Jounalists are the last bulwark against fascism

It’s early Sunday morning and in the shadow of the White House Correspondents Association’s cowardice and after an initial scan of the news, some thoughts came to mind. As we know, words can be powerful, have meaning and consequences. All the reporting on Trump from any media not already captured by the right-wing power structure needs to change the way we/they’re writing about Trump. Instead of writing "Trump did xxxx," the phrasing should change to some form of this: “Trump, following the orders of his overlords did .…”

The same construction should be used with any administration official, including Elon Musk, as needed. Before you jump on me for being subjective and inaccurate, take into account these realities:

The “flooding the zone” executive orders were queued up well in advance of the 2024 election as part of Project 2525. Whether Trump lied that he knew about Project 2525 is irrelevant because the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society and ALEC had already done the heavy lifting.

The reason Trump won the 2016 election was not only the Democrats’ long-term fecklessness, but also because of the deals made to get Mike Pence on the ticket. This has been documented. Why wouldn’t a similar wash-rinse-repeat be far fetched?

It doesn’t matter if you believe Musk’s cybercrimed to steal the election. What we really need to know is how the Democratic Party leadership have failed the progressives of this country for 70 years.

While the WHCA fell over from a light verbal breeze from the White House, I know other journalists are working hard to protect the Fourth Estate — the one institution protected by the First Amendment. It’s no accident the Founders set up our Constitution this way. Looking at the political landscape now, the media and its brave practitioners are the last bulwark against a Fascist takeover of our country.unday morning and in the shadow of the White House Correspondents Association’s cowardice and after an initial scan of the news, some thoughts came to mind. As we know, words can be powerful, have meaning and consequences. All the reporting on Trump from any media not already captured by the right-wing power structure needs to change the way we/they’re writing about Trump. Instead of writing "Trump did xxxx," the phrasing should change to some form of this: “Trump, following the orders of his overlords did .…”

The same construction should be used with any administration official, including Elon Musk, as needed. Before you jump on me for being subjective and inaccurate, take into account these realities:

The “flooding the zone” executive orders were queued up well in advance of the 2024 election as part of Project 2525. Whether Trump lied that he knew about Project 2525 is irrelevant because the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society and ALEC had already done the heavy lifting.

The reason Trump won the 2016 election was not only the Democrats’ long-term fecklessness, but also because of the deals made to get Mike Pence on the ticket. This has been documented. Why wouldn’t a similar wash-rinse-repeat be far fetched?

It doesn’t matter if you believe Musk’s cybercrimed to steal the election. What we really need to know is how the Democratic Party leadership have failed the progressives of this country for 70 years.

While the WHCA fell over from a light verbal breeze from the White House, I know other journalists are working hard to protect the Fourth Estate — the one institution protected by the First Amendment. It’s no accident the Founders set up our Constitution this way. Looking at the political landscape now, the media and its brave practitioners are the last bulwark against a Fascist takeover of our country.

How the Oligarchs Have Won

 I want my friends to understand some things about the Musk-Trump administration. If you’ve followed me or my blog, you’ll know my discussion here is based on monitoring the Trump activity since 2015 and from reading books and other materials, starting in 2020 with “Democracy in Chains.” I’ve posted this list so many times so I am not gong to repeat myself. What I’d like to do here is offer you some thoughts and reflections from having read these books.

First, please stop saying or stop agreeing with those who say Trump is stupid or an idiot or anything else to paint him as someone without mental faculties. He’s probably an idiot savant with his skills being grifting and cult-like persuasion. He is also a tool of the billionaire class — willingly or unwillingly or knowingly or unknowingly. It’s pretty clear he is also a Russian asset.

Second, he is not in this alone. An entire cabal of one-percenters support this destruction of our government. These libertarian oligarchs and plutocrats have fueled this government takeover with billions of dollars, much coming from but not limited to the fossil fuel industry. The network of this cabal is more widespread than most people know and includes billions of dollars, thousands of participants, thousands of meetings and hundreds of right-wing organizations.

Third, this is a 71-year effort starting with elite southern whites rebelling against Brown v Board of Education. The effort, supported by billions of dollars, has been sophisticated, stealthy and has allowed the right-wing libertarians to use the most up-to-date technology to further their goals. They’ve played the long game and every step toward their goals has been incremental enough to go unnoticed until it broke into the open fully with Trump’s election in 2016.

Fourth, the Democratic Party leadership and other progressives in the country not only failed to see what was happening but ignored the few who did see what was happening. In being so feckless, the party failed to muster its resources in order to expose and push back the stealth revolution. When Hillary Clinton said we are facing a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” the feckless party leadership blew off the warning as hyperbolic rhetoric. She was right and they were wrong. The Democratic Party has been a eunuch ever since.

Fifth, the Seven Mountain dominionists (one of the most visible being Ted Cruz) and Christian nationalists managed to infiltrate the evangelical, non-denomination Christian community. James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Kenneth Copeland, (yes, even) Billy Graham and many more were manipulated or were manipulators to jump on the hot-button issues. The anti-LBGTQT, anti-abortion-pro-birth movement, purity culture and birth control were effective distractions for the real work at hand, although some of those in the so-called Jesus movement were sincere in their beliefs. Supported by the billionaire class behind this, a vast number of evangelical congregations and mega-churches violated the law by flat out endorsing right-wing candidates either from the pulpit or through other means. The goal is to grow a population of poor controllable masses.

Sixth, Texas and Florida have been the test beds for this radicalization. Along with the hot-button issues, the goal is to destroy the public education system, and in doing so, eliminate critical thinking skills for the masses. It will infuse curricula with revisionist history to eliminate the wall between church and state. And we know what church that will be and how Christian sharia law will unfold. The so-called parental choice is really a propaganda phrase for vouchers to build an elite educated base to undertake the real work of running industries and a country. It is also to further Christian-nationalist segregation and line the pockets of the education-industrial complex. Further, suppressing votes with obstacles and gerrymandering are part of this.

Seventh, the long-range effort to control the judiciary has largely succeeded. The U.S. Supreme Court is now fully corrupt and right-wing. So are many of the lower federal courts. While some of the ongoing lower court rulings are legitimate in overturning some of the Trump administrations activities, the concerns about the administration’s ignoring them will be moot. The guardrails are essentially gone with the oligarchs owning SCOTUS. The constitutional crisis won’t be the regime ignoring lower court orders nor in having no way to force compliance. The ongoing appeals will go to SCOTUS where the rulings will favor the oligarchs. One of the enablers of this takeover of the courts was Mitch McConnell when he was the Senate majority leader. Flying well below the radar, McConnell attended many of the Koch Industries right-wing briefings and benefited greatly from their contributions, as well as those from Russia.

Eighth, the right-wing oligarchs will also use violence to get what they want. The January 6, 2021 insurrection was a rehearsal. The Proud Boys and other right-wing militia are out there waiting for the call to arms, which is part explains the pardons for the insurrectionists. Just in the last few days I’ve heard rumblings that the Republicans who aren’t Trumpers are being intimidated. It’s more than the fear being primaried. Some are silent because of direct threats to them or their families in order to keep them in line. In short, the oligarchs own the United States Congress.

Ninth, following the Third Reich’s Joseph Goebbels, it’s chief propagandist, the attack on the First Amendment has ramped up. Of course, Trump himself has been beating on the press for years. But now, it’s in earnest. The White House Correspondents Association has traditionally controlled what media representatives attend briefings in the White House, but now the administration has ripped away that guardrail and is now favoring the right-wing echo chamber. Just this week, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos made clear where he stands and, along with spiking a presidential endorsement last year, he is making the Post’s opinion pages reflect the libertarian agenda. Real journalists are jumping ship. It’s probably the start of a campaign to shape the media to his will. And the BigMedia is also helping with its bread and circuses celebrity worship having been in place for years.

Tenth, there are actually two endgames. As we watch Elon Musk and the Trump administration dismantle other government departments, we have to realize that these libertarian oligarchs know some services are indispensable; e.g. air traffic control, NOAA and some public health functions. Don’t be fooled. These people are not stupid. Their plan will be to privatize these essential services so only those with wealth can afford them. The current moves are telegraphing this corruption with Musk already having billions in government contracts and reaching for more, such as the air traffic control program. Look for others to cash in. Musk and Bezos will benefit from space exploration and IT contracts. Koch Industries will benefit from mineral and fossil fuel extraction, And, so it goes. As for the regulatory programs to prevent pollution and other deleterious effects from industry, those will be destroyed.

The second end game is a Convention of the States under Article V of the United States Constitution to roll back our foundational document to the 1850s. It will leave only two functions for government — militarized law enforcement and national defense. Those priorities explain why police departments have been militarized over the past seven decades and why Trump is filling up the Pentagon and the military with loyalists. When enough people wake up and start resisting and rioting, the federal government and police forces are not only prepared but also will have aid from the right-wing militias.

Finally, I have yet to see or hear anyone proposing a way to resist and save our democracy.

Fundamentalist interpretaion of the Bible is Christo-fascist propaganda

 “The madman shouted in the marketplace and no one stopped to answer him. Thus it was confirmed that his thesis was incontrovertible,” Dag Hammarskjöld in 1957, “Markings” 1963.

Once again, Jim Graff, head honcho at Faith Family Church, plays loose and fast with some facts, this time about Charles Darwin and his work on evolution. Graff paints Darwin as a student for the Anglican ministry and that Darin later renounced his Christianity. But Darwin’s family were Unitarians and Darwin failed the entrance exam for the priest track at Christ College, Cambridge. Darwin never sought to be a clergyman. Graff is  launching an outright attack on Darwin, enlightenment, scientific thought and evolution.

“This man, Charles Darwin, later became the father of evolutionary thought and led many away from the faith he had once cherished," Graff asserts, making Darwin, science and intellect enemies of Christo-fascism.

It’s a common propaganda tactic to use literal interpretations of the Bible to misguide those who have healthy intellects. It is a purposeful lie about history and the Bible. If this fundamentalist outlook stays in its lane instead of trying to use the Bible to reject the scientific method and impose its views on others through our government, we’d be safe from the right-wing harm. But in his flock are some with influence and indoctrinating them with an anti-science world view is dangerous. So is pushing these beliefs into the public sphere. The managing editor of the local daily newspaper and our district’s representative in U.S. Congress are part of Graff’s flock. The managing editor has played coy on his politics, but he outed himself in his introductory column and has shaped the Victoria Advocate in his own image. Rep. Michael Cloud has made no secret of his political leanings. I have to wonder if these men are members of the Flat Earth Society.

Literalists believe that Christian faith and science are incompatible. They reject evolution and therefore believe God created the universe and Earth in six 24-hour days. In doing so, for example, the claim that Eve was made from Adam’s rib or the flood and Noah’s story are real events in history. These challenge the records of fossils, dendrochronology, carbon dating and other metrics. It’s a wonder that they even go to the doctor or use any of our modern conveniences.

However, there are ways to resolve this seeming conundrum. First is to recognize that there are various interpretations of the Bible. Second, that the Bible is more of an allegory than precise historical record. Third, explanations of natural phenomena were filtered through their era’s knowledge.

“Inherit the Wind,” the 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is important because it debunks the literalism of the Bible. It’s based on the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee. State law forbade teaching of “any theory that denies the story of Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”

Sound familiar? It should —- as the right-wing pushes fundamentalist Christianity into public schools here in Texas and throughout the nation. Can Graff, his flock and other fundamentalist churches deny their Christian Nationalism and their backing of a Christian curriculum?
 

“Inherit the Wind” rebuts biblical literalism using the Bible itself. In Genesis, the Bible states that God created light and darkness on the first day but the the sun and stars on the fourth day, but that meant the prior days could have millions of years in length. That clearly tells me the literalists are misguided. I doubt the Christian Nationalist curriculum will make the play or the two movies of “Inheret the Wind” part of the lesson plans. After all, critical thinking is dangerous to those who seek to control us and how we think.

It is some irony that I wrote this while watching a streamed service from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, my former parish in Amarillo. Bible literalism always brings to mind a prayer in our baptism liturgy asking God to grace our baptized “[With] ... an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.”

And this is exactly what the play is about according to Jerome Lawrence. The play was not about science versus religion; it was to push back against McCarthyism. According to Lawrence, "we used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control [...] It's not about science versus religion. It's about the right to think,” as summarized in Wikipedia.

And thinking, critical or otherwise, is an anathema to the right-wing Christo-fascist oligarchy. Why? Because if the populace is educated and thinks critically, the lies and propaganda will be debunked and we have a chance for our to follow the teachings of Christ instead of perverting his message. We need to reject these lies and do that now.