There’s something to be said for clarity.
As the United States barrels toward an election that will determine whether we remain wedded to a set of unrealized but morally-appropriate ideals about equality, the focus of that election has steadily narrowed. November will be about one thing: White Nationalism and the continued privileging and social dominance of white male “Christians.”
Short of producing yard signs with swastikas, the Trump campaign has done everything it can to convey that message–and in Tuesday’s first “debate,” Trump’s refusal to disavow white nationalism made it explicit. (“Debate” is in quotes, because Trump’s rants and bullying prevented anything that could be considered a genuine debate.)
The GOP has disdained issuing a platform, making it clear that obedience to the party’s “Dear Leader” was the only plank that mattered. Then the campaign echoed Trump’s rant against the accurate teaching of American history–especially about slavery– and his insistence that teachers should engage in patriotic indoctrination rather than education.
More recently still, just in case there was a Neo-Nazi somewhere in rural America who missed the message (is there a backwoods area where Fox can’t penetrate?), he ordered an immediate cessation of diversity training in federal agencies, and followed that with a similar edict covering federal contractors. As Talking Points Memo reports:
President Donald Trump increased the scope of his assault against the government’s anti-racism workplace trainings on white privilege on Tuesday night with an executive order banning government contractors from holding the trainings.
In the order, Trump claimed that trainings that discuss the disproportionate amount of power afforded to white men “perpetuates racial stereotypes and division and can use subtle coercive pressure to ensure conformity of viewpoint.”
“Such activities also promote division and inefficiency when carried out by Federal contractors,” the order said.
The contractors thus “will not be permitted to inculcate such views in their employees,” according to the order.
Trump touted the ban on Twitter on Tuesday.
These sessions–common in corporate and business environments–are intended to improve communication and understanding among employees who bring different cultures and life experiences to the workplace. (Well done, they improve both employee morale and productivity–outcomes of absolutely no interest to Trump, since they don’t line his pockets or advance his egocentric agenda.)
It is unlikely that this most recent “edict” is legally enforceable. Absent corruption (which in this administration cannot be taken for granted) government contracts are awarded to companies that respond to RFPs–Requests for Proposals. Those RFPs set out the qualifications required by the contracting agency, and it’s a fair bet that none of the RFPs to which current contractors responded contained a provision that the contractor could not offer diversity training to its employees.
But enforceability and legality are beside the point here.
In much the same way that Trump’s issuance of meaningless “Executive Orders” aren’t legally effective, the bans on diversity training are a type of “performance art.” The Executive Orders are intended to convince his largely civically ignorant base that he is keeping his various promises–to build a wall, protect pre-existing conditions, forbid Muslims from entering the country, etc. The ban on anti-racist training and the attack on teaching accurate history are intended to reassure his largely racist base that he is with them.
It’s a very dangerous game.
Law enforcement agencies–including the FBI– have warned that alt-right organizations are actively trying to foment a race war.
A report by the Brookings Institution explains a right-wing effort called “accelerationism.”
Accelerationism is the idea that white supremacists should try to increase civil disorder — accelerate it — in order to foster polarization that will tear apart the current political order. The System (usually capitalized), they believe, has only a finite number of collaborators and lackeys to prop it up. Accelerationists hope to set off a series of chain reactions, with violence fomenting violence, and in the ensuing cycle more and more people join the fray. When confronted with extremes, so the theory goes, those in the middle will be forced off the fence and go to the side of the white supremacists.
Obviously, not every Trump voter is a conscious part of that White Supremacy movement–but every Trump vote will support it.
And corporate America keeps funding the distribution of this filth via Fox and Rush etc.
CALL YOUR HOOSIERS LEGISLATORS…….especially the Republican ones. Ask them point blank WHY they continue to endorse a president who staunchly refuses to condemn racist hate groups. This is like a person who claims to be pure vegetarian and yet owns cattle ranches, meatpacking plants and stock in the meat industry. In other words its extremely hypocritical. IF YOU PERSONALLY DON’T BELIEVE IN A CONCEPT, THEN WHY DO YOU ENDORSE A MAN WHO DOES???? American patriots will never forget Trump’s “Stand back and stand by” message to his racist base. Hate crimes rates have increased since the Trump/Pence regime assumed power, and we fear for our friends, neighbors and families who are of other races, cultures, colors and religions. HOOSIER REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS OWE US ANSWERS AS TO HOW THEY CAN TIE THEMSELVES TO TRUMP’S COAT TAILS IF THEY DON’T ENDORSE THIS DISGUSTING BEHAVIOR!
While Trump ending “Diversity Training” in federal agencies is wrong; the greater wrong is the fact that it is needed in federal agencies as well as police organizations and corporations if we are to make inroads in ending racism. The Southern Poverty Law Center is providing a “Teaching Tolerance” program for schools who are interesting in starting before the ugly mindset can be instilled in students and carried into adulthood where it is more difficult to make change.
“Law enforcement agencies–including the FBI– have warned that alt-right organizations are actively trying to foment a race war.”
There are those of us on this blog who have feared and warned of “blood in the streets” due to the blatant support of racism and bigotry coming from the highest government officials in the land. Trump named one group of irrational and potentially violent racists and ordered them to “Stand back and stand by.” That translates to “wait for the order to act”.
The Night of the Great Debacle, has given clarity to any lines drawn in the sand muddled by shifting political winds. The incumbent has now drawn a lethal option more deadly than the coronavirus. The proven vaccine is in the mail. It is your mail in ballot. We have ours, but though we believe the postman delivers no matter what, we are personally delivering our ballots to the city county building downtown.
Thank you Sheila, interesting!
“Acceleration,” acceleration just isn’t a phrase talking about politics, or a political ideology, it started way before that, as a religious ideology!
An article in “Quartz” this headline reads; “Trump’s foreign policy looks a lot like Rapture Christians’ plan to welcome the apocalypse”
Because there are factions of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim organizations that believe fomenting Tumalt and war will bring about the Rapture, the 2nd coming of the Messiah, and annihilation by Allah of the infidels! Religion has definitely overstepped its boundaries and its place.
And then you have Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins walking in lockstep with Tim Scott when asked about Donald Trump’s statements concerning White Nationalist Fascists, Tim Scott basically said Trump misspoke and it was just a big mistake. They said, “what Tim Scott said” But Tim Scott is nothing but a “Mischlinge!” He lied! He’s nothing but a hypocrite just like the rest!
Bryan Rigg a researcher who had this posted in Los Angeles times a little while back, it is eye-opening and astounding for those who are not aware of it, I’ve studied this for a while, but sometimes you need to postings in other people’s words to give it some credibility. So, this is what Mr. Rigg had to say;
Mischlinge–Germans who were classified as Jewish by the Nazis because of their parentage and who faced proscriptions under Nazi racial laws, even though most did not consider themselves Jews. ” Mischlinge” stood for “mongrels, hybrids, bastards.” They fit neither in Hitler’s Aryan Germany nor in the large community of observant German Jews he targeted for annihilation. Mr. Rigg has documented the Jewish ancestry of more than 1,200 of Hitler’s soldiers, including two field marshals and 10 generals, “men commanding up to 100,000 troops.” In about 20 cases, soldiers of Jewish heritage were awarded the Knight’s Cross, Germany’s highest military honor!
We can throw Trumps advisor Stephen Miller in there because he’s Jewish, so, Stephen Miller is a self-loathing Cretin that gives those in Crete a bad name!
And not only is Tim Scott and Stephen Miller “Mischlinge,” Ohio pastor Darrell Scott, along with all of those religious leaders or supposed Christians who had their laying on of hands ceremony concerning Trump at the resolute desk! This stunk so bad to high heaven that even Jesus Christ was holding his nose! Many of them anointed Donald Trump the Son of God! Go figure!
I wasn’t aware, the son of God was a rapist and a bigoted narcissistic hypocrite who hated minorities, women, and fatherless children!
The time is coming when religion is going to receive full recompense for its actions, Christian religion has overstepped its boundaries, and it’s gone directly against Scripture that they are supposed to follow; Romans the 13th chapter. There’s going to be a lot of howling and crying when religion is hammered out of existence, people should have taken the hint and practiced their religion privately instead of using it as a bludgeon and a political tool!
Oh well, if it’s time it’s time!
We can fix this in 34 days. VOTE BLUE!
That executive order forbidding diversity training reads like it came from the pen of … wait for it … Steve (Himmler) Miller. Really folks, this is right out of Nazi Germany. And the Proud Boys and other far right para military groups are nothing but Brown Shirts.
The rest of the world has lost all trust in our country even as we are losing trust in ourselves. There is much evil afoot, and we are each called upon to stand up for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
VOTE!
I believe the real reason the police officer who placed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes was not to kill him. (After all, at six minutes Mr. Floyd was dead) The real reason for the public display of brutality was to activate the rabid ranks of racists to start the race wars in America. The officer looked straight into the cell phone cameras and didn’t flinch. He showed not an iota of fear for being seen. I believe he will get off Scott free, but if there is a penalty to be paid, that officer will consider it worth it. He will be viewed a hero among the true believers.
You can’t make this stuff up. These Hate Groups are for Real and we should be afraid.
Let’s not just use fear to get people to vote; that’s their thing. Biden has it very right “this is not who we are”. We must be at least as loudly FOR, as we are AGAINST – FOR equality of opportunity, FOR criminal justice reform, FOR saving our planet….
Yea, John, the concept of accelerationism has been used in many other arenas. The one that came to my mind first was our intelligence agencies in foreign countries—all the so-called NGOs out there offering consultation to our government and countries afar. We’ve been using these tactics in Central and Southern America and the Middle East predominately. Didn’t Hitler use it in Germany as well?
If you paid close attention to the words used during the debate, Trump would be using accelerationism during the upcoming election. If he needs evidence of fraud for SCOTUS to rule in his favor, his insiders will create it for him. Then he can point fingers at the Democratic Party for rigging the election against him. He knows he is losing anyway, so why not create the fraud as evidence for his jurist cronies.
Also, if you listened to his words about “law and order” and the “Antifa protestors,” he said, “We took care of the problem out West.”
He referred to the assassination of the suspect in the killing of a right-wing antagonizer in Portland over three weeks ago. His name was Michael Reinoehl, and US Marshalls murdered him. Both Trump and Barr made statements about how proud they were of the expediency for which this took place. Now the local sheriff’s department has a problem since an eyewitness who saw the assassination (and happens to be a pastor of 19 years) disputes the “law enforcement” account of events. There has been NO update on the investigation since the event in Lacey, WA.
I guess we know why there are Antifa protestors in the streets.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/10/reinoehl-portland-antifa-killing-police/
I have had a chance via Facebook to read how my Trumpter “Friends” reacted to the debate. Of course in the posts they make normally there is nothing about The Trumpet’s criminally negligent response to Corona or the fact he undoubtedly has paid less in federal income taxes than they did.
Their posts are all about how Chris Wallace tried to muzzle the Trumpet and clearly favored Biden. They totally ignore the normal rules of a debate where each party to a debate has a chance to answer a question and respond to the opponents answer, Without being interrupted. They have plenty of “Amens” to signify agreement with each other.
The Trumpet taking his cue from professional wrestling did his best to put on a performance for his fans. Any violation of normal conversational discourse is viewed a positive attribute by The Trump Cult. Insults, interruptions, etc., The Trumpet engages in is proof he will not be bound by any normal rules of conduct. This conduct has the Trump Cult total approval.
Certainly The Trump Cult will not be reflecting on The Trumpet’s breaking of the rules. They voted for him and support him because he is a rule breaker and hammers the Libs.
My hope is those that were not inclined to vote, will see at this point how important it is that they do Vote not only voting The Trumpet out but all of the GOP. The GOP from top to bottom is complicit and an accomplice with Trumpism.
Monotonous; your Facebook “friends”, et al, are all living in Marv’s “Land of the Blind” and Trump is their One Eyed King.
Trump is not who we are.
This has been truth that Trump lies about so effectively by conflating “we” with minorities – the 1%, evangelicals, white supremacists, misogynists, neoliberals, isolationists, the conmen who ran his campaign, Russian spies, science deniers, carpetbagger politicians – the group that Hillary labeled a “basket of deplorables”. A more accurate description of the minds that he stole would be an alliance of minority groups who definitely are against who mainstream Americans are.
What Trump is learning now that he “woke” the majority is that his alliance can be 100% behind him but not have the power to impose their twisted beliefs on the majority who really define who “we” are.
It’s a rude awakening for everyone including Trump and now we have to weather, in addition to the chaos of a failed government, a paranoid and demented President until we can get him and his family out of Our House.
Yes Jo Ann, I was curious how my Trumpet “Friends” would spin the debate. Their response was predictable in every sense as they feel persecuted all the time. It may have began with the Reactionary Right’s meme that the Liberals wanted to take the Christ out of Christmas and prayer out of the public schools and teach evolution instead of some Bronze Age Mythology.
As I have said here before the GOP as a starting point centers on FEAR. A part of that FEAR is persecution and victimization. They even manage to feel victimized when the Confederate Flag of the traitors is called out as a symbol of racial oppression.
I remember years ago–my rambling thoughts during my many hours of commuting; documentaries on Nostradamus and a fixation that some random date on the calendar was the day the apocalypse was going to occur–I had this thought–ya know, it will probably be the United States of America who will elevate the anti-Christ into the presidency. Then came the election of Trump.
As a Christian, I always feel there are lessons in life we are to learn and I am not surprised that in particular white Evangelicals have elevated Trump to the point he now comes before Jesus Christ. Their sheer arrogance and ignorance has been on display for decades. I attend a Methodist Church after not going to church for 20 years and in some Chrisitian affiliated religions I am still going to hell because I do not subscribe to their form of indocrination.
In their zest for power they have thrown away any teachings they learned in Sunday School and have twisted themselves into knots. I see them as the same Christians in Europe during the years of the Holocaust denying the ashes landing on their homes
Mary Brown, I write to my Indiana Republican Senators almost everyday. If I get a response it is a trite party line response, because after all, to keep all of the peons in line, EVERYBODY needs to be telling the same lie.
Allison, If what you say is true, that is chilling, and you may be right. Any other rational explanation is hard to decipher.
I almost hate to bring this up, but Trump is a SYMPTOM of a far larger concern and, yes, evil in this country. He is a symptom, as are the GOP Senators and Representatives and Corporate Democrats.
Over 60 million people VOTED for these folks. THAT, my friends, is the REAL EVIL killing this country (literally).
We KNOW there are carbon copy Trump politicians across the country who will be the next leaders to be pushed up on the pedestals of their non-white fears, gun and conservative bible obsessive “values.”
They are next, whether Trump wins, loses….there are MANY more to come. A QAnon supporter (“believer”) will be sitting at a Federal House of Representative chair and table next year in Washington D.C. This is not by accident any more than Trump was an accidental winner by “a sliver of a mere thousands of votes.” Over 60 million have this “belief system” in their hearts and minds, a belief system that has been learned from kitchen table to kitchen table for generations. It is more than “real” for these folks. They are willing to pray and die for it (as we have seen already) with an AK 47 in one hand and a bible in the other.
Yes, I look forward to seeing Trump and Friends go away and will (and have been) working toward that needed goal.
HOWEVER, the system (the profit motive corporate structure of our governing institutions) and the 60 million plus will still be here in full force (if not stronger with more incentive).
Then what?
Bradford…
And then they will sabotage every attempt to fix things political or social…they are a monstrous impediment to progress, which is their intention, of course. And because of that intent, I would label them a terrorist group and deal with them accordingly.
Todd,
I have no doubt there are plenty of skeletons in plenty of closets! We are not privy to every secret out there, and, when the saturation point has been reached by all of the insanity, it’s going to be hard to pick the truth out of the bag of conspiracy theories.
Every politician is a liar, I don’t know one politician that would be able to claim they’ve never lied to their constituency. I just don’t think that they lie tens of times every single day to obfuscate obvious reality.
One of the first items on the list should be get rid of citizens united, there should be very limited amounts of capital in politics. Lobbyists should be kept out of Washington by all available means. Packs and super PACs need to be adiosed also, running for an office in the political realm should be left too Network television and debates. Everything else should be publicly funded. Everyone should get the same amount of money, maybe they could figure out how to be creative, and if they can figure out how to be creative maybe they can figure out how to accomplish something!
I support the police who de-escalate situations without the need to use clubs and guns, but it really scares me that neo-Nazis recruit white supremacists to infiltrate police departments. According to this and other articles, one of their motivations is to arrest, charge, and convict blacks of felonies which prevent their voting in many states. Other motivations are uglier. A former police officer tells me some just want an excuse to beat and even kill black citizens. This is VERY scary and the path toward an out of control police force and police state.
https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-police-white-supremacy-1531793
Hello Nancy. All of us look human but that is where humanity ends. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Nancy,
Ditto to what you said!
I had two cousins on my father’s side who were police officers in Chicago, they were both freaking Nazis! I couldn’t stand either one of them, and, they liberally used the n-word! These two inept fat asses are drawing a very healthy pension from the state after retirement. In reality, they both should be in jail!
I remember my father punching one of them, lyle, square in the puss, knocking out his front teeth. And that was just at a family reunion. Lol, my father hated Nazis because his father was one and they were peppered throughout our family. (On his side of it anyway).
The German Bund, were the American Nazis, when they kind of melted back into society during the start of America’s involvement in the second world war, they allied themselves with every sort of miscreant movement, supremacist movement, religious fanatical movement, that they could find just to create ethnic turmoil and suppression of specific creeds!
This country was formed and still is based on hatred, if it’s not hatred of fellow citizens, it’s hatred of someone of supposed nefarious stock outside of our boundaries. Manifest destiny was America’s Leibenshrum, (blood and soil) before it was Nazi Germany’s!
Trump’s reason for discontinuing the diversity training reminded me of the old Christian complaint about the loss of their right to bully gay kids.
Bradford–I agree with your statements and that has been my concern and the concern of so many of my peers. I guess the only positive is that they have come out from the shadows.