Tag Archives: politics

A Dark Chapter of American Cruelty has Begun

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This is the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, standing proudly in front of a concentration camp in El Salvador. It is the place where at least 200 men were disappeared by the Trump regime without Due Process by its militant arm ICE. It is the largest concentration camp in the world with a capacity for 40,000 human beings. It has at least 14,500 there now.

Many of the 200 men there were ambushed by masked men in unmarked cars and vans, targeting them simply because they were Brown, Latino or had tattoos that ICE goons did not understand. A gay makeup artist and a man with an “autism awareness” tattoo are among them.

This image is jarring, not only because of the fact that these men never had their right to Due Process. Not only because the image clearly shows inhuman living conditions with beds crammed full of human beings, stacked to the ceiling. But because of its historical weight.

The Nazi regime disappeared millions of people into concentration camps. First because of their supposed “crimes.” Then because of their political leanings or opinions. Then because they were Jewish. Then because of their sexuality or ethnic identity. The Pinochet regime also disappeared thousands of Chileans, taking them to stadiums to be shot or tortured, or deporting them from the country, or on to helicopters to be dropped into the ocean. Israel, which has been carrying out a Western-backed genocide for the past 18 months, is also currently locking up thousands of Palestinians, many of them children, in prisons where rape, violence and starvation are used as collective punishment.

But we need not look to the history or even current practices of other nations. The United States has done similar things in its past. From forcing Indigenous people on death marches as in the Trail of Tears, to locking up thousands of Black men in prison labour camps for merely being on the white side of town, to holding Filipinos in concentration camps in their own land, to sending thousands of Japanese Americans to internment camps in the desert. Or in recent times, the soldiers photographed torturing and terrorizing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib. Indeed, the US has plenty of examples of its own barbarism.

This latest chapter of American depravity is in keeping with its tradition of cruelty. But it may very well be the darkest yet. Years from now, this photo (or the accompanying video) may be used in classrooms, much like the ones used today depicting SS guards in front of Auschwitz. That is, if this dark chapter is finally forced to close forever.

Kenn Orphan, March 2025

Gal Gadot is Shocked

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Oh Gal, you were shocked? Honestly, how utterly disconnected are you from the reality of being a settler? How can you continue to claim ignorance about the Nakba? How can you continue to pretend you have no idea how this all started?

Here’s the deal, Gal. I know I am a settler. I am not indigenous to North America. I know that this one fact does not make me an evil person. It doesn’t mean that I do not belong here either. But I know that being a settler requires my attention and action to work toward justice. A justice that was violently robbed of the Indigenous people here. It caused generational trauma. And I have a responsibility to acknowledge that. To listen and to act in a way that heals and restores what was lost. It won’t erase the crimes committed against Indigenous people here, but it is literally the least I can do.

Gal, you served in the IDF even as it carried out heinous acts of oppression and cruelty against millions of people. You ignored the ongoing apartheid implemented by your government. You defended them even as they commit genocide. You even took a role in a movie that showed you saving children from a missile attack. Yet you defended Israel even after it slaughtered four boys with a missile on a beach in Gaza who were merely playing football.

Gal, do you know how many Palestinian children have been targeted and killed by the IDF? Before AND after the tragic events of October 7th over a year ago? There were terrible things committed on that day, but do you know that there were no “beheaded babies” on October the 7th? That that was a lie? Or that there have been many beheaded babies in Gaza from airstrikes over the last year+?

Have you heard of little Hind? How she sat in a car with her dead family for hours through the cold night? How she desperately called emergency services to save her? How she was terrified and badly injured? And how an Israeli tank killed her and the paramedics who came to help her?

And yet, after almost a year and a half of endless airstrikes, imposed starvation, complete destruction of hospitals, clinics, bakeries, water treatment facilities, shelters, apartment buildings, universities, you are shocked by a backlash to you claiming you are Indigenous to a land that is being mercilessly emptied of its actual Indigenous population?

Gal, the backlash you received was not hatred. It was disgust. It was rage. It was the reaction from people who have just seen videos of children limp or burned beyond recognition. Mothers wailing. Torn bodies upon the scorched earth. And yet you stand in this moment of historic weight and claim you are the real victim here?

You are wrong, Gal. We know. We have an idea of what is happening here. And we also realize you probably never will. 

Kenn Orphan, March 2025

The End of American Higher Education

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It seems that education in the United States is becoming something of a bygone era. And it isn’t just about the impending demise of the Department of Education, which the new Secretary, Linda McMahon, has vowed to eradicate. She has already fired 50% of its staff. It also appears to be the end of American higher education as well.

In the last few weeks there has been growing uncertainty and chaos on college and university campuses. Just recently, Harvard University announced hiring freezes as they wait for the Trump regime to implement massive federal funding cuts. Schools like the University of Washington, North Carolina State, Cornell, Emory, and Notre Dame, have issued similar hiring freezes. Northwestern is introducing preemptive cost-cutting measures. Several colleges and universities have drastically decreased the number of graduate students and have rescinded many offers to PhD candidates. Scores of students are now scrambling to figure out their next move as their future plans have crumbled before them.

In its culture war, the Trump regime has suspended funding to the University of Maine because the school refused to discriminate against transgender athletes. Last week, the administration revoked $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University over bogus claims of antisemitism during this past summer’s student-led protests. That university has been ruthless in its crackdowns and has collaborated with ICE in persecuting students who opposed the schools investment in Israel as it commits genocide. And the Department of Education has threatened schools with massive funding cuts if they don’t eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and related language in their curriculum.

All of these cuts affect far more than the universities themselves. For instance, the Trump regime also stopped $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University. Officials at the school and local business owners are saying that these draconian funding cuts will not only ravage current research projects but the entire state’s economy since the university is the largest private employer. And the long honoured tradition of national endowments are also in jeopardy. Congress is looking to raise the current 1.4% tax rate on university endowments to 10%–20%, essentially ending them for most programs.

It appears that the Trump regime has taken notes from Putin’s crackdown on higher education in Russia following its war of aggression against Ukraine. The result of this was catastrophic as scientific research programs were shuttered, the humanities were rendered toothless, and scores of Russian intellectuals fled the country.

Donald Trump once said, “I love the poorly educated.” It appears he intends to expand that love to the entire country.

Kenn Orphan, March 2025

Forced Disappearance is a Classic Fascist Tactic we Cannot Ignore

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The Trump regime is trying to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident and student of Columbia University, because he led protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Because he opposes Zionism. Because he opposes US foreign policy. They are trying to deport him because he exercised his legal right under the constitution to free speech. This is unprecedented and downright terrifying.

Firstly, Zionism is a political ideology. It is not Judaism. There are many Jews who are not Zionists and there are many Zionists who are not Jews. To conflate the two is actual antisemitism.

Secondly, political speech is protected speech in the US, or at least it is supposed to be. Of course, there are multiple examples of how this is suppressed or even outlawed. For instance, many states have laws banning participation in the BDS Movement.

To be sure, the US has deported many legal residents before, and under Democratic presidents. Obama was known as the “deporter in chief.” It has spirited them away to undisclosed locations and kicked them out of the country often for relatively minor offenses. But the difference here is a stark one.

The Trump regime is sending a clear message that speech itself can be an offense worthy of deportation of any non-citizen. Essentially, any speech that the dear leader doesn’t agree with. And if we think he will stop at deportation, we are not grasping the scope of this plan. In short, the worst is yet to come.

Prior to the election, Trump warned that he would send US troops into “Democratic cities” to stop the “enemy from within.” These “enemies” were, according to the orange coated fascist, “leftists, Marxists” and anyone with blue hair. I added the last bit for comedic effect, but the point is that it is anyone whom the president does not like. This plan was to be implemented after mass deportations.

The abduction and forced disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil is the canary in the coal mine. Fascist regimes use this tactic to instill fear and suppress dissent. And historically, this tactic has often worked. But there have been many protests since this incident and it is important that these continue in order to show the regime that the people will not be intimidated.

That the Trump regime has used combating antisemitism as the reason for this authoritarian and lawless act is ironic to say the least. From a sieg heiling Musk and Steve Bannon to a neo-Nazi supporting Vance, this regime has demonstrated its glaring lack of creds in the struggle against bigotry and hatred. But we should look to Khalil himself for the proof that he is being wrongly targeted for hate speech or supporting terrorism.

Prior to his forced disappearance, Mahmoud said: “As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.”

Kenn Orphan, March 2025

A Warning for those of us on the Margins of Empire

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Last nights atrocious spectacle was a wake up call. And we may not have many of those left. The speech Trump gave before the US Congress was a glimpse into the madness he has in store for all of us. The United States is rapidly falling into the maw of fascism before our very eyes and there is little organized political opposition from the anemic Democratic Party to stop any of it.

For those of us on the margins of American Empire, we cannot afford to ignore this. Trump’s imperialistic fantasies are not only disgusting, they are serious. He is demolishing the current arrangement of power on the global stage, not to empower the people, but to consolidate even more power and wealth into the hands of a few oligarchs and despots.

Like all US presidents, he has opened the coffers for Israel to continue its apartheid and genocidal project. When he shared a vulgar AI-generated video of a Trumpified Gaza, complete with casinos and an enormous gold statue of himself, he gave us insight into his depraved narcissism. He has no capacity for empathy or grace.

This was also on display with the shameful shakedown of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office by him and his sniveling side kick. His admiration for dictators and war criminals, from Putin to Netanyahu, should be seen as the cruel template he plans to implement against his neighbours in the Americas.

For those of us here in Canada, Trump’s continued ridicule and threat of making our sovereign country the 51st state is no joke. As in Greenland, he is eyeing Canada’s rich resources, from petrol to timber to minerals to water. He sees the imperial benefit of a melting Arctic Sea. And no matter how unhinged these threats may seem, he intends to make good on this by attempting to collapse the Canadian economy with draconian tariffs.

If there is any silver lining in any of this, it is that there is still some time to resist. The Trump regime is not all powerful. Fascism is gaining ground, but has not taken complete control… yet. And they have demonstrated a striking aversion to facts which will likely lead to their downfall.

In addition to this, the American Empire is in steep decline. Its economy is no longer the only dominant one on the world stage. Its infrastructure is crumbling. Its military is over-extended as its soft power around the world wanes. All while others rise, namely China and the BRICS coalition of nations. Most of its leaders are fatally corrupted, duplicitous and stupid. And its populace is struggling while a wealthy minority blames them for their plight and laughs in their faces. They are getting more and more angry, and things are likely to boil over soon.

For the world, the downside of all of this is a that we inhabit a very different portion of human history now. One with the looming existential behemoth of climate chaos on the horizon, the specter of artificial intelligence, and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. As it descends, the American Empire will lash out even more violently to regain its former glory, even if it is merely a myth. And this makes the next few years the most dangerous in all human history.

Like all empires, the American variation will eventually collapse. We can only hope that when it does, it won’t take everyone down with it as it goes.

Kenn Orphan, March 2025

The Madness of Fascism is the Point

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Like many of you, I watch the implosion of the United States in horror. It seems like madness. And on one level, it is. But on another, it is not. What I mean by the latter is that what is happening isn’t some random craziness. It is a calculated plan. It is the “tear it all down in order to build it up” approach, similar to how other fascist and authoritarian regimes operate.

These regimes see any democratic institution as an impediment to the glory of the state or the empire. Consolidation of power is viewed as the only way forward for saving it. Thus, the oligarch Elon Musk has been tasked with the unraveling. He has been given the keys to the kingdom. And like a petulant and sociopathic child, he has gone inside, turned over the crockery, fired all the servants and dumped out the treasure chest.

And this brings me to the Maga phenomenon. Because this is the heart of this particular iteration of fascism. “Make America Great Again” is of course a silly and sophomoric bit of nonsense. Which era of “greatness” do they mean? Indigenous genocide? Slavery? Lynching? Jim Crow? Red Scare? Bombing dozens of nations?

In reality, the only “great” part of America has been the magnitude of its scope, scale and power. If there is any noble greatness, it has come from its oppressed peoples. From Indigenous, Black, Brown, working class women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized communities who resisted the brutality of the American boot on their necks. Certainly not the ruling class that runs corporations and both political parties.

To the leadership of this cult of Maga, it is not only about demonizing, otherizing, scapegoating and persecuting anyone who is not white, cis-male, Christian, capitalist and heterosexual. This part is an essential characteristic of fascistic rule. But it is also about bullying the vassal and client states of the American Empire into submission. It knows it can’t do this with its own oligarchy, so it focuses on tributes, concessions and relinquishing of territory from rivals and allies. Its “great” past was one brimming in arrogant and unmerciful dominance. And this is the one they want to return to.

The problem is that the world is different now. The American Empire is in steep decline. Its prominence and prestige are waning. Even its vaunted dollar is increasingly tenuous. The unilateral hegemony it once knew is crumbling while other empires and coalitions rise. So, it is doing what all dying empires do. It installed a madman to restore its greatness.

And we should not think this madman is holding the US hostage. His approval rating among Americans has been mostly positive in these first few weeks. He embodies the very worst characteristics of the American stereotype. He is boorish, intolerant, anti-intellectual, averse to facts, arrogant and ruthless. And he is admired for this. This should not be surprising as all fascist leaders share similar traits and they enjoy cultish devotion because of them.

The problem with madmen is that they have a tendency to burn things down far greater than they build or rebuild things. And once fascism makes a home in a country it becomes exceedingly difficult to remove it. 

Kenn Orphan, February 2025

*title image is from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Trump’s plan for Gaza is in keeping with American Tradition

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So, Trump wants the US to “take over” Gaza. And he isn’t opposed to using American troops to make that happen. That is all over the news today. Trump is being essentially the scrubby New York real estate dealer that he is. He sees this as a sweet deal. “We’ll make it the Riviera of the Middle East,” he said.

He isn’t troubled by the bodies under the rubble or the half-starved population still there. He spoke unemotionally about forcibly relocating over a million people. Unspoken were the hundreds of thousands of Gazans now gone from the equation. A genocide not spoken of in polite society. “Why would they want to return?” he asked, “the place has been hell”. He described their predicament as if it were a natural disaster. As if their suffering were caused by some tsunami or monsoon and not by the bombs and drones and snipers supplied by the world’s most powerful nation under an administration run by a Democrat.

The shift comes as a shock to many, as US official policy has always aimed for a two-state solution. Anyone who has followed this issue closely has understood this has always been a farce, one repeated by both Democratic and Republican regimes alike for decades, even as they bolstered the settler-colonial project that is Israel. The Palestinians have always represented a thorn in this project’s side. A problem to placate and pacify with endless amounts of platitudes and apartheid, promises and brutality. And it all ended where it was destined to end, in genocide.

Trump’s plan isn’t really that shocking when one considers that the American project, itself, has always been a real estate deal. It has always framed the living earth as a commodity to be bought, developed ruthlessly, then sold to the highest bidder. In this worldview, land is not something to be cherished. No tree is sacred, as the olive tree is to the Palestinians. It holds no existential weight. It is not beloved even though it freights our souls through this vast galaxy. It is a monetized unit of wealth to be wrapped up tightly in plastic and shipped over night to the consumer.

This is America at its rancid heart. A project that slaughtered millions of buffalo to stick it to the Indigenous people of the land. That enslaved millions of Africans to harvest cotton. That nuked two civilian populations, the only nation to do so thus far. That doused thousands of hectares of farmland and rainforest in Southeast Asia with napalm and agent orange. That scorched the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan to avenge a crime they had nothing to do with.

A nation that gleefully blows off the tops of ancient mountains in Appalachia for a few buckets of coal. That sullies the groundwater for a few gasps of “natural” gas. That digs its pincers into marshland to suck out the last bits of the earth’s primordial blood. And which has belched out the most warming gasses into our atmosphere of all nation states thus far.

Trump’s plan for Gaza is in keeping with this tradition. It is disaster capitalism at its zenith. And it is in keeping with how the American project views the living mantel of this planet. The life-giving loam that we all depend upon. It is in keeping with how it sees its Indigenous peoples. A problem to be dealt with by administering the appropriate, surgical military strikes accompanied with a boatload of platitudes. A minor bump in the road on the way to development.

Gaza is a mirror. And it is staring back at us all. It is the modern manifestation of a long, bloody legacy of colonial greed, exploitation and cruelty. And like all other stolen lands, it will not cease to exist just because its buildings and orchards and people were mercilessly leveled or because some greasy real estate dealer now has his eyes set on it.

Kenn Orphan, February 2025

*Title piece is a painting by the Palestinian artist, Heba Zagout. Heba was killed along with her children in an airstrike on their home in Gaza in October, 2023.

Above All, Love Fiercely

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We all woke up to a different world today. One where dehumanizing language and threats from a American president are being applauded. Where a Nazi salute at its inauguration is being normalized or played down. And no matter how some may gaslight you or attempt to normalize it, the fact is that the world we woke up to today is a terrifying one. And it is okay to feel that. To feel terrified about what is to come. If you aren’t, I would question your sanity. But know you aren’t alone in that fear.

The United States has fallen to authoritarianism. Bolder than anyone has seen in the States thus far. Of course, the seeds of it were always there. An undercurrent simmering for decades. Supremacist mythology and obtuse indifference. Political leaders who became more and more corrupt, beholden to corporate and militaristic hubris. Who openly aided a genocide. Rights systematically striped away. Education and intellectualism mocked relentlessly. A persistent and influential religious fundamentalism. An oligarchy that grew more and more powerful, year after year. The result of these things was inevitable: Fascism.

But we cannot afford to ignore the writing on the wall. The US is an empire in decline. Burning or flooded cities thanks to the unaddressed impacts of climate change, growing shantytowns, entrenched poverty. Stagnant services and crumbling infrastructure. A predatory healthcare system. A bloated and over-extended military.

America is a sinking ship. And it has placed a fascist in the captain’s seat. And these facts make it even more dangerous than before, not only to marginalized people in the States, but to anyone in its orbit. And let’s face it. We are ALL in its orbit.

So, what do we do now? In the short term, it is okay to hide. To distract ourselves. We may need to do this for our sanity and physical health. But in the long term, denial can be lethal. It can strip us of our agency, Our capacity to act. So, after a time, it may be necessary for you to act quickly and decisively.

If you are in the States, I would seriously consider leaving. If you cannot leave, I would consider relocating to a state with more progressive governance. I understand moving may be economically impossible for many. And some may not want to leave family. If you cannot leave your state, seek out like minded individuals and organizations. Believe me, they exist. And you will all need each other in the coming years. Build networks for assistance and protection. Reliable support for when the government is potentially denuded of its ability to provide assistance.

If you are outside the US, avoid all unnecessary travel to it. Begin untethering yourself from its orbit. Voice your dissent and object to policies that seek to normalize relations with the States. Elect leaders who will stand up to American imperialism.

No matter where you live, consider becoming active in local politics. Attend meetings or hearings. The biggest impact we can have is on the local level.

Take a good look at how and where you live and who you know. Identify individuals and organizations that seek to dehumanize, demonize or criminalize you and avoid them. The history of fascism is a history of betrayal. Hold your enemies at bay. And know who your allies are and hold them close. Solidarity is not a platitude. It is a survival skill.

Above all, love fiercely. Love is the best antidote to fascism. To its fear, its cruelty, its violence. Love with everything you’ve got.

Kenn Orphan, January 2025

*Photo is Metamorphosis by Joan Miró, 1935.

America’s Own Pinochet

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When Americans are told that fascism is coming to the United States, there is often a misconception of what that actually means. Imagery of jackbooted thugs in 1930s Germany come to mind. Hollywood has been good in casting all fascist authoritarianism in Hitlerian ways. But this can have the effect of inuring the public to fascism in their own society because they are looking for a fascism that resembles that of Hitler. Fascism has similar characteristics, but manifests differently depending on the society in which it arises.

Hitler wasn’t the only fascist and fascism doesn’t always mean mass extermination of millions of people of a particular group. Violence, persecution and threats can be just as effective for fascists to maintain power. Fascism is unlike any other political ideology. It is neither traditionally conservative or liberal, but it always emerges from the far-right. At its most basic, fascism can be more accurately understood as a cult of personality and power that successfully entrances a segment of society while terrorizing the rest into submission. It relies on reactionary or conservative notions of society, but it is an undemocratic cult that cannot be reasoned with in any way.

Augusto Pinochet, the fascist dictator of Chile from 1973-1990, who got into power thanks to an American orchestrated coup once said: “Not a single leaf moves in this country if I’m not the one moving it.” He meant this. He saw himself as a savior of the nation. And he acted with ruthless cruelty to make this cultish fantasy a reality.

I have often compared Donald Trump to Pinochet which may sound strange to some. Pinochet was a general. He was embedded in militarism. But the two men share many traits when it comes to power, narcissism and violent rhetoric. Similar to Pinochet, Trump once said he was the “only one to fix the nation.” He is even more emboldened with a sense of divine purpose after surviving assassination attempts. Now that Trump has been elected (again), I believe he will implement similar measures and policies as Pinochet, or perhaps even worse. So, if Americans aren’t afraid of what is to come, they should be.

Fascism has always been an undercurrent in American society, a nation founded upon a graveyard of Indigenous people wiped out by genocide or persecuted and forcibly removed from their lands. And was built by the hands of enslaved men, women and children from Africa. It never reconciled with this past. Fascism has always been a consistent thread that binds America’s aspirations to its obfuscation about the atrocities it has committed. But now fascism is no longer cloaked in the euphemisms and platitudes of its aristocracy. Its so-called exceptionalism or democratic ideals. The cloak has been ripped off and torn to shreds.

Some have suggested that the oligarchies of the US would never allow Trump to make sweeping changes to the republic. This is ahistorical at best, and toxic naivete at worst. The wealthy in Pinochet’s Chile did nothing to subvert him or his violent and brutal policies. Corporations, including many American ones, flourished. Shopping malls and the latest trends were common in the upper class neighborhoods of Santiago. The press was effectively muzzled. Pinochet infamously said that the “rich people create wealth, so you have to treat them well so that they continue to give wealth.”

Under Pinochet, thousands of people were “disappeared” many never to be recovered. Dropped into the sea, buried in forests. Thousands of so-called “enemies from within” were massacred. And tens of thousands more were terrorized and tortured. We had a glimpse of this playbook when it was replayed under the previous Trump administration at protests in Portland. Scores were whisked away in unmarked vehicles by government agents with no badges visible.

In his second term, Trump has promised to round up millions of immigrants for deportation. He has also vowed to send troops into “Democratic cities” and deal with the so-called “enemy from within.” We can draw clear conclusions of what that will look like. Millions of immigrants would have to be housed in concentration camps, a plan almost half of Americans support according to a recent poll. And the “enemy from within” would almost certainly include anyone who dissents, whether they do so for queer or trans rights, to protest US support for Israel as it commits genocide, or any other group deemed subversive or “undesirable.”

Pinochet was quick to use the most conservative elements of the Catholic Church in Chile to bolster his anti-Marxist crusade. In a similar way, Trump uses evangelical, fundamentalist and other Christo-fascist elements in society to further his dominance by appearing empathetic to their bigotry against transgender people. And he lends credence to their unhinged conspiracy theories and end times cosplay about Israel. Trump has already made messianic-like claims after surviving assassination attempts. And there are scores of fanatical Christians who are eager to frame in this way. The telltale signs of cultish adoration are more than apparent in these circles.

Pinochet also once said: “My library is filled with UN condemnations” and “The only solution to the issue of human rights is oblivion.” I could picture Trump saying something similar, and this is an ominous clue as to how he will likely treat the unhoused, women, Muslims, immigrants, queer and other vulnerable communities, as well as how he will proceed on the genocide in Gaza.

In addition to all of this, Trump will likely speed humanity and countless other species closer to annihilation from climate change and ecological degradation. Not that the corporate Democrats would have been much better, but we might have had a bit more time to act. Time to mitigate the damage from coming catastrophes. We have absolutely no time now.

One of the differences between the rise of Pinochet vs the rise of Trump is that the US was largely responsible for Pinochet’s success as a dictator. In Trump’s case, there are many other factors, including the egregious tactics of the Democratic Party and their continued disinterest in the working class. They offered no meaningful policy to help struggling Americans, courted celebrities and neocon politicians like Liz Cheney, and ignored the overwhelming call of its base for an arms embargo on Israel as it commits genocide. One could say that there were foreign influences on the campaign, but these were negligible.

Another factor is Trump’s appeal to Gen Z men, mostly white, who feel disaffected and alienated from any agency or meaning. They have become fertile ground for racist and incel propaganda. And they came out to support what they see as a sort of father figure. A man who actually listens to them, rather than chides them with remarks like “I’m speaking.”

I wish I had brighter words. I wish I could tell us all to hope. To protest. But a Trump regime is likely to crack down viciously and violently on all dissent and protest. Fascists don’t care about the pretense of democratic norms. To them, they are an unnecessary impediment. The cult is supreme in fascist regimes. Challenging it in any way is viewed as an existential threat and dealt with accordingly.

All we can do now is take a good look at our lives. Where we live. Who we love. The social, ecological and economic fabric we are connected to. The most vulnerable among us. And protect them from the hell that is undoubtedly coming. We need to act. To organize with others. To make changes to our lives if we must. Changes that might appear overwhelming, but that have been made countless times throughout history. To move. To build resilient, interdependent communities. And we must do this because it is literally all we have left.

Kenn Orphan, November 2024

*Photo is of the US backed coup in Chile in 1973 which installed the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet.

On the 11 September 1973, right-wing general Augusto Pinochet launched a coup against the elected left-wing government in Chile of Salvador Allende. Pinochet had been appointed by Allende as head of his armed forces the previous month, and used the position to orchestrate the coup.
On day one, the new government began rounding up thousands of people – mostly working class activists and left-wingers – in the national stadium, killing many. The brutal military dictatorship, which was backed by western powers like the US and UK, implemented the harsh right-wing economic ideology of the neoliberal Chicago Boys.
While international observers heralded the resultant “economic miracle”, in reality living standards declined for the vast majority of the population, with wages falling and spending on healthcare, education and housing being cut.
Any workers who attempted to resist were murdered, tortured, imprisoned or “disappeared”. A popular method of execution by the regime was to throw civilians to their deaths from helicopters into the ocean or over the Andes mountains. Many of the alt right today celebrate these murders with “helicopter memes”.
Over the next 17 years, more than 3,000 people were murdered by the regime, with more than 37,000 others illegally imprisoned or tortured. Many prisoners, men and women, were systematically raped and sexually abused by guards, with women a particular target. In addition to being violated by guards, some women were sexually assaulted with dogs, rats and spiders, and forced to have sex with male family members. Many children of those killed were given to the Catholic church, or adopted, with the children either not informed or told their parents had died in accidents. 

Along with Bombs, Starvation and Torture, Israel is Burning Civilians to Death

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The young man on the right was Sha’ban Al Dalou. He is pictured here with his family and was a 19 year old software engineering student who spoke fluent English. He was trying to raise money to get his family evacuated from Northern Gaza to Egypt. But that never happened.

Israel murdered him along with his family this past weekend in the meager tent he had built for his family next to Al Aqsa hospital with a 2 ton American-made bomb. His last moments were captured of him in the flames on a cot with an IV still in his arm.

I will never forget that video. I will never forget the screams or the wailing. And even though I have seen a lot horror and brutality in my lifetime, I will never be the same after this one year.

Explain to me how this was self-defense. Explain to me how Western politicians can still call this a “humanitarian crisis” and not what it is: genocide. Explain how a year can go by, with thousands upon thousands of civilians dead, including thousands upon thousands of children. So many burned, blown up, shot by snipers in the head, buried under the rubble of their homes. So many starved. Suffocated. Deprived of life saving medical care, medications, anesthesia, polio vaccines. So many bakeries, shelters, universities, schools, hospitals, houses, churches, mosques flattened. Explain to me why I should care about election cycles, when almost all Western politicians either support this, applaud it, make excuses for it, or are silent. Explain why the US and Germany are still providing 99% of the bombs and armaments to Israel and how Canada, the UK, France, Australia and other Western countries provide other arms and support. Explain why most Western media still whitewashes it all, demonizes anyone who protests, and dehumanizes the victims.

If you can explain all of this you will succeed in explaining away whatever shred is left of your humanity.

Rest in peace, Sha’ban. The world failed you, your family and your people.

Kenn Orphan, October 2024