US Fascism: a Tipping Point

This week, it seems to me that multiple lines have been crossed. It began with:

• The firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer
• Identification of Trump as a groomer by Lindsay Beyerstein, and the transfer of Ghislane Maxwell to a minimum security facility, endangering the public and the other people held there.
• The leak of a Homeland Security memo detailing that there is a plan to extend the ICE investment of Los Angeles to other cities, with the extensive funding provided by the Big Baleful Bill.

It ends with:

• The current EPA management unilaterally abrogating its contracts with its employee unions, with a claimed justification of national security.
• In the name of peace and without consulting the Ukrainian government, which will not accept it, Trump has surrendered part of Ukraine to Russia and is inviting Putin to the United States to seal the agreement.
• A comprehensive censorship regime is being constructed, at CBS and in government funded scientific research.
• Texas is planning on gerrymandering six Democratic seats out of the House of Representatives. 

As Kamala Harris said in her Late Show interview, “I believed that on some level, there should be many who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy, who just capitulated.”  The Trump administration keeps making things worse and worse and yet few people and institutions with any power are fighting,

The Flapping of Butterfly Wings

Trump thinks he's king and he negotiates like a landlord. He figures his tenants have nowhere else to go so they have to pay what he wants. Surprise, the president is still not a king.

Baton rounds, they're called baton rounds. “Rubber bullets” sound like something soft.

We should have started fighting 25 years ago. No wonder MAGA thinks we're pushovers.

I'm suddenly not angry at Democrats any more, even the ones I strongly disagree with. I'll save my outrage for Republicans.

I wish we would stop using the phrase “racial profiling” and start using the phrase “harassing people because of racism.”

“Come back here and let me bully you some more,” say the bullies.

We could use some good old fashioned Cold War style paranoia, or at least skepticism and caution.

Has anyone else noticed the way these people surrender to foreign powers? Think of Afghanistan. Complete ignominious surrender. They're trying to do the same in Ukraine.

Conservatives, like teenage boys, take martial prowess much more seriously than anything else.

I'm surprised the conservative press is even bothering with Bluesky.

Those aren't liberals, those are conservatives cosplaying liberals.

What do we do when so many of our leaders have betrayed us?

It's like we've socialized cowardice.

I continue to be astonished how many people who are willing to roll over and do the will of the far right. Most business leaders. Many university administrators. Why? Surrendering is not going to make this better.

Is he going to bite when negotiations start going badly?

Waiting for Barrett to call Jackson “uppity.”

This is not the time for measured thoughtful responses. This is the time for "All hands on deck! Prepare to repel boarders!"

I keep talking about how the media is completely f***** but the media is completely f*****.

The first thing an incoming Democratic administration should do is shut down Guantanamo Bay and bring the prisoners back from the overseas prisons.

Grok has gone Nazi. Oh tempora! O mores!

Oh! It's the New York Times strategy! Stir up sentiment for a war and then, after a few thousand people are dead, apologize.

“A common characteristic of individuals with delusional disorder is the apparent normality of their behavior and appearance when their delusional ideas are not being discussed or acted on.”—DSM-5

Historical Parallels and the Current Situation

Trump v CASA is a replay of Dred Scot, and Trump’s tariffs are a replay of McKinley’s. The Big Baleful Bill has just passed. What does this mean for the coming years?

A House Divided: On Trump v CASA

This is the Roberts Court breaking out the bucket of gray paint with which they draw dull blurry lines. The decision is written as procedural rather than an explicit repudiation of the 14th amendment but the practical result of the decision is to recreate the antebellum system of civil rights.

Apocalypse, Revolution, Palingenesis

Apocalypse, revolution, palingenesis – these are all names for the same thing, used by different groups. The Christian nationalists, they want the Apocalypse, they want the world to end so they can all go to heaven. The radical left wants the Revolution, they want the world to end so they can build their communist or perhaps anarchist order. The techbros want the Singularity, so that everyone can be uploaded to digital heaven.

The Second Civil War Is On

 Reporting from Bluesky, with a few comments.

Muenzenberg and the Revolution

I have now read the three books available in English on the influential communist propagandist Willi Müzenberg, who shaped so much discourse in the 20th century, and continues to shape our ideas of protest and political change. I find the whole history of 20th century European Communism both fascinating and discouraging. It seems to me that the problems and failings of his work and the wider problems and failings of international Communism have become our problems, and I would like to avoid repeating the mistakes of 20th century reform and radical movements.