Yesterday brought another ICE shooting, this time in New York City.
asserted
Yesterday → bring → City
Yesterday afternoon, officers opened fire on a man they were trying to arrest, 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, an illegal immigrant from Senegal.
asserted
they → open → Senegal
An officer fired seven rounds into Belgal’s car, striking him in the neck, as his horrified five-year-old looked on from the back seat.
asserted
old → fire → seat
Why was he shot?
asserted
he → shoot → ?
We don’t know: Homeland Security hasn’t claimed he was resisting arrest, attacking an officer, or anything else that might have provoked such a response.
uncertain
that → know → response
Given how often the department has falsely claimed that its victims were behaving violently, the absence of such a claim in this case is notable.
uncertain
absence → give → case
ICE officers aided Belgal at the scene, and he was treated at a local hospital before being taken back into ICE custody.
asserted
he → aid → custody
Belgal is a criminal, with a grand larceny conviction and other cases pending against him.
asserted
Belgal → pende → him
That ICE should arrest and deport such people is a good thing.
asserted
arrest → arrest → people
That they should do it so hamfistedly that they empty a magazine into a car with a young child inside is not.
asserted
they → empty → child
Last Friday, I wrote that a recent speech by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was “all political bluster.
asserted
speech → write → Hegseth
But it’s a particular kind of political bluster.
asserted
it → ’ → bluster
It’s neo-fascist bluster.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
I cited Hegseth’s celebration of irrationalism and machismo, identified by Umberto Eco as two key elements of what he calls “Ur-Fascism.
asserted
he → cite → what
Fascism wants to reduce active citizens to passive observers, indeed into voyeurs—especially voyeurs of cruelty and death.
asserted
Fascism → want → cruelty
This has been understood for a long time.
asserted
This → understand → time
The Roman Empire, to which modern fascism appealed as a model, featured bread and circuses.
asserted
fascism → appeal → bread
Among those circuses were spectacles of death, including the killing of criminals—and of others—by wild animals.
asserted
spectacles → include → animals
These spectacles were called damnatio ad bestias—condemnation to beasts—and were part of the inaugural games of the Roman Colosseum in 80 A.D.
Yesterday, the secretary of defense of the United States told far-right provocateur Jack Posobiec that he wanted the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood mass murderer, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, to be a public spectacle.
asserted
execution → call → murderer
Hegseth said, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public.”
asserted
it → say → it
This wasn’t just Hegseth popping off.
asserted
Hegseth → pop → ?
The Defense Department followed up a few hours later with an official statement that Hasan’s execution, scheduled for December 3, will be live-streamed for the public to watch.
asserted
public → follow → December
Hegseth’s claimed rationale for the livestream is ludicrous: “People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
asserted
People → claim → things
Would the American people fail to understand that the death penalty has been carried out if the execution of the criminal weren’t live-streamed?
asserted
execution → fail → criminal
The reason this is happening is that the Trump administration wants to join regimes like Iran and Afghanistan in making public executions spectacles.
asserted
administration → happen → spectacles
It’s eager to follow the example of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS in livestreaming them.
asserted
It → ’ → them
Tuaut de La Bouverie, an official during the Terror in Revolutionary France, explained the need for public executions in the National Assembly in 1791: “It takes a terrifying spectacle to hold the people in check.
asserted
It → explain → check
But this isn’t merely about holding the people in check.
asserted
this → hold → check
It’s about degrading the people.
asserted
It → ’ → people
It’s about desensitizing the public.
asserted
It → ’ → public
It’s about normalizing cruelty.
asserted
It → ’ → cruelty
It’s about turning citizens into voyeurs—in this case, into voyeurs of a snuff film.
asserted
It → ’ → film
Senior officials should protest, and if necessary resign, rather than being complicit in the voyeuristic degradation of our democracy.
asserted
officials → protest → democracy
The Nationalist Right Is Done with Israel
by Joshua Tait
asserted
Right → do → Tait
This year’s National Conservatism Conference, hosted this week in Jerusalem, should have been a homecoming for its head honcho, the Israeli-American nationalist thinker Yoram Hazony.
asserted
Conference → host → honcho
Representatives of the various strands of the MAGA new right have taken the opportunity to break up with Israel—and, for good measure, to tell Jews to stop calling them antisemites.
asserted
Representatives → take → them
“America First,” it seems, doesn’t leave any room for Israel.
asserted
it → seem → Israel
On the third anniversary of the October 7th attacks, a panel chaired by Hazony himself and nominally on the “American Right: The Next Generation” went totally off the rails.
asserted
panel → chair → rails
Matthew Peterson, editor in chief of the Blaze and formerly of the Claremont Institute, began by insisting that America and Israel had no special relationship.
asserted
America → begin → relationship
It only got worse for Hazony from there.
asserted
It → get → Hazony
…and 64 more, not listed.
The Aporia
