Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.
The tag 'CNP' is associated with 5 posts.

Soft Fascism Florida-Style: Ron DeSantis’s War on Amendment 4

A fas­cist to the core. That’s how retired US gen­er­al Mark Mil­ley, who direct­ly served Trump as the chair of joint chiefs of staff, as described in Bob Wood­ward’s upcom­ing book. As Mil­ley put it, “He is the most dan­ger­ous per­son ever. I had sus­pi­cions when I talked to you about his men­tal decline and so forth, but now I real­ize he’s a total fas­cist. He is now the most dan­ger­ous per­son to this coun­try.” And while they may be true, it’s impor­tant to keep in mind that Don­ald Trump is far from the only aspir­ing fas­cist in con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can pol­i­tics. The Sched­ule F/Project 2025 scheme orches­trat­ed by the Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy is a group effort, after all. And as we’re going to see, Flori­da Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis has been lay­ing the ground­work for the kind of ‘soft fas­cism’ that we should antic­i­pate a lot more of under a sec­ond Trump pres­i­den­cy. The kind of ‘soft fas­cism’ that is shaped less by Trump’s per­son­al mad­ness and more by the theo­crat­ic ambi­tions of the move­ments that have long ani­mat­ed the Repub­li­can Par­ty. Which brings us to DeSan­tis’s war on Amend­ment 4, a bal­lot ini­tia­tive that would enshrine abor­tion rights in Flori­da’s state con­sti­tu­tion up to the moment of via­bil­i­ty, com­ing months after Flori­da Repub­li­cans put in place a restric­tive new 6 week abor­tion ban. After first try­ing to get Amend­ment 4 thrown off the bal­lot, the DeSan­tis admin­is­tra­tion has pro­ceed­ed to spend tax­pay­er funds on an anti-Amend­ment 4 pub­lic mes­sag­ing cam­paign includes tv and radio ads. An unprece­dent­ed inves­ti­ga­tion into the Amend­ment 4 bal­lot sig­na­tures has also been opened, with police show­ing up at peo­ple’s homes to con­firm they signed the peti­tion. Local elec­tion super­vi­sors are also under sus­pi­cion of ver­i­fy­ing invalid sig­na­tures. And as we’re going to also see, there’s no pos­si­ble way this inves­ti­ga­tion can get the Amend­ment 4 removed from the bal­lot even if it suc­ceed­ed in reveal­ing some fraud. It’s pure intim­i­da­tion. More recent­ly, the Flori­da gov­ern­ment has threat­ened tele­vi­sion sta­tion employ­ees with crim­i­nal charges if they air a pro-Amend­ment 4 ad. Why? Because the state claims the ads — which raise ques­tions about whether or not wom­en’s health is ade­quate­ly pro­tect­ed under the new 6 week abor­tion law — pose a threat to pub­lic health because the new law in no way endan­gers women. Yes, if you run an ad sug­gest­ing the new Flori­da abor­tion law — one of the strictest in the US — could put women at risk, you could be crim­i­nal­ly charged. So if you were won­der­ing how the GOP is plan­ning on han­dling pub­lic dis­con­tent over the unpop­u­lar pol­i­cy that are about to be imposed on the pub­lic at large, look to Flori­da. Ron DeSan­tis is one of the Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy’s favorite politi­cians for a rea­son.


“Some Folks Need Killing!” Mark Robinson, David Lane, and the CNP’s American Renewal Project

“Some Folks Need Killing!” So declared North Car­oli­na Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Mark Robin­son on June 30. At a church. With the full endorse­ment of the church’s pas­tor, Rev­erend Cameron McGill, who explained how Robin­son only meant the peo­ple ‘try­ing to kill us’ should be killed. Two days lat­er, Her­itage Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent and Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts made his now infa­mous “Sec­ond Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion” speech, warn­ing that the rev­o­lu­tion would remain blood­less “if the left allows it”. Days lat­er, Don­ald Trump laugh­ably dis­avowed know­ing any­thing about Project 2025. And while Robert­s’s com­ments have received ample atten­tion, Robin­son’s “Some Folks Need Killing!” com­ments have remained an under-explored top­ic. Because as we’re going to see, Mark Robin­son has become quite a celebri­ty on the far right. With one very notable fan base: The Amer­i­can Renew­al Project ded­i­cat­ed to recruit­ing con­ser­v­a­tive pas­tor to run for office and the Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy (CNP) fig­ures behind it. Not only is Robin­son the star of Amer­i­can Renew­al Project events, but it turns out Rev­erend McGill is a recruiter for the group too. That project, formed in 2005 by polit­i­cal activist David Lane but with roots going all the way back to the for­ma­tion of the CNP in 1981, is what we’re going to explore in this post. Because as dis­turb­ing as Robin­son’s “Some Folks Need Killings” com­ments may have been out of of con­text, they are a lot more dis­turb­ing when placed in con­text. A Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ist domin­ion­ist con­text that warns of plans for a lot more than just ‘some’ killing.


The Eyes Over Mike Johnson: the CNP’s Texas Template for God’s Power Grope

Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ism isn’t sim­ply on the rise in the Unit­ed States. It’s already at the top, thanks in no small part to the Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy (CNP) and the myr­i­ad of groups oper­at­ing under its theo­crat­ic umbrel­la. The Supreme Court is dom­i­nat­ed by a hard right major­i­ty and there’s even the CNP’s planned mass purges — start­ing with the gov­ern­ment but not end­ing thereunder the ‘Sched­ule F’/Project 2025 label. That’s all part of the grim con­text sur­round­ing a series of reports around the new Speak­er of the House, Mike John­son that should raise seri­ous ques­tions about just how much influ­ence the lead­ing Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ist hold over new Speak­er of the House. But thanks the House and Supreme Court aren’t the only gov­ern­ment insti­tu­tion under Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ism sway. States Repub­li­cans are increas­ing­ly adopt­ing Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ist laws, with Texas lead­ing the way under the way under the vision of CNP pseu­do-his­to­ri­an David Bar­ton. It turns out John­son and Bar­ton are long-time allies who share the same vision for the future. A vision in line with the ‘dis­ci­ple­ship’ form of author­i­tar­i­an Chris­tian­i­ty now main­streamed in the CNP-dom­i­nat­ed net­work of 47,000 church­es in the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion (SBC). Which also hap­pens to be a denom­i­na­tion grap­pling with a sex abuse mega-scan­dal haunt­ing­ly rem­i­nis­cent of the Catholic Church’s mega-abuse scan­dal. A mega-scan­dal with a num­ber of major CNP fig­ures oper­at­ing as abusers or enablers. It’s that broad­er inter­sec­tion of Mike John­son’s ties to Chris­t­ian Nation­al­ism with this grow­ing SBC abuse mega-scan­dal that we’re going to look at in this post.


The (Schedule F) Purge: Trump’s Big Revenge Plan, Brought to You By the Council for National Policy

It’s not a secret plot to purge the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment of its career staffers and replace them with par­ti­san hacks. It was a secret when then-Pres­i­dent Trump set the plot in motion 13 days before the 2020 elec­tion with an exec­u­tive order. The “Sched­ule F” exec­u­tive order plot — cen­tered around a bureau­crat­ic loop­hole dis­cov­ered in Jan­u­ary of 2019 by an obscure Trump admin­is­tra­tion offi­cial — opened the flood­gates. And while the mass fir­ings nev­er actu­al­ly took place in the final months of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, those flood­gates remain open along with the plot. That’s the explo­sive rev­e­la­tion described in a pair of arti­cles put out by Axios back in July: The Sched­ule F plot con­tin­ues. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion isn’t wast­ing any time next time. A mass purge of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment will be one of the first moves of a sec­ond Trump admin­is­tra­tion. And now that Don­ald Trump has thrown his hat in the ring one more time the prospect of see­ing this plot put into effect is very real. But as we’re going to see, that ongo­ing plot is real whether or not Trump gets the nom­i­na­tion and ‘wins’ the race. Because the ongo­ing Sched­ule F effort isn’t just a MAGA-land plot. The pow­er­ful Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy (CNP) is deeply invest­ed in it, with the CNP’s Con­ser­v­a­tive Pol­i­cy Insti­tute (CPI) play­ing a lead­ing and grow­ing role. Sched­ule F is the plan. Or at least the start of the plan. As we’re also going to see, there’s a larg­er plot being devel­oped for what to do after the Sched­ule F purge and all the obsta­cles are out of the way. A larg­er plot for that appears to be inspired by none oth­er than Cur­tis “Men­cius Mold­bug” Yarvin, whose ideas for a post-demo­c­ra­t­ic Amer­i­ca are only grow­ing in elite con­ser­v­a­tive cir­cles. That’s the plot we’re going to be cov­er­ing in this post. The plans for Sched­ule F and beyond. Plans and tens of mil­lions of dol­lars and army of CNP-activists work­ing to make them a real­i­ty.


Oligarchs for Theocracy: Project Blitz, the Council for National Policy, and God’s Insurrection

“One nation under God.” It’s a famil­iar phrase for mod­ern Amer­i­cans. But how about the phrase “One nation under God, and one reli­gion under God”? That was the call recent­ly made by Michael Fly­nn. As we’re going to see, Fly­nn was­n’t just speak­ing for fel­low theocrats when he called for an end to the sep­a­ra­tion of church and state. He was voic­ing the views of some of the most pow­er­ful lob­bies oper­at­ing in DC. Groups like the Coun­cil for Nation­al Pol­i­cy (CNP) that rep­re­sent the merg­er of cor­po­rate (Koch) and theo­crat­ic inter­ests. A net­work that for all prac­ti­cal pur­pos­es is the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s oli­garch estab­lish­ment, push­ing a theo­crat­ic agen­da with a goal of not just con­fer­ring spe­cial rights for Chris­tians but effec­tive­ly end­ing democ­ra­cy itself. Because as we’re also going to see, just as you can’t sep­a­rate the GOP estab­lish­ment from the theo­crat­ic CNP, you can’t sep­a­rate the GOP’s par­ty-wide push to over­turn the 2020 elec­tion results from the CNP either. The death of rep­re­sen­ta­tive democ­ra­cy in the US is very much a ‘God’-ordained project.