And the Trump transition team is now claiming that, despite him being recorded saying so, Trump never advocated creating a Muslim registry. Also, we have always been at war with Eastasia
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The tipping point is now. It means using what means we have to protest and resist via what democratic institutions we have left before they’re taken away. The goal is not to get to the point where you need a Maquis.
So: no disorganised protests run by clowns (as in 2003) but disciplined marches, every day if need be. No useless boycotts of what I’m told are delicious fried chicken sandwiches, but a nationwide general strike on Inauguration Day. No Critical Mass blockades that seem designed to alienate allies while making cyclists feel virtuous, but blockades of immigrant detention centres when the trucks show up. No smugly satisfying ribbons to show the startling fact that one is against breast cancer, but safety pins that signal vulnerable people that you’re with them. No Twitter hashtag campaigns against bullying, but standing up immediately against bullying we actually witness. There’s more, but you get the idea. @doctorow has done younger people the courtesy of providing actual tactics in easy-to-digest YA novel form.
We do what we can, even in the face of the security state, because it’s the right thing to do. The earlier we start and the more often we do it, in solidarity, the fewer families will be separated and the fewer people will be harassed, exiled, and lynched. But that won’t happen if we proceed on the assumption that these are all ghost stories and that a right-wing populist President-elect supported by bigots and sexists won’t do anything he said he would.
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When I woke this morning, I looked to my right and saw things, looked to my left and saw things. I knew I was safely in the middle so I rolled over and fell out of bed.
Serious question, doesn’t everyone feel they’re in the middle? It’s the human condition, we balance between what we see as extremes. The anarchists, communists, and hard-core greenies I talk to see me as hopelessly bourgeoise by owning a house, having two cars and believing it’s ok to inherit property. The conservatives I talk to call me a socialist as if it’s an insult, for wanting universal healthcare, higher taxes to pay for a functioning state, and favoring federal oversight to states rights.
Do you really want to stand in the middle when it comes to someone spouting authoritarian/fascist things? If you’re really looking for balance it might be time to move over a little to keep those scales from tipping.
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Gessen’s First Rule for surviving an autocracy: believe the autocrat.
They always look like clowns to rational people, with their chest-puffing bombast and their infighting. That’s because we’re not used to the bluster and chaos that they thrive in and can’t imagine that’s any way to run a railroad (that we’re correct is beside the point).
Already done. He’s putting a climate-change denialist in charge of the EPA, to give one example. He’s putting a paid shill for corporate M&A in charge of anti-trust efforts, to give another.
The same ones who endorsed him and phone-banked for him after he insulted their families? Good luck with that collection of chancers and poltroons.
I hope not, too, but as the saying goes, “hope for the best, expect the worst.” And we definitely need to do that with this bunch.
The time for false equivalencies is over. His surrogate is talking about using Japanese internment camps as a model for dealing with Muslims and he’s not being disavowed by the campaign. This is not a normal President-elect.
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I would hope that I would have joined the resistance long before those events were repeated. it is certainly not, as you imply, that I do not know of these events.( I do have a copy of “Der Giftpilz”)
Here’s Trump meeting Shinzo Abe today:
Ivanka obviously stayed away to avoid any Trump business conflict of interest…oh, wait.
Side note: CNN correspondant Ivan Watson (@ivancnn) tweeted that second picture out earlier today, then deleted it.
ETA:
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Then when between the Reichstag Fire and Krystalnacht would you stand up?
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Note, I was trying to give insight on how people can think certain ways, not necessarily a personal view. So feel free to address me, but keep in mind millions of people are looking at this situation just like this, no matter what my opinion is.
Most people are in the middle. Because gun rights is a “conservative cause”, I am sure many label me as such, while no true conservative considers me one as I think gays should be able to legally marry and you should make them a damn cake if you run a shop that sells cake. I have varying other opinions that go back and forth between the two spectrums. I some times self ID as libertarian, but real libertarians consider me a statist, which isn’t even a real word. So fuck labels, none of them have ever fit me well anyway.
This is one reason why voter turn out is so low, I think - neither party relates to the middle well enough, they like parts on both platforms. Or maybe they are just dumb, I dunno. But 10 million people who got interested enough to vote for Obama in 2008 didn’t vote this time. They too heard Trumps words but for some reason didn’t take them serious enough to make sure he wasn’t elected. Or maybe they had a false sense of security due to the poll numbers and apathy set in. I don’t know.
I do know that this feels so much like 2008 with a lot of speculation and fear, though I concede I am more apprehensive now than I was in 2008.
If this fear turns out to be valid and there are actual bills being introduced in congress, I will be writing letters. I am not interested in the Political Tribalism at this point, as it’s a pile of shit poisoning everything. But I am not in the middle when it comes to actual things like, building a wall, Muslim interment, and the like. And I will keep attempting to call out shenanigans as I see them.
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What were you apprehensive about in 2008?
Depending on how many, um, baskets we’re dividing everybody into, it would seem one out of three would be the maximum. That’s not “most.”
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What would America’s Kristallnacht look like in the 21st century? Would they even need to burn buildings or smash windows of stores owned by Muslims?
Hell, the trolls could decide to ruin Yelp reputations (which can mean life or death for a business nowadays) for every immigrant-owned restaurant, and most people wouldn’t notice or care
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Don’t forget that a massive portion of that night was rounding up German Jews to be put in concentration camps (including relatives of mine), burning synagogues and engaging in a massive show of violence while the police literally stood by and did nothing. It wasn’t just destroying businesses, but was also showing the German Jews that literally no one would come to their rescue.
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Are you a representative for @jlw or something? My question was to him, not you. I’m still waiting for his answer. Your Wall St. comment seems to miss the point of the political cartoon. I’ll just leave this video with you.
I get that; if someone takes the time to talk to me long enough I eventually disappoint or infuriate them.
I still don’t think there’s a ‘middle’ when it comes to these things; that’s a fallacy people tell themselves to justify why they’re right (correct).
Perhaps it’s a negative skewed distribution?
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“Our campaign was sabotaged by the voters, who preferred someone else.”
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I can’t help wondering when Kelly is finally lose her shit and go all HULK SMASH on Fox and one of her dopier “guests”
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I suppose if I were omniscient, I would emigrate from Europe before 1933. My namesake left Germany then, but only went as far as The Netherlands, which turned out to not be far enough.
The question is whether we, living through the events, can recognize their significance. Keith Ellison and Alex Jones seem to believe that 9/11 was our Reichstag fire, but I doubt that. And there have been a bunch of windows broken lately. But I doubt that if things actually go bad, they will follow conveniently predictable patterns. it will be much easier to look back and see the signs than it is to recognize them when they are happening.
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Which is why I asked: What would be the specific sort of warning signs that would make you go “Well, shit, we’re in trouble now”?
As for myself, I’m already making plans to leave, and will be gone from the US in the next six to eight months.
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The ACLU is going to be very busy very soon.
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