American Fascism

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resist!, Resistance Tunes August 22, 2019

Canadian Broadcasting Archives: Pete Seeger On Being Blacklisted In 1950’s America

CBC (7/10/13) In this clip from 1965, folk singer and activist Pete Seeger talks about being black listed for “un-American activities” and his refusal to answer questions that violated his Constitutional Rights. Link to 4+-Minute Video Here’s The Song Seeger Offered To Sing At His Trail — “Wasn’t That A Time”: Link to 3+-Minute Video ***** The Story Behind “Forever Young” By Pete Seeger Amnesty International USA (3/14/12) Mini-documentary about the recording of the song “Forever Young” by Pete Seeger featured on the album “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International”. Link…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America August 22, 2019

Alarm As Trump Requests Permanent Reauthorization Of NSA Mass Spying Program Exposed By Snowden

By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (8/16/19) Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates raised alarm Thursday after the Trump administration called on Congress to reauthorize an NSA mass surveillance program that was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The New York Times, which obtained the Trump administration’s request to Congress, reported that “the administration urged lawmakers to make permanent the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans’ domestic communications, the USA Freedom Act.” “The law, enacted after the intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the existence of the program in 2013, is set to expire in December, but…

'Just-Us' System, ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism August 22, 2019

Leaked FBI Documents Reveal That At A Time Of Deadly White Extremist Violence It Lists Black ‘Extremists’ As Biggest Threat

FBI’s ‘Iron Fist’ Program The Young Turks (8/9/19) “Under President Trump, the FBI’s official counterterrorism priorities have included “Black Identity Extremists,” “anti-authority” extremists, and “animal rights/environmental extremists,” according to leaked Bureau documents obtained exclusively by The Young Turks. The documents, many of which are marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive” and “For Official Use Only,” also reference a mysterious plan to mitigate the threat of “Black Identity Extremists” with a program codenamed “IRON FIST” involving the use of undercover agents. Each fiscal year, the FBI headquarters updates its Consolidated Strategy Guide, which lists the Bureau’s priorities in numerous domains such as counterterrorism,…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America, Rethuglicans August 19, 2019

GOP Leadership Tells House Republicans To Just Lie About White Supremacist Gun Massacres By Calling It ‘violence from the Left’

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” — Martin Luther King Jr. By David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement (8/17/19) House Republican leadership has sent a memo to GOP members of Congress directing them to lie about right wing white supremacist gun massacres, and to call it “violence from the left.” The memo, which The Tampa Bay Times acquired, includes talking points for congressional Republicans to parrot when speaking with reporters or constituents. It instructs them on how to address questions about gun violence, including the domestic terrorism recently perpetrated in El Paso, Texas. If asked a question…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, Police State America August 19, 2019

Former FBI Agent Reveals The Agency Could Fight Far-Right Violence But Chooses Not To

By Mike German The Guardian (8/16/19) Federal law enforcement officials have all the tools necessary to address far-right violence proactively – as my own successful investigations as an FBI undercover agent in the 1990s indicate. They have simply chosen as a matter of policy not to prioritize these cases. What role racism, latent or overt, plays in these decisions has yet to be explored. There are currently 52 federal terrorism laws available to address entirely domestic acts of political violence. Congress has also passed five federal hate crimes statutes specifically designed to punish the types of violence white supremacists and other far-right militants…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America August 19, 2019

Dozens Of Migrant Children Report Being Sexually Abused After Being Separated From Parents By Trump Policy

By Garance Burke, Juliet Linderman & Martha Mendoza Associated Press (8/16/19) This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film. After local Guatemalan officials burned down an environmental activist’s home, he decided to leave his village behind and flee to the United States, hoping he’d be granted asylum and his little boy, whose heart was failing, would receive lifesaving medical care. But after crossing the border into Arizona in May of last year, Border Patrol agents tore the man’s 7-year-old son from…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Deep State, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know, One Percenters, Rethuglicans August 19, 2019

Koch Brothers EXPOSED • FULL DOCUMENTARY

The Koch Brothers Grab $16.4 Million Every Day. [Editor’s Note: Given the impact of the surreptitious Koch brothers’ machinations in Wisconsin a review of their role in American politics is in order. There pernicious influence on universities is especially dangerous. This is a good, concise review. Be sure to watch all the way through the credits at the end. — Mark L. Taylor] Brave New Films (1/21/15) The last time we exposed the Koch Brothers’ dealings to the world we here at Brave New Films wound up in their crosshairs. They produced online ad campaigns attacking us, but, it takes more…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, Police State America, Trumpenstan August 15, 2019

Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Following Hitler’s Early Rhetoric & Policies

“From the leading constitutional lawyer who has sued every president since LBJ, a masterful explication of the ‘pillars of our democracy’.” — Amazon review By Steven Rosenfeld Independent Media Institute (8/9/19) A new book by one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers powerfully describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances are being pushed to the brink by a president who is consciously following Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s—when the Nazis took power in Germany. In When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic, Burt Neuborne mostly focuses on…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know August 15, 2019

Yes, It Could Happen Here: When 20,000 American Nazis Rallied In New York In 1939

Most humans have dark passions inside us, waiting to be stirred up. [Editor’s Note: Keep in mind there was a sizable number of German American Bund Nazis in Milwaukee in the years right before WWII. It happened here then and can happen here now. resist! — Mark L. Taylor] By Abby Zimet Common Dreams (8/12/19) With Trump’s latest crime against the poor, the brown, the other – wherein immigrants may have to choose between food or housing and a green card – it’s a good time to consider a new book detailing the threat of a “21st-century master of divisive rhetoric” whose toxic mix of fear,…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know August 15, 2019

‘Blood on their hands’: The Intelligence Officer Whose Warning Over White Supremacy Was Dismissed

[Editor’s Note: And let’s be clear, here: it was the Obama administration that caved to Republican pressure and buried the report on the rise of the threat of white nationalism. It is another example of corporate dems not standing fast in the face of opposition. They helped create the metastasizing fascist threat. No more. The time for such corporate dem spinelessness is done. — Mark L. Taylor] By Lois Beckett The Guardian (8/8/19) Ten years ago, the Department of Homeland Security sent American law enforcement agencies an intelligence briefing warning of a rising threat of domestic rightwing extremism, including white supremacist terrorism. The…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America August 15, 2019

Facial Recognition Technology Test Falsely Tags 26 Lawmakers As Criminals And Exposes Blatant Racial Bias

“One false match is too many, especially when people’s lives are at stake or their freedom is at stake.” [Editor’s Note: The short video accompanying this story is very good. Link below. — Mark L. Taylor] By Lydia O’Connor The HuffPot (8/13/19) In an attempt to show lawmakers how dangerously inaccurate facial recognition technology can be in the hands of police, the American Civil Liberties Union decided to get personal. On Tuesday, the ACLU’s Northern California branch released its findings from running photos of all 120 California state legislators against a database of 25,000 publicly available mugshots using common facial recognition…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know August 15, 2019

John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes Of Wrath’ Documented Another Time Of American Cruelty, Greed & Oppression

“I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this.” By Sam Jordison The Guardian (8/13/19) In March 1938, shortly before he began working on The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck wrote to his agent Elizabeth Otis to turn down a commission to write about migrant workers. “The suffering is too great for me to cash in on it … it is the most heartbreaking thing in the world,” he wrote. “I break myself every time I go out because the argument that one person’s effort can’t really do anything doesn’t seem to apply when you come…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, M. Taylor Columns, Police State America, Your Brain On Politics August 12, 2019

Bearing Witness. Telling Truth In A Time Of Lies: Why It Is Important To Call Them What They Are — Concentration Camps

“Terrible things are happening outside… poor, helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared. “ — Anne Frank ***** By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/12/19) On Saturday I got into a fiery Facebook squabble with a frequent corporate dem critic objecting to something I posted about the growing network of concentration camps popping up along the southern border. I was accused of “extreme exaggeration” because the situation now is nothing like the death camps in Nazi…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Trumpenstan August 8, 2019

Trump’s Cynically Snarky ‘Up Yours’ Empathy-Free Non-Apology Tour

“My Rhetoric Brings People Together”: Trump Has An Untruthful Take On His Anti-Immigrant Slurs By Gaby Del Valle VICE News (8/7/19) Heading out the door to visit the mass shooting sites of Dayton and El Paso, President Donald Trump denied that his repeated anti-immigrant slurs had anything to do with either massacre — even the one carried out by a man who echoed Trump when he referred to Hispanics and immigrants as “invaders.” “No, I don’t think my rhetoric has at all,” the president told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday morning. “I think my rhetoric brings people together. Our country is doing incredibly…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Trumpenstan August 8, 2019

It’s Impossible To Continue Ignoring Trump’s Role In Inspiring Mass Shootings

“The president may not be pulling the trigger or planting the bomb, but he is enabling much of the hatred behind those acts.” By Mehdi Hasan The Intercept (8/4/19) On Saturday [8/3] morning, a gunman at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, shot and killed at least 20 peoplebefore surrendering to the police. By all accounts, Patrick Crusius, the 21-year-old alleged shooter, is a fan of President Donald Trump and his policies. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “a Twitter account bearing the suspect’s name contains liked tweets that include a ‘BuildTheWall’ hashtag” and “a photo using guns to spell out ‘Trump.’” Incredibly, the nation woke…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Media Hits & Misses August 8, 2019

8chan: It’s Time To Shut Down Lethal Hate Site

“Obviously, American society is screwed.” — Fredrick Brennan, founder of 8chan The Daily / New York Times (8/6/19) At least three mass shootings this year — including one in El Paso — have been announced in advance on the online message board 8chan, often accompanied by racist writings. We look at the battle over shutting down the site. On today’s episode: Kevin Roose, who writes about technology for The New York Times, spoke with Fredrick Brennan, the founder of 8chan. Background reading: Fredrick Brennan started 8chan as a free speech utopia. But the site became known as something else: a megaphone…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism August 8, 2019

U.S. State Department Official Involved In White Nationalist Movement

A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online. By Michael Edison Hayden Hatewatch / Southern Poverty Law Center (8/7/19) A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online, Hatewatch has determined. The official, Matthew Q. Gebert, works as a foreign affairs officer assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources, a State Department spokesperson told Hatewatch. Online, and in private correspondences with other white…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism August 8, 2019

As Fascist Ideology Grows, The Gift Market Responds

The calendars can also be found on Amazon. By Angela Giuffrida The Guardian (12/27/18) There is no hint of embarrassment as the woman clambers on a chair to reach the high shelf of her newspaper kiosk opposite the Italian interior ministry in Rome. “This is just part of the job,” she says as she hands over the final copy of a 2019 calendar dedicated to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. A flick through from January to December reveals various images of the rotund man known as Il Duce (the Leader): addressing a crowd bare-chested; punching the air in triumph after signing Italy’s…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, CIA, FEATURE, Surveillance State August 5, 2019

Wisconsin Under Direct Surveillance By War Dept. This Summer: ‘A Dystopian Surveillance State Being Built in Plain Sight’

“These programs are not about stopping violence, they’re about social control.” [Editor’s Note: Americans would never put up with the incessant hum of surveillance drones circling endlessly overhead as civilian victims of American wars have to. So, instead, unseen, silent, high-altitude and just as observant surveillance balloons will not attract attention while doing the job. History has shown that all empires hollow themselves out, eventually turning the weapons of foreign domination back on to the impoverished and beaten down civilians at home. This is happening now. — Mark L. Taylor] By Julia Conley Common Dreams (8/2/19) Millions of Americans across the…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, Trumpenstan, Your Brain On Politics August 1, 2019

Trump’s Crude Words Are Cruel, Hateful – And Infectious. We Must Resist Calculated Hate

Language is a kind of virus, and history has shown many times that this virus can be lethal. By Francine Prose The Guardian (7/30/19) In the lead-up to the 2016 election, after Donald Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as “animals” and his supporters began chanting “Lock her up” about Hillary Clinton, it seemed as if a malevolent genie had been let out of a bottle. Now, almost three years later, it has become painfully clear just how cruel, powerful and destructive that hateful spirit is, and that the survival of our country, our culture – indeed of our humanity – may depend…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism August 1, 2019

Failure Of Leadership: Here’s Proof Ole Miss Officials Knew Identities Of Two Students Who Posed In Front Of Shot-Up Emmett Till Sign, But Did Little

One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. By Jerry Mitchell Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting / ProPublica (7/30/19) When the head of the University of Mississippi condemned fraternity members last week for posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled memorial to the slain 14-year-old civil rights icon Emmett Till, he defended the campus investigation and the decision not to discipline the students. He said Ole Miss had been unable to identify “all” the students involved…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Your Brain On Politics July 29, 2019

The Politics Of Fear: How It Manipulates Us To Tribalism

Tribalism is the biological loophole that many politicians have banked on for a long time: tapping into our fears and tribal instincts. By Arash Javanbakht The Conversation (7/17/19) People have always used fear for intimidation of the subordinates or enemies, and shepherding the tribe by the leaders. Recently, it appears that Pres. Trump has used fear by suggesting in a tweet that four minority congresswomen go back to the places they came from. There is a longstanding history of employing the fear of “the others,” turning humans into illogical ruthless weapons, in service to an ideology. Fear is a very strong tool that…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE July 29, 2019

The Legalistic Veneer Of Fascism: Weaponizing National Belonging, From Nazi Germany To Trump

By Masha Gessen The New Yorker (7/21/19) This past week I found myself in Stuttgart, an industrial city in southwest Germany. As I usually do in a European city I haven’t visited before, I went to the local history museum to see how the story of the Second World War is presented. Stuttgart’s museum opened just last year, and its handling of the Nazi era is more circumspect than that of older German memorials. The period from 1933 to 1945 comprises a small set of displays, perhaps ten per cent of the entire exhibition. The tone is neutral. By turning…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Trumpenstan July 29, 2019

While Ignoring Surge In Far Right Killings Trump Warns Antifa May Be Branded A Terror Group

The far right accounted for 73% of 425 extremist murders in the U.S. between 2009 and 2018. By Mary Papenfuss HuffPost (7/27/19) President Donald Trump warned Saturday that “consideration is being given” to declaring antifacist protesters — Antifa — a “terror” organization. He issued the threat even though Antifa followers haven’t been linked to a single killing, while the death toll of far-right extremists is surging. Trump’s warning follows a nonbinding resolution introduced earlier this month by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling for the “designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.” Cruz later called on Attorney General William Barr to investigate…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know July 29, 2019

Three ‘Ole Miss’ Frat Boys Who Posed With Guns In Front Of Bullet-Riddled Emmett Till Memorial Face Potential Civil Rights Violation

One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. By Jerry Mitchell Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting / ProPublica (7/25/19) OXFORD, Miss. — Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their fraternity house and face possible investigation by the Department of Justice after posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till. One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism July 29, 2019

The Nation We Have Become: They Knew He Was Ill, Yet 16-Year-Old Immigrant Boy Died Alone, Next To Border Facility Toilet

Remember Carlos. Remember Jakelin. Remember Felipe. Remember Wilmer. Remember Juan. Remember Darlyn. Remember Mariee. By Gabe Ortiz The Daily Kos (7/25/19) Sixteen-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez died next to a toilet, alone, in an immigration detention cell. In video reviewed as part of his autopsy, Texas Monthlyreports, the boy “is seen lying on the floor, vomiting on the floor, and walks over to the commode, where he sits and later lies back and expires.” His May death makes him the fifth child to die after being taken into U.S. custody since December. Carlos crossed the border on May 13 and had been detained at the Rio Grande Valley Sector’s Central…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Trumpenstan July 25, 2019

Trump’s Disordered Personality Fits Neatly Into A Disturbing Historical Pattern Of Tyranny

This situation is abnormal in American history. But it’s depressingly normal for a country where a narcissistic bully has gained power. We need to reorient ourselves around that fundamental fact, and stop pretending that what’s been normal in the past provides any sound guidance now. By Paul Rosenberg Salon (7/22/19) I wasn’t surprised by Donald Trump’s rage-tweet attack on Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, any more than I was surprised by the maturity and sobriety of their response. After all, Trump’s racism is legendary, and telling them to “go back where you came from” is not just textbook racism, it’s a schoolyard…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism July 25, 2019

Official State Criminality: The US Is Quietly Opening More Concentration Camps For Babies & Young Kids. One Has 12 Children & No Mothers

[Editor’s Note: Notice how the damn corporations running this criminal operation an the government refused comment to the reporters. Evil grows in silence. This is fascism in all its ugly shades of dark. — Mark L. Taylor] By Aura Bogado Kids On The Line / Reveal (7/21/19) The federal government is quietly expanding its use of shelters to house infants, toddlers and other young asylum-seekers. One Phoenix facility housed 12 children ages 5 and under, Reveal has learned, some as young as 3 months old, all without their mothers. As part of this expansion, the government has designated three facilities to…

'Just-Us' System, ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Deep State, One Percenters July 25, 2019

How A Trojan Horse Project To Rewrite Our Constitution Could Actually Happen If Trump Wins In 2020

By Thom Hartman Common Dreams (7/17/19) It’s often said that if Trump is reelected, it’ll be the end of democracy in America. But how could Trump get reelected, and how could democracy get wiped out in the USA? Turns out, there’s an actual project to rewrite our Constitution, turning America into a corporate-run oligarchy. They’d end the income tax, eliminate federal regulatory agencies like the EPA, end all labor protections (including laws against child labor), let states ignore anti-discrimination and other federal regulations, and impose term limits so the only “institutional memory” for legislatures will be the corporate lobbyists. All…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America July 25, 2019

“Unjust and outrageous” — While Coddling & Collaborating With Right Wing Terror Groups, Police Agencies Put Pressure On Anti-Trump Organizers

By Sam Levin The Guardian (7/19/19) The Los Angeles police department has revealed in court that it infiltrated an activist group planning anti-Trump protests, in the latest case of US law enforcement spying on leftwing organizers. A confidential informant working with the LAPD secretly recorded multiple meetings of a group called Refuse Fascism in 2017, according to newly disclosed police documents. The LAPD transcripts, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and reviewed by the Guardian, were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump demonstration. “This case seems to fall into a pattern of police agencies…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America July 22, 2019

Online Masturbation: Texas Border Agent Allegedly Sexually Harassed Mother Of Child Held In Detention Center

“The man appeared to be lying on a bed, with the camera aimed at the lower half of his body. She could see his dark brown shorts, legs and bare feet.” By Sophie Weiner Splinter News (7/17/19) A border agent who worked at a child detention facility in Clint, TX allegedly sent harassing messages to the mother of a 12-year-old child who was detained where he worked, according to the Washington Post. The mother filed a complaint with Customs and Border Protection about the alleged incident. The complaint alleges that the agent sent abusive chats and video calls to the undocumented Guatemalan woman…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, Media Hits & Misses, War State America July 22, 2019

‘Official Secrets’ — Movie About Courageous UK Intel Whistleblower Who Leaked Damning Memo

[Editor’s Note: The disastrous Iraq War rolled forward and was enabled by government deceit and malfeasance, bitter failure and active complicity of the British and American corporate media. In the midst of the craven battalions of government and corporate media a few brave souls stood out. Here’s the story of a courageous 27 year-old intelligence worker who stood for truth and principle. — Mark L. Taylor] Democracy Now! (7/19/19) In 2003, Katharine Gun, a young specialist working for Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States’ collaboration with Britain in collecting sensitive information…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Rethuglicans, Trumpenstan July 18, 2019

Resolution Condemning Trump’s Racist Attacks ‘Not Enough,’ Say Progressives: ‘We Must Impeach’

Want a response to a lawless & complete failure of a President? He is the crisis. His dangerous ideology is the crisis. He needs to be impeached. — Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Tweet ***** By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (7/17/19) After the House late Tuesday passed a nonbinding resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen, outside progressives and lawmakers argued a “strongly worded” rebuke is not sufficient to hold the president accountable and called for impeachment hearings to begin immediately. In a statement after the resolution passed largely along party lines—with just four House Republicans breaking from their party and…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, Police State America, Rethuglicans, Trumpenstan, War State America July 18, 2019

This Is How Genocide Begins: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like To Jail Migrant Children

“Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.” By Ginger Thompson ProPublica (7/16/19) The Border Patrol agent, a veteran with 13 years on the job, had been assigned to the agency’s detention center in McAllen, Texas, for close to a month when the team of court-appointed lawyers and doctors showed up one day at the end of June. Taking in the squalor, the stench of unwashed bodies, and the poor health and vacant eyes of the hundreds of children held there, the group members appeared stunned. Then,…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Rethuglicans, Trumpenstan July 18, 2019

The President vs. The Patriots

Trump’s attack against four progressive Congresswomen was an act of racism, white nationalism — and narcissism. “More to the point, it requires challenge. America doesn’t move forward without being pushed. Speaking as someone with many family members who have served in the armed forces, I would still argue that our greatest patriots are those who fight in good faith in our communities to force this nation to own up to its original guarantees. But the aspiring strongman requires a different pledge of allegiance. This is a president who has done all he can to center the state in himself, masking his authoritarian…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, History They Don't Want You To Know, Media Hits & Misses, Resist! July 18, 2019

Famed CBS Journalist Edward R. Murrow Reminds Us Of What It Means To Be Americans: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

“A Report On Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy” / “See It Now” on CBS – March 9, 1954. “Earlier the Senator asked, “Upon what meat does this, our Caesar, feed?” Had he looked three lines earlier in Shakespeare’s Caesar, he would have found this line, which is not altogether inappropriate: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” “No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior senator from…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism July 18, 2019

In Patriarchy No One Can Hear You Scream: Rebecca Solnit On Jeffrey Epstein and the Silencing Machine

“Monsters rule over us, on behalf of monsters.” By Rebecca Solnit Literary Hub (7/10/19) One of my favorite books when I was young was T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, and one of its central themes is the attempt of King Arthur to replace an ethos of “might is right” with something closer to justice. Justice means everyone is equal under the law—and equality means both that everyone has equal value under the law and that everyone is subject to the law. That’s been a foundational concept for the United States, but might is right has never ceased to…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America July 15, 2019

‘Visit the Camps Yet?’ Campaign Urges Pelosi To See For Herself The Horrific Conditions At Trump’s Concentration Camps

Poster by street artist Absurdly Well. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (7/12/19) Instead of attacking members of Congress who are fighting to end the appalling conditions inside President Donald Trump’s immigrant detention facilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should visit the camps to see firsthand the abuse taking place at the southern border. That’s the message of a new pressure campaign by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), which slammed Pelosi for agreeing last month to pass a $4.6 billion border funding bill with no safeguards for immigrant children. PCCC said in a petition circulated Thursday that Pelosi and other supporters of the legislation—including members of the conservative Blue…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America July 15, 2019

Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around A Commemorative Coin Mocking Compassion For Migrant Kids

The coin declares “KEEP THE CARAVANS COMING” under an image of a parade of migrants crossing the border. By Dara Lind ProPublica (7/12/19) An unofficial commemorative coin has been circulating among Border Patrol agents at the U.S./Mexico border, mocking the task of caring for migrant children and other duties that have fallen to agents as families cross into the U.S. On the front, the coin declares “KEEP THE CARAVANS COMING” under an image of a massive parade of people carrying a Honduran flag — a caricature of the “caravan” from last fall, which started in Honduras and attracted thousands of people…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, One Percenters July 15, 2019

Why Would They Hate Little Old Innocent Us? Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man

The Young Turks (6/14/19) What is an American economic hitman? Cenk Uygur and John Perkins, hosts of The Conversation, break it down. Link to 16-Minute Video ***** And Here Is How It Works…Ousted Honduran President Zelay Explains How The 2009 U.S.-Backed Coup Indebted His Nation & Fuels Today’s Migrant Crisis Democracy How! (7/12/19) Since the 2009 U.S.-backed military coup in Honduras, extreme poverty and violence has skyrocketed in the country, forcing tens of thousands of Hondurans to flee to the U.S. with the hope of receiving political asylum. We speak with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in the capital of…