THE MAGA BRIGADE
Emperor Donald's Praetorian Guard
Now that Donald John Trump has been formally installed as President of the United States, Diogenes focuses on what happens on Day One.
Cassandra called Diogenes in the middle of the night and declared she was having yet another alarming OTOTOPOI POPOI DA moment.
She's predicting that on Day One Trump will free the imprisoned January 6th warriors and offer them immediate employment in the MAGA BRIGADE -- a bespoke paramilitary unit modeled on the Brown Shirts and Praetorian Guard.
In addition to these liberated crusaders — who were merely sharing love —troopers will enlist from right-wing militias and retired military veterans all over America. Thousands will be eager to join. Many will sport tattoos similar to those of the incoming Secretary of Defense.
Elon Musk will pay for this private army. Mark Zuckerberg has just promised the use of Facebook and Instagram as recruitment tools.
BACK FROM THE WARS:
In 1973, Nixon eliminated the draft, paving the way for all-volunteer forces, instituting a “professional” military that existed behind its own cultural ramparts.
Over time, this warrior culture intensified and solidified. Powerful propagandized patriotism combined with gung-ho “fighting spirit” combined with John Wayne hypermasculinity combined with evangelical Christianity, combined with defensive, paranoid, “circle the wagons” mentality, to produce a fighting force apart from the mainstream, in essence, an army of mercenaries who could be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan with no political consequence because the haute bourgeoisie was not bothered. Their sons and daughters did not have to kill and die. They just had to remember to say “Thank you for your service”.
What happened to the white boys who left the military? They joined the police. They joined the white militias. Not all, of course, but a significant minority did. Local police transformed into paramilitary forces, complete with armored vehicles supplied by the Pentagon.
Take a look at this police recruiting video.—
Then there are the militias, The Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and American Patriots Three Percent (AP3), again composed of veterans and wannabe Rambos. Locked and loaded. Standing back, Standing by. Ready for action against Jews, immigrants, queers, blacks, and anyone else who might replace us. We’ve seen them in action at Charlottesville, Ruby Ridge, Tulsa, and, of course, the Capitol.
One in five patriots who stormed the Capitol were ex-military.
The leading indicator of those who commit political violence is that they have a military background. It is usually the case that they are Trump supporters.
According to current statistics, individuals with military backgrounds represent 11.5% of the total known extremists who have committed violent and nonviolent crimes in the United States since 1990.[21] Although this percentage seems small, there has been a growing trend of (former) military members engaging in extremist offenses in recent years. An average of seven people with U.S. military backgrounds per year committed extremist crimes between 1990 and 2010. That rate has risen to an average of 29 people per year over the past decade. Also worth noting is that more than half (52%) of extremists with military experience are identified as violent.
Given the growth of violent domestic extremism among military personnel, the relationship between military service and radicalization has become a major concern. Prior NIJ-funded studies have identified military experience as a potential risk factor for attempted and actual terrorism.[22] The likelihood of radicalization and radicalization to violence increases when individuals have already left military service.[23] This research suggests that military service is not a social bond that inhibits extremist violence.
The violence the United States military routinely perpetrates abroad returns to infect the body politic. The Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and AP3 operate with command structures and engagement tactics perfected by the US Army and US Marines.
The membrane separating right-wing paramilitaries from local and state law enforcement is highly permeable. In many cities and towns, police and paramilitaries not only work together but are, frequently, identical personnel.
This is from ProPublica investigative reporter Joshua Kaplan’s well-researched article:
Like many militias, AP3 was suffused with a military ethos. It adopted the hierarchy and nomenclature, with ranks such as “command sergeant major.” One credential most conferred authority: military service.
AP3’s “commanding officer” in Oklahoma, Ed Eubanks, took an especially calculated approach to cultivating ties with police.
Eubanks would claim success with multiple law enforcement agencies, particularly the Oklahoma City police force. Messages from 2020 show the courtship in its beginnings. Eubanks described his plans to stage a counterprotest at an upcoming “defund the police” rally in Oklahoma City in order to “build a better relationship with the OKCPD.” After the rally, Eubanks reported that he had made connections with city police officers who would be giving him intel (and barbecue — they’d invited AP3 members to a cookout at police union headquarters after the event).
In the years that followed, the invitations to functions at the union lodge continued, according to messages from Eubanks and another AP3 member. Eubanks said police notified him when rallies were happening and that the militia got “minute-by-minute updates” from officers at some events.
So, what better use for all this accumulated combative testosterone than to channel it into a powerful extra-paramilitary fighting force?
General Michael Flynn will be the perfect Commandant. Officer Corps Commissions will be delivered to loyalists: Steven Miller, Sebastian Gorka, Steven Bannon, Roger Stone, Enrique Tarrio, and other Trumpista militants.
COMBAT DEPLOYMENT:
The Brigade will end-run around the stodgy Pentagon generals who currently make all sorts of quaint efforts to keep the military out of domestic affairs.
The immediate mission: seek out and intimidate illegal aliens.
At the Southern Border, armed Trump Commandos will scour the landscape for any drug dealers and murderers that may have snuck beyond the Wall.
Unencumbered by constitutional restraints, ParaMAGAtroopers will drop down into sanctuary cities, batter down the doors of workplaces, churches, and shelters, and stand sentry while ICE makes hundreds of arrests.
The Troops will stand guard over Immigrant Detention Camps, manning the towers and maintaining the barbed-wire fences.
Crack MAGA commando units may be used to stage midnight raids on state prisons that continue to incarcerate 2020 so-called “convicted felons” while they apprehend members of the January 6th Committee.
El Presidente will employ MAGA Brigades to block entrance to the offices of media outlets he detests the way Netanyahu did to Al-Jazeera.
They will identify and harass enemies of the people.
And intimidate District Attorneys like Fani Willis and judges like Juan Merchan who might require some “extra protection”.
Heavily armed troopers will provide security to Designated Broligarchs and other CEOs — especially from benevolent health insurance corporations — whom disgruntled home-grown terrorist assassins continuously threaten.
The Brigade will augment campus police in breaking up pro-Palestinian student demonstrations.
They will be assigned to trail suspicious vehicles that cross state lines with the probable intent of obtaining abortions.
Drag Queen story hours are corrupting the young. Paramilitary intervention is necessary whenever and wherever these take place.
Commando forays into Greenland, Panama, Canada? Don’t ask!
Like the Brown Shirts, these guardians of the public order will immediately take to the streets to quell rioters. Trump will no longer have to rely on lily-livered generals like Mark Milly to kneecap ANTIFA communists when he wants to cross Lafayette Square with a Bible.
What the SA did for Berlin, the Maga Brigades will do for DC.
When the troopers are out in the field, they will be outfitted in full metal: camo outerwear, automatic weapons, ammo belts, black helmets, blackened eyes, sunglasses. They will ride in massive armored vehicles like the one the NYPD used to conquer Hamilton Hall.
HEIL TO THE CHIEF: CEREMONIAL FUNCTION
What’s an emperor without military bling?
Bedecked Maga Brigade sentries will stand at attention behind El Presidente at important ceremonial functions, replacing those trite folded flags. This background will augment the projection of power. Like Putin, Trump will be the capo di totti capi.
Bedecked Maga Hussars will form the backdrops at his rallies. Enough, already with the bedraggled throng that stood behind him during the campaign. Those negroes with the BLACKS FOR TRUMP t-shirts were obnoxious.
Troopers will assume guard duties at overseas US Embassies, starting with Copenhagen, Panama City, and Ottawa, to remind world leaders Who’s In Charge.
The Brigade will march down Pennsylvania Avenue on July 4th to give Trump the Big Parade he so longed for when he was in Paris for Bastille Day.
Drill teams and marching bands will perform at NFL Playoffs and WWE wrestling events, as well as college and high school football games, stirring the crowds to Chant USA! USA!
The J6 Prisoners’ Choir has already met with great success. Their rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, Justice For All, reached the top of the charts. There is no reason why it shouldn’t continue to inspire.
FASCISM IS AN AESTHETIC
In every fascist regime, there is always the Great Leader, always the hypermasculine patriarchy, always the triumph of the demagogic will. But it takes different forms in different cultures. Unlike Marxism, which is international, Fascism is culture-specific. It doesn’t have a political ideology beyond greed and bigotry.
Depending on the country, specific corporations dominate and specific minorities are targeted. In Europe, it was the Jews. In America, it’s been the darker-skinned and non-binary sexual minorities.
If you review world-class authoritarian governments over time, the ones that stick in your mind all had splendid uniforms and other performative accouterments. Think Nuremberg rallies. Think March on Rome. Think Stalin at Yalta. Think Pinochet’s Chile.
Walter Benjamin recognized the need for aesthetics in Fascist regimes:
The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life. The violation of the masses, whom Fascism, with its Führer cult, forces to their knees, has its counterpart in the violation of an apparatus that is pressed into the production of ritual values.
― The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The French philosopher Guy Debord put it more bluntly.
Spectacle is the sun that never sets over the empire of modern passivity.
― The Society of the Spectacle
Let’s face it, the MAGA aesthetic up until now has been more than a bit shabby.
The rag-tag cladding of the MAGA Martyrs who attacked the capital, the blowzy hodgepodge of regalia purchased in parking lots by adoring crowds who cheered behind Trumpolini at his campaign rallies, gave the appearance of a popular uprising. Ok for the campaign, but far too disheveled for rule.
A new aesthetic is required to reflect the new reality. A rebranding for the ages.
Think of the merch it would generate!
You need a symbol to start with – a logo for MAGA that could fly from banners and be embossed on buttons. It needs to be as simple as the Swastika but without, ahem, those connotations. It might suggest Christianity, but you have to be careful. Norse symbolism seems to be in vogue among the right these days. Perhaps that might be a starting point.
Der Trumpenfuhrer has already provided us a salute – a kind of two-fisted HEIL.
DRESS UNIFORMS:
Necessary for the splendid occasions that Trump inspires.
The red MAGA baseball cap could be transformed into red beret.
As for the all-important tunic, you can’t go wrong with white. We want to conjure the glory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, don’t we?
We might replace the red sash with an elongated red Velcro ribbon extending from the neck to below the belt.
Rank insignia – chevrons, bars, oak leaves, epaulettes, and stars – all adazzle! And at the pinnacle, bedecked in gilded glory -- the Generalissimo Maximus – the Donald Himself evoking the majesty of his predecessor, King Ludwig II of Bavaria!
MARCHING TO MAR A LAGO
You need a marching song that doubles as an anthem. The obvious candidate is WMCA.
Too camp, you say? Too gay?
Well, I have news for you. The lyrics are addressed to handsome, playful young men:
Young man, there's no need to feel down
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy
Young man, there's a place you can go
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.
The lyrics of the Italian Fascist Hymn, probably the greatest of all authoritarian anthems, were also addressed to Giovinezza—To Youth.
Giovinezza, giovinezza,
Primavera di bellezza,
Nel Fascismo è la salvezza
Della nostra libertà.
Non più ignava nè avvilita
Resti ancor la nostra gente,
Si ridesti a nuova vita
Di splendore più possente.
Su, leviamo alta la face
Che c'illumini il cammino,
Nel lavoro e nella pace
Sia la verà libertà.
Youth, youth,
Spring of beauty,
In Fascism is the salvation
Of our freedom.
No more slothful nor disheartened
Remains still our people,
They reawakened to new life
Of more powerful splendour.
Come on, let us raise high the torch
That lights the way,
In work and in peace
Is true freedom.-
Like YMCA, these lyrics celebrate reawakened, masculinity -- coming together for a bright future!
Come to think of it, a MAGA JUGEND movement might not be a bad idea! But let’s leave that for another Substack.
Diogenes Candle
8 January 2025