Todd, what a disingenuous smear job. Not only do you distort the works of Willmoore Kendall and George Carey in their defense of the American Constitution, but also you begin the attacks on Ron DeSantis who is the major threat to Trump being the GOP presidential nominee in 2024. You continue to put all those of us on the Right into your neat little category of “Fascists”. You remind me of Robert McNamera’s civilian “whiz kids” who advised him on Vietnam policy (whose advice many of us in the US military in Vietnam thought was misguided and wrongheaded.) I described the civilian whiz kids at the time,: “they had high IQs, but were brilliantly wrong.” Tom Pauken
Sent from my iPad
On Dec 5, 2022, at 10:29 AM, Todd Pierce via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
Please forgive the length of this email (how can “Origins of American Fascism” be condensed much more?), and perhaps disjointedness/repetition within this, as it was written over a week or so, but as the Bottom Line Up-Front (BLUF):
"Since I first prepared to send this on DeSantis’s “wartime experience,” the following was brought to my attention:
"A first-person/victim's account of attorney Ron DeSantis' role in supervising force-feeding at Guantanamo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFonj6o0fTI. There is also speculation about his subsequent role as Senior Legal Advisor with Special Ops Task Force in Falluja.”
For more on how DeSantis ensured "detainees were treated in accordance with the law,” see the attached files with much of what is described therein having happened when DeSantis was in Guantanamo. As a Guantanamo defense attorney, I have first hand experience in knowing how the military staff officers at Guantanamo were as bad or worse than any of the Military Commissions prosecutors, and would have been directly involved with the multifarious forms of torture, as DeSantis is said to have been. Thus, guaranteeing an instant appeal to the vast majority of Republicans, and many Democrats (think Alan Dershowitz):
<2022-11-28 Amicus (Musicians).pdf>
<2022-11-14 Petitioner's Brief.pdf>
<2022-11-29 Amicus (CVT).pdf>
With that as an introduction:
I prepared this email a few days ago but set it aside out of a sense of futility, and knowing it's a lost cause to reveal the “inner-fascism” of today’s US and its "Ideology of the Offensive and Perpetual War," shared across the board of US society and politics. But given Trump’s open call to “terminate the Constitution” now, as opposed to dog whistles, insinuations, lies, and outright acts to do just that, to include appointing “Originalists” to the Supreme Court as ideological descendants of Willmoore Kendall and George Carey who called for setting aside the “1789 Constitution,” with the Bill of Rights, in favor of the “Philadelphia Constitution,” of 1787, sans Bill of Rights, I feel a need to at least “take a stand” against the open “Fascistization” (see https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/how-did-the-nazi-gain-power/ for most extreme [to date] example of Gleichschaltung) of the US being led by those ideologists of the “New Right,” and their ideological ancestors, the aforementioned CIA officers who founded the “Movement.” For those incapable of rising out of “dichotomous thinking,” this is to attribute what is happening today to the US to both parties, both of whom have now fully adopted “National Security State Ideology” as first articulated by the aforementioned, but with the “Right” as a body always ahead, as befitting the “Ideological Founders.” Though the Democrat’s own Rahm Emanuel, its new “War veterans,” and the remainder of the party keeping up with them, makes it hard to distinguish one party from the other on “Perpetual War.”
But the so-called “New Right,” and their allied “National Conservatives,” as revealed as propagandists for Trump and Trumpism, have a special and unique, infamy for their duplicity in falsely selling their ideology as something which opposes US wars, and upholding the Constitution. When they do neither, as readily apparent if one takes the trouble and effort to “critically think” and analyze the "political theory” they’re operating from, which constitutes their true ideology, even if most of their followers couldn’t distinguish “political theory” from political party. A problem in 1920’s Germany as well.
So label this email a continuation of my “New Right Watch,” or “New Right Exposed.” With the "New Right" those self-described, so-called “non-Interventionist Conservatives” of the formerly sound, on issues of war, The American Conservative (TAC) magazine, now fully given over to right-wing extremists out of the “Straussian Camp” and the National Conservative Movement founded by Israeli Settler Yoram Hazony, as an extreme right-wing, or as they’re called in Israel, “Fascist,” “Influence Operation,” All of whom so artfully concealed Trump’s gargantuan, military buildup, and encirclements of China and Russia, while he simultaneously launched “clandestine” wars against Venezuela, and with his fellow fascist, Netanyahu, against Iran, as “non-interventionism!” And hilariously” “Fighting the Blob!”
As I’ve stated previously, National Review magazine began as an "Influence Operation” by either recently resigned CIA officers, or still active ones, whom I’ve frequently named. And for the past 7 years or so, The American Conservative magazine, and its “network” of "West Coast Straussian” affiliates, Claremont Institute and Hillsdale “College” (can such an ideological indoctrination institution actually be called a “college?), openly collaborated in advancing the political interests of, and creating a more formal ideology for, what could be called “Trumpism.” Or now, just the “New Right.”
In this, they are representative of the most extreme right-wing elements of US politics since the founders of the 1950’s Conservative Movement openly paraded as McCarthyites and Segregationists, while adopting the more innocuous term “Conservative” to describe themselves, in the preceding “influence operation.” With the current one, the “New Right,” as described above, allied with a foreign element as an open extension of the Israeli fascists (all in “my opinion”) as their co-ideologists, National Conservatives. While duplicitously claiming to stand for “non-interventionism,” while building a US Military Colossus to give full effect to the Cheney Doctrine that the US military “rules” the world, through POTUS. Which unfortunately, in their eyes, changed hands in the last election, so we are seeing the equivalent of a “counter-revolution” today, with all the lying and deceit one would expect in a Movement not too dissimilar to German politics of the 1920s while the various rivalries were “sorted out,” up until 1934.
So relating back to an email of last week (if anyone has read this far), and picking up where I’d left off then, speaking of Carl Schmitt’s ideal of “The Leader,” or in the original language, Der Führer, per what I sent then, here (see article at bottom) is an older article I prepared to send, but procrastinated at. That in being so disheartened by the self-evident support by some here of “Modern Fascism.” Which is personified by Giorgia Meloni and her party, the fascist Israelis, and of course, the fascist Americans, most personified today in the “New Right.” But definitely not excluding any American militarists desiring/demanding Global US "Military Full Spectrum Dominance,” that is, “Control of the World,” the very essence of “Fascism,” such as the Democratic Party Militarists. The latter haven’t hid their military ambitions, except to conceal them as “Humanitarian Intervention,” or “Spreading Democracy," as two rhetorical devices to duplicitously conceal US military expansionism, which is well-known on this List. Even if some here wax enthusiastically for warmongering think-tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, and the Hoover Institution, not seeing the “contradiction" in that, when they also express opposition to “endless war,” when promoting that is the very purpose of these “Conservative think-tanks!”
But it is the so-called "New Right” of today that I have come to focus on as it works to have it both ways. That is, in duplicitously claiming to oppose U.S. military interventionism, while simultaneously, and duplicitously, promoting and supporting U.S. military interventionism, through political leaders whose very objectives are to make the U.S. an impregnable “Fortress America,” in a militarily aggressive, offensive manner. As evident in being even more militarily aggressive in waging war throughout the entire “Spectrum of Conflict.” As Trump did, with a vast military buildup (in itself an "act of aggression,” supported by the entire Republican Party), and completing as much as possible the encirclements of China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba (before handing that off to Biden). None of whom before Bush II and his demonstrated intent to fully effect the Cheney Doctrine of U.S. Global Military Domination presented any kind of military threat to the U.S., or virtually anyone else. Yet Trump accelerated and expanded every “instrument" of war the US is the Masters of: Diplomatic (only as Thomas Schelling’s "Diplomacy of Violence”), Information (War), Military (Kinetic War), Economic (War), or “DIME,” as part of the “Strategy of Violence” taken directly from Thomas Schelling (or from Il Duce and DerFührer).
With the “New Right” leading the charge! Even when those few who expressed opposition to the US war against Russia, as begun in Ukraine in 2014, simultaneously, and stridently, called for the expansion of military aggression against China and Iran, and any countries which traded with them! Like TAC favorite Joe Kent, to name just one example, who fortunately lost his election. With the "New Right” being most supportive of the likes of Giorgia Meloni and the Israeli fascists, with their own adopted ideology from an Israeli Settler, and one-time Kahanist, Yoram Hazony and his brand of fascist thought, National Conservatism. Fascist in that it explicitly, as did a U.S. Conservative Movement founder, Willmoore Kendall, call for the “repeal” of the Enlightenment, and a return to pre-Enlightenment legal “traditions,” or at least, pre-1789 Constitutional Law, meaning no Bill of Rights, as “Originalist” Constitutional interpretation.
With DeSantis seemingly now taking over from Trump as The Leader of the New Right. Or as Trump might prefer, given his ethnic background: Der Führer, if it didn’t have such a bad connotation. But in consideration of DeSantis’ name, and his current status, he might prefer Il Duce, which isn’t quite so bad, and most people won’t know the connotation anyway.
One cannot choose who is the most extreme New Right sycophant, but in any contest, without a doubt, it would be between The American Conservative (TAC) magazine’s Rod Dreher, who in these articles, effectively crowns DeSantis as “Il Duce,” taking over from Trump, as The Leader.”
And the other sycophantic contestant would be TAC’s Curt Mills, also a Steve Bannon sychophant, and of course befitting a TAC editor, a Claremont Institute Senior Fellow making Mills the Sr. Straussian now at TAC, since Johnny Burtka left.
BLUF: "But if my coverage and sporadic access to political VIP’s has taught me anything, it is respect for an open will to power.”
Ahh, yes, a “respect for an open will to power.” The very essence of “fascism!” None of the German or Italian leaders of the fascist times could have expressed it better!
Perhaps a rhetorical question, but per my earlier, and regular diatribes against Florida’s Il Duce , I must ask, how stupid and/or gullible does one need to be, as many here were of Trump, and are of DeSantis, as “National Conservatives,” and the “New Right,” to believe that out of this background, DeSantis is a “non-interventionist?”
Quote from the article at bottom: "DeSantis completed Naval Justice School in 2005 and was assigned the following year to serve as a military lawyer at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where his responsibilities included ensuring detainees were treated in accordance with the law, according to an account in the Tampa Bay Times. He subsequently served as a legal adviser to the SEAL commander in charge of a special operations force in Fallujah during the 2007 “surge” of US troops in Iraq."
Since I first prepared to send this on DeSantis’s “wartime experience,” the following was brought to my attention:
"A first-person/victim's account of attorney Ron DeSantis' role in supervising force-feeding at Guantanamo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFonj6o0fTI. There is also speculation about his subsequent role as Senior Legal Advisor with Special Ops Task Force in Falluja.”
For more on how DeSantis ensured "detainees were treated in accordance with the law,” see the attached files with much of what is described therein having happened when DeSantis was in Guantanamo. As a Guantanamo defense attorney, I have first hand experience in knowing how the military staff officers at Guantanamo were as bad or worse than any of the Military Commissions prosecutors, and would have been directly involved with the multifarious forms of torture
<2022-11-28 Amicus (Musicians).pdf>
<2022-11-14 Petitioner's Brief.pdf>
<2022-11-29 Amicus (CVT).pdf>
With that background, DeSantis really does fit the model of “American Fascist,” in my opinion. And I’m happy to defend that position on the basis of the underlying “political theory” which DeSantis,’ and Trump’s, and the Claremont Institute’s, and Hillsdale thought depends upon, with ample proof available of how that is acted upon in his suppression of “information” through as much censorship as he can get by with at any given moment. With his ideological roots firmly in the genealogy of the “Conservative Movement’s” ideology, as originating in what Willmoore Kendall, James Burnham, et al., did for McCarthy. That is, like the Claremont Institute, Hillsdale College, and the West Coast Straussians with The American Conservative magazine, have done, and are doing, for Trumpism; giving it ideological coherence.
With DeSantis now the “flag-bearer” of that ideology. Which, while it is correct to call it “Conservative,” as it originated in the European “Absolutism” so beloved by Kendall, Burnham, and so many other “Conservatives,” to especially include Yoram Hazony and the National Conservative ideology they espouse today, that is confusing to too many people. Who dichotomously then assume it stands opposed to “Neoconservatism,” instead of seeing each as the same “genus.” As is the militaristic Neoliberalism embraced by the Democrats today, as handed down to them from the Scoop Jackson/Brzezinski hyper-militarists who modeled themselves after the Republican’s “Conservatives,” on so-called “National Security” issues. Consequently, to avoid confusion, I will refrain from the terms prefaced by “Neo,” and identify these factions by their “essence” of hyper-militarist and authoritarian. That is, “fascist,” with American Exceptionalism, as seen in a permanent, suspended Constitution, “State of Exception.” Under direct “military rule,” in the sense that the NSA surveils all of us, all of the time, through our “digital” existence. And are decisive on economic distribution as the military always gets first dibs on government spending. Far more so on each issue than the Stasi could ever achieve.
I began writing an email to a group which was far too deferential to BG Mark Martins, as “Legal Advisor” to Petraeus, and then Chief Prosecutor in the Military Commission. My point was that anything a well-credentialed military attorney, like Martins, and DeSantis, say, should be immediately suspect as they’re in the forefront of waging “Lawfare,” or “Information Operations,” as high level Military Orders always require an annex on, as LTC Daniel Davis can attest to. The same effect Martins has/had as a “spokesperson” for the military is the same DeSantis has. And will have, in his political campaigns, when citing to his military record. As far as his role in USG torture, we saw how that played out in Trump’s embrace of it in 2016 with his promise to restore it to USG policy! It will be the equivalent for a war-fevered populace to demand, to paraphrase the virtually self-admitted fascist Michael Ledeen on the Mideast Wars in the early 2000’s, “More, please.” That appeal will be accepted, and amplified, by US military “Warfighters,” and veterans. As we saw with so many of these war-fevered fanatics and their support for their "Commander in Chief:”
BLUF: "When the CIA got caught spying on Senate staffers working on the 6,000 page torture report, John Brennan, who heads the agency, denied the transgression. "As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into computers, nothing could be further from the truth," he said on March 11, 2014. "That's beyond the scope of reason." Four months later, the CIA Inspector General found that the CIA did, in fact, improperly spy on the Senate intelligence committee. After that, Brennan apologized."
So what follows are some links to articles on DeSantis which should remove any doubt of what he is, which I know will make him even more attractive to some here. But don’t turn around then and lie to us of how he represents “realism and restraint” in the “traditional meaning of that anyway, ex.
"One influential conference-goer who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order not to be attached to a presidential nominee too early in the process said DeSantis was his favorite going into the weekend. DeSantis, he said, embraced Trump’s policies, but more effectively and with “discipline.” Ah yes, “discipline!” Just what the great liberation economist Thomas Sowell called for when he said it might be time for a "military coup!"
Gov. Ron DeSantis | Florida is a Model for America | NatCon 3 Miami
Get past his appeal on issues of concern to some people, which fascists always exploit, and look for his “essence,” which I believe was shown in his military career. And his identification/alliances with Israel’s “far-right leaders,” or as more astute Israelis like Gideon Levy correctly identify them as: fascists.
"Yet Claremont’s reach is extensive: Claremont scholars have collaborated with Ron DeSantis and helped shape the views of Clarence Thomas, Tom Cotton and the conservative activist Christopher Rufo, and the institute received the National Humanities Medal from President Trump in 2019."
"The New Right today may soon find itself in a strange situation: Its intellectual center of gravity shifting toward DeSantis and his veneer of normalcy, while Trump’s patronage remains a better bet vaulting its people into the upper echelons of power."
"But not everyone on the New Right is willing to countenance moderation, either on policy or rhetoric. Declan Leary, the managing editor of The American Conservative magazine, argued that none of the usual — abortion, Trump, or the GOP’s “candidate quality” problems — should bear the blame for defeat.
"The GOP’s problem wasn’t too little moderation, he claims; it was too much.”
Ron DeSantis has a Trump problem. The man touted as a likely contender for the 2024 Republican nomination needs to keep the former president on side, given that Trump still wields some influence as a kingmaker. But he must also maintain enough distance to appeal to conservative voters who have turned their backs on Trump.
Some quarters are already predicting that DeSantis will forge ahead as the leader of the Republican opposition and the party’s likely candidate. An August article in the National Review, the standard-bearer of American conservatism, argued that DeSantis was the true "leader of the opposition", lauding him for pursuing conservative causes where other politicians have balked.
Trump threw his support behind DeSantis in his inaugural bid for the governorship in 2018, attending rallies in Florida and calling him a "brilliant young leader". But that support is conspicuously absent as DeSantis faces re-election.
The two men are engaged in a delicate rivalry in which DeSantis avoids criticising Trump directly or challenging his GOP supremacy while dismissing any 2024 speculation. And so far, DeSantis has skillfully dodged the question of whether he believes the last election was stolen from the former president.
But he has embraced some of the more extreme ideas put forth by election deniers. In a November 6, 2020, interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel – three days after the presidential vote and the day before it was called for Joe Biden – DeSantis suggested that state legislatures could override the results by naming pro-Trump electors regardless of the outcome of the vote.
Culture wars
DeSantis, 44, has also embraced many of the “culture war” arguments of the far right, going full anti-mask during the Covid-19 pandemic and banning schools from teaching critical race theory (CRT) – the idea that racial inequality is systemic and thus intrinsic to, for example, the US criminal justice system – despite CRT having no official place in school curricula.
He was behind a push to ban math books in his state deemed to be too “woke” and a controversial Florida bill that limited discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. And even before the US Supreme Court moved to overturn Roe v Wade, DeSantis weighed in on the abortion debate by signing legislation banning the procedure after 15 weeks.
DeSantis came under fire in September for transferring unsuspecting migrants to Democratic states in an expensive – and for many critics, cruel – political stunt designed to play to the anti-immigration right wing. He is now facing an investigation by the Treasury Department into whether he misused federal pandemic relief funds to fly two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
‘Trump-like’
Despite the controversies, such combative, high-profile moves have helped elevate DeSantis’s national profile. A pre-election tour to drum up the party faithful across battleground states didn’t hurt, either. Stephan Lawson, head of communications for the DeSantis reelection campaign, suggested it was a way to bolster his support base without challenging Trump directly.
“What he's doing is continuing to elevate his stature and his name ID, his conservative credentials to a larger audience,” Lawson told ABC.
“Put another way – 'I'm gonna get all the good without the bad of taking on Trump directly’,” Lawson added.
As perhaps befits the man viewed as a possible heir to Trump, DeSantis is similarly given to dissembling and hyperbole – Politifact has rated many of his public statements as “false” or “mostly false”.
But there are also notable differences. DeSantis has publicly voiced concern about the growing US deficit, which began ballooning while Trump was in office. Although both men downplay the effects of global warming, DeSantis has supported legislation to combat a rise in sea levels and protect the Everglades.
DeSantis has also criticized the invasion of Ukraine and supported tougher sanctions on Russia while Trump has said that Ukraine should look to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin.
The New York Times quoted one DeSantis ally as saying the governor’s political brand is akin to “competent Trumpism”.
Although Trump continues to outperform DeSantis in national polls asking Republicans who they want to represent them in 2024, DeSantis has started edging out the former president in some state polls. And his fundraising outstripped Trump’s in the first six months of the year, according to OpenSecrets, an NGO that tracks political donations, with DeSantis breaking donation records for a gubernatorial race.
DeSantis might also be able to rely on support from the numerous “Never Trumpers” of the Republican Party – some of whom have since voted for Democrats – giving him broader national appeal.
“There are a lot of establishment Republicans that would come home for DeSantis,” said David Jolly, a former GOP congressman from Florida who served with DeSantis and has since become an Independent, in comments to the Washington Post in September.
DeSantis “has adopted Trump’s playbook in Florida and he does Trump-like things … but he’s actually arm’s-length from Trump”, Jolly added.
And whereas Trump gave no quarter to his critics or political opponents, DeSantis has tried to show that he can rise above politics when the occasion calls for it.
DeSantis praised President Joe Biden for declaring a state of emergency, thereby freeing up federal funding for Florida and allowing agencies to coordinate relief efforts, ahead of Hurricane Ian in late September. “We appreciate the Biden administration’s consideration for the people of Florida during this time of need,” DeSantis said.
It was a shift in tone for DeSantis, who regularly uses the president as a political foil, criticising him on issues ranging from Afghanistan to Ukraine to vaccine mandates.
From Harvard to Gitmo
When DeSantis was sworn in as governor in 2019 he was, at 40, Florida's youngest governor in a century. His official biographies invariably describe him as a “native Floridian with blue collar roots” who went on to follow a top-flight trajectory leading from Yale University to Harvard Law School (he graduated with honours from both).
DeSantis completed Naval Justice School in 2005 and was assigned the following year to serve as a military lawyer at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where his responsibilities included ensuring detainees were treated in accordance with the law, according to an account in the Tampa Bay Times. He subsequently served as a legal adviser to the SEAL commander in charge of a special operations force in Fallujah during the 2007 “surge” of US troops in Iraq.
After his active-duty service, DeSantis was an assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
DeSantis was first elected to Congress in 2012 as a representative for Florida’s Sixth District. During his first term he co-founded the Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-right conservative lawmakers. He also became a frequent guest on Fox News and earned the support of the Tea Party, a virulently anti-Obama right-wing movement, before winning re-election in 2016.
A Republican rift?
By the time Trump became president in 2017, DeSantis was one of his most vocal supporters. And he had Trump's backing when he announced that he was running for governor of Florida, winning the post the following year.
But the two men's similarities, once a source of affinity, may be emerging as a source of conflict.
Rolling Stone cited Trump insiders as saying the former president has accused DeSantis of "stealing" some of his mannerisms. A video from The Recount portrays the two men speaking side by side in split screen to highlight the parallels.
“DeSantis certainly mimics Trump’s style, rhetoric and body language,” Dan Eberhart, a longtime GOP donor, told Rolling Stone, adding that DeSantis’s “bombastic” style seems to be "ripped straight out of a Donald Trump style guide”.
Eberhart has donated to Trump in the past but said he’d rather support someone like DeSantis in the next presidential race.
Multiple US media outlets have cited sources in Trump's circle as saying he is displeased with DeSantis's ascent. The Washington Post reported that Trump has dubbed the governor "ungrateful", telling advisers: "I made him."
And in what was widely seen as a snub, Trump announced in late October that he would speak at a Miami rally for Senator Marco Rubio on the weekend right before Election Day but made no mention of addressing Florida crowds in support of DeSantis.
DeSantis, for his part, endorsed a Republican Senate candidate in Colorado who has said he would "actively" campaign against Trump if he runs again in 2024.
Amid reports that resentments are simmering just below the surface, it remains to be seen how long the two men can avoid coming into open conflict over the leadership of their party – particularly with a presidential nomination soon hanging in the balance.
-- Salon mailing list Salon@listserve.com https://mlm2.listserve.net/mailman/listinfo/salon
