The Big Beautiful Betrayal
Dearest Reader,
There is so much happening in politics and culture in the U.S. it’s becoming harder to “keep your eye on the ball” so to speak. I suppose because the ball is ricocheting off of every available surface. Keeping folks confused and afraid is definitely a feature of this administration. Today, I wanted to bring something important to light. From within the U.S. we are rightly holding out hope, but aside from No Kings Day and anti-detention protests we are mostly between freeze or flight mode—probably gearing up to fight. Whereas those abroad are perceiving the States more objectively. From the outside it looks like this administration is consolidating federal authority, encouraging rampant xenophobia with inhumane detentions and bankrolling an increasingly militarized surveillance state. Despite the optimistic message of New York’s Democratic primary and other signs of resistance, the American people must be vigilant.
More than Bush’s post-9/11 surveillance kickoff or the first Trump administration in 2016, today the stakes are even higher and the imaginary leash around every American’s neck is even tighter. In fact, nefarious data collection companies like Palantir received nearly $600 million military contracts, so far this year, for AI targeting technology beneficial for use at home with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and abroad during “operations” in Iraq, Yemen and Sudan. So to recap: this is a private company with sophisticated data collection tech, being fully integrated in military operations and domestic policing? And the co-founder/chairman of Palantir is Peter Thiel who is a generous longtime benefactor of the sitting vice president? And Theil, in a recent New York Times interview, hesitated to affirm whether the human race should indeed survive, but instead promoted the notion of “transhumanism”—to optimize humanity through technology in order to transcend the human condition? Gotcha.
Things are getting so dystopian that four tech executives were bestowed military titles of lieutenant colonel, including Palatir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar alongside execs from Meta, OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab. Basically these nutters, including current government officials, are laying the groundwork for a private-public partnership against Americans on every level: a massive carceral industry for migrants and non-conformists, academic indoctrination for students coupled with social media monitoring, financial incentives for women to have children while blocking emergency life-saving abortions, erasure through medical prohibitions for trans folks, a politics of greed and grievance aimed at men alongside propaganda for everybody through new TV streaming platform Truth+ or networks like FOX News and Newsmax.
For the purposes of this newsletter, I want us to remain hopeful for a way out of this. Inspired by populist approaches from Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani, I definitely think they present as a viable opposition compared to many Democrats outside of the progressive wing. Nevertheless, I need everyone to recognize the normalizing of ‘mass death’ in this country and in our dealings abroad.
Just this past weekend an all-girls Christian summer retreat, Camp Mystic, was washed away by flood waters in Texas’s hill country. At the moment, throughout affected areas, 120 people including at least 36 children are confirmed dead while 173 are missing. According to reporting from Newsweek this deadly weather event was avoidable for residents. If not for cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—the agency spearheaded by tempestuous Trump ally Elon Musk—to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), they would have warned civilians accurately and in time to save lives. Therefore, the brutal cost-cutting measures of this administration arguably cost lives.
But like the Washington DC mid-air collision in January or the Wildfires in California, this administration will take no accountability. Whether they arguably contribute to a deadly incident like in Texas or preside over another like the crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport or Los Angeles recovering from once-in-a century wildfires, they accept no responsibility. And if you do get support, you have to grovel or have a strong track record of supplication. Also looking at the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation managed on site by military contractors or mercenaries in a joint Israeli and U.S. effort, they have killed nearly 750 starving Palestinians and injured almost 5,000 civilians queuing for food at their "distribution sites” since launching on May 26th this year. This is so dark—a disorganized aid site with shoot to kill orders. Think about that: hundreds of thousands of captive, starving people, two years into a genocide are being shot like fish in a barrel by an alleged humanitarian foundation that is violating the most basic tenets of humanitarian aid and shredding international law by implication in “war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide” as argued by the U.S. based Center for Constitution Rights (CCR).
The cruel argument being made through this administration’s dealings with aviation, immigration, climate disasters and foreign policy is a status quo tolerance and seeming encouragement of mass death.
Remember when the pandemic shutdown happened in March 2020? It was later revealed that Trump knew as early as February 7th (likely before) and understood the danger of Covid-19, but he still went on national television as late as April to minimize the lethality of the scourge because of how it might affect his image or legacy and suggest bleach or sunlight as remedies. In the end over one million Americans died, far outpacing other developed nations. Trump doesn’t care about people dying so long as he’s not left holding the bag.
So what does this mean? Do we just accept our fate? My point is people need to truly understand the stakes. This is a seriously dangerous situation with Christian nationalists like GOP House speaker Mike Johnson and other Christian nationalists in congress committed to this political ideology where America is a nation defined by and for Christians, with Christian values and principles prominently upheld in public life and government. Christian nationalists also believe that the return of Jews to Israel will trigger the second coming of Christ—after a great war kills all Jewish people in Israel. Rejoicing in and facilitating mass death is a tenet of this religion. But in order to fulfill this mission, we are all gonna need to get comfortable with Florida’s new detention hellhole “Alligator Alcatraz” and Guantanamo Bay open for immigration business holding detainees from Asia, Africa and Europe.
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed last week despite 53% national disapproval of the legislation. Once enacted, along various timelines, this bill kicks 17 million people off of Medicaid insurance so expect 51,000 more deaths annually, millions will lose critical supplemental food benefits including millions of children with "the deepest cut to food assistance in history” according to NPR, Planned Parenthood is on the verge of financial ruin due to a provision to block Medicaid from working with the healthcare provider (a federal judge temporarily blocked this, but it’s not a tenable situation), the rich will get a $1 trillion tax cut that is offset by cuts in services to the middle/working class, the budget deficit (from this terrible bill) will move us towards $36.2 trillion national debt while the dollar wavers as the global reserve currency, and ICE will get over $100 billion in government funds to grow a carceral industry of deporting largey non-violent immigrants. ICE is now poised to be the largest police force stateside. However, only 8% of those detained have a violent criminal past so where is this headed? The aforementioned are just the highlights of this legislative abomination that passed on July 3rd, here are more.
Armed with the clarity that this administration supports mass death as a matter of course, domestically and abroad, we have to acknowledge the peril of our national leadership. Yes, find the joy everyday to carry on, resist in your own peaceful yet disruptive way, but don’t get it twisted, last week’s bill was a notable betrayal like so many other incidents of federal neglect or moral abdication. It’s a long time until midterms in 2026, so “keep your eye on the ball” because the ball is a functioning electorate and human rights.
Onward.
With Love During End Times,
Agunda