Thank you for this, Josh. Your essay deserves wide distribution. Anyone who believes that the current situation will end peacefully knows nothing about the history of fascist regimes.
Claire, thank you for cross-posting this. Josh writes:
<< Attempting to delay this confrontation in the hopes that we can avoid it by accommodating fascism for the next ten months and then winning a free and fair election is pie in the sky.>>
<<...blue state leaders shouldn’t deliberately provoke [confrontation], but neither should they shy away from using force to protect their citizens against a rogue national police force…>>
Josh posits that we should confront armed force with armed force — our police and national guard, even ourselves. He is right. I’ve been aghast that this has not been done, the reasoning stated above notwithstanding. ICE must at least pay a price (in death and injury) for what they are doing.
I’m sorry people, but ‘free and fair’ midterm elections are far from guaranteed. Ever since Marc Elias posted (January 2025) that "no one is coming to save us” I’ve been explaining to friends and family that “we are now in an era domestically where ‘might makes right’, and we possess no might, not even our own National Guard.”
Absent asserting some ‘might’, at this time next year we will be hoping that the courts remedy election results where millions of votes were thrown out, not cast due to polling place intimidation, or seized voting machines.
Stand up to the bully and the bullying. Civil war has been a long time in coming, and the hour is near.
Great piece Josh, more of this please. People need to understand.
This is very dangerous advice and I hope no one in Minnesota heeds it. Any attempt to by state law-enforcement to engage ICE in the manner suggested will lead to violence and therefore loss of narrative. One needs to only go back to the BLM protests to see what happens to narrative and moral high ground when protests turn violent. The Minnesotans are doing a wonderful job resisting and showing restraint, leaving it to the administration to scramble to defend the indefensible. The criticism
in this article of the mayor and the governor are cheap liberal bashing. The author admits to not know what comes next if law-enforcement were to engage in the manner suggested. Not knowing what comes next or several steps after (although highly liberal in its naive nature) is not a basis to recommend action of this sort
What comes next in the absence of counter force? Just a further descent into fascism. I don’t need to know what comes next to recommend something if the alternative is sufficiently grim. Narrative doesn’t defeat force. What makes you think you can get a free and fair election in 26’ if they’re already executing Americans with impunity? Democrats who think they can just wait it out and reap the benefits in the midterms are deluding themselves. The apparatus for state repression is being consolidated now. In ten months it will be too late.
You are conflating matters here.I am agreement with you that things as they are we are not looking at a free and fair election in 2028 and whatever the results of the midterms are will not change that. The link you are drawing between armed resistance against aiCE in Minnesota and that is dubious at best. We must resist with force is a platitude absent a clear strategy and understanding of what happens next which you do not have.
This seems incoherent to me. You appear to be suggesting that force can be defeated without force, and that states should abstain from protecting citizens and enforcing their own laws against ICE because it could lead to violent escalation. You’ve also evidently already accepted that the GOP gets to steal the 28’ election. How is this distinguishable from submission? What is “winning the narrative” going to achieve in all of this? How are you going to stop them? You don’t even appear to be making contact with that central question.
Again you are conflating matters. What I am disputing is your contention that if the Minnesota state and local law-enforcement do not engage.iCE then the descent into fascism will be accelerated. You haven’t substantiated this because you. Are unable to say what comes next and you do not think knowing what comes next is relevant. I do not agree with this line of thought. In fact, I can paint you several scenarios of what comes next whereby the engagement of local law-enforcement with ice would lead to the acceleration of descent into fascism. It would be difficult for you to comprehend these scenarios if you do not understand why narrative is important.
There are a lot of videos like this. They need to be compiled somewhere so we can obtain justice for those who have been abused by ICE at some point t in the not too distant future
Thank you for this, Josh. Your essay deserves wide distribution. Anyone who believes that the current situation will end peacefully knows nothing about the history of fascist regimes.
Claire, thank you for cross-posting this. Josh writes:
<< Attempting to delay this confrontation in the hopes that we can avoid it by accommodating fascism for the next ten months and then winning a free and fair election is pie in the sky.>>
<<...blue state leaders shouldn’t deliberately provoke [confrontation], but neither should they shy away from using force to protect their citizens against a rogue national police force…>>
Josh posits that we should confront armed force with armed force — our police and national guard, even ourselves. He is right. I’ve been aghast that this has not been done, the reasoning stated above notwithstanding. ICE must at least pay a price (in death and injury) for what they are doing.
I’m sorry people, but ‘free and fair’ midterm elections are far from guaranteed. Ever since Marc Elias posted (January 2025) that "no one is coming to save us” I’ve been explaining to friends and family that “we are now in an era domestically where ‘might makes right’, and we possess no might, not even our own National Guard.”
Absent asserting some ‘might’, at this time next year we will be hoping that the courts remedy election results where millions of votes were thrown out, not cast due to polling place intimidation, or seized voting machines.
Stand up to the bully and the bullying. Civil war has been a long time in coming, and the hour is near.
Great piece Josh, more of this please. People need to understand.
Agree! Must stop this.
Yay to all that. Where are your heroes, where are your patriots now?
I waver between, you fools, there'll be no free and fair next election AND how can 300+ mill people ever be overcome!
This is very dangerous advice and I hope no one in Minnesota heeds it. Any attempt to by state law-enforcement to engage ICE in the manner suggested will lead to violence and therefore loss of narrative. One needs to only go back to the BLM protests to see what happens to narrative and moral high ground when protests turn violent. The Minnesotans are doing a wonderful job resisting and showing restraint, leaving it to the administration to scramble to defend the indefensible. The criticism
in this article of the mayor and the governor are cheap liberal bashing. The author admits to not know what comes next if law-enforcement were to engage in the manner suggested. Not knowing what comes next or several steps after (although highly liberal in its naive nature) is not a basis to recommend action of this sort
What comes next in the absence of counter force? Just a further descent into fascism. I don’t need to know what comes next to recommend something if the alternative is sufficiently grim. Narrative doesn’t defeat force. What makes you think you can get a free and fair election in 26’ if they’re already executing Americans with impunity? Democrats who think they can just wait it out and reap the benefits in the midterms are deluding themselves. The apparatus for state repression is being consolidated now. In ten months it will be too late.
You are conflating matters here.I am agreement with you that things as they are we are not looking at a free and fair election in 2028 and whatever the results of the midterms are will not change that. The link you are drawing between armed resistance against aiCE in Minnesota and that is dubious at best. We must resist with force is a platitude absent a clear strategy and understanding of what happens next which you do not have.
This seems incoherent to me. You appear to be suggesting that force can be defeated without force, and that states should abstain from protecting citizens and enforcing their own laws against ICE because it could lead to violent escalation. You’ve also evidently already accepted that the GOP gets to steal the 28’ election. How is this distinguishable from submission? What is “winning the narrative” going to achieve in all of this? How are you going to stop them? You don’t even appear to be making contact with that central question.
Again you are conflating matters. What I am disputing is your contention that if the Minnesota state and local law-enforcement do not engage.iCE then the descent into fascism will be accelerated. You haven’t substantiated this because you. Are unable to say what comes next and you do not think knowing what comes next is relevant. I do not agree with this line of thought. In fact, I can paint you several scenarios of what comes next whereby the engagement of local law-enforcement with ice would lead to the acceleration of descent into fascism. It would be difficult for you to comprehend these scenarios if you do not understand why narrative is important.
We seem to be going in circles here. Have a nice day.
Amen, sister!
There are a lot of videos like this. They need to be compiled somewhere so we can obtain justice for those who have been abused by ICE at some point t in the not too distant future