Having assumed complacently after the collapse of the Soviet Union that the threat of totalitarianism had become unthinkable, especially with the spread of economic and cultural globalism, the liberal West is now facing a decline, and even possibly a collapse, in confidence in parliamentary democracy. The heroic resistance of Ukraine is perhaps the only hope that we will recognize in time the dangers of the general slide towards authoritarianism in an increasingly Manichaean world – that is to say, a new dualism of two power blocs confronting each other: one with a free and liberal stance, and one without.
Swiss psychiatrist and disillusioned Freudian Carl Gustav Jung, pondering how people often turn their backs on ideals once espoused to become the opposite of their previous aspirations, coined a term for the phenomenon: Enantidromia, which he defined as “the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time.”
Throughout the first half of the 20th Century, no two ideologies were more violently opposed than internationalist communism and ultranationalist fascism, accounting for at least 30 million Soviet and Nazi German deaths in World War II alone.
Given those massive losses, it would be hard to predict that as of today, the country that spilled so much blood destroying the fascist Nazi empire would become today’s embodiment of the very evil they once shed oceans of blood to destroy.
But today, in a Russia headed by a man who once served in the anti-fascist organs of state security, fascism has emerged yet again, embodied in its President, ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin.
Just call it a textbook case of entantidromia,
Alexander Motyl, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and a New York native born to Ukrainian immigrants, makes the diagnosis in this essay from The Conversation. an plain language academic journal published under a Creative Commons license:
Yes, Putin and Russia are fascist – a political scientist shows how they meet the textbook definition
When Vladimir Putin unleashed an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the Ukrainian media, public and policymakers almost unanimously began calling the Russian president and the state he leads “rashyst.” The term is a hybrid of a derogatory moniker for Russia – “rasha” – and “fascist.”
Ukrainians did so for two reasons. First, they were countering Putin’s absurd insistence that the Ukrainian authorities – including Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – were Nazis and that Ukraine needed to be “de-Nazified.” Since Ukraine’s tiny number of right-wing extremists are about as influential as the Proud Boys in the United States, what Putin really had in mind was Ukrainians with a distinct Ukrainian identity. De-Nazification thus meant de-Ukrainianization.
Second, Ukrainians were drawing attention to those features of Putin’s Russia that indicated that it was fascist and thus in need of “de-Nazification.” Putin’s Russia was aggressive, anti-democratic and enamored of Putin himself. Unsurprisingly, his Russia’s resemblance to the regimes built by Mussolini and Hitler had not gone unnoticed by Russian and Western analysts in the last decade or so.
Few policymakers, scholars and journalists listened, however, as the term fascism struck many as too vague, too political or too loaded to serve as an accurate description of any repressive regime. Having written about Putin’s Russia as quasi- or proto-fascist already in the mid-2000s, I know from personal experience that few took my claims seriously, often arguing tautologically that Putin had constructed a “Putinist” system.
But, first, a brief foray into the classification schemes that social scientists like to use, which most people find incomprehensible.
Classifications are essential for good social science, because they enable scholars to group political systems according to their shared features and to explore what makes them tick. Aristotle was one of the first to divide systems into those ruled by one, those ruled by a few and those ruled by many.
Authoritarian states rest on the state bureaucracy, military and secret police; they usually circumscribe most of the features of democracies; and they typically are led by juntas, generals or politicians who avoid the limelight.
Totalitarian states abolish all the features of democracy, empower their bureaucracies, militaries and secret police to control all of public and private space, promote all-encompassing ideologies and always have a supreme leader.
War is worshipped and justified by the state’s mendacious propaganda machine. As the brutal invasion of Ukraine shows, war is also practiced, especially if it is directed against a people whose very existence Putin regards as a threat to himself and to Russia.
Finally, fascist states are prone to wars, because members of the secret police and generals, whose raison d’etre is violence, are overrepresented in the ruling elite. In addition, the ideology glorifies war and violence, and a militarist fervor helps to legitimate the supreme leader and reinforce his charisma.
From Deutsche Welle, military/industrial opportunism at work:
Pointing to Ukraine war, arms lobby pushes for ‘sustainable’ label
Weapons have played a key role in helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invading forces. Now the arms lobby is pushing for investors and EU regulators to classify the industry as “sustainable.”
With the third year of the COVID pandemic well underway and as the second year of the Biden administration commences, Americans are becoming less trusting of traditional authority figures, a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
Trust of scientists and the military remains relatively high, although core support for the military drop the most sharply of all groups, while confidence in journalists, business executives, and politicians nears rock bottom.
Americans’ confidence in groups and institutions has turned downward compared with just a year ago. Trust in scientists and medical scientists, once seemingly buoyed by their central role in addressing the coronavirus outbreak, is now below pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, 29% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public, down from 40% who said this in November 2020. Similarly, the share with a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests is down by 10 percentage points (from 39% to 29%), according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The new findings represent a shift in the recent trajectory of attitudes toward medical scientists and scientists. Public confidence in both groups had increased shortly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak, according to an April 2020 survey. Current ratings of medical scientists and scientists have now fallen below where they were in January 2019, before the emergence of the coronavirus.
Scientists and medical scientists are not the only groups and institutions to see their confidence ratings decline in the last year. The share of Americans who say they have a great deal of confidence in the military to act in the public’s best interests has fallen 14 points, from 39% in November 2020 to 25% in the current survey. And the shares of Americans with a great deal of confidence in K-12 public school principals and police officers have also decreased (by 7 and 6 points, respectively).
Large majorities of Americans continue to have at least a fair amount of confidence in medical scientists (78%) and scientists (77%) to act in the public’s best interests. These ratings place them at the top of the list of nine groups and institutions included in the survey. A large majority of Americans (74%) also express at least a fair amount of confidence in the military to act in the public’s best interests. Roughly two-thirds say this about police officers (69%) and K-12 public school principals (64%), while 55% have at least a fair amount of confidence in religious leaders.
The public continues to express lower levels of confidence in journalists, business leaders and elected officials, though even for these groups, public confidence is tilting more negative. Four-in-ten say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in journalists and business leaders to act in the public’s best interests; six-in-ten now say they have not too much or no confidence at all in these groups. Ratings for elected officials are especially negative: 24% say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in elected officials, compared with 76% who say they have not too much or no confidence in them.
With trust in leading institutional leaders plunging, it’s no wonder that populism flourishes. . .
Back in the early 1960s I spent three teenage summers in an intimate relationship with 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. more commonly known as 2,4-D.
Employed by the corporation own a system of irrigation canals in two Northern Colorado counties, my job consisted of sitting on the bumpers of tanker trucks traveling easement roads along canals, hose and spray nozzle in hand, dousing Canadian Thistles with chemical to prevent the plants from flowering and spreading their pesky airborne seeds into the waters of the canals and thence on to farmers’ fields, where they crowd out crops of wheat, maize, and sugar beets.
I and another teenager who held the other hose were assured the chemical was harmless to humans, often sprayed each other to cool off during the frequent hot days of July and August.
2,4D gradually faded from the picture after American agroindustrial giant Monsanto delivered a new weed-killer, Roundup, along with seeds genetically engineered to resist the herbicidal properties of glyphosate, the patented active ingredient in the concoction.
The one-two combination of a potent new weed killer and corporate-owned seeds designed to protect crops from the chemical’s otherwise lethal onslaught made Monsanto king on Big Ag globally [the company was sold to German chemical giant Bayer in 2018].
But resistance to Monsanto’s purported panacea, a combination of concerns over the company’s insistence on barring farmers from using seeds from their harvest to plant next years crops and a forced sale of crops only to dealers authorized by the company along with a growing numbers of research papers challenging the chemical’s safety [which we have covered extensively] has led to a resurgence of that old standby 2.4-D, along with new GMO crops designed to resist it.
But a new study just published raises serious questions about the safety of 2,4-D and the revelation that the bodies of a third of Americans now harbor significant amounts of the chemical, with the most troublesome levels found in the bodies of children and women and child-bearing age.
One out of three people in a large survey showed signs of exposure to a pesticide called 2,4-D, according to a study published today by researchers at the George Washington University. This novel research found that human exposure to this chemical has been rising as agricultural use of the chemical has increased, a finding that raises worries about possible health implications.
“Our study suggests human exposures to 2,4-D have gone up significantly and they are predicted to rise even more in the future,” Marlaina Freisthler, a PhD student and researcher at the George Washington University, said. “These findings raise concerns with regard to whether this heavily used weed-killer might cause health problems, especially for young children who are very sensitive to chemical exposures.”
Lead author Freisthler and her colleagues looked for biomarkers of the pesticide found in urine samples from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They estimated agricultural use of 2,-D by studying public and private pesticide use data from 2001 until 2014.
Out of 14,395 participants in the survey nearly 33 percent had detectable levels of 2,4-D in their urine. The researchers found that participants with urine levels of this pesticide went from a low of 17 percent at the start of the study in 2001-2002 to a high of nearly 40 percent ten years later.
Other key findings of the new study:
▪ As the use of the herbicide increased during the study period so did human exposures.
▪ Children ages 6-11 had more than double the risk of increasing exposure to 2,4-D.
▪ In addition, women of childbearing age had nearly twice the risk of increased exposure compared to men in the same age group.
▪ Human exposures are likely to rise even more in the near future as this herbicide’s use continues to go up.
2,4-D was developed in the 1940s and soon became a popular weed-killer for farmers who wanted to increase crop yields. In addition, homeowners looking for a pristine, green lawn also turned to 2,4-D often in combination with other lawn chemicals.
Exposure to high levels of this chemical has been linked to cancer, reproductive problems, and other health issues. While scientists don’t know what the impact of exposure to lower levels of the herbicide might be, they do know that 2,4-D is an endocrine disruptor and this study shows children and women of childbearing age are at higher risk of exposure.
Children can be exposed if they play barefoot on a lawn treated with the weed-killer or if they put their hands in their mouths after playing outside, where the soil or grass might be contaminated with the chemical. People also can be exposed by eating soybean-based foods and through inhalation. The now widespread use of 2,4-D on GMO soybeans and cotton leads to more 2,4-D moving in the air, which can expose more people to this chemical, according to the researchers.
“Further study must determine how rising exposure to 2,4-D affects human health–especially when exposure occurs early in life,” Melissa Perry, a professor of environmental and occupational health and senior author of the paper, said. “In addition to exposure to this pesticide, children and other vulnerable groups are also increasingly exposed to other pesticides and these chemicals may act synergistically to produce health problems.”
Consumers who want to avoid exposures to pesticide can purchase organically grown food, which is less likely to be grown with weed killers. They can also avoid using 2,4-D or other pesticides on their lawn or garden, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, Roundup faces an uncertain fate in Europe, where its use is authorized only until 15 December, pending a further review of the compound’s safety.
And there are signs of troubles ahead, as the Guardian reported 26 November:
Only two out of a group of 11 industry studies given to European regulators in support of the re-approval of the main ingredient in Roundup herbicide are scientifically “reliable”, according to a new analysis of corporate-backed studies on the chemical glyphosate.
<snip>
In a report released on Friday, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said their review of a set of safety studies submitted to EU regulators by Bayer AG and a coalition of other chemical companies showed that the vast majority do not meet current international standards for scientific validity.
While two of the corporate studies were considered reliable, six were considered partly reliable and three were not reliable, according to the report.
And as for 2,4-D, it was the one of two primary ingredients in Agent Orange, the notorious compound sprayed over much of South Vietnam to kill crops and the trees used by Viet Cong troops to hide from American air strikes during what folks there now call the American War.
One ailment conclusively linked to Agent Orange exposure is bladder cancer, a malady for which we underwent a surgical removal seven years ago, We can’t but wonder if that affliction stemmed from those cooling spays on hot summer days under the Colorado sun decades before.
From WUSA News, the CBS affiliate in the nation’s capital:
An alleged member of the Oath Keepers now indicted on conspiracy charges in the Capitol riot claims in a new legal filing that he holds a top secret clearance and was a former FBI section chief.
Thomas Edward Caldwell, 65, of Clarke County, Virginia, was indicted on January 27 on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property and entering a restricted building along with two alleged co-conspirators – Donovan Ray Crowl and Jessica Marie Watkins.
The government has asserted all three are members of the Oath Keepers militia group. Crowl and Watkins are accused of being part of the Ohio State Regular Militia Chapter. During a search of Watkins’ Ohio home, federal investigators have said they found homemade weapons and instructions for making plastic explosives.
Caldwell is accused of being a leader within the organization, and investigators say they’ve obtained communications between him and other alleged members of the Oath Keepers in which he appears to be coordinating travel to Washington, D.C., and activities on January 6. In those communications, investigators say, members of the Oath Keepers refer to Caldwell as “Commander.”
In other words, a man with deep connections to law enforcement and the spy world who knows how to command.
In an affidavit filed in opposition to Caldwell’s request to be released on prior to trial, by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael R. Sherwin spells out the threat Caldwell represented:
The detailed and organized nature of Caldwell’s planning for the January 6 operation and Capitol assault was uniquely dangerous and continues to impact security in the District and beyond.Everything he did, he did in concert with an anti-government militia.Specifically, Caldwell helped organize a tactical unit of trained fighters that stormed and breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
And then there’s this:
Caldwell knew his coordination and planning efforts may lead to violence. After the November 2020 Million Maga rally, he confirmed to Crowl, “there will be real violence for all of us next time.” Doubling down, he messaged Watkins, “I believe we will have to get violent to stop this,”apparently referring to losing his country.And Caldwell left no doubt as to who he believed was taking his country, warranting violence: individuals he disagreed with. Whether it was an“enemy,” “socialists,” “savages,” “antifa-like bugs,” “maggots,” or “cockroaches,”Caldwell dehumanized those who held opposing worldviews and discussed killing them, shooting them, and mutilating their corpses to use them as shields. He admitted himself, that he has his own gear, and likes to “go where the enemy is, especially after dark.”
Quotes of the day
The affidavit chronicles decrypted text messages between Caldwell and officers from Oath Keepers groups and militia members, including this one, sent following a meeting at his home where he accepted leadership of the activists who would enter the Capitol as a unit. The message was sent three days after the 14 November Million MAGA March in which he and the others participated [emphasis add]:
I probably overstepped my bounds during our op. I know you could tell how committed I was to it and I tend to step up. Maybe one of my major flaws. However, who knew if we would have to do serious battle that day. I figure you have to plan for the worst. Thankfully, their fear of conflict with those who can dish out the violence kept their numbers down and made up for our shortfalls. I truly believe that like it ALWAYS happens, the success was due to the professionalism, dedication and adaptability of the men and women who have to execute the plan and adapt as they go. I saw it in all of you and it made me proud and even more grateful that you accepted me to play a part. Next time (and there WILL be a next time) we will have learned and we will be stronger. I think there will be real violence for all of us next time. I know its not my place but I’m sure you have seen enough to know I am already working on the next D.C. op. We either WILL have a country and we’ll be battling antifa-like bugs to keep it or we will have lost our country/freedom and we will be fighting to regain it. I know I csn [sic] count on you. Hope you feel the same….
The second text is dated 3 January, three days before the foiled insurrection, and details a plan for using heavy weapons:
Can’t believe I just thought of this: how many people either in the militia or not (who are still supportive of our efforts to save the Republic) have a boat on a trailer that could handle a Potomac crossing? If we had someone standing by at a dock ramp (one near the Pentagon for sure) we could have our Quick Response Team with the heavy weapons standing by, quickly load them and ferry them across the river to our waiting arms. I’m not talking about a bass boat. Anyone who would be interested in supporting the team this way? I will buy the fuel. More or less be hanging around sipping coffee and maybe scooting on the river a bit and pretending to fish, then if it all went to shit, our guy loads our weps AND Blue Ridge Militia weps and ferries them across. Dude! If we had 2 boats, we could ferry across and never drive into D.C. at all!!!! Then get picked up. Is there a way to PLEASE pass the word among folks you know and see if someone would jump in the middle of this to help. I am spreading the word, too. Genius if someone is willing and hasn’t put their boat away for the winter.
Who are the Boobaloo Bois and why do they want to overthrow the government?
A joint investigation by ProPublica and Frontline has found disturbing connections between the militant white nationalist extremists and the U.S. military, links that raise disturbing questions about the future of America’s future.
From ProPublica, a report by the non-profit’s A.C. Thompson and Lila Hassan and Karim Hajj of Frontline:
The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government.
Hours after the attack on the Capitol ended, a group calling itself the Last Sons of Liberty posted a brief video to Parler, the social media platform, that appeared to show members of the organization directly participating in the uprising. Footage showed someone with a shaky smartphone charging past the metal barricades surrounding the building. Other clips show rioters physically battling with baton-wielding police on the white marble steps just outside the Capitol.
Before Parler went offline — its operations halted at least temporarily when Amazon refused to continue to host the network — the Last Sons posted numerous statements indicating that group members had joined the mob that swarmed the Capitol and had no regrets about the chaos and violence that unfolded on Jan. 6. The Last Sons also did some quick math: The government had suffered only one fatality, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, 42, who was reportedly bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher. But the rioters had lost four people, including Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot by an officer as she tried to storm the building.
In a series of posts, the Last Sons said her death should be “avenged” and appeared to call for the murder of three more cops.
The group is part of the Boogaloo movement — a decentralized, very online successor to the militia movement of the ’80s and ’90s — whose adherents are fixated on attacking law enforcement and violently toppling the U.S. government. Researchers say the movement began coalescing online in 2019 as people — mostly young men — angry with what they perceived to be increasing government repression, found each other on Facebook groups and in private chats. In movement vernacular, Boogaloo refers to an inevitable and imminent armed revolt, and members often call themselves Boogaloo Bois, boogs or goons.
In the weeks since Jan. 6, an array of extremist groups have been named as participants in the Capitol invasion. The Proud Boys. QAnon believers. White nationalists. The Oath Keepers. But the Boogaloo Bois are notable for the depth of their commitment to the overthrow of the U.S. government and the jaw-dropping criminal histories of many members.
Mike Dunn, a 20-year-old from a small town on Virginia’s rural southern edge, is the commander of the Last Sons. “I really feel we’re looking at the possibility — stronger than any time since, say, the 1860s — of armed insurrection,” Dunn said in an interview with ProPublica and FRONTLINE a few days after the assault on the Capitol. Although Dunn didn’t directly participate, he said members of his Boogaloo faction helped fire up the crowd and “may” have penetrated the building.
“It was a chance to mess with the federal government again,” he said. “They weren’t there for MAGA. They weren’t there for Trump.”
Dunn added that he’s “willing to die in the streets” while battling law enforcement or security forces.
In its short existence, the Boogaloo movement has proven to be a magnet for current or former military service members who have used their combat skills and firearms expertise to advance the Boogaloo cause. Before becoming one of the faces of the movement, Dunn did a brief stint in the U.S. Marines, a career he says was cut short by a heart condition, and worked as a Virginia state prison guard.
Through interviews, extensive study of social media and a review of court records, some previously unreported, ProPublica and FRONTLINE identified more than 20 Boogaloo Bois or sympathizers who’ve served in the armed forces. Over the past 18 months, 13 of them have been arrested on charges ranging from the possession of illegal automatic weapons to the manufacture of explosives to murder.
Most of the individuals identified by the news organizations became involved with the movement after leaving the military. At least four are accused of committing Boogaloo-related crimes while employed by one of the military branches.
Examples of the nexus between the group and the military abound.
Last year, an FBI task force in San Francisco opened a domestic terror investigation into Aaron Horrocks, a 39-year-old former Marine Corps reservist. Horrocks spent eight years in the Reserve before leaving the Corps in 2017.
The bureau became alarmed in September 2020, when agents received a tip that Horrocks, who lives in Pleasanton, California, was “planning an imminent violent attack on government or law enforcement,” according to a petition to seize the man’s firearms, which was filed in state court in October. The investigation, which has not previously been reported, links Horrocks to the Boogaloo movement. He has not been charged.
A petition asking an Alameda County, California, court to bar Aaron Horrocks from owning firearms and ammunition. (Superior Court of California, County of Alameda)
Horrocks did not respond to a request for comment, though he has uploaded a video to YouTube that appears to show federal law enforcement agents, in plainclothes, searching his storage unit. “Go fuck yourselves,” he tells them.
In June 2020 in Texas, police briefly detained Taylor Bechtol, a 29-year-old former Air Force staff sergeant and munitions loader with the 90th Aircraft Maintenance Unit. While in the service, Bechtol handled 1,000-pound precision-guided bombs.
The former airman was riding in a pickup truck with two other alleged Boogaloo Bois when the vehicle was stopped by Austin police, according to an intelligence report generated by the Austin Regional Intelligence Center, a multi-agency fusion center. Officers found five guns, several hundred rounds of ammunition and gas masks in the truck. The men expressed “sympathetic views toward the Boogaloo Bois” and should be treated with “extreme caution” by law enforcement, noted the report, which was obtained by ProPublica and FRONTLINE after it was leaked by hackers.
One of the men in the vehicle, Ivan Hunter, 23, has since been indicted for allegedly using an assault rifle to shoot up a police precinct in Minneapolis and helping to set the building ablaze. No trial date has been set for Hunter, who has pleaded not guilty.
Bechtol, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the traffic stop, did not respond to a request for comment.
Taylor Bechtol, then an Air Force staff sergeant, with munition at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on Oct. 26, 2018. Bechtol has been linked to the Boogaloo Bois. (Jonathan Valdes/USAF)
Linda Card, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which deals with the service’s most complex and serious criminal matters, said Bechtol left the service in December 2018 and was never investigated while in the Air Force.
In perhaps the highest-profile incident involving the group, several Boogaloo Bois were arrested in October in connection with the widely reported plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. One of those men was Joseph Morrison, a Marine Corps reservist who was serving in the 4th Marine Logistics Group at the time of his arrest and arraignment. Morrison, who is facing terrorism charges, went by the name Boogaloo Bunyan on social media. He also kept a sticker of the Boogaloo flag — it features a Hawaiian floral pattern and an igloo — on the rear window of his pickup truck. Two other men charged in the plot had spent time in the military.
The Marine Corps is working to root out extremists from its ranks, a spokesman said.
“Association or participation with hate or extremist groups of any kind is directly contradictory to the core values of honor, courage and commitment that we stand for as Marines and isn’t tolerated,” Capt. Joseph Butterfield said.
No reliable numbers exist about how many current or former military members are part of the movement.
The Pentagon’s strange refusal to dispatch National Guard troops to retake the Capitol took a dark turn today when the Washington Post confirmed that despite previous lies, the brother of an ousted Trump adviser who advocated a military takeover of the election was in the Pentagon room when top brass fielded a call from trapped officials in the Capitol.
The military’s outright lies raise countless questions, most prominently the question of what the hell was going on in that room when the nation’s military, sworn to protect the Constitution, refused to help a branch of government created by that very foundational document.
The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, the brother of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in a key meeting during its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Charles Flynn confirmed in a statement issued to The Washington Post on Wednesday that he was in the room for a tense Jan. 6 phone call during which the Capitol Police and D.C. officials pleaded with the Pentagon to dispatch the National Guard urgently, but top Army officials expressed concern about having the Guard at the Capitol.
Flynn left the room before the meeting was over, anticipating that then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who was in another meeting, would soon take action to deploy more guard members, he said.
“I entered the room after the call began and departed prior to the call ending as I believed a decision was imminent from the Secretary and I needed to be in my office to assist in executing the decision,” Flynn said.
The general’s presence during the call — which has not previously been reported — came weeks after his brother publicly suggested that President Donald Trump declare martial law and have the U.S. military oversee a redo of the election. There is no indication that Charles Flynn shares his brother’s extreme views or discharged his duties at the Pentagon on Jan. 6 in any manner that was influenced by his brother.
Gen. Flynn’s brother, the QAnon fanatic
Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, served a mere 17 days as Donald Trump’s first National Security Adviser as was fired over his role in establishing ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Back on 7 July 2020 CNN reported on the ex-generals QAnon ties:
In a video posted online over the weekend, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is seen using phrases and slogans that are hallmarks of the baseless QAnon conspiracy movement. He also tagged his post with a QAnon hashtag.
Followers of QAnon believe there is a “deep state” within the US government that is controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. According to the conspiracy, the cabal is largely run by Democratic politicians and liberal celebrities — and Trump is trying to take them down. Flynn posted the 53-second clip to Twitter on Saturday, which was the July Fourth holiday.
In the video, Flynn leads a small group in reciting a generic oath of office, the same oath taken by members of Congress. After finishing the oath, Flynn says, “Where we go one, we go all!” His post included the hashtag #TakeTheOath, which he recently added to his Twitter bio as well.
These elements of Flynn’s post — the oath, paired with the catchphrase and hashtag — are distinctive to the QAnon movement and are used widely by its followers, experts say. Flynn never explicitly mentions QAnon in the video, and his lawyer claims his phrasing is innocuous.
Then on 29 December came this, reported by the Daily Beast:
Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is going all in on the QAnon conspiracy theory, promoting an online store to sell QAnon hats and T-shirts, the proceeds of which will benefit his partnership with a prominent QAnon booster.
Flynn’s drawn-out legal battle with Special Counsel Robert Mueller turned him into a hero for QAnon believers. Many QAnon supporters, who rely on mysterious online clues to construct a worldview where the Democratic Party and other institutions are controlled by a cabal of pedophile-cannibals, claim that Flynn is “Q”, the anonymous figure behind the conspiracy theory. They also took a previously obscure Flynn quote about the American military’s “digital soldiers” as their banner, adopting the phrase to refer to QAnon believers themselves.
Flynn started to more aggressively court his QAnon fans this year, taking the “QAnon oath” in July and appearing on QAnon podcasts after receiving a pardon in November. Along the way, Flynn once again became an adviser to Trump, reportedly urging the president to impose martial law in a recent, heated Oval Office meeting.
Flynn aligned himself even further with QAnon on Tuesday, endorsing a T-shirt website called “Shirt Show USA” that sells QAnon gear and other “official” Flynn-themed merchandise. The website’s offerings include camo trucker hats, T-shirts, and sweatshirts with the phrase “WWG1WGA,” a reference to the central QAnon motto, “Where we go one, we go all.”
The disgraced general then amped up, as the Military Times reported 3 January:
Less than two weeks after being pardoned, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn took to the airwaves to suggest President Trump could impose martial law and deploy the military to re-run the election. Apparently, this proposal intrigued President Trump, who invited Flynn to the White House to hear more. According to most accounts, Trump did not embrace the ideas further, once he heard other advisers and government lawyers argue forcefully against the proposal. But the fact they were ever raised and entertained is extraordinarily alarming.
By expressing these views publicly and in the Oval Office, Flynn tried to give the military the central role in determining the election outcome — a role the Constitution does not assign and that senior military leaders have been at pains to avoid for the past year. Flynn used his own rank and military status to lend credibility to ideas that are manifestly illegal and harmful to the Republic.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville quickly responded by issuing a statement that implicitly disavowed both Flynn and his suggestion of martial law. They stated, “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.” This statement echoed similar ones that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has been making since the summer. A handful of retired generals and admirals have also criticized Flynn, but the overall response from this group has been muted, perhaps out of fear that such criticism could backfire by goading the President into taking this action precisely because he is being told he should not.
A curious blindness to overt fascists
It’s simply amazing how tolerant the defense establishment is when it comes to white nationalists.
We’re old enough to remember the days of the McCarthy Red scare, when simply having a close relative associated with an alleged communist front group was sufficient cause to deny security clearances.
Back in the mid-1960s when we reported for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, we interviewed a man with a top level security clearance as a defense contractor central to America’s nuclear program who was also the organizer for the local chapter of the American Nazi Party. After my story came out exposing his dual roles as nuke-builder and local top Nazi, he kept his job and his clearance.
Of course that was also the era when the head of the nation’s rocket-building effort was a former SS officer who designed rockets for Adolf Hitler.
This isn’t to say that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn shares his brother’s delusions.
But the Pentagon’s refusal to send help to the besieged legislators is an indelible stain on the Pentagon, and deservedly so. And lying about the presence of Flynn’s brother when the generals were listening to the plea from the Capitol has got to make one wonder what the hell was going, especially in light of their refusal to send help.
Twelve National Guard members have been removed from duties related to the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., two of them for expressing anti-government sentiments, Defense Department officials said on Tuesday.
Two of the members were removed over texts and social media posts that made threatening comments toward political officials, Pentagon officials said. They declined to specify the exact nature of the threats.
“I will share that they were inappropriate,” Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters during a telephone briefing.
Two officials described the texts as broad in nature — not directed specifically at Mr. Biden or Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, but rather at lawmakers as a whole. One of the service members removed, the officials said, made a point of expressing support for President Trump in addition to making menacing comments.
The London Daily Mail‘s headlines strike again, starting with this little bit of Trumpian malice:
Plane nasty: Biden and family arrive at Joint Base Andrews on charter plane after Trump REFUSES them government jet (despite empty 757 sitting on tarmac) – after Joe cries during heartrending Delaware speech about son Beau
President-elect Joe Biden arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday
Trump delivered Biden one more snub, forcing him to charter his own plane to fly from Delaware to Washington D.C. instead of authorizing an Air Force jet
The president-elect flew the short hop from Delaware to Joint Base Andrews
After they landed, they taxied past an idle Air Force Boeing 757 on the tarmac
Just as the Biden family landed, the White House released a 20-minute farewell video from Trump, which did not mention his successor by name or congratulate him on his victory
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Biden spoke at an event held at the Major Joseph R. ‘Beau’ Biden III National Guard / Reserve Center and spoke about his late son
‘Ladies and gentleman, I only have one regret, he’s not here because we should be introducing him as president,’ Biden said of Beau, who died of a rare brain cancer in 2015, aged 46
He is flying into an armed camp with 25,000 National Guard to protect the inauguration
12 of them were remove from duty as the FBI and Secret Service screen them for possible links to right-wing extremism in the wake of the Capitol MAGA riot
On Wednesday, the Trumps will fly out of Washington without greeting the Bidens, with the president holding his own farewell ‘ceremony’ at Andrews before getting on Air Force One to his Mar-a-Lago estate
Will ANYONE go to Trump’s send off? Mike Pence is latest to snub farewell ceremony after GOP leaders say they’d rather be with Biden and aides are reducing to begging president’s enemies to come
Vice President Mike Pence will skip President Donald Trump’s farewell ceremony
Republican Congressional leaders also will snub Trump’s farewell
Pence aides said it’s too difficult to travel to Joint Base Andrews and Capitol
There are reports aides are having trouble filling seats for Trump farewell
Guests are being allowed to bring five others with them
Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy will be at mass with Joe Biden on Wednesday before he takes the oath of office
Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will also be at St. Matthew’s church
Biden is starting his presidency with bipartisan display of unity
That is in contrast to Trump, who will leave town early on inauguration day
Trump has not contacted Biden, in a break of tradition of change in power
Biden needs Congress to pass his ambitious legislative agenda
Where were my A-listers? Trump is ‘livid’ at Biden’s star-studded inauguration line-up of Lady Gaga, Tom Hanks and Jennifer Lopez as Field of Flags is lit up on National Mall as he packs his bags for Florida
Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday will feature Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, and Tom Hanks at the show
Donald Trump is furious that Biden has attracted such star-power, it is claimed in The Washington Post
The paper said that Trump has been particularly upset by the line-up despite all the chaos of the month
Trump’s own inauguration was memorable for those who pulled out of the show including Elton John, the Dixie Chicks and Garth Brooks
Security for Wednesday’s event will be incredibly tight with 25,000 National Guard troops – twice as many as previously deployed for other inaugurations
Revealed: Republican lawmakers sought PARDONS from Donald Trump for their role in the MAGA riot – who was talked out of it by lawyers who told him move would seal his impeachment trial fate
Republican lawmakers involved in planning or participating in the rally before the Capitol storming have sought pardons from President Donald Trump
Sources claim they had to convince Trump not to give into the pleas because it would hurt his chances of looking innocent during the impeachment trial
He also decided Saturday that he would not grant pardons for himself or his family members before leaving office on Wednesday
A far-right activist said GOP Reps Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Mo Brooks helped organize the ‘Stop the Steal’ protest ahead of the Capitol storming this month
TWELVE National Guardsmen are removed from inauguration security over ‘ties to fringe right group militias or extremist online posts’ – but general says he is NOT concerned as his 25,000 ‘ready for anything’ troops patrol DC
Twelve National Guardsmen have now been removed from the presidential inauguration security mission after they were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online
The officials, a senior intelligence official and an Army official briefed on the matter, did not say which fringe group the Guard members belonged to or what unit they served in
Their removal from the massive security presence at the nation’s capital comes as the FBI worked to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops headed to the area for Biden’s inauguration
National Guard General Daniel Hokanson had earlier said the 25,000 armed troops that are now protecting Washington DC are ‘trained and ready for anything’
The National Guard said troops from all 50 states are supporting law enforcement for the inauguration
He said he wasn’t concerned about the potential for insider threat after it emerged the FBI was vetting Guardsman
In addition to Guardsman, the Pentagon has authorized 750 active-duty troops with expertise in chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosives
Attempts to fortify DC have been ongoing ever since the January 6 insurrection at Capitol with the city now an armed fortress fenced off with razor wire
New York court worker who called for ‘public executions’ of Pelosi and Schumer and told Trump supporters to ‘KILL your senators’ is arrested by FBI in Queens
Brendan Hunt, 37, was arrested by the FBI in Ridgewood for the threatening posts
Hunt works as an assistant court analyst for New York’s Office of Court Administration
MAGA supporter had previously attended Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011
Hunt used the alias X-Ray Ultra to make the alarming threats against the Democrat leaders and called the election ‘rigged’
He is expected to appear in a federal court in Brooklyn later on Tuesday
Beverly Hills doctor Simone Gold, who criticized the coronavirus vaccine and advocated for hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, is arrested in connection with the Capitol riots
In addition to Simone Gold, 52-year-old Gina Bisignano and 37-year-old John Strand also face charges in connection to the insurrection at the Capitol
A criminal complaint for charges against Gold and Strand states that federal authorities were alerted of the pair’s attendance at the Capitol
Gold became easily identifiable after she staged a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court in July with America’s Frontline Doctor
She confirmed to The Washington Post that she is the person pictured carrying a bullhorn on the Capitol grounds
White supremacist on parole for burglary and who aspired to be a ‘lone wolf killer’ is arrested for storming the Capitol after his GPS ankle monitor put him at riot
Bryan Betancur, of Silver Spring, Maryland, now faces multiple charges in connection with the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th
A ‘self-professed white supremacist’, Betancur was on GPS monitoring as a condition of his probation
He has now been arrested for participating in the insurrection at the Capitol
Betancur was out on probation having being released following a conviction for burglary
He had been approved by his probation officer to travel outside of Maryland to ‘distribute Bibles’ but instead was placed at the White House and the Capitol
Two U.S. Army National Guard members are being removed from the security mission to secure Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. A U.S. Army official and a senior U.S. intelligence official say the two National Guard members have been found to have ties to fringe right group militias.
No plot against Biden was found.
The Army official and the intelligence official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity due to Defense Department media regulations. They did not say what fringe group the Guard members belonged to or what unit they served in.
Contacted by the AP on Tuesday, the National Guard Bureau referred questions to the U.S. Secret Service and said, “Due to operational security, we do not discuss the process nor the outcome of the vetting process for military members supporting the inauguration.”
U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event.
The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary security concerns that have gripped Washington following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters. And it underscores fears that some of the very people assigned to protect the city over the next several days could present a threat to the incoming president and other VIPs in attendance.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press on Sunday that officials are conscious of the potential threat, and he warned commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the inauguration approaches. So far, however, he and other leaders say they have seen no evidence of any threats, and officials said the vetting hadn’t flagged any issues that they were aware of.
”We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” McCarthy said in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesday’s inauguration. He said Guard members are also getting training on how to identify potential insider threats.
Plus dozens of others are under investigation, as evidence that major players in the Capitol invasion were folks who took an oath to defend the Constitution.
Here’s the introduction to a very chilling report:
As President Donald Trump’s supporters massed outside the Capitol last week and sang the national anthem, a line of men wearing olive-drab helmets and body armor trudged purposefully up the marble stairs in a single-file line, each man holding the jacket collar of the one ahead.
The formation, known as “Ranger File,” is standard operating procedure for a combat team that is “stacking up” to breach a building — instantly recognizable to any U.S. soldier or Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a chilling sign that many at the vanguard of the mob that stormed the seat of American democracy either had military training or were trained by those who did.ADVERTISEMENT
An Associated Press review of public records, social media posts and videos shows at least 21 current or former members of the U.S. military or law enforcement have been identified as being at or near the Capitol riot, with more than a dozen others under investigation but not yet named. In many cases, those who stormed the Capitol appeared to employ tactics, body armor and technology such as two-way radio headsets that were similar to those of the very police they were confronting.
Experts in homegrown extremism have warned for years about efforts by far-right militants and white-supremacist groups to radicalize and recruit people with military and law enforcement training, and they say the Jan. 6 insurrection that left five people dead saw some of their worst fears realized.
Nearly a third of Black U.S. military servicemembers reported experiencing racial discrimination, harassment or both during a 12-month period, according to results of a long-withheld Defense Department survey that underscore concerns about racism in the ranks.
The 2017 survey, whose results have not previously been reported, also showed that U.S. troops who experienced racial discrimination or harassment had high levels of dissatisfaction with the complaint process and largely did not report it.
The data support the findings of a 2020 Reuters investigation here, which found that servicemembers feared that reporting discrimination would likely backfire and was not worth the risk.
“Overall, results reveal much work is needed to improve the reporting process for those who experience racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination,” the Defense Department acknowledged in a report that accompanied the survey data.
The Pentagon’s release of the data followed a Reuters article last month here disclosing how the Defense Department sat on the 2017 survey data during President Donald Trump’s administration, even last month denying a Reuters Freedom of Information Act Request.
When President Donald Trump signed the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law in December, so began the 180-day countdown for US intelligence agencies to tell Congress what they know about UFOs.
No, really. The director of National Intelligence and the secretary of defense have a little less than six months now to provide the congressional intelligence and armed services committees with an unclassified report about “unidentified aerial phenomena.
“It’s a stipulation that was tucked into the “committee comment” section of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which was contained in the massive spending bill.
The legislation mandates that the report contain an unclassified analysis of all the UFO information collected by the Naval Intelligence, the FBI, and the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, though a classified annex may also be submitted.
The legislation orders creation of an inter-agency review process to ensure timely reporting of information, headed by a designated official.
Congress also ordered a report on any the national security threats posed by the phenomena.
CIA UFO reports also go online
In a second development today, a website offering all manner of declassified secrets has made all thus-far released UFO reports from the Central Intelligence Agency
All of the CIA’s publicly available documents on unidentified flying objects is now available to be downloaded.
The website The Black Vault, ran by John Greenewald Jr., has published a downloadable archive of every instance of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the government classification for UFOs. All the files are available online at The Black Vault’s website.
Greenewald scanned thousands of pages by hand following approximately 10,000 Freedom Of Information Acts (FOIA) levied at multiple agencies, including the CIA, which have resulted in the 2.2 million pages uploaded to The Black Vault.
The documents had been released before, but in a very difficult format for the average reader. Black Vault offers the records in accessible PDF versions for easy downloading and perusal.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday took no responsibility for his part in fomenting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praise for them while they were still carrying out the assault.
“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.
He made the comments during his first appearance in public since the Capitol siege, which came as lawmakers were tallying Electoral College votes affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to burnish his legacy with eight days remaining in his term, as lawmakers in Congress appeared set to impeach him this week for the second time.
In Alamo, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexican border — the site of the 450th mile of the border wall his administration is building, Trump brushed off Democratic calls on his Cabinet to declare him unfit from office and remove him from power using the 25th Amendment.
“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said. “As the expression goes, be careful of what you wish for.”
Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, the third-ranking GOP leader in the House, announced in a statement today that she will vote to impeach President Trump, saying that he “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said in the statement.
The U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the uniformed leaders of the different military branches, on Tuesday put out a rare joint message to service members saying the violent riots last week were an assault America’s Constitutional process and against the law.
The message breaks nearly a week of silence by the military leaders after the assault on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump sent lawmakers into hiding and left five people dead.
While a number of Trump’s cabinet members, including acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, had condemned the violent storming, the top U.S. general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, had been silent until now.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said.
The extraordinary snub to Washington came days after the storming of U.S. Capitol by thousands of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, an unprecedented attack on American democracy that stunned many world leaders and U.S. allies.
Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, had sought to meet Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, a small but wealthy NATO ally, before meeting EU leaders and the bloc’s top diplomat in Brussels, three people close to the planning told Reuters.
<snip>
Appalled by the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 U.S. election, Asselborn had called Trump a “criminal” and a “political pyromaniac” on RTL Radio the next day.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.
New York City is investigating whether it can cancel its contracts with the Trump Organization after last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday.
Mr. de Blasio, who has repeatedly accused President Trump of provoking the violent siege, said his legal team was assessing the city’s options.
“We are looking at that very, very carefully and very quickly,” Mr. de Blasio said when asked about the contracts at a news conference. “The president incited a rebellion against the United States government — clearly an unconstitutional act and people died. That’s unforgivable.”
Deutsche Bank will no longer do business with President Donald Trump, a move that will cut off his business from a major source of loans that once helped fund his golf courses and hotels.Germany’s biggest bank has decided to refrain from future business with the president and his company, a person familiar with the bank’s thinking told CNN Business. The news, first reported by the New York Times, follows last week’s deadly riot at the US Capitol. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank (DB) declined to comment to CNN Business, citing a prohibition on discussing potential client relationships.
Republicans have introduced a resolution to formally censure Donald Trump for trying to overturn the election and encouraging “lawless action”.
The resolution, from representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, overlaps significantly with Democrats’ impeachment resolution – but rather than impeaching the president, the Republicans backing the resolution say they want to formally tell him off.
Unlike an impeachment, which will compel the Senate to vote on whether to convict and remove Trump from office, a censure is more symbolic.
A 70-year-old Trump supporter who brought homemade napalm to the Capitol riot was reportedly also carrying a list of “good guys” and “bad guys” on the day of the insurrection that included the numbers of lawmakers and conservative political pundits.
Lonnie Coffman, of Alabama, was one of the thousands of rioters who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January.
Mr Coffman is one of 13 individuals who have been federally charged for actions taken during the attack on the Capitol. Police discovered 11 Molotov cocktails and guns in his vehicle.
Police also found a blue Motel 6 folder containing a “good guys” and “bad guys” list. One of the “bad guys” was a judge. The list also included the name of Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat, which the list notes “is one of two” Muslims in the House of Representatives.
State and local law enforcement agencies are ramping up security measures around the California Capitol in the aftermath of last week’s insurrection in Washington, D.C., by rioters seeking to keep President Trump in office.
With the FBI warning of plans for armed protests in Washington and all 50 state capitals ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week, Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he is prepared to call in the California National Guard if needed to maintain peace in Sacramento.
“Everybody is on high alert in terms of just making sure that everybody is safe and protected, people’s free speech can be advanced but there’s no violence,” Newsom said at a news conference Monday. “I can assure you, we have a heightened, heightened level of security.”
Republicans find a way not to waste a crisis
Seizing on the chaos in the Capitol, Republicans in state government have moved to criminalize protest, and given that the protests in their states have arisen mostly from police shooting men and women of color, the GOP has found a way to criminalize Black Lives Matter [at least that’s how we read it].
Within one day of last week’s attack on the Capitol, at least three states introduced legislation to criminalize protest. The bills, advanced by Republican lawmakers in Florida, Mississippi, and Indiana, do not represent new strategies designed specifically to prevent future right-wing insurrections. Rather, they draw from a set of policies that numerous state legislators introduced this summer in order to appear tough on protests against police brutality.
Florida’s and Mississippi’s bills in particular represent a new brand of anti-protest laws on steroids, creating penalties for a wide array of activities, from damaging monuments to obstructing traffic. The bills include measures that could encourage harsh law enforcement responses to protests as well as provisions meant to prevent local governments from reducing police funding.
The narrower Indiana bill would broaden the definition of rioting — which the Florida bill did as well — and would criminalize camping at the Indiana state Capitol. The Mississippi bill would also allow the state to strip unemployment benefits from anyone who pleads guilty to participating in disruptive protests.
And Rudy gets a snub, too
The President’s inflammatory legal mouthpiece got a little comedown his own.
A college in Vermont announced that it is revoking an honorary degree it presented to President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol last week by a pro-Trump mob opposing the presidential election results.
Middlebury College confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that it had made the decision to revoke the degree it gave Giuliani in 2005. It also said it has “communicated this to Mr. Giuliani’s office.”
The news comes after local outlets reported on Monday that the school was considering revoking the degree, with the college’s president, Laurie Patton, accusing the Giuliani of “fomenting the violent uprising against our nation’s Capitol building on January 6, 2021—an insurrection against democracy itself.”
Federal authorities are investigating after a manatee in Florida was discovered with the word “TRUMP” scrawled onto its back.
A spokesperson for the US Fish and Wildlife Service told BuzzFeed News that the mammal did not appear to be “seriously injured,” saying that the word was evidently etched into the algae on top of its skin.
An underwater video shared with BuzzFeed News by Hailey Warrington, a boat captain for River Ventures and River Safaris, showed the markings on the manatee as it moved through the Homosassa Springs.
Contrition isn’t a concept familiar to Donald Trump.
Heading to Texas to praise himself, Trump took time to make his first appearance before the nation’s press this morning, and his performance was classic Trump.
The president spoke to reporters for the first time since a pro-Trump mob rampaged through the Capitol last Wednesday, leaving five people dead. Democrats accuse him of stoking violence and could vote to impeach him on Wednesday.
“So if you read my speech, and many people have done it, and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television, it’s been analysed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump insisted at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, ahead of a trip to Texas.
What people thought his remarks appropriate?
Sadly, the question was never asked. But given that he’s been holed up with nothing but fellow unindicted co-conspirators, you can guess.
“If you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem,” he said.
<snip>
When asked directly on Tuesday morning if he would resign with just nine days left in office, Mr. Trump said “I want no violence.”
He did not address his own role in inciting the mob of Trump supporters. Instead, the president framed himself as a victim, calling impeachment a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.”
“I think it’s causing tremendous anger,” he said.
The Capitol takeover was just the beginning
We are seeing the opening round of a new civil war.
The people who broke into the Capitol, including those who entered intent on murder, we just the opening wave of a tide of violence incited over the past five years [including the 2016 original campaign season] of five years of manipulation by a soulless egoist willing to use any tools to ensure his enshrinement in the national memory.
Trump is a genius when it comes to one thing: propaganda, and while people often compare him to Hitler, a much more accurate comparison is with Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s most devoted acolyte and the first master of modern media.
Goebbels was the master of the pithy communique, the branding of enemies with pithy and memorable catchphrases designed to pigeonhole and neutralize his enemies.
The classic example is Bernhard Weiss, the vice president of Berlin police during Goebbels’ years as head of the Nazi Party in Berlin.
Weiss struggled to control the violence of Nazi stormtroops [the Sturmabteilung, or SA] before the 30 January 1933 Nazi takeover of the German government.
Goebbels called the Jewish Weiss “Isidore,” rather than the Germanic Bernhard, and blasted him for defending the “Jew’s republic,” the term he used to describe the government under the Weimar Republic.
Like Trump, Goebbels was a master of contempt and the inflammatory epigram. Before taking power, Goebbels welcomed the hostile press his remarks ensured, noting the attacks in his diary, often followed by this phrase: “The main thing is, they’re talking about us.”
And Goebbels and Trump both played to the same base. To quote the German propagandist: “We will never get anywhere, if we lean on the interests of the cultured and propertied classes. Everything will come to us if we appeal to the hunger and despair of the masses.”
The danger in the police, military
Today’s news brings us word that an officer of the Secret Service, the ageny charged with protecting the president, has been caught posting Tump support on Facebook, even in the aftermath of the attempted putsch.
The Secret Service indicated Monday that it was investigating an officer who posted comments on Facebook in which she accused lawmakers who formalized Biden’s win of treason and echoed Trump’s conspiracy theories about the rigging of the election.
According to images provided to The Post, the officer posted a meme on Facebook of Trump shaking hands with himself in the Oval Office, titled “Here’s to the Peaceful Transition of Power.” The day after the attack on the Capitol, a comment posted in the officer’s name ridiculed efforts to remove Trump from office and accused lawmakers who were formally accepting the electoral college vote of “committing treason on live tv.”
It read in part: “Good morning patriots! Yesterday started out beautiful and as usual Antifa soured the mood and attacked police and an Air Force veteran was murdered….It’s OFFENSE time finally!!”
This revelation comes after the Secret Service already announced it was moving agents out of the presidential detail because of their avid support for Trump and his agenda.
As the Independent reported on New Years Eve, “The Secret Service is planning to make changes to the presidential security detail before president-elect Joe Biden comes to power, amid rising concerns that some current personnel may be Donald Trump loyalists.”
Just as alarming are new reports of suspicious conduct by the very officers assigned to protect the Capitol building, the U.S. Capitol Police.
Several U.S. Capitol Police officers have been suspended and more than a dozen others are under investigation for suspected involvement with or inappropriate support for the demonstration last week that turned into a deadly riot at the Capitol, according to members of Congress, police officials and staff members briefed on the developments.
Eight separate investigations have been launched into the actions of Capitol officers, according to one congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the status of the internal review.
In one of the cases, officers had posted what Capitol Police investigators found to be messages showing support for the rally on Wednesday that preceded the attack on the complex, including touting President Trump’s baseless contention that the election had been stolen through voter fraud, the aide said.
The question of community police reliability
And now, with Trump’s supporters vowing armed sieges of all 50 state capitals, the question of police reliability is being raised, and with good reason.
First consider this Police Magazine 2016 poll conducted before Trump’s 2016 electoral victory. Only serving law enforcement officers voted, and their sentiments were clear:
No poll was conducted last year, but we suspect Trump’s supporter woulhave been even greater, given the national wave of anti-police protests.
So what about now? What about what happebned in Washington?
Around the country, police departments are following up on reports of off-duty officers spotted in Washington, D.C. The Seattle Police Department has put two officers on paid leave as their presence in D.C. is investigated.
Let’s not forget the the Federation of Police, the largest union representing officers in the U.S. has always been in Trump’s camp, endorsing him in both of his White House runs.
Michael Zoorob of Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science examined the role of the Federation of Police in Trump’s 2016 Republican primaries and found that regions where union membership was concentrated, votes shifted from George Romney to Donald Trump.
Throughout American history, police have gravitated to right-wing, law-and-order politicians and ethnocentric groups: “The police find few segments of the body politic who appreciate their contribution to society… i f they do, they find this appreciation among conservatives, and particularly the extreme right” (quoting noted sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset’s 1972 study “The Politics of the Police.”). Trump fits this mold. In one primary debate, he said, “Police are the most mistreated people in this country. . .We have to give power back to the police because crime is rampant.” Trump’s win was thus a relief. The FOP leader in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania—traditionally a Democratic stronghold—cheered that “We, law enforcement, and the people needed this win.”
Several vocal police unions have endorsed President Trump, there have been several reports of uniformed police officers expressing explicit preference for the president in public, and there have been complaints of coziness or bias shown by some officers toward armed right-wing groups and self-described militias. The incidents have added to an already heightened climate of tension across the country.
Already the focus of anger because of a rash of police killings of unarmed Black men and women, the police are more defensive and more angry than at any time since the 1960’s. In other words, they’re armed, and many of them may be dangerous.
The threat from America’s military
The police and the military are the two organizations entitled to use armed force.
And like the police, the military too harbors a hard core of radical extremist, inckluding members of the Klan and other organizations dedicated to the repression of people of color, religious minorities, and politicians they oppose.
In 2012 alone, a member of the Missouri National Guard was arrested for providing weapons for and running a neo-Nazi paramilitary training camp in Florida, two soldiers were arrested after murdering a former soldier and his girlfriend in an attempt to cover up their assassination plot against then-President Barack Obama, and a Marine Corps scout sniper team in Afghanistan posed with a Nazi SS flag. A 2014 Vice News segment showed the KKK was actively seeking to recruit U.S. military veterans, and a few were answering their call.
A majority of U.S. military personnel who’ve committed domestic terror attacks have been veterans, not active duty. According to the same New America data, 21 military veterans were identified as having committed or attempted an act of violence as a right-wing extremist between 2001 and 2013. While some were radicalized before or during military service, others seemed to first participate in far-right extremism after leaving the military, while they searched for identities as civilians.
White nationalists, the military, and protests have a history together. For white nationalists that have infiltrated the military, protests are the perfect opportunity to incite a race war. Many groups view a race war as a way to destabilize and overthrow the US government and establish a white ethnostate. White nationalist groups encourage their members to join the military for weapons expertise and recruit military members for their access to weaponry.
During the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va., a Marine assaulted multiple people, bragged about it online, and returned to duty. ProPublica made the Marine Corps aware of the video evidence, at which point the Marine faced the equivalent of a misdemeanor trial.
<snip>
In the last three years, every military service publicly dealt with an active duty member with an extremist affiliation. Most cases are discovered, not by the military itself, but from media outlets, volunteer internet sleuths, and the FBI.
The role of veterans in the newly proliferating militia groups — which sometimes are steeped in racism and other times steeped simply in antigovernment zealotry — has increased over the last decade, said a dozen experts on law enforcement, domestic terrorism and extremist groups.
Although only a small fraction of the nation’s 20 million veterans joins militia groups, experts in domestic terrorism and law enforcement analysts estimate that veterans and active-duty members of the military may now make up at least 25 percent of militia rosters. These experts estimate that there are some 15,000 to 20,000 active militia members in around 300 groups.
A more recent report comes from Politico, posted yesterday:
A 2020 survey found that more than one-third of all active-duty troops and more than half of minority service members reported witnessing first-hand examples of white nationalism or other ideologically-driven racism.
“To an even greater degree than in previous surges of extremism,” he added, “the Internet has played a role in the present one, with extremist content found on websites, discussion forums, chat rooms, social media, messaging apps, gaming and streaming sites, and other platforms.”
Pitcavage recounted a litany of incidents involving right-wing extremists in the ranks over the past few years, including: troops offering to teach how to make explosives and target left-wing activists, joining pro-Nazi organizations and traveling to Ukraine without orders to train with a right-wing militia. A Florida National Guardsman even founded a neo-Nazi group.
In February 2020, Military Times reported on extremism in the armed forces, and the results are not reassuring:
Last fall, the names of several service members, veterans and potential military recruits were found among users of the neo-Nazi forum Iron March after activists leaked an internal database connected to the group. Around the same time, Army investigators opened an inquiry into a Reserve operations officer in connection with racist, anti-government screeds calling for extreme violence he allegedly posted online. That investigation is still ongoing.
The Army National Guard kicked out two soldiers in December after activists uncovered their membership in a religious group with white supremacist ties. Defense Department officials tracked at least 27 reports of extremist activity by active-duty troops from 2013 to 2018.
“We’re seen groups encouraging members to join the military, to get training in weaponry and survival skills,” Miller said. “It’s something that they really value.
“We also know that hate groups and white supremacy groups are actively recruiting military members. If they want to use violence to push the country into a race war, they need people with a knowledge of firearms, explosives and other military skills.”
Their report accompanied the latest of the publication’s surveys on extremism in the military, and they discovered a dramatic rise in soldiers reporting first-hand contact with white nationalists and other racists in the ranks:
Anyone who thinks that dramatic rise in 2019 was unrelated to Trump’s violent, racist rhetoric is living in an illusion.
Remember the Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard was the Roman army’s most elite unit, a force entrusted with protecting the person of the Roman emperor.
But the Praetorians went far beyond their statutory role, killing at least emperor and forcing the installation of others.
The real question for today is what about the police and the military, the latter-day incarnations of the Praetorians.
And remember, the extremists in the military include snipers and other skilled in long-range murder.
Are we, like Rome, an ethnically diverse nation riven with rivalries and heading to slow collapse? And will today’s Praetorians intervene as they did long before?
Daniel Ellsberg [previous story] isn’t the only one worried that an increasingly deranged Donald Trump may be planning a war during his final days in office.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shares his fears the the belligerent Commander in Chief may want to go out in a blaze of atomic fireballs, and she’s asking the military to help make sure that doesn’t happen.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing an “unhinged” President Donald Trump from ordering military actions including a possible nuclear strike in his final days and hours at the White House.
Pelosi said in a statement to colleagues that she spoke with Gen. Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes” for nuclear war. She said Milley assured her longstanding safeguards are in place.
The president has sole authority in the U.S. government to order the launch of a nuclear weapon. But a military commander could refuse the order if it were determined to be illegal. Trump has been making no such threats.
Pelosi said the situation of “this unhinged president could not be more dangerous.”
Daniel Ellsberg knows a lot about secret war plans, being the man who who leaked the Pentagon Papers
And now he worries that Trump’s parting gift to the world may be in the form of an attack on Iran, and he’s issued a call for Pentagon insiders to leak anything that shows if Trump is planning a literal parting shot.
Outrageous as his incendiary performance was on Wednesday, I fear he may incite something far more dangerous in the next few days: his long-desired war with Iran.
Could he possibly be so delusional as to imagine that such a war would be in the interests of the nation or region or even his own short-term interests? His behavior and evident state of mind this week and over the last two months answers that question.
The dispatch this week of B-52’s nonstop round-trip from North Dakota to the Iranian coast – the fourth such flight in seven weeks, one at year’s end – along with his build-up of US forces in the area, is a warning not only to Iran but to us.
In mid-November, as these flights began, the president had to be dissuaded at the highest levels from directing an unprovoked attack on Iran nuclear facilities. But an attack “provoked” by Iran (or by militias in Iraq aligned with Iran) was not ruled out.
US military and intelligence agencies have frequently, as in Vietnam and Iraq, provided presidents with false information that offered pretexts to attack our perceived adversaries. Or they’ve suggested covert actions that could provoke the adversaries to some response that justifies a US “retaliation”.
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Current documents or digital files that contemplate provoking or “retaliating to” Iranian actions covertly provoked by us should not remain secret another moment from the US Congress and the American public, lest we be presented with a disastrous fait accompli before January 20, instigating a war potentially worse than Vietnam plus all the wars of the Middle East combined. It is neither too late for such plans to be carried out by this deranged president nor for an informed public and Congress to block him from doing so.
I am urging courageous whistleblowing today, this week, not months or years from now, after bombs have begun falling. It could be the most patriotic act of a lifetime.
eats shoots 'n leaves 