The Actual Larger Reality Driving The Current Wave of Mass Shootings--
Brutality is respected...The People need wholesome fear, they want to fear something. They want something to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive. Haven't you seen everywhere that after the Beer Hall battles, those who have been beaten are the first to join the Party as new members? Why babble about brutality and get indignant about tortures? They need something that will give them a thrill of Horror."---
----Adolf Hitler to Goering on his Oratorical Methods, 1927
In the course of the last thirty days, we have seen a wave of what have been termed "mass shootings" throughout the US, which have been carried out by largely individual White Men, acting alone, who have been profiled as racist, mostly suicidal, and so-called "gun nuts".
These events have each precipitated widespread partisan conflict between Americans over the issue of reform of gun laws to mitigate what is being characterized as a national wave of "gun violence".
Notwithstanding my hope to see the corrupt and morally disgusting fascist idiots of the National Rifle Association (NRA) bankrupted, and the political whores who take their money destroyed and humiliated, this is a misguided and ineffective response to a problem which I believe most Americans are afraid to confront or recognize. It fails to take into account the continuing resonating impact of the "Biggest Lies" of Donald Trump, which have set into motion the events of the last five months, none of which pertain directly to the issue of gun laws.
I'll state right here that my recommendation for addressing this wave of violence is emphatically not to try to take up some protracted and fruitless campaign to pass gun control legislation which will wind up being ignored by the states and thrown out as unconstitutional by the majority pro- Fascist Supreme Court. Instead, I'll say that what would have an impact is televised public trials, convictions, and long jail terms for the leading conspirators behind the Fascist Coup attack on our Capitol on January 6th, which includes the former president, his fellow rally speakers, (including Don Jr.) the "Stop The Steal" march organizers and funders, (including the wife of SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginny) militia leaders and insurrectionists themselves, the congressional leaders who collaborated, the administration officials who stripped the Capitol security, and the police who aided and abetted the attempt at Insurrection. All of them. As soon as possible.
You are asking how that will impact the national wave of gun violence. "Don't we need to get these 'weapons of war' off of the streets? Don't we need to "defund the police", or otherwise reform Law Enforcement?" Well yes, of course. But to do that, Donald Trump and his Cult must be politically and legally put on trial and destroyed, in much the same fashion as the victorious allies after WWII began the task of denazification. I'll make my case for this here briefly.
I'll start with basic principles. Methodologically, Donald Trump, his movement, political ideology, tactics, strategy, and closest collaborators, are in fact fascist, in every sense of the word. Their political platform, issues, their religious and social belief structure are utterly synthetic and created for purposes of unleashing violent conflict while cloaked in the garb of "Americanism and family values". Secondly, Donald Trump personally embodies and resembles a carbon copy of the psychological profile of Adolf Hitler, though his crimes and expressed Anti-Semitism have been somewhat constrained by the institutional remnants of American political traditions, narrowly defined. In terms of his mental map, including paranoia, Oedipally driven rage, obsession, victimization, megalomania, malignant narcissism, sociopathic lying, and general proclivity to manipulate others through division, he is a virtual duplicate of Hitler. For further background, I recommend Mary Trump's book and others in that genre, and the writings of Dr. Walter Langer of the Wartime OSS in his psychological profile of Hitler for FDR.
In short, the energy and growth of Trump's movement is dependent upon and thrives on violence. Violence is the drug which feeds the addiction of Trump's fascist allies and political/religious base. If you need proof of this, do an internet search of every campaign speech given by Trump during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, then compare it to his speech on January 6th. Read his vitriol against Muslims and Mexicans. They are all incitements to violence, through and through.
Right about here is where I can hear the small voices arguing "but not all violence is committed by Trump supporters, what about the BLM rioters, Antifa, Gangbangers, Drug dealers, the police killings, abusive spouses, the mentally ill", etc? "Hasn't this always been there, and is only getting worse"?
It's a fair question. I'll leave you to ponder it, while making a few relevant points. First, I'll address the "Big Lies" of Donald Trump which I believe have created the climate within which the current wave of violence is escalating.
Big Lie number 1. The "Birther Lie".
Trump's attack on Barack Obama was far worse than a "racist dogwhistle". (The degradation of human communication through creation of modern internet language and memes is a form of self-inflicted violence against cognition and critical thinking. It's a way of taking an atrocity, or a crime, and downgrading it to a "trend" to be commented upon on social media with shallow and vacuous sound bites) It was an incitement to violence against Obama himself, his supporters, and a call for Trump's supporters to effectively demonize people of African descent and Muslims as their mortal enemy, out to destroy their way of life and take away their freedom. It was a conscious effort by Trump to equate Obama with the 9-11 hijackers, against whom the sons and daughters of Americans were fighting and dying in three different theaters of War at the time. Most people understated the significance of this lie as simple race baiting, or character assassination. It was in fact stage one of Trump's intention to start a Civil War.
Big Lie number 2. The "Russia Hoax"-
Most of the American population which reads things other than the Bible, Hustler, and "Guns and Ammo" knew that Trump colluded with Russian Intelligence to get dirt on his opponent, Hillary Clinton. That's why he brought in Roger Stone and Paul Manafort to run his campaign, given their history of dirty tricks going back to their days with Nixon, as well as their Russian connections. Trump saw the polling data, and figured that if he was going to lose, he would sow maximum chaos and damage, and use the campaign to build his brand and become a power broker. He did not expect to win, and then become the subject of scrutiny after the election having won with Russian help. So yes, his lies about him and Russia were self-serving attempts to cover his rear legally. But in the larger sphere, it was his first major attack on US Democracy and elections which were designed as phase two of his coup plot and plans for unleashing Civil War.
Big Lie number 3. "Covid19 is a Democratic hoax to make me look bad"-
This calculated lie had two purposes. First and most obvious was that Trump's "greatest Economy ever" was never anything else than an equities bubble, fabricated on paper through insane tax cuts, extreme deregulation, and the unofficial suspension of SEC investigations into fraud, ponzi schemes, stock "buy back" schemes, and naked short selling. This combined with Oil interest subsidies, giveaways to farmers, with looting of the workforce and pension funds, along with offshore wheeling and dealing. They used fabricated stats at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to produce a phoney increase in jobs, which were in fact low paying service jobs with no benefits or job security. When the Pandemic hit, it had the effect of "exposing the man behind the curtain", and that the so-called Trump "Boom" benefitted only a small handful of his donors. The shutdown caused by covid was the greatest threat to his re-election. By this time, after the first Impeachment and multiple investigations of his finances, civil suits etc, Trump knew that if he wasn't re-elected and had the protection of the presidency against prosecution, he was finished. So, he had to lie about the virus to be able to reopen the Economy in time to pump his numbers, before the election. Second, and more to the point, when Governors stood up to Trump and refused to reopen, demanding more Federal help to mitigate the Pandemic and its economic fallout, Trump escalated. He released the Genie from the bottle, and called upon the heavily armed Fascist militias to attack the Governors and overthrow the mitigation measures. This led to the first Trump incited act of Insurrection and attempted murder, the Michigan Militia attempted kidnapping and murder of Governor Whitmer and other state officials. The Trump directed Michigan militias set the model nationally for similar heavily armed groups to invade their State Capitols, setting the stage for this year's Capitol insurrection. This was stage three in his plan for Civil War.
Big Lie number 4- The "China Virus"-
At the point that Trump's lies about the virus being a "little flu", which like a miracle would go away were overwhelmed by the mounting death toll and chaos, Trump did everything he could to deflect blame. First he claimed that the death tolls were faked to make him look bad, and said that people were dying of pre-existing conditions. When that didn't fly, he ordered the States, municipalities and hospitals to stop reporting deaths, and centralized all data under his cronies at CDC, to suppress the information about deaths. He tried to deflect blame and attention to his lies by announcing the "miracle cure" , Hydroxychloroquine, and sought personal credit for this great discovery. When that was proven yet another lie, Trump pivoted to his next Big Lie, blaming it on China. He pulled the US out of the WHO, calling it a "Chinese front" and deployed his Secretary of State Pompeo to gather evidence which proved the virus came out of a Chinese lab in Wuhan. By scapegoating China for the virus, he was laying groundwork for his next phase of Civil War, which was designed to incite a wave of violent attacks against AAPI persons that have been escalating since. These attacks are coming from all sorts of people, not only white racists, but people of all backgrounds who were adversely affected by the Pandemic in search of someone to lash out against. This defined a new phase of racially driven violence.
Big Lie number 5. Everything related to George Floyd-
By demonizing BLM as terrorists and thugs, blaming the national protests on "radical Left Democrats", and blaming the virtually non-existent group of College kids on skateboards called Antifa for the violence, calling them a seditious group of criminals who are out to destroy this country, Trump launched the next phase of his strategy to run a Fascist Coup, and provoke Civil War. This was his incitement to the previously mentioned Nazi Militias to form vigilante Death Squads to go out and kill "Leftists". Hence, his defense of Kyle Rittenhouse and other Right wing shooters and killer Cops. His intent was to create enough Right vs Left street fighting that he could use the 1807 Act to deploy the Military domestically to "Democrat Cities". Not to stop crime or looting, but to stop them from voting through an occupation Army of National Guard and Federal Law enforcement. It should be understood that Trump and associates demonization of "the Left" and the fictional "Deep State" conspiracies is methodologically the same as Adolf Hitler's scapegoating of "Jew Communists" for Germany's ills. The implication being that educated people who oppose Trump are the actual enemy of America. Remember Trump's 2020 Campaign speech, saying Joe Biden wants to take your freedom, your guns, wants to "kill God". Every statement out of Trump's mouth is an incitement to violence, including his endorsement of the Charlottesville Nazis as "fine people".
Big Lie number 6- Of course, the really big one, Biden stole the vote-
This lie was a kind of "Stretto" in the musical composition of Trump's lifetime of lies, bringing together every other lie in one big package. It had everything. The race card, (biggest vote theft in "Black" cities, Hispanic "illegals and criminals" being brought in to vote Democrat) aided and abetted by the "radical Left" (voting rights and registration activists) working hand in hand with Communist Dictators, (China, and the very dead Hugo Chavez of Venezuela) Muslims, (Iran was in there somewhere) and lets not forget his enemies in the "Fake Media" and "Big Tech" who actually stole the vote- for Biden. This one, more than everything else combined, actually organized the attempted violent Coup on January 6, which activated the Nazi militias to attack our government. This escalated the level of threats nationally of assasination of elected leaders, public officials, and their families who refused to cooperate with Trump's attempt to overthrow Biden and the election.
So, taking all of this into account, it is the environment of organized and calculated violence as instigated by Trump personally over the last six years which defines the context in which the current wave of violence and mass shootings is occurring. The violence was fed by him, and has now reached the physical state of "self-feeding". What Trump has done is to start a national melee of violence, which he believes he can personally benefit from. Its like a guy who goes into a Biker Bar and instigates a Bar fight over a spilled drink which engulfs the whole place, which serves as his distraction to go behind the Bar and empty the cash register.
And our biggest problem is simply this... it's the tendency of many of us to look for a "quick and easy fix", a shortcut for our government to take which enables us to walk away, not think about it anymore, and hope the violence avoids us in the meantime until it fades away. Its not going to "go away", anymore than the Pandemic is going away.
We need to face the reality of the convergence of ideology, strategy and tactics between the movement of Trump and the rise of Hitler's Nazis in Germany. I've written more than enough on my Blog to document this convergence in many of its aspects. Don't look for "quick and easy". Don't try to describe it with trendy expressions or memes which "soften the blow" and make you sound less extreme. Tell people the truth which they need to hear, not what you think "sounds good" or plausible.
This escalation of violence of almost every type was set into motion by one guy, and the horrific beast of hatred and division, rage and irrationality let out of the box by him and currently being fed by his acolytes. The thing that needs to be faced is that the violence feeds their addiction, and is the source of their power. The weapons they carry are props for their staged campaign for Civil War. You aren't going to stop mass shootings or other new forms of violence unless you stop him, politically speaking.
The violence you see in front of you is exactly the same phenomena described by Hitler in the quote at the beginning. It is what they need. It is how they recruit. You are not going to stop it until you break the will of those who are recruiting. We need the ultimate in "cancellation" to legally and morally bring this to a halt. Nuremberg style trials, for those who lied, and caused mass death and injury. It must be public without concern for "healing and bipartisanship". We are already in a Civil War. At what point do we begin fighting in it?
Photo- Hitler speaking in Munich Beer Hall
