CovertAction Bulletin

Feeding the Crisis: SNAP Under Siege in the Shutdown

Funding for SNAP, the federal Supplemental Food Assistance Program, is set to expire on November 1st due to the ongoing government shutdown that’s about to hit the one-month mark. A banner on the Department of Agriculture’s website blames Senate Democrats, immigrants and trans people for the crisis, but also says, “Bottom line, the well has run dry.” At the same time, the USDA said last week that it would not use contingency funds already allocated for such an emergency.

The bottom line is that 42 million people in 22 million households across the country - about 12% of the U.S. population - will lose some or all of their access to food over the weekend. Food banks and pantries as well as neighborhood mutual aid groups already struggling with the cutbacks of the shutdown and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill are in deep crisis mode finding ways to keep their neighbors, towns and cities fed.

An additional 6.7 million women and children who rely on WIC, the Women Infants and Children nutrition program, could find that additional support cut off as well. And the possible shutdown of Head Start programs could drive tens of thousands of families further into crisis and despair as 140 of those programs that were relying on funding in November won’t get it.

This is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, further highlighted by the fact that Donald Trump has gone out of his way to get ICE agents and other federal law enforcement paid during the shutdown. 

A General Strike Can Change Everything

Millions of people in over 2,700 cities and towns took part in No Kings Day protests across the country on October 18th. Organizers estimate that seven million took part, two million more than the same actions in June. From the streets of big cities to the squares and streetcorners of smaller towns, this was one of the biggest days of protest in U.S. history and highlights the vast unpopularity of the Trump administration’s pro-billionaire and anti-worker policies as the government remains shut down and social programs continue to be cut but ICE raids won’t stop terrorizing our communities.

Signs, banners, chants and speeches on Saturday brought forward the call for a general strike as a way to defeat the ultra-right’s agenda and to do more - to win back the rights we’ve lost and win rights we desperately need. Even Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said at a rally, “If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can the same today!”

A general strike involving workers, students and all people from across society could change the course of events, directly challenge the Trump regime’s ruthless and racist attacks, and even set the stage for a revolution. What would it look like and how would we get there? We’ll talk about all that today.

But first, last week we talked about how the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was opening the door for renewed US military action against the Venezuelan revolution and government of Nicolás Maduro. Just a few days later, the Trump administration then said that it had authorized additional strikes on Venezuela, including on land, after it had already attacked six Venezuelan boats in international waters. Trump also announced that he has approved CIA covert actions in the country. While it’s long been known that the CIA has been a tool in attempting to overthrow Venezuela’s revolution under both Chávez and Maduro, the announcement of the use of CIA operations for regime change is unprecedented.

Nobel Peace Prize Paves Way for War With Venezuela

Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, as he boasted he should for supposedly being the “peace President” - a claim we’ve debunked numerous times on this show. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that the Nobel Committee “places politics over peace” - which actually does have some truth to it, like a broken clock does twice a day. The award was instead given to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan “opposition” leader hell-bent on overthrowing the government of Nicolás Maduro. Her party, Vente Venezuela, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Israeli Likud party, and in 2019 she posted on X that “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel.”

In Gaza, Palestinians celebrated in the streets upon hearing the news of the ceasefire, and are beginning to return to the north. While they are finding their homes largely reduced to rubble, they are vowing to rebuild and reestablish their lives in their homeland. As the remaining Israeli captives are being traded for thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, hundreds of whom were held in Israel for much longer than two years, the ceasefire deal also calls for Israel to allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza daily.

The ceasefire was won first and foremost by the resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people, and by the solidarity movement across the world that did not let Palestine out of the spotlight for the past two years. But Israel is already going back on some of the terms, killing at least five Palestinians in Shujaiya on Tuesday who were going to check on their homes. The occupying forces also announced they will not actually allow for the aid that it agreed to as part of the ceasefire to be let into Gaza.

This situation is quickly developing, and what happens next may also open a new phase in the solidarity movement, and we’ll get into many of the questions about how the movement should go forward and what these changes mean.

Gaza to Portland: A System in Crisis

The Israeli government has waged the latest campaign of its effort to wipe out and destroy the Palestinian people entirely for over two years now, with the full financial, diplomatic and military backing of the United States government. Using a conservative estimate of 66,600 deaths, the toll from Gaza since October 7, 2023, represents 14% of all conflicts worldwide in that time period according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. As the Trump administration puts forward a supposed deal and applies massive pressure to the Palestinian resistance to accept it, protests around the world have taken the streets in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack Lebanon as members of the Israeli cabinet urge Netanyahu to increase the terror even further.

And in the United States, the Trump administration renewed its consideration of using the Insurrection Act after multiple judges have issued rulings fully or temporarily blocking his deployments of National Guard troops to cities like Portland. Over the past two weeks, the Trump administration has intensified its domestic deployment of military and federal forces, waging what many are calling Trump’s “war from within.”

In Portland, the White House sought to federalize the Oregon National Guard under the pretext of protecting federal property. That move was blocked by a Trump-appointed federal judge, who declared, “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” warning that the administration’s arguments risk “blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.” In response, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accused Judge Immergut of staging a “legal insurrection,” and Trump has since pressed ahead with alternative avenues to deploy the National Guard to Portland.

The multiple global crises all point to a system in crisis, where social constructs and agreements that have held the the national and global order together have been so fractured that they cannot hold.

U.S. on Edge: Trump Prepares Domestic Military Crackdown

At a gathering of senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday, Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signaled that they’re preparing to imminently expand the scope and size of the U.S. military, both inside and outside the United States. Trump made it clear that he knows sentiment against not only him but the entire capitalist system is growing - as are the movements of organized people in resistance. He said Tuesday, “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”

That August Executive Order, combined with another in September declaring “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization and a National Security Directive that targets those anti-capitalist and progressive views all come as ICE is ramping up its own militarized terror in Chicago, the National Guard is set to deploy to Portland, OR, and Trump threatens to cut funding from New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral election.

Trump also said Tuesday that the government should deploy the military and National Guard into American cities for training: “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor.” Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois has called on Trump to stop, but not put forward any plan on how to make that happen outside of asking Illinois residents to post what they see on social media. A New York Times / Siena College poll released Tuesday shows that 53% of registered voters think Trump has gone too far by sending the National Guard into U.S. cities.

The fast-moving rise of authoritarianism in the United States is a sign of a system in crisis. If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now that the Trump administration has declared an open war on workers and oppressed people across the country and the world.

Trump at the U.N.: Rambling, Racist, and Out of Touch

In a rambling speech that lasted nearly an hour at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Donald Trump spent a significant amount of time condemning immigration in the west as well as the use and development of clean energy alternatives to coal and oil. In typical Trump fashion, he talked up his supposed accomplishments both in the U.S. and internationally, claiming he has ended seven wars and fixed the U.S. economy. But a new Washington Post/Ipsos poll shows that 53% of Americans oppose Trump’s actions in the first eight months of his presidency, while only 41% support them.

His speech was littered with racist and white supremacist language, telling European nations to close their borders and that immigration was destroying their heritage, and comparing “their countries” to “our countries” when speaking about non-white immigration to Western countries. He also claimed that Christianity is the most persecuted religion around the world. While other world leaders including those from Qatar, Brazil and beyond railed against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Trump’s call to “stop the war immediately” rang hollow as he only condemned Hamas and did not mention the terror that Israel has been waging against the Palestinian people.

As the 80th session of the General Assembly begins, 157 U.N. member states now recognize Palestine, after moves from a number of Western nations over the past few days including Canada, the UK, Australia, France, Belgium and more. As Trump and his few allies continue to play themselves up on the world stage, the reality is that the U.S. and Israel are both extremely isolated on the global stage.

Passport Revocations: Trump’s Repression and the New McCarthyism

Gaza is burning. Anyone who’s watched the livestreamed genocide of the Palestinian people over the last 23 months knows that this is true. But the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz was boasting when he posted those words on X early Tuesday, also saying “The IDF strikes with an iron fist” and “We will not relent and we will not go back - until the completion of the mission.” His post came as two divisions of the IDF entered Gaza City and with additional reinforcements soon to be joining them. Gaza City has also seen an increase in bombings from the air over recent nights.

Israel’s latest proof to the world that it’s not interested in peace come when pro-Palestinian sentiment is at record highs. At the Emmys the other night, Hannah Einbinder shouted “F- ICE, Free Palestine” and Javier Bardem wore a keffiyeh on the red carpet while saying he “cannot work with someone who justifies or supports the genocide.” 3,900 people signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge to not “screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions… that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

And as people around the country and world prepare mobilizations to mark two years of the genocide with a day of action on October 4th, Florida Congressman Brian Mast has introduced a bill in Congress that would let the Secretary of State revoke passports of U.S. citizens who support the Palestinian people and their liberation struggle.

Dems Pay Influencers to Pretend They’re Grassroots

According to recent reporting by Taylor Lorenz in Wired, a secretive dark money group is funding influencers to post pro-Democratic Party messaging on social media services - paying them up to $8,000 per month to do so and holding them to a secretive contract that prevents them from even revealing their relationship to the organization Chorus, backed by the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

Some of those named as affiliated with the program including Brian Tyler Cohen, Olivia Julianna, David Pakman and Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau have posted uncannily similar response statements and videos attacking everything except the facts of the article. Kenneth Walden, behind the account 2RawTooReal, wasn’t even listed in the article but posted an attack video saying “Apparently, we’re not allowed to bash Democrats or actually give them any type of constructive criticism. However, I swear I be on damn Bernie Sanders’ ass like flies on —.” The ironies abound, and the dismissals of the story have fallen flat.

Democrats fully recognize that they need to appeal to young voters, those who are most influenced by social media.  According to Berkeley Political Review, “Biden won youth (ages 18 to 29) voters by 24 points [in 2020], but Harris only led Trump by 11 points [in 2024].” The damning statistics don’t necessarily reflect that young people are actually getting more conservative, but likely that they’re more aware of a corrupt system in which both parties promote more cops, defend genocide and send ICE after innocent people.

D.C. Was Just the Start: Trump Targets Cities Nationwide

In a stark escalation, Donald Trump has armed the National Guard members on the streets of Washington, DC. He’s also signed an executive order getting rid of cashless bail - putting poor people who are arrested at significant risk of being stuck in jail waiting months or longer for trials if they can’t afford outrageous cash bails. He then signed an executive order suggesting a one-year prison sentence for anyone who burns an American flag - in complete contradiction to the 1989 Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Johnson that determined flag burning is protected First Amendment speech.

 

And on Monday the 25th in the Oval Office, Trump said “A lot of people are saying, ‘maybe we need a dictator’... you send in troops, and instead of being praised they’re saying you’re trying to take over the republic. These people are sick.” The remarks also come as Trump looks to send federal troops to cities like Chicago, Baltimore, LA and elsewhere. We all have to take these expansions of the police state and attacks on civil liberties extremely seriously as he talks about dictatorship and crackdowns.

While these developments feel unprecedented, we have a lot to learn from anti-fascist, anti-dictatorship and civil rights struggles throughout U.S. and world history.

We also start this episode with a continuation of last week’s discussion on the inspiring things Rachel saw in China on her recent trip.

U.S. Makes Threats While China Plans Its Infrastructure

The founder of Tech Buzz China, Rui Ma, posted on X after a recent trip to China about her observations on energy there. “Energy is considered a solved problem. The Chinese government’s investment in sustainable energy – from advanced hydropower to next-generation nuclear – means that, relative to many other markets, electricity supply is secure and inexpensive. Everywhere we went, people treated energy availability as a given. This is a stark contrast to the U.S., where AI growth is increasingly tied to debates over data center power consumption and grid limitations.” reads part of Ma’s tweet thread. In fact, in Texas, the anarchy of capitalism has let the state position itself as a haven for energy-sucking datacenters and cryptominers, but a new law in Texas gives utility company ERCOT the ability to cut power to datacenters in times of drastic shortages - which could impact other important or crucial services.

A recent Fortune article also quotes Chinese electricity expert David Fishman as saying, “They’re set up to hit grand slams… The U.S., at best, can get on base.” This disparity between the U.S. and China has AI and tech experts in the U.S. worried about the country falling behind in AI and other key areas, because they see China as a competitor and adversary that has to be beaten.  Fishman goes on to explain that “Capital is really biased toward shorter-term returns,” while in China the state is able to set priorities for national investment.

Rachel was recently in China, and this is part 1 of our discussion about the differences between the Chinese planned system and the US for-profit mess