Analysis: "Trump's War on Education"

""Trump’s assault on education comes out of the playbook used by all authoritarian regimes."

Read by Eunice Wong

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/trumps-war-on-education-read-by-eunice

#trump #useducation #uspol #autocracy #racism #oligarchy .

Michael Savage : #BBC reporter arrested and deported from #Turkey after covering protests: Mark Lowen considered ‘threat to public order’ after reports on nationwide anti-government demonstrations

#Journalism #erdogan #protests #democracy #autocracy
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/27/bbc-reporter-mark-lowen-arrested-and-deported-from-turkey-after-covering-protests

The Contrarian announces it's adding to its team Ann Telnaes, who courageously resigned her position at Washington Post when editors censored her work to please Trump and his epigone Bezos. Telnaes launches her Contrarian work with a brilliant cartoon series about how autocrats — like Trump — always try to control the media.

#Trump #autocracy #authoritarianism #media

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/ann-telnaes-how-autocracies-take

With some intrinsic flaws in dictators you can do whatever you want with the same outcome: unreasonable aggression and even self-harm. [sic #trump & #putin ]

There wasn't nor isn't anything that will prevent their aggression against democratic institutions since they view them as threat to their power.

#Politics #PoliticOfAggression #Democracy #Autocracy #MalignantNarcissism #Sociopaths #Gluttony #Greed #Oligarchy #Kleptocracy #Oppression #megalomania

Begrepen de kiezers, die ons een extreem rechtse regering bezorgd hebben, dit maar

#freedomofspeech
#democratie
#Democracy
#vrijheid #rechten #rechtvaardigheid #Rechtstaat #pers #journalistiek #onderzoeksjournalistiek #journalism #freePress #dictatuur #dictatorship #autocratie #autocracy

#HR9495 is a slippery slope. Who will be considered #terrorists? #ClimateActivists, those who speak up against #IsraeliWarCrimes, #WaterDefenders, #NativeAmericans, #DragQueens, #GBLTQ folks, #Librarians, #gynecologists, etc., etc. We need to #StopHR9495 in its tracks!

#ClampDown #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DonTheFascistCon
#CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem
#Blackwater #ErikPrince #Autocracy
#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists
#AntiWarActivists #WaterProtectors
#PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #Protests #StandWithStandingRock
#GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide #WeDontNeedThatFascistGrooveThing

Autocracy is flourishing in Israel (not to mention the #USA, #Georgia, #Romania, + others as well as the UK under Starmer who is having a bloody good go. Gone or going is judicial and media independence.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/20/benjamin-netanyahu-gaza-israel-palestinians

#Autocracy #Israel #UkPolitics #Haaretz

Uk Prisons - a disgrace and that is before the politically motivate sentencing.

Some people might have noticed that some Eurpean counties are refusing to extradite on the basis that the prison regime resembles that of the USA

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/climate-activist-experience-jail-prison-uk

#UkPrisons #UkPolitics #Autocracy #Starmer

“Netpol has exposed the ‘state of protest’ in the UK – and it’s not good”

by The Canary @thecanaryuk @UKLabour

“A new report authored by the Network for Police Monitoring (#Netpol) says the aggressive police use of new anti-protest laws, coupled with a growing portrayal of protesters as alleged threats to democracy rather than a vital part of public participation [..] now amounts to #state #repression”

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/03/19/netpol-protest-report/?__s=1toyfummtp6bhspv4akg

#Press #UK #Labour #Starmer #Police #PoliticalPolicing #Autocracy

“Southport Community Independents: local interest ‘above distant bureaucracy’ is first step in national resistance”

by Ed Sykes in The Canary @thecanaryuk

“Independent community organisations are setting up to challenge Britain’s broken electoral system, and taking the first steps towards a resurgent mass movement on the left”

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/03/16/southport-community-independents/?__s=pw3ygmyxve9etudpqdrh

#Press #UK #Left #Independent #Community #Organisations #Resistance #Broken #Electoral #System #Labour #Starmer #FarRight #Autocracy

Interview: Trump’s policies are about "getting rid of institutions where our obligations to one another are worked out."

Musk summed it up as empathy being "the bane of Western civilization." And really, they do think that.

"Their going after things like Medicaid or Social Security is not... an unintended effect. It’s very much what they want to destroy."

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/14/m_gessen

#Trump #Autocracy #USPol #LGBTQ+Rights #Project2025 #Racism #Censorship .

The Chris Hedges Report --> Media-Led Autocracy
.
Ralph Nader says that when you shut out the civic community, you shut down democracy. He places responsibility for that happening, first and foremost, on the mass media.
.
Watch --> https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/11/the-chris-hedges-report-media-led-autocracy/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=8cae233e-33f4-44cc-9f30-d9fefcb0604f
#chrishedges #ralphnader #autocracy #media

Interview: "Judge Blocks Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation as Trump Vows More Arrests"

Khalil’s unprecedented arrest is to punish antiwar student activists & is part of Trump’s racist & fascist agenda.

~Murad Awawdeh

If the intent was to silence free speech, it's not working.

And, as the US anti-genocide movement is mostly made up of Americans, the administration can't deport its way out of this situation.

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/11/mahmoud_khalil_ice_columbia_university_palestine

#FreeSpeech #Trump #Autocracy #Racism #USPol #Columbia .

“Why is Starmer’s ‘national security adviser’ and arch Blairite trying to avoid scrutiny?”

by Ed Sykes in The Canary @thecanaryuk @UKLabour

“Considering Powell’s role in ‘coordinating all UK foreign policy [..]’, perhaps he doesn’t want to speak about Starmer’s #genocide apologism, his support for the Israeli war criminals responsible, or his crackdown on free speech and peaceful protest on behalf of those criminals”

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/03/11/jonathan-powell-starmer/?__s=1toyfummtp6bhspv4akg

#Press #UK #Labour #ToryContinuityParty #Autocracy

Trump's Tesla PR campaign just made an ominous turn:

'Trump floats labeling Tesla dealership protesters 'domestic terrorists'

"If you storm the Capitol and kill police officers you’re a patriot.

But if you protest Tesla dealerships you’re a domestic terrorist."
-Capt Obvious

If Trump declares that protesters are domestic terrorists...

#Musk #Tesla #DOGE #1A #Constitutiion #Fascism #Autocracy #Kleptocracy #Protest #Resist #DueProcess #Trump #USPol

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5189239-trump-tesla-dealership-protesters-domestic-terrorists/

The Home of Lords, replacing (partial) autocrats with appointed ones. They are more interested in how they can subvert British political processes to earn money than Britain (or the rest of the world)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/10/foreign-states-repressive-regimes-pay-peers-over-3m-two-years

#HouseOfLords #Corruption #Bribery #Autocracy #UkPolitics

#GiftArticle

‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing #Retribution, #Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves

The #silence grows louder every day

Fired #FederalWorkers worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. #University presidents fearing that millions in federal #funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief execs alarmed by #tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.

#law #FreeSpeech #democracy #USpol #autocracy #authoritarianism #dissent
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-democracy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=8DC43EDF-B11C-44E1-8C72-A910E200F459

The #Netanyahu Cabinet’s War against Human Rights in #Israel: B’Tselem in the Crosshairs

In early 2023, the most far-right cabinet in Israel’s history launched its war for “judicial reforms” to replace democracy with #autocracy. In fall 2023, it began an obliteration war against #Gaza. Now it is readying to decimate the last human rights defenders in Israel.

#HumanRights #Faacism #Politics #Palestine #Occupation
@palestine group
@israel group
https://www.juancole.com/2025/03/netanyahu-cabinets-crosshairs.html

With almost every answer, #Macron has returned to #security guarantees for #Ukraine, to ensure that #Russia cannot restart its #war. Trump has not uttered the phrase in this news conference.

This meeting is taking place on the same day that the #UnitedStates broke from #France & other European #allies to oppose a #UnitedNations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In voting against it, the United States joined Russia, #Belarus & #NorthKorea. 🤯

#geopolitics #Europe #autocracy

#Macron keeps returning to the 2014 & 2015 #ceasefire agreements, known as the #MinskAccords, that were forged after Russian-backed separatists attacked & grabbed #territory in eastern #Ukraine but that failed to prevent #Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He seems intent on convincing #Trump that a hasty cease-fire will not end the underlying conflict.

#geopolitics #France #US #Europe #allies #war #autocracy

#Biden never had discussions with #Putin after the 2022 invasion because he was following a policy of “nothing about #Ukraine without Ukraine.”

#Trump has obviously discarded that approach & made clear he is willing to make a deal even without Ukraine.

#geopolitics #Russia #war #autocracy

#GiftArticle

#Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against #ForeignInfluenceOperations

The Trump admin has reassigned or forced out several dozen government employees who had been working to fight foreign interference in US #elections at multiple agencies, per current & fmr ofcls.

#disinformation #ForeignInfluenceCampaign #RussianPropaganda #Trumpaganda #RIPdemocracy #law #democracy #ReliableSources #citation #journalism #truth #facts #autocracy #tyranny #TrumpCoup
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/business/trump-foreign-influence-election-interference.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU4.gnf-.58nsSqtp8-vw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShar

"Republicans have long been immersed in transnational networks dedicated to wrecking democracy and now this can be an official part of foreign policy. America will increasingly be part of this autocratic axis."

#Musk #Trump #Republicans #Putin #China #democracy #EconomicElites #authoritarianism #autocracy #Project2025 #WhiteChristianNationalism
/3

"A unifying theme of the actions taken by the new Donald Trump administration and its Project 2025 and other allies is wrecking the United States as a democratic power, to the benefit of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and other autocratic adversaries, and creating the conditions for the U.S. elites and oligarchs to prosper."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Musk #Trump #Putin #China #democracy #EconomicElites #billionaires #autocracy #authoritarianism #Project2025
/1

https://lucid.substack.com/p/wrecking-america-so-that-autocrats

A @direkt36.bsky.social új filmje, A dinasztia már elérhető a YouTube-on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4SXv9qJHM #direkt36 #thedynasty #investigative #journalism #autocracy #orbanviktor #hungary #documentary #corruption

It comes as no surprise that Trump wishes to turn a site of mass genocide into a resort town for him to build upon.
Trump discussing the future of Gaza with Netanyahu is no more ethical than Trump and Putin discussing how to elected a puppet leader in Ukraine. These megalomaniacs need to be stopped.
#gaza #humanrights #fascism #autocracy #Trump #netanyahu #oppression #genocide https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨#Trump:🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

#UnitedStates to TAKE OVER the #Gaza Strip

#Isreal #Hamas #Palestinians #geopolitics #MiddleEast #Usexpansionism #WhatsMineIsMineAndWhatsYourIsMine #Imperialism #Authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny #InternationalLaw #WarCrimes

Morning listening. Amicus from Dahlia Lithwick. Trump’s American Takeover: Autocracy doesn’t always start with tanks in the streets. Guest: Princeton prof. of sociology and international affairs Kim Land Scheppele. #coup #corruption #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2025/02/donald-trumps-executive-orders-put-us-on-the-road-to-autocracy

Dangerous, unprecedented crackdown on climate change protestors to be challenged in the high court today..

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/29/sixteen-jailed-uk-climate-activists-to-appeal-against-sentences

#ClimateChange #LawfulProtest #Antidemocratic #Autocracy #UkPolitics #Starmer

Worth watching this final sign off from Jim Acosta at CNN.
He’s a real one who has been fighting the good fight.
https://bsky.app/profile/deanobeidallah.bsky.social/post/3lgstucczrs2m
#journalism #democracy #autocracy

https://substack.com/@neilshooter/note/c-87571771

#Health #Healthcare #UnitedHealthcare #Luigi #LuigiMangione #BrianThompson #CEO #HumanRights #usa #america #canada #profit #stockprice #shooter #update #news #UniversalSinglePayerHealthcare #BernieSanders #corruption #WeAreStupid #WhatWouldTheFrenchDo #Politics #Corporatocracy #Oligarchy #Plutocracy #autocracy #ToxicCapitalism #Capitalism #Economics #Democracy #EatTheRich #NationalStrike

“If lawyers had followed the norm of no execution without trial, if doctors had accepted the rule of no surgery without consent, if businessmen had endorsed the prohibition of slavery, if bureaucrats had refused to handle paperwork involving murder, then the Nazi regime would have been much harder pressed to carry out the atrocities by which we remember it.”

- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

https://amzn.to/3DGizG5

#democracy #autocracy #law #resistance #DoNotComplyInAdvance #USpol

Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham has dislodged the regime of Bashar al-Assad after a lightning offensive, raising hopes for #Syria's future. Contributing editor Matthew Downhour joins Samantha and Jason on the Neon Liberalism podcast to talk #war, #autocracy, and #democracy. https://www.liberalcurrents.com/neonliberalism/neon-liberalism-7-2/

Given the experience in recently #Egypt, #Libya and #Tunisia, elections in #Syria should not be held until #security is permanently guaranteed for all citizens. Otherwise elections will be the first step to the end of #democracy and the re-establishment of an #autocracy. @geopolitics

#BernieSanders on the Worldwide #Oligarchy

'We are in a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes around a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends oligarchy and massive global income and wealth inequality'

March 23, 2022

"f you watch the corporate media, you'll often hear the word '#oligarch' preceded by the word '#Russian.' But oligarchs aren't uniquely a Russian phenomenon or a foreign concept. No. The United States has its own oligarchy.

"Today, in the United States, the two wealthiest people own more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of our population – more than 130 million Americans. And the top one percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. During the last 50 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth in our country, but it’s going in the wrong direction. The middle class is shrinking while the people on top are doing better than ever.

"Further, in terms of the global economy, there is no question that we are seeing a huge and destructive increase in income and wealth inequality. While the very, very richest people become much wealthier, ordinary people struggle and the most desperate starve.

"While massive levels of inequality existed before the rise of COVID, that situation has become much worse over the past two years.

"Today, around the world, the wealthiest 10 multi-billionaires now own more wealth than the bottom 3.1 billion – almost 40 percent of the world’s population. Unbelievably, the wealth of these ten multi-billionaires has doubled during the pandemic, while the income of 99 percent of the world’s population has declined. The oligarchs spend huge amounts of money buying fancy yachts, mansions and great paintings while 160 million people throughout the world have slipped into poverty. According to Oxfam, global income and wealth inequality has led to the deaths of more than 21,000 people each and every day throughout the world as a result of hunger and the lack of access to healthcare. Yet the world’s 2,755 billionaires saw their wealth go up by $5 trillion since March 2021 – increasing from $8.6 trillion to $13.8 trillion.

"But it’s not just the increased income and wealth gap between the very rich and everyone else. It’s a growing concentration of ownership and brute economic and political power. Something which is not talked about much, either in the media or political circles, is the reality that a handful of Wall Street firms, Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street, now control over $21 trillion in assets – roughly the GDP of the United States. This gives a tiny number of CEOs enormous power over hundreds of companies and the lives of millions of workers. The result: in recent years we have seen the ultra-wealthy significantly increase their influence over media, banking, health care, housing and many other parts of our economy. In fact, never before have so few owned and controlled so much.

"Add it all together and what you see is a nation and world trending very strongly toward oligarchy – where a small number of multi-billionaires exercise enormous economic and political power.

"So, in the midst of all of this, where do we go from here?

"Clearly, while we face oligarchy, COVID, attacks on democracy, climate change, the horrific war in Ukraine and other challenges it is easy to understand why many may fall into cynicism and hopelessness. This is a state of mind, however, that we must overcome – not only for ourselves, but for our kids and future generations. The stakes are just too high, and despair is not an option. We must come together and fight back.

"What history has always taught us is that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always occurs from the bottom on up. That is the history of the labor movement, the #CivilRights movement, the women’s movement, the #environmental movement and the #GayRights movement. That is the history of every effort that has brought about transformational change in our society.

"That is the struggle we must intensify today.

"We must bring people together around a progressive agenda. We must educate, organize and build an unstoppable grassroots movement that helps create the kind of nation and world we know we can become. One that is based on the principles of justice and compassion, not greed and oligarchy.

"We must never lose our sense of outrage when so few have so much and so many have so little.

"We must not allow ourselves to be divided up based on the color of our skin, where we were born, our religion or our sexual orientation.

"The greatest threat of the billionaire class is not simply their unlimited wealth and power. It is their ability to create a culture that makes us feel weak and hopeless and diminishes the strength of human solidarity.

"Yet, as a result of the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the extraordinary courage and solidarity of the Ukrainian people, countries throughout the world are waking up to the fact that there is a global struggle taking place between autocracy and democracy, between authoritarianism and the right of people to freely express their views.

"Now is the time to build a new progressive global order that recognizes every person on this planet shares a common humanity and that all of us – no matter where we live or the language we speak – want our children to grow up healthy, have a good education, breathe clean air and live in peace.

"What we are seeing now is not just the incredible bravery of the people in Ukraine, but thousands of Russians who have taken to the streets to demand an end to Putin’s war in Ukraine, knowing that it’s illegal to do so and that they will likely be arrested and punished.

"We have seen the courage of working people here in our country who are coming together to take on corporate greed and organize for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

"Sisters and brothers, right now we are in a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes around a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends oligarchy and massive global income and wealth inequality.

"It is a struggle we cannot lose. And it is one that we can overcome, as long as we stand together."

https://portside.org/2022-03-23/bernie-sanders-worldwide-oligarchy

#GlobalOligarchy #GlobalPol #USPol #StillSanders #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism #CorporateFascism #Autocracy #WealthInequality #Oligarchs

#Republicans Are Already Trying to Grant #Trump Dangerous Powers

Opinion by #HafizRashid
November 15, 2024

"House Republicans are trying to push through a bill that would give President-Elect #DonaldTrump powers as president to designate #nonprofit organizations as '#TerroristSupporting' even after it was seemingly defeated earlier this week.

"The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act #HR9495 would allow the secretary of the treasury the ability to revoke any nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status by branding it with a terrorism label. Earlier this week, the bill failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority in the House to advance to the Senate.

"But on Monday, the House Rules Committee plans to hold a hearing that could set up a new vote on the bill, which initially had the support of all but one Republican and 52 Democrats. With the GOP only holding a seven seat majority in the chamber, they would need the support of more Democrats to advance the bill, which was introduced to combat #protests against #Israel’s war on #Gaza.

"Under any circumstances, the bill would threaten #FirstAmendment rights to #FreeSpeech, but after Trump’s election last week, there are now fears that the president-elect could use these new powers to crack down on his enemies with little recourse. Many #universities and #NewsOutlets are nonprofit organizations in addition to #activist groups.

"After the bill’s initial failure on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union [#ACLU] celebrated the rejection of 'new broad and easily abused powers.'

"'The freedom to #dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, and now is not the time to grant the executive branch new powers to investigate and functionally shut down and silence its critics,' said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, in a statement.

"Now, the bill could be given a retooling and sent up for a vote again, giving a president who has already threatened to use the #military against his critics even more sweeping powers. The question is if #Democrats will recognize the bill as granting dangerous powers to the presidency, or see it as a chance to clamp down on protesters they have tried to ignore at their peril for the past year.'"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-are-already-trying-to-grant-trump-dangerous-powers/ar-AA1uaihv

#ClampDown #WorkingForTheClampDown #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DonTheFascistCon #StopHR9495
#CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem
#Blackwater #ErikPrince #Autocracy
#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists
#AntiWarActivists #WaterProtectors
#PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #Protests #StandWithStandingRock
#GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide

I lost track of this in my timeline, but saved it to my reading list. Others may want to do the same.

#ThreatTracker #Autocracy #BeSafe

https://www.justsecurity.org/92714/american-autocracy-threat-tracker/