https://panopticonreview.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-major-and-most-important-issue.html
FROM THE PANOPTICON REVIEW ARCHIVES
(Originally posted on May 22, 2024)
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
DEFEAT FASCISM BEFORE FASCISM DEFEATS YOU
All,
The major and most important issue facing the United States in 2024 and beyond is whether FASCISM will flourish and ultimately prevail in every single political, economic, social, cultural and judicial Institution in the country no matter who is elected in November. It is crystal clear to me and millions of others not only here but throughout the world that we are all at this point seriously "on the brink and about to sink." For more deadly evidence of this fundamental fact please read and share the very stark information from both May 16 and May 22 provided below...Stay tuned and especially STAY WOKE because this madness is destined to get far worse very soon...
Kofi
https://panopticonreview.blogspot.com/2024/05/supreme-court-justice-samuel-alito.html
Thursday, March 16, 2024
Supreme
Court Justice Samuel Alito, An Upside Down American Flag and January 6,
2021: How the US Supreme Court Became an Arm of the Republican Party
FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
by Kofi Natambu
AMERICA wants another
Pep talk
It’s never satisfied
Banality rules
its days & nights
Another mass rally
Never satisfied
Mass media not enuff
Mass boredom not enuff
Mass murder not enuff
now
nothing can quench its
rampaging thirst
for lies
AMERICA wants a panacea
wants a placebo
wants a panderer
wants a papier-mache god
it can pray to
wants a Victim it can identify with
scream at
cry over
stomp on
BE!
AMERICA WANTS ANOTHER ENEMY
(besides itself)
You see: it’s never satiated
Infantilism rules
Its afternoons & evenings
Another mass tally
Never satiated
Stupidity not enuff
Cynicism not enuff
Suicide not enuff
now
nothing can impede
its spiralling flight
toward emptiness
AMERICA wants another alibi
wants another excuse
wants still another thrill
wants another ‘reason’
to eat up the world
wants a Fear it can live with
fawn over
suck on
talk about
BE!!
[Poem from the book THE MELODY NEVER STOPS by Kofi Natambu. Past Tents Press, 1991]
FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
by Kofi Natambu
AMERICA wants another
Pep talk
It’s never satisfied
Banality rules
its days & nights
Another mass rally
Never satisfied
Mass media not enuff
Mass boredom not enuff
Mass murder not enuff
now
nothing can quench its
rampaging thirst
for lies
AMERICA wants a panacea
wants a placebo
wants a panderer
wants a papier-mache god
it can pray to
wants a Victim it can identify with
scream at
cry over
stomp on
BE!
AMERICA WANTS ANOTHER ENEMY
(besides itself)
You see: it’s never satiated
Infantilism rules
Its afternoons & evenings
Another mass tally
Never satiated
Stupidity not enuff
Cynicism not enuff
Suicide not enuff
now
nothing can impede
its spiralling flight
toward emptiness
AMERICA wants another alibi
wants another excuse
wants still another thrill
wants another ‘reason’
to eat up the world
wants a Fear it can live with
fawn over
suck on
talk about
BE!!
[Poem from the book THE MELODY NEVER STOPS by Kofi Natambu. Past Tents Press, 1991]
At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display
An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case.
A
photo obtained by The Times shows an inverted flag at the Alito
residence on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before the Biden inauguration.
by Jodi Kantor
May 16, 2024
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html
by Jodi Kantor
May 16, 2024
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html
Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home
The justice’s beach house displayed an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a symbol carried on Jan. 6 and associated with a push for a more Christian-minded government.
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew outside the Alitos’ New Jersey vacation home last summer, along with a “2022” Phillies flag and a Long Beach Island flag.
by Jodi Kantor, Aric Toler and Julie Tate
May 22, 2024
New York Times
Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.
This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.
Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag.
The photographs, each taken independently, are from four different dates. It is not clear whether the flag was displayed continuously during those months or how long it was flown overall.
A Google street view photo taken in August 2023 shows the flag flying at the Alitos’ house.
Justice Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag, including what it was intended to convey and how it comported with his obligations as a justice. The court also declined to respond.
In commenting for the Times report last week about the upside-down American flag at his Virginia home in 2021, Justice Alito said that it had been raised by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, during a clash with a neighbor.
The revelation about that flag prompted concerns from legal scholars and ethicists, and calls from dozens of Democratic lawmakers that the justice recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6. The news also drew criticism from some conservative politicians, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who said that displaying the inverted flag was “not good judgment.”
During the period the Appeal to Heaven flag was seen flying at the justice’s New Jersey house, a key Jan. 6 case arrived at the Supreme Court, challenging whether those who stormed the Capitol could be prosecuted for obstruction.In coming weeks, the justices will rule on that case, which could scuttle some of the charges against Mr. Trump, as well as on whether he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances at regaining the White House in the next one.
The flag was a presence at the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol.Credit: JT/STAR MAX/IPx, via Associated Press
The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court.
Judges are not supposed to give any impression of bias, yet the flag could be seen as telegraphing the Alitos’ views — and at a time when the justices were on the cusp of adopting a new ethics code. “We all have our biases, but the good judge fights against them,” said Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington. “When a judge celebrates his predispositions by hoisting them on a flag,” he added, “that’s deeply disturbing.”
Records show that the Alitos have owned the beach house since 2014, and he is a well-known presence in the waterfront community. Residents said they recalled seeing the justice last summer, though it is unclear how much time he spent there. Neighbors said that once they realized what the flag signified, they were surprised to see it displayed, particularly in a prominent spot where many boaters glide by. The six people who shared their accounts and photographs asked not to be identified because they didn’t want to antagonize a longtime neighbor. When The Times visited the house on Wednesday, the flagpole was bare.
Until about a decade ago, the Appeal to Heaven flag was mostly a historical relic. But since then it has been revived to represent “a theological vision of what the United States should be and how it should be governed,” said Matthew Taylor, a religion scholar at the Institute of Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. He is also the author of a forthcoming book tracing how a right-wing Christian author and speaker who repopularized the flag helped propel Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.
That figure, Dutch Sheets, has led a yearslong campaign to present the flag to political figures, including Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential pick, and an Indiana gubernatorial candidate whom Mr. Sheets wrapped in the flag at a recent rally. Republican membersof Congress and state officials have displayed the flag as well, among them Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator and a leader of the “Stop the Steal” campaign. The highest-ranking elected official known to show the flag is Representative Mike Johnson, who hung it at his office last fall shortly after becoming speaker of the House.
A spokesman for Mr. Johnson said that the speaker “has long appreciated the rich history of the flag, as it was first used by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.” It was a gift, the spokesman said, from Pastor Dan Cummins, a guest chaplain for the House of Representatives.
PHOTO:
“An Appeal to Heaven” is one of three flags outside the office of the
House speaker, Mike Johnson. Credit: Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Since its creation during the American Revolution, the flag has carried a message of defiance: The phrase “appeal to heaven” comes from the 17th-century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule. “It’s a paraphrase for trial by arms,” Anthony Grafton, a historian at Princeton University, said in an interview. “The main point is that there’s no appeal, there’s no one else you can ask for help or a judgment.”
In 2013, Mr. Sheets, a prominent figure in a far-right evangelical movement that scholars have called the New Apostolic Reformation, discovered the nearly forgotten flag and made it the symbol of his ambitions to steep the country and the government in Christianity, he wrote in a 2015 book also titled “An Appeal to Heaven.”
“Rally to the flag,” he wrote. “God has resurrected it for such a time as this. Wave it outwardly: wear it inwardly. Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.”
He placed the high court at the center of his mission. In 2015, the court’s ruling that states must allow same-sex marriage had galvanized the movement and helped it to grow. In a speech three years later, he said, “There’s no gate that has allowed more evil to enter our nation than that of the Supreme Court.”
But Mr. Sheets and fellow leaders described Justice Alito, the member of the court most committed to expanding the role of faith in public life, as their great hope: a vocal defender of religious liberty and opponent of the right to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Dutch Sheets, a right-wing Christian author and speaker, repopularized the flag and helped propel Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. Credit: Gary S. Chapman
“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman,” the justice said in a 2020 speech. “Until very recently that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry,” he said, a point he had made strongly in his dissent to the ruling.
The religious leaders cast Mr. Trump as another of their heroes. A few weeks before the 2020 election, at a Las Vegas megachurch prayer service for his second term, a pastor from the group presented Mr. Trump with an “Appeal to Heaven” flag from the stage. When he lost, Mr. Sheets and a team of others formed an instant, ad hoc religious arm of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, blitzing swing state megachurches, broadcasting the services at each stop and drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers.
On Jan. 6, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was prominent: at the Washington Monument, where throngs gathered to hear President Trump deliver a speech contesting the election results, and later above the angry mob that surrounded the Capitol. The flag was visible above clashes with law enforcement on the building’s west terrace, as rioters breached police lines underneath the scaffolding set up for President Biden’s inauguration, and finally, inside the building.
By that day, scholars say, the flag had become popular enough to sometimes be used by a few other groups, including militia members. But most often, they said, it is tied directly to Mr. Sheets, his contemporaries and adherents and their vision for a more Christian America.
Last October, soon after the flag was last documented at the Alito beach home, Mr. Sheets devoted a prayer session to the court, this time sounding triumphant. He cited the Dobbs decision, overturning the federal right to abortion, in which the majority decision had been written by Justice Alito.
“We have reached another phase in the process of shifting the Supreme Court,” he announced. Through the justices, he said, “God’s intent for institutions of government can now be fulfilled.”
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jodi Kantor is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and co-author of “She Said,” which recounts how she and Megan Twohey broke the story of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, helping to ignite the #MeToo movement.
Instagram
More about Jodi Kantor
Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times where he uses emerging techniques of discovery to analyze open source information.
More about Aric Toler
See more on: Samuel A. Alito Jr., U.S. Supreme Court
Posted by Kofi Natambu at 3:44 PM
Labels: 2021, antidemocracy, donald Trump. 2024 elections, Fascism, January 6, Joe Biden, Samuel alito, The Supreme Court
Since its creation during the American Revolution, the flag has carried a message of defiance: The phrase “appeal to heaven” comes from the 17th-century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule. “It’s a paraphrase for trial by arms,” Anthony Grafton, a historian at Princeton University, said in an interview. “The main point is that there’s no appeal, there’s no one else you can ask for help or a judgment.”
In 2013, Mr. Sheets, a prominent figure in a far-right evangelical movement that scholars have called the New Apostolic Reformation, discovered the nearly forgotten flag and made it the symbol of his ambitions to steep the country and the government in Christianity, he wrote in a 2015 book also titled “An Appeal to Heaven.”
“Rally to the flag,” he wrote. “God has resurrected it for such a time as this. Wave it outwardly: wear it inwardly. Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.”
He placed the high court at the center of his mission. In 2015, the court’s ruling that states must allow same-sex marriage had galvanized the movement and helped it to grow. In a speech three years later, he said, “There’s no gate that has allowed more evil to enter our nation than that of the Supreme Court.”
But Mr. Sheets and fellow leaders described Justice Alito, the member of the court most committed to expanding the role of faith in public life, as their great hope: a vocal defender of religious liberty and opponent of the right to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Dutch Sheets, a right-wing Christian author and speaker, repopularized the flag and helped propel Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. Credit: Gary S. Chapman
“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman,” the justice said in a 2020 speech. “Until very recently that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry,” he said, a point he had made strongly in his dissent to the ruling.
The religious leaders cast Mr. Trump as another of their heroes. A few weeks before the 2020 election, at a Las Vegas megachurch prayer service for his second term, a pastor from the group presented Mr. Trump with an “Appeal to Heaven” flag from the stage. When he lost, Mr. Sheets and a team of others formed an instant, ad hoc religious arm of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, blitzing swing state megachurches, broadcasting the services at each stop and drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers.
On Jan. 6, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was prominent: at the Washington Monument, where throngs gathered to hear President Trump deliver a speech contesting the election results, and later above the angry mob that surrounded the Capitol. The flag was visible above clashes with law enforcement on the building’s west terrace, as rioters breached police lines underneath the scaffolding set up for President Biden’s inauguration, and finally, inside the building.
By that day, scholars say, the flag had become popular enough to sometimes be used by a few other groups, including militia members. But most often, they said, it is tied directly to Mr. Sheets, his contemporaries and adherents and their vision for a more Christian America.
Last October, soon after the flag was last documented at the Alito beach home, Mr. Sheets devoted a prayer session to the court, this time sounding triumphant. He cited the Dobbs decision, overturning the federal right to abortion, in which the majority decision had been written by Justice Alito.
“We have reached another phase in the process of shifting the Supreme Court,” he announced. Through the justices, he said, “God’s intent for institutions of government can now be fulfilled.”
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jodi Kantor is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and co-author of “She Said,” which recounts how she and Megan Twohey broke the story of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, helping to ignite the #MeToo movement.
More about Jodi Kantor
Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times where he uses emerging techniques of discovery to analyze open source information.
More about Aric Toler
See more on: Samuel A. Alito Jr., U.S. Supreme Court
Posted by Kofi Natambu at 3:44 PM
Labels: 2021, antidemocracy, donald Trump. 2024 elections, Fascism, January 6, Joe Biden, Samuel alito, The Supreme Court
PHOTO:
Colleen Shogan speaks at her swearing-in ceremony to be 11th archivist
of the United States, at the National Archives Museum in Washington,
D.C., on September 11, 2023. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
'Obeying Fascism in Advance,'
National Archivist Sanitized US Museum
"At first glance laughable, this is a very ominous preview of what will be far vaster self-censorship and reality distortion that... entities will engage in if Trump wins," warned one journalist.
by Jessica Corbett
October 31, 2024
Common Dreams
Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."
Win Without War president Stephen Miles said Thursday that "this is beyond shameful by the National Archives. Preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history in an effort to protect its budget is a supreme dereliction of their mission."
Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."
Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.
The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.
"Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration."
Responding on social media Thursday, Mary Todd said that "as a historian, I am gobsmacked by this. History should make you uncomfortable.”
This woman needs to be fired immediately. Parts of our history ARE uncomfortable. Hell, parts of EVERY country's history are uncomfortable.
Nathan J Robinson
@NathanJRobinson
WSJ reports that the National Archives museum has removed
references to Martin Luther King, Japanese internment, Native Americans, union organizers, and birth control, because presenting American history honestly would make Republicans uncomfortable https://currentaffairs.org/news/its-going
Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journalreporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."
Win Without War president Stephen Miles said Thursday that "this is beyond shameful by the National Archives. Preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history in an effort to protect its budget is a supreme dereliction of their mission."
Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."
Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.
The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.
"Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration."
Responding on social media Thursday, Mary Todd said that "as a historian, I am gobsmacked by this. History should make you uncomfortable."
As the Journal reported:
Shogan's senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned "Step Into History" photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents.
The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr.
After reviewing plans for an exhibit about the nation's Westward expansion, Shogan asked one staffer, Why is it so much about Indians? according to current and former employees. Among the records Shogan ordered cut from the exhibit were several treaties signed by Native American tribes ceding their lands to the U.S. government, according to the employees and documents.
"Shogan and her top advisers told employees to remove Dorothea Lange's photos of Japanese-American incarceration camps from a planned exhibit because the images were too negative and controversial," the Journal detailed. Additionally, in an exhibit about patents, the example of the contraceptive pill was swapped for television, though a Shogan aide had proposed the bump stock, a gun accessory.
Employees further criticized Shogan for giving an internship to the niece of Republican Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and inviting former First Lady Melania Trump to speak at a naturalization ceremony. The National Archives declined to make the appointee available for an interview and said in a statement that "leading a nonpartisan agency during an era of political polarization is not for the faint of heart.”
The @WSJ is reporting leadership at the National Archives is ordering historical information removed from exhibits including: Civil Rights history, American Indian history, Holocaust history,
Japanese incarceration during WW2: https://wsj.com/politics/policThe @WSJ
Current Affairs' Nathan J. Robinson wrote Thursday that "essentially, the National Archives Museum is becoming a tribute to (supposed) American greatness, rather than an honest account of all aspects of our history. It might be surprising that this is occurring under a Biden appointee, but it's clear that Shogan is intensely worried about being accused of partisanship."
"Of course, trying to appease the right is a fool's errand, because the right is never going to say, 'Oh, actually, the Biden-appointed archivist is quite good at her job and very fair-minded,'" Robinson argued. "They consider anything that doesn't fully support their agenda to be pernicious leftism, so Trump will likely still want to replace Shogan with a full-blown MAGA Archivist who puts up exhibits honoring the great contributions of real estate developers to American history, and builds a shrine to the memory of Ronald Reagan."
"The correct stance for an archivist is to be committed to telling a truthful story that reflects what actually happened, even if this makes some people uncomfortable because there are truths they would rather block out of their understanding of the country's past," he added. "Librarians, archivists, curators, and historians all have essential work to do in guarding the truth, and making sure it is not replaced with mythology. The National Archives story shows how little we can count on liberals to maintain their commitment to this mission in the face of right-wing pressure."
Some people in those fields were among those forcefully speaking out against Shogan this week and even calling for her to resign or be fired. David Neiwert, author of The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy, declared: "This person needs to be shitcanned and these advisers entirely replaced ASAP. She's making a travesty of American history."
Harvey G. Cohen said that "as a historian who has spent months in the National Archives, I say (not lightly) this U.S. archivist should [be] fired. The National Archives should [be] concerned [with] preserving and presenting the truth—nothing else. This is what historian Timothy D. Snyder calls 'anticipatory obedience.'"
Others also cited Snyder. Abdelilah Skhir of the ACLU of Florida posted on social media a screenshot from his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century:
Former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman described the reported conduct at the agency as "a textbook example of obeying in advance," and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch similarly called it "another shocking example of obeying fascism in advance."
Some readers of the newspaper used the reporting to sound the alarm about Trump and his influence over the Republican Party ahead of next week's elections, during which U.S. voters will pick the next president and which party controls each chamber of Congress.
"The Trump/GOP obsession with whitewashing U.S. history has extended to intimidating public agencies like the National Archives," said Charles Idelson of National Nurses United. "That's another characteristic of authoritarian/fascist rule."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan called the reporting "insanity," adding: "This is what cancel culture and this is what snowflakes actually look like. It’s all *Republican*."
Jacobin's Branko Marceticsaid that "at first glance laughable, this is a very ominous preview of what will be far vaster self-censorship and reality distortion that fearful [government] agencies, companies, other private entities will engage in if Trump wins."
"If this is what just one careerist civil servant does out of cowardice at merely the *potential* of a Trump presidency," Marcetic warned, "you can imagine what might happen if and when he actually does.”
"At first glance laughable, this is a very ominous preview of what will be far vaster self-censorship and reality distortion that... entities will engage in if Trump wins," warned one journalist.
by Jessica Corbett
October 31, 2024
Common Dreams
Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."
Win Without War president Stephen Miles said Thursday that "this is beyond shameful by the National Archives. Preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history in an effort to protect its budget is a supreme dereliction of their mission."
Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."
Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.
The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.
"Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration."
Responding on social media Thursday, Mary Todd said that "as a historian, I am gobsmacked by this. History should make you uncomfortable.”
This woman needs to be fired immediately. Parts of our history ARE uncomfortable. Hell, parts of EVERY country's history are uncomfortable.
Nathan J Robinson
@NathanJRobinson
WSJ reports that the National Archives museum has removed
references to Martin Luther King, Japanese internment, Native Americans, union organizers, and birth control, because presenting American history honestly would make Republicans uncomfortable https://currentaffairs.org/news/its-going
Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journalreporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."
Win Without War president Stephen Miles said Thursday that "this is beyond shameful by the National Archives. Preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history in an effort to protect its budget is a supreme dereliction of their mission."
Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."
Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.
The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.
"Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration."
Responding on social media Thursday, Mary Todd said that "as a historian, I am gobsmacked by this. History should make you uncomfortable."
As the Journal reported:
Shogan's senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned "Step Into History" photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents.
The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr.
After reviewing plans for an exhibit about the nation's Westward expansion, Shogan asked one staffer, Why is it so much about Indians? according to current and former employees. Among the records Shogan ordered cut from the exhibit were several treaties signed by Native American tribes ceding their lands to the U.S. government, according to the employees and documents.
"Shogan and her top advisers told employees to remove Dorothea Lange's photos of Japanese-American incarceration camps from a planned exhibit because the images were too negative and controversial," the Journal detailed. Additionally, in an exhibit about patents, the example of the contraceptive pill was swapped for television, though a Shogan aide had proposed the bump stock, a gun accessory.
Employees further criticized Shogan for giving an internship to the niece of Republican Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and inviting former First Lady Melania Trump to speak at a naturalization ceremony. The National Archives declined to make the appointee available for an interview and said in a statement that "leading a nonpartisan agency during an era of political polarization is not for the faint of heart.”
The @WSJ is reporting leadership at the National Archives is ordering historical information removed from exhibits including: Civil Rights history, American Indian history, Holocaust history,
Japanese incarceration during WW2: https://wsj.com/politics/policThe @WSJ
Current Affairs' Nathan J. Robinson wrote Thursday that "essentially, the National Archives Museum is becoming a tribute to (supposed) American greatness, rather than an honest account of all aspects of our history. It might be surprising that this is occurring under a Biden appointee, but it's clear that Shogan is intensely worried about being accused of partisanship."
"Of course, trying to appease the right is a fool's errand, because the right is never going to say, 'Oh, actually, the Biden-appointed archivist is quite good at her job and very fair-minded,'" Robinson argued. "They consider anything that doesn't fully support their agenda to be pernicious leftism, so Trump will likely still want to replace Shogan with a full-blown MAGA Archivist who puts up exhibits honoring the great contributions of real estate developers to American history, and builds a shrine to the memory of Ronald Reagan."
"The correct stance for an archivist is to be committed to telling a truthful story that reflects what actually happened, even if this makes some people uncomfortable because there are truths they would rather block out of their understanding of the country's past," he added. "Librarians, archivists, curators, and historians all have essential work to do in guarding the truth, and making sure it is not replaced with mythology. The National Archives story shows how little we can count on liberals to maintain their commitment to this mission in the face of right-wing pressure."
Some people in those fields were among those forcefully speaking out against Shogan this week and even calling for her to resign or be fired. David Neiwert, author of The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy, declared: "This person needs to be shitcanned and these advisers entirely replaced ASAP. She's making a travesty of American history."
Harvey G. Cohen said that "as a historian who has spent months in the National Archives, I say (not lightly) this U.S. archivist should [be] fired. The National Archives should [be] concerned [with] preserving and presenting the truth—nothing else. This is what historian Timothy D. Snyder calls 'anticipatory obedience.'"
Others also cited Snyder. Abdelilah Skhir of the ACLU of Florida posted on social media a screenshot from his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century:
Former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman described the reported conduct at the agency as "a textbook example of obeying in advance," and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch similarly called it "another shocking example of obeying fascism in advance."
Some readers of the newspaper used the reporting to sound the alarm about Trump and his influence over the Republican Party ahead of next week's elections, during which U.S. voters will pick the next president and which party controls each chamber of Congress.
"The Trump/GOP obsession with whitewashing U.S. history has extended to intimidating public agencies like the National Archives," said Charles Idelson of National Nurses United. "That's another characteristic of authoritarian/fascist rule."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan called the reporting "insanity," adding: "This is what cancel culture and this is what snowflakes actually look like. It’s all *Republican*."
Jacobin's Branko Marceticsaid that "at first glance laughable, this is a very ominous preview of what will be far vaster self-censorship and reality distortion that fearful [government] agencies, companies, other private entities will engage in if Trump wins."
"If this is what just one careerist civil servant does out of cowardice at merely the *potential* of a Trump presidency," Marcetic warned, "you can imagine what might happen if and when he actually does.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Corbett
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
https://www.nytimes.com/.../trump-trumpism-republican…
With or Without Trump, the MAGA Movement Is the Future of the Republican Party
by Thomas Edsall
April 10, 2022
New York Times
PHOTO: Photograph by Amr Alfiky for The New York Times; the ceramic hat was made by Connor Czora.
