I hope not.
If a Caravan/U.S. forces confrontation goes down before Tuesday…in Trump’s own words, rocks for bullets, bullets for rocks…and is covered by the slavering media as the clickbait to end all clickbait, this election will fail to even begin to displace Trumpism. The zombified “base” of Trump’s support will dutifully clomp, clomp, clomp right out of their grave-like houses and vote in perfect, rotten unison.
If anyone in a position of some kind of real power who opposes Trump…U.S. spooks, especially…can somehow effect a slowdown in this confrontation until after this election, maybe something good will come of it.
If not?
Trump’s luck will hold.
Once again.
Sigh…
Watch.
AG
P.S. If Trump stays in power, the U.S. will become a totally militarized state on the Israeli model, with South/Central Americans taking the place of the Palestinians as the excuse for militarization. And if that is successfully accomplished, the next internal targets will be all people of color.
Bet on it.
And then?
And then all bets are off.
A new twist on an old, old story:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out– because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
It’s happening.
Now.
Right before our eyes.
P.P.S. Oaguabonita generously…well, maybe not so generously, but certainly with a gloat in its eye…informed me that I had the caravan’s timeline wrong. I answered as nicely as possible given the unending attacks on me personally and on my positions from the Group of…what? Four? Five?…NeoCentrists in residence on this blog.
My point, however, stands.
The constantly accelerating numbers of troops being sent to the Mexican Border are the first stones in a domestic military edifice that will rise ever more quickly as long as Trump stays in power.
Fascism 101.
Watch.
Yes. I know. Since I only scan the awful news, I didn’t understand how far away they were. Looking at the government media complex, one would think that hordes of criminally deficient gangsters were about to descend on Tijuana to tank up on drugs and tequila before they rush the border.
My bad.
But…that is the true purpose of all of this clickbait bullshit.
I am gratified that you pay such deep attention to it, arguebonita. It explains a great deal about you.
And…I am happy to give you yet another chance to pick your nits.
Sincerely…
AG
P.S. Cheer up.
If Trump manages to get 15.000 troops down there while not even close to a confrontation, just imagine how many there will be if we don’t first find an excuse to murder them all in their tracks as was the case with Bush I’s infamous Highway of Death offensive in Kuwait.
I can hear Trump’s bloviation now.
And y’know what?
I think he could get away with it.
How happy you would be then!!!
Think of it.
So much more about which to impotently pick, pick pick.
Arguebonita heaven.
Amen.
AG
Arthur, you listen to Trump and consume right wing media, each with a disgusting level of credulity. (Although it is certainly entertaining to see you admitting here that you don’t read the news carefully enough to be trusted in your factual representations.)
Your credulous consumptions of products of the conservative movement’s Bullshit Mountain are among the reasons you made an active choice to believe lies. It’s among the reasons you fear-mongered here.
You thirst for the military to shoot and kill people of color. This claim you appear to be lodging that you’re warning us of creeping fascism is shown to be a lie by your long, horrible history here at the Frog Pond. You’re excited and made happy by Trump’s fascistic beliefs and actions.
Here, let’s look back on some of the things you were writing here in 2015.
Try this.
And this.
I ask the community to review your claims and views on these threads, each and every one of them. The chief difference between then and now is not an evolution in your thinking. You’ve maintained your extremely regressive views. No, the chief difference is that I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt about what was in your heart and mind.
More than three years later, and nearly two years into the Trump Administration, I harbor no doubt now. You’re a terrifically racist and sexist man who wants to see your old white male privilege returned to your preferred Jim Crow past.
Fuck you, man. I’ll fight your New Confederacy beliefs to the end of our lives.
In order of appearance in the above hate-filled, obviously reading disabled screed above.
#1-I never listen to Trump. Neither do I listen to any other crass political hustlers…like oh, say Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the Clintons. Also the entire dominant population of the Republican Party. I read their statements. Why? Because I do not want to be even a little bit tranced-out by the media that is carrying that information.
You?
Not so much, obviously.
#2-I make up my own mind, after carefully perusing the products of the entire UniParty’s Bullshit Mountain. So far, the only two national-level politicians that are not spouting total bullshit this time around are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and that is a presidential ticket for which I would not only vote but also support with my own work. If more come to real national prominence, I will support them as well.
#3-I do not “thirst” for the U.S. military to kill anybody, particularly on U.S. soil, and i think that Trump’s brazen attempt to circumvent the Posse Comitatus act is the most dangerous threat to our government that has appeared in my lifetime. Plus…if you had the balls to say to my face that I…a lifelong, high-level NYC-based jazz and latin musician, friend, colleague, student and teacher of hundreds and hundreds of wonderful musicians of every color under the sun…”thirst for the military to shoot and kill people of color,” I would deck you on the spot and happily take whatever consequences that followed.
#3-Looking back…as you suggested…I see nothing that would suggest any of the libelous comments that you have repeatedly made about my beliefs and actions, and as I have said numerous times here, I am still in doubt whether you are simply another crass political hustler, someone who cannot read or comprehend anything that effectively disagrees with your positions or…most likely…some horrid combination of those two possibilities.
#4-As far as I can see, you have never been willing to give me the benefit of the doubt about what was in my heart and mind.
#5-I am neither racist nor sexist, nor do I want to see Jim Crow or any other rigid and violent form of prejudice in place…including the sort of prejudice in which you deal, where everyone who disagrees with you is some sort of monster. Yes, I am beginning to believe that the cultural contradictions in the various areas of the United States have reached a level where only some form of breakup…or a complete reworking of the Constitution, something that is most likely never going to happen because it would be the end of the DC Swamp’s feeding trough…will serve to make this continent south of Canada and north of Mexico serviceable again. I will totally refuse to live here if Trumpism truly becomes the effective law of the land, and if the country remains at a culturally shattered standstill much longer I do not know what the fuck I am going to do. I live in the most thoroughly integrated city in the nation in its most thoroughly integrated borough, the Bronx. I have chosen to live here…always in integrated neighborhoods except for one mistaken move to the suburbs that only lasted a few years, years in which I felt miserably out of place.
#6-A “New Confederacy”…despite the buzzword racist effect that you meant, of course? I don’t know. If it meant breaking up the murderous U.S. Empire, the whole world would probably be better off.
And the inevitable #7, for any newbies who might be confused by all of this claptrap:
A group…or perhaps better, a cadre…of people on this site have tried everything in their power to discourage criticism of the Democratic Party as it stands today. They automatically downrate such posts and have endlessly attacked several posters as liars, fools, pro-Trump trolls and/or spreaders of Russian propaganda. When effectively rebutted, they simply ignore the rebuttal and repeat the same attacks. These McCarthyite tactics are intended to exhaust the patience of the attacked posters and discourage others from reading or posting similar material. It has worked on a few posters, who have simply given up. It has not worked on me. I initially answered their attacks with attempts at reason. After realizing that this was a total waste of time, I have pretty much stopped replying to them. My comments and articles on this site are my replies. Read what I have to say; consider what they have to say and how it is said, and then make up your own minds. Thank you-AG
P.S. You’re a “union organizer?” Do you use the same sort of willfully stupid, lying tactics that you use as a poste herer? And get away with it? That wold explain a lot about the terrible fate of the unions in this country.
I was involved in the retaking of the Musicians’ Union in NYC…the storied Local 802… from many decades of organized crime domination and arrant racism, a movement which was led by my friend, musical influence and colleague, the trumpet player Johnny Glasel in the 1980s.
It’s been pretty much downhill ever since. “Professional” union organizers and a truly rotten national union have moderated Johnny’s results…he was trying to get real union representation for jazz and latin musicians as well as for the usual Broadway, recording and orchestral players…to the point where we are in just about the same fix as we were when the union’s vice-president…a bad accordion player from Staten Island who always carried a big, stout, gold-headed cane, someone whose job was basically to be in charge of corruption and enforcement…in my presence once threatened a black musician who was simply asking the union to enforce its own rules about sending in subs on Broadway “I’ll throw you trough da fuckin’ window!!!”
Now they just ignore us.
So it goes.
. . . the following statement to many of my replies to your “standalone articles” (LOL!) and comments…for the benefit of new readers here. It applies to the comment that replies to as well:
*[ref.]
Also too:
STILL waiting, Counterpunchdrunk liar!
link
link
link
Thank you, arguebonita.
Your responses never fail to prove my points.
AG
P.S. I am curious.
Why do you and your little helpers almost never post a standalone article here?
I cannot remember a single one from you, nalbar, marduk or cenrtistfielddj. Are you all programmed only to respond to criticisms of the neocentrist wing of the Democratic Party?
Seems like…
You all seem only capable of reacting to certain outside-the-mandated-DNC-box criticisms.
This behavior is the very definition< of the word “reactionary,”
Nice.
Keep on sniping.
Your scopes are all in sad need of adjustment, so you worry me not.
Thanks again…
AG
I’ve thought about this. The caravan can’t just be ignored. OTOH, immediately sending troops is the wrong response.
I can’t imagine this President doing it, but I submit this as a better approach:
President announces he is appalled at conditions in Honduras and is sending a relief mission to meet them at the border with food, water and shelter. US Charities encouraged to send medical personnel and supplies. Applications for admission as refugees will be taken (don’t need to be acted on but present the right optics) National guard stationed nearby for riot control. Perhaps MP’s right in the refugee tent city to maintain order, emphasis on selecting Spanish-speaking troops. President talks about embargoes and tariffs on Asian clothing so that central American clothing industry can revive (they made good clothes, not like that Chinese and Bangladeshi crap).
This way if there is violence and invasion, we didn’t instigate it. We offered our hands as the Norte Americano big brother ala Monroe Doctrine yadda yadda wave those Made in China American flags.
Enlist the Pope! Yeah the South American pope. He seems like a good guy. Call for an International special commission on Honduran refugees involving the UN and the Vatican. Invite Il Papa to speak to the refugees once the camp is organized. Use honey, not vinegar.
Not every situation calls for a gun, anyway not in sight. Just an offer they can’t refuse.
What does confrontation bring? International condemnation as a bully and a toothless tiger image if the Hondurans are not contained. Think of images of crying children clinging to dead mothers, jack booted troops firing on unarmed refugees. My God! You don’t have to be a politician to know that’s the wrong approach. Politicians should be adept at faking sincerity. I’d ask how they sleep at night but I’ve seen how they reacted to elderly homeowners burning their foreclosed houses around themselves. They sleep just fine like all predators.
“I’ve thought about this. The caravan can’t just be ignored.”
Why not? It represents no threat to any of us, at all.
Seeing you offer friendly advice to Trump here is awfully malevolent. Our observations of the President’s behaviors and beliefs should let you know that the advice you offer to Trump here will never be accepted by him. He would consider your action plan here impossibly weak. No, you’re not going to get the softer sell on eliminationist racism that you want, not from this guy.
It’s also pretty dark to invoke the Monroe Doctrine as something which might be sold as a moral project to Americans in 2018.
Pope Francis would never agree to be enlisted in the scheme you offer here.
Borders do have to be maintained and it can’t be ignored because the media won’t let it be ignored.
Any big city pol can come up with a better scheme and smoother delivery. Monroe Doctrine talk is to soothe red states. Deflect. Deflect.
So you prefer a border incident? With Trump’s troops machine gunning unarmed Hondurans like recent Israeli border incidents. Yeah. Typical wall Street Democrat response, just send the cops to deal with the rabble.
Borders can and will be maintained. None of the alternative action scenarios and rhetorical positions you offered here will be required.
You do know that the things being said about the caravan are racist garbage, right?
“…Like the invasion of Iraq, Faithful Patriot is a right-wing political project carried out through military means against a demonized nonwhite population, one that haunts the fevered dreams of many Republican voters. And, as some observers have already noted, Faithful Patriot, like the ongoing war in Afghanistan, does not appear to feature a clear end game…
…
The caravan making the news remains deep in Mexico. Whether many of its participants will make it to the U.S. is an open question. If they do, it will likely be weeks from now. If those who do make it to the border wish to apply for asylum, it is their right under domestic and international law to do so — although there have been rumors of a potential executive order coming aimed at circumventing that right, and just this week, the president hinted at the construction of vast tent detention camps in response to the caravan’s arrival…
…
The blurring of law enforcement and military activity has been a multigenerational feature of the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, giving rise to a complex and frequently exploitative smuggling network on the southern side. According to some counts, as many 120,000 Central Americans have disappeared traveling north in recent years — this on top of a drug war that, by conservative estimates, has killed more people than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Caravans are meant to provide safety in numbers as migrants navigate this gauntlet. Since the first caravan began, others have cropped up across the region, suggesting that the rational decision to seek safety in numbers, with or without the help of an advocacy organization, could be catching on…
…
There are reasons to believe that even within the halls of government, there is a recognition that Operation Faithful Patriot is a ridiculous boondoggle of historic proportions. Since its inception, Newsweek has published a series of reports based on leaked Pentagon documents showing that prior to the launch of the operation, the Trump administration was informed that “only a small percentage” of the migrants making their way north were expected to reach the border, and that the whole thing is likely to cost around $50 million. “I see it as a political stunt and a waste of military resources and waste of tax dollars,” R. Gil Kerlikowske, CBP commissioner from 2014 to 2017, told the Associated Press. “To use active-duty military and put them in that role, I think is a huge mistake. I see it as nothing more than pandering to the midterm elections by the president.”
It just doesn’t seem right for a progressive to offer friendly advice to those executing such a bad plan.