Category Archives: Fascism

Philippine Mayor Accused of Drug Ties by Duterte Dies in Police Raid – The New York Times “Old dictator’s tactic: declare war on something and overnight, all your opponents are accused of crimes, assassinated and have illegal items planted on them or the scene#

The raids Sunday came just days after Mr. Duterte, in his annual speech to Congress, pledged to continue his bloody crackdown on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead at the hands of police officers or vigilantes since he took office last summer.“I have resolved that no matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because it is the root cause of suffering,” Mr. Duterte said, asking the United Nations, the European Union and other critics to educate people about drugs rather than condemn him. He said that those involved in drug trafficking would face “either jail or hell.”Carlos H. Conde, a Philippines-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said after Mr. Duterte’s speech that it was a sign that the deaths would continue. “This can only mean more extrajudicial killings and the perpetuation of impunity and absence of accountability,” Mr. Conde said.

The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine Worse than even depicted here – it is just about perceived political advantage to be anti-women, POC, “foreigners,”LGBTQ,” Muslim… and whatever wingnuts fear or hate next.

The tiniest of silver linings here is that Trump probably expected all conservatives to line up joyfully to support this latest bit of awful. And the social conservatives like creepy Steve Bannon and ghoulish Mike Pence are indeed overjoyed. But when someone as conservative and military-fetishizing as Orrin Hatch (!!) issues a statement that you’re wrong to discriminate against transgender people serving in the military, you’re as far on the wrong side of history as it is possible to be.

Source: The Trump Assault on Trans Rights Is the Canary in the Coalmine | Dame Magazine

Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine

You probably don’t know Julie Negrin’s name or her story, but if Trumpcare passes the Senate, she’s likely to become a viral sensation. The 45-year old nutritionist isn’t exaggerating when she says she will die if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed and replaced by Trumpcare. She’s been saying that since the GOP announced its replacement health care plan; after all, without insurance, or with substandard insurance, her body’s already compromised systems will collapse. Over the past week, however, she’s been saying she’ll die under Trumpcare for a different reason. Negrin has made a big, life-changing decision. If Trumpcare passes, she vows to become a martyr for the health care cause by suspending all medical treatment and, as she put it in a Facebook post, “leverag[ing] the fuck out of my slow, sad, suffering, death.” Her hope? “To activate a movement to restore our healthcare system.”It takes thousands of dollars each month to keep Negrin alive, and with her current ACA plan through Blue Shield*, insurance covers most of her medical expenses, even mental health appointments (“There’s a lot of trauma with having organs cut out”) and some naturopathic services. Without ACA coverage and under Trumpcare, her pre-existing conditions will most certainly mean she won’t be able to obtain insurance – not any she can afford, anyway. And there’s no way she can pay out of pocket for the dozens of monthly medical appointments and costly treatments, as well as the check-ups she needs to make sure her multiple cancers remain in remission and that her body hasn’t been invaded by new ones.

Source: Julie Negrin Will Die If the ACA is Repealed | Dame Magazine

How the Catholic Church ties in to Poland′s judicial reform | Europe | DW | 24.07.2017

“An authoritarian party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ‘Law and Justice’ has shaken hands with fundamentalist Catholicism,” the theologian and former Jesuit priest Stanislaw Obirek commented as early as last year, in an interview with the German state broadcaster MDR. The church, he said, had become a political player.Although the chair of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, supported Pope Francis, the majority of the Polish clergy were conservative and openly urged people to vote PiS, Obirek said. The theologian’s assessment was that “it was only through the submissiveness of all political parties towards the church that we ended up with the political situation we have in Poland today.”

Source: How the Catholic Church ties in to Poland′s judicial reform | Europe | DW | 24.07.2017

How to culture jam a populist in four easy steps | openDemocracy

The recipe is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they feel. That you found the bad guys. Label them: the minorities, the politicians, the businessmen. Cartoon them. As vermin, evil masterminds, flavourless hipsters, you name it. Then paint yourself as the saviour. Capture their imagination. Forget about policies and plans, just enrapture them with a good story. One that starts in anger and ends in vengeance. A vengeance they can participate in.That’s how it becomes a movement. There’s something soothing in all that anger. Though full of hatred, it promises redemption. Populism can’t cure your suffering, but it can do something almost as good—better in some ways: it can build a satisfying narrative around it. A fictionalized account of your misery. A promise to make sense of your hurt. It is them. It’s been them all along.For all those who listen, Populism is built on the irresistible allure of simplicity. The narcotic of the simple answer to an intractable question. The problem is now made simple. The problem is you.

Source: How to culture jam a populist in four easy steps | openDemocracy

Donald Trump drops Syria programme ‘in bid to improve Russia ties’ | US news | The Guardian – as viewed by others 60 minutes, Trump says 15 minutes – ROTFLMAO

According to witnesses, Trump rose from his seat and took a place next to Putin, then conversed for an hour with only a Russian interpreter present. The absence of an American official has been widely criticised as a breach of protocol.Sanders added: “They had a brief conversation

Source: Donald Trump drops Syria programme ‘in bid to improve Russia ties’ | US news | The Guardian

The White House just posted the emails of critics — without censoring sensitive personal information – Vox – Thus enabling Russian and GOP trolls the information needed to bully people exercising the 1st Amendment rights.

, the White House just released the sensitive personal information of a lot of concerned citizens giving feedback to their government. That’s made even worse by the fact that the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public.As of Friday afternoon, the emails are still uncensored and available on the White House’s website. They include all sorts of feedback, from concerns about privacy to outright insults of the Trump administration. One email just links to an image of the terrifying pornographic meme Goatse. (Do not Google this if you value your eyes.)“DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA, PERIOD,” said one person whose full name and email address were subsequently released in the collection of emails.The White House website does now warn about the possibility of personal information going public: “Please note that the Commission may post such written comments publicly on our website, including names and contact information that are submitted.” But it’s not clear if the people who sent emails to the White House knew of this before the commission’s website went up this week.

Source: The White House just posted the emails of critics — without censoring sensitive personal information – Vox

While He Was Tweeting: The Collusion Edition, Week 25 | Dame Magazine

Donald Trump Jr., who manages to seem even stupider and more callow than his father, which is quite a feat, took a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, after she promised him hot hot anti-Hillary info. All hell broke loose when this news hit, so Junior went on Fox News aka House Organ Hannity to swear that there were no more shoes to drop. And then news dropped that there was another Russian-American in the room, one who had been Kremlin-cozy too. And then it turned out that there were at least 8 people in the room, though we only know the names of five so far. This nothing-burger of a meeting has turned out to be a veritable clown-car of wannabe treasonists.

Source: While He Was Tweeting: The Collusion Edition, Week 25 | Dame Magazine

In the Blink of an Eye, Police Officers Turned This Traffic Stop Into an Unnecessarily Violent Encounter | American Civil Liberties Union

Within seconds of exiting his vehicle after pulling Anthony over, Agent Joe Joswiak of the Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force opened the door of Anthony’s car, screaming, “Get the fuck out of the car, motherfucker!”Without hesitation, Agent Joswiak pulled, punched, and elbowed Anthony several times in the back while Anthony was still restrained by his seat belt. Agent Joswiak then yanked Anthony out of the car, threw him to the ground, and pressed his knee to the back of Anthony’s neck to pin Anthony facedown on the pavement while he and Sgt. Tim Gaul of the Worthington Police Department applied handcuffs.It turns out the agitated motorist Anthony encountered before being assaulted by Agent Joswiak was an off-duty police officer who called Joswiak to go after Anthony for tailgating him. The officer reports regarding the incident make no mention of any suspicion that Anthony was committing a drug offense.

Source: In the Blink of an Eye, Police Officers Turned This Traffic Stop Into an Unnecessarily Violent Encounter | American Civil Liberties Union

Chris Uhlmann Australia’s Political Editor: Trump ‘has no desire and no capacity to lead the world’ | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Speaking on Sunday from the G20 conference in Hamburg, Uhlmann said Trump had shown “no desire and no capacity to lead the world” and was himself “the biggest threat to the values of the west”.“He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense that some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him,” Uhlmann said.“Where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea which would have put pressure on China and Russia? Other leaders expected it, they were prepared to back it, but it never came.”

Source: Chris Uhlmann Australia’s Political Editor: Trump ‘has no desire and no capacity to lead the world’ | 3CHICSPOLITICO