Day Three of the Fascist Shit-Show, a/k/a the Republican National Convention
| revcom.us
On day one of the shit-show, the day after Kenosha, Wisconsin, police had shot Jacob Blake, Jr. in the back seven times for nothing besides being Black and people righteously rose up against that… Donald Trump started the morning by saying that “Second Amendment” people (that is, fascist vigilantes) could handle Portland (that is, violently suppress the righteous struggles against police murder and racism going on there) in a day. Night one, the fascists paraded two white people whose only claim to fame is brandishing automatic weapons against peaceful, unarmed Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
On day two, a fascist vigilante killed two demonstrators on the streets of Kenosha.
This was all just too much for many people. Listen here to Doc Rivers, coach of the Los Angeles Clippers National Basketball Association team, denounce the fear-mongering of the Republican Convention and talk about who really must live in fear; listen here to Chris Webber, retired five-time NBA all-star, talk about the urgency to act; and read here what Lebron James said. By evening the entire NBA and WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) and six major league baseball teams had refused to play.
And what did the fascist shit-show do? Spreading the word in advance that Vice President Mike Pence would speak to the issues of Kenosha, they had the overgrown choirboy adopt his most pious, priestly tone to call for… what? An end to vigilante violence? An end to a situation where every sentient Black person in the U.S., no matter how prominent or well-off, must live in fear of encountering the police? An end to the howling disparity of an unarmed Black man being shot down by the police in broad daylight as he checked on his kids in the back seat of his car, while those very same police two days later wave on a white man with an automatic weapon on his shoulder and his hands up, leaving a scene in which shots have just rung out and bystanders are yelling that the walking man had shot people? At minimum, a call for those racist vigilantes to NOT go out to demonstrations armed with automatic weapons and spoiling for a fight? That’s not much, but it would be the bare minimum you might expect.
No. Pence, adopting his sternest tone and facial expression, called for law and order. LAW AND ORDER. LAW AND FUCKING ORDER, FULL STOP!!!
Pence came off like a medieval inquisition priest. You can just imagine him a few centuries ago, scolding some free-thinking non-believer or accused witch before lighting the fire that would burn her at the stake, back in what the fascists think of as the good old days.
And where did he do it? At Fort McHenry, the site that “inspired” the national anthem (the only national anthem that we know of with a verse upholding the enslavement of human beings). On a night when military might of the U.S. was celebrated and brandished and China threatened… when the right of women to control their bodies was attacked and the fascist program of forced child-bearing was celebrated… when reality was totally denied and an alternate world put forward where Donald Trump led a battle against the coronavirus, instead of denying the scientific reality and recklessly causing untold needless death… and when once again a handful of Black fools and tools came out to provide window dressing for this white supremacist.
On a night when the future in store if this fascist stays in power became clearer than ever.
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