U.S. Fascism

support — in this case trans people — and from there will climb their way up through the entire queer community, immigrants from “shithole countries,” and ultimately to Jews, Muslims, “liberals,” and Black people.

And they do it all while claiming to be protecting “the children” and “culture.”

This is how it played out in Italy, Germany, and Spain in the 1930s, and most recently in Russia and Hungary. “Protect the children. Purify the society. Fight the culture wars.”

These are the templates, the models, for this Trump-led faction within the GOP.

And even those Republicans who don’t fully buy into the idea of replacing our democratic republic with a fascist oligarchic republic are unwilling to speak out because the bullies have succeeded in instilling in them the one paralyzing force always employed by fascists: fear.

So, how do the democratic countries that make the transition to violencebased fascism allow that to happen? And what is life like in those countries, both during and after it’s happened?

After World War II, a Chicago reporter named Milton Mayer struggled to understand how Adolf Hitler was able to flip one of the world’s most stable democracies into fascism.

His book, They Thought They Were Free, is his story of that experience. Intertwined through it — first published in 1955 — are repeated overt and subtle warnings to future generations of Americans: to us, today.

We can’t say we weren’t warned by our own people, our own politicians, the most senior members of our own institutional power structure.

In a speech that was hysterically criticized by Republicans and Fox “News“ pundits, former President Barack Obama in December of 2017 came right out and said it:

PEDRO, CA 90731 County of LOS ANGELES. Mailing Address: 255 W 5TH ST 1106, SAN PEDRO, CA 90731.

Registered owner(s): PAW CHAKRA LLC, 255 W 5th St UNIT1106, SAN PEDRO, CA 90731; State of Incorporation: CA This business is conducted by a limited liability company. The registrant(s) started doing business on N/A.

I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions code that the registrant knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000)).

PAW CHAKRA LLC S/ KAY-

LEIGH GEOGHEGAN, CEO

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on 03/15/2023.

NOTICE-In accordance with Subdivision (a) of Section

17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except, as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. Effective January 1, 2014, the Fictitious Business Name Statement must be accompanied by the Affidavit of Identity form. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State, or common law (See Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions Code). 03/30/23, 04/13/23, 04/27/23, 05/11/23

WARNING:

Free newspapers provide a key source of information to the public, in many cases providing an important alternative to the news and ideas expressed in other local media sources. The Legislature further finds that the unauthorized taking of multiple copies of free newspapers, whether done to sell them to recycling centers, to injure a business competitor, to deprive others of the opportunity to read them, or for any other reason, injures the rights of readers, writers, publishers, and advertisers, and impoverishes the marketplace of ideas in California.

Ref. Universal Citation: CA Penal Code § 490.7 (2021)

We are, today, fully in the midst of a fascist crisis in this country. On the surface things seem normal: there’s a thousand movies on demand in your home, people go to work and get their paychecks, airplanes are full as families travel on vacation and businesspeople do their thing.

But the fascist movement grinds on like a glacier, patiently but irresistibly tearing up the landscape in front of it.

“You have to tend to this garden of democracy, otherwise things can fall apart fairly quickly. And we’ve seen societies where that happens.”

The warnings have been there all along: fascist takeovers are rarely sudden affairs. I wrote of this in 2005, quoting Mayer and going off on George W. Bush and the PATRIOT Act as the prequel to fascism.

If ever there was a time when Americans need to be conscious of what’s really going on in our nation — to be “woke” — this is it.