FROM RACIST ELECTORAL ENGINEERING TO HOLLOWING OUT PUBLIC HEALTH, TRUMP’S SECOND TERM IS CONSOLIDATING AUTHORITARIAN POWER ~ Louis Further ~ As anarchists we can’t get excited about constitutions such as that of the United States. But its 14th Amendment also guarantees citizenship (and hence protection against deportation) to non-white children who are born in the US – regardless of their parents’ origins. Any amendment to the constitution would be a lengthy and complex process requiring congressional majorities. But the US Supreme Court announced that it would hear Trump’s challenge to this ‘birthright citizenship’ Amendment, which seeks to annul those rights. This is unnecessary if judges wish to hear the case merely to re-affirm that they cannot amend the Constitution. Alternatively, if they uphold his challenge, they will unequivocally establish a supremacist dictatorship which is legally and officially above the law and against the constitution. Similarly, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case which would confer on Trump powers to sack state officials without cause or notice, something which the law also currently forbids. What’s more, the Court has finally sided with moves in Texas to redraw electoral maps along unequivocally racist lines. There is some token resistance to the kidnapping, abduction and trafficking of non-whites from the streets particularly in some of the United States’ larger cities. But one would hope this were much stronger in the light of the harm being done by the ICE raids – particularly since over 97% of those abducted are not criminals; just not white. Those attacked increasingly include Asian Americans. Trump’s overt racist abuse and threats towards the Somali population need little comment. Indeed, tirades like those reported here and ‘views’ reported here would probably be enough to end the career of a politician under most ‘normal’ circumstances. HEALTH Health has become a greater locus of dogma, dispute, dismay, distress, disease and death under Trump’s second term than in any recent presidency. Legislation and changes are driven by the MAGA belief that only the fittest should survive. Tenets of proven medical science are disregarded in favour of fascist dogma advancing ‘superior’ race(s). Monstrous liar and eventually struck-off anti-vaccine fraudster, Andrew Wakefield, was recently rehabilitated to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) by quack Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has lauded Wakefield’s work, while influential Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson posted, “Time to apologize to Dr. Andrew Wakefield and all the others who were maligned and vilified for simply asking the right questions.” This as fake claim after fake claim is published on the CDC site replacing helpful and verifiable medical facts. Medical professionals at all levels are retiring or otherwise exiting Kennedy’s mess rather than promote junk science and collude in spreading preventable diseases and deaths. They are being replaced by ill-equipped MAGA cult members who act out of uninformed dogma, like Dr. Ralph Abraham, surgeon general in Louisiana who will be the second in command at the CDC; Abraham ordered health officials to stop promoting vaccinations. Paradoxically, this degradation of federal health agencies could sponsor a positive turn of events. Local, putatively independent, alternative bodies are quickly springing up to take matters into their own hands for the real benefit of residents who need proper public healthcare. Regional coalitions are beginning to share communications, briefs, and insights. Data is being tabulated across traditional demographics and communities by non-federal groups like the Vaccine Integrity Project. Professional groups like the AAP and The Evidence Collective are promoting the publication and spread of reliable information while initiatives like PopHIVE are fully aware of the disastrous effects of disinformation put out in the interests of fascist dogma. Nor is there evidence of ‘partisan rivalry’ amongst these enterprises. But to replace a nationwide structure ostensibly designed to advance public health won’t be easy, of course. Neither is an attempt to impeach Kennedy. Then if Trump/MAGA is serious about discriminatory ideas like his announcement that he will oblige visitors to the USA to disclose recent social media before being allowed into the country to ensure that they are loyal to fascism, and given that he considers criticising him a crime punishable by death, there could be a concerted attempt to shut down anyone providing accurate health information. This would be endorsed and supported by a legal system hell-bent on advancing the MAGA ‘agenda’ regardless of the law – as one of the US Supreme Court justices herself recently outlined. FASCISM Indeed, according to one source it may well not be long before criticising Trump and his policies becomes literally illegal; those belonging to groups which point out the illegality of the MAGA cult in power could soon be targeted as ‘terrorists’ whose “non-traditional” views are disallowed. This is in sharp contrast, of course, to Trump’s own blatant illegality in myriad spheres, in which he has complete immunity. The Trump administration has already designated Maduro as the head of a foreign terrorist organisation, fuelling fear of a potential U.S. invasion of Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest known reserves of oil. While the Trump administration claims its escalating attacks on boats in the Caribbean are in response to drug trafficking, critics say this is just another attempt by the U.S. government – effectively supported by the Democrat opposition – to destabilise Venezuela to force a regime change and exploit resources, including oil. As Trump lied in referring to the illegal murder of sailors in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean; but before his marine terrorists illegally seized a Venezuelan oil tanker (imagine if the Venezuelan navy had boarded a US vessel!), Florida Congressmember María Salazar, Republican assistant whip, remarked: “Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity.” And to complete your holiday cheer, you may need to read this twice: in 2023 the US State Department adopted the Calibri font for its memos and publications because of its greater readability than the previous standard, Times New Roman, particularly on screens and when employees were engaged in text-to-speech and optical character recognition. Last week Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, ordered a return to Times New Roman because helping the visually impaired is seen by MAGA cultists as a weakness and too ‘woke’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image: Molly Riley, official White House photo on Flickr The post Notes from the US: Supremacist dictatorship appeared first on Freedom News.

AS THE RUBBLE THREW UP DUST, TRUMP REFUSED FOOD AID TO AS MANY AS 40 MILLION AMERICANS ~ Louis Further ~ With the usual caveat that anarchists attach scant value to voting and elections, it’s of concern that last month the US Supreme Court significantly undermined Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; this contains measures to ensure that electoral districts in any one state are arranged in rough proportion to its racial demographics. The Court has ruled that Louisiana cannot make such adjustments. Black votes now count for less. Elsewhere Republican-voting states are redrawing their electoral maps to favour white voters so actively and speedily that some legal commentators and ‘SCOTUS-watchers’ fear that this ruling could effectively result in permanent electoral majorities for the Republican (which now means far right/fascist) Party. The president is also widening his moves to overwrite the past—in this case by pardoning both more of those who tried to overturn the 2020 election in his favour and many of those found guilty of associated crimes. As the Court heard concluding oral arguments in this landmark voting rights case, the country’s president was publicly expressing major concerns about the way in which Time magazine had represented his haircut. He was also paying for the partial demolition of the White House with funds from supporters of genocide and abduction of non-whites by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), whose actions become ever more ferocious and sadistic. As the rubble threw up dust, Trump proved what a good Christian he is by refusing—illegally—to use the (non-charitable) resources mandated to feed perhaps as many as 40 million residents going hungry because of his government shutdown. This was quickly blamed on immigrants and trans people. Trump did, though, find the money to refurbish a bathroom in what he now seems to regard as his permanent home. Other signs of the extent to which Trump/MAGA cult is out of control (despite the fact that there is still little public contextual recognition of what is happening) are the sacking of those who refer to his attempted Putsch on January 6 2021 in a way of which he disapproves. Similarly, those who publicly criticise US support for Israel’s genocide often lose their jobs. Fascist senators like Ted Cruz (Texas) have legislation further to criminalise dissent. The media, of course, is feebly—if at all—trying to fend off blows from Trump, as he widens his reach to silence critics abroad. Correspondingly few are any murmurs that—although Trump is immune from legal consequences as president—those who ‘carry out his orders’ are not. MAGA cult members know that they need to stay in office indefinitely to retain that immunity. Judges’ demands for ‘accountability’ from ICE as it abducts and traffics non-whites across the country are being ignored. The ‘No Kings’ demonstrations on 18 October were estimated to have attracted more protesters than their equivalent in June by nearly 50%… seven million—or over 2% of the total population of the United States. Some sources are beginning to talk about the ‘2.5% rule‘. It would also be nice if such varied demonstrations do more than induce feelings of solidarity amongst those attending. But criticism of MAGA/Trump remains too ‘soft’ and disparate to make much impact; and lacks awareness of either the historical or geopolitical import of this resurgence of fascism. Trump’s response was characteristically vulgar. RACISM Trump and the MAGA merchants (some of whom now openly display Nazi flags) have surprised few recently by delivering themselves of a swill of offensive opinions. That slavery is and was a good thing; that racism is OK too. Vance, US vice president, stood up for such racism as this in his party and said that nobody wants to live next door to someone whose first language isn’t English; and that foreign nationals who criticised Charlie Kirk should be deported. Other forms of official government sadism include diminishing the support offered by what remains of the Department of Education responsible for young people with special needs by sacking those workers. Prosecutions for those abusing animals are also falling. Hatred is ever-present among Trump’s loyalists and ‘partners’: holocaust denier and antisemite Nick Fuentes, for instance, was given supportive exposure by prominent far right commentator Tucker Carlson—an event quickly endorsed by The Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for Project 2025, the blueprint of this administration. HEALTH ‘Policy’ in those government agencies formerly responsible for public health is increasingly based on the assumption that only the fittest deserve to survive This time last month 1,300 employees at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) were sacked—by email, without warning, without reason. This is a trend demoralising and frightening career professionals for months. Everyone has gone from the team that uses data of outbreaks in reports and guidance for the public. So have ‘epidemic intelligence service officers’ who detected and tracked emerging threats so as to mitigate their effects. And so on and so on, despite the by now familiar uncertainties and chaos around Scotch mist re-instatements. An estimated third of all employees at the CDC have now lost their jobs—on top of an expected additional 50% cut in budgets next year. Some commentators see this as a cruel experiment in just how far the deliberate and frenzied withdrawal of vital public health services from a society can go before collapse ensues. This is almost certainly only the first ‘act’ though… several ‘directives’ in Project 2025, which at first sight appear to be advocating [pdf] greater ‘efficiency’ are actually destructive and sinister; they envisage the replacement of dismissed staff (who are almost all highly experienced experts) with toadies, whose key attribute is not medical but loyalty to the fascist dogma which holds MAGA together. The way that Trump and his cabinet, including RF Kennedy Junior (who appeared the ‘flee the scene’ of a recent medial emergency), are stuffing their team, and diluting science with right-leaning anti-health dogma is alarming in the extreme.   The post Notes from the US: The fascist bathroom appeared first on Freedom News.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S POLITICAL PROGRAMME IS STILL ONE OF VENGEANCE ~ Louis Further ~ The shooting of supremacist bigot and hate-monger, Charlie Kirk, last month provoked adulation on the broad right out of all proportion to (the ‘value’ of) his ‘work’. Many people will not have heard of Kirk or Turning Point USA before the assassination. But he was praised and sanctified almost as if his vile antisemitic, misogynistic and Islamophobic beliefs constituted some sort of coherent political theory designed to make the world he fouled a better place. His supporters on the right hailed him as a hero—for comments like these: “America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that”; “The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different”; and “Jewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and non-profits…some of the largest financiers of left-wing anti-white causes have been Jewish Americans…Jews control Hollywood, Jews control American colleges, Jews secretly fund Marxist policies, Jews use their money to fund open borders to make America be less white, the white man is in danger, white people are going to go extinct, black people are scary criminals and nobody says anything but I have the guts to say it, no black woman could possibly have gotten a law degree she would have had to have stolen that job from a white man”. In support of such a platform schools in Oklahoma are now all to have a chapter of Kirk’s Turning Point USA fascist pressure group. Many of those who asked for a brake on the worship of such a figure—or who actually resisted the fawning—lost their jobs as a result of what appears like a co-ordinated campaign. Some of those in Kirk’s and his followers’ crosshairs experienced increased hate attacks following public calls for a more thoughtful appraisal of what he stood for. FASCISM Adulation for the even greater ‘great leader’, Trump himself, is growing. For instance huge banners carrying his face have appeared on some federal buildings in Washington DC. In similar ‘Big Brother’ fashion, Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, now has a lie-filled public ‘service’ propaganda video ‘announcement’ obliging passengers in some airports to listen to disinformation about the government shutdown. Trump/MAGA retribution continues to be aided by the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission, the rough equivalent of Oftel in the UK)… comedian Jimmy Kimmel was briefly suspended last month for some pretty anodyne remarks critical of Trump. Yet MAGA apologist and long time host of the notorious ‘Fox and Friends’ fascist propaganda slot, Brian Kilmeade, advanced with total impunity his way of ‘dealing’ with homeless people: instead of gaol, “[they should be given] …involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill ‘em”. Also last month White House’s deputy chief of staff, the scary Joseph Goebbels clone Stephen Miller, built on Trump’s assertion that it ought to be illegal to criticise him by claiming that merely to describe actions of the president as “authoritarian” (which this claim evidently makes them) should be a crime. His post on X received over one hundred thousand likes. It’s to be noted that the MAGA/Trump crew is increasingly accusing opposition of doing exactly what they are: ‘weaponising the law’, ‘acting like fascists’, ‘being out of control’ and so on. Nevertheless, this whole movement is less than popular with the voting public—including the ‘swing’ voters and independents, who seem to be increasing in numbers—although a large minority of those asked in one poll think that lawlessness by the cult is justified. This may be irrelevant if this sale to a MAGA cult member of one of the systems which carries out election voting is allowed to go ahead; and/or if the MAGA gang extends Speaker Johnson’s refusal now to swear in an elected Democrat to seats which the party loses in next year’s midterm elections. Nor is it hard to see Trump’s invasion of cities whose residents did not vote for him in 2024 as an experiment in major military crackdown/takeover if they do so again in next year’s midterms. REVENGE The political programme (in as much as there is one) of the administration is still one of vengeance. Funding for clean energy projects is being cut—again in states which did not vote from Trump. This is illegal: Congress approved the allocation; only Congress can withdraw it. The FBI and its way-out-of-his-depths Director, MAGA Qanon conspiracist Kash Patel, has also been busy taking revenge on Trump’s enemies and trying to silence and/or otherwise do down groups antithetical to fascism, like those which track US extremism. The FBI also fired employees who dared to show support for George Floyd and gay pride—several years ago. Its former director, James Comey, has also been indicted—although legal experts think it likely that the charges will be thrown out on technicalities, as well as lack of substance. The same is widely thought to be true in the case of Letitia James, the Attorney General for the state of New York who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial corruption—as her job required. Also truly corrupt is the far right ogre in charge of kidnapping and trafficking non-whites (the majority of whom have no hint of a criminal record) Tom Homan, was caught taking bribes last year; the Department of ‘Justice’ was told to drop the investigation into the case. That was not the only evidence contradicting Trump/MAGA’s probity to be buried: the DOJ took down from its site a study indicating that right-wingers commit far more violent crimes than other groups. Information offered by the National Parks on (the history of) slavery is also being removed. Meanwhile to supposedly ‘neutral’ Supreme Court is prioritising cases on which it can rule in MAGA/Trump’s favour. Trump’s overt racism – not to mention his illusions and mental instability –  appear to be growing in number and severity. He recently posted a propaganda video touting the existence of ‘medbeds‘, beloved of the QAnon conspiracists. Then Trump sacked a long-serving museum official who advised against his stealing a sword to give as a present to the UK monarch on his recent visit to the UK. Violence is also increasing, as ICE asserts its powers more forcefully – shooting photographers, assaulting TV journalists and members of the public. And, as was inevitable when Trump/MAGA encourages fascist militias to join in, fake ICE raids are on the rise. ENVIRONMENT But to end on the positive, the group of young people in Montana which have already won once in court on environmental issues was back in court last month to file suit against Trump’s earth-wrecking executive orders promoting fossil fuels. The post Notes from the US: Fawning on fascists appeared first on Freedom News.

THIS MONTH SOMETHING DIFFERENT: A CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING WHY THE APPEAL OF SELFISHNESS GRIPS SO MANY PEOPLE SO FIERCELY ~ Louis Further ~ Right-wing beliefs are ultimately attempts to rationalise and justify selfishness. Fascism, ‘conservatism’, US Republicanism—call them what you will: the differences are essentially procedural. “My needs matter. Yours don’t”. But in order to explain much of what motivates those in the MAGA cult it’s necessary to understand the state which precedes selfishness. That is the primacy of the self devoid of empathy. Members of the MAGA cult thrive on the stark clarity of its identity and their adherence to it… badges, merchandise, flags, clothing. This applies less to other (far right) systems imposed on majorities in most other polities and other shades of élite, hierarchical, coercive political opinion—notably the Democrats in the US. But they too take what’s useful in selfishness. For that self (or selves) to be distinct first there have to be ‘others’, who are not the self. Secondly there has to be a qualitative comparison between the two entities. This drive to compare may originate in the psychology of their childhood wounds, in ongoing brainwashing, in fear, in ignorance, insecurity and so on. For cult members’ biographies (individual or collective) to make sense no two (or more) things can (co-)exist without being compared. Once the apparent ‘need’ to compare is admitted, it becomes inevitable and compelling. This adherence to the dogma of comparison for those in the MAGA cult often bypasses assertions of perceived ‘right’ vs ‘wrong’, ‘good’ vs ‘bad’. The very act of comparison (between races, sexes, classes, ideas of society etc) replaces rational analysis. Defining superiority-inferiority becomes an end in itself. This is much more than pragmatism: justifying selfishness and oppression becomes its own goal. Objectivity, tolerance, compassion, caring, empathising are all irrelevant and play no part in advancing such agendas as those which Trump/MAGA is now imposing on the US. The self (individual of collective) is the sole arbiter of such qualities as ‘strength’, ‘ruthlessness’, ‘bullying determination’; so they are more readily adopted when compared with such perceived opposites as ‘weakness’, being ‘soft on crime’ than for their innate qualities. If those in this camp subjected their perceived need to come out on top to logical or rational analysis, they would fail. So a spurious teleological element is (unconsciously) introduced: a wilful conviction that “history is on our side; we have the untrammelled right to impose”. This sense of historical inevitability both has its genesis in, and reinforces and encourages, the millenarian streak with which current US foreign ‘policy’ has been shot through at least since the élite upped its ‘war on terror’ a generation ago. It grew more harshly with the anti-Muslim fanaticism propagated by George W. Bush after the events of September 11 2001. It can still be found in establishment antisemitism and the Islamophobia of Trump and his fellow cultists. The need to capture, torture, and kill the ‘bomb-carrying Middle Easterner’ around every corner is readily satisfied by the élite’s assertion of white-male-American superiority over everyone else. Even when the hunts produce spurious results—or none—someone has to be punished. The same thing is happening now as ICE kidnaps and traffics many who fail to look ‘white’—in comparison with everyone else, especially the hunters. Such binary ‘decisions’ (“I belong. You don’t”) are endpoints. It’s easy to bask in the approbation which they receive—in propaganda outlets and legislative echo-chambers. After all, again, the ‘superior self’ is sole arbiter of what to subscribe to. CIRCULAR LOGIC Belief (as opposed to reason) also has its own circular justification. This is hardly surprising when you recall that fascism is a system which seeks to ‘solve’ a problem which it has itself created. Once the primacy—and so the perceived necessity—of binary comparisons has been accepted (as it is in fascist beliefs), then condemnation of the other is even more compelling and convincing to the likes of the MAGA/Trump cult: non-whites are undesirable because they are criminals (not even remotely true, of course). This means that they are criminals because they are non-white. Analogously “We whites are better than ‘illegal aliens’ because… we are not ‘illegal aliens’”. This horse-before-cart assertion of white superiority (currently, with ICE, towards all LatinX communities) uses such circular logic: “We kidnap them because they are immigrants. If they get kidnapped, they must deserve it because they are immigrants who have been kidnapped”. This is analogous to much back-and-forth, tit-for-tat threads on social media when attempts are made to denigrate all opinion which the right lumps together as ‘liberal’: “You are bad because you are socialist; but the reason why you hold socialist views is that you are ‘bad’; and—while we’re at it—you’re bad because you do not belong to or with us”. Then “‘Liberals’ (socialists) are bad and evil because they believe in taking away what we’ve striven so hard to accumulate; therefore believing in equality is bad because it’s what bad people like you socialists believe in”! But this is where it gets even more frightening: the immediacy of accepting and acting on selfishness also makes a nuisance of both facts and nuance. Who needs facts when what individuals say must always be right because it would be a breach of my freedom to stifle that. Once fascist dogma has (successfully) rendered decisions based on falsity and false ‘logic’ acceptable, popular even, the need to examine phenomena such as climate collapse and the efficacy of vaccines against verifiable facts is removed. The mere act of pronouncing on these issues is sufficient for what’s said to appear true to those who want it to be true. To hold a ‘position’ is itself a valid and worthy end. What’s more, fascist belief is both immature and simplistic. So it’s all too easy, for example, to justify climate denial by saying “Well, I can’t see evidence of the collapse that all of you keep saying is upon us; so it doesn’t exist.” Similarly, the White House issues reports almost daily about ‘necessary’ actions against immigrants and to combat crime, the rates of which are not rising. The unsophisticated fascist system accepts them at face value because to do otherwise would run counter to its anti-intellectual stances. Facts mean less than dogma. It seems likely that many cult members probably do know that much of what the cult stands for is based on sand. But shame and hero worship (the psychological aspect again) and the pressure to adhere are so far eclipsing any chance of their revising their views.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Los Angeles, June 2025 via Corazónegro Cerbatanero on Facebook The post Notes from the US: The MAGA war on empathy appeared first on Freedom News.

AS ACTION ERUPTS AGAINST ICE RAIDS, THE MAGA CULT MOVES ON WITH ITS LEGISLATIVE ONSLAUGHT ~ Louis Further ~ What you see in reporting on protests against arbitrary and sadistic raids on non-White families—first in Los Angeles and increasingly in other cities across the US—is by and large what you get on the ground. Just take away the usual “anarchist agitators bent on violence, which is wrong!” and add the appalling conditions: overcrowding and lack of water, food and light with mandatory inspections denied. A fascist administration is following supremacist dogma to scapegoat guest-workers and their families. Many—but by no means all—have come to the US to escape exploitation of their countries by the US. Immigrants contribute to the US economy. They predominantly avoid crime—despite claims by a convicted felon with three other cases against him, someone who actually did incite an insurrection. Yet Trump and the MAGA cartel continue pushing the line that non-whites are inferior and are ‘invading’ the US—as the ghoulish Goebbels clone, Stephen Miller, posted last weekend: “Deport the invaders”—whether or not they are in the country legally, sick, dying, are children, pregnant, tax-payers. Anyone. They want to see more chaos and uncertainty, want to provoke reaction from overwhelmingly peaceful protesters. Trump’s almost unprecedented, unconstitutional and illegal action in moving National Guard (and perhaps soon Marines) forces onto the streets to confront, harm and possibly even kill protesters is aggression in the service of kidnapping and human trafficking—and perhaps an attempt to distract from the noisy exit from the government of Trump’s biggest campaign donor. To have been optimistic since January is to have awaited opposition to the cult. Maybe the solidarity and bravery amongst protesters in Los Angeles now is the first instance of that. As resistance to ICE shows itself in L.A. and elsewhere, the cult is moving to exercise increased censorship of the media and individuals’ views. Stories like this detailing how disgraced, misogynistic and racist members of Trump’s first term are now active again in his second appear less likely in the future. Opponents of the cult are increasingly being ejected from press conferences. TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ The future of the Trump/MAGA cult’s next, huge piece of legislation may be in doubt because of the split between Trump and Musk and rumblings of dissent within the Republican party. But would-be opponents in these situations usually cave in eventually. Even a cursory read-through of the proposals is spine-chilling. However much H.R.1 may be changed before it becomes law, it looks likely to be catastrophic. Sections 42108–42301 repeal minimal environmental safeguards like clean air acts. Sections 41009 and 80301–80309 remove preservation for places such as national parks, which bring in significant revenue from tourism; climate justice is undermined and the quantity and sums allotted to local communities as block grants decreased or eliminated. As per sections 80307 to 80309, after natural disasters funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, which is to be abolished later this year anyway) are likely to be insufficient to help; and applied to favour Trumpy states. Meanwhile, (now gutted) Environmental Protection Agency is believed to have plans to remove all limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The Supreme Court is firmly behind accelerating the ruin. Section 20001 increases the likelihood of greater military involvement—especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Section 70302 introduces a provision requiring anyone seeking court intervention against the administration to post a financial bond, much more likely to impact its opponents than beneficiaries. After the passage last month of another bill—which may deprive up to 14 million poorer-off people of healthcare to give the rich yet more tax breaks—Sections 44141, 44122 and 44131 of H.R.1 significantly restrict access to health care through Medicaid, the agency acting as a safety net for those who do not otherwise have health ‘insurance’. Recipients in states (they administer Medicaid) which did not vote for Trump are expected to be deprived of more funds than those which did. Sections 44110 and 44125 end all care for undocumented guest-workers and ban gender-affirming care. As tariffs come into effect, Sections 10008, 10012 would significantly increase the cost of living. Potentially unparalleled austerity could result from the deregulation envisaged in Sections 50002 and 50003. Chaos and loss of services from the purges in the Civil Service (‘DOGE’ has illegally sacked employees with generations of expertise) are envisaged in Sections 90004 to 90006. Schools and colleges will become vehicles for greater indoctrination in dogma as the paltry efforts to recognise inequality and racism under ‘DEI‘ are eliminated under Section 30061. Federal grants to arts organisations and museums are being cut. Section 44001 prevents states from regulating AI, educational technology and amending privacy standards for 10 years. Meanwhile, in order to advance the MAGA white supremacist agenda—including the absurdity that white South Africans are a persecuted race with special status in the US—the Musk-owned AI system Grok has been ‘adjusted‘ the to answer with the issue of ‘Afrikaner refugees’ whatever question was put to it. Sections 50002, 50003, 80121(h) curtail the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and court oversight of fossil fuel permits. Corporate fraud is likely to rise unchecked. MAKE AMERICA CORRUPT AGAIN The sleazy MAGA cult has taken pure graft to dimensions that beggar belief. Some examples from the many being recorded by opponents—ideally with a view to doing something about it—include the way in which cult members are intimidating (the families of) judges who fail to find in Trump’s favour when ruling on the hundreds of lawsuits filed against him. Trump and his family are using their position to increase their wealth through business deals in the Middle East. Insiders are allegedly taking advantage accordingly to trade shares. Hand in hand with corruption goes incompetence. The cult holds itself above the law, and (so) unchallengeable. In a series of events worthy of ‘Yes Minister‘ last month, the Department of Health and Human Services—under unqualified, anti-vaccination quack, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—produced a ‘report’ titled ‘Make America Healthy Again’ and sprinkled with errors: missing references and misattributions, non-existent studies, broken links, typos and made up ‘sources’). When they amended it in response to media mockery they managed to compound the errors. Remember, this is the health and potential survival of millions of residents in the United States. Here’s another indicator of the absurdity of the MAGA cult. Perhaps they act like this to enhance their sense of belonging. Its members latch onto and fetishise positions, beliefs, dogma that the rest of us would look askance at. MAGA congressperson Tim Burchett explained to a Fox ‘News’ propagandist why he didn’t drink using straws. Environmental impact? No. It’s because “That’s what the women in my house do”, agreeing with Fox that it makes your lips purse and look effeminate. This time last month a far-right federal judge in the Northern District of Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, ruled that it is legal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation. This contradicts the US Supreme Court’s unambiguous ruling in 2020 (Bostock v. Clayton County) that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act offers that protection. Another law, H.R.3518 denies funding to institutions which recognise racism and/or which don’t deny an elevated concern for diversity. We can’t end without touching on the unfolding horror in the Middle East. One cultist, unwilling to respond to—let alone rectify—the United States’ promotion of the mass slaughter in Gaza and its reduction to rubble, now publicly advocates its nuclear annihilation. For others, genocide is a joke. It remains to be seen whether the cult will be able to restrain itself following Israel’s attack on Iran—or, instead, seize on the opportunity to propel the world towards Armageddon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Portland IWW on Bluesky The post Notes from the US: Reaction and Resistance appeared first on Freedom News.

WE CAN NOW SEE CLEARLY HOW TRUMP/MAGA/MUSK’S IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT 2025 CAN LEGITIMATELY BE CALLED FASCIST ~ Louis Further ~ With the usual caveat that the very word ‘fascism’ should not be used loosely (you are invited to look at Notes From the US from November 2021 and almost two years later for discussions of its attributes—especially in the context of the United States), it is not clear that the implementation of Project 2025 can and does fit the description. It’s components are prioritised and pushed through at all cost: centralisation; actions based on selfishness; destruction; racism and supremacism; the lie that only-one-man-can-fix-it; the myth of a racially-‘pure’ golden age; elevation of militarism; anti-science; deception. And more. Prudishness for instance: Lamar school district in Texas has banned display of the state of Virginia’s flag because includes a drawing of the Roman goddess, ‘Virtus’, with her left breast exposed. At under six months in not all of these areas have been given equal prominence so far. New aspects of the platform, though, appear every day. Para-news outlets are being given preference at the White House, for instance, while more creditable and conventional organs (with all their faults) are excluded.  Attacks on education are under way: de-funding of institutions at the tertiary, primary and secondary levels, interference in curriculum and hiring, accreditation and management are all ongoing. The removal of sources which advance alternative views to those of the cult is rife. Imposition of economic chaos (tariffs etc) is widespread; primarily to induce fear; secondarily to redistribute wealth to the already rich. And of course scapegoating non-whites and those with views which diverge from those of Trump/MAGA/Musk with state kidnapping, trafficking and deportation continues. Getting on for a staggering thousand anti-LGBTQ bills have been brought forward across the country so far this year. There is sadism and cruelty—withholding of relief funds, for instance—against those adversely affected by natural disasters. RACISM Two recent events nicely illustrate the mentality of Trump and his MAGA cult followers behind this agenda. At the start of May there was an incident in a public park in Rochester, Minnesota. A young white woman used a racist insult to accuse a five-year-old child (who was also autistic) of taking something belonging to her own son. A bystander who was videoing what happened asked her whether she thought her verbal assault justified use of the N-word. She replied, “If that’s what he’s going to act like…” Instead of mediation, resolution by friends and families, attempts to censure the mother’s behaviour, right wing media outlets and social media rushed to the woman’s aid. Within a few days nearly three quarters of a million dollars (£500,000) was raised to endorse her behaviour and justify her verbal abuse and attack on a black child by supporting her financially and crowing approval of her ‘right’ to supremacy. Being ‘woke’ and respecting others—especially black children with disabilities—is truly outrageous for them. But consistent with Trump/MAGA/Musk’s priorities. Then—because Trump/MAGA/Musk cannot, or will not, accept that our only planet needs preserving—plans were announced to abolish one small effort for wise stewardship of energy resources. In itself doing away with The Energy Star programme will save little money. It’s a token, though, of just how deplorable to the cult are efforts merely acknowledge environmental crisis by saving energy: a provocative gesture based on ignorance and the cult’s fervent embrace of anti-science dogma. Because the cult is based on selfishness, its members are incapable of believing that environmentalists are not acting from self-interest – as they are doing with their latest meme coin scheme. To the cultists “pinko treehuggers” must have invented a hoax to serve themselves financially. As threatened in Project 2025 the cult is now attempting to shut down or curtail the reach of any media body that presents informed views different from their own. This extends to orders intended to de-fund or financially throttle the two relatively ‘neutral’ and ‘impartial’ organs of television, PBS and radio, NPR. Understandably, though with little or no shame, the élite is trying to hide and/or obfuscate its many errors. Though court rulings are being ignored. Trump himself is now technically immune as president; he can literally do now wrong by law. The concept of contempt of court and legal systems (with the bias of which we are aware as anarchists) is now at best ‘equivocal’, optional. But just to be on the safe side Trump/MAGA/Musk is trying to limit the power of the judiciary. The second half of the twentieth century saw the nominal removal of official racial segregation in the United States. Laws, statutes, precedents and plain decency saw integration of black and white into many aspects of daily life. Racial inequality, of course, has never gone away. The Trump/MAGA/Musk assault on DEI aims to reverse changes broadly seen as for the better in a civilised society. Earlier this month they took a more direct step backwards: a legal agreement dating from 1966 mandates that schools in Plaquemines Parish (Louisiana) not discriminate between black and white pupils, and offer members of both communities equal educational opportunities. Trump’s ‘Justice’ Department lifted that order so as to “get… America refocused on our bright future…” The man in charge of carrying out Trump’s racist scapegoating of non-whites at borders with the United States, Tom Homan, threatened that officials in Wisconsin – including the state’s governor, Tony Evers – could be arrested if they push back over Trump’s illegal mass deportation plan. This came barely a fortnight after FBI agents arrested Hannah Dugan, a County Judge in Milwaukee, when she allowed an immigrant appearing before her in her court to exit into a hallway, where agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were waiting for him, but failed to recognise him. Shortly afterwards the mayor of Newark (New Jersey), Ras Baraka, was arrested at a federal immigration detention centre. He was peacefully protesting several irregularities in its construction, safety hazards and building violations—over and above the racist intent to build more ‘holding’ sites for non-whites. It was later suggested that government officials at best escalated the confrontation, and may have engineered it. ENVIRONMENT You may remember Trump suggesting during Covid that people drink bleach as a cure. It seems he still hasn’t let go of the idea. Last month one of the guests at an event he called ‘Truth Seekers Conference’ was Andreas Kalcker. He sells bleach, and erroneously claims that it is good for several illnesses – including Covid. Environmental destruction will increase dramatically if this bill passes—which is likely. In common with most areas of government work research in many areas of climate science is being drastically cut; while top research specialists like Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have begun to resign, citing censorship by R. F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine, unqualified quack heading the Health and Human Services Department (equivalent to the Department of Health & Social Care in the UK). That’s the same conspiracy theorist who is planning to compile a national database of people classed as autistic. The post Notes from the US: Fervent embrace of dogma appeared first on Freedom News.

TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY IS STILL NOT WIDELY SEEN FOR THE FASCIST COUP THAT IT IS ~ Louis Further ~ Be honest and ignore your ‘scepticism’ about the ‘decency’ of politics in the United States: would you have believed it, had you been told ten years ago, that its president would be a twice impeached convicted felon, nevertheless elected with a healthy majority for a second term (and who is considering an illegal third term)? Would you have thought that a serial rapist, a failed businessperson notorious for not paying debts—a bankrupt even; an avowed white supremacist, misogynist, anti-Semite; a notorious liar; someone without a basic grasp of history and science—could become the most powerful person in the world?  Could a US president really build a fascist movement of such strength as to do what Trump/MAGA/Musk are doing: effectively (and illegally/unconstitutionally) dismantling multiple agencies of government, as this site chronicles; and potentially crashing the world economy because he has a fetish for half-understood tariffs? Education is a prime target of fascism. So perhaps—like climate denial—you foresaw universities being wrecked by defunding them (the latest huge withdrawals of funds (a total of US$1.8 million/£1.4 billion) from Northwestern and Cornell); their curricula steered to fall in line with far right dogma; and their accreditation procedures ‘interfered’ with. Incidentally, lawmakers in states like Oklahoma have a poor grasp of what constitutes good education: their latest exploit requires pupils to ‘learn’ that Trump unfailrly lost the 2020 election. Children in Maine will be worse off because some schools tolerate transgender pupils. In Florida teachers can now be sacked for respecting pupils’ identities. But were you ready to watch the removal of meteorological (for forecasting), geological and oceanic services—as well as of other scientific data? Would you ever have imagined that the staff and resources of authorities to ensure air traffic and airport safety would be depleted? Could you have seen a wholly unqualified anti-vaccine quack at the head of the equivalent of the NHS in the UK, Robert F Kennedy Jr Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services? Like all Trump’s appointments, he had the backing of a majority of Congresspeople. One of Kennedy’s first acts was to push Vitamin A as an effective and appropriate ‘solution’ to the growing measles epidemic in the US; it isn’t. This was endorsed by the once-venerable CDC (Centers of Disease Control), which last week became unable to help schools in Milwaukee deal with unsafe lead-levels on their sites… lack of resources due to DOGE’s cuts. Children are now being brought to A&E with liver failure caused by an excess of Vitamin A. Kennedy is also conniving in the closure and defunding of health authorities in—of all places—the very heart of that outbreak. Could you have expected thousands of staff sacked whose job is to oversee and promote public health—HIV prevention, the asthma and air quality team, environmental hazard response, gun violence prevention, worker safety, reproductive and disability health; TB prevention; blood disorder projects, national surveying of drug use and mental health; lead poisoning prevention and water safety; the tobacco control division?  All gone. In the US over a third of people say they are unable to meet their healthcare needs. Worldwide the number of children who will die because of cuts to foreign aid is estimated to be in the millions. Never mind, though: if you have $1,000 (£763), you can buy ‘supernatural blessings’ on the White House’s own website from Trump’s chief ‘faith adviser’. PROJECT 2025 You won’t be surprised by any of if you have read Project 2025, which made most of this clear well before the Trump/MAGA victory of November. This ‘tracker’ shows how quickly and comprehensively its objectives are being achieved. Less attention is so far being paid to what comes next after government agencies are destroyed.But it too was stated clearly and explicitly before the election; and by vice president Vance well before that: illegally dismissed staff in those agencies are to be replaced with MAGA loyalists. Amongst Project 2025’s most frightening plans is the crackdown on opponents of Trump; while anecdotal evidence has begun to appear of national book bans. INCOMPETENCE Professionals with hundreds of years of experience and expertise are being replaced with incompetent, dishonest and ignorant amateurs – for instance from a far right TV channel. Surprised? Maybe not: any government can be incompetent in carrying out its actions. The level of incompetence in this one, though is staggering. For instance, Pete Hegseth from Fox runs the ‘Defense’ Department—an arm of the élite fanatically praised and supported—not to mention disproportionately overfunded – by those who delight in maiming and slaughtering non-whites. But the error which has inevitably come to be called ‘Signalgate’ (but dismissed by Trump/MAGA/Musk) when members of the administration used semi-public and hackable systems on their phones to discuss the first of several illegal terrorist attacks on Yemen last month and invited a journalist antipathetic to MAGA in on their plotting. Other examples of this are legion. Many of the aforementioned Kennedy’s actions with healthcare show gross incompetence. As do many of the precipitate actions with deportations; in both these—and other—cases dismissed staff have had to be rehired; but no-one bothered to keep a record of their whereabouts, which is making that impossible. It took other cult members to point out to Trump the negative impacts on bonds (needed to keep the government financed) for him to reverse most of the tariffs imposed a few days earlier. It was the rather bilious Peter Navaro—another convict and long-time economic advisor to Trump—who ‘invented’ a source, the non-existent ‘Ron Vara’ (an anagram of his name), to advance the cause for economically unsound tariffs and push it Trump’s way – because the latter had long had a fetish for them. Even the fake ‘formula’ for how much to impose on other countries so that America could become ‘great again’—including on two islands inhabited only by penguins—was actually mathematical nonsense… two of the variables cancelled each other out. RACISM Supremacism continues to play a major part in the administration’s sadism. The process of removing references to non-Whites on public sites and in government communications continues; evidence of the role of Harriet Tubman in the Underground Railroad was removed from a page on the National Parks website. The world-renown Smithsonian Museum complex has been instructed to remove exhibits explaining racism and the very history of non-Whites in the United States. More disturbing, though, is the ‘rationale’ offered for this by Trump: what’s ‘wrong’ with those whose existence is being suppressed is their biological impurity. To underline ‘racial purity’ you must segregate: in the past companies could be targeted by Equal Opportunities agencies for discriminatory practices. In Trumpworld they are attacked because they are not discriminating. Covert until now, a recently-issued public memo from the General Services Administration (the body which sources and provides billions of dollars of products and services to and for the federal government – properties and equipment, for instance) specifically excludes any requirement in contracts and agreements with anyone providing such facilities to the government that they not segregate their own eating areas, waiting rooms, transportation and drinking fountains and so on. In other words it will no longer be illegal, say, for a firm renovating a federal property to bus its black and white workers to the site in separate vehicles and use segregated facilities while they work there.  Trump’s executive order ending racial toleration repeals a regulation dating from 1965 which sought to introduce equal opportunities. References to the Holocaust are to be removed from the Pentagon’s website; Trump attacked Senate minority leader Schumer along Jewish/gentile lines. Even the MAGA antisemitism gang seems confused. As long as what’s happening is still not seen for the fascist coup that it is, though, too many people will fail to see the hypocrisy and discrepancy of appearing to fight anti-semitism while at the same time Trump allies himself with, for instance, Charlie Kirk whose promotion on Fox ought to make Fox ‘News’ unwelcome in Trump/MAGA/Musk circles. Illegal deportations of non-whites continue (indeed, may be increasing in number) without the required due process – in contravention of judges’ orders and injunctions. Several of the kidnappings are obviously punishment for the views held by the deportees – despite the fact that they have committed no crime; unidentified government gangs are now snatching non-whites off the streets. And, of course, because of misidentifications – not so far put right. Also increasingly being punished are labour leaders while company after company is removing all traces of even the merest nods to equity from their annual reports and mission statements. LEGAL Many—though not all—now believe that the legal system represents the best, last and only block to the régime. But three things suggest that this is unlikely. In the first place rulings by the Supreme Court have begun to go Trump’s way (on deportations and re-instatement of illegally dismissed staff). Secondly, it seems likely that court rulings not in the MAGA/Trump/Musk cult’s favour will be ignored. Indeed, several already have—like this one on the retention of documents relating to the illegal ending of foreign aid; and this one on deportations. More and more law firms are giving way to Trump’s illegal extortion moves… “Drop cases which I disapprove of or I’ll slap you with an Executive Order”. Or arrest you. Lastly, legislation is passing through Congress which would make it easier for politicians to dismiss adverse judges and their rulings. What may have been the first use of physical violence happened this time last month when members of Musk’s so-called ‘department of government efficiency’ (DOGE) illegally forced their way into the US Institute of Peace (USIP, its website has been suppressed). This ought to please the discredited Erik Prince, who is back at the White House. ENVIRONMENT Frighteningly, Musk/Trump/MAGA has yet to turn its attention to large scale environmental destruction. But they have begun: general protections are going, water regulation is under attack (although you can now expect to use unlimited quantities of water when bathing because Mr Trump does) and coal-fired power stations are being encouraged. The man who is also in favour—when it suits him—of passing authority and decisions to the individual states recently issued an order preventing them from implementing measures to address the climate emergency. The post Notes from the US: Surprised? Maybe not appeared first on Freedom News.