Thanks
I am so grateful for the Alliance! As a long-time progressive (actually left of left), I have been reading and then supporting your publication ever since moving to this very conservative area of California.
Renée Pittman
Clovis
Trump’s Antifa
President Trump has designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. He calls it a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER” filled with domestic terrorists. Trump emphasized he will be “strongly recommending” that its funders be investigated.
Antifa is short for “anti-fascists.” It is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
Trump can call any group a domestic terrorist organization, based on nothing more than Trump’s say so.
Antifa is the first step in the normalization of designating anti-Trump groups as terrorist organizations and cutting off their funding for being on Trump’s Enemies List.
The designation matters in part because it enables the Justice Department to prosecute those who give material support to entities on the list even if that support does not result in violence. Write a check or make a donation, and go to prison for “aiding and abetting terrorism.”
America’s better half just got Trumped.
Marc Keyser
Fresno
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
After rejoicing on the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize going to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado and not to Trump, some in the social media spheres started raising objections about her choosing. The objection? Her right-wing political views.
Some of Machado’s comments during Venezuela’s presidential campaign in 2024 surfaced, steering a change of heart among those rooting for someone else, anyone but Trump, to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado, who was banned from running but campaigned for the opposition candidate, espoused a “U.S. invasion of her country” to “restore democracy” and praised Trump in some of her statements. While this is true, those now questioning the Nobel Peace Commission’s pick are missing the point.
The Nobel Peace Prize is not supposed to only go to left-leaning personalities, but to whomever shows “integrity and courage” for a worthy cause such as opposing an authoritarian regime and struggling to restore democracy through democratic means, peacefully and at her own peril.
The Nobel Peace Committee is sending a clear message. No matter what your political inclination, if you put yourself in danger by using your voice even at the cost of becoming a target of political retribution…you are deserving of worldwide recognition.
Edgar R. Ayala
