Friday Round Up! 9/22/23
The fascist politics underlying the Wisconsin Supreme Court impeachment.
In my Substack piece earlier this week, I wrote about sham impeachments as a form of political propaganda. I quoted Yale professor Jason Stanley who describes the formula for fascist propaganda, which applies perfectly to what is going on right now in the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Republicans in the legislature are planning to impeach newly-elected Democratic Justice Janet Protasiewicz, effectively neutralizing her on the bench. Stanley writes that
It is standard in fascist politics for harsh criticisms of an independent judiciary to occur in the form of accusations of bias, a form of corruption, critiques that are then used to replace independent judges with ones who will cynically employ the law as a means to protect the interests of the ruling party….In the name of rooting out corruption and supposed bias, fascist politicians attack and diminish the institutions that might otherwise check their power.
Well, that is exactly what is going on in Wisconsin, where Protasiewicz is being accused of bias…even though she hasn’t even heard or voted on a single case. Renato and I discussed the real goals behind the impeachment on in this week’s podcast:
The Wisconsin example is just another in a long line of antidemocratic and autocratic power grabs taking place at the state level, something we covered in my Substack course with guest speaker
a few months ago. David writes the Substack , which as I note in the podcast recently began offering a course on voting rights — I am going to sign up for it myself, as election law is not my forte and it’s going to become more and more important moving forward. Check it out.Podcast guest appearance:
I was on the Disorder podcast discussing hybrid warfare and the unique challenges posed by disinformation and technology
Articles worth reading:
Since I woke up today to a “truth” posted by Donald Trump basically calling the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, a traitor and suggesting that he should have been put to death (just another day in a Trumpified America, folks), I recommend this profile of Milley for The Atlantic and this one for the Princeton Alumni Weekly
Noteworthy clips from this week:
Renato and I will no doubt cover the latest indictment of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez in this week’s podcast, but here was my initial take yesterday, for ABC. Forget the gold bars…this guy is a major national security risk. He was providing information to Egyptian officials — including Egyptian intelligence! — that, while not necessarily “classified,” were valuable insider information they would otherwise not be able to find out:
Upcoming events:
NEW! Tuesday, September 26 at 2 p.m. EDT, Guest speaker and Texas A&M professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. Professor Mercieca will teach us the dark arts of communication, and you’ll learn to recognize the rhetorical tricks Trump (and his copycats) employ, and why they are so effective. It will be a good precursor before we dive into the specific narratives Russia promoted through its influence operation, Project Lahkta (you’ll be shocked to know that there are many similarities). Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers at 11 a.m.
Freedom Academy Book Club discussion with Steve Vladeck, author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, Tuesday, October 17, 3 p.m. EDT. Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers at noon, and a recording of the discussion will be posting the following day. (Please check out the new Freedom Academy Book Club tab, where I will collate our book club discussions!). Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers at noon.
DATE/TIME TBA: Class guest speaker Colin Clarke, Director of Research for The Soufan Group. I thought of Colin as I was writing my last post on Yevgeny Prigozhin, as he has followed and written about Prigozhin’s The Wagner Group over the last several years. He will offer some great insight connecting what we are covering in class with the war in Ukraine and Russia’s global operations
I’m currently at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin where it is almost 100 degrees…see you soon when I am back on the East Coast!
When reading Trump's wacko comments, it helps your sanity (a bit) to remember his language code - what he speaks is only tangentially related to normal English. In his mind, America=Trump; e.g. when he says something is "terrible for our country", he really means it's terrible for Trump. So when he calls Milley a traitor, all he's really saying is that Milley is not loyal to him. Which in the mind of Trump is, of course, the ultimate capital offense.
Trump needs to get locked up for the mentally unhinged tweets threatening people and stirring up his cult loonies. If any of us were to say that someone should burn down Mar A Lago or shoot the traitors from January 6th, we would have police at our doors. I don't see any difference.