The Least Among Us: The Elemental Heart of the Story
This holiday season, writes John Pavlovitz, "it’s a Herculean task to let our hearts be light." Daily, we confront the afflictions of an impossibly dark time - the cruelties wrought by a vile assemblage of hacks, liars, racists and sadists who delight in Christmas-decked thugs menacing brown people with, "YOU'RE GOING HO HO HOME." Instead, we celebrate the judges, artists, pastors, organizers, brave pols and regular people, aka "Radical Left Scum," refusing to bow to fascism. Go towards the light, and fuck these people.
We started this on Boxing Day - a British holiday described as the day when either gifts were given to servants and the poor or when mythical, hung-over, Scottish haggis fight it out in boxing matches, either which we'll take - feeling grateful to be more or less still standing after almost a year of brute insanity enacted by "some of the worst human beings on Planet Earth." Alas, they're still here, led by "the small, bitter man" and hateful worst of the worst who spent his sour "Christmas" trashing we the scum, hailing the end of "transgender for everyone," and ripping "the many sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein" like he did. In a 100-plus-post frenzy, he then attacked Somali immigrants, urged Ilhan Omar be deported and his opponents be jailed, called Stephen Colbert a “dead man walking” who CBS should "put to sleep," and warned, "Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas." One response: "Sorry Jesus, I know it's your birthday but Jesus fucking Christ."
Ditto to everything else he and his underlings - underthings? - are up to, which over at the "unbiased" News Nation were unfathomably praised by one gushing fan as best summarized with the blessed return of "dignity." Which in the real world means, having ensured millions of Americans' health insurance will soar after refusing to extend ACA benefits that cost a fraction of their tax breaks to the rich, Trump continues his rampage on rational governance. He's slashed funding for climate research, victims of human trafficking, wind energy projects - in that case, after the "Department of War" declared them a made-up national security threat. After plastering his obscene name on the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace (JFC) he's now emulating a 1950s TV show by putting it on a new, faster, yuger "Trump-class" battleship - "Our adversaries will know...American victory at sea is inevitable" - one prominent admiral calls "exactly what we don’t need.”
His flunkies are equally, grotesquely feckless. Cringey, hollow, "cynical shapeshifter" JD, who not long ago called Trump "cultural heroin" - just this once, rightly - has been cosplaying as a paunchy Navy Seal, pretending to "train" with them and posting pictures that were swiftly, savagely mocked for their performative bullshit. "Cool," said one. "When you’re done cosplaying, can you and your boss do something about housing and grocery prices?" Also, "Holy propaganda," "GI Jello," and, "You should just keep running, and I don't mean for office." The FBI's Inept Keystone Kash, after a famous jacket fiasco, flubbing two high-profile shootings and using a $60 million government jet to visit his girlfriend, just bought a custom fleet of armored BMWs so he can stay safe from the AK-47s the DOJ now wants legal in D.C., because what could go wrong? But not to worry: FBI officials say the cool new rides will save taxpayers money, because "more efficient cost structures."
Meanwhile, the GOP is infested with fascists. Rabid Goebbels Miller raves Dems equal not just communism but "the worst kind, which is DEI communism...LITERALLY a recipe for national death: "We're going to import massive numbers of illiterate refugees, and give all your wealth to them." One comment: "Some people will commit human rights violations rather than go to therapy." Hitler/Stalin fan Nick Fuentes has evidently picked up Charlie Kirk's tiki torch and attacked both J.D. for his Indian wife and son Vivek - "I'm not a racist or something but do we really believe a guy like that is gonna support white identity?" - and Vivek Ramaswamy: "It is time for you to go home..This anchor baby cannot become governor of Ohio." And after ending reunification programs for thousands of relatives of brown migrants awaiting green cards, union-busting racist ghoul Kristi Noem brags it's "amazing" 2.5 million people have left our country"; she has apparently never heard of a brain drain, state terror or MAGA being translated into, "Making America God Awful."
Finally, continuing his famous good will toward (white) men, the Peace President (sic) chose Christmas Day to approve military strikes against alleged Islamic State targets - "ISIS terrorist scum" - in Nigeria, charging innocent Christians are being killed. As usual, experts say the situation is far more complex, and news reports say the strikes hit either empty fields, or a peaceful village that has “no known history" of terrorist groups there. That didn't stop Pete Drunktank from braying, "The (Pentagon) is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight. Merry Christmas!" MAGA fans were gleeful at "the killing of these barbarians," calling it "an amazing Christmas present!" "I can't think of a better way to celebrate Christmas," wrote Laura Loomer. "You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists!" At home, their bellicose spirit spread to Indiana state senator Chris Garten, who posted AI pics of himself beating the shit out of Santa Claus - because bureaucrats? - and then ripped critics who didn't see the hilarity of it: "Some of you clowns are just insufferable." Pot/kettle redux.
Indiana GOP thug Chris Garten beats up Santa Claus because ...bureaucratsImage from Chris Garten X account
The worst atrocities remain those committed at home by ICE and other federal agents: "The nightmare is happening here." The abuses are boundless. Due process and the rule of law routinely shredded. Innocent workers, parents, citizens, elderly, children, community leaders profiled, terrorized, dragged from cars, torn from families, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, beaten, slammed to the ground, cuffed, detained, held incommunicado, shipped to foreign concentration camps, and killed for fleeing in fear from mobs of masked, anonymous, bestial stormtroopers who see only their brown skin and feel free to do whatever the fuck they want to them. Of the tens of thousands abused, held, deported to date, the vast majority have no criminal convictions or even charges. They are roofers, landscapers, restaurant workers, teachers, kids with cancer, mothers and babies, decades-long, tax-paying residents and green-card-holders and relatives of U.S. military, the wrong color caught in a gruesome historic moment.
Orchestrating these horrors is loathsome, soulless, cosplaying ICE Barbie, whose cruelties and transgressions moved not-a-fan Dem Rep. Bennie Thompson to practically beg her in a recent House hearing, "Do a real service to the country and just resign." "You have systematically dismantled the Department of Homeland Security," he said. "and you are making America less safe." Among other ills, he charged her with putting her own interests first, violating multiple laws, and handing friends "$220 million to follow you around the country with a camera" - in, he could have added, costumes that would make Bollywood blush. She's also spent over $50 million - out of an insane ICE budget of $76 billion, but no money for food stamps, sorry not sorry - on repulsive, often juvenile agit-prop videos aimed at bullying and terrifying immigrants into self-deporting, or unearthing enough worst-of-the-worst racist basement dwellers to take on the repugnant gig of rounding them up.
The ad campaign has been vile from the start - fake or "misleading videos of other places and people, "I love the smell of deportations in the morning" movie rip-offs, unauthorized Pokémon-inspired "Gotta catch 'em all" montages, a baffling, histrionic debacle featuring Bigfoot, Mel Gibson's Patriot, George Washington in a Chevy as "The Last Best Hope of Man on Earth," ad nauseum. Still, they pale before the depravities conjured up to rip off and suck dry the once-kindly spirit of Christmas.There were hard-sell pitches for "a fantastic gift this holiday season" - just leave already. "(DHS) announces the holiday deal of a lifetime for all illegal aliens! You will receive a free flight home for the holidays and a "$1,000 gift," later upped to $3,000, which has usually, reportedly failed to materialize. Color us shocked. There was The Deportation Express - Polar Express, get it? - its dreamy kid looking up from a snow-covered scene with, "This holiday season, believe you can go home again."
There was foul video from Broadview, with Lana Del Rey music and protesters being attacked, with, "Womp womp, cry all you want." Thugs lined up in fatigues and Christmas gear, their tanks in lights, with, "YOU'RE GOING HO HO HOME." The Grinch, smirking and dangling handcuffs, with, "How The Illegals Stole Health Care." An obscene Trump "driving" Santa's sleigh while "dancing." An ICE Air jet taking off with, "Merry Christmas, America!" A "Message to criminal illegal aliens" offers Sinatra singing Jingle Bells with sounds of jangling handcuffs, videos of chained immigrants shuffling onto planes, and, "Oh what fun it is to ride on a free flight out of our country" - this, from the official United States government social media account. Mehdi Hasan: "It’s like real life Idiocracy." We have, indeed, come a long and sorrowful way from, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
Still, hope glimmers. Many judges, even GOP-appointed, are holding the line on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, troops in our cities, gulags. Rebuking use of the Alien Enemies Act, stalwart U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Venezuelans shipped to El Salvador’s CECOT torture camp can challenge their detentions even if they've returned to their country, and he's ordered the regime to facilitate their return to the US or give them the due process they were denied. Other judges have at least temporarily blocked ICE from arresting migrants at San Francisco courthouses; blocked Homeland Security funds being cut from blue states that oppose ICE abuses: "To hold hostage funding based on defendants’ political whims (is) unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful"; and ruled masks on goons only sow terror: “ICE goes masked for a single reason - to terrorize Americans into quiescence...Our national troops do not ordinarily wear masks...It is a matter of honor - and honor still matters.”
Even some Dem lawmakers are finding their spines, with over a dozen - Crockett, Padilla, Garcia, Raskin, Warren, Murphy et al - steadfastly speaking out. Dems have moved to unmask the goons with Congressional legislation, restored the rights of a million federal workers, and, in a memorable House hearing on Homeland Security, showed just how to destroy MAGA lies. First, Benny Thompson confronted a top FBI lackey who labeled antifa "the most immediate violent threat we’re facing." Where are their headquarters, he asked. Claptrap response: "We’re building out the infrastructure." Bennie: “What does that mean?” “Well, that’s very fluid...It’s ongoing for us to understand that." Bennie, on fire: “Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee and say something you can’t prove, I know. But you did." Then came Rep. Seth Magaziner (R.I.) who ripped ICE Barbie a new one so effectively we were treated to the glorious spectacle of seeing her meekly, repeatedly grovel to her victims.
"Madame Secretary, how many US military veterans have you deported?” Magaziner began. Noem: "We have not deported any US citizens or military veterans." Bingo. Cue aide with laptop. Magaziner: "We are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sae Joon Park," an Army combat veteran, Purple Heart recipient shot twice in Panama in 1989," and a green-card holder deported to South Korea, which he left when he was 7. And so it went. Calmly, Magaziner introduced others in the room. A Navy veteran in the Gulf War whose Irish wife came here legally 48 years ago and has been in detention for months. A corporal whose landscaper father raised three Marine sons before he was tackled by ICE goons and detained. With each, he cuts her off mid-babble, asks if she'll thank these good folks for their service, waits as she mumbles her thanks. "These people are not the worst of the worst," he notes. The biggest of the many problems with her leadership: "You don't seem to know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys." Soon after, Noem left the hearing early for another meeting, which had been cancelled.
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Many more continue to step up. Thousands marching in frigid Minneapolis. Artists from South Park to Jesse Welles - Join ice! The L.A. jury, ensuring the DOJ lose again in court, who found a tow-truck driver not guilty of "theft of government property" after he towed an ICE agent's rig. The Louisiana convenience store manager who locked out Greg Bovino and his Nazi goons, fresh from terrorizing New Orleans, when they tried to get in. "Whaddya want man, you want some chicken?" he asked through the door. "You ain't gettin' it here." He waved "bye, bye" with a middle finger. In Montreal, a gang of 40 Santas, joined by 40 elves, marched into a Metro supermarket, loaded their bags with about $3,000 of groceries, and fled into the night. The Robins des Ruelles, Robins of the Alleys, left some food under a Christmas tree at Place Valois, and gave the rest to area food banks. On social media, they decried big companies "holding our basic needs hostage" as they make record profits. "For us, that's theft, and they are the real criminals," they wrote. "The hunger justifies the means."
Churches have spoken with their Nativity scenes, quoting Jesus: “Whatever you do to the least among us, you do to me." Outside Boston, a Catholic church has an empty manger, no Mary or Joseph. "ICE was here," reads a sign. "The Holy Family is safe in the Sanctuary. If you see ICE, please call LUCE." Their tradition is to "hold the mirror up to what’s happening," said Father Stephen Josoma, never mind officials' claims it's "sacrilegious." Illinois churches display Mary in a gas mask, report "Joseph didn't make it," explain, "Due to ICE activity, the Holy Family is in hiding,” offer baby Jesus wrapped in a reflective blanket, his small hands zip-tied. "More than any time in recent memory, we sit in the profound tension between the cultural cues and the condition of our hearts," writes John Pavlovitz of the season, and the need to make it "fiercely, steadfastly, unrepentantly anti-fascist." "The elemental heart of the story,“ of any righteous story, is to "defend those imperiled by the powerful." Today more than ever, "Resistance to the darkness (is) the entire point."
