What is Fascism?

Fascism has direction and momentum. Dissent is piece by piece criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned. Group after group is demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to real horrors. Fascism is a qualitative change in how society is governed. (Read What Is Fascism, from the initial Call to Action from RefuseFascism.org).

The FACTS: What Trump/Pence Regime Has Already Done…
and Say They Will  Do…

Each postable page in this tabloid-sized brochure documents the horrific things that the regime has done, what it has said it will do, and/or what it has unleashed around one of the following seven issues: Muslims; Civil liberties; The people of the world; Women and LGBTQ people; White supremacy, police brutality, and mass incarceration; The environment; and Immigrants. Read/share the comprehensive indictment of the regime’s crimes here.

As Trump consolidates his power, the history of 1930s Germany repeats itself

Sasha Abramsky, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and columnist for the Sacramento Bee, authoried an op-ed titled “As Trump consolidates his power, the history of 1930s Germany repeats itself.” He wrote:

…Recently, to sate a historical itch, I have been reading about Germany in the 1930s, about what happened when a great and cultured country was handed over to a gang of sadists, misogynists, and racists, when security services were given carte blanche to use the methods of the iron fist, and when torturers were rewarded by promotion rather than prosecuted for their crimes.

And I have been reading about what happened when the great mass of the citizenry either supported the transformation or sat back and did nothing, some mistaking their silence and disdain for effective opposition, others simply hoping against hope for “normalcy” to return.

Sasha Abramsky was interviewed on the Michael Slate show on KPFK / Pacifica Radio, on April 6, 2018.  Listen to the interview here:

Sharable post here.

INFAMY
Gina Haspel, Trump’s CIA Pick, Ran a Laboratory for Torture

From the Daily Beast

While Haspel ran the so-called black site, one man was waterboarded 83 times; stuffed into a wooden box barely bigger than a coffin; and had his head slammed into walls.

… “Gina Haspel was a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history. She was up to her eyeballs in torture: both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand, and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes by destroying videotapes,” said Christopher Andrews, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Washington office.

– Read the article here.

From revcom.us:

Trump and Evangelicals: “Winning the Larger Battle Over Control Of The Culture”

When an evangelical theocrat like David Brody says Trump is their president and is accomplishing a great deal for their movement, we need to take it seriously. This isn’t just a matter of Trump playing to a part of his base. It’s a united front of white supremacists and Christian Fascists determined to destroy the separation of church and state, eviscerate women’s and LGBT rights, undo the progress of the civil rights movement, and remake society and government in service of Christian fascism draped in the American flag. To those who say that Trump is losing or is ineffectual, listen to Brody himself, proudly contradicting that perception. He says, “Why in the world wouldn’t evangelicals get behind and support a man who not only is in line with most of their agenda but also has delivered time and time again? The victories are numerous: the courts, pro-life policies, the coming Embassy in Jerusalem and religious liberty issues, just to name a few. He easily wins the unofficial label of “most evangelical-friendly United States president ever.”

– Read the article here

GOP senator says Trump is ready to start war with North Korea, which would be “one of the worst catastrophic events in history”

Sen. Jim Risch made these ominous remarks February 18 at the Munich “Security” Conference: There is no more dangerous place on the earth than the Korean peninsula right now. … The president of the United States has said, and he is committed to, seeing that Kim Jong-un is not… Read More 

The Changing Nature of Tyranny

Reprinted from San Francisco World Can’t Wait

Whether Trump/Pence is a direct replica of the Nazi regime has little relevance compared to the serious challenges he poses, argues Henry Giroux at Truthout. When people with power and influence remain silent in the face of “lies and ruthless polices” of the Trump administration, they sanction state violence characteristic of authoritarian regimes: racial cleansing, unchecked militarism and class warfare. “The first casualty of the Trump era is truth, the second is moral responsibility, the third is any vestige of justice, and the fourth is a massive increase in human misery and suffering for millions.”

The right to dissent is under threat. We can’t allow this administration to become a dictatorship before our eyes.

The Trump administration is targeting people who speak out and organize against its policies. I know. Members of my organization are being targeted. Members of my family could be next.

I am an immigrant rights organizer with temporary legal status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and I have been tracking how the federal government has been targeting my peers across the country. As I prepare to defend myself and my family against potential prosecution and deportation, I see this increasingly overt retribution as a warning sign that the right to political dissent is under threat for every person in the United States…

Read more
Read the article in USA Today

---

David Palumbo-Liu: I’m a Stanford professor accused of being a terrorist. McCarthyism is back

I am used to receiving abusive messages and being publicly maligned. Now, however, attacks on me have reached troubling new heights

Today anyone can be accused of anything, without basis in fact or evidence, and that accusation can be instantly trumpeted over the airwaves unchecked by any journalistic standard. That is the painful lesson I have had to learn this year.

As a scholar-activist working on issues such as sexual assault, Palestine, and anti-fascism, I am used to receiving abusive messages and being publicly maligned. Now, however, attacks on me have reached troubling new heights.

Last month, the Stanford Review, a rightwing publication co-founded by Peter Thiel and based on my university campus, wrote that I have helped set up an “organization [that is] undeniably a chapter of a terrorist group” and demanded my resignation. Their article was picked up by groups like JihadWatch, Campus Fix, Campus Reform, Fox & Friends, and other rightwing media outlets…

Read more

---

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE MUSLIMS,
THEN THEY CAME FOR THE IMMIGRANTS
Not This Time…

Stand Up Now with the Immigrants
This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

The gloves are off. The Trump/Pence Regime has launched an all-out comprehensive and qualitative leap in the implementation of a program of genocidal ethnic cleansing of immigrants – particularly targeting Black and Brown peoples.

This is a monumental horror in its own right, creating terror and untold suffering. At the same time, it is a major escalation in the consolidation of a fascist America. From Trump’s election campaign to the opening days of the regime, anti-immigrant, xenophobic nationalism has been the battering ram and lynchpin of the Trump/Pence Regime. Trump’s “Wall” is a potent symbol and instrument of terror that concentrates the shattering of old norms and cementing Trump’s new order of: America First…Make America Great White Again.

This assault on immigrants must be stopped and the Trump/Pence Regime that is responsible must be driven from power by the only force that could do this: the united nonviolent mass sustained struggle of hundreds of thousands and millions voting with their feet in the streets.

Now is the time for everyone to come to the defense of those first and most viciously under attack and strengthen the movement to drive the fascist Trump/Pence regime from power.

– Read more

Also see: What is Genocide

Trump Administration Turns ICE Into Tool for Political Repression

By Kevin Gosztola, published at Common Dreams

… Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated, there have been at least ten prominent cases where immigrants involved in community activism were deported or faced an increased threat of deportation….

Maru Mora-Villalpando received a notice from ICE to appear before an immigration judge. She is from Mexico City and leads an organization known as Northwestern Detention Center Resistance. It was launched in 2014 to protest a private immigrant detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. At the time, hunger strikes were launched by detainees to protest abusive conditions.

She has engaged in civil disobedience, which means she likely has an arrest record. She believes ICE is targeting her for her activism. Her “notice to appear” indicated deportation proceedings were initiated.

“We have a deportation machine that has grown incredibly big,” Mora-Villalpando told “Democracy Now!”. “And when [President Barack Obama] was leaving, he had the opportunity to stop it, but instead gave the keys to this fascist regime, that has utilized it in so many different ways…

Read the article at Common Dreams.

In One Year, the Trump/Pence Regime Has Made Huge Leaps in Forging the Repressive Machinery of a Fully Fascist Society

From Revolution 

… Since the Trump/Pence regime came to power, we have been hit by shock after shock, day after day, leaving millions reeling and fearful. Many worry aloud that “this is not the country I thought it was,” and ordinary people as well as writers and intellectuals point with alarm to not only the close relationships, but also to the similarities, between Trump/Pence and “authoritarian” regimes like Erdoğan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Duterte in the Philippines. Millions agonize about where things are heading and what to do about it, and at different points, thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions have taken to the streets in protest.

Yet even as these fears persist and deepen, and the word “fascism” and the image of Hitler come to mind and even pop up in the public discourse, people hold, and cling, to the belief that “It can’t happen here!” “Not in the USA,” not with its long history of democratic rule, entrenched institutions, its system of checks and balances. People hope—and are encouraged by Democrats and others of influence and authority to believe—that there are mechanisms within the normal workings of the system that will either constrain or remove this regime before it has done irreversible damage.

This line of thinking is a way of reconstructing a “comfort zone” within the mounting horror—things are bad, but surely “the worst” won’t come to pass.

But… a sober survey of the past 11 months shows that it is “happening here”!

– Read the article

12/20/17:
In the aftermath of the Alabama Senate Election:
Where are We At?
How do We Break Through?

By Coco Das – RefuseFascism.org

“…What does it mean to reach across the aisle and find common ground with people who deny the equality and full humanity of millions of people?”
– Read the article

William Rivers Pitt | Dig in: This Must Be the Winter of Our Discontent

“I’m the only one that matters”: Trump’s chilling imperial power-grab
Trump has never understood, or respected, the limits on presidential power. Now he’s trying to make them disappear…

– Read the article at Salon

Earlier… the Trump/Pence Regime…

11-15-17: 

In just the last few days the Trump/Pence regime took a trip to Asia and hypocritically demanded “the total de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula” – while Trump’s itchy finger rests on the trigger of a U.S. arsenal of 10,000 nuclear weapons! Thousands of people in Seoul, largely youth, protested against Trump’s state visit and threats of war. source

Met with Philippine tyrant Duterte in Manila, Duterte’s answer to the drug crisis in the Philippines is to gun down thousands of people in the streets, a tactic Trump has praised. Protests against both fascist leaders were put down with water canons and riot police source

Escalated and opened another front in its war on immigrants by ending Temporary Protected Status for 2,500 Nicaraguans. This is a springboard for ending Temporary Protected Status for much larger groups of people whose TPS is due to expire next year, including 57,000 Hondurans, 50,000 Haitians, and 200,000 Salvadorans. TPS protects people from certain countries that have been devastated by war, natural disasters, or health epidemics from being deported. These countries have also been devastated by decades of U.S. government intervention, creating desperate conditions that spark mass migrations. source

This story of an Ugandan asylum-seeker gives a small glimpse of the cruel consequences of these “hardline” immigration policies, where vulnerable people are now trapped in a cycle of terror and torture. source

Taking on the myth that the Trump regime has not accomplished anything, here is a reality check on how fast the regime is moving to remake the judiciary by packing their judges into the lower appeals courts. “… the 12 regional appeals courts wield profound influence over Americans’ lives, getting the final word on about 60,000 cases a year that are not among the roughly 80 the Supreme Court hears.” source

Illegally and outrageously blocked a 17-year-old woman, “Jane Doe,” from obtaining an abortion she desires and has the right to acquire. Right now, she is on the verge of being forced to bear a child against her will (source).

• Stripped all references to climate in revised EPA websites that had previously provided crucial information about climate change. Some of these resources had been taken down in April to be “reflect EPA’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt.” The websites that have been put back up have been purged of essential knowledge and research – a further assault on the truth, science, and the planet. source
• Put a new face on its war on the media with Chief of Staff John Kelly, who used his own son’s death to elevate military service as the ultimate moral service, made a personal connection with military families a prerequisite for journalists asking questions, and evoked nostalgia for a time (pre-civil rights) when four things were sacred: women (in their traditional roles as wives and mothers), religion, “life,” and military families.  source  Here is one veteran calling this out for the bullshit it is. Veteran Answers John Kelly: No Blind Obedience to the War Machine.

Key parts of the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist base also made their own advances:

• Richard Spencer, determined to normalize white supremacist terror under the guise of free speech, forced an appearance the University of Florida Gainesville. The college paid $500,000 for security and Florida declared a state of emergency to lock down the campus, but protesters righteously resisted both inside and outside of Spencer’s talk. The Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer encouraged flash mobs to intimidate Jewish and non-white institutions in the Gainesville area. Three were charged with attempted murder after open firing into a crowd. source
• Georgia lawmaker Betty Price, wife of former Trump cabinet member Tom Price, made a “provocative and rhetorical comment” — she asked if people with HIV should be quarantined. These provocative and rhetorical comments are how genocidal ideas gain legitimacy. source
• Former White House strategist and Breitbart fascist Steve Bannon gave a disturbing speech at the California GOP convention that laid out a strategy for a fascist take-over of California, the bluest of blue states. He outlined a united front of libertarians, “populists” (fascists), economic nationalists (America first xenophobes), and evangelical Christians was necessary for defeating liberalism, and decried a lack of urgency for fully consolidating fascism.((source)

And for further reading, why comparing a lying Trump to a lying Hitler is absolutely appropriate, this column by Charles Blow: Trump Isn’t Hitler but the Lying

Updated 10-18-17

• Threatened to pull aid out of Puerto Rico and blamed Puerto Ricans for  structural problems caused by brutal imperialist exploitation (source).The ongoing neglect of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, and these latest threats, would lead to a genocide of Puerto Rican people (source). The actual numbers of storm-related deaths in Puerto Rico are likely much higher than the official reports (source).
• Solicited proposals from private prison companies for a new 1000-bed detention facility in South Texas “Detention Alley.” “Trump’s promised expansion of the detention system represents a boon to the private prison industry … and portends a continued focus on interior actions such as the ICE raids in Austin in February that sparked controversy because more than half of the 53 immigrants arrested had no criminal history.” (Source).
• Signed an executive order scrapping subsidies to ACA providers that help low-income people afford healthcare. In the eyes of this fascist regime, those who can’t afford healthcare don’t deserve to live. In effect, this isn’t much different from the eugenics programs of the Nazis. (Source)
• Joined and saluted leaders of white supremacist and Christian fascist hate groups at the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. (source) and rallied around myths of Western Christian victimhood and a supposed war on Christmas (source).
• “Joked” about Mike Pence wanting to hang all gay people. This was reported in a New Yorker article aptly titled “The Danger of President Pence.”  We agree that the Christian fascist Pence is just as dangerous as the White Supremacist fascist Trump, which is why the whole regime needs to go ( source).

Updated 10/12

1. Made “hard-line” demands for a DACA deal with Democrats, essentially using 800,000 Dreamers as a bargaining chip in an overall package of ethnic cleansing of immigrants – building the border wall, deportations of children, penalties for sanctuary cities, new immigration laws limiting asylum or family reunification. (Source)
2. Staged an incident to escalate the vitriol and threats against NFL players taking a knee. Mike Pence walked out of a Colts-49’ers game after several players kneeled during the National Anthem. (Source) ESPN caved to pressure from Trump and suspended commentator Jemele Hill for posting on her own Twitter account that Donald Trump is a white supremacist. Jemele Hill has defended the right of players to protest. (Source).
3. Escalated the level of U.S. threats on North Korea and Iran, ratcheted up lies about Iran, and continued personal insults aimed at North Korea’s ruler (and Trump’s own Secretary of State) to the point that right wing Republican Senator Bob Corker said Trump is setting the United States “on the path to World War III.”  When asked about that by a reporter, Trump didn’t deny this but replied “We’re on the path right now, believe me.” (Source). And Trump unleashed a furious set of rants, personal insults and threats against Corker.
4. In Charlottesville, white supremacists emboldened by Trump’s embrace of them as “fine people,” after one of them murdered an anti-fascist protester, held another Klan-style torchlight rally. (Source).
5. Instituted an even worse travel ban, which now indefinitely bars most travel from 6 Muslim majority countries along with North Korea and Venezuela. (Source). Protests to Muslim Ban 1.0 were righteous, but if Muslim Ban 2.0 and now 3.0 are at least as bad (and they are!), how is that tolerable? Relying on just fighting these bans through the courts has turned out to be a disastrous strategy.
6. Issued an FBI report that invents the term “Black Identity Extremism”, and says this “extremism” has “spurred an increase in premediated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence.” These lies have ominous implications. (Source).
7. Threatened to revoke NBC’s broadcast license for reporting that Donald Trump told several leading members of his national security team that he wants a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and for revealing that Trump’s Secretary of State called him a “moron.” NBC is standing by their story. Trump tweeted “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” (Source).

Updated Oct 5, 2017

In just the past few days, the Trump/Pence fascist regime has:

• Rescinded a policy that protects transgender people from discrimination.
  This is the wake of reversing guidance that protects transgender students… arguing at the Supreme Court in favor of a Christian baker who refused a wedding cake to a gay couple… and arguing in court against protections against discrimination against gay workers. https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/jeff-sessions-just-reversed-a-policy-that-protects
• Gutted the requirement that employers pay for birth control. “The Trump Administration is forcing women to pay for their boss’s religious beliefs,” said ACLU senior staff attorney Brigitte Amiri, in a statement.
  http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/10/06/555970210/trump-ends-requirement-that-employer-health-plans-pay-for-birth-control
• Lied about fetal development to advance a federal abortion ban. The bill, which refers to the fetus as “unborn child,” reads as a piece of pro-life propaganda…
  https://qz.com/1092495/trent-franks-bill-to-ban-abortion-at-20-weeks-is-based-on-fake-science/
• Threatened that this may be the “calm before the storm” ominously threatening military action against North Korea or Iran… or beyond.
  http://people.com/politics/president-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-meeting/ 
  http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/06/politics/president-donald-trump-iran-nuclear-congress/index.html
• In state after state, Republicans are moving rapidly and radicially to disenfranchize people of color, immigrants, students and others to lock in a permanent Republican majority in congress and choosing a president. In Florida, officials moved 46,000+ voters in Tampa alone to “inactive” status in the first six months of this year (Tampa is the key swing district in the state). In Alabama, they’ve re-instated what is in effect a poll tax – the infamous tool used for decades to deny Black people the right to vote in the South…
  http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/yes-floridas-pool-of-voters-is-shrinking-heres-why/2339911
  http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/too_poor_to_vote_how_alabamas.html