Obliteration of Truth
Drowning in a Sea of Nonsense
A Few Housecleaning Items
When I started this newsletter, the goal was to provide a comprehensive view of global economics in markets that would entertain and enlighten financial professionals and provide an accessible avenue for non-professionals to learn. I knew this would at times require some mention of politics but preferred to keep it minimal as to focus on economic and financial analysis. However, last Tuesday’s election has spurred me to abandon that for now. This note is meant to highlight the enormous damage that has been done to this country politically since the attack on the capital Jan. 6, 2021. Our democratic foundations have been shaken to the core. We have enormous economic problems to deal with in the U.S., some of which I have written about (Birth of Maga), and will continue to cover in the future, but for now we will focus on the sad state of American politics.
Please don’t confuse policy differences with the points being made here. That is one of the first things people go to when discussing Donald Trump and MAGA. I do not endorse all the policies of the Biden Administration and believe focusing on that is often used to downplay the absurdity of the current state of American politics. It misses the point. The point is that there has been little room to discuss actual policies. Instead, we are constantly barraged with lunacy.
Whoever reads this is going to hear the truth, whether they like it or not. If someone wishes to argue the points of fact mentioned here, contact me, but only if you wish to discuss the real world, not the fever dream fantasies that large swaths of people have now embraced, and that I will highlight extensively here. Incidentally, you’ll be the first in 8 years willing to have a “real” debate with me. I have no patience for conspiracy theories, and don’t believe any serious people do.
I was a lifelong Republican up until 2016. When Trump first declared his candidacy for president, like many, I didn’t take it seriously. I assumed he would gather 10-12% of the Republican vote, then bow out with the excuse he was too busy running his business. It seemed odd to me that he decided to run for president in the same year he was opening a Washington D.C. hotel – but not really. It’s only my opinion, but I believe his primary purpose was to generate publicity for his hotel. I only mention this to highlight what sort of man he is. It’s always about selling the sizzle!
As a former Republican, when discussing events over the last several years with Trump supporters, a blanket criticism leveled is to call the non-MAGA individual a RINO or a Never Trumper, rather than to actually produce verifiable facts to support an argument. As I will lay out here in great detail, I am a proud Never Trumper and will always be one. From the beginning in 2016 I believe as the majority of Trump’s Cabinet members now do: Trump is absurdly unfit to hold the presidency.
Enemy of the People – Attacking the Media
One of the first instances of authoritarian rhetoric was Donald Trump referring to the media as the "Enemy of the People". There are a host of reasons this notion was received warmly by Trump supporters. Historically, Republicans view of what they call mainstream media (MSM) is that it does not represent their values and tends to have a liberal bias. While it’s true that most journalists in recent decades have been Democrats, there was never any evidence of widespread journalistic malfeasance. There is certainly wiggle room for which stories to report, and how to approach them, but for the most part they follow professional journalistic standards and stick to facts.
In the 1990’s media tycoon Rupert Murdoch started Fox News, with the slogan “fair and balanced”. The idea was to view the news through a more conservative or neutral lens. However, it soon came to be seen as a counterweight for perceived liberal bias in the MSM.
Then something went awry. Fox News became more and more conservative over time. By the 2000s, few people could call it “Fair and Balanced” with a straight face. Conservative attitudes toward MSM started morphing from belief in liberal bias, to labeling stories that don’t fit their worldview as outright lies.
Propaganda Works
In the last 15 years, following the Great Financial Crisis, the political divide grew much wider. In 2015, Donald Trump coined the phrase “Fake News” to refer to stories from the MSM that he didn’t like. This became a rallying cry within the MAGA movement, with supporters calling any negative news about Donald Trump, or the Republican party “fake news”. The merit of the story began to carry little to no weight. For negative news about Trump/MAGA, it hasn’t mattered if there is under oath witness testimony backing the story, audio, video, or a number of people in his administration off cataloguing his lies and crimes. Even Trump losing court cases hasn’t damaged his credibility with his base, as they believe he has been “Politically Targeted”. But it’s safe to say none of these people watched the Jan 6 hearings, where they would have heard extremely damning evidence from people in his own administration. It’s as though accurate information has been swallowed the way a black hole absorbs light.
At the same time, many Trump and MAGA supporters will believe anything Donald Trump says and will repeat farcical stories they “saw on the internet” as though they are iron clad facts. The MAGA "echo chamber" has become deafening and is impenetrable to either facts or reason. In the last 2 or 3 years, MAGA has come to be described as a cult. Anyone who consumes actual facts, applies reason, and who is intellectually honest, must come to that conclusion.
The MAGA Cult: Ignorance is Strength
When practicing populist politics, such as Trump’s approach, the simpler the better. The target constituents are not particularly sophisticated or informed. The vast majority of Americans only follow purely political news around election time. And even then, they will barely scrape the surface of the issues at hand. While some of it can be attributed to laziness and apathy, for the most part, people just want to live their lives and be left alone.
With this in mind, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon laid out a strategy he called "Flood the Zone with Shit". Basically, it consists of creating so much disinformation, the populace doesn’t know which end is up. It’s also a strategy to distract media attention, so that they can’t react to real news in a professional way. Here is an assessment of what was going on prior to the election:
“Trump is flooding the American media with so much “s—” that there is little mention that he once tried to overturn a lawful election by stopping certification of the 2020 presidential race.
The same media often fail to mention that Trump, a man running for president, was found liable by a jury for sexual assault. How about his threats to prosecute political rivals and even Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, as an “election fraudster”? These became non-stories for a press corps drowning in a flood zone of dreck.
So did his ridiculous claim that Vice President Kamala Harris is “mentally impaired.” With their minds hypnotized by Trump’s spin, reporters dismiss that as a joke, just more of Trump mocking people.”
Juan Williams, Opinion Contributor, The Hill
In the early days of Trump’s first term, I was arguing with a Trump supporter and providing evidence to disprove some of his irrational beliefs. It seemed that I was beginning to gain traction, and he was starting to get that much of what he’d been told wasn’t true. But then he said something very telling. He said, “I don’t know what to believe”. I immediately thought “THAT’S EXACTLY THE POINT!!! Confusion is the goal!” Since then, things have only gotten worse. Americans are so disoriented; many have just tuned out the noise. However, MAGA supporters continue to embrace every piece of disinformation that comes their way.
Modern media and the internet make things more difficult to discern what is real. The number of online news agencies and websites has exploded in the last two decades, with each catering to a targeted niche. Information consumers shop for news sources that reinforce what they already believe – called "Conformation Bias".
People have always been prone to conformation bias, but it wasn’t always this bad. There used to be some semblance of debate. Going back to the 1990’s, CNN had a show called Crossfire. It consisted of two political strategists, one Democrat and one Republican, arguing over the current policy issues most prevalent at the time. Invariably, it devolved into each side “spinning” the statistical data, or policy actions on their side, and the other providing counterfactuals, and including their own spin. It was mind numbing! In late 2004, the host of The Daily show on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, was a guest on the show. This was a watershed moment. He castigated both sides for the meaningless debate that typically only confused people. The show was cancelled only a few months later.
No one could walk away from watching Crossfire and feel they had a better understanding of the world. Although, if you enjoyed arguing about politics, you would at least be given a number of talking points. The one real upside was that people were at least trying to engage intellectually. We still have the Sunday morning talk shows about politics, but there seem to be fewer and fewer people watching. There also seems to be very little interest in meaningful debate.
The upshot here seems to be persistent dumbing down of American politics. To a great extent, we could say there’s been a dumbing down of American society in general for decades. Certainly, the majority of Americans have never had intellectual leanings, but now many people are openly antagonistic toward the acquisition and application of knowledge. Experts are roundly dismissed while anti-intellectuals tout what they choose to believe, rather than conduct any critical reasoning.
An exhaustive list of all the conspiracy theories that have emanated from the MAGA wing of the Republican party, or Trump himself, is practically impossible. But here are some highlights.
1. Election Fraud (Trump’s “Big Lie”) -Never has there been an ounce of evidence to support the idea of Election Fraud in the 2020 Election.
2. The “Biden Crime Family” (Hunter Biden’s laptop) – Along with endless Congressional hearings, there have been a number of allegations of crimes committed, but zero proof. Republicans repeatedly promised “smoking gun” evidence, but it never came. Laughingly, a man whose testimony they claimed would prove all that they alleged turned out to have ties to Russian Intelligence. ties to Russian Intelligence.
3. Democrat’s drinking baby blood No, Democrats and Biden Do Not 'Suck the Blood of Children' | Snopes.com
4. Democrat’s trafficking sex slaves – Pizzagate conspiracy theory - , and other ridiculous stories have been promoted by Christians Evangelicals to allege that high ranking Democrats are child sex traffickers.
5. Illegals voting – In 2016, Trump blamed his losing the popular vote on “8 million illegals” voting. This was absurd on its face, since it implied the millions of illegal immigrants risked being deported just to cast a vote.
6. Haitian Pet Eaters – The lunacy behind this is palpable. Trump stood at a Presidential Debate, and claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating peoples’ cats and dogs…because he read it on the internet. If that wasn’t bad enough, he continued to promote this racist theory for weeks after the Mayor of Springfield, and the Governor of Ohio (a Republican) both said it was a lie.
7. Birtherism – Trump spent years promoting the conspiracy theory that Barrack Obama was actually born in Kenya, and therefore, was an illegitimate president. He continued to do this even after Obama released his birth certificate to the public. How Donald Trump Perpetuated the 'Birther' Movement for Years - ABC News.
8. FEMA – Conspiracy theories promoted by MAGA and Trump undermined the Hurricane Response. Apparently, FEMA has been a target for 4 decades. FEMA conspiracy theories date to the 1980s.
9. Vaccine Microchips etc. – Promoted by MAGA and QANON Some people were convinced that Covid was a hoax, and that the Covid vaccine was a plot to deliver a microchip into recipients so they could be tracked. Never mind that our cell phones already do that. 😊 Others believed the vaccine was more dangerous than the disease and refused to receive it. Where did the covid microchip vaccine conspiracy theory come from? - The Verge.
Propaganda Works
Confusing people with disinformation, and repeating it endlessly makes it literally impossible for many people to determine what is true, and what isn’t. Particularly if they don’t put forth considerable effort to gather information and analyze it with critical thinking. For most people, they stop trying, which makes them much more susceptible to manipulation. Once this happens, people are increasingly more prone to violence, and morally questionable behavior.
Here’s a quote from a Trump Administration Official who endorsed Kamila Harris Apparently, Trump was very aware of this effect and employed it whenever possible.
“Referring to Trump, she added, "He used to tell me, 'It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.' But it does matter. What you say matters — and what you don’t say matters."
Stephanie Grisham – Trump Administration White House Secretary. Former White House press secretary tells DNC: Trump called own supporters 'basement dwellers'
Once this dangerous dynamic is created, people can be convinced of just about anything if it is repeated enough. It’s called the “Illusory Truth Effect”. Here is some further explanation of the phenomenon. The effects of repetition frequency on the illusory truth effect | Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications | Full Text
“In summary, our results suggest that the more often information is repeated, the more likely it is to be believed. This is important since we often encounter information whose validity is unknown. Although believing repeated information to be true is evolutionarily efficient in a context where most of the information encountered is correct, it can be detrimental to believe information that is incorrect.”
Umyo Hassan & Sarah J. Barber - Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
Dehumanization and Violent Rhetoric – the “Other”
Along with creating an environment where it’s difficult, and for some people, impossible to discern truth from lie is only the beginning. And this is where things get ugly.
From the very beginning of Trump’s run he sought to demonize certain segments of the population. Mexicans were at the top of the list. Anti- immigrant sentiment has always been more prevalent on the political right, but in recent years right wing outrage has greatly intensified. While Immigration has been a contentious issue throughout U.S. history, the political divide has grown starker. There are always nativists railing against immigrants in general, with even more ire aimed at those who cross the border illegally. But the language being used these days is outright venomous.
The problem with current political discourse is less about what optimal immigration policy should be, but rather, about the tone that has been set in recent years. Rational debate has been stymied by extreme disinformation from Trump and others. Misrepresentation of crime statistics has been raised to an art form within MAGA, and more recently, spearheaded by Trump. The more incendiary, the better. The goal is to create both anger and fear, and this is not a new game. It’s been used by every authoritarian in the last century to help them consolidate power.
In recent years, immigrants have been insulted and dehumanized increasingly. They’ve been attacked as “poisoning the blood of the country”, and called “invaders”, an “infestation”, “rapists and murderers”, and any other vile name that would label them as less than human, and dangerous. Besides using those terms, which are similar to things Hitler said in the 1930s, he even invoked the term "bad genes", which mimicked the eugenics arguments promoted by Nazis and White Supremacists. In the midst of this onslaught, one would think that if the Democrats had come to the table to create a strong border bill, then antiimmigrant sentiment would be mitigated to some extent. Well, they did.
A bipartisan bill to provide enhanced border security and was negotiated with conservative members of the House of Representatives. House Votes to Responsibly Provide Resources to Secure the Border and Remove Dangerous Criminals | House Committee on Appropriations - Republicans Had the bill been passed by the Senate, we may have started making headway on this issue. But Donald Trump wasn’t having that. He preferred to be able to run his campaign with immigration as a top issue. That couldn’t happen if we passed a major bipartisan bill. So, he called on Republicans in the Senate to tank the bill, using dubious arguments claiming it was bad legislation.
Never mind that some of the most conservative Republican House Members had helped write the bill and touted it as “the best we’ll ever get”. This rank self-serving gesture should have showed his supporters that solving the immigration problem was not his most important goal. But they either didn’t notice, or didn’t care.
Political Enemies and Retribution
Immigrants aren’t the only ones that have been repeatedly attacked. Anyone making negative comments about Donald Trump, or investigating his crimes, is fair game. Liz Cheney, one of the most conservative House Reps in the GOP was summarily drummed out of the party for having the temerity to investigate the details surrounding the Jan 6 riots. Others involved in the process have been called the “enemy within”, “socialists”, “communists”, “fascists”, and “vermin”. It’s doubtful he knows Fascists and Socialists/Communists are polar opposites but mentioning that implies that words still mean things.
He has said Liz Cheney should face a military tribunal and opined that maybe she should go in front of a firing squad. Liz Cheney says Trump comments were akin to death threat. Maybe that’s hyperbole but given how callously reacted to the danger he put his own VP in, not by much.
Trump also opined on 4-star General Mark Milley facing the death penalty in previous times based on a call he made to China. What nefarious purpose did this call have? Well - when Trump was having a nervous breakdown over Twitter following his defeat in 2020, China became concerned that he might launch a nuclear attack. Milley contacted them through back channels to assure them that no attack would take place.
When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s 80-year-old husband was attacked by a man who hit him over the head with a hammer, Trump joked about it.
Not to be left out, post-election a Fox News hosts joke that Trump prosecutors should ‘face death penalty’ Yeah…just…hilarious.
Such comments are particularly disgusting given the extreme gaslighting in which they’ve engaged. Fox News immediately tried to whitewash the Jan 6 riots by ignoring the violent videos of the event and trying to focus on benign portions where people were walking through the capital, and not attacking people. On election night, while sending texts to each other describing how they believed the Election Fraud claims to be laughable, they continued to report the nonsense to their audience. Claims such as rigged voting machines switching Trump votes to Biden were treated as though they had actual merit. A $3 Billion lawsuit was filed by Dominion Voting Machines, which was settled out of court for a little less than $800 million. Why settle for such a large sum? Because they were dead to rights.
Host Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham mocked Capital City Police who testified at Congressional hearings. mocked Capital Police that testified at congressional hearings. These Police suffered hours of hand-to-hand combat with Trump supporters. They were repeatedly beaten with flag poles, and tazed. Where were the “back the blue” folks?
Referring to those officials who have rightly commented on his crimes, Trump has labeled them as “vermin”, which once again, mimics words of Adolph Hitler.
For those who want to ignore these blaring alarms for the safety of our democracy, I give you Mitt Romney: Most Republicans Wanted to Impeach Trump, but Feared Violent Attacks from His Supporters. From this article:
“One of the biggest revelations to me in my conversations with Romney was just how important the threat of political violence was to the psychology of elected Republicans today,” said Coppins, who recalled Romney telling him “STORY AFTER STORY ABOUT REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, REPUBLICAN SENATORS, WHO AT VARIOUS POINTS WANTED TO VOTE FOR IMPEACHMENT—VOTE TO CONVICT TRUMP OR VOTE TO IMPEACH TRUMP—AND DECIDED NOT TO, NOT BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT HE WAS INNOCENT, BUT BECAUSE THEY WERE AFRAID FOR THEIR FAMILY’S SAFETY. They were afraid of what Trump supporters might do to them or to their families.” That “raises a really uncomfortable question,” Coppins said, which is “how long can the American project last if elected officials from one of the major parties are making their political decisions based on fear of physical violence from their constituents?”
No decent and rational American who believes in democracy should be able to read that without feeling like they’ve been gut punched. Legislators unable to vote their conscience (to do what was right), because they fear for their family’s life. Such fear did not originate out of thin air. It came from several years of death threats being sent by MAGA supporters to anyone that crossed Donald Trump, and from Trump completely ignoring these things. Not once has Trump ever denounced, or even acknowledged these vile acts perpetrated by his followers. If you think that’s an oversight. Just ask Mike Pence – "Hang Mike Pence Video".
Lawlessness
The term “Big Lie” originated from Adolph Hitler in his memoir Mein Kampf. Hitler described it as a lie so big, and so unbelievable, that normal people wouldn’t believe that a person would try to tell such a lie. Therefore, they would have no choice but to accept the lie. The one he employed most was blaming Jews for conspiring against Germany during WWI, and plotting the destruction of Germany. There was no evidence of this, but apparently, it didn’t matter. Much like today in the U.S.
Trump’s version involved the allegations of Election Fraud in the 2020 election. Most of the conspiracy theories were beyond ridiculous. Italian satellites beaming down signals to voting machines to flip Trump votes to Biden. A voting machine company with links to Venezuela and Hugo Chavez (who was already dead for 7 years). Importing ballots from China made from bamboo that were all illegal votes for Biden. No reasonable person would believe these stories, but we weren’t dealing with reasonable people.
While promoting these ludicrous theories, Trump reached out to two separate firms to find evidence of voter fraud. Neither found anything. The owner of one was so bothered by Trump’s repeated claims of fraud, he wrote an Op Ed piece in USA Today he wrote an Op Ed piece in USA Today denouncing it. Besides this individual debunking fraud claims, the Jan 6 Committee hearings heard testimony that Trump privately admitted he'd lost, but "didn't want people to know he lost." Effectively, this meant that Jan 6, and the deaths it caused came about because a 78 year-old man was not enough of a man to admit he lost and election, and couldn’t care less about the sanctity of American democracy.
But rather than concede the election, Trump went about trying to strongarm various Republican state officials to decertify the election. The plot was to get states who voted for Biden with Republican State Legislatures to decertify, then vote to choose their own electors, who would subsequently elect Trump. This plan was concocted AFTER Trump knew he had lost! But it wouldn’t work unless VP Mike Pence refused to certify on Jan 6. And Pence knew that despite a laughable theory being floated by a MAGA lawyer condoning this, it was blatantly unconstitutional. Of course, such trifling issues mean nothing to Donald Trump. When Pence failed to follow orders in defense of American Democracy, Trump sent a tweet that riled up his supporters even more. They then set about to capture and hang Mike Pence. When told of this, Trump responded “so what”.
Classified Documents
When Donald Trump left the White House, he decided to take a large number of classified documents with him. Trump had been informed of the process for declassifying classified documents weeks prior to leaving but had failed to follow the process on the ones he took. The National Archives informed Trump of the “mistake”, but Trump denied having taken them. The back and forth went on for over a year, before the FBI decided to raid Mar-a-Lago to retrieve them. Even Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr believes Trump was criminally liable for taking these documents.
But alas, he will likely never be charged for these crimes, no matter how egregious they may be. Americans deserved to see these two cases go to trial, as well as others still unresolved, but not mentioned here. If Trump had not been guilty, then he should have wanted to go to trial as quickly as possible to clear his name. It would have been the ultimate triumph and would allow him to claim that he was being unfairly targeted. Of course, he did that anyway, because his followers will believe any nonsense he spews. But Trump always drags out cases and delays any way possible. The reason is because he loses in court. He lost his tax fraud case, and he lost his “hush money” case.. And would have lost these other two cases as well. Trump’s only chance was to get reelected President, so he’d be immune to prosecution.
Trump’s strategy is one he’s been employing all his life. He studied it at the right hand of Roy Cohn, McCarthy Red Scare architect, and equal opportunity scumbag.
Roy Cohn (L) and Donald Trump attend the Trump Tower opening in October 1983 at The Trump Tower in New York City. Sonia Moskowitz—Getty Images
“Here’s what he learned from Roy Cohn: Don’t put things in writing, punch back harder, focus on optics, who cares what the courts say,” says Taub, who is the author of the book, Big Dirty Money
Pray for American Democracy
We just elected a President of the United States that:
1. Two different 4 Star Generals who worked under Trump. Mark Milley, who said Trump is ‘fascist to the core’, and John Kelly, who says Trump meets the definition of a Fascist. Trump’s VP pick, J.D. Vance even called Trump "America's Hitler".
2. Has relentlessly verbally attacked the media just for reporting the truth about him, by calling them the “Enemy of the People”, a common refrain in authoritarian countries.
3. Has repeatedly threatened lawmakers and government officials who have attempted to hold him to account for his crimes and remained silent when his supporters send death threats to his enemies.
4. 90% of his former cabinet wouldn’t endorse him in the 2024 election, with many publicly calling him unfit, and some administration officials actively campaigning against him. Of 44 Members of Trump's Cabinet, Just 4 Endorsed Him for 2024: NBC - Business Insider
5. Has sowed the seeds of hatred in ways no other president has, and some of whose staunchest supporters are Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists.
6. Who has repeatedly refused to condemn supporters who have committed violence in his name. Including 500+ Jan 6 rioters, some of whom he promised to pardon. Which I guess is kind of him since it was his lies that drove them to the Capital in the first place. ‘He has to deliver’: Trump’s dilemma on how far to go with promised pardons for January 6 rioters | CNN Politics
7. Who has praised violent global dictators while denigrating our democratic allies. Trump Touts Endorsements From Global Dictators
I know of no way to sugarcoat all of this. America just elected a Fascist who has done nothing but reinforce that image of himself for 8 years. The next 4 years will be harrowing. Just watching his nominations for Cabinet Officials confirms this. It seems the primary qualifications are getting on Fox News regularly, being completely inexperienced, promoting conspiracy theories, and being willing to do anything that Donald Trump says (even if it’s unconstitutional). Americans who still believe in “real democracy” (as opposed to authoritarian illiberal democracy) will have to be exceptionally diligent in protecting the rights of all Americans. We all have a stake in this. For ourselves, our children, and our children’s children.