Tag: authoritarianism
'The Epitome Of Dumbness': Trump Attack On Smithsonian Is An Embarrassment

'The Epitome Of Dumbness': Trump Attack On Smithsonian Is An Embarrassment

Some headlines are just too stupid to pass by. Yes, this is the Trump era, and Trump being Trump and all that. But even so, there should be some things a president doesn't say — or do. This is one.

"Trump Says Smithsonian Focuses Too Much on 'How Bad Slavery Was,'" The New York Times screamed. Yes, he really said that.

In a post on social media on Tuesday, Trump wrote:

"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the 'HOTTEST' Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums."

Too much on how bad slavery was? Was it better than we think? Did it not cause a civil war? Are museums supposed to show us what we need to know about our history or what Donald Trump and his white nationalist friends would like to hear?

The social media post comes a week after the Trump administration warned the Smithsonian that its museums must, within 120 days, adjust any content that the administration finds problematic in "tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals." In his social media post, Trump said that he had instructed his lawyers "to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities."

Could it be any worse? Do to the Smithsonian what he has done, and is doing, to America's leading educational institutions? Strip them of their independence, of their academic freedom and integrity, in the name of fighting antisemitism. As the Jewish faculty of UCLA has rightly stood up and said, "No, thanks." And double, "No, thanks" to whitewashing our history. What message does that send to a Black schoolchild who visits the museum?

"It's the epitome of dumbness to criticize the Smithsonian for dealing with the reality of slavery in America," Douglas Brinkley, one of America's most respected presidential historians, told The New York Times. "It's what led to our Civil War and is a defining aspect of our national history. And the Smithsonian deals in a robust way with what slavery was, but it also deals with human rights and civil rights in equal abundance."

The "epitome of dumbness." Trump has been there before. The effort to whitewash our history extends to other stupid things this administration and this president have done, from minimizing the contributions of Black heroes, including the Tuskegee Airmen who fought in World War II and Harriet Tubman, who led Blacks to freedom on the Underground Railroad, to advocating the return of Confederate insignia and statues honoring those who fought to preserve slavery. On Juneteenth, the celebration of the end of slavery in the United States that became a federal holiday in 2021, Trump "celebrated" by complaining that there were too many non-working holidays in America.

From the halls of the Smithsonian to the streets of Los Angeles, Donald Trump's war on diversity, equity and inclusion has morphed into a war on Black and Brown people. He makes no bones about it. He is playing to the white nationalist fringe of his MAGA movement, and it is not just dumb but ugly. And racist. The Smithsonian needs to resist, and to fight back, and it needs Congress' support, and the public's, to do so.

Susan Estrich is a celebrated feminist legal scholar, the first female president of the Harvard Law Review, and the first woman to run a U.S. presidential campaign. She has written eight books.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

AOC And Bernie Sanders Draw Giant Crowds At 'Fighting Oligarchy' Rallies In West

AOC And Bernie Sanders Draw Giant Crowds At 'Fighting Oligarchy' Rallies In West

On the heels of record-breaking attendance at a "Fighting Oligarchy" event in Tempe, Arizona earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York held a rally in Denver, Colorado on Friday evening that drew more than 34,000 people—making it either largest event that Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez has ever held.

Sanders, an Independent, wrote on social media on Friday that the turnout is a sign that "the American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism. We will fight back. We will win."

According to Anna Bahr, Sanders' communications director, the senator's largest rally prior to Denver took place in Brooklyn, New York in 2016, when he was running for president.

Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, wrote online that "something special is happening... Working people are ready to stand together and fight for our democracy. Thank you Colorado!"

At the rally, which took place at Denver's Civic Center Park, the two lawmakers hit on the same themes they spoke about in Arizona.

"The American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society," Sanders said, according to Colorado Public Radio. "We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington, making cuts to the Social Security Administration, cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education—all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest one percent."

"If you don't know your neighbor, it's easier to turn on them," said Ocasio-Cortez, per CPR. "That's why they want to keep us separated, alone, and apart. Scrolling on our phones thinking that the person next to us is some kind of enemy, but they're not."

Sanders launched his "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" tour in February, with the aim of talking to Americans about the "takeover of the national government by billionaires and large corporations, and the country's move toward authoritarianism.

"The series of "Fighting Oligarchy" events have been taking place as some Democrats have gotten an earful at town halls back home, where constituents have come out to implore them to do more to counter efforts by the Trump administration.

Earlier in the day, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders also held a rally in Greeley, Colorado—which is represented by Republican Gabe Evans in the House of Representatives—which drew more than 11,000 people.

Semafor reporter David Weigel, who attended both the Greely and Denver rally, posted online that at the Greeley rally it wasn't easy to find people in the crowd who had voted for Sanders in the 2020 presidential primary. Weigel also wrote that the Sanders team told him that half of the RSVPs to the rallies were not from the lawmaker's supporter list.

Eric Blanc, an assistant professor at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, wrote on Bluesky on Saturday that it is "pretty remarkable how AOC and Bernie have become leaders not just of lefties, but of the Democratic Party's mainstream liberal base."

While its dangerous that "establishment liberals" are yielding to Trump, he wrote, "the silver lining is that this has enabled anti-corporate forces such as labor unions and AOC-Bernie to set the tenor of Resistance 2.0."

"Because today's anti-Trump resistance is more focused on economic concerns, more rooted in labor unions, and more anti-billionaire, it has the potential to sink much deeper roots among working people and, in so doing, to definitively overcome MAGA," wrote Blanc.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

At Justice Department, Trump Calls CNN And MSNBC 'Illegal'

At Justice Department, Trump Calls CNN And MSNBC 'Illegal'

President Donald Trump, just 54 days into his second term, declared himself “the chief law enforcement officer in our country” and labeled two major news organizations, CNN and MSNBC, as “illegal,” while further denouncing their coverage as “illegal.” His remarks Thursday afternoon were delivered to officials at the Department of Justice, in an appearance that shattered a decades-old norm designed to insulate the department from political interference—a safeguard established in response to President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power. Trump’s statements have drawn sharp criticism for their authoritarian tone and direct attack on press freedom, sparking alarm.

“I believe that CNN and MSNDC,” said Trump (video below), using his own derogatory twist on MSNBC’s name, “who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.”

Trump also “rallied against the press,” in general, “claiming they are influencing judges and, without any evidence, claiming the media works in coordination with political campaigns, which is not allowed in the news industry,” The Hill reported.

It has been widely reported that during his first term in office, Fox News host Sean Hannity spoke with Trump “nearly every weeknight.”

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other,” the President alleged.

Trump’s remarks were just a part of a speech that lasted more than one hour, during which he “delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence,” as Politico reported. During those remarks, Trump also “labeled his courtroom opponents ‘scum,’ judges ‘corrupt’ and the prosecutors who investigated him ‘deranged.'”

“With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison.”

It is not the first time the President, who is a convicted felon, has declared MSNBC “illegal.”

Last month, when MSNBC host Joy Reid left the news network, Trump unleashed a torrent of hatred.

“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,’ Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform. “Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there. Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show. Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid.”

Trump’s Friday afternoon assault on the media was swiftly criticized.

“This is what a dictator sounds like,” wrote U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).

“Journalism is legal,” declared award-winning investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. “Criticizing the president is legal. Being a Democrat is legal. Nothing Donald Trump is ranting about here is a crime and he’s disgracing himself and the Department of Justice by talking this way.”

Journalist Matt O’Brien observed, “Trump wants to get rid of freedom of speech because he wants to be a dictator. And unlike his first term, he now has a government full of fascists who are eager to make that a reality.”

Marlow Stern, adjunct assistant professor of journalism at Columbia Journalism School wrote: “sounds like putin.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist Kyle Whitmire wrote simply: “Enemy of the Constitution.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

With Social Post Crowning Himself 'King,' Trump Provokes Internet Fury

With Social Post Crowning Himself 'King,' Trump Provokes Internet Fury

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called himself a "king" on his social media platforms. Now, journalists, commentators and academics are sounding the alarm about the second-term president's apparent embrace of monarchy.

Trump initially used the term "king" on his Truth Social platform, in a post about New York City's "congestion pricing" tolls. That policy imposes a toll on drivers entering Manhattan during peak commuting hours as a means of decreasing traffic jams in the United States' largest city. The New York Times reported that Trump intends to revoke federal approval of congestion pricing, though the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York (MTA) has already announced litigation to keep the policy in place.

"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD," Trump wrote. "Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

"We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king," New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote when announcing the MTA's intent to sue. "We'll see you in court."

A few minutes later, White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted an AI-generated image of Trump wearing a crown and a cloak with the New York City skyline in the background, with Trump's "LONG LIVE THE KING" Truth Social post underneath. And shortly after, the official White House X account reposted the text of Trump's Truth Social post, and added an image of Trump wearing a gold crown and the text "LONG LIVE THE KING" at the bottom. Numerous commenters on social media condemned the president's posts.

"This is revoltingly un-American," Bulwark executive editor Adam Keiper wrote on Bluesky.

Keiper followed up his post by quoting President George Washington, who admonished a Revolutionary War colonel who suggested Washington coronate himself. The first president of the United States wrote: "I must view with abhorrence, and reprehend with severity [the idea]." Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo reminded her followers that the United States was literally founded by "violently rebelling against a king." Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen lamented the Trump administration's pro-monarchy stance, writing: "They're not even hiding it." And Gizmodo reporter Matt Novak wryly commented that Trump was "not talking about Elvis."

"Donald Trump is openly calling himself a king," wrote YouTube host Keith Edwards. "Any Republican who pretends they don't know where this is going is lying to you."

University of Michigan policy professor Don Moynihan observed that the post came on the same day that Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" and falsely accused him of starting the war with Russia despite Russia invading Ukraine in 2022 (eight years after its illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula).

"Every member of the news media needs to ask every Republican, elected or not, if they believe Donald Trump is their king," podcaster Bob Cesca wrote on Bluesky.

Trump's "king" post also comes just a few days after he quoted Napoleon Bonaparte when he wrote: "He who saves his country does not violate any law." Former FBI counterterrorism official Frank Figliuzzi noted that the Napoleon quote was more recently used by far-right neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik, who massacred 78 people in Norway in 2011 after writing a 1,500-page manifesto blaming feminism and diversity for the decline of Europe.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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