A couple of lawmakers (and more than a thousand workers) have appealed to Google [pdf] not to carry associated racist advertising.

ICE’s/CBP‘s lawlessness is long – nearly 2,500 illegal detentions since July 2025, for instance – strikes some as worse than that of the Central American cartels spuriously touted as the targets of Trump’s mass deportations.

Spurious for a variety of reasons: humanity welcomes immigrants (whose contribution to life in their adoptive countries is enormous) especially after their original countries have been targeted and degraded by US aggression. Scapegoating immigrants for capitalism’s destruction is illegitimate. Criminal behaviour is not a function of race – as determined by accent or birthplace. The real aim is to create fear, oppress and ultimately expel.

To do so across the US the ICE/CBP militias attack families; children; often young children; often very young children; including children who are US citizens and who cannot legally be deported.

Disgusting and foul environments are built and taken over in which to hold those abducted.

Deaths of kidnapped and trafficked residents are common. The actual number of such state murders may already be higher than published.

ICE/CBP inflicts physical injuries to the head and brain; to the face; and causes hospitalisations.

Residents are dragged from vehicles. Abductions take place in deliberately abusive and humiliating circumstances. Traffic accidents are caused. Squads illegally enter homes; in other states than Minnesota; often without the requisite paperwork, which is not the only reason why mistaken identity is also common.

Yet Democrats (some of whom are themselves being attacked by ICE) still fund the abuse and murder.

This is not only in Minnesota: the MAGA/Trump cult wants to end protected status for Somali immigrants in the US; it has ordered staff at national parks to quiz visitors on their countries of origin; to obtain lists of students’ racial origins from universities. MAGA/Trump invokes fascist language in advancing the case for an invasion of Greenland; and is arresting journalists reporting on the abductions.

The MAGA/Trump cult insists that we should believe its false accounts of executions like that of unarmed resident, nurse Alex Pretti, of Minneapolis on 24 January, instead of believing our own evidence which we have seen in numerous videos.

It’s overwhelmingly black government officials who are losing their jobs; as are black journalists with a largely colluding media.

As you would expect, there is profiteering from the terrorism. Indeed, Trump appears to have profited by nearly a billion and a half dollars (or about £2,000 every single minute around the clock) from his presidency so far. Legal pushback continues to be weak – and/or ignored.

Supremacist nonsense like this from US senator Tuberville abounds, reflecting the accusation that Islam is the same as terrorism. Ousted Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino joined in with antisemitic remarks. The illegal executions by US terrorists of sailors in the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico continue.

Protesters in Minneapolis are very well organised. There are sophisticated and evolving systems of communication and resistance – as these reports, from Democracy Now, Crimethinc (with an emphasis on rapid response), and Truthout show. Residents are increasingly relying on explicitly-names ‘mutual aid’ – which is working. One neighbourhood in Los Angeles is even installing sirens to alert residents of an impending attack by ICE militias.

Next time we’ll look at some (other) areas mounting a fight back; why it’s taking so long; and assess how successful they may be.

Fascism

Commentators in a widening circle of outlets are referring unapologetically to the Trump/MAGA ‘administration’ as ‘fascist’. (Five years ago ‘Notes from the US’ described what that could mean for the United States.) This is a healthy development, as is reaction at high profile events like the Winter Olympics and Superbowl when it is settles into the use of phrases like “… what’s happening in the US…”. It indicates the reification of a perceptibly extreme state of affairs.

Political scientist Barbara F Walter offers new, reprised and older considerations of how countries like the United States descend into civil war in ‘Here Be Dragons‘, although she implicitly advocates the preservation of a ‘democracy’ in which few anarchists have any faith. By Walter’s count, the US probably now meets over half the conditions outlined in her study from 2023, ‘How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them‘.

One example of Walter’s second and sixth stages, was the recent ban on teaching (some of) Plato’s writings in a major Texas university. Another was the ‘review’ announced in late January of all federal funding to Democrat-led states. Earlier last month the home of a journalist on the Washington Post, which (until now) has been critical of Trump/MAGA, was searched by the FBI. Such action normally requires a demonstrable reason.

Despite grim reports of the undeniable growth of ‘authoritarian tendencies’ by the Trump/MAGA cult, good old-fashioned “‘across the aisle’ co-operation because there are two sides to every argument and we need to heal divisions” views still have much support in the (mainstream) media. All too many public figures, pundits and lawmakers still don’t see and/or don’t accept what’s actually happening, appearing to lack the necessary historical perspective.

Health

Last month quack RF Kennedy Junior published new food ‘guidelines’ (and more here) promoting practices like the consumption of ‘meat’ known to be detrimental to health, the environment – and the animals murdered by the billion. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, responded, “The Guidelines err in promoting meat and dairy products, which are principal drivers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity”.

But there is pushback (in addition to the developments covered in last December’s ‘Notes from the US’): California has announced the appointment of two prominent scientists sacked for criticising Kennedy. Dr. Susan Monarez and Dr. Debra Houry will help lead the state’s new Public Health Network Innovation Exchange.

There’s little doubt that the US now has to be seen as moving sharply backwards in terms of public health and associated areas like childcare… Trump recently cut $US10 (£7.4) billion from federal childcare funding, punishing in particular residents in states which did not vote for him in 2024. Last month the US formally completed its split from the World Health Organization. And perception of public corruption has reached its lowest level ever.

Environment

Not to be overlooked in the midst of blasts of hectic developments are the withdrawal announcements that Trump made which could well have staggeringly negative effects across the globe. From major treaties designed to avoid planetary destruction; and more widely in the interests of women and the climate. Alarmingly, these moves attempt to bake in provisions that will make it more difficult for future administrations to reverse.

Equally unhinged are lawsuits brought by Trump/MAGA against locations in California which have taken steps to curb fossil fuel emissions. For Trump, of course, the climate collapse is a ‘hoax’; so he’s tried to abolish a database detailing climate disasters (estimated to cost about £2,500 a second around the clock, 365 days a year) – but may have failed; and why he has reversed key environmental legislation in what could result in the most deleterious effects on the climate for generations, “…the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States…” said the current Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Lastly, a new report makes it clear that, unless action is taken to extend protection afforded under the Endangered Species Act, many thousands of species could become extinct in an alarmingly short time.

Image: Radical Graffiti in Philadelphia