'Evil': Critics Recoil as Trump DHS Moves to Bar Disaster Aid for Undocumented Immigrants

"This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.


Makatla Ritchter wades through floodwaters after having to evacuate her home when Hurricane Idalia inundated it on August 30, 2023 in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Aug 27, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

The Trump administration is reportedly putting new restrictions on nonprofit organizations that would bar them from helping undocumented immigrants affected by natural disasters.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is "now barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants" while also requiring these groups "to cooperate with immigration officials and enforcement operations."

Documents obtained by the paper reveal that all volunteer groups that receive government money to help in the wake of disasters must not "operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration." What's more, the groups are prohibited from "harboring, concealing, or shielding from detection illegal aliens" and must "provide access to detainees, such as when an immigration officer seeks to interview a person who might be a removable alien."

The order pertains to faith-based aid groups such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross that are normally on the front lines building shelters and providing assistance during disasters.

Scott Robinson, an emergency management expert who teaches at Arizona State University, told The Washington Post that there is no historical precedent for requiring disaster victims to prove proof of their legal status before receiving assistance.

"The notion that the federal government would use these operations for surveillance is entirely new territory," he said.

Many critics were quick to attack the administration for threatening to punish nonprofit groups that help undocumented immigrants during natural disasters.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) lashed out at the decision to bar certain people from receiving assistance during humanitarian emergencies.

"When disaster hits, we cannot only help those with certain legal status," she wrote in a social media post. "We have an obligation to help every single person in need. This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives."

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that restrictions on faith-based groups such as the Salvation Army amounted to a violation of their First Amendment rights.

"Arguably the most anti-religious administration in history," he wrote. "Just nakedly hostile to those who wish to practice their faith."

Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith labeled the new DHS policy "truly cruel and crazy—even for this administration."

Author Charles Fishman also labeled the new policy "crazy" and said it looks like the Trump administration is "trying to crush even charity."

Catherine Rampell, a former columnist at The Washington Post, simply described the new DHS policy as "evil."

DC Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Sandwich-Throwing Man Opposed to Trump City Takeover

The Times described the grand jury's refusal to indict Sean Dunn as a "remarkable failure" by prosecutors and "a sharp rebuke by ordinary citizens."


A person walks past art work depicting former DOJ employee Sean Charles Dunn is displayed against a restaurant wall on August 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Aug 27, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

A grand jury on Tuesday reportedly refused to hand down a felony indictment against Sean Dunn, a former paralegal at the United States Department of Justice who hurled a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer earlier this month.

Two sources have told The New York Times that federal prosecutors came up empty in their first attempt to get a grand jury to charge Dunn with felony assault against a federal officer, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.

The New York Times described this development as a "remarkable failure" and "a sharp rebuke by ordinary citizens against the team of prosecutors who are dealing with the fallout from President Trump's move to send National Guard troops and federal agents into the city on patrol."

Video of Dunn hurling a sandwich at the officer quickly went viral earlier this month. Before he threw the sandwich, Dunn was heard calling the officers "fascists," and telling them they were not welcome in his city.

Shortly after, current US Attorney and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro vowed to throw the proverbial book at Dunn for his food-tossing transgressions.

"He thought it was funny," Pirro said in a video she posted on social media. "Well, he doesn't think it's funny today because we charged him with a felony. And we're gonna back the police to the hilt! So, there. Stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else."

This is at least the second time in recent days that Pirro's office has failed to secure a grand jury indictment for alleged assault of a federal officer.

The New York Times reported on Monday that federal prosecutors had reduced charges against a woman named Sidney Lori Reid, who was accused of assaulting an FBI agent during a protest against Trump's immigration policies last month. The decision to refile Reid's case as a misdemeanor came after prosecutors failed on three separate occasions to convince a grand jury to charge her with felony offenses.

The Techlords and Their Ideology Are Mortal Enemies of Humanity

The techlords intend to bring humanity to the brink of collapse and then, in a magic trick, rise to power, saving the species or themselves as the last specimens.


Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
(Photo by Marco Bello/Getty Images)

João Camargo
Aug 27, 2025

Common Dreams

Sitting face to face on grey sofas, Peter Thiel and Ross Douthat continued another propaganda piece for the New York Times. Thiel is the billionaire owner and founder of Palantir, the world's largest private surveillance company, one of the biggest financiers of OpenAI and one of Silicon Valley's most influential ideologues. Douthat asked Thiel, "You would prefer the human race to endure, right?" After hesitating, Thiel replied, "I don't know." A glimpse of the impact of his response and the journalist's astonishment led him to amend his statement: "I, I would prefer, I would prefer." Would he, though?

Thiel is one of the main promoters of the archaic ideology that dominates the thinking of men such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, and Bill Gates. Although these tech moguls are presented as neutral or technology driven, reality is different. Their adaptation to the far-right is no longer surprising. The techlords have laid some of the cornerstones of authoritarian politics and provided the means for the rise of the new ideology of a return to the past.

So what do Thiel and the other techlords stand for? Their ideological base revolves around something called the "Dark Enlightenment", also known as the "Neo-Reactionary Movement." It is a mixture of libertarian doctrines with scientific racism, an anti-historical vision of a return to feudalism and an acceleration toward social and environmental collapse. According to Curtis Yarvin, another of its ideologues, this shadowy enlightenment is the formal recognition of the realities of existing power, aligning property rights with current political power and defending that "corporate power should become the organizing force in society." They seek to assert inequality not as an accident, but as a structure. For all practical purposes, the ideology of the techlords aims to overthrow any democratic illusion and install in its place a feudal division of territories, under which the supreme lords, technological monarchs, President-CEOs, the Techlords, would rule.

We can see what they aspire to in the most banal science fiction: a Star Wars world with a Supreme Emperor who rules the entire galaxy; a Dune world where noble houses dominate technologies, planets, resources and religions; or a Hunger Games world where, after a global rebellion, production has been forcibly distributed geographically and different peoples have to kill each other to entertain the elite. The ideology is so lazy that it has not evolved beyond the books that mostly teenagers read for entertainment during the holidays. The rejection of formal education, with these men abandoning university studies, so touted in the "self-made man" propaganda they peddle about themselves, has deprived them of essential information about history, biology, chemistry, physics, and other key areas of knowledge. The markets reward their audacious ignorance by offering praise and money in exchange for each usurpation. No wonder they think they are demigods and seek ideological rationalisations for their privilege. For the techlords, the reading of these works of popular science fiction culture is contrary to the instincts of people with a basic sense of justice. In Star Wars, they defend Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader; in The Hunger Games, the Capitol and President Snow.

Techlords are not just dangerous. They are the ideological safe haven and unparalleled dissemination infrastructure for the new far-right.

In a work such as JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, where eugenics runs through the narrative from all sides, the techlords seem to support the most perfidious position. Palantir, the company Peter Thiel created to surveil, steal data, and hand it over to authoritarian governments or whoever pays him, is a name taken from this fiction. Palantir is a crystal ball that reveals information, but is actually being used by the main villain, Sauron, to deceive and pervert wizards and kings, turning them against their territories and peoples. It would be difficult to interpret this name in any other way.

The ideology of the techlords is directly opposed to democracy, which they see as an obstacle to the accumulation and maintenance of wealth and power by the rich. They advocate corporate monarchies and authoritarian city-states controlled by themselves, praising Singapore as a model. To destroy democracy, they advocate dismantling the institutional apparatus of nation states, not because of any oppression or inequality, but to ensure that injustices have no social opposition and that, if opposition does arise, it can be strongly repressed. They advocate the removal of almost all public officials and services, increasing the numbers of the armed forces and police, building up the capacity for repression by the powers that be, no longer public, but corporate and business. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, combined with the expansion of a militia-style political police force such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a trial run of this. This month, the US government announced a $10 billion contract with Palantir to create a super database that aggregates information from all federal agencies and a platform to detect migratory movements in real time.

Another cornerstone of techlord ideology is accelerationism, which advocates the removal of all restrictions on capitalist growth and technological development, even if this leads to social and environmental collapse. As Zuckerberg said, "Move fast and break things." This idea does not differ fundamentally from neoliberal ideology but, unlike the latter, it does not hide the fact that social collapse is a goal of deregulation, rather than a side effect to be ignored or concealed. The removal of restrictions in accelerationism actually serves to create social breakdowns that allow the techlords to establish themselves as the new masters. Because they are accelerationists, they describe any opposition to their ideological infrastructure—social networks, "Artificial Intelligence," trips to Mars or outer space—as attacks on progress. This is the ideological strand that is trying to create a widespread feeling that the development of Large Language Models, touted as "Artificial Intelligence," is inevitable. There is no possibility that language models will not be biased and racist. Building on these and other prejudices, accelerationism argues that we must ignore the current suffering of billions of people in order to optimize technological developments that will create the environment in which future humans will colonize space. This suffering is destined for people other than the techlords, who are constantly building bunkers to hide in.

Added to the techlords' beliefs are other segments of science fiction, all of them anti-scientific: the imminent colonization of space, the physical fusion of humans with digital technology, the Singularity (the moment when AI surpasses human intelligence), and the childish idea that "Artificial Intelligence," Large Language Models, will solve all of humanity's problems. Authors such as Yuval Noah Harari and fields of "research" such as AI Safety are attempting to consolidate these ideas in popular culture and academia.

The science fiction in the minds of these billionaires, articulated with the orphaned leaders of the new fascist movements on the rise, has concrete and material effects. They are producing, in addition to suffering on a massive scale, a catastrophic waste of time and resources in the face of the greatest crisis in human history, the climate crisis. The techlords intend to bring humanity to the brink of collapse and then, in a magic trick, rise to power, saving the species or themselves as the last specimens. They lead a political movement that is rising today against the future of our entire species, seeking to subjugate all societies to a technological dystopia in which CEOs rule and behave like survivors of the apocalypse (and what is Elon Musk's reproductive frenzy if not his idea that he can be the warlord after the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead, i.e., climate collapse, and repopulate the world and the galaxy as a new Adam?).

Techlords are not just dangerous. They are the ideological safe haven and unparalleled dissemination infrastructure for the new far-right. They already use "Artificial Intelligence" to impose their ideology on education, information, public services, justice, the arts, and every field they can usurp. They have set the traps, and we have been caught in them for a long time. The mainstream digital space is a straitjacket of complacency and a black hole of energy and ideas. Algorithms isolate us and deprive us of information that is useful for our collective life. The techlords and their ideology are mortal enemies of humanity and will stop at nothing to impose their dystopias in the coming years, trying to prevent us from stopping the collapse of all human civilisations. To make the digital space controlled by Meta, Alphabet, Apple, and Amazon a battlefield is to accept fighting underwater with our hands tied and weights on our feet. But it is in their arrogant ignorance that their vulnerabilities lie. These giants do indeed have feet of clay that must be knocked down, and their ideology is central to this: They despise material reality, reject the collective and the social as realities, and are submerged in fiction. Moving away from their preferred playing field, social media, may be one of the first steps toward their demise.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

João Camargo
Joao Camargo is a climate activist in grassroots movement Climaximo in Portugal and in the Climate Jobs campaign. He's an environmental engineer and climate change researcher at the University of Lisbon and the author of two books: Climate Change Combat Manual (in Portugal and Spain) and Portugal in Flames - How to rescue the forests.
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Denmark Summons Trump Diplomat Over Report of Covert Operations in Greenland

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen noted that the US has so far not denied the reports by Denmark's public broadcaster.


Mark Stroh, the US Chargé d'Affaires in Denmark, arrives the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, on August 27, 2025.
(Photo by Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Aug 27, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


The top US official in Denmark arrived at the country's foreign ministry Wednesday after being summoned for talks about a recent report that US citizens with ties to the Trump White House have carried out a covert "influence" campaign in Greenland.

Denmark's foreign minister on Wednesday called upon Mark Stroh, the charge d'affaires in Denmark, after the main Danish public broadcaster reported that at least three people have been attempting to sow discord between Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of the Danish kingdom.

President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire to take control of Greenland, and has suggested he could use military force even though Denmark is a close ally and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Danish officials and Greenlanders have dismissed the idea, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning the US that it "cannot annex another country."

"We want to be independent. So we are not for sale," resident Karen Cortsen told NPR earlier this year as the outlet reported that 85% of people in Greenland and Denmark opposed the president's push to "get" the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island.

According to the main Danish public broadcaster, the Trump administration has sought to reverse widespread public opposition to his plan, with at least three people connected to his administration carrying out covert operations to "foment dissent" in Greenland.

The broadcast network, DR, reported that eight government and security sources believe the individuals are working to weaken relations between Greenland and Denmark, compiling lists of Greenlandic citizens who support and oppose Trump's plans, and trying "to cultivate contacts with politicians, businesspeople, and citizens, and the sources' concern is that these contacts could secretly be used to support Donald Trump's desire to take over Greenland."

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement that "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable."

"We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark," Rasmussen said, adding that he had "asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the US charge d'affaires for a meeting at the ministry."

Trump has not yet confirmed an ambassador to Denmark. PayPal cofounder Kenneth Howery, a close friend of Trump megadonor Elon Musk, has been named as his nominee for the position.

Frederiksen told Danish media that "the Americans are not clearly denying the information presented by DR today, and of course that is serious."

"We have made it very clear that this is unacceptable," said the prime minister. "And it is something we will raise directly with our colleagues in the United States—who, if this were untrue, could very easily dismiss the claims."

GILEAD 

Far-right pastor shocks with statement godly women 'shouldn’t speak’ in public

GENDER APARTHEID USA

Matthew Chapman
August 27, 2025 

RAW STORY


Holy cross of Jesus Christ, Bible book, world map background and mission, gospel and evangelism concept. (Photo credit: artin1 / Shutterstock)

A Christian nationalist pastor launched into a tirade about how women are betraying the national order of God by being engaged in public life altogether, according to Right Wing Watch.

The pastor, Joel Webbon, was speaking on The Rift, a far-right splinter network founded by Elijah Schaffer, described by People for the American Way as "a racist, antisemitic, and deeply misogynistic right-wing host and commentator who was once fired from The Blaze for allegedly drunkenly groping a female colleague."

Webbon, speaking with Schaffer during an interview in Florida to discuss their future collaboration, completely agreed with Schaffer's angry take on women.

"I hate what women have become," said Schaffer. "And I do hate it when women expect men in society to uphold the natural masculine tendencies. Women are literally going after the top 10 percent of men ... they're going for tall, rich, famous men. And men, what do we get? The women, they're just w----s. They can't even cook a Hot Pocket." He went on to say that "women really are just a bunch of holes today ... And I think that a lot of the hatred that I have towards women, and a lot of the hatred a lot of men have towards women, is simply the product of generations of sin and rebellion that have created women to be something that they're not."

Webbon concurred, taking it a step further.

"We can't just pretend that it's a lack of accountability, that it's like, 'Oh, well, there's all these women who are on public platforms and they're speaking and they're doing this and they're doing that and it's just the fact that we don't acknowledge that women have faults and the fact that we never speak about their sin and that we never hold them accountable.' No, they shouldn't be speaking. Period. The public sphere is not the realm of women," he said.

Christian nationalism is an extreme splinter ideology that holds that Christians, or at least right-wing Christians, have a right to rule over America and fundamentally define its laws and culture. These groups have increasing influence in the Trump administration, with even the Department of Homeland Security using Christian nationalist rhetoric to recruit people for Trump's mass deportation project.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

 

These men's fitness groups are hives of white supremacist rage

The Conversation
August 27, 2025 

Active Clubs are small local organizations but have spread across the world. Picture: Shutterstock

By Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton.


Small local organizations called Active Clubs have spread widely across the U.S. and internationally, using fitness as a cover for a much more alarming mission. These groups are a new and harder-to-detect form of white supremacist organizing that merges extremist ideology with fitness and combat sports culture.

Active Clubs frame themselves as innocuous workout groups on digital platforms and decentralized networks to recruit, radicalize and prepare members for racist violence. The clubs commonly use encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram, Wire and Matrix to coordinate internally.

For broader propaganda and outreach they rely on alternative social media platforms such as Gab, Odysee, VK and sometimes BitChute. They also selectively use mainstream sites such as Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok, until those sites ban the clubs.

Active Club members have been implicated in orchestrating and distributing neo-Nazi recruitment videos and manifestos. In late 2023, for instance, two Ontario men, Kristoffer Nippak and Matthew Althorpe, were arrested and charged with distributing materials for the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division and the transnational terrorist group Terrorgram.

Following their arrests, Active Club Canada’s public network went dark, Telegram pages were deleted or rebranded, and the club went virtually silent. Nippak was granted bail under strict conditions, while Althorpe remains in custody.

As a sociologist studying extremism and white supremacy since 1993, I have watched the movement shift from formal organizations to small, decentralized cells — a change embodied most clearly by Active Clubs.

White nationalism 3.0

According to private analysts who track far-right extremist activities, the Active Club network has a core membership of 400 to 1,200 white men globally, plus sympathizers, online supporters and passive members. The clubs mainly target young white men in their late teens and twenties.

Since 2020, Active Clubs have expanded rapidly across the United States, Canada and Europe, including the U.K., France, Sweden and Finland. Precise numbers are hard to verify, but the clubs appear to be spreading, according to The Counter Extremism Project, the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and my own research.

The clubs reportedly operate in at least 25 U.S. states, and potentially as many as 34. Active U.S. chapters reportedly increased from 49 in 2023 to 78 in 2025.

The clubs’ rise reflects a broader shift in white supremacist strategy, away from formal organizations and social movements. In 2020, American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo introduced the concept of “White Nationalism 3.0” — a decentralized, branded and fitness-based approach to extremist organizing.

Rundo previously founded the Rise Above Movement, which was a violent, far-right extremist group in the U.S. known for promoting white nationalist ideology, organizing street fights and coordinating through social media. The organization carried out attacks at protests and rallies from 2016 through 2018.

Active Clubs embed their ideology within apolitical activities such as martial arts and weightlifting. This model allows them to blend in with mainstream fitness communities. However, their deeper purpose is to prepare members for racial conflict.

'You need to learn how to fight’

Active Club messaging glorifies discipline, masculinity and strength — a “warrior identity” designed to attract young men.

“The active club is not so much a structural organization as it is a lifestyle for those willing to work, risk and sweat to embody our ideals for themselves and to promote them to others,” Rundo explained via his Telegram channel.

“They never were like, ‘You need to learn how to fight so you can beat up people of color.’ It was like, ‘You need to learn how to fight because people want to kill you in the future,’” a former Active Club member told Vice News in 2023.

These cells are deliberately small — often under a dozen members — and self-contained, which gives them greater operational security and flexibility. Each club operates semi-autonomously while remaining connected to the broader ideology and digital network.
Expanding globally and deepening ties

Active Clubs maintain strategic and ideological connections with formal white supremacist groups, including Patriot Front, a white nationalist and neofascist group founded in 2017 by Thomas Rousseau after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Active Clubs share extremist beliefs with these organizations, including racial hierarchy and the “Great Replacement” theory, which claims white populations are being deliberately replaced by nonwhite immigrants. While publicly presenting as fitness groups, they may collaborate with white supremacist groups on recruitment, training, propaganda or public events.

Figures connected to accelerationist groups — organizations that seek to create social chaos and societal collapse that they believe will lead to a race war and the destruction of liberal democracy — played a role in founding the Active Club network. Along with the Rise Above Movement, they include Atomwaffen Division and another neo-Nazi group, The Base — organizations that repackage violent fascism to appeal to disaffected young white men in the U.S.

Brotherhood as a cover

By downplaying explicit hate symbols and emphasizing strength and preparedness, Active Clubs appeal to a new generation of recruits who may not initially identify with overt racism but are drawn to a culture of hypermasculinity and self-improvement.

Anyone can start a local Active Club chapter with minimal oversight. This autonomy makes it hard for law enforcement agencies to monitor the groups and helps the network grow rapidly.

Shared branding and digital propaganda maintain ideological consistency. Through this approach, Active Clubs have built a transnational network of echo chambers, recruitment pipelines and paramilitary-style training in parks and gyms.

Club members engage in activities such as combat sports training, propaganda dissemination and ideological conditioning. Fight sessions are often recorded and shared online as recruitment tools.

Members distribute flyers, stickers and online content to spread white supremacist messages. Active Clubs embed themselves in local communities by hosting events, promoting physical fitness, staging public actions and sharing propaganda.

Potential members first see propaganda on encrypted apps such as Telegram or on social media. The clubs recruit in person at gyms, protests and local events, vetting new members to ensure they share the group’s beliefs and can be trusted to maintain secrecy.
From fringe to functioning network

Based on current information from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, there are 187 active chapters within the Active Club Network across 27 countries — a 25 percent increase from late 2023. The Crowd Counting Consortium documented 27 protest events involving Active Clubs in 2022-23.

However, precise membership numbers remain difficult to ascertain. Some groups call themselves “youth clubs” but share similar ideas and aesthetics and engage in similar activities.

Active Club members view themselves as defenders of Western civilization and masculine virtue. From their perspective, their activities represent noble resistance rather than hate. Members are encouraged to stay secretive, prepare for societal collapse and build a network of committed, fit men ready to act through infiltration, activism or violence.

Hiding in plain sight

Law enforcement agencies, researchers and civil society now face a new kind of domestic threat that wears workout clothes instead of uniforms.

Active Clubs work across international borders, bound by shared ideas and tactics and a common purpose. This is the new white nationalism: decentralized, modernized, more agile and disguised as self-improvement. What appears to be a harmless workout group may be a gateway to violent extremism, one pushup at a time.

'Worst case': Conservative fears Trump will never 'vacate the White House'

Carl Gibson,

 AlterNet
August 27, 2025

One conservative journalist recently laid out his case for why he believes President Donald Trump will continue to entrench himself in the Oval Office in spite of the Constitution — and with the blessing of the other two branches of government.

In a Wednesday essay for anti-Trump conservative website The Bulwark, editor Jonathan V. Last laid out a bleak picture for readers about both the power and influence Trump is wielding in his second term and the complicity of both the government itself and the electorate. Last pointed to "the pace at which we are moving" and "how Trump employs a mix of the ridiculous and the dangerous" to illustrate his point that Trump has already assumed a significant level of control over both politics and even culture that previous presidents have never had.

"He is the living embodiment of the leviathan, the totalized state," Last wrote of Trump. "No sector of American life exists beyond the reach of this president. There is no private sphere or civil society he feels should be outside his influence or control. There is only the dear leader, whose views must be considered in all matters."

Last observed several key differences between Trump's first term and his current administration. Namely, that he has "learned to operate outside the world of legislation and purely through executive power," and that his White House is "staffed with button-men who are willing to do whatever he demands, regardless of legality."

He also lamented that the private sector has "accepted subservience" that the GOP-controlled Congress "has also completely submitted" to Trump's will, along with the American people. Last noted that polls today show Trump with a higher approval rating today (approximately 40 percent) than he enjoyed in August of 2017 (roughly 38 percent).

"The clear lesson is that a consistent share of about 44 percent of Americans want this," he wrote. "And [44 percent + dictatorial control of the government] should be enough to retain power for quite some time."

"I realize the last two weeks have seemed interminable. But you haven’t seen anything yet. We’ve got three and a half years left under the best-case scenario," he continued. "In the worst case our present condition will persist indefinitely. I keep saying this, but: Trump is not behaving like a man who intends to ever vacate the White House."

Click here to read Last's full essay in The Bulwark (subscription required).

CHAOS AT CDC

CDC head's lawyers deny firing after vaccine clash — and vow 'she will not resign'

Robert Davis
August 27, 2025 7:43PM ET
RAW STORY


The exterior of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) main campus in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 27, 2025. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer

Lawyers who represent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director responded on Wednesday to allegations that their client had been fired from her job.

Earlier in the day, the Department of Health and Human Services posted on X saying that Dr. Susan Monarez was "no longer" CDC director. The Washington Post followed up on the post and reported that Monarez was removed because she refused to change the CDC's vaccine standards without consulting advisors.

Attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, who represent Monarez, replied to the news in a statement posted on social media.

"First, it was the independent advisory committees and career experts," the joint statement reads. "Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk."

"When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda," the statement continued. "For that, she has been targeted."

"Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign," it adds

Top CDC scientists resign after Trump fires agency head: report

Robert Davis
August 27, 2025

RAW STORY

FILE PHOTO: A sign sits as the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is pockmarked by bullet holes in the background, following a deadly shooting incident in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 9, 2025. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo

Multiple scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted their resignations on Wednesday afternoon after President Donald Trump fired the recently confirmed CDC director.

The Department of Health and Human Services posted on its official X account that Susan Monarez is "no longer director" of the agency, which happened about one month after she was confirmed for the job. The Washington Post reported that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked Monarez to leave because she would not change the agency's vaccine policies.

Ali Rogan, journalist for PBS NewsHour, reported on X that three other high-ranking scientists from the agency also resigned, and more departures could follow.

The other departing scientists are Dan Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Deb Houry, the agency's chief medical officer; and Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

 

'Wow': CDC director's shock ouster sparks internet frenzy and fears of 'big net negative'

Robert Davis
August 27, 2025  

RAW STORY

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discusses the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

The firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez on Wednesday set off an internet frenzy as scientists roundly condemned the move.

Monarez was confirmed as the CDC director on July 29 after President Donald Trump withdrew a nominee who faced significant pushback due to his skepticism about vaccines. Some advocates hoped Monarez, a career public health professional, would be a check on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Several of the CDC's top scientists also left the agency after Monarez was fired, according to reports.

A number of scientists and observers reacted to the news on social media.

"Wow," Jonathan Reiner, a medical professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, wrote on X.

"This is possibly related to the aftermath of the shooting at the CDC and subsequent silence of the president," Reiner added. "But its net effect now is to put full operational control of vaccine policy back in RFK’s hands. This is a big net negative for the country."

"Susan Monarez is a career scientist with a history of integrity and evidence based leadership," Dr. Nisha Patel wrote in a post on her personal X account. "She was confirmed as CDC Director less than a month ago. And RFK Jr. has already forced her out. Not because she failed the job, but because she follows the science, not the grift. His 'radical transparency' is a sham. This is about control, not truth. Step out of line, and you’re gone."

"She was competent and an advocate for public health, both of which are liabilities in this administration," Ed Belongia, an infectious disease epidemiologist, posted on Bluesky.

"RFK Jr. is really out there 'building trust.'" Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita of epidemiology at the University of Arizona, wrote on Bluesky.

And for those of you keeping track, Monarez lasted 2.4 Scaramuccis, according to a post on Bluesky from Steve Benen, a producer for MSNBC's 'The Rachel Maddow Show."

'Cowardice of a leader': CDC official hits Trump and RFK with blistering rebuke on way out

Daniel Hampton
August 27, 2025 

RAW STORY

The main campus of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 27, 2025. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer

A top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced his resignation in a lengthy social media post in which he delivered a blistering rebuke of the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for undermining science and endangering public health.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, announced on X his resignation effective end of day Thursday. His announcement came amid an exodus of top scientists from the CDC following the ouster of its director, Susan Monarez.

"This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission," he wrote. "However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough."

Daskalakis said his exit was necessary to ensure he could align his ethics and knowledge of infectious disease and immunology with his principles and obligation to Americans.

Daskalakis added that he could no longer serve in “an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

He pointed specifically to the Trump administration's recent overhaul of immunization schedules for children and adults as a decision that "threaten[s] the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”

Daskalakis expressed alarm over the administration's scientific integrity and accused HHS of sidelining CDC experts and manipulating data for political ends.

“Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people,” he wrote.

He also denounced the administration’s changes to COVID-19 vaccine policy, saying the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices structure “puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader.

"Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc,” he added.

Daskalakis took a shot at RFK, writing, "I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information."

He then took a shot at Trump, declaring his resignation was aimed at making his grandfather proud, who died fighting fascism.

"I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur," wrote Daskalakis, referring to the shooting near the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta. "I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed."

'No Public Lands Are Safe': Trump USDA Moves Forward With Gutting Roadless Rule


"The Trump administration's move to gut this bedrock protection is nothing more than a handout to logging interests at the expense of clean water, wildlife, and local communities," said one advocate.


A truck carrying old-growth trees that were recently cut drives on N Island Rd in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska on July 2, 2021.
(Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)


Julia Conley
Aug 27, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday moved to rescind a conservation policy dating back nearly 25 years that has protected more than 45 million acres of pristine public lands, as the Trump administration announced a public comment period of just three weeks regarding the rollback of the "Roadless Rule."

The rule, officially called the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, has protected against the building of roads for logging and oil and gas drilling in forest lands including Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest national woodland.


Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in June as she announced her intention of repealing the rule that the administration aims to "get more logs on trucks," in accordance with President Donald Trump's executive order calling for expanded logging in the nation's forests. The president has asserted more trees must be cut down to protect from wildfires, a claim that's been rejected by environmental groups that note fires are more likely to be ignited in areas where vehicles travel.

The public comment period on rescinding the Roadless Rule is set to open this week and end September 19.

The environmental legal firm Earthjustice, which has fought to defend the Roadless Rule for years, including when Trump moved to exempt the Tongass from the regulation during his first term, noted that roadless forests provide vulnerable and endangered wildlife "with needed habitat, offer people a wide range of recreational activities, and protect the headwaters of major rivers, which are vital for maintaining clean, mountain-fed drinking water nationwide."

"If the Roadless Rule is rescinded nationally, logging and other destructive, extractive development is set to increase in public forests that currently function as intact ecosystems that benefit wildlife and people alike," said the group.

Gloria Burns, president of the Ketchikan Indian Community, said the people of her tribe "are the Tongass."

"This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat," said Burns. "The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs (the Tongass) we cannot breathe life into our future generations."

Garett Rose, senior attorney at the Natural Defenses Resource Council, said Rollins and Trump have declared "open season on America's forests."

"For decades, the Roadless Rule has stood as one of America's most important conservation safeguards, protecting the public's wildest forests from the bulldozer and chainsaw," said Rose. "The Trump administration's move to gut this bedrock protection is nothing more than a handout to logging interests at the expense of clean water, wildlife, and local communities. But we're not backing down and will continue to defend these unparalleled wild forests from attacks, just as we have done for decades."

The Alaska Wilderness League (AWL) noted that 15 million acres of intact temperate rain forest, including the Tongass and the Chugach, would be impacted by the rulemaking, as would taxpayers who would be burdened by the need to maintain even more roads run by the US Forest Service.

The service currently maintains more than 380,000 miles of road—a system larger than the US Interstate Highway System—with a "maintenance backlog that has ballooned to billions in needed repairs," said AWL.

"More roads mean more taxpayer liability, more wildfire risk, and more damage to salmon streams and clean water sources," added the group.

"No public lands are safe from the Trump administration, not even Alaska's globally significant forests," said Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at AWL. "Rolling back the Roadless Rule means bulldozing taxpayer-funded roads into irreplaceable old growth forest, and favoring short-term industry profits over long-term, sustainable forest uses. The Roadless Rule is one of the most effective, commonsense conservation protections in U.S. history. Scrapping it would sacrifice Alaska's public lands to the highest bidder."

Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife, and oceans at Earthjustice, emphasized that the group "has successfully defended the Roadless Rule in court for decades."

"Nothing will stop us," he said, "from taking up that fight aga

Anti-Trump protesters plan mass Labor Day demonstrations: "Enough is enough"

Story by Khaleda Rahman

AUGUST 27, 2025

NEWSWEEK


An aerial view shows demonstrators marching toward downtown protesting the policies of President Donald Trump and showing their support for union labor on May 1, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.© Scott Olson/Getty Images

Protests against President Donald Trump and his administration—billed as "Workers Over Billionaires"—are set to take place across the country on Labor Day.

Jackson Potter, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union who is among the organizers, told Newsweek that organizer May Day Strong teamed up with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to "bring a Labor Day that's representative and reflective of best parts of our tradition.


He said the day of action is aimed at "fighting against the oligarchs and challenging the militarization of our cities while working people are falling further behind and billionaires are getting windfalls."

Why It Matters

The protests are to be the latest nationwide demonstrations against the Trump administration.

On June 14, millions rallied in cities across the country for "No Kings" protests while a military parade rolled through Washington, D.C, marking the Army's 250th anniversary, which coincided with Trump's 79th birthday. More recently, "Rage Against the Regime" demonstrations took place in hundreds of cities across the U.S. on August 2.

What To Know

Potter said more than 900 events are planned in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

He said that hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people could take to the streets across the country.

Potter believes Trump's threats to deploy the National Guard to cities including Chicago and his attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson could motivate more people to turn out.

"We suspect this could become a much more massive and historic as a result of his threats, the attack on our Black mayor," he said.

Potter said Labor Day celebrations have been "largely apolitical" in the past, but "this year is very different."

"I'm an educator, I'm a Chicagoan. I've been going to Labor Day since I was a kid, and it's been beer and barbecues and, you know, maybe one rousing speech from the Labor Federation president," he said.

"Well, this year is very different. We have bricklayers, dockworkers, carpenters, teachers, service workers, health care workers, university professors coming together and saying, enough is enough. The message is clear and consistent, and it's not all fun and games, and it is solidarity in the best sense of our history."

What People Are Saying

A statement posted on the May Day Strong website says: "Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover. Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.

"Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action. We are May Day Strong, working people rising up to stop the billionaire takeover—not just through the ballot box or the courts, but through building a bigger and stronger movement. On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched on May 1st. Thousands of communities across the country are taking a stand on Labor Day, join us!"

Trump told reporters on Friday: "Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent."

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday that what Trump "is proposing is a military occupation of the city of Chicago and cities across America. Our city is not calling for that... This is clearly unconstitutional. It's illegal, and it's costly. The fact of the matter is, is that we're doing really a good work in the city of Chicago. Community safety is my top priority, and that's why I've worked hard to bring people together to drive violence down in Chicago."


He added: "This president has demonstrated that he is not willing to cooperate with cities in America to ensure that the federal government actually shows up for working people. That's what we're doing in Chicago. That's what many of our mayors are doing across this country. The President really should be working with us to develop safe communities and affordable communities."

What's Next

The protests are set to take place on September 1.

Jackson Potter Full Interview

Can you tell me about your role in organizing the protests planned for Labor Day?

I'm part of the national coordination team. I currently serve as vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. And in March, we initiated this effort to bring together labor and community to fight attacks on workers rights, immigrant rights and civil rights, and promote the interests of workers over billionaires for May Day '25 and that led to the largest number of May Day protests in American history. And now we have teamed up with the AFL-CIO to bring a Labor Day that's representative and reflective of best parts of our tradition. And you know, fighting against the oligarchs and challenging the militarization of our cities, while working people are falling further behind and billionaires are getting windfalls. So you know this Labor Day is going to emphasize those dynamics and really see a much greater representation of workers and their unions and their community alliances coming out in full force.


Tell me more about what the demonstrations are protesting against?

Definitely labor is seeing that despite the Trump regime's promises to center the needs and interests of working people, the opposite is happening. Despite record highs of support for unionization, this administration has started an unprecedented attack on the unionized federal workforce and eliminated rights for a million workers to have a union.

So that runs directly against his promises, kicking 17 million people off Medicaid. And we're a movement that fights for the human rights, health care for all, having a living and adequate wage, having access to paid parental leave, childcare. Those things are slipping away from most people that can't afford the rising cost of living, rising cost of health care and don't have access to a deferred pension plan and need one. So that's what we are fighting for.

And we are also going after the billionaires who make up Trump's kitchen cabinet, like Elon Musk, Antonio Gracias [CEO of Chicago-based growth equity firm Valor Equity Partners]. We're going after Target that has eliminated its DEI programs while blocking the ability of its workforce to unionize. So we see them as part of the billionaire cabal trying to dismantle democracy and destroy the basic rights that we have.

How many demonstrations are planned across the country at the moment?

We are now at 905 total events. There are the top five states are states that are being targeted by Trump, like California. New York, Illinois, and then we've got Florida and Ohio that are also running up the score in terms of the number of events.

How many people do you think will take to the streets on Labor Day?

I think it will be hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, depending on conditions. So Trump has said that he wants a direct confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union, our former union member and educator Brandon Johnson, who's the mayor, on Labor Day. So we suspect this could become a much more massive and historic as a result of his threats and the nature of the attack on a Black mayor.

You think that more people are likely to come out to protest because of these threats against Chicago and other cities?

I think that will motivate people to defend our rights, to fight against bad bosses like Trump and his billionaire buddies. You know, we are not willing to relinquish our First Amendment rights, our right to organize. Those are really fundamental. And why be in a union if we are just going to sit down or stand on the sidelines?

And what we have found, too, is when you look at the last 100 years, when there are authoritarians trying to get rid of democratic rights and impose their will on the population that the resistance, without a labor movement mobilized, is only successful at fighting back that effort 29 percent of the time, but with the labor movement, that goes up to 83 percent success rate. This is from Jonathan Pickney and Claire Trilling, who wrote a piece in 2024 about this.

So what we're seeing like me personally, I'm an educator, I'm a Chicagoan. I've been going to Labor Day since I was a kid, and it's been beer and barbecues and maybe, you know, one rousing speech from the Labor Federation president. But apart from that, it's been largely apolitical. Well, this year is very different. We have bricklayers, dockworkers, carpenters, teachers, service workers, health care workers, university professors coming together and saying, Enough is enough. The message is clear and consistent, and it's not all fun and games, and it is, you know, solidarity in the best sense of our history. So I do think it's waking up a sleeping giant in many ways, that it's starting to get mobilized again.

What else do you want people to know ahead of these protests?

Well, that they can join one near their town, village or city, and they can go to maydaystrong.org and there's a map that will show you the AFL-CIO sponsored events, in addition to ones that different labor leaders and activists have decided to host. And if they don't see one and would like to host something that's certainly welcome. It's organized similar to the Indivisible model in no kings. And my understanding is that, Indivisible, and many of the organizations, you can see all the partnering organizations on the website that were responsible for "Hands Off" and "No Kings" and "May Day" have joined forces again to make sure that this Labor Day is one to remember.