#Demagoguery

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Pierre Poilievre says a Conservative government will establish mandatory minimum prison sentences for anyone convicted of extortion.

The opposition leader said Friday that extortion-related crime has skyrocketed, with police in multiple provinces dealing with organized crime threats against businesses. [...]

The opposition leader singled out the Liberal government’s amendments to the Criminal Code in 2022 that repealed some mandatory minimum penalties for various crimes, including a four-year minimum for extortion with a firearm.

However, there remains a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for first-time extortionists who use a restricted or prohibited firearm, or who use any type of gun on behalf of a criminal organization. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[richo1915]

Mullah “Why did we retire? Why? God did not favor them. God alone determines the results of battles.”

Saladin “The results of battles ARE determined by God, but also by preparation, numbers, the absence of disease, and the availability of water. One cannot maintain a siege with the enemy behind.

How many battles did God win for the Muslims before I came... that is, before God determined that I should come?”

[the-hopeful-realist]

It’s Time for the Dem’s to Get Tough, and to Strategize

I must admit, I was almost as perplexed as the Democrat Party operatives were in struggling over whether they should continue supporting Joe Biden despite the debate disaster or to urge him to step aside for a younger candidate to defeat the would-be dictator—then Joe did what now seems to have been inevitable. Since the debate, Joe seemed more like his normal self, gaffs and all. But the debate…

[ehj3]

IT CAN HAPPEN HERE

“…it’s a serious time. With all the discontent there is in the country to wash him into office, Senator Windrip has got an excellent chance to be elected President, next November, and if he is, probably his gang of buzzards will get us into some war, just to grease their insane vanity and show the world that we’re the huskiest nation going. And then I, the Liberal and you, the Plutocrat, the…

[jeintalu]

You do not Understand the Point

If Hamas officially announces that it does not hate the Jews and fights against occupation only, it means that Hamas wants to exterminate the Jews.

If Israeli leadership publicly announces that it wants to exterminate the Palestinians, and it really kills tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, it does not mean that it was the intention.

Everything is logical and clear.

2 + 2 = 5

if they say so.

If you disagree, you must be an antisemite.

[manwalksintobar]

The State // Iman Mersal

One head sends commands to all these hearts, limbs, and reproductive organs—a national army is made of absolutely headless individuals—and this generation no one needs, burning the public libraries and banishing depraved music from the local radio stations, its best and brightest volunteering to create a registry of streetwalkers so the State can make sure everyone pays their income tax while national anthems blare from public bathrooms to public squares and the distinguished opposition gathers beneath its banners to form a limited liability company for the enlightenment of the masses and mean-while you lean over the balcony, peering down into the dark streets, biting your nails.

Love makes us authentic and narcissistic, narcissistic in our authenticity and authentic in our narcissism, and so on. There’s no such thing as enough until the arrival of he who said contentment is an inexhaustible treasure as if to set the senses’ temperature at zero degrees while he walks off into the desert whistling something mystical like I am you and you are me.

We screamed very loudly and were understood by no one. When the oldest of us suggested that we become more forward-thinking I conceived of a way to convert public toilets into stalls for weeping and public squares into urinals and then all of a sudden one long-serving intellectual screamed at his friend When I’m talking about democracy you shut the hell up so we ran for it

from The Threshold

[d-e-r-n-e-b-e-l]

🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 . It's Christmas before time thanks to @momusiclabel 🖤 . @enmity_thrashdeathmetalband 🖤 @kvltundkaosproductions 🖤 @seasonofmistofficial 🖤 @steeve_enmity 🖤 @michaelperwira 🖤 @georgekolliasofficial 🖤 @mokutkut 🖤 @domino_black_metal_cat 🐱 🖤 . #Enmity #momusic #m&omusic #momusiclabel #kvltundkaosproductions #kvltundkaos #seasonofmist #seasonofmistrecords #metal #demagoguery #deathmetal #trashmetal #deathmetalband #political #society #war #deathmetalmusic #trashmetalband #deathmetalindonesia #deathmetalasia #metalhead #metalheads #metalheadsofinstagram #cdcollection #cdcollector #blackmetalcat #metalcat #cat #undergroundmetal #oldschooldeathmetal (à Strasbourg, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClZOrvHLGf0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[immaculatasknight]

Trudeau on trial

[aeide-thea]

truly just SUCH a typical tumblr experience but like.

Familiar Tumblr Name makes a post that's like: 'you know how fast fashion perpetuates itself by selling us clothing that gets dingy and grody really fast, so we have to replace it yearly?'

me: uh, no, actually—historically i've found that the few fast fashion pieces i acquired long outstayed their welcome, and were perfectly wearable long after i was heartily sick of them! but go on, i guess

FTN: 'let me tell you about this traditional domestic wisdom (implied: that's been lost because of, uh, capitalism) that will fix this problem (that you, too, definitely have) for you!'

me, googling: okay so this residue that FTN said was somehow a Fast Fashion thing is apparently generally caused by like. fabric softener and/or hard water. using discount detergents that skimp on active ingredients. using too much detergent so it doesn't wash out. letting your bedding go too long between washes. letting your washer go too long between cleans. etc. anyway. lots of specific factors here, many of which may in fact not apply to you in particular!

but like. why get specific when instead we could assert You Know This Problem, Right? This Lost Traditional Wisdom Will Definitely Help You Personally!!

[enbycrip]

Once again, demagogue politicians are out there appealing to “common sense” to justify their actions denying 99.99% of the scientific consensus, and also coincidentally meaning they get funding from large petrochemical corporations.

I try not to get pissed off at Thomas Payne for inserting the idea that “common sense” is key to the average person’s interaction with politics into western political discourse. He was working in a reasonably different environment to the current one. (Though not as different as it would like to claim, tbh, given the preponderance of elite political dynasties with long connections to slavery in politics in both North America and European democracies.)

But the basic facts are that “common sense” literally measures a person’s own daily experience and that of the people in their immediate circle. It is *very* situational to an individual’s class status and sociocultural experience.

Hence why, for example, a wealthy white person will have an entirely different “common sense” approach to how one behaves when dealing with the police from an impoverished black person with experience of being unhoused. Applying the attitude of the first to governance without awareness of the second is so often what is done, even without the individuals involved being *actively* racist or classist, and that has been *disastrous*. This is how structural racism and classism are embedded into political structures.

All of this is within the sphere of everyday human experience. It requires common human skills like empathy, which have been needed for the entire lifetime of our species. And, frankly, people who are not specifically taught to/put time and effort into developing it, *very much* including our political class, *still* regularly fuck it up.

So how much more vulnerable are we to fucking up internalising the understanding of far more complex situations, far too big and generalised to be within the regular scope of a single or small group human experience, that require an advanced understanding of mathematics and statistical phenomena, which are *not* remotely a common enough part of our sociocultural understanding to have been internalised within it yet? And which, frankly, are not taught particularly well across our educational system, particularly under the university level?

And that absolutely includes the very-much-not-state schools and universities most of the political class attend. My personal education leans towards the humanities, and I am *not* a professional scientist, and I was still genuinely quite shocked to see how even politicians acting in good faith struggled with trying to process what I think of as quite basic public health-level clinical understanding during COVID.

And this is the situation as we are coming into this terrifyingly vital period for climate change.

[richo1915]

“I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness.”

Hospitaller, Kingdom of Heaven

[catos-wound]

m aemilius scaurus princeps senatus voice i HATE democracy

[jeintalu]

INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC ADVICE

Ayelet Frish, "Countering the South African claims of Israeli genocide. An analysis of the Israel-Hamas war by international strategic advisor Ayelet Frish." The Jerusalem Post, 05 January 2024

Trying to debunk the assertion of Israeli genocide while discussing the military-technical details, the author suddenly says:

"It [Gaza City] has become a city that is entirely composed of weapons, explosives, bombs, and an industry that manufactures terror and death."

Well, this is complete absurdity. 

It seems that the author tries to justify the war methods of the Israeli Defence Forces: in a short interval of time, more than 20,000 civilians have been bombed to death in the sieged Gaza Strip, most of them women and children. Most of the civilian houses in the Gaza City have been destroyed. 

Unfortunately, there is no proof that all (or any) of these destroyed civilian houses, hospitals and mosques were used for military purposes, and the attacks were also consistent with the principle of proportionality.

I muted "The Jerusalem Post", which published such insane and illogical propaganda. 

"The Jerusalem Post" is supposed to be the best Israeli newspaper in English.

The author of the article is supposed to be an international strategic advisor.

Here is my international strategic advice:

Do not read "The Jerusalem Post".

[darabeatha]

@richfsh replied ; if he played music for the koi i think ha joon would marry him ngl

...

Marriage... He'll compose a symphony for your marriage ceremony, most assuredly.

[sparklystarfishsuit]

The presidential election on October 22nd will choose between ineptitude and corruption, the foolishness that dismantled a genuine opposition, or the wild demagoguery instead of presenting the required strong and realistic vision.

Dropping into the Abyss: Economy in Peril In an unrelenting march towards economic disaster, the current administration, barely deserving the title of “government,” has astounded the nation with its breakneck pace in the wrong direction. Their decisions and policies seem tailored to sink the country into misery and chaos as if they were competing for the dubious prize of the worst economic…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Billboard project

* * * *

One for the history books!

September 12, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

After delivering one of the best debate performances in American political history, Kamala Harris is receiving begrudging and stinting praise from many in the media and commentary class. But 67 million people saw Kamala Harris demonstrate she is made of presidential timber. They witnessed a masterful performance that revealed a penetrating intellect tempered by decency and humanity. On the substance and execution, she should have earned the support of all voters and unqualified praise from the media and political commentators.

Trump's performance was vile and disqualifying. It was worse than Joe Biden’s widely panned debate by far. While Joe Biden turned in a horrible debate performance as measured by the artificial rules of made-for-tv spectacles, Donald Trump made dozens of statements that were objectively depraved, racist, antidemocratic, delusional, and deceitful.

Trump transcended the debate format and devolved into fascist demagoguery that should have resulted in universal condemnation by all voters, the media, and political commentators. If Joe Biden was driven from the presidential race because of his poor debate performance, Trump should be banished from politics, expelled from his party, and relegated to a place of dishonor in the annals of American history.

Talking about the debate is difficult because of the urge to focus on Kamala Harris’s brilliantly executed strategy of baiting Trump into ranting about his insecurities and the horror of Trump's worst-in-the-history-of-the-nation performance on substance.

I get it. Harris’s ninja debating moves and Trump's racist deer-in-the-headlights stare made for riveting television. But we focus on those aspects of the debate to the detriment of the substance of Kamala Harris’s message. She spent a substantial portion of the debate discussing her policies and her plan to help heal the divisions that beset America.

It is disappointing to see so many stories and commentators describe the debate as “fierce” or “contentious.” I heard one commentator on MSNBC bemoan the fact that neither candidate seemed interested in bridging the divide in America. That is false. Kamala Harris promised to be a president for all Americans and to focus on the needs of the people, not the needs and wants of the president. She said, in part,

And I think the American people want better than that. Want better than this. Want someone who understands as I do, I travel our country, we see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor. We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other. I meet with people all the time who tell me "Can we please just have discourse about how we're going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American people?" [¶¶] I've only had one client. The people. And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor I never asked a victim or a witness are you a Republican or a Democrat. The only thing I ever asked them, are you okay? And that's the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you the American people.

Kamala Harris repeatedly offered her policy vision for America, including tax breaks for business startups; subsidizing downpayments for first-time home purchases; incentivizing the construction of starter homes; granting tax credits for families with newborns; investing in American chip technology, quantum computing, and AI; supporting worker’s rights; reducing reliance on fossil fuels; granting tax cuts for the middle class; requiring the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes; and protecting the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. She also promised to protect reproductive liberty, LGBTQ equality, and voting rights of all Americans.

The media has hounded Kamala Harris for weeks about the alleged absence of policies in her campaign. On Tuesday, she talked about dozens of specific policies—and the media is not saying a word about those policies after the debate.

Not. A. Word.

It’s almost as if the media didn’t really care about Kamala Harris’s policies but were only interested in a talking point they could use to criticize her. Hypocrites!

So, before talking about how well Kamala Harris executed her strategy of baiting Trump and how abhorrent Trump's performance and positions were, let’s give Kamala Harris her due on the substance: She gave a presidential-level discourse on policies that will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. The fact that Trump and the moderators ignored those policies does not diminish the respect she showed for the American people by clearly setting forth her policies if elected as president.

Among the many insipid criticisms of Kamala Harris was that she used facial expressions to convey her disapproval, amusement, and disbelief over Trump's utterances. This was an effective use of her non-speaking time and allowed her to diminish Trump without saying a word.

Dahlia Lithwick demolishes the critics who faulted Kamala’s facial expressions—a criticism that would only be leveled against a woman. See Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, Harris–Trump debate: Kamala Harris’ face on Tuesday was the stuff of legend. (slate.com). Lithwick writes,

It must be beyond maddening for a political actor to be summoned into a “debate” that is not really a debate, pitted against some frothing amalgam of WWE reenactor and Tasmanian devil, warned that your microphone will be muted while he is speaking, cautioned that he will be allowed to talk over you and the moderators, then be criticized for … blinking? [¶¶] Harris’ face roamed free and far on Tuesday, and it was thoroughly warranted and frequently enjoyable. I think of her mobile, legible face as a satisfying call-and-response to Trump’s lifelong preference for female adulation and Botox. Women have faces. Their faces have expressions. If that was upsetting to you during Tuesday’s debate, you might be dismayed to learn that deep beneath our expressive faces lie thoughts, dreams, frustrations, and other markers of human agency. If a woman smiling freaks you out, imagine what happens when a woman votes.

While talking about Kamala Harris’s facial expressions may seem superficial, it is not. One of Harris’s most significant accomplishments was her ability to show herself to be a likable, relatable human being. She did so by using the medium of television to her advantage. Were the expressive facial reactions real or practiced? It doesn’t matter; they were successful. People liked Kamala Harris. For a candidate who has been on the national scene since 2018, the percentage of voters who still say they don’t “know” her is shocking. But she went some distance in the debate to introduce herself to those voters in a positive way.

Among Harris’s many pointed and powerful answers on Tuesday, none were better than her response to Trump's gloating over the demise of Roe v. Wade. Harris said,

In over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest. Which—understand what that means. A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree: The government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. You want to talk about, this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn’t want that. Her husband didn’t want that. A 12 or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don’t want that. Understand in his Project 2025, there would be a national abortion—a monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages.

There is more room to praise Kamala Harris’s performance in the debate, but we must turn to Trump's horrific statements during the debate. So, let’s get Trump’s “debate performance” out of the way: It was the worst debate performance (in terms of style) in the history of political debates. See The Guardian, Republicans dismayed by Trump’s ‘bad’ and ‘unprepared’ debate performance. Brit Hume of Fox News said, “Let’s make no mistake. Trump had a bad night. We just heard so many of the old grievances that we all know aren’t winners politically.” Coming from a Fox commentator, that is as bad as it gets for Trump.

There were many disgraceful, disqualifying statements during the debate by Trump: Refusing to say that he hoped Ukraine would defeat the Russian invasion; refusing to acknowledge that he lost in 2020; refusing to express any regret for his actions on January 6; claiming that “every Democrat” wanted to “get rid of” Roe v. Wade.; and repeatedly saying that execution of babies after a full-term delivery was permissible under existing law.

To state the obvious, if Kamala Harris had uttered a single statement that was one-tenth as egregious as any of the above, the major media would be calling for her withdrawal from the race.

But Trump's worst statement was the race-baiting claim that Haitian immigrants are capturing domestic pets in Springfield, Ohio and eating them. That trope was originally directed at immigrants from other countries but has been repurposed by Trump to slander Haitian immigrants who are legally in the US.

The claim is false and started as triple-hearsay thrice-removed:

On Sept. 6, a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house.

So, a “screenshot” of a retweet (three levels removed from personal knowledge) talked about a “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” (three more levels removed from personal knowledge). In short, the claim is the worst sort of internet rumor—intentionally unverifiable. Repeating such a rumor is beneath a candidate for the presidency.

But the crassness of repeating the rumor is the least of the offense. Trump did not repeat a rumor—he asserted the rumor as “fact” for the purpose of stirring racial hatred against Haitian immigrants. The false rumor has been circulating for weeks among right-wing websites that attack Haitian immigrants as the cause of an increase in crime in Springfield. See WaPo, Anatomy of a racist smear: How false claims of pet-eating immigrants caught on.

Trump then leveraged the cat-eating Haitian claim to smear all immigrants as law-breaking, violent, less-than-human invaders whom he would deport en masse from the US. The entire episode was an appeal to the most racist, xenophobic backwaters of American society. It was shameful and divisive. It may lead to violence against immigrants—just as past statements by Trump have led to violence against immigrants in Texas. See NBC (8/5/2019), Trump's anti-immigrant 'invasion' rhetoric was echoed by the El Paso shooter for a reason.

No modern presidential candidate has appealed to racial animus during a presidential debate. Trump's attack on the Haitian community should have been the end of his candidacy. As should his statements about Ukraine, the 2020 election, January 6, and abortion—and that list excludes his dozens of other falsehoods.

In short, the debate should move the needle in favor of Kamala Harris. Whether it will do so is a different question—one that will be determined, in part, by whether the media maintains the same intense focus on Trump's  debate performance that it maintained on Biden’s debate performance in July. On the substance, Trump's debate performance was objectively worse, by far. Let’s hope the media doesn’t get distracted by the less consequential matters.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]