Insidious Monsters, Brandolini's Law, and Cracker Barrel
My day begins with a car wreck
Just when you think Trumpworld couldn’t go any more off of the rails, it did. Unless you have been hidden under a huge rock, you know the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago under a Federal warrant on Monday, seizing materials as part of an ongoing investigation into Trump's potentially unlawful removal of classified White House documents. All kinds of right-wing outrage ensued, but from what I’ve seen, much of it is consistent on one thing--they never entertain the notion that Trump might have done something seriously illegal, and it would be best to let the process play out. That is trust in the rule of law.
There is no end to the analysis and commentary, and I will not bore you with anything redundant. I think that it’s important to recognize how Iowa’s Representatives are responding to the incident, and Laura Belin at Bleeding Heartland has a nice breakdown.
I will say one thing--our Iowa lawmakers and many more call for more transparency from the Justice Department about this incident. I’ve been an observer at many criminal trials over the years, and in my experience, the prosecution never shows its hand before the trial starts. Donald Trump was served the warrant, he knows what materials it refers to, and if it helped him to reveal what’s in it, he already would have.
Of all the responses Republicans have made to the seizure, this one from the New York Young Republican Club is the most frightening. It’s worth reading in its entirety.
In light of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, The New York Young Republican Club felt it imperative to release the following statement:
The New York Young Republican Club completely and totally condemns the raid of Mar-a-Lago and the continued persecution of President Donald J. Trump by Radical Leftist Deep State agents and totalitarian Democrats. In light of this escalation, we call for the total disintegration of any agency, primarily the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which has participated in any of the following political persecutions campaigns:
1. The Perpetration of the Hillary Clinton-produced Russia Hoax
2. The First Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump
3. The Coverup of the Wuhan Leak and US-government-funded Origin of COVID-19
4. The Coverup of the Hunter Biden Laptop and all crimes detailed by Contents of the Hunter Biden Laptop
5. The Big Steal of the 2020 Presidential Election
6. The Perpetration of the Fedsurrection (otherwise known as “January 6th”)
7. The Persecution and Unlawful Detention of Political Prisoners of the Fedsurrection (otherwise known as January 6th)
8. The Second Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump
9. The Raid of Mar-a-Lago
The New York Young Republican Club also calls for more action than just “voting out” any Democrat or Republican perpetrating the anti-American interests surrounding any of these matters. Anyone involved in the listed political persecutions should be arrested and prosecuted with expediency, and in cases of extreme undue resistance, we recommend consideration of the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus to secure our Republic from the insidious monsters that have wrenched it from the American People’s control.
Internationalist forces and their allies intent on undermining the foundation of our Republic have crossed the rubicon, and it is the express belief of the New York Young Republican Club that, should justice not be carried out swiftly on these matters by ALL our elected officials and leaders, nothing less than the future of the Union is on the line.
I’m not sure how influential the Club is, but as you can see above, its speaker’s list is a Who’s Who of MAGA land and other conservative voices in politics and the media. I presume this statement reflects at least a prominent minority position in the Republican party.
I will not take on this press release point by point because it is a fruitless task. All of it is chilling, but the most frightening to me is this sentence: “Anyone involved in the listed political persecutions should be arrested and prosecuted with expediency, and in cases of extreme undue resistance, we recommend consideration of the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus to secure our Republic from the insidious monsters that have wrenched it from the American People’s control.”
They want to create an alternative court system to try our elected officials and others in absentia in a kangaroo court. Trump had alternative facts, alternative electors has built the framework for an alternative government with his America First Policy Institute and now wants an alternative court system.
Painting Democrats as “insidious monsters” is yet more dehumanization, making the rest of the plan easier to deploy, including violence. Especially if our institutions of law enforcement, including the FBI, are “disintegrated.”
This isn’t hyperbole. Take it at face value.
There is another lesson here: there is much to unpack in their press release--lies, misinformation, red herrings, on and on. That’s why it is hard to talk to MAGA folks in general and why it’s nearly impossible to interview Republicans, which I frequently do. There is an explanation of why this is so difficult.
While I rarely engage on Twitter, on a thread a few months ago, I was defending Margaret Brennan with CBS News for her interview of the liar and provocateur Senator Ted Cruz on Face the Nation, while others criticized her for not doing enough calling out his lies. I felt her pain.
In the thread, Julie Hotard (@upine), a psychologist and disinformation expert, pointed out the difficulty in interviewing scoundrels like Cruz because of problems pointed out in January 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian programmer. She referenced “Brandolini's law, also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle...an internet adage that emphasizes the difficulty of debunking false, facetious, or otherwise misleading information: ‘The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than is needed to produce it.’"
True, that.
I love Cracker Barrel. While there are locations in Iowa in Clive, Council Bluffs, and Davenport, I think the last Cracker Barrel I was in was in Kansas.
As a guy who loves breakfast, Cracker Barrel is the perfect destination (I love Waffle Houses too!). Wikipedia says, “Cracker Barrel's menu is based on traditional Southern cuisine, with appearance and decor designed to resemble an old-fashioned general store. Each location features a front porch lined with wooden rocking chairs, a stone fireplace, and decorative artifacts from the local area. Cracker Barrel partners with country music performers. It engages in charitable activities, such as its assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina and injured war veterans.”
During the 1990s Cracker Barrel discriminated against gay people, with their policy prohibiting “the hiring of any individual whose "sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values." After a backlash, the company reversed the policy. According to Wikipedia, beginning in 2016, the company adopted a pro-LGBTQ stance, developing an internal diversity council which included LGBTQ members. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Cracker Barrel faced lawsuits that it discriminated on the basis of race and gender, and in response initiated "effective nondiscrimination policies and procedures."
“Since the early 2000s, Cracker Barrel has provided training and resources to minority employees to improve its image on diversity. These efforts involved outreach to minority employees, along with testing a training plan to help employees whose first language is Spanish to learn English…Cracker Barrel is now on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Texas Conference of the NAACP, and is a corporate sponsor of the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit.”
America has committed all of these sins too, and Cracker Barrel, like much but not all of America, seems to have learned from its mistakes. While there is much work to be done, it’s a start.
But for all the things to be concerned with Cracker Barrel’s past, what are conservatives freaking out about?
Cracker Barrel is getting blowback from conservatives because it added “impossible sausages” to the menu.
The more conservative takes, according to the Washington Post:
“All the more reason to stop eating at Cracker Barrel. This is not what Cracker Barrel was to be all about,” one person wrote.
“I just lost respect for a once great Tennessee company,” another injected.
“If I wanted a salad … I would in fact order a salad … stop with the plant based ‘meat’ crap,” wrote a third.
“Oh Noes … the Cracker Barrel has gone WOKE!!! It really is the end times …,” another commented (perhaps in jest).
Conservative culture warriors can be so, so, pathetic.
To me, it appears that Cracker Barrel’s journey is an American one. We keep trying, even with MAGA setbacks.
Chick-fil-A, of course, is the darling of the conservative right because of its anti-LGBTQ policies. Chick-fil-A would never have “impossible” products. Or would they? Oops, the company is considering vegan options.
My day began covering a car accident. A young woman driving to work had a mechanical failure, hit loose gravel, and rolled several times into a yard north of Knoxville.
Here is Mercy Helicopter landing to take her to Mercy in Des Moines.
Her condition, like our country’s, is unknown.
Before you go, check out Julie Gammack’s “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” and please subscribe to it and the individual authors listed. Julie is doing amazing things and bringing together some great Iowa writers, and I’m honored she invited me to be in their company.
Looks like I'll be scheduling some meetings at Cracker Barrel near my office.