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Ellen Thomas's avatar

"There is no conservative philosophical attachment to freedom or liberty any more than there is an integralist or populist love of the common good.

There is only power."

So well said. Thank you.

I want to draw attention to a really alarming discussion I listened to yesterday. After listening to JVL and Sarah on the Secret Show discussing the Ottawa Trucker situation, which Ron DeSantis, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are all cheering, along with their mouthpieces on Fox, I tuned into another Never Trump, former Republican podcast I like, "Politicology."

Now, I don't want to be the kind of person who spreads conspiracy theories on the Internet, but Mike Madrid, long-time Republican operative, has an interpretation that really made me sit up straight. "I don't believe this is a social movement at all. I believe this is a paid operation.... There is something far more nefarious behind this than just a handful of people misbehaving. There is a very serious conflict that is taking place in Ottawa right now that is heavily funded, extremely sophisticated, and I would suggest it is probably heavily armed...There's an operation happening here that could be potentially extremely explosive, and I don't believe it's just a handful of cranks and militia members... These movements are happening in different parts of Europe...because this stuff is orchestrated in a very sophisticated transnational political operation being run by countries that have a vested interest in the destabilization of these countries."

Here's a link, starting with his comments, but the earlier conversation is worth a listen, too.

https://overcast.fm/+kdRKiqmtA/34:04

I really hope there's nothing to this, but, to requote JVL, "There is only power."

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SandyG's avatar

Coupla' comments: 1. It could be both social movement and paid operation, like the Tea Party of the early Obama years. 2. As I read "a sophisticated transnational political operation" I was nearly expecting you to say "run by Jews." 3. JVL's quote was about how the integralist / common-good conservatives view the world, not how JVL views the world.

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Ellen Thomas's avatar

Your reaction to #2–the problem is my excerpting. He is talking about authoritarian governments, specifically Putin.

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SandyG's avatar

Got it.

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Feb 12, 2022
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Ellen Thomas's avatar

After I posted the above, I was reading The Guardian’s Long Reads. Their feature from the archive is a really stunning story from 2015 about the secret meeting between Thatcher and Murdoch in the early 80s, which smoothed the way for his purchase of TheTimes, apparently in exchange for political support for the Thatcher government. When the story of this time is told, Rupert Murdoch will be one of the most important people in the long attack on democracy around the English-speaking world.

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Feb 12, 2022
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JF's avatar

I read something similar today in The Atlantic, making the case that the caution the Canadian government is exercising in dealing with this group is important and necessary to avoid something catastrophic. Scary times.

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