No Kings.3

 

Greenville, South Carolina.

NO KINGS 3 brought together protestors in at least 3300 places--large, small and in-between--and perhaps most importantly, in every congressional district in the US there was at least one protest.

Minneapolis

Initial estimates suggest that at least 8 million people participated.  It was the largest cumulative protest on one day in American history.

Seacoast, New Hampshire

The emphasis seemed to be on de-centralization: that is, more protests in more places, rather than epic gatherings in big places.  For instance, here on the North Coast, the previous No Kings demos have been in Eureka, CA.  This time there were also events in Trinidad (to the north, where there were more protestors than the town's population) and Garberville (to the south) and probably elsewhere between--though Eureka still gathered several thousand people, likely the largest so far. 

There were epic gatherings as well, and sometimes quite close together: Minneapolis and St. Paul, the largest protests in the state's history; Denver and Boulder, Colorado, just 30 miles apart; 200,000 in Boston, while there were more than 160 protests in other locations in the Commonwealth. 

According to reporting by Rachel Maddow, the trend this time was for more protests in red states in places they hadn't been before, and much larger protests even in dark red places than before.  Missoula, Montana had two to three times the numbers as the last No Kings.

Virginia

Again this time, mostly peaceful.  There were some arrests in Los Angeles, but in Eureka, the only police activity was finding a lost dog.  Mission accomplished.

Oklahoma

Pittsburgh, PA

2 from Eureka, CA

Saturday is No Kings.3

 

The Word is Minneapolis--But It's Not Over

 

If the United States survives its current authoritarian chaos and the future consequences of the destruction left in its wake, even for a decade or two more, historians (if there are any) will need just one word to signal the reasons it did: Minneapolis.

Chicago showed the way, with elements of resistance learned from Los Angeles, Portland and elsewhere, but it was Minneapolis that made the difference.  An unprecedented and overwhelming assault of some 3,000 armed federal thugs was met with steadfast, intelligent, inventive and relentless resistance.  

The key moments within the daily responses to the hourly official crimes were of course the way the city showed up after the murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti, never wavering from their resistance and support for their immigrant neighbors (including organizing to feed families when they were too terrorized to leave home), and coming out in sub-zero temperatures by the thousands to protest peacefully--and to mourn.  

Now the feds have announced the end of their operations in Minnesota.  In other words, ICE is out.  But there is no dancing in the streets of the Twin Cities.  For one thing, since the feds have done nothing but lie, no one in Minnesota believes anything they say.  They will watch what happens, and what if anything stops happening.

For another, the federal thugs leave behind vast damage to communities and people: traumatized families and children, economic ruin for some, and a host of residual problems for schools, medical care facilities, government and businesses.  There are still Minnesotans vanished into black site prisons and with unknown fates, including children.  There are also children left behind when their parents were swiftly deported.  Even those released from concentration camps still face official efforts to deport them, including Liam Ramos and his family.  Community support for immigrant families will need to continue.

For yet another, Minnesotans are concerned for other places in the US that may yet be visited with the lawless thugs fostered and protected by a rich bureaucracy in Washington.  The feds still plan to spend over $38 billion on new "detention centers," many of which will warehouse more individuals than any actual federal prison, while prisoners convicted of no crime die in existing concentration camps, and disease runs rampant. They  still contain hundreds of children, though these publicly-funded prisons refuse to disclose anything about themselves. 

 It's known however that one family with five children, from age 18 to twins who had their fifth birthday in captivity, has been imprisoned in Texas for at least nine months.  Another known case: A healthy infant sent to one of these camps contracted a number of life-threatening diseases there, and even then ICE extracted her from the hospital.  A judge has since seen to her release.

Congressional Democrats are refusing to fund the Homeland Security department until the same rules that apply to all other kinds of law enforcement are institutionalized in ICE and Border Patrol.  Polls show a majority of Americans support this stand.   

Though the lawlessness of these federal thugs became most obvious in Minneapolis with its treatment of protests--including the murder of two peaceful protestors--and its violation of fourth amendment rights, it was also exposed there in its treatment of those it disappeared.  A federal court judge in Minnesota ruled that they have been violating constitutional and basic human rights of prisoners.  The top federal court judge in Minneapolis earlier declared from the bench that ICE had "likely violated more court orders in January than some federal agencies have in their entire existence." 

Last week Reuters put a number on this aspect of defiance of the law: Courts have ruled 4,400 times against ICE for jailing people illegally.  There is no indication that they are stopping.

There is also little redress or consequences from any of this.  In a Chicago case where federal thugs rammed a vehicle and shot the woman driving five times (she survived), and a Minneapolis case where federal thugs shot a man in his home through his door, the preponderance of evidence showed that the federal agents were lying about what happened (the feds acknowledged this in the Minnesota case.)  Cases against the victims were dismissed, but there are no criminal cases brought against the thugs for what they did.  Similarly and most obviously, there are no consequences so far for the murderers of Good and Pretti.

Attempts to intimidate protestors and criminalize protest continue.  It's well known that agents have been identifying protesters and threatening them with terrorist watch lists, and some Minnesotans have filed charges in court saying they were menaced at home by federal thugs.  The New York Times reports that Homeland Security had demanded information from Google, Facebook and other companies about social media accounts of those who criticized ICE--and have often been given such information.

Even if the army of federal secret police does decamp from Minnesota, they leave a very damaged legal system behind that will take a lot of time to repair, as Politico reports.  The US Attorney's Office in Minneapolis has been hollowed out by resignations by prosecutors who refused Washington's directives to ignore the murders and otherwise support the federal thugs in their thuggery. The federal prosecutors that remain face judges that no longer trust them.  State and local law enforcement no longer trusts the feds either, and cooperation is disintegrating.  In this as well, Minneapolis may be a harbinger, if the lavishly funded federal Gestapo invades other cities and towns in the United States of America.

Weekend In Protests (With Liam Update)

 

Eureka CA

About the national shutdown protests initiated by students on Friday, the New York Times:

"They ditched school in Atlanta. Left work in Philadelphia. Blocked traffic in Los Angeles. And closed businesses in New York. Across the country on Friday, protesters marched, rallied and disrupted their everyday routines in solidarity with Minneapolis residents to demand an end to the Trump administration’s immigration tactics.

The actions, including gatherings in cities and towns from Boise, Idaho, to Gainesville, Fla., were part of what groups of organizers called a national shutdown, encouraging Americans to abstain from work, school and shopping “to stop ICE’s reign of terror” and denounce the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

"The protests reflected widespread fury at the killings, which have endangered President Trump’s political agenda and threatened a government shutdown. The specter of masked men killing American citizens during protests has raised fears of authoritarianism and talk of resistance, with many residents saying America’s 250-year experiment in democracy is imperiled....

From city to city, many of those who participated said that after the killings of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti, standing by and doing nothing was no longer an option. Many also wanted to show their gratitude to Minneapolis residents for standing up. Some said they no longer recognized the country they live in."

The Saturday ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE protests, covered by the New York Times:

"Crowds rallied in dozens of cities across the nation on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, hoping to build on momentum from demonstrations on Friday against federal operations targeting Minneapolis and other liberal-leaning cities...

An afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., swelled to become one of the largest protests the city had seen in months, joined by demonstrators from other events held earlier in the day....

Church bells pealed solemnly throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday, expressing solidarity with protesters and with people facing deportation."

Also on Saturday, a federal judge in Texas ordered the release of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, in an order quoting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and lambasting procedures of the Chaos Gestapo that would equally apply to many others languishing in substandard federal detention centers/concentration camps.  

Liam was photographed by two Members of Congress able to visit him in prison.  He never opened his eyes the entire time they were there, in a traumatized fugue state.

From ABC News:

"Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, asylum seekers who were arrested last week in Minnesota, were ordered to be released by a federal judge in Texas on Saturday. 

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, released from the immigration detention center at Dilley "as soon as practicable" but no later than Feb. 3. ..

In the order releasing Liam and his father, Biery said the case "has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

"Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency," the judge wrote. "And the rule of law be damned."

UPDATE: Liam and his father were released and back at home in Minneapolis on Sunday.  But other children remain in ICE prisons, including others from Liam's school, one of whom is a ten year old girl. 

Shutdown Today, March Tomorrow

 National media has been all but silent about this, but pledges of participation are growing: National Shutdown Day on Friday January 30.  Similar to the Minnesota general strike last Friday, this time it is a national in scope: no work, no school, no shopping, as a protest against federal thugs and murderers that everyone's taxes are paying for.

This is to be followed on Saturday January 31 by marches calling for ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE.  Both are organized by Fifty Fifty One.  Two notable features: the organizing and especially the call to participate has been happening all week online, specifically through social media.  And it seems to be mobilizing young people to a greater extent than before.  

Businesses in Denver, Los Angeles county, Madison (Wisc.), New York City, San Antonio, Connecticut, Las Vegas, Eugene (OR), Phoenix, Utah and the California Bay Area are among those announcing they will shut down on Friday in protest.

On Thursday, the prestigious Pew Research Center poll announced its findings of a survey conducted this past week.  King Chaos has a 37% approval rating, with 61% disapproving. A majority-- 51% --believe he is not mentally fit to be President, and 60% don't believe he acts ethically in office.

Washington Turmoil, Minnesota Vigilance

 

Many have been touting a shift, a change, in popular sentiment, political response and even Chaos administration verbiage seemingly signaling a retreat, and have attributed this correctly to the stubborn and relentless bravery of Minneapolis residents (Rachel Maddow was among the most eloquent), in the wake of what is now regularly and openly being called the Alex Pretti murder by federal thugs.   Spontaneous or quickly planned protests brought thousands into the streets across the US over the weekend, even in places where a furious winter storm and frigid temperatures were descending on 80% of the nation's population this week.

But national and local reporters note that as of Tuesday night, Minneapolis was not celebrating, but remaining vigilant.  And there were over 300 sightings of ICE/Border Patrol actions there during the day, and another mother and her toddler caught up in violent attack.  It's not over.

There seems to be more resistance to the lies and cruelty and cowardice, in the country and reflected in words by politicians, if not yet in actions.  But we've seen these tactical pauses before in the inner sanctums of Chaos, lulling the perennially gullible and the legitimately exhausted. We are still, in the words of Senator Raphael Warnock, "witnessing the spiraling spiritual death of a nation, and it's the people who have to stand up and redeem the soul of our country."   

Apart from the Chaos administration slightly shuffling the deck of their fascist overseers, there was one notable action taken.  One of the top three Republican candidates for governor of Minnesota, Chris Madel, dropped out of the race because of the "unmitigated disaster" of the Chaos occupation.  Not only did he conclude that no Republican could win a statewide office because of it, he expressed his moral qualms at rampant racial profiling and the climate of fear instilled by federal thugs.

He did more that drop out of the race.  He seemed to signal that he's left the Republican party. "I cannot support the national Republicans' stated retribution on the citizens of our state.  Nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."

Meanwhile, news has begun to spread of something that happened a few days ago in the federal detention center in Dilley, Texas, where parents and their children caught in the Minnesota federal kidnappings are imprisoned.  They include Liam Conejo-Ramos, the five year old boy with the floppy blue cap and Spiderman backpack grabbed and hustled away with his father, who is becoming a national icon for these degenerate policies and actions.  

It seems that word of Friday's massive march in Minneapolis (latest estimate is 75,000 people marching in what was at that moment the coldest place in the world) had reached inside these walls, and on Saturday many inmates--particularly the children--staged their own demonstration, chanting "Let us go!" and "Let the children go!" 

Though a few lawyers who happened to be there were quickly moved away, images of the protest in an open area were caught by an Associated Press drone.  That's how Liam's mother reportedly caught her first sight of her boy.

Rachel Maddow referred to these immigration prisons as "black sites."  That term emerged in the post-9/11 fury, and during the Iraq war, as America bowed to the "new normal" of distant prisons in faraway countries built and maintained (but not acknowledged) by the United States, where suspected terrorists and others were sent without trial to be tortured and held indefinitely.  They went in and no information came out--they were "black sites," and in that sense the beginning of  brutalization contrary to law and American ideals, a deep spiral towards the spiritual death of this nation.

We became used to no longer being ashamed of being torturers.  Still, it was too shameful to have these black sites in our own country.  No longer.  They may not be water-boarding prisoners in Texas, but there's evidence that even there, in a prison for families, there is tainted food and water, and negligent medical care.  There are reports of relentless inhumane treatment in other US black sites, of what easily qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment--and this is without trial and therefore without a verdict, or a sentence.     

Liam and his father are in this prison despite being in the US legally.  The family's petition for asylum is active in the judicial system.

One of the lawyers who was present on the day of the demonstration was there to meet with clients that included a family with five children imprisoned with them, a 9 year old, a 16 year old, an 18 year old girl, and twins who turned five years old in the prison.  They've been there for eight months and counting.

The Dilley prison is a black site because there are no visitors, little if any oversight by media or even congressional representatives who are legally entitled to inspect at any time but have so far been denied entry.  Like everything the Chaos administration does regarding their so-called immigration actions, there is no accountability because there is no information.

Children, including at least one two year old, can find themselves in the routine of their Minnesota lives, suddenly kidnapped by heavily armed men in masks and combat gear, and six hours later imprisoned in this Texas black site.  These actions and these places shame this country, especially the powerful who remain silent and complicit, while some of them profit.     

Official Murder in Minneapolis--Again

 

He put his body between federal thugs and a woman they had assaulted and knocked down, then bent down to help her to her feet.  The thugs then ejected pepper spray into his face from inches away, forced him to the pavement and beat his head with the spray container.

He was prone on the pavement with seven federal thugs holding him down, his face being pressed to the ground, when federal thugs pumped ten bullets into his back and body, and fled.

Politicians by and large used their usual flat cliches in characterizing and criticizing this action.  It took an NBA player, Tyrese Haliburton, to say it plainly: "Alex Pretti was murdered."

It was an act of horrific, immense and cowardly brutality in Minneapolis, followed by the usual comprehensive lies by Chaos officials and their Republican enablers in Washington, that will echo through history, a stain on the name of the United States of America.  Its echo will remain loud this week, this year.

For relevant news on this as of Sunday, read Heather Cox Richardson's 1/25 post on Substack.

Minnesota Meets Chaos and Cruelty With Passion and Community

 

It was the coldest day of the year so far in a place that has very cold days.  Wind chill temperatures were around 30 below.  Nevertheless, they persisted. In early afternoon, tens of thousands (earliest estimate was 50,000) marched in Minneapolis against the federal armed invasion of their city and state.  

Towards evening thousands gathered in the Target Center for a rally. The New York Times quoted Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praising the day's protests.  "We are meeting ICE violence with nonviolence," she said. "We are meeting their chaos and cruelty with passion and community."

There was a related protest earlier in the day at the Minneapolis airport which ended with an act of civil disobedience, as around 100 faith leaders were arrested by local police for briefly blocking car traffic (and later released.) 

The day began with a first in this wave of protests: a general strike that brought the Twin Cities to a virtual standstill on Friday morning.  Though first called by faith leaders and quickly supported by labor unions, this shutdown included hundreds of businesses that voluntarily closed for the day in support.

The action was statewide, so in addition to Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis and the Black Coffee and Waffle Bar in St. Paul, self-striking businesses included the Battleground Cafe in White Bear Lake, Cafe Meow in New Hope, Bliss Acai in St. Louis Park, and businesses in Duluth, Rochester, Edina, Richfield, Grand Marais, Excelsior, Two Harbors, Osseo, Prior Lake, Apple Valley, Stillwater, Shoreview, Crystal and other municipalities in every part of Minnesota.

A good many cafes and eateries in Minneapolis opened their doors in the afternoon to warm protestors and provide them with free coffee and soup.  One of these was The Lotus, run by Yoom Nguyen, quoted by CBS News. "This is not about money for us.  We've been here since 1984.  This community embraced our family when we were going through tough times, and we feel it's our turn to return the favor, bring some hope and some joy and some warmth to people."

Along the march route organizers passed out hand warmers and a kiosk gave out paper cups of Somali tea.

Commenting on the protest on MSNow, Nicole Wallace called it "an act of historic bravery."

Dreaming Up Daily Quote

 "We cannot fan the flames of chaos.  That's what he wants."

Governor Tim Walz, appealing to Minnesotans to protest but peacefully.

Standing Together in Minnesota

 I have many fond memories of my visits to Minnesota and its Twin Cities.  Once I was there for a week or so during the winter.  From observation and my friends who lived there I learned two things: Minnesota people aren't afraid of the cold and the snow, and a primary reason they aren't is because mutual aid is ingrained in the culture.  If your car gets stuck in the snow, you won't wait long for passers-by or people who see you from their homes to come with shovels and big smiles, to dig you out.

That's why I am not surprised when I hear over and over the refrain from Minnesota people about why they're out there every time the federal thugs show up: I'm looking out for my neighbors.

Minnesota at the moment is the land of American heroes.  Facing at least 2800 heavily armed thugs who they now know will use violence against them, including lethal force, with impunity and without consequences, they continue to come out to face them in the streets, in even greater numbers.

After Renee Good was killed and the forces of Chaos spoke to support her killer and demonize her, I read a NYT column quoting MN Attorney General Keith Ellison suggesting that the only reason for this was to make Americans so afraid that they would cower in their homes, and look away.

Not in Minnesota, as it is turning out.  It's very volatile and dangerous, but thousands of federal thugs wreaking havoc, breaking laws with every breath and causing trauma, while trampling on the human rights of everyone now, disappearing children off to imprisonment--they can't make a move unobserved and unopposed.   

The besieged people of Minneapolis can now take heart from the six top federal prosecutors in Minnesota who resigned rather than be used in a smear campaign, and the four Civil Rights division prosecutors in Washington who resigned rather than accede to the Chaos orders to not perform the standard investigation of a fatal shooting by federal law enforcement.  These resignations reveal that Chaos is not even going through the motions of investigating this homicide, but is intent on smearing protesters, specifically the partner of Renee Good.  But they aren't getting away with it unnoticed or unopposed.

By looking out for their neighbors, regardless of where they came from, these Minnesotans are doubly expressing the best hope for America, both in what they are doing in the face of volatile thugs with military weapons, and in why they are doing it.  I can only express my vigilant support, and especially my admiration for their courage, as they up the game established in Chicago, pioneered in Portland and southern CA and wherever else in America the Chaos SS has brought violence and tears. 

No Good

 Let us return for a moment to sanity.  In Minneapolis a woman in a car was shot at three times at very close range and killed by an ICE agent standing next to the car.  Federal officials claim the officer was in fear of his life because she was attempting to run him over, and so the killing was justified.

Since pretty much the invention of the automobile, there have been no circumstances in America in which this homicide would be justified.  The driver was unarmed, and both hands were visible.  The officer provided no warning that he was threatening lethal force.  There was no outstanding warrant for the driver.  If the driver was blocking law enforcement, then she could have been ordered to move her vehicle, which she was in the process of doing when she was shot.  And the federal vehicles were unmarked.

A different officer shouted to her to get out of the car.  Even if she heard him (though it was noisy, and it doesn't seem he had properly identified himself), the penalty for fleeing is not death.  There is no police force in the country which would claim that attempting to slowly drive away from masked armed agents justifies lethal force, or even the discharge of a gun.

The claim on behalf of the officer that Renee Good was attempting to run him over is not credible given the copious video evidence.  But even if she were (the federal press release language is "weaponize a car"), the car was barely moving (and the video evidence shows her wheels were turned away from the agent), and all an agent in fear of his life had to do was to take two steps away from the car.  Besides, how could anyone expect to stop a car that close to him by shooting the driver?  

As the driver told the agent, they now had her car license number.  Even if she had successfully fled the scene, they could have arrested her later.  I don't know what the penalty for failing to obey a federal officer's order to get out of a car, or of fleeing the scene, but I'm pretty sure it is not death.

But the officer fired three shots into the car, apparently hitting Renee Good in the face and killing her.  The officer (or another officer) was caught on his own phone saying afterwards, "Fucking bitch."

The normal procedure then would be for federal and state officials to open an investigation into the incident.  Officials would express regret at the loss of life, the public would be assured that the officer would be off the streets pending results of the investigation, and would call for calm.

Instead, the FBI has frozen state law enforcement out of the investigation. Instead, before any investigation had at best gone beyond the beginning of on-site evidence gathering, federal officials from the head of Homeland Security to the Vice-President of the United States asserted as known truth that the officer's gunfire was justified,  and moreover that Renee Good was a radical leftist and a "domestic terrorist." No evidence was offered for either charge.  Being a radical leftist is not against the law (even if it were true, which apparently it is not), let alone a capital offence.  It is a political position in a political democracy.

"Domestic terrorist" is the more potent charge, given what basic rights have been violated in the name of fighting terrorism.  But in more normal times such a charge is accompanied by lots of evidence, of criminal activity or at least intent to engage in a terrorist act.  It is a very serious charge, reduced this time to shameless inflammatory and prejudicial rhetoric.  

There is no overt suggestion that Renee Good might be a terrorist, or even an illegal immigrant fleeing capture (though again, that wouldn't justify lethal force).  She was a a native-born American, a white woman and a mother of three, who lived blocks away.  Her dog was in the back seat.

But even a known domestic terrorist, sitting in a car unarmed, may be subject to arrest.  Not to being executed on the spot.  Not even in the Soviet Union would state agents have committed such an act in broad daylight in a public place.

The public response to this shooting has so far been more than a thousand protest demonstrations across the country. Tens of thousands rallied in Minneapolis. Protesters have already spanned racial and ethnic lines.  Further incidences of federal agents threatening lethal violence, including against protesters, were reported. The Renee Good homicide has provoked anger, which makes for volatile public situations.  It has provoked fear.

The fear is that the masked secret police can kill anyone and federal officials will encourage it.  This is identifiable fascism, and the half dozen other names that apply.   But there is another fear, perhaps even more basic.

The shooter's video--which he shot with his phone held in one hand while he shot Renee Good dead with his gun in his other hand--demonstrates that he was not in danger, that she was not threatening him in any way. Other video evidence so far suggests that his actions were at best reckless and at worst deliberate.  Which would make this what some prominent people have called it: murder.

That video was essentially released by the Vice-President, because he and Chaos in Chief say that it proves their version of events is correct. In other times this video might have been suppressed or altered, or otherwise claimed to be deceptive or doctored, because it clearly does not show what they say it shows.  But now--as in so much else said by this government of Chaos--the evidence is not disproven, it is just misrepresented--and not subtly or at the margins, but completely.  Often the Chaos assertions are wildly opposite to the realities demonstrated in various ways, including pictures and video that everyone can see.

This has been their practice since at least the first Homeland Hitler inauguration, but most importantly concerning the events of and in response to January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol.  There are hours and hours of video of what happened there.  There are witnesses, depositions, and mountains of evidence that convinced scores of juries to convict participants.  And yet, Chaos and his minions assert that it never happened.  And they were doing so before the 2024 election, but apparently enough voters chose to ignore this.

Now it must be clear to everyone that in this administration, the truth is solely what they say it is.  This puts us not only in the realm of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but of  his Animal Farm, and in particular of Kafka.  In a Kafkaesque country, there is no recourse to reality.  Reality is what those in power say it is, at any given moment.  Even when few believe anything this government says.

It is time then to look at the resistance to totalitarianism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, particularly in the 1960s and afterward.  It was led often by writers as well as political figures who insisted, at great personal cost, on rigorously telling the truth.  They told the truth about their own incarcerations, about how officials claimed they were mentally ill and subjected them to drug treatments and horrific conditions.  Some even catalogued the drugs used on them.  They were scrupulous and relentless.  And eventually they prevailed.

Our fascist government is not yet a year old.  It is not yet deeply entrenched.  Some countervailing institutions still exist, and Americans are used to living in something like a democracy. This incident must be thoroughly and objectively investigated. The truth about Renee Good must be asserted against the lies, over and over.  The truth about this regime must be relentlessly exposed. They may fight harder with their backs against the wall.  But if this battle for truth is not won, the world that is coming with AI will be worse.

Let us return to sanity.  Let us return to at least trying to enact the good.

Resistance Hits the Ballot Box

 

Tuesday, election day, was an important day.  How important will be determined in the future, but for the moment it has created a political crisis for the Republican party.

Tuesday followed a weekend of polls released.  They weren't different from previous polls except that for the MAGA regime they were worse.  They showed mass disapproval of every policy and major action of the Chaos government, and mass approval of what Republicans were against, like continuing Obamacare credits.  

So were they surprised?  It's possible that in the beginning they bet on the public cheering on any actions against immigrants, including ambushing anybody who looked brown in the Home Depot parking lot, or treating Chicago like Afghanistan, or shooting clergymen in the face, or kidnapping toddlers.  Apparently even Latinos were supposed to be pleased.

They bet on their public cheering the dismantling of the federal workforce, even apparently in Virginia where many of them lived.  They bet on their people cheering Chaos showing the world who's boss with his tariffs, even when it raised their prices, hit farmers hard, threatened small businesses and even their hallowed tech sector.  

They even bet on reviving the old hatred of Obamacare, throwing in Medicaid and other programs because they helped only welfare queens, even when it hit family budgets hard (and the times they were a changing: Obamacare is popular) and took medical care and other services away from especially their small town and rural supporters, directly and by de-funding small rural hospitals and other medical facilities.

Was that the political calculus?  People may believe many digital lies, and whoppers out of the White House, but they have to pay their grocery bills, their medical bills, energy and housing.  When they know that the Chaos regime lies about that, it might make you wonder what else...

The election results showed not only Democrats winning the vast majority of races across the country from governorships and mayors (in Pittsburgh the Democrat won by 87.5%) to state legislators, judges and school boards.  Moreover, the margins of victory, especially in Virginia and New Jersey, were very large, especially when compared with predictions and polling.

Democrats won the first two statewide offices in Georgia since forever.  They strengthened the courts in Pennsylvania, took 13 GOP seats from the Virginia legislature, beat back a voter suppression ballot question in Maine and approved redistricting in California to counter the Texas gerrymanders. 

The analysts were quick to note that Democrats won back Latino voters, and even took a slice of Chaos voters--perhaps 7%, perhaps more.  There may be more demographic surprises in the mix.

As if Wednesday morning wasn't already bad, the Chaos tariffs got eviscerated at the Supreme Court hearing.  Some giddy observers suggested a 9-0 vote making them illegal was not out of the question.  

Together with the gathering consequences of the longest federal shutdown in history, all of this adds up to the Republican political crisis.  All King Chaos could suggest to the Senate was to get rid of the filibuster so they could open up the government, then pass voter suppression laws so Democrats could never win again (the King's actual words.)  Republican Senators had their own reasons for keeping the filibuster, but they were still playing the Chaos game by reflexively rejecting Senate Democrats' offer to reopen the government in exchange for a one year extension of the Obamacare credits.  

The Senate meets Saturday so by the time you read this something else may have happened, and maybe we'll see which way the pieces are going to fall.  Right now GOPers are in crisis, as is the country.  King Chaos is getting weirder in more obvious ways, and maybe nobody knows how to deal with that either. 

Meanwhile the election results have changed the public mood dramatically.  Months of peaceful protests culminating in 7 million participating in No Kings events in or near just about every community in America may well have emboldened people to continue their protests by marking a ballot.  I'm surprised that Republicans weren't prepared for something like this.

On the other hand, maybe there was no political calculus.  This is only ideological ( Psycho Steven Miller and his white supremacists, Russ Vought and his death-dealers by budget) and elaborate distraction as the Chaos cabinet steals the Treasury blind, and King Chaos extorts millions.  Maybe the voters don't matter, just the plutocrats, the tech bros, the billionaires behind the curtain.  In that case, the military options are even more on the table than they were. 

 But time may be running out.  Is this an inflection point?  Time will tell.

OK, Non-Boomer

 

Among the ways that MAGA officials sought to denigrate the recent No Kings demonstrations was to scoff that participants were a bunch of old people.  Pretty much Boomers, in other words.  The implication was that because of this they could be easily ignored.

Joining in this scorn was a video opinion piece by Emily Holzknecht and Binyamin Appelbaum featured on the digital front page of the New York Times both the day before and day of the No Kings events on October 18.  This screed attempted to blame what they regard as the failure of the American Dream for subsequent generations on the 76 million individuals who happened to have been born between 1946 and 1964: the Baby Boom generation. 

Dumping on the Boomers has become fashionable, especially since it is pretty safe (though not very seemly) now that most of this generation are elderly and past retirement age.  It's not the first time the New York Times has fingered the otherwise unidentified Boomers for what are clearly disturbing features of contemporary America that affect all of us. But instead of analyzing what and who might be specifically responsible, they scapegoat an entire group, a practice familiar to us from dark places and periods in not always distant history.

 But apart from its curious timing, this piece had several distinguishing features.  It was plainly accusatory and smilingly contemptuous. At times it felt like hate. It employed lots of imagery, including using a child to advance their script--it always helps to make bigotry as cute as possible.

And published at the time of the latest No Kings protest. it more or less began by sneering at the signs carried by Boomers at this year's earlier protests against a racist, sexist, oligarchic and increasingly fascistic cabal with a stranglehold on the federal government.  

Around this time, with no overt reference to this Times hit job, Rachel Maddow addressed this critique common to MAGA and the Times, and expanded on Boomer (and older) participation through an interview with Bill McKibben, who is among other things one of the founders of Third Act, an organization for older activists, especially on environmental issues, with local chapters and a national at-large chapter.  (The only clip I could find of her comments on You Tube was in the form of one of those annoying short loops, but the McKibben interview is here in full.) 

Maddow listed some of the reasons that older protesters "is a good thing," including the higher propensity of older Americans to actually vote, and because every generation gets statistically more conservative as it ages, so the willingness of Boomers to put themselves out there should be scary to MAGAdom, which it is. 

McKibben admitted (with pride) that Boomers have been "over-represented" in this year's protests, which really means that a higher percentage of this largest generation is out there again, than that of any younger generation. And gee, ain't that awful of us?

Clearly the Boomers forcing their metaphorical or actual walkers onto the field of play aren't the only people out there, but their presence is important and for the most part, welcomed by other participants.  For one thing they add to confidence that participation is reasonably safe, and whole families can attend.  They bring experience, and a certain spark.  As McKibben said in that interview, younger people know this administration is bad, but if you've lived through a dozen or more presidencies, you have a clearer idea of how dangerously aberrant this one is.  

As defined by demographers but with some support in cultural history, the Baby Boom forms a huge generation.  Though it is known by the large numbers of its "members" at the forefront of activism and cultural change, in fact even larger numbers stayed on the fringes of this, or opposed it.  Something that actual Boomers know from experience.  Apart from this lived distinction, this generation includes just about every kind of person, with every kind of job and personal history, in every place in America.  To make the Times' generalizations is preposterous, and should be acutely embarrassing. 

The signs that Holzknecht and Appelbaum ridiculed, that said something like "I can't believe I'm still out here protesting," told one likely truth: that within the over-represented elders cohort, is the over-representation of those who'd been out there before.  They were among those who marched and agitated and voted for changes in society that, for instance, very likely benefitted those authors, who without them might not have gotten within a mile of the New York Times front page. 

Out in those protests today, those boomers provide experience in peaceful means, in how to conduct a non-violent but spirited protest.  I'm only guessing but I'd bet that they were also over-represented in the 20,000 people in New York alone who took some form of training to keep these events peaceful.  And I'm sure they were grateful that the tradition of training and monitors on the march has survived from Civil Rights and anti-war days.  They contributed to the most stunning fact about No Kings Day: some 7 million protesters, with 0 protesters arrested.

 Those scorned Boomers who joked about being veterans of years of demonstrations may have other stories to tell about them. Boomers were prominent participants when protests were threatened with violence and sometimes they were the victims of it.  Many of us knew the smell of tear gas more than once. These protests were seldom popular.  Some were very small, like a Civil Rights vigil held in the rain, or an anti-war vigil in the snow, with passing cars honking not in support but with ridicule. They often seemed futile.  But we persisted.

I recently reviewed photos of early 1960s Civil Rights protests, and noticed something I'd forgotten: how so many included a particular gesture of crossed arms linked.  And singing together.  I am nourished today by those revived memories.  I'm proud to have been there.

Younger people know things are bad, but it may take a perspective gained by blood, sweat, tears and time to better define what's wrong and what it means.  (I'm thinking of one of those Boomer signs, "Accusing others of crimes that you commit--that is fascism.")  The memory of early boomers can even include our parents' time through their stories and cultural artifacts: the Depression, World War II, Hitler, the Holocaust.  Among white Americans, we may well have been closer to family members who were immigrants, such as our grandparents and parents. 

McKibben called it "wisdom," and I'm sure there are elder Boomers with that.  Knowledge synthesized and tested over time is something Boomers offer to younger protesters, and younger people in general.  If only they can refrain from giving in to shadow resentment and fashionable scorn, and join in figuring out who is actually responsible for what's going wrong, and together doing something about it.

Well, I can't match the Times for slick visuals.  But I can arrange some photographs...

These Boomers at No Kings around the nation on October 18...

   

Superior, Wisconsin

   

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Eureka, CA (also top photo)

Michigan

West Palm Beach, Florida

...May well have been the Boomers at these events...

2023 Climate Crisis Protest in New York

2019 LGBTQ in Washington

2017 Women's March in Washington

Earth Day Denver 1970

Women's Liberation March 1970

Anti-Draft in late 1960s

Anti-War in late 1960s

1975 Boston

1965 Voting Rights Protest, Montgomery, Alabama

Mid- 1960s Washington

1964 Freedom Summer.  I was scheduled to help re-supply Freedom Summer workers
the following fall from my college, but an older student claimed my spot at the last minute.

That's me, captured on a B-roll film camera
as I got off the train at Union Station to
participate in the 1963 March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom.  Born at the very
beginning of the Boomer generation, I was
not yet 17.  And yes, I wore a suit and tie.
Most of the men at the March did, too.