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.
On Sunday June 18th, NBC aired Megyn Kelly interviewing Alex Jones, thus taking a large leap toward the normalization of fascism. Alex Jones is the definition of fake news and he is a racist, misogynist fascist who has Trump’s ear. A year ago to say Alex Jones was mainstream, much less in the upper echelons of power, would’ve been laughable. One example: he believes the murders at Orlando, Sandy Hook, Brussels, and Boston were staged. It is extremely dangerous that he was given a larger platform.
The vicious wave of nooses displayed at cultural institutions in D.C. persists. On Saturday a noose was hung outside of the National Gallery of the Arts.
On Sunday, Nabra Hassanen, a 17-year-old Muslim girl was chased near her Virginia mosque and then fatally assaulted by a man wielding a baseball bat. Darwin Martinez Torres, who is being charged with her murder, drove his car into a group of teenagers who were walking back to their mosque after eating at IHOP on Sunday and then began chasing after them with his baseball bat. After being brutally beaten, she was captured by the assailant and dumped in a nearby pond. Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment, a group that is organizing vigils for Nabra, posted the following on Facebook: “While the incident has yet to be labeled a hate crime, right now in America, black Muslim women, especially those from marginalized communities are continuously targeted and attacked with malicious intent. This murder is yet another wake-up call in the chain of events of Muslim women viciously attacked in hate crimes across the country.”- Evergreen State College students have been under attack for a couple of months now after becoming targets from Fox News and alt-right internet trolls. This began with a long-standing tradition at the college – a “Day of Absence” for Black students where students and faculty of color left the campus to highlight their important role on campus. It was proposed to be updated by having white students leave the campus for a day to show this same point in a different way. One professor fought against this proposal and was instantly given a platform by Fox and the Alt-Right. The school was forced to close for multiple days after death threats and threats of violence were made and the graduation ceremony had to be relocated. Then last Thursday a fascist group “Patriot Prayer” came to the campus for a “March Against Evergreen State College.” Crucially, these Nazi followers were met with determined resistance of 200 people proudly blocking the main square of the campus with a banner that read “Free speech does not equal hate speech.”
Silencing Dissent and Demanding Unchallenged Rule
- In an act of paid pro-Trump regime propaganda, PBS is running a three-hour homage to Betsy DeVos’ education platform. A new education documentary School Inc. paid for by conservative foundations and think tanks promotes voucher programs and “free market schooling”and is aiming to change public opinion around Betsy DeVos agenda of privatization.
- Rightful outrage from the press came Monday when the press was told that the briefing with Press Secretary Spicer would be off-camera and off-mic. During the briefing no questions were taken from CNN or the Washington Post. These briefings have already been routinely abridged and sporadic, downgraded from briefing to “gaggle”. Trump himself has not held a press briefing since February. Jim Acosta of CNN stated after Monday’s briefing: “It just feels like we’re slowly but surely being dragged into what is a new normal in this country, where the president of the U.S. is allowed to insulate himself from answering hard questions.”
Destruction of Global Ecosystems
- On Monday, during an interview on CNBC Energy Secretary Rick Perry denied that carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of climate change. Despite scientific consensus to the contrary, Perry stated that “most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.”
- Jeff Holmstead, Trump’s pick for Deputy EPA administrator is a current lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry and former EPA official during the Bush regime. He will surely meet the Trump regime’s requisite of contempt for the health of our planet’s ecosystems and those who rely on clean water and air.
Attacks on Minorities and Genocidal Program
- This past Thursday Border Patrol officers took a largely unprecedented action when they raided No More Deaths. No More Deaths is an aid camp that offers shelter, water, and medical assistance to migrants crossing the border into Arizona. Four migrant workers were detained during the raid. The Trump/Pence regime is condemning to death those who are traversing the desert at temperatures of 114 degrees, as they will likely not stop at such aid centers to risk getting water, shelter, or medical help in light of this raid.
- This past week the vileness of Betsy DeVos and the Trump Regime’s Department of Education (DOE) was brought to the fore. In an internal memo the DOE Office for Civil Rights outlined its plan to dismantle systemic civil rights investigations. Regional offices no longer need to alert the Washington office of all complaints and therefore can omit disproportionate punishment of students of color or failure to appropriately handle sexual assaults on campuses. This works in service to the regime’s plan to dismantle regulation that protects those against gender, gender identity, sexual-orientation and race-based abuse.
This week we witnessed the outrageous acquittal of Philando Castile’s murderer. We learned also about the murder of Charleena Lyles, a Seattle mother to four children with a fifth on the way, and who family members report suffered from mental illness. She was shot and killed by police. While the epidemic of killer cops who murder black and brown people who have committed no crime precedes this regime, with white supremacists in the White House who support the murdering cops 100 percent we certainly can expect no justice until this regime is driven out.
In a perilous decision issued by the Supreme Court; Bush Regime officials were granted immunity for their post-9/11 mass detention and abuse of Muslims, South Asians, and Arab people. In a dangerous precedent, leading members of the Bush regime will never be held accountable for the abuse that they inflicted. Rachel Meeropol, a Senior Staff Attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights stated,”We are very disappointed with the Court’s dismissal of our clients’ claims. The Court’s decision allows for high-level officials to violate the Constitution without fear of personal accountability—a dangerous message in this time of rampant state-sponsored discrimination against Muslim and immigrant communities.”
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As Refuse Fascism’s Call for Nationwide Protest on July 15th states:
“As the eyes of the world are fixated on investigations and congressional hearings, the truth is this: these investigations – along with significant protests and other obstacles – have delayed some aspects of the Regime’s fascist program, but all this has also increased the compulsion the Regime feels to steam-roll ahead with its fascist program and to aggressively bludgeon and eliminate all opposition.
We can’t let this happen. We must seize on this “struggle at the top” to break through with our demand: The Trump/Pence Regime is illegitimate because it is fascist and all of us must join in struggle to drive it from power.
Come out Saturday July 15. Wherever you are, take the streets, demanding:
The TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!”