Summary
The Trump administration has canceled 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, including critical programs that provide lifesaving therapeutic food to malnourished children.
Mana Nutrition’s CEO reports that ready-to-ship boxes of peanut paste that could save approximately 300,000 children are now stranded in a Georgia warehouse.
Despite Secretary of State Rubio’s claims that “lifesaving humanitarian assistance” would be spared, numerous essential health programs have been terminated, including those preventing diseases like polio, HIV, and Ebola.
These cuts contradict claims about targeting “wokeness” or “waste,” instead showing a reckless abandonment of America’s global humanitarian commitments.
General strike with clear, specific demands would work. Easier said than done, especially since most workers in the US aren’t already organized; but it would probably work. It would probably even work if all current major unions striked (a lot of union members are “conservative” though, so if it was seen as political rather than practical, it could break solidarity).
Would that stop them from causing damage unopposed right now? Sure. But how do you think that would end? Are there any meaningful demands that could be conceded to save what’s left of the constitution? Trump was pushing for live fire on protesters in his last administration, and the cooler heads that kept that from happening are gone.
The cat’s out of the bag. The executive branch has been purged of anyone disloyal; there are private military contractors wandering DC who have been unilaterally deputized; career military officials who could be threats are getting tossed. The last opportunity to keep peaceful continuity with the first 248 years of America ended on January 19th.
Fascist dictators don’t get to step down and return to a private life. We’ve never seen one leave office alive.
Will resistance to this oppression end well for the American people? Will foreign intervention topple the cult of personality? Or will our grandchildren be watching the coronation of President Trump III either way?
Who knows? But it’s inconceivable that we’ll be back to normal in 2/4/8 years. This election was a seminal moment, there will be a definite before and after. The question is how stark the difference will be.