Tracks on a Beach

I don't care if you never come home.

I only hope that where ever you roam,

Your journey is pleasant,

You meet good friends.

And the world is the better

That you were there.

That certainly is true,

For our time me and you.

The tracks that we leave

Wash away in the tide

We are temporary sojourners

That's something we can't hide.

We bear unbearable sorrow,

Til we can't do it no more.

Then we drop our burden

And walk out the door.

And the tide marches in

As if we'd never been there.

I think of an ancient Islander

I read about in a book.

The house where he lived

Is home to fish and crabs.

The island that was his home

Is now shallow sea floor.

Had he been long gone,

Or recently out the door?

Time is like a broom

Sweeping the floor.

Trumpism is Fascism by attributes

I never really seriously thought we could have a dictator here, until Trump showed up on the scene with the Tea Party and made his authoritarian attempt in 2016. I knew the country had authoritarian elements. But I didn't realize just how easy it was to go from wingnut cranks to a movement like Trumpism until I started reading Robert Altemeyer while Obama was still President. Trumpism is fascism. It is the latest incarnation of a system of government that underlay Monarchies and republics alike for most of history.

Until I saw Trump at work, As I've explained before, Trumpism predates Trump. But the word "Trump" perfectly describes the nature of the movement. It derives from joker, fool or con artist, and Trumpism started as a money grubbing con. A Trump card is a card that is, by the rules of the game, supreme, not by merits. Trumpism meets all the attributes of fascism. One can argue about how fascist they are, but not that they are. At it's beginning Trumpism lacked a youth movement, but that quickly changed as he either adopted, consumed or subsumed existing ones and created a few of his own.

1. Hypernationalism
2. Militarism
3. Violence fetish
4. Youth fetish
5. Masculine fetish
6. Leader cult fetish.
7. Lost Golden Age fetish
8. Self definition by opposition
9. Mob behavior/Mass Mobilization & policy
10. Hierarchy based on loyalty
11. Theatricality!

All the attributes of fascism can be measured. As attributes they are present in movements, and governments. To a degree they are common. But the quantity and intensity of these attributes should be the way we judge whether our political opponents are behaving like fascists. You can measure a countries nationalism by its propaganda and reporting about it's peoples. And by its actions. Patriotism is normal. When a government starts killing or oppressing ethnic minorities and justifies it on a tribe, clan or nation as tribe, that is hypernationalistic. When a country is at peace with its neighbors and patriotism includes all the people living there, that is not hypernationalism.

All the tensional attributes in this list can be found (Patriotism vs nationalism, militarism vs readiness, fetishing youth for example) are present in more normal societies to a degree. And to ebb and flow towards or away from fascism is normal.

Fascism refers to the Punishing Power of the State

It is the degree and combination. When society becomes malevolent towards dissidents and minority groups, power combined with violence, that is fascist. The word fascism referred to the punishment power of the State. A fascist movement can seem downright anarchistic out of power, but fetishing official violence is a feature that is fascist. Fascism can emerge in a previously mildly authoritarian state top down, or it can start as a movement. In the case of Trumpism it started as several movements within the Republican party.

HyperNationalism

Hypernationalism, xenophobia, “us versus them,” another term is Chauvinism. politics against neighbor ethnic groups, these are features of fascism. In a normal republic, patriotism defends the republic, it's principles and people. In a fascist system loyalty to the state means loyalty to the central figure. In the run up to WW2, WW1 veterans who happened to be Jews, started out thinking that their patriotism would protect them from German Chauvinism. It doesn't.

Militarism

A feature of fascim is militarism. Sometimes that militarism is outwardly directed, but it usually is inwardly directed. That is, the militarism is a tool of control and power. A fascist movement usually employs cadres of agent provocateurs and thugs to beat up enemies and recruit adherents. These groups get called various names, black shirts, brown shirts, or proud boys. They run in paramilitary form. They infiltrate and eventually displace or become the police. And they wage war on internal enemies. Fascism as attributes can be left or right. But militarism is almost always a feature.

Violence Fetish

Fascism believes in violence. It's notion of “law and order” is perverse. To a fascist movement “enemy” and “criminal” often become synonymous. And heaven help people when a fascist movement has full governing power. The symbol of the "fascii", sticks for beatings and an axe for cutting off heads, explains why fascist movements resemble one another left or right, christian or moslem. Freedom is for the movement, its powers, and its leaders, everyone else must "freely obey." The fearless leader can do anything, so long as he pretends to live up to that myth.

Youth Fetish

Fascist movements depend on propaganda. Part of that propaganda is the notion that there is a utopia waiting for the children of the faithful. Fascist movements dream of 1000 year reigns and permanence. And they seek to get to that permanence by indoctrinating youth. Fascist youth movements provide shock troops for both representing dissidence within the country and for the wars that fascist movements usually pursue.

Masculine Fetish

Fascist leaders use words like “strong” or “powerful” to describe themselves and words like “weak”, “corrupt”, “swamp” for enemies. They often project their own fears and plans onto their targets. This masculine fetish goes with the violence. The leader must be a hero, a superman. Mao Tse Dung swimming the Yangtze, Putin riding a horse, Hitler or Mussolini standing tall and strong at a review stand. The followers carry guns or weapons to compensate for their own feelings of inadequacy.

Leader Cult Fetish

Fascist movements are basically cults, except usually larger scale. The leader, often full well knowing he is conning them, and the conned, top flying monkey knowing they are being conned but along for the ride – portray the leader as masculine, strong, a father figure, who can do no wrong. This happens in ordinary politics too, but, again, it is the degree to which a fascist movement or government does this that distinguishes it from democratic or more normal movements and governments.

Lost Golden Age

For all the bravado and claims of positivity, at heart most fascist movements live on resentment, fear and grievance. The propaganda message is always “It's not our fault. You were robbed!”, even as the kakacrats who usually lead such movements are looting and despoiling, dispossessing and conning their followers, they point to a lost past Golden age and/or dreams of a future golden age, to motivate their flock of goats to keep going forward and to attack enemies. For Hitler it was the "stabbed in the back narrative". For Mussolini it was Romes ancient glory. For Spain it was God, King and Catholic Church. Fascist movements brand themselves according to the people they are conning.

Self definition by opposition

An accomplished demagogue, like Trump, can turn anything into a motivation for this pigeons. Mask wearing, because it was promoted by his “enemies” (including doctors trying to save lives), became a rallying cry for Trump and his Trumpers, with tragic consequences. This part of propaganda puts a wedge between people who follow Trump and everyone else. It is part of his power strategy, part of the propaganda. The border wall is an example. It's not really about keeping out Mexicans, it was about defining his opposition to immigrants and minorities and giving it a symbol. Support the wall, you are with him. Think it's a bad idea? You are the enemy.

Mob Rule; Mass rule and mobilization

And of course, fascists blur the line between all the people and the people. To Trump, "the people" were his mob. Anyone not with him, was not part of his people.

Hierarchy based on loyalty

I'll be talking about this in more depth later. Balint Magyar describes the modern version of fascism as “the Mafia State”, the underlying archetypical image is of devoted followers kissing the Godfather's ring. In a fascist state, the ruling family is the state. Absolute monarchy was a form of fascism before the term was popular. In modern fascism, the Godfather is the State, violence and criminality are state tools. In classic fascism, devotion to the leader was mandatory and supposed to be unquestioning.

Propaganda

At the heart of fascism, classic or modern, is propaganda. In power fascist governments believe that might makes right, that the will can triumph over everything. And if you can't make a promise happen, you can pretend to make that promise happen. Some of the diabolical ways that totalitarian authoritarians do this were described in "Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt. If you can't make unemployment go away, starve the unemployed!

Theatrical

It is no accident that Trump rode his job at the "Celebrity Apprentice." Fascism at heart is always a deep fake. Insecure and narcissistic leaders. Tons of lies and and misrepresentations. Looting and kleptocracy. All running alongside theater designed to indoctrinate and entertain the masses. Trump's Presidency has been “Celebrity dictator Apprentice” and ran 6 seasons and is not yet over.

Hopefully it's cancelled

This post memorializes a mix of memes I created myself and ones I borrowed from others. I wrote it first with my cell phone and was having trouble editing it or it would have been published a while ago.

COVID before Christmas

Tis 10 nights before Christmas,

and all through the land,

Coronavirus is running rampant,

Because our nation refused to make an plan.

The stocking are hung by the chimney with care,

in hopes that food and a vaccine soon would be there.

The children are nested all snug in their beds,

with visions of nightmares stuck in their heads.

While mothers and fathers ponder how to survive.

Covid -19 is decimating what we need to thrive.

So hope that we may, on vaccine and Good Cheer.

How to protect yourself now is what we need here.

With hospitals closing all across the land,

we hope you will take 5 minutes to listen to our plan.

Take you time!

Part of a friends work

Collated Madness

It sounds so logical, rational, possible

all organized, sorted, separated by page;

Eacb copy is all stacked for binding,

Like a book intended for the ages;

Each page is in neat type,

A clear script making your mad case;

Repeating to your angry followers;

"Kill the black man!

Hang him high!

Throw his body into the sea!

Send him to Kenya!

He's not our guy!"

You have your own universe of media.

Crowds flying banners,

Patriots preaching treason.

Preaching fealty to the constitution

While practicing subversion.

Subversives calling lies,

"Fair and Ballanced," for all to see.

And you repeat to your angry followers,

"LOCK HER UP!

She is guilty!

Hang her high!

Throw her body in the sea!"

Waves of fat old men,

Riffles in hand, tin foil hats.

Led by blind old men,

Wearing tricornered hats,

Dangling tea bags.

 

You preach to your lynch mob!

Old and well fed, 

young and missing teeth.

"Save the children!"

"Stop the death panels!"

You shout;

"Stop the world, I want to get off."

"I'll give you the best health!, believe me!"

"We'll make America Great Again"

"We'll drain the swamp!"

And they believe you.

Call & response 

to your angry followers;

"Lock them up!

Lock them up!

Don't be too gentle!

Hang them high!

Throw their bodies into the sea!"

The slogans sound so logical, plausible.

A lifetime Con sure knows the swamp.

"Drain the swamp!" You say!

And proceed to drain everything,

Through a sieve.

And into your back pocket!

You talk so much of unborn children.

Your followers actually think you care!

And the call and response 

On immigrant children;

"LOCK THEM UP!

They are rapists and murderors!

They don't send us their best!

We want machine guns on the border.

We will make of them an example!"

You take suckling babies

from their mothers,

And send them for adoption.

And when women are raped,

Forced birth.

Meanwhile you loot and destroy,

And fire anyone who won't bow to you.

You give family members lucrative contracts.

And steal everything not well nailed down.

Your party no longer sounds rational.

And you have done evil,

That makes no sense.

Christopher H. Holte 12/8/2020

I started this a long time ago. Wrote most of it before 2016.  There is more in my head, but I wanted to transcribe the paper while it was fresh.

Hope its Over

We aren't out of the woods yet. Written 12/4/2020.  Updated 12/9/2020

The SCOTUS denied CERT for Trumps latest frivolous lawsuit today. It's over for Trumps Presidency.

Adolf Hitler, along with others, tried to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923. They failed.  Hitler was convicted of Treason. He wrote Mein Kampf from prison. He was made a hero. The Judiciary had sided with him. He came back to power 10 years later and ended the German Republic, replacing it with the "Third Reich."

Sturm and Drang, Dolchstoßlegende

The Germans had been traumatized by the

• “Spanish Flu”
• The horrors of trench war and utterly futile two front warfare.
• The betrayals of the peace negotiation led by Woodrow Wilson,

The "peace" with the Brits, French and Americans, involved betrayals and was labeled Dolchstoßlegende, "Stabbed in the back legend." it was sold as an explanation of Germany's loss. “We didn't lose the war, we were stabbed in the back” morphed into “We lost due to the Jews”, became a vicious antisemitic narrative that appealed to Germans suffering depression, inflation and a society that seemed to be deteriating. Hitler came to power, partly, on the strength of this Dolchstoßlegende lie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth

Trump's Sturm and Drang, Con

Trump is trying to build such a Dolchstoßlegende about his election. To him, this narrative addresses 3 deep ego needs.

1. As a Narcissist, he cannot handle losing. So he has responded to loss his whole life by calling the people he lost to corrupt.

1985, rejected in efforts to buy an NFL team, accused the NFL of rigging

1986, lost Antitrust suitt, called the courts rigged.

1987, lost investment in Alexanders, lied about it.

1989, Lost Bid on Seminole casino project, screamed “fraud” also has spent rest of his life on a vendetta against Indiginious since then.

1989, Father bailed out his Casino, but it eventually went bankrupt....

1990, called analyst warning of Trump Taj Mahal risks, a fraud and liar.

Much more... but these come from Kurt Eichenwald (and I could look up his sources because I've verified them many times) https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1335778561572016128

2. He thinks he can run again in 2024. Meanwhile, his narcissistic feed requires an angry lynch mob supporting him. It's no accident angry mobs assaulted the Secretary State of Michigan during the first week of December. Right Wing groups live on grievance and Dolchstoßlegende like narratives.
3. He hoped to overturn the election. And might have succeeded if the election had been closer, or if his COVID response hadn't been so numbskull.

Trump's Sedition

Trump's effort to overthrow the election is sedition. Unfortunately, with Trump we can expect years of sturm and drang from Trump – eventually he will fail, but the big worry is that whoever picks up the standard after he is tried and convicted of a long list of crimes or finally strokes out — will carry on from where he left off. What Hitler did was sedition. Trump is doing sedition too.



SAFE ACT

Meantime we need to shore up our democracy against these fascists. All the complaints trump is making about the need for paper ballots and better process, are stolen (like most of his better rhetoric), from Progressives and Democrats.

It doesn't have to be this way

In California a progressive affirmative action bill recently failed. If I were a Republican I'd be studying that vote to figure out a way forward that doesn't involve fascism and genuinely dumps racism. 

No ethnocity is homogenous. And there are attractive fundamental principles Republicans used to offer that provide alternatives that could be as progressive as those Democrats offer. 

If for example Conservatives were genuine about promoting genuine meritocracy & a path to inclusion, they would be able to compromise with progressives & recruit.

Trumpism & corrupt corporatism taints those alternatives.  It is obvious too many believe in country club rules, and rigging our political economy.  Markets have their lane, but so does common good.  When you take a common good out of the public good and try to put it into a market box -- like putting a square peg in a round hole --it doesn't fit. You get market failure.

Markets are, or should be, public squares where buyers & sellers come together.  What is sold in markets is free enterprise.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Christopher

Soldiering on

  We soldier on,

For our mates,

Despite all the insanity

And all the hates.

Our generals may be crazy.

Our officers may be lazy.

But we soldier on,

Singing a solidarity song.

Loving one another,

A brotherhood of comradry.

Standing back to back.

We win for our children

That way.

The ghosts of Rudyard Kipling, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and sundry relatives and friends contributed to this.