“It’s been two months since the storm,” Asheville organizer Sarah Nuñez told me. “Two months that felt more like six.” In late September, Hurricane Helene triggered massive flooding across six states, killing at least 230 people as the storm gutted local infrastructure and swept away homes. 42 of those deaths occurred in Buncombe County, North Carolina, which is home to Asheville — a city…
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“It’s been two months since the storm,” Asheville organizer Sarah Nuñez told me. “Two months that felt more like six.” In late September, Hurricane Helene triggered massive flooding across six states, killing at least 230 people as the storm gutted local infrastructure and swept away homes. 42 of those deaths occurred in Buncombe County, North Carolina, which is home to Asheville — a city…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Rana Nabeel Baalousha is a 23-year-old woman with a beautiful face that reflects deep compassion. She is imprisoned in a slender and frail body, clinging to the hope of experiencing just one day of normalcy. Amid the relentless atrocities of war that have ravaged Gaza for more than 400 soul-crushing days, Rana strives to survive. For five long years, Rana has been battling a rare…
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The United States healthcare system is so broken, sometimes I forget that it used to be even worse. After all, 15 short years ago, pregnant people could legally be denied health insurance, just for being pregnant. Cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, mental illness, AIDS — all potentially disqualifying conditions, too. Or, if your health care plan did offer coverage…
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After his uncle was first elected president of the United States, Fred C. Trump III wanted to use the access he had to the White House for something positive, he explains in his new memoir, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. “I was eager to champion something my wife, Lisa, and I were deeply passionate about, something we lived every day: the challenges for individuals with…
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For months, residents of northern Gaza have been living in extremely harsh and inhumane conditions. The situation has worsened recently. Initially, our goal was to find food, but now even finding clean drinking water is considered a stroke of luck. One woman recently told me while we were waiting in line for aid, “Days have passed, and I could only get bread and water for my children.
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For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with loved ones, share a meal, watch football and express gratitude. Some Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this way as well, because feasting is Indigenous — we also love eating and watching football. Still, the holiday carries a much heavier weight: It is a stark reminder of the violent colonization that began with the arrival of…
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Before November 5th, millions of us were already struggling with poverty, extreme storms, immigration nightmares, anti-trans bills, criminalized reproductive health, the demolition of homeless encampments, the silencing of freedom of speech on campuses… and, of course, the list only goes on and on. Since Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were elected, more of us find ourselves in a state of fear and…
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Grab a book instead of my phone had been my mantra since November 5 as I sought to protect myself from the despair of political doomscrolling. Since then, I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I’m now halfway through East of Eden by John Steinbeck and have almost finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird to my 11-year-old daughter. I hadn’t been ready to accept the reality of another four years…
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The 2024 UN climate change conference, COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, is now nearing its end and reports are that talks are deadlocked. The two biggest elephants in the room are militarism and climate financing. Wars generate more carbon emissions than many countries, while the U.S. military is the single largest institutional source of greenhouse gas emissions…
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Since last October, Israel has been able to wage a genocidal war on Gaza while receiving little more than a light slap on the wrist. President Joe Biden and his administration have claimed to be working tirelessly toward a ceasefire, all while continuing to supply Israel with the billions of dollars in weapons it needs to prolong its assault. So, when Biden said last month that the United…
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This election was painful for so many across the country, and while some celebrated victories for reproductive rights, others — like us in Nebraska — watched a crucial opportunity slip away. On Nov. 5, I sat in my living room surrounded by my community, watching a tightly contested ballot measure to protect abortion access in Nebraska slowly fall out of reach. In the months leading up to…
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The Project 2025 blueprint for the next Trump administration sets its sights on two crucial public institutions: libraries and higher education. Librarians show up on page 5 — targeted for their support for LGBTQIA+ reading — while dismantling the Department of Education, eliminating student loan programs, and restricting what can be taught about gender, race and class feature throughout the…
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I am Sereyrath “One” Van, currently incarcerated at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in the Northeast U.S. My experiences with ICE reveal a crucial truth: mass incarceration is embedded in American culture, and immigrant detention is simply an extension of the prison system. I’ve been in jails, prisons and ICE detention…
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For many of us, the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s decisive electoral victory has been a time of deep despair and mourning. There has been plenty of commentary trying to make sense of Trump’s win and the factors that led to it. But no analysis changes the fact that the outcome represents a serious blow to our most vulnerable communities, a sharp setback for causes of economic and social…
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What will it mean to resist fascism under a second Trump administration? During Trump’s first term, we saw mass marches, blockade actions, and daily denunciations of Trump’s words and edicts. Some of these tactics were successful, at times. For example, ADAPT’s 2017 mass action at the Capitol may have played a major role in saving the Affordable Care Act. Mass marches promoted a new sense of…
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For decades, making progress on global climate action has felt like trying to tunnel through a mountain with only a spoon and some elbow grease. When people suggest alternative tools that are perhaps better equipped for tunnel-digging, or maybe even float the idea of climbing over the mountain, they’re dismissed and demeaned as too idealistic. Other people will stare straight at the mountain and…
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In journalism circles, we often speak about our work in abstract ideals. Transparency. Accountability. Democracy. Truth. All of these ideals are urgently important. And yet, in this precipitous moment, as we watch an overt fascist prepare to ascend back into the White House, abstract concepts are not at the top of our minds as journalism leaders. Instead, we’re thinking about people: our loved…
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When Trump was elected in 2016, the ACLU’s website featured a photo of him and the words “We’ll See You in Court.” They also rolled out an online campaign asking people to take an oath pledging to defend the Constitution (no specifics about how to do that). It was a pivotal moment — so many people were newly afraid and angry, mobilizable — yet liberal organizations like the ACLU were…
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Trump’s presidency already looks set to have a catastrophic effect on sexual reproductive health and rights on the African continent. I work as a reproductive and gender health specialist in Uganda and we’re still feeling the impacts of Trump’s last presidency. No doubt, African women and girls across the continent are worried about how Trump’s second presidency will impact their health and lives.
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My Palestinian American family is in great pain. Every member of my Arab American community lost a relative or a friend during the past 13 months. We are torn to pieces and outraged by the U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza and the ravages wrought in southern Lebanon. Having lost several family members and friends — among them artists, teachers and academics I’ve known and writers with whom I’…
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Ever since 2002, when I was 6 years old, I have been an orphan. But 20 years later, Israel’s war in Gaza made me an orphan for the second time. Before this war, my life was great and full of love. Even though I lost my mother when I was young, my grandmother raised my sister, my brother and me. I had a dream of working in diplomacy, to fight for the Palestinian cause. When the war began…
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I sit in my living room, staring at my son’s backpack, a small reminder of the life we’ve built here, piece by piece. He’s a U.S. citizen, born and raised in a country that has always been his home. As the news blares about the election results, I think about his future. Donald Trump has won again, backed by a Congress and state-level MAGA officials ready to carry out his Project 2025 plans and…
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This is a moment of tragedy and turmoil for our movements. A fascist game show host has seized the reins of government, again, and is now poised to enforce a Christian Nationalist agenda. J.D. Vance, a product of Silicon Valley, who subscribes to the techno-fascist views of Curtis Yarvin, will soon be an unreliable heartbeat away from the presidency. Last month, I warned of a revolution “slouching…
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As the world absorbs the shockwave of Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election, the playbook for his second term, designed by a handful of right-wing extremists, is already underway in Argentina. Project 2025 is set out in a nearly 900-page ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise’, produced by the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing US think tank, as a ready reckoner for…
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“Of all the modern delusions, the ballot has certainly been the greatest.” —Lucy Parsons You do not vote fascism away. Even though this feels obvious, the right-wing political establishment in the U.S. has accomplished something remarkable with the help of the Democratic Party. They managed to shift the discourse so far right that they normalized positions that were possibly once…
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As the dust settles over election day, it’s worth reflecting that it’s not only the election results that have been at stake, but the future of the presidency and its powers. Over the course of the first quarter of this century, the American presidency has accumulated ever more power, rendering the office increasingly less constrained by either Congress or the courts. With Donald Trump’s…
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We’ve been here before. This is not 2016, when Donald J. Trump’s surge to victory shocked much of the nation. We know how Trump operates and can better anticipate what he might do when he takes office in January. The bad news is that this time, with the Republican Party having taken control of the Senate and the Supreme Court having granted Trump sweeping criminal immunity for his actions in…
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If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
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