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Like many of the people reading this, my focus is currently on trying to process everything that's coming out of the regime's invasion of LA; particularly the alarming things the government is saying which imply they're preparing to respond violently to what I suspect are going to be big, but extremely tepid mainstream liberal protests on June 14th. But news still existed before Trump sent the National Guard into LA, and as always The Skinny was there. We've got stories about the Gestapo gone wild, American participation in a colonial massacre in Gaza, and of course a little bit about the early stages of Trump's war on blue cities. Buckle up, it only gets dumber and more terrifying from here.

ninaillingworth.com/2025/06/10

The Skinny: A Whiter Shade of Fail

“This is a fascist regime, ruled by a reality TV show nazi with his own burgeoning cult of personality, actively looking to create an American one-party dictatorship by consolidating as much governing power and control over US security forces as possible, in the executive branch. Levine is more than correct to point out what other observers apparently will not; in addition to positioning himself as the embodiment of US military might, Trump is also courting the armed forces he needs to enforce a nazi police state conducting mass deportations under martial law, with lavish funding and the prestige of a fascist propaganda theater event that celebrates the troops, at the same time it celebrates Trump.”

Nina Illingworth Dot Com | "When the revolution is for everyone, everyone will be for the revolution" · The Skinny: A Whiter Shade of Fail | on NIDC - Part 2The Pork Reich was in a cracker police sate of mind in the early part of June as The Skinny covered Gestapo raids, a colonial massacre, and the invasion of LA. - Part 2
#Fascism#Trump#USPol
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While I understand why some liberals get frustrated when left wing analysts stress the bipartisan nature of the US establishment's efforts to create a new McCarthyism, and support for deploying an already existing police state against student anti-genocide protestors, I'd like to think that months into the Kelpto Kaiser's openly fascist presidency, it's clear to reasonable observers why this matters. The conflation of anti-genocide, with antisemitism and support for Hamas, an organization the US government had labelled as "terrorist" long before Trump took office, as well as public demonization of student protestors calling for the larger US establishment to sever ties with Israel, and the normalization of militarized police responses on university campuses, all supported by both the Biden administration *and* the larger "liberal" capitalist establishment, are so foundational to Trump's expanded fascist repression of protestors and critics, that you can't separate one from the other; even while acknowledging that Downarket Mussolini is using that bipartisan support in appalling ways Biden did not, to drive his larger fascist agenda.

The other reason you can't separate the support of the larger liberal establishment from the fascist shit Trump is doing to anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian protestors now is because said liberal establishment hasn't actually stopped engaging in their own acts of fascist repression targeting student protestors. For an example of what I'm talking about, let's return to my home state of Michigan, where sharp-minded readers may recall Dem state AG Dana Nessel got into hot water in April after she allowed FBI (so, federal) agents and local law enforcement to smash in the doors of pro-Palestine anti-genocide activists connected to the University of Michigan, and then told a bunch of big stupid lies about why that didn't mean she was working with Trump to target student protestors. Well I'm sorry to say the targeted harassment and intimidation of pro-Palestine activists at UM continues, but this time it's coming from the university itself.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j

University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters

"The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian.

Students say they have frequently identified undercover investigators and confronted them. In two bizarre interactions captured by one student on video, a man who had been trailing the student faked disabilities, and noisily – and falsely – accused a student of attempting to rob him.

The undercover investigators appear to work for Detroit-based City Shield, a private security group, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students, according to a Guardian review of police records, university spending records and video collected in legal discovery. Most charges were later dropped. Public spending records from the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield."

There are a lot of local political winds in the background of this story, but the key point here is that UM is hiring private goons to intimidate activists calling on the university to stop supporting Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of which are their own students. Furthermore, there's no evidence whatsoever that Trump is making them do this; UM, which proudly bills itself as a Midwestern bastion of enlightened liberal culture and a leadership factory for broader American society, just really wants to scare students into silence on its own, and in doing so happily prosecutes Trump's agenda for him.

The point I'm getting at is that when a school like Michigan, acts against its own students and communities in the precise way Trump would do himself, it's hard to believe that school sincerely opposes Trump, or even his fascist policies. And while this is just one school, this act of doing one thing and saying another is being replicated all across the broader US liberal establishment in both the public and private sectors. This has helped, and continues to help Trump in his quest to intimidate American universities and crush dissent under the guise of fighting made up antisemitism half of that liberal establishment continues to falsely insist exists broadly on the anti-genocide left. Until such a time as so-called "liberal" leaders stop supporting actions and ideology that harms protestors and furthers the goals of a fascist regime, they will remain a vital part of this story.

The Guardian · University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protestersBy Tom Perkins
#UM#Fascism#Gaza
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@w7voa meanwhile, outgoing UM president Santa Ono was a shoe-in for the president of UF, but was just voted down by Florida Board of Governors for being a "woke psycho" after Chris Rufo and DJTJr raised a hullaballoo on twitter.

Santa Ono had just gone on an anti-DEI editorial tour to try to secure the job. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also part of his own personal development plan to get paid more elsewhere by proving he supports Florida-friendly fascist nonsense.

Zwei lapidare Sätze in Zeile 1.354 + 1.355 im #Koalitionsvertrag: "Wir streben eine Fokussierung auf unmittelbare #Betrof­fen­heit bei Klage- u. Beteiligungsrechten an. Wir ver­schlan­ken das #Umweltinformationsgesetz." Was harmlos klingt, könnte ein gefährlicher Ein­griff in demokratische #Mit­wirkungsrechte der #Naturschutzorganisation|en sein. Hier geht's um die Be­tei­li­gung der #Zi­vil­gesellschaft an Entscheidungen. Für #Natur u. #Um­welt könnten die Fol­gen katastrophal sein. #Klagerecht

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Well, this one hits closer to home than I'd like. The University of Michigan has become the latest extremely wealthy ($19.2B endowment as of June 30, 2024) US higher education institute to capitulate to Trump, and in doing so further the regime's efforts to enforce a white supremacist worldview on education in America.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

University of Michigan shutters its flagship diversity program

“The federal government is determined to dismantle and control higher education and to make our institutions more uniform, more inequitable, and more exclusive,” Rebekah Modrak, the chair of the faculty senate, wrote in an email to colleagues about the decision, according to the Detroit Free Press. “They are using the power of the government to engineer a sweeping culture change towards white supremacy. Unfortunately, University of Michigan leaders seem determined to comply and to collaborate in our own destruction.”

As someone intimately familiar with how UM operates, the administrator's decision to surrender completely in the face of Trump's threats to cut all federal funding is hardly surprising; although it is extremely disappointing. Michigan is in many ways the perfect model of the neoliberal (capitalist) university; it receives over a billion dollars a year in federal research funding, and the school had already cut back on its diversity initiatives in admissions and hiring in response to a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS striking down Affirmative Action. As in the case with Columbia, I am fairly certain the school's wealthy alumni base, access to some of the finest lawyers in America, and massive endowment would have allowed it to fight Trump's extortion in court; and that decision would be largely supported by students, faculty, and even the (Democrat controlled) state government. Despite this, a conflict-adverse administration that has transformed UM into a money printing machine over the past couple of decades in particular, was never going to risk perhaps billions of dollars in funding; even if it means capitulating to fascism. While some may be inclined to forgive Michigan's leadership for their cowardice given those stakes, I will once again remind folks that if you don't stand for opposing extortion, fascism, and white supremacy, why should anyone believe you stand for anything at all?

Worse still, is that Michigan's rational for groveling before Trump's white nationalist agenda tries to have it both ways, while (not so) subtly reinforcing white supremacist propaganda and world views. The university touts the groundbreaking success of its expansive DEI programs; while simultaneously pretending they're unconcerned with ending these programs because racism is over or something, I guess. The administration also points to the myriad of fascist executive orders and threats issued by the Trump regime, but then offers up the excuse that "some in our campus community have voiced frustration that they did not feel included in DEI initiatives and that the programming fell short in fostering connections among diverse groups" - as if Trump's orders and Michigan's actions have anything at all to do with "fostering connections among diverse groups" or helping people the DEI initiative wasn't helping enough. Finally the UM administration promises to continue to foster "multiculturalism" and states it remains "steadfast in our dedication to academic freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression" - as if Trump can't threaten Michigan's funding again to cancel programs that foster "multiculturalism" (another word fascists use instead of slurs), or terms like "academic freedom" mean anything in light of the Faustian (non) bargain the University has struck here.

The sad truth here is that out of nothing more than greed and cowardice, the University of Michigan has given Downmarket Mussolini and his white nationalist agenda a victory that will ring across the nation. The UM DEI program was expanded in part to counteract the rise of white nationalist politics during the first Trump presidency, it was a highly successful endeavor that was considered a model for other schools to copy nationally, and Michigan's commitment to diversity programs was genuine. If a northern liberal school with more money than god and every reason to fight back, won't take on the Trump regime's fascist agenda, who else is going to have the courage to do so?

The Guardian · University of Michigan shutters its flagship diversity programBy Adria R Walker
Replied in thread

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