Trump’s Attack on CA Environmental Law Brings Us Closer to Climate Catastrophe


Trump wants to destroy the ability of states to chart their own course on combating climate change.

By Sasha Abramsky , TruthoutPublishedJune 29, 2025

An aerial view, traffic moves on Interstate 80 on May 19, 2025, in Emeryville, California.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

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Earlier this month, Donald Trump took his war against California and its web of environmental policies to a new extreme.

Around the same time as he was federalizing the California National Guard and preparing to deploy hundreds of marines into Los Angeles, at Trump’s behest, Congress was voting to overturn California’s state laws phasing out the sale of new gas-based passenger vehicles by 2035, mandating an increase in the percentage of nonfossil fuel-based trucks sold, and limiting nitrogen oxide emissions for heavy duty and off-road vehicles.

On June 12, Trump signed the resolutions into law, overturning the California mandates. This is despite the fact that the Senate parliamentarian — who is in charge of interpreting Senate rules — and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had concluded that this was an illegitimate use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) because California’s waiver was an order subject to the Administrative Procedure Act rather than simply an agency rule that the CRA could overturn. It’s technical stuff, but, basically, they were arguing that the CRA can only be applied to a very limited set of rules, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver fell outside of. In signing Congress’s resolutions despite the GAO and Senate parliamentarian’s concerns, Trump said he was rescuing the U.S. auto industry from destruction. In reality, by giving his stamp of approval to the political priorities of big oil, Trump was doing yet more damage to the global climate.

Trump, far and away the most anti-environment modern president, has long had California’s state-level environmental standards in his sights. That includes targeting the half-century-old EPA waivers which allow the Golden State to establish pollution and emissions standards for vehicles that go above and beyond the federal minimums. In the last years of the MAGA leader’s first administration, he pushed to roll back the waivers, resulting in a lengthy legal battle that was still unresolved when Joe Biden entered office, and his administration declined to defend the position of its predecessor.

Now, in version 2.0 of Trump’s presidency — with the entire federal government weaponized against climate research, mitigation efforts, and any policies that could move us away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable fuel alternatives — that campaign against California has accelerated. The gutting of the 2035 internal combustion engine phaseout effort is one part of this. The ongoing effort to eliminate the right of the state’s Air Resources Board to set its own tailpipe emissions standards is another. Meanwhile, on the federal level, these efforts include the attacks on universities and on climate science and the gutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies responsible for generating climate data. And this past week, the Supreme Court also put its thumb on the scales, ruling that a group of fuel producers could sue California over its vehicle emissions standards.

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The implications of the move against California are stark: Because about a dozen other Democratic-led states follow California’s lead on emissions standards and electric vehicle (EV) mandates, it has a huge role in shaping U.S. markets. California’s bloc of states represents roughly 40 percent of the U.S. population — and since automakers are reluctant to have to hew to two separate markets within the country, they generally adhere to the highest common denominator when it comes to pollution standards. In other words, if California’s pollution and EV mandates stand, the country’s air gets cleaner and the shift away from fossil fuel reliance picks up steam, regardless of the priorities of the Trump administration. Moreover, this has an international magnifier effect, since many other countries also look to California when working out best practices for the shift away from fossil fuels. California helps make any kind of U.S. de facto adherence to Paris climate accord emissions reduction goals possible, even though Trump has, for the second time, withdrawn the country from the accord and prioritized the acceleration of fossil fuel production.

It’s that realization that is driving Trump’s animus here. He doesn’t just want to end federal climate change efforts; he wants to destroy the ability of states to chart their own course on the issue. After all, this is the man who, during the election campaign, promised to enact Big Oil’s every whim should the industry cough up $1 billion to pad his political war chest. Since that patently corrupt offer of a quid pro quo, he has repeatedly feted oil executives at Mar-a-Lago and in the White House, has ordered shuttered coal-based power plants to reopen, and has dismantled Biden-era tax subsidies for, and investments in, the development of an array of clean energy sources, from wind and solar farms to EV infrastructure.

If California’s EV mandate is shredded, the country will use billions more gallons of gas over the coming years than it would have otherwise. In 2022, the California Air Resources Board estimated that the shift away from oil-based fuels for California’s huge vehicle fleet would, by 2040, reduce CO2 emissions by 395 million tons, would result in 915 million fewer barrels of oil being used, and would result in thousands fewer deaths related to environmental pollution. Now, all that progress is being deliberately rolled back by the federal government, and for no good reason. It will, in consequence, be that much more difficult for the world to avoid passing critical tipping points in global warming. Yet in Trump’s calculus, that calamity is more than outweighed by the short-term financial benefits for the fossil fuel industry that will accrue as the pump is primed to increase demand for their products.

California is well aware of the stakes. Consider it a modern-day version of the automobile and gas industries’ purchase and destruction of public transit tram lines in Los Angeles generations ago — a wanton act of industrial vandalism that turned Los Angeles from a city with a viable and expanding public transport system into the private car capital of the universe. That helped set the U.S. on a century-long trajectory that, with the exception of a few cities, prioritized private vehicle usage over public transit.

In the aftermath of the congressional voiding of the state’s 2035 electric vehicle mandate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order asking state legislators and the Air Resources Board to come up with alternative ways to stimulate the growth of the EV market and to protect its emissions standards, and to prioritize state contracts with companies meeting EV targets.

At the same time, the state’s attorney general filed suit against Trump for an illegal use of the Congressional Review Act. The suit is being joined by 10 other states: Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Because the mandate was overturned through the Congressional Review Act, however, it typically wouldn’t be subject to judicial review. This means that California’s lawsuit, which is largely based around the parliamentarian’s conclusions, is still something of a long shot.

Trump’s wrecking ball approach to environmental policy is continuing apace. Over the coming months, California and its blue state allies will need to work out a new strategy — one that moves beyond simply filing lawsuits — to get around the federal vise. If it can, then the blue parts of the United States might be able to maintain their environmental policies in the face of the MAGA onslaught and help reduce emissions for all of us; if it can’t, the climate crisis will pick up evermore steam.

Sasha Abramsky is a freelance journalist and a part-time lecturer at the University of California at Davis. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, New York Magazine, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone. He also writes a weekly political column. Originally from England, with a bachelor’s in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he now lives in Sacramento, California.

INTERVIEW

What We Can Learn From the Defiant Life and Legacy of Marsha P. Johnson


Black trans artist, filmmaker, and activist Tourmaline discusses her new book about Marsha’s trailblazing life.

By Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore , 

Truthout

PublishedJune 28, 2025

American gay liberation activist Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992,  left) along with unidentified others, on the corner of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue during the Pride March, New York City, June 27, 1982.Barbara Alper / Getty Images

Marsha P. Johnson has become an icon of gay, trans, and queer liberation, and yet little is known about her life beyond her participation in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 and the decadeslong controversy after her lifeless body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992. In Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, Tourmaline, an award-winning Black trans artist, filmmaker, and activist who has dedicated her life to uplifting Marsha P. Johnson’s legacy, recuperates her life from the flatness of postmortem deification.

Here we find a fully embodied story of a 1950s New Jersey kid; a 1960s Times Square Hustler and den mother; a fiercely talented performer; and a dedicated activist and AIDS care worker whose unconventional way of thinking and being paved the way for generations of street queens and trans people. Her influence looms large, and Tourmaline is intent on presenting the full range of her choices, inspirations, limitations, and visionary imaginings for us to learn from today.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore: This is a biography of Marsha P. Johnson, but it’s also a story about friendship as a resource for trans survival, political engagement, personal transformation, and communal care. What role did friendship play in Marsha’s life, and how does looking at her life’s work through the lens of friendship enrich her legacy?

Tourmaline: Friendship almost doesn’t feel like a big enough word for the depth and breadth of love Marsha offered to and received from her dear ones. We talk a lot in the queer community about “chosen family,” and the relationships that Marsha built in NewYork City starting when she moved to Manhattan in 1963 didn’t just shape her life, they shaped history. Marsha’s ability to be a beacon of power and joy was fueled by, nurtured in, and shaped among the community that she built with her fellow street queens, the wider queer community, and the bicoastal and transatlantic connections she made in a period of immense cultural change.

Two friendships really stand out to me in very different ways — Marsha’s relationship with Sylvia Rivera, and her relationship with Randy Wicker. Could you speak to the ways these relationships both challenged and enriched Marsha’s life, and the lives of Rivera and Wicker?

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I feel so lucky to have been able to become friends with Randy myself over 15 years ago while archiving Marsha’s life. Then in the process of writing this book and my other work on Marsha’s legacy, including my film Happy Birthday, Marsha, Randy has been incredibly generous in sharing source material related to Marsha, as well as his own memories and reflections. They supported each other in so many ways, pushing each other to see the world more expansively and lovingly, and offering each other really concrete, material support too.

Of course, Marsha’s friendship with Sylvia was also an extraordinary source of mutual power and motivation. The two of them came together when Sylvia was just 13 years old, hustling in Times Square, and Marsha at times played a role of mother figure to the young street queens — offering guidance, love, and unconditional support that many had never had access to before. Together they engaged in what we might call, in the words of Robin D.G. Kelley, “freedom dreaming” — seeing through the challenge of their circumstances to a bigger, more beautiful world that they knew they could build together.

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are now hailed as icons of gay, queer, and trans liberation, but when they were alive they were often dismissed and marginalized by the gay establishment. What realities does their postmortem deification hide, and what possibilities does it limit?

Authentic individual expression that disrupts binaries, coercive control, or the established flow of power is inherently threatening to the systems that be. Marsha, Sylvia, and other people who were committed to living authentically and deliberately demonstrated a new way of being that many people weren’t ready for — it felt destabilizing to see so much freedom in action. But Marsha actually didn’t focus very much of her time or energy on any kind of direct, oppositional conflict. There were occasions when it was a necessary result of her existence — for instance, at Stonewall — but I think often of her middle initial: P, which she said stood for “pay it no mind.” Her ability to look beyond, through, and even past daily circumstances of dismissal or marginalization was a huge source of strength and power allowing her to dream up the world she wanted and desired. She was too busy falling in love, making art, inspiring others, traveling, resting, relaxing, and honoring her own joy to pay any mind to attempts to make her smaller.

Stonewall has become romanticized as a place where everyone belonged, but you show how actually it was a Mafia-run, segregated gay bar where street queens were most often not even allowed inside. White gay men were in the front, and everyone else in the back — what does telling the actual story of this space where the Stonewall Uprising emerged help us to understand?

Nuance and complexity are hard to hold when our culture often operates in binaries. Stonewall was a hugely important community gathering place, and it was also reflective of all of the realities of its time. It was not a perfect utopia of total collective welcome; but what it was was a gathering place where people found their way towards each other, even across some of the limitations you described. And that moment of collective uprising in 1969 — even coming out of an imperfect hub for gathering and building community — might help us learn the power of broad-based coalitions for freedom and joy. Stonewall can teach us how strong we can be when we ignore what would keep us apart, and double down on our desire to be together, free from fear and shame.

You quote poet and disability justice author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha as saying that a riot is a “powerful place of madness.” So, if we want to reinvoke the spirit of Stonewall, should we be invoking madness?

Absolutely. Marsha was open with herself and others about the ways that trauma, violence, and her own unique humanity led her to perceive the world differently than others. Sylvia Rivera reflected on this quality in her friend too, and she observed that it was a huge source of freedom — Marsha had a different way of seeing the world, and it was one that invited and encouraged freedom and a wider lens.

By applying a disability justice lens to Marsha’s story, you’re able to show how her mental health challenges were also part of how she was able to imagine a different world, to conjure this in everyday experience, in spite of abuse from her mother, from people on the street, from the cops — talk more about what this enabled her to do.

Marsha looked beyond and through the harsh circumstances she endured. She saw the world as it could be, instead of narrowly as it was. She invested in a vision of the world that others found improbable or even impossible. Her belief in her own sight — and the spiritual fuel she found in her relationship with the divine — empowered her to bring her visions into reality over and over again.

You really bring STAR House, the trans youth shelter that operated briefly in lower Manhattan in 1970 and 1971, to life — this collective experiment in trans self-determination and communal care. They managed to do so much with so little resources. Now we have funded nonprofits that often do much less. Is there a lesson here?

Marsha’s relentless pursuit of her dreams was antithetical to the narrow understanding of logic that many of our institutions use today. Her logic was sound, but perhaps unfamiliar to many people. She knew that she could glimpse the world she wanted to live in in the midst of harsh circumstances that surrounded her. She knew that by leaning into her own vision, her faith, her love, and her joy, it was entirely possible to build the types of spaces she wanted to experience. For me, the book is the story of her and her community doing that over and over again.

You write that Marsha P. Johnson was “disinterested entirely in respectability and assimilation.” What can this teach us today?

In my two decades of researching, learning from, and diving into Marsha’s life story, I’ve learned over and over again that turning the volume up on what makes us feel authentically alive and joyful can be a powerful antidote to structures and systems that would try to reduce our power. Marsha taught us that being authentically and unapologetically yourself can be a guiding light that leads us closer to the world of freedom, ease, love, and joy that we deserve to live in.


Copyright © Truthout and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. May not be reprinted without permission.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the author, most recently, of Touching the Art, a finalist for a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a Washington State Book Award. Her new novel, Terry Dactyl, will be out from Coffee House in November 2025.

Queer as Fungi: What Mushrooms Can Teach Us About Resistance and Community

For powerful lessons about organizing and queer community, let’s look beneath our feet.

By Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian , 

Truthout

June 30, 2025

Bioluminescent ghost mushrooms glow green in the dark.

Chasing Light - Photography by James Stone james-stone.com / Getty Images

Pride month was established in June to acknowledge a pivotal event in queer American history — the Stonewall Uprising. On June 28, 1969, a popular gay bar in New York City was targeted by a police raid, as it had been countless times before. But on this occasion, the patrons fought back. The story is common knowledge to most queer people in the U.S., but some details bear retelling. At this point in history, it was illegal to be outwardly queer, gay, homosexual, transgender, or to otherwise express yourself in ways that were “misaligned” with your sex. Psychologists and medical doctors could have someone institutionalized on the basis of their “perversions,” a person could be fired for even spurious allegations of gay activity, and police would routinely target and entrap people, especially men, who were known or presumed to be gay. This was not just local policy or small-town bigotry. In fact, it was official U.S. government policy to classify queer people as “subversives” who were a threat and a liability to the American identity and imperial project. If you were queer, they said, you were a sexual deviant, and worse — a communist.

The criminalization of queer life and expression forced the community underground. Relics of the prohibition-era infrastructure were transformed — often by the mafia — into clandestine queer spaces of dance and revelry. The Genovese family, which owned the Stonewall Inn, paid bribes to the New York City Police Department so it would pass over the bar on the monthly raids conducted by the Public Morals Squad. But in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, what started as a typical raid spontaneously transformed into a radical act of defiance. The 200 or so patrons resisted arrest, smashed glass bottles, swung their purses, slashed the tires of the police wagons, and freed as many detained comrades as they could. Though this uprising was unplanned, it was not disconnected, climatologically, from the concurrent civil rights uprisings happening all across the country. That is how subversion and uprisings work: energy flows through the collective, organizing happens underground.

Currently, queer rights are once again being undermined and dismantled across the United States. The trend of incremental progress that characterized the past 50 years now appears to be moving in reverse. In moments of heightened political conflict such as these, it’s crucial to find our teachers. Our elders and past resistance movements provide essential learning. But we should not restrict ourselves to learning exclusively from human beings.

As a mycologist (someone who studies fungi), I have found the lessons I’ve learned from fungi to be radical and life-affirming. Fungi with both male and female sexes in one body taught me about my own queer experience. Some fungi shapeshift, alternating between sexual and asexual forms, producing ephemeral mushrooms, then retreating to their mycelial form underground. From them I learned that there is a freedom in living undefined, existing outside the limits of predictability. Lichens — which are part fungi, part photosynthetic microorganisms — are best understood as living, interdependent communities, inspiring the word “symbiosis.” They teach us that our fixation on individualism is not only inaccurate biologically, it’s a dead end.

In this moment in time, I think it is important to reflect on the meaning of the word “queer.” The word was long used in a derogatory way against people existing and behaving outside of heteronormative culture, but it was reclaimed during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. “Queer” was a way to bring together separate subsets of people — gays, lesbians, trans people, and others — and harness the power of the collective against oppressive violence. Queerness, therefore, is a rallying cry, an animate force, an ethic of collective responsibility. Queerness is not a plea for permission to assimilate into systems of oppression. Queerness is a community revolt. Queerness is the understanding that all living beings are interdependent. Queerness teaches us to be like fungi.

When contending with misused state power, individualism will not save us. Nor will a reductionist usage of identity politics. What we need is community.

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned from fungi is about strategizing underground. Certain species of fungi form mycorrhizal networks, which are mutualistic partnerships between fungi and plants. The roots and the fungal cells connect underground sharing nutrients and protection against pathogens. Each is uniquely suited to contribute in their own way — the plants supply sugar, the fungi supply nitrogen and phosphorus. They are different kingdoms, but they need each other; together their differences become a strength. Through these microscopic linkages entire forests are sustained. These networks may span across many trees and individual fungi, forming a grid pulsing with animacy. Sunlight becomes sugar which becomes a patch of colorful mushroom bursting from the soil. The exact time and place of a fungal fruiting is not always predictable. Amazingly, for reasons and by mechanisms not fully understood, members of the same mushroom species will spontaneously fruit across an entire continent. Like an uprising, their energy is tapped into the collective.

When contending with misused state power, individualism will not save us. Nor will a reductionist usage of identity politics. What we need is community, however messy it may be. We need diverse coalitions through which we share skills and resources. We need to be queer. We need to learn from fungi.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is a mycologist, educator, and writer. She is the author of Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature.

Turning social fragmentation into action through discovering relatedness

Kobe University

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Kobe University lifelong learning researcher GOTO Satomi developed a new approach to intersectional learning where the individual with its different degrees of relatedness to any given issue takes the center stage.

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Credit: GOTO Satomi

Discovering relatedness outside of a topical issue helps diverse groups to overcome differences and develop action for social change. The Kobe University addition to educational theory offers a framework to analyze and promote intersectional learning.

To achieve social change in a fragmented modern society, individuals from diverse backgrounds need to join together and develop a common plan for action. This is important especially for education related to social change, where groups of varying involvement in a particular issue, e.g., learners and teachers, interact in a structured setting. Current educational theories fall short of offering a framework of how such cultural differences between the participating individuals can be met, overcome and used as motivation for learning.

Kobe University lifelong learning researcher GOTO Satomi says: “Based on my own personal history of repressing my opinions in school to live up to what I perceived to be the expectations of the teacher, I realized that the role of the individuals’ diverse backgrounds has been neglected in education theory. But through my involvement in various volunteer activities, I realized that social issues are always also individual issues.” Consequently, she developed a new approach to intersectional learning where the individual, with its different degrees of relatedness to any given issue, takes the center stage.

In the International Journal of Lifelong Education, Goto comprehensively outlines her theory that results in each individual exhibiting a multilayered nature of issue relatedness, assuming people to be “a bundle of relationships with conscious or latent issues.” Thus, she argues, “By providing a variety of entry points for involvement in multiple themes, not just a specific social issue, a wider range of stakeholders can be involved, which will activate the field and increase collective emergence.” Not only does this theory offer a systematic way of explaining the origin of community engagement from an individual’s point of view, it can also “capture a broader range of learner transformations, rather than just the approach to a specific issue or theme, as the axis of evaluation.”

The term she uses for the degree of relatedness, the Japanese “tojisha-sei,” is interesting in itself. The word, as well as a substantial part of the theoretical body, derives from group development activities in Japan, such as the community reconstruction efforts in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake or the social movements surrounding the Minamata disease problem. In these cases, the multi-layered relatedness to a broad range of issues apart from the main issue allowed different parties to connect and, in the end, together promote movement around the main issue.

“The tojisha-sei concept helps to blur the boundaries between those who are directly involved in a particular issue/theme and those who are not, and to promote interaction between the two and the learning that results from this process,” Goto writes in the paper. For the future, she wants to explore whether and under what conditions such a realization of shared relatedness can be catalyzed practically, for example in school education. The goal of such a further development ultimately is, she writes, “helping learners become more autonomous and aware of their relationship to society.”

This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 23KJ1573).

Kobe University is a national university with roots dating back to the Kobe Higher Commercial School founded in 1902. It is now one of Japan’s leading comprehensive research universities with nearly 16,000 students and nearly 1,700 faculty in 11 faculties and schools and 15 graduate schools. Combining the social and natural sciences to cultivate leaders with an interdisciplinary perspective, Kobe University creates knowledge and fosters innovation to address society’s challenges.

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Journal

International Journal of Lifelong Education

DOI

10.1080/02601370.2025.2516778 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Positioning and practical significance of ‘encounter of tojisha-sei’ in lifelong learning theories and research

'Cruelty over care': Outrage erupts after Trump shuts down LGBTQ youth suicide hotline

David Badash

THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

June 19, 2025 

The Trump administration is once again drawing criticism during LGBTQ Pride Month—this time for defunding the LGBTQ youth-specific branch of the national 988 suicide hotline, which has supported 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people since its launch in 2022.

Known as “988 Press 3 Option,” the LGBTQ crisis line has been operated by The Trevor Project—a nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ youth in crisis—since 1998. As the nation’s first suicide prevention helpline dedicated to LGBTQ youth, it will continue to operate independently, but it is being removed from the federal government’s 988 system.

The “Press 3 Option” support for LGBTQ+ callers “was established in 2022 based on a recognition that gay and transgender people experience distinct mental health issues — often driven by family rejection and societal discrimination — and have disproportionately high suicide rates,” The New York Times reported.

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“On July 17, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer silo LGB+ youth services, also known as the ‘Press 3 option,’ to focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option,” read a statement Tuesday from the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

CBS News reports it is “unclear if staff for the specialized option 3 care line will be cut or moved to the general 988 line.”

“This means that, in 30 short days, this program that has provided life-saving services to more than 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people will no longer be available for those who need it,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, in a statement Wednesday. “Suicide prevention is about people, not politics. The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible.”

Black called the decision to announce the shutdown during Pride Month “callous,” and blasted the federal government for removing the “T” in LGBT, writing: “Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased.”

But as The New York Times also reported, “the White House Office of Management and Budget has previously described the hotline’s L.G.B.T.Q. section as ‘a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.’ That language reflects the Trump administration’s broader efforts to eliminate services for and legal recognition of transgender people.”

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the un-naming of the USNS Harvey Milk, a U.S. Navy ship named for the assassinated veteran and LGBTQ activist who was the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in California. The decision to announce the plan during LGBTQ Pride Month reportedly was intentional.

Critics are blasting the decision to end federal funding for the LGBTQ+ option for the 988 suicide prevention hotline.

“The ‘pro-life’ party is shutting down suicide hotlines,” wrote podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen.

“When folks are in crisis, this admin chooses cruelty over care—every time. But this is the party of ‘family values,’ right?” observed U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).

“The LGBTQ+ community faces so much discrimination, isolation, and violence that makes them over 4x as likely to die by suicide. Trump’s decision to end the federal LGBTQ+ suicide hotline is absolutely devastating and it’s the opposite of ‘pro-life’,” noted U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA).

“The Trump Administration is wholly pro-death,” declared The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist. “As they fan the flames of virulent homophobia and trans-hatred, they cut out the LGBT suicide hotline. People will die. For them, it is a feature, not a bug.”

CBS News cited these support options:

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

The Trevor Project’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org

Mamdani Says Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist: “What We Need More of Is Equality”


Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy in New York City.

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

PublishedJune 30, 2025

New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025, in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City

.Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani has said that billionaires shouldn’t exist, repeating a longtime goal of the left as he affirmed his commitment to equality instead in an interview on Sunday.

“You are a self-described democratic socialist. Do you think billionaires have a right to exist?” asked the NBC host, Kristen Welker, weirdly echoing the language used by pundits when discussing Israel.

“I don’t think that we should have billionaires, because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality,” Mamdani responded. “And, ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and our state and across our country. And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for all of them.”

Mamdani’s viewpoint is one shared by many on the left, including politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who have proposed policies like a wealth tax in order to ensure that billionaires pay their fair share back into society.

Polls have found that such proposals are extremely popular across the political spectrum. However, the right has been fear mongering about Mamdani’s political stances, with figures like President Donald Trump painting him as a radical communist — clearly as an insult meant to invoke the Red Scare.

Zohran Mamdani’s 

“I already have to get used to the fact that the president is going to talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am — ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for. And I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since then betrayed,” Mamdani said, after the host asked if he identifies as a communist.

“When we talk about my politics, I call myself a democratic socialist in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. King, from decades ago, he said: Call it democracy, call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth for all God’s children within this country,” he went on.

Mamdani has shaken up the political world in just a few months, elevating the New York City mayoral race to one of national intrigue as the openly left-wing, pro-Palestine candidate has captured a remarkable level of popularity.

Mamdani’s platform is centered around affordability in New York, with proposals like universal child care, establishing city-run grocery stores, and building affordable housing. To pay for these plans, he has proposed raising the state corporate tax rate and placing a 2 percent tax on those making above $1 million annually in New York City.

Both major parties have turned to billionaires in recent years for support for their campaigns, often in a barely-veiled quid pro quo for lawmakers to support tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. This potentially explains why numerous Democrats, including leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), are holding back on backing Mamdani, despite his historic campaign.

At a time when enthusiasm for the Democratic Party establishment is waning, Mamdani’s campaign has been credited with spurring massive turnout, effectively creating a voter base where one didn’t exist before; according to The New York Times, in the two weeks before the election last week, 37,000 people registered to vote, compared to 3,000 people in the last mayoral primary for the city. This rise is largely credited to Mamdani’s campaign, with voters aged 18 to 34 turning out in higher numbers than any other age group.

Still, many establishment Democrats are aligning themselves with Trump in opposing Mamdani’s agenda in order to punch left.

'Big drop in income': US Chief economist reveals real inflation numbers

Adam Lynch

June 27, 2025 | 
ALTERNET

A decelerating economy is driving down personal income and spending in the U.S., reports RSM US LLP Chief Economist Joseph Brusuelas.

“… [A] slowing economy results in big drop in income and inflation adjusted spending,” Brusuelas posted on X, citing a May Spending & PCE Price Index revealing personal income declining $109.6 billion (0.4 percent at a monthly rate) in May.

Information provided by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis specifically shows spending dropped $29.3 billion, or — 0.1 percent.

Disposable personal income (meaning personal income after paying taxes at current tax rates) decreased $125 billion (0.6 percent), which walks hand-in-hand with the falling personal consumption expenditures.

Graphs show motor vehicles and car parts took the biggest hit in May, with vehicle purchases and associated costs declining sharply, followed by food services and accommodations, including rent. Americans also spent less on financial services and insurance, and food and beverages.

“This is definitely not the time to cut SNAP and Medicaid, especially not to fund tax cuts for the wealthy,” posted Arin Dube, a provost professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst.

Wall Street Journal economics correspondent and author Nick Timiraos noted the decline in personal income followed a drop in the U.S. personal savings rate as well.

“[T]he personal savings rate in May posted its first month-over-month decline since December, to 4.5 percent from 4.9 percent in April,” Timiraos wrote.

Read the Bureau of Economic Analysis report at this link.

'Economy is rigged': Robert Reich explains how 'Trump fooled the majority of Americans'

Image via Screengrab.

Alex Henderson

 June 26, 2025

ALTERNET

New York City's 2025 Democratic mayoral primary experienced a major upset when, on Tuesday night, June 24, progressive New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — a self-described "democratic socialist" endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) — defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates.

Now the official Democratic nominee, Mamdani enters the general election, where the current mayor, Eric Adams, is seeking reelection as an independent.

During an appearance on Democracy Now posted on June 26, liberal economic Robert Reich discussed Mamdani's victory as well as the economic policies of President Donald Trump.

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Reich emphasized that Mamdani aggressively ran on a message of economic populism, telling host Amy Goodman, "Shockwaves is a good way of putting it, Amy. The Democratic Party really needs to learn this lesson…. The lesson is very simple: There is a huge anti-establishment wave in America that is the strongest wave in American politics. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that the bottom 60 to 80 percent of Americans have not seen a real wage increase in 45 years…. The people at the top are doing wonderfully well."

During the interview, Reich noted that Trump, in 2024, ran on a message of economic populism.

"Trump fooled the majority of Americans, or at least the plurality, into thinking that he would be their savior," Reich told Goodman.

But Mamdani, Reich argues, is the real deal — unlike Trump.

"This is the one thing that I agree with Donald Trump about: The economy is rigged — but it's rigged against working-class people," Reich told Goodman. "And I think Mamdani understood that. He understood that people have got to want a change, but also, they want affordability. They want an economy that is working for them. And they want new faces. They want younger people. They want a new generation of Democratic leaders.

Watch the full video below or at this link.

'Incredibly destructive': Anti-Tax titan Grover Norquist still pulling the GOP's strings

Grover Norquist speaking in Phoenix in 2014 (Gage Skidmore)

The Conversation

June 26, 2025

In the “one, big, beautiful bill,” President Donald Trump has called for substantial decreases in federal domestic spending. However, a schism emerged between Republican lawmakers during the budget debates in Congress.


Some Republicans in blue states called for a tax increase for the wealthiest Americans, prompting longtime anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist to call the increase an “incredibly destructive idea economically, and very foolish politically.”

As he has done since the 1980s, Norquist demonstrated his influence over the GOP. Since Trump’s second inauguration, he has appeared in several high-profile news stories about the budget, including a Washington Post article where he said, “Tax cuts are income to Americans and a loss to the bureaucracy.”

Ultimately, the tax increase was defeated, and the Trump budget proposal passed the House on May 22, 2025.

Norquist praised the leadership from Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, saying taxpayers owe them “bigly for managing a narrow Republican House Majority that was united and committed to reducing taxes on the American people.”

As scholars of U.S. politics, we examined Norquist’s emergence, traced debates about the scope and size of the American government and assessed Norquist’s relevance in the Donald Trump era, where he continues to wield considerable sway in the Republican Party.

The conscience of a conservative

In 1960, a slim, 123-page book changed the trajectory of American conservative thought.

“The Conscience of a Conservative,” written by Barry Goldwater, laid out the premise that an expansive federal bureaucracy was the root evil of government.

Four years later, Ronald Reagan launched his political career with a speech supporting Goldwater. His words echoed Goldwater: “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size … a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

Reagan ended the speech by noting, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.” Goldwater wouldn’t manifest that destiny, but Reagan, 16 years later, took this vision of fiscal conservatism to the White House.

By the 1980s, Goldwater’s limited government creed had become part of Republican dogma. Government wasn’t just bloated, according to Reagan. It was, as he noted, the problem. The Reagan presidency ushered in the doctrine of supply-side economics, which rests on the premise that tax cuts are key to stimulating economic growth.

Norquist’s emergence

Into this landscape stepped a young Norquist.

He had cut his teeth at the National Taxpayer’s Union, a fiscally conservative taxpayer advocacy group. Then, in 1981, he became the executive director of the College Republican National Committee.

In the first issue of CR Report, a college Republican newsletter, Norquist’s position as executive director was announced, and he provided a list of suggested readings. Among the titles he recommended were Goldwater’s “Conscience,” Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” and Friedrich Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.”

In 1985, Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform to support his tax reduction efforts. As Norquist noted, “The tax issue is one thing everyone agrees on.”

He and his organization effectively institutionalized a permanent tax revolt in Congress supported by his “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” a promise made starting in 1986 to oppose all efforts to increase marginal tax rates or reduce deductions or credits.

The pledge became a litmus test for fiscally conservative GOP candidates and cemented the party’s anti-tax stance.

Feeling this pressure, GOP nominee George H.W. Bush delivered his famous line, “read my lips, no new taxes,” at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Those six words were repeatedly used by primary challenger Pat Buchanan and Bush’s opponent in the general election, Bill Clinton, to raise questions about Bush’s honesty – since he made a pledge that he was unable to keep.

With Clinton in the White House in 1994, Norquist helped House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich write the “Contract with America” to legislate fiscal conservatism. Weaponizing government shutdowns and setting a more confrontational tone, congressional Republicans successfully rolled back welfare programs, reduced the size of government and cut taxes.

In 1995, they came two votes shy in the Senate of approving an amendment to the Constitution that would have required the federal budget to be balanced – with no borrowing – every year.

Anti-tax conservatism in the 21st century

In 2001, Norquist told a reporter at The Nation: “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

This objective would have to wait during the George W. Bush presidency. Resulting in part from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration saw dramatic expansions of federal power and spending in homeland security, defense and Medicare, as well as a large increase in the budget deficit.

The tea party movement, a fiscally conservative political group, was formed in response to these Bush-era increases and two signature programs of the Barack Obama administration: the massive stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and his signature health care reform, the Affordable Care Act.

Norquist reveled in renewed attention to tax policies and the size of government, urging readers of The Guardian to “join the Tea Party movement.”

Norquist’s continuing legacy

For more than four decades, Norquist has been a relentless advocate for fiscal conservatism. He is the living embodiment of an ideological thread that stretches from Goldwater to Reagan to Gingrich to current GOP leadership.

The ongoing debates about the Trump budget are just the latest example of Norquist’s influence. He continues to play an active role in debates about the federal budget and still has considerable sway with Republicans.

However, Norquist’s uncompromising stance on taxes has coincided with increases in federal spending, surging budget deficits and increased national debt.

That additional debt is accumulating because many Republicans have adopted his anti-tax position while simultaneously increasing defense budgets, maintaining or expanding entitlement spending and lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

Nevertheless, Norquist continues to be the fiscal conscience of the Republican Party. Politicians come and go. Powerful ideas, and those who champion them, endure.

Gibbs Knotts, Professor of Political Science, Coastal Carolina University and Drew Kurlowski, Associate Professor of Political Science, Coastal Carolina University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ANTI-DEI 

New US Army Shaving Policy Will Allow Soldiers with Skin Condition that Affects Mostly Black Men to Be Kicked Out

Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade use hot towels to warm their faces during a shaving clinic May 22, 2017 at the brigade's organizational classroom. (Caitlyn Smoyer/U.S. Army)

Military.com | By Steve Beynon

Published June 27, 2025 

The Army is preparing to roll out a new policy that could lead to soldiers diagnosed with a chronic skin condition that causes painful razor bumps and scarring to be kicked out of the service -- an issue that disproportionately affects Black men.

The new guidance, expected to take effect in the coming weeks, would bar permanent shaving waivers and require medical personnel to craft formal treatment plans for affected troops, according to multiple service officials and internal documents reviewed by Military.com.

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Soldiers in need of prolonged waivers may be directed to get laser treatments. Those who need shaving exemptions for more than 12 months over a two-year period could be kicked out of the Army. Units across the force will also be mandated to rebrief personnel on grooming standards within 90 days of the policy's rollout.

Read Next: Military Domestic Violence Conviction Skyrocketed After Commanders Were Removed from Process

Most shaving waivers are for soldiers diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hairs curl back into the skin after shaving and cause irritation. The Pentagon may cover the laser treatment, but that can cost thousands of dollars per soldier, depending on the number of sessions required. It's unclear how many soldiers would require the procedure.

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The American Osteopathic College of Dermatology estimates that up to 60% of Black men are affected by the condition. Laser treatments can cause scarring and changes in skin pigmentation.

"Of course, this is racially motivated," one senior noncommissioned officer familiar with the plans told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "There's no tactical reason; you can look professional with facial hair."

In March, the Marine Corps rolled out a similar program allowing troops to be separated if the genetic skin condition persists, also raising concerns of racial discrimination.

The Army has been in a prolonged recruiting slump since the high-water mark of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, something it started to turn around last year.

While Black Americans make up about 14% of the U.S. population, they have accounted for roughly one-quarter of the Army's new recruits in recent years, with that number steadily rising.

However, the services have made deliberate efforts to reduce recruiting efforts linked to minority groups amid Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's purge of diversity initiatives during the Trump administration.

In 2018, more than 44,000 new recruits identified as white, according to Army data. By 2023, that number had fallen to just over 25,000 -- a staggering 43% drop in five years. The steepest annual decline came most recently, with a 6% dip from 2022 to 2023 alone. No other demographic group has seen such a precipitous fall.

Much of the recent recruiting slump was attributable to men being less qualified, or willing, to don the uniform while women have been joining the ranks at a steady rate.

Medical complications tied to mandatory shaving emerged as a flashpoint during the military's bumpy road toward racial integration. In the early 1970s, then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo Zumwalt launched an aggressive campaign to root out racism and sexism across the ranks.

As part of that broader push, Zumwalt issued a now-famous directive permitting sailors to grow beards and mustaches, a move that clashed with the Navy's traditionally rigid grooming codes but aimed to ease chronic skin issues that disproportionately affected Black service members.

The primary argument against allowing beards in the ranks has long centered on concerns that they could compromise the seal of a gas mask. But a 2021 study from Military Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal, found there's no conclusive evidence that a well-groomed, modest beard interferes with mask function.

The publication also noted that only a small fraction of service members operate in environments where chemical attacks are a realistic threat.

In Alaska, units are granted wide latitude when it comes to grooming standards, with commanders often waiving shaving requirements during the frigid winter months. Troops are frequently instructed to skip their morning shave or forgo it entirely while operating in the field -- not out of convenience but as a safety precaution. The extreme cold can make shaving a medical hazard, with exposed skin at risk of frostbite and other cold-weather injuries.

The Army move to clamp down on shaving waivers follows Hegseth, who has protested shaving waivers, ordering a sweeping review of grooming standards across the services. He has claimed that standards have fallen in recent years and damaged the military.

"We kicked out good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms," Hegseth said in a March statement criticizing what he characterized as bad policy decisions by past administrations. "And today we are relaxing the standards on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity. Piece by piece, the standard had to go -- because of equity."

Related: Air Force Unveils New Policies on Shaving, Nail Polish, Hair Length in Leaked Memos

Steve Beynon

About Steve Beynon

Steve Beynon is a reporter for Military.com based out of the Washington, D.C., area whose detailed investigations have covered urgent issues impacting soldiers. He has an extensive background in covering senior military leadership conduct, the Pentagon's recruiting struggles and extremist organizations. Read Full Bio