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The Republican plunge into Trumpism has made the party especially unhinged and dangerous, but its basic ideology has long been a shameless assault on minimal standards of human decency. Now -- while Democratic leaders and most corporate media outlets are suitably condemning the fascist tendencies of Trump and his followers -- deeper analysis and stepped-up progressive organizing are urgently needed.

Economic injustice -- disproportionately harming people of color -- constantly propels U.S. society in a downward spiral. Poverty, economic insecurity and political disempowerment go together. Systemic racism continues to thrive, enmeshed with the predatory routines of corporate power.

The invisible hand

As everyone knows, Adam Smith invented the theory that individual self-interest is, and ought to be, the main motivating force of human economic activity, and that this, in effect, serves the wider social interest. He put forward a detailed description of this concept in an immense book, “The Wealth of Nations” (1776).

I couldn’t resist putting together this little group of photos from two fascist-leaning nations from different eras that exhibited similar political leanings.

No comment should be necessary, but it needs to be understood that proto-fascist cults have a disdain for liberal education and their cult-leaders (who are amoral, paranoid, narcissistic, megalomaniacal wannabe dictators) readily use violence and terror to take and maintain power. In addition, fascist movements always try to silence their opponents and enemies and therefore make use of censorship in their attempts to take power. (GGK)

2020 will go down in history as the year that terminated the American-sponsored ‘peace process’. While 2021 will not reverse the monumental change in the US attitude and objectives in Palestine, Israel and the Middle East, the new year presents Palestinians with the opportunity to think outside the American box. 

t can happen four ways.

But one thing is clear: No viable democracy can endure 14 full days ruled by a deranged madman who’s just instigated an armed fascist coup attempt.

Reports from long-time staff and close personal associates working within the White House indicate that Trump is dangerously “out of his mind” and “has lost it.”

Trump has access to nuclear codes that could end all human life on Earth.

As a fear-mongering fascist, he’s just incited the storming of the House and Senate, an armed assault aimed at the processing of the Electoral College votes for president.

At least one person was shot dead while invading the Congress. Three others died under varied circumstances. Countless more who rioted without masks were certainly infected with Trump’s virus, and will soon pour into hospitals that can’t handle them.

Trump could easily instigate further such coup attempts, especially by creating a fake “Reichstag Fire” disaster.

As the New Year asserts itself — a year that begins in global lockdown and political shock-and-awe — an extraordinary question emerges: Are we on the brink of real change?

Are we moving, politically speaking, beyond the small and stupid? Is the era of Trump really over? Assuming that to be the case is far too easy. Trump, after all, was and is part of the change, the breakdown of the status quo. You might say he’s been the coronavirus of American politics — he certainly has been infectious.

But simply “going back to normal” — swearing Biden in, returning to the political clichés we’re used to, appropriating another trillion dollars for national defense and corporate militarism, feigning concern over climate change but essentially ignoring it, yada, yada — leaves us wide open to the looming collapse.

n his infamous one-hour shakedown of Georgia’s Secretary of State, wise-guy Donald Trump TWICE calls himself a “schmuck.” It’s a gross undershot.

You may be hearing clips of that conversation. But no American should miss the whole mobster rant that Trump has clearly aimed at us all.

Sounding like a Godfather hit man, Trump verbally derides himself for having supported Brian Kemp, the KKK-style governor who stripped the state’s voter rolls in 2018 to defeat Stacy Kemp. (Trump trashes her too.)

But Kemp won’t hand Trump Georgia’s electoral votes. Nor will Secretary of State Ken Raffensperger, himself a bigly vote purger.

Kemp and Raffensperger did all they could to prevent Georgians of youth and color from voting this fall. The huge lines marring the January 5 runoffs for US Senate have underscored their strategy of making it as hard as possible for “undesirables” to cast a ballot in Georgia.

But the Prez needs about 12,000 votes to steal the Peach State’s Electoral College delegation. He treats them all like cheap chips from the Don’s bankrupt casinos.

The threat of fascism will hardly disappear when Donald Trump moves out of the White House in two weeks. On Capitol Hill, the Republicans who’ve made clear their utter contempt for democracy will retain powerful leverage over the U.S. government. And they’re securely entrenched because Trumpism continues to thrive in much of the country.

Yet, in 2021, progressives should mostly concentrate on challenging the neoliberalism of Democratic Party leaders. Why? Because the neoliberal governing model runs directly counter to the overarching responsibilities of the left -- to defeat right-wing forces and to effectively fight for a decent, life-affirming society.

I appreciate Congresswoman Joyce Beatty's annual commemoration of Rosa Parks on December 1. At the time of Ms. Parks' death on October 24, 2005, Ohio's 3rd District Congresswoman Beatty acted to declare December 1, Rosa Parks Day in honor of her actions on that day in 1955, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

We must continue to speak up for the voiceless in Black History and current events. Claudette Colvin is another one of those unsung (s)heroes. At age fifteen Ms. Colvin preceded Parks' action by nine months when she refused to give up her seat on the bus on her way home from Montgomery, Alabama High School. When asked why she did not give up her seat, she referred to Black History and answered: "it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. https://www.southernliving.com/culture/claudette-colvin