However We Define Fascism Remember Its Essence is Violence

 What is Fascism? 

By Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Trump has long kept the Fascist flame burning in America. He started his 2016 campaign by retweeting a racist meme from the Nazi outlet The Daily Stormer (the publication of neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin).

Trump brought Mussolini admirer and far-right operative Steve Bannon into the White House to launch his own “revolution of reaction.” In 2017 his administration gave Holocaust deniers a big gift: a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that made no mention of Jews.

The GOP politicians who now feign outrage at Trump's association with Nazis such as Nick Fuentes had no problem with his mainstreaming of extremism, perhaps because some of them are extremists themselves (Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene have appeared with Fuentes).

It’s time to accept that the GOP, which was complicit with Trump's Jan. 6 attempted authoritarian takeover, has become a party that furthers Fascist values and practices. That means the hate crimes that have skyrocketed in America since 2016 will likely continue to expand.

However we define Fascism, remembering that its essence is violence is more important than ever.

More on the history of Trump and MAGA's fascist violence from Heather Cox Richardson: HCR on MAGA Violence.

"Flame Thrower Love," Dead Boys (1978): Punk Rock Tuesday

Between 1976 and 1982, or thereabouts, there was NYC punk rock, British punk rock, LA punk rock, and then, really, okay to great punk rock scenes in every other provincial city in North America, no doubt England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, and eventually nearly everywhere, apparently. But in the US, anyway, Cleveland was the capitol of the provincial city 1970s punk rock scenes: The Styrenes, Electric Eels, Rocket from the Tombs, Pere Ubu, The Pagans, and the Dead Boys.   

"Train Through Time," Popol Vuh (1970)

Longform electronic psychedelia evocative of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" and Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, both made years later. Hard to get a fix on Popol Vuh or Florian Fricke, the German composer behind them. Their first album, this one, is prophetic electronic music, incorporating a Moog synthesizer and world music polyrhythms. The rest of PV's albums, or the ones I've heard, anyway, are piano or guitar based. Fricke was pals with filmmaker Werner Herzog. I want to call Popol Vuh a great soundtrack band but, really, only five of the over twenty albums they've put out are identified as soundtracks. What I've heard, though, is always cinematic, unfurling bucolic ambient settings, often dark, somber, spooky, radiating an earthy beauty, religious piety, peasant fertility rites, dark premonitions, etc.  

The Rich Conspiracy Against the Poor, exhibit evidence kajillion:

"SpaceX’s lawsuit could serve as a potent wrecking ball in the right’s push to weaken and perhaps demolish the administrative state – the network of federal agencies that the US Congress created to, among other things, promote workers’ safety on the job, prevent fraud in financial markets, protect workers’ right to unionize, limit environmental hazards, make sure consumer products are safe and administer social security for seniors."

Again, "administrative state" = Deep State = Rule of Law = Democracy = The only things between us and these grotesquely greedy corporate fascist plutocrats running everything. 

Trader Joe's, Starbucks, and Elon Musk, The Guardian

And now, 

Meet the Big Donors supporting Trump, Popular Information:

And I kid you not, group profile: Slavers, rich guys who abuse women, predatory landlords, massive tax evaders, loudmouth bigots, anti-liberal libertarian cranks, and anti-tax and regulations, of course, Techno-Optimist, corporate monopolists. 

IOW, all the best people, as we've come to expect. And another reason to root against the Cubs and Jets. 

"Bohannon's Beat," Bohannon (1975)

Hamilton Bohannon was first the band leader for Motown's top touring acts in their late '60s heyday; Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, etc. But when Motown moved to LA Bohannon stayed behind to become the Bo Diddley of the classic Disco Era. His thick propulsive funk a staple of the underground discos. TGIDF!

Women Can Vote for Women's Rights

 So, in 1864, a legislature of 27 white men created a body of laws that discriminated against Black people and people of color and considered girls as young as ten able to consent to sex, and they adopted a body of criminal laws written by one single man.

And in 2024, one of those laws is back in force in Arizona.

Now, though, women can vote.

HCR, Letters from American, 4/9/24

"When It's Over," Wipers (1981): Punk Rock Tuesday

 

My first exposure to live punk rock. Not NYC punk. Not Brit punk. Not LA punk although maybe some west coast family resemblance. The Wipers of Portland, Or, 1980-ish. The lead singer, Greg Sage, had a post-apocalyptic look; like a punk rocker in a Road Warrior movie. His lyrics were blunt declamatory identity crisis; "I Don't Know What I am," "Potential Suicide," "Pushing The Extreme," like that. The drum and bass kick up a spirited class of '77 punk rock force-beat but Sage's driven guitar distortion and effects always steal the show. Link Wray as Alien Boy.