MAGA's Assault on Truth, Democracy and the Media

As our institutions become increasingly complicit in Trump and MAGA's right-wing authoritarian agenda, it is increasingly clear that it will take a grassroots effort to protect our freedoms.

Pardon the lack of posts this week, dear readers, but I’m in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, to host Ted Democracy’s Event on “Truth, Trust, and the Media.”

It’s a 90-minute, free event featuring experts on disinformation, conspiracy theories, and the free press. Thankfully, we will have very little to talk about because things are going so well right now in the United States of America.

Oy vey.

Earlier today, Marco Rubio, the most shameless Reek of the Trump Administration, voluntarily abdicated what dessicated, withering facade of dignity he had left to fully prostrate himself to Donald Trump’s racist, authoritarian agenda. The Secretary of State, who is the son of Cuban immigrants, repeated lies to dehumanize Abrego Kilmar Garcia, the El Salvadoran immigrant whom the Trump Administration admits it erroneously kidnapped and sent to die in a foreign prison. Rubio, who has a law degree, also apparently doesn’t believe in the separation of powers and stands by his decision to unilaterally kidnap and detain immigrants, like Tufts grad student Rumeysa Ozturk, for “thought crimes” and op-eds he doesn’t like.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should probably know how to define habeas corpus, but because we no longer have DEI, she couldn’t when asked at a Senate hearing. That tracks considering this Administration wants to suspend habeas corpus because they believe we’re currently being “invaded” by immigrants and wants the right to detain citizens and immigrants who trigger the racial sensitivity of Pee-Wee German, also known as Stephen Miller.

However, they will make exceptions for white South African farmers because they can allegedly “assimilate” better due to their white skin. The Trump Administration’s love of white immigrants is so intense that they’ll even parrot and mainstream a white supremacist lie and conspiracy theory of “white genocide” and program Twitter’s AI chatbot to repeat the racist lie. They’ll also make exceptions for violent insurrectionists such as Ashli Babbitt, a radicalized, QAnon nut who joined a mob to overthrow a free and fair election. The Trump Administration is now giving her family $5 million of US taxpayer dollars to settle a bullshit wrongful-death lawsuit. No one should be surprised, considering Trump pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists, including people who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

But, the real threats to America are Beyoncé, Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, whom Trump wanted investigated based on another bogus conspiracy he’s promoting that they were paid to endorse Kamala Harris. If he’s really into rooting out corrupt, foreign money, maybe look into right-wing hacks Tim Poole and David Rubin, who were unwittingly paid by Russian media to parrot pro-Russian, anti-American talking points through Tenet Media.

It’s all projection all the time with MAGA.

That strategy is being repeated by corporate media that remains fixated on Joe Biden’s health but refuses to ask about Trump’s missing health records from the failed assassination attempt. Also, maybe we should look into why Trump keeps falling asleep in public, golfs most of the time, and talks gibberish about groceries?

These questions would be asked in a robust democracy where institutions are doing their best to protect our freedoms instead of pre-emptively bending the knee like Paramount, which is throwing CBS News under the bus to ease a potential merger and not anger the great leader Trump. Unfortunately, we are witnessing complicity to fascism in real time by the corporate elite who are perfectly fine with the rest of us losing our Medicaid just so they can get their tax cuts and line their pockets.

To fight back, we need an informed democracy with individuals willing to stand up to bullies, not obey in advance, and use every lever at their disposal, including their dollar, to resist a right-wing authoritarian agenda that is playing for all the marbles.

I’m trying to do my part in a city that birthed the Constitution 250 years ago, and I hope to return on Thursday with the normally scheduled program to fight these fascist DUI hires.