Refuse Fascism

More and more political commentators are using the F word and talking what to do about it. Andy Zee, one of the initiators of Refuse Fascism, comments on the developing situation in the US in late July 2020. Sarah Posner, author of the new book "Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump" talks about the Christian Right's unwavering support for Trump.  "If NOW isn’t the time to be in the streets nonviolently demanding the immediate ouster of this regime, when IS? "Trump is not 'losing an election.' He is setting the stage to declare any outcome other than his victory illegitimate, backed up by a GOP willing to rig elections and the violence of the “police, military, and bikers for Trump” to attack and suppress any opposition to their program. Waiting for November to remove Trump is like waiting for rain when a house is on fire." - From the new Call to Act on September 5, posted on RefuseFascism.org Find a protest near you or get connected with resources to organize in your area at RefuseFascism.org.  Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

In an ominous escalation of fascism, the Trump/Pence regime sent federal agents from multiple agencies to storm the streets of Portland, Oregon and crush ongoing protests. He is now deploying them to positions across the country, targeting those who dare to defy this regime and Democratic-run cities with large populations of Black people. In the United States the federal government now commands rapid deployment forces that can be sent to suppress protest or take over as “law enforcement” for any reason the regime deems necessary. They are deployed and commanded by a fascist lunatic, heading into an election. If NOW isn’t the time to be in the streets nonviolently demanding the immediate ouster of this regime, when IS? We talk to a couple of people who have been on the ground at protests in Portland almost every day over the past few months: Garrison Davis, independent journalist has been documenting the protests via Twitter @hungrybowtie and on his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvgiWaFGDAN7INDMwR9VNOQ and activist and musician Samm Bones (find her at sammbones.com). Find a protest near you or get connected with resources to organize in your area at refusefascism.org. Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

Chantelle Herschberger and attorney Michael Plaut discuss the case of the Freeway 9 in Los Angeles - activists who blocked the highway in 2017 with a banner reading “Trump/Pence Out Now.” The case was finally dismissed this spring after two mistrials. Organizers with Refuse Fascism in LA mounted a political defense, admitting that they were in fact on the highway, but that it was necessary and protected under the first amendment due to the danger posed by this regime. Over the course of the prosecution it was discovered that the LAPD sent undercover informants to spy on protesters. This week, as Trump and acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf have sent federal forces to Portland to suppress protesters and threaten to deploy this secret police to many other cities, there are vital lessons to learn from this case and how to fight police state repression on all fronts.  LA Times: City attorney drops all charges against anti-Trump protest group that LAPD spied on  RefuseFascism.org: Victory in Case of Refuse Fascism Freeway Protesters in Los Angeles Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

We’re all asking ourselves a lot of questions right now: What does it mean to be a “good person” at this time? How can we ensure that Black lives  be preserved against the forces of violent racism? And - will we accept Trump and his whole agenda of white supremacy and hate as legitimate if he stays in power? If we won’t accept it then, why would we accept it now? RefuseFascism.org co-editors Coco Das (@coco_das) and Sarah Roark (@afterdaylight) talk about the morality of living in Trump’s America, then activist Lina Thorne talks with Rev. Michael Woolf about faith, resistance and complicity under fascism.  Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (now a Netflix documentary) is interviewed by Samantha Goldman, activist with RefuseFascism.org (@SamanthaGoldm19).  If you were horrified by Pence’s instructions to pray instead of wearing a mask, or bewildered by the seemingly unshakeable support from evangelicals for a morally bankrupt character like Trump, you need to follow Jeff Sharlet's work. Recent articles on Vanity Fair include “You Know What to Do”: Decoding the Grotesque Symbolism of Trump’s Tulsa Rally and “He’s the Chosen One to Run America”: Inside the Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church and He Is the Gospel. You can find him on Twitter at @JeffSharlet. Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

In an interview recorded May 18, writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton discusses Trump’s death cult with activist Sam Goldman. Jared Yates Sexton is an author and political analyst whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Politico, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. Most recently he’s the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, forthcoming from Dutton/Penguin-Random House in Fall 2020. He can be found on Twitter @jysexton and hosts The Muckrake podcast. Read his latest piece, Deus Vult: Donald Trump and America's Holy War Threaten Everything We Know at TheMuckrake.com. Then, Sarah Roark, Co-Editor of RefuseFascism.org talks about whether we can or should wait until the November elections to remove Trump. Follow Sarah's political writings at RefuseFascism.org and follow her on Twitter @afterdaylight. Refuse Fascism is calling for nationwide protests July 4 to demand This Nightmare Must End - Trump/Pence Out Now! Find out more and get involved at RefuseFascism.org. Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: 
Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism 
Cashapp: @RefuseFascism
 paypal.me/refusefascism 
 donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

As Trump continues with plans to hold a rally in Tulsa the day after Juneteenth (Emancipation Day), Coco Das (@coco_das), an editor of RefuseFascism.org, and Carl Dix (@carl_dix) discuss how and why the people must act urgently right now to defend Black lives, demand an end to police murder and the growing police state and most of all: demand the ouster of the Trump/Pence regime. Protests are planned around the country on Juneteenth (June 19th) and on Saturday (June 20, the day of Trump's rally). Find out how to join a Trump/Pence Out Now contingent at refusefascism.org. Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

Protests continue against white supremacy and police murder across the country, as more people identify Trump as a fascist and demand his resignation. Today's episode is airing on Trump's birthday, which is being "celebrated" with protests outside the White House and in multiple cities around the country.  Jason Stanley (@jasonintrator), philosopher and author of "How Fascism Works," is interviewed by Coco Das (@coco_das), an editor of RefuseFascism.org. This discussion was recorded on June 3.  “By placing Trump in transnational and transhistorical perspective,  Stanley sees patterns that others miss. . . . Stanley’s comparative  perspective is particularly effective in illustrating how fascists use  fears of sexual violence. . . . By calling Trump a ‘fascist’—a word that  strikes many Americans as alien and extreme—Stanley is trying to spark  public alarm. He doesn’t want Americans to respond to Trump’s racist,  authoritarian offensives by moving their moral goal posts. The greater  danger, he suggests, isn’t hyperbole, it’s normalization. And twenty  months into Trump’s presidency, the evidence is mounting that he’s  right.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo: @Refuse-Fascism Cashapp: @RefuseFascism paypal.me/refusefascism donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

Coco Das, one of the editors of RefuseFascism.org interviews Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian of fascism, who tweeted on May 21st: "When do you know authoritarian corruption has advanced to a new stage? When they don’t hide it. Trump’s been frank: if it might lose me the election, it cannot be allowed." Since the interview, an extraordinarily broad and diverse movement against police murder has erupted across the country, with incredible repression and brutality inflicted against protesters in DC and other major cities - Refuse Fascism has been out there working to join the demand for justice with the need to drive out this fascist regime. Support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo @Refuse-Fascism or donate.refusefascism.org Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.

RefuseFascism.org volunteer Sam Goldman talks with Lucian Truscott IV, writer for Salon.com in an interview that was recorded via Facebook Live a couple weeks ago, during what was a very different moment, as anti-science fascists were mobilizing to demand states reopen.  THIS WEEK Call to Action: Trump has unleashed US military police against peaceful protest and threatened to call out the military nationwide. An uprising has begun. Day after day, night after night, coast to coast, the streets fill with Black youth refusing to face another day in fear and people of all backgrounds who have had enough of white supremacy and a culture of soul-crushing cruelty. Comparisons to 1968 fill some with dread and some with hope, but one thing is clear. Millions have been shaken awake. Trump has thrown down a heavy gauntlet to the people who have been heroically protesting in the face of heightened repression. Under the orders of Attorney General Bill Barr, federal forces hurled unrestrained brutality on peaceful protesters at Lafayette Park on June 1, driving them out so that Trump could rant like a police-state dictator and pose with a Bible for his Christian fascist followers. He invoked the Second Amendment to call out his armed vigilante militias, threatened to send the U.S. military into the streets to restore a fascist “law and order,” and bragged about dispatching “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” into D.C. Day after day, night after night, coast to coast, the streets fill with Black youth refusing to face another day in fear and people of all backgrounds who have had enough of white supremacy and a culture of soul-crushing cruelty. Comparisons to 1968 fill some with dread and some with hope, but one thing is clear. Millions have been shaken awake. Trump has thrown down a heavy gauntlet to the people who have been heroically protesting in the face of heightened repression. Under the orders of Attorney General Bill Barr, federal forces hurled unrestrained brutality on peaceful protesters at Lafayette Park on June 1, driving them out so that Trump could rant like a police-state dictator and pose with a Bible for his Christian fascist followers. He invoked the Second Amendment to call out his armed vigilante militias, threatened to send the U.S. military into the streets to restore a fascist “law and order,” and bragged about dispatching “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” into D.C. Yet the people have not cowered. In the face of all the tear gas and rubber bullets, the curfews and threats of more firepower, the rulers have proven that they are not all-powerful. For the first time under this regime, the people have seized the initiative and have not let go. In contrast to the hate and bigotry of the Trump/Pence regime, these protests are infused with a love for humanity, and those in power seem more out of touch and illegitimate by the day. The splits at the top, even among conservatives, have sharpened up. A determined struggle that doesn’t yield and won’t be provoked has created a serious political crisis. This is how regimes around the world have been forced out of power. Continue reading this call to action and get involved. Chip in to support the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence regime: Venmo @Refuse-Fascism Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown.