Post:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The strongman knows that it starts with words. He uses them early on to test out his plans to expand and personalize executive power on political elites, the press and the public, watching their reaction</b>s as they arrange into the timeless categories of allies, enemies and those who help him by remaining silent. Some say the strongman is all bluster, but he takes words seriously, including the issue of which ones should be banned.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Now what to do?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In a perfect and just world, the hope peddlers, professional centrists, stenographers of current events and others who maintain the boundaries of approved public discourse in America would go to the public square, prostrate themselves before the world and then beg forgiveness for how they, for years and by various means, empowered Donald Trump.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That will not happen. Instead, such voices will proclaim that they were sounding the alarm about Donald Trump years ago and are the real vanguard defenders of American democracy. In reality, such voices were enablers, far behind the truth if not actively running away it. They are now trying to position themselves on the correct side of history because their shame and failure to protect America from Donald Trump and his neo-fascist movement are so great.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the weeks remaining before Election Day — which will certainly not be “free and fair” and when Trump’s machinations will be at their most extreme — the mainstream news media and the<b> American people must internalize the fact that the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution mean little for Trump and his regime</b>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hopeful claims — or delusions — that the Constitution and state laws dictate the rules of Election Day must be viewed with extreme cynicism. Trump and his enforcers are not restrained by such arcane conventions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If there is indeed an election on Nov. 3, Americans mUst vote against Trump in overwhelming numbers in order to force him to step down. Unless Donald Trump is convincingly vanquished at the polls, he will find some way to stay in office.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>If Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr try to cancel the presidential election or interfere with it in any other way, Americans must take to the streets and engage in corporeal politics — including a national strike and other plans to disrupt day-to-day life and “business as usual” — on a scale so large that they make the George Floyd people’s uprising look like a PTA meeting.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ultimately, those of us who warned the American people for years, sometimes on a daily basis, about this Mad King and would-be tyrant take no joy from saying, We told you so. There is no satisfaction in being correct about such a horrible thing.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On this point,<b> Jared Yates Sexton, author of “American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People,</b>” wrote last Thursday on Twitter:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Those of us warning that Trump is an authoritarian capable of destroying democracy haven’t been doing it for profit or attention or out of unwarranted alarmism. None of this is hard to predict. They don’t hide it at all. Stop expecting everything to be fine because “America.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To watch American democracy, fall so ill so fast, and now to be on the verge of collapse — when such a thing could have been so easily prevented — is a world historical tragedy. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">SYSTEM CRASH economy, health care sys?!</span></b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha rw pundits have an almost perfect record of being wrong [cleese Tetlock 284?], yet somehow paul Ehrlich gets to be poster boy punching bag for inaccurate prediction (did not help he lost long bet).  Club of Rome? greens get tarred with that brush.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">common ploy / complaint is that left is rooting for catastrophe (motive?  if capitalist system crashes we get to build a better one? We hate America and thus want it to fail for pure spite?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">related to alarmist Alare Scare chemophobia, manly stoic clear-eyes scientists and engineers are not scared b/c they see reality and are masters of the physical universe. eg nuclear power</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Relates to to American Exceptionalism: we are not bound by rules/history, if we run out of X we'll just use Y (or as in peak oil, frack our way out).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">example</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/04/judicial-watch-lawsuit-seeks-obama-white-house-records-controversial-global-warming/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nationalreview.com/<b>2017/04/</b>judicial-watch-lawsuit-seeks-obama-white-house-records-controversial-global-warming/</font></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span class="article-header__subtitle" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.52381; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> former scientist at the NOAA has exposed a shoddy report on global warming. Judicial Watch is suing to learn more.</font></span><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="drop" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 84px; vertical-align: baseline; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">following allegations of impropriety over the handling of a controversial climate change report, a government watchdog group now wants to know whether there was any collaboration between the report’s lead author and a key Obama adviser.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> On March 27, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Judicial Watch </em>filed a lawsuit seeking “all records of communications between a pair of federal scientists who heavily influenced the Obama administration’s climate change policy and its backing of the Paris Agreement.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The FOIA specifically requests correspondence between Tom Karl, the former head of the climate-data program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and John Holdren, the director of Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Holdren is from that species of Baby Boomer global catastrophists who make changing predictions each decade about how we will all die</span>. He also happens to be the science guy who had the president’s ear for eight years.</font></p></div></div></div><div><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: is Q an interdisc hub? // anti-mask? [vax, militia?] alt rt boogaloo? already had it as amplify/accelerate</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: gop/rt busted so many times for dark $/corruption that it needs whatabout so soros = kochs and actblue = dark $/scam</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">plus they need to neutralize blm demand for justice, and it's a scam than racism not real</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note chan origin then moves up escalator to dobbs</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=---</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6/20</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fake-news/debunked-conspiracy-theory-about-black-lives-matter-actblue-and-democrats-can-be-traced">https://www.mediamatters.org/fake-news/debunked-conspiracy-theory-about-black-lives-matter-actblue-and-democrats-can-be-traced</a></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many pix</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>A false money laundering conspiracy theory regarding the Black Lives Matter movement's use of a payment processing company for donations has gained traction online among right-wing figures and can be traced back to far-right message boards.</b></font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The conspiracy theory alleges that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is some kind of a front to launder money to Democrats because the BLM website uses ActBlue to process its online fundraising payments. ActBlue is a payment processor used widely by progressive groups and organizations affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party has an equivalent processing company called WinRed. As the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has noted, “many candidates use [ActBlue] to process donations but that money isn't pooled to be shared across candidates or groups,” and “a donation to BLM through ActBlue goes just to BLM, not any other group.” But the conspiracy theory still has earned well over a million shares and views on social media and has been amplified by a Fox Nation host.</font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A review by Media Matters found that before it gained traction, the conspiracy theory had been circulating for days on far-right message boards. The earliest mention our review found was at the beginning of June on Twitter, when an account that has pushed the slogan for th<b>e QAnon</b> conspiracy theory repeatedly tweeted the claim on June 1 and June 2. The account claimed it had sent the conspiracy theory to the FBI and President Donald Trump, and it urged the Ohio Police Department to investigate the claim.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@OneVoiceUS</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The conspiracy theory popped up days later on June 5 on TheDonald.win, a new forum for the subreddit “r/TheDonald,”</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> which was known for violent rhetoric and was ultimately quarantined by Reddit. On TheDonald.win, a user wrote that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“when you go to donate on the blacklivesmatter.com website,” you are redirected to ActBlue, which means entities “donating to Black Lives Matter are actually donating to ActBlue.” That means, the user wrote, that the donations may be “just going straight to fund the Democratic presidential campaign.” </span></font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The next day, another user on the forum wrote in a post that “BLM is a bait and switch fundraising scam” for the Democratic National Committee “by laundering money through Act Blue.</b>” The user urged others to “tell everyone you know.” This post gained more traction on the forum than the first one, which it directly referenced in the comments. Similar language made its way to Facebook minutes later.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Donald subreddit forum ActBlue1</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Over the next few days, the conspiracy theory also began circulating on 4chan’s “/pol/” message board, a known hotspot for white nationalists</b>, where users pointed to ActBlue to claim Black Lives Matter was “a fundraising apparatus” and a “slush fund” for Democrats. One 4chan user pushing the claim on June 8 used nearly the exact same language as the June 5 post from TheDonald.win.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4chan ActBlue claim</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The conspiracy theory also continued to circulate on TheDonald.win on June 8 and reached the subreddit “r/conservative,” where a user called Black Lives Matter a “money laundering scheme” for Democrats via ActBlue. That post was later shared in a YouTube video.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The following day, on June 9, The Gateway Pundit, a far-right blog that has a history of publishing misinformation, posted that the BLM site “appears to be an</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">international </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">money laundering scheme used by the Democrats to raise money from an international audience,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” claiming ActBlue appears to be “a funding arm of the DNC.” (The site’s owner Jim Hoft shared the post on Twitter, calling it an “exclusive.”) </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The post gave a “hat tip” to TheDonald.win for the claim. The post was picked up by multiple far-right figures, including by a QAnon-supporting former congressional candidate on Twitter, another QAnon Twitter account with a major following who keeps evading his Twitter ban, and by troll<b> Milo Yiannopoulos on Telegram.</b></span></font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gateway Pundit ActBlue claim</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On June 10, right-wing pundit Candace Owens quote-tweeted an Instagram video pushing the conspiracy theory and accused Black Lives Matters of being a “shell company” for Democrats via ActBlue </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(Owens also posted the video on Instagram, where it received well over a million views). </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Minutes later, “Q,” the central entity of the QAnon conspiracy theory, posted a link to Owens’ tweet on 8kun’s “/qresearch/” message board. Owens’ post has been retweeted more than 64,000 times so far.</span></font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Candace Owens ActBlue claim</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Following Owens’ post, the conspiracy theory began spreading to other conservative figures, such as Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch; a Florida Republican congressional candidate who has given credence to<b> QAnon</b>;</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier (who, like Owens, incorrectly called ActBlue a “Democrat super PAC”); Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk; and former editor-in-chief of Breitbart’s London bureau Raheem Kassam.</font></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Additionally, two major conservative TikTok accounts,</b> @therepublicanhypehouse and @conservativehypehouse, both posted videos pushing the conspiracy theory, getting more than 370,000 views combined (even though TikTok has an anti-misinformation policy).</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The conspiracy theory also apparently reached Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren,</b> who has a history of pushing claims from message boards. She tweeted, “When you donate to BLM you’re donating to the Dems.”</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tomi Lahren ActBlue claim</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These tweets and videos combined have gotten hundreds of thousands of shares and views and have amplified the conspiracy theory far beyond fringe message boards.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">720</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: trump utter fail on covid. numbers scary and undeniable (tho they try to suppress by route to DHS, swat secret police];</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BLM not really subsiding, and they need it a bogeyman so trump can do Nixonian Law and Order scam; cruel irony/paradox is trump/libtards unable or unwilling to govern, so crash/crisis then gives cover for I alone am strong man who can deal with these commie degenerates who hate aMerica. [tho so far just kick blame to states [tho kemp under the bus on covid mask lawsuit?]</font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">yes i am a vulgar bigot, but look at the stock mkt! and corp tax cut, dereg] but he can't depend on corp dark money to buy election [esp if zuck cuts ads]  thus he needs the economy to re-open, which means he needs schools open (for child care?) so willing to kill kids?! no rallies (basis of ego boost, proof of popularity/thus legit // inaug crowd BS, pix of trumpistas will be on TV and soc med]</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">one of 4 horses, related to all but esp militarization, esp on climate refugee; note sublethal used on nat aM dapl remote ppl of color now pepperball explodes to head of activist, press lost eye?  state of exception/margin periphery comes to Portland</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">yikes primary 7/20 portland secret police</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">combo of militarization and criminalization</span> (of undoc immigrant, periphery, then sanctuary city, BLM ACTIVIST AND PRESS SUB-LETHAL WEAPONS)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">why did portland get hit 1st by secret police vs seattle autonomous zone?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington enacted a measure in June 2019 in favor of sanctuary cities, similar to California and Oregon laws which are among the strongest statewide mandates in the nation.<sup id="cite_ref-186" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-186" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[186]</a></sup></font></font></font></p><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" style="list-style-image: url("");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle" title="Seattle" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Seattle</a><sup id="cite_ref-187" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-187" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[187]</a></sup></font></font></font></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: the original and most durable conspiracy theory?  anything not white, male and xian is suspect/inferior?  i forgot anti-sem in phobia ~ PC intersectional</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/how-donald-trump-will-try-to-scapegoat-george-soros-to-win-re-election/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/how-donald-trump-will-try-to-scapegoat-george-soros-to-win-re-election/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> no lnx twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How Donald Trump will try to scapegoat George Soros to win re-election</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by The Conversation July 16, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Neil McLaughlin, McMaster University and Iga Mergler, McMaster University</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When future scholars write the history of the administration of Donald Trump, he may end up being called — among many other things — the conspiracy theorist president. Trump famously began his ascent to power with the false and racist “birther” claim that Barack Obama was not really an American.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump and his followers have also legitimized bizarre conspiracy theories against Hungarian American financier and philanthropist George Soros. It now appears continued attacks toward Soros will be a part of the president’s re-election campaign.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Soros has been a punching bag for authoritarians, anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists around the world since 1992, when he became famous as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” by making more than US$1 billion by “shorting” the British pound.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Born in Budapest in 1930, Soros barely survived the destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis. Living in New York City since 1956, he has combined a long career as a successful capitalist while doing philanthropy under the banner of his Open Society Foundations</span>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anti-Semitic attacks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Attacks on Soros have circulated on the margins of mainstream politics for years, tinged with anti-Semitism and fuelled by half-truths and outright lies. Russia has always been at the heart of anti-Soros propaganda, and it’s now joined by China in promoting attacks, distortions and lies. Over the last few years, these conspiracies have entered mainstream debate in Hungary, Poland, Brazil and the United States.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump movement attempted to scapegoat Soros as part of its Make America Great Again rhetoric. Trump supporters accused Soros, among other things, of supporting the caravan of migrants attempting to enter the United States from Central America, being behind the attacks on Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination (a falsehood Trump himself tweeted about) and promoting an elitist globalist agenda that undermined American jobs and culture.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Most incredibly, in recent weeks Soros has been accused of <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">paying Black Lives Matter protesters</span> who demonstrated across the United States after the police killing of George Floyd.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has major liabilities in his quest for re-election: his incompetent handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his polarizing opposition to protesters after the Floyd killing and the decline of the U.S. economy since the outbreak of COVID-19. Loss of support among suburban white women, members of the military elite and moderate Republicans are now a threat to his electoral prospects.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attacking Soros part of the plan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Attacking China, stoking nationalist resentments, uncritically defending the police, claiming economic competence and bashing Joe Biden will be Trump’s major electoral strategy. But Republican attacks on Soros are also likely to circulate widely until the election.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soros is a perfect foil to try to convince people that Trump stands for the average American. What better scapegoat than a wealthy, uber-liberal currency speculator who helped fund Obama and Hillary Clinton, supports abortion, gay and trans rights and gives generously to the electoral campaigns of liberal public defenders and prosecutors? In Trumpist rhetoric, Soros is soft on crime and promotes the values of cultural liberalism and global elites over the average American. [HE'S ALSO THE WHATABOUTISM CORP OLIGARCH FOR KOCH BOROS; I'M NOT CORRUPT YOU'RE CORRUPT KNEE-JERK REFLEXIVE ST'D MOVE</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soros’s history of supporting Palestinian rights and calling for a negotiated peace settlement created an opportunity for the White House to exploit. Rhetoric about big finance linked to a “globalist” Jewish philanthropist understandably concerns Jewish voters and others opposed to anti-Semitism, but anti-Soros rhetoric can unify evangelical Christian Zionists, pro-Israel Republicans, interventionist neo-conservatives and far-right extremists.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attacking Soros is also part of a Trumpist appeal to conservative Black voters, now being led Candace Owens, a young media figure and Republican activist.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Owens spreads paranoia</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Prone to gaffes that expose her ignorance about history and politics, Owens has gained a massive online presence among far right-wing Trump supporters by directly challenging the mainstream Democratic Party narrative on racism, police violence and poverty in America. She’s also attacked George Floyd’s character. What’s more, Owens has spread anti-Soros paranoia online, giving it a cooler, hipper and younger flavour.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The core of the Trumpist scapegoating of Soros is an attempt to blame Soros for the Black Lives Matter protests and calls for defunding the police. The lie that Soros is paying for the protests that have swept through the United States and is promoting riots is deeply corrosive to American democracy.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Conspiracy theories work best when lies, exaggerations and paranoia are linked to real things in the world that can b</span>e <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">distorted by spin. Soros’s recent pledge of US$220 million to support civil rights and racial equality groups like Black Voters Matter will add fuel to extremist fire.</span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fox News host Tucker Carlson will play a major role in all this.</b> During a recent segment on his show, former Missouri governor Eric Greitens attempted to link Soros to anti-police violence and made reference to a “George Soros-funded prosecutor” involved in the case of the couple in St. Louis who stood in front of their house with guns while anti-racism protesters marched on their street.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None of this is likely to save Trump from going down to an electoral defeat in November. While there are legitimate criticisms to be made of the role of billionaires like Soros in politics and economic life, the divisiveness of anti-Soros paranoia will take years to repair.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Conversation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neil McLaughlin, Professor of Sociology, McMaster University and Iga Mergler, PhD Candidate in Sociology,, McMaster University</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha pseudo-populism trashes expertise (of science and gubmint), free mkt says all gov't inept, the only real expert is pvt biz/accounting consultant, which lead to more hollowing out: mck wants to keep all data propietary so can sell to mult gov't agy, HENCE EXTRACTION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">death spiral, pro pub 720:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given that McKinsey consultants operate as advisers, with government officials charged with making final decisions, it can be hard to identify the firm’s responsibility for any given decision. But the firm’s government work has been steadily rising in the wake of a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> multidecade hollowing out of government (a trend McKinsey has promoted and ridden). </span>Today, that increasingly means that if you examine the government’s response to the pandemic, you’re likely to find McKinsey’s fingerprints.</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></font></font></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">aha recall that someone desmog? said plastic is the next big revenue stream for frack/fossil fuels, so must be defended and blk ppl get cancer collateral damage?</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">T<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">WO LEADERS OF</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">the long-running fight for environmental justice in Louisiana turned themselves in to police in Baton Rouge Thursday morning. <b>The activists, who work in a part of the state known as “Cancer Alley,” faced charges of “terrorizing” related to a nonviolent protest action.</b> Civil liberties attorneys are calling the charges a dramatic escalation of a yearslong effort by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/27/pipeline-safety-legislation/" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">criminalize efforts</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">to halt the expansion of polluting facilities in the state — part of a nationwide trend of</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/07/pipeline-petrochemical-lobbying-group-anti-protest-law/" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cracking down</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">on dissent around climate change issues.</span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">
</span></font></font></font></div><div data-reactid="216" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The accusations against the activists, Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, stem from a seemingly innocuous activist stunt carried out in December, the day after a festival designed to draw attention to the environmental misdeeds of Formosa Plastics. The Taiwanese petrochemical company plans to build a massive plastics manufacturing complex in a largely Black Louisiana community that has already suffered health problems linked to local industry. In October, Formosa agreed to a $50 million settlement for dumping pollutants, including the small pellets that form the building blocks for plastic products known as nurdles, into Texas’s Lavaca Bay — the <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/stories/historic-pollution-settlement-to-nurdle-patrol.html#:_{:text=Formosa%20Plastics%20Corporation%20USA%20has,the%20federal%20Clean%20Water%20Act.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">largest</a> settlement of a Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by private citizens.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">with a key environmental permit still pending for Formosa in Louisiana, the action — dubbed “Nurdlefest” — was meant to pressure the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to scrutinize the company’s record. Boxes of the plastic pellets, used as evidence in the Texas case, were carted to the front of the agency, where around 75 people gathered in the rain.</span></font></font></p></div><div data-reactid="227" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What apparently terrorized community members, however, was a container of the pellets that appeared on the porch of an oil and gas lobbyist, with a detailed note attached, explaining what they were and their Texas origin. “We have delivered this package of nurdles as a reminder – Louisiana does not need anymore pollution, plastics or otherwise,” the letter said. “We demand that LDEQ DENY Formosa’s air emissions permit application.”</font></p></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: block; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[ltr doc   </span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Letter Included in "Nurdles" Package Sent by Louisiana Activists</span></font></a><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px; display: inline !important;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">]</font></span></a><a class="DocumentPreview" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="blank" data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: block; margin-bottom: 20px; max-height: 400px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 680px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
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margin-left: 90px; padding: 11px 13px 10px; line-height: 1.27273;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// 80's death squads</font></div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/greensboro_massacre_40th_anniversary">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/greensboro_massacre_40th_anniversary</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">take our country back from commies and nwords; willing to spill lots of bllod;  death to klan chant; undercover cop car, infromant took pix, communicate w/ FBI; no cops helped hurt (arrented those trying to help) 40 yrs ago</font></div><div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a data-ga-action="Home: Story Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/greensboro_massacre_40th_anniversary" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Remembering the Greensboro Massacre of 1979, When <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">KKK</span> & Nazis Killed 5 People in Broad Daylight</font></a></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/4/19 DN 2 trials all wht no convictions 5 kia 10 hurt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">undreds gathered this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of the Greensboro massacre, when 40 Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis opened fire on an anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five anti-racist activists in a span of 88 seconds. Those killed were members of the Communist Workers’ Party. Ten other activists were injured. No one was convicted in the massacre, but a jury did find the Greensboro police liable for cooperating with the Ku Klux Klan in a wrongful death. Local pastors in Greensboro are now calling on the City Council to issue an apology for the events that led to the 1979 killing. We speak with Dr. Marty Nathan, the widow of Dr. Mike Nathan, who was killed in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">only boo's in sotu ~ aoc US will never go socialist!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/here-is-a-recent-history-of-republicans-attacking-democrats-as-socialists-and-why-it-will-only-get-worse-in-the-months-ahead/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/here-is-a-recent-history-of-republicans-attacking-democrats-as-socialists-and-why-it-will-only-get-worse-in-the-months-ahead/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lx twit</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>During his 2019 State of the Union address earlier this month, President Donald Trump declared, “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.</b>” It was crude, cheap political theater designed to rally his far-right base, but Trump is hardly alone when it comes to using the word “socialist” to terrorize American voters—and hysterically attacking Democrats as “socialists” is likely to become even more prevalent in the months ahead.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><b>Equating liberalism with socialism is nothing new. In the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s critics often attacked the New Deal as “socialism” even though, truth be told, his reforms were designed to save capitalism from itself.</b> Even the fiercely anti-communist President Richard Nixon understood that in the 1970s, supporting elements of the New Deal and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. If anything, Nixon was so terrified of communism that he accepted a certain amount of “socialism” in order to avoid it. But the Republican Party of 2019 is so extreme that any belief at all in a social safety net is likely to be attacked as socialist.</div><div>
</div><div>On February 17, the New York Times’ Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported that according to<b> Rep. Tom Emmer, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), fear-mongering over “socialism” will be a prominent tool in the GOP playbook in 2020. </b>Stolberg tweeted, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“NEW: Inside look at the 2020 GOP playbook: Paint Democrats as socialists, baby-killers and anti-Semites. ‘Socialism is the greatest vulnerability by far that the House Democrats have,’ the NRCC chairman told me.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Responding to Stolberg on Twitter, Democratic operative Ronald A. Klain (who served as Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff) posted, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Republicans calling Democrats ‘socialists’ is not a new playbook—it’s their ONLY playbook. Jack Kemp called Al Gore a ‘socialist’ in their 1996 debate. The GOP called Obama’s economic plans ‘socialist.’ They called the ACA ‘socialism.’ DO NOT BE SCARED, DEMOCRATS!”</span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Sheryl Gay Stolberg</div><div>?</div><div>@SherylNYT</div><div> NEW: Inside look at the 2020 GOP playbook: Paint Democrats as socialists, baby-killers and anti-Semites. “Socialism is the greatest vulnerability by far that the House Democrats have,”  the NRCC chairman told me. https://nyti.ms/2Ef6Tc5 </div><div>
</div><div>837</div><div>1:49 PM - Feb 17, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>Some Republicans have seized on actions by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center left, and Rashida Tlaib, right, to cast them as radical or anti-Semitic.</div><div>Republicans Hope to Sway Voters With Labels That Demonize Democrats</div><div>With 21 months until Election Day 2020, Republicans are trying to paint Democrats as left-wing radicals on the economy, abortion and Israel.</div><div>
</div><div>nytimes.com</div><div>1,583 people are talking about this</div><div>
</div><div>Ronald Klain</div><div>?</div><div>@RonaldKlain</div><div> Republicans calling Democrats "socialists" is not a new playbook -- it's their ONLY playbook.  Jack Kemp called Al Gore a "socialist" in their 1996 debate.  The GOP called Obama's economic plans "socialist."  They called the ACA "socialism."  </div><div>
</div><div>DO NOT BE SCARED, DEMOCRATS!</div><div>
</div><div>Sheryl Gay Stolberg</div><div>?</div><div>@SherylNYT</div><div>NEW: Inside look at the 2020 GOP playbook: Paint Democrats as socialists, baby-killers and anti-Semites. “Socialism is the greatest vulnerability by far that the House Democrats have,”  the NRCC chairman told me. https://nyti.ms/2Ef6Tc5 </div><div>
</div><div>3,552</div><div>5:21 AM - Feb 18, 2019</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2018, many Republican candidates used the word “socialist” in the hope of frightening voters into supporting them. One was Sen. Ted Cruz, who stressed, “I am not remotely afraid to debate left-wing liberal socialists.” Texas Rep. Chip Roy compared his Democratic opponent, Joseph Kopser, to Karl Marx, and <b>former Texas Rep. Pete Sessions</b> insisted that Democratic challenger Collin Allred had “socialist ideas”—although it didn’t work for Sessions, who was voted out of office and lost his seat to Allred.</span></div><div>
</div><div>How well anti-socialist rhetoric will or won’t work for Republicans in the months to come depends a lot on the state, the area or the district where they’re running. Some Democrats or allies of Democrats were victorious in 2018 despite calling themselves “democratic socialists”—or perhaps even because of it, including Sen. Bernie Sanders in Vermont, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Queens and the Bronx, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan. <b>Context is crucial: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib are, in reality, FDR/LBJ capitalists who believe in a strong social safety net. But Republicans will distort their views, using them to terrorize their gullible voters.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Republicans have repeatedly used the word “socialist” to demonize the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare, even though it’s “universal health care via the private sector” model was influenced by the Heritage Foundation, Richard Nixon and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Modern-day Republicans will even attack GOP ideas as “socialist” when they believe it’s expedient.</div><div>
</div><div>In May 2018, right-wing author Paul Gottfried wrote a piece for the American Conservative that was highly critical of Democrats yet lambasted Republicans for tossing the word “socialist” around so carelessly. Gottfried is no fan of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s liberal/progressive policies but stressed that it’s silly to think she fits the definition of “orthodox Marxism.”</div><div>
</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gottfried wrote, “The U.S. is hardly on its way to becoming Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela, whatever the complaints one hears on Fox News. But we could easily slip into an up-to-date version of ‘antifascist’ Germany or Sweden.”</p><div class="p16_21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;">Agree or disagree with Gottfried’s criticisms of Warren—at least he’s intellectually honest enough to admit that she looks to Germany and Sweden for political inspiration, not Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela.</p><div class="p17_21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;">But Gottfried is a 77-year-old paleoconservative intellectual, not a Republican running for office in 2019 or 2020—and even if they know it’s disingenuous, that won’t stop Republicans from calling their opponents “socialists.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has denounced opponents of Trump’s proposed U.S./Mexico border wall as “<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/13/mcconnell_i_will_not_be_intimidated_by_open-borders_socialists_i_enjoyed_my_lunch.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">socialists who prefer open borders</a>,” and he will mindlessly repeat that over and over if he thinks it will save him from a GOP primary challenge next year.</p><div class="p18_21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Democratic victories of 2018 ranged from hardcore liberals like Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona. If Sinema were from the U.K., she would probably fit right in with the Conservative Party and run as a Tory. But in a <a href="https://www.nrsc.org/press-releases/democratic-socialism-puts-sinema-tough-spot-2018-07-23/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">July 23, 2018 press release</a> attacking Sinema, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) tried to paint Sinema as an example of the Democratic Party’s “full embrace of socialism”—which is idiotic. Full socialism is called communism, and Democrats are hardly promoting discredited Marxist-Leninist ideas such as abolition of all private property.</span></p><div class="p19_21" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But this is the type of nonsense that the GOP is promoting in the Trump era, and it will only get worse as the 2020 presidential election draws closer.</p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/time-for-the-ku-klux-klan-to-night-ride-again-alabama-newspaper-runs-repulsive-editorial-urging-the-kkk-to-target-democrats/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/time-for-the-ku-klux-klan-to-night-ride-again-alabama-newspaper-runs-repulsive-editorial-urging-the-kkk-to-target-democrats/</a></font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;">formerly respected said kpfa?</div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> February 14, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Democrat-Reporter</em>, a local newspaper in Linden, Alabama, ran a hideous editorial calling for the return of the KKK. On Monday, publisher Goodloe Sutton <a href="https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/02/18/alabama-newspaper-ku-klux-klan-to-night-ride-again-linden-democrat-reporter-goodloe-sutton/2910436002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">confirmed</a> that he was the author of the racist screed, according to the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montgomery Advertiser</em>.</font></p><div class="p1_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” wrote Sutton. “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama … this socialist-communist idealogy [sic] sounds good to the ignorant, the uneducated, and the simple minded people.”</b></font></p><div class="p2_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Slaves, just freed after the civil war, were not stupid. At times, they borrowed their former masters’ robes and horses and rode through the night to frighten some evil doer. Sometimes they had to kill one or two of them, but so what,” continued Sutton. “Seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities up there. They call them compounds now. Truly, they are the ruling class.”</font></p><div class="p3_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When confronted by the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Advertiser</em>, Sutton was completely unremorseful and actually doubled down, suggesting the KKK should start lynching people again.</font></p><div class="p4_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off,” said Sutton. “We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them.” The population of Washington, D.C. is <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/district-of-columbia-population/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">48 percent African-American</a>.</font></p><div class="p5_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not bad to lynch people in D.C., said Sutton, because “these are socialist-communists we’re talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?” The KKK, he added, “didn’t kill but a few people” and “wasn’t violent until they needed to be.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="text-align: center;">S</font><span style="text-align: center;">utton depicts the KKK as if they were just a bunch of economic populists sticking it to the man, supported by former slaves. In fact, they were quite the opposite</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span class="ILfuVd" style="text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">—</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">a</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">racial terrorist organization</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">founded in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War to intimidate newly freed slaves trying to exercise their civil rights.</span></font></p><div class="p7_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The KKK existed in <a href="https://www.wamegotimes.com/news/flint_hills/the-history-and-the-three-phases-of-the-ku-klux/article_dd66494c-6654-11e7-9e37-433e6502fdfe.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">three “phases”</a>. The <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/civil-war-era/reconstruction/a/the-first-kkk" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">first KKK</a> in the 1860s was a paramilitary group in the South that enforced white supremacy with murders and assaults; the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/second-klan/509468/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">second KKK</a> in the 1920s was a political movement of millions across the whole country that rallied to oppose (and often turned violent against) anything that wasn’t traditional, white, Protestant dominance of American culture; and the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">third KKK</a> in the 1960s arose to oppose the civil rights movement, and relied on firebombings of black churches and the homes of activists to spread fear. The KKK <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">continues to this day</a>, albeit as a few thousand scattered members of disjointed, often opposed groups.</font></p><div class="p8_9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American society had supposedly moved, if certainly not beyond <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/06/growing-up-black-in-america-racism-education" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">racism itself</a>, then at least beyond the expression of overt support for white supremacy. Unfortunately, as Sutton demonstrates, some people yearn for the days when racial terrorism was a constant and ever-present force.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">irrational obsession with hugo and raul?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">green is the new red spin?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">seriously? kneejerk autoresponse? "what about...?" scam?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://theconversation.com/green-baiting-lawmakers-are-accusing-environmentalists-of-doubling-as-foreign-agents-98924" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">https://theconversation.com/green-baiting-lawmakers-are-accusing-environmentalists-of-doubling-as-foreign-agents-98924</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">green-baiting</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two congressional committees led by prominent Republicans are looking into whether some U.S. <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/394303-republicans-target-green-groups-over-foreign-ties" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">environmental groups are acting on behalf of foreign countries</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NMtmNV0AAAAJ&hl=en" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">environmental lawyer and professor</a> with ample international experience, this probe troubles me. I’m concerned that these efforts may mark the start of an attack on free speech that discourages efforts to improve American environmental policies.</font></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The probe</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News of this investigation broke when <b>Rep. Rob Bishop, who chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Rep. Bruce Westerman, who leads the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, formally notified the Natural Resources Defense Council of their concerns in early June.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bishop-westerman_to_nrdc_06.05.18.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Their letter</a> accused the NRDC, one of the nation’s biggest environmental groups, of criticizing U.S. environmental policies while engaging in “self-censorship” regarding China and the “ruling Chinese Communist Party.” If it is acting as an agent for Chinese interests, the lawmakers said, the group should register as such as <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-2062-foreign-agents-registration-act-enforcement" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">required by law</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Their letter also requested information related to the group’s disclosure policies.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bishop and Westerman sent the <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/house-republican-targets-second-environmental-group-for-its-work-overseas-15a37e505261/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Center for Biological Diversity</a> a similar query pertaining to that environmentalist group’s advocacy regarding the U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And the two Republicans have asked the Pentagon for details and documents regarding the <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL1N1TF2EQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">nonprofits suing the military</a> on environmental grounds. The lawmakers acknowledged that these lawsuits may “represent sincere and justified concerns about the effect of federal actions on the environment.” But they also speculated that “foreign adversaries” can perhaps leverage these legal actions to “reduce U.S. defense capabilities.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2018/180605-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Bob Deans</a>, the NRDC’s director of strategic engagement, denied that it was doing a foreign country’s bidding. Instead, “we work on behalf of every American to protect our people against dangerous pollution and leave our children a livable world,” he said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rather than just refute the allegations, Center for Biological Diversity Executive Director <a href="https://twitter.com/KieranSuckling/status/1009500062735478784" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Kierán Suckling</a> questioned the motives for this investigation. He called on Bishop “to release all communications between himself and industry groups seeking to destroy America’s natural heritage” and suggested that the Utah Republican was attacking conservation groups at the behest of fossil fuel companies.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The probe <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/394303-republicans-target-green-groups-over-foreign-ties" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">could spread to other environmental groups</a>, The Hill reported.</b></font></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chinese activities</font></h2></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">9/18</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> wow jeez desperate last resort after deplatform</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-claims-hes-a-super-duper-secret-agen" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-claims-hes-a-super-duper-secret-agent</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Infowars, informed viewers yesterday that he is part of a secret network of undercover agents put in place whom the Army can activate to destroy the supposed rise of communism, should it rear its head in America.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Since Jones was booted off nearly every major online platform last month, Infowars web traffic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/technology/alex-jones-infowars-bans-traffic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">has fallen</a> and the broadcasts have idled on a handful of time-tested Infowars talking points. In a <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ww7Cvt2dOV7J/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">video</a> uploaded yesterday, Jones tried to spice things up and said that he has been “on the phone with the Pentagon” and a group given the vague description of “the patriots.” Jones said that although he is not personally a part of a <b>“stay-behind network” that militaries created in the 1950s to fight off a potential Soviet invasion</b>, Infowars is a part of that network and that he seamlessly merges “right into it.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">“Yes, I’ll just tell you. We are a stay-behind network for America. It’s the big secret. That’s what we are. That’s why they’re after us. It’s true. The stay-behind network support[s] me. I am from a stay-behind network. Most of my family was in stay-behind networks,” Jones said. “That’s why they hate me. I’m an American. I’m a stay-behind network for America. I’m fighting the Chinese globalist takeover.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Later in the broadcast, Jones informs his viewers that they are also part of the secret network.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>“When I say I’m a stay-behind network, you are. We believe in free market, we believe in the family, we believe in the Second Amendment. You are an agent of America, of George Washington, of liberty,” Jones said.</b></font></p></div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags:</strong> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/alex-jones/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">Alex Jones</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/conspiracy-theories/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">conspiracy theories</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/infowars/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">InfoWars</a></font></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="f" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kristen</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> R Ghodsee u penn</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-june-21-2018/">https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-june-21-2018/</a></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-merits-of-taking-an-anti-anti-communism-stance">https://aeon.co/essays/the-merits-of-taking-an-anti-anti-communism-stance</a></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">millenials will be biggest bloc 2020 if they register?</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...C</font></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: " academica="Academica" book="Book" pro="Pro" times="Times" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">onservative and nationalist political leaders in the US and across Europe already incite fear with tales of the twin monsters of Islamic fundamentalism and illegal immigration. But not everyone believes that immigration is a terrible threat, and most Right-wing conservatives don’t think that Western countries are at risk of becoming theocratic states under Sharia law. Communism, on the other hand, provides the perfect new (old) enemy. If your main policy agenda is shoring up free-market capitalism, protecting the wealth of the superrich and dismantling what little is left of social safety nets, then it is useful to paint those who envision more redistributive politics as wild-eyed Marxists bent on the destruction of Western civilisation.</span></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;" academica="Academica" book="Book" pro="Pro" times="Times" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">What better time to resurrect the spectre of communism? As youth across the world become increasingly disenchanted with the savage inequalities of capitalism, defenders of the status quo will stop at nothing to convince younger voters about the evils of collectivist ideas. They will rewrite history textbooks, build memorials, and declare days of commemoration for the victims of communism – all to ensure that calls for social justice or redistribution are forever equated with forced labour camps and famine.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;" academica="Academica" book="Book" pro="Pro" times="Times" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Responsible and rational citizens need to be critical of simplistic historical narratives that rely on the pitchfork effect to demonise anyone on the Left. We should all embrace Geertz’s idea of an anti-anti-communism in hopes that critical engagement with the lessons of the 20th century might help us to find a new path that navigates between, or rises above, the many crimes of both communism and capitalism.</p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/fraternal-order-alt-knights-foak" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.<b>splcenter.</b>org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/fraternal-order-alt-knights-foak</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Formed as the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK) has become an accelerant for violence at right-wing rallies.</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The group’s founder, repeat-felon Kyle Chapman, organized FOAK after a melee with counter-protestors in Berkeley, California, to “protect and defend our right-wing brethren” through “street activism, preparation, defense and confrontation.” The Proud Boys argue that FOAK is the next “logical step” in the growth of their “pro-Western” movement. “The need for defense has grown since recent premeditated attacks by the <b>radical Marxist group ‘Anti-Fa’</b> have become the norm at any cultural event politically to the right of Jane Fonda,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” </span><a href="http://officialproudboys.com/news/the-kids-are-alt-knights/" target="blank" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">Pawl Bazile wrote</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;">Proud Boys Magazine </em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">in April 2017. But the Alt-Knights — who attend rallies suited up in homemade armor and </span><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/kyle-chapman-based-stickman-alt-right/" target="blank" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">equipped with</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> batons, hammers, daggers, tasers and pepper spray — seem to be less interested in defense than confrontation. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“Did anybody get to bash a commie yet?” </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chapman asked a group of his followers at a Portland pro-Trump rally held just over a week after the murder of two men allegedly committed by a self-described white supremacist. “Well, let me know when the time is right because I’m not going to miss out on the fun.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>For the Alt-Knights, violence is the only way to eradicate what Chapman calls the “unholy alliance” of “globalism, radical Islam, and communism” </b>that seeks to enslave white, Christian Americans and, in the process, destroy Western civilization. Such mythical ideas pervade FOAK’s concept of itself, and the group’s leaders — especially <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/augustus-sol-invictus-austin-gillespie" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">Augustus Invictus</a>, who was Chapman’s second-in-command before resigning in September 2017 — see themselves as the historically destined saviors of western (i.e. white) culture. Invictus speaks frequently of a coming Great War and the need for “total insurrection.” As Chapman has stated more crassly: “The only way we are gonna maintain our freedom in this country is to bleed and die for this shit.”</font></p></div><h1 class="title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></h1><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="bookinfo_sectionwrap" style="margin-bottom: 2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="margin: 0.2em 0px;"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22James+C.+Bowers%22" class="secondary" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">James C. Bowers</font></span></a></div><div style="margin: 0.2em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span dir="ltr">BookBaby</span>, <span dir="ltr">Nov 15, 2011</span> - <a class="secondary" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22History%22&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span dir="ltr">History</span></a> - <span dir="ltr">184 pages</span></font></div><div class="reviewaggregate hreview-aggregate" style="margin: 0.2em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=saVfDQAAQBAJ&dq=john+bolton+sovereignty+agenda+21&sitesec=reviews" aria-label="Average user rating - Unrated" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="gb-star-off goog-inline-block rating" style="height: 13px; overflow: hidden; width: 13px; background: url(" googlebooks="googlebooks" images="images" stars="stars" gb-stars-sprite-1.png="gb-stars-sprite-1.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" position="position" relative="relative" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><span class="value-title" title="0.0"><span class="gb-star-off goog-inline-block" style="height: 13px; overflow: hidden; width: 13px; background: url(" googlebooks="googlebooks" images="images" stars="stars" gb-stars-sprite-1.png="gb-stars-sprite-1.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" position="position" relative="relative" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><span class="gb-star-off goog-inline-block" style="height: 13px; overflow: hidden; width: 13px; background: url(" googlebooks="googlebooks" images="images" stars="stars" gb-stars-sprite-1.png="gb-stars-sprite-1.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" position="position" relative="relative" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><span class="gb-star-off goog-inline-block" style="height: 13px; overflow: hidden; width: 13px; background: url(" googlebooks="googlebooks" images="images" stars="stars" gb-stars-sprite-1.png="gb-stars-sprite-1.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" position="position" relative="relative" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><span class="gb-star-off goog-inline-block" style="height: 13px; overflow: hidden; width: 13px; background: url(" googlebooks="googlebooks" images="images" stars="stars" gb-stars-sprite-1.png="gb-stars-sprite-1.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" position="position" relative="relative" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" /></span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="num-ratings"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=saVfDQAAQBAJ&dq=john+bolton+sovereignty+agenda+21&sitesec=reviews" class="sbs-count secondary" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; display: block;"><span class="count">0</span> Reviews</a></span></font></div></div><div id="synopsis" style="padding-left: 141px; padding-right: 80px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="synopsis-window" style="height: 5.85em; overflow: hidden;"><div id="synopsistext" dir="ltr" class="sa"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.3em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This book is an analysis of a specific section in the book, The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen, published in 1958. The section evaluated is entitled, "Current Communist Goals." From his FBI background, Mr. Skousen lists what he considered to be the top 45 Goals of the Communists, as of 1958. The progress and status of each of these Goals as of 2012 is carefully documented. Prepare to be shocked!</font></p></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=saVfDQAAQBAJ">https://books.google.com/books?id=saVfDQAAQBAJ</a>&dq=john+bolton+sovereignty+agenda+21&source=gbs_navlinks_s</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">cites bolton on update</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/new-mccarthyism-how-fear-socialism-fuels-americas-climate-denial"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.alternet.org/environment/new-mccarthyism-how-fear-socialism-fuels-americas-climate-denial</font></a></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oreskes and c 10/15</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the late 1970s, scientists first came to a consensus that global warming was likely to result from increasing greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels. This idea had been around since the turn of the century, but the development of computer models made it possible to make quantitative predictions. Almost immediately, a small group of politically connected and conservative scientists began to question this consensus. As empirical scientific data mounted up, their attacks became more unprincipled. These conservative scientists used data selectively and often misrepresented the conclusions of many studies undertaken by the scientific community.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1992, world leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro to sign the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. President George W. Bush promised to translate the written document into “concrete action.” Three years later, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that the human impact on the earth’s climate was no longer a prediction but an observable fact.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the early 1990s, a group of skeptics claimed that Roger Revelle, one of the first climate scientists, had changed his mind about global warming and no longer believed it was a serious problem. The claim was repeated through several news outlets, including the Washington Post. When a graduate student named<b> Justin Lancaster — who had worked closely with Revelle before his death in 1991 — tried to insist that Revelle had not changed his view, he was sued for libel.</b> Lancaster was obliged to settle out of court. The claim was repeated again and again, and even today, exists on the Internet.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1996, when the IPCC released its second assessment report, stating that the human impact on climate was “discernible,” a fossil-fuel-industry-funded group called the Global Climate Coalition accused the IPCC author Benjamin Santer of making unauthorized changes to the document, with the intent of creating a sense that global warming was more certain than it was. The following year, Frederick Seitz, chairman of the George C. Marshall Institute, repeated the charges in the Wall Street Journal in an op-ed piece headlined “A Major Deception on Global Warming.”</font></p><p class="lead" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Massive attack</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Had <b>Santer</b> made unauthorized changes to the IPCC report? No: his changes were made in response to peer review. He was doing what every scientist is expected to do — and what IPCC rules required him to do — accepting criticism and using it so that the conclusions of the study were rigorous and clear. Frederick Seitz was a former president of the National Academy of Sciences, so it was not plausible that he did not know about the peer-review process.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2007, the claims were repeated in <em>Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years</em>, a book whose premise is that “human-emitted CO2 has played only a minor role” in contributing to global warming. The authors are <b>Dennis Avery and Fred Singer. </b>Singer is a physicist with a track record of challenging scientific evidence. He had taken part in the previous attack on Santer.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both the IPCC and Santer’s co-authors took considerable pains to set the record straight, denying that Santer had done anything wrong. Yet, in their book, Avery and Singer reassert that “scientific reviewers discovered that major changes had been made ‘in the back room’ after they had signed off on the science chapter’s contents” and that “Santer single-handedly reversed the ‘climate science’ of the whole IPCC report”. The idea that any one individual could reverse the entire IPCC process is absurd, and yet, like the “Revelle changed his mind” claim, it remains on the Internet today.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate scientists have been subjected to repeated attacks of this kind. In 2005, Congressman Joe Barton of Texas demanded that Professor Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Centre at Pennsylvania State University, produce a huge volume of paperwork relating to his research. In February, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma accused a dozen climate scientists of criminal violations of Federal Law, based on alleged evidence contained in the UEA emails. Recently, Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, went after Mann again, asking that the University of Virginia produce thousands of pages of documents relating to Mann’s research.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We, too, have been objects of attack. When one of us (Naomi Oreskes) published a review on the book <em>The Republican War on Science</em> in the journal Science, in which we noted some connections not pursued in that book, Science was threatened with a lawsuit unless it published a rebuttal. (We supplied documents, Science held firm, and the threat went away.)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blaming scientists for speaking truth to power is an old story. Scientists have long recognized that both the government and public can be reluctant to accept scientific evidence that results in discomfiting conclusions. In 1949, when the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb, the U.S. had to face the reality that it had lost its monopoly on nuclear weapons. Scientists had been warning of this since 1945, but the success of their predictions did not increase their standing. When they then said that any attempt to stay ahead of the Soviets by building the H-bomb would only speed up the arms race, they were accused of being disloyal. As Harold Urey, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934, wrote: “Because we [scientists] told disagreeable truths, we have even been accused of wishing to give up our progress because we are impractical dreamers or plain traitors.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is most disagreeable to many “resistors” of global warming is the fear of climate change being used as a warrant for heavy-handed government intervention. There is a parallel with 1949: fear of the Soviet Union then was not fear of a potential invasion, but that the Soviets would export communism to Europe, from where it might spread to the U.S.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, U.S. conservatives and right-wing commentators are red-baiting once again. The columnist Charles Krauthammer alleges that “with socialism dead . . . the left was adrift until it struck upon a brilliant gambit: metamorphosis from red to green”. Patrick J. Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, labeled plans for a cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse gases as “Obamunism”. The irony is that in 1990, Bush installed a cap-and-trade regime to reduce acid rain because it was an acceptable market-based mechanism. Yet, when Congress finally took the model seriously, conservatives called it communism by other means.</font></p><p class="lead" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Market failure</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attacks on climate science, including the 2009 “Climategate” campaign, had nothing to do with the science itself and neither did the entire earlier history of global-warming denial we have studied. Scientists are an easy target. The real issue is the politics of defending the free market.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the mid-1990s, the fossil-fuel industry has made common cause with old cold warriors, maverick scientists and conservative think tanks to undermine climate science. The obvious reason is that climate change is what Nicholas Stern calls “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.” If the free market has failed, then governments will need to act. And that is precisely what various constituencies, from Inhofe to Cuccinelli and a host of think tanks, do not want. It was also what Seitz and his colleagues didn’t want. These scientists were passionately anti-communist and viewed any form of government regulation as a step towards socialism.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No wonder we see the rise of McCarthyite tactics today: the stakes, at least in some people’s eyes, are the same. But what these people seem to have forgotten from the 1950s is that McCarthyism didn’t just destroy the careers of many innocent people: in the end, it destroyed Joe McCarthy.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">grijalva attack by milloy</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">glenn beck lumps islam with commie 3/15 vs kos</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The 'exclusive' photos of 'Russian invasion in Ukraine' in 2014 turned out to be easily found in the Web, with at least one of them dating back to 2008. Now, US senator James Inhofe is furious with the Ukrainian delegation for setting him up with the 'evidence'.</em><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Questions have been raised about the veracity of reports that claim Russian troops have invaded Ukraine after US Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe confessed that several photos of Russian convoys he obtained from a Ukrainian parliamentary group were taken during the 2008 Georgia conflict, the</span><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Washington Free Beacon</span><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> said. </span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="line-height: 20.58px;">On Tuesday, the </span><em style="line-height: 20.58px;">Washington Free Beacon</em><span style="line-height: 20.58px;"> ran a story that unveiled "exclusive" photos of victims of militia bombs and Russian armed vehicles seemingly rolling into Ukraine. </span></span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The photos were provided to Inhofe's office in print by an obscure Ukrainian delegation, led by a Georgetown professor, who said the images were taken at the height of Russia's alleged military incursion between August 24 and September 5, 2014. </span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Inhofe's spokeswoman Donelle Harder was cited as saying they had checked back with their sources - none of them high-level Ukrainian officials - before releasing the photos. She said they had been quite confident about their authenticity since the imagery allegedly matched reports about the Ukraine conflict. </span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But speaking to </span><em style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Mirror</em><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on Thursday, Sen. Inhofe confessed he was "furious" to learn that at least one of the photos was taken by Associated Press during Russia's military operation in Georgia back in 2008. Several other images are readily available elsewhere online and can be found using a Google Images search. </span><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><br style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among the Ukrainian delegation was Semen Semenchenko, the commander of the "Donbas" volunteer battalion and a newly elected member of the Verkhovna Rada. Earlier, he was known as Konstantin Grishin and was reportedly suspected of fraud in Crimea. </span></font></div><div><span style="line-height: 20.58px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></div><div><span style="line-height: 20.58px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.sott.net/article/292559-US-Senator-furious-over-duped-photos-of-Russian-invasion-in-Ukraine-</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">still-wont-change-his-mind</span></font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><h1 class="title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></b></h1><h1 class="title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bill Moyers & co 4/2x/12 points out that newsmaxx invite to coup pulled (also west Fla progressive caucus = commies</font></b></h1>

<h1 class="title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tea Party Targets... Sustainable Development?</font></span></h1>

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<p class="dek"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you believe conservative activists, smart growth is really a global conspiracy to herd Americans into "human habitation zones."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— By <a href="http://motherjones.com/authors/stephanie-mencimer">Stephanie Mencimer</a></font></p>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, they took on the political establishment in Congress. Now, tea partiers have trained their sights on a new and insidious target: local planning and zoning commissions, which activists believe are carrying out a global conspiracy to trample American liberties and force citizens into Orwellian "human habitation zones."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the root of this plot is the admittedly sinister-sounding <a target="blank" href="http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/">Agenda 21,</a> an 18-year-old UN plan to encourage countries to consider the environmental impacts of human development. Tea partiers see Agenda 21 behind everything from a <a target="blank" href="http://www.resistnet.com/group/floridastatepatriots/forum/topics/beware-of-florida-law-sb-550">septic tank inspection law in Florida </a>to a plan in Maine to reduce traffic on Route 1. The issue even flared up briefly during the midterms, when Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes accused his Democratic opponent of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.denverpost.com/election2010/ci_15673894">using a bike-sharing program</a> to convert Denver into a "United Nations Community."</font></p>

<div class="pullquote-left"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit becomes compulsory "human habitation zones."</font></div>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Agenda 21 paranoia has swept the tea party scene, driving activists around the country to delve into the minutiae of local governance. And now that the midterm elections are over, they're descending on planning meetings and transit debates, wielding PowerPoints about Agenda 21, and generally freaking out low-level bureaucrats with accusations about their roles in a supposed international conspiracy.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a target="blank" href="http://www.examiner.com/republican-in-richmond/nothing-to-lose-but-your-property-warns-citizen-activist">Virginia activist Donna Holt</a> is among those who believe that Agenda 21—unveiled during the UN's "Earth Summit" in 1992—is really a plot to curtail private property rights and deprive Americans of precious constitutional freedoms. In reality, the document will do nothing of the sort, but it has nevertheless been the target of conspiracy-minded UN haters for years. Holt and other tea partiers are taking their cues from people like <a href="http://emergingcorruption.com/2010/11/the-tea-party%E2%80%99s-next-challenge/" target="blank">Henry Lamb</a>, a WorldNetDaily columnist and founder of Sovereignty International and Freedom21, groups designed to fight Agenda 21 and its ilk. He has been arguing for decades that the UN is secretly plotting to herd humans into crowded cities so that the rest of the world can be devoted to wildlife preservation. (Lamb declined to comment for this story because back <em>Mother Jones</em> once included him in a <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/1997/12/wingnuts-sheeps-clothing" target="blank">story</a> called <em>Wingnuts in Sheep's Clothing</em>, and <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/1997/12/astroturf-troopers" target="blank">another article</a> that described his role in Astroturf lobbying against the Kyoto treaty.)</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Holt has also has relied on the research of Tom DeWeese, the founder of the <a target="blank" href="http://americanpolicy.org/">American Policy Center</a> and a climate change denier whose group has been <a target="blank" href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1158">funded by Exxon</a>. DeWeese's organization hosted a <a target="blank" href="http://freedomactionconference.com/">conference in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania</a>, this summer attended by many tea partiers, which featured sessions on Agenda 21. Schooled by such activists, Holt, the Virginia coordinator of<a target="blank" href="http://www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/VA/"> Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty</a>, has set to work spreading the word about Agenda 21 and the evils of sustainable development. She's finding a very receptive audience among tea party groups, who she believes are going to make sustainable development the next target of their activi</font>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm overwhelmed with tea party leaders who have asked me to come and speak to their groups," she says. "They're calling on me to form a coalition, to put up a dedicated website." She says tea partiers understand that "there is a global agenda to actually abolish private property and abolish the Constitution for that matter." If sustainable development is fully implemented, she says, "This basically will turn us into a Soviet state."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit become compulsory "human habitation zones." They warn of Americans being forcibly moved from their suburban dream homes into urban <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/09/will-obamas-livability-program-bring-britains-hobbit-homes-to-america" target="_blank">"hobbit homes"</a> and required to give up their cars and instead—gasp!—take the bus to work. The enemies in this fight are hidden behind bland trade-association names like the American Planning Association or ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability).</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shortly after the midterm elections, a Maine tea party group <a target="_blank" href="http://paintmainered.ning.com/forum/topics/un-agenda-21-please-go-to">blasted out a call to arms to its members</a>: "Red Alert! Agenda 21 is coming on full force to the Mid coast area!" The notice implored members to show up at a November 10 meeting in Rockland sponsored by the Maine Department of Transportation. The group warned that the agency was:</font></p>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">implementing the sustainable development/Agenda 21. This is the hard core agenda 21 derived from…the United Nations, and we need to make a BIG presence to show our outrage and anger at this. This is the centralized planning for the de-industrialization of large segments of Maine, and the relocation and isolation of the population into human habitation zones. Plan on attending the meeting and express your outrage at this. We need to stop this NOW before it gets out of hand.</font></p>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What UN-inspired outrage was on the table for the meeting? A proposal to improve development and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gateway1.org/">reduce traffic around Route 1,</a> which runs up the eastern coast of the state. Stacy Benjamin, the DOT project manager, says that four or five people she and her colleagues have never seen before showed up at the meeting. During the public comment session, the activists questioned the DOT representatives about Agenda 21. "None of us had ever heard of it," Benjamin says, laughing, "but we learned a lot about Agenda 21. They had handouts." The tea partiers also posed questions about "human habitation zones," she says, noting that they were polite and interested in what the committee members had to say.</font></p>

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<p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The scene in Maine is repeating itself across the country. Only sometimes the activists are less polite. One planning consultant I spoke with, who requested anonymity, recalled a recent meeting where he was on the receiving end of tea party rage. "I got called a communist," he says. Someone in another tea party-heavy area recently told him, "We don't need none of that smart growth communism." The people he's been encountering are new to the process, short on solid facts, and many are "spitting mad." Combined with what they see as an "elitist" bent in planning consultants, he says, it makes for a toxic and intimidating mix for local officials who aren't used to being accosted by conspiracy theory wielding activists.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The local planning fights reveal a little-understood characteristic of the tea party movement: its inherently suburban nature. Not only does the movement's agenda derive from a hostility to what it sees as elites, but it's also hostile to the places those elites live—namely, cities and more densely populated areas—which makes sustainable development a natural issue for activists. Call them the newest pro-sprawl lobby.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Virginia, Holt is trying to whip up tea party opposition to a <a href="http://www.chesterfield.gov/CompPlan.aspx?id=10217" target="_blank">comprehensive development plan</a> being drafted in Chesterfield County, where she lives near Richmond. She believes such plans will, among other things, ban cul de sacs, and she happens to live on one. So far, though, she hasn't made much progress with the county. "They don't want to hear from us," she says. "They think we are wackos with tinfoil hats."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, while the UN conspiracy talk makes it easy to dismiss the tea partiers as nutters, that doesn't mean they won't derail local development projects. Take what transpired recently in Tampa, Florida, where tea party activists helped defeat a widely supported measure that would have funded <a target="blank" href="http://www.movinghillsboroughforward.org/blog/hillsborough-county-must-move-forward.aspx">light rail and road improvements in Hillsborough Count</a>y. In the lead-up to a ballot initiative on the penny-per-dollar sales tax increase to fund the project, the local conservative paper, the <em>Tampa Bay Examiner</em>, <a href="http://www.examiner.com/hillsborough-county-conservative-in-tampa-bay/tampa-light-rail-and-the-united-nations" target="blank">ran a series on Agenda 21 </a>plus commentary suggesting that the "smart growth" principles underlying the light rail proposal were simply "cover for an agenda to transfer American sovereignty to various tentacles of the United Nations."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the Florida tea partiers are just getting started. The Tampa 912 project, which often works in tandem with tea party groups, organized members over the summer to attend project briefings on another transportation plan for high-speed rail in the state. After a July meeting, the group's chairman reported back on the powwow with great skepticism. She <a href="http://www.meetup.com/tampa912/calendar/14128965/?from=list&offset=0" target="_blank">said supporters claimed that</a>:</font></p>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the high speed rail project will conserve 1 million acres of environmental lands and cause 44% less land to be consumed. How does a train running down the middle of I-4 do all that? The answer is by "compact development" aka "smart growth", aka "New Urbanism", aka "Traditional Neighborhood Design", aka "Transit Oriented Development", aka "Livable Communities", aka "Sustainable Development." These are all names meaning the same thing: they are anti-suburban, high-density dwelling design concepts that are part of the UN's Agenda 21 and will make single family home ownership for our posterity unattainable.</font></p>

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<p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Florida, the tea partiers have had some help in such fights from Ed Braddy, the executive director of the <a href="http://americandreamcoalition.org/" target="_blank">American Dream Coalition</a>, which opposes smart growth and other standard components of modern land-use planning. Braddy, who has dubbed cars "personal mobility machines," has become a popular speaker on the tea party circuit. A former Gainesville city commissioner, he believes the rail fight in Florida, along with the involvement of the tea partiers on sustainable development issues, is the wave of the future.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The tea party is receptive to our argument," he says. Regardless of whether people believe that Agenda 21 is a UN plot (he doesn't), tea partiers recognize the evils of sustainable development. "It's almost an instinctive thing," he says. "People know that living in a suburban development and driving to work is not an inherently bad thing. Living in tiny cramped apartment surrounded by noises, so you can hop a bus is not intrinsically superior. "</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the tea partiers bring that perspective to local government, they have the potential to make a significant impact—far more than they might have on, say, a congressional health care bill where high-paid lobbyists dominate. It’s clear that they are starting to realize that, too.</font></p>

<div class="node-pager" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/tea-party-agenda-21-un-sustainable-development?page=1" class="previous previous-active">Previous</a><span class="pager-info">Page 2 of 2</span></font></div>

<p class="author-bio"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stephanie Mencimer is a staff reporter in <span style=" font-style: normal;">Mother Jones</span>' Washington bureau.</font></p>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lamb site <a href="http://emergingcorruption.com/2010/11/the-tea-party%E2%80%99s-next-challenge/">http://emergingcorruption.com/2010/11/the-tea-party%E2%80%99s-next-challenge/</a></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ch 7 anti Carson used a poster child anti-reg; also imp b/c RC marked shift from aesthetics to realiztion that biz needed regulation p 237 acid rain, o3 co2 all lessons</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">to fight commie, you have to save mkt/biz; irony is ended up as stalinist defenders of lies 238; kept it up 40 years 241. if no eco growth, rationing = commie  252 world gov ironically, stall will req drastic action soon 254</font></p>

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