The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole
So, there were protests in L.A. over Trump’s immigrant removal strategy, some turned violent, and Trump is calling in the National Guard and talking about using the military.
It’s worth pointing out that Trump has deported less undocumented immigrants than Biden did over comparable periods. But this isn’t about deportation, as such.
What it is about is Gestapo tactics: Sending people to torture prisons without due process; wearing masks and refusing to show badges or warrants; giving ICE the right to create its own warrants without judicial oversight (clearly unconstitutional), and; seizing people who are showing up for meetings at immigration facilities or immigrant courts.
It’s not what Trump is doing, it’s how he’s doing it —- in the cruelest, most lawless, and unconstitutional way possible.
The message is, “We can do whatever we want, and you can’t stop us.”
Thus, the protests, and, thus, Trump escalating immediately to the National Guard (i.e., military force –that’s what the Guard is. Military.)
Protestors are caught in the paradox of protest in a fascist state: If you don’t protest the powers that be, they assume they’ve gotten away with it and will escalate. If you do protest, they use that as an excuse to escalate.
(Forget the whole violence / non-violence thing. That’s just another excuse.)
The US isn’t a meaningful democracy, and even oligarchic elites who aren’t Trump-aligned are under assault right now, as in the case with Harvard.
The choice is to bend the knee or fight. But ordinary people, especially immigrants, unlike Harvard-aligned elites, don’t have much to fight with. All they can do is put their bodies on the line.
At which point, those bodies will be assaulted, locked up, and otherwise abused, because cruelty with impunity is how the fascist right shows its power. Again, “We can do anything we want to you, and you can’t stop us. No one can.” It’s a toned down version of what Israel does to Palestinians.
There are three ways to go.
- Keep throwing bodies into the grinder and pray that the legal system still works with a stacked Supreme Court.
- Give in. Hide, stop protesting, and go with the legal attempt.
- Move to real violence, which this is not.
The police and National Guard have huge, easily-exploited weaknesses if anyone does decide to get serious, and there are plenty of people in immigrant and immigrant-adjacent communities who have the necessary experience and skills to exploit those weaknesses.
Of course, if real violence is used, Trump and his allies will escalate even more. At the extreme end, part of the country turns into “no go” zones, and the monopoly of force is broken. This is more than possible: the US is huge, their military is overrated, and their police are weak and have been trained to be cowards.
Trump’s trying to bring Americans to bridle. Some are already there, the natural fascists, the people who would have signed up with Hitler as soon as they realized he was serious and stood a chance.
But others? Others need to feel the whip.
So, will Americans kneel, then fall to their bellies? Will the legal system and the constitution work? Or will this escalate until the US is a failed state?
***
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someofparts
Well if events devolve to organized combat, maybe blue dog Democrats can finally do something useful for people if we volunteer them to be human shields.
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Protesting at this point is merely pretext for Trump and his fascist handlers to double and triple down. Like Tsar Nicholas II, Trump couldn’t care less about so-called public opinion. I’m currently reading Orlando Figes’ A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924, for the second time, and boy let me tell you, the Russians of that epoch really knew how to bring it. These protests we’ve seen in America the last decade are a farcical joke in comparison to the blood shed by so many Russians in their fight against autocracy.
The Dems are entirely feckless in the face of this simply because they have been complicit in it all along. They helped lay the groundwork for this fascist putsch and Trump.
Gavin Newsom thinks a letter writing campaign is all that is needed and idle threats. One of those idle threats is an excellent idea and would have much more teeth than any protests. He threatened to withhold California federal tax payments. If the so-called “Blue” states decided to collaborate in this regard they could shut Trump’s government down overnight and halt Trump’s fascist putsch in its tracks. If it’s just California, Trump would send in the American military to occupy California and incarcerate Newsom, but if all the “Blue” states do it, that would be a much tougher endeavor.
Consider this. As Trump increasingly uses the American military against Americans and turns that colossal apparatus inward, China should consider taking Taiwan while Trump is busy destroying what’s left of America from within. There would be minimal American resistance.
Do Trump and his fascist handlers and collaborators have any line they would not cross? They are crossing one line after another in this blitzkrieg. Considering that, is one such line Trump nuking an American city in a year or two? That’s crazy, I know, but Trump as POTUS 30 years prior was also a crazy notion to which most everyone would have said, “no way — never” and yet here we are, line crossed.
bruce wilder
I wish someone could explain what the Biden Administration was doing with regard to immigration control.
This was a huge issue in the election, for the Trump half of the electorate. The policy was never explicit in the sense of having acknowledged goals or a mandate of legal means from Congress. Rightly or wrongly, it presented to the right as a lawless form of “open borders” driven by a refusal to enforce immigration law. Democrats tried to sell the idea during the Biden Administration, after Biden’s de facto open borders policy, combined with local “sanctuary cities” policies, generated a backlash mobilizing the right, that the no-policy policy was the result of some kind of deadlock in Congress over unspecified reforms to much abused asylum law.
Trump’s authoritarian reaction, imho, should be understood in its full political context as a reaction to the Biden Administration policy, whatever it was. Or, if you prefer, as that policy, undefined in political discourse, was understood on the right. It is really important to understand that the dispute between the Parties over immigration had veered outside the bounds of common rule of law, at least in the perception of the Trump right. Also, this a ready-made hot button issue, given the social psychology of “right-wing authoritarian followers”, which an important part of Trump’s electoral support may be.
Trump’s most visible spokespeople on immigration and deportation — former Border Patrol officer, Tom Homan, and right-wing activist, Stephen Miller, present as angry hardliners. At the core of the grievance they represent is exasperation at the willingness of Democrats to create a huge population with dubious immigration status and wield that population as a political cudgel. The sheer size of the population facing deportation is presented as an argument for legalizing large-scale, uncontrolled immigration not otherwise authorized by law. As is usual with the Trump Administration, neither Homan nor Miller appear to be particularly competent at the nuts and bolts of policymaking. Their inability or unwillingness to “compromise” gets mixed up with their incompetence and preference for arbitrary measures. Confusing arbitrary with efficient is characteristic of the political psychology of right-wing authoritarianism and part of the toolkit of demagogues.
I seriously doubt that the L.A. protests will inspire much popular support for resistance to Trump’s politics. Flying Mexican flags is worse than tone-deaf as is rioting in general. On television, it is going to play very badly to the electoral majority hostile to uncontrolled immigration.
An open-borders policy, with no public purpose, sowed the seeds of this very dangerous harvest. Talk of “the natural fascists” strikes me as making excuses for the political stupidity of centrist elites who have bashed left populism relentlessly and recklessly.
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bruce, I wonder if this would have passed had Trump not threatened members of Congress not to vote for it? Of course, if it had passed, Trump would have reversed it immediately upon taking office so I guess it’s a moot exercise either way.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
A poll at that time, although I don’t put much stock in polls, revealed that 53% of the respondents supported the construction of a border wall. In 2024 years after that boondoggle scam was proposed and take note Trump never mentions it anymore because that grift had its day and is no longer relevant. It appears some constituents don’t know what the hell they want aside from the penchant to punish someone/anyone for their powerlessness.
Anyway, I think Brookings is right that the bill Biden offered up against the wishes of Progressives was an Amnesty bill in not too clever disguise.
Trump wanted those millions of “Illegals” for this time and here we are. They foresaw and planned for this moment and here we are.
I truly believe the majority of American people, albeit perhaps a slim majority, if properly and honestly polled want effective immigration reform and that doesn’t just mean addressing Hispanic immigration be it from Mexico or Latin America or South America but immigration from Asia as well. I know I would support it but I’ve yet to see anything approaching effective legislation. The political process refuses to allow it.
Deportations are down under Trump, despite the purposely terrorizing ICE raids, so far but then so too are those seeking asylum and over-running the border. No one wants to come to America anymore and not just immigrants but tourists too. Maybe that will cut down on the ridiculous crowds at the National Parks. Every cloud has a silver lining.
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That’s a quote from Hegseth’s tweet on the matter. Such stark, raving hypocrisy. Where were the federal troops on January 6th when the mob threatened the lives of Congress at the behest of DJT and stormed the Capitol building to use it as a latrine to evacuate their bladders and bowels. Where was the COMMON SENSE then?
COMMON SENSE? These fascist buffoons wouldn’t know COMMON SENSE if it hit them upside the head.
It’s incredible the power that a spineless weasel troll like Stephen Miller can wield. A massive epidemic of cowardice at every level allows it.
Daniel A Lynch
1) if the U.S was serious about immigration, we’d arrest the businessmen & the millionaire farmers who hire illegal immigrants.
2) the cruelty is the point: “if you come here, we’ll treat you like shit.”
3) poll after poll show the public thinks immigration is a problem & the public generally supports Trump on immigration. In fact, it’s the only issue where Trump polls well.
4) the so-called left has bought into the anarchist’ naive support for open borders. But open borders has never worked anywhere, anytime, and as Bernie once said, that’s Koch brothers stuff. Open borders benefit the business class, not the working class.
5) Democrats mistakenly believe that supporting immigrants will win them the Latino vote forever and ever when in fact working class Latinos increasingly support Trump. D’s are too hung up on identity politics to grasp the class issues.
6) I myself support strict limits on immigration, but where I differ with Trump is how to enforce it. Enforcement should be polite and follow due process, and the focus should be on going after the capitalists who hire immigrants. “We’re very sorry, but we’re not taking more immigrants now so you’ll have to leave. Now excuse me while I put the handcuffs on your boss.”
7) the protests won’t necessarily hurt Trump politically, just as the Vietnam protests did not hurt Nixon. Trump is not up for re-election, and the unrest on the street can actually move the public to support a “strong man.”
Frank
Although it appears unlikely at present, a fourth choice is organized civil actions—general strike most specifically . Having seen the last two 50501 events, they may be well attended, but they were poorly organized with no meaningful agenda.
Z
How much longer before the Russians and/or the Chinese get the blame laid on them for this even though the Weekend at Biden’s production team, in particular, pretty much invited … and I’d add, incentivized … the immigrants to come in? But who could rightfully blame the Russians and/or the Chinese for it even if they did take some actions to breed discontent within the US and on its borders when our rulers have done so much to create those precise problems for them?
–
I’m not wishing for this, of course, but there would be a certain karmic quality to it if Russia sold US weapons to the Mexican drug lords … that Bibi the Butcher’s Butler has declared war on … that the Russians have captured from the Ukrainians and those drug lords use them to arm the deportation resistance within the US. It probably wouldn’t be hard to do because there’s certainly plenty of established gun-running conduits in Mexico with all the narco wars there. And mind you, adding to the karmic elemental weight of it all, the CIA was probably very much involved in all of it.
Z
Ian Welsh
I am certainly fine with enforcing immigration law, while obeying due process and Constitutional rights.
But that’s not what is happening.
Oakchair
Since Reagan first they came for the unions, then the welfare users, then those with a mortgage, now Medicaid and SNAP, who do you think is next?
Likewise with the current topic first they came for the immigrants, then the Arabs and then the protestors who do you think is next?
Deporting the immigrants isn’t going to make the monopolists share the wealth, it isn’t going to stop the mass poisoning, it isn’t going to fix the mass social disconnection. Either that is all fixed or when the immigrants and Arabs are gone a new scapegoat will be created because the underlying issues are still there.
The democratic establishment couldn’t even with full control of congress and the presidency pass a minimum wage increase, or maintain Covid era extensions of SNAP and Medicaid. When they were in charge they were tear gassing their own supporters, ramping up deportations, and engaging in the largest censorship operation in American history.
The reason we are were we are is because all that’s left in the halls of power are the “fascists” and their centrists enablers.
GrimJim
While there are no few “true believers” in MAGA who really care about controlling immigration, for Trump and those in power, it is not about immigration qua immigration.
It is about creating a scapegoat, pure and simple. And Trump (or his people) identified immigrants as a good scapegoat around which to build their fascist power bloc.
Of course, immigrants have always made for good scapegoats, whether legal or otherwise, as they make for perfect “others” that allow the fascists to start dehumanizing on an industrial scale.
Because once you begin the dehumanizing process, once that propaganda takes over your base, once you convince them that “Others” are not people and not deserving of legal protection or even life… anything is possible.
That is what this is all about. It is not about immigration; if it was, they would come down hard on the owners of the businesses who hire the undocumented immigrants — legal shields or otherwise, there are plenty of ways to do this.
But they do not, not at all, not one single business owner has been charged with even the mildest misdemeanor.
But they are sending undocumented immigrants — and others, many who are innocent of any wrongdoing — into slavery and worse.
All part of the plan to dehumanize enemies and take absolute, unbridled power.
Fortunately, the damage Trump and his people are doing, to the economy and the government, will likely cause the whole system to collapse before they can take full power.
But that is a pyrrhic victory for freedom, at best. Mad Max style anarchy is good for nobody but the worms.
bruce wilder
L & S – “Where were the federal troops on January 6th . . . “
The analogy is predictably not lost on the Trump right. There will be calls to prosecute the protesters for “insurrection” followed by the imposition of draconian sentences.
Once again, Democrats have teed up the ball for Trump.
someofparts
If we are going to look at how hard the Russians fought the Tsar and wonder if citizens of the US would ever fight like that, it occurs to me that compared to Russia, we are an extremely young nation composed mostly of people whose own ancestors haven’t been here that long. My grandfather was an immigrant. Out of the entire national population, I wonder how long most of us have been here. How far back do most of us have to look to identify an immigrant ancestor? How does this shake out as a percentage of the overall population?
My point here is that most of us don’t seem to notice how young this country is, or ask ourselves if this matters. Russia is a great example of an extremely old civilization. So I wonder if this makes a difference. At the very least it strikes me as ironic that a nation of people so willing to scapegoat current immigrants are, in many cases, fairly recent arrivals ourselves. Eventually though, I wonder if this has any impact on our potential for fighting tyranny as hard as the Russians did.
Purple Library Guy
So, first, open borders was never a thing in the United States, at least at the south end. Anyone talking as if it was is automatically someone I’m not going to bother talking to about it because they do not have a clue.
But as to immigration crises, there are key issues nobody in the US ever really talks about. The biggest is, if you don’t want an immigration crisis, maybe you shouldn’t destabilize all your neighbours. Every major wave of illegal immigration to the United States has been related to things the US did to screw over one or more Latin American countries. Whether it’s massive sanctions on Venezuela killing the economy, fomenting coups and “soft” coups here, there and everywhere, or simply signing the NAFTA trade deal with Mexico killing Mexican farmers’ livelihoods, it’s the US’ own fault. If the United States were willing to allow Latin America to prosper, people in Latin America would be much less likely to find themselves in such impoverished and dangerous circumstances that they needed to leave their homes in search of crappy underpaid work.
The second biggest is, is there in fact an immigration crisis? Certainly there isn’t one in the sense that the Trumpies allege. They claim that illegal immigrants are doing massive violence, creating huge crime waves, eating pets and so forth, that they cost the government huge amounts of money, that they are doing extreme amounts of damage to what would otherwise, give or take some wokeness, be a positive status quo. And this is clearly nonsense. The reality is that illegal immigrants up to now have kept their heads down and paid their taxes, while being ineligible for a lot of benefits. The net result is that they put more into government coffers than they cost, and the crime rate among illegal immigrants is actually lower than in the population at large. And, the status quo, which sucks, depends on their cheap labour.
There may be a REAL crisis of illegal immigration in that their willingness to accept low wages and bad conditions, and their general defencelessness, drag wages in general down and undermine unionization. But from the perspective of most of Trump’s friends, that’s a bonus. Very likely Trump has NO INTENTION of reducing the actual number of illegal immigrants in the US. The point is, first, the old “demonize them so they’ll accept even WORSE wages and conditions because they don’t dare speak up” game, and second, using them as a stalking horse for imposing fascist rule, as we’re seeing right now.
Overall, I’m not sure why I see so many people doing this “Well, Trump is wrong about his extremism and scapegoating, but there must be SOMETHING to what he says or it wouldn’t be popular; no smoke without fire yadda yadda”. No there doesn’t have to be anything to what he says. All there has to be is real problems of SOME sort, so that when he then says “The source of the problem is (somebody relatively defenceless who has nothing to do with it)” people who don’t bother thinking will breathe a sigh of relief–somebody funny looking that we can blame!
On the specific question of L.A. itself, there are literally millions of Latinos in L.A. and apparently nearly a million undocumented immigrants. If they really decide to fight, that’s a pretty big insurrection just in that one city.
mago
A couple of random reflections from a person who’s anti authoritarian to the core of his bones.
First, protest is futile and in cases such as this, counter productive. Don’t know how to destroy dysfunctional systems, maybe by force as L&S put forth re: the Russian revolution, although I have serious issues with the players in that case, along with their methods, not that it matters.
The second thing is, who’s going to pick the strawberries and slaughter the pigs and chickens? I agree with going after the corporate titans and their toxic businesses. Kill agribusiness! But again, how? PETA? Haha.
One more thing, I think there’s enough room in this US of A for immigrants, but as has been noted, we lack any effective system.
I look around and it’s all irreparably broken. Blow it up build it over again. Tobacco Road.
different clue
Here’s a relevant little bit of news video, titled : ” Reporter Shooting Appears Deliberate, IMO “. Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1l7aqij/reporter_shooting_appears_deliberate_imo/
Ian Welsh offers us a trinary choice of what to do. But I think there is a gradient between the choices. The ” legal system” and the “Constitution” are just systems. They neither work nor not-work. It is people within them who work this way or that to apply them ‘as intended’ or shyster-apply them to the outer edges of clever trickery or set them aside. But between putting bodies on the line in hopes the “legal system works” and give in-hide-stop protesting-go with legal attempt is a gray zone of various kinds of uncivil obedience, economic down-spending and dis-activity designed to degrade and attrit “the economy” in hopes that the business community feels tortured into replacing Trump, and other such actions. It would require 80 million “blue” people all co-ordinating their 80 million separate spending streams against the most pro-Trump parts of the country and the business community to have any impact. Would 80 million separate blue people all do their own separate 80 million things in that one same direction?
We are already seeing a spontaneous boycott by unhappy campers putting Target in danger. If enough unhappy campers could extermicott Tesla into permanent liquidation as a business entity, then the unhappy campers would see that “people” can in fact “make a difference”. If they saw that, they might try making more differences.
If there are about a million illegals in the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, would a million Liberal Families in California each accept a single Illegal Alien into their houses to live in silent hiding? It would make it harder for the Magastapo Icenazis to find them and it could also bankrupt and destroy every business which hires an illegal if every single one of their illegal workers were to disappear into liberal-sponsored silent hiding. Would that torture the business community into torturing the TrumpAdmin into a change of mind? Would it torture the Congress into impeaching and deleting Trump from office?
different clue
Here is a video called: ” LAPD when they think no one is looking.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalNews/comments/1l6wa03/lapd_when_they_think_no_one_is_looking/
Here is one called: ” Video: Protesters throw rocks at CHP officers from L.A. freeway bridge. ”
https://www.reddit.com/r/world/comments/1l6y8lq/video_protesters_throw_rocks_at_chp_officers_from/
One wonders if protesters will begin treating the LAPD in that rocks-from-overpasses manner. One wonders if cyber-activists can find out which mounted LAPD did this and dox them and make their out-of-uniform off-the-clock lives so unpleasant as to force them to leave the greater LA area altogether? And then follow and dox them wherever they move to?
Mark Level
A timely post, and as Ian notes, the Trump “policy” is all sound and fury to steer up the Racist base, but inefficient. By disregarding the law and due process altogether they basically tripped over their dicks (okay, none of them have dicks big enough to do that, it’s a metaphor) and deported fewer (not less, sorry to grammar police) “illegals”, people following the ridiculous, absurd system we have to join in the US failing state . . . The judiciary, hell even the likes of Clarence “Uncle” Thomas reined him in because the fascism is too extreme even for them. As I’ve previously noted, Obama was proud to be
“the Deporter in Chief”, Biden locked up generations of non-white people with Zero Tolerance for (some) drugs policies in collusion with his Dixiecrat pals Eastland, Thurmond, etc. while his wonderful son Hunter could film himself smoking meth and face few consequences, years after the fact . . .
One reason I stick with this blog is because MOST of the commenters are so insightful and don’t get fooled by the “Lesser Evil” False dilemma/ Dual Choice dichotomy, and know that the Dimmies are NOT the friends of ordinary people and haven’t been since the middle of the last century, if even then . . . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma After the Nothingburger that was the Biden administration, you’d have to be brain-dead to think the Dimmies will pull your ass out of the fire.
someofparts’ suggestion for the Blue Dogs is nothing short of brilliant!! (Though unworkable, they wouldn’t even be a human shield for their own children, in most cases.)
Like & Subscribe rightly notes the Dem complicity, and I too have thought of the precedent of the Russian Revolution if the New Czar goes whole-hog mow-them-down-in-the streets on protesters. Don’t forget, the NYT’s former opinion page editor was forced to resign during the BLM protests when he let Tom “Wish I was in the land of” Cotton post a column essentially calling on militarized police to “mow down all those uppity niggers with your semi-automatics.” It certainly was not all black people who attended BLM protests, at one time even a majority of Republicans supported BLM because the 3 or 4 times weekly Cop murders of children, pedestrians, etc. was too much even for them. Trump emotionally (since he can’t really even think otherwise), Stephen Miller to his core and others in the DJT2 regime do think in this way. Will they be restrained from within, doesn’t look like it at the moment. Also funny that Pretty Boy Gavin has some out-of-the-box ideas. But Gavin has only one conviction (Serve the Donors) and the courage of none of his convictions, so the idea of withholding state funds is a “When Pigs Fly” possibility.
Like Bruce Wilder, I do wonder what the actual Biden “immigration policy” was– there seemed to be a covert, heavy-handed attempt to bring in non-white PMC bodies and get them voting rights in order to swing the next election. Didn’t work, clearly. Nobody in the press, even in the Alternative press, seemed able to get all the data, maybe a future historian will work this out? I do have the rare total disagreement with bruce on one point made, however. As to the rioting, sadly history shows that this cannot be policed by other protesters. Kurt Vonnegut made this point in one of his books, likely Player Piano, 5-6 decades ago. People who are denied the availability of even basic items due to poverty, say nice shoes, toasters, used-to-be TVs, now it’s flat screens, etc. have been primed to loot psychologically. It is a sort of civilizational “Return of the Repressed.” Being Hispanic myself, and having spent some time in the Southwest, working out of oil rig service boats in Morgan City Louisiana and the (hellish) Port Arthur, Texas for 6 months in the early 80s, I have NO problem with “people waving Mexican flags.” Should people who are Mexican-American hate themselves because the R’s blindly hate them? Think of how the Gay movement, Stonewall etc., people came out and called themselves “Queer” or even “Faggots” to remove the stigma by owning it. I find this healthier than playing into the bigots’ narrative by being “good” targets, “Oh, look at me, I’m a Republican Congressman in the Log Cabin Club, I pay my taxes and obey the system faithfully, please, please ‘tolerate’ me!” Power concedes nothing without a demand, as Frederick Douglas put it. Other than my time in Port Arthur, I also protested at the 1984 (R) convention in Texas, and I know that many Texan Hispanics have been primed to hate their own race (which I don’t think is ever healthy, if you’re not white or German and given sufficient reason), so I support counter-programming, first within myself, then as an example to be followed. (And again, I’m NOT Mexican, I am Spanish and Mediterranean, but lived in Latin America for a year, was accepted by 99% of la gente.) I don’t want any “Allies” who love the blood-soaked American flag, “the troops” etc. (Not trying to straw-man you either, I don’t think you are a Troops worshiper.) Your comment on the Dimmies teeing up the ball for DJT is of course germane, they know no better. And they did it with the Covid mandates as well.
Oakchair calls it, as pretty much always. A “controlled opposition” that makes itself a joke and, to quote the joke, “Brings an NPR tote bag to a Knife fight”– well most of us, apart from the DC class, know how that ends.
someofparts’ comment on civilizational age is relevant. It only somewhat applies though. The serfs were taught to revere the Czar as a Daddy figure and thought that when they appealed to him non-violently he would understand and exit the already lost war and support them. When he had them gunned down (in the Tom Cotton manner) for peaceably marching toward his Palace, the sense of betrayal was Yuuuuge (to use a Trump word), and people who have nothing and many of whom were illiterate could not fall back on “Massa, please show mercy” tropes, so they were easily manipulated by the Leninist movement into full-on revolution. For years I hated the Pundit trope that “America is a Center-Right Country”, but looking at the 21st century so far I have now reluctantly changed my view. Once Americans (mostly white, but some non-white) had some prosperity and belief they were in an Exceptional Civilization. The dumbest continue to believe that despite all the evidence, so until actual starvation or homelessness increase exponentially (which the Donors want and both parties support, so it may not be THAT far away) there may be the more widespread development of an actual Left– which currently is not allowed to exist except on the margins. But change will ONLY come from the margins, it will not come from the Elite Duopoly or the Donors.
GrimJim gets it right, as usual– pure scapegoating, not in the least sophisticated or nuanced. Create a Top Dog and a despised Underdog. Which do YOU want to be? Kill the weaker, that will prove you’re strong. Basically an Israeli state of mind.
I also agree with PLG that the whole blather about “Open Borders” is nonsense, somebody blames this on “anarchists” which might actually be consistent with the ideology. However in the current system Incels have more power and press, and greater #s, than “anarchists” so I think this is pure and obvious straw-manning. It’s like Trump blathering on about “the Radical Left Democrats”!! Only morons would take that seriously for 2 seconds.
mago’s points are overall solid. However an actual Change Agent never takes any arrow out of their quiver (okay, some arrows like homicidal violence are never in the quiver.) There is a time and place for it, circumstances change, and resiliency is a change agent’s forte (& not submission to the HR department to suck up all the shit the Boss pours down on you.)
I think the answer to Ian’s closer is obvious to us all– “Will the legal system and the constitution work? Or will this escalate until America is a failed state?” The legal system that is controlled by Lawyers is Liars? That is always kiss-up and kick-down? The “constitution” written by elite property and slave owners? Uhhm yeah, America is already a failed state to the majority. (Though I have admitted that the Courts have checked Trump far more meaningfully than I ever expected. Good on them for wanting to keep the Separation of Powers fig leaf intact, Congress certainly ain’t doing shit apart from fundraising.)
I don’t really have an answer at this point beyond Get out while you can. Trump may, even likely will, do things that create a massive backlash. He is an accelerationist, pouring gas onto a fire that is already burning pretty brightly. James Baldwin in “The Fire Next Time” pointed out what is coming. It’s always the most oppressed that get the message first. I forget who made the point that Baldwin and other Civil Rights promoters sometime in the late 50s figured out, “What is the point in achieving greater citizenship rights in a house that is already burning?” Thus as best as I recall Baldwin emigrated to France, where he was widely respected in a way he would never be in the Anglo-Saxon USA, and rarely returned to the US.
Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier” is now closed, it is here and many are trapped within it. We aren’t going to “destroy Russia” (Biden’s wet dream, for decades) we aren’t going to subdue Hegseth’s Chinese “peasants.” A great irony is that our “primitive” relatives in small bands will at some point team up on the Alpha Bully to kick their ass to the curb (until a New Boss emerges). A country that reveres billionaires, cops, brain-dead celebrities and sociopaths is deeply sick, and will not end well. The “American Dream” was always a lie, and for those with eyes to see the sand in the hourglass is flowing out pretty rapidly.
miss jennings
Thus, the protests, and, thus, Trump escalating immediately to the National Guard (i.e., military force –that’s what the Guard is. Military.)
Now they’re sending in the Marines and charging the union leader with a federal crime:
https://www.latimes.com/california/live/los-angeles-protests-immigration-raid-updates
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5341126-marines-deployed-los-angeles/
KT Chong
Something I’ve noticed and connected the dots, but few people have put together yet:
Trump’s “mass deportation czar”, Stephen Miller, issued the directive for 3,000 daily ICE arrests—regardless of deportability—combined with harsh quotas, psychological pressure, and the threat of firing, creates a system where agents are pushed to profile and detain as many people as possible, then look for reasons to keep them in custody. The OBBB’s expansion of ICE will only amplify this dynamic, making indiscriminate arrests and racial profiling even more widespread[1][2][6].
1. Quota Focus on Arrests, Not Deportations:
Stephen Miller has set a goal of 3,000 ICE arrests per day, explicitly emphasizing arrests rather than deportations[1][2][5][6]. Miller has made clear to ICE leadership that the priority is to apprehend as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are actually deportable, and has criticized agents for only targeting those with criminal records[1][2][7]. This directive signals that agents should “just go grab anyone” to meet the quota, with the expectation that their legal status can be sorted out later[1][2][6][7].
2. Psychological Pressure and Profiling:
The pressure to meet these quotas—and the threat of termination for the bottom 10% of agents in terms of arrest numbers—creates a high-stress environment. This psychological pressure encourages agents to prioritize quantity over due process, leading to indiscriminate sweeps and increased reliance on profiling based on appearance or perceived immigrant status, rather than evidence[2][6][7].
3. Arrest First, Justify Later:
Under this system, even lawful permanent residents (green card holders) or U.S. citizens may be detained. Once in custody, agents are incentivized to search for any possible reason—no matter how minor or old—to justify arrest, continued detention or to initiate removal proceedings, including combing through records to find grounds to revoke green cards[1][2][6].
4. The OBBB (“One Big Beautiful Bill”) Will Multiply These Effects:
The proposed OBBB legislation would massively expand ICE’s workforce and resources, multiplying the effects of these quotas. With thousands more agents competing to meet or exceed arrest targets, the “rat race” will intensify, making racial profiling and arbitrary arrests even more likely[2][6].
Sources:
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2025/06/09/stephen-millers-order-likely-sparked-immigration-arrests-and-protests/
[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ice-operation-trump-focus-immigration-reshape-federal-law-enforcement-rcna193494
[3] https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-mass-deporation-stephen-miller-rcna210396
[4] https://www.newsweek.com/ice-agents-ordered-triple-number-daily-arrests-2078305
[5] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-administration-aims-3000-arrests-illegal-immigrants-each-day
[6] https://newrepublic.com/post/195848/stephen-miller-chilling-warning-daily-ice-arrest-goals
[7] https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/immigration-ice-deportations-stephen-miller
[8] https://nypost.com/2025/06/04/us-news/ice-arrests-surge-to-2200-in-one-day-after-trump-adviser-stephen-miller-pushed-to-dramatically-ramp-up-busts/
[9] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-aide-calls-los-angeles-anti-ice-protests-an-insurrection-2025-06-07/
P.S. I wrote the original essay, and again I use AI to help me organize and rewrite.
someofparts
Speaking of oppressed people being the first ones to see the problem with dysfunctional leadership, my personal experience is that nobody understands how empty and monstrous this country is better than the first nations women I have had the chance to get to know. In the community where I spent lots of online time talking to these women, they were never, ever shocked or surprised by the worst things being done to people here these days. The rest of us in the conversation would be ranting and confused about the latest outrage, and the indigenous women would just be quiet because the things people like me were just learning were things their communities understood taught them from the day they were born.
Mark Level
I neglected to mention the presence of government Agent Provocateurs at the protests, a big omission on my part, so please take that into account as to the “rioting”, cars set on fire, etc.
Also the Due Dissidence Duo were substituting on the Jimmy Dore show last night and had lots of live film and commentary, on the protests/ “riots.” A key moment was a woman Australian reporter covering the events from a distance, and she was of the corporate lady reporter class (tall, slim, young, blonde & conventionally pretty), just doing her job, and a cop shot a rubber bullet over her way and it went thru her lower leg!! The segment only lasted a couple of seconds once she got hit, but a nearby spectator ran over to her and said, “Are you okay?” and she stoically answered that she was. The perfect Chomsky “good victim.”
What will the Australians watching think of Trump’s Amerika? Let’s not forget what the rest of the world thought when Bull Connor’s cops were hitting black civilians and children in Birmingham with high-pressure water hoses, and sending savage dogs against them. JFK tried to shut that down ASAP ‘coz not good for America’s image. We are the new, 2nd Israel with the Far Right white supremacists in charge. Trump is tarnishing the Brand in ways that will never be undone.
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Mark, that’s precisely the brand image Trump wants to portray. He wants to show the world and more specifically Putin and Kim Jong Un and Xi that he’s a tough guy too and “this is how we do it…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNAZa-ORLIU
Of course, there is always Just Do It.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXrjlOE9e50
I hew to the notion of parallel universes and as such I’m certain a parallel universe exists where Crooks didn’t miss or another one where DJT was aborted and therefore never was. Unfortunately, perhaps because of a Demiurge of some sort, I/we have the misfortune of being conscience in this universe versus those other universes.Seriously, i stand by what I purported about protests but I can’t help but notice many YouTube content creators and pundits and podcasters alike having to caveat their support of the protests by pleading with the protesters not to engage in violence. They’re premptively protecting themselves against the fascist goons as if that is effective protection in the long run. It’s better that the protesters just stand there and take rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to the face.. It plays better with the audience. I mean hell, it’s worked so well for the Gazans, right? Thousands if not tens of thousands of children buried beneath rubble plays to the audience and yet what has that audience done about it despite being outraged? Me included. Nothing. That’s the predicament. Greta tried to do something and now she’s kidnapped. What will Sweden do? Probably they’ll thank Israel but in the least certainly forgive and overlook.
Mark Level
KT Chong, thank you for an extremely thoughtful and detailed post, much appreciated. I guess Stephen Miller makes up for his hideous corporeal ugliness with a certain amount of brainpower, laser focused on committing Evil. The results are shambolic, but I guess he is okay with any results?
someofparts– thank you, 100% agreed. Indigenous people have known the score for centuries, many of us were born into a certain level of privilege and thus feel shock at the brutality which is systemic and given near-complete impunity. (The DD guys joked that the cop who shot the Aussie lady in the leg was immediately promoted; wouldn’t be surprised at this point.)
Like & Sub– You and I have very different values, and I am on an entirely different part of the political spectrum, most likely far to the left, of yourself.
Your tossed-off line about “Putin” shows ignorance in my opinion, actually Putin is NOT a hard-liner within the Russian system, he is cool, collected and indefatigable. Now has he done some reprehensible things? Obviously given the position he holds. He is not, however, an utterly nihilistic monster like say the Dimmie Party’s favorite anti-Trump Republican Dick Cheney. Nor is any body count he’s created over 25 years likely even 10% of what Cheney did in only 8 in power. Do you know about the 5 million Russians, mostly men, who died–average life expectancy plunged 7 years in Russia over 5 years, starting with the “freedom” of having their pensions looted when the US installed the fat, drunk and stupid Boris Yeltsin in power. Once Putin was in the game in 2000, that was slowly reversed and most (not all by any means) of the oligarchs were sidelined. (You could be referring to Donny’s perception of Putin, this at least would be closer to actual truth.)
Additionally I do not agree with your frankly nihilistic final paragraph. The genocidal monster that is Israel IS being whittled away at now, by millions (if not billions) around the world, we should not tamely protest (agree with what I think you are saying there, looked at the Daily Kos today, that’s their strategy). I think this quote applies:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/08/13/stages/
“And my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”– Nicholas Klein, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 1918– Not Gandhi, nor Thoreau or the other usual suspects.
Imho we are now at the “attack and want to burn you” stage, quite literally. But the Zionist Entity Delenda est, it may be the walking dead at the moment. It will be vanquished, with any luck for forever.
someofparts
Well gag me with a spoon. Saw a video this morning of Obama complaining because he couldn’t get away with being as wantonly fascist as Trump. Yep, that’s our real problem in this country. A black man can’t get away with being as fascist as a white man. Alrighty then! Here I was, silly me, thinking the problem was that Obama bailed out the banks and threw their victims under the bus, or that he used all his influence in the party to kneecap Bernie. I mean sure, unfair as it is, the public wouldn’t allow him to be a brazen fascist like Trump, but we did let him get stinking rich selling us out, which ought to count for something.
different clue
@Purple Library Guy,
Brian Mulroney, Ronald Reagan and Carlos Salinas de Gortari were equal co-conspirators in the NAFTA conspiracy against North America. So it is a third Canada’s fault, a third America’s fault and a third Mexico’s fault.
miss jennings
Greta tried to do something and now she’s kidnapped.
Actually, ‘Israel’ treated her with kid gloves. She’s safe and sound back in Sweden now.
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/greta-thunberg-deported-israel-military-intercepts-gaza-bound-aid-boat-rcna211976
Ten people were killed nine years ago when the Mavi Marmara attempted aid without the likes of a Greta Thunberg on board.
Some background on ‘great white hope’ Greta:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Greta_Thunberg
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:Greta_thunberg_magazines.png
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:49418400266_875580cf80_o.jpg
———
https://x.com/goddeketal/status/1636465572153008134
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Instrumentalized activism: When Palestine becomes a showcase for foreign agendas
Amid the Israeli assault on the new Freedom Flotilla—whose unarmed activists were arrested and ridiculed by the IDF—it is necessary to discuss who is spearheading solidarity with Palestine and from what ideological frameworks they do so.
One of the most emblematic cases is that of Greta Thunberg, whose image has been linked in recent years to multiple causes, including the Palestinian cause. However, her record shows a worrying trend: she has conflated support for Palestine with other causes such as the LGBT agenda or Western environmentalism, and has supported mobilizations in Syria and Iran that have clearly been promoted and financed by foreign agencies, such as the Mossad and the CIA, to destabilize the resistance movement.
Thunberg has consistently condemned armed resistance and promotes a liberal, secular vision of human rights based on institutions like the UN, disregarding the strategies that oppressed peoples have legitimately chosen to defend themselves. This isn’t just political naiveté: it’s a way of imposing alien ideological conditions on causes that have their own history, identity, and framework of struggle.
Their activism to impose restrictions on developing countries under the pretext of climate change has been applied to Palestine: should they rebuild Gaza with green energy while Israel destroys it with drones? Should the industrialization of occupied countries be halted in the name of the “ecological transition”? This demand is a modern form of domination that prevents colonized peoples from recovering and resisting.
The seizure of the flotilla is yet another example of Zionist contempt for any act of solidarity, even symbolic. The IDF distributed food and water to the activists as a mockery, even though those same products cannot enter Gaza due to the blockade. Still, not everyone on board consistently represents the Palestinian cause. Along with Thunberg, there were MEPs who have supported the unrest in Iran, and none of them recognize the legitimacy of armed resistance.
Not every alliance or support is welcome if it weakens the ideological clarity of the struggle. We cannot support the Palestinian cause while condemning those who defend it with weapons.
The Palestinian cause doesn’t need Western icons to “correct” it from a liberal perspective or to be used as a platform for foreign agendas. Confusing symbols, such as mixing the Palestinian flag with LGBT flags or decontextualized slogans, dilutes the anti-colonial, spiritual, and revolutionary character of the struggle.
True solidarity is not posturing or spectacle. It does not replace organized resistance nor does it present itself as a moral alternative to combat. Only those who respect the nature of the struggle—including its armed dimension, its religious identity, and its rejection of imperialism—can truly say they are on the side of Palestine.
Liberating Palestine will not be an act of cosmopolitan morality, but of organized struggle.’
https://beeley.substack.com/p/critical-perspective-on-la-protests
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‘I don’t buy the cherub elfin Princess larping as the new Palestinian Leila khaled – it’s a grab for the future ‘voters’ of the Garden.
Her whole life is choreographed, this sailing trip like her one across the ocean to Save the World – the “How Dare You?” Performance for her masters at Davos … forgotten already? The GND and Climate and Covid emergencies receding in the rear view mirror?
‘Let’s get her on the big thing that the kids have got interested about – Palestine!’
‘Stick her on a slow boat to Gaza’
That’ll keep her as the TinTin pot heroine for the children, who have had her personality programmed into their heads from their Tweenies.
As they burn down the Levant like they did Atlanta. Destroying ancient history and religion now so that it is ‘easier’ for the next attempt with future generations- maybe under Greta of Arc’s invasion!’
https://archive.ph/YjSZv#selection-2923.19-2923.32
——
“Greta tried to do something…”
It’s not about Greta.
The fact that Rima Hassan and other pols were on board will have a bigger impact than the silly Greta show.
Greta is no Rachel Corrie. I wonder if she’s ever heard of Rachel Corrie?
https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/rachelsletters.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:ifamericansknew.org%20rachel%20corrie
——–
Does Greta speak or write at all? Or does she just show up for pictures?
different clue
Is ” getting on their knees and then getting on their belly” the only reason why people might not be at these protests?
Here is a short video explaining , from her viewpoint, why Black people in general are not at these protests. It is titled: ” Black people, focus on your life, your family, your friends, your partner, your joy, and your mental health. Keep this message close. Stay stressless and prioritize your well-being. ”
Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleComedy/comments/1l7xyqv/black_people_focus_on_your_life_your_family_your/
And here is a longer video from longer ago addressing this question, called: ” Why So Many Black People Are Resistant to Protest ”
Here is the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jL-VmWV5D8
It would appear that this video had predictive power and will have predictive power for some time to come. As shown by the smaller video re-stating some of these same points.
miss jennings
Greta Thunberg rips Trump: ‘The world needs a lot of more young angry women’
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5342722-greta-thunberg-rips-trump-the-world-needs-a-lot-of-more-young-angry-women/
Perhaps Greta should take some time off and speak to some of the black personalities who’ve decided to ‘sit this one out’ as per different clue’s two links.
Of course, if you read the comments to those links you will see that there is variance of opinion – the ‘black community’ – if such a thing even exists to any serious degree – the black community isn’t a monolith. Nor would an intelligent person expect it to be.
[I recommend going to the ‘newest’ comments first as you are more liley to get real people’s opinions as opposed to bots or extraordinarily dumb psycophants who may as well be bots. This is if you even want to read the comments at all]
Bluntly: Those videos are really depressing. I imagine Fred Douglass, Fred Hampton, MLK, Malcolm and Ali are all rolling over in their graves.
I would have preferred the younger generattion to recognize that ‘activism’ and protest and what have you have become so infiltrated that you end up not knowing what you’re ultimately fighting for – and who and who isn’t on your side in the fight to make things better for all of us.
Instead, it just seems like selfish check-out and ‘I told you so’ BS which is very offputting.
Nothing about economics or ‘class’ or anything substantive. Just race division – to go with all the other divisions.
‘The world needs a lot of more young angry women’
So Corrie is dead and hardly anyone knows about her to this day but Thunberg is fresh off the boat and making headlines arguing with the president of the US.
Perfect.
Mark Level
mj, I have been very critical of some of your previous posts (and some factual mistakes also), but let me say that I am about 85% in accord with your take on Ms. Thunberg.
She is awfully connected to the globalists, she met the little tinpot Actor, Fascist-adjacent Zelensky and cheered for him. I have no problem with her take on sexual liberty, that merely shows human decency and I’m fine with that. It’s very marginal to what she just did in any case.
But I agree with your overall point strongly. Your point about Rima Hassan is quite relevant, she is a substantive political figure and not basically a spokesmodel like Greta. That said, I do think that as the biggest worldwide celebrity on that boat, she did fulfill a strategic purpose and save the lives of the other brave people who went, especially Ms. Hassan who the Izzy racists would have delighted in torturing, raping or murdering outright, which was (quick murders only) what they did to 9 unarmed people– okay, a couple were “armed” with Cameras, I have read Max Blumenthal’s Goliath, speaking of the 2010 attack on the Turkish international relief ship the Mavi Marmara.
Btw Blumenthal covered that a few years later the Israeli government admitted that the murderous attack on the MM in international waters was totally unjustified and apologized to Turkey, needing to normalize relations. A few really skeezy IDF forces who stole victims’ laptops, cameras and other items and were caught selling them for personal profit were judicially punished, as well.
We need to treat serious political activists seriously, and Media figures as less meaningful on the whole. As a former high school teacher (for 32 years) I will say that G.T. might be a good example for children. But children have no political power, unless their political awakening really takes and lasts until they are adults. That takes years.
She is a sideshow for the most part, and I agree with your final line, that this is about international solidarity across the entire globe, and not about Greta as one individual.
Palestine will be independent and free eventually; just as with the defeat of the 3rd Reich or the overturning of chattel slavery during the US Civil War, in some cases the injustice is so over-the-top it cannot survive. It’s only a matter of time at this point.
miss jennings
Thanks Mark.
I have no problem with her take on sexual liberty, that merely shows human decency and I’m fine with that.
I agree wholeheartedly. I didn’t have time to parse the stuff I posted in order to sniff out all the crap I don’t agree with. I hesitated to link to Simon Goddek (the self-declared ‘most canceled scientist’ !!! ) – but those are the facts presented pretty succinctly. MOA is a fascinating arena full of more many more people ‘on the right’ but with outliers. The discussions vis-a-vis religion-atheism etc are interesting…until they’re not.
I’m mostly just looking for informtion wherever I can get it these days.
I know I come across as mean and tightly-wound in my writing more often than not. And yes, I do ‘struggle’ with ‘jealousies’ around those who have achieved more than me.
I’m actually a nice guy in person! Kinda sensitive and a better ‘listener’ than I tend to be online.
I can’t stand the wealth disparity. It is the most disgusting thing in the world to me and I admit I do allow it to enrage me when I ought to know better.
So, I am not doing well. I am much more like-minded at heart/soul (and in intellect) yet I continue to be divisive.
I would imagine I’m also seen as anti-Jewish by many and that’s not the case either.
And. going back to your thoughts on sexual liberation, I’m all for everything except I do think that there have been some issues with ‘men becoming women’ in the sports field that of course are going to lead to problems.
Lia Thomas wasn’t a particualry great swimmer as a man but then she dominates as a woman. But then Riley Gaines is hard to root for. I understand why she and others are upset and I think it’s legitimate but then the whole thing sort of becomes about her more than the underlying issue.
This would be a much larger conversation and I’ve already gone off on a tangent per usual.
different clue
Here is a fast-approaching event which also raises the question of protest . . . yes? no? if so, how? And how to arrange any protest or demonstration in such a short time remaining.
Trump’s Military Parade . . . What to know ahead of June 14th.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/09/trump-birthday-military-parade-washington-dc/84070451007/
Trump has been thinking about the possibility of protest. Here is an article titled:
” Trump warns that potential birthday parade protesters who ‘hate our country’ will be met with ‘heavy force’ ” And I suspect he means it, too. No bluffing here.
Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoShitSherlock/comments/1l88wu3/trump_warns_that_potential_birthday_parade/
So what would protesters, if any, do to be less subject to shooting, gassing, beat-down arrests, etc.? I suppose there is some safety in numbers. How is one to get 500,000 demonstrators into Washington along the parade route all at once, so as to dilute the application of heavy force over 500,000 people? I have no idea.
Gotta run, catch a ride.
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Mark, how would you know what my values are from what you consider to be an “off-handed” comment about dictators? You claim you are “left.” I have no idea these days or any days really what “left” is versus “right.”
I once upon a time thought “left” meant embracing egalitarianism but clearly that can’t be if you are “left” and you embrace dictators in your hatred of Western financiers.
I also loathe Western financiers but my answer to Western finance is not dictatorship. It’s egalitarianism. I value more equality, not less. So yeah, I guess our values do differ.
I’ve opposed every single American military adventure since WWII. I oppose ALL invasions and occupations be they American, Russian or Chinese or you name it. I also oppose substantial meddling by spies in other country’s affairs whether that meddling be American, Russian or Chinese or Israeli or Turkish or you name it.
I value freedom of expression and freedom of the press. By virtue of your support of Putin, you clearly do not.
I thought many of these values would have been considered “left” but clearly they are not if you are “left” as you claim.
I guess I am not “left” and I am certainly not “right.” I am a person with no country so to speak or as the saying goes, seemingly all alone and unorganized and I say seemingly because I know I am not truly alone. I know there are many like me who think and feel the same way but by design we involuntarily remain separated from another because in solidarity we would be a formidable force.
Reading Figes’ tome, it’s clear Bolshevism from its inception was as tyrannical as the Russian autocracy it bemoaned and decried and opposed. It was this way clearly by design. The Bolsheviks, Lenin especially, believed that to defeat the autocratic Tsarist system, you had to engage in the same tactics including your own security forces and engaging in cruel, brutal violence as a symbolic show of force to intimidate the opposition and send a message to the adherents to stay in line. Putin is a direct descendant of that Bolshevik proclivity so it’s no wonder.
Figes called the Russian Revolution, it should be the Russian Revolutions all things considered, A People’s Tragedy and I agree it was a tragedy but not for the reasons Figes intended with that title. He laments the revolution didn’t have to be if only. I don’t harbor such notions. The Russian Revolution was always going to be. There never was an “if only.” The tragedy is that all that blood that was shed was ultimately shed in vain. Look what’s become of it.
different clue
With only three days left to even think of a response to Donny Taco’s big birthday parade, what could the good people of Washington DC itself do to register silent disapproval?
I know in the past when the Palestinian merchants and shopowners and etc. of East Jerusalem wanted to register disapproval, they closed up their shops. ( IDF would come with bolt cutters and force them back ‘open’ .)
I should think that lots of Trump fans will come into DC for the Big Day. They will want a good time at all the restaurants and etc. as part of their gleeful celebrations. What if every shop/store/market/restaurant/bar owner who disapproved were to close down their business for the day ( and ideally for the day before and after as well?)
No food, no water, no drinks, no purchasable fun for the Trump fans darkening the doors of DC.
different clue
Can targeted voting be an expression of strategically motivated and tactically informed protest?
Here is a headline about some DemParty Representatives in the House which leaves me dismayed. It is titled: ” Democrats Face Backlash Over Vote to ‘Express Gratitude’ to ICE ” Here is the link.
https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-ice-gratitude-resolution-backlash-2084004
If anyone thinks the DemParty can still be declintaminated, defeating each HouseDem which voted for this resolution would be a start in the declintamination process. The HouseDem caucus would be 75 Dems fewer and that much cleaner.
If some more House Clintonites were deleted with each election, then eventually the House Dem Caucus would be reduced in size to the point where a “few Red Gingriches” could take it over and make it into a real caucus.
Those 75 Districts would be a fine place to found and run a New Deal Survival Party or a Blue States Survival Party or some such thing, to give highly disgruntled former Democrats something to vote for other than the Gilead Magapublican Party. Of course, some highly disgruntled former Democrats might still want to vote Gilead Magapublican just to make sure of deleting the offending Democrats.
If anyone still thinks the DemParty can still be declintaminated or if it even matters anymore.