Don Jr and his band of social media strategists are no doubt behind this brazen stochastic terrorism.

Threats against federal elected officials are against the law. The Secret Service until recently would investigate every threat no matter how unlikely and prosecute nearly all. Now anything goes with Republican domestic terrorists who are somehow above the law. This can not and should not be allowed to stand. They have threatened us, our leaders, and our democracy for decades. It’s past time they were held accountable.

Extended excerpt:

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The sharp divisions over Israel's war in Gaza are also on full display inside Israeli politics. Far-left-wing lawmaker Ofer Cassif survived an effort last month to expel him from Israel's legislature, the Knesset, after he voiced support for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Netanyahu's allies accused Cassif of supporting terrorism. Cassif told our colleague, Michel Martin, he believes the war is a pretext for Netanyahu to seize even more power.

OFER CASSIF: Everybody knows that the government tried to pursue a coup d'etat under the sugarcoated term of judicial reform, in order to turn Israel into a full-fledged dictatorship. So now they are doing the same but under the smokescreen of the war in Gaza. And my persecution and my colleagues' persecution and attempts to silence us is not only of members of the Parliament. But the citizens at large, especially Arab citizens in Israel, have been persecuted intensely since 7th of October. People have been fired from their workplaces and suspended from their university studies solely for expressing grief and sympathy for the innocent civilians in Gaza.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

What was your reaction when you saw this move to impeach you? How did you feel about that?

CASSIF: Believe it or not, I was not that worried about myself. I had life before the Knesset, and I guess that I live life after the Knesset if I'm not assassinated before.

MARTIN: Do you honestly feel that there may be an attempt on your life as a consequence of your positions?

CASSIF: Absolutely. It's very clear Israeli society, under the continuous incitement of Netanyahu and his bigots, Israeli society is not only polarized and enclaved, but even families of the hostages are under violent attack. The violence level in Israel, political violence and violence in general, but the violence - the political violence in Israel is on the rise.

[. . . . .]

CASSIF: There's no military solution. The fanatic Palestinians and the fanatic Israelis must understand there is no military solution to this situation, only a political one. And it was like that 75 years ago, 57 years ago when the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem began, and now. So no military option at all. The main factor that allows or enable this terrible carnage and bloodshed to continue is the administration of United States.

MARTIN: What role would you like to see the United States play, given everything that has happened so far, given where we are now?

CASSIF: When the United States continuously - and it doesn't matter which administration is in power, Democrats or Republicans. It's been going on like this for too many years that there is a blind support not for the people of Israel - I want to emphasize that - for the government of Israel. Those are not the same. If the United States wants really to assist and to stand with the people of Israel, like I do, they should do everything possible against the government of Israel. This specific government who supports Jewish supremacy and racial theory, literally and explicitly, once they support them, it is as if they supported David Duke. If the Biden administration and the people of America really want to help both the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, they must force the government of Israel to end it.

[End Excerpt]

(For those who don't know who David Duke is, and why that comparison is so devastating, here's a profile of him from The Southern Poverty Law Center)

You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American. Trump his MAGA supporters not only embrace political violence but they laugh about it. At his rally he jokes about an intruder, whipped up by the big Trump lie, taking a hammer to Paul Pelosi’s skull, and echoing the very same words used on January 6: ‘Where’s Nancy?’ And he thinks that’s funny. He laughed about it. What a sick– My God. I think it’s despicable. Seriously. Not just for a president but for any person to say that, say it to the whole world listening. Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past. It’s what he’s promising for the future. He’s being straightforward.

Joe Biden

November 23, 2009 marks the date of the Maguindanao Massacre.

A certificate of candidacy was to be filed for Buluan vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, the rival of Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., for the forthcoming Maguindanao gubernatorial election when 58 people were kidnapped, some sexually assaulted, and later all brutally killed in the name of the Ampatuan clan.

The people killed included Mangudadatu's wife Genalyn Tiamson; his sisters; 32 journalists; lawyers; aides; and motorists who were witnesses or mistakenly identified as part of the Mangudadatu convoy. The body of the 58th victim Reynaldo Momay was never found.

From Luzon to Mindanao, the Philippines is filled to the brim with political clans and extrajudicial killings. People of the Philippines v. Ampatuan Jr., et al. was not the first instance of political violence in the Philippines but rather one of its most well-known. The case was finally closed ten years after the crime was committed with following verdict: guilty of 57 accounts of murder.

“GO TELL THE WORLD JOURNALISTS KNOW HOW TO DIE…”

Donald Trump has come under fire for amplifying a call to his supporters to get “locked and loaded” and “physically fight” for the Republican party’s front-runner for the 2024 presidential elections.

Mr. Trump, who is actively using his own social media platform Truth Social after he was barred from Twitter, reposted a message by a supporter who seemed to suggest violence.

“Then they will have to figure out how to fight 80,000,000 + it’s not going to happen again. People my age and old will physically fight for him this time,” a Truth Social post from username @freeTX1776 read.

“What we got to lose? I’ll donate the rest of my time here on this planet to do it. And I know many many others who feel the same. They got my 6 and we Are Locked and LOADED.”

Mr. Trump, who was investigated for over 18 months by a House committee over his role in the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, was blamed as the “central cause”.

His supporters descended on Capitol Hill after he told his more than 80 million Twitter followers to come to Washington on the day Congress would make final his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden, and wrote that the day’s events would be “wild”.

The twice-impeached President was called out by prominent people on social media for amplifying a message that suggested a repeat of the 6 January riots.

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who was one of two Republicans on the Democratic-led January 6 select committee, asked whether it is even legal to support this for a presidential runner.

“This is sick sick sick. Is it legal to even invite this kind of stuff?” Mr. Kinzinger, 44, a staunch critic of Mr. Trump, said.

Former FBI agent Peter Strozk, who shared the screenshot on Twitter of Mr. Trump resharing the post, said it is the “normal signs of a well-functioning democracy” in an apparent sarcasm.

He referred to Mr. Trump’s latest comments in which he said he trusts Russia’s president Vladimir Putin over his own Director of National Intelligence.

Responding to Mr. Kinzinger, attorney Harris Peskin said he is stunned. “Absolutely shocked that the guy who tried to overthrow the government the first time, would try again. I just DID NOT see this coming! What a twist!”

The official Twitter handle for the Lincoln Project said: “Just appalling. Trump is gearing up for another January 6th attack. Show this to anyone who does not take seriously the existential threat that MAGA poses to our democracy.”

Overwhelming majority of Americans see democracy at risk ahead of 2024 election : NPR

*Spoilers in the linked article.*

I caught an early screening last night. It wasn’t well attended. The film is more like a Blumhouse horror movie on steroids than anything you may have conceived ahead of time. It is very dark, gritty, and oppressive. It reminds me of of seeing Platoon and leaving the theater tired as if I had been in the battle.

The film doesn’t really play off of current politics but rather fictional plot lines so as not to offend the current right and left wings in America. Despite this it is an intensely realistic war film and edge of your seat thriller. The main characters are war correspondents and their personal detachment from the frightening scenes of violence, near indifference in some scenes, becomes a subplot.

Civil War depicts the chaos, fear, violence, deprivation, depravity, and sheer terror one can only experience by having been in a war zone. Nick Offerman, as the President, is only in a few brief scenes and though the film stays away from real life connections his character is in his “third term” and has disbanded the FBI. Clearly this is Trumpian but subtle enough to fly over the heads of MAGAts. Rogue militia men, not much different than we see in Red States, armed with AR-15’s are present throughout the film and generate tension and sheer terror at some points. The acts of graphically realistic barbarity are hard to process.

The film is a cautionary tale of an America plunged into an utterly chaotic and brutal Civil War where no prisoners are taken, literally on the screen. There are no good guys or bad guys and very little context or background is given. The closing photo on screen during the end credits speaks volumes. This is not just what is highly likely to happen if the right-wing doesn’t get their way but what the cost will be to society. Chaos, disruption, breakdown in the supply chain, the resulting lack of food and fuel, breakdown of the power grid, collapse of law and order, domestic terrorism, anarchy, devaluation of currency, humanitarian crises, destruction of infrastructure, and a constant state of fear.

Ok, begin rant here:

Sadly about a third of the country wants this to happen and has not only been preparing for it but actually trying to provoke it. In the eighties and nineties we saw hopeless young marginalized people in rural join gangs and be willing to toss their lives away because their situation was near hopeless. They expected to die young and didn’t care if they did or what harm they caused along the way. They lacked educational opportunities or any meaningful employment. Now in the two thousands we see rural southern and western white youth with the same mindset. Red state Republican governance and corporate plundering has left them poorly educated with no chance at socio-economic advancement. The difference between the two groups being that the poor rural whites have been brainwashed into supporting their oppressors. Further they are armed with military assault rifles and own a plethora of combat tactical gear.

This stems in part from the unholy alliance of the NRA and the GOP (Republicans). However more to the point it stems from the desensitization that two decades of forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused. This was courtesy of grifter war criminals Bush/Cheney. Our streets are now flooded with hundreds of thousands of traumatized, disillusioned, and disgruntled veterans and their tales fascinate MAGAs to the point where they form militias. The Republicans, who vote against veterans aid consistently, have claimed the military and falsely profess admiration for it with empty lip service. Poor and poorly educated Republicans now worship the military like they are warriors on the Klingon home world. Nothing against active or retired military just the Republican pretenders. While Joe MAGA himself doesn’t serve, he feels the need to play pretend soldier and would in a heartbeat turn his life inside out and our nation inside out for a sense of belonging, ie the MAGA cult mentality. They want that post apocalyptic gun slinger world where they believe life is simple as long as you are carrying a gun. They have been conditioned not to think things through and see no other escape from a society that has become too complicated for them to navigate.

That’s the crux of my story, rural Republicans feel hopeless and have been radicalized by demagogues to the point they will wage war on the rest of the country. Republican politicians and their corporate/oligarch masters want to gorge themselves off of a civil war they believe they will win. See the movie Civil War and see what the ordinary MAGAt is hoping to do to the rest of us.

The movie, although brutal and not for the faint of heart, is a cautionary tale that we need to be aware of.

EcuadorJanuary 2024: security crisis and political legitimacy

Although the events are fresh – they occurred on January 9, 2024 – it is likely that we are witnessing a turning point in Ecuadorian security policy. As the media recognized, with the news having made headlines in the international press, President Daniel Noboa has declared a State of Exception and the existence of an “armed conflict” throughout the territory of his country. State of Exception…

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The patriarchy encourages men to be violent.

The patriarchy encourages people to treat children like shit.

There a link between violence and childhood trauma.

People who are violent because of childhood trauma are often violent towards abusers.

Is this a contradiction within the patriarchy. I Marxism there are contradictions to capitalism that will bring down capitalism what if the patriarchy has similar contradictions.

As many of you folk know the patriarchy is more than just sexism. It incorporates queerphobia, purity culture, toxic masculinity and the nuclear family doesn't in addition to cis sexism. These super structures reinforce each other.

Men who become violent because of childhood trauma will start violently attacking many of the superstructures. While many of these will be sexist (and violently so) they are unintentionally attacking the superstructures which protect there male privileges.