I can’t say it better than this, so…
The drumbeat for setting the counter-terrorism meat grinder loose on Americans is getting louder
…and people are cheering it on. https://t.co/2G5Bt99KFK
— John Robb (@johnrobb) January 19, 2021
If you think this will only be used against people you don’t like, you are delusional. This bat will swing left, hard, and hit BLM and Antifa, certainly harder than it hits the right.
What is laughable about this, of course, is that US anti-terrorism has been massively ineffective. So if they turn it loose in the US, it will, indeed, grind up lives, but it won’t stop any serious insurrection, in fact it will create the conditions for the insurrection to get worse.
Robb also observed that the wall are going up in D.C. and it is being turned into a “Green Zone”. The elites, terrified, are retreating from the public and isolating even further. That move never ends well.
Say what you will about Nixon, but he went to see anti-war protestors with only one aide and no Secret Service protection. FDR, after surviving an assassination attempt, removed the secret service officers from in front of his bedroom.
Our current society is ruled by bed-wetters. On the other hand, they have good reason to be scared, because they know that life for Americans has gotten meaner for over 40 years, and they know they are why. (Yes, the oligarchs bought them, but they sold.)
This American foolishness has gone on long enough. Americans have been divided into camps, hating each other and regarding each other as the enemy. And indeed, they are, but only because they have been suckered into fighting.
The people who have done the most harm to red-staters and to blue-staters are oligarchs and politicians. In a sensible world, differences would be put aside and the oligarchy and politicians who serve them would be taken down.
After that, you might find that you have more in common than not, and that the differences which seemed so important are a lot less important than regaining the over $26K of annual income they stole from you and the declining lifespan.
Meanwhile, the oligarchy is gearing up for a war of them vs. everyone who isn’t on their knees. They’ll hit your enemies, sure, but unless you’re on your knees, they’re going to hit you, too.
As for the Trump insurrection, it occurred only because of elite inter-factional warfare. More on that in another article, perhaps.
All the content here is free, but subscriptions and donations do help, a lot.
metamars
“FDR, after being shot by a would-be assassin, removed the secret service officers from in front of his bedroom.”
Huh? I guess you mean Teddy.
Ian Welsh
Ah, thanks, FDR wasn’t injured, but there was an attempt. Fixed.
metamars
The Trump “insurrection” has been debunked by Robert Barnes, a lawyer who appears to this non-lawyer to know what he’s talking about. He even refers to “on the left” legal types who understand Constitutional law, like Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley.
From the youtube transcript of “Ep. 44: Parler v. Amazon; Rumble v. Google; Trump Impeachment AND MORE! Viva & Barnes LIVE!”
The Capitol Hill riot, in the context of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, was clearly a false flag, whether or not Babbitt was actually shot, and whether or not she is actually dead. (I’vc spent 1 1/2 hours googling for specific information about her autopsy and/or funeral, and found nothing. Some internet nobody commented “her real address is not in Cal., but it is at 56 Green Sage Road (P.O.Box 243), Boulder, WY 82923. She is aka Ashli Lari Tatro”, but AFAIK nobody credible has verified this)
I think it’s sad that, e.g., a Rudy Giuliani can go into great detail about disruptor participation and instigation of the riot, including by Antifa and “boogaloo bois”, but not say a word about the participation of cops and SWAT guys, as I laid out in some of my posts on this very blog. It’s equally sad that a Michael Moore can lay out a good case for a false flag in terms of a stand down of competent levels of police protection, yet not even use the phrase “false flag”, but just blame it all on his usual suspects of “right wingers”.
Neither of these gentlemen even ENTERTAINED THE IDEA of a false flag. More specifically, a false flag by the Deep State that looks to demonize not just Trump, but his populist MAGA followers.
Giuliani was mayor of NYC during 911, when the 47 story WTC 7 collapsed at free fall speed (referring to it’s external structure). An obvious controlled demolition. To this day, he seems very incurious about this fact, so it’s not surprising that he’d be incurious about Capitol police and SWAT help with the “insurrection”. The WTC 7 building, let’s recall, had both CIA and FBI tenants. Gee whiz, you think they’d be curious, too. NOT.
So, you are basically of the equally incurious Michael Moore persuasion, but that is of no comfort for anybody who actually wants accountability. And in order to have that, you need all the guilty parties investigated. Alas, who is going to do this investigating? The FBI debunked the claim of an “insurrection”, however who in their right mind is going to trust the FBI to fully investigate the obvious coordination of police and SWAT, when doing so leads to the doorstep of the same Deep State that the FBI is beholden to?
Plague Species
Once again, there will be no unity with the 75% or more who are Trump supporters and/or enablers. Never. I will never unify with them. They are insane and they are as much responsible for that as is the oligarchy and the politicians that serve the oligarchy to include McDonald Trump.
No, I don’t have much in common with these freaks and they are insane freaks living in an alternate reality. These insane freaks are defenders of the oligarchy and if you talk class war with them or to them, they label you a socialist or worse a communist and then turn around and support McDonald Trump and Wall Street and the oligarchy.
Plague Species
Nice.
Lex
@metamars, quit with the false flag bullshit. Unless you want to argue that trump supporters are crisis actors. You give the powers that be too much credit in your attempt to undermine them. The right wing death cult is real, and as Ian points out the only thing they have (or will) accomplish is to bring the techniques of our empire home where the left wing which mostly just wants people to have a reasonable life will be get the brunt of the violence because the state’s monopoly on violence is rife with right wing ideology. But if you insist on this line of reasoning then you have to admit that trump is Deep State. He’s been provoking you and yours to get this response, you had the riot now the rest of us get to live with the consequences. There’s not enough vitamin D and zinc in the world to turn this around now.
Synoptocon
File this one under “Man who spends two decades inciting hatred decries consequences of others doing it better and at scale”.
The difference between what you do and what those suckering Americans into fighting each other do? Not much.
GlassHammer
the wall are going up in D.C. and it is being turned into a “Green Zone” – Ian
Or…. a gated community for senior citizens.
But seriously it is just slightly more security than the average public school, nothing to worry about.
Chicago Clubs
lol at Dershowitz being “on the left.”
anon
Yes. Domestic terrorism will be used as an excuse to watch over BLM and Antifa activists. It will also be used to watch “far left” pundits like Jimmy Dore and Chapo Trap House, maybe even blogs like this one that criticize the American government. If you even infer in a Tweet or blog post that any of the elites deserve to die for what they have done to the bottom 90%, don’t be surprised to see authorities at your doorstep or your page taken down on all of the social media sites. If you thought the security state got worse after 9/11, it will get even worse after this “insurrection.”
KT Chong
Robert Barnes aka “Renowned Trump Supporter”, who believed in Trump’s election fraud claim and was part of Trump’s legal team to attempt to overturn the election:
https://www.amimagazine.org/2020/12/23/whats-next-for-trump/
https://www.policypunchline.com/episodes/2020/12/17/alex-jones-the-intellectual-dark-web-and-how-trumps-election-lawsuits-went-wrong
So, no, he is not neutral on Trump.
Also, he was part of the legal team that have lost 60+ lawsuits to challenge the election results in court. So no, he has no f-cking clue what he’s talking about.
KT Chong
In another news, I actually recognized two magats who rioted in the Capitol in a video. They were my clients from a few years back. So yesterday I called the FBI to report them. It is the most exciting thing I have personally done since the lockdown started. I am feeling so proud of myself right now. 😊
KT Chong
oops, not called, but sent a message at fbi.gov/USCapitol
KT Chong
Who are the oligarchs?
Seriously Ian Welsh needs to give a list of names and families. It’s hard to fight the enemies when you don’t even know who they really are.
Bill H
“Robb also observed that the wall are going up in D.C. and it is being turned into a ‘Green Zone’.”
But not to worry, the walls will all come down after the inauguration. They will. We don’t do “Green Zones” in this country. Those walls are only temporary and will come down. They will. Really. They…
The Oligarchs
Ian has been carrying water for us for years. We appreciate it.
metamars
@Lex
The Trump “insurrection” has been debunked by Robert Barnes, a lawyer who appears to this non-lawyer to know what he’s talking about. He even refers to “on the left” legal types who understand Constitutional law, like Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley.
From the youtube transcript of “Ep. 44: Parler v. Amazon; Rumble v. Google; Trump Impeachment AND MORE! Viva & Barnes LIVE!”
The Capitol Hill riot, in the context of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, was clearly a false flag, whether or not Babbitt was actually shot, and whether or not she is actually dead. (I’vc spent 1 1/2 hours googling for specific information about her autopsy and/or funeral, and found nothing. Some internet nobody commented “her real address is not in Cal., but it is at 56 Green Sage Road (P.O.Box 243), Boulder, WY 82923. She is aka Ashli Lari Tatro”, but AFAIK nobody credible has verified this)
I think it’s sad that, e.g., a Rudy Giuliani can go into great detail about disruptor participation and instigation of the riot, including by Antifa and “boogaloo bois”, but not say a word about the participation of cops and SWAT guys, as I laid out in some of my posts on this very blog. It’s equally sad that a Michael Moore can lay out a good case for a false flag in terms of a stand down of competent levels of police protection, yet not even use the phrase “false flag”, but just blame it all on his usual suspects of “right wingers”.
Neither of these gentelmen even ENTERTAINED THE IDEA of a false flag. More specifically, a false flag by the Deep State that looks to demonize not just Trump, but his populist MAGA followers.
Giuliani was mayor of NYC during 911, when the 47 story WTC 7 collapsed at free fall speed (referring to it’s external structure). An obvious controlled demolition. To this day, he seems very incurious about this fact, so it’s not surprising that he’d be incurious about Capitol police and SWAT help with the “insurrection”. The WTC 7 building, let’s recall, had both CIA and FBI tenants. Gee whiz, you think they’d be curious, too.
So, you are basically of the equally incurious Michael Moore persuasion, but that is of no comfort for anybody who actually wants accountability. And in order to have that, you need all the guilty parties investigated. Alas, who is going to do this investigating? The FBI debunked the claim of an “insurrection”, however who in their right mind is going to trust the FBI to fully investigate the obvious coordination of police and SWAT, when doing so leads to the doorstep of the same Deep State that the FBI is beholden to?
Most of your points are not worth my time responding to. Listen to the Barnes interview, the Moore youtube, and observations by George Webb, who was on the ground, to get a fact base beyond CNN. Also, look at my posts on the subject of the false flag goings on where Ashli Babbitt was ‘shot’:
https://www.ianwelsh.net/americans-have-found-the-enemy-and-it-is-they/#comment-121988
https://www.ianwelsh.net/open-thread-85/#comment-122038
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-terrible-bind-americas-elites-are-in/#comment-122179
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-terror-of-liberals-in-a-time-of-insurrection/#comment-122353
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-terror-of-liberals-in-a-time-of-insurrection/#comment-122354
Especially note the ones about timing the presence of the SWAT team for only 28 seconds, during which time the policemen guarding the door, who have armed Secret Service dudes on the other side, guns out, politely abandon their location so that the rioters can break through the door.
The one point or argument you make that is not, unfortunately, laughable is about Trump being Deep State. That he accommodated himself to the existing power structure, both “Deep” and relatively exoteric Republican side of the “swamp” (what Steve Bannon calls the Trump Administration “original sin”) is not controversial. Not in my mind, anyway.
So, Trump and the rest of the world must have known that at least antifa types would penetrate the protestors. What, exactly, did Trump do to forestall this? He’s in recent meetings with the former head of the DIA, Mike Flynn. Certainly, Flynn could have anticipated everything.
So, why didn’t he? And why is Flynn insisting that Trump will be sworn in as President, and not raising the issue of false flag players even after the event? Is he “incurious”, also?
As Trump says and does stupid or outrageous things, at a disturbingly high rate, one can imagine him thinking all would be well with the Capitol Hill protest, so why bother checking out the security? As Trump is isolated and manipulated by many people, including Republicans, one can also imagine him not being told that security is not even at normal levels, at the Capitol building.
Ah, but what about Flynn? What about Navarro, who is a straight shooter, AFAICT. I don’t trust Pompeo or Haspell, but what about the temporary replacements for Sec Def, and similar, that Trump recently appointed?
While I still think it’s most likely that Trump’s behavior is a combination of incompetence against Deep State (and non-Deep State backstabbers), manipulation by people smarter and more devious than him, and blackmail, I ALSO find it more plausible now, than before, that he is a willing participant in Deep State kabuki.
There isn’t enough signal to noise to make a confident determination. But the signal to noise of a Deep State false flag on Jan 6 is overwhelming. All the strawmen and red herrings in the world can’t obscure that.
For those who insist that an insurrection was attempted by Trump and most of the MAGA people at the capitol, why aren’t they demanding that the officers who aided and abetted these MAGA traitors be arrested?
I guess not all MAGA people are equal, and those who wear guns and work in the Capitol building should be left alone, because, well, uh, at least they don’t wear MAGA hats, or horns. Or whatever.
I am obviously mocking this train of non-thought. If anything, it’s the gun toting MAGA guys working as Capitol police or SWAT that are “insurrectionists” that should be targeted, FIRST.
GlassHammer
“Those walls are only temporary and will come down. They will. Really. They…” Bill H
They…. will be replaced by a sign that says “Secured by ADT”.
Feral Finster
Anyone cheering on these developments had better be sure that they never will challenge power ever.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
Hmm…well, I’m certainly not a right-winger.
And according to the Purity Leftists here, I’m absolutely not a left-winger, and of course Purity Leftists are never wrong about anything. 😉
So, it rather looks like I’m safe. Where did I put the popcorn? 😀
Ché Pasa
Unprecedented restrictions on public access to the inauguration scheduled for tomorrow — made necessary by the stand down and insurrection of a couple of weeks ago that sent the Congress scrambling to safety down tight narrow stairs into the bowels of the “Capitol Campus.” Many of these people are old, you know, and can barely get around on their own power as it is. Forcing them out of their comfort place on the double like that was upsetting to say the least. They want to ensure “it never happens again.”
Yes, DC is turning into a walled and sort-of secured Green Zone. The White House is already surrounded by layers and layers of barricades, fences, and walls. Now the Capitol and Supreme Court will be too. Some state capitals — already tightening access and security for years — will follow suit. It’s inevitable as “normal” continues deteriorating and government falters more and more egregiously.
Most people just want to be left alone by government, so most will stay well away from the conflict zones. Most will be fine, or at least be able to survive amid the chaos.
But our oligarchic rulers have scores to settle. They’ll continue fighting among themselves until a resolution is reached. We, for the most part, are irrelevant to that struggle.
NR
Ian, your overall point in this article is good, but this is a pretty disingenuous comparison. The anti-war protestors Nixon met with weren’t a bunch of armed-to-the-teeth lunatics who believed that he was part of a Satanic pedophile cult. You simply cannot make comparisons between American politics today and in the 1970s without acknowledging that lies and propaganda have made the right insane in ways that the left was not back then.
Astrid
Enjoy the exotic experience of living in Afghanistan or Iraq, without ever learning to find either on the map.
A Soviet style collapse is the best case scenario for the US and the world.
Hugh
So how do we deal with the violent, divorced from reality, white right? If you are black or brown or left, you are already surveilled. Ian had up for a previous post a photo of all the National Guard deployed in DC for a peaceful BLM protest. If you’re white, you get to riot in the Capitol and hunt for Pence and Pelosi. Yes, they got called insurrectionists but out of the thousands there, still less than 200 have been arrested.
Since 2001, the surveillance state is here. It’s just that it is used against some more than others.
S Brennan
When “lefties”, when “progressives”, when “liberals” accepted Hillary/neoD’s dictata that Trump is Hitler, they joined a marriage already in progress between the National Security State*, and neoD party. But…
As Ian correctly identifies; historically, such concubinage turns out poorly for the daughter of an infidel was defeated in battle…gotta to thank Bernie for that battle leadership that led to soldiers slaughter. The fact that so many “lefties”, “progressives” and “liberals” are celebrating their low status relationship is cause for mirth and levity amongest DNCers.
Ian’s man on horseback will not be making an appearance, no, a Stalin-like creature will slither up to power and again…the “lefties”, “progressives” and “liberals” will celebrate, salivating over the great feast that is to come…not understanding that they will be on the menu.
*I don’t mention the Media because they became, as Assange’s treatment makes clear, a subset of the National Security State, a sub-cabinet bureau Ministry of Truth.
GlassHammer
“So how do we deal with the violent, divorced from reality, white right?” – Hugh
A Trump branded Multi-Level Marketing company and the inevitable Presidency of Joe Rogan.
kråke
Nah, Glass. That encodes far too much hope.
The furies demand nothing less than a triumvirate-junta of Noem, Pompeo and Cotton.
Plague Species
We laugh, but McDonald proved such insanity is possible. Rogan, once elected, can appoint Alex Jones as his Attorney General. That would be fun.
Stirling S Newberry
Trump is not the worst president in history but he is the most annoying in history. Hoover was much worst and Buchanon was terrible but they could bring that je-ne-sais-quoi right to your door and your video screen.
Astrid
Joe Rogan is hardly right wing. He certainly supports civil liberties and open minded Inquisition more strongly than the TDS crowd that showed up for comments today.
No wonder you all didn’t talk about Assange or Israel or US’s many many illegal wars, while yelling about Trump and (faux news about) Russia and Uighurs all the time. Biden’s appointments signal that there will be many more illegal wars, removal of New Deal protections, and destroying any possibility of revival by the real left or anyone who might speak for the bottom 90%.
It’s not going to be the right wing that will cause me to emigrate, it’ll be the “left wing” authoritarians who are so willing to trade other people’s liberties without a thought. If you’re the”left”, there is no hope in sight.
Ian Welsh
Normal, basic police work is how you deal with the right wing. It is not required to take away more rights, any more than the Patriot Act was required after 9/11.
Ian Welsh
People have forgotten the actual history of the 70s. Multiple bombs were going off every day in America in the early 70s.
And don’t forget someone had actually shot at FDR, and as metamars pointed out earlier, Theodore had actually been shot (then gave a speech, while bleeding.)
scarnoc
I’d like to read your thoughts on elite interfactional warfare and why you think that caused the maga putsch attempt. Sounds interesting.
Ché Pasa
The rightist authoritarian asshoes were screaming “Freedom!” and “Liberty!” during their little festivities at the Capitol (among much else). I always ask, “Liberty for whom? To do what?” They, of course, never answer. They just scream to vent their impotent anger.
But then the libertarian wing of the “left” do the same thing — with a bit more detail about the “liberties” they’re losing, primarily focused on the Government-Big-and-Bad will surveil them “like never before.” When I point out that their corporate overlords have been doing that and more to them for many years and government buys that surveillance on the open market, they’re confused. The way they tell it, if corporate surveillance takes place, it’s all well and good, because Markets, or something. If government BUYS surveillance data from corporate overlords, it’s not the same as if they do it themselves. Is it? I guess not.
I’d like these libertarian “lefties” to explain how their lives have changed since the advent of the Patriot Act and its many subchapters. I understand there are things you don’t want government to do, and I probably agree with most of them. But there are plenty of things government and its corporate overlords do in concert and competition with one another that have little or no positive or negative effect on most of us.
I’ve lived long enough to see plenty of government and corporate oppression/suppression in the US. Really nasty stuff affecting people’s lives in horrible ways. We’re not living through the worst of it by any means. Not even close.
Chicago Clubs
“Carrying water” is the phrase of weasels who wish to tarnish by association when there is no substantive mud to be slung. Distrust all who use it.
someofparts
I was going to point out that in a Rogan administration Tulsi would be Secretary of Defense and Bernie would be Secretary of Labor.
Also, this morning when I tried to follow a link from NC to Tass, Firefox wouldn’t let me go there. The Tor browser worked. I hope it keeps working for any new sites other browsers block. Nothing makes me want to rush out and vote for Democrats like my first taste of the censorship regime they hope to launch.
When dinosaurs walked the earth mammals were small to survive. Hope I’m small enough to be insignificant to the warring reptiles that stalk my world.
metamars
Oops. I accidentally pre-pended my reply to Lex, which begins with
with my prior comment. Sorry to hog up the vertical inches.
Plague Species
Apparently, the police are the right wing. I don’t think they’re up to the task of dealing with themselves.
Plague Species
Okay, let’s talk about Israel and all McDonald Trump has done for it. And how McDonald didn’t pardon Assange but he did pardon Blackwater goons. Trump didn’t start any wars because he was too busy feeding his ego and looking at his reflection in the mirror as he tweeted all the live long day, not because he’s some benevolent pacifist.
mago
Thanks Astrid.
PS missed the point.
Hugh
There is a definition of domestic terrorism in 18 US Code § 2331 (5):
the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A)involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B)appear to be intended—
(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii)to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C)occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States
The problem is that terrorist crimes in the code are really geared toward international terrorism, as in some person or part of them needs to be outside the United States. So while participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot/insurrection broke numerous federal laws, including sedition, insurrection, murder, assault, weapons charges, conspiracy, theft, destruction of federal property, illegal entry, etc., there does not seem to be a charge of purely domestic terrorism with a penalty attached to it in the code.
Purple Library Guy
I read through the comments and what strikes me is just how many of them are dedicated to building straw men of what they claim are typical positions of people who disagree with them.
Mark Pontin
Joe Rogan, huh?
It’s a funny world. Amazingly, in 2018 Joe Rogan did perhaps one of the best long-form interviews of a genius-level scientist, Sir Roger Penrose, that I may have seen on general audience TV/video.
Roger Penrose and Joe Rogan Podcast # 1216
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7musTKoozIzhs59688mZg8
Rogan was smart enough to ask a few basically intelligent questions (maybe one dumb one about extraterrestrial life), and then to shut up and let Penrose answer at whatever length he needed to.
Of course, too, Rogan owns his platform and can decide how long he wants a given episode to run, and doesn’t need to interject questions to prove he’s earning his pay as even a BBC interviewer would. Penrose, for his part, has written books explaining some of the advanced maths and physics he deals in, and understood just what can be feasibly presented to reasonably intelligent normies.
js
“No, I don’t have much in common with these freaks and they are insane freaks living in an alternate reality. These insane freaks are defenders of the oligarchy and if you talk class war with them or to them, they label you a socialist or worse a communist and then turn around and support McDonald Trump and Wall Street and the oligarchy.”
And some day if they take power they may well kill one if they find out one was a socialist. But that is not right this moment.
metamars
Wow, I never thought I’d see anybody mention Penrose on this blog. Perhaps the most interesting guy on the internet is another math/physics guy named Eric Weinstein. He’s interviewed Penrose a few times, on youtube, though it’s more of a discussion, since they’re peers.
Spent a Thanksgiving with Penrose when I was a grad student in pure math. The company was mixed with more normal types of people, so I don’t recall any discussion about math or physics.
Mark Pontin
metamars wrote: ‘Perhaps the most interesting guy on the internet is another math/physics guy named Eric Weinstein.”
Let’s not get carried away. Weinstein is Peter Thiel’s intellectual lapdog at Thiel Capital and while common acquaintances in that crowd say he’s decent enough and mildly interesting, he’s no heavyweight.
Hugh
Trump to pardon the fascist Steve Bannon for his scam to defraud and steal from Trumpers wanting to fund Trump’s mythical wall.
Hugh
Also Broidy. See if you are white and right, it’s not so much a meatgrinder as a get-out-of-jail card.
Thomas Golladay
As usual KT, et al don’t address the substance of the arguments and ignore the fact Judges in the lower courts sided with Trump and were overturned on appeal, SoS of Michigan promised an audit and reneged, etc.
But truth doesn’t matter to them. So forget them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EevsqN6jgg&t=2017s&ab_channel=TimcastIRL
Guard is being vetted now with purity tests. A key indicator the government has lost legitimacy.
As usual the “Left” doesn’t realize they are slitting their throats. Well they licked the Establishment’s boots and turned on the working class, so screw them.
Only the Populist Right can take down the Establishment now.
Stirling S Newberry
“Everybody knows the dice loaded.”
Leonard Cohen “everybody knows”
When asking the question who is the most horrific holder of the office of the presidency, everybody knows that the present or the recent past has an enormous weight in how we make up our minds. Buchanan may be objectively the worst president in history, letting the pot boil on the Civil War which killed over 1% of the population and decimating many of the cities of the Confederacy. But no one lived at a time where this was present as a memory, or, with only a few exceptions, at a time when they knew someone who lived through it. On the other hand, millions of people lived under the age of Trump and have their own particular list of horrendous breaches of etiquette and form. A worse president might well have stoked the North Korean leader to rattle sabers, but Trump was not the man to do this.
But what largely happened was the flaws in the prevailing political and economic system were exposed and numerous leaders around the world did nothing to stop. The pandemic which afflicts the world is not merely some random accident but an inevitable consequence of globalizing the world’s trade at the level which we have done so without taking appropriate precautions. We can have globalized trade or we can ignore epidemics but we cannot do both. The problem is we, as in the global we, tried to do just that. We tried to ignore paying the cost of insurance believing that it would never come due however insurance is the generalized cost of making sure that we do not roll snake eyes. We actually were warned before with SARS but in the same lackadaisical way which snake eyes were discounted because we only rolled three, we ignored the warning and plunge straight forward with our own problems. The problem then was the housing meltdown of 2007- 2009, perhaps you heard of it.
This leads me to the division between internal problems and external problems. Internal problems are problems that we create for ourselves and the means to do it is by pushing the limits on whatever system we are using. This is constant because pushing the limits is the only way to find out where the limits are and correct those which will spoil that system. External problems seem to hit out of the blue but this is why statistics is important: while the individual event is random over time it will be statistically likely on whatever scale it works along. In other words, people want to get ahead and in general, people are the problem. This is internal by the operations that we set up to determine who is to be the winner and who is to be the loser. This happens even if both parties when against the background because one winner will do much better than the other. But there are also external problems that work on the level of how the universe judges winners and losers. For an epidemic, the root is by natural selection which is used by every organism in the world and does not particularly care about money, capital, or wealth.
This division between internal and external exemplifies the hidden problems with the current system: oftentimes the internal and external can be resolved by a simple change in the real cost of some aspect of the system. By simple, I do not necessarily mean easy. A good example is climate change, where pollution was subsidized by borrowing money from the future. An actor in the present got rich by releasing pollutants into the environment and did not actually care who paid the real cost. This means that in the end, an internal problem is a difference between the cost as built-in two the system vs. the real cost. Find the differences and correct them. This may be difficult but is not actually that hard. It is just painful for people who live on the difference between actual/real. Think about just one aspect of this: plastic. We ship hundreds of tons of plastic to where there are people who live on sufficiently marginal land and atrocious living standards where they can sort plastic into two components. Looked at from the point of view of humanity it is atrocious but it is atrocious another land and therefore we do not think about it. Until the difference between money and capital becomes apparent: the people who sort the plastic have significant problems with health and they go to their government to solve these problems. The government is China and it realizes that while there is money to be made from gobbling up all plastic it is negative when all of the real costs are taken into account. Thus the money to be made is actually negative when health problems are factored in.
This is also the case with globalization. Some costs are not accounted for and these costs are statistical rather than consistent. However, statistical problems come up. Thus statistically we are exposed to a pandemic if we do not wish to take the inevitable consequence. Some countries are willing to impose sanctions on the chance of a pandemic but in the way of the world everybody, statistically speaking, be willing to do this. And this is not acceptable to the very rich who can avoid much of the disadvantage of epidemics that spread. This means that there is a larger problem with the current philosophical outlook than merely correcting actual/real divisions.
Plague Species
Oh my, so scary. Will they have horned caps to cover their bald pates like the fruitcake Jake Chansley? Shiver me timbers!!!
Plague Species
This is why the so-called “left” if one existed in America, should never collaborate with the far right or the right, both of which substantially exist in America.
https://www.marxist.com/iranian-revolution-grant090279.htm
Plague Species
This is what makes America great. You can quite literally go from rags to riches overnight. There’s no reason to wait generations.
Even though I’m not a socialist, I sure hope John never believes I’m a socialist because one day, not now because the time is not right apparently, he may kill me. Scary stuff. Shiver me timbers.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmatze
metamars
“‘He pardoned it’: Americans rip Trump for failing to ‘drain the swamp’ as he rescinds lobbying ban on his way out” at rt.com is worth a read.
IMO it supports the thesis that Trump is not just an incompetent victim of, and accommodationist to, institutional forces, but a conscious participant in the swamp, if not the Deep State.
In fairness, it’s conceivable he’s trashing his spotty ‘legacy’, under duress. As an example, Tucker Carlson is reporting rumors that Trump failed to pardon Assange, under impeachment conviction threat from Mitch McConnell.
Plague Species
This is Matze’s wife. I trust her. Really, I do.
https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/01/NINTCHDBPICT000630005971-1.jpg
America is awesome. It’s hip to be a traitor these days. Russians hate black people. During Cold War 1.0, the Soviets cozied up to blacks. During Cold War 2.0, the same folks, Russians now versus Soviets, cozy up to racist rednecks.
Lex
The straw men. Lord have mercy. Sure “antifa” infiltrated the simple patriots trying to restore balance to the United States. Anything that doesn’t fit into someone’s chosen narrative must be a false flag. The simple fact is that the entirety of the US political system (both sides) is captive to what the right likes to call the “deep state” but they choose the term because they still believe in America’s myths and don’t want to say “the empire”. The deep state is just the functioning of an empire with a democratic republic laid over the top for presentation’s sake. And the empire exists for the benefit of the investor class and politics power players. Same old United Fruit Company. Somebody tried to color revolution ourselves and it failed. The only thing the rest of us will get out of it is a tighter grip by the capitalist police state. And the fascist cops (approximately 97% of cops) will love it.
Trinity
As Ian has pointed out many times, the divisions between people (aptly illustrated here) are manufactured, encouraged and reinforced. The reason is also illustrated here (and everywhere): to prevent the little people from joining together and actually accomplishing something. We should be arguing about what we have in common, seeking common ground. It does exist.
The manufactured distractions continue apace. I just finished a Richard Heinberg article discussing censorship to address this “breakdown of consensus reality” but he is also missing the point. Ian gets it, and a reread of his article above will tell you that everything he is writing about is about the lack of accountability. Until accountability is applied equally and consistently, until our common problems are identified, until our problems are named and adequately defined so they can be solved, there’s really nothing else to discuss, only prepare.
“Before we set about trying to restore our nation’s soul, shouldn’t we prove to ourselves, first, that we have one?” The soul of this nation was and always has been about violence directed at the “other”. (As, it should be noted, was true for all of Europe’s imperialist activities.) Until this is acknowledged, it cannot be addressed. Violence of all types cannot be addressed without accountability.
All that history can tell us is that it repeats, and sometimes rhymes. Until a nation can devise a way to end the repetition, it’s doomed to repeat. “What is history? Just the forgotten ruins of humble villages and the vaunted carelessness of ‘great’ men. All the Earth is a palimpsest.”
metamars
From voltairenet.org: The “Deep State” behind U.S. Democracy (an interview of Peter Dale Scott)
(emphasis mine)
The rioters were accommodated by Capitol police and even SWAT guys, as seen in the video I have analyzed. I’m not a lawyer, but aiding and abetting rioters sounds awfully illegal to me, not to mention that “entrapment” probably is, also.
In spite of all sorts of accusations blaming things on the CCP, the CCP is not in control of the US Deep State. Not yet, anyway. (In fact, I favor the hypothesis that the main foreign actor in the takedown of Trump is the British Deep State, not the CCP.)
For people who can’t wrap their heads around the notion of the Deep State perpetrating illegal acts against American citizens, and even the President of the US, that is just too bad – for them. They should maybe consider taking up less mentally taxing hobbies, such as reading comic books, or binging at netflix.
The fact that I, or anybody else, disagrees with the illegal acts perpetrated against American citizens, is quite besides the point, and even a reasonably intelligent and rational 10 year old would immediately understand that.
The people who willfully ignore the obvious Deep State involvement, because it interferes with their indulging in their standard rhetoric, memes, and virtue signaling, are pathetic. It’s one thing to be irrational, or otherwise uncomprehending what your lying eyes are telling you, say from a bad case of cognitive dissonance. It’s another to engage in deceit.
In fact, I’d call this sort of deceit morally treasonous.
Hugh
Early this morning, Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations. A lot of the pardons were for white collar crimes, some for drug offenses. The commutations ere more heavily weighted toward drug crimes. He did not pardon himself or his family. A pardon would have stripped them of 5th amendment protections against testifying about any crime they committed and left them open to perjury charges for any lies in that testimony. A pardon is also an admission of guilt.
I did not see any pardons for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Seems like Trump left them to be ground, maybe to improve his chances of beating a conviction on impeachment.
Plague Species
As far as I’m concerned, McDonald Trump was the worst president ever in modern relevant history, hands down. What remains to be seen is, will Biden topple him for that designation.
I’m surprised to see McDonald didn’t pardon Assange. I thought for sure he would after Jimmy Dore and Tucker pleaded with him.
Stirling S Newberry
Biden is officially POTUS.
Chicago Clubs
>As far as I’m concerned, McDonald Trump was the worst president ever in modern relevant history, hands down.
All this demonstrates is that you are extremely susceptible to the media noise machine and your judgment ought to be considered suspect on any topic.
S Brennan
Just a reminder for those who bought into the Trump=Hitler meme put out by DNC hacks, the neoD’s marriage with the National Security State [NSS] has already had it’s silver anniversary. And the marriage is rock solid.
Before 9/11 & the Patriot Act was a twinkling in Dick Cheney’s eye, Joe Biden dreamed of a fascist police state to dwarf the Stasi, now thanks to “Lefties”, “Liberals” and “Pregressives” help…that dream is real. Reform election 2036, only 16 years away..woohooo!
Ian’s man on horseback will not be making an appearance in this kabuki theater. Nope this show features a Stalin-like character slithering to the top…and Biden may have wanted to have been that guy but…let’s face it, senile old men are not cut out to run a Stasi state on steroids.
—————————————————————————
“The Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995, or US Senate bills S.390 and S.761.[1] were two bills introduced by Senator Joe Biden..Representative Chuck Schumer sponsored the bill (H.R. 896) in the US House of Representatives.[3][4] Both bills were never put to a vote.”
—————————————————————————
Core of Patriot Act Was Drafted in 1995 … By Joe Biden
https://ritholtz.com/2011/12/the-core-of-the-patriot-act-was-drafted-in-1995-%E2%80%A6-by-joe-biden/
Ché Pasa
No pardon for Assange nor for Snowden. Hm. I guess it’s up to Old Joe now…. who will kiss up to New POTUS enough to get ‘er done? In the interests of Unity, of course.
Hugh
Assange and Snowden sinned against the Establishment and Biden is an Establishment guy. So no pardons for them. If only they had done something more reputable like selling kilos of meth, or better yet stealing millions from rube investors.
Good to see that SB still finds ways to escape from the Führerbunker from time to time.
Willy
Presidential pardons display presidential loyalties. What friends of the American people or decent human civilization did Trump pardon?
Ché Pasa
And despite all the chaos and insurrection of the last four years, it would seem that Trump was just as wedded to (a faction of) the Establishment as Biden/Obama/Bush/Clinton etc. Who’d. A. Thunk?
Hugh
We should take a moment to consider Trump’s accomplishments. He killed 400,000 Americans, as many as died in World War II, and he did it in one year not the 3 1/2 the war took. He leaves behind a damaged economy with a minimum increase of unemployed of at least 11 million. He managed to incite an insurrection and got impeached twice. He showed that fascism and racism were a American pie. And if lying was an Olympic sport he would be a gold medalist.
BlizzardOfOzzz
Requesting a ruling from Hugh, the blog’s resident Nazi-hunter. I’ve committed a grievous act of noticing, namely that 100% of Biden’s top cabinet picks are Jews. Unfortunately for anyone reading this, you have now also noticed it too.
Let’s make a color-coded alarm system here, and maybe Hugh will be kind enough to indicate at which step on this color gradient a normie American becomes a literal sieg-heiling, goose-stepping, Bellamy-saluting, Hitler-worshipping neon-Nazi.
1 – GREEN – noticing the very Jewish character of the shell of Joe Biden’s cabinet
2 – CHARTREUSE – thinking #1 is maybe not entirely good
3 – YELLOW – thinking #1 maybe poses some problems
4 – ORANGE – asking what particular Semitic quality is so desirable (essential?) in a member of the shell of Joe Biden’s cabinet
5 – VERMILLION – venturing an answer to #4
6 – RED – pondering the implications of #5
Hugh
American nazis see Jews everywhere.
Willy
There are also many Catholics amongst Biden’s picks. And the Pope is said to be a lefty. So what might Catholics want with these Jews?
Will the Vatican move to Jerusalem? Will the Vatican also be renting space in the soon-to-be-former Trump Tower inside the Soddomistic elitist power center of New York City, so the first opening of the Seven Seals will commence?
Whatever happens, conservative white evangelicals need more enemies. And we need them now.
S Brennan
Ché, could I trouble you to back your assertion…you’d have to have held incommunicado in a dark closet four the last four years to come up with this gem:
“Trump was just as wedded to the Establishment as Biden/Obama/Bush/Clinton”
Or perhaps, is it studied ignorance?
===================
“Tucker Carlson reports that Mitch McConnell told the White House “if you pardon Julian Assange we are much more likely to convict you in an impeachment trial.”….”
===================
NeoDs impeached Trump the 2nd time to get the leverage over Trump, that leverage was needed to prevent the pardoning of Assange and you Ché supported those efforts, wipe away your crocodile tears, you’re not fooling anyone.
Who knew our resident revolutionary, Ché , would run flack for the National Security State…too funny…a man who calls himself Ché would be the epitome of a counter-revolutionary. Kinda explains why over the years you have trashed my calls for a return to FDRism in favor of your super-secret-plan to bring utopia to the masses.
BTW Ché, spouting utopianism has been a tough sell since Jim Jones took the shine off that apple…but hey children, look over here, ignore those who call for a return to FDRism, for what worked in the not too distant past, for what created immense wealth and the progress we still enjoy today….instead, look over here, at my conjured utopia…which the National Security State fully supports….since it’s an illusory diversion.
Mark Pontin
Hugh wrote: ‘We should take a moment to consider Trump’s accomplishments. He killed 400,000 Americans, as many as died in World War II, and he did it in one year not the 3 1/2 the war took.’
We should take more than a moment.
In the UK, Brits complaining about the incompetence and venality of the current crop of Tories were told by some of their fellow citizens of Indian and African extraction, “Now you know what it’s like to be ruled by the British.”
So, too, with Trump. Now Americans have a little idea of how it is to be ruled by the U.S. empire, which has murdered some 20 million people around the planet in recent decades.
Well, thank God for ordinary Americans that at least the rest of the empire’s methods won’t be re-imported back into the homeland and we’ll never see measures like a Green Zone erected in the nation’s capitol and ….
Oh, wait.
Biden explained his administration’s intentions: “Nothing’s going to change.” In other words, the empire will take those measures it considers necessary to maintain itself and, as Ian warns you here, an anti-terrorism meat-grinder will be built out.
I’ll go further than Ian.
Constructing the apparatus of that meat-grinder promises to be enormously _profitable_ for the usual suspects. Thus, it will grow ever-larger, and more mindlessly destructive and oppressive to increasing numbers of Americans, further feeding ‘terrorist’ anti-government, anti-elite feelings among them and growing the numbers of Americans who hate ‘their’ government.
Recall, too, that some 22-23 percent of the population are _already_ like Thomas G. here, in that they consider the current administration an illegitimate construct foisted upon the country by the Deep State and Wall Street. They’re not wrong about that, either.
Furthermore, all this is _fine_ for those who profit from building the meat grinder because increases in anti-government hostility will constitute a rationale for further building it out and so more profits.
To put this in perspective, the U.S. military-industrial complex has often been described as a self-licking ice cream cone, in that the destruction and repression it creates as it flails around overseas feeds the hostility of populations there towards the U.S. and their resistance, which in turn provides a rationale for further funding of the U.S. military to try and maintain ‘battlespace supremacy.’
Now that self-licking ice cream cone is coming home. Because it’s profitable to certain parties, the anti-terrorism machinery will be built ever-larger, and flail around ever-more heedlessly.
What will that look like? Well, for one instance, the U.S. already has the largest population of imprisoned people of any nation on Earth, for instance. That population will increase.
Similarly, technology and methods to surveil and repress the U.S. population will be developed further and deployed. This will mean not just homegrown U.S. technology from Silicon Valley, but the importation of the more advanced technology the regime in China has already developed along those lines.
In this scenario, the U.S. will essentially get CCP-style repression but not the relative competence of the CCP, only the psychopathic, short-term grifting of the current neoliberal U.S. elite.
You’re welcome.
Stirling S Newberry
“Alas, it is always dangerous to prophesy, particularly, as the Danish proverb says, about the future.” Bradford Hill
Of course, predictions are about the future which is why the many variations on this quote the absurdity of making addictions. It is very easy to predict the past with politicians since almost by definition most politicians are running to emphasize the reliability of what is known. The people who liked the past will vote for them and people who dislike the past will not vote at all. However, even in the inaugural address, there are some signs that the conservative party, that is to say, the Democrats, have finally learned that climate change is coming and that alternatives such as burying CO2 are not going to pan out. This is equivalent to the conversion from coal being the main energy source to oil back in the 1930s. Everyone who was anyone knew that getting off of coal and on to oil was paramount, including Hitler and the Japanese cabinet.
The two things that Biden has promised our two distribute vaccines for COVID-19 and to start to make changes on climate change. He must create a system to do this and defeat oil dominance at the polls but that is the reality of being a politician. Greater changes will not take place under Biden’s watch unless forced by outside circumstances. The military-industrial complex wants another crack at Afghanistan, but that will be too large a project especially for one such as Biden who wants to cast his eye over the United States. Anything that will be progressive will have to be demanded. But the future is only going to get more progressive or more reactionary and the reactionary forces will not cooperate with a Democratic administration. That does not mean that the reactionaries will not get an opportunity to rule, after all, we are in a declining phase of this wave of capitalism, however, the larger corporations have only belatedly been reminded that the reactionary forces are also against large businesses. And rightfully so, they want capitalism based on the small business which is not viable in the short, medium, or long term. The reality is that they are contractors to the larger corporations that dominate the financial and logistical framework, and in this capacity, they want political power because of the decimation of the mall.
Progressivism must show that cooperation from the bottom third of society must come with some reward or it will not participate. Participation from the bottom third is essential because the bottom third will exploit the assigned/real cost relentlessly. They have to. Eventually, universal health care will have two be put on the table, however, a great number of financial forces will oppose it until it is essential. Since it is not essential and the executive branch has other problems the time for universal healthcare is not in the cards. This is, on humanistic and economic grounds indefensible, but when did that get in the way of making profits especially when the profits are in fact simply bleeding off from the future. That is to say, they are not profits but lending from people who do not have a say.
nihil obstet
I’d push the idea that Trump killed 400,000 Americans by his stupid or evil or both handling of the covid plague if I could just get anyone to apply the same standard to the American political class over the last 30 years. We know that 45,000 Americans were dying each year for lack of medical insurance back in the early aughts. Most recently the number is up to around 67,000 a year. There’s no mystery about what to do. We are the only so-called advanced country without universal health care. We could copy any of their health care structures or use their experiences to design our own. I tend to react to anyone pushing the “Trump killed 400,000 Americans in one year” argument who has not called Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, et al. murderers for their stupid and evil handling of the deaths of more than a million Americans hypocritical.
I would also note that the dismantling of a not-bad public health infrastructure since the late 70s made the reaction to a health crisis more difficult.
We have different ideas about how bad Trump has been. We can probably communicate better if we use the same standards to measure.
Ché Pasa
For a nation tearing itself apart, the US is in pretty good shape all things considered. The decadence of the Republic is manifest in practically every way, and the disconnect of the brutal and misbegotten American Empire from the rotting hulk of the Republic merely means “more of the same” — because the ruling class doesn’t know anything else to do.
The carcereal state will continue unmolested, of course. Too many people are dependent on it for their power, pelf and wherewithal. The pandemic will be partially controlled sometime in the future. But not before there’s a higher death and disability toll than from the 1918-20 flu pandemic. Still, it won’t be enough dead to significantly lower population here and abroad, so the health care crisis will get worse, as it was bound to anyway. No universal health care, no rebuilt public health infrastructure. More death concentrated among the old, sick, brown, black, and poor.
Will we get “checks?” Not soon, anyway. Maybe never. The triggering factors that led to the failed insurrection will become institutionalized. “White supremacy” will be consigned to the dustbin, though male whites will continue to be in charge of nearly everything.
The rich will get richer, the poor will suffer, and everyone else will scramble to stay in place.
Nothing significant will change, but the face of power will be a slight bit gentler.
Hugh
It is always interesting to see the lengths some will go to give Trump a pass. 400,000 of your fellow citizens get written off like they were nothing. No outrage. No anger. They are reduced to less than a talking point. They become simply an excuse to point somewhere else. Let’s talk instead about self-licking cones or not accord them their humanity until the rest of some agenda is met. The Age of Trump makes moral cripples of us all.
Ché Pasa
And just to be clear about it, the “meat grinder” and counter terrorist application to the white-rightist insurrectionists in this country is purely hyperbolic. Not gonna happen. These guys are serving a faction of the overclass. They aren’t really (sic) dangerous nor are they intent on physical mayhem unless it benefits the faction they serve. They’re useful idiots. Got a little out of hand there for a while, but oh well!
The “meat grinder” means pulling some of their social media access.
Beyond that, essentially nothing. Some will go to jail, but their sentences will be light, and in the spirit of unity, parole and clemency is likely.
As for the fear that dissent and freedom and liberty will be quashed, I’d suggest studying a bit of history. The US does not have a very good record. Ever.
metamars
I was seriously impressed with Kamala Harris’ outfit, today. In fact, I thought it was sensational.
I don’t think she’ll be sensational (in a good way) as VP-> President, but let’s count our blessings.
nihil obstet
@Hugh
Could you give an example of someone writing off 400,000 of our fellow citizens like they were nothing? There are a lot of commenters here who widely disagree with each other, but I don’t remember anyone writing anything that would make me think they dismissed the deaths of so many so lightly.