The Late Summer Battle Over White Supremacy

Labor Day is nearly upon us, and once we're past that milestone, I expect this battle will fade away, much like summer stories of sharks and missing white women.

The Hurricane Season will be upon us. A new Imperial war will break out somewhere. The economy will tailspin once more. The poor will rise up and be put down with ferocity and brutality.

Himself will keep the pot stirred and bubbling. Media will be transfixed by it all.

And the questions of Confederate Statues and White Supremacy and Nazis with torches will vanish as if they were never asked.

The white supremacist right has already gone into nearly total retreat. Their efforts to "engage" as it were turned into a nightmare in Charlottesville, and a farce in Boston. The idea that they would show strength by marching and rallying in San Francisco (hahhahhah) went bust when Antaifa said they'd cover Crissy Field, the rally site, with dog doo doo.  Dear me. So impolite.

Dozens and dozens of white rightist rallies have been canceled, it seems, while the white supremacists have been banished from the internet and must find what comfort they can with the pedophiles and freaks of the so-called "darknet."

While the Overclass can't seem to do anything worthwhile about Trump and his gang of thieves and mountebanks, they seemingly can -- and have -- put the kabosh on any more of this Nazi unpleasantness (too bad that girl had to die, they say, but her sacrifice was not in vain.)

Unlike a lot of white kids, I was not exposed to the active white supremacist community until I was old enough to make a judgment of its value. I lived my first ten years in mixed company so to speak, integrated communities and schools where the concepts of white supremacy and separation of the races didn't exist.

Well, except that white supremacy was taken for granted. The default as it were.

We may have lived in an integrated environment, but all civic and higher authority was held by whites, and nobody questioned it. At least not until the mid-fifties and later when Civil Rights became a Thing.

White people were not only in charge, they set all the cultural, educational, governmental, and scientific standards.

For all intents and purposes, it's still that way. And it's not likely to change anytime soon.

There are plenty of chinks in the armor to be sure, and white supremacists including  the tiny Nazi contingent whine and complain incessantly about the suppression of Wypipo by those ever-present hordes of Others -- Brown and Black and Not Quite White Enough -- who always want to rape their women and steal their stuff. Yes, yes, we know.

But the Overclass is not having it. Not this time. No way.

Interesting.

So, they'll go away after Labor Day; Antifa will too. It will all be like a dream as Shit Gets Real once again, and who knows what fresh hell we'll be presented with? Who knows?

Why the "Alt-Right" Is Not All Right

America, we have a problem. A growing problem of rising white rightist reactionaries. The so-called "Left" is in such disarray in this country that there is no effective counter to the organized ideological racist reactionary pressure of the white right/Nazis.

We've seen this before.

The problem is thatwhat passes for a "Left" wants to argue, sometimes even rationally argue, with these violent assholes, when their interests are not at all rational but are deeply seated emotional appeals. There is no effective rational counter to it.

Let me repeat that: There is no effective rational counter to it.

This is why so much of Europe and much of the rest of the world fell under the fascist/Nazi spell in the interwar period of the 20th Century. It was simply easier and more emotionally satisfying to go along with it than to fight it. Besides, fascists and Nazis generally protected corporate interests (so long as the corporations went along with the program) as opposed to what the dreaded Communists were doing.

So. Here we are again.

Even our neo-liberal overlords have no counter to the rise of the right. Some, of course, embrace them. What is better for effective looting and control of the masses than the endless theatrical spectacles the rightists engage in and scapegoating minorities for the losses the white underclasses inevitably endure? Works like a charm, and it works almost every time.

Until it doesn't.

And then it's all hell all the time.

I say stop it now, but the ruling class cannot and will not. They will accommodate themselves to it, just as we've seen increasing mainstream accommodation to Trump in the last six months. "As long as he doesn't go too far, what's to worry, right?"

Nothin' a-tall.

The mess will continue. Even if we get a respite for a while, once this Pandora's Box is opened, it's a bitch to close again.

Strap in or secure your bunker. This won't end soon, and it won't end well.

It's How They Know Their Own

[Side note: it's been well over a week since I had the second infusion treatment with Ritrxan, and so far, knock my wooden head, I have not experienced a flare or even any pain to speak of associated with RA. I'm astonished and pleased. Let's see if this lasts.)

I've been seeing signs of consolidation of the White Rightist cohorts among us. I try not to follow it too closely because it is genuinely toxic to living things, but they seem to have an extensive and spreading presence online -- probably always been there but I didn't notice -- and a  genuine belief that "now is our hour."

Hm.

Of course we've known for a long time that the State will crush any perceived threat from the (so-called) Left with extreme prejudice. We've seen it happen over and over, two recent examples being the Occupy movement and the NoDAPL actions in North Dakota.

The violence inherent in the system was on full display -- as a means of educating the masses to know and stay in Their Place, subservient and obedient to their Betters.

But we note with interest that no such violent repression of white rightist/supremacist agitation takes place. Bluntly, the State tends to molly-coddle white rightists, most clearly apparent during the arrest of Dylan Roof in Carolina (which one, I forget at the moment), for the murder of so many black Bible students at the Mother Emmanuel Church. The police treated him with kid gloves and took him to Burger King because he was hungry.

That's the way it goes. It''s one way we know where we are, and who is important to the Powers That Be.

What I've noticed recently (well, since before the election) is a significant uptick in white rightist propaganda and violent rhetoric, not solely online but penetrating the mainstream news media as well.

I guess I'm lucky to live in a rural area that voted for Trump overwhelmingly (something like 70%) but which so far mostly rejects as ridiculous the white-rightist thrust of Trumpism. An exception down the road about ten miles (in Santa Fe County, for criminy sakes) is a cracker household that proudly flies the Stars and Bars (multiple examples fluttering in the wind beside the interstate) and appears to be trying to recruit more of its ilk to The Cause.

So special.

Of course flying the Stars and Bars is one way these people can know their own. For a few days before the election, some dude flying a huge Stars and Bars flag from the back of his pick up was frequenting a local park -- maybe to recruit, I don't know-- but he disappeared fairly quickly, and I doubt he found much support.

A rallying cry for many white rightists seems to be "You will not replace us," perhaps a co-optation of "He will not divide us" that was frequently heard among anti-Trumpists  (particularly among those participating in Shia LeBeouf's project).

Other means of knowing their own include incessant references to "globalists," "Clintonites," "Snowflakes" and mockery of "identity politics," "safe spaces" and other "liberal" ideas primarily confined to the academic realm.

While I think it is stupid, it is surprisingly effective. Or maybe not so surprising. They are by no means a majority, far from it -- except in certain regional enclaves. (The irony being their belief that their enemies -- all "he" live only in coastal enclaves.)

They get their news -- such as it is -- from Fox, Breitbart, Stormfront, the Red Elephants and the like.
They believe a wide range of falsehoods and seem to be especially frightened of the Clintonites who rule the world, mostly through their tentacles in academia and the Deep State.

They may have a point about some of what they fear, but they have no answers except paranoia and more and more frequently murder.

Is this what we're coming to?

Looks like it.

Poison

Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out -- Robert Graves, "I, Claudius"

And boy are the poisons hatching out. They're lying on the surface rotting. What a whirled.

One of the mantras of the neoLibCon rule we've suffered from for decades is "Never let a crisis go to waste." Indeed, precipitating crises for the benefit of the Overclass has become an art form. We've been subjected to one shock after another after another and another.  And every time, the wealth and power of Our Rulers is enhanced at the expense of everyone else.

So it has been, so it is now.

Mythology of the Trump Regime got going long before the (s)election. A commonly held myth (at least on the internet) is that Trump and his crony capitalists will end the rule of neoLibCons, once and for all. Their failed ideology will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

It must be comforting to believe that; it doesn't make sense, but it makes some folks feel good to think so.

It's part of the extensive list of rationalizations, apologetics, and defenses that Trump loyalists have developed over the course of the campaign and since the (s)election.

The talking points are practically Iron Law now. They are repeated over and over and over again, even when Himself contradicts something he said or promised or indicated previously. The talking points are adjusted to accommodate the "new information" but the core of the propaganda and defense of Trump continues unabated.

And the poisons continue to  hatch out of the mud.

Another internet shibboleth has to do with "taking off the masks" and "pulling back the curtain."

Trumpology is very similar to Kremlinology in that one has to infer from personnel and actions what policies may be in play. As far as the Trump loyalists are concerned, the masks remain firmly on, the curtain carefully conceals what's behind.

For the rest of us... it's something else again. We see with clear eyes and ultimate horror what is going on and what lies in store for the Rabble at home and abroad.

The old rules, which were cruel rules, have been suspended while the robbers, destroyers and madmen plunder and pillage at will.

We, the Rabble, are left defenseless to squabble among ourselves over what is going on and what to do about it. Or not.

That is a key to understanding just how poisonous this situation is. Without defenders, we lash out against all and sundry, blindly blaming and scapegoating whoever/whatever is the most convenient target for our rage and wrath.

The poisons of racism and white supremacy are spreading out from their hiding places. The poison of cruel disinterest in the well-being of others has reached the boiling point. The poison of scapegoating has nearly overwhelmed common sense and rational understanding. The poison of externalizing fear and hatred and targeting designated Others -- be they Muslims, Mexicans, Russians, Chinese, or whomever, wherever -- pervades both "sides" of the political spectrum. Anyone or any group can become a target at any time.

His minions can't wait to do his bidding.

The poisons are hatching out, festering, rotting, stinking up the place.

[I realize that this post is disjointed and less inclusive than I meant it to be. Maybe something more is on the way. We'll see.]

White Rightists, King-Emperors, and the Führerprinzip

I'm not sure whether a coup is underway, but the outlines of one have taken shape. A powerful faction of the Ruling Clique, how large of one it is impossible to say, has issued a challenge and a series of threats to the out-group faction that won ("won") the election and is preparing to shift the ship of state onto an uncharted course of unbridled corruption, destruction and rapine.

There is no precedent for anything they are setting out to do. The consequences, if they are not stopped or controlled, intrinsically threaten the survival of the Republic (already on its last legs), and could result in an extinction level of harm to Americans and people around the world. (Again, not that such a fate hasn't been bruited about for a generation or more.)

Something must be done about it, and fast.

The agencies that have lined up in opposition to the imposition of Trumpivism on the nation and the world -- an opposition retailed as some kind of Russian interference in the election just past -- are not among the most highly regarded by the public. The CIA has one of the most wretched reputations for bad thinking, lies, and destructive conduct of any in US history. It has operated effectively as a shadow government since its formation after WWII. While there are few brakes on CIA activities abroad, it can assert a powerful influence on domestic government; it has the power to change who is in charge through various means, including the Kennedy Solution.

One messes with it and its affiliated agencies at one's peril.

Apparently Mr. Trump has chosen to mess with it.

OK then.

We'll see what happens. I'm not particularly sanguine that the opposition agencies will win the contest with Mr. Trump and his loyalists, but we'll see.

A way to understand what's going on is through the lens of White Supremacy and the White Rightist conception of how the United States and the world should be run.

I have no doubt whatever that Mr. Trump and his chief loyalists and followers are steeped in the belief system of White Supremacy. It's the foundation of their identity. We've been seeing a resurgence in White Supremacy, White Identity, and White Rightist and Nationalist political ideology throughout Western Europe and North America especially since the advent of the Obamas in the White House, but it has never not been a factor in the political economies of Western Europe and their colonial and post colonial enterprises around the world, including the United States and Canada of course. Let's not forget Russia as part of the White Rightist world.

White Supremacy and White Rightism is always there, but it has been submerged in very public efforts to be inclusive and promote ethnic, racial and cultural diversity within the context of White Supremacy.

The context doesn't change. Who gets to participate and to what extent does.

Once included, it's hard for formerly excluded groups and individuals to let go of their seat at the table, and that's part of why there is so much public anxiety about the advent of the Trumpist faction to power. He and his loyalists have made quite clear that the party's over for the inappropriately included (interpreted, I believe correctly, as non-white.) He has explicitly targeted numerous minority groups he regards as unworthy. Scapegoating is de rigueur. One almost has to be white (and preferably male) or be seen as a non-white acceptable to white men to be included in the Trumpist vision of the New America. Loyalty and obedience are the essential factors affecting inclusion; race and gender are subsidiary but crucial factors.

The Republic has been on its death bed for some time, the coup de grace administered by the Supreme Court decision handing the presidency the Busheviks in the interest of "equal protection." It was bullshit, unconstitutional, and it was a coup. Yet by and large, Americans accepted it with relatively minor protest and grumbling. What could they do? A lot more than they did do, but the Rules of Politeness and Patriotism were more important at the time than fighting for what was right.

It was clear from the outset that the Bush Regime would be catastrophic for Americans and peoples around the world, and so it was. We are still living with the consequences. My generation will never escape them.

The Obama regime mitigated some of the worst aspects of the Bushevik catastrophe but didn't really change any of its fundamentals. It was obvious from the beginning that his job assignment was to con and soothe the Rabble and prevent, channel, or crush any revolt -- while the looting and destruction continued with little let up.

Hillary was supposed to continue the program with some slight revisions in emphasis.

Trump has overturned the status quo in a way; in another way, he's announced his intention to shift the existing program of looting and destruction into hyperdrive. In other words, the current program isn't producing enough rewards for the worthy people and it produces too much reward for the unworthy. Priorities and targets for exploitation and destruction will change, the world will witness and tremble.

Among White Rightists, Nationalists and Supremacists, there is a near worshipful regard for Trump and extreme levels of hope for his commitment to restoring Whiteness to its rightful position of superiority over the lower orders. Cluestick: there has never been a time in the colonial and post-colonial era when Whiteness hasn't been privileged in the Western European/North American context. Never. But that doesn't register with white people who sense an existential threat to them from the very presence of non-whites.

This White Supremacist worship is being exploited by Trump and his cronies to the fullest extent they can without triggering too much of a response from the lower orders. One of the ways they exploit it is by assuming a quasi-royal mantle (the Busheviks were masters at it) by which the title of President serves as a stand in for what it really is --- modern day King-Emperor. After all, Trump summons his potential barons and earls to his gold-plated palaces for interviews (palaces that strangely and discordantly resemble Saddam's "Republican Palaces" most of which were destroyed in Bush's war of aggression, but some of which were preserved intact and are part of the American and Iraqi puppet presence there.)

It's a matter of style over substance, but there's little reason to doubt that Trump intends to rule as if he were a King-Emperor, and his loyalists and cronies are fully on board with it. Why not make explicit what has long been implicit, after all?

There's another element that seems obvious to me, but is otherwise widely unrecognized. It is the concept of Führerprinzip -- the "leader principle" -- commonly ascribed to the Nazi rule of the German Reich, but much more widely believed and exercised than merely during that episode of unpleasantness.

I pointed out that it was part of the belief system of Arnold Schwarzenegger as he assumed the mantle of California's governorship after defeating Gray Davis in that recall back in 2003. He strongly believed in his rightness and unbridled authority because of his personality, power and position. The fact was, like so many who have been raised to power over the years, he was incompetent and was unable to rule as he wished because of powerful forces aligned against him, and the ability of some of those forces to more and more easily influence his rule as they took his measure and exploited his many weaknesses. By the time his wife left him, he was little more than the tool of other interests.

I doubt that would happen with Trump. Not because he's competent. Not at all. But because he has carefully tended his authoritarianism and knows how to use it against rivals and enemies. This is part of his conman and gangster persona. He acts as an implicit -- and sometimes explicit -- threat to any disloyalty or disobedience. This in turn shapes the behavior of both his loyalists and opponents. These threats are clearly meant to be taken seriously. And for the most part they are.

The Führerprinzip presents the Leader as the center and source of all law, policy, and political action. This is of course totally at odds with the traditional power-relationships of the Republic, but the Republic has been on life-support for a long time. The transition to a hegemonic imperial state guided and ruled by a Leader is merely a detail in the march of progress, no? Call him a dictator, a king, an emperor, a president or Führer, it hardly matters. In the conception of many authoritarians, it doesn't matter. They're all essentially the same thing.

Trump may face opposition from Congress, the judiciary, and many elements of the security state and the military, but he seems to have convinced the private sector elites to go along with him at least for the time being.

After all, they're getting richer by the minute. What do they have to lose?

As for the Rabble, enough of them are happy enough to be ruled; and too many don't care. On the other hand, Their Betters care no a whit what happens to the Rabble. They are mostly surplus anyway.

Meanwhile, this is a dangerous and unstable situation. Those who manage and impose the rule of the government and take action for and against governments overseas are rationally alarmed at what might be coming, and Trump has gone out of his way to antagonize them.

How they will respond is anyone's guess at this point, but what's happened in the past is that the security state and the presidency have found accommodation with one another through  various forms of unpleasant negotiations. We'll see whether accommodation is found this time.

I'm not looking forward to the outcome.

White Men Behaving Badly

This is just one example of threats, harassment and violence that Indians in North Dakota have faced for many a long year. It's nothing new. But this incident was posted yesterday, and it reflects the attitude of some -- maybe most -- white residents of the area near Standing Rock toward the Water Protectors and their campaign against the Black Snake, as the pipeline has been called.



The precipitating cause is easy enough to figure out. It's not so much the actions of the Water Protectors against the pipeline.

It is that the Indians refuse to yield to White Supremacy on demand.

This is what is so threatening to white men, and this is what is at the root of the violence by "law enforcement" against the Water Protectors. The refusal to yield on demand to White Supremacy and to obey the orders of (mostly) white men in and out of "law enforcement" is seen as an existential threat by these same men. They call it "aggression." Any challenge to the authority of white men is considered a threat to "civilization."

This is what goes on in Indian Country almost all the fucking time. This is what too many Indian people live with day by day.

And this Caucasian Id, as I call it, has been unleashed by deliberate incitement from a presidential candidate who is expecting to swan into the White House come January, and it is being used by white folk against phantom enemies who "threaten" them.

Like "law enforcement" in North Dakota, though, they are not under threat, nobody is threatening them, nobody is harming them, nobody wants to harm them. But we've seen how violent and insane "law enforcement" becomes when they believe there is a threat from the Indians and allies in the struggle over the pipeline. Water Protectors may be doing nothing but standing there, existing in space, and "law enforcement" will interpret that as a threat to be neutralized. And they do, as brutally  and violently as they choose. All because "law enforcement" is afraid.

That extends to white men and some women in the general population as well. They believe they have the intrinsic authority to order and compel the Other -- be it an Indian or any other Other -- to do as they demand, and to punish disobedience or refusal -- because they are deemed by their God "superior."

That's what White Supremacy is.

The example here presented has probably been repeated hundreds of times during the actions in North Dakota against the pipeline, repeated by random white folks as well as "law enforcement" whose ultimate purpose is to enforce White Supremacy, not the law.

The Coming Reversion to White Supremacy "When America Was Great"

This was one of the most glaring consistencies of the Trump campaign, one that a lot of people recognized.  Some supported it, some were simply baffled, others were outraged, but seemingly no one not on board with a full on restoration of White Supremacy as it used to be ("When America Was Great") knew or knows how to deal with it.

Most of the physical attacks we're hearing and reading about during the campaign and since the election are over this factor of Trumpism more than anything else.

Claims have been made that because "the protesters" were not in the streets during the campaign, the current nationwide protests against the elevation of Trump to the presidency are hypocritical and invalid. The claim that there were no protests is false and galling, but that's the kind of thing that Trump partisans and loyalists are known for. The Big Lie is one of their favored tactics, and it comes right from The Man himself.

What also comes from him is the unshakable belief in White Supremacy. Sometimes he couches it benignly and more or less kindly, other times, not so much. But essentially all of his threats and insults during the campaign and since have come directly out of a White Supremacist playbook which asserts that White males, particularly those of the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic heritage (hm, he himself, eh?), are innately superior and meant to rule over everyone else. Bow down.

Let's face it, this is how the United States and its colonial predecessors were organized and operated from the get go until very recently.

The dismantling of White Supremacy as the operating philosophy of the American government and society has only been under way since the mid-Sixties. It isn't complete by any means, and I don't think there was ever an intent to completely eliminate White Supremacy. Simply boxing it in as one of a number of notions about superiority and inferiority was thought to be sufficient unto the day. As long as there was an apparent and conscious effort by the government and throughout society to overcome the inherent prejudices of White Supremacy everything would work out fine.

Now we're about to enter into an era of reversion to the way White Supremacy operated as recently as the 1950s and even later.

Let's understand: this is the era Trump came up in, and this the last heyday of unchallenged White Supremacy in this country. Truman's desegregation of the armed forces in 1947 marked the death knell, but it would take another generation of struggle to begin to overcome some of the many, many impediments to the self-determination and self-worth of non-whites in America, a struggle that is by no means complete.

It is a task that has never been fully accomplished, but baby-step by baby-step, progress has been made -- along with a lot of back-sliding.

Trump and his loyalists and cult followers have essentially said, "Throw that all away, it didn't work. Go back to what did work, the way it used to be when America was great."

I've benefited from White Supremacy all my life but I've also felt the sting of White Rage toward any non-conformity. Oh my yes. Conformity is one of the hallmarks of White Supremacy. It's not simply that whites are superior, it is also that whites themselves have to fit into a standard of conformity determined by their Betters or face The Wrath. Any deviation or disobedience can cause untold trouble.

As for Others, ie: the Inferiors according to the tenets of White Supremacy, they essentially only exist to serve the interests of their white overlords. They live on the sufferance of their white overlords. They can be dispatched at will. We see the contemporary operations of this way of thinking in the violent actions of police in and against communities of color. The often arbitrary killing and violence by police against people of color -- and anyone else who is considered to be disobedient or a threat -- is right out of the White Supremacist playbook, what I call the Caucasian Id.

The whole structure of White Supremacy, at least as it's operated in this country, depends on the presence of inferior victims. Order is maintained by declaring and oppressing inferiors. As a rule, those inferiors have no recourse to authority when they are victimized. When that's taken away, as it largely has been in civil society -- though not in the "justice" realm -- disorder is the inevitable result. Without inferiors to oppress, there can be no "order" in a White Supremacist society, at least not the way it works in the United States.

Thus Trump and his cohort have targeted a whole range of non-whites (and women and nonconformist whites) for open oppression. Thus, too, the violence we've seen from Trump loyalists and random white people against people of color and non-conformist whites. It's an integral part of the way White Supremacy works.

People who have a heritage and history of being victims of White Supremacy instinctively recognize what this man and his cohort are setting out to do, where their social theories of superiority and inferiority inevitably lead. It's no mystery at all. We've been there before, we've barely emerged from it, and only partially at that.

Many Trump loyalists and cult followers insist they cannot understand the fear that's gripped targeted individuals and communities. "My goodness! You're overreacting to liberal fearmongering! Nothing has happened to you. Nothing bad will happen to you. Just settle down and go along with the program. You'll be fine."

Right.

How many times have victimized communities and individuals been told exactly that? And how many times has it led to assaults and worse against them? And that's exactly what targeted communities and individuals were told during the unpleasantness that swept Europe in the 15 years or so before I was born.

We've been down this road before. Those of us with any critical thinking skills and historical memory at all know where it leads. And those of us who are fighting this reversion to type, if you will,
have no intention to yield to our "superiors" -- not this time.

I think back to the origins of the Progressive Era and how it operated on a White Supremacist foundation. One of the first civic efforts at being "Progressive" was that of Galveston, TX after the devastation of the hurricane of 1900. Essentially the prior governmental operating system was scrapped. An appointed manager and commission was installed to replace the authority of the elected and arguably corrupt city council. Blacks were disenfranchised right off, as they were considered too inferior to make informed decisions. Rule was through the city manager and the commission, the elected representatives were essentially ceremonial. But only whites could vote for them.

If this sounds familiar it should. For Galveston's Progressive revision of civic government became the pattern for Progressive city governments all over the country. Many cities, in fact most, still operate on this system (in most cases without the commission), though in most the wholesale disenfranchisement of Inferiors has been eliminated. Now only certain Inferiors are disenfrachised. (Felons, those without proper ID, blah-blah.) The number of categories that result in disenfranchisement has been expanding recently, however. We saw that at a minimum hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of Americans were prevented from voting in the most recent election due to purges, incomplete voter registration rolls ("We're so sorry, your name isn't on the list. [Smile!]"), onerous ID requirements, and so on. Media mentions the remarkable decline in Democratic voter turn out in this most recent election but few connect that with active voter suppression efforts in exactly those places where largely Democratic voters were functionally denied the ability to cast a vote that would be counted (provisional ballots rarely are.)

In some places, particularly in parts of Michigan, "emergency managers" -- much like Galveston in 1900 -- have been appointed to rule cities in place of elected representatives whose function is reduced to a ceremonial one if they have any function at all. Even black people can still vote for them, but they have no authority. Voters in Michigan rejected this form of rule thumpingly, but it didn't matter. The state imposed it anyway.

The United States is notorious for its system of disparate "justice", arresting, convicting and locking up black and brown men and boys in particular far out of proportion to their commission of crimes and their population. In addition, the United States maintains the most bloated jail and prison system on earth, an abomination in itself by any rational standard.

What I'm saying is that we've been on a path toward the restoration of White Supremacy as it will come to be under Trump for a long time. He isn't innovating much, merely continuing what's been under way since Reagan's presidency.

Democrats have gone along with it for the most part. Sometimes they might slow it down a bit or jigger this or that aspect, but there have been very few objections among the political class of either party, and only muted objections from the rank and file.

It's simply untrue that targeted communities and individuals didn't object to what's been going on during every administration since Reagan's, but as I say, the Big Lie is a consistent factor in the New America being put together right now.

The acceleration of what's been going on since Reagan to restore White Supremacy as it used to be is apparent however. For those on the target list it's terrifying.

Who knows what it will mean or how exactly it will be implemented, but don't expect more than token resistance by the political class.

We're on our own.

The Democratic Party Is Irrelevant

I saw Bernie on Charlie Rose last night. As he always does, he made a strong case for his policies and programs that he believes would control Wall Street greed and uplift the working class, curb the police state, and inspire confidence in America around the world. All well and good, but by pleading with Trump to do the right thing, he's essentially declared the Democratic Party irrelevant.

Of course.

Democrats have been yielding power to the Rs for decades, truly since Reagan, but they weren't so savvy about wielding power after Nixon defeated Humphrey either. Nixon was practically a Communist compared to Trump, and the Republicans in Congress in Nixon's day weren't anything like today's radical reactionaries who call themselves Republicans. But Nixon's election signaled the end of the New Deal/Great Society coalition headed by Democrats and progressives, and the coming reversion to prior theories of what it was appropriate for government to do.

As things have devolved from that point, the Democratic Party has reverted more and more to its roots as an aristocratic and deeply conservative party not particularly intent on rule so much as it is on influence. Democrats have adopted populist and/or progressive positions periodically throughout the long history of the Party, but they've also been perfectly willing to throw them away.

During the most recent campaign for president, it appeared that Hillary was attempting to pull off something Democrats have long yearned for -- the union of the Democratic Party with top level Republican "moderates," those Republicans who had rejected Trump.

I think she thought she had achieved her objective, but lo and behold, she hadn't. The R "moderates" went right back to the fold once Trump was declared the victor. The power that Rs can wield by holding the White House and both houses of congress is truly intoxicating,  They won't let this moment pass unexploited. Oh no.

Trump's apparent EC victory was stunning because it wasn't expected or planned for. The shock waves ran through the Ruling Clique, just as they did through the media and the public; it was in its own way an even greater shock than the Supreme Court's lawless interference in 2000 to give the presidency to GW and his bloodthirsty cohort. It makes no sense, and it is "illegitimate" from the get. Just as GW's elevation was. GW was forced upon an unwilling but also largely unresistant public and he caused the very horrors his opponents warned he would. Wars and economic collapse being the highlights -- or lowlights as the case may be.

Democrats, to their undying shame, did not serve as an opposition party but were instead enablers, co-conspirators, and willing victims. Even when they were given back Congress in 2006 they sat on their hands and essentially pretended that everything was OK, and Bush and Company would not be more than ritually challenged. For some, it was a shocking revelation: Democrats were useless.

And in 2008 when Obama was elected in a landslide and congress had a filibuster proof Democratic majority, guess what? Obama's prime objective was rehabilitating the Rs, resuscitating them from their near-death experience, and carrying on the Republican lite programs and policies the Ds had been notorious for since the victory-debacle of 2006.

To say the public was disappointed is to put it gently, and the Ds were given their punishment in 2010. The interesting thing to me is that the Ds didn't even try to reverse the trend. They essentially conceded state houses all over the country without a fight, knowing full well that by doing so, Republican gerrymandering would ensure R political dominance for at least ten years and possibly much longer than that. The Ds knew what would happen and they let it, if they didn't actually help engineer it.

They lost most of their Congressional majority as well.

As long as they had the White House, apparently the Ds didn't care. Of course the policies which essentially favored Rs, Wall Street, and the financial elites were enacted right and left (intentional pun) to the horror of many Americans who simply wanted fairness and justice from their government and got something else entirely. Disappointment? Ha.

Government obviously was totally out of the hands of the public, governing contrary to the public interest was the operating theory of both parties, and for all intents and purposes, there was no alternative. NeoLibCon capture was complete.

There was nothing We the Rabble could do about it. Elections in 2012, 2014 and now 2016 confirmed the People's powerlessness.

But this time, instead of the stability and continuity that would have been Hillary's direction in office, we get another shock to the system, equivalent to, maybe even greater than that of 2000, and literally nobody knows for sure where we go from here. I'm convinced that's designed and deliberate, not an accident of the voters' unexpected preference. I think the voters had very little to do with it. And it is obvious from Hillary's increasing, indeed unprecedented, lead in the popular vote (now up above 1,000,000 it seems and headed toward 2,000,000 maybe even 3,000,000 or more) that the voters chose stability and continuity -- even if they didn't like Hillary -- not whatever radical upheaval is in the works.

But it doesn't matter. What the voters want in any given election is of no interest or consequence to the Ruling Clique. They want what they want, and they will get it by hook or crook. The trouble is, until the outcome was announced, they obviously wanted stability and continuity, though not for the same reasons the public did.

So what happened?

Somebody or some faction which could do so pulled the plug.

Given the tiny margins in some of the battleground states that switched the outcome, and given the exit polls showing a substantial Hillary victory in those same states -- much like Gore's exit poll victory in Florida which was conveniently overruled -- it's pretty obvious that the count was interfered with (somehow) by a faction that wanted shock and destabilization rather than stability and continuity.

Crisis-opportunity, right?

Crisis=Opportunity.

We've been through this so many times, we should understand it by now. And we should have some way to counter it. But no.

Every time is like the first time. "Whut?!" And the cycle repeats over and over.

That is one of the ways Our Rulers keep their grip on power no matter the wishes of the public.

But it's a factional rulership, not a monolith, and the factions are constantly contending for the upper hand.

The fact that Hillary, Obama, and nearly all the Democratic hierarchy went along with the... odd... outcome without question and rank and file Democratic office holders are stunningly mute about it indicates to me -- having observed these things over the years and having had an inside view of DP operations for a while in California -- that the Dems really don't care, never did, and as far as they're concerned, it's no problem -- for them. In other words, they're useless and irrelevant as a political opposition, for they do not oppose; they enable.

Of course I and many others have known that for years, but seeing it so obviously presented in this case is still a shock.

But that's the intention.

Shock the public and get away with god knows what while they're fighting among themselves.

Works every time.

So far anyway. This time it may run into a few speed bumps, but what needs to happen are spike strips at least.

That can happen if the results in the battleground states are investigated thoroughly enough to discover the kind of jiggering I suspect went on. But I don't see that on any agenda. I don't think anybody wants to do it for fear of what they'll find. This is essentially complicity in fraud but that's hardly unusual in American politics and elections.

If it were discovered that the results actually were jiggered in Trump's favor just enough to clinch the EC, that would essentially cancel the election. The whole thing, the vote in its entirety would have to be reviewed (which wouldn't bother me) and the transition schedule would be thrown into chaos. What would be found would likely be appalling to everyone. One shock would follow another. Our Rulers would find that unacceptable because the whole system would shudder and potentially collapse. A crisis indeed, but one which the Wrong People could use as an Opportunity. The Wrong People being the Rabble.

The Rabble want fairness, justice, economic comfort/prosperity for themselves, and a sense of self-worth. Our Rulers do not want the Rabble to have those things because if they do, they can't be exploited to the extent they must be to please and pleasure their Betters.

What the Trump cabal appears to be preparing to do is to restore White Supremacy pretty much as it was in the 1950s and before, as a sop to some of the Rabble to make them think they're getting what they want while exploiting and robbing them to the hilt.

It's a nasty tactic, but it worked back in the day, so I suspect the Trumpists think it will work again. Why not?

The rest of the Rabble, the ones who will suffer the most under this scheme, "deserve their punishment" according to the principles of White Supremacy. They are inferior. Period. End of discussion. Some of them are Good Mexicans, Good Darkies and such, and so they can be rewarded, but the rest? They're lucky to be alive, they can bow down and shut up. Or leave. Or die. Their choice.

No, this isn't Nazi-ism or straight on Fascism. This is the way the US was ruled and operated from its origin until the mid Sixties and LBJ's Great Society when many of the disabilities imposed on Out Groups began to be removed.

The Trumpists want to restore America's Greatness by reverting to the white supremacist principles that they believe made America "great" in the first place.

Whether the Ruling Clique is down with that, I don't know. Some of the factions aren't, but some are.

The Democrats, in the end, though, will go along with whatever faction wins.

The Rabble can have a say, if they take the reins and force the issue, but in the meantime, the Trump cabal can get away with a lot of mischief while the issue of White Supremacy is serving to distract the masses.

Oh, these people know how to run cons all right, and they know most people are marks. Breaking free of this crap is what the People need to do. Whether they or we can, I dunno....

More later. I'm tired.