🟥 THIS WEEK IN FASCISM — July 19, 2025
By The Mayor of Funkytown — Political Writer, Resistance Organizer, Truth Teller
From Arizona’s assault on journalism to ICE raids, classroom propaganda, and the rise of federally appointed vote counters, the American right’s authoritarian fever dream is no longer theoretical — it’s operational.
This is your weekly resistance briefing.
📌 1. Arizona’s “Journalism Licensing Act” Moves Forward
In a chilling move straight from the autocrat’s playbook, Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature advanced a bill this week that would effectively end independent journalism in the state. The so-called Journalism Integrity and Licensing Act would require all journalists to obtain a state-issued license to access press conferences, government meetings, and even official press releases.
To qualify for a license? You need a degree from an “accredited” journalism school and work experience at a “recognized” media outlet — a definition conveniently shaped to exclude citizen journalists, Substackers, and pretty much every progressive freelancer not working for a corporate media chain.
Violators who continue reporting without state permission could face misdemeanor charges, fines, and bans from government facilities.
Arizona Republicans are calling it a measure to “combat misinformation.” But let’s not play dumb. This is state-sanctioned censorship.
Meanwhile, far-right media networks like OANN and Epoch Times will be more than welcome to attend every press conference and parrot every lie.
“The First Amendment doesn’t protect fake journalists,” one Republican sponsor said — as if the Constitution were conditional on party loyalty.
Why This Is Important:
If the government can decide who qualifies as a “real” journalist, the First Amendment is just a decorative antique. This is about silencing the truth-tellers before the next round of Trumpist policies rolls out. Control the narrative, control the people.
📌 2. ICE Raids Expand Under New “Security Surge”
This week, immigration enforcement took a terrifying new turn. ICE launched its largest coordinated raid operation since Trump returned to power, targeting immigrant neighborhoods in Texas, Florida, and Georgia under a chilling new program called the Security Surge for Sovereignty.
Families with long-standing asylum cases, DACA recipients, and even legal visa holders have been rounded up in early-morning sweeps. Some were dragged from their homes, others detained outside churches and community centers in full view of horrified neighbors.
What’s worse? Several raids appear to have violated court orders. In Texas, one man with a pending abuse complaint against ICE was secretly deported before he could testify.
Immigration lawyers and rights groups are reporting widespread denial of due process. Some detainees haven’t had access to phones, lawyers, or family for days. This isn't law enforcement — this is fear-based ethnic cleansing wrapped in legal jargon.
"These raids aren’t about sovereignty. They’re about punishment and racial hierarchy," said one advocate.
Why This Is Important:
This is what fascism looks like: bureaucratic violence against the vulnerable, executed with precision, buried under headlines. They’re not going after criminals — they’re going after communities. And you’d better believe that silence is complicity.
📌 3. Trump Appointees Begin Replacing State Election Officials
In the most overt attack yet on election integrity, the Trump administration has begun replacing noncompliant state election officials with hand-picked federal appointees, citing authority from the State Election Security Act passed earlier this year.
So far, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have quietly replaced top officials with Trump loyalists. The new appointees include:
A Pennsylvania MAGA lawyer who once screamed “HANG MIKE PENCE!” at a 2021 Stop the Steal rally.
A former Fox News contributor who argued that “paper ballots are a socialist invention.”
A far-right podcast host who believes Dominion machines are controlled by the Vatican.
These appointments bypass state election boards entirely. The new officials report directly to DHS, which has been newly empowered to “ensure ballot security and voter authentication.”
Translation: They’ll be in charge of validating — or invalidating — your vote.
Why This Is Important:
When the people in charge of counting votes owe their jobs to Donald Trump, elections become performance theater. The play is called "Democracy," but the outcome is already rigged. This is how democracies die: not with a bang, but with a bureaucratic memo.
📌 4. Social Media Platforms Purge “Anti-Government Extremism” — Guess Who That Includes?
If you’re wondering why your favorite journalists, historians, and civil rights activists have gone silent on social media lately, here’s your answer.
Under pressure from DHS and a bipartisan “Digital Safety Task Force,” social platforms have launched a coordinated purge of so-called “anti-government extremism.” And surprise — they’re not banning neo-Nazis and white supremacists. They’re banning you.
In the last week alone:
A journalist who posted footage of police brutality in Atlanta had their entire account wiped.
A Black Lives Matter organizer in Minneapolis was banned for “inciting unrest” after posting a call for peaceful protest.
A progressive YouTube channel documenting voter suppression in Arizona was demonetized and de-ranked into oblivion.
Meanwhile, Trump’s militia influencers, QAnon freaks, and “Christian Nationalist Revivalists” continue posting about “purging the traitors” and “cleansing the nation” without consequence.
And yes — the purge includes Substackers. Several newsletters were shadowbanned this week after covering ICE raids and DHS whistleblowers.
Why This Is Important:
This is the digital arm of authoritarianism. The new censorship doesn’t come with a government stamp — it comes via algorithm, private terms of service, and corporate cowardice. But the effect is the same: silence dissent, sanitize history, and make resistance invisible.
📌 5. The Education Front: Oklahoma Bans AP U.S. History
This week, the Oklahoma Board of Education officially banned AP U.S. History from public high schools, claiming it “undermines American exceptionalism” and promotes “Marxist revisionism.” Students will now be required to take a new course called “American Heritage and National Renewal” — designed by a Trump-affiliated think tank and backed by Moms for Liberty.
According to the leaked curriculum, students will learn that:
Slavery was “a complicated economic necessity,” not a moral wrong
The Founders were “inspired by divine Providence.”
The New Deal “nearly destroyed American freedom.”
The Civil Rights Act was “a federal overreach.”
The Trump presidency “restored national greatness.”
Teachers who refuse to use the curriculum can be fired. Parents who complain face investigation for “domestic disruption.” And libraries caught stocking “subversive material” — including books on Black history or LGBTQ rights — risk defunding.
In short: the history of America is being rewritten, one sanitized paragraph at a time.
Why This Is Important:
Fascism doesn’t just suppress the present — it rewrites the past to justify the future. Indoctrinate the children, and you don’t need stormtroopers. You just need textbooks. Today it’s Oklahoma. Tomorrow it’s your state.
⚠️ WE CAN’T AFFORD TO SLEEP THROUGH THIS
Five headlines. Five acts of war on the truth. And this was just one week.
What we’re seeing is not chaos — it’s strategy. It’s structure. It’s the normalization of fascism under the banner of “patriotism,” “security,” and “order.”
The good news? We still have the power to speak, resist, and organize.
The bad news? Time is running out.
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