The NY Times did a study of eight states’ US history textbooks including Texas, and it ain’t pretty. Printed by the same publisher, the books differ in discussions of race, slavery, the Civil War, sexuality, and gun rights. And if you guessed that Texas tilted the texts to far right ideology, you would be correct.
Enlightening (and depressing) read.
Every year, the Eurasia Group, a political risk management and consulting group, issues its report on the top ten global risks of international crisis. This year’s report is profoundly disturbing, especially the largest risk it identifies. Who is it? Is it Iran? Saudi Arabia? Russia? Nope. It’s the US and its broken political system. Before we talk about this, let’s look at all ten:
These risks are all disturbing and obvious to geopolitical observers, but the first risk is scary in that it recognizes the shambles our own political system is in. It talks about how Trump is greatly worsening the situation through his immoral and illegal behavior, but expresses great concern that he has already delegitimized the 2020 election by claiming that if he loses it’s because the election was “rigged”. If he wins, the majority of Americans will believe it was rigged the other way (with the help of the Republicans and the Russians) and many won’t accept the result. It is a lose-lose situation, and with Republicans enabling and protecting Trump, the crisis is unavoidable, especially since they’ll acquit him in the Senate trial emboldening him more if that’s even possible. I mean, after all, he’s now announced that the only way he’s going to communicate with Congress is through Twitter. Jesus.
None of this will end well, even in the remote chance that by some miracle he’s removed from office.
And no, it’s not Trump. It’s Obama. Shocking.
Yesterday I talked about how Trumpists flocked to their latest article of faith that Trump isn’t really impeached because the House hasn’t transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate. There is no basis in law or fact for that belief, but it’s there anyway, virally spreading throughout Trumpland. During our Trumpist infestation we experienced yesterday that was the recurring theme. These trends often start as a joke or a hoax, sometimes on satire sites, but quickly morph into viral proliferation by those who desperately cling to anything that supports their predisposed beliefs. Here’s the Google trend line for searches this week on “Trump not impeached”:
And, as you would imagine, the regions that have the most searches are the red states. There’s new viral rumor now growing in Trumpland and that is, now that Trump is impeached, he’s automatically eligible to run 2 more times. That is REALLY stupid, and is completely unsupported both in the Constitution including the 22nd Amendment. It started as a “joke” in October, but really took off this week, spreading across right wing pages by Trumpists. Here’s the Google trend line for “Trump can run for third time”:
This kind of proliferation is what makes brainwashing so nefarious. Many of the Trumpists’ comments during our infestation yesterday were repeating absolute nonsense, Russian propaganda, boasting, taunting, and personal insults. None of the dozens of comments we received were based in any kind of fact; all taunted; none were even reasonable.
With rampant propaganda proliferated over social media facts or truth no longer matter. Worse, Trump’s Twitter account amplifies these lies. Every time he tweets one of his insults, childish taunts, threats, or lies, it goes out to millions or users, retweeted thousands of times. In the hands of an immoral politician like Trump, social media is weaponized for the dark side. You can see it, but can also measure it. Here’s the search terms “Burisma” and “Hunter Biden”:
These trends follow Trump’s twitter feed and those who support him. Nobody ever even heard of Burisma, and few were even aware of Hunter Biden until Trump, Giuliani, and the Noise Machine started repeating it. And, they almost got away with it; were it not for the whistleblower, Ukraine would have announced an investigation of the fabricated Russian story that Ukraine was the bad actor in 2016, and Biden’s chance to become the Democratic presidential nominee would have been destroyed.
Integrity matters, but evil can easily run over integrity because brainwashing works really well. And THAT threatens our republic more than any outside force.
We know the conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his henchman, Rudy Giuliani is nonsensical. Every intelligence agency says it’s nonsensical. During House impeachment hearings, former US intelligence officer and Russian specialist implored Republican congressmen to stop repeating Russian propaganda that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in the 2016 election. The entire story is bullshit, and we KNOW it’s bullshit.
Ever wonder where the story came from and why Trump repeats it ad nauseam? Well, the Washington Post dropped the bombshell this week that Putin himself planted the story in a private meeting during the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg, when he began publicly repeating the story. The meeting, and the subsequent meeting in Helsinki had NO US OFFICIALS PRESENT and there are no notes of the meetings. We all knew it was stupid for Trump to meet with Putin alone, now we’re beginning to understand the depth of that stupidity. The Post used interviews with former WH officials to confirm the story.
Let’s recap. Trump withheld Congressionally appropriated funds to Ukraine to extort the announcement of an “investigation” into Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election using the fabricated story that Joe Biden and his son hunter were somehow involved in Ukrainian corruption. When caught, he immediately released the funds and claimed what dozens of people saw didn’t really happen. Then he defied all subpoenas for documents, ordered current and former officials to not testify, and repeatedly lied to the public about what is really going on. The narrative he uses on a daily basis likely came directly from Putin, a former KGB officer.
Christ on a Crutch. This is about as bad as it gets while Trumpists scream there is no evidence, no wrongdoing, and all of this is just made up by Democrats. Sheesh.
That’s right, folks. Yesterday, Denver right wing radio screamer, Chuck Bonniwell, said on live radio that the Trump impeachment proceedings were so boring that, “You know, you wish for a nice school shooting to interrupt the monopoly.” His co-host immediately recoiled at the statement, but it was too late, he’d already said it. Bonniwell is well known in Colorado for his insulting and boorish behavior on the radio, but this one tops them all. This is how cold and cruel the right wing has become. Especially in the days of Trump, nothing is too crass or too disgusting as to be off-limits for national television or radio. Bonniwell actually made light of the epidemic of murderous school shootings to denigrate the constitutional process that is occurring now in DC.
Makes me want to puke.
UPDATE:
Ol’ Chuck was just fired for his comment and being an insensitive jerk. ‘Bye.