Another key component in the rise of colonial fascism is the weakness and fecklessness, and sometimes outright complicity, of the political opposition.
Although it does seem to be finally shifting, we are still stuck in a position where the US 'opposition party' has largely supported the connection between colonialism and genocide that Trump has fully embraced, while occasionally masking that with tepid 'concern'.
The bipartisan support for Israel's genocide in Gaza and colonial assault on the West Bank is the obvious example. As recently as this summer, Schumer and several other Democratic Senators took a smiling photo with the indicted war criminal Netanyahu at the same moment Israel was starving children and massacring those trying to get aid, while these same Senators and many others voted against resolutions to stop US arms shipment to Israel only weeks after.
The fact that majority of Democratic Senators voted in support of these resolutions was exceptional, and the fact that this was so exceptional in itself is telling.
Even in the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani's opposition to genocide as been a major reason, maybe the main reasons, why NYC Democrats and stalwart supporters of Israel Hakeem Jeffries, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have refused to endorse him. HIs opponent Andrew Cuomo defended Netanyahu against the ICC war crimes charges.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates recently said, “We are at a moment right now where people are asking themselves why can’t the Democratic Party defend this assault on democracy . . . and I would submit to you that if you can’t draw the line at genocide, you probably can’t draw the line at democracy.”
While I agree this current administration in Israel is BAD, and American politics towards Israel has always been 'too' supportive, the situation around Israel and in general in the middle east has ALWAYS been seriously messed up with few if any true innocents. The entire region (including Israel) is perpetually stuck into multiple simultaneous forever wars, where the concept of peace seems to be 'against their religion' (yes, I said all sides). I know what their religions SAY, but just as we have Christians rooting for the 'end of days' while following a 'stand in' for the antichrist, they similarly are not typically following their religions teachings either. Both sides have done horrible things and with these forever wars and cultural mandate to seek revenge for past wrongs, I can understand how all the sides see genocide as the only path to survival and peace, because NONE of them can forgive past wrongs and forge a new peace based on mutual respect and needs.
So please forgive me when I hear another rant that sounds like one side is full of saints and the other full of devil worshipers, but I have heard it all before, from both sides. They can both always find reasons to hate and kill until there are none left. Oh sure, if one side is 'losing' the other side is clearly in the wrong, I will agree to that, but simply losing does not make on a saint. Rather both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution, they will continue their work.
You know what a massive terrorist attack is? It is fundraising and recruitment. Peace is the enemy of terrorists and currently Israel is the terrorist, reacting to a terrorist attack... and so it goes round and round, just another forever war.
Saying 'forgive me when I hear another rant that sounds like one side is full of saints and the other full of devil worshipers' as a response to my comment is straw man nonsense. It is also not a case of 'both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution'.
This is classic bothsideism.
The Occupied Territories are just that, lands and people occupied by a violent dominating force. There are not two sides. There is a powerful colonial state that has ruthlessly oppressed the population that lived in those regions since long before the colonizing state existed, who have no rights under the dominating state laws at all.
There are not two countries. The people in the Occupied Territories have no autonomy whatsoever, have no control over their borders or trade or telecommunications or anything else. They have no military. The people in the Occupied Territories are subject to apartheid and military rule, and constant invasions, abductions and theft of land by the occupying state. The governments are little more than local administrators, and even in that role, their power is extremely limited by the whims of the occupiers.
There is one state committing genocide (with the full support and complicity of the US). There is no 'both sides' here. The entire history of Israel has been built on the subjugation of the Palestinian people, full stop.
There is no 'war', there are nonstop massacres and amputations and abductions and other horrific war crimes, including everything from intentionally starving an entire population to the systematic assassination of journalists, aid workers, and doctors, being committed by the occupying state, every day, all the time...and not just since October 7th but for decades before that..it is the worst now than it has ever been but nothing happening now is new.
Your 'both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution' 'rant' is nonsense, and really, the 'both sides' argument only serves the occupying force by muddying the obvious fact that this is not remotely two equal sides fighting a war. Your whole comment is really pretty ridiculous.
And Hamas is composed of innocents? Of course not, but the population protects them, or tolerates them. The attack (guess which one I am referring to) was a declaration of war. They knew who was in charge in Israel. Yes Israel (Predictably) overreacted, just as Hamas had, neither side being innocent. I personally want nothing to do with either side and would love to impose a wall between them, like the children they are.
You call it 'both-sides' argument, but I would have more empathy for one side, if one side consistently tried to play by the rules and be fair, like Ukraine seeking an end to the war while Russia keeps trying to win their invasion. Ukraine had not started the war they are in with a vicious attack on Russian civilians.
Over time, different administrations in Israel have behaved differently, though all have started from a level of paranoia, based on their cultural history. Let us recall what happened in WW2. Let us blame the people in charge who for poorly defended reasons decided to create this horrible situation by displacing people in their holy land to give it to another group who also claimed it as their holy land. No real effort was ever made to resolve that problem. Nobody wanted the displaced people and apparently the displaced people never seemed to create a very functional government to build up their own resources.
I suspect much of the idea behind the creation of Israel was either an effort to address 'the middle east problem' whichever and however any given person wanted to define it (Yes, the middle east was not a peaceful paradise, long before Israel came into being), or was an effort to fulfill the prophesies foretelling the 'end of days'. Maybe both. There are other places on this earth where it would have been much easier to displace a smaller population more easily with less trauma.
My personal proposal, rather than genocide of one group vs another, is that The US could (Except for this administration which is favoring voters who seek the end-of-days) set aside through eminent domain significant area of the US (Northern Nevada?) essentially another 'reservation' for people from Israel to relocate to and still be their own nation, and even spend real US money to help in the relocation and rebuilding here, and after a certain time, any who have chosen to remain in the middle east, are abandoned to their own resources. Not our problem. They chose their endless war and they can deal with it on their own.
All the more reason to be 'energy independent' of the Middle East.
Short answer (too late ;) is that the entire region is a MESS and I want to have nothing to do with it. I do not like the country Israel has become, even though I think a lot of good people live there, But I also have no use for various other groups who seem to live on hate and dreams with no desire to do anything other than survive, even in the best of times, suffering and complaining of old wrongs done to them and no, Israel is NOT the only bad actor in the region, LOTS of bad karma to go around.
When you push the one sided hate, with no mention of ANY reason why the other side may need to correct some behavior, you just tend to make yourself another reason hate rules the land there with no hope for any useful solution.
There are some 'interesting' ideas in your comment (you try to tell Nevadans or Israelis your relocation plan) and a lot of mentions of 'innocence' ....
but I'll just respond this one phrase:
'if one side consistently tried to play by the rules and be fair'
So, exactly what are those 'rules' for a population under violent occupation?
Start with Gaza...what are the 'rules' to 'be fair' for a population that has been under a harsh blockade by the occupying state (and yes, even the US State Department understand that Israel is occupying Gaza due to its complete control over the region)?
This blockade, in effect for nearly two decades now, has blocked everything from livestock to medicine to toys to construction equipment from entering the region. Israel regularly limits electricity in Gaza to 4 hours a day or less. Israel regularly cuts off or restricts telecommunications in Gaza. All of this in itself is an 'act of war' and is a flagrant violation of international law.
Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza repeatedly in that time (despite the nonsense myth that the 'war' started in October 2023). In 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, Israel invaded and/or bombed Gaza, killing thousands, maiming thousands more, destroying hospitals, schools, infrastructure...this does not include near constant killings and shootings along the border, regularly attacking fishing boats that stray more than a mile or two from the coast, abducting Gazans and throwing them into torture prisons with no charges, and any number of other commonplace attacks that are never reported here..
And of course for all that time Israel has completely controlled all land, air, and sea access to Gaza, to the extent where it attacks boats attempting to bring food and aid to the region, as it just did again only yesterday. Outside of one crossing point to Egypt, which Israel has always had effective control over anyway, Israel has made Gaza the world's largest open air prison, denying access to foreign journalists and foreign political leaders commonly.
So then, what are the 'rules' the people of Gaza should follow, to 'be fair'? How should they respond?
And, in the West Bank, where the PA has 'played more fair'...Israel's response has been total apartheid rule, and nonstop annexation of land and backing the terrorist 'settlers' who kill at will much like lynch mobs of the Jim Crow South. Israel constantly abducts people in the middle of the night, attacks people for any reason...over 1000 Palestinians have been killed there in the past two years, and they have zero to do with Hamas. That number includes several Americans. Israel has divided up the West Bank so much any unified Palestinian state is virtually impossible.
How should the people of the West Bank be 'fair' and 'play by 'the rules'? They have no army. They are subject to military law under Israel but have zero rights under Israeli rule. They have no way to stop Israel's nonstop theft of land. They also have no autonomous control over their travel, borders, trade or utilities (although not quite as harsh as the Gaza blockade). The IDF and its proxy terrorists 'settlers' kill and burn and loot and rampage with no consequence or punishment, and there is not a single thing the Palestinians can do to stop this.
Unlike Ukraine, which is an actual sovereign nation with a strong military, its own autonomous government, its own trade and borders and airports, and of course massive military support from the EU and the US (despite Trumps recent wavering), the Occupied Territories are controlled by Israel. The people there are stateless refugees with no rights at all, no autonomy and no way to defend themselves.
All this of course is funded and supported by the US, for many decades now...the US is a full partner in the oppression of Palestinians, and always has been.
I am impressed, not only did you either mock or ignore any of my arguments, I guess to encourage me to think like you do? You essentially presented the justification for the mass terrorist attack that started Israel's siege and oppression of Gaza that predictably drew the severe backlash that it did, hence the eternal cycle of war in the middle east.
There are innocents in this world, and some of them do live in Gaza, because they have not had a chance yet to do anything to perpetuate this eternal war, but people like you are standing by to help guide them onto the path.
Personally, if I was in such an environment as you have described, with a child, I would have done everything possible to get the heck out of there, unless of course I was invested in either 'holy land' issues or 'homeland' issues or Righteous anger issues... that overrode my concern for my children.
Your one sided hate gives you away. Personally I hate both sides, and I hate people who choose to be victims, and I hate rapists and mass butchery that I know you will justify as payback for past wrongs. It is wrong when Israel does it, and it was wrong when Hamas did it and it was wrong when civilians chose to protect / shield Hamas and the hostages of Hamas from discovery. But I admit, my hate is a very mild thing compared to your righteous hatred. I am glad I do not burn with your passion, perhaps because I have not shared your personal pain. I assume you have suffered to come by this much passion and I am sorry you experienced that. Just imagine all the Israelis who suffered directly or indirectly when Hamas attacked with all their pent up passion that fateful day, and how many of those Israelis will carry that passion forward...
I have wasted way too much time responding to what you generously call your 'arguments' already.
Since your suggestion that they should all just get along might not work, and your idea to move Israel to Nevada might only work in your imagination, again, how should the people of the West Bank and Gaza be 'fair' and 'play by 'the rules'?..and n,again, obviously, this isn't about the last two years, its generations, in the West Bank where Hamas is not in power and never was...in the Occupied Territories since decades before Hamas existed.
Respond, or don't I don't care really. I'm done responding to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
Corporations are complicit in the regime's internal colonization. An example:
Chicagoans have begun using whistles as a tactic of resistance and self-protection. When ICE goons are seen in a neighborhood, passersby use their whistles to draw attention to the operation and to warn vulnerable people to stay away. Hearing about this, my household went online to buy whistles so we would be prepared. Tried to purchase from Amazon and got through the ordering process up to the "delivery" screen. Then the transaction was canceled with this message: CANNOT DELIVER TO YOUR ZIP CODE. Next, we tried Dick's Sporting Goods, same result.
We finally bought our whistles at an Army-Navy surplus store. Ironic, doncha think?
The connections you're making here, between foreign and domestic policy, are so crucial. I've been an amateur student of the Arab world all my adult life, with a focus on the period from World War I to the present, and this rings very true. And the common denominator between foreign and domestic policies is white people suppressing people of color.
We keep being so afraid to be violent, but that is because we are afraid of giving him a 'valid excuse' to impose martial law.
However, what Trump is doing is deliberately provoking and if we continue to just let him do it, relying on the courts to rein him in, remember what this current SCOTUS is letting him do. It is allowing Trump to use racial profiling by ICE, it is allowing Trump to fire people that the LAW says he cannot. At what point do we say SCOTUS has gone too far... Trump has gone too far, and just say NO with all of our police and all of our National Guard - warned about the consequences of following illegal orders and utilizing the large resources of our larger states to stand up and just obstruct or even arrest criminal actions by federalized agents.
ICE who do not present valid identification should be arrested for impersonating an officer. If ICE grabs someone, without due process and without proper identification, they should be arrested for kidnapping and placed in jail. Our state courts should demand proper paperwork and identification, and not just some federal officials word for it. This Federal Government has proven it does not have any legal credibility anymore. Let it be the police who enforce the laws of the state and stand guard over our cities. Let Trump prove FIRST in court his claims that such intervention is necessary (good luck with that) because there is no clear 'emergency' requiring immediate intervention, such as after a natural disaster.
Until we stand up with our official response to an illegal action by the Federal government we are simply inviting Trump to keep taking step after step and either relying on the courts reluctance to force it's will on this criminal Executive branch, or SCOTUS actively enabling clearly criminal acts.
Trump is a classic bully, and a coward as such are, but he is discovering there really is no limit on what he can do, until we show him otherwise.
With an official state response with a clear legal foundation and enforcement of it's laws (even if it has to pass new laws to do it) it will not look like 'riots in the street'. Conservative media will of course paint it like secession, but with no violence and business as usual that will be hard to keep selling. Especially if the violence comes from ICE or other federal agents.
I don't disagree that the crime rate is too high. Really my beef is with the gun industry and Republican policies that keep guns in the hands of people and courts that override Illinois choosing to have gun control.
Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson have said they would welcome real help from Trump, like funding programs that we know work to make crime rates go down. Also, social policies that are less likely to drive people to crime. Think if Trump were to actually do some of the populist things that he pretended to stand for. Perhaps we would lower our homelessness, and hunger rates. That would be great! But he is doing the opposite, and does it with relish. He does not like anyone except in a transactional way, is a rabid White Supremacist and pedophile, and does not have one likable quality at all.
A call to the Supreme Court of the United States of America:
Come out and explain yourselves and your rulings!
The only calls accepted are Trump’s.
I studied fascism in grad school. This is SPOT ON.
Thanks for one of your best posts ever. Great explication.
Does that chickenshit draft-dodger know who won the War in Viet nam?
Trump: “The Mets?”
Another key component in the rise of colonial fascism is the weakness and fecklessness, and sometimes outright complicity, of the political opposition.
Although it does seem to be finally shifting, we are still stuck in a position where the US 'opposition party' has largely supported the connection between colonialism and genocide that Trump has fully embraced, while occasionally masking that with tepid 'concern'.
The bipartisan support for Israel's genocide in Gaza and colonial assault on the West Bank is the obvious example. As recently as this summer, Schumer and several other Democratic Senators took a smiling photo with the indicted war criminal Netanyahu at the same moment Israel was starving children and massacring those trying to get aid, while these same Senators and many others voted against resolutions to stop US arms shipment to Israel only weeks after.
The fact that majority of Democratic Senators voted in support of these resolutions was exceptional, and the fact that this was so exceptional in itself is telling.
Even in the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani's opposition to genocide as been a major reason, maybe the main reasons, why NYC Democrats and stalwart supporters of Israel Hakeem Jeffries, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have refused to endorse him. HIs opponent Andrew Cuomo defended Netanyahu against the ICC war crimes charges.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates recently said, “We are at a moment right now where people are asking themselves why can’t the Democratic Party defend this assault on democracy . . . and I would submit to you that if you can’t draw the line at genocide, you probably can’t draw the line at democracy.”
While I agree this current administration in Israel is BAD, and American politics towards Israel has always been 'too' supportive, the situation around Israel and in general in the middle east has ALWAYS been seriously messed up with few if any true innocents. The entire region (including Israel) is perpetually stuck into multiple simultaneous forever wars, where the concept of peace seems to be 'against their religion' (yes, I said all sides). I know what their religions SAY, but just as we have Christians rooting for the 'end of days' while following a 'stand in' for the antichrist, they similarly are not typically following their religions teachings either. Both sides have done horrible things and with these forever wars and cultural mandate to seek revenge for past wrongs, I can understand how all the sides see genocide as the only path to survival and peace, because NONE of them can forgive past wrongs and forge a new peace based on mutual respect and needs.
So please forgive me when I hear another rant that sounds like one side is full of saints and the other full of devil worshipers, but I have heard it all before, from both sides. They can both always find reasons to hate and kill until there are none left. Oh sure, if one side is 'losing' the other side is clearly in the wrong, I will agree to that, but simply losing does not make on a saint. Rather both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution, they will continue their work.
You know what a massive terrorist attack is? It is fundraising and recruitment. Peace is the enemy of terrorists and currently Israel is the terrorist, reacting to a terrorist attack... and so it goes round and round, just another forever war.
Saying 'forgive me when I hear another rant that sounds like one side is full of saints and the other full of devil worshipers' as a response to my comment is straw man nonsense. It is also not a case of 'both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution'.
This is classic bothsideism.
The Occupied Territories are just that, lands and people occupied by a violent dominating force. There are not two sides. There is a powerful colonial state that has ruthlessly oppressed the population that lived in those regions since long before the colonizing state existed, who have no rights under the dominating state laws at all.
There are not two countries. The people in the Occupied Territories have no autonomy whatsoever, have no control over their borders or trade or telecommunications or anything else. They have no military. The people in the Occupied Territories are subject to apartheid and military rule, and constant invasions, abductions and theft of land by the occupying state. The governments are little more than local administrators, and even in that role, their power is extremely limited by the whims of the occupiers.
There is one state committing genocide (with the full support and complicity of the US). There is no 'both sides' here. The entire history of Israel has been built on the subjugation of the Palestinian people, full stop.
There is no 'war', there are nonstop massacres and amputations and abductions and other horrific war crimes, including everything from intentionally starving an entire population to the systematic assassination of journalists, aid workers, and doctors, being committed by the occupying state, every day, all the time...and not just since October 7th but for decades before that..it is the worst now than it has ever been but nothing happening now is new.
Your 'both sides are wrong and until they admit that and want to find a better solution' 'rant' is nonsense, and really, the 'both sides' argument only serves the occupying force by muddying the obvious fact that this is not remotely two equal sides fighting a war. Your whole comment is really pretty ridiculous.
And Hamas is composed of innocents? Of course not, but the population protects them, or tolerates them. The attack (guess which one I am referring to) was a declaration of war. They knew who was in charge in Israel. Yes Israel (Predictably) overreacted, just as Hamas had, neither side being innocent. I personally want nothing to do with either side and would love to impose a wall between them, like the children they are.
You call it 'both-sides' argument, but I would have more empathy for one side, if one side consistently tried to play by the rules and be fair, like Ukraine seeking an end to the war while Russia keeps trying to win their invasion. Ukraine had not started the war they are in with a vicious attack on Russian civilians.
Over time, different administrations in Israel have behaved differently, though all have started from a level of paranoia, based on their cultural history. Let us recall what happened in WW2. Let us blame the people in charge who for poorly defended reasons decided to create this horrible situation by displacing people in their holy land to give it to another group who also claimed it as their holy land. No real effort was ever made to resolve that problem. Nobody wanted the displaced people and apparently the displaced people never seemed to create a very functional government to build up their own resources.
I suspect much of the idea behind the creation of Israel was either an effort to address 'the middle east problem' whichever and however any given person wanted to define it (Yes, the middle east was not a peaceful paradise, long before Israel came into being), or was an effort to fulfill the prophesies foretelling the 'end of days'. Maybe both. There are other places on this earth where it would have been much easier to displace a smaller population more easily with less trauma.
My personal proposal, rather than genocide of one group vs another, is that The US could (Except for this administration which is favoring voters who seek the end-of-days) set aside through eminent domain significant area of the US (Northern Nevada?) essentially another 'reservation' for people from Israel to relocate to and still be their own nation, and even spend real US money to help in the relocation and rebuilding here, and after a certain time, any who have chosen to remain in the middle east, are abandoned to their own resources. Not our problem. They chose their endless war and they can deal with it on their own.
All the more reason to be 'energy independent' of the Middle East.
Short answer (too late ;) is that the entire region is a MESS and I want to have nothing to do with it. I do not like the country Israel has become, even though I think a lot of good people live there, But I also have no use for various other groups who seem to live on hate and dreams with no desire to do anything other than survive, even in the best of times, suffering and complaining of old wrongs done to them and no, Israel is NOT the only bad actor in the region, LOTS of bad karma to go around.
When you push the one sided hate, with no mention of ANY reason why the other side may need to correct some behavior, you just tend to make yourself another reason hate rules the land there with no hope for any useful solution.
There are some 'interesting' ideas in your comment (you try to tell Nevadans or Israelis your relocation plan) and a lot of mentions of 'innocence' ....
but I'll just respond this one phrase:
'if one side consistently tried to play by the rules and be fair'
So, exactly what are those 'rules' for a population under violent occupation?
Start with Gaza...what are the 'rules' to 'be fair' for a population that has been under a harsh blockade by the occupying state (and yes, even the US State Department understand that Israel is occupying Gaza due to its complete control over the region)?
This blockade, in effect for nearly two decades now, has blocked everything from livestock to medicine to toys to construction equipment from entering the region. Israel regularly limits electricity in Gaza to 4 hours a day or less. Israel regularly cuts off or restricts telecommunications in Gaza. All of this in itself is an 'act of war' and is a flagrant violation of international law.
Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza repeatedly in that time (despite the nonsense myth that the 'war' started in October 2023). In 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, Israel invaded and/or bombed Gaza, killing thousands, maiming thousands more, destroying hospitals, schools, infrastructure...this does not include near constant killings and shootings along the border, regularly attacking fishing boats that stray more than a mile or two from the coast, abducting Gazans and throwing them into torture prisons with no charges, and any number of other commonplace attacks that are never reported here..
And of course for all that time Israel has completely controlled all land, air, and sea access to Gaza, to the extent where it attacks boats attempting to bring food and aid to the region, as it just did again only yesterday. Outside of one crossing point to Egypt, which Israel has always had effective control over anyway, Israel has made Gaza the world's largest open air prison, denying access to foreign journalists and foreign political leaders commonly.
So then, what are the 'rules' the people of Gaza should follow, to 'be fair'? How should they respond?
And, in the West Bank, where the PA has 'played more fair'...Israel's response has been total apartheid rule, and nonstop annexation of land and backing the terrorist 'settlers' who kill at will much like lynch mobs of the Jim Crow South. Israel constantly abducts people in the middle of the night, attacks people for any reason...over 1000 Palestinians have been killed there in the past two years, and they have zero to do with Hamas. That number includes several Americans. Israel has divided up the West Bank so much any unified Palestinian state is virtually impossible.
How should the people of the West Bank be 'fair' and 'play by 'the rules'? They have no army. They are subject to military law under Israel but have zero rights under Israeli rule. They have no way to stop Israel's nonstop theft of land. They also have no autonomous control over their travel, borders, trade or utilities (although not quite as harsh as the Gaza blockade). The IDF and its proxy terrorists 'settlers' kill and burn and loot and rampage with no consequence or punishment, and there is not a single thing the Palestinians can do to stop this.
Unlike Ukraine, which is an actual sovereign nation with a strong military, its own autonomous government, its own trade and borders and airports, and of course massive military support from the EU and the US (despite Trumps recent wavering), the Occupied Territories are controlled by Israel. The people there are stateless refugees with no rights at all, no autonomy and no way to defend themselves.
All this of course is funded and supported by the US, for many decades now...the US is a full partner in the oppression of Palestinians, and always has been.
I am impressed, not only did you either mock or ignore any of my arguments, I guess to encourage me to think like you do? You essentially presented the justification for the mass terrorist attack that started Israel's siege and oppression of Gaza that predictably drew the severe backlash that it did, hence the eternal cycle of war in the middle east.
There are innocents in this world, and some of them do live in Gaza, because they have not had a chance yet to do anything to perpetuate this eternal war, but people like you are standing by to help guide them onto the path.
Personally, if I was in such an environment as you have described, with a child, I would have done everything possible to get the heck out of there, unless of course I was invested in either 'holy land' issues or 'homeland' issues or Righteous anger issues... that overrode my concern for my children.
Your one sided hate gives you away. Personally I hate both sides, and I hate people who choose to be victims, and I hate rapists and mass butchery that I know you will justify as payback for past wrongs. It is wrong when Israel does it, and it was wrong when Hamas did it and it was wrong when civilians chose to protect / shield Hamas and the hostages of Hamas from discovery. But I admit, my hate is a very mild thing compared to your righteous hatred. I am glad I do not burn with your passion, perhaps because I have not shared your personal pain. I assume you have suffered to come by this much passion and I am sorry you experienced that. Just imagine all the Israelis who suffered directly or indirectly when Hamas attacked with all their pent up passion that fateful day, and how many of those Israelis will carry that passion forward...
I have wasted way too much time responding to what you generously call your 'arguments' already.
Since your suggestion that they should all just get along might not work, and your idea to move Israel to Nevada might only work in your imagination, again, how should the people of the West Bank and Gaza be 'fair' and 'play by 'the rules'?..and n,again, obviously, this isn't about the last two years, its generations, in the West Bank where Hamas is not in power and never was...in the Occupied Territories since decades before Hamas existed.
Respond, or don't I don't care really. I'm done responding to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
Corporations are complicit in the regime's internal colonization. An example:
Chicagoans have begun using whistles as a tactic of resistance and self-protection. When ICE goons are seen in a neighborhood, passersby use their whistles to draw attention to the operation and to warn vulnerable people to stay away. Hearing about this, my household went online to buy whistles so we would be prepared. Tried to purchase from Amazon and got through the ordering process up to the "delivery" screen. Then the transaction was canceled with this message: CANNOT DELIVER TO YOUR ZIP CODE. Next, we tried Dick's Sporting Goods, same result.
We finally bought our whistles at an Army-Navy surplus store. Ironic, doncha think?
The connections you're making here, between foreign and domestic policy, are so crucial. I've been an amateur student of the Arab world all my adult life, with a focus on the period from World War I to the present, and this rings very true. And the common denominator between foreign and domestic policies is white people suppressing people of color.
Trump: “Negroes and libs and wimmins, oh my!”
Dangerously deranged, but nothing is being done about it.
We keep being so afraid to be violent, but that is because we are afraid of giving him a 'valid excuse' to impose martial law.
However, what Trump is doing is deliberately provoking and if we continue to just let him do it, relying on the courts to rein him in, remember what this current SCOTUS is letting him do. It is allowing Trump to use racial profiling by ICE, it is allowing Trump to fire people that the LAW says he cannot. At what point do we say SCOTUS has gone too far... Trump has gone too far, and just say NO with all of our police and all of our National Guard - warned about the consequences of following illegal orders and utilizing the large resources of our larger states to stand up and just obstruct or even arrest criminal actions by federalized agents.
ICE who do not present valid identification should be arrested for impersonating an officer. If ICE grabs someone, without due process and without proper identification, they should be arrested for kidnapping and placed in jail. Our state courts should demand proper paperwork and identification, and not just some federal officials word for it. This Federal Government has proven it does not have any legal credibility anymore. Let it be the police who enforce the laws of the state and stand guard over our cities. Let Trump prove FIRST in court his claims that such intervention is necessary (good luck with that) because there is no clear 'emergency' requiring immediate intervention, such as after a natural disaster.
Until we stand up with our official response to an illegal action by the Federal government we are simply inviting Trump to keep taking step after step and either relying on the courts reluctance to force it's will on this criminal Executive branch, or SCOTUS actively enabling clearly criminal acts.
Trump is a classic bully, and a coward as such are, but he is discovering there really is no limit on what he can do, until we show him otherwise.
With an official state response with a clear legal foundation and enforcement of it's laws (even if it has to pass new laws to do it) it will not look like 'riots in the street'. Conservative media will of course paint it like secession, but with no violence and business as usual that will be hard to keep selling. Especially if the violence comes from ICE or other federal agents.
I am in Chicago right now. I wrote this piece two days ago, about Trump threatening my home town.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/live-from-chicago?r=f0qfn
I don't disagree that the crime rate is too high. Really my beef is with the gun industry and Republican policies that keep guns in the hands of people and courts that override Illinois choosing to have gun control.
Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson have said they would welcome real help from Trump, like funding programs that we know work to make crime rates go down. Also, social policies that are less likely to drive people to crime. Think if Trump were to actually do some of the populist things that he pretended to stand for. Perhaps we would lower our homelessness, and hunger rates. That would be great! But he is doing the opposite, and does it with relish. He does not like anyone except in a transactional way, is a rabid White Supremacist and pedophile, and does not have one likable quality at all.