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Nevilledog
Nevilledog's Journal
Nevilledog's Journal
February 17, 2024
No paywall link
https://archive.li/90Epk
“Reality TV Star Found Guilty of Fraudulently Inflating His Assets”
That headline would generally not surprise anyone who watches shows involving “Real Housewives” or other so-called reality TV stars. But today’s ruling by Justice Engoron in New York slams none other than Donald Trump, the former host of the “The Apprentice,” for rampant fraud, the same person who is very soon to be dubbed the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the highest office in the land. And if the recent verdict against Trump in the second defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll of roughly $83 million was shocking, Justice Engoron’s ruling is at least more than four times that, a truly staggering $350 million, with interest. One important element of the opinion that has gotten less coverage than the fact that Trump appears to have defrauded banks: He also defrauded taxpayers.
The practice that led to this ruling is really not that difficult to understand. The former president is found to have inflated his assets when it served him to do so: that is, in order to get favorable treatment from lenders. That resulted in the Trump companies taking advantage of their lenders. Perhaps public sentiment in general and Trump supporters in particular are unlikely to cry any tears for those big banks. The law that Trump was found to have violated does not require that the victims come forward to seek damages, however; the fraud is on the market and the general public, and that’s why the attorney general of New York was able to bring this case. (In full disclosure, I served as a volunteer member of Attorney General Letitia James’ transition team in late 2018/early 2019, and have had no involvement in this or any other case brought by her office since.)
The corresponding move that Trump took with the very same assets when reporting their worth to governments was often to devalue them, or simply to defraud the government of other funds to which they might be entitled. By doing so, in no uncertain terms, he cheated governments, and, by extension, taxpayers.
Although much of the focus of the penalties Trump must pay focus on the defrauding of the financial institutions because he was able to secure favorable loans based on fraud, like his statement that his Trump Tower apartment was far larger and far more valuable than it was in reality, Judge Engoron found that there was a substantial amount of other fraud going on as well. With just two of the Trump Organization’s properties, Mar-a-Lago and the recently sold Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx, Trump was found to have managed the financials around those properties fraudulently, with significant consequences for taxpayers.
*snip*
Trump's 'No Victims' Fraud Defense Is an Insult to Taxpayers
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-no-victims-fraud-defense-is-an-insult-to-taxpayersNo paywall link
https://archive.li/90Epk
“Reality TV Star Found Guilty of Fraudulently Inflating His Assets”
That headline would generally not surprise anyone who watches shows involving “Real Housewives” or other so-called reality TV stars. But today’s ruling by Justice Engoron in New York slams none other than Donald Trump, the former host of the “The Apprentice,” for rampant fraud, the same person who is very soon to be dubbed the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the highest office in the land. And if the recent verdict against Trump in the second defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll of roughly $83 million was shocking, Justice Engoron’s ruling is at least more than four times that, a truly staggering $350 million, with interest. One important element of the opinion that has gotten less coverage than the fact that Trump appears to have defrauded banks: He also defrauded taxpayers.
The practice that led to this ruling is really not that difficult to understand. The former president is found to have inflated his assets when it served him to do so: that is, in order to get favorable treatment from lenders. That resulted in the Trump companies taking advantage of their lenders. Perhaps public sentiment in general and Trump supporters in particular are unlikely to cry any tears for those big banks. The law that Trump was found to have violated does not require that the victims come forward to seek damages, however; the fraud is on the market and the general public, and that’s why the attorney general of New York was able to bring this case. (In full disclosure, I served as a volunteer member of Attorney General Letitia James’ transition team in late 2018/early 2019, and have had no involvement in this or any other case brought by her office since.)
The corresponding move that Trump took with the very same assets when reporting their worth to governments was often to devalue them, or simply to defraud the government of other funds to which they might be entitled. By doing so, in no uncertain terms, he cheated governments, and, by extension, taxpayers.
Although much of the focus of the penalties Trump must pay focus on the defrauding of the financial institutions because he was able to secure favorable loans based on fraud, like his statement that his Trump Tower apartment was far larger and far more valuable than it was in reality, Judge Engoron found that there was a substantial amount of other fraud going on as well. With just two of the Trump Organization’s properties, Mar-a-Lago and the recently sold Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx, Trump was found to have managed the financials around those properties fraudulently, with significant consequences for taxpayers.
*snip*
February 15, 2024
No paywall link
https://archive.li/2MzQo
*snip*
Quantifying crimes committed by migrants is nearly impossible, because the police are not allowed to ask about a suspect’s immigration status, said Kenneth Corey, a former chief of the department who retired in 2022. But police data indicate that there has been no surge in crime since April 2022, when Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas started sending buses of migrants to New York to protest the federal government’s border policy.
More than 170,000 migrants have arrived in the city since then, and it is difficult to know what crime statistics would show had they not come. But as the migrant numbers have increased, the overall crime rate has stayed flat. And, in fact, many major categories of crime — including rape, murder and shootings — have decreased, according to an analysis of the New York Police Department’s month-by-month statistics since April 2022.
The monthly number of robberies since migrants began arriving in large numbers has fluctuated. It peaked at 1,730 in July 2022, hit a low of 1,155 in February 2023 and climbed to 1,417 last month.
Grand larcenies have also gone up and down, but the monthly total stood at 4,056 in January, compared with a high of 4,687 in August 2022.
Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that there was no discernible migrant crime wave.
*snip*
'Migrant Crime Wave' Not Supported by Data, Despite High-Profile Cases
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/nyregion/migrants-crime-nyc.htmlNo paywall link
https://archive.li/2MzQo
*snip*
Quantifying crimes committed by migrants is nearly impossible, because the police are not allowed to ask about a suspect’s immigration status, said Kenneth Corey, a former chief of the department who retired in 2022. But police data indicate that there has been no surge in crime since April 2022, when Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas started sending buses of migrants to New York to protest the federal government’s border policy.
More than 170,000 migrants have arrived in the city since then, and it is difficult to know what crime statistics would show had they not come. But as the migrant numbers have increased, the overall crime rate has stayed flat. And, in fact, many major categories of crime — including rape, murder and shootings — have decreased, according to an analysis of the New York Police Department’s month-by-month statistics since April 2022.
The monthly number of robberies since migrants began arriving in large numbers has fluctuated. It peaked at 1,730 in July 2022, hit a low of 1,155 in February 2023 and climbed to 1,417 last month.
Grand larcenies have also gone up and down, but the monthly total stood at 4,056 in January, compared with a high of 4,687 in August 2022.
Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that there was no discernible migrant crime wave.
*snip*
February 10, 2024
The Special Counsel Robert Hur report has been grossly mischaracterized by the press. The report finds that the evidence of a knowing, willful violation of the criminal laws is wanting. Indeed, the report, on page 6, notes that there are “innocent explanations” that Hur “cannot refute.” That is but one of myriad examples we outline in great detail below of the report repeatedly finding a lack of proof. And those findings mean, in DOJ-speak, there is simply no case. Unrefuted innocent explanations is the sine qua non of not just a case that does not meet the standard for criminal prosecution – it means innocence. Or as former Attorney General Bill Barr and his former boss would have put it, a total vindication (but here, for real).
But even without the prompting of a misleading “summary” by Barr, the press has gotten the lede wrong. This may be because of a poorly worded (we’re being charitable) thesis sentence on page 1 of Hur’s executive summary. Hur writes at the outset: “Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” You have to wait for the later statements that what the report actually says is there is insufficient evidence of criminality, innocent explanations for the conduct, and affirmative evidence that Biden did not willfully withhold classified documents. Put another way, that same sentence about “our investigation uncovered evidence” could equally apply to Mike Pence, who had classified documents at his home, which is similarly some “evidence” of a crime, but also plainly insufficient to remotely establish criminality.
The press incorrectly and repeatedly blast out that the Hur report found Biden willfully retained classified documents, in other words, that Biden committed a felony; with some in the news media further trumpeting that the Special Counsel decided only as a matter of discretion not to recommend charges.
To clarify thinking about this topic, let’s consider another way Hur could have represented his actual findings on page 1 of his executive summary:
Below we first identify the relevant contents of the Hur report. We then provide a sampling of the erroneous press pronouncements.
*snip*
Weissmann & Goodman: The Real "Robert Hur Report" (Versus What You Read in the News)
https://www.justsecurity.org/92090/the-real-robert-hur-report-versus-what-you-read-in-the-news/The Special Counsel Robert Hur report has been grossly mischaracterized by the press. The report finds that the evidence of a knowing, willful violation of the criminal laws is wanting. Indeed, the report, on page 6, notes that there are “innocent explanations” that Hur “cannot refute.” That is but one of myriad examples we outline in great detail below of the report repeatedly finding a lack of proof. And those findings mean, in DOJ-speak, there is simply no case. Unrefuted innocent explanations is the sine qua non of not just a case that does not meet the standard for criminal prosecution – it means innocence. Or as former Attorney General Bill Barr and his former boss would have put it, a total vindication (but here, for real).
But even without the prompting of a misleading “summary” by Barr, the press has gotten the lede wrong. This may be because of a poorly worded (we’re being charitable) thesis sentence on page 1 of Hur’s executive summary. Hur writes at the outset: “Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” You have to wait for the later statements that what the report actually says is there is insufficient evidence of criminality, innocent explanations for the conduct, and affirmative evidence that Biden did not willfully withhold classified documents. Put another way, that same sentence about “our investigation uncovered evidence” could equally apply to Mike Pence, who had classified documents at his home, which is similarly some “evidence” of a crime, but also plainly insufficient to remotely establish criminality.
The press incorrectly and repeatedly blast out that the Hur report found Biden willfully retained classified documents, in other words, that Biden committed a felony; with some in the news media further trumpeting that the Special Counsel decided only as a matter of discretion not to recommend charges.
To clarify thinking about this topic, let’s consider another way Hur could have represented his actual findings on page 1 of his executive summary:
“We have concluded that there is not a prosecutable case against Biden. Although there was a basis to open the investigation based on the fact that classified documents were found in Biden’s homes and office space, that is insufficient to establish a crime was committed. The illegal retention or dissemination of national defense information requires that he knew of the existence of such documents and that he knew they contained national defense information. It is not a crime without those additional elements. Our investigation, after a thorough year-long review, concludes that there is an absence of such necessary proof. Indeed, we have found a number of innocent explanations as to which we found no contrary evidence to refute them and found affirmative in support of them.”
Below we first identify the relevant contents of the Hur report. We then provide a sampling of the erroneous press pronouncements.
*snip*
February 8, 2024
Why do people buy into conspiracy theories when they don’t necessarily believe them? In a recent paper, Macquarie University’s Professor of Philosophy, Neil Levy, looks at society’s complex relationship with evidence, the desire to suspend disbelief, and the role of gamification in conspiracy theory.
Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory – that the moon landing was faked, global warming is a Chinese hoax, Covid was a biological weapon, the mafia and/or the FBI assassinated John F. Kennedy.
Belief in conspiracy theories is widespread, says Neil Levy, Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. A recent Washington Post poll reports that more than one-third of Americans believe that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.
“Observers often ask ‘How can people believe things like that, given how thin the evidence is?’
“And the evidence isn’t just thin. When we look at what people say in defence of their conspiratorial beliefs, they’re (literally) not even trying. They’re not citing real evidence at all: they cite memes and word games. For example, citing a still from a movie as evidence that Covid-19 was planned or that ‘Delta omicron’ is an anagram of ‘media control’.
“The explanation? People are playing a game.”
*snip*
Are conspiracy theories a cultural art form?
https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/february-2024/are-conspiracy-theories-a-cultural-art-formWhy do people buy into conspiracy theories when they don’t necessarily believe them? In a recent paper, Macquarie University’s Professor of Philosophy, Neil Levy, looks at society’s complex relationship with evidence, the desire to suspend disbelief, and the role of gamification in conspiracy theory.
Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory – that the moon landing was faked, global warming is a Chinese hoax, Covid was a biological weapon, the mafia and/or the FBI assassinated John F. Kennedy.
Belief in conspiracy theories is widespread, says Neil Levy, Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. A recent Washington Post poll reports that more than one-third of Americans believe that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.
“Observers often ask ‘How can people believe things like that, given how thin the evidence is?’
“And the evidence isn’t just thin. When we look at what people say in defence of their conspiratorial beliefs, they’re (literally) not even trying. They’re not citing real evidence at all: they cite memes and word games. For example, citing a still from a movie as evidence that Covid-19 was planned or that ‘Delta omicron’ is an anagram of ‘media control’.
“The explanation? People are playing a game.”
*snip*
January 25, 2024
Republicans are playing a dangerous game around the border. As I wrote about earlier this week, in a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court finally lifted an injunction that had prevented the Border Patrol from cutting and removing razor wire erected by Texas along the border at Eagle Pass. The wire was considered highly dangerous because it could trap bodies in flowing water, leading to drowning.
A mother and her two children recently died at Eagle Pass because, according to federal officials, border patrol agents had been prevented from reaching them due to the state of Texas’s occupation and fencing off of a surveillance and mission launch area.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, Governor Abbott decided he would grandstand, telling the Texas state guard to “hold the line” at Eagle Pass. He then issued a statement, announcing that the Texas guard and law enforcement were now acting under a right of “self-defense” for the state. But it still isn’t clear what this means in practical terms.
Meanwhile, in Washington it became increasingly clear that all efforts to actually try and fix the border, including a hard-fought bipartisan Senate plan, are likely being scuttled. Why? According to Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump wants to “kill” the deal because he doesn’t want Biden to chalk a political win before the election.
*snip*
Republicans are ratcheting up the very crisis at the border that they claim they want solved.
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/the-border-gameRepublicans are playing a dangerous game around the border. As I wrote about earlier this week, in a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court finally lifted an injunction that had prevented the Border Patrol from cutting and removing razor wire erected by Texas along the border at Eagle Pass. The wire was considered highly dangerous because it could trap bodies in flowing water, leading to drowning.
A mother and her two children recently died at Eagle Pass because, according to federal officials, border patrol agents had been prevented from reaching them due to the state of Texas’s occupation and fencing off of a surveillance and mission launch area.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, Governor Abbott decided he would grandstand, telling the Texas state guard to “hold the line” at Eagle Pass. He then issued a statement, announcing that the Texas guard and law enforcement were now acting under a right of “self-defense” for the state. But it still isn’t clear what this means in practical terms.
Meanwhile, in Washington it became increasingly clear that all efforts to actually try and fix the border, including a hard-fought bipartisan Senate plan, are likely being scuttled. Why? According to Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump wants to “kill” the deal because he doesn’t want Biden to chalk a political win before the election.
*snip*
January 18, 2024
Executive Summary
Putting the authoritarian threat in context
Since June 16, 2015, the day that Donald Trump descended an escalator in Trump Tower and announced his run for the presidency, the American body politic has struggled to figure out how to treat him, his rhetoric, and the threat he poses to our system of government. A similar pattern plays out repeatedly: Trump makes a seemingly outlandish promise that upends conventional understandings of politics. Then, those who help Americans make sense of current events — the media, other politicians, pundits, and influencers — dismiss, distort, or deny the very promise Trump has made. And few then know quite what to make of it all or how to respond — a state of confusion that has enabled Trump to shatter democratic norms in previously inconceivable ways.
We now have more than eight years of experience with this phenomenon and a full presidential term as a track record proving that Trump’s pledges should be taken both seriously and literally. He has, for the most part, sought to do the extreme things that were dismissed as mere rhetoric when first promised, from enacting a “Muslim ban” to refusing to accept the results of an election. And yet, here we are again, with Trump making even more extreme promises to “terminate” the Constitution, seek “retribution” against political opponents, and be a “dictator” (just on day one), only to see people unsure what to make of or how to respond to these threats.
This report aims to alter these dynamics by clearly showing how Trump would follow through on his most extreme anti-democratic pledges for a second term and then offering expert recommendations for how to mitigate that danger.
The bulk of the report looks specifically at three things: Promises, Powers, and Plans.
*snip*
The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025
https://www.authoritarianplaybook2025.org/Executive Summary
Putting the authoritarian threat in context
Since June 16, 2015, the day that Donald Trump descended an escalator in Trump Tower and announced his run for the presidency, the American body politic has struggled to figure out how to treat him, his rhetoric, and the threat he poses to our system of government. A similar pattern plays out repeatedly: Trump makes a seemingly outlandish promise that upends conventional understandings of politics. Then, those who help Americans make sense of current events — the media, other politicians, pundits, and influencers — dismiss, distort, or deny the very promise Trump has made. And few then know quite what to make of it all or how to respond — a state of confusion that has enabled Trump to shatter democratic norms in previously inconceivable ways.
We now have more than eight years of experience with this phenomenon and a full presidential term as a track record proving that Trump’s pledges should be taken both seriously and literally. He has, for the most part, sought to do the extreme things that were dismissed as mere rhetoric when first promised, from enacting a “Muslim ban” to refusing to accept the results of an election. And yet, here we are again, with Trump making even more extreme promises to “terminate” the Constitution, seek “retribution” against political opponents, and be a “dictator” (just on day one), only to see people unsure what to make of or how to respond to these threats.
This report aims to alter these dynamics by clearly showing how Trump would follow through on his most extreme anti-democratic pledges for a second term and then offering expert recommendations for how to mitigate that danger.
The bulk of the report looks specifically at three things: Promises, Powers, and Plans.
* It collects a set of promises Donald Trump has made, in his own words, for what he would do in a second term. It places them in their proper context, coming amidst a resurgence of similar authoritarians worldwide that Trump has openly admired and modeled himself after.
* It examines the powers of the presidency and how they could be used to implement those promises. It explains the legal mechanisms that will be applied to turn Trump’s campaign promises into government policy and programs. And, it assesses the previously available guardrails that could constrain or prevent these abuses of power and the extent to which they will still hold.
* It explores the plans Trump and his allies have drafted to circumvent or override the checks in our system that otherwise have or could restrain his most extreme intentions. Based on expert input, it describes how these policies will play out in practice and negatively impact American life upon implementation.
*snip*
January 12, 2024
No paywall link
https://archive.li/LTzJt
Children had a “great time” at the first meeting of an after-school Satan club at a Tennessee elementary school this week, organizers said, despite dozens of protesters who condemned the meeting.
On Wednesday, the After School Satan Club (ASSC), a federally recognized non-profit organization and national after-school program, held its first meeting at Chimneyrock elementary school in Memphis.
A club flyer said that the Satanic Temple was a non-theistic religion that views Satan as “a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit”.
“After School Satan Club does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology. Instead, the Satanic Temple supports children to think for themselves. All After School Satan Clubs … emphasize a scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious world view,” it added.
*snip*
Tennessee after-school Satan club holds first meeting despite protests
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/11/tennessee-after-school-satan-club-satanic-templeNo paywall link
https://archive.li/LTzJt
Children had a “great time” at the first meeting of an after-school Satan club at a Tennessee elementary school this week, organizers said, despite dozens of protesters who condemned the meeting.
On Wednesday, the After School Satan Club (ASSC), a federally recognized non-profit organization and national after-school program, held its first meeting at Chimneyrock elementary school in Memphis.
A club flyer said that the Satanic Temple was a non-theistic religion that views Satan as “a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit”.
“After School Satan Club does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology. Instead, the Satanic Temple supports children to think for themselves. All After School Satan Clubs … emphasize a scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious world view,” it added.
*snip*
December 23, 2023
No paywall link
https://archive.li/VRCfE
THE SUPREME COURT announced last week that it would take up a case considering restrictions on the most widely-used method of abortion in the United States: the abortion pill. Under a worst-case scenario for American women, that case could have triggered a full reversal of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, cutting off access to the medication across the country. That didn’t happen. The Supreme Court said it would only consider a more narrow set of questions about regulatory changes that have made the abortion pill more accessible in recent years. It could significantly limit access to mifepristone, but won’t end it altogether.
But it may not matter how the high court rules if Republicans win the presidency next November. That’s because GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike.
Those plans — and many more, including proposals to attack contraception access, use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection, rescind a Department of Defense policy to “prohibit abortion travel funding,” punish states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion, and retool a law that is currently protecting pregnant women with life-threatening conditions — are outlined in Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership.”
Project 2025 is an initiative of the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing think tank that has helped staff and set the agenda for every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan. It describes Project 2025 as “the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025.”
*snip*
Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/maga-plan-attack-birth-control-surveil-women-ban-abortion-pill-1234934807/No paywall link
https://archive.li/VRCfE
THE SUPREME COURT announced last week that it would take up a case considering restrictions on the most widely-used method of abortion in the United States: the abortion pill. Under a worst-case scenario for American women, that case could have triggered a full reversal of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, cutting off access to the medication across the country. That didn’t happen. The Supreme Court said it would only consider a more narrow set of questions about regulatory changes that have made the abortion pill more accessible in recent years. It could significantly limit access to mifepristone, but won’t end it altogether.
But it may not matter how the high court rules if Republicans win the presidency next November. That’s because GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike.
Those plans — and many more, including proposals to attack contraception access, use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection, rescind a Department of Defense policy to “prohibit abortion travel funding,” punish states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion, and retool a law that is currently protecting pregnant women with life-threatening conditions — are outlined in Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership.”
Project 2025 is an initiative of the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing think tank that has helped staff and set the agenda for every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan. It describes Project 2025 as “the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025.”
*snip*
December 1, 2023
I had never seen a sanctuary so full on a Tuesday night.
The people packed into FloodGate Church in Brighton, Mich., weren’t here for Bill Bolin, the right-wing zealot pastor who’d grown his congregation tenfold by preaching conspiracy-fueled sermons since the onset of Covid-19, turning Sunday morning worship services into amateur Fox News segments. No, they had come out by the hundreds, decked out in patriotic attire this October evening in 2021, to hear from a man who was introduced to them as “America’s greatest living historian.” They had come for David Barton. And so had I.
It would be of little use to tell the folks around me — the people of my conservative hometown — that Barton wasn’t a real historian. They wouldn’t care that his lone academic credential was a bachelor’s degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University. It wouldn’t matter that Barton’s 2012 book on Thomas Jefferson was recalled by Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest Christian publisher, for its countless inaccuracies, or that a panel of 10 conservative Christian academics who reviewed Barton’s body of work in the aftermath ripped the entirety of his scholarship to shreds. It would not bother the congregants of FloodGate Church to learn that they were listening to a man whose work was found by one of America’s foremost conservative theologians to include “embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims.”
All this would be irrelevant to the people around me because David Barton was one of them. He believed the separation of church and state was a myth. He believed the time had come for evangelicals to reclaim their rightful place atop the nation’s governmental and cultural institutions. Hence the hero’s welcome Barton received when he rolled into FloodGate with his “American Restoration Tour.”
Throughout his decades of public life — working for the Republican Party, becoming a darling of Fox News, advising politicians such as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, launching a small propaganda empire, carving out a niche as the American right’s chosen peddler of nostalgic alternative facts — Barton had never been shy about his ultimate aims. He is an avowed Christian nationalist who favors theocratic rule; moreover, he is a so-called Dominionist, someone who believes Christians should control not only the government but also the media, the education system, and other cultural institutions. Barton and his ilk are invested less in advancing individual policies than they are in reconceiving our system of self-government in its totality, claiming a historical mandate to rule society with biblical dogma just as the founders supposedly intended.
*snip*
Tim Alberta: The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/01/evangelicals-american-politics-tim-alberta-book-excerpt-00129319I had never seen a sanctuary so full on a Tuesday night.
The people packed into FloodGate Church in Brighton, Mich., weren’t here for Bill Bolin, the right-wing zealot pastor who’d grown his congregation tenfold by preaching conspiracy-fueled sermons since the onset of Covid-19, turning Sunday morning worship services into amateur Fox News segments. No, they had come out by the hundreds, decked out in patriotic attire this October evening in 2021, to hear from a man who was introduced to them as “America’s greatest living historian.” They had come for David Barton. And so had I.
It would be of little use to tell the folks around me — the people of my conservative hometown — that Barton wasn’t a real historian. They wouldn’t care that his lone academic credential was a bachelor’s degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University. It wouldn’t matter that Barton’s 2012 book on Thomas Jefferson was recalled by Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest Christian publisher, for its countless inaccuracies, or that a panel of 10 conservative Christian academics who reviewed Barton’s body of work in the aftermath ripped the entirety of his scholarship to shreds. It would not bother the congregants of FloodGate Church to learn that they were listening to a man whose work was found by one of America’s foremost conservative theologians to include “embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims.”
All this would be irrelevant to the people around me because David Barton was one of them. He believed the separation of church and state was a myth. He believed the time had come for evangelicals to reclaim their rightful place atop the nation’s governmental and cultural institutions. Hence the hero’s welcome Barton received when he rolled into FloodGate with his “American Restoration Tour.”
Throughout his decades of public life — working for the Republican Party, becoming a darling of Fox News, advising politicians such as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, launching a small propaganda empire, carving out a niche as the American right’s chosen peddler of nostalgic alternative facts — Barton had never been shy about his ultimate aims. He is an avowed Christian nationalist who favors theocratic rule; moreover, he is a so-called Dominionist, someone who believes Christians should control not only the government but also the media, the education system, and other cultural institutions. Barton and his ilk are invested less in advancing individual policies than they are in reconceiving our system of self-government in its totality, claiming a historical mandate to rule society with biblical dogma just as the founders supposedly intended.
*snip*
November 22, 2023
“MOM, I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD SEE THIS. You should leave the room.”
That was my younger son, age 7 or 8, purportedly trying to “protect” me years ago from a risqué music video on MTV.
We were relatively permissive parents. The boys watched MTV and The Simpsons from an early age—so many episodes of the latter so many times each that even now, in their thirties, both of them can spout the perfect bit of dialogue to fit any occasion, no matter how surreal. I see now they were right—that show was hilariously and cuttingly on the nose about everything.
I thought of all this while reading a Washington Post account of a Donald Trump rally in Iowa. I thought I knew what these rallies were like: I watched one start to finish back in 2016 and since then I’ve read many verbatim transcripts of Trump rallies and speeches. And I thought I knew Iowa and its unique political culture: I spent much of the 1990s and 2000s covering its liberal peaceniks, conservative Christians, caucuses and straw polls. I figured that, like many journalists and Americans in general, I was shockproof after eight years of Trump, though I’ve tried hard to avoid becoming numb or bored or exhausted.
Hannah Knowles has proved I am not shockproof. Her Post story about Trump’s rally in Fort Dodge on Saturday is, in fact, a continuing series of new shocks. That’s because her focus is not only on Trump but on the people who came to see him, and their children. Brace yourself:
*snip*
Trump Rallies are Tutorials in Hate, Vulgarity, and Disrespect
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/trump-rallies-hate-vulgarity-disrespect?utm_campaign=post“MOM, I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD SEE THIS. You should leave the room.”
That was my younger son, age 7 or 8, purportedly trying to “protect” me years ago from a risqué music video on MTV.
We were relatively permissive parents. The boys watched MTV and The Simpsons from an early age—so many episodes of the latter so many times each that even now, in their thirties, both of them can spout the perfect bit of dialogue to fit any occasion, no matter how surreal. I see now they were right—that show was hilariously and cuttingly on the nose about everything.
I thought of all this while reading a Washington Post account of a Donald Trump rally in Iowa. I thought I knew what these rallies were like: I watched one start to finish back in 2016 and since then I’ve read many verbatim transcripts of Trump rallies and speeches. And I thought I knew Iowa and its unique political culture: I spent much of the 1990s and 2000s covering its liberal peaceniks, conservative Christians, caucuses and straw polls. I figured that, like many journalists and Americans in general, I was shockproof after eight years of Trump, though I’ve tried hard to avoid becoming numb or bored or exhausted.
Hannah Knowles has proved I am not shockproof. Her Post story about Trump’s rally in Fort Dodge on Saturday is, in fact, a continuing series of new shocks. That’s because her focus is not only on Trump but on the people who came to see him, and their children. Brace yourself:
Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters “FJB,” an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: “Fuck Biden.” . . .
One of Trump’s introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature declared anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a “disrespectful little shit,” quickly drawing a roaring response. And outside the packed venue, vulgar slogans about Biden and Vice President Harris were splashed across T-shirts: “Biden Loves Minors.” “Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!” One referred to Biden and Harris performing sexual acts.
*snip*
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