ATTENTION, POTENTIAL UNPERSONS
WHAT IS IT about those good old boy Southern congressmen and senators?
In the “Will Wonders Never Cease” category, the perpetually nauseating Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) for once drawled something reasonable in the midst of repeating those played out GOP talking points, mildly crossing Trump on a couple of issues. In an interview with Kristin Welker on “Meet the Press,” Kennedy took exception to Trump’s remarks that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s termination “can’t come soon enough”:
“I don’t think the president, any president, has the right to remove the Federal Reserve chairman,” Kennedy told Welker. “I think the Federal Reserve ought to be independent.”
Keep in mind that Trump nominated Powell for his first four-year term, and Biden nominated him for his second four years. But per Trump’s typical M.O., he turns against his own if they don’t bow to his will, no matter how illegal, unethical, or just plain devastatingly wrong. Now Trump wants Powell to lower interest rates to help solve the economic problem created by Trump’s own orgy of tariffs. In his penchant for childish name-calling, the president has dubbed Powell “Mr. Too Late.”
But back to Senator Kennedy’s surprising few seconds of clarity. After Trump said on Fox News that his administration was looking into sending “homegrown criminals” to foreign gulags (presumably excluding himself, of course), Kennedy was asked in that same Kristin Welker interview if he believes the law allows Trump to send domestic criminals to foreign prisons:
“No, Ma’am,” he said, adding: “We have our own laws. We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries, in my judgment.”
Now surely some lawyer in the GOP must understand that not allowing due process is flagrantly unconstitutional, not to mention that the Trump Regime is being denounced from coast-to-coast for ignoring the courts on this issue—the Supreme Court of The United States, for example. The much-dreaded Constitutional Crisis is taking place before our eyes.
Our forced march towards totalitarianism moves on.
AND THE GOP still trots out these congresspeople and others to parrot talking points that have nothing to do with verity and everything to do with managing the narrative the Trump administration is pushing. The GOP has gotten this posing down and strengthened its ranks by manipulating people for decades, but Trump 1.0 took it to a new level, truly ushering in the start of the Post Truth Era. Trump was the first president to stand in front of the American people and completely deny reality—any semblance of actual facts—even when there was plenty of evidence that what he was saying was total fabrication. There was none of the owning up to, and asking forgiveness for, whatever disaster had been blundered into, nor was there any lying and then coming clean. There wasn’t even any deny, deny, deny.
What there was, was “alternative facts.” We all heard Kellyanne Conway ring that mendacity bell regarding the crowd size at Trump’s first inauguration. Her use of this term below is now a classic, although this is something the GOP no longer bothers with.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd pressed Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway about why the White House on Saturday had sent [Press Secretary Sean] Spicer to the briefing podium for the first time to claim that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”
“You’re saying it’s a falsehood. And…Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.”
During her own tenure as Trump’s White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued the endless disinformation that was key to Trump’s first presidency, also looking the American people in the eye and repeating massive untruths. In an interview about her book, Australian journalist Leigh Sales nailed Sanders in a way that American journalists never seemed able to pull off. She later carried her misinformation into her Arkansas governorship. She’s a born authoritarian.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE now? The lying has become normalized. Getting past it is like climbing The Wall in Game of Thrones, which is insurmountable to White Walkers and corporate mainstream journalists alike. But for the Maga core, The Wall is a cozy blanket that they wear.
In the beginning of Trump’s first presidency, American journalists were too soft. They didn’t know how to handle him. They let too much go before adjusting to his outrageous behavior. We’ve gone beyond lies now. We’re stepping into 1984, and just like George Orwell’s prophetic book—and as in all totalitarian regimes—we’re being saturated with propaganda to deny the truth and create a distorted reality. Every single Republican who’s going along with this is a cog in our descent.
These Sunday morning news shows seem to be forums for the GOP to get their targeted narrative out. And it’s not that the Democrats aren’t also asserting their expedient points of view, but the GOP’s bloodthirsty attack on the truth isn’t the same. (And, of course, the Democrats haven’t been trying to turn this country into an autocracy.)
In the episode of “Meet the Press” referenced above, Welker powerfully evokes the Supreme Court’s order that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return should be facilitated by the U.S. government, as well as the three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.” Strong stuff.
Welker shows Kennedy a clip of himself at a confirmation hearing. “Don’t ever, ever take the position that you’re not going to follow the order of a Federal Court,” he lectures. Welker then asks Kennedy if he believes Trump is following the orders of the courts now. After a beat, the senator slithers out his answer with his hound dog face trying to look like he really means it, and has the audacity to say, “Yes.”
Kennedy nails the good old boy act. He’s as down home as Foghorn Leghorn and could become a hellfire and brimstone preacher if he loses the next election. But we all know that his answer to Welker is patently untrue.
But don’t think for a second that Kennedy’s little push-back of Trump wasn’t also part of the GOP Talking Points. By injecting the slightest bit of honesty that deporting Abrego Garcia “was a screw-up” that won’t happen again, they’re calculating that we’ll follow that and not the path that they’re really taking.
OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS has been assaulted ever since Trump first came onto the political scene. But now, since he was re-elected and Project 2025 is being enacted, we’re pelted with his malice non-stop. Trump and his Christian nationalists literally want to stamp out our individualistic brains like 1984’s Thought Police.
Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons," disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed.
Totalitarianism is dehumanizing. All you have to do is take a look at the photos of the deportees to El Salvador, with their shaved heads and stripped to the waist, to see that Trump’s current chosen target—immigrants—are the first to be sacrificed to Big Brother’s power and control. The photo of Kristie Noem standing in front of the enormous cell with prisoners behind her evokes a feed lot with animals waiting to be killed.
And while immigrants may be the first to become unpersons, there is recent evidence that women are up next in a different way. The New York Times reported that the White House Assesses Ways To Persuade Women To Have More Children.
The White House has been hearing out a chorus of ideas in recent weeks for persuading Americans to get married and have more children, an early sign that the Trump administration will embrace a new cultural agenda pushed by many of its allies on the right to reverse declining birthrates and push conservative family values.
One proposal shared with aides would reserve 30 percent of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the prestigious, government-backed international fellowship, for applicants who are married or have children.
Another would give a $5,000 cash “baby bonus” to every American mother after delivery.
A third calls on the government to fund programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles — in part so they can better understand when they are ovulating and able to conceive.
Those ideas, and others, are emerging from a movement concerned with declining birthrates that has been gaining steam for years and now finally has allies in the U.S. administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk. Policy experts and advocates of boosting the birthrate have been meeting with White House aides, sometimes handing over written proposals on ways to help or convince women to have more babies, according to four people who have been part of the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations…
Ms. Collins, along with her husband, Malcolm Collins, sent the White House several draft executive orders, including one that would bestow a “National Medal of Motherhood” to mothers with six or more children.
I find the whole thing creepy. Nothing against motherhood. I am a mother and proud of it. But the GOP talks a big game about family values, and then they never support children or families in any programs or legislation. And with all the cuts DOGE has just made, literally thousands upon thousands in the United States and around the globe will die. I don’t believe for a second that they care.
Of course, among the groups that are pushing for women having more babies is—big surprise—the Heritage Foundation of Project 2025 fame, along with other conservative groups. FYI, about the “National Medal of Motherhood” that was suggested: Just as it sounds, this was one of the honors Adolf Hitler bestowed on German mothers to produce more Aryans. As someone commented on this article, they were sure the White House is not talking about brown babies.
Hitler recognized three classes of Mothers for a strong Germany:
· 1st class, Gold Cross: eligible mothers with eight or more children[2][6]
· 2nd class, Silver Cross: eligible mothers with six or seven children[2][6]
· 3rd class, Bronze Cross: eligible mothers with four or five children[2][6]
And now, we’re back to The Handmaid’s Tale. Take any of the adventures into authoritarianism, and we’re treading in the same dangerous water.
MAY POPE FRANCIS rest in peace. He was a champion of refugees and immigrants, and we will imagine he gave J.D. Vance a scolding when he met him. He certainly made clear how he felt about the Trump/Vance mass deportations in his letter to the American bishops. If you haven’t read it, I recommend you do.
There is a stark difference in the compassion Pope Francis felt for these people and the hate that the Christian nationalists spew and that Trump is engaged in. I find it hilarious that Trump is so excited about going to the Pope’s funeral, when the Pope so obviously condemned Trump’s cruel actions. Or maybe that’s what’s giving Trump this funereal pleasure.
Please send any questions or comments our community can address and respond to.
Peace. We are one.
Activist Of The Week and Tyranny Expert: Timothy Snyder
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Another excellent take on the current crisis
Wow, so many good things in Beth’s latest. Love the hang dog description of Senator Kennedy. What a vile opportunist!
Your take on the political scene is so informative and insightful!