How the Trump cult is scaring the EU into working toward military self sufficiency, and what it means if the cult hijacks America
Trumpist American indoctrinees do not get it as to what the face of America will look like if Trump hijacks America into another pseudo religious despotism. To be blunt, America in that situation will be a pseudo "Christian" version of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of executions for 'unbelievers' , and will zero soft power. Here is what will be the talk of the World, as why Trump America will be LOATHED
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Unfortunately, a cynical faction of affluent supporters don’t believe a word Trump says, but they support him anyway because they are under the impression that he will deliver economic policies that benefit them. I think of this as the tragedy of unenlightened self-interest – or the stupidity of greed. America’s economy under the Biden administration is actually doing very well, with many investments in infrastructure and local development delivering economic benefits to red states. But that message doesn’t seem to penetrate to the multi-millionaire and billionaire funders of the Christian nationalist movement, who want low taxes for the rich, minimal regulation of businesses, have no concern for the environment, and who seek to erode the rights of the workforce so that they can further increase their already substantial fortunes.
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What will that message be to the EU and the rest of the planet ? IMO it will be at that junction time to GET OUT OF DODGE, and to keep the USA at arms length, come hell or high water: In response to the siren calls of Trump despotism:
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Today, the European Commission and the High Representative presented the first-ever European Defence Industrial Strategy at EU level and proposed an ambitious set of new actions to support the competitiveness and readiness of its defence industry.
Two years ago, Russia's unjustified, on-going war of aggression against Ukraine marked the return of high-intensity conflict on our continent. The European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) sets a clear, long-term vision to achieve defence industrial readiness in the European Union. As a first immediate and central means to deliver the Strategy, the European Commission today tables a legislative proposal for a European Defence Industry Programme ?(EDIP) and a framework of measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products.
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THIS IS DUE TO DONALD TRUMP. I.e. the alternative would be to be enslaved to the likes of Ayatollah Marjorie Taylor Greene, the 'Jewish space lasers' queen for guidance, and the EU wants NOTHING to do with either Greene, speaker Johnson or Donald Trump or GOD VLADIMIR PUTIN
Next
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BRUSSELS — The European Union is no longer just a peace project.
On Tuesday, the European Commission presented a European Defence Industrial Strategy alongside a subsidy cash pot of at least €1.5 billion called the European Defence Investment Programme.
Thierry Breton, the industry commissioner, underlined during the presentation of the strategy that Europe is facing an "existential threat," while foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned: “In response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the EU must bolster its defense capabilities.”
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That will be multiplied TEN fold if Trump is AYATOLLAH Trump with AYATOLLAH Marjorie Greene, and AYATOLLAH Speaker Johnson'
This has been a long time coming. We can thank the following for the jump start to hell which made it all possible
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The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
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The fascist internationale was jump started by Eric Prince, January 11, 2017 and ever since alarm bells have been ringing non stop, in Europe, America and in world capitals
The end result ? If Ayatollah Trump steals his way into power will be a world wide shift of power centers globally to escape a global Trump - Putin global inquisition, with the forerunners apparent as the EU faces up to having to really defend itself
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Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
By Adam Entous
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April 3, 2017 at 4:29 p.m. EDT
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The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.
Prince was an avid supporter of Trump. After the Republican convention, he contributed $250,000 to Trump’s campaign, the national party and a pro-Trump super PAC led by GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, records show. He has ties to people in Trump’s circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince’s sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.
U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.
The Seychelles encounter, which one official said spanned two days, adds to an expanding web of connections between Russia and Americans with ties to Trump — contacts that the White House has been reluctant to acknowledge or explain until they have been exposed by news organizations.
“We are not aware of any meetings, and Erik Prince had no role in the transition,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary.
A Prince spokesman said in a statement: “Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication. The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?”
Prince is best known as the founder of Blackwater, a security firm that became a symbol of U.S. abuses in Iraq after a series of incidents, including one in 2007 in which the company’s guards were accused — and later criminally convicted — of killing civilians in a crowded Iraqi square. Prince sold the firm, which was subsequently re-branded, but has continued building a private paramilitary empire with contracts across the Middle East and Asia. He now heads a Hong Kong-based company known as the Frontier Services Group.
Prince would probably have been seen as too controversial to serve in any official capacity in the Trump transition or administration. But his ties to Trump advisers, experience with clandestine work and relationship with the royal leaders of the Emirates — where he moved in 2010 amid mounting legal problems for his American business — would have positioned him as an ideal go-between.
The Seychelles meeting came after separate private discussions in New York involving high-ranking representatives of Trump with both Moscow and the Emirates.
The White House has acknowledged that Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s original national security adviser, and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in late November or early December in New York.
Flynn and Kushner were joined by Bannon for a separate meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made an undisclosed visit to New York later in December, according to the U.S., European and Arab officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
In an unusual breach of protocol, the UAE did not notify the Obama administration in advance of the visit, though officials found out because Zayed’s name appeared on a flight manifest.
Officials said Zayed and his brother, the UAE’s national security adviser, coordinated the Seychelles meeting with Russian government officials with the goal of establishing an unofficial back channel between Trump and Putin.
Officials said Zayed wanted to be helpful to both leaders, who had talked about working more closely together, a policy objective long advocated by the crown prince. The UAE, which sees Iran as one of its main enemies, also shared the Trump team’s interest in finding ways to drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran.
Zayed met twice with Putin in 2016, according to Western officials, and urged the Russian leader to work more closely with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia — an effort to isolate Iran.
At the time of the Seychelles meeting and for weeks afterward, the UAE believed that Prince had the blessing of the new administration to act as its unofficial representative. The Russian participant was a person whom Zayed knew was close to Putin from his interactions with both men, the officials said.
Scrutiny over Russia
When the Seychelles meeting took place, official contacts between members of the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government were under intense scrutiny, both from federal investigators and the press.
Less than a week before the Seychelles meeting, U.S. intelligence agencies released a report accusing Russia of intervening clandestinely during the 2016 election to help Trump win the White House.
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The FBI was already investigating communications between Flynn and Kislyak. The Washington Post's David Ignatius first disclosed those communications on Jan.?12, around the time of the Seychelles meeting. Flynn was subsequently fired by Trump for misleading Vice President Pence and others about his discussions with Kislyak.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, declined to comment.
Government officials in the Seychelles said they were not aware of any meetings between Trump and Putin associates in the country around Jan.?11. But they said luxury resorts on the island are ideal for clandestine gatherings like the one described by the U.S., European and Arab officials.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” said Barry Faure, the Seychelles secretary of state for foreign affairs. “The Seychelles is the kind of place where you can have a good time away from the eyes of the media. That’s even printed in our tourism marketing. But I guess this time you smelled something.”
Trump has dismissed the investigations of Russia’s role in the election as “fake news” and a “witch hunt.”
The level of discretion surrounding the Seychelles meeting seems extraordinary given the frequency with which senior Trump advisers, including Flynn and Kushner, had interacted with Russian officials in the United States, including at the high-profile Trump Tower in New York.
Steven Simon, a National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Obama White House, said: “The idea of using business cutouts, or individuals perceived to be close to political leaders, as a tool of diplomacy is as old as the hills. These unofficial channels are desirable precisely because they are deniable; ideas can be tested without the risk of failure.”
Current and former U.S. officials said that while Prince refrained from playing a direct role in the Trump transition, his name surfaced so frequently in internal discussions that he seemed to function as an outside adviser whose opinions were valued on a range of issues, including plans for overhauling the U.S. intelligence community.
He appears to have particularly close ties to Bannon, appearing multiple times on the Breitbart satellite radio program and website that Bannon ran before joining the Trump campaign.
In a July interview with Bannon, Prince said those seeking forceful U.S. leadership should “wait till January and hope Mr. Trump is elected.” And he lashed out at President Barack Obama, saying that because of his policies “the terrorists, the fascists, are winning.”
Days before the November election, Prince appeared on the Breitbart radio program, saying that he had “well-placed sources” in the New York City Police Department telling him they were preparing to make arrests in the investigation of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) over allegations he exchanged sexually explicit texts with a minor. Flynn tweeted a link to the Breitbart report on the claim. No arrests occurred.
Prince went on to make unfounded assertions that damaging material recovered from Weiner’s computers would implicate Hillary Clinton and her close adviser, Huma Abedin, who was married to Weiner. He also called Abedin an “agent of influence very sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Prince and his family were major GOP donors in 2016. The Center for Responsive Politics reported that the family gave more than $10 million to GOP candidates and super PACs, including about $2.7 million from his sister, DeVos, and her husband.
Prince’s father, Edgar Prince, built his fortune through an auto-parts company. Betsy married Richard DeVos Jr., heir to the Amway fortune.
Erik Prince has had lucrative contracts with the UAE government, which at one point paid his firm a reported $529?million to help bring in foreign fighters to help assemble an internal paramilitary force capable of carrying out secret operations and protecting Emirati installations from terrorist attacks.
Focus on Iran
The Trump administration and the UAE appear to share a similar preoccupation with Iran. Current and former officials said that Trump advisers were focused throughout the transition period on exploring ways to get Moscow to break ranks with Tehran.
“Separating Russia from Iran was a common theme,” said a former intelligence official in the Obama administration who met with Trump transition officials. “It didn’t seem very well thought out. It seemed a little premature. They clearly had a very specific policy position, which I found odd given that they hadn’t even taken the reins and explored with experts in the U.S. government the pros and cons of that approach.”
Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he also had discussions with people close to the Trump administration about the prospects of drawing Russia away from Iran. “When I would hear this, I would think, ‘Yeah that’s great for you guys, but why would Putin ever do that?’?” McFaul said. “There is no interest in Russia ever doing that. They have a long relationship with Iran. They’re allied with Iran in fighting in Syria. They sell weapons to Iran. Iran is an important strategic partner for Russia in the Middle East.”
Following the New York meeting between the Emiratis and Trump aides, Zayed was approached by Prince, who said he was authorized to act as an unofficial surrogate for the president-elect, according to the officials. He wanted Zayed to set up a meeting with a Putin associate. Zayed agreed and proposed the Seychelles as the meeting place because of the privacy it would afford both sides. “He wanted to be helpful,” one official said of Zayed.
Wealthy Russians and Emirati royalty have a particularly large footprint on the islands. Signs advertising deep-sea fishing trips are posted in Cyrillic. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov owns North Island, where Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, went on their honeymoon in 2011. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the UAE, built a hilltop palace for himself with views across the chain of islands.
The Emiratis have given hundreds of millions of dollars to the Seychelles in recent years for causes including public health and affordable housing. But when the Emirati royal family visits, they are rarely seen.
“The jeep comes to their private jet on the tarmac and they disappear,” said one Seychellois official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the Emiratis.
Zayed, the crown prince, owns a share of the Seychelles’ Four Seasons, a collection of private villas scattered on a lush hillside on the main island’s southern shore, overlooking the Indian Ocean, according to officials in the Seychelles. The hotel is tucked away on a private beach, far from the nearest public road.
Current and former U.S. officials who have worked closely with Zayed, who is often referred to as MBZ, say it would be out of character for him to arrange the Jan.?11 meeting without getting a green light in advance from top aides to Trump and Putin, if not the leaders themselves. “MBZ is very cautious,” said an American businessman who knows Zayed and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “There had to be a nod.”
The Seychelles meeting was deemed productive by the UAE and Russia, but the idea of arranging additional meetings between Prince and Putin’s associates was dropped, officials said. Even unofficial contacts between Trump and Putin associates had become too politically risky, officials said.
Sieff reported from the Seychelles. Julie Tate, Devlin Barrett, Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Prince appeared on Bannon’s radio show in November. Bannon had left to run Trump’s campaign by then. Prince appeared on the Breitbart satellite radio program.
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Also
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"Better than Jesus": How far will the cult of Trump go?
MAGA has "been persuaded," Katherine Stewart tells Salon, "that?Trump is the savior who will face down the demons"
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 2, 2024 6:00AM (EST)
Donald Trump | Supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump praying outside the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.(Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
Donald Trump is a human chaos engine. It is a function of both his personality and his politics. He has shown himself to be what mental health professionals describe as “hypomanic”: He has what appears to be an endless amount of energy.?
Trump is an instinctive authoritarian and a demagogue. Although he has no real ideology beyond amassing raw corrupt power for his own purposes, Trump’s political project is fascist. He hates democracy, the rule of law, and any other restraints on his behavior and goal of being America’s first dictator. Such political strongmen and their movements use chaos, confusion, and destruction as one of their primary weapons to exhaust any resistance to them. As he has shown throughout the last eight years (at least), Donald Trump is a master of this strategy.
In all, it has been very difficult for the American people, the news media, and the country’s responsible political elites to stop Donald Trump and the larger neofascist movement precisely because he and they are launching so many attacks simultaneously on the country’s democracy, institutions, political culture and collective sense of reason – and reality itself.
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The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to hear Trump’s absurd case about Jan. 6, where he is arguing that while president, he had some type of immunity from the law like a king or emperor who can order his political rivals killed by the military or accept money for political favors, being the most recent example.
"Christians are aware of Biblical cautions to beware of false prophets, but political zealots could care less."
To that point, last week Donald Trump spoke at multiple events including the CPAC conference, the National Religious Broadcasters convention, and a gathering of black “conservatives” in South Carolina. At these events, Trump lied, engaged in gross distortions of facts and reality bordering on the delusional, made threats and promises of revenge and retribution against his “enemies”, and wallowed in his malignant narcissism and megalomania. Trump’s speech and memory also showed signs of what appears to be continuing cognitive decline.
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Trump’s delusions of grandeur have been escalating as he continues to proclaim that he is some type of messiah-prophet, chosen by “god” and “Jesus Christ” to lead the MAGA movement in an epic End Times battle of good and evil against President Biden and the Democrats and “the left” to “save America” by winning the 2024 election. Trump is now also claiming that he is a “proud” Christian who is being persecuted – basically like Jesus Christ – by the courts and others who are daring to hold him accountable for his decades-long public crime spree.
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None of this is normal despite how the mainstream news media as an institution, the other “guardians of democracy”, and too many everyday Americans have come to accept that it somehow is.
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Of course, Donald Trump is not a king or somehow above the law. Trump most certainly is not divinely inspired or a messenger and tool of “god” and “Jesus Christ”. None of this should have to be stated, but we are not in normal times here in America. The Trumpocene is a time of collective confusion, disorientation, and shared pathology. Unfortunately, the American people are not as close to escaping the Trumpocene and its state of malignant normality as they and their leaders and other trusted voices would like to believe.
In an attempt to make better sense of Trump’s claims of personal divinity, his fascist plans and “Christianity”, power over the Christian right, and what may come next in the country’s democracy crisis, I recently asked a range of experts for their thoughts and insights.
Katherine Stewart is?the author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism."
There’s a disconnect between the reality and the narrative framing that sticks to everything. For example, we continue to get horse race coverage that tells us about Trump’s “big win” in South Carolina as if this were just another normal election cycle. On the other hand, the combination of Trump’s legal jeopardy and his increasingly unhinged, overtly fascist rhetoric is indisputable evidence that what we are facing is anything but normal.
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As for Trump’s claims about being a prophet or some type of messiah, I think we have here a convergence between what appears to be Trump’s mental disorder and the needs of a base that has been primed for fascism. The only surprising thing about Trump’s claims is he has not yet said he is better than Jesus. That is sure to come!?
It is what it is, and anybody who has been watching this unfortunate man for the past decades knows exactly what I’m talking about. It’s just sad. The more pressing problem is that fascism so often works through the cult of the leader. The leader is always one who suffers on behalf of the victim majority, but who nonetheless triumphs against the evil cosmopolitan elite. And Trump seems to understand this instinctively, which is why he insists that, in his legal struggles against a supposedly corrupt system of justice, he is standing up for the little guy.?
We can’t know the extent to which Trump believes his own lies. The more important point is that majorities of Republican voters believe him when he speaks. In last summer’s CBS News-YouGov?survey, Trump supporters – astonishingly –tend to trust him more than they trust their family and friends, conservative media, or even their own religious leaders. We cannot overstate the role of conspiracism and disinformation in bringing us to the point we are in right now. Many MAGA voters have been drawn into a fear-filled, fact-free world. They continue to believe the Big Lie that the 2020 was stolen; they think Trump was the greatest president ever; they say that his indictments are just political persecution from a “weaponized” system of justice; and they have been persuaded that a global cabal is trying to strip away from them everything they hold dear – and that?Trump is the savior who will face down the demons and set the world aright.?
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Unfortunately, a cynical faction of affluent supporters don’t believe a word Trump says, but they support him anyway because they are under the impression that he will deliver economic policies that benefit them. I think of this as the tragedy of unenlightened self-interest – or the stupidity of greed. America’s economy under the Biden administration is actually doing very well, with many investments in infrastructure and local development delivering economic benefits to red states. But that message doesn’t seem to penetrate to the multi-millionaire and billionaire funders of the Christian nationalist movement, who want low taxes for the rich, minimal regulation of businesses, have no concern for the environment, and who seek to erode the rights of the workforce so that they can further increase their already substantial fortunes. To that end, they are investing their money in the destruction of democracy, and it’s a mystery to me why they think that will ultimately benefit them, their children and grandchildren, or anyone else. ??
At this point the focus should be, first and foremost, to get out the democratic base of voters, as well as to engage those who feel politically disenfranchised. They are in the majority of this country, so voter mobilization is key.?
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Second, we need to engage the “principles first” conservatives, the ones who for some reason can’t sign up for the rapist-insurrectionist-business fraudster and soon-to-be felon nominee. They are basically the latest iteration of the never-Trumpers, and if we can peel off a few percentage points of Trump support that can make a real difference in the election cycle. We need as big a tent as possible and should focus on what we have in common.?
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As for the base of staunch Trump supporters, I’m sorry to say, but I think we should have very little hope of reaching them given the propaganda to which they have been subject over time. Many are locked into this idea that Democrats are baby killers, and anything is better than a baby killer. They have been successfully programmed into this type of very simplistic binary logic.?
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Some of the newer messages focus on the fiction that Democrats want open borders in order to replace “real” Americans. It’s a lie, of course. A recent bipartisan Senate border security bill would have tightened the flow of daily crossings and made it easier to deport migrants. Trump tanked it because he didn’t want to hand the Biden administration a win; he wanted to keep campaigning on this issue.?
The one sliver of hope for reaching members of Trump’s fan base follows paradoxically from the fact that a large number of those folks live within very thick-walled information silos. In their world, everything Trump touches turns to gold. So that means a significant number have not assimilated basic facts about Trump’s predicament: that he is likely, at the end of the day, to be convicted of crimes and that he is indeed a huge national security risk. So, it’s just possible that a salient event, like a felony conviction, could penetrate the silo and change a few minds. But I still think the best use of energy right now is to create as big a tent as possible and to motivate all the people who want to make sure Trump is never near the White House again.?
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Dr. David P. Gushee is a distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University and chair of Christian social ethics at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is the author of several books including his most recent, “Defending Democracy From Its Christian Enemies.”
Trump is consolidating his grip on the GOP, though Nikki Haley has cut into his vote totals in a not insignificant way. I believe that Trump has a hardcore base that is with him no matter what; this base would not be enough to win an election, but if you add the partisanship factor in a general election, and the relative weakness of Joe Biden as a presidential candidate at this point in his career, Trump (unbelievably) has a serious chance to win.?
I hate to say it, but it sure looks like his notable appeal to the non-college white male is connected to a certain credulousness on the part of his base to Trump's increasingly outlandish religious appeals. And his supporters either don't know or don't care that he is articulating cruel positions on such matters as deporting undocumented immigrants and abandoning Ukraine and maybe Europe as a whole to the Russians.?
Idolatry is when a false god or no god is worshipped as God. Trump's narcissism enables him to see himself in idolatrous ways. Trump is using increasingly idolatrous language to describe himself. I think this may be because he actually believes it but it certainly is because he finds that the language works with a part of his base.?
The will-to-believe that we find in some of these followers is a classic precursor to idolatry. A lack of serious knowledge of the historic Christian faith is also a precursor to people being attracted to the use of religious symbols and language even when they should be repelled by what the faith itself would describe as an obvious misuse. e.g., just because someone uses religious language that does not mean they are a friend to faith or to believers. They may be a predator to faith and the faithful. But you have to actually know something about the religion to be able to tell the difference. Many scholars are trying to make sense of this, and here an internal Christian theological perspective is the most help. That is, we know that what Trump is doing religiously is parasitic on, rather than an expression of, vibrant and real Christian faith.?
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Nothing I have seen to this point shows me that Trump's hardcore religious base can be pried away from him. Not even imprisonment is likely to make a difference with this base. Sometimes in politics, and in history, a malignant force must simply be defeated, and then defeated again, and then defeated again. That is where we are.?
Jared Yates Sexton is a journalist and author of the new book "The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis."
The basis of striving for political power within the evangelical world is based on an entrenched sense of martyrdom and suffering. This, by design, means that every issue and every policy, every minute part of society, must be controlled by Christians or else persecution is a foregone conclusion. With this mindset, Donald Trump has been able to insert himself, through sheer shamelessness and an acute ability to message to the prejudices of white evangelicals, as a "divine agent," or a man sent by God to carry out his will on behalf of evangelicals. His continued insistence that he is the victim of persecution only activates that perceived persecutorial reality in the head of evangelicals and makes the bond grow and grow. Sadly enough, the evangelical mindset is ripe for manipulation. Hence why we've seen so many cult leaders who were able to destroy lives simply because they claimed to be a prophet or messiah. Trump's shamelessness is what seals the deal.
David L. Altheide is the Regents' Professor Emeritus on the faculty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and author of the new book "Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump."
Ray Bradbury’s novel cautions us about wishes and danger behind smoke and mirrors. Donald Trump’s fantasy has gotten more extreme in his positions to solidify his standing among followers. His agenda, aided by entertainment-oriented media awash in the politics of fear, appears to be capturing more attention, including fear of crime and immigrants.?? He blames law enforcement and justice officials for enforcing the law against him, he demeans most authorities, etc. His buddies accuse librarians and educators of miseducation. What is most disconcerting is that his gonzo governance approach—essentially, attacking our major political, social, and legal institutions as illegitimate—is being supported by many Republican officials at the national, state, and local levels, including school boards. They oppose policies and projects that were established by Republican predecessors such as foreign policy and supporting allies, equal rights, voting rights, the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as education. The long-standing US tradition of supporting Amnesty is denigrated even by some Democrats, who shamelessly chase media talking points.
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The media continually play the horse race theme and celebrate Trump by showing his impromptu statements each time he loses a legal challenge. Avoid being dominated by numerous polls and focus on issues and policies. Major media, with exceptions, do not separate political decisions from basic issues of human rights and U. S. citizens’ rights. His promise to deport people will impact American citizens, especially Hispanics. Audiences should be told this and shown many examples. Access to clean water, good education, and safety is not a political issue, not liberal or conservative, but a matter of basic human and Constitutional rights. The same with voting rights; this should not be cast as merely a political issue. Very little attention is given to how his legal defense expenses are eating up the Republican National Committee funds and the affect this could have on other Republican candidates.
There has been little systematic reporting what Trump’s proposed policies and budget cuts would mean for Americans.? There should be reports about the role of the Environmental Protection Agency and what it does. Journalists should explain what disbanding the Department of Education would mean for children, parents, and schools. Immigration has not been explained: All we see are crowds at the border! There should be daily reporting on the types of immigrants and their aims, including those wanting temporary work, and how the economy depends on—and benefits—from this.? But there is so much more that is missing and is replaced by disinformation: We get little systematic information about what the infrastructure funding means for local communities, including transportation, water, and clean air. False reporting about crime increases is trumped by sensational video coverage of theft. Coverage about right-wing holdup of Ukraine funding should emphasize the threat to the U. S. and especially those in the military.?
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The disinformation about Trump’s defense of Christianity from leftists who want to tear down crosses is key to so-called Christian Nationalism. There is scant evidence that Christianity is under attack in the United States. But in true gonzo fashion, Trump creates a false image that appeals to extreme Evangelicals and Pentecostals. He is their savior. His effort to paint himself as a victim of political persecution plays to religious fundamentalists and others who have supported exclusionary and discriminatory policies. Many of his supporters fear ongoing rapid social change in our culture, including social media, the push for more rights by women, workers, and minority groups. And like Hitler, his sanctimonious appeal for strong resistance to guilty verdicts and criticisms of his racist policies is justified by the Divine, and that we all “answer to God in heaven.” When Trump refers to Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists as “persecuted Christians” he is following Hitler’s lead of defending racist policies with holy appeals. In 1936, Nazis claimed that God revealed himself “through our Fuehrer, to enable us to accomplish our great mission in the world.” Churches were tolerated as long they did not interfere with the state and did not oppose German racial ideals.???
Most of Trump’s rhetoric to religious zealots is intended to solidify their support. Trump’s minions are not likely to be dissuaded by anything since, in their support for a man who asks no forgiveness of numerous sins, they have already compromised many basic Christian ideals and standards of morality and conduct. Christians are aware of Biblical cautions to beware of false prophets, but political zealots could care less: They are political and will support anyone who advocates for their right-wing views of abortion, America as a white Christian nation, patriarchy, and discrimination against foreigners, most immigrants, and racial minorities. However, this extreme rhetoric can also create some discord with less radical Christians, who still believe in women’s rights and civil liberties.?The recent Alabama court ruling about IVF is a case in point. Trump quickly distanced himself from this invitro crime since most Americans support this common fertility practice. It remains to be seen if his savior fantasy repels more sensible Americans. Let us hope.
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By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Chauncey DeVega is a senior politics writer for Salon. His essays can also be found at?Chaunceydevega.com. He also hosts a weekly podcast,?The Chauncey DeVega Show. Chauncey can be followed on?Twitter?and?Facebook.
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First ever defence industrial strategy and a new defence industry programme to enhance Europe's readiness and security
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Today, the European Commission and the High Representative presented the first-ever European Defence Industrial Strategy at EU level and proposed an ambitious set of new actions to support the competitiveness and readiness of its defence industry.
Two years ago, Russia's unjustified, on-going war of aggression against Ukraine marked the return of high-intensity conflict on our continent. The European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) sets a clear, long-term vision to achieve defence industrial readiness in the European Union. As a first immediate and central means to deliver the Strategy, the European Commission today tables a legislative proposal for a European Defence Industry Programme ?(EDIP) and a framework of measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products.
The Strategy outlines the challenges currently faced by the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) but also the opportunity to tap its full potential and sets out a direction for the next decade. To increase European defence industrial readiness, Member States need to invest more, better, together, and European. To support Member States in achieving these goals, the European Defence Industrial Strategy presents a set of actions aiming at:
The Strategy sets indicators, aimed at measuring Member States' progress towards industrial readiness. Member States are invited to:
The European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) is the new legislative initiative that will bridge from short-term emergency measures, adopted in 2023 and ending in 2025, to a more structural and longer-term approach to achieve defence industrial readiness. This will ensure continuity in the support to the European defence technological and industrial base, to accompany its swift adaptation to the new reality.
EDIP includes both financial and regulatory aspects. EDIP will mobilise €1.5 billion of the EU budget over the period 2025-2027, to continue enhancing the competitiveness of the EDTIB. EDIP financial support will notably extend the intervention logic of EDIRPA (financial support from EU budget to offset the complexity of cooperation between Member States in the procurement phase) and ASAP (financial support to defence industries increasing their production capacity), to further encourage investments by the EDTIB. EDIP will also support the industrialisation of products stemming from cooperative R&D actions supported by the European Defence Fund. The EDIP budget may ?also be used to set up a Fund to Accelerate defence Supply chains Transformation (FAST). That new fund will aim at facilitating access to debt and/or equity financing for SMEs and small midcaps industrialising defence technologies and/or manufacturing defence products. EDIP budget will also enhance the EU's defence industrial cooperation with Ukraine and support the development of its defence industrial and technological base. To do so, EDIP could possibly draw ?additional funding from the windfall profits derived from ?immobilised Russian sovereign assets (subject to Council decision on a proposal by the High Representative).
On the regulatory aspects, EDIP comes with novel solutions. It will make available a new legal framework, the Structure for European Armament Programme (SEAP), to facilitate and scale up Member States' cooperation on defence equipment, in full complementarity with the PESCO framework. It also entails an EU-wide regime for security of supply of defence equipment, which will ensure constant access to all necessary defence products in Europe and provide a framework to efficiently react to possible future supply crises of defence products. In addition, EDIP will allow the launch of European Defence Projects of Common Interest, with potential EU financial support. Finally, EDIP proposes to set up a governance structure, where Member States are fully involved, to ensure overall consistency of EU action in the field of defence industry (the Defence Industrial Readiness Board).
A stronger and more responsive European defence industry will benefit the Member States and ultimately EU citizens. It will also benefit the EU's key partners, including NATO and Ukraine.
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Europe starts war machine to wean itself off US weapons
The European Commission presented a far-reaching defense industrial strategy and a €1.5B subsidy program.
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MARCH 4, 2024 8:02 PM CET
BRUSSELS — The European Union is no longer just a peace project.
On Tuesday, the European Commission presented a European Defence Industrial Strategy alongside a subsidy cash pot of at least €1.5 billion called the European Defence Investment Programme.
Thierry Breton, the industry commissioner, underlined during the presentation of the strategy that Europe is facing an "existential threat," while foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned: “In response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the EU must bolster its defense capabilities.”
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If member countries agree, it will mark the end of the post-Cold War peace dividend that saw military spending shrivel.
“[The strategy] is not an answer to the war in Ukraine, but rather a broader response to a strategic paradigm shift. It's a recognition that [defense] is a subject that's not going to go away for a while,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary-general and now a distinguished policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.?
The aim is to get the EU — the world's second-largest economy — to finally begin punching its weight when it comes to defense.
That's an idea that has swirled around the EU since its creation as the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951.
The plan for a European defense union was born in the mind of one of Europe's founding fathers, France's Jean Monnet, and was ironically killed when French lawmakers refused to ratify the treaty in 1954. Now another Frenchman, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, will take the lead in presenting the EU executive's defense plans.
Instead of forming a multinational fighting force — something that was considered in the early years of the Cold War — this time it’s all about building up the bloc’s military-industrial complex as well as decreasing Europe's reliance on American weapons — an especially acute fear as Donald Trump rises in the polls ahead of this year's U.S. election.
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The European Commission strategy breaks a taboo: While Brussels had previously agreed to use the EU budget to fund ammunition production and incentivize joint procurement on an emergency basis, the Commission now wants to enshrine the principle in the long term.
Nonetheless, this week’s defense plan does not contradict the EU’s initial aim to prevent war on Europe’s soil, according to Riho Terras, a member of the Parliament’s European People’s Party and former commander of the Estonian military.?
“Europe has to be prepared for war, and since it’s an economic union, we should concentrate on the defense industry," he said.
Eyes on capitals
Breton steered clear of politically-charged pitches such as building a European army, and focused instead on where Brussels actually has a competence: The single market.?
However, some of the proposals are far-reaching. They include copying the U.S. Foreign Military Sales system to help EU countries build up weapons stocks and make it easier to sell weapons, as well as the power to redirect civilian industry to defense in case of an emergency — plus financial incentives for more joint weapons procurement.
Cash should go only to European companies, according to the Commission's thinking. Ukraine will be treated as a quasi-member country and will be allowed to participate in joint weapons purchases.
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The EU’s executive branch insists it is not overstepping. Defense "must remain a national responsibility,” Breton told French media Monday. “It's not about changing the treaties, it's about working better together within the framework of the treaties.”
As it's a regulation, the investment program will need sign-off from both capitals and the European Parliament.
The Commission expects pushback from governments. “We’re going to have a lot of explaining to do, I’m not going to hide it, and some things may not end up exactly where we wanted,” a Commission official told reporters last week.
“Member states won’t accept that their competences will be taken away,” a senior EU diplomat told POLITICO. “When it comes to a coordinating role of the Commission on military sales or industry consortiums, I am not sure about the value added.”
However, external events — such as Trump’s reelection or a U.S. withdrawal from NATO — could push capitals to make the jump toward more European integration in defense, according to Antonio Missiroli,? a former NATO assistant secretary-general for emerging security challenges.?
“The European Union tends to react to shocks," he said, mentioning the war in Ukraine. "Paradoxically, if more shocks materialize in this respect, there will probably be more readiness to go down new paths in order to support the defense industrial base in Europe.”
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Cash is key
The success of the defense strategy will also ultimately depend on how much cash it gets.
“Money matters, it's not anecdotal,” said ECFR’s Grand. “It's not just about organizing the market, we're in a field where if you put money on the table, it makes a difference … or not.”?
While the European Defence Industrial Programme is expected to be worth at least €1.5 billion, much more will be needed if Brussels is serious about building up a competitive industrial complex. Ultimately, Europe needs €100 billion, according to Breton.?
The €1.5 billion is "not a lot of money when it comes to the defense industry — but it can still work as an incentive, as a bonus, as what makes member states come together," admitted Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager.
One idea raised by French President Emmanuel Macron, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is to copy what happened during the pandemic and issue joint debt.?
“The funding of wars is almost always done with deficits and there’s a very good reason to do that, because it’s simply inefficient to increase taxes for temporary spending — which we always hope war will be,” said Guntram Wolff, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank.
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But diplomats said that eurobonds are still a no-go for frugal nations such as Germany, the Netherlands or Nordic countries.
A debt-financed €100 billion cash pot as floated by Breton is "not in the cards," according to the senior EU diplomat, who added: "I also don’t see much room for additional money from the EU budget.”
But that could change in the event of a big external crisis.
Other ideas include groups of countries teaming up to jointly issue defense bonds; changing the rules for the European Investment Bank to allow it to invest in defense; and tweaking the EU's?taxonomy for sustainable activities? to explicitly include military projects.
Laura Kayali reported from Paris, Jacopo Barigazzi reported from Brussels.?
This article has been updated.
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Andrew Beckwith, PhD
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6 个月Great report, Andrew Beckwith. Trump & conservative American evangelicals are in effect the opposite of Christian. Like Putin, they use "traditional values" to marginalize or destroy political opposition. Trump is like Putin's 'Trojan Horse' inside of NATO, and Europe is rightfully concerned. https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2024/04/26/russias-hybrid-war-against-the-west/index.html