So Much for Socialism The Trump regime is using the specter of socialism to make America even more authoritarian. The regime will lose. Robert Reich Jul 22 Friends, When Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem unleashed her ICE shock troops on Los Angeles last month, she said: “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist” leaders. Minutes later, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from the press conference and put in handcuffs. The specter of socialism is being used by Trump and his goons to make America even more authoritarian. Trump even threatens to “run” New York City if its voters choose Zohran Mamdani — a Muslim of Indian descent and avowed democratic socialist — as their next mayor. “We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,” says Trump, warning that he might step in and take control if New Yorkers elect Mamdani. Trump is using the word “socialism” to slam everything the public needs and to justify cruel cuts in the nation’s safety net. Trump’s just-enacted Big Ugly Bill will push more than 11 million Americans off Medicaid. Another 2 million Americans will lose food stamps. The savings will help finance a big tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. But the next time they’re up for election, Republican lawmakers may be shocked to discover how many Americans prefer the “socialism” of Medicaid and food stamps to the socialism-for-the-rich tax cuts in the Big Ugly. Medicaid alone has 83 percent favorability. Among Republicans, it’s a remarkable 74 percent. Trump and his lackeys are living in another century if they think they can use “socialism” as a cudgel. As early as 2011, the Pew Research Center found that almost as many voters under the age of 30 held a positive view of socialism as of capitalism. During the 2016 Democratic primaries and then again in 2020, young people all over America wore buttons reading “feel the Bern” in honor of democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. Whether it’s called socialism, democratic socialism, or enlightened capitalism, societies need to pool resources for the common good. As it is, America spends very little on social insurance compared to other rich nations. More than 26 million Americans still lack health insurance — and, as noted, at least 11 million more will lose it as a result of the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s Big Ugly. We’re the only industrialized nation without paid family leave. We’re also the only one without minimal assistance for people in need. Most other rich nations subsidize college for their young people, yet a large percentage of American households cannot afford to give their kids a four-year college education without going deeply into debt. Most other rich nations also provide more comprehensive unemployment insurance, cheaper access to child care, and far more help with elder care. These other nations aren’t “socialist.” They’re capitalist. But they take better care of their people. American capitalism is the harshest in the world. Inequality here is worse than in any other rich nation. And our politics is far more polluted with big money. These features are connected. Vast and growing inequalities of income and wealth have spawned big money into politics — with which the rich have gained tax cuts and corporate subsidies while limiting or reducing social spending. Which is why America has lower tax rates on the super-rich than any other rich nation, one of the lowest life spans of all rich countries, and a higher percentage of homeless people. Trump’s new Big Ugly will make all this worse. I don’t believe Americans will continue to tolerate this growing socialism for the rich and worsening social squalor for everyone else. Whether or not Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York, we’re going to see a tidal wave of reform. Most Americans need stronger safety nets and deserve a bigger piece of the economic pie, and they know it. If you want to call this socialism, fine. I call it fair.

 

Stand up to Trump and Bibi Judge Merchan must jail Trump, Biden must stop sending weapons to Netanyahu ROBERT REICH MAY 7 Friends, Juan M. Merchan, the judge in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, has again held Trump in contempt for violating a gag order banning attacks on witnesses and jurors, and is threatening to jail the former president if he persists. “It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan said yesterday. “Going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction.” Judge Merchan criticized Trump for saying that the jury was “picked so quickly” and made up of “95 percent Democrats.” Trump “not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones.” Half a world away from that Manhattan courtroom, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems intent on invading Rafah. Just hours after Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal put forth by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, Israel stepped up bombing raids and is signaling that a long-promised ground invasion is imminent. Biden again warned Netanyahu not to launch a military offensive in southern Gaza. Of course, the stakes in Trump’s defiance of Judge Merchan and Netanyahu’s defiance of Biden are vastly different. At worst, Trump could be jailed. Netanyahu’s invasion of Rafah could mean tens of thousands more deaths. But both men are using defiance strategically, to advance their authoritarian politics. Defiance signals to their supporters that compromise is out of the question, and that both men will continue to fight despite mounting pressure on them to relent and despite personal cost to themselves and others. Their defiance also fuels the fanaticism of supporters and communicates determination — for Trump, that the trial will not silence him or his followers; for Netanyahu, that he will do whatever necessary to protect Israeli lives. Their defiance is intended to make them appear strong and their opponents weak. Trump believes that if he continues to defy Judge Merchan, the judge will back down from jailing him. And if he’s jailed, his supporters will be enraged and galvanized into action. Netanyahu believes that if he defies Biden, Biden will take no action against Israel, and that Israelis will rally behind Netanyahu in any event. “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone,” Netanyahu said Sunday at Israel’s Holocaust memorial. “But we know we are not alone because countless decent people around the world support our just cause. And I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!” But as long as their defiance brings no consequences, they are less constrained. If Judge Merchan continues to allow Trump to defy him without putting Trump in jail, then Merchan — and, by implication, the entire court system — will be weakened and Trump perceived as strong. (Merchan seemed to understand this when he said “as much as I don't want to impose a jail sanction … I want you to understand that I will if necessary and appropriate.”) And if Biden continues to allow Netanyahu to defy him without ending U.S. military aid to Israel, then Biden — and, by implication, the Biden administration and the United States as a whole — will be viewed as weak, and Netanyahu as strong. Biden’s power and presidency hang in the balance. Both Trump and Netanyahu are authoritarians. The authoritarian personality sees everything as a contest between strength and weakness. To compromise is to capitulate. This makes both men especially dangerous. These two contests also test the capacities of the major individuals (Judge Merchan, Joe Biden) and institutions (the courts, the U.S. presidency) now capable of reining in these two authoritarians. Hence the importance of responding forcefully to their defiance. If Trump continues to badmouth witnesses and jurors, Merchan should jail him. If Netanyahu orders an invasion of Rafah, Biden should cut off all military aid to Israel. It’s time to stop coddling these authoritarians.

September 1, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

September 1, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON SEP 2 New figures out today from the Labor Department show that employers added 187,000 jobs in August, up but at a slower rate than the red-hot job market has been adding since the pandemic. Unemployment ticked up to 3.8%, in part because of the 37,000 jobs lost when the trucking company Yellow declared bankruptcy. The economy appears to be steadying, with only 1.5 jobs for every person looking, down from the 2 openings in early 2022.  As the hiring frenzies of the past two years calm down, economists expect job growth to continue in health care and education, which have made up 85% of the job growth in the past three months. After that, government investments in infrastructure under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, renewable energy thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, and semiconductor manufacturing thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act are likely to keep demand growing.  The economic numbers for the Biden administration are remarkable and demonstrate the strength of the system under which the government operated from 1933 to 1981: the idea that investing in ordinary Americans builds the economy far more efficiently than so-called “supply-side economics.” That economic ideology, advanced by the Reagan Republicans, claimed that cutting regulations and concentrating wealth at the top of the economy would enable business leaders to invest in the economy efficiently, cutting costs and driving economic growth.  But that vision has never produced as promised, while it has dramatically concentrated wealth and power since it went into effect in 1981. “Bidenomics” is a rejection of that theory and a return to the economic vision that built the country in the fifty years before it. Investing in infrastructure and programs that help ordinary Americans puts money and the power of innovation into their hands, driving the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, as Biden puts it.  In a reflection of the plan to use the government to help those at the bottom of the economy, the administration yesterday canceled $72 million in student loans for 2,300 borrowers who were cheated by the for-profit Ashford College, which was purchased in 2020 by the University of Arizona. It says it will try to recoup the money from the University of Arizona, which denies any responsibility for the actions of Ashford or its parent company, the education technology services company Zovio.  Meanwhile, Republicans continue to focus on ending abortion, and their determination is leading them to assert power over citizens of Republican-dominated states in a way that is commonly associated with authoritarian governments.    Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall claimed in a court filing on Monday that Alabama, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, can prosecute people who help women travel out of the state to obtain an abortion as part of a “criminal conspiracy.”  Today, Caroline Kitchener reported in the Washington Post that at least 51 jurisdictions in Texas have passed ordinances to make it illegal to transport anyone on roads within city or county limits to get an abortion. Their hope is to target interstates and the roads around airports to block off routes out of Texas and keep pregnant women trapped in the antiabortion state.  The laws also allow any private citizen to sue any person or organization they think is violating the ordinance, leading to expensive lawsuits against the friends and family members of the most economically vulnerable people in society. Antiabortion activists call aid to women seeking abortions “abortion trafficking,” which makes it sound like women are being forced to get an abortion, when in fact, the ordinances ensnare women who want to get an abortion and their friends, preventing them from leaving an antiabortion state. Even if such an ordinance is impossible to enforce, it legally endangers the people who would help someone trying to get an abortion, moving such reproductive care beyond the financial reach of many women, and makes people hesitant to help each other.  Such barriers are precisely the same as those for people trying to leave authoritarian countries. Someone who is prohibited from leaving a jurisdiction is not a citizen but a subject. Free and full citizens of a democracy have the right to travel, both inside the country and out of it. That right is guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the Constitution. But authoritarian countries often restrict travel for their subjects outside their borders out of concern that exposure to freer countries will weaken the authority of the government at home.  Crucially, authoritarian countries also urge people to turn on each other, reporting them to the state for punishment, often in exchange for a reward. Such a system breaks the ability of opponents to organize to resist the government because of the risk that their neighbors will sell them out.  While such circumstances affect most authoritarian governments, it is impossible to miss the parallels between these ordinances and the various laws that circumscribed the lives of Black Americans before the Civil War here in the United States. In that era, free Black Americans had to carry identification papers, known as “free papers,” to prove they should be allowed to travel. White Americans had no such requirement. Enslaved Americans could not travel at all, of course, unless they accompanied their enslavers; they were confined to the states in which they were enslaved. When some escaped north to freedom, that restriction was enforced with the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Part of the Compromise of 1850, which was a series of laws cobbled together in an attempt to reduce the tensions between the North and the South over human enslavement, the Fugitive Slave Act required federal officials—including those in free states—to return to the South anyone a white enslaver claimed was his property. Black Americans could not testify in their own defense, and anyone helping a “runaway” could be imprisoned for six months and fined $1,000, about three years’ income. Those turning in Black refugees were paid a fee and the costs of their effort.  When citizens of free states spoke out against the Fugitive Slave Act for making them enforce laws they opposed, southern enslavers insisted they were “radicals” because they refused to enforce a law, and insisted that American democracy supported enslavement. Ten years later, extremists in the South put that argument into their political platform, saying that “the enactments of State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.”  No longer willing to say they would accept free states in the West if voters there wanted freedom, enslavers demanded that Congress pass a new federal law to protect enslavement in the western territories. No longer defending states’ rights except when it protected them from federal intervention into the institution of slavery, they demanded the right to use the power of the federal government to control the majority of Americans who opposed enslavement. Although the Supreme Court justified last year’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision by saying abortion should be a state decision, antiabortion activists are echoing enslavers in their attempt to get federal legislation to enforce their will. More than half of all abortions in the U.S. are medication abortions, and a Trump-appointed antiabortion judge in Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, is currently trying to get rid of such abortions by suspending the approval of mifepristone, given by the Food and Drug Administration more than 20 years ago. Republican presidential candidates former vice president Mike Pence and South Carolina senator Tim Scott both say they support a federal ban on abortion.  Today’s attempted restriction of those who are supposed to be equal citizens from leaving extremist states raises a whole factory of red flags. Last year, after the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision ending the recognition of the constitutional right to an abortion, I suggested to a group of people that it was only a question of time until we saw laws designed to make it impossible for women to travel across state lines. They told me there was no way such a thing could happen in the United States. And yet, here we are. — Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/business/economy/jobs-report-august.html https://apnews.com/article/student-debt-loans-cancellation-asford-borrower-c4c7e9f1d7d1c88c9bb7ceea1c708cdd https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/01/texas-abortion-highways/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/politics/alabama-attorney-general-abortion-prosecute/index.html https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/fugitive-slave-act https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/democratic-party-platform-breckinridge-faction-1860 https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/07/texas-abortion-drugs-fda-ruling/ https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2022/02/medication-abortion-now-accounts-more-half-all-us-abortions https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/23/gop-debate-national-abortion-ban-00112666

 

JOHN DEAN: Altemeyer on Trump’s Supporters

JOHN DEAN & ALTEMEYER GOT IT RIGHT ABOUT tRUMP SUPPORTERS: 

excerpt: 

We know enough about authoritarian supporters from research, and history, to know it will be very hard to change their minds about the leader they adore.

• They are extremely ethnocentric, dividing the world sharply into people in their in-group, and automatically disliking all others. They feel politicians who promote minority rights and immigration discriminate against them. Donald Trump tells them they are right. He is their champion.
• They are highly dogmatic. They get their ideas from others in the in-group, especially from their leader, not from evidence and logic. They say there is no evidence that will make them change their minds. They’re quite comfortable believing “alternate facts.”
• They get great satisfaction from being part of a large movement. Being in a cohesive crowd at rallies thrills them because they silently tell one another, just by being there, that they are powerful and right. They create an echo chamber that reinforces the belief that all the good people think like they do.
• They severely limit their sources of information. They get the news that they want to get. This also produces an echo chamber when the news sources they trust are copying each other and relaying Trump’s message.
• They have highly compartmentalized minds. When an unpleasant truth forces its way into their awareness, they do not try to integrate the other things they believe with it. Instead they put it in a box and isolate it from the rest of their thinking, which proceeds as if the truth never existed.

Put all this together and you get an idea how hard it will be to change their minds about Donald Trump.

LINK

 

Is Trump a fascist? In a word, yes. But what does this mean for the GOP and America? ROBERT REICH AUG 14 Friends, The biggest story about Trump’s indictments (including the one expected this week from Georgia) is that Trump is centering his entire presidential campaign on them — and along the way is seeking to meld his identity with those of his supporters, so they feel personally attacked by the prosecutions. For Trump supporters, this is not rallying-around-the-flag. It’s not even rallying-around-a-former-president. It’s rallying-around-themselves — aligning their personal identities with Trump. More than half of Republicans — including 77 percent of self-identified MAGA Republicans — say the indictments and investigations against Trump are an attack on people like them, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll taken soon after the most recent indictment. Think of it this way: The indictments, Trump’s 2024 campaign, the grievances of millions of Americans against a system that has bullied them for years, and Trump’s pathological narcissism are all fusing into a single, unalterable, irrational mass movement. “I am your justice, I am your retribution,” Trump said when announcing his campaign. “I’m being indicted for you,” he said in June, after being charged with retaining government secrets. “I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU,” he posted in all caps on August 3, the day of his indictment for seeking to overthrow the 2020 election. At a campaign event in New Hampshire last week, he claimed, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you.” The philosopher Hannah Arendt has pointed out that the fascist leader fuses his identity with his followers, so that followers lose their capacities for independent thought. As the fascist leader takes over the factual, psychological, and moral premises of the world his followers inhabit, the followers relinquish their freedoms. They suspend critical judgment. They become automatons. Be warned. What Trump and much of the Republican Party have embarked upon is as dangerous to the future of our democracy, and to the rest of the world that looks to America for leadership, as was Trump’s attempted coup leading up to January 6, 2021. We need to get the word out. I recently shared with you what I consider the five core elements of fascism, and why fascism is different from authoritarianism. I argued that Trump and the Republican Party are moving rapidly toward fascism, and I urged the media to use the term “fascist” rather than “authoritarian” to describe what Trump and his GOP are up to. The talented young people I work with at Inequality Media Civic Action have produced a powerful video that uses actual clips of Trump to make these points. I’m sharing it with you in hopes that you find it useful. Please share. Just click on the arrow below.

Governor Newsom SHUTS UP Ron DeSantis in takedown of the year

 

Governor Newsom SHUTS UP Ron DeSantis in takedown of the year

INTERVIEW: Brian interviews California Governor Gavin Newsom about Ron DeSantis' authoritarian moves and his recent trips to the South to meet with Democrats in red states.

TOP NEWS: UK Scientists Glue Themselves to Govt Building to Demand End of 'Fossil Fuel Madness'

 

April 13, 2022 Top News Poor People's Campaign Marches on Wall Street Against 'Lies of Neoliberalism' "We are here to tell the stock exchange and Wall Street to stop trading our lives, that we want living wages and healthcare and clean air and voting rights." by Brett Wilkins Scientists Glue Hands to UK Business Dept. Demanding End to 'Fossil Fuel Madness' "The government's insane, and I don't know what else to do, other than to do this, and to try and get the attention that we need to wake the public up," said ecologist Aaron Thierry. by Jessica Corbett 'Dehumanizing and Cynical Stunt': Texas Bus Drops Off Migrants Outside Fox News HQ in DC Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Fox News are engaging in "deliberate cruelty that treats human beings like pawns," said one immigrant rights advocate. by Kenny Stancil More Top News • Campaigners Warn Against Bringing Back US Nukes to UK Soil • Progressive Summer Lee Nabs 25-Point Lead Over Corporate Lawyer in US House Primary: Poll • 84% of US Teens Back Urgent Climate Action to Save Future Generations: Poll • Warren, Chu Say IRS Must 'Take On Wealthy Tax Cheats' and Stop Targeting the Poor • Pentagon Convenes Top US Weapons Makers to Increase Supply for Ukraine War • Rich Nations, Big Pharma Still Blocking 'Early Exit' From Pandemic: Experts • 'Nina Is a Real Leader Who Fights': Sanders Endorses Turner for Congress VIEW ALL NEWS Quality journalism. Progressive values. Our new media model is simple: we rely on our readers and thousands of small donations to keep us moving forward. No ads; no paywalls: our content is free, and our readers sustain us. DONATE TODAY Opinion Autocrats Like Trump, Putin, and Le Pen Exploit Failures of Neoliberalism The question is whether we'll return to sane and humane economic policies and ban big money from politics or if we'll embrace the authoritarian policies of Putin, Trump, and Le Pen. by Thom Hartmann The GOP Has Gone Bull-Goose Bonkers, But Where Are the Democrats? The opposite of courage is not cowardice—it's conformity. And right there's the problem with the Big Money establishment that now controls the Democratic Party. by Jim Hightower The US Supreme Court Has a Very Serious Clarence Thomas Problem The Supreme Court Justice is doing great harm to the reputation of the court. by Bill Blum VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams, PO Box 443, Portland, ME 04112, United States Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194