sorry to post low hanging fruit, but this kinda shook me a little. imo, a much clearer sign of the decay of the bourgeois state than Trump's comments about not committing to peaceful transfer of power. (which have received significant national media attention.) Trump is a buffoon, one guy who is at risk of being assassinated if he refuses to accept the election results.
but this breakdown in the states is organic, something going with its own inertia. it's the first really frightening sign for me, that our liberal democracy, rickety as it may be, is actually at risk of coming apart. even if Trump loses and goes peacefully, I don't see a Biden admin using federal power to do anything at all about this, and neither will the 6-3 supreme court.
https://twitter.com/carterforva/status/1309354062853406720
It seems like a lot of mayors are held hostage by their police forces. Even tepid reform suggestions are met with cops threatening the city by removing police protections, not answering calls, doxxing their families, etc. Do you think this is much different than that or do you think the arrests are a unique escalation?
big guns and complete immunity
I hate it when Mao turns out right yet again.
i think arrest and felony prosecution is an escalation. it's moving from threats, on to actual violence. even if DA dismisses the charges.
Even tepid reform suggestions are met with cops threatening the city by removing police protections
Note that part of why cops are so powerful is because they will go on strike.
Except cops can and will then change clothes and do crimes, or alert criminal organizations that serve as their informants/have business relations with the police that the city is now fair game. Cue a bank getting robbed or some random people getting shot, cue the media decrying the anarchy in the streets, cue right-wing politicians calling for fascist crackdowns, cue liberals caving.
I'm 95% positive that's what they did to CHOP in Portland. Unknown shooter kills random civilian/gangs settle scores - "OMG we need the cops back now!"
Yeah, I get that they are bad & this happens. I just think it's worth distinguishing between "their power comes from striking" & "their power comes from acts of terrorism"
Ordinarily, yes, but armed agents of the state with little oversight are unlike any other type of worker. Their special position and their demonstrated ability to turn into a rogue element mean they shouldn't be given the protection normally afforded to worker organizations (at least not in the capitalist hellscape we inhabit now).
Oh, i thought american oligatchy would last a little more, lets hope it collapses before it hurts any more countries in the global south
People who think the US is about to collapse, or that China will save us all are completely delusional. Memes are all fun and good but the enormous power imbalance is both not in China's favour and at the same time the main factor keeping China from dealing in the same brutal ways vis a vis the developing nations it invests in. All that will happen, is already happening, is the US becoming outright fascist without any pretenses and ruling by force and coercion alone, all dissenters and "useless" populations dealt with by death squads. It's basically gonna be the Nazi Reich 2.0 but this time without the Soviet Union to stop them.
its... actually at risk of coming apart?
always has been.
but also yeah, this is not great. police state gonna police state i guess, no different from any empire in decay 86ing political opponents of the domestic armed force
They were at a protest at a church, because churches are supposed to be exempt from curfew. The pigs ignored this and arrested her anyways.
Trump is a buffoon, one guy who is at risk of being assassinated if he refuses to accept the election results.
Whoa, slow down there Cassius. That's how we end up with God Emperor Don Trump Jr.
Please, we all know either Ivanka or Barron is Octavian/Augustus in the Caesar analogy. They're the least dumb Trump children.
The "upside" of Biden is that he poses 0 threat to capital. Litterally harmless to their interests. No one is going to shoot him besides some crank like taxi driver dude who shot Reagan. If anything would probably be some Q guy fulfilling the prophecy or whatever they believe in now.
ah though you meant a state/capital actor would want to wack Biden. My b
Bruh do you think modern states operate like some medieval fantasy where the king just yells "arrest them!" at his guards and they just follow his commands? The state extends far beyond Trump, or any other dumb senile figurehead. If he decides he still wants to be president out of some sort of personal petulance then too bad, it won't happen, and he won't even have to be assassinated or anything like that. If a much larger group of institutions and authorities decides it's old school fascism time, then he stands a chance. But that won't happen now.
Being a president is something you are because you are institutionally deemed to be that. No one will have to "stop" him. He will just stop having that function. He is free to keep claiming he is president, but that has about as much bearing on anything as Guaido declaring himself president of Venezuela, or people insisting Hillary Clinton won.
I agree. Trump keeping power by force would endanger the elites' ability to peacefully settle disputes between themselves. If he somehow repeats Bush-Gore 2000 (the way Matt Chrisman suggests), where the veneer of legality was preserved, then the status quo is safe. But if he becomes a threat to other elites - not just the personal careers of Clintons/Bidens, but actually violates basic laws that keep the party going, he'll be pushed out.
Institutions are far more powerful than individuals.
