Dissident Politics: MAGA bits: After Trump dies; Merrick Garland; MSM moral rot deepens; Doctor shortage

Etiquette

DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Monday, July 7, 2025

MAGA bits: After Trump dies; Merrick Garland; MSM moral rot deepens; Doctor shortage

What happens to MAGA authoritarianism and kleptocracy after the cult leader dies? Current polling puts JD Vance as the leader for MAGA succession. He would run a techno-authoritarian kleptocracy with ruthless plutocrats like Peter Thiel. One poll shows Vance leading potential 2028 Republican candidates with 36-46% support. Also possible is the rise of a Trump family dynasty with Don Jr. or Eric as successor. Both of them say they are interested in the dictator-kleptocrat job. Some reporting suggests that djt has positioned Marco Rubio as a potential successor. Given his Christian nationalist foreign policy priorities, Rubio could represent Christian Zionist authoritariani sm.

Also in the running is some form of a Christian nationalist theocracy, with about one-third of Americans supporting Christian nationalism, whether they know it or not. Most rank and file Republicans support Christian nationalism, whether they know it or not. Finally, we have the billionaire plutocrats. Their campaign contributions ("free speech") have increased about 160-fold increase since the Citizens United USSC in 2010. Conditions for oligarchic capture of democratic institutions now exist.

One pretty sure bet is that Democrats are not going to displace MAGA authoritarianism any time soon. That party is broken.

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In retrospect, one can argue that Merrick Garland's refusal to properly prosecute djt exemplifies institutional Democrats' failed response to obvious authoritarian threat. His delayed appointment of Jack Smith until November 2022 and failure to aggressively prosecute Trump earlier was openly complicit with authoritarianism. Some legal scholars argue that Garland's delay was one of the most devastating legal betrayals of democracy in history. He intentionally protected djt, betraying us and our democracy.

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Those poor Palestinians. They just cannot get a break. They are forever screwed.

Multiple sources are reporting that institutional capture based on powerful pro-Israel lobbying and "conservative" politics in the UK has turned the venerable BBC into a propaganda outlet that supports whatever horrors Israel engages in. Al Jazeera reports:

The BBC has been accused by more than 100 of its staff of giving Israel favourable coverage in its reporting of the war on Gaza and criticised for its lack of “accurate evidence-based journalism”.

A letter sent to the broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie, and CEO Deborah Turness on Friday said: “Basic journalistic tenets have been lacking when it comes to holding Israel to account for its actions.”

The BBC's governance structure allows for significant political interference, with Conservative governments appointing partisan figures to key positions. That amounts to institutional capture. That has compromised editorial independence. The kerfuffle was set off by a letter dated July 2, addressed to the BBC's Director-General Tim Davie, accusing the BBC of acting as “PR for the Israeli government,” and suppressing critical reporting, including the decision not to publicly broadcast the BBC-commissioned documentary “Gaza: Medics Under Fire.”

That documentary is a forensic investigation of Israeli military attacks on Gaza's healthcare system and healthcare workers. It presents testimonies from Palestinian doctors and evidence of systematic targeting of medical facilities and personnel during the Gaza conflict. The documentary starts with footage from the phone of a Palestinian medic killed under heavy Israeli gunfire, commenting that Israel has been killing the people trying to keep Gaza's healthcare system functional. The documentary (1) acknowledges that Israel claims that Hamas uses hospitals as part of its military strategy, and (2) shows extensive evidence of Israeli military war crimes, e.g., torture of Palestinian prisoners and intentional targeting of civilians. No wonder the UK's pro-Israel lobby pressured the BBC to not broadcast the documentary.

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djt's horrible tax and spend bill is projected to lead to a massive shortage of doctors, ~187,000, by 2037. That is the projected result of the new law's cap on federal loans for medical and other professional school students.