Driven by looming midterms and the Epstein Files, the MAGA cult has no credible arguments for this bloodbath

~ Louis Further ~

The “best money ever spent” crowed leading fascist cult member Lindsey Graham as it was confirmed (only the US uses tomahawk missiles) that US terrorist forces who massacred 175 children and their teachers on the first day of the US/Israeli élite’s unprovoked war on Iran. Graham is referring to the estimated US$1 billion a day (or roughly £9,000 every second around the clock) cost of the war, while millions more residents in the US are having their food aid withdrawn.

There is evidence disproving Iran’s ‘readiness’ to mount a(nuclear) attack on the United States. Such unprovoked aggression by the US is illegal anyway under international and US law, where Article I of its constitution requires congressional approval for a war. Nor have Trump or his spokespeople offered consistent, credible or convincing arguments for what he now calls an “excursion” (“All Aboard!”) – and its “progress”. It’s even been suggested that the regional bloodbath is revenge because he thinks Iran ‘deprived’ him of an election victory in 2020.

The cult is also saying that the slaughter is God’s will… “we must annihilate them because they are Muslim”, something which both houses of Congress – including Democrats – roundly approved last week. As has been the case for decades. To quote Denis Healy speaking about Thatcher in 1983, the Trump/MAGA cult repeatedly “glories in slaughter“.

Trump/MAGA needed a distraction from adverse polling with the increasing likelihood that the cult would lose control of Congress (not least because of the current war’s unpopularity) if midterm elections (with a markedly suppressed vote for likely non-MAGA voters) are held in eight months’ time; and from exposure in the Epstein scandals.

Apparently Trump’s war is (also) based on a ‘feeling’ which he had… perhaps feeling the need to burn people alive in their apartment blocks – as may be the plan next for Cuba and Saudi Arabia).

Little of this – especially the massacres, destruction of Iran’s (infra)structure and reduction of its dwellings to rubble – especially in the middle of negotiations which some observers suggested were making progress – enters into public discussion and analysis in the US. Few commentators have troubled to look at who benefits from this disaster. Fewer still at the certain disastrous consequences for the region; the environment; where the money could otherwise be spent. Iraq is essentially forgotten. Ignored is the likelihood that Iran will now emerge more hostile towards the US and its allies.

At ‘best’, media outlets are lamenting the way in which short, medium and long term instability will hit US residents in their pockets and stifle the accumulation of profits by enterprises small, medium and large.

The vast majority of public commentary has centred around military logistics; on US terrorists who have been killed; around how wicked all Iranians are and so deserve what’s happening. There is rejoicing at the plenitude of US weapons; and criticism of Hegseth’s logistical incompetence at burying children under rubble.

Those incompetent planners – even as they see the war – could and should know that when ‘big American boys with lots of bombs’ bully what to them is just an ‘inconsequential’ little country, it will resist as strongly as it is doing; and – if they cared – everyone will lose.

It really is as though there are no living people in Iran. They, their society, culture and right to life don’t count. After all, the leadership of the MAGA cult, House Speaker Mike Johnson, consistently ignores and refuses to condemn anti-Muslim supremacist rhetoric in his party.

So far neither Hegseth nor Trump has expressed any interest in going on a field trip to experience for themselves what it’s like to become ‘toast’. Maybe they could travel by sea like this – to enjoy spluttering for breath as their vessel sinks – for fun – and they too experience a “quiet death”.

MAGA cult members see this war as an opportunity to bet on the war. This includes by Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, who is alleged to have profited from suffering and death in the US attacks on both Venezuela and Iran). War is – for them – a game.

Fightback

As flagged in last month’s ‘Notes from the US’, an examination of a rather feeble but discernible (if you know where to look) resistance is growing. Mainstream outlets are increasingly writing accounts like this suggesting that “cracks are appearing”.

Previously unthinkable, for instance, is that some Democrats boycotted Trump’s State of the Union address on 24 February and attended alternative events.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) mooted the idea of a general strike; but without takers. Trump’s allies have become the targets of impeachment promises – that is, if the mid term elections take place, and then result in the required change of party.

There are inconsequential and largely unsuccessful attempts by lawmakers and the judiciary to enforce earlier judgements which are being ignored – on immigration, for instance.

The judiciary has so far proved marginally more forceful – ruling against Trump/MAGA’s moves to retaliate against New York Attorney, Letitia James, and the powers which the cult is using (mostly illegally) to have the ICE/CBP gangs kidnap and deport. There is also a movement of state Attorneys General (AGs) to file a volley of lawsuits against Trump’s crimes; they seem to have a high (c. 80%) success rate.

Resistance on the ground is another matter. Trump is increasingly unpopular. A majority asked in one poll had little faith in a public inquiry into Renée Good’s murder by ICE gangs. Protestors are now regularly out in force across the country in response to the ICE executions, abductions, and assaults in several cities – most notably Minneapolis.

Most weekends see protests across the country – even in the most unlikely, ‘Trumpy’ communities. Public pressure forced the airline Avelo to drop its contracts to carry kidnapped residents across and out of the United States. Communities being threatened with plans to build concentration camp-like ‘prisons’ in their areas have rejected them. Whether they will go ahead anyway is another matter.

The turn rightwards by CBS News has seen it lose more than a million viewers.

Yet measures which might actually cause a real change, although happening, are (still?) sporadic and easily sidestepped. These include co-ordinated passive resistance and civil disobedience, refusal to comply, reinforced solidarity within neighbourhoods to threats by the likes of ICE and the use of alternative and social media to co-ordinate resistance. That mutual aid has been as effective as it has in Minneapolis, however, is an encouraging sign. Well organised, supportive and confident, it promises to grow on the ground as revulsion at MAGA/Trump increases.

The MAGA cult is still active across many aspects of public life: from the start of next school year all pupils aged between 11 and 18 in Florida will have to take classes either designed or originated by the Heritage Foundation (the group which wrote the fascist manifesto for Project 2025) teaching them how evil egalitarian political systems like socialism and communism are.

Sociology students at community colleges (roughly equivalent to FE colleges in the UK) will no longer be allowed to explore or examine – or even discuss – ‘systemic racism, institutional racism, [or] historical discrimination’ in the context of learning about ways in which ‘…institutions today… oppress persons of colour; nor ‘…when, how, or why individuals determine their sexual orientation and/or gender identity…’.

Image: White House on Flickr