Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, He Who Shall Not Be Named and Presidential Mercy

Recipients of last minute pardons or sentence commutations from the former Resident indluded fascist mastermind Steve Bannon, below, and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Note—Four years ago after a sadder Inauguration I posted this contemplation.  It is relevant again because the former Cheeto-in-Charge spent his last day issuing pardons and commutations.  He surprised many when he did not pardon himself, his children and accomplices in numerous crimes, and close cronies like Rudy Giuliani.  He disappointed the followers who stormed the Capitol at his behest, Proud Boys, Q-Anons, and suburban moms alike.  The list did include the reptilian fascist Steve Bannon—at best an on again, off again ally who probably has some very damaging dirt on him.  Also the brother of former Chicago Bears great Brian Urch and an Illinois village president charged with an illegal gambling scheme, politically connected business moguls, real estate barons and disgraced former members of Congress.  He played a see-I’m-not-a-racist card by including rappers  Lil Wayne and Kodak Black and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.  Most of his list included low level drug offenders serving long sentences, but on the balance those leand heavily to “nice White guys” over Blacks.  Of course Barack Obama pardoned or commented three times that total as he left the Oval office.  That prompted the following post.

Barack Obama spent the last days of his days in office churning out sentence commutations.  Hundreds were given to non-violent drug offenders facing draconian sentences under the exceptionally harsh Federal Sentence Standards, the most vindictive in the world.  But there are so many of those victims of the failed war on drugs that the commutations hardly made a dent in the American gulag.  Also given leniency were some white collar criminals, the kind of offenders that drew the more stingy grace of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.  Even a beloved baseball icon, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants who was convicted on Income Tax evasion was one of 64 that drew and outright pardon from the President. 

Most controversially Obama commuted the sentences of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the former Army Private Bradley Manning, and Puerto Rican nationalist leader Oscar Lopez.  Inexplicably he did not commute the sentence of ailing American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier who has been behind bars for 40 years and will now surely die in prison.

Barack Obama was unusually active with clemency orders and pardons in his last days in office.

However disappointing and mystifying that travesty of justice was, Obama gets credit for at least wrestling with the catastrophic effects of the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mania Americans.

No one, except possibly sex offenders, gun nuts, and White nationalist terrorists should expect any such displays of mercy from the incoming occupant of the Oval Office.  On the contrary.  Look for him and his administration to swell the prison population with those who resist his autocratic rule, immigrants, and minorities of every sort.

Forty-four years ago today another incoming president on his first day in office, January 21, 1977 issued a blanket amnesty of most draft evaders, including those who went to Canada or assumed new identities and went underground in the states.

On his first day in office President Jimmy Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for Vietnam era draft resisters including those who had fled the country or gone underground.

President Jimmy Carter’s controversial act, which brought harsh criticism from veterans’ organizations and near mutinous grumbling from some high level officers in the military, was not unexpected.  It fulfilled a campaign promise.  The idea was to put the bitter national divisions over the Vietnam War and Nixon years behind us, or in Carter’s own words, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The accidental President, Gerald Ford, had issued a conditional pardon for draft offenders, including those who were abroad, in September of 1974.  That was mainly to provide cover on the left for his pre-emptive pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon for any offenses that he “may have committed.”  The Ford conditional pardon is generally better remembered than Carter’s much more substantial action because of that linkage despite requiring those who accepted the pardon to work in alternative service occupations similar to those of conscientious objectors for six to 24 months.  Far fewer men than expected took Ford up on his offer.

Carter’s action was much more sweeping, but a little noticed provision said that amnesty would be given to all offenders who requested one.  Some resistors refused to make a request because to do so was an admission that they had committed a crime in the first place.  Many, many more were unaware, because of hazy press coverage, that they had to make a request.  The Justice Department did not even make a cursory effort to inform the eligible by a letter to a “last known address.” 

The wording also was unclear on an important point for men like me—did the amnesty cover those who were already convicted and had served sentences for draft offenses?  I don’t think that last point has yet been fully answered.

None-the-less tens of thousands of draft refusers, evaders, and military deserters acted on the assumption that they were covered and the Justice Department de facto ceased actions against anyone who could have been covered by amnesty.  

More than half a million young men were either charged with draft evasion and resistance, or avoided or refused to serve in the Armed Forces but were never charged during the Vietnam War.

During the war, and continuing after it ended until Draft call-ups stopped in 1973, 209,517 men were accused of violating draft laws, and another 360,000 were never formally charged.  Around 100,000 went abroad, 90% of them to Canada.  The exact number who went “underground” has never been established, but is thought to be in the tens of thousands.

Upwards of 50,000 of those in Canada chose to stay there rather than return home.  Most were granted Landed Immigrant status and eventually Canadian citizenship.  A highly educated group with significant resources, these people had an impact on Canada.  Many became leading figures in academia, the arts, and in politics.  They are widely credited with/accused of moving Canadian politics generally to the left.

Likewise a good, but unknown, number of those who went underground chose to continue to live their lives under the identities that they assumed.  In the 1960’s and early 70’s it was absurdly easy to establish a new identity.  It is thought that as this cohort becomes eligible for Social Security or die many of these assumed identities will unravel.

As for an old Draft con like me, I never got any amnesty papers.  But I have lived my life quite openly, and even drawn some modest attention to myself.  So far so good. 

Charlottesville On My Mind—Part 1

Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

Note: Barrels of Ink and enough electrons to build an alternative universe have been spilled on the racist White Nationalist violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend.  And I have been chewing on it for days now.  .The first of at least two, maybe more

The vast cesspool that includes multitudinous Ku Klux Klan outfits, Neo-Confederates, White Nationalist, Neo-Nazis and outright Nazis, aging Skin Heads and Biker bullies, and I-wanna-be-Rambo Militia have been growing in numbers and ratcheting up the vileness and threats in their rhetoric for some time.  Check the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Group roll call for confirmation. 

But they have remained so splintered into relatively tiny groups divided by nuances of racist ideology, style and to what extent they want to disguise their intent, and—let’s face it—by fashion differences and life styles—that they have consistently failed to come together in movement that could be dangerous not just to individuals and communities but to the very fabric of civil and democratic society.  If you are a Nazi, everyone wants to be Fuhrer or Klansman everyone their own Klegal.  These visions of grandiosity means that new groups pop up instead of people joining a well-established national organization.

There have been numerous attempts to rally the so-called Alt-right in recent years and until now they have failed laughably.  Of hand I can think of three or four marches on/motorcycle rides to/rallies in Washington that were supposedly going to dwarf the mammoth crowds turned out in events like the Women’s March and couldn’t muster a bedraggled corporal’s guard on the National Mall.  Grand pan-Klan events in Southern cities drew dozens.  No one heeded the calls to reinforce the Minuteman with armed border vigilantes or come to the rescue of the Cowboy militia who daringly seized control of a bird sanctuary.  The West’s White Nationalists sputtered in their attempt to invade a small Montana town where local Jewish lady made Richard Spencer’s mom feel bad. 

But this time the whole squabbling mob successfully came together for the first time in the Unite the Right events in Charlottesville.  So what the hell happened?

Trump campaign rallies made it pretty clear to the Alt-Right where their potential constituency was.

First, last year during the Presidential campaign Donald Trump began getting the huge adoring crowds that any would-be Hitler would envy.  He hit all the key emotional appeals of the fascist right—anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, attacking and discrediting the press, attacks on an elite conspiracy that was reminiscent of smearing “cosmopolitans,” calls for “law and order” to crack down on dissent like Black Lives Matter, sympathy for the protectors of Southern Heritage and the Stars and Bars, a dash of homophobia, misogyny by example, and old fashion flag-waving jingoism.  At first Trump did it with a sly wink-and-a-nod but as the campaign wore on he discovered that the more red meat he threw, the larger and more devoted the crowds.  Un-able to stifle the siren call of adulation, he relentlessly stepped it up, day after day.

Early on Alt-Right mouthpiece Steve Bannon of Breitbart, a blousy, alcoholic who dreamed of “bringing the whole thing [American Democracy] come crashing down”, recognized it, gave Trump free run and encouragement on his web site and showering him with flattery. He soon found himself the top strategist of the campaign, the candidate’s closest advisor even pushing aside Trump’s children. 

When Trump “won” the White House, Bannon was installed on the Right Hand of the Golden Throne.  In the first weeks of the administration he was widely seen as the very ill concealed mastermind calling the shots.  He set a dizzying pace of policy announcements meaning to immediately dismantled every achievement of the Obama administration, helped recruit the most rabidly right persons for Cabinet and top administrative jobs, and pursued a saber rattling belligerent foreign policy that was contemptuous of long time allies. 

White Nationalist media guru Steve Bannon got a seat at the Table at the White House and kept it against odds.

It was only when he drew too much attention to himself, stirred too many pots, and began to rattle even Republican loyalists that Jared and Ivanka Kushner were able to stage a palace coup and depose the Grand Vizier.  But they never forced him completely out.  He kept his office and his title.  If his mastery of the administration was limited, he was content to lie low and bide his time.  And he had already salted administration with other Alt-Right and White Nationalist darlings—super hawk and Islamaphobe General John Kelly at Homeland Security to manage the Muslim Ban and immigration sweeps; Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller who despite being the decedent of immigrant Jews bears a frightening physical and ideological resemblance to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels; and deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka who has ties to the Hungarian Nazi collaborators Vitézi Rend.  These three and lower level moles also pulled in their horns for a while.  But as if on auto pilot the Cheeto in Charge continued to promote their hobby horses in increasingly deranged daily Tweets.

In an astonishingly short period of time the Trump presidency seemed to go into a death spiral fuled by his Tweets on the toilet and bizarre public appearances and escalating incoherence.  But it was the steady and relentless unraveling of his personal and campaign relations with Vladimir Putin and Russia that kept creeping closer and closer to his inner circle, family, and himself that became terrifyingly perilous.  

The messy details of that third rate TV political thriller are too complex to go into here.   You know them unless you have been hiding under a rock or depending on Fox News and Breitbart for your information.  Suffice it to say that various expendables and fringe players were thrown to the wolves—and into the eager hands of Robert Mueller, the FBI chief  Trump dumped and became Special Counsel investigating the Russian shenanigans and related scams and corruption.

Unable to acknowledge that the pickle he found himself in was largely the product of his own impetuosity and pathological lying, Trump raged around the White House seeking to fix the blame.  He turned his malevolent glare of his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, a lap-dog loyal certified old time Southern bigot, who was his most effective cabinet member in dismantling the Obama legacy and attacking immigrants and voting rights.  Sessions should have been the apple of his master’s eye.  But Trump was enraged that he had been forced to recues himself from the Russia investigation and could not fire Mueller.  The President went on an extraordinary and relentless two week public rampage against Sessions who remained mostly discretely mum but refused to resign.  Sessions also had too much support from hard-line Congressional conservatives to be summarily fired.

Next in the President’s sights were the more vulnerable members of his own staff, a pack of squabbling back-stabbers who were leaking details of Oval Office chaos right and left.  The pathetic incompetent Press Secretary, who had already been benched, was an easy target.  Harder were the supposed Republican insiders “adults in the room” like Chief of Staff Reince Priebus who Trump felt failed to protect him and were not aggressive enough.  They also tried, without success to “keep Trump from being Trump”—recklessly stupid and impetuous.  The president was sick of it and increasingly angry at Congressional Republicans who supported them for not advancing his Obama care repeal. 

That’s when he called in loose cannon, Anthony Scaramucci as his hatchet man.  The Mooch bragged about “firing the first guy I saw” to assert his new authority than turned his attention to Priebus who was gone within days replaced by General John Kelly lately of Homeland Security.  Other rats had their tails set on fire or jumped ship.  And the “moderating” voice of son-in-law Kushner, who had been accumulating portfolios that he was not remotely qualified to handle, was being isolated.  

White House hatchet man Anthony "The Mooch" Sacramucci may not have lasted long and may have had Steve "Self-Falacio" Bannon in his sights, but he cleared out Banner's biggest enemies before he got to him.

But the Mooch was even less disciplined than his boss and his swaggering bit him in the ass before it had a chance to properly warm his desk chair.  After a profanity laced interview in which he threatened to fire the entire White House staff if he could not identify a leaker and proclaimed that “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock.”  Bannon might have been in his sights, but he never got a chance to pull the trigger.

The first thing that Kelly did as Chief of Staff was to fire Scaramucci after only six days on the job.  He also called Kushner and Ivanka to heel by requiring them to report to and through him instead of enjoying unlimited access to the Oval Office.  Kelly supposedly represented discipline in the White House, but he was also an ultra-rightist with more than passing fascist tendencies who quietly let Bannon and the other top Alt-right aids, back into the inner circle.

With the noose still tightening in the Russia investigation, which was spreading to his family’s finances and business dealing, Trump began to be convinced that the only chance for his personal and political survival lay in whipping up his old base and relying to the Alt-right as a possible source of armed intervention should his back get to the wall.

Stephen Miller was trotted out to outline a xenophobe's dream immigration proposal and in the process insulted Emma Lazarus.

As a signal, Trump trotted out both Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka to make important public policy statements for the administration.  Miller announced the administration’s new immigration plan, the RAISE Act which would sharply limit legal immigration and favor immigrants with high English proficiency and substantial assets, and virtually end family reunification immigration. Not only was this the perfect music for White nationalist and racist ears, but as an added bonus Miller insulted the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazerus’ poem and accused a reporter of being a “cosmopolitan”—the classic veiled slur for a Jew.  That the reporter in question was not a Jew and Miller actually was made no difference.  Every one noted with horror or appreciation that Miller looked and sounded like Joseph Goebbels.

All of this was publicly noted and appreciated across the Alt-right including appreciative remarks by the high profile figures former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke and media gadfly Richard Spencer, the two figures most often interviewed and quoted in the mainstream press, but he also got cheers from radio and sub-basic cable raver Alex Jones and The Daily Stormer, both red meat to the most rabid neo-Nazis, Klansmen, skin-head punks.

The entire Alt-right, along with the older Klan and Nazi movements, thrived under the beaming approval of Trump and the social permission he gave for overt racist statements and harassment.  All of these groups swelled with new recruits—and more were being founded almost daily.  But, as noted, all attempts at effective cooperation had failed.

Until, that is, the large crowds that responded across the South to taking down the Stars and Bars and attempts to remove Confederate monuments.  These “attacks on Southern Heritage” converted latent and marginal racists—and many Trump voters—to angry activists in the streets. Not only did this issue have broad appeal across right wing movements and ideologies, it seemed the key to finally becoming a mass movement, not just a noisy fringe.

Alt-right media star Richard Spencer's May protest at the Charlottesville Lee statue set the stage for Unite the Right.

The far right began to home in on Charlottesville when the city announced plans to remove a heroic equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee and re-name the small park where it stood Emancipation Park.  Richard Spencer led a highly publicized Take Back Lee Park rally on May 13 where protestors surrounded the statue carrying torches.  Local religious and civil rights leaders mounted a peaceful counter vigil with more participants but Spencer felt he had won the night. 

Klan factions planned their own rally on July 8, but in a repeat of many other failures could only muster 50 participants who were dwarfed by over a thousand counter demonstrators.  That is when it became apparent that the small and splintered Klan and Nazi groups, with their inherit public relations problems would never be able to pull off a major event without the participation of the so-called Alt-right, less overt groups that tried to put a more favorable face on White Nationalism.

Jason Kessler of the Neo-Nazi Daily Stormer was the principle organizer of the Unite the Right event.  Among the organizations that quickly signed on were the neo-Confederate League of the South, the pseudo think tank National Policy Institute, the openly Nazi National Socialist Movement, various KKK groups, the Oath Keepers and armed militia groups, new Proud Boy groups, Nazi-motorcycle clubs, and a dizzying array of tiny sects.  The call also drew people who simply proclaimed themselves Trump supports, and frat-boy College Republicans.

In the end, somewhere north of 1000 participants came to Charlottesville, hardly an overwhelming number, but the largest display of far right muscle in decades.  Officially the planned march and rally was to be peaceful.  But chatter on social media made clear that many came hoping that they had numbers enough to respond violently to “provocations.  Explicit threats were made against Jewish and Black city leaders, the large contingent of religious leaders mobilized interfaith group Congregate Charlottesville, Black Lives Matters, the media, anti-fascist groups, and, of course, Jews.

Charlottesville and Trump--what possible connection could there be?

After court battles over permits for Emancipation Park and as the ranks of both sides swelled, the city felt like a powder keg.  Violence was almost universally expected.  The White House refused to join city and state leaders in denouncing Unite the Right or making any appeals for peace.    The Right took it as “a wink is good as a nod.”

We will explore some of the details of what happened in the next essay. 

In the aftermath the relation between Trump and the so-called Alt-right finally became clear.  It took Trump until Sunday afternoon to make a public statement that referred to “violence on many sides” and steadfastly refused to denounce the neo-Nazis, Klan and Alt-right by name.

Duke, Spencer, and the Daily Stormer all registered approval of the statement.  That added to the firestorm of criticism over Trump’s tepid response, some of it coming Republicans terrified they were going to be permanently publicly branded as racists, Vice-President Mike Pence was forced finally to call them out by name.   That was not enough.

On Monday Trump “clarified” himself in carefully chosen words which finally did manage to say that racism and Nazis are very bad things.   That elicited undeserved praise from Republican,   incredulity by almost everyone else—just a day late and a dollar short.   But it was enough to irk both Spencer and Duke who hinted that their troops might not have his back if he betrayed them.

That was enough to terrify Trump and along with pique for not having been lauded in the press for his Sunday statement.  That was enough to walk back virtually everything he had said and hit Alt-right talking points in an angry, rambling confrontation with the media at Trump Tower in New York yesterday. 

At Trump Tower in New York Tuesday the Cheeto in Charge removed any doubt where he really stood.

The mask not only has been torn off, it has been torn up and can never be worn again. Trump is now beyond anyone’s doubt a racist and ally of racists.  He is shedding defenders faster than a mangy dog sheds fur.  He is more isolated than ever.  Which, of course, make him dangerous and unpredictable. 

Will he try to rally support by going to war with North Korea, Venezuela, or some other convenient target?   Will he try to dodge the Russian noose by finally firing Sessions and investigator Muller precipitating a possible Constitutional crisis?   Will he turn to his last allies and summon them to Washington in arms to protect him?  

We hold our breath…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Black History Month and the Jim Crow Zombie Apocalypse

It is Black History Month again.  You remember.  It is when TV networks suddenly pop up with Black History tidbits mouthed by stars of their shows, PBS breaks out documentaries, and actors get work showing up at elementary school assemblies portraying Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, or some other safe and approved hero.  All in all it’s a good thing, but not uncontroversial.  African-Americans are meant to feel uplifted and honored.  Whites, hopefully, get their eyes opened to both some harsh realities and have some stereotypes shattered.  Typically the President issues a Proclamation, makes a speech, or invites iconic Black figures to the White House for special events. Under President Barack Obama—remember him?—there was perhaps understandably a whole series of events every year including concerts and reunions with surviving Civil Rights Movement veterans.  Last year he and Michelle had a touching moment with a 100 year old plus proud woman voter.

This year Donald Trump took a moment out of his busy schedule of dismantling American civil society and picking fights with the world to observe the occasion.  Having already been told that he would not be welcome at the Smithsonian’s Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Day, he kept it simple and did not risk being snubbed by famous and admired Blacks.  Instead he called a breakfast “listening session” with a handful of Black supporters and members of his administration.  He invited the press, too.  Big of him.  Of course he did almost no listening at all.  He launched into a patented semi-incoherent ramble in which he praised and congratulated himself for doing so well among Blacks in the election.  “Next time we’ll triple the number or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right. At least 51,” he said hardly realizing that he had outed himself for his pathetic support.

Most notably he made word hash and displayed profound ignorance out of his attempts to cite some of the most famous and important figures in Afro-American history.

Last month we celebrated the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose incredible example is unique in American history. You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. It's one of the favorite things — and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. And we have other. But they said the statue, the bust, of Dr. Martin Luther King was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. It’s very unfortunate. 

I am very proud now that we have a museum, National Mall, where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Doug — Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made Americans what it is today. Big impact. I’m proud to honor this heritage and will be honoring it more and more. 

Huh?

The Cheeto in Charge celebrated Black History Month with in house sycophants  Omarosa and Dr. Ben Carson.

Many of his remarks were aimed at pointing out the token Blacks in attendance and in his administration.  “I want to thank Ben Carson, who's going to be heading up HUD, and it's a big job, and it’s a job that’s not only housing, it’s mind and spirit, right? And you understand that. Nobody’s going to be better than Ben.”  Ben grinned, nodded, and kept his mouth shut. 

The Cheeto in Charge closed his remarks with high praise for the woman sitting next to him, the villainess star of his old reality show Omarosa Manigault who is now his official Director of African-American Outreach.  Omarosa, you will recall, made headlines during the campaign when she said, “Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him—it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”  No wonder Trump admires her—he highly values such loyalty and recognition of his supreme greatness.

The whole thing would have made a hilarious Alec Baldwin Saturday Night Live sketch guest starring Tracy Morgan as Ben Carson and Maya Rudolph as Omarosa.

But, minstrel show was a distraction from the full court press assault on every gain Blacks have made since the Jim Crow Era.  Trump rode racism to the White House like a white charger in a Ku Klux Klan parade.  He plucked every string of resentment barely bothering with the code words with which Republicans have masked their appeals since Nixon’s Southern Strategy.  Now all of those markers have been called in and Trump is producing on cue.

Here are just a few of the actions that signal a headlong rush to a vicious past.

Steve Bannon, the not-so-secret power behind the golden throne.

·        Steve Bannon, former Breitbart honcho, Alt-Right propagandist, open neo-Nazi and racist was Trump’s pick as Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist.  In a nanosecond he gathered all of the reins of power in the administration foreign and domestic. He supplanted Vice President Mike Pence, who was supposed to oversee daily government operations while Trump concentrated on the Big Picture and public swagger, as all powerful Grand Vizier to the Trump’s figure head sultan.

·         Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, in a heated contest to be the most right wing member of the Senate and an arch foe of voting rights protections was tapped as Attorney General.  He is as open an old style Southern segregationist as it is possible to be without actually proclaiming himself as one.  

·         Trump floated outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that millions of votes were cast illegally in the last election to downplay his loss in the popular vote by more than 3 million.  He has organized an “investigation” of those charges headed by one of the liars who made up the original allegations.  They will publish conclusions affirming their fantasies to lay the groundwork for national legislation mirroring the most extreme voting suppression laws enacted by Southern states and GOP hostage states in the north like Wisconsin. 

·         During the campaign Trump went out of his way to attack the Black Lives Matter movement and to call for more aggressive policing including the widespread use of racial profiling and stop and frisk.  He backed draconian sentencing and would expand the already vast American Gulag stuffed with Black inmates.  His continued threats to intervene in Chicago does not mean stepped up assistance to the Chicago Police by Federal law enforcement agencies, but is widely understood to mean the use of troops as an occupying army. 

·         Education Secretary Besty DeVos dedication to smashing public education and replacing it with private charter schools will not only destroy the main educational system for Black children and put millions of middle class Black educators out of work, but will largely complete the re-segregation of American education with Blacks isolated in poor and underfunded schools.

·         Trump plans to remove monitoring white nationalist, militia, neo-Nazi, and Klan groups from the prevue of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) inter-agency task force to concentrate on Islamic Terrorism despite the fact that right wing domestic terrorism has been much more deadly in the United States than attacks by Muslims.  It is a wink-and-a-nod to Steve Bannon’s people to unleash violence and night riding. 

I could go on.  There is an attack of many cuts, some small and as yet unseen, in the general attack on all administrative regulations across scores of agencies.  The hope is that the victim—Black America—will bleed to death without noticing a fatal wound.  

The Rev. Willliam Barber and the Moral Mondays movement represent the New Civil Right Movement.

Of course Black America does notice.  It has noticed alarming trends in this direction long before Trump emerged as the savior of white America about to slip into a demographic minority status.  And it has been building powerful responses including the so-called New Civil Rights Movement represented by the Moral Mondays organized by the Reverend William Barber and the newly re-energized North Carolina NAACP.  Especially important has been the Black Lives Matter movement organized a young generation of self-motivated activists—most of them women—in response to the wave of police shootings and murders of Blacks.  They shunned the charismatic leader model and hierarchical organization in favor of flexible and responsive collective direction of a movement.

Both of these have accepted and encouraged support and participation by white progressives while setting boundaries.  The have dramatically educated white activists, often against resistance and denial to be supportive allies rather than see themselves as saviors or dictators of style, language, and tactics.  It has been hard, but it broadened the movement.

Black Lives Matter represents a fresh vision and response to oppression.

There are many targets of Trump era oppression.  Each has organized in response.  It would be very easy for each to fight alone or even allow themselves to be divided against each other the way many working class whites have been turned against natural minority allies.  It has been far from perfect, but there is a growing sense of intersectionality between these target groups—Blacks, immigrants, Muslims, women, Native Americans, labor, the disabled, the LBGT communities and others.  Not only do memberships in all of the labeled groups overlap in multiple ways like Venn diagrams, but their oppression is related and enemies the same.  They are learning—slowly and painfully—that the old American Revolution maxim applies to them to—“We must all hang together, or surely we will hang separately.”  It is the reinvention of the neglected virtue of solidarity.

The recent Women’s March on Washington and it hundreds of sister marches like the one I attended in Chicago were far from perfect but they were not just assemblages of middle-class white women like the ERA demonstrations of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.  Not only were the crowds much more diverse, so was the leadership and speakers reflected the broad concerns of intersectionality to roaring approval.  Millions involved that day now seem ready for continued commitment to a long, arduous, frustrating, and dangers course of action and resistance.

On the streets of Chicago this week Black Lives Matter veterans stood shoulder to shoulder with immigrants and Muslims and with many of the energized women whose first experience with protest was just the week before.  Grizzled relics of decades of protest like me found ourselves in seas of young people of all races.

Never before was Black History Month more important.  Now, more than ever before, Black History must be the text for all of us.  The lessons of Black struggle are directly applicable to the enormous challenge before us all to prevent a dissent into racist totalitarianism.  We need to learn anew the lessons intersectionality understood by Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Martin Luther King.