"If history is any guide, Trump’s next moves will be even more over the top as he seeks to reassert his relevance and turn the headlines his way."

#Trump #ApprovalRating #economy #immigration #healthcare #authoritarianism
/4

"Trump is looking like a weak second-term lame duck who is untethered from the political process and whom others are now prepared to ignore despite his excessive shouting and threats. That doesn’t normally happen within the first year of any second term presidency, so it is notable that Trump is losing his grip on power before 2025 is even over."

~ Jay Kuo

#Trump #ApprovalRating #economy #immigration #healthcare #authoritarianism
/3

statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-hur…

A Hurl The Heinz Day for the White House

The Trump regime was humiliated across the board yesterday in a clear sign of the President’s loosening grip on power.

^{Jay Kuo (The Status Kuo)}

"Preventing that shift is the single most important thing on the American people’s plate right now. The fact that Donald Trump is the most hated, loathed, jeered-at and loathsome human alive on Planet Earth, well, that can be a powerful tool in that fight."

#Trump #ApprovalRating #economy #immigration #healthcare #authoritarianism
/2

"Trump will get less and less popular, but Orbán and Putin are loathed by their people. They just don’t have the ability at the moment to do anything about it, because the state isn’t accountable to the people anymore. (Though there are big elections coming in Hungary that might reveal that Orbán’s power is not absolute.)"

~ Evan Hurst

#Trump #ApprovalRating #economy #immigration #healthcare #authoritarianism
/1

wonkette.com/p/trump-more-hate…

Trump More Hated, Mocked, Loathed And Loathsome Than Ever. Does It Matter?

Yes! But let's contextualize that!

^{Evan Hurst (Wonkette)}

"Churches in England are trying to save Christmas from Christian Nationalists. Far-right Islamophobic political activist Tommy Robinson is planning a rally in London on Saturday called 'Putting the Christ Back into Christmas.'”

~ Brian Kaylor

publicwitness.wordandway.org/p…

#religion #authoritarianism #ChristianNationalism #Trump #TommyRobinson #CharlieKirk #SteveBannon #ElonMusk
/6

Weekly Roundup: Dec. 12

Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week, we published our list of favorite books of the year and an exclusive report on the first prayer service at the U.S.

^{Word&Way (A Public Witness)}

"Now is the time to build the movement that not only says, 'No' to extremism but also says, 'Yes' to the work of building a political economy where everyone can thrive.

This week offers more concrete evidence that we can build a moral fusion coalition for that work anywhere."

#religion #authoritarianism #ChristianNationalism #Trump
/5

"The moral collapse that we have witnessed under the Trump regime has been excruciating, outrageous, and exhausting. The damage is real, and it demands mourning, accountability, and work toward a viable alternative. But this level of collapse also reveals the possibility for a Third Reconstruction."

~ William J. Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

#religion #authoritarianism #ChristianNationalism #Trump
/4

ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/…

The Moral Collapse of MAGA

How a moral fusion lens can help Americans see through the "red state" mirage

^{William J. Barber, II (Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)}

"In Donald Trump’s America and Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, this project has furnished a spurious religious underpinning to a politics of authoritarian power and exclusion.

Nothing could be further from the spirit of St Paul when he asserts: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.'”

#religion #authoritarianism #violence #ChristianNationalism #Trump
/3

"An ethnocentric politics legitimising xenophobia, cultural exclusivism and indiscriminate deportations is fundamentally unchristian, as the late Pope Francis repeatedly underlined. ...

In its various guises, the contemporary far right is seeking to transform Christianity into a vehicle for cultural and ethnic supremacism, exploiting and corrupting desires for meaning and belonging."

~ The Guardian

#religion #authoritarianism #violence #ChristianNationalism #Trump
/2

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The Guardian view on far-right perversions of the Christmas message: promoting a gospel of hate

Editorial: A Tommy Robinson-inspired carol service is the latest sign of a burgeoning Christian nationalist movement. The Church of England is right to push back

^{Editorial (The Guardian)}

"There’s perhaps no better way to understand the contemporary anti-liberal project than as a return to the pre-liberal trauma of the wars of religion, in the worst of which a third of the population was killed. And there may be no better way to illuminate the liberal project conservatives wish to destroy than by recalling how it emerged out of healing from that trauma."

~ Paul Henry Rosenberg

#religion #authoritarianism #violence #ChristianNationalism
/1

liberalcurrents.com/trumps-war…

Trump's War on Christmas Is a War on Liberalism

After decades of make-believe, the Trump administration is promising an actual war on Christmas that would traumatize religious communities with armed state power.

^{Paul Henry Rosenberg (Liberal Currents)}

"It is a the literal hijacking of our democracy. The truth of this project and its danger have been the clanging bells that could easily have been heard by those best-positioned to derail it. But it so happens that those most positioned to have headed off this moment of Constitution-defying, democracy-defying, collapse have refused to believe it."

#democracy #authoritarianism #racism #WhiteSupremacy
/5

"The white supremacist, anti-14th Amendment, post-Brown movement has the complicity or active engagement of all three branches of government as it works to undo the constitutional infrastructure of Reconstruction and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.

And so here we are. The agenda has been laid bare for any sentient person to see."

#democracy #authoritarianism #racism #WhiteSupremacy
/4

"We are in the midst of a full-blown effort to execute an anti-democracy project that seeks to nullify the legal, social, economic and educational apparatus designed to undergird the foundation of a multiracial democracy. …

What makes this moment particularly dangerous is that all of the stars have aligned."

#UnitedStates #Trump #democracy #authoritarianism #racism #WhiteSupremacy
/3

~ Sherrilyn Ifill

sherrilyn.substack.com/p/is-it…

Is It Too Late?

No. But We Must Better Understand the Nature of the Battle

^{Sherrilyn Ifill (Sherrilyn’s Newsletter)}

"But most Christian leaders were silent or, worse, complicit in the 1930s and 40s. Far too many understood the Nazi regime to be bringing God back into public life."

#authoritarianism #fascism #religion #Hitler #Nazis
/2

"Peace through strength is the gospel of every authoritarian regime. ...

American Christians often like to recall Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Karl Barth as fellow Christians who stood up to the violence of authoritarianism when Hilter was on the rise in Germany."

~ William J. Barber, II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

#authoritarianism #fascism #religion #Hitler #Nazis
/1

ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/…

Advent Peace When There Is No Peace

Prophetic nonviolence disturbs the false peace of authoritarian regimes

^{William J. Barber, II (Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)}

"Trump accepts two primary types of currency for his pardons: loyalty and money."

~ Don Moynihan

#Trump #pardons #crime #criminals #corruption #PaytoPlay #grift #authoritarianism #fascism

lincolnsquare.media/p/pardon-t…

Pardon the Corruption

Trump’s justification for invading American cities and other countries is to reduce the crime he is actively encouraging through his pardons.

^{Don Moynihan (Lincoln Square)}