#ideologicalpolicing — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #ideologicalpolicing, aggregated by home.social.
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I decided to expand this one out because I ran out of room to finish my argument here on the blog. I wrote about why a recent OPM memo allowing Christian Nationalists to attempt to convert their federal coworkers is a disturbing sign that may point to what the Trump regime's next excuse for a fascist crusade will be - combatting "anti-Christian bias" (by doing more fascism!)
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/07/30/nina-bytes-dark-omens-of-a-new-crusade/
Nina-Bytes: Dark Omens of a New Crusade
"There will of course be folks who accuse me of overreacting when I say this new guidance is clearly the on ramp for the official adoption of Christian Nationalism as a state ideology, but I think even a cursory reading of what OPM Director Scott Kupor just released here demonstrates that this has nothing to do with workplace tolerance, or freedom of religion. In addition to allowing religious iconography, and public prayer, Kupor also wants government employees to be able to display “posters” with “religious messages” and solicit participation from even non-Christian employees in group expressions of religious sentiment. So what happens when your evangelical nazi co-worker puts up a poster saying “God hates queers?” How about when your Christian Nationalist supervisor calls “the team” together for a group prayer asking Jesus to protect the chosen one, Donald J. Trump? If you have to ask those questions, you’re clearly not understanding the policy; remember, laws, rights, and rules have no dominion over fascists in power, and only serve to bind or oppress their enemies."
#Fascism #OPM #Trump #ScottKupor #ChristianNationalism #FederalWorkforce #Fundamentalism #ChristianZionism #IdeologicalPolicing #MarcoRubio
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I decided to expand this one out because I ran out of room to finish my argument here on the blog. I wrote about why a recent OPM memo allowing Christian Nationalists to attempt to convert their federal coworkers is a disturbing sign that may point to what the Trump regime's next excuse for a fascist crusade will be - combatting "anti-Christian bias" (by doing more fascism!)
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/07/30/nina-bytes-dark-omens-of-a-new-crusade/
Nina-Bytes: Dark Omens of a New Crusade
"There will of course be folks who accuse me of overreacting when I say this new guidance is clearly the on ramp for the official adoption of Christian Nationalism as a state ideology, but I think even a cursory reading of what OPM Director Scott Kupor just released here demonstrates that this has nothing to do with workplace tolerance, or freedom of religion. In addition to allowing religious iconography, and public prayer, Kupor also wants government employees to be able to display “posters” with “religious messages” and solicit participation from even non-Christian employees in group expressions of religious sentiment. So what happens when your evangelical nazi co-worker puts up a poster saying “God hates queers?” How about when your Christian Nationalist supervisor calls “the team” together for a group prayer asking Jesus to protect the chosen one, Donald J. Trump? If you have to ask those questions, you’re clearly not understanding the policy; remember, laws, rights, and rules have no dominion over fascists in power, and only serve to bind or oppress their enemies."
#Fascism #OPM #Trump #ScottKupor #ChristianNationalism #FederalWorkforce #Fundamentalism #ChristianZionism #IdeologicalPolicing #MarcoRubio
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I decided to expand this one out because I ran out of room to finish my argument here on the blog. I wrote about why a recent OPM memo allowing Christian Nationalists to attempt to convert their federal coworkers is a disturbing sign that may point to what the Trump regime's next excuse for a fascist crusade will be - combatting "anti-Christian bias" (by doing more fascism!)
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/07/30/nina-bytes-dark-omens-of-a-new-crusade/
Nina-Bytes: Dark Omens of a New Crusade
"There will of course be folks who accuse me of overreacting when I say this new guidance is clearly the on ramp for the official adoption of Christian Nationalism as a state ideology, but I think even a cursory reading of what OPM Director Scott Kupor just released here demonstrates that this has nothing to do with workplace tolerance, or freedom of religion. In addition to allowing religious iconography, and public prayer, Kupor also wants government employees to be able to display “posters” with “religious messages” and solicit participation from even non-Christian employees in group expressions of religious sentiment. So what happens when your evangelical nazi co-worker puts up a poster saying “God hates queers?” How about when your Christian Nationalist supervisor calls “the team” together for a group prayer asking Jesus to protect the chosen one, Donald J. Trump? If you have to ask those questions, you’re clearly not understanding the policy; remember, laws, rights, and rules have no dominion over fascists in power, and only serve to bind or oppress their enemies."
#Fascism #OPM #Trump #ScottKupor #ChristianNationalism #FederalWorkforce #Fundamentalism #ChristianZionism #IdeologicalPolicing #MarcoRubio
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Over the past couple of months I've written a lot about the rapid expansion of the already-formidable American surveillance state under Trump. Unfortunately, because the regime has cloaked this alarming and extremely dangerous expansion of the police state panopticon primarily inside the machinations of its immigration policies and mass deportation schemes, the vast majority of Very Serious People TM in our discourse are not properly assessing the danger this represents. Some might call that "ubiquitous US white supremacy in action," and those people would be absolutely correct. It is also however, extremely shortsighted because as I've noted many times, a dystopian panopticon police state for migrants, is a dystopian panopticon police state for everyone if the government wants it to be; and I think it's safe to say that Trump indeed desires as much.
To get a better idea of the scope of the problem I've been talking about, let's take a look at this Truthout article from last week.
https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-rapidly-expanding-the-surveillance-state-as-protests-grow/
Trump Is Rapidly Expanding the Surveillance State as Protests Grow
"While mainstream media has framed the issue in terms of surveillance of immigrants, data on all Americans is being sucked into a growing digital dragnet. Guariglia and other privacy advocates are sounding the alarm over efforts by the Trump administration and its Silicon Alley partners to consolidate personal data on millions of people at the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies. As law enforcement increasingly turns to private companies to buy data instead of asking courts for search warrants, a data broker owned by major airlines has sold customer flight records and personal information to Customs and Border Patrol, according to an investigation by 404 Media.
“You are seeing that federal agents working under this current administration are very openly using surveillance technologies to trump our free speech, to completely violate our privacy, and not even giving personal privacy consideration anymore,” Tse said. “That is the thing that I am seeing that is new.”
I think to a degree it's still very hard for Americans, even cynical Americans raised in a post 9/11, post-Snowden leaks counterterrorism environment, to understand the degree to which technologies like facial recognition software, and so-called "AI" have supercharged a US state panopticon that is now more or less completely under the control of Swine Emperor Trump and his executive branch nazis. Furthermore, agencies like ICE, DHS, and the larger counterterrorism apparatus entwined throughout agencies like the FBI, and NSA, simply do not have the same level of oversight as even notoriously unsupervised local police forces because this entire police state panopticon was installed under the guise of fighting terrorism, which is more or less the President and the executive branch's purview in US government. These factors have always made the War on Terror panopticon a civil rights nightmare that has lead to numerous abuses by the Bush, Obama, and Biden governments over time; which is part of why giving that same panopticon "counterterrorism" police state to a guy like Trump, who thinks disagreeing with him publicly is tantamount to treason, or supporting terrorism, is an existential crisis in its own right.
Look folks, I know it isn't exactly news in the year 2025 that the government is spying on you, and we've even talked about some of the ways its doing so already. But you have to understand the sheer scope of what the Trump regime is doing here, and what AI-enabled oppression is going to look like. We're talking about the ability to integrate literally every aspect of your data and living footprint into one all seeing master computer that makes the punchcards they used to conduct the Holocaust in Germany look quaint. That means DNA, Healthcare data, traffic cameras, tax information, real time tracking technology, full identity theft folders from private data brokers, SSA and tax data, and so on; this is some actual Minority Report shit now. No matter how passé you thinking privacy rights discussions have become after Snowden's leaks, I cannot stress enough that this is a devil many orders of magnitude more dangerous than the police state we were dealing with a mere 6-8 years ago.
Which of course brings us back to a Trump regime arguing, in court, that being anti-genocide and pro-Palestine is a threat to national security, interfering with racialized Gestapo kidnappings is materially supporting terrorists, and nonviolent protests are actually an insurrection. It does not take a genius to look at the regime's ongoing war on both dissent and a broadly defined American left, as exemplified by Project Esther, and realize that the rapidly expanding "migrant" panopticon is also a rapidly expanding "anyone Trump doesn't like" panopticon.
#Fascism #Trump #Panopticon #USPol #ICE #Palantir #DHS #Gestapo #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #PoliceState
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Over the past couple of months I've written a lot about the rapid expansion of the already-formidable American surveillance state under Trump. Unfortunately, because the regime has cloaked this alarming and extremely dangerous expansion of the police state panopticon primarily inside the machinations of its immigration policies and mass deportation schemes, the vast majority of Very Serious People TM in our discourse are not properly assessing the danger this represents. Some might call that "ubiquitous US white supremacy in action," and those people would be absolutely correct. It is also however, extremely shortsighted because as I've noted many times, a dystopian panopticon police state for migrants, is a dystopian panopticon police state for everyone if the government wants it to be; and I think it's safe to say that Trump indeed desires as much.
To get a better idea of the scope of the problem I've been talking about, let's take a look at this Truthout article from last week.
https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-rapidly-expanding-the-surveillance-state-as-protests-grow/
Trump Is Rapidly Expanding the Surveillance State as Protests Grow
"While mainstream media has framed the issue in terms of surveillance of immigrants, data on all Americans is being sucked into a growing digital dragnet. Guariglia and other privacy advocates are sounding the alarm over efforts by the Trump administration and its Silicon Alley partners to consolidate personal data on millions of people at the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies. As law enforcement increasingly turns to private companies to buy data instead of asking courts for search warrants, a data broker owned by major airlines has sold customer flight records and personal information to Customs and Border Patrol, according to an investigation by 404 Media.
“You are seeing that federal agents working under this current administration are very openly using surveillance technologies to trump our free speech, to completely violate our privacy, and not even giving personal privacy consideration anymore,” Tse said. “That is the thing that I am seeing that is new.”
I think to a degree it's still very hard for Americans, even cynical Americans raised in a post 9/11, post-Snowden leaks counterterrorism environment, to understand the degree to which technologies like facial recognition software, and so-called "AI" have supercharged a US state panopticon that is now more or less completely under the control of Swine Emperor Trump and his executive branch nazis. Furthermore, agencies like ICE, DHS, and the larger counterterrorism apparatus entwined throughout agencies like the FBI, and NSA, simply do not have the same level of oversight as even notoriously unsupervised local police forces because this entire police state panopticon was installed under the guise of fighting terrorism, which is more or less the President and the executive branch's purview in US government. These factors have always made the War on Terror panopticon a civil rights nightmare that has lead to numerous abuses by the Bush, Obama, and Biden governments over time; which is part of why giving that same panopticon "counterterrorism" police state to a guy like Trump, who thinks disagreeing with him publicly is tantamount to treason, or supporting terrorism, is an existential crisis in its own right.
Look folks, I know it isn't exactly news in the year 2025 that the government is spying on you, and we've even talked about some of the ways its doing so already. But you have to understand the sheer scope of what the Trump regime is doing here, and what AI-enabled oppression is going to look like. We're talking about the ability to integrate literally every aspect of your data and living footprint into one all seeing master computer that makes the punchcards they used to conduct the Holocaust in Germany look quaint. That means DNA, Healthcare data, traffic cameras, tax information, real time tracking technology, full identity theft folders from private data brokers, SSA and tax data, and so on; this is some actual Minority Report shit now. No matter how passé you thinking privacy rights discussions have become after Snowden's leaks, I cannot stress enough that this is a devil many orders of magnitude more dangerous than the police state we were dealing with a mere 6-8 years ago.
Which of course brings us back to a Trump regime arguing, in court, that being anti-genocide and pro-Palestine is a threat to national security, interfering with racialized Gestapo kidnappings is materially supporting terrorists, and nonviolent protests are actually an insurrection. It does not take a genius to look at the regime's ongoing war on both dissent and a broadly defined American left, as exemplified by Project Esther, and realize that the rapidly expanding "migrant" panopticon is also a rapidly expanding "anyone Trump doesn't like" panopticon.
#Fascism #Trump #Panopticon #USPol #ICE #Palantir #DHS #Gestapo #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #PoliceState
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Over the past couple of months I've written a lot about the rapid expansion of the already-formidable American surveillance state under Trump. Unfortunately, because the regime has cloaked this alarming and extremely dangerous expansion of the police state panopticon primarily inside the machinations of its immigration policies and mass deportation schemes, the vast majority of Very Serious People TM in our discourse are not properly assessing the danger this represents. Some might call that "ubiquitous US white supremacy in action," and those people would be absolutely correct. It is also however, extremely shortsighted because as I've noted many times, a dystopian panopticon police state for migrants, is a dystopian panopticon police state for everyone if the government wants it to be; and I think it's safe to say that Trump indeed desires as much.
To get a better idea of the scope of the problem I've been talking about, let's take a look at this Truthout article from last week.
https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-rapidly-expanding-the-surveillance-state-as-protests-grow/
Trump Is Rapidly Expanding the Surveillance State as Protests Grow
"While mainstream media has framed the issue in terms of surveillance of immigrants, data on all Americans is being sucked into a growing digital dragnet. Guariglia and other privacy advocates are sounding the alarm over efforts by the Trump administration and its Silicon Alley partners to consolidate personal data on millions of people at the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies. As law enforcement increasingly turns to private companies to buy data instead of asking courts for search warrants, a data broker owned by major airlines has sold customer flight records and personal information to Customs and Border Patrol, according to an investigation by 404 Media.
“You are seeing that federal agents working under this current administration are very openly using surveillance technologies to trump our free speech, to completely violate our privacy, and not even giving personal privacy consideration anymore,” Tse said. “That is the thing that I am seeing that is new.”
I think to a degree it's still very hard for Americans, even cynical Americans raised in a post 9/11, post-Snowden leaks counterterrorism environment, to understand the degree to which technologies like facial recognition software, and so-called "AI" have supercharged a US state panopticon that is now more or less completely under the control of Swine Emperor Trump and his executive branch nazis. Furthermore, agencies like ICE, DHS, and the larger counterterrorism apparatus entwined throughout agencies like the FBI, and NSA, simply do not have the same level of oversight as even notoriously unsupervised local police forces because this entire police state panopticon was installed under the guise of fighting terrorism, which is more or less the President and the executive branch's purview in US government. These factors have always made the War on Terror panopticon a civil rights nightmare that has lead to numerous abuses by the Bush, Obama, and Biden governments over time; which is part of why giving that same panopticon "counterterrorism" police state to a guy like Trump, who thinks disagreeing with him publicly is tantamount to treason, or supporting terrorism, is an existential crisis in its own right.
Look folks, I know it isn't exactly news in the year 2025 that the government is spying on you, and we've even talked about some of the ways its doing so already. But you have to understand the sheer scope of what the Trump regime is doing here, and what AI-enabled oppression is going to look like. We're talking about the ability to integrate literally every aspect of your data and living footprint into one all seeing master computer that makes the punchcards they used to conduct the Holocaust in Germany look quaint. That means DNA, Healthcare data, traffic cameras, tax information, real time tracking technology, full identity theft folders from private data brokers, SSA and tax data, and so on; this is some actual Minority Report shit now. No matter how passé you thinking privacy rights discussions have become after Snowden's leaks, I cannot stress enough that this is a devil many orders of magnitude more dangerous than the police state we were dealing with a mere 6-8 years ago.
Which of course brings us back to a Trump regime arguing, in court, that being anti-genocide and pro-Palestine is a threat to national security, interfering with racialized Gestapo kidnappings is materially supporting terrorists, and nonviolent protests are actually an insurrection. It does not take a genius to look at the regime's ongoing war on both dissent and a broadly defined American left, as exemplified by Project Esther, and realize that the rapidly expanding "migrant" panopticon is also a rapidly expanding "anyone Trump doesn't like" panopticon.
#Fascism #Trump #Panopticon #USPol #ICE #Palantir #DHS #Gestapo #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #PoliceState
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As we approach the fifth month of the Swine Emperor's second presidency, it is now crystal clear that the Trump regime is committed to discriminating against and reducing the quality of life for, as a matter of policy, anyone the regime regards as its enemies; a ever-growing body of people that includes his actual political opponents, Americans whose life choices Christian fundamentalists don't agree with, and marginalized people the white nationalist regime hates simply for who they are. Furthermore, the policies designed to conduct this discrimination against, and dehumanization of, those Trump considers enemies or the fascist right considers undesirables, usually have elements of both open targeted discrimination, and vague wording that allows for a mind-numbing expansion of who can be targeted for that discrimination at a later date.
For an example of what this looks like in practice, let's take a look at this story about U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changes to care guidelines that now allow for a broad swathe of discriminatory practices, and were undertaken in response to Trump's anti-trans executive order in which the government officially denied that trans people exist.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/veterans-trump-executive-order-rules
'Disgusting': VA Doctors Can Now Reportedly Refuse to Treat Unmarried People, Democrats
"U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is a senior member and former chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, issued a sharp statement in response to the news.
"Healthcare isn't just a special privilege Trump gets to dole out to veterans who agree with the president—it's a moral obligation our country owes to every single man and woman who serves in uniform. Anyone who doesn't understand that has no business leading our armed forces in any way," wrote Murray in a statement on Monday.
"It's disgusting that this policy was ever allowed to go into effect, and I will not let it fly under the radar," she added.
"This isn't healthcare. It's political purity tests for people who risked their lives for this country. It's unethical, authoritarian, and every one of us should be outraged," wrote VoteVets, a progressive veterans group, in a Bluesky post on Monday in response to The Guardian's reporting."
To be clear, I could probably live with a little less nationalistic troop-worship from the folks criticizing this bald-faced authoritarian bullshit; this is fundamentally a story about ideological policing, civil rights, and access to healthcare. The fact is the Trump regime has power over the VA, and by extension VA hospitals, and as such they have the power to enforce their foundationally fascist worldview on veteran's care facilities first; their attacks on standards of care (particularly for trans youth) in private medical settings make it clear that they want to take this fascist bullshit national and enforce it by state authority.
Furthermore, while I am certain that the vagueness of these guideline changes is by no means an accident, it's important to understand that they were foundationally instituted to discriminate against trans veterans as part of the fascist right's larger anti-trans pogrom; which nobody in power in the US really seems to have a problem with despite the fact that it's objectively part of an open government scheme to end the existence of trans people in American life.
"The rule change, according to The Guardian, stems from the January 30 executive order called "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
The outlet reported that the "primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including 'gender affirming' and 'transgender,' from clinical settings." The VA is currently led by former Republican congressman Doug Collins."
Despite this however, the fact is that the care guideline changes at the VA go far above and beyond what the government would need to discriminate against trans veterans, and would in fact allow the VA to deny medical care to an alarmingly large number of people the Hertigage Foundation considers godless enemies of all that is pure and good in American life. Furthermore, smiling assurances from VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz that while yes the rules do allow for discrimination based on political affiliation, martial status, or any number of other fascist hobby horses, he pinkie swears the VA is just going after trans people, are doing little to beat the nazi ideological policing allegations this change in VA policy brings up. As is the case with the anti-trans pogrom, and Trump's fascist war on immigrants (including legal immigrants), a VA built to discriminate against trans people is a VA that can discriminate against anyone the Swine Emperor wants to punish.
#Fascism #Trump #VA #Healthcare #IdeologicalPolicing #AntiTransPogrom #USPol
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As we approach the fifth month of the Swine Emperor's second presidency, it is now crystal clear that the Trump regime is committed to discriminating against and reducing the quality of life for, as a matter of policy, anyone the regime regards as its enemies; a ever-growing body of people that includes his actual political opponents, Americans whose life choices Christian fundamentalists don't agree with, and marginalized people the white nationalist regime hates simply for who they are. Furthermore, the policies designed to conduct this discrimination against, and dehumanization of, those Trump considers enemies or the fascist right considers undesirables, usually have elements of both open targeted discrimination, and vague wording that allows for a mind-numbing expansion of who can be targeted for that discrimination at a later date.
For an example of what this looks like in practice, let's take a look at this story about U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changes to care guidelines that now allow for a broad swathe of discriminatory practices, and were undertaken in response to Trump's anti-trans executive order in which the government officially denied that trans people exist.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/veterans-trump-executive-order-rules
'Disgusting': VA Doctors Can Now Reportedly Refuse to Treat Unmarried People, Democrats
"U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is a senior member and former chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, issued a sharp statement in response to the news.
"Healthcare isn't just a special privilege Trump gets to dole out to veterans who agree with the president—it's a moral obligation our country owes to every single man and woman who serves in uniform. Anyone who doesn't understand that has no business leading our armed forces in any way," wrote Murray in a statement on Monday.
"It's disgusting that this policy was ever allowed to go into effect, and I will not let it fly under the radar," she added.
"This isn't healthcare. It's political purity tests for people who risked their lives for this country. It's unethical, authoritarian, and every one of us should be outraged," wrote VoteVets, a progressive veterans group, in a Bluesky post on Monday in response to The Guardian's reporting."
To be clear, I could probably live with a little less nationalistic troop-worship from the folks criticizing this bald-faced authoritarian bullshit; this is fundamentally a story about ideological policing, civil rights, and access to healthcare. The fact is the Trump regime has power over the VA, and by extension VA hospitals, and as such they have the power to enforce their foundationally fascist worldview on veteran's care facilities first; their attacks on standards of care (particularly for trans youth) in private medical settings make it clear that they want to take this fascist bullshit national and enforce it by state authority.
Furthermore, while I am certain that the vagueness of these guideline changes is by no means an accident, it's important to understand that they were foundationally instituted to discriminate against trans veterans as part of the fascist right's larger anti-trans pogrom; which nobody in power in the US really seems to have a problem with despite the fact that it's objectively part of an open government scheme to end the existence of trans people in American life.
"The rule change, according to The Guardian, stems from the January 30 executive order called "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
The outlet reported that the "primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including 'gender affirming' and 'transgender,' from clinical settings." The VA is currently led by former Republican congressman Doug Collins."
Despite this however, the fact is that the care guideline changes at the VA go far above and beyond what the government would need to discriminate against trans veterans, and would in fact allow the VA to deny medical care to an alarmingly large number of people the Hertigage Foundation considers godless enemies of all that is pure and good in American life. Furthermore, smiling assurances from VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz that while yes the rules do allow for discrimination based on political affiliation, martial status, or any number of other fascist hobby horses, he pinkie swears the VA is just going after trans people, are doing little to beat the nazi ideological policing allegations this change in VA policy brings up. As is the case with the anti-trans pogrom, and Trump's fascist war on immigrants (including legal immigrants), a VA built to discriminate against trans people is a VA that can discriminate against anyone the Swine Emperor wants to punish.
#Fascism #Trump #VA #Healthcare #IdeologicalPolicing #AntiTransPogrom #USPol
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As we approach the fifth month of the Swine Emperor's second presidency, it is now crystal clear that the Trump regime is committed to discriminating against and reducing the quality of life for, as a matter of policy, anyone the regime regards as its enemies; a ever-growing body of people that includes his actual political opponents, Americans whose life choices Christian fundamentalists don't agree with, and marginalized people the white nationalist regime hates simply for who they are. Furthermore, the policies designed to conduct this discrimination against, and dehumanization of, those Trump considers enemies or the fascist right considers undesirables, usually have elements of both open targeted discrimination, and vague wording that allows for a mind-numbing expansion of who can be targeted for that discrimination at a later date.
For an example of what this looks like in practice, let's take a look at this story about U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changes to care guidelines that now allow for a broad swathe of discriminatory practices, and were undertaken in response to Trump's anti-trans executive order in which the government officially denied that trans people exist.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/veterans-trump-executive-order-rules
'Disgusting': VA Doctors Can Now Reportedly Refuse to Treat Unmarried People, Democrats
"U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is a senior member and former chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, issued a sharp statement in response to the news.
"Healthcare isn't just a special privilege Trump gets to dole out to veterans who agree with the president—it's a moral obligation our country owes to every single man and woman who serves in uniform. Anyone who doesn't understand that has no business leading our armed forces in any way," wrote Murray in a statement on Monday.
"It's disgusting that this policy was ever allowed to go into effect, and I will not let it fly under the radar," she added.
"This isn't healthcare. It's political purity tests for people who risked their lives for this country. It's unethical, authoritarian, and every one of us should be outraged," wrote VoteVets, a progressive veterans group, in a Bluesky post on Monday in response to The Guardian's reporting."
To be clear, I could probably live with a little less nationalistic troop-worship from the folks criticizing this bald-faced authoritarian bullshit; this is fundamentally a story about ideological policing, civil rights, and access to healthcare. The fact is the Trump regime has power over the VA, and by extension VA hospitals, and as such they have the power to enforce their foundationally fascist worldview on veteran's care facilities first; their attacks on standards of care (particularly for trans youth) in private medical settings make it clear that they want to take this fascist bullshit national and enforce it by state authority.
Furthermore, while I am certain that the vagueness of these guideline changes is by no means an accident, it's important to understand that they were foundationally instituted to discriminate against trans veterans as part of the fascist right's larger anti-trans pogrom; which nobody in power in the US really seems to have a problem with despite the fact that it's objectively part of an open government scheme to end the existence of trans people in American life.
"The rule change, according to The Guardian, stems from the January 30 executive order called "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
The outlet reported that the "primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including 'gender affirming' and 'transgender,' from clinical settings." The VA is currently led by former Republican congressman Doug Collins."
Despite this however, the fact is that the care guideline changes at the VA go far above and beyond what the government would need to discriminate against trans veterans, and would in fact allow the VA to deny medical care to an alarmingly large number of people the Hertigage Foundation considers godless enemies of all that is pure and good in American life. Furthermore, smiling assurances from VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz that while yes the rules do allow for discrimination based on political affiliation, martial status, or any number of other fascist hobby horses, he pinkie swears the VA is just going after trans people, are doing little to beat the nazi ideological policing allegations this change in VA policy brings up. As is the case with the anti-trans pogrom, and Trump's fascist war on immigrants (including legal immigrants), a VA built to discriminate against trans people is a VA that can discriminate against anyone the Swine Emperor wants to punish.
#Fascism #Trump #VA #Healthcare #IdeologicalPolicing #AntiTransPogrom #USPol
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In another thread and some recent conversations on my personal account, I talked a little bit about why the Trump regime's actions in court signal that they have no intention of ceasing their ideological policing of anti-genocide, pro-Palestine critics, through the federally-controlled immigration process. As if to demonstrate the point, the US government has deported an Australian blogger returning to the country, expressly for his writings about Israel's genocide in Gaza, and anti-genocide student protests in the United States.
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted’ due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
"The 33-year-old said he was “clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons” and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his “thoughts on Hamas”.
Kitchen said officials asked him for his “thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense”, including about student protesters, what Israel “should have done differently” and “how I would resolve the conflict”.
“It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,” he said.
Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning.
“The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,” he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security was contacted for comment."
To be clear, Kitchen is not a resident of the United States and nothing CBP did is strictly illegal; it's not like they kidnapped him and threw him in private prison cage, as they have done to anti-genocide protestors and critics in America where immigration law made it possible (but not legal.) However the blogger's testimony makes it clear that US immigration officials knew who he was in advance, wanted to grill him on his writing about the genocide and anti-genocide protests on college campuses, and denied him entry for the purely ideological reason that he doesn't support Trump's genocide or fascist repression of student protestors. The investigating officials made up some bullshit about there being evidence of drug use on Kitchen's phone, but their laser-like focus on his writing makes it abundantly clear that this was fascist ideological policing.
Folks, let's be clear here; Kitchen is a guy with a conscience who maintains a small blog. He is not a threat to the US government, and there was no valid reason to deny him entry to the United States or deport him whatsoever. Immigration enforcement under the Trump regime is clearly about keeping the kind of people Trump himself doesn't like out of the country, and has nothing to do with the law, national security, or keeping us safe.
This episode brings us back to something I was talking about when immigration pigs harassed and detained Hasan Piker at the Chicago airport, in that it speaks to the scope of the Trump regime's ideological policing. These fascist pigs are tracking Twitch streamers and guys writing blogs with a few thousand regular readers (folks not unlike myself) and the only reason this is all focused on immigrants and foreign visitors to the United States is because that's the part of the government Trump more or less controls completely. The regime thinks opposing the regime itself is a crime, and as soon as they can make this ideological policing an operational program domestically, you can bet that they're coming for American-born critics in the same ways, and for the same reasons.
#Fascism #Trump #CBP #Immigration #AlistairKitchen #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #Panopticon #PoliceState #Gaza #Genocide
-
In another thread and some recent conversations on my personal account, I talked a little bit about why the Trump regime's actions in court signal that they have no intention of ceasing their ideological policing of anti-genocide, pro-Palestine critics, through the federally-controlled immigration process. As if to demonstrate the point, the US government has deported an Australian blogger returning to the country, expressly for his writings about Israel's genocide in Gaza, and anti-genocide student protests in the United States.
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted’ due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
"The 33-year-old said he was “clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons” and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his “thoughts on Hamas”.
Kitchen said officials asked him for his “thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense”, including about student protesters, what Israel “should have done differently” and “how I would resolve the conflict”.
“It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,” he said.
Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning.
“The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,” he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security was contacted for comment."
To be clear, Kitchen is not a resident of the United States and nothing CBP did is strictly illegal; it's not like they kidnapped him and threw him in private prison cage, as they have done to anti-genocide protestors and critics in America where immigration law made it possible (but not legal.) However the blogger's testimony makes it clear that US immigration officials knew who he was in advance, wanted to grill him on his writing about the genocide and anti-genocide protests on college campuses, and denied him entry for the purely ideological reason that he doesn't support Trump's genocide or fascist repression of student protestors. The investigating officials made up some bullshit about there being evidence of drug use on Kitchen's phone, but their laser-like focus on his writing makes it abundantly clear that this was fascist ideological policing.
Folks, let's be clear here; Kitchen is a guy with a conscience who maintains a small blog. He is not a threat to the US government, and there was no valid reason to deny him entry to the United States or deport him whatsoever. Immigration enforcement under the Trump regime is clearly about keeping the kind of people Trump himself doesn't like out of the country, and has nothing to do with the law, national security, or keeping us safe.
This episode brings us back to something I was talking about when immigration pigs harassed and detained Hasan Piker at the Chicago airport, in that it speaks to the scope of the Trump regime's ideological policing. These fascist pigs are tracking Twitch streamers and guys writing blogs with a few thousand regular readers (folks not unlike myself) and the only reason this is all focused on immigrants and foreign visitors to the United States is because that's the part of the government Trump more or less controls completely. The regime thinks opposing the regime itself is a crime, and as soon as they can make this ideological policing an operational program domestically, you can bet that they're coming for American-born critics in the same ways, and for the same reasons.
#Fascism #Trump #CBP #Immigration #AlistairKitchen #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #Panopticon #PoliceState #Gaza #Genocide
-
In another thread and some recent conversations on my personal account, I talked a little bit about why the Trump regime's actions in court signal that they have no intention of ceasing their ideological policing of anti-genocide, pro-Palestine critics, through the federally-controlled immigration process. As if to demonstrate the point, the US government has deported an Australian blogger returning to the country, expressly for his writings about Israel's genocide in Gaza, and anti-genocide student protests in the United States.
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted’ due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
"The 33-year-old said he was “clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons” and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his “thoughts on Hamas”.
Kitchen said officials asked him for his “thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense”, including about student protesters, what Israel “should have done differently” and “how I would resolve the conflict”.
“It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,” he said.
Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning.
“The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,” he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security was contacted for comment."
To be clear, Kitchen is not a resident of the United States and nothing CBP did is strictly illegal; it's not like they kidnapped him and threw him in private prison cage, as they have done to anti-genocide protestors and critics in America where immigration law made it possible (but not legal.) However the blogger's testimony makes it clear that US immigration officials knew who he was in advance, wanted to grill him on his writing about the genocide and anti-genocide protests on college campuses, and denied him entry for the purely ideological reason that he doesn't support Trump's genocide or fascist repression of student protestors. The investigating officials made up some bullshit about there being evidence of drug use on Kitchen's phone, but their laser-like focus on his writing makes it abundantly clear that this was fascist ideological policing.
Folks, let's be clear here; Kitchen is a guy with a conscience who maintains a small blog. He is not a threat to the US government, and there was no valid reason to deny him entry to the United States or deport him whatsoever. Immigration enforcement under the Trump regime is clearly about keeping the kind of people Trump himself doesn't like out of the country, and has nothing to do with the law, national security, or keeping us safe.
This episode brings us back to something I was talking about when immigration pigs harassed and detained Hasan Piker at the Chicago airport, in that it speaks to the scope of the Trump regime's ideological policing. These fascist pigs are tracking Twitch streamers and guys writing blogs with a few thousand regular readers (folks not unlike myself) and the only reason this is all focused on immigrants and foreign visitors to the United States is because that's the part of the government Trump more or less controls completely. The regime thinks opposing the regime itself is a crime, and as soon as they can make this ideological policing an operational program domestically, you can bet that they're coming for American-born critics in the same ways, and for the same reasons.
#Fascism #Trump #CBP #Immigration #AlistairKitchen #IdeologicalPolicing #MassSurveillance #Panopticon #PoliceState #Gaza #Genocide
-
Recently there has been a certain amount of pushback in our discourse against those of us on the left who call ICE the Gestapo and demand the immediate abolishment of the Department of Homeland Security that runs it; even in the wake of the Trump regime's ongoing, openly ethno-nationalist mass deportation scheme and the flagrant civil rights violations ICE and by extension DHS are brazenly engaging in, to conduct it. While the position is hardly universal, a significant portion of people in our political and media classes seem to feel more sympathy towards DHS officials and ICE agents being called nazis in public for doing nazi shit, than the mostly-brown, mostly-poor, mostly-undocumented victims of their fascist repression.
The reason for this of course, is the latent white supremacy of American discourse and the Very Serious People TM in our society who conduct it. Behind every argument about "securing the border," or the need for "law and order" that emanates from our ruling classes and the media that serves them, lies the same racialized us-and them logic that fuels Trump's white nationalist administration and its fascist agenda; even if many of the folks making those arguments find the open nazification of US society in pursuit of that "order" appalling.
Yet as the Gestapo begins to creep deeper into American civic life, this distinction between the presumed "us" and the othered "them" is already starting to blur. The Trump regime is arresting judges, mayors, and Congressional representatives now, and it is clear that the fascist order behind this vast deportation machine has an entirely different definition of "us" and "them" than the one espoused, covertly or overtly, by polite society. Doesn't abolishing a DHS that has grown into Trump's private police state goon squad seem more reasonable now that DHS murderpigs are marching into Jerry Nadler's office in New York without a warrant to accuse congressional staffers of "harboring rioters?"
Homeland Security Cops Invade NY Congressman’s Office, Handcuff Aide
"Last month, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka outside an immigration detention facility, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said on CNN that there would “likely be more arrests coming.”
DHS police came close to delivering on that threat this past week when they invaded the Manhattan offices of Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and briefly handcuffed one of his staffers.
“They’re behaving like fascists,” Nadler told the New York Times in an interview about the incident this weekend. On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), told host Dana Bash: “I think the administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country.”
The incident, first reported by the New York City news site Gothamist, occurred Wednesday after DHS agents accused staffers of “harboring rioters” in their offices, which is located in the same building as a federal immigration courthouse. A partial video of the incident obtained by Gothamist shows one officer handcuffing a crying woman while another Nadler staffer demands that agents provide a warrant before entering."
There will be those who accuse me of overreacting, because as Nadler noted on social media nobody was arrested, and the situation was ultimately deescalated. But an outcome based analysis seems hardly appropriate here given the openly fascist nature of the activities DHS cops were conducting. Storming into a Democrat Congressman's office and roughing up the staff because you think they're harboring dissenters who filmed ICE agents is basically a scene out of a movie about the literal Nazi Party in interwar Germany, and yet it's playing out here in America to little or no broader impact on the social discourse. I'm not exactly the world's biggest Jerry Nadler fan, but the Congressman is absolutely correct when he says this alarming incident is part of a broader pattern playing out across the country.
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone—and it is happening,” Nadler said."
Indeed. Which brings us back to the open question of the hour; how much longer are the American people who aren't open nazis, going to tolerate an expanding fascist police state forcing us all to live out Trump's unhinged vision of a whiter, more violent, and far less free America? This *is* how it happens here my friends; do we intend to let it?
#Fascism #USPol #Trump #DHS #Gestapo #MassDeporations #Protest #CivilRights #JerryNadler #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol
-
Recently there has been a certain amount of pushback in our discourse against those of us on the left who call ICE the Gestapo and demand the immediate abolishment of the Department of Homeland Security that runs it; even in the wake of the Trump regime's ongoing, openly ethno-nationalist mass deportation scheme and the flagrant civil rights violations ICE and by extension DHS are brazenly engaging in, to conduct it. While the position is hardly universal, a significant portion of people in our political and media classes seem to feel more sympathy towards DHS officials and ICE agents being called nazis in public for doing nazi shit, than the mostly-brown, mostly-poor, mostly-undocumented victims of their fascist repression.
The reason for this of course, is the latent white supremacy of American discourse and the Very Serious People TM in our society who conduct it. Behind every argument about "securing the border," or the need for "law and order" that emanates from our ruling classes and the media that serves them, lies the same racialized us-and them logic that fuels Trump's white nationalist administration and its fascist agenda; even if many of the folks making those arguments find the open nazification of US society in pursuit of that "order" appalling.
Yet as the Gestapo begins to creep deeper into American civic life, this distinction between the presumed "us" and the othered "them" is already starting to blur. The Trump regime is arresting judges, mayors, and Congressional representatives now, and it is clear that the fascist order behind this vast deportation machine has an entirely different definition of "us" and "them" than the one espoused, covertly or overtly, by polite society. Doesn't abolishing a DHS that has grown into Trump's private police state goon squad seem more reasonable now that DHS murderpigs are marching into Jerry Nadler's office in New York without a warrant to accuse congressional staffers of "harboring rioters?"
Homeland Security Cops Invade NY Congressman’s Office, Handcuff Aide
"Last month, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka outside an immigration detention facility, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said on CNN that there would “likely be more arrests coming.”
DHS police came close to delivering on that threat this past week when they invaded the Manhattan offices of Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and briefly handcuffed one of his staffers.
“They’re behaving like fascists,” Nadler told the New York Times in an interview about the incident this weekend. On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), told host Dana Bash: “I think the administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country.”
The incident, first reported by the New York City news site Gothamist, occurred Wednesday after DHS agents accused staffers of “harboring rioters” in their offices, which is located in the same building as a federal immigration courthouse. A partial video of the incident obtained by Gothamist shows one officer handcuffing a crying woman while another Nadler staffer demands that agents provide a warrant before entering."
There will be those who accuse me of overreacting, because as Nadler noted on social media nobody was arrested, and the situation was ultimately deescalated. But an outcome based analysis seems hardly appropriate here given the openly fascist nature of the activities DHS cops were conducting. Storming into a Democrat Congressman's office and roughing up the staff because you think they're harboring dissenters who filmed ICE agents is basically a scene out of a movie about the literal Nazi Party in interwar Germany, and yet it's playing out here in America to little or no broader impact on the social discourse. I'm not exactly the world's biggest Jerry Nadler fan, but the Congressman is absolutely correct when he says this alarming incident is part of a broader pattern playing out across the country.
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone—and it is happening,” Nadler said."
Indeed. Which brings us back to the open question of the hour; how much longer are the American people who aren't open nazis, going to tolerate an expanding fascist police state forcing us all to live out Trump's unhinged vision of a whiter, more violent, and far less free America? This *is* how it happens here my friends; do we intend to let it?
#Fascism #USPol #Trump #DHS #Gestapo #MassDeporations #Protest #CivilRights #JerryNadler #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol
-
Recently there has been a certain amount of pushback in our discourse against those of us on the left who call ICE the Gestapo and demand the immediate abolishment of the Department of Homeland Security that runs it; even in the wake of the Trump regime's ongoing, openly ethno-nationalist mass deportation scheme and the flagrant civil rights violations ICE and by extension DHS are brazenly engaging in, to conduct it. While the position is hardly universal, a significant portion of people in our political and media classes seem to feel more sympathy towards DHS officials and ICE agents being called nazis in public for doing nazi shit, than the mostly-brown, mostly-poor, mostly-undocumented victims of their fascist repression.
The reason for this of course, is the latent white supremacy of American discourse and the Very Serious People TM in our society who conduct it. Behind every argument about "securing the border," or the need for "law and order" that emanates from our ruling classes and the media that serves them, lies the same racialized us-and them logic that fuels Trump's white nationalist administration and its fascist agenda; even if many of the folks making those arguments find the open nazification of US society in pursuit of that "order" appalling.
Yet as the Gestapo begins to creep deeper into American civic life, this distinction between the presumed "us" and the othered "them" is already starting to blur. The Trump regime is arresting judges, mayors, and Congressional representatives now, and it is clear that the fascist order behind this vast deportation machine has an entirely different definition of "us" and "them" than the one espoused, covertly or overtly, by polite society. Doesn't abolishing a DHS that has grown into Trump's private police state goon squad seem more reasonable now that DHS murderpigs are marching into Jerry Nadler's office in New York without a warrant to accuse congressional staffers of "harboring rioters?"
Homeland Security Cops Invade NY Congressman’s Office, Handcuff Aide
"Last month, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka outside an immigration detention facility, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said on CNN that there would “likely be more arrests coming.”
DHS police came close to delivering on that threat this past week when they invaded the Manhattan offices of Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and briefly handcuffed one of his staffers.
“They’re behaving like fascists,” Nadler told the New York Times in an interview about the incident this weekend. On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), told host Dana Bash: “I think the administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country.”
The incident, first reported by the New York City news site Gothamist, occurred Wednesday after DHS agents accused staffers of “harboring rioters” in their offices, which is located in the same building as a federal immigration courthouse. A partial video of the incident obtained by Gothamist shows one officer handcuffing a crying woman while another Nadler staffer demands that agents provide a warrant before entering."
There will be those who accuse me of overreacting, because as Nadler noted on social media nobody was arrested, and the situation was ultimately deescalated. But an outcome based analysis seems hardly appropriate here given the openly fascist nature of the activities DHS cops were conducting. Storming into a Democrat Congressman's office and roughing up the staff because you think they're harboring dissenters who filmed ICE agents is basically a scene out of a movie about the literal Nazi Party in interwar Germany, and yet it's playing out here in America to little or no broader impact on the social discourse. I'm not exactly the world's biggest Jerry Nadler fan, but the Congressman is absolutely correct when he says this alarming incident is part of a broader pattern playing out across the country.
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone—and it is happening,” Nadler said."
Indeed. Which brings us back to the open question of the hour; how much longer are the American people who aren't open nazis, going to tolerate an expanding fascist police state forcing us all to live out Trump's unhinged vision of a whiter, more violent, and far less free America? This *is* how it happens here my friends; do we intend to let it?
#Fascism #USPol #Trump #DHS #Gestapo #MassDeporations #Protest #CivilRights #JerryNadler #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol
-
At this point, I think the degree to which bald-faced racial animus and white nationalist ideology helps form the very core of what the Trump regime does on a day to day basis, makes it ridiculously irresponsible not to discuss the open white supremacy underpinning those actions when reporting on them. I think we're all aware that Donald Trump and the vast majority of his administration are committed racists, but when politically-empowered racists start devoting the immense power of the state to prosecuting white grievance, and re-establishing an ethno-nationalist legal, political, and social order, that should be front page news no matter how many times it has already come up before. Take for example the relative lack of media uproar about the news that Trump's Department of Justice is launching what's effectively an "anti-Affirmative Action or DEI" investigation into the Black Democrat Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson for literally hiring Black people, in a minority majority city.
Justice Department to investigate Chicago after mayor's remarks about hiring Black officials
"The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Monday that it was opening an investigation into the city of Chicago after Mayor Brandon Johnson's comments Sunday highlighting prominent Black officials in his administration.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a letter to Johnson posted on X that she had “authorized an investigation” into whether Chicago is “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination” following Johnson’s remarks at a church Sunday.
“If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question of whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions,” Dhillon wrote.
Johnson said in remarks at Apostolic Church of God that the deputy mayor, the chief operations officer, the budget director and others are all Black people. Johnson said some of his detractors criticize him by saying the only thing he talks about "is the hiring of Black people."
“No, what I’m saying is when you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else," he said."
Alright so bear with me for a moment because the amount of racist petulant adult baby shit going on here is significant, and I'm not sure the quoted passage does it justice. The (un)Civil Rights division of Trump's Justice Department is investigating the Mayor of Chicago for crimes against whiteness because he highlighted the effectiveness of hiring Black people in a city that's roughly 65% non-white, and 30% Black, while speaking at a Black majority church. So, what normal people would call "political campaigning."
As the article goes on to note, the announcement of this investigation comes despite the raw demographic data showing only a slim majority of Black employees among the Mayor's Office staff:
"According to the mayor’s office, white and Black employees are a majority of staff members, with 30.5% of employees identifying as white and 34.3% identifying as Black."
So, the Trump administration is harassing the Mayor of a majority-minority city winger racists have been demonizing for years, because Johnson hired a staff that looks more or less like the community he serves, demographically. Of course there's a little more backstory here, because Mayor Johnson has been critical of Trump's racism and racist policies; to which any rational person should probably respond "well, good for him; at least he got something right given how poorly his tenure as Mayor has gone." The reality here however is that someone inside the Trump regime heard a Black Mayor brag about hiring Black leaders in his administration at a Black Church and decided that was probably a race crime against whiteness. Normally, the story would end there, with a note that "crackers believe the weirdest shit" but because this is a white nationalist government prepared to move heaven and earth to prosecute white grievance, here we are.
I sincerely hope the reason media minions are missing the point of this story isn't that Trump sent out the Indian-American lady to announce the threat on Johnson; we're far too late in the game for "but they have a minority friend" to carry water. Maybe folks don't want to talk about Brandon Johnson because he's a bad Mayor, who ran as a progressive, and has more or less let down all the people who brought him to power in Chicago. That's fair, but when the Trump administration is using the Department of Justice to target its political opposition for blatantly racist reasons, Very Serious People TM in the discourse could at least use that story to stop equivocating about whether or not these guys really are cracker nazis, doing cracker nazi shit.
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #IdeologicalPolicing #Racism #WhiateNationalism #Chicago #BrandonJohnson #PoliticalIntimidation #JusticeDepartment #HarmeetDhillon #WhiteGrievance #AffirmativeAction #DEI #Nazis
-
At this point, I think the degree to which bald-faced racial animus and white nationalist ideology helps form the very core of what the Trump regime does on a day to day basis, makes it ridiculously irresponsible not to discuss the open white supremacy underpinning those actions when reporting on them. I think we're all aware that Donald Trump and the vast majority of his administration are committed racists, but when politically-empowered racists start devoting the immense power of the state to prosecuting white grievance, and re-establishing an ethno-nationalist legal, political, and social order, that should be front page news no matter how many times it has already come up before. Take for example the relative lack of media uproar about the news that Trump's Department of Justice is launching what's effectively an "anti-Affirmative Action or DEI" investigation into the Black Democrat Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson for literally hiring Black people, in a minority majority city.
Justice Department to investigate Chicago after mayor's remarks about hiring Black officials
"The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Monday that it was opening an investigation into the city of Chicago after Mayor Brandon Johnson's comments Sunday highlighting prominent Black officials in his administration.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a letter to Johnson posted on X that she had “authorized an investigation” into whether Chicago is “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination” following Johnson’s remarks at a church Sunday.
“If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question of whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions,” Dhillon wrote.
Johnson said in remarks at Apostolic Church of God that the deputy mayor, the chief operations officer, the budget director and others are all Black people. Johnson said some of his detractors criticize him by saying the only thing he talks about "is the hiring of Black people."
“No, what I’m saying is when you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else," he said."
Alright so bear with me for a moment because the amount of racist petulant adult baby shit going on here is significant, and I'm not sure the quoted passage does it justice. The (un)Civil Rights division of Trump's Justice Department is investigating the Mayor of Chicago for crimes against whiteness because he highlighted the effectiveness of hiring Black people in a city that's roughly 65% non-white, and 30% Black, while speaking at a Black majority church. So, what normal people would call "political campaigning."
As the article goes on to note, the announcement of this investigation comes despite the raw demographic data showing only a slim majority of Black employees among the Mayor's Office staff:
"According to the mayor’s office, white and Black employees are a majority of staff members, with 30.5% of employees identifying as white and 34.3% identifying as Black."
So, the Trump administration is harassing the Mayor of a majority-minority city winger racists have been demonizing for years, because Johnson hired a staff that looks more or less like the community he serves, demographically. Of course there's a little more backstory here, because Mayor Johnson has been critical of Trump's racism and racist policies; to which any rational person should probably respond "well, good for him; at least he got something right given how poorly his tenure as Mayor has gone." The reality here however is that someone inside the Trump regime heard a Black Mayor brag about hiring Black leaders in his administration at a Black Church and decided that was probably a race crime against whiteness. Normally, the story would end there, with a note that "crackers believe the weirdest shit" but because this is a white nationalist government prepared to move heaven and earth to prosecute white grievance, here we are.
I sincerely hope the reason media minions are missing the point of this story isn't that Trump sent out the Indian-American lady to announce the threat on Johnson; we're far too late in the game for "but they have a minority friend" to carry water. Maybe folks don't want to talk about Brandon Johnson because he's a bad Mayor, who ran as a progressive, and has more or less let down all the people who brought him to power in Chicago. That's fair, but when the Trump administration is using the Department of Justice to target its political opposition for blatantly racist reasons, Very Serious People TM in the discourse could at least use that story to stop equivocating about whether or not these guys really are cracker nazis, doing cracker nazi shit.
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #IdeologicalPolicing #Racism #WhiateNationalism #Chicago #BrandonJohnson #PoliticalIntimidation #JusticeDepartment #HarmeetDhillon #WhiteGrievance #AffirmativeAction #DEI #Nazis
-
At this point, I think the degree to which bald-faced racial animus and white nationalist ideology helps form the very core of what the Trump regime does on a day to day basis, makes it ridiculously irresponsible not to discuss the open white supremacy underpinning those actions when reporting on them. I think we're all aware that Donald Trump and the vast majority of his administration are committed racists, but when politically-empowered racists start devoting the immense power of the state to prosecuting white grievance, and re-establishing an ethno-nationalist legal, political, and social order, that should be front page news no matter how many times it has already come up before. Take for example the relative lack of media uproar about the news that Trump's Department of Justice is launching what's effectively an "anti-Affirmative Action or DEI" investigation into the Black Democrat Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson for literally hiring Black people, in a minority majority city.
Justice Department to investigate Chicago after mayor's remarks about hiring Black officials
"The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Monday that it was opening an investigation into the city of Chicago after Mayor Brandon Johnson's comments Sunday highlighting prominent Black officials in his administration.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a letter to Johnson posted on X that she had “authorized an investigation” into whether Chicago is “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination” following Johnson’s remarks at a church Sunday.
“If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question of whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions,” Dhillon wrote.
Johnson said in remarks at Apostolic Church of God that the deputy mayor, the chief operations officer, the budget director and others are all Black people. Johnson said some of his detractors criticize him by saying the only thing he talks about "is the hiring of Black people."
“No, what I’m saying is when you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else," he said."
Alright so bear with me for a moment because the amount of racist petulant adult baby shit going on here is significant, and I'm not sure the quoted passage does it justice. The (un)Civil Rights division of Trump's Justice Department is investigating the Mayor of Chicago for crimes against whiteness because he highlighted the effectiveness of hiring Black people in a city that's roughly 65% non-white, and 30% Black, while speaking at a Black majority church. So, what normal people would call "political campaigning."
As the article goes on to note, the announcement of this investigation comes despite the raw demographic data showing only a slim majority of Black employees among the Mayor's Office staff:
"According to the mayor’s office, white and Black employees are a majority of staff members, with 30.5% of employees identifying as white and 34.3% identifying as Black."
So, the Trump administration is harassing the Mayor of a majority-minority city winger racists have been demonizing for years, because Johnson hired a staff that looks more or less like the community he serves, demographically. Of course there's a little more backstory here, because Mayor Johnson has been critical of Trump's racism and racist policies; to which any rational person should probably respond "well, good for him; at least he got something right given how poorly his tenure as Mayor has gone." The reality here however is that someone inside the Trump regime heard a Black Mayor brag about hiring Black leaders in his administration at a Black Church and decided that was probably a race crime against whiteness. Normally, the story would end there, with a note that "crackers believe the weirdest shit" but because this is a white nationalist government prepared to move heaven and earth to prosecute white grievance, here we are.
I sincerely hope the reason media minions are missing the point of this story isn't that Trump sent out the Indian-American lady to announce the threat on Johnson; we're far too late in the game for "but they have a minority friend" to carry water. Maybe folks don't want to talk about Brandon Johnson because he's a bad Mayor, who ran as a progressive, and has more or less let down all the people who brought him to power in Chicago. That's fair, but when the Trump administration is using the Department of Justice to target its political opposition for blatantly racist reasons, Very Serious People TM in the discourse could at least use that story to stop equivocating about whether or not these guys really are cracker nazis, doing cracker nazi shit.
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #IdeologicalPolicing #Racism #WhiateNationalism #Chicago #BrandonJohnson #PoliticalIntimidation #JusticeDepartment #HarmeetDhillon #WhiteGrievance #AffirmativeAction #DEI #Nazis
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As I approach four months of analyzing the news in the second Trump era, I'm still frequently alarmed at the way the surreal, "assclown circus" atmosphere of the entire Trump regime, somehow functions to mask and minimize the overt fascist machinations and operations the government and the president himself engage in. Take for example the recent story about Downmarket Mussolini getting into a spat with, and then openly threatening aging American rocker Bruce Springsteen; a consistent critic of the Trump regime, and longtime supporter of the Democratic Party.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-warns-springsteen-ought-keep-151423368.html
‘Trump Warns Springsteen: “He Ought to Keep His Mouth Shut Until He’s Back Into the Country”
"Earlier this week, Bruce Springsteen launched his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” in Manchester, England. The opening concert proved to be a decidedly political affair, as the New Jersey rocker repeatedly took aim at the Trump Administration with a series of pointed speeches throughout the night. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen proclaimed at the top of the concert. Later, he remarked, “A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”
It seems Donald Trump has finally got wind of Springsteen’s comments (possibly via Fox News), and on Friday, he responded in a post on Truth Social. “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote.
He then issued what some may perceive as a not so subtle threat: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Okay, so on the surface is this story kind of funny? Yes. One of the most bizarre things about Trump is the way the president mentally lives in a version of reality dominated by fame and public image, and thus his already quite bizarre feuds with variously liberal celebrities are often unhinged and highly-charged emotionally. Freaking out about a rock star's skin when you look like a bag of oatmeal covered in pancake makeup is a bold, but puerile move my dude. The whole thing is pathetic, weird, and makes the President of the United States look like an assclown; which probably really matters to boutique liberal snark media outlets, but isn't actually anything that materially moves the needle.
The thing is, Der Leader didn't stop typing after he mocked Springsteen's skin; the President then proceeded to issue a demand for silence and a thinly-veiled threat to punish the again, famous liberal rockstar, in unclear ways. Whether you want to talk about using the bully pulpit to try and suppress the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of a prominent critic, or the clear if undefined threat towards that same critic, this is fascist dictator shit and it's illegal. Given the regime's weaponization of the Department of Justice against media critical of the government, the abduction and attempted deportation of student anti-genocide protestors including at least one woman who did nothing more than write an op-ed, and even the recent detainment and questioning of anti-Trump, anti-genocide streamer Hasan Piker by CBP in Chicago, it seems to me that we should probably take Trump seriously when he threatens an outspoken rock star he doesn't like too.
So why exactly is the lead story in the vast majority of corporate media outlets "ha ha, Trump is such a pathetic narcissist" and not "the fascist President just threatened Bruce Springsteen?" Yahoo had to pull that analysis from an upscale blog I've never heard of; and I'm not seeing much focus on the important part of this story in The Guardian, NBC, or ABC for example. Given what we already know about what this administration is prepared to do to silence dissent, I don't think chalking it up to Trump being a loser is gonna cut it; and yet that's where we're at across much of the mainstream media environment.
Look, it's not lost on me that Trump, his sycophants, and state media outlet Fox News are all gonna deny what Der Führer said was a threat, but like I've said before, just because lying nazis play disingenuous games of Simon Says doesn't mean we have to pretend they're speaking in good faith. You know it's a threat, and I know it's a threat; so does the media, they're just too scared of Trump to focus on the important part of the story.
#Fascismt #Trump #PoliceState #BruceSpringsteen #FreeSpeech #Authoritarianism #Dictatorship #Media #IdeologicalPolicing #Dissent
-
As I approach four months of analyzing the news in the second Trump era, I'm still frequently alarmed at the way the surreal, "assclown circus" atmosphere of the entire Trump regime, somehow functions to mask and minimize the overt fascist machinations and operations the government and the president himself engage in. Take for example the recent story about Downmarket Mussolini getting into a spat with, and then openly threatening aging American rocker Bruce Springsteen; a consistent critic of the Trump regime, and longtime supporter of the Democratic Party.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-warns-springsteen-ought-keep-151423368.html
‘Trump Warns Springsteen: “He Ought to Keep His Mouth Shut Until He’s Back Into the Country”
"Earlier this week, Bruce Springsteen launched his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” in Manchester, England. The opening concert proved to be a decidedly political affair, as the New Jersey rocker repeatedly took aim at the Trump Administration with a series of pointed speeches throughout the night. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen proclaimed at the top of the concert. Later, he remarked, “A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”
It seems Donald Trump has finally got wind of Springsteen’s comments (possibly via Fox News), and on Friday, he responded in a post on Truth Social. “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote.
He then issued what some may perceive as a not so subtle threat: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Okay, so on the surface is this story kind of funny? Yes. One of the most bizarre things about Trump is the way the president mentally lives in a version of reality dominated by fame and public image, and thus his already quite bizarre feuds with variously liberal celebrities are often unhinged and highly-charged emotionally. Freaking out about a rock star's skin when you look like a bag of oatmeal covered in pancake makeup is a bold, but puerile move my dude. The whole thing is pathetic, weird, and makes the President of the United States look like an assclown; which probably really matters to boutique liberal snark media outlets, but isn't actually anything that materially moves the needle.
The thing is, Der Leader didn't stop typing after he mocked Springsteen's skin; the President then proceeded to issue a demand for silence and a thinly-veiled threat to punish the again, famous liberal rockstar, in unclear ways. Whether you want to talk about using the bully pulpit to try and suppress the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of a prominent critic, or the clear if undefined threat towards that same critic, this is fascist dictator shit and it's illegal. Given the regime's weaponization of the Department of Justice against media critical of the government, the abduction and attempted deportation of student anti-genocide protestors including at least one woman who did nothing more than write an op-ed, and even the recent detainment and questioning of anti-Trump, anti-genocide streamer Hasan Piker by CBP in Chicago, it seems to me that we should probably take Trump seriously when he threatens an outspoken rock star he doesn't like too.
So why exactly is the lead story in the vast majority of corporate media outlets "ha ha, Trump is such a pathetic narcissist" and not "the fascist President just threatened Bruce Springsteen?" Yahoo had to pull that analysis from an upscale blog I've never heard of; and I'm not seeing much focus on the important part of this story in The Guardian, NBC, or ABC for example. Given what we already know about what this administration is prepared to do to silence dissent, I don't think chalking it up to Trump being a loser is gonna cut it; and yet that's where we're at across much of the mainstream media environment.
Look, it's not lost on me that Trump, his sycophants, and state media outlet Fox News are all gonna deny what Der Führer said was a threat, but like I've said before, just because lying nazis play disingenuous games of Simon Says doesn't mean we have to pretend they're speaking in good faith. You know it's a threat, and I know it's a threat; so does the media, they're just too scared of Trump to focus on the important part of the story.
#Fascismt #Trump #PoliceState #BruceSpringsteen #FreeSpeech #Authoritarianism #Dictatorship #Media #IdeologicalPolicing #Dissent
-
As I approach four months of analyzing the news in the second Trump era, I'm still frequently alarmed at the way the surreal, "assclown circus" atmosphere of the entire Trump regime, somehow functions to mask and minimize the overt fascist machinations and operations the government and the president himself engage in. Take for example the recent story about Downmarket Mussolini getting into a spat with, and then openly threatening aging American rocker Bruce Springsteen; a consistent critic of the Trump regime, and longtime supporter of the Democratic Party.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-warns-springsteen-ought-keep-151423368.html
‘Trump Warns Springsteen: “He Ought to Keep His Mouth Shut Until He’s Back Into the Country”
"Earlier this week, Bruce Springsteen launched his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” in Manchester, England. The opening concert proved to be a decidedly political affair, as the New Jersey rocker repeatedly took aim at the Trump Administration with a series of pointed speeches throughout the night. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen proclaimed at the top of the concert. Later, he remarked, “A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”
It seems Donald Trump has finally got wind of Springsteen’s comments (possibly via Fox News), and on Friday, he responded in a post on Truth Social. “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote.
He then issued what some may perceive as a not so subtle threat: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Okay, so on the surface is this story kind of funny? Yes. One of the most bizarre things about Trump is the way the president mentally lives in a version of reality dominated by fame and public image, and thus his already quite bizarre feuds with variously liberal celebrities are often unhinged and highly-charged emotionally. Freaking out about a rock star's skin when you look like a bag of oatmeal covered in pancake makeup is a bold, but puerile move my dude. The whole thing is pathetic, weird, and makes the President of the United States look like an assclown; which probably really matters to boutique liberal snark media outlets, but isn't actually anything that materially moves the needle.
The thing is, Der Leader didn't stop typing after he mocked Springsteen's skin; the President then proceeded to issue a demand for silence and a thinly-veiled threat to punish the again, famous liberal rockstar, in unclear ways. Whether you want to talk about using the bully pulpit to try and suppress the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of a prominent critic, or the clear if undefined threat towards that same critic, this is fascist dictator shit and it's illegal. Given the regime's weaponization of the Department of Justice against media critical of the government, the abduction and attempted deportation of student anti-genocide protestors including at least one woman who did nothing more than write an op-ed, and even the recent detainment and questioning of anti-Trump, anti-genocide streamer Hasan Piker by CBP in Chicago, it seems to me that we should probably take Trump seriously when he threatens an outspoken rock star he doesn't like too.
So why exactly is the lead story in the vast majority of corporate media outlets "ha ha, Trump is such a pathetic narcissist" and not "the fascist President just threatened Bruce Springsteen?" Yahoo had to pull that analysis from an upscale blog I've never heard of; and I'm not seeing much focus on the important part of this story in The Guardian, NBC, or ABC for example. Given what we already know about what this administration is prepared to do to silence dissent, I don't think chalking it up to Trump being a loser is gonna cut it; and yet that's where we're at across much of the mainstream media environment.
Look, it's not lost on me that Trump, his sycophants, and state media outlet Fox News are all gonna deny what Der Führer said was a threat, but like I've said before, just because lying nazis play disingenuous games of Simon Says doesn't mean we have to pretend they're speaking in good faith. You know it's a threat, and I know it's a threat; so does the media, they're just too scared of Trump to focus on the important part of the story.
#Fascismt #Trump #PoliceState #BruceSpringsteen #FreeSpeech #Authoritarianism #Dictatorship #Media #IdeologicalPolicing #Dissent
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The more things change, the more they stay the same apparently. Back when I had a little less gray in my hair, one of the many horrifying scandals to come out of the Bush Administration during the War on Terror/9-11/Iraq War era, involved the suppression of intelligence and intelligence officials who refused to support the Bush-Cheney administration's position that Iraq had, or was on the verge of acquiring, weapons of mass destruction. This mattered because although the Bush government employed a "throw a plate of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" method of manufacturing consent to invade Iraq, the central portion of their legal and diplomatic argument, revolved around the admin's repeated assertion that US Intelligence had actionable information that Saddam Hussein had WMD's or was about to finish building them. Of course, the entire thing turned out to be a lie; Iraq didn't have WMDs, the intelligence supporting the lie was nonexistent, and warmongers who supported the war crafted a narrative that "bad intelligence" had lead Bush-Cheney to ruin. The fact that even that was a lie, wouldn't come out until later; as it turns out US Intelligence had actively told the White House that they *didn't* think Iraq had or was capable of producing WMDs, and the administration had ignored, sidelined, and removed anyone in the intel community who told them so. That story was of course small potatoes compared to the original story about "bad intelligence" and to this day many informed observers still believe the spies told lies and the White House was "duped."
I mention this now of course because Trump's Director of National Intelligence, noted fake peacenik, Islamophobe, and cult member Tulsi Gabbard, just fired two high ranking intelligence officials, and moved the National Intelligence Council under her direct supervision. Why? Well it sure does look like it's because a FOIA request turned up a NIC memo confirming that US intelligence disagreed with Trump's fascist propaganda arguing that the gang Tren de Aragua were working for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; a central pillar of the Trump regime's argument that they have a right to deploy the Alien Enemies Act to do fascist mass deportations and a bunch of other authoritarian buillshit.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/tulsi-gabbard-trump
Gabbard Fires Intel Officials After Memo Counters Trump Lies About Migrants Sent to El Salvador Prison
"While an ODNI spokesperson told The Hill that "the director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community," critics framed the firings as "the DEFINITION of politicizing intelligence."
"I am concerned about the apparent removal of senior leadership at the National Intelligence Council without any explanation except vague accusations made in the media," Congressman Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post. "Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president's agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical."
The NIC leaders were fired after last week's release of an NIC memo confirming that U.S. intelligence agencies never agreed with Trump's claim that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controls the criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The April 7 document states that "while Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States."
Look, I'm not going to ask readers to offer up sympathy for creepy American spymasters; this is a country that engages in offensive espionage, political and social subversion, and activities we would call terrorism if someone we didn't like were doing them, so there are no good guys in this story. With that having been said however, we're looking at clear evidence that the Trump regime itself absolutely knows their fascist "invasion" arguments, on which much of their paper-thin legal justification for doing a host of blatantly unconstitutional activities, are complete bullshit; and they're prepared to politically punish Trump's own intelligence agencies for not agreeing to lie for them. This is, or should be, a major scandal on par with Bush's Iraq War lies; and yet curiously the focus in the media seems to be how bad it is to train your intelligence agencies to not tell you bad news the president doesn't want to hear.
Obviously, I knew Trump's invasion was a lie, and you knew Trump's invasion was a lie. But now the whole world knows Trump's invasion is a lie and we have the documents and statements to prove it; so why is anyone pretending this isn't just fascism?
#Fascism #TulsiGabbard #Trump #DNI #USIntelligence #CIA #TrenDeAragua #Invasion #FakeWar #AlienEnemiesAct #Bush #IraqWar #Propaganda #ConspiracyTheories #IdeologicalPolicing
-
The more things change, the more they stay the same apparently. Back when I had a little less gray in my hair, one of the many horrifying scandals to come out of the Bush Administration during the War on Terror/9-11/Iraq War era, involved the suppression of intelligence and intelligence officials who refused to support the Bush-Cheney administration's position that Iraq had, or was on the verge of acquiring, weapons of mass destruction. This mattered because although the Bush government employed a "throw a plate of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" method of manufacturing consent to invade Iraq, the central portion of their legal and diplomatic argument, revolved around the admin's repeated assertion that US Intelligence had actionable information that Saddam Hussein had WMD's or was about to finish building them. Of course, the entire thing turned out to be a lie; Iraq didn't have WMDs, the intelligence supporting the lie was nonexistent, and warmongers who supported the war crafted a narrative that "bad intelligence" had lead Bush-Cheney to ruin. The fact that even that was a lie, wouldn't come out until later; as it turns out US Intelligence had actively told the White House that they *didn't* think Iraq had or was capable of producing WMDs, and the administration had ignored, sidelined, and removed anyone in the intel community who told them so. That story was of course small potatoes compared to the original story about "bad intelligence" and to this day many informed observers still believe the spies told lies and the White House was "duped."
I mention this now of course because Trump's Director of National Intelligence, noted fake peacenik, Islamophobe, and cult member Tulsi Gabbard, just fired two high ranking intelligence officials, and moved the National Intelligence Council under her direct supervision. Why? Well it sure does look like it's because a FOIA request turned up a NIC memo confirming that US intelligence disagreed with Trump's fascist propaganda arguing that the gang Tren de Aragua were working for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; a central pillar of the Trump regime's argument that they have a right to deploy the Alien Enemies Act to do fascist mass deportations and a bunch of other authoritarian buillshit.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/tulsi-gabbard-trump
Gabbard Fires Intel Officials After Memo Counters Trump Lies About Migrants Sent to El Salvador Prison
"While an ODNI spokesperson told The Hill that "the director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community," critics framed the firings as "the DEFINITION of politicizing intelligence."
"I am concerned about the apparent removal of senior leadership at the National Intelligence Council without any explanation except vague accusations made in the media," Congressman Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post. "Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president's agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical."
The NIC leaders were fired after last week's release of an NIC memo confirming that U.S. intelligence agencies never agreed with Trump's claim that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controls the criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The April 7 document states that "while Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States."
Look, I'm not going to ask readers to offer up sympathy for creepy American spymasters; this is a country that engages in offensive espionage, political and social subversion, and activities we would call terrorism if someone we didn't like were doing them, so there are no good guys in this story. With that having been said however, we're looking at clear evidence that the Trump regime itself absolutely knows their fascist "invasion" arguments, on which much of their paper-thin legal justification for doing a host of blatantly unconstitutional activities, are complete bullshit; and they're prepared to politically punish Trump's own intelligence agencies for not agreeing to lie for them. This is, or should be, a major scandal on par with Bush's Iraq War lies; and yet curiously the focus in the media seems to be how bad it is to train your intelligence agencies to not tell you bad news the president doesn't want to hear.
Obviously, I knew Trump's invasion was a lie, and you knew Trump's invasion was a lie. But now the whole world knows Trump's invasion is a lie and we have the documents and statements to prove it; so why is anyone pretending this isn't just fascism?
#Fascism #TulsiGabbard #Trump #DNI #USIntelligence #CIA #TrenDeAragua #Invasion #FakeWar #AlienEnemiesAct #Bush #IraqWar #Propaganda #ConspiracyTheories #IdeologicalPolicing
-
The more things change, the more they stay the same apparently. Back when I had a little less gray in my hair, one of the many horrifying scandals to come out of the Bush Administration during the War on Terror/9-11/Iraq War era, involved the suppression of intelligence and intelligence officials who refused to support the Bush-Cheney administration's position that Iraq had, or was on the verge of acquiring, weapons of mass destruction. This mattered because although the Bush government employed a "throw a plate of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" method of manufacturing consent to invade Iraq, the central portion of their legal and diplomatic argument, revolved around the admin's repeated assertion that US Intelligence had actionable information that Saddam Hussein had WMD's or was about to finish building them. Of course, the entire thing turned out to be a lie; Iraq didn't have WMDs, the intelligence supporting the lie was nonexistent, and warmongers who supported the war crafted a narrative that "bad intelligence" had lead Bush-Cheney to ruin. The fact that even that was a lie, wouldn't come out until later; as it turns out US Intelligence had actively told the White House that they *didn't* think Iraq had or was capable of producing WMDs, and the administration had ignored, sidelined, and removed anyone in the intel community who told them so. That story was of course small potatoes compared to the original story about "bad intelligence" and to this day many informed observers still believe the spies told lies and the White House was "duped."
I mention this now of course because Trump's Director of National Intelligence, noted fake peacenik, Islamophobe, and cult member Tulsi Gabbard, just fired two high ranking intelligence officials, and moved the National Intelligence Council under her direct supervision. Why? Well it sure does look like it's because a FOIA request turned up a NIC memo confirming that US intelligence disagreed with Trump's fascist propaganda arguing that the gang Tren de Aragua were working for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; a central pillar of the Trump regime's argument that they have a right to deploy the Alien Enemies Act to do fascist mass deportations and a bunch of other authoritarian buillshit.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/tulsi-gabbard-trump
Gabbard Fires Intel Officials After Memo Counters Trump Lies About Migrants Sent to El Salvador Prison
"While an ODNI spokesperson told The Hill that "the director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community," critics framed the firings as "the DEFINITION of politicizing intelligence."
"I am concerned about the apparent removal of senior leadership at the National Intelligence Council without any explanation except vague accusations made in the media," Congressman Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post. "Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president's agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical."
The NIC leaders were fired after last week's release of an NIC memo confirming that U.S. intelligence agencies never agreed with Trump's claim that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controls the criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The April 7 document states that "while Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States."
Look, I'm not going to ask readers to offer up sympathy for creepy American spymasters; this is a country that engages in offensive espionage, political and social subversion, and activities we would call terrorism if someone we didn't like were doing them, so there are no good guys in this story. With that having been said however, we're looking at clear evidence that the Trump regime itself absolutely knows their fascist "invasion" arguments, on which much of their paper-thin legal justification for doing a host of blatantly unconstitutional activities, are complete bullshit; and they're prepared to politically punish Trump's own intelligence agencies for not agreeing to lie for them. This is, or should be, a major scandal on par with Bush's Iraq War lies; and yet curiously the focus in the media seems to be how bad it is to train your intelligence agencies to not tell you bad news the president doesn't want to hear.
Obviously, I knew Trump's invasion was a lie, and you knew Trump's invasion was a lie. But now the whole world knows Trump's invasion is a lie and we have the documents and statements to prove it; so why is anyone pretending this isn't just fascism?
#Fascism #TulsiGabbard #Trump #DNI #USIntelligence #CIA #TrenDeAragua #Invasion #FakeWar #AlienEnemiesAct #Bush #IraqWar #Propaganda #ConspiracyTheories #IdeologicalPolicing
-
This past weekend, one of the most terrifying episodes of the Trump regime's war on dissent played out in a Chicago airport, and unless you're big into Twitch streams or YouTube culture, there's a pretty good chance you didn't even hear about it. On Sunday, the most popular left wing political streamer on Twitch, Hasan Piker, was stopped at the airport after returning from a speaking engagement in France, detained, and questioned in what was far as I can tell was an exercise in attempted entrapment, for a little over two hours by Customs and Border Protection. Piker is a prominent critic of the Trump regime and Israel's ongoing, US-backed genocide in Gaza and even if you haven't heard of him, I guarantee you that your kids have; he's "a whole big deal" in the political streaming scene.
According to Piker, who I have no reason to disbelieve, the CBP interrogator directly asked him about his political positions, his support for Palestine, and his opinions on Trump himself; none of which is any of the government's goddamn business. The agent also seemed very determined to directly link Piker to organizations the US government has labelled as terrorist (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) for the purposes of extending his detention. At one point Piker reports that he was grilled about whether or not he had ever interviewed a member of these organizations; despite the fact that Hasan is effectively a member of the media, interviewing people we're bombing or helping to bomb the shit out of is journalism, and American journalists seek out interviews with "our enemies" all the time. Piker had not actually interviewed any members of those organizations, but objectively it doesn't matter if he had and the government once again has no business asking that question.
All of which brings us to the *really* weird part of this story; the fact that a large number of the CPB agent's questions seemed to be formulated directly from accusations made by a Zionist streamer going through a protracted public mental health episode, or a pro-Trump fascist streamer who hasn't washed his body in years; both of whom do not like Hasan and have based a lot of their content around trying to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer and an enemy of the United States. In other words, the fascist government of the United States has someone watching right wing fucking Twitch streams and YouTube personalities to find targets for state repression and accusations to prosecute against them; no, really, that does appear to be what's happening here.
As absurd as all that is however, I agree very much with Piker when he theorizes that the purpose of stopping him for the regime is to send a message to other small (by industry standards) content creators affecting the discourse and criticizing the Trump regime. These nazis want you to know that the eye is always watching, dissent is at least vaguely criminal, and they can get anyone, anywhere, at any time, for anything they like whether it's actually illegal or not. Piker's high profile in the streaming/Youtuber communities, and the fact that he perpetually lives on camera, likely made him the ideal target to send that message to the rest of his community. Factually speaking, I don't think Trump has the power to march into the head offices of say MSNBC and just start arresting journalists, yet. But the regime certainly can start going after independent creators in the media environment without too much trouble, and as such I think it would be foolish to believe the regime's attempts to suppress the media and quash dissent aren't more likely to start with the "little guys" like Hasan. I can't predict the future, but I'm absolutely certain that the threat is real, and Piker won't be the last independent critic of the regime, or Israel's US-backed genocide in Gaza, to be targeted this way.
Finally, I'm not sure this video offers up anything I didn't talk about here, but I like to source my claims out here as you know, so here's Mike Figeuredo of The Humanist Report discussing the situation, with clips from Hasan Piker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUUQQ2NIgYI
The Humanist Report: Leftist Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker Detained & Questioned Over His Anti-Trump Views
"Twitch streamer Hasan Piker announced on Sunday that he was detained and questioned by CBP for approximately two hours at an airport after returning home from an international flight. He explains that a federal agent knew a lot about him and questioned him about his views on Trump and Israel/Palestine. Hasan says he thinks he was detained so the Trump administration could send a message to other content creators like him."
#Fascism #Trump #Gaza #Genocide #Israel #Palestine #HasanPiker #Censorship #IdeologicalPolicing #CBP #PoliceState #Dissent #Media #TheHumanistReport #Twitch #MikeFigueredo #Dictatorship
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This past weekend, one of the most terrifying episodes of the Trump regime's war on dissent played out in a Chicago airport, and unless you're big into Twitch streams or YouTube culture, there's a pretty good chance you didn't even hear about it. On Sunday, the most popular left wing political streamer on Twitch, Hasan Piker, was stopped at the airport after returning from a speaking engagement in France, detained, and questioned in what was far as I can tell was an exercise in attempted entrapment, for a little over two hours by Customs and Border Protection. Piker is a prominent critic of the Trump regime and Israel's ongoing, US-backed genocide in Gaza and even if you haven't heard of him, I guarantee you that your kids have; he's "a whole big deal" in the political streaming scene.
According to Piker, who I have no reason to disbelieve, the CBP interrogator directly asked him about his political positions, his support for Palestine, and his opinions on Trump himself; none of which is any of the government's goddamn business. The agent also seemed very determined to directly link Piker to organizations the US government has labelled as terrorist (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) for the purposes of extending his detention. At one point Piker reports that he was grilled about whether or not he had ever interviewed a member of these organizations; despite the fact that Hasan is effectively a member of the media, interviewing people we're bombing or helping to bomb the shit out of is journalism, and American journalists seek out interviews with "our enemies" all the time. Piker had not actually interviewed any members of those organizations, but objectively it doesn't matter if he had and the government once again has no business asking that question.
All of which brings us to the *really* weird part of this story; the fact that a large number of the CPB agent's questions seemed to be formulated directly from accusations made by a Zionist streamer going through a protracted public mental health episode, or a pro-Trump fascist streamer who hasn't washed his body in years; both of whom do not like Hasan and have based a lot of their content around trying to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer and an enemy of the United States. In other words, the fascist government of the United States has someone watching right wing fucking Twitch streams and YouTube personalities to find targets for state repression and accusations to prosecute against them; no, really, that does appear to be what's happening here.
As absurd as all that is however, I agree very much with Piker when he theorizes that the purpose of stopping him for the regime is to send a message to other small (by industry standards) content creators affecting the discourse and criticizing the Trump regime. These nazis want you to know that the eye is always watching, dissent is at least vaguely criminal, and they can get anyone, anywhere, at any time, for anything they like whether it's actually illegal or not. Piker's high profile in the streaming/Youtuber communities, and the fact that he perpetually lives on camera, likely made him the ideal target to send that message to the rest of his community. Factually speaking, I don't think Trump has the power to march into the head offices of say MSNBC and just start arresting journalists, yet. But the regime certainly can start going after independent creators in the media environment without too much trouble, and as such I think it would be foolish to believe the regime's attempts to suppress the media and quash dissent aren't more likely to start with the "little guys" like Hasan. I can't predict the future, but I'm absolutely certain that the threat is real, and Piker won't be the last independent critic of the regime, or Israel's US-backed genocide in Gaza, to be targeted this way.
Finally, I'm not sure this video offers up anything I didn't talk about here, but I like to source my claims out here as you know, so here's Mike Figeuredo of The Humanist Report discussing the situation, with clips from Hasan Piker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUUQQ2NIgYI
The Humanist Report: Leftist Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker Detained & Questioned Over His Anti-Trump Views
"Twitch streamer Hasan Piker announced on Sunday that he was detained and questioned by CBP for approximately two hours at an airport after returning home from an international flight. He explains that a federal agent knew a lot about him and questioned him about his views on Trump and Israel/Palestine. Hasan says he thinks he was detained so the Trump administration could send a message to other content creators like him."
#Fascism #Trump #Gaza #Genocide #Israel #Palestine #HasanPiker #Censorship #IdeologicalPolicing #CBP #PoliceState #Dissent #Media #TheHumanistReport #Twitch #MikeFigueredo #Dictatorship
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This past weekend, one of the most terrifying episodes of the Trump regime's war on dissent played out in a Chicago airport, and unless you're big into Twitch streams or YouTube culture, there's a pretty good chance you didn't even hear about it. On Sunday, the most popular left wing political streamer on Twitch, Hasan Piker, was stopped at the airport after returning from a speaking engagement in France, detained, and questioned in what was far as I can tell was an exercise in attempted entrapment, for a little over two hours by Customs and Border Protection. Piker is a prominent critic of the Trump regime and Israel's ongoing, US-backed genocide in Gaza and even if you haven't heard of him, I guarantee you that your kids have; he's "a whole big deal" in the political streaming scene.
According to Piker, who I have no reason to disbelieve, the CBP interrogator directly asked him about his political positions, his support for Palestine, and his opinions on Trump himself; none of which is any of the government's goddamn business. The agent also seemed very determined to directly link Piker to organizations the US government has labelled as terrorist (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) for the purposes of extending his detention. At one point Piker reports that he was grilled about whether or not he had ever interviewed a member of these organizations; despite the fact that Hasan is effectively a member of the media, interviewing people we're bombing or helping to bomb the shit out of is journalism, and American journalists seek out interviews with "our enemies" all the time. Piker had not actually interviewed any members of those organizations, but objectively it doesn't matter if he had and the government once again has no business asking that question.
All of which brings us to the *really* weird part of this story; the fact that a large number of the CPB agent's questions seemed to be formulated directly from accusations made by a Zionist streamer going through a protracted public mental health episode, or a pro-Trump fascist streamer who hasn't washed his body in years; both of whom do not like Hasan and have based a lot of their content around trying to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer and an enemy of the United States. In other words, the fascist government of the United States has someone watching right wing fucking Twitch streams and YouTube personalities to find targets for state repression and accusations to prosecute against them; no, really, that does appear to be what's happening here.
As absurd as all that is however, I agree very much with Piker when he theorizes that the purpose of stopping him for the regime is to send a message to other small (by industry standards) content creators affecting the discourse and criticizing the Trump regime. These nazis want you to know that the eye is always watching, dissent is at least vaguely criminal, and they can get anyone, anywhere, at any time, for anything they like whether it's actually illegal or not. Piker's high profile in the streaming/Youtuber communities, and the fact that he perpetually lives on camera, likely made him the ideal target to send that message to the rest of his community. Factually speaking, I don't think Trump has the power to march into the head offices of say MSNBC and just start arresting journalists, yet. But the regime certainly can start going after independent creators in the media environment without too much trouble, and as such I think it would be foolish to believe the regime's attempts to suppress the media and quash dissent aren't more likely to start with the "little guys" like Hasan. I can't predict the future, but I'm absolutely certain that the threat is real, and Piker won't be the last independent critic of the regime, or Israel's US-backed genocide in Gaza, to be targeted this way.
Finally, I'm not sure this video offers up anything I didn't talk about here, but I like to source my claims out here as you know, so here's Mike Figeuredo of The Humanist Report discussing the situation, with clips from Hasan Piker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUUQQ2NIgYI
The Humanist Report: Leftist Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker Detained & Questioned Over His Anti-Trump Views
"Twitch streamer Hasan Piker announced on Sunday that he was detained and questioned by CBP for approximately two hours at an airport after returning home from an international flight. He explains that a federal agent knew a lot about him and questioned him about his views on Trump and Israel/Palestine. Hasan says he thinks he was detained so the Trump administration could send a message to other content creators like him."
#Fascism #Trump #Gaza #Genocide #Israel #Palestine #HasanPiker #Censorship #IdeologicalPolicing #CBP #PoliceState #Dissent #Media #TheHumanistReport #Twitch #MikeFigueredo #Dictatorship
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Cratering in the polls, and losing left right and center in court, the Trump regime spent this week scrambling to install a permanent fascist order before the peasants show up on the National Mall with pitchforks; and we wrote about it all in this week's The Skinny.
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/07/the-skinny-may-1st-7th/2/
The Skinny: Building A Patchwork Enabling Act
"I confess that on some level it’s probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn’t bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn’t want to see in publicly-funded media, he’s effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we’ve discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they’re also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological headcage Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is."
#Fascism #Trump #KariLake #LindaMcMahon #TransRights #USPol #StephenMiller #NPR #OAN #WhiteNationalism #BigTech #PBS #TheMindset #Media #Harvard #IdeologicalPolicing #Censorship #VOA #TinaPeters #TheBigLie #Nazis
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Cratering in the polls, and losing left right and center in court, the Trump regime spent this week scrambling to install a permanent fascist order before the peasants show up on the National Mall with pitchforks; and we wrote about it all in this week's The Skinny.
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/07/the-skinny-may-1st-7th/2/
The Skinny: Building A Patchwork Enabling Act
"I confess that on some level it’s probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn’t bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn’t want to see in publicly-funded media, he’s effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we’ve discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they’re also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological headcage Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is."
#Fascism #Trump #KariLake #LindaMcMahon #TransRights #USPol #StephenMiller #NPR #OAN #WhiteNationalism #BigTech #PBS #TheMindset #Media #Harvard #IdeologicalPolicing #Censorship #VOA #TinaPeters #TheBigLie #Nazis
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Cratering in the polls, and losing left right and center in court, the Trump regime spent this week scrambling to install a permanent fascist order before the peasants show up on the National Mall with pitchforks; and we wrote about it all in this week's The Skinny.
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/07/the-skinny-may-1st-7th/2/
The Skinny: Building A Patchwork Enabling Act
"I confess that on some level it’s probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn’t bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn’t want to see in publicly-funded media, he’s effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we’ve discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they’re also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological headcage Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is."
#Fascism #Trump #KariLake #LindaMcMahon #TransRights #USPol #StephenMiller #NPR #OAN #WhiteNationalism #BigTech #PBS #TheMindset #Media #Harvard #IdeologicalPolicing #Censorship #VOA #TinaPeters #TheBigLie #Nazis
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Continuing to push a manufactured moral crisis about "antisemitism on college campuses" to justify the Trump regime's war on higher education, free speech, and protest rights, the fascist GOP are holding another round of HUAC-style "antisemitism" hearings; this time targeting the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University, and California Polytechnic State University. In response to this latest perverse appropriation of Jewish identity and anti-hate activism to justify a genocide, ideological policing, and fascist repression of student activists, Congressional Democrats, free speech advocates, and Jewish peace activists are all speaking out against the conflation of anti-genocide activism with antisemitism, and these clownshow McCarthyite hearings as a whole.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/house-antisemitism-hearing
Jewish Voices for Palestine and Free Speech Slam House GOP 'Kangaroo Hearing' on Antisemitism
"Tali Beckwith-Cohen, a Jewish senior at Columbia-affiliated Barnard College, argued: "The Trump regime is using false allegations of antisemitism to disappear our friends, punish student protestors, and dismantle higher education. What we are seeing has nothing to do with keeping Jews safe, and everything to do with crushing dissent."
"Thousands of Jews on campuses across the country have spoken out in solidarity with the people of Gaza and we will not be silent," Beckwith-Cohen vowed.
JVPA political director Beth Miller contended that "the far-right does not care about Jewish safety."
"Trump and his allies in Congress are platforming neo-Nazis and Christian nationalists, all while pretending to care about antisemitism in order to take a hatchet to our communities and most basic freedoms," Miller added. "This is intended to silence the Palestinian rights movement, sow chaos, and sharpen authoritarian tools that will then be used to dismantle civil liberties and democracy itself."
Alright there's a lot of absolutely wild shit going on here, all of which contribute to the stunning DARVO-esque fascist unreality being created by this spectacle; so we've got to go through it all.
- Yes multiple GOP members sitting on this commission are either racists or antisemites themselves; including the chair, Michigan's own Tim Walberg who suggested during a recorded town hall that Israel should nuke Gaza like "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" after October 7th. Using an expansive definition of antisemitism that conflates opposition to Zionism and Israeli crimes against Palestine with antisemitism, the Republicans managed to extract groveling apologies from the University Presidents, who supported Republican lies and threw the free speech rights of their students and faculty to the wolves without too much provocation.
- Numerous Jewish students and anti-genocide activists accused the GOP members of the committee of appropriating Jewish pain and identity to justify a campaign of ideological policing, authoritarian repression, and illegal kidnapping of student protestors. This matters because while the Trump regime and pro-genocide mainstream media outlets have worked very hard to portray anti-genocide student protests as inherently antisemitic, the fact is that Jewish Americans are massively overrepresented in the anti-genocide protest movement on college campuses. Their voices are consistently erased from the discourse by an establishment working hard to manufacture consent for a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
- As former ACLU national legal director David Cole pointed out, anti-Israel advocacy and even actual antisemitic speech are still protected under the First Amendment; although obviously hate crimes and threats are not. Professor Cole also mentioned the disturbing parallels between this hearing and the House Un-American Activities Committee sessions from the days of McCarthyism. Finally, Cole drew the obvious connection between the GOP member's arguments and the Trump regimes larger authoritarian attempt to ideologically police and take academic control of American universities.
- Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also pointed out the direct connection between the committee's activities and the Trump regime's ongoing campaign of kidnapping, detainment, and attempted deportation of noncitizen activists to suppress anti-genocide protest and speech. Additionally *multiple* other Democrat politicians on the committee expressed disbelief that the clearly-cynical "party of 'very fine people on both sides' or ' Jewish space lasers' does not give a damn about stopping antisemitism," particularly while openly and disdainfully neglecting to bright forth literally any other type of civil rights investigation or legal case against marginalized people being victimized anywhere else in American life.
#Fascism #GOP #Genocide #Gaza #Trump #Israel #StudentProtests #FreeSpeech #DemocraticParty #IlhanOmar #DavidCole #ACLU #Antisemitism #TimWalberg #JVPA #McCarthyism #IdeologicalPolicing #Propaganda
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Continuing to push a manufactured moral crisis about "antisemitism on college campuses" to justify the Trump regime's war on higher education, free speech, and protest rights, the fascist GOP are holding another round of HUAC-style "antisemitism" hearings; this time targeting the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University, and California Polytechnic State University. In response to this latest perverse appropriation of Jewish identity and anti-hate activism to justify a genocide, ideological policing, and fascist repression of student activists, Congressional Democrats, free speech advocates, and Jewish peace activists are all speaking out against the conflation of anti-genocide activism with antisemitism, and these clownshow McCarthyite hearings as a whole.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/house-antisemitism-hearing
Jewish Voices for Palestine and Free Speech Slam House GOP 'Kangaroo Hearing' on Antisemitism
"Tali Beckwith-Cohen, a Jewish senior at Columbia-affiliated Barnard College, argued: "The Trump regime is using false allegations of antisemitism to disappear our friends, punish student protestors, and dismantle higher education. What we are seeing has nothing to do with keeping Jews safe, and everything to do with crushing dissent."
"Thousands of Jews on campuses across the country have spoken out in solidarity with the people of Gaza and we will not be silent," Beckwith-Cohen vowed.
JVPA political director Beth Miller contended that "the far-right does not care about Jewish safety."
"Trump and his allies in Congress are platforming neo-Nazis and Christian nationalists, all while pretending to care about antisemitism in order to take a hatchet to our communities and most basic freedoms," Miller added. "This is intended to silence the Palestinian rights movement, sow chaos, and sharpen authoritarian tools that will then be used to dismantle civil liberties and democracy itself."
Alright there's a lot of absolutely wild shit going on here, all of which contribute to the stunning DARVO-esque fascist unreality being created by this spectacle; so we've got to go through it all.
- Yes multiple GOP members sitting on this commission are either racists or antisemites themselves; including the chair, Michigan's own Tim Walberg who suggested during a recorded town hall that Israel should nuke Gaza like "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" after October 7th. Using an expansive definition of antisemitism that conflates opposition to Zionism and Israeli crimes against Palestine with antisemitism, the Republicans managed to extract groveling apologies from the University Presidents, who supported Republican lies and threw the free speech rights of their students and faculty to the wolves without too much provocation.
- Numerous Jewish students and anti-genocide activists accused the GOP members of the committee of appropriating Jewish pain and identity to justify a campaign of ideological policing, authoritarian repression, and illegal kidnapping of student protestors. This matters because while the Trump regime and pro-genocide mainstream media outlets have worked very hard to portray anti-genocide student protests as inherently antisemitic, the fact is that Jewish Americans are massively overrepresented in the anti-genocide protest movement on college campuses. Their voices are consistently erased from the discourse by an establishment working hard to manufacture consent for a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
- As former ACLU national legal director David Cole pointed out, anti-Israel advocacy and even actual antisemitic speech are still protected under the First Amendment; although obviously hate crimes and threats are not. Professor Cole also mentioned the disturbing parallels between this hearing and the House Un-American Activities Committee sessions from the days of McCarthyism. Finally, Cole drew the obvious connection between the GOP member's arguments and the Trump regimes larger authoritarian attempt to ideologically police and take academic control of American universities.
- Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also pointed out the direct connection between the committee's activities and the Trump regime's ongoing campaign of kidnapping, detainment, and attempted deportation of noncitizen activists to suppress anti-genocide protest and speech. Additionally *multiple* other Democrat politicians on the committee expressed disbelief that the clearly-cynical "party of 'very fine people on both sides' or ' Jewish space lasers' does not give a damn about stopping antisemitism," particularly while openly and disdainfully neglecting to bright forth literally any other type of civil rights investigation or legal case against marginalized people being victimized anywhere else in American life.
#Fascism #GOP #Genocide #Gaza #Trump #Israel #StudentProtests #FreeSpeech #DemocraticParty #IlhanOmar #DavidCole #ACLU #Antisemitism #TimWalberg #JVPA #McCarthyism #IdeologicalPolicing #Propaganda
-
Continuing to push a manufactured moral crisis about "antisemitism on college campuses" to justify the Trump regime's war on higher education, free speech, and protest rights, the fascist GOP are holding another round of HUAC-style "antisemitism" hearings; this time targeting the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University, and California Polytechnic State University. In response to this latest perverse appropriation of Jewish identity and anti-hate activism to justify a genocide, ideological policing, and fascist repression of student activists, Congressional Democrats, free speech advocates, and Jewish peace activists are all speaking out against the conflation of anti-genocide activism with antisemitism, and these clownshow McCarthyite hearings as a whole.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/house-antisemitism-hearing
Jewish Voices for Palestine and Free Speech Slam House GOP 'Kangaroo Hearing' on Antisemitism
"Tali Beckwith-Cohen, a Jewish senior at Columbia-affiliated Barnard College, argued: "The Trump regime is using false allegations of antisemitism to disappear our friends, punish student protestors, and dismantle higher education. What we are seeing has nothing to do with keeping Jews safe, and everything to do with crushing dissent."
"Thousands of Jews on campuses across the country have spoken out in solidarity with the people of Gaza and we will not be silent," Beckwith-Cohen vowed.
JVPA political director Beth Miller contended that "the far-right does not care about Jewish safety."
"Trump and his allies in Congress are platforming neo-Nazis and Christian nationalists, all while pretending to care about antisemitism in order to take a hatchet to our communities and most basic freedoms," Miller added. "This is intended to silence the Palestinian rights movement, sow chaos, and sharpen authoritarian tools that will then be used to dismantle civil liberties and democracy itself."
Alright there's a lot of absolutely wild shit going on here, all of which contribute to the stunning DARVO-esque fascist unreality being created by this spectacle; so we've got to go through it all.
- Yes multiple GOP members sitting on this commission are either racists or antisemites themselves; including the chair, Michigan's own Tim Walberg who suggested during a recorded town hall that Israel should nuke Gaza like "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" after October 7th. Using an expansive definition of antisemitism that conflates opposition to Zionism and Israeli crimes against Palestine with antisemitism, the Republicans managed to extract groveling apologies from the University Presidents, who supported Republican lies and threw the free speech rights of their students and faculty to the wolves without too much provocation.
- Numerous Jewish students and anti-genocide activists accused the GOP members of the committee of appropriating Jewish pain and identity to justify a campaign of ideological policing, authoritarian repression, and illegal kidnapping of student protestors. This matters because while the Trump regime and pro-genocide mainstream media outlets have worked very hard to portray anti-genocide student protests as inherently antisemitic, the fact is that Jewish Americans are massively overrepresented in the anti-genocide protest movement on college campuses. Their voices are consistently erased from the discourse by an establishment working hard to manufacture consent for a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
- As former ACLU national legal director David Cole pointed out, anti-Israel advocacy and even actual antisemitic speech are still protected under the First Amendment; although obviously hate crimes and threats are not. Professor Cole also mentioned the disturbing parallels between this hearing and the House Un-American Activities Committee sessions from the days of McCarthyism. Finally, Cole drew the obvious connection between the GOP member's arguments and the Trump regimes larger authoritarian attempt to ideologically police and take academic control of American universities.
- Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also pointed out the direct connection between the committee's activities and the Trump regime's ongoing campaign of kidnapping, detainment, and attempted deportation of noncitizen activists to suppress anti-genocide protest and speech. Additionally *multiple* other Democrat politicians on the committee expressed disbelief that the clearly-cynical "party of 'very fine people on both sides' or ' Jewish space lasers' does not give a damn about stopping antisemitism," particularly while openly and disdainfully neglecting to bright forth literally any other type of civil rights investigation or legal case against marginalized people being victimized anywhere else in American life.
#Fascism #GOP #Genocide #Gaza #Trump #Israel #StudentProtests #FreeSpeech #DemocraticParty #IlhanOmar #DavidCole #ACLU #Antisemitism #TimWalberg #JVPA #McCarthyism #IdeologicalPolicing #Propaganda
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In what must be understood as a propaganda program designed to normalize not only fascist ideology, but also specifically pro-Trump regime and cult of personality messaging, noted liar. conspiracy theorist and failed Senatorial candidate Kari Lake has now announced Voice of America will be carrying the One America News feed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/voice-america-one-america-news
Embattled Voice of America to use newsfeed from hard-right network
"Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide “newsfeed and video service”.
“Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake said. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump’s crackdown on the press.
OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis."
For those of you blessedly unfamiliar with OAN, calling it a "hard right" news organization is absolutely The Guardian being coy. These folks are malevolent fascists, and they produce content which satisfies a rabidly pro-Trump, white nationalist audience that thinks Fox News isn't nazi enough for their tastes. This is, for all intents and purposes, like turning a state-controlled media news feed over to Bannon-era Breitbart News or Candice Owens. In other words the content OAN creates isn't news, it's propaganda, riddled with lies, nazi conspiracy theories, and cult of personality adulation for Downmarket Mussolini; if you're not seeing the parallels between what the Trump regime is trying to do here, and the adoring state-controlled media that fueled Hitler's cult of personality in Nazi Germany, it's because you're either being dishonest, or you're simply ignorant of interwar history.
Of course no knowledgeable person on the left is going to cry for the demise of Voice of America, and to a significant degree VOA has always been state news in so much as it existed to project a pro-American image into "enemy territory" during the Cold War and the War on Terror. The difference here is that now, VOA isn't merely pro-American or even pro-imperialist propaganda; it's pro-Trump's cult of personality propaganda. Furthermore the exact same global reach that made VOA a problem in the hands of US imperialist governments, now means that OAN, the Cult of Trump, and American fascism will be on display globally for all the world to observe and use a defining prism through which to see American life, news, and politics. Finally, while it may be hard to imagine now, projecting Trump's media suppression policies and actives out a couple of years, it's not hard to see how Voice of America could easily become much more popular domestically as Trump delegitimizes, censors, and revokes the broadcast licenses for news organizations that won't promote his deceptions, regime, or cult. In other words, this is the kind of small move that's easy to ignore, but remains part of a much larger plan to control the American media environment and use that control to prop up the Trump regime and its fascist agenda.
As a closing aside, I would encourage readers to please take note of the crass dishonesty and manipulative propaganda employed by Lake to justify this two stage transformation at VOA. First, she explained the clearly political and retaliatory decision to cancel VOA's sharing of news feeds from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse by pointing out that VOA had an almost billion-dollar budget and could produce its own news feeds. Now, she's justifying the installation of a pro-Trump cult fascist propaganda network to provide that very same news feed, under the auspices of saving money for the government and the American taxpayer. This woman is a crass liar, who thinks you're a fucking rube and absolutely none of this has anything to do with government spending on Voice of America.
#Fascism #Trump #Propaganda #KariLake #ElectionDenial #ConspiracyTheories #Nazism #StateMedia #IdeologicalPolicing #VOA #VoiceOfAmerica #Media #Censorship #USPol
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In what must be understood as a propaganda program designed to normalize not only fascist ideology, but also specifically pro-Trump regime and cult of personality messaging, noted liar. conspiracy theorist and failed Senatorial candidate Kari Lake has now announced Voice of America will be carrying the One America News feed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/voice-america-one-america-news
Embattled Voice of America to use newsfeed from hard-right network
"Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide “newsfeed and video service”.
“Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake said. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump’s crackdown on the press.
OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis."
For those of you blessedly unfamiliar with OAN, calling it a "hard right" news organization is absolutely The Guardian being coy. These folks are malevolent fascists, and they produce content which satisfies a rabidly pro-Trump, white nationalist audience that thinks Fox News isn't nazi enough for their tastes. This is, for all intents and purposes, like turning a state-controlled media news feed over to Bannon-era Breitbart News or Candice Owens. In other words the content OAN creates isn't news, it's propaganda, riddled with lies, nazi conspiracy theories, and cult of personality adulation for Downmarket Mussolini; if you're not seeing the parallels between what the Trump regime is trying to do here, and the adoring state-controlled media that fueled Hitler's cult of personality in Nazi Germany, it's because you're either being dishonest, or you're simply ignorant of interwar history.
Of course no knowledgeable person on the left is going to cry for the demise of Voice of America, and to a significant degree VOA has always been state news in so much as it existed to project a pro-American image into "enemy territory" during the Cold War and the War on Terror. The difference here is that now, VOA isn't merely pro-American or even pro-imperialist propaganda; it's pro-Trump's cult of personality propaganda. Furthermore the exact same global reach that made VOA a problem in the hands of US imperialist governments, now means that OAN, the Cult of Trump, and American fascism will be on display globally for all the world to observe and use a defining prism through which to see American life, news, and politics. Finally, while it may be hard to imagine now, projecting Trump's media suppression policies and actives out a couple of years, it's not hard to see how Voice of America could easily become much more popular domestically as Trump delegitimizes, censors, and revokes the broadcast licenses for news organizations that won't promote his deceptions, regime, or cult. In other words, this is the kind of small move that's easy to ignore, but remains part of a much larger plan to control the American media environment and use that control to prop up the Trump regime and its fascist agenda.
As a closing aside, I would encourage readers to please take note of the crass dishonesty and manipulative propaganda employed by Lake to justify this two stage transformation at VOA. First, she explained the clearly political and retaliatory decision to cancel VOA's sharing of news feeds from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse by pointing out that VOA had an almost billion-dollar budget and could produce its own news feeds. Now, she's justifying the installation of a pro-Trump cult fascist propaganda network to provide that very same news feed, under the auspices of saving money for the government and the American taxpayer. This woman is a crass liar, who thinks you're a fucking rube and absolutely none of this has anything to do with government spending on Voice of America.
#Fascism #Trump #Propaganda #KariLake #ElectionDenial #ConspiracyTheories #Nazism #StateMedia #IdeologicalPolicing #VOA #VoiceOfAmerica #Media #Censorship #USPol
-
In what must be understood as a propaganda program designed to normalize not only fascist ideology, but also specifically pro-Trump regime and cult of personality messaging, noted liar. conspiracy theorist and failed Senatorial candidate Kari Lake has now announced Voice of America will be carrying the One America News feed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/voice-america-one-america-news
Embattled Voice of America to use newsfeed from hard-right network
"Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide “newsfeed and video service”.
“Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake said. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump’s crackdown on the press.
OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis."
For those of you blessedly unfamiliar with OAN, calling it a "hard right" news organization is absolutely The Guardian being coy. These folks are malevolent fascists, and they produce content which satisfies a rabidly pro-Trump, white nationalist audience that thinks Fox News isn't nazi enough for their tastes. This is, for all intents and purposes, like turning a state-controlled media news feed over to Bannon-era Breitbart News or Candice Owens. In other words the content OAN creates isn't news, it's propaganda, riddled with lies, nazi conspiracy theories, and cult of personality adulation for Downmarket Mussolini; if you're not seeing the parallels between what the Trump regime is trying to do here, and the adoring state-controlled media that fueled Hitler's cult of personality in Nazi Germany, it's because you're either being dishonest, or you're simply ignorant of interwar history.
Of course no knowledgeable person on the left is going to cry for the demise of Voice of America, and to a significant degree VOA has always been state news in so much as it existed to project a pro-American image into "enemy territory" during the Cold War and the War on Terror. The difference here is that now, VOA isn't merely pro-American or even pro-imperialist propaganda; it's pro-Trump's cult of personality propaganda. Furthermore the exact same global reach that made VOA a problem in the hands of US imperialist governments, now means that OAN, the Cult of Trump, and American fascism will be on display globally for all the world to observe and use a defining prism through which to see American life, news, and politics. Finally, while it may be hard to imagine now, projecting Trump's media suppression policies and actives out a couple of years, it's not hard to see how Voice of America could easily become much more popular domestically as Trump delegitimizes, censors, and revokes the broadcast licenses for news organizations that won't promote his deceptions, regime, or cult. In other words, this is the kind of small move that's easy to ignore, but remains part of a much larger plan to control the American media environment and use that control to prop up the Trump regime and its fascist agenda.
As a closing aside, I would encourage readers to please take note of the crass dishonesty and manipulative propaganda employed by Lake to justify this two stage transformation at VOA. First, she explained the clearly political and retaliatory decision to cancel VOA's sharing of news feeds from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse by pointing out that VOA had an almost billion-dollar budget and could produce its own news feeds. Now, she's justifying the installation of a pro-Trump cult fascist propaganda network to provide that very same news feed, under the auspices of saving money for the government and the American taxpayer. This woman is a crass liar, who thinks you're a fucking rube and absolutely none of this has anything to do with government spending on Voice of America.
#Fascism #Trump #Propaganda #KariLake #ElectionDenial #ConspiracyTheories #Nazism #StateMedia #IdeologicalPolicing #VOA #VoiceOfAmerica #Media #Censorship #USPol
-
I'm a few days behind on this story because I incorrectly assumed it would go away; which means that now we have to get up to date on Tom "the People Eater" Homan and his threats to arrest elected officials who "obstruct" ICE and Trump's fascist mass deportation campaign. Homan, a man so inarticulate it sounds like his own tongue lives in opposition to the abhorrent shit that comes out of his mouth, is Trump's "Border Czar" - a job that sounds like it should mean he's the head minister for deportations, but mostly appears to involve going on TV to explain why every awful cribbed from the literal Nazis thing Stephen Miller told Trump to do is awesome, and threaten anyone who opposes mass deportations and the fascist apparatus that enables them, including some members of the opposition Democratic Party.
In the wake of the Trump regime's arrest of Wisconsin County Judge Hannah Dugan, the Democratic Governor of that State, Tony Evers issued a fairly milquetoast guideline for state employees on how to interact with federal immigration employees. When Homan was directly asked about Evers and his directive, the Border Czar shot back with a thinly-veiled threat to arrest the Governor of Wisconsin.
Trump border czar makes veiled threat against Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers
"Your comments on the Wisconsin governor sending directives to state agencies to not comply with ICE and actually stop your deportation efforts?" a reporter asked Homan.
"Wait to see what's coming. I meant what I said. You can not support what we're doing, and you can support sanctuary cities if that's what you want to do. But if you cross that line into impediment or knowingly harbor or conceal an illegal alien, that is a felony, and we will treat it as such," Homan said."
Well, that certainly isn't alarming or anything, is it? Furthermore, while you might be forgiven for assuming Trump's goon nazi border pit bull is speaking out of pocket here, this actually isn't the first time in the past thirty days that Homan has directly threatened elected officials in the opposition party with arrest and prosecution.
Trump’s Border Czar Has Chilling Threat for Every Democratic Leader
"Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that leaders from cities and states with sanctuary policies could expect to face prosecution very soon.
A reporter outside of the White House asked Homan whether he believed that the leaders of sanctuary states and cities should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and possibly go to prison,” alleging that they’d violated law prohibiting U.S. citizens from transporting, smuggling, or harboring undocumented immigrants.
“Absolutely, and hold tight on that one,” Homan replied. “’Cus it’s coming. It’s coming.”
Sharp-eyed readers will note that as crude and malevolent as Homan clearly is, his word selection is careful here. While this is unquestionably a threat to arrest opposition elected officials who don't help the regime conduct mass deportations, Homan's language does (barely) provide him with plausible deniability based on the "question" of whether or not Evers, or any other official actually *did* illegally impede federal officials or "knowingly harbor" migrants from their grasp. Of course, as we already discovered when the GOP tried to imply AOC hosting a webinar on migrant rights was "illegally impeding" immigration officials, the question of whether or not Evers' guidance does so is itself ridiculous fascist propaganda. The Governor has broken no law, as he recently explained himself.
'Disgusted' But 'Not Afraid': Wisconsin Governor Rips Arrest Threat From Trump Border Czar
"These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country," said Evers. "We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or even everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong."
"And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I am not afraid," he added. "I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today."
At this point anyone who has been reading along with my analysis of fascism in the Trump 2.0 era, should be starting to see the familiar outlines of a regime propaganda op to create a permission gate for fascist repression, in action. Evers has broken no law, but Homan and the rest of the fascist GOP are committed to spreading the propaganda idea that merely informing migrants of their rights is in fact "impeding" federal immigration officers, and "harboring" migrants illegally. I'm pretty sure the idea here isn't to win the legal argument, but to muddy up the waters enough that the American right will broadly support the regime when it does in fact, start arresting its political opposition.
#TomHoman #TonyEvers #Fascism #Wisconsin #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol #ICE #Trump #DHS
-
I'm a few days behind on this story because I incorrectly assumed it would go away; which means that now we have to get up to date on Tom "the People Eater" Homan and his threats to arrest elected officials who "obstruct" ICE and Trump's fascist mass deportation campaign. Homan, a man so inarticulate it sounds like his own tongue lives in opposition to the abhorrent shit that comes out of his mouth, is Trump's "Border Czar" - a job that sounds like it should mean he's the head minister for deportations, but mostly appears to involve going on TV to explain why every awful cribbed from the literal Nazis thing Stephen Miller told Trump to do is awesome, and threaten anyone who opposes mass deportations and the fascist apparatus that enables them, including some members of the opposition Democratic Party.
In the wake of the Trump regime's arrest of Wisconsin County Judge Hannah Dugan, the Democratic Governor of that State, Tony Evers issued a fairly milquetoast guideline for state employees on how to interact with federal immigration employees. When Homan was directly asked about Evers and his directive, the Border Czar shot back with a thinly-veiled threat to arrest the Governor of Wisconsin.
Trump border czar makes veiled threat against Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers
"Your comments on the Wisconsin governor sending directives to state agencies to not comply with ICE and actually stop your deportation efforts?" a reporter asked Homan.
"Wait to see what's coming. I meant what I said. You can not support what we're doing, and you can support sanctuary cities if that's what you want to do. But if you cross that line into impediment or knowingly harbor or conceal an illegal alien, that is a felony, and we will treat it as such," Homan said."
Well, that certainly isn't alarming or anything, is it? Furthermore, while you might be forgiven for assuming Trump's goon nazi border pit bull is speaking out of pocket here, this actually isn't the first time in the past thirty days that Homan has directly threatened elected officials in the opposition party with arrest and prosecution.
Trump’s Border Czar Has Chilling Threat for Every Democratic Leader
"Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that leaders from cities and states with sanctuary policies could expect to face prosecution very soon.
A reporter outside of the White House asked Homan whether he believed that the leaders of sanctuary states and cities should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and possibly go to prison,” alleging that they’d violated law prohibiting U.S. citizens from transporting, smuggling, or harboring undocumented immigrants.
“Absolutely, and hold tight on that one,” Homan replied. “’Cus it’s coming. It’s coming.”
Sharp-eyed readers will note that as crude and malevolent as Homan clearly is, his word selection is careful here. While this is unquestionably a threat to arrest opposition elected officials who don't help the regime conduct mass deportations, Homan's language does (barely) provide him with plausible deniability based on the "question" of whether or not Evers, or any other official actually *did* illegally impede federal officials or "knowingly harbor" migrants from their grasp. Of course, as we already discovered when the GOP tried to imply AOC hosting a webinar on migrant rights was "illegally impeding" immigration officials, the question of whether or not Evers' guidance does so is itself ridiculous fascist propaganda. The Governor has broken no law, as he recently explained himself.
'Disgusted' But 'Not Afraid': Wisconsin Governor Rips Arrest Threat From Trump Border Czar
"These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country," said Evers. "We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or even everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong."
"And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I am not afraid," he added. "I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today."
At this point anyone who has been reading along with my analysis of fascism in the Trump 2.0 era, should be starting to see the familiar outlines of a regime propaganda op to create a permission gate for fascist repression, in action. Evers has broken no law, but Homan and the rest of the fascist GOP are committed to spreading the propaganda idea that merely informing migrants of their rights is in fact "impeding" federal immigration officers, and "harboring" migrants illegally. I'm pretty sure the idea here isn't to win the legal argument, but to muddy up the waters enough that the American right will broadly support the regime when it does in fact, start arresting its political opposition.
#TomHoman #TonyEvers #Fascism #Wisconsin #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol #ICE #Trump #DHS
-
I'm a few days behind on this story because I incorrectly assumed it would go away; which means that now we have to get up to date on Tom "the People Eater" Homan and his threats to arrest elected officials who "obstruct" ICE and Trump's fascist mass deportation campaign. Homan, a man so inarticulate it sounds like his own tongue lives in opposition to the abhorrent shit that comes out of his mouth, is Trump's "Border Czar" - a job that sounds like it should mean he's the head minister for deportations, but mostly appears to involve going on TV to explain why every awful cribbed from the literal Nazis thing Stephen Miller told Trump to do is awesome, and threaten anyone who opposes mass deportations and the fascist apparatus that enables them, including some members of the opposition Democratic Party.
In the wake of the Trump regime's arrest of Wisconsin County Judge Hannah Dugan, the Democratic Governor of that State, Tony Evers issued a fairly milquetoast guideline for state employees on how to interact with federal immigration employees. When Homan was directly asked about Evers and his directive, the Border Czar shot back with a thinly-veiled threat to arrest the Governor of Wisconsin.
Trump border czar makes veiled threat against Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers
"Your comments on the Wisconsin governor sending directives to state agencies to not comply with ICE and actually stop your deportation efforts?" a reporter asked Homan.
"Wait to see what's coming. I meant what I said. You can not support what we're doing, and you can support sanctuary cities if that's what you want to do. But if you cross that line into impediment or knowingly harbor or conceal an illegal alien, that is a felony, and we will treat it as such," Homan said."
Well, that certainly isn't alarming or anything, is it? Furthermore, while you might be forgiven for assuming Trump's goon nazi border pit bull is speaking out of pocket here, this actually isn't the first time in the past thirty days that Homan has directly threatened elected officials in the opposition party with arrest and prosecution.
Trump’s Border Czar Has Chilling Threat for Every Democratic Leader
"Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that leaders from cities and states with sanctuary policies could expect to face prosecution very soon.
A reporter outside of the White House asked Homan whether he believed that the leaders of sanctuary states and cities should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and possibly go to prison,” alleging that they’d violated law prohibiting U.S. citizens from transporting, smuggling, or harboring undocumented immigrants.
“Absolutely, and hold tight on that one,” Homan replied. “’Cus it’s coming. It’s coming.”
Sharp-eyed readers will note that as crude and malevolent as Homan clearly is, his word selection is careful here. While this is unquestionably a threat to arrest opposition elected officials who don't help the regime conduct mass deportations, Homan's language does (barely) provide him with plausible deniability based on the "question" of whether or not Evers, or any other official actually *did* illegally impede federal officials or "knowingly harbor" migrants from their grasp. Of course, as we already discovered when the GOP tried to imply AOC hosting a webinar on migrant rights was "illegally impeding" immigration officials, the question of whether or not Evers' guidance does so is itself ridiculous fascist propaganda. The Governor has broken no law, as he recently explained himself.
'Disgusted' But 'Not Afraid': Wisconsin Governor Rips Arrest Threat From Trump Border Czar
"These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country," said Evers. "We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or even everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong."
"And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I am not afraid," he added. "I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today."
At this point anyone who has been reading along with my analysis of fascism in the Trump 2.0 era, should be starting to see the familiar outlines of a regime propaganda op to create a permission gate for fascist repression, in action. Evers has broken no law, but Homan and the rest of the fascist GOP are committed to spreading the propaganda idea that merely informing migrants of their rights is in fact "impeding" federal immigration officers, and "harboring" migrants illegally. I'm pretty sure the idea here isn't to win the legal argument, but to muddy up the waters enough that the American right will broadly support the regime when it does in fact, start arresting its political opposition.
#TomHoman #TonyEvers #Fascism #Wisconsin #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #USPol #ICE #Trump #DHS
-
Of course, rigging elections is difficult, and in the near term the political opposition that's already in office will remain a thorn in the side of even the most prepared dictator. What a good reactionary autocracy needs is the removal of political figures who oppose the regime from government entirely; which is probably why Trump took to Truth Social a few days ago to propose the Republican Party literally remove Democrats trying to impeach him from Congress.
Trump Suggests Republicans Start Expelling Dems From Congress
"President Donald Trump suggested that congressional Republicans should expel Democratic lawmakers from Congress in response to a so-far small impeachment push that has not been endorsed by party leadership.
In a lengthy Truth Social post published late Thursday night, the president wrote: “The Democrats are really out of control. They have lost everything, especially their minds! These Radical Left Lunatics are into the ‘Impeachment thing’ again. They have already got two ‘No Name,’ little respected Congressmen, total Whackjobs both, throwing the ‘Impeachment’ of DONALD J. TRUMP around.
“The Republicans should start to think about expelling them from Congress for all of the crimes that they have committed, especially around Election time(s),” Trump continued, calling Democrats “very dishonest people that won’t let our Country heal” and “total LOWLIFES, who hate our Country, and everything it stands for."“Perhaps we should start playing this game on them, and expel Democrats for the many crimes that they have committed,” the president wrote."
One of the things I wasn't entirely prepared for about the slide into fascist dictatorship under the second coming of Trump, was the juxtaposition of the gravely serious threat the Keltpo Kaiser's activities represent to American society, and the utterly asinine ways Trumpworld and even the larger media industry that covers US politics will talk about and analyze those threats; this is one of those stories. In this Rolling Stone piece for example, the focus is on pointing out that Trump is overreacting to a couple of lone wolf impeachment attempts because the Democratic Party does not in fact support impeaching Downmarket Mussolini on the leadership level. Uh, sure; whatever?
The fact is the Democratic Party *should* be dead serious about impeaching Trump because he's literally a lawless fascist who is governing by nazi conspiracy theories, and has set the country on the path towards a Christian Nationalist dictatorship in direct violation of so many laws and constitutional amendments I don't have time to list them all here. If ever the concept of impeachment had a purpose in American government, it would be to remove a president like Trump here in his second term; so whether or not Trump is lying about the Democratic Party being united in removing him is really not the fucking point here. Furthermore asking the fascist GOP to use its power to illegally expel opposition party members from Congress because they're using the completely legitimate authority granted to them to bring forth articles of impeachment against a president who is openly violating his oaths and American law, is textbook one-party state fascist regime bullshit. As such Trump musing about it on his private social media site is a major threat to American democratic society no matter how right, or wrong he is, about how much the Democrats oppose him; which is literally their job in the American system of government, even if you and I can both probably acknowledge that they suck at that job.
Of course the article does point out that Trump's inference that Democrats have committed "many crimes" in relation to attempts to remove him from office or prosecute him for completely legitimate crimes he actually committed, is absolute nonsense as far as we know. The truth however is that I don't really think Trump's tirade has anything to do with what the Democratic Party is, or isn't doing to impeach him at all. I think Trump, a man disturbingly obsessed with his own publicity, has clearly seen recent polling showing a slim majority of Americans as a whole favor impeaching him for the crimes and violations he's already committed in his second term. Yes the Klepto Kaiser is trying to criminalize his opposition, yes he's trying to make America a functional one party state; but I think Trump is also sending the message that if he's willing to go after Democrats in Congress for talking about impeaching him, anyone else bringing up the subject might be next.
#Fascism #Trump #Impeachment #GOP #DemocraticParty #USPol #Dictatorship #OnePartyState #Nazis #IdeologicalPolicing
-
Of course, rigging elections is difficult, and in the near term the political opposition that's already in office will remain a thorn in the side of even the most prepared dictator. What a good reactionary autocracy needs is the removal of political figures who oppose the regime from government entirely; which is probably why Trump took to Truth Social a few days ago to propose the Republican Party literally remove Democrats trying to impeach him from Congress.
Trump Suggests Republicans Start Expelling Dems From Congress
"President Donald Trump suggested that congressional Republicans should expel Democratic lawmakers from Congress in response to a so-far small impeachment push that has not been endorsed by party leadership.
In a lengthy Truth Social post published late Thursday night, the president wrote: “The Democrats are really out of control. They have lost everything, especially their minds! These Radical Left Lunatics are into the ‘Impeachment thing’ again. They have already got two ‘No Name,’ little respected Congressmen, total Whackjobs both, throwing the ‘Impeachment’ of DONALD J. TRUMP around.
“The Republicans should start to think about expelling them from Congress for all of the crimes that they have committed, especially around Election time(s),” Trump continued, calling Democrats “very dishonest people that won’t let our Country heal” and “total LOWLIFES, who hate our Country, and everything it stands for."“Perhaps we should start playing this game on them, and expel Democrats for the many crimes that they have committed,” the president wrote."
One of the things I wasn't entirely prepared for about the slide into fascist dictatorship under the second coming of Trump, was the juxtaposition of the gravely serious threat the Keltpo Kaiser's activities represent to American society, and the utterly asinine ways Trumpworld and even the larger media industry that covers US politics will talk about and analyze those threats; this is one of those stories. In this Rolling Stone piece for example, the focus is on pointing out that Trump is overreacting to a couple of lone wolf impeachment attempts because the Democratic Party does not in fact support impeaching Downmarket Mussolini on the leadership level. Uh, sure; whatever?
The fact is the Democratic Party *should* be dead serious about impeaching Trump because he's literally a lawless fascist who is governing by nazi conspiracy theories, and has set the country on the path towards a Christian Nationalist dictatorship in direct violation of so many laws and constitutional amendments I don't have time to list them all here. If ever the concept of impeachment had a purpose in American government, it would be to remove a president like Trump here in his second term; so whether or not Trump is lying about the Democratic Party being united in removing him is really not the fucking point here. Furthermore asking the fascist GOP to use its power to illegally expel opposition party members from Congress because they're using the completely legitimate authority granted to them to bring forth articles of impeachment against a president who is openly violating his oaths and American law, is textbook one-party state fascist regime bullshit. As such Trump musing about it on his private social media site is a major threat to American democratic society no matter how right, or wrong he is, about how much the Democrats oppose him; which is literally their job in the American system of government, even if you and I can both probably acknowledge that they suck at that job.
Of course the article does point out that Trump's inference that Democrats have committed "many crimes" in relation to attempts to remove him from office or prosecute him for completely legitimate crimes he actually committed, is absolute nonsense as far as we know. The truth however is that I don't really think Trump's tirade has anything to do with what the Democratic Party is, or isn't doing to impeach him at all. I think Trump, a man disturbingly obsessed with his own publicity, has clearly seen recent polling showing a slim majority of Americans as a whole favor impeaching him for the crimes and violations he's already committed in his second term. Yes the Klepto Kaiser is trying to criminalize his opposition, yes he's trying to make America a functional one party state; but I think Trump is also sending the message that if he's willing to go after Democrats in Congress for talking about impeaching him, anyone else bringing up the subject might be next.
#Fascism #Trump #Impeachment #GOP #DemocraticParty #USPol #Dictatorship #OnePartyState #Nazis #IdeologicalPolicing
-
Of course, rigging elections is difficult, and in the near term the political opposition that's already in office will remain a thorn in the side of even the most prepared dictator. What a good reactionary autocracy needs is the removal of political figures who oppose the regime from government entirely; which is probably why Trump took to Truth Social a few days ago to propose the Republican Party literally remove Democrats trying to impeach him from Congress.
Trump Suggests Republicans Start Expelling Dems From Congress
"President Donald Trump suggested that congressional Republicans should expel Democratic lawmakers from Congress in response to a so-far small impeachment push that has not been endorsed by party leadership.
In a lengthy Truth Social post published late Thursday night, the president wrote: “The Democrats are really out of control. They have lost everything, especially their minds! These Radical Left Lunatics are into the ‘Impeachment thing’ again. They have already got two ‘No Name,’ little respected Congressmen, total Whackjobs both, throwing the ‘Impeachment’ of DONALD J. TRUMP around.
“The Republicans should start to think about expelling them from Congress for all of the crimes that they have committed, especially around Election time(s),” Trump continued, calling Democrats “very dishonest people that won’t let our Country heal” and “total LOWLIFES, who hate our Country, and everything it stands for."“Perhaps we should start playing this game on them, and expel Democrats for the many crimes that they have committed,” the president wrote."
One of the things I wasn't entirely prepared for about the slide into fascist dictatorship under the second coming of Trump, was the juxtaposition of the gravely serious threat the Keltpo Kaiser's activities represent to American society, and the utterly asinine ways Trumpworld and even the larger media industry that covers US politics will talk about and analyze those threats; this is one of those stories. In this Rolling Stone piece for example, the focus is on pointing out that Trump is overreacting to a couple of lone wolf impeachment attempts because the Democratic Party does not in fact support impeaching Downmarket Mussolini on the leadership level. Uh, sure; whatever?
The fact is the Democratic Party *should* be dead serious about impeaching Trump because he's literally a lawless fascist who is governing by nazi conspiracy theories, and has set the country on the path towards a Christian Nationalist dictatorship in direct violation of so many laws and constitutional amendments I don't have time to list them all here. If ever the concept of impeachment had a purpose in American government, it would be to remove a president like Trump here in his second term; so whether or not Trump is lying about the Democratic Party being united in removing him is really not the fucking point here. Furthermore asking the fascist GOP to use its power to illegally expel opposition party members from Congress because they're using the completely legitimate authority granted to them to bring forth articles of impeachment against a president who is openly violating his oaths and American law, is textbook one-party state fascist regime bullshit. As such Trump musing about it on his private social media site is a major threat to American democratic society no matter how right, or wrong he is, about how much the Democrats oppose him; which is literally their job in the American system of government, even if you and I can both probably acknowledge that they suck at that job.
Of course the article does point out that Trump's inference that Democrats have committed "many crimes" in relation to attempts to remove him from office or prosecute him for completely legitimate crimes he actually committed, is absolute nonsense as far as we know. The truth however is that I don't really think Trump's tirade has anything to do with what the Democratic Party is, or isn't doing to impeach him at all. I think Trump, a man disturbingly obsessed with his own publicity, has clearly seen recent polling showing a slim majority of Americans as a whole favor impeaching him for the crimes and violations he's already committed in his second term. Yes the Klepto Kaiser is trying to criminalize his opposition, yes he's trying to make America a functional one party state; but I think Trump is also sending the message that if he's willing to go after Democrats in Congress for talking about impeaching him, anyone else bringing up the subject might be next.
#Fascism #Trump #Impeachment #GOP #DemocraticParty #USPol #Dictatorship #OnePartyState #Nazis #IdeologicalPolicing
-
In a move previously signaled by a Marjorie Taylor Green fact-finding hearing that resembled nothing more than a HUAC trial from the darkest days of McCarthyism, the Klepto Kaiser finally snapped and is attempting to defund PBS and NPR for the high crime of broadcasting "woke ideology" - which at this point clearly means anything Trump and other rich white nazis don't like.
Trump demands defunding of PBS and NPR over “woke propaganda”
"President Donald Trump escalated his attack on NPR and PBS on Thursday when he signed an executive order demanding the end of all federal funding supporting the news outlets.
In his order, Trump claimed that unlike in the 1960s, when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was funded to ensure Americans had access to critical news, there are plenty of news options today. He has joined other Republicans accusing NPR and PBS of promoting a left-leaning bias. In a White House statement, he ordered any agency directly or indirectly funding the outlets' allegedly "woke propaganda" to "end the madness" as soon as possible, cutting off current funding "to the maximum extent allowed by law" and declining "to provide future funding."
There's a lot to unpack here; while I may not always ideologically agree with the folks at Ars, they do still produce deep longform investigative dives into the stories they cover - a rarity in the modern media environment. Firstly, no Trump probably can't legally do this, and yes he's just yolo-ing it out into the world anyway; also, it's Friday. As the article notes, it's unclear how Trump can order the CPB to cut already-approved funding for the next two years, and we haven't even gotten into how the "whys" Trump wants to do this all violate free speech and freedom of the press rights. This is petulant manbaby dictator shit.
Additionally, it's not at all clear that Trump's illegal tantrum is going to meaningfully affect his targets, NPR and PBS, anyway. Only 1% of NPR's funding actually comes from the US government, and PBS only receives 15% of its funding from the CPB. Since Der Führer has not yet granted himself the authority to simply throw members of the media in jail for expressing opinions and criticisms he doesn't like, the funding cut is as far as he can go for now. Unfortunately however, Trump's tantrum will definitely have victims and impoverish an already appalling American media environment; particularly in rural communities where smaller stations can rely on the CPB for as much as 50% of their funding.
"Cutting off funding, Kreger said last month, would have a "devastating impact" on rural communities, especially in parts of the country where NPR and PBS still serve as "the only source of news and emergency broadcasts," NPR reported.
For example, Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Media, testified to Congress last month that his stations "provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides, and even volcanoes." Some of the smallest rural stations sometimes rely on CPB for about 50 percent of their funding, NPR reported."
All of which leaves us with the "whys" which really don't require us to read many tea leaves before we find the fascist ideological policing and reactionary bullshit. Downmarket Mussolini more or less just said the quiet part out loud:
"While Trump opposes NPR and PBS for promoting content that he disagrees with—criticizing segments on white privilege, gender identity, reparations, "fat phobia," and abortion—the networks have defended their programming as unbiased and falling in line with Federal Communications Commission guidelines."
I confess that on some level it's probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn't bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn't want to see in publicly-funded media, he's effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we've discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they're also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological war Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is.
#Trump #Fascism #PBS #NPR #Media #ChristianNationalism #IdeologicalPolicing #CPB #Racism #TransRights #AntiTransPogrom #Abortion #Mysogyny #PoliceState #WhiteSupremacy #USPol
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In a move previously signaled by a Marjorie Taylor Green fact-finding hearing that resembled nothing more than a HUAC trial from the darkest days of McCarthyism, the Klepto Kaiser finally snapped and is attempting to defund PBS and NPR for the high crime of broadcasting "woke ideology" - which at this point clearly means anything Trump and other rich white nazis don't like.
Trump demands defunding of PBS and NPR over “woke propaganda”
"President Donald Trump escalated his attack on NPR and PBS on Thursday when he signed an executive order demanding the end of all federal funding supporting the news outlets.
In his order, Trump claimed that unlike in the 1960s, when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was funded to ensure Americans had access to critical news, there are plenty of news options today. He has joined other Republicans accusing NPR and PBS of promoting a left-leaning bias. In a White House statement, he ordered any agency directly or indirectly funding the outlets' allegedly "woke propaganda" to "end the madness" as soon as possible, cutting off current funding "to the maximum extent allowed by law" and declining "to provide future funding."
There's a lot to unpack here; while I may not always ideologically agree with the folks at Ars, they do still produce deep longform investigative dives into the stories they cover - a rarity in the modern media environment. Firstly, no Trump probably can't legally do this, and yes he's just yolo-ing it out into the world anyway; also, it's Friday. As the article notes, it's unclear how Trump can order the CPB to cut already-approved funding for the next two years, and we haven't even gotten into how the "whys" Trump wants to do this all violate free speech and freedom of the press rights. This is petulant manbaby dictator shit.
Additionally, it's not at all clear that Trump's illegal tantrum is going to meaningfully affect his targets, NPR and PBS, anyway. Only 1% of NPR's funding actually comes from the US government, and PBS only receives 15% of its funding from the CPB. Since Der Führer has not yet granted himself the authority to simply throw members of the media in jail for expressing opinions and criticisms he doesn't like, the funding cut is as far as he can go for now. Unfortunately however, Trump's tantrum will definitely have victims and impoverish an already appalling American media environment; particularly in rural communities where smaller stations can rely on the CPB for as much as 50% of their funding.
"Cutting off funding, Kreger said last month, would have a "devastating impact" on rural communities, especially in parts of the country where NPR and PBS still serve as "the only source of news and emergency broadcasts," NPR reported.
For example, Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Media, testified to Congress last month that his stations "provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides, and even volcanoes." Some of the smallest rural stations sometimes rely on CPB for about 50 percent of their funding, NPR reported."
All of which leaves us with the "whys" which really don't require us to read many tea leaves before we find the fascist ideological policing and reactionary bullshit. Downmarket Mussolini more or less just said the quiet part out loud:
"While Trump opposes NPR and PBS for promoting content that he disagrees with—criticizing segments on white privilege, gender identity, reparations, "fat phobia," and abortion—the networks have defended their programming as unbiased and falling in line with Federal Communications Commission guidelines."
I confess that on some level it's probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn't bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn't want to see in publicly-funded media, he's effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we've discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they're also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological war Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is.
#Trump #Fascism #PBS #NPR #Media #ChristianNationalism #IdeologicalPolicing #CPB #Racism #TransRights #AntiTransPogrom #Abortion #Mysogyny #PoliceState #WhiteSupremacy #USPol
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In a move previously signaled by a Marjorie Taylor Green fact-finding hearing that resembled nothing more than a HUAC trial from the darkest days of McCarthyism, the Klepto Kaiser finally snapped and is attempting to defund PBS and NPR for the high crime of broadcasting "woke ideology" - which at this point clearly means anything Trump and other rich white nazis don't like.
Trump demands defunding of PBS and NPR over “woke propaganda”
"President Donald Trump escalated his attack on NPR and PBS on Thursday when he signed an executive order demanding the end of all federal funding supporting the news outlets.
In his order, Trump claimed that unlike in the 1960s, when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was funded to ensure Americans had access to critical news, there are plenty of news options today. He has joined other Republicans accusing NPR and PBS of promoting a left-leaning bias. In a White House statement, he ordered any agency directly or indirectly funding the outlets' allegedly "woke propaganda" to "end the madness" as soon as possible, cutting off current funding "to the maximum extent allowed by law" and declining "to provide future funding."
There's a lot to unpack here; while I may not always ideologically agree with the folks at Ars, they do still produce deep longform investigative dives into the stories they cover - a rarity in the modern media environment. Firstly, no Trump probably can't legally do this, and yes he's just yolo-ing it out into the world anyway; also, it's Friday. As the article notes, it's unclear how Trump can order the CPB to cut already-approved funding for the next two years, and we haven't even gotten into how the "whys" Trump wants to do this all violate free speech and freedom of the press rights. This is petulant manbaby dictator shit.
Additionally, it's not at all clear that Trump's illegal tantrum is going to meaningfully affect his targets, NPR and PBS, anyway. Only 1% of NPR's funding actually comes from the US government, and PBS only receives 15% of its funding from the CPB. Since Der Führer has not yet granted himself the authority to simply throw members of the media in jail for expressing opinions and criticisms he doesn't like, the funding cut is as far as he can go for now. Unfortunately however, Trump's tantrum will definitely have victims and impoverish an already appalling American media environment; particularly in rural communities where smaller stations can rely on the CPB for as much as 50% of their funding.
"Cutting off funding, Kreger said last month, would have a "devastating impact" on rural communities, especially in parts of the country where NPR and PBS still serve as "the only source of news and emergency broadcasts," NPR reported.
For example, Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Media, testified to Congress last month that his stations "provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides, and even volcanoes." Some of the smallest rural stations sometimes rely on CPB for about 50 percent of their funding, NPR reported."
All of which leaves us with the "whys" which really don't require us to read many tea leaves before we find the fascist ideological policing and reactionary bullshit. Downmarket Mussolini more or less just said the quiet part out loud:
"While Trump opposes NPR and PBS for promoting content that he disagrees with—criticizing segments on white privilege, gender identity, reparations, "fat phobia," and abortion—the networks have defended their programming as unbiased and falling in line with Federal Communications Commission guidelines."
I confess that on some level it's probably amusing to picture Trump sitting in front of a TV and getting big mad when it tells him Black and trans people exist, he shouldn't bully overweight people, and the abortion bans he facilitated are hurting American women. The reality here however is that in signaling what the president doesn't want to see in publicly-funded media, he's effectively articulating a Christian Nationalist agenda. As we've discussed numerous times on this blog, the regime is not just fighting a material war to install a fascist dictatorship in our society; they're also fighting an authoritarian cultural war on our discourse, our history, and who is allowed to matter in our media entertainment complex. The ideological war Trump is trying to use state power to enforce here, is just as important to the Trumpenrich project to create a white ethnostate dictatorship under the Kelpto Kaiser, as its material expansion of the American fascist police state is.
#Trump #Fascism #PBS #NPR #Media #ChristianNationalism #IdeologicalPolicing #CPB #Racism #TransRights #AntiTransPogrom #Abortion #Mysogyny #PoliceState #WhiteSupremacy #USPol
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The more I watch them in action, the more it becomes clear to me that the inversion of civil rights language and protections is a foundational aspect of the methodology the Trump regime is using to transform America into a fascist dictatorship with open nazi characteristics. While I think this write up in the Guardian could use a bit more blunt honesty about the white nationalist nature of the Trump administration's strategy here, but it still does a pretty good job of looking at all the ways the regime is purposing one (itself white nationalist) SCOTUS ruling to turn sixty years of civil rights legislation into a weapon against the very marginalized people it was written to protect.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/trump-administration-civil-rights-act
Trump administration exploits landmark civil rights act to fight schools’ diversity initiatives
"Linda McMahon, the education secretary, has described the investigation as part of the administration’s effort to “reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination”. But civil rights advocates have denounced them as vague, likely unlawful and a betrayal of the spirit of the civil rights protections they purport to invoke.
“What we’re witnessing is an administration that is working very hard to turn civil rights laws against” the people trying to faithfully implement them, said Maya Wiley, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s really an effort to say, ‘If you don’t do what we tell you, we will turn our considerable power against you’.”
I think the facts here pretty much speak for themselves; weaponizing Title VI and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights act to fight bogus "anti-white discrimination," seize control over educational institutions to protect a US-backed genocide in Gaza, and persecute trans (primarily women) people is a gross, fascist perversion of the entire purpose of those laws and I have no doubt that doing so actively delights the cracker nazis running the Trump administration. Forcing a white nationalist framework onto American life through the very same mechanisms that were installed to fight rampant white supremacy in our society is the ultimate fascist troll job, and the "how's my ass taste" aspect of this initiative is probably just as important to the regime as its actual efforts to create a de facto white ethnostate through these methods.
Furthermore, I think it goes without saying that using one single SCOTUS decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, to argue that the government has a legal responsibility to enforce white nationalist policy over every aspect of American life and education, is a ridiculously broad, crassly dishonest interpretation of the law that should in no way be given credibility by anyone who isn't a fascist. This isn't Simon Says, the clearly stated purpose of the Civil Rights Act matters here too, and going full "the card says Moops" in response to this objectively disingenuous nazi bullshit is a cowardly failure of civic responsibility by the media, education institutes, and every part of the American establishment that isn't directly fighting Trump's inversion perversion of the Civil Rights Act.
Finally I'd like to point out that this is yet another example of the way Trump's entire fascist agenda amounts of "governance by nazi conspiracy theory." The entire basis of the administration's argument that they can, and need to use Civil Rights law to protect white, straight, Christian men, is rooted in fascist conspiracy theories about "reverse racism," "gender ideology," and "white genocide" - none of which are real, or actually happening in our society. This is a consistent pattern now in how Trump rules; the regime states fascist conspiracy theories as fact, acts on those conspiracy theories as if they were actual crises-level emergencies, and then seeks reprisal against anyone who opposes their attempts to govern as if these fascist conspiracy theories are true.
#Fascism #Trump #Education #CivilRights #IdeologicalPolicing #CivilRightsAct #Transphobia #Mysogyny #Racism #WhiteNationalism #ChristianNationalism #Propaganda #Unreality #LindaMcMahon #USPol
-
The more I watch them in action, the more it becomes clear to me that the inversion of civil rights language and protections is a foundational aspect of the methodology the Trump regime is using to transform America into a fascist dictatorship with open nazi characteristics. While I think this write up in the Guardian could use a bit more blunt honesty about the white nationalist nature of the Trump administration's strategy here, but it still does a pretty good job of looking at all the ways the regime is purposing one (itself white nationalist) SCOTUS ruling to turn sixty years of civil rights legislation into a weapon against the very marginalized people it was written to protect.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/trump-administration-civil-rights-act
Trump administration exploits landmark civil rights act to fight schools’ diversity initiatives
"Linda McMahon, the education secretary, has described the investigation as part of the administration’s effort to “reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination”. But civil rights advocates have denounced them as vague, likely unlawful and a betrayal of the spirit of the civil rights protections they purport to invoke.
“What we’re witnessing is an administration that is working very hard to turn civil rights laws against” the people trying to faithfully implement them, said Maya Wiley, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s really an effort to say, ‘If you don’t do what we tell you, we will turn our considerable power against you’.”
I think the facts here pretty much speak for themselves; weaponizing Title VI and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights act to fight bogus "anti-white discrimination," seize control over educational institutions to protect a US-backed genocide in Gaza, and persecute trans (primarily women) people is a gross, fascist perversion of the entire purpose of those laws and I have no doubt that doing so actively delights the cracker nazis running the Trump administration. Forcing a white nationalist framework onto American life through the very same mechanisms that were installed to fight rampant white supremacy in our society is the ultimate fascist troll job, and the "how's my ass taste" aspect of this initiative is probably just as important to the regime as its actual efforts to create a de facto white ethnostate through these methods.
Furthermore, I think it goes without saying that using one single SCOTUS decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, to argue that the government has a legal responsibility to enforce white nationalist policy over every aspect of American life and education, is a ridiculously broad, crassly dishonest interpretation of the law that should in no way be given credibility by anyone who isn't a fascist. This isn't Simon Says, the clearly stated purpose of the Civil Rights Act matters here too, and going full "the card says Moops" in response to this objectively disingenuous nazi bullshit is a cowardly failure of civic responsibility by the media, education institutes, and every part of the American establishment that isn't directly fighting Trump's inversion perversion of the Civil Rights Act.
Finally I'd like to point out that this is yet another example of the way Trump's entire fascist agenda amounts of "governance by nazi conspiracy theory." The entire basis of the administration's argument that they can, and need to use Civil Rights law to protect white, straight, Christian men, is rooted in fascist conspiracy theories about "reverse racism," "gender ideology," and "white genocide" - none of which are real, or actually happening in our society. This is a consistent pattern now in how Trump rules; the regime states fascist conspiracy theories as fact, acts on those conspiracy theories as if they were actual crises-level emergencies, and then seeks reprisal against anyone who opposes their attempts to govern as if these fascist conspiracy theories are true.
#Fascism #Trump #Education #CivilRights #IdeologicalPolicing #CivilRightsAct #Transphobia #Mysogyny #Racism #WhiteNationalism #ChristianNationalism #Propaganda #Unreality #LindaMcMahon #USPol
-
The more I watch them in action, the more it becomes clear to me that the inversion of civil rights language and protections is a foundational aspect of the methodology the Trump regime is using to transform America into a fascist dictatorship with open nazi characteristics. While I think this write up in the Guardian could use a bit more blunt honesty about the white nationalist nature of the Trump administration's strategy here, but it still does a pretty good job of looking at all the ways the regime is purposing one (itself white nationalist) SCOTUS ruling to turn sixty years of civil rights legislation into a weapon against the very marginalized people it was written to protect.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/trump-administration-civil-rights-act
Trump administration exploits landmark civil rights act to fight schools’ diversity initiatives
"Linda McMahon, the education secretary, has described the investigation as part of the administration’s effort to “reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination”. But civil rights advocates have denounced them as vague, likely unlawful and a betrayal of the spirit of the civil rights protections they purport to invoke.
“What we’re witnessing is an administration that is working very hard to turn civil rights laws against” the people trying to faithfully implement them, said Maya Wiley, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s really an effort to say, ‘If you don’t do what we tell you, we will turn our considerable power against you’.”
I think the facts here pretty much speak for themselves; weaponizing Title VI and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights act to fight bogus "anti-white discrimination," seize control over educational institutions to protect a US-backed genocide in Gaza, and persecute trans (primarily women) people is a gross, fascist perversion of the entire purpose of those laws and I have no doubt that doing so actively delights the cracker nazis running the Trump administration. Forcing a white nationalist framework onto American life through the very same mechanisms that were installed to fight rampant white supremacy in our society is the ultimate fascist troll job, and the "how's my ass taste" aspect of this initiative is probably just as important to the regime as its actual efforts to create a de facto white ethnostate through these methods.
Furthermore, I think it goes without saying that using one single SCOTUS decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, to argue that the government has a legal responsibility to enforce white nationalist policy over every aspect of American life and education, is a ridiculously broad, crassly dishonest interpretation of the law that should in no way be given credibility by anyone who isn't a fascist. This isn't Simon Says, the clearly stated purpose of the Civil Rights Act matters here too, and going full "the card says Moops" in response to this objectively disingenuous nazi bullshit is a cowardly failure of civic responsibility by the media, education institutes, and every part of the American establishment that isn't directly fighting Trump's inversion perversion of the Civil Rights Act.
Finally I'd like to point out that this is yet another example of the way Trump's entire fascist agenda amounts of "governance by nazi conspiracy theory." The entire basis of the administration's argument that they can, and need to use Civil Rights law to protect white, straight, Christian men, is rooted in fascist conspiracy theories about "reverse racism," "gender ideology," and "white genocide" - none of which are real, or actually happening in our society. This is a consistent pattern now in how Trump rules; the regime states fascist conspiracy theories as fact, acts on those conspiracy theories as if they were actual crises-level emergencies, and then seeks reprisal against anyone who opposes their attempts to govern as if these fascist conspiracy theories are true.
#Fascism #Trump #Education #CivilRights #IdeologicalPolicing #CivilRightsAct #Transphobia #Mysogyny #Racism #WhiteNationalism #ChristianNationalism #Propaganda #Unreality #LindaMcMahon #USPol
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After threatening to target the media several hundred times since he first announced his candidacy for President, Trump is now instructing his bootlicking Attorney General Pam Bondi to make his war on journalists possible. Although Bondi is acting in the context of hunting down leakers in the Department of Defense, the reality is that Downmarket Mussolini will almost certainly come for his critics in the media and the sources they speak to, next.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bondi-journalism-protections
Bondi Shreds Biden-Era Protections for Journalists as Trump White House Hunts Leakers
"As part of a renewed crackdown on leaks, Bondi said she is issuing revised Justice Department regulations stating that media outlets "must answer subpoenas" related to efforts to uncover sources of unauthorized disclosures within the federal government.
"The policy contemplates the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media, subject to the Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, and the approval of the department's leadership in some instances," the memo states. "The attorney general must also approve efforts to question or arrest members of the news media."
As I alluded to above, I find US corporate media's bloodless, minutiae-focused reporting on Bondi's actions here curious and alarming given that the Trump regime is giving itself the power to come after them and their journalists. Obviously the regime is acting in response to the embarrassing leaks surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the investigation DNI Tulsi Gabbard is conducting into those leaks. None of this is happening in a vacuum however, and I don't know who it serves to report only in the narrow context of the regime's narrative here.
Like let's cut the crap right? During his first administration, Trump's Department of Justice already tried to go after reporters to expose their sources. Trump is a guy who threatened journalists with implied carceral sexual assault if they didn't give up their sources, on the campaign trail. The Kelpto Kaiser has literally said negative reporting about himself and his regime should be "illegal." The regime is weaponizing the FCC and holding McCarthy-esque hearings lead by fascist conspiracy crank-turned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to target NPR and PBS for criticizing Trump and admitting LGBTQ people exist in American life. Trump is literally exerting so much pressure on CBS over the editing on a 60 Minutes segment featuring Kamala Harris (a woman he already beat in the 2024 US election) that the program's longtime editor resigned because the show's independence was compromised.
I honestly couldn't give a rats ass about warmongers working for a fascist regime who get caught leaking, but surely it doesn't take a psychic to realize that the would-be dictator already targeting media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda, is going to use new Department of Justice guidelines that let him more freely target media that criticize or oppose his fascist agenda, to further target media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda. This isn't rocket science here. For corporate media outlets to pretend this story is purely about internal leaks inside Pete Hegseth's staff strains credulity, and would appear to be very shortsighted indeed.
#Fascism #Trump #PamBondi #Leaks #FreedomOfThePress #FreeSpeech #Dictatorship #DoJ #PeteHegseth #Journalists #MTG #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #GOP #USPol #60Minutes #CBS #PBS #NPR #FCC
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After threatening to target the media several hundred times since he first announced his candidacy for President, Trump is now instructing his bootlicking Attorney General Pam Bondi to make his war on journalists possible. Although Bondi is acting in the context of hunting down leakers in the Department of Defense, the reality is that Downmarket Mussolini will almost certainly come for his critics in the media and the sources they speak to, next.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bondi-journalism-protections
Bondi Shreds Biden-Era Protections for Journalists as Trump White House Hunts Leakers
"As part of a renewed crackdown on leaks, Bondi said she is issuing revised Justice Department regulations stating that media outlets "must answer subpoenas" related to efforts to uncover sources of unauthorized disclosures within the federal government.
"The policy contemplates the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media, subject to the Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, and the approval of the department's leadership in some instances," the memo states. "The attorney general must also approve efforts to question or arrest members of the news media."
As I alluded to above, I find US corporate media's bloodless, minutiae-focused reporting on Bondi's actions here curious and alarming given that the Trump regime is giving itself the power to come after them and their journalists. Obviously the regime is acting in response to the embarrassing leaks surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the investigation DNI Tulsi Gabbard is conducting into those leaks. None of this is happening in a vacuum however, and I don't know who it serves to report only in the narrow context of the regime's narrative here.
Like let's cut the crap right? During his first administration, Trump's Department of Justice already tried to go after reporters to expose their sources. Trump is a guy who threatened journalists with implied carceral sexual assault if they didn't give up their sources, on the campaign trail. The Kelpto Kaiser has literally said negative reporting about himself and his regime should be "illegal." The regime is weaponizing the FCC and holding McCarthy-esque hearings lead by fascist conspiracy crank-turned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to target NPR and PBS for criticizing Trump and admitting LGBTQ people exist in American life. Trump is literally exerting so much pressure on CBS over the editing on a 60 Minutes segment featuring Kamala Harris (a woman he already beat in the 2024 US election) that the program's longtime editor resigned because the show's independence was compromised.
I honestly couldn't give a rats ass about warmongers working for a fascist regime who get caught leaking, but surely it doesn't take a psychic to realize that the would-be dictator already targeting media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda, is going to use new Department of Justice guidelines that let him more freely target media that criticize or oppose his fascist agenda, to further target media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda. This isn't rocket science here. For corporate media outlets to pretend this story is purely about internal leaks inside Pete Hegseth's staff strains credulity, and would appear to be very shortsighted indeed.
#Fascism #Trump #PamBondi #Leaks #FreedomOfThePress #FreeSpeech #Dictatorship #DoJ #PeteHegseth #Journalists #MTG #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #GOP #USPol #60Minutes #CBS #PBS #NPR #FCC
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After threatening to target the media several hundred times since he first announced his candidacy for President, Trump is now instructing his bootlicking Attorney General Pam Bondi to make his war on journalists possible. Although Bondi is acting in the context of hunting down leakers in the Department of Defense, the reality is that Downmarket Mussolini will almost certainly come for his critics in the media and the sources they speak to, next.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bondi-journalism-protections
Bondi Shreds Biden-Era Protections for Journalists as Trump White House Hunts Leakers
"As part of a renewed crackdown on leaks, Bondi said she is issuing revised Justice Department regulations stating that media outlets "must answer subpoenas" related to efforts to uncover sources of unauthorized disclosures within the federal government.
"The policy contemplates the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media, subject to the Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, and the approval of the department's leadership in some instances," the memo states. "The attorney general must also approve efforts to question or arrest members of the news media."
As I alluded to above, I find US corporate media's bloodless, minutiae-focused reporting on Bondi's actions here curious and alarming given that the Trump regime is giving itself the power to come after them and their journalists. Obviously the regime is acting in response to the embarrassing leaks surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the investigation DNI Tulsi Gabbard is conducting into those leaks. None of this is happening in a vacuum however, and I don't know who it serves to report only in the narrow context of the regime's narrative here.
Like let's cut the crap right? During his first administration, Trump's Department of Justice already tried to go after reporters to expose their sources. Trump is a guy who threatened journalists with implied carceral sexual assault if they didn't give up their sources, on the campaign trail. The Kelpto Kaiser has literally said negative reporting about himself and his regime should be "illegal." The regime is weaponizing the FCC and holding McCarthy-esque hearings lead by fascist conspiracy crank-turned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to target NPR and PBS for criticizing Trump and admitting LGBTQ people exist in American life. Trump is literally exerting so much pressure on CBS over the editing on a 60 Minutes segment featuring Kamala Harris (a woman he already beat in the 2024 US election) that the program's longtime editor resigned because the show's independence was compromised.
I honestly couldn't give a rats ass about warmongers working for a fascist regime who get caught leaking, but surely it doesn't take a psychic to realize that the would-be dictator already targeting media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda, is going to use new Department of Justice guidelines that let him more freely target media that criticize or oppose his fascist agenda, to further target media that criticizes or opposes his fascist agenda. This isn't rocket science here. For corporate media outlets to pretend this story is purely about internal leaks inside Pete Hegseth's staff strains credulity, and would appear to be very shortsighted indeed.
#Fascism #Trump #PamBondi #Leaks #FreedomOfThePress #FreeSpeech #Dictatorship #DoJ #PeteHegseth #Journalists #MTG #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #GOP #USPol #60Minutes #CBS #PBS #NPR #FCC
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A few days ago I wrote about Trump's authoritarian investigation into ActBlue in the context of rigging American politics, now the AP is reporting that Democratic Party-aligned activist groups like Indivisible are also preparing for the possibility Downmarket Mussolini and the Republican Party will come for them next.
Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration
"The Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, and the party’s largest protest group, Indivisible, are working with their attorneys for just such a scenario, according to officials within both organizations. Trump’s top political allies have suggested both groups should face prosecution.
Other Democratic allies are planning for Trump-backed legal crackdowns as well. Wary of antagonizing the Republican president, most prefer to stay anonymous for now.
“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and is chaired by Marc Elias, the lawyer who has himself been a Trump target."
I generally don't have time to talk about speculative write ups like this one, but given that Trump has already ordered an investigation into ActBlue, and appears to be governing by fascist conspiracy theories embraced by the GOP at large, I think this one is worth keeping an eye on. In particular, any authoritarian repression directed at Indivisible would represent "crossing the streams" of the various fascist interests operating within the Trump administration because that group has intimately been involved in the anti-Trump, anti-Musk "Hands Off" protests; Musk in particular has publicly described them as "criminal."
Obviously I can't predict the future, but targeting activist groups aligned with his political opposition would definitely fit the pattern of building a patchwork Enabling Act that Trump has adopted so far. The regime is already creating the ideological justification to criminalize a key funding apparatus for the Democratic Party, and given that both DHS and the DoJ have directly implied that protesting the regime amounts to "domestic terrorism," I think it would be foolish to assume the Trumpenreich *isn't* coming for groups like Indivisible in time; and clearly Democratic Party-aligned groups of all stripes agree with me or they wouldn't be lawyering up in preparation.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #USPol #RepublicanParty #ActBlue #Indivisible #IdeologicalPolicing #DoJ #DemocraticParty #EnablingAct
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A few days ago I wrote about Trump's authoritarian investigation into ActBlue in the context of rigging American politics, now the AP is reporting that Democratic Party-aligned activist groups like Indivisible are also preparing for the possibility Downmarket Mussolini and the Republican Party will come for them next.
Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration
"The Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, and the party’s largest protest group, Indivisible, are working with their attorneys for just such a scenario, according to officials within both organizations. Trump’s top political allies have suggested both groups should face prosecution.
Other Democratic allies are planning for Trump-backed legal crackdowns as well. Wary of antagonizing the Republican president, most prefer to stay anonymous for now.
“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and is chaired by Marc Elias, the lawyer who has himself been a Trump target."
I generally don't have time to talk about speculative write ups like this one, but given that Trump has already ordered an investigation into ActBlue, and appears to be governing by fascist conspiracy theories embraced by the GOP at large, I think this one is worth keeping an eye on. In particular, any authoritarian repression directed at Indivisible would represent "crossing the streams" of the various fascist interests operating within the Trump administration because that group has intimately been involved in the anti-Trump, anti-Musk "Hands Off" protests; Musk in particular has publicly described them as "criminal."
Obviously I can't predict the future, but targeting activist groups aligned with his political opposition would definitely fit the pattern of building a patchwork Enabling Act that Trump has adopted so far. The regime is already creating the ideological justification to criminalize a key funding apparatus for the Democratic Party, and given that both DHS and the DoJ have directly implied that protesting the regime amounts to "domestic terrorism," I think it would be foolish to assume the Trumpenreich *isn't* coming for groups like Indivisible in time; and clearly Democratic Party-aligned groups of all stripes agree with me or they wouldn't be lawyering up in preparation.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #USPol #RepublicanParty #ActBlue #Indivisible #IdeologicalPolicing #DoJ #DemocraticParty #EnablingAct
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A few days ago I wrote about Trump's authoritarian investigation into ActBlue in the context of rigging American politics, now the AP is reporting that Democratic Party-aligned activist groups like Indivisible are also preparing for the possibility Downmarket Mussolini and the Republican Party will come for them next.
Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration
"The Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, and the party’s largest protest group, Indivisible, are working with their attorneys for just such a scenario, according to officials within both organizations. Trump’s top political allies have suggested both groups should face prosecution.
Other Democratic allies are planning for Trump-backed legal crackdowns as well. Wary of antagonizing the Republican president, most prefer to stay anonymous for now.
“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and is chaired by Marc Elias, the lawyer who has himself been a Trump target."
I generally don't have time to talk about speculative write ups like this one, but given that Trump has already ordered an investigation into ActBlue, and appears to be governing by fascist conspiracy theories embraced by the GOP at large, I think this one is worth keeping an eye on. In particular, any authoritarian repression directed at Indivisible would represent "crossing the streams" of the various fascist interests operating within the Trump administration because that group has intimately been involved in the anti-Trump, anti-Musk "Hands Off" protests; Musk in particular has publicly described them as "criminal."
Obviously I can't predict the future, but targeting activist groups aligned with his political opposition would definitely fit the pattern of building a patchwork Enabling Act that Trump has adopted so far. The regime is already creating the ideological justification to criminalize a key funding apparatus for the Democratic Party, and given that both DHS and the DoJ have directly implied that protesting the regime amounts to "domestic terrorism," I think it would be foolish to assume the Trumpenreich *isn't* coming for groups like Indivisible in time; and clearly Democratic Party-aligned groups of all stripes agree with me or they wouldn't be lawyering up in preparation.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #USPol #RepublicanParty #ActBlue #Indivisible #IdeologicalPolicing #DoJ #DemocraticParty #EnablingAct
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Given the absolute shitshow that has been the fascist Trump regime's campaign to crush anti-genocide protestors, would it surprise you to learn that ICE just revealed in a court filing that they didn't have a warrant to arrest Mahmoud Khalil?
https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-warrant-mahmoud-khalil
ICE Admits They Didn't Have a Warrant When They Arrested Mahmoud Khalil
"ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally and without a warrant—to justify it, they are now flat out lying with an absurd claim that he tried to flee. At every step of the way, the Trump administration has flouted the law," said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Another attorney for Khalil, Amy Greer, said she was on the phone with Khalil, his wife, and even spoke to the agent making the arrest on March 8.
"In the face of multiple agents in plain clothes who clearly intended to abduct him, and despite the fact that those agents repeatedly failed to show us a warrant, Mahmoud remained calm and complied with their orders," she said Thursday. "Today we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant—they didn't have one."
Frankly everything about the Gestapo abduction and attempted deportation of Khalil follows the now-typical Trump regime pattern of being a Russian nesting doll of fascist fuckery. Khalil, who is legally residing in the United States with his American wife, is being targeted simply for his role as an important spokesman for the student encampment anti-genocide protestors at Columbia, under the guise of fighting wholly made up "antisemitism in higher education." The regime has admitted that Khalil committed no crimes, and claims the authority to detain and deport him simply because the fascist Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, feels that Khalil is a hinderance to American foreign policy objectives; which sure does sound like the government is targeting Khalil on behalf of our genocidal client state, Israel.
None of this is about enforcing the law or protecting the American public; the regime decided its goal was to crack down on anti-genocide student protestors and the easiest way to do that was to go after foreign students who protested against the genocide in Gaza through the executive branch's expanded authority over foreign policy and immigration matters. The "criminal" was identified, before the "crime" was decided on; which is a sure sign of an authoritarian regime weaponizing the law to engage in political repression. As such, it's hardly surprising that Trump's Gestapo, ICE, didn't bother to get its paperwork in order before snatching Khalil, nor that they're lying about thinking he was a flight risk to justify it after the fact. Fascists don't care about the law except in so much as it can help them persecute their targets, and the Trumpenreich regime is not exceptional in that respect.
#Fascism #Trump #MahmoudKhalil #ICE #DHS #Gaza #Genocide #Imperialism #Israel #PoliceState #IdeologicalPolicing #Rubio #CampusProtests #Columbia
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Given the absolute shitshow that has been the fascist Trump regime's campaign to crush anti-genocide protestors, would it surprise you to learn that ICE just revealed in a court filing that they didn't have a warrant to arrest Mahmoud Khalil?
https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-warrant-mahmoud-khalil
ICE Admits They Didn't Have a Warrant When They Arrested Mahmoud Khalil
"ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally and without a warrant—to justify it, they are now flat out lying with an absurd claim that he tried to flee. At every step of the way, the Trump administration has flouted the law," said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Another attorney for Khalil, Amy Greer, said she was on the phone with Khalil, his wife, and even spoke to the agent making the arrest on March 8.
"In the face of multiple agents in plain clothes who clearly intended to abduct him, and despite the fact that those agents repeatedly failed to show us a warrant, Mahmoud remained calm and complied with their orders," she said Thursday. "Today we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant—they didn't have one."
Frankly everything about the Gestapo abduction and attempted deportation of Khalil follows the now-typical Trump regime pattern of being a Russian nesting doll of fascist fuckery. Khalil, who is legally residing in the United States with his American wife, is being targeted simply for his role as an important spokesman for the student encampment anti-genocide protestors at Columbia, under the guise of fighting wholly made up "antisemitism in higher education." The regime has admitted that Khalil committed no crimes, and claims the authority to detain and deport him simply because the fascist Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, feels that Khalil is a hinderance to American foreign policy objectives; which sure does sound like the government is targeting Khalil on behalf of our genocidal client state, Israel.
None of this is about enforcing the law or protecting the American public; the regime decided its goal was to crack down on anti-genocide student protestors and the easiest way to do that was to go after foreign students who protested against the genocide in Gaza through the executive branch's expanded authority over foreign policy and immigration matters. The "criminal" was identified, before the "crime" was decided on; which is a sure sign of an authoritarian regime weaponizing the law to engage in political repression. As such, it's hardly surprising that Trump's Gestapo, ICE, didn't bother to get its paperwork in order before snatching Khalil, nor that they're lying about thinking he was a flight risk to justify it after the fact. Fascists don't care about the law except in so much as it can help them persecute their targets, and the Trumpenreich regime is not exceptional in that respect.
#Fascism #Trump #MahmoudKhalil #ICE #DHS #Gaza #Genocide #Imperialism #Israel #PoliceState #IdeologicalPolicing #Rubio #CampusProtests #Columbia
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Given the absolute shitshow that has been the fascist Trump regime's campaign to crush anti-genocide protestors, would it surprise you to learn that ICE just revealed in a court filing that they didn't have a warrant to arrest Mahmoud Khalil?
https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-warrant-mahmoud-khalil
ICE Admits They Didn't Have a Warrant When They Arrested Mahmoud Khalil
"ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally and without a warrant—to justify it, they are now flat out lying with an absurd claim that he tried to flee. At every step of the way, the Trump administration has flouted the law," said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Another attorney for Khalil, Amy Greer, said she was on the phone with Khalil, his wife, and even spoke to the agent making the arrest on March 8.
"In the face of multiple agents in plain clothes who clearly intended to abduct him, and despite the fact that those agents repeatedly failed to show us a warrant, Mahmoud remained calm and complied with their orders," she said Thursday. "Today we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant—they didn't have one."
Frankly everything about the Gestapo abduction and attempted deportation of Khalil follows the now-typical Trump regime pattern of being a Russian nesting doll of fascist fuckery. Khalil, who is legally residing in the United States with his American wife, is being targeted simply for his role as an important spokesman for the student encampment anti-genocide protestors at Columbia, under the guise of fighting wholly made up "antisemitism in higher education." The regime has admitted that Khalil committed no crimes, and claims the authority to detain and deport him simply because the fascist Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, feels that Khalil is a hinderance to American foreign policy objectives; which sure does sound like the government is targeting Khalil on behalf of our genocidal client state, Israel.
None of this is about enforcing the law or protecting the American public; the regime decided its goal was to crack down on anti-genocide student protestors and the easiest way to do that was to go after foreign students who protested against the genocide in Gaza through the executive branch's expanded authority over foreign policy and immigration matters. The "criminal" was identified, before the "crime" was decided on; which is a sure sign of an authoritarian regime weaponizing the law to engage in political repression. As such, it's hardly surprising that Trump's Gestapo, ICE, didn't bother to get its paperwork in order before snatching Khalil, nor that they're lying about thinking he was a flight risk to justify it after the fact. Fascists don't care about the law except in so much as it can help them persecute their targets, and the Trumpenreich regime is not exceptional in that respect.
#Fascism #Trump #MahmoudKhalil #ICE #DHS #Gaza #Genocide #Imperialism #Israel #PoliceState #IdeologicalPolicing #Rubio #CampusProtests #Columbia
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As I've mentioned a few times, the Trump regime is undoubtedly aware that there will be opposition inside the US federal workforce to its plans to repurpose the machinery of state to accomplish objectively fascist objectives. Which is of course why they're also working to give Der Leader the power to purge anyone who won't enact their heinous ideology in government, and presumably replace them with Heritage Foundation-trained obedient little nazis; as was leaked during Trump's 2024 election campaign.
As this Common Dreams article notes, this plan was originally called Schedule F when Trump tried to enact it near the end of his first term, but the fascists haven't abandoned the project because it's a vital step in enacting their reactionary, Christian Nationalist agenda. Now Trump is attempting to progress this ideological purge and restacking scheme forward under a new title, "Schedule Policy/Career," to ensure nobody with a conscience inside the government sticks around long enough to object to their fascist activities.
Trump Advances Plan to Fill Federal Government With 'Political Cronies'
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trumps-schedule-f-plan
"Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said Friday's announcement was the latest "in a series of deliberate moves by this administration to corrupt the federal government and replace qualified public servants with political cronies."
"President Trump's action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government's merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on," said Kelley. "Politicizing the career civil service is a threat to our democracy and to the integrity of all the programs and services Americans rely on."
On some level, what the regime is attempting to do here amounts to a "jobs for cracker Republicans, and nobody else" program. But none of the stories about Trump politicizing the American government can be properly contextualized in a vacuum. The fact is that this is a fascist regime, attempting to force the entire US government to enforce a fascist "unreality" on society that would justify and enable their Christian Nationalist plans and intentions. Every single horrible thing Trump wants to do, every single idea the nazis want to turn in its head to harm rather than help people, becomes easier if the regime can purge opposition from the government and stack thousands of civil service positions with folks who ideologically support all this fascist bullshit.
Archived: https://archive.ph/swEG3
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #ScheduleF #ChristianNationalism #Purge #IdeologicalPolicing #LaborRights #AFGE #EverettKelley
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As I've mentioned a few times, the Trump regime is undoubtedly aware that there will be opposition inside the US federal workforce to its plans to repurpose the machinery of state to accomplish objectively fascist objectives. Which is of course why they're also working to give Der Leader the power to purge anyone who won't enact their heinous ideology in government, and presumably replace them with Heritage Foundation-trained obedient little nazis; as was leaked during Trump's 2024 election campaign.
As this Common Dreams article notes, this plan was originally called Schedule F when Trump tried to enact it near the end of his first term, but the fascists haven't abandoned the project because it's a vital step in enacting their reactionary, Christian Nationalist agenda. Now Trump is attempting to progress this ideological purge and restacking scheme forward under a new title, "Schedule Policy/Career," to ensure nobody with a conscience inside the government sticks around long enough to object to their fascist activities.
Trump Advances Plan to Fill Federal Government With 'Political Cronies'
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trumps-schedule-f-plan
"Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said Friday's announcement was the latest "in a series of deliberate moves by this administration to corrupt the federal government and replace qualified public servants with political cronies."
"President Trump's action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government's merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on," said Kelley. "Politicizing the career civil service is a threat to our democracy and to the integrity of all the programs and services Americans rely on."
On some level, what the regime is attempting to do here amounts to a "jobs for cracker Republicans, and nobody else" program. But none of the stories about Trump politicizing the American government can be properly contextualized in a vacuum. The fact is that this is a fascist regime, attempting to force the entire US government to enforce a fascist "unreality" on society that would justify and enable their Christian Nationalist plans and intentions. Every single horrible thing Trump wants to do, every single idea the nazis want to turn in its head to harm rather than help people, becomes easier if the regime can purge opposition from the government and stack thousands of civil service positions with folks who ideologically support all this fascist bullshit.
Archived: https://archive.ph/swEG3
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #ScheduleF #ChristianNationalism #Purge #IdeologicalPolicing #LaborRights #AFGE #EverettKelley
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As I've mentioned a few times, the Trump regime is undoubtedly aware that there will be opposition inside the US federal workforce to its plans to repurpose the machinery of state to accomplish objectively fascist objectives. Which is of course why they're also working to give Der Leader the power to purge anyone who won't enact their heinous ideology in government, and presumably replace them with Heritage Foundation-trained obedient little nazis; as was leaked during Trump's 2024 election campaign.
As this Common Dreams article notes, this plan was originally called Schedule F when Trump tried to enact it near the end of his first term, but the fascists haven't abandoned the project because it's a vital step in enacting their reactionary, Christian Nationalist agenda. Now Trump is attempting to progress this ideological purge and restacking scheme forward under a new title, "Schedule Policy/Career," to ensure nobody with a conscience inside the government sticks around long enough to object to their fascist activities.
Trump Advances Plan to Fill Federal Government With 'Political Cronies'
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trumps-schedule-f-plan
"Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said Friday's announcement was the latest "in a series of deliberate moves by this administration to corrupt the federal government and replace qualified public servants with political cronies."
"President Trump's action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government's merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on," said Kelley. "Politicizing the career civil service is a threat to our democracy and to the integrity of all the programs and services Americans rely on."
On some level, what the regime is attempting to do here amounts to a "jobs for cracker Republicans, and nobody else" program. But none of the stories about Trump politicizing the American government can be properly contextualized in a vacuum. The fact is that this is a fascist regime, attempting to force the entire US government to enforce a fascist "unreality" on society that would justify and enable their Christian Nationalist plans and intentions. Every single horrible thing Trump wants to do, every single idea the nazis want to turn in its head to harm rather than help people, becomes easier if the regime can purge opposition from the government and stack thousands of civil service positions with folks who ideologically support all this fascist bullshit.
Archived: https://archive.ph/swEG3
#Fascism #Trump #USPol #ScheduleF #ChristianNationalism #Purge #IdeologicalPolicing #LaborRights #AFGE #EverettKelley