I have been writing a lot about kindness, and the war on kindness - how the distressing events we are continually assaulted with are designed to steal our empathy, to turn us hard and cold, paranoid and suspicious.
Not on my watch.
Just like Mother Teresa and Mr. Rogers taught us, we are going to be kind anyway.
That doesn’t mean we don’t take action and fight against the fascist creep, it just means we don’t lose our grace and humanity along the way.
Kindness is a currency.
As I wrote that to one of my benefactors earlier today, I realized it is a wonderful double entendre. We all are made of star stuff and energy flows through us. We can feel the vibrations of kindness, when we meet someone who has that special sound in their voice - warmth, compassion, gentleness - when we witness selfless acts.
We also can feel negative vibrations - sometimes from a mile away, with no sound cues, just a look or a posture that’s menacing, threatening.
I believe we are born with the ability to sense compassion as well as danger.
What I have noticed in the last week is that kindness, compassion, empathy, a desire to be helpful, is the current that runs through our community.
Kindness is a currency. Quite frankly, you all helped me through what should have been a terrible week. As I reflect back on the days and the hours, I think of your messages, emails, phone calls, and I am humbled, and eternally grateful.
In case you missed it, I found some words I had written four years ago, like lucky pennies I had saved for an emotionally rainy day.
We must continue to believe in beauty, in truth, and never allow the ugliness of bankrupt souls to corrupt our own sense of right and wrong.
We’ve never known how this story will end, the future remains unwritten. But each of us, resisting together, will be writing the history of this moment in time. Let us remain fearless, united by a righteous strength, invincible in our certainty that to defend Democracy in autocratic times may be our raison d’être.
In other words, viva la résistance. 💘
I have always known that my pen and heart - the things I use to fight this war - would be enough.
Now - cracks knuckles - let’s get to the Best of Bette from this past week, and if you are not already a paid member, please consider becoming one here. This Sunday’s ‘Speakeasy’ with Dr. Ian Garner is going to be very special. The Z Generation author lived in St. Petersburg when it was a place where you could follow your dreams, and now he has written a book about Russian youth, and how they are being marched off into fascism. If we do not heed our historians, how are we expected to be helpful in this world? History is being plagiarized at the moment, and those of us with heart and knowledge are the best defense against authoritarian capture.
We may have to bring people back one at time, and therefore, we have zero days to waste. One final note, I will be exposing and crushing domestic fascists in Byline Supplement this week. Please stay tuned.
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Bette’s Weekly Roundup
COVER UP - The GOP Is Engaged In a Massive Criminal Cover Up
For seven years, I have been writing these words:
What we are witnessing is the last gasp of the dying brand of greed.
It’s just dying hard.
But we are seeing the leaders of the GOP throwing everything at us in order to distract from the party’s MASSIVE CRIMINAL COVER UP.
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat noted:
“It is time to think of the GOP as an autocratic force working from within to destroy our democracy, in tandem and in sympathy with foreign autocratic states which have that same goal.”
Repeat that sentence like a mantra for anyone willing to listen.
It’s not about Hunter’s laptop, or Granny Boebert, or the McCarthy-Carlson Desperado Hour, or the Wray Reputation Wash on Fox Primetime, or Trump’s latest Victimese-Gimme video - it’s about massive crimes committed by a party working for and in tandem with the Russian Federation and other autocratic states.
Excerpts from the report:
The Tankies are doing it from the left, as I wrote in my investigative report, Agitation and Propaganda - about the Russian indicted for using US political groups as foreign agents - for a decade.
Just as Fox News getting caught with its pants down promoting election lies about 2020 is a smaller story contained in a bigger story about its culture of lies, so is the criminal exposure of the GOP.
The reason they are doing so many desperate things is because they are trying to stay out of prison.
Do recall, the Insurrectionists of Congress asked Trump for preemptive pardons. That is what guilty people do.
I do believe truth is winning, so expect the ugliness and distractions to escalate. Continually see it for what is is: a massive criminal cover up, with the entire party exposed.
They are fracturing. I am here for it.
ICYMI - Tucker Carlson’s Dad Lobbies for Orbán
I woke up Tuesday morning wondering what kind of man could have raised Tucker Carlson. Five minutes later, I had all the pieces. I left out the part about his real grandfather blowing his brains out. I also left out the details about how I used to work directly across a cubicle from Dick Carlson’s former reporting partner. That was a weird revelation.
But in summation - Tucker’s dad is the director of a Washington-based firm that reputation washes for the Orbán regime in the United States. Contractually, Tucker has to put an Orbán goon on his show for dear old dad.
As I wrote:
The bottom line - Tucker met with Orbán after a firm where his father is a director received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Hungarian Government to help reputation wash the Orbán regime.
As my investigative writing colleague Sian Norris reported for Byline Times:
Carlson met Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his trip, two years after the Hungarian Government paid $265,000 to Policy Impact Strategic Communications Inc (sometimes known as Policy Impact Communications or Policy Impact) to “provide outreach to the U.S. Government and media on behalf of the Embassy of Hungary in support of its ongoing objectives to improve US-Hungarian relations, by coordinating, facilitating, and managing Government affairs, activities and media management.”
The deal included co-ordinating an interview with Peter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on the Tucker Carlson show.
Tucker Carlson, who is currently creating unreality around January 6 to cover for knowingly promoting 2020 election lies, according to Dominion Voting System’s court filings, went to Hungary to promote fascist propaganda and his father, Dick, is a director of a lobbying group that promotes Orbán.
Okay, got it.
I always found it curious that Carlson’s partner in the extremist rag, the Daily Caller, which he co-founded, was a former Dick Cheney aide named Neil Patel. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported in 2017 that the Daily Caller has “a white nationalist problem” - and received funding from the Koch cadre.
It seemed worth noting that Patel has a disgraced hedge fund partner Paul Konigsberg - who pleaded guilty to falsifying books and records for Bernie Madoff - but was spared prison time. What a relief, because he could then visit his family in Russia.
🪆🪆💨💨.
Youknowhuimsaying.
Bette Dangerous Podcast Ep18 - The Economic Terrorism of Targeted Harassment Campaigns
The ongoing harassment campaign I am currently being targeted with is designed to incite fear and to inflict psychological damage. The assailants have sent me death threats, including my address, and are currently relentlessly creating fake accounts to stalk my inbox with images of scat porn and Kim McGuire as Hatchet Face from John Waters ‘Cry Baby’ - an actress I actually adore.
As some of you already know, actors are my favorite species, and McGuire was an attorney, dancer, teacher, forensic investigator, and an author, as well as an actor. She lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, and rebuilt her life in Florida.
She is the embodiment of resiliency - a poor choice to try to menace me.
If the harassment continues, I will paywall all Bette’s content and no longer allow free subscriptions. As noted, the attacks are an attempt to silence me, and to cause economic harm by making me so toxic my community abandons me.
Thank you to all of you who have doubled and tripled down on your support. I truly cannot do this without you.
If any of my current members work with groups of democratic activists, please reach out to me as I created a private discount link for those doing the labor of democracy. I am growing this community while at war, and it sure is something special.
Keep Calm and Bang a Very Loud Pan - The Big Ugly Have No Clothes
CPAC was a flop, and the GOP is fracturing. That is excellent news for democracy.
Take note of any media that is trying to sell Whutshername DeSantis as the second coming of Jackie O. They tried that with Trump’s Kremlin Beard, and it flopped. Such media outlets are not our friend. They’re pushing fascism, and we can push back.
As I wrote in this report:
The extremists have to get ugly - they are all trying to out-ugly each other, in fealty to their Koch-Kremlin cadre cash cow. Because Low Energy Trump is now the centrist of their self-imposed shitshow, you will find DeSantis backing unthinkable bills - like making anti-DeSantis bloggers register with the state. A move so fascist even that ol crusty crip keeper Newt Gingrinch popped back from the ‘80s to cry foul. (This just in: POS DeSantis walked it back - he believes in nothing except what his handler - the registered foreign agent - tells him.)
Clearly, Agent Borish Kocha 99 sent out the memo in advance that a hit on woke trans babies would be the unified target and CPAC didn’t disappoint - with one Big Ugly Nobody calling for the eradication of all transgenderism from public life and beyond!!!! Before the Big Ugly Nobody walked it back with a classic Urkel…
The good news - we are not Russia yet. Judging by the thin attendance at this made for TV bullshittery, we still have a chance of beating the fascists but we have to do a couple of things - we have to bang pots loudly every chance we get - right in their Putinesque-a faces.
And we have to call out their extremist tactics every chance we get.
Here is what I will need you to do: become experts at the fascist tropes. Don’t worry, I got you, I’ll be writing a shit ton on this.
Unreality, conspiracy theories, propaganda, the mythic past, othering, sexual anxiety, anti-intellectualism, fear fear fear, and the king of all fascist tropes - victimhood. Once exposed, you can punch right through all of it to see the fascists have no clothes.
“Fascist politics creates a state of unreality, in which conspiracy theories and fake news replace reasoned debate. As the common understanding of reality crumbles, fascist politics makes room for dangerous and false beliefs to take root.”-Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works
Conspiracy theories try to destroy reality. But we must defend truth.
Conspiracy theories try to destroy decency. But we must be decent.
Conspiracy theories try to destroy empathy. But we must be empathetic.
Conspiracy theories are trying to steal our humanity. But we must be humane.
As Jason wrote, we are all flawed, but “none of us demons.”
Allowing others to be demonized, is to invite fascism to take root in our soil.
Nurture that soil with love, not hate.
Recognize conspiracy theories as weapons of war. Do not be dismissive. Be vigilant. Be kind.
I ain’t gonna lie. Sometimes I read my own words, and I am quite pleased with myself lol. xo
Bette Dangerous Podcast Ep19 - Gratitude - On International Women’s Day
Are we downhearted? A thousand times no!
We possess something the fascists don’t - kindness.
I wrote this post on a day that was supposed to be a celebration of women - because I just wanted to make sure this moment didn’t pass without saying thank you to all of you.
Here are some words from Eleanor Roosevelt:
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the one thing you think you cannot do.”
Find the print version of this report here.
🤍
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
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Alright, some of you have already registered for the ‘Speakeasy’ with Dr. Ian Garner this Sunday. If so, you will already have received your copy of chapter one of his book, Z Generation. Can’t wait to see paid members there and to meet many new members of our community. If you want to join the community, please subscribe here:
I am vetting all new subscribers, and if I get any whiff of unreality, I give ‘em the boot. Just fyi.
Sigh. Life during wartime.
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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. Group activist discounts available upon request.
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.
Save the date! The next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, March 12, 4 pm PT. We have invited Dr. Ian Garner, the author of Z Generation - Into the Hearts of Russia’s Fascist Youth. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, please consider joining. You’ll receive invites, access to all archives, and comments. Paid subscribers can register here. Upon registration, you will receive a free chapter of the book.