Trump turns civil rights upside down in ‘biggest rollback’ since Reconstruction

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
Fri, May 2, 2025 


Head of the White House Faith Office Paula White sings as she stands next to President Donald Trump and other religious leaders during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 1, in Washington, DC.

 - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The government under President Donald Trump is bending the arc of US history in a new direction, away from the civil rights focus of the past 60 plus years.

Addressing or even acknowledging racial injustice toward people of color is out.

Separating church and state is out, according to Trump.

Exposing anti-Christian bias and being ‘anti-woke’ is in.

The Department of Justice division created by the landmark 1957 Civil Rights Act to defend American’s rights has a new mission: rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and “woke ideology,” the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, recently told conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

A majority of the lawyers at the Civil Rights division – people who got jobs there to ensure equal access to the ballot box, perhaps – are expected to resign with pay until September.

At a White House Cabinet meeting Wednesday, secretaries repeatedly sought praise from Trump for purging diversity efforts from the government.

“We’re not organizing money based on the color of skin,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, referring to contracts cancelled at USDA.

“If you’re having DEI policies, we’re not going to fund your projects,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, bragging about how the administration will use taxpayer dollars to kill diversity efforts in states.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told Trump the administration had forgiven money a Chicago lender paid as part of a discrimination settlement.

“We’ve ripped wokeness out of the military, sir, DEI, trans. And it’s Fort Benning and Fort Bragg again at the DOD,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, referring to bases that again share names with Confederate generals.

The administration is also working to strong-arm elite universities into dropping DEI programs by threatening billions in funding, including for scientific research. Harvard, so far, has decided to fight back.

But there are other examples, such as the fact that while the US has stopped accepting refugees for the most part, it is accepting White South Africans who claim they are the victims of racism in their country.

Not since Reconstruction

It’s a much larger pivot than simply changing hiring practices and stopping so-called DEI efforts.

“This is certainly the biggest rollback of civil rights since Reconstruction,” according to Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and CEO of the LBJ Foundation.

Trump’s policies and the way he’s orienting his government combine as an assault on the Great Society legislation Johnson pushed through in the 1960s, including the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes the hand of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the signing of the Civil Rights Act. - Getty Images

Comparing Trump’s effort to purge the country of diversity efforts and deconstruct the Great Society legislation, Updegrove drew a parallel between now and the period beginning during Reconstruction when post-Civil War advances like the 13th Amendment were hurt by the rise of White Supremacy and Jim Crow.

“We’re seeing something very similar now, rolling back the advances of the 1960s,” he said. While those Great Society laws were meant to be temporary measures to create a more equal society, Updegrove said the US is not yet there. “So called anti-wokeism,” he argued, is “essentially permission to accept racism.”

Cuts to Medicaid spending, higher education programs like Pell Grants, or Head Start programs would also hurt efforts at making the US a more equitable society.

“If you ultimately look at what Trump is doing, it is aimed at taking down the laws of the Great Society, which are effectively, in my view, the foundation of modern America and the path to a plural democracy for the first time in our history.”
Retreat from civil rights and a push into religious freedom

While Trump’s government is retreating from any effort by the federal government to pursue racial justice, it is leaning hard into ending what it sees as anti-Christian bias.

A task force helmed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and focused on “eradicating” anti-Christian bias in the government held its first meeting this week.

At the majority-Catholic Supreme Court, justices were re-evaluating the separation of church and state this week. Conservative justices seemed open during oral arguments to the idea of taxpayer dollars going to fund a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. The conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the arguments, leaving the outcome likely up to Chief Justice John Roberts.

A cross sits atop the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City on April 17 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. - Nick Oxford/AP

The Solicitor General of the United States, D. John Sauer, who previously represented Trump before the court, argued on behalf of the Catholic charter school.

“We’re bringing religion back to our country,” Trump promised at a prayer breakfast in Washington on Thursday, where he said he will also sign a new executive order to create another commission, this one focused on religious liberty.

Trump seemed to acknowledge that some people might be surprised to hear that there is bias against Christians in a country that is majority Christian.

“You haven’t heard that, but there’s anti-Christian bias, also,” he said.

Even many Christians say it does not exist in the widespread way it is being portrayed by Trump’s administration.

“When he discusses anti-Christian bias, he isn’t referring to Christianity at large or mainstream Christianity, which includes Episcopalians, Catholics, Lutherans, Quakers, and even the LDS Church,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush of the Interfaith Alliance during an appearance on CNN after the announcement of the commission to eradicate anti-Christian bias.

Brandeis is among those who worry of a slide away from the freedom of religion envisioned at the nation’s founding and toward a Christian nationalism.

“This White House exploits faith for power, following a Christian nationalist playbook,” he said.

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In 'Dead of Night,' House GOP Unveils 'Corporate Polluter's Wish List'


"The sprawling proposal," warned the Sierra Club, "includes dozens of provisions that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families."

A porcupine caribou herd moves through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
(Photo: Johnny Johnson/The Image Bank/Getty Images)


Brett Wilkins
May 02, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

Green groups on Friday decried U.S. House Republicans' proposed text for the upcoming reconciliation bill, which the Natural Resources Defense Council said "contains an unprecedented slate of direct attacks on the environment and public lands and waters."

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee submitted their proposed section of the massive GOP energy, tax, and national security bill, which is scheduled for a markup on Tuesday.

"The sprawling proposal, released in the dead of night, includes dozens of provisions that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families," said the Sierra Club.

"The only way it could be friendlier to Big Oil CEOs would be if they wrote it themselves."

The draft's proposals include fast-tracked and expanded fossil fuel extraction on public lands, mandated oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ending protections for Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters watershed, reinstating canceled leases for the proposed Twin Metals mine in Minnesota, rolling back fossil fuel royalties, and more.

"This proposal is a corporate polluter's wish list," warned Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program. "The only way it could be friendlier to Big Oil CEOs would be if they wrote it themselves."

"Let's be clear, this proposal is a means to an end," Manuel added. "The end is tax cuts for billionaires, and the means are selling off the public lands that belong to the American people. These provisions enable drilling and mining as quickly, lucratively, and free from public scrutiny as possible, even allowing the fossil fuel industry to buy their way out of judicial oversight. It's a giveaway to industry, and Americans should not stand for it."

Defenders of Wildlife warned that "this egregious legislation would undermine critical wildlife protections and destroy or degrade large swaths of wildlife habitats through destructive mandates for increased logging and massive oil and gas lease sales on American public land, including portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

Robert Dewey, the group's vice president of government relations, said that "this bill would be devastating for American wildlife and the habitats they depend on."

"It puts a bullseye on already imperiled polar bears, whales, and hundreds of other species that depend on the integrity of federal lands and waters for their survival," Dewey added. "Congress shouldn't be handing over these vital and cherished wildlife habitats on public lands to oil and other extractive companies for bigger profits."

"This measure would give the oil industry free rein to pillage our public lands and oceans."

Kyle Jones, NRDC's federal affairs director, also issued a dire warning:

This measure would give the oil industry free rein to pillage our public lands and oceans. Instead of helping the American people and our shared public resources, it would allow the oil, coal, and timber industries to pick and choose the areas they want to exploit. And it exposes irreplaceable Alaskan wilderness to destructive oil drilling, industrial roadways and mining.

Worst of all, it allows fossil fuel companies and other big polluters to buy their way out of meaningful review or public input into their projects. So, that would mean one set of rules for the fossil fuel and logging barons, and another for the rest of us.

"The best thing that can be said about this measure is that it may be too radical for even this Congress," Jones added. "For the good of Americans and our shared resources, it should be quickly cast aside and forgotten."

The GOP draft follows the Trump administration's publication last month of a proposal that the Center for Biological Diversity warned "would rescind nearly all habitat protections for endangered species nationwide" by changing the regulatory definition of a single word—"harm"—in the Endangered Species Act, the nation's cornerstone wildlife conservation law.

It also comes as the administration, spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency—which has been led by billionaire Elon Musk—eviscerates federal agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As he did during his first term, President Donald Trump—who campaigned on a "drill, baby, drill" platform—is pursuing a massive rollback of climate and environmental regulations and has appointed Cabinet secretaries whose backgrounds and beliefs are often inimical to their agencies' purposes.

NJ Insider issues 'incredible' warning to avoid critical air hub 'at all costs' over safety

US  is short some 3,000 air traffic controllers

Jennifer Bowers Bahney
May 2, 2025 

RAW STORY



FILE PHOTO: United Airlines planes land and prepare to take off at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, , U.S., January 27, 2025. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

MSNBC correspondent Tom Costello claimed Friday that an air traffic controller who "handles airspace" at the Newark, NJ, airport gave him some "rather concerning and startling information" about public safety.

"He said, It is not safe. 'It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public," Costello said. "Really an incredible statement, unsolicited. He just said that to me, and separately, 'Don't fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs."

Costello said that there were about two-hour delays for planes coming into Newark on Friday following a week of major delays due to staffing issues.

"We've got a lot of problems going on," Costello said, including "equipment failures."

"They have lost both radios and radars this week," Costellos said. "And because of the stress, some controllers have walked off the job."

Newark Liberty Airport posted a statement to X advising, "Flights at @EWRairport continue to be disrupted due to @FAA staffing shortages, with delays and cancellations expected to continue throughout the day."

Costello said that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was touring the Newark facility, along with the president of the air traffic controllers union, "trying to reassure the public and reassure controllers that they're working on this."

"But," Costello added, "this is not going to be an easy fix by any means."

Costello said that the nation is short some 3,000 air traffic controllers.

"They need to staff up, they know that. They've been working on it for years," Costello said. "The trouble is, they're barely keeping up with the regular retirement age and rate. And, therefore, Secretary Duffy has announced a whole bunch of incentives, bonuses to try to get people to come apply for the academy, graduate, take a job in the control tower, stay on the job."

Watch the clip below via MSNBC.

The Mad, Mad Cosmic-Politics of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk

The billionaire oligarchs have worked hard to detach themselves from care for this world and now they want others to join them.


William E. Connolly
May 03, 2025

Common Dreams

What do powerful tech-nerds such as William MacAskill (the Oxford Professor), Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, Nick Land, and Elizier Yudkowski—among innumerable others—share across their minor differences? Well, according to Adam Becker in his fascinating and timely new book More Everything Forever, they share a commitment to ever more rapid capitalist growth managed by tech billionaires and exported to other planets. To these folks, current dislocations such as global climate wreckage, huge economic inequalities, the dangers of nuclear holocaust, the powers of a wealthy oligopoly, fascist movements, and the earthly legacies of racism and colonialism do not set the center of attention. These are second-order concerns (at best) to be resolved or left behind in a future dominated by the interminable expansion of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, space travel, human brain uploads to computers, and colonization of distant planets.

These tech-bros, centered in Silicon Valley, form a constellation of either impossibly rich or extremely well-funded and self-certain “visionaries” of a Brave New World. They manufacture an endless supply of acronyms which, I think, helps to push numerous problems in their assumptions and ambitions into the rearview mirror as they press ahead. No worries about the massive new energy outputs that will be required by AI and cryptocurrency. Nevermind that the massive wealth generated and ever more sublime technologies created will either eventually resolve those problems on earth or allow "humanity" to escape them through new extra-terrestrial "colonization."
The AI Disalignment Ruse

Consider an initial example. Elizier Yudkowski, an apparent dissident in this constellation, seems to think that a hi-roller, tech world is the only agenda worth pursuing, but he also worries that advanced AI systems could well turn against humanity. He calls this the "alignment problem" in a way that reminds one of sci-fi stories such as Star Wars and Bladerunner. By keeping our eyes focused on the future danger of AI systems escaping control, in a world otherwise governed by techno-rationality, Yudkowski—intentionally or not—supports an existential shell game. You focus on that existential issue in the future and ignore or downplay the problems that hi-tech capitalism has created for the present and near future. Accelerate the pace of production and mastery over the earth now and then resolve the one (fictive?) problem it produces later. This is a temporal magnification of Donald Trump's everyday politics of deflection and diversion; it helps to explain how Trump and Musk found each other—even if that alliance may not hold much longer.

The Bezos/Musk Extra-Terrestrial Schemes

Let's turn now to the even more expansive distractions fueled by the Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk space agendas. Bezos, talking about energy limits on earth: "We don't actually have that much time. So what can you do? Well, you can have a life of stasis, where you cap how much energy we get to us...Stasis would be really bad, I think ...But the solar system can easily support a trillion humans...That's the world I want my great-grand children's great-grand children to live in."

If accelerated growth and hyper inequality are not to be overturned now in the name of justice and planetary resilience, the only answer, apparently, is massive space exploration and new planetary occupations. For the options are only "stasis" or eternally accelerated growth overseen by multi-billionaire overlords. Keep your eyes on the space bauble shining from the future to distract attention from the present.

And Musk's interim plan for settlement on Mars? "We must preserve the light of consciousness by becoming a spacefaring civilization and extending life to other planets."

Again, no need to eliminate unprecedented multibillionaire fortunes, no hesitation about his own rigid mode of reasoning, no real case for planetary resilience now, no apparent concern for the devastating lives currently lived by so many humans, no care about the lives of other species. Rather, continue the same old course by accelerating its pace and expanding its range rapidly to other planets. Hence, the heavily state-subsidized Space X program which has already crashed twice. And the super-self confidence of those who call themselves "effective altruists." These are the men who either control inordinate wealth or, like William MacAskill in What We Owe The Future, have institutional access to it because they play by the rules of the hi-tech billionaires. They insist on being the ones who determine what altruism means and how it operates.

Counter Modes of Wisdom

There are several ways to counter the mad, mad cosmic visions of Bezos and Musk. Becker concentrates on the underlying terror of death that helps to fuel their visions, as well as the absence of care for others that fuels these late-adolescent modes of reasoning. There are, for instance, very few women, Native Americans or other minorities in this hi-tech bros club. Moreover, there are uncanny affinities and parallels between this vision of the future and the views of heaven and a second coming advanced by evangelicals. The evangelicals promise a second coming and eternal life after death; the hi-tech boys promise computer brain uploads to retain consciousness for centuries. Thus, it is not all that hard to switch from one to the other. That underlying affinity is also why it was rather easy to forge a white evangelical/neoliberal assemblage in the States during the 1980s, one that has been morphing toward fascism today as its effectiveness has faltered and its demands have escalated.

I respect Becker's responses to this madness and will merely amplify and adjust them here. The tech-bros accounts of brains as human computer systems that can be uploaded to human-manufactured computers is, well, an adolescent dream parading as science. Our brains are intimately connected to our bodies and cannot function without them. The gut-brain relays recently studied by neuroscientists, to take merely one instance, help to explain how our thought-oriented responses to the world are infused with affective prompts and emotional priorities. Don't try to "upload" your brain.

The simple, detached model of reasoning the tech bros embrace, treated as rationality itself by these cosmic dreamers, reflects distortions in their own modes of thought rather than sophisticated images of thinking and reasoning. Their oft-stated contempt for the humanities and the academy exposes and enacts that distorted image, as they join Donald Trump in trying to reshape the academy to reflect such cruel models of thinking, feeling, and reasoning.

Moreover, extended life on Mars is next to impossible—another flashy image to project onto the cosmos in an extension of old shell games. Besides, Mars settlement would be a horror story even if it were populated by humans who carried their bodies with them to its "colonization." Bracket for now the problems of the poisonous soil there, no stable supply of oxygen, material breakdowns, and internal wars or conflicts. Where, in this world far, far away, would be moonlight walks, mountain hikes, ocean views, and body surfing? What about traveling to another country? What about humanistic schools and universities, designed to educate the mind and body together? What about those essential ties to chimps, birds, elephants, horses, dogs, trees, fertile soil, platypuses, and cats that so enliven and educate human life?

The point is clear. The "long-termists," as they sometimes call themselves in contrast to those of us supposedly mired here on the earth, have either continued to buy an untenable adolescent boy's vision or have quietly outgrown it and now deploy it as a series of shiny baubles to deflect us from their callousness about the present and absence of wisdom about the future. For wisdom is neither a technique nor an algorithm. It involves mixing care for this world into an appreciation of how many things we do not know about it. Don't forget how Elon Musk has already displayed his willingness to participate in Big Lies, as he wreaks havoc on governmental programs for the poor, elderly, and sick—anything irrelevant to his immediate manufacturing interests. He recently insisted, for instance, that those who publicly protest the DOGE destruction rampage have been paid by its opponents to do so, projecting back onto them the cynical salesman approach he has adopted to sell Tesla and Space X and to entrance young men to vote for Trump in the most recent presidential election.

Entangled Humanists and the Academy

It is time for entangled humanists in the Academy—those who respect embodied human beings and other species as they explore and demand new modes of resilience today—to take on these hi-tech bros more directly and actively, as Adam Becker has started to do. We can, for instance, expose the fallacies in their space dreams as we undercut their child-like images of reason. We can expose the space subsidies they demand and receive, as they pretend to purge waste from the "deep state."

For the high-tech bros do not only distract and deflect too many from the dangers of today and the irrationalities their incredible wealth allows them to enact. They also seek to destroy the liberal arts academy—an essential institution that educates the youth, helps all of us better to discern dangers in such mad dreams, and helps us to forge wise responses to them.

They have worked hard to detach themselves from care for this world; now they want a larger cadre to join them. We must not allow them to succeed.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


William E. Connolly is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Stormy Weather: Pagan Cosmologies, Christian Times, Climate Wreckage (Fordham, 2024)
Full Bio >

Trump NASA budget prioritizes Moon, Mars missions over research


By AFP
May 2, 2025


The NASA logo is displayed at the Earth Information Center exhibit - Copyright AFP/File

 Stefani REYNOLDS

President Donald Trump’s proposed NASA budget released Friday puts crewed missions to the Moon and Mars front and center -— slashing science and climate programs as it seeks to shrink the agency’s funding by nearly a quarter.

The plan would significantly overhaul flagship programs, phasing out the government-owned Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule, and eliminating the planned lunar space station known as Gateway.

It would also cancel the Mars Sample Return mission, a joint project with the European Space Agency to bring back rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover and analyze them for signs of ancient microbial life.

The budget argues the effort is unnecessary, since its “goals would be achieved by human missions to Mars.”

“This proposal includes investments to simultaneously pursue exploration of the Moon and Mars while still prioritizing critical science and technology research,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro in a statement.

The White House says it wants to focus on “beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars.” China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US program, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays.

Under the proposal, SLS and Orion would be retired after Artemis 3 -— the first mission intended to land astronauts on the Moon.

Critics have long called SLS bloated and inefficient, but its potential replacements —- SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn -— have yet to be fully flight certified.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk is one of Trump’s closest advisors and oversees his cost-cutting efforts for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, Trump’s pick to lead NASA, has flown to space with SpaceX twice -— raising further concerns about conflicts of interest.

The administration is requesting $18.8 billion for NASA, down from $24.8 billion last year —- a 24.3 percent cut.

Still, it would boost the agency’s space exploration budget by $647 million compared to 2025, with total spending on crewed lunar exploration topping $7 billion. An additional $1 billion would go toward new “Mars-focused programs.”

Meanwhile, NASA’s Earth Science division would be slashed by more than $1.1 billion, cutting what the proposal calls “low-priority climate monitoring satellites.”

Often viewed as a political wishlist ahead of fuller negotiations with Congress, the so-called “skinny budget” has already drawn sharp criticism.

“The White House has proposed the largest single-year cut to NASA in American history,” said the Planetary Society.

“Slashing NASA’s budget by this much, this quickly, without the input of a confirmed NASA Administrator or in response to a considered policy goal, won’t make the agency more efficient — it will cause chaos, waste the taxpayers’ investment, and undermine American leadership in space.”

Trump's 'Phony Energy Emergency' Used by DOJ to Target State Climate Laws

"There is no energy emergency, and Trump's stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this president attempts," said one consumer campaigner.


Brett Wilkins
May 02, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Defenders of climate and the rule of law blasted the Trump administration on Friday for using what one consumer campaigner called a "phony" emergency to wage lawfare agaist states trying to hold Big Oil financially accountable for the planetary crisis.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed complaints against New York and Vermont over their climate superfund laws, which empower states to seek financial compensation from fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate mitigation. The burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of human-caused global heating.

Separately, the DOJ also sued Hawaii and Michigan "to prevent each state from suing fossil fuel companies in state court to seek damages for alleged climate change harms."

"The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing."

Hours later, Hawaii became the 10th state to sue Big Oil for lying about the climate damage caused by fossil fuels. The Aloha State's lawsuit targets ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and other corporations for their "decadeslong campaign of deception to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change" and sow public doubt about the existence and main cause of the crisis.

"The federal lawsuit filed by the Justice Department attempts to block Hawaii from holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for deceptive conduct that caused climate change damage," Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez said. "The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing and is a direct attack on Hawaii's rights as a sovereign state."

The DOJ on Thursday cited President Donald Trump's April 8 executive order, " Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," which affirms the president's commitment "to unleashing American energy, especially through the removal of all illegitimate impediments to the identification, development, siting, production, investment in, or use of domestic energy resources—particularly oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources."

Trump also signed a day-one edict declaring a "national energy emergency" in service of his campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels. The "emergency" has been invoked to fast-track fossil fuel permits, including for extraction projects on public lands.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement Thursday, "When states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authority, they harm the country's ability to produce energy and they aid our adversaries."

"The department's filings seek to protect Americans from unlawful state overreach that would threaten energy independence critical to the well-being and security of all Americans," Gustafson added.

Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, on Friday accused the Trump administration of "using a phony energy emergency declaration to illegally attack state climate and clean energy laws."

"There is no energy emergency, and Trump's stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this president attempts," Weissman continued. "Fake constitutional claims based on a fake emergency cannot and will not displace sensible and long overdue state efforts to hold dirty energy corporations accountable."

"These corporations have imposed massive costs on society through their deceptive denial of the realities of climate change, and through rushing us toward climate catastrophe," he added. "It's good policy, common sense, and completely within state authority, for states to hold these corporations accountable."

US Food supply threatened by 'flying piranha' putting 'fist-sized holes' in animals: report

Krystina Alarcon Carroll
May 2, 2025

 RAW STORY

FILE PHOTO: Cattle are herded by a worker to be returned in a trailer to their place of origin, after the United States halted imports of Mexican cattle due to the detection of a New World screwworm case, at the facilities of the Regional Livestock Union of Chihuahua at the Jeronimo-Santa Teresa border crossing, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo


Once thought to be eradicated, the screwworm could be screwing up our food supply as soon as this summer, according to a Bloomberg report.

The screwworm affected live stock ranchers from the 1930s through the 1980s.

The insect is essentially a “flying piranha” that eats its host from the inside out and has the ability to kill a full-grown steer in 10 days.

Eggs are laid in a wound, eye, or even the nose, or the udders of any animal. The eggs then hatch into larvae, which burrow or “screw” deep into the host’s flesh.

“The larvae eat around and down until there is a hole inside the animal the size of your fist,” Rick Tate, a lifelong rancher from Marfa, Texas, told Bloomberg.

After three to five days, the larvae turn into a fly and begin to reproduce.


Experts warn it could be back by this summer as nearly 1,000 cases have been reported in Mexico this year.

It isn’t exclusive to farm animals; it also impacts wildlife, including deer, squirrels, raccoons, and birds.

It’s also been found in horses, dogs, “and at least one goat,” according to the USDA.


The worm has also infected humans: In 2024, screwworms were found in the leg of a Canadian man after a trip to Costa Rica.

ALSO READ:'All hands on deck': Democrats unleash new strategy to derail Trump

While the screwworm was detected in the 1930s, it wasn’t until after WWII that the USDA could fight it.


They used airplanes to drop hundreds of millions of sterilized flies over infected areas. This caused the sterile flies to mate and overwhelm the reproduction of native flies, essentially rendering the population infertile.

Some called the program “wasteful federal spending,” but by 1982, it pushed the screwworms out of the United States to the Darien Gap in Panama.

The Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm (COPEG) was keeping the fly at bay until the pandemic, when a “perfect storm” happened.


The number of inspectors looking for the screwworm border decreased. Sterile fly production also slowed because of supply-chain issues. At the same time, the illegal transport of cattle across borders increased as millions of people began moving north through the Darien Gap.

Now the screwworm is making a comeback, and ranchers are attempting to stop it once more before it impacts our wildlife and food supply, the report states.

'Violently dismembering science': Medical journal blasts Trump in blistering editorial

Carl Gibson,

 AlterNet
April 25, 2025 


FILE PHOTO: Participants gather at the "Stand Up for Science" march near the California Capitol in Sacramento, California, March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Fred Greaves/File Photo

One of the top medical journals in the world is now directly condemning President Donald Trump's administration over its continued attacks on the scientific community.

In a recent editorial, the Lancet — a highly regarded, peer-reviewed medical journal based in the United Kingdom — tore into the Trump administration over its threatening letters sent to editors of various journals and scientific publications. The Lancet specifically derided a letter that the CHEST medical journal (for medical professionals in the pulmonary field) got earlier this month from Ed Martin, who Trump appointed as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia following his prior career as a Republican activist.

"This is an obvious ruse to strike fear into journals and impinge on their right to independent editorial oversight," the editorial read. "The Lancet stands with CHEST and the other medical journals that are being intimidated by the Trump administration."


ALSO READ: 'Dictatorship, not a town hall': Families 'distraught' as MTG disruptors tased and jailed

On Friday, the New York Times reported that the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) also received one of Martin's letters. NEJM editor in chief Eric Rubin described the letter as "vaguely threatening." First Amendment expert Amanda Shanor told the Times that the letter appears to violate basic Constitutional rights.

"There is no basis to say that anything other than the most stringent First Amendment protections apply to medical journals,” Shanor said. “It appears aimed at creating a type of fear and chill that will have effects on people’s expression — that’s a constitutional concern."

Martin's letters are asking journals about whether they allow submissions from those who subscribe to "competing viewpoints," and whether they are willing to admit being influenced by "supporters, funders, advertisers and others." But Rubin insisted that journals like his all follow strict procedures for all submissions. The Lancet's editorial encouraged the scientific community to not be afraid to resist politically motivated efforts to muzzle them.

"Science and medicine in the USA are being violently dismembered while the world watches," the editorial read. "While the risks to civil servants and academics’ livelihoods are real and understandably frightening, bullies are only emboldened by acquiescence or indifference."

Click here to read the Lancet's full editorial.

'Come take me': AOC dares Trump's 'border czar' to make good on DOJ threat

Daniel Hampt

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a rally held along with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 12, 2025. REUTERS/Carlin Stiehl

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) goaded Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s so-called "border czar," to make good on his threats of a potential Justice Department investigation into her efforts to inform migrants about their rights when interacting with federal immigration agents.

Homan's repeatedly threatened Ocasio-Cortez in media appearances, and his comments were widely interpreted as attempts to intimidate or punish the congresswoman over her "Know Your Rights" seminars.

“Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? If so, what are we gonna do about it? Is she crossing the line? So, I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So, maybe AOC’s gonna be in trouble now.”

At a Friday night town hall, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to challenge Homan to put up or shut up.

"When we first did one of these seminars, Tom Homan, then-acting director of ICE, said that he was going to threaten to refer me to the DOJ because I'm using my free speech rights in order to advise people of their constitutionally guaranteed protections. And he may want to do it again today. To that I say, come for me. You're going to have to come for me."

After attendees cheered and clapped, Ocasio-Cortez continued, "Do I look like I care?"

The congresswoman said she wants people to exercise their constitutional rights to beat back any erosion under Trump.

"Our rights are use it or lose it. So we need to use it. And we need to challenge them. So don't let them intimidate you into thinking you're doing something wrong by telling people what their actual, legal constitutional rights are. There's nothing wrong about it, and there's nothing illegal about it. And if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me. That's how I feel about it," she concluded, before walking off the stage.

Watch the fiery clip below or at this link.

CAPPLETALI$M

Apple expects $900 mn tariff hit as shifts US iPhone supply to India

 AFP
May 1, 2025


Apple chief Tim Cook says most of the iPhones brought into the United States will originate in India as the tech company tries to soften the blow from the US trade war with China - Copyright AFP SONNY TUMBELAKA
Glenn CHAPMAN

Apple on Thursday reported first-quarter profit above expectations but warned that US tariffs could cost the company and was disrupting its supply chain.

Apple expects US tariffs to cost $900 million in the current quarter, even though their impact was “limited” at the start of this year, chief executive Tim Cook said on an earnings call.

Cook said he expected “a majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin,” adding that Apple’s products were exempt from Trump’s most severe reciprocal tariffs for now.

“We are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs, as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter,” Cook said. “Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs.”

Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen hefty US levies imposed on China, with Beijing setting retaliatory barriers on US imports.

High-end tech goods such as smartphones, semiconductors and computers received a temporary reprieve from US tariffs.

“Apple proactively built up inventory ahead of anticipated tariff policies,” said Canalys research manager Le Xuan Chiew. “With ongoing fluctuations in reciprocal tariff policies, Apple is likely to further shift US-bound production to India to reduce exposure to future risks.”

While iPhones produced in mainland China still account for the majority of US shipments, production in India ramped up toward the end of the quarter, according to Canalys.

Cook said Vietnam would be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPod products sold in the US.

China will continue to be where most Apple products are made for sale outside the US, he insisted.

Apple’s revenue of $95.4 billion in the recently ended quarter was driven by iPhone sales, with the company taking in $17 billion in the China market, according to the earnings report. Profit for the quarter was $24.8 billion.

Apple shares slipped more than 3 percent in after-market trading.

“The real story is in Tim Cook’s plans to navigate these unprecedented trade challenges,” said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.

Apple’s plan to shift manufacturing to India “raises pressing questions about execution timeline, capacity limitations, and potentially unavoidable cost increases that will shrink margins, be passed to consumers, or have a mix of consequences,” Bourne added.

US asks judge to break up Google’s ad tech business


By AFP
May 2, 2025


Google is facing a demand by the US government to break up its hugely profitable ad technology business after a judge found the tech giant was commanding an illegal monopoly - Copyright AFP/File Chris DELMAS
Alex PIGMAN

Google on Friday faced a demand by the US government to break up its hugely profitable ad technology business after a judge found the tech giant was commanding an illegal monopoly.

“We have a defendant who has found ways to defy” the law, US government lawyer Julia Tarver Wood told a federal court in Virginia, as she urged the judge to dismiss Google’s assurance that it would change its behavior.

“Leaving a recidivist monopolist” intact is not appropriate to solve the issue, she added.

The demand is the second such request by the US government, which is also calling for the divestment of the company’s Chrome browser in a separate case over Google’s world-leading search engine business.

The US government specifically alleged that Google controls the market for publishing banner ads on websites, including those of many creators and small news providers.

The hearing in a Virginia courtroom was set to plan out the second phase of the trial, set for September, in which the parties will argue over how to fix the ad market to satisfy the judge’s ruling.

The plaintiffs argued in the first phase of the trial last year that the vast majority of websites use Google ad software products which, combined, leave no way for publishers to escape Google’s advertising technology and pricing.

District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed with most of that reasoning, ruling last month that Google built an illegal monopoly over ad software and tools used by publishers, but partially dismissed the argument related to tools used by advertisers.

The US government said it would use the trial to recommend that Google should spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations, as Google could not be trusted to change its ways.

“Behavioral remedies are not sufficient because you can’t prevent Google from finding a new way to dominate,” Tarver Wood said.

Google countered that it would recommend that it agree to a binding commitment that it would share information with advertisers and publishers on its ad tech platforms.

Google lawyer Karen Dunn did, however, acknowledge the “trust issues” raised in the case and said the company would accept monitoring to guarantee any commitments made to satisfy the judge.

Google is also arguing that calls for divestment are not appropriate in this case, which Brinkema swiftly refused as an argument.

The judge urged both sides to mediate, stressing that coming to a compromise solution would be cost-effective and more efficient than running a weeks-long trial.