America’s Week of Fury, Fear, and Fallout
Ben Cable (Originally Published on Sep 04, 2025)
I’m not sure about you, but I feel exhausted, and it is only Thursday. Here are the headlines of the week in review, and the week is not over. First, our Democratic Republic is not dead. Thanks to everyone fighting the good fights.
America in the Streets
From coast to coast, America is boiling over. Protests erupted in more than 1,000 locations for “Workers Over Billionaires” in all 50 states, organized by groups like the AFL-CIO and the One Fair Wage coalition. From Las Vegas to Boston, workers, students, and seniors demanded fair wages, affordable healthcare, and a government that answers to its people, not its donors.
In New York City, more than 25,000 marched through Manhattan, shutting down traffic. Chicago saw nearly 15,000 brave the National Guard, while in Los Angeles, City Hall was surrounded by banners reading “Workers Over Billionaires.” Las Vegas had three protests; the largest, organized by the Culinary Union, drew hundreds to the Sphere. The anger is real, and it’s mobilizing.
Epstein’s Victims Refuse to Be Silent
The Epstein saga refused to fade. Trump called the Epstein Files a “Democratic hoax”, while survivors came forward with fresh testimony detailing systemic abuse, exposing alleged networks of complicity among influential figures. Sealed court filings revealed dozens of names once scrubbed from the public record.
“We were silenced for decades,” said one survivor, “but we won’t be erased from history.” The elites tried memory-hole tactics, but the survivors are roaring at full volume. Despite all of Trump’s efforts to bury this issue, #Epstein #Epstein #Epstein is not going away any time soon.
Newsom Re-Draws the Map
To counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas, California Governor Gavin Newsom inked a sweeping redistricting plan this week. Democrats claim it corrects decades of gerrymandering. Republicans cried “power grab.” Now, every congressional and state district in California is up for grabs, just in time for the 2026 electoral war. Lawsuits are already queued up like waiting-room patients.
Prices on the Rise Everywhere
Tariffs are emptying wallets. Walmart admitted prices are climbing, thanks to Trump’s tariff war. I also got a direct hit from Trump’s tariff policy, countering the claim that exporters will eat the cost. DHL would not deliver my international shipment to me until I paid the duty/tariff. I had to pay for it to get my goods.
From toothpaste to tires to grocery staples, prices are up nationwide. Families are making painful sacrifices. Inflation is no longer an abstract number; it’s empty dinner plates.
Trump’s Deadly Gamble at Sea
U.S. forces blew up a ship in the Caribbean, claiming a “drug bust.” Dozens died. Senator Rubio called it out: the vessel could have been intercepted, searched, not blasted. Where’s the proof of narcotics? Trump is judge, jury, and executioner, and where’s accountability? Was this a deadly PR stunt?
World Leaders Meet in Beijing — Trump Shut Out
Over 20 global leaders gathered in Beijing to talk trade and security, without Trump. As delegates shook hands under China’s red flags, America sat on the sidelines. It’s a clear message: U.S. influence is slipping, and the world is taking notice. Trump was not invited, yet his authoritarian boyfriends like Kim Jong Un and Putin were.
Gaza Starves While the World Watches
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepened. Families are eating grass, weeds, animal feed as food trucks waited behind locked gates. Thousands face acute malnutrition. Children are dying as Washington sends bombs, not bread. It’s a crime dressed in foreign policy.
Tanks on Main Street
National Guard vehicles rolled into American cities, once reserved for hurricanes and fires, now used against civilians. Civil liberties advocates warned: this looks less like law enforcement and more like martial law. The line between safe streets and militarized streets is vanishing.
RFK Jr. on the Hot Seat
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is imploding. Over 1,000 staffers issued an open letter demanding his resignation, citing toxic workplace culture and reckless mismanagement. The flamboyant outsider is now a collapsing wreck, his brand sinking under the weight of his own legacy.
Universities Score a Win
In a rare institutional victory, Harvard punched back at Trump’s regime, beating his attempt to extort it into paying “compliance fees.” $2.2 billion in grants were being withheld from Harvard. A federal court called the scheme unconstitutional, a ruling that other universities quickly echoed. Higher education stood its ground and won.
Courts Protect LGBTQ Rights — For Now
Multiple court rulings defended LGBTQ rights against the culture-war onslaught:
- One ruling blocked HHS from stripping healthcare protections for transgender Americans.
- Another struck down a ban on pride flags in public schools, calling it “viewpoint discrimination.”
- A third upheld same-sex couples’ adoption rights, blocking taxpayer-funded agencies from discrimination.
Rainbow flags flew outside courthouses. But legal experts warn these wins are precarious, and appeals are already in motion.
Ukraine’s Bleeding Front
Fighting in Ukraine surged to its fiercest in months around Kharkiv and Donetsk. Russia bombed civilians. Millions lost power and water. Kyiv got European aid—but U.S. support is lukewarm at best. Trump offered slogans, not strategy. For Ukraine, America’s abandonment is a battlefield reality.
Texas Escalates Abortion Battles — SB 8 Mutates Into a Monster
Texas has taken its war on women’s bodies to a terrifying new level. The Legislature rammed through a law allowing anyone, anywhere, to sue those who prescribe, ship, or even hand off abortion pills to Texans. This isn’t symbolic; it’s a six-figure bounty hunt, with lawsuits starting at $100,000 a pop.
Sound familiar? It should. This is SB 8’s bastard child (I can say “bastard child” as I am one myself), the infamous 2021 “Heartbeat Act” that deputized neighbors to spy on each other for a $10,000 payday. Back then, the targets were doctors, Uber drivers, even pastors who gave rides to clinics. Now the crosshairs include telehealth doctors in New York, pharmacists in California, and mail carriers in Ohio, anyone who dares handle a pill that might reach Texas soil.
One Austin OB-GYN told reporters: “We’re being turned into fugitives for practicing medicine. I could lose my license, my livelihood, my freedom—just for mailing a prescription to a patient in need.”
Planned Parenthood lawyers blasted it as “vigilante justice in a lab coat.” A Dallas survivor of domestic abuse said, “It’s a scarlet letter branded on every woman who can’t afford to flee the state.” Outside the Capitol, protesters raised signs screaming: “My Body, Not Your Bounty.”
Republican lawmakers crowed about passing “the strongest pro-life law in the country.” But what they really created is an open season on women’s healthcare—and exported Texas’s brand of bounty-hunter politics to the rest of America.
Courtrooms Deliver Resistance
More court victories: Judges struck down executive orders targeting immigrants and free speech. These rulings remind us: even in times of authoritarian creep, the Constitution still has defenders.
Citizen Ben’s Bottom Line
From slammed doors in courthouses to tanks in front of City Hall; from starving children abroad to activists demanding change at home, power fears accountability this week.
Trump kills for headlines, Kennedy implodes from the inside, Texas radicalizes vigilantism, and Gaza bleeds as the world looks away. But resistance is rising on the streets, in courts, in every brave voice.
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