Neo-Fascist? Time To Drop The "Neo" When Describing Trump

Out of the bunker and...





Jim Acosta on CNN: "We are descending into something that is not the United States of America tonight; there's just no other way to put it... Donald Trump did not do this by himself tonight. There were other White House officials, military officials, federal employees paid for with our tax dollars. And our tax dollars were used to teargas fellow Americans. That's what happened tonight in the nation's capital and the entire world was watching."

And yeah, this was all done because Trumpanzee-- a notorious coward-- was embarrassed that it leaked out by the media that he was cowering and trembling in the White House bunker on Friday night when protestors in Lafayette Square were hurling curses at him. "They wanted a disruptor," said Anderson Cooper on TV last night. "That's what a disruption is."

Last night the Washington Post had its A-Team on the case: Phil Rucker, Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey and Seung Min Kim, writing about how the authoritarian orange blob "militarized the federal response to protests of racial inequality that have erupted in cities across America late Monday, as authorities fired tear gas at people protesting peacefully near the White House to disperse crowds moments before Trump staged a photo opportunity there. Trump forced a brazen inflammation of the crisis convulsing the country by calling the nationwide demonstrations 'acts of domestic terror,' declaring himself the 'president of law and order' and taking the rare step of mobilizing the military to use force to quell the unrest. In a move denounced by critics as authoritarian, the commander in chief threatened to deploy troops to 'quickly solve the problem' if state and local authorities did not immediately regain control of their streets, which he said had been overtaken by 'professional anarchists' and 'violent mobs.'"

This morning, the Religion News Service reported that ahead of the blasphemous Trumpanzee Bible photo op, police forcibly expelled the priest from St. John's church.

During an interview on CNN, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, condemned the flaming asshole for clearing out peaceful protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas in order to stage his photo op in front of her church: "I am outraged… Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence. I am beyond. We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us, and has just used one of the most sacred symbols of the Judeo-Christian tradition... I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen tonight."

All the people I communicate with who are reliable-- if moronic-- Trumpist parrots of the far right are convinced nothing is going on but looting. One of the most obtuse Trumpists I've ever met-- other than my brother-in-law-- sent me this message yesterday: "They burned the historic church in DC, St John’s Church. This isn’t about justice, it’s all looting, many of these businesses were already on the verge of bankruptcy. Many don’t have insurance because they couldn’t afford it. What’s sad is even those with insurance have no money left and now have lost their business." he said there's no evidence that the cop who murdered George Floyd is a racist because-- and I swear I'm not making this up-- "His wife was asian, one of the cops was Latino, one was asian, one was black and one was white. I actually belong to a facebook group on police brutality and there are plenty of police killing white people too. I just don’t see the dichotomy of the 1960s civil rights era and now, a black man became president by popular and electoral vote. There really isn't institutionalized racism anymore, in Miami the arrest records show that most of the arrest were out of state people. The same seems to be for every state, this is organized, people are inciting violence and anarchy... I think these riots are about looting and getting free stuff. That seems to be what everyone is doing, looting stores. Small businesses owned by people who have run out of money, out of insurance, and now they have nothing. The crimes committed by these riots far outweigh the police brutality that preceded it. We cannot condone these riots, have you seen the ghetto ass thugs who are doing this? It is scary and violent and they are happy smiling getting free shit from stores. This has nothing to do with the protests of the 60s for civil rights." OK? Now you know exactly what they're saying on White House news outlets like Fox News and on hate talk radio.

But not everyone on the right was happy with Trump's photo op. According to Axios, "Not everyone in the White House was thrilled with the church photo op. One senior aide [likely Miller] was exuberantly telling friends the photograph of him holding a Bible in front of the church that had been attacked by vandals was an 'iconic' moment for the president. But a senior White House official told Axios that when they saw the tear gas clearing the crowd for Trump to walk to the church with his entourage: 'I’ve never been more ashamed. I’m really honestly disgusted. I’m sick to my stomach. And they’re all celebrating it. They’re very very proud of themselves.'"

Paul Ryan's former top aide, Brendan Buck: "We long ago lost sight of normal, but this was a singularly immoral act. The president used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities. We will all move on to the next outrage, but this was a true abuse of power and should not be forgotten."

Even Tucker Carlson is having some misgivings about the fascist president he reflexively backs, tepidly criticizing Trump's abilities as a leader and Kushner-in-law's worth, asserting on Fox News that "No one has more contempt for the president’s supporters" than Jared, who he accused of breaking from Trump’s platform and talking Trump out of taking decisive actions.

Mark Leibovich for the NY Times yesterday: Trump Vowed to Disrupt Washington. Now He Faces Disruption in the Streets. "One of the recurring themes of the last three and a half years is that President Trump has disrupted Washington, just as his voters demanded. This is true in a certain sense: The Trump White House has been a chaotic drama, a procession of scandals, leaks, investigations, feuding protagonists and trampled norms. But one of the overlooked realities of the reality show is that the day-to-day existence of so-called official Washington has felt anything but disrupted. This gilded capital has actually been a serene and lovely place to live, work and visit, at least for those who can afford it. The trend has only accelerated through what until recently was the booming economy of the Trump presidency."

These last months, though, have been something else entirely. The reality has relegated the TV maestro in the White House to something of a sideshow.

In recent nights, the streets around the White House have been clogged with thousands of protesters, demonstrating against the police killing last week in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African-American man. The crowds have been multiracial and comprised a free-for-all of purposes. Landmark restaurants, offices and a historic church have been burned and vandalized. By Monday, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser had set a curfew of 7 p.m. and activated the National Guard.

“Donald Trump is just a social media personality to us, the guy who told us to drink bleach,” said Artinese Campbell, 33, an African-American woman who has lived her whole life in Washington and who had come downtown Monday afternoon, just a few blocks from the White House, to visit her bank before it was boarded up and closed early in anticipation of another night of protests. She said she was sympathetic to the cause of the protesters but hoped they remained peaceful and had no plans to stick around to find out.

“I think most of us are numb to presidents who come in and talk about ‘change,’” Ms. Campbell said. “Nothing really changes if you’re black in America.”

...One thing was certain: No one was bemoaning the “shattered norms” perpetrated by the Trump administration or celebrating the “peaceful transfer of power” that may or may not occur in a few months. Television pundits have labeled the upcoming election as “existential” to the importance to the country’s direction. But it also felt beside the point-- like privilege talking-- in the crowds of the last few nights. This chaotic tableau felt so much more urgent, and close to home.

...[T]he national headquarters of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. were set ablaze during protests Sunday night. TV commentators described the conflagration as a strike against one of the fortresses of the American labor movement, a theoretical ally of the protesters in the struggle for a fairer power structure. Next door, flames engulfed St. John’s Episcopal Church, where two decades of presidents have come to worship-- the so-called Church of the Presidents.

Suddenly, though, these monuments to American progress and history felt like quaint abstractions, cherished by official Washington but just another thing to burn down for the Washington disrupters of 2020.

On Monday on a sidewalk across Farragut Square, in front of the boarded up Oval Room restaurant, a protester named Athena Kapsides, a Washington public-school teacher, said that Mr. Trump had in fact inspired a great deal of activism in opposition to his own actions. In that sense, she said, he has been a catalyst for change.

“President Trump himself has tried to present himself as a fighter, but really he only fights for himself,” said Ms. Kapsides, who grew up in the Washington suburbs and wore a T-shirt bearing the likeness of Colin Kaepernick, the former National Football League quarterback who protested police violence against African-Americans by kneeling during pregame renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Many believe that his statement resulted in his blacklisting from the N.F.L., where he has not played since 2017.

“He’s been a force for disruption,” Ms. Kapsides said of Mr. Trump. “But maybe not always the kind of disruption he planned for.”