Today we face a campaign by the government to silence and isolate us, stop us from doing our jobs, and hurt the people we serve. The administration has made clear it will attack organizations that speak truth to power, defend the vulnerable, petition and sue the government, preserve and share knowledge, and fight for our freedoms. They want us to fight alone, hoping we’ll stay silent as others are targeted. Not us.
There hasn't been an American government as blatantly racist – in words and deeds – as the current one in a long, long time. So this joint statement from a long list of civil rights organizations is a helpful development in collaborating to resist the Trump regime's moves toward dictatorship, and not try to fight alone.
Collaborative resistance, and going on the offense, should be the game plan for all kinds of sectors. Pooling resources, not just language, will be crucial in the days and months and years ahead. While there are obvious, and perverse, reasons why individual organizations don't work together, they should realize that survival may depend on it.
[T]he present government invites a terror attack. Most of the people directing the relevant agencies are incompetent; the next few layers down have been purged in culture wars; much the remaining personnel have resigned, been fired, or are demoralized; resources have been diverted away from terror prevention; Americans has been distracted by fiction and chaos; and potential attackers have been encouraged. And so we have to think — now — about what would follow such an attack. Musk, Trump, Vance, and the rest would try to exploit the moment to undo remaining American freedoms.
From several days ago, this essay (alternative link here if you can't abide Substack) is chilling. Let's hope it isn't prescient.
As one of America's top experts on fascism observes, the Trump regime is visibly making it easier for terrorists – home-grown or foreign – to attack us. Whether that is the goal, or a predictable outcome of its policies and actions, is important. The immediate crisis is the need to reverse those policies and actions.
We all know, of course, that the Republican-controlled Congress is only interested in doing what Trump order. The Democrats don't have power, but they do have – should they choose to use them – voices. They should be loudly putting this on the national agenda, holding press conferences, blanketing social media, and more. Sadly, they are wimping out yet again.
Journalists should be warning the public that attacks are likely on the way, and why. Maybe our national weakness is such that a drastic further curb on civil liberties is inevitable. It doesn't have to be. Democrats, journalists, and others should wake up and help the public understand – and soon – why the Trump regime a) is making terrorism more likely; b) and almost certainly considers terrorism useful for pursuing dictatorship.
All corruption in Trump world
Connecting the dots on Trump's (and his family's, and associates', etc.) corruption is not common behavior in the press. That's why I'm flagging this commentary.
Rachel Maddow is one of the very, very few US journalists even trying to keep track of Trump world corruption, and put it in context. In the commentary above, she looks at two examples of the administration's super-sleazy behavior and provides some context. Kudos.
Francis’s approach was to follow in the footsteps of one of his heroes, Pope John XXIII, who said on the eve of the modernising Second Vatican Council in 1962 that he wished to “open the window and let in some fresh air”. In a memorable dressing down of the Vatican’s civil service, the first non-European Pope of modern times railed against a “pathology of power” and excoriated insiders who “feel themselves ‘lord of the manor’ – superior to everyone and everything”. The Roman Catholic church, he said, needed to “come out of herself and go to the peripheries”; to become “a church of the poor for the poor” and a “field hospital for the faithful”. Over the next decade, traditional Franciscan themes of poverty, humility, solidarity with the poor and with the natural environment dominated the style and substance of the new papacy.
Pope Francis was not the liberal his right-wing detractors claim. But he was definitely a departure from recent papal tradition – in his concern for the world's dispossessed, his fierce support for tough actions to deal with climate change, his (admittedly slight) progressive gestures toward gays and women, and more.
I am not religious but I've read the Bible and admire the teachings of Jesus in many ways. And it's obvious to me that Francis understood and followed those teachings. The right wing extremists (especially in America) who have claimed Christianity, it's equally obvious, never absorbed even a tiny amount.
Francis, R.I.P.
How I put this together
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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Timothy Snyder
February 20, 1927
Julian Coman
