Monthly Archives: January 2026

Racist Caricatures and Dog Whistles are Nothing New in America

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The White House altered the photo of Civil Rights Attorney, Nekima Levy Armstrong, following her arrest after participating in a protest at a Minnesota church where the pastor is an ICE agent. Homeland Security director, Kristi Noem, shared the correct image (on the left) on social media, but called the peaceful protest a “riot.”

Employing racist caricatures are in keeping with this regime’s political ideology. And following the Supreme Court’s heinous decision to allow for racial profiling, they have taken this to the extreme. ICE, under the direction of the DHS, has been mostly targeting Black, Brown and Asian people in their recent pogroms in Minneapolis.

Of course, none of this is new in the United States. There is a long legacy of denigrating Black women. Whether it be the mammy, or the “angry Black woman” or the Jezebel, or the “welfare queen.” Stripping the humanity away from Black women has been a fundamental feature of white supremacy in America. Along with this dehumanization of Black women came the terror and violence of the state, with rape, medical experimentation, forced sterilization and lynching being the most common methods.

The protest on the church in Minnesota was also not a “riot.” And the use of that term is loaded with racist dog whistles itself. In truth, the protest was totally justified given that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is an ICE agent.

White Christians have long supported the white supremacist arrangement of power in the United States. In particular, southern white evangelicals, who played a major role in justifying slavery with Bible verses and later supporting Jim Crow discrimination and segregation.

Throughout the centuries-long history of white European colonialism and conquest in North America, racism has played a central part in its ideology and culture. And little has changed in this regard. Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian communities have long suffered under the boot of American “democracy.” Now that the net has widened to include white people, perhaps some will begin to understand that none of this is new.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Jared Kushner’s ‘New Gaza’ is in Keeping with Zionism’s Colonial Project

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One of the most striking features of the Trump-Kushner plan for Gaza is that it erases anything resembling Palestine. The ancient architecture, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel, is replaced by something more akin to Dubai. And this is no accident.

Like so many Americans, Kushner and Trump view the entire Middle-East region as a monolith. One people. One culture. No variations. No complexities. The clothing, language, food? All the same.

The only cities they are familiar with are from the Gulf monarchies. Gaza, whose history stretches back at least 5000 years, was filled with ancient souks, mosques, hammams, churches, Roman mosaics, alleyways and ports, is transformed into a glittering hyper-capitalist dystopia. One which could sit comfortably in any of the Gulf nations.

When one considers the notion that this city would be built over the mass graves of hundreds of thousands of people, it becomes obvious how odious it all is. But this is also the story of Israel.

The Zionists came into this region with the claim that it was a “land without a people, for a people without a land.” But this was always a lie. And they knew it.

This is why they destroyed so many villages and planted forests on top of the ruins with trees not indigenous to the Levant. The result has been wildfires every year, as these European pines ignite in the dry, hot climate.

The seaside Palestinian village of Tantura was referred by the ancient Greeks as Dor. During the Nakba, a Zionist death squad from the Haganah, which came under the command of one of Israel’s founding fathers David Ben-Gurion, murdered hundreds of the inhabitants and buried them in mass graves. A kibbutz was later erected on the site. Today, it is a popular beach for Israelis.

Kushner’s grotesque vision for Gaza is in keeping with the Zionist project, which never sat comfortably in the Levant. It attempted to import its European identity on to a land that already had a long and rich culture of its own.

Despite its glittering skyscrapers, casinos, hotels and 5-star restaurants, this “New Gaza” will forever be stained with the blood of thousands. Their bones will be in every foundational stone. Though they will try their hardest to whitewash its edifice, the genocide will never be forgotten, nor forgiven by the millions of people around the world who have witnessed its horror.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

A Glimmer of Hope in Very Dark Times: a Personal Reflection

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As someone who has dual citizenship, watching the unraveling of my country to the south has been incredibly saddening and horrifying.

This regime, which is undeniably fascist, is headed by some of the most overtly sadistic people in its history. One which tells lies so often that it has become its only consistent policy

The United States was founded on Indigenous genocide and 400 years of the enslaved labour of Africans. Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, immigrant communities, women and queer people have always been the target of the brutality of the state. And the US has always been vicious in its imperialistic wars and covert actions throughout the Global South. But now, as the empire declines, the violence is widening. All of the pretenses and platitudes have been shattered.

In truth, this happened long before Trump. If a government can support, fund and defend a genocide, the very worst crime against humanity, it can justify anything. Gaza was screaming out to us, and so many Americans turned their heads.

But I cannot view this only from the lens of analysis. This was my country. One I had always criticized. One that I opposed for its wars and violence abroad. One whose social hatreds, racism and obsession with money I have always been appalled by.

It is also the cradle of most of my childhood memories. Where I first felt a sense of awe as a little boy when looking out at the Statue of Liberty or over the Grand Canyon. Where I marched with friends and comrades with the hope of change. Where I worked with dying and grieving people for over 20 years. Where my Canadian mother came to when she was just 18 years old. Where my Greek immigrant grandparents are buried. Where my father is buried. Where I attended elementary and high school and university. Where I first fell in love. Where I was married. Where so many family and friends still live.

So, to watch what is unfolding dispassionately while living in my other beloved country is an impossibility.

I would be lying if I said I had optimism for the United States right now. I don’t. I have fear. As a sociologist and student of history, particularly fascist movements, I know this is only going to get far worse before there is any light at the end of the tunnel.

But I am also encouraged to see the people of Minneapolis right now. The ones defending and protecting and assisting their neighbours. The ones showing up in the freezing cold to film and oppose the ICE death squads. The ones providing food and shelter and warmth. The ones who risk being murdered by the state for merely being out on their street and who will then be called “domestic terrorists” by a regime whose entire raison d’etre is terror.

What you are up against is no different than every other murderous tyranny in every other place on earth. But your unwavering humanity is what gives me a glimmer of light to focus on in these very dark times.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The Trump Regime’s Fascist Aesthetic is No Accident

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Gregory Bovino, pictured here in the forefront, is the head of the U.S. Border Patrol and supposedly the “commander-at-large” of the Trump regime’s paramilitary death squad, ICE. He reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, best known for shooting a puppy in the face.

Many are noting Bovino’s undeniable aesthetic. He added a leather cross-body strap in yesterday’s press briefing, sending an obvious signal about his political leanings. He was in charge of the Trump regime’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” another obvious dog whistle and mockery.

We can laugh this all off as cosplay, but this would be making a grave mistake. Fascists have historically used these kinds of costumes to project an air of authoritarian intimidation on to the public. When it is accompanied by violence, which we have seen plenty of from this regime, it can have a chilling affect. And it plays into a subconscious fetishism of sadism and submission. This kind of presentation is a portent of a very dangerous time ahead.

Right now, the Trump regime is carrying out a brutal assault on immigrants, people of colour and Indigenous Oglala Sioux in Minnesota. It has literally murdered people, either by strangulation, shooting, or neglect of medical needs. It is breaking down doors to homes, dragging half naked old men out into the freezing cold, and using 5 year old children as bait to abduct entire families. And it is rapidly adding more thugs to its death squads while it constructs concentration camps at record speed.

This aesthetic isn’t cosplay. It is the very emblem of the fascist terror they wish to emulate.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Gaza is What the Powerful are Planning for us All

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Imagine modern skyscrapers akin to Dubai. Imagine white sand beaches and hotels. Imagine first class restaurants. And imagine them all sitting atop the world’s biggest mass grave.

The New York Times, the so-called “paper of record.” presents Jared Kushner’s plan as “glittering.” It is almost as if Gollum, himself, penned it.

As this grotesque plan was presented in the posh resort village of Davos, a place where Nazis holidayed in the 1930s, where only the world’s most monied scoundrels convene to discuss their portfolios and prospects, Benjamin Netanyahu sat at home, unable to attend for fear of being arrested for war crimes.

The Trump regime, which resembles more a band of two bit gangsters, is assembling a pack of jackals to feast on the carcass of Gaza. With Israel razing what is left of its society to dust and pushing the remaining population into walled, militarized ghettos or deported somewhere else.

Gaza is the template for what the powerful plan for the rest of us. Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said in his speech in Davos that “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” He was talking about the so-called “middle powers.” But the stark reality is that most of us will never be invited to the party. And if we are, it will be through the kitchen door and straight into the oven.

Gaza is only the beginning. Trump’s sham “Board of Peace” is both an oxymoron and an insult. Its raison d’etre is a mechanism for the wealthy and powerful to extract even more wealth, property and power. Billionaires like Peter Thiel will be integral to this plan. Through his surveillance company, Palantir, it will clamp down on dissent in a manner only dreamed about by elites in decades past.

Others, like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Sam Altman and Michael Bloomberg, are heavily involved in this slash, extract and suture economy. Every region on earth is viewed as a capital investment to them. In truth, they were always viewed as such. But with the planet’s climate heating up, the game has become more cutthroat than ever before.

As for the rest of us, we are the dregs of the earth to them. An impediment which is best replaced by AI and robotics. Servants who cannot complain, cannot organize, cannot strike. We are expendable, as is democracy, a concept they see as quaint, but useless.

Gaza called out to us. It shouted its warning to the world. And it is still shouting. They aren’t listening. The question is, are we?

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The ‘Rules Based Order’ Has Always Been a Farce

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Let’s be clear about this thing called “international law.” There are laws and treaties and agreements on the books which are designed to hold power to account. The contradiction lies within its application. In this supposed “rules based order” that we have been told is now in tatters, the powerful have always manipulated the terms and conditions.

This is no more apparent than in the genocide in Gaza. Without a doubt, there have been other atrocities and genocides committed. But this one was completely funded and supported by the United States and other Western nations. They are the engine of this project of annihilation. And in no other case is the hypocrisy more glaring.

Now that the Trump regime is in power, the same aggression meted out on the Global South is turning inward toward the states that have long been in the political and economic orbit of the United States. Remember, most European countries were not perturbed by the “rupturing” of international law when it was being shredded by bombs and drones in Gaza. They are only upset now when those threats and belligerence are being aimed at them.

This is not to excuse the Trump regime and its Hitlerian aspirations. It is not an excuse for imperialistic, oppressive or violent regimes outside the American Empire either.

But it underscores the truth about the arrangement of power throughout most of the 20th century, most especially following the second world war. Where was this order when the US carpet bombed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? When it overthrew democratically elected governments or subverted democratic movements, from Iran to Chile and beyond? Where was it when the US invaded Iraq based on a lie?

NATO did not “keep the peace,” as some neoliberal politicians opine. It managed American imperialism and largely carried out its wishes, while handsomely profiting multinational corporations. It is an organization set up to ensure white, northern countries would always dominate the Global South. Now, that alliance is falling to pieces. But after watching it destroy Libya and turn it into the biggest, modern-day slave trading region on earth, it would be ghoulish to grieve the demise of what amounts to a consortium of white supremacy and violence.

If international law was ever to be evenly applied, it would not only condemn despotic leaders like Vladimir Putin or the brutal, clerical theocracy in Iran. It would have every US president, many Western leaders and every billionaire apprehended and taken to the Hague for crimes against humanity and the planet.

The unwillingness for so many in the West to see their leadership as fundamentally corrupt and deserving of criminal prosecution is not merely hypocritical. It is grounded in a racism that sees Western leaders and billionaires as somehow above the law. As flawed, but redeemable when they speak well or present themselves as stately. Essentially, as too white to be in the same league as some murderous tyrant from Africa, Central America, the Middle-East or Asia. And this racism has been the underpinning foundation for the farce of the “rules based order” for centuries.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Western Politicians Ignored Gaza, but Indigenous Greenlanders Should Not Pay for their Cowardice

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One thing the Trump regime’s Hitlerian threats against Greenland have revealed is that Western governments have appeared to be asleep for the past 2+years. You know, the ones where the world witnessed the first livestreamed genocide in human history. Now, suddenly, the “rules based order” is over.

Now, I have yet to receive my copy of “The Rules Based Order for Dummies” from Amazon, but this fantasy never seemed to play out for the Palestinians. And certainly not for any of the other predominantly Black, Brown or Indigenous nations on the planet. Especially ones sitting atop oil or those “rare earth minerals” that everyone seems to covet, yet few are able to process. None of this is to minimize the Trump regime’s grotesque imperialistic threats against Greenland. But this seems to be their “line in the sand.” Gaza was not.

That Western liberals either supported the genocide in Gaza or didn’t raise their voice to stop it is reprehensible. But Indigenous Greenlanders should not pay the price for their cowardice. Nor should anyone else.

Those saying that they should aren’t interested in collective liberation or an end to imperialism. They are only interested in playing a parlour game of geopolitical chess. In standing smugly on the sidelines of humanity with a dogeared copy of Das Kapital and a condescending smirk.

Just as with the protestors in Iran, Greenlanders do not need moral pontifications about the mercurial and duplicitous nature of Western politics and imperialism. The silence or complicity of Western leaders in Israel’s genocide should never be forgiven nor forgotten. But the fault lies with them, not with the targets of Trump’s imperialistic fever dreams.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is Grift on a Global Scale

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The absurdity of our times may best be summed up in the Trump regime’s brand new oxymoronic “Board of Peace.” Established by Trump on January 15, 2026, the board was initially conceived to coordinate the “rebuilding” of Gaza following Israel’s genocide and complete destruction of all infrastructure and most of its buildings and landmarks.

The founding executive members of this farcical board include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who is one of the biggest cheerleaders for the invasion and kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro, real estate vulture and son-in-law to the president, Jared Kushner, and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is best known for his war crimes in Iraq.

Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump, who possesses an ego with no bounds, appointed himself Chairman for Life. Permanent membership on the board requires an investment of 1 billion US dollars, to be paid in full in the first year.

While leaders in some 60 countries were invited, some have done so only symbolically or with caution. Others, like Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orban were eager to join.

But France’s Emmanuel Macron, rejected the offer outright, as it is widely seen as an attempt to subvert the United Nations. Trump, again unsurprisingly, has threatened 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne in an effort to pressure the French president into joining.

To say that the times we are living in are absurd is an obvious understatement. But at the root of this absurdity is a perverse inversion of truth. A “Board of Peace” created by a megalomaniac obsessed with imperial ambitions is the ultimate example of grift on a global scale.

As Palestinians suffer under an ongoing project of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide, perpetrated by Israel and fueled by the United States and other Western countries, its future is being determined by a pack of jackals, salivating over the carcass of Gazan society.

But this “board” won’t stop at Gaza. The nascent consortium, which will include some of the world’s most notorious swindlers, despots and gangster capitalists, see this as the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to carve up the world as they see fit. Filling their coffers under a noble, yet fetid, cloak of peace.

Trump didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, an award already stained with blood and made meaningless when it was given to Henry Kissinger. He has been obsessed with it for years. His “Board of Peace” is a pathetic attempt to exert dominance over the world under the guise of diplomatic cooperation. But, like every other venture and policy he has implemented, this one will be another con job.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The World Will Never Forget (or forgive) What the Trump Regime has Done

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Last night, while most people in Washington DC were asleep, Trump shared a post that had an AI-altered map with a US flag covering Canada, Venezuela and Greenland, depicting these nations as US territories.

In the photo, Trump can be seen sitting in a meeting with European leaders, including UK’s Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with the US map in the background. Just a few minutes later, he posted another AI generated meme showing him planting a US flag on Greenland.

While what is left of his MAGA cult snickers at Trump’s Hitlerian fever dreams, the rest of the world isn’t laughing. They understand that Trump is incapable of joking. He is only capable of mockery, ridicule and threats. But as his mental and physical health wane, he becomes more and more unhinged.

Only days ago, he sent a bizarre message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, which sounded more like it came from a grade school bully than a president. In it, he expressed frustration with Norway for not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that he no longer feels obligated to prioritize peace after not receiving it.

All of this happened after far-right, Venezuelan sycophant, Maria Corina Machado, gifted her Nobel prize to Trump in what amounted to one of the biggest suck-ups in the award’s history.

This week, as Danish and other European troops landed in Greenland, he announced plans to impose tariffs on Denmark and other nations if they continue to resist his acquisition efforts of the world’s biggest island (2,166,086 square kilometers).

Trump’s use of tariffs as a punishment will cause more pain for working class Americans than they will the nations he is targeting. American industry simply isn’t capable of producing all of the goods it is getting from trading partners. They will pay a hefty price thanks to Trump’s belligerence, as most of the world rapidly moves beyond US hegemony, signing trade deals and strategies well outside its orbit.

Of course, the Trump regime has no interest in what the people of Greenland want. Thousands flooded the streets of Nuuk, the capital, in the freezing cold of an arctic winter to reject Trump’s aggressive, imperialist ambitions. The whole country has only about 55,745 citizens, so this was a major event in its history.

And why would Greenlandic people want to be a part of the US when they have universal healthcare, free education and other social welfare policies? The US has none of those things. Why would any nation want to be a part of an empire in steep decline, one which is unleashing a reign of terror on its own people?

No matter what happens now, the world order has been forever altered. Alliances and trust between nations takes decades, sometimes centuries to build. But they can be decimated in just months or a few years. And this is where Trump has succeeded.

Even if he is voted out (a prospect that becomes more and more unlikely) or removed from power, the damage is done. This is because Trump isn’t the problem. He is the symptom. It took millions of Americans to put him into power and a cadre of fascists to prop him up. And even if Americans eventually move on, the rest of the world will never forget.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The Democrats Will Not Defeat Fascism

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ICE has harassed and arrested random people on the street because they were Black, Brown or had an accent. They have sexually assaulted people in their custody. They choked a man to death in one of their concentration camps. They have dragged children from cars, homes, schools and workplaces. They have abducted and interred members of the Oglala Sioux nation. They have beaten, gassed and disappeared protestors. They shot a woman in the face who presented no danger to them whatsoever.

But Cory Booker doesn’t want them abolished. And he isn’t alone. In fact, Democrats have voted to continue funding ICE. Of course, with some strings attached, such as more training and body cameras. One wonders if this “training” will be by the IDF in Israel, as it has in the past.

Booker and establishment Democrats aren’t interested in opposing fascism. They are interested in managing it. In curating its image. In polishing its rough edges so that they can pretend that they are doing something constructive.

This isn’t realpolitik. It isn’t a pragmatic approach. It is cowardice.

The Trump regime isn’t conducting the American Empire like it has been conducted in the past. They have no interest appearing measured in their brutality. To this regime, sadism is policy.

But Democrats like Booker, who refused to correctly call what Israel is doing a genocide, hasn’t caught up with this historic moment. He is living in a comfortable past where American dominance was administered with empty platitudes about “accountability” or “the rule of law.” Where the veneer of respectability mattered more than actions.

Not once in the history of fascist regimes has this worked. That Booker and the other Democrats who agree with him think it will, only underscores the blindness that comes with proximity to power.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026