Letter from VGVS Executive Director, Angie Tonucci
10th January 2026
Good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are in the world! Here in the ol' US of A, this bonkers fascist regime and its absolutely mad dictator have managed to squeeze another year's worth of crazy into the first NINE DAYS of 2026.
In the last year, costs have skyrocketed for everything from housing and utilities to transportation to basic necessities. Unemployment, and especially under-employment, are at all-time highs; wages (adjusted for inflation) are at an all-time low. Millions of us have no affordable healthcare options. Decades of scientific research and medical advancements have been undermined if not completely eradicated by ignorant lackeys given prominent government positions for which they are not qualified. Fucking measles outbreaks are rampant across Texas with more showing up in Utah, South Carolina, and other states monthly. So many things I wrote about in my April 2025 update have, as predicted, only gotten worse. There is no federal social safety net that offers support or protections for those with disabilities, the elderly, the poor, or the unhoused, and nonprofit organizations who serve those most in need struggle to pick up the slack without federal funding. Reproductive rights have been stripped away, and abortion care is difficult if not impossible to access in many states—and lives have been lost because of it. It’s even less safe in most states for women, queer/trans/nonbinary folks, or BIPOC, especially those of Hispanic or middle-eastern descent or, as ridiculous as it sounds is to attempt to deport people whose ancestors lived on this land for hundreds of years before the US was even a country, Native Americans. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) have vastly increased their agent forces while greatly reducing the amount of training those forces receive and have positioned record numbers of armed (and usually masked) agents into cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Portland where they act with impunity to violently round up and deport brown folks, regardless of citizenship, with no due process, escalating altercations with protestors and harming or even killing civilians in the process. DHS and ICE are basically the regime’s “secret police” and have terrorized schools and hospitals, they’ve separated children from their parents, and they wait outside courthouses to catch people leaving their own immigration hearings, clear evidence that it doesn’t matter if immigrants have come here legally or not—they can target and disappear whomever they want for any reason (or no reason at all).
The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” has achieved more than 50% of its policy goals toward replacing the rule of law with right-wing ideals and establishing Christian Nationalist rule. Education, science, history, democracy, free speech, and critical thinking are all under attack daily. Any opposition at all is labeled traitorous, domestic terrorism, or goddamn Trump Derangement Syndrome, and this intentional “othering” is state-sanctioned propaganda. Negative portrayal of those the state arbitrarily deems “the enemy” is a step right out of the fascism playbook. The sitting President of the United States has said out loud that he can do whatever he wants, that he gets to determine what is illegal under international law, that as commander-in-chief, he has only one limit on his power: “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” A con-man, convicted felon, and sexual predator says his morality decides what’s allowed. A delusional, illiterate tyrant with (probably advanced) dementia claims his own mind is in control. And actual United States government departments post blatant lies on official websites and social media platforms, expecting us to REGECT THE EVIDENCE OF OUR EYES AND EARS.
Not surprisingly, a significant portion of the global happenings have either been exacerbated by US activities and foreign policy or directly caused by them. Palestinians still face mass genocide as Israel is still drone-striking in and around Gaza (and denying access to humanitarian aid groups) despite a supposed cease fire agreement. Ukraine is still under siege with Russia's mad dictator threatening to target UK and French peace force troops that deploy there. Dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds more injured by the Iranian regime in recent demonstrations. More than 150 people were killed last year in illegal US strikes on Venezuelan boats, several of which were verified to carry fishermen, not narco-terrorists, while more than 80 people, mostly civilians, were murdered in the unauthorized January 3rd attack on Caracas to capture the Venezuelan president. In the days following, the psychopath who has almost single-handedly returned the United States to the dark ages by collapsing the entire country’s economy, removing environmental protections and public health safeguards, backing out of peace agreements and threatening long-standing allies, and bringing us all to the brink of a new world war has claimed he will now be running Venezuela too. And apparently Greenland is next. If the situation wasn’t so dire, it might be hilarious.
BUT WE ARE STILL HERE. We’re showing up for each other, creating radical art, and finding joy, because those things are the resistance! As an organization committed to growing a diverse, inclusive, and collaborative community of empowered artists, it is our duty to protect that community by resisting the powers that seek to force compliance, to control a subdued proletariat, and to squelch our creativity, our ambition, our persistence, our kindness, our hope, and our humanity.
VGVS is an international creative collective, a diverse and inclusive community of friends and collaborators, and a resistance organization. We promote education, learning, and the sharing of ideas. We build communities and provide resources. We inspire and empower humans to use their art, their poetry, their music, their performances, and their stories as intentional forces for positive change. We amplify marginalized voices to ensure their perspectives are not lost or suppressed. We create safe spaces, and we will always protect those who need us. VGVS is openly against authoritarian control, fascism, corporatization, imperialism, colonialism, media and creative censorship, and anything else that threatens human rights and autonomy or the freedom of creative expression. WE ENCOURAGE NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, COMMUNITY-BUILDING, AND CREATION AS ACTS OF RESISTANCE AND REBELLION AGAINST THOSE IN POWER WHO SEEK TO OPPRESS OR SILENCE US.
As depressing as the news often is, STAY INFORMED, MY LOVES!
Be prepared for the worst and ready to help those most targeted.
Hope for the best, and do the work to help us get there.
COMMUNITY IS RESISTANCE. ART IS THE REVOLUTION!
*Sources can be found in the VGVS Discord server NEWS and RESOURCES channels.
Join the server here: https://discord.gg/sFkekmBUEn