Forest Protectors Launch Tree Sit and Lawsuits to Stop Ecocidal Logging in WA

Forest protectors are defending mature forests from logging after dam removal and restoration on the Elwha River.

By Curtis Johnson , Truthout

Published July 6, 2025

Activists with the Elwha Legacy Forest coalition hold a sign above a logged tree at the Aldwell former legacy forest site above the Elwha River in Washington state, on April 6, 2024.

Standing at the edge of the Aldwell Forest clearcut just above the Elwha River in Washington State, the Murphy Company’s devastation of the landscape slaps you in the face. Here on land owned by the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), a beautiful mature forest has been logged for hardwood, plywood, and other wood products. Hacked-off stumps are visible in all directions, a few trees left to stand. The former forest floor, once rich with organisms and nutrients that fed life, now stands heaped into huge slash piles to be burned. The land doused with herbicide to kill any competitors to Douglas fir seedlings that will become a new tree plantation monoculture.

The contrast with the remaining intact Elwha legacy forests, located nearby in the watershed, couldn’t be starker. There, in naturally regenerated forests more than a century old, large Douglas fir, western red cedar and big-leaf maple trees festooned with moss and licorice ferns surround you. Native sword ferns, trillium, salal, red huckleberry, lichen, and other native vegetation in multiple shades of brilliant green abound.

After DNR put more Elwha legacy forest on the chopping block during a November 2024 auction, environmentalists, citizens, and forest defenders are fighting to stop Murphy’s logging there through lawsuits and direct action.

For over a month, a tree-sit launched by a grouping called the Olympic Forest Defenders (OFD) blocked the road into the Parched forest site scheduled for destruction. The sit received broad support through encampments, rallies, and continuous supply efforts from community members. After a judge refused to extend an injunction against logging, police and violent vigilantes attacked the sit and encampment. The OFD made a decision to end the tree-sit on June 15 for the safety of those involved.

“Our commitment to defend the forests and waters of the Olympic Peninsula remains strong,” states an OFD press release. “To the vigilantes, the DNR cops, and state-sponsored repression, we say: You did not dig up our roots. We are still here. Stop pillaging our people. Stop pillaging our forests. Stop pillaging our waters. Our movement has not been uprooted. It is just beginning to grow.”

The Restored Elwha and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

The Lower Elwha River in Washington state, as seen on June 3, 2025.
The Lower Elwha River in Washington state, as seen on June 3, 2025.

The Elwha River runs out of the protected Olympic National Park. It is the pulsing heart of the ancestral homelands of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. Two large hydropower dams, the Elwha and Glines Canyon, were built on the river between 1910 and 1927 to fuel timber processing and industry in the Port Angeles area. The dam builder didn’t bother to include legally required mechanisms for fish passage.

The dams blocked the free-flowing river, flooding tribal village and cultural sites and decimating the tribe’s way of life. Ninety-three percent of the upstream salmon spawning habitat was cut off, leading to near extirpation of pristine populations of wild salmon in the river that was central to the Lower Elwha people’s life and culture. Before the dams, the Elwha was famous for its enormous chinook salmon, precious to the tribe and a primary food source for orca whales of the Salish Sea.

Tribal elders passed down to their children and grandchildren the stories of the river filled with fish before the dams. Under tribal pressure that spanned generations, a $325 million project was launched in 2011 by tribal, governmental, and academic agencies and scientists to restore the river ecosystem by removing the dams; restoring the river’s flow; planting native plants; and building back the populations of five species of Pacific salmon, steelhead, and other species. The dams were finally taken down in the years between 2011 and 2014 — more than 20 years after a 1992 Congressional Act ordered it.

The project has been an inspiring success in restoring the anadromous fish populations and the ecosystem, as well as a source of pride for the Lower Elwha people. The river returned to natural channels after dam removal, and after a few years of major sediment release, it began to clear. The released sediment rebuilt the delta and estuary at the Elwha mouth on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is critical to rearing juvenile migrating fish.

But new logging of forests on the hills just above the river represents an assault on the restoration efforts that have been achieved. It also explains the deep feelings held among tribal members, Forest Defenders, conservationists, and others who care about the land and river ecosystem.

Logging clear-cut at the Aldwell former legacy forest site above the Elwha River in Washington state, as seen on June 3, 2025.

A petition circulated in October 2024 by Lower Elwha tribe members and signed by over half of the members of the tribe, as well as 2,500 other people, states that,

We do not understand a way of thinking that would spend hundreds of millions on Elwha River restoration but continue to industrially log in that same watershed. We do not understand a way of thinking that takes too much and says it is never enough; that would disrespect a River that gives us so much life and now hope.

Our ancestral knowledge and sacred obligation to the natural world teaches us a different path. We have inherent and treaty protected rights in these lands as our usual and accustomed gathering areas. Together, we call for the protection of the Elwha Watershed as a commitment to our mutual future and to the wellbeing of all who depend upon it. We ask you to stop these planned timber sales and heed our call to be guided by principles of respect and reciprocity in caring for the watershed.

Lawsuits in Defense of the Elwha Legacy Forests

The DNR’s November 2024 auction of the now-threatened Elwha forests to the Murphy Company were among others the DNR Board of Resources rushed through in apparent anticipation of new Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove taking office in January 2025. Upthegrove had pledged to protect legacy forests if elected.

The Tree Well and Parched logging plans threaten to cut over 300 acres of mature legacy conifer forest, some of which has never been logged. Two lawsuits were filed to overturn the sales in December 2024 by the Earth Law Center (ELC) in conjunction with the Orca Network, the Center for Whale Research, and the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition (LFDC).

The lawsuits lay out a coherent, detailed picture of the damage new logging would cause to the river ecosystem. The ELC suit alleges that the DNR is violating the state Public Lands and Environmental Policy Acts by failing to perform an adequate environmental assessment of the logging’s impact on mature, structurally complex, and biodiverse forests. The two forest sites are critical to carbon sequestration and as habitat for wildlife and culturally significant native plants.

The lawsuit also argues scientific studies have shown logging negatively impacts stream flows, hydrology, and water temperature — all factors critical to supporting the Elwha system and its salmon populations, which in turn support populations of the critically endangered southern resident orcas.

The groups’ also charge that logging on steep slopes in these sites above the Elwha and its tributaries threatens slope stability, pointing out the potential impact to Port Angeles’s water supply.

LFCD is suing for injunctive relief against the sale of the forests on the basis that the DNR is neglecting to follow its own policies to regenerate old-growth forest on 10-15 percent of state forestlands — a legal approach that has successfully paused other DNR timber sales.

The LFDC’s Kyle Krakow told Truthout in an emailed statement that the group has “appealed a total of 32 sales in lawsuits that are still ongoing in most cases. Collectively, these timber sales threaten over 2,300 acres of biodiverse and carbon-dense legacy forests across western Washington.”

Truthout also spoke to LaTrisha Suggs, a restoration planner for, and enrolled member of, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe. Her family has lived for time immemorial in Clallam County. Suggs is also a Port Angeles City Council member who worked as a restoration planner for the Lower Elwha tribe on the river restoration project.

In a declaration filed in support of the LFDC lawsuit, Suggs stated that,

The sites of many of the proposed and sold parcels have steep slopes, and the levels of logging that occurs has an impact on the potential for landslides, particularly with the impacts of climate change and increased rain events in Port Angeles. When landslides occur, because the trees can no longer hold back the soil due to clear cutting, the soil runs into the streams and rivers, blocking access to salmon and impacting water quality. The soils of mature forests act as storage for water that the plant communities rely on during the summer months.

Her declaration also stated that Port Angeles has been under a stage three water shortage each summer since 2022, and Clallam County has been under a drought advisory for years — issues expected to get worse as climate change advances.

Elizabeth Dunne is ELC’s director of legal advocacy. She lives near the Elwha River and co-founded the Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition (ELF) after DNR sanctioned logging on the Aldwell forest. Dunne and the coalition’s successful efforts to stop a prior timber sale in the Elwha has been told in an award-winning short film, Last Stand, Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests.

She shared a map with Truthout showing that greater than 50 percent of the Elwha’s legacy forests have been logged in just the last 17 years; little older forest remains in the Elwha watershed. Now DNR has plans for logging 800 more acres.

“The Elwha River is really speaking for many of these ecosystems that are suffering at the hands of over-extraction and exploitation for profit without having any kind of sense of responsibility of the balance that we need to show back to the Earth if we are going to continue to survive as a species. And not just survive but be able to thrive,” Dunne said. “Imagine a world where we can go fishing, where we have abundant ecosystems, and they’re not all controlled and commodified, and we’re able to, sustain ourselves.”

The Fight to Save the Parched Legacy Forest

In early May, Murphy began building roads into the Parched timber units, tearing down trees and bringing in gravel. In response, on May 7 the Olympic Forest Defenders began their tree-sit, blocking the road into the Parched site off U.S. Highway 101.

The Forest Defenders demanded an immediate cancellation of the Parched timber sale, a pause on all logging in the Elwha watershed, and a permanent ban on logging the remaining mature forests in western Washington.

The tree-sit involved a cable pulley stretched from logs and other debris blocking the middle of the logging road connected to a “dunk tank”-type platform 60-80 feet up a nearby large grand fir tree. Cutting the cable would cause the sitter on the platform to come crashing down.

Truthout was able to visit and speak there and on the phone with “Fable,” a 25-year-old tree-sitter, about the goals of the tree-sit and why they were participating. “There’s a long history in the Pacific Northwest of direct action and tree-sitting being effective, especially when done in conjunction with some sort of legal pressure,” Fable told Truthout.

They told Truthout they had grown up a timber farm and helped manage it with their parents. The family would talk about the impact of logging on the land and the creeks, and Fable would go salmon fishing with their dad and uncles, learning about the connection between forests, rivers, and salmon.

Fable told Truthout that they had studied math to get a master’s degree, but their recent experience of caretaking for a loved one who was sick changed their life. The experience “made me want to be more involved in things that actually make change in the world,” they said. “Realistically, the most good you can do is caring for people and caring for land, and keeping people and land safe from the really evil things that are out there.”

Rallies were held at the Parched site, and for over a month community members from around the region continuously brought in supplies and camped to protect the sitter. DNR officers initially surrounded the tree, running generator-powered lights around the clock before backing off. They would at times try to stop people from going in or threaten them with arrest.

“The support’s been great and kind of surprising,” Fable said. “People understand how critical of a moment this is and that this kind of action is necessary, which really gives me a lot of hope because that’s how I feel. And to not just be a lone person doing something like this is just really, really cool.”

After the tree-sit began, Land Commissioner Upthegrove, who placed a six-month pause on logging legacy forests, condemned the sitters saying, “This stunt is dangerous, reckless and counterproductive…. Their actions put the safety and lives of my employees at risk, and I will seek the prosecution of those involved to the fullest extent of the law. This kind of dangerous vandalism makes it harder to advance a positive environmental agenda.”

The sitters’ message, on the other hand, was: “Dave Upthegrove promised to protect mature forests. We are here helping him keep his promise.”

Upthegrove’s threats ignited phone calls and emails to his office, including from some who had worked for him because of his campaign pledges. Nonetheless on May 28, he doubled down on threats to the Forest Defenders, saying, “We intend to hold those responsible accountable.”

A statement on DNR’s website says Upthegrove is reassessing the process on legacy forests, but that, “Some paused sales could be reconfigured and brought forward to auction once the criteria to exclude structurally complex forests that are critical to carbon storage and habitat biodiversity are developed.” Upthegrove also said he’s committed to protect sales approved before he took office, saying, “It’s important to defend policies and the authority of the agency.”

It’s unclear what DNR will do after the six-month “pause” in legacy forest sales ends. In a letter to Clallam County Democrats, Upthegrove said he intended to bring forward a policy to protect 77,000 acres of older forests, a significant step if done, though less than the 106,000 acres of legacy forest currently unprotected. He claimed, without evidence, that the tree-sit had endangered DNR employees.

After first ordering a two-week injunction against logging and compelling DNR to produce administrative records supporting its decision to approve the timber sales, a Clallam County Superior Court judge refused to extend the injunction past May 23. On June 6, she ruled against an LFDC filing which sought to prevent logging until both lawsuits could receive a full hearing on their merits. Hearings on the merits should be held in coming months.

Dunne told Truthout that she was disappointed in the judge’s ruling. “Existing policies aside, what we need today is action commensurate with the gravity of the extinction and biodiversity crisis: a clear directive creating an Ecological Forest Reserve and permanently protecting all remaining legacy forests on state lands for their intrinsic value and as essential to the survival of all species,” she said.

On June 13, police of unknown affiliation swept the camp, seizing supplies and hindering the ability of the encampment to protect the tree-sitter’s life. (A DNR spokesperson told Truthout he couldn’t comment on the raid of the encampment or the vigilante attacks, only saying DNR had “cleared the many makeshift barricades” on the logging road.) Despite this, the community rallied in support, bringing new supplies and people to keep the sit protected.

Over the next days, violent vigilantes attacked the tree-sit twice. They tampered with the cable and tripod anchoring the platform supporting the tree-sitter, causing it to dangerously dip. Vigilantes also drunkenly threatened to kill the Forest Defenders and threw bottles around. One pointed a gun at Forest Defenders, walking aggressively toward them and then shot into the forest. After this, the Defenders decided to safely evacuate the site before someone was hurt or killed.

At press time, the tree-sit and encampment are gone but the outcome with the threatened forests remains undetermined. Those protecting the forests remain committed to their aims and lawsuits on the merits of the logging remain to be heard.

“Dave Upthegrove ran as a progressive, and that’s kind of the first and main legislator we’re pushing back against right now. I don’t know that we would have done things any different if there weren’t these sort of executive orders (like Trump’s on timber sales) going into place, and this sort of over-escalation and fascism in our country … and is giving people hope that even under a really threatening administration, we can keep pushing back against it,” Fable told Truthout.

Trump’s War on Forests

republished from truthout.org

Trump’s Order to Expand Logging Threatens to Increase Climate-Fueled Wildfires

Trump’s Order to Expand Logging Threatens to Increase Climate-Fueled Wildfires

The president’s push to expand timber and fossil fuel production “is a double whammy on the climate.”

By Curtis Johnson , Truthout

Published May 17, 2025

Workers add freshly harvested logs to the piles in a timber company log yard near Clarkia, Idaho.
Workers add freshly harvested logs to the piles in a timber company log yard near Clarkia, Idaho.

On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production.” The order claimed “onerous Federal policies” have hindered domestic timber production and that expanding logging was a matter of protecting “national and economic security.” It ordered the secretary of the Interior and head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), who oversee the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) respectively, to develop a plan to expand timber targets and streamline permitting “to suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.”

The responsible departments and agencies were instructed to find categorical exclusions to the National Environmental Policy Act and use “emergency regulations” to circumvent the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

After Trump’s order, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service continued the assault on endangered species by proposing a new rule that would redefine “harm” under the ESA to only include directly killing species, replacing the current definition that includes destruction of a species’ habitat. Habitat destruction is the greatest source of species extinction.

In April, USDA head Brooke Rollins directed the stripping of forest protections on more than half of all national forests and called for expanding timber production by 25 percent to address a “wildfire emergency,” and restore forest “resources.” A report from the Associated Press says the directive “exempts affected forests from an objection process that allows outside groups, tribes and local governments to challenge logging proposals at the administrative level before they are finalized.”

A map of forests Rollins has targeted includes all national forests in Washington State and California, and large sections throughout the west and other parts of the country. It even includes some wilderness areas. These forests contain some of the most cherished old-growth and mature forest ecosystems remaining in the U.S.

Related Story

In the Pacific Northwest, millions of acres of older and mature forests and old-growth dependent species like the northern spotted owl were finally protected by the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) in the 1990s after a century of logging that had reduced the forest to about a fourth of its historical extent. The NWFP happened as a result of intense forest defense and protest by Earth First! and many other environmental groups, studies by forest ecologists and court injunctions. The idea that these forests of immense trees, stunning natural beauty, rich biodiversity and crucial reserves of carbon sequestration could now, once again, be opened to logging is stomach-turning.

In late April, Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued his own executive order in line with Trump’s, aiming to ramp up logging with the same “rationale” as the Trump order, combatting increased wildfire danger. The order appears to replace federal responsibility for forest management in that of the state.

Jeff Juel, forest policy director for Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) said, “The state of Idaho has not earned the trust of the American public to manage forests while preserving old growth, assuring wildlife populations are robust and healthy, or maintaining hunting and fishing opportunities.… They are, on the other hand, experts at clearcutting and making state lands resemble a war zone.”

Climate Change and Wildfire

Trump’s order called for “forest management and wildfire risk reduction projects” to “save American lives and communities.” Yet none of the administration’s orders even gave lip service to the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that climate change is the main driver of more severe wildfire that has resulted in the destruction of whole communities in the west in recent years, including parts of Los Angeles.

Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with Wild Heritage, whose stated mission is to protect and restore forests and safeguard biocultural diversity around the world, told Truthout that Trump’s policies are “a double whammy on the climate. By beginning the process of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, they’re going to continue to drill for fossil fuels and increase our emissions to the atmosphere. At the same time, they’re talking about an executive order that would increase logging on 280 million acres of forests across the U.S., bypassing the nation’s … landmark environmental laws, even the Endangered Species Act.”

DellaSala led an international team of scientists in doing the first nationwide mapping of mature and old-growth forests in the U.S. Their analysis found these forests sequester 9 percent of the nation’s total emissions.

“These big, fast-moving fires are the combination of extreme fire weather caused by anthropogenic climate change interacting with heavily logged landscapes. So it’s that double whammy again, by doing more logging and contributing to more emissions, you have a feedback on fire weather over the long run, that’s what’s really driving these big fires,” DellaSala told Truthout. “The latest climate attribute models are showing now that we can explain a lot of the causality around these big fires because of the increase in spring and summertime temperatures, especially heat domes, high winds and extreme droughts.”

As the Trump administration cited wildfire mitigation as a reason to increase logging to “save communities” from wildfire, it was busy axing programs, agencies and employees who were researching or seeking ways to combat the climate crisis driving increased wildfire. Trump also declared an “energy emergency” justifying elimination of government environmental regulations on energy production.

Wildfire Science and “Mitigation”

A growing body of knowledge in fire ecology understands wildfire is a natural phenomenon that ecosystems have evolved in relation to. Trees and plants have evolved strategies for flourishing with fire — such as conifers which have serotinous cones that require fire to open them so seeds are distributed.

Fire plays a key role in ecosystem restoration. It is increasingly understood among fire ecologists that a century of fire suppression in the U.S. has failed, and has been damaging in preventing fire from playing its role in maintaining forest health.

Traditionally, Indigenous cultures in the U.S. burned the landscape to control larger, more dangerous wildfires and to generate better growing conditions for native plants they harvested. Cultural burning is credited by most scientists as well as tribes with helping maintain healthy forest ecosystems and biodiversity.

A member of the Karuk tribe in California told CalMatters “Fire, for us, is not just a tool — it’s a lifeline, a means of renewal, and a vital part of our culture.” Indigenous burning was suppressed in California and in the U.S. as a whole in the 19th century by the government as part of destruction of Native culture, theft of land and genocide.

Wildland fire is a very complex phenomenon. Different types of forests have very different fire regimes. Degrees of fire intensity differ greatly between forests and even within forests of the same general type, depending on rainfall, climate, and other factors. Historically, fire intensity varied, even within forest patches.

Decades of fire suppression by the USFS has led to a buildup of denser forests in some western dry forests. In the era of climate crisis, this has contributed to more intense and widespread fires. There is basic agreement among scientists on the role of climate change as a prime driver that must be addressed. Many agree on the need to curtail fire suppression in the backcountry to help restore the natural function of fire on the landscape. Steps here include allowing certain backcountry fires to burn and to increase prescribed burning, especially during seasons of lower fire risk.

There’s also a clear need to develop programs for home hardening, vegetation clearing near structures and better escape plans for threatened communities.

But the science on using mechanical thinning of forests to manage wildfire is not settled. There is ongoing debate about how effective it is at lowering the severity of wildfire or its threat to communities. Disagreements remain over the degree and type of thinning that should occur, where and when it should be done if at all, if it should only be undertaken in tandem with prescribed burning and whether it is beneficial or harmful to the ecosystem.

Scientists do in general agree that if done, thinning should focus on dry forests, removing smaller trees and protecting more fire-resilient older and mature trees. A USFS study showed that older forests that have been protected from logging to preserve nesting area for the northern spotted owl under the NWFP can act as “fire refugia,” burning at lower intensity than surrounding landscape. A 2016 study in Ecosphere showed forests with high levels of protection from logging in dry and mixed-conifer forests burn with lower intensity than unprotected forests or those subjected to logging, even though they generally contain more forest biomass.

Forest Service Fuel Treatment

No matter the scientific debate, the reality is that over recent decades, government policy has largely continued to rely on fire suppression. This strategy has failed to lower the risks to communities or to save forested ecosystems. At the same time, the USFS has, in recent years, begun to use thinning and prescribed burning on hundreds of thousands of acres of land each year and has plans for tens of millions more.

Environmental groups that are watching this on the ground say some mitigation projects have been done more judiciously and can be helpful, but now a great deal of USFS projects are just clear-cutting of forests to produce revenue for timber companies.

Karen Coulter of Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (BMBP), which works to protect and restore the ecosystems of the Blue Mountains and Eastern Oregon Cascades, told Truthout she has been monitoring public lands in eastern Oregon and southwest Washington for 33 years. She said in the 1990s, average timber sales were smaller-scale, legitimate commercial thinning. “Sometimes I could agree with it. Because it was thinning from below, and it wasn’t hacking down the large trees and so forth. It was more reasonable. Now it’s virtual clear-cutting, much more intense logging, and it’s on a landscape scale.”

BMBP’s website has many photos of USFS projects termed “free selection,” “commercial” thinning or “understory removal” in the Malheur and Umatilla National Forests that are essentially clear-cuts. Everything is mowed down. Some of these include old-growth trees.

Right now, the organization is contesting a USFS project in an Inventoried Roadless Area, (public lands without roads that have high conservation value), that includes Walla Walla, Washington’s, municipal watershed and old-growth trees. They say logging here could cause damage to water quality for the city and streams that support threatened salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

Nick Cady is the legal director with Cascadia Wildlands (CW) in Eugene, Oregon. CW works to defend and restore wild ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. Cady told Truthout that another issue is often Forest Service proposals are turned over to timber companies to execute, giving them leeway. Meanwhile, he said the BLM is “just logging as much as they can.”

Cady said of USFS “mitigation” proposals, “If you log to maximize value, you dramatically increase fire risk. That is what the data on the ground has shown time and time again…. So if you say you’re going to maximize logging to improve fire, it’s just not real.”

USFS did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

In Montana, the Alliance For The Wild Rockies recently sued and stopped a USFS project planning to cut and burn 15,000-45,000 acres covering the whole eastern side of the Bitterroot National Forest over 20 years, claiming “categorical exclusions” from protecting threatened species.

The amount of timber sold from logging USFS lands in the U.S. from 2014 to 2023 has varied between 2.8 and 3.2 billion board feet a year. Expanding timber production by 25 percent would increase sales to 3.75 billion board feet a year from its current 2024 level of around 3 billion board feet.

Internal USFS documents obtained by WildEarth Guardians (WEG) show top officials under both Trump and former President Joe Biden have pressured foresters to streamline the process for timber sales. At a June 2017 meeting, the USFS leadership team for the Pacific Northwest said the head of USFS was calling to “increase our restoration activities” so as to “increase acres treated and volume output as a consequence.”

USFS has also been undertaking plans to revamp the NWFP in ways that would increase the cut of older trees. One proposal would, among other things, change the age of trees protected in wet forest Late Successional Reserves from 80 to 120 years, opening up 824,000 acres to logging. WEG says this would “eviscerate the entire concept of [the reserves] which were originally intended to provide large blocks of older forests for species like the northern spotted owl.”

What’s Next?

The Trump regime now threatens to worsen the devastation of some of our most important older forests, gutting the most fire-resilient ecosystems, increasing the threat of climate change and more dangerous wildfire. It does so while slashing environmental protections across the board and gutting key agencies and programs that offer some protection to humans and the planet.

Cady and Coulter both told Truthout that the regime is going to run into all kinds of problems with accomplishing their plan — shuttered lumber mills, previous legal decisions against timber interests in court and real difficulties with the process of designing these sales after firing thousands of forest service employees.

Cady said Cascadia Wildlands has “a massive body of supporters” that can be mobilized to act regardless of decisions in the courts. He said, “People live here, they don’t want massive amounts of logging.”

In cooperation with court challenges and active public engagement by these and other groups, forest defense efforts including active tree sits have increasingly jumped off in Pacific Northwest forests recently. These include two tree sits in southern Oregon on BLM land, one of which helped precipitate a court ruling canceling logging in the Poor Windy Project in May 2024. Another tree sit has just begun to protect legacy forest on Department of Natural Resource land in Washington State near the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula.

Coulter said what Trump’s order is attempting “would be illegal and challenged in court, but the problem is their strategy seems to be that they could wrench these destructive timber sales through first before there’s any final legal outcome. And this is kind of what they’re doing, is wrecking everything as fast as they can, dismantling the agencies,” she said. “We need to raise the profile of the forest defense movement…. We need to raise the profile of forests, along with everything else that they’re targeting.”

.

The Language of Fascism

from Counterpunch

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/06/the-language-of-fascism/

May 6, 2025

Curtis Johnson

FacebookTwitterRedditBlueskyEmail

Image by Mika Baumeister.

Since the advent of Trump 2.0 in January of this year, it has become increasingly clear that this time around, we face a more virulent and all-encompassing attempt to impose fascism than the first try.

I’ve searched for ways to explain what was occurring and what I might contribute to opposing it, including through writing. I was surprised by the speed and extremity of what was happening. What I expected to be a more slow-moving Orban or Putinesque version of fascism/authoritarianism, seemed more akin to the Nazi experience.

I’ve been somewhat a student of the history of Nazism in Germany and was struck by how the language and methods of Trump et al resembled much of that of the Nazis, albeit in a greatly altered situation including the peculiar history and reality of the United States. No, I’m not arguing that this is a replica with the same predictable outcome. Far from it, and the outcome is unwritten.

What I am arguing though is the parallels and dangers shouldn’t be ignored.

One thing that presented itself to me was the need and potential importance of recording observations of events under the “new” Trump regime, as well as the growing resistance to it. I was drawn to read Victor Klemperer’s two volume Diary, I Will Bear Witness of daily life as a Jewish academic in Nazi Germany from 1933-1945.

Klemperer details from a very personal perspective the encirclement and escalating suppression of Jewish life, and especially that of he and his “Aryan” wife Eva, as well as their circle of friends and associates. Victor miraculously survived the holocaust, largely due to Eva’s background. When the firebombing of Dresden by the U.S destroyed the city in 1945, Victor and Eva managed to escape. Ripping off the yellow star the Nazis required Jews to wear upon penalty of death, Victor left with Eva and made their way to allied lines

I’m just finishing volume I, which ends in 1941. Through this volume, Klemperer, who was a professor/author on French and world literature, documents the language of the Third Reich. He has an idea, which he despairs of even being able to execute due to the increasing threat of death, of someday writing a book on it. In fact, he survived and did publish that book, which I plan to read.

Reading Klemperer’s diary rings a frightening warning from history as fascism unfolds now in the U.S. I can’t shake the feeling that reading this is prologue, albeit as I say in a different situation and time with different parameters or potential results, and being deeply shaken and disturbed by that.

Klemperer, a military veteran who has always considered himself German and Protestant rather than Jewish, is finding himself increasingly estranged from that feeling of “Germaness”.

In 1938, he writes of this being “knocked out of him”, and says, “too much of what, in the past, I took lightly, viewed as an embarrassing minor phenomenon, I now consider to be German and typical. The superlativism, which is a special hallmark of the language of the Third Reich…. the Nazis do it in a way that is half megalomania, half frantic autosuggestion. One of their favorite words is ‘eternal’.”

Trumpist language oozes superlativism. In typical manner, Trump lauded his “accomplishments” in 43 days during his State of the Union address- “The American dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback, the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again.  There’s never been anything like it.”

In 1936, Klemperer writes, “The Fuhrer must be followed blindly, blindly! They do not need to explain anything at all, since they are accountable to no one. Today it occurred to me: Never has the tension between human power and powerlessness, human knowledge and human stupidity been so overwhelmingly great as now.” I am reminded here of the destruction of scientific research by the Trump regime, but also the lock-step sycophancy of the GOP in extolling Trump’s first 100 days.

With the mad celebration of the German annexation of Austria in 1938 and its increased vitriol against Jews, Klemperer recounts “a broad yellow handbill with the Star of David has been stuck to every post of our fence. ‘Jew’. Warning against the unflagged plague barracks. Der Sturmer has dug up its usual ritual murder; I would truly not be surprised if next I were to find the body of a child in the garden.”

He speaks of Hitler presenting Goering with his “marshal’s baton in a great ceremony. They have no sense of the comic impression they make. Their conscious humor is spite against the defenseless”. And further, “For some days now divine right has been given ever more prominence. Again and again in the newspaper. He is the instrument of Providence- the hands that write ‘no’ (in the April 1938 vote to endorse the regime) will wither- the sacred election. .. We think he will have himself crowned Emperor.”

This all sounds quite familiar. Trump speaking of himself as “the King”, tweeting memes of himself wearing a crown. He mused about seizing a third term despite Constitutional limits. How many of his supporters imagine him as “picked by God” after surviving an assassination attempt last summer. Now, Trump has gone so far as to tweet a meme of himself as the new pope!

In a recent interview on “Trump’s first 100 days” with The Atlantic, Trump claims he “runs the country and runs the world”.

So many other examples of Americanized but Naziesque type language or imagery from regime officials stand out, including their glee in crushing the powerless. Musk with a chain saw on stage, bragging of putting USAID into the “woodchipper” despite the deaths it will cause, declaring social security which millions have paid into and rely on for survival a “Ponzi scheme”. The thinly veiled but obvious Nazi salutes of Bannon and Musk. The constant bragging by Trump and his toadies about their “right” to annex Greenland and deport whoever they want without regard to the law, The constant, “biggest ever” crowds at his election rallies and his first inauguration, the plan for a June military parade in D.C. honoring him. The constant demands of other Trump officials demanding world leaders “thank” and bow down to him.

The approach is so comic, so seemingly bizarre, so brazen, and transparent. So lunatic and out to lunch yet at the same moment so dangerous. They view reality as whatever those in power can bludgeon people into accepting and they intend to do so no matter how extreme.

Many other examples spring to mind of the fascist Trumpian language and propaganda. The constant use by the curent regime of the Nazi playbook of “accusing the other side of what you yourself are doing” –(from Goebbels reportedly)-characterizing press exposure of Trump’s misdeeds or crimes as “fake news” and the press as “enemy of the people”, targeting political opponents for investigation or jail as corrective justice against those who conducted a “witch hunt” after Trump (for obvious crimes he committed), targeting and threatening to impeach the “radical activist judges”, who would dare to cross him on due process.

Calling the scrubbing of the racist history of America from museums, institutions, government agencies and websites, or ridding them of programs or language that just slightly took account of historic discrimination against people of color as “reversing racial discrimination” (toward white people!-just replace Aryan with this for the U.S.) Promoting the spread of misinformation, lies, and fascist narratives as “promoting freedom” that has been suppressed by “the woke culture”. The analogies are too numerous to recount, the speed of attack too fast to ignore.

A Case Study of Trumpian Fascist Propaganda

April 29th, Trump interviewed with Terry Moran from ABC News on his first 100 Days. In this, he admitted he could bring Kilmar Obrego Garcia home from the Salvadoran CECOT prison, but his lawyers don’t want him to and so he doesn’t have plans to. Trump’s statement proves false the previous blather from Trump officials like Pam Bondi and Steven Miller that the U.S. couldn’t return Kilmar despite court rulings including the Supreme Court, because it was solely up to El Salvador.

Of course originally, a DOJ lawyer in court said Kilmar had been deported “by administrative error”, (for which he was then fired by Bondi apparently). Later, refusing to be seen as misstepping, regime officials claimed this wasn’t the case. They fastened on the lie Kilmar was a MS-13 gang member, which they have since stuck with despite the almost complete lack of evidence.

Trump argued with Moran that Obrego Garcia literally had “MS-13” tattooed on his fingers. Trump had earlier tweeted out a photograph of Obrego Garcia’s hand which is apparently a photo-shop produced photo. Some source had taken a photo of Garcia’s hand, which has tattoos on it, and “interpreted” the symbols on it- (a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a crucifix, and a skull)- as indicating “M S 1 3”. These enumerations were then digitally added above the actual symbols to create this impression. Experts aware of MS13 tatoos say the actual symbols that are on Kilmar’s hand aren’t indicative of MS13 gang tattoos. One, a Salvadoran journalist who has written a book on MS13 said, “Never, ever, did any of the hundreds of sources I spoke to say anything that would allow us to believe Trump’s strange interpretation of tattoos”.

Undeterred by the truth, Trump argued those letters and numbers were actually and literally on Kilmar’s hand in the photo. He argued Moran should just agree with him and say yes, they were on his hands!

Now, it’s being reported in NYT that the State Department in response to the Federal court that ordered his return and after the Supreme Court ordered the regime to “facilitate” his return, had inquired with El Salvador about returning Garcia but that Salvadoran dictator Bukele had refused to release him because he was Salvadoran. Thus it seemed regime officials may have been planning to use this to claim to appear to be in correspondence with the Supreme Court order to “facilitate” Kilmar’s return-saying they tried, but failed. But now Trump has let out this is all bullshit, just that his lawyers don’t want to.

But this is common Trumpism, one might say, Trumpism 101. Completely opposing statements are given from one day to the next from Trump or top Trump officials. There is a pretense, sometimes unchallenged by the press, that these statements aren’t in complete opposition to each other and at the same time a refusal to offer any coherence or clarity. And then again, resetting a path to bully their way forward when exposed. This is part of the use of language to eliminate truth and logic.

A big part of the fascist “language and method” is to send up a cloud of conflicting bullshit from various officials, often involving the dictator in chief himself-to create a fog of confusion and obfuscation that becomes difficult to walk back through, separate out and document who said what when and make it hard to even pin down either the argument or “bottom line” of what the regime says when it gets in trouble.

In an interview, journalist and author Masha Gessen speaks of Trump’s “bully lie”. Lying with a wink that you know what you’re saying is transparently and provably false, but that you have power over others, so you determine what to believe. The choice provided by power is, accept it and maybe you will be allowed to live and prosper in the world we own and rule, refuse to, and you’ll pay the price. In Trump’s world and the one he seeks to create, there is no truth, really, no evidence, no logic, no reason, no “thinking things through”-just power in charge to follow and be obedient to, or suffer.

Curtis Johnson is a former research scientist, freelance writer, and environmental activist. He has reported and written on the Gulf oil spill, the battle to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Western wildfires, the threat to orcas and wild salmon, the extinction and climate crisis, as well as the fight for justice for families of those murdered by police and to stop Trump’s fascism. Follow him on bluesky: curtisjohnson97404.bsky.social or his blog at https://forplanetandhumanity.com/author/forplanetandhumanity/  

A short report on A5 in Seattle and a few reflections on nationwide.

Yesterday, a massive day of coordinated protest nationwide called by Indivisible and 50501 and dozens of other groups. April 5th Hands off Democracy, government agencies, immigrants, civil rights, etc. I hoped for at least 10K here and it easily exceeded that-likely 20-40K-maybe 25-30 is decent estimate. The media here said “thousands” or said 7,000 registered but that it was impossible to tell how many. The center grounds were packed around the central fountain, with one area cordoned off for grass growth-but likely 10-15K here with thousands more packing paths into area and scattered over the center grounds.

We started out driving from home at 11. Driving through our side of town we saw groups at every bus stop with signs-at first thinking people were just protesting there, then realizing people were waiting for buses. We thought we saw a friend on way down, who was planning to catch bus to meet us at the protest. So we turned around, here a guy with a sign told us the buses were packed and he couldn’t get on so was apparently headed home. We called our friend and he was actually at home so we stopped by his place and picked him up.

On the way we stopped at one bus stop asking if 2 people wanted to get in for ride, and 2 women did-so off we went. On the way down we talked about the state of things, history of protests in our lives-from anti-Vietnam war days to WTO and exchanged info on what we were headed for and how to protect and go forward through repression.

We were magically able to grab a parking spot only 15 minutes walk away from Seattle center grounds where the protest was held.  People streamed in on all sides. Everywhere the center grounds were packed, with people still coming at noon. We made our way to the Flag Pavillion area. For some reason they had a space on south end cordoned off on the grass, maybe to protect that area, but all around and down by the fountain the crowd was packed in-later looked to me like 10-15,000 just from what was in the main area-but later seeing more people to north entrances and on all sides, so my guess is 25-30K.

 We worked our way closer to the stage near north end of center grounds to hear a native American speaker-Collen Echohawk, followed by a Latino immigrant speaker, Both were good and defiant, hitting all the things under attack, emphasizing standing together, not allowing regime to pick off immigrants, trans people and all the most vulnerable-and emphazing love for each other and resistance.

There was a big focus on the power people have to stop this vs. the courts or Congress or voting with most of these first speeches at least. Not in opposition to the latter-but this was their focus, which I thought positive. Chants from the stage reflected this. “Who saves us? We save us” led by the immigrant speaker and later,   “Ain’t no power like the power of the people and the power of the people don’t stop”, from famous WTO protests. 

We listened then to Pramilla Jayapal-Congressperson who’s about the best the Dems have to offer. She’s a good speaker and was pretty strong, pointing out billionaires are responsible for all the things people are experiencing and the reason for rising prices, rising rents, etc. –kind of trying to repolarize the Trump/MAGA arguments about who’s to blame, but emphasizing also repelling all the attacks on all the people including against dissent.

She’s organizing “Resistance Labs” to train people en masse (reports 20K so far) in civil disobedience, so has some handle on the level of the danger and kind of opposition necessary, though what they will do or organize isn’t clear.

So Pretty good speeches, though only stayed for first three.

Unfortunately the sound system was way too small-good for maybe 5,000, so most people in crowd over whole grounds couldn’t hear the speeches. It seemed to me the organizers had vastly underestimated how many would be drawn to this event. Space not big enough for entire crowd and sound system nowhere near powerful enough.  I tried to pan around with video to see size of ground from what we could see.

We tried to then leave to walk around and see what was going on, the size of crowd, etc. . It was so completely packed in it took maybe 20-30 minutes to move through a massive and at times a bit frightening scrum,  to move about a hundred yards-and to the north, there were more masses of people far away from central stage area, reflecting my estimates (and others )of tens of thousands.

We finally got through. All around the center ground area there were people with signs, people dancing, drum corps, music, bands and people with signs of every kind. I wondered if the people who had been waiting for buses ever even got here and wouldn’t be surprised if many didn’t.

A good day. Still however, I strongly believe the resistance will be set up if the Dems, even left Dems, are allowed to lead it. Will they, or will masses with new leadership push past them or at least push through them to not be led into something short of defeating this?

This could well sharpen if repression sharpens, which seems very likely. I think being part of a UF type coalition, if not organizationally at least programatically with very broad forces is important overall and at this stage especially, although it’s not clear where this will end up or if Dems and some associates will become a barrier. Helping and working with people to develop political awareness of the stakes and the real danger the regime represents, and what it will take to defeat fascism, I see as central, and forging forms of leadership.

Another question-where is it at with youth, on campuses and high schools and working masses as much as known? A friend feels there has to be more emphasis on the working class and bringing out class interests as way to strike deeper and to basically repolarize sections of people to side with resistance, and to unite people. There’s some point to this seems to me.

So A5 nationwide was very positive in my estimation, and it’s quite clear despite media underplaying nationwide,-eg. an early NYT article reported A5 protests as “thousands in several cities” and later saying “protests in cities and towns nationwide” without specifying numbers or even numbers of locations as I recall-(which was 12-1400). Then today Sunday-the massive protests estimated at 2-3 million from what I have heard so far,  have completely evaporated from NYT Sunday edition.

They swiftly refocus on impacts of Trump’s tariffs with Americans “wrestling over” how they will be effected. And how Trump’s 3rd term talk “tests democracy” . This is of course maddening, but completely typical of how they represent capitalist ruling class interests opposing yet at same time normalizing and abetting fascism by undercutting the danger, while trying to keep masses outrage and interests confined, underplayed and only occasionally let out to channel people under the wing of those ruling class forces who want to try to maintain the center,  with the U.S. as a functioning imperialist empire in the traditional way.

One point standing out. Yesterday was powerful and shows real potential, yet we’re not yet at the point of the very important in my mind,  Refuse Fascism outlined goal of filling streets and town squares day after day with millions and non-violently bringing the regime and country to a standstill and forced out by the opposition, ala South Korea.  The potential is there, but you can see the level and understanding is not there yet. Will it become that? Key question. What will it take for that to happen?

The Institutionalization of Fascist Power

I focused in recent pieces (see below)  on  the personal profiteering, power-grabbing motivations of those at the top of the Trump/Musk regime.

Surely, personal aggrandizement/profit-making/capital expansion of those associated with the regime is a part of the picture I think. Especially with Musk and the other tech/cypto/fossil fuel/social media bro elements that count themselves as Trump supporters and associates. But increasingly this seems only a part of the picture.  

On the other hand, there is an increasingly apparent goal by this regime of achieving Steve Bannon’s (whether he is part of it or not) “deconstruction of the administrative state”. Here, an attempt to destroy or at least gut key governmental agencies, departments or related institutions. Among them-the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest and Park Services, the IRS,  the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the VA, the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)-(especially in regard to Medicaid), and others.

Trump et al have made it government policy to assault, curtail, or eliminate any programs, policies or information relating to discrimination against people of color, women and LGBTQ folks and any previous anti-discrimination efforts (paltry and ineffective as they may have been). Curtailment and slashing of programs and information is also taking place related to  disease protection and prevention, climate and other scientific research, foreign aid, food safety, aviation safety,  legal protection, oversight of corrupt practices, environmental and biodiversity protection, and others.

The gutting or shuttering of key parts of the federal government and firing of soon to be tens of thousands of federal employees seems aimed at a number of things. 1. Providing income for another vast tax break and incentives for capital expansion/profit-making for large corporations. 2. In tandem, elimination of regulations, limitations, and controls over U.S. capitalist corporations. 3. Eliminating forces within government who would seek to limit or oppose the institution of Trump’s policies and consolidating fascist control of all aspects of government and society. 4. To eliminate or dramatically cut aspects of government that tens of millions of particularly poorer and middle-class people rely on to survive, with particular disproportionate impact on  people of color, immigrants, women  and LGBTQ folk. The goal-to push these sections of people down and immiserate them further to spread chaos, fear and inability to resist.

Another aspect of the remaking of the form of government rule is the transformation of the agencies that make up the repressive apparatus of the state.

-The turning of the Department Of Justice (DOJ)  into an instrument of Trumpian dictates and persecution of “enemies” instead of an agency making decisions on prosecution or law enforcement in regard to the law and previous legal norms with some degree of independence.

-Attacking judges and giving rise to a campaign of threats from the Trump base against the Judiciary, to transform it into a more pliable instrument of state repression and dictate.

-A  transformation of the FBI, the nation’s “leading” law enforcement agency into a more thoroughly controllable force for executive-directed repression and persecution. Examples–firing officials who played a part in investigating Trump and MAGA crimes or were judged to be too much guided by legality or duty to previous legal norms. And appointing a head in Kash Patel who is a proven loyalist guided by the MAGA world-view and  purveyor of outlandish conspiracy theory. There’s no doubt much more here of course than yet seen or known.

-Transformation of the military, led by Christian nationalist fascist Pete Hegseth. Under Hegseth, the military is to become  an institution not only enforcing U.S. imperialist rule and war-as it always has been- but an even more ruthless force for carrying out the dictates of the fascist Trump regime globally and domestically. Here the Trump threats to seize Greenland, to make Canada “the 51st state” and assign the Pentagon to develop a plan for an invasion of Panama should not be underestimated.

Some forms of this transforming already occurring include:

-eliminating all DEI polices and thus any pretense of applying anti-discrimination policies for people of color, women or LGBTQ members

– removal of key generals and admirals-particularly people of color and women or gay ones.

-Attempts to expunge and bar transgender soldiers from the military.

Another part of transforming the military is the dismissal of Judge Advocate General (JAG) officials/lawyers that were supposedly charged with making sure the military abides by laws and regulations and upholding justice within the military. This last move is intended I believe to help clear the way of oversight or legal “niceties” restricting military war crimes . This is a declaration  to further  “take off the gloves” in war-fighting, to be even further unhindered by the Geneva convention rules on military conflict,  as well as use of the military for domestic law enforcement, repression and even war against “the enemy within”, (as Hegseth has advocated for).

-Seeking to strip Congressional oversight or control over key levers of power, particularly in regard to removing legislative power in favor of executive order and power. This is a key element for fascism, concentrating power in the “leader” and the executive branch. One key element in doing this is bypassing or seeking to remove Congressional control of governmental funding. This was a central feature in the latest budget resolution passing both houses of Congress after the capitulation and obeisance of Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer. Court case after court case has ruled against the regime on its illegal and unconstitutional actions by executive order essentially removing Congressional control over funding of programs, policies and agencies, but the regime is either slow-walking  in following these orders, continually appealing them to avoid enforcement,  or outright refusing to abide by them.

The Democrats continue to in the main refuse to really mount any type of united challenge to this, except for some individuals doing so at times, and some minor outbursts or challenges that don’t threaten the regime’s onslaught. And they as a party continue in this vein despite massive opposition and outcry from their base as well as the outrage even beginning to spread into sections of the Trump or GOP base.

The Fascist Remaking of Society- an American Version of the Nazi’s “Gleichschaltung”

There is little question now, I believe,  that what we’re experiencing is an American version of the imposition of a full fascist remaking of society akin to the “Gleichschaltung” transformation of Germany that the Nazis undertook after Hitler was sworn in as chancellor in 1933. Gleichschaltung was a term in Nazi Germany for the “synchronizing” or “harmonizing” of all aspects of German society and culture in line with the dictates of the Nazi regime and Hitler.

A  key nodal point in this transformation was the passing of the Enabling Act in March 1933 that gave Hitler and his cabinet the power to make and enforce laws without approval of the Reichstag (German parliament). Notably, Hitler consolidated his dictatorial powers including implementing the Enabling Act after a fire was set burning down the Reichstag. The Nazis pinned it on Communists and used it to compel the German President von Hindenburg to suspend civil liberties and to target opponents for mass arrest, including the Communist Party. Who was behind the arson has never been completely proven, but many see this as the work of the Nazis themselves. At any rate, they seized on the fire to consolidate fascist rule, an important lesson to keep in mind in these times.

It’s hard to capture what is occurring  now in the U.S. as it is quite all-encompassing and fast moving. It’s hard to put into words the breadth and speed of what is being dismantled, in some cases what is being put in place, or left to rot in wreckage. In many ways, many of the forms this is taking can’t be fully recounted because they are so far-reaching, being done so quickly, and in some cases not documented.

A List of Some Examples From Just the Last Week

The below is of course , on top of what has transpired since Trump took power Jan. 20 and began eviscerating governmental institutions and agencies, the firing of tens of thousands of government workers, etc.

-Beginning the elimination of the Department of Education.

-Sending DOGE personnel backed by FBI agents with assistance from DC police to do an armed takeover of an independent non-profit the U.S. Center for Peace.

-Arresting for deportation a number of foreign nationals at Universities here legally with green cards or visas alleging either terrorist support because they protested U.S. foreign policy and Israeli genocide in Gaza (Mahmoud Khalil a Palestinian at Columbia), or in at least one case even when they hadn’t protested but had a father in law that was a former advisor to Hamas and had been “actively  spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-semitism on social media” according to the regime, (Indian national Badar Khan Suri at Georgetown university). Note the last, arresting people for what they allegedly posted on social media-a big fascist leap.  

So the goal here, is attempting to legally transform political dissent into terrorism. It is starting with immigrants but soon to be used against all, as needed, as well as to silence dissent. They are refusing to even make a logical argument or provide any evidence in front of judges of why these people are terrorists, or to bring charges, to provide often even any pre-existing legal basis for deporting them, but doing so anyway.   Essentiallly, they have started disappearing people without access to lawyers or their families-at least for a period (in case of Mahmoud).

-Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, (which has only been used in times of war previously, and last was used to intern the Japanese in WWII) to arrest and deport 200 Venezuelans to El Salvadoran prisons, despite a judicial ruling forbidding it, alleging membership in a Venezuelan gang. Now admitting, some of these deportees are not even accused of a crime, but saying their deportation was still warranted because they weren’t in the U.S. long enough to commit crimes. Essentially, “pre-crime” punishment. Clearly as well, some of these folks weren’t associated with any gang, but the regime refuses to release any information about them or who they are.

-Moving to remake the Universities with funding cut-offs (60 threatened as of now),  to force implementation of fascist style suppression of thought and dissent and suppressing essential and even life-saving research. Essentially, to Nazify the University system and starve it. As Vance said several years ago- the Universities are the enemy.

This isn’t simply a grabbing of power for profiteering and personal control, although it is that.  They seek to absolutely remake the society into a fascist, White-supremacist capitalist/imperialist country. Doing away with any programs, policies, agencies or information that takes any account of discrimination against people of color, women or LGBTQ folks-all in the name of  fighting racism (against whites!) and “protecting women”. Literally, nazi-style leaders, some of whom like Musk have publicly given the Nazi sieg heil salute (of course pretending that wasn’t their intention later) and supporting neo-fascists and authoritarians globally, using “anti-semitism” as a cover for suppressing political dissent.

-Seeking to do away with any regulations holding back the expansion and profitability of capital no matter how damaging. See destruction of EPA, Trump executive order to massively expand logging, assaults on the NLRB, dismantling of USDA and undermining of food safety standards. See speech by Trump donor Peter Thiel  on intention to get rid of regulations that “hinder business expansion”, to give developers ability to build, build, build, with lie about some of this being “affordable housing”. The last is a useful ruse developers have been using in cities to justify tree/ecosystem destruction in search of  building investment and construction profits. In tune with this, the same cover  of building affordable housing is being used to announce the sell-off of  public lands for housing.  Also, see Vance speech to tech industry on cutting regulations on industry and  claiming to use tariffs to cut off U.S. reliance on foreign labor (at least Vance says this), to bring back manufacturing to U.S. with lie that this will build back a “golden era” for workers.

-Eliminating the rule of law-refusing to abide by judicial orders, unleashing targeting of judges for fascist MAGA attack-the latest by what Trump and his  spokespeople say about Judge Boasberg being impeached and being a radical-left lunatic. This is also aimed at intimidating judges into submission. This is also at play with any GOP Congresspeople who are feeling growing heat from constituents. If they don’t comply with the full fascist program, Trump will call them out, they will be “primaried” and they will be threatened publicly with the lunatic MAGA base encouraged to target them with online threats and potential physical violence against them or their families.

Here too, a remaking of the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, a long-standing principle of bourgeois jurisprudence, into a person is guilty if the regime or it’s representatives say it’s guilty. Just declaring guilt or innocence based on the opinions of the regime and removing protections for those who would oppose them.

This approach will be deepened and broadened to any political opponents, immigrants or citizens, and include any opposition in any institutions of government, in Congress. It will eventually of course be spread to the media, which so far has not in the main been the target-beyond the enemies of the people statements by Trump and others, and MAGA threats and attacks that have happened to this point, as well as opening up access to right-wing media in White House and kicking out what are viewed as opposition media from access-Reuters, AP, etc.

Things are moving quickly, massive resistance the only way out.  With the anger and protest that have built, this is possible. This did not exist to the degree it does here in the early days of Nazi Germany, so it is extremely precious. But without it growing to millions acting continually, fascism can’t be stopped.

Some Observations and Speculations on the “Logic” of the Trump/Musk Regime

The following are meant as ruminations on the title topic with full admission some of it is somewhat speculative. I mean it as a way to put thoughts out there to think about and stimulate thoughts or discussion with whoever reads this,  instead of any final conclusion.  I’m drawing on several pieces, including the New York Times (NYT) opinion piece mentioned below, a book by Nancy Maclean mentioned below, but also my own thinking.

Do Trump and His Regime Want a Recession?

With the stock market diving after Trump’s back and forth imposition of tariffs and the response from trading partners and other indicators, some economists are saying the possibility of a “Trump recession” is growing. Added here are the mass firings of federal employees and shuttering of whole government agencies, cuts to science and university funding by the Trump regime, targeting of immigrants, moves to slash social security and Medicaid, etc. The slashing of the Federal Aviation Administration by Musk’s DOGE comes right when there have been 6 recent plane disasters,  and air travel from Europe and Canada has also dropped with U.S. tariffs being imposed and airline stocks dropping.  

Some are asking, what “end game” are Trump and Musk going for?  And as some NYT opinion writers recently asked, “Is the Destruction the Point?” A question I’ve been ruminating on is, these people are fascists, don’t they need to create through their chaos and destruction  still some type of stable new fascist status quo?

I don’t know, but it does look at least more possible with Trump’s whipsawing tariff policies and their effect on the stock market and overall economy that Trump and the billionaires backing him may even be aiming for recession, or at least fine with it. And they may see it as a way to generate enough misery, grinding down of the populace and chaos that they can even advance their position.

I fully admit here I’m speculating about how such a situation could be used by them.  

A recession may mean bankrupting of certain companies or industries and if that happens, those associated with or favored by Trump who have the capital would be best positioned to snap them up.

This would flow with a strategy of further building their fortunes and personal empires by seizing larger market share and even taking over other whole industries their capital has not penetrated yet, or to the degree they would like. Musk in particular, (and no doubt other tech and other capitalist interests behind Trump), likely has goals of spreading into and taking over other industries and markets.

Musk has got Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Twitter, and Neuralink-which has already planted chips in people’s brains, frightening as that is.  It appears he is moving to have Starlink take over the FAA air traffic control system. Gee, what could go wrong? Starlink is what the Ukrainian military uses and provides internet access to 125 markets worldwide. He wants to develop sex robots, as he recently said in an interview with Joe Rogan. They likely have all kinds of insane and destructive ideas, maybe to more completely privatize and take over health care or myriad other industries and markets globally. 

A good bit of the slashing of government Musk’s DOGE has focused on targeting agencies and individuals that were providing oversight of his own companies or even had cases in front of them involving his companies.

Of course glorying in dreams of  ultimate power and unlimited expansion is one thing and doing it is another. As seen by the myriad problems Musk is now facing from Tesla’s sales tanking globally, diving stock price, spreading boycotts and protests at Tesla dealerships. Other capitalist electric car companies from China and Europe and even Mexico are seeking to expand sales as they seek advantage with how hated Musk and Tesla have become. Meanwhile, X is crashing, SpaceX rockets exploding yet again, etc. Not to mention growing anger and revulsion worldwide and resistance within the U.S. at his ugly billionaire, chain-saw wielding, Nazi saluting, Cybertruck flaunting, AFD supporting arrogance.

Trump and his billionaire backers are so stuffed with arrogance they believe they’ll be able to fool the people into believing something else is to blame if there’s a recession – other countries, immigrants, trans people, the “Radical left Democrats” -or else suppress, intimidate and cow into submission the rest. They think they will be able to control the narrative and overwhelm any other narrative from taking hold. This is the way Trump has been operating for years and he has mainly gotten away with it to this point.

The Twisted Workings of the Trump/Musk Mind

It’s a dark and ugly place to go, but I’d like to try to delve into the Trump/Musk brain, or more accurately, what seems to be the mindset they operate from and their “logic” if it could be called that.

This group seems driven by extreme corruption and exterminating any limits to capital-expansion and profit-making, as well as attaining what they hope will be unchallenged power for themselves . Their worldview is that they are “the makers”, the “Kings”,-smarter,  better, and more deserving than the “takers”-the mass of people, (See Nancy Maclean’s book on the roots of this ideology “Democracy in Chains”)

This is why they see every type of government service that provides anything for people’s health or survival-whether AIDS drugs in Africa, Medicaid or social security in the U.S., or the myriad other governmental services for food or aviation safety, scientific inquiry and knowledge, education, national parks, environmental protection, or programs benefiting non-white people or women as simply “waste” to be eliminated.  Eliminating this “waste”, which drains money and thus influence and power that should accrue to the “takers”, is what the Department of Government Efficiency aims to do.

They also see themselves as the ones with the guts, smarts and audacity to shoot for the moon and remake the world according to their own desires, unlike the “losers”-other politicians and businessmen who are still playing by the old rules. Power is measured in what you can acquire, how you can shatter what has existed before and what you can get away with that no-one else could previously.

They revel in their ability to make people do what they want and think what they want them to think. They glory in making others submit, in destroying enemies, in “winning” as Trump sees it, and not being “a loser”.  Trump wants to be able to say, “I want Greenland for the U.S. and I have the power, so it should be mine.” Or the same for making Canada the “51st state”.

I agree with psychiatrists who from afar, have analyzed Trump as an extreme or pathologic narcissist. A sociopath with no social conscience, no compassion, no regard for how many people suffer or are destroyed by the actions of he and his regime. A man who is pathologic too in how he is viewed and portrayed, as seen by his obsession with rally numbers, his exaggerating his popularity, or his actual non-landslide but declared “landslide” victory over Harris and the size of the “mandate” resulting. A person, who as the aforementioned NYT opinion writers piece said, sees what he’s doing as creating a spectacle and desires to be the biggest spectacle.

This is lunacy, pathological depravity, yes, but also a depravity created out of the logic of capitalism, his own inheritance of wealth and entitlement, and the broader “American experience” of empire, war, genocide, racism, oppression of women, and destruction of the planet.

Those in this regime headed by Trump and Musk, (no matter his official title), are out to accomplish what the extreme right has dreamt of for many years, doing away with government support of all or almost all social programs-Social Security, Medicaid, U.S. supplied aid globally, and many others goods and services that people rely on to live. Then privatising whatever’s left.

The aim is to destroy any limits to this groups self-aggrandisement and profiteering. To knock down any laws, rules or convention that stands in their way. And to achieve an iron grip of control over the entire political process, the law, the culture, education, etc.

They want to destroy public education, take over colleges and take a sledgehammer to intellectualism, science and anything else that would cause people to be able to think, reason and figure out what is really going on.

They want to outlaw political dissent and deport or lock up those who oppose them, as seen so sharply in the arrest and planned deportation of Mahmoud Khalil despite bringing no charges against him and him being a legal green card holder with supposedly the same Constitutional rights as citizens in this country. They want to set a precedent, that anyone can be accused, without evidence, of “support for terrorism. They’re starting with a Palestinian protester who did no more than speak out and organize people against the U.S. backed genocide in Gaza. But it will not stop there. White supremacy, racism, mysoginy and unparalleled American chauvinism are all bound up in this single fascist package.

The MAGA vision and especially the base is increasingly looking like a road to power, to be used and brought into motion whenever some opponent needs threatening or targeting, or else in future repression vs. resistance to Trump. Apparently some Congressional Republicans told Democrats that they won’t take a position opposing Trump for fear they will be so vilified on social media someone will come after them or their family. Whether this is true or an excuse, or both, isn’t clear.

The Christian nationalist element within the regime here is interwined and I don’t think really at odds with the above. Many of these power elements with Trump are Christian nationalists, like Pete Hegseth,  along with being fine with serving billionaire profit-making. Whether there will be more tension here, or with the MAGA base more generally,  such has been seen between Bannon and Musk, remains to be seen. 

They think they can do it and they are on the road. It’s very dangerous and also completely illegitimate. It will only be stopped by massive, unstopping opposition and resistance throughout society with millions in the streets repeatedly. In this, there is real potential, as seen by the spread of protest currently throughout the U.S.

Fascism-Understand Its Weaknesses and Resist

There’s a fair bit of truth in a recent opinion piece in the New York Times by Ezra Klein analyzing Trump’s first two weeks in office, titled “Don’t Believe Him”. It’s well worth listening to, thinking about, and discussing.

Klein says Trump’s strategy is to “flood the zone”- a Bannonesque “muzzle velocity” plan of issuing a flurry of executive orders and pronouncements to overwhelm, intimidate  and defeat opposition. The aim being to create the illusion that Trump’s regime appears all powerful and so is. The piece also points to some of the real weaknesses that lay underneath this plan.

I would add some other thoughts however.

These fascists are serious about arrogating complete power to themselves by fiat- based on executive order, threats, and pronouncements, overwhelming opposition. This IS very dangerous. It’s a fascist program of destroying the rule of law, making white supremacy, mysoginy and American chauvinism the unquestioned mode of rule. It is already leading, to real horrors,  and will lead to many more. And it holds even a genocidal potential, if it continues and is allowed to consolidate and escalate.

But these fascists also have real problems in accomplishing this. They are seeking to “flood the zone” and demonstrate command. But command will only be accomplished if people acquiesce to it and bow down.

So I believe the lesson is not simply “Don’t Believe Him”, as Klein says.  But understand what they are seeking to do, understand the weaknesses that lay underneath it, and act in united opposition.

If people speak out, oppose it in every way possible, and unite to resist in every sphere-and hopefully quickly-coming into mass resistance, fascism can fail.

A Few Observations to Consider

Like the Nazis, these Trumpian fascists are seeking to destroy people’s ability to understand or have the tools to figure out what the truth is. They want to replace using evidence to determine the truth with Trump’s and other leading fascists “common sense”. In other words, stuff they make up or that simply reflects their bias and serves their political needs.

Like the Nazis, they are brutal aggressors with no compassion for anyone who are not like them. They hold a disdain and hatred for people of color, anything that smacks of intellectual thought or reason, and an arrogance toward non-Americans.

Like the Nazis, they are filled with arrogant hubris about their ability to fool people, to frighten and intimidate them into silence, and to rule over them like dictators, Gods or Kings. Like the Nazis, they are fully willing- and already moving to-use extreme repression by the “legal system”, the police, the prisons, and the military to crush opponents.

At the core of this American fascist project as well is a deep mysoginy and a lunatic Biblical literalist/dark-ages conception of how society must be remade, even as some of them-(such as Trump or Musk) have no religious belief of any kind.

Unlike the Nazis, they are less fully unified around a core fascist ideology, or an extreme program of seizing land, territory and domination for expanding the “living space” (Lebensraum) of the “volk” of their nation,  spreading their empire though war. They could care less about “the volk”- in this case the MAGA base. To the fascist Trumpians, the MAGA base are simply willing tools to be manipulated, used and abused as a stepping stone for their own wealth, domination and power. Many among them are mainly out to expand ultimate personal wealth and power and willing to use absolute corruption in grabbing it for themselves as opposed to belief in a core philosophy 

In terms of Trump especially, he is as much motivated by a desire to get revenge on his enemies and crush them to win in a personal narcisstic drive, as by anything he actually believes in. Yet, there are a mix of varied interests and motivations among this fascist cabal, some with more ability to plan and scheme or think things through than others.

Although they have an arrogant, imperialist conception of American power and empire, America’s power and empire is in steep decline, and at least at this time, there is little thirst among the populace broadly for sending American troops into war. In this lack of a steel core ideology or vision, is a weakness, a certain use of bluster as power that reveals also a strategic weakness. There is also however a real danger in this, because Trumpists are possibly even more likely than past U.S. imperialists to use nuclear weapons as a means of defeating rivals. And imperialist rivalry, especially with China, will likely escalate.

Like the Nazis as well, Trump’s fascism is an outgrowth of capitalism, rooted deeply in the entire history, development, and ethos of the society’s it springs from, and also as a very extreme version or form of rule that replaces the appearance (not essence) of democracy, free speech, individual rights, and formal rule of law, with open, terroristic dictatorship relying on force and violence to crush opposition.

Some of the Problems and Weaknesses for the Trumpers

If Trump’s regime goes ahead with threats to fire or lay off thousands of civil service employees who carry out the bureaucracy of writing the checks and administering health services, medicare, social security or any of the other daily tasks of the federal government to try to put in their place only fascist loyalists, who will replace them? What if any actual skills or ability will any of these people have to run the operations of governments that is necessary to provide any stability to people’s lives? What chaos could ensue from this?

As the CDC, FDA, etc. are purged, and  anti-science types like RFK run the instruments governing people’s health and welfare, what costs will result? What new pandemics will spread, or even run amuck? How many will be poisoned by complete failure to monitor or prepare for, or even warn people as standards of safety are tossed aside? What further airplane crashes will result if Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” slashes funding, removes experts and guts airline safety measures to cut costs?

As “drill, baby, drill” and unchecked logging of our forests that Trump is trying to install rips forward, the further unraveling of earth’s ecosystems and life support systems will only increase, with increasing chaos from massive storms, more powerful wildfires such as the recent burning of parts of LA, and growing chaos.

Will Trump’s arrogant tariffs against not only America’s enemies but it’s trading partners succeed in bludgeoning them into deals more favorable or will they lead to a trade war and increasing economic chaos, price rises, etc. ? How much of is bluster, for show?

Will their racist plans to mass deport immigrants-even send them  to Guantanamo Bay concentration camps, lead to acquiescense and the appearance of victory to Trump’s racist base, or economic chaos as whole industries that depend on immigrant labor are hamstrung and grind to a halt?.

And instead of ruling by fear and crushing opposition, will mass deportation attempts instead lead to massive resistance among immigrants, their allies, people of conscience, and refusal from churches, schools, some local governments, etc. to allow ICE to steal people away, and an undermining of the appearance of fascist power? Or all of the above? This is very likely to be a very back and forth and chaotic process. Resistance does appear already to be building in this sphere.

Will Trump orders to install “patriotic education”, whitewashing America’s history of slavery, genocide of native peoples, Jim Crow lynching, police murder and mass incarceration of people of color,  succeed in brainwashing millions of youth to obey and follow? Remembering, this is already a generation, of at least many millions, who have witnessed Gaza genocide on social media and hate it, who often have friends of different nationalities and gender identities and are in general more progressive than their elders. Or instead will the attempted brainwash raise up hatred and mass rejection among this generation and the next?

Will the attempts to install an even more virulent, thoroughly, white supremacist, woman-hating society than even the “normal” forms this has taken throughout American history, raise up a storm of opposition from Black people, other oppressed nationalities, from women?

None of these things are decided, but by understanding what the fascists are seeking to do, the real danger, but also the real weaknesses and potential for a whole different thing to be brought forward, and the possibility of different sections of people to unite against fascism, there is real potential to turn this around and defeat it, if we act.

But I would add, time is not necessarily on our side. We can’t sit back and wait. Consolidating fascism can attain a momentum whereby it becomes much harder, if not impossible to defeat it, or even oppose it. We have to act now, and spread resistance.

Also, anyone who thinks, “this will be a bad 4 years but I’ll just keep my head down and try to make it through” is living an illusion. If fascism consolidates, it will be horrific, and it will not hold a free and fair election again, even as relatively unfair as the past several have been, (if voter suppression and intimidation of officials are taken into account). Trump and his backers have already proven a disdain for fair elections, and that they will go to any lengths to hold onto power. This will be the case even more in 2028 than in 2020, if they are fully able to consolidate fascist rule.

Destruction in LA–Capitalism’s Perfect Firestorm

By Curtis Johnson

1.17.25

The Palisades and Eaton fires in LA have killled 25 people. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate. Thirty people are still listed as missing. The fires are not fully contained, and dangerous conditions sparking further fires continue to persist as of now.

Thousands of people have seen their homes and often all of their most precious keepsakes destroyed. Some have lost friends, relatives and neighbors. Places of small business have been completely burned to the ground.   As of this writing, 12,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed, mainly in the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.  Photos of these communities show the scale of destruction, with block after block laid to waste.

Pacific Palisades is a mixture of wealthy and middle class residents, including a number of Hollywood celebrities, some of whom have seen their homes destroyed. Altadena is a working and middle class community of mixed nationality and a center of a vibrant Black community. Black people moving from the south to this area during the Great Migration were often prevented through redlining of moving into many parts of LA, but were after a time able to settle in Altadena. Now whole areas of this community have been devastated. The Black community here and more broadly has been coming together to provide aid, determined to rebuild.

Fascist MAGA Lies and the Deeper System Responsible.

Added to  the suffering of thousands from the fire’s destruction as well as from days of smoke which is toxic (as I pointed out in an 2017 piece in Truthout)  the fascist MAGA-ites led by Trump are taking advantage of the suffering to blame immigrants, lesbian fire officials they claim are hired “through DEI policies”, etc. Perched like vultures on the verge now of full power, they are spreading lies that the problem is California officials diverting firefighting resources and water to programs for immigrants and to save the Delta smelt, a small endangered fish in the San Fransisco Bay Delta region.  

The lies continue despite fire officials pointing out that they and no other municipal fire force in existence could have stopped the speed and explosiveness of this fire (which while true points up a big problem for the future). One example of this is that traditional fire policy calls for three fire engines for a single house fire, but here there were thousands upon thousands of structure fires, do the math. Of course Trump et al offer no evidence of any of their claims, just more stuff they have made up, and a number of articles have pointed out the lies in these allegations.

MAGA republicans are now trying to bludgeon California officials by threatening to withhold federal aid unless they further submit to advancing Trump’s hateful anti-immigrant, white supremacist fascist program.

The truth of the matter is there are actual deeper reasons these fires and others like them all over the planet are increasing and levels of harm exploding, which we’ll explore below. And these are reasons that the fascists in particular want to divert attention from.

At the heart of this is global climate change and the increasing heating and drought it causes which sucks vegetation and soils dry, predisposing them to burn. Climate change is largely fueled by the capitalist countries of the world, and largely those in the developed world, continuing to burn fossil fuels. They continue to do this because of how highly profitable fossil fuel exploitation is, and because in the intense competition between various powers, control over fossil fuel resources play a key role in who will come out on top. Global carbon emissions continue to rise, despite the clear crisis this has created or the claims to be addressing the problem.

In combination with climate change, there are a myriad of other ways capitalism functions  that are to blame. This, includes continuing destruction of wildlands and endless development that negates natural limits and increases the number and spread of wildfires.( Wildfires are of course a natural phenomena, but are now taking place at an unprecedented scale.) Further reasons lie with the system’s inability to adequately prepare for or take account or really fully plan for such natural disasters, at least in the way the situation really demands.

All these reasons are driven by capitalism, a system that can only function by turning things needed by humans into commodities to be sold for profit. A system that is driven by competition between various interests and entities to maximize profitability in competition with others and therefore makes decisions and allots resources based on profitability and in the interests of continuing that pattern of functioning. A system that is anarchic and unable to plan development and growth, or control or limit it, based on long terms needs of people or ecosystems.

Because of this embedded pattern of functioning, capitalism is driven by it’s own dynamics to put profitability over human lives and ecosystems. In it’s functioning, capitalism and capitalist enterprises view nature and its bounty as simply a free gift to be extracted for maximum profitability instead of something to be cherished and protected.  

 Both Democrats and Republicans represent the interests of capitalism. The phenomena leading to such disasters as the fires in LA will only become more destructive under a fascist, white supremacist Trumpian rule, that claims in lunatic fashion that climate change which is already catastrophic, is a hoax. Trump promises to “drill baby drill”, removing even minor limitations Dems have put in place, which have done nothing to truly address the climate crisis. Remember during the election how Biden and Harris “countered” Trump’s attacks on drilling by pointing out that under their administration the U.S. has become the largest producer of oil and natural gas on the planet? Which is true. Or how Harris “countered” Trump in Pennsylvania by saying, no she doesn’t oppose, but supports the destructive practice of fracking?

Let’s look deeper at what is taking place in LA.

What Fueled the Fire’s Explosiveness

The Eaton and Palisades fires in LA both started in hills above LA in what is often called the “wildland-urban interface”, where homes and development have spread into formerly wild areas. Such building has been allowed to spread under pressure from developers despite the danger of sparking wildfires that this type of development poses, particularly in drought prone areas like LA. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) warned how this pattern of development is heightening the danger of destruction to human communities and wildlife and altering the natural ecology  in a paper written in 2021 “Built to Burn”

The CBD also pointed out how the California State Assembly passed legislation in May of 2024   that would have opened the way for even more development in the state’s high risk fire hazard zones and allowed developers to skirt fire hardening rules for buildings and other fire reduction measures. Fortunately, this bill died in the California Senate but shows the pressure capitalist developers continue to try to exert, despite the danger.

The LA fires spread extremely quickly because of powerful Santa Ana winds, at times in gusts of hurricane strength. The winds spread the fire not mainly by pushing them along the ground, but by sending chunks of burning embers miles into neighboring communities, setting them alight. Embers from incinerated buildings were then blown by the winds throughout. The Santa Anas are a normal occurring phenomena this time of year, but what made them so destructive was their strength in combination with other extreme fire conditions, including a delay in winter rains.

Earth.org calls the conditions fueling the LA fires a “lethal combination of high temperatures and very low humidity, dry vegetation, and strong offshore Santa Ana winds” allowing the fires “to grow and spread much faster than they could be contained.” Very fast fires of this type cause the burning of 75% of the structures burnt in the US from 2001 to 2020.

 Meterologist Eric Holthaus says the conditions in LA match what the National Weather Service calls “extremely critical fire weather…sustained winds greater than 30 mph, relative humidity of less than 10% in the presence of drought conditions and temperatures warmer than 70 degrees. This is the first time in history these criteria have been met anywhere in the United States during the month of January.”  LA county experienced the hottest summer in 130 years this year and has had virtually no measureable rain since May 2024. At the outbreak of the fires the humidity in the air was reportedly about 2%.  

Historically, California and the Southwest U.S. more broadly have suffered periodic droughts, sometimes lasting even decades (see The West Without Water by B. Lynn Ingram). But recent droughts have been the most extreme in recorded history. A scientific paper titled “Indicators of Climate Change in California” shows that investigators using tree-ring data back to the year 800 found the southwest region of the U.S. “determined 2000-2021 to be the driest 22-year period in the region” over the last 1200 years.

And this is not simply due to natural causes. Other scientific work cited in the paper showed about 19 percent of the dryness in 2021 and 42 percent in 2000-2021, were attributable to human-caused climate change. This work also pointed out that “Climate change will continue to make dry and warm years happen more often and drought conditions will worsen” (for scientific sources see link).

The link between climate change and increased wildfires is very well established. A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) titled “Wildfire climate connection” says, “Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last two decades.” Studies cited there demonstrate that climate change has been the “main driver of the increase in fire weather in the west” and a key factor in the doubling of wildfires in the west between 1984 and 2015.  

Climate in Southern California is shaped by many factors, including swings in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation ,( a natural phenomena of shifts between warm and cool phases in the Pacific every 20–30 years) and in the El Nino, La Nina climate cycles, which may bring much more rain or less. The years 2022 and 2023 were El Nino years that brought heavier rain to southern California and even more snowpack to the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Sierra Nevada have in general suffered from low snowpack during drought years and more rain relative to snow due to climate change. The heavier rain in the LA region during 2022 and 23 caused enhanced vegetation growth. That vegetation then dried to tinder this past very dry year, providing even more fuel for fires in LA.

Fire experts interviewed by the LA times say the LA fires are symptomatic of the return of largescale urban fires, thought until recently to be a thing of a bygone era-such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But urban fires have hit California, especially since the 1990s, and more recently “devastated Gatlinburg, Tennesee in 2016, the towns of Superior and Louisville in Colorado in 2021 and Lahaina, Hawaii”, two years ago. The town of Paradise and nearby communities in northern California were wiped out by a wildfire in 2018 killing 85 people and destroying 50,000 structures. The Camp fire that destroyed Paradise was sparked by a badly maintained  Pacific Gas and Electric transmission line.

The immediate origins of the LA fires are not proven yet, though residents near the origin of the Eaton fire recorded video of fires breaking out near electrical transmission lines owned by California Edison and some are now suing Cal-Ed.

As the fires continue and people try to overcome the destruction and losses they’ve suffered, people all over have poured in money to aid in their recovery. In a refutation to the hateful BS spread by Trump and MAGA to try to ramp up support for his vicious plans to deport millions of immigrants and despite their fears of ICE roundups, day laborers in LA have come together to take up support efforts for victims of the Altadena fires. This is truly an example we can learn from, to stand together and support immigrants and others who will be coming under increased attack, and to refuse to accept a fascist America.

The certifiable lunatic Alex Jones tweeted on X that the LA fires were the result of a globalist conspiracy to wage economic warfare on and deindustrialize the great USA. To this, Elon Musk, the richest, and arguably one of the most obscene individuals on the planet responded “True”. Are these the people we will accept  to be dictating over our lives and our planet?

Fishing groups sue tire-makers over toxic chemical that kills salmon

From Seattle Times

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/fishing-groups-sue-tire-makers-over-toxic-chemical-that-kills-salmon/?mkt_tok=NTI3LUFIUi0yNjUAAAGPZ73NDhGwce4GYBMj6jk-gi8pz–_4jaGNxAl29cDndx57iBhhrbIXJdKGWc_kBs6SS1sNB9Bf05iQDCUaVCdTnDGX3sLvip_2i4XT0szD_g

This finding, article and topic is really quite stunning.

I’d like to pose some questions to consider after reading it.

How many years have coho stocks been dropping and how long has it been known that a chemical in stormwater is  a factor?

The article answers this in basic terms, “Symptoms of acute poisoning among coho salmon have been described in urban streams since the late 1980s.” And it seems that stormwater itself has been identified as contributing to this poisoning since about 2010, according to the article.

Then this particular chemical,6PPD-quinone, a chemical produced by tire manufacturers derived from a preservative that helps tires last longer- was identified as a main cause in 2020.

In fact, “In 2020, researchers revealed that the toxic chemical was the culprit behind the deaths of coho in about 40% of the Puget Sound area. The study found it kills 40% to 90% of coho returning to some urban streams before they spawn…. California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has linked a 70% decline in coho in the San Francisco Bay Area between the 1960s and 1990s to the use of the chemical in tires.”

And this chemical kills not just coho, but other salmon. A Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources complaint describes “two dozen endangered populations of salmonids along the West Coast that have been impacted by the chemical.”

States and tribes have raised the issue and complained to the EPA , who now has agreed to “review” the chemical’s impact on fish. So up to today, nothing really has been done to limit or stop using this chemical by government agencies responsible for protecting fish.

Fish stocks all along the west coast have been crashing due to chemicals poisoning their waters, habitat destruction, warming waters from climate change and impacts on ocean ecosystems, for decades.

So what does EPA’s “environmental protection” consist of under capitalism in the U.S.? Why haven’t EPA or other government agencies been on top of this, pursuing these dangers and stopping them, on their own and without threat of lawsuit, since “Symptoms of acute poisoning among coho salmon have been described in urban streams since the late 1980s.”?

Another question, how many other chemicals are killing fish, wildlife and ecosystems?

Glen Spain, the executive director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources says, “In urban areas, highly urban areas — California’s Central Valley, the Puget Sound area, et cetera — the urban runoff contains a brew of toxic chemicals.”

Is EPA investigating and moving to prevent use of this whole toxic brew?

Of course there is little to no oversight. Sometimes the companies themselves know the most about any particular issue when they’ve studied it, (like Exxon with fossil fuels impact on causing climate change). Or sometimes they refuse to study it, or put out fake studies to counter other studies revealing the damage, or just lie about it all with greenwash PR.

Another question, how are many of the chemicals developed and used by industry, pesticides etc., developed supposedly to “enhance our lifestyle” or “produce food for people’s needs” contributing to cancer or other illnesses in humans?

The government “protection” agencies, mainly serve to protect the functioning of capital. Worse under someone like Trump, but essentially still the same with an Obama or Biden administration. They err on the side of turning a blind eye, dragging their feet, failing to investigate or really go after capital’s destruction of the natural world except in piecemeal fashion, unless exposure or lawsuit forces them to do something.

And what power do they actually have in this system’s operation to stop industry from killing off species and ecosystems anyway? Especially considering the overall functioning of government to serve and protect the operation of capital’s business as usual? Who has the power and what does that power serve in general? Certainly not power to serve people and their needs and interests or that of ecosystems and fish.

Meanwhile the states  build hatcheries to try to generate more fish to catch but pay little attention to the factors killing them off, and little ability to stop any of it. Salmon are increasingly dying from California to Alaska, especially those that run into the rivers in the summer or early fall by waters too warm or too low for them to spawn in. How are any environmental agencies stopping oil and auto companies from continuing to exploit and burn fossil fuels causing global warming that is killing these fish and threatening their populations?

And if this is just too impossible under the current set-up due to “political considerations”-i.e. fascist Republicans and/or capitalist-loving “moderate” Democrats unable to pass any “meaningful legislation”, what does that say about this system’s illegitamacy, when the stakes are even being able to survive on our planet?

Another example. In the Pacific Northwest, tribes and environmentalists have been fighting for years to pressure government to remove 7 dams on the lower Snake river which prevent salmon from reaching hundreds of miles of spawning habitat, an important factor in the crashing of Chinook salmon runs in the Columbia basin and the resulting starvation of Pacific coast resident orca populations. Yet even Washington Governor Inslee, (who ran for President as a protector of the environment), and other key Democratic officials are still stalling on dam removal, claiming there needs to be “more study”, despite years of studies proving the impact and detailing green alternatives.

While EPA and other environmental “protection” agencies or government agencies in charge of federal or state lands or waters protect the functioning of industry, only limiting them slightly while helping preserve their function, industry itself pushes forward relentlessly without pause, spewing out chemical poisons and death for profit while seeking to justify and cover their tracks.

The tire manufacturers being sued in this case in typical fashion say, ““Our members continue to research and develop alternative tire materials that ensure tire performance and do not compromise safety, consistent with our industry’s commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment,”

Capitalist industry keeps revving and government in basic terms allows it with minor limitations, often refusing to do anything or dragging their feet. And why? Precisely to protect profitability and ability for U.S. industry to compete internationally, or in”the national interest” (as Biden is fond of saying).  

It’s really disgusting and unacceptable.

For any basic change, power has to be taken by people, led by those who actually care about preserving our planet’s life for future generations with a vision of a completely different world for people and life on earth. We must transform systems and people, to transform our relationship with natural ecosystems so humans can liberate themselves and protect life, for its intrinsic worth, and for us to survive as a species.

Study: To restore ecosystems, think about thwarting hungry herbivores

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-ecosystems-thwarting-hungry-herbivores.html

Sort of another, (what should be at this point) “duh” realization from a recently published study in Science– restoring conditions ( predators in this case) more closely matching how ecosystems evolved to be  previous to capital’s ecosystem destruction is key way to restore healthy plant environments and combat the climate crisis.

I guess to have a less cynical or jaded take, better to say, there is much human society could actually still do to combat and prevent at least the worst of both the climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens much of planetary life (including our own ) if we had the type of system (actual eco-socialism) that didn’t predispose all economic and political decisions to the service of capital accumulation and imperial interests. That society could study and then implement best practices learned by ecosystem science for restoration/preservation of life.

Added to ecosystem restoration, such a society could move to transform energy production and use to more sustainable and non-polluting forms of energy while severely and step-by-step reducing the amount of industrial animal agriculture on the planet and it’s requisite production of methane gas.