As my readers may be aware, all is not well in the heart of the American Empire. There have been continuous protests across the United States for a number of months now. Some state and local governments have turned from repression to bargaining, and starting make concessions to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the protesters’ demand for a system that better serves the working class and racial minorities. The federal government, under the control of the Republican Party, has decided that justice and peace are less important than brutal domination. It has been pointed out, and I’ll write more on this tomorrow, that the Republican use of federal or other “law enforcement” personnel to detain, assault, and harass protesters goes against everything in the government’s manuals about how to handle situations like this. If we assume they are paying attention to the manuals, or to history, than more violence, chaos, and unrest are their goal. They want this to get worse.

That being the case, it’s important for folks to pay attention to what’s happening in Portland right now, because the GOP, under Trump’s leadership, has told us that they intend to replicate that “strategy” across the country.

Crip Dyke has been doing valuable reporting from the ground there, on her blog Pervert Justice, and I urge you all to check out her work there. It’s important to know what’s going on, to get reporting from sources other than corporate media, and to familiarize yourself with the tactics used against people exercising their right to protest, and the tactics being used by those protesters to defend their rights against state repression.

I was going to link to one or two of the posts there, but honestly, just go there and read all of them. Whether you’re an American citizen or not, whether you’re an American resident or not, it’s worth paying attention to this. The tactics used by the government mirror those that have been used by authoritarian regimes all over the world. One of the more graphic examples is the Law Enforcement tactic of aiming cause brain trauma or to destroy eyeballs – something they seem to be copying from the regime in Chile. At the same time, we’ve seen protesters adopting tactics used by those struggling for freedom in Hong Kong.

There’s a lot going on right now, and right-wing authoritarian governance seems to be on the rise. It’s up to all of us to keep an eye on that, and fight back as best we are able.

Check out Pervert Justice. Read Crip Dyke’s reporting, and be sure to follow her blog to keep up to date. I’ll have a post up some time tomorrow talking manuals, tactics, and rhetoric, but observations from on the ground are essential.