Will Americans Accept Despotism…?
Will Americans submit to despotismWill Americans submit to despotismPresident Donald Trump took his rancorous feud with the press to a frightening new level last week when he posted an inflammatory tweet that echoed tyrants of the past, calling the all-caps “FAKE NEWS” media “the enemy of the American People.”
As many were quick to point out, the phrase “enemy of the people” has a disturbing and violent history, and has long been used by totalitarian dictators to foster resentment and hatred of certain groups, and eventually to crush dissent and opposition. The infamous French revolutionary and Reign of Terror apologist Robespierre declared that the revolutionary government owed “nothing to the enemies of the people but death,” while the term was widely used in Stalinist Russia to single out dissidents, who were either imprisoned, executed or sent to the Gulag (in the end, almost all of the original Bolsheviks became “enemies of the people” during the great purge — which in reality meant enemies of Joseph Stalin).
Read More Salon:
A Clockwork Orange: ultraviolence, Russian spies and fake news
One of the more unusual examples of this influence was the novel’s appropriation by the espionage community. During the 1970s, the title supposedly became the codename for an alleged campaign to undermine the prime minister, Harold Wilson. Prompted, apparently, by fears that Wilson was a Soviet agent and that he’d been placed in office after the KGB had poisoned the previous Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell.
Read: The Conversation
His election that November came as a surprise…
His followers had faith, of course. They had roared at his rallies and echoed his slogans. They had come out to vote, in higher numbers than expected, especially working-class men and women. Even so, the results of the election were paradoxical. The left received 1 million more votes than his party. But due to the vagaries of the electoral system he was called upon to form a government. His followers exulted, but the various right-wing elites preserved their calm. Although they had failed to keep him from power, they were sure that they could control him. He was good at convincing his followers that he was a revolutionary and convincing others that he was harmless.
Read: Slate
Time Is Already Running Out on Our Democracy, Says Expert
Timothy Snyder, a Yale scholar and an authority on European political history, has spent decades studying the rise of fascist movements. With the ascension of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Snyder sees echoes from history, and warns that the time to save America from autocracy is in short supply.
Read: Alternet
Jake Tapper Nails White House Barring Of Media With 1 Perfect Word
The White House on Friday blocked several major media organizations, including The New York Times, CNN and The Huffington Post, from attending an off-camera press briefing, held in lieu of the daily televised news conference.
And CNN anchor Jake Tapper did not take the unprecedented move lightly.
“There is a word for that line of thinking,” Tapper concluded. “The word is un-American.”
Read: Huffington Post
Media outlets blocked from White House press briefing
NBC News’ Hallie Jackson explains the latest events regarding the White House preventing particular news outlets from entering the room.
Watch Video MSNBC
Here Comes the Police State:
New Laws Aim for Brutal Crackdown on Protest
Many bills advancing at state level along with executive orders are part of Trump “law and order.”
The rise of right-wing populism in the United States—from the White House to state legislatures—has been met with public resistance on a stunning scale. Millions have taken to the streets, staged direct actions and flooded airports to resist a flurry of presidential decrees targeting undocumented, black, refugee, LGBTQ and poor communities. And long before Trump took the White House, the Black Lives Matter movement and indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock were leading the way with sustained mobilizations in the face of staggering repression.
Read: Alternet
Beware the Trump brain rot: The cognitive effects of this administration’s actions could be disastrous
Thirty years ago one of the most famous public service announcement ad campaigns was launched. “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” featured a man asking the audience if they understood the dangers of drug use. He then held up an egg, saying, “This is your brain.” He motioned to a frying pan, “This is drugs.” He then cracked the egg into the pan and as the egg fried said, “This is your brain on drugs.”
Read: Salon
Here's A Thing... 