Tag Archives: china

The Takeover of TikTok was Never About China

Leave a reply

Despite what American politicians and some media talking heads claimed, the takeover of TikTok was never about China, or national security, or protecting data. And now that ownership has been transferred to pro-Trump and pro-Israel billionaires, it is not only being heavily censored, it is collecting far more data on its users than before.

The usual reasons for this are still true. Most data collection is for marketing. But why does TikTok need to know about your immigration status? Or your ethnic identity? Or your sexual orientation? We know that the Department of Homeland Security and other US agencies routinely harvest information from this kind of data collection.

Other questions have come up as well. Why is TikTok censoring the word “Epstein” and “ICE?” Why does the word “Israel” come up in virtually every search? The reasons for the latter become apparent when one listens to the new owners who have stated quite clearly that certain words, such as “Zionist,” will be considered “dirty” unless it is coming from someone who is a proud one. This isn’t about confronting and condemning antisemitism, especially since many Jews identify as anti-Zionist. It is about banning any interrogation of a political ideology which has resulted in the genocide in Gaza.

Some Democrats are saying that TikTok should be investigated, such as Gavin Newsom. But Newsom has always supported these kinds of draconian surveillance tactics. He signed the “Digital Age Assurance Act” which is wildly pro-censorship in the name of supposedly “protecting children.” So, his objections now are merely political theatre and it is only in reference to Trump. He wants to be able to keep up his completely useless meme war with him without providing any meaningful challenge to his fascism. And he doesn’t care one bit if Palestinian content is banned.

With all the bluster about China and their censorship of political speech, surveillance and data collection, a differentiating factor between it and the United States is that China does this largely to benefit its people. The US does not. This is not an excuse for authoritarianism, but it is a striking contrast between the two nations.

As TikTok becomes a free speech wasteland, other apps are rising. UpScrolled has seen a sharp rise in users. But it is based in Australia, which does not have the best record in online free speech either. Still, it is a far better alternative.

The hard truth is that the ruling, billionaire class feels like they are losing control of the narrative. Of “acceptable debate and dialogue.” They use terms like “civil discourse” as a cudgel against dissent and criticism. In this way, they never have to be interrogated for their role in atrocities, political repression and the global dismantling of democracy.

This is why they are busy buying up news outlets and social media platforms. And they do not care one bit if they drive these mediums into the ground, so long as they hold on to their wealth and every lever of power.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

The Trump Regime is Ushering in the New World Order

Leave a reply

Thanks to the rapid and belligerent posturing of the Trump regime in the US, we are witnessing a total rearrangement of power in the world. Mark Carney’s trip to Beijing this week isn’t just a ‘run of the mill’ diplomatic visit. It was Canada signaling to the US that the old alliances are finished.

Even if Trump doesn’t invade Greenland, the trust is forever broken between the US and the rest of the Western countries. Some leaders, like Keir Starmer, will probably not admit this. But the people of these nations know. They have quietly changed their plans for ever visiting a police state that routinely brutalizes foreigners and citizens alike. And a new leader of the US won’t alter this.

As Trump begins to battle his own people through ICE’s sustained and brutal reign of terror, he has threatened dozens of countries with military strikes and invasions, accelerating the factors that have led most empires to their downfall: domestic strife, foreign forays, severed allyships and an economy which is no longer providing for the basic needs of its citizenry. This is a recipe for collapse.

The American Empire has been hobbling toward its demise for decades. The steady hollowing out of its institutions by an oligarchy drunk on cupidity, the rampant corruption of its politicians from both sides of the aisle, the rise of white, Christian nationalist fascism, the gutting of education for all but the rich, a people fed a diet of hyper-processed food while enjoying no universal healthcare to counter its dire affects, a culture riven by pettiness, distracted by consumerism and mesmerized by the ultra-wealthy, economic cruelty so absurd it boggles the mind, endless wars for capital and the channeling of billions of dollars to fund a genocide. It was destined to arrive at the place it is now.

And in its chaos and decay, China rises.

There is a hope that ordinary Americans will rise up. Many are. But no matter what happens now, the Trump regime has already set in motion a cascade of change that will make our world look drastically different for decades to come.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The Trump Regime’s White Supremacist Plan to Reinvigorate American Empire

Leave a reply

The Trump regime has just released its “2025 National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” And it not only targets Europe and Canada, it lays out its specific ideology of white supremacy that has domestic and foreign implications in regard to budgets, policing, borders, trade and surveillance. This time, they are responding to the real rise of China and BRICS on the global economic and political stage and to the declining and crumbling American Empire.

The document is a hard turn back to the Monroe Doctrine, which demarcates all of the North and South American hemisphere as being under the hegemonic control of the American Empire. Defining it as “supply chains,” all of its resources belong solely to them. It is American imperialism redux unapologetically on steroids.

The language of this document is undeniably white supremacist in that it characterizes the supposed decline of Europe as a problem of cultural dissolution. In other words, immigrants from the Global South are diluting the Aryan blood and soil of the West, with the racist dog whistle “civilizational erasure” as a recurring theme.

This threat is a last ditch effort to essentially strongarm the West into continuing to prop up their hegemonic control through outright threats of devastation and violence. Thanks to Trump’s idiotic and destructive tariffs, other nations are beginning to build economic ties with China. And the regime cannot cope with it.

The Trump regime is codifying their white supremacist ideology into actionable state policy. Immigrants, racialized communities, queer people, women, Indigenous, all of them are being cast as “threats to civilization.” This is a rhetoric that allows for atrocity. It is the language of both erasure and annihilation. And anyone on the margins of American Empire should find it absolutely bone chilling.

This is the playbook that the regime is going to follow going forward (see below).

Take note of the one that mentions the supposed “threats against our (US) supply chains that risk US access to critical resources, including minerals and rare earth elements.” This one is aimed directly at Canada, because the American Empire views everyone else as their “supply chains.” Also, propaganda and “cultural subversion” is referring to the regimes plans to curtail and censor free expression and dissent both within and beyond its borders.

Kenn Orfanos, December 2025