2025 Archives

Step by Step, MAGA Is normalizing repression and setting America up for tyranny. Will we wait, like so many before us, until the knock comes to our own door? "The fog crept in on little cat feet." — Carl Sandburg, Fog (1916) Eventually, people in countries that are in the process of flipping from democracy to fascism figure out that they're now living in a dictatorship; by then, however, it's usually too late. For people in Hungary, it was May, 2020 when Orbán started arresting people for their Facebook posts. For folks in Russia it was when Navalny and his supporters were first assaulted in public and then arrested and sent to brutal gulags in Siberia. For Germans, it was July 14, 1933 — six months after he became chancellor — when Hitler outlawed all political parties except his own.

If you think this ends with L.A., you haven't been paying attention. This is Portland 2.0 — but scaled up, and aimed at the soul of American democracy… Trump: Well, we're going to have troops everywhere. Reporter: What's the bar for sending in the Marines? Trump: The bar is what I think it is. The 2026 and 2028 elections may have just gotten a lot more distant. First, the backstory. It was around 2 a.m. on July 15, 2020, when Mark Pettibone, then 29, was walking home from a relatively calm Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland. He hadn't done anything more provocative than wearing a black shirt; no slogans, no mask, no glimmers of violence. Yet moments later, an unmarked minivan pulled up alongside him. Out jumped several armed men in camouflage, with no insignia, slipped a bag over his head and kidnapped him.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Everybody hates both Trump and Musk! — There's a "Dark MAGA/Dark Enlightenment" conspiracy theory going around where Musk destroys Trump and he and his tech bro buddies take over our democracy. — It's shocking how uninterested the media is in Musk's claim that Trump's in the Epstein files. — Will Trump force our military officers to sign an oath swearing allegiance to him above the Constitution or the nation? — Trump bows down to Putin again, this time in front of the German Chancellor while in the Oval Office. — Bob Kennedy's deadly war on science rolls on. — As Trump ramps up his war on Blue states, are Americans getting over revenge politics? — Geeky Science! Speaking of revenge, a new study finds that revenge can be as addictive as opiates, and that forgiveness can work like detox.

Stay with me, and I’ll explain these weird, weird facts:•Trump’s tariffs on foreign steel increased the amount of steel imported. Despite Trump’s tariffs, total steel imports are up 3.6% year to date compared to 2024 according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. •Trump’s tariffs have reduced American steel production. Adjusted year-to-date output through May 24 was 36,287,000 net tons, down 0.5 percent from the same period last year. •Trump’s tariffs on steel have raised prices on American goods from cars to computer mainframes. NUCOR, America’s largest steelmaker, raised its prices a stunning 38.5%, from $675/ton to $935/ton in the past year to March 2025. As steel is central to US production in all industries, these hikes are a big factor in inflation, adding 1.7% to prices throughout the economy, according to a Yale University study. This will cost the average American family $2,800 if the tariffs continue through the year. •And the biggest shocker: Trump’s tariffs are costing American steel jobs. Despite Trump’s punitive tariffs, steel employment in the USA has flatlined and massive layoffs have been announced. In March, with Trump imposing the highest tariffs in a century, Cleveland-Cliffs, one of America’s largest steel producers, announced over 1,200 steelworkers will be laid off in Michigan and Minnesota. - Greg Palast