[RE]

Breaking with the capitalist parties is a political necessity. Both Democrats and Republicans have attacked worker's living standards. They keep rent prices high and wages low; they are united in deportations and repression of precarious and unemployed youth; and they sicced the cops on the protesters last night. Both parties are the enemies of the working class.

Workers Unite!

Protests are good.  A General Strike would be better.

https://truthout.org/articles/lapd-attacks-no-kings-protesters-in-los-angeles/

LAPD Attacks "No Kings" Protesters in Los Angeles

RE

[K-Dog]

A General Strike would be better.

👍

I watched some of the LA action.  The order was to clear an area.  For no good reason, but to instigate trouble.  People were arrested for refusing to leave areas.  Some were arrested for being nothing more than confused * .

Trump wants trouble, he will make it up or push hard enough to get it.  The state uses armed bodies of men when other means of control break down.  As Trump breaks down, and he is, the violence and alienation of the American state from American society will only grow.

The advancing line of horses showed it was a raw expression of power not meeting resistance and unnecessary.  Symbolic for the rest of the country to see.

LA cops like to play the tough guy.

* Around 4pm, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) issued a dispersal order, but kettled people in so they could not leave. Then, the sheriffs and cops fired tear gas and pushed the protesters, unprovoked. They trampled an elderly man with their horse and then clobbered him with their batons and fired round after round of less than lethal projectiles at the crowd. The police chased people down, hitting protesters indiscriminately. They beat people bloody.

[K-Dog]

Yesterday, as I made my way to the No Kings protest in Knoxville, Tennessee, the news hit me like a gut punch. Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband had been killed. Senator John Hoffman and his wife were wounded. And the first thought that raced through my mind? I'm not surprised.

This is Donald Trump's America.

The fact that I wasn't completely rattled, that I wasn't gripped by utter disbelief, says everything about the political climate Trump has created: a climate where violence festers, where conspiracy theories are gospel, and where the so-called enemy within is hunted like vermin.

A Cult, Not a Political Party

This isn't about Republicans versus Democrats. Reasonable people on both sides stand against political violence. But what we're facing now is a cult, one that thrives on lies, paranoia, and the glorification of extremism.

Donald Trump has given his followers something to fight for: a war against shadows. To them, we aren't fellow citizens with differing views. We're the radical left lunatics, the enemy from within, the ones who must be rooted out. When you feed people that poison day after day, when you tell them their way of life is under siege by some imaginary force, this is what happens.
The Blood Is on Trump's Hands

Look at the pattern.

On January 6th, Trump sent his followers to the Capitol, called them patriots, and then pardoned the violent criminals among them.

Every manifesto, every act of political violence, traces back to the same rhetoric: Trump's.
They tell us to turn down the temperature while Trump fans the flames.
Even the man who took a shot at Trump was drunk on his Kool-Aid. That's how deep this sickness runs.

A Country on the Edge

I've received more death threats since Trump's election than ever before. I carry a weapon now, something I never did, even playing music in the roughest bars. That's the America we live in.

But here's the truth: We cannot back down.

Governor Tim Walls said it best: Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. But democracy doesn't stand a chance when one side refuses to engage in good faith, when they'd rather spin conspiracy theories than face facts.
The Fight Ahead

To those who say we should turn down the temperature, I say this: Go tell Donald Trump.
We didn't create this chaos. We didn't call for violence. We didn't make heroes out of criminals. That's all on him.

My heart breaks for Minnesota. My heart breaks for this country. But I refuse to be shocked anymore. Because as long as Trump's cult runs wild, as long as his lies go unchecked, this violence will keep coming.

We are on the right side of history. And we will keep fighting.
But don't blame us for the fire.
Blame the man who lit the match.