The Imperial Boomerang Lands in Los Angeles (Director's Cut)

My latest ZETEO column is about how what America does abroad is what America does at home

Edited by Zeteo 

I DIDN'T EXPECT TO PUBLISH THIS WEEK. I've had to do interviews for my book and then incorporate them into a part of the manuscript that's more improvised than any other part of this structured project. Then I had to turn the lettering script of IRON MAN #10 around quickly, and the lettering pass is up next. All this has to be done before Thursday morning, when I travel to Providence for the Cost of War Project's conference. But what's happening in Los Angeles is so firmly within the REIGN OF TERROR/FOREVER WARS realm of historical development that I felt terrible letting it pass by. ZETEO reached out to see if I wanted to write about LA and initially I passed because I'm swamped. But then my interview subject needed to push our talk back a few hours. With my mind on fire from LA, I quickly wrote the column you'll see after the paywall. It advances a major theme of mine. 

Before we get there, check out this excellent Brian Merchant piece on the LA protesters summoning and burning driverless Waymo cars. In addition to all of his insightful points about "weaponizing the accountability sink" of autonomous vehicles—and see this 404 Media media piece from Jason Koebler about Waymo as a surveillance wellspring for police—it strikes me that we're seeing a glimpse of the future of innovative urban unrest. If the LA protesters didn't deliberately turn Waymos into flaming improvised barricades, those who come after them will. And I suspect the scolds who hate seeing property burn more than they hate seeing people kidnapped would applaud if the Hong Kong demonstrators set autonomous vehicles alight.

Shortly before Sam edited the top of this newsletter, Politico's Nahal Toosi and Myah Ward acquired documents indicating that reports of Trump backing off of Guantanamo for migrant detentions were premature. "As soon as Wednesday," they report, Trump may attempt to move as many as 9,000 detained migrants to Gitmo.

As well, I'm sure many of you watched the Israeli seizure of the aid ship Madleen. ZETEO published this statement on behalf of contributor Greta Thunberg. You can also check out ZETEO reporter Prem Thakkar's interview with Freedom Flotilla Coalition organizer Huwaida Arraf about next steps to attempt breaking the Israeli naval stranglehold on Gaza. 

Similarly, do not miss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu empowering Palestinian criminals against Hamas. In this Netanyahu repeats a familiar pattern in Israeli history that used to be known as the "Hamas Card." Decades ago, Israel maintained a hands-off policy toward the growth of Palestinian Islamist forces on the idea that they would undermine the then-dominant Marxist, nationalist and internationalist elements within the Palestinian resistance. I suppose you can consider it a catastrophic success. This time around, Netanyahu is aiding bandits whom the United Nations found to be "the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting" of aid convoys, something that helps explain why Netanyahu blamed the looting on Hamas. Avigdor Lieberman is not my idea of a trustworthy person, but it was certainly attention-getting when he claimed the network belonging to Yasser Abu Shabab contains affiliates of the so-called Islamic State. If true, Netanyahu is aiding ISIS against Hamas while insisting that Hamas is ISIS.

Finally, something we shouldn't lose sight of—and which I couldn't quite make fit in my column below—is that the ICE assaults on the undocumented are aspects of the class war. It is no accident that ICE targeted SEIU-California leader David Huerta, just as they have taken United Farm Workers organizers in upstate New York into custody. This is a frightening moment, but it's also a clarifying one about which class' interests are served by the assaults on people who make up, in just one example, a third of California's labor force. As I say in the column below, it's so conspicuous how they never arrest the employers who exploit undocumented labor. 

Before I sign off for the week, from 6-8 pm ET on Tuesday, June 24, I'll be signing and doing a Q&A at Anyone Comics, located at 831 Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights. The hook is the release of IRON MAN VOL. 1: THE STARK-ROXXON WAR, which I would like you to preorder because I'm hooked on Marvel royalties, but I'll sign REIGN, WVW, whatever. Enjoy the column below, and subscribe—to FOREVER WARS, and to ZETEO—if you hit the paywall.