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New McCarthyism

21st-Century McCarthyism: Cuba In The Crosshairs

August 12, 2026 Guillermo R. Barreto, BreakThrough News. , , ,
It happened on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, in the US. George Floyd (a Black man) was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pay for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Police officer Derek Chauvin (a white man) pinned him to the ground and pressed down on his neck for more than 9 minutes. It was to no avail that George Floyd repeated “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times. He lost consciousness and died of asphyxiation. In other words, he was murdered by the police officer. This incident sparked a wave of outrage and protests that spread to more than 2,000 cities across the US and beyond.

Dr. Fauci And His Inquisitors

August 8, 2026 Stephen Millies, Struggle -La Lucha. , , , ,
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 29 was a throwback to the days of Joe McCarthy and the witch hunt.     The retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was allegedly called before the panel to account for his actions during the coronavirus pandemic. It was really a trap set by committee chair, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The aim was to get the 85-year-old scientist to contradict his earlier testimony and then have him indicted for perjury or obstruction of justice. That’s an old tactic used during the anti-communist hysteria during the late 1940s and 1950s.

Professors Sue Texas A&M Over Limits On Teaching Race, Gender

August 8, 2026 Jessica Priest, People's World. , , , ,
Four professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System’s restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy. The university system bars professors from “advocating” race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. The policy applies to all 12 universities in the system. It requires presidential approval to address those subjects in certain courses and, according to the lawsuit, prohibits them in core courses.

Thin-Skinned And Heavy Handed, Trump Hypocrites Like Marco ‘McCarthy’ Rubio Wrong Again

August 4, 2026 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Thin skinned and heavy handed, the Trump administration apparently feels like it is being singled out by those who dissent from its policies. As a result, Trump appointees are taking drastic "McCarthy" tactics to stop dissent.  In less than one month, alleging that dissent and protests are part of attempts of other governments “to overthrow the government of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sponsored two major initiatives to frighten those who oppose the Trump administration policies.  The first salvo was orchestrating a conference with 60 countries participating in “Threats From Left-Wing Terrorists.” 

The ‘Red Scare’: Then And Now

August 1, 2026 Il Manifesto, Portside. , , ,
On January 18, 1949, Edward Hopper delivered a painting to his gallerist depicting three people in a vast, bare space, a loft illuminated only by the light from outside. One of the figures is seated and speaking; the other two (a man and a woman) stand listening. Behind them hang swathes of fabric. Almost immediately, Conference at Night was purchased by Stephen Clark, one of Hopper’s foremost collectors. Just a month later, however, Clark returned the painting to the gallery because his wife was convinced the work too closely resembled “a communist cell meeting.”

House Committee Subpoenas BreakThrough News

July 25, 2026 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , ,
The Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed BreakThrough News in an effort to force the outlet to turn over financial records and records of internal communications. BreakThrough News, a nonprofit media and educational organization aligned with grassroots social movements throughout the world, said, “For years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot.” “Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment generally,” the outlet added.

The State’s War On The Left Didn’t Begin With Trump

July 25, 2026 Chip Gibbons, Truthout. , , ,
The Trump administration’s drive to turn the machinery of counterterrorism against left-wing movements worldwide kicked into a higher gear this month surrounding its convening of an international “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism.” On July 16, 2026, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stood before representatives of over 60 nations assembled for the global summit in Washington, D.C. to introduce his boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. As he opened for the arch neoconservative, Landau told those assembled, “For those of us who grew up in the 1970s, the topic that we’re going to be discussing today is all too familiar.”

Under Israeli Pressure, US Seizes Max Blumenthal’s Devices

July 14, 2026 The Grayzone, Scheer Post. , , , ,
On July 10, 2026, American journalist Max Blumenthal was traveling back to the United States from Iran, which he had visited to report on the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the largest gathering in human history. While in Iran, Blumenthal interviewed members of Iran’s negotiation team, top political officials, academics and average citizens for a series of video and print reports for this news outlet, which he founded. He also documented several US and Israeli war crimes from the ground, including the destruction of an entire neighborhood in Eastern Tehran which left at least 40 civilians dead.

Victory Rally After Reinstatement Of SJSU Professor Dr. Sang Hea Kil

July 3, 2026 Tim Phan, Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
San Jose , CA – On June 30, San Jose State University Professor Dr. Sang Hea Kil of the Justice Studies Department held a victory rally after her arbitration allowing her to return go with full backpay. This came after a protracted campaign where she bravely resisted her firing due to her vocal disapproval of the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine. She was the first tenured professor to be fired from a public university for speaking against the genocide in the wake of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. At the rally outside of the Martin Luther King Library, Dr. Kil triumphantly exclaimed, “This is an incredible victory for free speech, academic freedom, student protest, freedom of assembly and pro-Palestine speech on campus and beyond.”

The Systematic Murder Of International Law

June 2, 2026 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. , , ,
Do we witness the death of international law and international justice? Have these breathed their last and must now be counted things of the past? Have we entered an era defined by the total absence of international law and the decisive destruction of the institutions founded to encode, adjudicate and enforce it? These are our questions now — our pressing, bitter questions, the questions it is so grievous to pose. It is true, as argued by wise heads such as Chas Freeman, the distinguished commentator and ambassador emeritus, that international law has been weakened for decades, a blow at a time to its efficacy.

Government Targets Cuba Solidarity Groups In Sweeping Investigation

May 27, 2026 People's World. , , ,
Federal investigators at the Justice and Treasury Departments have reportedly launched a sweeping inquiry into Cuba solidarity organizations, raising the danger of a revival of McCarthyite tactics to target Americans who oppose U.S. policy toward the island nation. According to Fox News, the DOJ and Treasury are investigating U.S. non-profits and activist groups that do Cuba solidarity work. The Trump administration alleges the groups coordinate lobbying, messaging, fundraising, delegations, and political organizing efforts with Cuban government officials—activity the U.S. government frames as potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and Treasury sanctions regulations.

Teachers And Unions Fight Back As US Campuses Prepare To Fuel Witch Hunt

September 23, 2025 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , , , ,
Outrage flared last week about the University of California’s capitulation to this era’s resurgent McCarthyism, as news spread that the university has provided the names of at least 160 students, faculty members, and staff at the University of California, Berkeley, to federal officials who — under the guise of investigating “alleged antisemitic incidents” — are scrutinizing people who have expressed opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Judith Butler, a UC Berkeley philosophy professor and Jewish critic of the Israeli government, said in a recent interview with Democracy Now!, “There is no good evidence that antisemitism is rampant on campus,” adding, “To take a position against genocide is certainly not an antisemitic thing to do.

Information Rights Project Launched To Share Lessons From Assange Victory

July 28, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
Julian Assange, a founder of Wikileaks, endured nearly 15 years of persecution for daring to provide an information platform that opened access to leaked documents exposing the rich and powerful. One year after Assange's release from Belmarsh Prison, his brother, Gabriel Shipton, launched The Information Rights Project to share the lessons he and his family learned as they mounted a global movement in defense of Assange. Clearing the FOG speaks with Shipton about what Assange endured, why information access is a critical right, and what people around the world can do to protect this right as attacks on those who speak out and report the truth grow.

Chris Hedges Report: The End Of Academic Freedom

July 24, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
The gutting of public funding for higher education in the United States has led to the takeover of universities by private donors, many of whom are Zionist entities and billionaires. As a result, universities have become, as guest Dr. Maura Finkelstein calls them, “banks and real estate development companies that offer classes.” As demonstrated by Finkelstein’s story, this new paradigm of higher education has pushed aside democratic values and academic freedom. In January 2024, as a result of a McCarthyist-style crackdown on pro-Palestinian faculty, Finkelstein was fired from her position as a tenured associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Muhlenberg College.

Red Channels: America’s Lasting Legacy Of Repression

July 17, 2025 Ed Rampell, Portside. , , ,
On June 22, 1950, a conservative anti-communist publication called Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television became key to the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklisting campaign. Seventy-five years later, as President Donald Trump and his followers instigate similar attacks on artists, public cultural figures, and institutions, Red Channels represents more than just a past chapter in American history. Rather than a chronicle of antiquity, Red Channels and other texts of the 1940s and 1950s Red Scare provide real insight into Trump’s current inquisitions.
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