i may be drawn and quartered for this but the way some of u talk abt mandalorians is making me think u guys don’t actually know what (american) imperialism is

WoT Meta: Tuon, the Seanchan, and their Role in the Story

I often see readers questioning the role or point of both Tuon, and more broadly, the Seanchan in the story. Wondering why Jordan would introduce such a reprehensible group only to leave them be, or even in a position of prosperity by the end of the series, and why Jordan would introduce a character like Tuon, who in many ways represents fundamental flaws at the heart of Seanchan culture and society, only to largely leave her unchallenged and without substantive character growth. And there is some truth to the criticism that the depiction of the Seanchan in the later half of the series lacks nuance and depth, being flattened (if not as badly as some elements of the story and world) into something simpler. Some of that is Sanderson’s fault, who by his own admission didn’t really get Tuon as a character, but I do think that there is a fundamental disconnect too, between the role Tuon and the Seanchan occupy in the story, and the role readers would like both to occupy.

The Power of Sincerity and Idealism

I’ve talked about this point before, but it bears repeating: one of the central themes of Wheel of Time is that sincere belief in something, regardless of what that thing is, is an inherently ennobling thing. To strive to live up to an ideal, regardless of what that ideal actually is, is one of the most powerful indicators of someone’s character and moral strength. 

We see this time and time again play out throughout the series: the Tinkers’ sincere commitment to their non violence even in the face of a violent and cruel world is treated as worthy of not just respect but reverence, even by characters (such as Elyas and Perrin) who fundamentally disagree with that world view. Pedron Niall’s loss of faith in the Light, the way he has abandoned a sense of greater good and justice to focus on the pursuit of worldly power and political gain, is not just his undoing, but also the undoing ultimately of the Children of the Light, until they come under Galad’s leadership, who gains leadership and followers from his willingness to die for his convictions and justice. The Shaido are slowly eaten alive by their own greed and corruption, after they abandon their beliefs for the short-sighted spoils Sevanna and Couladin offer, while the rest of the Aiel walk their path towards Tamon Gai’don no matter how painful, staying committed to Ji'e'toh and their ideals of honor, and for that earn the respect of the vast majority of the cast. Even among team Shadow the most dangerous villains are not the most rawly powerful, but rather those with the sincerity of their convictions: most Darkfriends are seduced by promises of worldly power or satisfaction, revenge, gold, what have you. But it’s those who are truly committed who do the most damage: Ishamael, Alviarain, Graendal, Kadere.

To Jordan, the ability to aspire to something greater than yourself, to act in service to an ideal, is an inherently heroic trait. What you aspire to, matters too.

Which brings us to…

The Seanchan as the Ideal of Empire

From the moment they are more or less introduced, the Seanchan are meant to serve as a sort of platonic ideal of Empire, with all the good, and all the very bad of that. They are imperialistic conquers, who act on relatively flimsy justifications to consolidate rule. Their claim to Randland is based on a thousand year old, briefly held rule that didn’t even last a single lifetime, and their claim to their conquered lands in Seanchan itself largely seems to range from ‘well because we could’ to ‘SOMEONE had to impose order on to chaos’.

Stylistically, practically, and ideologically, the Seanchan are a mix of various empires throughout history: you can draw clean parallels to basically any Empire, but the most prominent are dynastic China (Strict social hierarchy, singular autocracy, and caste based slavery), Modern America (military culture and a standing professional army with clear balanced branches), and post-Republic Rome (focus on culturally adapting to new lands, syncretism with local beliefs and ideas, and emphasis on imposing stability via conquest). They are meant to embody the ideal of Empire, and in keeping with that many of the Seanchan characters we meet that we are supposed to like are sincere believers in that Empire….but relatively few are in positions of real power.

Egeanin, for example, is constantly struggling because she is a sincere believer, and is forced to reckon with those beliefs when they slam up against her lived experience in Tanchico. The vast majority of the Seanchan PoVs scattered throughout Path of Daggers are much the same (key among them, Karede who is himself a slave, and later becomes a very important prominent character). But the closest thing to a sincere believer in the Empire that is in a position of power is High Lord Turak, and from what we see he is a noble, just, if somewhat bat shit crazy guy. (Notably he is not easily corrupted by Padan Fain’s temptations of power, and remains firm in his belief in the Empress), who inspires true loyalty from his followers and Household, but those beliefs also lead him to his (honorable) death against Rand at the end of TGH.

For most of the series our highest ranking Seanchan PoV is Suroth, and though the ingrained norms of her culture run deep…a true believer she is not. Not in the Shadow which she joined for political expediency, not expecting the End of Days to happen in her lifetime, or in the Empire she is supposed to serve, since her personal glory and that of her house are always at the forefront of her mind and actions, instead of what is best for the Empire as a whole.

Until that is, Tuon is introduced.

Tuon and Seanchan as messy, but nuanced

Many of the Seanchan’s cultural practices are abhorrent to us. The big one is slavery of course, but their attempt to colonize and subjugate Randland is also, objectively, awful on every level. And yet like many real-life nations and countries they defy simplification into bad guys by the virtue of not being monolithic, and for the most part, being unaware of their own injustices. 

A combination of cultural brainwashing, simple indoctrination, and also just lack of information holds the Seanchan together broadly. Most citizens of the Empire buy into the prejudices about channelers that the Empire uses to justify their collaring, and into the idea that slavery is a necessity to avoid rampant poverty and social unrest. Notably, there is no state culture police enforcing these norms: when Min’s wearing trousers breaks the social convention during TGH, it’s the cook who gets annoyed, says that ‘everything and everyone has a place in the pattern and that place should be obvious at sight’, and insists she put on a dress to that ranks her with the serving girls. 

The Empire has mechanisms of course to enforce its will, but interestingly those are angled mostly at recalcitrant and ambitious nobles, not the everyday folk. The Crystal Throne has sharply limited the power of its aristocracy, and established a secret police (the Seekers) mostly concerned with keeping them in line. Its standing army is professional and independently maintained, not dependent on feudal levies. Whenever we get a peek into the head of someone with influence and power, none of them seem overly concerned with the possibility of a slave revolt, or a popular uprising.

And that seems to be justified, since there exists powerful cultural and legal protections for both the common folk and slaves (probably established specifically to prevent uprisings and revolts). Mat notes for example during the occupation of Ebou Dar, that several of the heads put on spikes since the city fell belong to Seanchan themselves, and that petitions against Lords and Ladies are heard by magistrates as much as any other. We also see as early as the Fires of Heaven that the Seekers are principally concerned with curtailing and controlling the aristocracy, when Rand and Avihenda’s Seanchan field trip briefly brings them into contact with a Seeker who arrests a noble woman without a peep from her own retainers.

All of this points to the idea that, while we are supposed to be disgusted and horrified by the Seanchan, standing as they do in opposition to so many of our own values and morals, we aren’t supposed to be able to outright dismiss them. 

Which incidentally, is how we’re supposed to feel about Tuon too.

It’s important that we're introduced to her, not in glory or power, conquest or victory, not scheming and plotting and asserting her rule. But instead in a moment of humanity and humility. Jordan opens on Tuon reflecting on what she’s done wrong, and showing empathy and expressing regret to a damane, a person on the lowest rung of Seanchan society. In a way that is horrifying because it still denies that woman’s personhood and agency, and yet in a way that also shows Tuon capable of admitting she is wrong, of being willing to learn and grow, and show regret.

Tuon believes, truly believes, in the Empire she is destined to rule. She believes it is a force for good and stability, that it will improve the lives of those she conquerors, and be to the ultimate good of the world. She is wrong, but the story asks us to understand why she believes what she does, and to show as much respect for that as we do the beliefs of our other characters, even when they're wrong.

And that’s the conundrum of Tuon and the Seanchan more broadly. It’s Egeanin and Nynaeve’s conflict writ large: Nyneave thinks it would be so simple, so easy if Egeanin just sucked, if she wasn’t a living breathing complicated person who Nyneave liked a little bit. In the same way it would be a lot easier if the Seanchan were just an evil monolith and Tuon were just a classic evil Empress. But it also wouldn’t be very realistic, or very human.

The Long Painful Road of Character Development

Crossroads of Twilight gets a lot of flack, some justified, some less so. But one thing that it inarguably does very effectively, is show Tuon both as human, and as someone still trying to grow and learn.

She outright tells Mat during CoT that part of the reason for her going along with the kidnapping is because she wants the chance to better understand the Altarans as a people, since she knows that she will have to understand them to be able to effectively rule them. We see the fruits of some of that in TGS when she wins Beslan over to her side via concessions and promises that make him into a powerful ally instead of a dangerous enemy, going so far as to promise him an apology from the Crystal Throne if it turns out that Suroth murdered his mother (which shocks most of the Blood).

We also see that curiosity and desire to grow in other ways: her visit to the supposed Hell where she is trying (with all the grace of cat attempting to visit a wolf den) to show respect and learn more about the sorts of people who normally she would never get the chance to meet. She neither attempts to overawe or browbeat the show performers (her largest problem with the cover story she’s forced to adopt is that she’s supposedly a thieving servant, not a servant), and she even entertains constant discussions, debates, and challenges from Satelle Anan, not just on the subject of damane, but on da'covale and slavery more generally.

As important as CoT and KoD are to establishing Tuon and Mat’s weird dynamic, they are even more important for establishing the sort of person Tuon is. Proud, but not to the point of arrogance or without reason. Sincere in her convictions and beliefs, but still willing to reconsider when with the evidence of her own senses. Stubborn, but not so rigid in her thinking or unwilling to adapt that she would threaten her Empire’s well being for it.

None of this is painless of course, and part of the fun is that it is painful for both Mat and Tuon to learn and develop, to see each other as human rather than as the archetypes they represent. Nothing ever stays the same in Jordan’s world (or our own for that matter) things are constantly changing, sometimes with terrible speed, sometimes with infuriating slowness, but always they are shifting, and very rarely are those shifts painless.

The same is true for the Seanchan, and we see some of that again in the last few books, with their increasing willingness to work with the Westlands, and to overcome their own prejudices for the sake of a greater good. Tylee’s alliance with Perrin over the Shaido and its consequences are the best microcosm of this, both parties being impacted by the events more than they realize, but we see it in small ways too, with the increasing adoption of Westlander customs by the Seanchan in Altara.

The final few books do feature the apex of both arcs. Broadly, the Seanchan joining of the coalition against the Shadow (which reflects the real-world geopolitical necessity of having to work with those you often find abhorrent), and specifically Tuon’s willingness to place her complete trust in Mat in that battle are two things that were largely seen as impossible prior to CoT, and are only arrived at through a great deal of pain on all sides.

The main problem is partly Sanderson: as I’ve talked about before,he struggles with nuance and ambiguity. He likes clarity and simplicity. But he does expend effort to try with the Seanchan which is to his credit I think, even if it doesn't hit the way it should. The other part of the problem I think lays with the readers, who also want to simplify both Tuon and the Seanchan, for them to be archetypes rather than nuanced. For the Empire to simply be evil, the Empress to simply be a tyrant, and the people of the Empire to be either dupes, defectors, or devils.

Part of me can’t blame people for that reaction- Empires have done so much bad in the real world, some of it very recently that it makes sense to have a strong emotional reaction, especially when the Seanchan draw on a lot of the practices of those same Empires in their effort to colonize the Westlands. But the Wheel of Time has always been about nuances and complexity, about looking beyond gut reactions and simple thinking to see the complexity of the world Jordan presents, and our own through it. 

The Seanchan and Tuon are part of that, and refusing to engage with them with the same nuance you might find in other parts of the setting, or other characters, is at least a little bit, missing the point.

Some US American Tankie: "THIS ISN'T WW3, IT'S JUST IMPERIALIST AMERIKKKA BULLYING POOW DEFENSEWESS WIDDLE SOCIAWIST BABY NATIONS AND BROWN PEOPLE, AGAIN. :CCCC STUPID WHITE SUPREMACIST FASCIST AMERIKKKAAAA!"

Some Eastern European: "Hey. Heeeeeeey. Yes fuck white supremacist evil stinkbad imperialist Amerikkka, but you tankies often defend the USSR and Russia! USSR were colonizers and imperialists too, but you weak westerners stan for it just because you hate Amerikkka!"

Hahaha. Yeah why do they do that, Sofia? It's almost like the imperialistic Russo-Supremacist Marxist totalitarian hellhole of Socialist republics and Russian satellite states ran around getting theater kids, smarmy pseudo-intellectuals, some bleeding heart intellectuals, counter culture creaks and junkies to run around screaming about how the USA is just a white supremacist colonial imperialist power, to contrast how they characterized themselves as anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-inequality, or something. And you're still living in that funky, romantic bubble where the USA is just bad faith, greed and racism incarnate, while the other guy in the room is innocent to beneficent. The side closest to Russia is just burnt to char from exposure where what you imagined does not meet the reality. You're still parroting the brain dead rot that Russia used to positively publicize itself. You're still echoing the tankie and general leftist horse shit.

You're totally willing to buy into the rest of the Russian propaganda, just call out the stuff they say about Ukraine. Suddenly you can see through the bullshit and give nuance and contradiction to the party line when it affects YOU personally.

The facts are, Russia and agents/guerillas operating on behalf of Russia, or proxies operating on behalf of Russia, have been active across South America since Red Revolution was a thing. The people running around screaming about how the United States is a colonialist, occupying power are just the publicity wing for the red revolution sore losers, mad that there's any intervention there whatsoever.

And like complete god damned hypocrites, you can SEE, you KNOW the history of Russia doing that shit IN UKRAINE, and YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY to parrot Russia's disingenuous accusations and their sycophantic, tweed wearing burnt out Marxist faux-intellectual simps in every coffee bar or secret library of leftist repository literature across the world. You see your own situation as unique?! Get over yourself.

Fuck the curtain, pull it away. American "colonialism" since the Soviets became a thing, and a little before when socialist revolutionaries became cliches in beer and coffee houses internationally, has always been stopping Russian attempts to subvert, disrupt, suppress, bolshevize, destabilize and incite domestic takeovers across the world. Them screaming and reinterpreting history has always been the big game board equivalent of a dude cheating at cards getting mad when they're beaten at their own game, before banging the table, glaring at the USA and yelling, "YOU CHEATING FUCK! STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!!! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT STANDING UP TO ME!"

That's the tea. Fucking drink it and grow up. The last god damned CENTURY and change has been the USA sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly, getting in Imperialist Russia's way, spoiling their attempts at takeover and political and social and economic upheavel. And when it happens, they fire up the propaganda wing and scream, "America's being racist and colonialist again! Look!!" While omitting the dirty shit the USSR or unassociated socialist sympathizers are also trying to do.

Kuvira fans must understand that "Kuvira is not correct, and her portrayal as a fascist leader isn’t unrealistic or exaggerated, i’m sorry if people can’t imagine a dictator offering good things and bad things at the same time". like people can like Kuvira all they want, she an interesting character but stop using the excuse that she had gOod InTeNtIoNs, fascism is fascism no matter what the reason for becoming one. Kuvira took advantage of the problems of EK to gain power and control EK at will. she committed a massacre with her robot destroying almost the entire city. (Kuvira only gave up and apologized because Korra stopped her and had no other choice, Kuvira told korra her sad story so that Korra would feel sorry for her).

CONTENT WARNING: This does contain a discussion about concentration camps, Nazis and war crimes. I only use this to explain my position and argue against arguments I have seen.

I think to a certain extent people just like Kuvira and want to defend her because they find her interesting. And I do try and not moralise on people’s choices and characters.

What I do find annoying is the dismissal of legit fair comparisons between fascism and Kuvira’s regime. It’s fair to call Kuvira’s regime fascistic.

I find most of the discourse is around Kuvira’s re-education camps, and whether or not it’s fair to label them concentration camps and say this is inherently fascistic.

People really twist themselves into knots to stop people labelling Kuvira’s actions as fascistic, and this is what I’ve had the greatest annoyance with. I have seen the most discourse with regards to Kuvira’s re-education camps and the use of the term concentration camps. I have written a reply once, but I did delete it as engaging in a discussion directly can perhaps be more pain than it’s worth.

I have seen someone say that it’s not right to call Kuvira’s regime as fascistic as concentration camps are linked to the N@zi regime, and I’ve seen someone else say, and this is of course paraphrasing, ‘they’re similar to camps that America has used so Kuvira can’t be bad’ like...., you think this is a defence for Kuvira and not an indictment of the USA? It isn’t really an argument that Kuvira isn’t bad.

The problem with some of the arguments is that it’s bad history. The concentration camp system in N@zi Germany was never only specific to that period of history. Concentration camps are not specific to one regime. They were started by the British in the Boer war, used by the Americans against Japanese Americans, and are used to describe the Uighur camps in China. There is no universally agreed definition of when a prison becomes a concentration camp, and if there is any difference between a concentration/internment/re-education camp, and what exactly these definitions are.

So no, concentration camps are not unique to fascist regimes, but it is fair to call what we hear of in the legend of korra concentration camps, in all definitions of the term. We can discuss whether or not it’s appropriate to throw out that term ‘concentration camp’ a potentially triggering and highly emotive term in a discussion about a fictional character in fandom spaces, but I don’t think that means the person originally using the term is using the term incorrectly. Kuvira uses these camps to punish people who are bandits (not inherently fascistic), threatens to send people who disagree with her to one (Bolin) so she uses them against political opponents, and then is said by a character that she’s putting bending minorities in them. By all definitions, this is mass internment, these are concentration camps. These camps are used in fascistic regimes. If the shoe fits...

(I do dislike people calling Kuvira a N@zi, that is an ideology that is tied to one specific regime that Kuvira does not have, fascist is a broader term and can be used in different contexts other than N@zi Germany).

No, we don’t know Kuvira’s exact ideology. It is vague. This is a kids show with a million other things happening. We don’t know exactly why or how she motivated herself to do the things she did. Maybe Kuvira did really intend to give up power after consolidating the Earth Empire’s rule including the United Republic. She literally says she thinks she’s better than Wu at the coronation but who knows, but maybe she just hated the monarchy. But this fan speculation. This is not canon.

What is canon:

- Kuvira named her regime the Earth Empire. Pretty imperialistic.

- Kuvira’s goals are achieved primarily through the use of an army. Pretty militaristic.

- Kuvira used her army to conquer states, even states that were unwilling (the state she conquers in the first episode) or completely stable and didn’t need any help to begin with (Zaofu).

- Kuvira expresses an interest and then attempts to conquer the United Republic, a nation state that has been independent for decades, because it was formerly of the Earth Kingdom.

- Kuvira uses a wide range of re-education camps to intern and punish prisoners who commit crimes, oppose her policies, or are bending minorities.

- The Earth Empire uses green, clean uniforms that evoke N@zi uniforms. There is a railway gun clearly inspired by a N@zi railway gun. The creators are intentionally using fascistic imagery to evoke certain feelings.

Kuvira may just be a ‘generic military dictator’ and she might not be truly ‘fascist’ but it’s not incorrect for any viewer to look at the canon events above and conclude she is a fascist. But the main argument against these is either some weird twisting of real history (by dragging in the definitions of concentration camps and fascism) or just saying ‘she had good intentions so can’t be a fascist.’ These arguments never prove anything, they usually just use specific events from history and pretend that these events correlate to general uses of these terms.

Now, if someone really likes Kuvira and wants to redeem her, then fine, I understand, I just wish they would acknowledge that the fascistic points of contention are not inaccurate, and a completely fair reading of the legend of Korra, and saying that ‘she had good intentions’ doesn’t change anything for anyone. I don’t care about her intentions in the past, I’m looking at her actions in the show. I do believe that Kuvira probably did have good intentions setting off. She probably doesn’t consider herself as a bad guy. But it’s fine for people to dislike Kuvira and consider her a fascist. They are not wrong.

I think it’s fine for people to want to redeem this fictional character. People can find characters darker motivations interesting and engaging. This isn’t the same as redeeming real life people who commit war crimes. It’s an interesting story. If the person writing this post or fic does not consider Kuvira a fascist than fine, but that is not anymore canon that Kuvira being a fascist and does not invalidate.

But ‘she isn’t a fascist because she had good intentions’ is just shallow and unconvincing and missing the point. And then falling back onto historical arguments does not prove that Kuvira is not a fascist either. Kuvira’s actions do not exist in a vacuum, they are inspired and pulled from history, and history is also not so exact and precise that it means that Kuvira cannot be labelled as a fascist.

I think I’m approaching this at a slightly different angle from you but I broadly agree- I don’t necessarily think people have to think Kuvira is a fascist, but they shouldn’t get into over long discussions of what is and what isn’t fascism to defend themselves. They’re seeking to define terms that have always been used in circumstances other than WWII. Please just own what you like.

now im asking because the topic always makes me confused. im talking about hetalia. we all know it censor some really important dark historic facts and it’s very too much white and racist (not a big announcement in anime) but i cant get the critics about the “imperialist propaganda”. like, i cant understand if everyone has seen the same anime i saw. its satiric comedy, and everyone is represented as the biggest dumbass stereotype and all the alliances are groups of incompetent people. the plot is nosense and every character has deliberately more defects than merits. Im the first one to criticize this show but i cant get other things. idk i would like to know your opinion, maybe im just blind and so i can learn something new reading different points of view (im sorry if there are any errors, english is not my mother language)

The show woobifies multiple Countries and their imperialism, the reduction of history this way in and of itself helps to cause that and reduces the atrocities of imperialism, but to top it off the most blatant form that I can think of is the characer/country of Japan is shown as a quiet, gentle character that is loved & admired by the countries that were badly affected by its imperialism (Taiwan, who is also referred to as the “Republic of China” btw, Korea, Thailand) alongside the fact that there’s multiple scenes of the rising sun flag (a representation of Japan’s imperialism, often called the Japanese equivalent to flying a nazi swastika flag) appearing next to Japan, including the evocation of that imagery in official art & scenes within the anime or comic. Here’s a better explanation but overall the author never demonizes, critisizes, or frames imperialism in a bad way, but instead portrays the tense, real & actual relationships between Countries & the empires/countries who colonized them as simply rivalries or petty annoyances at most, and not the result of multiple atrocities like genocide, colonization, and violent nationalism, and least of all, never puts Japan or any other Character/Empire (Holy Roman Empire, Rome) in a bad light for ANY of those things. There’s also how the character America is found as a “baby” by Britain & “raised” by him (same thing with Canada/France, Mexico/Spain, again obviously reductive), essentially saying that those places didn’t truly exist until imperialist countries showed up to colonize them, erasing again, once more, the atrocities of colonization and erasing Indigenous history and sovereingty. This show not only reduces the harm of imperialism, but romantisizes it and dresses it up as a lovable character that has a good relationship with, is loved by, and friends with the country that it commited these acts against, not despite of it, but because of it.

US Occupation of the Dominican Republic

From 1916 to 1924, the US government occupied the Dominican Republic, mostly because a chaotic and unstable political situation there was preventing the Dominican Republic from paying back debts owed to the USA and other foreign countries. The US military easily subdued any Dominican resistance and occupied the nation for eight years. The occupation was unpopular both with the Dominicans and Americans in the USA who felt it was a waste of money.

A History of Intervention At the time, it was common for the USA to intervene in the affairs of other nations, particularly those in the Caribbean or Central America. The reason was the Panama Canal, completed in 1914 at a high cost to the United States. The Canal was (and still is) hugely important strategically and economically. The USA felt that any nations in the vicinity had to be closely watched and, if need be, controlled in order to protect their investment. In 1903, the United States created the "Santo Domingo Improvement Company" in charge of regulating customs at Dominican ports in an effort to recoup past debts. In 1915, the US had occupied Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic: they would stay until 1934.

The Dominican Republic in 1916 Like many Latin American nations, the Dominican Republic experienced great growing pains after independence. It became a country in 1844 when it broke from Haiti, splitting the island of Hispaniola roughly in half. Since independence, the Dominican Republic had seen over 50 presidents and nineteen different constitutions. Of those presidents, only three peacefully completed their designated terms in office. Revolutions and rebellions were common and the national debt kept piling up. By 1916 the debt had swollen to well over $30 million, which the poor island nation could never hope to pay.

Political Turmoil in the Dominican Republic The USA controlled the customs houses in the major ports, collecting on their debt but strangling the Dominican economy. In 1911, Dominican President Ramón Cáceres was assassinated and the nation erupted once again into civil war. By 1916, Juan Isidro Jiménez was president, but his supporters were fighting openly with those loyal to his rival, General Desiderio Arías, former Minister of War. As the fighting got worse, the Americans sent marines to occupy the nation. President Jiménez did not appreciate the gesture, resigning his post rather than take orders from the occupiers.

The Pacification of the Dominican Republic The US soldiers moved quickly to secure their hold on the Dominican Republic. In May, Rear Admiral William B. Caperton arrived in Santo Domingo and took over the operation. General Arias decided to oppose the occupation, ordering his men to contest the American landing at Puerto Plata on June 1. General Arias went to Santiago, which he vowed to defend. The Americans sent a concerted force and took the city. That wasn’t the end of the resistance: in November, Governor Juan Pérez of the city of San Francisco de Macorís refused to recognize the occupation government. Holed up in an old fort, he was eventually driven out by the marines.

The Occupation Government The US worked hard to find a new President who would grant them whatever they wanted. The Dominican Congress selected Francisco Henriquez, but he refused to obey American commands, so he was removed as president. The US eventually simply decreed that they would place their own military government in charge. The Dominican army was disbanded and replaced with a national guard, the Guardia Nacional Dominicana. All of the high-ranking officers were initially Americans. During the occupation, the US military ruled the nation completely except for lawless parts of the city of Santo Domingo, where powerful warlords still held sway.

A Difficult Occupation The US military occupied the Dominican Republic for eight years. The Dominicans never warmed to the occupying force, and instead resented the high-handed intruders. Although all-out attacks and resistance stopped, isolated ambushes of American soldiers were frequent. The Dominicans also organized themselves politically: they created the Unión Nacional Dominicana, (Dominican National Union) whose purpose was to drum up support in other parts of Latin America for the Dominicans and convince the Americans to withdraw. Prominent Dominicans generally refused to co-operate with the Americans, as their countrymen saw it as treason.

The US Withdrawal With the occupation very unpopular both in the Dominican Republic and at home in the USA, President Warren Harding decided to get the troops out. The USA and the Dominican Republic agreed on a plan for an orderly withdrawal which guaranteed that customs duties would still be used to pay off long-standing debts. Starting in 1922, the US military began gradually moving out of the Dominican Republic. Elections were held and in July of 1924 a new government took over the country. The last US Marines left the Dominican Republic on September 18, 1924.

The Legacy of the US Occupation of the Dominican Republic Not a whole lot of good came out of the US occupation of the Dominican Republic. It is true that the nation was stable for a period of eight years under the occupation and that there was a peaceful transition of power when the Americans left, but the democracy did not last. Rafael Trujillo, who would go on to become dictator of the country from 1930 to 1961, got his start in the US-trained Dominican National Guard. Like they did in Haiti at roughly the same time, the US did help build schools, roads, and other infrastructure improvements.

The occupation of the Dominican Republic, as well as other interventions in Latin America in the early part of the Twentieth Century, gave the US a bad reputation as a high-handed imperialist power. The best that can be said of the 1916-1924 occupation is that although the USA was protecting its own interests in the Panama Canal, they did try to leave the Dominican Republic a better place than they found it.

Something safe to assume about modern communists

1:They know next to nothing about the late USSR and why it fell

2:They assume that the party won’t become corrupt

3:They never read about Glasnost or Perestroika

4:They don’t know the history of the USSR or their imperialist agenda

Now I’m not saying the US is perfect, we’re actually far from it, but we didn’t need to develop a kind of sausage to satisfy the intense malnutrition of our people (Doktorskya kolbasa, which in English translates to “Doctor’s Sausage”) because our market economy has made that readily available at a low cost. The command economy of the USSR, Maoist China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, Laos and any other command economy, are not ones that are able to keep up with free enterprise. Gorbachev recognized that fact and opened up a sort of free market with his Perestroika policies. It wasn’t a true free market, but it did introduce aspects of it such as the ability to elect your managers, the ability to open shops, and to finally have regular products that were not previously available to anyone in the USSR unless they were one of the party members that could afford private planes. 

But now to go point by point for all of this.

1: The USSR fell as a communist “alliance” because they saw that a command economy is more able to produce better goods at a lower cost to the consumer.

2: Most of the USSR’s leaders were either supporting criminals or in business with them.

3: Most of the above paragraph. 

4: The USSR satellite states were not all there willingly, and I’m not just talking about East Germany. The attempt to take over Afghanistan is also a prime example of this. 

I’m not saying that the idea of communism on paper doesn’t sound nice. It does, I used to be one of those people who looked at all of those examples and thought, “Well that can’t be real communism, it must be because of outside interference.” But for a majority of the attempts, there hasn’t been any. Venezuela is a good example of this, before the nationalization of the oil and steel industries, everyone was doing more or less alright. Some we more wealthy due to the fact that they risked all of their money on a business, some because they were investors who risked part of their capital on those businesses that did well, and some because their parents had done one or the other. 

Those people who were wealthy are the ones barely surviving, while the ones who weren’t are eating literal garbage and family pets to stay alive.

In the ironically named Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, their command economy lets the leaders get fat and happy, the soldiers have just enough food to be healthy, and the rest of their people barely scrape by with enough to stay alive thanks to food aid from foreign governments. 

Cuba, in a somewhat rare exception to the rule, and meeting the least criteria of a communist nation as defined by Marx, is doing alrightish, they export products to many Latin American nations

China under Mao had about 30 million deaths caused by his, again ironically named, “Great Leap Forward”

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia all had genocides and failing economies after the communists came into power.

Hell, the USSR had their own genocide that’s almost never talked about aside from people in the Russian Federation or post Soviet former communist bloc states, or the people whose parents got away from the Soviet Union in one way or another. Look up the Holodomor, while many people will claim that it was just an unpreventable famine, many Ukrainians will tell you it was because they were a satellite state that was not in favor of communism and wanted to leave their union because it restricted their human rights.

If you’re one of the people that think, “Yeah but it would never be that bad in America” like I was at the late stage of my belief in communism, then how about the examples listed above? You really believe in that outdated idea of American Exceptionalism that hard? All of those examples of failed states don’t convince you? I want whatever you’re on because it would be nice to deny reality that hard, even for a moment. 

The Punk Rock in Marxist-Leninism

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always hated punk rock; the reasons why having changed significantly. I heavily identified as Right-wing throughout my childhood through early adolescence, so punk rock was a piece of culture that I quickly realized was not for me, with its far-left anarchist aesthetic. If you’d shown and explained to me something like Holiday in Cambodia I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. Anti-fascists often forget about how the far-right rarely considers the vast and vapid categorizations of different leftists and other anti-fascist types. Anarchists are just as anti-American as Stalinists; anarchists just don’t have a plan (besides the occasional riot) so they’re more docile and easier to ignore. They’re just extra annoying and snobby. The sonic elements of punk mixed in with the political atmosphere sealed it for me. I thought this entire genre of music sounded like some twerp in class who says shit about America just to ‘piss off the system’. Childish, really.

In high school, the first punk band I didn’t immediately hate was neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver. I was introduced to them on a bus for school, with only one black kid on the whole bus, having the song White Power being shown explicitly to them. I remember referencing it to him later in conversation and he said he hated that experience. To me though? Finally, I thought, some punk rock where I can very easily say ‘well I like the music, but I don’t like their politics’ and it isn’t SJW crap. If I were to say stuff like that about other punk rock bands that’d be blasphemy, so I avoided the leftists and found more Nazi punk, where the bad politics were more obvious.

As someone who’s always been into music, my childhood had a specific opinion that I now understand to be just a simple analysis- namely, that politically left-wing music doesn’t do anything to change the system whatsoever. On an open-mic day in my high school the buses had already arrived and then my band got to play Killing in The Name. The school, the ‘system’, allotted us more time because they wanted to hear a cool song. Nobody was inspired by that song that day to think critically about the condition of militarized police in America or how the Klan’s ideology controls the majority of America’s police. I know I didn’t. Frankly, I thought putting politics in music was a waste of time Right or Left. And I found more Rightist music later on, namely in black metal.

Black metal is a mirror image of punk, if that mirror were on two ends of a horseshoe. Both started out as what we today label ‘edgy’, yet generally non-political, and then got somewhat overtaken by the far right and far left. Black metal was firmly cemented in Nazi ideology by the mid-90s with Burzum and the history of the Norwegian second wave, as well as later bands like Germany’s Absurd to solidify National Socialist Black Metal as its own genre. Then there’re wackos like Peste Noire, who, with the help of figures like Anthony Fantano, are somewhat normalized and mainstream while also having deep French nationalist roots. But what makes black metal also similar to punk is the later insurgency movements from either political side into the other genre. Nazi punk distinguishes itself not by its members being skinheads, for skinheads began as a far-left movement, but rather with aesthetics like white and red shoelaces (wrapped straight) and, of course, swastikas. In the mid/late 2010s an anti-fascist black metal scene emerged in response to the atrocities of the Obama administration and Trump’s election victory. This was spearheaded by bands like Gaylord and Neckbeard Death Camp as well as others from Bandcamp and Soundcloud. It didn’t try to distinguish itself at all, in a crypto-anti-fascism directly proselytizing. Nazi punk and anti-fascist black metal are similar in that they, like all music as we’ll be seeing, also don’t achieve anything, but are specifically trying to change the strata of their own genre’s political associations. As my own father put it, there’s only two kinds of Oi – racist and non-racist.

Left-wing black metal was obvious folly that I participated in anyway. But even when I eventually started putting personal politics into my music from 2016 through 2019, I still avoided major bands like Rage and punk rock (besides Bad Religion, which I only liked because I saw a live cover). It was actually Peste Noire who showed me the wonder of sampling in music; yet another far-right appropriation of musical technique, sadly. It was only in late 2019 and 2020 that I listened to bands like Rage and Dead Kennedys, and seeing the amount of effort they put in their messaging left me cynically giggling. Paraphrasing other commentators, music has no effect on political change no matter how radical. Far-left Marxist, Bolshevik, anarchist and Social-Democratic musical compositions have existed since the nineteenth century and were plentiful in the entirety of the 20th century, albeit with significant change after the World Wars. But music is too individualistic to be politically effective as every individual person’s preferences are different. This is how Rage and anarchist punk rock sold so well in America and how I continued to enjoy Peste Noire long after I left the Right.

My music was also inspired by industrial metal band Rammstein, and I’ve since learned that, generally speaking, politically provocative art is an integral part of industrial music generally, which easily puts off someone not paying careful attention to the music. To paraphrase Žižek, artists like Rammstein and Laibach use fascistic language and imagery in a controlled way that lifts various signs from their associations of authoritarianism, leaving them inoffensive enough to gain mainstream credibility. Case in point, Slovenia’s Laibach has caused numerous controversies over their 41-year-career with their overtly militaristic theme, prolific German lyrics, and for having been branded as dissidents by the Yugoslav government, yet they are the only foreign band that has ever performed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They were invited to play in 2015 to celebrate the 70-year-anniversary of the fall of imperial Japanese rule on National Liberation Day. The government would clearly know better than to invite a legitimate fascist band; in their minds that would most certainly create an immediate attempt to try to cause some type of western imperialist unrest. One would wonder why they’d invite anyone at all. But nothing malevolent came about from it; the show went fine, and clips of it are on YouTube. I won’t try to make any comment on any individual in the DPRK or anywhere else, but it’s fascinating to think of what happens when Laibach is played through North Korean speakers, interpreted by those who have few else in common with the band other than they both have experience living under a régime inspired by Marx.

It must be a different experience from, say, the experience of Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols as sung on North Korean karaoke by VICE journalist Sam Smith. This leads me to my current gripes with punk rock, specifically in the year 2021.

Sex Pistols are the origin of punk rock’s association with anarchism due to the song mentioned above, but they are also the origin of punk rock’s association with Nazism due to Sid Vicious’ use of a swastika t-shirt. This is no paradox. Both are a result of Liberal nihilism, of having no true political leaning other than blind offensiveness and ideological motivation without one ever needing sincerity in belief. Either that or punk rock bands are explicitly Liberal/conservative, which is a discourse I remember from my childhood. Post-90s punk was too commercial, liberal, gay, et cetera, with bands such as Green Day having been seen as a perversion of the solidarity of the mostly cisgender heteronormative anarchist community of people who actually listen to punk rock. John Lydon is an open Trump-supporter. After the far-right January 6th attack on the Capitol, Dead Kennedys retweeted many Liberal commentators and politicians, including Republicans Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I see not a problem with individual people and artists but a problem with punk rock as artistic expression; it has terminal hollow conformity. Overall, its association with petit bourgeois ideology leaves punk rock with little to give it credibility. Punk rock has always had an insincere, two-faced nature. ‘Punk’s not dead’ is the anti-fascist equivalent of ‘return to tradition’…or is it anti-fascist? Depends on who’s saying it, where’s being said, and who hears it.

Where to turn? Marxist-Leninists (and sometimes even anarchists) will argue that social bureaucracies such as Cuba, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam and the DPRK provide an alternative to American global homogeny. Considering the American military spent over $700,000,000,000 on its military last year, and that many bases are specifically placed around those listed countries, their arguments aren’t entirely unconvincing. They also argue that because Marxist-Leninist politicians provided industrialization and progress for their nations without what Marxist-Leninists would personally term “imperialist war”, they should be praised, as well as the fact that many of the problems commonly associated with those countries are explicitly from American intervention to stop ‘the spread of Marxism’ and to keep them subordinated to western authority. However, as Bordiga writes in Characteristic Theses of the Party, the integral realization of socialism within the limits of one country is inconceivable and the socialist transformation cannot be carried out without insuccess and momentary set-backs. The defence of the proletarian regime against the ever-present dangers of degeneration is possible only if the proletarian State is always solidary with the international struggle of the working class of each country against its own bourgeoisie, its State and its army; this struggle permits of no respite even in wartime. This co-ordination can only be secured if the world communist Party controls the politics and programme of the States where the working class has vanquished.

Am I arguing for left unity, left solidarity, the whole “anarchists and Marxist-Leninists are going for the same communist goal” argument? No, I’m not talking about that. This has been said before but, historically speaking, there’s usually only one correct way to pilot a vehicle and thousands of wrong ways. But I’m talking about music. And I bring up Marxist-Leninism for what could be seen as a superficial reason; that the potency of Musikbolschewismus is greater than the potency of traditional anarchist punk rock. If we’re just talking about music to ‘piss people off’, which is what punk rock culturally amounts to, punk rock could be Marxist-Leninist in that that ideology has more of the nihilistic punk rock mentality than any band you could name. Because Marxist-Leninism can indeed be quite nihilistic, with Russian Bolshevik minority rule in foreign countries paralleling the worst aspects of American imperialism and its related apologia. As for industrialization, the USSR demobilized its military to a lesser extent than other European countries, organized more strictly than NATO. Their industrialization in question was related to impersonal and heavily regulated bureaucratic trade, the aforementioned occupation of eastern Europe and elsewhere, and warcraft: firearms, lightweight tanks, and thousands of nuclear weapons. In 2021, the history of Marxist-Leninist music is both far more potent and plentiful than anarchist punk rock; if a bit old-school, boringly classical, and used in the justification of unjust countries.

What I’m trying to say is this: what is the difference between an English band that wears swastika and MAGA t-shirts singing about how anarchy is good and another band that wears sickle and hammer shirts singing about how the USSR and the PRC are good? Both are nonsense but the latter is sincere with what they say… or are they? Considering punk rock’s edgy, yet ultimately cowardly and insincere anti-authority outlook, I can’t help but wonder what would be if Marxist-Leninism were to ever embrace the potentiality of its status and flaws and make annoying, loud guitar music. It wouldn’t be hard since, comparatively, the bad politics are more obvious. And once it gets started, it’d create a new cycle of the entirety of political thought in music; easily being able to be superior to Right-Libertarian punk rock and all the washed-up bands of the 70s-00s.

What’s the actual transgressive music we have today? Rap music has been mostly dominated by black Americans since the 80s, with a lot of rappers now being women. It is held to a different esteem than even the antisemitic ‘satanic panic’ of the 80s against heavy metal, since legal cases referring to rap lyrics are not unheard of and can even lead to conviction in modern times. It is much closer to the struggles of the global afro-diasporic community than with European writers from 80+ years ago. Punk rock never had, never could, and never will, have a scene of that calibre.

In conclusion, I hope I have provided a cynical pseudo-rehabilitation of punk rock through the example of Marxist-Leninism in a specific manner related to the overall creation of and interpretation of music, which is an important piece of international culture. I know Marxist-Leninist States to be corrupt and are not socialist, but to the eyes of an American, and to the ears of the average punk rock normie, Marxist-Leninism is just as anti-US government as the anarchists, only scarier, because they actually have a plan! So why can’t it be punk? The PRC’s State-sanctioned abductions are certainly not what Bordiga had in mind in regards to a proletarian government being against its own bourgeoisie. Internationality is the way forward. But it almost sounds like it’s against the system if one has that kind of understanding of ‘the system’. Who’s to say there isn’t an obscure 80s punk demo labelled Kidnapping Billionaires somewhere? Punk rock is nothing more than vapid noise to piss of conservatives. That’s it. It has no heart, spirit nor philosophy. The PRC even saying they would like socialism is too far for American conservative wormpeople, and legitimate reasons to criticize the PRC and other social bureaucracies get overshadowed by imperialist greed and racism. Music is not nearly the kind of tool of radicalism Zack de la Rocha thought it was, but with the internationality of Laibach we see it can do more than one can normally expect. It all depends on whether people can distinguish/separate the instrumentation from the proselytization.

There’s a trend among right libertarians in the US to call themselves “classical liberals” and it’s more insidious than just trying to “reclaim” the word liberal, implying that folks currently called liberals are somehow fake. A deeper implication made by “classical” in particular is that American politics are more traditionally (and therefore more genuinely) right-oriented. So the term translates to “Republicans represent the true, healthy political divide between right and left, but Democrats have become radical communists.”

It shouldn’t be surprising that radical capitalists are good at branding: another term they use for themselves is “Grand Old Party” (implying traditional American values) even though of the two parties it is the younger by almost a century; “the Party of Lincoln” is more effective than just denying the Southern Strategy happened (denial often requires relitigating which makes them look bad because if it didn’t happen why did they officially apologize for it?), because they can just trust “Lincoln [historival emancipator of slaves]” will naturally be conflated with “traditional” as if the current anti-Black GOP is rooted in the Republican Party from over a century and a half ago; using “Tea Party” for the Republican push toward nationalism and racism (Birtherism was part of this movement) implied that Obama represented an imperialistic takeover of a white ethno-state by People of Color. There’s a reason there are only two Black Republicans in Congress (both of whom are men, one of whom is not seeking re-election).

But like “Grand Old Party,” “Party of Lincoln,” and “Tea Party,” the term “classical liberal” is also deceptive. For one, scientific analysis has shown that far from a radicalization among Democrats contrasting a strict Republican consistency, the reality is the reverse: to mask their own steady radicalization they accused the other party of it and Democrats reacted by digging in their heels and resisting pulls to the left.

A lot of ink has been spilled and pixels arranged about how America’s defective center-right politics keep us from having universal healthcare while the rest of the world’s democracies’ left-right politics helps them have lower healthcare spending AND better health outcomes, I think we should broaden the scope of this argument, especially because it solves some of the problems of being healthcare-specific. For example, “What about all the people in the health insurance industry who will be left unemployed” becomes a lot easier when you can just say “a true political left would also want a social safety net robust enough to handle that.”

The other problem with a center-right besides broadly poor social welfare is that our wealth inequality is growing and our democracy is becoming less and less representative as spending money becomes more and more powerful than voting. When the Human Development Index is adjusted for inequality, the US falls behind other democracies so it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re also falling short of being classified as a “full democracy.”

I should also say here because people are obtuse, stupid, and pedantic that a “constitutional republic” is a kind of democracy and it still matters that a republic is less representative than it historically or morally ought to be.

Honestly, especially when I study Renaissance/Enlightenment/Reformation history, even the neutral label “Republican” becomes insidious. A party that is increasingly authoritarian really has no right to call itself (lowercase-r) “republican.” I hope you’ve seen the trend by now: US conservatives have been saying “republic not democracy” for decades with the implication that the Republican Party is more genuinely American than the Democratic Party, but they’ve also recently revived an old insult: using “Democrat” instead of “Democratic” for an adjective referring to the party. Because they are always in fact what they accuse Democrats of being, in this case “uncivil” and “lacking diversity of thought,” they all picked it up immediately and the president (who despite the stiff competition from his party is the dumbest motherfucker in American politics) said when they rolled this out that “Democrat” is actually correct because he didn’t understand the simple idea that “we think they are in fact undemocratic” doesn’t mean “the little-known correct term is Democrat.”

Look I’ve been going on for a while and US conservatives have given up arguing that the president is smart because no one can keep him from opening his mouth, so instead they’ve been saying ~he can’t be stupid~ because he’s the head of a big* and successful movement (*not as he sometimes claims the biggest, Obama had higher voter turnout and Clinton got 3 Million More Votes), BUT

You wouldn’t call a roast beef sandwich “smart” because people have an appetite for it

Pluralistic: 01 Mar 2020 (Make Mordor great again, N95 Mask of the Red Death, Medicare for All with Covid, Necessity Defense)

Today's links

Trump's rhetoric fits eerily well into the Tolkien canon: AR Moxon makes Mordor great again.

The wealthy are chartering jets to avoid coronavirus: The Masque of the Red Death takes to the skies.

The US already has Medicare for All: The day that Trump declares a national health emergency.

America's uninsured will turn a covid crisis into a covid disaster: Our shared microbial destiny cannot be denied.

Jury refuses to convict Extinction Rebellion activists: Long live the "necessity defense" and the human race it protects.

This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Trump's rhetoric fits eerily well into the Tolkien canon (permalink)

AR Moxon's satirical riff on how Trump would play as a Tolkien villain is not only hilarious, it's also exactly the kind of thing the Tolkien estate used to threaten to sue people over.

https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1233207274992263168?s=19

(which is why Pat Murphy's astoundingly great genderswapped retelling of The Hobbit, "There and Back Again," is no longer in print.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_and_Back_Again_(novel)

Especially good is how Moxon digs into the way that Tolkien's concept of "races" was uncomfortably close to "racism" (especially orcs, who, honestly, have no conceivable basis for subsisting as a species, let alone a society).

https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1233682097463873536

"While I was here, this orc came up —a big guy, very tough, like out of central casting, handsome, could've been a fighting Uruk-hai—and he's crying, weeping, he says 'sir, thank you for the meat.' Incredible. He hadn't had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days."

Other Trumpland rhetoric fits in eerily well. Just like Murphy, Moxon claims Hobbits: "We have Hobbits coming in folks, and they're smoking the pipe-weed, and eating second breakfasts, third breakfasts, your breakfasts, your children's breakfasts."

https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1233221682309083137

And just as with Murphy, Moxon's satire is full of deep, Silmarillion cuts that demonstrate that his work is coming from a place of deep, if conflicted, affection.

https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1233328631734206475

"Fëanor, son of Finwë, King of the Noldor, is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. We all appreciate his contributions, and we're looking into him, and we're looking very strongly. Nobody was talking about him before me."

(Image: Cornel Zueger, CC BY-SA)

The wealthy are chartering jets to avoid coronavirus (permalink)

Plutes are chartering private jets in the hopes of avoiding #coronavirus, assuming that if they only fly in fart-tubes that other wealthy people have farted in, they won't get sick.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-29/wealthy-jump-to-private-jets-to-duck-airlines-and-cut-virus-risk

To make this pay, you really need to fill that Gulfstream. NYC-London is $140k for a 12-seater — flying those 12 buttery soft asses from JFK to Heathrow in BA First will run you $120K.

So you're basically assuming that if you use the plute-only terminal at LAX (whose management company once threatened to sue me for criticizing it in print!), and LHR (originally royals-only, now open to any oligarch), you'll avoid covid. Presumably because the Better People have Better Masks and the Luxury Decontam Wipes and that will keep the bad stuff at bay. Nevermind that we're finding covid in people who've been in psych ward lockdown for TEN YEARS.

https://twitter.com/AskAKorean/status/1233046896719126533

Elite Panic is definitely a killer. I mean, people have been pointing this out since Poe wrote "Masque of the Red Death" in 1842. You can't shoot germs.

https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death

Humanity has a shared microbial destiny. Crises get resolved by people running TOWARD the problem, not cowering in luxury bunkers while better people do the work. This is the point of my own take on "Masque."

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250242334

Public health crises show that reality has a well-known collectivist bias, and this challenges right wing orthodoxy, which is why the right has only two responses to epidemiology: "It's a hoax" and (later) "Exterminate the dirty poors!"

"The Reactionary Mind," Corey Robin's magnificent 2011 book (updated 2017), traces the history of right-wing thought to find the factor that unites Dominionists, imperialists, white nationalists, libertarians and other strains of right-wing thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reactionary_Mind

Robin's conclusion: the thing that unites these different strains is a belief that humanity is naturally arrayed in hierarchies, with some people simply born better than the rest of us, and the world is best when the best people are in charge. It's an idea as old as Plato's Republic. Dominionists want Christian men in charge of women and children. Racists want white people in charge of racialized people. Libertarians want bosses in charge of workers. Imperialists want America in charge of the world.

It explains why right-wing movements hang together (because they all agree that the "wrong people" are running things) and why they splinter (once they take power, they can't agree who the "right people" are).

This "divine right of kings/bosses/America/whites/men/Christians" philosophy is coterminal with the idea of the natural leaders having special stuff that makes them better: just as the touch of a king will heal leprosy, so too can you expect that a plute won't have covid. It's wrong, of course — lethally so.

The US already has Medicare for All (permalink)

Did you know the US already has "Medicare for All"? But only under very specific circumstances: under the National Disaster Medical System, if the President declares a public health emergency, the federal government steps in to pay all out-of-pockets.

https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/responders/ndms/definitive-care/Pages/coverage-guidelines.aspx

Any medically necessary service which is authorized for reimbursement as long as the patient sustained:

Injuries or illnesses resulting directly from a specified public health emergency;"

("If you have covid symptoms, you're covered")

Injuries, illnesses and conditions requiring medical services necessary to maintain a reasonable level of health temporarily not available as a result of the health emergency

("if you have any other problem and can't get treatment due to covid chaos, you're covered")

As Carlos Mucha points out, Trump declaring a national health emergency would create "Medicare for All with Covid-19," which could easily become just plain Medicare for All, "as surely as the UK's Emergency Hospital Service morphed into the NHS."

America's uninsured will turn a covid crisis into a covid disaster (permalink)

The last time Carl Gibson saw a doctor was 2013, when an arm-sling and an Rx for painkillers ran him $4000, creating a permanent blot on his credit report. He hasn't been since.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-millions-of-americans-uninsured

He's not alone. 44% of Americans do not see doctors despite medical necessity, because of cost. About a third of Americans do not fill their prescriptions because they can't afford them.

27.5m Americans don't have health insurance, thanks to a mix of Republican state-houses blocking Medicare expansion and Obamacare's intrinsic shortcomings, which invite price-gouging and under-coverage from America's sociopathic health-insurance industry.

This is terrible under the best of circumstances, but it's the thing that turns a coronavirus emergency into a coronavirus catastrophe. Because Carl Gibson is sneezing into the same air you're breathing.

("All the common people breathing filthy air" -The Pointer Sisters)

Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, is a former pharma lobbyist who has ruled out price controls for a Covid-19 vaccine.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/27/pluralistic-your-daily-link-dose-27-feb-2020/#pandemiccapitalism

And Nancy Pelosi has said that treatment must be "affordable" – not free. What's "affordable" when 61% of Americans don't even have $1,000 saved to cover a medical emergency?

It's hardly a novel observation to say that we have a shared microbial destiny: "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/few-americans-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-1000-emergency.html

Jury refuses to convict Extinction Rebellion activists (permalink)

An Oregon jury has refused to convict a group of climate activists who blocked a rail line that Zenith Energy used to transport tar sands crude. The Extinction Rebellion activists presented a "necessity defense" for their actions.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/28/landmark-win-fight-habitable-future-jury-refuses-convict-climate-activists-who

The activists were charged with trespassing for planting a "victory garden" that blocked the track. There was video. 5 of 6 jurors decided that maintaining the habitability of the only planet in the known universe capable of sustaining human life justified the action.

"We need to take note of the lessons learned by the labor movement—mass civil disobedience works. The climate crisis is a workers' issue, we need to unite to shut down business as usual. Right now." -Margaret Butler

The result was a mistrial, and now the local prosecutors have to decide whether to haul the activists back into court again.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Deluded Sony music exec can't read his own study https://constitutionalcode.blogspot.com/2005/02/us-market-not-antagonistic-towards-drm.html

#15yrsago Euro software patents reanimated through corrupt officials 0wned by Microsoft https://yro.slashdot.org/story/05/02/28/2223232/eu-commission-declines-patent-debate-restart

#15yrsago Comp sci profs smackdown the movie studios https://web.archive.org/web/20050303023425/http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000776.html

#10yrsago Architectural fan-drawings of classic sitcom houses http://origin.www.markmoorefineart.com/artists/mark-bennett

#10yrsago Petition to make "Hella" the prefix for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 https://www.facebook.com/The-Official-Petition-to-Establish-Hella-as-the-SI-Prefix-for-1027-277479937276/

#10yrsago Cyberwar hype was cooked up to sell Internet-breaking garbage to the military https://www.wired.com/2010/03/cyber-war-hype/

#5yrsago North Korean defectors undermine totalitarianism with smuggled pirate sitcoms https://www.wired.com/2015/03/north-korea/

#1yrago Oakland teachers' union declares total victory after seven-day strike https://oaklandea.org/updates/oea-reaches-tentative-agreement-with-ousd/

#1yrago German Data Privacy Commissioner warns at new Copyright Directive will increase the tech oligopoly, make EU companies dependent on US filter vendors, and subject Europeans to surveillance by US companies https://torrentfreak.com/german-data-privacy-commissioner-sounds-alarm-over-upload-filter-oligopoly-190301/

#1yrago University of California system libraries break off negotiations with Elsevier, will no longer order their journals https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/university-california-boycotts-publishing-giant-elsevier-over-journal-costs-and-open

#1yrago Satanic Panic 2.0: The Momo Challenge hoax https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/momo-challenge-hoax/583825/

#1yrago Striking West Virginia teachers won swift and decisive victory; Oakland next? https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/28/rapid-victory-west-virginia-teacher-strike-shows-what-happens-when-progressives

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/)

Hugo nominators! My story "Unauthorized Bread" is eligible in the Novella category and you can read it free on Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Upcoming appearances:

Canada Reads Kelowna: March 5, 6PM, Kelowna Library, 1380 Ellis Street, with CBC's Sarah Penton https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cbc-radio-presents-in-conversation-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-96154415445

Currently writing: I just finished a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel now, though the timing is going to depend on another pending commission (I've been solicited by an NGO) to write a short story set in the world's prehistory.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Gopher: When Adversarial Interoperability Burrowed Under the Gatekeepers' Fortresses: https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/02/24/gopher-when-adversarial-interoperability-burrowed-under-the-gatekeepers-fortresses/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a very special, s00per s33kr1t intro.

Mojave Morality; or Why Some Factions are Mixed but Legion Bad and Can We Stop Denying it

When it comes to asking which faction is Good and Evil, you may first think the NCR are the clear good guys, or that Mr. House will lead to greater standard of living. But friends, we should take into account the futures of these factions and the potential social changes that would take place within them, Vegas or not!

The Republic is an imperialist, expansionist nation with economic disparity and a government controlled by the rich few. Still, it is possible for a social and political revolution to take place, as the people still can directly vote and there are few senate seats, and they are EXTREMELY sick of the right-wing policies that have occurred over the last two decades, which are a recent departure from the rest of the nation’s history, under Tandi and Aradesh. And it is still entirely possible the people could overthrow the government with some measure of ease. The nationalistic nature of the United States has not yet had chance to fully take root in the Republic, most people consider themselves citizens of the Boneyard or Hub before being citizens of the Republic, members of the military included. The draft isn’t popular. And while their war crimes are less than America’s, they exist.

Independent Vegas, well this one isn’t really detached from the big factions, its entirely dependent on you choosing that path for that specific territory. But from cut content we can see that the Strip was barely being held together under Mr. House as it is, and it all goes straight to chaos as soon as you come to power. Still, the actual villages and towns of the Mojave are rather well-off and prosper under their own rule, as independent settlements under no central authority. With this comes a lack of centralized ability to project force and protect the lone  communities, so they are left to their own defense as well. Tiny micro-nations.

Mr. House has always been more machine than man, even before he got hooked up on life support gone wrong. He lacks empathy, does not consider other people to actually be people, just pieces to move around on the game board, a game he is playing against reality. He wants to spit in the eye of the mystic, the divine, in the belief of human kindness and capacity for peaceful co-existence. This is just how the man is, a true Ayn Rand protagonist, the Great Man wrought to existence. And how would the Great Man rule exactly? Through force of arms, but not even with a slight veneer of self determination or free will. A board of directors to rule his new galactic megacorporation empire made manifest, yet it would be a board he could overturn at any moment on a whim. He alone, playing the entire human race like a video game, Civilization IV or Stellaris, just looking at the spreadsheet of numbers as little pixels move around, making decisions that simplify the equation, like wiping out the Brotherhood because they are a stray variable he cannot account for in his grand plans. He has the ability and intellect to rebuild the industrial sector, maybe even take us to space, but that’s the problem with the Rich isn’t it? They’d rather abandon this planet and just find an easier solution than get their hands dirty fixing this world. 

And we come upon him at last, the tyrant of tyrants, he who wishes to defy his fate even more desperately than Robert House himself. The plagiarist with a real severe case of hypocrisy and Brain Disease, its time for Caesar. Why do I say Caesar instead of Caesar’s Legion? Because he is the faction, he is the glue that binds the whole operation together. Its not at all a hot take, even in the game itself they acknowledge as soon as Caesar dies, the Legion will split among its squabbling generals and the territory will fall to chaos, because his men follow the man himself, not his ideals. As a fascist, he has no true ideals, the man shifts with whatever works best. Guns are normally forbidden to them, but a Centurion conquered an entire tribe of strong warriors with his minigun? Well now give him a suit of special commemorative armor and let him keep using it. No modern medicine yes, men must be stronger than such luxuries? But he will very openly tell you about the auto-doc he bestows upon those he favors, and has no problem with you removing his tumor. The man is weak of spirit and will, he seeks to make himself known in history, to last beyond his death. And so we come to his mid-life crisis, life under Caesar’s Empire. One could say yes, its safe to live in his territory, the regular patrols excise the tumor that are raider gangs and hostile wildlife. But is that a reason to excuse the tithes one must pay to his Legion? The young men taken to serve, the women taken for slave labor and much more horrible things? The public executions and mass torture over minor trespasses, such as possessing recreational drugs? A total lack of political freedom, zero social mobility; a world that even if you somehow view going back thousands of years in terms of social, technological, and political progress to the age of the tyrant as GOOD, will collapse as soon as he dies of his brain tumor, old age, tripping over a landmine, or assassination? If that is really what you see as the ideal world, or somehow a neutral society in terms of morality, I really don’t know what to tell you. I wish I knew what to say.

Imperialism as explored by Star Wars. Sorry in advance.

I think it’s neat how ever since the good guy/American revolutionary vs bad guy/British empire set up in ANH, the Galactic Empire has been increasingly been grounded in more lucid and descript forms of violence, oppression and exploitation so that now we have one of the most monopolistic and soulless corporations (and in some ways the face of modern American capitalism), Disney, ironically owning a property that gives a competent account of what Empire looks like that doesn’t shy away from the political implications (many of which even go against Disney’s interests.)

First off we have the very shape galactic civilisation: densely populated Ecumenopolises such as Coruscant as well as other advanced and politically influential worlds like Alderaan and Chandrila are focused towards the Galactic core, while groupings of planets with decreasing levels of political and economic significant fall to further and further outskirts. It almost seems to be an intentional allusion to the core-periphery model that plays a central foundation to both Marxist and non-Marxist analyses of Imperialism. Although I’m resigned to accept it was more likely a natural tendency for the creators to put the centre of galactic civilisation in, well, the centre of the galaxy, although any look at the galactic map would possibly put this into question as most of the known space is heavily skewed to the Galactic east, and the deep core actually ends up being on one side of civilisation than in the centre. 

Either way, the nature of the relationship between the core and the periphery ends up fitting the real-world model, and this is the case for not just the Empire but for the Republic too. In Phantom it’s just a matter of seeing a contrast between the criminally-run Tattooine to the vast wealth of the capital. I should say now that two key facets of this analysis is that 1. republics, even self-professed anti-imperialist ones (America, USSR, Iran come to mind), can and do engage in imperialism, and 2. there is, at least for some people, a sense of continuity between the Republic and the Empire. This latter point sort of reflects how the early Roman Empire claimed to be a continuation of the Roman Republic, as evidenced by the style of the address for the Emperor being ‘princeps’ or first-citizen, as opposed to the later ‘dominus’ or lord. While Mon Mothma and others would see the Republic as having been destroyed by Palpatine’s coup, men like Yularen and Tarkin smoothly transitioning between high-ranking positions in both governments, would disagree, although by the time of ANH the old systems had been so firmly eroded that even Tarkin gloats that the “last vestiges of the old republic have been swept away.” Nonetheless, the Core-periphery system remains and in fact is intensified during this time, with the Core cultural elite being emphasised in Thrawn and Princess of Alderaan (and reinforced on-screen with the constant overindulgence in English accents) and with assignments for Imperial officials being considered more worthy if being closer to the core.

With the core-periphery model being the basis assumption, there are three predominant models of imperialism. One is based off international realism, which we can dismiss out of hand because it depends on multiple independent states playing a zero-sum game on an anarchic chess board, but in the GFFA, with a few exceptions like the distant Chiss, there is an assumed universal (or in this case, galactic) governance. However, we will come back to IR realism in a bit. The other two models are in direct opposition with one another, although they are not mutually exclusive as most modern theorists try to adapt aspects from both. 

One is the metrocentric view, based off the works of rabid antisemite J.A Hobson and general scumbag  V.I. Lenin. The nub of their theories was that imperialism was an extension of surplus capital from industrialised nations, as the faster rate of growth in productivity outpaced demand in the home country/metropole (or core) it became more profitable to invest in less developed countries as lower wage-bases would help maintain a high rate of return. However, so many of these places had strong religious or cultural institutions or were even based on non-monetary sharing economies, which necessitated political intervention for a capitalist incursion to work, and so financial interests prompted national governments to dominate these countries, destroy said institutions and build physical infrastructure based around hard resource extraction. 

In the sense that the Empire is centrally driven, this theory applies, although the motivation is different. As far as I’m aware, none of the major colonial empires were run by an evil cult centred around the totalitarian authority of one single individual and his acolytes (in this regard the Empire is more like Nazi Germany than anything else.) However, the Empire does clearly work on extracting value from peripheral planets to fund the opulence of the core, and with the clear distinction from the Republic where this process also happened, the Empire wields its military power to protect and accelerate that process, with Imperial Star Destroyers deploying to investigate a slave revolt on Kessel in Solo and a permanent military presence between the resource-depleted Gorse and Thorilide-rich Cynda in A New Dawn.

It’s difficult to ascribe the motivation for expansion in the Empire since it begins already controlling the Galaxy, although picking up on my earlier point about republics engaging in forms of Imperialism, we have something from Tarkin, when it’s revealed that the Republic expanded from the Core, “ravenous for new resources and not above exploiting to enhance the quality of their lives.” The book goes on to explains how competing financial interests propelled expansion, which is interesting because it possibly clues us into the instability underlying the Republic in the prequels, with unchecked financial interests causing corruption and unrest (just short of suggesting class conflict) and feelings of resentment from predominantly Outer Rim and non-human planets who join the CIS. Although the CIS was mostly just a project for those same opportunistic financial interests (such as slavers and interplanetary banking cartels), it’s interesting to note that the regular citizens genuinely thought they were fighting against the corruption of the Republic, with one Parliamentarian in The Clone Wars suggesting that unlike the Galactic Senate, the Raxus Parliament is not influenced by corporations. 

But for the faults of both the Republic and the CIS, the Empire outstripped them both; bringing back slavery, coercing entire races such as the Geonotians to work before eradicating them, and with the word ‘stripmining’ becoming a very popular word among various OT media. However, a counterargument to this being a form of metrocentric Imperialism could be the relative non-presence of financial interests during the Empire era. Indeed, while most callous resource-extraction in Africa during the late 19th century was geared towards creating products to dump into world markets, most of the resource extraction we see in the Empire is about directly supplying the military (tibanna in Thrawn, thorilide in A New Dawn) and even the presence of people profiteering seems lacking. Even the villain most clearly associated with profit-seeking capitalism, Denetrius Vidian from A New Dawn, is a member of the Emperor’s inner circle. This alignment of industrial and state interests is probably why the Empire is described as being fascist by Wookiepedia. While I don’t contest the definition, I still think we can accurately compare it with late 19th century colonial Empires, which also had large military-industrial complexes to supply, and whose alignment with private joint-stock companies such as the East India Company is not too unlike the Empire’s close ties with the Mining Guild. 

The opposing view is the pericentric model, which argues that the nature of Imperialism is more determined by local conditions, and that colonial empires preferred to rule with a light touch when necessary. The view was supported by the fact that different Imperial territories would have different arrangements. For example, Britain was content just taking a concession from Qing China and dumping Opium into its markets, while it became more direct involved with various African lands which didn’t have a relatively stable system of governance for which to work with. Meanwhile, Britain found itself entangled into occupation of Egypt after the local situation deteriorated after an anti-colonial rebellion, even under the generally anti-empire prime minister William E. Gladstone. 

I feel this model applies less to the Empire, since we’ve seen that it pursues imperialism with an almost perverse fervour, but there are examples which fit. Although with less power, the Queen of Naboo remained as an institution, and Clan Saxon collaborated with the Empire and became a pro-Imperial client regime. Meanwhile, the King of Mon Cala resisted the Empire and so was deposed, with it being implicit that had he cooperated, he could have remained as ruler. In Rebels, we see how increasing insurgency leads to greater and greater direct control by the Imperial Navy. Ultimately, however, it’s clear that the Empire, contrary to the pericentric, has a greater inclination towards greater direct rule, with Tarkin saying in ANH that more power will be handed to the regional governors. 

Finally, we return to realism, but not to investigate the Core-Periphery model any further but rather to look at another aspect of the Empire, it’s overextension. Part of this is probably to the do with the last point, its desire to control as much as possible, leading to Leia saying in ANH, “the more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.” This form of realism, offensive realism, plays right into this. This theory comes from Jack Snyder’s The Myth of Empire, and it postulates that late 19th and early 20th century empires became fixated on constant expansion, to deter any incursion into their own hinterland and to break up opposing alliances. This policy, in fact, led to the opposite happening, with empires becoming too stretched thing to properly defend its hinterland, an being so aggressive as to prompt fearful opposing nations to band together to take them down. 

In the Star Wars, we can see this in the Tarkin doctrine and the Death Star. The belief that total aggression will be necessary to deter even the slightest thought of resistance leads to an ungodly amount of resources being devoted to this one superweapon, at the expense of other projects getting less than they need (as explored in Thrawn: Treason with both protagonist and antagonist feeling rather miffed by the lack of funding for their own projects). The destruction of Alderaan (among countless other cruelties and war crimes) does more to spur on the Rebellion than anything else, especially once the superweapon they spent so much of their resources on gets taken right from under them. And in a way perhaps that’s the good thing about any empire, that it sows the seeds of its own destruction half the time. 

So yeah, sorry about this ungodly and incomprehensible overanalysis of an IP for children. It ended up being way longer than I thought it would, and this was just about imperialism (empire on a grand scale, as opposed to colonialism which would be the specific practices employed by empire in a territory.) I might make another one of these if I get the time.

Iranians say punishing US sanctions hurt people, not officials.

For ordinary Iranians, it's the US's economic threat that is most burdensome despite fears of a military confrontation.

It seems obvious to me that the US has at least two aims with its Iran- and larger Middle-East-policies: Firstly, our Idiot-in-Chief Trump needs a bad-guy to boss around, just like previous administrations have; it refracts attention from some of the problems at home onto a fictive “bogeyman”. Secondly, the US would love to (again) meddle in Irans internal affairs and “help” Iran “nation-build” with a government more to Washington’s liking. If Iran could (again) be manipulated into internal turmoil, the US could steer Iran in a more “west-friendly” direction; just as they and the British did in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, in which a democratically elected leader was deposed, and The Shah of Iran was installed, who led a bloody and ugly de facto dictatorship until his overthrow in 1979 by the Ayatollah’s, who were much more hardline than Iran had ever been before. Iran is really the only nation in the greater Middle East which stands in the way of complete US hegemony in the region. And so because of US/British Imperialist aggression, (The Islamic Republic of) Iran is today led by a a religious mafia which to all intents and purposes control everything in Iran. Will the US try again? They’d love to, as they have all over the world; the crisis on the southern US border is the result of US wars, manipulation and Imperialism “in our own back-yard” of Central America. 

Europe MUST, together with perhaps China, Russia and India create a coalition which stands up to continued US aggression and ugly bullying. From this point of view I’m actually happy that Trump (and the GOP congress) are such bumbling imbeciles; it helps nudge the rest of the way in different, and surely, better directions for cooperation! So Go Trump, you dumb fuck!

Crimes of the US Presidents

CW: mention of sexual abuse, slavery, theft, imperialism, colonialism, war crimes, anti-black/brown/indigenous violence/policies, repression, racism, xenophobia, overthrows, invasions, and police violence.

Hey y’all, I intended to do this list on Presidents Day, but I didn’t. Anyway, I’m going to list every crime that every President did because all Presidents are guilty of crimes. Here’s the list.

1-5) The first five aka The so called founding fathers - Created this nation by enslaving Africans and the theft of Indigenous land. Owned huge number of slaves. Thomas Jefferson owned over 600 slaves, and raped one of them (15 yo Sally Hennings). Some of them supported the colonization of Liberia. They were also horribly capitalist, racist, and sexist.

6) John Quincy Adams - Nothing great about him. Moving on

7) Andrew Jackson - A genodical slave owning fuckface. Responsible for the Trail of Tears, forcing many Native tribes of their land. Got involved in wars that removed Natives from their land, including the Seminole Wars. Owned slaves and supported it.

8. Martin Van Buren - Continued Jackson’s Indian Removal policy and did nothing to stop slavery and owned some slaves.

9) William Henry Harrison - His reign was too damn short. So nothing about him, although he did participate in the Indian Wars before he was president.

10) John Tyler - Theft of Texas from Mexico. Owned slaves and didn’t stop slavery and was okay with it. A forgettable name tho.

11) James K Polk - Continued the theft of Mexico through the Mexican American War. Was a huge slaveowner and supported it and used the territory from Mexico to expand slavery. Asshole.

12) Zachary Taylor - another short run, but was a slaveowner and supported it (the last president to own slaves during his presidency). Also was a General in the Mexican-American War. Nothing great about him. Another forgettable one.

13) Millard Fillmore - Wanted to expand slavery to the new territories stolen from Mexico. Enacted the Fugitive Slave Act that criminalized slaves that escaped from their owners.

14) Franklin Pierce - Continued the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Wanted to push slavery in Northern territories via the Kansas–Nebraska Act which also pushed Indigenous land off their territories. This caused a violent conflict between pro and anti slavery forces, preceding the Civil War. He continued the theft of Mexican land and tried to steal Cuba to make a slave state.

15) James Buchanan - Did nothing to stop slavery and defended the Dred Scott case. He also wanted Kansas as a slave state. Another forgettable name.

16) Abraham Lincoln - Now here’s some good stuff. But first, the Civil War was fought over slavery, not over that states rights bullshit. Anyway, the so called Great Emancipator was a far cry from what he is seen as. He never gave a damn about freeing slaves, his actions were plain opportunistic. He said he would preserve the Union without freeing a slave and don’t believe in rights for black people. He also planned to put freed black people on Liberia as an attempt to recolonize em. Another thing, the 13th Amendment never fully abolished slavery as slavery could be legal as a crime, which was instrumental in creating mass imprisonment and the influx of private and state prisons. He also ordered the massacre of Dakota Indians after an uprising by them. Racist as hell. The Great Lie. That’s what he is.

17) Andrew Johnson - One of the worst presidents ever, if you can say that as all presidents ain’t shit, Johnson’s incompetence and his attempts to veto any rights for black people got him impeached. He wanted to re-slave and recolonize black people (he tried to vetoed the 13th and 14th Amendment). He also owned slaves, which probably caused his thinking. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

18) Ulysses S Grant - Even though he pushed hard on the Reconstruction, improved rights for black people, Jews, and Natives, and criminalized the KKK, he was a corrupt fool who had a number of corruption cases that weakened the Reconstruction. He also tried to claim Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic). He was the last president known to own chattel slaves, although he freed his, despite his family still owning slaves.

19) Rutherford B Hayes - He was the final nail to the coffin of the Reconstruction as he pulled troops out of the South, letting the racist as fuck Southern Democrats take over. This intensified racial violence and discrimination against black people such as lynchings and voter suppression. He was the one that created the Dawes Act, that enforced assimilation on Indigenous people and them losing any ownership of their land. He also sent troops crushed a railroad strike (the Great Railroad Strike of 1877). Did nothing about the corruption, labor conditions, and wealth inequality during the Gilded Age.

20) James A Garfield - Another short one. Nothing great. Moving on.

21) Chester A Arthur - Signed a law targeting Chinese immigrants and citizens as they were blamed for low wages and unemployment. Did nothing about the rampant anti-blackness going on. He also continued the assimilation policies of Indigenous people and the theft and blockade of their land. Also did nothing about what’s going on during the Gilded Age.

22 & 24) Grover Cleveland - Did nothing about the poor labor conditions of the workers and let capitalists multiply their wealth while letting workers suffers. Sent troops to quell the Pullman Strike, which resulted in the imprisonment of socialist Eugene Debs. Also did nothing about the anti-blackness in this country. Continued anti-Chinese policies. A fave among libertarians. I can see why.

23) Benjamin Harrison - Let the Wounded Knee Massacre Happened with many Lakota Indians being massacred in order to destroy the Ghost Dance movement. Also supported assimilation of Natives. Supported the colonization of Hawaii after the Kingdom was overthrown by American missionaries and plantation owners. Also did nothing about anti-blackness and the robber barons. Continued anti-immigration policies.

25) William McKinley - Now we’re getting into the big imperialism. Finally colonized Hawaii as a part of the US. Took Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines, and Guam from Spain, transitioning power from one colonizer to another one. He also sent troops to China to quell the Boxer Rebellion, which resisted cultural imperialism and colonialism from missionaries and other colonial interests. Also did nothing about anti-blackness.

26) Theodore Roosevelt - Progressives favorite president was a big ass imperialist. But Square Deal, trust busting… yeah he regulated businesses and put out many social reforms, but as an attempt to quell any revolutionary changes. Anyway, increased military presence in the Philippines leading into the Philippine-American War, which was responsible for the deaths of many Filipinos. Expanded the Monroe Doctrine, which the US the right to intervene in Latin America aka imperialism. Took control of Cuba after briefly giving it independence and Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Panama too. Targeted anarchists, socialists, poor and disabled immigrants, and sex workers with another anti-immigration law. He okayed the discharging of black soldiers after they were accused of Brownsville Raid, ya know black people were accused of harming wite people at the time and were killed because of it. Never cared about black people. Hated Natives and once said a good Indian is a dead one. After his presidency, he killed around 11,000 animals that were Indigenous to Africa for a fucking Museum. So much for being progressive.

27) William Howard Taft - Didn’t care about black lives. Sent troops to try to stop the Mexican Revolution as he was a supporter of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. He also planned a coup against Nicaragua.

28) Woodrow Wilson - A despicable name who is another fave of progressives. An extremely racist motherfucker. He support segregation, banned black people from Princeton when he was President over there, and was pro-wite supremacist and played the pro KKK film Birth of a Nation in the White House. He also occupied Veracruz, Mexico and tried to quell the Mexican Revolution which also include the attempted capture of revolutionary Pancho Villa. He also invaded Dominican Republic and Haiti, the former led to the rise of DR dictator Rafael Trujillo. He got the country into WWI, getting the country into a war that had nothing to do with it. He started the Espionage Act and the first Red Scare which targeted socialists, anarchists, unionists, and anyone who opposed the war. Continued Teddy’s anti immigration policies. A fucking fascist is what he was.

29) Warren G Harding - Another corrupt motherfucker. Privatization of multiple industries and implemented tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Let wage cuts happened and oil preserves be control by private oil companies. Let corrupt officials in his government. Possible member of the KKK, and barely did anything for black lives. He was a terrible person.

30) Calvin Coolidge - Continued the capitalist policies of Harding. Refused farm subsidies. Didn’t do nothing for the black victims in the Great Mississippi Flood and let em suffer. Signed an anti-immigration bill. Sounds like something familiar that would happen almost 80 years later.

31) Herbert Hoover - While he’s known for his mishandling of the economy which was the final nail to the coffin that led to the Great Depression, he refused to sign any anti-lynching laws, favoring the interests of the Southern whites. He also put black victims of the aforementioned flood in poor conditions in the camp during his Vice-Presidency.

32) Franklin D Roosevelt - Here’s another progressive fave I’m gonna expose. But muh New Deal and Second Bill Rights… I don’t give a shit. The New Deal existed to save capitalism and not to radicalize the country. Most progressive reforms existed to preserve and maintain the capitalist system. Also, black people faced restriction and discrimination from the New Deal programs. Refused to sign an anti-lynching bill. Supported dictatorships in Latin America like Batista (Cuba), Trujillo (DR), and Somoza Sr.(Nicaragua). Let banks finance Hitler. Only went to WW2 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because he froze trade towards Japan, which was a huge mistake trading with Japan. His administration planned creation for nuclear weapons. Put anyone of Japanese descent into concentration camps. Some progressive.

33) Harry S Truman - Committed one of the worst crimes in history. Nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was responsible for many deaths over there. Help kickstart McCarthyism in America, one of the most repressive eras in America that targeted any radical leftist and even caused the downfall of some of them (ie Paul Robeson). Not only that, he’s instrumental in starting the wide support for brutally oppressive dictators and overthrowing popular leaders that would follow later presidents. He also help form the CIA. Supported Chiang’s repressive KMT government in Manila China and Taiwan (ROC). Helped in trying to stop revolutions in Greece and Turkey. Started the Korean War, which resulted in the death of multiple Koreans, the destabilization of DPRK (North) and the rise of multiple dictators in ROK (South). He also flirted with being a member of the KKK prior to being a president.

34) Dwight D Eisenhower - The OG of hardcore American imperialism. He continued the McCarthyist policies of targeting socialists and communists and let COINTELPRO exist, which was responsible for the repression and destruction of many black and brown revolutionary movements and targeted other black and brown activists. He also used McCarthyist policies against LBGT people. He supported repressive dictators like Francisco Franco (Spain), Chiang Kai Shek (ROC), Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam) and Fulgencio Batista (Cuba). Supported France in maintaining control of their colony of Vietnam, and suppressing the Viet Minh revolution led by Ho Chi Minh, sparking the Vietnam War. Let the CIA plan coups in Iran and Guatemala, resulting in the power of the Shah Reza Pahlavi and the rise of military dictatorships in Guatemala respectively. Ordered the assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Tried to overthrow Cuba after Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. He was too chickenshit to come to Castro after he went to the US. Equally loved by liberals and conservatives and I see why.

35) John F Kennedy - Not good ole JFK! He was set up the USA! But Jack got blood on his hands too. He fully got the country into Vietnam, supporting South Vietnam and continuing one of the most unpopular and deadly wars, a war that existed to maintain colonialism and imperialism in SE Asia. Not only that, he tried to overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion, which almost got the country involved in a nuclear war with the USSR and Cuba. Also planned a coup in Iraq, which resulted in the Ba’athists taking. Not only all of this, he let the COINTELPRO spy, target, and harass black activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., who Kennedy pretended to be his friend. He played a lot of civil rights and Black Power activists. Malcolm X saw through his game and critiqued the March of Washington as a farce to control any black activism and radicalism. He’s also instrumental in the long term goal of the Democrats and liberals manipulating black people to support him. So much of him being a good president.

36) Lyndon B Johnson - The fucking manipulator. Continued the repressive policies of the COINTELPRO and Mccarthyism. Even tho they also targeted (via spying, wire tapping, and harassment) anti-war and communists and socialists, their main targets were the black activists and radicals. He targeted MLK after he spoke out against the Vietnam War and caused his breakdown, some friend he was. He also let the COINTELPRO target Malcolm X, SNCC, the Black Panther Party, and other black radical movements. He perfected the manipulation of black people to the Dems and liberals, and said once I’ll have those n***ers voting Democrats for next 200 years. He only passed out Civil Rights Acts and anti-poverty programs to quell any revolutionary movements, like all liberals do. Intensified the Vietnam War by sending more troops over there, resulting in more casualties and massacres over there like the My Lai Massacre. Started the bombing of Cambodia. Aided Israel in their Six Day War against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Let the CIA overthrow democratically elected and revolutionary governments in countries like Indonesia, Congo, Ghana, Greece, and Brazil, replacing them with military dictatorships. Supported repressive dictators around the world, including the aforementioned. Got the CIA to capture popular Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, which resulted in his execution by the Bolivian military. He also increased the power of the police after multiple riots happened as a response against racism and police brutality. A true champion for liberals.

37) Richard Nixon - Oh hell yeah! I got so much dirt on this motherfucker. A legit criminal and tyrant. Continued McCarthyism and the COINTELPRO through violent suppression, harassment, wiretapping, and spying. Suppressed revolutionary and anti-war movements, including Kent State, SNCC, the Chicago Seven, Black Panthers, and Black Liberation Army. The destruction of the BPP by the FBI, CIA, and police happened during his presidency. Started the War of Drugs which criminalized black people (his intention). First president to fully use the Southern Strategy, which appealed to Southern wites by promising state rights to them, which is wite power in smaller steps. Continued the War in Vietnam, which also includes invading and bombing Laos and Cambodia (which also includes a coup) respectively. However, he withdrew troops from Vietnam in 73. Sent arms to Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Let the CIA continue overthrowing democratically elected and revolutionary governments, which includes overthrowing democratically elected Chilean president Salvador Allende and replacing with a repressive military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. He also supported and defended Pakistan in their war against Bangladesh, which includes a genocide against them. He also military supported dictators around the world like the Philippines, Greece, aforementioned Chile, Spain, Congo (Zaire), and Haiti. He got exposed by the Watergate scandal that forced him to resign. Too bad that never got indicted for his crimes.

38) Gerald Ford - Really nothing but a transitional president from Nixon to Carter. However, he did pardon Nixon for his crimes. Along with that, he did got involved in the Angola Civil War, supporting the neo-colonial and right wing forces over there. Supported Indonesia in their war against East Timor. Yeah he was just there.

39) Jimmy Carter - He maybe seen as an incompetent president, but Carter got blood on his hands too and is another one liberals love to praise because of his post-presidency. Anyway, he funded the muhadjeen in Afghanistan, an Islamic fundamentalist paramilitary group that is a predecessor to many Islamist organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, to overthrow communist rule over there. He also stood by the barbaric Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. He said his foreign policy supported human rights, but that was a lie as he supported dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (Congo), the Shah Pahlavi and Muhammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan. He also didn’t say shit about the repressive nature of the countries he supported. He also expanded the War of Drugs. So much for him being a humanitarian.

40) Ronald Reagan - Beloved by the right, somewhat loved by the liberals, The king of neoliberalism, McCarthyism, and American imperialism. There’s so much I gotta say about this fuckface cuz he got so much blood on his hands. His neoliberal Reaganomics is the most toxic economic system ever. He made cuts to a majority social services, and created a huge fucking wealth gap that increased the wealth of the capitalists and bourgeoisie. Not only this, black and brown suffered the most from Reaganomics as poverty increased in black and brown communities. Cut multiple civil rights bills and acts, and used the Southern Strategy to a tee. Coined the term welfare queen (which is racist, classist, and sexist) to rum up fear and hostility against welfare recipients. Expanded the War of Drugs that continued the constant incarceration of black people. Speaking of that, he let CIA plant drugs (cocaine) in the black neighborhoods, while him and his wife told people to say no to drugs. Went to Bitburg, Germany to celebrate the memory of SS officers. Let thousands of people die from AIDS and didn’t give a damn about gay rights. Also, during his time as Governor of California, he ordered a witch hunt against communists, which included Angela Davis, and worked the NRA and police/FBI to disarm and crush the BPP respectively. Now to his imperialist record. His Reagan Doctrine existed to crush revolutionary movement and replace em with barbaric and despotic governments/extremists. A major example was his increased funding of the muhadjeen, going where Jimmy Carter left off, and y’all know how well that went when they took over Afghanistan. People forget (tbh ignore) that these Islamist extremists were funded by the US (esp the CIA). Not only that, he supported Saddam Hussein (he was an US ally) and gave him military weapons, which he used to kill the Kurds in Iraq. Funded the Contras to quell the Sandista revolution through trafficking cocaine (via the CIA) and selling arms to Iran. Almost got into a war with Lebanon, but got the troops out after he realized he fucked up with his plan. Invaded Grenada to destroy the remnants of the New Jewel Movement and replace with a puppet leader. He also support neocolonial paramilitary forces in countries like Angola, Afghanistan (muhadjeen), Cambodia, Nicaragua (the Contras), and El Salvador. Supported repressive military dictators of the likes of Pinochet (Chile), Mobuto (Zaire/Congo), Baby Doc (Haiti), Suharto (Indonesia), and Rios Montt (Guatemala) like other presidents. He also gave Baby Doc Duvalier and Ferdinand Marcos (the Philippines) refuge after revolts against them happen. Supported and defended apartheid South Africa. Bombed the fucked outta Libya and let a US Navy Ship blow up a plane full of Iranians. Yeah an inspiration of all spectrum of the right and a bit of the center. I see why. Some of this sounds similar to a latter president, more on that later.

41) George HW Bush - Son of a Nazi financier (Prescott Bush’s banks funded Nazis), father of a war criminal, Papa Bush perfectly bridged the gap from one dirty presidency to another. Stood by and supported Reagan during his tenure as VP. His campaign showed a picture of black criminal Willie Horton as a smear campaign against the other presidential candidate as they said that he is soft of crime and oppose the death penalty for criminals like Horton. Yeah, the type of shit that wite ppl pull, using a black face to advocate the death penalty, like they do, and associating blackness with crime, like they always do. Went to war with Iraq over it’s invasion of Kuwait, but it was right thing, the UN… please. It happened because the US sees Kuwait as their oil colony. It was a property war as both the US and Iraq saw Kuwait as theirs and it was responsible for the destruction of Iraq. Invaded Panama for drug trafficking, despite the US (via the CIA) doing the same thing and them knowing of it, and put another puppet leader over there. What’s ironic about this that we supported Panama and Iraq and we have them political/financial support and weapons (in the case of Iraq). When the Cold War ended, we stopped supporting em and stood against him just to look good. Also, put troops in Somalia under the guise of humanitarianism just to attempt to colonize it rather than giving it reparations. The theme of military intervention under the guise of humanitarianism would be a recurring theme for other presidents. Signed the toxic NAFTA which was responsible for horrible labor conditions and environmental violations. Targeted rappers (with his VP) like Ice-T and 2pac because of their content. He eventually lost re-election because he wanted families to be less like the Simpsons, even though his policies made the Simpsons look like the Waltons.

42) Bill Clinton - Ugh. Another Democrat who exist to look good and got blood on his hands. He was also a shitty person. During his time as governor of Arkansas, he and his wife made black prisoners take care of and clean up the governor’s mansion with no compensation. Yes, this is slavery. They essentially owned slaves. He was a disgusting predator who sexually assaulted and harassed a number of women, before and after his presidency. His predatory behavior led to his impeachment, which only limit his power. Now his presidency. Used the Southern Strategy to gain wins. Continued and Oked NAFTA. Continued the neoliberal policies that dawned over America. Signed a 1994 Crime which expanded the power of police and prisons and increased the mass imprisonment of black people. During that time, his wife called black boys superpredators. Killed the remaining remnants of the welfare state by forcing recipients to work for their welfare because muh welfare queen, targeting mainly poor/working/Black women. Was behind multiple corruption scandals like Travelgate and Whitewater. Wanted to target Sister Souljah when her outspoken views was misconstrued by the media, and portrayed her a racist and a pot stirrer. He was the one that enforced the immigration laws that would continue in the country that was responsible for restrictive borders, ridiculous immigration laws, and xenophobic attacks and targeting cuz illegal immigration, despite this country founded by illegal theft. Continued the US intervention in Somalia, but when shit got tough, he got em out. Knew about the Rwandan genocide and blocked any assistance of the country. The only reason he didn’t intervene because Rwanda wasn’t seen as profitable. Expanded the powers of NATO (North Atlantic TERRORIST Organization), which was bad. This expansion led to the 1995 and 1999 bombing of Yugoslavian nations (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Yugoslavia respectively), which was another one under the name of humanitarianism. The bombing did nothing but target civilians and bring damage and they didn’t end the conflict. The US protecting Kosovo was essentially them preying on a vulnerable country and making into a puppet state. Sent missiles to attack Iraq, when it didn’t do anything. Attacked a pharmaceutical company in Sudan. He still prove to be a piece os shit after his presidency when him and his wife exploited funds that was meant for Haiti and decided to went after BLM. And he’s labeled the first black president. Da fuck?! Fuck him (and his wife too).

43) George W Bush - Ol Cowboy George. The notorious war criminal himself. The biggest joke ever. Never forget, most of the whole world hated him because of his actions. Lets begin, but first… let’s talk about 9/11. No conspiracies please, even tho enjoy making jokes about it. What happened on 9/11 wasn’t because they hated our freedoms. That’s Grade A pure bullshit. 9/11 was a result of our toxic foreign policy and the fact that who did was our Frankenstein. What I mean? Never forget, OBL and his Al Qaeda buddies, and the whole fucking Taliban were created by the US. The US (like always, with the help of the CIA) made these people by shipping weapons to them and training/teaching them with a reactionary ideology cuz Cold War and we let em overrun Afghanistan. We also turned against em when the Cold War ended, and they turned against and attacked us when we kept fucking with the Middle East. Therefore, this was a case of chickens roosting. Saddam was also an US ally, but when we found him useless and fucking with our oil colony Kuwait, we turned against him. This led to the War on Terrorism (Afghanistan and Iraq) which was bullshit because it was foolish to wage war against terrorism when we have funded and supported terrorisn, we created these terrorists in the first place, war is terrorism itself, there was no WMD (it was an excuse just to kick out ol Saddam), and the fact that anyone can be a terrorist. Ironically enough, the USA had done nothing about the terrorists in their own country like the KKK (oh wait! They’re wite). These wars are responsible for the death of multiple Afghan and Iraqi lives and this wasn’t a fight for freedom. It was for imperialism. It was for resources, especially oil (in the case of Iraq). The theme of these wars are humanitarianism, and lemme tell you this, there’s nothing humanitarian about war because war is violence and profit. Afghanistan was led by a corrupt puppet leader, while Iraq fell into despair which led to the rise of ISIS. PS, his buddy Dick Cheney’s corporation profit ire from Iraq. Not only all of this, this began the targeting and discrimination of (Black and Brown) Muslims, Africans, (S, SE, and W) Asians, and some Latinos and Sikhs. This included racial profiling, xenophobia, racism, wiretapping, violence/harassment against said groups, and toxic policies such as the Patriot ACT, TSA, and NSA. Targeted dissidents and Started the drone program which would be carried by his successor. Bush was the match that sparked the fire of things like racial profiling, police brutality, anti-immigration policies, xenophobia (ICE started under his rule), racism including anti-blackness, ultra-nationalism/patriotism, McCarthyist/Espionage like acts, imperialism, the rise of US neo-fascism, and neoliberalism. Continued neoliberal policies which would later result into austerity, which would spark the rise of wite supremacist/new fascist groups and increase economic inequality. While he did say it wasn’t his intention to cause all of this, but he let it happen. Let black people (esp in NOLA) drown and suffer under Katrina, and how he dealt with it? Sending the Natl Guard on them out there like a bunch of rabid dogs. Also planned to overthrow Cuba, Iran, Syria, N Korea (DPRK), and Venezuela and was possibly behind the coups of Haiti and Venezuela. Started the No Child Left Behind Act, which pushed more state testing and in schools, that hurted schools, teachers, and student, and it was low key push for school privatization. Now, he has a library, painting pictures, and condemning racism, despite his war/imperialist crimes, sparking racism and xenophobia, and institutional racism. Aye, he was fucking horrible and he (and the libs) are trying so hard to erase that and make himself look good.

44) Barack Obama - (Please refrain from using terms like Uncle Tom if you ain’t nonblack. That’s a black people’s thing) Aye, I use to support him so much, and I will defend him from wite supremacy (his right wing critics were fucking horrible), but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he was a successor to Bush. If Bush was the match, then Obama was the fuel to the flames of neoliberalism and imperialism. He continued the war of Afghanistan and took forever to end Iraq. He started a war with Libya and Syria which contributed to the destruction of them. He also funded terrorists to take care of that, which includes ISIS and Al-Qaeda, that led to Syria almost being taken over by ISIS, and Libya being toppled and overran by extremists and reviving the enslavement of black Africans. Expanded the drone program and drone the shit outta the Middle East and Africa, killing multiple people, including women and children. Also, invaded Mali for its resources and almost backed up the Ukraine coup (which was led by Neo-Nazis). Had thoughts of overthrowing Iran, Venezuela, and DPRK. Let Killary Clinton into his administration and she backed him in the wars of Syria and Libya. She was also behind the coups of Egypt and Honduras and the destabilization of countries like Venezuela and Haiti. Anyway, Obama, like the previous ones, continued neoliberal policies and austerity cuts, which added fuel to wite supremacist/neo-fascist groups and increased economic inequality. Continued the Espionage Act/McCarthyist like policies. While posing as a civil rights president, he didn’t do shit about the massive police violence against black people (especially LBGTQs, women, children, and the underclass) and trans people especially trans women, didn’t do nothing about the continued anti-blackness, racism, anti-LBGTQ-ism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia in this country, and let anti-immigrant policies happen including mass deportations and the ICE. Let the near privatization of public schools happen. Signed a deal with the TPP, which was a continuation of NAFTA. His policies and actions were the final nail in letting the next president. He’s still trying to make himself look good to this day. Another liberal with blood on his hand. However, if McCain won, he would’ve done the same thing as in whatever Bush did, the next person can do better.

45) Donald Trump - The final one for now. Ahhh!!!! What the fuck happened? I shoulda knew this damn bastard would win with how much the previous presidents destabilized this country. Fascism is what happens when the wite cishet patriarchal capitalist structure is in a dire situation. Trump is a fascist, no if, and, or buts. He’s a capitalist trying to appeal to working class as in I’m on your side (populism), like a fascist. He targeted non-Christians and nonwites and planned to take care of him, like a fascist. Ultranationalist and ultra patriotic, like a fascist. Uses racism, sexism, xenophobia, and anti-LBGT-ism, like a fascist. Uses a hell lotta cult of personality, like a fascist. Supports privatization of services and industries, like a fascist. Anyway, Trump in his beginning has done so much. Centers his presidency on racism, sexism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, and let his cult followers attack nonwites. He has been exposed as a sexual predator who has sexually assaulted a number of women, including a 13 yo girl and his ex-wife. He also been exposed of discriminating against black tenants in the 70s, and supported a conviction against four black boys and a Latino one after they were accused of raping a wite woman jogger, ya know the same fucking cases where black men were accused of raping WW. Hires a wite supremacist and someone who’s pro-privatization of public education into his office (Steve Bannon and Betsy DeVos respectively, although the former is gone). He also hired Mike Pence as VP, who’s horribly homophobic and has ties with toxic lobbies like ALEC and the Koch Bros. Plan to privatize and cutting many services and industries. His whole administration was full of capitalists and bigots. Tried to abolish Obamacare and cut funding to it. Dropped a huge bomb on Afghanistan and ordered air strikes at Syria and had thoughts of invading Venezuela and Iran. Defended wite supremacists and Neo-Nazis when they attacked and called em fine SOBs. Ordered a Muslim Ban and amped up anti-immigration legislation, including the rise of the ICE, targeting of brown and black immigrants, deportation of said immigrants, and separation and detainment of immigrant children. Targeted NFL players who kneeled during the Anthem, and attempted to make it illegal. Let police continue with their brutality, and stood by them, and released a Blue Lives Matter Bill, that increased their power. Oked the Keystone Pipeline, which would build through protected and sacred lands, including Indigenous land. Let the FBI target black radicals and BLM, under the excuse of black identity extremists, despite the issue of wite supremacists and Neo-Nazis and their shit. Did nothing about the rampant racism, sexism, anti-LBGTQ-ism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, both individualized and institutional. Also, his cult followers are fucking terrible. I’m gonna stop there for now. Anyway, Trump is a terrible human being and he needs to be off social media. He deserves to be hated, fuck what you say, and I’m tired of his ass kissers making excuses for him. As long he stays, fascism remains, and the libs and conservatives are keeping him there.

So that’s it for now.

The Kingdom of Florida declared independence on May 1st 1943 after the loss of the Imperialist Compact, of which Spain was a member, in the Eurasian War. While Florida and Puerto Rico, the two overseas possesions of Spain in the Americas, barely saw any fighting, both colonies reacted differently to the war. Anti-war sentiment dominated Puerto Rico, while Florida was filled with patriotic fervor. When Madrid fell to Anglo-French forces and both Danubia and Russia were exhausted from seven years of warfare, the Peace of Geneva was signed in 1943. Spain lost their few remaining colonies in Asia and Africa to the victorious Alliance of Nations and the fate of both Puerto Rico and Florida was up in the air. The island of Puerto Rico, supported by strong republican nations like Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela, chose independence from Spain and a constitution modelled after the Cuban one. Florida initially wanted to remain with Spain, but the suprise vote in the Spanish parliament which led to the abolishing of the monarchy changed that. Floridian monarchists declared independence from Spain and invited the deposed royal family to come to North America. Infante Jamie Alfonso and his young wife, the Habsburg princess Luisa Sofía, came to San Agustin to become King and Queen of Florida. Florida is the only monarchy of North America not ruled by the British monarch, and since the 1992 Constitutional Referendum in Brazil the only monarchy in Latin America. Florida has three neighbors, the Republic of Georgia (the southernmost nation which replaced the Thirteen Colonies), the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the Republic of Cuba. Relations with Cuba, while initially frosty, have thawed in the last thirty years. Georgia, which for the longest time had negative relations with the Spanish Empire due to Spanish support for the Seminole, have been cordial since Florida's declaration of independence. Also please excuse any language mistakes, because I don't speak Spanish (though I actually got help with it, so it should check out now and not be offensively bad) If you want to check out the high resolution version, check it out on my DeviantArt page.

Europe in Irreversible Decay, EU Elections are Proof of It! Europe, an “old” colonialist continent, is decaying, and in some places even collapsing. It senses how bad things are going. But it never thinks that it is its own fault. North America is decaying as well, but there, people are not even used to comparing. They only “feel that things are not going well”. If everything else fails, they simply try to get some second or third job, and just survive, somehow. On both sides of the Atlantic, the establishment is in panic. Their world is in crises, and the ‘crises’ arrived mainly because several great countries, including China, Russia, Iran, but also South Africa, Turkey, Venezuela, DPRK and the Philippines, are openly refusing to play in accordance with the script drawn in Washington, London and Paris. In these nations, there is suddenly no appetite for sacrificing their own people on the altar of well-being of Western citizens. Several countries, including Venezuela and Syria, are even willing to fight for their independence. Despite insane and sadistic embargos and sanctions imposed on them by the West; China, Russia and Iran are now flourishing, in many fields doing much better than Europe and North America. If they are really pushed any further, China, Russia and their allies combined, could easily collapse the economy of the United States; an economy which is built on clay and unserviceable debt. It is also becoming clear that militarily, the Pentagon could never defeat Beijing, Moscow, even Teheran. After terrorizing the world for ages, the West is now almost finished: morally, economically, socially, and even militarily. It still plunders, but it has no plan to improve the state of the world. It cannot even think in such terms. It hates China, and every other country that does have progressive, internationalist plans. It smears President Xi Jinping and his brainchild, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but there is nothing new and exciting that the West is able to offer to the world. Yes, of course, those regime changes, coups, military interventions and theft of natural resources, but anything else? No, silence! * During my two weeks long working visit to Europe, in the Czech Republic (now renamed to Czechia), a country that enjoys a higher HDI (Human Development Index defined by UNDP) than Italy or Spain, I saw several young, decently dressed men, picking through garbage bins, right in front of my hotel, looking for food. I saw young Europeans kneeling and begging in Stuttgart, the second richest city in Germany (where both Mercedes and Porsche car are produced). What I observed in all seven countries of the EU that I visited, was confusion, but also indifference, extreme selfishness and almost grotesque idleness. In great contrast to Asia, everybody in Europe was obsessed with their ‘rights’ and privileges, while no one gave a slightest damn about responsibilities. When my plane from Copenhagen landed in Stuttgart, it began to rain. It was not heavy rain; just rain. The Canadair jet operated by SAS is a small aircraft, and it did not get a gate. It parked a few meters from the terminal and the captain announced that ground staff refused to bring a bus, due to lightning and the downpour. And so, we stayed inside the plane, for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour. The lightning ended. The drizzle continued. 40 minutes, no bus. One hour later, a bus appeared. A man from the ground staff emerged leisurely, totally wrapped in plastic, protected hermetically from rain. Passengers, on the other hand, were not even offered umbrellas. “I love myself”, I later read graffiti in the center of the city. The graffiti was not far from the central train station, which is being refurbished at the cost of several billion euros, and against the will of the citizens. The monstrous project is marching on at an insanely lazy pace, with only 5-6 construction workers detectable at a time, down in the tremendous excavations. Stuttgart is unbelievably filthy. Escalators often do not work, drunkards are all over, and so are beggars. It is as if for decades, no one did any face-lift to the city. Once free museums are charging hefty entrance fees, and most of the public benches have disappeared from parks and avenues. The decay is omnipresent. The German rail system (DB) has virtually collapsed. Almost all trains are late, from the ‘regional’; to the once glorified ICE (these German ‘bullet trains’ are actually moving slower, on average, even in comparison to some Indonesian inter-city expresses). The services provided everywhere in Europe, from Finland to Italy, are grotesquely bad. Convenience stores, cafes, hotels – all are understaffed, badly run and mostly arrogant. Humans are often replaced by dysfunctional machines. Tension is everywhere, the bad mood omnipresent. Demanding anything is unthinkable; one risks being snapped at, insulted, sent to hell. I still remember how Western propaganda used to glorify services in the capitalist countries, when we were growing up in the Communist East: “The customer is always treated like a god”. Yes, right! How laughable. For centuries, “European workers” were ‘subsidized’ by colonialist and neo-colonialist plunder, perpetrated in all non-white corners of the world. They ended up being spoiled, showered with benefits, and unproductive. That was fine for the elites: as long as the masses kept voting for the imperialist regime of the West. “The Proletariat” eventually became right-wing, imperialist, even hedonistic. I saw a lot this time, and soon I will write much more about it. What I did not witness, was hope, or enthusiasm. There was no optimism. No healthy and productive exchange of ideas, or profound debate; something I am so used to in China, Russia or Venezuela, just confusion, apathy and decay everywhere. And hate for those countries that are better, more human, more advanced, and full of socialist enthusiasm. * Italy felt slightly different. Again, I met great left-wing thinkers there; philosophers, professors, filmmakers, journalists. I spoke at Sapienza University, the biggest university in Europe. I lectured about Venezuela and Western imperialism. I worked with the Venezuelan embassy in Rome. All of that was fantastic and enlightening, but was this really Italy? A day after I left Rome for Beirut, Italians went to the polls. And they withdrew their supports from my friends of the 5-Star-Movement, leaving them with just over 17%, while doubling the backing for the extreme right-wing Northern League. This virtually happened all over Europe. UK Labor lost, while right-wing Brexit forces gained significantly. Extreme right-wing, even near-fascist parties, reached unexpected heights. It was all “me, me, me” politics. An orgy of “political selfies”. Me had enough of immigrants. Me wants better benefits. Me wants better medical care, shorter working hours. And so on. Who pays for it, no one in Europe seems to care. Not once did I hear any European politicians lamenting about the plundering of West Papua or Borneo, about Amazonia or the Middle East, let alone Africa. And immigration? Did we hear anything about that nuisance of European refugees, millions of them, many illegal, that have descended in the last decades on Southeast Asia, East Africa, Latin America, and even Sub Continent? They are escaping, in hordes, from meaninglessness, depressions, existential emptiness. In the process, they are stripping the locals of land, real estate, beaches, everything. “Immigrants out”? Fine; then European immigrants out from the rest of the world, too! Enough of the one-sidedness! The recent EU elections clearly showed that Europe has not evolved. For countless dark centuries, it used to live only for its pleasure, murdering millions in order to support its high life. Right now, it is trying to reshuffle its political and administrative system, so it can continue doing the same. More efficiently! On top of it, absurdly, the world is expected to pity that overpaid and badly performing, mainly right-wing and lethargic European proletariat, and sacrifice further tens of millions of people, just in order to further increase its standard of living. All this should not be allowed to happen. Never again! It has to be stopped. What Europe has achieved so far, at the expense of billions of lives of “the others”, is definitely not worthy of dying for. Beware of Europe and its people! Study its history. Study imperialism, colonialism and the genocides it has been spreading all over the world. Let them vote in their fascists. But keep them away. Prevent them from spreading their poison all over the world. They want to put the interests of their countries first? Wonderful! Let us do exactly the same: The people of Russia first, too! China first! And, Asia, Africa, Latin America first!