Category: America

For your edification, here’s a selection of links that illustrate Trump’s being a Putin fanboy, the Republican Party’s and alt-right’s fandom of Russia, and of course, how it all relates to the current situation in Ukraine.

2016

Washington Post, September 9, 2016 — Trump moves praise for Putin closer to the mainstream of the GOP

Business Insider, December 10, 2016 — ‘A model for civilization’: Putin’s Russia has emerged as ‘a beacon for nationalists’ and the American alt-right

QZ, December 22, 2016 — How Russia surpassed Germany to become the racist ideal for Trump-loving white supremacists

2017

 

Daily Beast, April 13, 2017 — Meet the Moscow Mouthpiece Married to a Racist Alt-Right Boss

Chicago Tribune, May 3, 2017 — Donald Trump’s peculiar obsession with authoritarian leaders

Newsweek, August 16, 2017 — Charlottesville’s Alt-right Leaders Have a Passion for Vladimir Putin

2018

ThinkProgress, June 10, 2018 — Why is this Pizzagate truther meeting with a Russian neo-fascist?

Washington Post, July 16, 2018 — Trump is a Putin fanboy. Someday we’ll know why.

Politico, July 16, 2018 — Putin: I wanted Trump to win the election

League of the South, July 17, 2018 — To our Russian friends

Angry White Men, July 22, 2018 — Russia Insider Mixes Pro-Putin And White Nationalist Propaganda

2019

Politico, September 21, 2019 — Trump Didn’t Bribe Ukraine. It’s Actually Worse Than That.

American Progress, October 2, 2019 — Trump’s Extortion of Ukraine: A Complete Government Shakedown

New York Times, November 12, 2019 — Trump, Ukraine and Impeachment: The Inside Story of How We Got Here

Just Security, November 26, 2019 — Trump’s Hold on Ukrainian Military Aid was Illegal

NPR, December 6, 2019 — Why The Trump Decision To Delay Aid To Ukraine Is Under Scrutiny

Center for Public Integrity, December 13, 2019 — Timeline: How Trump withheld Ukraine aid

Foreign Policy, December 18, 2019 — In Historic Vote, House Impeaches Trump Over Ukraine Scandal

BBC, December 19, 2019 — Trump impeachment: How Ukraine story unfolded

Wikipedia’s entry on the Trump-Ukraine scandal

2020

USA Today, January 30, 2020 — Trump is being impeached over an extortion scheme, not a ‘policy dispute’

BBC, February 5, 2020 — Trump impeachment: The short, medium and long story

Just Security, February 6, 2020 — Confronting Russia’s Role in Transnational White Supremacist Extremism

Forbes, August 18, 2020 — Trump Wrote Putin To Congratulate Him On Being Named TIME Person Of The Year

2021

The Atlantic, August 1, 2021 — What I Heard in the White House Basement [by Alexander Vindman]

Business Insider, August 20, 2021 — Trump told Putin ‘I’m a big fan of yours’ and asked him to be the guest of honor at a Miss Universe pageant, in a series of fawning letters

Forbes, December 8, 2021 — Tucker Carlson Accused Of Promoting Russian Propaganda As Putin Masses Forces On Ukraine Border

2022

MSNBC, January 21, 2022 — It’s not just Tucker Carlson. The right’s soft spot for Putin is also well documented.

“I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine…I do care about the fact that in my community right now the leading cause of death among 18-45 year olds is Mexican fentanyl that’s coming across the southern border.” – @JDVance1 #OHSen pic.twitter.com/nf6MUzdWM5

— JD Vance for U.S. Senate Press (@JDVancePress) February 19, 2022

Haaretz, February 19, 2022 — Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley and Donald Trump: Putin’s Dream Team, but America’s Worst Nightmare

NBC News, February 22, 2022 — Trump praises Putin’s ‘genius’ as GOP fissures grow on Ukraine crisis

Yahoo! News, February 24, 2022 — Trump, who was impeached for withholding nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine, said ‘this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened’ if he were in office

Politico, February 24, 2022 — How the Ukraine invasion connects to Trump’s first impeachment — and where the players are now

Vice, February 25, 2022 — US Extremists Have Picked a Side in Ukraine: ‘Lol Putin Is Brilliant’

Vice, February 25, 2022 — Why Putin’s M.O. Feels So Right to Trumpists

New York Times, February 27, 2022 — How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia

The New Yorker, March 1, 2022 — The Ambassador Caught Between Ukraine and Trump

Slate, March 2, 2022 — Zelensky’s “Perfect Phone Call” With Trump in 2019 Explains a Lot Right Now

AP News, March 5, 2022 — Trump’s praise of Putin, ‘America First’ view tested by war

Newsweek, March 6, 2022 — Liz Cheney Blasts ‘Putin Wing of the GOP’ After Ret. Col. Macgregor’s Zelensky Remarks

The Hill, March 6, 2022 — Russia and the Republicans

Boston Globe, March 7, 2022 — With Ukraine under attack, Trump’s first impeachment is suddenly much more relevant

CNN, March 8, 2022 — This Republican is trying to rewrite the history of Trump’s ‘perfect’ call with Ukraine

NPR, March 8, 2022 — Russia’s invasion puts a new light on Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign

Rolling Stone, March 8, 2022 — Fox News’ Invasion Expert Is a Trump-Appointed Putin Propagandist Who Thinks Russia Is Being ‘Too Gentle’

Even though I myself was the college boyfriend who displaced a high school one, I still said “DAAAAAAMN” after seeing this tweet…

…only to say “DAAAAAAMN” again when I read this response:

I began to wonder why there wasn’t a comedy film on the subject with the name Turkey Drop, but it turns out that one exists! It’s from 2019 and is largely forgotten. Here’s the trailer:

I’m a “green card” holder — the formal term is “resident alien” — and was required, or as we now say, mandated to get some vaccines, despite coming from a first-world country with better life expectancies that the U.S..

Here’s the current version of that mandate for immigrants and resident aliens, from Chapter 9 of the USCIS Policy Manual:

A. Vaccination Requirements for Immigrants

Some vaccines are expressly required by statute. Others are required because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have determined they are in the interest of public health.^[1]

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)^[2] specifies the following vaccinations:

• Mumps, measles, rubella;
• Polio;
• Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids;^[3]
• Pertussis;
• Haemophilius influenza type B; and
• Hepatitis B.

CDC requires the following additional vaccines for immigration purposes:

• Varicella;
• Influenza;
• Pneumococcal pneumonia;
• Rotavirus;
• Hepatitis A;
• Meningococcal; and
• COVID-19.

If the applicant has not received any of the listed vaccinations and the vaccinations are age appropriate and medically appropriate, the applicant has a Class A condition and is inadmissible. Generally, all age appropriate vaccine rows of the vaccination assessment must have at least one entry before the assessment can be considered to have been properly completed. However, the COVID-19 vaccination (required as of October 1, 2021) differs in that the applicant must complete the entire vaccine series (one or two doses depending on formulation).^[4]

You’re not going to hear the anti-vax crowd complain about the mandate for immigrants and resident aliens, and you‘ve probably also figured out the reason why.

 

Recent COVID-19 deaths

From the New York Times article, U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 700,000 Despite Wide Availability of Vaccines:

The recent virus deaths are distinct from those in previous chapters of the pandemic, an analysis by The New York Times shows. People who died in the last three and a half months were concentrated in the South, a region that has lagged in vaccinations; many of the deaths were reported in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. And those who died were younger: In August, every age group under 55 had its highest death toll of the pandemic.

The article points out that of the 100,000 who died of COVID-19 since mid-June, only 2,900 were vaccinated. Or in other words, more than 97% of the people who died of COVID-19 since June were unvaccinated.

Sadopopulism

You may have heard of the term sadomasochism: It’s getting sexual jollies from inflicting pain or humiliation on someone else (sadism, derived from French noble the Marquis de Sade) or yourself (masochism, derived from Austrian novelist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch).

The word sadopopulism is a play on sadomasochism, and it’s used to describe a government body that operates without policy and causes pain in its citizenry.

It was coined by Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and a specialist in the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust. Simply put, he’s a student of self-inflicted human misery.

In a December 2017 video (it’s the one above), Snyder uses sadopopulism to describe the way Trump and Putin operate. He puts forth the idea that they only pretend to be populists and in reality create policies that hurt their bases, all the while convincing their bases that they’re hurting those bases’ perceived enemies.

That’s why one of the defining quotes of the Trump administration was one (Florida) woman’s lament: “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

Synder has this to say about the Republicans in the Trump era:

These are policies that are deliberately designed to administer pain, to add to the total amount of pain in American society.

If you hurt people you create a resource of pain, of anxiety and fear which you then direct against others.

If, in the long run, the way that you govern is by hurting people who don’t mind being hurt because they think other people are hurting worse, what you will tend to do is take the vote away from people who expect more from government, what you will tend to do is try to suppress the vote and keep the vote down to the people who accept that government can do nothing except for administer pain. And then that moves you away slowly from democracy.

Part of the reason that COVID-19 still progresses despite the fact that masks and vaccines are cheap and plentiful is that the sadopopulists have taken these common-sense health measures and reframed them as a signifier of “belonging to the wrong tribe”. As a result, they’re killing their very own supporters, and convincing them that it’s a good thing.