There's no point in getting upset or mad. Some fear is now officially warranted. Power is literally flowing from government and the public interest to authoritarian special interests. What we are witnessing is a fascinating human story of what will likely be of truly epic proportions. Well, at least to me it is fascinating. The power flow looks likely to be huge.
Law & Crime: ‘Despicable in their falsity’: Trump threatens to sue New York Times and Penguin Random House for $10 billion for ‘false and defamatory statements’ -- “There was a time, long ago, when the New York Times was considered the ‘newspaper of record,’” a letter reads from Trump’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, to Penguin Random House and the Times, which was reviewed and first reported by Columbia Journalism Review on Thursday.
“Those halcyon days have passed,” the letter says, blasting the Times as a “full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party” that employs “industrial-scale libel against political opponents,” per CJR.
The newspaper reportedly had “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States,” the letter asserts.
The newspaper reportedly had “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States,” the letter asserts.
NPR: Accused of violating worker rights, SpaceX and Amazon go after labor board -- Now, SpaceX and Amazon are at the forefront of a corporate-led effort to monumentally change the labor agency. On Monday, attorneys for the two companies will try to convince a panel of judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the labor agency, created by Congress in 1935, is unconstitutional. Their lawsuits are among more than two dozen challenges brought by companies who say the NLRB's structure gives it unchecked power to shape and enforce labor law. A ruling in favor of the companies could make it much harder for workers to form unions and take collective action in pursuit of better wages and working conditions.
My 11/14/24 prediction: 7. Whatever else I am unable to conjure right now. (Update 11/14/24: I forgot, the CFPB and NLRB will be mostly neutered so that consumer and worker protections can be eroded without much or any government pushback)
Creepier and scarier than those nasty little nuggets are two truly ominous items. One is a dystopian view that what is happening with the flow of power from government and the public interest to special interests is an inevitable evolution of a system that is too powerful for any government to control. That is an essay in Off Guardian, A Tale of Two PSYOPS, by CJ Hopkins. I'll get back to that. The other is this scary reporting from just a couple of outlets:
Anti-NGO Bill Would Give Trump Administration
“Frightening New Powers”
Anti-NGO bill H.R. 9495 would grant President-Elect Trump and his handpicked Secretary of Treasury unilateral power to investigate and effectively shut down any tax-exempt organization including news outlets, universities and civil liberties organizations based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing.
Ahead of an upcoming Congressional vote on the bill, Public Citizen Co-President Lisa Gilbert released the following statement:
“This bill gives the Treasury Department broad power to designate groups as ‘terrorist supporting’ in order to shut them down, a dangerous power with few standards or guardrails that is an invitation to abuse,” said Gilbert. “H.R. 9495 would give the Trump administration – and any administration – frightening new powers to suppress nonprofit opponents.”
Think about that. An enraged, vengeful, thin skinned DJT would have the power to shut down political opposition groups, calling them supporters of terrorists.
Regarding the Off Guardian essay, I have seen this power flow argument several times in recent years but ignored it as too extremist and unlikely. Now in view of what is happening in real time, this argument seems much less farfetched.
A Tale of Two PSYOPS
CJ Hopkins
The global-capitalist empire is not a cabal of powerful individuals. It is a system. And that system is evolving. Metamorphosing. Transmogrifying. Evolving into a new form of totalitarianism. [comment: I would use the term authoritarianism, at least for now] A global-capitalist form of totalitarianism.
It is the system, and not its servants, that is driving … driving this systemic evolution. It makes no difference whether Elon Musk, or Donald Trump, or Macron, or Starmer, or Netanyahu, or Gates, or Bezos, or Soros, or any other political “leader” or powerful figure knows what they are doing. They serve the system, as the system requires, each according to their specific role and scope of action within the system.
Elon Musk did not “save free speech” or “rescue Twitter” from a “Woke Mind Virus.” He purchased a corporation and rebranded its product for new market demographic. In so doing, he corralled and neutralized most of the conservative populist resistance to the evolution of the global-capitalist system … which is what the system needed to happen. It makes no difference whether Elon Musk understood his role. He played it perfectly. He is continuing to play it perfectly.
The Musk Cult is growing. Its apostles are preaching the Gospel of Elon throughout the empire, paving the road to The Privatization of Everything! Verily, it is the dawn of a golden age of “Freedom” ruled by global corporations and beneficent oligarchs!But I don’t think I can make it any simpler. And I don’t see any way to stop it or fix it. It isn’t an error to be corrected. It is the organic evolution of a system … a supranational system evolving into a new totalitarian form.
So, there you have it, a tale of two PSYOPS. I’m sorry that it isn’t as comforting as a story about how Donald Trump and Elon Musk and their global-capitalist investors, and their subsidiaries, agents, and assigns, are going to “make America great again.”
If it’s any consolation, one thing is certain … whatever happens, it won’t be boring.
I think that something along this line could be happening. In the past few years, I recall a few who wrote about something more or less like an authoritarian global-capitalist empire the article talks about. I dismissed it as very unlikely. Now I'm not at all sure about that.
I have been deeply concerned about the out of control power of US corporations leading to some form of brass knuckles capitalist plutocracy as part of the shift of power I see flowing from government and the public interest to special interests. I do not know how to integrate that ruthless force with old-fashioned kleptocratic autocracy with DJT as the dictator for life or the ferocious Christian nationalist theocratic movement. Trump will fight for supremacy and all the power he can get. But so will brass knuckles capitalism and Christian nationalism.
I do believe that Hopkins is right to say that whatever happens, it won’t be boring. As far as I am concerned the radical right authoritarian social engineering is underway. It is already fascinating, i.e., not boring, not even a little.
The flow of power to authoritarianism is starting to look unstoppable. Senate Republicans constitute one of our last lines of defense. Most of them are already signaling to Trump that they will not stand in his way. The US supreme court has already shown that, other than some window dressing and fig leaves, it will not stand in his way. The House will not stand in the way. Trump has said he will purge US military generals who stand in his way.
So, who is left to defend us and our democracy?
Q: As usual, is Germaine unmedicated crazy, off his meds crazy or otherwise chock full of baloney to argue that a major power flow is underway and its is empowering American radical right authoritarianism at the expense of democracy and the public interest?
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