~~ recommended by newestbeginning ~~
Congressional Democrats have said their focus is on the cost of living, but now the cost of living under fascism is soaring
|
 |
Congressional Democratic leaders focused on affordability issues may now have reason to include saving democracy in their strategy, as evidence emerges that the cost of living is increasing due to the soaring cost of living under fascism.
Most government agencies will run out of funding without new appropriations approved by the end of the month, but Democratic Party leaders have been working with Republicans to pass those bills, instead of using their leverage to save democracy.
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in an interview published Monday that his party is focused on five issues:
The cost of housing
The cost of food
the cost of electricity
The cost of child care
The cost of health care
But there is increasing hope that Democrats might use their remaining funding leverage to address rising fascism costs, as well. New economic data are coming in every day about the high prices that everyday shoppers and other people are now paying for fascism.
For instance, on Sunday in Minneapolis, Pres. Donald Trump’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cost an elderly man the shirt off his back. ICE agents searching for Hmong residents removed U.S. citizen ChongLy Scott Thao from his home wearing his underwear, crocs, and a blanket.
 |
New economic data for January also show that fascism cost Renee Good everything she had and everything she was ever going to have.
Also fueling fascism’s economic toll, still-undetermined burial costs for the now-buried FBI probe of ICE agent Jonathan Ross for violating Good’s civil rights in her forearm, right chest, and head.
Other fascism costs being passed on to American taxpayers include:
A civil-rights investigation of peaceful protesters in a church led by an ICE official.
The diminished value of ICE credibility, as new videos of another ICE shooting reveal more ICE lies.
The import/export of lies is proving taxing on relations with Mexico, which has requested that the U.S. export information on how Heber Sánchez of Mexico died in ICE custody in Lovejoy, GA, last week.
A surplus in America’s inventory of dead immigrants at the ICE detention camp in El Paso, TX, where the tally now stands at three in the past couple months. The most recent, Victor Manuel Diaz, died last week of presumed suicide, which you can’t spell without “I-C-E.”
Homeland (sic) Security Secretary Kristi Noem wants special economic zones in Minneapolis for free trade of speech. However, as Mayor Jacob Frey put it, “First Amendment speech is not limited to one park or one section of the city.” And as TFN puts it, “We already have a zone for protest and free speech. It’s called America, motherfuckers.”
And the housing costs Schumer is already focused on could soon include the political enemies Trump has called for housing in federal prisons, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Don Lemon, a journalist who covered that protest in a Minneapolis church but unlike other journalists there was Black.
Ignoring gun laws could also raise the price of fascism. The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department is preparing to loosen gun regulations and pretend they’re in compliance with the law. Amazingly, the Post story suggests that the changes aren’t in response to any policy or legal impetus, but based on trying to pander to gun groups. Which, yeah, we know, we know, but it’s wild to have it almost said out loud.
Corporate media and professional sports could also take a hit from fascism snarling U.S. supply lines. On Saturday, Trump said he’s going to order American TV outlets to block the supply of college football games during the Army-Navy football game.
As the Washington Post noted, this “raised immediate legal questions.” As the Washington Post didn’t note, no it immediately didn’t, because there’s no question that Trump can’t do that.
But fascism doesn’t just metaphorically take an unquantifiable toll on the uncommodified human spirit. It also costs literal actual bank, moolah, dough.
The Minnesota Star Tribune rounds up Minneapolis-area business leaders discussing Trump’s fascist round-ups, and how they’re hurting revenues, especially if you round up.
“Even Fortune 500s are impacted when people can’t go to work,” said Minneapolis Regional Chamber President and CEO Mike Logan. (Oh, no. Not Fortune 500s. Why is it always the Fortune 500s that suffer?!?)
But these business leaders also appear to think — Satan bless their stony hearts — that even non-fiduciary issues matter. Why? Because they’re non-douches!
“Truly caring about each other … means truly listening when someone tells us they don’t feel safe, honoring and respecting the reality of their experiences even when it differs from our own, and perhaps most important of all — taking concrete actions to create environments where everyone feels safe and respected and can thrive.” - Allete CEO Bethany M. Owen.
“There are moments when silence itself begins to carry weight.” - Haberman marketing firm CEO Fred Haberman and President Brian Wachtler.
Many of fascism’s rising costs have already been baked into the 2026 federal budget. That’s because the Justice Department is the agency that defends Trump’s fascism in court. And Democrats already approved funding for the Justice Department to do so in 2026.
And there was senior Justice Department advisor Alina Habba on Monday calling Frey “a Somali sympathizer,” saying, “we have a mayor who’s a Somali sympathizer, who we’ve seen dancing around on stage with their flag instead of an American flag.”
The Justice Department’s new flag-dancing rule puts the Trump administration just one level of fascism above the town elders in Footloose.
But also, when did it become wrong to sympathize with the people of a country, especially a benighted country that the U.S. is benighting? Historically, right-wing Americans have smeared non-fascists as Communist sympathizers or terrorist sympathizers … but nationalities? Like … Swede sympathizers? Greenlander sympathizers?
While it’s too late to seek justice by defunding Justice, Congress has yet to pass unding bills for at least six agencies, including the Department of Homeland (sic) Security (DHS), which includes ICE; and the State Department, which includes plans to get ice in the form of Greenland.
Some political leaders, it’s worth noting, consider the costs of fascism marginal, mass round-ups a rounding error. Journalist, Newsfucker, and fellow Substacker Robert Leonard caught Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA), who’s running for Iowa governor, assuring voters that they won’t be impacted by ICE agents shooting fellow citizens dead in their SUVs.
Addressing claims that ICE is going after citizens, Feenstra said, “Once in a while something [e.g., a person] gets caught up, alright, but that happens when you do these [fascist] things, right? I mean, it’s incidental.” In other words, Good’s death is just the cost of doing fascism.
As I wrote Saturday in a TFN Bonus Story about Democrats funding Trump’s fascism, only 57 House Democrats voted against funding the State Department in 2026. Senate Democrats could block that funding with a filibuster, in exchange for wresting concessions about everything Secretary Marco Rubio is doing … that we know about.
I wrote about what Democrats will be funding by funding Rubio here.
DEMOCRATS STANDING UP Ninety-seven House Democrats are now sponsoring the resolution to impeach Noem.
And while Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) backs impeachment, her rival in the Minnesota gubernatorial Democratic primary, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, has apparently Googled “Angie Craig” and “ICE.”
So Flanagan is criticizing Craig for not seeing the dangers of ICE when it counted: In the past.
Last year, Craig was one of 46 House Democrats who voted for the Laken Riley Act — expanding what Trump’s ICE agents can do to undocumented immigrants, by which I mean the people ICE says are undocumented immigrants — and Craig backed a resolution expressing “gratitude” for ICE (for ICE’s work, not for ICE leaving Craig personally alone).
APPEASEMENT PAYS A radical-fringe Democratic think tank called Searchlight is one of the out-of-step organizations urging Democratic Party leaders to protect ICE, because “Abolish ICE” will alienate voters, even though more voters support abolishing ICE than protecting it.
And the American Prospect reports that the author of Searchlight’s protect-ICE memo works for a shadow-lobbying firm with clients including private-sector contractors who make money off U.S. immigration policy. Memo author Blas Nuñez-Neto said that tying his memo to his clients would be “a little disingenous.” But not totally disingenuous!
His clients include no one he would name. (h/t)
MEDIA WATCH Schumer gave that interview to The Bulwark, a Republican news site influential with Democratic Party leaders.
The Bulwark noted that Democrats are more optimistic about winning Senate control in November due to Schumer recruiting candidates like Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK). In the section before the paywall — that’s right, Democratic Party leaders talk to right-wing outlets that make you pay to read Democratic Party leader words — Minnesota was mentioned once, and The Bulwark’s context was that the violent siege there distracted America’s attention away from Schumer’s awesome recruiting:
“…the buzz around Peltola’s announcement was overshadowed by the chaotic, violent situation in Minnesota.”
That’s right, if you didn’t already hate the militaristic takeover of an American city, now it’s stealing the thunder from Schumer’s Senate campaign recruiting. And thanks to The Bulwark’s cosmetic work, it’s now disguised as a situation.
Greenland, Greenland, Über Alles
Pres. Donald Trump’s plans for a Turd Reich don’t stop at the (current) U.S. borders. He’s rapidly turning America into the opposite of a roach motel: Invaders go out, but they can’t come in.
Once, America worried about communist Russia invading, as seen in Red Dawn. Now, Minneapolis is the on-location set for Fed Dawn and Trump is already looking at Greenland for Sled Dawn.
Over the weekend, Norway’s prime minister¹ revealed Trump messaging him:
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. … The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
Never mind that the government of Norway doesn’t control the Nobel Peace Prize any more than Venezuelan opposition leaders do. This is what organized-crime cops call a protection racket: We’re going to take over your shop so it’s safe from being taken over.
Trump Violently Throws Hat in Ring for Nobel War Prize
Apparently someone gave Pres. Donald Trump his phone back. Overnight, he went on a posting tear, saying all kinds of undisciplined, lack-of-impulse-control shit, including, hilariously, sharing texts from other national leaders, because Norway did it to him first.
One target of Trump’s wrath was the stupidity of 2025 Trump.
Last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump supported the U.K.’s plan to return the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. Trump is apparently concerned about the status of a U.S./U.K. military base there.
Which is why the U.K. struck a deal to return the islands: The deal ensures the base can stay. An international judicial ruling in favor of Mauritius sovereignty had threatened prospects for the base to stay.
Obviously, Trump accused Great Britain of “great stupidity” for, y’know, recognizing the ruling’s legitimacy. It’s not clear whether anyone alerted the White House kitchen about the overnight presidential hangries.
Consumer Fascism Reports
Not content with raising the metaphorical costs of fascism, Pres. Donald Trump is hellbent on raising the literal cost of fascism, too. With tariffs!
The Supreme Court is considering or pretending to consider the constitutionality of Trump’s haphazard and hapstupid tariffs, which pedantic history teachers will forever remind us included uninhabited territories.
But in an interview published Monday, Trump’s Trade Represenative Jamieson Greer says the final ruling won’t matter. Because what part of fascism don’t you understand?
It’s not that Greer is vowing to defy a Supreme Court ruling striking down Trump’s tariffs. He’s just vowing that the court will have to play Whack-a-Mole, because Trump will just impose more tariffs to replace the killed tariffs.
If Trump’s tariffs lose at the Supreme Court, new ones would “start the next day,” Greer said. “[T]he president is going to have tariffs as part of his trade policy.”
Because freedom of religion means you don’t have to believe in the spirit of the law!
And a new study finds that 96% of this fascism is being paid for by the U.S.. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy reported Monday that its study found that foreign exporters only ate four percent of Trump’s tariff costs.
A previous study found that the U.S. costs are being born primarily by American companies, with only about 20% of Trump’s tariff costs being passed on to shoppers. For now.
FLASHBACK As TFN previously wrote, Greer’s “experience” prior to joining “government” consisted of helping rich people evade tariffs on their shit.
National Prayer Breakfast Gets Seconds, Maybe?
I reported on Monday, over on my original-reporting Substack, an update on next month’s National Prayer Breakfast. Earlier this month I reported that the two events — one at the Capitol, a much bigger one at the Washington Hilton — were rejoining as one. Oops!
That’s what co-chairs Reps. Ben Cline (R-VA) and Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) said in their announcement about the Washington Hilton breakfast. But then I obtained an invitation for the Capitol Hill one, too. Same time. Different place.
I was told that religious stuff can consist of multiple things in one, but apparently that’s not how it’s gonna work this year. Anyway, you can check out the details, and toplines about why it matters, in my exclusive report here.
Hope and Action
The state of Maine is fighting back against Pres. Donald Trump’s fascist overreach the way a good government bureaucracy does: With red dawn tape!
The Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles announced it’s pausing new license plates for undercover law enforcement vehicles. (h/t)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducts some of its indiscriminate roundups — of brown people, passersby passing by brown people, pedestrians, and alleged lookie-loos — using fake plates to conceal the fact that they’re law enforcement concealing their faces. In street slang, masked law enforcement in unmarked cars are known as “secret police,” best known as the good guys in the classic novel “1984” if you read it backwards.
The bold patriots at the Maine BMV said they’re suspending the secret-police license plates due to concerns of upcoming ICE raids there to round up the violent undocumented immigrants who have made the charming coasts, lush forests, and New England towns of Maine a post-apocalyptic hellhole.
The Maine BMV: Long Lines at The Front Lines of Democracy since 1905.
PEOPLE POWER Today is the Free America Walkout. I feel bad I found out about it this late, but The Guardian only reported it on Saturday. Anyway, organizers are urging people to mark today’s anniversary of Trump’s re-inauguration by not showing up for whatever you’d otherwise be doing today.
In New York City on Friday, students are planning a mass walk-out from school at 11am. Which, if I’m being honest, is pretty much when I walked out of school on Fridays. In college, anyway.
I’m kidding, I’m kidding: At 11am on Fridays I wasn’t awake yet. (I wish I could claim I was partying; I was working at The Tufts Daily every night.)
Friday’s walk-out is to protest threatened escalation of ICE action in New York City, which doesn’t want it and has a ginormous lady standing in the harbor explicitly welcoming immigrants and not saying dick about ICE dicks.
And, finally, a reminder that someone out there is manifesting a positive vision of what our government can look like:
Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social
No comments:
Post a Comment