EVERY THING, EVERY WHERE, ALL AT ONCE
Get ready for 'The Great Revenge' as Trump’s Orwellian America takes shape
Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
January 24, 2025
ALTERNET
By repealing President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 executive order (EO) banning racial discrimination in hiring for the federal government, Donald Trump has proudly proclaimed his intention of Making America White Again, at least with regard to political power and economic opportunity.
Another EO Trump signed this week proclaims that our sex identity begins at “fertilization” when, in fact, sexual development doesn’t begin to start until at least the sixth week after fertilization. In addition to attacking transgender individuals and setting them up for rank persecution (this EO’s main goal), it’s also a way of laying the groundwork for fetal personhood, a doctrine that will ultimately lead to a total ban on abortion and several methods of birth control.
But the most troubling of his executive orders is the one with the Orwellian name of “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.”
It lays out a rationalization to investigate and then prosecute the investigators and attorneys in the federal government who looked into Trump’s many ties to Russia and Putin. It then goes after those who tracked down and imprisoned January 6th seditionists, and tried (unsuccessfully, thanks to Merrick Garland’s temerity) to prosecute Trump for his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and to steal top-secret nuclear and espionage secrets (which he allegedly then made available to random foreign spies passing through Mar-a-Lago).
The “Weaponization” EO makes clear from the start that it’s not about ending but, rather, beginning the weaponization of the federal government. It starts right out with a proclamation of Trump’s victimhood:
“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions.”
Representing the alleged crimes committed by Trump and his supporters — including fake electors, the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and threats of violence against school boards and others — as mere political differences with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, the executive order goes on to assert:
“These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain [on Trump and his supporters] than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives. Many of these activities appear to be inconsistent with the Constitution and/or the laws of the United States, including those activities directed at parents protesting at school board meetings, Americans who spoke out against the previous administration’s actions, and other Americans who were simply exercising constitutionally protected rights.”
Trump’s lawyers who drafted the EO fail to mention that the Department of Justice investigated intimidation of school board members at the written request of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), hardly a hotbed of leftwing political activity. Or that the people who attacked the Capitol weren’t merely “exercising their constitutionally protected rights” when they killed three police officers and sent 170 others to the hospital.
Proving that “every Trump accusation is an admission,” the EO goes on to claim that the Biden administration had turned America into a third-world nation by using the police power of the state to influence or control politics and elections:
“The prior administration and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process. It targeted individuals who voiced opposition to the prior administration’s policies with numerous Federal investigations and politically motivated funding revocations, which cost Americans access to needed services.”
Without specifics, it’s impossible to tell exactly what the author is speaking of around “targeting individuals”; in all probability the real goal of this paragraph is to justify Trump’s Justice Department and FBI doing exactly what’s outlined here going forward: investigate and prosecute those “who voice opposition” to Trump as he works to gut Social Security and Medicare and tries to harass or imprison his political opponents. (He just reversed Biden’s reduction of drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, for example.)
And then the EO wanders into the realm of flat-out lies and misrepresentations:
“The Department of Justice even jailed an individual for posting a political meme. And while the Department of Justice has ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6 and simultaneously dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters.”
The guy who “posted a political meme” was named Douglass Mackey, a white man who was sentenced to seven months in prison in October 2023 for posting a picture of a Black woman in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign with text instructing people to “Avoid the line, vote from home and text Hillary to 59925.”
It’s also worth noting that Mackey committed this election interference crime during the 2016 election and most of the investigation and prosecution of him was done by the Trump Justice Departmentstarting in 2018.
And the EO’s claim that Biden’s DOJ “dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters” isn’t just wrong, it’s a flat-out lie. Not only did the Biden administration continue prosecutions begun during Trump’s last year in office, they brought over a hundred new cases putting more than 70 BLM-protest-associated defendants in prison for an average of 27 months with at least ten people getting five years or more.
Asking Trump and his people to simply tell the truth appears to be a bridge too far; George Orwell himself couldn’t have done better if he’d tried to draft this EO in the voice of Big Brother.
We’ve already seen Trump try this weaponization of the Justice Department, in a small way, with the appointment during his first term of John Durham, the federal prosecutor who set out to prove that the charges of Trump’s ties to Russia and Putin were false and politically motivated.
Merrick Garland made that wrong and rather pathetic decision to keep Durham on (just like he did with the political prosecution of Hunter Biden). Nonetheless, Durham ended up endorsing the Mueller Report’s conclusions that Russia was working hard to elect Trump, and his bumbling attempts to prosecute people for investigating Trump ended in easy acquittals by two different juries.
But now Trump runs the Justice Department, and, in all probability, former Florida AG Pam Bondi will be Trump’s attorney general. Which should deeply trouble all Americans who care about keeping politics and the police and prosecutorial apparatus of our nation separate, given that:
— Bondi refused to directly answer whether or not she would investigate Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought criminal cases against Trump. When asked, she said it would be “irresponsible” to make any commitment without reviewing files.
— When questioned about investigating former Rep. Liz Cheney for serving on the January 6 committee, Bondi avoided a direct answer, stating, “You’re trying to engage me in a gotcha. I won’t do it.”
— She declined to rule out investigating Trump’s political opponents, instead claiming, “No one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent.”
— Bondi refused to condemn Trump’s characterization of January 6 defendants as “hostages” or “patriots,” claiming — incredibly — that she was “unfamiliar” with his ever having said such a thing.
The real goal of this executive order is to kick off the prosecution of people Trump considers his political enemies.
Under normal circumstances, the Department of Justice can’t open an investigation (or subsequent prosecution) of an American citizen without at least “a reasonable indication of criminal activity” (the lowest standard, not requiring proof), “reasonable suspicion” (based on evidence), or a “criminal predicate” (based on past investigations or convictions).
But these aren’t normal circumstances; Trump is hell-bent-for-leather to turn America into a tinpot dictatorship as fast as he can, establishing the same sort of single-party state his mentors, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, run in Russia and Hungary.
Thus this EO, which establishes a legal basis for the DOJ to start investigations and prosecutions ASAP without the usually-required evidence or “indication of criminal activity.”
Get ready for investigations, arrests, and show trials of the people who’ve tried to hold Trump accountable for his crimes and traitorous behavior. By signing this executive order, he’s all but announced them with fireworks and loudspeakers.
ALTERNET
By repealing President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 executive order (EO) banning racial discrimination in hiring for the federal government, Donald Trump has proudly proclaimed his intention of Making America White Again, at least with regard to political power and economic opportunity.
Another EO Trump signed this week proclaims that our sex identity begins at “fertilization” when, in fact, sexual development doesn’t begin to start until at least the sixth week after fertilization. In addition to attacking transgender individuals and setting them up for rank persecution (this EO’s main goal), it’s also a way of laying the groundwork for fetal personhood, a doctrine that will ultimately lead to a total ban on abortion and several methods of birth control.
But the most troubling of his executive orders is the one with the Orwellian name of “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.”
It lays out a rationalization to investigate and then prosecute the investigators and attorneys in the federal government who looked into Trump’s many ties to Russia and Putin. It then goes after those who tracked down and imprisoned January 6th seditionists, and tried (unsuccessfully, thanks to Merrick Garland’s temerity) to prosecute Trump for his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and to steal top-secret nuclear and espionage secrets (which he allegedly then made available to random foreign spies passing through Mar-a-Lago).
The “Weaponization” EO makes clear from the start that it’s not about ending but, rather, beginning the weaponization of the federal government. It starts right out with a proclamation of Trump’s victimhood:
“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions.”
Representing the alleged crimes committed by Trump and his supporters — including fake electors, the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and threats of violence against school boards and others — as mere political differences with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, the executive order goes on to assert:
“These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain [on Trump and his supporters] than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives. Many of these activities appear to be inconsistent with the Constitution and/or the laws of the United States, including those activities directed at parents protesting at school board meetings, Americans who spoke out against the previous administration’s actions, and other Americans who were simply exercising constitutionally protected rights.”
Trump’s lawyers who drafted the EO fail to mention that the Department of Justice investigated intimidation of school board members at the written request of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), hardly a hotbed of leftwing political activity. Or that the people who attacked the Capitol weren’t merely “exercising their constitutionally protected rights” when they killed three police officers and sent 170 others to the hospital.
Proving that “every Trump accusation is an admission,” the EO goes on to claim that the Biden administration had turned America into a third-world nation by using the police power of the state to influence or control politics and elections:
“The prior administration and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process. It targeted individuals who voiced opposition to the prior administration’s policies with numerous Federal investigations and politically motivated funding revocations, which cost Americans access to needed services.”
Without specifics, it’s impossible to tell exactly what the author is speaking of around “targeting individuals”; in all probability the real goal of this paragraph is to justify Trump’s Justice Department and FBI doing exactly what’s outlined here going forward: investigate and prosecute those “who voice opposition” to Trump as he works to gut Social Security and Medicare and tries to harass or imprison his political opponents. (He just reversed Biden’s reduction of drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, for example.)
And then the EO wanders into the realm of flat-out lies and misrepresentations:
“The Department of Justice even jailed an individual for posting a political meme. And while the Department of Justice has ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6 and simultaneously dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters.”
The guy who “posted a political meme” was named Douglass Mackey, a white man who was sentenced to seven months in prison in October 2023 for posting a picture of a Black woman in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign with text instructing people to “Avoid the line, vote from home and text Hillary to 59925.”
It’s also worth noting that Mackey committed this election interference crime during the 2016 election and most of the investigation and prosecution of him was done by the Trump Justice Departmentstarting in 2018.
And the EO’s claim that Biden’s DOJ “dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters” isn’t just wrong, it’s a flat-out lie. Not only did the Biden administration continue prosecutions begun during Trump’s last year in office, they brought over a hundred new cases putting more than 70 BLM-protest-associated defendants in prison for an average of 27 months with at least ten people getting five years or more.
Asking Trump and his people to simply tell the truth appears to be a bridge too far; George Orwell himself couldn’t have done better if he’d tried to draft this EO in the voice of Big Brother.
We’ve already seen Trump try this weaponization of the Justice Department, in a small way, with the appointment during his first term of John Durham, the federal prosecutor who set out to prove that the charges of Trump’s ties to Russia and Putin were false and politically motivated.
Merrick Garland made that wrong and rather pathetic decision to keep Durham on (just like he did with the political prosecution of Hunter Biden). Nonetheless, Durham ended up endorsing the Mueller Report’s conclusions that Russia was working hard to elect Trump, and his bumbling attempts to prosecute people for investigating Trump ended in easy acquittals by two different juries.
But now Trump runs the Justice Department, and, in all probability, former Florida AG Pam Bondi will be Trump’s attorney general. Which should deeply trouble all Americans who care about keeping politics and the police and prosecutorial apparatus of our nation separate, given that:
— Bondi refused to directly answer whether or not she would investigate Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought criminal cases against Trump. When asked, she said it would be “irresponsible” to make any commitment without reviewing files.
— When questioned about investigating former Rep. Liz Cheney for serving on the January 6 committee, Bondi avoided a direct answer, stating, “You’re trying to engage me in a gotcha. I won’t do it.”
— She declined to rule out investigating Trump’s political opponents, instead claiming, “No one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent.”
— Bondi refused to condemn Trump’s characterization of January 6 defendants as “hostages” or “patriots,” claiming — incredibly — that she was “unfamiliar” with his ever having said such a thing.
The real goal of this executive order is to kick off the prosecution of people Trump considers his political enemies.
Under normal circumstances, the Department of Justice can’t open an investigation (or subsequent prosecution) of an American citizen without at least “a reasonable indication of criminal activity” (the lowest standard, not requiring proof), “reasonable suspicion” (based on evidence), or a “criminal predicate” (based on past investigations or convictions).
But these aren’t normal circumstances; Trump is hell-bent-for-leather to turn America into a tinpot dictatorship as fast as he can, establishing the same sort of single-party state his mentors, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, run in Russia and Hungary.
Thus this EO, which establishes a legal basis for the DOJ to start investigations and prosecutions ASAP without the usually-required evidence or “indication of criminal activity.”
Get ready for investigations, arrests, and show trials of the people who’ve tried to hold Trump accountable for his crimes and traitorous behavior. By signing this executive order, he’s all but announced them with fireworks and loudspeakers.
January 22, 2025
By David Badash
THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
With a stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Tuesday that overturned government policies going back six decades that banned discrimination and required affirmative action by federal contractors. This order canceled directives established by previous orders, including those issued by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack Obama. The move, executed late Tuesday, came just a day after President Trump rescinded executive orders requiring diversity and affirmative action in the federal workplace.
In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, banning federal contractors “from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which was charged with ensuring its compliance. Until President Trump rescinded it on Tuesday, EO11246 also required “contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that equal opportunity is provided in all aspects of their employment.”
President Barack Obama in 2014 amended that order via Executive Order 13672, which added “sexual orientation or gender identity” to the list of protected classes.
In his Tuesday executive order, “Trump said the OFCCP [Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs] must immediately stop promoting diversity and affirmative action, and cease ‘allowing or encouraging’ contractors and subcontractors to engage in ‘workforce balancing’ based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, and ‘sexual preference,'” according to Bloomberg Law.
“Trump has jumped into action in weakening diversity, equity, and inclusion policies since his inauguration. He already signed a pair of executive orders on Jan. 20 that eliminated DEI programs within the federal government and restricted the definition of ‘gender’ to male and female,” Bloomberg reported. “Trump’s sweeping new order Tuesday also aimed to ‘encourage’ private-sector companies to end ‘illegal’ DEI programs by redefining them as a form of discrimination.”
Axios reported, “This takes the current pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion into the next stratosphere — abolishing decades of government standards on diversity and equal opportunity, and seeking to crackdown on the same in the private sector.”
Trump on Tuesday also effectively furloughed all employees throughout the federal government, placing them on leave with pay. It is expected that he will terminate their employment.
“The memo, issued Tuesday to heads of departments and agencies, sets a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to inform the employees that they will be put on paid administrative leave as the agencies prepare to close all DEI-related offices and programs and to remove all websites and social media accounts for such offices,” NBC News reported. “It also asks federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for dismissing the employees.”
“Trump signed an executive order Monday ending ‘radical and wasteful’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, with DEI offices and programs being ordered to shut down.”
Trump has a history of battling government anti-discrimination regulations. His real estate business was sued in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Justice in a racial discrimination case.
“Trump and his father fiercely fought a 1973 discrimination lawsuit brought by the Justice Department for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to black tenants,” the Associated Press reported in a 2016 fact check. “Testimony showed that the applications filed by black apartment seekers were marked with a ‘C’ for ‘colored.’ A settlement that ended the lawsuit did not require the Trumps to explicitly acknowledge that discrimination had occurred — but the government’s description of the settlement said Trump and his father had ‘failed and neglected’ to comply with the Fair Housing Act.”
Constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis on Wednesday called LBJ’s EO11246 “a fundamental piece of the civil rights canon in American law.”
“The symbolism” in Trump revoking the order, “is huge,” he added.
“The phrase ‘affirmative action’ was used by JFK in a 1961 order on equal employment. Johnson followed it with this order, which survived six Republican presidents — including Trump’s first term,” noted ABC News Radio’s Steven Portnoy. “He revoked it last night.”
“The rollback of civil rights intensifies. For almost six decades, Executive Order 11246 (signed by LBJ in 1965) forbade federal contractors and vendors to discriminate by race, color, national origin, religion, sex, etc. This morning, the president revoked it,” commented Tom Sugrue, a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History.
Laurence Tribe, the noted constitutional law scholar and retired Harvard Law professor, observed: “There goes six decades of progress toward justice begun by LBJ.”
Nicholas Sarwark, former Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, noted: “One of the goals of MAGA is to repeal the civil rights era, making segregation, discrimination, and voter suppression legal and deny people their rights under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Will that make life better for you, your family, or your neighbors?”
At The New Republic, Malcolm Ferguson wrote: “This is a massive, regressive attack on basic policy that helps protect people from real discrimination. And it won’t lower the price of eggs.”
With a stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Tuesday that overturned government policies going back six decades that banned discrimination and required affirmative action by federal contractors. This order canceled directives established by previous orders, including those issued by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack Obama. The move, executed late Tuesday, came just a day after President Trump rescinded executive orders requiring diversity and affirmative action in the federal workplace.
In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, banning federal contractors “from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which was charged with ensuring its compliance. Until President Trump rescinded it on Tuesday, EO11246 also required “contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that equal opportunity is provided in all aspects of their employment.”
President Barack Obama in 2014 amended that order via Executive Order 13672, which added “sexual orientation or gender identity” to the list of protected classes.
In his Tuesday executive order, “Trump said the OFCCP [Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs] must immediately stop promoting diversity and affirmative action, and cease ‘allowing or encouraging’ contractors and subcontractors to engage in ‘workforce balancing’ based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, and ‘sexual preference,'” according to Bloomberg Law.
“Trump has jumped into action in weakening diversity, equity, and inclusion policies since his inauguration. He already signed a pair of executive orders on Jan. 20 that eliminated DEI programs within the federal government and restricted the definition of ‘gender’ to male and female,” Bloomberg reported. “Trump’s sweeping new order Tuesday also aimed to ‘encourage’ private-sector companies to end ‘illegal’ DEI programs by redefining them as a form of discrimination.”
Axios reported, “This takes the current pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion into the next stratosphere — abolishing decades of government standards on diversity and equal opportunity, and seeking to crackdown on the same in the private sector.”
Trump on Tuesday also effectively furloughed all employees throughout the federal government, placing them on leave with pay. It is expected that he will terminate their employment.
“The memo, issued Tuesday to heads of departments and agencies, sets a deadline of no later than 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to inform the employees that they will be put on paid administrative leave as the agencies prepare to close all DEI-related offices and programs and to remove all websites and social media accounts for such offices,” NBC News reported. “It also asks federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for dismissing the employees.”
“Trump signed an executive order Monday ending ‘radical and wasteful’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, with DEI offices and programs being ordered to shut down.”
Trump has a history of battling government anti-discrimination regulations. His real estate business was sued in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Justice in a racial discrimination case.
“Trump and his father fiercely fought a 1973 discrimination lawsuit brought by the Justice Department for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to black tenants,” the Associated Press reported in a 2016 fact check. “Testimony showed that the applications filed by black apartment seekers were marked with a ‘C’ for ‘colored.’ A settlement that ended the lawsuit did not require the Trumps to explicitly acknowledge that discrimination had occurred — but the government’s description of the settlement said Trump and his father had ‘failed and neglected’ to comply with the Fair Housing Act.”
Constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis on Wednesday called LBJ’s EO11246 “a fundamental piece of the civil rights canon in American law.”
“The symbolism” in Trump revoking the order, “is huge,” he added.
“The phrase ‘affirmative action’ was used by JFK in a 1961 order on equal employment. Johnson followed it with this order, which survived six Republican presidents — including Trump’s first term,” noted ABC News Radio’s Steven Portnoy. “He revoked it last night.”
“The rollback of civil rights intensifies. For almost six decades, Executive Order 11246 (signed by LBJ in 1965) forbade federal contractors and vendors to discriminate by race, color, national origin, religion, sex, etc. This morning, the president revoked it,” commented Tom Sugrue, a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History.
Laurence Tribe, the noted constitutional law scholar and retired Harvard Law professor, observed: “There goes six decades of progress toward justice begun by LBJ.”
Nicholas Sarwark, former Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, noted: “One of the goals of MAGA is to repeal the civil rights era, making segregation, discrimination, and voter suppression legal and deny people their rights under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Will that make life better for you, your family, or your neighbors?”
At The New Republic, Malcolm Ferguson wrote: “This is a massive, regressive attack on basic policy that helps protect people from real discrimination. And it won’t lower the price of eggs.”
Wartime president': Conservative details ways Trump is 'at war with half of America'
Donald Trump with House Speaker Mike Johnson on January 11, 2025 (Wikimedia Commons)
Donald Trump with House Speaker Mike Johnson on January 11, 2025 (Wikimedia Commons)
January 22, 2025
ALTERNET
Although Donald Trump has only been back in the White House a few days, his second presidency has already generated a great deal of controversy — from pardoning more than 1500 January 6 rioters to issuing an executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship (which, the ACLU says, he doesn't have the authority to do because birthright citizenship is protected in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment).
In a column for The Bulwark, Never Trump conservative Jonathan V. Last lays out some reasons he considers Trump a "wartime president." But the president's primary target, Last stresses, isn't a foreign adversary.
"He can finally be a wartime president," Last argues. "It's just that he's going to war against America."
Trump, Last laments, "sees himself as being at war with half of America" — and he is expressing his "wartime" outlook by pardoning the January 6 rioters, fighting against birthright citizenship and proposing steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
"If he targets immigrants in blue states," Last warns, "he can create a drag on local, blue-state economies while satisfying the anti-immigrant desires of red-state voters. It's a twofer. Trump can hurt businesses and make life more expensive for consumers in New York and Illinois — and then attack blue state mayors and governors for these problems and maybe even help Republican candidates win in those states. Meanwhile, Fox will run B-roll from the raids on a loop, satisfying Trump voters in Texas and Arizona — whose economies will continue to benefit from immigrant workers."
The Never Trumper continues, "Trump understands that blue states are the last bastions of meaningful popular opposition to his rule, so he will use the federal government to subdue them. That's what deportations — and tariffs — are for. These are executive powers which can be used in highly-targeted ways to hurt on local economies. If you live in a blue state, President Trump is going to use the power of the federal government to make your life harder."
Trump, according to Last, "is governing not for all Americans…. but as an attack on the half of America that opposed him."
"I hope we can all be clear-eyed about this," Last writes. "Because being clear-eyed is about all we can do for the moment."
Jonathan V. Last's full column for The Bulwark is available at this link.
Although Donald Trump has only been back in the White House a few days, his second presidency has already generated a great deal of controversy — from pardoning more than 1500 January 6 rioters to issuing an executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship (which, the ACLU says, he doesn't have the authority to do because birthright citizenship is protected in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment).
In a column for The Bulwark, Never Trump conservative Jonathan V. Last lays out some reasons he considers Trump a "wartime president." But the president's primary target, Last stresses, isn't a foreign adversary.
"He can finally be a wartime president," Last argues. "It's just that he's going to war against America."
Trump, Last laments, "sees himself as being at war with half of America" — and he is expressing his "wartime" outlook by pardoning the January 6 rioters, fighting against birthright citizenship and proposing steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
"If he targets immigrants in blue states," Last warns, "he can create a drag on local, blue-state economies while satisfying the anti-immigrant desires of red-state voters. It's a twofer. Trump can hurt businesses and make life more expensive for consumers in New York and Illinois — and then attack blue state mayors and governors for these problems and maybe even help Republican candidates win in those states. Meanwhile, Fox will run B-roll from the raids on a loop, satisfying Trump voters in Texas and Arizona — whose economies will continue to benefit from immigrant workers."
The Never Trumper continues, "Trump understands that blue states are the last bastions of meaningful popular opposition to his rule, so he will use the federal government to subdue them. That's what deportations — and tariffs — are for. These are executive powers which can be used in highly-targeted ways to hurt on local economies. If you live in a blue state, President Trump is going to use the power of the federal government to make your life harder."
Trump, according to Last, "is governing not for all Americans…. but as an attack on the half of America that opposed him."
"I hope we can all be clear-eyed about this," Last writes. "Because being clear-eyed is about all we can do for the moment."
Jonathan V. Last's full column for The Bulwark is available at this link.
Alarm Bells Sound as Trump Gets to Work on 'Extreme Authoritarian Agenda'
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," warned the leaders of Popular Democracy.
A poster with an image of the face of the Statue of Liberty, with her hands covering her face, is displayed at a January 18, 2025 rally held in Paris, France just days before U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration.
(Photo: Owen Franken - Corbis/Getty Images
Jessica Corbett
Jan 21, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Since U.S. President Trump's return to office on Monday—at an inauguration ceremony full of American oligarchs—as the Republican has issued a flurry of executive orders and other actions, progressive leaders and organizers have expressed alarm and vowed to fight against his "authoritarian" agenda.
On his first day back at the White House, Trump issued 26 executive orders, 12 memos, and four proclamations, plus withdrew 78 of former President Joe Biden's executive actions, according to a tally from The Hill. Those moves related to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, the death penalty, federal workers, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, prescription drug prices, and more.
"In the last 24 hours, Trump has passed dozens of executive orders—many beyond his powers," said Popular Democracy co-director Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper in a Tuesday statement. "Yet, not one of them has lowered prices or made life better for Americans. Instead, he's focused on eroding democracy, attacking constitutional rights, and spreading fear, cruelty, and chaos.
"Trump has taken aim at the 14th Amendment's rights of equal protection and citizenship—the fundamental American right to live and participate in our democracy—with an executive order targeting birthright citizenship," they noted, referencing a policy that is already facing legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and state attorneys general.
Announcing one of the lawsuits, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said that "this order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration's overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail."
Mejia and Cooper said that "his ineffective and inhumane executive orders targeting immigrants misuse military power and double down on damaging our communities."
The group America's Voice similarly expressed concern over Trump's "authoritarian notions of deploying the military on U.S. streets," with the group's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas, saying that "this is an attack on American families and our American values. Trump's framing of our nation being 'invaded' coupled with the attacks on birthright citizenship and policies that will throw our immigration system further into chaos show that this is a hateful campaign to justify a nativist agenda that seeks to redefine 'American' and move this nation backwards."
Popular Democracy's leaders also called out various other items from Trump's first day that are expected to face legal hurdles—though the Republican spent his first term working with GOP lawmakers to pack the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, with far-right appointees, so the effectiveness of such suits remains to be seen.
"Trump's rollbacks of critical climate policy sell out future generations to the profit of oil and gas polluters, and further endangers the poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous people who have been at the frontlines of climate disaster," they said. Trump not only repealed various Biden-era policies but also declared a "national energy emergency" to "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels.
Climate campaigners slammed Trump for invoking "authoritarian powers on Day 1 to gut environmental protections," in the words of the Center for Biological Diversity. The organization's executive director, Kierán Suckling, vowed that "no matter how extreme he becomes, we'll confront Trump with optimism and a fierce defense of our beloved wildlife and the planet's health."
"The United States has some of the strongest environmental laws in the world, and no matter how petulantly Trump behaves, these laws don't bend before the whims of a wannabe dictator," Suckling stressed. "The use of emergency powers doesn't allow a president to bypass our environmental safeguards just to enrich himself and his cronies."
The president's attacks on health are expansive. As Mejia and Cooper detailed: "Trump's sweeping changes to healthcare will rip away access for millions, line the pockets of Big Pharma, and undo strides in reproductive rights. They also single out trans Americans, denying them lifesaving healthcare and the right to live freely and authentically."
Imara Jones, a Black trans woman, CEO of TransLash Media, and an expert on the anti-trans political movement, said in a Tuesday statement that "Trump's recognition of only 'two genders' means a war on trans people, as well as any cis person with a gender expression outside of the gender binary."
"This is not political theater, this is the beginning of a potential authoritarian takeover of the United States, one that starts with targeting one of the smallest and most vulnerable groups: transgender people," Jones emphasized. "They seek to erase trans people from public life and want to see if they can get away with it, as a prelude to much more. This should worry all of us."
Another development that provoked intense worry—and even led the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Studies and Prevention to issue a "red flag alert for genocide in the United States"—was Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth and a key Trump ally, twice raising his arm in what was widely seen as a Nazi salute during a post-inauguration celebration.
Trump's Monday night decision to pardon over 1,500 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, an insurrection incited by the president himself as he contested his 2020 electoral loss, elicited similar warnings.
"By granting clemency to these individuals, who sought to overturn the peaceful transfer of power, Trump is signaling that political violence and the rejection of democratic norms are acceptable tactics in service to his authoritarian agenda," said Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese. "This is a direct threat to the foundations of our democracy and the safety of our communities."
The leaders of Popular Democracy highlighted that "undergirding this extreme authoritarian agenda is a claim that Trump has a mandate to act like a despot—no such mandate exists, much less is acceptable to the American people."
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," they warned, just weeks after Republicans took slim control of both chambers. "Popular Democracy is prepared to push back against Trump's assault on our communities. We will stand up against an unconstitutional power grab, and hold our representatives accountable in this fight."
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," warned the leaders of Popular Democracy.
A poster with an image of the face of the Statue of Liberty, with her hands covering her face, is displayed at a January 18, 2025 rally held in Paris, France just days before U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration.
(Photo: Owen Franken - Corbis/Getty Images
Jessica Corbett
Jan 21, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Since U.S. President Trump's return to office on Monday—at an inauguration ceremony full of American oligarchs—as the Republican has issued a flurry of executive orders and other actions, progressive leaders and organizers have expressed alarm and vowed to fight against his "authoritarian" agenda.
On his first day back at the White House, Trump issued 26 executive orders, 12 memos, and four proclamations, plus withdrew 78 of former President Joe Biden's executive actions, according to a tally from The Hill. Those moves related to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, the death penalty, federal workers, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, prescription drug prices, and more.
"In the last 24 hours, Trump has passed dozens of executive orders—many beyond his powers," said Popular Democracy co-director Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper in a Tuesday statement. "Yet, not one of them has lowered prices or made life better for Americans. Instead, he's focused on eroding democracy, attacking constitutional rights, and spreading fear, cruelty, and chaos.
"Trump has taken aim at the 14th Amendment's rights of equal protection and citizenship—the fundamental American right to live and participate in our democracy—with an executive order targeting birthright citizenship," they noted, referencing a policy that is already facing legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and state attorneys general.
Announcing one of the lawsuits, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said that "this order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration's overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail."
Mejia and Cooper said that "his ineffective and inhumane executive orders targeting immigrants misuse military power and double down on damaging our communities."
The group America's Voice similarly expressed concern over Trump's "authoritarian notions of deploying the military on U.S. streets," with the group's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas, saying that "this is an attack on American families and our American values. Trump's framing of our nation being 'invaded' coupled with the attacks on birthright citizenship and policies that will throw our immigration system further into chaos show that this is a hateful campaign to justify a nativist agenda that seeks to redefine 'American' and move this nation backwards."
Popular Democracy's leaders also called out various other items from Trump's first day that are expected to face legal hurdles—though the Republican spent his first term working with GOP lawmakers to pack the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, with far-right appointees, so the effectiveness of such suits remains to be seen.
"Trump's rollbacks of critical climate policy sell out future generations to the profit of oil and gas polluters, and further endangers the poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous people who have been at the frontlines of climate disaster," they said. Trump not only repealed various Biden-era policies but also declared a "national energy emergency" to "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels.
Climate campaigners slammed Trump for invoking "authoritarian powers on Day 1 to gut environmental protections," in the words of the Center for Biological Diversity. The organization's executive director, Kierán Suckling, vowed that "no matter how extreme he becomes, we'll confront Trump with optimism and a fierce defense of our beloved wildlife and the planet's health."
"The United States has some of the strongest environmental laws in the world, and no matter how petulantly Trump behaves, these laws don't bend before the whims of a wannabe dictator," Suckling stressed. "The use of emergency powers doesn't allow a president to bypass our environmental safeguards just to enrich himself and his cronies."
The president's attacks on health are expansive. As Mejia and Cooper detailed: "Trump's sweeping changes to healthcare will rip away access for millions, line the pockets of Big Pharma, and undo strides in reproductive rights. They also single out trans Americans, denying them lifesaving healthcare and the right to live freely and authentically."
Imara Jones, a Black trans woman, CEO of TransLash Media, and an expert on the anti-trans political movement, said in a Tuesday statement that "Trump's recognition of only 'two genders' means a war on trans people, as well as any cis person with a gender expression outside of the gender binary."
"This is not political theater, this is the beginning of a potential authoritarian takeover of the United States, one that starts with targeting one of the smallest and most vulnerable groups: transgender people," Jones emphasized. "They seek to erase trans people from public life and want to see if they can get away with it, as a prelude to much more. This should worry all of us."
Another development that provoked intense worry—and even led the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Studies and Prevention to issue a "red flag alert for genocide in the United States"—was Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth and a key Trump ally, twice raising his arm in what was widely seen as a Nazi salute during a post-inauguration celebration.
Trump's Monday night decision to pardon over 1,500 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, an insurrection incited by the president himself as he contested his 2020 electoral loss, elicited similar warnings.
"By granting clemency to these individuals, who sought to overturn the peaceful transfer of power, Trump is signaling that political violence and the rejection of democratic norms are acceptable tactics in service to his authoritarian agenda," said Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese. "This is a direct threat to the foundations of our democracy and the safety of our communities."
The leaders of Popular Democracy highlighted that "undergirding this extreme authoritarian agenda is a claim that Trump has a mandate to act like a despot—no such mandate exists, much less is acceptable to the American people."
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," they warned, just weeks after Republicans took slim control of both chambers. "Popular Democracy is prepared to push back against Trump's assault on our communities. We will stand up against an unconstitutional power grab, and hold our representatives accountable in this fight."
Op-Ed: Trump. Ukraine, Mexican border, and superficiality
By Paul Wallis
January 22, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Arizona Mexico Border. — © Frederic J. Brown, AFP
From the frantic headlines about Ukraine and the Mexican border emergency, you’d think something was being done, and that anything was happening.
Trump has “told” Putin to end the “ridiculous” Ukraine war or face sanctions and tariffs.
Trump has ordered troops to the Mexican border and supposedly intends to seal the border.
Dramatic, yes.
Attention-getting, yes.
Meaningful?
Not particularly.
Russia is already the most sanctioned place on earth. You can’t charge tariffs on illegal trade with a country under sanctions. The noise is all about Trump being visible on the issues. He’s also being seen as giving orders to Putin, a departure from the last time they met. Putin may not like that.
Anything could happen in Russia. Economic and social stability are questionable at best. That could mean very hard times in a place that is looking almost back to the horrific 1990s in some ways. Discontent is real enough.
The Ukraine situation requires a lot more than a press release. A satisfactory peace needs more than rhetoric from thousands of miles away. Donetsk alone may be uninhabitable after all the fighting. The entire area is full of unexploded munitions and toxic chemistry. The dead and maimed aren’t doing too well, either. The displaced people need help. Cleaning up to any degree will take years, a lot of skills, and lots of money.
By Paul Wallis
January 22, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Arizona Mexico Border. — © Frederic J. Brown, AFP
From the frantic headlines about Ukraine and the Mexican border emergency, you’d think something was being done, and that anything was happening.
Trump has “told” Putin to end the “ridiculous” Ukraine war or face sanctions and tariffs.
Trump has ordered troops to the Mexican border and supposedly intends to seal the border.
Dramatic, yes.
Attention-getting, yes.
Meaningful?
Not particularly.
Russia is already the most sanctioned place on earth. You can’t charge tariffs on illegal trade with a country under sanctions. The noise is all about Trump being visible on the issues. He’s also being seen as giving orders to Putin, a departure from the last time they met. Putin may not like that.
Anything could happen in Russia. Economic and social stability are questionable at best. That could mean very hard times in a place that is looking almost back to the horrific 1990s in some ways. Discontent is real enough.
The Ukraine situation requires a lot more than a press release. A satisfactory peace needs more than rhetoric from thousands of miles away. Donetsk alone may be uninhabitable after all the fighting. The entire area is full of unexploded munitions and toxic chemistry. The dead and maimed aren’t doing too well, either. The displaced people need help. Cleaning up to any degree will take years, a lot of skills, and lots of money.
It was not immediately clear how much Ukraine had advanced in Kursk
– Copyright AFP Yan DOBRONOSOV
The world could at least try using a brain cell to analyze the problems. Where’s the reconstruction aid? What about repatriation? What about the tens of thousands who may need lifelong care?
OK, you have to start somewhere, but why is nobody talking about the inevitable next steps? Why is everyone just sitting around amid the disasters?
How America relates to the world, and how the world relates to America, are the two critical issues for the immediate future. Credibility matters more than verbosity.
Superficiality won’t work. America’s idiotic war with itself has never worked. Putting lipstick on the wrong end of the pig won’t help.
Meanwhile – The Mexican border is mainly used by illegal immigrants getting the cheapskate no-frills service from people smugglers. The border is not generally the successful way of getting into the US. Everyone knows that, particularly the criminals exploiting desperate people at very much higher prices.
The world could at least try using a brain cell to analyze the problems. Where’s the reconstruction aid? What about repatriation? What about the tens of thousands who may need lifelong care?
OK, you have to start somewhere, but why is nobody talking about the inevitable next steps? Why is everyone just sitting around amid the disasters?
How America relates to the world, and how the world relates to America, are the two critical issues for the immediate future. Credibility matters more than verbosity.
Superficiality won’t work. America’s idiotic war with itself has never worked. Putting lipstick on the wrong end of the pig won’t help.
Meanwhile – The Mexican border is mainly used by illegal immigrants getting the cheapskate no-frills service from people smugglers. The border is not generally the successful way of getting into the US. Everyone knows that, particularly the criminals exploiting desperate people at very much higher prices.
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration devastated some migrants at the US-Mexico border
– Copyright AFP Guillermo Arias
There are plenty of other ways to get into the US that don’t involve floundering around in a hostile desert. This response is yet another cosmetic exercise which is basically an expensive marketing stunt.
The Mexican government is stuck with its own serious domestic issues and a border situation in which the US government doesn’t seem to be working with it at all. Back in 2007, millions of guns went from the US to Mexico. Nobody paid any attention. The cartels emerged soon after. That worked out well, didn’t it?
US policy on Mexico hasn’t changed much since Teddy Roosevelt but this ain’t San Juan Hill anymore. A Mexican version of Vietnam doesn’t sound too appealing, either. Mexico should not be pushed into any sort of confrontational situation.
Try pushing the right buttons. It might help.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
There are plenty of other ways to get into the US that don’t involve floundering around in a hostile desert. This response is yet another cosmetic exercise which is basically an expensive marketing stunt.
The Mexican government is stuck with its own serious domestic issues and a border situation in which the US government doesn’t seem to be working with it at all. Back in 2007, millions of guns went from the US to Mexico. Nobody paid any attention. The cartels emerged soon after. That worked out well, didn’t it?
US policy on Mexico hasn’t changed much since Teddy Roosevelt but this ain’t San Juan Hill anymore. A Mexican version of Vietnam doesn’t sound too appealing, either. Mexico should not be pushed into any sort of confrontational situation.
Try pushing the right buttons. It might help.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
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