The criminal investigation undertaken by the federal government against hundreds of participants in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol is polarizing the country and shredding civil liberties.
So you think it is fair of Hedges to make the claim that those present were Christian nationalists who believed in white supremacy, and who gave their blind support to Trump and embraced reactionary fact-free conspiracy theories, then lets you know he's not one of them. What he claims is no more then an assumption and a very prejudicial one at that. So, he sees them as those half basket of deplorables Clinton referenced, the perpetrator of wars that killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of Muslims and then she calls Trump a xenophobe. It's this view of his base, always seen as less then, or as a bunch of deplorables that has led to those harsh sentences Hedges is writing about. Maybe many were there because they voted for Trump, and gave their support to a man elected into office who for four years was seen as an illegitimate president based on the lie of Russia-gate, which was supported by the democrats, the elites in the mainstream media as well as those on the left. Their lies helped delegitimize journalism even further.
Hedge's introductory statement informs you he is anti-Trump, and doesn't think much of his base. This type of statement was often made by people on the left during Trump's term in office, and no doubt it's purpose is meant to inform their reading public they are not pro-Trump or anything of the kind, and definitely not like his base. I see it as having no journalistic merit, quite the opposite. Jeff Sachs, whom I really like in a video was talking about our neocon agenda in Ukraine, and in my opinion right on the money, but he has to stop mid sentence to tell his listening audience that during Trump's presidency he never got a good night's sleep. Why????????????????? Enough of this BS!
Yes, Hillary is a war criminal. And her dear husband admits to killing 500,000 Iraqi children with his sanctions. But people who support Trump, a man who had bankrupted 6 casinos, sexually assaulted 26 respectable women, said "Grab them by the ...", killed approximately 400,000 elderly Americans through intentional criminal negligence during the first 2 months of the pandemic, according to his own Director of Vaccines Dr. Richard Bright, , are mentally ill, ignorant, broken people. They should not be hated. They should be loved, pitied, and helped (although the majority of them are too broken to help).
We don't hate a one-legged man for not being able to run. But these Jan. 6 criminals should be called out and understood for what they are. Deplorable people standing strong against what America stands for. They are people whose life's work is, unwittingly, to "Make America Fascist Now".
When you reference those Covid deaths aren't you talking about Cuomo who didn't use the Javits Center set up by Trump, or that nice big boat sitting out in a NY harbor, but dumped them in nursing homes where deaths by infection kills a few hundred thousand each year? How about his colluding with Russia, which gave him the presidential win , so he was our illegitimate president which plagued him through his presidency, and all based on a lie pushed by democrats? Because 26 ladies said he sexually assaulted them is their word to be taken as fact, with no trial, nothing but accusations bolstered by a complicit press that no longer cares about facts and simply panders to their readership and what they want to hear, and continues to do so? How about interference by people like Schiff and the CIA who claimed Hunter's lap top was no story, and Greenwald leaving the Intercept because they also said not true. Throughout his presidency news articles especially often on the left had to be preceded by such intros, just to let you know they were not one of them. I feel this way even though I'm an independent, but once a democrat, but no more.
Sorry but your facts on Como are just wrong. It was Trump who was too late with the Javits Center and the ship. No one was dumping bodies into Nursing home. The people in nursing homes were the first to die. It was the disorganization of the Trump administration knowing it was a deadly virus but then choose to call it a hoax. Trump failed to do testing because he wanted to hide the soaring numbers of the ill and dying. At one point Jared Krushner said don’t do anything for NY it’s a democratic state, it’s the democratic voters dying. The White House hoarded supplies and gave them to Republican states. It’s all a game of winning to Trump and the GOP at the expense of one million plus dead from covid. Statistics show many more Trump voters died from covid because they were told it was hoax and they believed him. Plus Trump’s anti mask and vaccine conspiracy lies caused unnecessary deaths.
Regarding Russia, the proof is there in the Mueller report that Trump knew about before hand and knew he would benefitted from Russia’s hacking and dumping Hillary’s private emails just before the election. The investigation discovered numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign and Trump knew that they would benefit electorally from Russia’a hacking efforts. The Mueller report stated 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump were described. Mueller said that Trump could be charged with obstruction of Justice after he left office.
On Hunter Biden - Trump had “his DOJ” do a full investigation when he was in office
and they found zero.
You are a full on Trumper the way you spout right wing talking points.
Try using a search engine to get all view points not just the one you want to hear.
Spare me your Trump bullshit! I'm to aware of what went on especially with a degree in nursing. If you want to do an anti-Trump rant go somewhere else. I was a registered democratic who wanted a Bernie win, not Trump and I didn't vote for him, so much for your acumen, and assessment of things, but I will not stand down to people like you that spewed lies and hate during his time in office, and continue to do so. I'm too aware of your BS, so sell it to a moron, because at this point only a moron who posts on Substack will buy it.
The increasing reliance upon censorship and overt repression under color of law are sure signs that the establishment is not feeling self-assured or confident.
It worked in Brazil against Lula, Ecuador against Correa, Carrillo in Peru and the list goes on.
As America becomes more and more similar to the global south, the repressive accumulation process of internal repression for profit, think for profit prisons and surveillance, lawfare will increase as a preferred weapon.
My hometown; I was there all 5 days. A coalition of labor, students, eco-activists, indigenous nations, media, small business people, scientists, small farmers, and religious groups from all over the world. Local churches and unions were especially helpful. Top slogan: "Turtles and Teamsters--Together at Last." The needs of global corporations meant our civil liberties were suspended; a huge warning for the future.
Yes, the Empire ate the Republic and now is devouring any and all public spheres.
The technocratic fascists like Eric Schmidt, of google and CIA, tell us it is pie in the sky before we die.
“His (Eric Schmidt’s) most telling comment, however, was this:
“The benefit of these corporations, which we love to malign, in terms of the ability to communicate, the ability to deal with health, the ability to get information, is profound. Think about what your life would be like in America without Amazon.”
He added that people should “be a little bit grateful that these companies got the capital, did the investment, built the tools that we’re using now, and have really helped us out.”
''The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy - all the gold belonged to them! If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.''
~ Big Bill Haywood, Miner, founding member & leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
And these vultures talk about social security as an entitlement when their own lives are built on the back of workers.
"For every boss with a dollar he didn't earn, there's a worker who earned a dollar that doesn't have it."
Doesn't ANYBODY here realize that Hedges is just stringing you out with these nostalgic articles to avoid commenting on hard news developments? ... Chris Hedges has been repelled by hard news since the March 2020 lock-downs when he threw the working class under the bus with COVID ... his trademark has become his tendency to always avoid the issues of tyranny that are right in our face ... when the lockdowns were declared, he refused to stand with the working class against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic he has only said: "it's a tough decision" ... and then he brazenly took sides with big pharma just one month after the explosive FDA FOIA release:
On DEC 2, 2021 ...The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's internal vax data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ...T he FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years!
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ...
Chris Hedges DID NOT have to take sides on this issue ... he could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to play it safe and recklessly stand with big pharma ...His worshipers continue to describe him as an activist when that term no longer applies, not since the lock-downs ... he's now a retired activist and a "straddler" ... he's got one foot in "their" world and only one foot in our world ...People just don't understand what happens to journalists once they break into the big-money ... the pseudo-progs like Hedges, Krystal Ball, Kyle Kulinski, Briahna Joy-Gray and Katie Halper now all make way too much money to be trusted ... they all narrow the scope of their commentary in fear of being demonetized ... they spend more time studying social media analytics as their perspectives become increasingly predictable ... when the Dollar loses its status as the world reserve currency, look for Chris Hedges to post an article here about the War of 1812.
Yes Maricata. "Jakarta is Coming" to the USA. Militarized police with years of experience of putting down people from around the world to install puppets for American Interest. P.S. Jakarta is Coming is a book that actually crosses Obama's young life. His step father was a victim! I haven't heard him ever talking about it. George Jackson quotes are fantastic. Thanx
Maybe it also means they are quite confident that they can implement repressive laws because they have done so in the past without objection, or consequences. Not even a reprimand for a party who tried to delegitimize Trump's presidency with the lie of Russia-gate, as well as lies that framed him in a very unflattering light. like having prostitutes peeing on beds. They also delegitimized his base. as a bunch of low life deplorables. They had the good fortune to have the backing of the corporate press and the left, like Amy Goodman, and the Intercept, and more. They can have a January 6 comm to determine Trump's guilt and that's constitutional? The media was willing to suppress Biden's son's laptop, so Biden would be a win, something the left did as well, like the Intercept, Greenwald couldn't publish his story on the laptop, so he left. The past has let them see just how authoritarian they can be, since there are no consequences.
The problem I have is the use of language. I agree with your analysis as to the whims of repression by both parties and society as a whole.
There is no 'left' in America. The word has been rendered meaningless.
The same for 'progressive'.
Vacuous, hollowed out empty phrases.
"Left" and "progressive" were historically tied to the fight for socialism against capitalism.
The have been redefined by media, TV, radio, sophists, etc.
So references to the 'left' make no sense in a capitalist society where there is no left --- only fascism. Corporate and ethno-white settler capitalism run by transnational cartels and monopolies.
It is time to abandon the use of these words, unless examples, metaphors or analogies can be used to draw out their meaning.
We us language thinking everyone else has the same definitions we do.
Greenwald is a psyop and proto-fascist.
Read his history as a lawyer and juxtapose them to his activities today.
The Intercept was started so Omydiar could use Citizen Greenwald to privatize the files.
That is why only ten percent or less has been released.
As to Democracynow, this is controlled opposition.
No, no "left' movement in America today.
Just one party with the same wings, as Gore Vidal said.
But history, if climate change does not ill us along with nuclear war, will see a dramatic rise in the fight for socialism.
Well, lets leave Greenwald out of this since I do like him and feel unlike most he maintained his journalistic integrity during the Trump years, such as his willingness to challenge Russia-gate, and leave the Intercept, a company he founded because of their unwillingness to publish a story on Biden's son's laptop. Not to mention he loves dogs, and animals, etc. My mother was a socialist, not active after she married and was raising a family, but still held to their way of seeing things. We lived in Manhattan when I was a child and a perfect place to point out the disparities between the haves and the have nots. She maintained her socialist perspective all though her life. I know we are not a true democracy, and I know the 1% holds almost half this country's wealth and dictates policy to those we elect into office since they fund their campaigns, and of course they listen to their agenda. At present we're willing to use Ukrainian lives as human fodder to bring down Russia, and we've killed and displaced millions in the Middle East to further an agenda that makes sure we have world wide dominance, and I'm really hoping we don't wind up killing every living thing on this planet.
We would do well to learn from the Weimar Republic that collapsed and ushered Hitler in.
Weimar Joe is the poster boy for the failure of liberal democracy, which was the face of capitalism.
Cartel-fascism is what we live under.
Fascism is privatization on steroids and a management structure for capitalism when liberal democracies fail.
Nazi Germany transferred public ownership and public services into the private sector. It is a privatization process. Fascist regimes generally came into existence in times of crisis, when economic elites, landowners and business owners feared that a revolution or uprising was imminent.[18]
Fascists allied themselves with the economic elites, promising to protect their social status and to suppress any potential working class revolution.[19]
In exchange, the elites were asked to subordinate their interests to a broader nationalist project, thus fascist economic policies generally protect inequality and privilege while also featuring an important role for state intervention in the economy.
In fascist regimes, ‘capital’ remains in “full command of all the military, police, legal and propaganda power of the state,”
But once in power, Hitler and Mussolini was never simply the instrument of German or Italian capital, acting on its orders.
The factory is yours, said one observer, but the state tells you what to make, in what quantity and quality, and it provides raw materials and handles the markets.
“All capital is at the immediate disposal of the government.”
Fascism is also a movement of the ruined petty-bourgeoisie and lumpen proletariat, mobilized by the corporate elite against the working class to stave off revolution from below.
The resurgence of fascist forces today is the outcome of a conspiracy of the ruling classes, aware that their agenda of austerity, social inequality, and war has no mass base of support.
It is failed social liberalism harnessed to capitalism.
And thus democracy and capitalism have never been compatible.
Interesting you should bring this up now. I do Ancestry, and who did I recently find in my father's family, Giuseppe A. Borgese, who wrote Goliath in the early 1930's and left Italy because he wouldn't sign allegience to Mussolini. He left, came to America, and married Thomas Mann's youngest daughter. After WWII he became active in the World Federalist movement. He formed the Committee to Frame a World Constitution, which included Robert M. Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, Richard McKeon, Reinhold Niebuhr, Rexford Tugwell, and ...then within a few years left in disgust and went back to Italy and died a few years later. Never grew up knowing that, and I must say finding out made me sorry for him considering how things turned out.
I cry no tears for these folks. My tears are for the social jutice, anti-war, environmental and animal activists who have consistently been treated like this and more harshly -- how about the Shac 7 some of whom who were in a supermax for running a website. Or how about Standing Rock protestors or BLM potestors who were brutalized. I'd like a world where all protestors, and prisoners convicted of all crimes too, are treated with respect. But till we get there, crying for these folks trying to overturn an election to install a tyrant who are largely being treated much more humanely than people trying to make the world a better place but who infringe on corporate privilege...nope.
I don't either. Actually, I found myself smiling. But it is very sad that their families have to suffer for their faults. I'm waiting to see what will be the fate of the commander in chief of those lies. For now, I feel a relief that Fox News is under fire.
From DemocracyNow.org today's news: A number of bombshell revelations about the inner workings of Fox News have come to light as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against the network. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, has admitted under oath that many hosts on his network “endorsed” Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election for financial, not political, reasons, stating, “It is not red or blue, it is green.”
With all due respect , Chris, what is the appropriate deterrent for people involved in an attempted coup at the cause of a hateful power hungry ex president?
I can't answer for Chris but I'll go on record as saying something far milder than shackles, solitary confinement, and multiple years in prison after harming no one. Perhaps a fine or community service would be more appropriate. Or have we abandoned the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment along with the 1st amendment?
Very true, however destruction/theft of Federal property is 10yrs, in Federal prison. It is our property after all. Most as you say should see nothing more than a few weekends of community service.
It was simply a protest where a percentage of the protestors went too far. And geesh... how many examples on the left to we have of the same during the prior 2 years?
It is hilarious to hear this "coup" or "insurrection" claim that was a couple hundred unarmed and bearded blue-collar workers milling about the Capitol high-fiving each other and having friendly conversations with the Capitol police.
Very true, taking photos as tourists. The destruction of Federal property was against us all and 10 yrs. in Federal prison harsh but sends a message. If this was anything near approaching a coup, gunships and bradleys would have run them over.
Coup, I wouldn't call that close to a coup. My friends in Chile would laugh out loud at that. It was beyond trespassing on Federal property and the sentences were in many cases to light I agree. However most were acting as tourists. 10 yrs. for willful destruction of Federal property.
If ever we see 10's of thousands push into to CONgress or the white house we would see the gunships and bradley's.
Nine people, not a threat. When the coup does happen, it will be millions with pitchforks. I will be in Chile were the u.s. already dragged a country through a coup were thousands died at the hands of the c.i.a. Call me when you read the 1973 history of Chile.
This is the title of this woman's (Patricia's) substack: "This is Patricia’s Newsletter, a newsletter about The destruction of Democracy by Trumps and his clones."
It would be interesting to see how this has taken place. Go ahead Patricia, respond...
The left is obsessed with disingenuous political labeling of opposition where there is no connection to reality nor no connection to the real meaning of the words. For the rest of us, it looks like these people are dealing with some mental health malady. Like the mentally ill homeless person ranting about something he is sure of, but for everyone else of sound mind it makes no sense and is clearly crazy talk.
However, they are successful at pushing this junk because the left is in control of the education system, the mainstream media and big tech. So they promote crazy and injected into the unsuspecting population.
I just don't think people like Patricia can recognize the crazy. I am sure she believes everything she says and writes about Trump and his supporters.
That is the problem with crazy... few people that have it can recognize it in themselves. Now, it would be something I would generally ignore (there are always some crazy people with crazy thoughts and ideas) except that the number of Patricia's has exploded and threatens the Republic.
This country lost its mind after 9/11, with the creepy Patriot Act, Gitmo, and two needless wars. We have been sliding toward tyranny ever since, however, I have very little sympathy for any person who participated in the January 6 demonstration/protest/coup attempt/insurrection. They followed a fool, willingly, enthusiastically. What annoys me more than anything is that more than two years on there has been no accountability for the architects and key figures.
Hedges ignored the fact that the real Jan. 6 conspiracists in the White House, law enforcement, the military, and National Security State have not been named or investigated or prosecuted.
The Eastman memo laid out the legal basis for the coup - and there is no doubt that what Trumpers sought was a coup. The Supreme Court was engaged and very likely to uphold the legal theories in the Eastman memo, if just one State went along with it. That issue is now before the Court. I have little doubt that the Court ultimately will repeat 2000 Bush electoral theft.
These are the real issues.
BTW - the Atlanta protesters of Cop City are being persecuted with federal terrorism felony charges.
The PTB knew decades ago what was going to happen. This is why all police departments are gifted with military war toys. Eventually, it will take all of us to shut this place down.
"The Jan. 6 protestors were not the first to occupy Congressional offices, including Nancy Pelosi’s office. Young environmental activists from the Sunrise Movement, anti-war activists from Code Pink and even congressional staffers have engaged in numerous occupations of congressional offices and interrupted congressional hearings. What will happen to groups such as Code Pink if they occupy congressional offices with Republicans in control of the White House, the Congress and the courts? Will they be held for years in pretrial detention? Will they be given lengthy prison terms based on dubious interpretations of the law? Will they be considered domestic terrorists? Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?"
They will be imprisoned. And those that advocated the removal of people from twitter or Facebook will also see the tables turned, or have.
Such short term thinking for such sort time left.
What a pity.
For the consequences point to the further embracement of fascism or fascist alliances.
And this is not surprising if one has read history.
What it means for material reality can be summed up by looking critically at history, something many do not seem to do.
The answer is to be found in the structural crisis of capital itself.
The stagnation and financialization of the capitalist economy, of which neoliberalism is the outward manifestation, requires that the system continually seek to intensify its exploitation and expropriation of the population and posits this as the only answer.
TINA.
Unable to rule in the old way, based simply on the actual accumulation process, and choosing outright robbery (so-called accumulation by dispossession) as its answer to its crisis of valorization, monopoly-finance capital in the neoliberal era is drawn to ever-greater extremes of expropriation, undermining and subsuming the liberal-democratic state itself, which has already happened.
Now-liberalism and austerity
The conclusion to which many are drawn is that the rise of neofascism is a manifestation of deeper contradictions of capital, including: the structural crisis of the system, the neoliberal assault on the working class, the destabilization of the liberal-democratic state, and the reactionary awakening of a radical right in the lower-middle stratum.
It comes at a time of insurmountable economic stagnation, unprecedented inequality, and rapid environmental decline. Moreover, this is not simply a problem evident in the advanced capitalist countries, but we can see the same fault lines in the so-called emerging economies as well, complicated by the fact that they have been on the receiving ends of centuries of colonialism and imperialism.
Rather, we are facing today the prospect of what David Harvey has referred to as a neoliberal-neofascist alliance.
Against this one has to recall that it was Hitler who first introduced “Keynesian” economic stimulus through military spending, privatization, and breaking unions, instituting deep cuts in workers’ wages.108 A neo-fascist economic strategy would be a more extreme version of neoliberal austerity, backed by racism and war preparation.
In the longer-run the economic contradictions of the system would remain, but the new economic nationalism would be aimed at making sure that in the context of global economic stagnation the United States would seize a greater share of the global pie.
I would argue that fascism started with military-Keynsianism before, during and after WWII.
"If we use Mussolini’s definition of fascism, then military Keynsianism, began really before WWII but certainly after, up and until to today, this would be both seen as State-military control or state investment in the military, of which this means communications, transport the things we use today.
Military-Keynsianism was how the introduction of corporatism was firmly unleashed. "
And it is totalizing.
A Boeing factory in every state was the motto decades ago.
Contracts in all states assure Congressmen can lose their jobs if they do not support the military.
Same with universities, the media, churches, temples, civic organizations, politicians and their supplicants.. This again, concretizes fascism while colonizing whole populations.
R and R in communications, satellites, etc. all came from public investment in the military. Then this goes to colleges and then they develop levels of technology. Then commercialized and sold to the public. Drones for example, Teflon pans. Sunglasses, everything. Fascism is totalizing.
Take the 2017 partnership between Google and Steve Schmidt and the government.
This is technocratic fascism, distinguished from ethno or national fascist movements.
But it is fascism.
The corporate democratic party is fascist, but it is Rainbow fascism.
The republican party is white settler, ethno nationalist fascism.
They are both fascist.
The corporate/CIA democratic avid support for "military Keynsianism" and the fact they are on the take distinguish them little from their republican 'counterparts'.
We would derive more meaning if we examined the faces of fascism for as George Jackson once noted:
Agreed, the US is definitely already fascist, and has been for a long time. Really pre-WW2 if you asked Native Americans, African Americans, or the working class about what kind of system we have, they wouldn't have said 'Democracy', or recognized the 'Freedom' we cry to the sky about. A mere second to reflect on our settler colonialism, our continuous wars of expansion, and what kind of regimes we support abroad should dispell any myth that we are interested in Democracy. We've supported murderous bloody right wing dictator after dictator with support, weapons, coups, and proxy wars.
"The final reason why the importance of ideology in fascism must be denied is the fact that it exists in more than one form. In fact, historically it has proved to have three different faces."
I have absolutely no ideological sympathies with the January 6 mob; but am utterly appalled by the police state tactics being employed against them. Once one got past the initial shock value of the event there was essentially nothing that occurred on that day that qualified as an "insurrection" or "coup" - If so, the participants would have been armed, there would need to be a sympathetic police and military presence, and so on. January 6 was basically a clown show - albeit one with some casualties [all of them, rioters themselves]. The United States, heaving a democratic death rattle, will weaponize anything and everything at it's disposal to control an increasingly restive populace - from COVID restrictions to nakedly partisan attacks on civil liberties. Ryan Nichols and his family don't deserve the nightmare that the FBI brought to their doorstep - a federal agency that employs entrapment among other illegal activities. An empire in decline brings tyranny home.
If you listen to the Empire Files podcast around the time this happened, it was fairly apparent it was an inside job. They allowed those Capital insurrectionist folks to get to the building and get inside the building. And if you think it wasn't really tremendous violence, then you obviously haven't watched the footage taken at the entrance of the building. I'm not into defending police but I'm also not into people trying to kill people either. They pulled off a cop's helmut and tried to bash him repeatedly. They were crushing cops against the walls with the doors. It was literally a life and death struggle. Have a look at the footage at the entrance?
Can you imagine if this were black people, leftists doing this to police? They wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the building for starters, and had they done this, they would have spent a long time in prison or more likely killed. The police never fired a weapon except for that one woman who was killed. The right wing tossers at the Capitol building don't need defending. I would say they had at best a very superficial reason to be there, many were quite well off, and some were I would say agent provocateurs and mostly it was to help Trump take over, as Keystone Cops' attempt as it was. I have little sympathy for them because they hate the real left, and wouldn't give a toss. When DeSantis gets in, those same people will be trying to lynch minority groups. Watch this space.
HRC's unforgivable "basket of deplorables" made it clear what the neolibs and their professional elite Dem supporters really think about us, the declasse 80% of the old labor left and rural right. Best keep our anger aimed at one another lest we unite in political opposition to the oppressive status quo.
The shrill language of the NYT and WaPo reinforces the elites' belief dissenters are undeserving lessers. The D centrists tolerate leftist demonstrators only because they need us. As the neolib/neocon alliance becomes more desperate to cling to power, we will be treated the same way. Look at what happened during the 1999 anti-WTO Battle of Seattle.
I admit as an old school labor leftist, I enjoyed the idea of a bunch of MAGAts (another demeaning term) getting theirs. But think a minute--these people are the same as those from the Rust Belt, long ago abandoned by the Dems. The same now suffering from rising rates of deaths of despair. They, too, among those called in the N.T. "the least among us, my sisters and brothers."
Reading about the background of those charged humanizes them. McBride and Nichols in particular, since it's obvious we share a common cause. Doesn't matter, though, whether or not they they pass my pink litmus test. Like my I.W.W. grandfather, I proclaim in solidarity:
Absolutely true. I'm no fan of Trump, but I wouldn't plant evidence on him. This whole 1/6 Inquisition is a massively disproportionate judicial response to a bunch of rube tourists, many of whom were encouraged by undercover FBI or FBI affiliates.
Great article. Are the 500 riots in summer of 2020, including the Lafayette Park riot that attempted to breech White House barricades and injured dozens of security people, going to be prosecuted in this way?
"Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?" Very likely. But when "protests and civil disobedience become impossible", revolution, I hope, will be both imminent and inevitable.
We need more fair reporting like this.
I share Hedges' dislike of the beliefs of the demonstrators, but agree that the prosecutions are out of proportion.
So you think it is fair of Hedges to make the claim that those present were Christian nationalists who believed in white supremacy, and who gave their blind support to Trump and embraced reactionary fact-free conspiracy theories, then lets you know he's not one of them. What he claims is no more then an assumption and a very prejudicial one at that. So, he sees them as those half basket of deplorables Clinton referenced, the perpetrator of wars that killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of Muslims and then she calls Trump a xenophobe. It's this view of his base, always seen as less then, or as a bunch of deplorables that has led to those harsh sentences Hedges is writing about. Maybe many were there because they voted for Trump, and gave their support to a man elected into office who for four years was seen as an illegitimate president based on the lie of Russia-gate, which was supported by the democrats, the elites in the mainstream media as well as those on the left. Their lies helped delegitimize journalism even further.
Hedge's introductory statement informs you he is anti-Trump, and doesn't think much of his base. This type of statement was often made by people on the left during Trump's term in office, and no doubt it's purpose is meant to inform their reading public they are not pro-Trump or anything of the kind, and definitely not like his base. I see it as having no journalistic merit, quite the opposite. Jeff Sachs, whom I really like in a video was talking about our neocon agenda in Ukraine, and in my opinion right on the money, but he has to stop mid sentence to tell his listening audience that during Trump's presidency he never got a good night's sleep. Why????????????????? Enough of this BS!
Yes, Hillary is a war criminal. And her dear husband admits to killing 500,000 Iraqi children with his sanctions. But people who support Trump, a man who had bankrupted 6 casinos, sexually assaulted 26 respectable women, said "Grab them by the ...", killed approximately 400,000 elderly Americans through intentional criminal negligence during the first 2 months of the pandemic, according to his own Director of Vaccines Dr. Richard Bright, , are mentally ill, ignorant, broken people. They should not be hated. They should be loved, pitied, and helped (although the majority of them are too broken to help).
We don't hate a one-legged man for not being able to run. But these Jan. 6 criminals should be called out and understood for what they are. Deplorable people standing strong against what America stands for. They are people whose life's work is, unwittingly, to "Make America Fascist Now".
When you reference those Covid deaths aren't you talking about Cuomo who didn't use the Javits Center set up by Trump, or that nice big boat sitting out in a NY harbor, but dumped them in nursing homes where deaths by infection kills a few hundred thousand each year? How about his colluding with Russia, which gave him the presidential win , so he was our illegitimate president which plagued him through his presidency, and all based on a lie pushed by democrats? Because 26 ladies said he sexually assaulted them is their word to be taken as fact, with no trial, nothing but accusations bolstered by a complicit press that no longer cares about facts and simply panders to their readership and what they want to hear, and continues to do so? How about interference by people like Schiff and the CIA who claimed Hunter's lap top was no story, and Greenwald leaving the Intercept because they also said not true. Throughout his presidency news articles especially often on the left had to be preceded by such intros, just to let you know they were not one of them. I feel this way even though I'm an independent, but once a democrat, but no more.
Sorry but your facts on Como are just wrong. It was Trump who was too late with the Javits Center and the ship. No one was dumping bodies into Nursing home. The people in nursing homes were the first to die. It was the disorganization of the Trump administration knowing it was a deadly virus but then choose to call it a hoax. Trump failed to do testing because he wanted to hide the soaring numbers of the ill and dying. At one point Jared Krushner said don’t do anything for NY it’s a democratic state, it’s the democratic voters dying. The White House hoarded supplies and gave them to Republican states. It’s all a game of winning to Trump and the GOP at the expense of one million plus dead from covid. Statistics show many more Trump voters died from covid because they were told it was hoax and they believed him. Plus Trump’s anti mask and vaccine conspiracy lies caused unnecessary deaths.
Regarding Russia, the proof is there in the Mueller report that Trump knew about before hand and knew he would benefitted from Russia’s hacking and dumping Hillary’s private emails just before the election. The investigation discovered numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign and Trump knew that they would benefit electorally from Russia’a hacking efforts. The Mueller report stated 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump were described. Mueller said that Trump could be charged with obstruction of Justice after he left office.
On Hunter Biden - Trump had “his DOJ” do a full investigation when he was in office
and they found zero.
You are a full on Trumper the way you spout right wing talking points.
Try using a search engine to get all view points not just the one you want to hear.
Spare me your Trump bullshit! I'm to aware of what went on especially with a degree in nursing. If you want to do an anti-Trump rant go somewhere else. I was a registered democratic who wanted a Bernie win, not Trump and I didn't vote for him, so much for your acumen, and assessment of things, but I will not stand down to people like you that spewed lies and hate during his time in office, and continue to do so. I'm too aware of your BS, so sell it to a moron, because at this point only a moron who posts on Substack will buy it.
Nice writing, Tucker Carlson. Is "Fran" your pen name? You know more than Trump's own Director of Vaccines? https://youtu.be/ICHMBg-eOVY
Gee, I really like gorilla's, but there are always exceptions. That's life.
Who asked you fran?
I can express my opinion when I chose, not when you say, or anyone else. Got it!!!!!!!!!!!!
The increasing reliance upon censorship and overt repression under color of law are sure signs that the establishment is not feeling self-assured or confident.
Quite the opposite.
No, it means they have shifted tactics and are now using tactics developed and deployed in the global South, South America.
Lawfare is the tactic most used.
https://mronline.org/2023/01/27/u-s-lawfare-and-the-destabilization-of-latin-america/
It worked in Brazil against Lula, Ecuador against Correa, Carrillo in Peru and the list goes on.
As America becomes more and more similar to the global south, the repressive accumulation process of internal repression for profit, think for profit prisons and surveillance, lawfare will increase as a preferred weapon.
We don't even have to look abroad. Look at what happened during the 1999 anti-WTO "Battle of Seattle."
An excellent and overlooked event.
My hometown; I was there all 5 days. A coalition of labor, students, eco-activists, indigenous nations, media, small business people, scientists, small farmers, and religious groups from all over the world. Local churches and unions were especially helpful. Top slogan: "Turtles and Teamsters--Together at Last." The needs of global corporations meant our civil liberties were suspended; a huge warning for the future.
Yes, the Empire ate the Republic and now is devouring any and all public spheres.
The technocratic fascists like Eric Schmidt, of google and CIA, tell us it is pie in the sky before we die.
“His (Eric Schmidt’s) most telling comment, however, was this:
“The benefit of these corporations, which we love to malign, in terms of the ability to communicate, the ability to deal with health, the ability to get information, is profound. Think about what your life would be like in America without Amazon.”
He added that people should “be a little bit grateful that these companies got the capital, did the investment, built the tools that we’re using now, and have really helped us out.”
https://theintercept.com/2020/05/08/andrew-cuomo-eric-schmidt-coronavirus-tech-shock-doctrine/
Someone should have told him:
''The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy - all the gold belonged to them! If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.''
~ Big Bill Haywood, Miner, founding member & leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
And these vultures talk about social security as an entitlement when their own lives are built on the back of workers.
"For every boss with a dollar he didn't earn, there's a worker who earned a dollar that doesn't have it."
-Big Bill Heywood I.W.W.
Doesn't ANYBODY here realize that Hedges is just stringing you out with these nostalgic articles to avoid commenting on hard news developments? ... Chris Hedges has been repelled by hard news since the March 2020 lock-downs when he threw the working class under the bus with COVID ... his trademark has become his tendency to always avoid the issues of tyranny that are right in our face ... when the lockdowns were declared, he refused to stand with the working class against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ... on this topic he has only said: "it's a tough decision" ... and then he brazenly took sides with big pharma just one month after the explosive FDA FOIA release:
On DEC 2, 2021 ...The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's internal vax data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ...T he FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years!
On JAN 1, 2022 ... Chris Hedges made the following comment right here on SubStack on the Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast (Episode #54) - go to the 1:08:48 mark ...https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-54-audio-chris-hedges#details
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ...
Chris Hedges DID NOT have to take sides on this issue ... he could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to play it safe and recklessly stand with big pharma ...His worshipers continue to describe him as an activist when that term no longer applies, not since the lock-downs ... he's now a retired activist and a "straddler" ... he's got one foot in "their" world and only one foot in our world ...People just don't understand what happens to journalists once they break into the big-money ... the pseudo-progs like Hedges, Krystal Ball, Kyle Kulinski, Briahna Joy-Gray and Katie Halper now all make way too much money to be trusted ... they all narrow the scope of their commentary in fear of being demonetized ... they spend more time studying social media analytics as their perspectives become increasingly predictable ... when the Dollar loses its status as the world reserve currency, look for Chris Hedges to post an article here about the War of 1812.
I think we are saying the same thing. Regardless, neither is a sign of strength. Better to get the peons to think that their interests are yours.
Yes Maricata. "Jakarta is Coming" to the USA. Militarized police with years of experience of putting down people from around the world to install puppets for American Interest. P.S. Jakarta is Coming is a book that actually crosses Obama's young life. His step father was a victim! I haven't heard him ever talking about it. George Jackson quotes are fantastic. Thanx
And of course they have all the surplus military equipment from multiple wars.
And experience in riot control and counter-insurgency.
Trained by Israel.
And funded by the US
Both seem to be true.
Maybe it also means they are quite confident that they can implement repressive laws because they have done so in the past without objection, or consequences. Not even a reprimand for a party who tried to delegitimize Trump's presidency with the lie of Russia-gate, as well as lies that framed him in a very unflattering light. like having prostitutes peeing on beds. They also delegitimized his base. as a bunch of low life deplorables. They had the good fortune to have the backing of the corporate press and the left, like Amy Goodman, and the Intercept, and more. They can have a January 6 comm to determine Trump's guilt and that's constitutional? The media was willing to suppress Biden's son's laptop, so Biden would be a win, something the left did as well, like the Intercept, Greenwald couldn't publish his story on the laptop, so he left. The past has let them see just how authoritarian they can be, since there are no consequences.
The problem I have is the use of language. I agree with your analysis as to the whims of repression by both parties and society as a whole.
There is no 'left' in America. The word has been rendered meaningless.
The same for 'progressive'.
Vacuous, hollowed out empty phrases.
"Left" and "progressive" were historically tied to the fight for socialism against capitalism.
The have been redefined by media, TV, radio, sophists, etc.
So references to the 'left' make no sense in a capitalist society where there is no left --- only fascism. Corporate and ethno-white settler capitalism run by transnational cartels and monopolies.
It is time to abandon the use of these words, unless examples, metaphors or analogies can be used to draw out their meaning.
We us language thinking everyone else has the same definitions we do.
Greenwald is a psyop and proto-fascist.
Read his history as a lawyer and juxtapose them to his activities today.
The Intercept was started so Omydiar could use Citizen Greenwald to privatize the files.
That is why only ten percent or less has been released.
As to Democracynow, this is controlled opposition.
No, no "left' movement in America today.
Just one party with the same wings, as Gore Vidal said.
But history, if climate change does not ill us along with nuclear war, will see a dramatic rise in the fight for socialism.
Well, lets leave Greenwald out of this since I do like him and feel unlike most he maintained his journalistic integrity during the Trump years, such as his willingness to challenge Russia-gate, and leave the Intercept, a company he founded because of their unwillingness to publish a story on Biden's son's laptop. Not to mention he loves dogs, and animals, etc. My mother was a socialist, not active after she married and was raising a family, but still held to their way of seeing things. We lived in Manhattan when I was a child and a perfect place to point out the disparities between the haves and the have nots. She maintained her socialist perspective all though her life. I know we are not a true democracy, and I know the 1% holds almost half this country's wealth and dictates policy to those we elect into office since they fund their campaigns, and of course they listen to their agenda. At present we're willing to use Ukrainian lives as human fodder to bring down Russia, and we've killed and displaced millions in the Middle East to further an agenda that makes sure we have world wide dominance, and I'm really hoping we don't wind up killing every living thing on this planet.
We would do well to learn from the Weimar Republic that collapsed and ushered Hitler in.
Weimar Joe is the poster boy for the failure of liberal democracy, which was the face of capitalism.
Cartel-fascism is what we live under.
Fascism is privatization on steroids and a management structure for capitalism when liberal democracies fail.
Nazi Germany transferred public ownership and public services into the private sector. It is a privatization process. Fascist regimes generally came into existence in times of crisis, when economic elites, landowners and business owners feared that a revolution or uprising was imminent.[18]
Fascists allied themselves with the economic elites, promising to protect their social status and to suppress any potential working class revolution.[19]
In exchange, the elites were asked to subordinate their interests to a broader nationalist project, thus fascist economic policies generally protect inequality and privilege while also featuring an important role for state intervention in the economy.
In fascist regimes, ‘capital’ remains in “full command of all the military, police, legal and propaganda power of the state,”
But once in power, Hitler and Mussolini was never simply the instrument of German or Italian capital, acting on its orders.
The factory is yours, said one observer, but the state tells you what to make, in what quantity and quality, and it provides raw materials and handles the markets.
“All capital is at the immediate disposal of the government.”
Fascism is also a movement of the ruined petty-bourgeoisie and lumpen proletariat, mobilized by the corporate elite against the working class to stave off revolution from below.
The resurgence of fascist forces today is the outcome of a conspiracy of the ruling classes, aware that their agenda of austerity, social inequality, and war has no mass base of support.
It is failed social liberalism harnessed to capitalism.
And thus democracy and capitalism have never been compatible.
Interesting you should bring this up now. I do Ancestry, and who did I recently find in my father's family, Giuseppe A. Borgese, who wrote Goliath in the early 1930's and left Italy because he wouldn't sign allegience to Mussolini. He left, came to America, and married Thomas Mann's youngest daughter. After WWII he became active in the World Federalist movement. He formed the Committee to Frame a World Constitution, which included Robert M. Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, Richard McKeon, Reinhold Niebuhr, Rexford Tugwell, and ...then within a few years left in disgust and went back to Italy and died a few years later. Never grew up knowing that, and I must say finding out made me sorry for him considering how things turned out.
Very interesting history.
He left Italy for America.
He made history.
Consciously.
Like many, not knowing him personally but responding to your framing of the issue he died a bitter man.
The system grinds one down and down.
The fight against it is equivalent to the Myth of Sysphus or Cervantes Don Quixote.
There is nothing romantic about this class struggle.
Social and mental breakdown are built into the system.
I cry no tears for these folks. My tears are for the social jutice, anti-war, environmental and animal activists who have consistently been treated like this and more harshly -- how about the Shac 7 some of whom who were in a supermax for running a website. Or how about Standing Rock protestors or BLM potestors who were brutalized. I'd like a world where all protestors, and prisoners convicted of all crimes too, are treated with respect. But till we get there, crying for these folks trying to overturn an election to install a tyrant who are largely being treated much more humanely than people trying to make the world a better place but who infringe on corporate privilege...nope.
All of the above-mentioned groups will be targeted in the new techno-domestic Phoenix Program.
I don't either. Actually, I found myself smiling. But it is very sad that their families have to suffer for their faults. I'm waiting to see what will be the fate of the commander in chief of those lies. For now, I feel a relief that Fox News is under fire.
From DemocracyNow.org today's news: A number of bombshell revelations about the inner workings of Fox News have come to light as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against the network. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, has admitted under oath that many hosts on his network “endorsed” Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election for financial, not political, reasons, stating, “It is not red or blue, it is green.”
With all due respect , Chris, what is the appropriate deterrent for people involved in an attempted coup at the cause of a hateful power hungry ex president?
I can't answer for Chris but I'll go on record as saying something far milder than shackles, solitary confinement, and multiple years in prison after harming no one. Perhaps a fine or community service would be more appropriate. Or have we abandoned the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment along with the 1st amendment?
Very true, however destruction/theft of Federal property is 10yrs, in Federal prison. It is our property after all. Most as you say should see nothing more than a few weekends of community service.
Jan. 6 was not a coup, nor even an attempted coup .
Correct. It also was not an "insurrection".
It was simply a protest where a percentage of the protestors went too far. And geesh... how many examples on the left to we have of the same during the prior 2 years?
It is hilarious to hear this "coup" or "insurrection" claim that was a couple hundred unarmed and bearded blue-collar workers milling about the Capitol high-fiving each other and having friendly conversations with the Capitol police.
The Reichstag was a fire.
It was part of a Nazi strategy to seize power.
Get the connection between the Trump White House coup and the Jan 6 riot?
Very true, taking photos as tourists. The destruction of Federal property was against us all and 10 yrs. in Federal prison harsh but sends a message. If this was anything near approaching a coup, gunships and bradleys would have run them over.
Lala land make it up as you go along. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s right in your face , you’ll come up with a euphemism to make the lie work .
The Trump White House plotted a coup.
The Jan 6 riot was an important part of the coup strategy.
These are two very different things.
Look up the definition of "coup" and take a class on language hyperbole.
And in terms of hateful, power-hungry soon to be ex-president... he is in office today.
Coup, I wouldn't call that close to a coup. My friends in Chile would laugh out loud at that. It was beyond trespassing on Federal property and the sentences were in many cases to light I agree. However most were acting as tourists. 10 yrs. for willful destruction of Federal property.
If ever we see 10's of thousands push into to CONgress or the white house we would see the gunships and bradley's.
Tourists ? Your’re serious? I think the point of most of those ‘tourists ‘
The ones with weapons . Who attacked capitol police in some cases to death . Those were tourists?
Nine people, not a threat. When the coup does happen, it will be millions with pitchforks. I will be in Chile were the u.s. already dragged a country through a coup were thousands died at the hands of the c.i.a. Call me when you read the 1973 history of Chile.
Why can't you understand the difference between a Trump White House coup strategy and the Jan 6 riot?
See my above comment about the relationship between the Reichstag fire and the Nazis.
This is the title of this woman's (Patricia's) substack: "This is Patricia’s Newsletter, a newsletter about The destruction of Democracy by Trumps and his clones."
It would be interesting to see how this has taken place. Go ahead Patricia, respond...
"Destruction of Democracy"
"Coup"
"Insurrection"
"White supremacy"
"Systemic racism"
"Fascism"
The left is obsessed with disingenuous political labeling of opposition where there is no connection to reality nor no connection to the real meaning of the words. For the rest of us, it looks like these people are dealing with some mental health malady. Like the mentally ill homeless person ranting about something he is sure of, but for everyone else of sound mind it makes no sense and is clearly crazy talk.
However, they are successful at pushing this junk because the left is in control of the education system, the mainstream media and big tech. So they promote crazy and injected into the unsuspecting population.
I just don't think people like Patricia can recognize the crazy. I am sure she believes everything she says and writes about Trump and his supporters.
That is the problem with crazy... few people that have it can recognize it in themselves. Now, it would be something I would generally ignore (there are always some crazy people with crazy thoughts and ideas) except that the number of Patricia's has exploded and threatens the Republic.
Agreed!
This country lost its mind after 9/11, with the creepy Patriot Act, Gitmo, and two needless wars. We have been sliding toward tyranny ever since, however, I have very little sympathy for any person who participated in the January 6 demonstration/protest/coup attempt/insurrection. They followed a fool, willingly, enthusiastically. What annoys me more than anything is that more than two years on there has been no accountability for the architects and key figures.
Hedges ignored the fact that the real Jan. 6 conspiracists in the White House, law enforcement, the military, and National Security State have not been named or investigated or prosecuted.
The Eastman memo laid out the legal basis for the coup - and there is no doubt that what Trumpers sought was a coup. The Supreme Court was engaged and very likely to uphold the legal theories in the Eastman memo, if just one State went along with it. That issue is now before the Court. I have little doubt that the Court ultimately will repeat 2000 Bush electoral theft.
These are the real issues.
BTW - the Atlanta protesters of Cop City are being persecuted with federal terrorism felony charges.
Yes, like the Nazis that got away.
And Cop City protestors are victims of lawfare as well.
https://mronline.org/2023/01/27/u-s-lawfare-and-the-destabilization-of-latin-america/
As to the Courts, they are as bankrupt as the banks.
Bought and paid for they will due what the ruling elite tell them to do.
Wow Chris.
you've certainly
got My little brain a'thinkin'.
.
Thank you.
The PTB knew decades ago what was going to happen. This is why all police departments are gifted with military war toys. Eventually, it will take all of us to shut this place down.
"The Jan. 6 protestors were not the first to occupy Congressional offices, including Nancy Pelosi’s office. Young environmental activists from the Sunrise Movement, anti-war activists from Code Pink and even congressional staffers have engaged in numerous occupations of congressional offices and interrupted congressional hearings. What will happen to groups such as Code Pink if they occupy congressional offices with Republicans in control of the White House, the Congress and the courts? Will they be held for years in pretrial detention? Will they be given lengthy prison terms based on dubious interpretations of the law? Will they be considered domestic terrorists? Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?"
They will be imprisoned. And those that advocated the removal of people from twitter or Facebook will also see the tables turned, or have.
Such short term thinking for such sort time left.
What a pity.
For the consequences point to the further embracement of fascism or fascist alliances.
And this is not surprising if one has read history.
What it means for material reality can be summed up by looking critically at history, something many do not seem to do.
The answer is to be found in the structural crisis of capital itself.
The stagnation and financialization of the capitalist economy, of which neoliberalism is the outward manifestation, requires that the system continually seek to intensify its exploitation and expropriation of the population and posits this as the only answer.
TINA.
Unable to rule in the old way, based simply on the actual accumulation process, and choosing outright robbery (so-called accumulation by dispossession) as its answer to its crisis of valorization, monopoly-finance capital in the neoliberal era is drawn to ever-greater extremes of expropriation, undermining and subsuming the liberal-democratic state itself, which has already happened.
Now-liberalism and austerity
The conclusion to which many are drawn is that the rise of neofascism is a manifestation of deeper contradictions of capital, including: the structural crisis of the system, the neoliberal assault on the working class, the destabilization of the liberal-democratic state, and the reactionary awakening of a radical right in the lower-middle stratum.
It comes at a time of insurmountable economic stagnation, unprecedented inequality, and rapid environmental decline. Moreover, this is not simply a problem evident in the advanced capitalist countries, but we can see the same fault lines in the so-called emerging economies as well, complicated by the fact that they have been on the receiving ends of centuries of colonialism and imperialism.
Rather, we are facing today the prospect of what David Harvey has referred to as a neoliberal-neofascist alliance.
Against this one has to recall that it was Hitler who first introduced “Keynesian” economic stimulus through military spending, privatization, and breaking unions, instituting deep cuts in workers’ wages.108 A neo-fascist economic strategy would be a more extreme version of neoliberal austerity, backed by racism and war preparation.
In the longer-run the economic contradictions of the system would remain, but the new economic nationalism would be aimed at making sure that in the context of global economic stagnation the United States would seize a greater share of the global pie.
https://monthlyreview.org/2017/04/01/neofascism-in-the-white-house/
I would argue that fascism started with military-Keynsianism before, during and after WWII.
"If we use Mussolini’s definition of fascism, then military Keynsianism, began really before WWII but certainly after, up and until to today, this would be both seen as State-military control or state investment in the military, of which this means communications, transport the things we use today.
Military-Keynsianism was how the introduction of corporatism was firmly unleashed. "
And it is totalizing.
A Boeing factory in every state was the motto decades ago.
Contracts in all states assure Congressmen can lose their jobs if they do not support the military.
Same with universities, the media, churches, temples, civic organizations, politicians and their supplicants.. This again, concretizes fascism while colonizing whole populations.
R and R in communications, satellites, etc. all came from public investment in the military. Then this goes to colleges and then they develop levels of technology. Then commercialized and sold to the public. Drones for example, Teflon pans. Sunglasses, everything. Fascism is totalizing.
Take the 2017 partnership between Google and Steve Schmidt and the government.
This is technocratic fascism, distinguished from ethno or national fascist movements.
But it is fascism.
The corporate democratic party is fascist, but it is Rainbow fascism.
The republican party is white settler, ethno nationalist fascism.
They are both fascist.
The corporate/CIA democratic avid support for "military Keynsianism" and the fact they are on the take distinguish them little from their republican 'counterparts'.
We would derive more meaning if we examined the faces of fascism for as George Jackson once noted:
Agreed, the US is definitely already fascist, and has been for a long time. Really pre-WW2 if you asked Native Americans, African Americans, or the working class about what kind of system we have, they wouldn't have said 'Democracy', or recognized the 'Freedom' we cry to the sky about. A mere second to reflect on our settler colonialism, our continuous wars of expansion, and what kind of regimes we support abroad should dispell any myth that we are interested in Democracy. We've supported murderous bloody right wing dictator after dictator with support, weapons, coups, and proxy wars.
"The illegal we do immediately; The unconstitutional takes a little longer" ~ Henry Kissinger
"The final reason why the importance of ideology in fascism must be denied is the fact that it exists in more than one form. In fact, historically it has proved to have three different faces."
--- George Jackson, Blood in my Eye
https://archive.org/stream/GeorgeJacksonBloodInMyEye_201512/George%20Jackson%20-%20Blood-in-My-Eye_djvu.txt
Maricata, Thanks for the link.
A pleasure.
I have absolutely no ideological sympathies with the January 6 mob; but am utterly appalled by the police state tactics being employed against them. Once one got past the initial shock value of the event there was essentially nothing that occurred on that day that qualified as an "insurrection" or "coup" - If so, the participants would have been armed, there would need to be a sympathetic police and military presence, and so on. January 6 was basically a clown show - albeit one with some casualties [all of them, rioters themselves]. The United States, heaving a democratic death rattle, will weaponize anything and everything at it's disposal to control an increasingly restive populace - from COVID restrictions to nakedly partisan attacks on civil liberties. Ryan Nichols and his family don't deserve the nightmare that the FBI brought to their doorstep - a federal agency that employs entrapment among other illegal activities. An empire in decline brings tyranny home.
If you listen to the Empire Files podcast around the time this happened, it was fairly apparent it was an inside job. They allowed those Capital insurrectionist folks to get to the building and get inside the building. And if you think it wasn't really tremendous violence, then you obviously haven't watched the footage taken at the entrance of the building. I'm not into defending police but I'm also not into people trying to kill people either. They pulled off a cop's helmut and tried to bash him repeatedly. They were crushing cops against the walls with the doors. It was literally a life and death struggle. Have a look at the footage at the entrance?
Can you imagine if this were black people, leftists doing this to police? They wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the building for starters, and had they done this, they would have spent a long time in prison or more likely killed. The police never fired a weapon except for that one woman who was killed. The right wing tossers at the Capitol building don't need defending. I would say they had at best a very superficial reason to be there, many were quite well off, and some were I would say agent provocateurs and mostly it was to help Trump take over, as Keystone Cops' attempt as it was. I have little sympathy for them because they hate the real left, and wouldn't give a toss. When DeSantis gets in, those same people will be trying to lynch minority groups. Watch this space.
EGREGIOUS CLASS PREJUDICE
HRC's unforgivable "basket of deplorables" made it clear what the neolibs and their professional elite Dem supporters really think about us, the declasse 80% of the old labor left and rural right. Best keep our anger aimed at one another lest we unite in political opposition to the oppressive status quo.
The shrill language of the NYT and WaPo reinforces the elites' belief dissenters are undeserving lessers. The D centrists tolerate leftist demonstrators only because they need us. As the neolib/neocon alliance becomes more desperate to cling to power, we will be treated the same way. Look at what happened during the 1999 anti-WTO Battle of Seattle.
I admit as an old school labor leftist, I enjoyed the idea of a bunch of MAGAts (another demeaning term) getting theirs. But think a minute--these people are the same as those from the Rust Belt, long ago abandoned by the Dems. The same now suffering from rising rates of deaths of despair. They, too, among those called in the N.T. "the least among us, my sisters and brothers."
Reading about the background of those charged humanizes them. McBride and Nichols in particular, since it's obvious we share a common cause. Doesn't matter, though, whether or not they they pass my pink litmus test. Like my I.W.W. grandfather, I proclaim in solidarity:
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL
I apologize for her. Chris writes in a way to give people a chance to share and argue points. Solidarity.
Absolutely true. I'm no fan of Trump, but I wouldn't plant evidence on him. This whole 1/6 Inquisition is a massively disproportionate judicial response to a bunch of rube tourists, many of whom were encouraged by undercover FBI or FBI affiliates.
Great article. Are the 500 riots in summer of 2020, including the Lafayette Park riot that attempted to breech White House barricades and injured dozens of security people, going to be prosecuted in this way?
Are you nuts? Trump's Bible march created more havoc than anything the peaceful protesters did.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." -- Matthew 5:7
From the point of view of the sociopaths that make up the leadership class, mercy is contemptible weakness.
"Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?" Very likely. But when "protests and civil disobedience become impossible", revolution, I hope, will be both imminent and inevitable.
Thank you VERY much -- lynchings and entrapments -- all in itself major crimes.
Biden administration and Deep State executives are deeply corrupt criminals.