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.
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