The United States Kidnapped The President of Venezuela

 No other way to put what I woke to at 9 AM today. And I am not the only one calling it a kidnapping, albeit Corbin Trent does more than state the obvious in We Bombed a Country, Took Its President, and the Corporate Media Calls It ‘Capture' (Common Dreams):

Capture is what happens when you execute an arrest warrant. Capture is what happens when there’s an ICC indictment. Capture is what happens when the UN Security Council authorizes military action. Capture is what happens when Congress declares war.

None of those things happened here.

The word is kidnapping.

I’ve been writing about executive power. About how Congress abdicated its war-making authority decades ago. About how presidents from both parties have consolidated power while everyone looked the other way because the bombs were falling on someone else.

Last week I wrote about how the tools Trump is using to reshape the executive branch aren’t inherently authoritarian—they’re just tools. The problem is who’s wielding them and what they’re being used for. I stand by that.

But here’s the thing about tools: they can be used to build a house or burn one down. And what happened in Caracas this morning isn’t building anything. It’s the United States government deciding, unilaterally, that it has the authority to bomb a country, kill its citizens, and abduct its leader because we say he’s a drug dealer.

We say. Not the International Criminal Court. Not the UN. Not even Congress. Marco Rubio looked senators in the eye weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. He lied. They knew he was lying. And the media is busy debating whether this was “constitutional” under some tortured reading of Article II instead of stating the obvious:

This is an act of war conducted without declaration. This is a kidnapping dressed up as law enforcement. And if any other country on earth did this to us, we would call it what it is.

 Congress gets to decide when the people of this country die because the people elect them. The public interest is protected by the legislative branch.

The President is not elected by the people, but by the Electoral College.

Donald J. Trump acts only in his own self-interest.

The United States Supreme Court has shielded him from responsibility for his crimes.

I was all against impeaching Trump, but this is changing my mind. The more he opens his mouth, the more I think he had to go. 

Donald J. Trump shows again he is the antithesis of Dale Carnegie. Does America First mean that we're the first to pushed off of Trump's plank?

‘This Is State Terrorism’: Global Outrage as Trump Launches Illegal Assault on Venezuela Evo Morales writes on Common Dreams:

Latin American leaders portrayed the assault as a continuation of the long, bloody history of US intervention in the region, which has included vicious military coups and material support for genocidal right-wing forces.

***

The presidents of Chile and Mexico similarly condemned the assault as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law.

“Based on its foreign policy principles and pacifist vocation, Mexico urgently calls for respect for international law, as well as the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, and to cease any act of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” the Mexican government said in a statement. “Latin America and the Caribbean is a zone of peace, built on mutual respect, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and the prohibition of the use and threat of force, and therefore any military action puts regional stability at serious risk.”

One Latin American leader, far-right Argentine president and Trump ally Javier Milei, openly celebrated the alleged US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, declaring on social media, “FREEDOM ADVANCES.”

Leaders and lawmakers in Europe also reacted to the US bombings. Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, issued a cautious statement calling for “deescalation and responsibility.”

British MP Zarah Sultana was far more forceful, writing on social media that “Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves—and that’s no coincidence.”

“This is naked US imperialism: an illegal assault on Caracas aimed at overthrowing a sovereign government and plundering its resources,” Sultana added.

 And for bogus (Venezuela is not a source for fentanyl) and even more bogus reasons!

 Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here’s the history. (Washington Post) 

Vance was echoing points long expressed by Trump, who said late last year that the expropriation of U.S. oil company assets justified a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers arriving and leaving Venezuela in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The blockade would remain, he wrote on Truth Social, until the South American nation returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

“They’re not going to do that again,” Trump told reporters. “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.”

But U.S. companies never owned oil or land in Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves of crude, and officials didn’t kick them out of the country.

 ‘We Are Going to Run the Country,’ Trump Says of Venezuela After Maduro Abduction (Common Dreams) brings two thoughts to mind:

1.  He's going to ruin another country?
2. What are the Venezuelans going to say about this?

 “We are going to run the country,” Trump said during a press conference at his Florida resort, flanked by top US officials. Asked to elaborate, Trump said his administration is in the process of “designating various people” to run the government, adding that “we’re not afraid of boots on the ground.”

The president went on to say that US forces are prepared to launch “a much larger attack” on Venezuela if he deems it necessary, threatening other political figures in the country.

“What happened to Maduro can happen to them,” he said.

Trump also declared that American fossil fuel companies will “go in and spend billions of dollars” in Venezuela, which has the largest known oil reserves in the world.

U.S. captures Venezuelan President Maduro in 'large scale strike,' Trump says: Live updates (Yahoo News)

Venezuela’s government accused the U.S. of attacking civilian and military targets, called the operation an “imperialist attack” and demanded proof of life for Maduro and Flores.

The legality of the U.S. operation was immediately questioned by Democrats. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence justifying military action without approval from Congress and warned of the risk of instability in Venezuela.

"I have seen no evidence that [Maduro's] presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without Congressional authorization, nor have I heard a strategy for the day after and how we will prevent Venezuela from descending into chaos,” Himes said in a statement.

Congress has bent over too long to the Presidency on military matters, but this taking of Maduro is war. If Congress continues to spread its collective ass cheeks, we will have what the Founding Fathers never had: a Chief Executive with the power to make war at will.

After Venezuela Assault, Trump and Rubio Warn Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia Could Be Next  

In his unwieldy remarks, Trump called out Colombian President Gustavo Petro by name, accusing him without evidence of “making cocaine and sending it to the United States.”

“So he does have to watch his ass,” the US president said of Petro, who condemned the Trump administration’s Saturday attack on Venezuela as “aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America.”

Petro responded defiantly to the possibility of the US targeting him, writing on social media that he is “not worried at all.”

In a Fox News appearance earlier Saturday, Trump also took aim at the United States’ southern neighbor, declaring ominously that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” which also denounced the attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.

“She is very frightened of the cartels,” Trump said of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. “So we have to do something.”

Rubio, for his part, focused on Cuba—a country whose government he has long sought to topple.

“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned, at least a little bit,” Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents, said during Saturday’s press conference.

 I wrote a book on the politics of war powers, and Trump’s attack on Venezuela reflects Congress surrendering its decision-making powers (The Conversation)

So there may be an institutional role for Congress, a constitutional role, a role that has been confirmed by legal opinion, but politics takes over in Congress when it comes to asserting its power in this realm?

That’s a perfect way of putting it. They have a legal, constitutional, one might even say moral, responsibility to assert themselves as a branch, right? This is from Federalist 51 where James Madison says “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” So it should be that as a branch, they assert themselves against the president and say, “We have a role here.”

In the 1940s, presidential scholar Edward Corwin said that in the realm of foreign policy, it is an invitation for Congress and the president to struggle. So it should be that Congress and the president are struggling against each other to assert, “I’m in charge.” “No, I’m in charge.” “No, I’m in charge,” in an effort to create a balance between the two branches and between the two things that each of the branches does well. What you want from Congress is slow deliberation and a variety of opinions. What you want from the president is energy and dispatch.

So certainly, if we have an attack like 9/11, you would want the president to be able to act quickly. And you know, conversely, in situations like the questions around what the U.S. is doing in Venezuela, you want slow deliberation because there is no emergency that requires energy and dispatch and speed. So the president shouldn’t be entirely in the driver’s seat here, and Congress should very much be trying very hard to restrain him. 

And if Congress will not do their job: Trump should not just be impeached—he must be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court! 

At this point, Democrats in Congress need to do more than just move to impeach Trump. They should be calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Trump for his crimes. And while it’s true that the US is not a member of the ICC, the court still has jurisdiction over a citizen of a non-member country who commits war crimes on the territory of an ICC member country. Venezuela is a member nation of the ICC meaning Trump can be charged for war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes he commits on the soil of Venezuela.

sch 

 

 

 

  

Friday's News

 No morning liturgy today. I overslept. However, I did get to the grocery. Which was lucky, since K came over after the group session and I had no time for shopping. She is going to type some of my "Chasing Ashes" chapters. Then I piddled, snacked and napped. My back was hurting. A hot shower put paid to that. What else did I do tonight: some reading and a revision of a story. Check that below.

I got a rejection from Fiction on The Web:

Unfortunately your story "The Revenger’s Tale" will not be published at Fiction on the Web.

I have a couple more tabs open for submissions, and not all that tired, yet. 

My other big project for the evening was this post. It's done for the night.  

You got to watch out for Hoosier women: Indiana woman says tea laced with pills given to ex-fiancé was a chemistry experiment (CBS News)

Okay, it is the Advent Fast and I had to go on a liquid diet earlier this week, so I am of a mind for eating out: 9 Indiana All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Buffets That Keep Families Coming Back 

Heidelberg Haus has been around since I was a kid living in Indy. That's more than 50 years now. However, I was only in it with my ex-wife, who wanted to get in touch with her German roots. It seems to be going on just fine: Indiana Dining Gem Known for Its Hearty, Flavor-Filled German Comfort Food 

There were once three Koran restaurants and Heidelberg Haus in the Lawrence area; I always assumed it was because Fort Benjamin Harrison was also there. Get a foreign bride and then open a restaurant.

I do not hunt, but I am fascinated with stories like Why ‘Largest’ Means Something Different in Indiana—And Hunters Can’t Agree. We wiped out the deer population around 1949; when I was a kid, you might find them in southern Indiana. Then they spread from cornfield to cornfield. I started noticing them around Central Indiana in the late-Eighties, maybe the early Nineties. They can be a threat to drivers at night. About twenty years ago, I was fishing in White River, a few hundred feet from the Scatterfield Road bridge, when a buck ran across the river to my left. So, we got them and they are big.

I saw the remake of Breathless at the theater and not seen it since, but I found it more congenial than the original, so I like what Catch Your Breath Again: 1983's Breathless Remake Deserves a Second Look (CrimeReads) has to say.

I have seen all but one of the movies described in Five Screwball Thrillers that Kill (CrimeReads), but Out of Time did not seem screwball to me.

Elementary came out when I was in prison; what I saw I liked, and never had any problem with Lucy Liu as Watson (it was good to see in a role that did not reduce her to sex kitten), and reading Elementary is a Masterclass in Sherlock Holmes Adaptation (CrimeReads) makes me wish I had seen them all. I have been too long from Sherlock Holmes.

“The Famous Mr. Handel”: Baroque music’s glorious revolution by Charles King (Lapham's Quarterly) a well-told history of the man and his time in England.

For all of Trump making America great again, he never really makes clear to me what he means - other than have mediocre white men run things. I can quibble with a few points in For Better, For Worse: George Orwell and American Character by Jonathan Clarke (The Hedgehog Review), but it is worth reading and thinking about and wondering if this country falling apart might not be good for our character. 

My quibbles? They are what I got from watching all those old movies when I was a kid: Gary Cooper not being imposed upon nor imposing upon others; James Cagney's toughness that didn't hide his intelligence; Henry Fonda standing up for decency without ever descending into crudity; the can-do spirit without having to lord it over everyone. It is what I got from growing up in Indiana before they instituted class-basketball - anyone could have a chance at the big time, that brains and speed could outdo mere brawn. And I am not ignoring the casual and not-so-casual racism of Indiana, but growing up in a city of 60,000 taught me, too, the limits of that racism, we knew them and they knew us, we worked with and for one another. We may have been an exception to Faulkner's idea that the North liked African-Americans as a group but disliked them as individuals.

 From there, go read The Utility Of “Antifa” (Sheila Kennedy). I am antifa. So was my second step-father - I expect he shot more than a few in Europe during World War Two. My maternal grandfather thought the American Legion was fascistic, and he got gassed in WWI. My first step-father told me had no problem shooting Germans, even though he might still have cousins over there, but all the same the US Army sent him to the Pacific. I'm not sure where my mother's cousin was serving in WWII, but I don't see him as being anything but antifa; being Roman Catholic, I can't imagine him having love for today's version of the KKK. I'd say being antifa is a family tradition.

I spent some time reading EPOCH magazine before sending them a version of "Agnes" that I revised tonight. Give it a read. 

NASA announces incredible discovery that may have settled the 'life on Mars' debate just makes me miss David Bowie.

To Reach the Literary Editor by Mark Jay Mirsky (Fiction Magazine) was a wonderful piece to read, even if I am not sure what the magazine wants. That is, probably anything I have written. It is an encouragement to keep trying.

I read Robert B. Parker when I was a teenager until I ran out of steam with him in the early Eighties. I was not a fan of Spenser for Hire. Although, it is far better than any other version I have seen of the character. While in prison, I went back to reading him and found him a delight - he writes great dialog. Elmore Leonard embarrasses me because I did not read him until prison. Another great writer of dialog. Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker's Crime TV Legacies goes into more detail on this, go read it.

Speaking of Leonard, here is a video reviewing one of his books:

 

A history of Indianapolis that is actually pretty good:

 

I remain fascinated by Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in a way that I am not with James Joyce's Ulysses. Could it be that the latter is expected, and the former is not? Perhaps. Anyway, I suggest give it a try. The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain (The Guardian) might give you an idea why you should do so.

Morten Høi Jensen’s approachable and informative study of The Magic Mountain positions Mann as a writer who was contradictory to his core: an artist who dressed and behaved like a businessman; a homosexual in a conventional marriage with six children; an upstanding burgher obsessed with death and corruption. Very much the kind of man who would send someone a book and tell them not to read it.

Despite the doubts Mann expressed to Gide, The Magic Mountain – a very strange, very long novel – was embraced throughout Europe, and three years later in America, too. Its publisher there ignored the strangeness and proclaimed its “use value … for the practical life of modern man”. While that makes it sound like Jordan Peterson-style cod philosophy, in fact it stands alongside In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, The Man Without Qualities and To the Lighthouse as one of the summits (apologies) of literary modernism.

 Another show my mother ought not have let me watch:

 I am closing out, looking to add links to this post, when the YouTube algorithm turned up 10 Most Dangerous Places in Indiana.

 It is a little funny, a few shockers.

 

 sch

Group Session Notes

 12/5/2025

Short, easy steps to dealing with deviant fantasies. Deviant = illegal.

Just pause and admit craving.

Keep from being enticed - on the verge of wrong place.

If you start imagining, then you've gone too far. 

Reinforce leaving high risk zone.

Use opposite imagery

all this to stop masturbation.

Consider negative consequences.

Starting Out on 2026

 The worst thing about a colonoscopy is the prep. Disgusting stuff to drink, and reactions that good taste says not to mention.

The procedure took up most of December 31. It certainly left me without much energy for anything else. I did go to Amazing Joes for a cheeseburger and to Big Red Liquors for cigarettes.

I watched some movies on Tubi. Finished with the Michael York Three Musketeers and The Clouds of Sils Maria. 

I stayed up too late, got up at 6, went back to sleep and woke up again at 10:30. 

I walked down to the convenience store for Coke. Now, I need to fix something that went wrong with the research project and maybe do something that justifies my existence.

11:31 am

 I spent the rest of the day submitting stories, doing some revisions on a few stories, and doing a little reading.

Justifying Bigotry (Sheila Kennedy) 

In the societies they want to emulate, dissent from the preferred ideology of the regime isn’t tolerated. But of course, they seem convinced that the autocracy they favor would be founded on their preferred beliefs…

These “intellectuals” are trying to provide philosophical coherence and theoretical grounding for what is actually an emotional and irrational MAGA movement founded on revulsion for modernism and the social changes that they believe are eroding the dominance of White Christian males–hence their efforts to provide “principled” defenses of racism and misogyny, and the necessity of White Christian control.

The Old West End as a Model for Housing Redevelopment  (Muncie Journal)

In less than a decade since its founding, the Muncie Land Bank has become a statewide—and increasingly national—model for tackling vacancy and abandonment. Its work includes acquiring vacant and abandoned properties, stabilizing them, and returning them to productive use. With support from Ball Brothers Foundation, the Land Bank acquired the first 12 properties in the development site, an investment that proved pivotal in later being awarded 22 additional tax-delinquent properties from the Delaware County Commissioners in the target area.

The Muncie Land Bank’s approach starts by listening to and understanding resident priorities before taking on properties that have often sat vacant for years. Their work is rarely glamorous. It requires patience, detailed property research, careful acquisition, and the long process of stabilizing lots one by one. But this is exactly the kind of foundational work that allows large-scale, thoughtful redevelopment—like the Old West End effort—to take shape. That momentum has been strengthened by the collaborative efforts of the Old West Development Alliance, a coalition of nonprofits and neighborhood leaders working to keep redevelopment coordinated, transparent, and aligned with community priorities.

The Land Bank’s progress has been made possible by residents who speak honestly about what they envision for their neighborhood and by city and county partners who champion this work. Over many years, this process has paved the way for the major investments we’re seeing today.

Indiana Man Reveals How Easy it is to Get MAGA Angry Over a Flag, ‘They never know why they voted for Trump’ (NerdStash) - goes to show what goes down in Evansville.

The Tranquil Gaze of Benito Pérez Galdós by Mario Vargas Llosa (Liberties Magazine) - kind of behind a paywall, but you can read this under their free system. A great writer giving his views on an earlier writer. It was Llosa, so I read it. I now know more about Spanish literature, and a short tutorial on narration, that I did not have before.

The syllabus for John Pistelli's THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE. This I may need to spend money on.

When Story Loses the Plot: Hannah H. Kim ponders the plotless narrative as a tool for meaning-making. (LARB) Unsettles me in a way - that narratives may be coming to an end. It also makes me want to see if I have the skills to do something more.

Much of our storytelling today is individualized and limited in form—therapeutic, gamified, or organized around role-giving character archetypes. At other times, a prevailing mood of irony ridicules the very desire for narrative coherence. These tendencies can be read both as symptoms of distraction or commercialization and as an evolution of the form itself—an aesthetic and epistemic experiment in finding what still works when older narrative forms feel exhausted.

Such shifts are neither unprecedented nor necessarily impoverished; every era reshapes its dominant forms to match its conditions. But in tracing how plot has ceded ground to mood, character, identity, and game-like structures, we begin to see the contours of our present moment. We are wary of resolution and quick to protect against vulnerability while still needing a way to make sense of our experience. If the early 21st century considered storytelling the answer to every problem, the current moment asks what comes after. Whether our new forms can offer the same depth of connection and understanding—or whether they signal a long-term narrowing of the role narrative plays in our collective lives—is a cultural narrative that’s still unfolding. 

 Joyce Carol Oates in Conversation with Mark Jay Mirsky (Full Interview):

A rather lengthy evaluation of Susan Sontag, who I did get to read in prison, and who I found a kick in the head: Susan Sontag: A Critic at the Crossroads of Culture. Give it a read,

 Issue 1: Louder than Noise (Nov 2025) is something I have been nibbling on for a few days. Stuff here that I liked - check it out.

And a rejection:

Hello,


I'm so sorry to let you know that our editors have decided to pass on publishing "Coming Home" in our next issue. We enjoyed the unique approach of this piece, but don't feel like it quite fits with our vision for the upcoming issue.


I'm sorry to not be writing with better news, but we thank you so much for giving us the chance to consider your work. We wish you all the best in the future!


Best,

Sarah E.

EIC, For Page & Screen Magazine 

 sch 8:15 PM

 

Reverse Outlining - Writers Check This Out

 I recognized the idea when I started reading Reverse Outlining: Improve Your Draft’s Structure and Clarity (Grammarly.com), but never thought of it as a formal thing to do.

Even when a draft feels solid, reverse outlining is a powerful way to improve it. It helps you step back, evaluate the draft’s structure, and make sure every paragraph fits together to move your ideas forward. In contrast to outlining before writing, reverse outlining happens after the draft is complete. You read through your work, summarize each paragraph, and use those summaries to evaluate whether your ideas flow logically.

Reverse outlining fits naturally into the writing process as part of the revision stage. It is especially useful after completing your rough draft but before deeper rewriting. Through reverse outlining, you can take an objective look at your structure and revise it with intention.

I was doing something like this with Novel Writer until I moved to the new computer (and need to really read the manual again). There have been several rejections lately which mention problems of pacing in my short stories. I relate pacing to plot, which is mostly in my head, and the solution seemed to be getting the story where I could see its whole. I also have this problem where I get dug in so hard on the writing - the trees - that I do not see the forest. The more I read, the more it seemed to moving along the same direction I meant to go with Novel Writer (without re-reading the manual)

A reverse outline is an outline you create from a completed draft. Instead of mapping ideas before writing, you work backward: Read each paragraph, identify its main idea, and list those ideas as outline bullets. This makes it easy to evaluate your writing’s structure, logic, transitions, and how effectively each section supports your thesis. 

***

The key benefits of reverse outlining include:

• Clarifying structure by showing whether paragraphs appear in a logical order
• Improving flow by revealing where transitions are weak or missing
• Refining focus by showing whether each paragraph supports your thesis
• Strengthening your argument by showing where evidence or explanations can be expanded
• Simplifying the revision process by breaking large drafts into manageable parts

But this still seems a lot of work, and about the same time I came across the following:

Reverse outlining is especially valuable for essays, long reports, research writing, and personal narratives, where clarity and cohesion matter. It’s far from the only type of outline available to you, and it works best when combined with at least one other outlining strategy.

 Looks like I need to find the time to re-read Novel Writer's manual, and this might be a solution to the problems with my short stories (my dour content feeds a host of other problems).

sch 12/25 

 

 

 

Music - 2025 Part 2

 Another YouTube list

 

sch  

Decolonizing

 I have been thinking of colonization for quite some time. It could run back to the early Eighties when I looked at the effects of General Motors on Anderson, Indiana. My hometown was a colony of GM, its fate depended on what happened in GM's boardrooms. If I can ever get done with "Chasing Ashes", colonization will be one of its themes. 

With my interest in colonization, decolonization has attracted my attention. Reading John Aziz's The Infinite Reopening of History  (Quillette) gives me much to think about. My judgment is that neo-decolonialism is both impossible and immoral. 

It’s important to make a clear distinction between actual decolonisation and what I am calling neo-decolonialism. Real decolonisation was a concrete, historically specific process in which empires withdrew from territories they had been administering, as exemplified by the end of the Raj. These withdrawals changed legal and political realities on the ground: e.g. British colonial governance in India ended, and two new sovereign states, India and Pakistan, emerged.

This is not to say that the end of empire erased the effects of colonialism. Political borders, legal systems, and economic structures often outlived the formal withdrawal, and many societies still live with deep, measurable legacies of colonialism. It is one thing to argue for civil rights, equal representation, or institutional reform within an existing civic order.

But neo-decolonialism is not about dismantling real empires—even though some empires still exist today, such as the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Instead, it retroactively reclassifies political arrangements as “colonial” based on contemporary group dynamics, racial or ethnic categories (e.g. “whiteness”), and the question of which side has the most power.

In the neo-decolonial model, you don’t need an actual empire. Some vestigial remnants of a historical empire will do—hence you can take issue with the European colonisation of the Americas, or even the waves of continental migration to the British isles, or Scottish migration to the island of Ireland. Then you draw lines: one side is framed as indigenous; the other becomes “settler-colonial.”

Yep, no way that we cannot call America a settler-colonial state. 

In most of the rest of the world, too, history is messy. There are migrations, conquests, intermarriages, conversions, displacements, and returns. Empires rise and fall; borders are drawn and redrawn; peoples are renamed, identities are invented and reinvented.

Of course, we don’t live in a perfectly equal world and some groups of people have legitimate grievances. Some historical injustices have long knock-on effects. Examples include the ongoing legacy of Jim Crow in the United States, the structural problems created by caste in India, and the fact that many postcolonial states inherited borders and institutions that were never designed for stable self-government.

But there’s a difference between acknowledging and addressing real injustices in a legal and democratic way—for example in the framework based on equality and dignity established by Dr Martin Luther King Jr— and adopting an ideology that seeks to deconstruct whole societies—or even the entire world—in the name of decoloniality through “resistance,” which in this context is a euphemism for violence.

And unless you are a full-blown MAGA idiot, you recognize not just the injustices mentioned above but also others. If not, go read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Read the Korematsu case. 

Where there are injustices, the question has to be how to provide justice? Here, I find the answer decolonization provides (as put forth in the essay) is wrong:

In a neo-decolonial framework, the questions become: who is authentic, who is indigenous, who is tainted, who is settler-colonial? Once you take that approach, rights and democracy become secondary. Because the real issue becomes the question of who has the right to exist in a place at all. This, ultimately, is the logic of 7 October and the logic of Frantz Fanon. Once civilians can be reclassified as “settlers,” atrocities can be narrated as “decolonisation.” In the worldview inspired by Fanon, violence is cleansing and regenerative. It “restores” the colonised subject. It can remake a people, rebuild a nation. It is supposed to turn humiliation into dignity through acts of terror. In such a vision, violence against innocents is both permitted and sanctified.

Denying history is the route taken by cowards and others possessing bad consciences. 

We need to recognize the injustices of our history. Then we need to ask if we have remedied those injustices. If we have not, then we must decide how we will remedy the wrongs done by our past. 

Performing the same acts of injustice done by those who were unjust is nothing more than another form of injustice - hate breeding hate does not provide life, only more death.

sch 12/21