This is Democracy in Action
Here’s Rachel from last night:
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.
Thank you, Miller, Noem, Patel, Bongino. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
“Trump Will Own This Now”
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.
“We Are Creating the Conditions for a Catastrophe”
N.Y. Times, ‘We Are Creating the Conditions for a Catastrophe’: Three Columnists on Minneapolis. (Also available here.)
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.
Today, there are widespread reports that Trump is planning to TACO. See, for example, Politico, White House reckons with GOP backlash after federal agents kill a second person in Minneapolis.
Facing MAGA 