Drinking from the Firehose of Fascism
Added 2025-02-14 10:24:24 +0000 UTCOA1125 - (NOTE: Acting US Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter and DOJ acting deputy Emil Bove’s acceptance of that letter were published while we were recording this episode, and hours before the Trump administration was enjoined by a DC federal judge from suspending international aid. The news hose never stops!)
For this Rapid Response Friday, we do our best to answer some of your questions about waves hands in the general direction of DC.
Why is the media reporting the illegal attempts to fire (among others) the head of the Office of Special Counsel and 17 investigators general like a normal federal HR issue? Did FEMA really just straight-up steal $80 million from New York City’s bank account? Is it now legal to bribe foreign companies abroad and act as an unregistered foreign agent at home? Why are we sending Venezuelan asylum seekers with no criminal records or gang affiliations to Guantanamo Bay just weeks after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem promised that it would only be housing the “worst of the worst”? And just where exactly is the “Gulf of America” anyway? These and other questions from the week’s news are answered within.
Memo from AG Pam Bondi outlining DOJ enforcement priorities (2/5/25)
RI federal judge’s order finding Trump administration in violation of his previous injunction against the federal spending freeze (2/10/25)
“Air Jordan Tattoo Prompts ICE to Send Venezuelan Migrant to Guantanamo Bay,” Pablo Manriquez, Migrant Insider (2/9/25)
“First They Came For the Venezuelans,” Matt Cameron, DEPORTNATION (2/12/25)
Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!
Comments
If you can only identify one gang member, that sure makes it look like not a gang. Don't gangs usually require a plurality of people?
Unlikable Internet Goblin
2025-02-20 13:37:46 +0000 UTCThe face I made when JD Vance said "like Andrew Jackson."
Katie Herrmann
2025-02-17 17:16:33 +0000 UTCThat's kinda what I heard you saying, too - I'm queer, complexly disabled, on assistance, in other words pretty goddam vulnerable myself - and at no point listening to you have I felt overlooked or like empathy was lacking or being misdirected. These are hella knotty concepts. Words are Hard. Part of empathy is recognizing we're all meatbags and meat is hella vulnerable at baseline in ways most of us prefer not to ruminate on, lest it's our cud getting chewed next? Anyway, just wanted to say I think everyone here is doing a great job in hard times. By Here, I mean independent media, activism, these spaces. I think most of us are doing a great job and it's worth extending the benefit of a doubt toward allies when something is unclear or sounds off. Sure, correct each other, call out when needed...AND assume it's a good-faith rational actor. Up to a point! People do turn sometimes. Not hearing that here though.
Tetra and Blossom
2025-02-16 22:04:12 +0000 UTCHe may have said something like that but that isn't what the executive order says. There's no reason at all from how i read it that acts committed during the 180-day "pause" couldn't be prosecuted later--including by a future administration
Matt Cameron
2025-02-16 20:29:12 +0000 UTCThat was exactly the point that i was trying to make here, and why i chose the title i did for my substack piece. As i said in this episode, fascism intentionally comes for minority groups who are going to have some of the least sympathy and that is all the more reason not to lose sight of their humanity. I guess i thought that was obvious but it sounds like i should have spelled it out more
Matt Cameron
2025-02-16 20:25:51 +0000 UTCIn your example, holder suspended enforcement. Trump is purporting to suspend the law itself-meaning corrupt acts committed during the alleged suspension are not illegal and can’t later be prosecuted. That is a significant difference
Lawrence Frank
2025-02-16 17:50:39 +0000 UTCIt's not a line. That's the difficulty with all of this. Lots of people are waiting for a moment when a line is crossed, and there isn't one. It's death by a thousand cuts, boiling the frog, whatever you want to call it. It's a thousand little lines making a continuum, and we don't know which lines they'll cross or in what order or what, if any, will be the point where enough people decide enough is enough. It probably won't even come from how terrible things get, but rather from some unpredictable flashpoint event, like George Floyd's murder. Or a Kent State massacre (which I hate to say sounds pretty likely).
Graydon Armstrong
2025-02-16 01:10:48 +0000 UTCI'd actually see it as more okay the other way around. Still dumb to have a McKinley name at all, but at least the national park is a US Government construction, so it would feel less egregious than usurping the indigenous name of the mountain itself.
Graydon Armstrong
2025-02-16 00:58:40 +0000 UTCMatt, I feel that First They Came sorta misses the point of why to stand up for others. It's useful for illustrating how fascism progresses, and makes a case to those who lack empathy, but I think for those of us with empathy, the real point is, when first they come for a group, you stick up for them because it's the right thing to do and nobody should be treated that way, not because you want them around to have your back later.
Graydon Armstrong
2025-02-16 00:53:33 +0000 UTCConceded. Sincerest apologies for speaking out of turn there. Yeah...Yeah, Rush is a Monster. I can name a few others I personally interacted with growing up. I was really tired when I wrote that, didn't phrase well. I was trying to say: I think starting from a place of 'we all started out innocent once' on out is likely to lead to a better place than spending so much energy raging against monsters who can't and don't even want to be redeemed. I'm probably still using the wrong words. Yeah, there are monsters. Fucking hurts to say that, though, because ... nobody had to be a monster. I think that is rehabilitatable up to a certain point. It's tragic to see someone tip past that point. Especially if they have talents that in any other context would be useful to and affirming of others. My aunt...was right on that line between not a monster and monster...so when I said, I'm glad she didn't live to see this second Trump term cuz cognitive dissonance would have imploded her, I wasn't even slightly exaggerating. I might have had to call the woman who raised me, who saved my LIFE a few times, a monster, had she lived a few more years. There are no words to convey that grief. I sincerely apologize for in a tired moment using sloppy phrasing that wound up being an echo of my own trauma that had no business being dragged out here. No harm was intended. Thank you for the correction and it was absolutely warranted and I have taken it to heart.
Tetra and Blossom
2025-02-15 09:09:22 +0000 UTCWait-did Matt say 'c-word boundaries' in reference to the press sec? I've thought about Limboo [nod to Robert Reich] and that 'America Held Hostage' bullshit since this Doge thing started... If the courts seemingly have no force against musk et al in terms of *removing* DOGE from the government, what is the endgame here? Is there a 'special team' waiting in the wings?
Murcury Vapor
2025-02-15 01:02:25 +0000 UTCRush was a monster. There was a period after Obama won where he briefly admitted to lying to help Team GOP then swallowed enough pills to get right back to it. He didn't suffer nearly enough before the end.
Gmork
2025-02-15 00:21:14 +0000 UTCGender Reveal - https://www.genderpodcast.com/ - is another good one! Not trying to create a firehose of queer joy here, simply offering more hooks for navigating these choppy waters~
Tetra and Blossom
2025-02-14 22:47:01 +0000 UTCI hadn't heard of that! I'll definitely check it out. I'm doing my best to keep up on all this stuff from multiple angles and being a voice that amplifies truth into the community, so that sounds amazing. I'm looking at all this stuff to try to be well informed on it all, but the trans stuff is often a smaller portion of things since we're such a small population. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Melody Woodward
2025-02-14 22:40:38 +0000 UTCHoly shit that sounds like my late aunt! A kindhearted nurse fiercely protective of her family and patients...yet listening to that dreck and finally it rotted her from the inside out, and frankly I'm relieved she didn't live to see this administration the second time around. I think the cognitive dissonance would have actually made her implode. The people we love aren't monsters. I'm convinced even people like rush aren't / weren't monsters, either. But words mean things, damnit. The culty fundies I grew up around loved to preach about "protecting our eyegate and our eargate" ... und yet ... *slowblink* 'nuff said! OWN GOAL, guys. Own goal. If they practiced what they preach they'd be exactly as moral as they claim to be while catching up with the rest of us who didn't need to be explicitly encouraged to be good [stewards [haaate that lnaguage]] toward ourselves and each other.
Tetra and Blossom
2025-02-14 22:39:25 +0000 UTCWholeheartedly agree! So well said. Hey, are you listening to TransLash podcast with Imara Jones? That's an excellent sane grounded source for trans news delivered in a sensitive manner without spin or false hope situated within the broader suckage we're all drowning in right now. Like this show and Beans and adjacent they have action steps, good news / joy segment, and are thoroughly wonderfully HUMAN. Imara is trans and the guests are from all walks of life and levels of power. Sorry if you're already hooked into that, if this is redundant. Worth spreading the word, though! OA does an AWESOME job covering a broad swath of topics. We also need niche shows. TransLash is a good one many folks over here might appreciate too, be they part of this community or allies.
Tetra and Blossom
2025-02-14 22:31:11 +0000 UTCthat fucking guy again?
citationy stuff
2025-02-14 21:52:46 +0000 UTCAnd the consent thing is repugnant from both ends -- both in approving sex without it and demagoguing sex with it. If I were to sum up sexual morality to my niblings, I'd say it's almost always moral if everyone involved gives informed, enthusiastic consent. It might not always be a good idea, but it's unlikely to be immoral if there's consent (that people under a certain age cannot give). Yet he recites that rule with such over the top disdain as if he were revealing that we eat babies.
Gmork
2025-02-14 19:29:23 +0000 UTCThank you; it helps me feel like I'm not crazy. Putting it as a footnote makes total sense and it's obviously something that people are already taking seriously so it's great to get you insight on the law and implications around it. Like Thomas, I wish we had a better mainstream media ecosystem that was able to filter out the noise and provide clarity on the critical issues, but that's just not where we are right now. Obviously I'm especially interested in trans issues, but this is something we see with the trans women in sports conversation too. If we hadn't taken it seriously and just dismissed it as a very small part of life for nearly everyone then the conversation can focus on what really matters rather than creating a side show that needs to be resolved before moving to the issues that matter the most.
Melody Woodward
2025-02-14 18:10:27 +0000 UTCI had exactly the same thought process on this! That's why i wanted to be sure to consign it to a footnote--it's worth noting as a leading indicator of fascistic reality-making, but certainly nowhere near as important or newsworthy as doge or sending asylum seekers to guantanamo. Generally speaking i think of my footnotes as existentially distinct from "news" and i usually want them to be a little more fun than that but it just felt like one of those moments that was worth a passing comment. It has not been easy to know how to talk about this moment and i always appreciate these clarifying thoughts, you have said it very well here
Matt Cameron
2025-02-14 17:55:19 +0000 UTCY'all see this one? https://bsky.app/profile/juddlegum.bsky.social/post/3li5hnavhuc2l Missouri's AG Andrew Bailey is suing Starbucks, arguing that its workforce is too "female" and "non-white" and as a result Missouri consumers “pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services" because its workforce is "less qualified"
Supreme Court Pretextualist
2025-02-14 17:41:14 +0000 UTCWhen I was a kid in AK the government made a big deal out of it being okay to call the mountain McKinley because the area and the park are called Denali. Some days I roll my eyes so hard they feel sprained.
Kat -- A liberal weed in conservative country
2025-02-14 17:21:58 +0000 UTCI agree with your point of the "Gulf of America" thing being an Orwellian way to get people to accept a new reality as part of a fascist playbook, but I think the action has two purposes (well, three of you count feeding Trump's megalomanical ego by changing the map). It's part of their gish gallup strategy of throwing nonsense at us along with critically serious issues. The serious issues are complex, dark, and hard to believe even when you understand them, but changing the name of a famous body of water in such a blatant way is something for us to quibble over while that other stuff is going on. It's a fight they can afford to lose because any effort we spend making it a fight is effort we're not applying to more serious issues like the end of democracy. I honestly wish the media would just ignore it (though I get why you're covering it in response to their coverage) like they do about his rants about Taylor Swift; it happened, but we don't need to care about it now. That's not giving into the Orwellian tactic or the gish gallup and defangs the entire gambit.
Melody Woodward
2025-02-14 16:32:33 +0000 UTC❤️ I totally understand, and I love how you care about being precise with your language. And thank you for reading the order and reporting that officially "Gulf of America" actually only applies to the continental shelf, I had no idea! Definitely keeping that in my back pocket to "well, actually" nerds who love to be pedantic with others.
All-inclusive Gender Resort
2025-02-14 15:59:41 +0000 UTCI didn't want to get this personal on the show but my grandfather's long journey from being a kind, thoughtful, decent man to living with a total infection of fox news brainworms started--as so many fox news grandpas did i'm sure--with three hours a day listening to that shitbag. You couldn't go anywhere in a car with him or hang out in his wood shop without hearing rush's stupid voice. I thought his "talent on loan from god" schtick was kind of entertaining when i was 13 but i also knew that rush was exactly the kind of guy that my father and grandfather told me not to be. And yes, especially when it came to women--I know it made news somewhat closer to his long-overdue death when he specifically said that "sometimes no means yes and you just have to know as a man when that is" or whatever, but like you i remember him pretty consistently trashing the very idea of consent as weakminded lib thinking. But i still think "america held hostage, day ____" is a perfectly appropriate meme for our times and i kind of wish dems would just start using it without attribution
Matt Cameron
2025-02-14 15:10:23 +0000 UTCYeah, i typically spend at least two idle hours after any given show puttering around running through anything i might have gotten wrong and that was the first one i came up immediately after recording yesterday. I totally meant to say "its original *american* name"--but fwiw we did explicitly acknowledge the thousands of years of history here back in the first executive orders episode. Very important though, ty!
Matt Cameron
2025-02-14 14:58:03 +0000 UTCIn three days, we can celebrate the fourth anniversary of the day cancer was finally free of Rush Limbaugh.
Unlikable Internet Goblin
2025-02-14 14:54:25 +0000 UTCWas just coming to post something similar. Denali is the original name, McKinley is merely the previous name.
Mothringer
2025-02-14 14:39:55 +0000 UTCOne tiny little correction, Matt, with love- you said "rename Denali back to Mt McKinley, its original name", but the indigenous people called the mountain Denali centuries before it was named Mt McKinley. So the "original name" is more accurately Denali.
All-inclusive Gender Resort
2025-02-14 14:03:12 +0000 UTCHave you tried reaching for the sky to the ho-zone layer?
Gmork
2025-02-14 13:22:31 +0000 UTCI used to be a big Limbaugh fan back when I was a shitty conservative little kid and there's only one thing he said that stuck w me. In a voice dripping w disdain, he talked about how to dirty liberals, sex was all about consent, and that it was okay to do anything you wanted as long as everyone consented, but if there isn't consent get send the [his words] rape police after you. Every so often, I think back to that and how that's the unfathomably backwards and toxic mindset that's now running the country.
Gmork
2025-02-14 13:19:42 +0000 UTCI have been asking this question for a while and no one has given me a straight answer. At what point is violence the only response we have left? Where is the line?
Jason Valasek
2025-02-14 13:19:40 +0000 UTCWho are these News Hoes and where have you been keeping them?
Release the News Hoes!
2025-02-14 12:34:10 +0000 UTC
