“The US plane manufacturer Boeing has begun flying 737 Max jets that were refused by Chinese airline customers back to the United States, as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies escalates.”
Timothy Snyder on the moment the Trump regime has created. He's following historical examples that led to mass murder. #authoritarianism #fascism #Nazis #history
"What Donald Trump did on Friday should make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Trump literally fabricated evidence in an effort to keep Abrego Garcia in a prison in El Salvador. You must understand that Trump would do that very thing to imprison anyone he wants to 'disappear' --including you or your family."
We in the USA are living under full-on #fascism that the #MAGAcult and #corporatemedia are ignoring. Wait till it affects them, and it’s way too late to stop it.
Why isn't the world going insane at Republican politicians visiting concentration camps and posing in front of people who will likely be dead within the decade.
This wasn't even normal in 1942. It's not even normal in North Korea - Fascist regimes usually keep their death camps a secret.
#TimothySnyder has written an extremely relevant article concerning “state terror” which is being promoted by the US regime through dehumanizing language and their abandonment of the rule of law.
I skenet av J K Rowlings fria fall in i någon slags galenskap med basen i renodlat transhat har Harry Potter-böckerna nu (av vissa, åtminstone) omvärderats som fascistisk litteratur.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was being held in the Leon County Jail Thursday, charged with illegally entering Florida as an “unauthorized alien” — even as a supporter waved his U.S. birth certificate in court.
I’ve given hundreds of talks over the last two decades and beyond. Here are a few of my favourites in chronological order so you can see how my focus and thoughts have evolved through the years.
I hope you enjoy them.
PS.
Google is gifting a year of Gemini Advanced to every college student in the US Got a .edu email? You can sign up for a free year of Google One AI Premium. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/04/goo…
Portrait of Palestinian boy who lost both arms is World Press Photo of the year for 2025
“One of the most difficult things Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was how when Mahmoud first came to the realization that his arms were amputated, the first se…
An excellent read about the possibility of #InsurrectionAct implementation (and if it happens, I'll expect both the border with Mexico AND the border with Canada to be hot-spots. And Maine is a border state...)
With the Insurrection Act looming, now is the time to learn how it might unfold and the strategic ways to respond — including the power of ridicule.
Daniel Hunter, April 4, 2025
"With President Trump constantly flooding the zone, there’s a chance to think ahead about the possible implementation of the Insurrection Act. One of Trump’s presidential actions calls for the Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a joint report by April 20. The report will offer 'any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection
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An excellent read about the possibility of #InsurrectionAct implementation (and if it happens, I'll expect both the border with Mexico AND the border with Canada to be hot-spots. And Maine is a border state...)
With the Insurrection Act looming, now is the time to learn how it might unfold and the strategic ways to respond — including the power of ridicule.
Daniel Hunter, April 4, 2025
"With President Trump constantly flooding the zone, there’s a chance to think ahead about the possible implementation of the Insurrection Act. One of Trump’s presidential actions calls for the Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security to submit a joint report by April 20. The report will offer 'any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.'
"President Trump loves direct control and so it strikes me that invoking the Insurrection Act is very likely. This occasionally used provision empowers the president, with few legal limitations, to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops inside the country.
"Part of Trump’s power resides in constantly growing the myth he can get away with anything. Even when he loses or retreats, he buries the news cycle, with the goal of leaving people feeling more fear than awe. So, when we first hear about the Insurrection Act, it may trigger our alarmism. But better to face it now, before it comes, than learn about it on-the-fly.
"With that in mind, I’m going to walk through some mechanisms of the Insurrection Act, then offer lessons from previously held strategy sessions I took part in that played out various scenarios. I will also offer a few suggestions for activists about what to do about it.
What is the Insurrection Act?
"The Insurrection Act is a dusty law that has gone without updates for 200 years. The original text states: 'That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws… the president of the United States [can] call forth the militia [or armed forces] for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection.' (Technically, it is now not just one law but a series of statutes in #Title10 of the U.S. code.)
"One might wonder what the law defines as an 'insurrection,' and it’s woefully undefined. Updated modern language merely calls it 'unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellions.' While the Supreme Court has upheld that the president alone can decide the meaning of these words, it reserved for itself a chance to review the constitutionality of the military’s actions. But the courts would have to enforce that provision."
[...]
"Humor is key for morale and exposing the vulnerability of the strongman image. When Russia effectively banned protests, activists in the Siberian city of Barnaul organized a 'toy protest.' Lego characters and tiny figurines took to the streets. (The humor only grew as the police clumsily 'arrested' all the figurines.)
"After Milošević accused the nonviolent movement Otpor! of terrorism, they organized 'terrorist fashion shows' — where regular folks stood up in their casual every-day wear. ('Clearly a terrorist — look at his glasses! He must be a reader.') Or after their offices were raided, they made a very public 'reentry' into their building with a moving van full of boxes. Media trailed them. As expected, police stopped the van and took the boxes. This turned to humiliation, as police lifted the boxes … and found them all empty, leaving Otpor! the opportunity to say: 'They are fearful of everything.' "
In a move that demonstrates mainstream Democrat politicians have learned absolutely nothing from helping to build a fascist police state panopticon, and the migrant carceral complex, before shitting themselves so hard they lost to a would-be dictator like Trump, Massachusetts Dems have quietly passed a trans student sports ban timebomb and are trying to sell it as a victory for protecting trans rights:
Massachusetts House Dems Pass Bill That Could Ban Trans Students From Sports; Senate Next
"On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion budget bill that included a transgender sports ban—the first such measure to pass any legislative chamber in a blue state. Rather than voting to strike down the provision, Democrats advanced an amendment allowing the ban to go into effect only after its impacts are studied. Party leaders framed the move as a win for transgender ri
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In a move that demonstrates mainstream Democrat politicians have learned absolutely nothing from helping to build a fascist police state panopticon, and the migrant carceral complex, before shitting themselves so hard they lost to a would-be dictator like Trump, Massachusetts Dems have quietly passed a trans student sports ban timebomb and are trying to sell it as a victory for protecting trans rights:
Massachusetts House Dems Pass Bill That Could Ban Trans Students From Sports; Senate Next
"On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion budget bill that included a transgender sports ban—the first such measure to pass any legislative chamber in a blue state. Rather than voting to strike down the provision, Democrats advanced an amendment allowing the ban to go into effect only after its impacts are studied. Party leaders framed the move as a win for transgender rights, claiming the study would never materialize and the ban was effectively dead. But critics argue the provision puts transgender people at risk if political winds shift or future administrations decide to act on the study. Discussions suggest Democrats chose the procedural maneuver to shield members in swing districts from casting a vote in support of transgender rights."
Are you fucking kidding me? Let me see if I understand this correctly. In the middle of a state-sanctioned, anti-trans pogrom being conducted by fascists who have already declared that trans people don't exist, and openly admitted they're trying to drive trans people from public life, (two things that historically have preceded the direct extermination of marginalized groups), a solidly blue state government full of supposed "liberals" just passed an anti-trans law they promise not to actually enforce, because - they don't want to go on record standing up for the human rights of trans people as doing so is unpopular? Did I get that right? So the reason you decided to literally provide ideological support for an anti-trans pogrom is that you're cowards, and that makes it okay somehow? Quick question; if launching Chuck Schumer into the sun polled well, would you folks be afraid to oppose that on record too, or are you only cowards when we're talking about the human rights of trans people?
Look, if American liberals don't want me to point out that the war on trans rights (which aids a real as fuck anti-trans pogrom being conducted by the fascist right) is a bipartisan initiative, they need to start telling the political leaders they insist I *have* to vote for to stand up for trans people being targeted by a nazi moral panic with eliminationist characteristics; it's gotta be you folks, because it's clear as fucking day that the Democratic Party as a whole isn't listening to trans people like me.
Democrats used a procedural motion to water the sports ban down rather than kill it outright out of fear of taking a vote and putting members on record.
Although it isn't making even the fringes of the mainstream discourse surrounding the fascist GOP's election-rigging SAVE Act, the reality is that unless nazis with an eliminationist agenda towards trans people make some sort of exception, the bill will likely disenfranchise every trans person in America who has legally changed their name, and quite possibly most people who are in the process of transition and thus have ID that may be inconsistent with their presentation or other documents:
Federal Voter ID Bill Attacks Trans Voters — and Anyone Else Who Has Changed Their Name
"Much of the news coverage of the SAVE Act has focused almost entirely on the broad category of “married women” — a bloc of 69 million who may not have updated documents. But arguably, such a law is aimed directly at transgender people in addition to affecting married peop
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Although it isn't making even the fringes of the mainstream discourse surrounding the fascist GOP's election-rigging SAVE Act, the reality is that unless nazis with an eliminationist agenda towards trans people make some sort of exception, the bill will likely disenfranchise every trans person in America who has legally changed their name, and quite possibly most people who are in the process of transition and thus have ID that may be inconsistent with their presentation or other documents:
Federal Voter ID Bill Attacks Trans Voters — and Anyone Else Who Has Changed Their Name
"Much of the news coverage of the SAVE Act has focused almost entirely on the broad category of “married women” — a bloc of 69 million who may not have updated documents. But arguably, such a law is aimed directly at transgender people in addition to affecting married people who change their names. And that’s not to mention the 140 million U.S. citizens who don’t have passports and tens of millions who also don’t have easy access to a birth certificate. Regardless, the fact that trans people are at the center of this story has been easy to sideline: A story published by NPR last week listed eight things to know about this legislation — but didn’t mention the implications for trans people at all."
At this point can anyone who has been paying attention (a very small group indeed, as far as I can tell) claim to be surprised that trans-eliminationist nazis are trying to pass a law that further erases trans people from public life and social participation, yet most of American society hasn't even registered that as a potential consequence of this disastrous, anti-democratic bill? After all, when the president of the United States signed an executive order more or less saying that trans people didn't exist, which historically is a sure sign that a government intends to make that a reality, most Very Serious PeopleTM in our discourse shrugged and pointed to public polling as an excuse to not speak out to defend trans people. So why would this act of erasure and disenfranchisement be any different?
"Benfield is concerned that not naming trans people as a target of this legislation contributes to an insidious process that is ongoing: the erasure of trans people from public life in general.
“It’s going to affect lots of different kinds of people,” she said of the SAVE Act. “But the reason that the erasure of trans people worries me in this conversation is that it’s consistent with strategic erasure from the public sphere that’s already been happening.”
That strategic erasure includes President Donald Trump’s series of executive orders attacking so-called “gender ideology” and both state and national legislation that attempts to criminalize support for trans youth in physical and social transition. There are now only two genders — “male” and “female”— and anyone who falls outside of that could potentially face being pushed out of public life, including schools, sports, restroom facilities, and now voting itself. Even policies like Trump’s executive orders that aren’t immediately enforceable create a chilling effect, pushing trans people into the closet through intimidation."
I would hope that because it requires sixty votes in the Senate, the SAVE Act is a dead on arrival bill; but I can't say I'm all that confident in a Democratic Party that is openly blaming the results of an election they seemingly *tried* to lose on their (actually, nonexistent) support of trans rights, and its ability to protect people like me. Even if the SAVE Act is shot down however, the fact that this attempt at the mass disenfranchisement of trans people in American civic life doesn't even rate a talking point in this very public debate, strongly implies that when these bills only target trans people, the establishment "opposition" to the fascist agenda will continue to shrug, offer empty words of condolence, and simply let it happen; which is pretty much par for the course in the fascist Trump 2.0 era.
To say that living in a society where your rights and even your existence are not so much up for debate, but rather already judged to be either irrelevant, or non-existent, is surreal and unnerving, would be an understatement of massive proportions. I guess there is one upside here however, because if trans people can no longer vote, perhaps I'll finally be free of liberals who honestly don't give a rats ass about my life, screaming at me to support a Democratic Party that doesn't care whether I live or die, while pretending their party is a much better advocate for my right to exist, than they actually are.
(Imagine what a different world we’d be living in today if folks in tech had heeded our warnings back then. But I guess they were too busy making mint.)
PS. yt-dlp is your friend (on Mac: brew install yt-dlp). Also make sure you have ffmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg). Finally, I had to manually tell yt-dlp where to find ffmpeg although your mileage may vary based on installation method: yt-dlp "<URL>" --write-subs --ffmpeg-location=/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg (--write-subs saves the subtitles if there are any to a file in a format you can use on the web).
You know why countries in #Europe are so quiet about the #ElSalvador situation?
They started the normalisation of extraterritorial #detention of #migrants & #asylumseekers, often without any due process. The #UK #Rwanda plan. #Italy plan with #Albania. & some still want to do it.
“The #DOGE team asked that their activities not be logged on the system and then appeared to try to cover their tracks…”
“The employees grew concerned that the NLRB's confidential data could be exposed, particularly after they started detecting suspicious log-in attempts from an IP address in #Russia” #fascism #elonmusk #trump npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-53558…
You think the euphemisms for genocide and ethnic cleansing can't get any worse, and then the editor of the Telegraph allows "gated communities" - or concentration camps, to you and me - to actually appear in print 😡 🤮
State Sen. Becca White said she saw a handcuffed Mohsen Mahdawi, accompanied by several masked and hooded men, being put into an unmarked black vehicle just after noon.
The lightbulbs at Sony decide to make Europe and UK pay for Trump’s tariffs. It’s probably a good idea to make an example of them so no one else dares pull this crap.
There's nothing about appeasement that works. Every example I know of just makes things worse than they would have been if people had acknowledged there was a shitty dangerous situation that might cause violence and simply addressed it early instead of letting the bad actors arm more and strengthen their grip on power. #USpol #Fascism
With all due respect, you can shove your shithole country up your ass. Those of us lucky enough not to be stuck in your Dickensian hellhole and aren’t masochists have absolutely zero desire to contaminate our lives and enrich your fascist regime by visiting.
“‘The president made it very clear: When the United States is punched, he will punch back harder,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters”
"Austria has banned a German climate activist for two years, she said on Monday, adding she would fight the decision, which could see her expelled from the Alpine EU member.
"Austria has banned a German climate activist for two years, she said on Monday, adding she would fight the decision, which could see her expelled from the Alpine EU member.
"In a decision Windl received last week, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum issued the two-year ban, giving her one month to leave the country. "The ban was issued after the German activist was found to pose a 'danger for the #PublicOrder and security', according to the decision seen by AFP.
" 'This is highly problematic from a democratic perspective,' Windl, a 28-year-old psychology #student, told AFP, adding she would appeal the ban.
" 'We are moving toward civilisational #collapse, and instead of holding those responsible accountable, it is those who have peacefully advocated for the preservation of our livelihoods" who are targeted, she said.
"Her lawyer, Ralf Niederhammer, said he did not know of any other political activist being banned from Austria. Windl faces no criminal charges, he added."
“All EU citizens and their family members have the right to move and reside freely within the EU. This fundamental right is established by Article 21 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union and Article 45 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.”
You're kidding right? Her work on cells and aging is a threat to US security? I guess that's true if it means longer lives for the fascists in charge.
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement has twice refused her lawyer’s petition for parole, contending that she is a flight risk and a threat to U.S. security."
President Trump’s immigration crackdown ensnared Kseniia Petrova, a scientist who fled Russia after protesting its invasion of Ukraine. She fears arrest if she is deported there.
Judge allows Trump administration to deport Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil over pro-Palestine activism independent.co.uk/news/world/a…
America is dead. "The Constitution" is meaningless, and the rule of law is once again nothing more than a pipe dream. #uspoli #uspolitics #trump #fascism #mahmoudkhalil
'“Concurrent with these agreements, the EEOC has withdrawn the March 17, 2025 letters to the Law Firms, and will not pursue any claims related to those issues,” Trump noted, referring to his intimidation of the firms.
The announcements come as part of Trump’s widespread attack on law firms, punishing them for filing lawsuits he disagrees with or hiring attorneys he doesn’t like. He’s issued executive orders penalizing some of the country’s top law firms, many of which have bent to the president’s will—including Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, the law firm of former second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The total amount of free services pledged by law firms has now reached more than $900 million, a concerning statistic not only for other law firms but for the rule of law itself.'
'More than 100 colleges and universities across the country have reported cases of student visas being revoked by the U.S. State Department, with the department changing the legal status of over 600 international students and recent graduates, according to Inside Higher Ed.
“No president should be allowed to set an ideological litmus test and exclude or remove people from our country who they disagree with,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.
Several universities have reported that some international students were forced to abruptly leave the United States after discovering — sometimes through a federal database, or via unexpected text messages or emails — that their visas had been canceled. Attorneys representing the affected students say that many lost their visas without any prior notice, explanation, or chance to respond. In many cases, university administrators were also left in the dark, receiving no formal explanation from federal immigration agencies.
Legal advocates say the Trump administration has incr
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'More than 100 colleges and universities across the country have reported cases of student visas being revoked by the U.S. State Department, with the department changing the legal status of over 600 international students and recent graduates, according to Inside Higher Ed.
“No president should be allowed to set an ideological litmus test and exclude or remove people from our country who they disagree with,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.
Several universities have reported that some international students were forced to abruptly leave the United States after discovering — sometimes through a federal database, or via unexpected text messages or emails — that their visas had been canceled. Attorneys representing the affected students say that many lost their visas without any prior notice, explanation, or chance to respond. In many cases, university administrators were also left in the dark, receiving no formal explanation from federal immigration agencies.
Legal advocates say the Trump administration has increasingly revoked visas based on pro-Palestianian sentiment. While legal scholars affirm that international students are entitled to First Amendment protections, their temporary immigration status makes them especially vulnerable to punitive measures related to political speech.
“By surveilling visa and green card holders and targeting them based on nothing more than their protected expression, the administration trades America’s commitment to free and open discourse for fear and silence. Unfortunately, that chill appears to be the administration’s aim,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wrote on X.'
Capitalists: capitalism and democracy are inextricable.
Also capitalists: “US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler claimed he was recruited by a group of Wall Street financiers to lead a fascist coup against FDR and the US government in the summer of 1933 … Members included JP Morgan, Jr, Irénée du Pont, Robert Sterling Clark of the Singer sewing machine fortune, and the chief executives of General Motors, Birds Eye and General Foods.”
