The size of what many are calling the new Green Zone in DC is quite remarkable. The greater part of official DC and the Mall are blocked off and are going to be inaccessible during the inauguration of the new president except for some number of Happy Few, who will be admitted to some number of festivities, not announced currently, via the numerous checkpoints that have been put in place.
At the same time, to refer to the status quo as "martial law" is a bit of a stretch. Under martial law, AFAIK, the city would be completely occupied and invested by regular Federal troops (not what one rightwing wit has dubbed the "National Lard"), there would likely be a curfew and regular patrols in the streets and military raids on locations suspected of harboring "terrorists." At present, civilian authorities are in charge, there is no curfew, and no National Guard can be seen except in the, to be sure, grotesquely over-extended vicinity of the White House and the Capitol. The greater part of the city is as normal as could be expected under pandemic conditions. The situation at present IMO is complex and largely unformed. As an accidental long-term District resident, I am alarmed by the prospect of the permanent Kremlinization of the federal city. Given the essentially abortive character of the Jan. 6 insurrection, the situation even in the short run seems like an overreaction. One wonders where this Lawn Order plan came from and how it came to be implemented now, more than a week after the halfassed insurrection fizzled out with apparently no sequel. So far the dreaded wave of stormtrooper assaults on statehouses and courthouses has failed to materialize and no pogroms have been reported. Still, there's a big difference between the massive deployment of police and National Guard, with uninhibited and unhesitating use of rubber bullets, teargas, and truncheons against unarmed and essentially peaceful protesters and the belated massive response to the violent invasion of the US Capitol with the stated and actual intention of preventing the certification of a legal election. Given the volume of death threats emanating from the rank and file of the Republican Party and the US history of assassinations of presidents as well as mass shootings, if the threat of armed violence by the state was ever justified, it is now. This is a lot of ifs. I don't think Biden will prove to be a fascist, though tool and asshole are in the running. But if, as is possible, he runs a Lawn Order Presiduncy with increased federal support for (and control of and participation in) local anti-protest activities, and if new and completely unnecessary "anti-terrorist" legislation is passed, as is likely, then he will leave behind a legacy that will be made to order to support a real dictatorship if that materializes when (eg) a renascent Republican Party crushes the Demicraps in the midterms and sweeps to total control of the government in the next presidential election. Could this happen. Yes. Will this happen? My crystal ball is broken, but it would neither surprise me if it did--nor if, at least for some time, it didn't. An early sign of the future course of events might be the degree and extent to which the current fortification of government areas of DC becomes permanent. This is IMO a republic experiencing a long-brewing crisis of legitimacy, perhaps reflecting the crisis of the US-led capitalist world system. Maybe neither will "recover" in time for us to be surprised by a bigger crisis. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#5699): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/5699 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79957634/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
