Tuesday, February 25, 2025

 The Trump-Zelensky Feud: The Lies Have It


Mel Gurtov
 February 25, 2025
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Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

The Lies Never Stop

On February 18, Presidents Trump and Zelensky spoke by phone following US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia that aim at ending the war in Ukraine. Their conversation boils down to this: Trump offered his usual mix of lies and outrageous demands, and Zelensky politely and indirectly suggested that Trump was selling Ukraine out.

“I would like to have more truth with the Trump team,” said Zelensky, who, rather than criticize Trump directly, excused him for being “caught in a web of [Russian] disinformation.” Zelensky rightly is accusing Trump of parroting the Russian line on the war, and thus making the US untrustworthy.

Trump said Ukraine “started” the war, that it should have ended the war three years ago, and that he would have ended it had he been in power. All nonsense, but music to Putin’s ears. Indeed, Putin is publicly thanking the Americans for finally not blaming Russia and wanting to look ahead. (But wait: Trump has amended his statement with another lie, saying on Fox Radio: “Russia attacked, but they [Biden and Zelensky] shouldn’t have let him attack.”

Further in line with Russian talking points, Trump criticized Zelensky’s leadership directly:

“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle.”

Trump called Zelensky a “Dictator without Elections [who] better move fast or he’s not going to have a country left.” I guess Putin doesn’t qualify as a dictator without elections.

Keir Starmer, Britain’s PM, had a response: “The prime minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II,” a spokesperson said.

Trump’s Game

But truth doesn’t matter when you have near-absolute power. Trump is determined to end the war, cutting costs, promoting business opportunities in Russia, drastically reducing the US role in NATO, and enabling him to focus on China. Ukraine means nothing to him, whereas cozying up to white Christian nationalists like Putin means everything to Trump and his minions as they seek to redraw the map of Europe.

Zelensky is bargaining from weakness: He’s excluded from the US-Russia talks, he knows he can’t rely entirely on Europe for security, and he also knows that Ukraine will have to sacrifice territory in a settlement with Russia.

Worse yet for Ukraine, Trump has made further US aid conditional on Ukraine’s agreement to a one-sided selloff of its mineral and oil wealth. Trump is demanding $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s resources—more than four times the $119 billion in actual US aid to Ukraine, according to a research organization in Germany, the Kiel Institute.

It’s a disgraceful arrangement that would essentially make Ukraine a US colony—as though Ukraine is the aggressor and must pay reparations. The proposed deal provides no protection from Russia, which would not have to pay a dime for what it has done to Ukraine’s people and resources. And it’s sign or else, says Trump: “We’re going to either sign a deal, or there’s going to be a lot of problems with them.”

Ukraine’s Resilience

There is another, completely different side to this war’s next stage that is rarely discussed—one in which Ukraine, following on Zelensky’s warning, rejects a US-Russia deal and fights on. Ukraine would encounter mounting logistical problems over time, but it has the capability to withstand Russia’s assault for another year or more. Writing in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Natalyia Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian journalist, cites strong Ukrainian support for no deal rather than a bad deal. She emphasizes the country’s resilience:

Despite intense pressure on civilian areas, Ukraine has managed to preserve and even rebuild a degree of normalcy in everyday life. Following the economic shock of the initial invasion, Western budgetary support, which now makes up 20 percent of Ukraine’s GDP, has allowed the economy to grow by an average of 4.4 percent over the past two years; there has been real household income growth, and inflation remains fairly low. Since the middle of 2023, when Ukrainian drones had effectively neutralized Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, maritime routes have been open again, with Ukrainian exports up by 15 percent over the past year. And according to the government in Kyiv, some 40 percent of the weapons Ukraine is using on the frontlines are now produced domestically, compared with hardly any in 2022. None of these changes take away from the extraordinary hardships of war, but they have helped give Ukrainian society a kind of adaptability and endurance that may not be fully visible to outsiders.

Let’s remember this about Ukraine: It’s their country, it is the victim of an aggressive war, and it has fought courageously to preserve its independence. Ukraine deserves better than to be cast aside so that Trump can serve his own narrow and seditious ambitions.

Mel Gurtov is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.

Ukraine solidarity under the Trump administration (Plus video: Ukraine’s fight for self-determination: Three years of resistance against Russian imperialism)


By Ukraine Solidarity Network-US

Published 

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Over 7,000 killed in eastern DR Congo since January: PM

Agence France-Presse
February 24, 2025 

The DR Congo's Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka spoke at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP)

by Robin MILLARD

Violence raging in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed "more than 7,000 compatriots", many of them civilians, since last month, the Congolese premier said Monday.

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large swathes of the mineral-rich eastern DRC -- including the main cities of Goma and Bukavu -- in the face of limited resistance from Congolese forces.

"The security situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels," Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, stressing that since January, "the deaths of more than 7,000 compatriots" had been registered.

They include "more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified", she said, adding that another 1,500 bodies were still in the morgue.

Asked at a press briefing on the sidelines of the council whether the dead were civilians or soldiers, she said that "for the moment... we have not yet been able to identify all of these people".


But, she stressed, "there is a significant mass of civilians who are part of these dead".

The M23 movement, supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts, now controls large tracts of troubled eastern DRC. Its rapid advance has sent tens of thousands fleeing.

Fighters took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu just over a week ago, after first capturing Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the main city in the country's east, last month.

Tuluka said that more than 3,000 people had been killed in Goma alone.

- Regional conflict fears -

UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Human Rights Council that the situation in the DRC was "a deadly whirlwind of violence and horrifying human rights abuses".


"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected," he said.

"As more cities fall, the risk of a regional war rises. It's time to silence the guns."

Tuluka agreed, warning the situation could degenerate and affect all the DRC's nine neighbours -- and not only because of the influx of refugees.


She said the proliferation of armed groups around the M23 was "becoming dangerous", and if armed groups in surrounding countries linked up, the entire region could be engulfed.

Due to meet Guterres on Monday, the prime minister said she wanted to hear how the UN sees the conflict being resolved -- and how the UN resolutions can actually be implemented on the ground.

Asked by reporters if she would like the United States to intervene, she replied: "That would not be a bad thing."

- Minerals and mobiles -

The prime minister said Rwanda wanted to occupy Congolese territory where there were critically important mines.

"The question we need to ask now is exactly who Rwanda is reselling these minerals to, that come from this illegal exploitation of resources," she told journalists.


In December, the DRC filed a criminal case against European subsidiaries of tech giant Apple, accusing them of illegally using "blood minerals" in its supply chain.

It alleges that Apple has bought contraband supplies from the country's conflict-racked east.

"They are using minerals which come from the DRC," said Tuluka, "and we want to know how this company is getting its supplies of minerals which are allowing all of us to use our telephones and computers".

© Agence France-Presse



Democratic Republic of Congo:

DRC: The need for a ceasefire

Sunday 23 February 2025, by Paul Martial


The United Nations has drawn up a new death toll following the capture of Goma, the regional capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), by the M23 armed group supported by Rwandan troops. Nearly 3,000 deaths have already been recorded. The Tanzania summit bringing together the countries of the region was held on Saturday 8 February. It called for a ceasefire, which appears highly hypothetical.

Despite the announcement of a unilateral truce by the M23, the group continues to advance towards South Kivu. An intense battle took place in Nyiabibwe, 70 kilometres from the regional capital Bukavu. The DRC’s armed forces are being reinforced by those of Burundi, which has deployed more than 10,000 troops.
Formal condemnation

The violence has been documented in a major city like Goma, but these reports overlook the many war crimes committed by the M23 against the inhabitants of the villages along their path of conquest. The disapproval of the Rwandan intervention in the DRC is almost unanimous. On the other hand, divisions are emerging over the sanctions to be adopted.

China, traditionally reserved when it comes to taking a stance on conflicts in Africa, has taken a stand in favour of demanding that Rwanda and the M23 withdraw from the conquered territories. China exploits 70% of the country’s mines and is concerned about its economic interests. At the same time, Rwanda remains an excellent client in the infrastructure sector.

For Europe, the unease is tangible. The EU has signed a trade agreement on rare minerals with Rwanda in the full knowledge that three quarters of this production comes from the looting of mines in the DRC. As for France, it depends on Rwandan troops to secure its oil installations, particularly those of TotalEnergies in the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique.
Disappointing result for the DRC

Tanzania hosted a summit bringing together the two regional entities representing Central Africa (EAC) and Southern Africa (SADC). The two bodies called for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian operations. They have also merged their peace mediation. Another decision was to organise a ceasefire security plan in the next few days. In the absence of more precise information, interpretations differ. For Kinshasa, the plan implies the departure of M23 troops from Goma.

Finally, the summit calls for the opening of direct negotiations between the DRC and the M23, which Congolese President Tshisekedi has always refused. Given the balance of power, it would appear that he no longer has a choice, especially as religious leaders within the DRC have come out in favour of dialogue with the armed group. While the EAC and SADC have pledged their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC, they have not called for the Rwandan troops to leave.
Regional reconstruction

Even if the proposed cease-fire goes ahead, it is unlikely that the DRC will return to its previous situation. The Rwandan intervention has enabled the DRC to get its hands on major mining resources which, in addition to financial gains, strengthen its position as a supplier of raw materials for the energy transition in rich countries. This intervention has also opened up new opportunities for a number of countries in the DRC, which Uganda and Tanzania intend to take full advantage of. But it has also raised concerns. Burundi, which has long been opposed to Rwanda, takes a dim view of the fact that troops allied to Kigali are stationed in South Kivu close to its border. Unfortunately, the risk of the conflict spreading, as it did in the DRC at the end of the 1990s, cannot be ruled out.

While Rwanda’s violation of the DRC’s sovereignty must be condemned, the fact remains that the big capitalist countries continue to profit from the Congo’s wealth, leaving the countries of Central Africa to fight for the crumbs.

L’Anticapitaliste 13 February 2025

Attached documentsdrc-the-need-for-a-ceasefire_a8865.pdf (PDF - 905.7 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article8865]


Paul Martial
Paul Martial is a correspondent for International Viewpoint. He is editor of Afriques en Lutte and a member of the Fourth International in France.



International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.

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We're the villains now — and it’s about to get worse

Thom Hartmann,
 AlterNet
February 24, 2025 



Photo by Gilles DETOT on Unsplash

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger asks a question no current Republican politician appears willing to say out loud for fear that Musk, Trump, or other rightwing billionaires will use the corrupt Citizens United decision to blow them out of the water politically with a multimillion-dollar primary challenge:

“[A]s I watch the behavior of our political leaders, the comments of an ever-increasingly unhinged Trump, and the growing indifference of many Americans toward our role in the world, I have to ask a painful question: Are we now the bad guys?”

It’s a helluva question.

Our nation’s Founders overthrew a king in 1776, and paid a huge price for it. Altogether, seventeen of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were wiped out by the war they declared.

The signers wrote in the Declaration, “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” and it was a simple statement of fact. The day they signed that document, each legally became a traitor and was sentenced to death for treason by the ruler who controlled their lands and their homes.

One the wealthiest of the signers was Thomas Nelson of Virginia, but a year after the signing the British had seized his home and lands. When he and George Washington attacked the British in Nelson’s hometown, Nelson encouraged Washington to attack the Nelson homestead, which British General Cornwallis had taken as his headquarters, with cannons. The house was destroyed, and after the war Nelson, unable to repay loans he’d taken out against it to help finance the Revolution, lost his property; he died in poverty at the age of 50.

The wealthy Philadelphia merchant, Robert Morris, lost 150 ships at sea in the war, wiping out his small fortune; he died destitute. Signer William Ellery of Rhode Island similarly lost everything, as did Virginia’s Carter Braxton and Benjamin Harrison, Pennsylvania’s George Clymer, New York’s Philip Livingston, Georgia’s Lyman Hall, and New Jersey’s Francis Hopkinson.

The British destroyed New York’s Francis Lewis’ property and threw his wife into such a hellhole of a jail that she died two years later. Three of South Carolina’s four signers — Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., and Arthur Middleton — were captured by the British and held in a filthy, unheated prison and brutally tortured for a year before George Washington freed them in a prisoner exchange.

New Jersey farmer John Hart’s wife died shortly after he signed the Declaration, and his thirteen children were scattered among sympathetic families to hide them from the British and conservative loyalists. He never saw them again, dying alone and wracked with grief three years later.

New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice Richard Stockton took his wife and children into hiding after he signed the Declaration, but conservatives loyal to the crown turned them in. He was so badly beaten and starved in the British prison that he died before the war was over. His home was looted, and his wife and children lived the rest of their lives as paupers.

Altogether, nine of the men in that room died and four lost their children as a direct result of putting their names to the Declaration of Independence. Every single one had to flee his home, and, after the war, twelve returned to find only rubble.

They were all willing to fight and die for the idea of democracy in America. Every one of them.

And now, after 236 years of existence — as Donald Trump bows to Putin and tweets a picture of himself cosplaying king in a gold crown — America is on the verge of becoming an entirely different type of nation.

We’ve always (or nearly always) been on the side of democracies. We fought against fascists in World War II and defeated them. We helped create democratic alliances in Europe and Asia; we led the fight to create the United Nations.

And now we’re joining Russia. This century’s dictatorial, imperial power.

Monday will be the third anniversary of Putin’s brutal invasion and rape of Ukraine. When he was a US Senator, Marco Rubio said:

“Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian thug who is accountable to no one. … I don’t think what Vladimir Putin exhibits is leadership: I think what he exhibits is thuggery … and we should be clear-eyed about that. … At the end of the day, Hillary Clinton was part of the single biggest blunder ever when it came to Vladimir Putin, and that’s the reset with Russia.”

Today, Lil’ Marco is talking about “incredible [investment] opportunities” for American billionaires and US corporations who want to do business with Russia.

Just five months ago, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham stood with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Washington, DC and said, “You’re the best kind of ally. You fight the Russians so we don’t have to.”

Today, Graham — like every other Republican senator and House member except Thom Tillis — has been cowed into a terrified impotence, unwilling to do anything to stop or block America’s new dictator-friendly democracy-hostile foreign policy.

Our military is being purged along hard-right ideological lines, as was the Department of Justice; the FBI is next on the firing line, although reports suggest that purge began weeks ago.

Virtually every major government agency is under attack by the DOGE hackers, as the America government is being crippled; Putin is no doubt delighted.

Even our defense budget is scheduled to be cut with a chainsaw, just as the threat from Russia and China is at the highest point in our lifetimes.


They shut down children’s cancer research, Alzheimer’s research, and food and drugs for the world’s poorest people. They are laying off FAA employees at the same time planes are falling out of the sky. They’re gutting the staff that processes your Social Security, tax, and Medicare payments.

Trump and his MAGA crowd are tearing our government apart, apparently with the goal of replacing it with something quite different than America has ever experienced before.

An entirely new America. A royal America. An America of, by, and for the morbidly rich.

One that resembles the vision petrobillionaire David Koch laid out in 1980 when he ran for Vice President on a platform calling for the destruction of nearly every federal agency except the Pentagon and the end of all income taxes on billionaires.

A country that will bear little resemblance to that grand idea our Founders fought and died for.

And they’re doing it as fast as they can — dismantling our country, our democracy, and realigning our foreign policy — because they know once Americans catch on we will rise up and try to stop them.

America’s media and our free speech rights are under ideological attack, with every major television network having been sued for millions; one has already capitulated. A Substack newsletter writer was sued for millions by the new FBI Director. Trump even sued a small Iowa newspaper and their pollster because they offended him.


Both Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Robert Garcia have been threatened with investigation and imprisonment by a US attorney for their comments about abortion and politics, despite the Constitution protecting members of Congress from such intimidation. Schumer apologized on the floor of the Senate for saying of SCOTUS justices’ anti-abortion Dobbs decision, “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price”; Garcia is defiant.

Republicans could stop this, if they will just find their spine. Every soldier in the American military is willing to die for their country on a moment’s notice, every single one, but elected Republicans — who are supposed to have the courage to make decisions about war and peace — won’t even raise their hands or lift their voices.

History will not treat this GOP well.

And to add insult to injury, this week Trump took down the agency that protects our elections from foreign interference. The same sort of influence that may well have put Trump into the White House in the first place.

As The New York Times noted in an article titled “Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations”:
“Experts are alarmed that the cuts could leave the United States defenseless against covert foreign influence operations and embolden foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt democratic governments.”

Putin’s been playing Trump for a sucker since, apparently, 2017. That was when Trump’s then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said the president had a secret, private meeting with Putin. McMaster tried to warn Trump about Putin but, he wrote in his memoir:
“Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery. …
“I told Trump how Putin had duped Bush and Obama. ‘Mr President, he is the best liar in the world.’ I suggested that Putin was confident he could ‘play’ Trump and get what he wanted, sanctions relief and the US out of Syria and Afghanistan on the cheap, by manipulating Trump with ambiguous promises of a ‘better relationship’. He would offer cooperation on counterterrorism, cybersecurity and arms control.
“I could tell that Trump was getting impatient with my ‘negative vibe’. I said what I needed to say. If he was going to be contrary, I hoped he would be contrary to the Russian dictator, not to me.”

Yet here we are today, with Trump realigning America toward Putin and away from the democratic republic of Ukraine and the rest of democratic Europe.

As a result, Russia’s next step is to wait until Ukraine runs out of American air defense systems and then just start bombing the crap out of Ukrainian cities. Millions could die and it could lead to World War III, but that seems just fine with Trump.

And, apparently, that’s just fine with every Republican Senator and Congress member except Tillis. America is on the verge of becoming the world’s newest thug nation ruled by fabulously wealthy oligarchs and a man who would be king.

Thus, sadly, the answer to Congressman Kinzinger’s question is clear: Yes, we are now the bad guys, at least for the moment. We are now on the side of the royal ideology of absolute power held by that one man, the King, whose soldiers imprisoned, tortured, and murdered so many of our nation’s Founders.

When Rhode Island’s Stephen Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence, he remarked to his friend William Ellery that, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.” But Virginia’s Benjamin Harrison, who weighed nearly 300 pounds, commented to Massachusetts’ Elbridge Gerry, a short, thin man, “With me it [the hanging] will all be over in a minute, but you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone.”

Will any Republican in today’s House or Senate — the bodies those men created — find even a fraction of the courage of those who founded this nation?

The people of America — and the world — are holding their breath, waiting for the answer.
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'Tens of thousands' of DOGE firings are illegal — some may be reversed within days: report

Matthew Chapman
February 24, 2025 
RAW STORY



"Tens of thousands" of firings ordered by the Trump administration and tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force violate the law — and some of these workers could be reinstated within days, Government Executive reported on Monday.

"The Office of Special Counsel, the agency responsible for investigating illegal actions taken against federal employees, issued its decision for six employees, each at different agencies," reported senior correspondent Eric Katz. "It has not been made public and was provided to Government Executive by a source within the government. OSC, which did not provide the document to Government Executive, verified its authenticity."

The order only directly applies to those six employees — however, the report noted, it could create a "wide-ranging" precedent, allowing many more workers terminated under the same circumstances to file to be reinstated.

The Trump administration and DOGE have focused most heavily on so-called "probationary" employees, who have been in their current positions for a short time and don't have the same civil service protections as most federal workers. While some probationary workers are completely new hires, many others have been in the civil service for decades and are on probationary status because they were recently transferred into other departments or even just promoted.

The stated reason for most of the firings is poor performance; however, many of the terminated employees received glowing performance reviews with no hints of complaints about their work.

A federal workers union recently filed a lawsuit alleging the firings were illegal. However, a U.S. District Judge denied their request, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the matter and that the proper venue would be a complaint with the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

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PURGING U$ MEDIA

'Stunned': MSNBC host shares passionate 'personal note' after learning show axed

Daniel Hampton
February 24, 2025 
RAW STORY

MSNBC TV logo on a phone screen. (Photo credit: sdx15 / Shutterstock)

An MSNBC host swept up in a TV shakeup shared an emotional "personal note" Monday afternoon after learning her show got the ax.

Katie Phang was among the high-profile on-air anchors who saw their shows canceled Monday. Phang and Jose Diaz-Balart ran shows from Miami and were told their programs were being sunsetted. Joy Reid's show was also cut.

Phang took to Bluesky to express gratitude to supporters and said she was "stunned to hear this morning" that her eponymous show is "being cancelled."

"Since the show launched in 2022, the goal was to share with my viewers important conversation with brilliant guests whose insight and analysis elevated the discussion, especially with the constant breaking legal news."

She touted that her show platformed more Asian American and Pacific Islanders than "any other cable show ever."

"And I was, and remain, proud to have been one of the only AAPI hosts with her name on a show. Representation matters," she said.

Phang said her team was also directly impacted by the cancelation, and thanked them for working "tirelessly behind the scenes, with an incredible level of dedication and talent."

The last episode will air in April, she said.

Phang affirmed her belief in democracy and the necessity of the Fourth Estate to hold those in power to account.

"Keeping our focus on doing the right thing will bring us out of one of America's darkest times," she said.

She concluded by quoting the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis., who died in 2020, and promised to "continue to speak up, to speak out, and to fight the good fight."

'Dear god': DOJ's vow to remain vigilant 'against entities like the AP' raises alarm

Sarah K. Burris
February 24, 2025 3:59PM ET
RAW STORY


A shirt displaying the words “Gulf of America” is seen for sale during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

The acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. issued an overt threat against the media Monday afternoon, saying the Justice Department intends to strike back against any news outlet fighting President Donald Trump's "America first" agenda.

The threat came after the Trump administration barred Associated Press journalists from accessing certain White House spaces and events, including the Oval Office and Air Force One, the AP said. At issue was the AP's refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

"As President Trumps' (sic) lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AOP that refuse to put America first," acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin said in a statement.

Ten days after the incident, on Friday, the AP sued, naming Susie Wiles, the White House's deputy chief of staff, Taylor Budowich, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt as defendants.

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit.

Politico reported Monday morning that Trump personally asked that the AP be banned.

Martin's comments raised alarm among experts and onlookers on social media.

"Dear god. You are not the president’s lawyers. You are the Government’s lawyers. Your oath is to the Constitution, not the President. Disgusting degradation of the Justice Department," said national security lawyer Bradley P. Moss.

"The AP's transgression is, apparently, not adopting the president's preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico," said Reuters justice reporter Brad Heath.

"He doesn’t even have anything to do with this case, it’s a Civil Division matter, not the USAO for DC," elections lawyer Andy Craig pointed out.




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'Green light to rebuild': Emboldened Neo-Nazis reportedly regroup after Trump's election

Travis Gettys
February 24, 2025 
RAW STORY


Skinhead. (Photo credit: Karolis Kavolelis / Shutterstock)

An international neo-Nazi organization is regrouping in the U.S. after President Donald Trump installed a loyalist to oversee federal law enforcement and look away from policing right-wing extremist groups.

The Base has been the focus of an FBI counterterrorism investigation since its founding in 2018, and more than a dozen members have been arrested before the group seemed to disappear by 2022. However, its founder and leader Rinaldo Nazzaro has recruited and reorganized from his home in Russia since before the November election, reported The Guardian.

The publication was tipped to an audio message released earlier this month from the presumed new leader, who called for covert action and low-key preparations by armed cells throughout the U.S. rather than making splashes like protesting against drag-queen story hours.

“Are we just going to be reactionary or are we going to be part of the solution, The military solution,” said the presumed leader, whose identity hasn't been confirmed but speaks in an American accent. “Because inevitably we’re going to end up in some sort of military situation, what are the choices?”

Nazzaro, a former U.S. special forces contractor, offered $1,200 a month to former military service members to go through paramilitary training in the Pacific northwest, and the new leader envisioned the Base playing a role in what he describes as a "black scenario" where the U.S. government collapses and members would “provide for your family” and for “white women."

“There is no political solution, only a military solution,” that person said with their voice heavily modulated to protect their identity. "So act accordingly.”

Social media accounts associated with the Base show photos of members brandishing military-style rifles and claiming to be across the U.S. and Europe, and the organization released a photo on Inauguration Day showing the largest number of American members in one photo in over a year and also solicited donations to a Bitcoin wallet to distribute weapons and ammunition.

“The Base has released a slow but steady trickle of propaganda over the past several months that has mostly highlighted their presence in Europe, so this shift in focus towards the US should raise alarms,” said Steven Rai, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).


“The timing of this shift is particularly noteworthy – while neo-Nazi accelerationist groups like the Base have been on their back foot due to intense law enforcement pressure, which disrupted their most integral organizers and propaganda artists, they may sense an opening with the recent change of administration in the U.S.," Rai added.

Trump and his FBI pick Kash Patel have promised major reforms of the FBI, including a shift away from domestic terrorism investigations.

Experts believe right-wing extremists sense an opening.

“I think groups like the Base, far-right extremist groups that are strategic, have been waiting for the right opportunity before reinvigorating their respective organizations,” Colin Clarke, a terrorism expert and director of research at the Soufan Center. “This means that far-right extremist groups likely perceive the re-election of Trump as a green light to rebuild without fear of arrest or prosecution.”


America's 'violent father': Analyst warns of GOP's dark new direction


Matthew Chapman
February 24, 2025
RAW STORY



President Donald Trump's base has taken to using the language of parent and child, even calling him "Daddy" at some key events. This concept in American politics is nothing new, Susan Milligan wrote for The New Republic — but in recent years, it has taken on a far darker significance than in years past.

"More than 30 years ago, the journalist Chris Matthews argued in The New Republic that there was 'an accepted division of chores in American politics today,' in which Republicans 'protect us with a strong national defense' and 'worry about our business affairs' while Democrats 'look after our health, nutrition, and welfare.' 'The paradigm for this snug arrangement,' he added, is 'the traditional American family. ‘Daddy’ locks the doors at night and brings home the bacon. ‘Mommy’ worries when the kids are sick and makes sure each one gets treated fairly.'"

To some extent, this remains true — Democrats are the party voters trust on health care, education, and social services, while Republicans are the party voters trust on business and security issues. The problem is, Republicans are now more like America's "violent father," wrote Milligan.

Since taking office, she continued, Trump has shown "abject cruelty" with his power.

"He immediately froze foreign aid and moved to eviscerate the U.S. Agency for International Development, which helps alleviate hunger, improve health care, and provides disaster relief in the poorest parts of the world; food was left to rot in ports and warehouses around the globe. He slashed grants for medical research (a federal court has put a stop to it for now), imperiling work on cancer and infectious diseases. He engineered a mass firing of as many as 220,000 federal employees that is ongoing as you read this, with tens of thousands having received impersonal termination notices."

"Forget stern-but-loving Daddy," she wrote. "Trump’s GOP is downright belligerent: the Daddy who berates umpires at Little League games and makes his own kid cry for dropping a fly ball, who other parents won’t carpool with because he flips the bird while cutting off motorists. 'What we have now is a violent father, and a father to be feared. The one to whom other parents always go, ‘Who the hell is that guy?’' said scholar Matthew MacWilliams, author of the book "On Fascism: 12 Lessons From American History."

And Democrats themselves have bought too much into the two-parent analogy of government, Milligan wrote, by assuming that because they lost this election, it means America voted for and approves of not just a Daddy, but an abusive Daddy. Instead, they should go all in on the fight to save the soul of the country.

"Ironically, it’s this very timidity and overcaution, especially among Democratic leaders on the Hill, that’s starting to fuel a debate that could indeed tear at the party’s soul, imperiling its chances of clawing back power in future elections," she warned




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