On Belarus, the Post Office, and the necessity of resistance
Belarus, formerly of the Soviet Union, is the Land Time Forgot, at least in European terms. It stands as the last dictatorship in Europe, with its president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, having occupied that post since 1994. Despite a Soviet-style command economy which is behind even that of big brother Russia, Lukashenko somehow manages to get "re-elected" every few years.
Of course, he does this by resorting to brutal force, as evidenced by the graphic above.
There was another "election" last week, which Lukashenko "won" in a landslide, with 80% of the vote. However, things had already been stirring before the election, with a credible threat to his power emerging. And this time, the Belarussian people have had enough.
Protests have erupted all across the country. But this time they don't consist of the usual suspects—the intelligentsia, the pro-Western middle class. This time they include factory workers of state-owned enterprises, who often served as goon squads for the autocrat. This time they include officials in the state ministerial apparatus, who all owe their sinecures to Lukashenko's patronage. The protests are widespread and spreading wider, as Belarussians have had enough of almost three decades of sclerosis.
The picture above gives a taste of what Lukashenko resorted to at the beginning of the protests. The problem is that his violence and torture tactics didn't work this time. They didn't cow a population at the end of its tether. If anything, they fueled the outrage, fueled the anger, and fueled the resolve of a people intent on ridding itself of a madman whose only raison d'etre is to avoid Mussolini's fate. Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko's sometime-ally, sometime-antagonist, must be looking at the happenings in Minsk and the country at large and worrying about his own future. In Ukraine, he had plausible deniability for his incursion, as defending Russian-speakers. In Belarus, no such casus belli presents itself, aside from that of preserving his own increasingly-fragile grip on the Kremlin.
The people of Belarus are facing down an actual tyrant, who has built up the state organs of repression over three decades, and have the momentum. Meanwhile, some in this country, the world's greatest democracy, are ready to throw in the towel and declare Donald Trump the future dictator due to shenanigans at the Post Office.
Now, I'm in no way minimizing the utter flim-flammery occurring at the USPS. Trump's installed stooge as Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, is doing everything he can to destroy the service and give his master a leg up in an election which will see a record number of absentee ballots cast. However, look at the levers of power we have as opposed to Belarussians.
- The gambit began so early, that it's blown up in their faces. The media has glommed onto the story, and tales of veterans having needed medicines delayed for a week due to USPS snafus are getting the attention.
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has convened an emergency session to pass a funding bill for the Post Office to ensure it has the resources to weather the upcoming election.
- DeJoy, looking at the legal actions against him which states are investigating—which can't be pardoned by Trump on his way out—has caved and will appear before the House on Aug. 24th. No delaying, no lawsuits, and he will be handing over a trove of papers.
- Trump, being a moron, is now basically waving the white flag, saying he'll accede to the funding of the service if the Democrats meet him with some bones to throw him.
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