I'm reading Jeremy Peters' book Insurgency, on the descent of the Republican Party into a cynical nightmare starting with Sarah Palin (even though strands of this started earlier), and something from the book about Palin seems to parallel this whole stupidity with Vance. Peters talks about how Palin made inflammatory and false statement…
I'm reading Jeremy Peters' book Insurgency, on the descent of the Republican Party into a cynical nightmare starting with Sarah Palin (even though strands of this started earlier), and something from the book about Palin seems to parallel this whole stupidity with Vance. Peters talks about how Palin made inflammatory and false statements about "death panels" in the ACA on social media (yes, this is the same woman who recently tried to sue the NYT for libel). Fact checkers called her out, President Obama called her out, lots of institutions called her out and corrected what was a malicious lie. But this only amounted to elites trying to correct the record, and elites are not to be trusted.
The very fact that Palin was fact checked by authoritative institutions gave her lies credibility with her minions. And this dynamic has played out repeatedly in the decade and a half since the 2008 election, where politicians on the right can say or do anything without any meaningful consequences, and no accountability from voters in gerrymandered districts. Republican voters are literally dropping dead to give a middle finger to mainstream institutions during a pandemic. Not sure how this gets fixed.
And I wouldn't be surprised if this anti-vax and consequential deaths were orchestrated by Russian cyber propaganda. The same Russians who it as been shown influenced the striking truck drivers. The online impetus has been shown to be coming from servers in Asia and eastern Europe.
According to Demtech, a feature of the Centre for Democracy and Technology at Oxford University, UK, it definitely *is* Russia--and China and Iran--behind the tsunami of Covid denial and anti-vax militancy. The funniest part is that I read in the Moscow Times awhile back that expressing those sentiments inside Russia will get you jail time. No doubt in China and Iran too.
We are just too naive. In an ideal world, the country would unite to push back against this propaganda, but instead, you have conservatives rallying around anything Russia does. Remember when it was exposed that Russian propagandists were working to get Trump elected and his supporters were waving signs thanking Russia.
It's gotten really serious really fast. A friend from OK told me that her very Christian family supports Trump as a President for life. For them America is no longer a country that represses the wrong thinking people. I'm sure jailing people who tell inconvenient truths is right up there ally.
I used to think it was hyperbole to call Trump the Manchurian Candidate. Now I think the only difference is the guy in the movie was brainwashed while Trump is just effing stupid.
He might be stupid, but his handlers aren't. Nor are his enablers like McConnell, Ronna, etc. They know exactly what they're doing. I'm beginning to think that Garland might be one of them. I really, really hope I'm wrong.
I might be reading too many articles on The Hill, Politicus and others, but I would think that Trump's secreting classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, tearing up documents at his desk, and the like are clear violations of at least one federal law, violations that Trump has acknowledged. I understand the need for deliberation and taking one's time. The problem is we're running out of time. The election is coming too fast. Unless something happens to discredit Trump and his ilk big time and SOON, his enablers will win in November.
I know. When you see how narrow the vote margins are, you'd think the Republican pols would be more careful about the health of their constituents. I read that the vast majority of deaths are the unvaccinated and that 90 something percent of the them voted Republican.
I'm reading Jeremy Peters' book Insurgency, on the descent of the Republican Party into a cynical nightmare starting with Sarah Palin (even though strands of this started earlier), and something from the book about Palin seems to parallel this whole stupidity with Vance. Peters talks about how Palin made inflammatory and false statements about "death panels" in the ACA on social media (yes, this is the same woman who recently tried to sue the NYT for libel). Fact checkers called her out, President Obama called her out, lots of institutions called her out and corrected what was a malicious lie. But this only amounted to elites trying to correct the record, and elites are not to be trusted.
The very fact that Palin was fact checked by authoritative institutions gave her lies credibility with her minions. And this dynamic has played out repeatedly in the decade and a half since the 2008 election, where politicians on the right can say or do anything without any meaningful consequences, and no accountability from voters in gerrymandered districts. Republican voters are literally dropping dead to give a middle finger to mainstream institutions during a pandemic. Not sure how this gets fixed.
And I wouldn't be surprised if this anti-vax and consequential deaths were orchestrated by Russian cyber propaganda. The same Russians who it as been shown influenced the striking truck drivers. The online impetus has been shown to be coming from servers in Asia and eastern Europe.
According to Demtech, a feature of the Centre for Democracy and Technology at Oxford University, UK, it definitely *is* Russia--and China and Iran--behind the tsunami of Covid denial and anti-vax militancy. The funniest part is that I read in the Moscow Times awhile back that expressing those sentiments inside Russia will get you jail time. No doubt in China and Iran too.
We are just too naive. In an ideal world, the country would unite to push back against this propaganda, but instead, you have conservatives rallying around anything Russia does. Remember when it was exposed that Russian propagandists were working to get Trump elected and his supporters were waving signs thanking Russia.
It's gotten really serious really fast. A friend from OK told me that her very Christian family supports Trump as a President for life. For them America is no longer a country that represses the wrong thinking people. I'm sure jailing people who tell inconvenient truths is right up there ally.
I used to think it was hyperbole to call Trump the Manchurian Candidate. Now I think the only difference is the guy in the movie was brainwashed while Trump is just effing stupid.
He's a perfect stooge for neo fascist movement.
He might be stupid, but his handlers aren't. Nor are his enablers like McConnell, Ronna, etc. They know exactly what they're doing. I'm beginning to think that Garland might be one of them. I really, really hope I'm wrong.
Why? Seriously, I haven't heard anything. What makes you think that?
I might be reading too many articles on The Hill, Politicus and others, but I would think that Trump's secreting classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, tearing up documents at his desk, and the like are clear violations of at least one federal law, violations that Trump has acknowledged. I understand the need for deliberation and taking one's time. The problem is we're running out of time. The election is coming too fast. Unless something happens to discredit Trump and his ilk big time and SOON, his enablers will win in November.
The "literally dropping dead" part might be part of the fix.
I know. When you see how narrow the vote margins are, you'd think the Republican pols would be more careful about the health of their constituents. I read that the vast majority of deaths are the unvaccinated and that 90 something percent of the them voted Republican.