Trumpism

The Andes

Colombia: protests greet new far-right president

Thousands of Colombians peacefully rallied across the country against the far-right policies of President Abelardo de la Espriella, little more than two months after he took office. They criticized his proposed social spending cuts, his alignment with Trump, and his hardline military approach to decades of armed-group violence. Earlier this month, de la Espriella announced a “counterterrorism statute” that many fear could restrict democratic rights. (Photo: AlexaRochi via AnalisisUrbano)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Satanic techno-fascism (yes, really)

Peter Thiel of Palantir, most aggressively reactionary of the Trump-linked nexus of fascist tech bros, now openly invokes the Faust story, in which a scientist sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power—and not as a warning against hubris, but as a positive example, in defense of the notion that “evil can be good.” In Episode 350 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg turns to the 1940s dialogue between rationalist JBS Haldane and moralist CS Lewis to explore how technology and politics—and especially the intersection of the two—can become Satanic, in a metaphorical if not literal sense. (Image: Comedy Central via The Guardian)

Watching the Shadows

US imposes full sanctions on ICC

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed full sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to investigations into potential war crimes committed by the US and Israel. The sanctions permit the federal government to seize ICC assets in the US or controlled by "US persons." The ICC issued a response statement in which it condemned the action and accused the US of undermining international justice. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Iran

Trump prepares new escalation in Persian Gulf

The US is preparing a major naval buildup in the Middle East, including up to three aircraft carriers and their escort ships, as President Trump weighs whether to intensify the war with Iran. The buildup may involve up to 20,000 troops, 150 fighter jets, and numerous destroyers, the Washington Post reported. US and Iranian officials held indirect talks through mediators, focused mostly on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and easing US sanctions and blockades. Trump has rejected Iran's latest peace proposal as insufficient and raised the possibility of renewed strikes. (Image: Pixabay)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: #ResistRobotRule

CounterVortex editor and ranter Bill Weinberg faces imminent cancelation of his landline service by corporate oppressor Verizon. As fiber-optic is not available in his building, this makes cable the only alternative—which means drilling through exterior walls, threatening the structural integrity of the 19th century tenement. This as the Countervortex website remains debilitated following an attack by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. With this dissident voice in danger of being silenced, the system of corporate rule is increasingly replaced by worse-still actual robot rule. Trump and the fascist tech bros are putting in place the architecture for direct robot control over the military-security apparatus, and even of imperial decision-making. Robo-propaganda has already thoroughly colonized the political process, both in the US and elsewhere. All this as the ecological impacts of the technology contiue to propel the apocalypse. In Episode 348 of the CounterVortex podcast, Weinberg looks for glimmers of hope in municipal pushback, and popular refusal of aritifical intelligence and the entire digital leviathan. (Image: Darrin Grimwood via Goodreads)

Central America

US weapons to Guatemala

Guatemala received a shipment of weapons and military equipment from the United States, the first in a series of commercial exchanges set to total $5 million. Weapons transfers to the country had been formally frozen since the administration of President Jimmy Carter restricted arms sales in 1977 due to the Guatemalan military's record of human rights abuses during the country's civil war. The ban was lifted in March, after months of deepening security ties between the two countries. (Photo: Danilojramirez via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Somaliland offers Trump a deal on recognition

Breakaway Somaliland is pulling out the stops to win US recognition, offering access to its strategic Berbera port, mineral deals, and even a Trump Tower. Recognition may not immediately be in the cards, but Berbera is particularly significant at the moment. It sits close to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the global shipping lane that Yemen's Houthis can potentially close at will. Somaliland is juicing its proposal with the prospect of a base for US forces (there have already been US military visits), and potentially for Israel—the only country to recognize its independence. The conservative Hudson Institute, among other voices in the US political establishment, is pushing Somaliland's case as a "bulwark" against the Houthis—and even Chinese influence. (Map: Somalia Country Profile)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: whither the Butlerian Jihad?

Protests happily continue to mount against the rapid encroachment of Artificial Intelligence over all spheres of society—and have met with some victories. Other responses, however, appear to have succumbed to desperation and counter-productive adventurism. But even the United Nations human rights commissioner has taken note amid repeated incidents of AI programs "going rogue," and more industry insiders coming forward to warn of catastrophic risks to humanity. Bernie Sanders has called for legislating a pause on "superintelligent" AI. Meanwhile, in a virtually regulation-free environment, so-called "biological data centers" are pioneering the neural-digital interface—portending the actual abolition of humanity. In Episode 347 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes how the predicament now facing humanity was predicted by dystopian prophets—from Samuel Butler in the 1860s, to Frank Herbert a century later. (Image via Instagram)

Inner Asia

Tibetans march on Washington to oppose Xi

As Trump prepares to meet with Xi Jinping at the White House, a small group of exiled Tibetans has departed from New York City for a cross-country march on Washington, to join a demonstration planned there against the Chinese dictator. The group departed from the gates of the United Nations, where Lobga Rangzen, a longtime New York Tibetan activist, self-immolated on July 2. After a stop at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall—clearly chosen for its symbolic value—the "Independence Walk" will arrive in DC Sept. 24, the date of both the rally against Xi and the dinner honoring him at the White House (also to be attended by giants of the tech industry). (Photo: Ella Krivova)

Inner Asia

Podcast: #Chinamaxxing & the betrayal of Tibet

As Trump prepares to meet with Xi Jinping at the White House, Students for a Free Tibet prepares a protest in Washington against the Chinese dictator. Protests and civil disobedience actions by New York City’s Tibetan community have mounted since the July self-immolation of longtime activist Lobga Rangzen outside the United Nations building—the first in the wave of Tibetan self-immolations to take place on US soil. This comes amid heightening repression in Tibet following the passage of China’s “Ethnic Unity” law. Rather than taking this opportunity to forge bonds of solidarity with a local ethnic community by embracing its struggle, growing sectors of the “progressive” milieu—including figures associated with the Democratic Socialists of America—have joined those elements of the “left” looking to the oppressive Chinese state as a model and even a source of sponsorship. Happily, there are glimmers of dissent within the DSA to this consolidating dogma. In Episode 346 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again dissects and repudiates the global divide-and-rule racket that is the essence of the state system. (Photo: Lhak Sam via Facebook)

Iran

Potential US ‘war crimes’ seen in Iran

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran called on all parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and comply with international humanitarian law following reported US air-strikes that killed and injured civilians in southern Iran. A reported US air-strike hit a home in Kuhestak, Hormozgan province, during a wedding celebration. Iranian media reported that five people died, including two children and one woman, and that dozens of others suffered injuries. Weeks earlier, another reported US strike destroyed a residential home on Qeshm Island, killing a man, a woman and their two-year-old son, and injuring their two other children. Both attacks occurred in areas with historically marginalized minority populations. The Mission identified Kuhestak as predominantly Baloch, and Qeshm as predominantly Sunni. The Mission found that these strikes may have constituted war crimes, and called for thorough investigations. (Map: Wikipedia)

New York City

9-11, fascism & the #PostTruth pathology

Amid the politicized ugliness and street skirmishes around the 25th anniversary of 9-11 in New York City, a conspiracy-theory confab convenes, glorifying MAGA martyr Charlie Kirk and headlining such high-profile dictator-propagandists and reactionary charlatans as Roger Waters, Jimmy Dore and Ben Swann—indicating that a significant swath of the ostensible "left" has surrendered to the lure of fascism. In Episode 345 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again dissects the emerging Red-Brown alliance. (Photo: BG On The Scene)