The Skinny: Media Manipulation & Regime Propaganda
Prime Time Fascism: May 8th – 15th
Judge Jeanine as Trump’s Instrument of Vengeance
Folks, hide your hijabs and martini mixers because Judge Jeannie is headed to the White House, as Trump’s America increasingly devolves into a horrifying daytime television show about brain-wormed fascists with far too much power. After his first choice for the role, Ed Martin, was exposed for his extremely close ties to an obvious neo-Nazi who apparently enjoyed cosplaying as Hitler (no, I couldn’t make that up if I tried), Downmarket Mussolini has decided to appoint Fox New host and noted day drinker Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; making her, at least for the moment, the Trump’s top inquisitor in the most politicized environment in the country.
Jeanine Pirro’s Fox producer thought she was “nuts.” Trump just named her DC’s top prosecutor.
“Following Trump’s rise to the presidency, Pirro stood out among the network’s stable of shills and propagandists for providing what my late colleague Simon Maloy deemed “advocacy for the president [that] is so aggressive that it often borders on insane.”
Her lowlights during his first term included calling for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the Justice Department, which she said were full “of individuals who should not just be fired, but who need to be taken out in handcuffs”; describing Trump as “a nonstop, never-give-up, no-holds-barred human version of the speed of light” and comparing his negotiation prowess to the skill of NFL running back Saquon Barkley; repeatedly urging then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign if he was unwilling to protect Trump and prosecute his enemies; speaking on stage at a Trump campaign event in apparent violation of network policy; and getting suspended by Fox for pointing out that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wears a hijab and asking, “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”
I must confess that I’m a little disappointed with most of the media coverage on Pirro’s appointment; even the Media Matters article I’m sharing here isn’t amazing and wastes too much time talking about what an absolute freak Judge Jeannie is. In fairness however it should probably be noted that Pirro is such a terrible pick for top federal prosecutor in DC that it’s hard not to focus on the wrong (in my opinion) outrageous things about Trump’s choice. The things you can read pretty much anywhere are that Pirro is woefully unqualified for the position, an unhinged winger conspiracy theorist, the 23rd member of Trump’s administration that has worked for Fox News, and one of Trump’s personal friends and cronies. She and the things she said on her show, were a major factor in the $787 million dollar settlement Fox News negotiated with Dominion Voting Systems for various pro-Trump election conspiracies the network propagated on air. She’s also arguably the most embarrassing and shameless pro-Trump fascist sycophant on a news network wholly devoted to praising and protecting Downmarket Mussolini.
What Media Matters touches on that the other media orgs don’t get into, is Pirro’s consistent and repeated support for weaponizing the Department of Justice to target Trump’s opponents and perceived enemies in government; including judges, law enforcement officials, opposition politicians, and federal workers. Before Trump swapped him out, Ed Martin was busy doing things like promising not to hire new lawyers from “woke” universities, and contacting scientific journals to ask them why they haven’t hired any nazis to promote “diversity of viewpoints.” Pirro, is far more likely to look for ways to bring criminal charges against Trump’s political enemies; at least if her rhetoric as a political commentator on Fox is to be believed.
Look, is it possible the Klepto Kaiser just pulled Judge Jeanine out of a hat because he’s obsessed with loyalty and seems to feel a bizarre kinship with pretty much anyone else who has worked in the American television industry? Sure. But it’s also entirely possible that an embattled Trump cratering in the polls, losing consistently in court, and running into the first real opposition to his attempts to create a patchwork dictatorship, is preparing to lash out at “the haters and the losers” opposing his agenda. If that’s the case, the choice of a woman who is prepared to say literally anything to support Trump’s personal grievances, and seems to lust for vengeance against his opponents on his behalf, is a very ominous sign for the near future of American politics indeed.
Billionaire Owned Media Is Already Obeying Trump
A lot of things have changed (mostly for the worst) between the first and second Trump presidency. For example, during our first dance with assclown fascism under Downmarket Mussolini, American corporate media made a massive show of “opposing” Trump; despite the fact that I (and many other observers) pointed out that their coverage of the administration typically benefitted the regime more often than it hurt them, and the class solidarity inherent to corporate media outlets often resulted in them covering up for the wealthy donors and supporters that propped up Trump’s administration until the precise moment it became clear he wasn’t going to win a second term in 2020. The story has been quite different here in the second Trump era however; as this Guardian article notes, despite Trump’s threats and smears towards the media, corporate outlets like the Washington Post, the LA Times, and now CBS have willingly collaborated with Trump’s fascist regime and agenda. What changed? As it turns out, the whims and financial motivations of billionaire reactionaries who own corporate media companies.
Trump complains the US media aren’t bending to his will. Aren’t they?
“Despite that acquiescence, Trump has continued to threaten journalists, branding pollsters “negative criminals” who “should be investigated for election fraud”. In April, he attacked “radical lunatic Democrats and their comrades in the fake news media”, adding: “Those lying to the American People on behalf of violent criminals have to be held responsible by the Agencies and the Courts.”
The attacks overlook the ways in which some outlets have submitted to Trump’s will – either by executives settling frivolous lawsuits or wealthy owners interfering to avoid upsetting Trump.
Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post owner, ordered an overhaul to the paper’s editorial pages in February that effectively muzzled the newspaper’s criticism of Trump. The Los Angeles Times dropped its endorsement of Kamala Harris under pressure from Patrick Soon-Shiong, its billionaire owner.
In December, ABC News settled a Trump lawsuit, in a move first amendment experts said could foster more attacks on the media. And in another blow, the owner of CBS News is said to be considering settling a $10bn lawsuit brought against the network over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview.”
Speaking frankly, this is a story about greed and cowardice and that’s not just my opinion. Trump isn’t right when he claims journalists are defaming him, and the activities he’s undertaking to cow the American media, be they government investigations or frivolous lawsuits, have no basis in the law. If folks like Jeff Bezos, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Shari Redstone wanted to fight this, they’d win. Since surrendering and collaborating is more profitable to these billionaire leeches however, they’re directing their media companies to roll over. Furthermore, the cost of this collaboration with fascism goes far beyond the mitigation of Trump criticism in our media environment; with billionaire media barons kissing his ring, and corporate outlets scrambling to settle his obscenely conspiratorial lawsuits based on open lies, the Kelpto Kaiser will now argue that he’s been right about the media all along and that justifies further cracking down on the so-called “free press” in America. Collaborating with fascism, will merely breed more fascism; not that any of these rich reactionaries who own media companies seem to give a shit at all.
As someone who engages in a lot of media criticism and analysis, I can’t say any of this is surprising to me; if anything, corporate media’s outward posture of hostility towards Trump at points during his first administration is the historical aberration here. For profit media in America has always consistently sided with power and the state; after all the same class of people who own corporate media companies, also own most of the country. Just because we can easily predict class solidarity and billionaire ownership rolling over for fascism however, doesn’t change the horrifying reality of what’s going on here; nobody is handing out Pulitzer’s here, but both the Washington Post and the LA Times did some excellent critical reporting during the first Trump regime and have been nowhere as effective here in Der Leader’s second term. This is a big win for the Kelpto Kaiser; which makes it a devastating loss for all of us who don’t want the fascists to win.
Every Dictatorship Needs Its State Media
One of the hallmarks of the second Trump era is the way the Pork Reich consistently finds a way to make bad things, infinitely worse. For example, I don’t think anyone reading this would be surprised to hear me describe Fox News as an objectively fascist media organization, that is closely aligned with and prepared to lie to promote, Republican political objectives and GOP politicians. “Fox News lies for Republicans” was a pretty heady message in 1999, but it’s essentially a “well, duh” moment here in 2025. When you combine the power of the Fox Media apparatus with a Trump regime that approaches governance like a type of reality television show and actively sees control of media messaging as foundation to the success of their fascist project however, this unholy union creates something that roughly approximates “state news” in a dictatorship.
For a closer look at the scale of this collaboration, let’s take a look at this Media Matters report detailing just how often, in raw mathematical terms, the Trump administration went on Fox News to directly propagandize to the nation in Trump’s first hundred days.
“Key Trump administration officials appeared on Fox networks over 500 times in his first 100 days in office. President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Thomas Homan led all officials with at least 59 appearances while Fox News’ Hannity led all shows with 71 interviews.
Trump officials appeared on Fox networks on 96 of the administration’s first 100 days. The number of daily appearances by key officials was highest on both February 3, following Trump’s announcement of his first set of tariffs, and March 4, seemingly to prime the Fox audience for his congressional address that evening, with at least 13 appearances on each day.
Media Matters looked at Fox appearances by key nominated or confirmed Trump officials during the administration’s first 100 days. Trump’s “border czar,” Thomas Homan, remains the most prominent administration official on the networks, appearing at least 59 times in total. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (40 appearances), deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller (40), and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin (33) followed. Rounding out the top five most frequent officials who appeared on Fox is former counselor to the president Alina Habba who had 29 appearances before she left the administration when Trump appointed her interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey on March 24.”
Obviously this isn’t really an article so much as a statistical analysis of how extensively the Trump administration has collaborated with Fox News to disseminate propaganda into the public discourse. You may of course quibble with my characterization of Trump regime media appearances as “propagandizing the American people” but my response to that is going to be to tell you to go fuck yourself with a chainsaw because quibbling with rubes about obviously demonstrable facts isn’t my idea of a fun time. In a little over three months of covering the Trump regime, I honestly can’t think of a single Fox News appearance by a US government official that hasn’t featured lies, manipulation, and fascist propaganda; in fact I’d argue that appearances by overt fascist dipshits working in the Trump administration, folks like Tom Homan, and Stephen Miller, have done more to normalize fascist ideology in our discourse than any overtly nazi YouTuber or essayist in our society. The idea that the Trump administration is working with Fox News to produce pro-regime, pro-fascist propaganda is indisputable in my opinion; and the raw numbers compiled by Media Matters here demonstrates that with absolute certainty.
Look folks, all media organizations, particularly for-profit media organizations owned by reactionary billionaire maggots who love them some white supremacy, have a political bias. But there’s a big difference between bias, and a major cable news network offering itself up as Trump state media to push forward an authoritarian agenda and the police state dictatorship necessary to enforce it. As terrible as Fox has always been, they’ve now become the Völkischer Beobachter for the Trump 2.0 era and administration. While a lot of my writing is about members of the “liberal” establishment collaborating with the fascist Pork Reich regime, the reality is that Trump wouldn’t be sitting in the White House without Fox News and they remain an integral part of his attempts to govern by fascist conspiracy theory and Christian Nationalist animus.
White Nationalism and the Refugees Trump Welcomes
As the Trump regime welcomes fifty-nine specifically white South African “refugees” to the United States, most corporate media outlets are (accidentally or otherwise) obfuscating the fascist ideology behind Trump’s only asylum exemption by describing the situation as “baffling.” The reality however is that in actively favoring and financially supporting white South African migrants while denying all other asylum claims, Trump is governing by nazi conspiracy theory and exposing the white nationalist agenda behind the regime’s immigration policies; whether corporate stenographers want to say that out loud, or not.
Trump Is Bending the Refugee Program to Fit His White Nationalist Agenda
“Trump’s executive order prioritizing South Africans under the refugee program is likely due in part to his close relationship with Elon Musk. The billionaire SpaceX CEO grew up in a wealthy family in apartheid-era South Africa and has publicly claimed that white South Africans are persecuted for their race. Peter Thiel, another one of Trump’s far right billionaire backers, also spent years in apartheid South Africa and has praised that system.
But Trump’s fixation on Afrikaners runs deeper than his political allyships: For years, Trump has indirectly platformed the “white genocide” conspiracies of South Africa’s far right. That rhetoric — recently manifested in concrete policies and actions — lays bare the white nationalism at the heart of Trump’s agenda.”
If you’ve been following my other account, you already know I’ve had some words for the mainstream media coverage of this event, so I’ll keep this part brief. The fact that the vast majority of news outlets aren’t expressly reporting that Trump is arguing that a years old neonazi conspiracy theory is true when he directly says the US government is intervening because white South Africans are the target of a “genocide” is absolutely fucking outrageous. Simply repeating the racist lies powerful fascists utter and hoping the reader will figure out this is nazi conspiracy shit straight from the front page of Stormfront is not fucking journalism, it’s stenography. As the author of this piece demonstrates, a little bit of research exposes that Trump is literally governing by nazi conspiracy theory.
“Fringe panic about a “white genocide” in South Africa gained mainstream prevalence during Trump’s first presidency, when right-wing groups pushed the lie that a string of murders on commercial farms was disproportionately targeting white South Africans. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson helped sensationalize these claims at the time, boosting stories about South African farm attacks alongside inflammatory rhetoric about undocumented immigration in the U.S. and a domestic “fertility crisis.” As many analysts pointed out, Carlson’s favored talking points echoed the “great replacement theory,” the white supremacist myth that white U.S. citizens are being systemically erased by people of color.”
As the article points out, the existence of a “white genocide” in post-apartheid South Africa is literally a cracker supremacist conspiracy theory promoted by a racist organization in that country; it’s not real, far right politicians in the Pig Empire are treating years old sensationalist white nationalist propaganda (that wasn’t believable even in the moment) as if it were the gospel truth, and the whole thing was thrown out of court in South Africa because again, it’s a nazi conspiracy theory. Stormfront posters and racist Tucker Carlson conspiracies are now governing White House immigration policy.
Which brings us to the larger, overarching meaning behind this sham “refugee” program; namely that the Trump regime’s immigration policies are blatantly white nationalist, and clearly an extension of the administration’s fascist quest to support global white supremacy while transforming America into a white ethnostate. If banning asylum claims from countries full of predominantly brown people, while paying real cash money to lure South African migrants and promote a nazi conspiracy theory about post-apartheid “white genocide” didn’t prove the point, the contents of Trump’s original executive order allowing this fascist bullshit probably should. In denying all aid to South Africa, Trump’s order directly railed against reparations-style land redistribution policies, and South Africa’s case against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza; it’s not hard to see the white nationalist animus behind these arguments, but when Trump goes a step father and directly supports the “white genocide” nazi conspiracy theory when explaining his policies, we’re well past the realm of plausible deniability here. It is not enough for Trump to permanently enshrine white nationalism in American policy, this administration is determined to enforce white supremacy on a global scale.
Stephen Miller’s Fascist Threat is Illegal
Last Friday, we talked a little bit about Stephen Miller trotting out onto the White House lawn out of seemingly nowhere to threaten the judiciary and folks who oppose the regime’s fascist mass deportation schemes, with the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; which means a person’s right to challenge their detention by the state in court. As I pointed out then, what Miller was effectively proposing was enacting yet another emergency power based on a made up invasion that’s already been rejected by multiple judges in court, to indefinitely cage or imprison anyone they want for any reason they want; this is of course because if you have no right to challenge your detention in court, it literally does not matter why the government says they’re holding you – they just can. Of course Miller couched this in language that both threatened judges and implied this authority would be used to round up and deport migrants, but the power Trump’s unofficial minister of nazism was proposing here could and likely would be used to target virtually anyone who opposes the regime and its fascist agenda.
As I also articulated however, Miller’s threat would be heinously illegal; the fascist administration would be effectively suspending the constitution, and the power to do that traditionally does not reside with the office of the President for very good reasons. There is only one time in US History where a President suspended the writ of habeas corpus on his own, and that president was literally Abe Lincoln during the actual fucking Civil War. Furthermore, the situation was understood to be so extraordinary and potentially dangerous, that Congress got together after the fact and legitimized Lincoln’s play; the other three times the government has suspended “The Great Writ” all required congressional authorization. All of which is of course to say nothing of the fact that doing so requires a threat to public safety that necessitates even considering suspending the writ in the first place; no such threat exists here obviously, Miller and Der Leader are simply upset that judges have insisted the government respect the due process rights of migrants.
Of course I can tell you all this, but I am not a lawyer or a professor of law. So to make the point abundantly clear, I’d like to share this Truthout Article by Marjorie Cohn, who is in fact a law professor, to explain all the ways this is definitely illegal fascist bullshit.
Stephen Miller’s Argument for Suspending Habeas Corpus Is Legal Garbage
“A suspension [of habeas corpus] is temporary, but the power it confers is extraordinary,” Barrett and Katyal wrote in their National Constitution Center article. “When a suspension is in effect, the president, typically acting through subordinates, can imprison people indefinitely without any judicial check.”
It is becoming increasingly clear that Trump will stop at nothing to impose his will – the commands of the Constitution notwithstanding. On May 4, Trump refused to say on “Meet the Press” that he was bound by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.
For now, federal judges are serving as speed bumps in Trump’s cruel and illegal war on migrants. Trump has packed the Supreme Court with radical right-wingers who may well overturn some of those lower court rulings. But Trump has already defied the high court’s ruling that his administration facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. We can only hope that the “justices” on the high court maintain their reverence for the Constitution, even though the president does not.”
I know that legal language makes a lot of people’s eyes glaze over, but I strongly encourage you to just read the whole article because it does a very good job of explaining precisely how illegal and authoritarian Miller’s proposal to suspend the writ of habeas corpus actually is. The gist of it however is that president Trump doesn’t have the power to suspend the writ without Congressional authorization, there absolutely is no invasion (by narco-terrorist gangs or anyone else for that matter) to justify doing so, and Miller is openly lying when he says that the Immigration and Nationality Act strips judiciary oversight and appellate review for the regime’s mass deportation activities.
Of course as the author (and many others) articulates, the illegality of their activities has only marginally stopped Trump so far; the regime is currently ignoring multiple court orders and the President is openly declaring that he’s not sure if he has an obligation to uphold the US Constitution in media interviews; despite the fact that upholding the Constitution is one of the things all Presidents swear to do on live TV while being inaugurated. Miller was certainly trying to cow American judges to ram through Trump’s mass deportation project, but we’ve seen the pattern of this regime transforming fascist musings into enforced un-reality far too many times to believe he’s not being serious here.
Gavin Newsom Still Loves “Homeless” Sweeps
If you’ve been reading my analysis for a while, you probably don’t need to be told that I do not like California Governor Gavin Newsom very much. Despite representing essentially a one party state, Newsom, a Democrat (I guess) has consistently worked to normalize fascist ideology and adopt reactionary NIMBY-infused authoritarian policy in a state, California, where there is almost no political pressure to do so whatsoever. At the end of the day, Gavin is a fascist collaborator who doesn’t give a fuck if poor people live or die so long as his corporate donors are happy, and that is significantly worse than merely being a transactional neoliberal who loves PAC money; which is how Newsom’s defenders typically portray him in political discourse. From inviting nazi propagandists like Charlie Kirk on his podcast to spread transphobic propaganda, to turning his back on police reform in California to protect violent murderpigs who violate civil rights in his home state, Newsome has been openly willing to help fascists do fascism, if he thinks it’s politically advantageous for his career. Now, with his term as Governor running out, Newsom has set his eyes on the 2028 US presidential nomination, and I’ve gone on record in saying that such an outcome would be an absolute disaster for folks who don’t like fascism; because win or lose, the result of a Newsom nomination would ultimately be “more fascism.”
Naturally, that position will sound quite hyperbolic to many rank and file Democrats who “vote blue no matter who” but I’d argue that all the evidence you need to see Newsom’s fascist intentions can be found in studying his policies towards unhoused people in California. After all, Newsom vigorously supported our 6-3 fascist high Supreme Court’s nightmarish “City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson” ruling which effectively criminalizes being unhoused, and spent the lead up to the 2024 US election threatening California municipalities with being defunded unless they participated in fascist, anti-humanitarian “homeless sweeps” that destroy lives and address precisely zero aspects of the affordable housing crisis in California. Does weaponizing municipal funding to force local governments to adopt fascist policing policies that harm their constitutions sound familiar to you? It should, it’s a big part of how Donald Trump himself is currently trying to force Democrat-led cities to cooperate with his illegal mass deportation agenda. As I wrote way back in August, don’t cry at me about “hyperbolic language” because fascist is as fascist does, and Gavin Newsom loves doing fascism to target unhoused people.
Furthermore, nothing about Newsom’s preference for cruel, ineffective, and authoritarian solutions to the housing crisis has changed since the election of Dowmarket Mussolini. As this Truthout article indicates, Newsome is now trying to bribe municipalities with money originally earmarked for social and mental health assistance for the unhoused community, to conduct fascist “homeless encampment sweeps” that will help precisely nobody, and make the lives of one of the most vulnerable constituencies in California, the unhoused, immeasurably worse.
Newsom’s Model Ordinance Pushes Homeless Sweeps Across California
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is urging cities and counties to adopt a newly released model ordinance aimed at banning and clearing homeless encampments.
The proposal would prohibit unhoused people from repeatedly camping in the same location, restrict encampments that block pedestrian access on sidewalks, and require authorities to provide notice and make a good-faith effort to offer shelter before destroying camps. According to the governor’s office, the model ordinance builds on an approach already used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which has destroyed more than 16,000 encampments since 2021.
Framing the move as an act of “compassion and care,” Newsom’s administration announced that $3.3 billion in voter-approved Proposition 1 funds — originally intended to expand behavioral health housing and treatment — would be made available statewide to incentivize cities and counties to adopt the ordinance.”
Folks, I don’t know how to say this any clearer but Gavin Newsom doesn’t think unhoused people are human beings, and is willing to adopt cruel, fascist policies targeting unhoused people to make them “go away.” Where does he want them to go? That’s unclear. After all, and as the article makes clear, Newsom is only making the barest of pretenses at solving the actual root of the crisis, which is a lack of affordable housing in the state; this isn’t about finding a place for unhoused people to “go.” If this is how Newsom is prepared to treat some of the most vulnerable people he was elected to help, who else might he be willing to sacrifice on the altar of the business lobby and “cleaning up our streets?” I don’t know, or really care, what’s in Gavin Newsom’s heart; fascists are people who do fascism, and Newsom has repeatedly demonstrated that he’s ready to collaborate with nazis and harm marginalized people, if it gets him one step closer to a White House he should never set a foot inside of.
The Regime Plays Bush’s Greatest Hits
The more things change, the more they stay the same apparently. Back when I had a little less gray in my hair, one of the many horrifying scandals to come out of the Bush Administration during the War on Terror/9-11/Iraq War era, involved the suppression of intelligence and intelligence officials who refused to support the Bush-Cheney administration’s position that Iraq had, or was on the verge of acquiring, weapons of mass destruction. This mattered because although the Bush government employed a “throw a plate of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” method of manufacturing consent to invade Iraq, the central portion of their legal and diplomatic argument, revolved around the administration’s repeated assertion that US intelligence agencies had actionable information that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s or was about to finish building them. Of course, the entire thing turned out to be a lie; Iraq didn’t have WMDs, the intelligence supporting the lie was nonexistent, and warmongers who supported the war crafted a narrative that “bad intelligence” had lead Bush-Cheney to ruin. The fact that even that cover story was a lie, wouldn’t come out until later; as it turns out US Intelligence had actively told the White House that they didn’t think Iraq had or was capable of producing WMDs, and the administration had ignored, sidelined, and removed anyone in the intel community who told them so. That story was of course small potatoes compared to the original story about “bad intelligence” and to this day many informed observers still believe the spies told lies and the White House was “duped.”
I mention this now of course because Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, noted fake peacenik, Islamophobe, and cult member Tulsi Gabbard, just fired two high ranking intelligence officials, and moved the National Intelligence Council under her direct supervision. Why? Well it sure does look like it’s because a FOIA request turned up a NIC memo confirming that US intelligence disagreed with Trump’s fascist propaganda arguing that the gang Tren de Aragua were working for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; a central pillar of the Trump regime’s argument that they have a right to deploy the Alien Enemies Act to do fascist mass deportations and a bunch of other authoritarian buillshit.
“While an ODNI spokesperson told The Hill that “the director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community,” critics framed the firings as “the DEFINITION of politicizing intelligence.”
“I am concerned about the apparent removal of senior leadership at the National Intelligence Council without any explanation except vague accusations made in the media,” Congressman Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post. “Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the president’s agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical.”
The NIC leaders were fired after last week’s release of an NIC memo confirming that U.S. intelligence agencies never agreed with Trump’s claim that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controls the criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The April 7 document states that “while Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”
Look, I’m not going to ask readers to offer up sympathy for creepy American spymasters; this is a country that engages in offensive espionage, political and social subversion, and activities we would call terrorism if someone the Pentagon didn’t like were doing them, so there are no good guys in this story. With that having been said however, we’re looking at clear evidence that the Trump regime itself absolutely knows their fascist “invasion” arguments, on which much of their paper-thin legal justification for doing a host of blatantly unconstitutional activities rests, are complete bullshit; and they’re prepared to politically punish Trump’s own intelligence agencies for not agreeing to lie for them about it. This is, or should be, a major scandal on par with Bush’s Iraq War lies; and yet curiously the focus in the media seems to be how bad it is to train your intelligence agencies to not tell you bad news the president doesn’t want to hear.
Obviously, I knew Trump’s invasion was a lie, and you knew Trump’s invasion was a lie. But now the whole world knows Trump’s invasion is a lie and we have the documents and statements to prove it; so why is anyone pretending this isn’t just fascism?
- Nina Illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic and analyst.
You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, and on Mastodon.
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