The oil cartel in the US, the billionaires and the gas/oil industry who gave Trump billions of dollars for his election, totally ignore the pollution and the threat to the planet as long as they dominate and make their petro dollars.
We are in the OIL WARS
By Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change
The oil wars are both regional and global. While the focus is on Iran with attacks from the US/Israel, Trump continues to support fossil fuels by ignoring the fact that the US is the world’s largest polluter of CO2 caused by fossil fuels and the release of methane gas. The US, purportedly does not have enough money to provide our needy citizens with the SNAP food program or Medicare and Medicaid. Instead the Trump regime is spending billions of dollars a day to fund the oil wars, especially against Iran. Recent polls show that the majority of American voters oppose war with Iran.
Background: As a global source for oil Iran ranks third. Saudi Arabia, second—Trump and its leaders are buddies. First with the largest oil reserves in the world is Venezuela. The recent kidnapping of Venezuela’s Madura and essential takeover of the country was about getting access to their oil.
The oil cartel in the US, the billionaires and the gas/oil industry who gave Trump billions of dollars for his election, totally ignore the pollution and the threat to the planet as long as they dominate and make their petro dollars.
Their rank-smelling greed is summed up by saying “There is no Planet B.” There is no contingency plan to save the planet as long as oil is king. Under Trump’s so-called presidency pollution has increased.
No Kings? We need to dethrone oil as king, to reverse the use of fossil fuel/oil and bring down Trump’s oil regime. Much more is at stake, the future of the planet is at stake.
The links between oil and the climate crisis are manifest whether you look at Iran and the Middle East or Venezuela in South America. Trump and his minions are dead set on destroying not only American democracy with authoritarian neo-fascism but on destroying the planet earth with their greed for world domination and money.
The Current War with Iran
Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz through which one fifth or 20 percent of the world oil supply passes (as well as many other essential materials). Iran has blocked the Strait.
Jeffrey Sachs on Democracy Now! explains how the US/Israel war is illegal under the charter of the United Nations and in direct defiance of international law. He condemns Trump in no uncertain terms as a liar who is provoking WWIII. Netanyahu does not have the power under the charter to declare war but has done so anyway.
Trump is convinced that military power is the solution. Murdering innocent civilians in Iran as they have in bombing the country has forced many Iranians to leave their homes for refuge as the death toll escalates daily.
Can we stop them? Military force will ultimately fail to bring peace, as it always does in the long run, because it carries the seeds for the next war; in the current case of Iran it also carries the threat of WWIII,
While many may not agree with the form of Iranian government, which is authoritarian, Iran has a right to sovereignty and to not become a neo-colonial state under the thumb of the US, as, for example, Venezuela and other countries now have.
The global nature of these oil wars has now expanded to making Russian oil available with the Trump regime releasing the ban on its use by allied nations or nations under US control; we hope, as does rest of the world, those weapons will not be used anywhere no matter what country has them. Both Trump and Netanyahu have been called insane by what many are calling a US provoked war that is being called unnecessary.
The “apocalyptic” chess game between the superpowers, that is, between those that move on the highest plane of our civilization, is being played according to the rule “if either ‘wins’ it is the end of both”; it is a game that bears no resemblance to whatever war games preceded it. Its “rational” goal is deterrence, not victory, and the arms race, no longer a preparation for war, can now be justified only on the grounds that more and more deterrence 1s the best guarantee of peace.
To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.
—Hannah Arendt, On Violence
Is there an answer? The US, claiming military superiority with both conventional and nuclear power with Trump’s hyper-militarism has been using military superiority as a threat for a long time, but now especially under Trump. Iran has dared to challenge that threat. We are now facing the dilemma and the insanity of the arms race in reality again. Trump has foolishly systematically withdrawn from or refused to renew the international treaties that were some protection.
Here is an assessment on March 20th by Heather Cox Richardson of the status of the ongoing US/Israeli war, which changes daily as Trump continues his lies and waffles back and forth in his approach about what has been called a planless war by many sources. But really the oil wars are for US homogeny for unilateral US control of global oil and for the war industry that also reaps great profits from the wars.
If the Trump regime continues they will destroy the planet earth.
If the threat of nuclear war or even of WWIII is prevented another threat that is related is being ignored: Trump’s regime is a March to Armageddon of a different sort. Already the slow march has begun with the melting of the polar ice cap, the flooding of coastal cities, and with ferocious storms, pollution of the air with fossil fuels, of the water with PFAS chemicals like tritium and the building of data centers that overuse of our limited water supply, of the land with copper mining (see the fight to save the Boundary Waters), and not the least by the environmental destruction caused by wars, the manufacture and use of weapons, and of expansion of nuclear reactor energy plants that pollute both land and water with radioactivity and chemicals. Plastic, also an oil product, is also polluting not only our land and seas but has been found in human bodies, including newborns.
Most obvious, of course, is the extensive military use of CO2 air-polluting carbon from ground transportation and the worst offender, jet planes, along with the release of deadly methane gas. These are the Oil Wars.
Can we stop them? Again that question. So if not with military force then what is called for: A global movement by the people of all nations to hold their governments accountable. Even if no nuclear weapons are used—and we hope and pray they will not be—and the oil–agarchy continues the planet earth will be destroyed.
As always in wars it is the people who suffer most, the ordinary citizens who have no way to defend themselves as now in Gaza/Palestine, as in the Ukraine, as in Somalia, which the US regularly bombs, and via Israel the bombing of Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar. And Trump wants Congress to authorize billions more for Israel to fund his oil wars and the power drive for global homogeny.
The talk about nuclear weapons keeps us in the warp of FEAR so Trump can play the STRONG MAN who will take care of us, a “savior” in what is a common tactic by fascists. Instead he is spending billions of our tax dollars on war.
One comment I had on Facebook was “Trump will take care of it. ” A chilling thought that people actually believe that he can take care of everything.
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In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media.Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.
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A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others.
We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and are making plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more to fill the detention centers they are building all over the country.
Sue Ann Martinson, Editor
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
can transform the world.” — Howard Zinn
The unprecedented ICE surge has the hallmarks of an occupation in some neighborhoods, as masked and heavily armed agents drive around in large SUVs, tussle with protesters and observers, and break into people’s cars and houses to make arrests. —Axios
By Susu Jeffrey / Original to Wings of Change / March 2, 2026
What an honor when The Nation nominated Minneapolis for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize! The initial butterfly-in-the-stomach thrill dissipated with the thought of what President Trump would do (next) if we got his award. The revenge-dealing, super bully apparently stays awake imagining schemes on his social media site while we make new signs for the next NO KINGS demonstration and grocery lists for shut-in neighbors.
NO HATE, NO FEAR! IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE! In Minneapolis hard times make good neighbors.If we want to eat tomatoes or reroof our buildings we need to pay local people willing to do the work. The law of economics requires low wage, compliant workers in Minneapolis like every other American city. We need childcare, eldercare, healthcare, farm workers, meat packers, independent restaurants and all the oil that lubricates western society where the dream of a richer future is the hook.
The Americana rainbow of Minneapolis is like “Eat Street,” (Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street) where Alex Pretti was shot to death by federal agents. My favorite restaurant is across the street from the people’s Alex Pretti memorial. They serve Vietnamese pho soup and cream cheese wontons or you could go donuts-coffee and local bands, Mexican, Vietnamese-French-bread sandwiches, Greek, Middle East, Malaysian, pizza or burgers and fries. Minneapolis has the population of a stew, a toothsome mix of ingredients harmonizing in one pot.
Why Minneapolis?
Why did President Trump decide to sic ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Control (Customs and Border Control) on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul? Minnesota is the state that ranks 28th among the 50 United States hosting “illegal aliens”? Trump has a perfect zero political success rating here; he does not study history (for example George Floyd) and he has difficulty separating his ego from reality.
Since the 1934 truckers strike where two people were shot dead by zealous enforcers (sound familiar) the Minneapolis model of citizen support for everyday people’s rights has echoed across the nation. The appalling executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti caused Gov. Tim Walz to label the president’s agents “untrained, aggressive” and noted that Trump “picked the wrong state to make an example of.” (CBS nightly news). This comment from the vice-presidential candidate who charmed his way through the 2024 campaign like a fatherly and practical human being who doesn’t lie.
Part of the Minneapolis social scene is political activism. Minneapolis-based peace groups were associated with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Campaign to Ban Landmines and the 2017 prize to ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Furthermore Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation. The midterm elections are coming up in November this year. Statistically the president’s party loses congressional seats in the midterms.
Since December 1, 2025, the 3,000 Gestapo agents of Operation Metro Surge made 4,000 arrests (they had a 2,000 per day quota) which the existing incarceration and judicial systems could not process. Among the innocent victims were two Native American children (to which rez would they be extradited), 5-year-old Liam Ramos in his blue bunny hat, and an Asian man wearing handcuffs, boxer shorts and plastic slip-on shoes in minus 9-degree weather who lived in a house formerly occupied by a man already in prison.
ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Good Self-Deports
Jonathan Ross and his second wife
Image: Daily Mail
Masked agents move household items from the Ross home. Image: Daily Mail
Agent Ross, 43, of Chaska, Minnesota, an upscale southwest Minneapolis suburb, fled his half-million-dollar home with his family after shooting Renee Good to death on January 7. He was quickly identified. Two nights after Ross killed Renee Good a Special Response Team in masks was seen removing boxes including electronics and family photos from Ross’s home. Ross told neighbors he was a biologist. Neighbors described him as a hardcore MAGA supporter. His father labelled him a “conservative Christian.”
The last words Renee Good spoke was to tell Ross “I’m not mad at you” while he circled her car making a video. Then there were shots and Ross is heard saying “f—ing bitch.”
Renee as captured by Ross’s camera just before he executed her. Image Wikipedia
“They had guns. We had whistles,” said Renee Good’s widow.
On the night of February 17 the Renee Good sidewalk flower bedecked memorial between 33rd and 34th Streets on Portland Avenue South was sprinkled with gasoline and set afire. A volunteer night guard discouraged the arson vandals, preventing damage from spreading.
National Public Radio’s 1A program (1-1-2026) noted the frequency of the president’s people “ignoring judicial orders. The Trump administration doesn’t follow laws they don’t like.”
So pooh-pooh to the laws of God and the State. Still, most of us await the arrests of Jonathan Ross and Texas-based Border Patrol agents Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Raymundo Gutierez, 35, for the first-degree murders (intentional killing) of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
What is To Be Done?
Vote.
ICE’s budget has metastasized from $10 billion to $85 billion. “They have the kind of budget you would give to a standing army to fight an actual war,” David Miller wrote on Facebook. Miller advocates “neighborism.”
Congress controls the budget, “the power of the purse.” Congress can also impeach. Trump was impeached twice during his first term.
First Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection” of the January 7th rebellion in and around the Capitol building which was thoroughly filmed. However our 100 U.S. senators failed to reach the required 66 votes getting just 57 votes for inciting an insurrection.
Then the state of Georgia impeached Trump for his post-election interference: “I just want to find 11,780 votes….” But that effort was dismissed by the Department of Justice policy of avoiding to prosecute a sitting president.
On January 28, 2026, the FBI seized those 2020 ballots from the Biden/Trump Fulton County Georgia elections warehouse even though they had been counted and recounted three times, by hand and by machine. Trump’s inability to accept his failed reelection bid bodes ill for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. It is a nutter world when black and white paper proof translates into Alice in Wonderland technicolor.
In reality it’s another practice run by Trump at not believing our lying eyes. Here are the videos, here are the ballots. Minnesota is a voting state. Voting is a form of neighborism.
It feels good to vote, especially in overwhelming numbers, and you get one of those little red I VOTED stickers.
Voting feels like I-AM-DOING-SOMETHING:
I AM — SOMEBODY (A chant made famous by Jesse Jackson)
It is the next step after 100,000 people marched against Operation Metro “Siege.” The crowd was so dense an American flag-carrying friend said it almost felt claustrophobic.
The comb-overs, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, plan to divide up the world with their bombs and guys in masks with guns. Look again at those old men hiding their shiny pates, white-knuckled trying to hold onto their fictions. America has been multicultural since the Vikings and the Conquistadores invaded. What would baseball be without immigrants?
George Floyd, Renee Good, Alex Pretti
George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin put him in prison for 22.5 years and that was for “unintentional” murder, murder two. The murder one, intentional killings using three bullets for Renee Good and nine or ten bullets to execute Alex Pretti are proof of intention.
“Democracy is stronger than fear,” says Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman, who survived an eight-bullet assassination attempt. Hoffman has just returned to his seat in the state capitol.
Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
Wings invites you to subscribe. To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change
In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media. Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.
Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others.
We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and are making plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more to fill the detention centers they are building all over the country.
Sue Ann Martinson, Editor
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
can transform the world.” — Howard Zinn
My partner, an immigrant from Brazil, shows love through acts of service. At first, I was confused. I had been raised to see romantic love, partner love, as centered on acts of adoration, big and intense actions designed to make me, the beloved, feel exceptional. My partner, who is romantic but not in that way, finds this focus on exceptional love confusing. She bonds with other immigrants on the strangeness of the adoration economy, sharing stories of childhoods where love was pragmatic, not gilded. My feminist self took an embarrassingly long time to feel the depth of love embedded in my partner doing my laundry or putting together a new shelf for my office. I grew up with the acts-of-service kind of love but my family didn’t describe it as love. It was about duty. And survival.I think about all of this, sitting in my Minneapolis home, reading essay after essay about the mutual aid and collective care that is everywhere on these streets. Some of the reporting is laced with the tinsel of adoration: Minneapolis is exceptional! Better than anyone! No one else is like this!!! I want to reach out and grab the authors by the pen and say, Hey, that isn’t what this is. Please don’t exceptionalize us. This is a steadiness of love as caring for your neighbor, love as meeting the material needs of someone nearby. There is nothing new or fancy or romantic about it. It’s just love. Junauda Petrus, poet laureate of Minneapolis, said it beautifully — and off-handedly — to me during a recent phone call:
“What people are vibing off of right now is getting to know each other, spending time together. For a lot of folks, this isn’t how they were raised. Or they were raised like this and they forgot. They have forgotten how to meet each other, to just spend time with each other — not as people who agree on everything but as people who are just part of the same thing. In the [Twin] Cities, we’re building a technology of togetherness.”
In writing this piece, I thought about what would help people in my communities to feel seen and what might help those living elsewhere to have clear examples of what we are doing here. I called a range of beloveds, all of them doing so much, and some of them unable to leave their homes and benefiting from the care being spread around, and asked them this: Would me interviewing you for an essay be nourishing or would it feel like another thing you have to cross off your list? And some people said, “Ouch, not this week,” or “No, we are being targeted too much and it feels scary,” or “I love you, Susan, but god, I am tired.” And they said things like, “If you need it, I will make it happen,” and I got to say back to them, “No, beloved, it’s ok. I got you. You got me. That’s how it works.”
Acts of Service and Mutual Aid Sustain Minneapolis as It Remains Under Assault
Not everything happening in Minneapolis is new. All of this care builds on the relationships already in place. My friend Hannah (who is using a pseudonym to protect her mutual aid network) said that even before “Operation Metro Surge,” some parents were already taking turns bringing children to school and having conversations with teachers and school staff about school safety.
“In October, when things started to get scary, we — the parents at our kid’s school — set up a Google Voice number and email and got the school admin to informally connect us with parents who needed help with rides for their children and groceries,” Hannah said. “It started small and then it grew. Now there are 88 families, or 106 students — a fifth of the school population — that we are supporting. About 40 of those kids, the ones still attending school in person, get rides to and from school from 30 different drivers made up of parents and neighbors and grandparents…. We have patrols who watch drop-in time, end of day pick-up, recess, and special events, and they call an alert when ICE is spotted nearby, which happens too often.”
And the community isn’t just coming together around school and student safety.
“We have set up grocery and food shelf deliveries. We have someone helping with Delegation of Parental Authority forms for just in case a parent is kidnapped and their child is left behind. We also have a lawyer who can file habeas petitions. There are seniors at a nearby assisted living facility who do the laundry for those sheltering in their homes,” Hannah said. “There are rent funds and funds for bills that sometimes include paying for bonds and legal fees. We have a doctor who can do medical house calls and we are connected with a group of vets who can help people with their pets.”
Violet (who is using a pseudonym to protect herself) is a nurse who mostly works with prenatal and postnatal patients through a community clinic. She said that the old lines that defined professionalism have shifted dramatically: “I had never called people from my personal cell phone before. I had never been to their houses. I’m not supposed to work outside of the clinic.” She is part of the vast network of health care workers finding ways to shift their systems so that institutional care is more accessible, and showing up outside of that institutional care to make sure patients have what they need.
“My adult daughter has been helping, packaging up food and driving with me for deliveries. This means she sees patient names and addresses — all of the things we aren’t supposed to do,” Violet said.
“I know there’s professional risk here, but every person I know cares more about making sure that we are doing this in a way that keeps our neighbors safe. That is why we are here. Every other risk just seems so inconsequential.”
I talked with another dear one about the relationship between patrols and neighborhood care, how they are overlapping circles that each inform the other. Jamie Schwesnedl from Moon Palace Books talks about how these acts of service are woven together in a lot of families. In his case, he explained that he takes on rapid response and patrol duties while his partner delivers groceries and other supplies that have been delivered to Moon Palace, a neighborhood site for supply drop-off.
And still, he reflects, the lines between rapid response and mutual aid are blurrier than you would think:
“My partner is able to receive deliveries like groceries and diapers at the bookstore and then be available for people who come to do pick-up, checking their names against the spreadsheets and ensuring that everyone is who they say they are. Our front counter has become a free zone for whistles, signs, and flyers, and people coming to get groceries to deliver also pick up whistles. When I am on patrol, I drop things off between places, change light bulbs, or carry boxes, or plunge toilets, or pick up things people have dropped off to bring to a patrol meeting or some other form of neighborhood organizing. I don’t deliver anything for those sheltering in place during this time, but there are deliveries needed to support the people on patrol who are facing down ICE. Any time I leave home, I have an eyewash water bottle for pepper spray, bullhorns, and snacks and hand warmers.”
“Different families,” he said, “split up acts of service in different ways and everyone is careful to protect those targeted by ICE.”
This Love Isn’t Exceptional — It’s Just Love
It is a dangerous idea that any one person has to carry everything on their shoulders. We take turns. A teacher of mine once said to me: Never underestimate who might be willing to show up when things are tough. Who we are in moments of crisis and struggle is not always the same as who we are in easier times.
And people around us are not always who we think they are. Ojibwe writer Marcie Rendon told me the story of one of her neighbors, a person who flies the American flag and has red, white, and blue bunting on their house all year round. Somewhat reclusive, everyone assumed that this older white man was a right-leaning person, but really, she said, he’s just someone from rural Minnesota who loves his country, loves the flag, and hates what is happening. He came to one of the block meetings and people were surprised. Now he is just one of the many showing up in the neighborhood.
Everyone I interviewed for this piece, and the six people who said “no,” and the 15 people whose names I wrote down but then didn’t reach out to because I ran out of time, is beloved to me. Intimate and known. And there are so many more — people I will never meet and who are more than two degrees removed from the hundreds I do know and they are protecting their communities as well.
When I look away from my to-do lists and Signal threads and worries about those I know and those I don’t, when I take a moment to exhale, I keep seeing this beautiful web being woven in Minnesota: not with new materials but with wisdom that was already here. When I stop, I can feel this net with my hands, this connection when I am on patrol and we pass that group of three on the corner of Cedar and Lake, this connection as I see someone who I know pull boxes of baby formula out of their trunk, look left and right, and then head over to a drop-off point.
This is not romantic love, not some kind of exceptionalism that wants to put everything in bright lights and roses. No, we are all the same people as we were last year. Some folks need to be the main character of every story, white saviorism is real, Black beloveds have to watch as those who did not show up in these kinds of numbers when George Floyd was murdered show up now, and each of these little pods of neighbors organizing legal aid and groceries do not always have access to their best selves. We are real people in real time, and these are acts of service and they are a form of love, but it is not exceptional love. It is just love.
I remember this very old fishing net someone showed me years ago, guiding my fingers to feel where the net had been repaired over and over again, like scars in the fibers that strengthen rather than break. ICE is sharp like knives, nicking and sometimes shoving and tearing through this connected set of scars and fresh material. There are wounds, this is violence, and some of you are being stopped on the road because of how you are perceived and I am not being stopped and none of this is ever okay… and still, I feel the pull and tug of a net that is larger than anything I have experienced before. Is there anyone in these cities not showing up in some way? I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone with words other than: How can I help?
There is a net and it has always been here, it is always here. This is not exceptional. There is nothing new here. All that is happening in Minnesota is that some of the confusion is fading and what is visible is the link and weave and stumble and steady between us. May we keep repairing it as it frays, from those outside and from the rising tension we hold within, and may this net grow with wisdom and may bodies tired of holding themselves up alone someday feel like they can relax into the steady certainty of something much bigger than the size of their skin.
This love is not exceptional. It is the acts-of-service kind of love. The kind of love that says to your neighbor: Let us take care of each other. I am going to remember you. It’s the kind of love that says: This, this is how we survive. Together.
Susan Raffo is a writer and bodyworker living in Mni sóta Makoce, Minneapolis. You can find out about her work at www.susanraffo.com.
Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
Wings invites you to subscribe. To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change
In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media. Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.
Join us on Wings of Change. We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more.
Sue Ann Martinson, Editor
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
can transform the world.” — Howard Zinn
What it is: A time of intense violence and fear, often by a ruling group against its own people.
A “Reign of Terror” is a period of extreme violence and political repression where those in power use fear, mass arrests, and executions to eliminate perceived enemies and enforce control [as] famously seen during the French Revolution when thousands were guillotined for opposing the revolutionary government. It’s characterized by arbitrary trials, paranoia, and the suppression of rights to maintain power and revolutionary ideals.
(Definition GoogleAI)
Unlike the French Revolution when the ruling elite (aristocracy) were guillotined by the revolutionaries, in the US those being oppressed are in opposition to an authoritarian neo-fascist takeover and support immigrant rights and condemn the presence of ICE agents making arrests and putting people in unsafe and often inadequate of even the most basic needs such as clean water. Often they are beaten and abused as well. Many are then deported to their country of origin or sometimes to a country they are not familiar with at all. American citizens are sometimes arrested as well.
The policies that support aggression internationally and backed by hyper-militarism with a goal of world domination characterized by neo-colonialism pursued by the Trump regime are opposed.
Building a Reign of Terror at Home and Abroad
In recent years the hot wars and bombings are conducted by proxies as in Ukraine and some African countries, and in Palestine/Gaza while financially supported by the US. The war against Venezuela is now a hot war with the recent bombing and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife. This escalation is of concern worldwide as it signals the intent of Trump and his administration to move into a hot-war mode.
Trump’s reign of terror against people within the United States is not always a literal bloody one. Trump’s assault on the United States continues in several forms.
Bruce Springsteen sums up well the travesties of the Trump administration as millions step forward to save Democracy. MEGA? I think not.
Instead for the Trump regime it means pursuing worldwide hegemony and empire in a new neo-colonialism that robs the resources of other countries and puts money into the coffers of multinational corporations with no conscience and where the only Green revolution acceptable is the US dollar. At the same time the Trump administration is attacking America as Springsteen’s video enumerates its many crimes against humanity and the American people.
Climate Crisis
While other countries worldwide are creating new innovations to reduce the results of human-created climate change by the greedy, the US moves backward into promoting fossil fuel and remains the largest polluter of fossil fuel (CO2) worldwide with its over 1000 military bases. The claim is that the US is second to China in CO2 pollution, but that is only the territorial United States and does not include the worldwide bases.
In a vicious circle the polluting of military bases relates to the mistaken hyper-military buildup of the US that leads to the US government’s domination by oil and gas industry and also the weapons industry. The bombing of Venezuela and the attempt to take it over is all about oil of course. To remind you, Venezula has the largest oil resources in the WORLD. US-based multinational corporations like Chevron, Citco, and more have been lusting after it for years.
In the meantime, in the US energy costs increase and Trump tries to destroy any other energy source, no matter how Green, such as the turbine windmills on the East Coast he has had shut down as part of the reign of terror inside our country, as fossil fuel and CO2 prevail, threatening our planet.
Google AI: DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in education is facing significant challenges, with numerous state laws banning DEI offices, trainings, and curriculum, alongside federal actions from the U.S. Education Department and Justice Department targeting related programs, leading to college restructuring, funding cuts, and legal battles over free speech and equity initiatives. This wave of anti-DEI efforts aims to curtail efforts supporting marginalized students, sparking debates about educational access, inclusion, and the future of campus diversity initiatives.
Much of the resistance began on college campuses such as Columbia University with students protesting genocide in Palestine/Gaza. In a weaponization of antisemitism these students were punished for their opposition to genocide and their college administrations were told their federal funding would be cut under the auspices of the Trump administration if they did not shut the student protests down. Academic freedom and freedom of speech were debated and questions raised, but most college administrations caved to the Trumpites because losing the federal funding for research and other programs seemed too much. Essentially they were blackmailed. (I thought that was against the law.)
Only Harvard, with a huge endowment, held out. With the court cases going back and forth between Harvard and the Trump administration, on January 5, 2026 a ruling considered favorable to Harvard was issued regarding research expenses. The ruling may prove important for other colleges as well.
Healthcare and Social Security
The reign of terror also includes the planned cutting of Medicare and Medicaid and shutting down of Obama Care. Ridiculously high rates proposed for healthcare hover around us. Serious cuts to social security are also being proposed.
Immigrant Rights and the Creation of ICE
Where is all this money from the cuts going? In great measure to fund ICE and into the pockets of corporations and billionaires, including the president’s family. Meanwhile the news is saying 500,000 immigrants have been detained or deported although the worst crime of many was getting a parking ticket, or maybe it was a headlight out on a car. Modeled after the Nazi Gestapo, ICE so far has operated with impunity, arresting people off the street or even invading schools and other public areas. These arrests often involve unnecessary violence on the part of the ICE agents.
It is the kind of thing happening to immigrants nationwide, these so-called criminals. Some hold green cards, others are US citizens. They clean our office buildings and hotels, work in construction, all kinds of jobs. Some own shops, are small business owners, and in one way or another contribute to the economy.
Are they taking jobs away from US citizens? Probably not, because all those disgruntled workers, many men who support Trump, don’t do those jobs anyway, or if they do their whiteness gives them priviledge. I don’t like to say it, but even with the gains in feminism, women are used to getting short-shrift with lower wages and being discriminared against in jobs although clearly there has been progress with women who are governors, legislators, managers, heads of departments, etc.
Making America Great Again translates into one simple goal: white male supremacy. Not all men are falling for that, of course, but some still just don’t get it. Why suddenly are they no longer supreme no matter what? Between feminism and DEI they feel attacked.
Women’s Rights
Men traditionally have been taught that they are superior to women in brain power and at performing most jobs. Although that is not true as women have proved their equality in many areas again and again although men have ruled the roost. The shadow of this belief still hangs over us. I am old enough that I remember it, suffered from it.
For example, I was talking to a young helper I had and mentioned to her that women could not get charge cards at stores; they had to be in their husband’s or father’s name. She was flabbergasted.
Similarly, women could not dine in certain restaurants such as the Oak Room in Dayton’s Department Store. Until women broke that taboo, too.
Even as I was effected by discrimination, I also benefited from white supremacy. I could always find a job, even if only a job that was part of shuffling women into low-paying clerical-type work.
These may seem like small things in what was a major women’s revolution, but they illustrate what is part of a larger picture.
Once a man about ten years younger complained to me that his girlfriend was going to a meeting at which no men were allowed He was very hurt by that, having no idea of the centuries of that kind of treatment of women as they were also barred from professions such as doctors and lawyers, even managers, and more.
Trump has created a list of 66 organizations he is withdrawing from; 31 are part of the UN, including UN Women. Trump’s disdain for women is well known. If he is unhappy with men he does criticize them and cut them out of his favored advisors, but he attacks women verbally using disparaging and degrading language. He goes after reporters who ask him hard questions about the Epstein files, but other woman as well. For a number of years he has verbally abused Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar. Born in Somalia, she is of course a US citizen. He derides her for her political positions and her origins and religion in racist rants against her.
International Politics
The United States is now the main threat to the sovereignty of Nations. —David Miller
A short satirical poem about international politics, by Susu Jeffrey.
Let’s Be Consistent (a poem)
If Israel gets Palestine
then Russia gets Ukraine
and China gets Tiawan
and the U.S. gets Greenland.
Susu’s poem is not necessarily logical. Not much is now logical internationally, and Trump is anything but consistent. His vision is to go back to the unilateral domination of the world by the US which has been lost. These greedy men, with Trump at the top, want it all. They have a neo-colonial vision. MEGA. Much of the rest of the world is not in agreement. The battle for hegemony goes on, as does the struggle of nations to be sovereign. Trump and Company will not accept that US empire just is not predominant anymore. They think the way to retain their power and control is through a hyper-military, which uses massive amounts of oil/fossil fuel (CO2), and is destroying the planet, that vicious circle.
Trump’s inconsistency whether in foreign or domestic policy is very common. He often says one thing one day and the next day contradicts himself. Or he pardons a drug lord in a US prison while accusing Maduro of drug trafficking and also now attacking the president of Colombia for the same reason. He kept declaring at one time that the targeting of Venezuela was about sending drugs to the United States but immediately after the attack he declares it is all about oil, not drugs. On and on…
The bombing of Venezuela also serves as a distraction from the release of the Epstein files. Whether this timing was planned is unclear, but certainly is at mimimum specious.
Not only are peoples worldwide suffering, the current “ruling elite” and their cronies are attacking us, their own people, to satisfy their greed and their beliefs with their big egos; somehow they think they are superior to others, especially people of color. The evidence is definitely there in the history of the world, including present day ramifications: Genius does not belong to any one race or gender or any one nation. Intelligence does not belong exclusively to any race or gender or nation. Unfortunately, at the same time no race or gender in the history of the world lacks its villains or cruel people who crave and sometimes attain power.
On the Democracy Now! January 6, 2026 program Amy Goodman talks with Wall Street Journal reporter David Uberti in a three-part interview. Evidently in the year since Trump took office he has acquired $4 billion dollars for his family through Crypto. That us what is known, There may be more.
Data Centers
On January 6 Amy continues what is a three-part interview with David Uberti of the Wall Street Journal. The third segment is about Data Centers and AI. These Data Centers are being built across the country.
What are they? Google AI: A data center is a physical facility that houses an organization’s critical IT infrastructure, including servers, storage systems, and networking equipment. Essentially, data centers are the hardware backbone, and AI provides the software intelligence to optimize these facilities, creating a symbiotic, high-demand relationship.
Data Centers are controversial across the country because of their high energy use. Another threat is to water; these centers require water to cool them. From Google AI: “Data centers consume massive amounts of water, primarily for cooling servers, with large facilities using millions of gallons daily, comparable to towns of thousands of people, raising concerns in water-stressed areas.”
There are already at least 61 data centers in Minnesota. What is frightening is that several megacenters are being proposed for Minnesota. “With at least 10 planned, these Big Tech projects could consume as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.”
Some communities have succeeded in banning them or putting restrictions on them. Donald Trump is a great supporter of these AI and Data Centers. He is now talking about creating nuclear fusion to power both. While the technology has not yet been developed, he is setting up investments although a usuable product may be decades away. He has now banned individual states from exercising control over Data Centers in their states with an executive order.
Also of concern is their use of water. From Google AI: “Data centers consume massive amounts of water, primarily for cooling servers, with large facilities using millions of gallons daily, comparable to towns of thousands of people, raising concerns in water-stressed areas.”
Minnesota has a lot of water, more than many states. But that does not mean that water should be squandered. It is important to provide drinking water and water for recreation on the Boundary Waters and the many smaller lakes throughout the state, including in Minneapolis. The Mississippi River also starts in northern Minnesota and flows through Minneapolis/St. Paul. It is still an important route for transportation of goods on barges in addition to recreational uses.
David Uberti is predicting that Data Centers will be an important issue in the 2026 election because of their connection to the economy as they can create jobs and boost economies, particularly in rural areas. The question is at what cost to the environment.
Google AI:
Proposed National Moratorium:Over 230 environmental groups (including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth) have called on the U.S. Congress to pass a national moratorium on new data center construction.
Hyper-Militarism
One topic I have touched on but not addressed directly is Trump’s fascination with and glorification of militarism as the solution to everything. The Trump regime’s recent attacks on the boats off Venezula supposedly carrying drugs and the recent bombing and capture of President Maduro proves he can pick on small countries that have limited resources to resist. He can be the bully on the playground. He did not contact Congress, who are supposed by US law to be consulted for approval for all war; instead he contacted the oil barons, Congress is rightfully upset with him: another flagrant violation of the US Constitution.
Trump started building the military in his first term and has continued with vengeance in his second. Most recent is the passing of the trillion dollar bill for money for the military. Chris Hedges discusses what this means as he interviews veteran military political commentator William Hartung.
Chris Hedges: The historian Arnold Toynbee cites an unchecked rampant militarism as the key factor in the collapse of a civilization. This militarism disembowels a society. It fosters social breakdown, the rise of authoritarian governments and demagogues. It deforms a society until it is unable to respond to existential crises, in our case the climate crisis and a growing social inequality. The ruling elites, Toynbee warns, abandon the common good and become sycophantic appendages of oligarchs and a military machine that functions as a state within a state. The United States now spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military.
Trump’s hyper-militarism fits with the strong-man theory on the road to fascism and is related to creating fear.
FEAR
Building fear is one of the main attributes of neo-fascism. Once that fear is built, people look for a strong leader to “save” them. So Trump, although he is personally weak, has to put forth the strong-man image that Stephen Miller has chosen to glorify through hyper-militarism. He is going to Make America Great Again (MEGA). While Trump’s popularity is at an all-time low in the polls, and the myth of MAGA is fading, the reign of terror continues. And it expands after the DOGE cuts of essential jobs and of funding for essential services like FEMA nationally to the cutting of USAID internationally.
On Democracy Now! January 7, 2026 there are several excellent speakers, one addressing the attack on Venezuela and what that means for Latin American countries, especially Colombia. The next speaker discusses Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and what that means, particularly for NATO as Denmark a member., Greenland is a self-governing autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Another speaker represents the Inuit population of Greenland and their call for sovereignty. The final speaker is the author of a new book about the LA fires.
These informative speakers have a common theme: FEAR. Fear of bringing the world to the brink of and into war in their respective areas of expertise. In the case of Venezuela it has already resulted in a bombing, the dealth of at least 80 Venezuelan people and the abduction of a leader of a sovereign nation to get control of their resources, especially their oil. Each speaker made the connections of their particular topic to what that means nationally and internationally and expressed concern and fear of situations escalating or hampered by lack of resources due to the Trump administration cuts of programs such as FEMA for disaster relief.
Also included is a clip of Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s policy drivers, glorifying US military strength and how the rest of the world fears the US because of it. I don’t know what history books he has read. As far as I can see none, or he would know that ultimately the use of force in the history of the world always eventually leads to disaster. In the meantime it leads to the death of many innocent people as it did during both WWI and WWII and many wars that preceeded them and as it did in Vietnam and has in Ukraine and Palestine/Gaza. Somalia is also periodically bombed by the U.S. Yemen is another example.
Our Rogue governent under Trump is a government of death and destruction. It has not only continued policies that also were part of death and destruction under different US presidents, it has escalated them.
The attack on America, the flagrant violations of the US Constitution, has escalated exponentially from the abolishing of important agencies to the rise of ICE raids, especially in targeted cities, and the deportation of essential immigrant workers who are important to keeping the US economy functioning. That is, of course, part of the current reign of terror and the neo-fascism that characterizes the Trump regime.
We are manipulated into being afraid. For many it is the threatened cuts to social security, the cuts to programs that are essential to many Americans, such as Medicare and Medicaid, as SNAP (food to survive), and now child care for low-income families. If not affected by those cuts many working US citizens are seeing a significant rise in the cost of their healthcare, a doubling and tripling of rates.
All of these actions are part of the Trump regime’s reign of terror inside the United States and directed at US citizens. Trump’s propaganda then blames the Democrats, and targets Democratic states; Minnesota is one. California, also targeted, has many more more Electoral College votes than Minnesota, as well as more representatives in Congress. But it does not have Ilhan Omar, Somali-born representative for the 5th District in Congress, who Trump has consistently attacked for years. Now he is including the whole Somali population in Minnesota (most are naturalized citizens), which is the second largest group of Somalians in the world after Somalia itself. Trump has declared war on Minnesota where large populations of Hmong and Hispanics also live, especially in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul.
As I write this:
ICE in Minneapolis has crossed the line. On January 7, 2026: With Trump sending 2000 more ICE agents into Minnesota, in Minneapolis today a woman was shot and murdered by ICE. Although there has been violence by ICE agents before, no outright arbitrary shootings such as this naked travesty have previously occurred ln Minnesota. The woman was shot in the head through her car window as she was trying to trying to move her car out of the way. Her behavior was at no time violent.
The outright murder of Renee Nicole Good could be seen as an attempt to create FEAR in Minneapolitans and other Minnesotans if they continue to protest ICE’s presence. As Gov. Walz says in the related video from MeidasTouch below, do not give in to the hope of Trump and Kristi Noem for violence so they can send in the military.
Instead of Democrats vs, Republicans what is at stake is Democracy as Bruce Springsteen describes.Trump and his cronies ignore the Constitution.
Although the US Constitution may not always be perfect, it is still the law of the land and very much better than a fascist state. And so very much better than the reign of terror the Trump regime has inflicted upon US citizens and the world.
Coming back to Democracy Now!, I recommend viewing or listening to the very informative speakers on the January 7 program on democracy now.org or on YouTube, radio,or as a podcast They are also available individually as videos on YouTube.
Each if us continues what Roger Waters calls ‘steadfast perseverance’ in our own way, as do many around us, to oppose what is happening in the world, in the nation, and closer to home in our own world of Minnesota.
Today (January 10, 2026) I witnessed thousands gather in my neighborhood with NO FEAR even after the murder of Renee Good as we marched down Lake Street in Minneapolis. I drove through the traffic jam that preceeded the march as people gathered. I watched sidewalks full of people walk with determination and in collaboration and solidarity speak out with signs and with their walking bodies on another cold and windy day in Minneapolis.
Actions can speak louder than words. High above them an American flag flew from the Midtown building and as the wind unfurled the flag seemed to say these are my people and I am proud. It was a change from the shame I and others have so often felt when America exercises its neo-colonialism and disregard for so many people of the earth and for our own citizens, while other countries often hate the American flag.
As ICE haunts our streets we stand together in nonviolent protest against a tyrant, a Rogue regime creating a Reign of Terror. As others around the country join in protest of the murder of Renee Good and the invasion of our city and state we also stand with other cities that have been targeted and with our new neighbors who have become part of the fabric of America, We are all immigrants. We took the land from the Native Americans but now stand with them—Standing Rock, the pipelines Line 3 and now Line 5—as they stand with us.
I have always struggled to understand Robert Frost when he said “The land was ours before we were the land’s” from his poem The Gift Outright. But now I understand.
The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.
Frost recited this poem at John Kennedy’s presidential inauguration. Kennedy asked him to change the word ‘would’ in the last line to ‘will.’
America is still becoming,
Woody Guthrie
This Land is Your Land: Woody Guthrie many years after the American Revolution wrote a new song, what many call a national anthem instread of the Star Spangled Banner’s “bombs bursting in air.” Written during the great depession, it still stands as the land has claimed us.
First Verse
This land is your land, this land is my land From California to the New York island, From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters; This land was made for you and me.
Sixth Verse
As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.” But on the other side it didn’t say nothing. That side was made for you and me.
Seventh verse
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?
Eighth verse
Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.
Sue Ann
RELATED — One of many media responses to the shooting in Minneapolis with filmed clips from Kristi Noem, from a person living in the area, and from members of Congress in Washington DC, along with a response from Gov. Walz.
I have not discussed the role of the media in this Reign of Terror. It is a very important role and of course touches all else I have written here. Here is an revealing commentary from FAIR about the coverage of many mainstream corporate media responses to the video of the death of Renee Good that is a critique of the effect of much of their coverage that illustrates how they operate. They may not lie, but they often waffle the truth.
E-ICE (ICE crimes are documented everywhere; their purpose and violence are inexcusable)
A word about violence
I am reminded of the French Revolution when the “good guys” the revolutionaries, cut off the heads of the “bad guys” the aristocracy, in what was called the “reign of terror.” Bloody awful. The American Revolution consisted of many battles for a period of years and resulted in many deaths on both the British and American sides.
Now we have in true American fashion the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” For some Americans Trump is the “good guy” who is going to save America. For others of us, Trump and his cohorts if not the personification of evil, are definitely the “bad guys” who are trying to destroy the United States of America and democracy although they claim the opposite.
The unfortunate tradition of violence was brought to new depths of depravity in WWII. I won’t say by the Germans, but by the Third Reich. Now Trump and Co. practice cruelty and violence, whether in support of the Gaza genocide or by stripping Americans of rights and driving them toward and into poverty or by arresting, imprisoning, and deporting many recent immigrants. Those who resist have basically used nonviolent strategies and tactics. Nonviolence as a concept and a way of protest and revolution did not exist in coherent theory, policy. and action until the 20th century, with major credit to Gandhi.
The Nazi Brown Shirts, later the Gestapo, who considered themselves supposedly above the law as a terrorist police force, are seen as a precursor of ICE. Recently someone commented to me that she does not like to mention other national groups like the French or Germans or the British treatment of the Irish when referring to the genocide in Gaza as if it were somehow their fault. Any references should include the US. Violence and genocide are no stranger to the GOOD OLD USA lest we forget our shameful history. Hitler actually commented that he learned a lot of his techniques from the treatment by the US of native peoples.
Historical Evidence Overview (Google AI)
Yes, historical evidence and scholarly analysis indicate that Adolf Hitler and other Nazi officials studied and were inspired by US policies toward Native Americans and Black Americans, especially regarding racial law and the concept of territorial conquest.
Key points regarding this influence:
“Lebensraum” and Manifest Destiny: Hitler explicitly viewed the American westward expansion under “Manifest Destiny” as a successful model for Germany’s own quest for Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe. He often referred to the peoples of Eastern Europe as his “redskins” and saw the clearing of “natives” to make room for “racially pure” settlers as a precedent.
Quotes on Extermination: According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Toland, Hitler told his inner circle that his concept of concentration camps and the practicality of genocide owed much to his studies of U.S. and English history. He reportedly praised the efficiency of America’s extermination of “red savages” by starvation and uneven combat, and noted how the U.S. government forced Native Americans onto reservations where their populations rapidly declined due to disease and starvation.
Legal Discrimination: Nazi lawyers and scholars, including in the drafting of the Nuremberg Laws, closely studied American race laws, such as Jim Crow laws, anti-miscegenation laws, and race-based immigration restrictions, as models for disenfranchising and discriminating against Jewish citizens.
Popular Culture: Hitler was an avid reader and lifelong fan of the German novelist Karl May’s Western adventure novels, which heavily featured the “Indian wars” and a “noble savage” archetype. He recommended these books to his generals for tactical inspiration and saw them as an example of a “racially pure” (Aryan) people conquering a continent.
In essence, the user’s assertion aligns with significant historical evidence that Hitler drew parallels and practical inspiration from the US historical treatment of its indigenous populations as a blueprint for his own genocidal and expansionist ambitions.
Senator Wyden on the new trillion dollar defense bill
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who voted no on the defense spending bill, said, “I cannot support a bill that increases military spending by tens of billions of dollars and fails to include guardrails against Donald Trump and Hegseth’s authoritarian abuses.”
From Hannah Arendt
“The ‘apocalyptic’ chess game between the superpowers that is, between those that move on the highest plane of our civilization, is being played according to the rule ‘if either “wins” it is the end of both’; it is a game that bears no resemblance to whatever war games preceded it. Its ‘rational’ goal is deterrence, not victory, and the arms race, no longer a preparation for war, can now be justified only on the grounds that more and more deterrence is the best guarantee of peace. To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.” — Hannah Arendt, On Violence
There are now organizations like ICAN that before Trump and his cartel took over have taken huge steps internationally to ban nuclear weapons. But the Trumpites see only the military as a solution, when in reality it is the greatest threat to world peace. ICAN built the following UN treaty:
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
The TPNW was adopted at the United Nations by a majority of nations in July 2017 and entered into force on January 22, 2021. It is the first globally applicable treaty to categorically prohibit nuclear weapons and provides a framework for their verifiable and irreversible elimination.
Trump has removed the US from many international arms treaties just as he has removed US participation in prevention of climate change at the recent COP international UN conference about climate change and continued to promote the greatest polluter in the world, CO2, caused by fossil fuel that also drives the military with over 1000 military bases worldwide.
So what is next?
What new authoriarian or fascist tripe will be thrown at us by Trump and his administration? As the poet William Blake once said: “Enough! Or too much.” My AI interprets that as: “the power of imagination and challenging conventional morality.” Robert Reich in his most recent Coffee Klatch on Saturday, 12/27/2025 explores the idea that Trump’s excesses and authoritarian dictates have exposed the conventional morality we have been living under, accepting the status quo around racism, women’s oppression and rights, healthcare, housing, and other oppressive systems for so many Americans.
As the population if the United States has become more diverse and has many more shades of color, the white supremacists have lost their hold while at the same time they are losing their unilateral hemogeny in the world (collapse of empire) and are trying desperately to hold on.
Trump and his cartel think the solution is a superior military that has put us on the edge of more war, especially in Latin America and particularly Venezuela which has two strikes against it. One, it is a socialist country and therefore the opposite of capitalism’s greed in its idiology. Second, and not without significance even though the Trump administration denies it, Venezuela has the greatest reserve of oil in the world. Much of that oil is offshore, but still belongs to Venezuela.
Why is the oil so important? It sustains the military industrial complex and is essential for that hyper-military system that has those 1000 or so military bases worldwide. Those jets and other oil uses from US military bases alone are the greatest CO2 (fossil fuel) sources in the world. You say so what? But if you understand the climate crisis you know that they are destroying the planet with their use of fossil fuel. Yet Trump encourages fracking and major use of fossil fuels and supports the corporations that use them. That, of course, is in direct conflict with those of us who want to save the planet.
The gas and oil companies who economically control our government along with domination from other corporations, most especially including the weapons’ industry, which again is tied into the hyper-military.
So how are all those corporations, internationally those multinational corporations and the financial groups that support them going to make money?They desperately cling to their old and destructive ways. But that creates jobs, they say. But statistics have proved that turning to a green basis for the economy can create just as many if not more jobs. That scares them. Instead of changing their ways because they might lose their power and their money, they continue on the road to destruction instead if using their time and money for new innovations that could help save the planet.
US industry has lost its innovative edge. Daily I see that this or that country worldwide has created a new tool to deal with the climate crisis, and China is ahead of the US in the war against climate change. Instead the US is stagnated, caught in a MEGA web that serves no one except the rich while convincing too many Americans who are Trump supporters that there is no genocide in Palestine. Recent examples I have seen online include the Netherlands inventing a tubing they put in the ocean that collects plastic that they then process the plastic to prevent pollution. Other nations have built large areas of solar panels on flat land dedicated to solar power. In Morocco they have developed an inexpensive small solar panel that can be placed on their balconies. There are many more examples but you will not find them described in the mainstream corporate media.
“In the end there is no democracy without informed citizens, no justice without a language critical of injustice, and no change without a broad-based movement of collective resistance.”
—Henry Giroux
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Sometimes when I am writing a phrase from my literary background pops into my mind; I am not always sure why. This time it was William Blake’s “Enough! or Too much” from his “Proverbs of Hell” in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
New Year Musings: “Enough! or Too Much” By Sue Ann Martinson
I had been listening to comments from Robert Reich on the Coffee Klatch program on Saturdays that he does with cohost Heather Lofthouse. Reich is talking about the excesses in Trump’s authoritarian edicts and his behavior, the hate rants and racism, his narcissistic behavior as he wants his name on everything from the Kennedy Center to peace plans that never seem to work out, to his condemnation of anyone who disagrees with him or challenges him and what he says. He has, in effect, lost touch with reality and has taken Congress and the Supreme Court with him. Reich’s point is exactly what this proverb, the last of the Proverbs of Hell, represents: You Never Know What is Enough Unless You Know What is More than Enough.” Trump’s rantings and ravings are certainly more than Enough (or Too much), as are his inhumane and cruel actions.
Reich sees this beginning of a sea change as positive, a move toward sanity by the American people as they recognize Trump’s excesses in word and deed.
But like all Blake’s proverbs the application can be broader than the literary sphere: It applies also to Trump’s excesses revealed in their naked truth, which is what Reich understands and sees as a catalyst as cracks begin to show between the GOP Congress and Trump. More and more people also are signing on to oppose him, as reflected in the polls that rate him and his presidency at very low levels as increasing millions also join in the No King demonstrations.
In Minnesota, especially Minneapolis, Trump’s slurs about the Somali people and attacks on Representative Ilhan Omar have activated an already Woke community to take continued action — in what Roger Waters calls “steadfast perseverance” — by many activists, including religious groups as well as those who take to the streets to confront ICE regularly. Governor Walz has spoken out, as has the mayor of Minneapols Jacob Frye. Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined with Attorney Generals from other states as well in lawsuits. The Minneapolis City Council has declared Minneapolis a Sanctuary City.
Nor have we forgotten the genocide Gaza/Palestine as those actions and protests and educational programs continue as well.
Last, but certainly not least, 15,000 people marched down Lake Street in the center of the city on the cold and windy day of December 20, 2025 in protest of ICE.
ADDENDUM
Other Work by William Blake
Wm. Blake is known for his satirical poetry and the art he created that often accompanied it. An “activist,” he was once tried for sedition for an “anti-monarchy” statement but was acquitted. His activism is really through his writings. Blake’s most accessible and popular work is Songs of Innocence and Experience. Simply written, and illustrated by Blake, the poems reflect the warts on the face of English society and culture.
***Writers will want to read the following analysis by Tony Trigilio of the proverb under discussion, “Enough! or Too much,” for its insight into the writing process.
Like most writers, my creative process is rarely linear. It requires recursive movement between free-form generative writing and disciplined self-editing. This dance between drafting and revision can be a delicate one. If I linger too long in the generative stage of the process, I can find myself tangled in a free-associative clump of language with no shape or coherence. At the same time, if I linger too long in revision, I can easily get stuck, Prufrock-like, in a self-critical loop of “decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”
This movement back and forth between drafting and revision would be far more difficult if not for one of William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell,” from his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:
“You never know what is enough,” Blake writes, “unless you know what is more than enough.”
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The most common misconception about the free press of the western world is that it exists.
By Caitlin Johnstone, December 1, 2025
Every fu**ing time. The mass media do this every fu**ing time the US empire gets war-horny. And the Murdoch press are always the most egregious offenders.
Reminds me of an old tweet by a man named Malcolm Price:
“I remember in the run-up to the Iraq War a friend I had known all my life suddenly said to me, ‘We must do something about this monster in Iraq.’ I said, ‘When did you first think that?’ He answered honestly, ‘A month ago’.”
Price’s friend had been swept up in the imperial war propaganda campaign that had recently begun, just like countless millions of others. Month after month after month western consciousness was hammered with false narratives about weapons of mass destruction, forced associations of Saddam Hussein with 9/11, and stories about how much better things will be for the people of Iraq once that evil tyrant is gone.
Normally it never would have occurred to the average westerner that a country on the other side of the planet should be invaded and its leader replaced with a puppet regime. That’s not the sort of thing that would have organically entered someone’s mind. It needed to be placed there.
So it was.
The most common misconception about the free press of the western world is that it exists. All the west’s most influential and far-reaching news media publications are here not to report factual stories about current events, but to manufacture consent for the pre-existing agendas of the US-centralized western empire.
They report many true things, to be sure, and if you acquire some media literacy you can actually learn how to glean a lot of useful information from the imperial press without losing your mind to the spin machine. But reporting true things is not their purpose. Their purpose is to manipulate public psychology at mass scale for the benefit of the empire they serve.
This doesn’t happen through some kind of centralized Ministry of Truth where sinister social engineers secretly conspire to deceive people. It happens because all mainstream press is controlled either by plutocrats or by western governments in the form of state broadcasters like the BBC, both of which have a vested interest in maintaining the imperial status quo. They control who the executives and lead editors of these outlets are, and those leaders shape the hiring and editing processes of the publication or broadcaster. Reporters come to understand that there are certain lines they need to color within if they want to get articles published and continue advancing their careers, so they either learn to toe the imperial line or they disappear from the mass media industry.
If people had a clear understanding of everything that’s really going on in our world, they would tear the empire apart brick by brick. If they could truly see how much evil is being done in their name and really wrap their minds around it, and if they could understand how much wealth the plutocrats are getting out of the imperial status quo compared to how little they themselves benefit from it, there would be immediate revolution. So the oligarchs and empire managers shore up narrative control in the form of media ownership, think tanks, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, imperial information ops like Wikipedia, and now increasingly through billionaire-owned AI chatbots to ensure that this never happens.
The entire empire is built on a foundation of lies. The whole power structure is held together by nonstop manipulation of the way westerners think, speak, act, shop, work, and vote. If truth ever finds a way to get a word in edgewise, the entire thing would collapse.
We know this is true because the oligarchs and empire managers pour so much wealth and energy into manipulating our minds. They’re not doing this for fun, they’re doing it because they need to. If they didn’t need to, it wouldn’t be happening.
So what they are doing is intensely creepy and destructive, but it’s also empowering, because it shows us right where their weak spot is. They’re pouring all this energy into controlling the dominant narrative because that’s the weakest point in the armor of the imperial machine.
What we need, then, is a grassroots effort to help truth get a word in. Help people understand that they’ve been propagandized and deceived about the world by western media and by their power-serving education systems every day of their lives, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you. Sow distrust in the imperial media and institutions. Open people’s eyes to the fact that they’re being lied to, and help them learn to see the truth. Anywhere the empire is sowing lies and distortions — whether that’s in Venezuela or Gaza or somewhere else — use that opportunity to help more people unplug their minds from the propaganda matrix.
A better world is possible. The first step in moving toward it is snapping people out of the propaganda-induced coma which dupes them into settling for this dystopian nightmare instead.
DEMOCRACY NOW! December 3, 2025
Today’s DN! Updates the ceasefire in Gaza that isn’t as Israel continues its deadly genocide, explaining about the attacks by groups of Israeli’s who are then just observed or are joined by Israeli military. These raids in the West Bank and Gazans are often by Israeli settlers who stole their homes and olive groves in thr first place. They also cover the exiting of Gazans from Palestine and whether or not they have the right to return.
Amy and Juan then interview Ralph Nader who has been a watchdog of the Democratic Party and of Congress for 60-odd years. To cut to the chase he recommends Impeachment as the most effective way to render Trump’s dictatorship, which is blatantly unconstitutional as seen in so many of his actions. Another of Nader’s points is that America is not as divided on the issues as it seems. The consistent “blame the Democrats” knee-jerk reaction of Trump is designed to divide the American people because to divide them serves his propagandized platform and also a greedy mainstream corporate media they loves all conflict.
Nader discusses his new book CivicSelf-Respect and then stays around to comment on the next segment about a new film that documents the WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999. This was a nonviolent demonstration of at least 40,000 people from around the county. Larry Weiss, representing local labor groups, called a meeting (I was there) explaining the demonstration against corporate power and recruiting people to attend. And a contingency of Minnesotans did go to Seattle.
Another segment focused on Minneapolis/St. Paul and the attack by racist bully Trump on sending ICE against the large Somali population. Most of the Somali’s are here legally. Besides being small business and shop owners, many of the men are truck and taxi drivers. They are contributing to the economy. I see them often in various places, both men and women. I seriously question Trump’s statement that 88% are on welfare. We know he lies all the time to convince people to follow his cruel and barbarian policies.
Here the Nader interview:
For more information view on video (available on YouTube) or listen to the podcast of Dec. 3, 2025 of Democracy Now!
The Occupation of the United States by our Rogue Government
The Great Betrayal and Trump’s imitation of Nazi Fascist Tactics.
Editor’s Note: At the end of this article you will find a video of a System Update by Glenn Greenwald featuring his rebuttal of Stephen Miller, who drives much of Trump’s racist program. In addition, The Guardian has published information they have received of another Trump cohort, tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who cofounded PayPal and whose latest travesty is Palantir, a software that now works with the Department of War and with ICE in analyzing data, among other corporations and government agencies.
Over the past month, Peter Thiel has hosted a series of lectures philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Images
Here is text from talks given by Thiel who had barred reporters and anyone from recording or replicating his talks in any form of public information; the series of four talks attracted large audiences consisting of primarily young white males. The Guardian obtained the excerpts from an anonymous source. Here are Thiel’s influences:
The Silicon Valley heavyweight drew on a wide swath of religious thinkers, including the French-American theorist René Girard, whom Thiel knew at Stanford University, and the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, whose work he said helped create the core of his own beliefs. He credited the English Catholic theologian John Henry Newman as the inspiration for his four-part series, saying: “Newman did four, so I’m doing four. I’m happy about it.”
In the midst of his antichrist hype and meandering, he says:
Then of course, the global financial architecture we discussed is not really run by shadowy international organizations, it’s basically American. And perhaps always a very important feature is the reserve currency status of the dollar, where it’s sort of the backstop for all the money. The petrodollar regime, there’s sort of crazy ways you have trade deficits, current account deficits, but then in all these ways, the money gets recycled into the US.
This comment folds in with an offhand comment I heard the other day online about money laundering, Thiel is all over the place in theology; he basicallly sounds somewhat confused if not mad. But money (and how to make it) he understands. However, if the money does get recycled to the U.S. it goes to the corporations, gas and oil and war industries, to the billionaires, not to the common people or for the common good. And many Americans are beginning to understand this fact.
IMITATION OF FASCIST TACTICS
ICE
The most obvious tactic and strategy right now is ICE with unlimited power. ICE was created during Trump’s first term.
ICE stands for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for enforcing federal laws governing immigration, trade, and border security to promote national security and public safety. Created in 2003, ICE was formed by merging the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, giving it a broad range of civil and criminal authorities to address threats related to immigration and trade. (Definition: Google AI)
It sounds in bureaucratise like a good thing, whereas it is a deadly consolidation of law enforcement with intelligence and other government agencies. The power of their enforcement arm was enhanced by funding from the passing of the Big Beautiful (Ugly) budget biill this year and ICE police now roam the streets of our cities with impunity and cruelty, arresting and jailing immigrants and other “suspicious” people for deportation.
Needless to say, almost all of these arrests are of people of color. The ICE police are simply an imitation of Hitler’s SS/Gestapo:
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany, infamous for its brutality and use of terror to suppress political opposition and persecute minority groups. During the Holocaust, the Gestapo arrested and persecuted countless individuals, using extreme violence and torture to enforce Nazi policies. (Definition: Google AI)
Soon after the article was published an incident proving their coordination and use occurred in south Minneapolis, an Hispanic center of the city, under the rubric of being a drug raid. No doubt there is a drug trade in the Twin Cities, but this “raid’ had the hallmarks of an excuse for ICE, whose officers were present, along with FBI and some anonymous law enforcement who refused to be identified, and local police, The community responded by turning out in large numbers to protest their presence.
ICE-Led ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Raid Draws Large Mobilization in Minneapolis: Feds Leverage Assistance from Minneapolis Police & Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office; Debut Action of New Task Force Shocks Lake Street Community; Anonymous Federal Police Identify as “The Others” on Nameplate.By Dan Feidt, Unicorn Riot /
Interestjngly, the drug trade is also named by the Trump administration as the reason for the raids on speedboats off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, which is illegal by international law. In one such attack 11 people were killed. Speculation is that they were immigrants, not drug-trade criminals. If it was a boat smuggling drugs why were many people in it? If connected to drug smuggling there would only have most likely been two or three.
Education
In regard to student protest Hitler’s action was swift and cruel. A group of students who were leafletting against Hitler called the White Rose were simply arrested and beheaded along with their faculty advisor.
Jewish professors under Hitler suddenly found themselves without a job with no good reason for their firing.
The destruction of academic freedom around Palestine/Gaza and the suppression and punishment of student protesters and their allies:
Trump has singled out and attacked professors who support the students and who support academic freedom and are against the genocidal bombing of Gaza. He has attacked faculty and students on many campuses around the country, starting with Columbia and most recently the University of California in Berkeley.
Only Harvard has had the resources to challenge the Trump administration that has threated colleges and universities nationwide with withdrawal of federal funds unless they comply with the demanded actions. Currently their lawsuit is awaiting a ruling by a judge regarding an agreement reached. However, the government shutdown may hold back the decision.
In the case of Berkely Trump and his cohorts have gone even further, targeting 160 faculty and closing down the office that dealt with these issues of academic freedom.
Note: As of Oct. 4 2025 Gov.Gavin Newsom defended his intent to withhold state funds from any California university or college that signs on to Trump’s demands to essentially silence student and academics who support Palestine or question Trump’s education agenda that curtails free speech. This defense continues.
Education programs based on DEI are under attack:
A concerted and multi-pronged attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in education is underway in 2025, driven by political pressure, new federal policies, and state laws. This has led to the dismantling of DEI programs in hundreds of schools and a climate of intense scrutiny for institutions that maintain them. (Google AI)
The Camps
The Trump administration’s camps that hold immigrants illegally, without due process of law, usually before deportation, are not quite as severe perhaps as gassing people to death in “showers” as Hitler did. But the conditions have proved to be terrible, with the Florida “Alligator Alcatraz” being an example of the worst with inadequate toilet facilities, no medical care, maggots in inadequate food, etc.
Many people have already been deported; some are holders of green cards and even U.S. citizens. Often they are shuffled into inadequate spaces to hold them under inadequate facilities. Some are deported back to countries they left as political refugees and fear for their lives, others are sent not to their countries of origin but to places where they have no history with the culture and may not even speak the language. Daily, hourly, people are grabbed from rhe street by the ICE police, sometimes with the aiding and abetting of local law enforcement.
Racism
As you can see the practice of racism is woven throughout the polices of the Trump administration and the Heritage Foundation’s project 2025 with blatant evidence of rampant racism. White supremacy reigns with all its fascist implications. The false idea of a superior race flashes in white neon in front of you every step of its fascist way. The dominance of the corporation typical of fascist governments is also obvious with attempts to privatize what should be government functions.
Shutting down DEI in corporations has been controversial. Target immedately stopped the DEI programs started under the Biden administation, resulting in a national boycott. COSCO on the other hand has vowed to keep its DEI program. Those are just two examples of many corporations. A list of those who ended their programs is here. Many have been boycotted and have lost money; Target is a prime example.
Here is a list of companies who have defied the Trump administration around DEI.
Some parallels that may not seem to be so obviously connected.
Military Build-up
Hitler’s obvious build-up of the military led by the SS, also included conscription of the “common man” into the military and focus on building it as a fighting force. Along with building an army, sophisticated weapons were built and used while the rest of the world was behind Germany in their development at the beginning of Hitler’s invasions.
Trump and Co. have continued with their military build-up started in the his first term. It just gets worse and worse. Secretary of War (formerly Department of Defense before Trump renamed it) Hegseth called a gathering of U.S. military to a meeting that Trump spoke at, threatening more occupations of U.S. cities besides LA and DC that have strong antiwar movements with the excuse that they have high crime rates. Examples are Chicago and also DC whose crime rates have actually gone down recently. Such manipulation of the truth is a Trump trademark. He has now included Portland and threatened other cites of a blue stripe, that is, he is targeting cities that voted Democratic in the last election and not for Trump. Out and out revenge. Portland is the latest city to have troops sent in. All cities targeted are “blue,” dominated by the Democratic Party.
Religion
The support of Trump and his agenda by the fundamentalist Christian church has been blatant. Hitler also had the support of a majority of Christian clergy and theologians in the Christian Lutheran Church in Germany. The pope, headquartered in Rome at the Vatican in Mussolini’s Italy, did not speak out against the Holocaust genocide.
One exception in Germany was Lutheran minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spoke out and was even involved in an unsuccessful plot to kill Hitler that he was imprisoned for, and then executed as the liberating troops approached the camp where he was incarcerated. He wroteLetters and Papers from Prisonand succeeded in smuggling the manuscript out of his prison. The book is now a classic and still read widely. This book, read in college in a history of religion class, was influential in my becoming an activist.
Propaganda/Lies
In visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. a number of years ago I was able to visit a special exhibit regarding the heavy use of propaganda against the Jewish people. There are, for example, copies of newspapers that accused Jewish people in grotesque caricature of starting wars they had nothing to do with and other crimes. Also there is a poster about disabled people rhat questions whether money should be spent in taking care of them.
Recent lying manipulations include after the shooting of Charlie Kirk when Trump immediately declared that the ‘left’ was responsible although statistics prove that actually more shootings are by right-wingers..
Another incidence was the signing of an executive order declaring Antifa a terrorist organization when Antifa is not even an organization. This move is considered a pre-warning that Trump and Co. will try to attack legitimate non-profit organizations that have said something they do not like; their attempt to sllence them is a violation of free speech.
The range and amount of propaganda and outright lies by Trump and the Trump administration increases every day. They are often covered or rather uncovered on alternative media such as System Update by Glenn Greenwald and many others. But they are not usually uncovered by the mainstream corporate media.
The Media
Attacks on journalists have escalated, especially in and around Gaza. Many have died in their courage to reveal the truth of the genocide. Most are not western journalists but some are. Many are from Al Jazeera. Many are Palestinian. Some are independent. Numbers differ, but well over 200 have been killed according to the United Nations and others. An actual number is difficult to pin down because of different methodologies in counting.
The Western Mainstream Corporate Media, led by The New York Times and Washington Post, have basically been pro-Israel over the Palestine/Israel issue and conflict, especially since Oct. 7, 2023 when the initial attack by Hamas took place. Yet just recently—and at least in part from UN Gaza rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s statement that Israel’s bombings constitute genocide — here have been some articles that are not as pro-Israel. She opened door for the governments of Western nations to formally condemn the bombings and recognize what Israel is doing as genocide although that has not stopped governments from arresting pro-Palestine protesters.
In a recent vote in the UN Security Council all voted against the genocide and for the Palestinians except the U.S. When Netanyahu spoke to UN representives on his recent visit to the United States, they staged a walk-out; he spoke to a virtually empty chamber.
As you undoubtedly know a ceasefire and hostage exchange program is now taking place. But Israel still claims Gaza as theirs.
Ukraine
Trump continues to make deals, the only way he knows how to operate, but seems to get no place. Many see the conflict as just between Russia and Ukraine, others see it as a proxy war between the U.S and Russia and consider it part of the hegemony struggle for world domination. The U.S. losing its world domination, its imperialistic empire, which it is desperate to maintain; the struggle is playing out in part in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the current rogue rulers have escalated it into an even ‘hotter’ war with missiles going back and forth between Ukraine and Russia.
The U.S. mainstream corporate media remains for the most part a tool of the government and government policy.
Art and Culture
Hitler banned artists of all types from producing any work that criticized the Third Reich. That ban included paintings, poetry, fiction, dance…all the arts.
A filmmaker named Leni Riefenstahl made two seminal films for Hitler:
In the 1930s, she directed the Nazi propaganda filmsTriumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. The films are widely considered two of the most effective and technically innovative propaganda films ever made.
Trump has followed in Hitler’s footsteps by taking over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC and pushing to name it after himself. Trump and Co. have gone through the Center removing any art that is “woke” in their estimation.
In general Trump’s regime has frowned upon and is complicit in banning many artists and musicians such as Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame — and winner of the World Beyond War 2025 Artistic War Abolisher Award — and also singer/songwriter David Rovics: They both have had cancellations on planned tours including in Europe; Rovics has had much of his music removed from the internet.
Corporatism and Fascism (Google AI)
Corporatism is an economic and political system in which major interest groups, like labor unions and employer associations, are integrated into the government’s structure. Fascism, a radical, authoritarian political ideology, uses a specific type of corporatism as a central economic tool to exert control over the state and eliminate dissent. While corporatism can exist in other contexts, fascist corporatism is distinct in its use for totalitarian ends.
Corporatism as a Concept
Ideological roots: Corporatism developed in the 19th century as a “third way” between laissez-faire capitalism and communism, advocating for class collaboration over class conflict.
Organizational structure: The theory organizes society into “corporations” or guilds based on economic sectors, like agriculture, industry, and professional services. These bodies are meant to represent the interests of their members and work with the government for the national good.
Wider application: Outside of fascism, corporatist models have been incorporated into other political systems, such as the social democracies of Nordic countries, where unions and employers negotiate with government mediation.
Corporatism within Fascism
State control: In practice, fascist corporatism became a tool for state domination rather than genuine negotiation between interest groups. The “corporate state” in Benito Mussolini’s Italy, for example, was designed to reflect the dictator’s will, not the adjusted interests of economic groups.
Suppression of labor: In the fascist model, the state destroyed independent labor movements and outlawed strikes, ensuring that organized workers could not challenge the regime. The government created its own controlled “unions” with appointed, not elected, leaders, which served to benefit major business owners.
National interest over individual: The core principle was that the national interest superseded the interests of individuals and social classes. Workers and employers were compelled to collaborate under state supervision to maximize economic output for the nation.
State-business partnerships: While private property was allowed, the state exerted significant control over the economy through a managed partnership with business. This included subsidizing preferred companies and directing investment toward national priorities like militarization and self-sufficiency (autarky). As historian Gaetano Salvemini noted, profits were privatized while losses were socialized, with the state bailing out failing companies.
Key differences between generic and fascist corporatism:
Feature
Generic Corporatism
Fascist Corporatism
Class relations
Aims for collaboration between labor and capital through genuine negotiation, sometimes with government mediation.
Eliminates class conflict by force, imposing cooperation under state control, and suppressing independent labor movements.
State’s role
Mediates between organized interest groups to facilitate policy and promote stability.
Serves as the ultimate authority, dictating terms and controlling the corporate bodies to enforce the will of the ruling party or leader.
Decision-making
Involves formal mechanisms for negotiation between unions, employers, and state officials.
Reflects the will of the dictator, with negotiation being a facade for state-imposed policies.
Goals
Promotes social harmony, stability, and manages economic outcomes within a broader political framework.
Subordinates all economic activity to the overarching political goals of the state, such as nationalism, militarism, and autarky.
Early on Trump attacked unions and was met with strong resistance from established unions as discussed in The Unraveling of the New Deal Part 2 on Wings of Change. More recently unions have actively joined in opposing the rise of fascism under the Trump administration: (Google AI)
As of late 2025, labor unions are actively engaged in resisting the rise of far-right authoritarianism and the policies of corporate elites and their political allies. While the labor movement is a key force in this fight, there is an ongoing debate about whether its efforts are aggressive enough, especially concerning direct challenges to potential fascist threats in the United States.
Letter carriers across the country rally to stop the Trump administration from stripping the U.S. Postal Service of its independence and possibly privatizing it. Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Union actions and challenges in 2025: (Google AI)
Targeting specific policies: Unions are taking legal and public action against specific policies and political figures they see as anti-democratic and anti-worker. For example, the AFL-CIO is challenging actions by the Trump administration that have stripped collective bargaining rights from federal workers and threatened to illegally fire them during government shutdowns. The AFL-CIO has also publicly opposed Project 2025, a conservative policy roadmap, on the grounds that it would harm workers.
Promoting democracy: Unions are advocating for a “Third Reconstruction,” a political realignment that would empower a multiracial democratic movement from below. This effort aims to counter authoritarianism with a proactive vision for a more just economy and robust democracy.
Internal divisions and debates: Not all parts of the labor movement are unified on how to confront the threat. Some union leaders have been hesitant to explicitly name the threat of fascism, prompting concern from more militant voices within the movement. Publications like the World Socialist Web Site have criticized some union leadership for inaction, calling for a grassroots rebellion against the established union apparatus.
Increasing organizing efforts: Despite low union density in the United States, labor organizing is on the rise, particularly in states with stronger protections for collective bargaining. Unions are organizing in new areas and mobilizing workers to fight for better wages and conditions. This increased activity is often seen as a direct way to build worker power and resist anti-democratic forces.
Strong public support: Public approval for labor unions remains high, a factor that strengthens their position in fighting back against corporate and political opposition. This public backing provides a strong foundation for unions’ political and organizing efforts.
International perspective: Global organizations, such as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), also explicitly condemn the rise of authoritarianism and far-right movements, seeing them as direct threats to workers’ rights and democracy. The ITUC’s 2025 Global Rights Index documented a worsening global crisis for workers’ rights fueled by these trends.
Acknowledging historical context:
The labor movement has a history of opposing fascist and authoritarian regimes. The AFL-CIO passed resolutions in 2017 to condemn and oppose fascism and white supremacist groups, stating there is no moral equivalence between those who fight fascism and those who promote hate. These efforts continue to guide the movement’s stance, but the current political climate poses renewed challenges.
Some Previous Tactics by the Trump Administration
One of several of Donald Trump’s weapons of distraction because the people, including some of his followers, want the Epstein papers released to reveal Epstein’s sick cult exploiting young women as sex objects — blatant sexual abuse — is calling Obama a traitor. Without going into detail about Obama’s presidency, which had high and low points, I hope most people have realized the absurdity of this charge. He then arranged a meeting with Putin in Alaska which came to nothing among other attempts to distract from the possible release of the Epstein papers,
Because of course the real traitor of the American people is Donald Trump and his administration, and they have taken much of Congress along with them and the Supreme Court.
The Big Beautiful [Ugly] budget bill that has passed is proof positive that they do not care a bit about the American people, and in Trump’s case only about his millionaire and billionaire buddies. The others in his administration are in it for Money. Power, and Greed. He is the real traitor to American values and to the people of America, slashing aid of all kinds right and left, raising the cost of everything, especially food and housing, essentials for living. And then Medicaid and Medicare. Even Social Security is threatened.
Many of the proposed changes will not take place until after the mid-term elections so those people who are not informed, many of his followers, will not know what hit them. Even if the Democrats are able to take back the House there’s still the Senate to deal with.
A lot of what got Trump elected was the fact that so many Americans disagree with further funding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but Congress, especially the Senate, is immovable and has “sold the country down the river” regarding funding and arms for Israel. Anti-genocide activists did not vote for Trump but also not for Kamala Harris representing the Democratic Party. The Democrats don’t seem to understand that it lost them the election or if they do still insist on keeping their pro-Zionist stance.
In many ways the same goes for Ukraine. It’s a proxy war with Russia with the Ukranian people who are suffering the most. Many have died, and yet the war continues. The U.S. wants resources that are in Ukraine, or what’s left of it. It is not just the wheat that fed much of the world, it is evidently mineral resources as well. Congress under Biden approved money and weapons consistently for Ukraine. So he is not off the hook either. And that is a problem for all peace people.
Francesca Albanese, the UN rapporteur for Gaza, has courageously spoken out about how the war economy is controlling the government. She has come under attack of course by Trump and Co. I would include the gas and oil industry; these two corporate giants, the war/arms industry and gas and oil, are symbiotic: The gas and oil industry with their fossil fuel — and the corporations that practice fracking — and also the financial institutions that support them, who provide the fuel to the war economy that supplies the polluting jet planes that are used at the 877 U.S. bases around the world. That is just a portion of the pollution the U.S. military causes worldwide. It is a well-established tenet of fascism, and is updated and discussed in detail in Henry Giroux’s book American Nightmare.
Definition of fascism and government-directed economy: Fascist governments create a “corporate state” in which the economy is managed collectively by state officials, employers, and workers. In practice, however, the state holds the dominant role, dictating policies and subordinating private enterprise to its agenda. (Google AI)
So who is the real traitor? It is a trick we have seen before but not at this level. During demonstrations the police would attack demonstrators and then say that the demonstrators had attacked them when they resisted arrest..
I don’t like saying that the American people are the victims. Yet in spite of demonstrations and protests of all kinds we have been unable to stop Trump and the fascist authoritarianism based on military might instead of the use of diplomacy, for a start.
What characterizes Trump? A huge ego that is insatiable for starters. His rudeness. His attacks on anyone who even just disagrees with him. Lies, lies, lies. Denial. And no accountability. His racism is blatant and ugly. His fostering of hate, a legacy from his first term, continues in spades. He’s a misogenist, whether or not he participated in the Epstein cult. There really is not much to admire. I just don’t see the attraction but I know many are swayed by this con man. He can sound so sincere when he is lying through his teeth.
As far as religion is concerned, I certainly cannot see him as a Christian, although many seem to think he is. I do not know what Kool-aid they are drinking, above even his lack of moral fiber he lacks compassion: He clearly does not even know the meaning of the word.
So maybe, finally, in the Epstein scandal he has met his Waterloo. He may also be under pressure from other officials who are included in those papers about Epstein’s cult. And there are also many photos of Trump with Epstein circulating online.
In the meantime many more countries. some that are U.S. allies, are joining in recognizing the Palestinian state or have stated that they will.
Trump, with the brains of Stephen Miller in charge of racist policied, also continues his fight in the colleges against pro-Palestinian protesters and the academics who support them, many of whom like Columbia, are capitulating to his threats so they receive federal funds.
This is a clip from our show SYSTEM UPDATE, now airing every weeknight at 7pm ET on Rumble. You can watch the full episode for FREE here: https://rumble.com/v6wwl7s-system-upd…
How will we stop Trump and his fascist regime? How wll we convince well-meaning people who believe his lies that Trump is not saving America but is destroying U.S.?
Millions have turned out for the NO KING protests called by Indivisible. Daily we have demonstrations, bannerings, protests, workshops and conferences, organized and attended by many people in the U.S., and they represent many different segments of our society and culture. All that is good.
But the wheels of justice move slowly. Progress is there but slower than we might like, even with the whole world engaged with not just thousands but millions turning out in countries around the world to protest the genocide in Gaza/Palestine often in defiance of their governments, using their people power. “The game is afoot.” And it is not just about the crime that is the genocide being committed by Israel with U.S. support. It is about Decolonization, Demilitarism and instead Human Rights and governments that represent the people..
Paul Theil links the efforts to save the planet with CO2 and methane (fossil fuel and fracking) to the “antichrist” he talks about when of course the opposite is true. He attacks Greta Thunberg because of her activism to save the planet.
Such thinking does not contain any truth. “That way madness lies,” to quote Shakespeare’s King Lear. Words and the things they represent get turned around and twisted in this world as it is now, with a need to see through to truths and reality instead of an upside down, inside out world. Language and how it is spoken and written plays a large role in our perceptions and thoughts.
As activists we continue to gather and act in our communities, to collaborate with each other. To act, no matter which activist path we choose, keeps us sane. So far we have stayed along the path of nonviolence although challenged constantly by police and other authorities, many who do not honor nonviolence.
We will continue and I think strive to break the barriers that divide us from those who are often our relatives, neighbors, friends and sometimes share a church or religion with us but are still taken in by those who would destroy the good things in our heritage. Yes, there are plenty of actione that are not good, especially around the history of racism in the U.S.A. and of exploitation of workers and oppression of women. But those who argue that shoving the bad things and banning the books and stories that tell of them under a blanket of white supremacy will make America great again are of course wrong. Knowing the truth is not always easy. Learning from our mistakes is I think the cliche but true. If we do not know our mistakes how can we learn from them.
A first step is acceptance of the new demographics of a large population of people of color who are not different from you and me in their hopes and dreams and how they lead their lives as good people, imperfect as we all are.
In one job I had the research I was doing led to me an understanding that Hispanic peoples, at least in south and central America, had a much stronger sense of community and the importance of community lnstead of the individualism our western culture idolizes. Perhaps we can learn, are learning, from them the value of community. Something I think the Black culture in America also has.
We go forward with nonviolence and critique, truth-telling and collaboration and continued activism in the cradles of communities of love and hope.
Since this article was published Trump has orchestrated a ceasefire in Gaza/Palestine and a release of prisoners by both Hamas and Israel, one of his “deals.” But as welcome as this ceasefire and also influx finally of food into the starving in Gaza, the future of Palestine is not clear. While many support a two-state solution there is no guarantee that that will happen. Others support a one-state solution. In the ceasefire there is no provision for Palestine’s future. Some of Netanyahu’s govenment officials have stated that the bombing may resume. Even though the ceasefire is working thus far no concrete provisions or conditions have been proposed as to what Palestine will becomd assuming the ceasefire holds.
At practically the same time of the ceasefire Israel attacked the food for Gaza flotilla of about 50 ships in international waters, which is illegal, and took hundreds of hostages, who were then subject to beatings and other abuse before being released. Such treatment of prisoners is unconsionable. While Trump is taking credit for the ceasefire, the recent pressure on Israel that includes the walk-out refusal to listen to Netanyahu’s speech in the UN. a number of countries, especially in Europe, supporting Palestine in agreeing that what Israel has done is genocide, the massive pro-Palestine demonstrations worldwide, along with the ICC court accusation of Israel of committing genocide.
“In the end,” Henry Giroux says, “there is no democracy without informed citizens, no justice without a language critical of injustice, and no change without a broad-based movement of collective resistance.”
If Roosevelt had lived what was his vision for the country and for the world?
The Unraveling of the New Deal, FDR’s Vision, Part 4
By Sue Ann Martinson / Wings of Change / June 30, 2025
FDR: The Four Freedoms
FDR, besides the New Deal, left this legacy of a New Bill of Rights as well. He had been elected for a fourth term and these were his promises. What America would be like now if he had been able to carry them out we can only speculate. But certainly as a nation we would not have been in the autocratic state we in now and people would have been more secure economically and with the comfort of being who the are without outside definitions created by others that are derogatory.
Having corporate overmasters is unconstitutional and yet another way to deconstruct a democracy that is “of the people, for the people and by the people.” Idealistic? Yes. But FDR more than any other president attempted to make a people’s government.
National and International Intentions After the War
On January 6, 1941 ─ after the invasion of Poland in 1939 when England declared war on Germany ─ FDR was focusing on the state of the world. He gave a State of the Union address in which he named the Four Freedoms for the world. In this speech he addressed the need to achieve world peace and peace for America.
This speech is 80 years to the day when on January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
The Four Freedoms:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others:
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it
The ending of special privilege for the few
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples:
We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.
We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.
FDR also outlined U.S. foreign policy at that time:
Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Our national policy is this:
First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship,we are committed to full support of all those resolute peoples, everywhere, who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own nation.
Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom.
In the recent national election there was no substantial difference between the two great parties in respect to that national policy. No issue was fought out on this line before the American electorate. Today it is abundantly evident that American citizens everywhere are demanding and supporting speedy and complete action in recognition of obvious danger.
No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion ─ or even good business.
Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.
In a later State of the Union speech on January 11, 1944, FDR explained his vision of a New Bill of Rights:
FDR’s New Deal and his “Four Freedoms” speech outlined a broader “New Bill of Rights” that included economic security, a concept distinct from the traditional Bill of Rights which focused on individual liberties. The “New Bill of Rights” encompassed the right to a job, adequate living standards, healthcare, education, and protection from economic hardship, as outlined in FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights.”
The Four Freedoms are the foundation for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. After the death of FDR Eleanor carried the torch forward as chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights that created the document.
Although the war was not yet over, in his State of the Union address on January 11, 1944 FDR, planning ahead for the war-end, reiterated a commitment to a New Bill of Rights for the American people.
On June 11, 1944 FDR repeated the full text of the speech in one of his Fireside Chats for the nation to hear.
Perhaps FDR had been reading Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience that calls for an even more perfect Union in the United States than existed in the Constitution. Thoreau said:
The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to — for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well — is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.
The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual…. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?
Thoreau goes on to say:
Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose, if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men.
First Thoreau is taking about himself as a good neighbor. We tend to think of neighborhoods as small units. But what if it were another country? What if all countries considered themselves a good neighbor to the countries next to them? He goes from the microcosm to the macrocosm. That interpretation seems to fit with FDR’s idea of the Four Freedoms as he expresses it in relation to Russia and Great Britain, remembering that settler colonialism was still prevalent and Western European countries held empires, including the British Empire, which was dominant.
Here is how Thoreau concludes:
A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.
State of the Union, January 11, 1944
“Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
FDR, in the January 11, 1944, State of the Union Speech addressed his vision for a second Bill of Rights and explains that these rights are true security and that “The best interests of each Nation, large and small, demand that all freedom-loving Nations shall join together in a just and durable system of peace.”
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth- is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and insecure..
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
One of the great American industrialists of our day, a man who has rendered yeoman service to his country in this crisis-recently emphasized the grave dangers of “rightist reaction” in this Nation. All clear-thinking businessmen share his concern. Indeed, if such reaction should develop—if history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called “normalcy” of the 1920’s—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home.
I ask the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights ─ for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress so to do.
Flash Forward
Los Angeles (LA) June 2025
From the Brennan Foundation: A panel discussion re the sending in the military to LA. Is it legal? What are the ramifications for the future?
The deployment of Marines and federalized National Guard members to police protests in Los Angeles poses a serious threat to American democracy. The president’s memorandum appears to preemptively allow the deployment of federal forces anywhere there are protests against immigration raids nationwide, regardless of whether or not they are peaceful. This broad authorization suggests that the troop deployments go beyond protecting federal property or law enforcement — they are about suppressing disagreement against the government.
— Elizabeth Goitein in a Just Security expert panel discussion.
Note FDR words above:
…the grave dangers of “rightist reaction” in this Nation.
…we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home.
Yet now Congress has fallen under thrall to that “rightist reaction” under the influence of those forces of fascism daily are that being forced upon us that is the opposite of “a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.” Instead social welfare programs that support that vision are being slashed with support for money for corporate needs growing and for the military while the rest of the citizenry is ignored, funds for social programs decimated. Thousands have lost their jobs, their retirement savings, even their homes while the New Bill of Rights is decimated. Education, a core of democracy, is being defunded.
Yet FDR is very clear: these are the rights worldwide that bring true security, not the building up of the military:
In the plain down-to-earth talks that I had with the Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek and Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill, it was abundantly clear that they are all most deeply interested in the resumption of peaceful progress by their own peoples—progress toward a better life. All our allies want freedom to develop their lands and resources, to build up industry, to increase education and individual opportunity, and to raise standards of living.
All our allies have learned by bitter experience that real development will not be possible if they are to be diverted from their purpose by repeated wars—or even threats of war.
Those leaders of primary world powers are now dead and the lessons learned from WWI and WWII have faded from consciousness. Endless War prevails. The monies taken from the social programs is instead to be used to increase the military might of America with Trump’s proposed Golden Dome, similar to the Iron Dome in Israel only four times larger to somehow protect the whole of the United States. But did the Iron Dome protect Israel from attack by Hamas?
Instead we now have a government that has embraced the “rightest reaction” and taken much of the nation with it through propaganda and lies. Our so-called president (not my president) becomes more autocratic every day. He blatantly declares his racism by word and deed. He is as he has always been basically a misogynist. The women he has appointed to positions are women who just do what they are told, yes-women. He openly flaunts the Constitution and tries to silence anyone who attempts to defy him. He calls himself a king. He allows his “flock” of fundamentalists to worship him as if he were divine. The “divine right of kings.” That went out in the Middle Ages.
“The law stands high above the king.” Magna Carta, 1215
The lords of England issued a writ that they would no longer be subservient to the king. The “divine right of kings” absolute authority was challenged. It included the right to a speedy trial, now known as habeas corpus.
A wise person once observed that it takes the support of the middle class for a revolution to succeed. Although it was the nobility of England who rebelled, they were in the middle, as the king with his divine right was above them and the peasants below them..
The Magna Carta still forms an important symbol of liberty today, often cited by politicians and campaigners, and is held in great respect by the British and American legal communities, Lord Denning describing it in 1956 as “the greatest constitutional document of all times—the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”
Back to the Law
U.S. judges, have often, if not consistently, challenged Trump’s edicts, that is, executive orders, as being unconstitutional or breaking established laws. Trump has attempted to go after them of course, but different judges keep cropping up to challenge his often anti-Constitutional and law-breaking declarations. So far the idea of law above the king is functioning, resembling some semblance of law and order, not with guns, but with THE LAW as judges nationwide intervene against many of Trump’s edicts as unconstitutional or otherwise illegal. Most recent as I write this is a judge ruling the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the student from Columbia arrested for his pro-Palestinian activities although he has a green card and is married to a U.S. citizen.
Flash Forward, June 27, 2025
To stop the lower courts from challenging his unconstitutional executive orders Trump and his pro-fascist cohorts has had their allies in the U.S. Supreme Court state that the lower courts can no longer challenge Trump’s executive orders that undermine the Constitution although it will not go into effect immediately. As reported in Reuters, “The ruling also did not address the legality of the policy, part of Trump’s hardline approach toward immigration.”
Relevant Diversion
The U.S. system of law, while it was heavily influenced by French philosophers of the Enlightenment, is still based on English common law. The most predominant French influencers were Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. But in turn Locke and Montesquieu were heavily influenced by English law in their contributions to the structure of the Constitution and the shaping of the U.S. government as it still stands today.
Rousseau’s primary contribution was the idea of laws created directly by the vote of the people. He also introduced the idea of “neighborhoods,” an idea that Thoreau elaborated on in his essay on civil disobedience. The idea of neighborhoods still exists in many cities, including Minneapolis which is divided into neighborhoods that have governing bodies that create and manage programs that deal with neighborhood-specific issues.
Locke believed in what he called a social contract and influenced Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence. Locke favored a representative government. Montesquieu advocated for the separation of powers.
The Senate is debating the “Big Beautiful Bill” that further destroys the Pillars of Democracy and Violates FDR’s Four Freedoms.
If I remember my civics class correctly (that was ninth grade ─ do they teach it anymore?) the executive, legislative, and judicial sections of government were meant to balance each other. The legislative branch today is often impotent on many issues, controlled by Trump’s and the GOP’s yes-men and women. As noted, by one vote on May 22, 2025, the House passed the “Big Ugly Budget” that steals money from the people of the United States.
These cuts, if they are allowed, will cause significantly more struggling to survive for millions of Americans. In some cases they will cause preventable deaths because of the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. In the case of Social Security, cuts that are a lifeline for many Americans could be seriously cut down.
But not for corporate America: They are being pampered with money for investments and new laws are allowing them to develop fossil fuel that will further pollute the planet and hasten the global crisis. (There is no Planet B!)
Will the Senate show any backbone in accepting this Big Ugly Budget or not? That is not hopeful as they are controlled by the GOP. Sad, but true. That is the real fraud against the American people. We cannot go back (MAGA), even if we wanted to, and millions of us do not want to, as evidenced by the Hands Off and No Kings demonstrations. Many of us joined in the demonstrations not because we are Democrats (or Republicans either), but because we are antiwar and anti-genocide in Gaza because of its obvious inhumanity. We are also opposed to the illegal DOGE actions by Elon Musk and approved by Trump after creating DOGE as a government department by a presidential executive order not approved by Congress.
Elon Musk has left of DOGE and has actually criticized Trump’s platform and fascistic plans. In part this may be because the sales of his Tesla have greatly decreased, although it is only one way he makes money. He has been pilloried for the cuts he is responsible for, including USAid which affects millions worldwide.
Most members of Congress are supporters of Israel. Because so many of us support Palestine and are adamantly opposed the the genocide being perpetrated by Israel on Palestine, we are accused of being supporters of Hamas. We are what we say we are: antiwar and pro-Palestine. Having been involved in support of Palestine in educational programs and demonstrations, I can honestly say that we do not support Hamas per se. It has not come up in 20 years of pro-Palestine activities, not even since October 7, 2023. No chants I know of glorify or support Hamas.
Those who have worked on Middle East issues for 20 years or more such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the WAMM Middle East Committee see Hamas as part of the very complicated geopolitics in the Middle East. What is not complicated is that genocide is a crime against humanity and no amount of Israel’s denial, even with the support of the U.S., can change the moral outrage at the wholesale death of a people. That was also true of the Holocaust, of course, but what Israel has become in its zealous Zionism backed by the U.S. is NOW, not then.
What About Now?
Shame hangs over the U.S. like a shroud.
As I write this the Senate is still deliberating about the Big ‘Beautiful’ Budget Bill and has not yet voted. Once they do settle on a version it has to go back to the House where members may wish to make changes. A final version of the bill may still take some time to be decided.
Trump, Congress, and the Supreme Court and 2025 supporters attack the Pillars of Democracy
Trump’s ravaging of the Constitution and American values in the Constitution and as they have developed in Constitutional additions over the years is a denial and attempt to crush democracy. These additions have become laws, such as the right of people of color to vote, of women to vote, laws against child labor, and union rights like collective bargaining. Many became law over the years of our existence since 1787 when the U.S. Constitution went into effect after being approved by the individual states. Some of these laws were created under the influence of socialism, such as the eight-hour work day, social security, the minimum wage, better working conditions, rights and healthcare for veterans, even Obama’s more recent healthcare law, and more. It’s how a democracy works.
These amendments to the Constitution and these laws have also improved our democracy over the years.
These additions and changes did not happen automatically but were fought for with much sacrifice by many Americans of all races, colors, and religions. Not the least are the laws against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, disabilities, etc., in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related legislation.
MAGA is an unachievable myth, at least the way Trump and project 2025 define it. The U.S. Empire is losing hold, as all empires in the history of the world do. We can dance out gracefully and still be who our best selves are.
We can choose to be what and who we would like to be in our most positive forms, created by the original Constitution and by the laws and Constitutional amendments added over the years of our country’s existence that were chosen by the people, not by corporate rule or some ruling elite that consider themselves superior; but they are not. Many Americans who came from poor circumstances have distinguished themselves in their areas of expertise while many of the “elite” have been lackluster or incompetent, as evidenced by many current public officials. On the other side are those who still have moral fiber and refuse to go along with the destruction of democracy that the Trump administration is engaged in. They include but are not limited to the current Supreme Court judges who wrote the dissenting opinions regarding Trump’s most recent efforts as he and his cohorts continue to attack democracy.
We can become an utter failure as a people and as a nation, or we can protest and actively fight for our rights against legislation like the Big Beautiful Budget that is really a Big Ugly Budget that does the opposite of what we strive for in equality, that is, it robs from the poor and gives to the rich. We can protest the obscene build-up of the military and the constant endless wars that support the oil industry and the war industry machine. We can continue to protest and fight the corporate entities that defile our planet with pollution and cause death in other parts of the world and in ours unusually severe weather patterns of storms, tornados, hurricanes. Our planet as a living organism strives to survive our mistreatment and desperately continues to need our help, which we can continue to offer in as many ways possible.
In spite of the shameful actions of our collective governments, that is, both Republicans and Democrats, we can especially protest in regard to what is clearly a genocide in Gaza/Palestine and a weaponization of anti-Semitism that is an insult to the ancient religion of Judaism and to those who died and those who survived the Holocaust. We can protest and actively defy the recent executive orders and autocracy of our current president and those he represents in cruel and anti-democratic actions that lean into fascism. Instead we can support those values that reflect our better selves in the Constitution. the amendments to the Constitution, and the laws created around equal rights and civil liberties that support those American democratic values.
In these most perilous times support independent media. Wings of Change gets no funding except from our readers.
Oh, sacred world
now wounded,
we pledge to make you free,
of hate, of war,
and selfish cruelty,
and here in our small corner
we plant a tiny seed,
and it will grow to beauty
to shame the face of greed.
As I post Part 3 of The Unraveling the breaking news I cannot ignore is that Trump has bombed Iran, ostensibly to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities, in total collusion with Israel, Zionism, and imperialism, never really giving any negotiations a chance. Much has appeared online about it already and more will follow. Being antiwar I am of course totally opposed to this bombing. I think Trump has an itchy trigger finger and needed to prove himself as “strong,” (it takes more strength to be nonviolent than violent) to regain what was lost in his self-respect when the Kings Day March in Washington DC was essentially a washout. He still has very low opinion polls. He should not have put the nation at risk of a nuclear war or even of a new “hot war” in the Middle East as is being discussed by news outlets, journalists and others online now.
His alliance with Israel and their genocidal Zionist policies is of course morally and culturally just plain evil. His imperialism along with Israel cloaked in the weaponization of antisemitism is anti-American.
On June 14th 5 million Americans spoke out on the streets on No Kings Day. For everyone who was there, there are many who for one reason or another, could not take to the streets (like me). For everyone on the streets at least one more could not be: That means a mandate of at least 10 million Americans opposed to not just Trump but to the 2025 program he endorses. And to his new Big Beautiful Budget Bill that destroys or cuts services essential for so many Americans just to survive, be healthy and while not rich at least comfortable while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.