THIS IS FASCISM

Pompeo, Barr  and acting Homeland Security Director, Chad Wolf, have made their play and tipped their hand by invading Portland with an occupying military force. Don’t think that home-office fascist, Stephen Miller isn’t part of this step-wise assault on civil rights and violation of civic order. Meanwhile, Drumpf is in Lala-Land; ignoring the pandemic and focusing on water pressure in dish-washers.(!?)

If you are unfamiliar with the unwanted and unwarranted para-military occupation of Portland, I strongly recommend that you do some reading. It smacks of Gestapo and  East German Stasi tactics of terror and civil rights violations when , during the night, people are abducted without due process in unmarked vans. Think what you will of the protestors in Portland; they have the Constitutionally guaranteed and protected right to assemble peaceably and demand redress of grievances from their government. That is clear. That is certain. That is not to be questioned or denied them.

What the Drumpf administration is doing is also within legal limits as far as the deployment of federal officers to protect federal property - OUR property. What is not within legal limits is the abduction of protestors and the clearly  unlawful confinement of those protestors.

This is the stuff of fascism. This is the stuff of totalitarian states. This is the stuff of nightmare. This is not the stuff of the Constitution. It is a page from ‘Man in the High Castle’. It is a page from the authoritarian playbook. If this sounds like ‘hair-on-fire’ rhetoric, so be it.  Sometimes, such fiery rhetoric is necessary. This is one of those times.

One can easily perceive an on-going plan being revealed by the action first in Lafayette Park in DC when the peaceful protestors were cleared by violently aggressive tactics. The natural extension of that is the violent occupation of Portland; an occupation that is so unwelcomed by the Governor of Oregon and the mayor of Portland that the state’s Attorney General has sued the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Protection Services  for violating the civil rights of its citizens.

I contend that these para-military actions are only one prong of this strategy. The other is the on-going, worsening pandemic in the USA. State terror must be built upon another more palpable terror; famine, war, economic depression. In this case, that foundation of fear is pandemic.

COVID-19 is a killer, of that there is no doubt. However, except for a couple exceptions- outliers- the pandemic has been quelled and controlled. The nations of Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere have managed, if not mastered, COVID-19.

The USA and Brazil have not.

Moreover, the tepid, ineffectual response by the White House has exacerbated an already dire situation. Drumpf continues to harp on the utterly preposterous concept that testing creates infection! This theory s not just ignorant it is insane and devoid of any rational basis in fact or understanding of cause/effect. He also further refuses to direct the nation to wear masks under the feeble guise of ‘personal freedom’. Again; this is an utterly preposterous proposition; tantamount to allowing fire-building during fire season. All the while Americans are dying and falling chronically ill.

In contrast, Australia enacted a shut-down of its most populace states when 200 new cases of infection were discovered. India has responded in similar manner to a new outbreak. The People’s Republic of China did the same thing when a resurgence of infection was found. These nations understand that medical science must determine policy, not - as in the USA - magical thinking and denial of the problem. 

The USA is a disaster area; 70,000 new cases. 142,000  dead. Nearly a thousand news deaths every day and many, many more are expected in the coming months when ‘flu season’ starts in earnest. There is no end in sight to this fearful calamity in the USA. President Drumpf has washed his hands of the problem and moved on; as if tens of thousands of citizens were not dying; as if ICU beds were not filled to capacity and the health care services were not over-extended and doctors, nurses and health care professionals were not at rope’s end.

The fear of the pandemic is pervasive. Even in quarters when its morbid virulence is denied; where there is an obstinate, belligerent delusion that the virus can be challenged and stared down by refusing to wear face-covering and maintain social distancing.  It is, rather, false bravado of teeth-baring that succumbs to the infection despite the obnoxious displays of misguided merriment. The denial of the fear does not announce an absence of fear. the fear is not simply of the virus but of the loss of control.

This is the fear upon which Drumpf’s Gestapo tactics are built.

This is the underlying fear which preceded unidentified federal forces as they swooped into Lafayette Park and into the city of Portland to capitalize on that fear. These are fascist tactics. The tactics of authoritarian states. The tactics of dictators; dictators such as Bolsonaro of Brazil, Xi of China, Erdogan of Turkey, Duterte of the Philippines and Kim Jong-un, who sent Drumpf such beautiful letters of bromance and manly affection. Drumpf has voiced his admiration of all of these despotic monsters.

The nation must stand against these ruthless, violent tactics. The USA must not abide such tactics. The American people must not condone nor accept such tactics any more than they would accept the dictatorial rule of Bolsonaro or Stalin.