I spoke with @kathsstewart about her new book, which she wrote after spending much of the past couple of years embedded with the movement to end democracy.
It's called "Money, Lies and God" and is a ground's eye view of American fascism.
salon.com/2025/02/18/his…
Why read past headlines: Most media treat the new right, white evangelicals, and Opus Dei-style Catholics as separate and even imply they are at odds.
Katherine sees right through that. Through careful reporting, she shows how they are connected.
Musk is trying to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would regulate any "e-wallet" he starts.
How does he trick his fans into hating an agency that protects them from scams?
He tells them it has girl cooties. And they fall for it!
salon.com/2025/02/12/let…
Why read past headlines: You, savvy, know Warren had a hand in forming the CFPB.
New info: Tech billionaires are working the same angle, using outlets like Joe Rogan to exploit MAGA sexism to demonize an agency that prevents them from scamming users.
Trump's flurry of anti-trans executive orders is justified as "protecting women."
In reality, they are an attack on all women and girls, cis and trans. They make sexual abuse easier. And they're targeting research into women's health care for defunding.
salon.com/2025/02/10/wom…
Why read past headlines: Details, receipts. The "anti-trans" order led to canceling sexual assault prevention in the military. Title IX rules to prevent sexual assault are gone.
It also put "women" in the list of banned words for medical research.
It was a good theory: That calling Elon "President Musk" would get under Trump's famously thin skin, causing division.
But it's not working. I have a theory why — and it helps explain why Republicans in Congress are okay with giving up power, too.
salon.com/2025/02/07/why…
Why read past headlines: This analysis is informed by years of reading about Trump's business failures and time on "The Apprentice."
Jon Ronson's "Psychopath Test," which looks at how sociopaths are obsessed with surface over depth, also helped.
At this point, Republicans are fighting so hard to spread disease, you'd think germs were campaign donors.
I look into how the eugenicist impulse, which was once on the fringe of the GOP, is fueling this "unleash the plague" era for Republicans.
salon.com/2025/02/05/ush…
Why read past headlines: I go beyond just chronicling how RFK's views and Musk's assault on USAID will bring many diseases roaring back.
I look at how this foolish notion that disease can be used to "cull" people they don't like is undergirding this.
Musk has rejected Congress's powers and appointed himself illegally as the sole arbiter of federal spending.
What makes it even scarier: He's crowdsourcing his ideas of what to cut to the Hitler fanboys and QAnoners that make up his Twitter following.
salon.com/2025/02/04/hit…
Why read past headlines: Musk and his team of 6 barely-legal dweebs cannot singlehandedly find every "woke" program in what are millions of grants and loans.
So they're letting random white nationalists pick stuff, because YOLO.
In all the bleakness, one promising sign: Trump's education EOs show he and his Project 2025 goons don't know who they're dealing with.
The orders are legally weak. But in trying to take away real education, they risk backlash from ordinary parents.
salon.com/2025/02/03/mag…
Why read past headlines: Trump's education EOs are a perfect example of how he's hoping to scare people into compliance when he has no legal authority.
I spell out why — and why I think this gives ordinary people an opportunity to expose his emptiness.
But it's also a movement of petty bullies who try to hide their insecurities by lashing out at people they think (usually correctly) are better than them.
RFK hasn't even had his hearing yet, but his plan to wage war on public health is already underway.
Pulling out of WHO is just the beginning. salon.com/2025/01/24/don…
Why read past headlines: Receipts and details, including how Kennedy is not "pro-choice."
Also, I explain why Kennedy will likely not lift a finger for "healthy eating."
This is about making health a privilege, not a right.
The notion that a single person who voted for a half-literate moron like Trump cares about "merit" is a joke.
The MAGA movement is built on the idea that merit doesn't matter. The main qualification is white maleness, but if you're a dumbass, bonus!
salon.com/2025/01/23/don…
Why read past headlines: I go beyond just "you voted for Trump, morons," to look at how much MAGA loathes the very concept of a meritocracy.
It's not just that they think white maleness matters more than merit. They actively hate people who have merit.
Elon Musk's salute is a standard-issue far-right trolling tactic. I call it fascist peekaboo, and explain how it works here.
But it's not working so well this time. I explain how progressives and the press are getting smarter on how to respond.
salon.com/2025/01/22/elo…
Why read past headlines: I was calling out fascist peekaboo in the first Trump term, when most of the press fell for the tactic.
I get into this history and why things seem different.
More importantly, I draw out how Trump is a perfect president for tech billionaires, as Silicon Valley stops making good products and moves into its scamming phase.
That Trump pivoted to being such a champion of Tik Tok is reason enough to delete the app from your phone.
But I dig deeper into why the app is an authoritarian dream. This isn't about surveillance, but about how it fries people's brains. salon.com/2025/01/19/why…
Why read past headlines: Even the defenses of TikTok reveal how poisonous the site is.
It's not just the deluge of disinfo, though that is also bad.
The algorithm is designed to lull users into a state of helplessness.
MAGA "populism" was always a joke, but Trump isn't even hiding it anymore.
He flagrantly accepts bribes from billionaires and CEOs, while the GOP plans to stick the bill to the ordinary people who voted for Trump. (And the rest of us, sadly.)
salon.com/2025/01/16/tec…
Why read past headlines: Hell, the opening about the lame bribe given Trump by Coca-Cola should be interesting and weird enough.
But I get into how Trump's fake "populism" fooled his voters, and how billionaires think they can keep up the con.
I've watched MAGA's efforts to politicize the California fires with sick fascination because of how profoundly stupid they are.
Forget "post-truth." The right has fully entered its "post-coherence" era. They don't offer arguments, just gestures.
salon.com/2025/01/10/dei…
Why read past headlines: You, extremely online, already know the MAGA "argument" is merely a photograph, offered without explanation beyond yelling "DEI" a lot.
I unpack why these cowards won't say what they mean — because they know it's idiotic.
