The Guardian posted this yesterday, but amongst everything else that happened I missed it:
Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to halt all federal funding for any college or school that allows “illegal protests” and vowed to imprison “agitators”, in a social media statement that prompted alarm from free expression advocates.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Let's be clear what this means.
First, because Trump has not defined what an illegal protest is, all protests are potentially subject to this order.
Second, free speech has gone as a result, although it is protected by the US Constitution.
Third, that means habeas corpus has effectively been suspended.
The obvious target is those protesting about Gaza and Palestine. No doubt climate will be included soon, if it is not already.
This is fascism at work. Have no doubt about it.
So, how long is it before the UK follows?
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I expect that soon there will be mass rallies in support of Mango, organised by the erm repubeican party. They will probably base them on something like this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhiiKCW3yY
ah the thump of polished boots on tarmc in the morning, the adoring crowds, what could possible go wrong.?.. Oh & lets not forget the nightly book burning & I’m confident that in the south of the country strange fruit will start to reappear.
There are a couple of solutions to all this, but I ain’t posting them here, family audience an all.
There have been calls for similar in the UK, but more resistance to it. For the US it looks like another unconstitutional act…
You have to wonder what JD Vance was looking at when he was calling out European leaders over freedom of speech, because it certainly wasn’t how they compare to his domestic situation…
Already here and boiling up with arrests of journalists and protesters, plus
https://www.newarab.com/news/cambridge-unis-bid-ban-gaza-protests-defeated-court
Is this what it was like in the 1920s and 1930s, watching developments in Italy and Germany? I’m hanging on to the thought that back then it did not happen here despite the presence of Mosley and his gang, hoping that we’ve got the sense to go the same way.
I admire your optimism
Starmer is a fascist enabler, in my opinion
Hmmm… Probably naivety rather than optimism on my part – I’m not so politically aware as you and many contributors are. I can’t disagree with what you suggest (I wish I could!), so I have a question – is this enabling deliberate on Starmer’s part, or is it inadvertent because of his lack of political acumen?
Both.
Bit hard on Starmer.
The the real fascist enabler is McSweeney – he has form in this supressing outlets such as “The Canary” – which is not everybody’s cup of tea – but does profile the crimes and the reach of Israel wrt the UK politsic.
McSweeney and his cohort contacted companies that were supporting the Canary via advertising, made spurious anti-semitic claims (see Get In) – companies pulled the ads and The Canary had to fire a load of staff – much reducing its voice.
McSweeney is, anti-democratic, uninterested in dialogue that does not fit his world view (basically Irish tory) and is one of fascisms helpers. Starmer is & always has been a cipher (he is after all a Barrister – reads the brief and acts for the client – begging the question who is the client? it ain’t UK serfs).
Putin is Mango’s controller, the unelected McSweeney, is Starmers. Vote LINO, get McSweeney.
Oh, page 39 of “Get In” provides the details of what McSweeny did (in 2018).
Get In should be required reading for those that want to “understand” LINO.
I thought we were leading the way in suppressing dissent that goes against the powers that be.
e.g. Police to interview Crown actor over Gaza rally https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy05jeq2rv2o
Three Just Stop Oil supporters found guilty for breaching illegally introduced anti-protest regulations https://juststopoil.org/2025/02/17/three-just-stop-oil-supporters-found-guilty-for-breaching-illegally-introduced-anti-protest-regulations/
Accepted – but Trump is ahead of us
I have enough faith in the American people to know that this will not go down well. There are battles ahead in the U.S. The right to arms belongs to all – that is what Trump and his henchman forget.
As for this country – no fiefdom – we are more subtle here, I think that we are on our way to that anyway – privatisation has not stopped, in fact its kept going as the public sphere increasingly becomes privately owned and therefore means that we are not allowed to say anything about it – all those investors didn’t want to make lots of money and have the public berate them for it, after all.
Much to agree with
This has already happened in Portland during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations during the first Trump presidency. Non-uniformed thugs were pulling protesters off the streets and bundling them into unmarked vans. Everything that has happened since Trump took office this January should come as no surprise, certainly not to anyone who has been paying attention
Meanwhile Trump says whatever he likes – not one sentence ushered without a lie. So, free speech for the King.
On which point, yesterday you highlighted Trudeau for speaking the truth.
So what about this from a French Senator: ‘Washington has become Nero’s court, with an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a jester high on ketamine. (…) We were at war with a dictator, we are now at war with a dictator backed by a traitor” – Claude Malhuret.
https://x.com/VolodimirZelen1/status/1897246348191391926
Hard to disagree with any of that
I am having trouble understanding WHY Israel is so special. Why are they allowed to get away with what they do? Why are protests against their genocide in Gaza so upsetting to the powers that be when protests against other terrible violations/ bad actors while not welcomed are not usually shut down with such rapidity and threats? Comments on news articles that point out Israel’s failings are pretty much always removed. I recently watched “The Lobby” that partly aired in the UK a year or so ago before being shut down, you can watch all four parts on u-Tube as well as a similar series on “The Lobby” doing the same kind of stuff in the US and I’m sure in pretty well every other country. It was good to see the documentary “No other Land” about the Israel/Palestinian conflict won the Oscars in that category but it cannot find a general distributer in the US or Canada.. why not? Why is Israel so sacrosanct? What is wrong with us?
You have asked genuine questions.
Anti-Islamic thinking explains a lot of this.
It’s done under the cover of pro-Israeli thinking, most of which is, as many Jews out, anti-Semitic.
Why all this? So that Israel holds economic power in the Middle East as proxy fur the West. It’s always economics.
It is in the heart of a massive region of oil and gas resources, so it is supported by the US for control purposes.
There are some religious reasons too – I believe many Christian fundamentalists in the US view that area as of biblical significance, and read the Bible in a way that suggests that the reconstitution of Israel is a precursor to the end of times, as silly as that may sound.
What will be interesting is when the oil and gas inevitably runs out, either because the demand drops, or ultimately because it is no longer energy positive when extracting. The first reason above will then cease to exist.