News bits: Christofascism rising; Authoritarian public anti-health; Etc.

Christian nationalist freak and MAGA fan Jack Posobiec comments briefly to the CPAC audience. CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) is a misnomer. This influential group is more accurately referred to as the TTKCPPAC (Trump Tyranny, Kleptocracy. Christofascism & Plutocracy Political Action Conference). 

Christian nationalists are starting to have the guts to just come out and say what is on their mind, even if they later deny it or lie by saying they did not mean what they said:

MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec at CPAC:

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We're here to overthrow it completely. We didn't get all the way there on January 6th, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here…Because all glory is to God.” pic.twitter.com/55FWokeeVI

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 22, 2024

A peanut gallery observer commented: Remember when Jack Posobiec was caught trying to cheat on his pregnant wife? The dating app he was using confirmed it was him (not an imposter) and deleted his profile because they don't like bigots. I love how most of these conservative Christians are total dirtbags.

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The WaPo reports about the Florida surgeon general ignoring standard procedures in the face of a measles outbreak in a school:

As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth, clinicians and public health experts said.

Florida surgeon general Joseph A. Ladapo failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated students home from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.

Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days — the incubation period for measles — Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”  

The controversial move by Ladapo follows a pattern of bucking public health norms, particularly when it comes to vaccines. Last month, he called for halting the use of mRNA coronavirus [COVID] vaccines, in a move decried by the public health community.

The CDC comments: About 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications. Measles may cause pregnant women who have not had the MMR vaccine to give birth prematurely, or have a low-birth-weight baby.

Wonderful. Anti-vaxx freaks get their pseudoscience from toxic crackpot places like QAnon. They refuse to get themselves and their kids vaccinated. Then, as herd immunity is lost, infectious diseases start causing outbreaks, occasionally killing some. Authoritarian MAGA-type idiots tell disinformed parents nothing at all, leaving them free to send their infected child back to school so they can infect more people. That is how MAGA works. 

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From the Endless Palestinian Misery Files: The WaPo reports: Gaza aid delivery hampered by Israeli attacks on police, rising chaos -- The volume of aid delivered to Gaza has collapsed in recent weeks as Israeli airstrikes have targeted police officers who guard the convoys, U.N. officials say, exposing them to looting by criminal gangs and desperate civilians. On average, only 62 trucks have entered Gaza each day over the past two weeks, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs — well below the 200 trucks per day Israel has committed to facilitating.

Starve ’em to death!

HEY! Where is that green country 

sneaking off to?

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From the Cynical Lies and Blither Files: The New Republic reports about Nikki Haley doing what TTKP (Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party, formerly the Republican Party) elites do when they say something idiotic or false and then in damage control mode, they tell us they did not say what they said:

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is frantically trying to quell the controversy over comments she made about IVF after an Alabama court’s recent ruling that frozen embryos are children.

“We don’t want fertility treatment to shut down, we don’t want them to stop doing IVF treatment, we don’t want them to stop doing artificial insemination,” Haley said on CNN on Thursday. “But I think this needs to be decided by the people in every state. Don’t take away the rights of these physicians and these parents to have these conversations.”

It was Haley’s second such attempt to explain away her controversial stance on the issue. On Wednesday evening, Haley blurted out a much more gibberish response.

“Well first off all, this is, again, I didn’t say that I agreed with the Alabama ruling. The question that I was asked is ‘do I believe an embryo is a baby?’” Haley said on CNN Wednesday evening. “I do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby. And so yes, I believe, from my stance, that that is.”

But calling an embryo—the stage before the microscopic cellular mass is labeled a fetus—an unborn baby is not exactly correct.

In Handmaid’s Tale-esque fashion, Haley has tried to toe the line on the issue of third party fertility in a futile effort to keep voters from turning away from her floundering campaign, even though she conceived her son via artificial insemination.

There does not seem to be a single elite politician in the TTKP with one shred of morality. All we get from that party of moral rot is lies, deflections, denials, and insulting bullshit.

Nikki’s role model

Sarah’s role model

Black people love sneakers.

 

Fox News Host Claims Donald Trump Has Won Over Black Voters With His Gold Sneakers

Apparently, for some Republicans, all it takes for Donald Trump to win over the support of Black voters is a pair of gold sneakers worth $400.

On Fox News, commentator Raymond Arroyo made the wild claim, which leans into racial stereotypes about Black people, that due to an alleged love for sneakers, they would vote for Trump in the coming presidential election.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/fox-news-host-claims-donald-191008330.html

Punishing dark free speech: Thought control tyranny, or sound pro-democracy policy?

Years ago, it became apparent to me that decades of dark free speech (DFS) in America (lies, slanders, unwarranted opacity including silence in the face of inconvenient questions, irrational emotional manipulation, crackpot reasoning and conspiracy theory, etc.) was the single most important factor in polarizing and radicalizing the American political right. In essence, DFS has been normalized and accepted by millions of Americans, especially those on the political right. 

Driven by years of relentless, often vicious DFS, American right wing politics has morphed into an authoritarian, anti-democracy wealth and power movement. The old pro-democracy Republican Party morally degenerated into what is reasonably called the Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party, or some variant, e.g., the Trump Lies, Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party. At present, most of the TTKP rank and file openly support the ideological shift to far right extremism and authoritarianism. Thus, the movement is not confined to just the elites who created and drove it.

Of course, what I see as moral degeneration into deep rot is seen by most of America’s political right as a good and reassuring moral resurgence in the face of the allegedly tyrannical socialist and communist pedophiles, pervs and monsters that control the Democratic Party. 

One can wonder, if DFS is so bad for democracy, why not ban, censor and/or tax it in an attempt to reduce the harm it continues to cause to democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties, civil society and respect for inconvenient fact, truth and sound reasoning? All or nearly all tyrants throughout history have relied at least moderately on DFS. Dictators and wannabes like Putin, Xi and DJT all rely very heavily on DFS. If they have the power, they ban speech that criticizes or questions the tyrant or his lies or party line generally.

There are some major objections to trying to regulate DFS. One is obvious. If laws ban or tax DFS, tyrant will use those laws not to defend democracy, but to kill democracy and replace it with some form of usually kleptocratic tyranny operating under the rule of the tyrant, i.e., corrupt autocracy, corrupt plutocracy and/or corrupt theocracy. 

The trap here is that with no restraint on DFS, it can be used exactly it has been used in the US to gather enough power to threaten and seriously damage democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties. All of that has already happened in the US. So, a society awash in DFS like the US currently is winds up being damned if it regulates DFS and damned if it does not regulate DFS. 

If I understand them right, in about 400 BC or thereabouts, Plato and Aristotle argued over DFS and the grave threat to democracy it posed. Plato gave up on democracy and argued that a benign philosopher king should to rule over people to keep the tyrants and demagogues at bay. Aristotle disagreed and said democracy (as it existed in his time) was best, but he could not come up with a way to keep the tyrants and demagogues at bay. Plato’s benign philosopher king would morph in due course into a demagogic tyrant. That constitutes a fatal weakness in his proposed solution. 

Imagine DJT getting re-elected and finishing off American democracy and its rule of law. Would he be benign? Nah, it would be Clobberin’ Time for DJT. He would get his revenge against people, laws and democratic institutions he hates, while he refills his bank accounts and then over fills them by any means he has at his disposal in his fun-filled role as America’s Kleptocrat-in-Chief. 

DJT enthusiastically starts 

his 2nd term!

Another major objection to trying to control DFS is that what are facts, truths and sound reasoning to one person can be lies, falsehoods and crackpottery to another. The power of radical DFS has extended to creating mindsets in tens of millions of Americans where objective reality is challenged and belief in it distorted, not by lies or crackpottery alone, but also by social pressure. I posted about this in 2021, including these comments taken from a research paper:

The meaning of post-truth goes beyond being a fool or a liar — “in its purest form, post-truth is when one thinks that the crowd's reaction actually does change the facts about the lie (...) what seem to be new in the post-truth era is a challenge not just to the idea of knowing reality but to the existence of reality itself.” In this regard, although political lies have always existed, “post-truth relationship to facts occurs only when we are seeking to assert something that is more important to us than truth itself. Thus, post-truth amounts to a form of ideological supremacy, whereby its practitioners are trying to compel someone to believe in something whether there is good evidence for it or not.”

For politics, a lot of the rhetoric and assertions of facts, truths and reasoning are wrong or flawed, but that cannot always be easily proven or proven at all. Inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning tend to be kept as opaque or hidden as possible by people and interests that want secrecy. That is why authoritarians in power hate transparency and get rid of as much of it as they can.

One could then argue, that trying to restrain DFS amounts to tyranny via thought control. After all, who or what is qualified to say what a fact, truth or sound reasoning is? One could argue that this alone is a lethal problem for trying to fight back against DFS. Well, maybe not.

In defense of disincentivizing DFS in politics

DFS is usually quite effective in persuasion, or at least deflecting inconvenient issues and/or confusing those who are not persuaded. This is why negative attack ads are so popular in political elections. The politician who sticks to appeals to facts and reason alone usually lose elections. 

Is it even possible to defend against a sustained DFS attack? Apparently it is in Finland. That country has learned how to fight off torrents of Russian DFS by teaching children and adults to be wary of it and resist the divisive emotional appeals usually present in DFS. I posted about that in 2019. That post also included comments about how authoritarian Texas state TTKP legislators were aware of the danger of teaching children defense against the dark arts. They put the kibosh on teaching public school children to defend themselves against DFS. That is how deep the moral rot has set in with the American authoritarian radical right.

That tells me there are ways to fight back against DFS without creating a new pathway for demagogic authoritarians to turn the defense of democracy against democracy. Another pro-democracy policy that seems to work against authoritarianism and its extremism has been tested in Australia. There, voting in elections is mandatory. Unexcused non-voting gets a tax penalty. Voting does not mean voting for anyone or anything on a ballot. It means returning a ballot, even if it is left blank as a protest. The effects of that policy appear to be two things. One is reduced extremism because politicians have to appeal to a broader audience than what many face in US primary elections. The other is that the voting population seems to be a little better informed, apparently because of some feeling of a need or civic duty to know at least a little something about what they are voting on.   

Facts & objectivity: One last thought. Empirical facts are mostly objective things. They can be fact checked if the information exists and not kept hidden. Truths are more subjective, e.g., calling DJT an authoritarian will be seen as true by some but false by others. Still more subjective is “sound reasoning.” That activity is infused with personal biases, morals, family, group and tribe loyalties, concern for self-esteem, innate mental heuristics, etc. 

But at least asserted facts that are fact checkable is a way to disincentivize DFS without offering authoritarians a way to attack democracy and political opposition. A news source that makes false fact assertions or defames people, and then refuses to retract, could be taxed more than sources that make mistakes but publicly retracts. That idea has been attacked as thought control policing and tyranny. 

But is that really the case? When people act based on false beliefs they formed due to lies about facts, e.g., the COVID vaccine is toxic and worthless, they have had their thoughts and behavior controlled by the liar. Sometimes there are lethal consequences from false fact beliefs, e.g., acting on the anti-vaxxer lie the duped, unvaccinated person gets infected and dies, but would have survived if they had not believed the lie and gotten vaccinated. Who is the thought policeman here, the liar or the person trying to disincentivize lies? Is objective fact something worth fighting for, or is it too dangerous to try defending facts beyond laws that are in place now? 

The most objective conflict is 

facts vs false facts

News bits: Gun rights; Election tussles; God endorses the TTKP; Fiddly bits

Regarding gun rights:

Let that sink in. 

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Rolling Stone reports that DJT is in a major snit because his secret plan to impose a nationwide abortion ban got leaked to the public:

Trump’s Abortion Plan Leak Inflamed His Campaign and Energized Democrats

Donald Trump’s plan for a 16-week, national abortion ban wasn’t supposed to be public. Democrats are ready to pounce

LATE LAST WEEK, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump privately told his allies he backs a 16-week national abortion ban with some exceptions. Inside the Trump campaign, the news was immediately met with deep annoyance, anger, and a scramble for damage control, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone.

Prior to the report, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner had repeatedly stressed to advisers that he wants to avoid announcing specific abortion policy positions, at least during this stage of the election cycle, sources close to him say. This is, of course, largely because he understands the dismantling of Roe v. Wade — which he engineered — has become a grave political liability for Republicans.

Funny how State’s rights stop being a thing when they think they’ve got power at the national level.

One Peanut in the gallery commented: Don’t forget. Trump removed protection for violence against women act during his administration. It was one of the very first things he did. To which another Peanut responded: And then Ivana fell down the stairs.

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Politico reports that Christian nationalist freak and House Speaker Mike Johnson told a group of House TTKP members that God would keep the House under the control of the TTKP:

Johnson’s private remarks to a small group of Republican lawmakers at Miami’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel over the weekend alarmed both people, who addressed the speech on condition of anonymity. Rather than outlining a specific plan to hold and grow the majority, these people said, Johnson effectively delivered a sermon.

The speaker contended that when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or “state” will become their guide, referring back to Bible verses, both people said. They added that the approach fell flat among some in the room.

“I’m not at church,” one of the people said, describing Johnson’s presentation as “horrible.”

I keep warning about the ongoing rise of bigoted, hate-filled Christofascism in American government and society. This is another warning. Christofascists want a Christofascist state to be our guide, whether we want to be guided or not.

TTKP = Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party, formerly the Republican Party

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A NYT opinion commentates: Alabama’s I.V.F. Ruling Shows Our Slide Toward Theocracy -- If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention. The drumbeat of incidents moving us ever closer to the seemingly inescapable future is so steady and frequent that we’ve developed outrage fatigue — we’ve grown numb. .... Control of women’s bodies is the endgame. And some religious conservatives won’t stop until that goal is achieved. For that reason, intervening victories — like the overturning of Roe v. Wade — will never be seen as enough; they will only intensify a blinding sense of righteousness.

The WaPo reports: Leaked files from Chinese firm show vast international hacking effort -- A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are carrying out large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — exploiting what the hackers claim are vulnerabilities in software systems from companies including Microsoft, Apple and Google. “We rarely get such unfettered access to the inner workings of any intelligence operation,” said John Hultquist, chief analyst of Mandiant Intelligence, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google Cloud.

A very interesting WaPo opinion (not behind paywall) about American supermajority support for constitutional democracy:

Among those of us who have not been radicalized, on both sides of the aisle, there is also the work to do to forge that cross-ideological supermajority.

First of all, people have to believe such a supermajority is possible.

Happily, the evidence abounds, especially in the results of state ballot initiatives. These are decided with cross-ideological supermajorities or near supermajorities voting in favor with surprising frequency. Here are some examples: Legalization of recreational marijuana (2020): New Jersey, 67 percent; legalization of recreational marijuana (2022): Maryland, 67 percent; legalization of medical marijuana (2020): Mississippi, 74 percent; restoring voting rights to those who have completed felony conviction (2018): Florida, 65 percent; new state flag without Confederate emblems (2020): Mississippi, 71 percent; right to repair in support of small auto shops (2020): Massachusetts, 75 percent. 

Look at these decisions and you’ll see American supermajorities voting over and over again for fairness, inclusion and the person getting the short end of the stick. This is not only a cross-ideological supermajority in the making; it’s one with good, salt-of-the-earth values.

That seems to be a bit of good news. 

And here is an important update about Mike Lindell, the pillow guy, who offered a $5 million reward to anyone who could prove his stolen election lies really were lies: Mike Lindell must pay man $5M in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ challenge, judge says -- In 2021, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim that he had data showing voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada that award, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. 

Faux News makes some sense for a moment??: The Hill reports:

Faux News co-host Jessica Tarlov mocked House Republicans on Wednesday for their pursuit of impeachment charges against President Biden.

“This is the path that they’ve chosen to take, and honestly I’m surprised that they have this high of a threshold for humiliation,” Tarlov said during an appearance on the network. “Every witness they have called has decimated their argument.”

A high threshold for humiliation? That assumes the TTKP members in the House can feel humiliated. I doubt that is possible. Things like being caught in asserting gigantic lies or blatant double standard hypocrisy does not faze any of them in the slightest. Why would they feel any humiliation at anything they do that turns out to be stupid or mostly or completely false? 

Q: Is this a sneaky way for Faux News to try to humanize the TTKP by asserting its elites have any moral qualms about any stupid, cynical or morally rotted thing they say or do?