While I'm certainly not suggesting you seek out life advice or social theory from professional comedians, there is a famous Chris Rock tweet about nazis that speaks a universally applicable truth about fascism in our society. After Trump tried to defend "some" of the fascists who attended the nazi "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Rock took to social media to post:

"If 10 guys thinks it's ok to hang with 1 Nazi then they just became 11 Nazis. Alt right / white supremacist it's just nazis. Fuck Nazis."

I mention this because right now the Trump regime is apparently trying to start a diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Germany, after their domestic intelligence agency declared the fascist Alternative für Deutschland party a "confirmed rightwing extremist" group.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/03/marco-rubio-germany-afd

Germany hits back at Marco Rubio after he panned labeling of AfD as ‘extremist’

"On Thursday, Rubio took to X and wrote: “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD – which took second in the recent election – but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”

Rubio went on to say: “Germany should reverse course.”

In a response on X, the German foreign ministry pushed back against the US secretary of state, saying: “This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”

Germany’s response to Rubio comes after its domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), designated the AfD as a “confirmed rightwing extremist” force on Friday."

I am neither knowledgeable enough about German politics, nor inclined to vouch for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but based on every single piece of evidence that I've seen, they're materially correct about the AfD. This is a fascist party, pushing an eliminationist agenda and the state suppression of ideological enemies of the right; they're absolutely organized rightwing extremists, and so is the cult of personality that is Trumpism in America. However politically unpalpable it may be the German state's attempts to shove these neo-nazis in the proverbial locker is a rational decision given that again, these folks are literally fucking fascists. If the Biden administration had shown even a modicum of courage in applying already on the books laws against organized fascism in America, we might not be in the funhouse mirror American fascist shitshow we're trying to survive right now.

My primary concern here however remains the behavior of the very-American Trump regime and its attempts to influence international politics on behalf of foreign fascist movements in other parts of the Pig Empire. As the article details the (again, fascist) AfD has numerous fans in and around the Trump administration; including obviously US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but also folks like Elon Musk and JD Vance - who have both made very public statements in support of the fascist German party. Rubio's attempts to intimidate the German government on social media also matches their recent attempts to form an international fascist coalition by supporting far right parties in other Pig Empire countries; although it's unclear how successful those attempts have actually been given the AfD failed to win the last German election, and Trump-aligned far right parties in both Canada and Australia both recently lost elections where Trump's shadow loomed large.

If, as Rock suggested, we are to judge people by the company they keep, then it probably matters that the Trump regime's best friends on the international scene are all right wing extremist parties that can plausibly be described as representing fascist political movements.

#Fascism #Trump #MarcoRubio #German #USPolitics #ForeignAffairs #AfD #NeoNazis #InternationalFascism

If you judged by the news coverage over the last 24 hours you would think that Nigel Farage's Reform party had taken over the Conservatives as the second biggest party in Local Government in Great Britain.

In fact they are the fifth biggest party, coming some distance behind the Greens.

Labour has eight times as many seats as Reform and the Conservatives more than five times as many.

https://opencouncildata.co.uk/

@lowqualityfacts Thank you for sharing --> Cheers

They would drive nervously all over the country. #grickledoodle #easyrider #anxiety #nervous #mentalhealth #cartoon #drawing #art #funny

I present to you, once again: The boy.

#Cats #CatsOnQuilts

“The nation of South Vietnam still exists in the people who came here after the war,” Sandy said. “It is a nation that ceased existing in 1975 on a map. But there’s this diaspora of people who became Vietnamese American and brought with them their conception of that citizenship and nationality.”

https://fortworthreport.org/2025/04/29/50-years-after-saigons-fall-vietnamese-american-community-reflects-we-had-a-beautiful-country/

#aapi #aanhpi #VietnamWar #history #vietnamese #UShistory #refugees #immigrant #immigration #trauma #MentalHealth

She would be 7 today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGh9fqcty0g

#hindrajab #genocide #gaza #uspol #ukpol

Sad end to a sad period of 25 years derelict after such good service to British Columbians. RIP Queen of Sidney. I hope the province and feds step in and dispose of it properly and bill the owner.

#bcferries #environment #mission #vancouver #ship #waste
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mission-bc-fire-derelict-ferry-1.7525873

My rocketeer miniature roses on Monday, the countdown.
1/2
#rocketeer #bloomscrolling #rosaliecoral #countdown

@ginaintheburg

This is how billionaires think this is how the wealthiest people in the world operate. It’s no different than mafia.

This is why that much wealth and power should never be in so few hands ever

#Australia absolutely fuckhousing its conservatives and, with them, the global fascist movement is like waking up to morning sex, eggs benedict, five bloody marys and maybe a bit of heroin.

View from King Mountain in Gatineau Park #outaouais #gatineau #québec

@benroyce

Yeah, Elon is one of many collections of libertarians and otherwise rich ass hats who have sought in different times in different places to take over a town and then piss on it until it smells like them and their hellscape ideas.

But it seems like every attempt they’ve made has ended up uniformly in abject failure. He will destroy the lives of the town folk. It should be considered a violent aggressive act..

“Trump is so loathed he’s losing elections in other countries.

The Australian opposition leader likened to Donald Trump for aping his policies has lost his seat as the incumbent Labor govt secures a landslide win.

Peter Dutton has suffered more than a 10 per cent swing against him."
-Kath

We’ve found the silver lining, but it’s for the rest of the world. Americans are stuck with Trump because Republican MOC won’t check him, let alone, #impeach him.

#Resist #USPol

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/peter-dutton-donald-trump-australian-election-b2744284.html

Aw snap!

#turtle

3 May 1930 | A Dutch Jewish girl, Meriam Kok, was born in Amsterdam.

She arrived at #Auschwitz on 6 December 1942 in a transport of 811 Jews deported from Westerbork. She was among 795 people murdered in gas chambers after the selection.

The only strategy known to work against a fascist power grab is widespread and diverse pro-democracy organizing. We win by showing up for each other and with each other.

Please do not come in my mentions claiming that the public isn’t engaging in widespread pandemic denialism when you’re referring to Covid in the past tense. That sort of framing *is* denialism. https://www.salon.com/2024/01/04/leader-says-19-is-still-a-pandemic/