Tag: fascism

Trump’s Intel Deal Sparks Outrage Over Socialist Control and Corporate Blend

President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening, August 22, 2025, that the federal government has acquired a 10% stake in Intel, a decision he framed as a win for America but one that has left many conservatives, including Rand Paul and Thomas Massie, frustrated, viewing it as an unsettling move toward government involvement in private business.

Why it matters:
This acquisition, facilitated by Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, marks a shift that troubles free-market advocates, who worry it blurs the line between government and corporate control, potentially setting a precedent for more federal overreach in the economy and disappointing those who prioritize individual enterprise.

Driving the news:
The deal, confirmed via Trump’s Truth Social post, involves the U.S. government purchasing 433.3 million Intel shares at $20.47 each, securing a 9.9% stake without voting rights, as part of a strategy to leverage CHIPS Act funds.

  • The CHIPS Act, enacted in 2022, is a $52.7 billion bipartisan initiative to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains, providing grants and loans to companies like Intel.
  • Lutnick, on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” explained the equity stake, saying, “We should get an equity stake for our money,” converting Biden-era grants into ownership.
  • Trump credited negotiations with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, presenting it as a boost for national security and economic strength, even though he called for his resignation a few weeks prior.

Catch up quick:
The announcement follows months of discussions to support Intel, which reported $19 billion in losses last year, using taxpayer funds to stabilize it amid global tech competition.

The intrigue:
The concern is whether this move will strengthen U.S. tech leadership or signal a troubling trend toward government influence in private companies, with figures like Rand Paul questioning if it aligns with America’s economic traditions.

Between the lines:
Behind the patriotic tone, the deal suggests a pragmatic use of CHIPS Act funds that some see as a step toward socialism, raising questions about the balance between government support and market freedom.

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As American As Apple Pie: America’s Fascism Didn’t Start With Donald Trump

Page one of the American history book is stained with blood. The first lines tell the story of genocide against the continent’s original peoples—a campaign of dispossession and dehumanization. Colonists didn’t just steal land; they stole names, cultures, and futures. This erasure set the tone for centuries to come.

The brutality continued with chattel slavery, the forced labor and subjugation that built the nation’s wealth. Turn a few more pages and you’ll find Japanese American internment camps, the redlining of Black communities, crushed labor movements, and the relentless expansion of arguably the most complex security state the world has ever seen. The story of the U.S. empire is not one of a nation suddenly threatened by authoritarianism. The American dream has always relied on violence, exclusion, and control.

American fascism didn’t descend a golden escalator. Just crack open the history book—if you’ve got the stomach for it. This nation was founded on blood, dispossession, and state-sanctioned terror. American exceptionalism was born of genocide, carried out by the so-called founding fathers and their successors in wave after wave of deliberate extermination. The Mystic Massacre, Sand Creek Massacre, and Sullivan Expedition weren’t isolated incidents—they were state policy. George Washington, lionized as a hero, ordered the destruction of Iroquois villages, burning crops and homes and leaving entire communities to starve and freeze.

The U.S. didn’t just use bullets and bayonets. The state deployed every tool: forced removals, reservations as open-air prisons, weaponized disease and starvation, and the systematic destruction of cultures through boarding schools and forced assimilation. The message was clear—conform or die. If that’s not fascism, what is?

They say genocide was America’s original sin, and chattel slavery was its business model. For centuries, the American economy ran on the backs of enslaved people, bought, sold, and brutalized as property. These atrocities didn’t happen in spite of the state—they were engineered by it. Laws defined people as property, stripping them of humanity and unleashing a regime of terror to keep them in line.

Every institution played a part. Congress wrote fugitive slave laws turning white Americans into bounty hunters. Slave patrols—the forerunners of modern policing—stalked the countryside, authorized to brutalize or kill. If enslaved people rebelled, they faced public execution and mass reprisals. The abolition of slavery didn’t end the terror. Jim Crow laws, lynch mobs, and chain gangs ensured white supremacy remained the law of the land—North, South, East, and West.

The state’s appetite for oppression didn’t stop with Indigenous people or African-Americans. Anyone who threatened the established order—radicals, immigrants, workers—became targets. The machinery of surveillance and suppression was running long before the NSA or Patriot Act. During the Red Scare, the state waged war on leftists and labor organizers. Decades later, COINTELPRO was initiated as the FBI’s secret war on Black liberation, antiwar groups, and socialists. The message was always the same: step out of line, and the full weight of the security apparatus will crush you.

None of this is ancient history. Legalized violence, mass incarceration, surveillance, and criminalized dissent are the backbone of the American state. The capacity for repression has only grown more sophisticated and totalizing. Enter Donald J. Trump. Liberals and the “Blue MAGA” crowd claim Trump is a rogue president who warped the system. In reality, Trump is the system’s most authentic creation. Strip away the spray tan and gold-plated bravado, and you have a man wielding the same tools the state has always held: repression, scapegoating, and the rabid pursuit of executive authority. Trump’s authoritarian populism isn’t a break from American tradition—it’s an acceleration of it, following a playbook written long before he took office.

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Fascism comes to New Zealand

It’s the abuser’s Swiss army knife for the empty-headed. Multipurpose, its meaning has near-infinite elasticity. You can be labelled ‘fascist’ if you say that there are only two biological sexes, or that women should not have to undress in front of men, or that men should be excluded from women’s sports, or that men can’t get pregnant, or even if you voted for Trump.

Such is the ignorance of the 1930s and 1940s that in contemporary discourse, ‘fascist’ has lost all meaning.

Yet, in a very real sense, New Zealand is now Fascist. If this seems an extraordinary statement, consider Mussolini’s widely reported (though not documented), definition [Emphasis added]:

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

This definition may not be to everyone’s liking, but has the virtue of simplicity and clarity. Moreover, it is an accurate description of what is happening in America, Europe, Australia and – as I shall show – New Zealand.

There can be no clearer illustration of the corporate rule of New Zealand than the stranglehold the pharmaceutical industry has on government and media.

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Fascist Is as Fascist Does

Tis the season for name calling. It’s election season. Data analysis and historical analysis of policy proposals that haven’t worked in the past, but are proposed again since “we’ll do it better this time” take second place to throwing around invectives such as “Nazi,” “Hitler,” and “fascist.” Name-calling. That’s all it is. Name-calling.

As I watched, listened to, and read some of this stuff, I got to wondering if anyone doing the name-calling actually knows what they are talking about. I was reminded of the movie The Princess Bride in which Vizzini repeatedly uses the word “inconceivable” and Inigo Montoya responds, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” 

I was also reminded of the movie, Forrest Gump. A young Forrest responds to a classmate who asked if he was stupid with, “Mama says ‘stupid is as stupid does.’” Forrest Gump’s line echoes the old adage that actions speak louder than words, but “stupid is as stupid does” kind of sticks with you. 

One of the favorite slanders to try to gain votes is to attach an opposing candidate to Adolf Hitler. “This guy wants to have the military only be responsible to him, just like Hitler.” “This person is a fascist waiting to take over the country and take your freedoms away.” Seldom does anyone actually define terms. 

It’s much easier to just yell an emotional insult that hopefully can be repeated as an emotional tagline to discredit a candidate. Emotion tags memory, so if the emotion can be strong enough, especially negative emotion, then the memory pops into your conscious mind quickly. The memory and the negative emotion ride into consciousness together, so it’s a valuable tool in the non-data, non-analytical world of politics.

Since the name-calling term of the season is “fascist,” it seems like maybe we could modify young Forrest’s comment into “Fascist is as fascist does.” That led to me trying to reconcile the name-calling with what we’ve been through in the past couple of years: lockdowns. I thought we should see if anyone other than a presidential candidate might fit the title, “fascist;” but fit it in actions versus having someone from the opposing party name-call.

Early in the year of 2020, the governor of the state of Washington locked down the state. By mandate, without input from the public, but certainly lots of input from “experts” and a relatively small cadre of advisors, including advisors on a national scale such as Dr. Fauci, Governor Jay Inslee doomed many small businesses, fired long-serving first responders, stole up to two years of schooling from the state’s children, possibly negatively affected child neurological development, probably caused discomfort for those suffering from Alzheimer’s as ability to see facial detail was impaired by demanded masking, and may have contributed to the epidemic of myopia. 

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The Politics Of Fear: Laying The Groundwork For Fascism, American-Style

“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”

– Edward R. Murrow, broadcast journalist

America is in the midst of an epidemic of historic proportions.

The contagion being spread like wildfire is turning communities into battlegrounds and setting Americans one against the other.

Normally mild-mannered individuals caught up in the throes of this disease have been transformed into belligerent zealots, while others inclined to pacifism have taken to stockpiling weapons and practicing defensive drills.

This plague on our nation—one that has been spreading like wildfire—is a potent mix of fear coupled with unhealthy doses of paranoia and intolerance, tragic hallmarks of the post-9/11 America in which we live.

Everywhere you turn, those on both the left- and right-wing are fomenting distrust and division. You can’t escape it.

We’re being fed a constant diet of fear: fear of terrorists, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of people who are too religious, fear of people who are not religious enough, fear of extremists, fear of conformists, fear of the government, fear of those who fear the government, fear of those on the Right, fear of those on the Left… The list goes on and on.

The strategy is simple yet effective: the best way to control a populace is through fear and discord.

Fear makes people stupid.

Confound them, distract them with mindless news chatter and entertainment, pit them against one another by turning minor disagreements into major skirmishes, and tie them up in knots over matters lacking in national significance.

Most importantly, divide the people into factions, persuade them to see each other as the enemy and keep them screaming at each other so that they drown out all other sounds. In this way, they will never reach consensus about anything and will be too distracted to notice the police state closing in on them until the final crushing curtain falls.

This is how free people enslave themselves and allow tyrants to prevail. 

This Machiavellian scheme has so ensnared the nation that few Americans even realize they are being manipulated into adopting an “us” against “them” mindset. Instead, fueled with fear and loathing for phantom opponents, they agree to pour millions of dollars and resources into political elections, militarized police, spy technology and endless wars, hoping for a guarantee of safety that never comes.

All the while, those in power—bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations—move their costly agendas forward, and “we the suckers” get saddled with the tax bills and subjected to pat downs, police raids and round-the-clock surveillance.

Turn on the TV or flip open the newspaper on any given day, and you will find yourself accosted by reports of government corruption, corporate malfeasance, militarized police and marauding SWAT teams.

America has already entered a new phase, one in which children are arrested in schools, military veterans are forcibly detained by government agents because of their so-called “anti-government” views, and law-abiding Americans are having their movements tracked, their financial transactions documented, and their communications monitored.

These threats are not to be underestimated.

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If You’re Worried About Fascism, Worry About War

There’s another controversy about whether former President Donald Trump praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in private. In a New York Times interview published Tuesday, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelley claimed that Trump said, “Hitler did some good things.” The same day, The Atlantic reported that Trump said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” citing anonymous sources. Trump’s campaign has denied both reports. These allegations, which have come up before, fit a liberal argument that Trump is a dangerous would-be dictator in the making.

Whether or not the specific reports are true, the discussion often misses an important historical fact. A large part of the Nazi political program was about revenge for losing a past war. Germany and its allies not only turned their guns on their own people, but focused heavily on military glory through conquest. Anyone concerned with the danger of fascism today has to understand the role that militarism played back then.

Hitler was not able to seize control simply because he was skilled at riling up mobs. The Nazi movement took root in soil poisoned by the economic collapse and political chaos caused by losing World War I. Most people understand that Hitler overthrew the weak and chaotic Weimar Republic, but many do not know how that chaos was directly related to the war.

World War I ended for Germany in 1918 with a revolution and counterrevolution. After it became clear that the war was hopeless, the country suffered a mutiny by sailors who didn’t want to fight anymore, which turned into a nationwide uprising, forcing the German emperor to step down. As the new German republic tried to hash out peace terms, the far left and far right armed themselves to fight over the future of the country.

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“Capitalism Has Failed”

Today, more than at any time previously, Westerners are justifying a move toward collectivist thinking with the phrase, “Capitalism has failed.”

In response to this, conservative thinkers offer a knee-jerk reaction that collectivism has also had a dismal record of performance. Neither group tends to gain any ground with the other group, but over time, the West is moving inexorably in the collectivist direction.

As I see it, liberals are putting forward what appears on the surface to be a legitimate criticism, and conservatives are countering it with the apology that, yes, capitalism is failing, but collectivism is worse.

Unfortunately, what we’re seeing here is not classical logic, as Aristotle would have endorsed, but emotionalism that ignores the principles of logic.

If we’re to follow the rules of logical discussion, we begin with the statement that capitalism has failed and, instead of treating it as a given, we examine whether the statement is correct. Only if it proves correct can we build further suppositions upon it.

Whenever I’m confronted with this now oft-stated comment, my first question to the person offering it is, “Have you ever lived in a capitalist country?” That is, “Have you ever lived in a country in which, during your lifetime, a free-market system dominated?”

Most people seem initially confused by this question, as they’re residents of either a European country or a North American country and operate under the assumption that the system in which they live is a capitalist one.

So, let’s examine that assumption.

A capitalist, or “free market,” system is one in which the prices of goods and services are determined by consumers and the open market, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority.

Today, none of the major (larger) countries in what was once referred to as the “free world” bear any resemblance to this definition. Each of these countries is rife with laws, regulations, and a plethora of regulatory bodies whose very purpose is to restrict the freedom of voluntary commerce. Every year, more laws are passed to restrict free enterprise even more.

Equally as bad is the fact that, in these same countries, large corporations have become so powerful that, by contributing equally to the campaigns of each major political party, they’re able to demand rewards following the elections, that not only guarantee them funds from the public coffers, but protect them against any possible prosecution as a result of this form of bribery.

There’s a word for this form of governance, and it’s fascism.

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Fascism: Liberal Policies Transferring Taxpayer Money to Corporations

Liberal policies meet the definition of Fascism: Money for migrants, vaccine requirements, and diversity, equity, and inclusion are government policies that enrich a small number of favored and obedient private companies at taxpayers’ expense.

Liberals call everyone they hate a fascist. However, fascism is a form of state capitalism and is much closer to liberal policies than conservative ones. Conservatives advocate for more individual choice and fewer government regulations in commerce and private life. On the other hand, liberals seek more government intervention, increased spending, free money, and greater compliance.

Conservatives effectively say, “Eat what you want, but you pay for it.” Liberals say, “The government will pay for it, but you have to eat what we tell you.” The government gets to pick which restaurants receive the tax dollars paying for the meal and who gets to eat the meal, but all working people have to pay for the meal through taxes, whether they eat or not.

Some states and municipalities are mandating that students have COVID shots as a requirement for attendance. The parents pay school taxes (property tax), but the children can be barred if they do not comply with COVID and vaccine requirements. The vaccines are distributed by for-profit, private companies selected by the government. And the program is ultimately paid for by taxpayers. Ironically, a parent can pay both the school tax and the income tax funding the vaccine requirements and still have their children excluded from school because they refused to comply.

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Recommended reading…

Get it HERE.

“By offering a radical review of the last one hundred years of US history, this work is intended as a counterpoint to the rampant revisionism of the flurry of books glorifying the “American Century”. Beginning with the rather bold and decidedly controversial assertion that the current political system in place in the United States at the dawn of the twenty-first century is fascism, the first part of this book attempts to justify that claim by first defining exactly what fascism iscorrecting various widely-held misconceptionsand then analyzing how closely we as a nation conform to that definition. Also included is a review of some of the hidden history and key events of World War II. Part II offers a retrospective of the twentieth century American presidential administrations, to demonstrate that the steady and inexorable march towards overt fascism was a defining characteristic that remained unchanged. The final section looks at the still very much alive eugenics movement, and analyzes the role played by the psychiatric establishment in validating the fascist state. This book will surely find no shortage of detractors, but if read with an open mind, it just may change the way you view the world.”

Fascism Is Actually a Merger of State and Corporate Power, Stamping Out Dissent

“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

While this was originally written by Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile, Benito Mussolini took this statement and made it his own

The word “fascism” gets tossed around a lot, but let’s look at the history behind it so we can better understand this political movement. Mussolini used to confidently declare that the 20th century would be the century of fascism.  And while he was roundly defeated in World War II, his ideology may have been the winner in the long run.

Fascism was never a well-developed school of thought, in the way Marxism and Leninism were.  It emerged as a response to socialism in the aftermath of the First World War.

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