Coop Scoop: Which Side Are You On?
Who Cares Anyway?
October 8, 2024
By Marc Cooper
When Donald Trump was told on the afternoon of January 6 2021 that VP Mike Pence was in mortal danger his flippant response was “who cares?”
And no surprise as it is patently obvious that he cares only about his decrepit body and his declining mind. Period.
We are exactly 27 days away from the very possible demise of the American Republic and while there certainly are some who care, it seems like a whole lot of Americans are giving up on their history and leaping into a dark void as they go about their daily business and then watching 5 hours of the boob tube.
The New York Times after 3 1/2 years got around this weekend to a long thumbsucker about what has long been obvious. Trump is confused, addled, incoherent, and in mental decline.
No matter that a great newspaper might question the motivation or consult at least one neurologist or shrink but that was missing from the usual he said/she said cop out journalism of the MSM.
The Times and the rest of the media do a good job of DESCRIBING but a piss poor job of concluding, analyzing and affirming.
I will tell you in one sentence what the context is. Donald J. Trump is an American Fascist. JD Vance is an American Fascist. MAGA is a blatantly anti-democratic movement whose leadership is Fascist.
Trump’s supporters could not care less if he is bonkers. So are they along with being just plain stupid, belligerent and racist as he is. He is their showman, their avatar, their superhero and one thing they do hear clearly as you should is that he is bent on revenge, persecution and political violence. If you have not figured that out by now, try to catch up with The Golden Bachelorette which is more your speed.
My pal Micah Sifry sums up why this anniversary of the Hamas attack combined with the coming election is so fraught:
“The schisms on the center-left that opened wide here after October 7 seem unresolved and unresolvable. The progressive community has been for me and I think most of the readers of The Connector the place to develop shared strategies for addressing the multiple crises we face. But starting a year ago, a lot of people lost their minds and shot off in directions that made it incredibly hard to work together. Yes, right now, facing the urgent date of November 5, most of us united around the common goal of defeating Trump. We’ve even accepted (if not welcomed) warmonger Dick Cheney into our pro-Harris coalition. But let’s not kid ourselves. What we have is a fragile moment of common purpose papering over deep divisions and confusion. I suppose that will have to do.”
Make no mistake, an upending storm is coming our way in less than three weeks and its outer bands of agitation are already upon us. Trump/Vance/Maga are worried and somewhat scared and they are resorting to pure Hitlerian tactics. They are now blaming ALL social ills— from disappearing cats, to housing prices, to crime (which is down) on the “migrants.” Today’s new Jews.
I have read too much about the rise of Nazism to bother arguing this point. Pick up Richard J. Evans books on the rise of the Reich and let me know where he is wrong.
The press is playing along by saying people are upset about “immigration,” Most MAGGATTS can’t spell that word let alone plumb its significance.
Can we stop jerking off and say the truth? Americans don’t hate “immigration.” They hate and fear foreigners. Especially ones of darker hues. I doubt if 2% of MAGA supporters can articulate two sentences about immigration policy. But they will rant for hours on end on how migrants, illegal aliens and other words I won’t use here are destroying White Christian America.
The neo fascist jerk who is running again in my purple district and who was narrowly defeated two yrs ago by a conservative Democrat has a simple program this time around. Ban all LEGAL immigration for the next 20 years. Fascism.
This city of 150,000 in southern Washington has less than a 10% non-white population and the”immigrants” are mostly Russian, Ukrainians, and Thai. There isn’t a single real Mexican restaurant here. There is no “black neighborhood” and, of course, the few immigrant workers you do see are service people. Most of the Eastern Europeans who moved here have started small businesses and have helped, save and revitalized a city that was headed for doom a decade or so ago.
This MAGA candidate asshole is appealing directly to invented but deep seated biases among a bunch of scared and somewhat older white people (this town was once a haven for retired vets but they are dying off), And the anti-foreigner rhetoric coming from MAGA here is repellant. I am happily voting for the conservative Dem who votes with the GOP maybe 1/3 of the time because I would rather have her in the House than a Little Eichmann who would vote 100% of the time with fascists and reactionary racists.
But here’s what’s bumming me out. I know very well that across the country thousands are out canvassing. But in this district that can go either way, ain’t nobody knocking on my door.
And I am gobsmacked when I am outside or when I think about it how peacefully and orderly so many Americans are acting when you can literally see the apocalypse forming on the near horizon.
I might say I have, or better said, I had a dream. I had a dream that about now there would be a 2 million person march on Washington culminating on the Supreme Court under a banner of “Democracy.”
I had a dream that The New York Times would publish a one day cover to cover special edition outlining the real totalitarian dangers before us —in an objective way— but one that pulls no punches.
I had a dream that thousands of neighborhoods would be already preparing Democracy Defense Brigades to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of MAGA hooligans who will move into action the day of the election and after, either way.
I had a dream that as the MAGGATTS prepare to disrupt the polling places, our non existent Defend Democracy Brigades would be training to protect those sites.
And for those on “our side,” — the massive Anti-Trump Coalition— those who think Trump is talking though his ass are very wrong. Hitler was also a psycho and also a clown. And also a mass murderer. Believe these fascists when they tell you they are out for revenge and blood. Their supporters are not turned off . They want dictatorship!
I was going to write today about the Oct 7 anniversary and the endless war in Gaza that is being fueled in part by the U.S. I was also going to say a few words about the monstrous Benjamin Netanyahu who is willing to wreak as much as destruction and death to merely remain in office out of jail. There was at least a demo of angry Israelis in front of his house demanding he find and or negotiate the release of the scores of hostages being held. Nothing was said about the 3600 mostly underage Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons indefinitely in “administrative detention”by the “Most Moral Army in The World [sic] which are run by “God’s Chosen People.”
Buy you know all this already.
I will say this much about Israel and the election. I sacrificed my college career protesting the Vietnam War. I went hand to hand with some of the most brutal LAPD cops you could find. I was treated to several nites in lock up. So I beg you, please, do not lecture me on the evils of US military strategy.
I will, however, give you this mimi-lecture:
I fully support your opposition to the massive war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. We can differ on whether this meets the dictionary definition of genocide but 42,000 dead are dead either way with a lot more to come. Israel (and Hamas) are guilty of serious international war crimes and both deserve punishment.
Here are a few facts and then a conclusion. The entirety of the national security apparatus of the United States supports Israel in this war. Genocide Joe as some like to say is just one part of that machine. So is Harris. So are 3/4 or more of the US congress who allocates the funds for the bombs. They are all part of it. They are all complicit if you prefer.
You have to think of US policy on Israel as a two mile long loaded oil tanker that has to be turned around in heavy seas. There’s also the small issue of MASSIVE popular support for Israel and anemic support for Palestinians ( who also have some house cleaning to do) Hamas and other grouplets are fundamentalist Islamo-Fascists and there can be no peace with them). The US has had a strategic alliance with Israel for 75 years. I am not defending it or supporting it. I OPPOSE IT.
But it’s gonna take a whole lot more than some juvenile tactics over the past year I have seen to make any difference. And some anti-war protestors are gonna need some more clarity on who and what Hamas and for that matter what Hezbollah are. Fundamentalist Religious Terrorists — not national liberation resistance heroes.
Further, a lot of surrounding Arab countries are with the US on this one. Egypt and Jordan are cooperating with Israel and the US militarily. Saudi Arabia pays lip service to the Pals but in the end would rather grind them up and feed them to the dogs of the Crown Prince. And this indirectly brings me to the election in 27 days.
If there were magically a GOOD settlement in the Middle East it would take at least 5 years to implement it with a lot of room to sabotage it from any side (it’s going to take 25 years or more to rebuild Gaza) Any real peace process would be shaky and volatile.
I am done arguing with the politically narrow-minded who believe it is their moral duty to NOT vote for Democrats who they accuse of genocide… which means your personal morality will inflict on everybody else not only a Trump White House but also a Trump congress. MOST OF THE SEATS THAT WIL DETERMINE THE HOUSE MAJORITY ARE IN CALIF AND NY WHERE THE GOP FLIPPED THEM IN 2O22. If u live in one of those states and are not directly supporting the down ballot dems, yeah, maybe ur making some sort of statement about Israel, but you are also now working for MAGA. Are these candidates also unworthy of your “moral” vote? If so I want to thank you in advance for inflicting a pro-fascist congress on those who depend on it for social security, medicare, medicaid, wic, food stamps and 100 other social insurance programs You wanna watch as Trump throws the DHS and likely the US Army into his hare-brained promise of deporting millions of FOREIGNERS — because that’s what they mean by “immigration.” Well, then by all means vote Green and support Dr. Jill Green with her $9m stock portfolio that includes some of the grimmest American military contractors currently profiting from the Israeli war.
Here’s the bottom line: Under the very best of circumstances we are looking at some years of a wider war in the Middle East hopefully exhausting itself into some settlement that makes sense.
Simple question: Do you want the MAGA team of whackos and fascists overseeing that process? Or worse, you want THEM overseeing the war that might not end in a deal and just drag on? Or might it be better for he world if it were the good old imperialist Natl Security team (no angels) who at least have a couple of humanitarians in their ranks and who have at least tried to restrain Netanyahu to some degree? Is that what JD Vance or Stephen Miller would do? Or a cretin like Eric Jr. Or a raving imbecile like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Or the polite psychopath who is our current nut job Speaker of the House? Because, my friends, the guy next door with the red hat is just a boob,.Those aforementioned folks are the real cabal that runs MAGA, Yes, they are crazy. And yes, they are lethal. And they are the ones who control policy on the war if elected.
So which side are you on? Will you be remembered by your grandchildren as “Good Germans” or “Democratic Americans?” You have three weeks left to DO SOMETHING except sleepwalk into the abyss. It’s not any more complex than that. +++
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Great essay Marc. I agree totally. And it’s not as though fascism was something new and unheard of in this country. The south was fascist for most of our history, before and after the civil war, as Blacks and poor whites lived in differing degrees of oppression. Rachel Maddow has spent several years documenting the thriving pro-fascist forces in the US even while our troops were fighting fascists on two fronts. And so it didn’t start with Trump either. Beginning with Reagan the oligarchs began to destroy the limited working class victories of the New Deal and the Great Society. Those republicans who now recoil from the blatant fascism of MAGA (bravo to them) were nevertheless fine with the steady aggrandizement of the billionaires as they purchased the Supreme Court and one and a half of our two political parties, using racism and misogyny to divide and rule. And Native Americans have always lived under fascism.
But despite our shameful history of fascism and near fascism, this is still a crucial moment. We have lost a lot in the past 40 years but we can lose much more this year if we don’t defeat MAGA fascism in the election AND in the violence and disruption that will follow. I am raising my two grandchildren (ages 6 & 7). The world they’re growing up into will be scary no matter what happens this election. But at least we can push back a little by defeating Trump and MAGA so we can face all the other challenges posed by the oligarchy. Hang in there Marc and everyone!
Thank gou Paul for ur feedback and loyal readership!