For Those Who Think They Are Safe

 Just a little reminder of the new reality in Trump's Amerika:

Seth Abramson

‪@sethabramson.bsky.social‬

The brownshirts are everywhere. And they *will* come to your street eventually. This is not just going to happen to "other people."

‪✨️ Steph ✨️‬ ‪@zapoo.bsky.social‬

· 1d

Coming soon, to a city near you!! 📢🚨

Stating The Obvious

From my perspective, it is clear that America has become a fascist country. Those who deny that reality are either extreme partisans (I refuse to use the term patriots, the word fascists favour) or living in a world of massive denial. 

The militarization of American cities, an essential precondition of fascism, has been going on for some time. Just look at the tanks and the army paraphernalia many police forces now sport - certainly a reflection of their relationship with their citizens. What is striking, however, is how quickly and unabashedly the Trump regime is moving in establishing a siege mentality, another precondition for fascist rule. There has been the stationing of military presences in Los Angeles, D.C., Memphis, and Portland, with deployment plans for other Democratic cities as well. There is the constant denigration of Democrats as "far-left radicals' and antifa acolytes. Additionally, Trump, in his recent address to the military in Quantico, referred to "the enemy within." In other words, American citizens have become the enemy, and he went further and suggested the Pentagon use American cities as “training grounds” for its troops.  

For those with the audacity to still think independently, the irony of the entire situation cannot be lost. Masquerading as the law and order regime pursuing the 'enemy', another favourite fascist ploy, Trump and his jackboots are in fact violating a myriad of laws. Justin Ling writes:

Off the coast of Venezuela, the enemy was four unarmed fishing boats. The White House declared them cartel members and terrorists — for which they supplied no evidence — and ordered drone strikes to kill everyone onboard. 

This extrajudicial killing could constitute a war crime. 

Pete Hegseth, the former Fox personality and now Secretary of War, 

says there will be “no more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”

Those rules of engagement are designed to comply with international law — to avoid the murder of civilians, to prevent torture, to forbid the use of weapons of mass destruction. More importantly, the rules of engagement are part of strong set of internal rules that allow officers and soldiers alike to refuse illegal orders. 

Those rules are being flagrantly violated.

Those rules of engagement, and the U.S. constitution, forbid the military from policing the streets of America in peacetime. And yet active-duty personnel have been deployed to American cities, with more occupations to come. Trump says he’ll authorize “full force” to quell the enemy at home. The U.S. military, arguably the nation’s most fiercely independent institution, looks set to obey. 

In the new fascist Amerika, enemies are ubiquitous.

Trump has classified antifa — the mere concept of anti-fascist activism, not an actual group — a terror organization. He has ordered the Department of Justice to go after former FBI Director James Comey and Congressman Adam Schiff.

Given the ongoing threats against Venezuela and Greenland, Ling believes it is past time for Canada to take the fascist threat seriously through careful preparation.

It means revising agreements and cancelling memoranda of understanding. It means not sending our Canadian Armed Forces to train with units who no longer feel bound to the Geneva Convention and marking intelligence ‘for Canadian eyes only’ because it could be used to commit war crimes. It will mean creating systems within NATO that operate separately from Hegseth’s new warrior corps. This will invoke Trump’s ire, no doubt, but history teaches us that appeasing despots rarely works out.

But more is needed. 

[T]here will come a point where we need to make our objections clear, and where we will need to rally our allies into speaking up as well. Trump’s adventurism in South America will be a direct security challenge to Canada. His new affinity for committing war crimes will implicate the Canadian Armed Forces, who serve shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. military on many fronts. His comfort to fellow autocrats and despots will be a direct threat to the countries still pursuing democracy.

The greatest advantage Trump and his lieutenants currently hold is people's stubborn belief that fascism is impossible in the U.S.A. It has already arrived, and the sooner that fact is widely acknowledged, the better the chances of excising that malignancy from the body politic.  

 

Amerika Defines Itself

It may seem redundant to place the adjective ugly in front of Americans. After all, their regular deportment, both domestically and internationally, makes such a designation obvious. However, being the 'greatest' nation in the world also makes it hard for them to perceive any national or personal shortcomings, so it falls on the rest of the world to school them.

And that's exactly what Rory McIlroy did after the Ryder Cup, the golf tournament that saw Europe defeat the U.S. in the midst of despicable crowd behaviour.

An emotional Rory McIlroy opened up on the abuse he received during the Ryder Cup after Europe secured a famous win in New York. The 15-13 success for the visitors at Bethpage Black came against the backdrop of awful spectator behaviour, largely towards European players and their families. McIlroy confirmed his wife, Erica, was hit by a beer that was thrown during Saturday afternoon’s play [my emphasis]. 

“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” said McIlroy. “I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week. Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people.

Clearly, such lessons are lost on MAGATS far and wide, but McIlroy had reason to be mightily vexed, given the assault on his wife, Erica McIlroy:

Shane Lowry, McIlroy’s close friend, added: “I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy and the amount of abuse that she received was astonishing. The way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable.”

That such savage behaviour took place is but another confirmation of an ugly American national character emboldened by Trump, according to Bryan Armen Graham.

What crept in on Saturday was different: insults aimed at players’ wives, homophobic slurs, cheap shots at McIlroy’s nationality dripping with tiresome stereotypes....

The change, Graham suggests, coincided with Trump's arrival at the Ryder Cup, compounded by the strength shown by Europe's team, always deemed an inferior entity in TrumpWorld.

Add the optics of Donald Trump’s fly-in on Friday – fist bumps, photo-ops, galleries dotted with Maga hats and a certain politics of humiliation playing to its base – and the swagger slid easily into license.

Given the guest of honor’s [i.e., Trump] well-known aversion to losing gracefully, it was hardly a shock that the worst behavior broke out just as America’s chances were slipping away. But the tournament’s response to the ugly crowd conduct on Saturday was woeful. Extra security and a phalanx of New York state troopers materialized around McIlroy’s match at the turn. A couple of spectators were ejected near the main grandstands. The PGA of America said it bolstered policing and pushed more frequent spectator etiquette messages on the big screens. Fine, as far as it goes. But once a thousand people have decided a backswing is their cue, you can’t manage it with a graphic and a frown. Enforcement has to be swift, visible and consequential or it becomes permission by another name.

The rowdy, disrespectful fans at the Ryder Cup disgraced both themselves and their country. 

I'm sure they saw it as exactly the opposite, certain that they were reaffirming American pride and honour.

Such a deluded, benighted people.

No More 'Good Guys'?

When we look at the world today, it is undeniable that the most powerful countries are led by evil men. Russia's Putin, Amerika's Trump and China's Xi  JinPing readily come to mind, as does Benjamin Netanyahu leading the nuclear State of Israel. And I think it would be to declare the obvious that none of the aforementioned care about their people, except as means to certain ends.

While we expect authoritarian rulers to see their people as fodder, I have never really had a sense until now of a specific war being waged against the people of the U.S. by its government. To be sure, almost all American governments have cruelly abused their poor, their disenfranchised, their minorities. And of course that demographic has always provided the bulk of fodder in all of Amerika's post-WW11 military misadventures. However, one could almost have believed the abuse was rooted in the American disdain for the downtrodden (see the American Dream) as well as its historically racist nature.

However, to me it now appears that a wider battle is being waged by Amerika against its general population,  a kind of social eugenics, in which a wide swath of a credulous population will be gradually eliminated, While it might seem a conspiratorial thought, there is evidence to support my odd thesis.

Consider, for example the changes at the National Institutes of Health, led by the unhinged Bobby Kennedy Jr. Unqualified ethically, morally, intellectually or temperamentally, Kennedy, with the tacit permission of Trump, is doing his damndest to undermine the health of Americans. Claiming he wants to make America healthy again, he has systematically cut all manner of research grants.

Between late February and early April 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) executed an unprecedented wave of grant terminations, impacting a total of 694 active grants. 

The broad distribution of terminated grants demonstrates a systemic reshaping of NIH’s research portfolio. Nearly every institute experienced cutbacks, but the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) bore a disproportionate share of the reductions, accounting for 30% of the total funding loss. This notable concentration of cuts suggests targeted policy shifts or budgetary realignments that may adversely affect ongoing efforts to address persistent health disparities among minority populations.

Then, of course, there is Kennedy's broad undermining of confidence in vaccinations, recently claiming, for example, that healthy people have no need of vaccines. It is a position that led to him being excoriated this past week during a senate hearing over his tenure thus far:

The Senate’s second-highest ranking Republican, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY)—a physician—delivered a blistering rebuke of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of advancing vaccine policies that undermine public health. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy—also a physician—also harshly questioned the HHS chief.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Senator  Barrasso began. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”

"The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership with the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on,” Barrasso exclaimed.

How many more will die or become permanently disabled because the NIHS is led by a lunatic?

And that lunacy is filtering down to the state level. Florida, under the banner of freedom for all, has made a decision.

Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.

The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.

The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.

Ladapo [a Black man] said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

Now, there is much more evidence I could adduce to support my contention, but let's cut to the chase. Who benefits if there is a substantial die-off of Americans? It is the real movers and shakers of society, the powerful elite, who neither respect nor need "the masses" and really don't care for the 'burden' of taxation to take care of them. With large numbers ultimately eliminated, that burden will be much reduced.

You might quite legitimately ask, "But what if substantial numbers of MAGATS perish? Who will vote for Trump or his successor if not the credulous? To that I can only say such a question is predicated on the belief that meaningful elections will continue in Amerika. That is an assumption I am not, at this point, prepared to grant you.

Rewriting History

Carrying the self-proclaimed title of 'the greatest country in the world' must be an onerous task, yet not one Don Trump is flinching from. After all, such a country bears unusual responsibilities in arenas such as truth, morality, culture, science and history.

The problem arises when you have a president that embodies no virtues, only a full-throated abuse of power. That power is seeing Ameika's rapid devolution into a fascist state where the only truth is that promulgated by the leader. Now, American museums are under attack as Dear Leader attempts to rewrite history.

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday he will pressure the Smithsonian Institution — a premier museum, education and research complex for American history and culture — to accept his demands, just like he did with colleges and universities by threatening to cut federal funding.

When asked if Trump would threaten funding cuts to the Smithsonian based on the findings, a White House official said, "President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable."

The White House said last week it will lead an internal review of some Smithsonian museums after Trump earlier this year accused it of spreading "anti-American ideology" and raised alarm among civil rights advocates.

Here is what the oaf wrote on his Truth Social vanity project:

"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

You can learn more about his crackdown here.

Amerika has always been an intolerant country with an addiction to myth rather than truth, but at least some have tried to alter its worst propensities by learning about its history. Thanks to Don Trump, that will become much more difficult from hereon in.

 

It's a Double-Edged Sword

With artificial intelligence now able to generate convincing fake news, decreasing numbers of people will be able to differentiate between it and a reality defined by knowledge, wide reading and critical thinking. For many, one picture has become worth a thousand words of 'truth'.

The tool is now frequently used by the far-right, but it occurs to me that a.i. generated imagery is a double-edged sword, one that can be wielded as a weapon against the Amerika's fanatics. What follows is not so much fake as it is predictive of the near future under Trump's land of the 'free' and home of the 'brave'.

When that future arrives, will enough Americans have the cognition to recognize the true source of their misery? Expect much resistance from the far-right, and substantial counter offensives.

A Demonic Presence

Although I don't believe in him, there are times when I think the devil is alive and well,  wielding his chicanery from the White House. While I realize such hyperbolic assertions are probably unworthy of this blog, consider the 'evidence'.

The devil is traditionally depicted as the sower of discord. Disunity, division, suspicion, hatred and chaos are his main calling cards, withs goodness equated with weakness. As Shakespeare said, "...goodness to the vile seem[s] vile". There are countless examples to demonstrate this dominant ethos in Donald Trump's Amerika, but the following encapsulates it nicely:

At the end of the report, Andrea Mitchell speculates that Elon Musk might have influenced the decision to 'rescue' these Afrikaners. Given that Trump is shunning all other such attempts at assuaging the suffering of others (mainly non-whites, by the way), I think the explanation is simpler: he is appealing to his racist base and sending the powerful, malignant message that people of colour have little value. Again, what better way is there to sow discord than that?

How are churches feeling about the Afrikaners? Well, Episcopalians want no part of them.

The Episcopal Church has severed a four-decade-old relationship with the federal government, citing its moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa the Trump administration had declared refugees.

The hearty ‘nee’ (‘no’ in Afrikaans) from the religious denomination marks an extraordinary act of protest. The Episcopal Church long had participated in resettling refugees fleeing persecution and war in their home countries, Religion News Service reported. 

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Sean More, said this:

Rowe told his fellow believers that it had been “painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.”

“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” he continued. 

And, of course, as the NBC report makes clear, Trump is bringing down the hammer on most other groups.

The order comes even as the White House has executed sweeping actions to remove undocumented immigrants from the global south, sometimes scooping up permanent U.S. citizens in its net.

Fair-minded people worldwide are not fooled by Trump and his divisive, diabolical tactics. The Evil One (if I may be permitted a bit of literary licence), however, must be laughing with delight.

UPDATE: I came across a paragraph in an article by Bruce Arthur about the reinstatement of the late Pete Rose to the MLB, thereby rescinding a 'permanent' ban and making him eligible to be considered for Hall of Fame induction. The following, I think, captures the morally tortured tenor of the times:

This is a time of vice and wickedness, however, and a time of freedom from consequences for bad behaviour. It’s also a time of compliance, for some. The American government is making flying more dangerous, education more stupid, health more precarious, scams more rewarding and corruption more common. [MLB commissioner Rob]Manfred, notably, met with U.S. President Donald Trump on April 17. After Rose’s death, Trump brayed that Rose should get a complete pardon. Trump’s brain is stuck in the 1980s in many respects, but he also is attracted to anti-virtue like a fly to feces. 

Another Warning

Canadians have traditionally found it difficult to answer the question, "What defines a Canadian?" The default answer has always been, "Well, we aren't Americans." That answer speaks volumes; however, in light of American threats against our country, coupled with the ongoing breakdown of their societal norms, we have been thinking lately much more about what makes our country special and almost unique.

One of its defining characteristics is that Canada cares about its people. While I know there are many things that might illustrate otherwise, we do take real pride in trying to help those who need help, both individually and through government supports.

I'm never sure how much interest there is amongst readers when I post stories about what is happening in Amerika. However, part of my motivation in addressing such stories is that they remind us of the things we Canadians value and the things we must strive to protect. The following story falls under that rubric.

The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go. 

Those terminations could threaten critical programs used to screen for health issues in workers with toxic exposures, including 9/11 first responders, according to people who work on or benefit from the programs. Some workers who benefit from those programs have expressed fears that conditions such as cancer or lung disease could go undetected as a result.  

Concerns about the future of those programs began earlier this month when the Department of Health and Human Services effectively gutted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), drastically cutting the headcount of an agency that has been around for 55 years. The move was part of a broader plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, including a massive restructuring of federal health agencies that called for the termination of roughly 20,000 full-time employees. 

In Appalachia, the consequences of such cuts will be dire. 

Donald Trump was elected on the promise of making life better for Americans. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Americans he had in mind excludes a wide swath of the people. May that mentality never infect us.

Amerika In Pictures

In a world riven by American-led incompetence, the following pictures reveal that there are at least some in Trump's Amerika who haven't drunk the Kool-Aid.

Time To Come Home

It wasn't until Don Trump was elected the first time that I made the decision never to travel to the U.S. again, barring unforeseen, exigent circumstances. And it wasn't until that election that I started to look with a degree of disapproval upon those who seek refuge from our winters in places like Florida. 

By and large, Canadian snowbirds seemed either oblivious to, or willfully ignorant of, the implications of their travel patronage. The wallet often carries more weight than most other things, and opening that wallet to a Trump-loving Amerika strikes me as a form of endorsement of policies and values inimical to the majority of Canadians.

Now, however, events and a hostile atmosphere may be doing what moral suasion could not. First, a brief clip from Global News, detailing the experiences of a Moncton couple, Mary Ann and Mike Jeffries, who have been wintering in the Sunshine State for the past 15 years. This will have been their last visit when they return at the end of March.

Yet now comes news of another reason to avoid the benighted land to our south: the apparent requirement to register thanks to one of Trump's executive orders, entitled Protecting the American People from Invasion.

A U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration will affect many Canadian snowbirds who drive across the border, with officials requiring visitors staying for at least a month to register on the government’s website, says an immigration lawyer.

The executive order

directed the Department of Homeland Security to enforce requirements for “aliens” to register with the government under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the rules, those aged 14 and over must register, and parents and legal guardians must register their children if they are under 14, in both cases within 30 days of their stay in the U.S.

Many Canadian retirees are feeling “annoyed” about the new registration rules, says Rudy Buttignol, president of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP).

“Unfortunately, these moves by the United States is just one more irritant, especially for snowbirds that travel regularly down south,” Buttignol said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca from Vancouver on Monday. “The overwhelming reaction that we’re getting is that people are changing their travel plans. They’re not feeling welcome.

“People are cancelling their bookings if they can. And if they can’t, in many cases, people are already thinking about next year and what they’ll do.”

While registering may not be a big hassle, he said the new rules are just another “slap in the face” to Canadians.

We have seen a real resurgence of Canadian pride since the Americans began showing such massive disrespect for our country with the re-election of Trump. As outlined in recent posts, booze boycotts and concerted efforts to buy more Canadian products at the exclusion of American goods, are real manifestations of that pride.

Let's hope returning snowbirds will feel the same way.