davel

The bourgeoisie has class solidarity.

Service members should be thinking very hard about their role and rights at this moment.

The millions of people who came into the streets in 2020–which include many veterans, active-duty, Reservists, and Guard soldiers–were very fortunate that Trump had some wall of opposition against his demand to have the military open fire on the demonstrations. It seems hard to imagine such an incident, but should now feel very close and very real.

The millions who came out this past year to oppose Israel’s genocide (which, again, included many vets and service members) are attacked as domestic terrorists by the Trump Administration. Any mass protests, for that matter, which oppose the politics of this administration are looked at as a domestic threat. Whether or not you agree with a protests’ demands, they are protected under the US Constitution. Trump has a different view. Even during his campaign, he promised to “crush” protests against Israel’s war crimes that were peaceful and legal.

This time around he has stacked his cabinet with a bizarre cohort who have spent years auditioning for the roles by marketing themselves as diehard loyalists, from Tulsi Gabbard as head of all spy agencies to Kristi Noem as head of Homeland Security. Their top qualification, like Hegseth, is that they will never say no to Trump.

Carrying out his border operation without opposition is the first step down a dangerous path.

There is no telling where this could go. There is no telling how you in the military could be used. But you do have control over your own role.

Your command doesn’t advertise this, but you have a lot of rights. You have the right to speak out, even publicly, against actions you disagree with, as a US Navy Corpsman just did protesting Trump’s inauguration, announcing his plan to file as a Conscientious Objector along with many others who have done so publicly in the past year. You have the right to follow their lead, and file that packet as well.

At minimum, you have the right to question whether or not your use on the border or under the Insurrection Act could be considered illegal or immoral orders, and learn the ways you can protect yourself.

There are various free and confidential legal services at your disposal, to answer any questions, provide legal advice, and defend you if you choose to exercise those rights.

And as things head in a dark direction, how many exercise that right could make the difference.

If you are in the military and have questions about your options, contact us here for confidential advice and support.

You can also call the GI Rights Hotline 24/7 at 1-877-447-4487.

You can also get more information from to A Guide to Getting Out of the US Military Now on the Eyes Left Podcast.

Relatedly, eight months ago: Google “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI” Leaked Internal Google Document Claims Open Source AI Will Outcompete Google and OpenAI

The truth is, neither deserves credit [for the ceasefire]. Certainly, Biden deserves none. The “plan” he put forth last May was on the table for six months before he dishonestly presented it as an Israeli plan, only to later claim it for himself. In fact, it was neither; it was the only way to negotiate a ceasefire that both sides could be made to accept, and was negotiated for that reason.

Biden preferred month after month of genocide. That his team was part of the discussions wherein Israel finally agreed to what is likely to amount to a brief pause in the genocide akin to what we saw in November 2023 should earn Biden nothing.

Was it Trump then? In comparison to Biden, Trump did do something here. As I’ve described it, “Trump could and did use his leverage over Netanyahu to push him toward the agreement.” But some are now discussing a “Trump effect,” that will see the United States play a different role in Palestine and Israel than it did under Biden. That is a vast overstatement.

Not a Trump effect, a POTUS effect

As Ha’aretz U.S. reporter Ben Samuels put it, “the vast majority of observers have credited what is now known as ‘The Trump Effect’ for the cease-fire.” Samuels himself doesn’t seem to put a lot of stock in it, though, and he’s right not to.

All Trump did was make it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wanted a ceasefire. He cared neither about Palestinian life nor freedom, nor about Netanyahu’s political concerns. Trump made clear what he wanted, and it was up to Netanyahu to make it work and then address his own political problems as he saw fit.

As is always the case when an Israeli Prime Minister is confronted with a clear demand from an American President (or president-elect, in this case), Netanyahu knew he had to comply. This was not a “Trump effect;” it was a “POTUS effect.” Trump did nothing that Biden could not have done at any time if only he had the will to do it.

Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff demanded Netanyahu meet him, on Witkoff’s schedule. He laid out his list of incentives and consequences for refusal, along with his simple demand: Trump wants to enter office with a ceasefire in effect.

What might have been threatened or offered to Netanyahu to entice him to do as he was told remains undisclosed. Some have conjectured that West Bank annexation is the carrot Trump dangled, but this seems unlikely. Mega-donor Miriam Adelson donated $100 million to Trump’s SuperPAC, and certainly did so with the expectation that annexation would happen within the next four years. Trump isn’t going to play games with that commitment or, more importantly, with Adelson’s ongoing financial support.

The price may not have been all that high, in any case. While Netanyahu and his far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have been forthright in saying they have no intention of seeing this ceasefire last beyond the first phase, it is equally clear that if Israel goes back to the genocide, U.S. weapons will continue to flow as freely as ever.

The ceasefire was inconvenient for Netanyahu, and, as such, he had no reason to agree to it. Biden could have given him reason to do so many months ago. Biden simply didn’t want to, reflecting just how blatantly he and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken had lied about pursuing one at all. Trump, for his own reasons, wanted a ceasefire as he entered office.

But Trump has no interest in spending the political capital and energy that would be required to see it through all three phases, and never intended to do so. He quickly clarified that point by stating that he did not have much confidence that the ceasefire would last and that it is “not our war.” The message that he expects Israel to restart the onslaught, and is comfortable with that, couldn’t be clearer.

Kit Klarenberg’s take: It's Official: US Abandoning Ukraine

It's Cory. This time the guy holding court is Cory.

BTW, the Kickstarter for Pixelfed and Loops, the actually-open, ActivityPub based clones of Instagram and TikTok, just hit $35,000 in its first 13 hours. The creator of Mastodon just ceded control to a new non-profit. That's how you do it. By spending money to build free things for the public interest out in the open, not by tithing your money, labor and attention directly to VC-funded for-profit corporations.

For those who don’t know jwz, among other things, you have him to thank for Firefox/Mozilla’s existence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski

Relatedly: The blueprint of regime change operations How regime change happens in the 21st century with your consent

The thing some US empire managers dislike about him is the only thing I like about him: that he makes the US empire a less effective evil because of how much less hidden he keeps the inner workings of the machine. The hood stays popped open the entire time, showing the whole world how the imperial sausage gets made.

A lot of people view this rise of fascism as a some as a sort of fundamental opposition or reaction to the liberal or neoliberal order under which we're living. You know, it's like do you want fascist Trump or neoliberal Kamala? That sort of thinking […] seems to me to be both individualizing—like making fascism into something fascist ideologues do rather than like a constellation of features which make up a fascist society—but also kind of undermines the various continuities between neoliberal societies (and liberal ones) and fascist ones. And it's in this context that Clara Mattei offers a really important intervention which clarifies these important continuities.

Specifically, Mattei highlights how austerity as a form of authoritarian state practice functions to rebalance the capital relation in favour of capital, and in doing so paves the way to Fascism in the early 20th century.

The book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707138.html

• The Atlantic: That’s Not How Constitutional Amendments Work
• NYT: Can He Do That? Here’s What Biden’s Move on the Equal Rights Amendment Means.
• Vanity Fair: Biden Proclaims That The Equal Rights Amendment Is The Law Of The Land—But What Does That Mean?
• NPR: Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment is law. What happens next is unclear
• WaPo: Biden reaffirms belief that the Equal Rights Amendment is the law