More and more people are recognizing that Trump is not just stupid and selfish, but has a consistent attribute of fascists: advocating violence against his political opponents and promoting his gun-carrying White Power supporters.  Fascist law and order means dissent is criminalized but White Supremacist thugs intimidating, terrorizing, and murdering are ‘fine people.’

As Trump Shreds Rule of Law, We have an Actual Chance to Stop this Catastrophe IF…

Coco Das / Refuse Fascism

 (June 28, 2020) — Last night I watched Jake Tapper’s CNN special “Trump and the Law After Impeachment.” It compellingly showed Trump’s emboldened and relentless attacks on the rule of law since his impeachment acquittal, aided by a hollowed out fascist GOP and Bill Barr’s DOJ. They kept showing the video of Trump smugly holding up the paper with the headline “ACQUITTED,” then followed it with exposure of yet another strain of audacious moves – through tweets, executive orders, sidestepping and bypassing Congressional oversight, and actions by the DOJ – to utterly destroy the norms of government.

This is a partial list of what was covered in the special:

• Building on the argument made during the Senate trial that Trump can do whatever he wants as long as it’s in American interests, Trump declaring himself the “chief law enforcement officer” to justify acting as both “the law” and “above the law.”
• Through tweets and statements to Press, politically attacking not only individual judges but even members of juries.
• Calling for and acting on “investigating the investigators,” pursuing vengeful prosecutions of people who led the Mueller investigation and other investigations against the Trump regime.
• Staging flagrant campaigns of disinformation, i.e. Obamagate, to turn himself into a victim of “the swamp.”
• Firing inspectors general for their investigations or not towing the line of loyalty to Trump.
• Depending on “acting” leaders of various departments instead of going through a full process of confirmation, which enables him to remove people more easily and bypass Congressional approval.
• Not only calling the Press “fake news,” but actually filing lawsuit after lawsuit to harass news outlets.
• Intervening in independent judgments on sentencing, most notably in the cases of Roger Stone.

One commentator made the chilling statement that Trump was “knocking the knees out” from institutions that had survived for hundreds of years. While I disagree about the main role of these institutions for the majority of this country’s history, his implication that democratic norms such as the separations of powers and limits on executive authority could very well NOT survive Trump should be a wake up call to everyone who thinks we have to rely on normal channels to stop this regime.

Jake Tapper and the commentators on CNN do not have an analysis of why Trump is doing these things. Mostly the media can only offer a “conventional” answer that he’s doing it for himself, but this masks the truth and doesn’t explain why the GOP and a base of fanatical followers supports and aids him in tearing up the rule of law. If they felt it was only to benefit Trump, they would not be propping him up as they do.

Trump is doing this because he has promised a whole fascist movement that he would do it — that he would “drain the swamp” of the people, laws, and institutions standing in the way of their vision for society and government – a fascist form of rule in which white supremacy, Christian supremacy, and male supremacy are guaranteed.

Trump took the helm of a fascist movement decades in the making, and proved that as an outsider (and a lunatic), he was the one to boldly advance this fascist program in a way that no other leader could. In order for this fascist regime to consolidate its power, just as they did in Nazi Germany, the existing “Weimar Republic” has to be totally destroyed and neutralized. B

ut the destruction is not their end game. The end game is the creation and consolidation of a fascist government and society, an openly blatant dictatorship where “might makes right” and the fascist leader is “the law.” Trump is acting not only on his own behalf (yes, he is a malignant narcissist) but on behalf of this fascist movement that idolizes him for what he has done for them. His regime has had remarkable success at rolling over opposition and emerging victorious through every crisis.

Except now there is a major wrench in their plans – people in the streets protesting the wanton police murder of George Floyd and staying in the streets for Black lives and against white supremacy. These protests have become a partial repudiation of the Trump regime, and the regime has not been able to roll over this beautiful uprising in the same way they’ve rolled over impeachment and other one day protests.

To resolve this, Trump has called out the violence of the police, military, and fascist shock troops in order to “dominate the streets,” but the people have not cowered. The crisis these protests have created have widened fissures among the ruling powers and forced some minor concessions from some trying to calm things down, while increasing pressure on the regime to bring down the hammer while the whole world is watching.

Replacing the rule of law with brute power and terror will allow a horrific revenge against all the groups who gained some rights after the fierce liberation struggles of the 60s and the people standing up now. If we allow the fascists to crush this uprising, we are much closer to humanity under the boot of a fascist USA led by a demented bully with its finger on the nuclear button.

To those who think we can wait this out until November, as Trump becomes increasingly desperate and eager for violence (At his KKK rally in Tulsa on June 20, Trump said, “And when you see those lunatics all over the streets, it’s damn nice to have arms. Damn nice.”), think about what history says about the German people under Hitler. History will be no kinder towards us.

We can actually drive this regime from power now, and this CNN special shows just one reason why we must do so. Now, while people are in the streets feeling their strength, we have an actual chance to stop this catastrophe – if we demand the removal of the Trump/Pence regime and refuse to go home until our demand is met.

Take to the streets July 4th! This nightmare must end! TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW! Find protests here

Join us on July 4th to demand:
This Nightmare Must End! TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!
In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!

Saturday July 4 #TrumpPenceOutNOW ProtestsLet us know your plans to protest.  Organize.  Materials. 

Atlanta: 1:00 pm *RSVP* Contact for meet up location: ‪atlanta@refusefascism.org ‪678-962-7732 Facebook event
Boston: 3:30 – 6:00 pm  Gather at Charles River Esplanade and Frances Appleton Bridge, Rally at the Charles River Esplanade, March to Boston Commons where we will join “Say Her Name” protest called for by Black Lives Matter
Chicago: 5:00 pm Logan Square North Milwaukee & West Logan Blvd Facebook Event
Cleveland: 2:00 PM, Luke Easter Park across from Zelma Watson George Skating rink – look for the orange #OutNow banner
Detroit: 4:00 pm 3rd & Michigan Avenue, Detroit
Honolulu: 9:30 – 10:00 am Decorate the truck for Beach-Hopping on the #OUTNOW Protest Truck! Join us at Stadium Park to jump on the back of the truck and head for the beach parks to make some noise and build the movement to demand Trump/Pence #OUTNOW! 
Houston: 1:00 pm Car caravan Trump/Pence Out NOW! Peggy Park, 4101 Almeda Road.
Los Angeles: 1:00 pm Sunset Blvd & Cahuenga
New York: 1:00 pm Trump International Hotel @ Columbus Circle
Philadelphia: 6:00 pm Dilworth Park, City Hall
San Francisco: 1:00 pm 24th & Mission Rally & March
Seattle: 2:00 pm: Rally & March NE 50th & University Way NE to 50th St Bridge over Interstate 5 for bannering.
Washington DC: 4:00 pm Lafayette Park Black Lives Matter Plaza

America Is at a Serious Crossroads

(July 1. 2020) — A fierce struggle for the future is underway. Trump is campaigning on openly celebrating and defending the Confederacy, with a clear message that he will unleash the violence of the police and military and his heavily armed MAGA shock troops against the movement for Black Lives.

He threatens to toss aside the 1st Amendment to jail those who burn the flag, a constitutionally protected act of free speech. He has demeaned mayors of Chicago and Seattle while threatening to send in federal forces “to clean up” their cities; he has doubled down on his anti-immigrant rants and program.

In the midst of skyrocketing deaths from COVID-19, the Trump/Pence regime petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare. In his press briefing, Pence urged Americans to pray but did not once urge them to wear masks. The regime has the blood of tens of thousands on its hands who have perished due to the regime’s science-hating, genocidal dismissal of a global pandemic.

This is just in the past week. Stop and think if you can live with all this. The lives of countless more here and around the world are under threat.
Trump is not losing an election. He is setting the stage to declare any outcome other than his victory illegitimate, backed up by a GOP willing to rig elections and the violence of the “police, military, and bikers for Trump.” He is declaring his determination to prevail.

The people on the side of humanity must be equally determined to prevail. On July 4th and in the coming weeks, we must take to the streets in growing numbers to demand: The Trump/Pence Regime Must GO! 

Should we fail to take to the streets and stay to win, do not for a second think that the fascist agenda of the Trump/Pence regime could not become the law of the land. But the last four weeks of sustained protest has also shown us that another future is possible — if the demand that Trump and Pence must go now becomes a part of the great rising in the streets against police murder of Black people. Without going all the way to driving out the Trump/Pence regime, the movement for Black lives and every struggle for justice will be crushed.

On this July 4, take to heart the words of the escaped slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. …Power concedes nothing without a demand.

Genocide, slavery, the Confederacy, Jim Crow … virulent white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia … an American empire that has invaded, subjugated, bombed and occupied countries around the world.

This is the history and these are the values of Make America Great Again, hell-bent on exacting revenge against the liberation movements of the 1960s and the hard-won social progress of the last 50 years — social progress that was only made possible by people courageously taking to the streets and refusing to back down.

The upsurge of struggle for Black Lives matters a great deal. It must continue to broaden and deepen its determination to win, which includes acting on the recognition that an avowed white supremacist regime poses a mortal threat to Black people and must be driven from power. Refuse Fascism, since its founding has recognized and struggled for the understanding that at the core of the fascist regime is white supremacy.

Along with hatred of immigrants and women and differently gendered people, these form a triad of the fascist program that must be opposed.
At this crossroads, what will you do? Will you continue to accept a fascist America?

Will you listen to those who urge waiting until November for an election that may not come, or working within the normal channels that are being shredded by a regime that sees this as their last chance to consolidate power. Or will you seize on our power in the streets and raise the demand Trump/Pence Out Now?  Dangerous regimes all over the world are driven out by the people in sustained, non-violent protest demanding the removal of the regime and refusing to go home until their demand is met.

To stop an American fascism that threatens the very future of humanity and the planet, the necessary demand is Trump Pence Out Now! This is a moment to seize. Let us change the course of history, not for ourselves alone but for all humanity.