G.F. Brandenburg cites Jared Yates Sexton’s “American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the a World But Failed Its People.”
I am not sure what part of the essay is Sexton and what part is Brandenburg. It almost doesn’t matter because the point is well made, that MAGA is a fascist movement. Trump’s many references to his genetic superiority, to “good blood,” “good bloodline” are unsubtle references to a fascistic philosophy of white supremacy. Sexton is a writer who has drawn the ire of the MAGA crowd. Sexton learned that if you correctly name Trump’s racist, anti-Semitic tweets, you can expect to be called a dirty Jew (he is a southern Baptist).
Considering Trump believes in inherent superiority and has shown himself as an unrepentant white supremacist you need to understand that fascism can exist without uniforms, torch-lit rallies, military insignia, and overt displays of fascism.
It is a philosophy, a worldview.
When we’re talking about walls against immigrants, we’re talking about protecting against “the rising tide of color against white supremacy.”
We’re talking about protecting white people, who are inherently “superior” from stock that would hurt their blood and culture.
When we’re talking about “Make America Great Again,” we’re talking about reaffirming white supremacy in our laws and culture.
We’re talking about white supremacy in action and in practice as the right and true nature of the world and in defeating attacks against it.
Trump’s politics shares a direct “bloodline” with the politics of Lindbergh and white supremacist authoritarians. It even uses the same phrases, the same stances, the same philosophy of how the world works and that some are inherently better than others.
That…is fascism.
These things are glaringly obvious when you know the history. You can hear what Trump is saying, what he’s hinting toward with remarks about Ford and bloodlines and “good people.”
It is a worldview that is inherently prejudiced and inherently white supremacist.
The problem is that American history is scrubbed clean of its fascistic and white supremacist elements in its common teaching.
This is on purpose and it is meant to propel the myth of American Exceptionalism and hide our generations’ of crimes.
And when American history is scrubbed clean of its crimes and stains, what happens is that the myth grows into a political and secular religion.
That’s what Trumpism is. A concentrated and dedicated fight to protect white supremacy and the altered reality that aids it.
Make no mistake, fascism is not relegated to an aberration in the 20th century in Europe.
Fascism is part of the human condition and can happen anywhere, including America, which has a rich and frightening fascist history.
Unfortunately, we’re seeing that now.
You have to learn this history, the real history of America, to understand where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.
There’s nothing innocuous about Trump, Trumpism, or this fascistic rhetoric. It’s a call to our past and unfortunately our future.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump knows almost no science, obviously. This is the main who wanted to send astronauts to the sun and who suggested that people might inject disinfectants to get rid of the virus that causes Covid-19, which he, in his racist way, referred to for months as “the China virus.” He hasn’t the understanding of science of a third grader, but he does hold this completely scientifically discredited view of whites as superior person based on their “good genes,” which, of course, the American eugenicists and the Nazis held. We now know, for example, that the twin studies that found high heritability rates for IQ did not, as those conducting them thought, control for genetic endowment because genetic inheritance is not entirely innate but, rather, is strongly affected by environmental factors. Factors in the environment affect gene expression, and the science of this, which is recent, is called epigenetics. Furthermore, race is largely a cultural concept and has very, very little genetic underpinning. But it’s not suprising that people as ignorant as Trump is might hold to the scientifically discredited older view.
And, Trump has held this view for a long, long time. He can be heard in old clips of interviews referring to what he calls his “racehorse theory” about female models, for example, that some result from good breeding, and he often makes this thoroughly disgusting observation with regard to his own daughter. So, a Nazi and a sexist and . . . lord, this is too disgusting even to write about.
And now we have heavily armed brownshirts in the streets, just as in Germany in 1933.
People who think that it can’t happen here are sorely mistaken. Trump has recently taken strong moves to place himself in charge of the DOJ, the chief law enforcement vehicle of the federal government, and the intelligence services, via the recent appointment of an extreme Trump loyalists to be Director of National Intelligence. He has fired watchdogs, placed his sycophants in charge, gone after whistleblowers. He’s consolidating power. And, of course, he both has a majority on the Supreme Court and has the potential to be able to appoint yet another justice before January 2021.
I’m really worried about all this. This article is very, very important. Thank you, Diane, for posting it.
“almost” in your first sentence gives too much credit. Somewhat related to this, I encourage everyone to watch the program on Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, that premiered on FX this past Friday. The so-called pro-life movement is fascist adjacent. One of the “religious” hucksters who exploited her recalls taking great pleasure from a rally they did in in which they burned “the homosexual flag [and] the Koran.” Book burnings and the banning of them in schools is a clear fascist trait.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/jane-roe-norma-mccorvey-confession-anti-abortion.html
Also, I posted this for you the other day, not sure if you saw it:
Wow, Greg. This is astonishing!
And his line, “Death needs time for what it kills to grow in” takes on added prescience and significance as we hopefully live through the pandemic.
Oh, I love this album and have been listening to it for almost thirty years.
“It’s the little things that make a future so easy to destroy.”
Was made aware of a quote today by composer Nino Rota that sums up why music is so important now: “When I’m creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but – the eternal dilemma – how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I’d do everything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That’s what’s at the heart of my music.”
That Trump is unaware of epigenetics, i.e., evolutionary changes w/n just a generation or 2 due to environmental influence– let alone the minuscule DNA contribution to racial differences– does not make him unusual, even among rather well-educated people. What distinguishes Trump among other potential governmental leaders is his lack of curiosity/ interest in keeping up w/scientific developments [the very definition of the undereducated], combined [baked in] w/overweening confidence in the ‘gut instincts’ — unsupported by evidence– that inform his opinions/ convictions.
That combo alone is bad enough: it puts him on the same plane as countless lowclass commonfolk who never rise to political prominence– but comprise a voting bloc that, given decades of economic downturn at the hands of well-educated highclass politicians, have decided someone like themselves could do a better job [hence his elevation to political leadership]. But even a mediocre, undereducated, instinctual guy suddenly emerging as leader might have the sense to surround himself w/experts experienced in govt & other sciences.
Unfortunately we have to add to that combo Trump’s sleazy, mobby biz experience & hunger for uberdemocratic power & paranoia re public image, thus the need to surround himself w/lying sycophants. So we don’t get the benefit of any brains whatsoever to prop up this pathetic excuse for a president. What you see is all that you get.
There’s a big sinkhole at Mar-a-Lago.
Let that sink in.
Donnie is our president
Although he did not win
A popular plurality,
And that is just a sin.
Ask me what I think of him.
Oh, where do I begin?
He’s a freaking hero to
The skinhead Aryans.
It ought to be a clue that he
Has such great popularity
With skinhead Aryans.
Wink wink it’s not an accident
That one so twisted and so bent
Should be a freaking hero to
The skinhead Aryans.
Yes. That is why dismissing Trump as stupid, ignorant, baffoonish, and incompetent is dangerous. If an American version of a fascistic state is the goal, he has been remarkably successful and competent.
Hitler was also, justifiably, dismissed as a buffoon. And he was. His writing was atrocious–full of nonsequiturs and long, rambling digressions. He drove his officials crazy with his bizarre, random, crazy decisions and his extreme laziness. Sound familiar? Hitler had his Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, an educated but very, very evil man to write his speeches for him. Trump has his Goebbels in Stephen Miller. But what the examples of Hitler and Trump both show is that given the right circumstances, even a buffoon–in Trump’s case, even a long-term criminal and conman in orange clown makeup–can fire up the rabble, consolidate power, and do enormous damage.
Well said, Bob. From the beginning of Trump’s presidency, I worried about the extent to which people dismissed Trump as simply a clown. He is that to be sure, but that does not mitigate his dangerousness. I’ve read any number of books over the years–most recently Ron Chernow’s biography of the Warburg family–that told the same story: people in Germany regarded Hitler as a clown who would disappear into the dumpster of history.
And then he wasn’t, and it was too late to do anything about him. I think we should, as you say, regard Trump as the danger to democracy, the republican form of government, and even to simple decency. How much more need he show us?
I see the same stuff happening here right now. People not realizing how bad it is and how dangerous this man is. It’s easy to hide one’s head in the sand. I had a girlfriend whose mother’s entire family was turned into smoke and ashes by the Nazis. The mother, the sole survivor, told me that in her village in Czechoslovakia, they had heard stories about the Nazi atrocities but didn’t believe them or didn’t want to believe them, until, that is, the Nazis showed up with their dogs.
“Stephen Miller equates to Goebbels”. To whom do William Barr and Leonard Leo equate?
Franz Gürtner and Alfred Rosenberg, respectively.
Actually, on second thought, Barr has the demeanor of Gürtner and the weasel-like commitment and obsequiousness of Roland Freisler.
Thanks Greg- JSTOR’s archived article about Grutner, “Legal Order as Motive and Mask”. And, in another article about Grutner, “The will of the Fuhrer is the source of law.”
Fascism is a symptom of global problems as many governments currently are leaning right. Trump would not be in office unless many voters agreed with him. One reason people are agreeing with Trump’s twisted world view is that many countries are facing economic crises and the arrival of climate-conflict refugees. Migrants are an easy target for scapegoating. Climate change is an existential threat to democracy. The world has always had people with fascist beliefs, but they represent a fringe group in better times. When there is turmoil, fascists resurface ready to recruit and spew hate everywhere.
Putin, Bolsonaro, Modi, Duterte, Kim, MBS, and many more, now–all fascist leaders of the kind Trump aspires to be, and in Europe we’ve seen the shocking and disturbing emergence of extreme right-wing factions in almost every country, of late. Why? What exactly is happening here? I wish I knew.
I can’t say exactly, but part of the problem is that the US is a bully. Other countries have resources (oil, gold etc) that the US needs/wants at a cheap price. We like to go in and tell other countries how to set up their government structure so that we are free to trade (actually pillage) those resources for little money. Lots of trade deals(steals….actually). The money that these smaller countries receive drives lots of government graft for the already wealthy but society doesn’t benefit much at all because the US isn’t really concerned about the “society” of that country. When gov’t is rotten to the core, society suffers and it causes major disruption. I have a nephew who is a FSO and has lived all over the world working for US Embassies….I believe what he tells me.
LisaM, this could well serve as a capsule history of U.S. foreign policy for from the early twentieth century to today.
The essence of colonialism.is using others for your own wealth and benefit. Many western countries are guilty of the same selfish policies. Now that China has money, it has emerged as a colonial power along with Russia.
imperialism/colonialism only changes its name here and there to hide its purposes: the masses want their booty and refuse to see how it is attained
Isn’t it strange that Trump has insulted our democratic allies and cozied up to the world’s dictators and fascists?
As usual, you nailed it. Totally bizarre.
Trump has done just what his handlers in Moscow wanted him to do–undermined the NATO alliance and a united Europe and supported emerging fascist, nationalist movements there. MAGA = Moscow’s Asset Governing America.
With hindsight, I don’t think it’s strange that he cozied up to other fascist leaders. He found expression of long-held beliefs–there is anecdotal evidence provided by his first wife that he was fascinated by Hitler–in his linkage with Bannon. Linking up with them is a logical tactic to realize a policy of destroying “the administrative state.”
I highly recommend the Frontline documentary “Zero Tolerance.” It details how Bannon, Sessions, and Stephen Miller (an aide to Sessions at the time) looked around for an extremist to carry their white supremacist agenda forward and settled on Trump. Truly horrific, and great reporting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW4kQ4akZ1A
It is or should be so VERY obvious but the pied piper can lead people astray – until it is too late and once humpty dumpty has that great fall ….
As Rick Steves pointed out also on his program on fascism in Europe, if it can happen in Germany it can happen anywhere. The land of Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven etc and it happened there.
Too, PBS had a documentary on the playbook of Fascist leaders. It should be obvious what is happening. Tragically when this was pointed out to a friend he could not see the connection. this was a college graduate and he is not the only one.
When such a person appears people follow blindly. The religious leader, I forget his name but his followers all drank poison, committed suicide
and
that is what happens in cases like this
but
just TRY to educate people whose minds have already been made up, the Patty Hearst’s of society.
Trump said he could stand in the street and shoot someone and his followers would still follow him. Sadly I think that is true in way too many cases.
Worst of all in my view are those who profess Christianity and still support Trump who is the very antithesis of EVERYTHING that Jesus ever taught.
You are thinking of Jim Jones and his “People’s Temple.”
Gordon: It is or should be so VERY obvious but the pied piper can lead people astray – until it is too late and once humpty dumpty has that great fall. ….
I hope Trumpy has that great fall…right into prison with NO pardons. That is the only thing he is worthy of getting.
He can’t be pardoned for state crimes. He knows this and is scared to death about it. He faces spending the rest of his sick life in prison, so he’s desperate and will do anything.
I posted the following comment here on August 4, 2018. Seems like a good place to repost here. I am pleased that G.F. Brandenburg tied this to the bogus concept of American Exceptionalism, the direct descendant of Manifest Destiny and its other offspring, the Hitlerian principle of Lebensraum:
Immediately after the election I posted a summary of a review I wrote about an essay by Isaiah Berlin on Joseph de Maistre. Here is the full piece. It ties into the subject of this post and hopefully provides some insight into the fascist mindset that is on the rise again throughout the globe:
Maistre was the intellectual father on modern fascism. I doubt that 20th and 21st century fascist leaders and politicians—even the current American incarnation—ever heard of him, but his ideas form the core of modern day reactionary political systems. Born in the Savoy kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1753, his views were strongly influenced by the experiences of the French Revolution. He served the king of Sardinia, first gaining prominence as a pamphleteer and later as envoy to Russia—the king wanted both to control and keep him as far away as possible—where he lived from 1803 to 1817 before being summoned home until his death in 1821.
Maistre strongly opposed the liberal thinkers of the 18th century with a counter-intuitive empiricism. “In place of the ideals of progress, liberty, perfectibility he preached the sacredness of the past, the virtue, and the necessity, indeed, of complete subjection, because of the incurably bad and corrupt nature of man. In place of science, he preached the primacy of instinct, superstition, prejudice. In place of optimism, pessimism. In place of eternal harmony and eternal peace, the necessity—for him the divine necessity—of conflict, of suffering, of bloodshed, of war.” He saw killing as a virtue, extrapolating the killing of animals for man’s benefits (from food to clothing to luxury) to the primal need for society to live in fear of the “hangman,” which, intellectually, is not far removed from contemporary rhetoric about “law and order.” Moreover, war is a good for society because it acts as an organizing force. The Church, Catholic in his case, does the same. Since, as Berlin articulates Maistre, “Man is by nature vicious, wicked, cowardly and bad…unless clamped with iron rings and held down by means of the most rigid discipline” he “need[s] to be curbed and controlled.”
Moreover, Maistre believed that irrationality—“the only things which last”—not rationality, explained how society behaved. “For example, he says, take the institution of hereditary monarchy: What could be more irrational?…Here is an institution of patently idiotic nature, for which no good reason can be given, yet it lasts…But far more rational, far more logical and reasonable, would be to abolish such a monarchy and see what happens.” Maistre felt the same about marriage, reasoning the irrationality of a couple falling in love and then staying together because of historical tradition. “So he goes on, from institution to institution, paradoxically asserting that whatever is irrational lasts, and that whatever is rational collapses; it collapses because anything which is constructed by reason can be pulverised by reason…The only thing which can ever dominate man is impenetrable mystery.”
Prejudice is, according Maistre, a virtue because it is “merely the beliefs of the centuries, tested by experience.” Scientists “are the people who have the least capacity for understanding life, and for government…[because] science [has a] dry, abstract, unconcrete nature, something about the fact that it is divorced from the crooked, chaotic, the irrational texture of life with all its darkness, which makes scientists incapable of adapting themselves to actual facts, and anyone listening to them is automatically doomed.” He advised the Russian czar to ban German Lutherans from entering his country because “Good men—family men, men who have traditions, faith, religion, respectable morals—do not leave their countries. Only the feckless and the restless and the critical do so. This is,” as Berlin makes clear, “the first real sermon against refugees, against freedom of spirit, against the circulation of humanity…”
Maistre was, unsurprisingly, a great admirer of Napoleon. The King of Sardinia explicitly prohibited Maistre from meeting with Napoleon because he feared the consequences of what might come out of such an encounter. And although Maistre’s views were largely confined to elites and he was much forgotten after his death, his ideas predicted the worst of the 20th century and still informs how we should view demagogues and their followers today. According to Berlin, “Maistre earns our gratitude as a prophet of the most violent, the most destructive forces which have threatened and still threaten the liberty and ideals of normal human beings.”
For those who question how the Putinism, Trumpism, fundamentalist religion, and extreme terrorism can flourish today, it might be worth learning more about Maistre. They probably won’t like what they see and read, but they’ll be better able to understand why these movements exist and why the defenders of liberal democracy (writ small) must never become complacent.
Another link from the past:
https://dianeravitch.net/2017/01/21/peter-dreier-trumps-speech-exemplifies-fascism/
Outstanding piece, Greg!!! Thank you for reposting it! It’s difficult for others who are not like these fascist personalities to grok how those people think. To the fascist, there are no ideals, there is only raw power, who claws to the top and seizes control of state violence to enforce his or her will. I thought of this when reading William Barr’s recent comments when he was challenged about his aggressive defenses of Trump: “History is written by the winners,” Barr said. It’s all about the power. About who wins and who loses. Trump’s theme as well. He’s a “winner.” Anyone who opposes him is a “loser.”
Just a niggle, I guess… While I agree re: Trump/ MAGA underpinnings, I’m skeptical about assigning so much historical weight to Henry Ford. Perhaps historians will correct me or back me up, I’m just a layman who read The Great Trials of Clarence Darrow (McCrae) & was struck by the widespread intransigeant bigotry that was well-ensconced in our country in the early 20thC everywhere but in a few coastal pockets, no doubt long present & fanned by industrial revolution, Euro immigration wave, the great migration. These repulsive attitudes were hardly something new that Ford picked up on the Peace Ship and propagated to innocent Americans.
The remark the Idiot made about Ford and linking it to “bloodlines” was distinct and intentional code, a loud fascist dog whistle if you will, to American Nazis, especially with the SPLC-identified groups in Michigan. It was put there, I’m willing to bet all of what little I have on it, by Bannon and Miller. And Ford linkage is important because he funded these movements up to an through the organizing of America First pre-WWII isolationism. He was the Koch Brother’s funding mechanism of his day.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-america-first/514037/
Thanks for that input, Greg.
Exactly, Greg!
Bethree, Ford wasn’t just another American bigot. He was an aggressive proselytizer for the Nazis, for antisemitism, and for eugenics–so aggressive that he was awarded by Hitler Germany’s highest civilian honor. Ford used his newspaper, the Dearborne Independent, as a vehicle to spread his hateful, white supremacist views.
cx: Dearborn
The distance between Dearborn and inner city Detroit is so short, but they are universes apart.
Premiering on PBS Tonight!
Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations
https://www.pbs.org/show/viral-antisemitism-four-mutations/
OK–it’s not hard to stipulate to this. The “bloodlines” comment about Ford–a towering and voluble anti-Semite who financed the publication of the scurrilous “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is a new low, even for Trump.
Exactly, Mark!!! I would bet a month of paydays that Stephen “Goebbels” Miller penned it for him.
By coincidence, I prepared a reading and worksheet on Henry Ford this morning, so this stuff is, uh, fresh in my mind. And Trump’s purpose–and this is where you’re dead on, Bob, about Stephen Miller’s hand in this, I’m afraid to day–in invoking Ford’s “bloodline,” for anyone who knows this history, is hard to miss. Maybe I should get that material out front at Mark’s Text Terminal.
We live in toweringly creepy times.
This piece by Mr. Brandenburg is extremely important. As Diane shows in her book The Language Police, textbooks are heavily censored to present a Pollyanna view of American history. Much of it, including the history that Mr. Brandenburg relates here, is scrubbed, WHITE-washed. And this is an obscenity, for we can’t learn the lessons of history and keep these horrors from happening again unless we know about the horrors in the first place. Trump is a neo-Nazi, and he’s profoundly ignorant. I doubt he knows much about the Henry Ford–Hitler connection, which is truly horrifying, about how IBM collaborated with the Nazis and supplied them with the machines they used to keep track of the genocide, about George Prescott Bush, the banker and then Senator, who loaned Hitler money early in his regime, about the U.S. foundations and philanthropists who funded the Eugenics Research Office on Long Island that published a proposal to euthanize the bottom 10 percent of Americans, by IQ, in order to preserve the “purity” of the gene pool, about the racial quota laws that the U.S. passed and that Hitler held up as a model for the world, and much, much more. But that TRUMP, aka Dog Whistle Don, is a fascist with Nazi racial and eugenic views is ABUNDANTLY evident from his entire history and his own statements of his views. Certainly, the U.S. neo-Nazis–the Proud Boys and Aryan Nation and other such groups–recognize and celebrate Trump as one of their own. Here, a few lowlights from Trump’s history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump
GP Bush’s shenanigans are quite well documented in Kevin Phillips’s book American Theocracy
Also in Edwin Black’s magnificent The War against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race
Bob, your point about textbooks is of great interest to me. I haven’t read Language Police & will order it now. But you have much experience in this field. I’d agree that a study of the rise of fascism in the 20thC should be a key topic in hisch history, & we certainly have enough distance from it now to cover it judiciously. But how much of, say, the details covered in the posted article is too much for high-schoolers? There’s a lot of very bad news that can be uncovered in the study of 20thC American history. I learned much in college through my own reading, spurred by political events and student activism. But I was buoyed thro it by faith in democracy and conviction that my generation could improve things. Just wondering if you think there’s maybe a balance to be sought, to avoid crushing younger spirits. Also, am thinking college is the right age for it, yet students can choose to skip the subject completely – shouldn’t “Freshman History” be a thing, like “Freshman English”?
We shouldn’t begin by telling them a pack of lies. Yes, I agree that we need to stress ideals with young people. But we also need to stop lying to them. The point should be working toward a more perfect union, not that we already are or were one. In that latter direction lies American exceptionalism and ignoring a great deal of evil. It creates Trumpeteers, not people who actually believe in equality and equity and decency but put their fingers in their ears and say, “Blah blah blah blah I don’t want to hear it” when someone tells them about an American corporation hiring mercenaries to kill the indigenous in a South American country and drive them off some land so they can mine it.” For example. The current approach creates the obliviousness that gave rise to Trump.
Essential reading:
Lies My Teacher Told Me, by by James W. Loewen
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
Stolen Continents: The Americas through Indian Eyes Since 1492, by Ronald Wright
War Is a Racket, by Smedley Butler
“The point should be working toward a more perfect union, not that we already are or were one.” Yes, I think this should be the focus. It is actually very important to detail the bad stuff, but equally to show the countering progress made, & how that was accomplished– along w/ backslips & catchups, and incremental steps forward. Right now I think we’re still caught up in correcting the Pollyanna version, & that can lead if we’re not careful to an inundation of bad news that overwhelms. American historical trends need to be couched w/n & contrasted to global trends of each era. And we need to pay just as much attention – in teaching high-schoolers – to contrasting today’s social advances compared to yesteryear, & showing the role of democratic governance in effecting those changes.
If these kids can get a grasp of how democracy has effected positive social change in the past – & the specifics involved – they’ll be more likely to recognize how democratic function is being suppressed in present times, & have a sense what needs changing going forward.
I agree. Carl Bernstein of Nixon impeachment fame, calls Trumpism “a particularly American version of Fascism”. I think that is an apt way to see it.
(“American exceptionalism + jingoism + racism + ignorance of history/science/economics/basic decency) ÷ (money + selfish interests) = American fascism.
Right on!
Isn’t it amazing that there is always more money for those who are wealthy? Corporations do care about their workers./s
……………………………………………
Essential workers are losing their hazard pay even though the hazard isn’t over
Kroger and other companies provided “hero pay” to employees as the pandemic ratcheted up the risk to their safety. For many, it will end this month.
Updated May 18, 2020
…Meanwhile, some companies that employ essential workers right now have seen increased sales and boosted executive pay in recent months. Kroger, for example, saw same-store sales increase 30 percent in March as customers stocked up on groceries, according to Winsight Grocery Business. And Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen received a 21 percent increase in compensation last year, boosting his income to more than $14 million. The company has not responded to Vox’s requests for comment.
Many essential workers, by contrast, are making less than a living wage even with the increase in pay. And they urgently need more money both to pay their bills and to stay safe during the pandemic, says Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies hazard pay. For example, many low-wage workers can’t afford cars, meaning they risk exposure to the virus on public transit during their commutes to work. Millions of essential workers also lack health insurance, jeopardizing their ability to seek treatment and making any illness potentially financially devastating for them and their families. “When your employer gives you low wages,” Kinder said, “those low wages make you less resilient to the disease.”…
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/16/21258834/coronavirus-essential-workers-hazard-pay-kroger-target-covid
Although I’ve been making much the same arguments as Jared Sexton for over four decades, I am not the author of this admirable summary of the international and historical connections and among fascist groups and ideologies, culminating in MangoMussolini and his cult-like worshipers.
I love the logic of White Supremacy: “We’re white so we’re superior. In fact, we are SO superior that we insist that every single aspect of society be tilted unfairly in our direction so we can be guaranteed to win against POC.” Huh? Come again? You’re superior so everything must be tilted in your favor? In Trump’s case, it is not only fascism, but also kakistocracy — rule by the least able. He only cares about power, not merit. He doesn’t generally replace non-partisan experts in government with partisan experts — he replaces them with inept lackeys whose only purpose is to destroy the effectiveness of the government (and funnel more power & wealth to the Trump Crime Family).
You might enjoy this — https://petersironwood.com/2020/05/11/absolute-is-not-just-a-vodka/
Trump is a crook. It doesn’t seem to matter that he is found lacking in many way. It is always covered up or put out as lies.
From Axios:
Senate report finds Manafort passed sensitive campaign data to Russian intelligence officer
Highlights
Paul Manafort: The report found that the former Trump campaign chairman began working on influence operations for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and other pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs in 2004.
Manafort hired and worked closely with Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee definitively calls a “Russian intelligence officer” that served as a liaison between him and Deripaska.
On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to pass sensitive internal polling data and campaign strategy to Kilimnik. The committee was unable to determine why or what Kilimnik did with that information.
The committee did, however, obtain “some information” suggesting Kilimnik “may have been connected” to Russia’s hacking and leaking of Democratic emails.
The bottom line: “Taken as a whole, Manafort’s high level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” the committee wrote.
Roger Stone/WikiLeaks: The committee found that then-candidate Trump and senior campaign officials attempted to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks’ release of damaging emails from Roger Stone, who they believed had inside information.
2016 Trump Tower meeting: The committee found that Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive “derogatory information” that would benefit the campaign from a person he knew was connected to the Russian government, but that no information was ultimately transmitted…
https://www.axios.com/senate-intelligence-russia-interference-971619a8-a806-470a-9de6-1416220ab35b.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email