... and that's how you lose the argument...
...because that pony is going to kick you ...
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a5nXndN_460sv.mp4
#right-wing
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-its-impossible-for-right-wing-69b
Why It's Impossible for #Right-Wing #Governments to Handle a #Crisis
Why right wing crises face incompetence or cynical exploitation. Bush and “heckofajob Brownie”; Netanyahu and Gaza; Trump and Covid, or his cynically tossing paper towels at hurricane victims..
THOM #HARTMANN
OCT 17, 2023
..."Leftwing governments believe in democracy, and so try to accomplish what’s best for the majority of people while protecting the rights of the minority; rightwing governments practice autocracy on behalf of the morbidly rich. Sometimes, like the old USSR or modern Venezuela, repressive and authoritarian rightwing governments pretend to be left-wing, but the police state aspects of their governance give the game away.
— Rightwingers don’t see democracy as a benefit or even an ideal; they see it as an impediment to further comforting the already-comfortable while enriching themselves in the process. Instead of building up disaster preparedness through strengthening, for example, FEMA, they work to redirect those government dollars back to their friends through things like $600 billion a year in oil industry subsidies and over $20 trillion (cumulatively) in Republican tax cuts to billionaires since 1981.
The result — when rightwingers are in charge — is government that’s not paying attention to real threats and, when they come, responds with profound incompetence or cynical exploitation. Bush and “heckofajob Brownie”; Netanyahu and Gaza; Trump and Covid, or his cynically tossing paper towels at hurricane victims.
Bush was not only incompetent in allowing 9/11 to happen despite multiple warnings that he refused to respond to, but when it did happen he tried to use it to his own political advantage and that of his Vice President by lying us into two unnecessary and illegal wars."...
Fighting junk fees is "woke"
Excellent essay by Cory Doctorow
https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#more-5712
#woke #conservatism #right-wing #plutocracy #plutocrats #oligarchy #culture-wars #politics #doctorow #cory #cory-doctorow
Breaking news: The refusers forced the Israeli government to delay the judicial coup! | Refuser Solidarity Network
We are writing this quickly, as events are unfolding on the ground.
Weeks-long wave of refusal and civil resistance forced the Israeli government yesterday (Monday) to postpone the #anti-democratic judicial coup! Due to the refusers' pressure, on Saturday, the minister of defense, Yoav Galant, had a press conference and announced his opposition to the judicial #coup, citing voices of #dissent in the army as the major reason for his break with his own party and the government. As a result, the prime minister, Netanyahu, fired him on Sunday. The firing led to a huge backlash: mass #protests, a general #strike by universities and trade unions, the blocking of roads across the country and the shutdown of the airport. All this forced the government to postpone the judicial coup. And it all started with the refusers.
Earlier this week the Israeli press overflowed with daily refusal statements and civil resistance announcements. Each day hundreds of reserve soldiers protested against the government and declared their refusal to continue to serve in the Israeli army. Among them are soldiers of the Intelligence Corps soldiers, doctors, combat pilots and more. In a letter sent to the Israeli defense minister, soldiers of the Intelligence Corps wrote:
“Our conscience does not allow us to cooperate with the attempts to change the regime In Israel. An undemocratic Israel is a weak Israel which is dangerous to minorities within it, an Israel with a failing economic system. Our love for the country and the many years we spent serving it compel us to resist.”
The act of refusal also worked its way to different sectors of the #army and the Israeli society. 700 Soldiers in the standing army sent out official letters to the minister of defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli army stating that they will resign from service. Parents of soldiers to be facing mandatory #conscription have reconsidered sending their children to serve in the army and a group of 40 soldiers currently serving their mandatory conscription filmed a video vowing not to serve an undemocratic government.
On Friday, the Israeli army Commander-in-Chief warned that the Israeli army is disintegrating and that military operations are at risk due to massive amounts of refusals caused by the judicial coup. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu addressed the unprecedented crisis the army is facing and mentioned that refusing to serve in the military is a great danger to Israel.
The refusal wave puts the government in an unparalleled #crisis, and this crisis is a huge #opportunity. This represents a massive crack in the Israeli mainstream’s conviction that the army is used purely for defense. It is a moment of deep change in the worldviews of the Israeli citizenry, that could allow the anti-occupation movement to show Israelis that a democracy only for some people, is not a democracy at all.
Although this could be a time to celebrate decades of hard work leading to a moment of success, the fight is far from over. The reforms have only been postponed and not canceled. Netanyahu called for the army to punish the #refusers, and to get the majority needed to approve a delay in the legislation, Netanyahu promised an ultra-nationalist party to create a new “national guard” under the control of Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of an extreme #right-wing party. All this means that leveraging the protests to fight the occupation is a challenge, and there is no democracy without an end to the #occupation.
Refuser Solidarity Network continues to support local Israeli refusers. We support efforts to use this moment to expand the anti-occupation movement and continue the fight to bring an end to the occupation.
Source: https://mailchi.mp/refuser/refusers-solidarity-15085353
Solidarität mit den verhafteten Antifaschist:innen in Ungarn
Am Sonntag, den 13. Februar 2023 wurden vier Personen in #Budapest verhaftet, drei von ihnen befinden sich seither in den Händen des ungarischen Staates in #Untersuchungshaft. Den Antifaschist:innen wird vorgeworfen, an mehreren Angriffen auf Faschisten vor Ort beteiligt gewesen zu sein. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden heute, am 15. Februar 2023, zudem zwei Wohnungen bei Antifas in #Berlin durchsucht.
Die Verhaftungen in Budapest fanden im Zusammenhang mit dem „Tag der Ehre“ statt, einem der größten Aufmärsche von #Faschisten in #Europa. Jährlich verherrlichen sie ein Selbstmordkommando der deutschen Wehrmacht, ihren ungarischen Kollaborateuren und Einheiten der Waffen SS gegen die Rote Armee.
Diverse rechte Medien und mittlerweile auch die deutsche Boulevard-Presse berichten über die Vorfälle und sparen nicht damit, Namen und Bilder zu veröffentlichen. Gleichzeitig stellen sie das große Neonazi-Schaulaufen als unpolitische Sport-Veranstaltung dar oder verschweigen den Kontext in Gänze und bezeichnen die angegriffenen Faschisten als einfache Passanten.
In einem Land, in dem die faschistoide Regierung mit rassistischen und antisemitischen Äußerungen die Massen hinter sich vereint, ist die Hetzjagd kaum verwunderlich. Alle großen Medien wiederholen ungefragt die Forderung rechtsradikaler Parteien nach einem Verbot „der Antifa“. Die politische Lage im Land ist für Antifaschist:innen, #SintiundRoma, #Queers und andere diskriminierte Gruppen schon lange schwer aushaltbar.
Hinter Gittern sind die inhaftierten Antifaschist:innen eben dieser feindlichen Stimmung, zusätzlich zur Isolation, auch ausgesetzt. Hinzu kommt der desaströse Zustand der ungarischen Knäste, die nicht nur zu den ältesten, sondern auch überfülltesten in der #EU zählen.
Wir solidarisieren uns mit den gefangenen Antifaschist:innen. Wir wünschen allen Genoss:innen vor Ort, die trotz der Umstände die Stellung halten und der faschistischen Basis im Land die Stirn bieten, viel Kraft. Auch sie brauchen unsere Unterstützung, jetzt mehr denn je!
Free them all – Fight #Fascism!
In #Solidarity with the arrested #antifascists in #Hungary
On Sunday, 13. February 2023, four people were arrested in Budapest, three of them have been in the hands of the Hungarian state in pre-trial in pre-trial detention since then. The antifascists are accused of being involved in several attacks on local fascists. In this context, today, February 15, 2023, also two apartments of antifascists in Berlin were searched.
The arrests in Budapest took place in connection with the „Day of Honor„, one of the biggest marches of #fascists in #Europe. Every year they glorify a suicide squad of the German Wehrmacht, their Hungarian collaborators and units of the Waffen SS against the Red Army.
Various #right-wing media and meanwhile also the German tabloid press report about the incidents and do not spare to publish names and pictures. At the same time they present the big #Neo-Nazi parade as a non-political sporting event or conceal the context entirety and describe the attacked fascists as simple passers-by.
In a country where the fascist government unites the masses with racist and anti-Semitic statements, the hunt is hardly surprising. All major media repeat without being asked the demand of radical right-wing parties for a ban of „the Antifa“. The political situation in the country for anti-fascists, Sinti and Roma, queers and other discriminated groups have long been difficult to endure.
Behind bars are the imprisoned antifascists exposed to this hostile atmosphere, in addition to isolation. Added to this the disastrous condition of the Hungarian prisons, which are not only the oldest, but also the most overcrowded in the EU have to be mentioned.
We stand in solidarity with the imprisoned antifascists. We wish all comrades, who despite the circumstances are holding their ground against the fascist base in the country, a lot of strength. Also they need our support, now more than ever!
Free them all – #FightFascism!
#ungarn #neonazis #repression gegen #antifa s
https://de.indymedia.org/node/259583
Mastodon gained 70,000 users after Musk’s Twitter takeover. I joined them | Social media | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/nov/01/mastodon-twitter-elon-musk-takeover
#socialmedia #Twitter #Mastodon #networking #transgender #LGBTQ #queer #Trump #left-wing #right-wing #decentralization #ElonMusk
Europeans who support #right-wing populist parties have historically been more likely than other Europeans to express a positive view of #Russia and its president, Vladimir #Putin. While that is generally still the case today, favorable opinions of Russia and Putin have declined sharply among Europe’s populists following Russia’s #military invasion of #Ukraine, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.
The decline in favorable views of Russia and Putin has been especially pronounced among populists in #Italy, which will hold an election on Sept. 25 to determine if the far-right Brothers of Italy party – backed by two other right-wing populist parties, #Lega and #ForzaItalia – will lead the winning coalition. Favorable opinions of Russia have declined by 49 percentage points among supporters of Lega and Forza Italia since 2020 – the biggest decrease of any measured in the Center’s analysis.
Overall, positive ratings of Russia dropped by 15 points or more among supporters of most right-wing populist parties in #Europe between 2020 and 2022. In #France, for example, a majority of National Rally supporters (55%) held a favorable view of Russia in 2020, but just about a fifth (21%) do so now – a drop of 34 points. In #Hungary, which was last surveyed in 2019, and #Germany, supporters of #Fidesz and Alternative for Germany ( #AfD) also have become less positive toward Russia, with favorability dropping 15 points in both countries.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/09/23/among-european-right-wing-populists-favorable-views-of-russia-and-putin-are-down-sharply/ #fdi #war #sweden #uk #greece #netherlands #spain #poland
At 6:30 AM on Monday, August 8th, the #FBI showed up with a search warrant at #Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s #Florida estate. They were looking for any classified documents or other records that the former president might have illegally taken with him when he left office. The internet promptly went crazy. Trump supporters flooded #right-wing channels with claims that politically motivated “weaponization of the law” was turning the US into a “banana republic” – never mind their longstanding demands to prosecute Hillary #Clinton over her private email server, a much less serious violation. On the left, Democrats cheered what they are billing as Merrick Garland‘s fearless pursuit of #justice, wherever the chase may lead.
On one level, the #Democrats have a point. As president, #Trump had access to the absolute highest levels of classified information, and if something like, say, plans for the next generation of spy satellites were gathering dust in the back of the Mar-a-Lago loading dock in an unlabeled cardboard box, that would be the most severe violation of classified protocols in US #history, by an ex-president no less. In anything like normal circumstances that would be a huge deal in its own right. But circumstances are not normal and this is Trump we’re talking about. It behooves us to dig a little deeper.
https://itsgoingdown.org/trump-raid-notes/ #usa #capitolriot #alexjones #biden #republicans #desantis
Why Trump and the GOP love Hungary’s authoritarian leader
“The reason that Orbán keeps winning is he has the control of a dictator,” said one political scientist. “So the question is, what are the Republicans in it for?"
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/viktor-orban-cpac-trump-gop-hungary-leader-rcna40199
He has extolled the value of racial purity, is vehemently anti-immigration, has cultivated close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and was a speaker at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, in Dallas.\
\
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, 59, is widely criticized around the world for systematically dismantling his country’s nascent democracy during his 12 years in power — but that hasn’t stopped him from emerging as a darling of many on the right in America.\
\
Orbán told a cheering crowd of conference delegates that he and other conservatives were in a battle to protect Western civilization against the forces of liberalism and mass migration.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/06/viktor-orban-cpac-far-right-us-trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Orb%C3%A1n
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220727-holocaust-survivors-condemn-race-remarks-by-hungary-s-orban
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/04/hungarys-authoritarian-leader-no-gift-us-conservatives
#right-wing #far-right #conservative #usa #hungary #dictator #cpac #republicans #orban #orbán #viktor-orbán #racial-purity #anti-immigration #liberalism #mass-migration #mixed-race #racism #bigotry
#Brexit to blame: #UK shoppers pay up to 50% more than those in #EU | #Consumer affairs | The Guardian
This not a problem for rich people but many poor people were duped by #right-wing #politicians into voting for something that has clearly been demonstrated to have been against the poor people's interests.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/30/brexit-uk-shoppers-pay-more-eu-zara-ikea-decathlon
The #colonial project has poisoned #Israel, as feared by its most prescient leaders, including Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a #right-wing Jewish extremist in 1995.
Israel is an #apartheid state that rivals and often surpasses the onetime #savagery and #racism of apartheid South Africa.
Its democracy — which was always exclusively for Jews — has been hijacked by #extremists, including current Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu, who have implemented #racial laws that were once championed mainly by marginalized fanatics such as Meir Kahane.
The #Israeli public is infected with racism. “Death to Arabs” is a popular chant at Israeli soccer matches.
Jewish mobs and vigilantes, including #thugs from right-wing youth groups such as Im Tirtzu, carry out indiscriminate acts of vandalism and #violence against #dissidents, #Palestinians, Israeli #Arabs and the hapless African immigrants who live crammed into the slums of #TelAviv.
Israel has promulgated a series of #discriminatory laws against non-Jews that eerily resemble the #racist Nuremberg Laws that disenfranchised Jews in Nazi Germany.
The Communities Acceptance Law permits exclusively Jewish towns in Israel’s Galilee region to bar applicants for residency on the basis of “suitability to the community’s fundamental outlook.”
#evil #colonization #colonialism #genocide #Palestine #HumanRights
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the godfather of the #right-wing ideology that has dominated #Israel since 1977, an #ideology openly embraced by Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Benjamin #Netanyahu, wrote bluntly in 1923:
“Every native population in the world resists #colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the #danger of being #colonized. That is what the #Arabs in #Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of ‘Palestine’ into the ‘Land of Israel.’ ”
#apartheid #abuse #violation #HumanRights #Palestinian #freedom
Promoters of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine may have profit motive
On Friday, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, announced an investigation into the right-wing, anti-science propaganda group America’s Frontline Doctors and telemedicine provider SpeakWithAnMD.com following an Intercept investigation. Clyburn called the two organizations “predatory actors” that have been “touting misinformation and using it to market disproven and potentially hazardous coronavirus treatments” such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
The committee, citing The Intercept, requested documents from America’s Frontline Doctors, or AFLDS, and SpeakWithAnMD about their business practices and profits. It wrote to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that the agency investigate whether these companies are in violation of federal laws.
“Attempts to monetize coronavirus misinformation have eroded public confidence in proven treatments and prevention measures and hindered efforts to control the pandemic,” Clyburn wrote in his letter to AFLDS. “Some Americans who have been influenced by misinformation have chosen not to get vaccinated, delayed receiving evidence-based treatment, and ingested unapproved substances in harmful quantities.”
#ivermectin #hydroxychloroquine #FrontlineDoctors #SpeakWithAnMD #right-wing #anti-science #propaganda
https://theintercept.com/2021/11/01/covid-hydroxychloroquine-ivermectin-investigation/
To the People of Cuba: Is Washington Preparing a “Soft Coup”? The Co-optation of Cuban Intellectuals
'This #article will largely concentrate on the #activities of #right-wing #European #foundations involved in #funding #Cuban #think-tanks and #research #centers.'
#cuba #washington #soft-coup #intellectuals #political #sabotage #us #europe #latinamerica #caribbean #venezuela #revolution #fidelcastro #history #humanity #obama #trump #biden #economic #social #sanctions #blockade #covid19 #global #capitalism #nato #cia #ned #hss #csu #international #engineered #protests
