#democrats only job is to get votes by promising progress then voting for more fascism

[disaster-cryptid]

I just realized that since under Biden the US is still funding genocide, still putting children in cages, still eroding queer rights, still empowering racist police, and still had Roe v Wade overturned.

The only thing people were really voting for is between a president who slings bigoted slurs and a president who just slurs his words.

#fuck the state #fuck capitalism #fuck racists #fuck society #fuck cops #joe biden #fuck biden #democrats #democrats only job is to get votes by promising progress then voting for more fascism

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Burn The Bread Book: Industrial Communism Will Not Liberate You

The True Cost of Bread

For years I've watched a man drive his pick-up truck into the forest around me and cut down all the trees that aren't legally protected. So, every tree that isn't a pine or an oak. The moment a carob or olive or hawthorn or mastic or strawberry tree grows big enough to burn, he cuts it down and drags it away for firewood. He even fells trees I planted, while smiling and waving at me like he’s doing me a favor. I glare at him silently but don’t say a word, knowing he has the full power of the state behind him.

He uses the wood to fuel his traditional bakery which has several large outdoor ovens. The much-loved industrial product he produces is bread; a product that has rapidly replaced all the native food-bearing plants of the area as they’ve been cut down to make room for wheat fields.

The villagers are proud of the bakery because it attracts visitors from all over the island and thus creates further opportunities for them to earn profit. The local bureaucracy; the democratically-elected village council, gives the baker free reign to do as he pleases since so many livelihoods depend on his bakery.

Because the baker cuts everything down as soon as it reaches human height, the trees never get big enough to fruit, so they don't spread their seeds and grow new trees. The forest slowly dwindles to nothing but pine trees and can no longer sustain most animal life. The climate dries, the soil erodes, the air grows stagnant and depleted of oxygen. All that’s left in the few remaining forests that haven’t been bulldozed to grow more wheat is a sterile pine desert.

The baker will soon no doubt lobby the village council to allow him to harvest the pine trees too, otherwise the all-important bakery will cease to be operational when he runs out of legal trees to fell.

In just a few years, all the fruits, nuts and berries that sustained the people in the area for millennia are wiped out and replaced with a consumer product that is made from a single grain crop. A thriving ecosystem has been replaced with a wheat monoculture that could collapse at any moment and take the lives of everyone it feeds with it.

It’s worth noting that the baker, like most people in my village, and in fact most people on the island, considers himself a communist. The village has a “communist party” clubhouse and they always elect “communist” local leaders and vote for “communist” politicians in the national elections.

Any anarchist worth their salt has no tolerance for these faux-communists, or “tankies” and their brand of collectivist-capitalism because they cling to money, states and rulers and really only embrace Stalinist politics because of the promise of cushy government jobs for them or their relatives.

The Stalinist politicians openly buy votes by promising jobs in the public service to their supporters. A job in the public service here is a guaranteed free ride for life for you and your family, with the salaries multiple times higher than private sector salaries and benefits out of the wazoo - including multiple pensions. They get a full pension for each gov sector they worked in, and the more connected civil servants are rotated through jobs in multiple sectors in the last few months leading up to their retirement to ensure the maximum pay-out possible.

I’m confident anyone reading this knows Stalinism is designed to enrich the bureaucrat class and give them complete control over the state’s citizens. No anarchist sees that shit as communism. But in a “real” communist society; an “anarcho-communist” society where money, state and class have been abolished, the local baker would presumably still bake that bread, and since it would be offered freely to everyone far and wide, he'd need to bake a lot more of it and thus need more wood. More forest would be razed to keep the bread production going. Everyone living in the village and anyone passing through, and people in faraway cities will expect to have as much gourmet bread on their plates as they desire. More bakeries would need to pop up on the mountain as demand rises for delicious bread in the cities below, with the rural population working hard and doing their duty to feed the hungry urban population.

Over the years, I’ve put a lot of thought into envisioning how the workers seizing the means of production would end the environmental devastation this bread production brings to the mountain. I struggle to see any scenario where communism would stop the devastation being wrought on the ecosystem. The forests would continue to be razed to ensure production won’t slow down.

Free bread for everyone today means no bread (or any food) for anyone tomorrow as the top-soil washes away, the climate warms, the wildlife goes extinct, and the whole mountain rapidly turns to desert. It’s inevitable that soon even wheat will cease to grow in the fields surrounding the village.

Regardless of the economic system in place, the villagers being able to consume as many fresh loaves of baked bread as they can carry means all the forests in driving distance of the village are eviscerated, eventually all the fields become barren, the crops fail, and everyone starves. This is already well on its way to happening, and switching to a communist mode of production would do nothing to allay this inevitability.

“How would you feed people then, genius?” I hear you scoff. The answer is simple; tried and tested for millennia. I wouldn’t feed people. People would feed themselves instead of expecting others to labor to feed them; an entitlement that arose with industrial civilization. People would be inclined to protect the forests instead of bulldozing them for the supposed convenience of industrial food production if they picked their food directly from those forests everyday.

They’d protect the forests with their very lives because they’d need the food that grows in the forests to survive without industrial farms, bakeries and factories outsourcing food production and then hiding the ecocide they cause just out of sight of the villages and their carefully manicured streets.

Bread and other industrial products alienate us from our ecosystem and cause us to stop caring about how our food is produced, so long as it’s there in the store when we want to eat it. Putting food production back into the control of the individual is the only way to preserve the ecosystem. Direct food is the only anarchist mode of production. When other people are tasked with growing your food, they will take shortcuts because the food isn’t going into their own mouths or the mouths of their loved ones. Food harvesting needs to go back to being a way of life for every able-bodied person, rather than something industrial farm workers are tasked with to serve an elite class of privileged office workers who are completely disconnected from the food chain.

All over the world, complex centuries-old polyculture food-forests that sustained countless lives for generations are destroyed by the arrogance of industrial production, replaced for a short while by a wheat or corn monoculture so people can pick up their bread down the street from their home or workplace instead of muddying their feet to gather food from the wild as their ancestors did. This convenience seems like “progress” to civilized people, at least until the destructive industrial agriculture process renders the wheat fields infertile and farms all over the world are turned into a vast uninhabitable dust bowl. A sustainable way of life that kept us alive and thriving for centuries has been tossed aside in favor of a short-lived attempt at industrial convenience that has already proven itself a horrible failure; bringing us and every other lifeform to the verge of extinction.

Industry is not sustainable. Industrial systems are all destructive. Communism, capitalism, fascism, they’re all founded on ecocide. The authority of the baker is upheld over everything else because domesticated people would rather consume “free” industrial bread for a few years than unlearn their destructive consumerist habits. If we are to survive these times of devastating ecological collapse, humans need to go back to fostering vast food forests as our ancestors did for millennia; producing and gathering our own food without destroying the very ecosystem that gives us life in the name of luxury and convenience.

"The People's" Authority: How “Anarcho-Communism” is Authority-Forming

If someone kept cutting down all the trees to bake bread, the people who depend on the forest to survive would of course have to intervene to stop the loggers from destroying the forest and thus killing their way of life.

This happens in rainforests today where indigenous people who have been let down by the state gleefully issuing licenses to corporate loggers, and turning a blind eye to illegal logging, instead take matters into their own hands and shut down the loggers using force.

They put their lives on the line to do this, and a lot of them are killed by the loggers who value their profits over the lives of indigenous people. They know if they don’t act to stop the loggers, the forests they call their home will be decimated and their way of life will have been destroyed forever. They’ll be forced into the cramped cities and have to labor all day everyday to buy the bread and beef that stripped their forests bare.

So how would an anarcho-communist society deal with someone who cuts down all the trees to bake bread? In an anarcho-communist society, everyone will be environmentally conscious and consume sustainably, right...? No. Not if you’re engaging in any kind of critical thinking.

Loggers can only destroy forests at the current explosive rate if the society imbues them with authority. If they have no authority, there's nothing stopping others from using force to end their pillaging of our natural resources. Without the authority of civilization behind them, the loggers have incredibly diminished power and no real motive to risk their lives to fell trees.

Anarcho-communism is an industrial ideology based around the notion of seizing the means of production and then running the factories, saw mills, oil rigs, mines and power plants democratically. Industrial civilization is an incredibly totalitarian authority that is nevertheless upheld by “anarcho”-communist theory, even though anarchists supposedly oppose all forms of authority.

In an industrial communist society, much like in a capitalist society, logging is necessary to further the industrial production the society is built around. As long as production drives the system, trees will have to be felled for all kinds of reasons: from lumber and paper production to making way for crops and cattle.

So, logging is highly valued by the people that uphold the industrial society, and in a real world scenario, these “anarcho” communists would have to take measures to protect loggers from repercussions from a small, uncivilized minority – the indigenous inhabitants of the forest. These measures are, by any definition, an authority. A monopoly on violence. A state in everything but name.

But since the loggers are providing this valued service to good, decent, reasoned, educated, domesticated, egalitarian, democratic, civilized anarcho-communists in big shiny cities who are accustomed to a litany of luxury consumer products being delivered to their doors everyday… Decidedly authoritarian methods will need to be taken to ensure the anarcho-loggers can do their anarcho-work without facing retaliation from the “primmie” forest dwellers. These methods can easily be justified in the ancom’s mind; there’s nothing an ancom loves more than to “justify” authority with their mighty reasoned logic™️.

So when faced with the conundrum that the anarcho-communist city needs lumber, paper, corn and meat, and the only thing standing in the way of production is a few indigenous tribes, the ancom will put their anarcho-Spock ears on and declare: “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. Just as capitalist and socialist states today violently suppress the indigenous people who take action to shut down logging and mining operations that quash their way of life, the anarcho-industrialist will send a red-and-black army in to escort their red-and-black bulldozers and discipline anyone that interferes with the will of “the people”.

The indigenous inhabitants of course won’t give a shit that their forests are being felled by communists rather than by capitalists. They won’t give a shit that the bulldozers are now owned collectively or that the land they’ve lived on for millennia has now been designated as belonging to “the people” (the civilized voting majority) instead of to the state or to capital.

The forest that nurtures the indigenous people and their children is still being decimated to maintain the destructive lifestyles of apathetic city-dwellers. Their lives are still being ended because to civilized people, they’re a backwards, regressive minority standing in the way of progress... Damaging the revolution, inhibiting the growth of their glorious egalitarian civilization. The educated, “progressive” majority outvote them. Anyway, everyone who has spoken to a red anarchist knows primmies are dirty reactionary ableists who want to stop us from building wheelchair and drug factories, right?

Civilized people always have pushed the notion that the “common good” or the good of the many will always outweigh the needs of individuals or small groups of people, ever since Aristotle, in his "The Aim of Man” wrote:

"The good of the state is of greater and more fundamental importance both to attain and to preserve. The securing of one individual's good is cause for rejoicing, but to secure the good of a nation or of a city-state is nobler and more divine." Communism is even more adamant in this “the will of the majority is paramount” shtick, going as far as to declare the industrial-worker class as the only voice that matters, with everyone needing to become part of the worker class in order to abolish class differences.

This logic is why the USSR, China and other communist experiments forced collectivization on self-sufficient indigenous peoples and then slaughtered them when they inevitably resisted. If people won’t consent to being displaced from their ancestral lands to work on the industrial farms and factories that fuel the destruction of their homes, they’re branded “kulaks” and “counter-revolutionaries” and “reactionaries” and are systemically genocided, usually by destroying their food sources.

Industrial goods are valued by industrial society over the forest and its inhabitants because domesticated people want to eat bread and microwaved pizza and the real cost of those products (environmental destruction) is of no real concern to industrial society beyond empty gestures like an occasional “save the rainforests” or “go vegan” banner.

The inhabitants of the forests and their strange foreign culture are too far removed from the busy cities for the average urbanites to involve themselves in their plight. Even the civilized rural people who live around the forests are forever striving to urbanize their villages in the unending quest for upwards mobility. In my experience, they’ll happily trade every tree in sight for a gourmet bakery, Apple Store or coffee-shop so they can feel as civilized as the people in the big cities who tend to look down on them for being “hillbillies” or “country bumpkins”.

“The people in the big cities of Sao Paulo and Rio, they want us to live on picking Brazil nuts,” a farmer says. “That doesn’t put anyone’s kid in college.” (From RollingStone.com.)

The settler-farmers who are burning what’s left of the Amazon rainforest to the ground say they’re doing it for their children... To make the cash to pay for their children to be educated and get good jobs in the city. It shouldn’t be controversial for me to say civilized people value their civilized life and will always put their civilized needs before the needs of uncivilized others.

Civilized people can relate to their civilized neighbours who have the same struggles as them: paying their bills, educating their kids, buying good insurance, washing their car, deciding where to go on vacation, renovating their kitchens, choosing the next Netflix show to binge watch... So it’s not surprising that they’ll do everything they can to prop up civilized people and kick down the uncivilized people who stand in the way of their quest for ever-increasing industrial comforts.

I can already see the denial stage setting in on some of your faces as I type: “But us anarcho-communists aren’t like capitalists, we’re good caring people. Humane people. We’ll make industry green, we’ll manage the forests in a sustainable manner using direct democracy, unions, unicorns and equality!”

Why would anyone swallow that crock of shit? Why would thoroughly domesticated people used to all the comforts of destructive industrial civilization suddenly decide to forgo those comforts because of democracy? Why would 7.7 billion people suddenly change how they live because anarcho-communism has been declared? How would ancom civilization make industry “green” when it’s clearly demonstrable that all industry is destructive to the environment and to wild people, and modelling a society on an industrial system has had disastrous results throughout history, regardless of what the attached ideology was named?

All controlled mass-society, including every historical experiment at building a communist society has created authority; bodies of people that hold power over others. That power grows over time and takes the “communist” society further and further away from its revolutionary origins. Every indication is that authority would continue to be manifested with industrial anarcho-communism. There is no evidence that anarcho-communism would avert authority when it’s so dependent on destructive, exploitative, alienating, domesticating industry and the control and domination of a global population of workers.

All Industrial Goods Free for All People: A Recipe for Disaster

In communism everything is free for the taking and resources are often treated as if they're infinite. If you decide you need something, you take it from the communal store. Kropotkin said no one has the right to judge how much an individual needs, except the individuals themselves.

Since most reds hold that resources should be allocated according to “need”, decisions would need to be made to determine who in the community has “need” of the biggest shares of resources.

I know most ancoms, like Kropotkin, claim every individual will just take whatever they “need” (want) from communal stores, but I'm going to cry foul on that because it's really not practical in an industrial society. Resources aren't infinite and no one is going to spend their life doing gruelling manual labor and then just give everything they produce away to some random stranger who shows up at the communal store with a dumpster truck and says "I need your community's entire monthly output of goods today, so load it up". For some reason ancoms think assholes would cease to exist in a communist society. Why would anyone work their asses off, wasting their life away doing menial manual labor just to watch some shitlord drive away with everything they produced because he announced he “needed” it?

“But as woke anarcho-communists in an advanced fully-automated luxury communist society, labor will in fact be quite limited and fun because we can divide duties between all our comrades! And profit will no longer be a concern since everything we make will be given to anyone that wants it free of charge, so we don’t need to worry about marketing our products and that will further minimize the amount of labor we’ll do, giving us ample leisure time to enjoy the fruits of our production!”

For the purposes of cold-hearted mockery, I’m slightly paraphrasing an ancom who responded to an early draft of this piece. What fantasy realm are ancoms living in where all the massive problems posed by industrial production (including the ongoing extinction of near-every lifeform on Earth) will evaporate when you remove profit and marketing from the equation?

I keep saying this in my writing but here I go again: In an industrial society that aims to give everyone in the world equal access to consumer goods, industry does not decrease; it increases. If everyone in the world suddenly has free and equal access to the mountains of wasteful shit that Western consumers consider necessary to life, not only would production need to massively increase, but we would run out of resources to exploit much more rapidly.

That’s assuming anyone would even want to work in the mines and factories in a supposedly equal society if they no longer had guns to their heads. Why would anyone go back down into that mine once their chains are broken? Does anyone honestly think those Congolese kids give a shit if you have a new phone every year? Should they really be expected to sacrifice themselves for your entitlement? So you can continue to live in luxury with all your little conveniences?

In a real world implementation of industrial communism, communities will no doubt quickly impose limits on what can be taken from communal stores after a few people take way more than they have any right to and other people go without as a result, despite them laboring for hours a day to produce those goods. Kropotkin might insist we’ll all be happy toiling away all day to make this consumerist shit just to give it away to random strangers, but he was a privileged scholar who never had to work a day in his life, so what do you expect?

Industrial society right now is fed by the ceaseless labor of billions of exploited people in the Global South. People are forced to toil in mines from childhood to procure the materials that other people (also including children) then assemble into consumer goods in factories, all for starvation wages. This is debilitating, dangerous work that leaves the people who do it sucked of their youth after a few years.

Anyway, let’s play along with communist mythology for a bit to get to my next point. In an ideal communist society (where I guess minerals are somehow found equally all across the planet and not overwhelmingly located in the Global South as in the real world), outsourced labor would presumably go away because communists would never exploit workers in distant lands (who ever heard of an imperialist communist, right? Right??) So instead production would need to be localized, and then the goods would be distributed according to need.

For resources to be allocated according to need, you'll have some kind of deciding body in place to judge what each person's needs are; what resources each person should be given.

There are lots of factors to take into consideration when deciding someone’s “needs”, like how far they live from work, how far they live from the store, how many calories they burn doing the labor they do, the size of their family, their dietary restrictions, disabilities they might have, their particular metabolism, how many parties they throw, how many friends they have and thus might invite to the parties, their religious and cultural practices, the size of their house, the size of their garden, the type of insulation their house has and how quickly it loses heat, the fuel efficiency of their car... I could list hundreds more things but I’ll stop myself.

Giving bureaucrats this power will no doubt mean certain favored groups / individuals will be rewarded and less desirable groups / individuals will be neglected, or even punished. This is the nature of authority. You’ll need a body of full-time bureaucrats to collect all this data and measure how it should determine your share of the pie, and those bureaucrats are going to have biases. If a computer does it, the programmer will have biases. And you'd still need bureaucrats to collect the data and feed it to the computer. Then they could easily feed incorrect or selective data to the computer because of their biases.

It's always felt like a recipe for corruption and exploitation to me for a bureaucracy to determine someone’s worth... Which is probably why Kropotkin stipulated that everyone should be able to just take whatever they themselves decide they need from the stores.

Of course, the real solution would be to not base your proposed utopian society on industrial production in the first place... Promising industrial production will be unlimited because everyone will voluntarily agree to work real hard in the factories and mines and slaughterhouses and the goods will be distributed to everyone everywhere somehow while maintaining a sustainable ecological green solarpunk paradise just makes you a smug fucking liar. No different than a grinning politician promising to give us freedom, liberty and prosperity if we vote for him.

The only red anarchist tendency that made a modicum of practical sense in my mind was anarcho-collectivism, because at least the workers would receive the direct value of their labor hours instead of having external bodies decide how much value / worth to assign to them as a person.

If you're going to spend your life toiling in a factory or farm to produce goods for other people, would you really want a bureaucrat or a committee or even a direct voter body deciding how much you deserve for that labor, while giving someone who does the same job (or a much easier job) more than you because of potentially biased reasons?

Regardless, anarcho-collectivism still only really values the workers who are most willing to submit to the factory grind and put in the most hours. Anarcho-collectivism still holds ecodical industry and luxuries for cityfolk up above all life on the planet... So that 19th century ideology isn’t going to save you either. Throw it right in the trash with the bread book because this “reform-industrial-society” charade isn’t helping when the planet is on fire.

If industrial communism were actually implemented in the real world, you can be relatively certain that some kind of authority would need to be put in place to prevent bad actors from showing up at the store and taking a community’s entire monthly production. People would need to police the store and judge whether someone is worthy of taking as much as they’re taking. They’d need to become authorities, upholders of law and order. Purveyors of “justice”.

Let’s be clear now because I know a lot of red anarchists are going to try to “justify” this authority as being “necessary for the good of society” as they will do. Policing who can take food and how much they can take is a clear authority. Not a “justified” authority, because such a thing simply does not exist.

And this store-policing is not the anarchist tactic of “direct action” either, let’s make that clear right now, because it’s a frightenly common misunderstanding with red anarchists. Creating a police force has nothing to do with direct action.

Direct action is an isolated use of force unconnected to institutional systems of power. People who engage in direct action are not appealing to a higher authority for legitimacy. Their action is not legitimized by anyone and they receive no protection or reward from an authority as they take the action. There’s no monopoly on violence being granted to them by an authority, so there’s nothing to guarantee their safety from retaliation if the action fails or succeeds.

There’s no institutional power-imbalance being created when someone takes direct action against an authority. The authority already created the power imbalance, and your direct action is a form of defense to shield you, your ecosystem or your community from that imbalance.

Direct action is an entirely anarchist tactic, but pinning badges on people, officiating them, and giving them the authority (and the monopoly on violence) to police a store and withhold food and products from certain people for whatever reason has nothing to do with anarchy. Building a hierarchy like this has nothing to do with anarchy.

Police officers and judges (authorities) ruling over a communal store is authoritarian. An officiated police force is a completely different thing from the isolated use of force by a lone actor or a small group of actors to preserve life and combat authority (direct action).

Creating a police force, even if it’s formed of volunteers, even if they were elected, even if they make decisions collectively, even if their uniforms are red and black, even if the officers placed on duty are regularly rotated, is authoritarian by any definition. There are no anarchist cops. An “anarchist cop” couldn’t be a bigger oxymoron.

Here’s an example of direct action: me punching a logger who is cutting down my favorite tree. This action is completely removed from structural systems of authority because I have no authority or structural power behind me. There’s nothing legitimizing my use of force or giving me a monopoly on violence. My use of force doesn’t extend beyond my own two fists. Since assault is illegal, and his logging is legal, the logger has the full authority of the law behind him, so any action I take to oppose that authority is punching up. It’s fighting to curve a gross power imbalance. It’s anarchy.

In this civilized world, I could be severely punished by law enforcement for using force to stop his desecration of a forest. As the state gave him his logging permit, he has authority over the forest and every life that depends on the forest to survive. He punches down every time he fells a tree. He is the full embodiment of archy. If I choose to stand in his way, there’s no state behind me, no court, no police force. Me physically stopping a logger from felling trees is an isolated use of force to strike back at a system of authority. The logger destroys life for profit, and if I take action to stop him because I don’t want to see the forest become a barren desert, I don’t become a state or any kind of authority based on that decision to fight back.

Forming a police squad and a bureaucracy to patrol and govern an officiated communal store, appointing authorities to sit and judge how much each individual deserves to eat, on the other hand, creates legitimized systems of power and an institutional monopoly on violence. It creates a state, or at the very least a proto-state that will later develop into a full-blown state as the bureaucracy grows.

The German philosopher Max Weber defined the state as a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. State violence, whether it’s committed on behalf of the state by a politician, a judge, a cop or a logger, is always a legitimate force. Any violence the state does is immediately “justified” simply by virtue of it being dispensed by a legitimate state actor who is doing it for the good of the state and its authority.

A logger with an official permit to slice up a forest is thus fully justified in the eyes of society to do as much harm to the forest as is deemed necessary by the authorities who granted the permit.

A state exists wherever an authority can authorize and legitimize violence. There is no way for an anarchist to “justify” a coercive, authoritarian institution such as a police force that will no doubt be biased against minority groups and lead to the accumulation of power by the dominant group, and abuses of power by the people doing the policing. Even if minority groups are involved in the police force, the majority group will still oppress their groups.

A society that mass-produces goods and distributes them in communal stores will manifest itself as a state, regardless of Kropotkin’s insistences that everyone will work voluntarily and then take whatever they want from the stores. There’s no practical scenario where industrial labor is truly voluntary. There’s no practical scenario on this Earth of rapidly diminishing returns where “free” stores won’t need to be policed to deny unlimited goods to individuals and groups who the governing body decides are less worthy of the fruits of their labor.

Anarcho-communism simply isn’t revolutionary as long as we are depleting all our resources in the name of industrial civilization; something anarcho-communism demands as an industrial, work-based ideology that revolves around civilizing the land and its inhabitants in order to extract resources and labor. There’s nothing revolutionary about continuing the global ecocide under the guise of democracy. Every anarchist should understand the difference between isolated force and authority, but very few self-identifying social anarchists seem interested in this and are content prating on about “justified authority”, debating “how an anarcho-communist police force could work” and excitedly discussing Chomsky’s latest speech telling them to vote for a lesser-evil neoliberal politician.

I know I sound bitter, but I’ve been disillusioned with the majority of red anarchists I come into contact with for years now and they only seem to get worse as industrial society plods on and the sands and seas climb further up our necks.

Anarcho-communism is not the solution to fighting authority, it’s simply a skin-deep re-brand of authority. A sparkly new paint job. There’s a reason so many ancoms strive to “justify” authority. They don’t actually care about reaching for anarchy.

Is Communism Always Authority-Forming?

In my mind, communism can only work outside of industrial mass society. A small community gathering or growing supplies and freely sharing them with the rest of the community. Each community trading with other small communities. Marx and Engels ironically dubbed this hunter-gatherer form of society that had long existed in human history as “primitive communism” and suggested it was inferior to their advanced industrial communism that valued the factory and centralized city life above all else.

Mass industry requires mass agriculture, mass labor, mass transport, mass resource extraction, mass construction, mass policing, mass military... Mass society and will only lead right back to capitalism and statism because it's so unwieldy and authority forming. Any communist tendency built around industrial exploitation is going to create all kinds of fucked up hierarchies and just lead us right back to the apocalyptic status quo.

Most communists I’ve talked to about this are unable to accept that some people will still act like assholes if capitalism collapses, which I’d probably find endearing if these people weren’t such giant assholes themselves; calling me a privileged reactionary for daring to suggest their blessed ideology might have some flawed logic. They insist everyone will cease being selfish assholes once capitalism is done away with because “assholes are only assholes as long as capitalism pits them against each other.”

Even if we wake up one morning and marketing, consumer culture and wealth are all done away with, we still have generations of indoctrination in authoritarian behavior to contend with. That doesn't go away overnight. But even without consumer culture to guide them, people are still completely capable of being assholes. Going back to before mass-society even existed, people would murder each other and take their stuff. They'd raid each other's settlements, they'd steal their children, they'd fight over territory and cultural differences. These aren't things that were invented by capitalism and they won’t go away just because communism is declared.

People aren't inherently just or unjust. Humanity is not good or bad. Every person is an individual, each with different experiences, motivations, traumas. Communism expects everyone to be altruistic. Capitalism expects everyone to act out of greed and self preservation. Neither is true because both are ideologically driven worldviews that attempt to define human nature in order to instruct us how to behave by instilling us with their morals. People are greedy, people are generous, people are kind, people are mean-spirited. Every person in the world is all of these things and more. People are not defined by one single personality trait their entire lives.

I’m haunted by every shitty thing I’ve ever done and I’m sure I’ll do more shitty things yet, despite my best intentions. No one is above making mistakes. Mutual aid is a great thing, but it needs to be earned. There are people in our lives that we trust and people we can’t stand to be around. Not everyone is deserving of the products of our labor. Some people in the world will always try to exploit you, even if they already have everything their hearts could possibly desire. Some people will be kind to you no matter how big an asshole you are.

I’ve been accused by communists of being cynical, of being “regressive” and “counter-revolutionary” because I don’t buy into the communist notion that humans are inherently good and they just need the right industrial system to bring that good out of them.

Any society where I’m expected to just sit back and watch as a logger destroys my ecosystem because he’s serving the “greater good” isn’t a society I want any part of. I value my autonomy over the desires of traumatized workers pushing buttons for 8 hours a day in a city far-removed from me. I’d rather take the logger’s chainsaw away than fiddle my thumbs as he takes everything I know, and to hell with whatever bureaucratic process enshrined him with the right to decimate the forest to give bread to the workers. Fuck the workers and their bread and their fully-automated luxury communism and their divine democratic rights.

There’s simply no reason to believe exploitative assholes will go away if communism is ever enacted.

There’s a man I know who constantly exploits me for my labor, and I always go along with it. He dangles a carrot on a stick in front of me every time; promising that after I help him, he’ll hook me up to his well so I can have free water for my trees. For years he’s made this promise.

I’ve spent countless hours doing dangerous work for this guy with no reward. He always disappears after I do the work without giving me what he promised. Then the next week he wakes me up again at 6am on a Saturday by honking his horn, apologizes for not getting around to hooking me up to the well yet, saying he was too busy or in the hospital or had a family emergency, promises he’ll do it this week, and then I’m hanging off a cliff or a roof repairing pipes for him all day while he barks orders at me.

I do it because I’m a fucking pushover who can’t say no to people due to my ridiculous kind nature. But whenever I ask him for anything, I’m met with a blank stare, an abrupt subject change or a sorry excuse. I was stranded a two hour walk down the mountain last week when my car broke down, and he drove right around me and didn’t even slow down. When I saw him later, he swore on his life that he didn’t see me because the sun was in his eyes. I nodded and shrugged.

Communism wouldn’t stop this lying dipshit from exploiting me; he’d still need someone to fix his leaky pipes, start up his diesel generator, saw off the upper branches of his olive trees and climb shoddy makeshift structures for him regardless of the economic system in place. He’d still give me a sob story about his painful ulcer and I’d still do the hard work to spare him the pain of doing it himself. He wouldn’t stop being an exploitative asshole just because democracy is installed in the workplace. He wouldn’t start practising mutual aid when he goes to great lengths to avoid all work and shames other people into doing it for him.

Red anarchists throw every insult in the book at me when I voice my doubts about their wistful ideologies; condemning me for being critical of the amazing breadman Kropotkin or their “green industry” tsar Professor Bookchin... It’s hard to give my perspective as an indigenous anarchist to these people who are so hostile to any worldview that doesn’t validate their luxurious industrial lifestyle and their driving desire to make that lifestyle more democratic in order to receive a bigger share of the pie.

Between the shouts of “reactionary lifestylist” and “dirty primmie” they lobby at me, I try to explain my perspective to them. I see suffering in the world and I want to make sense of it. I’m not satisfied just handwaving it away and clinging to fanciful utopian ideologies designed to energize European factory workers from the 1800s. I don’t believe red-industry will cure society of all its ills and free humans from their chains.

The warehouse I’ve worked in for more than a decade will not become magically liberating if I’m given the power of democracy. It’ll still be a miserable fucking place filled with toxic pesticides that are slowly killing me.

Some ancoms will no doubt unironically reply to this piece with reasoning that just amounts to "no, actually, anarcho-communist industry will be a utopia because Kropotkin said so". They’ll quote a bunch of literature to me that is nothing but empty promises by long-dead European philosophers for industrial egalitarianism. I’ve really run out of patience for that line of thinking. It’s no different than a 7 year old trying to win an argument by insisting “because my dad said so”... But when it comes down to it, that’s all most reds can do. Quote their heroes and cling to the hope that they’ll be proven right some day. That hope is what keeps them going as their miserable civilized lives burn the world up. “All our suffering will end once we have democracy in the workplace”. Those poor, deluded, hope-filled souls.

Everything I know tells me industry cannot be made "green" any more than capitalism can be made ethical. All agricultural industrial society in history has resulted in ecocide and eventually collapse. When you extract resources, burn fuel, manufacture goods and distribute them to millions or billions of people, you do real irreversible harm to ecosystems and human lives. Ancoms are not magical beings that can somehow escape the consequences of this because they're supposedly "good" and “egalitarian”.

If anarcho-communism were ever attempted, half the "nuances" it has will be thrown out for being fantastic, half-baked and impossible to implement in an industrial mass-society. Compromises will be made to make the system functional. A lot of things have been claimed about communism, but whenever its been attempted in real life models, almost none of those claims have come to fruition and they never will because:

a) Resources aren't infinite.

b) Industrial output has a high 'hidden' cost, and most importantly:

c) Work isn't voluntary.

No matter how much you swear you’ll make labor democratic, no one is working because they really want to. They’re working because the system requires them to work to survive. No amount of democracy will stop the system from asserting its authority on everyone inside its suffocating walls. Abolishing the borders between territories will do nothing if industrial civilization continues to box us in and starve us if we dare to resist its rule. If we can’t escape civilization, the whole world is nothing more than one big prison.

Civilized people labor to create consumer goods because the system gives them no other option if they want to survive. The only way people will continue to toil in the factories and warehouses in "a communist society" is if they are forced to by the system. No free hunter gatherer will voluntarily give up their freedom to stand at an assembly line pushing buttons so other people can have Corn Flakes, weedkiller and AAA batteries. It's something that needs to be forced on humans by domestication and the joined threat of violence and starvation that props up the industrial system.

Industry is a clear authority and anarcho-communist theory is completely oblivious to that. Anarcho-communism is nothing more than an attempt to reform the tyranny of civilization to give it a sly smile. It’s the anarchist version of Barack Obama promising change but just delivering more of the same and expecting you to celebrate it.

Seize the Means of Destruction! (And fucking burn it to the ground…)

Ancoms insist “people would choose to produce only what is needed” in an anarcho-communist society. That word; "needed" is really useless. Anyone can define anything as being "needed", but almost none of the things defined as such are actually needed. This is why industrial communism isn't really compatible with anarchy: anything and everything will be defined as "needed" by domesticated people, no matter how authority-forming the things are. If it means they get to keep consuming, anarcho-consumers would happily define everything from pesticides to slaughterhouses to automobile plants as “needed”. This is the power of democracy. Whatever narrative the collective adopts becomes the official, approved narrative and anyone questioning it will be seen as subversive and dangerous and a threat to order and common decency.

This "needed industry" argument is a lot like the "justified authority" argument a lot of red “anarchists” keep making to uphold every shitty authority they cling to all the way up to the state, prisons and the police.

Usually they’ll just rename these authorities “the commune”, “the social re-integration facility” and “the peacekeepers” and be satisfied that they’ve come up with a real change. It's meaningless. Domesticated people will not allow themselves to see past the carefully manufactured alienating world they’ve inherited. Very few civilized people are willing to risk losing what they perceive as the great comforts imbibed to them by industrial civilization.

Even if they recognize how strangling these “comforts” actually are to them and everything else on the planet, instead of rejecting them outright, they draw up elaborate plans to reform the way those “comforts” are produced and dispersed. Most of these plans, when deconstructed and debullshitted, ultimately amount to little more than slapping the word “anarcho” in front of everything and trusting it’ll be all good because it’s anarchized now.

People thrived without industry and agriculture for millennia. Civilization has led to the extinction of near everything on the planet. 99.9% of industrial goods are not "needed" by humanity, they're wanted.

Ancoms aren't going to suddenly decide to give up their phones, Doritos and washing machines when they find out they're environmentally destructive. They'll just rubber-stamp all the things they want as "needed", “eco-friendly”, “sustainable” or “green” and call it a day. And we’ll be expected to keep working our miserable jobs and like it because now they’re anarcho-jobs in an anarcho-society with anarcho-exploitation and anarcho-masters.

Keeping people in the mines and factories building those consumer goods that "the people" decide they "need" will require massive authority that will be just another iteration of capitalism in all but name. Just like “communist” Russia and “communist” China and “communist” North Korea. Not a trace of communism will survive once industrial civilization is done grinding everything up. There’s nothing about “anarcho-communism” that will spare it from the same fate. Claiming to be anti-authority rings hollow when you cling to authoritarian industrial civilization, workerism and all the other authorities ancoms at large decide are “justified”.

A bureaucracy will always be instilled in an organized mass-society and this is why industrial communism isn't tenable. It’s why every time industrial communism has been attempted, it has simply been manifested as a perverse collective-capitalism with even more centralized power than regular-flavor capitalism. The bureaucracy will quickly morph into a state, and by definition the society will no longer be communist. But of course, it’ll keep calling itself “communist” and ensure the distinction between capitalism and communism remains paper-thin so people won’t be able to envision a better world than the brutal industrial wasteland we’ve all been born into.

Any system that allocates resources and polices people is functionally a state, regardless of what it brands itself as.

All implementations of industrial society have failed to liberate people, instead making their lives more and more miserable with each stage of industrialism, and to claim that attaching “anarcho” to the front of an industrial system will make a difference is absolutely fucking ridiculous.

Communism has never succeeded at liberating us historically and will not suddenly succeed just because you promise you’re better than other communists and you and all your super-libertarian ancom comrades will pick up cans of paint and make all the chimney stacks bright green.

Authoritarian behavior will only ever be repeated if society is structured around authoritarian institutions like industrialism and democracy. Both Marx and Kropotkin’s communism are centred around these institutions because their ideologies require that people be controlled by bureaucracy. Whether it be decentralized democratic bureaucracy or centralized party bureaucracy is irrelevant. The result is the same: Authority and control.

Without this bureaucracy, the society would descend into anarchy. Yes, wonderful, amazing, freeing anarchy. The very thing every red fears most because it would mean they’d no longer get to forcibly structure society and people around their sacred ideology and force their authority and morality on them. Domesticated people sit trapped in sterile little boxes, fed a steady drip of pesticide and high-fructose corn syrup as they labor, consume, consume, consume and then die.

This isn’t life. This isn’t anarchy. This is a waking nightmare, a depraved hell-world that has all of us thoroughly brainwashed into thinking it acceptable. Branding it “communist” or “libertarian socialist” or “democratic” or “egalitarian” or “decentralized” or “anarcho-communist” will not end the nightmare. It will not stop the planet-wide ecocide civilization has wrought on all living things. The means of destruction being controlled by industrial workers instead of industrial bosses will not stop the ecocide.

Seizing the factories and making them democratically managed as all reds yearn to do won’t do anything to save us from violence, misery, alienation and eventual extinction.

The only way to destroy authority is to burn industry to the ground before it devours every last lifeform on the planet.

The only chance we have to survive what’s coming in the next few years as our ecosystems are collapsing all around us is to tear down every factory and close every port and slice up every road until civilization is in ruins.

But in all honesty, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to watch television and sip iced tea and we’re going to wait for the end. I’m going to keep watching in silence as the local bread man fells the last remaining wilderness.

Maybe the planet will recover somewhat in a few millennia and maybe the next lifeform that evolves will have more sense than the desertmakers. This is the last hope I cling to.

#ziq #industrial civilization #anticiv #anti civ #civilization #collapse #communism #ethics #authoritarian left #green anarchism #green pessimism #anarchism #post left #individualism #doomsday anarchy #industrialism #anarcho communism #anarchist communism #lifestylism #social ecology #kropotkin #the bread book #peter kropotkin #desert #read desert #against the world builders

[qqueenofhades]

Your political posts recently have been excellent. I was 17 during the 2016 election and watching everything go down while not being able to vote (and watching people choose not to vote) was horrible. I can’t believe how many people on the left seem to have forgotten 2016. I’m worried about the leftist twitter mob and the anti-trump conservatives in swing states who might not vote at all and the voter suppression. I’m so worried about everything right now.

Oof, hon. That is a Big Big Mood.

It’s a hard and surreal feeling when you’re having conversations, as have happened in my family and probably in many of yours, with your parents about what to do if we need to leave the country and flee to Canada (or wherever else) at a moment’s notice. My father is 67 years old and disabled, and he is so worried about all of this (as he damn well should be) because we’re well past the dress-rehearsal stages of fascism and into outright fascism. We are making serious plans to relocate permanently out of America no matter how the election goes, because I honestly cannot take this country at all anymore, and my family feels the same. We have had the conversation about “what if this country collapses and we have to get out.” It’s scary and it’s awful and I hate that we’re having to do this, and I hate even more that people are deliberately rejecting their chance (again, the LAST CHANCE WE HAVE) to reject Trump in a (somewhat) democratic fashion. No wonder we can’t remember history at all when we can’t even remember, as you point out, four years ago.

I just can’t with the renewed kerfuffle that the Harris pick has kicked up, not least because most of us knew or figured for a long time that it was coming. Somehow the twitterati wants us to believe that they would have happily skipped to their polling station to vote for Joe Biden, despite months of screaming about rapist/dementia/corporate ghoul/worse than Trump/senile/won’t follow through on his promises/insert tagline here, if only he hadn’t picked Kamala “Cop” Harris. (She’s a lawyer, not a cop, and her prosecutorial career also specialized in putting away male predators for rape and murder and taking financial giants to town for multibillion-dollar fraud settlements, aka the kind of people we want to see punished, but hey, all nuance is evil.) Because... come on.... seriously???

If Biden had picked Stacey Abrams (and don’t get me wrong, she was my favorite too for a while) the narrative would be about she is inexperienced and has never held any executive office (which she hasn’t), and this is bad because it means he’s senile. If Biden had picked Val Demings, who was ACTUALLY a cop, more cop screaming. If Biden had picked Karen Bass, they would have fixated on her remark praising Castro at his death (which she has subsequently apologized and retracted) and moaned about how this lost Florida. If Biden had picked Susan Rice, who was entangled with the whole Benghazi scandal, BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI HILLARY CLINTON EVIL would have been shouted by both the right and the left. If Biden had picked Elizabeth Warren, oh my god. FAKE PROGRESSIVE CORPORATE SHILL WHITE DEMON WHO DARED TO ATTACK BERNIE!!! would be bellowed from the rooftops. There is literally nobody who would have been Progressive enough for the leftist twitterites, and if they claim there is, they’re lying. Plus, the Vice President does.... not make policy??? He (or she, in this case, and I love that) is there to implement the President’s goals, to advise, consult, take over if necessary, and otherwise serve in a supporting role. So why the fuck on earth is a long-expected VP pick suddenly The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back?

You wanna know the Upside Down we’re living in right now? Sarah Palin (yes, that Sarah Palin) has been openly more supportive of Kamala Harris than some of the supposed members of her own party for getting the pick. And that’s not because RAH RAH HARRIS’S POLICIES ARE JUST LIKE SARAH PALIN!!! Sarah Palin has offered her advice to Harris without a partisan bent and even said she’s happy to see her picked and that she hopes Harris isn’t attacked in the same way she was (fat chance) and that she should be confident and present herself to the American public as she is. And that is... surprisingly... not terrible advice?? And I’m genuinely happy that the only other female VP pick, as embarrassingly unprepared as she might have been, is doing that, while wondering how on earth we’re living in a world where, again, Sarah Palin is being more supportive than supposed Democratic voters. I don’t get it, chief.

The racist, misogynistic, “nasty woman” attacks on Harris have already eagerly begun from the right, the same stuff they hit Hillary Clinton with, and just as before, the left is eager to pile on rather than to defend their candidate, because they’d rather tear her down for not having policies that perfectly aligned with their own at all times rather than attack her outright fascist opponents. I don’t agree with everything Kamala has done either. But guess what? I DO agree with some things that she HAS done! And I’m going to defend her like crazy, because lord, I am tired of us eating our own. Kamala is experienced, competent, her nomination is historic, and she can clearly do the job. AND SHE IS STILL THE VICE PRESIDENT. NOT THE TOP OF THE TICKET.

The good news is: Biden has leads outside the margin of error in almost all swing states (which don’t matter a damn unless voters actually show up and vote, and we’ve already discussed how hard the GOP is deliberately making that, because they can only win by cheating) and far larger than Clinton’s leads at this time in 2016. Black voters, while being wary of some elements of Harris’s past, are largely very happy with the pick and agree that she can continue to evolve on her policy stances, and that the selection of a Black woman who has been a leader on criminal justice and police reform sends a strong message. Biden’s campaign had its best fundraising hour ever and ultimately raised $26 million in 24 hours after Harris joined the ticket, reflecting a surge of Democratic voter energy and enthusiasm. (That does not count leftists, who aren’t registered Democrats and don’t vote for Democrats and yet still act like their views are mainstream within the party.) So as loud and as obnoxious and maddening as they are, the hard left twitterati still aren’t actually the people that we are counting on as a core constituency. But this election is going to be very hard, and all the people threatening to sit out for some ridiculous moral-ideology reason are only going to make it harder for themselves and us.

I don’t know what to say. I spend a lot of time being scared too. Especially when it can feel like I’m yelling into the void over all this, and the sanctimonious circle-jerking baffles me beyond all reason. But we are not alone, we will do our best, and that is all we can ask for.

#politics for ts #your salty internet aunt is Fed Up kiddos #anonymous #ask

[expatimes]

Defeating fascism beyond the ballot

The world can breathe a sigh of relief that it will not know just how unhinged Donald Trump would have become with the validation of re-election, especially after already surviving literally hundreds of scandals and an official impeachment.

Trump’s defeat – largely to the credit of Black people, especially Black women – is immeasurably consequential for the planet. Even without a majority in the Senate (which Democrats still have a slim shot at winning in Georgia’s upcoming runoff elections), the United States can now work internationally and domestically to undo the damage Trump caused during four years of his presidency.

However, the US faces steep, deep-seated problems that neither began, nor will end, with Donald Trump. As liberals celebrate a “return to normalcy,” the people who delivered this victory will not be satisfied by a return to a profoundly violent status quo.

Trump and his disciples already plot a comeback, but if we study how he was narrowly defeated, we can prevent society from welcoming his brand of politics again.

Denormalisation

If liberals thought of Trump’s constant lying and false promises as “un-American,” they should listen to Native Americans and read about the long history of Indigenous genocide as nonpartisan US government policy.

This is a country built on Black enslavement and Indigenous genocide, constructed by a racist system of law and lifted by imperialism. Now, as the empire crumbles, it is also a country descending into a neo-feudal society only buttressed by a consolidating panopticon of state violence and corporate surveillance.

These are not problems that can be addressed individually and there are no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions. Rather, everyone has the power to wield, given their specific positions in society, and everyone must play a role if we want to change institutions and systems. Start exactly where you already are.

Trump has spent years broadcasting that he would try anything to maintain the presidency, including legal and clandestine voter suppression and intimidation. If the election’s integrity can be protected from Trump and his supporters’ ongoing attempt at a coup d’état, we will still emerge into a polarised country where nearly half of the voting population – roughly 70 million overwhelmingly white people – do not consider bigotry a deal breaker.

The ratio of people who approve of political violence is growing substantially across the ideological spectrum. Furthermore, a good portion of the populace has a twisted view of reality, where rumour and conspiracy are more important than critical thought or facts. Research shows that many of them can be converted, but how?

Personal relationships can slowly rebuild shared trust. In practice, this includes the sometimes difficult job of listening patiently and empathetically to friends who have fallen for concerted misinformation campaigns and more diffuse efforts of manipulation. Everyday compassion might be our best way out of the social media bubbles and conspiracy theories that cloud our collective foresight.

Undoing oppression cannot be a burden placed on the oppressed – people living at the intersection of marginalised social categories. People mobilised by this electoral wave must support and invest in communities of colour, but without demanding that marginalised people find “common ground” with fascism. The hard work of confronting and transforming this system must be carried out by those most structurally privileged.

Critique as a gift

One of the most important long-term strategies is scaling up this kind of work into intentional organising and community building everywhere: our work, families, friends, everyday interactions and wherever else possible.

The long-term political battleground is cultural, as Antonio Gramsci wrote from prison almost 100 years ago and US conservatives have understood since at least the 1970s. In the words of Republican media strategist Pat Buchanan, “if you capture the culture of the country, eventually you might prevail.”

The right-wing strategy of recapturing American culture after the anti-war movements of the 1960s and 70s explains why the strongest sources of censorship and “political correctness” in this country are not leftist “online mobs,” but rather conservative entities like the Texas State Board of Education, which has spent decades rewriting history with political intent.

In its narratives of exceptionalism and refusal to teach this country’s violent history, the board denies generations the opportunity to reckon with the structures that shape their present realities. And given Texas’s population size, textbooks produced for that state influence instructional materials in many other states, and the effects of this miseducation grow and become embedded over time.

Evidence of the “culture war” strategy is abundant today, well beyond Fox News. Spend a minimal amount of time on social media and you will come across the disinformation machine fuelled by millions of dollars of Koch money, propaganda videos on YouTube from accounts like PragerU (which is not a university of any kind), and thousands of similar copycat accounts that are likewise monetising narratives of white victimhood and paranoia.

We must learn and teach each other how to better recognise propaganda, appreciate difference and confront injustice. Furthermore, we must commit ourselves to more intentional and democratic relationships, contrary to the dominant paradigms where we are always in competition and our victories must come at someone else’s expense.

Breaking the grip of these ideas will require building an alternative through mindful practice – embracing constructive critique, learning to give and cherish feedback, knowing how to apologise and grow, and preferring strategic bridging over destructive sanctimony. Neither performative cruelty nor tone policing can help us get there. Accountability is not the same as fixating on someone’s small mistakes or clumsy language.

As bell hooks has put it, “Forgiveness and compassion are always linked: How do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”

Uprooting arrogance at a societal level requires self-examination. We should support each other more and police each other less.

Merging left without compromising values

Lasting change will also require merging around a transformative agenda that speaks to different constituencies without sacrificing progressive values or pandering to colonial tendencies.

Among other things, this vision for systemic change must include Black reparations, radically curtailing or even withdrawing the state’s power to inflict violence on marginalised communities through policing and criminal punishment, honouring the treaties this country made with Native peoples, expanded equal access to rights like education and healthcare, demilitarisation, equal pay, progressive taxation on the ultra-rich, green jobs, decarbonisation and environmental justice.

The policies above are overwhelmingly popular with the electorate but they remain difficult under our current institutional design. Therefore, organisers must work community by community, state by state, and federally towards procedural reforms that can yield structural payoffs.

These include abolishing the electoral college, honouring Puerto Rico’s vote for statehood, instituting ranked-choice voting, protecting voter rights such as universal registration and mail voting, making election day a holiday, mandating voting as a civic duty, reforming campaign financing, instituting an independent commission to reverse partisan districting, democratising the Senate by making it proportionally representative of states’ populations, curtailing executive authority to make war and surveil the world, and more.

In all, our platforms must be driven by intersectional analyses attentive to how each policy will differently impact people depending on their various identities and social positions. We otherwise risk reproducing a long trend within so-called progressive movements led by men and white people, and especially white men, where their concerns become the default. Everyone else is dismissed with demands to “not be divisive” about our very real differences, which are treated as something to reduce or eliminate, rather than appreciate and welcome.

Personnel is policy: taking and making space

In the finer details, social transformation will require shifting the field organising strategy and infrastructure of political parties, especially the Democrats. The 2020 election cycle proved that the old guard’s strategies are ineffective, but also that their antidote is bottom-up energy. In particular, one of the most significant investments donors can make is in year-round community organising and canvassing efforts to build up sustained power.

Trump’s defeat belongs to social movements and activists, especially Black organisers and Black women in particular, who turned out to vote in record numbers.

Credit is also due to Indigenous voters who undeniably helped tip Arizona, Wisconsin, and played an important role in Democratic victories in other states, despite the disrespectful erasure of Indigenous peoples in corporate media coverage of the election. States like Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Michigan were likewise won by organisations like Mission for Arizona, spearheaded by young Latinas.

These organisations lack the resources of the Democratic establishment but did the hard work that paved the way for Trump’s defeat. Let us save the symbolic gestures of gratitude and actually provide these groups ongoing support and investment.

Incorporating these solutions requires altering not only policy platforms but also the makeup of the party. Democrats are more diverse than the Republicans in membership, but not much more in leadership. White consultants who occupy most positions of power inevitably approach issues with internalised biases, and thereby come to the “impartial” conclusion that “X community does not vote, so more resources must be redirected towards old white voters instead,” which only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As long as strategic decision-making remains dominated by white strategists, the party will continue redirecting resources away from its most important and yet most disrespected backbone of support – people of colour – thereby feeding apathy and disaffection. Do not expect marginalised communities to continue rescuing a party that refuses to hear or show up for its own base.

A politics of love

“Your Congresswoman-elect loves you,” Cori Bush declared during her acceptance speech. “If I love you, I care that you eat. If I love you, I care that you have shelter and adequate, safe housing. If I love you, I care that you have clean water and clean air, and you have a liveable wage. If I love you, I care that the police don’t murder you.”

Flawed as the electoral process is, it remains crucial to making social change. Elections provide a structure of opportunity, attention and resources to organise and reshape discussions about our material, everyday realities. Activists interested in changing society must therefore continue to engage their momentum and give them direction, all while changing their traditional model – from one where our energy flows upward to support the liberal establishment, towards one where we instead draw resources from electoral cycles to improve and sustain our communities beyond them.

Activists should remain critical of the risk of activist energy being co-opted by a Democratic Party that has presided over a bipartisan dismantling of public services such as housing, bloating and militarisation of a racist policing system, mass incarceration exacerbated by their own crime bills, mass deportation programmes, indiscriminate surveillance, growing inequalities, and a war and carbon-based economy.

At the same time, the work of groups like those mentioned above shows that it is possible to build electoral power without sacrificing organisational autonomy at the grassroots.

The pace of change in political institutions is unbearably slow by design. However, taking state power remains important to altering the daily realities of people’s lives. Around each new win up and down the ticket, no matter how small, we can rally new resources and recruits, feel our power through our results, and grow the fight for radical democracy, both within and well beyond the state.

Love is an everyday, radical mission. Collective liberation requires an ethic of care and a strategy for building political communities rooted in shared respect for all living things. In this, anyone can play a role, everyone is needed and everything must be built with intention – forging welcoming spaces, ceding space, redistributing power, organising solidarity everywhere, winning small battles, persuading the public and scaling upward to generate new possibilities in our unwritten future.

Given the interlinked crises facing humanity, radical change is more urgent now than ever, so let’s pick up a clipboard and do the work, following the leadership of the people of colour, especially Black people, and especially women, who won this election.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=15259&feed_id=21933

#DonaldTrump #Inequality #JoeBiden #Opinions #Politics #Racism #UnitedStates #USampCanada #USElections2020

[ziobrowski]

Cisza wyborcza już wkrótce

Ciekawe, co o wyborach sądzi pan Gniot, który tak trafnie przewidział wynik poprzednich wyborów?

Poniższe emaile najprawdopodobniej zostały wysłane z naruszeniem ciszy wyborczej oraz stanowią agitację w zakładzie pracy. Niestety nikt z SII nie miał jaj tego zgłosić.

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Small though after debate tonight... FW: Small though after presidential elections Date: 2015-10-20 23:46 From: Gregoire Nitot Dear colleagues, I just watch election debate on TV. My feeling : · Kukiz seems the worst candidate. He has some courage & passion. But he has no respect to other candidates, other parties, no tolerance, no management capacity, dangerous ideas. Serious & mature Polish people should not vote for such candidate. · I never liked PIS : o They have unrealistic promises which will expand Polish budget deficit. They will increase corporate & social security taxes in order to realize those populist promises (increase ZUS, PIT, CIT). So companies like Sii & employees with "_high_" salaries (majority of Sii workers!) will suffer with PIS. o They plan to implement not efficient ; complex & costly tax system, complex rules. o They say that they support Polish people? In fact they are anti many Polish people unfortunately ; anti rich people for example, anti non catholic people, anti-large companies with foreign capital (pity because those companies give us work & pay large taxes in Poland), anti-banks, anti EU, anti-foreigners, anti-businessmen... o Moreover it may be a dangerous party for press liberty & democracy... · SLD / Barbara Nowacka (ZL), or Adrian Zandberg (partia razem): some nice & generous ideas ; good for poor Ppeople... But they will increase taxes of companies like Sii. They don't like neither large multinational companies & their management. They will increase taxes to high salaries ; so it will be not good for Sii & our customers. (Once corporations will stop to invest in Poland because of bad tax system ; it will not be good for anybody ; rich & poor Polish people !). · Korwin -Mikke : his promise & liberal ideas are great for companies like Sii & businessmen like me! But crazy guy ; racist ; anti homosexuals ; anti EU ; not credible ; not serious. Poland should not be managed by a clown. · PO & PSL : not the worst. Main risk is that they may stop freelance contracts... · Best for Sii seems Ryszard Petru & Nowoczesna party! So If we want to support Sii growth ; we should probably vote to Ryszard Petru... ! But of course everybody is free to vote for anybody. Majority of Sii colleagues do not share my point of view ; & hundreds will vote some PIS ! We respect all Polish political parties in Sii, even PIS! Challenge is that in order to have nice life, assure good education for our children, good hospitals, good salaries ; we need solid economy with solid companies like Sii. It is actually those companies which recruit us, pay our salaries & invoices, pay taxes, PIT & ZUS which enable to finance healthcare, retirement, civil servants or education systems for example. Dobranoc! (sorry for spam for colleagues who don't care about Polish politics). Gregoire Nitot Prezes & founder PS : I sent few months ago email to all after Polish presidential election ; email below… Some people liked it ; some others hated it ; majority probably did not care or did not read this email… I read critics even few weeks ago after this previous email sent in May 2015. (Actually I'm reading each month annual interviews of each Sii workers ; in particular I read what people don't like about Sii, critics & change propositions). Few Sii workers wrote in their annual interview that they did not like my email & that it is my role to comment on Politics. I respect their idea ; their critics ; but I comment whenever I want… If some Sii workers are not happy with that… Trudno !!!!! My objective is not to be nice with Sii workers ; be popular ; be appreciated ; promise everything like Beata Szydlo ; but simply I try to take good decisions ; in order to build solid company on a long term basis, healthy, fair, with good reputation, better company than our competitors... So I try to recruit & promote best leaders for example ; try to implement best processes, organization & rules… + I always try to execute our 15 core values like transparency, fairness, trust, courage or respect. But hopefully I'm not the only one who build this company. It is not my company ; but ours. Thousands of people build Sii Poland. All of us build it. So thank you very much. It is great to build this company together ! J FROM: Gregoire Nitot TO: [email protected] SUBJECT: Small though after presidential elections Czesc, I'm a bit sad after Polish presidential elections… L Duda is perhaps not a bad guy ? But I don't like PIS party. I hate PIS ideas. Of course PO has some big shortcomings. I'm not neither a PO fan. They can do more in order to transform, modernize & improve the country we live in. They can be more courageous, taking sometimes tough decisions, unpopular ; but for the long term good of Poland and its citizens. But PO is not the worst party neither. Their KPI is good : unemployment figures, growth, privatization, EU & US relations… So how above half of Polish people can vote for PIS ??? I don't understand that. It is like above half of Polish people complain about their life. Why ? Poland is a wonderful country, great culture, democratic, great people, great history… We are all extremely lucky to live in Poland. We have a unique chance to live here. + Poland realizes an amazing economic performance for 10 years ; with amazing growth ; with amazing opportunities & progress for millions of Poles : possibility to buy house or flat, travel, etc…. All Polish people profit of this growth ; not only rich people. (This performance is not due to PO ; but due to EU funds & milliards of foreign investments which come to Poland each day). So why so many Polish people complain about their life, voting for PIS ? Actually according to me PIS is : · EUROSCEPTIC, against EU party ; scared about foreigners, immigrants… o Of course EU has tremendous shortcomings. EU has bad constitution, too complex, too bureaucratic. It needs approval of 28 countries in order to make any decision. So obviously it can't work. Nobody understands who has the power between European Parliament, Commission, head of states (Tusk). (But EU has a bad constitution & is not efficient because each EU state is egoistic, thinking only about own interest ; not interest of the majority ; & none of those states want to lose its sovereignty to EU. Me I'm a strong defender of EU integration). o For example Sii is a strong company because there is a clear leader & boss (me), able to make fast decisions. If I had to consult each subject with 28 people & get approval of all of them before making any decision ; overhead cost would be huge, organization would be not efficient at all, we would not be agile ; flexible, fast. We would lose against all our competitors ; companies from Poland ; but also competitors from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, India, China ; & we would go bankrupt soon. o BUT : § Without EU funds ; Sii would not open Lublin DC for example ; would not open branch in Katowice, would not create hundreds of jobs in Poland. Actually Sii received 20 M PLN EU funds since 2008…; We reinvest those 20 M PLN in Poland, created hundreds of jobs ; took some risks we would not have taken without those funds. Sii pays dozens on millions of taxes each year to Poland : ZUS, PIT, CIT, PFRON, ZFSS,... (I'll actualize next week our amount of taxes paid in Poland in 2014 : http://sii.pl/kluczowe-liczby-i-fakty/ [1] ) Those taxes are used to build roads, hospitals, sponsor police, justice, pay retirement… § Poland is growing, becoming better, mainly Thanks to EU funds & International investors. So Poland should be very happy with EU § Thanks to EU there are no war in Europe for the 1st time since centuries… · PIS IS AGAINST BUSINESSMEN like me. Against foreign investors. They'd like Polish state or Polish people to control everything : banks, retailers, big companies… If i would not come in Poland in January 2006 ; there would not be Sii Poland. + I'm a French guy ; but I'm more honest than huge majority of Polish businessman (I have a Polish "wife" (I'm not married), Polish children. So I'm a bit Polish also. I try to obtain Polish nationality). Poland should be very happy that I emigrated here 9,5 years ago. Thanks to me Poland receive hundreds of M PLN of taxes… So why PIS do not like those businessmen like me ? Once again Sii is a great chance for Poland. Actually we contribute to Poland growth, to Poland success. Poland achieves success thanks to company like Sii, Intel, Roche, Volvo, Gemalto, Citi, Credit Suisse, Sabre, ABB, Mbank, etc… · POPULIST party ; not courageous ; but telling what Polish people would like to ear ; claiming for example that it would reduce retirement age. Stupid! Awful management control proposition. People are living older. Who will pay for those retirement? How PIS will finance that ? Increasing ZUS ? So foreign companies will stop to invest in Poland… · TOO MUCH PATRIOTIC party ; which do not respect & care about others. It cares only about egoistic Poland interest. It is not ready to make compromise with EU partners ; or even with Russia & other countries. Personally I'm not a patriot. I don't care about homeland. I am deeply ready to Fight & Die for ideas. I would fight against Hitler, against Stalin, against Communism, against Fascism, against Nazism. But i would not make war & die for any flag, any country ! There are more important ideas / ideals in Life than defending Poland, France or any country. I'd prefer to help those poor African people who are risking their life crossing Mediterranean sea in order to enter Europe ; than helping Polish or French politicians. I obviously always support France or Polish teams in sport. I love Polish or French traditions ; traditions & culture from Kaszuby or any part of the world. Good that we are all different. But We all live in 1 world. Each human should have chance to have a decent life. So I Hate this patriotic idea. Why those boundaries ? Why some people who get born in poorer part of the world should not have chance to realize their dream ; like we can do it in Poland or France ? Rich countries should help poorer countries ; like richer EU citizens help Poland citizens with EU funds. · TOO MUCH RELIGIOUS party ; narrow-minded ; racist. I come from catholic family. My mother & 1 sister are going to the church each Sunday. But I don't believe in god. Actually I'm convince god & religions are a human invention in order to keep hope despite death. Anyway I'm generally tolerant to each religion. I have great Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Muslim friends. But I think religion should not be present in politics. PIS is a racist party against Jewish, against Arab, against Muslims... PIS cares too much about religion. PIS listen too much religious people ; sometimes dangerous extremist people. I hate too religious / fundamentalist people : Muslims, Jewish, Christians, Hinduisms... All those fundamentalists ; those terrorists ; no matter from which religion ; are very dangerous for human kind. Religions cause wars. Religions cause hate between people. So some small though. Long email at night… Many colleagues may think "who is this stupid guy" ? Some may resign from Sii. Trudno. I'm not happy with this election & I tell it. But I know some Top Sii Directors are PIS fans… I will not fire them ! (I like very much their honestly). I'm always tolerant to different ideas! We need different ideas ; different points of view to be better together. I won't quit Poland & Sii will continue to invest in Poland. But i feel sad now. I did not believe 53% Polish people would vote for PIS... I should create new Political party perhaps... Party which defends our 14 values, party who will defend people worldwide ; Power People from any country, any culture, any religion! Perhaps 1 day ? I'll send more interesting email next week ; communicating our financial results, success et failures of the year, plans & objectives for coming months… I'm waiting for management weekend this week to send this report after to all at the beginning of next week Cheers, Greg Best regards, Pozdrawiam, GREGOIRE NITOT Prezes / CEO Sii Sp. z o.o. | www.sii.pl [2] Mobile : [phone] Links: ------ [1] http://sii.pl/kluczowe-liczby-i-fakty/ [2] http://www.sii.pl/

[churchworker]

Thoughts On A Presidents Day.

We’ve been through a lot since November 9. We’ve been through a lot since January 20.  We’ve encountered legislation, executive orders, and political uprising that many never considered before the 2016 Election. I can’t imagine how non-political folks are feeling - especially those who avoid politics to stay out of the crossfire.

I used to be the guy who avoided politics. I thought that focusing on my faith, prayer, & worship with my community of Christians would create a safe space & belief system to help me survive day-to-day, just dealing with my inner chaos. Sadly, I realized my wife and I would have to take that journey outside of the Church, realizing that the church was adapting to hard line conservatism, rather than honing in on the message of grace & love.

It’s clear to see that in and out of the church, conservatism is lacking any tangible expression of grace & love. Yes, the anti-abortion crusade is supposed to be an outpouring of fiercely expressed love… but in the context of Christianity, people have taken this issue out of God’s hands, and created hordes of self-appointed control freaks & fear mongers.

If these Christians truly put their trust in God, they’d understand that free will is a part of a faithful reality that not even the rightest of the Right-wing can control- try as they may.

Again, Free Will is determined by God. Not even the most weaponized right-wing Christian zealot can change that. Notice how every zealot who’s tried to change the author of Free Will in our past has been stopped? That being said, it should be clear by now that whether a person be stopped or if, God forbid, the world ends, human assertion over Free Will is destined to be stopped.

Did you know that Donald Trump has actually proposed working with mega-churches to become Trump Super-PACs? Yes, scary.

I’m resisting. I’m connected with a local Indivisible group, and I design anti-Trump/anti-GOP banners on my Twitter feed. I’m doing my part to be a part of the conversation. I speak intentionally about my values, and I’m adamant about seeking solutions & progress to reversing the mess that is so aptly progressing, thanks to Donald Trump & the establishment GOP.

One question that keeps coming back to me: Why didn’t President Obama do more to proactively stop Trump?

For a while, I was infuriated. I saw Obama’s low profile in the last days of his term as his checking out. I wondered if he was cornered due to the GOP obstructionism in Congress. I wondered if maybe his power with Executive Orders had a limit. I heard things like… he didn’t want to create the impression of the White House assisting in Hillary Clinton’s campaign (?) The hindsight on that line of thinking must be a significant source of regret.

So many serious issues were coming up… Russian interference in the election, Trump’s conflicts of interest, etc. There was very little response from Obama to those issues.

“I told Putin to cut it out…” among these lengthy, diplomatic, broken answers at Obama’s final press conferences were a disappointment. I was deflated, and I sank into the reality that he would not be the savior from a Trump presidency.

I was impressed with all he was doing to address pardons & commutations, Planned Parenthood, environmental issues, and human rights in the last days of his term. I am grateful for those things, but I was deflated.

Since Obama left office, I’ve started to grow a possible understanding towards his last months as President.

As I’ve become a more informed constituent – I’ve started to realize the physical & psychological damage potential of the far-right conservative movement - and the role that establishment GOP’s are playing in that. I’m starting to realize that America is now a country where just under half of the citizens have passively and/or proactively exercised support of racist & religious bigotry, sexism & misogyny, and Fascism.

As I research more deeply into those things – I am easily overwhelmed by what is a new & unavoidable reality. Sure there is potential to re-establish a political majority for the left and experience a sigh of relief for 4-8 more years from having a majority of folks who resemble your values, but what do we do with the reality that 50% of a nation ranges from being an obligatory tribal voter to being completely psyched up about Trump’s vision for America?

That is a horse pill to swallow.

You can’t deactivate millions of people who are fired up about Trump’s vision. In fact, there are huge conventions & rallies being planned to get even more people fired up – and more hardline Right-wing folks voted into office.

I wonder how many Democrats have witnessed the slow decent of conservative America, and wondered if allowing folks to actually experience a Trump America is the antidote. Let them have it. Let them make their bed. Let them live in a sick environment. Let them exist in a work environment where sexual harassment is celebrated. Let them go to church where they can worship Jesus & Donald Trump in the same building. Let them put society in boxes. Let the hate groups flourish and mobilize.

All the while the reality sets in… there will be no jobs or prosperity for them. Foreclosures and short sales on homes start to increase again. There are no able bodies doing the jobs that immigrants have been doing for several decades, because they’ve all been deported. They have to decide what medical conditions are severe enough to have to go to the doctor, because you have to plan for a $25,000 emergency room visit. You have to plan for a $300- $500 prescription.

Meanwhile, the Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan & friends’ bank accounts are getting fatter (they’re already million/billionaires), and the American people foot the bill for their medical insurance, vacations, and employment.

There will be some “reality overlap”, meaning the Trumpers won’t realize they’ve been completely dicked over while still suffering the effects of having been gaslit.

Unimaginable damage has already been done. Apparently there’s more to come. Maybe the real solution is to just let it happen. Rebuild in the background, and when reality kicks in, Humanitarians & Samaritans rise up to clean up the mess.

What’s my point? I’m wondering if President Obama’s brokenness & inattentiveness at the end of his term was less about his legacy being torn down and more about seeing the inevitable.

Donald Trump clearly isn’t the answer, because it’s obvious that he’s in the game for financial gain. He doesn’t care about unemployment, or immigration, or health care, or anything he’s built a platform on. Everything connects to financial gain.

He hired the worst people to run our institutions. Why? Trump wants to dismantle them, & free up finances to siphon into wealthy bank accounts.

This is the most amazing, large-scale bank robbery in the history of the world. The aftermath will be devastating – and in the end, if we haven’t moved to Canada, we’ll be there to pick up the pieces.

This can only go on for so long right? The news outlets tout, “Never in American history…”, and I agree. A president can lie to the American people, but it’s only effective until they realize it, and they have. For a while now.

If they keep Trump in power, it’s on all of us. Yes - it will partially be on Russia, but we will bear most of that burden. Those of us who voted, those of us who were apathetic, those of us who doubted Hillary Clinton’s credibility, and those of us who bought into the hateful rhetoric and Trump’s empty promises – it will be all of our responsibility as Americans.

I’m a Progressive Democrat – and feeling hopeless and overwhelmed. It’s hard to see past today. When you look back 6 months and struggle to remember something resembling stability, it’s hard to see past today.

A final thought for President’s Day… 

Despite my pondering his last days in office, I believe it will become increasingly obvious as time goes on that President Barack Obama did the absolute best with the resources at his disposal, having faced a brick wall of opposition.  Obama will undoubtedly be regarded as one of America’s great presidents. He’s a Washington, a Lincoln, a JFK. He is one of those who embodies & personifies the best of America’s identity.

God be with us, God heal us & strengthen us – and give us Peace.

[wetrumpfeed]

Afternoon MAGAthread: YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP!

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!

This is your giiiirlllll u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things dank and spicy from the past week! If you happened to miss any past recaps you can catch those here!

Sunday, May 26th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Attends the Sumo Wrestling Cultural Program

President Trump Participates in a Couples Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Tonight in Tokyo, Japan at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan Stadium, it was my great honor to present the first-ever U.S. President’s Cup to Sumo Grand Champion Asanoyama. Congratulations! A great time had by all, thank you @AbeShinzo!!

Thank you @JPN_PMO @AbeShinzo! #POTUSinJapan🇺🇸🇯🇵

“Why doesn’t the press apologize to President Trump for the Russian Collusion Delusion?” @marklevinshow @JudgeJeanine How about the Dems also?

The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, & hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be, & where they should be. Have a wonderful time today. Thank you to our great men & women of the Pentagon for working it out!

Congratulations to the Great (and my friend) Roger Penske on winning his 18th (UNBELIEVABLE!) Indianapolis 500. I am in Japan, very early in the morning, but I got to watch Simon drive one of the greatest races in the history of the sport. I will see them both, & TEAM, at the WH!

Great evening last night, thank you!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo just posted a selfie with GEOTUS on the golf course!

Japan PEDE Approved

🚨IMPORTANT🚨 CBS News Poll: 7 in 10 Americans say the economy is in good shape. It’s clear: Americans are feeling the positive effects of @realDonaldTrump’s economy!

Oscar winner Jon Voight calls Trump the greatest president since Lincoln

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

2020 election in a nutshell

A global mass awakening is happening

NEVER FORGET.

It's becoming hard to tell the real world and satire apart.

KEK

Monday, May 27th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan

President Trump Participates in a Joint Press Conference with the Prime Minister of Japan

President Trump Participates in a Meeting with Japanese Families of those Abducted by North Korea

President Trump and the First Lady Attend the State Banquet

Vice President Pence Participates in the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day Ceremony

President Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Memorial Day Address Aboard the USS WASP

President Trump and the First Lady Visit JS Kaga with the Prime Minister of Japan

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

(Retweeting The White House) President @realDonaldTrump and Prime Minister @AbeShinzo met for bilateral meetings and a working lunch at Akasaka Palace.

.@ianbremmer now admits that he MADE UP “a completely ludicrous quote,” attributing it to me. This is what’s going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it. Really, the libel laws should be changed to hold Fake News Media accountable!

Impeach for what, having created perhaps the greatest Economy in our Country’s history, rebuilding our Military, taking care of our Vets (Choice), Judges, Best Jobs Numbers Ever, and much more? Dems are Obstructionists!

The Dems are getting NOTHING done in Congress! They only want a Do-Over on Mueller!

Arlington National Cemetary

#MemorialDay🇺🇸

Liz Cheney: Statements by agents investigating Trump 'could well be treason'

Retweeting The White House Video

Hoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever. A lot more to do!

....Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing. That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!

Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you. I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, & helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!

I will be making two stops this morning in Japan to visit with our Great Military, then a quick stop in Alaska and back to D.C. Meetings with Prime Minister Abe went very well, and getting to spend time with the new Emperor and Empress of Japan was a great honor!

Can’t wait to see you all soon!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Time Reporter ADMITS He Faked Trump Quote!

HEAR! HEAR!

My dad left Iran during the Revolution. He painted this and now hangs it in his house for everyone to see. He’s a proud American, and I’m proud of him.

It's just a matter of time before every women's athletic record will be held by someone with a Y chromosome.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

WHO: "Gamers are mentally ill." Also WHO: "Thinking you're the wrong sex is not a mental illness." honk honk.

If you want to thank a soldier....

For those who made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you 🇺🇸

Things you never see anymore...

Tuesday, May 28th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Spoke with @GovStitt of Oklahoma last night from Japan because of the devastating tornadoes. Told him that @FEMA and the federal government are fully behind him and the great people of Oklahoma.

Storms overnight across Ohio and many other States were very dangerous and damaging. My team continues to update me with reports from emergency managers in the States affected. Listen to your local officials and be resilient. We are with you!

.@GovMikeDeWine just updated me on the devastation from the many tornadoes that struck Ohio early this morning. My Administration fully supports the people of the great State of Ohio as they begin the cleanup and recovery.

Just spoke to Governor @AsaHutchinson of the Great State of Arkansas to inform him that FEMA and the Federal Government will do whatever is necessary to help out with what has turned out to be Record Flooding. Asa and local officials are doing a great job!

I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a “low IQ idiot,” and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer “low IQ individual.” Who could possibly be upset with that?

Back from Japan after a very successful trip. Big progress on MANY fronts. A great country with a wonderful leader in Prime Minister Abe!

THANK YOU JAPAN!🇺🇸🇯🇵

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Airmen onboard the USS WASP wearing patches on their jumpsuits that read “Make Aircrew Great Again.” The patches include an image in the center in the likeness of President Trump.

I'll take stories that got swept under the carpet for 200

Senate Republicans vow to quickly crush impeachment trial of Trump if House proceeds with impeachment

Massachusetts judge who hid illegal alien from ICE faces 20 years in prison

Mueller Team Denies Michael Wolff Claim of Trump Indictment

A left-wing content creator on youtube and twitch openly endorses political violence against conservatives.

After answering question, Creepy Joe tells 10-yo girl... "if you give me your address I'm going to write you a longer answer & tell you the exact things I would do, okay? okay? promise? I bet you're as bright as you are good looking." then gropes her shoulders and gets in a sniff

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Three years ago today. RIP Harambe.

LOCK THEM UP!!!

The left set themselves such extremely low standards then fail to live up to them

Great Britain just got Great Again.

Wednesday, May 29th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Individual to a Key Administration Post

President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal Nominee

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Depart for Japan

President Trump Meets Members of the Military in Alaska

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Visit Arlington Cemetery

President Trump Presents the Public Safety Medal of Valor

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two. I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t..... ... ...If Alabama does not elect a Republican to the Senate in 2020, many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost, including our Pro-Life victories. Roy Moore cannot win, and the consequences will be devastating....Judges and Supreme Court Justices!

Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you.

How do you impeach a Republican President for a crime that was committed by the Democrats? WITCH-HUNT!

Great show tonight @seanhannity, you really get it (9:00 P.M. @FoxNews), that’s why you’re Number One (by far)! Also, please tell Mark Levin congrats on having the Number One book!

I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Posted by antifa international, but is literally fascism

Trump Cracks Down On People That Help Immigrants Illegally Enter The US

The guy who ran the FBI for 12 years does not believe in the fundamental underpinning of American law. This should terrify everyone.

A week before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Britain’s top national security official sent a private communique, hand-delivered to incoming U.S. national security adviser Mike Flynn’s team, that the British government lacked confidence in the credibility of former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

LOCK THEM UP

r/The_Donald Right Now................

Presumption of innocence, how does it work?

Mueller leaves them blue balled and frustrated once again

Hello? Hello?

Thursday, May 30th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

First Lady Melania Trump and Mrs. Akie Abe Visit Digital Art Museum in Tokyo

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the 2019 United States Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!

Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,..... ... ....say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false accusation, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!

Congressman John Ratcliffe, “The Trump Campaign clearly did not conspire or collude.” @FoxNews

“Comey and Brennan are turning on each other.” @kilmeade

Robert Mueller came to the Oval Office (along with other potential candidates) seeking to be named the Director of the FBI. He had already been in that position for 12 years, I told him NO. The next day he was named Special Counsel - A total Conflict of Interest. NICE!

Very sad to hear the news on the passing of my friend, Senator Thad Cochran. He was a real Senator with incredible values - even flew back to Senate from Mississippi for important Healthcare Vote when he was desperately ill. Thad never let our Country (or me) down!

Presidential Meme

Just arrived in Colorado. Getting ready to deliver the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy graduation. Very exciting - probably will be broadcast live on TV. They want good ratings!

(Retweeting The White House) Thank you to all of the brave men and women graduating from the United States Air Force Academy today! “You could have chosen any school, any career you wanted, but you chose a harder path and a higher calling to protect and defend the United States of America.”

(Retweeting The White House) “You are ready to fly, fight, and win!” — President Donald J. Trump

Yesterday, Border Patrol agents apprehended the largest group of illegal aliens ever: 1,036 people who illegally crossed the border in El Paso around 4am. Democrats need to stand by our incredible Border Patrol and finally fix the loopholes at our Border!

The Navy put out a disclaimer on the McCain story. Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!

On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,.. ... ....at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.

I will be watching @AlanDersh on @IngrahamAngle at 10:00 P.M. He speaks the truth!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

GEOTUS JUST ANNOUNCED ALL GOODS FROM MEXICO WILL BE TARIFFED 5% UNTIL ILLEGALS STOP COMING!

Free hammers given out to the first 50 attendees!

Netflix Continues Production In Egypt, Where Abortion Is Illegal, While Considering Georgia Boycott Over ‘Heartbeat’ Bill

Chicago police release hundreds of pages of documents related to Jussie Smollett investigation straight from MAGA COUNTRY! #Transparency

William Barr interview: Attorney General says Mueller "could've reached a decision" on whether Trump obstructed justice — exclusive

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Hmmmm

MRW the White House imposes tariffs on Mexico over illegal immigration

Who's laughing now?

When Trump adds a 25% tariff...

Friday, May 31st:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Proclamation to Modify the List of Beneficiary Developing Countries Under the Trade Act of 1974

Proclamation on National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, 2019

Proclamation on Great Outdoors Month, 2019

Proclamation on National Homeownership Month, 2019

Proclamation on African American Music Appreciation Month, 2019

Proclamation on National Ocean Month, 2019

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Sean Davis, The Federalist: “Mueller proved his entire operation was a political hit job. Still ZERO evidence of Trump-Russia Collusion, and no new evidence from Mueller.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews

Congratulations to the @AF_Academy Class of 2019!

Hard to believe that with the Crisis on the Border, the Dems won’t do the quick and easy fix. Would solve the problem but they want Open Borders, which equals crime!

Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades. Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!

In order not to pay Tariffs, if they start rising, companies will leave Mexico, which has taken 30% of our Auto Industry, and come back home to the USA. Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!

90% of the Drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico & our Southern Border. 80,000 people died last year, 1,000,000 people ruined. This has gone on for many years & nothing has been done about it. We have a 100 Billion Dollar Trade Deficit with Mexico. It’s time!

Saddened to hear about the loss of John Pinto, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II, over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Code Talkers are true American HEROES and John never stopped serving his fellow citizens as a longtime New Mexico State Senator. John, Rest In Peace!

.@SeanHannity is having a DEEP STATE SHOW tonight on Fox News at 9:00 PM (E), exposing the tremendous abuse of power that has been uncovered. Tremendous guests, a must see – Enjoy!

As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals.... ... ....on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!

GREAT NEWS! #MAGA

I will be announcing my Second Term Presidential Run with First Lady Melania, Vice President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence on June 18th in Orlando, Florida, at the 20,000 seat Amway Center. Join us for this Historic Rally! Tickets:

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Trump's approval rating hits highest point in two years

Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

William Barr: Trump’s critics, not Trump, are 'shredding our norms and our institutions'

Flynn Filing Shows Mueller Twisted Everything Around And Prosecutors Refuse To Provide Proof Flynn Innocent

✅ Never Forget. Mueller Team Destroyed 19,000 Strzok/Page Texts Before Review

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

avocados are over rated anyway.

I like beer too🍻

Wow! Watch RINO justin amash get BTFO by this Trump supporter, for his stance on impeachment of POTUS. I'd like to buy this woman a beer. Thank you, patriot! 👏👏

I love this restaurant. I love it, love it, love it. But not as much as I love our POTUS.

Saturday, June 1st:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Spoke to Virginia Governor @RalphNortham last night, and the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Virginia Beach this morning, to offer condolences to that great community. The Federal Government is there, and will be, for whatever they may need. God bless the families and all!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

🚨🚨 Supreme Court to decide what happens when a US border agent shoots & kills someone on the Mexican side of the wall.

LISTEN TO THIS INFILTRATING WITCH .. Linda Sarsour STATES Muslims should NEVER assimilate, should ONLY appease Allah, & JIHAD against Trump & his administration !! BELIEVE HER SHE MEANS EVERY WORD.

Eric Trump: The media is a total joke — They discuss “avocado’s” potentially increasing a few cents but fail to mention the $200 Billion illegal immigration costs American taxpayers EVERY YEAR. How about the cost of illegal drugs on our youth, the cost to eduction & healthcare? #Priorities

CBS only wants you to watch small pieces of this interview so they can give before/after commentary to paint their own narrative around it. Listen to the entire uncut audio instead of watching their bullshit clips.

FITTON:MONSTROUS Abuse of Power: Investigate Mueller political attack on President Trump; New Docs show FBI helped Hillary Clinton just before the election; AND Hillary Knew: Was Warned Twice About Blackberry and Email Use -- Massive Judicial Watch Mega Update:

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Must have trained real hard.

My baby's smiling, probably because he knows he gets to live to be a badass. 🇺🇸 Here's hoping for a July 4th birthday.

Vegans For Biden. Drumpf doesn't stand a freakin' chance.

What a great idea. MAGA Parrots! 🦜

Training is one of the most important parts of winning. This is how AG Bill Barr begins each day.

WEEEW LAD! SOOOO MUCH FUCKING WINNING, STILL NOT TIRED OF IT!

Of course, no recap is complete without some tunes to get you jamming through all this winning:

Alright

Out Last Night

People Are Crazy

Why Don't We Just Dance

American Kids

MAGA ON PATRIOTS!

submitted by /u/Ivaginaryfriend [link] [comments]

[takebackthedream]

Do Democrats Really Need Wall Street? by Harvey J Kaye

Halloween is coming and fear mongering seems to be the order of the day – not just on the part of Republicans, but apparently no less so on the part of “centrist” and conservative Democrats who are expressing growing anxiety about offending big donors who see politics not as the pursuit of justice but as the pursuit of their interests.

Douglas Schoen, said to have been  Bill Clinton’s favorite pollster during his presidency, has taken to the Op-Ed page of the New York Times to warn center-right party members and friends that all Hell will break loose if the Democrats embrace a platform promising “wealth redistribution through higher taxes and Medicare for all” and utilizing democracy to challenge the power of money.

Don’t be bewitched by the fantasies of folks such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Schoen counsels, for if you do, the American financial elite will not keep the party’s “coffers full.”  Indeed, he argues, “Democrats should strengthen their ties to Wall Street,” for “America is a center-right, pro-capitalist nation.”

“Memories in politics are short,” Schoen wrote. And he wrings his hands over the amnesia that robs people of remembering that the center-right assembled under Bill Clinton enabled him to balance  the budget, limit government, and protect essential programs “that make up the social safety net.”  Leaving behind “that version of liberalism,” Schoen writes, has cost Democrats several elections.  He even claims that Hillary Clinton lost in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 because she “lurched to the left.”

Yes, memories are short indeed, but they are made even shorter by the likes of Schoen.  The horrors he prophesies make it clear that he does not want us to remember.  He wants us to forget, and therefore to tame our aspirations for for social democracy and an economy that serves everyday people instead of the one percent.

Schoen wants us to forget that Hillary Clinton lost the Upper Midwest not because of her supposed “lurch to the left” but because many working people could not erase from their minds her lavishly paid Wall Street engagements and her adamant refusal to “release the transcripts” of those flattering speeches to the bankers.

To many a Rust Belt voter she was the “Goldman Sachs” candidate, something Schoen would consign to the memory hole.   Moreover, he wants us to forget that she likely lost the Blue-state of Wisconsin, where I live, because she took it for granted. Defeated here by  Bernie Sanders in the primary election, she  never returned to Wisconsin to campaign against Donald Trump, who visited the state several times and  took advantage of the impact of Russian-sponsored ads on Facebook and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s voter suppression drive that deterred thousands of minority voters from turning out.

More critically, Schoen also wants us to forget how Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton turned their backs on the Franklin Roosevelt Democratic tradition and proceeded to turn liberalism into neoliberalism.  He wants us to forget how Carter alienated millions of working people, opening the door to the conservative administration of Ronald Reagan, by deregulating key sectors of the economy and instituting, in Carter’s own words, “austerity” in government while corporations were exporting jobs, busting unions, and devastating communities.

And Schoen, who has been paid handsomely as a lobbyist to several large corporations (something the New York Times did not point out), would  erase from our awareness President Clinton’s sabotage of  labor and environmental movements as he pushed the GOP’s pro-corporate North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress, and then  proceeded – after declaring “the era of big government is over” in his 1996 State of the Union Address – to encourage ever greater corporate concentration of ownership in telecommunications, inflict “mass incarceration” on individuals (mostly poor) and communities (mostly black), end “welfare as we know it” at the expense of families who needed it, and – egged on by right-wing Republican senators and Wall Street Democrats whom he had named to run  economic policy – killed the New Deal law prohibiting commercial banks from speculating with depositors’ money for risky bank activities, thus putting American on the road to the Great Recession of 2009.

Most critically, Schoen wants us to forget the democratic roots and achievements of what historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called “the long Age of Roosevelt.”  He utterly effaces from the Democratic story the historic and history-making “center-left coalition” that FDR and the New Dealers built – the coalition of  tough-minded liberals and progressives, backed by working people in all their diversity, which regulated ruthless capitalism, taxed the rich (who nonetheless still seemed to be living high on the hog),  rebuilt the nation’s infrastructure, improved the environment, created social security, empowered labor, rescued and supported farmers, fueled  consumer movements, and enlarged the “We” in “We the People.”

Here, again, Schoen suffers his own memory loss – of how this coalition led American in the fight against fascism, expanded democracy at  home,  enacted the GI Bill, and launched a postwar economic boom that not only made the nation richer and stronger, but  reduced inequality.  Then came legislation for civil rights and voting rights, immigration reform, Medicare and Medicaid, environmental protections, and laws to make both the workplace and marketplace healthier.

Schoen would have us forget both how Democrats once upon a time won national and state elections not by deferring to the demands of corporations but by challenging the power of predatory money, enhancing the rights and benefits of working people, and directly addressing inequality and poverty.  He obviously would not have anyone read  Listen, Liberal, by Thomas Frank, who described how neoliberal Democrats turned the Party of the People into the Party of Financial and Professional Elites – the One Percent.

I’ll wager Schoen actually knows those histories.  And yet he wants us to forget them.  Why?  Because he knows damn well that if we do remember the history that really happened, not the past he is conjuring up, we might well stop fearing.   We might in fact start remembering that we are descended from revolutionaries, radicals, socialists, progressives, populists, labor unionists, feminists, and civil rights and environmental activists who made America truly great by refusing to bow to the powerful and wealthy and instead fighting to extend and deepen freedom, equality, and democracy.  The poet Carl Sandburg spoke lyrically of that possibility one hundred years ago:  When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget…

Schoen, who spends a lot of time on Fox News as a commentator, appears to be doing the work of Fox and Friends, of conservatives and neoliberals, and that cabal of fixers, white-shoe lawyers, and the political strategists and moneyed crowd of Washington that accelerated America’s  race to the financial debacles of 2007-2009.

Are we to make the Democratic Party all the more the Party of Wall Street?  Sure – and follow this pied piper right to oblivion?

So, dear reader, my recommendation is to celebrate Halloween by getting yourself a Douglas Schoen mask, knocking on neighborhood doors, and handing out this home-made sign to anyone who answers:  “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933. Don’t forget!!

Cross-posted from Moyers and Company ­

  Harvey J. Kaye is the Ben & Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and author of The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great (Simon & Schuster). He is currently writing Radicals at Heart: Why Americans Should Embrace their Radical History (The New Press).  Follow him on Twitter @harveyjkaye.

[peaceforourtime-blog1]

Through the Looking-Glass

I started this journal one year ago today in the hopes of looking deeper into the world around us, and how it parallels to history. The first - and to this date only - post came in the wake of the Brexit referendum, and with the United States Presidential election looming. Unfortunately, after the first post, a lot changed, throughout the world and personally, and I no longer desired to write down my thoughts. I had recently decided to look back at my only post on Peace For Our Time, and realized that I was coming up on the one year anniversary of its posting. So, one year later, I have decided to look back at the broad topics I had discussed in my introduction post, and see where we stand now.

A year after Brexit, life in the United Kingdom has changed significantly. Understandably there has been economic uncertainty, as the UK has not yet left the European Union, and the markets do not know how the British economy will fare once it has fully jettisoned itself from the EU. Politically, there has been a historic shift towards the more left-wing Labour Party, spearheaded by Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn, once a Euroskeptic himself, has more recently changed his stance on Britain’s inclusion in the European Union. In a speech last June, Corbyn said “We, the Labour Party, are overwhelmingly for staying in, because we believe the European Union has brought investment, jobs and protection for workers, consumers and the environment,”[1]. Following the Brexit results, Corbyn faced harsh criticism from his own party members who believed that he did not do enough in the lead-up to the EU referendum to convince citizens to vote Remain, and it seemed as though his position as the party’s leader was at risk. Jeremy Corbyn managed to defeat Owen Smith - the only member of the party contending against him - and solidified his position as Labour leader. His victory over Owen Smith would be the prelude to a much greater challenge.

On April 18th, Prime Minister Theresa May of the Conservative Party (The Tories), called for a snap election, which May believed would result in a stronger majority for the Tories. The crux of the election was based on how to manage Brexit negotiations, but also the security of the nation. National security became a hot topic in the United Kingdom when the nation was rocked by two separate terrorist attacks in Manchester and in London. These attacks cast a spotlight over May’s cuts to police and anti-terrorism units, with former Met chief inspector Peter Kirkham calling May "criminally negligent with the safety of the public,"[2]. The damage was done, and on June 8th, British voters granted Labour its biggest victory since 1945 - gaining 30 seats in the House of Commons to give them 262 seats - and the Tories losing 13 seats, forcing them to seek support from the nationalist Democratic Unionist Party. Though Theresa May remains Prime Minister, it was a crushing blow for a party that believed the election would provide greater returns. Instead, Jeremy Corbyn’s dynamic personality and promises to strengthen public services, security, and industry energized supporters and swayed those on the fence to come out in support of the Labour Party.

Last year, the United States presidential election was heating up, with Republican nominee Donald Trump squaring off against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The populist fervor in this country grew significantly from candidates such as Donald Trump and Clinton’s main challenger in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders. Trump campaigned on radical reforms to the US government - claiming that, if elected, he would “drain the swamp” in Washington of lobbyists and insiders, leave NATO, and repeal all of Obama’s reforms, among other things. Trump was able to channel conservative anger at Obama’s policies, paranoia towards immigrants, refugees, and even fellow Americans into a frenzy, feeling almost like the polar opposite of Obama’s ‘HOPE’ slogan that he ran on originally in 2008. Clinton - a former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State - was seen as the “insider” in the election, which did not bode well for her campaign.

Clinton maintained a slight advantage in opinion polls in the weeks leading up to the election, even though both candidates were regarded rather negatively by Americans. Clinton’s lead would be damaged just eleven days before the election, as then-FBI Director James Comey came out and said that they had obtained additional emails pertaining to Hillary Clinton from a different case, which reignited discussions on Secretary Clinton’s private email server. On November 6th, only two days before the election, Comey came out and said that there was nothing on the emails that changed the FBI’s results from their initial Clinton investigation, but the damage had been done, and on November 8th, Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States.

Though Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, the Trump campaign worked several battleground states like Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan harder than Clinton, and flipped them to his side, helping him to secure the Electoral votes necessary to defeat his Democratic opponent. Since becoming President, Trump has been criticized for a variety of reasons - claiming he would ‘drain the swamp’ while filling his cabinet with Washington insiders, lobbyists, and Goldman Sachs executives, reneging on his promise to reveal his tax returns after the election was over, his immigration policies, tweetstorms in which he rails against political opponents, celebrities, foreign leaders, the media, and even his own intelligence committees, firing FBI Director Comey and then threatening to reveal recordings of their conversations before Comey testified before the Senate, for taking advice from men such as Steve Bannon and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and most importantly the relationship between Trump, his cabinet, and Russia.

The details of the Trump presidency would require a separate post to get into greater detail, but what is more important is the reverberations felt in this country and around the world following Trump’s victory. In the United States, there have been significant protests from different groups - from citizens opposing Trump’s travel ban, to the scientific community, those against the proposed Healthcare plan being pushed by the GOP which stands to “increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026,“[3], and those angry with Trump’s words inciting hate crimes across the nation.

With Trump’s victory, white nationalist groups have continued infecting sections of the internet and “redpilling” them. Websites such as Reddit’s r/The_Donald and 4chan’s /pol/ section have been havens for these groups to grow their influence and rail against a variety of boogeymen - SJWs, Islam, Communists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, etc. Clashes between these groups have become more commonplace, and the divide in this country becomes deeper. Hate crimes have become more commonplace since Trump’s victory, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a report this year describing how in 2016 there was a “57 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents over 2015. This was accompanied by a 44 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the same period,”[4]. While American citizens fight an ideological battle in the streets of major cities to silence from Trump, his administration begins to cut back on education spending, the EPA, and plans to slash Medicaid spending “by $834 billion over 10 years,“[5], all in the name of Making America Great Again.

Internationally, Trump’s election became a specter to countries with their own elections coming up. In The Netherlands, far-right candidate Geert Wilders of the nationalist Party for Freedom (PVV) sought to become the next Prime Minister. With Trump’s support, Geert Wilders was eager to follow up on his victory in the US election, but failed to unseat Mark Rutte as PM. Despite the loss, Wilders and the PVV’s anti-Islam, anti-immigration, Euroskeptic stance resonated with Dutch voters, as they gained five seats from the election and will still be a challenger to Rutte’s majority in the future.

In France, Marine Le Pen, daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, also sought to ride the wave of populism and right-wing anger from Trump’s victory and become President of France. Marine had changed the face of the National Front, which was once seen as too radical, and made it more “friendly” to French voters. Le Pen had the backing of both Trump and Russia, who saw her hard stance on the refugee crisis as a way of stemming the perceived tides of violence and terrorism, but ultimately could not defeat the young, charismatic Emmanuel Macron, a centrist banker who formed his own party - En Marche! and brought a message of hope and unification. Macron is seen by the far-right as a radical who will open up the borders to more refugees and further destroy the fabric of French society, while some on the left see Macron as someone who will not uphold progressive policies and will be more on the side of corporate interests. While Macron has criticisms from both sides, his victory was another blow to the far-right populist movements growing around Europe.

We have gazed into the looking-glass and seen a world changed by far-right nationalism, populism, and extremism. White nationalist sentiment continues to grow in spaces on the internet where anonymity is king, but all is not lost. The reaction from those who wish to fight back against the tides of populism and white nationalism has invigorated people who felt hopeless in the face of Trump’s victory. During the interwar period, fascism grew from the ashes of war. Nations such as Italy, Germany, Spain, and Hungary fell under its enticing power, but ultimately fascism crumbled after World War II. We live in a time where fascism’s dark specter has been revived under the code word of “nationalism” and seeks to grab hold of the people once again and entice them with nationalism, populism, and hatred of the “other”. It is up to us to ensure that fascism does not return to prominence, as it does not lead to peace. Peace for our time has once again not been achieved and that is why the fight continues.

[socialistperpective]

Donald Trump and White working class voters

I posted an article in The Nation by Jesse A. Myerson about how fascism, or as he and others call it Trumpism, has its real base in the suburbs and exurbs. These electorates are the ones who will benefit by the president’s tax cuts and budget proposals which will destroy the social safety net. Those in the upper middle class will become enriched by a reduction in taxes for the top income earners and no longer having to pay for vital government assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid. Those are assistance programs they pay into that benefit the poor and are unnecessary for them. The privatization of public assets like utilities, public schools, and maybe Social Security and Medicare down the road are ways for them to invest stock and assets into former government programs that have a ton of funding and are hard for most of the populace to get away from.

Fascism is completely compatible with libertarianism because it seeks ways to reduce the government as much as possible in the belief that the “free market” is the only way for civilization to thrive. Why wouldn’t the wealthiest among us see both ideologies as ways to benefit the most affluent among us while cutting costs that go to the greater good?

Another thing that irks me is blaming working class Whites solely for the rise of Donald Trump. Though he was a populist who played to sentiments among them like economic anxiety, Trump truly was all talk. And though he seems to be a buffoon when it comes to how American policy should function at home and abroad, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to benefiting himself, the oligarchs in his cabinet, and the military-industrial complex. Betsy Devos, his billionaire education secretary, will use the position to her advantage by cutting money for public schools and funneling it into charter schools. Though she appeared as a blubbering moron in the confirmation hearings Devos knew she would be confirmed by buying off the Republican controlled Congress. Democrats, who are also funded by corporations and special interests, could filibuster Devos and criticize her all they wanted, but in the end, she would be confirmed. That’s something they knew but put on a show to appear as the opposition party. Ben Carson, another cabinet member with no expertise is head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). His plans are to cut that department and have private companies pick up the slack for taking caring of the infrastructure in the communities HUD participates in upkeeping. Again, funneling money into the private sector whose purpose is to make a profit no matter how poorly the job is done or the cost to those communities. Trump promised to end unneeded wars at his rallies, another reason working class Whites voted for him, but has since expanded drone strikes, signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia who is bombing Yemen, continued the shadow wars in Africa, sent more troops to Syria and considers deployments in Afghanistan, fights the endless wars George W. Bush and Obama started and continued, the list goes on. He does this to profit the military-industrial complex and its defense contractors on Wall Street. People can say he’s a neo-conservative, establishment figure and it’s hard to disagree.

But how does the working class benefit from this? Trump may leave the Paris climate change accords and help fossil fuel employers remain in business, but that hurts everyone in the long-term. And they will miss out on developments in renewable technology, something China is using as an opportunity to become a superpower. The renewable energy sector would give the working class millions of jobs to replace the fledgling fossil fuel industry, but they are now losing those to China.

In what way does the working class benefit? Granted there are policies introduced to halt illegal immigration and increase homeland security. Trump is continuing crackdowns on those who entered the country illegally as he promised.

The affluent may scapegoat minorities for the ills that come with their policies to harm the working class and poor, but many Trump voters did not choose him because of his racism, bigotry and xenophobia. They chose him because of the demagoguery and Trump presenting himself as an anti-establishment figure who would bring America back into greatness. But it is cruel to solely criticize the working class for the rise of fascism within the United States. We live in a culture that values the rich and affluent, those with money are often excluded from any criticism for social ills. That blame tends to lie exclusively with those who are working class or not well-off. This is a mistake when it comes to Donald Trump, someone who is enormously rich and whom his voters aspire to be. They viewed him on Reality TV shows like “The Apprentice” and celebrity gossip magazines and television shows such as “Access Hollywood”. Even Jimmy Fallon gets called out for letting the presidential candidate appear during the campaign and not taking him seriously.

The average income of Trump voters was $72,000 per year. Surely they could not all be trailer park trash. Some of them must have seen the candidate as the billionaire Ronald Reagan who would usher in austerity and reduce their taxes while cutting government services. People may say if some poor and working class voters had gone for Hillary Clinton they wouldn’t suffer Trump’s noxious policies which hurt their livelihoods. But though the Clintons are no billionaires they are also members of the 1 percent and would try to bring some of Trump’s policies in to benefit themselves. After all, they are neoliberals and not progressives. Those in the suburbs of places like Washington, D.C., Hillary’s home turf, will see they also benefit from Trump’s budget cuts and tax breaks. It will be hard for some of them to argue they are the victims of a Donald Trump administration. The truth is no real alternative to Donald Trump was presented and the electorate got sick of choosing between two evils.

#donald trump #white working class #trumpism #fascism