Iraq snapshot
Monday, November 18, 2024. While Free Press, THE GUARDIAN, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danielle Moodie and others leave the vile TWITTER, notice the racists unable to take a similar brave stand.
The lesson? They'll always make room for a White man. Talking about the left. Talking about the nonsense Brett Wilkins wrote for COMMON DREAMS about how "progressives" are "rip"ing apart US President Joe Biden.
But you read on and "progressives" becomes one person on TWITTER and that one person is conspiracy nut and antix-vaxer Lee Camp
Journalism standards are out the window before we even get to the Camps of Hell and Brimstone whose biggest 'action' was taking place and signing off on the faux nonsense Rage Against the War Machine and Jacob Crosse (WSWS) noted of that racist action:
On February 19, in Washington D.C., the Libertarian Party and “People’s Party,” along with disoriented middle class elements and outright fascistic individuals, organized what was marketed as the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally.
The event, billed by organizers Angela McArdle of the Libertarian Party and Nick Brana of the People’s Party as an attempt to bring the “left and right” together in opposition to the war in Ukraine was, the World Socialist Web Site noted, a “reactionary political freak show.”
The World Socialist Web Site will be further analyzing the main organizers and speakers at the event, confirming its thoroughly reactionary character. This article focuses on the Libertarian Party and its overt orientation to the fascistic right.
The central political perspective behind the rally was provided by the Libertarian Party, which was listed as the main organizer—above the People’s Party on the official “Rage” website.
Besides providing the political perspective, the Libertarians also financed much of the rally. The Mises Caucus donated at least $1,000 to be one of five “Silver Sponsors” for the rally.
While Libertarians have always advanced a far-right hyper-capitalist economic program, following the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and a further shift to the right by the American ruling class as a whole, members of the party, chiefly represented in the Mises Caucus, have made a marked turn toward fascist militias and anti-Semitic forces.
The Mises Caucus is the largest faction within the Libertarian Party and took control of the national apparatus in 2022 following the national convention in Reno, Nevada. McArdle was the California organizer for the caucus and a former board member.
As part of her campaign to seize the chair of the party last year, McArdle, with the backing of the caucus, spearheaded efforts to overturn limited vaccine mandates in Los Angeles County.
After earning the support of the anti-vaccine contingent of the party, McArdle shored up her candidacy when she refused to condemn vicious anti-Semite Bryan Sharpe, also known as “Hotep Jesus,” at the Libertarian Party’s Alabama State Convention in March 2021.
Sharpe had previously been invited to the Conservative Political Action Conference and been interviewed positively on Fox News.
On his blog, Sharpe previously praised the far right for not being “afraid to call out the Jews.” He also defended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, writing that the “Blacks are so removed from reality... this is not a demonstration against blacks. This is a dispute between right and left—Liberal versus Conservative. Maybe even White vs. Jew.”
The Mises Caucus, the Mises Institute and Jeff Deist
An early indication of this shift to fascistic politics within the Libertarian Party was expressed in the takeover of the party by the Mises Caucus.
The Mises Caucus, named after the Mises Institute, which is currently led by Jeff Deist, was founded by Michael Heise on August 20, 2017. Several leading Libertarian Party members, including current chair McArdle, have been board members of the Mises Caucus, and many are “trained” by the Institute, located in Auburn, Alabama.
The Ludwig von Mises Institute, named after the reactionary Austrian economist, was founded by Llewellyn Rockwell Jr. in 1982, with financial backing from Ron Paul. A 2000 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) categorized the Mises Institute as “Neo-Confederate.”
In a January 11, 2023 interview on Reason.com, Heise pointed to the “Rage” rally as an example of the new type of “outreach” the Libertarian Party was undertaking under the leadership of the Mises Caucus in an attempt to grow the party.
Heise explained that the “anti-war rally” would be an example of the “first harvest” reaped of the new “fruits” cultivated under the far-right Mises Caucus leadership.
Jeff Deist, the president of the Mises Institute, is close to both Heise and McArdle, appearing on podcasts and right-wing events with both of them.
Deist has been at the Mises Institute since at least 2014. Before he was the president of the Institute, Deist, as he explained in a recent interview with fascist Patrick Casey, a co-organizer of the Unite the Right rally, “worked on Capitol Hill with Ron Paul.”
Casey was one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa and assumed leadership of the organization following the Unite the Right rally, which Identity Evropa played a main role in organizing. After Casey took control of the organization, in an attempt to distance the group from Charlottesville, he tried to rebrand the group as the “American Identity Movement.” However, this was not successful, and Casey stopped actively organizing within the group in 2020.
In 2019, Casey teamed up with Hitler-lover Nick Fuentes to promote the “groyper” army and launch the “America First Political Action Conference.” Leading up to January 6, the pair backed Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign by mobilizing their followers in support of the coup. Both Fuentes and Casey were at the Capitol on January 6, though neither have been charged.
Someone like that, you might assume COMMON DREAMS would be holding accountable but apparently COMMON DREAMS sees its role today as promoting those tight with neo-Nazis. Do you remember how many articles COMMON DREAMS printed daily attacking Kamala Harris while she was running for president but it's only rah-rahs for Lee Camp.
Again, there's always room -- at least at COMMON DREAMS -- to pimp and promote a White man. All Lee had to offer this election cycle was Jill Stein promoting. Since then, the loser has jumped on Adam McKay's ship that it's time to destroy the Democratic Party.
Hope that works out for him better than that failed Academy Award bid. As the person who ensured that he and David Sirota lost that category, I don't see that happening. I don't see much happening to his tired career.
But that's the state of COMMON DREAMS today: Praise and recognize Lee Camp despite his prancing around stage with Neo Nazis.
And we wonder why COMMON DREAMS took months to get on board with Kamala. It's really only the last three weeks of her campaign that they stopped attacking her in every article.
But again, the lesson, they will always make time for a White man and that -- not his nut job conspiracies, not his prancing around the stage with Neo Nazis and not his attacks on Kamala Harris to promote grifter Jill Stein -- prevents him from being covered and embraced by COMMON DREAMS.
When the left can't stand up to racism, it's not much of a left. While COMMON DREAMS works to make us all a little more stupid, The Free Press issued this:
For years, Free Press has sought to hold social-media companies accountable for amplifying hate and lies that undermine public health, safety and democracy. We have pushed for meaningful reforms that would protect users and have extensively documented the platforms’ failures. None of these companies has fallen so low as X under Elon Musk’s ownership.
Free Press will no longer be posting on X, effective immediately, and we invite you to join us in ceasing activity on Musk’s platform. We refuse to give X any legitimacy.
Free Press is committed to ensuring that people have a voice in the decisions that shape our media system. Musk, quite simply, is not. X is now the premier platform for white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. It is designed to amplify the ideas of racists, misogynists, xenophobes, antisemites and transphobes. Musk’s reckless oversight of the platform has endangered people on the receiving end of his abuse and threatened our democracy.
Musk has reinstated the accounts of white supremacists and conspiracy theorists who’ve repeatedly violated X’s own inadequate standards. He has personally amplified bigotry and normalized violent extremism. He has harassed those who seek to shine a light on his misdeeds, filing lawsuit after lawsuit to silence researchers and activists who have worked to hold him accountable. He has even bullied advertisers who elect to spend their ad dollars elsewhere.
Two years ago, in response to Musk’s dangerous behavior, Free Press helped organize the #StopToxicTwitter campaign. This organizing contributed to the mass exodus of advertisers from the platform. The company subsequently lost $35 billion in value.
We have fought to reform X, because we remember the community that it once had, which gave ordinary people the means to speak directly to the powerful in our society. But it’s clear that X will not correct course under Musk’s leadership, and it’s time for Free Press to exit.
To prevent malicious actors from impersonating Free Press, we will not delete our account. But we will no longer post on the platform.
We hope to stay connected with people who believe in Free Press’ vision of a more just and democratic media system. You all have contributed so much to this essential work. Please find us on our website or follow us on other social-media platforms.
Good for them. Good for Jamie Lee Curtis and Danielle Moodie and the others leaving TWITTER. Good to all the people leaving the hate speech site.
In the days since the election, many Black women have made clear that a number of groups are now on their own. Couldn't be bothered to vote for the first Black woman president of the United States but did vote for Donald Trump? You made your racism clear and many Black women are now on vacation. They're not showing up for your Gaza protests or your other actions. Black women will work on Black women's healthcare but your marches in DC that depended so much on the work and presence of Black women? Good look to you and maybe a few years we'll see you again.
In reply to that, some people -- mainly White women -- have foolishly asked what they could do now?
As we noted last night in "Media: White supremacy won the 2024 election (Ava and C.I.):"
Some of the racists are asking what they can do now? In the face of Black women saying no to free labor, no to showing up at your protests, no to all you nonsense, some have asked: What can we do -- with the "now" implied.
Golly gee, what could you do?
And why do you have to be told that.
TWITTER is the home of racism, sexism and homophobia.
It is owned by Elon Musk who used all three and the money you help him make to destroy Democratic Party chances in the election.
Why is it that, except for Jamie Lee Curtis, this is a conversation taking place only among Black Americans?
White Americans, you shouldn't have to ask others what you can do. You should just be getting off TWITTER. Do THREADS, do BLUESKY, do whatever, but get the hl off of TWITTER.
Can Bernie do that? Can racist Katrina vanden Heuvel? In fact, how dare you purchase a magazine started by abolitionists and then take to a racist platform like TWITTER.
The best thing the Democratic Party can immediately do to save itself is to get off TWITTER. And it doesn't cost them a damn cent to do this and stand against racism, sexism and homophobia.
[. . .]
I-I-I-I-I-I ain't gonna Tweet on TWITTER? Until you can say that, just accept that we all see you as the racist that you truly are.
TWITTER going under isn't going to hurt Elon Musk's pocket book. But he didn't buy the successful social media tool to make money, he bought it to have influence. And after what he pulled in this election -- this non-American (I don't recognize triple citizenship and don't believe America's founders would have either) who grew up a racist in South Africa and never cared until apartheid was falling and that's when he elected to flee South Africa -- his toy needs to be severely damaged, it's reach limited.
And yet, Katrina vanden Heuvel -- the racist who owns THE NATION and can only see Black women as maids or mammies -- can't take a principled stand and announce she's leaving the platform. Were it not for people being able to take stands against racism, THE NATION magazine never would have existed in the first place. But Katrina doesn't care about that or, apparently, much of anything. That's why THE GUARDIAN can leave TWITTER but THE NATION refuses to do.
What are you missing leaving TWITTER? Glynneth Greenwald's latest hissy fit. He's attacking right-wing feminist Bari Weiss for not cheerleading Tulsi Gabbard for the post of Director of National Intelligence. Staying on disasters nominated by Satanic Donald Trump, let's note this from Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY):
A late Saturday report from the Washington Post that Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of defense paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault and that he was admittedly "visibly intoxicated” at the time may have created more problems for his confirmation.
According to the Post, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth "paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual."
On CNN, Sunday morning, reporter Daniel Strauss claimed the latest revelation won't help with an already embattled nomination.
Today on MSNBC's MORNING JOE, the Hegseth nomination was addressed.
REMOVED. Click here. Didn't stream the video below, have no idea if it talks about more than the DoD nominee. But I'm in agreement with this take. No more videos from that program. I get it that it's scary -- for all of us -- that Trump is going back into the White House.
And ABC NEWS reported on Trump's disaster nominee for Attorney General.
Evan Blake (WSWS) focuses on another disaster nominee, Robert Kennedy Junior:
No other individual could be less qualified or more inadvisable for this position. It is akin to placing Al Capone at the head of the Department of Justice, or climate change denier and Chevron CEO Mike Wirth to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency.
After ending his own presidential campaign and endorsing Trump in August, Kennedy played a central role in Trump’s campaign, especially at its final events. Speaking at his fascist Madison Square Garden campaign rally last month, Trump pledged to let Kennedy “go wild on health.” Trump added, “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on medicines.”
The implications are far-reaching, as Kennedy has openly opposed vaccines, pasteurization, water fluoridation, and other long-established scientific practices, while promoting every quack medicine under the sun. On October 25, Kennedy tweeted:
FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.
Under conditions in which H5N1 bird flu is spreading widely among dairy cattle across the US and scientists have explicitly warned that the consumption of raw milk could facilitate human infections and the danger of another pandemic, Kennedy has continued to advocate this dangerous practice. Historically, bird flu has a 50 percent fatality rate.
Under the banner “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy and Trump will facilitate the emergence of the next pandemic and the revival of long-eliminated diseases like measles and polio. In fact, the same day that Trump announced his pick of Kennedy, news reports noted that measles cases in America are now four-fold higher than last year, primarily due to declining vaccination rates.
Speaking at an anti-vaccine conference last November, while still a candidate for US president, Kennedy pledged to fire 600 workers at the NIH if elected, adding, “We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”
In other words, the man ostensibly in charge of preventing pandemics and infectious disease outbreaks has explicitly stated that he will work on behalf of the pathogens instead of the public.ش
