Category Archives: Hunger

The Coming Reckoning.

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In the 1930s and late 1960s, the U.S. experienced unparalleled social progress under Democratic leadership that made life better for the vast majority of Americans. In the 1930s, we saw the official end of the Gilded Age along with the economic rescue of millions of Americans after the Great Depression thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR also created Social Security which meant that after a lifetime of work most Americans could finally experience a comfortable retirement.

Though he is most known for a war he did not start, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He also created Medicare and Medicaid as part of his war on poverty.

Though he never served as president, Ralph Nader had an enormous impact on our quality of life in the 1970s. As a result of his efforts, the Freedom of Information Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Clean Water Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Act were born. He also influenced the creation of the EPA to help clean up our environment and OSHA to improve the safety of workers.

In 1998, 1999, 2000 and part of 2001, after digging us out of a recession, President Bill Clinton oversaw federal budget surpluses for the first time in decades. This despite the fact that he invested heavily in education and technology, in additional police to lower crime, and in health initiatives such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Earned Income Tax Credit to help low-income families.

President Barack Obama continued the tradition of Democratic presidents repairing the economy after Republican shortcomings by digging us out of the Great Recession. He also created the Affordable Care Act to give tens of millions of Americans access to affordable health insurance. In addition, he pushed for initiatives to mitigate climate change.

And, like Democratic presidents before him, President Joe Biden rescued the economy following the botched pandemic response. He succeeded in getting an infrastructure bill passed after many before him had failed. And he oversaw historic investments in clean energy.

For their part, Republicans have almost universally fought all of these accomplishments along the way. Beginning with President Nixon, we have seen increased attacks on voting rights. And beginning with President Reagan, we have experienced the growth of corporate consolidation and wealth disparity until, in 2014, the U.S. was officially recognized as an oligarchy, which Wikipedia defines as “a type of political system in which the wealthiest citizens deploy unique and concentrated power to defend their unique minority interests.”

In other words, for decades politicians and their benefactors have rigged our government for their personal gain to the point that a significant percentage of our population feels so helpless they want to tear it all down. We’ve watched politics become a profession. We’ve witnessed unparalleled corruption by politicians and corporate leaders as they mortgage our nation’s future.

For example, the national debt now exceeds our GDP as a result of too many wars of choice which have led to uncontrolled military spending. Adding to the problem is the loss of revenue from continuous tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. Former high-paying jobs have been shipped overseas so corporations can avoid paying worker benefits in their never-ending quest for increased corporate profits. Most industries have been captured by a few corporations that too often collude with one another to fix prices and flex their lobbying muscle for special treatment. This corporate consolidation has led to the collapse of many communities, especially in rural areas. Meanwhile multinationals and foreign corporations have set about controlling agriculture by swallowing up farmland and groundwater sources.

Americans’ overall health and lifespan have been diminished as a result of food scarcity, poor nutrition and lack of access to healthcare. Despite overpowering evidence of the causes and consequences of climate change, the oligarchs and many politicians have buried their heads in the sand refusing to acknowledge that it will devastate our planet with mass extinctions of species (maybe our own) along with extreme weather events, increased wildfires, sea level rise and weakening ocean currents. In addition, climate change is leading to mass migration which places stress on host nations often ending with human rights violations as we’ve seen in the U.S.

The extraction of commodities such as lumber, fossil fuels and minerals is given priority over our more important natural resources such as clean air and water, healthy forests, the diversity of wildlife and even human lives.

Moreover, our Constitution is under attack as never before. Billionaire oligarchs have taken control of our media turning long-standing news organizations into propaganda outlets that ignore reality and spew misinformation to advance their interests. Religion, race, gender and sexual preference are again being used as weapons to distract and divide us.

We are finally reaching the point where our democracy and our corrupted economy can no longer coexist. It is time for a reckoning.

It is time for congressional term limits and accountability for corruption. It is time for an effective FEC, election transparency, and limits on campaign financing. It is time to eliminate all forms of voter suppression and to make Election Day a national holiday. It is time for a strong FCC and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. It is time for a truly independent judiciary and Department of Justice. It is time for a wealth tax and real tax fairness. It is time for the application of antitrust laws, the reversal of Buckley v Valeo and the overturning of Citizens United.

It is time for universal healthcare and effective gun laws. It is time to fully fund and restore our public education system that was once the envy of the world. It is time to restore our international standing and strengthen relationships with allies.

And perhaps most important of all, it is time to address climate change with the urgency it requires as if the future of our planet depends on it. Because it does.

The Surest Way To Make America Great Again.

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For 2025-2026, the U.S. military budget is $921 billion, 35.5 percent of all global military spending and 63 percent more than China’s and Russia’s military budgets combined (our largest global adversaries). And 11 of the remaining top 15 are U.S. allies!

Given the fearsomeness of our military power, U.S. citizens have a greater likelihood of starving to death or dying for lack of access to healthcare than being killed by a military attack on our homeland. And a far greater chance of being gunned down in a church, theater, school, nightclub or shopping mall by a Second Amendment nutjob!

Yet the Trump regime is planning to ask Congress to increase our already bloated military budget to $1.5 trillion for next year.

That started me thinking: What if we cut our military spending to a more reasonable amount? Let’s say that we cut it to $502.6 billion – double that of China, the next largest spender and our greatest perceived global rival. That would save U.S. taxpayers a whopping $669.7 billion. Or, when compared to the regime’s planned 2027 military budget, nearly $1 trillion!

Assuming the Trump regime hasn’t completely alienated all of our longtime allies, we would still have a combined military budget of $1.14 trillion.

So, what if our government really did come to its senses? What could we do with that $669.7 billion or $1 trillion in annual savings? And what if we made U.S. billionaires pay a tax rate of 13 percent, the same as the average U.S. taxpayer? We would gain an estimated $224 billion annually in additional tax revenues. In addition, we would gain billions more if we closed tax shelters and forced multinational corporations to pay a tax burden equal to that of other advanced economies.

With the many billions in savings and the additional tax revenue, we could all but eliminate our annual $1.78 trillion federal deficit. That would save even more money that would otherwise be spent on additional interest for our national debt. Or we could take part of the savings and do some real good for our citizens.

For example, we could feed every hungry American for $33.1 billion a year – just 3 percent of our current military budget. And for an estimated $19.9 billion – roughly 2 percent of our military budget – we could house all of our homeless, many of them military veterans.

We could further cut costs and save lives by committing to some form of universal healthcare. Some estimates show that by replacing private insurance with Medicare for All we could cut our total annual healthcare expenditure by up to $313.5 billion per year.

Reimagining our federal budget would certainly be better than following our military-industrial complex further down the rabbit hole, especially when you consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an audit. Indeed, between 1998 and 2015, the DoD can’t account for $21 trillion in spending! $21 trillion – nearly 54 percent of our national debt!!!

Moreover, by cutting our military budget to a more sensible level, the politicians in Washington might feel more constrained in committing to a war of choice.

Paying For An Ill-Conceived War.

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After starting an unnecessary and likely unwinnable war costing more than a billion dollars a day, the Trump regime is planning to increase the already bloated military budget by half a trillion dollars – raising it to an astonishing $1.5 trillion, which would make it approximately $350 billion more than the military budgets of the next 14 nations combined!

To pay for it, the regime plans to cut programs that impact the environment, education, healthcare, small business, infrastructure, and much more. Things that impact the lives of most Americans – except, of course, Trump’s family and the host of oligarchs who helped finance his election campaign, his inauguration, his corruption, his grotesque ballroom, and his planned Arch de Trump.

Following is the full list of the proposed cuts*:

$510 million – Grants for farmers and agricultural research
$82 million – Loans for rural small businesses (Fully eliminated)
$61 million – Support for farmers and food markets (Fully eliminated)
$240 million – School meals and food education for children abroad (Fully eliminated)
$659 million – Community building grants
$47 million – Support for minority-owned businesses (Fully eliminated)
$449 million – Economic development grants for communities
$1.6 billion – Weather forecasting, fisheries, and coastal protection (NOAA)
$993 million – Scientific research and technology standards
$150 million – Support for American exports and trade
$2.2 billion – Broadband and internet access programs
$8.5 billion – Funding for public schools
$1.5 billion – Vocational training and adult education (Fully eliminated)
$2.7 billion – College access and higher education support
$15.2 billion – Roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects
$1.1 billion – Home energy efficiency and clean energy programs (Fully eliminated)
$1.1 billion – Scientific research funding
$386 million – Environmental cleanup programs
$150 million – Cutting-edge clean energy research
$4 billion – Help paying home heating and cooling bills for low-income families (Fully eliminated)
$768 million – Refugee resettlement assistance
$819 million – Care and shelter for migrant children
$775 million – Local anti-poverty programs (Fully eliminated)
$5 billion – Public health programs, mental health services, and disease prevention
$5 billion – Medical research (NIH)
$129 million – Healthcare quality and safety research
$356 million – Emergency preparedness and disaster response
$1.3 billion – FEMA community disaster preparedness grants
$707 million – Cybersecurity protection for critical infrastructure
$52 million – Airport and transportation security
$40 million – Protection against chemical and biological weapons threats
$53 million – Funding for homeland security operations
$3.3 billion – Community development block grants (Fully eliminated)
$1.3 billion – Affordable housing construction grants (Fully eliminated)
$393 million – Programs to reduce homelessness
$529 million – Housing assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS (Fully eliminated)
$489 million – Housing and services for Native American communities
$50 million – Grants to help communities build more housing (Fully eliminated)
$60 million – Enforcement of fair housing laws
$58 million – Homebuyer and renter counseling (Fully eliminated)
$45 million – Renewable energy development (Fully eliminated)
$1.7 billion – Local law enforcement and public safety grants
$20 million – Civil rights mediation and legal access (Fully eliminated)
$1.6 billion – Job training for at-risk youth (Fully eliminated)
$395 million – Jobs for low-income seniors (Fully eliminated)
$234 million – Worker safety programs
$101 million – Equal pay and workplace protections
$46 million – Anti-child labor programs abroad
$2 billion – International humanitarian aid
$1.2 billion – Food aid abroad (Fully eliminated)
$4.3 billion – Global health programs
$2.7 billion – United Nations and international partnerships
$642 million – International economic programs
$315 million – Democracy and anti-corruption programs
$486 million – Public transit grants
$4.2 billion – EV charging infrastructure
$372 million – Rural airline service
$145 million – Sustainable infrastructure grants
$204 million – Investment for underserved communities
$1.4 billion – IRS taxpayer services
$100 million – Air pollution programs (Fully eliminated)
$1 billion – EPA environmental grants
$2.5 billion – Clean water infrastructure
$90 million – Diesel pollution reduction (Fully eliminated)
$3.4 billion – NASA science programs
$297 million – NASA innovation
$1.1 billion – International Space Station
$143 million – STEM education
$309 million – Small business development
$170 million – SBA operations
$158 million – Small business loans

This isn’t making America great. It’s not improving American lives. It’s not making America safer. It’s making America unrecognizable.

(*Source: MeidasTouch)

Measuring The Trump Regime 2.0.

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When Trump campaigned for a second term, he promised to cut costs, lower inflation, reduce taxes, close the borders, and deport “the worst of the worst”. He also promised to bring peace to Ukraine and the Middle East, and to avoid any more “forever” wars.

So, what has his regime actually done?

  • Dismantled, or attempted to dismantle, much of the federal government.
  • Fired thousands of government employees replacing expertise and experience with loyalty.
  • Pardoned 1,600 criminals, including seditionists and drug traffickers.
  • Shuttered USAID leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners living in abject poverty.
  • Proclaimed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
  • Threatened to make Canada the 51st state.
  • Threatened to invade Greenland.
  • Threatened to invade Cuba.
  • Threatened to invade Mexico.
  • Violated the Constitution by accepting a $400 million aircraft from Qatar.
  • Forced the Smithsonian and National Parks to remove references to slavery and our genocide of Native Americans.
  • Removed high-ranking black and female officers from the military.
  • Cut ACA subsidies making healthcare unaffordable for millions of Americans.
  • Illegally withheld funds from Planned Parenthood clinics.
  • Forced law firms and universities to kowtow by withholding federal funds.
  • Attacked freedom of the press by filing frivolous lawsuits against media for publishing unflattering stories, helping engineer the takeover of CBS and CNN by a MAGA friendly billionaire, and threatening to revoke media broadcast licenses unless they behave as more regime friendly.
  • Attacked freedom of speech by pressuring networks to remove Colbert and Kimmel, deporting international students for standing up for Palestine, and arresting peaceful demonstrators.
  • Increased inflation through illegal tariffs and his war on Iran.
  • Paved over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden.
  • Uglified the Oval Office with hundreds of golden trinkets and doodads.
  • Destroyed the East Wing of America’s House (the White House) without permission or prior notice.
  • Placed Trump’s name on the JFK Center for the Arts before closing it for 2 years.
  • Released the Epstein files after redacting the names of predators while revealing the names of victims.
  • Removed the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and set about further destroying the environment by returning to coal-fired power plants and permitting oil drilling on environmentally sensitive lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Illegally executed small boat operators in international waters claiming they were carrying drugs.
  • Weaponized the DOJ to falsely charge Trump’s political enemies with crimes.
  • Expanded ICE and CBP into a large, heavily armed police force answering only to Trump with the intent of arresting and deporting 1 million residents per year.
  • Sent masked, armed thugs into Democratic-led cities where they arrested and terrorized lawful residents and ignored the constitutional right to due process. Operation Metro Surge resulted in $200 million in economic damages to the City of Minneapolis and the murders of 2 U.S. citizens.
  • Weakened alliances with longtime allies and threatened to leave NATO.
  • Against international law, illegally sent troops into Venezuela to capture its president and his wife.
  • Along with Israel, began an illegal, and likely unwinnable, war against Iran committing numerous war crimes, including the bombing of an elementary school, universities and civilian residences.
  • Violated at least 19 provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
  • Spent $100 million of taxpayer money on golf outings with the expectation it will exceed $300 million by the end of Trump’s term.
  • Used the presidency to unconstitutionally enrich the Trump family by at least $4 billion.
  • Increased the national debt by $2.7 trillion thus far by cutting taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations.

When you elect a criminal convicted of 34 felonies you shouldn’t be surprised when he does criminal things. It’s not America first. It’s Trump first.

The Political Division That’s Most Concerning.

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It’s not left versus right. It’s left versus left. Those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment versus those who believe in democracy, human rights and a safe environment.

What do I mean by that?

By now it should be abundantly clear that the Felon-in-Chief and his MAGA followers are leading our nation down a path toward oligarchy and dictatorship. They’re succeeding in great part because the resistance has been fragmented and largely rudderless.

For many years, involved and caring voters have been split amongst a wide variety of single-issue organizations focused on guns, homelessness, hunger, wildlife, animal rights, air and water quality, climate change, sustainable energy, racial and gender equity, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, organized labor, religious freedom, Palestinian rights, Ukraine, healthcare, public education, reining in military spending, tax fairness, voting rights, breaking up corporate monopolies, etc., etc.

All of these issues are important, and I have personally supported most of them. But we are now facing an ideological movement that vehemently opposes progress toward each of these goals. Indeed, those in control of MAGA have pushed policies that are directly counter to them. And they now control all three branches of government, as well as much of the media.

If patriotic and caring people are to interrupt our nation’s slide into tyranny, we must set aside any inclination to base our votes on single or self-serving issues. We must come together and focus on what really matters. That doesn’t mean we have to abandon the goals we care about most. It means we have to ensure that we have a government that will allow us to pursue those goals.

There is only one issue that is important now: Saving our democracy. Period.

Trump Regime Prioritizing War Over Families.

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The Trump regime has stated that the cost of its attacks on Iran cost $5.6 billion in advanced munitions for just the first two days. And it has been estimated that the ongoing war has cost our military more than $1 billion per day since. Given that the war is now in its eleventh day, that means we will have already spent roughly $14.6 billion. And that doesn’t include the $300 million cost of the three F-15s that were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait or the billions needed to rebuild or replace military installations in Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait.

Of course, there’s also the $370 million cost of the military build-up prior to the war, including the operating costs of two carrier groups. Plus, the $11 billion for replenishing Israeli munitions sent to Israel without congressional approval and the proposed $50 billion bill being sought for replenishing our own munitions. All of which adds to our $1.8 trillion deficit and could have been far better used to provide affordable healthcare access and food for hungry Americans.

In addition, there’s the economic costs of the war – the lost oil production, the hikes in oil prices, and the increased costs you pay at the gasoline pump, all of which contribute to inflation.

And don’t forget the human costs of the war: The 170 schoolgirls killed by a U.S. Tomahawk missile, the likely thousands of Iranian civilians killed or displaced by U.S. and Israeli strikes, the seven U.S. soldiers killed by Iran, and the nearly 1 million Lebanese displaced by the Israeli bombing of Beirut.

And what has the war accomplished?

The Trump and Israeli regimes have killed the 86-year-old supreme leader along with much of Iran’s leadership only to see him replaced by a younger, more violent supreme leader. We likely haven’t seriously ended Iran’s desire to build nuclear weapons. (In fact, we probably have made them more committed to that goal than ever before.) We have further destabilized the region. We have caused serious damage to the environment. We have caused a large portion of Iran’s 90 million population to hate us. And we have almost certainly inspired more Iranians to commit acts of terrorism against us.

On the other hand, it did create a significant distraction from the Epstein files, it provided cover for the continued takeover of Palestinian lands in the West Bank, and it promises to keep Israel’s cabinet of genocidal war criminals in power for years to come.

A Democratic Project 2029.

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The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 embraced by the Trump regime has made the US virtually unrecognizable by creating an autocratic oligarchy that panders to the wealthy and the powerful and erodes the individual rights guaranteed by our Constitution. And it’s likely to get much worse as Project 2025 is only roughly 50 percent implemented!

When a Democratic president and congressional majority is elected to supplant the MAGA miscreants (assuming we have free and fair elections), we need to be prepared to not only restore our democracy but to improve it with a Project 2029. MAGA has shown us the way to quickly reshape the US according to its ideology. Democrats must not shy away from doing the same. Following are my suggestions:

1 – Immediately nullify all of Trump’s Executive Orders.

2 – Pass legislation to restore all powers to the legislative branch as enumerated in the Constitution.

3 – Order the Attorney General (AG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to begin prosecutions of those who participated in the Trump regime’s many violations of the Constitution.

4 – Pass legislation to eliminate immunity for all federal employees past, present and future.

5 – Order the AG and DOJ to begin prosecutions of all international war crimes, including those committed by the Trump and Netanyahu regimes.

6 – Reduce, restructure or eliminate DHS, ICE and CBP.

7 – Break up corporate monopolies. No company should ever control more than 10% of any industry.

8 – Impeach Justices Thomas and Alito for their inexcusable grift and unethical behavior and replace them with liberal justices. If necessary, increase the size of SCOTUS to 12 with nonpartisan appointments.

9 – Eliminate financial and weapons support for Israel’s Zionist government until such time it demonstrates respect for the human rights of all people under its control.

10 – To prevent corporations and billionaires from further corrupting our elections, pass legislation to repeal the decisions of Citizens United v FEC and Buckley v Valeo. Ban private campaign donations beyond $500 and provide government funding for all legitimate federal candidates so members of Congress can work instead of spending 40 percent of their time fundraising.

11 – Pass legislation to require every high school graduate to pass a thorough civics test.

12 – Pass legislation to eliminate the electoral college and make election day a national holiday. Automatically register all high school graduates and naturalized citizens to vote.

13 – Pass legislation reinstating the Fairness Doctrine to clearly label and separate opinion from news. Revoke the licenses of any media outlet that fails to do so.

14 – Pass legislation to fully restore all civil liberties, including a woman’s right to choose.

15 – Pass legislation to ban any convicted felon from holding public office.

16 – Pass legislation to place strict controls on government surveillance and invasions of privacy.

17 – Expand IRS, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security regulators to catch fraudsters.

18 – Make the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes by eliminating tax loopholes.

19 – Eliminate all tax shelters, both on and offshore.

20 – Restore funding for the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.

21 – Restore funding for public education and research grants for universities. Pass legislation to ban government funding of private religious schools.

22 – Enforce rules for churches and 501c3s that ban direct political engagement at risk of losing tax-free status.

23 – Pass legislation instituting term limits on Congress – 4 terms for the House, 3 terms for the Senate.

24 – Restore funding for USAID and other international aid groups, including the UN.

25 – Hold the Department of Defense accountable for failing audits and its inability or refusal to account for more than $21 trillion in spending.

26 – Create a humane and practical immigration policy that accepts refugees and asylum-seekers, that provides renewable work permits for necessary workers, and that provides a path to citizenship.

27 – Address homelessness and food insecurity by recognizing that no one who works or has a disability should be unhoused or hungry.

28 – Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and aggressively address climate change.

29 – Move quickly to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels.

30 – Ban drilling and oil exploration on federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

31 – Claw back all emoluments gained by the Trump family and members of the regime. Pass legislation requiring that anyone who uses a public office for financial gain be fired and prosecuted.

32 – Pass legislation to reinforce separation of church and state.

33 – Restore an accurate account of US history, including the genocide of indigenous people, slavery and Jim Crow.

34 – Pass legislation restoring the Voting Rights Act.

35 – Pass legislation creating Medicare for all.

36 – Notify all federal employees that anyone who makes decisions based on politics and religion will be fired.

37 – Rebuild the East Wing of the White House and restore the Kennedy Rose Garden.

38 – Pass legislation reaffirming our commitment to NATO and all long-standing treaties.

39 – Remove the Trump name from every federal building and edifice and make it illegal to display the name on any structure other than portable toilets.

40 – Instead of an eternal flame, equip Trump’s eventual grave with modesty panels and a catchment basin for the legions of people who will want to piss on it.

How Much Worse Can It Get?

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In just 10 months, the Trump regime has already implemented 48 percent of the actions outlined in Project 2025. Those changes have almost irreparably dimmed the shining city on the hill, previously known as United States of America. But if MAGA and the Trump regime are successful in implementing the entire plan, the nation will become unrecognizable, and our democracy may cease to exist.

Following are just some of the lowlights of the remaining 52 percent:

DHS & IMMIGRATION

  • End the Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets basic standards of care for immigrant children in custody.
  • Enforce income requirements for immigrants obtaining green cards and certain visas blocking entry for most refugees.
  • Repeal Section 235 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which protects unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum.
  • Eliminate or significantly reduce the number of visas issued to foreign students.
  • End “chain” migration like that of Melania Trump’s parents who followed her to the U.S. as immigrants.
  • Break up the Dept. of Homeland Security or, at least, combine ICE and CBP to form a “Border Security and Immigration Agency”.
  • Block federal grants to sanctuary cities to ensure their cooperation with ICE.
  • Eliminate the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis making us more vulnerable to external threats.
  • Ban mixed-status families (citizens and noncitizens) from living in all federally assisted housing.

ECONOMY AND TREASURY.

  • Enact a two-income tax bracket system that will raise annual taxes by $3,000 for the median family of four.
  • Permanently reduce the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent making it lower than most advanced economies.
  • Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  • Eliminate the Federal Reserve mission of full employment.
  • Abolish the Federal Reserve and move to a “free banking” system.
  • Repeal the Corporate Transparency Act which aims to combat money laundering.
  • Repeal key sections of Dodd-Frank Act that was passed following the Great Recession to make the financial system safer for consumers and taxpayers.
  • Withdraw from OECD, the intergovernmental organization that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people worldwide.
  • Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
  • Limit FHA mortgages to first-time buyers.
  • End cash grants to small businesses (including disaster aid).
  • Allow religious entities to receive Small Business Administration loans.
  • Abolish the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
  • Consider whether the Federal Trade Commission should enforce antitrust laws or even continue to exist.

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

  • Expand energy exploration in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Repeal the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Eliminate carbon capture utilization and storage programs.
  • Restart the coal leasing program.
  • Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
  • Eliminate all considerations of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Ensure liquified natural gas export applications are approved quickly without consideration of climate change.
  • Reverse Biden-era decisions to retire parts of the nuclear arsenal.
  • Reject the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons.
  • Repeal the Antiquities Act of 1906 which gives presidents the power to create national monuments.
  • Repeal the Global Change Research Act of 1990 requiring research of climate change.
  • Eliminate the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education.
  • Eliminate the Office of Children’s Health Protection.
  • Eliminate the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance.
  • Undermine the California waiver which allows the state to enact more stringent pollution reduction from vehicles.
  • Eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP)

FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION

  • Limit campaign finance enforcement.
  • Raise contribution limits for election campaigns.

FEMA

  • Limit FEMA-issued grants to states that “comply with all aspects of federal immigration laws.
  • Shift the majority of FEMA’s preparedness and response costs to states and localities.
  • Privatize the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program.

INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

  • Re-negotiate intelligence sharing protocols with the EU.
  • Prohibit the intelligence community from monitoring domestic disinformation.

LABOR

  • Close the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; treat the participation in any DEI initiative as grounds for termination.
  • Reclassify thousands of federal employees making it easier to fire career civil servants.
  • Reduce federal employees’ pay and benefits.
  • Weaken or ban federal employee unions.
  • Privatize TSA screening.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

  • Fund studies on the risks and complications of abortion.
  • Correct “misinformation” about the comparative health and psychological benefits of childbirth vs abortion.
  • Cut federal funding to states that do not provide detailed abortion reports.
  • Prohibit the use of “aborted fetal cells” in developing vaccines.
  • End taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
  • Withdraw Biden-era guidance that retail pharmacies must dispense abortion medication and contraception.
  • Eliminate the ACA’s requirement to cover the morning after pill.
  • Withdraw HHS funding, including 10% of Medicaid funds, from states that require private health insurance plans to cover abortion.
  • Restore religious and moral exemptions to the ACA’s contraception requirement.
  • Enforce the Comstock Act to prevent the distribution of abortion pills.
  • Reverse FDA approval of the mifepristone abortion pill or ban telehealth prescriptions and mailing of mifepristone.
  • Prevent the VA from covering abortion services even in cases of rape and incest.
  • End or limit fetal stem cell research and use.

USDA

  • Weaken regulations on baby formula.
  • Repeal or, at minimum, reform Dietary Guidelines.
  • Repeal the federal mandate to label genetically engineered food.
  • Prohibit schools from grouping together to utilize the Community Eligibility Provision that enables those in low-income areas to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students.
  • End broad-based eligibility for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

  • Reduce disability ratings for future claims, partially reduce for existing claims.
  • Sunset the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.

The Most Murderous Regime In U.S. History.

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As has been previously discussed, the Trump cult appears to view its leader as the savior of America, a man of God, the second coming of the Messiah. If so, Trump must serve a cruel and loathsome deity, since the Felon-in-Chief is responsible for millions of deaths. And he’s only halfway through the first year of his second term.

Think that statement is hyperbolic? Then consider the following:

A 2020 study in The Lancet led by professors at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Francisco found that the first Trump administration’s health policies led to 461,000 unnecessary U.S. deaths annually, plus 22,000 avoidable deaths annually from its environmental policies. Moreover, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated the death toll from Trump’s failed response to Covid-19 had reached 1,120,000 by January 2023.

In the current Trump regime, cuts to USAID are estimated to result in the unnecessary deaths of 14 million people by 2030, including 4.5 million children. (Thankfully, Congress restored $400 million in cuts to the PEPFAR program in a rare rebuke of Trump. Otherwise, there could have been an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths over the next four years.)

Further, scientists from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania estimate that 42,500 vulnerable Americans may die each year as a result of health care cuts mandated by the Republican’s Big Ugly Bill. They warn that the cuts to hospitals and clinics, especially in rural areas, could be devastating to communities.

The regime’s plans to deport more than a million immigrants a year, the vast majority of which are only guilty of wanting to work hard and improve their families’ lives, is not just a blow to our communities and our industries. It will almost certainly be deadly. How many of our neighbors will die as a result of being forced to return to the nations they fled to escape war, gang violence, poverty and political retribution?

Appallingly, the Trump regime has also turned its back on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. By failing to support relief efforts by the UN and numerous European nations, the regime could be at least partially responsible for more than 500,000 Palestinians dying of starvation. And those who are spared from famine are likely to be displaced once again as Netanyahu and Trump have called for the relocation of 1.2 million Gazans.

Combined, the death toll from the first Trump administration and his current regime’s actions could total more than 16.8 million!!! Moreover, if Trump and his regime continue to deny the climate crisis, the death toll could rise to hundreds of millions more, if not the entire population of the planet.

Consequences Of The Trump Regime.

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Most people are concerned about the impact on separation of powers, the Constitution, and our democracy. But there is much more to be worried about. Following is a partial list of consequences to the planet, the nation and its citizens as a result of the regime’s policies:

  1. Increased debt and interest payments thereby mortgaging the future of the next generations as a result of tax cuts for the wealthy.
  2. Increased inflation due to tariffs.
  3. Increased political division and political violence.
  4. Further weakening of institutions and norms.
  5. Increased hunger and homelessness along with a widening of the wealth gap.
  6. Massive decline in necessary workers for the food industry, construction and hospitality from deportations.
  7. More bankruptcies of family farms resulting in further corporate consolidation of our food chain.
  8. Increased vulnerability to terrorists and rogue nations as a result of the brain drain at the CIA and National Security Agency.
  9. More political control of our nation by billionaires (deepening of the oligarchy).
  10. Massive brain drain from cutting funds to universities and research.
  11. Further consolidation of media and erosion of first amendment rights.
  12. Weakening of public education furthering the wealth gap and brain drain.
  13. Further erosion of separation of church and state.
  14. Weakening or elimination of FEMA, NOAA and NWS resulting in lack of preparedness for extreme weather events.
  15. Further accelerating the global climate crisis by increased use of fossil fuels, increased lumbering, oil drilling in national parks and erasing incentives for electric cars and other mitigation efforts.
  16. Weakening of CDC and NIH resulting in lack of preparedness for another pandemic.
  17. Increased bankruptcies of hospitals and other healthcare facilities as a result of cuts to Medicaid and the ACA.
  18. Increased health insurance rates as a result of forcing the uninsured into ERs because they can’t afford routine medical visits.
  19. Undercutting citizen faith in vaccines making children more vulnerable to deadly disease.
  20. Weakening of our nation’s stature around the globe making us a global bully and pariah as a result of tariffs along with ICE and its concentration camps.
  21. Weakening of the arts by elimination of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
  22. Increased racism and misogyny as a result of the attacks on DEI.
  23. Overloading of the foster system by unwanted births due to denial of abortions.
  24. Mass extinctions of species as a result of ending mitigation policies for global warming.
  25. Increased state and local taxes as a result of cuts to federal grants.
  26. Massive loss of revenue from foreign tourists and foreign students.
  27. Loss of revenue from exports to foreign nations due to tariffs and offensive statements.

Given the regime’s policies, these consequences are inevitable. Are they what you voted for?