This Week In Fascism is a weekly Refusefascism.org feature that exposes the rapid unfolding of a fascist USA and the necessity to stop it.
Below are just a handfull of examples of the moves towards fascism that we have witnessed over the past week. We encourage readers to also learn about what this regime has done to our Muslim brothers and sisters in the Middle East over this past week. Many feel the heartache from the fascist killing of Taliesin Myrddi Namkai Meche and Ricky John Best. As our statement today states, “The whipping up of violence in the streets is an integral part of the Trump/Pence fascist program. This growing section of fascist thugs—who often cultivate hatred on social media and are now empowered to commit these vicious hate crimes—can be likened to the “brown shirts” of Nazi Germany, who took it upon themselves to enact Hitler’s agenda, intimidating and killing innocent people.”
War on Women and Christian Fascism
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- The Trump/Pence Regime has drafted a rule that would allow religious employers to control their employees’ reproduction by stopping their access to birth control through insurance plans. Allowing employers to “opt-out” of birth control coverage because of religious belief puts women’s futures solely in the hands of their employer. Rolling back the birth control mandate is part of this regime’s overall war on women and its enforcement of religious rule.
- The proposed budget seeks to codify contempt for the lives of women. This budget will rip away access to Medicaid, SNAP/WIC and Housing Assistance which women are the predominate users of. Moving us closer to a theocracy, this budget prevents agencies that provide abortion services such as Planned Parenthood from receiving any funds from the Department of Health and Human Services Program. This is compounded by a healthcare bill that prevents them from accessing Medicaid funding and the long-standing Hyde Amendment that prevents any Federal funds for abortion services. This regime will not be satisfied until the doors of all reproductive health centers are shuttered and women’s futures are foreclosed.
- On Friday, SB 8 was passed in the Texas Senate. This is a draconian bill that if passed will require burial or cremation of embryonic and fetal tissue, ban the use of fetal tissue for research, and ban the dilation and evacuation method of abortion (one of the safest and most common methods).
Whipping Up the Fascist Base- On May 25, almost two hundred bloodthirsty fascist thugs, including Milo Yiannopoulos, rallied in front of the City University of New York (CUNY), demanding that the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy rescind its commencement speech invitation to Linda Sarsour (Palestinian-American-Muslim civil rights activist). Read full report here
- Days before his graduation, Richard Collins III a student at Bowie State University in Maryland was stabbed to death by Sean Urbanksi, a member of a Facebook group Alt Reich: Nation.
- On May 27, Jeremy Christian (a known white supremacist nazi) stabbed three people and killed two, on a Portland, Oregon commuter train. Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche and Ricky John Best, were murdered and Micah David-Cole Fletcher severely injured after defending two young women, one wearing a hijab, who were being harassed and verbally attacked by Christian who shouted obscene racist and anti-Muslim slurs.
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Attacks on Free Press
- Greg Gianforte, a Republican running for U.S. Representative for Montana’s at-large District, brutally assaulted a reporter from the Guardian. In full view of a camera crew from Fox News, the leading candidate who was endorsed by both Trump and Pence, lifted Ben Jacobs off the floor and slammed him to the ground. He then proceeded to punch the reporter repeatedly in the face, breaking his glasses. After the story became public and two witnesses, including a reporter for Fox News, gave damning statements fully implicating Gianforte, the candidate’s spokesperson proceeded to lie directly to the press. The next day Gianforte was elected, and Trump remarked that this was a “great win in Montana.”
- The day after Gianforte’s victory, Greg Abbot, the Governor of Texas, joked about shooting reporters, saying that he will carry around his bullet-ridden target “in case I see any reporters.” He said this directly to a room full of reporters. **********************
As our statement No More Fascist Killings states, “we turn to the examples of Namkai Meche and Best, who sacrificed their lives to stop hatred. We honor their memory by calling for a protest against these hate crimes, and we channel our anger and pain toward the entire fascist regime that encourages the violence of these thugs. If Trump and Pence succeed in consolidating power, dissent will no longer be possible, fear will control all, and the hate-driven murders will continue to spread exponentially. The only appropriate response to the lynching of Richard Collins and the murder of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche and Ricky John Best is to move heaven and earth to drive the fascist Trump/Pence regime out of power.”
In the name of humanity, we REFUSE to accept a fascist America.