13 Signs Of Fascism Seen In Donald Trump’s Actions
Megan Liscomb – October 27, 2024
In a recent interview with the New York Times, John Kelly, a former four-star Marine general and former chief of staff to former president Donald Trump, described his former boss as someone who “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
He also described conversations with Trump in which he claims the former president said, “Hitler did some good things, too.” The Atlanticalso reported this week that, during his presidency, Trump allegedly said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”
More former Trump officials issued a letter to Politico Friday backing Kelly’s warning about Trump’s authoritarian leanings.
In case you need a refresher, fascism is a form of authoritarian government. It often comes from the far-right, and fascist regimes typically feature a dictator who uses the military to squash political dissent. You’re probably familiar with the bloody regimes of historical fascist dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, but before fascism reaches those extremes, there are also some early warning signs that you should be aware of.
The warning signs of fascism listed below come from the work of writer Laurence W. Britt. He created this list in 2003 after studying fascist movements throughout history, and it has gone viral a few times in recent years after a poster version of his list was spotted for sale in the gift shop at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
So, to illustrate exactly what Kelly and other former Trump officials are talking about, here are 13 warning signs of fascism, as seen on Donald Trump:
1.Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Donald Trump has called himself a “proud nationalist,” often repeating the motto “America first.” Nationalism can pass for simple patriotic pride in one’s country. However, in Trump’s case, his ties to white nationalists like Steve Bannon and his alarming rhetoric about immigration, diversity, and repeated calls to “take our country back” all suggest a more sinister, fascistic form of national pride that elevates an imagined ideal of the nation over the rights of the actual people who live in it.Anna Moneymaker / Getty ImagesMore
2.Disdain for the importance of human rights.
During the Trump presidency, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review created and regularly updated a Trump Administration Human Rights Tracker to monitor his impact on human rights domestically and abroad. From his administration releasing federal rules that allow employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control to separating children from their parents at the border (among many more problematic actions), Trump’s policies showed a repeated lack of regard for human rights to autonomy, health, and freedom from discrimination and persecution.Pool / Getty ImagesMore
3.Identification of enemies as a unifying cause.
Trump often relies on inflammatory rhetoric about his “enemies” to rile up his base, and his favorite boogeyman by far is immigration. He infamously said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” During the most recent Presidential Debate, he falsely insisted that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating dogs and cats. He has repeatedly blamed immigrants for inflation and other economic issues (never mind the fact that inflation spiked worldwide due to the pandemic). There are so many examples of him scapegoating immigrants that I could go on listing them all day, but we still have 11 more signs of fascism to go, so I’ll leave it here.Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty ImagesMore
4.The supremacy of the military.
Despite portraying himself as an anti-war candidate, Trump has a long-standing preoccupation with using the military in service of his agenda. During his presidency, he indulged in a dictator-style military parade and was criticized for overreliance on military might in his foreign policy endeavors. He has campaigned on using the military to round up and deport immigrants. And, in recent days, Trump has spoken about using the military to go after his political opponents and regular citizens who disagree with him.Mark Wilson / Getty ImagesMore
5.Rampant sexism.
The way that Trump talks about and treats women is, unfortunately, old news. From the infamous “grab them by the pussy” tape to the 27 allegations of sexual misconduct against him, Trump’s words and actions show that he sees women as a means to his own sexual pleasure and little else. His choice of J.D. Vance, who seemingly can’t stop saying weird things about women, as his running mate shows that sexism continues to be part of the Trump agenda.NBC News / Via youtube.comMore
6.Controlled mass media.
Trump doesn’t control the media (yet), but he would definitely like to. If re-elected, Trump has threatened to imprison journalists who report facts he doesn’t like. He has also called for CBS’s broadcast license to be revoked following their interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.Nurphoto / NurPhoto via Getty ImagesMore
7.Religion and government intertwined.
Trump is not himself a particularly religious man, but he continually appeals to the religious right, as in his campaign’s “Believers for Trump” program and his side hustle as a bible salesperson. And his administration took several steps that right-wing evangelicals long wished for, like appointing the conservative Supreme Court justices who would go on to overturn Roe V. Wade. Additionally, Trump’s ties to the Christian nationalist agenda in Project 2025 indicate that a second Trump term would do even more to intermingle religion and government.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesMore
8.Corporate power protected.
In office, Trump enabled corporations to amass more money and power at the expense of working people. He cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, which led to a boom in corporate stock buybacks instead of “trickling down.” His administration also rolled back over 100 environmental regulations and deregulated food safety.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty ImagesMore
9.Labor power suppressed.
Trump claims to be pro-worker, but his track record and statements about labor don’t appear to show a leader with workers’ interests in mind. His administration implemented rules that made it harder for workers to unionize their workplaces. He has also praised Elon Musk for allegedly firing striking workers and bragged about not paying employees overtime.Michael M. Santiago / Getty ImagesMore
10.Disdain for intellectuals and the arts.
Trump’s increasingly tenuous relationship with the truth goes hand in hand with his disdain for intellectuals. He’s cast doubt on experts in everything from climate change to COVID-19, with serious consequences. He couldn’t stop the spread of COVID by slowing down testing no more than he could change the course of a hurricane with a Sharpie. Rejecting evidence-based study, Trump prefers to remain in an echo chamber where he is always right, regardless of what’s actually happening before all of our eyes.Drew Angerer / Getty ImagesMore
11.Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rates of violent crime and property crime have fallen significantly since the 1990s, but you’d never know it to hear Trump talk. His rallies have long featured exaggerated rhetoric around crime and talk of “American carnage.” For a recent example, at a campaign event in Detroit, he claimed, “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped.” When confronted with actual falling crime statistics from the FBI, he said, “They didn’t include the cities with the worst crimes. It was a fraud.” He also recently suggested that “one tough, violent day” of policing could end crime. You know, like the dystopian plot of The Purge.Anadolu / Getty ImagesMore
12.Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Trump himself has been found guilty of 34 felony charges in a trial that took place earlier this year over falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to adult actress Stormy Daniels as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election. Additionally, he still faces three more felony indictments. Quite a few of his allies have also had criminal charges brought against them, including Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Michael Cohen.Handout / Getty ImagesMore
13.Fraudulent elections.
Donald Trump is the only president in American history to attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. In 2020, Trump declared victory before the vote count was complete, and then, when it became clear that he had lost, he refused to accept the election results. He pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election and spread lies about the election results that arguably incited the January 6 riot. Now, he’s laying the groundwork to challenge the outcome again in 2024. He’s reportedly already talking with lawyers about contesting the result of an election that hasn’t even happened yet.Brent Stirton / Getty ImagesMore
So, in conclusion, please vote! And if anyone knows a foolproof way to take a little nap until the election is finally over, please let me know in the comments.
By Jamelle Bouie, Opinion Columnist – October 25, 2024
Credit…Damon Winter/The New York Times
Mark Milley is not the only general to call Donald Trump a fascist.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that,” John Kelly, the former Marine general who served as Trump’s chief of staff, said during a recent interview with my colleague Michael Schmidt. “So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Kelly even went as far as reading a definition of “fascism” to prove his point. “Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said.
Those are the kinds of things, Kelly added, that Trump “thinks would work better in terms of running America.”
And while he is not a general, Mark Esper, Trump’s onetime secretary of defense, told CNN that he thinks the public should take the former president “seriously” when he raises the possibility of using the military against American citizens.
“I think President Trump has learned the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do,” Esper said.
“And I think he’s talked about that, his acolytes have talked about that, and I think loyalty will be the first litmus test,” Esper added. He also said, following Kelly’s remarks, that Trump “has those inclinations,” meaning toward fascism.
Mark Milley. John Kelly. Mark Esper. Two generals. Three high-ranking officials in the Trump administration. Men with intimate knowledge of Trump’s impulses and private behavior. And here they are, in the crucial weeks before the election, telling the American public — explicitly and without euphemism — that their former boss is a would-be autocrat who will, if given the chance, plunge this country into the darkness of authoritarianism.
This, as I wrote last week, is unprecedented. It’s one of the most extraordinary developments in American political history. To my mind, it is now the only story worth telling about the 2024 presidential election. It should be the only thing Americans talk about between now and Nov. 5. And every one of Trump’s allies and surrogates should have to answer the question of whether or not they agree that their boss is a “fascist to the core,” as Milley put it.
What is there to say about these revelations beyond the obvious point that Trump cannot be allowed to sit in the Oval Office a second time?
I have two thoughts — almost more like observations.
The first is for skeptics: Trump’s own actions in this campaign are confirmation that Milley, Kelly and Esper are right. One thing you’ll notice as we charge toward Election Day is the spate of stories about Trump’s post-election plans. Not transition plans, for how to staff the government if he wins, but plans to challenge and overturn the results if he loses. Plans to prevent certification of electoral votes, plans to throw out votes in states he lost — plans to do everything he can to take the final decision away from the people of the United States and put it in the hands of judges and election officials who support him more than they value their sworn oath to the Constitution. Backing Trump here is a group of billionaire donors who have spent more than $140 million on this second attempt to “stop the steal” should he lose once more at the ballot box.
The mere fact that this is a thing — the mere fact that this is an effort — is evidence alone of Trump’s authoritarian intent.
Put differently, Donald Trump does not respect your right to reject his advances. If the American public declines to give him a second term in office, his plan is to force himself on that public on the theory that the country and its political system are too far gone to stop him.
This brings me to my second observation.
We don’t, in 2024, hear much talk of guardrails anymore. And for good reason. The guardrails failed. Every single one of them. The Republican Party failed to police its own boundaries, welcoming Trump when it should have done everything it could to expel him. The impeachment process, designed to remove a rogue president, was short-circuited, unable to work in a world of rigid partisan loyalty. The criminal legal system tried to hold Trump accountable, but this was slow-walked and sabotaged by sympathetic judges (and justices) appointed by Trump or committed to the Republican Party.
When the states tried to take matters into their own hands, citing the clear text of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court stepped in to rewrite the amendment, turning a self-executing prohibition on insurrectionists in office into a mechanism that required a congressional vote those justices knew would never come.
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, that same majority effectively delayed the federal trial for Trump’s role in the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It also tried to nullify the case itself with a ruling that gave Trump, and any future president, immunity to criminal prosecution for a broad suite of “official acts.”
To do this, Roberts twisted the Constitution into a fun house mirror of itself, reading into the document an almost unlimited presidential impunity that cuts against the text, history and traditions of constitutional government in the United States. The court’s ruling in Trump v. United States is a vision of presidential power that, as Matt Ford observes in The New Republic, exists in a world “without John Locke, without Montesquieu, without Thomas Jefferson or James Madison or Alexander Hamilton.”
It is a ruling that ignores the classical republican ideas that underpin the American constitutional order. It is the imposition of pure ideology and a declaration from Roberts that his court doesn’t just interpret the Constitution, it is the Constitution.
The truth, at this point, is that the only real guardrails in the American system are the voters — the people, acting in their own defense.
For too long, too many of us have acted as if democracy can run on autopilot — as if self-government will, well, take care of itself. But it won’t. The reality is that the future of the American Republic is up to us.
We will decide if we live in a country where we govern ourselves. We will decide whether we hand this nation over to a man, and a movement, that rejects the notion of an inclusive American freedom and a broad, egalitarian American liberty. We will decide whether we will continue to seek — and expand upon — the promise of American democracy, as flawed and fraught as the reality has been.
It is, in fact, the great irony of self-government that we can decide to end it. “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher,” observed a young Abraham Lincoln in 1838. “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” If we wish, we can vote to hand away the closest thing we have, as a people, to a birthright.
My hope is that we don’t. My hope is that enough of us recognize the plain fact that Trump has been nothing more than a force for corruption, greed, cruelty and cynicism in American life. That he has empowered the worst among us and encouraged the worst in many of us. And that his great accomplishment as a national political leader is to spread the dangerous lie that we can blame the weakest and most vulnerable in our midst for our problems.
My hope, in short, is that enough Americans understand that there is no amount of harm you can inflict on others that will save you, give you strength, make you whole or keep you safe.
Jamelle Bouie became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2019. Before that he was the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine. He is based in Charlottesville, Va., and Washington.
Homeowners left scrambling after insurers drop coverage targeting working-class families: ‘Almost impossible to find coverage’
Alyssa Ochs – October 24, 2024
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways
Insurance companies are dropping customers in San Francisco due to extreme weather risks and if they fail to make unaffordable home upgrades.
Homeowners who still can get coverage are struggling to afford the sky-high premiums and risk having to pay out of pocket for natural disasters.
What’s happening?
As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, California’s insurance crisis is worsening.
Many insurers are telling homeowners they must make roofing and electrical repairs and replacements to keep their policies. As a result, an increasing number of San Franciscans are enrolling in the California FAIR plan, which provides the most basic but high-cost insurance to people who can’t get a policy through traditional insurance companies.
Jerry Becerra, Barbary Insurance Brokerage president, said the aging wiring of many San Francisco homes built in the 1940s or earlier makes it “almost impossible to find coverage.”
Beyond home maintenance-based denials, insurers are refusing to cover San Francisco homeowners due to wildfire risks. They also won’t cover homes where there are too many policies in the region prone to climate-related threats.
Why is homeowners insurance important?
San Francisco is just one of the many places experiencing an insurance crisis right now.
Insurance companies are dropping customers in high-risk areas all over the country due to extreme weather threats. These climate shifts result from planet-overheating pollution caused by unsustainable human activities like burning dirty energy.
Yet, in San Francisco and elsewhere, homeowners insurance is a crucial safety net for protecting against natural disasters.
What’s being done about insurance accessibility?
Insurance alternatives like the California FAIR Plan are helping homeowners get basic coverage for their homes for at least some peace of mind.
Ahsha Safaí from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors said, “It’s unfortunate that it’s playing out and hitting working families.” He also said the insurance crisis “has to be something that we advocate for through our state delegation.”
You can advocate for insurance accessibility by contacting your local government representatives and expressing your concerns. Vote for candidates who support pro-climate policies, and start making small changes in your daily habits to influence your neighbors as you lead by example.
For example, now is the perfect time to look into the available tax credits and government rebates for sustainable home upgrades. These cost savings may make it possible to update your home so that it is eligible for insurance coverage while lowering your monthly energy bills at the same time.
Homeowners outraged after major insurance company announces it won’t renew nearly 1,300 policies — here’s what you need to know
Jenny Allison – October 23, 2024
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For many Oklahoma homeowners, November is ushering in the need to find new insurance coverage at a time when it seems many options are either too expensive, insufficient, or simply nonexistent.
What’s happening?
The reason behind their predicament is that Farmers Insurance has decided not to renew certain policies due to wildfire risk, Newsweek reported. Now, around 1,300 homeowners are scrambling to find new coverage, as their policies are expiring in November.
“As housing prices have swelled as have the costs to replace them, so too have insurance prices to cover potential damage,” Newsweek quoted Alex Beene, a financial literacy professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
“And when you mix those increased expenses with a home in an area that is highly likely to encounter some type of natural disaster, it’s forcing insurance providers to raise premiums to unfathomable heights or just drop coverage completely.”
Why is this pattern concerning?
While Farmers is choosing not to renew the selected policies due to wildfire risk, other states are seeing the same issue over risks of hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, or other extreme weather-related events.
Unfortunately, scientists have found that these events are projected to grow even more intense as a direct result of our warming climate. And unless those temperatures slow down soon, wildfires and storms will continue to grow in severity.
For homeowners, losing coverage can mean having to enroll in a more expensive policy; in some cases, when no such policies are available or affordable, it can mean having to move towns or even states.
“Not only are they living in a property that won’t be covered in the case of damage, but the odds of them being able to relocate and sell that property go down considerably based on that same circumstance,” Beene told Newsweek.
What’s being done to protect homeowners?
Ideally, smaller insurance carriers in a market like Oklahoma’s could “come and pick up the pieces” left behind by a decision like this, Newsweek explained. But with carriers fearing increasing costs, many homeowners will instead see soaring premiums or be forced to use subpar providers.
Some states offer a state-managed plan, but it’s essentially a “last resort” arrangement and isn’t currently structured to withstand covering thousands of homeowners per state.
Homeowners left in the lurch after major insurance companies deem state ‘essentially uninsurable’: ‘Too many landscapes are ready to explode’
Kaiyo Funaki – October 24, 2024
Another turbulent wildfire season in California has left residents without insurance for some of their most valuable assets.
What’s happening?
According to a report from Wired, insurance companies are either hiking up premiums for homeowners or dropping policies altogether in fire-prone California.
For example, Allstate refuses to accept new customers, while Liberty Mutual and State Farm have stopped renewing plans for tens of thousands of customers — some of whom had been with a company for decades and have resorted to state-operated coverage that is far more expensive.
“My whole family has been with State Farm for maybe 75 years. They sent us a letter in July saying that they would keep us if they could, but had no choice and were canceling in August,” Suzanne Romaine, a resident of northern California’s Siskiyou County, told Wired.
The issue has become so prevalent that severalcounties have requested state officials to declare a state of emergency for insurance prices. Climate research and technology nonprofit First Street Foundation has even regarded parts of the state as “essentially ‘uninsurable.'”
Why are the rising insurance rates driven by wildfires concerning?
As global temperatures continue to climb, so will the frequency and destruction of wildfires.
According to Wired, California has suffered $30 billion in losses from wildfires since 2017. In that same period, the state experienced nine of its 10 largest fires and 13 of its 20 most destructive ones.
This past summer, first responders battled the fourth-largest fire in state history — one that spawned fire tornadoes and contaminated water supplies.
“The drying out of the U.S. Southwest since 1980 has created so much kindling that too many landscapes are ready to explode,” Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College, said. “The planet is warming rapidly, which increases the desiccation of vegetation and establishes near impossible conditions in which to fight fire.”
These conditions — coupled with improper forest management, the state’s restrictive fire insurance regulations, and economic restraints — have created an untenable situation with few winners.
“If you suppress rates and try to tell companies that they can only charge X, and they start losing money, eventually they are going to say: ‘I’m going to be super picky at that artificially low premium,’ or ‘We’re not going to write anybody, and will come back when things get reasonable,'” said David Russell, an insurance and finance professor at California State University, Northridge. “And that’s what you’ve seen with State Farm.”
What’s being done about the rising insurance costs?
Wired noted that California has initiated its Sustainable Insurance Strategy, which would allow insurance companies to utilize wildfire risk models that rely on future projections, whereas previous models used only historical data.
The state will also create a public risk model that will prevent private models from overestimating the future risk of wildfire losses that result in overcharged customers. Additionally, California is expediting rate increase approvals to get private insurers to return.
“There are changes afoot that could bring insurance supply back to the market. This cannot happen fast enough,” Russell added.
U.S. confirms North Korean troops are in Russia. What it means for the war in Ukraine.
Dylan Stableford – October 23, 2024
U.S. officals said Wednesday that North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia, confirming claims by Ukrainian and South Korean officials that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow with manpower amid Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops that have gone to Russia,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters traveling with him in Rome. “What, exactly, they’re doing is left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.”
At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that U.S. intelligence officials have determined that North Korea moved at least 3,000 soldiers by ship into eastern Russia earlier this month. The soldiers then traveled to multiple training sites in eastern Russia where they are currently undergoing training.
“We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military,” Kirby said. “But this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”
How did we get here?
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toast during a reception in Pyongyang on June 19. (Vladimir Smirnov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)More
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in June. The two sides emerged from the summit with a strategic agreement expanding their economic and military cooperation.
Late last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea of sending a military delegation to Russia and preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow’s war effort.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said North Korea had shipped 1,500 special forces to Russia for training and eventual deployment in the war.
North Korean and Russian officials denied the reports of North Korean troops in Russia. U.S. officials were unable to confirm them until Wednesday.
What it means for the war
North Korean soldiers march during a parade in Pyongyang on Sept. 9, 2018. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia has already used dozens of North Korea-made ballistic missiles against Ukraine, according to Reuters, and has received arms and munitions from Pyongyang.
But the use of North Korean troops on the ground in Russia’s fight against Ukraine would be an escalation in its war, now in its third year.
“That is a very, very serious issue,” Austin added. “And it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well.”
It’s also an indication that the bloody conflict has taken a toll on Russia’s military. U.S. military officials estimate that more than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the war began, in 2022.
“You’ve heard me talk about the significant casualties that [Putin] has experienced over the last two and a half years,” Austin said. “This is an indication that he may be even in more trouble than most people realize.”
“Let’s be clear,” Kirby said. “If North Korean soldiers do enter into combat, this development would demonstrate Russia’s growing desperation in its war against Ukraine.”
He added: “If Russia is forced to turn to North Korea for manpower, this is a sign of weakness, not strength, on the part of the Kremlin.”
What’s next?
Austin said Wednesday that the U.S. would continue to monitor the troop buildup to assess why they are there — and whether North Korea can be considered a “co-belligerent” in the war.
The U.S. recently announced that it would provide more than $800 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine.
And Kirby said the U.S. is “on track” to provide Ukraine with hundreds of air-defense systems, artillery, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles — “all of which will help keep Ukraine effective on the battlefield.”
Striking photographs document environmental decay on world’s largest lake
Zoe Whitfield, CNN – October 18, 2024
Moving from Tehran to the more northerly lakeside city of Rasht aged 13, Khashayar Javanmardi’s youth was punctuated by weekends and extended holidays on the Iranian coastline of the Caspian Sea. “It was a dreamy place,” the photographer reminisced on a phonecall with CNN. “It was my utopia; everything happened for me at the Caspian.”
Diluting this picturesque vignette, Javanmardi recalled the nuisance of the accompanying gammarus: an amphipod crustacean similar to a freshwater shrimp that would nibble at his feet whenever he ventured into the water. He had always hated them, but as he grew aware of their absence, alarm bells started to ring. “That was the first thing I noticed change,” he said. “Later I read that, due to pollution, they were extinct. They had been food for bigger species…”
Climate change and a lack of rainfall has caused one of Iran’s longest rivers, the Ghezel Ozen, to almost completely dry up, resulting in a devastating loss of aquatic wildlife. (Image taken in February 2022). – Khashayar Javanmardi 2024 courtesy Loose JointsMore
Situated between Europe and Asia, the Caspian is the world’s largest inland body of water; a colossal-sized endorheic basin — or a major lake — that is also bounded by five countries, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In recent years it has been the source of much concern for those privy to its shorelines, owing to what the UN Environment Programme has described as “an enormous burden of pollution from oil extraction and refining, offshore oil fields, radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and huge volumes of untreated sewage and industrial waste introduced mainly by the Volga River (which flows through Russia and into the Caspian Sea).”
It was anxieties about the water’s biodiversity that kickstarted Javanmardi’s decade-long photography project, highlighting the environmental and social impact of the area’s man-made deterioration. A new monograph “Caspian: A Southern Reflection,” published by Loose Joints, is the result of this extensive survey and operates simultaneously as a warning and an invitation to learn. “This project is the essence of my life and career,” acknowledged Javanmardi, speaking from Lausanne in Switzerland, where he is based today. “As an artist, I’ve always wanted to be an honest witness.”
Locals call it the lake “Mother Caspian.” One shepherd told Javanmardi of the lake’s decline; “It’s like we were not good to our mother, we were not that kind to our mother and now she’s sad and she’s not going to share her love.’” Image taken January 2021. – Khashayar Javanmardi 2024 courtesy Loose JointsMore
The book oscillates between landscapes, portraits and the quiet scenes that fit somewhere in the middle. On one page three family members stand facing out to rough white waves, the foot of a presumed fourth poking out of the window of a car to their left; elsewhere a mustached man sits alone at a plastic table, a look of despondence creeping across his face. Pictures of abandoned ships and other discarded objects further foreground the damage, coupled with a sense of loss.
Nominated at last year’s Prix Elysée (one of the world’s most prestigious photographic prizes run in conjunction with the Elysée Museum, also in Lausanne), an early iteration of the project received the special jury mention. Subsequently, the museum’s director Nathalie Herschdorfer penned the book’s introduction, describing how throughout its pages “we discover scenes that leave an aftertaste of desolation” and noting that “the inhabitants who pass through these landscapes, often photographed from a distance, express loneliness mixed with a sense of sorrow.”
The illegal dumping of waste close to the Caspian Sea is increasing pollution, as runoff seeps into the groundwater and directly contaminates the sea. – Khashayar Javanmardi 2024 courtesy Loose Joints
“A question that I asked people was, ‘what is the role of the Caspian in your life?’,” said Javanmardi, who began working on the project at Iran’s Anzali Lagoon. “They were really open, sharing their memories and how they feel. They call it the Mother Caspian and one guy, a shepherd, said ‘it’s like we were not good to our mother, we were not that kind to our mother and now she’s sad and she’s not going to share her love.’”
Indeed, while the Caspian was once a major hub for movement between Iran and Europe, in the last century it became a venue for leisure. Today though, Iran’s Environment Department says its waters are contaminated with over 120,000 tons of pollutants annually — domestic and industrial as well as oil remnants — while Javanmardi estimates the fishing rate has slumped by 70%. “If it shrinks, people’s lives shrink,” he explained, citing further statistics that project water levels could drop by between nine and 18 meters by the end of the century. Military activity, namely Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is a further aggravating cause (the former is suspected of having used its Caspian Flotilla to launch a number of strikes).
Abandoned boats at Kiashahr Port, northern Iran, taken in July 2022. – Khashayar Javanmardi 2024 courtesy Loose Joints
Furthermore, the photographer characterized language as at the core of the negligence: though it’s widely talked about as the Caspian “Sea”, the Caspian is technically a lake, a categorization that would imply stricter regulations by the respective governing bodies around waste and pollution (than the sea). “They (politicians) don’t call it a lake, and one of the reasons is that if they change it, the whole conversation around regulation would change,” Javanmardi suggested.
His objectives for the project have always been to raise awareness, he continued. “That’s my goal, and so I tried to use the body of water as a way to communicate culture and politics, global politics — because this is not just about Iran,” he said. “I’ve tried to show how the Caspian is still alive. For me, it’s the last cry of life — you always feel something is in the air when you see the photos. I like to give this space to the audience, to feel this.”
May 2020: A farmer rests while water is pumping from the lagoon to his farm. Extracting water directly from the lagoon has no regulation. – Khashayar Javanmardi 2024 courtesy Loose Joints
Despite the recklessness of higher political powers, during his travels Javanmardi found a sense of community in the people he met. “How they pay attention to the environment and are careful and in love with the Caspian, this is something that makes me hopeful,” he shared. “As long as I see this spirituality, that people know how privileged they are to live beside that sea… I know, as a person from there, we won’t let it be ruined.”
“Caspian: A Southern Reflection” by Khashayar Javanmardi is published by Loose Joints and out now
Maddow Blog | Trump blames Zelenskyy and U.S. for Putin’s war in Ukraine
Steve Benen – October 18, 2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump meeting on Sept 27, 2024 in New York City.
There’s no evidence that the Kremlin has prepared talking points for Donald Trump to share with the American public. But if the former president were, hypothetically, receiving rhetorical scripts from Moscow, the Republican candidate probably sound an awful like he sounds now.
The New York Times reported, for example, on the GOP nominee’s latest comments regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Former President Donald J. Trump blamed President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of his country in a podcast interview released on Thursday, inverting the facts of the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War. … Mr. Trump, in a rambling, muddled answer on a conservative podcast, was criticizing President Biden’s leadership when he abruptly brought up his skepticism over the administration’s continued military aid to Ukraine.
“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, repeating a familiar refrain. “Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start.”
A Washington Post analysis explained, “Even in the context of Trump’s long-standing obsequiousness to Putin, it’s hard to understand how Zelensky would have prevented having his nation be invaded. He could, in theory, have taken the approach that many Trump allies have since endorsed: simply agreeing to cede some or all of Ukraine to Russia, a move that would have prevented the damage incurred to the country’s buildings but amplified the damage done to its sovereignty.”
Later, in the same podcast interview, the Republican went from blaming Zelenskyy to saying he also blames his own country’s government, claiming that President Joe Biden helped “instigate” the conflict.
The only person Trump didn’t blame was Vladimir Putin — who, incidentally, is the one person responsible for the deadly and disastrous conflict.
The comments came just days after the former American president refused to say whether he’s had multiple, secret conversations with Putin since leaving the White House, though he added, “[B]ut I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing.”
Which came on the heels of allegations that the former Republican president, while in office, secretly sent Covid-19 testing equipment to Putin at the height of the pandemic, even as people in his own country struggled to gain access to such resources. (While Trump denied the allegations, the Kremlin — to the extent that its statements have merit — said Trump did, in fact, send Covid tests to Moscow.)
Which came on the heels of Trump refusing to say whether he wants our Ukrainian allies to prevail in the war against Russia.
Which came on the heels of Trump denouncing U.S. efforts to combat Russian misinformation campaigns, going so far as to characterize Russia as a victim.
Which came on the heels of the former American president celebrating the fact that Putin was echoing his talking points about the 2024 election and Trump’s multiple criminal indictments.
Which came on the heels of Trump telling a Mar-a-Lago audience how “smart” Putin was for invading a neighboring country.
Which came on the heels of Trump describing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and part of a “wonderful” strategy.
Which came on the heels of years’ worth of Trump kowtowing, genuflecting, and repeatedly showing abject weakness toward his Russian ally.
There Is No Precedent for Something Like This in American History
By Jamelle Bouie, Opinion Columnist– October 18, 2024
Credit…Ioulex for The New York Times
Toward the end of his tenure, Gen. Mark Milley, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, told Bob Woodward of The Washington Post that Donald Trump was a fundamental threat to the safety and integrity of the United States.
“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”
Let’s stop for a second.
It is simply extraordinary that the nation’s top general would tell anyone, much less one of the most famous reporters in the world, that the former president of the United States was a “fascist” — a “fascist to the core,” even — and a threat to the constitutional order. There is no precedent for such a thing in American history — no example of another time when a high-ranking leader of the nation’s armed forces felt compelled to warn the public of the danger posed by its once and perhaps future chief executive.
More important than the novelty of Milley’s statement is the reality that he’s right.
News of the general’s 2023 assessment broke last Friday. That afternoon, and as if to prove the point, Trump dived even deeper into the rhetorical abyss, telling his followers that he would deploy an 18th-century law to “liberate” the country from immigrants once and for all. “I make you this vow: November 5th, 2024 will be LIBERATION DAY in America,” Trump wrote on X.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered — and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.” And “to expedite removals of this savage gang,” he continued, “I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American Soil.”
To be clear, the Alien Enemies Act — one of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts signed by President John Adams — does not distinguish between “legal” and “illegal” immigrants and foreign nationals, a distinction that did not exist at the time of passage. This means that anyimmigrant deemed an “enemy alien” by the Trump administration could be subject to arrest and removal by the federal government.
To make this a reality, Trump said, “we will send elite squads of ICE, border patrol, and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest, and deport every last illegal alien gang member, until there is not a single one left.” And as he explained later in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, this crusade wouldn’t stop with immigrants. “I always say, we have two enemies,” Trump said, adding, “We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries.”
There is both a temptation and a tendency to dismiss all of this as just tough talk, the empty promises of one of the most dishonest men to ever sit in the Oval Office. Even his supporters, as my newsroom colleague Shawn McCreesh discovered, are inclined to treat his words and statements as something other than actual speech — utterances that convey feeling, not meaning. (Why anyone would want this kind of person in the White House is a separate question.)
This, as I’ve argued again and again, is a mistake. Presidential rhetoric corresponds to presidential action; it precedes and defines it. What a candidate says on the campaign trail connects to what he (or she) will do in office. And if Trump has had a single consistent message, it is that he’ll use the violent arm of the state to cleanse the nation of “scum” and “vermin,” whether immigrants and refugees or dissenters and political opponents like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi.
There is no reason to act as if the former president is issuing idle threats, especially given his efforts as president to wield violence against protesters, migrants and other perceived enemies of the state. “When he was president,” Asawin Suebsaeng and Tim Dickinson report in Rolling Stone, “several ideas that Trump repeatedly bellowed about in the Oval Office included conducting mass executions, and having U.S. police units kill scores of suspected drug dealers and criminals in urban areas in gunfights, with the cops then piling those corpses up on the street to send a grim message to gangs.”
The only reason these fantasies never became reality is that his aides and top officials either ignored or refused to carry out his orders. Next time, he’ll be surrounded by loyalists and sycophants. Next time, we won’t be so lucky.
What explains those Americans who hear Trump and, counter-intuitively, refuse to believe that he says what he means — that he’s just “telling it how it is”?
When exposed to the most intense and acute forms of stress, the brain doesn’t short-circuit as much as it resets to factory settings. You revert to your past experiences and usual patterns of behavior in order to make sense of and respond to the crisis at hand. Your brain takes the extraordinary and — to your detriment — makes it ordinary. This dynamic is the reason soldiers and pilots and first responders and anyone tasked to work in an emergency are trained to act without thinking: reprogrammed so that the mind defaults to a well-defined set of actions when subjected to extreme, mind-altering stress.
You can think of Donald Trump as that extraordinary stress. He is an authoritarian. His running mate, whose intellectual influences include people openly opposed to democracy, is arguably even worse. Trump’s campaign rests on an explicit promise to govern as an autocrat. He has announced, repeatedly, his intent to abuse the authority granted him as president to essentially terrorize millions of Americans, immigrants and native-born citizens alike.
If many Americans, from ordinary voters to political elites and the press, seem paralyzed with inaction, unable to accept what is plainly in front of us, it might just be because the stress of the situation has taken its toll on all of us. Faced with the truly unimaginable, many Americans have defaulted to the notion that this is an ordinary election with ordinary stakes.
Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start
AFP – October 17, 2024
Donald Trump (right) humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky when the pair met in New York last month, after the Repulican boasted of his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin (Alex Kent)Alex Kent/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFPMore
White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.
The comments — made in an interview with a podcast supportive of him — sparked an immediate backlash as critics accused the 78-year-old Republican former president of being a “traitor” and an “idiot.”
“Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been (anyone),” Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.
“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.”
Trump — who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — immediately pivoted to criticizing President Joe Biden, accusing him of having “instigated” the Ukraine war.
The Trump campaign told AFP the Republican was “clearly talking about Biden” and not Zelensky when he made his remarks about culpability for the war.
Ukraine communicates little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two years of Russia’s invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the war had killed or wounded a million soldiers on both sides.
The United States is one of Ukraine’s main backers, and has disbursed more than $64.1 billion in military assistance to Zelensky’s government since the start of the war.
Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump touted his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.
Trump was impeached for withholding vital weaponry from Ukraine after Russia’s smaller-scale 2014 invasion, as he pushed its government unsuccessfully into announcing investigations into Biden, who was then his election rival.
A federal investigation identified numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was found to have interfered in the 2016 US election on the Republican’s behalf.
Criticism over Trump’s apparent closeness to Putin was turbocharged last week by allegations that, while president, he sent the Russian leader Covid tests despite a US shortage and that the Republican and Putin may have been in contact numerous times since 2021.
“What a despicable Traitor,” the Republicans Against Trump lobby group posted on X, alongside footage of Trump’s podcast remarks.
“He’s an idiot, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans don’t see it,” added national security analyst John Sipher, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
