All violence is wielded in support of the hierarchy

Back on the day after Thanksgiving (yeah, this one has been sitting in a browser tab since then) Thom Hartmann of the Daily Kos community and an independent pundit described a time in American history similar to now when democracy was at risk. That time was when John Adams, our second president, was in office.

Adams and his Federalist cronies, using war hysteria with France as a wedge issue, were pushing the Alien & Sedition Acts through Congress, and even threw into prison Democratic Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont for speaking out against the Federalists on the floor of the House of Representatives. Adams was leading the United States in the direction of a fascistic state with a spectacularly successful strategy of vilifying Jefferson and his Party as anti-American and pro-French. He was America’s first Trump, albeit nowhere near as toxic or psychopathic.

Yeah, the same Democratic Party is in operation today. Thomas Jefferson was vice president at the time when the top guy and his vice could be from different parties. Jefferson was a Democrat. He tried to stop the Alien & Sedition Acts, but Adams’ party controlled Congress. When the bills were signed Jefferson left town (I think this was Philadelphia) until his own inauguration to replace Adams, who thankfully was in office only one term. Adams used the Acts to threaten to imprison those who attempted to repeal them. He shut down nearly 30 newspapers, throwing their staff in prison, including Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin. People who commented against Adams were also sent to prison. Adams needed only a few months to silence the opposition. Jefferson worked with pamphleteers, the independent press of the time. They printed posters and leaflets decrying Adams’ lies and supporting Jefferson. Of course, Adams used newspapers loyal to him to attack Jefferson and his colleagues. Adams was trying to destroy Jefferson’s Democrats. Hmm. A question: If Jefferson was not in town, how did he preside over the Senate? It was his voice that kept Democratic senators united in opposition. Jefferson’s next bit of support came from the states. Several of them opposed the shutdown of their newspapers and the use of the Army to threaten their protesters. Jefferson had to prevent his supporters from responding in violence, which would have given Adams a chance to declare an insurrection. That would have ended democracy. But the 1800 election was coming and Adams knew a war, even a little one, would boost his chances. The war didn’t happen. The country was tired of Adams’ abuse of power and Jefferson was elected. An early act was to free the newspaper people. Over the next two decades Adam’s Federalist Party disintegrated. A big thank you to the independent press of the time. And a big thank you to the independent press of today that will continue to report the truth. We need to support them. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted the New York Times discussing comments by Stephen Miller, the guy making this administration as racist as possible:

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper of CNN on Monday, during a combative appearance in which he was pressed on Mr. Trump’s long-held desire to control Greenland.

That’s the language of someone obsessed with the social hierarchy and his place high in it. There is a way to tell: All violence, all “force,” is wielded in support of the hierarchy, in support of one person saying I’m better than you. Vaughn Sterling tweeted:

Industry sources tell CNN that American oil executives are unlikely to dive headfirst into Venezuela for multiple reasons: The situation on the ground remains very uncertain, Venezuela’s oil industry is in shambles and Caracas has a history of seizing US oil assets.

Juliette Kayyem added:

I am curious who was whispering in Trump's ear about Venezuelan oil being easily accessible (it isn't) and coveted by the industry (it isn't). Is there some industry friend? Rubio? Miller? Beyond the legality and lack of planning, isn't the narrative now that Trump got duped?

Another quote from the NYT

In Venezuela, there have been signs of an intensifying crackdown by the government, with the so-called colectivos, or armed government militias, out in full force on the streets of the capital in recent days. Some citizens said the colectivos had been interrogating people and searching their phones for signs of support for the U.S. attacks. At least 14 journalists have been detained, and at least two people have been arrested for celebrating Mr. Maduro’s capture. Mr. Trump, when asked by reporters on Sunday whether he had discussed with the Venezuelan government the release of political prisoners or the return of opposition politicians to the country, seemed to foreshadow his plans. “We haven’t gotten to that yet,” he said. “What we want to do now is fix up the oil.”

As bad as Maduro was to Venezuelans the nasty guy seems to make their lives worse. This is repeated by LuluNYT (involved in writing the above article?) who adds an important question:

Speaking to people I know inside Venezuela and they tell me armed gangs (basically paramilitary gangs allied to the government) are roaming the streets, arrests of journalists are taking place, and the new/old government is undergoing a wave of repression. Is this what the US means by being in control?

This first stat is a bit annoying. From a Reuters report on a Reuters/Ipsos poll:

Trump’s approval rating rises to 42% 60% of Republicans support sending US troops to Venezuela About the same number favor controlling Venezuela's oil fields The two-day poll showed 65% of Republicans back the military operation ordered by Republican President Donald Trump, compared to 11% of Democrats and 23% of independents.

Cliff Schecter of Blue Amp discussing Democrat messaging over the next year.

So providing the simple straightforward narrative of Trump, and contrasting who we are, sharing what we do and how we fight him, is crucial. It goes like this:

Trump and his coterie of cruel, transactional, rich-beyond-consequence f---sticks are destroying our democracy and economy to pocket our paychecks and ban our freedoms. The Thiels, Musks, Bezos’, Zuckerbergs, Ellisons and other self-anointed ruling families meet in backrooms to decide our rights, economic station, our very lives…as they divvy up their billions they gain at our expense. They are, in every sense, the exact conspiracy The Right’s imagined about The Left for decades.

This is the message we must take into 2026 if we want an FDR-like blowout that turns out the Democratic base—even those who haven’t voted in years—-wins over a chunk of Republicans, and overwhelmingly cleans up among independents.

In the comments is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich showing a big mushroom cloud. One guy comments to another:

Is this a distraction from the taking economy, the cognitive decline, the corruption, or the Epstein files?...

Clay Jones posted a cartoon of the nasty guy looking in an empty prison cell. He asks, “Where’s Maduro?” The guard replies, “ICE deported him back to Venezuela...” The Naked Pastor has a cartoon of Jesus talking to the nasty guy using words from the Bible’s books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, “You say peace, peace, when there is no peace!” Bishtoons posted one of a weary old man saying, “Greenland? All I wanted was healthcare.” Bill Bramhall posted a cartoon of a man and woman watching TV. He says, “Can you name one thing Greenland has that we really need?” She replies, “Universal free health care.” Of course, lots more cartoons about Venezuelan oil.