Bannon is playing chess while the rest of us play checkers.
While not specifically mentioned in this frightening article from Mother Jones, the shadowy figure behind the movement to place election deniers in key positions is Steve Bannon. Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein has been making the rounds promoting her new book Doppelganger, which uses the confusion between her and Naomi Wolfe as pretense for a larger narrative surrounding political confusion. As part of her research, she listened to hundreds of hours of Steve Bannon’s War Room to understand how the failed screenwriter turned MAGA boss has been able to sow discontent among the masses. The Mother Jones article points to higher profile areas that election deniers have gained positions of authority over our elections. IMO, that’s the just the tip of the iceberg.
From the article:
“Based on misinformation spread by far-right conspiracy theorists, nine GOP-controlled states have withdrawn from the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate partnership that helps make sure voter rolls are accurate by comparing voter registration data among states.”
Mother Jones: New Report: One-Third of States Have an Election Denier Overseeing Elections
Beware the Libertarian urban planner in Progressive clothing.
Our friends at Current Affairs Magazine recently published a lengthy piece on urban planning and transportation and the lure of the Strong Towns movement. Settle in, because it’s a long one, but it’s worth the read for anyone looking for answers to suburban sprawl, urban decay, carbon reduction in the transportation sector and better living through walkable paths and bike lanes. The prescriptions from the “Strong Towns” movement are logical on the surface and appear to hold great promise. But, below the surface, there’s more than meets the eye.
From the article:
“Strong Towns eschews most large-scale, long-range government planning and public investment. It insists that big planning fails because it requires planners to predict an inherently unpredictable future and conceptualize projects all at once in a finished state. Strong Towns’ remedy is development that emerges organically from local wisdom and that is therefore capable of responding to local feedback. This requires a return to the “traditional” development pattern of our older urban cores, which, according to Strong Towns, are more resilient and financially productive.”
Current Affairs: The Strong Towns Movement is Simply Right-Libertarianism Dressed in Progressive Garb
“We came, we saw, he died.” - Hillary Clinton.
Hillary’s jovial pronouncement over the death of then-President of Libya Muammar Gaddafi is a chilling reminder that we suck. Not a good guy, that Gaddafi. Also, not our country to overthrow.
And, like the intelligence that got us into Iraq, the intel that we (and others) acted upon to facilitate the overthrow of Gaddafi was circumspect at best.
Also…not our country to overthrow.
This WSWS article is a trip down memory lane to remind us how the Bush doctrine was nothing more than business-as-usual in Washington. Further, the article draws the very reasonable conclusion that many of the 20,000 Libyans who perished in the recent flooding didn’t have to die. But, when you overthrow a government, install CIA-trained religious fundamentalists, pit them against one another, withdraw international aid and let what was the richest nation in Africa fall to pieces…that’s going to happen.
Dear Presidents Obama and Biden. Save your fucking thoughts and prayers.
From the article:
“That war killed 25,000 Libyans, including Gaddafi, who was tortured and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists recruited, trained and armed by the Pentagon and CIA, as well as Britain and France. These fighters were then shipped by the CIA to Syria to join an insurgent movement against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that became known as ISIS. The port through which these hardened guerrillas were transported was the city of Derna, now largely destroyed by the September 10 flood.”
World Socialist Web Site: US imperialist hypocrisy and the Libyan flood