Fascist Juggernaut Moves Forward Rapidly and Aggressively

Operation Legend stormtroopers, new anti-abortion laws, sending thugs to polls, and more…

August 24, 2020 | revcom.us

The fascist Trump/Pence regime has been moving rapidly, aggressively, and in many dimensions to develop and implement fascism. Below are some measures taken or that came to light in the past week alone.

“Operation Legend”—Stormtroopers Rampage in Nine Cities
Following Supreme Court Ruling, Arkansas Effectively Prohibits Abortion
Trump Intensifies Attacks on Immigrants
Trump’s Ominous “Birther” Accusations Against Kamala Harris
PEADS – Secret Framework for Total Authority
Sending Police and Thugs to the Polls

Detroit police attacked and arrested peaceful protesters, including a legal observer and a photographer. Protesters were demanding an end of Operation Legend. Detroit is among nine cities where dozens of ATF, DEA, and FBI agents have been deployed. (Photo: Adam J. Dewey)

“Operation Legend”—Stormtroopers Rampage in Nine Cities: On August 19, U.S. Attorney General William Barr boasted that about 1,400 arrests had been made so far in “Operation Legend.” The core of OL is “surging” federal agents and resources into cities, where they stage large-scale raids and arrests with local pigs. Barr also said “unnecessary” quarantines ordered by local and state governments with Democratic Party leadership, along with “efforts … to demonize police and defund their work,” are causing “pent-up aggression” and a “bad year in crime.” Operation Legend, he said, is “at the heart of the federal government’s response to this upturn in violent crime.” The day after Barr spoke, Trump tweeted, “I STAND FOR LAW AND ORDER AND I TOOK ACTION!” Barr said that OL will continue, and Trump has vowed his regime can “go into all the cities.... We’re ready. We’ll put in 50,000, 60,000 people … they are strong, they’re tough, and we can solve these problems so fast.”

The government claims OL’s goal is to take “violent criminals” off the streets. In reality, OL is a ferocious leap in violent, police-state repression of Black and Brown communities, and a key component of the fascist regime’s effort to fully consolidate its form of rule, with unchallengeable power over both the masses and the regime’s ruling class opponents.

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Following Supreme Court Ruling, Arkansas Effectively Prohibits Abortion: On August 7, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated four laws that effectively prevent women in Arkansas from receiving a legal abortion. The court based its ruling on an opinion Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a case last June. At that time, many media reports claimed Roberts had “joined the court’s four liberal justices in rejecting a Louisiana law that restricted women’s access to abortion.” In fact, Roberts’ written opinion in that case provided what journalist Dahlia Lithwick called an “engraved invitation” to states to gut the right to abortion. And since Roberts’ opinion was “controlling,” it became the law of the land.

The 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in this country. Another ruling in 1992 placed some restrictions on abortion and also said that states couldn’t place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortion. Roberts’ opinion redefined “undue burden” to the point that it allows states to enact virtually any abortion restrictions short of straight-up outlawing it. For example, the Arkansas law includes the vile requirement that women impregnated as a result of a rape notify their rapists before terminating the pregnancy! The right to safe and legal abortion is fundamental for women to function as full human beings. Completely eliminating it is a cornerstone of the fascist program of the Trump/Pence regime, and a goal they are dangerously close to achieving.

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Trump Intensifies Attacks on Immigrants: Last week in Yuma, Arizona, Trump bellowed that if he doesn’t win the election, “really bad people … I mean murderers. I mean rapists” would “flood all across our border….” His regime also announced measures that will grind legal immigration “to a halt,” as an immigration policy expert put it. The New York Times reported that over 100,000 migrants have been “expelled” from the U.S. without any hearing since Trump enacted an “emergency measure” along the southern border in March. Among them have been hundreds of children and infants who are placed in a “shadow system of detention and swift expulsions.”

For Trump and his legions of racist followers, “Making America Great” means making it white, English-speaking, and Christian. For three years his regime has implemented repressive measures aimed at driving out immigrants already in the U.S. and preventing others from arriving. Among these measures: the “Muslim ban”; concentration camps for children; severe limits on the right to apply for asylum, and dozens more. Trump routinely mocks and insults people because of their nationality, inflaming and encouraging racists to attack and humiliate people they think look or speak differently. The fascist regime’s onslaught on immigrants is horrendous and has truly genocidal implications, and Trump has announced his intention to take this to even more monstrous levels.

Reposted from RefuseFascism.org:

As Trump threatens the elections and sends fascist stormtroopers into cities:

UNITED NATIONWIDE MASS PROTEST
Saturday September 5
DEMAND TRUMP PENCE OUT NOW!

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The 14th Amendment reads: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Trump’s Ominous “Birther” Accusations Against Kamala Harris: After Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate, Trump “questioned” her eligibility. Harris was born in California; her parents were immigrants. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, begins, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States…” But Trump picked up on and amplified a magazine article that argues, falsely, that if both parents are not citizens or permanent residents at the time of their child’s birth in the U.S., the child is not necessarily a citizen.

Trump began his attacks on birthright citizenship in 2015. He has claimed that “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment [to change birthright citizenship]. Guess what? You don’t.” In 2019, he said to reporters, “We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship…. It’s frankly ridiculous.” Trump’s challenge to a longstanding tenet of constitutional law has deeply threatening implications. Trump is implying he could use his “executive powers” to revoke citizenship against a political opponent. He is also implying he could potentially do this as a foundation to launch ethnic cleansing campaigns against millions of people born in this country.

PEADS – Secret Framework for Total Authority: News items in the New York Times and CBS exposed enormous powers concentrated in the hands of the president. Documents called “Presidential Emergency Action Documents” (PEADS) provide a framework for implementing “extraordinary presidential authority in response to extraordinary situations.” PEADS have existed since the 1950s, but no PEAD has ever been declassified or leaked. Congressional oversight of PEADS is non-existent. The little that is known about PEADs comes from references to them in other documents. A 1987 newspaper report described a PEAD authorizing “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the U.S. over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law….” The content of subsequent PEADs is unknown.

In March, Trump stated his “right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” He has already used executive powers to create his “Muslim ban,” threatened to end birthright citizenship by executive order, and said he may postpone the November elections. His attorney general belligerently insists that the president has virtually unlimited power. This is an extremely dangerous situation. As Bob Avakian wrote in his August 1 statement, the fascism the Trump/Pence regime is working to consolidate “is not just a matter of horrific policies but of a qualitatively different form of rule, based on brutal repression and violation of what are supposed to be the most basic rights.”

Trump would have you confront this when you go to vote. (Photo: Doug Brown, ACLU)

Sending Police and Thugs to the Polls: On August 20, when asked about his plan for poll watchers on election day, Trump replied, “We’re going to have everything. We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys … and attorney generals.” He said “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that.… And we can’t let that happen.” The Republicans also are organizing 50,000 goons to intimidate and threaten people, mainly Black and Latinx people, at polling places in 15 “battleground” states. Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s press secretary, when asked if Trump would accept election results if he doesn’t win, replied, “The president has always said he’ll see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath.”

What is shaping up around the November elections is a concentration of whether or not fascism in this country makes a leap in its further consolidation. Trump and the Republicans are mobilizing to suppress voters and the vote itself. They are declaring in advance that they will consider an electoral loss for Trump illegitimate, and threatening that police and thugs will be in the streets and at the polls to reject a Trump loss.

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An Impending Disaster and an Urgent Challenge

The above is some of the damage done by the fascist Trump/Pence regime—in one week! The consequences to humanity and the planet if this regime remains in power worsen daily, and will be disastrous if it isn’t stopped.

As Bob Avakian wrote in his August 1 statement, “Right now, for everyone who is concerned with ending injustice and oppression, and with the question of whether humanity will have a future worth living—or will have a future at all—removing the Trump/Pence fascist regime from power is an immediate, urgent question and truly historic imperative.”

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