Stephan: I am running this piece because I agree with it, and am surprised and disappointed that so few in the media seem to get that it is not just that Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia lack any sense of ethics or honor. That has been obvious for years. Equally important, but largely apparently unrecognized, is that neither of them is very bright and that they believe passionately in things that are easily and demonstrably shown to be untrue. They either choose to be willfully ignorant or aren't smart enough to see their fantasies are not real.
MAGAt Virginia Thomas Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Clarence Thomas’s wife believes a lot of the same things that QAnon supporters believe. In texts sent to Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection, Virginia Thomas, who goes by “Ginni,” urged him to keep fighting the results of a lawful and legitimate election. She couldn’t wait for Trump’s legal team to “release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,” she texted.
In another, she referenced conspiracy theories, writing that “Watermarked ballots in over 12 states have been part of a huge Trump & military white hat sting operation in 12 key battleground states”—suggesting that the president send-in the military to stop Democrats from stealing the election. In another she quoted a popular pro-Trump message—“Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in […]
Stephan: History, I think, is going to make much of the MAGAt world's death cult in which hundreds of thousands of Americans through willful ignorance chose to give up their lives in their allegiance to one of the greatest criminals in the centuries of America. Indeed, so great is their subservience to his will that despite everything we have learned in the past year they will vote for him if he is still out of prison and runs for president again in 2024.
Political polarization in the U.S. was evident and intensifying long before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, two years ago.
Americans were already deeply divided about a multitude of issues, with differing opinions concerning healthcare, immigration, voting rights, gun reform and climate change, often leaving little room for collaboration across the aisle.
Polling shows that the emergence of the novel coronavirus in 2020 exacerbated the rift, pushing Americans further apart on key pandemic response efforts.
Surveys from Pew Research Center, last year, found that in the early months of the pandemic, about 6 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed the virus was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared to only a third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. That 26-point gap would ultimately grow to approximately 40 points by the fall, researchers found.MORE: Fears of COVID-19 resurgence in the US grow as officials warn of potential upticks
Over the last two years, few issues have been more divisive than the pandemic and related policies […]
Stephan: The Republican Party is making America an increasingly dangerous country in which to live. There are already red states in which I would be hesitant to be in a large crowd where alcohol was freely present because drunkenness and gunfire strongly correlate. Why are they doing this? It's all debated through bogus analyses of the 2nd amendment, but what is really behind this madness? The social outcome data is very clear that more guns produce more death. It is my belief that the Republicans and the oligarchs who own that party, are preparing for a civil conflict, and they want their followers to be armed so they can engage in guerilla warfare. That is what the Proud Boys, 3%, and the White militias are also about.
Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
Every day in the United States more than 110 Americans are killed with a gun. These are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives—taken too soon from their families and friends. Thanks to the actions of Republican state legislators in Indiana—and the state’s GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb—these daily tragedies will likely rise.
States have long allowed gun owners to carry a concealed weapon, but all but Vermont required them to go through a permit process, which often entailed a background check and a mandatory safety class. In many states, police could reject permit applications.
These new laws, however, remove all restrictions. No background check, no training, no shooting […]
Stephan: This is what concerns me. If you read SR regularly you will be familiar with these trends that move us towards anocracy. My disagreement with this piece is in the final paragraph. Litvin still doesn't get that it should be framed as creating equality and the democracy it expresses with wellbeing as the first societal priority.
Trump loyalists gather outside the U.S. Capitol for the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg / Getty
The United States is continuing its reactionary response to the 2020 uprisings for Black lives. Republican representatives have increased efforts at redistricting, escalated draconian targeting of reproductive rights, and continue to attack education and books on racism, slavery and white supremacy; LGBTQ issues; and content depicting miscarriages, hysterectomies and pain during labor.
These right-wing efforts are fueled by social media and a rising embrace of conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, though perhaps predictably, the Democratic Party has been unable or unwilling to mount a progressive retort.
Truthout spoke with Anthony DiMaggio, associate professor of political science at Lehigh University, about the infiltration of fascism into contemporary political and media landscapes in the U.S. as outlined in his new book, Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here (Routledge; 2022).
Yoav Litvin: How is your book relevant in 2022? Didn’t Donald Trump lose in 2020?
Anthony DiMaggio: By losing in 2020, Trump learned from his mistakes. Trump really didn’t focus heavily on […]
Stephan: I grow increasingly concerned that what we, the public, are being shown is that in America today those at a high level in government are basically above the law. Merrick Garland does nothing. Trump, Bannon, Flynn, et al, continue trying to convert us to White supremacy christofascism. The Supreme Court imposes upon itself no standards of ethical behavior and seems comfortable with outrageous partisanship. The Republican Party no longer supports democracy. The Democrats are not of one mind and, as a result, are weak. Corruption is rampant. The American people according to the latest polls show no confidence in Biden as president. The 2022 by-election looms a few months away, and we may be in the final weeks of democracy. Numbers of Americans seem to support the United States as an anocracy.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ruled in favor of keeping White House documents hidden from the public that implicated his wife, Virginia Thomas, in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Credit: Drew Angerer Getty
When ex-President Donald Trump sued to block the release of White House documents and communications sought by the House committee investigating his effort to overturn the 2020 election, there was only one member of the Supreme Court to take his side: Justice Clarence Thomas.
Thomas did not disclose it at the time, but we now know that he had a significant conflict of interest in this and related cases.
His wife, Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, repeatedly communicated with White House officials in her effort to improperly overturn Joe Biden’s election win, according to a new report by CBS News and The Washington Post. She disclosed in a March 14 interview with the conservative Washington Free Beacon that she attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the Ellipse, but said she got cold and left before […]
