… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: new authoritarianism

  • Miller Says He and Trump Will Use Law Enforcement to ‘Dismantle’ the Left After Kirk Shooting

    Spread the love

    Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    “Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk’s murder,” said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant.

    White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed Friday that he and President Donald Trump would use this week’s assassination of Charlie Kirk to “dismantle” the organized left using state power.

    In a rant on Fox News, Miller—the architect of Trump’s mass roundups and deportations of immigrants—shouted that the best way to honor Kirk’s memory was to carry out a political purge against the left, which he called a “domestic terrorism movement in this country.”

    Miller provided few details on what specific left-wing figures or groups he believed were stoking this violence. He claimed the left was waging “doxxing campaigns” against right-wing figures, though he cited no specific examples.

    He did, however, cite many examples of harsh, but nevertheless First Amendment-protected, speech that he considered an incitement to violence, including that “the left calls people enemies of the republic, calls them fascists, says they’re Nazis, says they’re evil,” and claimed that many people online were “celebrating” Kirk’s assassination.

    “The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven,” Miller said, was, “that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence, and we are going to do that.”

    “Under President Trump’s leadership,” Miller vowed to shut down these unspecified leftist groups.

    “I don’t care how,” he said. “It could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection. But we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism, that are committing acts of wanton violence.”

    RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which the government has traditionally used to prosecute organized crime groups. Trump later said one of his targets for these charges may be the billionaire liberal donor George Soros, the owner of the Open Society Foundations nonprofit, whom Trump accused of funding “riots,” a charge Soros denied.

    Miller did not limit his call to destroying those who commit crimes. He also spoke of those “spreading this evil hate,” telling them, “You will live in exile. Because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, to take away your power, and if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom.”

    An official White House account on X reposted a clip of Miller’s comments calling for the “dismantling” of left-wing organizations:

    “Trump signaled he intended to use Kirk’s shooting as a pretext for a broad crackdown on the left,” said Jordan Weissman, a journalist at The Argument. “Here’s Stephen Miller being much more explicit. He’s talking about RICO and terrorism charges, echoing right-wing influencers.”

    Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, meanwhile, pointed out the irony of the threat coming from Miller, noting that he “routinely slanders his political opponents with vile language that treats disagreement as if it’s treason.”

    Little is still known about what, if any, political ideology precisely motivated Kirk’s alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was apprehended in Utah on Friday. Robinson was not affiliated with any political party, and the scrawlings he left behind at the scene of the crime contain a mishmash of hyper-online but only vaguely political symbols and phrases.

    But even before the suspect had been identified or apprehended, efforts had begun on the right to use Kirk’s murder as an excuse to crack down on their left-wing enemies. In an ominous speech Thursday night, Trump blamed the shooting on the “radical left,” saying it was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

    On Fox News Friday, Trump indicated that he was extending this dragnet to anyone who has expressed harsh words for figures on the right. The president said:

    For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country and must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges and law enforcement officials.

    (Graphic by The Economist, data from the Prosecution Project)

    The portrayal of the left as a unique “national security threat” is not borne out by data. On Friday, The Economist published an analysis of data from the Prosecution Project, an open-source database that catalogues crimes that seek “a socio-political change or to communicate.”

    The findings reaffirm what has been found in previous studies: That “extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers.”

    During the same Fox interview, when a host noted the prevalence of right-wing extremism, Trump said: “I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’”

    Trump concluded: “The radicals on the left are the problem.”

    Meanwhile, virtually all prominent figures and groups on the left—from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to writers for left-wing publications like Jacobin or The Nation to activist groups like Public Citizen, MoveOn, the ACLU, and Indivisible—have unequivocally condemned violence against Kirk, even while repudiating his views.

    “Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk’s murder,” said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant. “We really could see Stephen Miller and Kash Patel use the FBI for 60s-style domestic persecution.”

    Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
    Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.

  • Morning Star Editorial: TUC Congress is right to reject arms spending surge

    Spread the love

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tuc-congress-right-reject-arms-spending-surge

     F35 fighters on the flight deck of HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, in Plymouth, Devon, ahead of an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region on Operation Highmast, April 24, 2025

    THE TUC did the right thing in voting to prioritise wages and welfare over warfare, reversing its 2022 decision to campaign for an increase in military spending.

    …

    The British state — whether under a Labour, Tory or Reform government — cannot be trusted with the weapons it has, never mind still more. 

    They are simply instruments of an imperialist policy which has brought immense suffering to the peoples of the world and threatens still worse, including conflicts which will exact a heavy price from the British people themselves.

    These are the truths the labour movement needs to be enunciating loud and clear. It is a fantasy to imagine that government’s imposing austerity and authoritarianism at home are somehow acting in an elusive “national interest” abroad.

    …

    Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tuc-congress-right-reject-arms-spending-surge

  • The government’s Terrorism Act, falsehoods, and naked authoritarianism

    Spread the love

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/governments-terrorism-act-falsehoods-and-naked-authoritarianism

     HEAVY-HANDED: Cops arrest a peaceful protester at Parliament Square last weekend

    The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

    THE iron fist of the British state is slamming down on those who dare to oppose genocide. In the whole year ending March 31 2025, according to the Home Office website, British police made a total of 232 arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000, a 12 per cent increase on the previous 12 months. The all-time record, according to the same page, for such arrests was 450 in 2018.

    Last Saturday, the Metropolitan Police and other forces supporting them arrested at least 890 people at a single demonstration, on top of more than 500 a few weeks earlier. This is the largest mass arrest event by the Metropolitan Police in a decade.

    …

    For supporting a group committed to direct action against British arms manufacturers supplying Israel, ordinary citizens now risk up to 14 years in prison. In the stroke of a pen, the right to protest was obliterated and peaceful dissenters branded as criminals.

    …

    Today, British civil liberties are in the grip of a manufactured crisis. Peaceful citizens — ordinary people, including Jewish anti-genocide activists, pensioners, and scholars — have been redefined as terrorists. Even people in their 80s and 90s joined the civil resistance, proving the heart of popular opposition beats strong as ever. The state’s war is not just on Palestine — it’s on dissent, on assembly, on freedom itself.

    It is my view that the real risk is not to national security, but to democracy. Step by step, the British Establishment is dismantling rights won through struggle and sacrifice. This is the opposite of democracy; this is naked authoritarianism. Silence is their weapon. The mass arrests, the legal bans, the kettling of peaceful protest — each tactic designed to intimidate, to silence, to fracture the solidarity needed to confront genocide and imperial complicity.

    History is on the side of the people. From the anti-apartheid movement to the miners’ strike and beyond, popular resistance and dissent have always been met with repression — but never defeated.

    Claudia Webbe was previously the member of Parliament for Leicester East (2019-24). You can follow her at  www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and x.com/claudiawebbe.

    1500 word article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/governments-terrorism-act-falsehoods-and-naked-authoritarianism

    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.
    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
    Keir "I support Zionism without Qualification" Starmer supporting genocide.
    Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.

  • Led by Demise in US Under Trump, ‘Democracy Around the World Continues to Weaken’

    Spread the love

    Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump stand together at the end of the US Army parade on June 14, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

    “Democracy faces a perfect storm of autocratic resurgence and acute uncertainty,” said Kevin Casas-Zamora of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

    A new report from a Swedish think tank warns that democracy is backsliding all across the world, led by the US under President Donald Trump.

    The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) on Wednesday published findings from its annual Global State of Democracy report that found democracy is declining in 94 countries around the world, representing 54% of all nations the think tank analyzed.

    “Democracy faces a perfect storm of autocratic resurgence and acute uncertainty, due to massive social and economic changes,” Kevin Casas-Zamora, secretary-general of IDEA, told The Guardian. “To fight back, democracies need to protect key elements of democracy, like elections and the rule of law, but also profoundly reform government so that it delivers fairness, inclusion, and shared prosperity.”

    The US has shown itself to be in a particularly precarious position, as IDEA ranked the country well behind several other nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the categories of rights, representation, and the rule of law.

    The report includes data only from 2024, before the start of Trump’s second term, but it makes note of further negative developments that have occurred since his return to power.

    “The rule of law has come under intensified pressure under the second Trump administration in the USA,” IDEA writes. “Since Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has issued a series of executive orders attempting to overhaul key aspects of governance, including the day-to-day functioning of the federal civil service, the country’s migration and asylum systems, and the balance of power between federal and state-level governments.”

    IDEA adds that the administration has at times “disregarded or circumvented” court rulings, which has led to concerns about the rule of law in the US crumbling even further.

    “The degree to which the balance of powers is respected in the months and years to come will be a key determinant of whether Rule of Law indicators in the USA remain resilient or continue to deteriorate,” the report stated.

    In a separate interview with German publication Deutsche Welle, Casas-Zamora explained why developments in the US are dangerous not just to American citizens, but citizens in democracies around the planet.

    “Some of the things that we saw during the election at the end of last year and in the first few months of 2025 are fairly disturbing,” he said.

    The first months of Trump’s term were characterized by his attempts to seize constitutional powers from Congress by impounding federal funds, challenging the judiciary’s right to rule against the administration’s actions, and blatantly disobeying court orders.

    “Since what happens in the US has this ability to go global,” said Casas-Zamora, “this does not bode well for democracy globally.”

    Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

  • Milei suffers a resounding defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections

    Spread the love

    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

    Axel Kicillof and other Peronist leaders in Buenos Aires celebrating their victory on Sunday, September 7. Photo: Fuerza Patria / X

    Despite the president taking a front-line role in the election campaign and predicting victory for his party (“Buenos Aires will be painted purple,” Milei claimed), the figures speak for themselves. Voter turnout is estimated at almost 61%.

    On September 7, 2025, the province of Buenos Aires dealt a crushing defeat to the right-wing libertarian project of President Javier Milei, who, after learning the results of the provincial elections, said: “Today we have suffered a clear defeat and we must accept it.”

    The people of Buenos Aires province, which accounts for 38% of the country’s population, elected senators, deputies, and delegates of their municipalities. Peronism decided to join forces and form a large anti-Milei alliance called Fuerza Patria (Homeland Force), which, according to official data, obtained almost 47% of the valid votes. Meanwhile, La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s party that allied itself with the PRO (the party of former president Mauricio Macri), reached almost 34%. In third and fourth place were the centrist SOMOS and the Left Front, respectively, which each obtained almost 5%. The rest of the votes were divided among the other contenders.

    In other words, Peronism won by more than 13 points over the far right, allowing it to take six of the eight electoral districts. La Libertad Avanza only managed to win the fifth and sixth districts. In addition, Peronism swept the municipal elections, winning 95 of the 135 municipalities in the province.

    Milei says he will not back down

    Despite the resounding defeat, Milei stated that while the necessary political mistakes must be corrected, he will not back down from his neoliberal project. “We will not back down one millimeter in the government’s policy; we will accelerate the course even more. If we have made political mistakes, we will process them and do better to win in October… We will continue to defend fiscal balance.”

    He also took the opportunity to criticize his primary opposition, “They have put all the Peronist apparatus that they have been managing for 40 years into play, and this [result] is the floor for us and the ceiling for them.”

    Peronism celebrates

    For its part, the main opposition force, Peronism, celebrated the results. Former President Cristina Fernández, who is currently under house arrest, wrote on her X account: “Did you see that, Milei? Trivializing and vandalizing the ‘Never Again’ movement, which represents the darkest and most tragic period in Argentine history, does not come without a price. Neither is laughing at the death and pain of your opponents. But pointing fingers and stigmatizing the disabled, while your sister charges a 3% kickback on their medications, is lethal. And I’d better not even tell you how the rest (of those who still have jobs) are doing. Indebted for food, rent, expenses, or medications, and on top of that, with maxed-out credit cards. Get out of your bubble, brother.”

    Read more: “We will return,” former Argentine president Cristina Fernández tells supporters

    The Peronist governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, said to his supporters after learning the results: “The message from the polls is that you can’t govern for outsiders, for those who have the most. Milei: You have to govern for the people.” Furthermore, looking ahead to future elections, including the presidential election, Kicillof stated: “The elections have shown that there is another way, and today we are beginning to follow it.”

    What is the reason for the crisis of ultraliberalism?

    There are several elements which can help explain the defeat of Milei and his party on Sunday.

    One of them is the recent speculation and suspicion about the alleged involvement of the president’s sister, Karina Milei, in a corruption scheme involving the purchase of medicine. Many believe this directly affected Milei’s decline in popularity, which in turn affected his candidates in the province of Buenos Aires.

    Other interpretations also point to an increasingly difficult management of the economy. The government has implemented a radical neoliberal policy that is in line with the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This has brought some stability to inflation, but it has also caused enormous social unrest, such as that of retirees who have taken to the streets every week to protest against government cuts to health care and freeze pensions.

    Read more: Argentine pensioners face heavy repression in weekly march

    In this regard, journalist Federico Rivas Molina wrote in El País: “The economic team is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the value of the peso against the dollar. To prevent the dollarization of peso portfolios, it first raised rates to 80%, triple the inflation forecast for this year. Then it raised bank reserve requirements to 50% to reduce the amount of pesos in circulation. In the middle of last week, the floating bands it had agreed with the International Monetary Fund and sold dollars from the Treasury. Milei then blamed the turbulence on what he called ‘the kuka risk,’ that is, the fear of a Kirchnerist victory that had investors terrified. With the prophecy fulfilled, the scenario is now much more hostile than it was on Friday.”

    Along these lines, Erika Gimenez, a journalist at ARG Medios, told Peoples Dispatch that Milei’s economic plan is not working and the people know it. She explained, “No one feels that their economic situation has improved under Milei’s government; quite the contrary: inflation is rising, salaries are insufficient, pensions for retirees and disabled people are being cut, among other cruel policies implemented by Milei. He is not convincing a sector that previously voted for him.”

    She also expressed her opinion that Peronism, which has several internal tendencies (not always compatible), could sustain this alliance in the medium term thanks to the emergence of a figure who can bring together the different internal forces: “I think that Axel Kicillof’s leadership [in Peronism] is indisputable.”

    Regarding the immediate future of Milei’s government, Gimenez said that a process of internal crisis is coming: “The figure of his sister is weighing on Milei, and despite this, he is not going to remove her. In addition, some ministers are going to resign or be fired, although it is not known which ones. There is a kind of political instability and instability in the Milei government’s economic project. It is most likely that between now and October, when there will be national legislative elections in which everyone in the country votes, political and economic stability will be at stake.”

    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.