I applaud her analysis and agree with much of it, though I think the optimism is premature. Let’s see what happens today. Let’s see what happens in the coming days on the streets of Minneapolis. Let’s see what happens in Congress with funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
A Signal Achievement
As Rachel emphasizes, Democratic pushback will be responsible for whatever good comes out of this disaster. That said, be it remembered that the Stephen Miller/Kristi Noem/Kash Patel/Greg Bongino team’s clusterfuck represents a signal achievement on their part—and a big reason why things are looking up today.
The progressives are riled up.
Lots of ordinary people are riled up.
Not only that: big business is riled up.
With big business riled up, the Republican empty suit politicians are beginning to speak up.
Even the Second Amendment wingnuts are fit to be tied, because of the suggestion that folks lawfully carrying a firearm deserve to be mowed down with impunity.
One of the early morning talking heads pointed out that, with Homan in Minneapolis allegedly reporting directly to Trump—thus, allegedly, bypassing and cutting the Miller/Noem gang—“Trump will personally own whatever happens next in Minneapolis.”
That sounds right. And I would add this: to get out of this mess with some dignity, Trump would need to be a Washington or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt.
Trump is not a Washington or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt. Instead, Trump is best compared to Jubilation T. Cornpone.
For additional insight, check out the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board today, which is shitting in its pants because the clownish but lethal brutality in Minnesota is hurting Republicans.
At least, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has its priorities straight.
The N.Y. Times piece is an excellent source of insight for those who need perspective on the events of the last few days. You probably want to read it for yourself; I’m not going to try to summarize it. But I will say this about that.
They’re Not Killing Nearly Enough People
So, here’s the deal. If you’re an authoritarian regime, you can put down opposition with brutal force—provided you can command enough state power (in other words, provided your own police and army don’t turn on you) and provided you are prepared to use enough brutality on your own population.
The Iranian tyrants just gave us an object lesson. So did the Chinese Communist Party in Tiananmen Square back in 1989.
But if you kill just a few people, you don’t terrorize the population. Instead you just royally piss off the general public. And you create martyrs, which is very helpful to your opposition. Case in point: the Boston Massacre of 1770. Other examples include the Peterloo Massacre in England in 1819, Bloody Sunday in Russia in 1905, South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, and the events at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma back in 1965.
They Have No Coherent Story and No Coherent Plan
Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem hired a bunch of White supremacist thugs and told them they enjoyed absolute immunity for whatever they might choose to do.
Just what the hell did they think was going to happen?
Then, when it happened, as inevitably it would happen, did Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem actually proclaim to the public that they were trying to impose authoritarian terror?
No, siree, they did not say that. What they said was that the public must disbelieve the evidence from the dozens of iPhones that were taking movies from all directions.
Then, on Sunday, when Miller and Noem couldn’t even get Orange Mussolini to endorse their lies, the official story changed to: He was carrying a gun, therefore it was OK to execute him in cold blood. A massively stupid response, on multiple grounds. And one that was particularly offensive to the National Rifle Association.
Yesterday, in broad daylight, Alex Pretti was executed.
Let’s be clear. What killed this poor man was not law enforcement. It was lawlessness.
The problem is not whether or how Alex Pretti complied with the law.
The problem is that federal agents, sent to sow chaos, are out of compliance with our Constitution.
Are out of compliance with the scope of their role. And are out of compliance with principles of public safety.
So, the question I’m asking is why don’t these agents comply with the law?
Any narrative that suggests that Alex Pretti was anything other than innocent is pure fabrication. The Administration is lying. But you can trust your friends. You can believe your own eyes.
What happened is horrifying. And, of course, it’s not new. This country has a long memory of Jim Crow terror, night patrols, and violence carried out with the blessing—or the silence—of those in power.
Still, many of good conscience this weekend are rightly feeling heartbroken, furious, helpless, and confused.
If you are scared, that makes sense.
If you are angry, you have a right to be.
If you are not sure what to do next, you are not alone.
I’m deeply grateful for, and inspired by, UUCA Associate Minister Rev. EN Hill, who stood in the cold in Minneapolis this past week, alongside hundreds of clergy, representing the body of holy love in the streets. Church people know simple, ancient good things–like that showing up matters. Especially when so much is at risk and the stakes are so high.
We are now in a moment when political violence is being normalized. When cruelty is defended as order. When fear is being weaponized in American streets. Today, it is Minneapolis. Tomorrow, it could be Atlanta. That is sobering to say out loud. It is also necessary.
I do not know what the future holds. I do not know how all of this will unfold. I do not yet know what UUCA will be asked to risk, or where solidarity will require us to stand. I do not know what our most vulnerable neighbors will need, or how they will call on us for protection and partnership.
But here is what I do know.
UUCA is not a bystander congregation.
UUCA is not a silent congregation.
And UUCA is held and fueled by a Love that our Universalist ancestors claimed never quit and left nobody out!
UUCA, you are powerful beyond measure—because of your history, your relationships, your commitments, and your hard-won wisdom. You have not been caught off-guard. You have been watching. You’ve been strengthening networks and joining Signal groups. You’ve been weaving strategic ties across difference. You have been preparing.
And you are not alone. You have neighbors. Partners. Shoulder-to-shoulder companions.
With strong UUCA Board leadership, with long-time movement veterans among you, with the boundlessly deep resource of music and joy, with Rev. EN’s steady courage, and with Rev. Taryn returning next week, this congregation is well-resourced—not only spiritually, but strategically.
We are a people of tenacious hope. Of stubborn, resilient love. We won’t back down. Nor will we be hardened or embittered or cornered. We will sing. We will rest. We will rise.
Let me say this, my sibling Unitarian Universalists: this engagement, ahead of us, is going to cost something. It may cost comfort. It may cost convenience. It may cost reputation. It may cost time and money and the illusion that someone else will handle it.
And still, we are called.
Some of you will offer care and compassion.
Some will show up on front lines.
Some will make sure things at home are steady and strong so others can do what they need to do on the streets.
All of it matters.
In the coming days, there will be opportunities to gather, to pray, to listen, and to discern concrete next steps together. Watch for those invitations. Bring your whole self. Feel it all.
Thank you for the discernment you are already doing about the part you will play.
Thank you for the preparation you are undertaking for UUCA to be a force for the Beloved Community—not in abstraction or in theory, but in neighborhoods, households, and in real lives.
Gratefully, mournfully, and with resolve,
Rev. Jake Morrill Senior Sabbatical Minister UU Congregation of Atlanta
“Not the Battle of Lexington or Bunker Hill, not the surrender of Burgoyne or Cornwallis, were more important events in American history than the battle of King Street on the 5th of March, 1770,” said John Adams.
The soldiers were obviously acting in self-defense, and it will all blow over soon, said the British command occupying Boston.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote the philosopher George Santayana.
Trump and his goons cannot remember the past, because they never knew history in the first place. But they are bloody well condemned to repeat it.
I thought the heavy hitters on Morning Joe today were hitting pretty heavily about Trump’s bully boy tactics to try to steal Greenland.
A military invasion might conceivably generate some adverse congressional response. Alternatively, Orange Mussolini can try emasculating NATO by withholding essential military parts, intelligence cooperation, etc. But, first, he will apparently try economic aggression and threats of aggression.
As a Daily Kos article (relying heavily on Le Monde) informs us, there are a host of way in which European countries, individually and collectively, can stick it to the United States.
A glance at the Wall Street Journal this afternoon shows that Big Finance is pissed, bigly. As of the 3PM hour, World Time, the Dow is down 800 points.
Isn’t it inspiring to see Daily Kos and the Wall Street Journal singing from the same hymnal?
One way to read the occupation of Minnesota is as a flex — a demonstration of the government’s power and authority. That, perhaps, is how Miller and Kristi Noem see the situation. I smell, on the other hand, a stench of desperation, an attempt to do with force what they can’t accomplish through ordinary politics. Faced with an angry public but committed to a rigid agenda of nativist brutality, the president and his coterie of ideologues are playing the only move they seem to have: wanton violence and threats of further escalation. They thinkthis will break their opposition.
But looking at the ironclad resolve of ordinary Minnesotans to protect their homes and defend their neighbors, I think the administration is more likely to break ontheir opposition and learn, as the British did in Boston, that Americans are quite jealous of their liberties.
This follows up on the immediately preceding post. Some comments below.
1. What one key thing explains the rise of Trump? It’s a great question. I’ve been asking it for a decade, and so, very probably, have you.
In my opinion, this onion has a whole lot of layers, but if you’re looking to identify the essence of the matter, I think MacWilliams—he’s a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts—has as good an insight as any: (a) Always and everywhere, there are a goodly number of people with authoritarian tendencies. (b) Trump found a way to trigger these folks’ natural inclination toward authoritarianism. (c) The triggering process was greatly facilitated by the rise of the internet and of social media.
2. Some more layers to the onion, you said? Yes, I did say that. Here are some of them:
Point: with the rise of social media, a whole lot of our fellow citizens have detected a permission structure to joyfully embrace their inner asshole. One of these ways, but only one, is saying hello to the Nazi side of their personality.
Point: although I don’t believe either Goldberg or MacWilliams mentions racism by name, I think a large part of Trump’s attractiveness is the fact that he is both a stone cold racist and a wealthy celebrity. It gratifies his unwashed followers that a person of such wealth and celebrity will openly share their racism.
Point: I strongly suspect that, when a definitive history of our era is available, we’ll find it wasn’t just underlying racism, it wasn’t just the malign ability of one man to appear charismatic, and it wasn’t just the rise of social media as such. I think we’re going to find there was a whole lot of conscious, clever, compensated manipulation of social media by intelligent people in the pay of some of our economic overlords.
3. Always look on the bright side of life. Trump is not Machiavelli. His fundamental problem is that he believes a lot of his own bullshit—not all of it, but a whole lot of it, and a lot of it that is relevant to pursuing his fascist agenda. In consequence, he is forever misunderstanding key facts about the politico-economic environment. He lacks, moreover, the ability to gather, evaluate, and apply important information. He regularly fails to predict how key actors will respond to his lies, his bluster, his threats, and his bullshit. And when people do not respond as he might wish, his severely limited skill set handicaps him in reacting to an unfavorable situation. He cannot, for example, construct a rational argument or distinguish between a plausible lie and an implausible lie.
4. A lot of people think that things have changed in the past month. Are they right? Yes, I certainly think so. Michelle Goldberg identifies some key factors, and I agree with her.
Trump dimly perceives (a) that L’Affaire Epstein is a serious challenge to his continued popularity among the one third of the country who are his core supporters, and (b) that his standing with his own people is further threatened by the economic chaos caused by his policies on tariffs and immigration.
In response, Trump is trying both to appease and to distract the worst of his own supporters with military aggression, domestic and foreign. Because if the worst of the worst desert him, who will he have left?
5. What is the best advice for decent progressives? When your adversary is screwing himself, hold his beer, and let him get on with it.
We must oppose fascist aggression. And we must be mindful that Trump’s gross incompetence is helping him to dig his own political grave.
Facing MAGA 