Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner, - Reader Supported News
Stephan: I am not Jewish but, because my surname is Schwartz, many people assume I am and all my life I have been aware in certain situations that what was driving a conversation was antisemitism; it is an ancient prejudice that has always been a cover for something else. In modern times the christofascists have promoted it, and it has become a core belief of the MAGAt Party, and an important trend in American society. How any Jew can vote for a MAGAt candidate I simply cannot understand.
Police direct traffic outside an entrance to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after the former president said the FBI was conducting a search. Credit: Terry Renna/AP
Amid the discussion around the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago and what it might mean for Trump and the rule of law in America, there is a detail that I worry isn’t receiving enough attention but that points to a dangerous reality in the United States today.
It centers on Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who signed the FBI’s search warrant. As his name became public, he has faced a withering volume of threats from those who believe Trump should be above the law. In today’s America, with the MAGA crowd revved up for attack, that was to be expected. But that attacks were to be expected should not obscure the fact that they are dangerous. Very. The possibility of their leading to violence should not be underestimated.
Many of these threats focused on the fact that Judge Reinhart is Jewish. It got to the point that the synagogue where Judge Reinhart sits on the […]
Stephan: The MAGAt antisemitism trend is producing two results that really concern me. One it is a further exacerbation of the Great Schism Trend that is tearing the country apart, and second, it is smearing America around the world. This piece came from The Jerusalem Post in Israel, but I could have picked other stories from the foreign media. Respect and affection for the United States is in precipitous decline, and that has all kinds of geopolitical implications.
Anti-Semitism flyer being circulated by MAGAts. It is the usual propaganda crap one sees in MAGAt world. The Murdoch family, largely responsible for the creation of MAGAt world, for instance, are not Jewish.
Jewish Americans across the country woke up to antisemitic letters and flyers delivered to their homes this week, a continuation of an anti-Jewish campaign by white supremacists.
Letters in plastic bags were placed on several driveways of residents in Jacksonville, Florida over the weekend, First Coast News reported on Monday.
“We’re right across the street from a school,” Amber Wilson told First Coast News. “Lots of kids live here. We don’t want this kind of stuff here. It feels really violating knowing that was even in this neighborhood.”
“Every single aspect of gun control is Jewish,” read some flyers distributed in plastic bags throughout Long Island on the weekend, according to media reports.
“Extremely disturbed to learn of another incident of antisemitic flyer distribution on Long Island, this time in Freeport,” wrote the Anti Defamation League (ADL) New York and New Jersey chapter. “We continue to […]
Stephan: I have never met Greg Abbott, nor do I know anyone anymore who knows him. But there is no question that during his time as governor of Texas he has made the state he governs a failed state. Its social outcome data is horrible. As Texas labors under burning temperatures, devastating floods, and water issues, Abbott cannot even acknowledge climate change exists. What really interests me is what made the people of Texas vote for such a cretin, and will they do it again?
MAGAt governor of Texas Greg Abbott
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott refused to acknowledge that climate change is driving the historic flooding that has inundated the biggest cities in his state over the last several days.
“We constantly focus on the issues such as extreme weather and we want to, we want to be prepared for whatever type of weather may be coming our way,” Abbott said at a press conference after reporters repeatedly asked him to say the words “climate change.”
\u201cGovernor Greg Abbott (R-TX) refuses to acknowledge the effects of climate change in Texas’ recent flooding:\n\nReporter: “Are you concerned about climate change?”\n\nAbbott: “We constantly focus on issues such as extreme weather.”\n\nReporter: “Can you even say climate change?”\u201d— The Recount (@The […]
Stephan: I see this poll as a report on good news, and I think there is a growing recognition in the Democratic Party that the key to winning elections is fostering wellbeing. In my view, the christofascist majority on the Supreme Court made a massive and historical mistake overturning Roe just months before the midterm elections. It has completely changed the dynamic of our political process. Many of the MAGAt officials want to get rid of Social Security. As this poll shows 3 out of 4 Americans want to do something very different.
Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
New polling finds that bipartisan majorities of voters support plans to expand Social Security by taxing the rich, showing that the public overwhelmingly backs Democrats’ recent proposals to bring stability and funding to the program.
Polling conducted by Data for Progress last month found that 81 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat support Democrats’ plans to peg Social Security benefits to the cost of living, including 88 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Republicans.
There is also wide support for funding the plan by taxing the rich, as Democrats have proposed; 76 percent of respondents say that they support increasing payroll taxes on people making over $400,000 a year to fund Social Security expansion and ensure the program’s solvency.
Last year, Democrats introduced a bill, named the Social Security 2100, that would provide an immediate bump to Social Security payments and update the program’s cost of living adjustment formula to better match inflationary pressures. The bill would extend the insolvency date of the program to 2038, giving lawmakers five more years past the current […]
Stephan: Here is an insider from the Fox propaganda channel telling the truth. The Murdoch family are making hundreds of millions of dollars every year purveying hate, fear, and resentment. It is, I think, accurate to say that MAGAt world was created as a result of the Fox operation. One uber-rich family is responsible for tearing the United States apart, and they are doing it with impunity. Something is very wrong with this.
Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor, is sworn in during a House January 6 committee hearing in June. Credit: Rex/Shutterstock
A former Fox News politics editor who was forced out of the conservative television network shortly after its opinions hosts’ preferred candidate Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential race has said that the channel failed its viewers with its election coverage.
In his upcoming memoir, Chris Stirewalt says Fox News resigned its duty to prepare Trump followers for the possibility that he would lose, instead stoking the “black-helicopter-level paranoia and hatred” which fuels white supremacist groups but translates into big ratings.
Stirewalt’s Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machines Divides America and How to Fight Back also reiterates the belief held by many that Fox fired him because he always defended – even on-air – his team’s decision to declare Joe Biden the winner of Arizona’s 2020 electoral college votes on the same night that polls closed.
The call enraged Trump, prompting the incumbent president and his allies to mount a pressure campaign aimed at getting Fox to retract […]
