Anarchy in the U.S.A.
The article We’re all just content for ICE by Ryan Broderick (Garbage Day) writes[1],
“They are tightening the noose and there is very little room left for any kind of meaningful protest. Minnesotans over the weekend organized massive demonstrations, with thousands of people marching through the south side of Minneapolis several days in a row. But there was no law enforcement there, nor were there any ICE officers (at least in uniform). No one to whom they could direct their anger at. As for local leaders, Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke to the crowd on Saturday, but even she looked shaken. A few hours before the march, ICE agents blocked Omar from inspecting the federal building and even threatened her with pepper spray. Right after Good was killed last week, Noem created a policy that blocks congressional visits without a seven-day notice.”
So much national policy is created by unelected madmen and madwomen, overriding state and local law. How can states get away from this, from the tightening noose of the federal regime? The U.S. Constitution foresaw one drastic solution: The threat of secession. The first U.S. Civil War showed that this was not a viable option, though.
“[…] it won’t be long until a much darker, far more unpredictable form of opposition replaces that.”
Yes, the absolute clowns currently running things are so arrogant and stupid enough to think that, if they stifle the protest of desperate people, that those people will submit to the lash.
They will not.
If you give people no other outlet than violence, then they will resort to violence. It is completely predictable and understandable.
The federal shock troops are terrorizing everyone. They sow fear, they will reap the whirlwind.
We’ll have to figure out who the real allies are. Unfortunately, those who spent decades mentally and physically preparing for government overreach, government militarization of the homeland, internment camps, and so on are now MIA. They don’t mind any of those things happening when it happens to someone else. They cheer it on when it’s against an enemy they’ve been trained to hate, no matter that it’s against their own interests. So, where are those boasting militias of yore when you need them? Oh. They’re posting “liberal ownage” videos on Twitter and joining ICE.
“The lesson here is clear: We’re on our own now. They have guns and drones and they can hack our phones and smear our names online and arrest us without a warrant and charge us with terrorism. And all we have are whistles and protests and TikTok and group chats and maybe some journalism. Our local leaders are admitting they can’t help us. So we’re left with nothing but hope that all of that will be enough. But it’s impossible to shake the profoundly unsettling feeling that we have clearly stepped across the threshold into a very different political reality. And it’s not a matter of if it arrives in your town, but when.”
Disagree. We cannot lose hope. They want us to feel isolated. But we see that, when the community shows up, ICE melts away.[2] They have power against numbers; they can do damage. But they can’t win. People need to get to levels of desperation and community that they are willing to suffer inconvenience for their neighbor, to lose something, maybe even their lives. This is not the preferred situation, but if people don’t get there? It’s only going to get worse.
The local, state, and federal governments are the enemy; they always have been. It’s time for real anarchy to bubble up. It’s time to self-organize. It’s time to stop paying your subscriptions, stop paying your taxes.
Starve the beast.
Forget the midterms. They are, as always, a distraction. They are 10.5 months away. It’s only the middle of January and look at what’s going on. You won’t be able to go outside to vote by November, bro. Face reality.
[1]
I had more notes from that article that I didn’t include in the more focused summary.
“With tensions inflamed in the city — and following pressure from Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and FBI Director Kash Patel, who all shared Shirley’s video — ICE ramped up their presence. There are more agents in Minnesota than there are local police in both of the state’s major cities. An escalation that directly led to the murder of Good last Wednesday. And now, in response to that, ICE has effectively taken control of the city. Rumors swirl about Trump sending in the National Guard or declaring martial law next. ”
“ICE agents are, simply put, fucking clowns. According to The Atlantic, they receive 47 days of training — in honor of Trump, the 47th president, naturally. Many of them, also, can barely read or write, apparently. The ones I spent the weekend following around didn’t even have proper uniforms, with some wearing sneakers. In Minnesota. In January. These dipshits are also wearing camo in the snow. They clearly do not have any training when it comes to their own weapons either. Multiple times over the last few days, I watched officers fire pepper spray balls at the feet of protestors barely a few inches away from them. These weapons are basically paintball guns full of concentrated pepper spray. So when they hit a target, they explode into the air. Which meant ICE agents regularly ended up poisoning themselves with their own weapons. I also watched two agents ask each other if a canister they were about to fire at the crowd was tear gas or a stun grenade. (It ended up being a stun grenade that then ignited the tear gas they had already shot at us, which started a fire in the street that a protestor had to help them put out.)”
“According to The Washington Post, the agency is under pressure from The White House to create as much content as possible. Which is why ICE agents have a phone in one hand and a gun in the other. But it goes beyond that.
“During a showdown with protestors at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, I watched as one ICE officer fist-bumped a pro-Trump content creator once he learned he was there to support them. I also watched as a gang of groyper livestreamers, led by January 6th insurrectionist Jake Lang, rile up a crowd of protestors, creating the perfect pretext for ICE agents to fire pepper spray balls and tear gas at the crowd. To say nothing of the other right-wing media networks like OAN, NewsNation, and The Daily Wire, that sent video crews to the city, all of them running their own version of Libs Of TikTok. Singling out protestors and ridiculing them on social media. Olivia Reingold, one of Weiss’ Substack squad, spent the weekend on a state-sanctioned ride-along with ICE agents, posting selfies to her Instagram Stories.”
“It’s hard to overstate how efficient Trump’s shock tactics are and how existentially terrifying they are to oppose. Thanks to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), any form of anti-ICE protest can be labeled as terrorism, including filming them. And Attorney General Pam Bondi has added additional protections for ICE, in a memorandum titled, “Ending Political Violence Against ICE.” You can’t dox agents and you’ll get hit with federal charges if you post anything that’s deemed to be threatening them.”
↩“This morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that DHS plans to launch its own drone program next.”
[2] Pun detected but not intended and it’s awesome, so I’m leaving it.↩