Bette’s Weekly Roundup - Boy Howdy!
A list of top Bette Dangerous stories from the week
For our new members, this roundup email is a Best of Bette for the week, so if you only have time to read one of my missives, this is it.
Thank you as always for supporting me in my endeavor to inform, entertain, and create a safe space for those unwilling to turn a blind eye to the fascist creep. I wrote my way out of a bluesy week last night, and your kind comments and “go girl” assertions go a long way. Looking very forward to our ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom with Craig Unger on Sunday for paid members (registration details here). For those who are not yet paid members, the content below offers summaries of paywalled stories, and I do hope you consider joining us soon!
So I immersed myself in film and music this week - going to nightclubs like Tom Bergin’s to see such artists as Casey Neill, Kath Myers, Leeann Skoda, and RJ Bloke of Patrolled By Radar, whose record release party at Harvard and Stone on Wednesday introduced me to his songs Hold Drugs Dear and Be Happy, which are now in heavy rotation in my home, as is Kath Myers’ The Big One.
Alright - cracks knuckles - here goes, the Best of Bette week of 2/10:
Summary: We need to defend the truth of words. We cannot cede ground to the Fifth Column traitors, wrapping themselves in the flag, and wearing AR-15 lapel pins.
We are in an information war, and defending words is critical to winning.
These traitors are fluent in doublespeak, their currency is lies - to agitate, provoke, cause outrage, and dog whistle to racists and bigots.
I will be writing volumes in defense of language, but this column is a good starter kit.
It is part of my series - Read Books - Fight Fascism; Watch Films - Fight Fascism; Read Quotes - Fight Fascism.
Spy v. Spy - ‘Dime Store Kompromat’
Summary: For my latest ‘Spy v. Spy’ McGonigal missives, I reached out to retired IRS criminal investigator Martin Sheil, who said:
“Charles McGonigal in my opinion is equal parts stupid, greedy, and arrogant to think he could get away with this dime store Kompromat.”
The questions I want answered are: why did the FBI throw the election to Trump - wittingly or unwittingly? Did McGonigal - who was in charge of the cyber section of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in 2016 when James Comey was told there was no there there regarding the Russian influence operation - working for the Russians have anything to do with it?
If, as I have been positing for nearly seven years, the 2016 election was a Russian operation, I think America, and the world, deserves answers.
This is part of my McGonigal Spy v. Spy series, which also includes Spy v. Spy - FBI Shoegazing and the Obfuscation of Christopher Wray; Spy v. Spy - Part Duh; and A Question of Treason - ‘The FBI Failed Miserably’
I will not take my eye of this unfolding story of greed and espionage and its impacts on the 2016 election and our democracy.
The GOP Is A Lawless Party - Full Stop
Summary: I was hoping the State of the Union speech would offer some aid and comfort for the information war we find ourselves in - that Biden would address it so we could move beyond the denial and get resources to fight it, to help those who have gone down radicalized rabbit holes.
Instead, Biden went with norms, a calming, kindly elder statesman reassuring a country he was looking out for its best interests. He brought empathy and decency, qualities that I cherish. He paid tribute to heroes and victims. He is a good man. But he kept reaching across the aisle, because that is what we used to do to get things done in the before times. But these are not those times.
Trying to play nice with bullies is perceived as a weakness by ‘strongmen’ - the authoritarians we are fighting within our own country. As well as the chaos agents - the garbage tossers - whose only job is distract and make it look like liberal democracies are ungovernable. Who wear lapel pins of AR-15s so we can look on horrified and demoralized and unable to cope with the insanity that has infected our body politic. That is the goal.
To any members of the GOP who read Bette Dangerous, please know that I love you, too. My political mentors came from all across the political spectrum, but I do believe the Party Formerly Known as the GOP has jumped the shark.
Sending Out an SOS - Twitter is VKontakte
Summary: February 8, 2023, a date which will live in infamy - the day that Twitter broke down, and those of us who had used the social media site as ground zero for our reporting could no longer Tweet.
One month ago, I wrote an investigation for Byline Supplement, Unmusked: How Elon Musk is Using Twitter to Destroy the Concept of Objective Truth. I mapped examples from autocratic countries that killed independent media and communication channels - how they did it, and what the ramifications were. In most instances, the ramifications were deadly, so sacred is press freedom that the countries that no longer have a free press are places where despair hangs heavy in the air and where freedom is a wistful thing of the past.
In the report, I wrote:
When Twitter owner Elon Musk Tweeted his support for returning Crimea to Russia, Russian analyst Fiona Hill accused Musk of actively transmitting a message on behalf of Putin.
Canadian academic Michael McKay agreed, describing it as ‘active measures’ - a term used to describe how the Soviet Union deployed covert disinformation operations.
“Elon Musk is turning Twitter into VKontakte, the Russian information warfare outlet disguised as a social media platform”, McKay told Byline Supplement.
I have always believed that Musk’s purchase of Twitter was a land grab in an information war and that his dismantling of a key communication platform is an act of war.
Strong Men and Iron Women - Is Female Leadership the Answer to Toxic Masculinity?
Summary: I revisit my 'Strongmen' interview from two years ago with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, given the rise of figures such as Giorgia Meloni, Liz Truss and Marjorie Taylor Greene, in a think-piece for Byline Supplement. I take a nuanced look at the ‘Strongmen’ mythos - offering updates on political leaders doubling down on lawlessness, and comparing how the pandemic was handled by women leaders vs. the ‘strongmen’ - whose anti-science rhetoric resulted in untold millions of lives lost.
As Ruth warned in our original report, beware the rise of the ‘strongwoman’, which I think we got a whiff of at the State of the Union.
‘The Big Sleep 2.0’ - ‘Fox Undercover’s First Blurb
Summary: In my inbox was this email from writer and fellow Twitter activist, Greg Olear about my new book, Fox Undercover:
“If Raymond Chandler was a punk rock chick moonlighting as a TV news producer who maintained four passionate love affairs to supplement a stressful work life—and wrote a steamier-than-a-hot-shower roman à clef about the experience—you’d get FOX UNDERCOVER, the delightful new novel by Heidi Siegmund Cuda. I’d say it’s The Big Sleep 2.0, except that, despite the many bedroom scenes, there’s not much sleep happening. Part erotic memoir, part workplace drama, part commentary on media and culture, part coming-of-middle-age story, FOX UNDERCOVER is full-on fun.”
Greg Olear, author of Empress, Fathermucker, and Totally Killer
His write up is quite possibly one of the kindest things a fellow writer has ever done for me. Much love.🥹💘
Looking forward to seeing new faces at our Sunday ‘Speakeasy’ with Craig Unger. Should be epic.
Have a beautiful weekend, and as always stay kind, focused, and loud.
****
Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine and Substack bestseller. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you, as well, to those who support my work with coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. My reflection, Confessions of a ‘Fox Blonde’ was recently published in Byline Supplement. In a review of my latest ebook, the erotic novella Fox Undercover, I’ve been called “The punk rock Anaïs Nin” and author Greg Olear called it “The Big Sleep 2.0” except with “not so much sleep happening.”
Fox Undercover can be purchased here. 25% Discount Code: Undercover
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
(Below, me singing Operation Ivy’s ‘Knowledge’ at the Viper Room, 2017)
Having fun priceless!
The fact of it