Getting the Picture

from now ’til inauguration

“Tightrope” by Barry Blitt

and after

Attribution: Statue of Liberty leaves by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

we join the huddled masses yearning to be free.

Share

63 thoughts on “Getting the Picture”

  1. Stephen Colbert delivers his first monologue following Donald Trump’s victory over VP Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

  2. looking back and getting another picture of a long-ago election (also wondering whatever happened to the Logan Act).
    don’t be surprised on the coming inauguration day that Putie pulling his troops proclaims victory in ukraine and Bibi announces a ceasefire in gaza as the new DOTUS speechifies. it can happen. such a thing happened before:

    Reagan Campaign Revealed to Done a Deal to Delay Iranian Hostage Release

    The Thing We All Knew Finally Proved True: Reagan-Iran Edition
    A recent report has confirmed the long-whispered rumor that Reagan did a deal with Iran to sink Carter’s re-election.
    By Charles P. PiercePublished: Mar 20, 2023 4:20 PM EDT
    My first major, ongoing assignment at the Boston Phoenix (may its memory be a blessing) was the 1980 presidential election, specifically the Republican half. It had the potential to be extraordinarily weird: alternative liberal weekly covers campaign that ultimately produced President Ronald Reagan. But the Phoenix had a readership to die for—young, largely college-educated, mainly white people—and the GOP wanted to make inroads into that group before its entire political base aged off into glory. So I got my calls returned and was even courted, in a kind of minor way.
    My last stop on the campaign was the Reagan inauguration. I went down for a week and stayed in a “modestly priced” hotel, where I drank in a dark bar with David Dellinger of the Chicago Seven. Amid the insufferable influx of Yeehaw Republicans who’d been waiting for the moment ever since Reagan first warned them about the dire threat that was Medicare, there was only one topic of conversation: the persistent rumor that the Reagan campaign had swung some sort of deal regarding the American hostages being held in Iran. Everybody had their own “friend of a friend” who’d heard from “some guy at State” about how the Reagan people had made common cause with the mullahs to delay the release of the hostages until their mutual antagonist, President Jimmy Carter, was out of office.
    Over the next decade or so, the rumors never went away. They were supercharged when the Iran-Contra scandal broke; that plan seemed so bizarre that the only explanation seemed to be the missiles were a long-delayed quo for the original quid of Iran hanging onto the hostages until Reagan was elected. Gary Sick’s book October Surprise raised a shitstorm until a lot of mainstream journalists decided to take a bite out of it (see also, the late Gary Webb). Even the revelation that Richard Nixon had monkey-wrenched the Paris Peace Talks to help his campaign in 1968 raised suspicions about what happened in ‘80. Largely, though, the end of the hostage crisis fell over the rear horizon as the years went by.
    Over the weekend, Peter Baker of The New York Times put some meat on these long-whitened bones. A veteran Texas pol named Ben Barnes told the NYT that he had accompanied the late John Connally, the former Texas governor who was operating then as the Republican he became, to the Middle East for the purposes of striking a deal with Iran to hold the hostages.

    What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal. Then shortly after returning home, Mr. Barnes said, Mr. Connally reported to William J. Casey, the chairman of Mr. Reagan’s campaign and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency, briefing him about the trip in an airport lounge.

    You will note that “largely kept secret” business in the first sentence there.

    Mr. Barnes identified four living people he said he had confided in over the years: Mark K. Updegrove, president of the L.B.J. Foundation; Tom Johnson, a former aide to Lyndon Johnson (no relation) who later became publisher of the Los Angeles Times and president of CNN; Larry Temple, a former aide to Mr. Connally and Lyndon Johnson; and H.W. Brands, a University of Texas historian. All four of them confirmed in recent days that Mr. Barnes shared the story with them years ago. “As far as I know, Ben never has lied to me,” Tom Johnson said, a sentiment the others echoed. Mr. Brands included three paragraphs about Mr. Barnes’s recollections in a 2015 biography of Mr. Reagan, but the account generated little public notice at the time.

    All you need to know about our political elite is contained in that paragraph. The guy who ran the Los Angeles Times and CNN knew Barnes’ story for (presumably) years, and yet nobody at either of the news operations he ran was tasked with reporting out what was unquestionably newsworthy. And the same elite political news media that jumped all over Sick failed to follow the breadcrumbs left behind in a book by one of our most important public historians.
    Interestingly, Jonathan Alter pointed out in a recent biography of Carter that Sick “came closest” to unraveling the October Surprise story, and he makes a compelling case that the Reagan campaign’s finagling with the release of the hostages and the eventual (and scandalous) shipment of arms to the mullahs were possibly one and the same scandal.

    Gary Sick, Carter’s well-regarded NSC expert on Iran, came closest to cracking the case. In 1991 Sick, by then a professor at Columbia University, made a circumstantial argument: in July 1980 William Casey, while serving as Reagan’s campaign manager, slipped out of a World War II history conference in London, flew to Madrid, and met in a hotel with intelligence operatives and one of Khomeini’s closest associates. According to Sick and sources interviewed by PBS’s investigative news program Frontline and other news outlets, a follow-up meeting several weeks later finalized a deal whereby the Iranians would coordinate with the Reagan campaign on the timing of the release of the hostages in exchange for a promise that, after he was elected, the new president would unfreeze their assets and — through the Israelis — provide spare parts for Iranian weapons.

    Yes, it was morning in America.

  3. BTW lest we forget our fearless leader’s mental health sacrifice on our behalf this election season… he who bravely endured listening to the endless speeches and reading the mind-blowing tweets of the now DOTUS-elect plus providing up-to-date polling results day after day…  we hereby award

    The Trail Mix Trophy to Craig Crawford

     Victory Trophy <BR> Monster <BR>6.75 Inches

    for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of sanity, above and beyond the call of duty.

  4. why DOTUS-elect?

    the “D” stands for dotard.    not a new description according to this article 7 years ago:

     ‘Dotard’ Trump? The story of ‘rocket man’ Kim’s insult 

    […]
    Mr Kim used “dotard” not once, but twice, to refer to Mr Trump.
    “Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say,” Mr Kim wrote, displaying a keen sense of the original meaning of the word.
    But he ended his screed with the ominous line: “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”
    So what exactly does “dotard” mean?
    The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “an old person, especially one who has become weak or senile”.
    Its US brethren, Merriam-Webster, further clarified that the word initially meant “imbecile”, and stems from the Middle English word “doten” which means “to dote”.
    The word has made guest appearances in literature over the years but rarely with kind intent: it’s there in Shakespeare, in works by Herman Melville about the menace of a shark and in an angry poetic stream of consciousness by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, for example.
    This wasn’t the first time North Korea used the term (we’ll get to that in a minute), but it certainly was the first instance it garnered so much attention.
    Unsurprisingly the word has spawned its own hashtag #dotard, which has since trended worldwide.

    and that was 7 years ago. the dotard has definitely descended downhill since in deeper decline.

  5. Ah thanks, PatD, for what it’s worth, in all that time spent studying Trumpism I learned plenty of detail about what this man and his movement are planning. We will resist, and do our best right here to keep the lights on.

    “Fascism is here and we have to confront it head-on” — Mary Trump

  6. This is now Trump world.  It’s apparent Zelenskyy must cede 20% of Ukraine, the part inhabited by Russian culture and some alliance to Moscow already, to Putin, in exchange to an end to the war…no guarantee whatsoever that Putin returns for the other 80% as soon as the American inauguration. 
    Netanyahu, emboldened by the coming Trump money dump into Israel’s war machine, is very, almost assuredly, going after Iran with extreme military aggression.  He proclaimed this at the US Congress recently, to thunderous applause by the MAGA sycophants in the audience. 
    Americans voted in the monster,  this crazed , stupid moron, Trump, and all these horrible future happenings rest on MAGA shoulders and this corrupt Trump gang of felons and narcissists.  We are in the jackpot, indeed.  

  7.  

    RESIST THIS

    Whenever you see Giggy it means we’re spotlighting dictators, and we’ve got a link for sharing about the Trump Regime’s latest authoritarian move.

    Fascism is ascending in Democracies worldwide (yes, I always capitalize the word), mostly enabled by unsuspecting voters who just want simple things like cheaper food and gas. Spreading the word about what Trump is really doing might get us a better result at the polls in 2026 midterms.

    For starters here is a New York Times must-read (free link), based on 18 months of reporting, laying out what’s coming.

    • Crack down on illegal immigration to an extreme degre
    • Use the Justice Department to prosecute his adversarie
    • Use military force in Mexico and on American soi
    • Increase presidential powe
    • Upend trade and other economic policie
    • Retreat from military engagement with Europe

    READ MORE

    We’re up against an authoritarian movement that has captured half the country, forcing us to defend Democracy to working people being told it doesn’t work for them and only a “burn it all down agenda” will fix it.

     

  8. D = Dotard, Doofus, Dumbass, Dictator

    Will there be midterms?
    Would losing congressional support stop him?
    Will seniors who realize they voted against Social Security and Medicare be enough to turn them against DOTUS?
    Will mass deportations and internment camps be enough to turn Latino men against DOTUS?
    When vaccines are banned and polio makes a comeback, will that be enough to turn folks against DOTUS?
    When DOTUS shut down the government in 2018, it cost the US billions of dollars, so when he wipes out federal workers who know what they’re doing, or even shuts down entire agencies, how many billions will be lost and will that turn anyone against DOTUS?
    When he institutes another Muslim ban and refuses entry to Gazans as he’s promised to do, will the Muslims in Michigan turn against DOTUS?

    Asking for a friend.

  9. Getting the House and/or Senate back in the midterms at least keeps hope alive.

    Democrats are now the Opposition Party. Let’s act like it.

    I think the party should revive an old tradition — the Midterm Convention. Would be a good way to focus energy and spotlight talent for the presidency.

  10. I was at this convention (NYC 1980) and really irritated at Ted Kennedy’s defiance against Jimmy Carter beating him for the nomination.

    But put in a different context now I take inspiration from his words:

    “The work goes on. The cause endures. The hope still lives. And the dream shall never die”

     

  12. Should national secrets be altered a bit for him and his cohorts?  You know, the way one might leave out an ingredient or a  step in a recipe one doesn’t want everyone else  to have. 

  14. The folks who voted from Trump are in for a really bad surprise as the Bond rate goes sky high along with their interest rates.

     

  15. Kamala Harris, Pete Buttegeig, Jon Ossoff, Josh Shapiro.  The Dem bench is deep, but misogyny, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia probably keep any of them from winning over the populace that voted against the more competent and humane candidate this week. I’m not sure a midterm convention would play to anyone but Dems.  All it would do is put targets on their backs earlier, so the MAGAt propaganda machine can start chiseling away at them. 

    What was done correctly: The Harris social media team’s use of Orange Adolf’s rallies/word salads against him.  None of the “when they go low, we go high” nonsense.  Kick ‘em the nads. 

    Anyone running for midterms needs to start a social media campaign on January 20th.  They need to gather their team now.  

    What I could not get family away from was right-wingnut radio shows in the truck. Somehow, there must be garbage filtering in on SIRIUS-XM. Of course, I’m looking at different stuff on my phone, so maybe it was just the phone.
    Will DOTUS shut down media that doesn’t please him?
    Is access to the truth dead on January 20th?

    Asking for everyone.

  16. Yep. Jimmy Kimmel said it exactly right.  When they realize it, will it be too late to do anything about it? 

  19. Yup… I know that my friends that voted for trump don’t believe he’s actually going to do what he said he would.
    Well…. I believe him.
    I know one thing…  when the higher prices start kicking in from the tariffs and other stuff…  I don’t want to hear a one of them whine.  And if they do… I’ll gladly remind them that this is what they voted for.

  21. Jamie,

    I am sticking with X where I’ve perfected some techniques for spreading clips that escape Elon’s algorithms (gotta keep my secret). Can you spread our Giggy clips on Threads?

    This matters folks. A Pew Center study found that the news people believe the most are links shared by friends and family via email, or posted by people they follow/trust on social media.

    I am convinced most Americans DID NOT vote for most of what Trump is going to do, they just want butter under $7.

    MAGAts will outrun their mandate and create a backlash — if the Opposition sheds enough light on it.

  22. One more group who will be sorry; the folks who voted for their state’s abortion protection measures, and then voted for Adolf. Those state protections won’t mean anything when there’s a national ban.  

    Roughly 2% of all pregnancies are ectopic.  Gotta get that implantation out of the Fallopian tubes somehow.  
    About another million pregnancies will end in miscarriage, and many will require intervention to save the woman’s life. 

    Gawd’z will is how they sidestep personal accountability. tRUMPsky will gladly do the lowereds’ work if it keeps him out of jail, and lets him treat the US Treasury like his personal piggy bank.

    It would be delicious if he clutched his chest and tipped over as he stood up to take the oath. Gawd’s will.

  24. This is going to be trying. He’ll be better at picking assholes to run the government.
    Watch the Senate. I bet about 2 refusals to pass non monetary legislation will lead to a rules change getting rid of the filibuster. 

  25. I felt the same way about Bobby Kennedy in 1968 when he shoved Gene McCarthy aside, basically, after Gene challenged LBJ. People have forgotten that Nixon only beat Hump by a whisker, before destroying the most honorable politician ever to run for POTUS, George McGovern, in 1972.  We narrowly missed being done with Nixon forever, in 1968.  I had to wait until age 23 to vote, as the age was 21, and now there is a movement to lower the age to 16.  Kids brains are not developed enough to vote at age 16.  Right?  

  27. As I feared at the time that transgender hate ad was the Willie Horton of this campaign.

    In GOP focus groups It shifted the race 2.7 points in Trump’s favor after viewers watched it. No wonder they spent $40 million on this one ad, with saturation buys during college and NFL football games. The tag line was genius: “She’s for They/Them. President Trump is for YOU”

  28. Pogo, you are so spot on about Trump wanting to get rid of a Senate filibuster blocking his Fascist agenda. I am sure he is making that a condition for whomever he supports for Senate majority leader, which is up for a vote very soon. Nice catch!!!

  29. Here’s what I’ve noticed, coming from a rural, Midwestern town of about 2,000, moving to the DFW metroplex, then retiring and moving back to a slightly larger Midwestern town (most of whom live on farms).  
    The folks who didn’t leave, or couldn’t leave, are  big fish in a small pond and their status in high school was the pinnacle for them.   The football-playing bullies, the mean girls; they live here.  They are my church-going neighbors who hate/fear everyone who doesn’t look or sound like them and who wouldn’t know WWJD if it hit them in their pious backsides.
    The flyover is the saddest place in the country. Eh, maybe it’s just me that is sad.

  32. With Jacky Rosen in the lead now we have 5 core swing states splitting tickets. So it was not a MAGA wave in all races.

    WI 🔴 Trump / 🔵 Baldwin

    MI 🔴 Trump / 🔵 Slotkin

    NV 🔴 Trump / 🔵 Rosen

    AZ 🔴 Trump / 🔵 Gallego

    NC 🔴 Trump / 🔵 Stein

    Only one that failed:

    PA 🔴 Trump / 🔴 McCormick

  33. President Biden sounds much better because it’s early in the day. He is the greatest President of my lifetime.  He will be the last one to uphold the US Constitution, because Orange Adolf will destroy it.  

    Corporate greed did this. Just as in the past, Democrats fix the economy, Republicans come in and take credit for the gains immediately after taking office…and then they destroy the economy. It happens every, single time.

  34. Another thing to remember from way back when the orange idiot got in the Oval Office he had a goal to change government.  Part of that was to move agencies from the D.C. region to where the people are, ignoring that the type of things performed by departments and agencies here are usually legislative and not connected to spread around the country. 
     
    I saw that happen with one of the agencies for the Department of Agriculture.  Idiot wanted them gone from D.C. and so the small agency had over a fifty percent retirement and almost no one wanted to leave D.C. The agency was decimated and when I retired two years ago it was still understaffed.  Plus the work they did was for D.C. not the west side of Colorado.
     
    Look for this to happen to more agencies now that he does not hav3e any restraints on his childish behaviour.

  35. Tomorrow will be the first day I venture out to co-mingle with any of my maggers. Feels like the day after Alabama loses the Iron Bowl: you don’t know how the assholes are going to act but you know their innate ass-holer-ery runs deep. Will be holding my head high in any case.

    Vive la Résistance!

  36. My Texas contingent is sad, especially the first time voters. It’s hard to have a let-down your first time out, but we are proud of them. They will stay in the fight. They said, we’re going to be okay. We have to be okay. 

    That’s the spirit. We also have Dreamers who need to fight, and we must fight with them and for them.

    Vive la Résistance!

  41. Poobah, I’m surprised the filibuster lasted as long as it has. It’s inherently undemocratic but I hate that it’s demise will be in a Republican senate with the insane orange clown in the White House. 

  42. Yep Pogo, it’s tough to give Joe Manchin any credit, but I’m now glad he stood in the way of getting rid of the filibuster. It’s about all we’ve got right now.

  43. https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/fed-meeting-november-11-07-24/index.html

    “The Fed just cut rates again — and the timing is undeniably awkward – The quarter-point move comes as the US economy faces a new direction and a new president.”

    Beyond awkward.

    “Inflation has cooled substantially from its highs of two years ago, and pressures behind the price hikes are largely reflective of “catch-up” issues: leases turning over, catching up to market-rate rents; insurance renewals catching up to higher prices; and auto-related costs. Plus, the cooling labor market is not a source of inflation, he added. But, he noted: “The job’s not done on inflation.”

    Nope, it was corporate greed, pure and simple.

    After issuing a terse “No” in response to a question about whether he would leave his post at the Federal Reserve before his term is up if President-elect Donald Trump asked him to leave, Fed Chair Jerome Powell later clarified that he believes Trump cannot fire him. “Not permitted under the law,” Powell said.
     
    ~Yeah, right~

  44. I was belated to watch Joe’s White House address due to scheduling conflict but I recorded it. Joe is amazing. His decency and respect for the country and belief in our Constitution is nothing short of inspiring. Scranton may be his bones but Claymont is his soul. His example and leadership will inform and advise my public conduct with the maggers, no matter what gets thrown at me in their hubris. Thanks, Joe.

  45. Donald Trump’s weakness and incompetence is the reason Covid got so bad. Why don’t people get that? 

    Kamala should’ve beaten that mule ‘til it moved: HE caused it, HE did it.

  46. She’s probably too classy to do this, but could Kamala Harris announce she’s running for POTUS in 2028…on January 21st?  Just be a bug up his diapered butt for all four years.  

  47. https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/following-historic-and-dangerous-trump-immunity-ruling-leader-schumer-led-34-democratic-senators-in-launching-no-kings-act-to-crack-down-on-dangerous-precedent_to-eliminate-immunity-for-presidents–vps-crimes-and-tap-into-congress-constitutional-authority-to-restrict-judiciary-overreach
     
    The No Kings Act would:

    Reaffirm that Presidents and Vice Presidents do not have immunity for actions that violate U.S. criminal law. No President or Vice President (former or sitting) would be entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for actions that violate the criminal laws of the United States. The bill would clarify that Congress, not the Supreme Court, determines to whom federal criminal laws may be applied.
    Remove the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction for all actions challenging the constitutionality of this legislation. 
    Establish additional jurisdictional and procedural guardrails. The bill would allow the United States to bring criminal actions against a President or Vice President in any applicable district court or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. It would also create a presumption of constitutionality for the No Kings Act unless a party establishes its unconstitutionality with clear and convincing evidence. Lastly, the bill would create statutes of limitations of 180 days for facial constitutional challenges and 90 days for as-applied constitutional challenges.

     

    I’ve received several emails and texts with a petition to sign. Y’all, too?

  48. January 30th 1933 dawned cold and clear in Berlin as Adolph Hitler took his oath of office and promised Germans he would uphold the constitution. It would ultimately take him less than 30 days to dismantle it.

  49. Ivy – Because they did not suffer as you and your family did.  Some don’t get it until it happens to them or someone in their immediate family.  They lack the capacity to process the idea that others are suffering and that it matters.  Just like their SFB leader, empathy isn’t a thing with them. 

  50. https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/07/top_10_billionaires/
    “Top 10 billionaires make nearly $64B in post-Trump election stock surge”

    “According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the top 10 wealthiest people on the planet saw a total increase of nearly $64 billion in their combined net worth yesterday, with Elon Musk the biggest winner, adding $26.5 billion to his personal fortune of $290 billion.”
     
    As with tRUMPsky’s tax cuts and every other Republican scam going back decades, money does NOT trickle town.   You don’t water the roots, the whole thing dies…eventually.   
     

  51. On kindle so I can’t copy and paste, but those who haven’t read it should go to Wiki to look The Marching Morons.  

     

  52. Thank you, BID, your words are appreciated, more than I can say. You are right, empathy is not their thing, but they sure holler like a stuck pig if they suffer so much as a bunion.

  54. https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-deportations-day-1

    Trump Spokesperson Affirms Day 1 Plans for Nation’s ‘Largest Mass Deportation Operation’

    “The stocks of private prison companies like GEOGroup and Core Civic rose significantly after Trump’s win, and private contractors had already been discussing ahead of the election how to build enough detention space to accommodate Trump’s plans.”

    “A study released by the American Immigration Council in October found that a massive, one-time deportation program of the estimated 13.3 million migrants in the country without legal status would cost the government at least $315 billion while a 1-million-a-year approach would cost $88 billion a year for a total of $967.9 billion. It would also shrink the nation’s gross domestic product by between 4.2 and 6.8%, not to mention the massive human cost to immigrant families, as around 5.1 million children who are U.S. citizens live with an undocumented family member.”

    “The council also warned that such a program would likely threaten the well-being of all immigrants and increase vigilantism and hate crimes.”

    Yeah, so all of those Latino men who voted for Orange Adolf might just get caught up in the mess they enabled. Crazy, white MAGAts aren’t going to ask about their status, even if their families were here first.

  56. https://www.tcta.org/capitol-updates/social-security-bill-tied-up-after-election-night-maneuver

    “Social Security bill tied up after Election Night maneuver”

    “…bipartisan legislation that would repeal two long-standing provisions docking Social Security benefits for certain retirees, including teachers in Texas and several other states.”

    “HR 82 would repeal the “windfall elimination provision” and “government pension offset,” which reduce Social Security benefits for those who spent portions of their careers in state and local government or other positions where their earnings weren’t subject to Social Security taxes.”

    “On Tuesday night while presiding over a 7-minute pro forma session, Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., recognized Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., for a unanimous consent request. Good’s request to lay the Social Security bill on the table was agreed to by unanimous consent, with no one else in the chamber to object. In this context, laying the bill on the table has the same effect under House rules as defeating a bill on the floor, Roll Call reported. So, HR 82 is dead for the time being.”
     

    So, if you earned a pension from an employer, and you paid into Social Security, MAGAt Mike Johnson wants to dock you by the amount of your pension? Did I understand that right? And it’s only dead for now?

  57. Oh my I have been out of much of the world for so many years.  I am watching A Man Called Otto and realized that the old man was Hanks.  Wow.  The man is younger than I am and he looks old.  Good thing I am younger than he is.

  58. 2028 begins?

    Governor Gavin Newsom has called for an emergency legislative session in California to prepare to fight the Trump Administration on civil liberties, abortion rights, and environmental protections.

  61. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4979284-illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-on-trump-win/

    Actual billionaire JB Pritzker:

    “Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) held a press conference Thursday to discuss the aftermath of the election, issuing a warning that if anyone tries to “come for my people,” they will have to “come through me.”
    “People have often said that I’m a happy warrior, and I’ve always taken seriously my role as a happy warrior on behalf of this state. Even today, when I’m struggling with many of the difficult questions this election poses, my optimism for the future remains undiminished,” Pritzker said.
    “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans: I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” he continued. “You come for my people, you come through me.”
    The governor noted that in his state, he will continue working to protect all people, no matter what a second Trump term looks like.
    “Perhaps this time may be different. But if it isn’t, Illinois will remain a place of stability and competent governance,” Pritzker said.
     
     

  62. https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/what-project-2025-means-to-indian-country

    “Native News Online examined Project 2025 to determine its potential impact on Indian Country. While Indian Country is explicitly mentioned a few times, most reforms that would drastically damage tribal rights are found in the adjacent acts and offices, listed under broad categories. 
    Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) will get you fired
    Project 2025 plans to gut protections through the 1964 Civil Rights Act – Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act “Prohibits Employment Discrimination Based On Race, Color, Religion, Sex And National Origin.”

    Disparate Impact is a legal theory that holds entities accountable for practices, decisions, or actions that have discriminatory effects on protected groups, even when there is no intent to discriminate. 
    “Congress should: Eliminate disparate impact as a valid theory of discrimination for race and other bases under Title VII and other laws. Disparities do not (and should not legally) imply discrimination per se,” Project 2025 reads. 

    Project 2025 will reverse a 2009 scientific finding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that says carbon dioxide emissions are a danger to public health. 

    The project calls for the repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which established the basis for the protection of significant and historic lands such as the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument where tribal coalitions are fighting to preserve land after Trump’s action to revoke creation of the monument. The act was initially created to address the finding, and theft, of Native artifacts found on federal land.

    “…ending “safety nets” such as the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which pay farmers of selected commodities when the prices of those commodities fall below a predetermined level. 

    “…reject efforts to create universal free school meals”, proposing the  reversal of the Biden Administration’s 2021 reforms that sought to increase SNAP disbursements to reflect the real-world costs of healthy food. On average, 41.2 million people in 21.6 million households receivedmonthly SNAP benefits in the 2022 fiscal year. 

    Restructuring of the EPA intends to consolidate vital systems into the American Indian Office, a singular entity to be located in Oklahoma. Indian Country will immediately face challenges regarding long-standing protections for tribal lands, sacred sites, natural resources, and more, which have been safeguarded through federal stewardship, environmental regulation, protective acts, and treaties. 

    A “Day One Executive Order” for the EPA is described in detail for an incoming conservative President; immediately stop all grants and legal proceedings, remove personnel, and rewrite all of the guidance documents meant to keep air and water clean.”

    Welcome to the Hell Mouth, y’all.

Comments are closed.