The presidential election in 2024 may be the last free vote taken in the United States. Dictatorships only hold elections with predetermined outcomes or do not hold them at all. Trump is no exception.
"The emptiness of the political landscape under “inverted totalitarianism” saw politics merge with entertainment. It fostered a ceaseless political burlesque."
So, not to be caught quoting cliches, but it appears Frank Zappa was correct in calling the government the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex. If so, why worry about tainted elections, which have been tainted for quite some time. Righting this sinking vessel's going to take a lot more than some elections. Without the blood of patriots? Where's the answer?
Niko House released a short video of a Hispanic man facing up and shouting down ICE thugs from the neighborhood in which he grew up and attended school, daring them to shoot him. He backed them down. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n1dKHYyTc0M
This is the kind of cojones it's going to require if resistance is going to be nonviolent. Aaron Bushnell levels of courage. Easy for me to say, I'm old, living in a wrecked body, not as easy for younger healthier folks.
I understand how you feel. It is easy for me to say things, too, in my mid-to-late 60's. But I may have to find a way to stand up to them Good luck to you and to all...
At age 85 and terminally ill with CHF -- my cardiologist says I am already living on borrowed time -- I expect to be rescued by death before the Christonazis complete our final descent from methodically Failed State to Auschwitz Nation. Meanwhile I believe we are in the same fix as the forgotten heroes of Wake Island and the oft-immortalized heroes and heroines of Fortress Brest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3mDJ0qdp0 And though I am too crippled by arthritis to do anything more proactive than weaponize my keyboard for the Resistance and prepare for the MAGAstapo's midnight knock, that I have most assuredly done and shall do as long as I am able.
from us any real input into elections.” This is an oft repeated and unexamined statement by journalists. In 1976, the Supreme Court held, in Buckley v. Valeo, that money equaled speech. Under Buckley, billionaires could and do buy elections. Overturning Citizens United, which extended that power to corporations, would not change that. Musk and Miriam Adelson would have been able to contribute their billions to Trump’s election with or without Citizens United. Bill Ackman was unrestrained in his efforts to buy the NYC mayoral election for Cuomo because of Buckley. Now billionaires outspend corporations in their often successful bids to buy elections. Buckley was the legal basis for Citizens United. Important to get this right. Journalists are part of the problem when they spread this exclusive obsession with Citizens United. If Buckley were overturned, Citizens United would go with it. The reverse is not true. The latter would not exist without the former.
These two opinions and their progeny signaled the demise of the electoral process and any hope of democracy. There has been too little focus on the role of the Supreme Court in bringing us to this stage. John Roberts should have been impeached for writing Trump v. U.S., among other things. Half the Democrats in the Senate voted along with Republicans to confirm him.
I agree with the overall thrust of what Hedges writes. But I don’t see major strikes in the future, no matter what happens. The “contented class,” as Ralph Nader recently referred to it, will continue to accommodate to power, whatever form it takes. The working classes, as usual, will be mostly on their own. There is plenty of blame to go around, but a lot of it does fall on the Democratic Party, with its Clintons, Obamas and Biden’s genocide. They have stood in the way of a real opposition party. The majority of House Democrats just voted with the majority of Republicans to send Israel another $3.3 billion in military spending.
But we can’t just do nothing. There is no guaranteed outcome, but when it comes down to it, we have to decide how we want to live the rest of our lives — trying or giving up.
What a great comment. Thank you for your insights. I am afraid Americans don’t feel strong enough to strike. Many people are just hanging on, happy to go to lunch at Panera Bread. They love their kids, and that’s what they worry about. I don’t think they’re going to know what hit them if Trump cancels elections. I think many see him as a protector.
The ruinous flaw in the U.S. majority -- the only exceptions are those of us who recognize we are part of one or more of the minorities the Christonazis target for eventual extermination -- is the majority population is incurably paralyzed by cravenly self-obsessed submissiveness due to capitalism's relentless, birth-to-death conditioning in the cult of mandatory optimism. Violently forbidden any ideological alternative and denied any means to transcend the prohibition, their inflicted ignorance ensures they will always fail to recognize our true plight -- majority and minority alike -- is as I said above, that of the maliciously forgotten heroes of Wake Island and the oft-immortalized heroes and heroines of Fortress Brest, about whom see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3mDJ0qdp0, which multiple European sources have declared the finest, most representative, unflinchingly truthful war film ever made. (Link repeated for ease of reference.)
Appreciate your comments Nancy -- but what does "trying" vs "giving up" look like, exactly - especially on the day-to-day, individual level? I think coming to a shared talking about this is critical to being able to understand our responsibility, obligation and effective effort and participation, I think-- what should we do? what can we do? how do we find ways to collectively resist? How do we bridge the feasibility-effectiveness reality (what is "feasible" is often considered "ineffective" - and what is "effective" is often considered "infeasible?"
Yes, you make an important point. But we can support equal rights domestically and also oppose a genocide. There are candidates who do both. Many of us are not willing to sacrifice the Palestinian people for a lesser evil at home. And again, we don’t have to do that.
I agree completely. As the current brutality plays out in my Minneapolis neighborhood (minor compared to Palestine) I continue to feel some annoyance at radicals like Hedges and some of my friends who voted for 3rd party candidates in the last presidential election because they believe there are only trivial differences between the parties. I wonder if their moral purity is worth the damage done—the new AIDS babies in Africa, the ICE terror in Minneapolis— well, I’m getting a bit self-righteous myself so will not go on. But you get the picture.
We stand with you Minnesotans, Donna. We had a large protest/vigil in my city by way of support. We’re organized, and we’ll continue to do what we can. Best wishes to you and your fellow Minnesotans.
Great comment. Thank you. But I must add, that while I blame centrist democrats and the party generally, for the fix we are in, there are some significant differences Hedges writes “The Democrats and their liberal apologists adopt tolerant positions on issues regarding race, religion, immigration, women’s rights and sexual identity, and pretend this is politics. The right wing uses those on the margins of society . . .But on all the major issues — war, trade deals, austerity, militarized police, the vast carceral state and deindustrialization — they are in lockstep.”
Women are half the population. Counts as a major issue in my book.
I meant my comment above as a reply to you (I hit “reply”), but for some reason, it was posted above instead of below your comment. To clarify, I agree with you, but I think we can form a coalition that is broad enough to insist we are represented on all these issues, including Palestine. Those of us who care about the genocide have always supported civil and women’s rights, labor, environmental protections, etc. Now it’s fair to ask support for ending a genocide from others whose backs we have always had. Unless voters are invested in a genocide, and relatively few are, it’s time to join with those who oppose it and make it a condition of our support for candidates. This must start at the primary level.
This is the first time substack has cut a comment short to fit some undefined limit. Many SHOULD be cut short for offering negligible content. If I see along comment, I want to see at least one quotable line in there instead of paragraphs of filler. Nancy's comment is good and shouldn't have been cut off. If there's a word limit, tell us what it is!!!
It says: “There is no guaranteed outcome, but when it comes down to it, we have to decide how we want to live our lives — trying or giving up.” I’ll work on making my comments shorter.
Thank you for explaining the relevance of history beyond this country, and this moment. It is disturbing how widely Americans seem to overlook the past, even when seeming to embrace it.
I remember when DHS came into existence after 9/11, and immediately hating the creepy name, but also knowing, simply knowing, that in time this massive agency would be turned against Americans. In that period of hysteria, we surrendered even more of our liberties for a false sense of security. As for the War budget, I've been hounding my elected officials to cut it for 25 years; a fool's errand.
DHS was created in 2002, but in late 2001, Bush and his crew were already talking about "the homeland". The invoking of that Nazi-like term made my skin crawl.
The plan has been underway for a very long time - the pieces are now in place for all the reasons Chris explained.
When he was more lucid, Biden often bragged about how in the 1990s he had sponsored something very much like what later was called the "Patriot Act".
Needless to say, Biden's proposal to guy the Bill Of Rights sank like a stone. Come 9/12, Americans couldn't surrender their civil liberties fast enough.
I am not now and have never been a "9/11 Truther" or whatever, but 9/11 sure was hella convenient.
Nor I. Regardless of 9/11's origins, I have (always) regarded it as our Reichstag Fire -- manipulated for that purpose even if not so intended.
Also -- a bit of an aside -- I was part of the NYC/NJ working press as the WTC was being built, and thus can attest to the fact there were credible rumors of sub-standard materials and bribed officials, with no investigative reporter ever unleashed for the requisite investigations. And such substandard construction would most assuredly explain the towers' collapse.
Actually -- correct me if I am wrong -- if memory serves, the Constitution-nullifying legislation that became the "Patriot Act" was first drafted by Attorney General Janet Reno at the Clintons' orders.
"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government...." ~Martin Luther King, from Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967 (nearly fifty-nine years ago)
All of us should have been watching a long time ago. "When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept quiet; I wasn't a communist..." ~Martin Niemöller (check it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came)
I think we have to start thinking national strike. Atlas shrugs and we get fheir attention. Won't get it right at first but we'll get better and the one percent will notice. When the Royalty get the message things will happen.
The speed and ferocity with which a national strike would be put down today is predictable. That being said, I agree completely that withholding our labor is one of our only weapons.
Citizens United should have been titled Corporations United---I do agree the machine voting must be banned and Paper Ballots should be the standard.
I believe the Political Donations should only be from Individuals and NOT Foundations or Corporations and limited to U.S Citizens ONLY---Not literally Hundreds of Millions (that we know of)from The Adelsons which is essentially Israeli's dictating our foreign policy. Limited to $1000.00 per Individual, not Inc's or fake charities often times known as Foundations.
As a Native to these lands, I and many of my people do not want more Invasions----Do I agree with The Donalds ICE approach? Of course not----it's obscene and reeks of a Corporate Dictatorship but Inc's WANT open borders for Cheap Labor.
A.I. will replace many workers so why is The Donald waving in these Tech Tyrants who embrace more cheaper labor but also push A.I.?
Neither party represents any of us and probably never have.
These are Frightening Times---my biggest concern is PALANTIR----Free Speech will be History. This Lifelong Grifter sitting in the WH is very concerning.
Chris, you have once again given us a master class in your summation of the current state of this country. It is a grim, yet necessary telling of the reality which is sweeping down upon us, incrementally yet still somewhat subtly-but all the while venomous. I'll say what I've tried to say often before; I still cannot believe how ignorant so many US citizens are, how willfully blind they are to what's happening all around us. Coming soon to a neighborhood or a street near you-tyranny in the form of a brutal ICE presence questioning all of us. Not just black or brown folk, but ALL of us. Trump and his soulless goons know NO limits to their lust for power and control. And like always, I weep not for myself, but for my children and grandchildren. And I still have to wonder: how did we get to this dark place as a nation? And is there, despite Chris's foretelling, any way out? I pray there is, if I have the courage to stand with all of you and fight for a way out...
I've just finished reading Sinclair Lewis' 'It Can't Happen Here.' Written during the Great Depression, it seems to be the playbook for what is happening now. It describes the fragility of our democracy where a fascist president is able to become a dictator, as the citizens are lulled to sleep through propaganda and fear. Thank you Mr Hedges for your insight, energy and courage in trying to awaken our people.
While I am now experiencing and understanding the horror that decent and kind German’s felt as Hitler rose to his position, I will go to my grave never understanding how it happened then and how it is happening now. I just can’t wrap my head around how such psychologically broken madmen are allowed to rise to such power in the world. I leave you with the following link from one of the great writers James Thurber and how he summed up humanity in such a simple way with The Last Flower.
How it happened is well-explained in Craig Unger's book "American Kompromat" starting at chapter "Barr Justice" on the unitary executive. Also has great detail on the Epstein issue on how tRump was Epstein's mentor. Note that the defunct Constitution could neither prevent nor end this mess - governance needs to be rebuilt from ground up. The entire system depended solely on being populated with people of good will - otherwise, it all fails.
Wealthy, sadist, psychopathic fascists have become a plague, obsessed with personal profit. They bury America and Americans in deep red debt but not themselves or their paid off sycophants. Corporate neo-libertarians are so wealthy and cosmopolitan, they do not fear getting hurt. They spread their disease intentionally and obviously like they did during the Reagan era. These neocons are using bullshit blowing, money loving preachers like Falwell was, and crooked media outlets like Fox News to brainwash their less intelligent masses. They learned a few tricks from the Empire of England for this when the CIA helped murder the leader of Iran and install the sycophant Shah, setting the whole country back so that England could continue to steal their oil. Then they attacked Saudi Arabia and did the same. How to make money off a country even if you pay them for oil or aid, you make them buy your imports, military weapons, and all necessary military equipment and establish a military base nearby. And especially in the Middle East. Iran retook their county, but the Saudis are still being used and kept in the dark ages, like Israel will probably become after their genocide on Palestine ends. I think corporate Europe enjoys watching the naked, evil king Trump dictate over Americans and set us back intellectually and progressively, and make enemies in “our sphere” of the world. Mighten they have a hand in his political successes? They are an evil and contagious disease. We the mass peons have to make sure America becomes a politically progressive country and never backslides into political chaos again. America needs to become a new “socialism and democracy”, experiment. Only uncorrupted, peace loving, free education and healthcare loving, earth loving, Democrats and Socialists need apply. Our lives and the lives of all our fellow creatures, who are mostly on the brink of extinction, really need an immediate end of corporate, capitalist fascism (psychopathic greed), or they will extinct us all.
What shall we do Chris. This essay is excellent but it is old news. I am 95, a member of VFP , veteransforpeace.org you know us, most don't but we have been resting for 35 years. We are not alone, still out on the streets with the protesters even during these very cold days. I have called Trump THE SERPENT since 2015. He conned so many including my Catholic friends
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING, SINGING THE SONGS OF ANGRY MEN AND WOMEN
IT IS THE MUSIC OF A PEOPLE THAT WILL NOT BE SLAVES AGAIN...WILL YOU JOIN IN MY CRUSADE? AT LES BARRICADES
I sensed the present moment in the unexplainable presence of thousands of malicious and deadly birds.
What’s happening in America is also unexplainable, in the way that fascism is always unexplainable. Amorphous evil. Domination by the state never cures unemployment, solves immigration issues, or brings peace and understanding.
Donald Trump never helped a single MAGAnut find a job or feed their kids, yet they support him. They’re not all crazy, and they’re not all mean. They’re afraid, seeking answers.
At the film’s conclusion the birds have won, but our heroes escape.
Good call. I first watched it in 1985 when it was introduced by the famous Apple commercial. Gilliam referred to it as ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four and-a-half. I last watched it two weeks ago. Soon I’ll just look out my window.
My interactions with lukewarm Trump voters suggest they're terribly under-informed historically & therefore politically, their information sources pure rubbish. An acquaintance today was stunned when I informed her of the great residual Nazi presence in places like Croatia & Ukraine after WWII -- and moreover, how committed Russia is to de-Nazification, how deep is the scar of losing twenty-something million people to the Nazis. "How come they never tell us this?" was her surprised reaction. I suggested that she might need to broaden her range of info sources. This is an intelligent, logical woman, but just not getting all the necessary information to consider.
Certainly, I'm stating the obvious, but when one confronts someone whose intellect one knows over time as generally pretty sharp analytically, it still comes as a shocker to witness an unexpected level of ignorance about the world. You can feel how the weight of that ignorance among masses of Americans, who are neither stupid nor malevolent, nonetheless slogs down this society in a way that seemingly resists change like no other (except maybe Israeli).
I agree, and being farther “left” than nearly anyone I know, I experience this dissonance regularly. I find humor helps grease the social wheels, but oddly, it works better with right wingers than with liberals.
I'm sure you realize that it will become harder and harder to organize mass mobilizations and strikes as the United States becomes more authoritarian. We will need to devise ways of evading surveillance and of mastering the technique of everywhere at once.
Every dirty trick in the book you can imagine and others, unimaginable, will be used by the regime to subvert the midterm elections. The writing is on the wall in Minneapolis. The time for wishful thinking and false hope has passed. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." -Maya Angelou
"The emptiness of the political landscape under “inverted totalitarianism” saw politics merge with entertainment. It fostered a ceaseless political burlesque."
So, not to be caught quoting cliches, but it appears Frank Zappa was correct in calling the government the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex. If so, why worry about tainted elections, which have been tainted for quite some time. Righting this sinking vessel's going to take a lot more than some elections. Without the blood of patriots? Where's the answer?
Niko House released a short video of a Hispanic man facing up and shouting down ICE thugs from the neighborhood in which he grew up and attended school, daring them to shoot him. He backed them down. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n1dKHYyTc0M
This is the kind of cojones it's going to require if resistance is going to be nonviolent. Aaron Bushnell levels of courage. Easy for me to say, I'm old, living in a wrecked body, not as easy for younger healthier folks.
I understand how you feel. It is easy for me to say things, too, in my mid-to-late 60's. But I may have to find a way to stand up to them Good luck to you and to all...
At age 85 and terminally ill with CHF -- my cardiologist says I am already living on borrowed time -- I expect to be rescued by death before the Christonazis complete our final descent from methodically Failed State to Auschwitz Nation. Meanwhile I believe we are in the same fix as the forgotten heroes of Wake Island and the oft-immortalized heroes and heroines of Fortress Brest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3mDJ0qdp0 And though I am too crippled by arthritis to do anything more proactive than weaponize my keyboard for the Resistance and prepare for the MAGAstapo's midnight knock, that I have most assuredly done and shall do as long as I am able.
It wasn’t Citizens United that “took
from us any real input into elections.” This is an oft repeated and unexamined statement by journalists. In 1976, the Supreme Court held, in Buckley v. Valeo, that money equaled speech. Under Buckley, billionaires could and do buy elections. Overturning Citizens United, which extended that power to corporations, would not change that. Musk and Miriam Adelson would have been able to contribute their billions to Trump’s election with or without Citizens United. Bill Ackman was unrestrained in his efforts to buy the NYC mayoral election for Cuomo because of Buckley. Now billionaires outspend corporations in their often successful bids to buy elections. Buckley was the legal basis for Citizens United. Important to get this right. Journalists are part of the problem when they spread this exclusive obsession with Citizens United. If Buckley were overturned, Citizens United would go with it. The reverse is not true. The latter would not exist without the former.
These two opinions and their progeny signaled the demise of the electoral process and any hope of democracy. There has been too little focus on the role of the Supreme Court in bringing us to this stage. John Roberts should have been impeached for writing Trump v. U.S., among other things. Half the Democrats in the Senate voted along with Republicans to confirm him.
I agree with the overall thrust of what Hedges writes. But I don’t see major strikes in the future, no matter what happens. The “contented class,” as Ralph Nader recently referred to it, will continue to accommodate to power, whatever form it takes. The working classes, as usual, will be mostly on their own. There is plenty of blame to go around, but a lot of it does fall on the Democratic Party, with its Clintons, Obamas and Biden’s genocide. They have stood in the way of a real opposition party. The majority of House Democrats just voted with the majority of Republicans to send Israel another $3.3 billion in military spending.
But we can’t just do nothing. There is no guaranteed outcome, but when it comes down to it, we have to decide how we want to live the rest of our lives — trying or giving up.
What a great comment. Thank you for your insights. I am afraid Americans don’t feel strong enough to strike. Many people are just hanging on, happy to go to lunch at Panera Bread. They love their kids, and that’s what they worry about. I don’t think they’re going to know what hit them if Trump cancels elections. I think many see him as a protector.
The ruinous flaw in the U.S. majority -- the only exceptions are those of us who recognize we are part of one or more of the minorities the Christonazis target for eventual extermination -- is the majority population is incurably paralyzed by cravenly self-obsessed submissiveness due to capitalism's relentless, birth-to-death conditioning in the cult of mandatory optimism. Violently forbidden any ideological alternative and denied any means to transcend the prohibition, their inflicted ignorance ensures they will always fail to recognize our true plight -- majority and minority alike -- is as I said above, that of the maliciously forgotten heroes of Wake Island and the oft-immortalized heroes and heroines of Fortress Brest, about whom see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3mDJ0qdp0, which multiple European sources have declared the finest, most representative, unflinchingly truthful war film ever made. (Link repeated for ease of reference.)
Appreciate your comments Nancy -- but what does "trying" vs "giving up" look like, exactly - especially on the day-to-day, individual level? I think coming to a shared talking about this is critical to being able to understand our responsibility, obligation and effective effort and participation, I think-- what should we do? what can we do? how do we find ways to collectively resist? How do we bridge the feasibility-effectiveness reality (what is "feasible" is often considered "ineffective" - and what is "effective" is often considered "infeasible?"
Yes, you make an important point. But we can support equal rights domestically and also oppose a genocide. There are candidates who do both. Many of us are not willing to sacrifice the Palestinian people for a lesser evil at home. And again, we don’t have to do that.
I agree completely. As the current brutality plays out in my Minneapolis neighborhood (minor compared to Palestine) I continue to feel some annoyance at radicals like Hedges and some of my friends who voted for 3rd party candidates in the last presidential election because they believe there are only trivial differences between the parties. I wonder if their moral purity is worth the damage done—the new AIDS babies in Africa, the ICE terror in Minneapolis— well, I’m getting a bit self-righteous myself so will not go on. But you get the picture.
We stand with you Minnesotans, Donna. We had a large protest/vigil in my city by way of support. We’re organized, and we’ll continue to do what we can. Best wishes to you and your fellow Minnesotans.
Great comment. Thank you. But I must add, that while I blame centrist democrats and the party generally, for the fix we are in, there are some significant differences Hedges writes “The Democrats and their liberal apologists adopt tolerant positions on issues regarding race, religion, immigration, women’s rights and sexual identity, and pretend this is politics. The right wing uses those on the margins of society . . .But on all the major issues — war, trade deals, austerity, militarized police, the vast carceral state and deindustrialization — they are in lockstep.”
Women are half the population. Counts as a major issue in my book.
Hi Donna,
I meant my comment above as a reply to you (I hit “reply”), but for some reason, it was posted above instead of below your comment. To clarify, I agree with you, but I think we can form a coalition that is broad enough to insist we are represented on all these issues, including Palestine. Those of us who care about the genocide have always supported civil and women’s rights, labor, environmental protections, etc. Now it’s fair to ask support for ending a genocide from others whose backs we have always had. Unless voters are invested in a genocide, and relatively few are, it’s time to join with those who oppose it and make it a condition of our support for candidates. This must start at the primary level.
Your comment seems to have been cut off before you finished. I'd love to see the rest
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like it’s all there now. Please let me know if it’s not.
Nope, sorry, still cut off: the last line begins with "But we can't just do nothing."
This is the first time substack has cut a comment short to fit some undefined limit. Many SHOULD be cut short for offering negligible content. If I see along comment, I want to see at least one quotable line in there instead of paragraphs of filler. Nancy's comment is good and shouldn't have been cut off. If there's a word limit, tell us what it is!!!
Looks more like an honest mistake.
No, the last line is sliced in half, goes below the available window. Do we have to count the lines to figure out the length of an allowed comment?
It says: “There is no guaranteed outcome, but when it comes down to it, we have to decide how we want to live our lives — trying or giving up.” I’ll work on making my comments shorter.
Thank you. And shorter is ok, but the whole thought is appreciated.
all the poor places that are under US sponsored attack are pro Palestine anti-genocide.
Thank you for explaining the relevance of history beyond this country, and this moment. It is disturbing how widely Americans seem to overlook the past, even when seeming to embrace it.
Today’s holiday offers a fitting example of that pattern. MLK tried to warn us, in more ways than one. https://open.substack.com/pub/shahidbuttar/p/when-will-america-finally-heed-mlk
Yes, he did. Three evils. The evils have multiplied.
I remember when DHS came into existence after 9/11, and immediately hating the creepy name, but also knowing, simply knowing, that in time this massive agency would be turned against Americans. In that period of hysteria, we surrendered even more of our liberties for a false sense of security. As for the War budget, I've been hounding my elected officials to cut it for 25 years; a fool's errand.
DHS was created in 2002, but in late 2001, Bush and his crew were already talking about "the homeland". The invoking of that Nazi-like term made my skin crawl.
The plan has been underway for a very long time - the pieces are now in place for all the reasons Chris explained.
When he was more lucid, Biden often bragged about how in the 1990s he had sponsored something very much like what later was called the "Patriot Act".
Needless to say, Biden's proposal to guy the Bill Of Rights sank like a stone. Come 9/12, Americans couldn't surrender their civil liberties fast enough.
I am not now and have never been a "9/11 Truther" or whatever, but 9/11 sure was hella convenient.
Nor I. Regardless of 9/11's origins, I have (always) regarded it as our Reichstag Fire -- manipulated for that purpose even if not so intended.
Also -- a bit of an aside -- I was part of the NYC/NJ working press as the WTC was being built, and thus can attest to the fact there were credible rumors of sub-standard materials and bribed officials, with no investigative reporter ever unleashed for the requisite investigations. And such substandard construction would most assuredly explain the towers' collapse.
Thanks. So few seem to remember.
Actually -- correct me if I am wrong -- if memory serves, the Constitution-nullifying legislation that became the "Patriot Act" was first drafted by Attorney General Janet Reno at the Clintons' orders.
"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government...." ~Martin Luther King, from Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967 (nearly fifty-nine years ago)
All of us should have been watching a long time ago. "When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept quiet; I wasn't a communist..." ~Martin Niemöller (check it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came)
I think we have to start thinking national strike. Atlas shrugs and we get fheir attention. Won't get it right at first but we'll get better and the one percent will notice. When the Royalty get the message things will happen.
The speed and ferocity with which a national strike would be put down today is predictable. That being said, I agree completely that withholding our labor is one of our only weapons.
Citizens United should have been titled Corporations United---I do agree the machine voting must be banned and Paper Ballots should be the standard.
I believe the Political Donations should only be from Individuals and NOT Foundations or Corporations and limited to U.S Citizens ONLY---Not literally Hundreds of Millions (that we know of)from The Adelsons which is essentially Israeli's dictating our foreign policy. Limited to $1000.00 per Individual, not Inc's or fake charities often times known as Foundations.
As a Native to these lands, I and many of my people do not want more Invasions----Do I agree with The Donalds ICE approach? Of course not----it's obscene and reeks of a Corporate Dictatorship but Inc's WANT open borders for Cheap Labor.
A.I. will replace many workers so why is The Donald waving in these Tech Tyrants who embrace more cheaper labor but also push A.I.?
Neither party represents any of us and probably never have.
These are Frightening Times---my biggest concern is PALANTIR----Free Speech will be History. This Lifelong Grifter sitting in the WH is very concerning.
God Bless Mr. Hedges.
Chris, you have once again given us a master class in your summation of the current state of this country. It is a grim, yet necessary telling of the reality which is sweeping down upon us, incrementally yet still somewhat subtly-but all the while venomous. I'll say what I've tried to say often before; I still cannot believe how ignorant so many US citizens are, how willfully blind they are to what's happening all around us. Coming soon to a neighborhood or a street near you-tyranny in the form of a brutal ICE presence questioning all of us. Not just black or brown folk, but ALL of us. Trump and his soulless goons know NO limits to their lust for power and control. And like always, I weep not for myself, but for my children and grandchildren. And I still have to wonder: how did we get to this dark place as a nation? And is there, despite Chris's foretelling, any way out? I pray there is, if I have the courage to stand with all of you and fight for a way out...
I've just finished reading Sinclair Lewis' 'It Can't Happen Here.' Written during the Great Depression, it seems to be the playbook for what is happening now. It describes the fragility of our democracy where a fascist president is able to become a dictator, as the citizens are lulled to sleep through propaganda and fear. Thank you Mr Hedges for your insight, energy and courage in trying to awaken our people.
While I am now experiencing and understanding the horror that decent and kind German’s felt as Hitler rose to his position, I will go to my grave never understanding how it happened then and how it is happening now. I just can’t wrap my head around how such psychologically broken madmen are allowed to rise to such power in the world. I leave you with the following link from one of the great writers James Thurber and how he summed up humanity in such a simple way with The Last Flower.
https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/thurberlastflower.pdf
Because power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats.
Our circumstances -- proven by the lynchings of Heather Heyer and Nicole Good (and lynchings is indeed what they are) -- are perfectly portrayed by "The Last Article," here:https://ia601501.us.archive.org/19/items/last-article-harry-turtledove/Last%20Article%20Harry%20Turtledove.pdf
Thank you for that Thurber parable.
I have recently learned that the Vikings believed the gods created humans for their own entertainment.
How it happened is well-explained in Craig Unger's book "American Kompromat" starting at chapter "Barr Justice" on the unitary executive. Also has great detail on the Epstein issue on how tRump was Epstein's mentor. Note that the defunct Constitution could neither prevent nor end this mess - governance needs to be rebuilt from ground up. The entire system depended solely on being populated with people of good will - otherwise, it all fails.
Thanks, Cat... Always loved Thurber.
Wealthy, sadist, psychopathic fascists have become a plague, obsessed with personal profit. They bury America and Americans in deep red debt but not themselves or their paid off sycophants. Corporate neo-libertarians are so wealthy and cosmopolitan, they do not fear getting hurt. They spread their disease intentionally and obviously like they did during the Reagan era. These neocons are using bullshit blowing, money loving preachers like Falwell was, and crooked media outlets like Fox News to brainwash their less intelligent masses. They learned a few tricks from the Empire of England for this when the CIA helped murder the leader of Iran and install the sycophant Shah, setting the whole country back so that England could continue to steal their oil. Then they attacked Saudi Arabia and did the same. How to make money off a country even if you pay them for oil or aid, you make them buy your imports, military weapons, and all necessary military equipment and establish a military base nearby. And especially in the Middle East. Iran retook their county, but the Saudis are still being used and kept in the dark ages, like Israel will probably become after their genocide on Palestine ends. I think corporate Europe enjoys watching the naked, evil king Trump dictate over Americans and set us back intellectually and progressively, and make enemies in “our sphere” of the world. Mighten they have a hand in his political successes? They are an evil and contagious disease. We the mass peons have to make sure America becomes a politically progressive country and never backslides into political chaos again. America needs to become a new “socialism and democracy”, experiment. Only uncorrupted, peace loving, free education and healthcare loving, earth loving, Democrats and Socialists need apply. Our lives and the lives of all our fellow creatures, who are mostly on the brink of extinction, really need an immediate end of corporate, capitalist fascism (psychopathic greed), or they will extinct us all.
The european political class has no priority other than The War On Russia, specifically, in getting Americans to do their fighting for them.
Again.
What shall we do Chris. This essay is excellent but it is old news. I am 95, a member of VFP , veteransforpeace.org you know us, most don't but we have been resting for 35 years. We are not alone, still out on the streets with the protesters even during these very cold days. I have called Trump THE SERPENT since 2015. He conned so many including my Catholic friends
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING, SINGING THE SONGS OF ANGRY MEN AND WOMEN
IT IS THE MUSIC OF A PEOPLE THAT WILL NOT BE SLAVES AGAIN...WILL YOU JOIN IN MY CRUSADE? AT LES BARRICADES
Thomas, I think you meant that you have been "resisting for 35 years." I thank you for that, and have supported VFP for many years. Thank you.
Last night I rewatched Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.
I sensed the present moment in the unexplainable presence of thousands of malicious and deadly birds.
What’s happening in America is also unexplainable, in the way that fascism is always unexplainable. Amorphous evil. Domination by the state never cures unemployment, solves immigration issues, or brings peace and understanding.
Donald Trump never helped a single MAGAnut find a job or feed their kids, yet they support him. They’re not all crazy, and they’re not all mean. They’re afraid, seeking answers.
At the film’s conclusion the birds have won, but our heroes escape.
Tonight I’ll watch “Psycho”. Seeking answers.
And then you might watch Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
Good call. I first watched it in 1985 when it was introduced by the famous Apple commercial. Gilliam referred to it as ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four and-a-half. I last watched it two weeks ago. Soon I’ll just look out my window.
One of my other favorite films that seems so relevant these days is King of Hearts.
Also one of his following films "Zero Theorem"
My interactions with lukewarm Trump voters suggest they're terribly under-informed historically & therefore politically, their information sources pure rubbish. An acquaintance today was stunned when I informed her of the great residual Nazi presence in places like Croatia & Ukraine after WWII -- and moreover, how committed Russia is to de-Nazification, how deep is the scar of losing twenty-something million people to the Nazis. "How come they never tell us this?" was her surprised reaction. I suggested that she might need to broaden her range of info sources. This is an intelligent, logical woman, but just not getting all the necessary information to consider.
You’ve hit the snail on the bed.
Certainly, I'm stating the obvious, but when one confronts someone whose intellect one knows over time as generally pretty sharp analytically, it still comes as a shocker to witness an unexpected level of ignorance about the world. You can feel how the weight of that ignorance among masses of Americans, who are neither stupid nor malevolent, nonetheless slogs down this society in a way that seemingly resists change like no other (except maybe Israeli).
I agree, and being farther “left” than nearly anyone I know, I experience this dissonance regularly. I find humor helps grease the social wheels, but oddly, it works better with right wingers than with liberals.
Yeah. Liberals currently don't know what to do with themselves beyond Trump derangement; they've lost their sense of humor.
I'm sure you realize that it will become harder and harder to organize mass mobilizations and strikes as the United States becomes more authoritarian. We will need to devise ways of evading surveillance and of mastering the technique of everywhere at once.
I believe that one of the Palantir bros remarked recently that this is why Palantir was created.
Every dirty trick in the book you can imagine and others, unimaginable, will be used by the regime to subvert the midterm elections. The writing is on the wall in Minneapolis. The time for wishful thinking and false hope has passed. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." -Maya Angelou