Sunday Digest: New Video on Trump's Dehumanizing Rhetoric; Fake Populist Milei Turns on Argentinians; Biden Impeachment Effort as "Garbage Politics"

Welcome back to Lucid, and a big hello to all new subscribers. Our next Q&A will be Friday, Dec. 22, 1-2pmET. Our guest will be Heather Bruegl, a public historian, activist, and decolonial and indigenous rights education consultant. She is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. I’m looking forward to discussing land back movements, indigenous sovereignty issues, Native American efforts for climate justice, and the role of historians in public policy.

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For MSNBC viewers, I will be speaking with guest host Mehdi Hasan in the 8pmET hour on Sunday. And here is a photo from my CNN appearance with Ron Brownstein and Jim Acosta on Saturday.

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I was not too surprised by the announcement of newly elected Argentinian President Javier Milei’s crackdown against the right to protest. A new policy will group four state security forces - the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture, and the Airport Security Police - under the Ministry of Security, and give them authority to dissolve protests blocking streets and roads.

In a country with an authoritarian past, Milei’s prioritizing of this measure sends a strong message. So does the start of his neoliberal economic shock therapy, which in theory responded to 145% inflation but, as with other neoliberal shock therapies of the past (Chile, Russia, and more), will likely create mass hardship.

Not that Milei cares about the outcome of his policies for ordinary people. His crackdown merely affirms my argument in a recent Lucid essay that Milei is a fake populist: a man who poses as the friend of the people and the downtrodden but is part of the elite. Milei worked as an advisor to a billionaire for many years and it is elites who will benefit from his shock therapies and muzzling of the right to protest.

The non-billionaire Argentinians who voted for Milei will one day realize that the chainsaw he used as a campaign prop, symbolizing his slashing of public spending, always stood for the power of the state to cut them down.

Javier Milei waves his chainsaw at a rally in Buenos Aires, Sept. 2023. Tomas Cuesta/Getty Images.

Meanwhile, in the United States, former president Donald Trump is back commenting on immigrants as sources of “blood pollution.” Here is a 2 min. video I made about why Trump is focusing on this theme repeatedly. Spoiler: dehumanize your targets now to smooth public acceptance of future repression.

Finally, we had news that the MAGA-dominated House approved an inquiry into impeaching President Joe Biden. This “impeachment” is a prime example of what i call "garbage politics". These are actions and events initiated to create a media circus that baits the Republican voter base, giving it a fresh supply of enemies, while also exhausting and turning off the broader public.

Garbage politics is integral to 21st century information warfare in that it distracts from actual corruption and crime. Rep. Jim Jordan’s fake Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government is an example.

In the specific case of the (non-case) for impeachment, the real aim is to smear Biden, delegitimize him as president, and give authority to the “Biden crime family” narrative, thus distracting from the Trump crime family reality. It also enacts Trump’s “retribution” vow —Trump was twice the subject of impeachment proceedings —and now it is Biden’s turn.

Until next Wednesday’s post, stay safe and stay lucid!

Ruth