rahaeli

I cannot possibly be any more explicit that I still believe the chance of the DoD pursuing the death penalty for a case of desertion or mutiny is extremely small, but "extremely small" is still higher than it was before January 20, 2025.

You are once again referring to historical precedent. Historical precedent was we didn't deport people to a third-country torture prison, but that sure didn't help the 261 men who were illegally deported to CECOT, 137 of them under a law last used in 1948, now did it?

Also, the last time someone was executed under the UCMJ was 1961, not "during World War II". And another man on death row came within hours of execution in 2008.

The only thing stopping the soi-disant "Department of War" from looking to increase that number is the long standing norm that they will not seek the death penalty except in cases of crimes that result in death. Do you trust them to keep that norm? Because they've obliterated a lot of stronger ones.

Still, the fact that legal and procedural challenges to a UCMJ tribunal sentencing someone to death exist and that it takes many years for those challenges to exhaust does not change the fact at least four people are currently on death row in Leavenworth.

And as I have repeatedly said, the much more likely and dangerous issue is that wartime footing makes a number of enhanced penalties that fall short of the death penalty possible that would not otherwise be possible.

This administration literally *just* attempted to use the UCMJ to punish a *seated US senator* for telling servicemembers the completely true fact it is their right and obligation to refuse illegal orders! There was a norm against that, too!

It is absolutely predatory, it is absolutely wrong, it is yet another layer of the whole shit sandwich, but seeing that when you're the one who's getting promised the moon is so, so fucking hard.

And the tactics they use to convince the kids (and they are kids) they want to enter the military, whether as enlisted *or* officers, are fucking disgusting, and as we all know, 17 year olds: not exactly known for impeccable judgement!

--have never been *both* poor *and* singled out as a recruitment target to the point those tactics come into play. Like, so, SO MANY high schools are administering the ASVAB now as part of their standardized testing! The military gets those results! They know who they want!

I do not like it! I do not think it is okay. I do not think it absolves servicemembers of *all* moral or ethical culpability! But the high-pressure tactics they use are literally identical to cult recruiting tactics in a lot of ways, and a LOT of the people who are pulling that routine--

bsky.app/profile/raha...

I am so fucking disappointed in so many things about Alsobrooks but she has the singular and irrevocable virtue of not being Larry fucking Hogan

I believe he believes his self-description. I also believe we are allowed to judge people by their actions, their tactics, and their voting record on other issues and say they do not behave in a way consistent with their self-description. Which is what I said.

He passed "he is making the performance in ways that are deeply detrimental to achieving the outcome" for me a long time ago, and I'm saying that as someone who was deeply interested in his candidacy in the 2016 primary until I looked harder at his record.

Like, I'm not saying he's Fetterman level of "touts progressive self-ID, turns out to be a piece of shit", but you can only watch someone fuck up even *attempting* the basics of attempting to achieve change until you have to conclude the performance is more important than the outcome.

I don't think that his monofocus on class above all is what makes him not a leftist. I think what makes him not a leftist is the demonstrable lack of success in putting virtually any of his goals into practice because the way he chooses to do it is guaranteed to be ineffective *and he knows that*.

I honestly think a huge portion of opposition to universal healthcare and free college or vocational school tuition is because it would destroy a major reason people enlist.

--to which recruiters prey on desperate people and lie their fucking asses off in ways where the truth can only be discovered far too late. "Oh sure, I can guarantee you will get a support assignment that has no chance of ever being in a position to kill somebody!" no they fucking can't!

I am not a fan of the US military (despite some of my 'fanclub' thinking that because I used to write fanfic for a series (Stargate SG-1) that had heavy military ties, the characters' opinions must be the author's true opinion, sigh) but also, boy HOWDY do people not know the extent--

Any attempt to achieve actual progress towards greater economic equality in the US *must* accept these factors have been compounding longer than any of us have been alive! You can't address US economic inequality without identifying and addressing racism as one of its causes!

Don't even get me started on the Red Line ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lin... ). Literally about to break ground, state yanked the money last second and gave it to the affluent white DC suburbs instead ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_... )

If I were coming tomorrow during commuter hours, it would be two hours (and much less walking). That's not just that it's Sunday night! The entire state public transit system was originally laid out to prevent Black people from benefiting from it.

I cannot get the fast commuter train from Baltimore to DC outside very narrow commuting hours. If I were at a concert in DC that let out this very minute, public transit would be 3-4 buses (depending on route), a lot of walking, and between 4-5 hours to get home.

The primary driver of the economic boom of the 50s was WWII veterans was the postwar GI Bill that afforded veterans a ton of economic boosts! Black veterans couldn't use half of them. Hell, "where a city's public transit goes and when" is heavily racialized today.

Redlining - Wikipedia

That is the "residential security assessment" map used for issuing mortgages and the system that created the concept of "redlining" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining)!

I can only speak passingly to Europe, but in the US, you can literally see the effects of centuries of white supremacy on mapped out in front of your eyes in almost every major city. There is one heat map of Baltimore and it's this one. bsky.app/profile/raha...

Good for you! Once again, with spite all things are possible

Again I must plug Lawrence Block's The Black Butterfly: you can, *today*, *still* see the economic effects of white supremacist economic policy on most major cities just by looking at almost any heat map of any socioeconomic variable at all! Baltimore's (the "black butterfly") is SO DRAMATIC.

I think Marx had some very useful insights (especially for the time) but it's so difficult to separate his actual writing from all the baggage people have hung on it through the years. And, like, you can't just make those centuries of enforcing socioeconomic class along racial lines disappear!