December 7th, 1941: the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it “a day that will live in infamy” in his famous speech to Congress asking for a declaration of war against Japan.

That particular epithet – that’s a strong one. And unlike most such epithets, it’s held up. People know it, still.

I mean, sure, slogans like “Remember the Maine!” rallied people at the time, but it’s an historical footnote; “Remember the Alamo!” has more weight, but not because of the attack – it’s because of the hopeless and romanticised defence.

(That it was, push comes to shove, in defence of slavery is important but not relevant to my line of thought here.)

Why was the Pearl Harbour attack somehow that much worse?

It wasn’t that Japan attacked a purely military target in a United States territory. Nothing wrong with that by the rules of war. Certainly nothing infamous about it, either. Within the rules of war, it’s fair play.

It’s not that it was a surprise, even – though it was, and that tends to be what people think of when they hear the phrase. Most people at the time assumed a Japanese Imperial attack would come in the Philippines, not in Hawai’i. But surprise attacks are the meat and gravy of war, and simply good strategy – again, not a source of infamy.

It wasn’t even, really, that they started the war with the attack. That’s kind of how wars tend to go. As a rule, one doesn’t go declare war and then stand around a while giving your enemy a week or two to get their defences in place.

So why were people who were absolutely expecting war – absolutely getting ready for a war – with Japan still so very angry about the way it started? What made a crowd certain that war was inevitable – a crowd that was getting ready for it, whether they liked it or not – go, “oh, that is too goddamn far”?

It was that Japan was literally still negotiating as the bombs fell.

Roosevelt mentions this in his speech to Congress asking for a declaration of war. It’s shallow in the specifics, but it’s explicitly there, in the first minute. He didn’t have to get into the weeds of details; everybody in Congress knew.

The Japanese attack started at 12:48pm Eastern time. The military finally got word sometime after 1:30pm Eastern time. The Japanese ambassador had scheduled a meeting with Secretary of State Hull for 1:45pm, and didn’t show up until 2:05pm, by which time the bombs had been falling for over an hour – and even then, they delivered a statement responding to a previous US position paper delivered on November 26th.

It was harsh, but it was no declaration of war.

The Japanese delegation were literally negotiating as their air force’s bombs fell.

That betrayal – that subterfuge, that backstab – coloured the entire rest of the war in the Pacific, up to and including the decision to use those atomic bombs.

Does that still-negotiating-as-the-bombers-let-fly trick sound like something that just happened this afternoon?

Maybe it should.

Japan’s plan was a quick but heavy knockout blow on a military target, to weaken American forces in the Pacific and force the Americans to accede to their demands in China.

Trump’s plan was apparently also a quick but heavy knockout blow on military targets, to force the Iranians to accede to Trump’s – and Netanyahu’s – demands in the Middle East.

Iran is in no way the 1940s US; Trump’s clown car criminal crowd is in no way the leadership of Imperial Japan. This is not World War II, and since Trump didn’t go nuclear, I don’t think it’s World War III; this is not that kind of projection, so don’t make it into one.

I’m just talking infamy. As far as infamy goes?

Yeah.

I could really see saying this is an act of infamy.

Obviously, that’s the kind of thing Iran would say, no matter what. Aside from that, times have changed. Asymmetrical war, disinformation, irregular warfare as a primary strategy – all those old ideas about war have rather gone by the way side. It’s hard to talk about something as infamous in war these days.

But still. I could see it.

And more importantly… I could see people believing it.

Couldn’t you?

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Farty McShitgibbon squirted out another racist authoritarian shart on Pravda Sotsialnaya late Sunday night, blowing off steam caused by his frustration at protests and over his shitty birthday parade. It’s a screed of lies about Democrats being sick in the head and not actually Americans, sending more waves of cops and military at us, and about cheering on mass deportations. Like y’do, if you’re a fascist fuckhead.

But let’s pay particular attention to this bit:

…I have directed my entire Administration to put every resource possible behind this effort, and reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia. Our Federal Government will continue to be focused on the REMIGRATION of Aliens to the places from where they came…

CAPS as in the original. Bold added.

Remigration pretends to be but is not actually a subtle word.

Remigration means ethnic purge. Ethnic cleansing, if you insist – but I hate that term, because there’s nothing cleansing about it. It’s an ethnic purge. It’s violent, it’s bloody, it’s repression, it’s expulsion at the point of a gun, based on your ethnicity.

Remigration means ancestry-based expulsions of people who aren’t white, for being not white, and not for any other reason. Just for being not white. Legal status means nothing; being a citizen means nothing. Not white? Get the fuck out, at gunpoint. That’s how it went during Operation W*tback; that’s how he wants it to go again, and now he’s just saying it.

This is not a question; this is not up for debate. If you feel like debating it with me, screw you you fascist-apologist fuck, and sit the fuck down. In this context – in any context outside academia – that’s what it means. Go read Wikipedia if you want the definition and history.

“Remigration” in this context absolutely and only means ethnic purge. All the leading haters in his administration – Miller, I’m looking in your direction – know damn well what it means. They used the word on purpose.

So I’m asking you not to discuss this shart of a statement without going directly to what REMIGRATION means. Do not let anyone lie and pretend it means something else, because that’s bullshit. Remigration is why they’re revoking every legal status they can; remigration is why they’re trying to end birthright citizenship; remigration means a violent ethnic purge.

And that’s what he’s told ICE – or more generally, “ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department” – to make happen.

So. What do we do, in particular, right now?

First off, make sure people know what this word means.

Second – know any “good cops”? Like, relatives or something you might actually be able to reach? Show them the Wikipedia article about what “remigration” means, and only then show them Trump’s statement. Make sure they understand what Trump said, and make sure they know what they’re being asked to do. Make them understand, like… now.

Make sure they understand the criminal act they’re being asked to perform.

Because that is, absolutely, the ask, and “just following orders” … just won’t do.

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Seeing the usual In-Love-With-Failure and/or disruptors saying don’t take or post photos.

If you’re saying this: THERE IS MORE THAN ONE KIND OF PROTEST.

Don’t take photos at a direction action were laws may be violated, of course. But this isn’t that kind of protest. This is a LOUD AND VISIBLE protest, where showing massive numbers is the entire point, and having lots of sources posting massive numbers is more critical than ever.

A flood of sources is important, because the more A.I.-generated images are used to flood the zone, the more many sources of photographs matter. We have to out-flood their flood.

Now, if you are taking photos, don’t take close-ups without permission! That’s always true. But I advise that you DO take and post WIDE AREA PHOTOS which INCLUDE PEOPLE WHO COULD FIT IN AT A MAGA RALLY.

Middle-aged white men in particular.

MAGAts don’t give a shit until it’s them. If you see someone and think “yeah, they look like they could be someone at a Trump rally,” include them in the shot. That’s what they need to see.

You want to scare Trump, make it look like he’s losing “his people” to opposition rallies in your photographs.

No time to rewrite this better, I’m out the door. See you on the streets.

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Find your local No Kings protest and show up. More different protests are better, not worse; one huge protest is easy to crack down upon; a dozen across the same area is impossible.

If you’re new at protests, show up at the Event Attendee Pre-Mobilization Mass Call today, 5pm Cascadian/Pacific, 8pm Eastern.

If you’re military or ex-military or military family, here’s extra information for you – 4pm Cascadian/Pacific, 7pm Eastern.

Turn out. Show up. Be there.

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