Some rolling observations I made while watching the Big Speech.
“Freedom will always triumph over tyranny.” We start off with a few bold statements praising Ukraine and sharply criticizing Russia. “When dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause chaos.” Biden makes a good solid speech and case here, discussing work on alliances, sharing and analysis of intelligence data, and the deliberate choices to speak clearly about these things as they were happening.
It’s a good case made, and I’m hard-pressed to think of a time there’s been this clear, sharp, and immediate response from the international community to provocative events.
Talking about going after the oligarchs. Wish our leaders in the Democratic Party were as enthusiastic about mitigating the power of oligarchs here in the US.
Biden reinforces that they’re not moving US forces “to fight Russia in Ukraine,” right before listing off all the countries where US forces are being moved and readied for conflict the minute one of those borders is crossed by Russians fighting in Ukraine.
Announcement of release of some oil reserves, 60Mbbl total.
“Iranian” instead of “Ukrainian,” and someone shouted something. We’ll see how the right-wing punditry handles that in this new era of anti-Russian sentiment.
LOL boos from the right as Biden mentions “unlike the two trillion from the previous administration that went to the top one percent.”
Economics. Lots of slogans and so forth, will there be any kind of solid announcements for any kind of relief? Applause line for infrastructure plan. Hearing more details on how that money’s being spent specifically, all of which is cool or cool-ish at least.
Passing econ bill with sales pitch including promise from Intel to drop $100Bn on manufacturing growth. Lots of revitalizing manufacturing talk and so forth. I think it’s short-sighted to continue focusing on “creating jobs,” but most of the world isn’t on that page yet.
Inflation and price conversation, lots of nativism in this conversation, but it is what it is. “USA” chant like we’re at a wrestling match. Validating the economic plan. Reducing prescription drugs, arguments in favor of reducing prices, political rhetoric but not ineffective, shout out to the kid in the audience, lots of well-used crowd-pleasing techniques here. Proposes capping cost of insulin at $35 a month. Let medicare negotiate prescription drug prices. Next up cutting energy cost & climate change. Tax credit for weatherization. Hints of subsidies for EVs and similar tech, but no specifics. Cutting child care costs, which is very popular and not a bad thing, but it’s not an issue super close to me as a single adult.
Not hearing anything to strongly disagree with here or be terribly cynical about so far, other than continued bleating about “back to work” and “continued economic growth.”
Discussions of fixing tax code and so forth, as well as a shot about confirming his fed nominations.
Watchdogs are back, the Justice Department “will soon be naming a chief investigator for pandemic fraud.”
“I’m a capitalist.” I’m not impressed, but that’s the frame we’re in. He’s not wrong about anything so far, staying within that framework.
Lots of pitching for some leftist favorite ideas, and some discussion of Covid impact.
Eh. Fund the police. Blugh. They’ve got funding; we need funding for everything else that feeds in to criminality.
Right to vote. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the DISCLOSE act, etc. All good things, nothing particularly new here though.
Shoutout to Justice Stephen Breyer, which naturally goes to a pitch for nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Border security and immigration reform, some idiot – probably Boebert or Greene – trying to get a “built that wall” chant going that died quickly. More generally well-known talking points on that issue.
“Preserve a woman’s right to choose,” Equality Act and addressing the LGBTQ+ population with supportive statements that appear to be aimed not so subtly at some state-level oppression that’s been happening there.
“Unity agenda”
beat opioid epidemic, including the usual details
mental health, particular for kids
“hold social media companies accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.”
support veterans
end cancer as we know it
This section of the whole thing seemed pretty cookie-cutter and not holding any gigantic announcements or headlines, but also nothing terribly objectionable or obnoxious.
Ah, here we go, ARPA-H, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. I like this.
“The state of the union is strong because you the American people are strong. This is our moment to overcome the challenges of our time, and we will.”
Overall a solid performance, nothing to give progressives any huge enthusiasm, but some support for those priorities with a much heavier dose of status-quo dogwhistling…which isn’t unexpected. As a speech I’ll give it a B+. As a matter of hearing what I wanted to from a standpoint of advancing progressive priorities, C+.
BREAKING: Nazi Texas Governor Greg Abbot Orders State Agency To Kidnap Trans Children From Parents, Force Misgendering, Corrective Medical Procedures Outlawed.
First, They’re Coming For The Trans Kids
Image of original letter from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, ordering state child welfare agencies to prosecute parents and physicians of any trans kids who are actively attempting transition for abuse.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott yesterday ordered the state child welfare agency to immediately begin investigating and prosecuting any parent or doctor of a trans minor who has taken any transitional steps e.g. hormone therapy.
In the letter, Abbott notes that “it is already against the law to subject Texas children to…elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”
He goes on to remind people of what “mandated reporter” means, thus making clear without stating it outright that as of now every single doctor, teacher, psychologist, or whomever else in Texas is aware of a child transitioning and does not immediately turn in the parents for abuse investigation, will themselves be sanctioned with the possibilities including loss of license and jail time.
Of course there are already plenty of state hotline numbers to call in “anonymous tips” and so forth.
This not only flies in the face of medical science and psychology and human rights and every other decent thing, it is a textbook execution of Nazi policies of identifying and scapegoating already-targeted social outgroups in order to encourage the more venal, ignorant, evil, and insane among the population to become even more aggressive and violent toward the scapegoats, and hiding behind the cover of abused authority in the form of oppressive, targeted regulation and cooperative lickspittles and lapdogs in the constabulary and judiciary.
Houston, We Have A Problem
There is simply no valid reasoning that supports the ongoing delusion we don’t have a fascism problem. A *Nazi* problem. This absolutely can not stand, not even for a day. Every activist in Texas needs to focus on ending this immediately and making damned sure nobody can try it again.
Greg Abbott is a Nazi. Not a Nazi-like thing, not an almost Nazi, not a wannabe Nazi. Everyone involved in making this possible is a Nazi.
The entire system and set of values and regulations described in his order are Nazism. It’s a whole good old boys’ system where anyone with a grudge can destroy lives under the auspices of obeying the law, and where even attempting to do the right thing is a criminal act. No different than encouraging schoolchildren to report parental disloyalty to the Nazis, or the USSR, or Big brother.
It’s meta-coercion, an entire new layer of abused power and oppression. Abbott and his fellow Nazis are sending the message loudly and clearly that not only will there be no tolerance for non-binary sexuality and identity in Texas, there will be no tolerance for any attempt to change that odious condition. If you’re a parent accused of abuse, your parental rights can be terminated and you may never get them back. Your kid will be shuttled into the foster system – or worse the shadow foster system – and subject to whatever “treatment” the state deems necessary to force them into “normality.”
In their confidence that a majority of Texans will support this behavior, the Nazis are sending the message that if you are trans, you are defenseless and without rights; if you are the parent of a trans child, you are defenseless and without rights; if you are a physician or psychologist treating a trans or intersex minor in any way the state of Texas concludes to be an attempt to help a patient physically transition, or if you even hear about it and fail to tell the authorities, you are defenseless and a criminal and legally forbidden to practice your profession.
When an abuse charge is levied, this immediately puts the option on the table of taking the kids out of their homes and putting them in foster care or some sort of state-mandated “correction” program like gay conversion therapy, as if electroshock and bullying and trauma are going to make these kids not who they are. The mere presence of this option in this instance is ludicrous, evil, and outrageous.
There is only one word for any of this.
Yes, Nazi.
You may now end your internal dialogue; this is what Nazism looks like
This is where that whole difficult discussion comes from about whether antisemitism is required for Nazism. (This discussion is largely made difficult by shallow, slow thinkers who can’t tell the difference between noting Nazism isn’t ONLY antisemitic, and claiming it’s not so at all.)
Antisemitism was waiting for a Hitler to show up and exploit it.
Racism and sexism and homophobia and transphobia have been waiting for a Trump to show up and exploit it – or more to the point, waiting for a Trump to show up who’s so mendacious and narcissistic any one of several dozen fascists and Nazis and autocrats can control him easily with threat or bribery.
It’s the same Nazism, folks, it’s just different targets. The targets now are the ones you see scaring bigots in the news – trans people, especially kids; the LGBTQIA+; the educated; the compassionate; black people who insist their lives matter; people who get angry when police keep murdering the innocent and getting away with it; the increasingly desperate, hostile, and populous ranks of the poor; and as always the anti-fascists who would stand in defense of all of those targets and indeed take the offense against fascist or Nazi or other autocratic/totalitarian power grab.
This is openly flaunted fascism, totalitarian autocracy that’s not merely autocratic and totalitarian but smug, laughing in your face as if to say “look how many stupid evil people there are, that we could so easily con them into giving us power, and you think you can stand against us? Please.”
They think we’re going to sit back and let this happen. The whole point of this is to terrorize us into sitting back and letting this happen.
Ab. So. Lute. Ly. Not.
What To Do About It
Due to my public profile it would be foolish of me to make any specific recommendations for direct action. If I said “it’s time to hit the streets,” one of the Nazis would find a way to make something bad happen on the streets and then hold me responsible. So I can’t tell you that you should be marching or protesting 24/7 in front of the Governor’s mansion or what have you.
I can say that whatever you choose to do, be careful. Consider your actions to avoid setting yourselves up to get hurt or have someone else’s crimes blamed on you.
But stand. Now. Activate your networks, be smart, work together, get on the phones, get on the TV stations, get on social media and END THIS, immediately. The ACLU / ACLU of Texas should already be in court.
Aside from covering my own backside legally, as a tactical matter I don’t advise creating a situation that could be exploited by inauthentic actors, for instance a large raucous march on the Capital. We have learned time and time again that this is most often the outcome the fascists and Nazis of the world hope for because it gives them cover to be even more violent, to actually hurt and kill people and imprison them under false pretenses and seize their assets and destroy their lives.
We have learned time and again that any time the Nazis and fascists – be they calling themselves the “Patriot Front” or the “Proud Boys” or the “Oathkeepers” or “Prayer Warriors” (a common phrase in evangelical and charismatic Christian sects that has been co-opted by white supremacists other fascist types because it’s about impossible to tell at a glance whether you’re looking at “prayer warriors” or “Prayer Warriors”) or whatever – believe they have a decent shot of getting away with it during antifascist demonstrations, they will absolutely murder, and their traitorous minions and lapdogs in law enforcement and the judiciary will do everything possible to facilitate oppression. One need look no further than Kyle Rittenhouse to validate that the American legal system has fully established a pathway to the open murder of antifascists during street protests.
Fortunately for the sane and decent among us, there are other tools in the box. Not every legislator and judge supports this and those who don’t need to know we’re behind them. The ACLU and other civic groups have active chapters in Texas who should already be activated on this. If you are a Texas citizen you have local legislators you can contact. This list gives you the phone contact information for every state representative. This one has your state senators. Some of them also include e-mail contact, but this is definitely more of a phone call situation anyway.
You may consider saying something like “The oppression and targeting of trans children and their families is not just scientifically and morally wrong and a direct assault on the fundamental rights of humanity which are the basis of our democracy. This order is an unquestionable attempt to employ tactics of persecution, and terrorism intended not only to oppress trans people but to intimidate their allies into silence and criminalize those allies who are medical, psychological, or psychiatric professionals, as well as the parents and other family and friends of trans minors in transition. The people of Texas will not stand for this, nor will we support anyone who does, regardless of party.”
You may consider reaching out to companies in the state encouraging them to do business in a less fascist environment, but don’t expect a great response there; fascism and Nazism are great for business. Maybe an approach like refusing to participate in SXSW would be useful; maybe it would be more effective to triple the size; that’s not my decision to make, but certainly activists and citizens in Texas should be having these conversations right now.
We’re not in the 80’s and 90’s anymore, when we should have been taking all of this kind of behavior more seriously and putting a stop to it before it got out of hand. We can’t keep pretending that if we just ignore it, it’ll go away. We can’t keep pretending that as long as it’s not us personally being persecuted, that this hasn’t gotten out of hand. We did that for decades.
Now it’s out of hand, and the good people of Texas are going to have to figure out how to get their state back from the Nazis when it appears half the voters in the state, at least, don’t want the Nazis to go away because they are Nazis.
It’s not up to me to tell y’all what to do…but you damned sure better do something, fast.
Because even if you’re not trans yourself, nor a parent of a trans person, or even know a trans person, two things are certain: that trans people are human beings, and that if these human beings can be treated this way, so can you.
