Most who visit the Debates Forum do not like to read so I am guessing no one will comment on this piece. Most of you just like to rant.
October 25, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Oct 26
“Caravans” of migrants to our southern border are once again headline news on the Fox News Channel, but while these anti-immigrant stories divert attention from news that those on the right would like to bury, as usual, they also establish a larger pattern.
Whipping up fears of immigration is standard for authoritarians trying to convince followers to support the loss of civil liberties in order to promote law and order. One of those who rose to power with just such an argument is Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, a figure those on the right are championing these days. Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson broadcast from Hungary appreciatively earlier this year, presenting Orbán’s government, which has systematically dismantled democracy, as enviable. The American Conservative Union is planning to have its 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Hungary, as well.
This backstory gave disturbing context to today’s news from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO is a government agency within the legislative branch (most of the ones you’re used to hearing about are in the executive branch) that audits, investigates, and issues reports for Congress. Known as the congressional watchdog, the GAO tries to cut through spin to do honest, thorough, and nonpartisan evaluations of government issues.
Today, the GAO reported that actions of the Trump administration had undermined U.S. goals in the Northern Triangle countries that are currently driving immigration to the southern border. Since 2008, the U.S. has funded development projects in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to promote economic development, provide security, and combat corruption. This investment was designed, in part, to slow the movement of immigrants escaping the violence and economic dislocation of the region to the U.S. border.
In March 2019, the Trump administration abruptly halted promised money, and that freeze continued until June 2020. Today’s GAO report documented how that suspension hurt 92 of the 114 projects underway under the control of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and 65 of the 168 projects operating under the State Department.
Migration to the border soared, right before the 2020 election.
While Trump Republicans were trying to convince white American voters that immigrants threatened them, another story today suggests the real goals of the Trump machine.
The Guardian revealed that several members of the secretive Council on National Policy (CNP) claim that they were the ones behind the 2017 tax cuts on corporations and wealthy Americans. Wealthy right-wing Christian activists organized the CNP in 1981 to push the country toward religious and libertarian policies.
Also today, the Washington Post Magazine ran a long story about CNP, calling it “the most unusual, least understood conservative organization in the nation’s capital.” CNP is registered as a charity, but it is essentially a central planning center for right-wing activists across the country. Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., explained how CNP members, who initially opposed Trump, swung behind him when he promised to combat abortion.
Members of CNP are a who’s who of wealthy conservative or political figures, including Leonard Leo, a leading light of the Federalist Society, which advocates for a conservative judicial system; Steve Bannon, a key Trump adviser; David Bossie, who headed the group Citizens United and who was Trump’s deputy campaign manager; and Kellyanne Conway, a White House adviser. Their goal, they say, is to create a moral America.
So, it appears, the fearmongering about immigrants helped to give power to a secret group of wealthy Americans who lobbied for huge tax cuts for the richest Americans.
The stories about CNP suggest its members have focused on keeping emotions high and Trump in power. The CNP was instrumental in opposing business closures and mask mandates to combat the coronavirus. A number of members, including Cleta Mitchell—the lawyer who was on the phone with Trump during his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to switch the state into the Trump column although Biden had won it—and Ginni Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, backed “Stop the Steal” efforts.
Their efforts, we have increasing evidence, were promoted by Facebook, the giant social media company. Starting last Friday, 17 different news outlets have been publishing the “Facebook Papers” based on internal company documents provided to Congress and the press by whistleblower Frances Haugen. The stories allege that Facebook prioritized profits over truth and safety, deliberately amplifying right-wing voices and dividing the country.
Facebook denies the allegations.
Reports of migrant caravans might well be attempts to divert attention from the service of the Republicans to the wealthy, as well as from the story of January 6, which is becoming clearer as information continues to come out. Today, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol interviewed Steve Bannon associate Dustin Stockton. Stockton was one of the organizers of the Women for America First rally on January 6 that got taken over by the unpermitted Stop the Steal rally which led to the attack on the Capitol.
According to a piece by Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien in ProPublica last June, Stockton was so concerned about the Stop the Steal people that he urged Amy Kremer, another leader of the Women for America First rally, to contact her associate Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, in the days before January 6 to warn him things were getting out of hand. The committee has subpoenaed Kremer to testify on October 29. There are signs that Kremer or an associate might have been a source for yesterday’s Rolling Stone article, suggesting that someone from Women for America First is willing to cooperate with the committee.
The Rolling Stone article, which provided names of lawmakers allegedly involved in planning the January 6 rally, refocused attention on the fact that it was Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) who was speaking at length as the mob broke into the building. His speech delayed the evacuation of the House chamber for 15 minutes, so that the House members were still present when the mob, including Ashli Babbitt, tried to get at them. A police officer shot and killed Babbitt as she broke through the doors.
Last night’s Rolling Stone story also identified Republican Lauren Boebert (CO) as a participant in planning meetings for the events of January 6. Today she said in a carefully worded statement: “I had no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on January 6.”
Today, once again, President Joe Biden refused to claim executive privilege to prevent the January 6 committee from seeing documents Trump wants to hide.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress continue to try to move the country forward, hammering out their infrastructure measure. They hope to have it finished before President Biden leaves for meetings with European leaders later this week.
Notes:
https://www.salon.com/2021/10/14/cpac-set-to-stage-far-right-conference-in-hungary-as-prosecutors-zero-in/
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R41731.pdf
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/15/fact-sheet-united-states-and-central-america-honoring-our-commitments
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-turbulent-northern-triangle
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/17/761266169/trump-froze-aid-to-guatemala-now-programs-are-shutting-down
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-104366
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions-fy2019
Twitter avatar for @hugolowell
Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
New: House Republican Lauren Boebert says in carefully worded statement: “I had no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on Jan. 6.”
October 25th 2021
@phranny saidI have no doubt that much of this is true, but you're not going to change anyone's mind. Conservatives here cling to their right wing soundbites, convinced legions of immigrants are swarming across our southern border, spreading death, disease, and destruction akin to a biblical plague. Anything written or spoken, no matter how factual, that runs contrary to their conservative dogma is automatically dismissed as deep state, liberal propaganda.
Most who visit the Debates Forum do not like to read so I am guessing no one will comment on this piece. Most of you just like to rant.
October 25, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Oct 26
“Caravans” of migrants to our southern border are once again headline news on the Fox News Channel, but while these anti-immigrant stories divert attention from news that those on the rig ...[text shortened]... ny event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on Jan. 6.”
October 25th 2021
Awhile ago, a few of my conservative relatives came up to Seattle from Tennessee. We invited them to watch the Windermere Cup / Washington Huskey crew races on Lake Washington. Huskey Men's and women's crew's have won many national championships, and I thought it would be fun. These folks looked at my wife and I in horror, and shook their head in revulsion, stating there were too many BLM riots and burning buildings in Seattle, and that it was not safe "out there" (in reality there were no such riots or arson anywhere in the city) they sat in front of the TV, glued to FOX and friends; after they spent their required day without seeing anything of Seattle, caught the 6:20 AM flight back home.
America the divided - I don't know what the solution is....
@phranny saidFrances Haugen is calling for more facebook censorship. That is what that is all about. This is part of an effort by the establishment to force facebook to censor what they want him to censor. Zuckerberg used to be against censorship in the USA.
Most who visit the Debates Forum do not like to read so I am guessing no one will comment on this piece. Most of you just like to rant.
October 25, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Oct 26
“Caravans” of migrants to our southern border are once again headline news on the Fox News Channel, but while these anti-immigrant stories divert attention from news that those on the rig ...[text shortened]... ny event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on Jan. 6.”
October 25th 2021
https://nypost.com/2020/06/04/mark-zuckerberg-stands-up-against-censorship/
Have you ever wondered what made him change his mind? They keep threatening to regulate him if he doesn't. When he doesn't conform he gets dragged in front of congress and lawmakers talk a lot about regulating facebook.
Do you think it is just coincidence that after biden says facebook is killing people a whistleblower comes forward that doesn't even work for facebook anymore making a big stink over nothing? They are pressuring him into censoring certain stuff and not other stuff that is obviously misinformation. Joe Rogan taking horse dewormer is misinformation, but they don't want that to be censored. People can spread that misinformation all they want.
In other words, the establishment wants facebook to censor the ugly truth and leave the preferred lies alone.
@phranny saidWell done.
Most who visit the Debates Forum do not like to read so I am guessing no one will comment on this piece. Most of you just like to rant.
October 25, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Oct 26
“Caravans” of migrants to our southern border are once again headline news on the Fox News Channel, but while these anti-immigrant stories divert attention from news that those on the rig ...[text shortened]... ny event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC on Jan. 6.”
October 25th 2021
Of course, the usual suspects here will cry "fake news!"
@metal-brain saidCementing your reputation as the most gullible person on the planet.
Frances Haugen is calling for more facebook censorship. That is what that is all about. This is part of an effort by the establishment to force facebook to censor what they want him to censor. Zuckerberg used to be against censorship in the USA.
https://nypost.com/2020/06/04/mark-zuckerberg-stands-up-against-censorship/
Have you ever wondered what made him change hi ...[text shortened]... words, the establishment wants facebook to censor the ugly truth and leave the preferred lies alone.
@metal-brain saidCan you link to anything except conspiracy-theory sites?
Facebook ‘whistleblower’ Frances Haugen represented by US intelligence insiders
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/21/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-us-intelligence/