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  31. <title>‘Newspeak’ Comes to the Department of Energy</title>
  32. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/newspeak-comes-to-the-department-of-energy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=newspeak-comes-to-the-department-of-energy</link>
  33. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/newspeak-comes-to-the-department-of-energy/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kurt Cobb /  Resource Insights ]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:07:57 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
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  40. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
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  43. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  44. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  45. <category><![CDATA[1984]]></category>
  46. <category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
  47. <category><![CDATA[department of energy]]></category>
  48. <category><![CDATA[george orwell]]></category>
  49. <category><![CDATA[newspeak]]></category>
  50. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312612</guid>
  51.  
  52. <description><![CDATA[<p>The latest internal guidelines from the DOE are straight out of Orwell's 1984.</p>
  53. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/newspeak-comes-to-the-department-of-energy/">‘Newspeak’ Comes to the Department of Energy</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  54. ]]></description>
  55. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>In George Orwell&#8217;s novel</strong> <a href="https://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">&#8220;1984,&#8221;</a> a totalitarian regime now rules the homeland and operates by three slogans: 1) War is peace, 2) freedom is slavery and 3) ignorance is strength. In &#8220;1984,&#8221; the term &#8220;Newspeak&#8221; refers to what is essentially a mandatory style guide for using the English language under that regime by substituting Newspeak formulations for common words and phrases so as to make public discourse conform to the ruling party&#8217;s orthodoxy. (For a list of Newspeak words and phrases, check <a href="https://www.orwell.org/dictionary/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">here</a>.)</p><p>Not surprisingly, failure to conform to this style in written and oral communications is considered a crime. In fact, to think thoughts contrary to those expressed in Newspeak terms is considered a &#8220;thoughtcrime&#8221; because it implies one&#8217;s personal values are not in harmony with official party dogma. Even having a facial expression that appears to imply disagreement with that dogma is a &#8220;facecrime.&#8221;</p><figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left">
  56. <blockquote>
  57. <p>&#8220;If you want to corrupt a people, corrupt the language.&#8221;</p>
  58. </blockquote>
  59. </figure><p>Every modern regime tries to regulate the language used by its citizens (or subjects, as the case may be). <a href="https://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2014/07/orwellian-newspeak-and-oil-industrys.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">As I have written previously</a>, &#8220;If you want to corrupt a people, corrupt the language.&#8221; So, it&#8217;s not particularly surprising that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), now controlled by an oil industry insider, has put out its own Newspeak-like manual in the form of an email to department employees which is focused on subtracting certain words and phrases, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/energy-department-climate-change-emissions-banned-words-00583649" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">according to Politico</a>. In the email the DOE is doing to the vocabulary of its personnel what the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration is doing to the government, namely, cutting it.</p><p>The latest announcement appears to apply to those working for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and adds to a list that was started some time ago. The list of &#8220;words to avoid&#8221; now includes:</p><ul class="wp-block-list">
  60. <li>clean or dirty energy</li>
  61.  
  62.  
  63. <li>carbon/CO2 footprint</li>
  64.  
  65.  
  66. <li>climate change</li>
  67.  
  68.  
  69. <li>decarbonization</li>
  70.  
  71.  
  72. <li>emissions</li>
  73.  
  74.  
  75. <li>energy transition</li>
  76.  
  77.  
  78. <li>green</li>
  79.  
  80.  
  81. <li>sustainability/sustainable</li>
  82.  
  83.  
  84. <li>tax breaks/tax credits/subsidies</li>
  85. </ul><p>Of course, this off-limits list seems ludicrous, since all of these topics have been widely discussed in publications that fill library shelves and online repositories of scholarly work, journalism and policy papers. How could this directive actually enforce the kind of rigorous elimination of ideas and words, à la &#8220;1984,&#8221; that are &#8220;misaligned with the Administration’s perspectives and priorities&#8221; as the email puts it? Of course, it cannot.</p><p>However, DOE employees will henceforth not be allowed to use such words, and that will have definite effects on policy discussions for the simple reason that none of the ideas associated with those words will be contemplated in those discussions.</p><p>As social psychologist Erich Fromm explains in an afterword to the edition of &#8220;1984&#8221; that I have, the goal is not simply to force people to say the opposite of what they think. Fromm writes: &#8220;[I]n a successful manipulation of the mind the person is no longer saying the opposite of what he thinks, but he thinks the opposite of what it true.&#8221;</p><figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left">
  86. <blockquote>
  87. <p>&#8220;The person is no longer saying the opposite of what he thinks, but he thinks the opposite of what it true.&#8221;</p>
  88. </blockquote>
  89. </figure><p>There is a lot of that going around these days, thanks to social media. People often only have discourse with those with whom they agree and agree to facts that they cannot personally verify and which may be the opposite of what they are told. If this were merely a benign process — say, revolving around the best way to make a Bundt cake — we&#8217;d have little to worry about. But it involves the very essence of how we will govern ourselves and how we will face a future of increasingly dangerous climate change and resource depletion.</p><div id="ad_slot_wrapper_22724279127_1" class="max-w-td m-auto p-6 ad-slot--wrapper ad-slot--wrapper--article-hrec-1">
  90. <!-- 71161633/article_hrec_1/article_hrec_1 -->
  91. <div id="ad_slot_22724279127_1" class="ad-slot ad-slot--article-hrec-1" data-fuse="22724279127" data-fuse-slot-code="fuse-slot-227242791271">
  92. </div>
  93. </div>
  94. <p>In &#8220;1984,&#8221; the main character, Winston, works for the Ministry of Truth, where he helps to rewrite history to conform to the ideological views of the single political party that controls his country. Since the party changes its ideas and policies not infrequently, there are many people like Winston at the ministry rewriting history on a daily basis.</p><p>I am reminded of the &#8220;Great Soviet Encyclopedia.&#8221; In 1953, following the arrest and execution of Lavrentiy Beria, former head of the interior ministry and secret police, the publishers sent out three pages to owners of the encyclopedia on the topics of the Bering Sea and Bishop Berkeley (an Irish philosopher and clergyman), and asked owners to cut out the three pages in their encyclopedias that covered the life of Beria and replace them with these new pages.</p><p>As the DOE tries to turn the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy into a mini ministry of truth, we should remember that forces representing the full spectrum of ideological beliefs are constantly putting out versions of history and versions of the present to advance their goals. Some may be accurate, some may merely be selective — no one can write a history of everything or cover the entire span of current events — and some may be flat-out lies.</p><p>One telltale sign that you are reading or listening to something that is not giving you the full story will be the language used. If the vocabulary is limited, repetitive and/or sounds like sloganeering, you would do well to be skeptical of the writer or speaker. If the language is expansive and nuanced, there&#8217;s a better chance that what you are reading or listening to will have some value.</p>
  95. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/newspeak-comes-to-the-department-of-energy/">‘Newspeak’ Comes to the Department of Energy</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  96. ]]></content:encoded>
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  106. <title>Despite Fall of Assad and Recent Elections in Syria, Minorities Still Aren’t Safe</title>
  107. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe</link>
  108. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe/#respond</comments>
  110. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Aras Yussef]]></dc:creator>
  111. <pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:58:28 +0000</pubDate>
  112. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  113. <category><![CDATA[Belief & Religion]]></category>
  114. <category><![CDATA[Global Voices]]></category>
  115. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  116. <category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
  117. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  118. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  119. <category><![CDATA[alawites]]></category>
  120. <category><![CDATA[druze]]></category>
  121. <category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
  122. <category><![CDATA[massacre]]></category>
  123. <category><![CDATA[syria]]></category>
  124. <category><![CDATA[yezidi]]></category>
  125. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312597</guid>
  126.  
  127. <description><![CDATA[<p>Autonomous Kurds are setting an example for how Syria could include minority groups and end discrimination and violence against them.</p>
  128. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe/">Despite Fall of Assad and Recent Elections in Syria, Minorities Still Aren’t Safe</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  129. ]]></description>
  130. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  131. <p class="has-drop-cap">QAMISHLI, Syria — “We Yazidi people are extremely afraid that we will be exterminated,” says Menaf Jaafar, a Yazidi Kurd in Aleppo, northern Syria. As a member of a religious minority, he says his people fear the new Syrian government. “It consists of extremist and terrorist factions whose hands are stained with the blood of Syrians.”</p>
  132.  
  133.  
  134.  
  135. <p>Last December, Syria’s minorities watched with mixed feelings as the rebel forces led by the Hay&#8217;at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the Bashar Assad government. A Turkey-backed and U.S.-friendly Islamist group, the HTS advocates for a version of political Islam that includes little to no acceptance of other beliefs.</p>
  136.  
  137.  
  138.  
  139. <p>With the HTS in control of the new government, Syria’s minority communities are even more worried about being sidelined, attacked and killed. Since December 2024, there have been numerous incidents where minorities were targeted or massacred. Forces affiliated with the transitional government were involved in killing at least <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165649" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">1,400</a> Alawites and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/syria-un-experts-alarmed-attacks-druze-communities-including-sexual-violence" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">1,000 </a>Druze civilians in massacres earlier this year, according to United Nations reports. The Alawites continue to be targeted, and the Druze remain besieged in their region by the government; many have fled their homes and are now sheltering in schools. Christians, too, are on edge. An explosion in a Damascus church in June <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79q8p8qx1do" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">killed </a>dozens of people and injured 60.</p>
  140.  
  141.  
  142.  
  143. <p>On Oct. 5, Syria held its first elections since the ousting of Assad. The new parliament will govern for 30 months and is responsible for passing new electoral laws and a constitution. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former HTS leader, appointed one-third of the legislators. The other two-thirds were elected by province-based electoral colleges whose electors were largely handpicked by the transitional administration. Of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/6/syria-declares-results-of-1st-parliamentary-poll-amid-inclusivity-concerns" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">119 </a>legislators chosen indirectly, only 4% are women, two are Christian and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-election-parliament-minorities-latakia-alawites-8867ea5ad0aeb5b9faec7ecea6790fe6" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">eight</a> are from other minorities.</p>
  144.  
  145.  
  146.  
  147. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The first major attacks against the Alawites occurred on March 7.</p></blockquote></figure>
  148.  
  149.  
  150.  
  151. <p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/syrias-druze-kurds-criticize-exclusion-from-upcoming-vote/a-73796430" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Druze </a>and <a href="https://syrianobserver.com/syrian-actors/higher-alawite-council-rejects-peoples-assembly-elections.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Alawite </a>leaders, together with the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, rejected the elections and have expressed skepticism that the new parliament will address the violence against minority groups, let alone discrimination or autonomy. The elections “failed to represent all regions and components of the country, instead serving as a political performance,” <a href="https://m-syria-d.com/en/?p=8369" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">said </a>the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration.</p>
  152.  
  153.  
  154.  
  155. <p>Post-Assad, the first major attacks against the Alawites occurred on March 7, when the transitional government mounted a military operation on the Syrian coast that it claimed was aimed at remnants of the former regime. But the operation escalated to massacres against the Alawite population — Assad is an Alawite, but many Alawites <a href="https://syrianobserver.com/foreign-actors/alawite-opposition-movement-calls-on-assad-to-step-down.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">opposed </a>him — committed by forces affiliated with the new defense ministry and foreign fighters. Homes were also looted and set on fire, and much of the mountainside was scorched.</p>
  156.  
  157.  
  158.  
  159. <p>In the Alawite village of Rasafa, Rasheed Suleiman Saad described to Truthdig how his son, Suleiman Saad, was killed on the night of March 8.</p>
  160.  
  161.  
  162.  
  163. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="643" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424.jpg?width=1024&#038;height=643" alt="" class="wp-image-312602" srcset="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=1024&amp;height=643 1024w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=300&amp;height=188 300w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=768&amp;height=482 768w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=287&amp;height=180 287w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=430&amp;height=270 430w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=645&amp;height=405 645w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=932&amp;height=585 932w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1000075424-scaled.jpg?width=2000 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Rasheed Suleiman Saad, whose son Suleiman Saad, was abducted and killed during the Alawite massacres on the night of March 8. (Photo by Hassan G. Ahmad)</figcaption></figure>
  164.  
  165.  
  166.  
  167. <p>“They ripped his chest and took his heart out,” he said through tears. “An armed group of 10 people in balaclavas entered our house. They gathered all the villagers and insulted all the men and children physically and verbally. They took my son away in a very humiliating way. Later that day, I received a call from his phone, and they repeated that they were sending him somewhere, to be slaughtered.”</p>
  168.  
  169.  
  170.  
  171. <p>Rasheed Suleiman wouldn’t see his son again, and the consequences of the loss go beyond grief. “We are the poorest family in the village. We have a lot of debt and my youngest son has cancer. Suleiman liked sport and we did the impossible to get him into sports college. He was also working to help pay off the debts that we had to cover basic daily needs,” Rasheed Suleiman said.</p>
  172.  
  173.  
  174.  
  175. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Sixty-four people were killed in Rasafa village between March 7 and March 10.</p></blockquote></figure>
  176.  
  177.  
  178.  
  179. <p>A journalist in the area confirmed to Truthdig that 64 people were killed in Rasafa village between March 7 and March 10. They also said violations continue. As recently as Sept. 28, two gunmen riding a motorcycle through Jadrin village killed <a href="https://www.syriahr.com/%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%b5-%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%81%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b3%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%8a%d9%82%d8%aa%d9%84%d9%88%d9%86-4-%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%84-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%81/778441/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">four</a> Alawite civilians returning from work at a nearby construction site.</p>
  180.  
  181.  
  182.  
  183. <p>Druze people were similarly attacked in July. After clashes and a wave of kidnappings broke out between Druze factions and Bedouin tribal fighters in Suwayda, a Druze-controlled region in southern Syria, the transitional government sent in its forces to “restore order and extend government <a href="https://arabic.cnn.com/middle-east/article/2025/07/15/syria-army-forces-enter-sweida-and-impose-curfew-druze-comment" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">sovereignty</a>,” and the Druze <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/syrian-bedouin-flee-druze-majority-suweida-province-after-truce" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">reportedly</a> responded by killing at least two Bedouins. Israel also got involved, launching airstrikes against Syrian government forces under the pretext of “protecting” the Druze.</p>
  184.  
  185.  
  186.  
  187. <p>The Druze people in Suwayda have been organized and armed in various factions since 2011, in order to protect their people from external attacks and violations committed under Assad and avoid involvement in the Syrian conflict. As a result, they have enjoyed partial independence. During the July clashes, government forces murdered, kidnapped and humiliated Druze people and took control of some towns in Suwayda. Over<a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/syrian-arab-republic/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-syria-adam-abdelmoula-united-nations-scale-humanitarian-response-sweida-amid-escalating-needs-21-august-2025-enar" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank"> 190,000</a> people have been displaced from and within Suwayda since early <a href="https://levant24.com/news/2025/09/displacement-crisis-grows-in-suwayda-as-families-demand-return/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">July</a>, mostly Druze and Bedouins, according to the U.N.</p>
  188.  
  189.  
  190.  
  191. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria.jpg?width=1024&#038;height=768" alt="" class="wp-image-312604" srcset="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=1024&amp;height=768 1024w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=300&amp;height=225 300w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=768&amp;height=576 768w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=240&amp;height=180 240w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=360&amp;height=270 360w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=540&amp;height=405 540w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=780&amp;height=585 780w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rasafa-village-western-countryside-of-Hama-Syria-scaled.jpg?width=2000 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Alawite village Rasafa in coastal Syria was the site of a massacre in March this year. (Photo by Hassan G. Ahmad)</figcaption></figure>
  192.  
  193.  
  194.  
  195. <p>After the massacres against Alawites in coastal Syria and Druze people in Suwayda, the transitional government formed separate <a href="https://archive.sana.sy/?p=2256132" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">committees</a> to investigate the violations in an attempt to demonstrate accountability to the international community. The Syrian Commission of Inquiry released its findings on the Alawite massacres at the end of July, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/24/syrian-commission-of-inquiry-releases-report-on-mass-killings-in-alawite-regions_6743665_4.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">absolving</a> Syrian military leaders of any responsibility. Last month, Syria, Jordan and the U.S. ultimately drew up a road map to “restore calm” in Suwayda which also <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/syria-announces-plan-jordan-us-restore-calm-suweida" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">concluded </a>that the Syrian military was only trying to stop the clashes. The leading <a href="https://npasyria.com/en/127666/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Alawite</a> and Druze authorities rejected these outcomes.</p>
  196.  
  197.  
  198.  
  199. <p>“We do not recognize a commission formed to distort and conceal the truth,” Ghazal Ghazal, the head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora, <a href="https://npasyria.com/en/127666/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">said </a>in a statement. “We rejected it at its inception and continue to reject it now. It was created by the very perpetrators of the crimes, to serve as a veil hiding their disgrace.” He argued for solutions that meet the demands of all Syrians.</p>
  200.  
  201.  
  202.  
  203. <p>Now, discrimination and attacks against minorities continue on various fronts. There is a near-total shutdown of bakeries in Suwayda due to weeks of flour shortages. Locals <a href="https://npasyria.com/en/130565/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">accuse</a> the government of an undeclared blockade, with government shipments delayed and disruptions in supply routes, while the government denies this and blames logistical issues. Hospitals and markets in the area are also facing serious shortages and soaring prices. With a ceasefire in place in the region now, media outlet Etana Syria <a href="https://etanasyria.org/brief-suwayda-under-siege/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">asserts</a> the blockade is “a form of collective punishment against Suwayda, falling back on a policy of siege after failing to force a military surrender there.”</p>
  204.  
  205.  
  206.  
  207. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Discrimination and attacks against minorities continue on various fronts.</p></blockquote></figure>
  208.  
  209.  
  210.  
  211. <p>Following the March massacre, Alawites have been forcibly <a href="https://www.csi-int.org/news/syria-systematic-persecution-of-alawites/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">evicted </a>from their privately owned or publicly rented homes. Others have lost their jobs and have been <a href="https://www.csi-int.org/news/syria-systematic-persecution-of-alawites/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">told</a> not to apply for work and to hide their accent.</p>
  212.  
  213.  
  214.  
  215. <p>The Kurds, meanwhile, are closely observing these developments. Despite an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/10/syrian-government-reaches-deal-with-kurdish-led-sdf-to-integrate-north-east-region" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">agreement</a> signed in March between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the transitional government, in which the SDF agreed to a ceasefire and to integrate into the national army, the Kurds fear becoming the next targets. If history has taught the Kurdish-led multiethnic military coalition anything, it is that the promises of governments cannot be trusted.</p>
  216.  
  217.  
  218.  
  219. <p>Yazidi people — scattered across Kurdish Syria, northern Iraq and southeast Turkey — have double cause to be afraid, threatened as they are on two fronts: their ethnicity as Kurds and their faith. Against all odds, they have kept their religion alive for centuries, despite oppression and threatened extermination. Indigenous to the region, the Yazidi people have a monotheistic faith that includes elements&nbsp;of Zoroastrianism, Islam and Christianity.&nbsp;</p>
  220.  
  221.  
  222. <div class="wp-block-image">
  223. <figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=768&#038;height=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-312605" style="width:370px;height:auto" srcset="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=768&amp;height=1024 768w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=225&amp;height=300 225w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=135&amp;height=180 135w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=203&amp;height=270 203w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=304&amp;height=405 304w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=439&amp;height=585 439w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Menaf-Jaafar.jpg?width=810 810w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Menaf Jaafar, co-chair of Yazidi House. (Photo by Aras Yussef)</figcaption></figure></div>
  224.  
  225.  
  226. <p>Jaafar, who is the co-chair of Yazidi House in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo — where Yazidi people hold ceremonies and celebrations — says that while his people were persecuted under the previous government, there has been a shift toward a genocidal mindset against the Yazidis.&nbsp;</p>
  227.  
  228.  
  229.  
  230. <p>In August, the unfolding horror against the Alawites and the Druze, together with the constant provocation and threats against the Kurds, pushed leaders and activists of these minorities to come together. At a conference in Al-Hasakah, leaders <a href="https://hawarnews.com/en/alawites-druze-send-messages-to-unified-stance-of-ne-syrias-components-conference" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">agreed </a>on the need for unity, federalism or decentralization, a secular state and a constitution that guarantees the pluralism of Syria.&nbsp;</p>
  231.  
  232.  
  233.  
  234. <p>“Diversity isn&#8217;t a threat but a treasure that strengthens our unity,” said Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, a Druze spiritual leader.</p>
  235.  
  236.  
  237.  
  238. <p>However, the government has previously and explicitly rejected federalism, <a href="https://aawsat.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A/5096123-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%B9-%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%85-%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%82%D8%AF-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%BA%D8%B1%D9%82-4" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">calling </a>it “division” and stressing the importance of a single, centralized country.</p>
  239.  
  240.  
  241.  
  242. <p>But the country already has a working example of federalism that protects minority rights. In the autonomous Kurdish regions of northern and eastern Syria, diversity and freedom to express one’s identity are ensured. Shop and institutional signs are written in the regions’ three main spoken languages (Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac), education is provided in students’ languages, and the national and religious occasions of those living in the communities are celebrated by the Autonomous Administration as official holidays. All ethnicities in a village or region participate in running institutions and councils, with proportional representation, or in some cases, minimum representation requirements.&nbsp;</p>
  243.  
  244.  
  245.  
  246. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“Diversity isn&#8217;t a threat but a treasure that strengthens our unity.&#8221;</p></blockquote></figure>
  247.  
  248.  
  249.  
  250. <p>“In the Social Contract of the Autonomous Administration, there is a rule that stipulates the freedom to practice all Yazidi rituals freely,” Jaafar explained. The contract, worked on since <a href="https://rojavainformationcenter.org/2023/12/aanes-social-contract-2023-edition/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">2013</a>, functions much like a constitution and covers social and political life, with an emphasis on women’s rights. Dozens of different cultural communities were involved in its creation and updates. The preamble <a href="https://rojavainformationcenter.org/2023/12/aanes-social-contract-2023-edition/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">expresses</a> a hope that the document will “form a basis for building a future Syria, without racist tendencies, discrimination, exclusion or the marginalization of any identity.”</p>
  251.  
  252.  
  253.  
  254. <p>Kurds in Syria are currently forced into a contradictory situation. While they are maintaining some diplomacy with the government in order to avoid clashes or violence,&nbsp;the lack of government movement toward recognizing Kurdish autonomy or other minorities puts them in an adversarial position of pressing for the need for an inclusive federalism.</p>
  255.  
  256.  
  257.  
  258. <p class="is-td-marked">“We don’t believe any other people or system can protect us from possible genocides other than the Autonomous Administration,” Jaafar said. “It has demonstrated its ability to achieve justice for all of the ethnic and religious groups in Syria.”</p>
  259. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe/">Despite Fall of Assad and Recent Elections in Syria, Minorities Still Aren’t Safe</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  260. ]]></content:encoded>
  262. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/despite-fall-of-assad-and-recent-elections-in-syria-minorities-still-arent-safe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  263. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  266. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312597</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25199395461099-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" length="608142" type="image/jpeg" />
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  268. </item>
  269. <item>
  270. <title>No Business as Usual</title>
  271. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-business-as-usual/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-business-as-usual</link>
  272. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-business-as-usual/#respond</comments>
  274. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter Olney, Rand Wilson /  Labor Notes ]]></dc:creator>
  275. <pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:18:57 +0000</pubDate>
  276. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  277. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  278. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  279. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  280. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  281. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  282. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  283. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  284. <category><![CDATA[labor movement]]></category>
  285. <category><![CDATA[midterm elections]]></category>
  286. <category><![CDATA[no kings]]></category>
  287. <category><![CDATA[union busting]]></category>
  288. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312594</guid>
  289.  
  290. <description><![CDATA[<p>Urgent times call for something old and something new from the labor movement.</p>
  291. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-business-as-usual/">No Business as Usual</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  292. ]]></description>
  293. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  294. <p><strong>For workers to survive</strong> President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s MAGA moment and build a fighting labor movement for the future, both electoral politics (something old) and militant actions to disrupt business as usual (something new for many unions) will be key.</p>
  295.  
  296.  
  297.  
  298. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">ELECTORAL POLITICS</h3>
  299.  
  300.  
  301.  
  302. <p>Though some activists are dismissive of electoral politics, building a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives (or Senate) will be essential to putting the brakes on the worst of Trump’s initiatives. We can’t take it for granted, especially with the unpopularity of the current <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/democratic-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="12" title="democratic party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Democratic Party</a> leadership. But based on past history, the midterms will hopefully deprive Trump of a majority in the House.</p>
  303.  
  304.  
  305.  
  306. <p>The current battle over redistricting sets the stage in Texas and California. California’s “Election Rigging Response Act” (Proposition 50), which will be on the Nov. 4 ballot, gives unions an opportunity to mobilize 3 million California members to counter Trump and <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/republican-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="11" title="republican party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Republican Party</a>’s Texas gerrymandering. This is an opportunity for many new leaders and activists to emerge and be inspired to organize and carry forward their skills to the 2026 midterms. It is an essential part of the continuing “block and build” effort to defeat the right-wing Republicans at the ballot box while at the same time building the independent power of grassroots progressive groups, including unions.</p>
  307.  
  308.  
  309.  
  310. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The midterms will hopefully deprive Trump of a majority in the House.</p></blockquote></figure>
  311.  
  312.  
  313.  
  314. <p>Equally important are the Democratic primaries, where a number of working-class warriors will face off against “go along to get along” corporate Democrats. Putting pro-worker, populist Democrats up against MAGA Republicans may be a fruitful strategy for winning tough seats and could push the party in a more pro-labor direction. Think oyster farmer Graham Platner in Maine, mechanic and Kellogg’s strike leader Dan Osborn in Nebraska (running as an independent), and community organizer Zack Shrewsbury in West Virginia, who are all running for Senate seats in 2026. Osborn ran in 2024 and came within 6 points of beating a Republican incumbent senator in a state <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/kamala-harris/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="3" title="Kamala Harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamala Harris</a> lost by 20 percentage points.</p>
  315.  
  316.  
  317.  
  318. <p>In New York, the campaign to elect Zohran Mamdani is providing the labor movement a local focus on capturing power in America’s largest city and using that power to push more organizing. After Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary, most of New York’s labor movement (unlike the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/democratic-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="12" title="democratic party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Democratic Party</a>) quickly united around his campaign. A Labor for Zohran initiative has emerged to engage rank-and-file members to push their unions to do more on the campaign and prepare to fight for policy objectives like freezing rents and providing fare-free buses if he wins.</p>
  319.  
  320.  
  321.  
  322. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">DISRUPT BUSINESS AS USUAL</h3>
  323.  
  324.  
  325.  
  326. <p>In the same way that union members confront a bad boss, the way to stop an authoritarian takeover is with continued, escalating collective action. Early on in Trump’s second term, veteran union organizer Stephen Lerner made that recommendation, urging labor to throw caution to the wind and take bold action against Trump’s attacks.</p>
  327.  
  328.  
  329.  
  330. <p>While unions have filed lawsuits that have slowed down some of Trump’s plans, they have yet to figure out an effective strategy of resistance. It’s encouraging to see more unions mobilizing members for demonstrations like &#8220;No Kings Day&#8221; on Oct. 18. On Labor Day, the May Day Strong coalition documented over 500 events, involving a half-million people across the country, demanding an end to the billionaire takeover. But these rallies, while important, still do not meet the need for immediate militant action in the workplace and in the streets.</p>
  331.  
  332.  
  333.  
  334. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Targeting Trump&#8217;s corporate backers can be a key part of our strategy.</p></blockquote></figure>
  335.  
  336.  
  337.  
  338. <p>There are a wide variety of responses to Trump’s attacks in the labor movement. Some unions, like the Teamsters, have attempted to curry favor with the administration and build alliances with Republican politicians. Other union leaders in the building trades and elsewhere are still trying to avoid Trump’s wrath, although a number of construction unions have strongly condemned Trump’s attacks on offshore wind projects and infrastructure funding, which put hundreds of thousands of good union jobs at risk. And Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, called Trump’s budget “the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country … threatening an estimated 1.75 million construction jobs … to make room for more tax breaks for the wealthiest corporations and individuals in America.” The sheet metal workers and machinists unions have also denounced ICE detentions of members.</p>
  339.  
  340.  
  341.  
  342. <p>The response by federal unions to Trump’s attacks has been largely limited to the filing of lawsuits. It has been heartening to see the formation of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), a new rank-and-file organization that has engaged in bolder activity and in some cases succeeded in moving federal union leaders to take a more militant stand.</p>
  343.  
  344.  
  345.  
  346. <p>The occupations by military troops in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago are provoking vigorous resistance from many unions. The teachers and service workers unions have been the most outspoken and active. In July, 1,400 people flooded the L.A. Convention Center for “nonviolent direct-action training” principally sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. In D.C., the Metro Washington Labor Council sponsored a Solidarity Season Labor Day Rally and March on Aug. 28.</p>
  347.  
  348.  
  349.  
  350. <p>Targeting Trump&#8217;s corporate backers can be a key part of our strategy. The Tesla Takedown, which organized rallies outside the carmaker’s showrooms nationwide, had a powerful immediate effect on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/elon-musk/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="19" title="Elon Musk">Musk</a> and his involvement with <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/doge/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="18" title="DOGE">DOGE</a>. Are there similar targets that could give us visibility and leverage, especially if we could link to union efforts to organize at those companies?</p>
  351.  
  352.  
  353.  
  354. <p>In July, Free DC took similar actions around Amazon-owned Whole Foods stores in Washington to protest the cloud computing services the company provides to ICE. The <a href="http://athenaforall.org/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Athena coalition</a> is linking broad anti-Jeff Bezos activities to building power for workers at Amazon warehouses. For unionists like us who believe that winning collective bargaining at Amazon is an essential task for the labor movement, this is a positive development that needs to be amplified.</p>
  355.  
  356.  
  357.  
  358. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">CREATIVE SOLIDARITY</h3>
  359.  
  360.  
  361.  
  362. <p>U.S. unions have seldom employed strikes for political goals like saving the Social Security retirement age, as unions in Western Europe do. Thus, union membership lacks the experience, and our leaders are too timid, so the possibilities for nationally coordinated, militant direct action by labor are not great. A bright spot is the organizing around May 1, 2028, that is inspiring many activists — but that’s 2½ years away. (Check out the Labor Notes resource page at <a href="http://www.may2028.org/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">may2028.org</a>.)</p>
  363.  
  364.  
  365.  
  366. <p>Yet labor does not have to be paralyzed in the face of Trump; there is plenty of room for action that strikes at the MAGA billionaire boys club and becomes a problem for Trump’s sponsors.</p>
  367.  
  368.  
  369.  
  370. <p>In major cities where union density is relatively high, the labor movement has the opportunity for creative direct action. For instance, imagine when SEIU California President David Huerta, who was arrested in June for defending his members from ICE,&nbsp;<a href="https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-condemns-politically-motivated-charges-against-seiu-leader-david-huerta" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">goes to trial on federal charges</a>. Perhaps buildings in downtown Los Angeles and other cities where unionized janitors clean could be shut down.</p>
  371.  
  372.  
  373.  
  374. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>This is no time for caution.</p></blockquote></figure>
  375.  
  376.  
  377.  
  378. <p>Something similar could be done at buildings where Amazon has offices or at other companies in the Trump business constellation. Janitors are vulnerable because most are Latino, but they could go home for the day while other unions could step up to donate money for their compensation and picket in their stead.</p>
  379.  
  380.  
  381.  
  382. <p>Think of the visuals and what a great message of class solidarity. Imagine if hard hats and longshore workers were doing informational picketing at the tallest building in L.A. in support of workers’ rights and against ICE. It would be like the 2004 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377744/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">“A Day Without a Mexican”</a> on steroids. Similar protest actions could unfold in other sectors of high-immigrant employment, like hotels and agriculture.</p>
  383.  
  384.  
  385.  
  386. <p>While it might sound fanciful, these are the types of creative — and courageous — actions that it is going to take for the resistance to Trump to begin to develop some momentum and overcome the feelings of helplessness and fear that are holding us back. With millions of members under attack, unions have a big role to play in nurturing and supporting these actions and puncturing the narrative that Trump’s actions are supported by working people.</p>
  387.  
  388.  
  389.  
  390. <p>Despite the unevenness of labor’s response to MAGA, this is no time for caution. Labor leaders and activists need to find points of strength and synergy to step up. No business as usual while this bad boss rules.</p>
  391.  
  392.  
  393.  
  394. <p><em>Peter Olney is retired organizing director of the Longshore Workers (ILWU) and a co-editor of Labor Power and Strategy. Rand Wilson has worked as a union organizer and labor communicator for more than 40 years. He is currently an organizer for CHIPS Communities United.</em></p>
  395. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-business-as-usual/">No Business as Usual</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  396. ]]></content:encoded>
  398. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/no-business-as-usual/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  399. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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  404. </item>
  405. <item>
  406. <title>America’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Will Be Online in Six Months</title>
  407. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-will-be-online-in-six-months/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=americas-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-will-be-online-in-six-months</link>
  408. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-will-be-online-in-six-months/#respond</comments>
  410. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Clare Fieseler /  Canary Media ]]></dc:creator>
  411. <pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:19:02 +0000</pubDate>
  412. <category><![CDATA[Business & Economy]]></category>
  413. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  414. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  415. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  416. <category><![CDATA[dominion energy]]></category>
  417. <category><![CDATA[green energy]]></category>
  418. <category><![CDATA[virginia]]></category>
  419. <category><![CDATA[wind farm]]></category>
  420. <category><![CDATA[wind power]]></category>
  421. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312567</guid>
  422.  
  423. <description><![CDATA[<p>Dominion Energy’s 2.6 gigawatt project off Virginia’s coast is progressing fast. The utility has a new, more definitive target to plug into the grid: March 2026.</p>
  424. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-will-be-online-in-six-months/">America’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Will Be Online in Six Months</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  425. ]]></description>
  426. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  427. <p class="has-small-font-size">This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/subscribe-to-our-newsletters" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Canary Media</a>.</p>
  428.  
  429.  
  430.  
  431. <p><strong>About 30 miles off the coast</strong> of Virginia Beach, Virginia, workers have been building America’s largest offshore wind farm at a breakneck pace. The project will start feeding power to the grid by March — the most definitive start date provided by its developer yet.</p>
  432.  
  433.  
  434.  
  435. <p>“First power will occur in&nbsp;Q1&nbsp;of next year,” Dominion Energy spokesperson Jeremy Slayton told Canary Media.&nbsp;​“And we are still on schedule to complete by late&nbsp;2026.”</p>
  436.  
  437.  
  438.  
  439. <p>In an August earnings call, Dominion Energy&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;Robert Blue provided a&nbsp;vague window of&nbsp;​“early&nbsp;2026” when asked when the&nbsp;2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project would start generating renewable power for the energy-hungry state.</p>
  440.  
  441.  
  442.  
  443. <p>As of the end of September, Dominion had installed all&nbsp;176&nbsp;turbine foundations —&nbsp;​“a big, important milestone,” per Slayton. That accomplishment involved pile-driving&nbsp;98&nbsp;foundations into the soft seabed during the five-month stretch when such work is permitted. Good weather helped the work move along quickly, as did the Atlantic Ocean’s&nbsp;<a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2025-09-24-2025-hurricane-season-tracks-lucky-so-far" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">unusually quiet hurricane season</a>.</p>
  444.  
  445.  
  446.  
  447. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>&#8220;We are still on schedule to complete by late&nbsp;2026.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  448.  
  449.  
  450.  
  451. <p>Speed is key when building wind projects under the eye of a&nbsp;president who has called turbines&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thetrumparchive.com/?searchbox=%22wind%22&amp;resultssortOption=%22Latest%22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">​</a>​“<a href="https://www.thetrumparchive.com/?searchbox=%22wind%22&amp;resultssortOption=%22Latest%22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">ugly</a>” and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/donald-trump-scotland-golf-course-wind-turbines-renewable-energy-a8528231.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">​</a>​“<a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/donald-trump-scotland-golf-course-wind-turbines-renewable-energy-a8528231.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">terrible for tourism</a>” — and who has followed up with attempts to dismantle the industry.</p>
  452.  
  453.  
  454.  
  455. <p>Had&nbsp;CVOW&nbsp;not finished foundation installation by the end of this month, turbine construction would have been delayed until next spring. Federal permitting restricts pile-driving to a&nbsp;May-through-October window to protect migrating North Atlantic right whales. Such a&nbsp;delay would have made&nbsp;CVOW&nbsp;more vulnerable to the wrath of the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration, which has already&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/trump-admin-halts-construction-of-nearly-finished-offshore-wind-farm" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">issued stop-work orders</a>&nbsp;to two offshore wind farms under construction.</p>
  456.  
  457.  
  458.  
  459. <p>But Slayton said the threat of President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s interference doesn’t concern him.&nbsp;CVOW&nbsp;is, after all, one of only two in-progress offshore wind projects that hasn’t been directly attacked by the president.</p>
  460.  
  461.  
  462.  
  463. <p>“Our project has enjoyed bipartisan support from the beginning,” he said, pointing to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/republicans-trump-conference-virginia" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">backing from some of the state’s leading Republicans</a>, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans.</p>
  464.  
  465.  
  466.  
  467. <p>Kiggans, who represents the politically moderate Virginia Beach area, brought her concerns about Trump’s <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/trump-offshore-wind-worse" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">escalating war on wind</a> to the House floor last month, when Congress returned from recess. She called CVOW ​“important to Virginia,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., later told reporters that he relayed Kiggans’ message directly to Trump.</p>
  468.  
  469.  
  470.  
  471. <p>“I understand the priority for Virginians and we want to do right by them, so we’ll see,” Johnson <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/09/10/congress/johnson-backs-virginia-wind-project-in-break-with-trump-cw-00554569" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">told Politico​’s E&amp;E News</a> in a comment that broke from an anti–offshore wind narrative that’s taken root among many of his fellow House Republicans.</p>
  472.  
  473.  
  474.  
  475. <p>The project is crucial for helping the state meet a deluge of new electricity demand, as Virginia is <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/utilities/virginia-dominion-chesterfield-gas-data-center-demand" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">at the center of the nationwide boom</a> in data center construction. CVOW will provide a huge amount of carbon-free power to the state and Dominion, its largest utility, helping both keep pace with rising demand without having to burn more polluting fossil fuels.</p>
  476.  
  477.  
  478.  
  479. <p>Kiggans also tied the success of&nbsp;CVOW&nbsp;to the needs of Virginia’s military installations.</p>
  480.  
  481.  
  482.  
  483. <p>“I always speak about that project in light of the national security benefit and that benefit to Naval Air Station Oceana,” Kiggans said last month in an <a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/kiggans-reaffirms-offshore-wind-project-support-hopeful-canceled-grant-can-be-restored/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">interview with WAVY-TV</a>, a Virginia news station, noting that a partnership with Dominion is ​“giving Naval Air Station Oceana a $500 million power grid upgrade.”</p>
  484.  
  485.  
  486.  
  487. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The project is crucial for helping the state meet a&nbsp;deluge of new electricity demand.</p></blockquote></figure>
  488.  
  489.  
  490.  
  491. <p>Dominion has already spent $6&nbsp;billion on the monumental effort to build&nbsp;CVOW, which has been&nbsp;12&nbsp;years in the making. Almost $1&nbsp;billion of that investment has flowed to the local economy, creating&nbsp;802&nbsp;full- and part-time jobs in the state’s Hampton Roads region, according to G.T. Hollett, Dominion Energy’s director of offshore wind.</p>
  492.  
  493.  
  494.  
  495. <p>CVOW’s benefits are being felt nationwide too.</p>
  496.  
  497.  
  498.  
  499. <p>“The project has already created 2,000 direct and indirect American jobs and generated $2 billion in economic activity, strengthening the nation’s manufacturing supply chains and our regional economy,” said Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition.</p>
  500.  
  501.  
  502.  
  503. <p>Now Dominion will turn to the final phase of construction: turbine installation. The work is made possible by the Charybdis — the first U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel — which arrived at Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal last month.</p>
  504.  
  505.  
  506.  
  507. <p>“When Charybdis is loaded up, it will have all the components to install four turbines [of 176 total] with each trip,” said Slayton, who noted that the pace of the build is well timed given Virginia’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-electricity-prices/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1OTg1NTgwMiwiZXhwIjoxNzYwNDYwNjAyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUM0RFRzlHUFdEM1EwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIyRDQ5NjM1QTc1NTk0MTc3OUE3RjdFNDk2MDVFNDI4OCJ9.mCN1112QNfT4UiLlOmKJbrqE4Beh0glD4YJQREoUvjI&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">data center boom</a>. The state is facing ​“record growth and energy demand … maybe you’ve heard.”</p>
  508. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-will-be-online-in-six-months/">America’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Will Be Online in Six Months</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  509. ]]></content:encoded>
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  512. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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  517. </item>
  518. <item>
  519. <title>Will Trump Invade Venezuela?</title>
  520. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-trump-invade-venezuela/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=will-trump-invade-venezuela</link>
  521. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-trump-invade-venezuela/#respond</comments>
  523. <dc:creator><![CDATA[William LeoGrande /  Responsible Statecraft ]]></dc:creator>
  524. <pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:56:19 +0000</pubDate>
  525. <category><![CDATA[Americas]]></category>
  526. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  527. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  528. <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
  529. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  530. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  531. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  532. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  533. <category><![CDATA[nicolas maduro]]></category>
  534. <category><![CDATA[regime change]]></category>
  535. <category><![CDATA[venezuela]]></category>
  536. <category><![CDATA[war on drugs]]></category>
  537. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312560</guid>
  538.  
  539. <description><![CDATA[<p>A full-scale invasion appears unlikely, which leaves the question: What does the president really want?</p>
  540. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-trump-invade-venezuela/">Will Trump Invade Venezuela?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  541. ]]></description>
  542. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  543. <p><strong>It’s ironic that in the same week</strong> that President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> escalated the drug war in the Caribbean by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/politics/trump-covert-cia-action-venezuela.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">unleashing</a> the CIA against President Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela, the Department of Justice won an indictment against former national security adviser John Bolton, the architect of the failed <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/trump-cia-venezuela-maduro-regime-change-plot/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">covert strategy</a> to overthrow Maduro during the first Trump administration.</p>
  544.  
  545.  
  546.  
  547. <p>The one thing the two regime change operations have in common is Marco Rubio, who as a senator was a vociferous opponent of Maduro. Now, as secretary of state and national security adviser, he’s the new architect of Trump’s Venezuela policy, having managed to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/us/politics/trump-venezuela-maduro.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">cut short</a> Richard Grenell’s attempt to negotiate a diplomatic deal with Maduro. Regime change is on the agenda once again, with gunboats in the Caribbean and the CIA on the ground. What could go wrong?</p>
  548.  
  549.  
  550.  
  551. <p>Donald Trump’s penchant for turning the metaphorical war on drugs into a real one by deploying the U.S. military dates back to his first administration, when he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/trump-drug-cartels-terrorists.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">threatened</a> to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorists and proposed launching missiles to blow up drugs labs in Mexico. During the recent presidential campaign, <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/president-donald-j-trump-declares-war-on-cartels" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">he declared</a>, “The drug cartels are waging war on America — and it&#8217;s now time for America to wage war on the cartels.” Apparently, he meant it.</p>
  552.  
  553.  
  554.  
  555. <p>Back in office, he <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20Department%20of%20State,as%20Foreign%20Terrorist%20Organizations%20(FTOs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">named</a> six Mexican cartels, the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/trump-military-drug-cartels.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">ordered</a> the Pentagon to draw up plans for military action against them. Early on, White House officials seriously <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/world/americas/mexico-trump-cartels-washington.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">debated</a> military strikes against cartel leaders and infrastructure inside Mexico, but decided that cooperation with the Mexican government would be more fruitful. Nevertheless, the unusual <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-taps-special-ops-vet-key-latin-america-post-sources-say-2025-06-04/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">appointment</a> of a veteran special forces military officer to head the Western Hemisphere Affairs office of the National Security Council signaled that Trump was still was serious about resorting to military force to wage the war on drugs.</p>
  556.  
  557.  
  558.  
  559. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Regime change is on the agenda once again.</p></blockquote></figure>
  560.  
  561.  
  562.  
  563. <p>The focus then shifted to Venezuela. The day before The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/trump-military-drug-cartels.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">broke the story</a> about the Pentagon planning for action against cartels, Attorney General Pam Bondi <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy1wn1x521o" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">announced</a> that the U.S. government was offering a $50 million reward for information leadings to Maduro’s arrest, accusing him of using &#8220;cocaine as a weapon to &#8216;flood&#8217; the United States.” Trump claimed Maduro was directing Tren de Aragua in “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States,” a claim that the intelligence community <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/gabbard-intelligence-venezuelans-tren-de-aragua-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">concluded was untrue</a>, despite pressure from Trump political appointees to make the estimate conform to Trump’s claim. The two senior career intelligence officers who oversaw preparation of the estimate <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/gabbard-fires-intel-officials-oversaw-memo-contradicting-white-house-c-rcna206918" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">were fired</a>.</p>
  564.  
  565.  
  566.  
  567. <p>In August, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/50db68c8-59d2-4a2a-b2c3-7c8c88237763" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">deployed</a> a naval task force to the Caribbean, including three guided-missile destroyers, an amphibious assault ship, a guided-missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered attack submarine. The following month, U.S. forces began airstrikes on vessels allegedly smuggling narcotics in international waters off the Venezuelan coast. When Democrats and some Republicans questioned the legality of summarily killing civilians who posed no immediate threat, Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/trump-drug-cartels-war.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">informed</a> Congress that he had determined that the United States was in a state of “armed conflict” with unnamed drug cartels, whose trafficking constituted an attack on the United States. Therefore, traffickers were “unlawful combatants” subject to being killed on sight. Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/us/politics/southern-command-head-stepping-down.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">resigned</a> on Thursday, reportedly because of concerns over the extrajudicial killing of civilians in the airstrikes.</p>
  568.  
  569.  
  570.  
  571. <p>When Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/10/maria-corina-machado-trump-nobel-prize-dedication-00601967?fbclid=IwY2xjawNemLVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiFk0NOTVDBhqTTTpMYoK9EqvdFRfLJn4vJVlzrrRkxM-ipCEBECwU5CEBOm_aem_Z4qKoSOr9IDMG2No0vgC2A" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">dedicated</a> her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and asked for his help to oust Maduro, U.S. escalation ratcheted up another notch. Last week, Trump acknowledged that he has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-confirms-authorized-cia-action-venezuela-rcna237880" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">approved</a> lethal CIA operations inside Venezuela. Asked if he had given authorization to “take out” Maduro, he refused to answer. In the same news conference, he also revealed that he was considering military strikes inside Venezuela. B-52 bombers have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/us/politics/trump-administration-helicopters-venezuela-military-pressure.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">dispatched</a> to fly just off the Venezuelan coast and U.S. special operations air units are conducting exercises in the area as a “show of force,” according to one official. Some 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the region.</p>
  572.  
  573.  
  574.  
  575. <p>Yet, despite this impressive show of military prowess, it seems unlikely that the Trump administration is prepared to invade Venezuela. The forces currently deployed are nowhere near enough to occupy the country, which is five times the size of Iraq, Washington’s last misadventure in nation-building. Moreover, Trump has repeatedly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-israel-maga-republicans-truth-2d240dc778494948d1b6d15977bec6d4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">promised</a> his MAGA base there would be no more “endless” foreign wars, telling a 2024 campaign rally he would “turn the page forever on those foolish, stupid days of never-ending wars.” Even the airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June caused <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/22/iran-attack-maga-reaction-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">consternation</a> in his “America First” base. And nobody has ever won the Nobel Peace Prize for starting a war.</p>
  576.  
  577.  
  578.  
  579. <p>The more likely next steps are targeted attacks on drug storage sites, on individuals involved in trafficking and perhaps on members of the Maduro regime — the sort of strikes the White House contemplated launching against Mexico back in February. That could slow or even stop the flow of drugs through Venezuela. But Venezuela is not a drug producer; Colombia is the producer and if it can’t send its drugs through Venezuela, it will send them through Mexico or up the Pacific Coast in homemade “<a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/under-radar-what-hundreds-ofnarco-sub-seizures-tell-us-about-global-cocaine-routes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">narco submarines</a>.” The obvious futility of trying to stop drug trafficking by waging covert or overt war against Venezuela suggests that the real motive is political — to bring about regime change.</p>
  580.  
  581.  
  582.  
  583. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The CIA’s efforts to foment a coup have already failed once.</p></blockquote></figure>
  584.  
  585.  
  586.  
  587. <p>Can the CIA’s covert operatives pull it off? In the places where they’ve been successful (Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973), the key has been to turn the military against the civilian government. That’s not likely in Venezuela. The so-called <a href="https://insightcrime.org/venezuela-organized-crime-news/cartel-de-los-soles-profile/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Cartel of the Suns</a> is a loose network of military officers profiting from a wide range of criminal enterprises, including collaboration with Colombian cocaine traffickers. Regime change in Caracas, especially the establishment of an opposition government led by Machado and friends, would pose a grave threat to the military’s interests. They might dispatch with Maduro, but if the infrastructure of the regime and armed forces remains intact, nothing would change.</p>
  588.  
  589.  
  590.  
  591. <p>The <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/trump-cia-venezuela-maduro-regime-change-plot/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">CIA’s efforts</a> to foment a coup have already failed once. In 2019, at the peak of popular opposition to Maduro’s regime and with Washington promoting oppositionist Juan Guiadó as the legitimate president, “Operation Liberty” was a plan to split the army as a catalyst for regime collapse. Instead the plan collapsed when no significant military units defected.</p>
  592.  
  593.  
  594.  
  595. <p>If a U.S. invasion and occupation of Venezuela is not feasible and a successful CIA instigated coup is unlikely, what is the endgame for Trump’s escalating conflict with Venezuela? Will the president be satisfied with more performative displays of military force until the next crisis pushes Venezuela out of the headlines and off his agenda? Will he be satisfied if Nicolás Maduro is replaced by some other member of his regime so Trump can claim victory? Or will he finally conclude that Marco Rubio’s obsession with regime change in Venezuela is just as much a dead end as John Bolton’s was, and give Richard Grenell the nod to go back to Caracas and make a deal?</p>
  596. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-trump-invade-venezuela/">Will Trump Invade Venezuela?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
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  606. <item>
  607. <title>The Good and Bad of Amazon’s ‘Dark Patterns’ Settlement</title>
  608. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement</link>
  609. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement/#respond</comments>
  611. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ron Knox /  Inequality.org ]]></dc:creator>
  612. <pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:37:35 +0000</pubDate>
  613. <category><![CDATA[Business & Economy]]></category>
  614. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  615. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  616. <category><![CDATA[Economic Justice]]></category>
  617. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  618. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  619. <category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
  620. <category><![CDATA[amazon prime]]></category>
  621. <category><![CDATA[antitrust]]></category>
  622. <category><![CDATA[ftc]]></category>
  623. <category><![CDATA[ROSCA]]></category>
  624. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312556</guid>
  625.  
  626. <description><![CDATA[<p>The government's $1 billion civil penalty against Amazon is a record amount, but the settlement skips over what could have been a valuable case for regulators and the public.</p>
  627. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement/">The Good and Bad of Amazon’s ‘Dark Patterns’ Settlement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  628. ]]></description>
  629. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  630. <p><strong>When the U.S. Federal Trade Commission</strong> announced it had settled its “dark patterns” lawsuit against Amazon last month, leaders at the antitrust and consumer protection watchdog celebrated.&nbsp;</p>
  631.  
  632.  
  633.  
  634. <p>“Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/ftc-secures-historic-25-billion-settlement-against-amazon" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">said</a>. Ferguson, whom <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> appointed to his post in January, is, of course, duty bound to champion the deal as a victory for consumers and the administration. But the real impacts and costs of the agency’s deal with Amazon are more complicated. </p>
  635.  
  636.  
  637.  
  638. <p>The agency struck the deal just days into a trial in which it had accused Amazon and three executives of knowingly tricking millions of shoppers into signing up for Prime memberships without their consent, then making those memberships nearly impossible to cancel. To end the trial early, Amazon agreed to pay billions to the government and shoppers, and to change its most nefarious Prime practices.&nbsp;</p>
  639.  
  640.  
  641.  
  642. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Settling a trial early comes with lost opportunities.</p></blockquote></figure>
  643.  
  644.  
  645.  
  646. <p>In one sense, Ferguson was right to boast: The settlement was a victory for the agency and consumers. The $1 billion civil penalty against Amazon is a record amount, and the additional $1.5 billion refunded to bamboozled Prime members is the second-highest penalty the FTC has secured for ripped-off shoppers. And the regulatory future is more important than the past: Forcing Amazon to make signing up for and canceling Prime easier is a major win for customers. </p>
  647.  
  648.  
  649.  
  650. <p>But for the FTC, settling a trial early comes with lost opportunities. The strength of our consumer protection and fairness laws depends on case law and court precedents. Every trial that results in a decision is a stepping stone to the next case, and the next, and the next.</p>
  651.  
  652.  
  653.  
  654. <p>The case was one of just a few government-backed cases to be brought under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, or ROSCA, an Obama-era law specifically intended to stop consumers from being enrolled in online subscriptions without their consent. The FTC has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cooley.com/news/insight/2024/2024-04-11-ftc-enhances-scrutiny-of-subscriptions-and-negative-option-features-under-rosca" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">increasingly</a>&nbsp;used ROSCA to try to win monetary damages from lawbreakers since 2021, when the Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-508_l6gn.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">handcuffed</a>&nbsp;the agency’s ability to win damages under its own law, the FTC Act.</p>
  655.  
  656.  
  657.  
  658. <p>When the FTC wins in court, which it appeared very likely to do, it makes bringing and winning the next ROSCA lawsuit against a predatory or deceptive company that much easier. Likewise, when the government takes the chicken exit instead of seeing a trial through to its conclusion, it makes the same job harder for future FTC commissioners and staff.&nbsp;</p>
  659.  
  660.  
  661.  
  662. <p>The Amazon lawsuit was by far the closest a ROSCA case has come to a jury trial and a decision of liability. The documents already made public during the litigation were objectively terrible for Amazon; indeed, the company named its Prime cancellation maze the “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-project-iliad-juiciest-highlights-ftc-prime-lawsuit-2023-6" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Iliad Flow</a>” after Homer’s poetic description of the arduous Trojan War — a four-page, six-click, 15-option gauntlet Prime shoppers must endure to end their memberships. Much more about Amazon’s business model and its reliance on Prime as fuel for its online shopping monopoly would have likely come to light during trial. By backing out of the trial early, the FTC likely left good case law on the table and the public in the dark.</p>
  663.  
  664.  
  665.  
  666. <p>As a matter of policy, settling a case also sends a message to corporate wrongdoers that, if they’re willing to pay up and make a few changes to their corporate behavior, they can get off the hook. Amazon has been variously accused of all sorts of wrongdoing, from <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">illegally monopolizing e-commerce</a> to <a href="https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/02012023" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">labor violations</a> at its warehouses and sorting facilities, to <a href="https://saalawoffice.com/amazon-sued-for-allegedly-allowing-fake-products-that-harmed-consumers/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">turning a blind eye</a> to knockoffs on its site. Executives are behind all of those decisions, and three top Amazon executives in charge of the Iliad Flow — Neil Lindsay, Russel Grandinetti and Jamil Ghani — were on the hook in the dark patterns case. </p>
  667.  
  668.  
  669.  
  670. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The Amazon lawsuit was by far the closest a ROSCA case has come to a jury trial and a decision of liability.</p></blockquote></figure>
  671.  
  672.  
  673.  
  674. <p>When government prosecutors have a company with Amazon’s track record of alleged abuse in its sights and specifically names the executives responsible for those abusive corporate practices, it builds good policy by seeing the case through to its conclusion — especially when the FTC was by all accounts winning. Settling sends a message to other wrongdoers: If a company like Amazon can get away with ripping off its customers, surely we can too. That’s bad policy.</p>
  675.  
  676.  
  677.  
  678. <p>The FTC will likely get another chance to do the right thing. At the moment, the government’s monopolization trial against Amazon is on track to begin in February 2027. The lawsuit strikes at the heart of Amazon’s wealth and power in e-commerce. A ruling in favor of the FTC could lead to monumental changes to Amazon’s current exploitative business model, including a possible breakup. The stakes of that case are far too high; no settlement should suffice.<a href="https://inequality.org/article/tax-debate-amazon-bezos-jassy/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank"></a></p>
  679. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement/">The Good and Bad of Amazon’s ‘Dark Patterns’ Settlement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  680. ]]></content:encoded>
  682. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-good-and-bad-of-amazons-dark-patterns-settlement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  683. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  686. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312556</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP24116703765923-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" length="355937" type="image/jpeg" />
  687. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP24116703765923-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  688. </item>
  689. <item>
  690. <title>Mark of the (Mr.) Beast</title>
  691. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mark-of-the-mr-beast/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=mark-of-the-mr-beast</link>
  692. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mark-of-the-mr-beast/#respond</comments>
  694. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Veronica Phillips]]></dc:creator>
  695. <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:05:32 +0000</pubDate>
  696. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  697. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  698. <category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
  699. <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
  700. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  701. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  702. <category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
  703. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  704. <category><![CDATA[endurance cinema]]></category>
  705. <category><![CDATA[MrBeast]]></category>
  706. <category><![CDATA[stephen king]]></category>
  707. <category><![CDATA[the long walk]]></category>
  708. <category><![CDATA[The Running Man]]></category>
  709. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312535</guid>
  710.  
  711. <description><![CDATA[<p>New adaptations of prophetic Stephen King stories highlight the long, perverse tradition of “endurance” media, where suffering is the spectacle.</p>
  712. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mark-of-the-mr-beast/">Mark of the (Mr.) Beast</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  713. ]]></description>
  714. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  715. <p class="has-drop-cap">Stephen King’s 1979 novel “The Long Walk” is an allegory for the Vietnam War draft. During a time of financial hardship, a group of young men apply each year to compete in “the long walk.” The rules are simple: All contestants must walk at a pace of 4 miles per hour, without breaks, until only one contestant is left walking. The losers are shot and killed. The winner receives a large cash prize and one wish fulfilled. </p>
  716.  
  717.  
  718.  
  719. <p>The novel’s first film adaptation was released this year. Its theme of civilians participating in televised endurance challenges anticipates the upcoming reboot of another King novel, “The Running Man.” “The Running Man’s” original adaptation, released in 1987 and rewritten to fit the zeitgeist of Reagan’s America, cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a tough cop who is forced into the murderous &#8220;Running Man&#8221; game show by state forces. Edgar Wright’s 2025 version, by contrast, is said to be faithful to the original short novel and much more in tune with 2025: If I were to guess, this “faithfulness” will be apparent in the protagonist, Ben Richards, willingly signing up for the game show in order to buy medication for his terminally ill child, as in the original story. </p>
  720.  
  721.  
  722.  
  723. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>There is a sick fascination in guessing the final straw after months in a bunker with a stranger.</p></blockquote></figure>
  724.  
  725.  
  726.  
  727. <p>A perverse fascination with other people’s endurance — or rather, other people’s suffering as they fight to endure —<strong> </strong>in times of financial and social desperation is nothing new. Horace McCoy’s Depression-era novel “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” — adapted in 1969 into a film by Sidney Pollack — depicts dance competitions of the time that could go on for weeks, with cash prizes for the couple with the most stamina. (The prize in “They Shoot Horses”<em> </em>is about $30,000 in today’s money.) In 1997, director S.R. Bindler released a documentary, “Hands on a Hard Body<em>,</em>”<em> </em>which follows a group of Texans competing in a car dealership ad campaign to see who can keep their hand on a brand new truck the longest. The film was enormously popular, running for over a year at the Dobie Theater in Austin. </p>
  728.  
  729.  
  730.  
  731. <p>All of the aforementioned films make entertainment from physically and psychologically draining “challenges” that offer a ticket out of debt and despair. They invariably involve presumably “normal” people without any special skills. The goal is to be the last man (or couple) standing, by being the best at an act that almost anyone can do: slow dancing, walking, keeping a hand on the hood of a truck. Because everyone likes a spectacle, these films usually also incorporate subplots of cult<strong> </strong>fandom — fans with signs appear during &#8220;The Long Walk,&#8221; dancing couples are sponsored by brands, small crowds gather to cheer on specific hands placed on specific hard bodies. </p>
  732.  
  733.  
  734.  
  735. <p>The modern<strong> </strong>king of what might be called the endurance-attention economy is, of course, MrBeast, a YouTuber whose “challenges” have gained him 442 million subscribers and the ability to rack up a billion views on a single video, most of which are variations on the same formula: “Win [massive amount of money] by [suffering through this extreme experience]”.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  736.  
  737.  
  738.  
  739. <p>In his early days, MrBeast served as his own endurance guinea pig. He would attempt to eat 100,000 calories in a day, or livestream himself counting to 10,000 while fighting sleep and performing natural bodily functions. Eventually, MrBeast began roping in civilian contestants. Contestants often have stories of varying desperation: a pregnant wife, a lost job, a life with no car that very much requires a car.  </p>
  740.  
  741.  
  742.  
  743. <p>One of MrBeast’s most recent videos, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7i8VTpfNM&amp;t=901s" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Would You Risk Dying For $500,000?</a>”, depicts a man strapped to a chair in a burning room. MrBeast stands next to him while hawking his new branded beef jerky sticks. In the comments, he assures everyone that they take many safety precautions. (When someone dies of a heart attack in “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” the emcee lies, assuring the rest of the group that the on-call nurses would ensure his survival). None of MrBeast’s videos are really about the victory of securing the purse; rather, they turn on the process of getting there. As in “The Long Walk<em>,</em>”<em> </em>the only options are to win or lose. And while no one in MrBeast’s videos is dying, we are meant to believe they are putting themselves in extreme physical or psychological distress. We are kept in our seat not by the outcome so much as morbid curiosity. In the same way I am curious to see what obstacles will weed out the losers in “The Long Walk,”<em> </em>there is a sick fascination in guessing the final straw after months in a bunker with a stranger, or a full day buried alive (both classic and regularly utilized MrBeast premises). </p>
  744.  
  745.  
  746.  
  747. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>He feeds us the story that emotional and physical distress has a quantifiable dollar value.</p></blockquote></figure>
  748.  
  749.  
  750.  
  751. <p>MrBeast’s videos are edited with a frantic, cartoon-like energy, including animated nuclear explosions over the locations of competitions after they are completed. The message is clear: Once MrBeast has extracted all that he can from one location (and consequently, from his contestant’s distress) the space is useless to him. It deserves obliteration.&nbsp;</p>
  752.  
  753.  
  754.  
  755. <p>Whether or not MrBeast’s contestants are “real” (many accuse MrBeast of hiring actors), or if they are actually being buried alive for 24 hours (many accuse MrBeast of fudging both wins and losses in the final edits), is irrelevant. What matters is that he feeds us the story that emotional and physical distress has a quantifiable dollar value. He feeds us this story to justify conditions that cultivate fruitless distress and the exploitation of desperate people.</p>
  756.  
  757.  
  758.  
  759. <p class="is-td-marked">In “The Long Walk,”<em> </em>the boys muse over the fact that there isn’t really another “option” to signing up for the walk. Times are too tough to not throw your hat into the ring. Similarly, there are endless comments on each of MrBeast’s videos begging for a chance to be placed in a challenge. For those who don’t want to be buried alive or placed in a nuclear bunker there is always the option of trying to become another MrBeast. Forbes estimates MrBeast’s net worth at around $500 million, the result of his hard work stick-and-carroting desperate people. We have created a society where the options are suffering for a chance at the cash prize golden ticket (that for many will be used just to access basic needs) — or being the far wealthier emcee that orchestrates the suffering of others.</p>
  760. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mark-of-the-mr-beast/">Mark of the (Mr.) Beast</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  761. ]]></content:encoded>
  763. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mark-of-the-mr-beast/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  764. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  767. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312535</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MarkofMrBeast.png?width=878&#038;height=585" length="2138551" type="image/png" />
  768. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MarkofMrBeast.png?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  769. </item>
  770. <item>
  771. <title>More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents</title>
  772. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents</link>
  773. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents/#respond</comments>
  775. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicole Foy /  ProPublica ]]></dc:creator>
  776. <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 15:37:01 +0000</pubDate>
  777. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  778. <category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>
  779. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  780. <category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
  781. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  782. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  783. <category><![CDATA[brett kavanaugh]]></category>
  784. <category><![CDATA[detention]]></category>
  785. <category><![CDATA[immigration and customs enforcement]]></category>
  786. <category><![CDATA[kristi noem]]></category>
  787. <category><![CDATA[scotus]]></category>
  788. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312528</guid>
  789.  
  790. <description><![CDATA[<p>One was a pregnant woman who had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.</p>
  791. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents/">More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  792. ]]></description>
  793. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  794. <p class="has-small-font-size">This story was originally published by <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">ProPublica</a>.</p>
  795.  
  796.  
  797.  
  798. <p><strong>When the Supreme Court</strong> recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned.</p>
  799.  
  800.  
  801.  
  802. <p>“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/25a169_5h25.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Kavanaugh wrote</a>, “they promptly let the individual go.”</p>
  803.  
  804.  
  805.  
  806. <p>But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been <a href="https://ij.org/press-release/us-citizen-and-army-veteran-submits-claims-for-unconstitutional-immigration-detention/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">dragged</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQV6UraLvrc" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">tackled</a>, <a href="https://keyt.com/news/ventura-county/2025/06/17/u-s-citizen-held-by-ice-released/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNX-R1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFpRmJBTVd1bWo1RmlwbHIzAR6tmB1XSL8T5qzJ29VshJqzHl8yNFKGHBeJEIk4VM5DrfIu1Qb49FFxt_pezQ_aem_x4YB63-Wxvh_XWsxVxSNfg" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">beaten</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByxrHjdPf2M" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">tased</a> and <a href="https://www.wbez.org/public-safety/2025/10/07/marimar-martinez-anthony-ian-santos-ruiz-border-patrol-shooting-brighton-park" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">shot</a> by immigration agents. They’ve had their <a href="https://ktla.com/video/arrest-of-a-local-activist-sparks-concern/10967685/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">necks knelt on</a>. They’ve been held outside <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-family-traumatized-ice-raid-rcna203700" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">in the rain in their underwear</a>. At least three <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pregnant-us-citizen-speaks-out-after-being-detained-by-ice-agents-searching-for-her-husband/ar-AA1K7LvM?cvid=29C548A67093400BB35419B53F382CBF&amp;ocid=se" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">citizens</a> were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/pregnant-us-citizen-went-hospital-immigration-agents-detained-rcna212033" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">pregnant</a> when <a href="https://ktla.com/news/local-news/woman-detained-by-federal-agents-during-california-immigration-raid-faints/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">agents detained them</a>. One of those women had already had the <a href="https://ktla.com/news/local-news/dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-attends-ice-raid-at-home-of-pregnant-l-a-county-mother/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">door of her home blown off</a> while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/how-u-s-citizen-in-huntington-park-found-dhs-sec-kristi-noem-at-her-door/3722903/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">watched</a>.</p>
  807.  
  808.  
  809.  
  810. <p>About two dozen Americans have said they were held for&nbsp;<a href="https://lapublicpress.org/2025/06/70-hours-hell-detained-in-bell-immigration-raid/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">more than a day</a>&nbsp;without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.</p>
  811.  
  812.  
  813.  
  814. <p>Videos of U.S. citizens being mistreated by immigration agents have filled social media feeds, but there is little clarity on the overall picture. The government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/more-americans-will-be-caught-up-trump-immigration-raids" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">does not track how often</a>&nbsp;immigration agents hold Americans.</p>
  815.  
  816.  
  817.  
  818. <p>So ProPublica created its own count.</p>
  819.  
  820.  
  821.  
  822. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.</p></blockquote></figure>
  823.  
  824.  
  825.  
  826. <p>We compiled and reviewed every case we could find of agents holding citizens against their will, whether during immigration raids or protests. While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s second administration.</p>
  827.  
  828.  
  829.  
  830. <p>Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer. That includes four who were held for weeks with their undocumented mothers and without access to an attorney until <a href="https://dexter.house.gov/media/press-releases/dexter-highlights-human-toll-trumps-immigration-machine-elevates-merlos" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a congresswoman intervened.</a></p>
  831.  
  832.  
  833.  
  834. <p>Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances. Agents can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5517998/ice-arrest-rules-explained" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">hold people whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally</a>. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino.</p>
  835.  
  836.  
  837.  
  838. <p>Immigration agents also <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5517998/ice-arrest-rules-explained" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">can arrest citizens</a> who allegedly interfere with or assault officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers.</p>
  839.  
  840.  
  841.  
  842. <p>These cases have often wilted under scrutiny. In nearly 50 instances that we have identified so far, charges were never filed or the cases were dismissed. Our count found a handful of citizens have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.</p>
  843.  
  844.  
  845.  
  846. <p>Among the detentions in which allegations have not stuck, masked agents <a href="https://www.calonews.com/communities/us-citizens-and-a-legal-permanent-resident-unlawfully-detained-by-immigration-agents-sue-the-federal/article_1e03b889-c0e0-4eab-ba77-4db386968370.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">pointed a gun at, pepper sprayed and punched</a> a young man who had filmed them while they searched for his relative. In another, agents <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYP5ii0Sd_Q" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">knocked over and then tackled</a> a 79-year-old car wash owner, pressing their knees into his neck and back. His lawyer said he was held for 12 hours and wasn’t given medical attention despite having broken ribs in the incident and having recently had heart surgery. In a third case, agents grabbed and handcuffed a woman on her way to work who was caught up in a chaotic raid on street vendors. In a complaint filed against the government, she described being <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-citizen-detained-ice-l-says-wasnt-water-24-hours-rcna224493" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">held for more than two days</a> without being allowed to contact the outside world for much of that time. (The Supreme Court has <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/500/44/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">ruled</a> that two days is generally the longest federal officials can hold Americans without charges.)</p>
  847.  
  848.  
  849.  
  850. <p>In response to questions from ProPublica, the Department of Homeland Security said agents do not racially profile or target Americans. “We don’t arrest U.S. citizens for immigration enforcement,” wrote spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.</p>
  851.  
  852.  
  853.  
  854. <p>A top immigration official recently acknowledged agents do consider someone’s looks. “How do they look compared to, say, you?” Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino&nbsp;<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/09/28/ice-agents-spotted-downtown-on-michigan-avenue-along-chicago-river" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">said to a white reporter</a>&nbsp;in Chicago.</p>
  855.  
  856.  
  857.  
  858. <p>The White House told ProPublica that anyone who assaults federal immigration agents would be prosecuted. “Interfering with law enforcement and assaulting law enforcement is a crime and anyone, regardless of immigration status, will be held accountable,” said the deputy spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “Officers act heroically to enforce the law, arrest criminal illegal aliens and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism.”</p>
  859.  
  860.  
  861.  
  862. <p>A spokesperson for Kavanaugh did not return an emailed request for comment.</p>
  863.  
  864.  
  865.  
  866. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Agents knocked over and then tackled a 79-year-old car wash owner, pressing their knees into his neck and back.</p></blockquote></figure>
  867.  
  868.  
  869.  
  870. <p>Tallying the number of Americans detained by immigration agents is inherently messy and incomplete. The government has long ignored&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-487" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">recommendations</a>&nbsp;for it to track such cases, even as the U.S. has a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/more-americans-will-be-caught-up-trump-immigration-raids" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">history of detaining and even deporting citizens</a>, including during the Obama administration and Trump’s first term.</p>
  871.  
  872.  
  873.  
  874. <p>We compiled cases by sifting through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports. We did not include arrests of protesters by local police or the National Guard. Nor did we count cases in which arrests were made at a later date after a judicial process. That included cases of some people charged with serious crimes, like&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/6sja5o2g6L4?si=pPxvv1cyvrkIUPXc&amp;t=112" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">throwing rocks</a>&nbsp;or tossing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-or/pr/four-defendants-charged-various-offenses-including-arson-assaulting-federal-officer-and" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a flare to start a fire</a>.</p>
  875.  
  876.  
  877.  
  878. <p>Experts say that Americans appear to be getting picked up more now as a result of the government doing something that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12002189/over-1-" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">it hasn’t for decades</a>: large-scale immigration sweeps across the country, often in communities that do not want them.</p>
  879.  
  880.  
  881.  
  882. <p>In earlier administrations, deportation agents used intelligence to target specific individuals, said Scott Shuchart, a top immigration official in the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden</a>, Obama and first Trump administrations. “The new idea is to use those resources unintelligently” — with officers targeting communities or workplaces where undocumented immigrants may be.</p>
  883.  
  884.  
  885.  
  886. <p>When federal officers roll through communities in the way the Supreme Court has permitted, the constitutional rights of both citizens and noncitizens are inevitably violated, argued David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He recently <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/1/5-ice-arrests-are-latinos-streets-no-criminal-past-or-removal-order" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">analyzed how sweeps in Los Angeles</a> have led to racial profiling. “If the government can grab someone because he’s a certain demographic group that’s correlated with some offense category, then they can do that in any context.”</p>
  887.  
  888.  
  889.  
  890. <p>Cody Wofsy, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, put it even more starkly. “Any one of us could be next.”</p>
  891.  
  892.  
  893.  
  894. <p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>*&nbsp;&nbsp; *&nbsp;&nbsp; *</strong></p>
  895.  
  896.  
  897.  
  898. <p>When Kavanaugh declared that immigration agents can consider race and other factors, the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices strongly dissented. <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/25a169_5h25.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">They warned that citizens risked being</a> “grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labor.”</p>
  899.  
  900.  
  901.  
  902. <p>Leonardo Garcia Venegas appears to have been at the center of just such a case. He was working at a construction site in coastal Alabama when he saw masked immigration agents from Homeland Security Investigations hop a fence and run past a “no trespassing” sign. Garcia Venegas recalled that they moved toward the Latino workers, ignoring the white and Black workers.</p>
  903.  
  904.  
  905.  
  906. <p>Garcia Venegas began filming after his undocumented brother asked agents for a warrant. In response, the footage shows, agents yanked his brother to the ground, shoving his face into wet concrete. Garcia Venegas kept filming until officers grabbed him too and knocked his phone to the ground.</p>
  907.  
  908.  
  909.  
  910. <p>Other co-workers filmed what happened next, as immigration agents twisted the 25-year-old’s arms. They repeatedly tried to take him to the ground while he yelled, “I’m a citizen!”</p>
  911.  
  912.  
  913.  
  914. <p>Officers pulled out his REAL ID, which Alabama only issues to those legally in the U.S. But the agents dismissed it as fake. Officers held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for more than an hour. His brother was later deported.</p>
  915.  
  916.  
  917.  
  918. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“If they decide they want to detain you,” he said. “You’re not going to get out of it.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  919.  
  920.  
  921.  
  922. <p>Garcia Venegas was so shaken that he took two weeks off of work. Soon after he returned, he was working alone inside a nearly built house listening to music on his headphones when he sensed someone watching him. A masked immigration agent was standing in a bedroom doorway.</p>
  923.  
  924.  
  925.  
  926. <p>This time, agents didn’t tackle him. But they again dismissed his REAL ID. And then they held him to check his citizenship. Garcia Venegas says agents also held two other workers who had legal status.</p>
  927.  
  928.  
  929.  
  930. <p>DHS did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about Garcia Venegas’ detentions, or to a federal lawsuit he filed last month. The agency has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-immigration-raid-real-id-handcuffed-alabama-rcna208794" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">previously defended</a>&nbsp;the agents’ conduct, saying he “physically got in between agents and the subject” during the first incident. The footage does not show that, and Garcia Venegas was never charged with obstruction or any other crime.</p>
  931.  
  932.  
  933.  
  934. <p>Garcia Venegas’ lawyers at the nonprofit Institute for Justice hope others may join his suit. After all, the reverberations of the immigration sweeps are being felt widely. Garcia Venegas said he knows of 15 more raids on nearby construction sites, and the home-building industry along his portion of the Gulf Coast is struggling for lack of workers.</p>
  935.  
  936.  
  937.  
  938. <p>Kavanaugh’s assurances hold little weight for Garcia Venegas. He’s a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, who speaks little English and works in construction. Even with his REAL ID and Social Security card in his wallet, Garcia Venegas worries that immigration agents will keep harassing him.</p>
  939.  
  940.  
  941.  
  942. <p>“If they decide they want to detain you,” he said, “you’re not going to get out of it.”</p>
  943.  
  944.  
  945.  
  946. <p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>*&nbsp;&nbsp; *&nbsp;&nbsp; *</strong></p>
  947.  
  948.  
  949.  
  950. <p>George Retes was among the citizens arrested despite immigration agents appearing to know his legal status. He also disappeared into the system for days without being able to contact anyone on the outside.</p>
  951.  
  952.  
  953.  
  954. <p>The only clue Retes’ family had at first was a brief call he managed to make on his Apple Watch with his hands cuffed behind his back. He quickly told his wife that ICE had arrested him during a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-12/ice-agents-raid-farm-mans-death" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">massive raid and protest</a> on the marijuana farm where he worked as a security guard.</p>
  955.  
  956.  
  957.  
  958. <p>Still, Retes’ family couldn’t find him. They called every law enforcement agency they could think of. No one gave them any answers.</p>
  959.  
  960.  
  961.  
  962. <p>Eventually, they spotted a TikTok video showing Retes driving to work and slowly trying to back up as he’s caught between agents and protesters. Through the tear gas and dust, his family recognized Retes’ car and the veteran decal on his window. The full video shows a man — Retes — splayed on the ground surrounded by agents.</p>
  963.  
  964.  
  965.  
  966. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Retes was held for three days without being given an opportunity to make a call.</p></blockquote></figure>
  967.  
  968.  
  969.  
  970. <p>Retes’ family went to the farm, where local TV reporters were interviewing families who couldn’t find their loved ones.</p>
  971.  
  972.  
  973.  
  974. <p>“<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-ice-smashed-windows-deportation-arrests/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">They broke his window</a>, they pepper sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor,”&nbsp;<a href="https://abc7.com/post/disabled-veteran-is-us-citizen-was-taken-during-camarillo-immigration-raid-family-says/17072476/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">his sister told a reporter</a>&nbsp;between sobs. “We don’t know what to do. We’re just asking to let my brother go. He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car.”</p>
  975.  
  976.  
  977.  
  978. <p>Retes was held for three days without being allowed to make a call. His family learned where he had been only after his release. His leg had been cut from the broken glass, Retes told ProPublica, and lingering pepper spray burned his hands. He tried to soothe them by soaking them in sandwich bags filled with water.</p>
  979.  
  980.  
  981.  
  982. <p>Retes recalled that agents knew he was a citizen. “They didn’t care.” He said one DHS official laughed at him, saying he shouldn’t have come to work that day. “They still sent me away to jail.” He added that cases like his show Kavanaugh was “wrong completely.”</p>
  983.  
  984.  
  985.  
  986. <p>DHS did not answer our questions about Retes. It did respond on X after <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/ice-racial-profiling-21045429.php" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Retes wrote an op-ed</a> last month in the San Francisco Chronicle. An <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1968378912326697368" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">agency social media post</a> asserted he was arrested for assault after he “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement.” Yet, Retes had been released without any charges. Indeed, he says he was never told why he was arrested.</p>
  987.  
  988.  
  989.  
  990. <p>The Department of Justice has encouraged agents to arrest anyone interfering with immigration operations,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-prosecutors-immigration/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">twice</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1972780690488910308/photo/2" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">ordering</a>&nbsp;law enforcement to prioritize cases of those suspected of obstructing, interfering with or assaulting immigration officials.</p>
  991.  
  992.  
  993.  
  994. <p>But the government’s claims in those cases have often not been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-23/protester-charges-essayli" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">borne out</a>.</p>
  995.  
  996.  
  997.  
  998. <p>Daniel Montenegro was filming a raid at a Van Nuys, California, Home Depot with other day-laborer advocates this summer when, he told ProPublica, he was tackled by several officers who injured his back.</p>
  999.  
  1000.  
  1001.  
  1002. <p>Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who <a href="https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/06/los-angeles-border-patrol-chief/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">oversaw the L.A. raids</a> and has since taken similar operations to cities like <a href="https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/09/aclu-border-patrol-sacramento-motion/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Sacramento</a> and Chicago, <a href="https://x.com/CMDROpAtLargeCA/status/1942758548171071662" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">tweeted out the names and photos</a> of Montenegro and three others, accusing them of using homemade tire spikes to disable vehicles.</p>
  1003.  
  1004.  
  1005.  
  1006. <p>“I had no idea where that story came from,” Montenegro told ProPublica. “I didn’t find out until we were released. People were like, ‘We saw you on Twitter and the news and you guys are terrorists, you were planning to slash tires.’ I never saw those spike tire-popper things.”</p>
  1007.  
  1008.  
  1009.  
  1010. <p>Officials have not charged Montenegro or the others with any crimes. (Bovino did not respond to a request for comment, while DHS defended him in a statement to ProPublica: “Chief Bovino’s success in getting the worst of the worst out of the country speaks for itself.”)</p>
  1011.  
  1012.  
  1013.  
  1014. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>He said one DHS official laughed at him, saying he shouldn’t have come to work that day.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1015.  
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018. <p>The government’s cases are sometimes so muddied that it’s unclear why agents actually arrested a citizen.</p>
  1019.  
  1020.  
  1021.  
  1022. <p>Andrea Velez was charged with assaulting an officer after she happened to be dropped off for work during a raid on street vendors in downtown Los Angeles. She said in a federal complaint that officers repeatedly assumed she did not speak English. Federal officers later requested access to her phone in an attempt to prove she was colluding with <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-27/are-you-gonna-let-him-die-agents-pile-on-protester-who-convulses-and-struggles-to-breathe" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">another citizen arrested that day</a>, who was charged with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLTKLK5hVmd/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">assault</a>. She was one of the Americans held for more than two days.</p>
  1023.  
  1024.  
  1025.  
  1026. <p>DHS did not respond to our questions about Velez, but it previously accused her of assaulting an officer. A federal judge dismissed the charges.</p>
  1027.  
  1028.  
  1029.  
  1030. <p>Other citizens also said officers accused them of crimes and suddenly questioned their citizenship — including a man arrested after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.maldef.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/FTCA-J.-Garcia-Redacted_7-1-2025.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">filming Border Patrol agents&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.maldef.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/FTCA-J.-Garcia-Redacted_7-1-2025.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">break</a>&nbsp;a truck window, and a pregnant woman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/pregnant-us-citizen-went-hospital-immigration-agents-detained-rcna212033" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">who tried to stop officers</a>&nbsp;from taking her boyfriend.</p>
  1031.  
  1032.  
  1033.  
  1034. <p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>*&nbsp;&nbsp; *&nbsp;&nbsp; *</strong></p>
  1035.  
  1036.  
  1037.  
  1038. <p>The prospects for any significant reckoning over agents’ conduct, even against citizens, are dim. The paths for suing federal agents are even more limited than they are for local police. And that’s if agents can even be identified. What’s more, the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/homeland-security-crcl-civil-rights-immigration-border-patrol-trump-kristi-noem" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">administration has gutted the office</a> that investigates allegations of abuse by agents.</p>
  1039.  
  1040.  
  1041.  
  1042. <p>“The often-inadequate guardrails that we have for state and local government — even those guardrails are nonexistent when you’re talking about federal overreach,” said Joanna Schwartz, a professor at UCLA School of Law.</p>
  1043.  
  1044.  
  1045.  
  1046. <p>More than 50 members of Congress have also written to the administration, demanding details about Americans who’ve been detained. One is Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat. After trying to question Noem about detained citizens, federal agents grabbed Padilla,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEvdXjJUujg" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">pulled him to the ground and handcuffed him</a>. The department later defended the agents, saying they “acted appropriately.”</p>
  1047. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents/">More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1048. ]]></content:encoded>
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  1056. </item>
  1057. <item>
  1058. <title>Under a Mask of AI Doomerism, the Familiar Face of Eugenics</title>
  1059. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics</link>
  1060. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics/#respond</comments>
  1062. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Émile P. Torres]]></dc:creator>
  1063. <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 15:28:52 +0000</pubDate>
  1064. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1065. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  1066. <category><![CDATA[Book Review]]></category>
  1067. <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
  1068. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  1069. <category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
  1070. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  1071. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  1072. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1073. <category><![CDATA[artificial general intelligence]]></category>
  1074. <category><![CDATA[Eliezer Yudkowsky]]></category>
  1075. <category><![CDATA[singularity]]></category>
  1076. <category><![CDATA[superintelligence]]></category>
  1077. <category><![CDATA[TESCREAL]]></category>
  1078. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312515</guid>
  1079.  
  1080. <description><![CDATA[<p>In a new book, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares hide their radical transhumanist agenda under the cover of concern about “AI safety.”</p>
  1081. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics/">Under a Mask of AI Doomerism, the Familiar Face of Eugenics</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1082. ]]></description>
  1083. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1084. <p class="has-drop-cap">The <a href="https://benthams.substack.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-is-frequently-confidently/comments" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Internet philosopher</a> Eliezer Yudkowsky has been predicting the end of the world for decades. In 1996, he <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070708235912/https://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">confidently declared</a> that the <a href="https://intelligence.org/2007/09/30/three-major-singularity-schools/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">singularity</a> — the moment at which computers become more “intelligent” than humanity — would happen in 2021, though he quickly <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240410024527/https://extropians.weidai.com/extropians.96/4858.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">updated this</a> to 2025. He also <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070708235912/https://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">predicted</a> that nanotechnology would <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NBgpPaz5vYe3tH4ga/on-deference-and-yudkowsky-s-ai-risk-estimates#1__Predicting_near_term_extinction_from_nanotech" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">suddenly emerge</a> and kill everyone by 2010. In the early aughts, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010205221413/http://sysopmind.com/eliezer.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">self-described</a> “genius” <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020124071714/http://www.singinst.org/intro.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">claimed</a> that his team of “researchers” at the Singularity Institute would build an artificial superintelligence “probably around 2008 or 2010,” at which point the world would undergo a fundamental and irreversible transformation. </p>
  1085.  
  1086.  
  1087.  
  1088. <p>Though none of those things have come to pass, that hasn’t deterred him from prophesying that the end remains imminent. Most recently, he’s been screaming that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA1sNLL6yg4" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">advanced AI could soon destroy humanity</a>, and half-jokingly <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j9Q8bRmwCgXRYAgcJ/miri-announces-new-death-with-dignity-strategy" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">argued in 2022</a> that we should accept our fate and start contemplating how best to “die with dignity.”</p>
  1089.  
  1090.  
  1091.  
  1092. <p>Yudkowsky carries on his indefatigable doomsaying in a new book, co-written with his fellow apocalypticist Nate Soares, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Anyone_Builds_It,_Everyone_Dies" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies</a>.” The conclusion is in the title: If anyone, anywhere, builds an artificial superintelligence, then everyone on Earth will somehow “<a href="https://x.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1726284483748659691" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">die instantly</a>.”</p>
  1093.  
  1094.  
  1095.  
  1096. <p>Hence, we should do everything possible to stop companies like OpenAI and DeepMind from building ASI, even if that <a href="https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-not-enough/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">requires military action</a> that risks <a href="https://x.com/xriskology/status/1670825126617546753" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">killing billions of people</a> in a thermonuclear war. Yudkowsky and Soares are so serious about this that their research organization, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, <a href="https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/6309037/eliezer-yudkowsky/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">doesn’t offer</a> 401(k) matching for employees. What’s the point if ASI is right around the corner and, once here, will annihilate us?</p>
  1097.  
  1098.  
  1099.  
  1100. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>They don’t actually care about whether our species goes extinct, nor are they opposed to building ASI.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1101.  
  1102.  
  1103.  
  1104. <p>Despite many <a href="https://x.com/willmacaskill/status/1968759901620146427" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">negative</a> reviews, the book has become a New York Times bestseller. What all these reviews miss is the fact that the book’s content is less interesting than what it leaves out. Over the course of 230 pages, the authors are careful not to reveal the disturbing and deeply anti-human worldview that underlies and motivates their pleas to stop the ASI race. Though they want readers to think otherwise, the authors are no friends of humanity. They talk about ASI as if we should never build it, and frequently warn of “human extinction.” But, in fact, they don’t actually care about whether our species goes extinct, nor are they opposed to building ASI.</p>
  1105.  
  1106.  
  1107.  
  1108. <p>The book is a clumsily written piece of propaganda for what I have elsewhere called the “<a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/">TESCREAL</a>” ideologies — a constellation of techno-futuristic worldviews that imagine a future <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/utopia" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">utopia</a> in which we create a new <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/posthuman.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">posthuman</a> species to usurp humanity, spread beyond Earth and fill the universe with what might be called digital space brains. If this sounds bizarre, that’s because it is. Yet this “techno-utopian” vision is integral to the book’s mission, even if the book itself slyly avoids the subject.</p>
  1109.  
  1110.  
  1111.  
  1112. <p class="has-drop-cap">The dishonesty starts on the cover, with the title, which most readers will interpret literally. Why wouldn’t they? However, what the authors really mean is, “If anyone builds ASI <em>in the near future</em>, then everyone will die.” Yudkowsky and Soares want to build ASI as quickly as possible, they just don’t think we’re ready for it — <em>yet</em>.</p>
  1113.  
  1114.  
  1115.  
  1116. <p>To understand this, consider the difference between “AI capabilities” and “AI safety” research. The former aims to create a superintelligent computer or algorithm. The latter aims to figure out how to ensure that this ASI is controllable by those who build it.&nbsp;</p>
  1117.  
  1118.  
  1119.  
  1120. <p>Yudkowsky and Soares believe that if AI safety research trails behind AI capabilities research, the default outcome will be the death of everyone on Earth. But, they profess, if AI safety research leads the way, the controllable ASI that results will bring about the aforementioned utopia marked by <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hFTkZjPiAyQ9RtCQf/the-meaning-that-immortality-gives-to-life" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">immortality</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">mind-uploading</a>, <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/papers/astronomical-waste/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">space colonization</a> and endless pleasures beyond our wildest techno-fantasies. A new, superior race of digital space brains will then “fill the stars with fun and wonder,” as Yudkowsky and Soares put it in almost childlike language.</p>
  1121.  
  1122.  
  1123. <span id="block_00917f3e6a44d173b5aa1cd05d60be7c" class="td-article-related-box-block block md:inline md:float-right w-[350px] max-w-full border-4 border-black p-6 md:ml-5 !my-12 !md:my-6">
  1124. <span class="text-red block font-proxima-nova absolute -translate-y-11 pt-2 pb-1.5 px-3 bg-white font-semibold uppercase tracking-widest text-lg leading-none">Related</span>
  1125. <span class="flex flex-col gap-2 font-semibold font-news-gothic-std">
  1126. <span class="block">
  1127. <span class="block">
  1128. <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/" class="!border-0">
  1129. The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmares </a>
  1130. </span>
  1131. <span class="block mt-2">
  1132. <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="270" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=480&amp;height=270" class="attachment-16:9-medium size-16:9-medium wp-post-image" alt="" srcset="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=1920 1920w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=300&amp;height=169 300w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=1024&amp;height=576 1024w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=768&amp;height=432 768w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=320&amp;height=180 320w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=480&amp;height=270 480w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=720&amp;height=405 720w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=1040&amp;height=585 1040w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/EMILE_MAIN.jpeg?width=1280&amp;height=720 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></a>
  1133. </span>
  1134. </span>
  1135. </span>
  1136. </span>
  1137.  
  1138.  
  1139.  
  1140. <p>This is what a controllable ASI promises, and it’s why the authors want ASI ASAP — though they don’t convey this in their book. They do, however, state this view elsewhere, as in a footnote of a <a href="https://intelligence.org/2024/05/29/miri-2024-communications-strategy/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">2024 report</a> from their research organization, the <a href="https://intelligence.org/transparency/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Thiel-funded</a> Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which Yudkowsky co-founded and Soares now directs. The report states: “We remain committed to the idea that failing to build smarter-than-human systems someday would be tragic and would squander a great deal of potential. We want humanity to build those systems, but only once we know how to do so safely.”</p>
  1141.  
  1142.  
  1143.  
  1144. <p>Contrast this with a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/If_Anyone_Builds_It_Everyone_Dies/8ZNLEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%252522We%2525E2%252580%252599re+not+here+to+tell+you+that+you%2525E2%252580%252599re+doomed%252522&amp;pg=PT15&amp;printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">claim</a> from their book: “We’re not here to tell you that you’re doomed .… Artificial superintelligence doesn’t exist yet. Humanity could still decide not to build it.” A straightforward reading would suggest that ASI should never be built, which is not the authors’ view. To the contrary, they would no doubt say that never building ASI would itself be an <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/existential/risks" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">existential catastrophe</a>, because reaching “utopia” is likely impossible without a controllable ASI to take us there.</p>
  1145.  
  1146.  
  1147.  
  1148. <p class="has-drop-cap">Such talk of utopia might seem harmless — if also a bit wacky — but it’s actually <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-longtermism-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-secular-credo" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">quite dangerous</a>. That’s because realizing this utopia would almost certainly entail the extinction of our species, the very thing that Yudkowsky and Soares seem to be warning about, as when they <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/If_Anyone_Builds_It_Everyone_Dies/8ZNLEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22artificial+intelligence+poses+an+imminent+extinction+risk+to+humanity%22&amp;pg=PT12&amp;printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">write</a>: “Artificial intelligence poses an imminent extinction risk to humanity” and “ humanity should not go extinct and be replaced by something bleak.” Do they actually care about “humanity” not “going extinct”?</p>
  1149.  
  1150.  
  1151.  
  1152. <p>The devil is in the details. What the authors don’t tell readers is that they’re using the terms “extinction” and “humanity” in an <a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/digital-eugenics-and-the-extinction-of-humanity/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">idiosyncratic way</a>. For them, humanity <a href="https://c8df8822-f112-4676-8332-ad89713358e3.filesusr.com/ugd/d9aaad_38ba897d9607413ab4e536b6806acd64.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">would include</a> not just our species,<em> Homo sapiens,</em> but also whatever technologically modified posthuman descendants we might have. (It is these posthumans, rather than us, who will someday populate utopia.) It follows from this definition that if our species were to create such descendants and then die out, human extinction would not have occurred — because those descendants would also count as humanity. </p>
  1153.  
  1154.  
  1155.  
  1156. <p>Another linguistic trick concerns the word “extinction.” In the <a href="https://c8df8822-f112-4676-8332-ad89713358e3.filesusr.com/ugd/d9aaad_38ba897d9607413ab4e536b6806acd64.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">academic literature</a>, “terminal extinction” refers to scenarios in which our species dies out, whereas “final extinction” refers to a distinct scenario in which our species dies out without leaving behind any posthuman descendants. The implications of this parallel those spelled out above: If our species were to perish next year without being replaced by posthumans, then we will have undergone final extinction. But if our species were to create these posthumans and then kick the can, we will have merely undergone terminal extinction. This may look like an <a href="https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-strange-rise-of-antinatalism" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">annoyingly academic</a> point, but it’s crucial for understanding AI doomers like Yudkowsky and Soares.</p>
  1157.  
  1158.  
  1159.  
  1160. <p>All indications are that the authors only care about final extinction — not terminal extinction. In other words, they care about the survival of our species insofar as this is necessary to create digital space brains to succeed us. What really matters are those space brains — which they would count as “humanity.”</p>
  1161.  
  1162.  
  1163.  
  1164. <p class="has-drop-cap">The fact that our species doesn’t matter is evident in a discussion from late last year between Yudkowsky and the computer scientist Stephen Wolfram. “It’s not that I’m concerned about being replaced by a better organism,” Yudkowsky <a href="https://x.com/xriskology/status/1927099990226182263" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">told</a> Wolfram, “I’m concerned that the organism won’t be better.” In a subsequent exchange with the <a href="https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-growing-specter-of-silicon-valley" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">outright extinctionist</a> Daniel Faggella, Yudkowsky made this jaw-dropping <a href="https://x.com/xriskology/status/1927099992143003987" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">statement</a>:</p>
  1165.  
  1166.  
  1167.  
  1168. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1169. <p>If sacrificing all of humanity were the only way, and a reliable way, to get … godlike things out there — superintelligences who still care about each other, who are still aware of the world and having fun — I would ultimately make that trade-off.</p>
  1170. </blockquote>
  1171.  
  1172.  
  1173.  
  1174. <p>Yudkowsky insists that this isn’t “the trade-off we are faced with,” but if it were, he’d happily make it. In yet another conversation, Yudkowsky proclaims that&nbsp; “a glorious transhumanist future” awaits if we play our cards right — where “playing our cards right” means, in part, building a controllable ASI. He then <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/e4pYaNt89mottpkWZ/yudkowsky-on-agi-risk-on-the-bankless-podcast" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">says</a>:</p>
  1175.  
  1176.  
  1177.  
  1178. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1179. <p>I have basic moral questions about whether it’s ethical for humans to have human children, if having transhuman children is an option instead. Like, these humans running around? Are they, like, the current humans who wanted eternal youth but, like, not the brain upgrades? Because I do see the case for letting an existing person choose, “No, I just want eternal youth and no brain upgrades, thank you.” But then if you’re deliberately having the equivalent of a very crippled child when you could just as easily have a not crippled child .…</p>
  1180. </blockquote>
  1181.  
  1182.  
  1183.  
  1184. <p>In other words, once posthuman children become possible, having a normal “human child” would be the equivalent of having a “crippled child” — deeply offensive language, by the way, that I would never write if I weren’t quoting a <a href="https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">eugenicist like Yudkowsky</a>. He continues his musing about the future of our species:</p>
  1185.  
  1186.  
  1187.  
  1188. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1189. <p>Like, should humans in their present form be around together? Are we, like, kind of too sad in some ways? … I’d say that the happy future looks like beings of light having lots of fun in a nicely connected computing fabric powered by the Sun, if we haven’t taken the sun apart yet. Maybe there’s enough real sentiment in people that you just, like, clear all the humans off the Earth and leave the entire place as a park. … Yeah, like &#8230; That was always the [thing] to be fought for. That was always the point, from the perspective of everyone who’s been in this for a long time.</p>
  1190. </blockquote>
  1191.  
  1192.  
  1193.  
  1194. <p>The line about “nicely connected computing fabric” is a reference to future posthumans living in computer simulations, which would be powered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Dyson swarms</a> that harvest nearly all of the sun’s energy output. Yudkowsky notes that this was “always” the thing that everyone in the AI safety camp — a branch of the TESCREAL movement that he largely founded — has been fighting for: a “glorious transhumanist future” full of posthuman space brains living lives of endless ecstasy in huge virtual-reality worlds spread throughout the universe.</p>
  1195.  
  1196.  
  1197.  
  1198. <p class="has-drop-cap">In this utopia, though, what becomes of our species? What’s our fate? The answer is that we’d be sidelined, marginalized, disempowered and ultimately eliminated. “Clear all the humans off the Earth and leave the entire place as a park,” Yudkowsky callously suggests. As long as what supersedes us is “better,” what’s the problem? He’d even sacrifice “all of humanity” to bring about this “utopia”!</p>
  1199.  
  1200.  
  1201.  
  1202. <p>This is about the most extreme version of eugenics imaginable, since it’s not about improving the human species as such (as with <a href="https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">traditional eugenics</a>), but usurping us entirely with “superior” posthumans. We can call this “<a href="https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/meet-the-radical-silicon-valley-pro" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">digital eugenics</a>,” an idea that has become <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-endgame-of-edgelord-eschatology/">widely embraced</a> within Silicon Valley.</p>
  1203.  
  1204.  
  1205.  
  1206. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“Clear all the humans off the Earth and leave the entire place as a park.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  1207.  
  1208.  
  1209.  
  1210. <p>The disturbing implication of digital eugenics is that if we build an uncontrollable ASI, then our species will die out. Yet if we build a controllable ASI, then our species will die out. The outcome is the same either way, meaning that neither option looks appealing for pro-humanity folks like me. Here we see the deeply anti-human worldview — an insidious variant of Silicon Valley pro-extinctionism — that underlies Yudkowsky and Soares’ entire worldview, though the authors are careful not to reveal such dark secrets to unsuspecting readers.</p>
  1211.  
  1212.  
  1213.  
  1214. <p>In sum, casual readers might assume that Yudkowsky and Soares care about preserving humanity and preventing us from going extinct. But the authors aren’t using “humanity” and “extinct” the way most of us understand those terms: They’re talking about preserving the possibility of posthuman space brains taking over the world (and universe). The disempowerment and disappearance of our species is ultimately part of the desired plan for the future. Once ASI arrives, our species will become a useless vestige of a bygone era that would only <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bioe.12340?casa_token=_NA0ecU0isAAAAAA:zk4de16-dTLOWbxciAoR-oWSOSOniJL4O5Vzdjv9mICLTD3J5CFj8fIIPX2EGAjJarV8v5-iseC1Md3C" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">waste valuable resources</a> that our space-brain descendants could use for much “grander” things.</p>
  1215.  
  1216.  
  1217.  
  1218. <p class="has-drop-cap">I actually <a href="https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/doomers-say-theres-a-20-chance-of" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">agree</a> with Yudkowsky and Soares that an uncontrollable ASI would probably annihilate everyone on Earth by default (though I <a href="https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/stop-believing-the-lie-that-agi-is" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">don’t think we’re</a> anywhere close to ASI). If we build a system that can genuinely outmaneuver us in every important way, process information much faster than us, solve problems too complex for us to understand, then why would anyone expect humanity to persist for long? An immensely powerful technology that we cannot control would likely destroy us as an unintended consequence of its actions, perhaps the same way that we destroy ant colonies because we see them as inferior beings that are sometimes in the way of paving a new road for a suburban neighborhood.</p>
  1219.  
  1220.  
  1221.  
  1222. <p>Where I strongly disagree with the authors is on the question of whether ASI can ever be controlled. Yudkowsky and Soares believe controllability is feasible if AI safety research leads the way over AI capabilities research. “The ASI alignment problem,” they <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/If_Anyone_Builds_It_Everyone_Dies/8ZNLEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22the+ASI+alignment+problem+is+possible+to+solve+in+principle%22&amp;pg=PT183&amp;printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">write</a>, “is possible to solve in principle.” But I see no reason for accepting this claim (and they provide no convincing reasons for believing it). How could we <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xp6n2MG5vQkPpFEBH/the-control-problem-unsolved-or-unsolvable" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">possibly ensure that</a> a dynamic, constantly evolving cluster of self-improving algorithms remains under our control for more than a flash? As the computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy compellingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TwwzSTEWsw&amp;t=2599s" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">makes the point</a>:</p>
  1223.  
  1224.  
  1225.  
  1226. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1227. <p>We don’t have static software. We have a system which is dynamically learning, changing, rewriting code indefinitely. It’s a perpetual motion problem we’re trying to solve. We know in physics you cannot create [a] perpetual motion device. But in AI, in computer science, we’re saying we can create [a] perpetual safety device, which will always guarantee that the new iteration is just as safe.</p>
  1228. </blockquote>
  1229.  
  1230.  
  1231.  
  1232. <p>That seems like a fool’s errand. There is no perpetual safety device that can protect us — or even our posthuman descendants, if we were to create them — from eventual annihilation. Hence, annihilation is the inevitable outcome if ASI is ever built by anyone at any point.</p>
  1233.  
  1234.  
  1235.  
  1236. <p>The inescapable conclusion is one that Yudkowsky and Soares, given their techno-utopianism, would roundly reject: We should implement a permanent ban of all efforts to build ASI, as groups like <a href="https://www.stopai.info/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Stop AI</a> have vociferously argued. There is no such thing as “controllable” ASI, and even if ASI were controllable, the realization of Yudkowsky’s “utopia” would itself precipitate our extinction, as noted above. The entire project of creating “godlike” AI is fundamentally misguided and extremely dangerous. It should be abandoned immediately, though at this point there’s so much money in the mix that it’s easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to the ASI race.</p>
  1237.  
  1238.  
  1239.  
  1240. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>We should implement a permanent ban of all efforts to build ASI.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1241.  
  1242.  
  1243.  
  1244. <p>Integral to this alternative approach, which I advocate, must be a shift away from the TESCREAL worldview that Yudkowsky and Soares champion. That means embracing what might be called a<em> true affirmation of life</em>, here and now, on our spaceship Earth: Planet A. Rather than moving fast and breaking things, we should move slow and build things. Rather than seeing our species as a conduit through which the “digital world of the future” will be born, we should value our species as an end in itself.</p>
  1245.  
  1246.  
  1247.  
  1248. <p>According to one study, approximately $<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-09-17-gartner-says-worldwide-ai-spending-will-total-1-point-5-trillion-in-2025" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">1.5 trillion</a> will have been spent on the race to build ASI this year alone. Imagine for a moment if that obscene heap of cash had been spent instead on restoring Earth’s ecosystems, cleaning up our pollution, mitigating climate change, eliminating global poverty, ensuring that everyone has access to free health care and making the world a more livable place for all. Imagine that.</p>
  1249.  
  1250.  
  1251.  
  1252. <p>I think about this as follows: Here we are on a magnificently beautiful planet, a twirling orb in space, painted with greens and blues, bustling with complex ecosystems full of innumerable living creatures, magnificent and exquisite, some of which (<a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/octopuses-keep-surprising-us-here-are-eight-examples-how.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">like the octopus</a>) we are only beginning to understand.</p>
  1253.  
  1254.  
  1255.  
  1256. <p>But this is not enough for the techno-utopians. They want more — infinitely more. They want to extend the ethos of extractive techno-capitalism into the stars, plunder the vast resources of the cosmos and build massive computer simulations full of trillions of digital space brains — powered by Dyson swarms. When they look up at the stars, they don’t see beauty in the pristine firmament but a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxg0LRTHgAU" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">vast reservoir of untapped resources</a> to be exploited for the purpose of maximizing profit and “<a href="https://nickbostrom.com/papers/astronomical-waste/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">value</a>.”</p>
  1257.  
  1258.  
  1259.  
  1260. <p class="is-td-marked">I agree with Yudkowsky and Soares that we should halt efforts to build ASI, but not to buy time for “AI safety” research to catch up. We should instead stop it because we love humanity, cherish our exquisitely marvelous planet and care about the well-being of future humans and our nonhuman companions alike.</p>
  1261. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics/">Under a Mask of AI Doomerism, the Familiar Face of Eugenics</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1262. ]]></content:encoded>
  1264. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/under-a-mask-of-ai-doomerism-the-familiar-face-of-eugenics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1265. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1268. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312515</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SuperAGI.png?width=878&#038;height=585" length="693448" type="image/png" />
  1269. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SuperAGI.png?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  1270. </item>
  1271. <item>
  1272. <title>Dear Normies: Time to Stand Up</title>
  1273. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dear-normies-time-to-stand-up/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=dear-normies-time-to-stand-up</link>
  1274. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dear-normies-time-to-stand-up/#comments</comments>
  1276. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeb Lund]]></dc:creator>
  1277. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 19:47:43 +0000</pubDate>
  1278. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1279. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  1280. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  1281. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  1282. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  1283. <category><![CDATA[TD Column]]></category>
  1284. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  1285. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1286. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  1287. <category><![CDATA[no kings]]></category>
  1288. <category><![CDATA[progressive]]></category>
  1289. <category><![CDATA[protest]]></category>
  1290. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312506</guid>
  1291.  
  1292. <description><![CDATA[<p>For people who’ve never been to a protest in their lives, Saturday’s "No Kings" rally is a good place to start.</p>
  1293. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dear-normies-time-to-stand-up/">Dear Normies: Time to Stand Up</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1294. ]]></description>
  1295. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1296. <p class="has-drop-cap">On Tuesday, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwY2xjawNd8nVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHoYBU4OcHI00UtnXYulLIML8x9y3_HN1uqnqptOSQuO7QIn1Emewym4yzVII_aem_Jvyu0G1NDJPsQqgL_Raclw" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">published excerpts from a private group chat</a> of “<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/republican-hitler-group-chat-nazi-politico/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">young</a>” Republican leaders using every color in the slur rainbow and cheerleading for the gas chamber. As far as news items go, it hit the trifecta for the “And you’re surprised by this?” crowd.</p>
  1297.  
  1298.  
  1299.  
  1300. <p>It is not surprising that these specimens of the master race look like Microsoft clip art for “Internet Neckbeard 2003-2008.” Nor is it surprising that a movement with <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-life-and-legacy-of-charlie-4chan/">nothing to offer young people but a reward structure for racism</a> — and 150-year-old jokes about watermelon — keeps producing people like this, three generations into its creation. These retrograde bigots are the least common denominator of crudity, victims of their own myths, shouting names into the dark and attacking anyone who’d walk into it. </p>
  1301.  
  1302.  
  1303.  
  1304. <p>These are, in other words, the people we need to frighten this weekend.&nbsp;</p>
  1305.  
  1306.  
  1307.  
  1308. <p>The <a href="https://www.nokings.org/#map" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">latest No Kings rally</a> will be held across the country this Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18. If the last was any indication, it doesn’t matter how remotely you live in East Jesus County, or if your town’s ratio of council members-to-citizens approaches one. There’s probably a gathering reasonably nearby. And if the bleating from The Man Who Would Be King <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/no-kings-protests-trump-republican-warnings-rcna237845" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">and his courtiers</a> is any indication, the thought terrifies them.&nbsp;</p>
  1309.  
  1310.  
  1311.  
  1312. <p>The Speaker of the House tore his brain away from an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/21/mike-johnson-covenant-eyes-anti-porn-app" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">intrusive mental loop of raw no-holes-barred thrusting</a> to condemn it as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/10/no-kings-protest-mike-johnson-00602705?cid=eml_mda_20251016&amp;user_email=a4abe2697c95ad7a163a0628eeba1af14f4282bad5963858787796357f529e32" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a Hamas action</a>. The party very concerned with antisemitism is elbowing the nation in the ribs and accusing the people in the streets of being&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221207201005/https:/deadspin.com/protesting-sells-but-whos-buying-1792730343/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">underwritten by an international Jewish financier</a>. Treasury Secretary and America’s Tariff Sales Leader of the Month Scott Bessent got so darn panicked trying to tie the rally to a Democratic shutdown strategy, he adopted the politics that inspired the Declaration of Independence. “<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m33b6awaok27" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">No Kings</a>,” he’s said,&nbsp;<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m33b6awaok27" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">repeatedly</a>, “<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m3adilojsx2f" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">equals no paychecks</a>.”</p>
  1313.  
  1314.  
  1315.  
  1316. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>If they’re warning you this much about it, the message ought to be clear: You’re going to have a good time.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1317.  
  1318.  
  1319.  
  1320. <p>To borrow from sports talk, if the preceding No Kings protest in June didn’t set the record for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/no-kings-how-many-protesters-attended" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">the largest single-day demonstration in American history</a>, it’s at least in the conversation. It’s in the all-time pantheon of crowd sizes — the inner-ring Protest Hall of Fame. I love Tesla Takedown, but when is Tesla Takedown&#8217;s Tesla Takedown? — it’s No Kings. It’s going to be huge. Just ask its subject.</p>
  1321.  
  1322.  
  1323.  
  1324. <p>Almost everything the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> tyranny is currently doing meets fascism’s definition of structural overreaction paired with the illusion of action. They cannot, for instance, conjure up enough actual criminal noncitizens to justify <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/immigration-and-customs-enforcement/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="20" title="immigration and customs enforcement">Immigration and Customs Enforcement</a>’s illegal militancy, so they tow videographers behind them in the hopes that enough shaky cam can Greengrass a sense of danger into five cornfed assholes powerbombing an abuela. But the No Kings overreaction, which so clearly anticipates a loud public response, so aggrandizes the enemy that it’s hard not to see an anxious awareness of the depth of their unpopularity.</p>
  1325.  
  1326.  
  1327.  
  1328. <p>Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn’t be necessary. The &#8220;Times&#8221; gave No Kings the kind of wall-to-wall coverage it usually reserves for Israeli war crimes or a Republican administration illegally wiretapping Americans before an election. Which is to say, understated. The same outlets that proclaimed the tea party as America’s new reality in 2009 — despite being more astroturfed than a Houston Oilers highlight reel and goosed by millions in earned media coverage on Fox — mostly registered this summer’s No Kings event as something a handful of soccer moms did to get out of the house. It was just super. It’s great to see them keeping busy.</p>
  1329.  
  1330.  
  1331.  
  1332. <p>A party and movement that’s still ascendant shouldn’t need to crank the messaging dial this hard to preemptively smear No Kings, especially not with Fox News, CNN and CBS all in the tank and already doing the heavy lifting. Any event this truly horrible would feel worse for being a surprise anyway, so why spoil it? Their insistence only calls to mind other entertainments that Republicans insist are bad for you, like sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. If they’re warning you this much about it, the message ought to be clear: You’re going to have a good time.</p>
  1333.  
  1334.  
  1335.  
  1336. <p>Naturally, one imagines that the leftish media readers who found this piece have some experience with protests (and this column is not <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/safety/protest-guidance" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a guide</a>). But I’d like to address those who don’t, the friends who found this link on their Facebook page. Because you, Mr. or Mrs. Normative Suburban American, are extraordinarily important. You are the people who conservatives will insist these protests do not represent. With the greatest possible affection, you are the normies, and as the embodiment of the norm, you are the people whom state violence claims to protect from these protests. As such, you are the people whose presence makes everyone else’s attendance safer. You should be there, because when you are, in the eyes of the guys in body armor ringing the event, it makes everyone else seem like they should be, too.</p>
  1337.  
  1338.  
  1339.  
  1340. <p>It’s important to be aware of possible dangers, but that shouldn’t inhibit you from going. Not only because the drive to and from the event will be the most dangerous thing you do all day, but because, again, No Kings is going to be a good time. In fact, a lot of protests are a good time. They’re great for people watching. Many of the signs are funny. If you’ve ever wondered where to find interesting and pleasantly slightly off-kilter people like yourself who you know must lurk in your town or city, a protest like this is a good place to start. Meeting people whose beliefs are mostly similar to your own is fun, especially if you can bring them back to other parts of your personal life. And, like most events that are dependent on crowd energy, more people participating translates to more enjoyment. You can show up to things like this while brunch-drunk in a giant sun hat and just vibe.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1341.  
  1342.  
  1343.  
  1344. <p>That last part might be the best thing you can do. In a better world, the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/democratic-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="12" title="democratic party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Democratic Party</a> is woven into the hearts of neighborhoods everywhere through years of family-friendly events that get people out of the house and doing interesting things for free, building community by habit and accident. Even if their own history in this regard were unpersuasive, the ubiquity of the Federalist Society is a constant reminder of this power. There are many arguments for its success over the last 40-something years, but the shortest and maybe the truest explanation is three words long: free good food. You can worry about getting permits for a decent taco truck for the next one; for now, bring snacks to share.</p>
  1345.  
  1346.  
  1347.  
  1348. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Go and be a vision of normal — a vitally protective vision of normal in crowds easily marginalized as agitators.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1349.  
  1350.  
  1351.  
  1352. <p>Don&#8217;t worry about not having a frog costume. What the country needs most now is not improv. It needs more pairs of hands to clap. It needs more souls. It needs more people willing to stand up for democracy long enough to let the protesters who were there yesterday and the day before sit down just a dang minute. In the most flat-front terms, the easiest thing you can do, Mr. Normative American, is show up in a pair of chinos.</p>
  1353.  
  1354.  
  1355.  
  1356. <p>The <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration wants you — and the National Guardsmen they are calling up — to think that the average No Kings attendee is a young militant with a Molotov cocktail and <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m3aezy2ah72b" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">blue hair</a>, whose mother and grandmother you can only envision shaking their heads and saying, “It’s such a shame.” Anything, really, to keep from focusing on the fact that the more traditional blue hairs — senior citizens who have gone yellowish-white in their old age and are overdoing it on the color correction — have been in the streets for months.</p>
  1357.  
  1358.  
  1359.  
  1360. <p>In that spirit, then, go and be a vision of normal — a vitally protective vision of normal in crowds easily marginalized as agitators. Clap along if you want. Sing and chant along if you want. Or just take a long slow walk reading signs, placidly Bellini-buzzed and smiling. What the right people on your side need to see and what everyone standing against us needs to see is the same thing. You, there.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1361.  
  1362.  
  1363.  
  1364. <p>If <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/which-way-western-wuss/">they’re going to be scared of you anyway</a> — if they’re going to use that as a pretext to abuse you anyway — you might as well own it and give them a reason. (The same goes for <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/justice-for-all/">a vocally vengeful Democratic Party</a>.) If you’re wondering where to start — and like a lot of things you know you need to do, starting can be <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/resistance-is-mobile/">so very hard</a> — this Saturday is a good place. </p>
  1365.  
  1366.  
  1367.  
  1368. <p class="is-td-marked">The people of color, the young activists and the grandmas are always there. What’s needed are the people who will always be the most terrifying to them: Moms and dads with their kids and grandkids, having fun, with purpose, like this is a normal and necessary American tradition, which it is. Moms and dads and kids who could either be coming from or going to the Bass Pro Shop or the Apple Store. Moms and dads who could have stepped out of the consciously Neo-Aryran imagery of a Department of Homeland Security tweet about preserving our blood and soil — who are the very picture of legitimate authority to Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth and Young Republicans fascists in text chat — telling them that the answer is, in fact, no. And that it will continue to be no, and will only get louder.</p>
  1369. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dear-normies-time-to-stand-up/">Dear Normies: Time to Stand Up</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1370. ]]></content:encoded>
  1372. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dear-normies-time-to-stand-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1373. <slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
  1376. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312506</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NoKingRally.png?width=878&#038;height=585" length="1741180" type="image/png" />
  1377. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NoKingRally.png?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  1378. </item>
  1379. <item>
  1380. <title>The Gaza Strip, in Filmstrips</title>
  1381. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips</link>
  1382. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips/#respond</comments>
  1384. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Siddhant Adlakha]]></dc:creator>
  1385. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:57:45 +0000</pubDate>
  1386. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1387. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  1388. <category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
  1389. <category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
  1390. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  1391. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  1392. <category><![CDATA[David Ben-Gurion]]></category>
  1393. <category><![CDATA[gaza]]></category>
  1394. <category><![CDATA[israel]]></category>
  1395. <category><![CDATA[palestine]]></category>
  1396. <category><![CDATA[yasser arafat]]></category>
  1397. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312480</guid>
  1398.  
  1399. <description><![CDATA[<p>Archival documentarian Göran Hugo Olsson tells the story of Israel and Palestine through decades of Swedish public television footage.</p>
  1400. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips/">The Gaza Strip, in Filmstrips</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1401. ]]></description>
  1402. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1403. <p class="has-drop-cap">“Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989,” the archival documentary by Göran Hugo Olsson, is as expansive as its title suggests. For nearly 3½ hours, it chronicles the Israeli occupation of Palestine as told on Sveriges Television, Sweden’s public broadcaster, founded in 1956. The film captures the tumultuous history of the Palestinian territories as refracted through an ostensibly neutral nation — albeit one whose media approach transforms over the years, from ogling fascination with the emergence of a fellow socialist state, to the rigorous exposé of war crimes by journalists on the scene.   </p>
  1404.  
  1405.  
  1406.  
  1407. <p>Olsson presents each newsreel and program chronologically, with the brief exception of his opening and closing images. These bookends are pulled from a 1985 Swedish film about the Jabalia refugee camp titled “Gaza Ghetto: Portrait of a Family, 1948-1984,” believed to be the first ever documentary feature shot in Gaza. It’s a work whose title and scope are reflected in Olsson’s at-length inquiry, which features voiceover from Swedish actress Pernilla August and on-screen text denoting the technical specifics of each subsequent news clip — from title to capture format. The resulting assemblage of found footage covers decades of history, from initial Arab displacements, to the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games, to the second intifada. If information is power, the way information is assembled is the power of documentary cinema, and Olsson and editor Britta Norell deftly balance the logistics of collating footage with the crafting of dramatic narrative.</p>
  1408.  
  1409.  
  1410.  
  1411. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The film presents what feels like a rousing saga of Palestinian rebellion.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1412.  
  1413.  
  1414.  
  1415. <p>The film exists in the tradition of lengthy left-wing political documentary essays — Chris Marker’s “Grin Without a Cat” and Johan Grimonprez’s more recent “<a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-red-white-and-blue-notes/">Soundtrack to a Coup d’État</a>” come to mind — but its closest cousin might be Andy Warhol’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7sL8LuMD8Q" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Chelsea Girls</a>.” That double-screen avant-garde documentary — a favorite of Olsson’s — allows the viewer’s gaze to drift between contrasting images projected side by side. Although presented on a single screen, “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV” feels spiritually at one with Warhol’s prismatic approach, with two layers of reality in close proximity: the footage as it originally existed, and Olsson&#8217;s reframing. By granting roughly equal time to numerous factions, Olsson creates a multiperspective portrait of the conflict and the ways it is presented and canonized in households like his own. The result is an act of reconstruction — building a story from news clips that haven’t seen the light of day since their original broadcast — as well as an exercise in recontextualization, each vintage reel unspooled as part of a larger saga.</p>
  1416.  
  1417.  
  1418.  
  1419. <p>There are interviews with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as well as Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli soldiers and diplomats both antagonistic and sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause and children on the streets of Gaza. Despite this screen time balance — and despite Palestinians being routinely branded “terrorists” by Israeli politicians and news anchors in the footage — the film presents what feels like a rousing saga of Palestinian rebellion. In constructing their version of the story, the filmmakers do not editorialize directly. August, the film’s narrator, comments on the fullness of the Swedish archive, but never on the images themselves. Among the most impactful sequences are disarming interviews with PLO fighters and soldiers from the Israeli army, grisly footage from the Six-Day War (1967), the Sabra and Shatila massacre (1982) and the first intifada (1987).</p>
  1420.  
  1421.  
  1422.  
  1423. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="772" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=1024&#038;height=772" alt="" class="wp-image-312482" srcset="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=1024&amp;height=772 1024w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=300&amp;height=226 300w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=768&amp;height=579 768w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=239&amp;height=180 239w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=358&amp;height=270 358w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=537&amp;height=405 537w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=776&amp;height=585 776w, https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-08_Identity-card-check-up-West-Bank-1975-Photo-SVT_Courtesy-Icarus-Films-.png?width=2000 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Identity card check-up, West Bank 1975, in a scene from “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989.” (Icarus Films)</figcaption></figure>
  1424.  
  1425.  
  1426.  
  1427. <p>Noticeably absent is footage of Oct. 7, 2023, and its aftermath. The action in the film, conceived and edited in 2019-2024, concludes in 1989, with the Soviet Union’s collapse leading to waning support for the PLO and the signing of the Oslo Accords by Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Sweden. Ending the story with Oslo means excluding decades of recent, bloody history, but these images of that era’s guarded optimism come tinged with bitter irony, given our knowledge of what is to come. The four decades that it does cover provide essential context for the ones that follow. There is no understanding 2025 without understanding what happened in 1965 and 1985.</p>
  1428.  
  1429.  
  1430.  
  1431. <p class="is-td-marked">This is the second of Olsson’s films that takes a jukebox approach to filmmaking, and to political rebellion elsewhere in the world. His 2011 documentary “The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975” chronicled African American liberation movements through the same public broadcast lens, owing to the popularity of figures like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Belafonte among the Swedish public. But if “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989” is its spiritual sequel, it is the more ambitious of the two, given its historical scope and political and moral urgency. In tracing the roots of one of the preeminent humanitarian issues of our time — through the same intimate lens the filmmaker first encountered it — Olsson has produced one of the most complete cinematic documents about a political conflict in recent memory.</p>
  1432. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips/">The Gaza Strip, in Filmstrips</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1433. ]]></content:encoded>
  1435. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gaza-strip-in-filmstrips/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1436. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1439. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312480</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-02_SVT-reporter-Vanna-Beckman-and-Ghassan-Kanafani-PFLP_Courtesy-Icarus-Films.png?width=820&#038;height=585" length="2060214" type="image/png" />
  1440. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Israel-Palestine-on-Swedish-TV-1958-1989_Still-02_SVT-reporter-Vanna-Beckman-and-Ghassan-Kanafani-PFLP_Courtesy-Icarus-Films.png?width=820&#038;height=585" />
  1441. </item>
  1442. <item>
  1443. <title>The Trump Administration Torches the Hatch Act</title>
  1444. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act</link>
  1445. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act/#respond</comments>
  1447. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Reich /  Substack ]]></dc:creator>
  1448. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:48:07 +0000</pubDate>
  1449. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1450. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  1451. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  1452. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  1453. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  1454. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1455. <category><![CDATA[department of homeland security]]></category>
  1456. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  1457. <category><![CDATA[government shutdown]]></category>
  1458. <category><![CDATA[hatch act]]></category>
  1459. <category><![CDATA[kristi noem]]></category>
  1460. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312470</guid>
  1461.  
  1462. <description><![CDATA[<p>The propaganda spewing from the latest Department of Homeland Security video and across federal agencies is illegal.</p>
  1463. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act/">The Trump Administration Torches the Hatch Act</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1464. ]]></description>
  1465. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1466. <p><strong>Bad enough that planes are delayed</strong> due to the government shutdown. Now, thousands of stranded passengers have to watch Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blame Democrats in a video where she says:</p>
  1467.  
  1468.  
  1469.  
  1470. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1471. <p>“It is TSA&#8217;s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”</p>
  1472. </blockquote>
  1473.  
  1474.  
  1475.  
  1476. <p>It’s the same across much of the shuttered federal government.</p>
  1477.  
  1478.  
  1479.  
  1480. <p>If your farm is losing global customers because other nations are retaliating for President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s tariffs and you go to the Department of Agriculture’s website to see if you have any recourse, you now read that the government is closed due to “<a href="https://www.usda.gov/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">the Radical Left Democrat shutdown.”</a></p>
  1481.  
  1482.  
  1483.  
  1484. <p>If you try to get through to the Small Business Administration to check on your SBA loan, you get an automated phone message: “I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (HR 5371) leading to a government shutdown that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses.”</p>
  1485.  
  1486.  
  1487.  
  1488. <p>If you check the Department of Justice’s website, you get&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a banner</a>&nbsp;saying, “Democrats have shut down the government.”</p>
  1489.  
  1490.  
  1491.  
  1492. <p>When I served in the federal government — once in a Republican administration, then in two Democratic ones — I was prohibited from making any public comment or taking any action that might be considered “partisan.”</p>
  1493.  
  1494.  
  1495.  
  1496. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The Hatch Act is still the law.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1497.  
  1498.  
  1499.  
  1500. <p>I was told I couldn’t even sign a letter asking the residents of my home state (then Massachusetts) to be sure to vote in an upcoming federal election.</p>
  1501.  
  1502.  
  1503.  
  1504. <p>At that time I was working in Gerald Ford’s Justice Department. The letterhead was from the Justice Department, and several of us from Massachusetts were prepared to sign on.</p>
  1505.  
  1506.  
  1507.  
  1508. <p>“You can’t do that,” the departmental lawyer said. “It violates the Hatch Act, which bars federal executive branch employees from partisan activities.”</p>
  1509.  
  1510.  
  1511.  
  1512. <p>“But this letter isn’t&nbsp;<em>partisan,</em>” I recall arguing. “It just urges people to vote.”</p>
  1513.  
  1514.  
  1515.  
  1516. <p>“You’re missing the point,” the lawyer responded. “It’s coming from you as an employee of the Justice Department in a Republican administration, so it could be seen as a Republican endorsement.”</p>
  1517.  
  1518.  
  1519.  
  1520. <p>And that was the end of that.</p>
  1521.  
  1522.  
  1523.  
  1524. <p>The Hatch Act was passed in 1939. Its purpose was to ensure federal programs were administered in a nonpartisan way and to protect federal employees from any political coercion on the job.</p>
  1525.  
  1526.  
  1527.  
  1528. <p>The Hatch Act is still the law. As is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/b-192658" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Anti-Lobbying Act</a>&nbsp;of 1919, which prohibits the use of appropriated funds for activities designed to “support or defeat legislation pending before Congress.”</p>
  1529.  
  1530.  
  1531.  
  1532. <p>So what’s with all the government employees in the Trump administration putting out partisan propaganda during the shutdown?</p>
  1533.  
  1534.  
  1535.  
  1536. <p>Can Kristi Noem tell airport passengers that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown? Can the secretary of Agriculture or the director of the Small Business Administration or the attorney general announce on department web pages and automated responses that the shutdown is occurring because Democrats have refused to fund the federal government?</p>
  1537.  
  1538.  
  1539.  
  1540. <p>The answer in all these cases is&nbsp;<em>no</em>. These statements and messages violate the legal obligations of agency employees to “provide nonpartisan service to their constituents.” All involve Trump or his appointees requiring nonpartisan civil servants to engage in highly partisan actions.</p>
  1541.  
  1542.  
  1543.  
  1544. <p>According to the law, penalties for violating the Hatch Act can include removal from federal office and fines of up to $1,000.</p>
  1545.  
  1546.  
  1547.  
  1548. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>There’s no mechanism for holding anyone accountable.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1549.  
  1550.  
  1551.  
  1552. <p>But as with so much in Trump world, illegal actions have no consequence. There’s no mechanism for holding anyone accountable.</p>
  1553.  
  1554.  
  1555.  
  1556. <p>A number of Hatch Act complaints have been filed against Cabinet secretaries and agencies posting partisan messages. But Hatch Act violations are investigated by the Office of Special Counsel in the White House, so they’re ending up in the circular file.</p>
  1557.  
  1558.  
  1559.  
  1560. <p>The good news is that some administrators at the ground level — literally — are enforcing the Hatch Act on their own.</p>
  1561.  
  1562.  
  1563.  
  1564. <p>Many airport authorities are simply refusing to show Noem’s video.</p>
  1565.  
  1566.  
  1567.  
  1568. <p>Kara Hansen, a spokeswoman for the Port of Portland in Oregon, which operates the city&#8217;s airport, explained in a statement that it wouldn’t show the video because it violates the Hatch Act.</p>
  1569.  
  1570.  
  1571.  
  1572. <p>Ken Jenkins, the Westchester County, N.Y., executive who refused to show the video at the White Plains airport, <a href="https://www.westchestergov.com/home/all-press-releases/10643-westchester-county-executive-ken-jenkins-responds-to-tsa-government-shutdown-psa-released-by-the-department-of-homeland-security" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">said</a> the video is “inappropriate, unacceptable and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials.”</p>
  1573.  
  1574.  
  1575.  
  1576. <p>Exactly.</p>
  1577. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act/">The Trump Administration Torches the Hatch Act</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1578. ]]></content:encoded>
  1580. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trump-administration-torches-the-hatch-act/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1581. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1584. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312470</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25284625074556-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" length="451386" type="image/jpeg" />
  1585. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25284625074556-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  1586. </item>
  1587. <item>
  1588. <title>It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail?</title>
  1589. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail</link>
  1590. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail/#respond</comments>
  1592. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Stephanie Armour /  KFF Health News ]]></dc:creator>
  1593. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:28:39 +0000</pubDate>
  1594. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1595. <category><![CDATA[Belief & Religion]]></category>
  1596. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  1597. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  1598. <category><![CDATA[Health & Wellness]]></category>
  1599. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  1600. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  1601. <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
  1602. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1603. <category><![CDATA[chemtrails]]></category>
  1604. <category><![CDATA[conspiracy theory]]></category>
  1605. <category><![CDATA[department of health and human services]]></category>
  1606. <category><![CDATA[maha]]></category>
  1607. <category><![CDATA[robert f. kennedy jr]]></category>
  1608. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312467</guid>
  1609.  
  1610. <description><![CDATA[<p>A fringe conspiracy theory warning of menace from above takes wing at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS.</p>
  1611. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail/">It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1612. ]]></description>
  1613. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1614. <p><strong>While plowing a wheat field</strong> in rural Washington state in the 1990s, <a href="https://www.angelfire.com/wy/1000/SickContrails.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">William Wallace</a> spotted a gray airplane overhead that he believed was releasing chemicals to make him sick. The rancher began to suspect that all white vapor trails from aircraft might be dangerous.</p>
  1615.  
  1616.  
  1617.  
  1618. <p>He <a href="https://videttearchive.ilstu.edu/?a=d&amp;d=vid19990430-01.2.8&amp;e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">shared his concern</a> with reporters, acknowledging it sounded a little like “The X-Files.”</p>
  1619.  
  1620.  
  1621.  
  1622. <p>Academics cite Wallace’s story as one of the catalysts behind a fringe concept that has spread among adherents to the Make America Healthy Again movement and is gaining traction at the highest levels of the federal government. Its treatment as a serious issue underscores that under President <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, unscientific ideas have unusual power to take hold and shape public health policy.</p>
  1623.  
  1624.  
  1625.  
  1626. <p>The concept posits that airplane vapor trails, or contrails, are <a href="https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/understanding-and-addressing-chemtrails/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">really “chemtrails”</a> containing toxic substances that poison people and the terrain. Another version alleges planes or devices are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/27/chemtrails-conspiracy-geoengineering/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">being deployed by the federal government</a>, private companies or researchers to trigger big weather changes, such as hurricanes, or to alter the Earth’s climate, emitting hazardous chemicals in the process.</p>
  1627.  
  1628.  
  1629.  
  1630. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/rfk-jr/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="13" title="RFK JR" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> is planning to investigate climate and weather control.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1631.  
  1632.  
  1633.  
  1634. <p>Several <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/republican-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="11" title="republican party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GOP</a> lawmakers and leaders in the Trump administration remain convinced that the concepts are legitimate, though scientists have sought to discredit such claims.</p>
  1635.  
  1636.  
  1637.  
  1638. <p>Health and Human Services Secretary <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/rfk-jr/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="13" title="RFK JR" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> is planning to investigate climate and weather control, and is expected to create a task force that will recommend possible federal action, according to a former agency official, an <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/MAHA-Memo-Armour-Delany-Means.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">internal agency memo</a> obtained by KFF Health News and a consultant who helped with the memo.</p>
  1639.  
  1640.  
  1641.  
  1642. <p>The plans, along with comments by top <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/republican-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="11" title="republican party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GOP</a> lawmakers, show how rumors and conspiracy theories can gain an air of legitimacy due to social media and a political climate infused with falsehoods, some political scientists and researchers say.</p>
  1643.  
  1644.  
  1645.  
  1646. <p>“When we have low access to information or low trust in our sources of information, a lot of times we turn to our peer groups, the groups we are members of and we define ourselves by,” said <a href="https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/timothy-tangherlini" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Timothy Tangherlini</a>, a folklorist and professor of information at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that the government’s investigation of conspiracy theories “gives the impression of having some authoritative element.”</p>
  1647.  
  1648.  
  1649.  
  1650. <p>HHS is expected to appoint a special government employee to investigate climate and weather control, according to <a href="https://x.com/sailpgd/status/1954194335861461476" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Gray Delany,</a> <a href="https://endpoints.news/hhs-official-tasked-with-maha-relations-fired-following-mrna-cuts/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">former head</a> of the agency’s MAHA agenda, who said he drafted the memo. The agency has interviewed applicants to lead a chemtrails task force, said Jim Lee, a blogger focused on weather and climate who Delany said helped edit the memo, which Lee confirmed.</p>
  1651.  
  1652.  
  1653.  
  1654. <p>“HHS does not comment on future or potential policy decisions and task forces,” agency spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.</p>
  1655.  
  1656.  
  1657.  
  1658. <p>The memo alleges that “aerosolized heavy metals such as Aluminum, Barium, and Strontium, as well as other materials such as sulfuric acid precursors, are sprayed into the atmosphere under the auspices of combatting global warming,” through a process of stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI.</p>
  1659.  
  1660.  
  1661.  
  1662. <p>“There are serious concerns SAI spraying is leading to increased heavy metal content in the atmosphere,” the memo states.</p>
  1663.  
  1664.  
  1665.  
  1666. <p>The memo claims, without providing evidence, that the substances cause elevated heavy-metal content in the atmosphere, soil and waterways, and that aluminum is a toxic product used in SAI linked to dementia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asthma-like illnesses and other chronic illnesses. The July 14 memo was addressed to White House health adviser <a href="https://calleymeans.com/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Calley Means</a>, who didn’t respond to a voicemail left by a reporter seeking comment.</p>
  1667.  
  1668.  
  1669.  
  1670. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“It doesn’t get more tinfoil hat. They really believe toxins are being sprayed.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  1671.  
  1672.  
  1673.  
  1674. <p>High-level federal government officials are presenting false claims as facts without evidence and referring to events that not only haven’t occurred but, in many cases, are physically impossible, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California.</p>
  1675.  
  1676.  
  1677.  
  1678. <p>“That is a pretty shocking memo,” he said. “It doesn’t get more tinfoil hat. They really believe toxins are being sprayed.”</p>
  1679.  
  1680.  
  1681.  
  1682. <p>Kennedy has previously promoted debunked chemtrail theories. In May, he was asked on “Dr. Phil Primetime” about chemicals being sprayed into the stratosphere to change the Earth’s climate.</p>
  1683.  
  1684.  
  1685.  
  1686. <p>“It’s done, we think, by DARPA,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08RfaITutKk" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Kennedy said,</a> referring to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Department of Defense unit that develops emerging technology for the military’s use. “And a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. Those materials are put in jet fuel. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. We’re bringing on somebody who’s going to think only about that.”</p>
  1687.  
  1688.  
  1689.  
  1690. <p>DARPA officials didn’t return a message seeking comment.</p>
  1691.  
  1692.  
  1693.  
  1694. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Federal Messaging</h3>
  1695.  
  1696.  
  1697.  
  1698. <p>Deploying chemtrails to poison people is just one of many baseless conspiracy theories that have found traction among Trump administration health policy officials led by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before entering politics. He continues to promote a supposed link between vaccines and autism, as well as make statements <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzk2y41zvo" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">connecting fluoride</a> in drinking water to arthritis, bone fractures, thyroid disease and cancer. The World Health Organization says <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-fluoridation-helps-prevent-tooth-decay-how-growing-opposition-threatens-a-70-year-old-health-practice-230504#:~:text=What%20about%20other%20health%20risks?%20Decades%20of,fluoride%20levels%20are%20kept%20within%20recommended%20limits." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">fluoride is safe</a> when used as recommended.</p>
  1699.  
  1700.  
  1701.  
  1702. <p>Delany, who was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.msnbc.com/news/news-analysis/rfk-jr-alienated-maga-maha-white-house-mrna-vaccine-rcna225100" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">ousted in August</a>&nbsp;from HHS, said Kennedy has expressed strong interest in chemtrails.</p>
  1703.  
  1704.  
  1705.  
  1706. <p>“This is an issue that really matters to MAHA,” said Delany, referring to the informal movement associated with Kennedy that is skeptical of evidence-based medicine.</p>
  1707.  
  1708.  
  1709.  
  1710. <p>The memo also alleges that “suspicious weather events have been occurring and have increased awareness of the issue to the public, some of which have been acknowledged to have been caused by geoengineering activities, such as the flooding in Dubai in 2024.”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ciel.org/issue/geoengineering/#:~:text=What%20Is%20Geoengineering?,carbon%20dioxide%20from%20the%20atmosphere." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Geoengineering refers to</a>&nbsp;intentional large-scale efforts to change the climate to counteract global warming.</p>
  1711.  
  1712.  
  1713.  
  1714. <p>“It is unconscionable that anyone should be allowed to spray known neurotoxins and environmental toxins over our nation’s citizens, their land, food and water supplies,” Delany’s memo states.</p>
  1715.  
  1716.  
  1717.  
  1718. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Federal agencies say no ongoing or large-scale projects are underway.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1719.  
  1720.  
  1721.  
  1722. <p>Scientists, meteorologists and other branches of the federal government say these assertions are largely incorrect. Some points in the memo are accurate, including concerns that commercial aircraft contribute to acid rain.</p>
  1723.  
  1724.  
  1725.  
  1726. <p>But critics say the memo builds on kernels of truth before veering into unscientific fringe theories. Efforts to control the weather are being made, largely by state and local governments seeking to combat droughts, but the results are modest and highly localized. It isn’t possible to manipulate large-scale weather events, scientists say.</p>
  1727.  
  1728.  
  1729.  
  1730. <p>Severe flooding in the United Arab Emirates in 2024 couldn’t have been caused by weather manipulation because no technology could create that kind of rainfall event, <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2024/Expert-Comment/Cloud-seeding-did-not-cause-Dubai-floods-expert-says#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20UAE%20does%20have%20an,get%20out%20of%20the%20way.%E2%80%9D" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Maarten Ambaum</a>, a meteorologist at the University of Reading who studies rainfall patterns in the Persian Gulf region, said in a statement on the floods. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-floods-cloud-seeding-false-claims/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Similar debunked claims</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/13/nx-s1-5465092/cloud-seeding-conspiracy-theory" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">emerged this year</a> after central Texas experienced devastating floods.</p>
  1731.  
  1732.  
  1733.  
  1734. <p>The Government Accountability Office concluded in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107328" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">2024 report</a>&nbsp;that questions remain as to the effectiveness of weather modification.</p>
  1735.  
  1736.  
  1737.  
  1738. <p>Research into changing the climate has been conducted, including work by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-demands-answers-unregulated-geoengineering-start-launching-sulfur-dioxide-air" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">one private company</a>&nbsp;that engaged in field tests. Still, federal agencies say no ongoing or large-scale projects are underway. Study of the concept remains in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/geoengineering/government-action#:~:text=activities%20are%20conducted-,What%20does%20the%20U.S.%20government%20do%20regarding%20research%20and%20tracking,here:%20Weather%20Modification%20Project%20Reports%20." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">research phase</a>. The Environmental Protection Agency says there are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/geoengineering/frequent-questions#:~:text=No.,SRM%20to%20cool%20the%20Earth)." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">no large-scale</a>&nbsp;or government efforts to affect the Earth’s climate.</p>
  1739.  
  1740.  
  1741.  
  1742. <p>“Solar geoengineering is not occurring via direct delivery by commercial aircraft and is not associated with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/node/162157/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">aviation contrails</a>,” the agency says on its website.</p>
  1743.  
  1744.  
  1745.  
  1746. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Widespread Misinformation</h3>
  1747.  
  1748.  
  1749.  
  1750. <p>Misperceptions about weather, climate control and airplane contrails extend beyond the Trump administration, scientists said.</p>
  1751.  
  1752.  
  1753.  
  1754. <p>In September, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzm5xYtsxzM" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">House committee hearing</a> titled “Playing God With the Weather — A Disastrous Forecast” involved two hours of debate on the once-fringe idea. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who chaired the hearing, has introduced legislation to ban weather and climate control, punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison.</p>
  1755.  
  1756.  
  1757.  
  1758. <p>Some Democrats objected to the nature of the discussion. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., accused Greene of using “the platform of Congress to proffer anti-science theories, to platform climate denialism.”</p>
  1759.  
  1760.  
  1761.  
  1762. <p>Frequently citing chemtrails, GOP lawmakers have&nbsp;<a href="https://penncapital-star.com/technology-information/alluding-to-chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-mastriano-floats-ban-on-climate-mitigation-techniques/#:~:text=Similar%20legislation%20restricting%20solar%20geoengineering,the%20future%2C%E2%80%9D%20Thompson%20said." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">introduced legislation</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chemtrail-louisiana-ban-conspiracy-e7562efe0251588978153cef30034e63" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">about two dozen</a>&nbsp;states to ban weather modification or geoengineering.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/56" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Florida passed a bill</a>&nbsp;to establish an online portal so residents can report alleged violations.</p>
  1763.  
  1764.  
  1765.  
  1766. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“There are people wanting to shoot down planes because they think they are chemtrails.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  1767.  
  1768.  
  1769.  
  1770. <p>“The Free State of Florida means freedom from governments or private actors unilaterally applying chemicals or geoengineering to people or public spaces,” GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a <a href="https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2025/governor-ron-desantis-celebrates-action-protect-floridians-chemical-and" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">statement</a> this spring.</p>
  1771.  
  1772.  
  1773.  
  1774. <p>Meanwhile, the chemtrail conspiracy has permeated popular culture. The title track on singer Lana Del Rey’s seventh studio album is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBHild0PiTE" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Chemtrails Over the Country Club</a>.” Bill Maher dived into the chemtrail myth on his podcast “Club Random,” saying, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi36bcbfjIs" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">This is nuts. It’s just nuts</a>.” And a movie, “Chemtrails,” a psychological thriller, <a href="https://www.westvalleyview.com/features/chemtrails-thriller-coming-soon/article_fa3485a4-7507-4e6b-9445-4e241596331f.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">wrapped filming</a> in July.</p>
  1775.  
  1776.  
  1777.  
  1778. <p>Social media has given wing to the chemtrails concept and other fringe ideas involving public health. They include an outlandish belief that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who advised both Trump and <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Joe Biden</a> on the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, <a href="https://fullfact.org/health/HIV-AIDS-smallpox-covid-fauci-patient-zero/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">created the AIDS epidemic</a>. There is no evidence of such a link, public health leaders say.</p>
  1779.  
  1780.  
  1781.  
  1782. <p>Researchers say another false belief by those on the far right holds that people who received COVID vaccines could <a href="https://www.chop.edu/parents-pack/parents-pack-newsletter/newsletter-archive/feature-article-viral-shedding-and-covid-19#:~:text=For%20these%20two%20reasons%2C%20we,people%20share%20what%20they%20heard." rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">shed the virus</a>, causing infertility in the unvaccinated. There is no evidence of such a connection, scientists and researchers say.</p>
  1783.  
  1784.  
  1785.  
  1786. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  1787. <span class="aspect-w-16 aspect-h-9 block relative"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vBHild0PiTE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></span>
  1788. </div></figure>
  1789.  
  1790.  
  1791.  
  1792. <p>More severe weather events due to global warming may be driving some of the baseless theories, scientists say. And risks occur when such ideas take hold among the general population or policymakers, some public health leaders say. Climate researchers, including Swain, say they’ve received death threats.</p>
  1793.  
  1794.  
  1795.  
  1796. <p>Lee, the blogger, said he disagrees with some of the more far-fetched beliefs and is aware of the harm they can cause.</p>
  1797.  
  1798.  
  1799.  
  1800. <p>“There are people wanting to shoot down planes because they think they are chemtrails,” he said, adding that some believers are afraid to venture outside when plane vapor trails are visible overhead.</p>
  1801.  
  1802.  
  1803.  
  1804. <p>There is also no evidence that plane contrails cause health problems or are related to intentional efforts to control the climate, according to the EPA and other scientists.</p>
  1805.  
  1806.  
  1807.  
  1808. <p>The memo and focus at HHS on climate and weather control are alarming because they perpetuate conspiracies, said David Keith, a professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago.</p>
  1809.  
  1810.  
  1811.  
  1812. <p>“It’s unmoored to reality,” he said. “I expected there were documents like this, but seeing it in print is nevertheless shocking. Our government is being driven by nonsensical dreck from dark corners of social media.”</p>
  1813.  
  1814.  
  1815.  
  1816. <p class="has-small-font-size"><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">KFF</a> — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.</em></p>
  1817. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail/">It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1818. ]]></content:encoded>
  1820. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-chemtrail/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1821. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1824. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312467</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25157733974313-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" length="302399" type="image/jpeg" />
  1825. <media:thumbnail url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP25157733974313-scaled.jpg?width=878&#038;height=585" />
  1826. </item>
  1827. <item>
  1828. <title>NATO War-Games Climate Collapse</title>
  1829. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nato-war-games-climate-collapse/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=nato-war-games-climate-collapse</link>
  1830. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nato-war-games-climate-collapse/#respond</comments>
  1832. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lital Khaikin]]></dc:creator>
  1833. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:13:37 +0000</pubDate>
  1834. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1835. <category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
  1836. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  1837. <category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
  1838. <category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
  1839. <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
  1840. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  1841. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  1842. <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
  1843. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  1844. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1845. <category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
  1846. <category><![CDATA[arctic]]></category>
  1847. <category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
  1848. <category><![CDATA[Climate Change and Security Summit]]></category>
  1849. <category><![CDATA[Montréal]]></category>
  1850. <category><![CDATA[nato]]></category>
  1851. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312431</guid>
  1852.  
  1853. <description><![CDATA[<p>In Montreal, the alliance discusses planetary tipping points — without the input of a U.S. government that has chosen to fly blind.</p>
  1854. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nato-war-games-climate-collapse/">NATO War-Games Climate Collapse</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1855. ]]></description>
  1856. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1857. <p class="has-drop-cap">It’s the 11th hour for countries to respond to irreversible climate change, experts agreed at the fourth annual Montréal Climate Security Summit — mere days after the city <a href="https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/unprecedented-october-heat-sweeps-montreal-saguenay-gatineau-quebec" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">broke</a> another seasonal heat record. The gathering, co-hosted and co-organized by the NATO Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE) and the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) Institute, a Canadian defense and security think tank, brought together 280 attendees at the Palais des Congrès on Oct. 8-9 to war-game climate change doctrine, strategy and procurement priorities for the world’s largest military alliance. </p>
  1858.  
  1859.  
  1860.  
  1861. <p>The impacts are varied. On the ground, military bases, especially in remote regions, are vulnerable to extreme weather and eroding coastlines. In the sky, climate chaos threatens satellites with signal failure. Despite decades of warnings from scientists, defense actors describe the national security sector’s engagement with climate change science as “immature.” And with militaries responsible for approximately 5.5% of the world’s greenhouse emissions, inaction is deepening existential risk and increasing calls from the scientific community for arms control and conflict prevention.&nbsp;</p>
  1862.  
  1863.  
  1864.  
  1865. <p>“We view climate change as a transnational challenge alongside terrorism and uneven global demographic change,” said Lt. Gen. Peter Scott of the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, adding that rearmament must strike a “balance between the correct capability, the speed of acquisition and protecting our planet.”</p>
  1866.  
  1867.  
  1868.  
  1869. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Defense actors describe the national security sector’s engagement with climate change science as “immature.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  1870.  
  1871.  
  1872.  
  1873. <p>“There are now hardly any credible projections of security risk that do not place climate security among the most pressing issues of our generation,” he said, emphasizing increasing civil-military collaboration through NATO’s <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/78209.htm" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Science for Peace and Security</a> program.&nbsp;</p>
  1874.  
  1875.  
  1876.  
  1877. <p>As the alliance looks toward the Arctic, the polar region is warming four times faster than anywhere else on the planet. Spring cyclones are <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/arctic-cyclones-to-intensify-as-climate-warms-nasa-study-predicts/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">intensifying</a> and rates of warming, rainfall and ocean acidification are even <a href="https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/arctic-climate-change-update-2024-key-trends-and-impacts.-summary-for-policy-makers/3847" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">faster</a> than previously predicted. For Canada’s Department of Defense, mitigation means pursuing low-carbon fuels and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/dnd-mdn/documents/corporate/reports-publications/dcss/dcss-e-signed.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">developing</a> decarbonization plans for all fleets by 2027, with 80% of emissions coming from aircraft, 19% from marine vessels and 1% from land vehicles.</p>
  1878.  
  1879.  
  1880.  
  1881. <p>“Defending the Arctic mustn’t come at the expense of the very environment we’re actually trying to protect,” said Canada’s Minister of National Defence David McGuinty, describing protecting nature as a form of deterrence. “In the end, something is only worth defending if we can ensure there will always be something left to defend.”</p>
  1882.  
  1883.  
  1884.  
  1885. <p>Just two days earlier, Canada <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f35-canada-us-review-1.7653767" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">confirmed</a> the purchase from the U.S. of F-35 fighter jets, which have been <a href="https://wilpfcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-08-23_Harms-of-Fighter-Jets_FactSheets_English-REV4.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">deemed</a> “pipelines in the sky” for emitting more carbon emissions in a single flight than a typical car emits in a year.</p>
  1886.  
  1887.  
  1888.  
  1889. <p>A critical moment on Arctic environmental protection passed in May 2019, when former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo <a href="https://polarconnection.org/arctic-council-ministerial-rovaniemi/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">refused</a> to sign an Arctic Council joint statement to prevent rapidly melting ice — unless all mention of climate change was scrubbed. A month later, Canada had declared a national climate emergency. Republicans in the U.S. have been nailing the coffin shut ever since, and security actors are increasingly “flying blind” on climate intelligence. </p>
  1890.  
  1891.  
  1892.  
  1893. <p>When the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement, 91 social science and climate-related studies by the Pentagon were <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/pentagon-abruptly-ends-all-funding-social-science-research" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">halted</a>. The Pentagon’s climate change team, brought in under <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Joe Biden</a>, was <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hegseth-orders-elimination-of-pentagon-climate-planning-but-wants-extreme/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">axed</a> in the spring. Polar research at the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and the Wilson Center are also <a href="https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/trump-cuts-target-us-arctic-research-commission-reverse-course-days-later-wilson-centers-polar" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">imperiled</a>. Reviving cuts to NASA <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-climate-science-program-trump-axed-house-lawmakers-just-moved-restore-it" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">studies</a> from his first term, <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> again <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/06/some-parts-of-trumps-proposed-budget-for-nasa-are-literally-draconian/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">threatened</a> to cut the agency’s $25 billion funding by a quarter, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01217-6" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">endangering</a> satellite programs including <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5453731/nasa-carbon-dioxide-satellite-mission-threatened" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">carbon dioxide</a> monitoring — tipping the public institute deeper toward privatization. A recent scandalous Energy Department report <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/17/climate-change-beyond-scientific-dispute-national-academies-report-says-00568552" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">denied</a> the impacts of climate change on the country, even as Pentagon findings previously warned that <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/half-us-military-facilities-vulnerable-extreme-weather-and-climate-risks" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">nearly half</a> of all U.S. military sites are threatened by climate change. In Montréal, CCASCOE is “compiling and preserving climate data” and calling for “equitable access to data,” but experts avoided discussing the national security impacts of Republican anti-science policies and cuts to public research.</p>
  1894.  
  1895.  
  1896.  
  1897. <p>“We’re in a really dangerous moment right now for climate security, where the gap between the threat from climate change and our preparedness is growing,” said Erin Sikorsky, national director at the Washington-based International Military Council on Climate and Security, which is jointly run by the U.S. Council on Strategic Risks and institutes in France and the Netherlands.</p>
  1898.  
  1899.  
  1900.  
  1901. <p>“The institutions that we’ve designed for the national security community are state-centric. We still have a tough time, when discussing security, at being willing to make the comparison between heat deaths, for example, and global terrorism,” she told Truthdig. “Where we make our security investments, where we choose to put our attention — is it commensurate with the threat?”</p>
  1902.  
  1903.  
  1904.  
  1905. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“We’re in a really dangerous moment right now for climate security.&#8221;</p></blockquote></figure>
  1906.  
  1907.  
  1908.  
  1909. <p>The U.S. military is the world’s <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-us-military-pollution-carbon-emissions-2094434" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">single largest</a> institutional greenhouse gas <a href="https://militaryemissions.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/USA001358-21-RTC-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions-Levels_updated_Report-Only.pdf" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">polluter</a>, and accounts for over 60% of NATO’s total spending. This is <a href="https://disarmament.unoda.org/en/milex-sdg-report/report-secretary-general-global-impact-increasing-military-expenditure-sdgs" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">undermining</a> a sustainable future, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs has warned. The World Economic Forum’s latest <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2025/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Global Risks Report</a> finds that short-lived carbon pollutants, like black carbon from burning fuels, are increasing and responsible for up to 45% of near-term global warming</p>
  1910.  
  1911.  
  1912.  
  1913. <p>Even as a core NATO member undermines defense by slashing climate-related studies and institutes, scientists are demanding greater accountability from military actors. Francesco Corvaro, climate envoy of the Italian government, urged defense actors to engage with the <a href="https://cop29.az/en/media-hub/news/cop29-presidency-welcomes-joint-communique-of-the-cop29-climate-and-peace-co-lead-initiative" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">climate and peace initiative</a> launched at last year’s climate change summit in Azerbaijan.</p>
  1914.  
  1915.  
  1916.  
  1917. <p>Renowned Ukrainian climatologist Svitlana Krakowska called for a mechanism to account for and report conflict-related emissions. “From a security perspective, the carbon budget is nothing less than a constraint for peaceful social functioning,” she said, urging international cooperation “at scale.”</p>
  1918.  
  1919.  
  1920.  
  1921. <p>“Peace is a climate policy, and ending hostilities reduces emissions and preserves the capacity of economies to invest in low-carbon transition. It is not merely a technical exercise, it is a moral imperative,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
  1922.  
  1923.  
  1924.  
  1925. <p class="is-td-marked">Whether governments will adopt scientists’ call for peace as the best defense strategy, history will show.</p>
  1926. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nato-war-games-climate-collapse/">NATO War-Games Climate Collapse</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1927. ]]></content:encoded>
  1929. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nato-war-games-climate-collapse/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1930. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1933. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312431</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/NATOGreenland.png?width=878&#038;height=585" length="2132171" type="image/png" />
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  1935. </item>
  1936. <item>
  1937. <title>‘They Just Took You Away’</title>
  1938. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/they-just-took-you-away/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=they-just-took-you-away</link>
  1939. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/they-just-took-you-away/#respond</comments>
  1941. <dc:creator><![CDATA[George B. Sánchez-Tello /  Capital & Main ]]></dc:creator>
  1942. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:58:50 +0000</pubDate>
  1943. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  1944. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  1945. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  1946. <category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>
  1947. <category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
  1948. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  1949. <category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
  1950. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  1951. <category><![CDATA[department of homeland security]]></category>
  1952. <category><![CDATA[deportation]]></category>
  1953. <category><![CDATA[ICE raids]]></category>
  1954. <category><![CDATA[immigration and customs enforcement]]></category>
  1955. <category><![CDATA[kristi noem]]></category>
  1956. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312432</guid>
  1957.  
  1958. <description><![CDATA[<p>My daughter’s nightmares offer a window into how children are processing Trump’s immigration raids.</p>
  1959. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/they-just-took-you-away/">‘They Just Took You Away’</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  1960. ]]></description>
  1961. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  1962. <p><strong>We are in the living room</strong>&nbsp;of our small home in East Los Angeles when an immigration agent takes me away.&nbsp;</p>
  1963.  
  1964.  
  1965.  
  1966. <p>That’s the dream Quetzal, my 9-year-old daughter, describes to me in a near-whipser. I ask her to use her powerful voice, the one she uses to answer teachers’ questions at school. But I can barely hear her over the sound of Tzunuum, her 5-year-old sister, practicing piano in the next room.&nbsp;</p>
  1967.  
  1968.  
  1969.  
  1970. <p>In Quetzal’s dream, her sister is playing piano when there’s a heavy knock at the door. Tzunuum runs to open it, while Quetzal and I follow her to find a man on our porch who refuses to identify himself. Then, suddenly, I am gone, Quetzal says, and she and her sister are left crying.</p>
  1971.  
  1972.  
  1973.  
  1974. <p>I’ve been reporting on how the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration’s aggressive immigration raids have shaken Los Angeles communities. I’ve covered the toll they are taking on the <a href="https://capitalandmain.com/they-feel-they-can-trust-no-one-not-even-to-open-the-door" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">physical</a> and <a href="https://capitalandmain.com/ice-raids-take-toll-on-latino-mental-health-its-been-nonstop" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">mental health of Latinos</a>, including on U.S. citizens like me and others who may be safe from deportation. I’ve shared with readers how my own anxiety and fears of immigration sweeps propelled my run across South Los Angeles in the <a href="https://capitalandmain.com/running-while-black-latino-or-asian-american-under-trump" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Hood Half Marathon</a>. </p>
  1975.  
  1976.  
  1977.  
  1978. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>I learned that Quetzal wasn’t alone in her fears.</p></blockquote></figure>
  1979.  
  1980.  
  1981.  
  1982. <p>When interviewed therapists, psychiatrists and community organizers over the last few months, I would mention my daughter’s nightmares and ask for advice. And I learned that Quetzal wasn’t alone in her fears.</p>
  1983.  
  1984.  
  1985.  
  1986. <p>In April, I brought up Quetzal’s nightmare during an interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.satsukiina.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Satsuki Ina</a>, a Japanese American psychotherapist who was born in the Tule Lake incarceration camp during World War II and works with patients on community trauma. Ina recommended that I encourage Quetzal to talk or write about her feelings and that I listen.</p>
  1987.  
  1988.  
  1989.  
  1990. <p>For months my wife and I encouraged Quetzal, but the more we mentioned it, the less she wanted to talk. She finally opened up in September, as we sat down together at our dining room table.</p>
  1991.  
  1992.  
  1993.  
  1994. <p>She told me it was ICE — <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/immigration-and-customs-enforcement/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="20" title="immigration and customs enforcement">Immigration and Customs Enforcement</a> — that took me away, describing it as a “different version of police.” I hadn’t talked about specific immigration agencies with her and certainly hadn’t said who ICE was. In L.A., police aren’t supposed to cooperate with immigration officials. But the two were the same in her mind.</p>
  1995.  
  1996.  
  1997.  
  1998. <p>“You ask who they are. But they don’t really tell you,” Quetzal said about the man on the porch in her dream.&nbsp;“They just took you away.”</p>
  1999.  
  2000.  
  2001.  
  2002. <p>“But how do you know I was taken away?” I asked my daughter.&nbsp;</p>
  2003.  
  2004.  
  2005.  
  2006. <p>“Maybe I went for a run,” I suggested.&nbsp;</p>
  2007.  
  2008.  
  2009.  
  2010. <p>“Because you wouldn’t leave us there,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
  2011.  
  2012.  
  2013.  
  2014. <p>At this point Quetzal’s voice got quieter and softer again. In her dream, she told me, her little sister is crying because I was gone.  </p>
  2015.  
  2016.  
  2017.  
  2018. <p>“I was crying too,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
  2019.  
  2020.  
  2021.  
  2022. <p>As we talked, I asked Quetzal if she wanted to hold my hand. She reached across the table. Then she got up, walked over to me and sat on my lap. She lay her head on my chest. She remained still, quiet and started to cry. As I held her, I reminded her I am right here. I thought of the advice the professionals gave me. Ina suggested I encourage Quetzal to write about it. I asked Quetzal if she wanted to write about her dreams, noting that writing helps me make sense of the world. But she didn’t.  </p>
  2023.  
  2024.  
  2025.  
  2026. <p>I considered what I’ve learned about thoughts from a Buddhist perspective as well as my own lessons from personal therapy. </p>
  2027.  
  2028.  
  2029.  
  2030. <p>“Touch the wall,” I suggested. “That’s real; dreams are not. Dreams are just dreams. Thoughts come and go and that’s OK.”&nbsp;</p>
  2031.  
  2032.  
  2033.  
  2034. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“They just took you away.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  2035.  
  2036.  
  2037.  
  2038. <p>Latinos like us, native-born citizens, have been anxious about <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s threats of mass deportation since his first term as president. My mother, an American citizen since 2001, carries with her a copy of her passport and has asked me to do the same.&nbsp;</p>
  2039.  
  2040.  
  2041.  
  2042. <p>When asked what she is, Quetzal will tell you, on her mother’s side, she’s Chumash, California’s Native people from the coast of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. She will also say she is Guatemalan; my mother was born and raised in Guatemala.</p>
  2043.  
  2044.  
  2045.  
  2046. <p>Her mother and I also call ourselves Chicana and Chicano, respectively. We were born here. My wife’s father is a Mexican American Vietnam War veteran. Her great-grandparents came from Mexico. My father’s families come from generations who called New Mexico home under Spanish colonial rule, the Mexican Republic and the United States, the latecomers. My grandfather helped train tank divisions in California’s Mojave Desert in preparation for fighting in North Africa during World War II. Quetzal’s uncle — my brother-in-law — was stationed in Jordan with the U.S. Army Reserves during the Afghanistan War.</p>
  2047.  
  2048.  
  2049.  
  2050. <p>Despite our family’s history and contributions to this country, we remain, in the eyes of many, something less than fully American. This is an undercurrent in our family histories. My father’s family finished its arrival in Los Angeles after the Great Depression. This was a few years after nearly <a href="https://www.calmigration.org/learn-chapter/deportation-to-repatriation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">one-third</a> of Los Angeles’ Mexican community, including many U.S. citizens, was deported or “<a href="https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-history/stories-from-the-archives/ins-records-for-1930s-mexican-repatriations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">repatriated</a>.” But our history and heritage, a point of pride for generations, has again made us a target of federal immigration agents who <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-09-08/supreme-court-immigration-stops-los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">now have license</a> to round up anyone based on how they look, the language they speak or where they work. </p>
  2051.  
  2052.  
  2053.  
  2054. <p>It’s no wonder my daughter feels our family is threatened. To quote Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/25a169_5h25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">dissent</a>&nbsp;following the Supreme Court’s decision last month allowing federal agents to resume roving patrols in Southern California: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”</p>
  2055.  
  2056.  
  2057.  
  2058. <p>Erica Lubliner, a psychiatrist at UCLA whom I interviewed in July, told me that in the context of daily immigration raids, my daughter’s feelings are normal.</p>
  2059.  
  2060.  
  2061.  
  2062. <p>Quetzal’s nightmares were likely her subconscious processing what she is hearing and seeing, Lubliner said. Children can sense their parents’ stress and pick up on bits and pieces from overheard conversations, snippets of the news or comments from peers at school, she said.</p>
  2063.  
  2064.  
  2065.  
  2066. <p>After Trump was elected to a second term, some students at Quetzal’s school began telling classmates, teachers and staff of their families&#8217; plans to reunite in Mexico if a parent was deported. </p>
  2067.  
  2068.  
  2069.  
  2070. <p>As a freelance journalist, I juggle my writing with other jobs, including teaching in the Department of Chicana and Chicano studies at a local university. But facing this existential threat to my family and community, I took the unusual step of adding another job: as a volunteer working to protect immigrants and Latinos.</p>
  2071.  
  2072.  
  2073.  
  2074. <p>In June, I began volunteering with local rapid response and neighborhood defense groups that have sprung up to help document immigration raids in Los Angeles. I spent the last day of the Fourth of July weekend seated on the steps of a church in Boyle Heights. White vans had been spotted in the neighborhood, and parishioners were afraid immigration agents might arrive and detain people during Sunday services. Thankfully, nothing occurred that afternoon, but I was there to warn parishioners without interfering.</p>
  2075.  
  2076.  
  2077.  
  2078. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>We remain, in the eyes of many, something less than fully American.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2079.  
  2080.  
  2081.  
  2082. <p>Whenever I was needed in the evening, I would tell my daughters I had to go help friends. In the morning, I would explain what I did — like monitoring street traffic to warn school officials and families if immigration agents were seen near a high school graduation in East Los Angeles. At first, Quetzal got mad that I didn’t tell her at night, but I explained I didn’t want her to worry.   </p>
  2083.  
  2084.  
  2085.  
  2086. <p>A few days after the Fourth of July weekend, we left home early to take Quetzal to her summer art camp. She asked why we were leaving 30 minutes early. Then she noticed I didn’t take the direct route to her camp. Instead, we drove around the neighborhood patrolling for suspicious government vehicles or other signs of any raids. We circled the neighborhood, driving in and out of side streets and major boulevards. I told her we were making sure the neighborhood — including her camp and friends — was safe from immigration officials. </p>
  2087.  
  2088.  
  2089.  
  2090. <p>Still, in our conversations I worry I’ve triggered a sense of dread and alarm in Quetzal. I want to understand her feelings, her dreams and her fears. I want to help my daughter, my family as well as other fathers, mothers and children experiencing this stress and worry.&nbsp;</p>
  2091.  
  2092.  
  2093.  
  2094. <p>I know immigration rights advocates who have warned their children that their homes could be raided. My friend told me her son asked if ICE would barge into his church or school. But when talking with Quetzal about her nightmares, I remember what the mental health professionals told me. </p>
  2095.  
  2096.  
  2097.  
  2098. <p>So I remind her that we — she, I, her sister and mother — are all safe. I tell her I am sorry she had this dream.&nbsp;</p>
  2099.  
  2100.  
  2101.  
  2102. <p>But my words of reassurance feel woefully inadequate at a time when even a Supreme Court justice has voiced fears of people like us being taken away by federal agents for being Latino or speaking Spanish. No one, whether a child or parent, immigrant or natural-born citizen, should have to live in fear of being separated from the people they love most.</p>
  2103.  
  2104.  
  2105.  
  2106. <p class="has-small-font-size"><em>Copyright 2025 Capital &amp; Main</em></p>
  2107. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/they-just-took-you-away/">‘They Just Took You Away’</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2108. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2116. </item>
  2117. <item>
  2118. <title>After the Social Justice Era — What?</title>
  2119. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-the-social-justice-era-what/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=after-the-social-justice-era-what</link>
  2120. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-the-social-justice-era-what/#respond</comments>
  2122. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Freddie deBoer]]></dc:creator>
  2123. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
  2124. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  2125. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  2126. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  2127. <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
  2128. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  2129. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  2130. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  2131. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  2132. <category><![CDATA[bluesky]]></category>
  2133. <category><![CDATA[millennial]]></category>
  2134. <category><![CDATA[social justice]]></category>
  2135. <category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
  2136. <category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
  2137. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312424</guid>
  2138.  
  2139. <description><![CDATA[<p>The kids who might have been the next generation of activists are instead building personal brands or quietly retreating into apolitical hobbies.</p>
  2140. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-the-social-justice-era-what/">After the Social Justice Era — What?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2141. ]]></description>
  2142. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  2143. <p><em>The following story is co-published with&nbsp;<a href="https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/perhaps-liking-or-not-liking-taylor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Freddie deBoer’s Substack</a>.</em></p>
  2144.  
  2145.  
  2146.  
  2147. <p class="has-drop-cap">Not too long ago there was some back and forth about Bluesky and its role in the left during this sad, disturbing period of conservative ascendancy. The general complaint is that the network is full of people who are trying to pretend that the 2010s never ended, that the period of liberal cultural dominance — which is a very far cry from <em>left </em>dominance or <em>material </em>dominance — was still with us. The dream of 2018, they say, is alive on Bluesky. And, well, yeah. I do suspect that the basic claim there is true, the diagnosis of a desire to live in a pleasant enclave, although my exposure to the network is limited. Still, I actually think the nostalgist impulse there is a little more complicated, a little less political, and a little broader than that network. I think that even though a lot of millennials didn’t enjoy the Yelling Social Justice era, it happens to have been <em>their </em>era, to have overlapped with their primes, and so they yearn for the feeling if not the particulars, just as they yearn for Obama-era optimism and the period when technology was something to unabashedly enjoy, before all the reasons for skepticism and criticism crept in.</p>
  2148.  
  2149.  
  2150.  
  2151. <p>As I said in the comments of <a href="https://maxread.substack.com/p/why-are-pundits-obsessed-with-bluesky" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">this post by Max Read</a> about the Bluesky debate, I think a lot of this is more of the millennial panic over aging; short-form text-based social media is an uncool millennial thing, and we have reached/are reaching middle age, and the death of Twitter as it once was has made the demise of this vision of the social internet more visible in a way that stokes the fear of aging. People really thought Twitter was forever; that idea is very dark for me, but then as I was saying, for a lot of people the High Twitter period overlapped with the greatest years of self-definition and intensity of experience of their lives. To grasp the fact that young people see the whole thing as archaic … well, it’s as destabilizing as every other way we learn that we’re old. Sure, there’s a generic impulse on that network to build a space where it’s easy to pretend that we’re still living under the authority of a benevolent liberal mod team, to party like it’s the first <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> term. But the impulse is deeper than just wanting to maintain the familiar; it’s also driven by the creeping approach of being truly old, being irrelevant to young people, being infirm, and finally being dead.</p>
  2152.  
  2153.  
  2154.  
  2155. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>So many in the conservative media&nbsp;<em>also&nbsp;</em>want to pretend the bad old days never ended.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2156.  
  2157.  
  2158.  
  2159. <p>But I digress. I was talking about the progressive desire to live in a period of much greater progressive influence. That’s not hard to grasp, anymore than it’s hard to understand Patriots fans who pine for the good old Tom Brady era. The thing is that the only people who are more eager to live under the old rules than the liberals who tried to enforce them are the conservatives who rebelled against them. Almost all of conservative culture now is built on the assumption that conservatives are besieged, that liberals control every institution, and that right-wing people always live under the threat of being purged. This attitude was wrong back then — the right enjoys massive influence in many of the most important sectors of modern society and always has — and is now absurd, given the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> victory, the federal trifecta and general conservative dominance. And yet so many in the conservative media <em>also </em>want to pretend the bad old days never ended. It tells you something about how politics works here in the mid-2020s.</p>
  2160.  
  2161.  
  2162.  
  2163. <p>Every cultural epoch has its expiration date, but few have been left to rot so publicly as the social justice era. The “vibe shift” — a term I’m just as tired of as you are — was predicted fairly regularly for a little while, but seemed for a long time like something unreal, and maybe a little wistful. And then, suddenly, it was real. I’ve previously used <a href="https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/dreams-that-didnt-come-true" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">a fairly meaningless moment</a> in The New York Times<em> </em>as a signpost for the change, a little indicator of a suddenly altered elite social compact. Things change slowly, imperceptibly, and then all at once. Now everyone knows it’s over. The think pieces are gone, the college kids aren’t protesting, the prestige media have shifted their tone, and the elite consensus that once held representation and harm reduction as sacred commandments has quietly dissolved. The old annoying rhetorical demands — “do better,” “educate yourself,” “this is violence” — no longer compel obedience. You can see it in sporting venues honoring the memory of Charlie Kirk, the corporate Pride campaigns that now tiptoe toward neutrality, in Netflix quietly canceling the fourth “queer trauma” limited series that no one watched, in the fact that universities, once terrified of being called out, now just ride out the outrage cycle until the internet moves on.</p>
  2164.  
  2165.  
  2166.  
  2167. <p>And yet, nobody wants to admit it’s over.</p>
  2168.  
  2169.  
  2170.  
  2171. <p>Progressives (who, once again, are not the same as the left) won’t let it die because social justice was their period of seeming moral triumph. For a decade, maybe a bit more, progressives didn’t just win cultural arguments but set the terms of debate entirely. The vocabulary of identity and oppression became mandatory. The culture of identity-obsessed HR departments colonized academia, book publishing, elite media, the nonprofit industrial complex and a good swath of government agencies; accordingly, those with elite ambitions bent to those sensibilities whether their support was sincere or not. For a moment, it looked like the social justice set had captured the language of legitimacy itself. I’ve written about the reasons for that takeover before; the short version is that the people behind this moment expertly leveraged the memetic power of the internet to make not being woke seem like a kind of social death. (It was always memes that spurred the social justice advance, and it was always the fear of being socially undesirable that was the sharp end of the stick.) Today, some progressives still can’t let go, because to do so is to admit that the world has moved on and that the moral leverage that once allowed them to dictate norms has evaporated.</p>
  2172.  
  2173.  
  2174.  
  2175. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The think pieces are gone, the college kids aren’t protesting, the prestige media has shifted its tone.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2176.  
  2177.  
  2178.  
  2179. <p>And yet the average liberal’s refusal to move on and let go is a pale facsimile of the anti-woke commentator’s desperate clinging. Conservatives won’t let the social justice moment die either, because they need it as their bogeyman; it’s proved to be a great rallying force for the right, and its status as a fundraiser for professional conservative commentators is unmatched. Those types have constructed a vast shadow empire in their heads (corporations, schools, media, the government) still supposedly controlled by the radical campus left of 2015. Their media ecosystem depends on this fantasy. Without it, they have to confront the uncomfortable reality that they are no longer the cultural underdogs but the ascendant force. Admitting that social justice is passé would mean acknowledging victory, and victory brings responsibility. (Famously, once elected, your ideas actually have to be tested in the fires of reality.) So here we are, trapped in the afterglow of a revolution that’s already burned out, with each side invested in pretending the fire still rages.</p>
  2180.  
  2181.  
  2182.  
  2183. <p>The social justice era was never as <em>widely</em> hegemonic as either side thought. It was certainly <em>deeply</em> hegemonic in certain spaces, and that produced a lot of unfortunate, unfair and unhelpful scenarios. I spent a lot of time talking about them, back in them days. It’s important to be able to distinguish between depth and breadth. If you were a conservative professor at a liberal school, the depth of your disadvantage was severe indeed. But it’s also essential that we not overgeneralize that power. The supposed omnipotence of “wokeness” was typically confined to certain urban, highly educated spaces that shape media discourse but don’t actually represent the broader country. Its rules were enforced mainly through social capital — who got platformed and who got dragged — not through the state or any formal institution. Yes, there are exceptions, very unfortunate ones. And, I would argue, it was precisely when those ideas and tactics broke the containment of smaller, more elite discursive spaces like the universities and newsmedia that the backlash began. In a weird way, the success of the social justice movement triggered its own collapse.</p>
  2184.  
  2185.  
  2186.  
  2187. <p>Exceptions aside, social justice power was usually more vibes than policy, more etiquette than law. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t destructive! But it&#8217;s probably the quintessential example of rule by happenstance rather than systematic rule; its enforcement of its Byzantine laws and abstruse moral schema was always driven by availability bias, by whim, and by chance. The people who got hit with the woke stick were those who were available to be hit, which is why so much of the damage was done in progressive-on-progressive fire episodes and why so rarely were conservative politicians ever affected. That&#8217;s also why, to pick a random example, someone like Dr. Dre could avoid cancellation despite his history with violence against women — because when there&#8217;s no actual formal procedure, there&#8217;s no consistency. That’s another reason why it all collapsed so quickly, its arbitrary nature. And there is of course the ever-present paradox that when everyone’s livelihood depends on not saying the wrong thing, the wrong thing will eventually be said. The fear that kept it going couldn’t last forever.</p>
  2188.  
  2189.  
  2190.  
  2191. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Some progressives still can’t let go, because to do so is to admit that the world has moved on.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2192.  
  2193.  
  2194.  
  2195. <p>But the myths remain. A certain influential subset of progressives remain emotionally tethered to the idea that we’re living in 2017, trying to defend a pre-ironized vision of a a “safe space,” still insisting that diversity training can function as the frontier of justice and that power can be dismantled by collectively scolding people online. These habits are hard to break because they provided moral clarity and community in an otherwise fragmented world. The social justice era offered a coherent worldview: You could always locate yourself as righteous by identifying oppression and naming it. You didn’t have to fix material inequality, just speak the right language about it. The politics were exhausting, yes, but also comforting. They were the paradoxical belief set of revolutionaries who had preemptively given up.</p>
  2196.  
  2197.  
  2198.  
  2199. <p>To accept that the moment is over means facing a void. The problems that animated social justice, like racism, sexism, homophobia and inequality — which, yes, are very real and need to be opposed — haven’t gone anywhere. What’s gone, for most of us, is the illusion that these could be solved through the cultural policing of language and representation. Many professional progressives sensed this but couldn’t quite say it; many now can, but others are still trapped in the old fear and the old yearning. So they continue to perform the old rituals: apologies for privilege, ritual denunciations of microaggressions, interminable debates about which words are acceptable. As diminished as all these practices are, they still chug along in some form or another. It’s cargo cult politics, going through the motions of a religious order whose gods have already left.</p>
  2200.  
  2201.  
  2202.  
  2203. <p>Conservatives, meanwhile, can’t stop shadowboxing with ghosts. Every book, every podcast, every Substack essay in their ecosystem depends on the existence of a censorious, omnipotent “woke mob.” But the mob isn’t really there anymore. There’s a handful of noisy activists on social media, sure, but they don’t decide what gets published, what TV shows get made or who gets fired; increasingly, even their natural constituencies treat them as a ridiculous anachronism. If anything, the pendulum has swung hard in the other direction: DEI programs are being quietly dismantled, campus speech codes have been gutted and corporations are scrubbing their websites of the very equity language they trumpeted five years ago. None of that shit ever meant anything, obviously. It was always for show. Indeed, the real marker of the difference between a leftist critic of social justice politics and a conservative one is that the leftist critic complains because the corporation isn&#8217;t actually sincere and doesn&#8217;t actually care while the conservative conservative complains that they are and do.</p>
  2204.  
  2205.  
  2206.  
  2207. <p>Yet for all of the outward signs, the conservative narrative demands that we still live under “woke tyranny.” It’s a convenient excuse for everything. Lose a job? Blame cancel culture. Your kid can’t get into college? Diversity quotas. Your film flopped? Hollywood’s too woke. This is the secret comfort of victimhood, right? It explains the world. I know this isn&#8217;t a particularly novel thing to say, but there still is a real irony in the way that conservative and woke narratives coalesce around the obsession with the idea that one has been oppressed. The right, for all its macho posturing, has grown addicted to the same thing that once animated the Tumblr left: a sense of persecution that grants moral meaning.</p>
  2208.  
  2209.  
  2210.  
  2211. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>To accept that the moment is over means facing a void.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2212.  
  2213.  
  2214.  
  2215. <p>So both camps cling to the corpse. The radlibs because they can’t face irrelevance, the anti-wokies because they can’t face responsibility, and the professionals because they’re afraid the money spigot will be turned off in a brutal media environment. Meanwhile, the culture has already moved on. We live in a moment defined not by moral crusade but by exhaustion. The default political mood is boredom, even in the face of relentless scandal and a genuine creeping authoritarianism. The generational energy that once went into activism has migrated elsewhere, into fitness, aesthetics, entrepreneurship, self-optimization, crypto, fandom. The kids who might have been the next generation of activists are instead building personal brands or quietly retreating into apolitical hobbies. And as much as the activists drive my crazy, I have after all been one for much of my life, and I suppose I still am, this devolution into conspiracism and pathetic stabs at getting rich quick is certainly worse.</p>
  2216.  
  2217.  
  2218.  
  2219. <p>The end of the social justice era hasn’t ushered in a renaissance of solidarity or material politics. Instead it’s ushered in a particular kind of uneasy quiet, the quiet of the sickbed. We’ve replaced the shrill certainties of moral policing with a kind of cynical detachment. No one believes anymore that a better world is coming, unless perhaps it’s delivered by technology, and yet no one feels like fighting about it either. The death of one moral order hasn’t produced another. It’s only produced drift. And the refusal to acknowledge that drift matters. As long as very attention-hungry emissaries from both sides pretend we’re still living under wokeness, we can’t grapple with what’s actually happening. The Bluesky progs keep wasting energy defending cultural norms that no one is attacking anymore, and the right keeps manufacturing outrage against enemies who no longer exist. Everyone’s fighting yesterday’s war because it’s safer than confronting today’s uncertainty.</p>
  2220.  
  2221.  
  2222.  
  2223. <p>And there’s a deeper reason we can’t let go: For a lot of people, acolytes and heretics, friend and foe, pro and con, the social justice era was the last time politics felt truly <em>alive</em>. For a while, there was a sense that words mattered, that the culture could change overnight, that history was moving. It was often ugly, always performative, and usually absurd, and in so many ways I’m glad it&#8217;s gone … but it was <em>something</em>. Compare that to the flat, affectless politics of 2025, numbness In the face of real crisis, where every controversy is instantly monetized and forgotten. No wonder people cling to the memory. But nostalgia isn’t analysis. Pretending that the moral consensus of 2015 still rules is like insisting that disco still dominates pop music because you once owned a pair of bell-bottoms. The world has changed, even if admitting it makes us feel unmoored. The social justice era is over, and what comes next is unclear. But clarity requires honesty, and honesty requires saying the thing no one wants to say: The revolution came and went. All of that’s over now.</p>
  2224.  
  2225.  
  2226.  
  2227. <p class="is-td-marked">The moral vocabulary that once governed polite society now feels antique, like the slang of a defunct subculture. The rituals continue out of inertia, the way people still say “bless you” after sneezes. The establishmentarian liberals can’t admit they’ve lost hegemony; the right can’t admit they’ve won. And so the corpse lies there, embalmed in discourse, while everyone keeps insisting they can still hear it breathe. <a href="https://substack.com/profile/4284444-constance-di-nobile" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank"></a></p>
  2228. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-the-social-justice-era-what/">After the Social Justice Era — What?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2229. ]]></content:encoded>
  2231. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/after-the-social-justice-era-what/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  2232. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  2235. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312424</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AdobeStock_546972423-scaled.jpeg?width=895&#038;height=585" length="142525" type="image/jpeg" />
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  2238. <item>
  2239. <title>OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist</title>
  2240. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/openais-new-energy-chief-is-a-trump-administration-natural-gas-evangelist/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=openais-new-energy-chief-is-a-trump-administration-natural-gas-evangelist</link>
  2241. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/openais-new-energy-chief-is-a-trump-administration-natural-gas-evangelist/#respond</comments>
  2243. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rei Takver /  DeSmog ]]></dc:creator>
  2244. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:32:48 +0000</pubDate>
  2245. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  2246. <category><![CDATA[Business & Economy]]></category>
  2247. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  2248. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  2249. <category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
  2250. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  2251. <category><![CDATA[data centers]]></category>
  2252. <category><![CDATA[natural gas]]></category>
  2253. <category><![CDATA[oil and gas industry]]></category>
  2254. <category><![CDATA[OpenAI]]></category>
  2255. <category><![CDATA[sam altman]]></category>
  2256. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312421</guid>
  2257.  
  2258. <description><![CDATA[<p>The ChatGPT creator hired John McCarrick, a gas-loving former Trump energy official, to guide how the company will source huge quantities of power for its colossal supercomputers.</p>
  2259. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/openais-new-energy-chief-is-a-trump-administration-natural-gas-evangelist/">OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2260. ]]></description>
  2261. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  2262. <p><strong>As artificial intelligence company OpenAI</strong> plans its rapid construction of behemoth power-guzzling data centers to fuel the AI boom, it has hired a new energy chief — an official from the first <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration who is a dedicated champion of natural gas.<br>&nbsp;<br>John McCarrick, the company’s new head of Global Energy Policy, was a senior energy policy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mccarrick-b8595054/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">adviser</a>&nbsp;in the first <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration’s Bureau of Energy Resources in the State Department under former Secretaries Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.<br>&nbsp;<br>As deputy assistant secretary for Energy Transformation and the special envoy for International Energy Affairs, McCarrick&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/121217_McCarrick_Testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">promoted exports</a>&nbsp;of American liquefied natural gas to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rigzone.com/news/trump_admin_wants_to_make_asia_great_for_energy_investors-16-oct-2018-157214-article/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">advocated</a>&nbsp;for Asian countries to&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250129142633/https://2017-2020.usaid.gov/asia-regional/fact-sheets/usaid-rdma-asia-edge-enhancing-development-and-growth-through-energy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">invest in natural gas</a>.</p>
  2263.  
  2264.  
  2265.  
  2266. <p>The choice to hire McCarrick matches the intentions of OpenAI’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/12/13/nx-s1-5227874/trump-bezos-zuckerberg-amazon-facebook-open-ai-meta-inauguration-fund" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Trump-dominating</a>&nbsp;CEO Sam Altman,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/transcript-sam-altman-testifies-at-us-senate-hearing-on-ai-competitiveness/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">who said in a U.S. Senate hearing in May</a>&nbsp;that “in the short term, I think [the future of powering AI] probably looks like more natural gas.”</p>
  2267.  
  2268.  
  2269.  
  2270. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2271.  
  2272.  
  2273.  
  2274. <p>It also aligns with the company’s early moves toward powering new data centers, huge warehouses full of linked-up computers that require enormous quantities of water and electricity, to run with gas. OpenAI’s <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-whats-in-stargate-the-usd500-billion-trump-endorsed-plan-to-power-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Stargate Project</a>&nbsp;site in Texas, which is slated to become one of the largest data center sites in the world, is already&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stargate-data-center-powered-by-natural-gas-2025-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">installing</a>&nbsp;off-grid gas turbines to power its operations.</p>
  2275.  
  2276.  
  2277.  
  2278. <p>“Big Tech’s collusion with the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda for artificial intelligence is evident in their massive investment in methane gas power infrastructure — as well as pro-gas political operatives like McCarrick,” Tyson Slocum, director of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said.<br> <br>The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform. In a July speech to announce a $96 billion AI and energy funding package, Trump <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/trump-energy-industry-ai-fossil-fuels-pittsburgh-summit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">lauded</a> fossil fuel and coal-powered data center development while <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-attend-ai-energy-summit-pittsburgh-2025-06-12/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">flanked</a> by oil and gas executives.<br> <br>By installing gas turbines to power its data centers, OpenAI has joined a growing cadre of tech giants, including <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/21/gas-power-plants-approved-for-metas-10b-data-center-and-not-everyone-is-happy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Meta</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/06/elon-musk-xai-memphis-gas-turbines-air-pollution-permits-00317582" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">xAI</a>, and <a href="https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-granted-permission-to-run-its-dublin-data-center-on-gas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Microsoft</a>, that have begun installing gas-powered generators at their data center sites to meet the surging energy demands of the supercomputer complexes.<br> <br>OpenAI has additionally chosen not to disclose the carbon footprint of ChatGPT-5, its most advanced AI model to date, although researchers told the Guardian that it uses “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/09/open-ai-chat-gpt5-energy-use" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">a significantly larger amount of energy</a>” than responses from GPT-40. The company, which is <a href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-stargate-uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">rapidly expanding</a> internationally, has not formally announced climate or sustainability targets.<br> <br>Altman has also said that he believes artificial intelligence will solve climate change, even though the technology’s voracious, ever-expanding demand for electricity poses a serious threat to net-zero targets worldwide.<br> <br>“I don’t want to say this, because climate change is so serious and so hard of a problem,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-0XqTAeMQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Altman said in a 2023 interview</a>. “But I think once we have a really powerful superintelligence, addressing climate change will not be particularly difficult for a system like that.”<br> <br>As Altman’s energy pick, McCarrick has a long history of hawking oil and gas. Previously, McCarrick advised on energy policy for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. At the time, Romney, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159926765/romney-energy-plan-touts-oil-gas-coal-production" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">who did not mention</a> climate change in his energy platform, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-politics/romney-obama-in-rare-battle-over-energy-policy-idUSBRE87B0JA/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">advocated for</a> the U.S. to ramp up coal and other forms of fossil fuel production.<br> <br>Even earlier, as a senior energy policy adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, McCarrick <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mccarrick-b8595054/details/experience/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">claimed to be</a> the source of its “‘all of the above’ energy strategy” in his LinkedIn profile.</p>
  2279.  
  2280.  
  2281.  
  2282. <p>At a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iolgiIvfV-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">campaign rally</a>&nbsp;in 2008, vice presidential candidate and then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin adopted the phrase, announcing: “John [McCain] and I will adopt the all of the above approach,” she said, listing a variety of cleaner energy sources before adding, “we’ll develop clean coal technology, and we’ll drill for the billions of barrels of oil and that we have right now warehoused underground including our resources offshore. We will drill here and drill now — and here’s where you chant. ‘Drill, baby, drill.’”</p>
  2283.  
  2284.  
  2285.  
  2286. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>As Altman’s energy pick, McCarrick has a long history of hawking oil and gas.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2287.  
  2288.  
  2289.  
  2290. <p>Hiring a former member of Trump’s team aligns OpenAI even more closely with the current Trump administration.</p>
  2291.  
  2292.  
  2293.  
  2294. <p>OpenAI’s CEO Altman already donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund. He also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techradar.com/pro/uk-and-us-to-sign-massive-tech-trade-deals-worth-billions-during-trump-and-big-tech-tour" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">accompanied Trump to the U.K.</a>&nbsp;in September for the president’s second state visit where Trump announced the U.S.-U.K. Technology Prosperity Deal.<br>&nbsp;<br>Altman’s history with climate deniers goes back to the roots of his career. His&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-the-optimist-open-ai-sam-altman/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">mentor<u>&nbsp;</u></a>is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.com/peter-thiel/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Peter Thiel</a>, PayPal founder and CEO of data analytics software giant Palantir, who has a history of climate denialist statements. Thiel is also a longtime Trump donor, having given at least $1.75 million to Trump campaigns from 2016 to 2020.&nbsp;</p>
  2295.  
  2296.  
  2297.  
  2298. <p>The Palantir CEO has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/joe-rogan-experience/joe-rogan-continues-cast-doubt-climate-science-joe-rogan-experience" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">claimed</a>&nbsp;climate science is “fake science,” has&nbsp;<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/200471/peter-thiel-obsession-antichrist-religion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">called climate activist Greta Thunberg</a>&nbsp;the “Antichrist” and has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/01/a-science-journal-funded-by-peter-thiel-is-running-articles-dismissing-climate-change-and-evolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">funded a science journal</a>&nbsp;that publishes climate denial.</p>
  2299.  
  2300.  
  2301.  
  2302. <p>In 2022, Altman also&nbsp;donated over $32,000&nbsp;to climate denier&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.com/michael-shellenberger/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Michael Shellenberger’s</a>&nbsp;failed campaign for governor of California.</p>
  2303.  
  2304.  
  2305.  
  2306. <p>Shellenberger has made extensive claims denying the severity of climate change,&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200630234514/https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2020/6/29/on-behalf-of-environmentalists-i-apologize-for-the-climate-scare" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">including that</a>&nbsp;“humans are not causing a ‘sixth mass&nbsp;extinction,’” that&nbsp;“the Amazon is not ‘the lungs of the&nbsp;world’” and that “climate change is not making natural disasters&nbsp;worse.”</p>
  2307.  
  2308.  
  2309.  
  2310. <p>Shellenberger is well known for his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciStnd9Y2ak" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">advocacy</a>&nbsp;for nuclear energy. When he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0_rVGnfYns" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">announced his run for governor</a>&nbsp;on the&nbsp;Joe Rogan podcast, he argued that “nuclear power is the future.”</p>
  2311.  
  2312.  
  2313.  
  2314. <p>Shellenberger’s views on nuclear power align with Altman’s own long-held positions on energy. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.samaltman.com/energy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">2015 post</a>&nbsp;on Altman’s personal website, he argued, “The 20th century was the century of carbon-based energy.&nbsp;I am confident the 22nd century is going to be the century of atomic energy.”<br>&nbsp;<br>Altman then expressed doubt as to the energy sources of our own era: “I am unsure how the majority of the 21st century will be powered,” he wrote.</p>
  2315.  
  2316.  
  2317.  
  2318. <p>If John McCarrick has his way, it appears the answer to Altman’s lack of surety is — gas. McCarrick appears to be&nbsp;<a href="https://energy-dialogues.com/nagf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">a speaker at the North American Gas Forum</a>&nbsp;in Washington, D.C., in December.</p>
  2319. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/openais-new-energy-chief-is-a-trump-administration-natural-gas-evangelist/">OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2320. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2323. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  2326. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">312421</post-id> <enclosure url="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/OpenAIEnergy.png?width=878&#038;height=585" length="1672410" type="image/png" />
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  2329. <item>
  2330. <title>How a Scottish Maritime Museum Ended Up in Israel’s 3D Propaganda Videos</title>
  2331. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-a-scottish-maritime-museum-ended-up-in-israels-3d-propaganda-videos/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-a-scottish-maritime-museum-ended-up-in-israels-3d-propaganda-videos</link>
  2332. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-a-scottish-maritime-museum-ended-up-in-israels-3d-propaganda-videos/#respond</comments>
  2334. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Oren Ziv /  +972 Magazine ]]></dc:creator>
  2335. <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:35:41 +0000</pubDate>
  2336. <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
  2337. <category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
  2338. <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
  2339. <category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
  2340. <category><![CDATA[gaza]]></category>
  2341. <category><![CDATA[hamas]]></category>
  2342. <category><![CDATA[israel]]></category>
  2343. <category><![CDATA[mainstream media]]></category>
  2344. <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
  2345. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312391</guid>
  2346.  
  2347. <description><![CDATA[<p>An analysis of Israeli army animations used to justify Gaza strikes, and amplified by international outlets, discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.</p>
  2348. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-a-scottish-maritime-museum-ended-up-in-israels-3d-propaganda-videos/">How a Scottish Maritime Museum Ended Up in Israel’s 3D Propaganda Videos</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2349. ]]></description>
  2350. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  2351. <p><strong>On Oct. 27, 2023</strong>, the Israeli army released an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pTYHBZVgVQ" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">animated video</a> claiming to reveal what lay beneath al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex. It showed underground tunnels, bunkers and a Hamas command room — all depicted through slick 3D graphics.</p>
  2352.  
  2353.  
  2354.  
  2355. <p>“That information is ironclad,” <a href="https://archive.org/details/CNNW_20231027_200000_The_Lead_With_Jake_Tapper/start/1951/end/2011" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">insisted</a> Mark Regev, then a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during an interview the same day on CNN. “It’s based on Israeli intelligence.”</p>
  2356.  
  2357.  
  2358.  
  2359. <p>Israel’s first raid on the hospital would not come until mid-November. But the narrative had already been set. The clip was pushed simultaneously across the army’s Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, X and Instagram accounts. On Netanyahu’s own X profile, it drew <a href="https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1717916845859078531?lang=en" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">tens of millions of views</a>. Over the subsequent weeks, dozens of international outlets would rebroadcast it for their own audiences, invariably accompanied by <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamass-main-operations-base-is-under-shifa-hospital-in-gaza-city-says-idf/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Israel’s claim</a> that the hospital served as Hamas’ “main operations base” in Gaza.</p>
  2360.  
  2361.  
  2362.  
  2363. <p>But no such base was ever discovered. Moreover, the command room featured in the video was not unique; it had already appeared more than a year earlier in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CghR18-j7To/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">another animation</a> published by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), illustrating what it said was a tunnel beneath a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Gaza. The surrounding streets in the &#8220;al-Shifa&#8221; video, meanwhile, were populated with storefronts from a commercial 3D asset pack — replete with fictional establishments like “Fabio’s Pizzeria,” “Andre’s Bakery” and “Revolution Bike Shop.”</p>
  2364.  
  2365.  
  2366.  
  2367. <p>The al-Shifa animation would become one of the most notorious examples of Israel’s new wartime communication strategy. It also marked the beginning of an accelerated phase of production within the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit: Having published only a handful of 3D visualizations before Oct. 7, the unit has since released dozens of similar videos depicting supposed terror sites in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. </p>
  2368.  
  2369.  
  2370.  
  2371. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="432" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Orens-3d-animation-investigation-1.gif?width=768&#038;height=432" alt="" class="wp-image-312392" style="width:840px;height:auto" data-recalc-dims="1"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Images from KitBash3D’s commercially available “Storefronts” asset pack appear in the Israeli army’s animation of al-Shifa Hospital. (via +972 Magazine)<br></figcaption></figure>
  2372.  
  2373.  
  2374.  
  2375. <p>Over time, these illustrations coalesced into a distinct and consistent visual style. They usually begin with satellite imagery, followed by transitions into 3D visualizations that then often present an X-ray wireframe view of an interior or underground scene, intercut with real drone footage of airstrikes or bombings.</p>
  2376.  
  2377.  
  2378.  
  2379. <p>The blending of these elements gives the impression of seamless factual continuity. But instead of revealing hidden truths — as Israeli military officials insist, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=bMnC5dhpxRg" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">as</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/BBCNEWS_20250614_150000_BBC_News/start/420/end/480" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">the</a> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/22/hezbollah-hoarding-500m-money-bunker-beirut/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">international</a> <a href="https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/tagesschau/video/tagesschau-vom-23-09-2024-hauptausgabe?urn=urn:srf:video:cd33dda8-7120-4e07-a218-a22e0e70e6e2" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">media</a> <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-3047641/Video-IDF-claims-network-Hamas-tunnels-Gazas-Shifa-hospital.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">readily</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSdjCuXxf60" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">amplifies</a> — the visualizations actually blur them. </p>
  2380.  
  2381.  
  2382.  
  2383. <p>A monthslong investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call, together with the research collective Viewfinder, the Swiss network SRF and the Scottish outlet The Ferret, analyzed 43 animations produced by the Israeli army since Oct. 7 and found that many contain serious spatial inaccuracies or prefabricated assets — sourced not from classified intelligence but rather from commercial libraries, content creators and cultural institutions.</p>
  2384.  
  2385.  
  2386.  
  2387. <p>Interviews with soldiers involved in the production of these videos further illuminate how the army prioritizes the aesthetic value of the animations over their accuracy, while animators routinely embellish in order to emphasize a supposed threat.&nbsp;</p>
  2388.  
  2389.  
  2390.  
  2391. <p>The outcome is a communications campaign that mimics the graphics of forensic reconstructions in pursuit of legitimizing military strikes on civilian infrastructure. And as most of the sites depicted in the army’s animations remain inaccessible to journalists and researchers, and many have been blown up or demolished, Israel’s illustrated allegations effectively defy verification.</p>
  2392.  
  2393.  
  2394.  
  2395. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘They look sexy and professional’</h3>
  2396.  
  2397.  
  2398.  
  2399. <p>Most, if not all, of these animations are produced in house by a dedicated team within the Spokesperson’s Unit, consisting of only a handful of soldiers. Former members nickname it the “After Effects Cell,” referencing a popular graphic design software created by the U.S. company Adobe. The team consists of motion designers, 3D modelers and animators who work primarily with Adobe’s products but also pull from open-source software like <a href="https://www.blender.org/about/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Blender</a>.</p>
  2400.  
  2401.  
  2402.  
  2403. <p>Officially, every video created by the cell is cleared for publication by an intelligence officer. But the distinction between illustration and evidence is porous. Missing details are simply filled in. Prefabricated assets and recycled interiors are assembled quickly into a coherent scene and then passed upstream for approval.</p>
  2404.  
  2405.  
  2406.  
  2407. <p>A reservist who served in the unit during the current war, and agreed to speak about the 3D work on condition of anonymity, said soldiers “have to sign a confidentiality agreement, then they receive the information and begin to work. Sometimes they receive a 3D model that intelligence has already prepared and work based on that foundation. They’re told, ‘This is the building, here’s a photo or video, on this and that floor there’s something,’ and then they [create animations] based on what they receive.”</p>
  2408.  
  2409.  
  2410.  
  2411. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  2412. <span class="aspect-w-16 aspect-h-9 block relative"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ciNEkN7n52s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></span>
  2413. </div></figure>
  2414.  
  2415.  
  2416.  
  2417. <p>While denying that there is a culture of lying with regard to the cell’s animations, the former unit member said embellishment is routine. “If the commander wants to add more lathes [machines that can be used to produce weapons], then they’ll add more so it looks more powerful,” the source said. “The model is approved by an intelligence official; it’s not a complete illustration, but when information is missing or they don’t know exactly what will be there and it’s meant to demonstrate something, then you illustrate it. </p>
  2418.  
  2419.  
  2420.  
  2421. <p>“Usually, they prepare the model before the strike,” the reservist added. “There were cases where, because they didn’t plan ahead or didn’t update the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit in advance [about an airstrike], they had to create the model afterward.”</p>
  2422.  
  2423.  
  2424.  
  2425. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The former unit member said embellishment is routine.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2426.  
  2427.  
  2428.  
  2429. <p>Production is guided less by precision than by aesthetics and speed. “Some of the models are made [by the army] for the videos,” one former animator in the unit said. “Others are taken from other places because they don’t have any intelligence significance. It serves the purpose.”</p>
  2430.  
  2431.  
  2432.  
  2433. <p>Another reservist, who served during the first months of the war in a unit involved in communication with international actors, said: “They look sexy, they look professional, and obviously the average person doesn’t go down into the details. The models just make the military look more professional, like a high-tech company with cool diagrams and cool technology. So whenever we had them, we would present them to explain why the IDF is [doing something].” </p>
  2434.  
  2435.  
  2436.  
  2437. <p>But this source was skeptical about the results. “I always thought it was very crude, but I never found it particularly compelling. And I’m sure most of the international actors weren’t always convinced that [the intelligence we presented] justified killing tons of civilians or destroying a hospital.”</p>
  2438.  
  2439.  
  2440.  
  2441. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">From a Port Orchard parking lot to a Gaza City high-rise</h3>
  2442.  
  2443.  
  2444.  
  2445. <p>The Israeli army presents these videos as intelligence-derived illustrations. But in reality, many of the environments they depict are, at least in part, borrowed from artists far removed from the battlefield.</p>
  2446.  
  2447.  
  2448.  
  2449. <p>Our analysis of the army’s animations found that more than half contained 3D assets taken from third-party sources. Over 50 third-party assets were identified in total, which were replicated hundreds of times across animations of sites ranging from Gaza to Iran.</p>
  2450.  
  2451.  
  2452.  
  2453. <p>A parking lot in Washington state, a boat-building workshop in Scotland and commercial storefront kits from the video game industry — all of these have been inserted, without credit, into animations presented as “illustrations” of Hamas bunkers or Iranian weapons facilities.</p>
  2454.  
  2455.  
  2456.  
  2457. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="432" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2.gif?width=768&#038;height=432" alt="" class="wp-image-312393" data-recalc-dims="1"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A 3D asset of an electrical utility box in Port Orchard, Wash., used by artist Ian Hubert in his “Dynamo Dream” sci-fi series appeared in an animation released by the Israeli army showing Iran&#8217;s Fordow uranium enrichment plant. (via +972 Magazine)</figcaption></figure>
  2458.  
  2459.  
  2460.  
  2461. <p>Many of these 3D models were acquired by the army in online marketplaces, such as KitBash3D (where an entire asset pack depicting <a href="https://kitbash3d.com/products/props-military-outpost" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">military outposts</a> or <a href="https://kitbash3d.com/products/storefronts" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">storefronts</a> is sold for around $100-200) and Sketchfab (where equipment like a <a href="https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cutter-machine-ea44a8bafd6e4beb87e3258e5e308007" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">video editing machine</a> are available free of charge under Creative Commons licenses). </p>
  2462.  
  2463.  
  2464.  
  2465. <p>Others were acquired from 3D artists like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@IanHubert2" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Ian Hubert</a>, who share their work with paid subscribers on websites like Patreon. The popular American content creator has produced <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/IanHubert/posts" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">photogrammetry scans</a> of utility poles, parking lots and street corners in his hometown of Port Orchard, Wash., alongside renderings of pipes and antennas that he designed from scratch — all of which are available to subscribers on Patreon for around $7 a month. </p>
  2466.  
  2467.  
  2468.  
  2469. <p>More than 30 of these assets now appear in the Israeli military’s animations of high-rises in Gaza, tunnels in Beirut and nuclear sites in Iran. (Hubert had not responded to a request for comment by publication time.)</p>
  2470.  
  2471.  
  2472.  
  2473. <p>The Israeli army has also made use of 3D assets from the Scottish Maritime Museum under an unrestricted Creative Commons license. Workbenches, cabinets and an electrical box — uploaded as part of a photogrammetry project relating to a 2019 boat-building workshop — have been identified in animations depicting underground missile factories in Syria and Iran. (The museum stated that once it uploads digital models of its collection online for purposes such as conservation and research, it “has no control over how the data is subsequently accessed, downloaded, or used.”)</p>
  2474.  
  2475.  
  2476.  
  2477. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>As international media outlets rushed to cover the event, dozens republished the animation in part or in full.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2478.  
  2479.  
  2480.  
  2481. <p>In some cases, the “illustration” goes one step further, with fabricated environments replacing real places. In September 2024, the Israeli army published an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me43AKGQjDA" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">animation</a> depicting houses in southern Lebanon that it claimed were concealing missiles. Our investigation identified the area that the video zooms in on from a satellite image to be the outskirts of the village of Yater.</p>
  2482.  
  2483.  
  2484.  
  2485. <p>Yet, a visit to the village last week found that no such buildings or streets as those depicted in the video exist in this area — and not because they were destroyed by the Israeli army, which bombed only a handful of sites in Yater. Indeed, the houses in the video are entirely fabricated, featuring <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NgWAbif7ShoYMIe71RkKt3Qnr75XzLBavtP4fTk-7b8/edit?slide=id.g344b8815d44_0_349#slide=id.g344b8815d44_0_349" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">at least three unique models</a> from Hubert’s “<a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/asset-antenna-48693945?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_fan&amp;utm_content=web_share" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Antenna Kit</a>,” published in March 2021.</p>
  2486.  
  2487.  
  2488.  
  2489. <p>When Israel attacked Iran in June this year, the army <a href="https://x.com/idfonline/status/1933479692339753013" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">released a similar 3D model</a> depicting a uranium enrichment site in Natanz. As international media outlets rushed to cover the event, dozens republished the animation in part or in full, including the <a href="https://archive.org/details/BBCNEWS_20250614_150000_BBC_News/start/420/end/480" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/14/world/video/smr-israel-iran-trade-attacks-after-israel-targets-nuclear-sites" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">CNN</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/video/idf-shows-recreated-video-of-iran-nuclear-site-at-natanz-13383152" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">Sky News</a>. The interior of the facility depicted in the animation includes at least six of Hubert’s 3D assets, collectively replicated over 150 times.</p>
  2490.  
  2491.  
  2492.  
  2493. <p>More recently, the army <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/1963910424694280403" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">posted a 3D animation</a> depicting the interior of the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City shortly after bombing it in early September as part of the systematic destruction of the city’s high-rises.</p>
  2494.  
  2495.  
  2496.  
  2497. <p>The animation contains several third-party assets, including a portion of a 3D scan of the Scottish Maritime Museum’s boat-building workshop, as well as additional assets from Hubert’s Patreon, including an electrical meter from Port Orchard and three scans of parking lots.</p>
  2498.  
  2499.  
  2500.  
  2501. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="432" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/boat-full.gif?width=768&#038;height=432" alt="" class="wp-image-312394" data-recalc-dims="1"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Elements of 3D scans made by the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, Scotland, were used to depict underground facilities in Syria and Iran in animations published by the Israeli army. (via +972 Magazine)</figcaption></figure>
  2502.  
  2503.  
  2504.  
  2505. <p>The final section of the video zooms out from the tower to showcase a wider swath of Gaza City and its urban architecture. This scene uses a satellite image base layer from 2024, identifiable through a Star of David pattern&nbsp;<a href="http://ynet.co.il/news/article/h1hjmxhea" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">etched into the soil</a>&nbsp;of nearby Green Battalion Square by a soldier using a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.&nbsp;</p>
  2506.  
  2507.  
  2508.  
  2509. <p>By 2024, and certainly by the time the animation was published last month, much of the neighborhood had been destroyed by airstrikes and explosive munitions. Yet the army’s 3D illustration depicts a pre-Oct. 7 urban landscape, with most of the buildings around the tower still standing, obscuring the scale of the ongoing destruction.</p>
  2510.  
  2511.  
  2512.  
  2513. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Delegitimize and confuse</h3>
  2514.  
  2515.  
  2516.  
  2517. <p>The power of these animations lies primarily in how they circulate. Animations are released in lockstep with Israel’s public messaging — sometimes after a strike, sometimes immediately before one, and often to preemptively signal that an area might be targeted. The clip will typically be pushed across the army’s Telegram, YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram channels, and may be paired with a press conference by an IDF spokesperson.</p>
  2518.  
  2519.  
  2520.  
  2521. <p>Faced with breaking developments and a shortage of verified imagery, international media outlets will invariably opt to use these ready-made visuals, in many cases amplifying them uncritically. They fill airtime, illustrate complex operations and give the impression of insider knowledge.</p>
  2522.  
  2523.  
  2524.  
  2525. <p>Almost all of the animations published by the army contain the word “illustration” in the bottom corner. But the meaning of that tag is left deliberately vague. Different outlets engage with this qualification in different ways; some emphasize it with skepticism, others ignore it entirely. (In a statement in response to this investigation, the BBC said: “We use third party graphics with attribution. In this case we have been clear that the animations have been released by the IDF.”)</p>
  2526.  
  2527.  
  2528.  
  2529. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>International media outlets will invariably opt to use these ready-made visuals, in many cases amplifying them uncritically.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2530.  
  2531.  
  2532.  
  2533. <p>In a Hebrew-language <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFuVee64VM&amp;t=7s" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">video</a> posted to the army’s TikTok account after the June 2025 attack on Iran, soldiers from the unit describe having worked for almost a month under what they call “prime-minister-level secrecy” to produce illustrations justifying the airstrikes. A nuclear scientist was <a href="https://www.idf.il/%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%99%D7%97%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%9A-%D7%93%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A8-%D7%A6%D7%94-%D7%9C/%D7%9B%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA/2025/%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9A-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A9-%D7%94%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%95-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%93-%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%92%D7%A2-%D7%90%D7%97%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%95%D7%90-%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%A9%D7%A3-%D7%9C%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9D/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">brought in</a> to explain how centrifuges functioned so that animators could recreate them in 3D, the soldiers said. By the time the strike order was given, the animations were already finished.</p>
  2534.  
  2535.  
  2536.  
  2537. <p>One soldier explains: “They simply told us, ‘There will likely be an attack on Iran and we need to be ready, and you are responsible for [making] the messaging for a video. Simplify everything: what’s going to happen, who is being attacked, what is being attacked, the locations, why.’”</p>
  2538.  
  2539.  
  2540.  
  2541. <p>“We conducted ourselves in secret every day as if the attack were happening tomorrow,” another soldier recounts in the TikTok. “When they finally told us, ‘We’re attacking Iran today,’ we understood the magnitude of it. And 30 hours later our products were everywhere .… We translated everything into different languages. CNN and other really influential channels in the United States broadcast what we made.”</p>
  2542.  
  2543.  
  2544.  
  2545. <p>Experts have compared the aesthetics of the army’s burgeoning animation campaign with the fields of visual and open-source investigations, which are becoming increasingly popular for covering areas where traditional news reporting can be difficult. </p>
  2546.  
  2547.  
  2548.  
  2549. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="432" src="https://truthdig.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/5.gif?width=768&#038;height=432" alt="" class="wp-image-312395" data-recalc-dims="1"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">International media outlets broadcasting animations produced by the Israeli army. (via +972 Magazine)</figcaption></figure>
  2550.  
  2551.  
  2552.  
  2553. <p>“I think the visual lexicon of open-source investigation is something that the Israelis have co-opted as a way to try to delegitimize [those investigations] and confuse,” said Elizabeth Breiner, head of programs at the Forensic Architecture research center at Goldsmiths, University of London. “These visuals are open about their status as something in between the real and the imaginary, but the real harm is that they stick with people well beyond the point after which something may have been functionally disproven.”</p>
  2554.  
  2555.  
  2556.  
  2557. <p>Eyad Elyan, a Palestinian academic at Scotland’s Robert Gordon University specializing in artificial intelligence and 3D modeling, said he was “deeply disturbed” to learn that Israel has been using Scottish assets in its propaganda animations. “This aligns with Israel and the IDF’s long history of exploiting others’ resources and employing every means possible to promote baseless claims,” he said. </p>
  2558.  
  2559.  
  2560.  
  2561. <p>“What is especially troubling, however, is how such fabricated content is uncritically accepted and amplified by mainstream media outlets,” Elyan said. “Much of this material consisted of outright falsehoods — for instance, the widely circulated animation alleging that Hamas operated a command center beneath al-Shifa Hospital. No such facility was found, but [this claim] was used to destroy almost the entire health care system in Gaza.”</p>
  2562.  
  2563.  
  2564.  
  2565. <p>In response to our investigation, the Israeli army stated that “claims regarding inaccuracies or the use of ‘exaggerated’ elements do not reflect reality and are simply unfounded,” and that “all content is based on verified intelligence from a variety of sources.”&nbsp;</p>
  2566.  
  2567.  
  2568.  
  2569. <p>The statement continued: “When three-dimensional or animated visualizations are used, it is clearly indicated, and their purpose is to present complex information in a clear and accessible visual manner — not to produce an exact reconstruction of every physical detail in the area.”</p>
  2570.  
  2571.  
  2572.  
  2573. <p>The army added: “The purpose of these illustrations is to demonstrate a reality that has been repeatedly proven on the ground — that terrorist organizations embed their assets within such infrastructure and operate under the cover of the civilian population.”</p>
  2574.  
  2575.  
  2576.  
  2577. <p class="has-small-font-size"><em>This investigation was initiated in January 2025 by Jack Sapoch, Robin Kötzle, Nicole Vögele and Jake Charles Rees as part of Viewfinder, an independent research collective.</em></p>
  2578. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-a-scottish-maritime-museum-ended-up-in-israels-3d-propaganda-videos/">How a Scottish Maritime Museum Ended Up in Israel’s 3D Propaganda Videos</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2579. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2582. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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  2587. </item>
  2588. <item>
  2589. <title>The Zombie War on Terror Is Upon Us</title>
  2590. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-zombie-war-on-terror-is-upon-us/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-zombie-war-on-terror-is-upon-us</link>
  2591. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-zombie-war-on-terror-is-upon-us/#respond</comments>
  2593. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Branko Marcetic /  Responsible Statecraft ]]></dc:creator>
  2594. <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:22:17 +0000</pubDate>
  2595. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  2596. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  2597. <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
  2598. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  2599. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  2600. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  2601. <category><![CDATA[al-Qaida]]></category>
  2602. <category><![CDATA[drone strikes]]></category>
  2603. <category><![CDATA[taliban]]></category>
  2604. <category><![CDATA[venezuela]]></category>
  2605. <category><![CDATA[war on terror]]></category>
  2606. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312387</guid>
  2607.  
  2608. <description><![CDATA[<p>The al-Qaida and Taliban threats are long gone but the tools and weapons we created to fight them are finding more monsters to destroy.</p>
  2609. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-zombie-war-on-terror-is-upon-us/">The Zombie War on Terror Is Upon Us</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2610. ]]></description>
  2611. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  2612. <p><strong>There is good news</strong> and bad news for critics of the United States’ bloated 21st century war machine. The good news: The “war on terror” is dead.</p>
  2613.  
  2614.  
  2615.  
  2616. <p>The bad news? It seems to have become a part of the walking dead — a kind of zombie war on terror that is continuing and radically expanding, even as the fears and threats that originally motivated all its excesses are seemingly vanishing from the American psyche.</p>
  2617.  
  2618.  
  2619.  
  2620. <p>Consider the following facts: Despite the public release only a few years ago of <a href="https://jacobin.com/2024/05/saudi-arabia-9-11-al-bayoumi-revelations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">evidence</a> showing the Saudi government’s direct complicity in the crime of Sept. 11, 2001 — the central, instigating act of terrorism that drove and justified every aspect of the war on terror that followed — associating with or even taking money from that same government appears to carry no stigma. The <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden</a> administration’s <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/08/joe-biden-saudi-arabia-monarchy-mutual-defense-pact-war-foreign-relations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">efforts</a> to pledge American lives and treasure to defend that same government elicited relatively little controversy. And this year, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/riyadh-comedy-festival-comedians-line-up-controversy-10805331" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">dozens</a> of top U.S. comedians, from the left-leaning Bill Burr to the right-leaning Andrew Schulz, happily took its money to help whitewash its image. The Saudi government’s expanding <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/09/30/ea-games-saudi-arabia-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">encroachment</a> into <a href="https://soulofsaudi.com/saudi-arabia-entertainment-industry-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">U.S. sports</a> and <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/saudi-film-1236389032/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">entertainment</a> in general continues only to receive an eager welcome.</p>
  2621.  
  2622.  
  2623.  
  2624. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The war on terror is not just still with us, it’s expanding in radical new ways.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2625.  
  2626.  
  2627.  
  2628. <p>Meanwhile, after spending more than a decade fighting the shadowy threat of al-Qaida, the U.S. government has now seemingly come to terms with the terror group’s ongoing influence in the region. It has enthusiastically gone along with the installation of an al-Qaida-linked militant, Ahmed al-Sharaa, as the leader of Syria, whose former president Washington spent years trying to remove from power <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/obama-administration-renews-sanctions-on-syria-idUSTRE54766P/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">expressly</a> <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004-06/us-sanctions-syria" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">because of</a> his alleged support for terrorism — <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/sanctioning-syria-moment-opportunity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">including</a> the very al-Qaida its new president hails from.</p>
  2629.  
  2630.  
  2631.  
  2632. <p>Sharaa swiftly had the $10 million U.S. bounty on his head removed, the terrorist designation of the al-Qaida offshoot he led has been revoked, and just a few weeks ago, he was given a warm welcome during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where on one stage, former CIA Director David Petraeus <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/23/syrian-president-al-sharaa-sits-down-with-us-general-who-arrested-him" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">acknowledged</a> the two had been on opposite sides of the civil war in Iraq 20 years ago, in between lavishing him with praise and declaring himself a “fan.”</p>
  2633.  
  2634.  
  2635.  
  2636. <p>It’s not just al-Qaida. The <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden</a> administration had <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/biden-admin-weighs-cooperation-taliban-counter-isis-k-rcna159789" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">explored</a> teaming up with the Taliban to fight Islamic State&#8217;s branch in Afghanistan, while the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration is now <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/politics/taliban-talks-trump-administration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">inching</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/21/classifying-taliban-as-foreign-terrorist-organization-under-review-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">toward</a> normalizing relations with the group, which George W. Bush once <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-107hdoc122/html/CDOC-107hdoc122.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">said</a> was “threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists.”</p>
  2637.  
  2638.  
  2639.  
  2640. <p>The Taliban’s link to al-Qaida was, once upon a time, the rationale for regime change and 20 years of U.S. war in Afghanistan — which, of course, ended with the Taliban coming back into power, which Washington appears to be coming to peace with now.</p>
  2641.  
  2642.  
  2643.  
  2644. <p>Together, these stories suggest that both the American public and the Washington national security establishment have moved on from the core motivations that drove the war on terror for the better part of two decades. Al-Qaida, the Taliban, the government forces behind Sept. 11 — none of it matters anymore, apparently.</p>
  2645.  
  2646.  
  2647.  
  2648. <p>And yet the war on terror is not just still with us, it’s expanding in radical new ways. The <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration has now <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5534420/trumps-approach-to-cartels-mirrors-the-global-war-on-terror-officials-say" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">explicitly</a> <a href="https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-911/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">repurposed</a> the tactics and powers used against terrorism against a new, unrelated target: drug traffickers — launching airstrikes on private Venezuelan boats in international waters on <a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/10/02/venezuela-boat-strike-justification/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">the basis</a> that drug smugglers are terrorists, and that their transportation of drugs constitutes “an armed attack against the United States.” This is despite widespread <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/121844/trump-notice-drug-cartels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">doubts</a> about the legality of such strikes and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/dangerous-sweep-trumps-plan-designate-cartels-terrorist-organizations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">concerns</a> about the risks of this terrorist designation.</p>
  2649.  
  2650.  
  2651.  
  2652. <p>Meanwhile, Trump has also continued and escalated the trend <a href="https://jacobin.com/2022/05/domestic-terrorism-prevention-act-biden-house-squad" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">started</a> under the Biden administration of turning the war on terror inward. The president is now threatening to deploy the military against what <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5557232/hegseth-generals-trump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">he calls</a> the “enemy from within,” as his administration <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/fbi-readies-new-war-on-trans-people?publication_id=7677&amp;r=dwhc5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">pushes</a> to treat a <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">variety</a> of domestic critics, dissidents, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trumps-war-left-inside-plan-investigate-liberal-groups-2025-10-09/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">opposition groups</a> as terrorist threats over their First Amendment-protected activity, and <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/senator-warns-of-trumps-secret-watchlist" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">draws up</a> secret watchlists of supposed domestic terrorists.</p>
  2653.  
  2654.  
  2655.  
  2656. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>The president is now threatening to deploy the military against what he calls the “enemy from within.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  2657.  
  2658.  
  2659.  
  2660. <p>This is all a vindication of the many civil libertarians who warned over the past 24 years that the expansive powers claimed by Presidents Bush and then Barack Obama would somewhere down the line be used in new, alarming ways they were never originally intended for, including to intimidate and punish political dissent. What’s absurd is that this is happening at the exact time that the threats that originally justified all of this are simply being forgotten.</p>
  2661.  
  2662.  
  2663.  
  2664. <p>What we are witnessing is the war on terror in zombie form: devoid of its original life force and human drive, but more dangerous than ever, as it shuffles mindlessly forward in a search for human flesh to no end.</p>
  2665.  
  2666.  
  2667.  
  2668. <p>Trump may be the first president to use this zombie “war” for ends that it was never meant for, but history suggests he will not be the last, unless we make the collective political choice to put a lid on and roll back the radical growth of executive war-making power that has accumulated year after year since 9/11. Until then, this zombie will stagger on.</p>
  2669. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-zombie-war-on-terror-is-upon-us/">The Zombie War on Terror Is Upon Us</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2670. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2678. </item>
  2679. <item>
  2680. <title>Shutdown Showdown</title>
  2681. <link>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/shutdown-showdown/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=shutdown-showdown</link>
  2682. <comments>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/shutdown-showdown/#respond</comments>
  2684. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Conor Lynch]]></dc:creator>
  2685. <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:13:30 +0000</pubDate>
  2686. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
  2687. <category><![CDATA[Column]]></category>
  2688. <category><![CDATA[Courts & Law]]></category>
  2689. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  2690. <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
  2691. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  2692. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  2693. <category><![CDATA[TD Column]]></category>
  2694. <category><![CDATA[TD Original]]></category>
  2695. <category><![CDATA[US]]></category>
  2696. <category><![CDATA[autocracy]]></category>
  2697. <category><![CDATA[impoundment]]></category>
  2698. <category><![CDATA[Project 2025]]></category>
  2699. <category><![CDATA[Russell Vought]]></category>
  2700. <category><![CDATA[supreme court]]></category>
  2701. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.truthdig.com/?p=312381</guid>
  2702.  
  2703. <description><![CDATA[<p>The president and his budget director are using the shutdown to unlawfully impound billions in foreign aid. Democrats must draw a line — and hold it.</p>
  2704. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/shutdown-showdown/">Shutdown Showdown</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
  2705. ]]></description>
  2706. <content:encoded><![CDATA[
  2707. <p class="has-drop-cap">A few days before the current government shutdown began, the Supreme Court quietly used its shadow docket <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-allows-trump-cut-4b-foreign-aid/story?id=125982006" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">to sign off on</a> the <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump</a> administration’s unilateral cuts to billions in foreign aid, which had earlier been <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/09/04/congress/judge-rules-white-house-pocket-rescission-gambit-is-illegal-00544892" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">ruled illegal</a> by the lower courts. Though cautioning that it should “not be read as a final determination on the merits,” it was hard to read the majority’s decision as anything but a triumph for <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/donald-trump/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="4" title="Donald Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> and his budget director, Russ Vought, who has long vowed to restore the presidential power of <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/what-impoundment-control-act-and-what-gaos-role" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">impoundment</a>, allowing the White House to arbitrarily delay or withhold funds approved by Congress. The order marked the latest example of the conservative majority on the nation’s top court granting legal legitimacy to one of the most lawless presidencies in U.S. history.&nbsp;</p>
  2708.  
  2709.  
  2710.  
  2711. <p>Naturally, Vought was thrilled, describing it shortly after on X as a “Major victory.”</p>
  2712.  
  2713.  
  2714.  
  2715. <p>The order elicited a very different response in Congress, where lawmakers — especially Democrats — were <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/30/the-other-reason-democrats-are-taking-trump-to-the-mat-in-a-shutdown-battle-00588747" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">furious at the court</a> for greenlighting the administration’s effort to seize the power of the purse. Though a shutdown was already looming at that point, the court’s order likely cemented Democratic opposition and removed any remaining incentive to compromise. It also <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/463335/supreme-court-shutdown-aids-vaccine-trump-impoundment" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">made it very difficult</a> for Democrats and Republicans to eventually reach a deal that would end the shutdown, as there is no reason to trust that Vought will honor the deal.</p>
  2716.  
  2717.  
  2718.  
  2719. <p>Instead of trying to alleviate these legitimate concerns, the White House used the days leading up to the shutdown to taunt Democrats with memes and threaten that it would use a lapse in funding to enact mass layoffs and gut “Democrat agencies.” The shutdown, according to the president, would provide an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/trump-vought-shutdown-cuts.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">unprecedented opportunity</a>” to remake the federal government.&nbsp;</p>
  2720.  
  2721.  
  2722.  
  2723. <p>In the press, these threats were mostly <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/03/trump-government-shutdown-firings-executive-power" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">accepted</a> at face value, with dire <a href="https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/09/ultra-risks-routine-shutdown/408441/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">warnings</a> that a shutdown could lead to a “dramatic, instantaneous shift in the separation of powers.” Yet there was little veracity to any of these bold assertions. Indeed, there is “nothing about a government shutdown [that] gives the Administration any new powers or allows it to seize the power of the purse,” Georgetown University law professor David Super, who specializes in administrative law, told me in an email exchange. The more salient fact, however, is that the administration has already “impounded <a href="https://airtable.com/appvL8eaYoY7DNArF/shrUG0jqFLXjdXsic/tblf5EWBZNk0UQKQI" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">hundreds of billions of dollars</a> unlawfully” and initiated sweeping layoffs across the federal bureaucracy over the past year. The administration “clearly did not feel any need for a government shutdown to permit” any of these actions, Super pointed out.&nbsp;</p>
  2724.  
  2725.  
  2726.  
  2727. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Russ Vought has “moved aggressively on the flimsiest legal theories.”</p></blockquote></figure>
  2728.  
  2729.  
  2730.  
  2731. <p>With or without a shutdown, then, the Trump administration has demonstrated a clear determination to grab as much power as quickly as possible with little concern for legality or constitutional limits.&nbsp;</p>
  2732.  
  2733.  
  2734.  
  2735. <p>In theory, the courts are supposed to check this kind of executive overreach, but as we’ve seen, the Supreme Court has displayed little interest or willingness to do so (unlike the lower courts). Russ Vought has “moved aggressively on the flimsiest legal theories,” said Super, yet the nation’s top court has so far only enabled this type of behavior. “Each time the courts postpone ruling on the merits of those theories likely persuades him that he can accomplish more of his agenda before being stopped.” What’s more, there is no guarantee that the court’s conservative majority, which is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-court-is-headed-toward-a-radically-new-vision-of-unlimited-presidential-power-265840" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">largely sympathetic</a> to the unitary executive doctrine espoused by Vought and his <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/project-2025/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="8" title="Project 2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Project 2025</a> colleagues, will rule against the administration on the merits. </p>
  2736.  
  2737.  
  2738.  
  2739. <p>With the Supreme Court seemingly unwilling to curb the president’s drift into authoritarianism, the task of reining in the would-be monarch has thus fallen mostly to opposition members in the legislative branch. Though several Republicans in Congress have offered <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gop-senators-urge-trump-administration-reverse-6-billion/story?id=123818538" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">tepid criticism</a> of the White House’s power grabs in recent months, they have all more or less <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-shrink-trumps-spending-cut-package-ahead-key-vote-rcna218962" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">fallen in line</a> to support their party’s increasingly unfettered leader. Up till this point, Democrats haven’t been much better, even with their own limited options to check the administration’s abuses; the party and its leaders have been widely <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-shutdown-trump-democrats-republicans/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">perceived</a> as weak and ineffective — and for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx2j8n7xz1o" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">good reason</a>.</p>
  2740.  
  2741.  
  2742.  
  2743. <p>The shutdown provides an opportunity, risky as it is, for Democrats to at least bring the fight to an administration that is quickly attempting to transform the United States into a kind of elective monarchy. Whether they will hold the line and extract real concessions for a deal, however, is far from certain. </p>
  2744.  
  2745.  
  2746.  
  2747. <p>If Democrats are serious about confronting an <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/9/trumps_orwellian_militarization_of_american_cities" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">increasingly autocratic</a> administration, they must insist that any funding deal include provisions that make it far more difficult and costly for the White House — and specifically Russ Vought — to renege. To their credit, <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/democratic-party/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="12" title="democratic party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Democrats</a>’ budget proposal does include <a href="https://prospect.org/politics/2025-09-19-democrats-offer-partial-no-kings-budget/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">multiple provisions</a> that would clarify laws against impoundment, curtail the White House’s ability to rescind funds, and force Vought to release some of the money that he has already withheld. It also includes a provision that adds an inspector general for Vought’s Office of Management and Budget, though according to Super, this would “not make any difference in the near term because it would be someone appointed by President Trump and hence would have no interest in providing real oversight.”&nbsp;</p>
  2748.  
  2749.  
  2750.  
  2751. <p>In The American Prospect<em>,</em> David Dayen has <a href="https://prospect.org/politics/2025-09-15-what-would-a-no-kings-budget-look-like/" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">laid out other ways</a> that Democrats could rein in the president and his officials, offering a blueprint for a “No Kings Budget” that could include anything from requiring all agency appropriations to be “auto-apportioned” (essentially bypassing Vought’s OMB) to statutes that would limit the national emergency powers that Trump has so wantonly abused. Bharat Ramamurti, who served as deputy director of the National Economic Council under <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/tag/joe-biden/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="5" title="Joe Biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Joe Biden</a>, has <a href="https://bharatramamurti.substack.com/p/what-democrats-must-get-out-of-the" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">put forward</a> additional provisions that would also make it riskier for officials like Vought to break the law. “The law should provide deterrence from trying to engage in these shenanigans in the first place,” writes Ramamurti, who recommends hefty fines, clauses to defund the OMB for unlawful impoundments, and “disbarment from future government service” for any director who knowingly breaks the law. </p>
  2752.  
  2753.  
  2754.  
  2755. <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignleft has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Any deal without firm restraints on unlawful impoundments and other executive abuses will represent a full surrender.</p></blockquote></figure>
  2756.  
  2757.  
  2758.  
  2759. <p>For Democrats, any deal without firm restraints on unlawful impoundments and other executive abuses will represent a full surrender and leave the door open to future power grabs.&nbsp;</p>
  2760.  
  2761.  
  2762.  
  2763. <p>It should be abundantly clear by now that every failure to confront Donald Trump emboldens him and his team to act with greater disregard for the law. Each time the president goes unchecked by Congress, the courts or even by officials in his own administration, he grows more brazen in his authoritarianism.&nbsp;</p>
  2764.  
  2765.  
  2766.  
  2767. <p>During his first term, many of Trump’s worst impulses were often checked by administration officials who refused to carry out illegal or brazenly unconstitutional (and often <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/trump-ninth-circuit-court-sf-17578253.php" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">nonsensical</a>) orders. “The people who were most fearful of his reign,” wrote Peter Baker and Susan Glasser in &#8220;The Divider,&#8221; their <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Divider-Trump-White-House-2017-2021/dp/038554653X" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">book</a> on Trump’s first term, “were those in the room with him, the ones he himself appointed, who behind his back compared him to a czar or a mob boss .…” </p>
  2768.  
  2769.  
  2770.  
  2771. <p>These internal efforts to constrain the president were not always effective, but they served as a crucial first line of defense against the president’s authoritarian instincts. In his second term, those guardrail appointees have been replaced by sycophants and loyalists like Kash Patel, Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth, who are there to blindly carry out every order.&nbsp;</p>
  2772.  
  2773.  
  2774.  
  2775. <p class="is-td-marked">Unlike the aforementioned names, Russ Vought <em>is</em> qualified and very well versed in the workings of the federal bureaucracy. He is also a committed ideologue who will do everything in his power over the next few years to dismantle entire swathes of the federal government, centralize power and turn the clock back to the 1920s, when his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/politics/russell-vought-trump-budget.html" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">favorite president</a>, Calvin Coolidge, sat in the White House. This makes it imperative for Democrats to stand up to this administration now — before the window of opportunity closes.</p>
  2776. <p>The post <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/shutdown-showdown/">Shutdown Showdown</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.truthdig.com">Truthdig</a>.</p>
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