It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fascism

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Here is a portion of a speech that Donald Trump gave to the so-called “Value Voters Summit” in October 2019

We meet tonight at a crucial moment in our nation’s history.  Our shared values are under assault like never before.  Extreme left-wing radicals, both inside and outside government, are determined to shred our Constitution and eradicate the beliefs we all cherish.  Far-left socialists are trying to tear down the traditions and customs that made America the greatest nation on Earth.  They reject the principles of our Founding Fathers — principles enshrined into the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that our rights come from our creator.  

A Yale philosophy Professor juxtaposes that Trump speech with this, from 1935: 

Bolshevism is explicitly determined on bringing about a revolution among all the nations. In its own essence it has an aggressive and international tendency. But National Socialism confines itself to Germany and is not a product for export, either in its abstract or practical characteristics. Bolshevism denies religion as a principle, fundamentally and entirely. It recognises religion only as an “opium for the people.” For the help and support of religious belief, however, National Socialism absolutely places in the foreground of its programme a belief in God and that transcendental idealism which has been destined by Nature to bring to expression the racial soul of a nation. National Socialism would give the lead in a new concept and shaping of European civilisation. But the Bolshevics carry on a campaign, directed by the Jews, with the international underworld, against culture as such. Bolshevism is not merely anti-bourgeois; it is against human civilisation itself.

Contemporary Republicans embrace totalitarian, evangelical-flavored neo-fascism and falsely denounce Democrats as anti-American. This is blatant gaslighting, and every Democrat and Democratic candidate should be shouting about it as loudly as possible. Literally everything else – from medical coverage on down – matters little until this neo-fascist scourge is defeated; defeated it has always been, and defeated it shall always be. Not through arms, but at the ballot box.

This is why it’s OK, for instance, on WBEN’s air to threaten the life of a Democratic elected official with impunity. (Three weeks and WBEN remains silent). It is nihilist eliminationist right-wing nationalist neo-fascism. Tim Wenger and his crew are among its vanguard. This isn’t new. I made fun of this in 2014, when I still wrote for Artvoice, and Tim Wenger thought it funny that someone would threaten Hillary Clinton with violence. 

Protecting liberty, democracy, and the rule of law are fundamental American values. The Democratic Party is all about protecting them. Whatever the Republican Party is now, is not. 

Oh Mickey, You So Lyin’

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Michael Kearns, the Erie County Clerk, is on a nativist anti-immigrant jihad that is as stupid as he. Check out this article at WGRZ. It begins, 

The Erie County clerk’s office wants a matter of possible voter fraud investigated.

You would think from that lede that notorious convicted liar-under-oath and vote fraudster Rus Thompson was again on the loose. But that’s not what happened at all. 

“This is the beginning of questioning of possible fraud,” said Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, who wants the county Board of Elections to investigate what happened last week, when a Buffalo man, in the U.S. legally on a work visa, applied for and got a commercial driver’s license.

The “beginning of questionining of possible fraud” is ridiculous fascist word salad from this repulsive elected official. 

“By the time my staff alerted me of this, this gentleman has left the office the transaction was completed,” Kearns said, “I do not know whether it was a mistake or not.”

Mickey. I know this is difficult for you to comprehend, but you are a clerk. Your duties are ministerial. It is not your job to vet whether the applicant is qualified to register to vote – you take the information and you pass it along to the Board of Elections, which makes that determination. If the guy entered a fake social security number that does not match his other identifying data, then it will be rejected. 

This technically is not a situation related to the Green Light law, which allows people to apply for a standard driver’s license regardless of their citizenship or lawful status.  

“They’re asked the question, ‘Are you a citizen or not?’ If they answer yes, there is nothing right now that our staff can do,” Kearns said.

Because getting a license is dependent on paying a fee and passing a test. Registering to vote is dependent on the Board of Elections vetting the information. Mickey Kearns’ penchant for being a nativist, racist liar is not nearly as effective as Stefan Mychajliw’s, but at least he’s getting his name in the paper and really showing the Republican base that he genuinely hates immigrants, regardless of their visa status. Because, as the WGRZ report lays out, this has nothing to do with Kearns’ opposition to the Green Light Law, as this applicant could have applied for a license at literally any time prior to December 2019, and it is likely that people mistakenly complete the whole form, including the voter registration part, unwittingly and with no effect.

Mickey Kearns is using this to concern-troll and virtue-signal over the Green Light Law, which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. Maybe in the future if someone fills out a Motor Voter application in-house, your staff can check their ID. 

Clarence Schools Catch Anti-Vax Fever

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Dr. Hicks –

Although I do not have children in the district anymore, I need to react to your letters to Assemblyman Norris and Senator Ranzenhofer I saw under the “legislative advocacy” section of the district website. I have a daughter who would fall under the mandate at another school, and this proposed legislation affects her.

I have seen some of what has been floating around on Facebook regarding this issue, and am aware that some parents came to the Board with issues concerning mandatory immunization as to the HPV vaccine.

Obviously, I understand that elected bodies and school administrators have a duty and responsibility to listen to community concerns. But because you are a school district and educators, I think it’s important that facts be substituted for emotion on issues such as this. I think that science trumps propaganda. Medicine beats feelings. There is no responsibility to placate people parroting pseudo-scientific quackery.

The HPV vaccine is safe and effective. There are no significant side-effects beyond what one might experience from any subcutaneous shot. There are allergy concerns which physicians and the manufacturer can address as needed. Beyond that, what we have is a safe and effective vaccine that is used to prevent transmission of a viral disease which has been proven to cause various types of cancers.

It is astounding to me that this would be something the district would be opposing under any theory. I am appalled that in 2019 this is remotely controversial. But my feelings don’t matter; facts do.

If the issue is one of parental choice, query whether those parents have also opted out of MMR or other mandated vaccines. If mumps, polio, or whooping cough are worth protecting against, why not HPV and ovarian or penile cancer?

If the issue is one of religious beliefs, what religious belief? With the possible exception of the Christian Scientists and perhaps Amish, I am unaware of any scripture that precludes the administration of the HPV vaccine to protect against infection, disease, or death.

If the issue is one of medical ethics, let the medical ethicists weigh in. Your letter cites an article from 2007, but there are myriad articles more recently published in that same AMA journal that argue in favor of HPV vaccination.

The only real difference cited is that HPV is transmitted through sexual intercourse, and viruses such as measles and other maladies against which children must be immunized, are not. So what? While I understand that it may shock the conscience of many parents to consider that an 11 year-old may someday grow up to have sexual intercourse, the purpose of vaccinations is not to protect parental sensibilities, but against preventable disease and death.

I have seen some of the online postings in support of the arguments against this mandate – most come from libertarian activist groups that oppose public schools themselves, not to mention anything that they do. Some come from blatant propaganda outlets that have no medical credentials. “Learn the Risk” is anti-vax propaganda. Brandy Vaughan isn’t a physician or pharmacist, she’s a former sales rep for Merck. The same website that Clarence parents are using as an impetus to keep their kids home from school today promotes, e.g., the pseudoscience that vaccines cause autism.

The CDC recommends that pubescent boys and girls receive the HPV vaccine. Same with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Same with the American Cancer Society. The HPV vaccine is not some sort of sinister attempt at, as some are arguing, “population control” under “the mark of the beast”. (Yes, those are direct quotes I found regarding this issue in 2019, amazingly enough.) It is proven medical science that this safe vaccine is effective in preventing the spread of HPV and the cancers it causes. I can only surmise that the biggest opposition to this proposed mandate has to do with puritanical issues surrounding sexual morality.

The HPV vaccine is not sex. It is medicine. I can only hope that these kids, when they reach the age of majority, have not involuntarily forfeited their ability to be protected against these maladies through vaccination.

The duty of a school district is to educate our children. Let the doctors deal with health and let the churches deal with scripture. The duty of our elected officials and governments is to weigh various competing issues and make decisions in the best interests of their constituents. It would be my hope that this balance and these decisions would be made based on objective, empirical fact rather than hysteria or emotion. It is my hope that these would be addressed by crediting science and medicine and discrediting propaganda, quackery, and charlatans.

I strongly support not only the inclusion of HPV in every child’s vaccine regimen, but that this vaccine be mandated by the state for all students.

A common thread I see regarding this is one of liberty and freedom. Being free from a preventable virus or cancer is more important in every way than having the freedom to assuage irrational, scientifically unsupported rumors or emotions.

Respectfully,

WBEN Caller Threatens Poloncarz

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If you took Sandy Beach, mated him with Tom Bauerle, and took away all of the experience, self-awareness, and wisdom that comes with age, you’d be left with Joe Beamer, one of the young broadcasters WBEN has brought in on the cheap to supplement its already thin-but-wide roster of right-wing outrage engineers. It is all part of a long-standing stationwide pattern that operates with the apparent support and assent of station management.

Want examples? In 2009, WBEN’s marquee yakker fantasized that there would be a civil war because librulz. WBEN has already used the publicly owned airwaves it licenses to tell its listeners in 2013 that Democrats are “worse than al-Qaeda“, so none of this is novel. (At the time, Assemblyman David DiPietro was on the phone with Bauerle and said nothing. He later forced himself to issue a milquetoast “didn’t hear it”

In 2014, at least one WBEN host openly wished for a genuine military coup against President Obama

WBEN has amplified eliminationist viewpoints for years. In February 2013 – just weeks after the Sandy Hook massacre of 1st graders, and in response to proposals for tighter gun control – WBEN used its putative straight news morning show to organize, promote, and broadcast a bus ride to an Albany pro-gun protest against Andrew Cuomo’s then-nascent NY SAFE Act. WBEN’s supposed straight news – co-hosted then and now by Wenger’s wife – established itself to be little more than a right-wing activist organization.

All it’s missing is tiki torches. There has been a pattern for years here. 

It is long past the time for Democrats to start treating WBEN as a right-wing extremist organization. 

So, what does Joe Beamer have to do with all this? Well, he was in for Sandy Beach on December 3rd and agitated against Mark Poloncarz’s announcement that Erie County would continue to welcome refugees. This being WBEN, the discussion had little to do with refugees and instead centered on “illegals”. “Dave from Lockport” called in and threatened to kill Mark Poloncarz over all of this. Mr. Beamer had absolutely nothing to offer in the way of pushback. Here’s the audio: 

After calling Poloncarz a moron, liar, and idiot for believing that Trump committed impeachable offenses, “Dave” said, addressing Poloncarz, that “if one of your illegals that you bring here to help ruin our country either hurts me or any of mine, I’m gonna come after you and yours. And you can take that to the bank, you moron.” 

OK, Boomer.

Beamer’s response to Lockport’s answer to Cesar Sayoc: that opens up a line. 

Why does WBEN continue to foment hatred and threats against Democratic politicians on the publicly owned airwaves?

Requests for comment I directed to Beamer and Tim Wenger via Twitter were not addressed.