Trump Readies 'Day One Climate Destruction Package' After Raking in Big Oil Cash


"The fossil fuel industry invested $75 million to secure Trump's victory, and now they're expecting a return," said the executive director of Oil Change International.


Then-U.S. President Donald Trump listened to California Gov. Gavin Newsom at Sacramento McClellan Airport in McClellan Park, California on September 14, 2020.
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Jan 17, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

The fossil fuel industry pumped tens of millions of dollars into President-elect Donald Trump's successful bid for a second White House term—and it could begin seeing a return on its investment on his very first day in office.

Trump pledged on the campaign trail to be a "dictator" on day one in the service of accelerating U.S. fossil fuel production, which is already at record levels as nations around the world—including the United States—face the devastating consequences of planet-warming emissions.

Soon after his inauguration on Monday, Trump is expected to begin signing executive orders—some of them likely crafted by fossil fuel industry lobbyists—revoking climate-protection rules implemented by his predecessor and paving the way for new liquefied natural gas export permits, among other gifts to the industry.

Citing "several fossil fuel industry lobbying groups helping shape Trump's energy agenda," Business Insiderreported Thursday that Trump "could direct federal agencies to approve new terminals to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) and start unwinding restrictions on oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters."

The president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's powerful lobbying group, said earlier this week that his organization is "excited" about the prospect of Trump lifting the LNG pause.

A study published Friday warns that a flurry of LNG terminal approvals would "deliver a windfall for U.S. fracking companies and exporters of liquefied methane" while "extending an export explosion that's pushing up prices for American consumers while harming the climate and vulnerable communities."

"Trump is handing these companies a blank check to expand their operations at precisely the moment we need to end fossil fuel extraction."

Trump, whose Cabinet is set to be packed with fossil fuel industry allies, has also said he would immediately move to roll back President Joe Biden's ban on offshore oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory—even though the law Biden used does not give presidents the power to undo previous offshore drilling bans.

In a statement on Friday, Oil Change International (OCI) listed a number of other actions Trump could take on day one, including withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, an emergency declaration to boost fossil fuel production, an expansion of drilling on public lands, and an attempt to revive the Keystone XL pipeline.

OCI dubbed the agenda "Trump's day one climate destruction package."

"The fossil fuel industry invested $75 million to secure Trump's victory, and now they're expecting a return," said Elizabeth Bast, OCI's executive director. "By appointing fossil fuel CEOs to key Cabinet positions and planning to dismantle critical environmental protections, Trump is handing these companies a blank check to expand their operations at precisely the moment we need to end fossil fuel extraction."

"As Trump returns to office, we're witnessing the deadly price tag of fossil fuel industry control over our democracy," Bast said. "From the still-burning wildfires in Los Angeles to the destruction left by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, to the unprecedented droughts and floods devastating Southern Africa, the climate crisis is accelerating. These deadly disasters are driven by fossil fuel executives who put their profits ahead of our future."

E&E Newsreported Friday that Trump "could sign somewhere between 50 and 100 executive orders" on the first day of his second term. One of the first targets, according to the outlet, will be Biden's early executive order directing federal agencies to take part in a "government-wide approach to the climate crisis."

Trump is also expected to take aim at renewable energy initiatives, including wind projects and an electric vehicle tax credit implemented under the Inflation Reduction Act.


In response to Trump's planned actions, climate activists said the movement for a livable future must mobilize around the world and fight back in every way possible.


"One man and one election may temporarily cloud the horizon, but they cannot halt the relentless momentum of climate action," Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe, senior just transitions and campaigns adviser at Powershift Africa, said Friday. "If anything, such moments are an invitation for historically polluting nations to step forward, not with the rhetoric of obstruction, but with the deeds of redemption. The world is watching, and we've seen enough bluster, now it’s time for genuine action. The stakes are no longer abstract, lives are being lost every day."

'Really screwed up': Biden hammers red states over pandemic response in exit interview

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C., U.S., January 17, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

Carl Gibson

January 17, 2025

ALTERNET

President Joe Biden will leave office on Monday, after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated at 12 PM Eastern Time. But the 46th president of the United States is using one of his final public appearances to take swings at Republican-led states' economic management.

NBC News recently reported that Biden didn't hold back when blasting how his political opponents in state governments across the country handled the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic – particularly when it came to rebuilding their economies after millions were put out of work due to the virus. Biden's remarks came in response to a question from MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, who asked the outgoing president why his administration "invested more in red states than blue states."

"Red states really screwed up in terms of the way they handled their economy and the way they handled manufacturing and the way they handled access to supply chains," Biden said. He also admitted that, despite getting the U.S. economy back on track in the wake of the pandemic, he made a "mistake" in "not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this."

Biden said he overlooked the need to "let people know that this was something the Democrats did, that it was done by the party," when it came to passing critical legislation like the American Rescue Plan. That legislation — which passed largely on party lines — injected roughly $2 trillion into the economy that provided relief for renters, workers, homeowners, student borrowers, small businesses and state governments to aid in pandemic recovery.

"Ironically, I almost spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics," the president told O'Donnell.

The outgoing president observed that Trump's decision to sign the first wave of Covid-19 stimulus checks was smart politics. Even though it didn't result in him winning the 2020 election, Biden said voters' hazy memories going into the 2024 election led to a lot of confusion about who was ultimately responsible for getting the U.S. through the pandemic.

"It helped [Trump] a lot, and it undermined our ability to convince people that we were the ones that were getting this to them," Biden said.

Click here to read NBC News' full article.

Biden grants clemency to 2,500 people, most ever in a day


By AFP
January 17, 2025


US President Joe Biden. - © AFP SAUL LOEB

President Joe Biden on Friday commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses in what the White House called the largest single-day act of clemency in US history.

Those whose sentences were commuted were serving “disproportionately long sentences” compared to what they would receive today, Biden said in a statement.

He called the move “an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families.”

“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” Biden said, adding that he may issue further commutations or pardons before he hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday.

President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, the largest single-day act of clemency in US history – Copyright GETTY IMAGES/AFP CHIP SOMODEVILLA

The outgoing president said those receiving clemency had received lengthy sentences based on now-discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, which have disproportionately impacted the Black community.

Historically, there have been considerably more crack cocaine convictions involving Black offenders than whites and the disparate sentencing policy has been condemned as racist.

Kara Gotsch, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which campaigns for prison reform, welcomed the White House clemency action, saying it would provide “relief for countless families who have endured punishments for loved ones that far exceed their utility.”

“Cruel and excessive prison sentences that have overwhelmingly harmed Black communities have been the cornerstone of federal drug policy for generations,” Gotsch said in a statement. “American communities, disproportionately Black and Brown, have long borne the scars of the Drug War.”

Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others last month.

Among those pardoned in December was Biden’s son Hunter, who was facing a possible prison sentence after being convicted of gun and tax crimes.

Biden has meanwhile reportedly been debating whether to issue blanket pre-emptive pardons for some allies and former officials amid fears they could be targeted for what Trump has previously called “retribution.”

In December, Biden also commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row.

Three men were excluded from the move: one of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, a gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshippers in 2018 and a white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in 2015.

Trump has indicated that he will resume federal executions, which were paused while Biden was in office.

'This Is a Victory': Biden Affirms ERA Has Been 'Ratified' and Law of the Land


"It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people," said the president.



Advocates march to demand the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. 1975

 U.S. President Joe Biden on January 17, 2025 said the ERA is ratified.
(Photo: Barbara Freeman/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 17, 2025

COMMON DREAMS



More than half a century after the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment, President Joe Biden on Friday announced his administration's official opinion that the amendment is ratified and its protections against sex-based discrimination are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

The announcement has been long demanded by rights advocates including Democratic lawmakers who have recently called on Biden to affirm the ERA's ratification in order to protect reproductive rights that have been gutted by the Republican Party.

"It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people," said Biden. "In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex."

The statement came five years after Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. With that move, state lawmakers completed the requirement that three-fourths of U.S. states ratify the amendment.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, ratification deadlines that were set by Congress after the ERA had passed by the time Virginia ratified the amendment, and five states have rescinded their approval.

But a senior White House official toldCNN Friday that the president's decision was informed by the American Bar Association's opinion that "no time limit was included in the text of the Equal Rights Amendment."

"The Constitution's framers wisely avoided the chaos that would have resulted if states were able to take back the ratifying votes at any time," according to the legal association.


Former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who in November called on Biden to take every action available to him in order to protect reproductive rights, including ensuring the ERA was recognized as part of the Constitution, called the president's announcement "an historic and consequential step."

"For over a century, we have fought for the principle that 'equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex,'" said Bush. "These 24 words must now be published and enshrined in our Constitution to provide a crucial safeguard against discrimination for women, LGBTQ+ folks, and all marginalized communities."

With Biden issuing his opinion, advocates have held that the archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, must now certify and publish the amendment.

In December, Shogan released a statement saying that in 2020 and 2022, "the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable" arguing that the ERA could not be certified.

The senior administration official told CNN that Shogan "is required to publish an amendment once it has been effectively ratified."

"It will be up to the courts to interpret this and their view of the Equal Rights Amendment," they added.

Kate Kelly, a human rights lawyer who wrote the book Ordinary Equality about the ERA, asserted the amendment has been part of the Constitution since it was ratified by Virginia in 2020.

"The Archivist has no constitutional or legal role in the amending process," said Kelly. "She does NOT get to decide what is or is not in the U.S. Constitution. Her boss (the president of the United States) has spoken for his administration. That's it. The ERA is in! This is a victory."

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Biden's action on Friday honored "the work of generations of activists and organizers for equal rights."

"While we still have much work to do to ensure that the next generation of women has more, not less, rights than previous generations, this is an important declaration," said Jayapal. "Now we must do the work to truly make this the practice of the land."

Biden sparks legal battle by declaring Equal Rights Amendment is now 'law of the land'

President Joe Biden, Image via Screengrab.

David Badash

January 17, 2025

ALTERNET

President Joe Biden, just days before he will exit the White House, announced on Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment, which would enshrine in the U.S. Constitution equal rights for women, is now the 28th Amendment and “the law of the land.” Although he has some legal scholars backing this declaration, experts say there are still legal hurdles and a legal battle to overcome.

“Today I’m affirming what I have long believed and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex,” President Biden wrote. “I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years and have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their sex. We must affirm and protect women’s full equality once and for all.”

“On January 27, 2020,” President Biden explained in his statement on the White House website, “the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.”

“It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”

CNN calls Biden’s announcement “a last-minute move that some believe could pave the way to bolstering reproductive rights.”

“It will, however, certainly draw swift legal challenges – and its next steps remain extremely unclear as Biden prepares to leave office.”

The news network also credits U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) with “making a major push for certification, saying in a memo to interested parties that it would give Biden a way to ‘codify women’s freedom and equality without needing anything from a bitterly divided and broken Congress’ in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

In 2020, after Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, the necessary requirement of three-fourths ratification may have been met.

As The Brennan Center for Justice noted just days later, “there are still hurdles in the ERA’s path. The ratification deadlines that Congress set after it approved the amendment have lapsed, and five states have acted to rescind their prior approval. These raise important questions, and now it is up to Congress, the courts, and the American people to resolve them.”

Congress could try to waive the deadline and try to ignore the states that rescinded their ratification.

President Biden did not order the National Archivist to certify the ERA as the 28th Amendment. Some have suggested neither has the legal authority to do so at this point.

But some have also suggested the deadline was unconstitutional.

The Associated Press called President Biden’s declaration “a symbolic statement that’s unlikely to alter a decades-long push for gender equality,” and “unlikely to have any impact.”

“Presidents do not have any role in the amendment process. The leader of the National Archives had previously said that the amendment cannot be certified because it wasn’t ratified before a deadline set by Congress,” the AP added. It noted that the National Archives said, “the underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed.”

'No reason it shouldn't be done': Democrats cheer Biden's latest move on equal rights

President Joe Biden announced on Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has officially been affirmed.

Sarah K. Burris
January 17, 2025 
RAW STORY

Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz.

In a statement, Biden said Virginia's 2020 vote means that enough states have ratified the law. This move will likely begin the legal debate over whether it is official and can be considered law. Congress had set a timeline for ratification, and Virginia's ratification was after that deadline.

"The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution," Biden said in a statement.


READ ALSO: America is marching toward theocracy one zygote at a time

The move caused a lot of shock and anticipation across the left.

Demcast host Nick Kundsen exclaimed, "Holy S---," responding to the unexpected news.

"But there's still another step -- and a legal fight -- ahead," said Moms Demand Action Shannon Watts.

"But he also has no formal role in the process, and WH officials say he is not ordering the archivist to help ratify it," said Washington Post reporter Matt Viser.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote a Blue Sky thread on the legal debate saying, "The ERA needs to be formally published or certified to come into effect by the National Archivist — it's not clear what that means with the change in administrations."

"Next the archivist should publish the ERA. That task is 'purely ministerial,' he's required to do it once the law is ratified," she added. "It could happen today but more likely, Biden has put Trump in the position of letting it go into effect or holding it up. If Trump does, expect lawsuits because, ministerial."

She also pointed out that Trump has promised to replace the Archivist because the incumbent in the office played a role "in noticing Trump was illegally holding on to classified documents and asking to get them back. So, expect the new guy to be thoroughly in Trump's control."

"There is a legitimate legal issue BUT, there is no impediment to putting ERA into law, IF elected officials agree women deserve equal rights. There is no reason it shouldn't be done," she said, implying that Biden is forcing Republicans to argue women don't deserve equal rights publicly.

She also shared a 2020 explainer from The Brennan Center for Justice about it.

'Who’s in charge?' Foreign diplomats baffled by Trump's flood of 'special envoys'

Tom Boggioni
January 17, 2025 

RAW STORY

Donald Trump (Photo via Reuters)

A decision by Donald Trump to continue to hand out political rewards in the form of appointments to be a "special envoy" to U.S. allies has foreign diplomats wary of who they should listen to and who they should ignore.

According to reporting from NBC News, the president-elect is creating a "diplomatic mess" that could hamstring incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he is confirmed by the Senate.

Noting that the president-elect "larger goal of stocking important government jobs with people he deems loyal to his agenda" is causing no shortage of criticism overseas with NBC reporting it has "the potential for duplication that may confuse foreign capitals about who’s really running thing."

Case in point, the report notes that Britain is faced with the prospect of "no fewer than three incoming officials" representing the president-elect which could lead to competing narratives of what Trump wants or believes.

One former Trump official expressed bafflement at what is going on.

Lewis Lukens, who served as acting U.S. ambassador to Britain under Trump, admitted, "I'm mystified by the notion that you would have an ambassador to the United Kingdom and a special envoy to the United Kingdom. I just don’t see how that has anything but a disastrous result."

He is not the only critic.

One foreign diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous lamented, “We’ve been in touch with several officers and envoys, and it’s a bit confusing. We’re not sure the envoy and the secretary himself know exactly their responsibilities. Who’s in charge on what issue?”


Foreign Relations Committee Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy (CT) is also raising a red flag by warning, "They’re building a diplomatic mess.”


“Historically, presidents have always used envoys,” he admitted before cautioning, “I don’t broadly have a problem with a president appointing envoys. I just think you should do it in a way that doesn’t create a real mess of overlapping responsibilities."

A former Trump White House official admitted the current state of affairs is nothing new.


"More than once, a country in confusion would say, 'I was just talking to Jared [Kushner], and he said something different,' or 'I was just talking to your U.N. ambassador [Nikki Haley], who is saying something different,'" they recalled.

You can read more here.

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Trump mega-donor’s company pays $1 million settlement for illegal workers

A fake $2020 bill featuring former President Donald Trump. Photo illustration: Christopher Sciacca/Shutterstock

Greg Larose, 

Louisianna Illuminator

January 17, 2025

The family-owned company of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign co-chair in Louisiana has agreed to pay $1.025 million to resolve allegations that it hired workers ineligible to work in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week.

Bollinger Shipyard LLC of Lockport was accused of violating the False Claims Act for knowingly billing the U.S. Coast Guard for the labor the illegal workers performed. The company’s settlement with the federal government is not an admission of guilt but effectively brings the matter to a close.

Bollinger is a longtime military contractor that manufactures the Coast Guard’s fast response cutter (FRC) vessel. The Justice Department alleged the shipbuilder’s violations took place from 2015-20 under its FRC contracts.

Bollinger Shipyard’s Lockport office directed a reporter’s call with questions to executive vice president Geoffrey Green, who has not yet responded.

The federal government requires contractors to confirm their employees are eligible to work in the United States, and officials alleged Bollinger failed to comply with this requirement. As a result, “several ineligible employees worked on the contract,” according to the Justice Department, and the company was paid for the work they performed.

“Companies that conduct business with the United States are required to do so in a legitimate manner,” U.S Attorney Duane Evans said in a news release.

President Joe Biden appointed Evans to lead federal prosecutions in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

As of November, Bollinger delivered 58 of the 67 fast response cutters the Coast Guard has ordered from the company at a cost of about $2 billion.

The former chairman and CEO of Bollinger Shipyard, Donald “Boysie” Bollinger Jr., has served as co-chair of the Trump campaign in Louisiana for the past three elections. Bollinger’s nephew, Ben Bordelon, took over as company leader in 2014, marking the third generation of family leadership at the 79-year-old business.

Bollinger has served as treasurer of the Republican Party of Louisiana and chaired the Louisiana presidential campaigns for George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

Since 2016, Bollinger has donated more than $1.13 million to Republican candidates through Bollinger Enterprises, his separate investment company, based on numbers from OpenSecrets.org.

Over the same period, Bollinger’s donations to Democrats totaled $5,600, though he notably backed Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu in her re-election loss to Bill Cassidy in 2014.

Bollinger’s largest political contributions in 2024 were $113,000 to the Republican National Committee and $100,000 to Make America Great Again Inc.

Last June, Bollinger hosted a $3,300-a-person fundraiser at his New Orleans home for Trump. The event raised $5 million, The Times-Picayune reported.

Efforts to reach Bollinger for comment were unsuccessful.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

Bollinger Shipyard Pays $1M Settling Allegations of “Ineligible” Workers

DOJ alleged the USCG was billed for work performed by "ineligible" workers (Bollinger file photo)

Published Jan 16, 2025 3:25 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a settlement agreement with Bollinger Shipyard of Louisiana related to allegations that the company billed the U.S. Coast Guard for labor provided by workers who were “not eligible to work in the United States.” The allegations related to work done between 2015 and 2020 for the U.S. Coast Guard as part of the contract for the Fast Response Cutter program.

According to the announcement, Bollinger Shipyard has agreed to pay $1,025,000 to resolve the allegations. There was no determination of liability. 

Bollinger manufactures ships for the United States, including the Coast Guard’s Fast Response Cutter (FRC). The program began in 2008 with the award for the prototype vessel which became the Bernard C. Webber which was delivered in 2011 and commissioned the following year. The U.S. Coast Guard considers it a highly successful program with current plans to expand to at least 67 vessels. In May 2024, it excised a construction option with Bollinger for numbers 66 and 67 and in November took delivery on number 58. Two more are currently under construction for delivery in 2025.

“It is essential to the safety and operational readiness of our fleet that contractors comply with all contractual requirements,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division announcing the settlement agreement.

The United States alleged that, from 2015 to 2020, Bollinger knowingly billed the Coast Guard for labor prohibited under the FRC contracts. The company was “contractually required to confirm that its employees were eligible to work in the United States,” said DOJ. The allegations were that the Coast Guard was billed for “the labor provided by the ineligible employees” and that Bollinger “received payment for those bills.”

“Today’s settlement sends a clear message that contractors providing services to DHS programs will be held accountable for breaking the law,” said Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari Ph.D. of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “DHS’ Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) and our law enforcement partners will continue to prioritize protecting our national security from these kinds of schemes.”

Bollinger has not commented on the agreement. It highlights a long relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard. During the November 2024 handover ceremony for number 58, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) John Witherspoon, Bollinger said it was the 184th vessel built by the company for the U.S. Coast Guard over a 40-year partnership.

Bollinger is also under contract to build the Polar Security Cutter (PSC) heavy polar icebreaker for the United States Coast Guard. Other projects include a new class of berthing barges for the U.S. Navy. It has delivered three of the berthing and messing barges to the Navy and in October 2024 received a contract for the seventh unit of the class.

Donald G. Bollinger founded the company in 1946. Currently, Bollinger operates 11 yards located in Louisiana and Mississippi with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River, and the Intracoastal Waterway. It is also the largest vessel repair company in the Gulf of Mexico region.

'Maybe it won't work': Trump-backing billionaire says it's possible DOGE will flop

Brad Reed
January 17, 2025 


Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, a one-time Democrat who is now a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, acknowledged that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) he's advising won't succeed in saving significant sums of money.

In an interview with the New York Times' Ross Douthat, Andreesen was challenged by the conservative columnist about DOGE's potential to cut the federal budget by as much as $2 trillion a year.

In particular, Douthat points out that even if you fire what he describes as "dead wood" employees at federal agencies, you're "going to need to hire better people to replace those people" who will have to be paid appropriate salaries.

Added to this, so much federal money is spent on Social Security, Medicare, and other popular federal programs that it's hard to get real savings without touching those programs.

This caused Andreesen to say that Douthat's arguments exhibit "total contempt for the taxpayer," which caused Douthat to push back.

"I wrote many, many columns in support of various versions of Paul Ryan's plan to cut Medicare or reform Medicare and reform Social Security," he said. "And the reason those plans went down to defeat was not that federal bureaucrats had contempt for the American taxpayer. It was that the American taxpayer, in election after election, likes and supports and votes in favor of Medicare and Social Security."

"They're not exposed to it," Andreesen insisted. "This is a big part of the bet. And look, maybe it'll work, and maybe it won't. But this is a big part of the bet, which is that the American taxpayer doesn't experience it that way because they don't actually have insight into it. Take what you would think would be a bulletproof program, like child disability in schools. It's far from clear to me that the median taxpayer would support that if they really knew what it was."

Andreesen went on to say that the program in question now consisted of allowing students in schools to "fake diagnoses of mental illness in order to get drugs and in order to get extra time on tests."

How techbros could topple our freedom

FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski/File Photo
REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski/File Photo

John Stoehr

January 17, 2025

ALTERNET


Biden warns of ‘the tech-industrial complex’

There’s no guarantee democracy won’t turn despotic – again.

Last night, President Joe Biden gave his farewell address from the Oval Office. For many reasons, it was hard to watch, but for me, the most painful moment came when he said, “I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands — a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure.”

After the electorate handed the keys to the shop over to a gang of criminals and thugs who will loot and vandalize it, I just don’t know. The institutions couldn’t stop Donald Trump. Can they matter if they’re so weak? As for the character of “our people,” well, it’s hard to imagine “our people” enduring after choosing to neuter ourselves.



















The Statue of Liberty was central to his speech. It is the enduring symbol, the president said, “of the soul of our nation, a soul shaped by forces that bring us together and by forces that pull us apart. And yet, through good times and tough times, we have withstood it all.”

He went on:

“A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came by force. A nation of immigrants who came to build a better life. A nation holding the torch of the most powerful idea ever in the history of the world: that all of us are created equal. That all of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice and fairness. That democracy must defend, and be defined, and … moved in every way possible: Our rights, our freedoms, our dreams. But we know the idea of America, our institution, our people, our values that uphold it, are constantly being tested.”


He outlined three tests.

One is oligarchy, Biden said – “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. We see the consequences all across America. And we’ve seen it before.”

The “avalanche of misinformation and disinformation” is the second test, the president said. “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social [media] platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”


Finally, artificial intelligence, he said. “Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risks for our economy, and our security, our society. For humanity. Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call to end cancer as we know it. But unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work, and how we protect our nation. We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind.”

I’ll address this “tech-industrial complex” another time. For now, I want to go back to the Statue of Liberty. For Biden, it's a beacon of hope for America’s future. Just as easily, though, it could symbolize a future that’s a return to our past, a future in which the United States failed these tests, and as a result, democracy turned despotic – again.

The man who came up with the idea of the monument was Edouard de Laboulaye. He was one of the most prominent French liberals of his time (1811-1883), in large part because of the setting in which he was working: the tyrannical regime of dictator Napoleon Bonaparte III.

The nephew of the original Napoleon, Bonapart III rose to supreme power in the bloody aftermath of the French Revolution. His government was something new then, but familiar now around the globe. It was a collectivist police state – authoritarian but democratic.


Worse, to liberals like Laboulaye, it was also popular.

To Laboulaye and other liberals, Bonaparte’s dictatorship illustrated a fundamental flaw in democracy — its tendency toward despotism. While he suppressed dissent and jailed rivals, the emperor subsidized bread, funded festivals and provided tax credits for housing.

To Laboulaye, the question was how to liberalize democracy.

Liberal democracy called for representative government balanced with individual freedoms, specifically the right to speech, press, assembly and religion. But Laboulaye and his network of associates were not laissez-faire liberals. They were republican liberals (with a small “r”).


Rights, freedoms and responsibilities were never for their own sake. They were primarily instruments by which the people of a nation morally improved themselves and their communities. “To improve himself, even at the cost of suffering,” Laboulaye wrote, is how to fight greed and corruption, and ultimately to liberalize democracy.

From the point of view of French liberals in an authoritarian regime, Abraham Lincoln seemed to model the ideal character. This admiration was rooted in his abolitionism. They were flummoxed by a nation founded on equal parts human dignity and human bondage. With Lincoln, they saw a leader who could finally prove their argument.

“Could Americans dedicate themselves to such a noble ideal as the abolition of slavery and pursue it to end?” wrote Helena Rosenblatt in The Lost History of Liberalism, from which I am drawing all this history.

“Were they capable of sustained courage, patriotism and self-sacrifice? Through his inspired leadership, Lincoln proved that they could. Under the right leadership, a liberal democracy was possible.”


To liberals, not just French ones, the Civil War proved something they had faith in but never saw — greed, stupidity, decadence and moral decay being overcome to build “the most inspiring and most promising idea of modern Christian civilization — the true brotherhood of man,” wrote American liberal Charles Eliot Norton in 1865 at the war’s end.

That same year Laboulaye envisioned the Statue of Liberty.

It was a monument to freedom, but also to what can happen to a democracy. Democracy can evolve from being tyrannical, as ours was before and during the Civil War, to being imperfect but liberal. In his speech, Biden encouraged us to believe we can’t go back again, but with the election of a criminal president, no one should be sure.

Christian fundamentalist 'tech bros' growing more influential in MAGA World

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg in 2019 (Wikimedia Commons)

Alex Henderson

January 15, 2025

ALTERNET

White evangelical Christian fundamentalists are among Donald Trump's most ardent supporters, and the president-elect also enjoys strong support from some prominent figures in the tech world — including X.com owner Elon Musk and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Meanwhile, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook/Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom were critical of Trump in the past, made an effort to curry favor with him after he won the 2024 election.

Mother Jones' Kiera Butler, in an article published on January 15, describes a Trump-friendly trend that brings the evangelical and tech worlds together: Christian fundamentalist tech bros.

Butler cites 24-year-old Augustus Doricko, who runs the startup Rainmaker, as an example.

"Last year," Butler reports, "PayPal founder Peter Thiel's foundation granted Doricko a Thiel Fellowship, a grant awarded annually to a select group of entrepreneurs who have foregone a college degree in order to pursue a tech-focused business venture….. (Doricko) believes his work manifests God’s will."

Doricko, according to Butler, "is just one example within a rising tide of American Christianity that appears to be cresting in California's tech enclaves."

"Recent news stories have described a new generation of tech bros flocking to church in the famously secular San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, discovering Christianity through PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel, and investing in a Christ-centered real estate enclave in rural Kentucky," Butler explains. "There are the usual reasons for this surging interest in Christianity like yearning for community and searching for the greater meaning of life…. But there are other forces at play, which revolve around a very specific kind of Christianity: that of the TheoBros, a group of mostly Millennial and Gen Z, ultra-conservative men, many of whom proudly call themselves Christian nationalists."

Butler continues, "Among the tenets of this branch of Protestant Christianity — known as reformed or reconstructionist — is the idea that the United States should be subject to biblical law. While the TheoBros' beliefs are extreme — many of them think women shouldn't be able to vote, and that the Constitution has outlived its usefulness and we should instead be governed by the Ten Commandments — their movement is moving out of the fringe."

TheoBros, according to Butler, favor "hypermasculine aesthetics" — including a group of tech bros in El Segundo, California who call themselves the Gundo Bros.

Butler notes, "The Gundo Bros have a way of casually mixing the realms of tech, masculinity, and Christianity…. Many of the Gundo Bros have benefitted from the largesse of tech investor Marc Andreessen, a major Trump supporter, friends with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and close adviser to Trump's newly convened Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE….. The TheoBros’ mingling with MAGA elites is likely just getting started."


Kiera Jones' full article for Mother Jones is available at this link.

'Bigoted folks': AOC says CEOs love trans sports ban for the diversion it creates

Image via Daniel Lehrhaupt/Shutterstock

Julia Conley
Common Dreams

January 15, 2025

While Republicans claimed a bill restricting transgender girls' participation in school sports was aimed at protecting "our culture and civilization" on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the legislation benefits the corporate class as it distracts from true life-threatening emergencies faced by communities across the country.

"Thank you for your concern about women for the first time that I've seen," said the New York Democrat on the House floor, noting that Republicans have consistently voted against the Violence Against Women Act and backed abortion bans that have stripped women of the ability to control their own bodies proven deadly.

But contrary to the GOP's claims that barring transgender girls and women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender will protect girls from assault, Ocasio-Cortez suggested, the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation include corporate executives whose companies do far more harm to American families than transgender athletes.

"I know who loves this bill," said the congresswoman. "Yes, bigoted folks love this bill. Assaulters love this bill. But also, CEOs love this bill. Because Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has."

The bill passed 218-206, with the entire Republican caucus supporting it and all but two Democrats voting no. If the legislation is signed into law, schools that receive federal funding would be barred from allowing transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams.

Republicans have poured $111 million on political ads regarding the issue in the past year, as communities in the Southeast have suffered catastrophic hurricane damage and homelessness has soared by 18%.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's comments about the distraction caused by the transgender sports bill.

"Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention from the fact they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans," said Bonamici. "Transgender students, like all students, they deserve the same opportunity as their peers to learn teamwork, to find belonging and to grow into well-rounded adults through sports."

Ocasio-Cortez added that the bill, which lacks an enforcement mechanism, would open the door to "genital examinations" of student athletes as it would force schools to confirm the sex assigned at birth of each member of a school sports team.

"What this also opens the door for is for women to try to perform a very specific kind of femininity for the very kind of men who are drafting this bill, and to open up questioning of who is a woman because of how we look, how we present ourselves, and yes, what we choose to do with our bodies," said Ocasio-Cortez.

The so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was the subject of a letter signed by more than 400 civil society groups on Monday, who urged members of Congress to reject the "discriminatory proposal."

"Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics," said the groups, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "We firmly believe that an attack on transgender youth is an attack on civil rights."