By David Futrelle
If you haven’t already heard: Anthony Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court, which means we’re even more fucked than we already were. Goodbye Roe v Wade! The Dems need to function as a real opposition party for once and pull a sort of reverse-Mitch McConnell, doing everything they can to block a new nomination until after the midterms. And then they need to win the midterms.
Fucking Trump doesn’t even know the names of the justices.
LOLOL I missed this live but Trump totally could not remember Justice Anthony Kennedy's name at the beginning of his press event
"Justice… Anthony……. you know who I'm talking about." pic.twitter.com/9CDJtSV7Uz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 27, 2018
I can’t even find Trump’s idiocy funny today. I’m too angry.
Anyway, here’s an open thread. I gotta start doing these regularly again.
@Surplus to Requirements
True, I totally overlooked that. So while the GOP may be able to invoke cloture (since it just requires 16 Senators to sign a statement), there’s no guarantee that the vote will pass. So maybe there’s hope yet on that front.
They absolutely could jam things up and Cloture wouldn’t be able to stop it– if the Democratic Party decided to actually have a spine and commit to it. There will be countless hand-wringing about civility if they do, and wondering “Well, what if the GOP decides to do it too?” Yes, even though they did do it, and will do it when it is within their power, and no amount of scolding them will change that. As long as at least one side holds up the “civility” angle, though, it lets moderates be comforted and continue not doing anything, whereas if even the Democrats decided to literally pull out all the stops, then moderates would….sulk in the corner and do nothing. You can see how much is at risk with such a strategy.
@Surplus to Requirements
I just realized that with the invocation of the “nuclear option” during the Gorsuch confirmation, the confirmation may still go through notwithstanding a Democratic filibuster. This (from my whirlwind Wikipedia civics lesson) leaves Senate holds as the final option, and hopefully the GOP doesn’t nuke/nerf that somehow (though doing exactly that is entirely within the realm of possibility).
@Steven I Dutch (awesome ‘nym by the way!)
Yeah, I know a fair amount of that very weird and bloody four months in Finnish history. I even know that my Mom’s side of the family were “as White as the driven snow” while my Dad’s side were “as Red as blood” (colors here denoting political association, with White being the pro-German, pro actual independence while the Red was pro Soviet Russia and pro International Communism). But yeah, there have always been deep ideological rifts in Finnish society and the “miracle of the Winter War” only painted over the cracks. Now with the new rise of populism and Fascism all over the place the cracks start to reappear.
Here is a tweet with 3 attatchments pictures. about incel/stalker. I will put trigger warning for this because it is disturbing and the guy did not learn.
https://twitter.com/lyserrrgic/status/1011729718306013184?s=19
@Weatherwax:
I hope as many UK Mamotheers as possible can get to one of the protests against Trump when he comes on Friday 13th July. I have taken the day off work to help steward the London demo.
https://www.stoptrump.org.uk/
Also, supporters of imprisoned far-right hooligan “Tommy Robinson” will be demonstrating in London the next day; please attend the counter-protest if possible.
@ simon
I’m never sure what to do about Stephen Christoper Yaxley-Lennon (I refuse to go along with his fake ‘working class hero’ act). Generally I’m on the side of confronting Nazis rather than ignoring them. In his case though, it seems he and his acolytes relish the attention and subsequent publicity. The threat he poses can’t be dismissed of course; but I do wonder whether it’s better to express disdain by, publicly at least, not taking him seriously. If there are to be any photos of the demo, I’d prefer it to be half a dozen racist sadsacks standing forlornly on a street corner. Of course they’ll probably do what they did last time and just tweet pictures of the FA Cup celebrations and pretend that was the demo.
But anyway, on a lighter note, don’t know if you’ve seen this; you might enjoy.
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/05/31/katie-hopkins-took-to-twitter-for-legal-advice-it-didnt-end-well/
I don’t know what to say to this news beyond a sense of numbness. I just listened to an interview with McMaster prof Henry Giroux and the sheer enormity of the task ahead of all of us, both in Canada and the US, to right the ship of democracy. Canada has had the privilege of the US as a yardstick to measure itself, but it’s still a country that just acquitted another white guy that killed another unarmed aboriginal man and Crack Mayor’s brother takes charge of the largest province tomorrow.
*sigh* Times like this I realize I’m too complacent. I vote, take the time to learn about issues, write to newspapers and politicians, but my anxiety, comfort and other ambitions have stymied my activism. I can’t say that those are fully to blame; my cirrhotic liver leaves me precious little energy to get through the typical day, but it feels like if the Idle No More folks can put their bodies on the line, I should too.
The task ahead of us feels just so herculean. No amount of direct action can make up for eroding community and crumbling education. If there was one harbinger that really made me nervous in Doug Ford’s win, it’s the number of recent immigrants that voted for him. There was really nothing more pathetic than seeing a profile of a woman who had just received her citizenship and was parroting “He’s for the little guy” bullshit. My Filipino co-worker (who I’ve mentioned before, but to repeat, backs Duterte) mentioned that a lot of his Filipino neighbours voted Tory, for vague reasons, but seem to be related to the sex ed curriculum.
I don’t want to be condescending to new Canadians, but I have to ask what makes you think Ford is on your side? The guy might operate on benevolent stereotypes (like the “diligent Asian”), but he still operates on stereotypes. Minorities are not people to the white people of Ford Nation, they’re caricatures and a means to an end. So why throw your hat in with them? To fit in? To lift the ladder up behind you? Or did they bring their reactionary bigotry towards the LGBT (especially the T) community with them from their old country?
I don’t mean to derail or be defeatist… I try to remember Charlie Chaplin’s words of comfort in these trying times about how as long as men die, liberty will never perish. But drastic societal change is necessary and it’s throwing up speed bumps wayyyy too much.
Fuck yes! It’s about time to-
Damnit! So close yet so far…
————–
In all due seriousness though, it is long past the time to start protesting up and down the street, every day and all the time. Americans are just way too passive with their tolerance of politics, I guess it just shows how little experienced you are with fascism as a country.
And I say this not as a means of putting you guys down, but as a clarification that most people’s first reaction to fascism is quietly resisting and hoping, without any indication or proof to the contrary, that maybe the fascists won’t go that far, that maybe they will relent somewhat if you speak to them in a civil tone.
As someone who has actually lived through two eras of violence, in what used to be the most politically unstable country in South America, I’ll just go ahead and tell you that this is never the case.
Fascism doesn’t fall on its own, it needs to be taken down. Whether by the name of Hitler, Videla, Pinochet, Fujimori, etc, fascism always tries to consolidate and retain power at any cost. I’m sorry to tell you that this is just the beginning, because if you had any hopes of this being over with impeachment or with the 2020 election, then you’re more than likely wrong on that count.
Just a heads up: fascists nearly always amend or straight up replace the Constitution to make reelection indefinite. And do not think for a second that Trump wouldn’t go that far because he’s already put children in cages.
You guys need to start organizing, you need to stop being civil, you need to be on top of your representatives and congressmen and telling them to oppose Trump and if they don’t respond or live to those expectations, then you need to replace them ASAP.
Fascism can be beat, but it requires organizing, protesting, being intimately involved on politics beyond just social media.
When Fujimori ran for a third illegal regime here, won, and started torturing and killing dissidents, the people rose up and protested every single day, de-stabilized him. In a country of only 28 million people at the time, over a million people showed up to protest against him. The protests would go on for days, nights, weeks. They never relented until proof of him buying up congressmen was found.
If a poor third world country, full of people experiencing a recession, was able to bring down a dictator, then surely you guys can do the same. I already see people are revving up the resistance and actively taking the fight to the very people who pass these discriminatory bills. The more people resist, the more likely they are to inspire others to join in. But no matter what happens, you absolutely cannot give in, because as bad as things are right now I guarantee you that if you do it will get much much worse, very fast. You’d be surprised how fast a fascist can consolidate power when he’s not being openly resisted.
To add to the what non-US Mammotheers can do, any of you in Finland or close to enough to get to Helsinki easily can protest the Trump-Putin summit.
Add this summit to the ever growing list of giant red flags that most Americans are ignoring. Trump is not even trying to hide the collusion anymore. He’s still saying “no collusion” but actions speak louder than words and having a best friends slumber party with Putin the way he did with Kim is speaking with a goddamn megaphone. He’s clearly certain he’s consolidated enough power that it won’t matter if a majority of the population see him as colluding.
There’s scuttlebutt that Jim Mattis might be resigning soon.
Apparently he’s just lost patience with Trump’s impulsiveness and lack of notification or consultation; such as with the Iran deal or the Kim meeting.
I wonder what effect that will have on other countries’ stance regarding Trump? Previously, in regards to stuff like NATO and international security generally, they hadn’t been too concerned with Trump’s rhetoric because, whatever Trump may have said, Mattis was able to ignore it and continue a relatively normal functional relationship with foreign allies.
Much will depend on who replaces Mattis I guess. There are other reasonably qualified people in the wings. But the big concern is that Trump may follow his ‘loyalty before competence’ recruitment policy. It’s disturbing to think what might happen then.
Diego,
I hear ya. I do think we have a tiny window of time left in which non-violent resistance can make a difference. But at this point, things are accelerating so much it’s probably weeks rather than months. We definitely don’t have the luxury of hoping we can just hang on until 2020 anymore. But like you said, Americans are really apathetic. The number of people who are saying that we’re sliding into fascism is too small for any resistance whether it’s violent or non-violent to make a difference right now.
I don’t know if that 3.5% figure discussed in another thread is the magic number or not. But I know what we have now is not enough to stop it. Not yet. I’ve been involved with politics and the biggest obstacle has always been that people just do not care. They care about their dinner being interrupted. They care about their possessions. They care about their kids getting sports trophies. They care about how their lawns look. It’s next to impossible to penetrate the consumerist haze most people live in. I’m quite certain it’s going to take things getting bad enough that middle and upper middle class people can no longer participate peacefully in consumer culture. That’s not something I like, but it’s the reality.
And you’re right. Americans have no idea what it’s like to live in an authoritarian country. Some people think it inherently can’t happen here. Others welcome it because they don’t grasp how authoritarianism works. They think if they’re white, Christian and conservative, they’ll be okay. They’ll be better than okay. They’ll be privileged. They don’t get that they can be disappeared because a neighbor or coworker with a non-political grudge decided to falsely accuse them of working against the regime. They don’t get that voicing one little objection to something the regime does can get them killed. They don’t get members of the ruling party have each other killed to move up the ranks.
Anyway, I have more thoughts but won’t mention them here because of the comment policy. When I say I don’t want or advocate bloody revolution, I mean that I want Americans to wake up before that’s the only option left. I don’t mean the option shouldn’t be taken when it is the only option left though.
@Valya
I have to agree with the replies about how his use of ‘father’ ups the creep factor. Also I wish I hadn’t seen the close-up of his teeth. ?
I’m having a bit of a freakout about Roe vs. Wade being overturned. I’m only posting this here because it’s anonymous, but I had to abort a nonviable pregnancy (possibly ectopic) last year. It was a wanted pregnancy too; in fact, my husband and I have been undergoing infertility treatments. I even got crap at the pharmacy about it. At first they told me they were out of the drug, so I called my fertility doctor (who had called in the prescription) and told her they don’t have it, and she called the pharmacy herself and then after talking to the manager, suddenly the pharmacy they did have the drug after all! I guess the pharmacist didn’t feel like outright telling me she was against abortion, so she lied to me and told me they were out of the drug, so the manager filled the prescription after talking with my doctor.
That was our first treatment cycle. Subsequent treatments have resulted in all negatives, so next week I’m having diagnostic surgery to see if there’s something messed up in there that they need to surgically fix. I’ve never had surgery before, so I already had tons of anxiety about that, and now this Supreme Court thing is compounding my anxiety.
My husband and I waited to start trying to conceive until Obamacare made it so that health insurance is required to cover pregnancy, but I didn’t expect to have infertility problems, so it’s taken much longer than expected. Now I’m afraid of having another abnormal pregnancy that I won’t be able to abort, because I live in Texas, so I’m sure they will move to outlaw all abortion as fast as they can (I’m sure most of the state legislature is just like that pharmacist).
We already have a 20 week abortion ban. I had a friend who had to abort her very wanted fetus at 19 weeks – one more week and it would have been illegal and she would have had to just wait around for the fetus to die. We also had that law that shut down most of our abortion clinics that was overturned by the Supreme Court, but most of our clinics remain shut down anyway. I live near enough to a big city that still has a clinic, but who knows how long that will last now?
Just to be clear, I am pro-choice in ALL cases, both unwanted pregnancies and wanted-but-messed-up pregnancies. I’m just at a point in my life where the latter scenario is more of a concern for me personally.
(And please no comments about how irresponsible I’m being in even attempting to bring a kid into this world. It’s not something that hasn’t crossed my mind already, OK?)
I just can’t stand people who say it’s dumb to vote because both parties are exactly the same, when I’ve been making major life decisions based on what’s going on in Washington. It must take a TON of privilege to not be affected by any of this stuff. (Because I know I’m already fairly privileged, and I’m freaked out!)
Sorry for the rant. I just needed to get this off my chest somewhere anonymously. I don’t know what I can actually do to help anything. I already vote in every election, even dinky local ones, but often in those elections we have Republicans running unopposed, so what’s the point? My congressional district is gerrymandered to be Republican, and the Supreme Court just said that’s OK. I could call my Senators, but they are John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Of course I’m going to vote for Beto in November, but Mitch McConnell is going to zip through the Supreme Court nominee as fast as possible before the election anyway (and I’m afraid Beto is a long shot anyway.)
OK, sorry, seriously now, rant over, I need to go calm myself down somehow.
@Juniper
Honestly I’m worried about what if my aging self decides to get pregnant and something goes wrong, too. Or if I accidentally get pregnant and decide I don’t want to be. Either one is possible for me, and with my health how it is I’m very, very afraid of what might happen to me if forced to carry a pregnancy. I even looked into whether I could have a procedure done in Canada instead (looks like yes, but would probably need to pay out of pocket). So you’re not alone.
kupo, I thought it was fake first but i don’t think it is
@WWTH
You have the right read in that things seem to be accelerating and the time table shrinking from months to weeks. Sorry if I don’t sound so helpful or if I’m making others anxious, but I’m not just spouting alarmism. I’ve picked up on the recent change of space, starting with the ICE concentration camps. Just this week alone the SC upheld the Muslim Travel Ban, ruled against unions and then today the police started cracking down on ICE protesters in Portland, in full riot gear.
It’s not just an impression, the administration might be making aggressive moves because they feel threatened by the upcoming midterms.
Let me clarify it for those who are still, comprehensibly, in a daze about all of this. This isn’t the beginning of a dictatorship, you are already several steps into one, so you need to be swift and careful about this.
The following post is not meant to criticize or trigger anyone, so by all means, if any of you suffers from anxiety or similar conditions please skip this post.
To everyone else, I will try to give you a few pointers on how to resist and, hopefully survive, a dictatorship.
1- Identify who your allies are at the local level: Before even thinking about contacting your senators and all that jazz, that might turn out to be fruitless, you need to be more basic than that and find people whom you can rely on.
Facebook groups, whatsapp chats, discord, conventions, anything goes, there are no rules here. What you want to do is find people with whom you can organize at the local level. You need to form a cohesive support group on which you can rely and with which you can protest and resist the regime.
If you can’t find any, then think smaller and contact nearby friends and relatives, then build from there.
2- Stay informed and protest: you want to start protesting wherever and whenever possible, but be very careful about it. Do not attend protests by yourselves. Let me repeat that: DO NOT ATTEND PROTESTS BY YOURSELVES. Ideally you want to organize a group to protest together.
3- BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU PROTEST: fascist do not like opposition and will grit their teeth at you first, then escalate the violence against you. Unorganized protesting is easy pickings for them because they can flat out arrest you, abduct you and even kill you.
Which is why you’ll need to follow a set of rules so that you can stay safe:
a) Do NOT assemble at the location being protested, this will make you easy pickings for arrest on whatever circumstances the police can conjure up. No, set up a place for meeting and congregation and a time-frame where you will meet up so you can organize the protest, make the banners, and everything else. THEN march to the place where you are protesting.
b) Do roll calls before you head out from the meeting place. This sounds ridiculous, but I assure you it is fucking not. Protesting fascists is dangerous business, because more often than not the police is in on it and they can detain you or worse. Do roll calls so you can know who is present.
c) Cover up your face if and whenever possible to avoid identification by the police. If you are easily identifiable that makes you an easy target individually.
d) Stay together and draft possible retreat routes just in case law enforcement tries to separate you. Scattered groups are easy to pick up and arrest.
e) Do not head home immediately after the protest is over, or if the groups gets broken up. Go back to the meeting place and do the roll call once more to make sure everyone is there and accounted for. Make sure no one gets left behind.
If someone is missing, check the police station, make sure they are safe, make sure they are accounted for.
f) After you get home make sure to message the group and let everybody know you are ok and got home safely.
4- Keep your group constantly informed on new developments regarding hostile actions towards yourself and/or family members. If the police or anybody else comes to your house at night, let others know immediately so that you won’t just go missing out of the blue.
5- Have a Plan B in case things start getting too serious: rule of law and fundamental rights do not apply during dictatorships, these are relative to whatever the mood of law enforcement is. I cannot stress this enough. If things start getting too hostile for you or family members, then you need to reach out and get the fuck out of the country.
You may risk your livelihood by leaving, but you are risking your life by staying. If you have family abroad, contact them and start looking into procedures for immigration.
Finally, sorry if I come off as too much of an alarmist but it is better to be safe than to be sorry.
Afterthought:
Government agents just intervened an ICE whistleblower in his own home:
https://www.facebook.com/PeopleForBernie/videos/2230254303861438/
This shit is escalating fast. Pay attention, these are not coincidences. This pacing is not a coincidence, something is developing here.
WWTH:
I’ll look forward to attending a protest here in Helsinki and will advertise it to the few friends I have.
I expect there will be a moderate sized protest. The summit is a huge media event here, but most people and political commentators see it as a positive (for global diplomacy and for Finland’s own international image) or at least not that problematic. It’ll be difficult to communicate what exactly is being protested here.
I guess it’ll be something like “Yes to bridge building, no to growing Russo-American authoritarianism and erosion of democracy, solidarity with global progressive values community “. Very catchy, much concise.
In addition to the ICE whistleblower getting an intimidation visit, our other news stories today are the house Republicans aggressively questioning and attacking Rod Rosenstein and the occupy ICE blockade in Portland being broken up by a huge number of police in riot gear.
So yeah, anyone who thinks Trump is only attacking Latinx and Muslim immigrants and will stop there should be taking note. It’s also dissenters and people with the ability to hold Trump accountable under attack and congressional Republicans and local police forces are perfectly happy to help make dissent illegal.
@WWTH
I didn’t hear about Portland. I did hear about something going down in Tacoma (near Seattle), though. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article213899929.html
@Kupo
It was this morning, police showed up in riot gears. Given what you just posted shows this is a coordinated crackdown. Be very wary because not only will Trump uphold his little concentrations camps, but he’s likely to go for something bigger next.
Monzach:
My ancestors were all working class, but apparently mostly not that rebellious. We only recently confirmed that my mother’s father’s father, who we knew had been imprisoned in the aftermath (in prison camp conditions that killed thousands), was actually a leading figure in the local Lempäälä Red Guard. He’s in this photo, far right (no pun intended):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museovirastonkuvakokoelmat/20702926315
Like the famous literary character Akseli Koskela, he was captured in Hennala while trying to flee east from his home, and barely survived imprisonment. His father, who had stayed at home in Lempäälä, was summarily executed by the local whites in a sort of revenge by proxy – Akseli Koskela lost two brothers in same fashion.
@Diego
Shit, looks like they brought in homeland security.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/portland-ice-facility-protesters-moved-by-homeland-security-agents-in-oregon-today-2018-06-28/
Really OT here.
Harlan Ellison has died.
https://www.cbr.com/harlan-ellison-dies-84/