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(01-09-2021, 10:32 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-09-2021, 03:42 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]The assault on the Capitol, to make a long story short, looks more like the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 than any semblance of anything in American history, with Trump taking a role more like that of Vladimir Lenin than like any statesman in American history. Note well: Vladimir Lenin became a dictator by nullifying an election that did not serve his purposes. 

Even then, the Bolshevik Revolution was no action against a democratic major power with as long a tradition as the United States.  It is really hard to come up with anything really compatible.

True. The Bolsheviks aborted a democracy in infancy. There was more to the situation than we have in America... a war going badly for Russia, the impossibility of major reforms of a social order during a war, and of course the novelty of institutions that had yet to establish themselves. Lenin could control the soviets, but never a democratic process.
I apologize in advance for not remembering the title of the YouTube video. I stumbled across this, and later deleted it.

This is in reference to Chinese/Indian border clash.

In the video, an Indian gentleman (don't recall the name) was talking about using the Indian navy to intercept tankers voyaging from the Persian Gulf to China.
(01-08-2021, 09:49 AM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: [ -> ]** 08-Jan-2021 World View: Deleting spam

Webmaster (Sam) has risen from the grave and made me and David Horn moderators.

I was able to ban Dazdraste, who has posted almost 100 spam messages
in the last couple of days.  I was able to go through the extremely
tedious process of deleting a couple of his posts individually, but I
was unable to delete more than one at a time, even though a moderator
is supposed to be able to do that.  Either I'm missing something, or I
don't have permission to do that.  So after deleting two of his posts,
I gave up in disgust.  Perhaps David Horn would like to try in case I
missed something.

Sam said that he will clean things up over the weekend, presumably
doing mass deletions.  Given that one spammer can post dozens of spam
messages a day, I hope he plans to stick around permanently.

While I've only been a moderator with different message board software, I've been able to delete entire threads by deleting the first post in the thread, and I've been able to delete all a poster's posts by checking a box to do so when banning the poster.  That may not work here, but they might be things to check.
(01-09-2021, 10:31 AM)David Horn Wrote: [ -> ]Not one Antifa person (there are no members, so that will have to do) was identified

The person wanted for the pipe bombings, based on the photo of the suspect, was almost certainly Antifa.  He was of course not identified because he was wearing clothing that hid every inch of his skin, so you couldn't even tell what race he was, let alone identifying features.  Antifa is good at this.

Trump fans are easily identified because they don't hide their identity.

All that said, the peaceful protests at the Capitol were sufficiently successful that Antifa, which was originally an antiglobalist organization, after all, may switch sides.
(01-09-2021, 07:40 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-09-2021, 10:31 AM)David Horn Wrote: [ -> ]Not one Antifa person (there are no members, so that will have to do) was identified

The person wanted for the pipe bombings, based on the photo of the suspect, was almost certainly Antifa.  He was of course not identified because he was wearing clothing that hid every inch of his skin, so you couldn't even tell what race he was, let alone identifying features.  Antifa is good at this.

Trump fans are easily identified because they don't hide their identity.

All that said, the peaceful protests at the Capitol were sufficiently successful that Antifa, which was originally an antiglobalist organization, after all, may switch sides.

If you intended not to do too much, you wore a bare face and identifying markings.  I'm willing to bet the cops will make people sorry they did so, that this will change in any future incident.  If you intended to plant pipe bombs, you were a bit smarter about hiding your face and affiliation.

Identifying people as Antifa seems a daydream.  Reds seem to see them popping up everywhere.  I still remember the family that wanted to go camping in the woods, but the local militia decided that they were antifa.  The local cops and some good Samaritans had to help them move aside the trees that the militia people had chopped down to 'protect' themselves from the family.
(01-09-2021, 09:42 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: [ -> ]Identifying people as Antifa seems a daydream.

John Sullivan is clearly Antifa or BLM, has previously been arrested as such, and was inside the Capitol.

Not that I expect you to pay attention to facts, mind.
(01-10-2021, 01:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-09-2021, 09:42 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: [ -> ]Identifying people as Antifa seems a daydream.

John Sullivan is clearly Antifa or BLM, has previously been arrested as such, and was inside the Capitol.

Not that I expect you to pay attention to facts, mind.

I spent a little time chasing this down.  Sullivan was clearly at the capitol.  He apparently provided video to the Seattle Times.  A fact checking organization published the following...

Politifact Wrote:John Sullivan, an activist from Utah, joined supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He said he was trying to document what happened.

There’s no evidence that Sullivan “incited (the) insurgence” alone amid a crowd of thousands. Video he uploaded online shows his perspective as he filmed.

Sullivan denied any affiliation to the broad antifa coalition, although he has posted related hashtags on his Twitter accounts. There remains no legitimate evidence that the mob at the Capitol was infiltrated or led by antifa activists in disguise.

As far as I can tell the rumor that he was a leader and antifa came from internet right wing web sites and have no real evidence backing them.  Your "clearly" does not go with this.   You might provide references?
(01-09-2021, 07:40 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-09-2021, 10:31 AM)David Horn Wrote: [ -> ]Not one Antifa person (there are no members, so that will have to do) was identified

The person wanted for the pipe bombings, based on the photo of the suspect, was almost certainly Antifa.  He was of course not identified because he was wearing clothing that hid every inch of his skin, so you couldn't even tell what race he was, let alone identifying features.  Antifa is good at this.

Trump fans are easily identified because they don't hide their identity.

All that said, the peaceful protests at the Capitol were sufficiently successful that Antifa, which was originally an antiglobalist organization, after all, may switch sides.

Peaceful protests are one thing. People who hijack a peaceful protest to do crime are... well, criminals. 

Trump has been good at giving message that mean one (fairly benign even if offensive) thing for one group of allies and something not so benign for the other. If one of those meanings is a call to violence, than that is the point for judgment. 

... Extremists often take on the characteristics, real or imagined, that they associate with their enemies. They are known to pose as their enemy and do horrible things. Whoever introduced those pipe bombs into the Capitol -- severe retribution is the appropriate treatment, and I do not care whether he was a Commie or a fascist.
For me, the hyperbole and hypocrisy surrounding recent events is potentially more dangerous than the events themselves. The in-group/out-group dynamics are intensifying, which is worrisome. The higher in-group preference is, the more people are willing to excuse what would otherwise be immoral behavior on the part of their in-group towards the scapegoated out-group. Right now, it feels as if every scenario I can come up with, from best case to worst, is equally feasible. That's the problem with a 4T, once the genie is out of the bottle you never know what you're going to get.
(01-10-2021, 06:16 PM)mamabug Wrote: [ -> ]For me, the hyperbole and hypocrisy surrounding recent events is potentially more dangerous than the events themselves. The in-group/out-group dynamics are intensifying, which is worrisome.  The higher in-group preference is, the more people are willing to excuse  what would otherwise be immoral behavior on the part of their in-group towards the scapegoated out-group.  Right now, it feels as if every scenario I can come up with, from best case to worst, is equally feasible.  That's the problem with a 4T, once the genie is out of the bottle you never know what you're going to get.

The balance is that people start to see virtues in the out-groups and faults in the in-groups. When the hierarchy has wealth and economic power as the measure of virtue, then the political culture and bureaucratic practice seeks to oppress the poor even more, to kick them harder, and to punish their poverty with even more poverty. Such is plutocracy, the neoliberal phase of the Skowronek cycle.  

The fault is that the in-group becomes even more exclusive, shutting out any challenges, even of talent, to participation.  But the neoliberal era that began with Reagan and almost certainly ends with Trump, has come to an end. The systems and causes that best recognize and recognize the Forgotten Man are more likely to prevail than those who intensify the harshness of the dying Old Order.   

Much in a 4T is absurd, dangerous, or both. The whirlwind is reaped -- but destructive as the whirlwind is, it does not last. We don't know whether the whirlwind is a single tornado or a hurricane, and the settled condition for a short time might be the strange calm of the eye. 

Once the storm is certifiably past we know what to do. Overt disgraces are ruined and judged.
(01-11-2021, 11:46 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-10-2021, 06:16 PM)mamabug Wrote: [ -> ]For me, the hyperbole and hypocrisy surrounding recent events is potentially more dangerous than the events themselves. The in-group/out-group dynamics are intensifying, which is worrisome.  The higher in-group preference is, the more people are willing to excuse  what would otherwise be immoral behavior on the part of their in-group towards the scapegoated out-group.  Right now, it feels as if every scenario I can come up with, from best case to worst, is equally feasible.  That's the problem with a 4T, once the genie is out of the bottle you never know what you're going to get.

The balance is that people start to see virtues in the out-groups and faults in the in-groups. 

But, sadly for me and those of my generation who really just want everyone to stop being crazy, that won't begin to happen until mid-way through the 1T.
It's nice to see with all the spam removed, the forum
has returned to vibrancy.
*** 12-Jan-21 World View -- America and the standard Genocide Playbook

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
  • What is the standard Genocide Playbook?
  • Democrats' attitude to Tea Partiers during Obama administration
  • The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by Trump supporters
  • How will this end?

****
**** What is the standard Genocide Playbook?
****


[Image: g210111b.jpg]
Jan 9 announcement by John Matze, CEO of Parler.com, of a coordinated attack by Twitter, Google and Amazon

As regular readers know, everything I write is, as much as possible,
from a historical perspective. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même
chose.
As King Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun.

So before describing how America is in the early stages of the
Genocide Playbook, I have to describe what the Genocide Playbook is,
and how common it is.

I want to emphasize that this is nothing rare. This is going on in
multiple countries today. As regular readers know, I've written
thousands of articles describing current and historical events in
hundreds of countries, and the Genocide Playbook is not only not rare,
but is actually very common, and is the rule.

Here's an outline of how it works:
  • In the early stages, the government or the élites target a
    hated ethnic group with abusive policies, including violence, jailing
    without evidence, censorship and punishment of criticism of the
    government, and other forms of discrimination, with the purpose of
    humiliating and infuriating the target group.

  • Frequently there is an analogue to the Nazi Kristallnacht, where
    police stand aside and allow violent mobs to attack homes and
    businesses of the target group.

  • Sooner or later there is some kind of violent incident by a few
    people in the target group. This incident might occur organically, or
    it might be a setup by the élites.

  • The élites use this incident to justify complete censorship,
    violence, abuse and control towards the target group and, in the
    extreme, to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing.

I will repeat several times: This playbook is not rare. It is common.
It is the rule.

Let's look at some examples where the Genocide Playbook is in use
today in its later stages:
  • China: For years, the Chinese Communists targeted the Muslim
    Uighurs in Xinjiang province with abusive policies, including
    destroying mosques, mandatory Communist atheist education, forced
    sterilization of Uighur females, and looting Uighur resources. These
    abuses triggered Uighur rioting in 2009. Since then, the Chinese
    Communists have declared all Uighurs to be terrorists, and have
    arrested, tortured, beaten and enslaved millions of Uighurs.

    Hong Kong is in the early stages of the Genocide Playbook. The
    Communists are already targeting pro-democracy activists with violence
    and jailing without evidence. If some pro-democracy activist now
    commits an act of violence, whether organic or a setup by the
    Communists, then the Communists will declare all pro-democracy
    activists to be terrorists, and will crack down on them violently.

    Of all the countries today, China has been the most effective in using
    censorship in its genocide playbook.

  • Burma/Myanmar: Starting in 2011, Buddhists, led by Buddhist Monk
    Ashin Wirathu, joined with Burma's security forces in committing mass
    atrocities on Muslim ethnic Rohingyas living in Rakhine State, which
    the United Nations described as "a textbook example of ethnic
    cleansing." The atrocities included gang rape, violent torture,
    execution-style killings and the razing of entire villages, in a
    scorched earth campaign.

    In 2013 there was a super-Kristallnacht type attack, when a mob of
    Buddhists attacked a Rohingya village, hacking 20 boys to death, and
    reducing an entire established community of 12,000 Muslims, including
    homes, shops and mosques, to ashes and rubble.

    In August 2017, Rohingya insurgents carried out a series of
    coordinated attacks against 30 Burma police outposts and an army base,
    killing at least a dozen security force members. This was the event
    that the Burmese were hoping and waiting for. After that, they
    carried out a massive program of genocide and ethnic cleansing,
    forcing hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas across the border into
    Bangladesh refugee camps, where they remain to this day.

  • Syria: The Syrian war began in 2011 when Bashar al-Assad ordered
    his army and air force to attack peacefully protesting civilians,
    including women and children. Things really turned around in August
    2011, when al-Assad launched a massive military assault on a large,
    peaceful Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia, filled with tens of
    thousands of women and children Palestinians. He dropped barrel bombs
    laden with metal, chlorine, ammonia, phosphorous and chemical weapons
    onto innocent Sunni women and children, he's targeted bombs and
    missiles on schools and hospitals, and he's used Sarin gas to kill
    large groups of people. Even so, al-Assad would have lost the war
    until he received massive military support from Russia to continue his
    genocide and ethnic cleansing.

I wanted to give examples of genocide taking place today to show
that the Genocide Playbook isn't some science fiction concept,
but is commonly used in many countries.

Of course it was also used in Nazi Germany, when Hitler used the
burning down of the Reichstag to attack all communists, and then used
minor terrorist acts by Jews to claim that all Jews were terrorists,
leading to the Holocaust.

****
**** Democrats' attitude to Tea Partiers during Obama administration
****


I never thought I'd see the Genocide Playbook being used in America.
This is the darkest time for America in my memory.

As I've said many times, the Democrats' vitriolic hatred for Trump has
nothing to do with Trump. They used to love Trump when he was a TV
star. They only began to hate him when they transferred their
vitriolic hatred of Tea Partiers to him.

And the vitriolic hatred of Tea Partiers was enormous during the Obama
administration. Obama and Joe Biden both referred to Tea Partiers and
Republicans in general as terrorists, racists and teabaggers. The
word "teabaggers" is an especially vile epithet, as bad as the n-word.
Can you imagine someone saying that all Democrats are the n-word?
That would be extremely vile and hateful, and that shows how vile and
hateful the Democrats were to Tea Partiers and Republicans.

And why were Obama and Biden calling them racists, terrorists and
teabaggers? It's because they opposed Obama policies -- Obama's
budget, Obamacare, or gun control for example. No matter what the
policy, if Tea Partiers opposed it, it's not because the policies were
bad (which they were). It's because the Tea Partiers were racists,
terrorists and teabaggers.

The Democrats' hatred went even beyond that, saying that had some kind
of neurological disorder that turned them into violent racists. This
is similar to the kinds of things that Hitler said about the Jews.

The following are excerpts from a newsbusters.org article from 2009
that I saved from my archives. As far as I know, this article is no
longer online.

<QUOTE>"Garofalo: Tea Party Goers Are Racists Who Hate Black
President

By Noel Sheppard | April 16, 2009 | 23:56

During last year's election campaign, liberal media members
treated Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin with a
hatred most Americans had never witnessed from the press.

On Thursday's "Countdown," MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and his guest
Janeane Garofalo defamed fellow citizens who attended the prior
day's Tea Parties with the same vitriolic contempt.

Garofalo actually called Party-goers "a bunch of teabagging
rednecks," adding "this is about hating a black man in the White
House. This is racism straight up."

But that's just the beginning, for what Olbermann and Garofalo
engaged in Thursday evening is amongst the most vile, hate-filled
attacks on average American citizens ever conveyed on national
television by so-called journalists.

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Well, the teabagging is all over, except
for the cleanup. And that will be my last intentional double
entendre on this one at least until the end of this segment. Our
number two story tonight, the sad reality behind the corporate
sponsored Tea Parties, visual proof that this is not about
spending, deficits, or taxes, but about some Americans getting
riled up by the people who caused these things, and finally about
some Americans who just hate the president of the United
States. ...

And then there were the protest messages, seething with
hate. [Neil] Cavuto calling that hate bipartisan. "They hate
Republicans who waste money, they hate Democrats who waste money."
...

OLBERMANN: Congratulations, Pensacola teabaggers. You got
spunked. And despite the hatred on display, a few of you actually
violated the penal code. But teabagging is now petered out, taint
what it used to be. ... On a more serious note, we're now joined
by actor, activist Janeane Garofalo. Good to see you.

JANEANE GAROFALO: Thank you. You know, there's nothing more
interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and
angry at a speech they're not quite certain what he's saying. It
sounds right and then it doesn't make sense. Which, let's be very
honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats,
it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party
was about, they don't know their history at all. This is about
hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight
up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there
is no way around that. And you know, you can tell these type of
right wingers anything and they'll believe it, except the
truth. You tell them the truth and they become -- it's like
showing Frankenstein's monster fire. They become confused, and
angry and highly volatile. That guy, causing them feelings they
don't know, because their limbic brain, we've discussed this
before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or
conservative or your average white power activist, the limbic
brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable
person, and it's pushing against the frontal lobe. So their
synapses are misfiring. Is Bernie Goldberg listening? ...

GAROFALO: Because Bernie might not have heard this when I said
this the first time. So, Bernie, this is for you. It is a
neurological problem we're dealing with. ...

GAROFALO: I don't think you do, for most of them. This is a --
it's almost pathological or elevated to a philosophy or
lifestyle. And again, this is about racism. It could be any issue,
any port in the storm. These guys hate that a black guy is in the
White House. But they immigrant bash, they pretend taxes and tea
bags, and like I said, most of them probably couldn't tell you
thing one about taxation without representation, the Boston tea
party, the British imperialism, whatever the history lesson has to
be. But these people, all white for the most part, unless there's
some people with Stockholm syndrome there.

OLBERMANN: And, I didn't see them, the fact that they weren't near
the cameras which is bad strategy on the part of the people that
were staging this at Fox.

GAROFALO: True, and Fox News loves to foment this
anti-intellectualism because that's their bread and butter. If you
have a cerebral electorate, Fox news goes down the toilet, very,
very fast. But it is sick and sad to see Neil Cavuto doing
that. They've been doing it for years, that's why Roger Ailes and
Rupert Murdoch started this venture, is to disinform and to
coarsen and dumb down a certain segment of the electorate. But
what is really, I didn't know there were so many racists left. I
didn't know that. I -- you know, because as I've said, the
Republican hype and the conservative movement has now crystallized
into the white power movement.

OLBERMANN: Is that not a bad, long-term political strategy because
even though your point is terrifying that there are that many
racists left, the flip side of it is there aren't that many
racists left.

GAROFALO: They're the minority, but literally tens of people
showed up to this thing across the country.

OLBERMANN: But if you spear your television network or your
political party towards a bunch of guys looking who are just
looking for a reason to yell at the black president, eventually
you will marginalize yourself out of business, won't you?

GAROFALO: Here's what the right-wing has in, there's no shortage
of the natural resources of ignorance, apathy, hate, fear. As long
as those things are in the collective conscious and unconscious,
the Republicans will have some votes. Fox News will have some
viewers. But what else have they got? If they didn't do that, who
is going to watch -- you know what I mean? They have tackled that
elusive clam -- you know, the clam, the 18 to 35 clam --
klan. Klan. With a k demo. But, you know, who else is Fox talking
to? I mean, what is it urban older white guys? And the girlfriend,
and, you know, the women who suffer from Stockholm syndrome
gain. There's a lot of Stockholm syndrome, is what I'm saying
ultimately. What else do you want to know?

OLBERMANN: What happens if somebody who's at one of these things
hurt somebody?

GAROFALO: That is an unfortunate byproduct since the dawn of time
of a volatile group like this of the limbic brain. Violence
unfortunately may or may not ensue. It always, it's like a, the
Republican Party now depends upon immigrant bashing and hating the
black guy in the White House. Will people act on that? It's not
new. But, you know, Fox doesn't mind fomenting it. Michelle
Bachmann doesn't mine fomenting it. Glenn Beck doesn't mind
fomenting it.

OLBERMANN: Lou Dobbs.

GAROFALO: Lou Dobbs. Oh, man he sure doesn't mind. But this is,
this their, what have they got if they don't have this? You know
what I mean? It's like an identity politics of the worst kind. ...

OLBERMANN: Janeane Garofalo, number five, comedian, actress,
political activist, and the expert on the limbic brain, great
thanks as always.

GAROFALO: Very much thanks to you."<END QUOTE>


The reference to "Bernie" is Bernard Goldberg, a hated conservative
commentator, whose web site is still online at
https://bernardgoldberg.com/. The hatemongers also mention
Lou Dobbs and Neil Cavuto, who still have shows on Fox Business
Network.

So those 60 million Tea Partiers have become 75 million Trump
supporters, and the Democrats have the same vitriolic hatred for them.

Once again, I have to emphasize that this isn't rare. This kind of
hatred is common. It's the Chinese hatred of Uighurs. It's the
Burmese Buddhist hatred of Rohingyans. It's the Syrian Alawite hatred
of Arab Sunnis. It's the Rwandan Hutu hatred of Tutsis. It's the
Nazi hatred of Jews.

I wish I understood this kind of hatred. In the American Civil War,
Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans freed the slaves. The Democrats
bitterly opposed ending slavery, and after they lost the Civil War,
they formed the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) militia, which the Democrats used
for the next century to lynch, torture, rape and execute blacks. If
today you're a Democrat who hates Trump supporters, then a century ago
you would have been a Democrat in the KKK, cheering the lynching,
torture, rape and killing of blacks. I don't know why that kind of
thing is in the DNA of the Democrats, or why it's in the DNA of the
Chinese or Burmese Buddhists or Nazis or the other groups I mentioned.
Like the Genocide Playbook, it's not rare. It is very common. It is
the rule.

****
**** The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by Trump supporters
****


At the beginning of this article I described the Genocide Playbook,
and these were the last two items: "Sooner or later there is some kind
of violent incident by a few people in the target group. This
incident might occur organically, or it might be a setup by the
élites. The élites use this incident to justify complete censorship,
violence, abuse and control towards the target group and, in the
extreme, commits genocide and ethnic cleansing."

In the current situation, the violent incident was the January 6 attack
on the Capitol building by Trump supporters.

This resulted from Donald Trump's disastrous decision to hold a rally
with hundreds of thousands of supporters, and then tell them to march
to the Capitol building to pressure the politicians to do their jobs
and object to the electors in six states. He's been accused of
purposely inciting violence, which was clearly the opposite of his
intention. He may be accused of stupid blunders and reckless actions,
but it was clearly not his intention to incite violence, even if that
was the unintended consequence.

The violent Capitol building incident is the culmination of the
Genocide Playbook strategy towards Tea Partiers and Trump supporters
that the Democrats have been using since the Obama administration.
It's what they've been hoping for to crush the Trump supporters once
and for all. The Democrats made vile attacks on Tea Partiers during
the Obama administration, as we've described, calling them terrorists,
racists and teabaggers, just for opposing Obama's policies.
Conservatives on college campuses and in businesses could lose their
jobs for saying something as simple as "Marriage is between a man and
a woman."

The Democrats have gotten away with phony and illegal anti-Trump
investigations and impeachments, encouraging antifa-blm fascists to
riot and burn down small businesses, using pandemic lockdowns to shut
down millions of small businesses, censoring any news that criticizes
Biden or exposes Hunter Biden's criminality, and flooding the country
with millions of unsolicited ballots and using the the resulting chaos
to rig the election with voting fraud and steal the election from
Trump -- all with total impunity. The Democrats are gloating that
they can get away with anything, and they are escalating their
threats.

During the last year, antifa-blm fascists, encouraged by Democrats,
tore down statues and burned down not only businesses, but also police
stations, courthouses, and even St John's Episcopal Church, near the
White House. These are clearly terrorist acts, but the Democrats not
only didn't condemn them, but encouraged them and censored them in the
media. That's why these acts by the Democrats are analogous to the
Nazi Kristallnacht.

Biden's vitriolic comments towards Trump supporters at his press
conference last week not only expressed his personal hatred of Tea
Partiers and Trump supporters, but also incited further violence.
Biden even compared Republican Senators to Nazis. I'm tempted to say
that these remarks prove that Biden is the one with the neurological
disorder, not the hated Tea Partiers. Biden even was an admirer of
Robert Byrd, a Great Kleagle (or something like that) in the Ku Klux
Klan that lynched and tortured blacks.

There's increasing evidence that the Democrats provoked the attack on
the Capitol building by providing only a bare skeleton security force
to protect the building, even though it was known for many days that
an attack was imminent.

Obama's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta criticized the Capitol
Police for being completely unprepared, even though "everyone knew
that there would be people ... creating havoc":

<QUOTE>"What the hell was law enforcement on Capitol Hill
thinking by not having secured the Capitol today? ...

Everybody knew that there would be a disturbance. Everybody knew
that there would be people who were interested in doing nothing
else but creating havoc in the Capitol. And very frankly, it was
the responsibility of law enforcement and the Capitol Hill police
to secure the Capitol, and I'm not sure what happened that allowed
this event."<END QUOTE>


It is now reported that the FBI and the NYPD both warned the Capitol
police that there were groups planning violent attacks, but the
Capitol police only provided a skeleton force to block them, in effect
indirectly provoking those attacks.

These facts may come out in the investigation. But whether the
Democrats purposely provoked the attack, or whether it was simply
incompetence by the police, it is clearly the violent incident that
the Democrats hoped for and are using as part of their strategy to
completely destroy the Republican Party and Trump's supporters.

As I've said repeatedly, these kinds of actions are not rare. They're
common, and they're occurring today in many countries in various
stages. Still, it is almost beyond belief to me that three monopoly
companies -- Twitter, Facebook and Amazon -- have successfully
colluded to completely shut down Parler.com, a successful and growing
online service with millions of users -- for purely political reasons
as part of the Democrats' Genocide Playbook strategy. This is the
kind of thing that occurs in Russia and China and Cuba and North Korea
and Venezuela and totalitarian countries. It was never supposed to
happen in America.

Even though this is very common, I never never thought I'd see the
Genocide Playbook being used in America. This is the darkest time
for America in my memory.

****
**** How will this end?
****


Will the Democrats' use of the Genocide Playbook lead to actual
genocide and ethnic cleansing? No. For that they would at least need
backing from the army, which obviously they don't have.

In fact, what the Democrats are doing is so completely bizarre and
outrageous, so destructive and self-destructive, and so un-American,
that it can't possibly last long.

Still, how is this going to end?

First, Donald Trump and his 75 million supporters are not dead and
buried. Every Trump voter I've seen interviewed on TV says the same
thing: That Trump actually speaks to them, and the others in
Washington ignore them. That's why they're loyal to Trump. Trump
says that he has some major announcement coming. We'll see what he
says.

Second, Parler.com is not dead and buried. The Democrats have gotten
Parler offline for now, but Parler has enough support to build its own
datacenter and cloud to replace Amazon's AWS, and it will be online
again.

In fact, if I were a business using Amazon's AWS cloud service, then I
would look at this situation in horror, knowing that Amazon could shut
me down at any time for any foolish reason. No one believes that
shutting down Parler had anything to do with violence. It had
everything to do with isolating 75 million Trump supporters and with
eliminating a competitor to twitter. If Amazon can come after Parler,
they can come after anyone.

Furthermore, Twitter, Google and Facebook made huge amounts of money
because of Trump in the last few years because of Trump. With Trump
gone, and with their contemptuous treatment of Trump supporters,
they're going to lose a lot of money. But, no worry, the execs will
be ok. Many of them are taking jobs in the Biden administration.

It's quite possible that Parler will come back with a vengeance and
become a major business threat to Twitter. If not Parler, then
another service. This is what always happens.

In fact, another conservative social media service, Gab.com, has
signed up millions of new users in the last few days. If you access
the site, the reason that it's slow is because it's being overwhelmed
by new users.

Third, and this is how it will really end.

As I've been saying for years, there will be a global financial crisis
and third world war with China, and this will unify the country, and
end all political divisiveness. That will be the end of silliness and
political correctness, and the beginning of a real existential crisis.

Sources:

Related Articles:



KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Genocide Playbook, China, Uighurs,
Burma, Myanmar, Rohingys, Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Palestinians,
Nazi Germany, Hitlers, Jews, Rwanda, Hutus, Tutsis,
Tea Partiers, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, n-word, teabaggers,
Keith Olbermann, Janeane Garofalo, Bernard Goldberg,
Lou Dobbs, Neil Cavuto, Abraham Lincoln, Ku Klux Klan, KKK,
Donald Trump, St John's Episcopal Church, Nazi Kristallnacht,
Leon Panetta, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Parler.com, Gab.com,
China

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John J. Xenakis
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Well *that* was a pleasant read right before going to bed.

I'm still hopeful the crisis breaks in a different way, but this perfectly outlined one of the worst case scenarios I foresee as still being possible.

A mostly political divide, instead of an ethnic one, though, is much trickier to pull off as it breaks across families as well as regions that are controlled by the opposition. Pretty sure even my super liberal aunt who posts 30 pro-democratic posts per day on Facebook would object to her slightly crazy evangelical Christian sister and her absurdly big family from disappearing in the night and fog.
(01-12-2021, 02:53 AM)mamabug Wrote: [ -> ]Well *that* was a pleasant read right before going to bed.

I'm still hopeful the crisis breaks in a different way, but this perfectly outlined one of the worst case scenarios I foresee as still being possible.  

A mostly political divide, instead of an ethnic one, though, is much trickier to pull off as it breaks across families as well as regions that are controlled by the opposition. Pretty sure even my super liberal aunt who posts 30 pro-democratic posts per day on Facebook would object to her slightly crazy evangelical Christian sister and her absurdly big family from disappearing in the night and fog.

As I posted when Xenakis originally put the above on his site, there are other resolutions. A crisis normally ends in a vast crash of conservative values. Elitism, racism, anti science, and fantasy realities are all vulnerable given the current mood of the country. The capital insurrection was based on a lie, that there was systematic voter fraud. That it was a lie will become clear. That will make it impossible for anyone contesting for control of the Republican Party to be a threat to the Democrats as a big tent party until Trumpism is defeated.

The above is an Industrial Age tribal thinking vision of an Information Age WEIRD problem.
(01-10-2021, 09:18 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]... Extremists often take on the characteristics, real or imagined, that they associate with their enemies. They are known to pose as their enemy and do horrible things. Whoever introduced those pipe bombs into the Capitol -- severe retribution is the appropriate treatment, and I do not care whether he was a Commie or a fascist.

The pipe bombs were not at the Capitol.  They were at RNC and DNC headquarters.
(01-11-2021, 09:52 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: [ -> ]
  • In the early stages, the government or the élites target a
    hated ethnic group with abusive policies, including violence, jailing
    without evidence, censorship and punishment of criticism of the
    government, and other forms of discrimination, with the purpose of
    humiliating and infuriating the target group.

  • Frequently there is an analogue to the Nazi Kristallnacht, where
    police stand aside and allow violent mobs to attack homes and
    businesses of the target group.

  • Sooner or later there is some kind of violent incident by a few
    people in the target group.  This incident might occur organically, or
    it might be a setup by the élites.

  • The élites use this incident to justify complete censorship,
    violence, abuse and control towards the target group and, in the
    extreme, to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing.
I wish I understood this kind of hatred.

To me, it seems fairly obvious.  It's a strategy for elites to prevent the masses from turning against them, by focusing resentment against a particular disfavored group.  Notice how all the examples you mention are basically top down, with a small group of elites denouncing the disfavored group and inciting hatred against them.

Haven't you mentioned that dictators are quite effective at using this technique to quash ethnic rebellion?  What I don't remember is whether they use the technique successfully in crisis periods, or only in awakening periods.  That might be useful information for those of us who don't necessarily buy in to the inevitability of your particular vision of the coming Crisis War.
** 12-Jan-2021 World View: Genocide Playbook generational era

(01-12-2021, 05:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: [ -> ]> To me, it seems fairly obvious. It's a strategy for elites to
> prevent the masses from turning against them, by focusing
> resentment against a particular disfavored group. Notice how all
> the examples you mention are basically top down, with a small
> group of elites denouncing the disfavored group and inciting
> hatred against them.

> Haven't you mentioned that dictators are quite effective at using
> this technique to quash ethnic rebellion? What I don't remember
> is whether they use the technique successfully in crisis periods,
> or only in awakening periods. That might be useful information for
> those of us who don't necessarily buy in to the inevitability of
> your particular vision of the coming Crisis War.

Everything is obvious once it's written down.

The Genocide Playbook pattern can be used, and is used, in any
generational era. The early stages would be quite common in Recovery
and Awakening eras, but could then expand to full-scale genocide in
the Crisis era. However, genocide can also occur in Recovery Eras
(Zimbabwe) or Awakening and Unraveling Eras (Syria).
(01-12-2021, 04:36 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: [ -> ]
(01-10-2021, 09:18 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]... Extremists often take on the characteristics, real or imagined, that they associate with their enemies. They are known to pose as their enemy and do horrible things. Whoever introduced those pipe bombs into the Capitol -- severe retribution is the appropriate treatment, and I do not care whether he was a Commie or a fascist.

The pipe bombs were not at the Capitol.  They were at RNC and DNC headquarters.

Close enough for my purposes. The BATF is very good at determining whether the same person made any pipe bombs.
[quote='John J. Xenakis' pid='73302' dateline='1610419935']
*** 12-Jan-21 World View -- America and the standard Genocide Playbook

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
  • What is the standard Genocide Playbook?
  • Democrats' attitude to Tea Partiers during Obama administration
  • The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by Trump supporters
  • How will this end?

****
**** What is the standard Genocide Playbook?
****


[Image: g210111b.jpg]
Jan 9 announcement by John Matze, CEO of Parler.com, of a coordinated attack by Twitter, Google and Amazon

As regular readers know, everything I write is, as much as possible,
from a historical perspective.  Plus ça change, plus c'est la même
chose.
 As King Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun.

So before describing how America is in the early stages of the
Genocide Playbook, I have to describe what the Genocide Playbook is,
and how common it is.

I want to emphasize that this is nothing rare.  This is going on in
multiple countries today.  As regular readers know, I've written
thousands of articles describing current and historical events in
hundreds of countries, and the Genocide Playbook is not only not rare,
but is actually very common, and is the rule.

Here's an outline of how it works:
  • In the early stages, the government or the élites target a
    hated ethnic group with abusive policies, including violence, jailing
    without evidence, censorship and punishment of criticism of the
    government, and other forms of discrimination, with the purpose of
    humiliating and infuriating the target group.

  • Frequently there is an analogue to the Nazi Kristallnacht, where
    police stand aside and allow violent mobs to attack homes and
    businesses of the target group.

  • Sooner or later there is some kind of violent incident by a few
    people in the target group.  This incident might occur organically, or
    it might be a setup by the élites.

  • The élites use this incident to justify complete censorship,
    violence, abuse and control towards the target group and, in the
    extreme, to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing.

I will repeat several times: This playbook is not rare.  It is common.
It is the rule.

Let's look at some examples where the Genocide Playbook is in use
today in its later stages:
  • China: For years, the Chinese Communists targeted the Muslim
    Uighurs in Xinjiang province with abusive policies, including
    destroying mosques, mandatory Communist atheist education, forced
    sterilization of Uighur females, and looting Uighur resources.  These
    abuses triggered Uighur rioting in 2009.  Since then, the Chinese
    Communists have declared all Uighurs to be terrorists, and have
    arrested, tortured, beaten and enslaved millions of Uighurs.

    Hong Kong is in the early stages of the Genocide Playbook.  The
    Communists are already targeting pro-democracy activists with violence
    and jailing without evidence.  If some pro-democracy activist now
    commits an act of violence, whether organic or a setup by the
    Communists, then the Communists will declare all pro-democracy
    activists to be terrorists, and will crack down on them violently.

    Of all the countries today, China has been the most effective in using
    censorship in its genocide playbook.

  • Burma/Myanmar: Starting in 2011, Buddhists, led by Buddhist Monk
    Ashin Wirathu, joined with Burma's security forces in committing mass
    atrocities on Muslim ethnic Rohingyas living in Rakhine State, which
    the United Nations described as "a textbook example of ethnic
    cleansing."  The atrocities included gang rape, violent torture,
    execution-style killings and the razing of entire villages, in a
    scorched earth campaign.

    In 2013 there was a super-Kristallnacht type attack, when a mob of
    Buddhists attacked a Rohingya village, hacking 20 boys to death, and
    reducing an entire established community of 12,000 Muslims, including
    homes, shops and mosques, to ashes and rubble.

    In August 2017, Rohingya insurgents carried out a series of
    coordinated attacks against 30 Burma police outposts and an army base,
    killing at least a dozen security force members.  This was the event
    that the Burmese were hoping and waiting for.  After that, they
    carried out a massive program of genocide and ethnic cleansing,
    forcing hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas across the border into
    Bangladesh refugee camps, where they remain to this day.

  • Syria: The Syrian war began in 2011 when Bashar al-Assad ordered
    his army and air force to attack peacefully protesting civilians,
    including women and children.  Things really turned around in August
    2011, when al-Assad launched a massive military assault on a large,
    peaceful Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia, filled with tens of
    thousands of women and children Palestinians.  He dropped barrel bombs
    laden with metal, chlorine, ammonia, phosphorous and chemical weapons
    onto innocent Sunni women and children, he's targeted bombs and
    missiles on schools and hospitals, and he's used Sarin gas to kill
    large groups of people.  Even so, al-Assad would have lost the war
    until he received massive military support from Russia to continue his
    genocide and ethnic cleansing.

I wanted to give examples of genocide taking place today to show
that the Genocide Playbook isn't some science fiction concept,
but is commonly used in many countries.

Of course it was also used in Nazi Germany, when Hitler used the
burning down of the Reichstag to attack all communists, and then used
minor terrorist acts by Jews to claim that all Jews were terrorists,
leading to the Holocaust.

...OK... we either know or should know this. In my observation the people most vulnerable to genocide are Model Minorities who have the alleged crime of doing better while being somehow different. What differs in America is that America 

(1) has too many Model Minorities by race, ethnicity, or religion to target at once. Extreme bigots are anything but selective in their hatred. Whites who hate Jews typically also hate blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, Southeast Asians, and East Asians as well. As Adorno et al established in his Authoritarian Personality in 1950, haters hate even non-existent groups if asked about them. Aside from the mentally-handicapped (and this backfired on Hitler) he had only Jews as targets until he conquered what he considered the "subhuman" Poles.   

Haters are unlikely to be wise enough to go after one group at a time.  

(2) has far stronger Constitutional protections.

(3) has organizations that could turn in defense of any large group of non-lawbreakers in the event that any group is targeted. Law-breakers are fair game for prosecution, but innocent people are safe. There must be a clear indictment and logical presentation of evidence and testimony. 

(4) has no heritage of going after people for political affiliations except for the International Workers of the World, Nazis (when Nazism was a clear and present danger) and at several times, Communists.

(5) has a large share of the Establishment sympathetic to the objectives of the Tea Party  that will protect the Tea Party as such (if not law-breakers involved in the Bolshevik coup of 1917 Beer Hall Putsch 2021 attack on the Capitol building. 

I see America approaching the end of a Crisis Era, and although the attack on the Capitol while it was in session is an abomination (and it would be just as much so if Leftists did it)... well, this isn't the People's Republic of China in 1989. There have been deaths, so there could be an extreme sentence. There will be gradations from death or life imprisonment for someone culpable in a death to slaps on the wrist for simply following along. People will be made examples of in courts of law only for the sentences to be reduced as time passes. Draconian sentences are embarrassments because the victors of a struggle usually want to get some sort of reconciliation that allows a more durable peace. To be sure, the Allies could not forgive the Bataan Death March or the Nazi murder camps, but otherwise it is best to let trivial matters go unpunished. Defeat and its consequences are enough of a chastisement. With respect to Germany, Italy, and Japan, I would say that such is wise.  

(too long to preserve, and not particularly relevant -- about Garofalo, Obama, and Olbermann -- Olbermann is an obnoxious character who went too far in his political statements and lost jobs for his over-the-top behavior. Keith "Over-the-Top" is practically a left-wing version of "Rash Libel" -- OK, Rush Limbaugh). Characterizations about people who put out a sign like this:

[Image: th?id=OIP.i9xBJQsgrj-jOC3PyMH-CgHaFO&pid...=216&h=154]

are offensive, stupid, and pointless. The feeling is certainly mutual. 


[quote]

****
**** The January 6 attack on the Capitol building by Trump supporters
****


At the beginning of this article I described the Genocide Playbook,
and these were the last two items: "Sooner or later there is some kind
of violent incident by a few people in the target group.  This
incident might occur organically, or it might be a setup by the
élites.  The élites use this incident to justify complete censorship,
violence, abuse and control towards the target group and, in the
extreme, commits genocide and ethnic cleansing."

In the current situation, the violent incident was the January 6 attack
on the Capitol building by Trump supporters.

This resulted from Donald Trump's disastrous decision to hold a rally
with hundreds of thousands of supporters, and then tell them to march
to the Capitol building to pressure the politicians to do their jobs
and object to the electors in six states.  He's been accused of
purposely inciting violence, which was clearly the opposite of his
intention.  He may be accused of stupid blunders and reckless actions,
but it was clearly not his intention to incite violence, even if that
was the unintended consequence.
[/quote]

It is a custom that the defeated nominee concede when the state (and in five cases, Congressional districts) counts are complete in accordance with the law. President Trump could have taken a hint from Al Gore, who accepted the results of the 2000 Presidential election.  Had it not been for the takeover of the Capitol building, the effort to nullify the vote counts of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin would be trivialities.  Trump tried to convince people who still supported him that their gut feelings are right and that official results are frauds. Gut feelings are not enough for deciding the validity of a count. 

The custom exists for good reason. Elections have consequences, and they must be definitive. There is no evidence of systemic fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. Trump did better than polling suggested that he was going to do. (I shall show a map suggesting how much better President Trump did than polling and a system of predicting the likelihood of wins was).  

The violent Capitol building incident is the culmination of the President egging people on, cultivating their beliefs that because they cannot imagine anyone else voting for Joe Biden, Biden cannot win. I have been in places where such is a belief is possible because Trump yard signs, bumper stickers, and flags are everywhere. Look at it this way: if everybody that you know is a young-earth creationist because you stay clear of people not attending your church is suspect as "spirit dead" and damned to Hell for such, then you are likely also a young-earth creationist. 

Yes, it was a disaster for President to hold a rally near the White House and encourage people in that protest to walk toward the Capitol Building. The counting of the Electoral Vote is typically a formality, and people broke into the Capitol and did disgusting things. Ultimately harmful? Aside from the apparent murder of a Capitol policeman (which is one death too many) the only real carnage will be the spread of COVID-19 among participants... and most likely Capitol Police. COVID-19 still kills, you know. 

Trump knows that his supporters are often full of rage. By any standard they are often delusional about the electoral process and its credibility. Trump lost in 2020 by the same criteria by which he won in 2016. There have been recounts mandated by state laws, and those were done. He did nothing to tell people that the electoral vote was going to go against him. He tried his damnedest to get state legislators and elected officials such as Governors and Attorneys-general to change the official winners of their states. None of that worked.   

[quote]

Genocide Playbook strategy towards Tea Partiers and Trump supporters
that the Democrats have been using since the Obama administration.
It's what they've been hoping for to crush the Trump supporters once
and for all.  The Democrats made vile attacks on Tea Partiers during
the Obama administration, as we've described, calling them terrorists,
racists and teabaggers, just for opposing Obama's policies.
Conservatives on college campuses and in businesses could lose their
jobs for saying something as simple as "Marriage is between a man and
a woman."
[/quote]

People are not racists for opposing the policies of Barack Obama. People are not disloyal for opposing the policies of Donald Trump. We need to remember that without the Tea Party, Donald Trump would have never become President. Maybe the Tea Party has had some loud and obnoxious exponents, and of course the Tea Party has largely done the bidding of people who believe that those not already rich have no purpose in life except to make those people even more filthy rich while their lives worsen -- and to never forget to count their blessings about having such a privilege. (snark intended). 

Same-sex marriage is here to stay. Adopting or maintaining a vile set of beliefs is not a way to make friends. 

[quote]The Democrats have gotten away with phony and illegal anti-Trump
investigations and impeachments, encouraging antifa-blm fascists to
riot and burn down small businesses, using pandemic lockdowns to shut
down millions of small businesses, censoring any news that criticizes
Biden or exposes Hunter Biden's criminality, and flooding the country
with millions of unsolicited ballots and using the the resulting chaos
to rig the election with voting fraud and steal the election from
Trump -- all with total impunity.  The Democrats are gloating that
they can get away with anything, and they are escalating their
threats.[/quote]

Given a choice between going along with a pandemic lockdown and missing out on some fun in the sun at the beach or some drinking in the presence of loudmouth drunks who might or might not have COVID-19 (and COVID-19 is about as likely to kill someone infected as is a rattlesnake bite)... I look at the numbers and decide that I can wait until things are safer. About as many people in America as live in either Bakersfield, California or Cleveland, Ohio have already died of COVID-19. It is impossible to speak well of any political leader who has acted irresponsibly toward a dangerous disease.

During the last year, antifa-blm fascists, encouraged by Democrats,
tore down statues and burned down not only businesses, but also police
stations, courthouses, and even St John's Episcopal Church, near the
White House.  These are clearly terrorist acts, but the Democrats not
only didn't condemn them, but encouraged them and censored them in the
media.  That's why these acts by the Democrats are analogous to the
Nazi Kristallnacht.

[quote]Biden's vitriolic comments towards Trump supporters at his press
conference last week not only expressed his personal hatred of Tea
Partiers and Trump supporters, but also incited further violence.
Biden even compared Republican Senators to Nazis.  I'm tempted to say
that these remarks prove that Biden is the one with the neurological
disorder, not the hated Tea Partiers.  Biden even was an admirer of
Robert Byrd, a Great Kleagle (or something like that) in the Ku Klux
Klan that lynched and tortured blacks.[/quote]

Anyone who supports the nullification of a lawful, honest election supports dictatorship because that is how a large number of dictatorships (beginning with Lenin when he annulled the election of the Constituent Assembly after the Bolshevik coup) start.

[quote]There's increasing evidence that the Democrats provoked the attack on
the Capitol building by providing only a bare skeleton security force
to protect the building, even though it was known for many days that
an attack was imminent.[/quote]

It is under control of Congress, so fault can be shared between both Parties. Note also that the Capitol police got harsh criticism for overreaction to protests of the death of George Floyd, so they may have decided to be less stringent than would prove necessary on January 6.

The White House, the Capitol, and other key buildings of the US Government are almost never armed camps except after such an event as the 9/11 attack, when such happens. ``

[quote]Obama's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta criticized the Capitol
Police for being completely unprepared, even though "everyone knew
that there would be people ... creating havoc":

   <QUOTE>"What the hell was law enforcement on Capitol Hill
   thinking by not having secured the Capitol today? ...

   Everybody knew that there would be a disturbance.  Everybody knew
   that there would be people who were interested in doing nothing
   else but creating havoc in the Capitol. And very frankly, it was
   the responsibility of law enforcement and the Capitol Hill police
   to secure the Capitol, and I'm not sure what happened that allowed
   this event."<END QUOTE>


It is now reported that the FBI and the NYPD both warned the Capitol
police that there were groups planning violent attacks, but the
Capitol police only provided a skeleton force to block them, in effect
indirectly provoking those attacks.
[/quote]


The FBI does good intelligence against domestic terrorists. The Michigan plot should have been fair warning that the Trump-adoring Hard Right was capable of extreme and pointless mischief.

[quote]These facts may come out in the investigation.  But whether the
Democrats purposely provoked the attack, or whether it was simply
incompetence by the police, it is clearly the violent incident that
the Democrats hoped for and are using as part of their strategy to
completely destroy the Republican Party and Trump's supporters.
[/quote]

We can only wait for the investigation to do its work. I seek no rush to judgment. As for what Democrats wanted... I can't speak for all Democrats, but it would seem that an uneventful formality of counting the Electoral Vote was precisely what most of us wanted. We did not appear as counter-protesters.

[quote]As I've said repeatedly, these kinds of actions are not rare.  They're
common, and they're occurring today in many countries in various
stages.  Still, it is almost beyond belief to me that three monopoly
companies -- Twitter, Facebook and Amazon -- have successfully
colluded to completely shut down Parler.com, a successful and growing
online service with millions of users -- for purely political reasons
as part of the Democrats' Genocide Playbook strategy.  This is the
kind of thing that occurs in Russia and China and Cuba and North Korea
and Venezuela and totalitarian countries.  It was never supposed to
happen in America.[/quote]

Facebook takes down the websites and comments of people who do crimes with political consequences, including that of the man who attacked Steve Scalise. It also takes down medical quackery and pornography. Facebook is a private business, and one follows the rules of a private business if one wants to deal with that business (so long as those rules are not themselves illegal, as with discrimination.

[quote]Even though this is very common, I never never thought I'd see the
Genocide Playbook being used in America.  This is the darkest time
for America in my memory.[/quote]

Economics were of course far worse during the Great Depression, and with the qualification that I would not want to return in some time machine as a black person in the Jim Crow South, we haven't had so much nastiness in American politics since the Civil War. Even the much-derided Joe McCarthy got away with far less than Donald Trump has gotten away with.

[[quote]b]****
**** How will this end?
****[/b]

Will the Democrats' use of the Genocide Playbook lead to actual
genocide and ethnic cleansing?  No.  For that they would at least need
backing from the army, which obviously they don't have.

In fact, what the Democrats are doing is so completely bizarre and
outrageous, so destructive and self-destructive, and so un-American,
that it can't possibly last long.

Still, how is this going to end?

First, Donald Trump and his 75 million supporters are not dead and
buried. (but 81 million more voted against him -- PB, and that means more).
 Every Trump voter I've seen interviewed on TV says the same
thing: That Trump actually speaks to them, and the others in
Washington ignore them.  That's why they're loyal to Trump.  Trump
says that he has some major announcement coming.  We'll see what he
says.[/quote]

If everyone in a cult or under the control of a totalitarian state such as Iran of North Korea says much the same thing, then what does that prove? Nothing except that everyone is either right by coincidence or wrong by command. Say what you want about loyalty, but loyalty to a suspect cause, whether the KKK (which would do genocide if it got its way) or the Khmer Rouge (which did) is suspect. The demand for unqualified loyalty is more likely to come from a Mafia-like gang than from... well, a Masonic Lodge or an Elks' Club. Even in so authoritarian an organization as the US Armed Services one is expected to act in accordance with personal conscience if given a criminal order.

[quote]Second, Parler.com is not dead and buried.  The Democrats have gotten
Parler offline for now, but Parler has enough support to build its own
datacenter and cloud to replace Amazon's AWS, and it will be online
again.[/quote]

Maybe it will clean up its act.


[quote]In fact, if I were a business using Amazon's AWS cloud service, then I
would look at this situation in horror, knowing that Amazon could shut
me down at any time for any foolish reason.  No one believes that
shutting down Parler had anything to do with violence.  It had
everything to do with isolating 75 million Trump supporters and with
eliminating a competitor to twitter.  If Amazon can come after Parler,
they can come after anyone.[/quote]

Websites can go bad. Just think of the infamous Silk Road. Do you really have a problem with Stormfront or the Daily Stormer being shut down?

[quote]Furthermore, Twitter, Google and Facebook made huge amounts of money
because of Trump in the last few years because of Trump.  With Trump
gone, and with their contemptuous treatment of Trump supporters,
they're going to lose a lot of money.  But, no worry, the execs will
be ok.  Many of them are taking jobs in the Biden administration.[/quote]

There will still be politics, and thus Twitter. Google in its original purpose is a search engine. Facebook will remain a means of people doing non-political stuff, like sharing family life... or recipes. Obviously we should all know that Facebook is not itself a source of news. One could put a story on how the Detroit Lions are on track to win the Superbowl, which is as absurd as much as has been said in American politics.

[quote]It's quite possible that Parler will come back with a vengeance and
become a major business threat to Twitter.  If not Parler, then
another service.  This is what always happens.

In fact, another conservative social media service, Gab.com, has
signed up millions of new users in the last few days.  If you access
the site, the reason that it's slow is because it's being overwhelmed
by new users.[/quote]

Those two have soiled themselves.

Third, and this is how it will really end.

[quote]As I've been saying for years, there will be a global financial crisis
and third world war with China, and this will unify the country, and
end all political divisiveness.  That will be the end of silliness and
political correctness, and the beginning of a real existential crisis.
[/quote]

The economic meltdown of 2007-2009 united America somewhat, only for people with extreme wealth to decide to invest in buying the political process including by sponsoring the Tea Party as right-wing economics with populist garb. Then America really got divided. Left-wing political correctness is largely obsolete and irrelevant, but right-wing political correctness is still going strong.

I have my ideas on how America can unite in perhaps as few as two years. (Crisis eras that seem to move slowly for about ten years can wind up rapidly with sudden events that cut off many possible bifurcations of history fast. Once the Crisis is over everything seems obvious after the fact, but five years earlier all sorts of strange events seem possible. In May 1940 a Nazi victory seemed inevitable to about everyone other than Sir Winston Churchill. In May 1945 the Soviet army was closing in on the last pockets of resistance in Berlin. Things can change fast.

I see suggestions of the end phase of this Crisis era. I see the racist Right being discredited for its violence and cruelty. I see the end of the Trump Presidency as the end of an era in American history that began with the somewhat-successful Reagan Presidency and ending with a sick parody of Reagan in the form of Donald Trump. I see Americans demanding more economic equality even if such requires more personal enterprise (and tax policies that favor such). I see the impossibility of a speculative boom of the sort that made the Panic of 2008 a certainty. I also see Barack Obama as a portent of the sort of leadership, whether more conservative or liberal, that marks the mature Reactive as a secular leader. I see the Millennial Generation reshaping much of political and institutional life.