Bette’s Weekly Roundup — Tankies, Monsters, and Weak Sauce

The Best of Bette for the week <3

What did we learn from Martin Sheil when he popped into our weekly Happy Hour on Tuesday? Don’t be distracted by congressional chaos agents pushing junk our way. No, the double entendre wasn’t intentional.

We have work to do, and we have facts to focus on. We are in the mob roll up phase of this attack on our democracy and this is not time for tilting at windmills.

That’s my preamble — now let’s get down to business. We have dozens of new members and this is the weekly email that summarizes my key work from the week. So if you only time to read one email a week, this is it. Although I recommend you pop open all the others — Bette Dangerous is an anti-fascist fanzine where I spotlight interviews with the great minds of our times, break news, make news, and investigate these trouble times, always with an eye on solutions.

Jello Biafra taught me thirty years ago that anyone can complain, but those who spend a half day trying to solve problems are the ones to stick with. Bette Dangerous sticks with the winners.

So here goes…

Defeating Confusionism with Paul Mason on RadPod

Anti-fascist reporter Paul Mason — author of How to Stop Fascism — returns to RadPod with biting commentary on how corporate media is failing in its coverage of the war in Ukraine, and how we can defeat ‘confusionism’ — the intentional obfuscation of Putin’s war of annihilation and attacks on Western democracy.

Here are some excerpts:

If the US media cannot make copy of the human story of a people suffering genocide and certainly crimes against humanity, then it’s failed. The next time a major city is liberated, any American network that doesn’t lead on that is criminal, because what is happening in those cities is mass death, mass deportation, child theft, rape on a mass industrial scale, we need to know. If the liberation of Belsen concentration camp had been the third item on the news for one day, our view of the Holocaust would have been very different.

The world’s on fire, what people really don’t understand is how quickly it’s going to come to them. There must be a movement and a political leadership that fights back in the information and hybrid war that Trump and Putin are waging against your democracy. It’s not about waiting for primaries or delivering jobs — great that those things are — somebody has to grasp the nettle and lead the fight back.—Paul Mason on RadPod

The Wounding of Trump & Putin with Craig Unger on RadPod

Like Mason, investigative reporter Craig Unger — author of American Kompromat — is often featured on our podcast, and I felt it was important to bring him back on the eve of Trump’s indictment for J6. We revisited Trump’s Russian ties, and took another look at the grey cardinals — Manafort and Stone.

As HiFi says, Trump’s a hit man sent by Putin to kill America. As Unger noted, Trump’s loss weakened Putin, and wounded animals are dangerous.

Here is an excerpt:

Manafort pimped himself out to Vladimir Putin for about $70 million dollars which went into his businesses while he and his companies were working in Ukraine and effectively this was hybrid warfare at its best.

They got Yanukovych in power in Ukraine and suddenly Putin had his guy running Ukraine, and he’d gotten in there after being groomed by Manafort. That was Putin’s strategy at its most successful and then what we saw immediately was Manafort having groomed Yanukovych and put him in office, comes over to the United States and becomes the campaign manager of Donald Trump.

One of the staggering lapses in journalism was the New York Times coverage of Manafort. The first piece announcing Manafort taking over the Trump campaign, they characterized him as someone with campaign gravitas who had foreign policy experience. Do I even need to explain how dangerous that was.—Craig Unger on RadPod

American Monster - Roger Stone

The second in my series on convicted US criminals who accelerated global fascism.

Roger Stone has dragged reality into hell.—High Fidelity

Here is part one of the series:

And here is an excerpt from part two on Stone:

Stone became a full-blown conspiracy spreader — from the birther lie, a racist trope that groomed Trump a racist base, to pre-spreading the Stop the Steal lie before the 2016 election.

Employing the Southern Strategy he co-opted from Nixon, Stone groomed Trump’s base to hate — immigrants, elites, government itself.

Trump was his second presidential actor — and yes, he had another significant impact on world history — the destruction of liberal democracy.

I’m sure he’d take that as a compliment.

So where is Stone now… likely, waiting to be indicted by Jack Smith.

And while he waits, he goes on QAnon media channels, spreading conspiracies — he says there’s a satanic portal above the White House. He travels with disgraced retired lt. general Mike Flynn’s radicalization tour — which is protested by Christian groups. A catalog of his pro-Russian propaganda can be found here — at vatniksoup.com, where Stone is listed as #161.

Stone’s friends in militia groups — the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — have been convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America and given stiff sentences — not stiff enough for the DOJ.

Stone’s is a story far from over, and I will be reporting more of my findings in a part two on Stone asap. (Podcast version of this report available).

Tankie Talk — How ‘Tankies’ Are Delivering Us to Fascism

After receiving calls from multiple alarmed members, I dashed out a briefing on tankies — a term for those who represent the so-called ‘left’ side of the pro-Kremlin horseshoe.

Here is an excerpt:

Information warfare has to evolve to continue its trickery, and the pro-Kremlin actors will take different shape from previous years. Many of them will be people you may have once respected, who are now spewing favorable Russian messaging. Just a few dishonorable mentions:

• Cornel West, who was just on CNN with ex-Daily Caller reporter Kaitlan Collins to blame NATO and the US for the war in Ukraine, is managed by Jill Stein.

• Noam Chomsky is in full anti-NATO, Russian simp mode, and it’s rather alarming that he is leading a MasterClass symposium on disinformation when he’s promoting disinformation, imo

• Robert Kennedy Jr. is promoting extremely dangerous pro-Kremlin narratives. Please review the excellent thread on Kennedy by our friend Pekka Kallioniemi, who identified him as Vatnik #178 on his vatniksoup.com research. Please note who is supporting Kennedy — Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon. His conspiracy junk narratives and anti-vaxx confusionism are straight matches for the Kremlin lie factories, and he is currently walking back a recent anti-semitic statement. We know from Ruth Ben-Ghiat that the walk back is a propaganda tactic. The first message is the point, the walk-back is just politics, as she explained.

Today, as the US was treated to another new low from Vatnik #64 — Congressional Chaos Agent and Professional Saboteur Greene — I reflected on the work I’ve been doing here, and the people we are bringing in to meet and help our community form narratives and mission statements — such recent guests as Michael MacKay, Martin Sheil, David Pepper, Monique Camarra, Ruth Ben-Ghiat — we are a no bullshit zone, getting stronger every day.

For the last item, please read ex-fed Martin Sheil’s words from yesterday, in our weekly Happy Hour reminder. Marty was kind enough to join us with a briefing on Trump’s target letter. We’ll be hosting an impromptu zoom when the latest indictment comes down, could be as soon as Friday. Marty’s initial thoughts are contained within the body of the invite below. Note the event was yesterday, but our next ‘Happy Hour’ is this Tuesday at 5 pm PT.

Looking forward to being on the right side of history as Putin’s men and women in America are rung up.

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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. Some of you prefer making subsidizing donations via venmo, and it’s always greatly appreciated. If you wish to gift a membership, you can do so by donating to the ko-fi or venmo accounts, and indicate it’s for a gift, or do so here.

Two upcoming dates: Our July 30 ‘Speakeasy’ with special guest Ruth Ben-Ghiat at 4 pm PT; and Tuesday’s Happy Hour wellness checkin at 5 pm PT. We will break for indictments so I’ll send out a last minute invite when that happens.

Also, a private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous@gmail.com. 🥹

We just have to see that the battle for democracy is broader. It's deeper.—David Pepper

I need people to see they're on the frontline. Wherever you live, if you’re doing this work, you are the frontline.—David Pepper

The message should be a fair deal… fairness everywhere.—Martin Sheil

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“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.

“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member

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