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Alan Ginsberg wrote
Very scary
https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/
I just sent this to a long-time friend in Manhattan, who had told me
that his Black grandson, who has been at U of Oregon in Eugene and is
now at home in Portland, was hit by a rubber bullet at a protest this
week. That's all that my friend knows. He has told me that his two
grandchildren of a "mixed marriage" have said they are now afraid to
drive across country to visit him. I had just sent him the article by
Hedges.
This may seem a little off topic, maybe not. I also just finished, this
morning, Hazan's book A Peoples History of the French Revolution. There
too there was confusion, hysteria around protection of property and
seigniorial privilege against popular protest amidst starvation and
hoarding and speculation, "public safety" commissions, guillotining
unrestrained, extremism run rampant, at any cost. And worldwide
reaction. Coincidentally, federal officers were first reported seen on
the Portland streets on July 14.
Think I'm paranoid? So be it. Beats heedless. Unless we see effective,
massive protest around this too, going over to permanent revolution. The
fire this time.
Case in point. This is really frightening.
https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/
I have to say that there's every reason to be afraid for your grandson
if he's involved in this. Homeland Security, or its equivalents in the
government, has been operating kind of in the shadows for at least the
past 20 years and must have a sizeable dossier. It's chilling but it's
what we can expect, and get out the way. Trump may even be planning a
coup or its equivalent (even possibly with Democrats' collusion) if,
despite current confusion and division, he and his cohorts think they
can get enough middle class Americans to conclude in this fluid period
that law and order are essential to prevent chaos.
The men in this video
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/17/after-trump-deploys-secret-police-portland-imagine-what-happens-if-he-gets-four-more?cd-origin=rss_term=AO_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter_content=email_source=Daily%20Newsletter_medium=Email
are wearing combat garb, drab-type masks concealing identity, the only
identifying information is "police" on chests, no identifying names or
badge numbers visible or readable, nothing showing that they are even
federal marshals, could be private goons employed by Eric Prince (Trump
would like that), in hired, unmarked private vans. We don't know. A shot
across the bow?
I no longer think that this is hyperbole, although part of me would
surely like to believe so. I think it's part and parcel of the
developing breakdown of capitalist legitimacy worldwide.
I remember how cointelpro has operated to provoke incidents and
demoralize protesters, from the Black Panthers, blackmailing Martin
Luther King, forged documents, their liaison with local police
department surveillance, you name it, I'm sure it's ongoing, and there's
no limit to what they can do. Today we learn that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's
liver cancer has recurred, prospect of a 6-3 rightwing Court; and we no
longer have a Bill of Rights. The justification in Portland, of course,
is protection of federal property and the inability of local authorities
to contend with it. Federal property is everywhere; so is cointelpro.
Why should Americans think that we are somehow insulated from the most
draconian measures to ensure capitalist "domestic tranquility," just
because historically we have had a vibrant consensus on the part of a
relatively prosperous middle class around "democratic values?" Why
should we think that rabid US transnational corporate reaction only
applies beyond our borders? Think "special forces," think Guantanamo,
satellite surveillance, drones and destruction and the erosion of
so-called national sovereignty among nation-states, when they can
assassinate or permanently detain without charge or even acknowledgment
anyone they please at will, anywhere.
The Corona virus pandemic, its follow-ons and unknown fortuitous
happenings may give further impetus to the upending of our economy, as
we can well imagine, and accelerate both protest and repression.
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