Our Orwellian Present

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - George Orwell, 1984

For the past week, I have been wanting to write about things that have nothing to do with the politics of the day. I wanted to write a post on Babymetal's new version of Headbanger... how it updates the song, how it incorporates Momo-Metal. How the video pays homage to the original video (from 13 years ago)... while also potentially paying tribute to a deceased member of the Kami Band (Mikio Fujioka). And, other fun tidbit surrounding the numbers 1 and 5 (of which I will not go crazy on now, for perhaps after I write this post... I'll be able to get my mind straight).

I also wanted to talk about Ado's absolutely unhinged version of her first single Usseewa on the series The First Take - five years after hitting #1 in Japan with the song. And, what her rise in popularity in the West may mean for future Japanese artists. (And, again, perhaps I will get to it later this week).

Alas, this week has been an absolute monstrous week for the United States and its politics. Or, perhaps, just the true Trump Derangement syndrome finally being unleashed. From abducting Venezuelan "President" Nicolas Maduro (who, as I must note, is not a good human and decided to just keep his Presidency despite losing the last election) to ramping up threats against Cuba, Colombia, and NATO member Denmark via Trump's desire to possess Greenland - it was another week where the potential for a World War edged ever closer to reality.

And yet, that wasn't the worst thing that happened this week. No, that would be the homicide of Nicole Renee Good by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross. I am not going to put the video (any of them) in this post... for you can easily find them if you look for them. 

However, while there are many videos of the incident, the most unnerving is the one taken by Jonathan Ross. A video that lasts for less than a minute and has him surveilling the car that Nicole Good is driving. Where Nicole Good states to Jonathan Ross: "That's Fine Dude, I'm not mad at you." Less than 30 seconds later, Nicole is shot by Jonathan... and Jonathan then says "Fucking Bitch." After the car crashes, he walks down to the crash site to see that Nicole is dead, and then walks back to a car that spirits him away from the crime scene.

Now, let me be very clear in my opinions here. Whether or not ICE has reason to be in Minneapolis, it had no right to surveil this car. It had no right to demand Nicole (who was not actually doing anything in terms of protest except for being a car in the street (at an awkward angle) to exit the car let alone attempting to open the car door to grab her. Furthermore, Jonathan Ross had no reason to put himself in front of the car while another agent was attempting to grab Nicole out of the car. It only put him in a position to get hit. And, of course, he had no reason to shoot his service weapon directly at Nicole Good's face and shoot her three times. 

Yet, the government (and/or Ross) decided to release this video as if it would exonerate him. As if it showed him as the hero he wants to be. It was tweeted out three separate times by Vice President J.D. Vance. 

Yet, this video only solidifies the fact that Nicole Good was not a danger and was not interfering with any actual enforcement action that may have been going on. It showed Nicole Good in a favorable light. It showed her turning the wheel hard to the right in order to avoid the officer standing right in front of her. There was no intent to injure. There was intent to get the hell out.

Rebellion begins with remembering you can say no. - George Orwell, 1984

So, let me just leave you some videos to ponder. First, Historian (Currently at Boston College, previously at MIT and UMASS-Amherst) on her politics talks from Thursday.

And three videos from the Bulwark. Tim Miller was a former communications director for the 2016 Presidential campaign of Jeb Bush (in addition to working on the 2012 Jon Huntsman campaign as National Press Secretary and as a staffer on the 2008 Jon McCain Presidential Campaign.) Sarah Longwell worked for Republican lobbyist Richard Berman and was the first female national board chair of the Log Cabin Republicans. Jonathan V. Last was a senior writer and digital editor at the Weekly Standard.

Another video with Heather Cox Richardson along with fellow Historian Joanne B. Freeman (Yale University).

And one from Pod Save America (Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor who both worked in the Obama administration).

In last night's Letter from an American, Heather Cox Richardson writes more about this video. Here is one small section:

The release of this damning video as an attempted exoneration reminds me overwhelmingly of the release of the video of the murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 2021 in an attempt of one of the murderers to prove they had acted in self-defense.

In that case, the district attorney for that circuit told police that the video showed self-defense and declined to prosecute. When the story wouldn’t go away, one of the murderers apparently thought that everyone else would agree that the video exonerated the killers. His lawyer gave the video to a local radio station. The station took the video down within two hours, but the public outcry over the horrific video meant the killers were arrested two days later. A jury convicted them, and they are now in prison, two for life without possibility of parole, one for life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, when he will be about 82.

In the case of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the murderers and their protectors were clearly so isolated in their own racist bubble they could not see how regular Americans would react to the video of them hunting down and shooting a jogger.

In the case of the murder of Renee Good, the shooter and his protectors are clearly so isolated in their own authoritarian bubble they cannot see how regular Americans would react to the video of a woman smiling at a masked agent and saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” only to have him shoot her in the face and then spit out “F*cking b*tch” after he killed her.

The thread that runs through both is the assumption that an American exercising their constitutional rights must submit, without question, to a white man holding a gun.

This is the larger meaning of federal agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol in U.S. cities. While they are attacking primarily people of color, the message they carry is directed at all Americans: you must do what the Trump administration and its loyalists demand.

This is a clarion call. This is the time to be aware of what is going on around you in the world and in the United States. 

Humanity survives where compassion refuses to be censored. - George Orwell, 1984.