It's bewildering to remember that NATO's 2011 bombing and naval blockade of Libya was justified on the basis that Gaddafi had verbally threatened to commit war crimes (the infamous 'cockroaches' speech). Now, a NATO ally boastfully perpetrates a genocide for all the world to see. And all efforts at armed intervention to stop it, from Lebanon and Yemen, have been met with destruction and war crimes in turn. Such are the privileges of being a settler outpost of American power.
On the eighth day of a government shutdown, the Trump administration is not focused on reopening the government. Instead, it is deploying a three-pronged strategy of domestic intimidation, international warmongering, and corporate payouts, holding the American people hostage to force through a radical, unpopular agenda.
While federal workers face unpaid furloughs, the White House has continued the nation's focus to a fabricated "war zone" within American cities. For over a week, without pay, National Guard and ICE agents have been deployed to terrorize communities under false pretenses. This theatrical display of force serves a dual purpose: it distracts from the political crisis in Washington and intimidates those who would protest the administration's true goals.
The shutdown itself is a deliberate political weapon. Eight days ago, an administration holding majorities in all three branches of government chose to exploit Democratic weaknesses and hold the government hostage. Trump’s odd, public demand a ban on transgender healthcare masks a broader, more insidious objective. The shutdown creates a crisis atmosphere designed to bully Democrats into surrendering on everything, particularly healthcare, a vulnerability heightened by the loss of federal abortion “Roe v Wade” rights under the previous Supreme Court ruling during Biden’s administration. Furthermore, with the government closed, the administration cannot touch essential social services like Social Security, welfare, and Medicaid programs they have long targeted but which only Congress can cut.
https://t.co/XDKZyzBlfs
David Allen Coe's insecure threatened name drop 'bout stealing that goat in Long Haired Redneck did more to recognize Johnny Rodriguez's contribution to the Outlaw subgenre than most in the movement ever did.
Good hick hop exists. It's too real to leave the underground. Like most good country, you won't hear it amongst the contrived watered down corporate products on country radio.
Mamdani is a criminal. People should not be surprised when anti-communist social democrat reveals their rightist, pro-imperialist politics? What is so treacherous is he is sophisticated enough to understand the context, that the U.S. is making plans to attack Venezuela.
Mamdani called Cuba and Venezuela dictatorships. He didn't say that the US is killing people in both countries through sanctions depriving them of food and health care. Now Trump is on the verge of a military attack on Venezuela and Mamdani is silent about that.
@ZohranKMamdani
When donations and engagement is how you read the room, you will leave out the voice and needs of the Proletariat and oppressed, who have always been the bases and source of power for socialists.
Russell Brand is a good example of why even figures further left ended up opportunistically catering to the right wing. The petite bourgeois and Labor aristocracy will always have more money to donate and more time to engage.