Tag: Alt-Right

Coup From The Top?

All the dangerous rhetoric by the babbling Right is getting dangerous.  The hatchet job that Trump, some mindless Congresspeople and the Right wing news is doing on the very foundation of this republic is just screaming pathetic.

Seven months ago there was an article on the Alternet site about the chances of Trump trying a coup……

American democracy is in crisis. The election of Donald Trump feels like a state of emergency made normal.

Trump has threatened violence against his political enemies. He has made clear he does not believe in the norms and traditions of American democracy — unless they serve his interests. Trump and his advisers consider a free press to be enemies of his regime. Trump repeatedly lies and has a profoundly estranged relationship with empirical reality. He uses obvious and naked racism, nativism and bigotry to mobilize his voters and to disparage entire groups of people such as Latinos and Muslims

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/leading-historian-believes-its-pretty-much-inevitable-trump-will-try-stage-coup

I found the article interesting and included in a post that I was writing…..but the author did not foresee the whole picture…..the real story is so much more fascinating…….

Tensions between the White House and Robert Mueller’s investigative team appear to be on the rise, so much so that reporters asked President Trump on Sunday night whether he’s considering firing the special counsel. “No, I’m not,” he said, per CNN. But Trump added that his legal team is “very upset” with how Mueller obtained thousands of emails from the Trump transition team—the president’s lawyers think it was unlawful, but Mueller says it was all above-board. Either way, Trump says the emails will show nothing damning because there was “no collusion whatsoever” with Russia. Details and developments:

  • Cooperation wanes: The New York Times has a front-page look at the situation, observing that the “image of cooperation has begun to fracture” between Trump’s lawyers and Mueller as the inquiry digs ever deeper into Trump’s circle. The story notes that GOP Sen. John Cornyn over the weekend became the latest prominent Republican to suggest that Mueller’s team might be biased, thanks to now-public text messages.
  • Allegations of a ‘coup’: Fox News host Jesse Watters drew attention over the weekend by suggesting that those texts may be “proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy (Trump’s) presidency,” adding, “Now, if that’s true, we have a coup on our hands in America,” per Mediaite. Guest Kellyanne Conway, appearing with a chyron of “A Coup in America?” declared that “the fix was in against Donald Trump from the beginning.”
  • Charged language: The Washington Post looks at how Fox News hosts and guests have been leading the charge against Mueller with similar language. Another common theme is to compare his tactics to those of the KGB. The story also notes that GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said on the House floor that “we are at risk of a coup d’etat in this country.”
  • It might be working: At Axios, Mike Allen suggests that the “rising conservative drumbeat” against Mueller is gaining more and more converts. As one source close to the White House puts it, “You’re starting to win over mainstream conservatives to the backlash over overreach.”
  • ‘Feedback loop’: An analysis at CNN by media writer Brian Stelter sees a “vicious circle” at play. “The TV hosts encourage Trump, then Trump supplies sound bites for their shows, and then the hosts are even more emboldened.”
  • Risky Mueller move? Mueller’s office has defended how it obtained the Trump transition emails from the General Services Administration, but Georgetown law professor Jonathan Turley argues in the Hill that it was “legally unprecedented and strategically reckless.” Turley warns that the move could come back to haunt Mueller in any later trial, if the investigation is found to have relied on contaminated evidence. (In the Times story cited earlier, legal experts disagree with the assertion that Mueller, who has wide leeway to obtain documents, did anything improper.)
  • Feeling confident: Trump is privately telling people that he expects to be exonerated relatively soon, reports CNN. The story, based on interviews with three dozen mostly anonymous sources, says Trump predicts he will have a letter from Mueller in a matter of weeks clearing him of any collusion. One person warned of a Trump “meltdown” if that doesn’t happen, which could lead to him firing Mueller.
  • Holder warning: Former Attorney General Eric Holder warned over the weekend that the president would be crossing an “ABSOLUTE RED LINE” by firing the special counsel. He called for mass protests if that happens, per the Hill.

Comparing the FBI to the KGB is ridiculous and insulting and Trump minions are playing a dangerous game……this all sounds like the groundwork being laid for martial law by Trump lackeys.

Closing Thought–10Nov17

We all have read about the horrific attack last week in the church in Texas…..20+ killed including seniors and children….and as usual the conversation was all about the ease at which guns are available in this country.

But here is another conversation that most have not heard or seen…….the blame game.

There are some like that whack case Alex Jones that is blaming the anti-fascist movement for the carnage….the antifa.

Far-right websites and conspiracy theorists have promoted conspiracy theories alleging a mass shooting suspect was an anti-fascist activist in the wake of a deadly attack that left 26 people dead in a Texas church.

……..

Far-right forums and websites wasted little time ascribing the blame to anti-fascists (also known as Antifa), sharing a doctored image of the suspected shooter holding up a flag that read “anti-fascist action”.

Alex Jones, who heads the InfoWars conspiracy website, tweeted a video clip from his show on Wednesday in which he alleged Kelley was linked to Antifa. Jones described the alleged assailant as “an atheist [paedophile] obsessed with death” who “matches classic Antifa profile”.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/pushes-conspiracy-theories-texas-attack-171107220808987.html

These alt-Right Trump boot lickers are a bit much…….Trump can do no wrong…..when they should be telling the world that he can do NO right.

If you believe that crap then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I will sell you…..dirt cheap.

Time for me to back out and start my Veterans Day celebration…..please take a moment out of your weekend to remember all those Americans who died in service to their country…..thanx…..chuq

History Of The Alt-Right

Since the last election the word of the year has been the “alt-Right”……ever growing more popular every time someone opens the mouth and spouts some crap……but where in the name of God did this bunch of half brain weasels come from?

Do you know where this crap originated?

All interesting ideas and maybe I can help the more intellectual of of my readers explain the phenom…..if that is possible.

The alt-right is likely to grow, gaining a firmer foothold in American politics (dammit)

In recent months, far-right activists — which some have labeled the “alt-right” — have gone from being an obscure, largely online subculture to a player at the very center of American politics.

Long relegated to the cultural and political fringe, alt-right activists were among the most enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump. Earlier this year, Breitbart executive Steve Bannon declared the website “the platform for the alt-right.” By August, Bannon was appointed the CEO of the Trump campaign. In the wake of Trump’s victory, he’ll be joining Trump in the White House as a senior advisor.

Source: History of the alt-right: The movement isn’t just Breitbart and white nationalists — it’s worse – Salon.com

Please tell me It was a bit of help in this jungle of stupid we have nowadays in DC.

Did I help?

If so then we need to see that this group goes no further than the dust that will be 2017.

Closing Thought–04Oct17

Who Is The Alt-Right?

A new term that has appeared on the American political landscape…..alt-Right.

Basically is an attempt by some to give the hate mongers like KKK, Neo-Nazis, skin heads, et al a more respectable title.

Call them what we may a hate filled douche is a hate filled douche.

But if you are interested then I have a source for you…..

With the rise in public visibility of far-right-wing militants in the U.S. following the events in Charlottesville, much of the public is scrambling to understand just what this movement is and what forces are driving it. With much of the public discussing strategies for how best to fight right-wing extremism, the need for constructive solutions is greater than ever.

First and foremost, it’s important to point out that public support for far-right extremists is miniscule. The vast majority of Americans reject this movement’s violence and hatred. According to a Marist survey from the summer of 2017, just 4 percent of Americans said they support “white supremacy movement” or “white nationalism.” Similarly, just 6 percent embraced the term “alt-right.” Still, there is a legitimate concern that support for right-wing bigotry may grow in the future if left unchecked.

Source: Who Are the “Alt-Right”? – The Unz Review

Hopefully that filled in some blanks for people that were not sure what the Hell was meant when alt-Right is used.

Why Do They Hate So?

For decades now the Right has had a hard on for higher education.  They take every opportunity to degrade anyone with an advanced degree as some sort of elitist.

The burning question is why do conservatives hate higher education?  I have my thoughts but I am usual a bit harsh…..but someone has to have a good idea where higher education became such a negative force in our society.

Conservatives don’t like professors. When conservative Republicans were asked to gauge their feelings about college professors, over half gave a “cold” response, while only 24% were “warm”. I experience that disdain in the comments that conservatives make to my columns, where the word “professor” itself is a taunt, a curse.

Conservatives don’t like the institutions where professors work. A recent Pew poll found that only 29% of conservative Republicans thought that colleges and universities have a positive impact on our country.

Republican politicians encourage these views. Betsy DeVos, the new Secretary of Education, was explicit in her condemnation of professors as she was being confirmed: “The faculty, from adjunct professors to deans, tell you what to do, what to say, and more ominously, what to think. They say that if you voted for Donald Trump, you’re a threat to the university community.”

Source: Why Conservatives Don’t Like Higher Ed – LA Progressive

At what point will this continue?  There are many incidents in history where the first people to be deposed by an authoritarian regime are the educated and community leaders.

Hope do these people hope to gain by demonizing the educated?

We Are Better Than This

Surely everyone knows about the mash-up in Virginia this past weekend…..it illustrated that the fights of the 1950-‘s and 60’s are still being fought …..that issues from the past have never gone away.

I read a good op-ed entitled…”We Are Better Than This”…..

Making America Great Again means entertaining support from white supremacists, neo-Nazi’s, the Ku Klux Klan, the survivalist movement, vigilante militias, and it is all neatly packaged in a spiffy new advertising meme labelled the alt-right.

Okay, America, we are now experiencing what it means to go back in time. This is what they meant when they said we were going to take America back. It meant we were going to revisit the good ole’ days when overt racism was the order of the day, when nuclear detonations were rationalized and accepted as, well acceptable, when white men made all the decisions and coal was king. Back to the days when environmental degradation was a critical component to economic progress. Back when civil liberties could be curtailed in the name of law and order, especially if you were from the classes of the troublemakers

Source: We Are Better Than This – LA Progressive

I am sorry but this type of thing, these confrontations, does nothing to “Make America Great Again”….

The President has come out with comments on the violence…..

President Trump’s comments so far on the violence in Charlottesville have been denounced by those on both sides of the political aisle. A sampling of columnists’ takes on his response:

  • In the New Yorker, Jelani Cobb says this is one of the weakest responses to Nazism America has seen. Even the eventual White House clarification wasn’t much better than Trump’s original response. “When questioned about the rationale for Trump’s evenhandedness, the White House clarified that both the protesters and the counter-protesters had resorted to violence. This is notable in that the United States was once a country that did not see Nazis and those willing to fight them as morally equivalent.”
  • At CNN, Timothy Stanley says Trump failed this test. The president likely sees “not a prejudice problem but a crisis of law and order” when he looks at what happened in Virginia, just like many conservatives consider the KKK and Black Lives Matter “as bad as each other.” But “Black Lives Matter, for all its faults, sees a truth that Trump does not: America operates an unjust racial hierarchy in which people of color are relegated to the bottom. When African-Americans protest, they are expressing their powerlessness, they are punching upwards. White supremacists, by contrast, enjoy power and authority. They are punching downwards out of irrational hate.”
  • At FiveThirtyEight, Julia Azari points out why it’s interesting Trump isn’t specifically condemning white supremacy. His “comments are striking for a couple of reasons. For one, Trump repeatedly denounced his predecessor, Barack Obama, for refusing to use the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ to refer to attacks by Islamist radicals. For another, denouncing Friday’s white supremacist protest and Saturday’s (apparent) attack should have been comparatively easy for an American politician.”
  • Michael Gerson acknowledges at the Washington Post that it’s difficult to find the right words in the face of a tragedy like this, but Trump is, apparently, completely incapable of doing so. “The flash point in Charlottesville was the history of the Civil War,” and “the oppression and trauma that led to Appomattox did not end there. Ghosts still deploy on these battlefields. And the casualties continue. But Trump could offer no context for this latest conflict. No inspiring ideals from the author of the Declaration of Independence, who called Charlottesville home. No healing words from the president who was killed by a white supremacist. By his flat, foolish utterance, Trump proved once again that he has no place in the company of these leaders.”
  • In the New York Times, conservative writer and radio show host Erick-Woods Erickson weighs in. Though he considers the “social justice warriors” of the far left and the white supremacists of the far right to be “two sides of the same coin,” Erickson points out that a white supremacist was allegedly to blame for this violence. “On a day that saw one person killed during the Charlottesville violence, the president did not need to play the ‘both sides are culpable’ game. No side would be protesting in Charlottesville had not the white supremacists decided to march.”

Sad thing is that this is not an isolated occurrence…..more to come….

There is a wealth of articles and such about what the country should do about this rise in hatred…..a better question would be “what will this country do about this rise in hatred”?

The Golden Age Of Incivility

We live in a society of civility and yet that has been degraded by years of outright hatred by some.  That incivility leads to dastardly deeds and words.

This nation has gone batcrap crazy….we have ill wishes for a Rep. that was shot by a crazy…..we have insulting child-like Tweets…….we have some that do not want any one’s opinion but there own……the incivility is just astounding……and it is getting worse…I mean when the president Tweets a vid of him beating up CNN we have hit a saturation point.

Has anyone noticed how the so-called Right will shut down anything they cannot defend?  They will just refuse to talk about…..plus they are very good at trying to demonize anyone that does not agree with the perverted world view.

These “people” despise anyone that is educated and especially if they are educated and have an opinion.  It is a prime example of one dimensional thinking.  This leads to bottom feeding when it comes to the “news”…..

For instance…..recently Donald’s son Eric had plenty to say about the opposition…….

President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday said Democrats are “not even people” to him after their obstruction of his father’s agenda.

“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity” Tuesday night. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.

“You see the Democratic Party, they’re imploding. They’re imploding. They became obstructionists because they have no message of their own.”

(thehill.com)

(has been nominated for the Assie but did not make the cut)

This illustrates the moronic thinking……the Dems are the only ones that hate……apparently none of these mental toads, to include bloggers, remember the last 8 years.

This is a piece written for the Valley Morning Star……..

My fellow Americans, I have to ask: What happened to good manners?

When did being civil go out of style?

When did we decide that kindness equals weakness?

When did the idea of conducting yourself well — especially in public — become quaint?

The news is filled with stories of people behaving badly.

Source: The golden age of incivility – Valley Morning Star : Columnists

Good questions!  I am sure that there will be many justifications….but most will be nothing more than a mindless rant of hatred and vile.

Discourse is gone.  All that is left is insults and lies…..oh my bad….alternate facts.

The internet is being flooded by ill feelings towards Libs and there has been some unfeeling toads that have said all sorts of crap…..mostly hateful and disrespectful.  Even the “Motor City Mouth”, Nugent, has seen that this sort of crap is unproductive…..

You know things are tense when Ted Nugent says it’s time to tone it down. The rocker—who once described former President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel” and said he should “suck on his machine gun”—says he has decided to give up using “hateful rhetoric” after the Alexandria shooting, reports Mediaite. “At the tender age of 69, my wife has convinced me that I just can’t use those harsh terms,” Nugent told WABC Radio’s Curtis & Eboni show on Thursday. “I will avoid anything that can be interpreted as condoning or referencing violence,” said Nugent, who was questioned by the Secret Service in 2012 after saying he would be “dead or in jail” if Obama was re-elected.

“I encourage even my friends-slash-enemies on the left in the Democrat and liberal world that we have got to be civil to each other,” said Nugent, promising to “take a deep breath” and “back it down” if things become “hateful.” Nugent, whose long history of inflammatory remarks includes a call for Hillary Clinton to be hanged for treason, said the comments were part of the “over-the-top animal spirit and attitude” that he lives on stage, Entertainment Weekly reports. “I can be fiery, I can be passionate,” he said. “But I will avoid anything that can be interpreted as condoning or referencing violence.”

(No bets on how long this act of civility will last with this person)

I think that if this “person” can try to do better then we all should.

With the recent shooting of a US Rep there has been a heart warming “Cum-by-ya” moment with the Reps in Congress…all this love toward each other is disingenuous at best…..as soon as this calms down they will go back being at each other’s throats ( we can hope that these feelings remain after the fact but their track record is not all that good)

A closing thought……I do a lot of reading…even some Russian media sites and I have found that there is a lot of similarity between Russian news and conservative news…..I am NOT saying that there is any correlation only that it is interesting that they think a like…..at least for now.

All This “Fake” News

A few months ago we had a raging debate about what is news and what is not…..that debate settled down but every now and then a Tweet appears and we have to have it all over again.

I banged away on the subject for awhile…..(of course there was push back…of course there were those that had to question everything that did not agree with their thoughts)……

Source: The Curious Debate Over “Fake News” – In Saner Thought

Source: The ‘Post-Truth’ Mainstream Media – In Saner Thought

And the argument continues because some will not accept that there are those that will do whatever it takes to mislead the population….and those that prefer a distorted view of the news will attack anyone that does not share their pervert sense of right and wrong.

The debate now is whether we continue down this road that leads NOWHERE or do we step back and return to a saner political climate……my guess is….NOT YET!

Red versus Blue is no longer the divide in this country…..

In Stephen Colbert’s epic performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner he ironically stated that “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” During the George W. Bush era, comedians like Colbert and Jon Stewart tackled what Stewart referred to as “bullshit mountain.” Less clearly a partisan project, the satire of Stewart and Colbert was directly aimed at the way that concepts like truth and reality had become politically polarized.

And they had a lot of work to do. Back in 2008, we learned that the Bush administration made 935 false statements in the lead-up to the Iraq war. In a 2006 interview, Colbert explained how important it was for him in the Bush years to defend the concept of truth:

Source: The right wing war on facts: The new partisan divide that’s destroying our nation – Salon.com

There is only so much stupidity that a nation can endure…..and ours is being pushed to the limit.

America’s Cult of Ignorance

There has been a wealth of fake news these days…..and some lap it up like a thirsty wildebeest …..there has been a big push, from the Right, to try and re-write history or to try and discredit it as best they can……even an anti-education movement…..

Let us look at democracy….you know that thing that we Americans are so proud of that it hurts…..Liddell Hart wrote……

We learn from history that democracy has commonly put a premium on conventionality. By its nature, it prefers those who keep step with the slowest march of thought and frowns on those who may disturb the “conspiracy for mutual inefficiency.” Thereby, this system of government tends to result in the triumph of mediocrity—and entails the exclusion of first-rate ability, if this is combined with honesty. But the alternative to it, despotism, almost inevitably means the triumph of stupidity. And of the two evils, the former is the less.

Hence it is better that ability should consent to its own sacrifice, and subordination to the regime of mediocrity, rather than assist in establishing a regime where, in the light of past experience, brute stupidity will be enthroned and ability may preserve its footing only at the price of dishonesty.

How accurate can one person be even 100 years ago?

All this has done one thing expertly….made Americans as ignorant as a stump.

More people are better educated than ever before, and knowledge is easier to come by.  So why do we so often scorn those who plainly know more than we do?

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

—Isaac Asimov

Source: America’s Cult of Ignorance – The Daily Beast

One of the best examples of this ignorance is the Press Secretary, Sean Spicer……all one has to do is listen to his answers to questions and the ignorance spills out like milk from an overturned glass….

The ignorance that has invaded our society goes all the way up to the White House……yes, I mean the president!

Let’s connect the dots between Donald Trump’s “tax plan”, his invitation to the murderous leader in Manila and saying he would be “honored” to meet with the dictator of North Korea. And let’s throw in his claim that Trumpcare will be better than Obamacare and that his skeletal tax plan would make him pay more.

While these facts might seem unrelated, each points to a fundamental truth about Trump that I have been trying to get people to understand since he announced his latest presidential campaign in June 2015: Trump doesn’t know anything.

Source: Donald Trump’s ignorance is becoming more evident with each passing day | David Cay Johnston | Opinion | The Guardian

Expertise is dying in this country…..everybody does not try to educate themselves for they are the smartest person they know…..

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn”  Ben Franklin

“I am patient with stupidity but not those that are proud of it”  Edith Sitwell

And then my fave quote….”Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance”

Side Note:  I think Trump has proven that a good business man does not make a good president.  Maybe now we can put that piece shit slogan to bed for good.

Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?

They have always been there….hiding in the shadows and popping up from time to time to throw out their bigoted mindset then slink back into the shadows….that is until 2016….the alt-Right, what they are calling themselves now so not to be confused with the GOP……has gotten the major toe hold they have been searching for for the last 100 years…….they even have their people in key positions within the government of the US.

Many Americans, contrary to popular belief, are worried about the rise of these “people”….to many these “people” are threatening……but why do these people feel so threatened?

Even in today’s acrimonious political landscape, nothing seems to draw as much vitriol as the minuscule “Alt-Right” (shorthand for an alternative to mainstream Conservatism Inc.). Indeed, if America’s political class organized 1984-style two-minute hates, the Alt-Right would be the star of the show with Richard Spencer substituting for Emmanuel Goldstein.

Given this aversion across the ideological spectrum, one might surmise that the Alt-Right embraced doctrines totally antithetical to core American values. Not quite. In at least in one key regard, the Alt-Right is as American as apple pie.

This apparent oddity flows from the movement’s paramount goal: preserving United States as a white ethno state, a nation with shared heritage, a single language and common biological ancestry. Ironically given the accusations of Alt-Right anti-Semitism, Israel with its total commitment to its Jewish identity is often heralded as the model for such a state.

Source: Why is the Alt-Right So Threatening? – The Unz Review

Yes Irene there are those that see creeping authoritarianism as a problem that needs to be stopped…..and there are those that say this situation could not happen here in the good old US of A…..

Donald Trump’s candidacy and now, presidency, have resurrected a public discourse not heard in this country since the Great Depression — an anxious discourse about the possible triumph in America of a fascist-tinged authoritarian regime over liberal democracy. It’s a fear Sinclair Lewis turned into a 1935 bestselling novel, It Can’t Happen Here — although, as Lewis told it, it sure as hell could happen here.

It did not happen, however. Not then, at least. Electing Franklin Roosevelt as president and taking up the labors of the New Deal, our parents and grandparents not only rejected the sirens of authoritarianism, they actually extended and deepened American freedom, equality and democracy. They subjected big business to public account and regulation; expanded the nation’s public infrastructure and improved the environment; empowered the federal government to address the needs of working people and the poor; mobilized farmers’ organizations, labor unions, consumer campaigns and civil rights groups and fought for their rights, broadening the “We” in “We the People.”

Source: Who Says It Can’t Happen Here? | By Harvey Kaye | Common Dreams

It is all part of a plot by the Ignorati.

Okay here is a good place for some replies from my readers….I feel that they are aware of the situation and have some amazing opinions….please share…..