What a year these last few days have been. We all got to watch the feds beat and then execute a man in the street, followed closely by the snowmaggedon that wasn't, which still managed to close things down and freeze time in addition to the precipitation.
Wound up with half a foot of snow and a bit of ice, and as an added bonus, a lingering, bitter cold that's put the wind chill in the negative territory. Wandering around shooting in this has given me a newfound appreciation for the keffiyeh.
When the regime doubled down, blaming Alex Pretti for his own murder and obstructing any semblance of accountability, it gave this whole country a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. Then it collectively said 'Oh fuck no!' Seen where veterans are starting to organize trainings for community defense groups, there's a general strike called for Friday and Minneapolis is bloodied but unbowed. Hell, even the 2nd Amendment types are up in arms over it.
The regime has since made a show of backing down marginally, but the damage has been done. Have mentioned before the Cesar Chavez quote, "You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore," and it seems we've reached that point. Just grim determination and a sense that it's use it or lose it time.
With all that happening, it's a bit of a complete mindfuck that by and large, life goes on as it always does. Or as much as it does when a snowstorm hits. At the same time, there's something reassuring about trudging down to the park and seeing folks out and about, enjoying themselves and having fun in the snow.
Life goes on, might as well enjoy it.
This sure has winnowed the wheat from the chaff in the "2A" community. Even the NRA managed to be on the right side about the right to carry without being treated as a terrorist by the feds, but so many others parrot about obedience. I hereby revoke their Gadsden Flag privileges.
Man, the NRA were talking out both sides of their mouth, blaming local officials in one post and pushing back about the right to carry in another. It really has helped sort things out though. When you make that stick I'll stop referring to it as the bootlicker flag.
I've seen pickups with both Gadsden and the Thin Blue Line flying from the roll bars. Who do they think does the treading?
As I wrote in a recent post, "There is no law so trivial that government goons won't kill you to enforce it, and no overreach so egregious that bootlickers won't blame the victim for police abuse."
My childhood was shaped by the social upheavals that brought about the demise of the apartheid state, I was 25 in 1994 and yes, life does go on but so should the pressure against state oppression. It takes a lot to dislodge them
That had to be quite the formative experience. My childhood was centered around that decade or so lull between the end of the Cold War and 9/11, was in high school when the planes hit and it's all been going to shit ever since. Did the demise of the apartheid state have simultaneously fast and slow time warp going on, intense and happening at a snail's pace? My worry is that some are going to holler "We won" and go home, but by and large that doesn't seem to be happening. There's a quote that I don't normally trot out because of watchlists and whatnot but:
Feels like things have shifted gears here, that it's use it or lose it time and there can be no backing down.
It's absolutely use it or lose it time. The USA needs better rulers and politicians across the board and major social reform - this is your main fight.
There's a reason Trump was able to tap into working class discontent and the lack of education and critical thinking in the USA was legendary since the 1980s. If social media has taught me one thing, it's the difference between the public portrayal of your country and the lived experience of ordinary people. USA is truly an awful place for the common man. How is it legal to live in your car? Healthcare costs atrocious, student debt that will haunt you for the rest of your life... As someone from the former Yugoslavia once said to me:
Getting rid of tyranny here was a complex process and the larger geopolitics of the end of the cold war played a role and our international isolation was pivotal, especially the loss of support from the USA. The nationalists here bankrupting the country fighting a bush war as a US cold war proxy was a huge factor: they negotiated because we were on the brink of collapse.
Curiously enough, your Trump seems to be orchestrating that isolation process himself. It's also fortunate that the buffoons that he has surrounded himself with and put in power can't outlast him, even in the eyes of his base. That's a feature of despots: there is always a cult of personality and a succession problem.
Over here, public protest exploded in the mid 80's and constant declarations of states of emergency and police brutality did nothing to suppress it and from there it was about 10 extremely intense years, things actually got worse once negotiations commenced in 1990 as the apartheid state ramped up its covert war through proxies while officially taking the line that state repression was over. We almost didn't make it through the 90s and this is the main danger that you will face at home. ICE is a manifestation of that
It felt like we were inching towards that in 2020, then most folks just went home and went back to pretending we were back to 'normal'.
It's like the Democrats gave up on the working class in the 90s, ceded the rural areas to the GOP just as they were doubling down on the religion and tacking hard to the right. The public portrayal of this country is like the American Dream, as George Carlin said, "you gotta be asleep to believe it." For millennials like me, we got to watch three thousand people die on live TV in middle/high school, and then nothing ever got better. I think it's telling that both Good and Pretti were millennials, there's a generational rage there that's only just beginning to find expression.
Amen. Pretty sure that's the story of this country in one sentence. Lol, if there's any consolation in all that's happening, it's that the regime is going at this in a fashion that is almost guaranteed to make sure it isn't enduring. If it didn't have a succession problem it would have a coup problem.
Was telling my partner about what you said last night, 10 years seems like a long time for that kind of intensity, but at the same time it tracks with much of the resistance struggles I've studied, also about how long it this place to throw off the British yoke. In 2020, it was slightly reassuring that there wasn't really much in the way of organized paramilitaries for the regime to call upon to repress people, but now we've got the secret police nobody asked for...
Although your villains are cartoonish in many ways, it won't be easy to get rid of them. I can't see them allowing midterms, they are now even more in the position of needing to stay in power to stay out of jail. It will actually take decades to undo the damage
Oh yeah, I'm just thankful they're not more competent. Midterms will be the Rubicon, no? Honestly, I think they're more likely to go the rigging route than outright not having them, that'd be too easy of a point to rally resistance around. This country still managed elections amidst a civil war, world wars, and pandemics, so any attempt to justify canceling midterms is going to ring hollow, and besides, there's such a long history of voter suppression here for them to lean on. Decades, or longer, which seems all too appropriate coming on the 250th anniversary of this country.
Voter suppression and rigging will be the chosen route. That's how the Afrikaner nationalists came to power here: voting was gerrymandered until the rural vote carried more weight than the city vote
Those are great scenes; it's a bit of humanity, having fun and the harshness of winter, but in the end people enjoy that season.
Thank you :) Gotta have a little fun, even if it feels like it's -20C.