December 19, 2024 by Heather Cox Richardson
Read on Substack
Showing posts with label resistance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resistance. Show all posts
Dec 20, 2024
Dec 10, 2024
Nov 24, 2024
Fighting Back
Six top blue-state law enforcement officials tell POLITICO about their early strategies to counter the incoming president.
Democratic attorneys general are preparing a raft of legal actions to prevent Donald Trump from carrying out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, setting the stage for a series of showdowns over one of his central campaign pledges.
In interviews with POLITICO, six leading blue-state prosecutors said they are girding to take Trump to court over misusing military troops on domestic soil, attempting to commandeer local or state law enforcement to do the job of the federal government and denying people’s constitutional right to due process.
The attorneys general also said they would move to challenge Trump if he tries to federalize the National Guard — or attempts to direct active-duty military units or National Guard troops from red states into blue states. They are bracing to push back against his administration sending immigration agents into schools and hospitals to target vulnerable populations.
And they are preparing to fight Trump over withholding federal funding from local law enforcement agencies in an attempt to induce them into carrying out deportations, as he did unsuccessfully in his first term.
The attorneys’ preparations underscore the depth of concern among blue-state leaders about Trump’s deportation plans and foreshadow the major role state prosecutors will continue to play in shaping the country’s immigration policy. Following a rash of red-state challenges to President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda over the last four years, it’s now blue-state attorneys who are positioned to set off another round of legal clashes — this time intended to stymie Trump on his signature issue.
“There are ways to [handle immigration] that are in line with American values and conform to American law. But they don’t seem to be interested in pursuing that,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a former federal prosecutor who has experience in immigration enforcement, said of Trump and his allies. “And that’s where someone like me has an important role to play.”
MOVES AND COUNTERMOVES
While some have dismissed Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest deportation in American history as infeasible, Democratic attorneys general are taking the incoming president at his word. They are preparing briefs and analyses and even identifying courts in which to file their lawsuits as they brace for him to begin rounding up undocumented immigrants, who number some 11 million, en masse.
It is setting up a legal chess match between a president-elect looking for new ways to press the limits of executive power and a cadre of state prosecutors already familiar with his playbook and adapting to changes in his approach. And it is unfolding amid broader shifts in the politics of border security.
The incoming president’s policy team is already thinking about how to craft executive actions aimed to withstand the legal challenges from groups and state prosecutors — all in hopes of avoiding an early defeat like the one that shuttered his 2017 travel ban targeting majority-Muslim nations.
But each step Trump takes during his transition — stacking his Cabinet with immigration hardliners who have pledged to carry out his calls for large-scale deportations, and confirming he intends to both declare a national emergency and use the military in some form to aid his plans — gives Democrats more clues about how to attempt to block his efforts once he takes office.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expedite the removal of immigrant gang members. He is expected to end parole for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and deactivate a mobile phone application called CBP One that migrants could use to set up appointments to seek asylum.
His border-czar-in-waiting, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan, has vowed to ramp up workplace raids. His incoming deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller, has spoken of deputizing the National Guard as immigration enforcement officers and even sending troops across state lines to circumvent any resistance efforts. While federal law largely prohibits using military forces for domestic law enforcement, Miller last year identified a workaround — the clause in the so-called Insurrection Act that gives the president power to deploy the military on domestic soil in times of turmoil.
And on Monday, Trump confirmed in a social media post that he intends to declare a national emergency and marshal military assets to help execute deportations.
State prosecutors argued in interviews that those plans are on shaky legal ground. And talk of using the military has already spurred policy divides between the incoming president and Republican lawmakers, with libertarian-leaning GOP Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) saying this week that Trump’s plan to carry out mass deportations with the military’s help would be a “huge mistake” — an early sign that Democrats might have some allies on this front.
“I don’t think the theories that they have comport with federal laws, so there would be a direct challenge to the legal basis the president would use to deploy the United States military,” Torrez said.
“Separate and apart from the legal arguments that we would be advancing in court, I think there’s a broader context that most Americans are simply not comfortable and do not support utilizing military assets in that way,” Torrez added.
WHERE TO PUSH BACK — OR NOT
In interviews with POLITICO, six leading blue-state prosecutors said they are girding to take Trump to court over misusing military troops on domestic soil, attempting to commandeer local or state law enforcement to do the job of the federal government and denying people’s constitutional right to due process.
The attorneys general also said they would move to challenge Trump if he tries to federalize the National Guard — or attempts to direct active-duty military units or National Guard troops from red states into blue states. They are bracing to push back against his administration sending immigration agents into schools and hospitals to target vulnerable populations.
And they are preparing to fight Trump over withholding federal funding from local law enforcement agencies in an attempt to induce them into carrying out deportations, as he did unsuccessfully in his first term.
The attorneys’ preparations underscore the depth of concern among blue-state leaders about Trump’s deportation plans and foreshadow the major role state prosecutors will continue to play in shaping the country’s immigration policy. Following a rash of red-state challenges to President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda over the last four years, it’s now blue-state attorneys who are positioned to set off another round of legal clashes — this time intended to stymie Trump on his signature issue.
“There are ways to [handle immigration] that are in line with American values and conform to American law. But they don’t seem to be interested in pursuing that,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a former federal prosecutor who has experience in immigration enforcement, said of Trump and his allies. “And that’s where someone like me has an important role to play.”
MOVES AND COUNTERMOVES
While some have dismissed Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest deportation in American history as infeasible, Democratic attorneys general are taking the incoming president at his word. They are preparing briefs and analyses and even identifying courts in which to file their lawsuits as they brace for him to begin rounding up undocumented immigrants, who number some 11 million, en masse.
It is setting up a legal chess match between a president-elect looking for new ways to press the limits of executive power and a cadre of state prosecutors already familiar with his playbook and adapting to changes in his approach. And it is unfolding amid broader shifts in the politics of border security.
The incoming president’s policy team is already thinking about how to craft executive actions aimed to withstand the legal challenges from groups and state prosecutors — all in hopes of avoiding an early defeat like the one that shuttered his 2017 travel ban targeting majority-Muslim nations.
But each step Trump takes during his transition — stacking his Cabinet with immigration hardliners who have pledged to carry out his calls for large-scale deportations, and confirming he intends to both declare a national emergency and use the military in some form to aid his plans — gives Democrats more clues about how to attempt to block his efforts once he takes office.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expedite the removal of immigrant gang members. He is expected to end parole for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and deactivate a mobile phone application called CBP One that migrants could use to set up appointments to seek asylum.
His border-czar-in-waiting, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan, has vowed to ramp up workplace raids. His incoming deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller, has spoken of deputizing the National Guard as immigration enforcement officers and even sending troops across state lines to circumvent any resistance efforts. While federal law largely prohibits using military forces for domestic law enforcement, Miller last year identified a workaround — the clause in the so-called Insurrection Act that gives the president power to deploy the military on domestic soil in times of turmoil.
And on Monday, Trump confirmed in a social media post that he intends to declare a national emergency and marshal military assets to help execute deportations.
State prosecutors argued in interviews that those plans are on shaky legal ground. And talk of using the military has already spurred policy divides between the incoming president and Republican lawmakers, with libertarian-leaning GOP Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) saying this week that Trump’s plan to carry out mass deportations with the military’s help would be a “huge mistake” — an early sign that Democrats might have some allies on this front.
“I don’t think the theories that they have comport with federal laws, so there would be a direct challenge to the legal basis the president would use to deploy the United States military,” Torrez said.
“Separate and apart from the legal arguments that we would be advancing in court, I think there’s a broader context that most Americans are simply not comfortable and do not support utilizing military assets in that way,” Torrez added.
WHERE TO PUSH BACK — OR NOT
Attorneys general aren’t planning to stand in the way of lawful immigration enforcement. In many cases they will work with federal authorities to address public safety threats and to help catch and deport criminals — as they have in the past. And even as they prepare for what they cast as potential overreach from a second Trump administration, they note that their next steps largely depend on how the president-elect implements his plans, which is difficult to predict.
Trump’s advisers have suggested the Republican administration will take a more “targeted” approach to deportations, starting with those who are known or suspected national security threats and who have criminal records. But attorneys general are skeptical he will stick to that. And they are fearful he could begin targeting both undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for a decade or more and have established roots, or those who entered the country through legal pathways — scenarios they warn could lead to family separation and cause chaos in some communities.
“If he’s going to want to achieve that type of scale, the largest deportation in U.S. history, as he says, by definition he’s going to have to target people who are lawfully here and … go after American citizens,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said. “And we’re not going to stand for that.”
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to begin his deportation push in Aurora, Colorado, the Denver suburb he routinely depicted — despite pushback from locals — as a “war zone” that had been “invaded and conquered” by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, said he will be “laser-focused” on determining whether Trump’s immigration officials are denying people due process — a move he called “unAmerican.”
Attorneys general from Colorado to California are also preparing for repeat battles over federal funding. Trump threatened throughout his first term to withhold funding from states and cities with so-called sanctuary policies that limit local law enforcement’s interactions with federal immigration authorities. His administration also attempted to attach immigration-enforcement conditions to grants for local law enforcement — and lost in court.
“We won’t take that lying down, just as we didn’t last time,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
In response to a request for comment for this story, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said in a statement that the president-elect has “nominated the most highly qualified and experienced attorneys to lead the Department of Justice” and “focus on enforcing the rule of law.”
Democratic prosecutors’ resistance will extend beyond the courtroom. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU are already pushing attorneys general to use other tools at their disposal — such as issuing guidance to state and local agencies about how to handle immigration requests from the federal government — to attempt to slow implementation of Trump’s immigration actions.
And attorneys general are already embarking on a messaging campaign both against Trump’s broad characterizations of migrants as “blood thirsty” criminals and in support of immigrants who are contributing to local communities. They are also joining other Democratic leaders in starting to cast Trump’s deportation plans as potentially harmful for the economy he has pledged to improve, drawing a direct line between the immigrant workforce that helps drive the nation’s agriculture industry and higher prices at the grocery store.
Trump has created the narrative “that every immigrant who is here in, say, Massachusetts, or this country, illegally is committing crimes,” said the state’s attorney general, Andrea Campbell. “It’s just not true.”
Trump’s advisers have suggested the Republican administration will take a more “targeted” approach to deportations, starting with those who are known or suspected national security threats and who have criminal records. But attorneys general are skeptical he will stick to that. And they are fearful he could begin targeting both undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for a decade or more and have established roots, or those who entered the country through legal pathways — scenarios they warn could lead to family separation and cause chaos in some communities.
“If he’s going to want to achieve that type of scale, the largest deportation in U.S. history, as he says, by definition he’s going to have to target people who are lawfully here and … go after American citizens,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said. “And we’re not going to stand for that.”
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to begin his deportation push in Aurora, Colorado, the Denver suburb he routinely depicted — despite pushback from locals — as a “war zone” that had been “invaded and conquered” by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, said he will be “laser-focused” on determining whether Trump’s immigration officials are denying people due process — a move he called “unAmerican.”
Attorneys general from Colorado to California are also preparing for repeat battles over federal funding. Trump threatened throughout his first term to withhold funding from states and cities with so-called sanctuary policies that limit local law enforcement’s interactions with federal immigration authorities. His administration also attempted to attach immigration-enforcement conditions to grants for local law enforcement — and lost in court.
“We won’t take that lying down, just as we didn’t last time,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
In response to a request for comment for this story, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said in a statement that the president-elect has “nominated the most highly qualified and experienced attorneys to lead the Department of Justice” and “focus on enforcing the rule of law.”
Democratic prosecutors’ resistance will extend beyond the courtroom. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU are already pushing attorneys general to use other tools at their disposal — such as issuing guidance to state and local agencies about how to handle immigration requests from the federal government — to attempt to slow implementation of Trump’s immigration actions.
And attorneys general are already embarking on a messaging campaign both against Trump’s broad characterizations of migrants as “blood thirsty” criminals and in support of immigrants who are contributing to local communities. They are also joining other Democratic leaders in starting to cast Trump’s deportation plans as potentially harmful for the economy he has pledged to improve, drawing a direct line between the immigrant workforce that helps drive the nation’s agriculture industry and higher prices at the grocery store.
Trump has created the narrative “that every immigrant who is here in, say, Massachusetts, or this country, illegally is committing crimes,” said the state’s attorney general, Andrea Campbell. “It’s just not true.”
Nov 19, 2024
Today's Vic
Two great points:
- If I flake off, it means the bad guys will have more goons to send after you
- My obligation as a citizen doesn't end just because my side lost an election
- Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
- Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
- Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.
- When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
- Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don't fall for it.
- Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don't use the Internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.
- Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.
- Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
- Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.
- Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
- Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.
- Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
- Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.
- Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.
- Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the Internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.
- Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
- Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.
- Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.)
- Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
- Be a patriot. President Trump is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.
Nov 14, 2024
Today's Jen
Lots to do. Not the least of which is don't get your dobber down.
Call your congress critters. Write to your governor. Pressure works.
Nov 13, 2024
Nov 10, 2024
Rage Against
One of the main things we can't allow ourselves to do is to sink into self-loathing.
Tell MAGA to go suck a whole bag of moldy dicks. Kick 'em in the metaphorical balls
every chance you get. Do what gets you through the next few years, but don't let them convince you that this country is filled with assholes just like them. Don't sink into that morass, thinking, "Well, I guess that's who we are."WE ARE NOT THAT
Rule #1:
Play the Game You Are In, Not the One You Wish or Want to Play - Recognize and adapt to the dynamics. In a zero-sum struggle against illiberal forces, there's no room for romantic win-win approaches. The outcome is binary: either victory for democracy or defeat to autocracy.
Rule #2:
Speak Truth to Power Relentlessly - Challenge the illiberal forces' Big Lies by consistently speaking truth to their power base, the people. Persistence is key, as there's always a tipping point where either truth or lies prevail.
Rule #3:
Avoid Giving Autocrats Ammunition - Remember, the struggle isn't about policy or ideology but democracy. Be cautious with your words to prevent autocrats from using them to divide you from your allies.
Rule #4:
Recognize Authoritarians' Disregard for Truth - Understand that authoritarians operate in a truth-free zone, focusing solely on maintaining or gaining power. They want you to move on with them, don't. Stay vigilant in forcing them to answer for their actions, lies, and distortions.
Rule #5:
Employ Zero-Sum Judo - Turn their tactics against them. Use Big Truths, marginalization, dependency, mockery of disinformation, and division to weaken their power structure. Exploit their need for the legitimacy of democracy.
Rule #6:
The Stalin Rule - Unite Against Illiberalism - Stand with anyone willing to fight against illiberal structures, regardless of other differences. Shared commitment to democracy and opposition to illiberal politics is the binding force.
Rule #7:
Daily Challenge to Power Structures - Every day, seek ways to expose, confront, and destabilize vertical power structures. Be proactive in restoring faith in democracy and facing the fear used by autocrats to keep you in silence.
Nov 7, 2024
When You're Ready
Just keep in mind - when you're ready may be too late.
The Work Begins Now
It was a defeat. It was a bad defeat.
There will be analyses. There will be explanations and ruminations, even recriminations and confabulations.
This effort is necessary and proper.
And there will be meetings. And panels. And conferences. Some of these will be interesting, some useful, some important.
There will also be a fair amount of wound-licking and navel-gazing. Most of this will be harmless.
If this reads as if I’m preemptively exasperated with some of this activity, don’t take me too seriously, or too literally. I am interested in much of this analysis, I expect to participate in some of it. It is, after all, important to understand the situation we face. As Lincoln said in 1858, after accepting the Republican nomination for Senate in Illinois: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
We do need, as best we can, to know where we are. We do need to understand, as best we can, whither we are tending.
But we also need to judge what to do, and how to do it. And we need to start acting now.
Trump has won. The Trumpist planning to deploy the federal government on behalf of America First policies abroad and the Project 2025 agenda at home is underway. The efforts to change, even transform, our governing institutions and many others are about to begin.
And so the planning for it has to begin. And not just the planning. The actual organizing, the actual accountability, the actual pushback has to begin as well, even before all the conferences have concluded and the analyses have been agreed upon.
Newly elected presidents who’ve won convincing victories have momentum. But that momentum can also be stalled, blunted, blocked, limited, checked. Even reversed.
This requires organized opposition. This requires figuring out what levers of power are available to limit the damage Trump can do, and to thwart or delay or impede Trump’s plans. It requires Democratic elected officials to be serious about leading different aspects of the opposition. It requires others with institutional help or personal credibility to work with them in myriad ways.
These next couple of months are important. The adversarial work shouldn’t wait until Trump’s inauguration. If Trump as president-elect sails through these next two months unimpeded and unmarked, he’ll take office in a position of great strength. If, on the other hand, there’s effective opposition to his worst appointees, if real obstacles can be put in place ahead of time to his worst policies, if real efforts are organized to protect individuals the Trumpists intend to go after, Trump could start off with much less ability to do damage than one might expect.
Trump and his allies will control the federal government. This is, to say the least, no small thing. But this is a big and diverse country, and it’s a big and complicated government, and there are laws and institutions in place that can’t be steamrolled as easily as they were in Hungary or Venezuela.
There will be efforts—right from the beginning, beginning right now—by the Trumpists to discredit, to intimidate, to weaken their opponents. So the faster the opposition organizes in response the better. It will make things less bad for Ukraine, less bad for immigrants, less bad for civil servants, less bad for domestic dissidents, less bad for our future.
There should be no honeymoon for the Trumpists, no honeymoons for authoritarians.
And if there is to be one, the Trumpist honeymoon should be interrupted and abbreviated as much as possible, in ways that fully accord with legality and propriety. It may seem harsh to root for a honeymoon to end in chaos and tears. But in this case, excessive sentimentality is not our friend.
Let the unsentimental Edmund Burke be our guide: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
It was a defeat. It was a bad defeat.
There will be analyses. There will be explanations and ruminations, even recriminations and confabulations.
This effort is necessary and proper.
And there will be meetings. And panels. And conferences. Some of these will be interesting, some useful, some important.
There will also be a fair amount of wound-licking and navel-gazing. Most of this will be harmless.
If this reads as if I’m preemptively exasperated with some of this activity, don’t take me too seriously, or too literally. I am interested in much of this analysis, I expect to participate in some of it. It is, after all, important to understand the situation we face. As Lincoln said in 1858, after accepting the Republican nomination for Senate in Illinois: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
We do need, as best we can, to know where we are. We do need to understand, as best we can, whither we are tending.
But we also need to judge what to do, and how to do it. And we need to start acting now.
Trump has won. The Trumpist planning to deploy the federal government on behalf of America First policies abroad and the Project 2025 agenda at home is underway. The efforts to change, even transform, our governing institutions and many others are about to begin.
And so the planning for it has to begin. And not just the planning. The actual organizing, the actual accountability, the actual pushback has to begin as well, even before all the conferences have concluded and the analyses have been agreed upon.
Newly elected presidents who’ve won convincing victories have momentum. But that momentum can also be stalled, blunted, blocked, limited, checked. Even reversed.
This requires organized opposition. This requires figuring out what levers of power are available to limit the damage Trump can do, and to thwart or delay or impede Trump’s plans. It requires Democratic elected officials to be serious about leading different aspects of the opposition. It requires others with institutional help or personal credibility to work with them in myriad ways.
These next couple of months are important. The adversarial work shouldn’t wait until Trump’s inauguration. If Trump as president-elect sails through these next two months unimpeded and unmarked, he’ll take office in a position of great strength. If, on the other hand, there’s effective opposition to his worst appointees, if real obstacles can be put in place ahead of time to his worst policies, if real efforts are organized to protect individuals the Trumpists intend to go after, Trump could start off with much less ability to do damage than one might expect.
Trump and his allies will control the federal government. This is, to say the least, no small thing. But this is a big and diverse country, and it’s a big and complicated government, and there are laws and institutions in place that can’t be steamrolled as easily as they were in Hungary or Venezuela.
There will be efforts—right from the beginning, beginning right now—by the Trumpists to discredit, to intimidate, to weaken their opponents. So the faster the opposition organizes in response the better. It will make things less bad for Ukraine, less bad for immigrants, less bad for civil servants, less bad for domestic dissidents, less bad for our future.
There should be no honeymoon for the Trumpists, no honeymoons for authoritarians.
And if there is to be one, the Trumpist honeymoon should be interrupted and abbreviated as much as possible, in ways that fully accord with legality and propriety. It may seem harsh to root for a honeymoon to end in chaos and tears. But in this case, excessive sentimentality is not our friend.
Let the unsentimental Edmund Burke be our guide: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
Nov 6, 2024
Today's TweeXt
Countless Americans are endangered now on a scale and intensity almost unheard of in modern America. Our first responsibility is to protect these people and resist these forces. pic.twitter.com/so7YgQ1F09
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 6, 2024
Apr 17, 2023
Ukraine - Russia
The Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, to 25 years in a high-security penal colony after convicting him of treason over his criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an unusually harsh sentence that drew international condemnation.
Mr. Kara-Murza’s supporters said the length of the sentence evoked memories of Stalin’s terror, and the verdict will likely send a chilling message to remaining anti-Kremlin activists in Russia and beyond as the Kremlin continues to clamp down on dissent over the war in Ukraine.
Many Russian political activists have been prosecuted since the invasion, including Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison last year on charges of “spreading false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine — but the length of Mr. Kara-Murza’s sentence was the longest yet. Ivan Pavlov, an acclaimed Russian human rights lawyer, called it “unprecedented,” saying that even murderers receive shorter prison terms in Russia.
As they get more and more paranoid about the spread of resistance, Daddy State assholes like Putin come down harder and harder on dissidents. It could be a strong signal that Mr Putin is (or at least thinks he is) beginning to lose his grip on power.
“It is a terrifying but also very high assessment of his work as a politician and a citizen,” Maria Eismont, one of Mr. Kara-Murza’s lawyers, said outside of the court, according to Sota, a Russian news outlet. She said the verdict will be appealed.
Mr. Kara-Murza’s mother, Yelena, told Sota after the hearing that she felt like “she woke up in a Kafka novel.”
“We live in 2023, in the 21st century, what is this, what is happening,” she told Sota.
An activist, historian and journalist, Mr. Kara-Murza, 41, has for years been one of the most uncompromising voices against Mr. Putin and had long drawn the Kremlin’s ire, surviving what he characterized several years ago as two state-sponsored attempts to poison him.
Shortly after Mr. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Mr. Kara-Murza, who contributes to the opinion section of The Washington Post, gave a number of speeches in the United States and Europe strongly condemning the invasion.
Though many supporters advised him not to come back to Russia, Mr. Kara-Murza continued to work in the country. He was detained there last April while on a trip to Moscow and accused of disobeying police orders. He was sentenced to administrative arrest, during which the authorities charged him with spreading “fake” information about the Russian Army. He was later charged with taking part in an “undesirable organization” and treason. The verdict on Monday combined all of the charges into one sentence.
The trial, which human-rights organizations decried as politically motivated, took place behind closed doors. Neither the prosecutors nor the investigators presented any evidence in public that would support the treason charge. Vadim Prokhorov, Mr. Kara-Murza’s lawyer, said in a post on Facebook in October that the treason charge related to public statements made in the United States and Europe which criticized the Kremlin.
On Monday, the United Nations human rights office decried Mr. Kara-Murza’s sentencing as “a blow to the rule of law" while Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called it “a travesty of justice.”
The U.S. State Department condemned the sentence and said Mr. Kara-Murza was “yet another target of the Russian government’s escalating campaign of repression.” Britain’s Foreign Office said it had summoned the Russian ambassador in London to protest what it described as a “politically motivated” conviction that runs “contrary to Russia’s international obligations on human rights, including the right to a fair trial.” In March, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned three individuals, including a judge and an investigator, involved in prosecuting Mr. Kara-Murza.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman refused to comment on the sentence.
During pretrial detention, Mr. Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dual national, said that he had been denied the right to call his family and his health began to deteriorate rapidly.
In his final address to the court before the verdict last week, Mr. Kara-Murza likened the current climate in Russia to the terror of the Stalin era.
“The day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” he told a Moscow courtroom. “When black will be called black, and white will be called white; when at the official level, it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper.”
Mar 1, 2023
How It's Done
This is how you do it, BTW. There's been some snarky japery online about how Thunberg was joking with the cops and kinda jockeying for good camera angles - implying she wasn't serious about it and so that proved she was "just doing it for the publicity".
Well - yeah - that's how you do this kinda thing. You're not there looking to pick a fight. You're not there to hurt anybody, or to get hurt. You're there to bring a little attention to what you think is an injustice of some kind.
Getting arrested is part of the deal.
It may seem a little weird that there are rules on how you go about breaking the rules, but that's how civilized honorable people behave.
Greta Thunberg detained by the Norwegian police
during pro-Sami protest this Wednesday, March 1
OSLO (Reuters) -Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg was twice detained during a demonstration in support of Indigenous rights in Oslo on Wednesday, with police removing her and other activists from the finance ministry and later the environment ministry.
Thunberg had on Monday joined protesters demanding the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders in central Norway. They say a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Indigenous rights.
The demonstrators have in recent days blocked access to some government buildings, putting the centre-left minority government in a crisis mode and prompting Energy Minister Terje Aasland to call off an official visit to Britain.
Norway's supreme court ruled in 2021 that the turbines, erected on two wind farms at Fosen and part of Europe's largest onshore wind power complex, violated Sami rights under international conventions, but they remain in operation more than 16 months later.
- more -
Jul 30, 2020
Jul 7, 2020
On That Rioting Thing
 |
| Branden Michael Wolfe |
A St. Paul security guard was wearing stolen police gear when he was arrested Wednesday, six days after he’s accused of helping to burn down the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct during riots following the death of George Floyd.
Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, was fired June 3 from his security job at Menards on University Avenue after the store learned of social media reports that identified him as a participant in the May 28 rioting.
A Menards employee called police after Wolfe tried to enter the store later that day wearing stolen body armor and a law enforcement duty belt and carrying a police baton, according to a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court.anden Michael Wolfe.(Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
St. Paul police found him in a vehicle several miles from the store, still wearing the body armor and duty belt, which was affixed with handcuffs, a baton, a knife and an ear piece. His name was handwritten on duct tape attached to the back of the body armor, according to the complaint.
In a police interview, Wolfe admitted he stoked the 3rd Precinct fire by pushing a wooden barrel into the flames.
He also reportedly admitted to stealing several items from inside and identified himself in multiple photographs that showed a man standing in front of the East Lake Street precinct holding a police baton as the building burned behind him.
Was the whole "rioting" thing a put on by agents provocateur? Of course not.
But there's an obvious attempt going on to paint the demonstrations as "left wing mob violence", and that's just not true.
“Radical left-wing mobs seek to tear down our monuments & our memorials—everyone from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass & even Gandhi. Misguided movements such as ‘Defund the Police’ seek to leave our communities more vulnerable than ever.” -@PressSec pic.twitter.com/nvbv2lbdgX— GOP (@GOP) July 7, 2020
Jun 8, 2020
From Dictatorship To Democracy
The Atlantic (pay wall):
Sharp’s foundational insight is embedded in an aphorism: “Obedience is at the heart of political power.” A dictator doesn’t maintain power on his own; he relies on individuals and institutions to carry out his orders. A successful democratic revolution prods these enablers to stop obeying. It makes them ashamed of their complicity and fearful of the social and economic costs of continued collaboration.
Sharp posited that revolutionaries should focus first on the regime’s softest underbelly: the media, the business elites, and the police. The allegiance of individuals in the outer circle of power is thin and rooted in fear. By standing strong in the face of armed suppression, protesters can supply examples of courage that inspire functionaries to stop carrying out orders, or as Sharp put it, to “withhold cooperation.” Each instance of resistance provides the model for further resistance. As the isolation of the dictators grows—as the inner circles of power join the outer circle in withholding cooperation—the regime crumbles.
Sharp’s foundational insight is embedded in an aphorism: “Obedience is at the heart of political power.” A dictator doesn’t maintain power on his own; he relies on individuals and institutions to carry out his orders. A successful democratic revolution prods these enablers to stop obeying. It makes them ashamed of their complicity and fearful of the social and economic costs of continued collaboration.
Sharp posited that revolutionaries should focus first on the regime’s softest underbelly: the media, the business elites, and the police. The allegiance of individuals in the outer circle of power is thin and rooted in fear. By standing strong in the face of armed suppression, protesters can supply examples of courage that inspire functionaries to stop carrying out orders, or as Sharp put it, to “withhold cooperation.” Each instance of resistance provides the model for further resistance. As the isolation of the dictators grows—as the inner circles of power join the outer circle in withholding cooperation—the regime crumbles.
May 8, 2020
Fallout
It's not all 45*'s fault. He didn't personally bring COVID-19 to us, and he didn't spread this contagion across the country all by himself. Don't be daft.
But he failed to recognize the emergency, and it's possible that part of the failure was deliberate - because he wanted desperately not to have it reflect badly on him.
And then he fucked up the response by trying to monetize the thing, and let his radical Shock Doctrine devotees take a crack at demonstrating how much more efficient and effective "the private sector" is when compared with dumb ol' gubmint.
(Remember, dear - Karma's only a bitch when you are)
So, it's not unreasonable to say that the worst of the pandemic - and the worst of the fallout resulting from the pandemic - are, in fact, his fucking fault.
WaPo:
The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent in April, the highest level since the Great Depression, as most businesses shut down or severely curtailed operations to try and limit the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The jobless rate was pushed higher because 20.5 million people lost their jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, wiping out a decade of job gains in a single month. The staggering losses are roughly double what the nation experienced during the 2007-09 crisis, which used to be described as the harshest economic contraction most people ever endured. Now that has been quickly dwarfed by the fallout from the global pandemic.
“This is pretty scary,” said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel. “I’m fearful many of these jobs are not going to come back and we are going to have an unemployment rate well into 2021 of near 10 percent.”
The sudden economic contraction has forced millions of Americans to turn to food banks and seek government aid for the first time or stop paying rent and other bills. As they go without paychecks for weeks, some have also lost health insurance and even put their homes up for sale.
Louise Lara apologized for crying as she told her story. The 54-year-old single mom had just listed her home in the Florida Panhandle as “for sale by owner,” the latest sign that her middle-class life is slipping away amid the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Lara’s saga, like that of so many other Americans, began March 20 when she was furloughed from her longtime job at a spa. The furlough was supposed to be temporary, but it doesn’t look that way now. The resort she worked for just notified her that her health insurance will terminate at the end of the month. She has spent hours on Florida’s deeply flawed unemployment website. She hasn’t received any money despite six weeks of calls and daily log-ins. She even mailed in a paper application. With money running short, she’s putting her home on the market and applying for food stamps.
“It’s a terrifying, terrifying situation,” said Lara, who tried to get a grocery store job but was told there’s a hiring freeze. “I am at the end of my finances.”
Millions of us have been sliding down the ladder into "the lower classes" for a very long time.
Up until now, that descent for most folks has been slow enough that they've been able to adapt fairly well.
This is the big drop - sudden and precipitous.
Maybe now we get an idea of how bad we've been getting fucked - and for how long.
But maybe now is not the time to start feeling the burdens of it all. Because that's what the Daddy State wants. They slam us in the head until we're dazed and confused, and then they "lead" us into the worst fucking aspects of plutocracy and dictatorship anyone can imagine.
Maybe now we get up on our hind legs and really start fighting back.
Sep 21, 2019
How You Do It
I've seen this phenomenon play out in a coupla different ways in my experience. And in one very important instance, it came into very sharp focus for me.
I don't need to recount the details here, but it involved my sales-y struggles with a very powerful clinical academic who was always busting my chops about my product and my company's founder "trading on his standing in the medical community, trying to leverage money out of his colleagues..."
My partner/assistant - a strong-willed woman - just looked at him with a slightly cocked eyebrow at the end of one of his rants, and said - "Oh c'mon, Steve". And that was kinda the end of the fight - actually it was the end of the war, as the good doctor became very cooperative thereafter.
She "mommed" him.
Sometimes, it's basically as "simple" as a woman just standing up and saying, "Stop - what you're doing is bullshit - get real".
Sometimes, it has to be pretty forceful.
And I don't know why it seems like it works for a woman when it almost never works for a man.
But I'll say it again: Women will help us save ourselves if we can figure out how to keep our mouths shut and stay the fuck outa their way.
I don't need to recount the details here, but it involved my sales-y struggles with a very powerful clinical academic who was always busting my chops about my product and my company's founder "trading on his standing in the medical community, trying to leverage money out of his colleagues..."
My partner/assistant - a strong-willed woman - just looked at him with a slightly cocked eyebrow at the end of one of his rants, and said - "Oh c'mon, Steve". And that was kinda the end of the fight - actually it was the end of the war, as the good doctor became very cooperative thereafter.
She "mommed" him.
Sometimes, it's basically as "simple" as a woman just standing up and saying, "Stop - what you're doing is bullshit - get real".
Sometimes, it has to be pretty forceful.
And I don't know why it seems like it works for a woman when it almost never works for a man.
But I'll say it again: Women will help us save ourselves if we can figure out how to keep our mouths shut and stay the fuck outa their way.
Sep 6, 2019
Don't Get Happy
I'll take a nickel for every time somebody's tried to patronize me with something like -
"Oh, Mike - you're so angry..."
or
"Geez, how can you live your life with such hatred in your heart?"
or
"Man, you gotta lighten up - you're gonna give yourself a stroke..."
or
"Don't you just get tired of being so upset about everything all day every day?"
My main question in response is: Why would I not make every possible sacrifice in defense of my country?
No - I'm not tired at all - not even close.
- I will stay angry.
- I will maintain this healthy level of outrage.
- I will not normalize an illegitimate presidency.
- I will not be silent in the face of racism and other attempts to Divide-n-Conquer.
- I will not accede to a president who is corrupt and morally bereft.
- I will not stop defending democracy.
- I will not stop resisting efforts to replace our form of self-government with plutocracy.
- I will not stop telling the Daddy State to fuck off.
hat tip = @ananavarro
Sep 1, 2019
3.5%
Don't let the gun nuts fool ya.
The 2nd amendment is not - and has never been - about an armed citizenry being able to resist its own tyrannical government.
Non-cooperation:
They can have my dead broken body, but not my obedience.
The 2nd amendment is not - and has never been - about an armed citizenry being able to resist its own tyrannical government.
Non-cooperation:
They can have my dead broken body, but not my obedience.
Aug 6, 2019
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