Illegitimi Non Carborundum
Biden's done an outstanding job. But the GOP and Fox News are making sure that democracy’s still bleeding to death as the planet keeps getting hotter.
Republicans and Fox News spent most of 2021 spreading disease, sabotaging the Biden recovery, stirring up anger, encouraging violence, defending the Trump insurrection, and destroying democracy.
And the sad fact is, they mostly succeeded.
The politics of resentment and misinformation work best in opposition, when your party’s lack of new ideas or even a basic governing agenda are not being measured against your consistent failures of leadership and broken promises.
The mainstream media, as usual, has adopted the GOP talking points as the gospel truth. But in reality, as conservative Republican David Frum writes in The Atlantic, Biden has proven “outstandingly successful” during his first year in office:
In 11 months, Biden has done more with 50 Democratic senators than Barack Obama did with 57. He signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill in March 2021: $1,400-per-person direct payments, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an extension of supplemental unemployment-insurance benefits and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. He signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill in November. He signed some 75 executive orders, many of them advancing liberal immigration goals. He’s also won confirmation for some 40 federal judges, more than any first-year president since Ronald Reagan, and twice as many as Donald Trump confirmed in his first year with a 54-vote Senate majority.
Maybe if Biden had just sent a tweet every time the stock market hit a record high in 2021 things would be different.
Oh well.
The fact that more Americans died of Covid-19 in 2021 than 2020 is being used by those who do their own research to “prove” that Biden and Fauci—and vaccines—somehow failed. But the data show that most of those deaths were actually in GOP-led, Fox-News-loving states where GOP Governors conspicuously did the opposite of everything Biden and Fauci recommended. Nearly twice as many people died of Covid in Florida than in NY this year. And nearly 50,000 died in Texas alone, despite the availability of free vaccines. Because of Greg Abbott’s failure, Texas now has a total pandemic death toll almost equal to California, which was one of the hardest hit states in 2020. You thought it was bad in California in 2020? The overall death toll per capita is now 35% higher in Texas. Meanwhile, of course, Fox News keeps telling viewers what a great job Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are doing.
Meanwhile, democracy’s bleeding to death and the planet’s still on fire.
I started this little newsletter at the start of 2020 as my attempt to highlight the corruption and lies of Trump and the GOP—and to cut through the distractions and the disinformation to talk about things that we should be focusing on, like the need to listen to scientists and act before the whole planet gets destroyed. (See also: Don’t Look Up. Out now on Netflix.)
In order to make this newsletter as useful as possible, I started interviewing people about topics that mattered to me in the hope that they would help the spread of thoughtful, practical information.
Over the last two years, the email Q&As I’ve been able to present here have turned into one of the most gratifying things about this endeavor. In my year-end wrap up last year, I included links to 12 of those interviews, covering topics such as Covid-19 misinformation, free speech, election security, climate change, the future of the Supreme Court, the still unanswered questions about Trump-Russia, the rise of fascism, Trump’s dangerous psychopathy, and the human stories behind the Covid statistics.
This year, for those looking for some year-end reading, I’d like to highlight below seven interviews by me—and one guest contribution—that I was happy to bring Unprecedented readers in 2021. All are unlocked, so feel free to (re)share any you like by email or on social media.
“The GOP Knows Exactly What It's Doing.”
In February, I interviewed historian and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat about Trump’s authoritarian playbook and the dangers, post-insurrection, of GOP leaders kissing Trump’s ring. As she said then:
It is highly dangerous that the party persists in its attachment to this criminal figure, even when it could easily turn the page. It shows that they now stand for all that Trump embodies: lawlessness in private and public life, and an attitude to politics that holds that any means are justified to stay in power. January 6th showed that clearly.
“Inside COVID19”
In March, I interviewed InsideCOVID19 directors Gary Yost and Adam Loften about their 35-minute VR documentary that literally puts you inside hospital rooms and doctor’s offices—and in the car, the living room and next to the dogs on the bed as emergency room doctor Josiah Child battles the virus at home.
With stereoscopic immersive 360° filmmaking the viewer is completely surrounded by the subject’s life with no opportunity to look away. This brings an intensity to the experience of witnessing Dr. Child’s life that has been so powerful that a few people have told us that it had almost too much impact for them… it was TOO intense. No other medium can do that.
In July, InsideCOVID19 was nominated for an Emmy.
“Conversations with a Whistleblower”
In August, in an Unprecedented guest post, writer and psychologist Alan Blotcky talked to “Melania and Me” author Stephanie Winston Wolkoff about her ongoing cooperation with law enforcement authorities, including the Southern District of New York (SDNY), the Intelligence Committee, and the US Attorney General for the District of Columbia:
I have been exposing the truth in many ways, including what I wrote in my 2020 New York Times bestseller, “Melania and Me”… I have provided troves of documentation and have shined the light of truth on the sworn false testimonies of Ivanka, Don Jr., Rick Gates, and others. I have ignited a flame around Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, because of his nefarious involvement in the Presidential Inauguration Committee’s finances.
This was the most-read interview I published this year. So thanks, Alan Blotcky!
“Texas vs. Women”
In September, I interviewed political commentator, campaign advisor, activist, and former political candidate Lindy Li about the GOP’s accelerating War on Women, most notably with a new Texas law that the post-RBG, Federalist-Society-packed Supreme Court had just allowed to go into effect:
The Texas measure essentially bans all abortion, as most women do not know that they are pregnant at six weeks. As a woman, I know how erratic and unpredictable our periods can be. They are not always a reliable indicator of pregnancy and are mercurial, subject to the stresses and vicissitudes of our day. Putting all that aside, men, especially of the religious and sexist variety, should not be writing laws governing women's bodies.
“What Can We Do About Guns?”
In November, I interviewed founder of Moms Demand Action Shannon Watts about the bigger picture of gun violence and what can be done about it.
Children aren’t traumatized by wearing a mask, but there is plenty of evidence that shows they're traumatized by active shooter drills. In fact, Everytown partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Social Dynamics and Wellbeing Lab to study the immediate and long-term impacts of active shooter drills on the health and wellbeing of students, teachers, and parents, and what we found was staggering. Active shooter drills in schools are associated with a 39% increase in depression, a 42% increase in stress and anxiety, and a 23% increase in physiological health problems overall, including in children from as young as five years old up to high schoolers, their parents, and teachers. Keeping our children safe at school is a core part of our mission, and it starts first and foremost with secure firearm storage so students can’t get their hands on guns to begin with.
Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action have volunteer chapters in every state and all action is good action. Text JOIN to 644-33 to get connected to someone in your community and learn more about how you can get involved in this movement.
“Give Thanks to Flight Attendants”
In November, as we headed into the second holiday season of the global pandemic, I also interviewed Nas Lewis, founder of th|AIR|apy, a nonprofit organization focused on the mental health and well-being of Flight Attendants. She detailed the physical and mental challenges faced by Flight Attendants at a time when unruly passengers have made flying more physically dangerous than ever, staff shortages have created added pressure—on top of all the regular challenges of jet lag, flight cancellations, schedule changes, family and personal issues, and more.
We implore passengers to pack their kindness and respect. We are here to offer you a service and be cognizant of your safety. We care about you. Give us a chance to give to you and make your travel experience worthwhile, while still keeping your well-being in mind. Please consider our mental health and our sacrifices. We need your cooperation. Let’s work together and actually SEE each other.
Since this interview, th|AIR|apy has launched the th|AIR|apy Helpline, the only nationwide, free, 24/7/365 text line in aviation.
You can support their work here: https://getthairapy.org/donate/.
“The Brainwashing Machine”
My December interview with Jen Senko, filmmaker and author of The Brainwashing of My Dad, is already my second-most-read interview of 2021. It really touched a chord in the year in which Fox News celebrated the 25th anniversary of proving the Roger Ailes of 1970 correct that the GOP could, indeed, launch a TV network to pollute the minds of lazy TV viewers who wanted their thinking done for them:
Ailes knew long before Limbaugh came on the scene what made good television and how to make it persuasive. He also knew that if the news media continued to be objective and to tell the truth, like it eventually did about the Vietnam War, it was likely that the favored GOP candidates such as Nixon, might become unpopular. Thus, he tried to get the Nixon White House interested in a plan called, “Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News.” He said, “If you tell people what to think, you’ve lost them. But if you tell them how to feel, they’re yours.” That’s what he and Limbaugh were masters at: pushing emotional buttons… The actual intent of Roger Ailes in creating Fox for Rupert Murdoch was to turn viewers into Republican voters. Fox was built to brainwash.
“700 and Counting”
My most-read article of the year—“GOP: Gang of Pedophiles”—put a spotlight on the GOP’s growing acceptance of the child rapists, sex traffickers, pedophile enablers and child porn offenders in their midst. But that article only scratched the surface. So in December I interviewed Twitter user @cajsa who, since the 2018 Kavanaugh hearings, has been compiling and sourcing a list of Republican Sexual Predators that now has 700 names and counting:
I think there are predators on both sides, though I see more pedophiles on the right and more sexual harassment on the left. I think the worst predators are drawn to the more authoritarian ideology in hopes that the rules and rigidity would make them behave… There is a lot of research on the personality that seeks authoritarianism and it just makes sense. People do not grow up wanting to molest children and may feel self-disgust and hope that the evangelical church and Republican dogmatism would keep them in line. Of course, it won’t.
Thanks for reading!
Wishing you a Happy and Healthy 2022. Keep fighting fascism. Try to stay safe. And don’t let the bastards grind you down.
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Excellent summary of your articles with links to all. This blog format makes it difficult to look up anything of yours. So I saved it in a document as an aid to refreshing my memory or looking up your facts.