Oakland Says F*#!* to Fascist Trump and His Goons

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

We cringe at Trump's open solicitation of the Nobel prize, at the absurd claims of diplomatic, political and economic success, at his cabinet of bimbo girly magazine "models" and comic book caricature clowns. We bemoan the destruction of a Justice Department that for all its failings under previous presidents, did occasionally go after financial criminals, child sex traffickers, and real terrorists that were plotting to blow things up and kill a lot of people. We see the unimaginable corruption of Trump selling policy, pardons, and massive use of Presidential power to enrich himself as would any tin pot dictator.

It is even much worse that all of this. Consider the monsters of history, those that killed millions; Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Pol Pot... this is where Trump is going. Racism formed the basis of Hitler's crimes and will form Trump's because Trump is a blatant racist. He welcomed white south African immigrants; he has said the Civil Rights movement was "very unfair" to white people. He is systematically removing all public references to American's slave history and reverting military base names to those of confederate generals.

ICE is targeting people based on their ethnic appearance, and incredibly, the Supreme Court has allowed it. There are tens of thousands of people being held is ICE "facilities", i.e. concentration camps. Can there be any doubt where this is going?

Am I exaggerating? Panicking? My eyes wander over to my other screen and land on an article in The Guardian, entitled "America feels like a country on the brink of an authoritarian takeover." by Francis Prose.

As Trump fantasizes out load about territorial expansion by attacking Greenland, "respectable" journalist and pundits begin to write about the, for them, unthinkable: that Trump is a Threat to the world. They express shock that the phrase "the American threat" appears in their own writings.

Writers like Ezra Kline now speak of a world where the U.S. no longer sets the example and provides the leading example of a commitment to the values of peace and a rules based adherence to democracy.

Well known three time Pulitzer winner writer Thomas Freedman is shocked that "America" no longer leads the world in the quest for peace and democracy. Freedman, widely read, is known for his original interpretations of world events and as a spokesperson for US corporate globalization. He is also most often wrong and is considered by many to be an embarrassment to the profession of journalism.

This notion of US world "leadership" in adherence to the lofty ideals of peace and democracy reveals the parochialism, racism, and tunnel view of the US chattering classes. Ask the survivors of the three and a half million Vietnamese, the hundres of thousand of Iraqis and the countless millions in Central and South and Central America slaughtered by the US to maintain genocidal dictatorships about US values.

Turns out that those vaunted U.S. value are for the exclusive application to White Western Europeans and their offspring.

None of this is new to Bay Area Latinx immigrants. On Friday 23rd, many held a rally at the Fruitvael BART station to support the people under attack in Minneapolis. Groups included Socialist Alternative, National Nurses United, East Bay DSA, BlackRabbitSculpture.com and many individuals with their own signs in English and Spanish. The signs referenced that the current struggle is part of the fight against racism and Nazism that never really ended.

Signs demanded ICE out of everywhere and a general; strike such as is currently taking place in Minneapolis.

Today, the regurgitated Nazis take the form of Trump followers and ICE in a reborn Gestapo.

See all high resolution photos here.