I’m an advocate of exploring civil lawsuits on behalf of those of us who have been labeled terrorists just for peacefully protesting or for criticizing Trump. I am not a terrorist and have never been one.
We should start a class action for defamation against the GOP for the accusations of being terrorist sympathizers. Their violent rhetoric has already manifested a credible death threat against Hakim Jeffries by one of the domestic terrorists who The Orange Mussellini pardoned without consulting the pardon attorney and since she was fired for not approving the restoration of Mel Gibson's gun rights. Perhaps we talk to Michael Popock of Legal AF if he will start a class action.
We must win a war of nudges until politicians have the choice to either comply with the will of the people or be pushed off a purely metaphorical cliff.
I don’t know if it’s possible but I have been reading some law. (I am not a lawyer.) We would have to compile clips and carefully comb through them. I guess I can renew my Twitter account and also look at YouTube and the usual suspects. I can’t tell you how annoyed and angry I am at being labeled a terrorist because of my political beliefs. And I have never threatened anyone in my life. Being constantly labeled a terrorist and violent thug/arsonist has cost me emotional distress and it is slander. I would love to see a million people file suits against any and all of these influencers saying this type of stuff.
Hi there Janean! Maybe you should think about not going on Twitter at all. It's a waste of your time and energy that would be put to much better use working do accomplish things to help stop this anti-fascist regime. As far as YouTube, there are lots of great people to watch/listen to on the Left. Katie Phang, The Meidas Touch Bros., Democracy Docket, and so many more. You can even watch Stephen Colbert's opening monologues from the previous night on You Tube and that page will lead you to many other good ones as will the previous ones I mentioned. Nicolle Wallace might be on YouTube, but I'm not sure. She may just have a podcast. As far as being called a terrorist and a thug, consider the source. Trump? Stephen Miller? J.D. Vance? The rest of the fascists? Why would you care? I consider it a badge of honor, not slander. These people are definitely not influencers of any kind except to other MAGA idiots like themselves. Please don't let it cause you emotional distress of any kind. We need you in the Movement, not sitting home being upset by these jerks. Don't let these a**h***s get you down.
I agree with Jeanna. It is slander, full of lies and contributes to more division in our country. Why should we care? Because our reputations and our integrity are being smeared and stomped on. By the POTUS. And it continues to feed the MAGA fire. So if there were a way to have a class action suit against the perpetrators who call us terrorist, the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, criminals and antifa I would definitely want to get on board with that.
All I can ask is that you please not waste your time and energy on the name-calling that these fascists are engaging in. It doesn’t matter at all. No one except MAGA is listening to their nonsense. We need you to participate in the anti-fascist movement for real and not worry about people calling you names unless they’re insulting your racial, religious, or ethnic origin. If you want ideas as to how to get involved in our movement, please let me know. You can always find me somewhere on Chris’s substack which he is kind enough to let me use to get the word out. Just reach out if you want to get more active.
I haven’t had time until now to explain why FOX News and right wing influencers/podsters calling Democrats and No Kings protesters “terrorists” or anti-American is so dangerous to our democracy and to us as individuals.
Labeling political opponents as criminals or traitors or terrorists is one of the primary tactics of fascists. They do this to foster division and justify their suppression of their political opponents.
Propaganda campaigns saturate society with these negative messages through various media, including newspapers, radio, film, and public rallies. This creates a pervasive narrative that reinforces stereotypes and stokes fear and anger among the population.
If you prefer listening to podcasters and journalists as your primary method to fight fascism that’s fine. I personally am engaged in organizing and also trying to conceive of methods that will create dialogue about the goals of organizations like FOX ‘News.’ If hundreds of thousands of people filed defamation claims against FOX and the rest of the fascist organizations, including podcasters , Twitter posters, etc. it would certainly generate huge buzz and shed light on what is really happening.
Blue states and a few lower court judges seem to be our last resort. . . that and boycotting MAGA-supporting businesses, at least to start. Consumers have tremendous power and I dearly hope No Kings, Indivisible and their networks plan some product and service boycotts. Even 1 or 2 days can have an impact. It's a start.
Chris, you knocked it out of the park again. I will send your column to Newsom, Bonta, Schiff, my congressman, and Padilla.
There is a boycott planned for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. It seems that several coalitions have come together on it. Please join in if you can.
It's from Nov. 25-Dec. 2. Before Thanksgiving, during, and after--a time when lots of money on lots of things is spent. We're asking that you don't have any events or projects, that you do no banking other than at local credit unions, no use of credit cards, try to cut back on consumption of all forms of energy (gas, electricity, kerosene, etc.) shop only locally if at all possible, restrict all purchases to medicine and groceries only, no travel or unnecessary driving and if at all possible, do not show up for work (unless you would lose your job by doing that). Also, I personally recommend taking flu and COVID vaccines since we need healthy people to fight fascism. Take Tylenol when in pain. Don't listen to RFK, Jr's bullshit advice. He's just another sycophant of Trump.
Yup - I know the drill. We participated last time too. We're stocked up and ready for a longer one as well. Saw all this coming a long time ago. Hope we get even more participation this time.
I sat in on the “No Kings 2” debrief call on Tuesday evening along with over 41 thousand other interested folks. One of my takeaways from the messaging is that there are not yet nearly enough “activated” individuals to make a truly mass/nationwide economic action successful. While there were an estimated seven million people in the streets for protests on October 18, that is still well short of Dr. Erica Chenoweth’s now-famous “3.5% Rule.” That would translate to roughly eleven million individuals. We’re simply going to need to recruit more people.
However, that does not rule out smaller, more targeted efforts or just individual people performing acts of conscience by changing their economic activity. As was reported during the call, roughly 1.7 million people cancelled their Disney+ subscriptions in the wake of the Jimmy Kimmel situation and that was enough for Disney to change direction. Obviously, the “Tesla Takedown” also worked reasonably well—because it amplified negative business trends that were already going on across that company. Bottom line—until we get stronger in terms of total active participants, we’re going to have to pick our battles carefully if we want to see an effect.
Thank you so much for your efforts. I’m also trying to be a small bore “subversive” when I find myself in a teachable moment. It’s not much but every little bit helps.
There is a boycott planned for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. It seems that several coalitions have come together on it. Please join in if you can.
The problem with this is simple. We still don’t have nearly enough people to make a difference in an economy as big as America’s. Perhaps picking one single target might work and there’s certainly nothing wrong with people changing their individual economic behavior based on conscience.
However if the intent is to send some sort of message the base of actively engaged people is not yet big enough. That’s what the 3.5 percent rule is all about.
I hear you, Kim, but if everyone keeps joining in on these efforts I believe the momentum will grow. The first boycott they announced supposedly did $47 mil of damages, which encouraged more people to join in this time. It's my belief that all efforts should be encouraged. Everyone resist in as many legal ways as they possibly can.
It’s interesting that on last night’s debriefing call there was no mention from any of the organizations involved of any economic activities-yet. The only “ask” was an easy one— to contact your elected officials and remind them to support the Democrats’ position on the government shutdown.
There’s a reason why the “asks” are still pretty simple. The main activity is growing the base so that when we do speak it is with one voice and a unified message.
What troubles me is that Trump is historically unpopular and fully 40% of adults responding to polls “strongly opposing” him. Despite that even asking for something as easy as an hour or so of people’s time on a pleasant (in most places) fall Saturday only got a response of around 2%. We should already be way past the magic 3.5 percent and moving on to bigger things.
Asking people to change their economic behavior will be a much heavier lift so we’ll need lots more fully engaged people to make that work. I’m wondering what we’re missing.
Question for your Christopher: I just had a very successful experience suing a large company in small claims court. Their legal dept didn't even respond, but had their cust serv rep send a check for the full $10k, overnight.
Is there a strategy to ditch the lawyers, and bring a viral number of small claims against Fox, et. al. One by one. share the boilerplate of the complaint. Force them to defend each one individually... Death by a thousand cuts?
I have had the same thoughts of hundreds of thousands of folks filing against FOX and also filing suits against individual podcasters/influencers. Calling someone a terrorist is slander.
USE THIS ARTICLE AS A BASIS FOR LETTERS TO YOUR REPS:
DEAR REPRESENTATIVE,
I am writing to urge you to take immediate and strong action against the systematic disinformation campaigns proliferating in our media landscape. It is essential that our state establishes criminal penalties for those who engage in such deceitful practices, instead of relying on civil penalties which have proven ineffective.
The law recognizes the dangers of false claims, such as the well-known example of falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater. Yet, it paradoxically permits billionaire-controlled media outlets to spread blatant falsehoods about critical social and economic issues, often without any repercussions. When entities like Fox News or Sinclair Broadcast Group knowingly disseminate misinformation to protect their own interests, it constitutes fraud that directly harms our citizens.
I strongly advocate for prosecutors in our state to file criminal charges against media figures and executives involved in these fraudulent operations. It is crucial to hold these individuals accountable and make them defend their actions in a court of law. The time has come to confront the uncomfortable reality that systematic deception, particularly when funded by dubious sources, is not mere opinion but a serious crime undermining our democracy.
Furthermore, public interest must be protected, especially from companies like Sinclair that operate numerous stations under licenses granted by the FCC. These licenses come with the responsibility to serve the public good, which disinformation clearly undermines. Our state should petition for the revocation of these licenses and be prepared to challenge any refusals in court.
The acquisition of significant media outlets, such as Warner Bros Discovery by Larry Ellison, must also be scrutinized. We should file challenges based on information infrastructure concerns, rather than merely economic competition. Concentrating the power of media into the hands of individuals with significant government contracts poses a direct threat to our democratic processes.
Additionally, I urge the enactment of state-level Foreign Agents Registration Acts requiring transparency in foreign government funding. Criminal penalties must be enacted for those who fail to disclose such affiliations, ensuring that our citizens are not misled.
We need to demand accountability from our state representatives. Please, take action to pursue criminal charges for election disinformation, block harmful media consolidation, and impose penalties on platforms that fail to comply with transparency measures regarding foreign funding.
I implore you to take a firm stand against misinformation and protect the integrity of our democracy. Thank you for your attention to this pressing issue
I have often thought so-called "Fox News" should be sued for deceptive advertising. Their own statements in court reveal they are not news yet tbd name including the word "news" is on the screen 100% of the time!
As always, Christopher Armitage, this is a thoughtful, well-researched and well-argued essay; this time on the question of how can local government in the U.S., at the city and state level, enact laws to protect democratic institutions and governance against erosion and manipulation by billionaire criminality?
.
I have a couple of thoughts on the matter I would like to share – one in support of your proposals, but also another that questions whether there even exists, any more, a civil foundation in the nation capable of manifesting any substantive resistance against the fascist project of Trump and the billionaires.
.
Six months ago (Sunday April 13th 2025), Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor published an article in The Guardian called, “The Rise of End Times Fascism: The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them.”
In the context of your article here today, Klein and Taylor’s essay on End Times Fascism is well worth the read; in particular because they raise the claim that the billionaire class, on the whole, should be recognized as being traitors to humanity and to the planet: that is, to the world’s community of human beings, and to the biosphere, and all its inhabitants.
.
Note that Klein and Taylor do not intend these claims as hyperbolae. They literally intend that those billionaires who are identifiably betraying the human community and the biosphere, should be indicted as such, and treated as such. I recommend reading and considering their arguments in the light of your own essay and contemplating the possible implications.
.
Having said that, however, I must add, also, that I do not feel terribly optimistic that your various proposals for resisting and overcoming the U.S. fascist project will find any substantial traction – not at the level of local and state governance, not from professional politicians, and not in civil society either. At least, not on a sufficient scale to impede the contemporary U.S. fascist project.
.
The reason I give for this lack of optimism is that the signs are that Trump and the billionaires have already won. My litmus test for this is in the failure of U.S. society – whether at the level of federal, state, or local governance, or within civil society – to manifest any substantial level of resistance to the horrific ongoing genocide in Gaza.
.
Even though polls show that majorities in many categories of U.S. populations are opposed to the genocide, the community on the whole has demonstrated that it is essentially acquiescent to that murderous project. That they are willing to watch those millions of children, women, and men, "go not softly into that dark night", while they themselves fail to “rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”
.
During the recent No Kings protests, for instance, only a very small proportion – maybe 1% of the protestors -- presented opposition to the genocide. Most simply oppose Trump as a leader. They are willing, apparently to depose, if they can, a genocidal Trump, and will be content, it seems, to return to the status quo ante, by replacing him with a genocidal leader from the opposing camp of the Democrats.
.
On my evaluation, however, a nation of people that lacks both the heart and the backbone to speak out against an accelerating intensified genocide in which their nation is – and has been for many generations -- deeply implicated, will not prove capable of withstanding a well orchestrated fascist takeover of their society, because the nation was half-way there already when the present administration simply intensified the pre-existing U.S. fascism project by bringing it back to the home country, at the core of the U.S. empire.
.
One must construe, therefore, that both the members of civil society and the local and state politicians whom you seem to be hoping to recruit to oppose the fascism-at-home project of Trump and the billionaires, don’t really oppose fascism all that much, and they don’t oppose U.S. fascism, either. They simply oppose bringing U.S. fascism home to the U.S.
.
And that minor distinction, I think we will all find, simply will not be enough to provide either citizens or elected officials with the heart and the backbone needed to oppose and resist the U.S. fascist project altogether. They are already half committed to it, anyway. As the pressure mounts, they will give in to it, and they will submit.
.
The only true alternative is to oppose fascism in its entirety, both at home and abroad, and only a small proportion of the U.S. population is doing that. Indeed, for that matter, I almost never see you, yourself, calling for that opposition to U.S. fascism abroad in your own articles. (Or, if you do occcasionally, not with any frequency).
.
When and if you ever determine that there is an inescapable need to oppose and resist both of these equally – U.S. fascism at home AND abroad – and when you start analyzing how to integrate and apply both of these principles simultaneously, maybe then you will come up with a path forward that would provide the U.S. community with both the heart and the backbone to achieve a journey forward that will the bring the country out of the present darkness.
Sean, there is SO much that is dishearteningly true in what you say that I am tempted to throw in the towel. But, since I have been working all my life in support of the holistic end to fascism, hegemony and systemic transformation, there's no point in my stopping now!We need to keep on fighting that fight even though success doesn't seem possible, because it never does seem possible - until it happens.
Just to be clear, Paula, I am not trying to persuade anyone to throw in the towel. On the other hand, neither am willing to throw in my lot with a community of people vested in a “save the old order program” that is all but exclusively focused on “save America from fascism,” while still committed to the U.S. Empire’s long-standing program of exporting its fascism abroad – as it does through its doppelganger in the historical land of Palestine.
.
The entire nation here went through this same kerfuffle last fall, in November of 2024, when the Democratic Party told the voters that opposing a genocide that mostly consist ofs the mass killing of children simply is not on the cards, and that the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians always has been, and always will be, policy for the Democratic Party. And that the voters could like it or lump it. Following which, the youth of the country stayed away in droves, by voting with their feer. And Kamila Harris’s wish to be appointed Genocider-in-Chief was denied her.
.
Now, today, these No Kings protests are little more than the Democratic Party’s platform warmed over – offering little more than a return to the status quo ante of oppressive economic conditions at home for the many, and fascism turned outward to whatever country and peoples the U.S. Empire cares to eat alive.
.
While this time round, the nation, they propose, is to be governed by the Democratic Party’s newest tag team of wannabe Genociders-in-Chief: Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Octavia Cortez, who are apparently marketing themselves to the county as the saviors of the moment, the sort of kinder, gentler fascists who will save us from Big Bad Trump – for such they are in wholly endorsing the genocide (while telling us it makes them “feel sad”)
.
If you or anybody else wish to generate a genuine opposition to fascism, best be prepared to “eat the whole chili,” and not just nibble on it.
I agree with you about the Democratic party (I am not a Democrat). The country and our policies need a complete restructuring. I agree about the young people and I am committed - with my son - to working toward a new vision for the next generations. We have been disgusted by the neo-liberal acceptance of this latest horror of genocide in Gaza and the various versions of the same old same old moderate passivity. I don't know who the real leader(s) will be in this movement, but we are still a strong current inside the wave that's growing.
As a point of clarity from MY perspective on No Kings, etc. - here in the SF Bay Area, MANY of us protesting Saturday's rally (and in other actions) are NOT satisfied with the "warmed over" neo-liberal platform and have been asking for big chunks of change, not just nibbles. Be assured, we are nonviolent, but we are a force to be reckoned with.
First off, I liked the cartoon you posted about your hubby at the door greeting the representatives of “The Regime” and I reposted it. 😊
.
I also saw your post that AOC is “a damned good legislator.” Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the only thing that matters to me, personally, is that she is an ambitious professional politician who has thrown the Palestinians under the bus, and she served as Harris’ attack dog against Jill Stein, in November of 2024, the only anti-genocidal presidential candidate, and the only one vociferously opposing the Gaza genocide.
.
AOC has continued in that vein since then -- supporting the genocide while trying to give the impression of not doing so -- as has Bernie Sanders.
.
The function of an AOC and a Bernie Sanders to draw dissidents back into the Democratic Party by creating the illusion that they themselves are dissidents to the status quo. They are NOT!. They ARE the status quo, and they are infinitely more dangerous in that respect than a Donald Trump, because they present themselves in the guise of a friend to the Left. They are NOT! They are what was traditionally known as The Judas Goat, trained by the shepherds to lead the lambs to their slaughter. And they do this so very, very effectively.
.
Nevertheless, I wish you good luck with your efforts.
As for AOC, I like her willingness to buck the mainstream and press her Democratic Socialist agenda. As for her support of Harris, I chalk it up to a desperate campaign to try to keep the current monster out of the White House. We hated having the choice between Harris & Trump --because, realistically, a vote for Stein or anyone else (or no one at all) was effectively a vote for Trump, which is why he won.
I honestly think you are being too hard on AOC and Bernie but you are right that they are "working from within the system" at this point; to that extent, they are much more acceptable to me than what we have now. At least they are brave enough to publicly oppose the status quo; I know you don't believe that they would really help change things, but they have gone farther than most who are in positions of power.
I will have to review particular actions & positions, but I have been under the impression that they have been strongly opposed to US's & Israel's actions in Gaza. Bernie recently slammed the Trump admin over its peace deal, saying that the damage far outweighs the progress made & that Trump has “continued the policies” begun under the Biden admin that led to 160,000 wounded Palestinians & 65,000 deaths of 'mostly women, children, & the elderly.'” (He added that “No one in this country deserves a Nobel Peace Prize who has been part of that, & Trump has been part of it.")
I appreciate your perspective - I really do - and I am glad that you concern yourself with the reform of our government here in the US. I have visited and love Ireland, but I have a hard enough time dealing with where I live, so I am not at all able to comment on how things are there right now. I was glad to read a recent article about how Irish people strongly oppose the genocide via famine in Gaza, especially because of your own tragic history. Blessings to all of you on that magical island.
And thank you for your kind words about Ireland. I agree that it is a magical land “over there” – where I am not, BTW – as to opposed to “over here” where I, in fact, am, because I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, and have been, for many decades. (If you read my last several articles, they are about my present city of residence, The City of Boulder, in Colorado).
.
First of all, the numbers: the 65,000 dead? That’s complete nonsense. That’s only the number of dead for which corpses have been recorded and identified and properly processed buried – in the middle of a horrific program of ethnic erasure and mass destruction. In fact, however, for over two years – and apart from all their other modes of mass murder – the Israelis having dropping a quantity of explosives that adds up to many times the explosive might of what was dropped on Hiroshima, but on a tiny plot of land – the Gaza Strip – that is not even as large as the Greater Dublin Area in the capital city of Dublin, in my birthland of the island of Ireland.
.
That’s not even considering the snipers’ bullets, and the killing by starvation, and by disease, and everything else. And this has gone on relentlessly, and almost continually, for nearly 800 days now. Professional estimates by statisticians, medical personnel, and scientists are that the actual number of dead in Gaza is now well over 680,000, and probably fast approaching three quarters of a million, if not already exceeding that. Of course these are the true numbers! You can’t pound a densely populated tiny piece of land like that for over two years, and starve them by blockade, and destroy all their water resources, all their anticultural resources, all their sewage resources, all their hospitals, and kill just 65,000 people out of a population of two million. That’s an absurd proposition. Some of my articles on my Substack webpage talks about this. Feel free to read them.
.
And, if you’re a true believer in the “dynamic duo” that we are talking about – our saviors of the hour – I just cannot invest the energy and time it would take to reeducate you as to what their actual role and function truly is in all of this, and in our society – although I will try a little. In the final analysis, however, I am no more likely to persuade you of that truth, than to persuade a Trumpian true believer as to what Trump truly is. In that way, all of the true believers have more in common with each than they have differences: the Trumpian true believers, the Democrat true-believers, and the Bernie-AOC true believers.
.
Are Bernie and AOC “working from within the system”? Well, they sure as hell are “working us,” and they ARE the system. So, maybe you’re right in a sense.
.
You affirm your belief in the claim that Bernie and AOC… “…have been strongly opposed to US's & Israel's actions in Gaza.” They are nothing of the sort. What they are is very, very good at the theatrical performance of pretending to care…. Because they want the votes from true believers like you. In fact, however, they have both been screwing the Palestinians over royally for a long, long time. (Study further on this, if you like).
.
But just look at even the few remarks that you cited above in respect to Sanders: you wrote that "Bernie recently slammed the Trump admin over its peace deal, saying that the damage far outweighs the progress made." He says a lot of sh*t like that. If you drill down to what he is actually saying, when he, for instance, criticizes Netanyahu for being a bit too brutal, what he is actually saying is that Netanyahu is overdoing the genocide a little, that he is going just a bit too far. You should understand what this truly means: Bernie is "down with" the genocide. He supports it. He always has. He just wants Israel to tone it down a little, because they are "disturbing the neighbors." More to the point, they are disturbing his voters.
.
Bernie still signs off on Israel's weaponry (from the U.S.). He just wants to reduce it a little. And listen to what he says about how the October 7th prison break by the inmates against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory "justifies Israel in defending itself" against the resistance by the occupied peoples. Well, no it does not. Study what Francesca Albanese says on this: neither morally or legally, does an occupier have a right to “defend” against a defense by the occupied. That’s all complete and utter nonsense, because they are the ones who are the assailant. They are the aggressor.
.
Think about it. If some criminals break into your home. Take you all captive. Murder some of you. Torture others. Steal from you. And you fight back. You defend yourselves. Do the criminals have a “right to defend themselves”? Of course not. That’s bullsh*t. Yet, Bernie repeats that sh*t every time. He is an apologist for genocide.
.
Bernie signs off on the missiles to Israel that allows it to act with impunity. That allows it to commit genocide with impunity.
There. Is. No. Soft. Position. On. Genocide. … Period!
Genocide is genocide. And Bernie supports it and AOC supports it.
.
And the “lesser of the two evils argument did itself to death a long, long time ago. But, hey, that’s okay: 99% of voters believe wholeheartedly in that argument, and they vote that way in every election. And, in every election, they vote for the American fascism project, one way or another. (Trump is just the most recent iteration of that fascism project).
.
The Republican voters vote that way, and the Democrat voters vote that way, and Bernie-AOC voters vote that way. And every one of the recipients of those votes delivers whatever is the most recent iteration of the American fascism project to the oligarchs and the plutocrats in one way or another – including these “darlings of the left.”
.
In the last election, 99% of active U.S. voters voted for a Genocider-in-Chief. Well, under 1% of active voters cast their ballots for Jill Stein, which meant that any votes cast for her had no effect, whatsoever, on the outcome of the election. If every Jill Stein vote had been handed off to Harris – as she believed and declared was her privilege as the anointed heir of the Democratic establishment (she was anointed, remember, not elected, as the Dem’s candidate) – it wouldn’t have a made a single iota of difference. She still would not have been elected. (And that would have been the same for all the other contenders: less than 1% of the vote went to all of them collectively: those votes, also, wouldn’t have made a difference).
.
That whole schtick about “…realistically, a vote for Stein or anyone else… …was effectively a vote for Trump, which is why he won…,” it’s just simply factually untrue. That never happened. It never happened that the tiny number of votes for non-duopoly candidates took votes away from Harris and caused her to lose the election.
.
There’s a word for that kind of thing. It’s called a “lie.” Now, you come across to me as a decent person. So, I don’t think you deliberately intend to lie to me. But the thing is that, nevertheless, you are repeating the lies that have been fed to you. And it seems, unquestioningly so.
That 99% of voters who voted, last November, for a Genocider-in-Chief, actually got what they voted for. It is true that a little under half of the active voters – who, as we saw, voted for one Genocider-in-Chief or another – did not get the specific Genocider-in-Chief in question that they had cast their ballot for. They got a different Genocider-in-Chief – the one that the other 50%+ voted for.
.
Nevertheless, all 99% of active voters did get something that they all voted for: they got a Genocider-in-Chief and they got a genocide: a pedal-to-to-the-metal, maximum sadism, maximum murder spree, day in and day out genocide. And 99% of active American voters voted for that genocide. (If Harris had been voted into office, it would have been continued under her also. She said she would do it. She supported it as Biden’s “wingman.” And she would have done it herself). If you asked any number of those American voters: did they support the genocide? …more than half of them would probably tell you they don’t. Nevertheless, they voted for it, and they got it.
.
Now, here’s the thing: that tiny fraction of active voters in November of last year, 2024, who cast their vote for Jill Stein? Their votes may not have kept Trump out of office, nor did they keep Harris out of office, nor did they stop the genocide, but they did achieve one positive outcome at least. When those people observe the most recent reports on the Israelis’ sadistic mass murder campaign come streaming over their phones, day in and day out, there is one small thing that they are free of: they did not vote for this genocide.
.
Do you think I’m being too harsh? Maybe I should speak more nicely about matters like this? What do you think? You said that you think I’m being “too hard on AOC and Bernie.” Maybe I’m being too hard on my fellow U.S. citizens also? Maybe I should say nicer things to them? Possibly I should interpret their actions in a nicer way? Would that help, do you think?
.
One little thing you wrote, however, does strike me as being interesting: you claimed that the voters who voted for “no one at all” shared responsibility for Trump being in office. Well, the fact is that the level of discouragement among eligible voters in our nation is off the charts. U.S. citizens have about the lowest level of voter participation anywhere in the developed world. They look at the choices they are offered in the voting booth, and they are so appalled, they just don’t want to show up.
.
You know what Ralph Nader said about the kinds of choices that U.S. citizens are offered in the voting booth? (I believe it was in reference to the choice of voting for Trump or for Biden). He described it as being a choice of voting for gonorrhea or for syphilis. What kind of a choice is that, he asked.
Another superb column, Christopher! I’ve been thinking for some time that the end of the “fairness doctrine“ in media and the appearance of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are responsible for the present moment. How can we possibly have a functioning democracy if a large portion of our electorate are fed a constant stream of right wing-propaganda? Given that the federal government has been captured by Republicans, blue-state action is the only recourse at the moment.
I intend to forward your column to my California officials.
Chris is correct, as usual. The only levers of democratic power left are at the state level, and elected officials should be yanking on them like their lives depend on it.
At the federal level, all the Dems have left are their voices, and they are not even using them. Every time I see one of them, talking to a cable news talking head about the polls and the midterms, I fell like I am watching the band on the pitching deck of the Titanic.
The one useful thing they could be doing is to repeat, over and over, that the ship is sinking. Every single time they are on the floor, or in front of a mic, they should state that the government has been captured by authoritarians. That they will vote NO, on principle, to everything. That history shows that there is no point in compromising with fascists. And instructing their colleagues in state governments to systematically obstruct and prosecute, or prepare for life in Gilead.
I have been using the “Shouting Fire!” Analogy for a very long time. Yes, the disinformation is poisoning us. Decades of drumbeat that Democrats/liberals are bad, can’t be trusted, are out to get you. Just open your eyes to see the result.
Thank you for Part 2. You give us the compelling details, connect dots, point to useful action and encourage action. You bring us to the existential moment in a powerful way…evoke sober realism that includes reasons to hope we can have impact. Thank you again. And yes… each State’s power and the power which can come from States combining in a purposeful fight is a worthy hope. Can lead to something of value….perhaps something with a new form.
I never did understand why people when you hear something on the news, you don’t question if it sounds a little wonky. I listen to what I think is halfway “reputable” news, the good old-fashioned network news, NPR, MSNBC and CNN for cable news and we still get a good old-fashioned newspaper! So these people that get their news from Twitter! Twitter is not news. It’s people’s opinions,just like Fox, same thing with Facebook! My husband and I are dinosaurs, we have no social media, except for Substack & as much as I love Substack I don’t use it as my news network. In this day and time, people just need to be a little bit more skeptical. What’s that old saying “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is”. And if it sounds a little out in right field, it probably is.
Thank you for saying what I've been trying to tell people for a long time now - a for-profit media is no longer compatible with democracy.
Except you have a much larger audience than I do, so keep saying it!
I’m an advocate of exploring civil lawsuits on behalf of those of us who have been labeled terrorists just for peacefully protesting or for criticizing Trump. I am not a terrorist and have never been one.
At the VERY LEAST, it should be slander!
We should start a class action for defamation against the GOP for the accusations of being terrorist sympathizers. Their violent rhetoric has already manifested a credible death threat against Hakim Jeffries by one of the domestic terrorists who The Orange Mussellini pardoned without consulting the pardon attorney and since she was fired for not approving the restoration of Mel Gibson's gun rights. Perhaps we talk to Michael Popock of Legal AF if he will start a class action.
An excellent idea. Who and how?
We must win a war of nudges until politicians have the choice to either comply with the will of the people or be pushed off a purely metaphorical cliff.
I don’t know if it’s possible but I have been reading some law. (I am not a lawyer.) We would have to compile clips and carefully comb through them. I guess I can renew my Twitter account and also look at YouTube and the usual suspects. I can’t tell you how annoyed and angry I am at being labeled a terrorist because of my political beliefs. And I have never threatened anyone in my life. Being constantly labeled a terrorist and violent thug/arsonist has cost me emotional distress and it is slander. I would love to see a million people file suits against any and all of these influencers saying this type of stuff.
Hi there Janean! Maybe you should think about not going on Twitter at all. It's a waste of your time and energy that would be put to much better use working do accomplish things to help stop this anti-fascist regime. As far as YouTube, there are lots of great people to watch/listen to on the Left. Katie Phang, The Meidas Touch Bros., Democracy Docket, and so many more. You can even watch Stephen Colbert's opening monologues from the previous night on You Tube and that page will lead you to many other good ones as will the previous ones I mentioned. Nicolle Wallace might be on YouTube, but I'm not sure. She may just have a podcast. As far as being called a terrorist and a thug, consider the source. Trump? Stephen Miller? J.D. Vance? The rest of the fascists? Why would you care? I consider it a badge of honor, not slander. These people are definitely not influencers of any kind except to other MAGA idiots like themselves. Please don't let it cause you emotional distress of any kind. We need you in the Movement, not sitting home being upset by these jerks. Don't let these a**h***s get you down.
I agree with Jeanna. It is slander, full of lies and contributes to more division in our country. Why should we care? Because our reputations and our integrity are being smeared and stomped on. By the POTUS. And it continues to feed the MAGA fire. So if there were a way to have a class action suit against the perpetrators who call us terrorist, the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, criminals and antifa I would definitely want to get on board with that.
All I can ask is that you please not waste your time and energy on the name-calling that these fascists are engaging in. It doesn’t matter at all. No one except MAGA is listening to their nonsense. We need you to participate in the anti-fascist movement for real and not worry about people calling you names unless they’re insulting your racial, religious, or ethnic origin. If you want ideas as to how to get involved in our movement, please let me know. You can always find me somewhere on Chris’s substack which he is kind enough to let me use to get the word out. Just reach out if you want to get more active.
I haven’t had time until now to explain why FOX News and right wing influencers/podsters calling Democrats and No Kings protesters “terrorists” or anti-American is so dangerous to our democracy and to us as individuals.
Labeling political opponents as criminals or traitors or terrorists is one of the primary tactics of fascists. They do this to foster division and justify their suppression of their political opponents.
Propaganda campaigns saturate society with these negative messages through various media, including newspapers, radio, film, and public rallies. This creates a pervasive narrative that reinforces stereotypes and stokes fear and anger among the population.
If you prefer listening to podcasters and journalists as your primary method to fight fascism that’s fine. I personally am engaged in organizing and also trying to conceive of methods that will create dialogue about the goals of organizations like FOX ‘News.’ If hundreds of thousands of people filed defamation claims against FOX and the rest of the fascist organizations, including podcasters , Twitter posters, etc. it would certainly generate huge buzz and shed light on what is really happening.
Blue states and a few lower court judges seem to be our last resort. . . that and boycotting MAGA-supporting businesses, at least to start. Consumers have tremendous power and I dearly hope No Kings, Indivisible and their networks plan some product and service boycotts. Even 1 or 2 days can have an impact. It's a start.
Chris, you knocked it out of the park again. I will send your column to Newsom, Bonta, Schiff, my congressman, and Padilla.
There is a boycott planned for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. It seems that several coalitions have come together on it. Please join in if you can.
It's from Nov. 25-Dec. 2. Before Thanksgiving, during, and after--a time when lots of money on lots of things is spent. We're asking that you don't have any events or projects, that you do no banking other than at local credit unions, no use of credit cards, try to cut back on consumption of all forms of energy (gas, electricity, kerosene, etc.) shop only locally if at all possible, restrict all purchases to medicine and groceries only, no travel or unnecessary driving and if at all possible, do not show up for work (unless you would lose your job by doing that). Also, I personally recommend taking flu and COVID vaccines since we need healthy people to fight fascism. Take Tylenol when in pain. Don't listen to RFK, Jr's bullshit advice. He's just another sycophant of Trump.
Yup - I know the drill. We participated last time too. We're stocked up and ready for a longer one as well. Saw all this coming a long time ago. Hope we get even more participation this time.
I agree that massive and continual boycotts is a step everyone should be taking. And keep spreading this author's work. We need that. Thanks, Anne.
I sat in on the “No Kings 2” debrief call on Tuesday evening along with over 41 thousand other interested folks. One of my takeaways from the messaging is that there are not yet nearly enough “activated” individuals to make a truly mass/nationwide economic action successful. While there were an estimated seven million people in the streets for protests on October 18, that is still well short of Dr. Erica Chenoweth’s now-famous “3.5% Rule.” That would translate to roughly eleven million individuals. We’re simply going to need to recruit more people.
However, that does not rule out smaller, more targeted efforts or just individual people performing acts of conscience by changing their economic activity. As was reported during the call, roughly 1.7 million people cancelled their Disney+ subscriptions in the wake of the Jimmy Kimmel situation and that was enough for Disney to change direction. Obviously, the “Tesla Takedown” also worked reasonably well—because it amplified negative business trends that were already going on across that company. Bottom line—until we get stronger in terms of total active participants, we’re going to have to pick our battles carefully if we want to see an effect.
Thanks for sharing this.
I'm recruiting people as best I can. My best contributions come from relating history to the present, since that is my background.
I will not stop trying. Too much is at stake.
Thank you so much for your efforts. I’m also trying to be a small bore “subversive” when I find myself in a teachable moment. It’s not much but every little bit helps.
There is a boycott planned for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. It seems that several coalitions have come together on it. Please join in if you can.
The problem with this is simple. We still don’t have nearly enough people to make a difference in an economy as big as America’s. Perhaps picking one single target might work and there’s certainly nothing wrong with people changing their individual economic behavior based on conscience.
However if the intent is to send some sort of message the base of actively engaged people is not yet big enough. That’s what the 3.5 percent rule is all about.
As many people as possible will make a difference. Spread the word. No Kings has grown. So will this.
I hear you, Kim, but if everyone keeps joining in on these efforts I believe the momentum will grow. The first boycott they announced supposedly did $47 mil of damages, which encouraged more people to join in this time. It's my belief that all efforts should be encouraged. Everyone resist in as many legal ways as they possibly can.
It’s interesting that on last night’s debriefing call there was no mention from any of the organizations involved of any economic activities-yet. The only “ask” was an easy one— to contact your elected officials and remind them to support the Democrats’ position on the government shutdown.
There’s a reason why the “asks” are still pretty simple. The main activity is growing the base so that when we do speak it is with one voice and a unified message.
What troubles me is that Trump is historically unpopular and fully 40% of adults responding to polls “strongly opposing” him. Despite that even asking for something as easy as an hour or so of people’s time on a pleasant (in most places) fall Saturday only got a response of around 2%. We should already be way past the magic 3.5 percent and moving on to bigger things.
Asking people to change their economic behavior will be a much heavier lift so we’ll need lots more fully engaged people to make that work. I’m wondering what we’re missing.
I'm working on a piece that addresses recruiting, training, and coordinating action. I think you'll find it answers some of these questions.
I will look forward to reading it—as I do pretty much everything you write.
Question for your Christopher: I just had a very successful experience suing a large company in small claims court. Their legal dept didn't even respond, but had their cust serv rep send a check for the full $10k, overnight.
Is there a strategy to ditch the lawyers, and bring a viral number of small claims against Fox, et. al. One by one. share the boilerplate of the complaint. Force them to defend each one individually... Death by a thousand cuts?
I like this idea, I'll dig in on and see where I get. Thanks for the info and congrats on the win.
my understanding is that the rules of discovery are different in small claims as well, which would make it even easier for individuals to file pro se
I have had the same thoughts of hundreds of thousands of folks filing against FOX and also filing suits against individual podcasters/influencers. Calling someone a terrorist is slander.
a small claims court lawsuit is so simple to file, too.
Lately I've often been reporting them as promoting terrorism
USE THIS ARTICLE AS A BASIS FOR LETTERS TO YOUR REPS:
DEAR REPRESENTATIVE,
I am writing to urge you to take immediate and strong action against the systematic disinformation campaigns proliferating in our media landscape. It is essential that our state establishes criminal penalties for those who engage in such deceitful practices, instead of relying on civil penalties which have proven ineffective.
The law recognizes the dangers of false claims, such as the well-known example of falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater. Yet, it paradoxically permits billionaire-controlled media outlets to spread blatant falsehoods about critical social and economic issues, often without any repercussions. When entities like Fox News or Sinclair Broadcast Group knowingly disseminate misinformation to protect their own interests, it constitutes fraud that directly harms our citizens.
I strongly advocate for prosecutors in our state to file criminal charges against media figures and executives involved in these fraudulent operations. It is crucial to hold these individuals accountable and make them defend their actions in a court of law. The time has come to confront the uncomfortable reality that systematic deception, particularly when funded by dubious sources, is not mere opinion but a serious crime undermining our democracy.
Furthermore, public interest must be protected, especially from companies like Sinclair that operate numerous stations under licenses granted by the FCC. These licenses come with the responsibility to serve the public good, which disinformation clearly undermines. Our state should petition for the revocation of these licenses and be prepared to challenge any refusals in court.
The acquisition of significant media outlets, such as Warner Bros Discovery by Larry Ellison, must also be scrutinized. We should file challenges based on information infrastructure concerns, rather than merely economic competition. Concentrating the power of media into the hands of individuals with significant government contracts poses a direct threat to our democratic processes.
Additionally, I urge the enactment of state-level Foreign Agents Registration Acts requiring transparency in foreign government funding. Criminal penalties must be enacted for those who fail to disclose such affiliations, ensuring that our citizens are not misled.
We need to demand accountability from our state representatives. Please, take action to pursue criminal charges for election disinformation, block harmful media consolidation, and impose penalties on platforms that fail to comply with transparency measures regarding foreign funding.
I implore you to take a firm stand against misinformation and protect the integrity of our democracy. Thank you for your attention to this pressing issue
Thank you for the summary of Christopher‘s essay!
You are very welcome!
I have often thought so-called "Fox News" should be sued for deceptive advertising. Their own statements in court reveal they are not news yet tbd name including the word "news" is on the screen 100% of the time!
.
As always, Christopher Armitage, this is a thoughtful, well-researched and well-argued essay; this time on the question of how can local government in the U.S., at the city and state level, enact laws to protect democratic institutions and governance against erosion and manipulation by billionaire criminality?
.
I have a couple of thoughts on the matter I would like to share – one in support of your proposals, but also another that questions whether there even exists, any more, a civil foundation in the nation capable of manifesting any substantive resistance against the fascist project of Trump and the billionaires.
.
Six months ago (Sunday April 13th 2025), Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor published an article in The Guardian called, “The Rise of End Times Fascism: The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them.”
.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk
.
In the context of your article here today, Klein and Taylor’s essay on End Times Fascism is well worth the read; in particular because they raise the claim that the billionaire class, on the whole, should be recognized as being traitors to humanity and to the planet: that is, to the world’s community of human beings, and to the biosphere, and all its inhabitants.
.
Note that Klein and Taylor do not intend these claims as hyperbolae. They literally intend that those billionaires who are identifiably betraying the human community and the biosphere, should be indicted as such, and treated as such. I recommend reading and considering their arguments in the light of your own essay and contemplating the possible implications.
.
Having said that, however, I must add, also, that I do not feel terribly optimistic that your various proposals for resisting and overcoming the U.S. fascist project will find any substantial traction – not at the level of local and state governance, not from professional politicians, and not in civil society either. At least, not on a sufficient scale to impede the contemporary U.S. fascist project.
.
The reason I give for this lack of optimism is that the signs are that Trump and the billionaires have already won. My litmus test for this is in the failure of U.S. society – whether at the level of federal, state, or local governance, or within civil society – to manifest any substantial level of resistance to the horrific ongoing genocide in Gaza.
.
Even though polls show that majorities in many categories of U.S. populations are opposed to the genocide, the community on the whole has demonstrated that it is essentially acquiescent to that murderous project. That they are willing to watch those millions of children, women, and men, "go not softly into that dark night", while they themselves fail to “rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”
.
During the recent No Kings protests, for instance, only a very small proportion – maybe 1% of the protestors -- presented opposition to the genocide. Most simply oppose Trump as a leader. They are willing, apparently to depose, if they can, a genocidal Trump, and will be content, it seems, to return to the status quo ante, by replacing him with a genocidal leader from the opposing camp of the Democrats.
.
On my evaluation, however, a nation of people that lacks both the heart and the backbone to speak out against an accelerating intensified genocide in which their nation is – and has been for many generations -- deeply implicated, will not prove capable of withstanding a well orchestrated fascist takeover of their society, because the nation was half-way there already when the present administration simply intensified the pre-existing U.S. fascism project by bringing it back to the home country, at the core of the U.S. empire.
.
One must construe, therefore, that both the members of civil society and the local and state politicians whom you seem to be hoping to recruit to oppose the fascism-at-home project of Trump and the billionaires, don’t really oppose fascism all that much, and they don’t oppose U.S. fascism, either. They simply oppose bringing U.S. fascism home to the U.S.
.
And that minor distinction, I think we will all find, simply will not be enough to provide either citizens or elected officials with the heart and the backbone needed to oppose and resist the U.S. fascist project altogether. They are already half committed to it, anyway. As the pressure mounts, they will give in to it, and they will submit.
.
The only true alternative is to oppose fascism in its entirety, both at home and abroad, and only a small proportion of the U.S. population is doing that. Indeed, for that matter, I almost never see you, yourself, calling for that opposition to U.S. fascism abroad in your own articles. (Or, if you do occcasionally, not with any frequency).
.
When and if you ever determine that there is an inescapable need to oppose and resist both of these equally – U.S. fascism at home AND abroad – and when you start analyzing how to integrate and apply both of these principles simultaneously, maybe then you will come up with a path forward that would provide the U.S. community with both the heart and the backbone to achieve a journey forward that will the bring the country out of the present darkness.
.
Sean, there is SO much that is dishearteningly true in what you say that I am tempted to throw in the towel. But, since I have been working all my life in support of the holistic end to fascism, hegemony and systemic transformation, there's no point in my stopping now!We need to keep on fighting that fight even though success doesn't seem possible, because it never does seem possible - until it happens.
.
Just to be clear, Paula, I am not trying to persuade anyone to throw in the towel. On the other hand, neither am willing to throw in my lot with a community of people vested in a “save the old order program” that is all but exclusively focused on “save America from fascism,” while still committed to the U.S. Empire’s long-standing program of exporting its fascism abroad – as it does through its doppelganger in the historical land of Palestine.
.
The entire nation here went through this same kerfuffle last fall, in November of 2024, when the Democratic Party told the voters that opposing a genocide that mostly consist ofs the mass killing of children simply is not on the cards, and that the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians always has been, and always will be, policy for the Democratic Party. And that the voters could like it or lump it. Following which, the youth of the country stayed away in droves, by voting with their feer. And Kamila Harris’s wish to be appointed Genocider-in-Chief was denied her.
.
Now, today, these No Kings protests are little more than the Democratic Party’s platform warmed over – offering little more than a return to the status quo ante of oppressive economic conditions at home for the many, and fascism turned outward to whatever country and peoples the U.S. Empire cares to eat alive.
.
While this time round, the nation, they propose, is to be governed by the Democratic Party’s newest tag team of wannabe Genociders-in-Chief: Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Octavia Cortez, who are apparently marketing themselves to the county as the saviors of the moment, the sort of kinder, gentler fascists who will save us from Big Bad Trump – for such they are in wholly endorsing the genocide (while telling us it makes them “feel sad”)
.
If you or anybody else wish to generate a genuine opposition to fascism, best be prepared to “eat the whole chili,” and not just nibble on it.
.
I agree with you about the Democratic party (I am not a Democrat). The country and our policies need a complete restructuring. I agree about the young people and I am committed - with my son - to working toward a new vision for the next generations. We have been disgusted by the neo-liberal acceptance of this latest horror of genocide in Gaza and the various versions of the same old same old moderate passivity. I don't know who the real leader(s) will be in this movement, but we are still a strong current inside the wave that's growing.
As a point of clarity from MY perspective on No Kings, etc. - here in the SF Bay Area, MANY of us protesting Saturday's rally (and in other actions) are NOT satisfied with the "warmed over" neo-liberal platform and have been asking for big chunks of change, not just nibbles. Be assured, we are nonviolent, but we are a force to be reckoned with.
.
Hello again, Paula.
.
First off, I liked the cartoon you posted about your hubby at the door greeting the representatives of “The Regime” and I reposted it. 😊
.
I also saw your post that AOC is “a damned good legislator.” Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the only thing that matters to me, personally, is that she is an ambitious professional politician who has thrown the Palestinians under the bus, and she served as Harris’ attack dog against Jill Stein, in November of 2024, the only anti-genocidal presidential candidate, and the only one vociferously opposing the Gaza genocide.
.
AOC has continued in that vein since then -- supporting the genocide while trying to give the impression of not doing so -- as has Bernie Sanders.
.
The function of an AOC and a Bernie Sanders to draw dissidents back into the Democratic Party by creating the illusion that they themselves are dissidents to the status quo. They are NOT!. They ARE the status quo, and they are infinitely more dangerous in that respect than a Donald Trump, because they present themselves in the guise of a friend to the Left. They are NOT! They are what was traditionally known as The Judas Goat, trained by the shepherds to lead the lambs to their slaughter. And they do this so very, very effectively.
.
Nevertheless, I wish you good luck with your efforts.
.
Thanks for reposting the cartoon.
As for AOC, I like her willingness to buck the mainstream and press her Democratic Socialist agenda. As for her support of Harris, I chalk it up to a desperate campaign to try to keep the current monster out of the White House. We hated having the choice between Harris & Trump --because, realistically, a vote for Stein or anyone else (or no one at all) was effectively a vote for Trump, which is why he won.
I honestly think you are being too hard on AOC and Bernie but you are right that they are "working from within the system" at this point; to that extent, they are much more acceptable to me than what we have now. At least they are brave enough to publicly oppose the status quo; I know you don't believe that they would really help change things, but they have gone farther than most who are in positions of power.
I will have to review particular actions & positions, but I have been under the impression that they have been strongly opposed to US's & Israel's actions in Gaza. Bernie recently slammed the Trump admin over its peace deal, saying that the damage far outweighs the progress made & that Trump has “continued the policies” begun under the Biden admin that led to 160,000 wounded Palestinians & 65,000 deaths of 'mostly women, children, & the elderly.'” (He added that “No one in this country deserves a Nobel Peace Prize who has been part of that, & Trump has been part of it.")
I appreciate your perspective - I really do - and I am glad that you concern yourself with the reform of our government here in the US. I have visited and love Ireland, but I have a hard enough time dealing with where I live, so I am not at all able to comment on how things are there right now. I was glad to read a recent article about how Irish people strongly oppose the genocide via famine in Gaza, especially because of your own tragic history. Blessings to all of you on that magical island.
.
Paula, thank you for your response.
.
And thank you for your kind words about Ireland. I agree that it is a magical land “over there” – where I am not, BTW – as to opposed to “over here” where I, in fact, am, because I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, and have been, for many decades. (If you read my last several articles, they are about my present city of residence, The City of Boulder, in Colorado).
.
First of all, the numbers: the 65,000 dead? That’s complete nonsense. That’s only the number of dead for which corpses have been recorded and identified and properly processed buried – in the middle of a horrific program of ethnic erasure and mass destruction. In fact, however, for over two years – and apart from all their other modes of mass murder – the Israelis having dropping a quantity of explosives that adds up to many times the explosive might of what was dropped on Hiroshima, but on a tiny plot of land – the Gaza Strip – that is not even as large as the Greater Dublin Area in the capital city of Dublin, in my birthland of the island of Ireland.
.
That’s not even considering the snipers’ bullets, and the killing by starvation, and by disease, and everything else. And this has gone on relentlessly, and almost continually, for nearly 800 days now. Professional estimates by statisticians, medical personnel, and scientists are that the actual number of dead in Gaza is now well over 680,000, and probably fast approaching three quarters of a million, if not already exceeding that. Of course these are the true numbers! You can’t pound a densely populated tiny piece of land like that for over two years, and starve them by blockade, and destroy all their water resources, all their anticultural resources, all their sewage resources, all their hospitals, and kill just 65,000 people out of a population of two million. That’s an absurd proposition. Some of my articles on my Substack webpage talks about this. Feel free to read them.
.
And, if you’re a true believer in the “dynamic duo” that we are talking about – our saviors of the hour – I just cannot invest the energy and time it would take to reeducate you as to what their actual role and function truly is in all of this, and in our society – although I will try a little. In the final analysis, however, I am no more likely to persuade you of that truth, than to persuade a Trumpian true believer as to what Trump truly is. In that way, all of the true believers have more in common with each than they have differences: the Trumpian true believers, the Democrat true-believers, and the Bernie-AOC true believers.
.
Are Bernie and AOC “working from within the system”? Well, they sure as hell are “working us,” and they ARE the system. So, maybe you’re right in a sense.
.
You affirm your belief in the claim that Bernie and AOC… “…have been strongly opposed to US's & Israel's actions in Gaza.” They are nothing of the sort. What they are is very, very good at the theatrical performance of pretending to care…. Because they want the votes from true believers like you. In fact, however, they have both been screwing the Palestinians over royally for a long, long time. (Study further on this, if you like).
.
But just look at even the few remarks that you cited above in respect to Sanders: you wrote that "Bernie recently slammed the Trump admin over its peace deal, saying that the damage far outweighs the progress made." He says a lot of sh*t like that. If you drill down to what he is actually saying, when he, for instance, criticizes Netanyahu for being a bit too brutal, what he is actually saying is that Netanyahu is overdoing the genocide a little, that he is going just a bit too far. You should understand what this truly means: Bernie is "down with" the genocide. He supports it. He always has. He just wants Israel to tone it down a little, because they are "disturbing the neighbors." More to the point, they are disturbing his voters.
.
Bernie still signs off on Israel's weaponry (from the U.S.). He just wants to reduce it a little. And listen to what he says about how the October 7th prison break by the inmates against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory "justifies Israel in defending itself" against the resistance by the occupied peoples. Well, no it does not. Study what Francesca Albanese says on this: neither morally or legally, does an occupier have a right to “defend” against a defense by the occupied. That’s all complete and utter nonsense, because they are the ones who are the assailant. They are the aggressor.
.
Think about it. If some criminals break into your home. Take you all captive. Murder some of you. Torture others. Steal from you. And you fight back. You defend yourselves. Do the criminals have a “right to defend themselves”? Of course not. That’s bullsh*t. Yet, Bernie repeats that sh*t every time. He is an apologist for genocide.
.
Bernie signs off on the missiles to Israel that allows it to act with impunity. That allows it to commit genocide with impunity.
There. Is. No. Soft. Position. On. Genocide. … Period!
Genocide is genocide. And Bernie supports it and AOC supports it.
.
And the “lesser of the two evils argument did itself to death a long, long time ago. But, hey, that’s okay: 99% of voters believe wholeheartedly in that argument, and they vote that way in every election. And, in every election, they vote for the American fascism project, one way or another. (Trump is just the most recent iteration of that fascism project).
.
The Republican voters vote that way, and the Democrat voters vote that way, and Bernie-AOC voters vote that way. And every one of the recipients of those votes delivers whatever is the most recent iteration of the American fascism project to the oligarchs and the plutocrats in one way or another – including these “darlings of the left.”
.
In the last election, 99% of active U.S. voters voted for a Genocider-in-Chief. Well, under 1% of active voters cast their ballots for Jill Stein, which meant that any votes cast for her had no effect, whatsoever, on the outcome of the election. If every Jill Stein vote had been handed off to Harris – as she believed and declared was her privilege as the anointed heir of the Democratic establishment (she was anointed, remember, not elected, as the Dem’s candidate) – it wouldn’t have a made a single iota of difference. She still would not have been elected. (And that would have been the same for all the other contenders: less than 1% of the vote went to all of them collectively: those votes, also, wouldn’t have made a difference).
.
That whole schtick about “…realistically, a vote for Stein or anyone else… …was effectively a vote for Trump, which is why he won…,” it’s just simply factually untrue. That never happened. It never happened that the tiny number of votes for non-duopoly candidates took votes away from Harris and caused her to lose the election.
.
There’s a word for that kind of thing. It’s called a “lie.” Now, you come across to me as a decent person. So, I don’t think you deliberately intend to lie to me. But the thing is that, nevertheless, you are repeating the lies that have been fed to you. And it seems, unquestioningly so.
.
.
So, here is something to consider:
.
That 99% of voters who voted, last November, for a Genocider-in-Chief, actually got what they voted for. It is true that a little under half of the active voters – who, as we saw, voted for one Genocider-in-Chief or another – did not get the specific Genocider-in-Chief in question that they had cast their ballot for. They got a different Genocider-in-Chief – the one that the other 50%+ voted for.
.
Nevertheless, all 99% of active voters did get something that they all voted for: they got a Genocider-in-Chief and they got a genocide: a pedal-to-to-the-metal, maximum sadism, maximum murder spree, day in and day out genocide. And 99% of active American voters voted for that genocide. (If Harris had been voted into office, it would have been continued under her also. She said she would do it. She supported it as Biden’s “wingman.” And she would have done it herself). If you asked any number of those American voters: did they support the genocide? …more than half of them would probably tell you they don’t. Nevertheless, they voted for it, and they got it.
.
Now, here’s the thing: that tiny fraction of active voters in November of last year, 2024, who cast their vote for Jill Stein? Their votes may not have kept Trump out of office, nor did they keep Harris out of office, nor did they stop the genocide, but they did achieve one positive outcome at least. When those people observe the most recent reports on the Israelis’ sadistic mass murder campaign come streaming over their phones, day in and day out, there is one small thing that they are free of: they did not vote for this genocide.
.
Do you think I’m being too harsh? Maybe I should speak more nicely about matters like this? What do you think? You said that you think I’m being “too hard on AOC and Bernie.” Maybe I’m being too hard on my fellow U.S. citizens also? Maybe I should say nicer things to them? Possibly I should interpret their actions in a nicer way? Would that help, do you think?
.
One little thing you wrote, however, does strike me as being interesting: you claimed that the voters who voted for “no one at all” shared responsibility for Trump being in office. Well, the fact is that the level of discouragement among eligible voters in our nation is off the charts. U.S. citizens have about the lowest level of voter participation anywhere in the developed world. They look at the choices they are offered in the voting booth, and they are so appalled, they just don’t want to show up.
.
You know what Ralph Nader said about the kinds of choices that U.S. citizens are offered in the voting booth? (I believe it was in reference to the choice of voting for Trump or for Biden). He described it as being a choice of voting for gonorrhea or for syphilis. What kind of a choice is that, he asked.
.
Another superb column, Christopher! I’ve been thinking for some time that the end of the “fairness doctrine“ in media and the appearance of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are responsible for the present moment. How can we possibly have a functioning democracy if a large portion of our electorate are fed a constant stream of right wing-propaganda? Given that the federal government has been captured by Republicans, blue-state action is the only recourse at the moment.
I intend to forward your column to my California officials.
Chris is correct, as usual. The only levers of democratic power left are at the state level, and elected officials should be yanking on them like their lives depend on it.
At the federal level, all the Dems have left are their voices, and they are not even using them. Every time I see one of them, talking to a cable news talking head about the polls and the midterms, I fell like I am watching the band on the pitching deck of the Titanic.
The one useful thing they could be doing is to repeat, over and over, that the ship is sinking. Every single time they are on the floor, or in front of a mic, they should state that the government has been captured by authoritarians. That they will vote NO, on principle, to everything. That history shows that there is no point in compromising with fascists. And instructing their colleagues in state governments to systematically obstruct and prosecute, or prepare for life in Gilead.
You provide an excellent and troubling perspective on what may be a root cause of our political divide.
I’ve been asking this about any journalist, news outlets and politician. Purposely lying needs consequences
I have been using the “Shouting Fire!” Analogy for a very long time. Yes, the disinformation is poisoning us. Decades of drumbeat that Democrats/liberals are bad, can’t be trusted, are out to get you. Just open your eyes to see the result.
The disinformation is a root cause problem.
The first amendment is not a suicide pact.
Class action. Let's roll
They should be sued for all of the lies they have spewed.
Thank you for Part 2. You give us the compelling details, connect dots, point to useful action and encourage action. You bring us to the existential moment in a powerful way…evoke sober realism that includes reasons to hope we can have impact. Thank you again. And yes… each State’s power and the power which can come from States combining in a purposeful fight is a worthy hope. Can lead to something of value….perhaps something with a new form.
I never did understand why people when you hear something on the news, you don’t question if it sounds a little wonky. I listen to what I think is halfway “reputable” news, the good old-fashioned network news, NPR, MSNBC and CNN for cable news and we still get a good old-fashioned newspaper! So these people that get their news from Twitter! Twitter is not news. It’s people’s opinions,just like Fox, same thing with Facebook! My husband and I are dinosaurs, we have no social media, except for Substack & as much as I love Substack I don’t use it as my news network. In this day and time, people just need to be a little bit more skeptical. What’s that old saying “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is”. And if it sounds a little out in right field, it probably is.