Remain Vigilant

Just heard this Octavia Butler quote for the first time and am now obsessed with it. https://t.co/2M4cVlGmFu

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Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 27, 2017

In the US Holocaust Museum. I'm shook. https://t.co/EeuHEXWusE

—
Sarah Rose (@RaRaVibes) January 30, 2017

We Will Not Be Silent

What do you do? You fight anyway so you don't die inside before they kill you. https://t.co/nmkSIejorL

—
Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 26, 2017

‘The Face of American Fascism’

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Bill R

Half of Americans see “fascist undertones” in the Donald Trump campaign according to a Huffpost/YouGov poll released this week. I would go further and say that in this election, we are facing a choice for the first time in American history to vote for or against fascism assuming control of the U.S. presidency. Donald Trump is the face of American fascism. I don’t know if those polled know what fascism means, but as a student of political science and history, I know the meaning of the word in its common ideology and how fascist dictatorship has damaged our world historically. The common elements of fascism as an ideology have been these: appeal to authoritarian absolutism, violence as a means of assuming and maintaining power and order and eliminating or intimidating political opponents, racism as a means of scapegoating and targeting ethnic and religious minorities, misogynistic patriarchy as a means of subjugating and dominating the female population.

In the case of Donald Trump they can be found in his behavior and his communications as a political candidate. From the point of joining the “birtherism” movement to the present, he has systematically attacked the legitimacy of the presidency of Barack Obama. He has dismissed the rule of national and international law if it gets in the way of his desire to institute torture or eliminate entire populations of civilians on the battlefield. He has been emphatic in his hatred of Latino immigrants as “rapists and murderers” who deserve only mass deportation. He has targeted all Muslims as enemies of America to be gotten rid of, eliminating any further entry into the U.S. He has called African Americans “lazy” and welcomed the support of overtly racist white supremacist leaders and organization. His central theme is “to make America great again,” suggesting that ethnic and religious minorities have betrayed and undermined America’s standing in the world.

More here

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get more ridiculous

The above is a real tweet by GOP frontrunner and favorite Donald J. Trump.

Il Douche seems to have a problem with geography. First, his first major campaign ad substituted Morocco for Mexico. And now he thinks that Germany’s occupation of France from World War II is still in effect.

On the one hand this is farcical. Il Douche is trying to prove the aphorism that eventually Americans will elect a President as stupid as they are. But, of course, in this case farce can easily transmute into tragedy.

Barack Obama has been the most significant president in American history. He has not only saved the economy, brought healthcare to millions, restored US prestige across the globe, and solved several intractable diplomatic issues, but, by the mere fact of being black, has undone the opposition party. Although the GOP hates the Clintons as well, I don’t think President Hillary Clinton elected and re-elected in 2008 and 2012 would have made the GOP go as apeshit as Barack Hussein Obama.

For example, this is what Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had to say in 2013 as a just-failed vice presidential candidate:

“I think we need to find out how to close these loopholes and do it in such a way that we don’t infringe upon people’s Second Amendment rights,” he said in an interview with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

“We had this issue, 2001, 1999 I think … when I first got into Congress,” Ryan continued. “At the time I remember thinking, ‘You know, there is a loophole here. We should address that.'”

The First Time as Tragedy, the Second Time as Farce

Well, Il Douche went full Nazi yesterday. At a rally, he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the US. The crowd, of course, went wild.

Various GOP grandees clutched their pearls and averred that this was unconstitutional, un-American, and bad politics. Even Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney snapped back at Il Douche. (Of course, he was probably mostly concerned with his rich Saudi friends not being able to visit him at his secure, undisclosed location.)

Forgive me if I take their protestations with an ounce of salt.

The GOP, for 50 years, has covertly stoked racism among the white working class, the people who feel disenfranchised since the social justice movements of the 1960s and who form the bedrock of the Republican voting base. As a wise Republican once said, you can no longer say “nigger”, but you can say “welfare queen”, or “forced busing”. The code is understood.

American Tribalism: Road to Rwanda Redux

by @zizii2

I have been spooked these last 10 days by the insanity that erupted here in the US since the Paris terrorist attacks. I wanted to give words to my thoughts. But I froze. Then I rediscovered this piece I began writing in April 2013, but had abandoned for being too alarmist! If only I knew….

Here is the piece completed with a few edits…

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Rwanda: A Haunting Lesson

April 6 marked the (21st) anniversary of the launch of the genocidal nightmare in the central African country of Rwanda that ended 100 days later with 800,000 people dead, and a nation scarred deeply. That was 11.4% of the total population of 7 million. Nearly three-quarters of those massacred were Tutsis who comprised 14% of the entire population.

The word “anniversary” seems inappropriate because although it is technically a neutral term it still invokes positive associations and anticipation. No one should anticipate a genocide nor look forward to marking milestones in its aftermath. Yet mark, we must. The lessons are not simply framed in dog-eared history tomes or award winning films about a bygone tragedy. The lessons are here. With us. Today.

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In societies wracked by mass economic, social and political faultlines the signs are always there for a Rwanda Redux, or a Srebrenica. Hate Radio. Divide and conquer. Nihilism. Opportunistic politicians and cultural loudmouths. Group resentment. Grievance. Silence and apathy from the majority population. Now, all of these do not a genocide trigger. But they exist to be manipulated if conditions ripen.

“The Rwandan genocide resulted from the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with RPF success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu under their leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its authority to carry out the massacre. (UnitedHumanRights.Org)”

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The precious petal apologists for fascism

This was going to be a far different essay. It was going to be a very top heavy view of the slide towards fascism which is taking place in the GOP primary race

But then I saw a tweet by Matthew J. Dowd.

I will admit this: I had no idea who this person was until yesterday. Then I learned he was a fluffer for the Bush clan. Everything fell into place then.

They thought they could control them

Yesterday, Jorge Ramos of Univision was unceremoniously escorted out of a Donald Trump press conference by one of the Hair’s goons, for daring to ask a question “out of turn”. Trump told Mr. Ramos to “sit down”, and then to “go back to Univision”. (I guess even The Hair wasn’t prepared to say “go back to Mexico, you wetback.”) Our brave press corps… did nothing. Journalists of conscience would have gotten up en masse and walked out right behind Mr. Ramos. I’m old enough to remember when the good and the great of the major media outlets rallied around Fox News when President Obama took off the gloves with them. Imagine if Pres. Obama had done something like this at one of his campaign press conferences, or, heaven forbid, at a presidential one. Calls for his impeachment would be hurling in 72 point type on newspapers and from well-coiffed news anchors.

However, even though I was going to write at length about this contretemps, I realized that the expulsion of Mr. Ramos is not the story. It is a mere manifestation of a much darker reality.

I mocked Trump (I refuse to be polite and call him “Mr.”). I thought he was the greatest thing to happen to Democrats since Dan Quayle. And, if by some malfeasance he does manage to be the GOP nominee, he lost the general election yesterday. The image of the Latino Walter Cronkite being frog-marched out of a press availability will galvanize the Latino community like nothing else. Not because Latinos are celebrity-mongers who will rally around Mr. Ramos, but because he and his treatment represent what Latinos fear the most from the GOP. Trump just handed the Latino community the symbol it needed, in a way which even his outrageous words didn’t.

But I’m no longer mocking him. I’m taking him very seriously. Because what may have begun as a lark is no longer that. It’s obvious that Trump is taking this campaign to heart, and is in it to win. And that should give everyone a good scare.