Just Whatever

Lee Moran at HuffPost:

Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are currently doubling down on one particular line of attack against their political rivals right now, branding them “communists.” And authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University and the author of “Strongman: Mussolini to the Present,” explained how and why “communists” has become the latest bogeyman for Trump and Republicans in a series of posts on X on Wednesday. t’s the “new MAGA propaganda theme,” she declared in one post. It’s “not subtle,” she added in another, sharing footage of Trump claiming that “communists” are trying to blow up Mount Rushmore. “The new party line is to associate Communists with every crime, every offense. Create a sense of Communist threat to justify a right-wing crackdown. Old playbook used with coups and Fascist takeovers,” she added. In a third post, Ben-Ghiat urged people to track the recent difference in messaging and the rise to prominence of the slur. “Goal is likely to justify a crackdown for “national security” reasons, conveniently staged just before the midterms,” she warned.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat explains the GOP’s use of red-baiting by labeling political opponents as “communists” to justify crackdowns on left-leaning groups in the name of “national security.”

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“Many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history — from the George Floyd riots to the rise of Antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses — can be linked, in some way, shape, or form, to Cuban influence,” the report says.

As for who these supposed agents of Cuban influence are, the report is remarkably explicit. It names people like Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fame), Mayors Zohran Mamdani and Karen Bass, media figures like Amy Goodman and Hasan Piker, and organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America and the Amazon Labor Union.

The implication is clear: Secretary of State Marco Rubio thinks there should be a modern-day blacklist of the political left in America. In fact, the report explicitly mentions the “blacklists, McCarthy-era investigations and prosecutions” of the 1950s and their effectiveness at dismembering the Communist Party USA.

Sooooooo...... I might post less than usual for some time

Spin the wheel. This Greek mythological figure is trying to kill you

Spin the wheel again. This Greek mythological figure is trying to protect you

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.

if you cook a penguin egg, the egg white just kind of. stays transparent.