Stephan: Polls show that most Americans seem to believe that we are the world's leading democracy. Sorry to disabuse them but we are considered a flawed democracy and not even in the top 50. As a result what flawed democracy we do have hangs by a thread, and even that may be destroyed in the fascist Republicans take control of the House and Senate. How many times do I need to say it. You must vote in November, and you must vote for the Democrats. I know, I know, the Democrats are far from ideal or perfect. But, as a party, they do support democracy and the Republicans do not. Do you want America to be a democracy or an anocracy; it is that simple.
Fascist Proud Boys leader charged for role in pro-Trump Capitol riots Joe Biggs. Credit: Screenshot
Nations are built on myths and lies — mixed, of course, with bits of the truth. The United States is no different, but our nation’s myths and lies are more extravagant than most: America, we are told to believe, is an “exceptional” or “indispensable” nation, the world’s greatest democracy, a shining city on a hill.
Those beliefs are delusional, sometimes to the extreme. While the American experiment in democracy is historically important, for most of its existence the United States was an overtly racist nation whose democracy was defined by exclusion: First and foremost the exclusion of Black people and women, but also the exclusion of Native Americans, many nonwhite immigrant groups and poor people in general.
Furthermore while claiming to be an exceptional nation and the world’s greatest democracy, the U.S. has consistently supported authoritarian and antidemocratic regimes around the world whenever that was deemed to serve the “national interest.”
Political scientists and other scholars have shown that the U.S. is currently organized […]
Stephan: The Koch brothers are the American version of the Russian oligarch. Both versions think of themselves as above the law,but also capable of changing the law to suit their convenience. Oligarchs consider their personal interest to take priority over any national interest. This story is a classic example of this. The personal weaknesses and eccentricities of the Koch brothers influences the lives of millions.
Vladimir Putin and Charles Koch Credit: Salon / Getty
Koch Industries, the Wichita-based petroleum company run by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, has kept its Russia-based operations going despite Corporate America’s mass exodus from the country amid Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine.
According to Popular Information, the conglomerate owns a number of Russia-based subsidiaries. Notable among them is Guardian Industries, an Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer of industrial glass and other products. The subsidiary reportedly runs two Russia-based facilities in Ryazan and Rostov.
Earlier this month, Guardian suggested that operations could not come to a halt despite the Russia incursion.
“Guardian Industries continues to closely monitor the tumultuous events in Eastern Europe, supporting our employees who are affected,” a company spokesperson told USGlass Magazine. “The health and safety of our employees and all personnel working at our facilities is our first priority.”
Electronic components manufacturer Molex, another Koch Industries subsidiary, offers its products through a “network of third-party distributors across Russia,” as Popular Information reported.
Two letters released by Molex in February and March indicate that the company has no intention to suspend operations in Russia.
ALEXANDER J. MOTYL, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark. - Politico Magazine
Stephan: I spent a lot of time in the Soviet Union between 1981 and 1993, particularly in Moscow and Leningrad/St Petersburg. I owned businesses there and worked on art exchanges, and what we called Citizen Diplomacy. My observation about what is happening is that Putin is less Yuri Andropov, or even Stalin, and more like Hitler. Not communism but fascist quite nasty authoritarianism. Think about it. How would you feel if a law were passed that you could go to prison for mentioning anything about the economy, no matter what you saw or heard happening? How would that go down in the U.S., do you think? And yet just such a law was imposed by Putin in Moscow. I think the citizens of Russia, particularly the urban population are not going to quietly accept the new Putin. He is trying to sell this as bad things Americans and the West are doing to innocent Russia. It will sell with older, less educated, rural men and women. Same thing is going on here in the MAGAt world.
Vladimir Putin at his inauguration ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia on May 7, 2018. Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo
Would Mikhail Gorbachev have invaded Ukraine if he, and not Vladimir Putin, were president of Russia? Most Kremlin-watchers would probably say no. It’s hard to imagine that the architect of perestroika would have embarked on the wholesale destruction of a country of 40 million.
It’s equally hard to imagine independent Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, attempting genocide. Russian forces committed numerous atrocities on Yeltsin’s watch in two Chechen Wars, but they stopped short of exterminating the population and claiming it had no right to exist. Indeed, even Soviet Party boss Leonid Brezhnev, who launched invasions into Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia, did not pursue the kind of scorched-earth strategy Putin has unleashed on Ukraine.
Historians call these kinds of “what if” questions counterfactuals, and they are useful because they help identify the factor or factors that best explain some phenomenon. Because neither Gorbachev nor Yeltsin nor Brezhnev can be imagined attacking Ukraine’s civilian population as indiscriminately […]
David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief - Mother Jones
Stephan: Here is more on how blatant is the connection between Tucker Carlson and Putin's government and state-controlled media. Carlson is not a journalist, as Fox asserted in court. He is a kind of preacher to an older, overwhelmingly White, less educated demographic. Much like Jimmy Swigart, Carlson agitates his audience's fears and prejudices. It's a kind of grift, and it says a lot about the Murdochs that they permit and sponsor this. The ugliness and evil of Putin's attempt to destroy Ukraine and literally take over the land has brought all this into sharp focus.
A page of the actual memo Credit: Mother Jones
On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.
“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,” advises the 12-page document written in Russian. It sums up Carlson’s position: “Russia is only protecting its interests and security.” The memo includes a quote from Carlson: “And how would the US behave if such a situation developed in neighboring Mexico or Canada?”
The document—titled “For Media and Commentators (recommendations for coverage of events as of 03.03)”—was produced, according to its metadata, at a Russian government agency called […]
Stephan: Does anyone remember Tokoyo Rose? Tucker Carlson is the modern variant. It tells one a great deal about Fox, the Murdoch family, Trump, and the christofascist Republicans. It is a very nasty picture based on objectively verifiable facts.
Tucker Carlson mouthpiece for the American christofascists on the Fox propaganda operation.
On the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conservative media commentator Tucker Carlson used his nightly Fox News platform to ask why the Democratic establishment was being hostile towards Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Since the day that Donald Trump became president, Democrats in Washington have told you it’s your patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin,” Carlson said.
“Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason.”
He mused that hating Putin had become “the central purpose of America’s foreign policy”, which, he argued, could force the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe — something no one from either side of politics has called for.
Mr Carlson insisted his audience ask themselves: “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?”
