Andrea Pitzer: The US as rogue state

"In 2015 I made two trips to Guantanamo while writing my history of concentration camps...

The first visit, I went to a pretrial hearing of the five 9/11 suspects...

One person I talked to not long after that was Mark Fallon, a career NCIS agent, who said something that stuck with me. As NCIS chief of counterintelligence operations for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, he’d been part of the early interrogation program at Gitmo. He protested the U.S. turn to torture in interrogations there internally, later condemning it in public and writing a book, Unjustifiable Means.

Fallon told me that after 9/11, with the turn toward black sites and torture around the world, the U.S. had become a rogue state. And because we had brought those secret, illegal interrogation sites into being around the world, America had not only became a rogue state, but had pulled other states into that orbit. He thought the U.S. would remain a rogue state—and the danger of doing even worse things would remain—until there was full accountability for the program.

* * *

Given where the country is at now, I reached out to Mark Fallon again. When we spoke last week, I asked him what he thinks of our current moment, and whether America is still a rogue state.

He noted that the cabinet nominees put forward so far are in many cases the negation of the agencies Trump is inviting them to run. Each one exemplifies the opposite of the values of the institutions he wants them to lead.

“These nominees appear to be those who will destroy or hinder the internal workings of government,” he said, “which even Al Qaeda failed to do.”"

— Andrea Pitzer, America as a Rogue State: Trump’s malicious chaos targets democracy at home and around the world. Degenerate Art, November 19, 2024

Inclusive gay & Jewish community since the 1970s

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum says:

"The Jewish community was behind the Christian, especially the Protestant community was — In the '60s There were Proetstant priests and ministers who were great leaders of the LGBT movement or lesbian and gay movement. And in 1973 when CBST was founded, there was not a single rabbi, not a single Jewish organization, not a single synagogue, not a single Jewish civil rights organization which supported gay rights. So CBST was founded and the LGBT movement was founded by lesbians and gay men in quite a hostile environment. Really before synagogues like CBST started, or BCC in Los Angeles which was three months beore CBST, you had to make a choice: you had to either...live a gay life but there was no way you could go into a Jewish community, or you could live a Jewish life and sublimate or live a secret life or live a hidden life as a gay person. So it wasn't until 19 — the end of '72 or '73 that there was anything in the Jewish world that was different."
— start at 35:35, and focusing especially starting at 37:29–38:42

Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) — Los Angeles
Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) — New York

Kleinbaum goes on to cite Evan Wolfson, Paul Kaplan, Larry Kramer as Jewish leaders for LGBT civil rights.

Seen on Bluesky: 'the trans protagonist *literally* defeats the villain with her transness'

here's another clip from the trans cartoon episode Disney pulled a few days ago, where the trans protagonist *literally* defeats the villain with her transness (with Unlock It by Charli in the background!!) this would have changed my life when i was a kid (content warning: some flashing lights)

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— sara (@sara.lgbtq.social) November 17, 2024 at 8:57 AM

its so gutting to see representation this good finally being made, only to be axed by bigots the whole damn episode is beautiful. her transness being "against the rules" of the system leads them to realize that the only way to win is by <breaking the system> its awesome. you should download it:

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— sara (@sara.lgbtq.social) November 17, 2024 at 9:00 AM

On the US election postmortem

"Yet the roots of Trumpism extend many years before 2015. I first came across them in 1994, when the Democrats lost both houses of Congress in what was then termed a “repudiation” of the Democratic Party.

Trumpism is the consequence, not the cause, of a long-term structural change in the American political economy.

Over much of the past 30 years, as the Republican Party embraced bigotry, lies, and hate to stir up working-class fears and resentments, the Democratic Party abandoned the working class and embraced global trade, deregulation of finance, and lower taxes on the wealthy, and has allowed corporate bashing of labor unions and monopolization of industry.

As a result, the median wage of the bottom 90 percent has risen just 15 percent, adjusted for inflation, while the stock market has soared 5000 percent."

To its credit, the Biden administration is the first Democratic administration in more than 30 years to reject additional moves toward globalization and deregulation, propose higher taxes on the wealthy, strengthen labor unions, aggressively utilize antitrust, and adapt a forward-looking industrial policy.

But these measures require years to take effect, and many working-class Americans have not yet benefited from them.

— Robert Reich, Who are we? Nov 7, 2024

---

"I’m not interested in participating in the circular firing squad of why Trump won and Harris lost. Because I don’t think messaging or strategy would have overcome this. Much like in 2016, I’m not sure there’s anything Harris could have realistically done to turn the tide. And as much as folks might not want to hear this I think her team ran a good campaign and Trump ran a terrible one. It just didn’t matter in the end."

— Melissa Ryan, Clarity: I don’t have all the answers, but here’s where I’m at today. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Nov 6, 2024

---

"Harris decried Trump as a fascist, a petty tyrant. She called him divisive, angry, aggrieved. And that was a smart case to make if, deep down, most voters held democracy dear (except maybe they didn’t) and if so many of them weren’t already angry (except they were). If all America needed was an articulate case for why Trump was bad, then Harris was the right candidate with the right message at the right moment. The prosecutor who would defeat the felon.

But the voters heard her case, and they still found for the defendant. A politician who admires dictators and says he’ll be one for a day, whose former top aides regard as a threat to the Constitution — a document he believes can be “terminated” when it doesn’t suit him — has won power not for one day but for nearly 1,500 more. What was considered abnormal, even un-American, has been redefined as acceptable and reaffirmed as preferable."

— Carlos Lozada, Stop Pretending Trump is Not Who We Are, New York Times, November 6, 2024

"Things like $15 an hour, labor law reform, and the care agenda...would have immediately been felt in working families’ homes," said Heather McGhee, but Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin (Democrats) blocked those Democratic victories. Whereas things like "a long-term infrastructure plan" and "dethroning neoliberalism, dealing with antitrust, and creating new manufacturing jobs...feel very long-term and it’s easy to confuse who gets credit for it." To win, the Democrats needed policies with "immediacy and marketability." Apparently "people are more enthralled with a $300 stimulus check signed by Donald Trump than they are with the highest rate of manufacturing since the 1970s," and in Missouri they voted for "$15 an hour and abortion rights" yet "reject[ed] the Democratic Party that stands for these things."

— How to compete with the right-wing meaning-making media machine: Writer and policy wonk Heather McGhee on how Democrats failed to reach voters on policy, why having Beyoncé on your side isn't enough, and what it will take to build a left media in the Trump years. The Ink, Nov 11, 2024

"I recently heard someone say, “Republicans work to control the weather, and Democrats wait for it to rain then fight over which umbrella to use.” It stopped me mid-sip of coffee. Like many of you, I’ve been sitting with the tremendous loss that took place last week at the ballot box—the loss of not just the presidency, but the Senate, and now, the House as well; a full trifecta of power now firmly in the hands of Trump, Elon Musk, and the guy who was investigated for sex trafficking who will now lead the Justice Department. I don’t know how to reconcile any of it, including the painful fact that the design of our disconnection as Americans was so well orchestrated and so well executed. It is humbling: how well we all got played and how much we will all suffer because of it, whether you voted for this reality or not. “Pick your pain,” a friend said to me, “One way or another, it’s coming.”"

— Amber Tamblyn, Lean Into the Hard Lesson of Loss: On steep election learning curves, tilting toward the promise of a stronger coalition, and a second live gathering over Zoom this month, because I love you. Nov 14, 2024

Trump secured his victory by just a cumulative 237,000 votes in three states that, had they gone the other way, would have meant victory for Harris." nyt

— Ewart, Dave (@davidewart.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 1:20 AM

Post-election, a hopeful way of thinking

The election outcome was overall bad. But here are some of the election wins, as collected by Popular Information:

• "Voters protect abortion rights in seven states"
• "Voters in three red states guarantee paid sick leave; two boost minimum wage"
• "Three states vote to protect public school funding"
• "Florida voters reject school board politicization"
• "Florida attorney suspended by DeSantis wins reelection"
• "Voters elect first transgender member of Congress; send two Black women to the Senate"

— Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims, Through the darkness, some rays of light, Popular Information, Nov 7, 2024

---

"How will we conduct this resistance?

By organizing our communities. By fighting through the courts. By arguing our cause through the media."

— Robert Reich, The Resistance Starts Now: I still have faith in America, but we must mobilize to protect those at risk if Trump achieves his worst impulses. Nov 6, 2024

Reich continued:

"The work includes:

• Monitoring Trump and his government — despite the disinformation, propaganda, and lies we’ll be receiving — and disseminating the truth.
• Maintaining a watch over the people and institutions we value.
• Being ready to sound the alarm in our communities and networks when those people and institutions are under assault.
• Organizing and mobilizing nonviolent resistance to such assaults.
• Using civil disobedience wherever possible.
• Litigating through state and federal courts where possible.
• Speaking out against malicious lies like those that spread during the election by Elon Musk on his propaganda machine X and against vicious lies amplified on other MAGA mouthpieces.
• Using our economic muscle to boycott corporations that support Trump, Musk, and other centers of MAGA power."

Robert Reich, What will YOU do?: Acknowledging what we are up against, Nov 12, 2024

---

"American Democracy, as we know it, is likely over. That creates space for something new to emerge. I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t tell you exactly what will happen next. But I know what Trump and MAGA want America to become and that they’re empowered to make a lot of it happen. We keep competing by the rules even though the competition is rigged, and every cycle, our opponents find ways to rig the system even more in their favor. Personally, I’ve never been more open to new ideas and things I haven’t considered before. Not because I don’t think democracy can work but because I think achieving a true multiracial democracy will mean rebuilding from the ground up. I’d encourage us to be open to new ways of thinking and systems for change. Because the space for that now exists."

— Melissa Ryan, Clarity: I don’t have all the answers, but here’s where I’m at today. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Nov 6, 2024

"Trump’s foreign policy worldview has been clear ever since he entered political life. He believes that the U.S.-created liberal international order has, over time, stacked the deck against the United States. To change that imbalance, Trump wants to restrict inward economic flows such as imports and immigrants (although he likes inward foreign direct investment). He wants allies to shoulder more of the burden for their own defense. And he believes that he can cut deals with autocrats, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, that will reduce tensions in global trouble spots and allow the United States to focus inward.

Equally clear are Trump’s preferred means of getting what he wants in world politics. The former and future president is a strong believer in using coercion, such as economic sanctions, to pressure other actors. He also subscribes to the “madman theory,” in which he will threaten massive tariff increases or “fire and fury” against other countries in the firm belief that such threats will compel them into offering greater concessions than they otherwise would. At the same time, however, Trump also practices a transactional view of foreign policy, demonstrating a willingness during his first term to link disparate issues to secure economic concessions.

* * *

During the [2024] campaign, Trump promised to bomb Mexico and to deport legal immigrants, called opposition politicians the “enemies from within,” and claimed that migrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country. Despite all this—or perhaps because of it—Trump won a popular majority. When the rest of the world looks at Trump, they will no longer see an aberrant exception to American exceptionalism; they will see what America stands for in the twenty-first century."

— Daniel W. Drezner, The End of American Exceptionalism: Trump’s Reelection Will Redefine U.S. Power, Foreign Affairs, November 12, 2024

Everyone needs a planet. Offer enemies a way not to be enemies.

Margaret Killjoy today:

"Remember that everyone has skin in this game, even if some people have more than others. We all rely on a livable biosphere. Anyone with any ounce of conscience is threatened by a fascist government. It’s okay to be fighting for your own future as well, whatever your identity, and it’s important to not let identity divide us (despite the fact that we need to recognize that those of different identities will be impacted differently). We should not flatten our differences, we should celebrate them. And not let them divide us. Because, as always, we need to

Deescalate all conflict that isn’t with the enemy.

We need to offer an offramp for people on the right wing. We need to offer people the chance to deradicalize away from fascism. This isn’t to say we need to be nice to our enemies, just that we need to make it clear that they have the option of no longer being our enemies."

— The Sky is Falling; We've Got This or: yes it's bad, no we need not despair. Margaret Killjoy. Nov 6, 2024

Read more selected quotations on "The US has an election result. What will we do now?"

Project 2025 explainers: How it'll affect journalists & LGBTQ people

Joshua Benton writes for NiemanLab:

"When some of the detailed proposals within Project 2025 — banning abortion pills, slashing climate regulations, criminalizing pornography, abolishing the Department of Education, mass deportations, to name only a few — gained public attention, Trump claimed to “know nothing about” it — despite the thicket of his own appointees who produced it.

Still, there was one element of Project 2025 I haven’t seen spelled out at length: its plans for the news media."

These include:

"Make it easier to seize journalists’ emails and phone records."
"Consider booting reporters out of the White House."
"Kill funding for NPR, PBS, and public broadcasting."
"Put Voice of America under the president’s command — or shut it down entirely."
"Limit advertising for prescription drugs."
"Punish former officials who speak to reporters."
"Ban TikTok…"
"…remove restrictions on media ownership…"
"…and eliminate Section 230 protections."

Joshua Benton, What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism?: From defunding NPR and PBS to kicking reporters out of the White House, it’s an array of conservative priorities and Trumpian retreads. NiemanLab, Sept. 25, 2024

See also:

What is Project 2025? And what does it mean for LGBTQ+ Americans? Far-right activists have put together a series of directives for the next conservative president. Here's what it would mean to the LGBTQ+ community. Trudy Ring, Out.com, November 6, 2024

Days after the election, Donald Trump Jr. was making violent comments about political opponents. (HuffPost, Nov 9)