A New Book Warns of Our ‘Neo-Feudal’ Future Reply

by • Economics/Class Relations • Tags:

It’s interesting how class divisions in the US have become so wide that even the right-wing has started to pay attention, which was previously unheard of in the US. Trump got elected on an anti-neoliberal platform. Tucker Carlson often sounds like Bernie Sanders or even Noam Chomsky in his anti-capitalism. Many on the Alt-Right have become Nazbols. And now neocons are starting to promote Joel Kotkin.

By John Loftus

National Review

As recent events show, the elites simply don’t play by the same rules as the rest of the country. Joel Kotkin’s new book explores why — and offers a way out. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE F or weeks on end, Americans were told to stay indoors. And for weeks on end, Americans listened (for the most part).

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Always at War with East Asia Reply

by • Uncategorized
“Another National Defense Authorization Act, another distraction. The media and politicians are going on and on about Confederate names and Republicans stripping a requirement to report foreign election assistance (bc it did so much to keep human rights abusing governments from influencing US dEmOcRaCy 🥴🤫). Meanwhile, the bill throws more hundreds of billions at the empire and continues to assert the state’s right to indefinitely detain you without trial. We’ve always been at war with East Asia, nothing to see here but establishment partisan theatrics.” -Carey Wedler

Anti-eviction protests ends with arrests, window smashed at downtown Richmond courthouse Reply

by • Economics/Class Relations, Law/Justice

Nice work. A small gesture, but every little bit counts.

BY C. SUAREZ ROJAS Richmond Times-Dispatch

An anti-eviction rally and protest march ended with arrests and a smashed window at the John Marshall Courthouse in downtown Richmond on Wednesday.

Following the rally at the courthouse plaza and a march that passed city hall and the governor’s mansion, approximately 100 demonstrators returned to the courthouse. Tensions escalated as sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrested several people who had entered the building, according to witnesses. A courthouse window was smashed moments later. The crowd then dispersed as more law enforcement arrived on the scene.

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St. Louis man who went viral defending his property speaks out on ‘Tucker’ 1

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Fourth Generation Warfare, Left and Right, Military, Strategy

If opinion leaders, activists, “radicals,” BLMs, etc. are wise they will outspokenly oppose the criminal prosecution of these two. The last thing that needs to happen is for public support for repression to increase, for inter-tribal warfare to escalate, or for Red State/conservative middle-class Falangists to emerge. The Left and/or minorities will not win a civil war. Forty percent of the US armed forces are Southern working-class whites, who are heavily concentrated in combat divisions. Many others are white ethnics from the North. The conservative middle-class sectors only want order, and the liberal sectors of the middle-class (of any color) are not going to sacrifice their class interests to any significant degree, regardless of how “woke” they claim to be or think they are. While the lumpenproletariat is the natural vanguard class of an anarchist revolution, they are driven by egoism, not spartan military discipline. Think tactically, folks.

America’s decline: More like Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome? 1

by • American Decline, History and Historiography • Tags:

It’s important to remember that the modern American Empire is really just an extension of the British Empire, only the capital was moved from London to Washington. I’d argue (in fact, I think it’s indisputable) that the Anglo-American (Atlanticist) Empire is simply the Roman (Mediterranean) Empire of the Christian and post-Christian era. Conventional historians typically argue Rome began with the period of Etruscan dominance around 900 BC, that the Roman monarchy began around 753 B.C., that the Roman Republic began around 509 B.C., that the actual Roman Empire began between Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon in 44 B.C and 27 B.C. with the rise of his son Octavian as the absolute dictator of Rome.

I’d argue the Norman Conquest of what is now England in 1066 A.D. is comparable to the beginning of the Etruscan Period. The period between the Magna Carta and the Hundred Years War is comparable to the rise of the Roman monarchy. The Cromwellian Revolution is comparable to the rise of the Roman Republic. And the emergence of the US as a unipolar global hegemon in the post-WW2 era is comparable to the beginning of the Roman Empire.

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Will the Neocons Bait, Turn, Switch, and Purge the Antifa/SJWs While Suppressing the Lumpenproletariat? 1

by • Anarchism/Anti-State, Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Economics/Class Relations, Electoralism/Democratism, Fourth Generation Warfare, History and Historiography, Left and Right, Police State/Civil Liberties, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

This is important stuff.

I recently put a couple of questions concerning current events to a well-known intellectual historian, a Jewish man whose parents fled Hungary during the rise of Hitler, and who is a specialist in the history of 20th-century totalitarian movements.  His responses confirmed my suspicion that both the bizarre de facto alliance of the far-left, liberals, neocons, and Bush Republicans which has emerged in opposition to the Trumpists, and the seeming acquiescence of the state to both the iconoclasm spree of the far left and the lumpenproletarian insurrection, represents efforts by the capitalist class, the new clerisy, and the Deep State to weaponize both the far left and the insurrectionists against the Trumpists, subsequently purging or co-opting both, while restoring neocon dominance of the military-industrial-intelligence complex. In other words, it’s all about putting the neocons back in charge of US foreign policy. Remember that the neocons started out as Trots, and this is exactly how Bolshies do things.

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A Practical Solution: Run Police Departments Like Fire Departments Reply

by • Uncategorized

This is probably the best idea for reducing police brutality/unnecessary killings, along with police state intrusions generally. Some libertarians/ancaps suggest replacing public police with private police. They have that in some areas of Latin America, and police are merely mercenaries for the rich (kind of like our public police). Some left-anarchists and other leftists have suggested glorified neighborhood watches, but that was what led to the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman situation. It seems the “fire department model” would be best for any kind of policing, whether public, private or volunteer/non-profit. The main argument against what is being proposed in this article would be the issue of crime prevention. If there are no police patrols, and home invasion robbers know they won’t get caught until the police are called and arrive at the scene, they may become bolder. Although there have been home invasion robberies in my area even with both municipal and campus police everywhere so maybe it doesn’t matter. Also, conventional police responses need to be limited to conventional crimes (like armed robberies, burglaries, and homicides). It would be better if there were domestic violence squads, mental health squads, and overdose squads that were sent to deal with these kinds of situations, and which would be more like EMTs in the sense of being specifically trained to deal with crisis situations that don’t involve conventional criminal activity but are rooted in crisis situations involving physical or mental health. If necessary, armed security people could be present in such situations, but they would be subordinate to the trained professionals on the scene.

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Want to reform America’s police? Look to firefighters Reply

by • Police State/Civil Liberties

Well, as far as I know, there are no songs called “Fuck the Fire Department.”

By Roscoe Scarborough

The Conversation

Freddie Gray. Eric Garner. Michael Brown.

The deaths of black youth and men at the hands of police have sparked a nationwide conversation on discriminatory policing practices.

Media and the public often look to psychological explanations for discriminatory behavior, such as obvious prejudices and implicit biases.

However, in my view as a sociologist, policymakers and organizational leaders should focus less on the psychology of public servants and more on institutional culture.

From 2012 to 2015, I served as a volunteer firefighter in a busy suburban department to understand how fire service organizations recruit and retain volunteers. Through my research project, I wanted to learn why people risk their lives, spend time away from loved ones and forego paid employment to serve their community.

But I learned much more about how a strong institutional culture can suppress individual dispositions, including prejudice. Firefighting culture may provide a model for reforming law enforcement.

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The End of Policing Reply

by • Law/Justice, Police State/Civil Liberties • Tags:

Alex Vitale’s book is probably the most comprehensive scholarly work on this topic at present. Thanks to Vince for the summary.

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– The origin of policing as a control mechanism for the upper class and rich to suppress the lower class and minorities. Strike breaking, enforcement of racial segregation, and punishment of supposedly immoral but non criminal behavior.
– The disaster that is the War on Drugs, which was originally conceived to control and suppress racial groups and political opponents. The War on Drugs does almost nothing to actually limit the availability of drugs or even deter drug addiction and instead its enforcement represents a massive threat to civil and human rights.
– The misguided use of police to solve social problems that they simply are note equipped to handle. Homelessness is a social problem, yet homelessness is essentially criminalized throughout the US. Portland police, for instance, spend most of their day attempting to address (while armed) the social, mental, and material needs of our exploding homeless population.

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“Why’d they have to end her life?”: Friends of Hannah Fizer look for answers, justice Reply

by • Police State/Civil Liberties • Tags:

This woman was shot by a cop who lied and claimed she had a gun when she didn’t. It’s also important to note that this was a white woman in a rural midwestern town. The police state is the enemy of everyone.

By Emily Walton

Friends, acquaintances and concerned citizens gathered outside of the Pettis County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Sedalia Tuesday evening to protest the death of a Sedalia woman who was shot and killed by a deputy Saturday evening.

According to her obituary, Fizer was born in Sedalia and graduated from Marshall High School in 2014 where she was an active FFA member. She worked at various convenience stores in Sedalia and enjoyed walking, car rides, Chinese food, her family, tattoos, shoes, swimming and hanging out with friends.

“She was 140 pounds,” said attendee Tracie Karigan who knew Fizer. “She wasn’t doing anything, she was going to work. Why’d they have to end her life? They don’t have that right, they’re not God.”

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Craig Johnson: Oklahoma police officer dies after traffic stop shooting Reply

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies

I haven’t been able to determine what this shooting was about, but the best way to prevent killings of either civilians or cops is to simply end traffic stops unless they are absolutely necessary, i.e. a clear and present danger to the safety of others is immediately present such as a visibly drunk or otherwise seriously reckless driver. And the way those stops are conducted needs to be changed as well.

By Theresa Waldrop and Janine Mack
CNN
A Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer has died and another is in critical condition after they were shot during a traffic stop early Monday, police said. A suspect has been arrested.
Sgt. Craig Johnson died Tuesday, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said at a news conference.

David Ware, 32, was arrested Monday in the shooting and faces a first-degree murder charge and two other felony charges, shooting with intent to kill and possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony, according to an online court record from the Oklahoma State Courts Network.

A man accused of being an accomplice to Ware was also arrested Monday and faces charges of accessory to murder and accessory to a felony, to the online court site.

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What’s Going on in CHAZ, the Seattle Autonomous Zone? 1

by • Uncategorized • Tags: ,

By Bridget Read

The Cut

What is CHAZ? Your ex? Some sort of masked EDM DJ? One of the trolls in Trolls World Tour?

CHAZ may be all of these, but it is also the acronym for the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” an area of about six blocks in Seattle ceded to protesters demanding justice for George Floyd after several tense nights of standoffs with police in early June. (Some residents subsequently pushed for a rebrand from CHAZ to “CHOP,” the Capitol Hill Organized Protest.) In the absence of law enforcement, a kind of commune sprang up — which quickly became a nightmare bogeyman for conservatives, including the president. They seem to think CHAZ is the first “territory” “claimed” by antifa radicals (antifa, which is not a formal organization, has not claimed any responsibility for CHAZ), “Mad Max movie mayhem come to life” (it has actually been described as “extremely chill”), and run by a group of “domestic terrorists” whose “warlord” is a SoundCloud rapper (also false).

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Cops in Riot Gear Stormed a Violin Vigil for Elijah McClain 1

by • Fourth Generation Warfare

By

The Cut

On Saturday, activists in Aurora, Colorado, convened for a peaceful rally and march to demand justice for Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after a brutal arrest by local police last August. The event included a violin vigil, a nod to the fact that McClain was an accomplished violinist who was known for spending his lunch breaks putting on concerts for the cats and dogs at a community animal shelter. Footage from the event shows a group of quiet participants, most of them socially distanced, holding signs and observing as a few violinists perform at dusk — and then the arrival of a group of officers in riot gear, charging into the crowd. According to attendees, the police went on to deploy pepper spray and use physical force.

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After Police Board President praised police for their restraint, police beat him hours later. 2

by • Police State/Civil Liberties

Diaspora 7

Police Board president Ghian Foreman praised the police for their restraint at protests and for not hurting people. The police beat him a few hours later.

President of the Chicago Police Board Ghian Foreman said police beat him with a baton.

This came just hours after he praised police for their professionalism, and how much “restraint” they showed at protests. He continued on to tell the Chicago Police:

“I would not have had the same restraint that many of your officers showed last night,”

And just hours later, he said he happened to walk by a protest in which wasn’t participating, and police beat him.

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