‘Keep Working’ - But Savor the Wins
‘Keep Working’ - But Savor the Wins
The zone will be flooded with sh*t on behalf of tactical fascism and Nazi disinfomercials
After the theft of the presidency in 2016 to an American Yanukovych, I used my Maewestside Tumblr blog to rally the troops. I used these fingers to encourage people to protest, march, explore legal options, but to never surrender to despair.
My most recent post in defiance of despair was well received, and as I found kind emails populating my inbox to thank me for the anti-despair balm, I reminded everyone I write these words to uplift myself - in the hopes it might also help others in downbeat moments.
So I am going to offer you a few hopeful things to ponder tonight.
First, take the wins where we can get them. There have been many.
Secondly, we must make our own good news - every day.
Andrea Hildebran Smith’s quote from my ‘Despair Is the Enemy of Action’ post is absolutely correct. The only good news after the Trump installment was the news we make ourselves.
It’s the news David Pepper is showing on his Twitter feed of Ohioans defying fascism.
It’s the news that E. Jean Carroll persisted, and we now can refer to Trump as a sexual batterer. The ungaslightables already knew he was a sexual assaulter, because he told on himself.
‘Tactical Fascism’
The authoritarian right’s normalization of violence, fraud, lies, corruption, hate speech, misogyny, and sexual abuse, is all designed to desensitize us, to remove empathy, and to erode our trust in each other.
We have to be better than that.
Recognize all of this as tactical fascism.
And continue to take action - as our Justice Department is doing. It appears to me the DOJ has its head down and keeps dropping indictments that reveal evidence we are still a country with rule of law, which must really piss off the war criminal in the Kremlin.
Speaking of criminals, George Santos - who Joyce Vance White refers to as “a garden-variety con man” - had a bad day, and that is a good day for democracy.
Santos, who I wrote about as a chaos agent paid by the Russians last year, has been federally indicted for the cheap con man he is. Today, the DOJ unsealed a 13-count indictment charging him with seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering.
In my report last year titled ‘Theatre Craft - When Lying Is the Message’, I wrote:
I recognized George Santos immediately as theatre craft, a form of Russian active measures that introduces new characters as if in a play whose role is to distract from the more important headlines - corruption of their leader, the theft of nations.
It was remarkably unshocking to learn he took a grip of cash from a handler of one of Russia’s most notorious oligarchs - revealing him to be just another Putin proxy.
Trump being found liable for sexual assault and defamation. Santos being charged with 13-counts of fraud - these are the wins. We must celebrate them.
I was on our weekly Bette’s Happy Hour call when the E. Jean Carroll news broke. I grabbed my David Pepper pom poms and being waving them around. On the call was my RadPod team, brilliant director Jack Bryan - whose films, podcasts, and series I have written volumes about - Active Measures, The Search for Q, and American Psyop - and many wonderful members of our community. We all celebrated together.
We take the wins where we can get them. We cherish community.
‘She Persisted’
I got off the Happy Hour zoom call and sat quietly for a moment. I’ve been doing this work for seven years, suffering the slings and arrows of the online hate tormentors for having the fortitude to stay loud and focused on the work.
They get paid to shit on people while I type away as civic duty. My choice, and it’s a good one, and I damn proud of myself.
I woke up yesterday morning, looked at myself in the mirror and thought, I was born for this, all of this, and I am ready to serve my country another day.
When one of the members of the Bette community said on our zoom call that I was born to do this work, I nearly cried.
And then I did cry.
I sat with the realization that a jury unequivocally determined that Trump is a sexual assaulter.
I had first written about Trump’s sexual assault charges seven years ago.
But we take the wins where we can get them.
I called my podcast partner, HiFi, because that’s who I call. And he was busy trolling the living sh*t out of convicted felons, self-confessed traitors, serial misogynists, and convicted sexual abusers who gaslight American citizens daily, and I admired his handiwork.
I needed the lulz.
Then I began reposting tweets and threads from my trip to the Women’s March in 2017, as well as some supportive communications I had with E. Jean Carroll over the years.
And there she was on my 2017 Twitter feed - Mary Parker from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I met her at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. on January 21, 2017. A date I never have to look up because it was the best day of my life.
I met Mary at the base of the Washington Monument. She was in a wheelchair and had lost the ability to walk years ago. She was born three years before women were allowed to vote.
She was 100-years-old.
She told me to keep going and to keep working.
And I made a promise to her that I would, and I have kept that promise.
And then I started crying a thousand pent up tears. Not something I do very often, but I can cry in front of HiFi. He doesn’t mind.
The tears stopped when I realized that with the glorious news of the day would come more massacres, more ugliness from an ugly party, and Russian proxies calling themselves candidates. I reshaped myself into that emotional place of steely neutrality.
As I stood in a checkout line later and reflected on the report I had written yesterday about the men being radicalized in online chat rooms, I thought it’s only a matter of time before they start directing who to shoot at. I am vigilant wherever I go.
‘Tea With Goebbels’
“It’s 1942. Do you invite Goebbels for a sit-down TV interview? Do you ask Speer to your university discussion club? Do you have Hermann Goering over for tea and cake?”-Dr. Ian Garner, Bette member and RadPod guest, author of ‘Z Generation - Into the Hearts of Russia’s Fascist Youth’
CNN had tea with Goebbels tonight.
I haven’t had a television since 2006 - it’s my super power - but doomscrolling on Twitter, it’s the same old sh*t. A bunch of outraged people who couldn’t help watching the tube-fed dezinformatsiya, because you know, outrage.
Please read Monday’s post about Alex Alvarova’s ‘Speakeasy’ appearance and her warnings on the signs you’re being manipulated.
She said to beware of the following:
Everything that makes you angry - if you’re being driven to intense emotions that is a sign for concern/suspicion you might be being manipulated
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat so succinctly put it, “Trump is a dangerous thug. He’s a criminal, why would (CNN) have him on?”
Truly, why have a sit-down with Goebbels, unless of course, you want fascism to succeed.
I knew we were going to be subjected to the Horrors of the Shitshow on the days when good news breaks and on the days when we break good news.
But we don’t have to watch the propaganda peddlers - the disinfomercials - the warped disinfotainment. We don’t. We simply do not.
I learned that a long time ago.
On assignment for the Los Angeles Times in 1995 on the eve of a much-hyped Oprah interview with Michael Jackson after his trial and wedding to Lisa Marie Presley, I called a major music industry publicist for comment.
He said, “I didn’t watch it. I’m sure it was stupid.”
Yeah.
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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.
The next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, May 21, 4 pm PT, featuring geopolitical analyst Monique Camarra, cohost of Kremlin File and WTF podcast, as well as the daily EuroFile Report. Monique will update us on Italy’s ‘Soft Fascism’ and the Ukraine war, which she documents daily.
Paid members will also receive invites to our new weekly Bette’s Happy Hour, a wellness checkin. This week’s checkin is Tuesday at noon, PT, and a registration invite will be sent to members on Tuesday morning.
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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
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
🤍🤍
(Below, Mary Parker from Ann Arbor. She couldn’t walk. So she rolled. Women’s March Washington DC, January 21, 2017.)
(She was cold, so I tried to give her sweater. She declined, and told me to keep it.)
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