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October 20, 2025

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Republicans slowly rehabilitating “fascist” as an approved political identity

Vice President JD Vance, who defended Young Republicans declaring their love for Hitler as just edgy comedy.

For the last few weeks, Republican Party leadership has been carrying out a campaign to, essentially, classify the word “fascist” as hate speech against right-wingers. But while some Republicans shy away from the term, plenty of others, particularly among their base and their influencers, find it edgy and hip. Some have even begun to wear it as a badge of honor.

Most notably, last week, members of the Republican Youth — er, Young Republicans — were caught in a group chat declaring their love of Adolf Hitler and expressing fondness for his policy of mass extermination in gas chambers. 

The incident caused some drama and led to some repercussions, but not as much as you might hope. Vice President JD Vance dismissed the story, saying, “Kids do stupid things, especially young boys… They tell edgy, offensive jokes. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a… very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives.” By and large, that seems to be the tack most Republicans are taking, certainly from the top-down.

Vance’s attempt to downplay the chats as just kids being edgy may work for some, but the truth is that many members of the chat were grown men well into their 30s, nearly Vance’s age, who occupied positions of political influence. Maybe they were joking, but it’s not clear where the irony or the punchlines were – and it’s a poor choice of comedic material if the party wants to shake the fascist label.

“Fascist” as hate speech

Ever since President Donald Trump’s takeover of the GOP, Republicans have struggled with this fascist comparison. Actually, the left has used the term to describe far-right policies since long before Trump, but Trump’s Mussolini-like mannerisms, dictatorial ambitions, and cult of personality have made the term feel like a natural fit and brought it into more common use, especially in his second term.

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, Republicans like Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson blamed the casual use of the word for inspiring Kirk’s murder and other acts of violence. Johnson said, “Calling people Nazis and fascists is not helpful… There are some deranged people in society, and when they see leaders using that kind of language… it spurs them on to action. We have to recognize that reality and address it appropriately.”

It was also around this time that they began to escalate their campaign against “antifa,” characterizing it as a political organization and threatening to go after its organizers and funders. In truth, though, there is no formal group called antifa. Antifa is short for antifascism, and it exists only as an opposition to fascism. So Trump’s position of anti-antifascism, if you reduce the double negative, is simply fascism.

Maybe the most dramatic step so far in this anti-antifa campaign was Trump’s issuance of NSPM-7, a presidential memo that accuses people of using the word “fascist” as an excuse to “justify and encourage acts of violent revolution,” and further identifies “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality” as indicia of potential terroristic inclinations and activities.

One can only guess how the administration is defining these terms, but if their actions to date are anything to go by, simple compassion might, in fact, be regarded as an unlawful, antifascist, terrorist thoughtcrime, and anyone who holds such views can be subject to, at a minimum, investigation, surveillance, and harassment by law enforcement – all of which sounds like anti-antifascism, to be sure.

Fascism defined

At this point, it’s important to examine just what, exactly, fascism is. The term has certainly been abused in America. For many, “fascist” has just become shorthand for “someone I don’t like,” or, more specifically, “someone who’s making me do something I don’t want to do.” To wit: Speed limits are fascism. No-smoking signs are fascism. Mask mandates during a pandemic are fascism. Taxes are fascism. And so on.

Alas, few historians would describe such basic laws or civic norms as fascism. While the word doesn’t have any one universally agreed upon definition, and even self-identified fascist societies differ in significant ways, there are a few hallmarks that distinguish fascism from other philosophies. The more of these qualities a government or a society has, the more fascistic it is:

  • The merger of state and corporate power. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who coined the term fascist, said this was the philosophy’s most defining tenet.
  • Authoritarian rule. Power concentrated in a leader with a devoted cult of personality, in whom people see a living embodiment of the nation.
  • Police state. A militarized society, including citizen militias and police suppression of protests, speech, and other forms of dissent.
  • Propaganda. Rampant propaganda that is rife with lies, conspiracy, and dehumanizing language.
  • Censorship. Dissent or open disagreement with official narratives and state policies may be outlawed and punished violently.
  • In-group vs. out-group. Hatred of “others,” especially immigrants, religious minorities, and the LGBTQ community, as well as any leftists and academics who support them.
  • National and cultural mythology. Desire to preserve or attain “purity” of culture, language, and/or race and ethnicity, often through appeals to a mythical past.
  • War. Jingoism and an aggressive foreign policy.
  • Obsession with aesthetics. From architecture to attire, everything intends to give an air of magnificence, superiority, and national pride, no matter how superficial.

Any honest observer can see how much of the definition fits. Not all of it is unique to Trump, but he does tick more boxes than the average politician. Soon enough, though, simply pointing that out might land you in a heap of trouble. Unless, of course, Republicans shift gears and decide to embrace the term, as at least some of them are beginning to do.

Reclaiming fascism as something edgy and cool

Back in July, before Trump ratcheted up his campaign against antifa, FOX News comedian Greg Gutfeld went on a revealing rant about his feelings on the word Nazi and how it relates to him. Gutfeld said on his show: “The criticism doesn’t matter to us when you call us Nazis. Nazi this and Nazi that… We need to learn from the Blacks. The way they were able to remove the power from the n-word by using it. So from now on it’s, ‘What up, my Nazi?’”

Gutfeld’s show is intended as a comedy, though you might not recognize it as one. Still, it’s a peculiar joke to make, and frightening to consider who it might resonate with. And this attitude on the right is being more openly embraced: That fascism is hip or edgy and that all the progress made on freedoms and rights for gays, trans people, minorities, and women needs to be rolled back. For instance:

  • The successful far-right influencer Matt Walsh calls himself a “theocratic fascist.” While Walsh has claimed it’s an ironic label used to troll his critics, if you pay any attention to what he says and compare it to what a “theocratic fascist” might say, you’ll find he fits the term quite comfortably. 
  • Another growing voice on the right, especially among the young, is Nick Fuentes, simply an unapologetic, loud and proud neo-Nazi who has dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 
  • Trump’s recent nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, recently had his text messages leaked where he espoused racist attitudes and said, “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.” Ingrassia’s nomination has since been pulled, a relatively rare rebuke from this administration of that kind of conduct.
  • A cadre of right-wing influencers have also been trying to sanitize, justify, and even push for the return of chattel slavery. Chief among these is Joshua Haymes, a former pastor who counted among his congregation Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Haymes recently said, “The institution of slavery is not inherently evil. It is not inherently evil to own another human being. It is very important that every Christian affirm what I just said.”

Republican influencers and the MAGA base are racing to the bottom, fast. It’s known as vice signaling: Each one trying to outdo the next in depravity to prove they are as un-woke and un-PC as possible, even if it reverts them back to plain-old KKK and neo-Nazi hatred and barbarism. It’s hard to say what abuse, constitutional violation, or act of violence they won’t enthusiastically push for, as long as it’s coming from the right side and being inflicted on an enemy. These aren’t ideas we have to debate. This is fascism, and civilized society already won the argument against it in World War II.

Fascism in the USA

Sadly, fascism is probably appealing to a lot of Americans, even if most are still hesitant to embrace the term. It’s in our national DNA. Our Jim Crow laws and citizenship standards even provided a model for Hitler’s antisemitic campaigns. There have always been bigoted, violent people in this country, and they appreciate a ruler who reflects them. And just as they were in the 1930s, the giant industrialists who shape our politics and society are all too happy to ally themselves with fascist forces, because they know a repressive state can protect their own power from being challenged.

But there are also strains of antifascism in our DNA. My grandpa, a veteran of World War II, was antifa, as were many members of the Greatest Generation. And it’s heartening to see older folks and veterans declare themselves antifa, even in the face of Trump’s threats. It should be a source of pride that we’ve overcome many of our bigotries and xenophobias. Despite all the loud fascist voices in right-wing media and social platforms, I still believe the vast majority of people believe in basic human rights for all. The No Kings protests on October 18 were a good showing of this solidarity.

As this administration goes further off the deep end — deploying the military against American citizens; sending masked ICE agents to terrorize poor and immigrant communities; profiling, detaining, and abusing people, including American citizens, on mere suspicion of being “illegal;” and disappearing people with no trial to God-knows-where — it’s no accident that they have declared antifascism their greatest enemy.

Maybe those 38-year-old kids in the Young Republicans chat were just joking about gas chambers and loving Hitler. But given everything else this administration is doing and everything their propagandists are saying, it falls a bit too close for comfort to, “it’s funny because it’s true.”

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America’s cold civil war heats up

Charlie Kirk tosses MAGA hats to the audience at his American Comeback event.

On Wednesday, the entire country witnessed the gruesome assassination of Charlie Kirk as he spoke before a crowd at Utah Valley University. His death was shocking both for the visceral nature of the gory footage and for the deep implications and ramifications it holds for America’s heated political moment.

Kirk was the cofounder of Turning Point USA, a group dedicated to converting and organizing Republican youth. He was a prolific and popular far-right commentator known for his abrasive debate style, which he typically employed against college students, as well as his enthusiastic support of President Trump and advocacy for Christian conservatism, both at the level of politics and the level of home life. 

At the moment he was killed, he was, coincidentally, debating American gun violence with an audience member – at virtually the same time as, next door in Colorado, America was hosting yet another school shooting. 

Obviously, there is something deeply wrong with this moment and with this country. No one can live here and not feel it if they have even a minimal level of awareness. 

So while this assassination speaks to multiple issues, including gun proliferation, it’s become a case study for our extremely elevated culture war rhetoric. And it all adds up to a grim reality: Whether we realize it or not, we are already in a cold civil war. It’s still up to us how hot it gets, but we are not currently on a course toward cooling tensions.

The pretext for increasing fascism

As of this writing, Kirk’s assassin is still on the loose. As far as we know, there is no suspect and no known motive, though that hasn’t stopped people from speculating. The natural assumption for many seems to be that one of Kirk’s political opponents committed the crime. President Trump quickly blamed “the radical left.” And while the killer may well turn out to be a leftist, Kirk had opponents on both the left and the right, including neo-Nazis. 

With only roaming speculation to go on, conservatives immediately called on Trump to dramatically escalate his war on “the left,” a collective that, depending on how you define it, could include literally half the country. 

  • Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer who has been in and out of Trump’s inner circle, instantly tweeted, “It’s time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization… Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat.” 
  • The X feed of another far-right influencer, Mike Cernovich, was filled with reactionary statements and veiled threats against “the left” broadly. 
  • The right-wing troll account, Libs of TikTok, tweeted, “THIS IS WAR”.
  • Far-right radio host Michael Savage called on Trump to revoke the broadcast license of MSNBC, essentially blaming their programming for Kirk’s assassination.

It’s not clear what crimes, exactly, Loomer wants prosecuted, and her vague phrase “Leftist organization” might include anything from the Democratic Socialists of America to the Democratic Party to a university, scientific or medical institution, or historical society. And since we have no idea at this point who the killer is, the declaration of war from Libs of TikTok could be aimed at just about anybody. In addition to these extremist takes, there have been innumerable calls for more violence from the right.

At this point, it almost doesn’t matter who killed Kirk. The stage is set, and it’ll be impossible to course-correct the narrative no matter what else we learn. But the fact that his assassination ratcheted up tensions so dramatically and so instantaneously speaks to the political moment we were already in long before he was killed — a moment Kirk himself contributed to. Some of us are simply chomping at the bit to go to war with each other.

The political violence that already surrounds us

We are in the midst of a violent political era. To take just one glaringly obvious point: President Trump has sent troops to occupy two major cities run by political opponents and regularly threatens more such actions, even using the imagery of the most brutal war movie ever made, Apocalypse Now, to describe how he plans to treat Chicagoans. 

Make no mistake: These are violent provocations. How long can Trump round up and deport people’s friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and intimidate citizens with armed troops, before some serious fighting breaks out? And if and when that happens, where will it lead? It will pour more fuel on the fascist fire, empowering Trump to reach and take a little more, necessitating ever-more forceful pushback from his opposition.

And how long can these occupations be combined with the white-hot rhetoric of the Loomers and Cernoviches of the world before something big ignites? How long before Trump decides to take their advice and declare everyone to the left of Sean Hannity an official enemy of the state, subject to searches, confiscations, imprisonment, or worse? It’s not that fantastical. His most high-profile supporters are calling for it. The shock troops are already in the streets.

Don’t let Republicans use this moment to gaslight you into thinking political violence is unique to, or primarily a feature of, the left. This is the party that turns killers like George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse into heroes. This is the party that worked on a series of bills in states around the country to protect drivers who run over protesters. This is a party that has run a 24/7 news operation for 30 years straight with some of the most incendiary, zero-sum rhetoric in the history of propaganda. Year after year, crime data is clear: right-wing extremism accounts for far more violence in America than the left.

Even beyond politics, America is an extraordinarily violent nation that visits carnage upon people all around the world. We have normalized genocide in Palestine, revealing ourselves as a nation that just doesn’t care much about the worst form of violence imaginable. And at home, we have all but grown accustomed to regular massacres of our schoolchildren. Even Kirk once said, in a quote that went viral after his assassination, “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Just who was Charlie Kirk?

Because of some of his past remarks, some observers found Kirk’s end poetic. You don’t have to look too hard to find people openly celebrating on social media. I won’t do that, but I also won’t write a fawning eulogy for a man whose impact on the country, and the world, was so toxic and grim.

Kirk’s operation, TPUSA, was funded by dark money from oligarchs, fossil fuel companies, and big business. His function as a propagandist was to inflame the tensions of culture wars, goading working-class people into bitter fights with one another over trans bathrooms or “traditional marriage” while shielding the high-level crimes of power — things like looting the lower and middle class, shredding our social safety nets, and bankrupting our national trust through global imperialism and war.

Kirk died doing what he loved best: debating a liberal. And he was debating him in his usual style, injecting polemic rhetoric to confuse and frustrate his interlocutor. He was pushing an idea that trans mass shooters are a major problem, and in the process inciting more hatred for trans people, despite them committing a vanishingly small proportion of mass shootings in America. 

Even in this one example, the last words of his life, we can see that Kirk did not engage in good-faith debate. He was not in the business of productive dialogue that brings Americans together. In the wake of his murder, outlets have been compiling some of his greatest hits, including:

  • On the military occupation of America’s streets: “We got to go hard. We got to go big league. We’re talking National Guard, tanks – every street, you need military.”
  • On affirmative action and successful Black women: “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously.”
  • On the civil rights movement: “MLK was awful… This guy is not worthy of a national holiday,” and, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
  • On the role of women: “Maybe one of the reasons that Taylor Swift has been so annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years is that she’s not yet married, and she doesn’t have children… Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”
  • On the genocide in Gaza: “They brought it upon themselves.”
  • On trans people, a favorite and perennial target: “Against the natural law… A throbbing middle finger to god.”

One could go on and on. And, to be fair, if you comb through thousands of hours of recorded dialogue from almost anybody, you will find some nuggets that look ugly. But the picture is consistently clear, and this rotten philosophy has undoubtedly contributed to hate and division in America.

What comes next?

Trump has called on the nation to fly flags at half-mast in honor of Kirk’s memory. This is another provocative, political move. Kirk was the victim of a terrible act of violence, yes. He was also a bad-faith propagandist who put mental poison into the world. Both things can be true, and neither one changes the other. We can condemn violence without compelling people to mourn someone who called their existence an abomination. If you’re conflicted about it all, remember Kirk’s own words: “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage.”

We should not let Kirk’s death ignite more violence. Sadly, we have a president who is possibly the poorest-equipped person in history to provide a steady hand and guide us to calmer waters. Instead, he could use it as justification to ramp up his occupation of American cities, recruit more angry conservatives to his masked army of ICE agents, restrict voting and speech rights, and make other fascistic moves. Plenty of his most fervent acolytes are already pushing him in this direction.

I see nothing good in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. His rhetoric harmed this nation and the marginalized groups he targeted, and that deserves to be his legacy. But his murder does nothing to address the wrongs they face. It only rockets tensions through the roof and brings this country closer to an extremely ugly and dangerous edge. It empowers the worst, most fascistic impulses of an already dangerous administration. 

Things may simmer back down, but this is not a stable equilibrium for a nation to be in. Maybe something needs to break. Returning to normal is not an option. Normal is what brought us here. For my entire life, “normal” has been a relentless march toward increasing inequality and nonstop war. That’s nothing to look forward to for a society in the midst of a fundamental transformation. 

But it would surely be in everyone’s best interest not to erupt into a full-scale civil war. Your imagination is as good as mine at conjuring the horrors that might entail. The best thing is for people to realize their common interests, let one another live in peace and dignity, and oppose the forces in America that are selling our futures down the river — forces for whom Charlie Kirk was a devoted and effective sower of division.

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South Park cracks the code for dealing with fascists

President Donald Trump as Francisco Scaramanga and JD Vance as Nick Nack.

For ten years, opponents of President Donald Trump have struggled to adequately deal with his myriad abuses and scandals. When you run through the litany of crimes, lies, Constitutional violations, and cover-ups, you can’t help but sound like a complainer. Many Americans simply tire of hearing about it all, while MAGA supporters retreat to their own impenetrable infotainment ecosystem.

Maybe, then, the answer isn’t to give more persuasive arguments, but to simply show the Trump Administration for what it is, using the most grotesque, over-the-top caricatures possible.

That’s exactly what South Park has been doing in its new season. The second episode, “Got a Nut,” goes straight for the jugular with numerous high-ranking MAGA officials. It includes depictions of:

  • Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as a puppy-shooting ghoul with a melting face.
  • ICE as a masked, bumbling goon squad violently rounding up innocent people for explicitly racial reasons.
  • MAGA propagandist Charlie Kirk as an obnoxious racist obsessed with “master-debating” college girls.
  • Vice President JD Vance as the James Bond villain Nick Nack, a completely servile troll.
  • President Donald Trump as the crime boss behind it all, hiding out in his Florida palace with underage masseuses and his lover, Satan himself.

South Park doesn’t call these people names or point out their crimes in an articulately worded essay. It shows them in action doing despicable things, providing a window for MAGA, if they care to look, into how everyone who’s not inside the cult views these monsters.

Showing, not telling

The South Park approach is far more potent than the fact-based appeals journalists have made. As multiple scholars and thinkers have observed, such facts are ineffective against fascists like Trump for the simple reason that the fascist appeal is not to truth or logic in the first place, but to base emotion. This is why MAGA is primarily a coalition built around vague fears and anxiety over the loss of some intangible cultural quality (read: “traditional values,” typically a stand-in for whiteness, straightness, or some other perceived “normal” thing). Information doesn’t change their mind, because their beliefs aren’t rooted in truth.

For instance, it wouldn’t matter to a fascist that the vast majority of immigrants, documented or otherwise, are law-abiding, contributing members of society. The MAGA base simply does not want them here, and they aren’t interested in anybody’s circumstances or story or what the evidence says. So Trump is building a massive, secret army to round up dark-skinned immigrants in brutal ways, terrorizing communities by dragging people from their homes and public spaces in front of children and others, sending them off to foreign concentration camps in places like El Salvador. 

Words can’t adequately express the horror of this. It’s more poignant to convey the horror by showing it. And right now, only South Park is showing it in the truly ghastly way it needs to be shown. 

In the latest episode, a squad of untrained ICE goons raids a Dora the Explorer Live show, and even Heaven itself, to remove every last brown person. When new ICE recruit Mr. Mackey insists his job isn’t to “round up Mexicans” but rather to “detain foreigners who might be illegal,” the man he’s talking to sarcastically says, “OK!” – as in, “Sure, whatever you say, pal!” Kristi Noem’s face constantly melts off, only to be repaired by a makeup team in time for a photo op, underscoring MAGA’s obsession with superficial aesthetics. She also shoots every puppy she sees. Cartman and Clyde act as stand-ins for Charlie Kirk, abrasive, dimwitted pricks who win debates through nonstop verbal diarrhea. And poor Dora winds up massaging a creepy old billionaire at Mar-a-Lago, a decadent den of sin and corruption staffed mostly by teenage girls.

Without pulling a single punch, South Park executes the most cutting satire of MAGA yet, with plenty of humor and a good story throughout. It’s not even showing these people at their worst, it’s showing them for what they are. People inside the cult can’t see it. Even if they could, many wouldn’t care, and would support even more explicitly racist and violent policies. But for the few who can be reached, this is a visceral way to do it.

The call from inside the house

South Park has another advantage that makes it the perfect vehicle for this satire. The show has long been viewed, rightly or wrongly, as right wing-coded. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren’t wishy-washy, whiny, bleeding-heart liberals. They’ve always been politically incorrect, which has made South Park a rare common ground for both thoughtful social critics and boorish right-wing assholes alike.

Of course, Trump is also politically incorrect. It is surely politically incorrect to racially target human beings for extraordinary rendition, grab unwilling women “by the pussy,” be best friends with Jeffrey Epstein, and attempt an insurrection at the Capitol when you lose an election. But does that make these things good? Parker and Stone, perhaps unlike MAGA, realize that the answer is no.

Until now, MAGA may have thought Parker and Stone were on their side. This new season shows, definitively, that they’re not. They clearly see the Trump Administration as a rank, criminal cabal that has gone so far off the rails that they have no idea where the rails even are anymore. This is what MAGA supports: psychopaths who shoot puppies, racist goons eager to abuse anyone with darker skin than Ed Sheeran, and a reckless authoritarian running the nation from a decadent compound in Florida.

The show probably won’t get through to anyone in MAGA or change any minds, simply because minds in America don’t change easily. Some will laugh it off and ignore the meaning behind the jokes. Others will just say South Park has gone woke. But it’s inspiring to see creators tackle the Trump era in this way. It may sometimes be petty, and it may sometimes be juvenile, but let’s not forget who we’re dealing with here. They deserve no better.

I’ve been writing about politics since before the Trump era, and I’ve tried to give a balanced assessment from the beginning. And the balanced assessment is: He’s an absolute monster. Sometimes I get tired of researching and writing articles, of presenting facts that MAGA is programmed to ignore anyway, and I just want to scream: “This is a sleazy, corrupt toad of a man surrounded by lying, shameless sycophants and stupid, violent bigots, and I am rapidly losing patience and respect for anyone who can’t see it.” What I struggle to express in a journalistic essay, South Park makes plain as day with their utterly savage satire. They have truly captured the essence of this administration, revealing it for the depraved, demented carnival it is.

Satire and ridicule are far more effective weapons against fascism than reasoned arguments. We need far more of it. Since these people do not engage ethically or honestly, the best way to deal with them is with mockery and contempt. Forget trying to reach MAGA with kindness or understanding. Hold the mirror up to them instead. If there’s any humanity left, they won’t like what they see.

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August 1, 2025

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Last chance to get on the right side of history in Gaza – while it still exists

Gaza is almost gone. We are responsible. If you ever told yourself you’d oppose atrocities of the past, now’s your chance to prove it.

After decades of oppression and 21 months of sustained bombings, mass shootings, and forced starvation, the people of Gaza are on their last leg. Reports of the famine there are as horrific as anything in modern history. Images of children and babies emaciated to the bone pour out of the region every day, and the situation is only getting worse.

All of this is intentional, imposed on Gaza by the state of Israel and supported throughout the US government. Israel has completely obliterated the region’s infrastructure and land and is now deliberately preventing aid from getting in. Even more despicably, when aid does manage to enter the strip, Israeli soldiers slaughter the hungry people trying to reach it. This kind of massacre, one of the most depraved things anyone can imagine, is now routine.

Only now are some Western leaders and talking heads coming around. Among others, The New York Times, a longstanding and defiant supporter of Israel even through the worst atrocities, is gradually growing more critical. But plenty of observers have known for a long time that this latest flare-up between Israel and Palestine was different from previous skirmishes. This time, from the beginning, the intent and the actions have been purely genocidal.

If you’re just waking up to the horror now, then welcome aboard. It’s time to speak up. And if you haven’t woken up yet, you have precious little time left to do so. Gaza may not last much longer. And when the people there are all gone, when we’re realizing the extent of the horror we have perpetrated, you won’t be able to say you weren’t told. This is a US atrocity as much as it is an Israeli one, and every American who looked the other way shares in the responsibility. 

Our shared responsibility in the crime of the century

Without US blessing, Israel couldn’t get away with what it’s doing in Gaza. US funding essentially helped build the modern state of Israel, especially its military. Even today, as our screens are filled with images of parents gathering the pieces of their bombed babies and decimation as far as the eye can see, we have continued to send more aid and weaponry, totaling nearly $18 billion since October 7, 2023.

In other words, we are responsible. All of us. Both the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration. Members of both parties. Propagandists, diplomats, cabinet officials, congresspeople, military brass, defense contractors, and, to a certain extent, the American people.

Start from the top. When the fighting began in October 2023, the Biden Administration pledged its uncritical support for Israel’s campaign, sent them billions of dollars, and ran diplomatic cover even as international outcry increased, culminating with the International Criminal Court calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, under the Trump Administration, Israel has stepped up the carnage. And President Trump has openly expressed his desire to ethnically cleanse Gaza and build luxury hotels atop their mass graves. Trump has even taken to using the term “Palestinian” as a slur.

At a lower level, Biden Administration spokesman Matthew Miller, who now admits Israel committed war crimes, lied daily to the American people and, when pressed, used the same excuse as Nazi war criminals: he was just doing his job. Continued funding for Israel’s genocide receives near-unanimous, bipartisan support. Even a politician as supposedly left-wing as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deserves culpability for her insistent lies that Vice President Kamala Harris was “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.” 

Then there is the cadre of pundits who downplayed or ignored every Israeli atrocity and sensationalized every attack by Hamas, perpetuating false stories about mass rape and baby beheadings. Add to them the university administrators, police officers, and ICE agents who violently assaulted peaceful protesters on college campuses who were demanding an end to the carnage, going so far as to attempt to deport some of them. 

Imagine how far gone a society must be to get to the point where protesting a genocide is a greater crime than perpetrating one.

The academic and activist Eman Abdelhadi said it best: “Every editor who cancelled a story about Palestine brought us here. Every boss who censored an employee. Everyone who said ‘not this way’ to protesters. Every university admin calling the cops. Bloody. All your hands are bloody, and we will never forget.”

I would add to this guilty roster the American people – you and I included. Our tax dollars funded this atrocity. And our consent, whether explicit or implicit, has allowed it to go on. 

Some of these people – especially the further up you go – are sick, malevolent monsters who are relishing in this genocide. Plenty of others may not be. But just as people enable these atrocities, people can stop them, too. Politicians can stop signing checks for the bombs. Police and military can lay down their arms and join the protesters. And ordinary people have more power than they think, and can force change through civil disruptions, boycotts, mass strikes, and other collective actions.

A sliver of hope to redeem ourselves

The only way to salvage the piece of our souls we’re surrendering for this historic atrocity is to immediately reverse course and start helping the people of Gaza, then prosecute those responsible, including and especially within our own government. If it takes every single one of them down and they all need to be replaced, so much the better. We should also support the ICC’s attempts to bring Netanyahu and his coconspirators in the Likud Party to justice.

But that likely won’t happen, and even expressing the wish feels fanciful. Somehow, we’re so twisted that for far too many of us, justice sounds more radical than genocide.

Still, there’s no need for the American people to go to hell alongside our leaders. We do not have to stand by while our money is used to perpetrate atrocities like this. If you have always told yourself you’d have opposed slavery or the holocaust had you been alive, now’s your chance to be that hero.

And none of this is about a “holier than thou” attitude. The American people have our own problems and burdens. I have not done enough, either. But this is a basic moral test. We’re not just witnessing, but perpetuating, a genocide, and it isn’t asking much to oppose it. Post about it on social media, sign petitions, write to media outlets, protest, join aid flotillas. There is no sacrifice too great in the face of this greatest of all evils. Maybe the only one truly absolved of complicity in this horror is Aaron Bushnell, the Air Force serviceman who burned himself alive in protest. 

Long before October 7, international observers were calling Gaza the world’s largest “open-air prison.” It has essentially been a concentration camp for generations. The people there have lived their whole lives under brutal oppression, and now they are living through their own holocaust, funded by US taxpayers. You may not like the way some of them chose to fight on October 7, but whatever your feelings about it, that attack has long since been paid back hundredfold in death and misery.

The US has done a lot of terrible things in its long history. But rarely in modern times have we been faced with something so monstrous, perpetrated in broad daylight and livestreamed on every platform, where we are so unequivocally in the wrong. If we can’t get this one right, then we are truly lost. Even if there is some miraculous turnaround and what’s left of Gaza is saved, the world will never forgive the perpetrators. You owe it to yourself not to be on the side of history’s next great evil.

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July 20, 2025

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Trump, Epstein, and MAGA’s greatest test of faith

After more than 10 years skating over every controversy and scandal, something sinister from President Donald Trump’s past appears to be catching up with him: His longtime friendship with the wealthy pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Ever since Epstein’s 2019 arrest and suspicious death in custody, he has been a fixture of conspiracy theories. The most prominent theories allege that Epstein was an intelligence asset, working for either the US, Israel, or both, and that his function was to gather blackmail on powerful figures. Whether that’s true or not, two things are undisputed: Epstein was a pedophilic human trafficker who committed bizarre sex crimes on his private island, and he associated with numerous high-profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton, megabillionaire Bill Gates, and President Donald Trump.

Until recently, though, Trump has largely escaped scrutiny over his ties to Epstein. His MAGA base, which had been so obsessed with the story, put on blinders when it came to the two men’s relationship. They elected Trump, in part, because of their belief that he would blow the Epstein conspiracy wide open and incriminate their political enemies in an international sex trafficking ring. The “Epstein files,” as they’ve been dubbed, would be a smoking-gun list of names, financial transactions, and crimes perpetrated by prominent people in government and business, perhaps with photographic evidence. This belief was pushed by Trump Administration officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both former podcasters.

But when it came time to publicize information on the Epstein case, the Trump Administration began changing its tune. They reversed multiple promises to release the files and have shifted their story numerous times. Over the last several weeks they have claimed variously that they can’t release the files because they need to protect the victims, that there is actually nothing of any interest in the files anyway, and now, that the entire thing is a hoax.

Exactly what Trump means by “hoax” is unclear. He claims that the so-called “Epstein files” were written by high-level and deep-state Democrats, presumably to damage him. If that’s the case, it’s unclear why Democrats sat on the file for so long instead of using it against him in the 2024 election. The hoax line is more likely Trump’s attempt to prepare his supporters to reject anything that may implicate him in the case.

This line isn’t working yet, at least not on everyone. While the MAGA backlash has been overstated by some wishful-thinking media figures, some members of the coalition are having their faith tested by Trump’s reversals and erratic response, including his insistence that “nobody cares about” the Epstein case and that supporters who do care are falling into a trap laid by his Democratic enemies.

Most MAGA propagandists, though, have heard the call from the leader and fallen in line – quite literally. Charlie Kirk, who called on the Department of Justice to release all Epstein files on July 11, reversed himself days later after a phone call with Trump, saying on July 14 that he was “done talking about Epstein.” Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon have similarly urged people to move on. Trump has meanwhile escalated attacks on supporters who want Epstein answers, calling them weaklings and saying, “I don’t want their support anymore!”

For now, Trump has settled into a lane of calling the case a hoax and trying to wash his hands of accountability. He has recently made superficial gestures toward allowing the release of anything pertinent or credible. Of course, it will be up to Charlie Kirk’s trusted “friends in the administration” to decide what is pertinent and credible before releasing anything.

Trumpstein’s Monster

Despite all the oxygen the case has received in conservative media, they’re still glossing over the elephant in the room: the myriad ties Trump himself has to Epstein. There may be good reasons for Trump to be nervous about the file and to try playing it off as a hoax. Below are just a handful of highlights of both his confirmed and credibly alleged ties to Epstein, along with some other creepy behavior and suspicious circumstances.

  • Numerous photographs and video show Trump and Epstein hanging out. In one of these videos, Trump and Epstein are dancing together and ogling some girls.
  • Trump previously gushed with praise for Epstein to the media, including this statement from a 2002 interview that hasn’t aged well: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy… He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
  • Epstein claimed that he and Trump were best friends for more than 10 years and provided other salacious details in a 2017 interview with Michael Wolff.
  • Trump’s name appears seven times in the flight logs for Epstein’s private jet, the Lolita Express.
  • When Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s head recruiter of underage girls and the right hand of his operation, was arrested in 2020, Trump simply said, “I wish her well.” 
  • Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s more famous victims, met and was recruited by Maxwell while she was a teenager working at Mar-a-Lago. Giuffre committed suicide in April 2025.
  • Trump owned both adult and teen beauty pageants, and once boasted that he felt free to barge into the dressing rooms of contestants whenever he felt like it.
  • In the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Trump bragged he could approach any woman and “grab them by the pussy” due to his star power.
  • More than 16 women have credibly accused Trump of sexual assault. One of these, E. Jean Carroll, was awarded $5 million in 2023 by a jury that found Trump liable for sexual assault. Another woman alleges Trump and Epstein tied her to a bed and raped her in 1994 when she was 13, but she withdrew her lawsuit after receiving unspecified threats.
  • The Wall Street Journal uncovered a cryptic, creepy message Trump wrote for Epstein’s 50th birthday in which he doodles a naked woman and writes about a “wonderful secret.”
  • Epstein’s second arrest, as well as his mysterious death in prison which sparked so much conspiracy theorizing, occurred during Trump’s first term.

None of Trump’s public associations with Epstein directly implicate him in anything criminal. And, according to all available knowledge, the two fell out around 2004, after which they had little if any contact. Nonetheless it’s a damning picture, one of an amoral man who feels entitled to take liberties with women’s bodies. This is someone who we shouldn’t be shocked to learn harbors even deeper, more depraved secrets that he wants to keep hidden.

The inevitable kiss-and-make-up

Of course, this isn’t the kind of thing MAGA wants to hear. Epstein was supposed to be their vehicle to take down the Clintons and the Democrats, not Trump. And as Trump tries to regain hold of the narrative around Epstein, his supporters do seem to be going along. Despite sensational media headlines reporting an enormous fracture in MAGA over Trump’s bizarre handling of the Epstein case, there is scant evidence of an irreparable rift. One poll even shows Trump has gained support from his base during this saga.

Indeed, it may all end up working out in Trump’s favor. As the negative news from hated media sources piles up, supporters will rally to his side. Even if the worst was revealed, the level of cope and self-delusion MAGA will put themselves through is seemingly limitless. They’ve been perfectly trained to reject anything anti-Trump instinctively, with a consistency that would be the envy of any dictator in history. As with so many toxic relationships, this little quarrel may only strengthen their commitment.

Of all the people known to have associations with Epstein, none seem to have had a more intimate or longer-lasting friendship than Trump. And he’s undeniably been proven wrong about one thing: People do care about this case and they do want to know the truth. Unfortunately, with Trump in charge of what does and doesn’t get leaked, and with he and his propagandists on FOX News and YouTube working at warp speed to muddy the waters, we are in probably the worst possible position to ever actually learn that truth. 

But for one, brief moment, Trump showed a bit of wobbliness. His grip on some of his supporters weakened and he lashed out at them like a petulant child. Maybe it opened some eyes. And perhaps, if the news gets bad enough and unavoidable enough, the loyalty of his supporters may not be as absolute as he once imagined.

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June 23, 2025

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More lies, more war: Americans fall for it again

In 2015, during the Republican presidential primaries, Donald Trump stood on stage with Jeb Bush and said to his face, “The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake… We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives… We should have never been in Iraq… We have destabilized the Middle East… They lie. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none, and they knew there were none.” 

At the time, the establishment Republican audience booed, but a star was born. Jeb Bush’s political fortunes soon crumbled. A new narrative took hold of the party. Gone would be the neoconservatives and the Bush family, replaced by a more isolationist, nationalist, “America First” movement led by Trump.

Now, with his attacks on Iran just a few months into his second presidential term, Trump is on the verge of making a catastrophic foreign policy move that threatens to dwarf the illegality, murderousness, and destabilization of the Bush Administration’s crime of the century.  

Trump  is, and always has been, a warmonger, despite his occasional pretense of peace. In 2016 he called the Geneva Conventions, the protocols that prohibit certain war crimes, “the problem.” And he has always been hawkish on Iran, appointing fanatics John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to senior positions in his first administration and assassinating a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. Among other crimes, Trump also dramatically expanded the use of President Obama’s drone program, including in Yemen, Somalia, and Syria, killing as many as 7,500 civilians.

But before the last couple weeks, Trump was not beyond the norm in Washington in this regard, and in some ways was actually more restrained than previous administrations. That all may be changing, and Trump might yet make his name in foreign policy infamy. 

A brief timeline of Iran nuclear hysteria

While tensions between Iran and Israel/the US have simmered for decades, things escalated on June 13, when Israeli drones bombed multiple nuclear, residential, and military targets throughout Iran. This first attack occurred while Iran was waiting on diplomatic talks with the US. Then, Trump gave Iran two weeks to return to the negotiating table – and attacked them two days later, bombing three nuclear sites. Now, far beyond simply arming and covering for Israel, the US military is directly involved.

The claimed justification for these attacks is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran’s alleged nuclear program has been a fixation of Israel and imperial Washington for decades, but the claims are difficult to take seriously. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been fearmongering about Iranian nukes for more than 30 years. As far back as 1992, he has appeared before various legislative and world bodies to proclaim Iran was on the threshold of obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump’s own intelligence services undermine this claim. Appearing before Congress in March of 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said, “The [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.” In characteristic fashion, Trump simply swatted this aside, saying, “The intelligence community is wrong… she’s wrong.” Trump needs no evidence to support his claims; his word is more than enough.

Iran’s lack of a nuclear weapons program actually shows remarkable restraint on their part. Trump has done everything in his power to drive them to nuclear armament. Between his hostile rhetoric, his shredding of the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018, and now his outright acts of war, he could very well inspire Iran, and other Middle East states, to acquire nuclear weapons as a deterrent against a belligerent United States.

While there’s no evidence for Israel’s claim that Iran would use nukes to murder Israelis, it’s a bit of a rich accusation considering the source. Israel holds an estimated 90 illegal nuclear weapons themselves, in contravenance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and is currently carrying out an active genocide of the people of Gaza as well as attacks against multiple neighbors. Their moral authority is less than zero.

Of course Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons. Nobody should. But we can’t unilaterally declare war against anyone who might, theoretically, one day possess them. If that was our logic, Trump should just kill everyone on Earth right now to prevent any of us from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.

Now that the war machine is running at full speed, the reasons hardly matter. Just like when Bush invaded Iraq, the goalposts and motivations will shift. They can pull their favorite justification out of a hat: Iran is undemocratic, Iran treats women or gays or Christians or Jews badly, Iran is a state sponsor of terror. The nuance and truth of any given claim, and whether any of them justify all-out war, doesn’t matter once the war drums start beating.

Trump sells his war with the deep state propaganda machine

So the justification is a blatant lie on one hand and a gross hypocrisy on the other. But that hasn’t stopped the pro-war fervor from dominating on cable news and right-wing internet media.

The echoes of the Bush-era propaganda blitz are resounding. Back in 2002, that administration began making the case for an invasion of Iraq using any excuse they could make up, from connecting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to 9/11 to simply saying, “They hate us for our freedom.” Despite the embarrassing failure and criminality of it all, plenty of the same actors are making similar arguments now. Unlike that effort, though, which involved presenting a comprehensive, if fabricated, case to the American people, Congress, and the UN, Trump has taken these actions unilaterally.

Still, he has received reflexive support from the corporate press. One remarkable headline on FOX News read, “Iran attacks Israel despite US strikes on nuclear sites, Trump calls for peace.” A reader would have no way of knowing from that article any of the relevant context, or even that Israel and the US started the war. Networks and news outlets have also taken to featuring Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran, the brutal, CIA-installed former dictator. FOX News even refers to him as “his royal highness.” 

Even some of the pretend antiwar MAGA talking heads have done about-faces. Days before Trump’s attack, Charlie Kirk posted on Twitter about the foolishness of regime change in Iran and how 60% of Americans opposed the US getting involved. Once the US started dropping bombs, Kirk tweeted, “President Trump acted for the betterment of humanity… trust our Commander in Chief.” Trump has since openly declared his intent to pursue regime change in Iran.

Expect severe anti-Iranian propaganda to escalate going forward. Iranians will be dehumanized and characterized as brutal murderers. The US and Israel will be the good guys, Iran will be the terror-sponsoring villain, no matter who actually does what. We will see images of bombed Israeli and US buildings and assets, but never Iranian ones. We will mourn lives lost on our side and ignore any lost on theirs. That’s how it goes. When the deep state wants war, it rallies the entirety of corporate media behind itself. Truth, as they say, will be the first casualty.

Creating a more dangerous world

There’s no way to tell where things go from here. It could go no further, but with Trump apparently set on regime change and Iran vowing retaliation, it seems to be headed toward a full-scale, boots-on-the-ground war. The world waits with baited breath on the precipice of a possible nuclear World War III. 

Compared to Iraq, Iran is much bigger, more populous, more powerful, and better-connected in the global community. They are allied with America’s rival nuclear superpowers, China and Russia. So the fallout of any major war is likely to be many times greater than the fallout from the Iraq War – which the world is still dealing with and will be for generations. Hundreds of thousands of lost lives, millions of refugees, the growth of more and deadlier militant Islamic groups, and all at a $3 trillion price tag. Multiply it all if full-scale war breaks out with Iran.

We will live with the burden of the sins of our presidents for the rest of our lives, and the world is a more dangerous place because of them. As the children and friends and families of people killed by American bombs, whether in Iraq or Iran or Gaza or anywhere, come of age, they may not be quick to forgive or forget. 

Trump used diplomacy as a ruse, twice, to catch Iran off guard. They have no reason, nor does any other nation, to listen to anything America ever says again. More than that, it could inspire enemy nations to pursue nukes as a deterrent. After seeing Trump’s behavior, they’d almost be foolish not to. North Korea’s nukes are probably the only thing that has kept us from attacking them.

If a war breaks out, we will, by most measures, almost certainly lose it, just as we lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Middle East boondoggles. The Iranian people do not want their country to be an American client state. They will not, just as the Iraqis did not, welcome us as liberators and thank us for our bombs. If Iran bombed three US nuclear sites, American patriotism would shoot through the roof. The same is, predictably and justifiably, happening in Iran.

With his determination to start an all-out war and pursue regime change in Iran, Trump has transformed into the worst kind of neocon he always pretended to hate. His followers have, sadly yet predictably, hung onto him and will come along for the ride. Without intense activism to turn things around fast, all signs are pointing to much more death and devastation to come, lasting generations, destroying families, destabilizing regions, bankrupting the country, and ruining what’s left of our national soul.

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March 6, 2025

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Welfare is national security

Welfare has become one of the dirtiest words in America. In the dictionary, it means the “health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.” In government, it refers to a range of programs designed to support people. But in common political parlance, it’s come to mean a transfer of taxpayer dollars from honest, hard-working Americans to lazy, undeserving moochers.

So it’s no surprise that when Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and puppetmaster of the Trump Administration, scours the government for waste with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), welfare programs will be scrutinized. Musk recently called Social Security a “ponzi scheme” and said on his social media platform, X, that Medicare “is where big money fraud is happening.” Despite President Trump’s campaign pledges to the contrary, Musk appears to be looking hard at deep cuts to Americans’ entitlements.

Defining waste

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are three of the biggest pillars of America’s welfare state. Wildly popular among both Democrats and Republicans, they provide healthcare coverage and steady incomes for the old, poor, or disabled. Musk and Trump claim they are rife with fraud, and that cutting them will save taxpayers money. 

They’ve even floated the idea of sending Americans $5,000 DOGE dividend checks from their budget cuts. That would buy them a lot of temporary grace, but these support programs are worth far more than any one-time payoff. Long after the money’s gone, when the retirement income stops coming and the medical debt piles up, Americans will regret trusting billionaires to decide what is and isn’t wasteful in their lives.

While they’ve highlighted some seemingly frivolous expenditures, neither Trump nor Musk have given any concrete definition for “waste.” In truth, some welfare programs operate with remarkable efficiency. 

As Matthew Desmond writes in Poverty, by America, “Roughly 85 percent of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] budget is dedicated to funding food stamps themselves, and almost 93 percent of Medicaid and even Supplemental Security Income dollars flow directly to beneficiaries.” These numbers are better than even high-performing charities, and their impacts are profound. But if you think feeding hungry people is a waste in the first place, it won’t matter how efficiently the program accomplishes its goal.

A different kind of security

Conspicuously missing from DOGE’s radar are the enormous corporate subsidies to military contractors like Musk himself. According to The Washington Post, Musk’s companies have received a staggering $38 billion in government contracts, loans, and tax rebates. After Trump’s inauguration it was reported that Tesla, a $1 trillion company that paid $0 in taxes in 2024, was set to receive another $400 million contract for armored vehicles. Taxes allow Musk to put nearly 7,000 satellites into low-earth orbit, giving him tremendous powers of surveillance, yet he wants to slash environmental protections and entitlements for ordinary people.

Perhaps surprisingly, Musk has proposed cuts to the Pentagon, citing its repeated audit failures and $800 billion budget. So far, though, it’s unclear how much will be cut. Trump increased the military’s budget every year of his first term. Whether DOGE compels the Pentagon to tighten its belt or not, it’s worth asking why there is often so much less scrutiny of military and police budgets than of entitlement programs like Medicaid. 

The answer may seem obvious: Police and the military defend our lives and our freedom. But this spending also primarily benefits the nation’s wealthy. Police are there to prevent riff-raff from disrupting commerce. The military theoretically defends the homeland, but in practice they spend a lot more time securing global markets. 

Assuming, though, that Americans accept the premise – that large military and police budgets are necessary for our protection – why wouldn’t we invest in healthcare and Social Security? The threats from cancer and poverty are far more widespread than those from terrorism or gang violence. 

Again, the answer is that the rich need not fear costly healthcare or destitution, and they have no interest in sacrificing a portion of their largesse to defend you from them. Quite the opposite; these perils ensure them a steadily exploitable workforce. Republicans openly and proudly acknowledge this. As the right-wing Heritage Foundation put it, for workers, “The threat of an empty stomach is a great motivator.”

The campaign against welfare

The contempt for basic welfare many Americans hold can be chilling. Not only do we have no pride in taking care of one another, we think it’s the wrong thing to do. In any healthy society, programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and housing assistance would be supported even by those who don’t need them: on basic moral grounds, to maintain the health of society, and because there but for the grace of God go any of us. 

Instead, Republicans rail against things like free lunches for schoolchildren. That psychopathy is now normalized, and it’s toxified huge swaths of the country. Elected Republicans are practically lustful in their desire to dismantle Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, placing basically everyone who’s not a millionaire in jeopardy of abject ruin. Just last week the House GOP passed a budget that orders $880 billion in spending cuts, jeopardizing millions of poor and disabled Medicaid recipients, including children.

Yet many Americans celebrate this destruction of our public goods. Right-wing propaganda plays a huge role in this. It has convinced people that their neighbors are better off without the assistance, that overcoming suffering on their own builds character. At the extreme end, some believe their countrymen deserve poverty. Others are laser-focused on minimizing taxes, regardless of the social consequences. Many become jaded by stories of Americans who game the system.

Is there waste, fraud, and abuse of these systems? Absolutely, and some of the worst offenders are the already-very-rich. Corporations like Walmart and McDonald’s rely on government programs to subsidize their poverty wages while raking in billions in profit. Mobsters, crooked doctors, and others bilk Americans out of billions of dollars through Medicare, HUD, and other kinds of fraud. Shortly after the pandemic, the government forgave $755 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans issued to business owners.

But instead of focusing on how the system further enriches the already-well-off, politicians worry about an occasional poor person who fakes a disability, then use them as justification to shred the safety net. This is because their donors, who fly in private jets, own vast swaths of land, and can afford premium medical care, have no need for public transportation, affordable housing, or subsidized healthcare. Many of the rich yearn to extricate themselves from organized society entirely, with private armies, private property, indentured servitude, and no tax burden.

For example, Trump has affectionately referred to the Gilded Age as our “richest” period. This was a time of child labor, no worker protections, rampant corruption, and severe inequality. It led to socialist and union movements and, eventually, the New Deal. Now, the central mission of the Republican Party is to annihilate any traces left of New Deal thinking. The end result will be more yachts for Jeff Bezos and millions more malnourished, under-educated Americans. It’s tough to find words for a party so pathologically committed to destroying, essentially, the fabric of society. 

The fight to put people over profit

It’s important to understand this wider context to place the chaos of Trump, Musk, and DOGE in perspective. The Reagan Revolution, the Contract with America, FOX News, and MAGA are all descendants in the same lineage, and they share a common goal: Obliterate the government’s ability to more equitably spread the nation’s bounty of material comforts from those who have a mountain of them to those who have few or none. Trump and Musk, with their flamboyant personalities, have cultivated a base that cheers the acceleration of that process.

The peril extends beyond welfare programs and into our public health infrastructure, parks and wildlife, education system, and basically everything that makes America a country instead of a patchwork of corporate fiefdoms. If Trump and Musk have their way, it will all be up for grabs, leaving nothing but a hollowed-out husk of a nation with a price tag on every square inch.

Finding our way out of this far-right fever dream and building a cooperative society will take considerable effort. But the robber barons of the Gilded Age didn’t want to invest in the health of the nation, either. People will have to fight for it today just as they did then, and we can start by affirming that it is not wasteful to invest in our health, education, and happiness. 

From there, the approach is multifaceted and will evolve over time. Where possible, the fight can include legislative demands like tax hikes on the wealthy, closing loopholes to their tax obligations, or reducing the burdens of poverty through things like rent caps and tax credits for the poor. Communities must organize around their common economic interests, strike, protest, and collectively bargain with politicians, landlords, employers and other controlling segments of society. Authoritarian Republicans will deploy all the propaganda and state violence at their disposal against anyone involved in these activities, but the fight has to happen.

There are a lot of good reasons to hate the government. Its capacity to pool our resources and administrate a cooperative society with safety nets isn’t a good one. There are few greater risks to the American people than the dissolution of their healthcare, retirement, environment, and national trust.
We should invest in public housing because people who are better taken care of are less likely to resort to crime. We should invest in public health because diseases spread, and sickness and suffering can afflict us all. We should invest in education so our children grow up to contribute to our nation’s shared knowledge and advancement. Without these investments, we place our futures at the mercy of oligarchs like Elon Musk and Donald Trump who are solely interested in profit. If national security means holding the country together, then welfare for the people, in whatever form it takes, is essential to our national interest.

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November 4, 2024

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The depths of depravity of Donald J. Trump

As the 2024 election speeds to a close, Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s closing argument against former President Donald Trump is this: He’s a fascist, a threat to democracy, and too dangerous to elect.

That argument holds a lot of weight, but it has two big problems. One is that Democrats have been making this argument for nine years, with mixed results at best. Two is that Trump served as President for four years and did not become a full authoritarian — though not for lack of trying.

With the election apparently so close, it may feel like political malpractice to trot out the same unpersuasive argument and allow Trump to come so close to the White House again. But in all the furor and focus on his latest politically incorrect outrage, it can be easy to lose sight of the simple truth: This man is extremely dangerous and corrupt, and he must not be allowed back into the White House.

The “fascist” question

Almost everyone, including historians and political scientists, have slightly varying definitions of fascism, and even historical fascist societies differed in certain meaningful ways. In modern American political dialect, it basically means, “Anyone who makes me do something I don’t like,” from filing taxes to stopping at red lights. This makes calling Trump a fascist problematic, even if the shoe fits.

Nonetheless, there are a few distinguishing features that most conceptions of fascism share.

  • Authoritarian rule. Power concentrated in a leader with a devoted cult of personality, in whom people see a living embodiment of the nation
  • Police state. A militarized society, including citizen militias and police suppression of protests, speech, and other forms of dissent
  • Propaganda. Rampant propaganda that is rife with lies, conspiracy, and dehumanizing language
  • Censorship. Dissent or open disagreement with official narratives and state policies may be outlawed and punished violently
  • In-group vs. out-group. Hatred of “others,” such as immigrants, the LGBTQ community, leftists, or academics
  • National and cultural mythology. Desire to preserve or attain “purity” of culture, language, and/or race and ethnicity, often through appeals to a mythical past
  • Hyper-capitalism. The merger of the state with corporations and business leaders
  • War. Jingoism and an aggressive foreign policy

Any honest, informed person can see how much of this applies to Trump. His authoritarian ambitions and cult of personality are no secret. He uses dehumanizing rhetoric on his enemies and on immigrants, calling them “vermin,” “scum,” and “the enemy within” that is “poisoning the blood of our country.” He has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of news organizations critical of him. On January 6, 2021, he incited a mob to attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power after losing an election. And despite his talk of peace, he pursued a hawkish foreign policy rife with war crimes.

Of course, America itself is fascistic in many ways. We are a right-wing, corporate-run nation with a militarized police force that protects ruling class interests. We wage, fund, and arm more war than any other nation, with nearly unanimous, bipartisan support. Our media and education systems exalt American exceptionalism while stoking reactionary paranoias about declared enemies.

But with his overt hostility toward criticism, utter amorality, and willingness to do anything to stay in power, Trump pushes the fascist envelope further than any conventional American politician. And there is every indication he is ready and emboldened to go even further if he gets back into office. Whether he’s a textbook fascist or not is beside the point. He is a Trumpist, and that is plenty dangerous enough.

Corruption, loud and proud

If one key component of fascism is the merging of corporations and the government, Trump is the personification of it. A walking, talking brand brought to life, he’s blurred the lines between business and state like none before him — often flaunting his open corruption of public institutions. He put corporate donors in charge of the very parts of government they most wanted to destroy, including climate change denier Scott Pruitt at the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, for-profit school fanatic Betsy DeVos in the Department of Education, and Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

Some of the signature moments of Trump’s 2016 campaign came when he acknowledged his first-hand dealings with the corruption of Washington— by bragging that he paid off politicians and used loopholes to dodge his taxes. It felt like a populist moment, as if Trump was saying, “I’ve been inside the belly of the beast, so I know how to fight it.” But Trump didn’t see the light and become Robin Hood. Before, during, and after his presidency, he has been one of the most crooked and corrupt people in history.

Not only does Trump not pay his taxes, he doesn’t pay his bills, either. There are hundreds of stories of contractors, workers, and professionals claiming they were stiffed by Trump. His campaign doesn’t even pay the venues and cities where it holds rallies. Just as one example, they currently owe the city of Albuquerque more than $444,000.

Perhaps most prominently, he was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records earlier in 2024. In 2016, shortly before assuming office, he was ordered to pay $21 million in restitution to Americans defrauded by his Trump University scam. Trump’s charity was shuttered and a court ordered him to pay $2 million for misusing its funds to, among other things, purchase a portrait of himself. Since leaving office Trump has sold his name to NFT and cryptocurrency scams, collectors’ coins, and even a line of Chinese-made Trump bibles.

Even more seriously, Trump took money from foreign governments throughout his presidency, including Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, Turkey, and others. According to a congressional letter investigating these payments, “Each of these countries sought — and in many cases obtained — favors and specific policy outcomes from [Trump and his] Administration while they made these payments.” Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, accepted a whopping $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia. More recently, Trump all but openly sold the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, a position in his administration after Musk pledged to donate $45 million a month to Trump’s campaign.

As one final matter in Trump’s long saga of dishonesty and criminality, there is his close association with convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. Some details are sordid and unsubstantiated, but Trump’s history of sexual abuse allegations, photos showing him at parties with Epstein, and public comments he’s made about Epstein being a “terrific guy” who likes girls “on the younger side” are certainly disturbing. It’s a testament to Trump’s political prowess and control over his supporters that MAGA, which is usually obsessed with Epstein stories and celebrity pedophilia, completely looks the other way.

This is a man who has lied and ripped off Americans his entire life. His primary reason for seeking office appears to be shielding himself from the civil and criminal investigations his fraudulent behavior has kicked up — as well as enacting the far-right agenda of his fascistic, corporate enablers.

Second time around

Trump was already president for four years, and although he did enormous damage, the nation survived. Plenty of pundits therefore argue that hysteria over a second Trump term is unwarranted. That may be so. Nobody can predict the future. But there is also plenty of reason to expect him to be much worse this time around: unleashed, emboldened, and screaming for vengeance.

There’s little doubt Trump would’ve liked to follow his fascist instincts further in his first term. Dozens of former Trump Administration officials attest to this, including prominent ones like General John Kelly and former Vice President Mike Pence. Pence, for instance, refused to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. And when Trump phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find” enough votes for Trump to win the state, Kemp likewise refused.

But those guardrails, whether they be “normal” bureaucrats, courts, or other institutions, only barely held. Trump surrounded himself with people willing to kowtow to him and carry out most of his worst orders — but many of them had at least a minimal consideration for the appearances of a civil democracy. Trump himself has no regard for those appearances, nor, seemingly, does JD Vance or the cadre of far-right extremists on board the campaign this go-round. MAGA also has a much better sense of what they can get away with now. Guardrails are only really maintained by people. Those people won’t be there this time.

Reelecting Trump will give him a mandate, and he will see it as validation for his worst impulses, which have been on full display during the campaign — such as his amplification of a neo-Nazi hoax that Haitian immigrants eat neighborhood cats and dogs in Ohio. A potential blueprint for a Trump Administration can be found in Project 2025, a far-right fever dream of authoritarianism, corporatism, and retrograde theocracy. He’s also expressed a desire for more extreme forms of fascism, including rounding up and deporting millions of human beings and interning them in detention camps.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of Trump is the devotion he inspires in supporters. After nine years, they still believe his every lie. They want him to go further. They are willing to storm the Capital and perhaps far more on his behalf. He’s impervious to facts; any criticism, including this entire article, can be easily shrugged off by a built-in defense mechanism that reassures supporters that any negative story is a liberal media lie.

Reading about Trump’s runaway criminality and abuses is exhausting. This article only scratches the surface, and it’s tempting to simply tune out. For nine years Democrats have failed to present a positive alternative. The media, too, have largely failed by focusing more on petty drama and personal flaws. But the odiousness of Trump is, in fact, the best argument against him. He is an amoral, fascistic, crooked, serially unfaithful, and pathologically dishonest man. Apart from his reprehensible character, his corporatist, militarist policies and authoritarian ambitions will be immensely destructive to the working class, the environment, and the world.

Felony convictions can’t take him down. His supporters cannot be swayed. The ballot is America’s best hope of ridding Trump from the conversation — at least for the next four years.

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October 23, 2024

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Weeks Before Election, Harris Rebrands as a Dick Cheney Democrat

Vice President Kamala Harris and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, the 2024 presidential race is as tight and tense as any in recent memory. America’s almost suspiciously divided voters are within the margin of error for a dead tie in many polls, including in the important swing states — although the tide is turning.

Six weeks ago, the picture was quite different. After Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, her campaign took off like a rocket. The momentum was fueled by excitement over President Joe Biden dropping out of the race and a palpable feeling that something new was on the ballot for the first time since Barack Obama in 2008. Harris selected progressive Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for Vice President, trounced Trump in their only debate, and filled arenas with an energetic campaign focused on looking forward and calling out the weirdness of the MAGA movement.

Now, all the momentum heading into November 5 is in former President Donald Trump’s favor. In most polling aggregates and betting markets, Trump is at least a slight favorite to win reelection. It begs the question: How are Democrats this close to fumbling yet another winnable election against Trump’s MAGA circus?

Harris’s hard-right pivot

Despite her campaign’s surprising early momentum, there were signs of trouble. Harris failed to win a single delegate in the one primary she ran in, in 2020, then clinched the nomination without contest at the Democratic National Convention. In other words, national voters have never chosen her. She then refused to break with the Biden Administration’s policy of unconditional and unlimited funding for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, alienating a large section of the party’s base.

At this point, Harris faced two choices: Make some concessions to the antiwar left or pivot right to win over so-called centrists and moderate Republicans. She chose the latter.

Since making that turn, Harris made several baffling decisions that dismiss, alienate, or anger her base, including:

  • Bringing in 2016 election loser Hillary Clinton for advice, along with other out-of-touch D.C. insiders.
  • Cozying up to ultra-right-wing neoconservatives Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney.
  • Pledging to put a Republican, widely rumored to be Liz Cheney, in her cabinet if elected.
  • Abandoning some of her most effective messaging about not looking back and MAGA being weird.
  • Insisting on continuing to arm, fund, and sanction the genocide in Gaza without restriction or condition.

These moves allegedly appeal to Republicans who don’t like Trump, but it’s a curious play because it isn’t at all clear how many such people exist. Trump’s approval among Republicans remains very high and the MAGA faithful’s cult-like devotion to him won’t be shaken by longtime D.C. villains like the Cheneys.

Meanwhile, support for Harris among core Democratic constituencies is plummeting. In Michigan, for instance — the state with the largest Muslim population — some polls show Green Party candidate Jill Stein receiving 40% of Muslim support while only 12% back Harris. That’s a huge drop from 2020, when Biden carried as much as 85% of the Muslim vote. Even in Michigan, Muslims are a small portion of the voting bloc, but with margins so razor-thin it’s political malpractice for Harris to alienate them — and outright appalling to do it in the service of genocidal war crimes.

Birth of the Dick Cheney Democrat

All this adds to the long and disturbing trend of Democrats trying harder to win Republican support while taking the left for granted. Going back decades with the so-called Blue Dog and Reagan Democrats, Democrats often try to appear as xenophobic, hawkish, and conservative as Republicans. Now, Harris is breathing life into a terrifying new political frankenstein: the Dick Cheney Democrat.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is one of the worst people who ever lived. It would take multiple encyclopedias to account for all the damage, death, and destruction his crimes wrought in this world. His endorsement is nothing to be proud of, yet Harris’s closing argument to voters in the last weeks of her campaign appears to be, “The Cheneys like me.”

Both Dick and Liz Cheney have argued their support for Harris is about norms and preserving democracy. Recall, though, that alongside George W. Bush, Cheney himself successfully stole the 2000 election; he has no qualms about subverting democratic norms.

Nonetheless, their endorsement does demonstrate something significant: that the social, cultural, and religious fights Republicans and Democrats often wage most bitterly — such as on abortion and LGBTQ issues — are of minimal real interest to the ruling class. Liz Cheney even specifically encouraged anti-abortion conservatives to support the pro-choice Harris.

What matters most to the Cheneys is a militaristic, interventionist foreign policy that creates new markets. For all his own hyper-capitalism and litany of war crimes, Donald Trump is unpredictable. That the Cheneys feel more comfortable Harris will pursue their foreign policy agenda, even as the world teeters on the brink of World War III, is a deeply worrying sign of what lies ahead regardless of who wins the election.

So the Dick Cheney Democrat, as exemplified by Kamala Harris, is a person with little to say on issues like healthcare or the minimum wage, who is committed to war and imperialism, but who will defend some of our important personal freedoms and social progress. That is what passes for a progressive in this bleak election: a neoconservative who’s libertarian on individual life choices.

For Gaza, no hope either way

A Dick Cheney Democrat may still be a better deal than Trump, depending on one’s perspective and priorities. But the genocide in Gaza is of paramount concern to a huge number of Americans, many of whom might otherwise be predisposed to viewing Democrats as the lesser evil.

Yet Harris has been campaigning, and indeed the Democratic Party has been behaving, as if horrific scenes of the Gaza holocaust are not flooding social media every single day. Despite Democrats’ best efforts to rationalize, minimize, or ignore the genocide, those who care enough to watch closely have seen Israel deliberately starve Palestinians in Gaza; target civilians, hospitals, infrastructure, and aid workers; and herd people into prison camp “safe zones” only to bomb and burn them alive anyway.

In one of the signature moments of her campaign, Harris silenced a pro-Palestine protester by saying, “I’m speaking,” and the insistent words quickly became a slogan. But if “Don’t commit genocide” is too demanding an ask from voters, then there’s hardly even a pretense of democracy in America left to defend. And if Harris pulls off this election with her Cheney-first strategy, the Democratic Party will know they never need to listen to the antiwar or economic left again.

When confronted on her stance toward Palestine, Harris typically takes a more sympathetic tone than Biden while reiterating her unconditional support for Israel. Trump has pledged to be an even better friend to Israel than Biden and Harris, and some Democrats point to this to argue he’d be even worse for Palestinians. But since Biden and Harris have already covered up, armed, and funded the genocide, and pledge to continue to do so, it’s an unimpressive argument at best.

It’s not clear what percent of Americans view the genocide of Palestinians or the merging of the Democratic Party with Bush-era neoconservatives as dealbreakers, but it’s plausible that it’s enough to tilt the election to Trump. It’s also plausible that Harris still manages to win, propelled by backlash against the GOP’s Dark Age brutality toward women’s reproductive health and Trump’s overt odiousness.

Either way, America is left with two newly realigned factions: the super-hawk Dick Cheney Democrats on the “left” and the Christian fascist MAGA cult on the right. Two grimmer, more depressing choices are difficult to imagine, but if recent history teaches us anything, it’s that it can still get worse. In another 20 years it might be JD Vance who emerges as a bipartisan voice of reason. By then, the Republican might be a vigilante Klansman wearing a necklace of his victims’ skulls and the Democrat might be Ivanka Trump.

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August 23, 2024

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Madame Vice President, Do the Right Thing on Gaza

The coronation and ascent up the polls of Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris has been remarkable to witness. From out of nowhere, a person widely considered a relative dud of a Vice President, who received zero delegates during her primary bid in 2020 and zero votes in the 2024 primary (during which, of course, she was not a candidate), is now the woman chosen to beat Donald Trump. And if vibes and momentum are any indication, she may be well on her way to doing it. She has galvanized Democratic enthusiasm and is being celebrated by multiple factions of her party.

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Harris and the liberal coalition. While the Republican opposition is flailing, unable to build a meaningful counter-narrative and falling back on their usual canard of hysterically painting every minimal reform as communism, on her left is a potentially more disruptive force: Americans who want their country to stop arming and funding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Here and there, there have been clues and gestures from Harris toward a policy change on Gaza. Even before she became the nominee, Washington rumors suggested she disagreed with Biden’s 100% tolerance of Israeli violence, though to what degree has never been clear. As a candidate, she said, “Now is the time to get a ceasefire deal.” 

But so far there’s been little evidence of any real changes coming and increasingly, it’s looking like Harris’s policy toward Israel and Palestine will not be different from Biden’s. She uses more sympathetic language, but is always careful to reiterate her unwavering support for Israel and to couch her sympathies for Palestine in false equivalencies (the violence in Israel and Palestine overwhelmingly comes from one side to the other).

More important things: Or, how liberals learned to stop worrying and love bombing Gaza

Liberals have a number of ways of rationalizing the Gaza genocide. They say Donald Trump will be even worse, and they may be right (Trump has encouraged Netanyahu to “finish the job” in Gaza, which sounds eerily like a final solution). Liberals might argue they can push Harris on the issue once she’s in office (hasn’t worked so far). They might also claim that Harris’s hands are tied for any number of political reasons, though if that’s what’s holding her back it only demonstrates a lack of leadership.

For plenty of liberals, the issue is simply secondary to the more pressing concern of defeating Trump and saving democracy. But that framing sounds peculiar given the party’s treatment of its anti-genocide wing. The 2024 Democratic primary was somewhere between a formality and a sham, but as a result of it, voters sent a contingent of Uncommitted delegates to the DNC this year. Those delegates, elected representatives within the Democratic Party all, have been neglected, barred from entry, and relegated to protests in the hallways. Their simple demand to allow one pro-Palestinian perspective on stage during the DNC’s weeklong, celebrity-filled party was denied. None of that sounds terribly democratic. 

Other liberals simply don’t want to acknowledge that a genocide is happening. Outside the DNC in Chicago, some Democrats plugged their ears as they walked past protesters reading the names of children killed in Gaza. Both The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe argue that “It’s time to retire the word genocide.” It’s simply too controversial a term; sometimes nations would like to kill tens of thousands of children without all the nasty name-calling. If we stop using the word genocide, then there is no such thing and we can stop worrying about it. 

It needs to be made clear: Israel’s actions in Gaza meet every sensible definition of genocide, as the rest of the world well understands. There are mountains of photo and video evidence, as well as Israeli soldiers’ and officials’ own declarations. It’s all but impossible to count the dead, dying, and wounded in Gaza. Almost every single one of the strip’s 2.3 million people has been maimed, relocated, starved, or killed. Most sources put the number of dead somewhere around 40,000, while the medical journal The Lancet estimates it could be as high as 186,000.

Why Harris should oppose genocide

Harris’s coronation has been a rousing political moment, but it’s severely tainted by the context in which it exists. An ongoing genocide enabled by a bipartisan consensus of the US government and unchallenged by either candidate is too glaring and grim for many voters to overlook.

If this were a genocide we had nothing to do with, the moral calculus would be different. But every one of us bears some responsibility for what’s happening in Gaza. Our dollars fund it and our bombs blow entire families to smithereens. To demand a change is the only moral, sane, human reaction. The fact that there is no representative for that position on the ballot, or even allowed into the conversation, is a truly damning indictment of our politics. 

Certainly there are plenty of good reasons to want Harris to defeat Trump. She is, domestically, a lesser evil on every count. But it’s just as understandable why people of conscience would not be able to support this party. It’s as if we’re choosing between A) genocide with reproductive health, voting rights, and some semblance of a safety net, or B) genocide without those things. For many voters, that’s an obvious choice, but it says something incredibly grim that it’s the only choice.

Harris has a real opportunity to do something important, and it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t help her politically. Americans are currently divided on Gaza, with 48% disapproving of Israel’s actions and 42% approving. If Harris took a stand, that divide would almost certainly split down party lines, likely costing her little if anything in terms of public support. It would surely energize the party’s left wing and help her win the swing state of Michigan. But she apparently doesn’t want to do that – either because of political pressures, electoral paranoia, or personal views. None of these, reasoned though they may be, justify her inaction thus far. 

Harris’s nomination for commander-in-chief is historic, but history will not look kindly on those who allowed and enabled Gaza to be erased from the earth. Activists must continue to pressure Harris, and there’s no need to wait until after the election to do so. She doesn’t have to do much – just pledge to stop sending the guns, bombs and money or, better yet, pressure President Biden to stop now. If we want to have any shred of faith in our system and our countrymen, we ought to be able to believe that doing the right thing is good politics. And unequivocally opposing this genocide is certainly the right thing.