Remembering Ourselves Well
Will Take Resolve
One of the sad wonders of Election 2024 is how a plurality of voters could embrace a promise of chaos and pain. Of disenfranchisement of marginal lives. Of denial of personhood and bodily autonomy.
Of the effect on their private lives and fortunes of a deranged huckster disrupting world order and fracturing global supply chains. Trump is addicted to reward without risk. He requires a constant drip line of attention. He gets personal satisfaction from each and every international (“Look at me!!!”) photo op.
The 47th sitting president of the barely United States of America has made it very clear. He views the whole globe as ripe for one of his infamous (and usually disastrous) real estate transactions.
The list is as dangerous as it is exhaustive, intrusive, and outrageous;
1. Canada (as a 51st state);
2. Greenland (as a new territory);
3. The Panama Canal (as an occupied zone of interest); and,
4. Palestine (as a new beach resort).
The other baffling aspect of Election 2024 was the plurality decision to accept, if not embrace, the promise of dictatorship.
Get Rid of Blinders
France conceived and built the Maginot Line to remedy the tactical errors of WWI and avoid another trench warfare experience.
Constructed on the French side of its borders with Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, the line did not extend to the English Channel. French strategy, therefore, envisioned a move into Belgium to counter a German assault…French military experts believed the line would deter German aggression because it would slow an invasion force long enough for French forces to mobilise and counterattack.
The Maginot Line was invulnerable to aerial bombings and tank fire; it used underground railways as a backup. It also had state-of-the-art living conditions for garrisoned troops, supplying air conditioning and eating areas for their comfort.[3] French and British officers had anticipated the geographical limits of the Maginot Line; when Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, they carried out plans to form an aggressive front that cut across Belgium and connected to the Maginot Line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line
Germany simply went around the line.
Nations have a history of preparing for, and losing, the next war by applying lessons learned during the last conflict. A clear assessment of blind spots is essential to survival at minimum, success at best.
1. After many centuries of two sides facing and fighting across a field of contest, the British were not prepared for colonists firing from cover.
2. After many decades of ever-increasing sophistication, America was not prepared for having its private aircraft used as projectiles against its iconic structures of commerce and war.
3. In a single lifetime, a grifter perfected a flanking maneuver that knee-capped 236 years of America’s faith in, and reliance upon, the rule of law. (My count works off the infamous presidential immunity decision.)
In all three of the examples listed above, there was fair warning of the change in tactics.
The Proper Order of Conquest
In Texas we have a joke that applies to the rolling Musk coup now in progress. The sergeant bitch-slaps the leader of a platoon returning from the battlefield. “You big dummy,” he shouts, “First you rape. Then you pillage. And, only after that, do you burn!!!”
Musk is burning through the framework and customary operation of the administrative branch of our government with an unseemly glee and tell-tale haste. He is counting on quiescent legislators to rape and avaricious Billionaire Boys Club members to pillage. It’s a terrible team effort.
The Wrath of Grapes
Blessedly, I never have suffered a gunshot wound. I have managed more than one deep cut or puncture wound. In my experience, the pain is not immediate. But, oh, boy, when it arrives it has bells and whistles.
All praise and credit to every lawsuit filed in immediate protest to every illegal action taken by Trump or Musk. Blessings upon every judge who has denied the validity of Department of Justice toadies arguing meritless, corrosive, and dangerous propositions of first impression. And what a profound joy it is to observe survival instinct kick into gear across America.
50501 protest gatherings were peaceful and widespread. A call for a National Day of Boycott is taking hold in concept. Attacking the bottom line of the Billionaire Boys Club is not a strategy without collateral damage to the very people and principles now on the line. It is, however, good for the morale of those already hurt and those targeted for the pain which Trump promised and Musk is implementing.
The Delano strike began on 08 Sept 65 and took five years to achieve better wages and working conditions for farm workers tending and harvesting table grape products. The success of the protest movement was due largely to a consumer boycott of non-union grapes.
Civil servants have a union option and strong legal basis for protesting summary displacement or dismissal. Persons within the administrative branch protected by rules for good character and possessing applicable skills have legal recourse. Until the cases reach a hearing before a seriously partisan Supreme Court, the pain inflicted by each questionable executive order and the chaos and uncertainty sown by every unauthorized “downsizing” action will be with us. For quite a while.
I like to think of peaceful and effective resistance as the first step in cleaning the Project 2025 wound.
It’s gonna sting.
Hold fast.
"And what a profound joy it is to observe survival instinct kick into gear across America." Yes, yes, a million times yes.