History rhymes

     "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
          Attributed to American author Sinclair Lewis

Town hall security grabs man who sprayed unknown liquid on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar

When President Trump was asked by an ABC reporter if he had seen video of the attack on Representative Omar, Trump answered:

No. I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.

One of the indicia of fascism is a casual -- even favorable -- attitude toward violence directed at the political opponents of the leader. Sometimes it comes from agents of the government. Sometimes it comes from supporters of the leader. Either way, the violence is pardoned, condoned, or laughed off as well-justified. It is a message to Americans: Opponents risk injury or death. Comply. Obey.

Change often sneaks up a little at a time.  A populist leader ignores constitutional guardrails, sidelines the legislature, ignores court orders, initiates wars, creates a private army to intimidate citizens, extorts businesses, demands a compliant media, targets and stigmatizes minorities within the country, and demonstrates that dissenters and political opponents are subject to summary violence. I am talking, of course, about Nazi Germany.

Jack Mullen reflects on the events of 90 years ago in Germany. Jack and I thinned and picked pears in local orchards in our youth. He studied history at the University of Oregon. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Jack Mullen with wife Jennifer Angelo

Guest Post by Jack Mullen

                  Germany 90 years ago. 

The Nazi Party snookered Germany in 1932.

The Weimar Republic was deeply fragmented in 1932. No party held a majority. Political parties were in disarray. The Nazi Party, running on a platform that promised economic recovery, jobs, national revival, rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, and virulent nationalism and antisemitism, won a plurality of votes in the July 1932 election and remained the largest party after losing seats in November.

Titans of German industry and leading conservatives convinced the aging president, Paul von Hindenburg, that if he appointed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as chancellor, they could restrain him. Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on January 30, 1933.

Did ordinary Germans understand what the 1932 elections had unleashed? The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933, gave Hitler’s cabinet the power to pass laws without the Reichstag, effectively dismantling constitutional democracy. President von Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. Hitler then merged the offices of president and chancellor and declared himself Führer.

Under Hitler, Germany reduced unemployment, largely through rearmament, public works, and the exclusion of Jews and others from economic life. At the same time, Germany cast off the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. By 1936, the regime had a story to tell the world — and a powerful propaganda machine to tell it. Many abroad, and many Germans, accepted that narrative.

In 1936, Germany hosted the Winter Olympics in February and the Berlin Summer Olympics in August, using both events as global propaganda showcases. Unemployed workers found jobs in expanding steel and armaments factories.

At the same time, many middle-class Germans saw violent, strong-armed actions by the SA, SS, and secret police but did not view them as signs of the totalitarian system tightening around them.

Any lingering illusions should have shattered in November 1938 during Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass — when Nazi paramilitary forces, aided by civilians, attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany and Austria while authorities largely stood aside.

In 1938, Hitler expanded Germany’s territory: Austria was annexed in March, and the Sudetenland was absorbed in October after the Munich Agreement. These moves fulfilled his promises to revise Germany’s borders and restore great-power status.

Less than a year later, in September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began.

There are lessons to be drawn for America from Germany in the 1930s, including the danger of executive overreach, the use of security forces for political purposes, territorial ambition, and a compliant legislature and judiciary. While many Germans were slow to recognize their country’s slide into dictatorship, recovery is possible if we remember:

 --- Free and fair elections matter.

--- A constitution is only as strong as the citizens who defend it.

---  This is a pivotal moment in history as we try to uphold the principles set forth 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence and preserved in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

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Democrats have an opportunity. I hope they don't blow it.

Public attention is focused. A majority of Americans don't like ICE's methods. Especially what happened in Minneapolis.

That's the opportunity.

A majority of Americans do like ICE's overall mission.

That is the point where Democrats may screw this up.

The New York Times published a poll showing Americans' views on the tactics ICE uses. A significant number of Americans don't think the tactics are rough enough, A majority of Republican voters approve of ICE tactics. They look at the protests and believe Trump when he says those "paid agitators" deserve what they get. They like that Trump is a bad-ass. 

New York Times

This poll is consistent with the Reuters/Ipsos poll I cited yesterday. A majority of Americans support the ICE mission to deport people here illegally. A majority of Americans -- but far from all -- are unhappy with their current methods.

Jeff Mauer's "I Might Be Wrong" Substack displayed a graph that describes the peril for Democrats. 

Democrats have lacked a national spokesperson for a decade. Joe Biden never had the communication skills to voice a clear national message, and Trump is, as always, the loudest voice in any arena. Biden walked a tightrope within factions of the Democratic Party, some of whom wanted open borders, some of whom want amnesty for some people, and nearly all of whom recognized the conflict between the contributions immigrants make combined with the unfairness of rewarding lawbreakers. There is no Democratic message. There is only objection to Trump's.

A clear, principled Democratic position is certain to disappoint some people. Every policy includes cruelty and arbitrariness because the situation is complicated. There are mixed-status families. Some people committed some law violation; some did not. Some people own businesses and pay taxes; others do not. Some people arrived as infants; some arrived as adults intentionally breaking the law.

Democrats are not starting at zero in search of a policy. President Obama voiced a clear, but nuanced one.

March 18, 2009 in a town hall in Iowa

So this is not going to be a free ride. It's not going to be some instant amnesty. What's going to happen is you are going to pay a significant fine. You are going to learn English. You are going to -- you are going to go to the back of the line so that you don't get ahead of somebody who was in Mexico City applying legally. But after you've done these things over a certain period of time you can earn your citizenship, so that it's not -- it's not something that is guaranteed or automatic. You've got to earn it. But over time you give people an opportunity.

Now, it only works though if you do all the pieces. I think the American people, they appreciate and believe in immigration. But they can't have a situation where you just have half a million people pouring over the border without any kind of mechanism to control it. So we've got to deal with that at the same time as we deal in a humane fashion with folks who are putting down roots here, have become our neighbors, have become our friends, they may have children who are U.S. citizens. That's the kind of comprehensive approach that we have to take.

Some Democrats will object. Some see people entering the U.S. as a human right, therefore trumping the value of fairness. Some don't think learning English is a priority. They think it cruel to require people who have roots here to return. Obama said we need to do all the pieces of this for it to seem fair to Americans. 

Democrats lost all credibility on the issue of immigration enforcement. During the first three and a quarter years of Biden's presidency the U.S.allowed open, flagrant gaming of the system, using the "amnesty card" and "catch and release" enforcement. Democrats must have a message of change from the discredited Biden policy. This is a democracy, and Democrats claim to be the party preserving it. Americans want a president who will enforce the law, and that means deportations. That means ICE or something like it. That means Democrats need to support enforcement of immigration rules.

We can do it in a Democratic way or a Trump way. 

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The Second Amendment may save the Bill of Rights

The Second Amendment is under attack.

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I will start with a quote from an unlikely source, a Medford, Oregon, provocateur, internet troll, and Trump-supporting Republican, Curt Ankerberg. He left these words in a comment on this blog on Sunday:

I own four guns. I also have a concealed permit. My guns are for home protection. I don't carry a gun when I'm out in public, but I legally could. The situation doesn't call for it, and it's asking for trouble if I do. . . .You don't fuck with the police, particularly if you are carrying a weapon. . . If I were Trump, I'd bring in the military, and stomp out the paid rioters. You don't fuck with the police. 

Readers can draw two takeaways from Ankerberg's comment. One is recognition that a large segment of MAGA Republicans welcomes Border Patrol and ICE rough behavior. A Reuters/Ipsos poll reports that 23 percent of Republican think Trump's policy is not strong enough. They consider Renee Good and Alex Pretti to have gotten exactly what they deserved. The violence is on-brand for Trump. 

The other takeaway from Ankerberg's comment cuts the opposite direction. Ankerberg -- and Trump administration spokespeople -- said to leave guns at home, that they don't belong around police.

Republican officeholders defend an absolutist view of the Second Amendment. They argue that guns are the way citizens protect themselves from tyrants who might take away your freedom. Guns are peacekeepers.  A good guy with a gun is how you stop a bad guy with a gun. What better place for good guys with guns than at trouble spots?

Both Border Control Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino and FBI Director Kash Patel were sharply critical of Pretti for exercising his Second Amendment right. Patel said:

"You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple."

Trump's people are scrambling to walk this back, but body language of the shooting of Pretti is more persuasive than words. The world saw it. You can be shot by Trump's agents on first glimpse of your gun. 

Trump realizes he is losing support both with swing voters dismayed by ICE's roughness and with gun rights supporters objecting to the notion that gun possession is grounds for summary execution.

Trump changed the Bill of Rights, but this messaging error may restore them:

  -- Under Border Patrol and ICE standards, the First Amendment right of speech, press, and assembly exists so long as you don't say anything objectionable or video-record officials. Then it is obstruction of justice. You are subject to being killed in a scuffle that ICE initiates. 

  -- The Fourth Amendment right of privacy for your person, possessions, and dwelling exists in theory, but don't exercise the right in the context of ICE enforcement and demand to see a judicial warrant. If you resist you can be accused of obstructing justice and be killed in the scuffle. Comply.

  -- The Second Amendment right to carry a firearm exists -- as long as the gun is locked away and not carried where police might see it. Police are free to see a person carrying a weapon as a bad guy and a lethal threat. As Ankerberg put it, "You don't fuck with the police." Police are free to take your guns from your cold, dead hands, just as the poster says.

Trump's political base accepted the loss of the First and Fourth Amendments, but has finally become uncomfortable with the loss of the Second. The claim that the Second Amendment protects the other rights might turn out to be true after all.

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Shock. Dismay. Rage.

Kent State: May 4, 1970. Four college students about like me were shot and killed. Nine more were injured.

I felt shock. This isn't abstract. This is real. So this is where the country is. Oh.

It seemed very personal.

Americans are experiencing another "Kent State" event. Shock. Dismay. Realization that agents of our government might turn deadly force on us.

Joe Yetter sent me his reaction to the shooting death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Joe is a retired U.S. Army physician who trained in military and VA hospitals. He worked with people like Alex Pretti.

Joe was a pathologist and a family physician here and abroad, taught in multiple residency and fellowship programs, and continues to care deeply about public health and democracy. He was a Democratic candidate for Congress in 2022.

Guest Post by Joe Yetter

I’m enraged. But I’ll not be entrapped.

I’m not proud of my rage, but it’s in me, all the same. The rage burns in others, too, and I tremble for my country. Our rage is what Trump wants and would use it against us. Do not let him.

Joe Yetter

I felt real sorrow for the millions of strangers who will die because Trump killed USAID. I was angered by the gutting of science and biomedicine that will extinguish many thousands of American lives. I grieved for Renee Good and for her family in a way that was far more personal, because she was an individual, identifiable American.

But this murder—the murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents—was different. Was different for me, at least. I have some ties to nurses, to intensive care units, and to the VA.

Nurses taught me a lot of what I needed to be a good physician. I’ve loved a few of them. A few others likely saved my life, and a few others definitely saved my career.

Alex Pretti was a nurse. More than that, he was an ICU nurse in a VA hospital. I never met Alex, but I know him. He was loved by his family and his colleagues, and if I—an Army veteran and VA patient—if I ever had rolled into his ICU in desperate straits, I’d have wanted him there.

I wish Alex could be right there, right now, working in his ICU, saving lives, mentoring students, sharing that life-saving profession.

I can imagine Alex there on the slab, stiff and cold and pale, drained of blood by multiple gunshot wounds. Flip him face down, I can see neat little entry wounds, each with a ring of dark grease where the bullet shed gun oil, smoke, and metal debris. Flip him over, I can see ragged exit wounds.

Last week began with the mourning of Renee Good, shot and killed by ICE; Renee dying while ICE prevented a physician coming to her aid. Last week ended with federal agents killing Alex Pretti—shooting him in the back as he was on the ground, unarmed and brutally restrained by multiple federal agents. Agents delayed yet another physician from rendering aid, aid that would have been useless, as multiple agents had fired multiple shots into Alex’s dying body. 

Border Patrol, ICE, and Trump’s other goons quickly made up lies about Alex Pretti, just as they had sullied Renee Good. They quickly removed evidence, instead of preserving the scene.

Alex Pretti had gone to the aid of a victim of brutality, and was attempting to defend her. He was, after all, a person who made a career of healing and protecting others.

I struggled to watch the videos. I managed to watch enough to know that Border Patrol lies, ICE lies, Bovino lies, Noem lies. Alex Pretti was murdered. A caring, loving, protective nurse was murdered for the crime of protecting another human being.

So, yeah, I’m enraged. I’m not proud of this rage, but it’s in me. I worry that others may act on a similar rage—and act violently. I try to be cerebral about this, to say of course, this is exactly what Tim Snyder wrote about in On Tyranny, this is one more step, and this is how we resist, and columnists Michelle Goldberg and M. Gessen are right. 

It’s not a stretch to think that other people, like me, enraged and anguished, will engage in lethal violence toward federal agents. For all I know, right-wing agents and provocateurs might. Either way, I believe that Trump, along with Stephen Miller and many of Trump’s goons actively want this. It is the plan. They will escalate until violence triggers more violence. Then comes repression and a police state.

So I’m going to embrace my rage and grieve privately.  Resist, but don’t fall into the trap of escalating violence. Do rally, do march, do participate in local and national strikes and every peaceful anti-fascist action. Do call your congressional representatives, every time you can. Do vote down tyranny and violence. We are better than they are.

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Not so easy Sunday: Alex Pretti had a gun.

Minnesota gun rights advocate:

     "The handgun was in a holster on his belt. After agents sprayed him with pepper spray, they took him to the ground, and beat him in the face with a canister. An agent then removed the gun from his holster, which he never had in his hand, and an agent shot him 10 times. That's what I see when I watch the videos."

ICE stumbles into an attack on the Second Amendment.

Noem: "This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement."

Rough enforcement by ICE is a body-language message to people contemplating entering or remaining in the U.S. illegally: The U.S. is a frightening and dangerous place for you. Don't come. Get out or else.

This strategy is working. Immigration has reversed direction.

SWAT-style immigration enforcement is also a message to Trump's political opponents. It is the domestic version of bombing boats from Venezuela. Trump can and will use violence against you without regard for laws or the Constitution. 

The Second Amendment isn't my favorite. I think widespread possession and carrying of firearms is dangerous. But a significant segment of Americans disagrees, and demands that people be free to carry firearms. Alex Pretti was exercising that right. Video of the encounter shows no evidence that he withdrew or brandished that firearm or threatened anyone with it. Video shows it was taken from him by an ICE officer. That justifies his immediate killing, according to ICE.

A body-language message has entered the public consciousness: An ICE agent can kill on sight a person exercising the right to bear arms near them. The officer is immune from punishment. The citizen will be vilified publicly by one or more Cabinet secretaries. You have the right -- but better not exercise it. 

This killing will muddle the political waters. Gun rights groups do not defend gun carry by people of color -- the NRA is still silent on the Philando Castile case -- but Pretti is White, with a clean criminal record, and he had a gun permit. 

This shooting is different from the one that killed Renee Good. Net-net, ICE having killed Renee Good helps Trump with his MAGA base. She was one of "theirs," a lesbian with a wife who shouted insults. The ICE agent spoke for MAGA when he called her a "fucking bitch." She deserved it, even though she was exercising her first amendment rights.

But Pretti was shot because he possessed a gun, a Second Amendment right. Trump's rough immigration enforcement was never about the law. It is about who. Who are the good guys, who gets Trump's protection, and who suffers Trump's wrath? White firearms-carriers are the good guys.

"Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms—including while attending protests."

Kristi Noem's words are already out there and cannot be taken back. Republican officeholders see the emerging problem. Gun rights advocates are beginning to voice their complaint. Trump's ICE shot the wrong person for the wrong reason. It cannot be wrong to carry a gun.

Trump's media machine will try to fix this. They will need to blame Pretti, as they double down on blaming Renee Good. He deserved what happened to him. Maybe he was gay. Or trans. Or a Democrat. Or something other than a nurse at a veterans hospital exercising his Second Amendment rights. That is what got him killed, but that must be denied.

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"I hate this!"

"Yes, you can use my name. I DO hate this."
         Denise Meer, on Main Street in Medford, Oregon

Denise Meer

The road to discord is paved with good intentions.  

Today's post is hyper-local. It is about striping the lanes on Main Street in Medford, Oregon.

Main Street was re-striped to encourage bicycle travel by making bicycling more convenient and safer. The state of Oregon gave the city of Medford a million dollars to do it. The new traffic pattern slowed traffic on Main Street, toward the goal of revitalizing downtown Medford as a business and commercial district. It made the prior three-lane, one-way Main Street less of a thru-fare and more of a destination for businesses and shoppers.

The strategy was to put a two-way bicycle path alongside the left curb in the place where cars would normally park. Then put a parking lane to the right of that, separated by traffic bollards. Then have two traffic lanes to the right of that -- one fewer lane than before.

The bicycle lane on the left looks like this:

Bike lane, then bollards, then parking lane, and travel lanes to the right.

Facing the other direction

The theory is that more people will travel by bicycle if it is safer and they are protected from traffic by parked cars. The goal is a farsighted, non-coercive, good-government solution toward a sustainable future, where bicycling was normalized.

Real life interferes. It turns out that parallel parking between a striped line and a bollard, without the cues of a curb, and with the possibility of bicycle traffic on one side and vehicle traffic from the rear on the other, gives people the willies when trying to park. I watched drivers attempt it. It requires parking in what feels like the middle of the street, while avoiding hitting a post.

I smiled and nodded encouragement at Denise Meer as I watched her park. I did my best not to look threatening or judgmental as she moved her car back and forth five times as she slid into the slot without hitting anything. Apparently I managed to look harmless, so she willingly rolled down her window and answered my question: "How to you like this parking arrangement?"

She said she hated it, as did every single person I have ever talked to about this innovation.

Her car, successfully parked

Medford's eight-person City Council and mayor voted unanimously this week to end this experiment. The only disagreement within the Council was whether to go back to the former system, with three travel lanes, or to go to a modified system, with a dedicated bicycle lane on the right, with parking on the right curb, and two travel lanes. No more bollards.

Here is the diagram of the choices the City Council examined:

Two travel lanes would be more than enough to carry the traffic, but to break a four-four tie on in the council, the mayor voted to take option two, back to square one, thus assuring the public that city leaders got the message. 

Oregon is a blue state. It has been a leader in encouraging good-for-us-all ideas. These include statewide land use planning, tight urban growth boundaries, subsidies for buses, road diets, demand that a new bridge over the Columbia River have mass transit, energy efficiency standards, access to abortion, DEI initiatives, trans athletes in high school women's sports, expanded Medicaid, sanctuary for immigrants, tax credits for solar, tax credits for electric cars. The list goes on. 

There is a risk to having the votes to win big. Government must not be too good for the people it governs. Few of us would choose chopped kale for dessert, even though it is better for us than typical desserts. Oregon Democrats risk that. It would have been possible to have retreated a half-step back, and keep the fully-adequate two lanes of traffic as shown in the Buffered Bike Lane option.  But the public was fed up, so the city leaders demonstrated that they got the angry message and made a total retreat from bicycles having their own space.

Democrats have a supermajority in the legislature. Why not run up the score when one has the votes? The reason to tread carefully is that over-reach sows the seeds of its own destruction. People want what they want. People get angry and revolt if government seems oppressive. 

Trump is making the same mistake. He claims a landslide mandate. He is running up his score with tariffs, Greenland, extorting media companies, ICE cruelty, Trump cryptocurrency cronyism and much, much more. His list goes on, too. 

He is over-reaching and losing his mandate.

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I am strong I am invincible. I am Canada

     "Peter, I know the importance of the hook and how you use rock songs to draw people into your posts. The problem is when too many commenters respond to the hook rather than the message."

          Comment from a college classmate

The title of this blog post is from Helen Reddy's feminist anthem, "I Am Woman." 

Helen Reddy

And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

Whoa, yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything

I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman (ooh)

She belts out the song. She is assertive and proud. Feminine is a good thing, a strong thing. I am male, but I feel entirely entitled to express what kind of feminism I like. I like Helen Reddy's kind. Confident. Not the #MeToo kind, where women complain of long-past injuries where they got injured but didn't say anything. I like the in-your-face, I-demand-respect-now kind.

I suggested that readers send me appropriate song lyrics for the Canada-USA relationship. The popular music world is full of breakup songs. Canada is publicly breaking up with the USA, voiced in the speech in Davos by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

I wanted people to notice that Carney wasn't longing for the good old days and getting back together. Readers needed to find lyrics where the singer initiated the breakup because the former sweetheart became violent toward her and others. He begun hanging out with a bad crowd. He justified taking things from others. She wasn't that kind of girl and would not stand for it.

Notice that Carney didn't say that the USA suddenly "went bad" under Trump. He said the USA had always been a bully, that the USA had always felt entitled to demand that the world bow to its interests. The USA has been a self-righteous hypocrite from the moment it survived World War II with its industry and military intact. The difference now is that the selfishness is celebrated by Trump, not denied under the guise of being a benevolent policeman. Carney said that Trump exposes the truth about the relationship. The strong do as they will; the weak suffer as they must.

Probably no American politician can dare say what Carney said. It would be insulting America, and we don't want to hear an unpleasant truth. Americans understand our nation to be the shining beacon of truth, justice, and international law. We are Ronald Reagan's virtuous city on the hill. Possibly that self-image made the U.S. a better, less hypocritical, great power than we would otherwise have been. We wanted to live up to the hype. 

Carney admitted that the Pax Americana of the past 80 years has had some benefits for Canada. That is why Canada could accept the relationship for so long.

Reader comments suggest that people engaged with Carney's speech. Several mentioned "You're No Good." I became aware of that song when Linda Ronstadt recorded it in 1974. It captured Carney's statement that great powers had always been hypocrites, and that Canada feels great to be moving on.

Feeling better now that we're through
Feeling better 'cause I'm over you
Learned my lesson, it left a scar
Now I see how you really are
(Chorus)
You're no good, you're no good, you're no good
Baby, you're no good

Others mentioned Kelly Clarkson's 2004 song, "Since U Been Gone."

But since you been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so movin' on, yeah, yeah
Thanks to you
Now I get, I get what I want
Since you been gone

Taylor Swift writes brilliantly and often about hurt. Her song "Mean" has these words:

You, with your words like knives and swords
And weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like a nothing

Taylor Swift writes for this generation, not mine. I am old, still stuck back in the 1960s and 1970s. I don't hear anger or hurt in Carney.  As with Helen Reddy, I hear resolve and clear-headed purpose in Carney's speech. It's a new world for middle powers like Canada. 

You can bend, but never break me
'Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul

I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

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