This is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money.
Sending in the clowns
Reliably, the New York Times finds the mildest, most normalizing way to describe the absolutely bonkers appointment of a Fox "News" host as head of the most powerful military in the history of the world. The expression "outside the norm" doesn't begin to explain how bizarre this is. For more context on early Trump appointments, read this:
Marco Rubio is less a hardliner than a thin and insubstantial slice of soap. What he is mostly is servile, soft. At least in these positions that seems to be what Trump wants – people who’ve already been broken in.
People keep underestimating how prepared Trump and his apparatchiks are to assume power at full speed. Part of the process is installing pure lackeys in the top positions, as this Talking Points Memo piece notes. Trump world is extremely competent in its malevolence. Keep that in mind.
QUOTE: I think the first 90 days is going to be hell. You're going to see the buses. You're going to see the migrants in your home– not just blue cities, red cities– Miami, Houston, Charlotte– like, red states– Kansas City, St. Louis. You're going to see kids not in your schools. You're going to know where they're at because they're waiting in a detention cell and they have cell phones. You're going to see it in social media. You're going to see businesses not be able to open up because their workers didn't show up. You're going to see businesses being raided. And it's going to become more intimate. This isn't going to be about separating a family at the border, that somebody doesn't know that family member. You're talking about separations and movements in your communities where you're going to know the guy– Bill, Juan, Luis. You're going to know the individuals.
This American Life is one of the best things in the audio realm, and this new episode is a must-listen (or read; here's the transcript). The program knits together segments that, in aggregate, are a window into the cruel regime that's coming in January. The sections on abortion and mass deportation are especially stark, because they will help you begin – but only begin – to visualize the extent of Trump's depraved plans, and what we have already lost to the right-wing judges, oligarchs, and theocrats.
Fascism is a phenomenon, not a person. Just as Trump was always a presence, so is the movement he has created. It is not just a matter of the actual fascists in his movement, who are scarcely hiding, nor of his own friendly references to Hitler or his use of Hitlerian language (“vermin,” “enemy within”). He bears responsibility for what comes next, as do his allies and supporters. Yet some, and probably more, of the blame rests with our actions and analysis. Again and again, our major institutions, from the media to the judiciary, have amplified Trump’s presence; again and again, we have failed to name the consequences. Fascism can be defeated, but not when we are on its side.
Snyder is one of our foremost scholars on authoritarianism. He was making clear a long time ago that Trump is an outright fascist, and has been warning us of the danger. This New Yorker piece is glum, even despairing. But it is realistic, because it brings the context we don't get from journalists and it is based on knowlege, not a desire for clickbait. Meanwhile, traditional journalists are downplaying the danger. By the time they understand what they have helped create, they'll be the targets in more than just a rhetorical sense.
QUOTE: Under the bill, the Treasury secretary would issue notice to a group of intent to designate it as a “terrorist supporting organization.” Once notified, an organization would have the right to appeal within 90 days, after which it would be stripped of its 501(c)(3) status, named for the statute that confers tax exemptions on recognized nonprofit groups. The law would not require officials to explain the reason for designating a group, nor does it require the Treasury Department to provide evidence. “It basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit,” said Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action, which opposes the law. “So that would essentially kill any nonprofit’s ability to function. They couldn’t get banks to service them, they won’t be able to get donations, and there’d be a black mark on the organization, even if it cleared its name.”
The "war on terror" has been an integral part of the move toward fascism in America, and Democrats have been collaborators in a systematic attack on fundamental liberties. Now, as a fascist prepares to move (back) into the White House, Democrats are about to give him the power to wipe out the nonprofit groups – including news outlets, universities, and civil liberties organizations – that the extremist right wing wants to crush. PLEASEcontact your House member and implore him/her to back away from a measure – it's called H.R. 9495 – that is among the most severe current threats to civil liberties, education, and free speech.
Josh Marshall
Timothy Snyder
Noah Hurowitz
