System Fail #6: Eagle Stew

USA! USA! USA!

Here in defiance of tyranny,

you've come to fight as free men.

And free men you are.

What will you do with that freedom?

I have no idea.

I took my teeth out.

I'm not one to usually take pictures of myself,
but in this case I think I'll make an exception.

Oh hello.

Welcome to System Fail, the show
where 'questionable life choice'

begins with the letter Q.

2020's been an outstanding year
for the Q movement,

we've never had more support
as we have, y'know, this year

with the COVID and you know,

being forced to do things
that are unconstitutional

like wearing masks.

The pro-Trump conspiracy cult QAnon
believed there would be a coup on inauguration day.

According to QAnons
the inauguration was an elaborate trap

set by president Trump to
round up and execute Democrats.

If he doesn't declare martial law, then I
will feel like my vote no longer counts.

He's boarding Marine 1!
WOOO!

He's on his way!
He's on his way!

Obviously that did not happen.

And I literally was just walking around
like... what now?

Bye bye Q.
I can't talk to you anymore.

Jesus, Lord help me.

I am your host Dee Dos,

and as my lazy human producers
were wrapping up

their annual
Winter Solstice break,

I find holiday traditions
to be deeply despotic.

strange reports began coming in
from Washington DC.

- Breaking news at this hour.
- It is hard to put into words.

- The terrifying scenes...
- ...unimaginable scenes and violence

- ... thousands storming the Capitol
- ... overrun police

- they're inside

In the weeks since the short-lived
Capitol Hill Authoritarian Zone,

the Internet has produced a wide range of
analysis, commentary, and hot takes.

So I woke up and the U.S. is literally being
coup'd. This is a coup right now!

Did the Simpsons predict
the storming of the Capitol?

Smash that like button
and let's get into it!

So before I add
my humble assessment,

perhaps we should rewind and
take another look at what happened.

On January 6th, members of the
United States Congress convened

to formally certify the votes

submitted by the country’s arcane,
18th-Century, electoral college system.

This dry and antiquated ritual
usually passes without much scrutiny.

But with the outgoing president,
Donald Trump,

stubbornly refusing
to concede the election,

the event was pitched as a final opportunity
for his most hardcore supporters

to intervene and, “stop the steal.”

The President is now telling his supporters
that he also wants them in the streets,

in Washington on January 6th,

saying on Twitter:
"Be there, will be wild!"

Thousands of supporters from all
across the country heeded Trump’s call

and descended on DC
to make their final stand.

And after some soon-to-be
incriminating speeches,

We're gonna walk down to the Capitol...

Let's have trial by combat!

the mob began to march from
the White House to the Capitol building.

We can take that place!

And then do what?

Heads on pikes!!!

Shortly after they arrived,
the MAGA vanguard began to clash

with a surprisingly small
contingent of DC Capitol Police.

Reinforcements were soon called in,
but the surging crowd

overwhelmed them
with a pincer attack,

breaching the Capitol Building’s
outer security perimeter in two locations,

and then smashing their way
into the building itself.

WOOO!

Let's go, let's go! !

Aaaargh

Within this motley crew of QAnon cultists,
white nationalists, neo-nazis,

and other ride-or-die Trump supporters,

there was a significant number of
militia members dressed in tactical gear,

as well as dozens of both active duty
and former police officers

and members of the US military.

Their presence,
and the discovery of explosive devices

at the Republican
and Democratic headquarters,

lent a semblance of
tactical proficiency and premeditation

to what was otherwise
a surreal gong show

that looked something like
a bizzaro anti-globalization demo

crossed with a riotous frat party.

- GO!
- Whose house?!

-USAAAAAA!
- Yeah!

Woo!

We respect the law!

We were normal,
good, law abiding citizens.

You guys did this to us!

As the crowd made their way
towards the Senate chambers

and the House of Representatives,

the secret service and DC Capitol Police
sprung into action.

Vice President Mike Pence
and the Senate and House leadership

were spirited off to safety.

Less important politicians
hid under their seats,

waiting for their own
armed escorts to arrive,

while shrieking congressional staffers
barricaded themselves in empty offices.

Ahhhhhh!

[whimpering]

It’s a safe bet
that many pairs of khakis,

and a good number of Brooks Brothers
and Georgio Armani powersuits

were soiled that day.

And as you can see,
we have a bit of poop.

As they were being evacuated,
a number of sweaty, geriatric legislators

hastily donned the so-called
‘escape hoods’ located under their seats.

Turns out they’re only
opposed to PPE when it comes to

providing it to front-line workers
and prisoners.

Some of the most surreal scenes took place
after the war criminals had been evacuated,

Heeeeyyy!

and small groups of Trump supporters
were left to wander around the Senate,

rifle through papers,

There's gotta be somethings in here we can
fucking use against these scumbags.

and even hold
an impromptu prayer circle.

Thank you divine omniscient,
omnipotent and omnipresent creator God,

for filling this chamber
with your white light of love.

Amen!

Thank you for allowing us to get rid of
the Communists, the Globalists

and the traitors within our government.

We love you and we thank you.
In Christ's holy name we pray!

AMEN!

When the smoke, tear gas,
and homemade bear mace had finally cleared,

five people were dead.

This included Brian Sicknick,
a DC Capitol Police officer,

and ardent Trump supporter

who was bludgeoned
to death by a fire extinguisher.

Oh shit!

Benjamin Phillips, who died
of an unspecified ‘medical emergency’

was the inventor
and founder of Trumparoo.

Trumparoo was a kangaroo
dressed as Trump.

Phillips sold
the stuffed animals at rallies.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

US Air Force veteran and zealous
QAnon adherent, Ashli Babbitt,

was shot in the throat while attempting
to storm the House of Representatives.

- There's a gun!
- Yeah he's got a gun!

Oh shit!

It coulda been me, but she went in first.

Rosanne Boyland was trampled
to death on the steps of the capitol,

after being photographed earlier in the day
waving a flag that read ‘don’t tread on me’.

[singing] Isn't it ironic?

And rumor has it, Kevin Greeson died
after fatally tasering himself in the balls.

Trump'll come to get er done, man!
Trump'll come for dat wall.

The guv'nment come for yer guns, man.
The guv'nment come for your balls!

MAGA hat

ball zap

cardiac

heart attack.

MAGA hat, ball zap, cardiac, heart attack.

Truly, patriots all.

The media and members
of the political establishment

were quick to condemn the violence.

This is the most shocking...

Crazy...
Shameful...

Ridiculous...
Hard to fathom...

Sad day for America...

A grave breach of
its democratic traditions...

Yeah I was mad as hell.

Unsurprisingly,
many of the initial headlines

and shocked tweets

denounced the chaos
in the capitol as anarchy.

These are not protests.
This is anarchy.

Infantile anarchy.

- Anarchy.
- What happened is nothing short of anarchy.

One Democratic politician even went so far
as to describe the attackers as:

“Trump’s anarchists.”

[Sighing] You don't know
what you're talking about do you?

It wasn’t long before liberals
began evoking 9/11,

and referring to the people who stormed
the capitol as domestic terrorists.

Don't dare call them protesters.
They were a riotous mob.

- Goons and thugs.
- Scum of the earth.

- Domestic terrorists.
- Domestic terrorists.

Domestic terrorists.
It's that simple.

Democratic strategists seized on
the events to further their efforts

to whitewash and recuperate
the Black-led uprisings

of the previous spring
and summer.

Comparisons were repeatedly drawn between
the illegitimate violence at the capitol

and the so-called ‘peaceful protests’

that took place after
the police murder of George Floyd.

[singing] Supposing we said it didn't happen.
Didn't happen at all.

The 14,000 strong
National Association of Manufacturers

led a chorus of lobbyists
and business leaders

in condemning the violence.

We have seen regimes
in Europe that were unstable

and those who spoke out
were hounded or killed.

That's a real risk to the market.

Visa’s CEO, Alfred F Kelly Jr,
released a statement

assuring the shocked
and traumatized nation

that the credit card company stood
“100% behind the results of the election.”

Visa chec-
Oops.

Billionaire Republican
megadonor, Sheldon Adelson,

was so upset that he dropped dead.

Twitter and Facebook banned
Donald Trump’s social media accounts

and implemented a further purge
of influential QAnon profiles,

Twitter announcing it has purged
more than 70 000 accounts

for sharing harmful QAnon associated content.

while Amazon,
Apple and Google banded together

to bring down right-wing
social media network, Parler.

- [French] Parler.
- What?

-Par-ler.
-Is there an American nearby?

Meanwhile, joining the progressive
tech billionaires of Silicon Valley

and the CEO of Visa,

a soberingly-large number
of self-described radicals

used the umbrella of anti-fascism
to justify cooperating with the FBI

- That's snitching. You know what I mean?
-Yeah

while bemoaning the fascist attack
on the sanctity of American democracy.

Fence sitting as far as I'm concerned
is aiding and abetting terrorism.

It's pretty cringe.
It's pretty cringe.

This drives home the increased dangers
that anarchists and abolitionists

can expect to face
under a Biden-Harris administration.

Those currently cheering on Joe Biden
as some sort of anti-fascist hero

seem quite happy to ignore
the fact that he was the primary author

of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Just to set the record straight,
almost the same thing that got passed,

the Patriot Act,
was introduced by me in 1994.

And it was the right wing that defeated it.
You guys tried to help get it passed.

Encouraged by the universal outrage
towards the debacle in DC,

he has already announced plans
to pass a new anti-terrorism bill,

and promised to clamp down on so-called
domestic violent extremism - or DVE.

Coordinating relevant parts of the
federal government efforts to address DVE

will focus on evolving threats,
radicalization, the role of social media,

opportunities to improve
information sharing,

operational responses and more.

We can safely assume that they're not just
talking about QAnon and the Proud Boys.

Peaceful protesters should be protected

and arsonists and anarchists
should be prosecuted.

Local law enforcement can do that.
And it can be done today.

As for the far-right,
at this stage it is too soon to see

what the long-term effects will be.

Once Trump realized the trouble
he’d gotten himself into,

he immediately and predictably
threw his supporters under the bus.

To those who engaged in
the acts of violence and destruction,

you do not represent our country.

And to those who
broke the law... you will pay.

What an idiot.
I thought that guy was cool.

This was followed by
a collective suspension of reality,

in which parts of
Trump’s fractured base

began claiming that the attack
was a psy-op carried out by antifascists.

I feel it was uh, people like
Antifa, Black Lives Matter,

who infiltrated the crowd.

Of course none of that is true.

What we saw in the Capitol Building
is your A-team.

On the pie chart that I've shown
you before, that's your tiny sliver,

that's your special forces of antiffa.

They know exactly what they're doing.
They're well trained.

They've got the statements ready to say,
y'know, "she's dead", that sort of thing.

Many of those arrested following their
brazen, mask-free actions at the capitol

will be happy to give evidence
against their co-accused,

in order to lessen their own sentences.

Informant!

This is already leading
to more high profile arrests,

and could lead to the
cannibalization and breaking up

of a number of far-right, fascist and
white nationalist organizations altogether.

Despite this, it seems clear
that the attack on the Capitol building

will push many disillusioned
QAnon followers and Trump supporters

even further down
the path of radicalization.

And what comes from that
is certain to be very ugly indeed.

We're talking about a groundswell
that is decades, if not generations old.

I think it would be a mistake to overly
think that this is about president Trump.

At the end of the day I don't think that
the president has the power

to command this groundswell.
Or to call it off.

Have a good life.
We will see you soon.

To learn more about what went down, I
recently caught up with anarchist organizer,

radical emcee, and member of the Maroon Movement
and the Food Clothing and Resistance collective,

Sima Lee.

Hey Sima, how’s it going?

Just trying to keep mellow
in the time of cholera. Heh.

I hear that cannabis can help with that.

Shit. Haha.

What’s your take on what
happened in DC on January sixth?

My initial take was, oh shit
so they're going for it huh?

It was something that we saw coming
and actually were just surprised

that it took so long to manifest.

These clashes,
especially in Washington, DC

in the streets of Washington, DC,

but across the country
we watched these groups spring up.

I mean we saw
the confederate flags out there.

We saw the
three percenters out there.

There was some of the same faces that
we've been seeing - some of them for decades.

And so this isn't a shocker.

And we know they don't
give a damn about the police.

We know they did that to antagonize us

so it was no surprise to us
that they would clash with the police

or anyone else
to get their point across

that they're trying to take it
back to the good old days.

They brought that gallows
and that noose and it said more about

how they feel about us, I feel,
more so than those politicians.

So we watched it like, okay,
we've been waiting to see them

come out and say who they really are
as a group, collectively and take a stand

and so there, they did it.
And it is what it is.

All the contradictions of
our 400 year empire is coming to head.

And it's coming to a head right
in the nation's capitol, right in Rome.

Us as anti-fascists,
we stepped back, we watched that shit

and we prepare what
we have to do for our communities.

You lived and organized in DC for years.

What are your thoughts on the police
response to the storming of the capitol building,

and how does it compare to you
and your comrades' own experiences

with the DC Metro and Capitol police?

Yeah we never had any
lighthearted interactions with the police.

it was always heavy handed, abusive.

I mean anybody who's been paying
attention these last few months,

you've seen the heavy handedness
of the state against anyone.

You don't even have to damage buildings
as a lot of people like to say,

"well this is about property damage
and protecting property"

- a lot of people
weren't even bothering property.

They were just taking their ability to
gather with their own communities

to speak about what they wanted.
And they were beaten

and had chunks of their foreheads knocked out.

There's whole groups of people now without eyes.

We've been having to deal with not just
the so-called white supremacists,

but the white supremacists
of the police department as well.

It's been an attack against the movement.

Not just the so-called Black Lives Matter
movement, because not all Black people

identify with that term or that movement.

But that Black Liberation movement, it's been under attack

in Washington DC in particular.

So many munitions dumped,
so much tear gas.

We don't know the long term effects
this is gonna have on our comrades.

And so to see them be
so gentle and kind and considerate,

it didn't make us feel
a certain way other than, yeah

it acknowledged what
we've been saying all along.

That the police state is the implementation
of white nationalism and white supremacy.

And it doesn't matter
if it's a Black cop, a Brown cop,,

all police, they're all in it
together with the citizens.

What are your thoughts on
the response to this attack from liberals

and other segments of the American left?

People's reaction to white supremacists
gathering at the home of white supremacy,

clashing with each other, it's just
been really odd and it's been off.

You know I expect
the liberals to be, y'know

"muh country, muh flag, muh people,
muh capitol, muh politicians," y'know?

I expect that from liberals.

And I don't give a damn how
liberals or how conservatives take things.

I'm looking at how, you know, so-called
leftists are repeating the words of the state.

Are looking for help from
feds who have been crushing us.

My comrades have been getting
visits, y'know, at their jobs,

at their homes,
snatched out of their cars.

Y'know, we know what it feels like to get
raided by the Metropolitan Police Department

with guns and dogs.

We know what that feels like.
I know what that feels like.

To have an AR in my face,
in a house full of police.

To be watched and observed.
To have friends black bagged and kidnapped.

So my comrades aren't reacting
in that manner, but other people

that I know and that I'm affiliated with,
I'm seeing people not be able to accept

that we're not going to get any
real assistance from our actual enemies.

You know people all
talk about abolitionism

that's not just about abolishing prison.
It's about abolishing the entire state,

the entire apparatus,
the entire empire. It has to go.

So some people are like,
"Well what are you saying?

You don't want fash to go to jail?"

Aren't we trying to eradicate all of this?

All of it!
We're trying to eradicate all of it.

We're gonna have to find out
what we're gonna do with

the people who are
making our live so horrible.

But I can tell you what we're not going
to do is start dealing with the feds.

Like people can quote Assata
and still love the feds??

When they're after her again?

The same people who
killed thirty plus Panthers?

Sundiata Acoli is still in jail right now,
celebrating his birthday

and Maroon, and Mutlu,
and on and on and on.

So we don't work with the feds.
We don't cheer on the feds.

We don't cheer on new laws
that will be used against our communities.

They will pretend that it's
going to go against the white supremacists

and it always goes against us.

So it's disheartening to see people
debating, you know, what to call this

and "it wasn't really an insurgency,
it was just a minor..." - it was what it was.

It's what it has been
for four hundred years.

Sometimes they clash amongst
each other, the elite,

the white supremacists,
the foot soldiers.

But it always blows back against us.

We can never cheer them on. Ever.

And it's just kind of disappointing
and it seems like,

I don't know what is going on
with the Left in North America,

but they really need to get it together.

And they need to re-analyze what they
feel abolition and autonomy really is.

Because it's definitely not
cheering on the state.

Anything else you’d like to add?

This movement that we are in in 2021,
it cannot look like it has in the past.

The critiques of the white leftists
from Black, Brown, Indigenous people,

from queer, from trans, gender
nonconforming, nonbinary people,

have to be listened to if we're going to
be serious about an abolitionist movement,

a revolutionary, autonomous movement.

And we're gonna have to
understand that and get over our own shit

and build up our own dual power,
right here and right now.

We build up our power
and our communities,

through our co-ops,
our collectives, our mutual aid

and our taking care of
what we need to take care of

so that we can stand firm
against the attacks of the state.

Because just because they're coming
at these damn right wing people right now,

they haven't forgotten about us.

All our comrades got court cases
coming up. Nothing's stopped.

People are still in the fucking prisons
packed with COVID. Nothing's stopped.

People are still getting evicted.

So I just think people
have to step it up.

The threat that we're up against
in this country is serious!

Thanks Sima.

We’ve now reached the end
of this episode of System Fail.

Be sure and check out the full interview with
Sima Lee, in which she shares her insight

on the rise and spread of
Black anarchism in the United States.

Coming soon on the next
episode of the Circle A podcast.

As amusing as it’s been to watch
the takedown of Parler

and Trump’s twitter feed,
recent moves by tech capitalists

have once again demonstrated
the urgent need for anarchists to build

and support our own media and
communication infrastructure projects.

On this note, we’d like to remind viewers

that subMedia is a
contributing member of Kolektiva,

an independently-hosted and
open source social media platform

run by and for anarchists.

You can check out our
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Godspeed, humans.