Bette’s Weekly Roundup - Victory At All Cost
We shall never surrender - a roundup of the Best of Bette and some very BIG breaking news
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”-Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940
I get the calls often late at night. I’m up, so it’s no problem.
Because of my work, I hear from people who have been harmed by online hate terrorism. Mostly I listen, and when it’s my turn to talk, I let them know it’s not normal, and it’s okay to acknowledge their trauma. I share the techniques I have learned on how to maintain my emotional sobriety and protect my sunshine. Sometimes, my punk rock armor is ten feet tall and bulletproof, but mostly, I’m just happy.
I am surrounded by angels - many of whom are reading these words right now. You know who you are. Ilysm.
I was listening to Winston Churchill’s ‘We Shall Fight on the Beaches’ speech. My dad told me that when I was born I looked like Winston Churchill without the cigar. I always took that as a compliment. Have a listen and get motivated.
It’s time for a pep rally, and the Bette Dangerous community is going to have one next Sunday, April 9, when author David Pepper joins us. If anyone can get you excited about the work of democracy, it’s Pepper - who literally wrote the how-to book Laboratories of Autocracy - A Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines’. Please upgrade to paid if you would like to join us and take advantage of the Indictment Day special.
I have been writing for weeks that we have an opportunity at this moment in time to fight for the preservation of our imperfect democracy, and I for one am gonna fight like hell - one of Pepper’s favorite phrases.
Our efforts are bearing fruit. Yesterday, ‘Day Old McDonald’ Trump was criminally indicted.
Today, there was huge breaking news!
A case I have been following about a right-wing Twitter terrorist who INTERFERED WITH THE 2016 ELECTION - white nationalist Douglass Mackey - just concluded today with a conviction for INTERFERING WITH THE 2016 ELECTION! Pardon my French below, but I am damn excited about this.
“Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Not only did he create memes of fake celebrity endorsements for Trump, but he targeted black voters with Hillary Clinton memes to “Avoid the line” of polling stations by texting the word “Hillary” to a five-digit number. It was total bullshit. and it resulted in thousands of lost votes.
Under the account name ‘Ricky Vaughn’ - he spewed racist hate but his attorney said he was just shitposting. Thankfully, a jury of peers thought differently. He faces up to ten years in prison.
Here is a meaty thread I wrote about the case a year ago:
In 2016, MIT Media’s Lab ranked Vaughn’s account as the 107th most important influencer on the election - more important than NBC News, Colbert, and Newt Gingrich. The point is, we now have a conviction about a domestic online Twitter terrorist who INTERFERED WITH THE 2016 ELECTION.
This conviction is incredibly important. He is just one of the accounts who interfered with the 2016 election. The files I turned over to the FBI include dozens more. I am feeling pretty good about that.
‘Best of Bette’
Okay, now let’s get to the Best of Bette for this week. For all our new members, I write and break news daily so if you only have time to read one email a week, this is it. I pull the best reports from the week into one post, so please search the archives for the previous roundups to get caught up.
This Just In - Marty on ‘The King of Grift’
Ex-fed Martin Sheil - RadPod’s financial correspondent - offers his hot take on Trump’s indictment, and enjoys the ‘sweet schadenfreude’ that New York - where Trump stiffed contractors and sub-contractors for decades - was the first to criminally indict this ‘king of grift’. As Marty noted:
“The King of Grift will now face accountability that has been a long time in coming and this won’t be the last indictment. I am happy that this fraudster is being brought to justice first in NYC - a town where so many contractors and sub contractors have been ripped off by the Donald.”
The Chaos Before the Capture - Fascists Laid Bare
This is a very important report that likely got lost in Indictment Day, but I documented historic examples of where chaos and destabilization events precede fascists seizing power. I wrote:
Chaos and destabilization events are intended to keep us in a perpetual state of trauma so we miss the big play - fascists seizing power.
What we are watching right now is the chaos before the capture.
We have in this moment the ability to stop it. But it will take a lot of work. Democracy’s preservation requires labor.
We are being assaulted on multiple fronts and must narrow down the attack surface.
Begin with protecting your mind.
This report is a rallying cry to band together to defeat fascism - too often we become islands. I wrote:
Every Thursday before we livestream RadPod & Chill - our mid-week sweary, at-the-bar recap of our previous episode - I join Jim’s Substack group chat. I learn a lot from his friends, and one of them said: “I think this is the hardest war.”
I caught my breath. Paused, and thought, yes, this, exactly. The hardest war.
She went on to say that we are stuck fighting it in isolation - we are in a constant state of trauma - the chaos and destabilization efforts are relentless, and quite frankly, we don’t have enough people fighting in the trenches with us. Each week, I beg our President to acknowledge it, give us resources to fight it, as other countries have done, and then another week goes by.
Me, Jim, and HiFi are on the frontlines every day, and even though we have global alliances with other brave warriors who understand the stakes - many of whom I cherish and celebrate on these pages, many of whom are in Ukraine bravely fighting on the frontlines of the kinetic part of this war - it is still a lonely place.
We are building our community, one at a time, and we are weathering the assaults. But this war is invisible to millions of people, who do not understand that there are no rear areas in an information war. The canyons of loneliness are vast.
The beautiful thing about the Bette community is we are coming together. We are stronger together.
Boss Level - It’s Getting Real
My scrappy podcast team is being targeted by the boss level. As the lead threat analyst for the Biden campaign Jackie Singh said:
You're so effective, that oligarchs and shit PAY to have you harassed. The powerful are afraid of you, and you are maintaining your mandate as a journalist to afflict the comfortable.
Why bother working this hard if not to win. I am focused on exposing the corruption at the boss level, and every day a new former conservative finds this Substack and joins us as we march toward justice.
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat reminds us:
“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.”
This One Goes Out To the Ones I Love
I offered some Indictment Day emo reflections on a mother’s resistance journey:
I made a promise to my children on November 9, 2016, that we would get that criminal bastard. It is our failing that it took seven years and four decades to even begin the process of ensuring Donald Fucking Trump is a convicted felon and cannot run for office, even though as I have learned from Ruth even if he is in prison he will try. Playing victim is his money-maker and as long as he has breath in his body, he will shake it.
And as long as I have breath in mine, I will fight the fascist creep.
Bette’s Weekly Roundup - Things to Remember - Week ending 3/26
Last week’s roundup had so much good stuff, I am including it here so new-comers can get up to speed.
Alright, sweet dreams, you’re going to need your rest. I have a big investigation running this weekend in Byline Times that should light a fire under everyone’s arse.
I will share with you all when it drops.
Sending endless love and gratitude.
Stay kind, stay focused, stay loud.
Heidi 💘🇺🇸🤘🏼
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Save the date! By now, paid members are aware that each Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom is not to be missed, and I am already getting calls about how excited our members are about ‘Laboratories of Autocracy - A Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines’ author David Pepper joining us on Sunday, April 9, 4 pm PT.
Pepper is a brilliant democracy coach, and no one will get you more excited about how you can pitch in to save ours.
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. A private link to 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.
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“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member