Fascism watch thread/news and discussions

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Don’t Fall into the Collusion Trap on Trump and January 6
by David Corn
July 15, 2022

Extract::

(Mother Jones) As the House committee probing the insurrectionist riot held a hearing this week that focused on the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, two militant right-wing groups that led the assault on the Capitol, commentators zeroed in on the question of whether Donald Trump and his White House had forged a direct connection to these extremists prior to their attack on Congress. That is, was there collusion between Trump and these domestic terrorists who have been indicted on charges of sedition?...

This question is an important one, but it is also a trap. Trump and his comrades have been rather deft at developing a tactic to protect him from charges of profound wrongdoing: They raise the bar. If Trump is caught holding a match outside a burning house, Trump and his defenders will say, “Do you have proof he doused the interior with gasoline? That’s fake news. A hoax.”

This is what happened with the Russia scandal….During the 2016 campaign, his top advisers signaled to Moscow they were fine with the Kremlin’s covert efforts to influence the election to assist Trump. They secretly met with a Russian emissary who they were told was part of this project. And Trump and his team repeatedly denied Vladimir Putin’s regime was attacking the election—even though they were informed Moscow was taking clandestine action to help the Trump campaign—and thus provided cover for Putin, aiding and abetting Russia’s assault on the American political system.

These actions…were undeniable and immensely scandalous. Yet Trump and his protectors defined the scandal in different terms: Did he collude with the Kremlin? They made the central question whether he had conspired directly with the Russian operation to hack the Democrats and release pilfered emails and documents through WikiLeaks. Of course, no such direct conspiring was necessary for the operation to succeed. Trump merely encouraged this assault committed by a foreign adversary and denied that it happened….Yet when special counsel Robert Mueller reported he had not found evidence that Trump criminally conspired with the Russians, Trump and his cult declared he had been cleared—even though Mueller’s final report documented his misdeeds and detailed numerous instances in which Trump possibly obstructed justice.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/ ... rection.

[Time_Traveller]

[Time_Traveller]

Nazi flags displayed outside Turning Point USA summit attended by Trump condemned as 'pure hatred' by the Florida Holocaust Museum

Sun, July 24, 2022 at 2:51 PM

*A group waved Nazi flags outside the Turning Point USA summit in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday.

*The Florida Holocaust Museum has condemned the "indefensible act of pure hatred."

*Turning Point USA says the group had no connection with the event.

The Florida Holocaust Museum condemned the waving of antisemitic flags outside a conservative conference attended by former President Donald Trump, on Saturday.

Protesters gathered outside the Tampa Convention Center with Nazi flags, swastikas, the SS logo, and antisemitic caricatures of Jews, while the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit was taking place.

Turning Point USA told Insider that the group was not connected to the event.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/nazi-flags-di ... 42582.html

[caltrek]

Who Wants a Civil War?
by Daniel Cubias
July 28, 2022

Introduction:

(Mano) All of us—me in particular and America in general—have been talking a lot about civil war lately. To describe the frayed state of our nation, we’ve even learned a fancy new word, anocracy, which signifies a floundering country that is teetering between democracy and authoritarianism. The word’s appearance is the first indicator that a civil war may be coming.

And what is the second indicator?

Well, that would be “whether populations in these partial democracies began to organize politically, not around ideology—so not based on whether you’re a liberal or a conservative—but where the parties themselves are based almost exclusively around ethnic, religious or racial identity.”

So the fact that the Republican Party has become the white-grievance party is more than just disturbing. It is a possible harbinger of war.

You see, decades ago, the GOP dismissed any idea of expanding its base beyond pissed-off white people. This helped them win elections and had no downside, as long as whites remained a solid majority of the population.

Read more here: https://manomagazine.com/whowantswar/

[caltrek]

[caltrek]

Secret Dossiers Provide Evidence of Hundreds of Wrongful Detentions in El Salvador
August 10, 2022

Introduction:

(Latino Rebels) El Salvador, in Brief: Leaked court documents reveal that wrongful arrests are on the rise as the country courses its fifth month in a state of exception that suspended multiple constitutional rights. As families protest police abuse against their relatives and due process violations become widespread, the Salvadoran vice president says that “in a war” there are always “innocent victims.”

Arrest First, Investigate Later

Looked nervous. Looks like a gang member. Police profile says he’s a gang member. Family member is a gang member. Social media accusations. Ran from police. Has tattoos. Was previously convicted.

These are official reasons for the arrest of almost 700 Salvadorans listed in a trove of sealed courtroom dossiers leaked to El Faro’s Efren Lemus and Gabriela Cáceres. The 1,200 pages reveal the arbitrary detention of hundreds of people from distressed communities in April in the ongoing policing frenzy branded by the government as a “war against gangs.”

The police report over 49,000 arrests since President Nayib Bukele ordered a state of exception in March, drawing reports of torture and at least 63 in-custody deaths through July 17, per monitor Cristosal. The leaked dossiers paint a damning picture of authorities relying mostly on police profiles and anonymous sources to accuse detainees of “illicit association.” No other evidence was included or needed to achieve pre-trial detention.

“We know of cases where people had no connection to the gangs, but [at the time of arrest] police created profiles on the spot, making up aliases for them,” police union chief Marvin Reyes told El Faro, adding that agents refusing to carry out arrests have been threatened with transfer to remote parts of the country, or with more work hours.

Read more here: https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/08/1 ... larrests/

[caltrek]

What’s Behind the GOP Call for Violence?
by Daniel Cubias
August 22 , 2022

Extract:

(Mano) But please note how the “supposedly law-and-order party’s leadership is inciting violence against America’s own legal agencies to further genuflect at the altar of a serial criminal who attempted to overthrow an American election.”

Note also how few Republicans have said, “Hey, could you kind of, maybe, not vow to kill federal officers?” That’s because even with “an increase in threats and acts of violence directed at FBI personnel,” over half of Republicans say it is the “federal law enforcement officials [who] behaved irresponsibly.”

The few GOP leaders who have expressed meek support for the FBI have had their lives “put in danger by the same people who are threatening law enforcement.”

In essence, conservatives are furious that the FBI isn’t sticking to just beating up ethnic minorities and wire-tapping liberal organizations. Agents had the temerity to apply the law to a Republican, and for that, they should be threatened, or even executed.

This is further proof that in America, there is no “political force more nihilistic, dangerous, and contemptible than today’s Republicans.” Powerful men feel disrespected, so they advocate for violence, and someone will obey their call.

Read more here: https://manomagazine.com/gopfatwa/

[caltrek]

Why do the Republicans Keep Proving Their 'Semi-fascism'?
by Mia Brett
September 7, 2022

Introduction:

(Alternet) After years and years of birtherism, calls to “lock her up,” antisemitic dogwhistles, delegitimizing everything the broad left does as “communism,” refusing to accept election results, stealing elections and plain-old racism and sexism – after all this, it seems that a line has been crossed and respectful discourse is no longer possible.

What was the final straw?

Not racism, sexism, armed revolt or treason.

What destroyed common decency is … “semi-fascism.”

You read that right. Despite explicit racism, sexism, support for white supremacy, Christian nationalism, armed revolt and treason, Republicans say that calling a few of them “semi-fascists,” as Joe Biden did at a political rally, is the worst thing a president can do.

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/repub ... -fascism/

[caltrek]

Donald Trump and His Two Forms of Fascism
by David Corn
September 12, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones ) Donald Trump recently issued a statement on his struggling TRUTH Social platform: “Why are people so mean?” This came in the middle of a conservative crusade to depict liberals and Democrats as nasty folks. Trump’s remark captured the absurdity of this campaign. The fellow who routinely assails political foes and critics as “losers,” whose misogynistic history of denigrating women is unparalleled in American public life, who rose to the top of the GOP pile by disparaging the physical appearances of his opponents (and, in one case, the wife of an opponent), who railed against Muslims and “shithole countries,” who called for locking up his political rival, who worships revenge and lives on spite, who denounced journalists as “the enemy of the people,” who relishes conjuring up ugly and dismissive nicknames for his political adversaries, whose entire political project is built upon denigration and vilification—this guy complains about people being mean? And this list does not include his incitement of an insurrectionist riot or his attempt to destroy the foundation of American democracy.

Yes, you can chalk this up to Trump projection: his habit of accusing others of his own pathological sins. But his whine occurred as other right-wingers boo-hoo’ed about President Joe Biden’s recent blast at Trumpism. During a campaign rally in Maryland, Biden noted that Trump has embraced “political violence” and no longer believes in democracy: “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the—I’m going to say something—it’s like semi-fascism.” Of course, the right went berserk over this.

A Republican National Committee spokesperson howled that Biden’s comment was “despicable.” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu exclaimed that it was “horribly inappropriate” and urged Biden to apologize. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that “communists have always called their enemies ‘fascists.’” (Biden is a communist?) But what to call a movement that denies election results, falsely claims an election was stolen, and refuses to admonish or excommunicate a leader who encouraged and used violence in his effort to overturn that election?

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -fascism/

[caltrek]

Election Logistics Firm Sues Perpetrators of Voter Fraud Smear Campaign
by Cameron Langford
September 12 , 2022

Introduction:

HOUSTON (Courthouse News) — Election logistics firm Konnech Inc. says in a lawsuit filed Monday its founder and his family had to leave their home due to threats from supporters of True the Vote, a voter fraud conspiracy group spreading lies that the company is a vehicle of the Chinese Communist Party to control American elections.

Making claims of defamation and computer fraud, Konnech sued True the Vote Inc., a Texas nonprofit, its founder Catherine Engelbrecht and board member Gregg Phillips in Houston federal court.

Started and led by Eugene Yu, a U.S. citizen of Chinese descent, Konnech sells election logistics software called PollChief to U.S. governmental entities, which they use to manage poll workers and coordinate distribution of equipment and technical support staff to polling places.
Though its software is meant to help county, city and local governments run elections more efficiently, Konnech underscores the limits of its services in its lawsuit.

“Konnech’s software products are not involved in any way in the registration of voters, the production, distribution, scanning, or processing of ballots, nor the collection, counting or reporting of votes," the complaint states. "Indeed, Konnech never handles any ballots and no ballots or other voting counts ever enter any of Konnech’s computer servers.”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/electio ... campaign/

caltrek’s comment: What is potentially fascist about this case revolves around the targeting of Konnech by vigilantes using threats of violence and physical intimidation based on nothing more than unfounded allegations by True the Vote. Of course, all of this is subject to proof in the courts, but if convincing evidence of Konnech’s claims are forthcoming, a substantial portion of the assets of True the Vote should be turned over to Konnech by way of restitution of damages.

Freedom of speech relates to prior restraint by the government. It does not protect slander and libel.

[caltrek]

The Nazification of American Society and the Scourge of Violence
by Henry Giroux
October 14, 2022

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) Violence in the United States surpasses the unthinkable and increasingly resides in the space of apocalyptic rage, manufactured ignorance, and the normalization of a pervasive culture of ritualized barbarism. As civic culture collapses and truth succumbs to conspiracy theories, censorship, and the white washing of history, politics is emptied of democratic values, shared responsibilities, and a viable moral compass. Lawlessness is fueled by a diminishing lack of accountability in the political realm leading to an upsurge in racism, domestic terrorism, mass shootings and increasing threats of violence. Acts of violence erupt in even the most protected and secure spaces extending from schools to supermarkets, engulfing every facet of American life. We now live in a time marked by a politics of displacement, disappearance, erasure, patriotic frenzy, and political repression. Human suffering has been turned into a spectacle of racist aggression.

Violence, once hidden or proclaimed to be on the fringe of American society, is now at the center of power and everyday life and has become normalized. Violent threats are now repeatedly lodged against election officials, public health workers, teachers, librarians, as well as almost any politician who refuses to accept the lie that the presidential election was stolen. The threats of violence by a political movement of white supremist and election denying extremists has reached an all time high as has its insane accusations, threats, and hate mongering. For example, influential pedlars of hate, particularly QAnon members, now claim that the Democratic Party is filled with blood sucking satanists who abduct and sexualize young children. The fallout from these kind of threats is too extensive to document here one example, as reported by The Daily Beast, captures the vicious lies mainstreamed by such groups and how they incentivize violence among their followers:

• On August 11, Libs of TikTok falsely claimed Boston’s Children’s Hospital was performing hysterectomies on children. On August 15, Matt Walsh falsely said the hospital was putting “every toddler…on a path to sterilization and butchery before they can even talk.” Unsurprisingly, the hospital has since faced a deluge of threats, hate mail, and harassment ever since.[1]

…
[1] Wajahat Ali, “It’s Time to Call MAGA a National Security Threat,” The Daily Beast (September 16, 2022). Online: https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-time- ... ty-threat

Read more of the Counterpunch article here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/1 ... violence/

caltrek’s comment: The now deceased founder of Counterpunch Alexander Cockburn was considered by many, perhaps unjustly so, as being a Stalinist. So, this is hardly just another “liberal” take on the situation.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The condemnation of the Democratic party contained in the article cited below is a little more extreme than I think is merited. Still, the warnings concerning fascism in America are well taken.


Dear Liberals: Stop Your Smug Celebration of the Midterms
by Paul Street
November 23, 2022

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) Liberals and some progressives are feeling smug and self-satisfied over the mid-term elections.

How grotesque.

Yes, there was no red wave. The at least non-fascist major capitalist party, the Democrats, will keep the US Senate for two more years. MAGA candidates backed by the malignant narcissi-fascist Donald Trump did badly, something that is helping cost him support from leading Republican politicos and billionaire donors and raising questions about his viability as a 2024 presidential candidate. A bunch of ghastly election-denier/-stealer MAGA candidates vying for offices in charge of electoral processes and machinery (secretary of state, attorney general, and governor) lost in key contested states where they would have been able to monkey with the next presidential election.

Elections and Rule of Law are “Incidental” for the Amerikaner Base
Super, but guess what? In the United States as elsewhere, fascism is a ferocious and many-sided movement beneath and beyond elections. And our ugly Amerikaners love losing and being out of power. Electoral loss or stalemate doesn’t subdue or restrain them one bit. To the contrary, it feeds their sense of white-patriarchal-Christian-nationalist victimization, encouraging them to double down on conspiratorial madness and the use of violence to keep the ungodly liberal-“radical left” and nonwhite enemy at bay. Keep an eye out for escalated right wing insanity and mayhem.

In a brilliant post-midterm essay titled “Donald Trump is (Still) the President of White America,” Erin Aubry Kaplan makes a critical point worthy of lengthy quotation:

(Politico) Then it hit me: Trump was, and continues to be, the chief executive not of a nation, or of the Republican Party, or even of a cult, but of a culture — namely a culture of white supremacy.

This is actually worse than it sounds. Even very “woke” Americans tend to see white supremacy as an isolated dynamic synonymous with racism, the “bad” America. But what many people don’t realize is that white supremacy is a culture that is much broader and deeper than that. It is about racialized power, an assumed authority of white people (chiefly men) to set and enforce the social and moral order as they see fit, often in the service of values that on their face sound noble, like tradition or family.

Read more of the Counterpunch article here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/2 ... midterms/

Read more of the Erin Auburn Kaplan article in Politico here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00069597?

[wjfox]

[ººº]

6:56

[caltrek]

Hate Leader Nick Fuentes Is Recruiting Incels
by Kristen Doerer
December 22, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) The former president of the United States wanted his guests to be seen. His meeting with Ye, a.k.a. Kanye West, had already been postponed since the rapper’s antisemitic outbursts this fall had made him a public pariah. But two days before Thanksgiving, Trump led Ye and his entourage to a public table at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The group included a former Trump adviser as well as a young man named Nick Fuentes, an adviser on Ye’s fledgling 2024 presidential campaign—and one of America’s most virulent white nationalists.

Cue a familiar firestorm: Trump’s Republican allies distanced themselves from his behavior without denouncing the man himself. Trump, fresh from his own campaign announcement, said he did not know who Fuentes was, yet failed to condemn him or his ideologies in multiple statements about the dinner.

But for Fuentes, the meeting was a profound success, and perhaps the greatest example of his years-long effort to bring his extremist ideologies into the mainstream. The 24-year-old hosts a nightly broadcast with a cult-like following among young white men who believe they have lost their rightful place in the United States. For the last five years, Fuentes has pushed a vision for an “America First” movement that fuses white nationalism, antisemitism, and authoritarianism in calling for a nation dominated by white Christian men.

In tying himself most recently to Trump—a man accused of sexual assault by 19 women, and who bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy”—Fuentes is advancing one of his latest strategies for cultivating followers: making overtures to men who feel aggrieved by women.

Over the past year, Fuentes has made a point of speaking directly to these men—many of whom identify as “incels”—in numerous appearances on his nightly livestream, far-right podcasts, and Telegram. Historically, incels defined themselves as “involuntary celibate,” but the term has become inextricably associated with misogynist incels, men who blame women for their problems and believe women owe them sex.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... g-incels/

caltreks comment: When I was a teenager and into my young adulthood, I often heard the word "macho" bandied about. My initial understanding of the word from the context I usually found it in was "tough guy." At a point early in my professional career, a Hispanic supervisor of mine explained that there can be more nuance to the word than that. Instead of "tough guy" something more like "tough guy protective of women" or "tough guy protective of family." Mr. Fuentes seems to want to be a tough guy that rejects that protective role, or at least define it according to his own highly authoritarian terms. In the process, not only minimizing the protective aspects, but also potentially robbing women of a voice in the affairs of the day. He seems to want to harken back to a time where the warriors of the tribe set the rules, a hallmark of fascism.

Curiously, we also see a parallel development in places such as Afghanistan. There we see a blend of Islam with extremist fascistic practices. Yet, such practices represent an extreme interpretation of the Quran. Other interpretations result in much more moderate and (especially in Western and women's eyes) reasonable practices.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Caltrek the amount of fascists in the USA alone is unreal. The worst part is that some are more feral about it not realizing that if they ever got their goals they would be the first to go since they are feral. Its why I have been worried because its simple stuff and yet folks still don't get it. Hell even if the USA went full on tech style and slightly fascist it would not pan out the way these folks think at all.

[wjfox]