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Trump's War -- Cartoon by Rob Rogers
Rob Rogers
August 26, 2025
robrogers.com
We said nothing
First they came after the immigrants…the Workers and the Nannie’s..and we said nothing.
They they went after the suffering people in Palestine, Somalia and the global south and we said nothing.
They they went after the disabled, the poor, the hungry and the unhoused and we said nothing.
Then they went after Federal workers…and we said nothing.
Then they went after Texas Democrats and we said nothing.
Then they went after the people of Washington, D.C. and we said nothing.
Then they went after their own, John Bolton, the NSC, the CIA , Generals and Admirals and the FBI
And there was no one left
Maurice Jackson
[Maurice Jackson teaches at Georgetown University. He has written Rhythms of Resistance and Resilience: How Black Washingtonians Used Music and Sports in the Fight for Equality and Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism. His Halfway to Freedom: The Struggles and Strivings of African American in Washington, DC. will be published by Duke University Press in 2026.]
First they came
Martin Niemöller
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
National Guard -- Cartoon and Commentary by Nick Anderson
President Trump’s latest executive order to expand the role of the National Guard in law enforcement is not a policy to make America safer. It’s a blueprint for authoritarianism dressed up in camouflage.
The order carves out a standing domestic force of soldiers—trained, armed, and ready to be deployed at the president’s whim—into Democratic-run cities that he happens to despise. It doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to see the danger here. This is the militarization of public life, not to respond to natural disasters or true emergencies, but to police political opposition under the guise of “quelling civil disturbances.”
The irony is rich: Trump insists he’s restoring “law and order” while trampling over a bedrock American principle: the wall between civilian policing and the military. Since 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act has kept federal troops out of local law enforcement, precisely because the use of soldiers against civilians is the hallmark of regimes America has always claimed to oppose. Trump is now tearing down that firewall.
The timing is telling. This comes just weeks after he unilaterally “federalized” the California National Guard and flooded Los Angeles with 4,000 troops over the objections of state officials, citing “protests” that local police were already managing. In Washington, D.C., where violent crime is actually down, he has declared a phony “crime emergency” and ordered more than 2,000 Guard troops onto the streets—many carrying service weapons. Now he’s institutionalizing that power grab.
History should make us shudder. Richard Nixon once used “law and order” as a campaign slogan, but even he didn’t dare create permanent Guard units to police dissent. Strongmen elsewhere have. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán packed his security forces with loyalists in the name of “public order.” Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro created armed civilian auxiliaries to enforce political loyalty. Russia under Vladimir Putin blurred the line between police and soldiers to silence protest. In each case, the result was the same: citizens treated as enemies of the state, and democracy reduced to theater.
And now Trump has ordered the creation of an online portal for civilian volunteers to join federal agents in enforcing his D.C. “crime emergency.” That’s not law enforcement. It’s the beginnings of a partisan paramilitary. With Stephen Miller overseeing the effort, we should all assume this portal won’t be recruiting retired cops from quiet suburbs so much as MAGA loyalists eager for a badge and a rifle.
Even the military experts are blunt. Duke professor Peter Feaver warned that creating specialized Guard units on permanent standby amounts to a mobilization. These are not full-time soldiers—they’re Americans with jobs and families who signed up to serve their communities in times of crisis, not to act as Trump’s domestic enforcers.
Let’s be clear: a president who commands a personal army to deploy at will into states and cities, bypassing governors and local officials, is not protecting democracy. He is dismantling it.
This is not a drill. Congress and the courts must step in to restrain this abuse of emergency powers before Trump normalizes a military occupation of American cities. If they don’t, the question won’t be whether troops are sent into Chicago or New York—it will be how long before soldiers start patrolling polling places, too.
Nick Anderson
August 25, 2025
Pen Strokes
Re: Killing Medics and Journalists: What Impunity for Genocide Looks Like
Truly sad that the US continues to support genocide in Gaza.
Bill Audette
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
Trump paints the town ____ -- Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Lalo Alcaraz
August 22, 2025
https://www.pocho.com/
Re: Robert Kennedy Has Gutted Our Best Defense Against Future Pandemics
Angel of Death. Snake oil salesman. Charlatan. He already has a body count.
Aaron Stephens
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
=====
Kennedy is consigning people to die when that could be avoided.
Linda Belgrave
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
Re: Class Struggle Unionism, Auto Workers, Reds, and the 1930s
Whenever someone writes about the Flint Sit Down Strike, I look for one key element that if overlooked dramatically undermines my confidence in the author's knowledge and raises serious questions about their political agenda. That one historical point -- something some folk have for one reason or another done their best to hide over the years -- was the key role played by the strike's organizer, Bob Travis.
Bob paid a big price for his efforts: he was black listed.
see:
respectfully
jp bone
Re: US Deploys Warships to Venezuelan Coast
Venezuela isn't threatening the US by existing outside its control.
There are no grounds to surround it with a nuclear superpower's navy.
Mary Porter
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
No exclamation point, because there's another gun horror...yet again -- Cartoon by Jack Ohman
Jack Ohman
August 27, 2025
Jack Ohman's You Betcha!
Re: Orwell As Advocate for Workers and Against Exploitation
True to his roots however, when it came to an actual workers state, he was viciously opposed. !n 1947, when the Cold War started and nuclear war was a real possibility, he snitched to the British State. He wrote a list of intellectuals he thought were too soft on communism, including many liberals just opposed to the warmongering, and sent it to the secret services.
Dan Morgan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
U.S. Investment In Public Education Is At Risk: Vouchers, State Budget Austerity, and Federal Attacks on the Department of Education Threaten Children’S Futures (Economic Policy Institute)
By Hilary Wething, Josh Bivens
August 21, 2025
Economic Policy Institute
Weak public K–12 education spending in the U.S. and the rising trend of Republican attacks on public schools threaten our children’s futures. The last decade has seen a flurry of high-quality studies that show that increasing the level of spending per pupil would have reliable effects in boosting student achievement and closing various achievement gaps.
image - Charting_the_Problem_EPI
https://files.epi.org/uploads/295790-34524-950x831.png
Key findings
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Recent findings on the effectiveness of public education funding shows that increased spending per pupil yields significant social returns, especially in high-poverty districts.
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Investment in public education was healthy in the 1970–1980s but slowed in the 1990s and has been lagging since the Great Recession.
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In 2019, spending per student in higher-poverty school districts was $4,000 below what was needed to provide a quality education, while spending in lower-poverty districts was $5,700 above that threshold.
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Between 2011 and 2021, many states reduced their education budgets—especially those with Republican-controlled governorships and state legislatures (Republican trifectas)—widening the average gap between spending and the adequate education threshold to 18% during this period.
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On average, states with a Republican trifecta spend $141 less per pupil than states without a Republican trifecta. For districts in high-poverty neighborhoods, Republican trifecta states spend $244 less per pupil.
Why this matters
State cutbacks to K–12 spending, the rise of voucher programs, and Trump’s attacks on the federal Department of Education threaten to rob U.S. children of an adequate education.
How to fix it
K–12 public education spending levels are a policy choice. Policymakers should take urgent steps to fully fund public education.
Read the Full Report
Sections
- How much do we spend on public education? Where does that money go?
- How to know if we’re spending enough on public education
- Where net new spending on public education could do the most good
- Challenges to financing our schools fairly and adequately
- Recent threats to public education
- Conclusion
Read the Full Report
Economic Policy Institute
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
Phone: 202-775-8810 • [email protected]
Book Talk: "Rewriting Hisstory" with Jeff Kisseloff -- New York -- September 17 (Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives)
Wednesday, September 17, 5:30pm-7pm
Bobst Library
2nd Floor
Chase North Reading Room
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Register »
Written by journalist, oral historian, and editor Jeff Kisseloff, Rewriting History: A Fifty-Year Journey to Uncover the Truth About Alger Hiss, lays to rest the decades-long historical debate over Alger Hiss's innocence.
In 1948, Alger Hiss was accused by Whittaker Chambers of being a secret Communist spy during the 1930s. The resulting trials proved to be some of the most sensationalized and politicized events of the century, and--while he was ultimately convicted--Hiss maintained his innocence until his death. In Rewriting History, Kisseloff brings to light new evidence of Hiss's innocence and sheds light upon who was responsible for the accusations against Hiss. Join Jeff Kisseloff in conversation with Tony Hiss (author, educator, and son of Alger Hiss) as they discuss this revelatory political history. Copies of Rewriting History will be available for purchase.
Register »
NYU Libraries
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
