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?
Showing posts with label Wypipo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wypipo. Show all posts
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Butthurt Wypipo UPDATED
White nationalist alt-right torchlit march going through UVA grounds: "you will not replace us" pic.twitter.com/QS8ebI9XOW— Tim Dodson (@Tim_Dodson) August 12, 2017
"YOU. WILL NOT. REPLACE US!!!!!"
Some wag posted on the Twitter Machine: "Jews will not replace us!"
Well, isn't that special.
They are, these butthurt Wypipo, marching in their torchlight multitudes, whining about their loss of privilege-- even though they haven't lost a damn thing -- and complaining about the removal of yet another Confederate hero's statue from the public square.
"YOU WILL NOT REPLACE US!!!"
Yes, well. We'll see about that, won't we?
A great deal is being made about the various torchlight parades by the butthurt Wypipo called the alt-Right -- Steve Bannon's bros, Stephen Miller's compaes, the "Base" as it were-- primarily it seems to me to whip up fears of a Rising by US whites against the brown and black hordes of "Mud People" trying to submerge them in immigrant tides, yadda yadda. And it's all a load of codswallop.
All of it.
And so they march and try to cause a ruckus at the University of Virginia over the impending removal of the equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee (genuflect). Oh well. Put it in museum, eh? Like the statues of Lenin.
It's interesting to me that these butthurt Wypipo have chosen to take their stand in the protected safe spaces of universities and colleges. How clever of them. Assured of lots of coverage. And assured they will be... safe.
Be not afraid of these cowards.
BE NOT AFRAID.
UPDATE:
Of course running down the protesters on a pedestrian mall was quite an escalation of the animosity and mutual anathemas between Antifa and the Nazis.
RebelutionaryZ was there and more or less captured it on his live feed (he was pretty rattled, no wonder, and the camerawork was not stable at crucial moments, but slack must be cut):
[RebZ apparently took down his video of the crash because it was being used without attribution or permission by CNN and others.]
So here's TMZ's video:
http://www.tmz.com/2017/08/13/charlottesville-car-attack-terrorist-white-supremacist-rally/
Nevertheless, BE NOT AFRAID.
STAND UP, FIGHT BACK.
As an antidote: DON'T BE A SUCKER
Thursday, June 1, 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Militant Blond People
 |
| Solvang in the 50s |
Many years ago the theater where I was working opened a new venue in Solvang, CA, "The Danish Capital of America."
I'd been there maybe once or twice in my life. It was off of Highway 101, near Mission Santa Ynez, Flag Is Up Farms, and other Santa Barbara County agricultural and tourist attractions. You turned off at Buellton, home of Pea Soup Anderson's, than which nothing was more quintessentially old time California tourist-trappy.
Solvang, of course, being ethnic and proudly so, beat them all. But wait... This is California, a multi-ethnic paradise, no? Agricultural California, where they raise horses, broccoli, strawberries, grapes, etc. Where field workers are almost all Mexican, and where Mexican American heritage is very prominent.
Or so one would think.
Not in Solvang, no sir. Where Mexicans and Mexican Americans have been almost entirely expunged. Well, the woman who cleans your room at the King Frederik or Royal Copenhagen Inn prolly speaks Spanish only and is brown as a berry (call her "Maria"), but that's OK. You don't hear her speak or see many (any?) of her kind on the streets.
Instead you see many blondes. Many, many blondes. Most of them natural, too. Few seemed to get their glowing yellow locks from bottles, at least not back then. Not in Solvang.
I was in Solvang when the Queen (Margarethe) was slated to arrive for a royal visit. I believe it was the first time a Danish monarch had come to Solvang, and the streets were festive with bunting and flowers. Everyone was in their finest duds. Well, I was working, so my duds weren't by any means the finest, but somehow I wound up on the royal receiving line anyway, and to my great surprise, Her Majesty and Her Consort (Prince Henrik) -- both young and attractive -- made their way to me and greeted me in perfect English ("How do you do?"). I may have nodded my head, but I did not bow. Many of those waiting to greet the Queen did. Deep bows, deep curtsies, many in native costume with fancy headdresses and knee britches.I think all I said was "Your Majesty" -- and that was that.
The royal couple toured the town, cheered by flag-waving militant blonds lining the streets. They sampled aebleskivers and pickled herring, heard school children sing for them, and met with town and county worthies.
Then they were gone, and I went back to work.
There was a show to put on. Not "Hamlet," too bad. In fact, though I have a vague memory of an actor-friend all in black declaiming over the skull of Poor Yorick, I don't think we ever produced a "Hamlet" in Solvang. Or maybe anywhere at all.
I know we did "Peer Gynt" and some musical -- "Guys and Dolls?". I dunno. Can't say. I know we were up till four in the morning tech-dressing "Peer" and it still didn't work right. The opening was not a total disaster, but it didn't work as well as anyone hoped. Shoulda done "Hamlet."
Anyway, what I remember most about Solvang, apart from evening chill and architectural folly (phony stork nests, anyone?) was all the blond people... everywhere... you couldn't escape them. Some were Viking-ish, others more along the lines of Brunhilda, and some could pass for copies of the then popular Danish, umm, adult movie stars. It just didn't seem like California at all -- and I think that was the point.
Take us out of our ordinary existence and transport us to little corner of Europe where everything was festive and gay (in its earlier meaning) and people were blond and sturdy and sang and danced in ethnic costume before tucking into a smorgasbord.
All without leaving California.
As it happened, I wasn't into blonds much. Nothing against them, but just didn't find them particularly interesting or attractive, either on the screen, on stage, or in life. So I never much cared for Solvang, and wouldn't have anyway for any number of reasons, but the militant blond people clinched the deal for me. To the extent I could, I stayed away after that initial foray, and I think I've only been back once or twice with theater friends in ensuing decades.
This is more the reality of Central Coast California for too many people, then and now
 |
| Migrant Mother, 1936, by Dorothea Lang |
The photo was taken a little way up the road in Nipomo, where pea picking was under way.
Seeing all the militant blonds facing off against Antifa in Berkeley triggered some of these memories. I never felt that the blonds of Solvang were in any way threatening, but there was -- as I'm sure there still is -- a sense of separation between them and the hordes of brown people surrounding them. Something of a siege mentality, even if it was masked by tourist-welcome. That's kind of what these militant white rightist and fascist blonds up in Berkeley like to portray. "Wypipo Under Siege."
Well, they're not, not really, and that's part of why all this hoo-hah over the rise of the White Right is a bit overblown. Much is made of it, but it's not as much of a Thing as The Narrative would have us believe.
White folks are mostly just fine, and no one is trying to oppress them. Not even all those years they suffered under the Kenyan Socialist Usurper were as oppressive as they want to make it out.
The only point I try to make is that it doesn't take a lot of militants of any stripe to throw things into chaos and potentially take over. It's a risk complacent people need to be aware of. But they largely aren't.
While I'd keep my eye on the rise of the Militant White -- and very blond -- Right, I don't fear it. For all their bluster, they aren't very bright. Of course book smarts isn't the key, is it? It's emotion, determination, and action.
Solvang is an enclave of blondness. Perhaps we'll see the rise of certain other ethnic enclaves as the political situation continues to deteriorate.
Some people are just too frightened of The Other to live in a multi-ethnic community I guess...
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Rich Wypipo
I've been poor most of my life, either dirt poor and sometimes literally starving, or on the margins of it, or living as if such poverty would be my fate tomorrow. And for the most part, one learns to cope, one learns to do without, and one discovers that there's not a lot of material things that one really needs in one's life to live well. Many of my poor friends over the years learned these lessons much better than I did and could not only live poor with style, they could live poor with utter grace and serenity, too.
They were some of the kindest and most generous people I ever knew.
Even now, when (knock wood) I'm relatively well-off in retirement (in that Ms Ché and I have sufficient income to give a good deal of it away) we live simply, in an ancient and somewhat ramshackle pioneer adobe house in a tiny Central New Mexico ranching and farming community among people who are the salt of the earth, most of them not as well off as we are, with a very few ricos, mostly old ranching families from pioneer days, who share more qualities with the Rabble of the area than most of them do with their hot-headed peers in ranching and agriculture outside the region.
On the other hand, because of the kind of work I've done and the kind of life I've led, I've known a lot of urban rich people, rich Wypipo for the most part (a handful of blacks, browns and Asians thrown in to the mix), and I think I got to understand them reasonably well.
Trump is an aberration because he's so overt. But his perspective and behavior, and his many bizarre and largely false beliefs are not that different than those of many (most) members of his class. They are in my experience quite a despicable lot overall, the few and far between exceptions proving the rule.
They are selfish, greedy, cruel, self-obsessed, exploitative, aggressive, competitive with one another and typically they are wrong about everything or just about everything.
They live in a special bubble of their own creation, served by toadies and flatterers, deigning to part with their good will (and sometimes money) when and if they observe sufficient loyalty and obedience from their suppliants.
They are for the most part insecure as hell.
They loathe and fear the masses.
They want to be loved but believe they are hated. Often enough they're right about that.
Many spend their lives and much of their wealth in a futile quest for self-protection, obsessing on "security," with ever thicker walls, ever higher gates, ever more vicious dogs and guards to protect them from imagined (sometimes real) outlaws out there who were coming to take their stuff and rape their wives and daughters.
They believe sincerely that We the Rabble hate and envy them so much that if it weren't for their own layers of protection and it weren't for the government suppressing revolt, we'd all flood their mansions and offices and take everything they have.
As if what THEY have were the most important things in OUR lives.
They aren't. But don't tell them that. It might upset them even more.
"Generosity" among these people is almost entirely based on what they will get out of the deal -- how prominent their names will be, what sort of perks their beneficiaries deliver, and so on. New rich often see the notion of "generosity" as simply silly and have used it as a scaffold and opportunity for further exploitation of the despairing and downcast masses and the further enrichment of themselves.
They are ugly, ugly people, with no souls in my estimation.
There are exceptions, but they are often marginalized among their own peers. The "good ones" are laughed at by most of their class, called names behind their backs ("Saint" this or that) and otherwise mocked.
Trump is very open about these things whereas most of his class are socialized to obscure their natures -- at least in the company of people who are not like them.
What shocks me about the current situation is that so many people who should know better apparently don't recognize that Trump is what so many members of his class wish they were or could be. He's public about his crazy; no filters or shields. Right out there as a vicious, violent, cruel and despicable representative of his class -- yes, most of them in my experience are like Trump when you peel back the curtain -- who now has (almost) all the Power of the Great And Grand United States Government at his fingertips.
Oh my god in heaven, THINK of the possibilities! Gasp!
People who should know better think he's a one off. He isn't. They think his actions and success will somehow lead to a reaction from the Left, or something like it, that will result in some sort of Worker Paradise -- or at least something better than we have -- one day.
One. Fine. Day.
But first, destroy the Democrats. The Paradise will come once the Democrats are destroyed, the Clintoons are hung from lampposts, and Trump succeeds in overthrowing the NeoLibCon paradigm. As if that were his intent or goal.
It's insanity.
Of course Trumpism and the apotheosis of his class can be defeated.
Start here:
They were some of the kindest and most generous people I ever knew.
Even now, when (knock wood) I'm relatively well-off in retirement (in that Ms Ché and I have sufficient income to give a good deal of it away) we live simply, in an ancient and somewhat ramshackle pioneer adobe house in a tiny Central New Mexico ranching and farming community among people who are the salt of the earth, most of them not as well off as we are, with a very few ricos, mostly old ranching families from pioneer days, who share more qualities with the Rabble of the area than most of them do with their hot-headed peers in ranching and agriculture outside the region.
On the other hand, because of the kind of work I've done and the kind of life I've led, I've known a lot of urban rich people, rich Wypipo for the most part (a handful of blacks, browns and Asians thrown in to the mix), and I think I got to understand them reasonably well.
Trump is an aberration because he's so overt. But his perspective and behavior, and his many bizarre and largely false beliefs are not that different than those of many (most) members of his class. They are in my experience quite a despicable lot overall, the few and far between exceptions proving the rule.
They are selfish, greedy, cruel, self-obsessed, exploitative, aggressive, competitive with one another and typically they are wrong about everything or just about everything.
They live in a special bubble of their own creation, served by toadies and flatterers, deigning to part with their good will (and sometimes money) when and if they observe sufficient loyalty and obedience from their suppliants.
They are for the most part insecure as hell.
They loathe and fear the masses.
They want to be loved but believe they are hated. Often enough they're right about that.
Many spend their lives and much of their wealth in a futile quest for self-protection, obsessing on "security," with ever thicker walls, ever higher gates, ever more vicious dogs and guards to protect them from imagined (sometimes real) outlaws out there who were coming to take their stuff and rape their wives and daughters.
They believe sincerely that We the Rabble hate and envy them so much that if it weren't for their own layers of protection and it weren't for the government suppressing revolt, we'd all flood their mansions and offices and take everything they have.
As if what THEY have were the most important things in OUR lives.
They aren't. But don't tell them that. It might upset them even more.
"Generosity" among these people is almost entirely based on what they will get out of the deal -- how prominent their names will be, what sort of perks their beneficiaries deliver, and so on. New rich often see the notion of "generosity" as simply silly and have used it as a scaffold and opportunity for further exploitation of the despairing and downcast masses and the further enrichment of themselves.
They are ugly, ugly people, with no souls in my estimation.
There are exceptions, but they are often marginalized among their own peers. The "good ones" are laughed at by most of their class, called names behind their backs ("Saint" this or that) and otherwise mocked.
Trump is very open about these things whereas most of his class are socialized to obscure their natures -- at least in the company of people who are not like them.
What shocks me about the current situation is that so many people who should know better apparently don't recognize that Trump is what so many members of his class wish they were or could be. He's public about his crazy; no filters or shields. Right out there as a vicious, violent, cruel and despicable representative of his class -- yes, most of them in my experience are like Trump when you peel back the curtain -- who now has (almost) all the Power of the Great And Grand United States Government at his fingertips.
Oh my god in heaven, THINK of the possibilities! Gasp!
People who should know better think he's a one off. He isn't. They think his actions and success will somehow lead to a reaction from the Left, or something like it, that will result in some sort of Worker Paradise -- or at least something better than we have -- one day.
One. Fine. Day.
But first, destroy the Democrats. The Paradise will come once the Democrats are destroyed, the Clintoons are hung from lampposts, and Trump succeeds in overthrowing the NeoLibCon paradigm. As if that were his intent or goal.
It's insanity.
Of course Trumpism and the apotheosis of his class can be defeated.
Start here:
 |
| Disobey card from Guerrilla Graphix, one of my favorite shops in Albuquerque |
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Wypipo and The Resistance -- A Color(less) Revolution?
So far, it appears that the growing and spreading Resistance is very, very white, largely female, and pissed as hell that this clown is allowed to fuck with the national consciousness this way.
Additionally, The Resistance appears to be largely middle and upper-middle class types who see that their benefits, rights and privileges are liable to be threatened or withdrawn by the advent of the Trump regime.
This is not to discount any other participants and interests involved in the ongoing series of protests, demonstrations, and actions that seem to have taken on a life of their own and have spread throughout the country. I can't be in the streets, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!😀) so I don't have much personal contact with the Resisters, but I am still part of a peace and justice community that participates. Many of those in the community are well off white women but not all. But then, this is New Mexico, and it is as nearly polyglot here as any place in the US. And Wypipo are not always the most important social and political interests.
The Women's March was full of women of color, some of them quite a bit more radical than their white sisters. But that radical energy seemed to get rechanneled into more conventional and largely ineffective (because it's non-threatening) activism almost immediately. Activisim was channeled into raising a ruckus at congressional town halls and offices over various issues including the repeal of Obamacare. In other words, standard Democratic Party issues.
But then with the Muslim ban, a spontaneous resistance arose from below the Party apparat that the Democrats tried to get in front of. The immigration and refugee issue is one that Democrats have always been conflicted over. It has to do with how immigrants and refugees are seen by the owners and sponsors, and it's not a particularly pretty picture at all. Much of it is obscured by sentiment. Trump and his toadies are taking off the veil of sentiment, becoming openly harsh and unforgiving about the Others Who Don't Belong Here, but that's been hidden or open policy for most of my life.
The spontaneous uprising had to do with human rights and simple justice -- something the Democrats had avoided with regard to immigrants and refugees for many years, so it was kind of funny watching the spin from the Dems as the demonstrations filled airports and demanded the release forthwith of travelers who were being detained pursuant to the White House diktat.
Exploiting the issue has been customary since then. But I don't think the People are necessarily being listened to in this matter.
It's much more nuanced than the question might appear, and it has almost nothing to do with the fearmongering of the regime.
It had much more to do with simple justice. The US war machine and neoliberal economic policies have created the refugee crisis and keep it going despite ongoing efforts to bring this phase of American Imperialism to a conclusion. Simple justice requires that the US accommodate the refugees that it has created, either in the United States or in other lands, and that the US handle immigration justly. None of those things are happening, as power centers exercise essentially arbitrary authority over who does and does not enter the country on a nearly random basis. The chaos at the airports came about due to the extension of that arbitrary authority. Nope. Not gonna fly.
The Dem effort to get in front of it was pretty pathetic from my perspective, but now that the issue is in the courts, we can all move on to other things.
Which would be?
For now, the Resistance appears to be mostly preventional. Prevent the horrors to come. Stop the madness.
And then build a better future.
I don't know that you can do it that way, though. The Color Revolutions showed us that unless you have a Better Future Plan queued up and ready to go, the neolibs and the fascists will move right in and take over. Every time. The follow up is grim. If we're ever going to defeat the fascists and the dominant paradigm of rule, we're going to have to have something very much better ready to go.
We don't. Far from it.
We have to look beyond the desires of the Wypipo.
For me, the model of resistance and that better future is that of the Water Protectors and their allies.
The struggle continues.
Additionally, The Resistance appears to be largely middle and upper-middle class types who see that their benefits, rights and privileges are liable to be threatened or withdrawn by the advent of the Trump regime.
This is not to discount any other participants and interests involved in the ongoing series of protests, demonstrations, and actions that seem to have taken on a life of their own and have spread throughout the country. I can't be in the streets, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!😀) so I don't have much personal contact with the Resisters, but I am still part of a peace and justice community that participates. Many of those in the community are well off white women but not all. But then, this is New Mexico, and it is as nearly polyglot here as any place in the US. And Wypipo are not always the most important social and political interests.
The Women's March was full of women of color, some of them quite a bit more radical than their white sisters. But that radical energy seemed to get rechanneled into more conventional and largely ineffective (because it's non-threatening) activism almost immediately. Activisim was channeled into raising a ruckus at congressional town halls and offices over various issues including the repeal of Obamacare. In other words, standard Democratic Party issues.
But then with the Muslim ban, a spontaneous resistance arose from below the Party apparat that the Democrats tried to get in front of. The immigration and refugee issue is one that Democrats have always been conflicted over. It has to do with how immigrants and refugees are seen by the owners and sponsors, and it's not a particularly pretty picture at all. Much of it is obscured by sentiment. Trump and his toadies are taking off the veil of sentiment, becoming openly harsh and unforgiving about the Others Who Don't Belong Here, but that's been hidden or open policy for most of my life.
The spontaneous uprising had to do with human rights and simple justice -- something the Democrats had avoided with regard to immigrants and refugees for many years, so it was kind of funny watching the spin from the Dems as the demonstrations filled airports and demanded the release forthwith of travelers who were being detained pursuant to the White House diktat.
Exploiting the issue has been customary since then. But I don't think the People are necessarily being listened to in this matter.
It's much more nuanced than the question might appear, and it has almost nothing to do with the fearmongering of the regime.
It had much more to do with simple justice. The US war machine and neoliberal economic policies have created the refugee crisis and keep it going despite ongoing efforts to bring this phase of American Imperialism to a conclusion. Simple justice requires that the US accommodate the refugees that it has created, either in the United States or in other lands, and that the US handle immigration justly. None of those things are happening, as power centers exercise essentially arbitrary authority over who does and does not enter the country on a nearly random basis. The chaos at the airports came about due to the extension of that arbitrary authority. Nope. Not gonna fly.
The Dem effort to get in front of it was pretty pathetic from my perspective, but now that the issue is in the courts, we can all move on to other things.
Which would be?
For now, the Resistance appears to be mostly preventional. Prevent the horrors to come. Stop the madness.
And then build a better future.
I don't know that you can do it that way, though. The Color Revolutions showed us that unless you have a Better Future Plan queued up and ready to go, the neolibs and the fascists will move right in and take over. Every time. The follow up is grim. If we're ever going to defeat the fascists and the dominant paradigm of rule, we're going to have to have something very much better ready to go.
We don't. Far from it.
We have to look beyond the desires of the Wypipo.
For me, the model of resistance and that better future is that of the Water Protectors and their allies.
The struggle continues.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
"Wypipo"
Until today, I'd never encountered that term before: "Wypipo" (ie: white people) -- a take on the unawareness of the dominant-colonist society. He he.
Well. It was said in connection with Standing Rock and how crazy the situation is getting there, with the tribal council apparently working with the feds to clear the camps and various elements within the camps being defiant.
Meanwhile, despite diktats from the White House, nobody in the bureaucracy quite knows how to proceed. Because of the EIS order from Obama's regime, the ACoE can't just issue the easement under the river on Trump's say-so. And yet they can't defy it outright. I don't know what they'll do.
Meanwhile, it appears (at least from drone footage) that the Company has proceeded anyway. Whether they've drilled under the river, who knows? I'd say it looks like they've gotten as close to drilling horizontally under the river as they can without being in technical violation of orders to desist, and once the go ahead is given, they expect to complete work within a few days. The statement that the pipeline will be in operation by "next quarter" -- some time between April and June -- tells me that they expect the EIS process to be carried out but expeditiously. We'll see.
We get periodic but very sketchy reports of what's going on at Standing Rock. I can see now why we didn't get a heads up about the recent raid of the "Last (Lost/Little) Child" resistance camp up on the hill. Initial reports were somewhat overwrought. On the other hand, it seems relatively calm at Standing Rock compared to the chaos in DC and spreading over the country and the world.
-------------------------------------
Things are not going well for the Trumpists, and it won't end well. How it will end, I don't know. A few days ago, I gave this shit-show another month before the plug is pulled, but how that happens, I can't say. There are open calls for a military coup, which is what I thought could happen even before the inauguration. It still might. It depends in part on how out of hand things get in the streets. It also depends on when the OverClass decides they've had enough of this horseshit.
RefuseFascism, RevCom, various anarchist outfits and Black Bloc tactics may be in the vanguard, but the urge to revolution is not yet critical. The hysteria over a "Soros funded Color Revolution" waxes and wanes. The elements are mostly in place, and it could happen in a twinkling. On the other hand, if it does, we cannot expect the results to be all that beneficial to the Rabble.
So far, Trump's dictatorial effusions are causing both laughter and fear. He is attempting to rule as an autocrat, but he's finding out he can't do so, at least not the way he wants. However, I don't think the system of rule as it is can really cope with a would-be dictator like this one without imploding. Things are happening too fast and furiously. The institutional desire is to slow it down, and I don't think that's going to happen. If anything, we're facing a racing, out of control train.
Best to just get out of the way.
The bumpy ride continues...
Well. It was said in connection with Standing Rock and how crazy the situation is getting there, with the tribal council apparently working with the feds to clear the camps and various elements within the camps being defiant.
Meanwhile, despite diktats from the White House, nobody in the bureaucracy quite knows how to proceed. Because of the EIS order from Obama's regime, the ACoE can't just issue the easement under the river on Trump's say-so. And yet they can't defy it outright. I don't know what they'll do.
Meanwhile, it appears (at least from drone footage) that the Company has proceeded anyway. Whether they've drilled under the river, who knows? I'd say it looks like they've gotten as close to drilling horizontally under the river as they can without being in technical violation of orders to desist, and once the go ahead is given, they expect to complete work within a few days. The statement that the pipeline will be in operation by "next quarter" -- some time between April and June -- tells me that they expect the EIS process to be carried out but expeditiously. We'll see.
We get periodic but very sketchy reports of what's going on at Standing Rock. I can see now why we didn't get a heads up about the recent raid of the "Last (Lost/Little) Child" resistance camp up on the hill. Initial reports were somewhat overwrought. On the other hand, it seems relatively calm at Standing Rock compared to the chaos in DC and spreading over the country and the world.
-------------------------------------
Things are not going well for the Trumpists, and it won't end well. How it will end, I don't know. A few days ago, I gave this shit-show another month before the plug is pulled, but how that happens, I can't say. There are open calls for a military coup, which is what I thought could happen even before the inauguration. It still might. It depends in part on how out of hand things get in the streets. It also depends on when the OverClass decides they've had enough of this horseshit.
RefuseFascism, RevCom, various anarchist outfits and Black Bloc tactics may be in the vanguard, but the urge to revolution is not yet critical. The hysteria over a "Soros funded Color Revolution" waxes and wanes. The elements are mostly in place, and it could happen in a twinkling. On the other hand, if it does, we cannot expect the results to be all that beneficial to the Rabble.
So far, Trump's dictatorial effusions are causing both laughter and fear. He is attempting to rule as an autocrat, but he's finding out he can't do so, at least not the way he wants. However, I don't think the system of rule as it is can really cope with a would-be dictator like this one without imploding. Things are happening too fast and furiously. The institutional desire is to slow it down, and I don't think that's going to happen. If anything, we're facing a racing, out of control train.
Best to just get out of the way.
The bumpy ride continues...
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