As the old saying originally went, "First they came for the communists." We all know where it goes from there. It is a true warning, regardless of the fact that Mamdani is not a communist. That didn't stop Roy Cohn and it won't stop Trump. I am also reminded of a bit older saying, something about you have"a republic, if you can keep it." Definitely, past time to start thinking about how to keep it.
I voted for Trump to punish my liberal neighbors who make me feel stupid and for more pictures of Hunter’s hawg. Instead my mail order wife got deported and I got laid off from the dick sucking factory. MAGA my fat old ass.
It's also about intimidation and creating fear among millions of both legal immigrants and citizens, even those born in America who may have posted too freely on social media because they foolishly believed they were living in a free country. When censorship and secret algorithms fail to do the job, threats of arbitrary arrest, visa cancellation and deportation become useful.
I caught a headline in The National Review about how Mamdami is a Communist "who never should have been allowed into the country." Didn't bother to read it. This is classic Wm F Buckley Jr red-baiting stuff, and boy are they excited.
In related news, our local newspaper ran a story today about how ICE is deporting Laotian (Hmong) men who were given asylum decades ago because they helped us in our efforts to "defeat Communism" in Southeast Asia, efforts (i.e. a bloody war) that failed, of course. Hence the asylum. This particular group of deportees were children when they came to Minnesota and followed the Hmong custom of marrying at 14. This triggered arrests on charges of sexual predation. The men have long since "rehabilitated" themselves. They have "adapted" to Western culture and then some. Many support their families through vegetable farming. Many opened restaurants. They have become indispensable to our local food culture, not in the way undocumented immigrants are in places like Iowa and Kansas (and Minnesota) where they are "employed" (read enslaved) by meat packers like Cargill to do the dangerous and inhumane dirty work "no one else will do" for poverty-scale pay. The Hmong are U.S. citizens, fully self-sufficient, and are educating Americans about how food should be grown and cooked. And this is what happens to them. They get thrown out of the country, their lives destroyed not once but twice by the ruthless warmongers who run our country and always have.
In Houston, TX they rounded up a few Afghan nationals who were brought back to the US by the Army so they would be safe after having assisted the US military against the Taliban for 10 years.
The people in Trump's Photo-Op Fascist administration are truly scum as are their hypocrite supporters.
Yes, I saw that and was going to mention it but my comments are always too long! My only hope is that the American people will throw the scum out in the next election and replace the duopoly with a third party candidate. . . maybe Zohran Mamdani? The revenge of tall those Bernie/ Dean/Nader (etc.) supporters who tried through legitimate (DNC) means and were illegally (IMO) thwarted at the last minute by the global corporatists who run everything.
This charade should lay bare the hypocrisy of whatever passes for so-called “democracy” in America. This country relentlessly suppresses dissent and routinely rigs elections (not necessarily at the ballot box, but certainly through news media) to favor establishment/business friendly voices.
Zohran’s victory threatens to expose the force of the two party duopoly, which respects popular preferences and social responsibilities as much as it does international human rights, which is to say not in the least. No one should be surprised by the fact of an institutional counterattack.
That said, the routine approach here would be to coalesce behind Cuomo or Adams as an independent candidate. Their dual presence in the field would instead split the establishment vote, which may be why the right wing and its agents are resorting to targeting Zohran’s citizenship & eligibility for Office.
There are lots of ways to neutralize independent voices. I say that from experience, having endured it myself when I ran for Congress against Pelosi and won 80,000 votes in the 2020 general election.
Robert Fisk was an outstanding British journalist (RIP) who had the opportunity to talk with Osama bin Laden more than once. He quotes bin Laden in Fisk's book "The Great War for Civilization" and it is worth repeating in view of how things have gone in the US since 9/11.
Fisk writes: "I shall always remember Osama bin Laden's last words to me that night on the bare mountains, 'Mr. Robert,' he said, 'from this mountain upon which you are sitting, we broke the Russian army and we destroyed the Soviet Union. And I pray to God that he will permit us to turn the United States into a shadow of itself.' "
What is the US now under Trump if not a shadow of its former self? The irony of bin Laden's statement is that militarily his efforts have had nothing to do with where the US is today. Instead, 9/11 turned the US against itself to the point that we are now seeing Americans such as Mamdani threatened with arrest and deportation and the masked men of ICE are everywhere. "Security" has drowned the country, anxiety surrounds us all. What will Trump, who respects no law, do next? I am 74 and find the country today unrecognizable from what it was prior to 9/11.
bin Laden would smile. 9/11 got us going on ourselves.
You are right on target Ken. I don't think people appreciate how unhinged and violent the right-wing reaction to Mamdani has been. Huge, mainstream voices on the right are calling for violence. Matt Walsh openly endorsed the great replacement ranting about it. I wrote about it this week.
Sorry to plug my stuff in the comments, but I felt it was relevant to the discussion. Please y'all, support me and help me make a living. Subscribe and share.
They're throwing everything they have at Mamdani. Noem is taking time off from terrorizing immigrants to convene a brainstorming session. Sounds like they're gonna disqualify him and develop the legal case post facto. Thanks for giving us this inside look, Ken!
I'm originally Canadian, moved to the USA in the late 60s, naturalized mid 80s, noticed the worsening problems in this country and now everywhere. Exported everywhere by the USA. I've been unhappy and worried about it. But now after reading your dark reading of how it could get much, much worse, I'm very very frightened of the future. Thank you Ken for reading out our possible future. If all activists, people of good conscience and morals around the world don't get up, and stand up against the fear I think we will be sunk!
Boomers yelling "Better Dead Than Red" to other Boomers. Yeah, I don't see that one working on anyone who's already on board with Mamdani. But I'm with you that the deportation talk is not to be dismissed as Trump being Trump. Damn this timeline is shit.
As the old saying originally went, "First they came for the communists." We all know where it goes from there. It is a true warning, regardless of the fact that Mamdani is not a communist. That didn't stop Roy Cohn and it won't stop Trump. I am also reminded of a bit older saying, something about you have"a republic, if you can keep it." Definitely, past time to start thinking about how to keep it.
Thanks for this important article, Ken.
glad you found it helpful, Joy!
I voted for Trump to punish my liberal neighbors who make me feel stupid and for more pictures of Hunter’s hawg. Instead my mail order wife got deported and I got laid off from the dick sucking factory. MAGA my fat old ass.
sorry to hear that
If I knew extra hawg pics were an option, I wouldn’t have written in Dick Cheney.
We are #HawglessInAmerica
It's also about intimidation and creating fear among millions of both legal immigrants and citizens, even those born in America who may have posted too freely on social media because they foolishly believed they were living in a free country. When censorship and secret algorithms fail to do the job, threats of arbitrary arrest, visa cancellation and deportation become useful.
I caught a headline in The National Review about how Mamdami is a Communist "who never should have been allowed into the country." Didn't bother to read it. This is classic Wm F Buckley Jr red-baiting stuff, and boy are they excited.
In related news, our local newspaper ran a story today about how ICE is deporting Laotian (Hmong) men who were given asylum decades ago because they helped us in our efforts to "defeat Communism" in Southeast Asia, efforts (i.e. a bloody war) that failed, of course. Hence the asylum. This particular group of deportees were children when they came to Minnesota and followed the Hmong custom of marrying at 14. This triggered arrests on charges of sexual predation. The men have long since "rehabilitated" themselves. They have "adapted" to Western culture and then some. Many support their families through vegetable farming. Many opened restaurants. They have become indispensable to our local food culture, not in the way undocumented immigrants are in places like Iowa and Kansas (and Minnesota) where they are "employed" (read enslaved) by meat packers like Cargill to do the dangerous and inhumane dirty work "no one else will do" for poverty-scale pay. The Hmong are U.S. citizens, fully self-sufficient, and are educating Americans about how food should be grown and cooked. And this is what happens to them. They get thrown out of the country, their lives destroyed not once but twice by the ruthless warmongers who run our country and always have.
In Houston, TX they rounded up a few Afghan nationals who were brought back to the US by the Army so they would be safe after having assisted the US military against the Taliban for 10 years.
The people in Trump's Photo-Op Fascist administration are truly scum as are their hypocrite supporters.
Yes, I saw that and was going to mention it but my comments are always too long! My only hope is that the American people will throw the scum out in the next election and replace the duopoly with a third party candidate. . . maybe Zohran Mamdani? The revenge of tall those Bernie/ Dean/Nader (etc.) supporters who tried through legitimate (DNC) means and were illegally (IMO) thwarted at the last minute by the global corporatists who run everything.
This charade should lay bare the hypocrisy of whatever passes for so-called “democracy” in America. This country relentlessly suppresses dissent and routinely rigs elections (not necessarily at the ballot box, but certainly through news media) to favor establishment/business friendly voices.
Zohran’s victory threatens to expose the force of the two party duopoly, which respects popular preferences and social responsibilities as much as it does international human rights, which is to say not in the least. No one should be surprised by the fact of an institutional counterattack.
That said, the routine approach here would be to coalesce behind Cuomo or Adams as an independent candidate. Their dual presence in the field would instead split the establishment vote, which may be why the right wing and its agents are resorting to targeting Zohran’s citizenship & eligibility for Office.
There are lots of ways to neutralize independent voices. I say that from experience, having endured it myself when I ran for Congress against Pelosi and won 80,000 votes in the 2020 general election.
Robert Fisk was an outstanding British journalist (RIP) who had the opportunity to talk with Osama bin Laden more than once. He quotes bin Laden in Fisk's book "The Great War for Civilization" and it is worth repeating in view of how things have gone in the US since 9/11.
Fisk writes: "I shall always remember Osama bin Laden's last words to me that night on the bare mountains, 'Mr. Robert,' he said, 'from this mountain upon which you are sitting, we broke the Russian army and we destroyed the Soviet Union. And I pray to God that he will permit us to turn the United States into a shadow of itself.' "
What is the US now under Trump if not a shadow of its former self? The irony of bin Laden's statement is that militarily his efforts have had nothing to do with where the US is today. Instead, 9/11 turned the US against itself to the point that we are now seeing Americans such as Mamdani threatened with arrest and deportation and the masked men of ICE are everywhere. "Security" has drowned the country, anxiety surrounds us all. What will Trump, who respects no law, do next? I am 74 and find the country today unrecognizable from what it was prior to 9/11.
bin Laden would smile. 9/11 got us going on ourselves.
Mamdani Derangement Syndrome (MDS) rears its ugly head.
Nice to see that the right can go nuts too. Mamdani is not a communist or a terrorist. Trump is not a fascist or Hitler.
At this point I am part of the exhausted majority. Everything is catastrophized. Thank god it is a lovely summer day. Enjoy life everyone.
Except for experts in fascism disagree...
lol
Yes, we are all Albert Speer now. Best to save the infrastructure from all the fascists around us.
You are right on target Ken. I don't think people appreciate how unhinged and violent the right-wing reaction to Mamdani has been. Huge, mainstream voices on the right are calling for violence. Matt Walsh openly endorsed the great replacement ranting about it. I wrote about it this week.
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/p/the-far-rights-violent-hateful-reaction
Sorry to plug my stuff in the comments, but I felt it was relevant to the discussion. Please y'all, support me and help me make a living. Subscribe and share.
They're throwing everything they have at Mamdani. Noem is taking time off from terrorizing immigrants to convene a brainstorming session. Sounds like they're gonna disqualify him and develop the legal case post facto. Thanks for giving us this inside look, Ken!
Trump is gonna put Mamdani in CECOT. It’s a warm-up act for Musk.
I'm originally Canadian, moved to the USA in the late 60s, naturalized mid 80s, noticed the worsening problems in this country and now everywhere. Exported everywhere by the USA. I've been unhappy and worried about it. But now after reading your dark reading of how it could get much, much worse, I'm very very frightened of the future. Thank you Ken for reading out our possible future. If all activists, people of good conscience and morals around the world don't get up, and stand up against the fear I think we will be sunk!
Boomers yelling "Better Dead Than Red" to other Boomers. Yeah, I don't see that one working on anyone who's already on board with Mamdani. But I'm with you that the deportation talk is not to be dismissed as Trump being Trump. Damn this timeline is shit.
Don't recall where I saw it, but...
You either accept Mamdanis or you get Mangiones.
if only he said he would visit Israel .... hahahaha
The sky seems to be the limit when it comes to the rights and norms we’ll give up in the name of national security. This is absolutely fucked.