Portside

Donald Trump's bizarre, fact-free threat against South Africa did not just arise in the back of his head last week. It is the initiative of alt-right ex-South Africans in America and like-minded people here (in South Africa) who are urging them on.

Biden increased transparency around the risks of chemical disaster — industry lobbyists just asked Trump’s new EPA chief Lee Zeldin to roll that back.

Trump has signed dozens of executive actions since returning to the Oval Office last month, flooding the zone with orders and statements zigzagging through different policy areas.

People are signing up in droves.

Trump’s return when we already see a world at war, breathtaking inequality and climate catastrophe confirms Engles’ famous dichotomy.

In the process of accumulating enormous wealth, the tech-oligarchs created the conditions for their loss of social power and, when they realized this, they got a big dose of class consciousness and turned furiously reactionary.

Come April, it will be time to celebrate—and renew—America’s 1775 revolt against usurping monarchs.

Trump Proposes Gaza Takeover | The Daily Show. Elon Musk: Party in the USA (Song Parody). What is Hugging Face? Could AI Wipe Out Mainstream Media? Mo: Season 2 Trailer | Netflix.

Most fascist dictators have been more about ideology and absolute power than about personal wealth. Trump and his crony Musk are at least as interested in personal enrichment as they are in destroying the deep state or the rule of law.

It’s standard to think of presidents’ initial approval ratings; it’s also worth looking at presidential disapproval ratings. Here, Trump really stands out. He now has the highest beginning disapproval in the record by a substantial margin.