The MAGA Cap or the Rainbow Flag?

Fourth of July Weekend Obligatory Rant

Welcome to my Substack. I thought that the Fourth of July weekend would be the perfect time to launch my page and reveal my political stridency to the world at large. Those of you who already know me are aware that I’m a literary translator, writer, film blogger, loud-mouthed activist, and aging punk rocker obsessed with political economy and history.

For nearly a decade now, I have been subjecting my Facebook friends to a long-running diatribe, a vituperative and merciless invective against neoliberalism, a corrupt Democratic Party apparatus bent on demolishing the left, and a governmental duopoly comprising two parties so high on the stank of their own bullshit that they’re driving this country into the ground, crushing the working class, and doubling down on global neoliberal finance capitalism and forever war, at all costs. We are offered — to make matters worse — nothing but the idiocy of the reactionary right’s racist Maga kooks, and amongst liberals, a rainbow flag utterly emptied of all of the radical queerness it used to embody: a balm used to ease their guilt over supporting genocidal, anti-working-class politicians.

Well, people got sick of those posts. Especially liberals. Really, Facebook is a great platform for publishing pics of your cat or new enchilada recipes. Not so true when it comes to reaching a lot of people and challenging their worldviews. Especially when it means reminding them that their president is a war criminal on a par with Bush and Kissinger. Or that after Russiagate, they should shut the hell up about QAnon. As nuts as the Republicans are – and they are batshit crazy, for sure – there is nothing I have witnessed in all of American history that comes close to the cognitive dissonance I see liberals experiencing on a daily basis.

What’s more insane? A working person voting for Trump, or a progressive supporting genocide?

A rainbow-colored flag doesn't hide blood stains and dead Palestinian children.

A rainbow-colored flag didn't free Juliane Assange.

A rainbow-colored flag didn't stop Biden from cutting 30 million people from federal food assistance.

A rainbow-colored flag didn't stop Genocide Joe from backing a bloody, dirty proxy war meant to drag Ukraine into NATO, enrich weapons manufacturers, and provide cover for his and Hunter's graft and influence peddling.

It goes without saying that a MAGA cap would be no better. I could easily see Trump letting loose and ordering Kent State-like massacres to deal with resistance movements. But we’re already experiencing fascism.

I mentioned Gaza to a friend, a Democrat, after the debate. I told her that they’d glossed over the biggest story in the world: The genocide in Gaza.

She didn’t know what I was talking about.

I then looked at my news feed and saw Van Jones on TV after the first debate regurgitating the same kind of shite all of his pundit friends were repeating: “Yeah, Biden’s lost a step as a communicator, but the good policies, he still gave us those!”

Let’s talk about these great policies, Van.

How about a dirty proxy war used to lay cover for Biden and Hunter’s ridiculous graft and influence peddling? How about promising to veto any bill supporting single-payer? Strike-busting, cutting 30 million Americans from food assistance, demolishing the First Amendment, harassing reporters, building a massive censorship apparatus, suborning perjury from 50 intelligence agencies to lie as cover for his son, lying us into the Iraq War, getting Congress to go ahead and make student loans available to kids who couldn’t afford it, then going back and writing legislation to make it impossible to forgive student loan debt…

… and oh yeah, GENOCIDE. Biden is the first American president to be publicly and enthusiastically complicit in genocide since we annihilated our indigenous peoples in the 19^th century.

A genocide that he could stop with a wave of his hand.

“That’s ridiculous, Paul, and ahistorical!”

Not really.

In 1982, Reagan called the Shatila and Sabra massacres “a holocaust.” He demanded that Menachem Begin put an immediate end to the bombings, and Begin stopped the assault. You can read the record of the exchange between them here.[1]

What was Biden doing during this time? He was telling Israel, Begin specifically, to kill as many women and children as he needed to. In fact, in 2021, a Jeremy Scahill piece in the Intercept claimed that  “Biden appeared to support the brutality of the invasion even more than the Israeli government.”[2]

*****

On a federal level, there is no longer (if there ever was) an electoral process that matters. This has been the heart of my argument since Bill and Hillary decided to dismantle the government regulations on banking institutions. This, coupled with our disastrous foreign policy course set by neocon ghouls like Robert Kagan, Bill Cristol, and Dick Cheney post 9/11, has left us with a country that owes its continued existence to global military hegemony and the austerity politics of neoliberalism, which have impoverished the planet and raped our ecosystems.

And the neocons continue to break bread with the Democrats. Victoria Nuland, Robert Kagan’s wife, runs our foreign policy. Nicole Wallace, torture advocate for the Bush regime, now hosts MSNBC. As hilarious as it is horrific.

This merry-go-round is kept in place by both parties.

It’s a tag-team operation, the donkeys carrying water for the elephants and vice versa. It matters little which machine is worse. That’s like asking who was worse between the Nazis and the Vichy party. When both parties work for the same people – the weapons industry and Wall Street -- that question borders on the absurd.

Take a look at this last Supreme Court ruling. Everyone is up in arms about the decision to grant former presidents, in this case Trump, broad immunity.

As Glenn Greenwald rightly points out, this has been an unwritten rule for the entirety of our nation’s history. It’s done – or so the argument goes – to keep the country from becoming pure banana republic madness: we don’t prosecute former presidents because this would turn into a never-ending cycle of retribution and no sane person would want to run for office.

Funny how The Intercept frames the decision. They used to have some integrity before they fired Greenwald. In a piece by James Risen, a Democratic Party apologist, Russiagater, and supporter of the Ukraine Proxy War, the writer simply glosses over some very important facts and recent developments. Yes, the court is and has always been reactionary, and it has always been a tool that’s easily bent to the will of executive authority. After 9/11, executive power has grown exponentially, and yes, that power will be handed to Trump because the Dems refuse to run someone who is not wholly corrupt and evil.

That’s not to say I agree with the ruling. I don’t. But pretending that this is anything but partisan posturing is ridiculous. We have a president who, as I just mentioned, suborned perjury from intelligence officers. An impeachable offense and a felony.

Do you see anyone prosecuting Genocide Joe?

Biden has committed impeachable offenses that DWARF the misdeeds of Trump. But if you only read the NYT and watch CNN you'll never know that, right? A judge in Missouri had previously ruled that Biden's massive censorship apparatus was utterly unconstitutional, but when Killer Joe got his ass hauled to the Supreme Court, the decision was overturned. Now the government can tell any platform that they want your social media content removed. In fact, I came back to add this sentence after I saw Facebook block me from linking to my new blog or any of my posts.

The Supreme Court has never been a tool for social justice. Historically, it has always sided with power. Both parties use it as a cudgel to move their politically illiterate constituency, like cattle, toward one position or another.

Some of their greatest hits:

Dredd Scott v. Sanford - Need I elaborate on this gem, which denied citizenship and constitutional rights to African Americans?

Buck v. Bell - Upheld the forced sterilization of the mentally disabled.

Korematsu v. United States - Upheld a ruling that sent Japanese American citizens into concentration camps.

Citizens United v. FEC – Donations are protected speech. Translation: You can buy an election.

It's odd, isn't it, how everyone was worried about Trump when it's Biden who's brought us fascism? A censorship-mad, genocidal lunatic, he's just wiped out the First Amendment with that court case of his. Remember, "right-wing" means Biden and the Democrats, too. Not just the Republican Party. We don't have a “left” -- not in any sense of the term. We have two parties that are pro-war and anti-worker, beholden to Empire and Capital first and foremost.

We need to make them afraid and accountable.

The only way to ensure victory against the oligarchy that we sell our labor to, and the repressive and violent state apparatus that protects them, is to make them worried. The only way we do that is to take to the streets and organize. Nobody "gave" us the New Deal. Nobody "gave us" the Civil Rights Act. They were won for us thanks to the tireless effort and bloody battles fought by workers' unions, communist and socialist parties, and the people they taught to organize, people like King, Ella Baker, and other grassroots civil rights leaders.

It matters little which clown we end up electing in 2024. What matters is this: Are you ready to dedicate what little free time you have to civil disobedience, solidarity, and resistance, or will you continue to keep voting for the duopoly & choosing the lesser of two evils? Where's that gotten us? Oh, yeah -- TRUMP 2024 !!! A tried and true approach, that one.

---

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/13/world/reagan-demands-end-to-attacks-in-a-blunt-telephone-call-to-begin.html

[2] c

[3] https://theintercept.com/2024/07/01/supreme-court-trump-presidential-immunity/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

[4] https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-wont-curb-biden-administration-social-media-contacts-2024-06-26/