Back to work, and have been getting filled in the last few days about what has been happening in the farm community here since I left. At today's meeting I was greeted with "welcome to the winter of our discontent. You'd better sit down."

Nightmarish developments in three areas:

ICE enforcement

It has moved to some new level of terror - I heard stories of riot gear equipped armed agents surrounding orchards and executing military pincer movements, wild car chases, and gunfire. Under the Bush administration the Feds were just picking off the brown workers, but with the new liberal blame the farmer "solution" to "the problem," everyone is now being terrorized by ICE agents who are unleashed and out of control. As horrific as it was before, things have gotten much, much worse. ICE is now calling farmers and demanding that they prove that their workers are legal and that they turn in any for whom they cannot. No warrants, no procedure, no nothing. Any resistance to those demands brings a raid by a paramilitary team. ICE says that anyone failing to cooperate and turn in "illegals" is guilty of a felony. They also say that if there is anything wrong with an employee's documentation, the employer is guilty of a felony. We still have people disappearing.

The GAP fiasco

"GAP" is "good agricultural practices," developed by the USDA. The FDA has told the big buyers, super market chains and such, that they must comply with GAP - supposedly in response to the spinach and tomato scares. The corporations are more than happy to pass the buck down to the suppliers and eventually to the growers. In fact, passing the buck is the only thing that the FDA is requiring from them - they are to demand that all suppliers comply with GAP, and their butts are covered. Small farmers, however, are being raided. GAP was never intended to be part of an enforcement model, but the FDA is now arbitrarily raiding farms and threatening and citing farmers for "failing to comply." An example: the USDA has recommendations for toilet facilities on farms, that include the suggestion that one person be responsible for that. The FDA is citing farmers for not having an employee dedicated full time to toilet procedures. Another example: the USDA guidelines suggest "no unauthorized access to farms" which is common sense, but the FDA is interpreting this to mean no pick your own, no farm tours or visits, no gleaning - all of which are important traditional activities at small farms. Another example: the FDA has decreed that there shall be no wildlife on farm property. WTF? Meanwhile, the USDA is out of the loop, and of no assistance to the farmers to help them comply with the recommendations that the USDA developed.

This fits a pattern that we saw developing under the Bush administration, the militarization of the FDA and expansion of its powers into areas historically administered by the USDA and extension services, and coincident with pharmaceutical and health care industry insiders being appointed to key positions within the FDA. Little did anyone suspect that under Obama this would all escalate. That brings us to the third crisis...

The death of the public agricultural infrastructure

The foundation of the agricultural infrastructure (the foundation of a civilized society, as one farmer called it today) is the land grant college system - really the model and basis for the entire public education system - along with the USDA (expressly created to administer the land grant college activities) and the extension services and research programs.

Since Reagan crippled the land grant colleges, there have been several trends: increasing tuition, less access to higher education for working people, an increasing income gap between college graduates and non-graduates, increasing privatization of the research programs, and patenting, copyrighting,and trademarking of the results from research and then the selling of that to private industry for proprietary exploitation and profiteering. All of these trends have now reached critical mass, so to speak, have passed the point of no return and are increasing at an escalating rate.

We now have a situation where undergraduate tuition is supporting the graduate schools and research programs, which are under the control of private interests. This is all in violation of the charters under which these institutions were created and publicly funded, as well as producing the exact opposite social effect that the original legislation explicitly and expressly was created to produce - access to higher education for the working class, development of the practical arts, in particular agriculture, and the sharing of all research and developments with the general public for the benefit of the general public (the one specific requirement of the head of the USDA as written into the law that created the public education system and land grant colleges is to make sure that anything created at any one land grant college is shared with all land grant colleges, and that this work is then released for public and not private benefit. That is the function of cooperative extension - to share the knowledge and practices and seeds and varieties developed at the land grant colleges with the public, and to assist all comers in the application of the work done at the land grant colleges. These are the conditions, the requirements upon which the legality of the USDA and the colleges is based).

In short, the farmers and workers are now left with no way to be "in compliance," are under constant threat of paramilitary raids, and have no public agencies to help or protect them, and have no legal recourse.

Food and farm policy in this country is now completely in the hands of wealthy few, and their control over it is being enforced by paramilitary (standing armies preying on the public) action. There is no more wiggle room, no more getting around it, no tomorrow, no next step. Game over. Fight or die.

This is change we had better damned well believe, or else, and the only hope is that they don't come after you next.

This is much worse than I thought...

This is why I have been so critical of the various liberal food and farming organizations. They are all so far off the mark, and are doing more harm than good.

Incidentally, "sustainable" and "organic" are part of the problem I described above, since there is a lot of research money from the corporations for "studies" of those - really fluff marketing and promotion pieces that can then be given an academic imprimatur. The sole result of those studies is labels on boxes and advertising slogans to fool the public. If people can be fooled into thinking that a certain label or slogan means they are getting safe and nutritious food, that prevents them from seeing the true picture, and that means no public support for saving public education, no fighting back against the assault on it.

This is also an exceptionally good example of the damage done by the isolated causes around various issues approach that liberals use. Clearly the problems in the food industry have nothing to do with "local" nor "organic" nor "food choices," and it is also obvious that there is a much broader context for all of the problems and the same root cause.

Contrast this message:

"You need to make better food choices and go green." (with this unspoken addendum - "and the corporations will help you to do that! They are your partners for a better future!")

With this:

"Wonder why tuitions are through the roof? Why the income gap keeps widening? Because the undergraduates are subsidizing graduate programs and research which are subsidizing powerful private interests, and because the same private interests are disproportionately rewarding those in academia as well as graduates leaving academia who "play ball" with them as they gain more and more control over public institutions that were chartered and funded to make higher education available to working class people and to serve the general public - expressly, explicitly."

We have taken the Morrill Act, the land grant colleges, USDA, extension services for granted. Prior to those, education was only for the wealthy. What happened in the South in response to the Morrill Act perfectly illustrates what the intention of the act was, since the Southern states refused to participate until they reached a compromise that allowed them to have racially segregated land grant colleges, and all of the southern states wound up with two - one white and one Black.

I am thinking now that the collapse of public education in general is connected to the assault on the Morrill Act - on the land grant colleges, on the USDA. The tail is wagging the dog for the benefit of the few. Corporate corruption is dominating the institutions, and this is filtering down in various ways throughout the education system and from there throughout society. Corporations > research dollars > graduate programs > undergraduate policies and fees > secondary school programs and curricula > negative social impacts: widening gap between the haves and have nots, the collapse of fields not useful to private interests (teachers, farmers, nurses, and the liberal arts in general), and on and on.

An amazingly broad range of social problems are connected to this. For example, the ongoing attack on "liberal professors" by the right wingers. It appears that this originated as part of an intentional strategy funded and directed by corporations, along the lines of what anaxarchos wrote about regarding the creation and dissemination of the "ideology" of libertarianism.

You cannot separate out the land grant ag colleges and USDA - and therefore food and agriculture - from educational opportunities for the working class in general, and you cannot separate educational opportunities in general from all of the social arrangements that rule our lives - hierarchy, status, income disparity, access to resources, employment opportunity - and you cannot separate that from the fight against the ruling class and the subjugation of the working class.

Academia is also where the liberal and the conservative political thinking converges to support the ruling class. In that context, the Obama administrations actions - not just on education, but on everything - suddenly make sense. Higher education and the non-profits are not the alternative to Bush's yeehaw wildcat oil driller wild west Capitalism - as so many liberals believe and which is the basis for their identification with people like Obama, Gore and Kerry and which defines and inspires all liberal thinking. They - the non-profits and higher education - are increasingly wholly owned creatures of the ruling class, and this filters down and oppresses the working class everywhere.

There is a perfect convergence and congruence between liberal and conservative politics and thinking, in purpose and in effect, where it most matters - at the top of the food chain. We are up against not merely the "military-industrial complex" but rather the "military-industrial-educational-agricultural-liberal non-profit complex." Self-described conservatives in the general public say "we can't be against that complex, because the country needs to defend itself and business is a good thing" and liberals say "we can't be against that because education is a good thing, and a social hierarchy and income disparity based on education levels is a good thing, and science driven food production is a good thing, and all of our non-profits are fighting for good things."

Great post, TA, and it really ties it all together. I always loved school - learning, literature, the arts. But it was only due to the GI Bill (I was eligible as the daughter of a disabled war veteran), and the Land Grant University in my state ($800 per semester when I attended) that I had the chance to further my education.

And I really haven't ever questioned what I learned there to any great extent. Undoubtedly knowledge can be a wonderful thing, but I never saw the piece that the ruling class is controlling WHAT we learn at such institutions. This really illustrates clearly how liberals are supporting the status quo (even when they have deluded themselves into thinking they are fighting it).

Your education was not an entitlement or a give-away or welfare. The land grant colleges were given billions of dollars in public property, on the express condition that they strictly use that to create foundations to support universal public education in perpetuity, available to all in the working class, to the exclusion of control by private interests, and for the benefit of the general public, and that all of the discoveries, knowledge, and technology be made available to the general public.

The wealthy people already had access to education, discoveries, knowledge, and technology before the land grant colleges. They could buy it. "Buying it" and buying us is exactly what they are doing now - and forcing us to pay for that, to assist them in that, or to be consigned to poverty and irrelevance and expulsion from the "winner's circle."

I am sharing this with some folks who work for immigrant farm workers here, and others, Mike. Are there any published pieces about this fascist bullshit? Keep telling it like it is brother...

with a request for more about the author...

From left gatekeepers Goodman and the Nation, but what's your take? (note nothering on the other stuff you wrote on, just the ICE stuff):

http://i2.democracynow.org/2009/12/24/the_nation__immigration_agents_holding

I sent this to BLF, reposting it here.

More heartbreaking stories about immigrants today. One example of many - a woman (a citizen) was stopped for driving while brown, and the cops demanded proof of citizenship from the passengers - an undocumented woman and her two small children. The vehicle was impounded and all were arrested and were "disappeared." The driver, a US citizen, was eventually released. The cops told the mother that she had a choice - she could either leave her children, or they would be taken to detention. She abandoned her children on the road rather than have the cops put them in jail and turn them over to ICE, and passersby rescued the children. Whereabouts of their mother is still unknown after a few weeks.

Many examples of the DNR (game wardens) and local and county police coordinating actions with ICE. A game warden stops someone on the pretext that "I suspected they were hunting from their car" and calls in ICE.

People are convinced that some are "on the radar" - being watched and targeted, with various agencies coordinating harassment activities against them. People are afraid to talk about any of this as a result.

I sent this to BLF, reposting it here.

More heartbreaking stories about immigrants today. One example of many - a woman (a citizen) was stopped for driving while brown, and the cops demanded proof of citizenship from the passengers - an undocumented woman and her two small children. The vehicle was impounded and all were arrested and were "disappeared." The driver, a US citizen, was eventually released. The cops told the mother that she had a choice - she could either leave her children, or they would be taken to detention. She abandoned her children on the road rather than have the cops put them in jail and turn them over to ICE, and passersby rescued the children. Whereabouts of their mother is still unknown after a few weeks.

Many examples of the DNR (game wardens) and local and county police coordinating actions with ICE. A game warden stops someone on the pretext that "I suspected they were hunting from their car" and calls in ICE.

People are convinced that some are "on the radar" - being watched and targeted, with various agencies coordinating harassment activities against them. People are afraid to talk about any of this as a result.

I was just jotting down some notes and impressions while they were fresh in my mind. Over the next few weeks I will develop a stronger article, interview the various players, etc.

Another impression - there is something really different about merely observing and talking about things like this, and being in the line of fire, having people you know at constant risk. It is almost as though when you try to talk to people about this, they treat it as though they were listening to a report on the radio or something, as though they don't quite get that it is real, and also they don't see that it can and is happening everywhere, is part of a larger pattern, and can and will happen to them sooner or later. How do we make this real for people, and generate a sense of urgency? It is frustrating talking to people here about this who are not immediately involved - creepy, really. They only half listen, and mumble some of the "right" things in response - "yes it is terrible." And those are the sympathetic ones. The unsympathetic ones don't talk much, but are seething somehow with resentment, judging by facial expressions and body language, that anyone is questioning what is happening, getting between them and their vicarious pleasure over "those people" being taken out or harmed. I get the feeling that they would gladly turn me in. In people's minds, a connection is being made between the supposed enemies - terrorists and Moslems and illegals or whatever - and those who question what the authorities are doing or insist on talking about it. All in a context of life going merrily along as though nothing were wrong, and the conversation quickly shifts to something trivial and innocuous. The whole thing is just too strange.

Yeah damned straight I am "paranoid." Why isn't everyone?

None of this is about isolated incidents, it is about an ever-tightening noose and all of our necks are in that noose.

I don't have any problems with Goodman - not sure why people do. She is a reporter, and covers stories others don't. That is good, no? What is it that people want from her? Jacqueline Stevens has been a reliable reporter on immigration issues. Goodman gives her airtime she otherwise would not have. Again, that is good, no?

I was just jotting down some notes and impressions while they were fresh in my mind. Over the next few weeks I will develop a stronger article, interview the various players, etc.

Another impression - there is something really different about merely observing and talking about things like this, and being in the line of fire, having people you know at constant risk. It is almost as though when you try to talk to people about this, they treat it as though they were listening to a report on the radio or something, as though they don't quite get that it is real, and also they don't see that it can and is happening everywhere, is part of a larger pattern, and can and will happen to them sooner or later. How do we make this real for people, and generate a sense of urgency? It is frustrating talking to people here about this who are not immediately involved - creepy, really. They only half listen, and mumble some of the "right" things in response - "yes it is terrible." And those are the sympathetic ones. The unsympathetic ones don't talk much, but are seething somehow with resentment, judging by facial expressions and body language, that anyone is questioning what is happening, getting between them and their vicarious pleasure over "those people" being taken out or harmed. I get the feeling that they would gladly turn me in. In people's minds, a connection is being made between the supposed enemies - terrorists and Moslems and illegals or whatever - and those who question what the authorities are doing or insist on talking about it. All in a context of life going merrily along as though nothing were wrong, and the conversation quickly shifts to something trivial and innocuous. The whole thing is just too strange.

Yeah damned straight I am "paranoid." Why isn't everyone?

None of this is about isolated incidents, it is about an ever-tightening noose and all of our necks are in that noose.

I don't have any problems with Goodman - not sure why people do. She is a reporter, and covers stories others don't. That is good, no? What is it that people want from her? Jacqueline Stevens has been a reliable reporter on immigration issues. Goodman gives her airtime she otherwise would not have. Again, that is good, no?

Quite a bit has been written about this, and I have posted probably a hundred or so over the last couple of years, mostly without garnering much interest or response.

I don't know BLF, I am starting to think that it is not really published this or published that, nor more information, nor better explanations of the implications, nor more knowledge about the authors, nor verification of the validity of the reports that people need. Some sort of denial is going on - some sort of way in which people are distancing themselves from this. Not sure. There is no sense of urgency or immediacy for people, no sense of crisis, no sense that things are unraveling very quickly - not just politically, but socially, not somewhere else, but everywhere, not just in certain areas which we can make into issues and around which we can organize causes.

I would be gratified if more people said - and truly grasped - that things are really fucked up, really fucked up, and it is rapidly getting worse, and then thought and spoke and acted as though that were actually the case.

Quite a bit has been written about this, and I have posted probably a hundred or so over the last couple of years, mostly without garnering much interest or response.

I don't know BLF, I am starting to think that it is not really published this or published that, nor more information, nor better explanations of the implications, nor more knowledge about the authors, nor verification of the validity of the reports that people need. Some sort of denial is going on - some sort of way in which people are distancing themselves from this. Not sure. There is no sense of urgency or immediacy for people, no sense of crisis, no sense that things are unraveling very quickly - not just politically, but socially, not somewhere else, but everywhere, not just in certain areas which we can make into issues and around which we can organize causes.

I would be gratified if more people said - and truly grasped - that things are really fucked up, really fucked up, and it is rapidly getting worse, and then thought and spoke and acted as though that were actually the case.

This cartoon might contain part of the answer...

do click on it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinions/anntelnaes/

Made me feel horrible, but others....

Sensory bombardment, overload?? When the media slams folks constantly with all kinds of dis/misinformation, maybe they just opt for sleeping; part of the reason I didn't go to my Mom's for Christmas, was that its difficult for me not to be political, and my two sisters and brother really don't want to discuss the truth, mom is more open (and my other sister and brother who weren't there), but would have wanted peace between us for the holidays...
We have to keep drumming, speaking, it is truly fucked up!!! Do we chip away with a little chisel on this granite box blocking the truth, which in actality is many of the people's refusal to see this? or get out the jack hammer? dynamite?? Fear rules under the surface, I myself prefer to know the truth, horrible as it is, it gives me a goal, a focus on what to fight. They say people are either fight or flight when confronted with danger; I've discovered I am fight for the most part, I hate to think flight controls the majority...

This cartoon might contain part of the answer...

do click on it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinions/anntelnaes/

Made me feel horrible, but others....

Sensory bombardment, overload?? When the media slams folks constantly with all kinds of dis/misinformation, maybe they just opt for sleeping; part of the reason I didn't go to my Mom's for Christmas, was that its difficult for me not to be political, and my two sisters and brother really don't want to discuss the truth, mom is more open (and my other sister and brother who weren't there), but would have wanted peace between us for the holidays...
We have to keep drumming, speaking, it is truly fucked up!!! Do we chip away with a little chisel on this granite box blocking the truth, which in actality is many of the people's refusal to see this? or get out the jack hammer? dynamite?? Fear rules under the surface, I myself prefer to know the truth, horrible as it is, it gives me a goal, a focus on what to fight. They say people are either fight or flight when confronted with danger; I've discovered I am fight for the most part, I hate to think flight controls the majority...

She does cover more than most...I guess I might be too demanding there...too insistent that she damns the system more...

Fascism is here, big brother is watching, we are on the list undoubtedly...

Paranoia is not always without due cause...

She does cover more than most...I guess I might be too demanding there...too insistent that she damns the system more...

Fascism is here, big brother is watching, we are on the list undoubtedly...

Paranoia is not always without due cause...

has to have no fear, they can't watch everyone...and the more who are savvy the tougher it will get...We've had the cops stop by our house twice, once regarding a neighbor's house supposedly stripped of its copper (we saw/heard nothing, really), once to discuss the classic car on the vacant lot next to us (claimed he thought our driveway was a road...), Oh and once when looking at the bank to the creek across the road with the next door neighbor as the county is going to auction it off (no one would want it), and a cop came by and asked what was up...(Can't stand by the side of the road anymore I guess) I really wanted to tell him to fuck off, but just told the truth...

This town is fundy right wing, and we're obviously not (I did have kucinich signs up at one time...)

has to have no fear, they can't watch everyone...and the more who are savvy the tougher it will get...We've had the cops stop by our house twice, once regarding a neighbor's house supposedly stripped of its copper (we saw/heard nothing, really), once to discuss the classic car on the vacant lot next to us (claimed he thought our driveway was a road...), Oh and once when looking at the bank to the creek across the road with the next door neighbor as the county is going to auction it off (no one would want it), and a cop came by and asked what was up...(Can't stand by the side of the road anymore I guess) I really wanted to tell him to fuck off, but just told the truth...

This town is fundy right wing, and we're obviously not (I did have kucinich signs up at one time...)

Goodman is particularly excellent. Yeah she's damn good I'd say but there are simply places she won't go.

Her famous set-up of David Ray Griffin on a show about 9/11 tweaked many of her faithful and though I'm not much for the endless discussions about 9/11 she was pretty awful that day.

You are right about the ever-tightening noose. It seems to be happening in about a thousand different ways each and every day.

Got a friend who's wife died of cancer two weeks ago, they are from Venezuela, and he had to take the kids and himself to Canada since their "right to stay" in the US was dependent on his wife. They came back after having applied for various temporary options, not sure how it all works, and have disappeared again. When I saw him he was obviously stressed to the gills.

Goodman is particularly excellent. Yeah she's damn good I'd say but there are simply places she won't go.

Her famous set-up of David Ray Griffin on a show about 9/11 tweaked many of her faithful and though I'm not much for the endless discussions about 9/11 she was pretty awful that day.

You are right about the ever-tightening noose. It seems to be happening in about a thousand different ways each and every day.

Got a friend who's wife died of cancer two weeks ago, they are from Venezuela, and he had to take the kids and himself to Canada since their "right to stay" in the US was dependent on his wife. They came back after having applied for various temporary options, not sure how it all works, and have disappeared again. When I saw him he was obviously stressed to the gills.

She is a reporter, near as I can tell, and doesn't do a lot of editorializing. Truthers started calling her a "gatekeeper" because she wouldn't express agreements with their beliefs. Maybe they don't know what a reporter is, and think that there is no difference between that and a self-promotion and hucksterism of someone like Alex Jones, except that Alex Jones is "better" and not a "gate keeper" because he says the right things about 911?

She is a reporter, near as I can tell, and doesn't do a lot of editorializing. Truthers started calling her a "gatekeeper" because she wouldn't express agreements with their beliefs. Maybe they don't know what a reporter is, and think that there is no difference between that and a self-promotion and hucksterism of someone like Alex Jones, except that Alex Jones is "better" and not a "gate keeper" because he says the right things about 911?

WTF?

It's not bad enough that we're misusing our military abroad?

The escalation of right-wing copporo-fascist takeover is occurring in every American arena.

WTF?

It's not bad enough that we're misusing our military abroad?

The escalation of right-wing copporo-fascist takeover is occurring in every American arena.

that this does not presage the coming of the police state, it is an demonstration that the police state is here, in full force. That is why people are acting the way they are - we are already IN the police state. The people who are being "disappeared" and physically oppressed is us. The idea that these are "immigrants" or "Muslims" or "brown people" is false - it is just people and this is it. You damned right people are afraid, anyone who isn't afraid isn't paying attention. "Fear" does not negate action, that is an untrue observation. Perceived self-interest is the source of action, even if that "action" is to hunker down and make as low a profile as possible. Fear is a motivator to action; what we all need is an understanding of what is the best action right now. Of course, we need to plan for the future, but we need some options for right now, right this minute; fear needs recourse to action and we need options...

that this does not presage the coming of the police state, it is an demonstration that the police state is here, in full force. That is why people are acting the way they are - we are already IN the police state. The people who are being "disappeared" and physically oppressed is us. The idea that these are "immigrants" or "Muslims" or "brown people" is false - it is just people and this is it. You damned right people are afraid, anyone who isn't afraid isn't paying attention. "Fear" does not negate action, that is an untrue observation. Perceived self-interest is the source of action, even if that "action" is to hunker down and make as low a profile as possible. Fear is a motivator to action; what we all need is an understanding of what is the best action right now. Of course, we need to plan for the future, but we need some options for right now, right this minute; fear needs recourse to action and we need options...

We have two groups that are too small and marginalized to be heard - small farmers and farm workers. It is impossible to get accurate information - the "national security" blanket that once prevented us from knowing what was happening with the military overseas has now been throughly and completely extended to what the authorities are doing here now to us - but the last figures I saw, two years ago, had the government admitting to rounding up and detaining 833,000 people, a figure which many observers think is a vast understatement. The handful of immigrant roundups - highly publicized, and now doubt staged for maximum theatrical effect - that have made it into the news, when you add up the figures of the number of people detained, do not represent even 10% of the number the government admitted to. Recent investigative reporting uncovered the existence of hundreds of previously unknown detention facilities.

Small farmers have been under horrific pressure for several years now, and it has gotten worse since the election of a candidate promising change in this area, as well as control of Congress by the same party. One of the things I find most disturbing is the way that various law enforcement agencies, and quasi-law enforcement agencies like game departments, have in effect been "deputized" by Homeland Security and are working in concert with the feds and wantonly violating the law. I guess they are violating the law, who the fuck knows what the law is anymore? Another disturbing thing is that there is sharing of information between the various agencies and apparently coordination going on, so that once a person is "on the radar" of Homeland Security, they are also targeted by ICE, the FDA, and the IRS, as well as various state agencies. Clearly not everyone is under this sort of surveillance, or there could not be so much ignorance and denial about it, which supports the idea that selective targeting and harassment is in fact going on.

Another disturbing thing is this pattern: fear campaigns in the media about a "problem" - food safety, illegal aliens, terrorism - become so quickly translated into bizarre paramilitary action by the authorities. Recently we saw local articles about the supposed "problem" of people shooting deer from cars. Next thing we know, people are being arbitrarily pulled over on suspicion of shooting deer from cars - people who have no gun and who are not hunters of any kind and are not doing anything that would suggest that they are hunting. Then other authorities just happen to be prepared for receiving these suspects from the game warden and joining in on the chase or establishing roadblocks or whatever. This is so bizarre that it suggests some sort of out of control feeding frenzy by the authorities, who have an endless list of terrible "problems" and "dangers" to use as an excuse for paramilitary and illegal action against people, unlimited power and a free hand, have been whipped into a state of paranoia and militaristic thinking themselves, with the general public rolling over for all of this and remaining passive as they are fed a steady diet of incendiary fear campaigns about these supposed problems and dangers. Terrible consequences for people as a result of supposed suspicion of some petty and minor "crime" is very reminiscent of the police states in Europe during the 30's, when a person could be hauled off to a camp for allegedly having an "illegal" stick of butter in their kitchen, or merely because a snitch said that they did. The authorities are also now trying to force people to snitch, or be at risk themselves and that is reminiscent of other police states, as well.

As always with a police state, going after a few sends a chill through all, and many are trying to lay low, stay quiet and under the radar, and find ways to go along to get along. This is causing a tremendous amount of stress for people, of course, as they try to decide if, where, and how and to take a stand, while they are consumed by omnipresent fear (and try to deny that they are to keep it at bay and maintain some modicum of emotional equilibrium), and as they struggle along with limited information and no solidarity and have to confront the denial and ignorance of the people around them and in the general public.

There most definitely is a mindset among many that can be summed up as - "they must have done something wrong, the cops wouldn't go after them for no reason." This isolates and silences those who could be getting the truth to us. Many are also thinking that "if you keep your nose clean and follow the rules, you should have no reason to worry" but it is driving people nuts as they scramble to try and figure out just what the hell the rules are. The truth is, of course, that there are no rules, it is complete chaos, and the cops are going after people because they can and because they want to. This is what living in a police state is like.

I hope people can see the problem: all of this can (and will with absolute certainty) be turned against any who dissent or resist in the future, and nothing less than dissent and resistance will be required of us. We are sliding into a terrible trap. Silence is deadly as is inaction, and the more noise we make now and the more risks we take the less danger there will ultimately be.

I am talking bravely there, but I am overmatched by all of this and don't have any brilliant ideas. This seems much, much worse to me than the repressive backlash by the authorities in the late 60's while we have much less going for us. Where are the safe houses? Where is the underground? Where are the ways to make money, or do anything and stay under the radar? Where are friends and allies? Where is the solidarity? Where the fuck is the Left?

By the way, I think that describing this as "the escalation of right-wing copporo-fascist takeover," while accurate as far as it goes, leads us away from observation and discussion about objective reality, as though we were talking about some other people in some other place at another time, and were comfortably at a distance from the problem. I would prefer "all out war on the working class" or "cops out of control" or "no place to hide" or "danger! danger! danger!" or "it is very, very fucking late in the game folks."

We have two groups that are too small and marginalized to be heard - small farmers and farm workers. It is impossible to get accurate information - the "national security" blanket that once prevented us from knowing what was happening with the military overseas has now been throughly and completely extended to what the authorities are doing here now to us - but the last figures I saw, two years ago, had the government admitting to rounding up and detaining 833,000 people, a figure which many observers think is a vast understatement. The handful of immigrant roundups - highly publicized, and now doubt staged for maximum theatrical effect - that have made it into the news, when you add up the figures of the number of people detained, do not represent even 10% of the number the government admitted to. Recent investigative reporting uncovered the existence of hundreds of previously unknown detention facilities.

Small farmers have been under horrific pressure for several years now, and it has gotten worse since the election of a candidate promising change in this area, as well as control of Congress by the same party. One of the things I find most disturbing is the way that various law enforcement agencies, and quasi-law enforcement agencies like game departments, have in effect been "deputized" by Homeland Security and are working in concert with the feds and wantonly violating the law. I guess they are violating the law, who the fuck knows what the law is anymore? Another disturbing thing is that there is sharing of information between the various agencies and apparently coordination going on, so that once a person is "on the radar" of Homeland Security, they are also targeted by ICE, the FDA, and the IRS, as well as various state agencies. Clearly not everyone is under this sort of surveillance, or there could not be so much ignorance and denial about it, which supports the idea that selective targeting and harassment is in fact going on.

Another disturbing thing is this pattern: fear campaigns in the media about a "problem" - food safety, illegal aliens, terrorism - become so quickly translated into bizarre paramilitary action by the authorities. Recently we saw local articles about the supposed "problem" of people shooting deer from cars. Next thing we know, people are being arbitrarily pulled over on suspicion of shooting deer from cars - people who have no gun and who are not hunters of any kind and are not doing anything that would suggest that they are hunting. Then other authorities just happen to be prepared for receiving these suspects from the game warden and joining in on the chase or establishing roadblocks or whatever. This is so bizarre that it suggests some sort of out of control feeding frenzy by the authorities, who have an endless list of terrible "problems" and "dangers" to use as an excuse for paramilitary and illegal action against people, unlimited power and a free hand, have been whipped into a state of paranoia and militaristic thinking themselves, with the general public rolling over for all of this and remaining passive as they are fed a steady diet of incendiary fear campaigns about these supposed problems and dangers. Terrible consequences for people as a result of supposed suspicion of some petty and minor "crime" is very reminiscent of the police states in Europe during the 30's, when a person could be hauled off to a camp for allegedly having an "illegal" stick of butter in their kitchen, or merely because a snitch said that they did. The authorities are also now trying to force people to snitch, or be at risk themselves and that is reminiscent of other police states, as well.

As always with a police state, going after a few sends a chill through all, and many are trying to lay low, stay quiet and under the radar, and find ways to go along to get along. This is causing a tremendous amount of stress for people, of course, as they try to decide if, where, and how and to take a stand, while they are consumed by omnipresent fear (and try to deny that they are to keep it at bay and maintain some modicum of emotional equilibrium), and as they struggle along with limited information and no solidarity and have to confront the denial and ignorance of the people around them and in the general public.

There most definitely is a mindset among many that can be summed up as - "they must have done something wrong, the cops wouldn't go after them for no reason." This isolates and silences those who could be getting the truth to us. Many are also thinking that "if you keep your nose clean and follow the rules, you should have no reason to worry" but it is driving people nuts as they scramble to try and figure out just what the hell the rules are. The truth is, of course, that there are no rules, it is complete chaos, and the cops are going after people because they can and because they want to. This is what living in a police state is like.

I hope people can see the problem: all of this can (and will with absolute certainty) be turned against any who dissent or resist in the future, and nothing less than dissent and resistance will be required of us. We are sliding into a terrible trap. Silence is deadly as is inaction, and the more noise we make now and the more risks we take the less danger there will ultimately be.

I am talking bravely there, but I am overmatched by all of this and don't have any brilliant ideas. This seems much, much worse to me than the repressive backlash by the authorities in the late 60's while we have much less going for us. Where are the safe houses? Where is the underground? Where are the ways to make money, or do anything and stay under the radar? Where are friends and allies? Where is the solidarity? Where the fuck is the Left?

By the way, I think that describing this as "the escalation of right-wing copporo-fascist takeover," while accurate as far as it goes, leads us away from observation and discussion about objective reality, as though we were talking about some other people in some other place at another time, and were comfortably at a distance from the problem. I would prefer "all out war on the working class" or "cops out of control" or "no place to hide" or "danger! danger! danger!" or "it is very, very fucking late in the game folks."

We are so far past the "presaging" phase.

As an aside, doesn't the 911 truth movement, and so many other liberal ideas and activities, seem petty and weak and irrlevant when compared to what is actually happening and what might be required?

We are so far past the "presaging" phase.

As an aside, doesn't the 911 truth movement, and so many other liberal ideas and activities, seem petty and weak and irrlevant when compared to what is actually happening and what might be required?

Paraphrasing what anaxarchos said somewhere recently "listen you ultras, it is all criticism and it is all good."

The problem with the various litmus tests being used to categorize a person as friend or enemy - "where are they on 911?" for example - is that thre are hundreds of different tests from different people with no coherency or common thread. Are we to see a truther as an ally, when on everything else they are taking right wing positions?

There is only one litmus test - which side are you on?

Paraphrasing what anaxarchos said somewhere recently "listen you ultras, it is all criticism and it is all good."

The problem with the various litmus tests being used to categorize a person as friend or enemy - "where are they on 911?" for example - is that thre are hundreds of different tests from different people with no coherency or common thread. Are we to see a truther as an ally, when on everything else they are taking right wing positions?

There is only one litmus test - which side are you on?

The "truthers" betray their class allegiance by their obsession with these fairytale issues. The pigs are coming out in force and are beginning to "disappear" us - this is what we must face, not some pie-in-the-sky CT. This is happening, right now, people we know are being lost. What are we prepared to do? What must we prepare to do? Our times have become way too serious to waste effort on stupid gentry shit; we have to move...

The "truthers" betray their class allegiance by their obsession with these fairytale issues. The pigs are coming out in force and are beginning to "disappear" us - this is what we must face, not some pie-in-the-sky CT. This is happening, right now, people we know are being lost. What are we prepared to do? What must we prepare to do? Our times have become way too serious to waste effort on stupid gentry shit; we have to move...

you are right, no action is still an action...and right action needs to be understood and commenced, now. I got into a discussion about whether complete fascism was here or not, of course, I said, not yet she said...

you are right, no action is still an action...and right action needs to be understood and commenced, now. I got into a discussion about whether complete fascism was here or not, of course, I said, not yet she said...

I just don't know. Let's say we could get people to agree on using a label, like "fascist," and then to agree that "it is here." Then what? The discussion with people about "is it or isn't it fascism?" is an exchange of opinions, sort of like comparing impressions about a film we saw, and since everyone has the "right to have an opinion" and all personal opinions are presumed to be of equal value, whether you get someone to agree or not, nothing changes. I have an image in my mind of people standing around watching others being tortured, and arguing about what to call it and whether they are "for" or "against" it. There is no connection between what is happening and people's opinions (other than the practical effect - that so long as observations of reality are presented as though they were opinions or beliefs, what is happening will continue to happen.)

This is what happens again and again with liberal advocacy: conservatives say "the earth is flat. This is my opinion. This is what I believe." Liberals respond with a different opinion, a different belief - a "better" belief. Once you respond to a belief as though all you have to offer is a different belief, you are wasting your time. Objective reality is off the table. It is a trap.

Liberals would approach the round earth issue like this: they would see the challenge as being one of convincing a majority of the people that the earth was round, so that round earth candidates could then be elected, and so that then once those candidates were in office they would make the earth round.

Obama convinces everyone that he is a round earth candidate, and generates a lot of support that way. Once in office he invites flat earth people to the table - "honorable people can disagree on this issue, all views must be respected, we must all work together, and we need to put aside the divisive rancor of the past" - and then makes up excuses for not sending ships around the world (this is what is important, otherwise, if there is no practical application, the world may as well be flat and who cares if it is round?) - "it isn't practical, now is not the time, blah blah" and pretty soon the round earth advocates are being excluded from the table and blamed for everything that goes wrong, and for being obstructionists and perfectionists and no better than the flat earthers. The battle was lost in the opening round, at the first step.

Were the round earth people arguing that the earth should be round, or that it is? If they are liberals they are arguing the former, even if they don't realize that they are.

Real world example: Obama campaigns on GLBTQ rights, and that generates support for his candidacy. This is then subtly transformed, with the complicity of the liberals, from GLBTQ people DO have rights to GLBTQ people should have rights. That means that it no longer is something that is true and therefore must be honored and fought to protect, something that we are obligated to bring our actions into line with, it has been changed into something people can be "in favor of, don't get me wrong" and "something we are working on" and something where "a little bit is better than nothing" and then we hear that "these things take time" and "hey we are a lot better than the people who think GLBTQ people should not have rights! We think they should, and I defy you to prove otherwise!" (How dare you call me a bigot??)

Obama did not commit to act as though GLBTQ people were equal, he committed to saying that he believed they should be equal. (And as weak as that is, he has backed off from that.)

Another real world example: those behind the "global warming is a hoax" campaign do not care whether or not people "believe that global warming is real." They care about possible restrictions on certain profitable activities they are engaged in. It has nothing to do with beliefs or opinions.

Liberals (and I still think that we are liable to fall into the same thinking) have operated on the premise that if we could change people's personal beliefs, that social change would ensue. But look at the health care fiasco. 60% or more believe that single payer is best. So what? Saying that universal health care should be a right (which Obama and his sycophants are claiming to be working toward in practical baby steps) is a long way from saying that it IS a right and fighting to defend people, whatever it takes.

Everyone already has health care of some kind in any case (emergency room visits, self-medication, etc.) That isn't the problem. The people who have smashed down any chance of universal public health care don't care about people's opinions or beliefs on the subject. They are not opposed to people having health care. They are opposed to anything that might cut into their profits. Therefore convincing a majority of the people that we should have universal public health care has no power, and is of little or no practical political value. Regardless of what opinion people have on the subject, the debate has been shifted to be one of dueling opinions, and opinions about something that means nothing and is not even relevant to the fight.

I just don't know. Let's say we could get people to agree on using a label, like "fascist," and then to agree that "it is here." Then what? The discussion with people about "is it or isn't it fascism?" is an exchange of opinions, sort of like comparing impressions about a film we saw, and since everyone has the "right to have an opinion" and all personal opinions are presumed to be of equal value, whether you get someone to agree or not, nothing changes. I have an image in my mind of people standing around watching others being tortured, and arguing about what to call it and whether they are "for" or "against" it. There is no connection between what is happening and people's opinions (other than the practical effect - that so long as observations of reality are presented as though they were opinions or beliefs, what is happening will continue to happen.)

This is what happens again and again with liberal advocacy: conservatives say "the earth is flat. This is my opinion. This is what I believe." Liberals respond with a different opinion, a different belief - a "better" belief. Once you respond to a belief as though all you have to offer is a different belief, you are wasting your time. Objective reality is off the table. It is a trap.

Liberals would approach the round earth issue like this: they would see the challenge as being one of convincing a majority of the people that the earth was round, so that round earth candidates could then be elected, and so that then once those candidates were in office they would make the earth round.

Obama convinces everyone that he is a round earth candidate, and generates a lot of support that way. Once in office he invites flat earth people to the table - "honorable people can disagree on this issue, all views must be respected, we must all work together, and we need to put aside the divisive rancor of the past" - and then makes up excuses for not sending ships around the world (this is what is important, otherwise, if there is no practical application, the world may as well be flat and who cares if it is round?) - "it isn't practical, now is not the time, blah blah" and pretty soon the round earth advocates are being excluded from the table and blamed for everything that goes wrong, and for being obstructionists and perfectionists and no better than the flat earthers. The battle was lost in the opening round, at the first step.

Were the round earth people arguing that the earth should be round, or that it is? If they are liberals they are arguing the former, even if they don't realize that they are.

Real world example: Obama campaigns on GLBTQ rights, and that generates support for his candidacy. This is then subtly transformed, with the complicity of the liberals, from GLBTQ people DO have rights to GLBTQ people should have rights. That means that it no longer is something that is true and therefore must be honored and fought to protect, something that we are obligated to bring our actions into line with, it has been changed into something people can be "in favor of, don't get me wrong" and "something we are working on" and something where "a little bit is better than nothing" and then we hear that "these things take time" and "hey we are a lot better than the people who think GLBTQ people should not have rights! We think they should, and I defy you to prove otherwise!" (How dare you call me a bigot??)

Obama did not commit to act as though GLBTQ people were equal, he committed to saying that he believed they should be equal. (And as weak as that is, he has backed off from that.)

Another real world example: those behind the "global warming is a hoax" campaign do not care whether or not people "believe that global warming is real." They care about possible restrictions on certain profitable activities they are engaged in. It has nothing to do with beliefs or opinions.

Liberals (and I still think that we are liable to fall into the same thinking) have operated on the premise that if we could change people's personal beliefs, that social change would ensue. But look at the health care fiasco. 60% or more believe that single payer is best. So what? Saying that universal health care should be a right (which Obama and his sycophants are claiming to be working toward in practical baby steps) is a long way from saying that it IS a right and fighting to defend people, whatever it takes.

Everyone already has health care of some kind in any case (emergency room visits, self-medication, etc.) That isn't the problem. The people who have smashed down any chance of universal public health care don't care about people's opinions or beliefs on the subject. They are not opposed to people having health care. They are opposed to anything that might cut into their profits. Therefore convincing a majority of the people that we should have universal public health care has no power, and is of little or no practical political value. Regardless of what opinion people have on the subject, the debate has been shifted to be one of dueling opinions, and opinions about something that means nothing and is not even relevant to the fight.

that the Left basically has a form of writers block. We're ready to act but..we're drawing a blank. All of this bantering over opinions -- which you've correctly diagnosed here -- is more of the same self-immersion.

The answer to writers block by the way is to get started.

Easier said than done of course, but the time for talk is over and the time for action is nigh (even if that action comes in the form of "talk")

that the Left basically has a form of writers block. We're ready to act but..we're drawing a blank. All of this bantering over opinions -- which you've correctly diagnosed here -- is more of the same self-immersion.

The answer to writers block by the way is to get started.

Easier said than done of course, but the time for talk is over and the time for action is nigh (even if that action comes in the form of "talk")

We are already actors, every day and everywhere and it is not possible to be neutral. Politics does not exist outside of social interaction, nor as a subset of life. See what I mean?

We are already actors, every day and everywhere and it is not possible to be neutral. Politics does not exist outside of social interaction, nor as a subset of life. See what I mean?

But I was talking as an action, and used the ICE raids as a point of departure, my statement of belief that fascism is here was my initiated action. Take it as you like.
I'm trying to take action everyday, even if its informing people face to face about how dire it all is, I was using your warning...

I agree, the health care debate is all about profit versus people, a microcosm of the larger debate...Need not greed (ooops, Myra said that first...)

But I was talking as an action, and used the ICE raids as a point of departure, my statement of belief that fascism is here was my initiated action. Take it as you like.
I'm trying to take action everyday, even if its informing people face to face about how dire it all is, I was using your warning...

I agree, the health care debate is all about profit versus people, a microcosm of the larger debate...Need not greed (ooops, Myra said that first...)

but I don't know what you just said means, practically speaking.

but I don't know what you just said means, practically speaking.

keep us posted there...

I am not criticizng you. Do you think I have any idea what to do? I am just howling at the moon.

and howling with you...

http://www.cascadeblues.org/Legends/HowlinWolf/HowlinWolf.jpg

and I love me some blues but it's time to pick up the tempo.

"But I was talking as an action, and used the ICE raids as a point of departure, my statement of belief that fascism is here was my initiated action. Take it as you like.

I'm trying to take action everyday, even if its informing people face to face about how dire it all is"

The above is radical speak. It is not accurate. Fascism is not here. What is here is liberal progressive democracy. This is what it looks like. This is what it always looked like, not just in America but everywhere. That it does not look like what "people thought" is your point of departure. That it looked otherwise was one part hope, plus one part illusion, plus one part social conditions which no longer exist (except for a rapidly shrinking part of the population). Ireland died while England was in a Progressive Era. The Japanese went to camps under FDR. An entire generation of African Americans was (and is) imprisoned because of a "War on Crime", which was knowingly contrived from the beginning (as a political expediency; not a conspiracy). Then, there is war - nonstop. The immigration moves are just business as usual because politics demand it and the undocumented are vulnerable. There is much, much, more to come.

Ain't got no time to mope, grump, sing, or be frustrated.

Gotta form a group... small group if not a big one... one other person, then two. Base it on action, base it on talk, base it on study, base it on propaganda, base it on not knowing what to do... doesn't matter. Can't do that? Then learn how. Work it. Your objective is a group of two... then three. Get to eight and you can form two groups. Keep it loose, keep it honest, keep it real.

Gotta do that no matter what else you do.

Gotta do it.

That is what we do.

You commie bastard....

Solidarity.

This isn't fascism, it is liberal progressive democracy.

"Fascism is not here. What is here is liberal progressive democracy. This is what it looks like. This is what it always looked like, not just in America but everywhere. That it does not look like what 'people thought' is your point of departure. That it looked otherwise was one part hope, plus one part illusion, plus one part social conditions which no longer exist (except for a rapidly shrinking part of the population)."

So much for all of the "it went off the track somewhere, and we need to fix it." The damned thing is right on track, doing exactly what it was meant to do, what it can only do.

Lots of time and energy is wasted by people debating and pondering where things went "off track" - the Constitution, the creation of the Fed, this or that court decision, going off the gold standard, the establishment of corporate personhood, the murder of JFK, repeal of some law or other, the Bushco crime family, 911...

Thanks, got a little group, a couple little ideas, gotta a couple bigger groups with bigger ideas, that's a start...

Gotta battle with my local, that's a pain, but as you say, gotta do it...

I clicked on the pic and there weren't any tunes, dang... :)

"Gotta' do it!"