Fascism is destroying us from the bottom up

 When I saw this PBS article about the Republicans' normalization of violent rhetoric, it reminded me of how broad the GOP's war on decency is.

The most evil part of this is who it targets.

They no longer limit themselves to presidents and governors and other high ranking politicians who, frankly, expect quite a bit of nastiness as part of the job but accept it as the price of their ambition.

Fascist/Trumpist rhetoric is increasingly targeting ordinary people doing fairly low-profile jobs: elections bureaucrats, teachers, public health workers, (unpaid) school board members. 

 

It's a no-holds barred war to destroy our country from the grassroots by targeting the very people who make our communities function.

The only Republican ideology is nihilism

The idiocy of one puppet attacking another is too absurd to bother commenting on itself.

But the nuclear war against efforts to overcome COVID and finally bring our society back to something approaching normal is a perfect illustration of the destructiveness of the Trumpism. They were lying when they said #AllLivesMatter.

 

It is a further illustration is that their only concern is to sabotage these efforts to undermine the recovery and harm Democrats chances of retaining Congress in 2022. Their governors are working quite effectively to this end.

To put their own jobs ahead of the greater good is not entirely new in politics. But to do so on a literally life or death matter that is harming their own base far more than the opposition's shows that their approach is not only vile and inhumane but stupid and self-defeating.

It's no surprise that the three or four vaguely reasonable Republican governors out there want nothing to do with the national death cult (who, of course, wants to cancel them for the disobedience).

The former Republican Party's only ideology is nihilism. They have literally nothing offer except rage. They can't even bring themselves to denounce violence or threats of violence. Even as their own supporters die in the meantime.

American un-Exceptionalism

I once lived in Guinea. It's a West African country that has been independent for a shorter period of time than my parents have been alive. It has had 3 coups d'état, multiple dictatorships both military and civilian and a fair degree of electoral and social violence seeded by ambitious, divisive politicians. It's only really been democratic - and it's debatable to what degree - for about a decade.

A Guinean friend of mine just reached out saying he wanted to see if I was safe after what he's been following on the news and that he would be praying for God to save my country.

This is Trump's America: people who live in fragile, nascent semi-democracies are concerned for us Americans.

They are also a lot better human beings than we are. They are concerned about human beings who live halfway around the world. Our perverse notion of "liberty" means many of us don't even care about the human beings who live around the block.

American history lesson

In the 1770s, American colonialists were dissatisfied with British rule.

They took to the streets to protest. The result: several of them were killed by the forces of order. (Boston Massacre)

The killings fueling their anger, the Americans escalated their resistance to vandalism. (Boston Tea Party)

When the British refused to budge, the Americans resorted to armed violence. (Revolutionary War)

The Americans did issue a strongly worded press release (Declaration of Independence) but did not halt the violence.

Americans only resumed peaceful dialogue AFTER they seized autonomy following the British military surrender. (Treaty of Paris)

#HimToo ?

Today, New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigned, hours after The New Yorker revealed serious allegations against him of violence toward women. Many called for him to step down immediately.

On one hand, it's good that, at least in some quarters, public revelations of violent misogyny cause the accuser to be shunned into slinking out of public life, not excused or, worse, actively embraced.

And it is fitting that Schneiderman - a vocal backer of the #MeToo - may be punished under laws that he helped pass as a state senator.

On the other hand, some of his accusers claim that they told others of his actions a long time ago and they were not acted upon.

Clearly many men in positions of power - Republicans and Democrats alike - think they are above the law - to say nothing of basic human decency - in how they treat (usually) women. Far too often, they are right.

Newtown did not change us

After the massacre of several dozen school children and others in Newtown, CT, there was plenty of talk Newtown “changed us,” it didn’t. Within a few days, Americans were back to their usual pantomime political tribalism..

It’s like I said the day after Newtown. If we’re not willing to change something about our society, then nothing will change. Not exactly high philosophy but it means if we’re not willing to change something significant, we simply have to accept that there will be lots of needless deaths in our country, whether by children or by mall denizens, whether via guns or via other means. If we’re not willing to change something about our too frequent use of violence as a means of first resort, then all the sorrow and hand-wringing will be continue to be as hollow as it’s been. America has been a violent society from the beginning. Far greater massacres have done little to curb these impulses, so I have no expectation that Newtown will make any significant dent in how we act.

There was a (presumably) pro-gun control graphic that made the rounds after Newtown. It pointed out the rate of gun deaths in various western countries, the US of course being the highest. I was struck by it but in a different way the the authors likely intended. I was struck the fact that the two countries with the lowest per capita death by gun rates on the list were the UK and Switzerland. 

Britain has virtually banned private handgun ownership and has very strict gun control laws. Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world and, if I understand correctly, has very little in the way of gun control laws. These two extremes of these supposedly “causational” factors have both resulted in far lower gun-related deaths than our own country.

Focusing solely on gun control is taking the easy way out, because even if the gun control makes a positive impact, that impact will be too small to make any significant difference by itself. We need to look deeper.

The problem is greater than what guns or ammunition is available or whether every school janitor has an AK47.  So changing gun laws or creating national registries of gun owners or the mentally ill or arming every special ed aid and bus driver in schools may or may not help a small amount but will not fundamentally change the situation because it doesn’t address its broader problem. We have to look deeper and that’s not something we’re not nearly as good at as we are invoking the Nazis in every argument and then going back to American Idol.

Romney grants rights to foreigners that he denies to Americans

The juxtaposition of two stories on the front page of today's Oneonta Daily Star caught my eye: "Romney declares Jerusalem capital of Jewish state" and "Area gun enthusiasts take aim at critics."

The latter was the usual mainstream media story run in the aftermath of a mass shooting tragedy in which interviewees claimed that we didn't need more gun restrictions. It's shocking that the group interviewed, participants at a southern New York gun show, would come to that conclusion. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has agreed with this position.

The former was a story about Romney's visit to Israel. There, Romney said he would back an Israeli military aggression to knock out Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, which played well with the militaristic government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Republican said that Israel had the 'right' to live next to a non-nuclear Iran.


At home, conservatives claim that everybody being armed makes things *more* safe.

Abroad, they claim that everybody being armed makes things *less* safe.

They need to pick a propaganda line and stick with it.

Additionally, Romney is claiming that Israelis have the 'rights' to live next to an unarmed neighbor and to aggressively disarm their neighbor to achieve that 'right.'

But he denies that Americans don't have any such rights.

Why does Romney claim a right for foreigners that he denies to Americans?

What country is Romney running to lead?

Update: One gun enthusiast interviewed in The Daily Star piece noted "In a free society, you are going to have crazies and there is no way to stop them." Can you imagine a conservative agreeing with that statement if the word 'crazies' was preceded by the word 'Islamist'?

We've met the enemy and it is us

For all the money this country has spent supposedly to fight Islamist terrorism, the real enemy is ourselves. A story in The Atlantic  notes that since 9/11/2001, over 334,000 Americans have been killed by guns used by other Americans. So in that time period, 100 Americans have been killed by a fellow American for every 1 America killed by an Islamist terrorist. So maybe we should drop the canned talking points about how we need more gun control or how every child should be given a gun upon entering elementary school. And maybe we should talk more about how we can become a more civilized, less barbaric nation. Every nation has murderers, psychopaths and crazy people, but proportionally, our culture seems to produce a lot more of them proportionally. Let's look in the mirror.

Bits and pieces

DEATH THREATS IN THE NAME OF ‘LAW AND ORDER’
Albany (NY) County’s district attorney David Soares has admitted that he and his office has received death threats in response to his refusal to prosecute participants of the Occupy Albany movement for non-violent activities like violating curfew. From the infamous pepper spray police thug in Davis, CA to the violent crackdown against peaceful Occupy movements in places like Oakland and Denver to the above death threats, you’ve seen remarkably little violence from those protesting in the name of democracy with most of the violence being committed by people doing so in the name of ‘respect for law and order.’ Quite a different reality to the one intoned by the yapping heads.

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WHAT’S THE STRANGE COMBINATION OF LETTERS ON THAT STREET SIGN (B-I-K-E L-A-N-E) SIGNIFY?
Bravo to the Burlington, mayored by a Progressive Party mayor not coincidentally, for lowering the speed limiton the Vermont city’s streets. The Burlington Free Press reports that it was done to enhance the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians. Yet another reason Burlington is probably the coolest city in the northeastern US.

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YES, EVEN REFS ARE HUMAN TOO
Recent stories in the soccer world a very troubling, from the attempted suicide of two referees, to the apparent suicide of Wales national team manager Gary Speed to the suicide not that long ago of German goalkeeper Robert Enke. It should serve as a wake-up call reminding soccer fans that a little re-humanization is long past due. There is so much vitriol and nastiness in soccer fandom that it’s easy to forget that the targets are all human beings, with families and emotions. Passion should never be used as an excuse to act like barbarians.

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IN DISTRACTION WE TRUST
Economic inequality, unemployment, massive corporate welfare, institutionalized anti-democracy... the country is facing so many problems and what is the latest meaninglessness that Theocrats want us to freak out about? The president’s failure to mention God in his Thanksgiving address (only the spoken one; he did include it in the written one). You can just call it The Great Distraction.

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THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED... JUST NOT HERE
I saw this great graphic on Facebook, which showed the covers of TIME magazines editions for other parts of the world compared to its US edition. Gives you an insight into the editorial judgment [sic] of their vaunted professional editors.

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THE PROBLEM WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS: THEY HAVE TOO *LITTLE* DEBT
I was gobsmacked to read a newspaper article with this headline: "The other student loan problem: too little debt." Only a bank-obsessed culture would look at this issue and wonder if the problem is students with too *little* debt rather than taking a hard look at whether a university education, whether the cost of a fancy piece of paper is massively overpriced. Investigative journalism at its finest.

Christian Jihadists

So reading this piece on the terrorist attack in Norway committed by a white, blond-haired Norwegian, could someone please remind me why violent, conservative Muslim theocratic extremists are so much more dangerous to safety, democracy and civilized western values than violent conservative Christian theocratic extremists?

Coaching priorities take a dive

The World Cup is over. The best team (Spain) won, despite Dutch attempts to kick them into submission in the final. This was the most violent final in World Cup history, with the Dutch alone committing 28 fouls and receiving 7 yellow cards (the previous record for cards in a final was 6 COMBINED by both teams). The Dutch were also eliminated from the previous World Cup, literally kicking and screaming, in one of the most infamous matches in the tournaments history. Their previous reputation for beautiful soccer is surely now in tatters.

In the opinion of some, the shame of the final was not Dutch anti-soccer or violence.

Take this blog entry by Jeff Tipping, technical director of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

In it, Tipping blasted the behavior of players who dove and brandished imaginary cards at the referee.

While Spanish players do have an annoying propensity to "play act," there was no mention by Tipping of the anti-soccer and pure thuggery on the part of the Dutch players.

This point of view is widely held in Britain (where Tipping is from) and in most countries that are heavily influenced by English soccer, like the US, Australia and Canada.

This hypocrisy is quite breathtaking.

Players cheat in so many other ways, ways that are more serious, ways that ruin the game in a far greater fashion.

Holding.

Shirt grabbing.

Hacking.

Elbowing.

General mugging.

This sort of cheating is not only tolerated, but often praised, with adjectives like "robust," "getting stuck in," "tough," "sophisticated" and, my personal favorite, "well-organized."

And yet when a mugged player takes a dive or to even out these assaults, it's an international incident.

Dutch thug-in-chief Mark Van Bommell nearly broke a Spanish player's ankle with a horror tackle. Dutch deputy thug-in-chief Nigel de Jong nearly broke the ribs of Xabi Alonso with a kung fu kick that would've made Bruce Lee proud. Yet, Tipping and those like him don't say a word about this MMA-style garbage that could potentially end someone's career. But a guy who rolls around a few times? Send him to the electric chair!

Apparently, it's far more acceptable to inflict injury than to complain about or fake it.

You wouldn't have players brandishing imaginary cards or taking dives if horror tackles like Van Bommell's and de Jong's were actually punished appropriately (with red cards in both cases) rather than the "tsk tsk tsk" treatment (yellow cards) that both got.

Sometimes a player just flops for no reason. But often, a player exaggerates a fall in order to get a call that he actually deserves but would never get if he didn't fall. Referees generally only call fouls when a player goes to ground. If the refs actually blew the whistle when fouled players tried to stay on their feet, they would have an incentive to do so. As it is, players who try to stay on their feet (and generally don't get the call) are punished for being honest and the defenders who fouled them are rewarded for breaking the rules.

Cheating is cheating is cheating. To make a distinction between intentional fouling or injurious cheating and play acting cheating is just intellectually dishonest.

But I suppose that fetish with the "robust" at the expense of the technical is why youth development in both the US and England are in such a sorry state of affairs.

Code red on Planet Soccer

Yesterday afternoon, there were disgusting scenes of violence in the Italian capital at a big European Champions League soccer quarterfinal between A.S. Roma and Manchester United. Despite the fact that the two groups of fans were segregated, they were throwing objects ('missiles' in the lingo) at each other. Police reportedly charged the English fans with batons. (Note: Though I'm a Roma fan, I didn't see the game, but I was listening to the Manchester United audio commentary) Ten United fans were stabbed outside Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

If I wanted to go with the mob mentality, I would blame it all on Roma. Italian soccer is now notorious for fan violence in much the same way English soccer was 20 years ago. In fact, the whole Italian league was shut down for a week earlier this year because of crowd violence and at least one club still plays home games at an empty stadium because of it. Like most other big Italian clubs, Roma has a group of ultras, a bunch of hard-core hooligans there to act like maniacs, not to watch soccer. Lazio is the more infamous club in the Italian capital but Roma is not immune to this scourge. If I wanted to be chic, I would condemn only Roma based on reputation. But I won't do that. Fairness means judging each situation individually and not engaging in guilt by association.

Even the Manchester United radio commentators I was listening to observed that the missile-throwing was going both ways; the announcers, up until that point, had effusively praised the atmosphere in the stadium ("More moving than Liverpool's 'You'll Never Walk Alone'" they said of the Roma fans' pre-match hymn).

Of course, if I wanted to, I could put in my blinders and blame it all on Manchester United. There was crowd trouble at United's Champions League match earlier this year against Lille in northern France. But I won't condemn them alone based on history either.

In reality, crowd trouble like this is almost never the sole fault of just one party.

According to press accounts (admittedly of English fans), Italian police attacked the English fans in the stadium with a shocking level of brutality. Sadly, since Italian fans can be brutal, it's hardly surprising that the police are as well.

There's no point in beating around the bush. There's a crisis in soccer. Particularly European and South American soccer. A crisis of fan violence.

As I said, I'm careful of guilt by association. Certainly not all clubs in Europe or South America have this problem. But fans and officials for too long have buried their head in the sand about this madness. Just because not every club is guilty doesn't mean there aren't trends that club should be worried about.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

To their credit, the English model should be the way forward. For most of the 70s and 80s, English officials tried the ostrich approach to crowd security. But after the great tragedies of Hillsborough (which was caused by overcrowding) and Heysel (hooliganism) in which a combined 135 people died at two soccer matches*, English officials were forced into taking serious action. Now, crowd security at English club matches is generally seen as a model for the rest of Europe.

(*-The Bradford City fire, in which 56 died and 256 were injured, also played a role, highlighting the dilapidated state of English stadia)

And much of the rest of Europe needs it. And South America too.

Consider these events
-One Paris St-Germain hooligan was shot dead and another injured as they were part of a racist mob attacking a black police officer.

-Soccer in Italy was suspended for a week when Palermo supporters rioted after they couldn't gain admission to the already full stadium of their rivals. They attacked and beat a policeman, who later died.

-Cameroonian star Samuel E'too, who plays for Barcelona, said he refuses to allow his children to attend his matches because of all the racist abuse hurled at Spanish stadia.

-Ivory Coast defender Marc Zoro, who plays for the Italian club Messina, walked off the field after being subjected to relentless racist abuse by Inter Milan fans. (E'too once tried to do the same thing in a Spanish league match)

-The Greek government recently suspended all professional soccer in the country for two weeks after a fan was stabbed to death at a brawl between two hooligan groups.

-As Franklin Foer explains in the first chapter of his book How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, there are strong links between soccer clubs and organized crime syndicates in many parts of Eastern Europe. (By many accounts, fan violence is even worse in Eastern Europe, but Western European soccer has a much higher international media profile.)

-Rival groups nominally supporting the same club, Buenos Aires' giants River Plate, fought against EACH OTHER before a match in February.

-The same day, fan fighting at another Argentine league match led to the death of a 15-year old both while 12 others were injured.

-There have also been serious problems at stadia in Uruguay, Colombia and Chile.

All of these are events that have happened within the last year and a half, most within the last few months.

Explaining who soccer is more than just a sport in many parts of the world would take another essay. In fact, Foer's excellent book does a great job in exploring this in great depth.

In many parts of the world, a soccer club is not simply another entertainment option. It can symbol of your culture, of your religion, of nationalism and/or of politics. There are "Catholic" and "Protestant" clubs. There are "Basque" and "Catalan" clubs. There are "left-wing" and "right-wing" clubs. There are "fascist" and "anti-fascist" clubs. There are "upper class" and "lower class" clubs. No wonder that the emotions run a bit stronger than the mostly geographic rivalries in North American sports.

(This is also why I believe in the absolute separation of sport and politics. It's why I think the Olympics should be de-nationalized, at least in individual sports)

There is absolutely no doubt that these passions run deep. It would be easy to write this all off to passions, shrug your shoulders and declare fan violence something inevitable. It would be easy to write this off to me being an American who "doesn't get it."

Garbage!

I've lived to Africa. African fans are generally just as passionate as the Europeans and South Americans. But you don't see widespread fan violence inside African grounds. Or outside them either. You don't see rioting. You don't see fans shooting or stabbing other fans. Of course there have been a few exceptions. But they are just that, exceptions. Exceptions that prove the rule.

In 1997, I went to African Nations Cup qualifer between Guinea and Tunisia. It was a big match. Guinea were at the top of the qualifying group and Tunisia had been finalists at the most recent Nations Cup. There was a group of Tunisian fans sitting next to the section (of Guinean fans) I was in. There was no segregation. There was no police presence. There was no one to protect the Tunisian fans from the Guineans.

How come all hell didn't break loose?

Because the Tunisian fans DIDN'T NEED PROTECTION from the Guinean fans, or vice versa. It was a festive atmosphere, not a menacing one. Exactly the way soccer is supposed to be. Somehow, opposing fans were able sit near each other and GOD FORBID INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER without beating the crap out of each other, without stabbing each other, without running rampage like a bunch of wild animals. Somehow, this is possible in the heart "savage" Africa but not in "civilized" Europe.

No Virginia, fan violence is NOT inevitable.

I've never forget something I read about a decade ago. In 1997, there was violence at a match between the England and Italy national teams. In the aftermath, English officials blamed the Italian authorities for not sufficiently segregating the two sets of fans. I remember reading this and being gobsmacked. Individuals supporting different teams at a sporting event can't interact in a way befitting civilized human beings and it's not their fault but the police's.

I think this illustrates the fundamental flaw in the mentality of soccer administrators. It's not the police that have to change, it's the fans.

Several years ago, I went to a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball game in the Bronx. With the possible exception of NHL Toronto-Montreal, this is the most intense rivalry in North American sports. My family and I were all decked out in Red Sox gear and were sitting right in the middle of all Yankee fans. There was a lot of back and forth. A bit more vulgarity than my mom appreciated. But for the most, it was just good natured ribbing between the Yankee fans and mostly my brother. We weren't attacked, stabbed or shot. We didn't even have beer cups thrown at us. When New York City fans are well-behaved by comparison, you know how deep the soccer problem runs..

In soccer lingo, fans (short for fanatics) are usually referred to as supporters. This may seem like an insignificant linguistic point, but it's symbolic. It's ironic that fans (fanatics) at North American sporting events generally act in a much more sane way than supporters at European and South American soccer matches.

This symbolic linguistic point nicely illustrates what needs to change. For too many European and South American "supporters," actually SUPPORTING their team is the last thing on their minds when they enter the stadium.

I used to hate writing essays like this. I used to fear that the generally anti-soccer sports media establishment in this country would seize on stuff like this to bash soccer. But then I realized that the active soccer-hating nuts in this country (not to be confused with those who simply don't care) will find any excuse to bash the sport. The reality, that there has been to my knowledge zero violence in the 11-year history of America's top soccer league, doesn't matter to them. So why worry about the loudmouthed ignoramuses? The more soccer grows in popularity, the more they bash it.

I used to rationalize that violence soccer fans were a small minority. And it's true. They are. But just as a small minority of lunatics can ruin a country, they can also ruin a sport. And that's exactly what's happening right now.

I understand the defense mechanism against ill-informed cheap shots many American soccer fans have. But soccer fans need to learn from the neo-cons' failings in the political realm. We need to recognize problems, not be paralyzed to them because of a closed-minded, knee-jerk, hyperdefensive reflex. It's time for all soccer fans around the world to face reality. It's no longer acceptable to say that because it's a small minority, it's not a big deal. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal in most of the world's biggest, richest and most high-profile leagues. It's a huge deal in the places that are the global face of the sport.

With the possible exception of the human trafficking of young soccer players from Africa to Europe, fan violence is the biggest crisis facing professional soccer.

Roma vs Manchester Utd was a great soccer match. People should be talking about Roma's scintillating attacking play or Wayne Rooney's great goal. Instead, the Beautiful Game was tarnished yet again by its most hideous side. Rather than apportioning blame to one side or another, it's time for a complete cleaning of the soccer house.

To say that fan violence is a crisis that threatens the future worldwide popularity of the sport would not be an overstatement. It would be the truth.