John Roberts is confused; DJT is not confused

CNN reports:

Analysis: John Roberts remains confounded 

by Donald Trump as election approaches

The former star appellate lawyer who allies once cast as the smartest person in the room remains confounded by the realities of Donald Trump.

Roberts was shaken by the adverse public reaction to his decision affording Trump substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. His protestations that the case concerned the presidency, not Trump, held little currency.

The Roberts Court has been in sync with the GOP political agenda largely because of decisions the chief justice has authored: For Trump and other Republicans. Against voting rights and racial affirmative action. Against federal regulations over environmental, public health and consumer affairs.

“You wonder if you’re going to be John Marshall or you’re going to be Roger Taney,” Roberts told a law school audience in 2010, referring to the great 19th century chief justice and the latter chief who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision declaring that slaves were not citizens. “The answer is, of course, you are certainly not going to be John Marshall. But you want to avoid the danger of being Roger Taney.” 

In one early interview, Roberts told C-SPAN: “The most important thing for the public to understand is that we are not a political branch of government. They don’t elect us. If they don’t like what we’re doing, it’s more or less just too bad.”

How Roberts can be so smart and so dumb at the same time is something to behold, assuming it’s just not posturing. Roberts and his anti-democracy, anti-civil liberties, anti-rule of law and shockingly pro-corruption decisions has put him somewhere in the Roger Taney realm. Can he really be so dense, or is it just a cynical act? Enquiring minds want to know.

Q: John Roberts claims to be confounded by negative public reactions to some of his court decisions over the years. Given his intelligence and his politics, is that just cynical posturing or is it possible that Roberts really is that clueless?

A: It’s difficult to definitively determine whether Chief Justice John Roberts is genuinely confounded by negative public reactions or if his claimed confusion is a form of posturing. .... Given Roberts’ intelligence and long experience in Washington, it seems unlikely that he is entirely clueless about public reactions. 

I think Roberts is engaging in cynical posturing, but we will never know for sure because he is also a practiced, cynical liar.

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NBC News reports:

‘Totally illegal’: Trump escalates rhetoric 

on outlawing political dissent and criticism 

Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric depicting his political rivals and critics as criminals, while dropping a long trail of suggestions that he favors outlawing political speech that he deems misleading or challenges his claims to power.

“[Harris is] a criminal. She’s a criminal,” said Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his New York hush money trial. “She really is, if you think about it.”

An expert who studies authoritarianism and fascism said Trump’s rhetoric about criminalizing dissent is familiar, and could carry serious implications for the country if he’s elected president.

“This is out of the autocratic playbook. As autocrats consolidate their power once they’re in office, anything that threatens their power, or exposes their corruption, or releases information that’s harmful to them in any way becomes illegal,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and professor at New York University who wrote the 2020 book “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present.”

“He’s actually rehearsing, in a sense, what he would be doing as head of state, which is what Orban does, Modi is doing, Putin has long done,” she said, referring to the leaders of Hungary, India and Russia, respectively. “Just as there’s a divide now because of this brainwashing about who is a patriot and who is a criminal about Jan. 6, right? In the same way, telling the truth in any area — journalists, scientists, even people like me, anybody who is engaged in objective inquiry, prosecutors, of course — they become criminal elements and they need to be shut down.”

“It is about criminalizing dissent,” she said. “There is a method to his madness in that he has taken people on a journey of indoctrination.”

Other evidence of what we are facing:

Trump’s former Joint Chiefs chair: Trump is ‘fascist to the core’ -- “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” retired Gen. Mark Milley said. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist.” 

Ooh, total facist, not partial. Good to know.

Trump Goes Full Dictator With Threat to Turn Military on U.S. Citizens -- Donald Trump now wants to use military force against people who oppose him -- “We have some very bad people,” Trump continued. “We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Ooh, full dictator, not partial. Good to know.

Pragmatic rationalism explained by someone other than Germaine

Well, OK, something other than Germaine. Perplexity say this about Germaine’s politics:

Q: Based on the politics expressed at Dissident Politics, is Germaine at that site far left, left, centrist or something else in his political leaning or ideology? Germaine claims to adhere to what he calls pragmatic rationalism, which he characterizes on the basis of cognitive biology and social behavior as an anti-biasing, anti-ideology ideology, e.g., here.

A: Based on the content at Dissident Politics, Germaine's political ideology does not fit neatly into traditional left-right categories. He advocates for what he calls “pragmatic rationalism,” which he describes as an anti-biasing, anti-ideology approach.

Pragmatic rationalism, as presented by Germaine, aims to transcend conventional political labels and ideologies. It focuses on using cognitive biology and social behavior insights to counteract biases and promote more rational decision-making in politics and policy. This approach suggests that Germaine's political leanings are:

1. Non-traditional: Rejecting standard left-right categorizations 

2. Evidence-based: Emphasizing scientific understanding of human cognition and behavior 

3. Pragmatic: Focusing on practical outcomes rather than ideological purity

While Germaine may touch on issues that align with various points on the political spectrum, his overall framework appears to be an attempt to create a meta-ideology that critiques and aims to improve upon traditional political thinking.

Given this information, it would be most accurate to describe Germaine’s political stance as: Unconventional/Alternative: Rather than fitting into established categories like far left, left, or centrist, Germaine's pragmatic rationalism represents an attempt to forge a new approach to politics based on cognitive science and rational analysis.

Dang! Germaine really thought he was a centrist because when he looks at opinion polls about various policies, he is agrees with majority opinion most of the time, maybe about 75%. Darned Germaine, self-deluded as usual. . . . . grumble, grumble . . . . . . 

Ooh, wait!! Pragmatic rationalism is a meta-ideology? I like that! Wait, what is a meta-ideology?

Q: What is a meta-ideology?

A: A meta-ideology is a higher-order or overarching ideological framework that provides the basis for other ideologies or ideological debates. Key aspects of meta-ideology include: 

1. It acts as a foundational system of ideas that shapes how other ideologies are formed and understood.

2. Meta-ideology posits that ideologies are coherent systems of ideas based on a few core assumptions about reality, which may or may not have a factual basis.

3. It views ideologies as neither inherently right nor wrong, but rather as intellectual strategies for categorizing and making sense of the world.

4. Meta-ideology examines the structure, form, and manifestation of ideologies, rather than advocating for any specific ideological position.

5. It can provide a common ground or framework within which different ideological perspectives can engage in dialogue.

6. Liberalism has been described as acting like a meta-ideology in some contexts, as it can incorporate and express alternative ideological positions through its versatile conceptual structure.

7. A meta-ideological approach aims to transcend rigid ideological thinking and foster more nuanced, empathetic understanding across different viewpoints.

8. It encourages self-awareness about one's own ideological assumptions and constructs, promoting a more reflective approach to political and social issues.

In essence, a meta-ideology provides a higher-level perspective on ideologies themselves, examining how they function, interact, and shape our understanding of politics and society.

Germaine really likes points 3, 5, 7 and 8.

Defense against the dark free speech arts update

Jargon Alert! 

DADA: defense against dark free speech arts

Much or maybe most of the American public is ignorant and unprepared to deal with the onslaught of powerful, modern radical right authoritarian DFS (dark free speech). Toxic social media is a significant factor in fomenting unwarranted distrust, lies, slander and truly deranged crackpottery. Solid evidence of social ignorance and mental weakness is the stunning degree of public support for DJT, the GOP and the tactics of MAGA. The authoritarian onslaught is based mostly on bigotry, lies irrationality and other DFS-fomented emotions and false beliefs. Despite MAGA’s obvious appeal based on deceit and irrationality, tens of millions of adult Americans cannot see what is clearly in front of them. Those mostly defenseless minds have fallen to the power of DFS.

My limited knowledge of the state of DAGA science and public education leads me to believe that the forces engaged in DAGA is fragmented, weak and mostly ineffective. Teaching of the cognitive and social sciences for mental defense is dismal in public education. The MSM is mostly in failure mode when it comes to dealing with the threat. Academics aware of the problem are few and their influence in educating the public is miniscule. 

An incremental no-brainer bit of new research exemplifies the crappy, primitive state of American DADA:

To make children better fact-checkers, expose them to 

more misinformation — with oversight

“We need to give children experience flexing these skepticism muscles and using these critical thinking skills within this online context,” a UC Berkeley psychology researcher said.

In an era when online misinformation is seemingly everywhere and objective facts are often in dispute, UC Berkeley psychologists in a new study have presented a somewhat paradoxical partial solution: Expose young children to more misinformation online — not less.

Doing so in limited circumstances, and with careful oversight and education, can help children gain the tools they’ll need to sort fact from fiction online, said Evan Orticio, a Ph.D. student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Psychology and lead author of a paper published today (Thursday, Oct. 10) in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

Orticio argues that, given children’s natural skepticism and early exposure to the internet’s boundless misinformation, it is crucial for adults to teach them practical fact-checking skills. Instead of attempting to completely sanitize their online environment, he said adults should focus on equipping children with tools to critically assess the information they encounter.

Zorpy eyeballs fact check exercise

“Children can adapt their level of skepticism according to the quality of information they’ve seen before in a digital context,” Orticio said. “They can leverage their expectations of how this digital environment works to make reasonable adjustments to how much they trust or distrust information at face value — even if they know next to nothing about the content itself.”

Think about that. People in power bumble and fumble with the impossible task of sanitizing what children see online. That basically deprives them of any chance to learn to self-defend against DFS. Unfortunately, this study was based on a small sample size (N = 122) of 4–7-year-old children exposed to falsity. At most, this is just another hint at doing what has been obvious to me for years, a major, multi-year effort in mandatory public education in DADA.

An analogy is in the hygiene hypothesis: The idea that exposure to germs is beneficial for children's immune system development has been largely validated by scientific research, rather than debunked. This concept, known as the “hygiene hypothesis,” has gained substantial support from multiple studies over the years.

Exposure to germs teaches children’s immune system how to effectively respond with limited damage to healthy cells and tissues. For years, my intuition, based on some evidence, has been that exposure to DFS teaches minds how to more effectively respond with emotional manipulation and false beliefs that DFS is designed to foment. The presence of DADA in American society is low to nil. 

The research paper’s abstract reinforces my argument:

A simulation suggests that children’s behavior is adaptive, because increased fact-checking in more dubious environments supports the discovery of potential misinformation. Importantly, children were least diligent at fact-checking a new claim when all prior information was true, suggesting that sanitizing children’s informational environments may inadvertently dampen their natural skepticism. Instead, these findings support the counterintuitive possibility that exposing children to some nonsense may scaffold vigilance towards more subtle misinformation in the future.

A counterintuitive possibility?? Wrong mindset scientists! Wrong, wrong wrong, damn it!! It should have been an intuitive possibility, especially in view of existing data. Sigh. I rest my case. End of rant.

Why defense of state from church is desperately needed

Bigotry: obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group; bigotry includes hate of people who support secularism and church-state separation 

This terrifying 10 minute video makes very clear what Christian nationalism is and would do to us if it gets the power. The video is described like this: “Father James Altman calls out the hypocrisies of Church hierarchy and their destructive leftist politicization of the Catholic Church that has slapped faithful Catholics in the face and led many others astray. Altman also explains the basis of human nature and our purpose in life.” 

“You cannot be a Democrat 

and a Catholic. Period.”

I can literally feel the sanctimonious, uncontrolled rage and hate that drives Father Altman’s vicious lies, slanders, intolerance and bigotry. Our tax code subsidizes hateful, bigoted theocratic filth like this. We are supporting major efforts to destroy our democracy, civil liberties, secular rule of law, secular education and freedom of choice to live as we please. 

We all know what this election is about and the consequences of a loss to DJT, MAGA, the GOP and all three strains of kleptocratic American authoritarianism.** The elites who have worked hard together for decades to put us here, on the verge of losing our democracy.

** Kleptocratic dictatorship with DJT as an above-the-law dictator for life, kleptocratic, unregulated capitalist plutocracy and kleptocratic Christian nationalist theocracy.

Q: Does Altman really speak for all Catholics and God himself, or just the aggressive kleptocratic theocrats?

Pulse checking the public; Misc. headlines

Responses to reporting by The New Republic hints at growing anger at MAGA: 

Donald Trump has once again evoked Nazi rhetoric.

At a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, the Republican presidential nominee weaponized violent and dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, referring to them as the “enemy from within” while advocating for harsher criminal punishments for the vulnerable demographic, including promising the death penalty.


“But I protect you from outside enemies. But you know I always say, we have the outside enemies, so you can say China, you can say Russia, you can say Kim Jong Un … if you have a smart president it’s no problem,” Trump said. “It’s the enemy from within.

“All the scum we have to deal with that hate our country,” he continued. “That’s a bigger enemy than China and Russia.… Everyday Americans like Cindy are living in fear all because Kamala Harris decided to empty the slums and prison cells of Caracas, and many other places. Happening all over the world.”

“They took the criminals out of Caracas, and they put them along your border, and they said if you ever come back, we’re going to kill you,” Trump said.

“Think of that!” he continued. “We have to live with these animals. But we won’t live with them for long!”

At that, one person in the crowd shouted, “Kill them!”

One disgruntled peanut gallery denizen commented:

Jesus Fucking Christ. This deranged lunatic is legitimately trying his damnedest to get something to pop off before Election Day, ain’t he? He wants chaos. He wants death. He wants bloodshed. At this point I don’t think he cares if he wins the election, because it doesn’t matter. This is not going to be a peaceful election. Fuck you MAGAs for promoting this level of domestic terrorism.

That got ~8,300 upvotes. Another peanut commented, but with only 146 upvotes:

I think he's so demented at this point he thinks he's pulling an actual Hitler. And he's stupid enough to have no comprehension of the actual nuances of the situations. Sadly he's going to get a lot of people hurt and killed proving it.

This peanut says, with ~1,100 upvotes:

Hitler used those exact words to help justify what he did. Trump is using the same words to justify what he'll do, and his supporters will also use those words to justify violence against the "enemy from within."

Last peanut:

Lemme guess, this isn't being covered by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NYT WSJ, or any other legacy media outlet. Fucking cowards need to remember "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

My professional pulse check assessment: Some people are getting pissed off at DJT and MAGA.

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Pastors for Trump founder says Antichrist will be a “homosexual of Jewish descent” — Trump called it a "great honor" to be endorsed by the founder's group (MAGA is anti-Semitic)

More Than a Third of Nikki Haley Voters Plan To Back Harris in November, Polling Suggests

The Justice Department says Virginia is illegally striking voters off of voter rolls

J.D. Vance Says Trump Was Right to Try to Steal the Election, Because of Twitter

Failed GOP candidate claims Hurricane Helene was created to derail Mark Robinson’s campaign

-- Democrats apparently have "huge" machines that "spit clouds," which they are using to stop the "black Nazi" from becoming governor. “Like the whole thing with North Carolina, I know though it’s a grab for the land — land grab and they want the lithium,” Kandiss Taylor, who ran for governor of Georgia in 2022, said on the October 5 edition of her podcast, Jesus. Guns. And Babies.

'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says -- American Sunlight Project analyzed nearly 1,200 accounts, a long-standing network that generated more than 100 million posts as of July, including pro-Kremlin propaganda, content favoring Republican nominee Donald Trump, and misinformation about Harris's campaign. The accounts, some of which have escaped detection and moderation on the site for as long as 15 years, retweeted such content within seconds of its posting, indicating bot activity, the group said in a report shared with AFP ahead of its public release.

"This dude will even outsource God": Walz blasts Trump for making Bibles in China 

An AI summary of Project 2025's authoritarian and kleptocratic goals and tactics

This 13 minute video asks ChatGPT to identify and summarize the most important policy goals laid out in Project 2025. I skimmed some of it and concluded the document is genuinely authoritarian and kleptocratic. Project 2025 directly supports and empowers all three strains of modern American radical right authoritarianism, i.e., kleptocratic dictatorship, kleptocratic, unregulated capitalist plutocracy and kleptocratic Christian nationalist theocracy. In my opinion, all three strains of American authoritarianism are kleptocratic by virtue of being anti-transparency in government, which the video briefly mentions. The video does not mention kleptocracy or corruption per se, which I consider to be a major weakness in this particular analysis. And, the narrator has an annoying voice but that is just me.

The AI assessment of Project 2025 identifies and discusses these five topics:

Thanks to Larry Motuz for bringing this video to my attention. 

The tactic of siccing AI on Project 2025 prompted me to ask Perplexity specifically about corruption:

Q: Does Project 2025 inherently establish conditions in government that favor corruption, such as limiting transparency or controlling the independent media?

A: Project 2025 appears to propose several measures that could potentially increase the risk of corruption and reduce government accountability:

1. Firing independent Inspectors General: Project 2025 calls for firing 74 independent Inspectors General who oversee federal operations and detect fraud, waste, and misconduct. It proposes replacing them with politically loyal appointees, which could reduce independent oversight.

2. Replacing civil servants with political appointees: The plan includes creating a new "Schedule F" that would allow firing up to 50,000 civil service employees and replacing them with partisan political operatives. This could reduce the independence and expertise of government agencies.

3. Limiting prosecution of campaign finance violations: Project 2025 proposes directing the Department of Justice to defer decisions on prosecuting campaign finance law violations to the Federal Election Commission, potentially reducing enforcement.

4. Reducing donor transparency: The plan calls for allowing more money in politics while reducing transparency around political donations.

5. Weaponizing the Department of Justice: Project 2025 proposes using the DOJ to target local elected officials and election administrators for partisan reasons.

6. Controlling investigations: It suggests having political appointees review and potentially terminate FBI investigations deemed "contrary to the national interest," which could be used to protect allies and target opponents.

Those measures would seriously reduce government transparency by obliterating independent oversight. Project 2025 proposes a gigantic incentive for corruption by basically making corruption and bribery even more legal than the USSC has made recently done. The document proposes concentrating power in the hands of political appointees loyal to the administration instead of professional career bureaucrats loyal to the public interest and the rule of law. The plan appears designed to give a future administration more control over traditionally independent government functions and reduce checks on executive power. And, there is this follow-up Q&A:

Q: What, if anything, does Project 2025 specifically say about transparency in government operations?

A: Project 2025 does not appear to explicitly address government transparency as a key focus. However, several aspects of the plan could potentially reduce transparency and accountability in government operations:

1. Firing independent Inspectors General: Project 2025 proposes replacing 74 independent Inspectors General, who oversee federal operations and detect fraud and misconduct, with politically loyal appointees. This could reduce independent oversight and transparency of government agencies.

 

2. Etc.

Here, one sees the weakness in AI. AI treats Trump and MAGA elites like normal people. They are nowhere close to normal. They are ruthless, radical right authoritarian kleptocrats. In view of the reality of Trump and MAGA elites, Perplexity unreasonably softens its answer with milquetoast language like “the plan could potentially reduce transparency and accountability.” Could potentially reduce transparency and accountability?? Like hell. With people like Trump and his corrupt thugs in power, implementing Project 2025 absolutely will eliminate essentially all transparency and accountability. 

That is the reasoning that leads me to usually including qualifiers like corrupt, deeply corrupt and especially kleptocratic to describe Trump, MAGA elites and what GOP elites generally stand for. 

In my opinion, most of the GOP rank and file are different with their disinformed, manipulated and betrayed minds. They are being used and will be abused if they get what they want. Unfortunately, we are collateral damage that will get the same or worse treatment.