Miriam,
What I see might be best described as "the beginning of the end of the
Empire". The Ruling Class is showing signs of exhaustion. The angry
Masses are rising up on several fronts. What we call "The Left"is
bursting out over several issues, in frustration.
The "Far Right" is gathering strength, trying to force conservatism
further to the right. Meanwhile, the Masses push this way and that
way, often miss informed and confused.
But under it all we have not changed, so far as our hostile nature is
concerned. When we're not fighting Indians over fishing rights, we're
battling Latinos over those highly desirable crop picking jobs. We
curse the Jews when the Market drops, and curse the Blacks when our
taxes increase, and we're told it's for the support of the Poor. We
hated the Nazis and the Japs during the Second World War, and then the
Koreans and the Chinese. The South still hates the North 150 years
following the Civil War, and the North still feels superior to the
Hick South. The Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics
Know that they are the only True Church. Men still feel superior to
women, and the women resent the smart ass men.
It goes on, but you get the picture. We've always had someone or
something to kick around. Of course we Left Handed fellows don't have
it so good, either. I left out the Commies, being the son of one, as
well as being branded Marxist...a sign of just how dumb the accusers
were.
But my point is that nothing has changed. And in saying that, I fear
we are doomed as a species. Our good nature, our positive side is so
covered over by the hate and suspicion that we probably will never dig
our way out.
But it's one Hell of an interesting ride.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/15/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You know, one of my wayward thoughts has been that perhaps all of the racism
is even more obviously virulent than it used to be because we had a Black
President. I think that drove some of the white racists over the edge. It
pushed the Republican party to even more of an extreme than it had been.
Remember Romey saying that 47% of the population didn't pay taxes? The
Republicans refused to confirm the moderate supreme court judge whom Obama
had nominated. The Koch Brothers got more power in 2012 and the Tea Party
was formed. They kept representing Obama as a left wing extremist. Would
they have been able to do that to Hillary if she'd won the election in 2008?
Of course I do remember them misrepresenting the Clintons as both far left
liberals and also dishonest. But actually, they were dishonest.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 12:51 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] “Everything that was
impossible, unimaginable, unthinkable, inconceivable yesterday is on the
order of the day
General Mattis, Said it all..."Donald Trump is the first president in my
lifetime who does not try to unite the American people does not even
pretend to try."
Carl Jarvis
On 6/15/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
???Everything that was impossible, unimaginable, unthinkable,
inconceivable yesterday is on the order of the day today???
https://socialistaction.org/2020/06/14/everything-that-was-impossible-
unimaginable-unthinkable-inconceivable-yesterday-is-on-the-order-of-th
e-day-today/
June 14, 2020
U.S. Fight Against Racism and Repression Reaches New Heights By JEFF
MACKLER
For three weeks now, in 1,000 cities and towns across the country,
unprecedented, massive, multi-racial, daily mobilizations against the
ingrained institutional racism that permeates every aspect U.S.
society have exploded in scope and intensity.
In Washington, D.C., the world witnessed the spectacle of united
Black, white and Latinx working people, youth and clergy being
brutally attacked by clubbing police, the National Guard, and
low-flying helicopters, ordered by the Pentagon to intimidate and
scatter protestors with a maneuver called a ???show of force.???
The peaceful demonstrators, including an array of the nation???s
corporate media reporters bearing witness, were subjected to
concussion explosives and noxious gases aimed at clearing a path for
the posturing, chin up egomaniac President Trump to walk across
Lafayette Park to St. John???s Episcopal Church for a one-minute, now
widely condemned photo op, where he brandished an upside-down bible.
Trump was accompanied by an entourage of top military and civilian
officials including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark
A. Milley and Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper, who soon after went
to great lengths to disassociate themselves from the president???s
militaristic rhetoric. As if to imply that his threats to bring ???law
and order??? were akin to a declaration of martial law, Trump
designated Gen. Milley, the nation???s top military official, ???in
charge??? of the response to the protests.
And all this in the context of the looming specter of the deadly
dangerous COVID-19 pandemic that has taken the lives of 117,000 people
to date and infected two million more. Just one month ago, workers???
consciousness was rising based on a fully justified skepticism of
ruling class demands to prematurely abandon the necessary
shelter-at-home strictures and return to work to bolster capitalist
profits. After working people saw the video of George Floyd???s
murder, the nearly instant nationwide movement???s dramatic transition
from quarantining against COVID-19 to risk-filled, often
close-quartered mass street protests, has strikingly demonstrated the
best traditions of American working class radicalism. Everything that
was impossible, unimaginable, unthinkable, inconceivable yesterday is on
the order of the day today.
Top generals challenge Trump
The public schism wherein the top leadership of the most powerful
military on earth denounced President Trump???s call to arms to put
down the ever-widening and overwhelmingly peaceful rebellious
protests, is equally unprecedented.?? The same generals who
dramatically broke with the racist bigot President Trump have never
hesitated to rain down death and destruction, if not genocidal wars,
on poor and oppressed nations in the Middle East, Latin America,
Africa, Asia and indeed, around the world. But sending in troops to
beat back the uniting and highly visible anti-racist millions in the
streets today is quite another matter.
Trump had amassed 1,600 active-duty soldiers on the outskirts of
Washington, D.C., presumably ready for action. Days later he was
compelled to send them back to their bases, claiming that the
threatening protests has subsided, when in fact their size and breadth
had dramatically increased.
Gen. Milley made his disassociation from Trump absolutely clear when
wrote a message to all top military commanders stating that ???every
member of the armed forces swears an oath to support and defend the
Constitution,??? which ???gives Americans the right to freedom of
speech and
peaceful assembly.??? Forty percent of the U.S. armed forces are
people of color. No doubt the general was dead set against bringing
thousands of multi-racial working class U.S. troops, all victims of
the economic draft, to fight against their civilian counterparts, who
are demanding Black Lives Matter and ???No Justice, No Peace!??? louder
than ever.
Former Defense Secretary and retired Marine Corps General James Mattis
similarly offered a withering denunciation of Trump???s photo op
two-block march from the heavily barricaded White House to Lafayette
Square???s St.
John???s Episcopal Church. Hours earlier the fearful bragging bigot
Trump and his family had to be hastily escorted by his security forces
to the White House???s underground bunkers lest the unarmed peaceful
protestors outside break through the might of all of Washington???s
repressive forces to capture the frightened coward, who ordered the
lights turned off before he descended. The prevaricating president
later told the media that he was merely ???inspecting??? the bunker.
The next day, Washington, D.C.???s Black mayor, Muriel Bowser, ordered
that the street leading directly to the White House be painted in huge
block letters, ???Black Lives Matter.??? Bowser got the funds for this
instant project from the city???s mural painting budget. Not impressed
with by this act from a Democratic mayor who has enacted massive
increases in the police budget and routinely supports cops against the
victims of police brutality, protesters painted ???Defund The
Police??? next
to it in the same yellow letters.
Said General Mattis, ???Donald Trump is the first president in my
lifetime who does not try to unite the American people ??? does not
even pretend to try.??? Nicknamed ???Mad Dog??? Mattis, the war hawk
general, who was Secretary of Defense for Trump???s first two years in
office and previously attacked Trump for ordering the withdrawal of some
U.S.
troops from Syria, added, ???Instead he tries to divide us. We are
witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.
We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature
leadership.???
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who marched to St. John???s along
with Trump, later falsely claimed that he didn???t know where they were
going.
Esper similarly broke with Trump stating that, ???The option to use
active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a
matter of last resort???We are not in one of those situations now.???
The New York Times summed-up ruling class sentiment as ???Active-duty
military troops should not be sent to control the wave of protests in
American cities, at least for now.??? At least for now!
Admiral Sandy Winnefeld joined the growing chorus of military dissent
stating, ???We are at the most dangerous time for civil-military
relations I???ve seen in my lifetime.??? Winnefeld, a retired former
vice chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Times. ???It is especially
important to reserve the use of federal forces for only the most dire
circumstances that actually threaten the survival of the nation. Our
senior-most military leaders need to ensure that their political chain
of command understands these things.???
What could Winnefeld have meant by these remarks other than to imply
that the nation???s top generals should ignore any Trump orders to
deploy Pentagon forces to crush peaceful protestors? The risk to be
perceived ???
that is, a fraternization between the masses in the streets and the
masses of soldiers and National Guard forces sent to crush them ???
defined the duty to be obeyed. The potential of thousands of
multi-racial troops ???taking the knee??? along with their civilian
counterparts, these commanders calculated, for now at least, was not
to be risked. They cautioned RETREAT!
Pentagon fears National Guard/US Military radicalization
Pentagon officials noted that the military is trained in using lethal
power against foreign adversaries, not in law enforcement. One
commentator noted, ???What is appropriate in Fallujah is not in
Farragut Square,??? the latter a reference to Washington???s D.C.???s
bustling shopping district a few blocks from the White House. In
Fallujah, Iraq, U.S.
troops, accompanied by unchallenged U.S. air power, leveled the city
and slaughtered its inhabitants.
Esper and the other top Pentagon officials are fearful that the
military would be seen as participating in an unprecedented nationwide
move toward martial law. With notes of rebellious sentiments in the
air, these equivocating generals implied that there are no limits to
the repressive forces that U.S. capitalism might unleash to safeguard
their predatory system, but not now.
For the first time in a lifetime, however, a glimmer of the forces
that are an absolute necessity in challenging and defeating capitalist
control and repression in all its myriad forms has appeared. In the
streets, facing off against local and state police power backed by a
hesitant National Guard, we are witnessing a generation of youthful,
multi-racial working class fighters, bristling with hatred of racist
injustice.
The Washington, D.C. National Guard was far from unanimous in using
mass force against the peaceful demonstrators. An insightful account
in Politico, based on interviews with 10 Guard members on the scene,
not only refuted Trump???s assertion of violent protestors but
indicated political support and kinship with the protestors.
???A Washington, D.C. National Guardsman,??? according to Politico,
???said he was worried that a lot of the goodwill that the Guard has
built up with local Washingtonians because of their coronavirus
response and annual Fourth of July celebrations was in jeopardy.
Within the span of 30 to 40 minutes, all of that washed away because
of political stuff,??? he said.???
Torrie Osterholm, the D.C. National Guard???s director of
psychological health reported, ???The Guardsmen were ill-prepared for
the hate directed at them by the protesters, which was reminiscent of
the anti-military sentiment during the Vietnam War. The shift from
being viewed as heroes during the coronavirus pandemic to villains
suppressing citizens??? right to protest happened overnight,??? she said.
Politico continued with an account of a soldier who spoke on condition
of anonymity, ??????As a military officer, what I saw was more or less
really fucked up.??? The official line from the White House that the
protesters had turned violent, he said, is false.???
???We have a lot of National Guardsmen who are struggling with this,
because unlike in combat when you have an enemy, these are our
neighbors, our friends, our family,??? another Guard officer stated.
More than 60 percent of Washington, D.C. National Guards are people of
color. One Guard soldier told The New York Times that ???he and some
fellow troops were so ashamed in taking part against the protests that
they have kept it from family members.???
Politico???s account records similar sentiments in cities across the
country. The massive and rising anti-racist and anti-repression mood
that today manifests itself everywhere, has undoubtedly permeated the
consciousness of the National Guard and, without doubt, rank-and-file
soldiers, many of whom joined the armed forces in a vain effort to
escape the increasingly hopeless prospects before them only to find
themselves confronted with the prospect of going to battle with their
own people, that is, the most oppressed communities as well as working
class America.
Similarly motivated by capitalism???s repeated incapacity to
effectively deal with one crisis after another ??? real
unemployment-underemployment rates of close to 50 percent, the
COVID-19 pandemic, the impending global warming-climate catastrophe,
endless imperialist wars across the globe, mass evictions and
foreclosures, increasing levels of poverty and hunger, multi-trillion
dollar bailouts for the super rich and ever-declining health care ???
American workers are questioning capitalist prerogatives as never before.
Mass support for anti-racist protests
A new Monmouth University poll indicated that 76 percent of Americans ???
including 71 percent of white people ??? called U.S. racism ???a big
problem.??? That???s a 26-percentage-point spike since 2015.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans said demonstrators??? anger was fully
justified, and another 21 percent called it somewhat justified. Among
respondents age
35 and under in a recent Washington Post/Ipsos poll of
African-Americans, nine out of ten did not trust the police to treat
people of all races equally ??? higher than in any other age group.
On June 8, CNN reported that their survey showed an unprecedented 84
percent of the population supported the mass protests against police
brutality and repression.
Similarly, Trump???s repeated allegations that the protestors were
essentially ???looters, anarchists, antifa [short for anti-fascists]
and violent outside agitators??? have been roundly rejected by
ever-increasing majorities. Even the corporate media has felt
compelled to largely refrain from characterizing the protests as
anything other than expressions of mass outrage against deep social
inequities. Trumps spurious charge that their protests were largely
the actions of disaffected and violent looters have been discarded with
contempt.
???Black people in the U.S., as well as Latinx, Native Americans and
immigrants have been enslaved, exploited and looted for centuries and
to this day??? has become the pointed reply.?? The Black Lives Matter
spokesperson at George Floyd???s Minneapolis memorial meeting blithely
stated, and to cheers of approval, ???White people have been looting
Africa and African-Americans for centuries. Pay-back is long over-due.???
No one winced.
There has been little condemnation of the handfuls of desperate and
outraged individuals who break storefront windows; nor has there been
condemnation of those who massed to burn to the ground the Third
Precinct police station in Minneapolis.
Indeed, face to face in the Oval Office with his boss Donald Trump,
during a heated discussion over whether to invoke the 1807
Insurrection Act to deploy federal troops into the streets, General
Milley, according to The New York Times, ???argued that the scattered
fires and looting in some places were dwarfed by peaceful protests.???
Milley???s remarks notwithstanding, documents recently obtained by The
Intercept???s Glenn Greenwald through the Freedom of Information Act,
revealed that the Pentagon has planned its response to possible future
acts of mass rebellion led by members of ???Generation Z,??? which
could be
expected to meet with the full force of U.S. military repression.
Greenwald???s revelation pointed to a Pentagon war game, called the
???2018
Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS),??? which
offered a scenario in which members of ???Generation Z, driven by
malaise and discontent, launch a Zbellion in America in the
mid-2020s.??? No doubt, today???s ???Gen Zbellion??? is not driven by
anything resembling ???malaise??? but by everything indicating mass
hatred at the horrors inflicted on working people in the course of
capitalism???s ongoing degeneration.
Minneapolis City Council pledges Police Department abolition
That the impossible can appear as the order of the day briefly
appeared, then disappeared before the nation when nine members ??? a
claimed veto-proof majority ??? of the Minneapolis City Council
announced before an assembled crowd of 500 on Sunday, June 7 their
intention to dismantle the city???s police department. The city???s
present system, they stated, could not be reformed. Citing the
city???s own figures, they had the facts to prove it.
A 2018 report stated, ???About 20 percent of Minneapolis???s
population of
430,000 is Black. But when the police get physical ??? with kicks,
neck holds, punches, shoves, takedowns, Mace, Tasers or other forms of
muscle ??? nearly 60 percent of the time the person subject to that
force is Black.??? About 63 percent of those shot and killed by police
in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2017 ??? 19 people ??? were Black,
while only
17 percent ??? or 5 people ??? were white.
Democracy Now???s Amy Goodman reported on a recent protest outside the
home of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Protest leader Kandace
Montgomery asked the mayor: ???Jacob Frey, we have a yes-or-no
question for you: Yes or no, will you commit to defunding Minneapolis
Police Department????
Echoed by the crowd of protesters, Montgomery told the mayor ???We
don???t want no more police. It???s that clear. We don???t want people
with guns toting around in our community, shooting us down. Do you have an
answer?
It is a yes or a no. Will you defund the Minneapolis Police
Department????
When Mayor Frey said no, Montgomery responded: ???All right, fine!
You???re
wasting our time! Get the [bleep] out of here! Get the [bleep] out!???
The crowd of thousands chanted ???Go home Jacob, go home! Go home
Jacob, go home!??? followed by ???Shame!??? as the humiliated mayor
left, walking slowly through the crowd.
Goodman interviewed Minneapolis city council person, Jeremiah Ellison,
son of the state???s attorney general, Keith Ellison, a former
congressman who has also been Deputy Chair of the Democratic National
Committee.Despite Jeremiah Ellison???s ???veto proof??? city council
majority over Mayor Frey???s anticipated veto, he made clear that
neither he nor his council associates had any intention of defunding
or abolishing the city???s police department. The equivocating
Democratic Party politician stated, ???We???re going to engage the
community for a year to develop a new
system of public safety. You???ve got to understand, the police
department has been around for 150 years. At least the Minneapolis
Police Department has been around for over 150 years. And police
departments all around the country have been around a lot longer than
that. I think that we owe it to the city of Minneapolis, to our
residents, to develop a plan that moves forward intelligently, that
moves forward in a way that works.???
Democrats and Republicans seek ???police reforms???
Meanwhile, a group of Minneapolis residents, one armed, began their
own patrols of the Black community, likely as a symbolic gesture of
future intentions. Absent organized mass forces in the communities of
the oppressed today, demands for Black and Brown Control of Black and
Brown Communities, as opposed to the present white racist cop control,
remain in the earliest stages of discussion and debate. Increasingly,
we are hearing important demands aimed at sharpening this discussion,
including the three D???s: ???Disarm, Defund and Disband the Police.???
In past years, often following public and videotaped police murders of
unarmed Black people, Democratic Party establishment politicians, in
tandem with corporate-funded NGOs, have moved to orchestrate a
well-planned series of paper concessions to assuage community outrage.
These always include retaining the basic institutions of racist police
violence intact while introducing a number of ???reforms??? including
the election or appointment of ???more sensitive??? Black police chiefs.
The ???wash, rinse, repeat cycle???
This ritual window dressing was aptly described by Jody David Armour,
a law professor at the University of Southern California who studies
racial justice and who estimates that the current widespread outrage
over economic and racial injustices may give the new movement a
greater durability.
???There was a wash, rinse, repeat cycle, a standard script,??? said
David Armour, ???Convene a commission, hold some hearings, have
community members vent and testify, and here come some policymakers
saying, ???Here???s a fix.?????? The result, he said: ???Look where we
are.???
This ???wash, rinse, repeat cycle??? is in full operation today, with
the posturing ???veto-proof??? Democrats on the Minneapolis City
Council planning on a yearlong ???discussion with the community???
before taking any
action, while their congressional counterparts rush to introduce a
myriad of police reform legislation ???full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.??? With Trump???s polls numbers in free fall ???
10 to 12 percent in nearly every category ??? not be outdone,
Congressional Republicans are drafting their own ???reform package.???
Democrat Joseph Biden, took to the airwaves decrying some police
violence and likewise calling for ???reform??? while his campaign
spokesman
Andrew Bates, according to the June 9 NYT, made clear that ???Mr.
Biden was opposed to cutting police funding and believed that more
spending was necessary to help improve law enforcement and community
policing.???
The following day, Biden wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for an
additional $300 million for the police, no doubt in the name of
???reform.??? The previous week the posturing Biden, ever in search of
a campaign gimmick, asserted that if elected president, he would
immediately set up a ???national police oversight commission.??? There
is no
end to capitalist politicians??? bluster, bluff and bullshit! These
aside, the end product, as their system degenerates, is more repression.
The ???wash, rinse, repeat cycle??? has no objective other than to
defuse the present mass outrage against the system of
institutionalized racist force and violence that pervades every police
department in the country.
Whether the media savvy mayors of New York and Los Angeles today
promise to cut police spending or their Democratic Party partners in
Washington whistle another tune, the result is the same. Capitalism,
and especially a capitalism in dire crisis, requires ever-deepening
repressive infringements on basic democratic rights and civil
liberties, whether with regard to outright police violence, or voting
restrictions, or all pervasive government spying or prohibitions on
the right to march and rally, not to mention the ???right??? to
conduct endless overt and covert wars against the poor and oppressed
nations of the world.
Here, we note the present restrictive laws on the books in virtually
every city in the nation that severely limit or prohibit marches and
rallies. In the face of today???s mass protests, they have gone
largely, if not totally unenforced. Experienced organizers are well
aware of the myriad laws in every city fundamentally restricting the
right to peaceful assembly ??? the laws requiring large fees and
permits, the laws requiring protestors to stand behind police
barricades or to submit to cement wall enclosures, the laws allowing
police to charge for their ???monitoring services??? and the laws
restricting large parts of cities from any protests at all. The
announced curfews imposed across the country have been largely ignored
and eventually withdrawn as ineffective. Increasingly, many of those
arrested ??? and there have been thousands to date ??? have been
released, with officials pledging that curfew violation charges would
be dropped. Mass trials, not to mention punishment of anti-racist
activists, is a spectacle that the more ???intelligent??? elements
among the ruling rich want to avoid, at least for
now.
The NYT struck a note of caution concerning the present impasse faced
by the elite. ???Because the protests are not only about the death of Mr.
Floyd but a broader system of racial inequality, officials cannot
simply defuse concerns by pressing charges against police officers, as
they did in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray.???
???And the next day!???
One recent afternoon in Washington, D.C., one person among hundreds of
demonstrators shouted that they would all be coming back the following
day. Another person added, ???and the next day.??? The phrase caught
fire, and the crowd started chanting, ???And the next day! And the next
day!???
Today???s unprecedented mobilizations began with the police murder of
George Floyd. But their depth and staying power is equally a
reflection of the mass anger and frustration stemming from all the
insults to one???s being that capitalism has inflicted on working
class America, and especially the nation???s Black, Brown and Native
American communities.
There is outrage on the job front, with millions relegated to low
wage, ???gig economy??? jobs, if they have a job at all. There is
outrage against
the racist ???school-to-prison??? pipeline and mass racist
incarceration, against the Blue plague of police oppression and the
plague of racist discrimination, against the impending global warming
climate catastrophe, against the endless wars against working people
at home and abroad, and against the system of capitalist exploitation more
generally.
Today, we hear voices raised louder than ever proclaiming ???No
Justice, No Peace??? and Black Lives Matter??? and ???They Say Cut
Back; We Say Fightback!??? They will soon be joined by voices also
demanding ???Unions Now! Organize the Unorganized!??? And not too far
away, we will hear ???Break with the Two-Party Capitalist Duopoly! For
Workers Power!??? as working people struggle for a fighting labor
party based on powerful and democratic trade unions in alliance with
all the oppressed and exploited! Yesterday???s impossible,
unthinkable, unimaginable idea of building a world of justice and freedom
for all is on the agenda today!
Join us! Join Socialist Action!
Related Articles
Mumia: World On Fire
June 11, 2020
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Protests against police brutality and racism in America have spread
around the world.
Socialist Action???s Protest Flyer: Jail Killer Cops! Black Lives Matter!
Capitalism is the Virus!
June 7, 2020
In these pandemic times, we???re bringing you our digital protest flyer!
Download the PDF!
The Wars Come Home: UNAC Statement on the Current Uprising June 2,
2020 The United National Antiwar Coalition stands in solidarity with
communities across the country who are rising up in protest against
racist police violence.
Defend Black Lives! No Police State! No Military Dictatorship! Release
all arrestees! No more attacks on anti-racist protesters!
--
___
Carl Sagan
???Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense
of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those
who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on
human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They
avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to
explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs
profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest
mysteries.???
??? Carl Sagan, Cosmos
