Smog now hangs over Trump swamp!

These were the most obvious and startling stories to come out this week. And it explains a whole lot about Trump's 19th-century authoritarian "Gilded Age" mentality.

1. Make Auto Emissions Worse: It all seems surreal, doesn't it? Trump attacked California for having tougher environmental standards on auto emissions than the nation, and then legally went after automakers who agreed to and wants to produce cleaner-running cars. So much for market forces? MSNBC:

NBC News’ Jo Ling Kent reports on the Trump administration’s attempts to actively sabotage efforts by the state of California and major automakers to raise emission standards above the national average. Aired on 09/20/19.

2. Climate Hoax, not a Hoax according to Exxon in the 70s and early 80s: Here's something I didn't know about climate change, and what Trump cultist believe is a global hoax; climate change was a serious concern by Exxon scientists before they realized their research would negatively affect their profitability:

Exxon: The oil giant's top scientists were clear-eyed about the potentially devastating impact of fossil fuels. But the company chose to raise doubts among the public. Exxon issued a statement in response to our story: "Reports that claim we reached definitive conclusions about climate change decades before the world’s experts are inaccurate. Climate change is a serious issue & it’s going to take efforts by business, governments and consumers for meaningful action."

3. Trump Impatient with Long Dishwasher Times: You can't make this stuff up? But then, Trump and the Koch group FreedomWorks just did...:

“Dishwashers used to clean a full load of filthy dishes in under an hour. But now they take an average of two and a half hours and STILL leave dishes dirty!” reads one online petition promoted by FreedomWorks, a libertarian offshoot of a group co-founded by the late David H. Koch. The decline of American dishwashers, the site says, is “all thanks to crazy environmentalist rules.”

The petition, titled “Make Dishwashers Great Again,” ... Trump administration emails made public as part of a lawsuit shed new light on the effort ... One such email, sent in June 2018 to supporters of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, urged them to write to the Department of Energy supporting the creation of “a new class of ‘fast dishwashers’ that can complete a cycle in an hour or less.”

4. Trump's Orange Color blamed on Light Bulbs: Not kidding...

“The light bulb. People said, ‘What’s with the light bulb?’ I said, ‘Here’s the story.’ And I looked at it, the bulb that we’re being forced to use, number one to me, most importantly, the light’s no good. I always look orange. And so do you. The light is the worst,” Trump said.

5. Trump Pollution NOT so Pro-Life! On a much more serious note...

Air pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.

The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. The link between exposure to dirty air and increased miscarriages, premature births and low birth weights is well established. The research suggests the particles themselves may be the cause, not solely the inflammatory response the pollution produces in mothers.

Damage to foetuses has lifelong consequences ... A comprehensive global review concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body. Nanoparticles have also been found to cross the blood-brain barrier and billions have been found in the hearts of young city dwellers.

Here are a few tweets to reflect on:

Trump's War on Liberals is Real yet played down by News Media!

My son the college freshman gave me a little lesson yesterday over Trump's latest attacks. It's simple:

1. rule of law = Republican Party = authoritarian rule.

2. democracy = Democratic Party = rule of the mob.

Republicans are always reminding us that we're not a democracy, but a republic. That "will of the people" thing is not the desired outcome. Think voter suppression.

As you watch this Trump video, it all becomes perfectly clear:

Pres. @realDonaldTrump: "You don't hand matches to an arsonist and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob - and that's what they've become. The Democrats have become too extreme and too dangerous to govern. Republicans believe in the rule of law, not the rule of the mob." pic.twitter.com/E9r4Xrnrrw

— The Hill (@thehill) October 7, 2018

This explains why Scott Walker and State Sen. Leak Vukmir thought Act 10 protesters were trying to intimidate them. They saw them as a mob.

Trump smash...:

“In their quest for power, the radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob. Each of you will have a chance in just four weeks to render your verdict, on the Democrats’ conduct, at the ballot box. If you allow the wrong people to get into office, things could change. They could change and they could change fast. You don’t hand matches to an arsonist and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob ― and that’s what they’ve become. The Democrats have become too extreme and too dangerous to govern. Since right from the moment we announced [Kavanaugh’s nomination], radical Democrats launched a disgraceful campaign to resist, obstruct, delay, demolish and destroy.”

 Check out this lengthy tweet thread from David Neiwert to get the whole picture of the Trump nightmare war against liberal=Democrats=mob:

3) This is a remarkable moment in American politics: The President of the United States just declared an entire political party fundamentally illegitimate. And the media are treating it as just another of Trump’s crazy things.

— David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) October 7, 2018

4) I’m almost surprised that, after the remark about the rule of the mob, Trump didn’t then lead the crowd in a chant of “Lock her up!” That’s how brazen they have become.
 
5) But this is the state we are at now. One side of the political aisle, and only one, appears intent on provoking a violent civil war in America. And it is the party currently in power.
 
6) Sure, they like to claim that the Left is planning to provoke a civil war. You can find all kinds of people saying that, including Tucker Carlson.

7) But no one on the left actually talks about it or, for that matter, really even thinks about it much. There are no left-wing pundits talking about civil war. But you can find dozens of right-wing pundits doing so. Are rightwing pundits right that America is on the brink of a civil war?

8) They pay lip service to denying that they hope for it, but their constant obsessing and chatter about it tells us otherwise. Especially when they fantasize about the better world that would emerge afterward.
 
9) Of course, the most prolific promoter of the “civil war” idea is Alex Jones and his Infowars operation.
 
10) But it has spread everywhere on the right, including to Fox News (see Carlson above) and to Rush Limbaugh.

11) Mind you, this is nothing new for Limbaugh. He made nearly an identical claim back in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing occurred.

12) Indeed, as I explain in some detail in _Alt-America_, the militia/Patriot movement is where the whole “modern civil war” idea originated, and it has remained largely alive in the same sector in the intervening years.

13) It gained real life in the Tea Party movement, which hosted organizations like the Oath Keepers that openly discussed preparations for a civil war. This is also where we saw it become common for people to talk among themselves about killing liberals.

14) Let’s also not forget radio host Michael Savage, an early and prominent Trump supporter. He published an entire book dedicated to essentially fomenting a civil war (under the guise of preventing one).

15) In the runup to the 2016 election, this kind of talk intensified. Militias especially were planning a violent resistance to a Clinton administration.

16) Recall especially the Kansas militia gang that planned a McVeigh-style truck bombing of a community of Somali Muslims in Garden City. Their plans called for the attack to take place the day after the election.

17) This kind of talk became common among not just militia types, but spread to rank-and-file Trump supporters as well.

18) After Trump won, it only took a week or two for them all to shift gears and begin preparing to act violently in Trump’s defense. They ginned up the whole "violent radical left" storyline in the runup to Trump's inauguration. ion

19) Now when you hear talk about a civil war, it is most common in the context of preventing his impeachment.

20) And now we have gangs of heavily armed right-wing thugs, largely outsiders from rural and exurban areas, invading liberal urban centers with the full intent of provoking violence so that they can portray the American left as innately violent.

21) I’ve covered about a dozen of these events. I hang out among the alt-righters and militiamen who populate that side and listen to them. They all are brimming with eagerness to beat the shit out of liberals, and they’re prepared to kill if they deem it necessary.

22) The Proud Boys are a classic proto-Brownshirt operation in the formative stages. Look at the shirts their members have been wearing to the “free speech” events they organize with the intent of provoking a violent response.

23) What does that mean? Well, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet murdered thousands of his own citizens in the 1970s simply for opposing him politically. He had right-wing death squads do most of the dirty work.

24) A number of these murders occurred when the death squads would drop political dissidents from great heights out of helicopters. Thus the back of the T-shirt. Which is now sold as official Proud Boys gear.

25) Moreover, all these shirts are being printed with a logo calling them “Right Wing Death Squads.” There’s even a webpage devoted to their apparel. Google it. Here's their logo.

26) So now the faction that has long fantasized about civil wars is openly fantasizing about murdering their fellow Americans by various means, most of them as cruel as a good psychopath can dream up. These folks are fanatical authoritarians.

27) And they are entirely right-wing. There is no counterpart to this on the left. Even the most rabid anarchist/communist/whatever group doesn’t direct this kind of rhetoric at its opponents. Moreover, the far left is a tiny and powerless faction. Unlike the alt-right.

28) Moreover, it is the far right that now controls all three houses of government in the United States. And the most powerful of all, the president, has a long habit of using eliminationist rhetoric to attack his opponents: “Lock Her Up!” was just one of many such.

29) Now he is describing half of America – the larger half that did not vote for him, and which now opposes his agenda at every turn – in such terms. Dismissing them as a “mob” and suggesting that they not only cannot govern but cannot BE governed is lethally dangerous.

30) Yet to hear the centrist media figures and their favorite subjects, centrist politicians, discuss all this ferment, you would think that both sides are engaging in this kind of prewar rhetoric. It’s absurd.

31) So, listen up, Chuck Todd, Evan McMullin, Susan Collins, and every other hand-wringing centrist wannabe: IT’S NOT BOTH SIDES. Only one side is trying to gin up a civil war in this country.