Dissident Politics: Darts in defense of democracy; Cult language & thinking control tactics; A glimmer of hope?

Each day I send at least one email to an opinionologist or news reporter at a major outlet. One of my darts yesterday was this to reporter Peter Baker at the NYT in the comments section of his article, Varying Treatment of Biden and Trump Puts Their Parties in Stark Relief:

“Yet we hear crickets from Republicans after their presumptive nominee was incoherent, rambling and utterly divorced from the truth. Oh, and also a convicted felon.”

Finally, someone in the MSM is starting to pay attention. A major omission from the list of DJT's accomplishments like chronic liar, sex predator and convicted felon, is his far more important achievement of kleptocratic dictator status. I mean that seriously. Just consider his blatant corruption, contempt of the emoluments clause and overt hostility to democracy.

The MSM's failure to grasp the fundamental essence of DJT constitutes a betrayal of the public interest, democracy and the rule of law. Again, I am 100% serious about this. The evidence to back that up is in the public record and undeniable.

That was in response to the NYT article whining about Biden's bad debate performance. This was one of the few NYT articles since the debate that finally started to call out DJT to some extent:

One of America’s political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old.

One of the parties is up in arms about its nominee and trying to figure out how to replace him at the last minute. The other is not.

But the distinction of recent weeks has been striking. After Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by a Manhattan jury in May — a verdict that came after civil judgments against him for personal and professional misdeeds — there was no significant groundswell within the Republican Party to force him out of the race in favor of a less-tainted candidate. Even though many Republican officeholders and strategists privately loathe him, they fell in line and made clear they would stick with him no matter how many scandals piled up.

“While Biden had the worst debate performance in all of presidential history, Trump’s was likely the second-worst,” said Jeffrey A. Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. “Yet we hear crickets from Republicans after their presumptive nominee was incoherent, rambling and utterly divorced from the truth. Oh, and also a convicted felon.”

Even with some criticism of DJT, one can sense the restraint with which the MSM and most observers treat him. DJT was not called out as the kleptocratic authoritarian he really is. That is was is critically important for the public to come to understand. public knowledge of DJT's kleptocratic authoritarianism is more important than the knowledge of his chronic lying, business frauds, felony convictions, and sexual predator escapades. Kleptocratic authoritarianism (corrupt fascist, etc.) is what the MSM should be harping on every single day. So far very few in the MSM have had the guts to call him out in those terms.

Update: Gadzooks & Oh My Dog! The NYT banned me! ☹️ They can't handle legit criticism. Or, is it illegit to call DJT and the GOP kleptocratic authoritarian? Hm, wonder how long it will be before the WaPo bans me. Anyway, at least I know know that at least one of my darts got through and pissed at least someone off.

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This 11 minute video discusses the tactics that cults employ to create a sense of belonging, cohesion and group superiority. A common cult rhetoric tactic is to employ us vs. them to help demonize targeted outside groups. A key goal of cult leaders is to distort reality into false narratives.

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Salon writes about the possibility that when the kleptocratic radical right authoritarian wealth & power movement published Project 2025, it might be causing a bit of backlash:

Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign

but it may be backfiring instead

Trump's authoritarian game plan is breaking through the post-debate noise and it's starting to scare people

When Project 2025 was released, a number of progressives expressed surprise that Donald Trump's army of authoritarian schemers would boldly publish their plan to destroy American government as we know it. The over 900-page document, commissioned by the people expected to run another Trump White House, is a laundry list of the far-right's most politically toxic ideas, from banning abortion nationwide to mass firing federal officials who believe in protecting public health and safety. One would think that Trump and his allies would try to keep their sinister plans out of public view.

The MAGA right learned years ago the value of hiding their wicked plans in plain sight. Authoritarian thought leader Christopher Rufo is the most prominent example. He frequently speaks loudly of his machinations, such as boldly announcing on Twitter that the right is trying to take away birth control, claiming women should not have "recreational sex." Recently imprisoned Trump ally Steve Bannon gloated openly on his podcast about his schemes. Before going to prison, he bragged to the New York Times, "This is a military headquarters for a populist revolt." Kevin Roberts, whose group Heritage Foundation is helping run Project 2025, recently spoke about how Trump will use violence to force the MAGA agenda on the public.

But the radical right authoritarians will be

happy to shoot people who peacefully protest

On Sunday, actress Taraji P. Henson took a break during the BET Awards, which she was hosting, to speak out about Project 2025. "The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!" she told viewers. "I’m talking to all the mad people that don’t want to vote. You’re going to be mad about a lot of things if you don’t vote."

"You’re going to be mad about a lot

of things if you don’t vote."

Hm, that gets the Dissident Politics highly prized Understatement of the Week Award!! Congratulations Taraji! ⭐👏👏

Good news, or not?

Q: Is it just me hallucinating or dementating (the act of being demented), or are the wheels coming off the fabulous, luxurious American democracy donkey cart?