In this video clip former Minister for the Treasury Board, Stockwell Day deny's, denys, denys--it's the standard Government policy to deny until one is caught.The “Harper Government” moniker rose to prominence in 2009, when its use was noted in light of a controversy over Conservative MPs posing with giant, mock government cheques bearing the party logo and MPs’ signatures. The mock cheques were consigned to the dust bin, and the “Harper Government” handle went into partial hibernation.
Since December, the “Harper Government” has returned with a vengeance, sprouting like mushrooms across departmental communications.
Scores of recent news releases — from the Canada Revenue Agency to Fisheries and Oceans, Finance, International Trade, Health Canada and Industry Canada — are all headlined by “Harper Government” actions.
Even the Treasury Board Secretariat is using the term.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query orwellian. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query orwellian. Sort by date Show all posts
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Harper Government (c)(tm)(r)
Welcome to the Orwellian World of the Conservative Government. The Canadian Government becomes the Harper Government (c) (tm)(r) a decision made in 2009 but only revealed this month. As they quietly implemented it across various departments in their continuous use of taxpayer programs and funding for their permanent election campaign.
Sunday, April 24, 2022
PAKISTAN
Editorial
Imran Khan’s ralliesDAWN
Published April 23, 2022 -
AFTER three massive rallies in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore, Imran Khan has proven that he still commands significant respect. The sudden revival of his political fortunes was quite unexpected, and it goes to show how shrewdly he has played the political hand he was dealt.
The reaffirmation of his supporters’ faith in him should give him enough confidence to proceed headlong into his campaign for early elections. As a leader, he ought to take this opportunity to turn a fresh page and rewrite his political destiny based on lessons learnt from his first stint in power. It is unfortunate that he, instead, continues to amplify a toxic narrative that risks turning the people of Pakistan against the state, its institutions and even themselves.
From between the lines of an angry speech, which has varied little from city to city, Mr Khan has demanded from the powers that be that they give him an early election. It is the only way, he says, to set right the wrong that he believes was done to him.
The call for a march on Islamabad, to be announced at a date of his choosing, is leverage for enforcing that demand. It remains to be seen how seriously and enthusiastically it is taken up by his supporters, if indeed matters come to that. However, it does have the potential to throw another spanner in the works for the new coalition government, which suddenly finds itself with everything to lose after walking itself into a political quagmire littered with economic landmines.
Editorial: Imran’s choice
Still, Mr Khan must realise that the best-laid plans often go awry.
Dharnas and jalsas alone may not be enough to sway the umpire’s finger, as they once did in 2014. His graph may be rising today, but political fortunes are fickle and subject to the vagaries of time. It would be prudent, therefore, that he finds a new tune to pipe for the people following him.
There has always been something distinctly Orwellian about Mr Khan’s vision for a ‘Naya Pakistan’, but the heady mix of religion and hyper-nationalism he has introduced in recent speeches takes it to another level. Granted that most among our political lot simply cannot resist appealing to our basest instincts when attempting to turn our loyalties against each other, but turning political differences with rival parties into grounds for hate and revulsion of the other is not only unnecessary; it is deplorable.
Mr Khan often describes Mohammad Ali Jinnah as his “only leader”, forgetting that it was statecraft and diplomacy that made Mr Jinnah ‘Quaid-i-Azam’. If Mr Khan wishes to emulate the Quaid, he needs something substantially more wholesome than a narrative that paints anyone who has ever disagreed with him as a traitor. He ought to rise above the politics of hate and adopt a narrative of inclusion and reconciliation instead.
Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022
Published April 23, 2022 -
AFTER three massive rallies in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore, Imran Khan has proven that he still commands significant respect. The sudden revival of his political fortunes was quite unexpected, and it goes to show how shrewdly he has played the political hand he was dealt.
The reaffirmation of his supporters’ faith in him should give him enough confidence to proceed headlong into his campaign for early elections. As a leader, he ought to take this opportunity to turn a fresh page and rewrite his political destiny based on lessons learnt from his first stint in power. It is unfortunate that he, instead, continues to amplify a toxic narrative that risks turning the people of Pakistan against the state, its institutions and even themselves.
From between the lines of an angry speech, which has varied little from city to city, Mr Khan has demanded from the powers that be that they give him an early election. It is the only way, he says, to set right the wrong that he believes was done to him.
The call for a march on Islamabad, to be announced at a date of his choosing, is leverage for enforcing that demand. It remains to be seen how seriously and enthusiastically it is taken up by his supporters, if indeed matters come to that. However, it does have the potential to throw another spanner in the works for the new coalition government, which suddenly finds itself with everything to lose after walking itself into a political quagmire littered with economic landmines.
Editorial: Imran’s choice
Still, Mr Khan must realise that the best-laid plans often go awry.
Dharnas and jalsas alone may not be enough to sway the umpire’s finger, as they once did in 2014. His graph may be rising today, but political fortunes are fickle and subject to the vagaries of time. It would be prudent, therefore, that he finds a new tune to pipe for the people following him.
There has always been something distinctly Orwellian about Mr Khan’s vision for a ‘Naya Pakistan’, but the heady mix of religion and hyper-nationalism he has introduced in recent speeches takes it to another level. Granted that most among our political lot simply cannot resist appealing to our basest instincts when attempting to turn our loyalties against each other, but turning political differences with rival parties into grounds for hate and revulsion of the other is not only unnecessary; it is deplorable.
Mr Khan often describes Mohammad Ali Jinnah as his “only leader”, forgetting that it was statecraft and diplomacy that made Mr Jinnah ‘Quaid-i-Azam’. If Mr Khan wishes to emulate the Quaid, he needs something substantially more wholesome than a narrative that paints anyone who has ever disagreed with him as a traitor. He ought to rise above the politics of hate and adopt a narrative of inclusion and reconciliation instead.
Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
"Trumpism imperils all Jewish Americans": Experts warn of "America's rising tide of antisemitism"
Chauncey DeVega
Last Sunday was the Jewish New Year and High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah. As a public figure, in his role as ex-president and now Republican 2024 frontrunner, Donald Trump could have chosen many ways to honor Rosh Hashanah. He could have issued an obligatory statement acknowledging Rosh Hashanah and its significance for the Jewish people. Of course, Trump could have simply decided to be quiet instead of being a gum beater. Instead, Trump celebrated Rosh Hashanah by threatening Jewish Americans who do not support him in a post he shared via his Truth Social disinformation platform last Sunday night:
"Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed in false narratives! Let's hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!"
Trump's threats and the distinction he makes between "good Jews" and "bad Jews", the supporters of him and his neofascist MAGA movement and those who dare to oppose him and it, are centuries-old antisemitic tropes.
Trump's threats against Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah are but one example of many where throughout his decades of public life – and especially during his time as president and after – where the ex-president has proven himself to be a white supremacist and an antisemite.
MSNBC offers these examples:
During his 2016 campaign, for example, Trump spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition and said, "You're not gonna support me because I don't want your money. You want to control your politicians." He added, "I'm a negotiator — like you folks."
Several months later, in the runup to Election Day, the Republican promoted antisemitic imagery through social media. In the closing days of the 2016 campaign, Trump again faced accusations of antisemitism, claiming Hillary Clinton met "in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers."
While in office, the then-president used some highly provocative rhetoric about Jews and what he expected about their "loyalties." Soon after, Trump spoke at the Israeli American Council's national summit, where he suggested Jewish people are primarily focused on wealth, which is why he expected them to support his re-election campaign.
NBC News adds:
In an interview in 2021, Trump also said, "The Jewish people in the United States either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel."
"I'll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country," said Trump, who won strong support from white evangelical voters in 2016 and 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump also came under fire for his remarks in response to the 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the Unite the Right rally in August 2017, white nationalists and neo-Nazis carried tiki torches and chanted "Jews will not replace us," among other slogans.
CNN offers this additional context:
Trump has a long history of criticizing Jewish American voters who do not support him and of playing into antisemitic tropes.
More recently, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, he criticized American Jews for what he argued was their insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel, including moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In 2021, Trump claimed Jewish Americans "either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel," while also suggesting that evangelical Christians "love Israel more than the Jews in this country." In 2019, he accused Democrats of being part of an "anti-Israel" and "anti-Jewish party." And during his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in which he repeatedly referred to the audience of Jewish donors as "negotiators." He is scheduled to address the group's annual leadership summit next month in Las Vegas.
America's democracy crisis and ascendant neofascism are a state of malignant normality where antisocial and other antihuman and antidemocratic behavior becomes increasingly common as elites and the general public grow numb to it.
To that point, Trump's latest example of antisemitic behavior and the evil it represents should have been the focus of much media coverage, condemnation by the country's political leaders, and public outrage. Instead, with few exceptions, Trump's vile behavior was largely ignored, except as the latest controversy of the day in a political environment driven by the 24/7 news cycle, hyper politics, and the culture of distraction. Such is how democracy dies.
Via email, I asked antiracism activist and author Tim Wise for his thoughts about Trump's threats against Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah and how it fits into a larger context of racial authoritarianism:
This is just more of the same: "othering" distinct numerical minorities for the problems of the country. Whether brown-skinned immigrants, Black folks in cities, trans persons in schools, or Jews at the ballot box, Trumpism and MAGA ideology is all about scapegoating those deemed as somehow deviant from the white, Christian, straight norm. And by dividing Jews between the "good" conservative ones and the "bad" liberal ones, Trump is engaging a trope that has always been utilized by anti-Semites. From the "good" Jews who were willing to convert, or at least hide their Jewishness during the Inquisition to the "good" Jews who served as Kapos to the Nazis, anti-Jewish bigots have always found examples of Jews they like. But only as a cudgel to use against the rest. If this kind of signaling isn't confronted, immediately, and forcefully by all Jews, and the Christians who constantly tell us how much they love us, anti-Jewish bigotry will likely grow even stronger. And with it, all the other bigotries that are part of Trumpism.
I also asked philosopher and Holocaust scholar John Roth for his thoughts about Trump's threats against Jewish people who he is targeting because of their "disloyalty." Roth connects Trump's antisemitic threats to the ex-president's recent interview on NBC's "Meet the Press":
His reflection deficient, his repentance nonexistent, Donald Trump demonstrated how little he knows and appreciates about Judaism and Jews when his insulting New Year's jibe to Jewish Americans desecrated Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe by thoughtlessly accusing "liberal Jews" of voting to "destroy America & Israel."
Earlier that same day, September 17, Kristen Welker's inaugural "Meet the Press" program featured her fraught interview with the indicted former president. She questioned Trump about his often-repeated vow to take retribution against his political enemies. "When you launched your campaign in March," she said to him, " you told the crowd, quote, 'I am your retribution.' What does that mean? What does that look like?" With more candor than usual, Trump replied that "I have to protect people," making clear that he meant his staunch, anti-democratic, and often violence-prone allies. "When I talk about retribution," he insisted, "I'm talking about fairness."
That comment was cunning and deceitful at once. Trump divides the world into those who support him and those who don't. In his calculations, fairness for his supporters means—it requires—payback and revenge against his opposition. That's how his protection scheme works. In his words and calculations, in his retribution racket, Trump's transactional antisemitism is writ large.
In an email to Salon, Ethan Katz, who is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at UC-Berkeley, and co-founder of the Antisemitism Education Initiative at Berkeley, historicized Trump's most recent antisemitic screed in the following way:
The idea that many Jews are "unpatriotic" and working against the interests of the nation, unless they pass a certain purity test, goes back to longstanding antisemitic notions about Jewish dual loyalty, Jewish conspiracy, and Jewish power and control behind the scenes. Speaking here of "liberal Jews" sounds to many like it is code for the likes of George Soros, which for the extreme right is very clearly code for Jewish bankers, for Jews who allegedly control the world financial system, have enormous power, and exploit the masses. And the notion is present here also that Jews should be grateful for all that the government is doing for them — as if they are a monolith separate from everyone else, defined solely by their ethnicity or religion in how they vote, and see the world, and identify.
In reality, of course, for most American Jews, Israel is only one of a number of important issues shaping their voting behavior, and views of Israel for a majority of American Jews are far more nuanced than the views President Trump represents here. Moreover, deciding to target Jews on one of their holiest days in this way also comes uncomfortably close to medieval images of Jews as religiously impure due to their alleged opposition to Christianity, and the persistent (if clearly false and discredited claim) that they had murdered Jesus Christ.
Trump's antisemitic and white supremacist threats are both contributing to and reflect a larger societal environment where hate crimes and right-wing terrorism have been escalating during his time in office and now almost 3 years since he was defeated by President Biden.
Law enforcement and other experts are continuing to warn that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists and malign actors represent the greatest threat to the country's domestic safety and security. Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists and neofascists have engaged in mass shootings and other such lethal violence targeting Jewish people, Muslims, African-Americans, the LGBTQI community, and other marginalized groups and "enemies" throughout the Trumpocene.
Hate crimes against Jewish people in America are at historic levels. This includes bomb threats against synagogues on Rosh Hashanah.
In Florida, neo-Nazis have become increasingly emboldened by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man who they correctly see as their leader. Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, and other leading Republican fascists and their forces are enacting an Orwellian Thought Crime regime in Florida and other parts of the country, where "un-American" and "un-patriotic" books and other materials deemed too "woke" or otherwise contaminated with the "Critical Race Theory Mind Virus", i.e. they are not right-wing indoctrination and propaganda mind killers, are being banned. These banned books (and courses) include those that focus on the Holocaust.
"Disloyal" and "dangerous" teachers and other educators are also being threatened with violence, harassed, and even fired from their jobs.19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine's warning that "those who burn books will in the end burn people" most certainly applies to the Age of Trump.
In his email to Salon, Katz also emphasized how America's rising tide of antisemitism, white supremacy, neofascism, and other attacks on multiracial pluralistic democracy and society in the Age of Trump and beyond are part of a much larger revolutionary project by the global right:
In some respects, Trump's relationship to Jews echoes that of a leader like Viktor Orban in Hungary, who is openly autocratic, and has embraced Far Right conspiracy theories about George Soros that seem unmistakably antisemitic, but also has built alliances with more conservative elements in the Hungarian Jewish community. Like the supporters of Orban and a growing number of autocrats in Europe and beyond, many in the MAGA movement appear skeptical of the importance of democratic institutions, and a significant number of these voters are openly hostile to the achievements of the Civil Rights movement and ongoing efforts to make America a more fulsome multiracial democracy. Here I'm speaking of those who really embrace white nationalism, which fixates obsessively on Jews in well-documented and terribly dangerous ways. The American Jewish community, as I mentioned, is diverse in its politics, even as more than 70% of Jewish voters supported Joe Biden, as they have every Democratic nominee for president for decades. But the role that conspiratorial thinking about Jews plays for many of Trump's most right-wing supporters is very worrisome. And Trump's willingness to single out Jews for critique about their voting behavior, on one of their holiest days, will surely be read by many of those voters as a symbol of a shared preoccupation with Jews and alleged Jewish power and influence. Whatever your politics, this should be a cause of grave concern.
Trump's antisemitic threats are not part of a separate and distinct "culture war" by the right-wing as too many among the mainstream news media and political class (especially "centrists" and "liberals" and "progressives") have reflexively and lazily suggested in their attempts to create some false distinction between "real politics" such as voting, elections, and "the economy" vs. "silly" and "dumb" and "distracting" "culture war" issues.
There is no "culture war": in reality, the so-called culture war is a fascist war where the neofascists, white right, and other illiberal and antidemocracy forces know that culture and "real politics" are closely linked as spaces where power (and the future) are contested and won (or lost).
Ultimately, those people who mock and dismiss Trump and the Republican fascist's antisemitism and larger "culture war" behavior are speaking from a lofty perch of imagined security and false safety.
For those who are being targeted, this is all very deadly serious business.
I conclude this essay with a warning from John Roth:
Attacks on some Jews don't stop there. The contagion spreads. Trumpism imperils all Jewish Americans, especially to the extent that they defend the highest traditions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which resist the corruption and venality that characterize the American fascism of Trump and his MAGA stalwarts. Trump's hatred of Jewish opposition to him is rooted in his disrespect—and perhaps in some fear—of commitments to justice and truth embedded in the Days of Awe and resolved to hold him accountable.
You have been warned again. We, who are the miner's canary, keep telling you to wake up. Unfortunately, too many people in America insist on not listening.
Chauncey DeVega
SALON
Mon, September 25, 2023
Mon, September 25, 2023
Last Sunday was the Jewish New Year and High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah. As a public figure, in his role as ex-president and now Republican 2024 frontrunner, Donald Trump could have chosen many ways to honor Rosh Hashanah. He could have issued an obligatory statement acknowledging Rosh Hashanah and its significance for the Jewish people. Of course, Trump could have simply decided to be quiet instead of being a gum beater. Instead, Trump celebrated Rosh Hashanah by threatening Jewish Americans who do not support him in a post he shared via his Truth Social disinformation platform last Sunday night:
"Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed in false narratives! Let's hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!"
Trump's threats and the distinction he makes between "good Jews" and "bad Jews", the supporters of him and his neofascist MAGA movement and those who dare to oppose him and it, are centuries-old antisemitic tropes.
Trump's threats against Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah are but one example of many where throughout his decades of public life – and especially during his time as president and after – where the ex-president has proven himself to be a white supremacist and an antisemite.
MSNBC offers these examples:
During his 2016 campaign, for example, Trump spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition and said, "You're not gonna support me because I don't want your money. You want to control your politicians." He added, "I'm a negotiator — like you folks."
Several months later, in the runup to Election Day, the Republican promoted antisemitic imagery through social media. In the closing days of the 2016 campaign, Trump again faced accusations of antisemitism, claiming Hillary Clinton met "in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers."
While in office, the then-president used some highly provocative rhetoric about Jews and what he expected about their "loyalties." Soon after, Trump spoke at the Israeli American Council's national summit, where he suggested Jewish people are primarily focused on wealth, which is why he expected them to support his re-election campaign.
NBC News adds:
In an interview in 2021, Trump also said, "The Jewish people in the United States either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel."
"I'll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country," said Trump, who won strong support from white evangelical voters in 2016 and 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump also came under fire for his remarks in response to the 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the Unite the Right rally in August 2017, white nationalists and neo-Nazis carried tiki torches and chanted "Jews will not replace us," among other slogans.
CNN offers this additional context:
Trump has a long history of criticizing Jewish American voters who do not support him and of playing into antisemitic tropes.
More recently, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, he criticized American Jews for what he argued was their insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel, including moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In 2021, Trump claimed Jewish Americans "either don't like Israel or don't care about Israel," while also suggesting that evangelical Christians "love Israel more than the Jews in this country." In 2019, he accused Democrats of being part of an "anti-Israel" and "anti-Jewish party." And during his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in which he repeatedly referred to the audience of Jewish donors as "negotiators." He is scheduled to address the group's annual leadership summit next month in Las Vegas.
America's democracy crisis and ascendant neofascism are a state of malignant normality where antisocial and other antihuman and antidemocratic behavior becomes increasingly common as elites and the general public grow numb to it.
To that point, Trump's latest example of antisemitic behavior and the evil it represents should have been the focus of much media coverage, condemnation by the country's political leaders, and public outrage. Instead, with few exceptions, Trump's vile behavior was largely ignored, except as the latest controversy of the day in a political environment driven by the 24/7 news cycle, hyper politics, and the culture of distraction. Such is how democracy dies.
Via email, I asked antiracism activist and author Tim Wise for his thoughts about Trump's threats against Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah and how it fits into a larger context of racial authoritarianism:
This is just more of the same: "othering" distinct numerical minorities for the problems of the country. Whether brown-skinned immigrants, Black folks in cities, trans persons in schools, or Jews at the ballot box, Trumpism and MAGA ideology is all about scapegoating those deemed as somehow deviant from the white, Christian, straight norm. And by dividing Jews between the "good" conservative ones and the "bad" liberal ones, Trump is engaging a trope that has always been utilized by anti-Semites. From the "good" Jews who were willing to convert, or at least hide their Jewishness during the Inquisition to the "good" Jews who served as Kapos to the Nazis, anti-Jewish bigots have always found examples of Jews they like. But only as a cudgel to use against the rest. If this kind of signaling isn't confronted, immediately, and forcefully by all Jews, and the Christians who constantly tell us how much they love us, anti-Jewish bigotry will likely grow even stronger. And with it, all the other bigotries that are part of Trumpism.
I also asked philosopher and Holocaust scholar John Roth for his thoughts about Trump's threats against Jewish people who he is targeting because of their "disloyalty." Roth connects Trump's antisemitic threats to the ex-president's recent interview on NBC's "Meet the Press":
His reflection deficient, his repentance nonexistent, Donald Trump demonstrated how little he knows and appreciates about Judaism and Jews when his insulting New Year's jibe to Jewish Americans desecrated Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe by thoughtlessly accusing "liberal Jews" of voting to "destroy America & Israel."
Earlier that same day, September 17, Kristen Welker's inaugural "Meet the Press" program featured her fraught interview with the indicted former president. She questioned Trump about his often-repeated vow to take retribution against his political enemies. "When you launched your campaign in March," she said to him, " you told the crowd, quote, 'I am your retribution.' What does that mean? What does that look like?" With more candor than usual, Trump replied that "I have to protect people," making clear that he meant his staunch, anti-democratic, and often violence-prone allies. "When I talk about retribution," he insisted, "I'm talking about fairness."
That comment was cunning and deceitful at once. Trump divides the world into those who support him and those who don't. In his calculations, fairness for his supporters means—it requires—payback and revenge against his opposition. That's how his protection scheme works. In his words and calculations, in his retribution racket, Trump's transactional antisemitism is writ large.
In an email to Salon, Ethan Katz, who is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at UC-Berkeley, and co-founder of the Antisemitism Education Initiative at Berkeley, historicized Trump's most recent antisemitic screed in the following way:
The idea that many Jews are "unpatriotic" and working against the interests of the nation, unless they pass a certain purity test, goes back to longstanding antisemitic notions about Jewish dual loyalty, Jewish conspiracy, and Jewish power and control behind the scenes. Speaking here of "liberal Jews" sounds to many like it is code for the likes of George Soros, which for the extreme right is very clearly code for Jewish bankers, for Jews who allegedly control the world financial system, have enormous power, and exploit the masses. And the notion is present here also that Jews should be grateful for all that the government is doing for them — as if they are a monolith separate from everyone else, defined solely by their ethnicity or religion in how they vote, and see the world, and identify.
In reality, of course, for most American Jews, Israel is only one of a number of important issues shaping their voting behavior, and views of Israel for a majority of American Jews are far more nuanced than the views President Trump represents here. Moreover, deciding to target Jews on one of their holiest days in this way also comes uncomfortably close to medieval images of Jews as religiously impure due to their alleged opposition to Christianity, and the persistent (if clearly false and discredited claim) that they had murdered Jesus Christ.
Trump's antisemitic and white supremacist threats are both contributing to and reflect a larger societal environment where hate crimes and right-wing terrorism have been escalating during his time in office and now almost 3 years since he was defeated by President Biden.
Law enforcement and other experts are continuing to warn that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists and malign actors represent the greatest threat to the country's domestic safety and security. Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists and neofascists have engaged in mass shootings and other such lethal violence targeting Jewish people, Muslims, African-Americans, the LGBTQI community, and other marginalized groups and "enemies" throughout the Trumpocene.
Hate crimes against Jewish people in America are at historic levels. This includes bomb threats against synagogues on Rosh Hashanah.
In Florida, neo-Nazis have become increasingly emboldened by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man who they correctly see as their leader. Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, and other leading Republican fascists and their forces are enacting an Orwellian Thought Crime regime in Florida and other parts of the country, where "un-American" and "un-patriotic" books and other materials deemed too "woke" or otherwise contaminated with the "Critical Race Theory Mind Virus", i.e. they are not right-wing indoctrination and propaganda mind killers, are being banned. These banned books (and courses) include those that focus on the Holocaust.
"Disloyal" and "dangerous" teachers and other educators are also being threatened with violence, harassed, and even fired from their jobs.19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine's warning that "those who burn books will in the end burn people" most certainly applies to the Age of Trump.
In his email to Salon, Katz also emphasized how America's rising tide of antisemitism, white supremacy, neofascism, and other attacks on multiracial pluralistic democracy and society in the Age of Trump and beyond are part of a much larger revolutionary project by the global right:
In some respects, Trump's relationship to Jews echoes that of a leader like Viktor Orban in Hungary, who is openly autocratic, and has embraced Far Right conspiracy theories about George Soros that seem unmistakably antisemitic, but also has built alliances with more conservative elements in the Hungarian Jewish community. Like the supporters of Orban and a growing number of autocrats in Europe and beyond, many in the MAGA movement appear skeptical of the importance of democratic institutions, and a significant number of these voters are openly hostile to the achievements of the Civil Rights movement and ongoing efforts to make America a more fulsome multiracial democracy. Here I'm speaking of those who really embrace white nationalism, which fixates obsessively on Jews in well-documented and terribly dangerous ways. The American Jewish community, as I mentioned, is diverse in its politics, even as more than 70% of Jewish voters supported Joe Biden, as they have every Democratic nominee for president for decades. But the role that conspiratorial thinking about Jews plays for many of Trump's most right-wing supporters is very worrisome. And Trump's willingness to single out Jews for critique about their voting behavior, on one of their holiest days, will surely be read by many of those voters as a symbol of a shared preoccupation with Jews and alleged Jewish power and influence. Whatever your politics, this should be a cause of grave concern.
Trump's antisemitic threats are not part of a separate and distinct "culture war" by the right-wing as too many among the mainstream news media and political class (especially "centrists" and "liberals" and "progressives") have reflexively and lazily suggested in their attempts to create some false distinction between "real politics" such as voting, elections, and "the economy" vs. "silly" and "dumb" and "distracting" "culture war" issues.
There is no "culture war": in reality, the so-called culture war is a fascist war where the neofascists, white right, and other illiberal and antidemocracy forces know that culture and "real politics" are closely linked as spaces where power (and the future) are contested and won (or lost).
Ultimately, those people who mock and dismiss Trump and the Republican fascist's antisemitism and larger "culture war" behavior are speaking from a lofty perch of imagined security and false safety.
For those who are being targeted, this is all very deadly serious business.
I conclude this essay with a warning from John Roth:
Attacks on some Jews don't stop there. The contagion spreads. Trumpism imperils all Jewish Americans, especially to the extent that they defend the highest traditions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which resist the corruption and venality that characterize the American fascism of Trump and his MAGA stalwarts. Trump's hatred of Jewish opposition to him is rooted in his disrespect—and perhaps in some fear—of commitments to justice and truth embedded in the Days of Awe and resolved to hold him accountable.
You have been warned again. We, who are the miner's canary, keep telling you to wake up. Unfortunately, too many people in America insist on not listening.
Saturday, November 14, 2020
‘I...I Am The Mainstream Media,’ Realizes Horrified Tucker Carlson Spiraling Live On Air
Wednesday 3:30PM
•https://www.theonion.com/i-i-am-the-mainstream-media-realizes-horrified-tuc-1845646901
A full transcript of the quoted section of the show follows:
Carlson: Victor Davis Hanson is one of the wisest people we ever speak to; he's a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and he joins us tonight. Professor, thanks so much for coming on. Where do you think we are right now? What’s happening?
Hanson: Well, I think you outlined sort of a tragic, last Orwellian convergence of Big Data, Big Tech, Big Pollster, Big Money, administrative state and what they did, Tucker, is they rendered the most hallowed date in American traditions, the first Tuesday in November, into an abstraction. It’s a construct. Even the word "absentee ballot" doesn't mean anything anymore. It's ceased to exist and what did they replace it with? This new concept of early voting and mail-in balloting. We never heard those words before and what they mean is 30, 40, 45 days before the election, you can keep voting casually, you can go in, vote, maybe not, any day, there's no one day you vote. Ballots can come in one, two, three, four days after the polls maybe. And if the rules are too oppressive, you can sue and overturn the constitutional right of the legislators who set the voting laws. And what do we miss? It used to be the last two or three weeks were the heated time of the campaign. That's when you showed the mettle of the candidate. So what did it matter if Donald Trump had a really good second debate? What did it matter if we heard about Hunter Biden when millions of people had already voted? And what did they vote on? What were the perceptions? As you said, they were massaged by polls. So they were being, their knowledge came, well, you know Wisconsin 17 down and 12 down in the national polls, and Trump’s favorability is 18 down, so, it really wouldn't be wise to give money or to vote; it's over with.
Carlson: Exactly.
Hanson: And so we really abrogated, took away that responsibility of the citizen and we outsourced it. And that wasn’t enough because we took the personal element out of it. We used to go to the polls and somebody would say "Mrs. Smith," "Mr. Jones, you didn’t sign. Your date, you got a day, remember that. Here is your address." And we just turn it over to this pseudo-scientific group of people that said, “we have computers, we’re exact. We can poll to the exact decimal point. And we dumped all these votes into these anonymous centers where there was no human contact, no transparency, no audit, and we expect them not to have 15 percent of the vote under the old absentee system, but 70, 80, 85 percent of the vote. And we expect them to get a result that's going to be accurate, audited, adjudicated. It can’t happen. And then to add insult to injury, on Election Night, we had these same pseudo-scientific experts say, “you know what? Two percent, 10 percent, this state is over with, and this state over here is not over with.” And they have nothing to do with reality but they form a narrative, a theme. So in the case of last Tuesday night, why would, if you were a Trump supporter, why would you object to what you thought was going on in Michigan and Pennsylvania when you were told that Barry Goldwater’s state, the bastion of conservatism, was lost twenty minutes after the polls closed or that Texas and Florida can’t even be called because Trump has been wiped out in his home base? That shapes perceptions even after the polls close.
So the only mystery is, what’s behind all this? And I think it's a transition from a rugged individual who has to take a responsibility to know the issues, show up on Election Day, unless he's working or she’s sick, and then turning it into sort of an entitlement. You just lay back, and whenever you contact a government agent, they’re going to send you a registration form, and somebody is even going to harvest that and knock on the door and fill it out, and the polls are going to tell you who you should vote for because they're scientific, and they have the authority of Twitter or Facebook or social media that you use. And then to add final insult, with all that, and then you’re going to be told you’re a winner or loser based on these perceived polls on Election Night and the analytics. So to finish, Tucker, what we did was we took the prime element of citizenship, which is voting on Election Day, that has to be approved and have some authority and sanctity, and we destroyed it. And without voting, you don’t have citizenship; without citizenship, you don’t have a republic. So that’s what’s at stake. And when people like Gavin Newsom and Hilary Clinton say that this COVID virus and lockdown was an opportunity to transform things, and a crisis never to go to waste, then we think maybe it wasn't accidental. Maybe it wasn’t accidental. Maybe it wasn't just the way things had to be. And that’s really scary.
Tucker: It is scary. I don’t want to reach that conclusion but you can see how people would. Victor Davis Hanson, it's great to see you tonight. Thank you.
Hanson: Thank you.
Alexander Watson is a CNSNews intern and Christendom College graduate.
CNSNews Reader,
The media are hard at work weaving a web of confusion, misinformation, and conspiracy surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
CNSNews covers the stories that the liberal media are afraid to touch. It drives the national debate through real, honest journalism—not by misrepresenting or ignoring the facts.
CNSNews has emerged as the conservative media’s lynchpin for original reporting, investigative reporting, and breaking news. We are part of the only organization purely dedicated to this critical mission and we need your help to fuel this fight.
Donate today to help CNSNews continue to report on topics that the liberal media refuse to touch.
And now, thanks to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, you can make up to a $300 gift to the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of your choice and use it as a tax deduction on your 2020 taxes, even if you take the standard deduction on your returns.
(SIC)
— The CNSNews Team
Wednesday 3:30PM
•https://www.theonion.com/i-i-am-the-mainstream-media-realizes-horrified-tuc-1845646901
WASHINGTON—Coming to the realization in front of millions of viewers during the broadcast of his show, a horrified Tucker Carlson stated, ‘I…I am the mainstream media’ Wednesday as he began spiraling live on air. “We’ve discovered evidence of rampant voter fraud, and the president has every right to call for an investigation even if the mainstream media thinks...” said Carlson, who trailed off, stared down at his shaking hands, and felt a sudden ringing in his ears as he looked back up and zeroed in on the production crew surrounding him. “The media says…wait. Those liars on TV will try to tell you…oh God. We’re the number-one program on cable news, aren’t we? Fox News…Fox ‘News.’ It’s the media. It’s me. This can’t be. No, no, no, no. Jesus Christ, I make $6 million a year. Get that camera off me!”
At press time, Carlson had torn the microphone from his lapel and fled the set in panic
At press time, Carlson had torn the microphone from his lapel and fled the set in panic
ONE OF THESE IS FAKE NEWS
AND IT AIN'T THE ONION
THAT'S SATIRE
Victor Davis Hanson to Tucker: Elites Have Turned Election Day Into an 'Entitlement'(SIC)
BLOG By Alexander Watson | November 11, 2020
Victor Davis Hanson speaks with Tucker Carlson on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
Victor Davis Hanson speaks with Tucker Carlson on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
(Photo credit: YouTube/no one)
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson said that "Big Data, Big Tech, Big Pollster" and more have colluded to turn Election Day into an "entitlement" while on Monday's "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
“I think it's a transition from a rugged individual who has to take a responsibility to know the issues, show up on Election Day, unless he's working or she’s sick, and then turning it into sort of an entitlement," Hanson told Carlson.
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson said that "Big Data, Big Tech, Big Pollster" and more have colluded to turn Election Day into an "entitlement" while on Monday's "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
“I think it's a transition from a rugged individual who has to take a responsibility to know the issues, show up on Election Day, unless he's working or she’s sick, and then turning it into sort of an entitlement," Hanson told Carlson.
THE RIGHT WING PAVLOVIAN TROPE: ENTITLEMENT
"You just lay back, and whenever you contact a government agent, they’re going to send you a registration form, and somebody is even going to harvest that and knock on the door and fill it out, and the polls are going to tell you who you should vote for because they're scientific, and they have the authority of Twitter or Facebook or social media that you use," he said. "What we did was we took the prime element of citizenship, which is voting on Election Day, that has to be approved and have some authority and sanctity, and we destroyed it."
"You just lay back, and whenever you contact a government agent, they’re going to send you a registration form, and somebody is even going to harvest that and knock on the door and fill it out, and the polls are going to tell you who you should vote for because they're scientific, and they have the authority of Twitter or Facebook or social media that you use," he said. "What we did was we took the prime element of citizenship, which is voting on Election Day, that has to be approved and have some authority and sanctity, and we destroyed it."
A full transcript of the quoted section of the show follows:
Carlson: Victor Davis Hanson is one of the wisest people we ever speak to; he's a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and he joins us tonight. Professor, thanks so much for coming on. Where do you think we are right now? What’s happening?
Hanson: Well, I think you outlined sort of a tragic, last Orwellian convergence of Big Data, Big Tech, Big Pollster, Big Money, administrative state and what they did, Tucker, is they rendered the most hallowed date in American traditions, the first Tuesday in November, into an abstraction. It’s a construct. Even the word "absentee ballot" doesn't mean anything anymore. It's ceased to exist and what did they replace it with? This new concept of early voting and mail-in balloting. We never heard those words before and what they mean is 30, 40, 45 days before the election, you can keep voting casually, you can go in, vote, maybe not, any day, there's no one day you vote. Ballots can come in one, two, three, four days after the polls maybe. And if the rules are too oppressive, you can sue and overturn the constitutional right of the legislators who set the voting laws. And what do we miss? It used to be the last two or three weeks were the heated time of the campaign. That's when you showed the mettle of the candidate. So what did it matter if Donald Trump had a really good second debate? What did it matter if we heard about Hunter Biden when millions of people had already voted? And what did they vote on? What were the perceptions? As you said, they were massaged by polls. So they were being, their knowledge came, well, you know Wisconsin 17 down and 12 down in the national polls, and Trump’s favorability is 18 down, so, it really wouldn't be wise to give money or to vote; it's over with.
Carlson: Exactly.
Hanson: And so we really abrogated, took away that responsibility of the citizen and we outsourced it. And that wasn’t enough because we took the personal element out of it. We used to go to the polls and somebody would say "Mrs. Smith," "Mr. Jones, you didn’t sign. Your date, you got a day, remember that. Here is your address." And we just turn it over to this pseudo-scientific group of people that said, “we have computers, we’re exact. We can poll to the exact decimal point. And we dumped all these votes into these anonymous centers where there was no human contact, no transparency, no audit, and we expect them not to have 15 percent of the vote under the old absentee system, but 70, 80, 85 percent of the vote. And we expect them to get a result that's going to be accurate, audited, adjudicated. It can’t happen. And then to add insult to injury, on Election Night, we had these same pseudo-scientific experts say, “you know what? Two percent, 10 percent, this state is over with, and this state over here is not over with.” And they have nothing to do with reality but they form a narrative, a theme. So in the case of last Tuesday night, why would, if you were a Trump supporter, why would you object to what you thought was going on in Michigan and Pennsylvania when you were told that Barry Goldwater’s state, the bastion of conservatism, was lost twenty minutes after the polls closed or that Texas and Florida can’t even be called because Trump has been wiped out in his home base? That shapes perceptions even after the polls close.
So the only mystery is, what’s behind all this? And I think it's a transition from a rugged individual who has to take a responsibility to know the issues, show up on Election Day, unless he's working or she’s sick, and then turning it into sort of an entitlement. You just lay back, and whenever you contact a government agent, they’re going to send you a registration form, and somebody is even going to harvest that and knock on the door and fill it out, and the polls are going to tell you who you should vote for because they're scientific, and they have the authority of Twitter or Facebook or social media that you use. And then to add final insult, with all that, and then you’re going to be told you’re a winner or loser based on these perceived polls on Election Night and the analytics. So to finish, Tucker, what we did was we took the prime element of citizenship, which is voting on Election Day, that has to be approved and have some authority and sanctity, and we destroyed it. And without voting, you don’t have citizenship; without citizenship, you don’t have a republic. So that’s what’s at stake. And when people like Gavin Newsom and Hilary Clinton say that this COVID virus and lockdown was an opportunity to transform things, and a crisis never to go to waste, then we think maybe it wasn't accidental. Maybe it wasn’t accidental. Maybe it wasn't just the way things had to be. And that’s really scary.
Tucker: It is scary. I don’t want to reach that conclusion but you can see how people would. Victor Davis Hanson, it's great to see you tonight. Thank you.
Hanson: Thank you.
Alexander Watson is a CNSNews intern and Christendom College graduate.
CNSNews Reader,
The media are hard at work weaving a web of confusion, misinformation, and conspiracy surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
CNSNews covers the stories that the liberal media are afraid to touch. It drives the national debate through real, honest journalism—not by misrepresenting or ignoring the facts.
CNSNews has emerged as the conservative media’s lynchpin for original reporting, investigative reporting, and breaking news. We are part of the only organization purely dedicated to this critical mission and we need your help to fuel this fight.
Donate today to help CNSNews continue to report on topics that the liberal media refuse to touch.
And now, thanks to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, you can make up to a $300 gift to the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of your choice and use it as a tax deduction on your 2020 taxes, even if you take the standard deduction on your returns.
(SIC)
— The CNSNews Team
Tucker Carlson apologized on-air for making a false accusation of voter fraud in Georgia
insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman)
The voter in question, Agnes Blalock, is the wife of the late James Blalock Jr., and her registered voter name is "Mrs. James Blalock, Jr."
"He's not voting," she told the Atlanta-based news station 11 Alive. "He didn't vote. It was me."
Carlson issued an apology on-air, saying that "we're always going to correct when we're wrong, and we were."
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday apologized on-air after a Georgia news station informed him that he had falsely alleged that a dead man voted illegally in the state during the November election.
During a Thursday segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Carlson said that a ballot had been cast for James Blalock of Covington, a World War II veteran who passed away in 2006. In reality, the ballot was cast by his widow, who is registered to vote under the name "Mrs. James R. Blalock, Jr."
President Donald Trump's campaign, which has issued a litany of lawsuits in a range of swing states to back up debunked claims of voter fraud, inaccurately released Blalock's name as evidence of a dead individual who cast a ballot, which would point to voter fraud.
"No one quite embodies that story like James Blalock of Covington, Georgia. Mr. Blalock was a mailman for 33 years, until he passed away in 2006," Carlson said on Thursday. "Fourteen years later, according to state records, he was still mailing things. James Blalock cast a ballot in last week's election."
Officials in Newton County, outside of Atlanta, released a statement on Thursday saying that the report was incorrect. The record that the Trump campaign touted as evidence of fraud actually revealed that the registered voter was Blalock's widow.
"Her voter registration was signed as Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr. and that is exactly how she signed her name when she voted in the Nov. 3 general election," the officials wrote. "Newton County conducts its elections and voter registration efforts with transparency and attention to detail and hopes that any reporting on this or any other election be done [with] the same level of fact-checking and accurate information."
The local Atlanta NBC affiliate, 11 Alive, pointed out the inaccuracies of Carlson's report after county officials refuted the incidence of voter fraud. The station spoke with Agnes Blalock, a 96-year-old woman, who confirmed that she was indeed the one who voted.
"He's not voting," she said. "He didn't vote. It was me."
On Friday, Carlson issued an apology to viewers for giving them misleading information.
"We've got some good news tonight and an apology," he said. "One of the people who voted in last week's election isn't dead. James Blalock is still dead. We told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It's old-fashioned, and we missed it ... It was Mrs. James Blalock, so apologies for that, and of course we're always going to correct when we're wrong, and we were."
He also alleged that "a whole bunch of dead people did vote," but noted that "James Blalock was not among them."
A viral claim of thousands of deceased individuals voting in the election has spread across the internet in recent days and was debunked by The New York Times.
"Dead people whose identities were used to vote appear to be a popular subject for those who are spreading unsubstantiated claims of fraud about the election," The Times said.
Decision Desk HQ and Insider declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election on November 6 and called Georgia for the president-elect on November 14.
Trump, who fell far short of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, has so far refused to concede, pointing to largely debunked cases of voter fraud in an attempt to delegitimize the election.
Read the original article on Business Insider
insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman)
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson apologized on Friday after a Georgia news station let him know that he had falsely claimed that a dead man voted illegally in the state.
The voter in question, Agnes Blalock, is the wife of the late James Blalock Jr., and her registered voter name is "Mrs. James Blalock, Jr."
"He's not voting," she told the Atlanta-based news station 11 Alive. "He didn't vote. It was me."
Carlson issued an apology on-air, saying that "we're always going to correct when we're wrong, and we were."
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday apologized on-air after a Georgia news station informed him that he had falsely alleged that a dead man voted illegally in the state during the November election.
During a Thursday segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Carlson said that a ballot had been cast for James Blalock of Covington, a World War II veteran who passed away in 2006. In reality, the ballot was cast by his widow, who is registered to vote under the name "Mrs. James R. Blalock, Jr."
President Donald Trump's campaign, which has issued a litany of lawsuits in a range of swing states to back up debunked claims of voter fraud, inaccurately released Blalock's name as evidence of a dead individual who cast a ballot, which would point to voter fraud.
"No one quite embodies that story like James Blalock of Covington, Georgia. Mr. Blalock was a mailman for 33 years, until he passed away in 2006," Carlson said on Thursday. "Fourteen years later, according to state records, he was still mailing things. James Blalock cast a ballot in last week's election."
Officials in Newton County, outside of Atlanta, released a statement on Thursday saying that the report was incorrect. The record that the Trump campaign touted as evidence of fraud actually revealed that the registered voter was Blalock's widow.
"Her voter registration was signed as Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr. and that is exactly how she signed her name when she voted in the Nov. 3 general election," the officials wrote. "Newton County conducts its elections and voter registration efforts with transparency and attention to detail and hopes that any reporting on this or any other election be done [with] the same level of fact-checking and accurate information."
The local Atlanta NBC affiliate, 11 Alive, pointed out the inaccuracies of Carlson's report after county officials refuted the incidence of voter fraud. The station spoke with Agnes Blalock, a 96-year-old woman, who confirmed that she was indeed the one who voted.
"He's not voting," she said. "He didn't vote. It was me."
On Friday, Carlson issued an apology to viewers for giving them misleading information.
"We've got some good news tonight and an apology," he said. "One of the people who voted in last week's election isn't dead. James Blalock is still dead. We told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It's old-fashioned, and we missed it ... It was Mrs. James Blalock, so apologies for that, and of course we're always going to correct when we're wrong, and we were."
He also alleged that "a whole bunch of dead people did vote," but noted that "James Blalock was not among them."
A viral claim of thousands of deceased individuals voting in the election has spread across the internet in recent days and was debunked by The New York Times.
"Dead people whose identities were used to vote appear to be a popular subject for those who are spreading unsubstantiated claims of fraud about the election," The Times said.
Decision Desk HQ and Insider declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election on November 6 and called Georgia for the president-elect on November 14.
Trump, who fell far short of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, has so far refused to concede, pointing to largely debunked cases of voter fraud in an attempt to delegitimize the election.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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