"Those who believe that the government is designed to serve the common good" --- have been delusional in America . . . for quite some time.
Those with a conscience will become an enemy of the state" --- I'd amend to: "have been at odds with the central theme of prevarication in the service of greed and therefore enemies of the state's role in advancing vulture capitalism . . . for quite some time.
"Predatory corporations, such as the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, will be licensed to exploit and pillage a disempowered public." --- This likewise has been going on . . . for quite some time.
Perhaps Chris is correct that we're about to reach a new apogee of totalitarianism in America that will underline and highlight these these issues in blood red script, but I find myself almost yawning under the knowledge that this bloody country has sucked for a long long time, for most of my years living largely in protest within its borders.
When planes flew into buildings on 9/11 a very astute friend commented: “They’ll be outraged for a few days, they’ll go bomb someone, and then they’ll go back to watching television.”
Yes, this country has indeed sucked for a long time, and what it’s sucked on has been the bottomless teat of plastic information, plastic news, plastic thought. The revolution was not televised, it was Television.
But television is just a medium. It took more than that to conquer a once proud and able nation. It took advertising. Training people to believe what they’re told with promises of brighter teeth, and “free shipping”. They’ve not only manufactured consent, they got us to pay for it too.
Some of my ancestors were shipped off to the camps in 1933, and after, and you know what? They didn’t have to pay for the shipping either.
A very strong and accurate statement about our current state. I wish I could ague that it was not true, but I cannot. We're in deep "spit" and it's only getting deeper. I fear mostly for my children and grandchildren. And for what they may think of me, for not doing more to have prevented this...
I had a recent birthday, and a cadre of my ex-students insisted on writing me to help me get through the feeling of not doing enough which you describe. But one in particular made me feel like I did something meaningful. He heads the pharmacy dept. of a free community clinic that treats everyone regardless of ability to pay -- true universal healthcare on a small local scale. That he credited me for inspiration as his former professor made my freaking day. So my point is that we do what we can to try to seed those behind us with populist values. Loving kindness has impact.
Powerful. And now... they are coming first for, basically, anyone who is NOT male, white, Christian, heterosexual - then those on their "enemies list," then for journalists...who's next...please fill in the blank(s)....
Watching while the oppressed hug and kiss their masters.
George Jackson
"Acceptance of enslavement is deeply buried in the pa-thogenic character types of capitalism. It is a result of the sense of dread and anxiety which is the lot of all men under capitalist rule.
Compulsive behavior and disordered obsessional longings are actually made synonymous with “charac- ter” in our disordered society.
But to emphasize these conditions before examining the institutions from which they spring is to confuse effect with cause and further cloud the point of attack.
So far, cultural analysis has established that the psychosis is so ingrained, the institutions so centralized, that what is needed is total revolution, the armed struggle between the have-nots with their vanguard and the haves with their hirelings or macabre freaks that live through them….”
The days of industrial unionism, Bill. The material conditions are present for the rise of labor and the rise of the working class. It is the subjective element that is missing -- class consciousness. We can only hope, or better said, work for the same. I think we crossed the Rubicon. But one must fight where they are.
This seems like no more then another apocalyptic Trump rant, common from Hedges during Trump's first term in office, and the Nazi's will be hear soon. It addresses nothing in particular, like the war in Ukraine, no specifics on what is going on in Palestine, Israel, just another attack on Trump, and no facts needed, as if he is addressing a flock of believers. Do you remember a rant like this when it came to Biden, or Obama, or even Bush/Cheney?
I'm a Hedges supporter for decades, but skeptical of his reading the tea leaves re a Trump authoritarian dictatorship. Chris unfortunately proved himself a less than perfect observer by his obtuse refusal to see Covid and the death vax for the DOD created bioweapons many of us understood them to be early on. His perception of the DeepState, to my knowledge, has failed to call out their ideological Eugenics underpinnings, a driving force (along w profits) in creating ineffective, intentionally unsafe and deadly concoctions of poisons deceptively labeled vaccines and callously imposed on a relentlessly propagandized, deceived, fearful, and unwitting public.
As a teacher of immunology -- one of the areas for which my former students thank me -- I must admit that Chris' view of the COVID fiasco left me quite disappointed. You want a scary upshot of this ridiculous crap. The effing CDC has an mRNA COVID shot on the roster for NEONATES. This makes me completely bloody homicidal toward these a-holes. Are you freakin' kidding me? -- brain neurogenesis, adding final neurons (nerve cells) to the newborn brain, occurs during that first year of life; and they want to put a foreign nucleic acid into the nuclei of these new brain cells, which will occur because the damned lipid nanoparticles deliver the mRNA into every cell, every cell nucleus. To call this irresponsible is to be euphemistic. Fuck the FDA, CDC, and NIAID as presently constituted. RFK and Jay Battacharya need to deliver a nuclear warhead into HHS to wake up these mofos to the idea that we are not experimental animals. And entirely stop funding anything even remotely resembling bioweaponry.
I tend to take Hedges analysis for Trump this time, but I note the above Covid stuff, and the 9/11 acceptance (which Nader agreed with). The information I've received is both are probably caused by our intelligent services, DARPA, and DoD..
You are on target, my friend. DARPA, (I got a closer than average look) is a dangerous agency, even enlisting/funding scientists from other national labs to assist them in their machinations -- this I know for a fact.
What bothers me most is that I always felt the covid pandemic was due to a lab leak, and with a background in biology I certainly have come across a lot of controversary over gain of function research, and it seems that is what it was. I'm reluctant to take the shots since my brother developed hemolytic anemia after one of those, a problem he has dealt with for a number of years now. Recently someone referenced the Lancet in regard to Covid and claimed Trump was mainly responsible for much if not all of the unnecessary deaths. I read their take on Trump and it was little more then a rant I heard from democrats the whole time he was in office, which doesn't surprise me, not to mention their not making note of the non-hygienic practices in nursing homes and hospitals that result in hundreds of thousands of deaths each year even prior to Covid, then add that to the mix. Also, even from an historical perspective science has always engaged in politics. As a teenager I read the Cry and the Covenant, which was on the work and observations of Semmelweis and it made me aware of the reality that the medical establishment crucified him for his findings, and did so for very political reasons.
I find it hard to argue with your view. Chris may have ranted out these other waste products of the imperial presidency. I don't recall, but he does seem to have a special rant reserved for Trump.
Hedges is correct to see Trump as the weaponized scalpel with which the Christian Right will carve up the secular state.
The Christian Right was antiestablishment before most Americans hated or feared their government, and now that the government is the property of oligarchs, the CR is the most organized and committed and equipped faction poised to seize control of the offices of social norm setting. Chris is a Protestant who was a seminarian, and this colors his worldview. He’s fiercely anti fascist, and he has connected the dots for all of us. The Christian Right are celebrants of fascism.
Yes, I have to agree on this point -- to a point. Evangelical Christianity is a bloody pox on the world because it's largely pro-Zionist, which means racist. And it's always been an anti-speech fascistic credo. And Chris is particularly -- and correctly -- implacable in his opposition. But whether Trump is its sole scalpel is open to interpretation, there being a plethora of crazies in that movement who freely claim sole access to truth and a proper moral code. They all carve bloody chunks out of the minds of the gullible; I personally have such a friend who's gone completely off the deep end.
Yes I remember the same "rant" applied from Obama until now. The apocalyptic language is not originating with Chris but Trump" all hell will break loose". The Christian Right is obsessed by apocalypse and warring saviors and this time they are way more organized. The Military, secret police, and defense contract techno billionaires are ready to tear down anything in their path. Citizens cannot even imagine representatives that represent them instead of the war machine. This is not a rant it is blunt journalistic observations. Ukraine is not Trump's war so he can afford to be for peace, though he wants the minerals and the farmland for his buddies too.
It amazes me that people like you lived through a century of wars, wars that destroyed whole countries, and are responsible for the death and displacement of millions of people, Muslims, and all in the interest of Israel. You can look it up for yourself or read Netanyahu's book, or listen to Sachs on the subject, and no doubt you will walk away with the fear of Trump in your belly. A fascist, spare me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While I am hardly a Trumper, let us not shed a single tear for The Deep State, if and to the extent Trump manages to dismantle it.
At risk of beating the Roman analogies to death, this is sort of like Marius v Sulla - there is no "good guy" here, the only question is going to be which autocrat wins out, whether you prefer the the populist Marius that tears up the old institutions or the patrician dictator Sulla that keeps up the pretense of the old forms.
I don't find this apocalyptic rhetoric benefits anyone, and these rants are no different then those provided during Trump's first term in office. I can't recall this type of rhetoric so empty of genuine information during the Biden years. I almost felt I was in church, and one that rants about the end times.
If you recall, 2016-2020 featured a lot of Eagle Flag Freedom rhetoric, while I am saying that there are no good guys here.
You may also recall that the reason Marius seized power in Rome was because the Roman Senate and existing political system made populist reform impossible. For that matter, Gaius Julius Caesar was incredibly popular with the plebes and they would have been happy for him to have become Rex. It was the upholders of the existing system that killed him.
You're right of course....now it's out in the open. The difference. No more hiding with absurd "nice," polite "decorum." The she it creature MTG ruined that word, too...logic idea on top of the other "cides." BELIEVE safe.
Just for future reference, you can easily edit your post(s) by clicking on the three dots to the far right of your name instead of replying to your post with another post. You can also delete your second post and edit your first. I have had to do so a few times now myself once I finally figured it out. Keep on posting everyone!
Trump‘s speech at the CIA headquarters at the dawn of his first administration offers a clue about the chasm between his rhetoric and the reality. His belligerence towards countries from Panama to Denmark and Greenland offer a further indication.
During the 20 years that I fought for civil liberties as a nonprofit advocate, leader, and congressional candidate, I frequently saw Democrats, journalists, and voters all ignore these issues, blinded by a foolish and ultimately catastrophic presumption of legal security. I wrote about that theme more recently. https://open.substack.com/pub/shahidbuttar/p/our-courts-cant-defend-democracy?r=97w99&utm_medium=ios
As an immigrant and constitutional lawyer, I have been forced to learn the importance of civil rights and civil liberties that most Americans have taken for granted and ultimately squandered. If anything good could come of this moment, it might be the opportunity for an ignorant nation to finally learn its own history.
Give it a year or less and you will find what living under failed capitalism is like. Americans do not know they live in an Empire. All Empires crumble and the US is well on it's way. Meaning, if you are working class or even middle class -- you are trapped.
I rented a small house on Sao Miguel (Azores). I never experienced village life before. The nature is wild and beautiful. Nothing to do, but walk and contemplate. I took buses to markets, but also found food in the village - raw milk, incense honey, small bananas, fish just off the boat. Beef is entirely grass-fed, cows grazing everywhere.. I have retirement income. In my 3rd month I was able to rent a local traditional house for 300 euros. I would be getting my residency, but the process seems overwhelming and expensive. I'm in rural California for now.
I will hold onto truth and sanity until my last breath. But I have no illusions that things will ever get better in this country that has been taken over by the bombastic billionaire barbarians. Trump and his minions will burn everything to the ground in their mindless worshipping of a criminal fascist conman and their endless quest for unlimited “wealth.” Of course the irony for the MAGA crowd is that they will be thrown overboard as well now that they voted for their own demise and that of the USA. We are all Palestinians now and will eventually meet the same fate. Call me whatever you wish (a doomer, nihilist, etc.) but the USA has become nothing but a wasteland of the free, to use the title from Iris Dement’s song from a few years ago. She nailed it.
Oh, did you feel that way when Biden was in office, a man who pushed all our Middle Eastern wars, and when president provided bombs to help Israel implement it's genocide, killing tens of thousands of women and children? A man who adopted a neocon agenda so Putin had to go, even if it meant some 6 hundred thousand Ukrainian dead? He, Biden was aways accused of having his hand in someone's pocket. Do you see Trump as more of a danger then Bush/Cheney who got the neocon agenda on a roll with millions displaced , or dead in our wars? Did you approve Cheney's black sites, or how about Guantanamo? Did you like Obama feeding weapons to the terrorist that are in charge of Syria now. . Oh, not to mention Gaddafi, and no slave markets under his watch, but they popped up once he was illegally overthrown under Obama, and he left with a sword up his ass which Clinton thought was quite amusing. We always need a scapegoat and there's always someone to provide it.
Yes I did feel that way about Biden. I called out him for everything you mentioned back when there were articles about him. Biden should be tried and jailed for his genocidal crimes. Same thing when Bush/Cheney were in office. I called all of them out. All of them should be tried and jailed. All of them have contributed to the ongoing destruction of the USA and its citizens to say nothing of those around the world. I screamed loud and long about Clinton saying we came, we saw, he died followed by a cackling laughter of evil. What Obama and Clinton did to places like Honduras was criminal. And so it goes. I actually was booted off sites like Common Dreams for calling the Dems out once again for all you mentioned. And I will call out Trump for the fucking fascist criminal conman that he is and always has been now that he is back in power. I find it amusing and sad that you keep on saying that Trump really may not be so bad and that we should give him a “chance.” I can see what and who he is and what he “cares” about. It is not the USA. The only thing he “cares” about is his unbridled greed for more and more and more and more money to fill his empty soul. And I can see his whole concern about waste and fraud and dismantling the government is nothing but a con to steal all that freed up tax money for himself and his billionaire buddies. He is nothing but another in a long line of presidents working on behalf of the oligarchs, of which he is one, that bought off the government a long time ago. But keep on falling for his lies if you wish. He is counting on it.
You are obviously highly critical of the others, and more or less reference your reasons for your distain for them, but there is a different tone, or mindset when it comes to Trump ."...and I will call out Trump for the fucking fascist criminal conman that he is and always has been now that he is back in power. Curse words come into play, hate comes into play, and identifying him as a fascist, a word you and Hedges use to define him, which is made up of many, many bad words, and aligns him with people like Hitler which Hedges used to reference him in a recent post. It's a word you did not use in referencing the others, and it is this word I call into question. Hedges basic premise is that he will be the death of us all. Well, that's just too dramatic and too far fetched for me, not to mention it was a mindset adopted before he actually stepped foot in the Whitehouse in 2017 pushed by the democrats. I am willing to see what he does, and if he does things worthy of extreme criticism, I will be there.
My tone is the same. You are just choosing to overlook it. Okay if it makes you feel better, Biden was/is a fucking genocidal monster. Bush/Cheney were/are fucking warmongering monsters. And Trump is what Hedges and I call him out for. Clearly you choose to call out Hedges and myself for using such terms. Hell, JD Vance and others called out Trump as America’s Hitler back in the day until they realized they were fine with following him as long as they got in on the con. They all knew who and what he is, yet you refuse to see that. Every word out of Trump’s mouth is grounded in hate but you gladly overlook that when he does it. I love how you choose to overlook Trump’s history of a criminal cheating people out of the money when they worked for him. His refusing to pay back millions of loans from banks and then being “forgiven” from them. On and on it goes. He is nothing but a mafia mob boss that has used intimidation to get where he is. He is a convicted felon. He has been impeached twice and rightfully so. But of course you will say it was all “political” and make excuses for him. How about all his name calling of everyone and everything like an emotional toddler. And yet you have the gall to call me out for using a couple cuss words to emphasize who and what he truly is. According to him all Mexicans are criminals. Haitians are criminals eating cats and dogs, etc. And Oh My Fucking God, what about all those dangerous trans people and drag queens. How about when Trump took out that full page ad in the New York Times regarding the Central Park Five, calling for the death penalty for those wild animals falsely accused tried and convicted for a crime it turned out they didn’t do, even after they were forced into giving confessions. Trump is literally a racist and a bigot and you are apparently fine with that. I could go on but why waste more words. And I recall one of your posts from another article referencing Trump wanting to “denuclearize” us. Funny how you overlook that during his first term in office he massively increased funding for the USA’s nuclear arsenal and to “modernize” it. He pulled us out of the Iran nuclear treaty. He also ended other nuclear treaties as well. And the best one yet, why don’t we detonate a nuke into a hurricane to make it go away. Oh, but this time he has seen the light. Nothing but more and more lies coming out of his mouth. One more thing, he will end the Ukraine war only if he gets those mineral rights. Such a moral being he is. How about ending the war because it is simply the right thing to do. But Trump can’t do that. You’ve chosen to disregard all the things he has done and you pretend to say that if he does anything worthy of “extreme” criticism you will be there. Hollow words indeed considering all he has done in the past and is currently doing now. Just what the fucking hell does the word “extreme” mean in your vocabulary? Trump is literally breaking the law right now with all the firings and eliminations of governmental departments and innocent workers. But that does not qualify as extreme apparently to you. Wow.
And finally I just truly realized that there is literally nothing too extreme that Trump could do according to you is his latest proclamation regarding the genocide in Gaza when he suggested turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” and that the Palestinians would not be allowed to return after they were forced out. That is literally the worst crime against humanity and what used to be considered a crime in international law. But you correctly called Biden out for his role in the genocide but overlook Trump’s plans for it. I’m sure he has plans for a few Hotels with his name on them along that beautiful coastline just waiting to be redeveloped. Yet that still is not extreme enough for you. Once again: WOW!
One of the few on the left I admired during Trump's first term in office was Glen Greenwald because he didn't get bogged down in a quagmire of Trump hate and lies. He was one of the few who contested the lie of Russia-gate, and met with contempt by a publication he co-founded, The Intercept. They even refused to let him publish an article critical of Biden before the presidential election, since they wanted to skew the election in his direction, as did the mainstream media. Smack of fascism to you? How about calling January 6 a riot instead of an insurrection as hundreds were led into the capital using the front door? How about the lie of Russia-gate to try and remove an elected president from office, any fascism there? I mean trying to lie an elected president out of office, and referencing his base as deplorables which represents half the American population doesn't smack of fascism to you? Just the truth, right? Did you criticize any of it. Were you active in the anti-war movement, the way I was? No, Trump wasn't perfect, lots to be critical of, but when it came to those wrong decisions he made the democrats had his back, as they did on Venezuela. You forget who the neocons chose to back, that is, those that encouraged and pushed our middle eastern wars, yeah they backed the democrats and still do. Biden was their man and didn't he push their agenda of war with hundreds of thousands dead to prove it. To me militarism abroad also defines a fascistic mindset and I haven't felt that about Trump. If he demands I say Hile Trump I'll worry.
And right on cue you overlook everything regarding Trump I posted. And I already replied about my disdain for Biden (and Obama and Clinton) and the Democrats in general. I detest both brands of the corporate oligarch uni-party who only serve their aforementioned oligarch owners. How hypocritical of you to criticize others for throwing out the word fascism regarding Trump and yet here you are throwing it all over the Democrats. Nor did I believe any of the Russia nonsense the Democrats were trying to push. And as I posted to you earlier I did criticize all what the Democrats did, including their pushing Biden as their one and only acceptable candidate. I called them out for what they are just as I am calling out Trump for who he is. But for whatever reason you still choose to overlook all of Trump’s history that I clearly posted that are factual. And here you are repeating the lie that January 6th was only a riot. Even assuming it was a riot and I don’t, Trump instigated it on a lie that the election was stolen. That is the action of a wannabe dictator refusing to abide by a fair election. But here you are wanting to give someone who did that another chance. Try to think about that for a moment. Folks who are honest saw it for what it was, a crowd that beat back and attacked the police and broke and entered windows, calling for Pence to be hung if he didn’t break the law to enshrine Trump. Hundreds were not “led” into the Capitol through the front door, they STORMED it. It was clearly an attempted insurrection that failed. And as for Trump’s proclamation regarding the Palestinian’s and turning Gaza into a playground for the rich, you are silent. SILENT! It’s interesting that you correctly call out Biden for the genocide in Gaza, but are completely silent as Trump and the Republicans were all on board and even called out for the Palestinians to all be obliterated (even babies) and/or removed from their homeland a stance just as extreme or more so than the Democrats. The worst crime against humanity there is alongside genocide is displacing a population and when it comes to Trump saying it, there is silence from you, and you say you were involved in the anti-war movement?! Trump says he wanted to unleash hell upon them. Don’t talk to us about being anti-war when you still support someone who said things like that. Like I said there is literally nothing too extreme for you when it comes to Trump. Literally nothing. It’s so strange that you refuse to see who and what Trump is and what he stands for. Trump doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything but himself. And not that you care about such things but the correct term is Heil, not Hile. And I doubt you will worry one little bit when it comes to Trump, based on your support for someone who has done the things he has so far.
These kinds of rants are non informative, tell you nothing really, and now I'll go to anti-war and get some cold hard facts. Sometimes it's good to stay in the present then perpetually go on a non stop rant of how Trump will bring about the end times, and make me feel I've unknowingly slipped into a Church that promises the same.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. We were already inescapably headed towards fascist oligarchy. Has Trump speeded things up? Perhaps.
But the pursuant chaos might paradoxically provide us with a better chance to resist. Having rudely awakened more slumbering people to the reality of America's failed democracy, maybe there is some small hope for stemming the decline and fall.
Excellent...YES! If there is even a sliver of positive thought, for me: It's ALL out in the open now...except for the genocidists Israel and USA...untouchable, I can only surmise...tip: take a listen to the music of Les Miz....
Chris. Again you’ve got me fearful and hoping I can get my Social Security tomorrow. I know there are other elderly folks like me who follow you. They and many others have
“Liked” my last comment. Now, as you point out, we are at a “do or die”
situation. So, since I’m not ready yet
to shoot myself in the head, so to speak, I’ll join my group here in Westchester and “Stand Against the
We must remain true to our core values as beautifully taught by Jesus Christ. It helps me to accept that I was not put on this earth to solve all our problems, none of us were. We were put on this earth to help those we can and to contribute to the common good.
This is the most thoughtful and deeply historical look at Trump and Christian Fascism that I have read in recent writing. Chris seems to be one of the few journalists with a clear understanding of the logic of constitutional division of powers, an understanding which is not compromised by wishful thinking, by the desire for authoritarian saviors, by partisan loyalty, or by hatred. He is clearly appalled by the failure to understand the bipartisan acquiescence to the cruel dictatorial and militaristic power structures these parties have cooperated to build or to see the appetites of the mafia creep and the diseased alliance that has taken the reigns of power.
We should remember that 80% of German protestant churches supported Hitler , with the strongest percent in rural communities. I speak as someone who deeply reveres the teachings of Jesus and abhors the violent history of those churches and leaders which betrayed those teachings to enjoy being favored servants in the hierarchy of violent nations and empires.
If the vision of truly representative, inclusive and morally consistent self government has any hope of recovering from the imperial cruelty which is our current ever more authoritarian and police state conduct it will be through a profound revolution of the soul. It will be both inward and outward and it will move us from addictive habits of fear to a grass roots reformation . For me the human soul is a moral core that transcends shallow and hypocritical labels and finds common ground in respect for our common humanity, The essence of our soul connection is to treat others as we would be treated. Where that happens there is the wonderful sufficiency of gardens, community, jokes and smiles, music and beauty. It is the power-hungry and greedy who initiate witch hunts, wars, pogroms, genocides, slavery, caste systems, and the profit-driven destruction of the living earth. These forces are at work in humans to the degree we abandon soul life for the status conferred by wealth and power, and embrace the comforts of conformity. . The struggle is in every forming heart and mind.
Where did this sick war between genocidal political parties come from? Fascism is not Nazi salutes or swastikas, though every expression of fascism offers a dozen variations on that affirmation of the imperium. It is political technology for an industrial age. It combines and distills the essential control mechanisms of thousands of years of empire in the use of spectacle, revenge and power fantasies, sexual, racial, economic and physical exploitation, the mythos and symbols of ascent triumph and dominance; it uses available media, secret police, and divide and conquer tactics, it commodifies everything and everyone.. It is about the power of organized coherence in the violent pursuit of power. It is about elimination of moral questions, honest economic and community values, philosophical questions, the arts and anything or anyone resisting its claims. But it is utterly flawed and destined for self destruction, because its premises are at war with nature and are a cancerous invasion of the soul by which life harmonizes with the deep patterning that we are part of.
Where did this sick war between genocidal political parties come from? Fascism is not Nazi salutes, though every expression of fascism offers a dozen variations on that affirmation of the imperium. It is political technology for an industrial age. It combines and distills the essential control mechanisms of thousands of years of empire in the use of spectacle, revenge and power fantasies, sexual, racial, economic and physical exploitation, the mythos and symbols of ascent triumph and dominance; it uses available media, secret police, and divide and conquer tactics, it commodifies everything and everyone.. It is about the power of organized coherence in the violent pursuit of power. It is about elimination of moral questions, honest economic and community values, philosophical questions, the arts and anything or anyone resisting its claims. But it is utterly flawed and destined for self destruction, because its premises are at war with nature and are a cancerous invasion of the soul by which life harmonizes with the deepest patterns of conscious being.
Chris Hedges writes with withering accuracy of the tempest falling upon us all as we write our words here. For how long will we be able to? sadly it is now a fact we must ponder. I'm waiting for one of the major news outlets to abruptly "go dark" soon, just before evening news time, cut into with some unfamiliar face, sternly but with Automaton-like calmness, reassuring us that they are here to inform us, to provide us with the "right" information from now on about Trump's America. This or some drastic change in the structure of the "news:. I don't think this is far fetched at all. Indoctrination, anyone? Comply or...? Yes kids, this is what a coup really looks like. Dictator on day one, huh? Well he was true to his word, but in his world, a day lasts forever. I am afraid and angry at the same time. What are our chances and hope for a democracy to ever exist?
Trump wants to be a Bonaparte. and we saw what happened to him.
In the words of Trotsky:
"By Bonapartism we understand such a regime when the economically dominant class … finds itself forced, in the interests of preserving its property, to tolerate over itself the uncontrolled command of a military-police apparatus crowned by a “savior”.
Such a situation is created in periods of particular aggravation of class contradictions:
Bonapartism is intended to keep them from exploding."
(Leon Trotsky, “More on Bonapartism,” Bulletin of the Opposition, No. 43, April 1935).
Exactly. Hedges on point. It's been very disconcerting and extremely disappointing observing other journalists with serious credentials embracing the BS presented by the current admin as, ostensibly, a purge of the deep state, a cleansing of the system. Breathtaking naivete.
Chris - correction: Protect 2025 does in fact explicitly advance the "unitary executive". As I wrote:
"One of the least talked about and most significant authoritarian threats from the Trump Administration’s “Project 2025” is what is known as the “Unitary Executive”.
Trump’s authoritarian view of his Presidential powers under the “Unitary Executive” are laid out in the first Chapter of Project 2025 “White House Office”.
Chapter 2, “Executive Office of the President Of The United States“, puts a finer point on it, and does not hide the radical authoritarian intent:
"In its opening words, Article II of the U.S. Constitution makes it abundantly clear that “[t]he executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”1 That enormous power is not vested in departments or agencies, in staff or administrative bodies, in nongovernmental organizations or other equities and interests close to the government. The President must set and enforce a plan for the executive branch. Sadly, however, a President today assumes office to find a sprawling federal bureaucracy that all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly “woke” faction of the country.
The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people."
Trump has said he wants to be a Dictator, and this is how he will do it."
Because this comment prompted a reader to smear me as a grifter off of Hedges, for the record: I've been writing about the dangers of that theory and the failure of the media to cover the issue for many years - this was written 17 years ago:
"Tired Of Bread And Circuses
The media circus conveniently (perhaps intentionally?) dodges the need to cover the ugly facts.
You know, things like the illegal “unitary executive” Bush regime, the quagmire of a war we’re now in, the fundamentalist denial of science, the collapse of the middle class, the skyrocketing cost and lack of health care for all.
The campaign coverage should be asking whether all of this unconstitutional and un-american imperial Bush overreach is going to be reformed – or replicated – by the next President in power."
After using the term "deep state" (a right wing trope akin to to "woke), this is one hell of a lame defense of government: as a barrier to fascism, not a servant of the public good:
"They see in these structures, correctly, an enemy that would stymie their absolute grip on power. It is a coup d'état by inches."
The administration was also praised earlier this month for reshuffling USAID, with many pretending that the US government’s apparatus for election interference and regime change around the world had somehow been dismantled.
"Those who believe that the government is designed to serve the common good" --- have been delusional in America . . . for quite some time.
Those with a conscience will become an enemy of the state" --- I'd amend to: "have been at odds with the central theme of prevarication in the service of greed and therefore enemies of the state's role in advancing vulture capitalism . . . for quite some time.
"Predatory corporations, such as the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, will be licensed to exploit and pillage a disempowered public." --- This likewise has been going on . . . for quite some time.
Perhaps Chris is correct that we're about to reach a new apogee of totalitarianism in America that will underline and highlight these these issues in blood red script, but I find myself almost yawning under the knowledge that this bloody country has sucked for a long long time, for most of my years living largely in protest within its borders.
When planes flew into buildings on 9/11 a very astute friend commented: “They’ll be outraged for a few days, they’ll go bomb someone, and then they’ll go back to watching television.”
Yes, this country has indeed sucked for a long time, and what it’s sucked on has been the bottomless teat of plastic information, plastic news, plastic thought. The revolution was not televised, it was Television.
But television is just a medium. It took more than that to conquer a once proud and able nation. It took advertising. Training people to believe what they’re told with promises of brighter teeth, and “free shipping”. They’ve not only manufactured consent, they got us to pay for it too.
Some of my ancestors were shipped off to the camps in 1933, and after, and you know what? They didn’t have to pay for the shipping either.
I am not now, nor have I ever been a 9/11 Truther, but I do note 9/11 proved hella convenient as an excuse to crack down civil liberties.
A very strong and accurate statement about our current state. I wish I could ague that it was not true, but I cannot. We're in deep "spit" and it's only getting deeper. I fear mostly for my children and grandchildren. And for what they may think of me, for not doing more to have prevented this...
I had a recent birthday, and a cadre of my ex-students insisted on writing me to help me get through the feeling of not doing enough which you describe. But one in particular made me feel like I did something meaningful. He heads the pharmacy dept. of a free community clinic that treats everyone regardless of ability to pay -- true universal healthcare on a small local scale. That he credited me for inspiration as his former professor made my freaking day. So my point is that we do what we can to try to seed those behind us with populist values. Loving kindness has impact.
You are blessed...and I'm not "religious"...whatever that means.
I am fully aware of your meaning, and I agree wholeheartedly. I feel extremely blessed to be remembered fondly by my former students.
Powerful. And now... they are coming first for, basically, anyone who is NOT male, white, Christian, heterosexual - then those on their "enemies list," then for journalists...who's next...please fill in the blank(s)....
Watching while the oppressed hug and kiss their masters.
George Jackson
"Acceptance of enslavement is deeply buried in the pa-thogenic character types of capitalism. It is a result of the sense of dread and anxiety which is the lot of all men under capitalist rule.
Compulsive behavior and disordered obsessional longings are actually made synonymous with “charac- ter” in our disordered society.
But to emphasize these conditions before examining the institutions from which they spring is to confuse effect with cause and further cloud the point of attack.
So far, cultural analysis has established that the psychosis is so ingrained, the institutions so centralized, that what is needed is total revolution, the armed struggle between the have-nots with their vanguard and the haves with their hirelings or macabre freaks that live through them….”
George Jackson, Bood in my Eye, Classes at War
https://archive.org/stream/GeorgeJacksonBloodInMyEye_201512/George%20Jackson%20-%20Blood-in-My-Eye_djvu.txt
Perhaps this, if anything.
But perhaps things gone too far in the way that George Jackson describes, in the acceptance of enslavement.
Can we regain the awareness that people had in (dwindling) living memory?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Rfkhg7s_M
The days of industrial unionism, Bill. The material conditions are present for the rise of labor and the rise of the working class. It is the subjective element that is missing -- class consciousness. We can only hope, or better said, work for the same. I think we crossed the Rubicon. But one must fight where they are.
Absolutely spot on. Masters of the twisted prose approach to mind capture; and oh mama, the gold-plated plasticene prevarication has worked so well.
This seems like no more then another apocalyptic Trump rant, common from Hedges during Trump's first term in office, and the Nazi's will be hear soon. It addresses nothing in particular, like the war in Ukraine, no specifics on what is going on in Palestine, Israel, just another attack on Trump, and no facts needed, as if he is addressing a flock of believers. Do you remember a rant like this when it came to Biden, or Obama, or even Bush/Cheney?
I'm a Hedges supporter for decades, but skeptical of his reading the tea leaves re a Trump authoritarian dictatorship. Chris unfortunately proved himself a less than perfect observer by his obtuse refusal to see Covid and the death vax for the DOD created bioweapons many of us understood them to be early on. His perception of the DeepState, to my knowledge, has failed to call out their ideological Eugenics underpinnings, a driving force (along w profits) in creating ineffective, intentionally unsafe and deadly concoctions of poisons deceptively labeled vaccines and callously imposed on a relentlessly propagandized, deceived, fearful, and unwitting public.
As a teacher of immunology -- one of the areas for which my former students thank me -- I must admit that Chris' view of the COVID fiasco left me quite disappointed. You want a scary upshot of this ridiculous crap. The effing CDC has an mRNA COVID shot on the roster for NEONATES. This makes me completely bloody homicidal toward these a-holes. Are you freakin' kidding me? -- brain neurogenesis, adding final neurons (nerve cells) to the newborn brain, occurs during that first year of life; and they want to put a foreign nucleic acid into the nuclei of these new brain cells, which will occur because the damned lipid nanoparticles deliver the mRNA into every cell, every cell nucleus. To call this irresponsible is to be euphemistic. Fuck the FDA, CDC, and NIAID as presently constituted. RFK and Jay Battacharya need to deliver a nuclear warhead into HHS to wake up these mofos to the idea that we are not experimental animals. And entirely stop funding anything even remotely resembling bioweaponry.
And Chris also drank the Team Blue climate cult kool-aid like a camel who had just crossed the Sahara. Also disappointing.
I tend to take Hedges analysis for Trump this time, but I note the above Covid stuff, and the 9/11 acceptance (which Nader agreed with). The information I've received is both are probably caused by our intelligent services, DARPA, and DoD..
You are on target, my friend. DARPA, (I got a closer than average look) is a dangerous agency, even enlisting/funding scientists from other national labs to assist them in their machinations -- this I know for a fact.
What bothers me most is that I always felt the covid pandemic was due to a lab leak, and with a background in biology I certainly have come across a lot of controversary over gain of function research, and it seems that is what it was. I'm reluctant to take the shots since my brother developed hemolytic anemia after one of those, a problem he has dealt with for a number of years now. Recently someone referenced the Lancet in regard to Covid and claimed Trump was mainly responsible for much if not all of the unnecessary deaths. I read their take on Trump and it was little more then a rant I heard from democrats the whole time he was in office, which doesn't surprise me, not to mention their not making note of the non-hygienic practices in nursing homes and hospitals that result in hundreds of thousands of deaths each year even prior to Covid, then add that to the mix. Also, even from an historical perspective science has always engaged in politics. As a teenager I read the Cry and the Covenant, which was on the work and observations of Semmelweis and it made me aware of the reality that the medical establishment crucified him for his findings, and did so for very political reasons.
I find it hard to argue with your view. Chris may have ranted out these other waste products of the imperial presidency. I don't recall, but he does seem to have a special rant reserved for Trump.
Much, infinitely, deserved rant...
Hedges is correct to see Trump as the weaponized scalpel with which the Christian Right will carve up the secular state.
The Christian Right was antiestablishment before most Americans hated or feared their government, and now that the government is the property of oligarchs, the CR is the most organized and committed and equipped faction poised to seize control of the offices of social norm setting. Chris is a Protestant who was a seminarian, and this colors his worldview. He’s fiercely anti fascist, and he has connected the dots for all of us. The Christian Right are celebrants of fascism.
Yes, I have to agree on this point -- to a point. Evangelical Christianity is a bloody pox on the world because it's largely pro-Zionist, which means racist. And it's always been an anti-speech fascistic credo. And Chris is particularly -- and correctly -- implacable in his opposition. But whether Trump is its sole scalpel is open to interpretation, there being a plethora of crazies in that movement who freely claim sole access to truth and a proper moral code. They all carve bloody chunks out of the minds of the gullible; I personally have such a friend who's gone completely off the deep end.
Yes I remember the same "rant" applied from Obama until now. The apocalyptic language is not originating with Chris but Trump" all hell will break loose". The Christian Right is obsessed by apocalypse and warring saviors and this time they are way more organized. The Military, secret police, and defense contract techno billionaires are ready to tear down anything in their path. Citizens cannot even imagine representatives that represent them instead of the war machine. This is not a rant it is blunt journalistic observations. Ukraine is not Trump's war so he can afford to be for peace, though he wants the minerals and the farmland for his buddies too.
It amazes me that people like you lived through a century of wars, wars that destroyed whole countries, and are responsible for the death and displacement of millions of people, Muslims, and all in the interest of Israel. You can look it up for yourself or read Netanyahu's book, or listen to Sachs on the subject, and no doubt you will walk away with the fear of Trump in your belly. A fascist, spare me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too bad the minerals and farm
land belong to Russia now.
spot on.
This comment is better than Hedges’ essay. Thank you
Thank you!
While I am hardly a Trumper, let us not shed a single tear for The Deep State, if and to the extent Trump manages to dismantle it.
At risk of beating the Roman analogies to death, this is sort of like Marius v Sulla - there is no "good guy" here, the only question is going to be which autocrat wins out, whether you prefer the the populist Marius that tears up the old institutions or the patrician dictator Sulla that keeps up the pretense of the old forms.
I don't find this apocalyptic rhetoric benefits anyone, and these rants are no different then those provided during Trump's first term in office. I can't recall this type of rhetoric so empty of genuine information during the Biden years. I almost felt I was in church, and one that rants about the end times.
If you recall, 2016-2020 featured a lot of Eagle Flag Freedom rhetoric, while I am saying that there are no good guys here.
You may also recall that the reason Marius seized power in Rome was because the Roman Senate and existing political system made populist reform impossible. For that matter, Gaius Julius Caesar was incredibly popular with the plebes and they would have been happy for him to have become Rex. It was the upholders of the existing system that killed him.
Still no discussion of... ONGOING GENOCIDE. Are we already in hell and don't know it? (metaphorically, of course)
You're right of course....now it's out in the open. The difference. No more hiding with absurd "nice," polite "decorum." The she it creature MTG ruined that word, too...logic idea on top of the other "cides." BELIEVE safe.
No damn text...BE SAFE
Just for future reference, you can easily edit your post(s) by clicking on the three dots to the far right of your name instead of replying to your post with another post. You can also delete your second post and edit your first. I have had to do so a few times now myself once I finally figured it out. Keep on posting everyone!
Perfect! 👍thank you...didn't know....be safe
I wrote a post reaching a similar conclusion last week, observing both the long-standing crimes of our nation’s so-called “intelligence” agencies and the belligerence of the new president. https://open.substack.com/pub/shahidbuttar/p/wow?r=97w99&utm_medium=ios
Trump‘s speech at the CIA headquarters at the dawn of his first administration offers a clue about the chasm between his rhetoric and the reality. His belligerence towards countries from Panama to Denmark and Greenland offer a further indication.
During the 20 years that I fought for civil liberties as a nonprofit advocate, leader, and congressional candidate, I frequently saw Democrats, journalists, and voters all ignore these issues, blinded by a foolish and ultimately catastrophic presumption of legal security. I wrote about that theme more recently. https://open.substack.com/pub/shahidbuttar/p/our-courts-cant-defend-democracy?r=97w99&utm_medium=ios
As an immigrant and constitutional lawyer, I have been forced to learn the importance of civil rights and civil liberties that most Americans have taken for granted and ultimately squandered. If anything good could come of this moment, it might be the opportunity for an ignorant nation to finally learn its own history.
It is too late. The memory hole buried the history. The sophists distorted it. The ruling class created it.
I too am a public interest lawyer for more than 40 years.
There is no legal remedy under current circumstances.
The game is rigged as it always has been, but this time with turmoil no one can even realize.
“Those that have the power to make you believe absurdities also have the power to make you commit atrocities.”
--- Voltaire
”Politics is the means by which men without principles lead men without memory.”
Voltaire (allegedly).
Maybe AI will save us in the final analysis. I think I'm leaving the West and hoping that autocracy elsewhere is of a softer brand.
I too wish to leave the 'West'. But alas, am trapped. The wall was built to keep us in as much as to keep those out.
Why are you trapped? Is it your own mind?
Give it a year or less and you will find what living under failed capitalism is like. Americans do not know they live in an Empire. All Empires crumble and the US is well on it's way. Meaning, if you are working class or even middle class -- you are trapped.
The Azores (Portugal) are wonderful and much cheaper.
Lol. I visited Portugal just last summer but not Azores. Maybe something for me to look into.
I rented a small house on Sao Miguel (Azores). I never experienced village life before. The nature is wild and beautiful. Nothing to do, but walk and contemplate. I took buses to markets, but also found food in the village - raw milk, incense honey, small bananas, fish just off the boat. Beef is entirely grass-fed, cows grazing everywhere.. I have retirement income. In my 3rd month I was able to rent a local traditional house for 300 euros. I would be getting my residency, but the process seems overwhelming and expensive. I'm in rural California for now.
I will hold onto truth and sanity until my last breath. But I have no illusions that things will ever get better in this country that has been taken over by the bombastic billionaire barbarians. Trump and his minions will burn everything to the ground in their mindless worshipping of a criminal fascist conman and their endless quest for unlimited “wealth.” Of course the irony for the MAGA crowd is that they will be thrown overboard as well now that they voted for their own demise and that of the USA. We are all Palestinians now and will eventually meet the same fate. Call me whatever you wish (a doomer, nihilist, etc.) but the USA has become nothing but a wasteland of the free, to use the title from Iris Dement’s song from a few years ago. She nailed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjHcbSVmYs
Oh, did you feel that way when Biden was in office, a man who pushed all our Middle Eastern wars, and when president provided bombs to help Israel implement it's genocide, killing tens of thousands of women and children? A man who adopted a neocon agenda so Putin had to go, even if it meant some 6 hundred thousand Ukrainian dead? He, Biden was aways accused of having his hand in someone's pocket. Do you see Trump as more of a danger then Bush/Cheney who got the neocon agenda on a roll with millions displaced , or dead in our wars? Did you approve Cheney's black sites, or how about Guantanamo? Did you like Obama feeding weapons to the terrorist that are in charge of Syria now. . Oh, not to mention Gaddafi, and no slave markets under his watch, but they popped up once he was illegally overthrown under Obama, and he left with a sword up his ass which Clinton thought was quite amusing. We always need a scapegoat and there's always someone to provide it.
Yes I did feel that way about Biden. I called out him for everything you mentioned back when there were articles about him. Biden should be tried and jailed for his genocidal crimes. Same thing when Bush/Cheney were in office. I called all of them out. All of them should be tried and jailed. All of them have contributed to the ongoing destruction of the USA and its citizens to say nothing of those around the world. I screamed loud and long about Clinton saying we came, we saw, he died followed by a cackling laughter of evil. What Obama and Clinton did to places like Honduras was criminal. And so it goes. I actually was booted off sites like Common Dreams for calling the Dems out once again for all you mentioned. And I will call out Trump for the fucking fascist criminal conman that he is and always has been now that he is back in power. I find it amusing and sad that you keep on saying that Trump really may not be so bad and that we should give him a “chance.” I can see what and who he is and what he “cares” about. It is not the USA. The only thing he “cares” about is his unbridled greed for more and more and more and more money to fill his empty soul. And I can see his whole concern about waste and fraud and dismantling the government is nothing but a con to steal all that freed up tax money for himself and his billionaire buddies. He is nothing but another in a long line of presidents working on behalf of the oligarchs, of which he is one, that bought off the government a long time ago. But keep on falling for his lies if you wish. He is counting on it.
You are obviously highly critical of the others, and more or less reference your reasons for your distain for them, but there is a different tone, or mindset when it comes to Trump ."...and I will call out Trump for the fucking fascist criminal conman that he is and always has been now that he is back in power. Curse words come into play, hate comes into play, and identifying him as a fascist, a word you and Hedges use to define him, which is made up of many, many bad words, and aligns him with people like Hitler which Hedges used to reference him in a recent post. It's a word you did not use in referencing the others, and it is this word I call into question. Hedges basic premise is that he will be the death of us all. Well, that's just too dramatic and too far fetched for me, not to mention it was a mindset adopted before he actually stepped foot in the Whitehouse in 2017 pushed by the democrats. I am willing to see what he does, and if he does things worthy of extreme criticism, I will be there.
My tone is the same. You are just choosing to overlook it. Okay if it makes you feel better, Biden was/is a fucking genocidal monster. Bush/Cheney were/are fucking warmongering monsters. And Trump is what Hedges and I call him out for. Clearly you choose to call out Hedges and myself for using such terms. Hell, JD Vance and others called out Trump as America’s Hitler back in the day until they realized they were fine with following him as long as they got in on the con. They all knew who and what he is, yet you refuse to see that. Every word out of Trump’s mouth is grounded in hate but you gladly overlook that when he does it. I love how you choose to overlook Trump’s history of a criminal cheating people out of the money when they worked for him. His refusing to pay back millions of loans from banks and then being “forgiven” from them. On and on it goes. He is nothing but a mafia mob boss that has used intimidation to get where he is. He is a convicted felon. He has been impeached twice and rightfully so. But of course you will say it was all “political” and make excuses for him. How about all his name calling of everyone and everything like an emotional toddler. And yet you have the gall to call me out for using a couple cuss words to emphasize who and what he truly is. According to him all Mexicans are criminals. Haitians are criminals eating cats and dogs, etc. And Oh My Fucking God, what about all those dangerous trans people and drag queens. How about when Trump took out that full page ad in the New York Times regarding the Central Park Five, calling for the death penalty for those wild animals falsely accused tried and convicted for a crime it turned out they didn’t do, even after they were forced into giving confessions. Trump is literally a racist and a bigot and you are apparently fine with that. I could go on but why waste more words. And I recall one of your posts from another article referencing Trump wanting to “denuclearize” us. Funny how you overlook that during his first term in office he massively increased funding for the USA’s nuclear arsenal and to “modernize” it. He pulled us out of the Iran nuclear treaty. He also ended other nuclear treaties as well. And the best one yet, why don’t we detonate a nuke into a hurricane to make it go away. Oh, but this time he has seen the light. Nothing but more and more lies coming out of his mouth. One more thing, he will end the Ukraine war only if he gets those mineral rights. Such a moral being he is. How about ending the war because it is simply the right thing to do. But Trump can’t do that. You’ve chosen to disregard all the things he has done and you pretend to say that if he does anything worthy of “extreme” criticism you will be there. Hollow words indeed considering all he has done in the past and is currently doing now. Just what the fucking hell does the word “extreme” mean in your vocabulary? Trump is literally breaking the law right now with all the firings and eliminations of governmental departments and innocent workers. But that does not qualify as extreme apparently to you. Wow.
And finally I just truly realized that there is literally nothing too extreme that Trump could do according to you is his latest proclamation regarding the genocide in Gaza when he suggested turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” and that the Palestinians would not be allowed to return after they were forced out. That is literally the worst crime against humanity and what used to be considered a crime in international law. But you correctly called Biden out for his role in the genocide but overlook Trump’s plans for it. I’m sure he has plans for a few Hotels with his name on them along that beautiful coastline just waiting to be redeveloped. Yet that still is not extreme enough for you. Once again: WOW!
One of the few on the left I admired during Trump's first term in office was Glen Greenwald because he didn't get bogged down in a quagmire of Trump hate and lies. He was one of the few who contested the lie of Russia-gate, and met with contempt by a publication he co-founded, The Intercept. They even refused to let him publish an article critical of Biden before the presidential election, since they wanted to skew the election in his direction, as did the mainstream media. Smack of fascism to you? How about calling January 6 a riot instead of an insurrection as hundreds were led into the capital using the front door? How about the lie of Russia-gate to try and remove an elected president from office, any fascism there? I mean trying to lie an elected president out of office, and referencing his base as deplorables which represents half the American population doesn't smack of fascism to you? Just the truth, right? Did you criticize any of it. Were you active in the anti-war movement, the way I was? No, Trump wasn't perfect, lots to be critical of, but when it came to those wrong decisions he made the democrats had his back, as they did on Venezuela. You forget who the neocons chose to back, that is, those that encouraged and pushed our middle eastern wars, yeah they backed the democrats and still do. Biden was their man and didn't he push their agenda of war with hundreds of thousands dead to prove it. To me militarism abroad also defines a fascistic mindset and I haven't felt that about Trump. If he demands I say Hile Trump I'll worry.
And right on cue you overlook everything regarding Trump I posted. And I already replied about my disdain for Biden (and Obama and Clinton) and the Democrats in general. I detest both brands of the corporate oligarch uni-party who only serve their aforementioned oligarch owners. How hypocritical of you to criticize others for throwing out the word fascism regarding Trump and yet here you are throwing it all over the Democrats. Nor did I believe any of the Russia nonsense the Democrats were trying to push. And as I posted to you earlier I did criticize all what the Democrats did, including their pushing Biden as their one and only acceptable candidate. I called them out for what they are just as I am calling out Trump for who he is. But for whatever reason you still choose to overlook all of Trump’s history that I clearly posted that are factual. And here you are repeating the lie that January 6th was only a riot. Even assuming it was a riot and I don’t, Trump instigated it on a lie that the election was stolen. That is the action of a wannabe dictator refusing to abide by a fair election. But here you are wanting to give someone who did that another chance. Try to think about that for a moment. Folks who are honest saw it for what it was, a crowd that beat back and attacked the police and broke and entered windows, calling for Pence to be hung if he didn’t break the law to enshrine Trump. Hundreds were not “led” into the Capitol through the front door, they STORMED it. It was clearly an attempted insurrection that failed. And as for Trump’s proclamation regarding the Palestinian’s and turning Gaza into a playground for the rich, you are silent. SILENT! It’s interesting that you correctly call out Biden for the genocide in Gaza, but are completely silent as Trump and the Republicans were all on board and even called out for the Palestinians to all be obliterated (even babies) and/or removed from their homeland a stance just as extreme or more so than the Democrats. The worst crime against humanity there is alongside genocide is displacing a population and when it comes to Trump saying it, there is silence from you, and you say you were involved in the anti-war movement?! Trump says he wanted to unleash hell upon them. Don’t talk to us about being anti-war when you still support someone who said things like that. Like I said there is literally nothing too extreme for you when it comes to Trump. Literally nothing. It’s so strange that you refuse to see who and what Trump is and what he stands for. Trump doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything but himself. And not that you care about such things but the correct term is Heil, not Hile. And I doubt you will worry one little bit when it comes to Trump, based on your support for someone who has done the things he has so far.
You will not hear me praise Biden.
These kinds of rants are non informative, tell you nothing really, and now I'll go to anti-war and get some cold hard facts. Sometimes it's good to stay in the present then perpetually go on a non stop rant of how Trump will bring about the end times, and make me feel I've unknowingly slipped into a Church that promises the same.
I'm not sure how your copypaste is responsive, but go on.
They are their own executioners
Holy shit! What a great song!
Thanks for posting the link.
Chris, it's a difficult truth you tell, but it is the truth.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. We were already inescapably headed towards fascist oligarchy. Has Trump speeded things up? Perhaps.
But the pursuant chaos might paradoxically provide us with a better chance to resist. Having rudely awakened more slumbering people to the reality of America's failed democracy, maybe there is some small hope for stemming the decline and fall.
Excellent...YES! If there is even a sliver of positive thought, for me: It's ALL out in the open now...except for the genocidists Israel and USA...untouchable, I can only surmise...tip: take a listen to the music of Les Miz....
Chris. Again you’ve got me fearful and hoping I can get my Social Security tomorrow. I know there are other elderly folks like me who follow you. They and many others have
“Liked” my last comment. Now, as you point out, we are at a “do or die”
situation. So, since I’m not ready yet
to shoot myself in the head, so to speak, I’ll join my group here in Westchester and “Stand Against the
Trump Regime”!
Linda
We must remain true to our core values as beautifully taught by Jesus Christ. It helps me to accept that I was not put on this earth to solve all our problems, none of us were. We were put on this earth to help those we can and to contribute to the common good.
Empire by another name...
This is the most thoughtful and deeply historical look at Trump and Christian Fascism that I have read in recent writing. Chris seems to be one of the few journalists with a clear understanding of the logic of constitutional division of powers, an understanding which is not compromised by wishful thinking, by the desire for authoritarian saviors, by partisan loyalty, or by hatred. He is clearly appalled by the failure to understand the bipartisan acquiescence to the cruel dictatorial and militaristic power structures these parties have cooperated to build or to see the appetites of the mafia creep and the diseased alliance that has taken the reigns of power.
We should remember that 80% of German protestant churches supported Hitler , with the strongest percent in rural communities. I speak as someone who deeply reveres the teachings of Jesus and abhors the violent history of those churches and leaders which betrayed those teachings to enjoy being favored servants in the hierarchy of violent nations and empires.
If the vision of truly representative, inclusive and morally consistent self government has any hope of recovering from the imperial cruelty which is our current ever more authoritarian and police state conduct it will be through a profound revolution of the soul. It will be both inward and outward and it will move us from addictive habits of fear to a grass roots reformation . For me the human soul is a moral core that transcends shallow and hypocritical labels and finds common ground in respect for our common humanity, The essence of our soul connection is to treat others as we would be treated. Where that happens there is the wonderful sufficiency of gardens, community, jokes and smiles, music and beauty. It is the power-hungry and greedy who initiate witch hunts, wars, pogroms, genocides, slavery, caste systems, and the profit-driven destruction of the living earth. These forces are at work in humans to the degree we abandon soul life for the status conferred by wealth and power, and embrace the comforts of conformity. . The struggle is in every forming heart and mind.
Where did this sick war between genocidal political parties come from? Fascism is not Nazi salutes or swastikas, though every expression of fascism offers a dozen variations on that affirmation of the imperium. It is political technology for an industrial age. It combines and distills the essential control mechanisms of thousands of years of empire in the use of spectacle, revenge and power fantasies, sexual, racial, economic and physical exploitation, the mythos and symbols of ascent triumph and dominance; it uses available media, secret police, and divide and conquer tactics, it commodifies everything and everyone.. It is about the power of organized coherence in the violent pursuit of power. It is about elimination of moral questions, honest economic and community values, philosophical questions, the arts and anything or anyone resisting its claims. But it is utterly flawed and destined for self destruction, because its premises are at war with nature and are a cancerous invasion of the soul by which life harmonizes with the deep patterning that we are part of.
Where did this sick war between genocidal political parties come from? Fascism is not Nazi salutes, though every expression of fascism offers a dozen variations on that affirmation of the imperium. It is political technology for an industrial age. It combines and distills the essential control mechanisms of thousands of years of empire in the use of spectacle, revenge and power fantasies, sexual, racial, economic and physical exploitation, the mythos and symbols of ascent triumph and dominance; it uses available media, secret police, and divide and conquer tactics, it commodifies everything and everyone.. It is about the power of organized coherence in the violent pursuit of power. It is about elimination of moral questions, honest economic and community values, philosophical questions, the arts and anything or anyone resisting its claims. But it is utterly flawed and destined for self destruction, because its premises are at war with nature and are a cancerous invasion of the soul by which life harmonizes with the deepest patterns of conscious being.
Chris Hedges writes with withering accuracy of the tempest falling upon us all as we write our words here. For how long will we be able to? sadly it is now a fact we must ponder. I'm waiting for one of the major news outlets to abruptly "go dark" soon, just before evening news time, cut into with some unfamiliar face, sternly but with Automaton-like calmness, reassuring us that they are here to inform us, to provide us with the "right" information from now on about Trump's America. This or some drastic change in the structure of the "news:. I don't think this is far fetched at all. Indoctrination, anyone? Comply or...? Yes kids, this is what a coup really looks like. Dictator on day one, huh? Well he was true to his word, but in his world, a day lasts forever. I am afraid and angry at the same time. What are our chances and hope for a democracy to ever exist?
Trump wants to be a Bonaparte. and we saw what happened to him.
In the words of Trotsky:
"By Bonapartism we understand such a regime when the economically dominant class … finds itself forced, in the interests of preserving its property, to tolerate over itself the uncontrolled command of a military-police apparatus crowned by a “savior”.
Such a situation is created in periods of particular aggravation of class contradictions:
Bonapartism is intended to keep them from exploding."
(Leon Trotsky, “More on Bonapartism,” Bulletin of the Opposition, No. 43, April 1935).
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/09/idtd-a09.html
I honestly have no idea how this is going to go.
Trump is making a huge push, and nobody is stopping him on anything.
Unfortunately, I think Mr. Hedges is accurate in how he depicts the next steps. Quite horrendous to imagine, particularly as a Canadian.
All we can do is be the good we wish to see in the world. The rest is out of our control.
I hope this psychosis does not last forever.
Exactly. Hedges on point. It's been very disconcerting and extremely disappointing observing other journalists with serious credentials embracing the BS presented by the current admin as, ostensibly, a purge of the deep state, a cleansing of the system. Breathtaking naivete.
Chris - correction: Protect 2025 does in fact explicitly advance the "unitary executive". As I wrote:
"One of the least talked about and most significant authoritarian threats from the Trump Administration’s “Project 2025” is what is known as the “Unitary Executive”.
Trump’s authoritarian view of his Presidential powers under the “Unitary Executive” are laid out in the first Chapter of Project 2025 “White House Office”.
Chapter 2, “Executive Office of the President Of The United States“, puts a finer point on it, and does not hide the radical authoritarian intent:
"In its opening words, Article II of the U.S. Constitution makes it abundantly clear that “[t]he executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”1 That enormous power is not vested in departments or agencies, in staff or administrative bodies, in nongovernmental organizations or other equities and interests close to the government. The President must set and enforce a plan for the executive branch. Sadly, however, a President today assumes office to find a sprawling federal bureaucracy that all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly “woke” faction of the country.
The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people."
Trump has said he wants to be a Dictator, and this is how he will do it."
Let me know if anyone wants the link to the full post.
Because this comment prompted a reader to smear me as a grifter off of Hedges, for the record: I've been writing about the dangers of that theory and the failure of the media to cover the issue for many years - this was written 17 years ago:
"Tired Of Bread And Circuses
The media circus conveniently (perhaps intentionally?) dodges the need to cover the ugly facts.
You know, things like the illegal “unitary executive” Bush regime, the quagmire of a war we’re now in, the fundamentalist denial of science, the collapse of the middle class, the skyrocketing cost and lack of health care for all.
The campaign coverage should be asking whether all of this unconstitutional and un-american imperial Bush overreach is going to be reformed – or replicated – by the next President in power."
(NO LINK PROVIDED!!!!!!)
After using the term "deep state" (a right wing trope akin to to "woke), this is one hell of a lame defense of government: as a barrier to fascism, not a servant of the public good:
"They see in these structures, correctly, an enemy that would stymie their absolute grip on power. It is a coup d'état by inches."
The administration was also praised earlier this month for reshuffling USAID, with many pretending that the US government’s apparatus for election interference and regime change around the world had somehow been dismantled.
https://issuechronicle.substack.com/p/the-washington-power-structure-rewrites