Stephan: What the majority of Americans do not yet realize is that this cohort of people see what they are doing as part of a war. They are already in combat. And as I said in today's first piece, all of this is facilitated by the internet and social media. What is happening is exactly what happened in Germany and Italy, when Hitler and Mussolini rose to power. The rest of us, who are not part of this cohort, had better figure out how we are going to respond or American democracy will be gone by 2025.
FBI investigates White supremacist shooting violence
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”
White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.
Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months.
These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on […]
Stephan: Thank you to all the readers who wrote to send me good wishes, and a quick recovery. I went into the hospital to get a hernia repair laparoscopic surgery. It was a bigger and more painful deal than I had realized but I am now home recuperating well. I really appreciated your warm wishes. Thank you again.
Stephan: I have been telling my readers for years that Americans' trust in their government was going through a disastrous decline, and that our democracy was in dire straits. However, even I had not realized how bad this has become. This study by the Pew Research Center lays out the facts. The actual facts as to where our democracy stands.
Last night as I watched the 6 January committee's hearing I went back and forth between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. What I saw was the presentation of actual facts about the insurrection and the absolute proof that all of this was promoted and directed by Donald Trump. What is hard to understand is how does MAGAt world still not recognize the truth? But, as I watched Tucker Carlson's astonishing lies and distortions of the hearings, I got my answer.
The hard truth is that about a third of the American population are either not smart enough or interested enough to be open to the truth, and this willful ignorance is largely the result of the Fox disinformation operation, and its cousins, like Breitbart, Infowar, Daily Caller and other christofascist anti-democracy disinformation propaganda operations.
I am now convinced that the only way we are going to preserve democracy in this country is if the other two-thirds of us vote and vote only for Democrats. That may sound partisan, but it is not. I have lots of issues with the weakness and lack of coherence in the Democratic Party but, as a party, they still do support democracy, while the Republican Party does not. It is that simple. In November the real issue is: You vote for democracy, or you vote against democracy. Everything else is secondary and of little consequence compared to this fundamental issue. It is up to us.
Americans remain deeply distrustful of and dissatisfied with their government. Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time – a sentiment that has changed very little since former President George W. Bush’s second term in office.
The public’s criticisms of the federal government are many and varied. Some are familiar: Just 6% say the phrase “careful with taxpayer money” describes the federal government extremely or very well; another 21% say this describes the government somewhat well. A comparably small share (only 8%) describes the government as being responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans.
The federal government gets mixed ratings for its handling of specific issues. Evaluations are highly positive in some respects, including for responding to natural disasters (70% say the government does a good job of this) and keeping the country safe from terrorism (68%). However, only about a quarter of Americans say the government has done a good job managing the immigration system and helping people get out of poverty (24% each). And the […]
Igor Derysh, Deputy News and Politics Editor - Salon
Stephan: Here is another take on the Fox christofascist propaganda network (FCPN). To say what they did last night was shameful, really doesn't properly address what happened. FCPN has nothing to do with news, it is an active operation of the Murdoch family to destroy American democracy, and should be seen and discussed on that basis. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham are the 21st-century equivalents of Herman Goering, and Hans Goebbels and should be seen and evaluated as such.
Fox News was the only news network not to carry the first day of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as its hosts repeatedly trashed the two-hour hearing without providing their audience any of the content.
The Herman Goering, and Hans Goebbels of the 21st Century and their führer
The committee detailed a lengthy case against former President Donald Trump’s role, using clips of depositions from former Attorney General Bill Barr, former White House adviser Ivanka Trump, and other former officials to show Trump was well aware his fraud claims were false even as he continued to stoke his supporters ahead of the deadly Capitol riot. The committee also played new video of the violence that took place inside the Capitol and questioned Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and documentarian Nick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys, about what went on.
Fox News viewers were the only news watchers who didn’t see the hearing Thursday night.
At one point, as the committee showed damning footage of the violence in the Capitol, Fox News cut […]
Stephan: I think Bernie Sanders has the correct assessment of the current electoral situation. (In the interest of full disclosure to my readers I was a Bernie Sanders Washington state delegate.) Sanders like Warren is not partisan, he is interested in fostering wellbeing, and understands what is really going on. I am very disappointed in the Democratic leadership, and the general membership for not finding greater coherence, and creating a clear message about what they plan to do, and how they see the current state of our democracy.
Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Bernie Sanders has something to get off his chest: Without a course correction, he sees the Democratic Party on track to get shellacked this fall.
As the progressive Vermonter, not one to mince words, put it in an interview on Tuesday: “You really can’t win an election with a bumper sticker that says: ‘Well, we can’t do much, but the other side is worse.’”
“The Republicans stand an excellent chance of gaining control of the House and quite possibly the Senate,” Sanders said. While the GOP’s anti-abortion stance and opposition to more sweeping firearm restrictions may help Democrats, he warned that if they “think that they’re gonna march to victory based on those issues, I think that that is not correct.”
With the majorities flashing before Democrats’ eyes, the independent who caucuses with them is asking his leadership, from President Joe Biden on down, to acknowledge that the party can’t actually do what it wants with two centrist senators as their deciding votes. After that real talk, Sanders wants Democrats to […]
