Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy, which formalizes the ideological shift that U.S. foreign policy has taken under Trump 2.0, has won praise in Moscow but stunned European allies. Indeed, the strategy document, which was published on December 4, 2025, sent political shock waves through the whole of Europe as European leaders and political analysts grasped how Trump’s radical…
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The most important resistance to the Trump regime this year has come from grassroots activism. While millions have rallied and continually demanded strong opposition to fascistic policies, congressional Democrats have lagged far behind. Nowhere has the gap been more evident than in the Senate, where Chuck Schumer remains the minority leader despite his obvious failures to meet the historic moment.
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We are living through a coordinated assault on knowledge. In a moment when Big Tech is waging war on complex thought, a fascist government is targeting higher education, and the media landscape is being demolished by the same oligarchs driving this era of smash-and-grab politics, libraries are under-appreciated outposts of struggle, sharing and survival. They are sites of refuge…
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ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies have turned immigrant neighborhoods in Chicago, IL, and Charlotte, NC, into open-air hunting grounds, snatching people off streets, out of parking lots, and in front of their children. But in each city, federal forces have also faced strong grassroots resistance. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with organizers from Charlotte and Chicago, Miguel Alvelo Rivera and Andrew Willis Garcés, about the on-the-ground reality of President Trump’s immigration raids and the ways communities are organizing and mobilizing against them.Guest:
Miguel Alvelo Rivera is a migrant from Puerto Rico who came to the United States in 2007. He is the executive director of Latino Union of Chicago and has been a life-long educator, advocate, and believer in the power of people to change the world for the better. Co-founder of the community organizing, advocacy, and human rights group, Chicago Boricua Resistance, he’s been active in community, environmental, and labor movements since he was a teenager in Puerto Rico. He’s also worked as an Uber driver and delivery person, as a bartender, and as an educator in theater of the oppressed, adult education, and youth programming.
Andrew Willis Garcés is based in Greensboro, NC. He is a lifelong Southerner shaped and inspired by the Southern grassroots organizing tradition and also by the communities of resistance from his maternal homeland of Colombia. He founded Siembra NC under the Trump Administration, and has worked with several dozen unions and grassroots community organizations over the last two decades as an organizer, strategist, communications consultant and trainer. He’s been with Training for Change since 2009. You can read some
ICE raids and the expanded use of expedited removal are tearing apart immigrant families and neighborhoods in Baltimore. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Baltimore reporter Kori Skillman about how lack of democratic oversight and collusion between local government and federal law enforcement have enabled ICE’s lawless tactics and left Baltimore’s immigrant communities living in constant fear, economic precariousness, and social isolation.
Guest:
Kori Skillman is a Report for America Corps Member covering justice and accountability for Baltimore Beat. Skillman investigates policing, incarceration, and civil rights in Baltimore. Most recently, she worked on ABC News’ assignment desk, covering breaking news and editing for live broadcasts. A Bay Area native, Skillman holds a dual B.A. in journalism and international business from San Diego State University, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa, and an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School.
Additional links/info:
Kori Skillman, Baltimore Beat, “Indiscriminate ICE arrests have left Baltimore’s immigrant communities in a constant state of fear and anxiety”
Kori Skillman, Baltimore Beat, “Lack of ICE oversight shows how Baltimore has long been at the mercy of outside powers”
Credits:
Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Mansa Musa:
Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars, I’m your host Mansa Musa. In this country, United States of America, we have laws that protect the citizens of the United States. What constitute a citizen of the United States? If you were born here or you receive your citizenship through the immigration naturalization process, lately we’ve seen our country shift into a period much like
Billionaire executives have long been lauded by the corporate media as unfettered heroes advancing human progress. But the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term should dispel any notion that wealthy CEOs will save us from the twin crises of creeping authoritarianism and intensifying global climate chaos. Today, many of these supposed icons have wasted little time groveling to…
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