Archives for January 2025

Most of my political friends and colleagues are still genuinely surprised — even shocked — with the rapid-fire fascistic actions of Trumpism/Fascism 2.0 during its opening week. Really? Yes. Even after we were told by reliable sources, centered on a fact-based discussion of Project 2025, and from 47 himself? Yes.

Others, many others, are still in denial, saying such things as “I don’t see the evidence” of fascism emerging. Really? Yes. This group seems still not familiar with Project 2025, or simply wish it away, and are looking for “positive signs” that 47 will do “reasonable” things. Really? Yes.

Trump’s secretary nominations of RFK Jr. to Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard to National Director of Intelligence, in particular, are touted by this group and others as “progressive” appointments, their controversial, wildly inconsistent and opportunistic histories notwithstanding.

Still, others say that Trump needs to be given a chance to “grow” into his new term, even as he systematically takes steps to dismantle the civil service, withdraws the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords, threatens the constitutional principle of birth-right citizenship, purges the military of any non-binary (male-female) members while seeking to weaponize the remaining soldiers for domestic enforcement of executive orders against both documented and undocumented immigrants, purging inspectors general, threatens to attack and annex territory held by traditional allies, and so much more.

Still another cohort has largely checked out: taking a snap vacation, relocating to more “welcoming” locations (internal and external), looking only at sports, TikTok, and other forms of escape, ignoring and avoiding conversations related to politics.

There is also the serious problem of opinion leaders and prominent academics, experts in the field of anti-democratic and democratic systems of government, who speak and write in detail about Fascism yet refuse to use the word Fascism. Why? Because, they say, it is too overwhelming for most U.S. citizens — with some 50% of us reading at a sixth-grade level or less — to comprehend the dark definition that is Fascism.

(Once again, here is my definition of Fascism: https://americanfascists.us/the-three-cornerstones-of-american-fascism/)

Others, in the corporate media, are too afraid to call out the Fascism for fear that they will lose their jobs. So, instead, the above prominently positioned writers, researchers, stenographers, and talking heads search for euphemisms, such as oligarchy, broligarchy, illiberalism, right-wing, conservative, anti-democratic, MAGA and more.

The extreme danger in all of this evasion, of failing to call out Fascism by name and with clarity, is that it plays right into the Fascism playbook of confusing, conflating, conning, distracting, dividing, lying, projecting, scaring, threatening, attacking, purging, destroying, incarcerating, shaming, and blaming — all in service to its primary goals of acquiring, consolidating, and expanding POWER.

Fascism never, ever sleeps. In the pursuit of power, Fascism fully embraces the twin Machiavellian concepts of the “ends justifies the means” (any steps or methods on the good-to-evil spectrum can be and are rationalized to be necessary) — which, in turn, is rooted in the political ideology of “amorality”: a ruthless worldview that recognizes neither moral nor immoral postulates , but rather, sees only the pursuit of power for the few (oligarchs), in service to the leader (dictator), by any and all methods, executed by loyalists, as its purpose.

So, Fascism — birthed in its nascent form during the French Revolution’s “Reign of Terror” (1793-1794) under Maximilien Robespierre’s brief dictatorship and re-birthed after the First World War’s tragic outcome that planted the seeds for its resurfacing and continuation down to the present — is the most cynical, ugly, and evil of all modern ideologies — grounded in the “three cornerstones” of state-corporatism, white supremacy, and religious nationalism.

Full-blown Fascism has come to the United States, as of 20 January 2025. It can only be stopped and reversed when we recognize it, define it, name it, and oppose it with an comprehensive, focused, and unified strategy centered on anti-Fascism techniques and a pro-Democracy vision and mission — with eyes wide open, brains fully engaged, and hearts filled with radical hospitality, hope, and love.

Fascism never sleeps. And neither can we. In order to crush it, and to restore and expand a justice-centered Democracy, we must become vigilant, alert, interconnected, and relentless.

Related Post

Check out the related post in OpedNews:
https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=Week-One-Fascism-Never-Sl-Fascism_Fascism-Has-Happened-Here_Fascism-Cant-Happen-Here-250129-137.html

Soon after 47 took the oath of office at noon Monday, he signed dozens of executive orders and granted close to 1,600 J6 pardons as a demonstration of what I will call ‘Firehose Fascism.’ Simply put, it is force-fed, shock-and-awe, blitzkrieg (lightning war) Fascism, meant as a kind of stress test for the legal system and a psychological and spiritual blow to American institutions, citizens, and non-citizens who aspire to citizenship or extended residency.

For purposes of laying out a working definition of Fascism, here is my September 22, 2022 article: “The Three Cornerstones of American Fascism” — plus 28 sub-characteristics: https://americanfascists.us/the-three-cornerstones-of-american-fascism/

In brief, 47’s orders struck at some of the largest policy questions in American society, from legal to health to immigration to social media to environment to civil rights to international trade. More than that, the stunning executive actions sought to undermine conventional notions of order, justice, due process, fairness, public safety, global health, and social unity.

Here is a sampling of eight of the most strident actions:

He pardoned nearly all the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

47 granted clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the 6 January 2021 insurrection and coup attempt on the Capitol, issuing pardons to most of the defendants and commuting the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy. 

He withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

47 ordered the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, a seeming punishment based on his non-stop criticisms of the global health agency, especially regarding its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Public health experts say the withdrawal is a setback for America’s global standing and it will make it more difficult to fight the next pandemic.

He started his promised crackdown on immigration.

47 signed a series of orders designed to seal the nation’s borders against migrants and crack down on immigrants already here — including a national emergency call to deploy the military to the border and an effort to cut off birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens, a constitutionally protected right.

He sought to slow a ban on TikTok.

47 signed an executive order to delay a congressional ban of TikTok. In what was perhaps his most politically savvy move of the day — playing to a huge audience of TikTok users — the measure instructs the attorney general to hold back on enforcing the law for 75 days to allow time for a negotiated settlement.

He withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.

47 signed an executive order to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, a step which would make America one of only four nations to refuse to cooperate with other nations to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

He enacted a federal hiring freeze.

47 ordered an immediate hiring freeze across the federal government, pending the delivery of a broader plan for shrinking the federal workforce, with special targeting of the Internal Revenue Service.

He gutted racial equity policies and protections for transgender people.

47 ordered an end to all federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and halted Biden administration protections for transgender Americans.

He promised tariffs against Canada and Mexico.

47 announced his plan to impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada beginning on Feb. 1 because those nations were allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” 

So how, exactly, do we fight and defeat ‘Firehose Fascism’? 

1. Establish and maintain a radical vision of that future time when we have rendered 47, his arrogant billionaire buddies, and their sycophants powerless and irrelevant.

2. At the same time, that vision beheld a time beyond the ‘rendering’ when we established a society centered on universal justice for health and healthcare.

3. That same vision was unpacked to understand precisely what we did to establish: a. effective internal and external communications. b. strong, diverse, and enduring visionary leadership. c. nimble and effective strategic planning. d. short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals for learning, building morale, learning lessons, and more. e. we defined our terms, our context, and the participants and players across the political and cultural spectrum.

Yours with enduring hope, radical vision, and purposeful strategy,

Chuck

As the clock strikes midnight, there is much to say about the most obscene action of all taken by 47 on the day of the presidential inaugural and the national holiday commemorating the greatest champion of social justice from the 20th century: Martin Luther King, Jr. The obscenity? Issuing pardons to some 1500 coup co-conspirators on January 6, 2021 — which includes several convicted of violent crimes against police officers. This is what fascism looks like: rewriting history, embracing violence, and celebrating an initially failed, but ultimately successful, coup d’etat.

Stoked and actively encouraged by the loser of the 2020 election, Donald Trump, what began as an attack on the Capitol and its elected officials performing their constitutional duty of ratifying a free and fair election, has now resulted in a conquest of fascism over democracy. The four-year coup prevailed, with virtually no consequences for the violent, law-breaking, armed insurrectionists. The 34-count convicted felon, now president, is poised to break every norm and constitutional restraint on his power. Trump is now a soon-to-be-consolidated dictator among other global dictators, backed by the malevolent billionaire class of sociopaths who care for nothing but their bottom line. It took Hitler 53 days to suspend all democratic processes in the Weimar Republic of Germany, in 1933. How long will it take Trump to spin the same fascist consolidation of anti-democratic tyranny?