Read on Twitter
Get ready for a Reichstag Decree. It will probably come in the form of an executive order.
He issued an executive order bc twitter fact checked him. The largest police precinct in a major city just burned. He will use this and we should be prepared for that to be very ugly. I'm not blaming the protesters for what he will do. That shit's on him. But we need to be aware.
This year, the DOJ told Congress that it needs the ability to suspend due process. They've sought to greatly expand their surveillance powers. Also, under Trump, the DOJ doesn't really investigate police departments for brutality anymore.
I am not saying the DOJ was previously *good* at investigating police departments for brutality. But investigations were a thing that happened. Trump has been clear that he's not interested in punishing anyone for excessive force. He's made this point with pardons and adulation.
So basically, there's alignment there.
I bet the folks who insisted Trump wasn't a fascist because he had no paramilitary forces are going to feel silly soon. He is going to position leftist protesters as an existential threat to police. It's gonna be open season on us.
He staring down an election in a royally fucked economy and he's been assured many times that he will face criminal charges once he's no longer president. He has said repeatedly that he should have more time. He has a pandemic to work with. Now, we know what his narrative will be
Again, I am not putting this on the protesters. I also was not there and don't know who burned what. We do know that there was some other property destruction that it's been alleged was committed by an undercover cop. I saw that video and dude looked cop as hell. So who knows?
The thing is, these are fucked up times. There's desperation in the air. Something was going to pop off somewhere & Trump was going to use whatever it was toward fascistic ends, so I don't want to hear any smack talk about the protesters. Unrest was inevitable. It still is btw.
You may not agree with everything you've seen in the past couple of days, but you need to understand that those protesters are not your enemies. It has never been as important as it is right now for you to understand that.
Because Donald Trump is a fascist and we are way past "first they came for."
Bad things are going to happen and lines are going to be drawn. But the line that matters most is the one between us and the fascists. This is no time to throw anybody under the bus. Concerns about respectability are cancelled. We surrender nothing and no one to those people.
Police departments are militarized af, but he's taking this a step further, threatening to unleash the actual military on protesters. Black protesters specifically. His most racist fans are so excited right now. Their dreams of a race war feel within reach & they're heavily armed
I predicted the future by about 20 minutes there. Not the most useful heads up on my part, I know. But that bitch moves fast.
Also, I've thought about this too much and now I'm drinking.
But seriously, expect executive orders behind this. Expect the DOJ to get some of the expanded powers it's been seeking. Particularly surveillance stuff. Expect the targeting of activists for terrorist frame-ups (an existing practice that will escalate).
It's going to be open season on Black protesters and on the left in general. A lot of liberals will either sit still for it or join in. This is a moment for people to put themselves on the spot on decide whose side they're on. Reminder: One side is fascist and the other is not.
If you're wondering how the hell we're supposed to fight fascism right now, @shane_burley1 and I had a good talk about that back in March. https://truthout.org/audio/how-to-fight-fascism-while-surviving-a-plague/
We talked more generally about what activists need to know about fascism back in February. I drank a lot when we recorded this one. https://truthout.org/audio/getting-real-about-fascism-what-you-need-to-know/
