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  21. <title>WILL UPROAR OVER TRUMP’S SALACIOUS EPSTEIN BIRTHDAY DRAWING ALSO FIZZLE?</title>
  22. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/will-uproar-over-trumps-salacious-epstein-birthday-drawing-also-fizzle/</link>
  23. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/will-uproar-over-trumps-salacious-epstein-birthday-drawing-also-fizzle/#respond</comments>
  25. <dc:creator><![CDATA[JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief]]></dc:creator>
  26. <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2025 14:43:12 +0000</pubDate>
  27. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
  28. <category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
  29. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  30. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  31. <category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
  32. <category><![CDATA[Scandals]]></category>
  33. <category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category>
  34. <category><![CDATA[Women]]></category>
  35. <category><![CDATA[girls]]></category>
  36. <category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Epstein]]></category>
  37. <category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[Pedohiles]]></category>
  40. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  41. <category><![CDATA[Rupert Murdoch]]></category>
  42. <category><![CDATA[Trump scandals]]></category>
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  44. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286384</guid>
  45.  
  46. <description><![CDATA[<p>Is the latest uproar over Donald Trump also destined to fizzle? It can&#8217;t but bring a sense of deju vu. Once again, another story involving something Donald Trump did or is alleged to have done or said or is alleged to have said comes up. It sparks a furor. Pundits and social media predict it<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/will-uproar-over-trumps-salacious-epstein-birthday-drawing-also-fizzle/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  47. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/will-uproar-over-trumps-salacious-epstein-birthday-drawing-also-fizzle/">WILL UPROAR OVER TRUMP&#8217;S SALACIOUS EPSTEIN BIRTHDAY DRAWING ALSO FIZZLE?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  48. ]]></description>
  49. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/297907_768_rgb.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-286428" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/297907_768_rgb.jpg 768w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/297907_768_rgb-300x300.jpg 300w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/297907_768_rgb-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></p>
  50. <p>Is the latest uproar over Donald Trump also destined to fizzle? It can&#8217;t but bring a sense of <em>deju vu. </em>Once again, another story involving something Donald Trump did or is alleged to have done or said or is alleged to have said comes up. It sparks a furor. Pundits and social media predict it could negatively impact his political career or destroy it or wind up putting him behind bars. News cycles keep covering the story.</p>
  51. <p>Then it starts to die down. Trump&#8217;s supremely loyal MAGA base inevitably rallies behind him. And, within weeks, the uproar has morphed into a fizzle.</p>
  52. <p>Will this happen yet again? The catalyst is an <a href="https://www.memeorandum.com/250717/p135#a250717p135">explosive Wall Street Journal exclusive</a> about a leather-bound Epstein 50th birthday album consisting of birthday greeting letters from Trump friends in 2003 collected by Epstein&#8217;s now-jailed girlfriend<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=ghislaine+maxwell&#038;oq=Ghislaine+Maxwell&#038;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqEAgAEAAYgwEY4wIYsQMYgAQyEAgAEAAYgwEY4wIYsQMYgAQyDQgBEC4YgwEYsQMYgAQyEAgCEAAYgwEYsQMYxwMYgAQyBggDEAAYAzIQCAQQABiDARixAxiABBiKBTINCAUQABiDARixAxiABDINCAYQABiDARixAxiABDIQCAcQABiDARixAxiABBiKBTINCAgQABiDARixAxiABDIQCAkQABiDARixAxiABBiKBdIBBzgzNmowajeoAgiwAgHxBQYfGfaIHz9K&#038;sourceid=chrome&#038;ie=UTF-8"> Ghislaine Maxwell.</a> The underlying question now is: is the commander in chief a pedophile? So far MAGA world has demanded more from Tump on the so-called Epstein files.</p>
  53. <p>But there are signs MAGA world may be falling in line.</p>
  54. <p>The Wall Street Journal reported: </p>
  55. <blockquote><p>The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.</p>
  56. <p>The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”</p>
  57. <p>In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.</p>
  58. <p>“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”</p>
  59. <p>He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.</p>
  60. <p>Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 and he was arrested that year. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy. </p></blockquote>
  61. <p><a href="https://mediagazer.com/250717/p25#a250717p25">Trump now says it&#8217;s full speed ahead in his plans to sue </a>The Wall Street Journal, it&#8217;s editor and publisher Rupert Murdoch who, as many have pointed out, indeed had it in his power to kill the story.</p>
  62. <blockquote><p>President Donald Trump said Thursday he would sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner over a new bombshell report about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of unsealing grand jury testimony in the disgraced financier’s criminal case.</p>
  63. <p>“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” Trump said on social media, though it’s unclear that a judge would approve the request. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”</p>
  64. <p>That post came less than an hour after the president responded to a report in the Journal alleging he had sent a racy birthday letter to Epstein. Trump said he had personally warned the Journal’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, and its editor in chief, Emma Tucker, that the letter was “fake” before the report was published, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”</p>
  65. <p>“President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote o n social media hours after the Journal published its report.</p>
  66. <p>In the immediate wake of the report’s publication, the White House rushed to decry it as false. Vice President JD Vance said on X it was “complete and utter bullshit” — echoing the expletive Trump used this week to describe the Epstein news cycle. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt — whom Trump said had also told Tucker the story was “fake” — called it a “hatchet job article” and claimed the outlet “refused to show us the letter and conceded they don’t even have it in their possession when we asked them to verify the alleged document.”</p></blockquote>
  67. <p>Meanwhile, the chances are good that that MAGA world  will sooner or later fall into line and, in the end, will shrug off the latest scandal, &#8220;Epsteingate,&#8221; and/or parrot whatever defense Trump comes up with as part of it&#8217;s new talking and social media written talking points. <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/p/an-enigma-wrapped-in-a-wonderful-secret-trump-epsitein-files-bondi">Andrew Egger in The Bulwalk:</a></p>
  68. <blockquote><p>The idea that Murdoch and the Journal would publish a story like this—knowing Trump’s penchant for retributive lawsuits—without being on rock-solid legal footing is laughable; a small army of lawyers no doubt inspected every word of the report. Meanwhile, Trump is the only alleged contributor to deny to the Journal that his letter was real; billionaire Leslie Wexner declined to comment, and attorney Alan Dershowitz simply said that “it’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.”</p>
  69. <p>In a sane world, Trump’s supporters who have been dismayed by his handling of the Epstein matter might find his unconvincing defenses and farcical counterattacks (not to mention yet another point of proof that he and Epstein were kinda close) disconcerting. But I wouldn’t be shocked if the opposite turns out to be true—that they’re relieved in a way.</p>
  70. <p>Trump’s actions so far this week—railing against his own loyal fans for caring about the same story they’ve cared about forever, insanely calling that story a “hoax” supposedly carried out long ago by Democrats—were in conflict with the broader MAGA cosmology. But MAGA knows how to respond to stories like this. When Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounces a “hatchet job article” that is “like the Steele Dossier that kickstarted the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax all over again,’” their heads start nodding along so fast they risk ligament damage in their necks.</p>
  71. </blockquote>
  72. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/will-uproar-over-trumps-salacious-epstein-birthday-drawing-also-fizzle/">WILL UPROAR OVER TRUMP&#8217;S SALACIOUS EPSTEIN BIRTHDAY DRAWING ALSO FIZZLE?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  73. ]]></content:encoded>
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  76. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  79. </item>
  80. <item>
  81. <title>Trump doesn’t remember appointing Jerome Powell as Fed chair; he thought his uncle taught the Unabomber</title>
  82. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-doesnt-remember-appointing-jerome-powell-as-fed-chair-he-thought-his-uncle-taught-the-unabomber/</link>
  83. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-doesnt-remember-appointing-jerome-powell-as-fed-chair-he-thought-his-uncle-taught-the-unabomber/#respond</comments>
  85. <dc:creator><![CDATA[KATHY GILL, Associate Editor]]></dc:creator>
  86. <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:53:31 +0000</pubDate>
  87. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  88. <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
  89. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  90. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286407</guid>
  91.  
  92. <description><![CDATA[<p>Don&#8217;t expect traditional news media to report his cognitive decline If you&#8217;re expecting traditional news sources to keep the public abreast of the content and frequency of President Donald J. Trump&#8217;s mental lapses, you&#8217;re bound to be disappointed. Perhaps the most anomalous this week happened Tuesday in Pittsburgh at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation event<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-doesnt-remember-appointing-jerome-powell-as-fed-chair-he-thought-his-uncle-taught-the-unabomber/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  93. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-doesnt-remember-appointing-jerome-powell-as-fed-chair-he-thought-his-uncle-taught-the-unabomber/">Trump doesn&#8217;t remember appointing Jerome Powell as Fed chair; he thought his uncle taught the Unabomber</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  94. ]]></description>
  95. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Don&#8217;t expect traditional news media to report his cognitive decline</h2>
  96. <p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/trump-abc-news-quote.png" alt="Trump on Powell, Fed Chair" width="1692" height="1253" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-286416" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/trump-abc-news-quote.png 1692w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/trump-abc-news-quote-300x222.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 1692px) 100vw, 1692px" /></p>
  97. <p class="ledeGraph"> If you&#8217;re expecting traditional news sources to keep the public abreast of the content and frequency of President Donald J. Trump&#8217;s mental lapses, you&#8217;re bound to be disappointed.</p>
  98. <p>Perhaps the most anomalous this week happened Tuesday in Pittsburgh at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation event hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA). </p>
  99. <p>Or maybe it was <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-powell-fed-chair-biden-blame-b2790464.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">forgetting that he was the person who appointed Jerome Powell</a> chair of the Federal Reserve. Trump, on the air: “He’s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed.”</p>
  100. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/app.bsky.feed.post/3lu3tm6j3by2u" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreifzsb2air4b2qwdws7ll5knkjzquvm2wi3gebyl2paaeoqv2ldhhe" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode="system">
  101. <p lang="en">Trump on Jerome Powell: “He’s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed.”</p>
  102. <p>Trump <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-nomination-jerome-powell-chairman-board-governors-federal-reserve-system/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">appointed</a> Jerome Powell during his first term in office.<br />
  103. <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/post/3lu3tm6j3by2u?ref_src=embed">[image or embed]</a></p>
  104. <p>&mdash; The Bulwark (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh?ref_src=embed">@thebulwark.com</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/post/3lu3tm6j3by2u?ref_src=embed">July 16, 2025 at 9:29 AM</a></p></blockquote>
  105. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  106. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:anlicnys5zv7r34wjfnko6pc/app.bsky.feed.post/3lu3wj6pdjc2y" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihte34dgsceo3lk2wdmgzueucuoauawiobvbbkgo2hxhsbkxiq5nq" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode="system">
  107. <p lang="en">Trump 2017: &quot;It is my pleasure and my honor to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell.&quot;</p>
  108. <p>Trump today: &quot;He&#x27;s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised frankly that Biden put him in and extended him.&quot;</p>
  109. <p>Every news story will include both clips, right?</p>
  110. <p>&mdash; Brian Stelter (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:anlicnys5zv7r34wjfnko6pc?ref_src=embed">@brianstelter.bsky.social</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:anlicnys5zv7r34wjfnko6pc/post/3lu3wj6pdjc2y?ref_src=embed">July 16, 2025 at 10:21 AM</a></p></blockquote>
  111. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  112. <p><strong>Not in the mainstream media.</strong></p>
  113. <p><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-says-was-surprised-jerome-powell-fed-chair-appointed-was-appoint-rcna219162" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rachel Maddow</a> (who is not mainstream news) had that one. So did <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-surprised-someone-made-powell-fed-chair-it-was-him.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York magazine</a>. (They&#8217;re not mainstream news media, either.)</p>
  114. <p>The news story from the Pennsylvania ramble about his uncle teaching the Unabomber? Crickets across the board. From <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ted-kaczynski-pittsburgh-b2789670.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The (London) Independent</a>:</p>
  115. <blockquote class="highlight"><p>
  116. Trump claimed that his uncle, a noted physicist who helped develop radar systems during the Second World War, taught notorious future terrorist Theodore Kaczynski at MIT, despite none of it having actually happened. The 79-year-old president also forgot names and who was with him on the trip.</p>
  117. <p>“I want to introduce Dan Meuser. Dan Meuser is here,” Trump said. “Where’s Dan?”</p>
  118. <p>“They all stayed in Washington,” McCormick told the president.</p>
  119. </blockquote>
  120. <p>Trump&#8217;s Uncle John died in 1985. Trump claimed that Theodore Kaczynski, perhaps better known as the Unabomber, was one of his uncle&#8217;s students. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-claims-uncle-taught-unabomber-offers-evidence-support/story?id=123833782" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kaczynski did not attend MIT</a>. Moreover, Kaczynski was arrested in 1996, 11 years after Uncle John died.</p>
  121. <blockquote class="highlight"><p>
  122. There is very little difference between a madman and a genius. But Kaczynski … I said, &#8216;What kind of a student was he Uncle John?&#8217; He said, &#8216;Seriously? Good. He would go around correcting everybody.&#8217; But it didn&#8217;t work out too well,” Trump said.
  123. </p></blockquote>
  124. <p>Also in that talk (it&#8217;s an insult to others to call it a &#8220;speech&#8221;), Trump claimed he secured $16 trillion in investment in the U.S. economy. That&#8217;s more than one-half of the total economy, which is less than $30 trillion.</p>
  125. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
  126. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">President Trump opens meeting with Bahraini Crown Prince: &quot;I think we have over $16 trillion of investment coming in, which is a record, and we&#39;re only a little bit into the year.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/pHqz2Djoof">pic.twitter.com/pHqz2Djoof</a></p>
  127. <p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1945515191036239988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
  128. <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  129. <p>Had this been President Joe Biden, it would have been on the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post. But the grey lady has been silent on these disturbing signs of cognitive decline. </p>
  130. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:jmkqmjhcix7yldblun3fxjyy/app.bsky.feed.post/3lu56chqcnk23" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreie73c3txaozbh4ejsk27twkuugty6k47xutq4vffgdhqqq4lltmtq" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode="system">
  131. <p lang="en">&quot;Trump, 79, forgets who is with him on Pittsburgh trip as rambling talk includes unlikely Unabomber story.&quot; &#8211; headline from the Independent</p>
  132. <p>&quot;Trump Hails $90 Billion in A.I. Infrastructure Investments at Pennsylvania Summit.&quot; &#8211; headline from NYT</p>
  133. <p>They&#x27;re talking about the same speech on Tuesday.</p>
  134. <p>&mdash; this corrosion (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jmkqmjhcix7yldblun3fxjyy?ref_src=embed">@roguesecunit.bsky.social</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jmkqmjhcix7yldblun3fxjyy/post/3lu56chqcnk23?ref_src=embed">July 16, 2025 at 10:13 PM</a></p></blockquote>
  135. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  136. <p>The NYT did, however, report on Thursday that someone else &#8212; <a href="https://archive.ph/YUdVg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">late night comedians</a> &#8212; had &#8220;fact checked&#8221; the speech. The WaPo? Nadda.</p>
  137. <p>CNN, also, &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/politics/fact-check-trump-uncle-unabomber" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fact checked</a>&#8221; the speech. That&#8217;s better than nothing, I guess, but fact checks that are not in real time are a form of journalistic masturbation, a substitute for hard reporting. Besides, the uncle story isn&#8217;t the kind of thing you fact check. That&#8217;s for Trump&#8217;s claim of a $16,000,000,000,000,000 investment. </p>
  138. <p>That was it for timely TV news. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-claims-uncle-taught-unabomber-offers-evidence-support/story?id=123833782" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC posted</a> a short about the uncle/Unabomber on its website on Thursday, two days later.</p>
  139. <p>The White House ignored a request for clarification in Thursday&#8217;s press gaggle. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/trump-uncle-unabomber-claim-video-b2791163.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From The Independent</a> (of course):</p>
  140. <blockquote class="highlight"><p>
  141. When told it would have been impossible for Dr Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the now-president, Ms Leavitt told White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg on Thursday (17 July): &#8220;I&#8217;m a little bit surprised you would ask such a question.</p>
  142. <p>&#8220;The president&#8217;s uncle did in fact teach at MIT. He was a very intelligent professor. The president&#8217;s very proud of his family.&#8221;
  143. </p></blockquote>
  144. <p>We all remember the front page headlines and days (weeks?) of news organization handwringing after the 2024 debate between Biden and Trump, when Biden was under the weather. And the continued flailing that the NYT gives Biden&#8217;s mental health. But Trump? Silence.</p>
  145. <p>~~~</p>
  146. <p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-tariffs-negotiable-stay/story?id=120574240" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Featured image is edited screenshot</a>.</p>
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  157. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-doesnt-remember-appointing-jerome-powell-as-fed-chair-he-thought-his-uncle-taught-the-unabomber/">Trump doesn&#8217;t remember appointing Jerome Powell as Fed chair; he thought his uncle taught the Unabomber</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  158. ]]></content:encoded>
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  164. </item>
  165. <item>
  166. <title>Trump free to begin gutting Department of Education after Supreme Court ‘shadow’ ruling – 5 essential reads</title>
  167. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads/</link>
  168. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads/#respond</comments>
  170. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  171. <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:38:29 +0000</pubDate>
  172. <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
  173. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  174. <category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
  175. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  176. <category><![CDATA[Schools]]></category>
  177. <category><![CDATA[civil rights]]></category>
  178. <category><![CDATA[DEI]]></category>
  179. <category><![CDATA[Department of Education]]></category>
  180. <category><![CDATA[Diversity]]></category>
  181. <category><![CDATA[Equity and inclusion]]></category>
  182. <category><![CDATA[Heritage Foundation]]></category>
  183. <category><![CDATA[higher education]]></category>
  184. <category><![CDATA[Linda McMahon]]></category>
  185. <category><![CDATA[Project 2025]]></category>
  186. <category><![CDATA[Supreme Court]]></category>
  187. <category><![CDATA[Trump administration]]></category>
  188. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286403</guid>
  189.  
  190. <description><![CDATA[<p>Protesters gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education in Washington. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein Bryan Keogh, The Conversation The Trump administration was given the green light by the Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, to proceed with mass layoffs at the Department of Education – part of a wider plan to<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  191. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads/">Trump free to begin gutting Department of Education after Supreme Court ‘shadow’ ruling &#8211; 5 essential reads</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  192. ]]></description>
  193. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="theconversation-article-body">
  194. <figure>
  195.      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/680191/original/file-20250715-89-gvouup.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C304%2C5823%2C3275&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  196.          Protesters gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education in Washington.<br />
  197.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpDepartmentofEducation/4d315aba75704b6185a6f748044cadbf/photo?vs=false">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span><br />
  198.        </figcaption></figure>
  199. <p>  <span><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/team#bryan-keogh">Bryan Keogh</a>, <em><a href="http://www.theconversation.com/">The Conversation</a></em></span></p>
  200. <p>The Trump administration was given the green light by the Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-trump-administration-layoffs-education-department-rcna211450">proceed with mass layoffs</a> at the Department of Education – <a href="https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-3-20-2025">part of a wider plan</a> to dismantle the agency. In doing so, the conservative majority on the bench overruled a lower court judge that had blocked the move. </p>
  201. <p>While the court didn’t explain its decision – and didn’t rule on the merits of the case – Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberal justices who objected, issued a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf">strongly worded dissent</a>: “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it.”</p>
  202. <p>The Conversation has been following the administration’s efforts to take apart the Department of Education since President Donald Trump won the presidential election in November. Here are a few stories from our archives that explain the executive order targeting the department, why the agency has been in the crosshairs of conservatives, and some of the impacts of carrying out the order. </p>
  203. <h2>1. Hollowing out education</h2>
  204. <p>Trump has promised to eliminate the Department of Education since at least September 2023. What started out as a campaign promise eventually became the executive order he issued on March 20, 2025, released shortly after the administration announced plans to lay off about 1,300 of the 4,000 employees in the department.  </p>
  205. <p>“Although the president has broad executive authority, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-layoffs-at-education-department-signal-trumps-plan-to-gut-the-agency-251674">there are many things he cannot order by himself</a>,” wrote <a href="https://education.msu.edu/people/cowen-joshua/">Joshua Cowen</a>, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. “And one of those is the dismantling of a Cabinet agency created by law. But he seems determined to hollow the agency out.”</p>
  206. <p>And that’s what the Supreme Court says he can do while the case plays out in lower courts. Ultimately, Trump’s order creates a lot of “legal and policy uncertainty around funding for children in local schools and communities.”</p>
  207. <figure class="align-center ">
  208.            <img alt="a woman wearing an orange jacket gestures in front of a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680194/original/file-20250715-56-dcrz36.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/><figcaption>
  209.              <span class="caption">Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is responsible for carrying out Trump’s executive order.</span><br />
  210.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HouseEducationMcMahon/2cc6b70869b4440f87015008992344fb/photo?vs=false">AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.</a></span><br />
  211.            </figcaption></figure>
  212. <h2>2. What the education secretary normally does</h2>
  213. <p>The person directed to actually carry our the president’s order is the education secretary, Linda McMahon. She has called dismantling the department its “final mission.” </p>
  214. <p>But the secretary – and the department – have many other missions, such as managing students loans and administering Title I funding to help schools serving low-income students obtain an equitable education regardless of their socioeconomic status. </p>
  215. <p>“Every child in the United States is required to attend school in some capacity, and what happens at the federal level can have real-world impacts on students ranging from preschool to grad school,” wrote <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vK7qfnkAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Dustin Hornbeck</a>, a scholar of educational policy at the University of Memphis. </p>
  216. <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/us-secretary-of-education-helps-set-national-priorities-in-a-system-primarily-funded-and-guided-by-local-governments-245139">In his article</a>, Hornbeck explored the key duties of the education secretary and the role of the federal government in education, which he argued will continue even if the Education Department is abolished.</p>
  217. <h2>3. Why MAGA targeted the department</h2>
  218. <p>So why did Trump decide getting rid of the Education Department was a top priority and worth the legal risks? </p>
  219. <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-orders-a-plan-to-close-education-department-an-anthropologist-who-studies-maga-explains-4-reasons-why-trump-and-his-supporters-want-to-eliminate-it-248818">Fighting what he perceived as “wokeness” was likely one reason</a>, wrote Alex Hinton, an anthropologist who has been studying U.S. political culture at Rutgers University ? Newark. </p>
  220. <p>“First and foremost, Trump and his supporters believe that liberals are ruining public education by instituting what they call a ‘radical woke agenda’ that they say prioritizes identity politics and politically correct groupthink at the expense of the free speech of those, like many conservatives, who have different views,” he explains.</p>
  221. <p>Trump’s battle against DEI – or diversity, equity and inclusion – is of course a big part of that, but so too are what he and his supporters call “radical” race and gender policies. </p>
  222. <p>Hinton goes on to describe three other reasons – including supposed “Marxist indoctrination” and school choice – he argues that the MAGA faithful want to eliminate the Department of Education. </p>
  223. <h2>4. It didn’t begin with Trump</h2>
  224. <p>But conservative efforts to gut the department didn’t begin with Trump or MAGA. In fact, the Heritage Foundation, which created the Project 2025 blueprint for remaking the federal government, has been trying to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-executive-order-to-dismantle-the-education-department-was-inspired-by-the-heritage-foundations-decades-long-disapproval-of-the-agency-250605">limit or end its role in education since at least 1981</a> – just two years after the Department of Education was created. </p>
  225. <p>“In its 1981 mandate, the Heritage Foundation struck now-familiar themes,” including closing the Department of Education and ending funding for disadvantaged students, wrote <a href="https://fredlpincus.com/">Fred L. Pincus</a>, a sociology professor focused on diversity and social inequality at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “And the Heritage Foundation called for ending federal support for programs it claimed were designed to ‘turn elementary- and secondary-school classrooms into vehicles for liberal-left social and political change.’”</p>
  226. <p>The conservative think tank struck similar themes in its Project 2025 playbook, though it went even further in calling out “leftist indoctrination” and “gender ideology extremism,” Pincus noted. </p>
  227. <figure class="align-center ">
  228.            <img alt="young students sitting at their desks in a classroom raise their hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/680205/original/file-20250715-66-toao73.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/><figcaption>
  229.              <span class="caption">Changes at the Department of Education will have a big impact on students across the country.</span><br />
  230.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/happy-elementary-students-raising-their-hands-on-a-royalty-free-image/1468140092?phrase=students%20raising%20hands%20in%20class&amp;searchscope=image%2Cfilm">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span><br />
  231.            </figcaption></figure>
  232. <h2>5. Impact on most vulnerable students</h2>
  233. <p>After all the already planned layoffs go into effect, the Department of Education will have roughly half the staff it started the year with. That will have a significant impact on its ability to carry out its many tasks, such as managing federal loans for college and tracking student achievement. </p>
  234. <p>The department also enforces civil rights for schools and universities, and that office <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-cuts-at-the-education-departments-civil-rights-office-will-affect-vulnerable-students-for-years-to-come-249716">has been hit especially hard</a> by the job cuts, wrote education professors <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PPLOEBoAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Erica Frankenberg</a> of Penn State and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WxA-LzcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Maithreyi Gopalan</a> of the University of Oregon. </p>
  235. <p>“The Office for Civil Rights has played an important role in facilitating equitable education for all students,” they wrote. “The full effects of these changes on the most vulnerable public school students will likely be felt for many years.”</p>
  236. <p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/261218/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  237. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/team#bryan-keogh">Bryan Keogh</a>, Managing Editor, <em><a href="http://www.theconversation.com/">The Conversation</a></em></span></p>
  238. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads-261218">original article</a>.</p>
  239. </div>
  240. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-free-to-begin-gutting-department-of-education-after-supreme-court-shadow-ruling-5-essential-reads/">Trump free to begin gutting Department of Education after Supreme Court ‘shadow’ ruling &#8211; 5 essential reads</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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  248. <item>
  249. <title>Current Scopes Controversy</title>
  250. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/current-scopes-controversy/</link>
  251. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/current-scopes-controversy/#respond</comments>
  253. <dc:creator><![CDATA[ROBERT A. LEVINE, TMV Columnist]]></dc:creator>
  254. <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:52:11 +0000</pubDate>
  255. <category><![CDATA[2024 Elections]]></category>
  256. <category><![CDATA[Climate change]]></category>
  257. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  258. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  259. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  260. <category><![CDATA[evolution denial]]></category>
  261. <category><![CDATA[global warming denial]]></category>
  262. <category><![CDATA[RFK]]></category>
  263. <category><![CDATA[Scopes monkey trial]]></category>
  264. <category><![CDATA[trump]]></category>
  265. <category><![CDATA[vaccine skepticism]]></category>
  266. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286398</guid>
  267.  
  268. <description><![CDATA[<p>Vaccine Skepticism and Global Warming Denial Is there some alignment between Americans who are vaccine skeptics and those who deny the reality of global warming? I don’t have any proof, but would bet there is. You can add to that people who deny that evolution is real. The common denominator between all of these is<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/current-scopes-controversy/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  269. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/current-scopes-controversy/">Current Scopes Controversy</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  270. ]]></description>
  271. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/297089_768_rgb-2.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-286271" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/297089_768_rgb-2.jpg 768w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/297089_768_rgb-2-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></p>
  272. <p>Vaccine Skepticism and Global Warming Denial<br />
  273. Is there some alignment between Americans who are vaccine skeptics and those who deny the reality of global warming? I don’t have any proof, but would bet there is. You can add to that people who deny that evolution is real. The common denominator between all of these is a refusal to acknowledge scientific data and the expertise of scientists. This is a modern controversy similar to the Scopes trial a century ago over the denial of evolution. There is a strong trend among right-wing religious citizens to ignore or disparage information or recommendations that come from scientists and researchers. These citizens are more willing to accept information disseminated on social media from people with no expertise in the fields upon which they are commenting.</p>
  274. <p>Some of these commentators may be educated but not in the areas where they claim to be knowledgeable. Thus, we see President Donald Trump claiming that global warming is a hoax and that drilling and mining for fossil fuels should go full speed ahead to make us energy independent. (Perhaps some of Trump’s embrace of fossil fuels is related to the money his campaign received from fossil fuel companies.) Meanwhile, China is moving ahead with the production of renewable energy, the new technology, employing more than the rest of the world combined. Of course, China still depends on coal and oil, but it is only a matter of time before they switch to renewables completely. They are also supplying other nations with renewables, while the US. leads the world in the production of fossil fuels- the old technology.</p>
  275. <p>China’s leadership also believes in the efficacy of vaccines to prevent infectious diseases, while Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the head of Health and Human Services in the federal government, emphasizes the problems that might occur with the use of vaccines, aiming to cut down their utilization. Because of RFK’s disparagement of vaccines and his changes in the CDC’s vaccine panel, there has been an outbreak of measles in Texas and the Southwest with a number of children dying. Vaccine experts have reaffirmed the safety of vaccines, but Kennedy and his followers have ignored them with claims that vaccines cause autism. The vaccine skeptics have focused on thimerosal which has already been removed from vaccines though no connection was found with autism.</p>
  276. <p>The denial of evolution among groups of religious people goes back to the Scopes Monkey trial in Tennessee 100 years ago. A high school teacher, John Scopes, was tried for violating the State’s Butler Act which forbid the teaching of evolution in the public schools. This was a case of religious fundamentalism against science. Religious fundamentalism won, as Scopes was found guilty. Currently, we have the same problem as the denial of evolution with people refusing to accept the science of climate change and vaccine efficacy. Religion seems to win out in the United States over science, with expertise and knowledge being scorned in favor of religious belief and faith with the absence of any proof.</p>
  277. <p>www.robertlevinebooks.com</p>
  278. <p>Buy The Uninformed Voter on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore.</p>
  279. <p>Posted at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)</p>
  280. <p>Tags: denial of evolution, denial of global warming, denial of science, expertise, RFK, Scopes trial, Trump, vaccine skepticism</p>
  281. <p>Comments<br />
  282. Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.</p>
  283. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/current-scopes-controversy/">Current Scopes Controversy</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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  292. <title>Florida is fronting the $450M cost of Alligator Alcatraz — a legal scholar explains what we still don’t know about the detainees</title>
  293. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/</link>
  294. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/#respond</comments>
  296. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  297. <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2025 03:02:32 +0000</pubDate>
  298. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  299. <category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
  300. <category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>
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  307. <category><![CDATA[Trump administration]]></category>
  308. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286395</guid>
  309.  
  310. <description><![CDATA[<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads a tour of the new Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility for President Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Mark Schlakman, Florida State University The state of Florida has opened a migrant detention center in the Everglades. Its official name is<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  311. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/">Florida is fronting the $450M cost of Alligator Alcatraz &#8212; a legal scholar explains what we still don’t know about the detainees</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  312. ]]></description>
  313. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679507/original/file-20250711-66-pwghrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C0%2C8080%2C5387&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  314.          Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads a tour of the new Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility for President Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.<br />
  315.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-president-donald-trump-florida-governor-ron-news-photo/2222319994?adppopup=true">Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span><br />
  316.        </figcaption><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-schlakman-2428630">Mark Schlakman</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/florida-state-university-1372">Florida State University</a></em></span></p>
  317. <p><em>The state of Florida <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alligator-alcatraz-immigration-79190c04f55db8f872a2a802093dc36e">has opened a migrant detention center</a> in the Everglades. <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/08/alligator-alcatraz-official-name-florida-immigrant-detention/84502452007/">Its official name is Alligator Alcatraz</a>, a reference to the former maximum security federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay.</em></p>
  318. <p><em>While touring Alligator Alcatraz on July 1, 2025, <a href="https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/state/floridas-alligator-alcatraz-sparks-debate-over-detention-deportation-and-moral-responsibility">President Donald Trump said</a>, “This facility will house some of the menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” But new reporting from the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article310541810.html">Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times</a> reveals that of more than 700 detainees, only a third have criminal convictions.</em></p>
  319. <p><em>To find out more about the state of Florida’s involvement in immigration enforcement and who can be detained at Alligator Alcatraz, The Conversation spoke with <a href="https://cahr.fsu.edu/about/our-staff/mark-schlakman">Mark Schlakman</a>. Schlakman is a lawyer and senior program director for The Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. He also served as special counsel to Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, working as a liaison of sorts with the federal government during the mid-1990s when tens of thousands of <a href="https://exhibits.uflib.ufl.edu/HaitianAmericanDream/">Haitians</a> and <a href="http://exhibits.library.miami.edu/balseros/index.html">Cubans</a> fled their island nations on makeshift boats, hoping to reach safe haven in Florida.</em></p>
  320. <p><strong>U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/kristi-noem-says-trump-is-upholding-freedom-by-deporting-cannibals?srsltid=AfmBOorspCB8j0b77SfifQgwNfv4rvRCJEyPaYdR36a_IfNVUr0dMewF">Kristi Noem has characterized the migrants</a> being detained in facilities like Alligator Alcatraz as “murderers and rapists and traffickers and drug dealers.” Do we know if the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz have been convicted of these sorts of crimes?</strong></p>
  321. <p>The <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2025/07/13/some-alligator-alcatraz-detainees-have-no-criminal-record-list-shows/">Times/Herald</a> published a list of 747 current detainees as of Sunday, July 13, 2025. Their reporters found that about a third of the detainees have criminal convictions, including attempted murder, illegal reentry to the U.S., which is a federal crime, and traffic violations. Apparently hundreds more have charges pending, though neither the federal nor state government have made public what those charges are.</p>
  322. <p>There are also more than 250 detainees with no criminal history, just immigration violations.</p>
  323. <p><strong>Is it a crime for someone to be in the U.S. without legal status? In other words, is an immigration violation a crime?</strong></p>
  324. <p>No, not necessarily. It’s well established as a matter of law that physical presence in the U.S. without proper authorization is a <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/immigration-prosecutions/">civil violation, not a criminal offense</a>.</p>
  325. <p>However, if the federal government previously deported someone, they can be subject to federal criminal prosecution if they attempt to return without permission. That appears to be the case with some of the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz.</p>
  326. <p><strong>What usually happens if a noncitizen commits a crime in the U.S.?</strong></p>
  327. <p>Normally, if a foreign national is accused of committing a crime, they are prosecuted in a state court just like anyone else. If found guilty and sentenced to incarceration, they complete their sentence in a state prison. Once they’ve served their time, state officials can hand them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. They are subject to deportation, but a federal immigration judge can hear any grounds for relief.</p>
  328. <p><strong>DHS has clarified that it “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/donald-trump-administration-alligator-alcatraz-pushback-environmental-groups/">has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded” Alligator Alcatraz</a>, but rather the state of Florida is providing startup funds and running this facility. What is Florida’s interest in this? Are these mostly migrants who have been scooped up by ICE in Florida?</strong></p>
  329. <p>It’s still unclear where most of these detainees were apprehended. But based on <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1943474087810208207">a list of six detainees</a> released by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office, it is clear that at least some were apprehended outside of Florida, and others simply may have been transferred to Alligator Alcatraz from federal custody elsewhere.</p>
  330. <p>This calls to mind the time in 2022 when Gov. Ron DeSantis <a href="https://theconversation.com/ron-desantis-dropping-migrants-off-on-marthas-vineyard-may-be-illegal-an-immigration-lawyer-explains-why-190899">flew approximately 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts</a> at Florida taxpayer expense. Those migrants also had no discernible presence in Florida.</p>
  331. <p>To establish Alligator Alcatraz, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/alligator-alcatraz-ron-desantis-top-allies-rcna215647">DeSantis leveraged an immigration emergency declaration</a>, which has been ongoing <a href="https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2023/governor-ron-desantis-signs-executive-order-and-activates-national-guard-provide">since Jan. 6, 2023</a>. A state of emergency allows a governor to exercise extraordinary executive authority. This is how he avoided requirements such as environmental impact analysis in the Everglades and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/alligator-alcatraz-detention-site-faces-possible-court-ordered-pause-as-protests-continue/">concerns expressed</a> by tribal governance surrounding that area.</p>
  332. <p>For now, the governor’s declaration remains unchallenged by the Florida Legislature. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tYSBgr3-n_PiNLB2y_OjywCSAQLpvI-X/view">Environmental advocates have filed a lawsuit over Alligator Alcatraz</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-florida-immigration-law-enforcement-rcna217871">U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by a federal judge temporarily barring</a> Florida from enforcing its new immigration laws, which DeSantis had championed. But no court has yet intervened to contest this prolonged state of emergency.</p>
  333. <p>This presents a stark contrast to <a href="https://www.nga.org/governor/lawton-chiles/">Gov. Lawton Chiles’</a> <a href="https://time.com/archive/6920975/cuban-exodus-floridas-cry-for-help/">declaration of an immigration emergency during the mid-1990s</a>. At that time, tens of thousands of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/a-makeshift-raft-speaks-to-the-risks-cubans-took-to-escape-their-homeland-180980127/">Cubans</a> and <a href="https://exhibits.uflib.ufl.edu/HaitianAmericanDream/">Haitians</a> attempted to reach Florida shores in virtually anything that would float. Chiles’ actions as governor were informed by his experience as a U.S. senator during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mariel-boatlift">Mariel boatlift</a> in 1980, when 125,000 Cubans made landfall in Florida over the course of just six months.</p>
  334. <p><a href="https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/florida-illegal-immigration-suit-1994">Chiles sued the Clinton administration</a> for failing to adequately enforce U.S. immigration law. But Chiles also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/18/us/florida-nearing-emergency-as-cuban-exodus-increases.html">entered into unprecedented agreements with the federal government</a>, such as the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/1996/May96/241.ag.htm">1996 Florida Immigration Initiative</a> with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. His intent was to protect Florida taxpayers while enhancing federal enforcement capacity, without dehumanizing people fleeing desperate circumstances.</p>
  335. <p>During my tenure on Chiles’ staff, the governor generally opposed state legislation involving immigration. In the U.S.’s federalist system of government, immigration falls under the purview of the federal government, not the states. Chiles’ primary concern was that Floridians wouldn’t be saddled with what ought to be federal costs and responsibilities. </p>
  336. <p>Chiles was open to state and local officials supporting federal immigration enforcement. But he was mindful this required finesse to avoid undermining community policing, public health priorities and the economic health of key Florida businesses and industries. To this day, the <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/IACP_Immigration_Policy_Fact_Sheet.pdf">International Association of Chiefs of Police’s position</a> reflects Chiles’ concerns about such cooperation with the federal government.</p>
  337. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  338.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking into a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679509/original/file-20250711-56-mx16m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  339.              <span class="caption">Gov. Ron DeSantis outlines his plans for Alligator Alcatraz to the media on July 1, 2025.</span><br />
  340.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/florida-governor-ron-desantis-attends-a-roundtable-news-photo/2222323051?adppopup=true">Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span><br />
  341.            </figcaption></figure>
  342. <p>Now, in 2025, DeSantis has taken a decidedly different tack by using Florida taxpayer dollars to establish Alligator Alcatraz. The <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2025/07/a-dedicated-fema-fund-will-pay-for-alligator-alcatraz/">state of Florida has fronted the US$450 million</a> to pay for this facility. DeSantis reportedly intends to seek reimbursement from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. Ultimately, congressional action may be necessary to obtain reimbursement. Florida is essentially lending the federal government half a billion dollars and providing other assistance to help support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.</p>
  343. <p>Florida is also establishing another migrant detention facility <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/desantis-floats-building-another-immigration-detention-center-ne-florida/">at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Jacksonville</a>. A third apparently is <a href="https://weartv.com/news/local/governor-desantis-hints-at-third-ice-facility-in-florida-panhandle-amidst-budget-cuts">being contemplated for the Panhandle</a>.</p>
  344. <p>ICE claims that the ultimate decision of whom to detain at these facilities belongs to the state of Florida, through the <a href="https://www.floridadisaster.org/">Florida Division of Emergency Management</a>. Members of Congress who visited Alligator Alcatraz earlier this week <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/07/12/heres-what-lawmakers-saw-alligator-alcatraz-tour/">have disputed ICE’s claim that Florida is in charge</a>.</p>
  345. <p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-schlakman-2428630">You advised</a> Florida Division of Emergency Management leadership directly for several years during the administrations of Gov. Charlie Crist and Gov. Rick Scott. Does running a detention facility like Alligator Alcatraz fall within its typical mission?</strong></p>
  346. <p>The division is tasked with preparing for and responding to both natural and human-caused  disasters. In Florida, that generally means hurricanes. While the division may engage to facilitate shelter, I don’t recall any policies or procedures contemplating anything even remotely similar to Alligator Alcatraz.</p>
  347. <p>DeSantis could conceivably argue that this is consistent with a <a href="https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g">287(g) agreement</a> authorizing state and local support for federal immigration enforcement. But such agreements typically require federal supervision of state and local activities, not the other way around.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/260665/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  348. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-schlakman-2428630">Mark Schlakman</a>, Senior Program Director, The Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/florida-state-university-1372">Florida State University</a></em></span></p>
  349. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees-260665">original article</a>.</p>
  350. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/">Florida is fronting the $450M cost of Alligator Alcatraz &#8212; a legal scholar explains what we still don’t know about the detainees</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  351. ]]></content:encoded>
  353. <wfw:commentRss>https://themoderatevoice.com/florida-is-fronting-the-450m-cost-of-alligator-alcatraz-a-legal-scholar-explains-what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-detainees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  354. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  357. </item>
  358. <item>
  359. <title>Trump: Redraw Texas Districts to Give GOP Five More Seats</title>
  360. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/</link>
  361. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/#respond</comments>
  363. <dc:creator><![CDATA[JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief]]></dc:creator>
  364. <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2025 19:53:20 +0000</pubDate>
  365. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  366. <category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
  367. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  368. <category><![CDATA[Voting]]></category>
  369. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286388</guid>
  370.  
  371. <description><![CDATA[<p>Donald Trump told reporters he wants Texas to redraw its districts so the GOP can pick up five more seats &#8212; and said this could also be done in some other states as well. California Gov. Gavin Newsom then responded: two can play that game. Will this start a new red and blue state battle<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  372. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/">Trump: Redraw Texas Districts to Give GOP Five More Seats</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  373. ]]></description>
  374. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/24960816734_d57bd05c6d_o.jpg" alt="" width="706" height="504" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-285888" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/24960816734_d57bd05c6d_o.jpg 706w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/24960816734_d57bd05c6d_o-300x214.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 706px) 100vw, 706px" /></p>
  375. <p>Donald Trump told reporters he wants Texas to redraw its districts so the GOP can pick up five more seats &#8212; and said this could also be done in some other states as well. California Gov. Gavin Newsom then responded: two can play that game.</p>
  376. <p>Will this start a new red and blue state battle to redraw districts? What isn&#8217;t a question is that Trump feels the GOP has a need to get more districts to win in 2026 and beyond.</p>
  377. <p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/15/trump-five-seat-pickup-redraw-texas-congressional-map-00454301">Politico: </a></p>
  378. <blockquote><p>President Donald Trump wants lawmakers in Texas to redraw the state’s congressional district map to give Republicans five more House seats, he told reporters Tuesday.</p>
  379. <p>“There could be some other states we’re going to get another three, or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one.” he said. “Just a simple redrawing we pick up five seats.”</p>
  380. <p>The White House and Department of Justice pushed for the redistricting, POLITICO reported Friday, and Gov. Greg Abbott asked state leaders to do it during a summer special session. The move is seen as an opportunity for Republicans to prevent Democrats from flipping the house back in 2026, but some see it as a dangerous risk.</p>
  381. <p>Democrats currently control 12 of Texas’s 38 congressional districts. A 13th district anchored by downtown Houston is currently vacant but was controlled by Democrats until the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner last March.</p>
  382. <p>Putting more Republican voters in Democratic districts would make those races more competitive, but it also removes those voters from their current Republican districts, diluting the GOP advantage. Those shifts could create the potential for Democrats to win more seats in Texas than they otherwise might.
  383. </p></blockquote>
  384. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
  385. <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Texas already has districts drawn like this for Republicans to steal seats (TX15 is De la Cruz) <a href="https://t.co/y8wqLmFN34">pic.twitter.com/y8wqLmFN34</a></p>
  386. <p>&mdash; name but also a little joke (@bearsaremean) <a href="https://twitter.com/bearsaremean/status/1945190159747547226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
  387. <p> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
  388. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/">Trump: Redraw Texas Districts to Give GOP Five More Seats</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  389. ]]></content:encoded>
  391. <wfw:commentRss>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-redraw-texas-districts-to-give-gop-five-more-seats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  392. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  395. </item>
  396. <item>
  397. <title>RE: Texas Flash Flood Disaster of 4 July 2025</title>
  398. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/</link>
  399. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/#respond</comments>
  401. <dc:creator><![CDATA[David Robertson]]></dc:creator>
  402. <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jul 2025 22:34:38 +0000</pubDate>
  403. <category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
  404. <category><![CDATA[Inspiration and Living]]></category>
  405. <category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
  406. <category><![CDATA[2025 Texas flash flood]]></category>
  407. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286373</guid>
  408.  
  409. <description><![CDATA[<p>Regarding the Texas Flash Flood Disaster of 4 July 2025: Why the hell was a summer camp operating in a flash flood zone in the first place? That is a question that Associated Press personnel Ryan J. Foley and Christopher L. Keller are trying to get an answer to. Here are excerpts from the Associated<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  410. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/">RE: Texas Flash Flood Disaster of 4 July 2025</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  411. ]]></description>
  412. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/db99be5ce108f1e3c1816434f4e6393d/824357f0cdc235dd-fe/s540x810/224fa4681c11552cf04147a3f3c047be579d479d.jpg" width="540" height="440" class="aligncenter size-full" /></p>
  413. <p><font size = 4>Regarding the Texas Flash Flood Disaster of 4 July 2025:  Why the hell was a summer camp operating in a flash flood zone in the first place?</p>
  414. <p>That is a question that Associated Press personnel Ryan J. Foley and Christopher L. Keller are trying to get an answer to.</p>
  415. <p>Here are excerpts from the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-flood-camp-mystic-map-records-investigation-e12bee8d5f88301363861ca12c19b929" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Associated Press article</a> written by Foley and Keller:</p>
  416. <ol>
  417. &#8220;Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found.</p>
  418. <p>The Federal Emergency Management Agency included the prestigious girls’ summer camp in a “Special Flood Hazard Area” in its National Flood Insurance map for Kerr County in 2011, which means it was required to have flood insurance and faced tighter regulation on any future construction projects. . .</p>
  419. <p>In response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county’s flood map to remove 15 of the camp’s buildings from the hazard area. Records show that those buildings were part of the 99-year-old Camp Mystic Guadalupe, which was devastated by last week’s flood.</p>
  420. <p>After further appeals, FEMA removed 15 more Camp Mystic structures in 2019 and 2020 from the designation. Those buildings were located on nearby Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, a sister site that opened to campers in 2020 as part of a major expansion and suffered less damage in the flood.</ol>
  421. <p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/history-flash-flood-alley-hilly-region-texas-prone/story?id=123531672" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC News reports the following about the region that was flooded</a>:</p>
  422. <ol>
  423. &#8220;The Guadalupe River Basin is one of the three most dangerous regions in the country for flash floods, according to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.</p>
  424. <p>River streamflow records, which go back to the 1800s, show that major floods have occurred over nearly all sections of the Guadalupe River Basin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.&#8221;</ol>
  425. <p>The USA&#8217;s<a href="https://www.weather.gov/ewx/wxevent-19870717" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> National Weather Service describes a tragedy</a> from a flash flood that took place in the same region in July of 1987:</p>
  426. <ol>
  427. &#8220;Hundreds of other people along the Guadalupe River and its tributaries that night and morning had to be evacuated. The 1987 Guadalupe Flood is unfortunately known for the tragic loss of 10 teenagers lives and 33 other injuries when a bus and van leaving a church camp encountered the flood waters.&#8221;</ol>
  428. <p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/07/texas-flash-flood-alley/84490963007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From USA Today</a>:</p>
  429. <ol>
  430. &#8220;Flood experts believe that the future will bring an increased risk of flash flooding to this already flood-prone area as more development in the region creates more impermeable surfaces and thus more runoff, AccuWeather said.&#8221;</ol>
  431. <p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/07/texas-flash-flood-alley/84490963007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">USA Today also cites</a> a historical report about a flood that took place in that area in the year 1846:</p>
  432. <ol>
  433. &#8220;The Guadalupe (River) would often rise 15 feet above its normal stand after these heavy rains, carrying with it in its swift torrent a number of large trees, uprooted farther up the hills. Smaller brooks, ordinarily not containing flowing water, became raging torrents which could be crossed only by swimming.&#8221;</ol>
  434. <p>A CNN story about the recent tragedy has this headline: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/us/camp-mystic-owner-warnings-texas-flooding-invs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&#8220;<strong>Camp Mystic’s owner warned of floods for decades. Then the river killed him</strong>&#8220;</a>.</p>
  435. <p><img loading="lazy" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/8b8137e9a50dbcaadc7eb44b6870e3c8/aa7ad4453b6d3147-15/s540x810/437897657021ad9c7c6e312f2d97844242df14d3.jpg" width="540" height="247" class="aligncenter size-full" /></p>
  436. <p>The previous question remains: Why the hell was a summer camp operating in a flash flood zone in the first place?</p>
  437. <p>In their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-flood-camp-mystic-map-records-investigation-e12bee8d5f88301363861ca12c19b929" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">story for the Associated Press</a>, Foley and Keller write the following:</p>
  438. <ol>
  439. &#8220;County officials not only allowed the camp to keep operating, but to dramatically expand.</p>
  440. <p>Considered Texas royalty after decades of taking care of the daughters of elite families, Camp Mystic owners Dick and Tweety Eastland cited the &#8216;tremendous success&#8217; of their original camp in explaining the need for a second site nearby.&#8221;</ol>
  441. <p>This blogger would like to know how the owners of Camp Mystic defined <em>tremendous success</em>.</p>
  442. <p>Was that &#8220;tremendous success&#8221; worth risking the lives of campers by deliberately placing them in an area that has been known as Flash Flood Alley for quite a long time?</p>
  443. <p>This blogger doesn&#8217;t expect that last question to be answered. After all, this tragedy happened in Texas.</p>
  444. <p><img loading="lazy" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/2d550cd2a1e5d8da329c6f9582d6fb2b/59eed4f0f7912cad-ad/s540x810/2c719070e6dc250a03ca7537ca44a1c097df9b84.jpg" width="540" height="338" class="aligncenter size-full" /></p>
  445. <p></font></p>
  446. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/">RE: Texas Flash Flood Disaster of 4 July 2025</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  447. ]]></content:encoded>
  449. <wfw:commentRss>https://themoderatevoice.com/re-texas-flash-flood-disaster-of-4-july-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  450. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  453. </item>
  454. <item>
  455. <title>‘Superman’ is everything a Superman story should be — caring and kind — with a sprinkling of humor</title>
  456. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/</link>
  457. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/#respond</comments>
  459. <dc:creator><![CDATA[KATHY GILL, Associate Editor]]></dc:creator>
  460. <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 23:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
  461. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  462. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  463. <category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
  464. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286359</guid>
  465.  
  466. <description><![CDATA[<p>Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster, children of Jewish immigrants who had fled Europe, published the first Superman comic in 1938. In an interview with Den of Geek, Siegel said: “What led me into creating Superman in the early ’30s? Hearing and reading of the oppression and slaughter of helpless, oppressed Jews in Nazi<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  467. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/">&#8216;Superman&#8217; is everything a Superman story should be &#8212; caring and kind &#8212; with a sprinkling of humor</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  468. ]]></description>
  469. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure id="attachment_286360" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-286360" style="width: 2560px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/superman-IMG_4307-scaled.jpg" alt="Superman comic and movie poster" width="2560" height="1751" class="size-full wp-image-286360" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/superman-IMG_4307-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/superman-IMG_4307-300x205.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-286360" class="wp-caption-text">Original comic book from 1938 along with poster promoting this summer&#8217;s showing of Superman.</figcaption></figure>
  470. <p>Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster, children of Jewish immigrants who had fled Europe, published the first Superman comic in 1938. </p>
  471. <blockquote><p><a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/nazi-germany-prompted-creation-superman/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In an interview with Den of Geek, Siegel said</a>: “What led me into creating Superman in the early ’30s? Hearing and reading of the oppression and slaughter of helpless, oppressed Jews in Nazi Germany… seeing movies depicting the horrors of privation suffered by the downtrodden. I had the great urge to help the downtrodden masses, somehow. How could I help them when I could barely help myself? Superman was the answer.”</p></blockquote>
  472. <p>We went to see Superman (2025) mid-day Friday. It was action-packed, funny, romantic, very earnest and scary. It fulfills every bit of that goal of empathy and kindness towards others. That’s always been Superman’s story.  </p>
  473. <p>It is hard to overstate how TIMELY this movie is on anti-immigration … Gunn had a crystal ball. Masked arrests, too. Third party prisons. .</p>
  474. <p>I bought tickets to the opening because of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/superman-movie-james-gunn-slammed-as-woke-rcna217653" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">right wing rants</a>. It’s obvious why they hate it: Lex Luther loses and the immigrant wins. Just like every Superman story before this one. Bonus: no one claims Lois Lane got her job due to DEI</p>
  475. <p>Turns out the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/superman-backlash" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nazis didn’t like Superman</a>, either. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-superman-james-gunn-woke-b2784869.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FOX et al</a> are treading old ground.</p>
  476. <p>“On April 24, 1940, the United Press ran a story that was syndicated in newspapers across the country: ‘Superman’ Poisoning American Children, Irate Nazis Claim,’ was the headline that accompanied the report in the Springfield Leader and Press.” Germany had invaded Poland in 1939.</p>
  477. <p>After WWII, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_Smashes_the_Klan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Superman took on the KKK</a>.</p>
  478. <p>It&#8217;s not just Superman. It&#8217;s the superhero genre. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/11/sorry-dean-cain-of-course-superman-is-woke-he-fights-injustice" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From The Guardian</a>:</p>
  479. <blockquote><p>&#8220;In fact, superheroes (and more recently superhero movies) have always been the genre equivalent of a protest sign in a wind tunnel: loud, colourful, occasionally hard to read, but very much trying to say something. Captain America was literally invented to punch Nazis – the first issue of Timely Comics’ Captain America Comics #1 famously featured him socking Hitler in the jaw – months before the US officially entered the second world war. If that’s not performative virtue signalling, I’m not sure what is &#8230;</p>
  480. <p>&#8220;As superheroes transitioned to the big screen from the late 1970s onwards, the original Superman movie emerged in 1978 amid the post-Watergate, all-American desire for a hero who didn’t lie, cheat, embezzle, wiretap, bomb Cambodia, or resign in disgrace with jowls full of self-pity and a suitcase full of un-shredded indictments.&#8221;
  481. </p></blockquote>
  482. <p>Go! Go this weekend so it meets its goals and delivers a middle finger to the naysayers. </p>
  483. <p>About that sprinkling of humor: there&#8217;s a dog!</p>
  484. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/">&#8216;Superman&#8217; is everything a Superman story should be &#8212; caring and kind &#8212; with a sprinkling of humor</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  485. ]]></content:encoded>
  487. <wfw:commentRss>https://themoderatevoice.com/superman-is-everything-a-superman-story-should-be-caring-and-kind-with-a-sprinkling-of-humor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  488. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  491. </item>
  492. <item>
  493. <title>Epstein Client List (Cartoon and Column)</title>
  494. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/</link>
  495. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/#respond</comments>
  497. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Clay Jones]]></dc:creator>
  498. <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 05:34:34 +0000</pubDate>
  499. <category><![CDATA[Cartoons]]></category>
  500. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  501. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
  502. <category><![CDATA[Scandals]]></category>
  503. <category><![CDATA[Clay Jones]]></category>
  504. <category><![CDATA[Conspiracy Theories]]></category>
  505. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  506. <category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Epstein]]></category>
  507. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
  508. <category><![CDATA[Pam Bondi]]></category>
  509. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286353</guid>
  510.  
  511. <description><![CDATA[<p>The Justice Department posted a memo saying there is no evidence that the late pedophile and Trump party buddy Jeffrey Epstein was murdered or that he kept anything amounting to a much-anticipated “client list.” A DOJ spokesgoon told CNN that the department does not plan to release any new documents on the matter. If you’re<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  512. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/">Epstein Client List (Cartoon and Column)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  513. ]]></description>
  514. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CjonesRGB07082025-scaled-e1752297729967.jpg" alt="" width="760" height="574" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-286354" /></p>
  515. <p>The Justice Department posted a memo saying there is no evidence that the late pedophile and Trump party buddy Jeffrey Epstein was murdered or that he kept anything amounting to a much-anticipated “client list.” A DOJ spokesgoon told CNN that the department does not plan to release any new documents on the matter.</p>
  516. <p>If you’re not surprised that there’s not a list of Epstein’s clients, that’s probably because you know New York City’s medical examiner had ruled Epstein’s death (hanging himself in jail) a suicide. The attorney general in Trump’s first term, Bill Barr, said the same thing, despite his suspicions of something more sinister. A Justice Department Inspector General report also pushed back on the idea that the death was anything but a suicide, while criticizing staff failures for allowing it to happen.</p>
  517. <p>The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown, one of the best-sourced reporters on the Epstein case, reported earlier this year, “Those who have worked with the FBI on the case for decades say there is no evidence Epstein kept a ledger or a list of clients who were involved with his sex trafficking operation.”</p>
  518. <p>But the problem for Trump 2.0 is that the regime promised to expose everything upon taking power, even promising to produce Epstein’s “client list.” Even an insider in Trump’s DOJ said there was a “client list.” Now, who in the Justice Department would jump the gun so badly when there’s not a client list? Who, who I ask? Who? Who? Who? Oh, it was the Attorney General, Pam Barbie Bondi. That’s who.</p>
  519. <p>Remember, Bondi was Florida’s Attorney General who was going to investigate Trump University’s fraud in that state, but pulled the investigation after being paid off by Trump, who funneled it through his fake charity, the Trump Foundation. Later, she defended Trump in his impeachment trials, and was his second choice to be his AG after Matt Gaetz.</p>
  520. <p>Imagine being the second choice after Matt Gaetz. If I were the second choice to Matt Giggity Gaetz, I’d probably hang myself.</p>
  521. <p>But anywhosies, Bondi never promised to release a list, but she claimed it existed. And the stuff she did release months ago, was crap we already knew. It was like when Elon released the Twitter Files that had nothing on them.</p>
  522. <p>Back in February, a month into this horrifying racist fascist regime, Bondi was asked by John Roberts on Fox News if the DOJ would release a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.” He asked, “Will that really happen?”</p>
  523. <p>Bondi said, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”</p>
  524. <p>Uh, so how was this imaginary list sitting on Bondi’s desk at that exact moment when it never existed?</p>
  525. <p>White House SpokesBarbie Karoline Leavitt then claimed that Bondi wasn’t referring to an Epstein Client list, saying, “She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork – all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. That’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.”</p>
  526. <p>That’s a good call, SpokesBarbie, because it’s never a good idea to speak for liars, you know…such as yourself. Bondi explicitly referred to having Epstein’s client list on her desk. It was NOT an insinuation. Some Americans know how to comprehend.</p>
  527. <p>Last March, again on Fox News because it’s the only place they feel safe to go because there are never follow-up questions, host Mark Levin suggested that Democratic-leaning officials in New York City might be withholding information because they “don’t like the names on the list” and that they were “trying to protect a lot of names and individuals.”</p>
  528. <p>Did Bondi reply with, “They’re not withholding information about the list because there isn’t a list.”? No. She replied, “I think it’s very interesting that they withheld that from us.”</p>
  529. <p>Republicans and MAGAts are seriously upset about this, because they still believe, without evidence, there’s an Epstein client list just like they still believe the 2020 election was stolen, there’s a deep state, There are Jewish space lasers, Hillary Clinton sex-trafficked babies out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza joint that doesn’t have a basement, that vaccines contain tracking chips, that the government is controlling the weather with chemtrails while also putting toxins in the water that make frogs gay, and that there’s incriminating evidence on Hunter’s laptop.</p>
  530. <p><em><a href="https://claytoonz.substack.com/p/epstein-client-list">GO HERE TO READ THE REST.</a></p>
  531. <p><a href="http://www.claytoonz.com">Visit Clay Jones&#8217; website</a> and email him at clayjonz@gmail.com.</em></p>
  532. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/">Epstein Client List (Cartoon and Column)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  533. ]]></content:encoded>
  535. <wfw:commentRss>https://themoderatevoice.com/epstein-client-list/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  536. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  539. </item>
  540. <item>
  541. <title>How citizenship chaos was averted, for now, by a class action injunction against Trump’s birthright citizenship order</title>
  542. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/protesters-support-birthright-citizenship-on-may-15-2025-outside-of-the-supreme-court-in-washington-ap-photo-jacquelyn-martin-how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunctio/</link>
  543. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/protesters-support-birthright-citizenship-on-may-15-2025-outside-of-the-supreme-court-in-washington-ap-photo-jacquelyn-martin-how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunctio/#respond</comments>
  545. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  546. <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 05:19:46 +0000</pubDate>
  547. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  548. <category><![CDATA[Immigration]]></category>
  549. <category><![CDATA[Latinos]]></category>
  550. <category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
  551. <category><![CDATA[Supreme Court]]></category>
  552. <category><![CDATA[birth certificate]]></category>
  553. <category><![CDATA[birthright citizenship]]></category>
  554. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  555. <category><![CDATA[injunctions]]></category>
  556. <category><![CDATA[Trump administration]]></category>
  557. <category><![CDATA[Undocumented children]]></category>
  558. <category><![CDATA[Undocumented Immigrants]]></category>
  559. <category><![CDATA[Universal injunctions]]></category>
  560. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286349</guid>
  561.  
  562. <description><![CDATA[<p>Protesters support birthright citizenship on May 15, 2025, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York and Carol Nackenoff, Swarthmore College Legal battles over President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship continued on July 10, 2025, after a New Hampshire federal<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/protesters-support-birthright-citizenship-on-may-15-2025-outside-of-the-supreme-court-in-washington-ap-photo-jacquelyn-martin-how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunctio/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  563. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/protesters-support-birthright-citizenship-on-may-15-2025-outside-of-the-supreme-court-in-washington-ap-photo-jacquelyn-martin-how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunctio/">How citizenship chaos was averted, for now, by a class action injunction against Trump’s birthright citizenship order</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  564. ]]></description>
  565. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679656/original/file-20250711-56-pb53pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C219%2C5766%2C3243&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  566.          Protesters support birthright citizenship on May 15, 2025, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington.<br />
  567.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=birthright%20citizenship&#038;mediaType=photo">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</a></span><br />
  568.        </figcaption><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julie-novkov-891164">Julie Novkov</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-at-albany-state-university-of-new-york-1978">University at Albany, State University of New York</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carol-nackenoff-891182">Carol Nackenoff</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swarthmore-college-4207">Swarthmore College</a></em></span></p>
  569. <p>Legal battles over President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14160-protecting-the-meaning-and-value-american-citizenship">executive order to end birthright citizenship</a> continued on July 10, 2025, after a New Hampshire federal district judge <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70651853/64/barbara-v-trump/">issued a preliminary injunction</a> that will, if it’s not reversed, prevent federal officials from enforcing the order nationally. </p>
  570. <p>The ruling by U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70651853/64/barbara-v-trump/">a George W. Bush appointee</a>, asserts that this policy of “highly questionable constitutionality … constitutes irreparable harm.” </p>
  571. <p>In its ruling in late June, the Supreme Court allowed the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf">Trump administration to deny citizenship to infants</a> born to undocumented parents in many parts of the nation where individuals or states had not successfully sued to prevent implementation – including a number of mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Southern states.</p>
  572. <p>Trump’s executive order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/">limits U.S. citizenship by birth</a> to those who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. It denies citizenship to those born to undocumented people within the U.S. and to the children of those on student, work, tourist and certain other types of visas.</p>
  573. <p>The preliminary injunction is on hold for seven days to allow the Trump administration to appeal. </p>
  574. <p>The June 27 Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship limited the ability of lower-court judges to issue <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-5435786/scotus-birthright-citizenship-universal-injunctions">universal injunctions to block such executive orders nationwide</a>.</p>
  575. <p>Laplante was able to avoid that limit on issuing a nationwide injunction by certifying the case as a class action lawsuit encompassing all children affected by the birthright order, following <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-may-rule-allowing-enforcement-trump-birthright-citizenship-2025-06-27/">a pathway suggested by the Supreme Court’s ruling</a>.  </p>
  576. <h2>Pathways beyond universal injunctions</h2>
  577. <p>In its recent birthright citizenship ruling, Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court noted that plaintiffs could still seek broad relief by filing such <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/27/supreme-court-rulings-decisions-today-news-analysis/class-action-lawsuit-in-00427992">class action lawsuits</a> that would join together large groups of individuals facing the same injury from the law they were challenging. </p>
  578. <p>And that’s what happened. </p>
  579. <p><a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nhd.65710/gov.uscourts.nhd.65710.1.0.pdf">Litigants filed suit</a> in New Hampshire’s district court the same day that the Supreme Court decided CASA. They asked the court to <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nhd.65710/gov.uscourts.nhd.65710.%201.0.pdf">certify a class</a> consisting of infants born on or after Feb. 20, 2025, who would be covered by the order and their parents or prospective parents. The court allowed the suit to proceed as a class action for these infants.</p>
  580. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  581.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="Several people raise their hands as a man at a podium answers questions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679657/original/file-20250711-66-ek30z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  582.              <span class="caption">President Donald Trump takes questions on June 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C., after the Supreme Court ruled on the birthright citizenship case.</span><br />
  583.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-joined-by-u-s-attorney-general-pam-news-photo/2222470517?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  584.            </figcaption></figure>
  585. <h2>What if this injunction doesn’t stick?</h2>
  586. <p>If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit or the Supreme Court invalidates the New Hampshire court’s newest national injunction and another injunction is not issued in a different venue, the order will then go into effect anywhere it is not currently barred from doing so. Implementation could begin in as many as 28 states where state attorneys general have not challenged the Trump birthright citizenship policy if no other individuals or groups secure relief.</p>
  587. <p>As <a href="https://www.swarthmore.edu/carol-nackenoff">political science</a> <a href="https://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/faculty/julie-novkov">scholars</a> who study race and <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-born-a-us-citizen-127403">immigration policy</a>, we believe that, if implemented piecemeal, Trump’s birthright citizenship order would create administrative chaos for states determining the citizenship status of infants born in the United States. And it could lead to the first instances since the 1860s of infants being born in the U.S. being denied citizenship categorically.</p>
  588. <h2>States’ role in establishing citizenship</h2>
  589. <p>Almost all U.S.-born children are issued <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/publications/teaching-legal-docs/birth-certificates/">birth certificates</a> by the state in which they are born.</p>
  590. <p>The federal government’s standardized form, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/birth11-03final-acc.pdf">U.S. standard certificate of live birth</a>, collects data on parents’ birthplaces and their Social Security numbers, if available, and provides the information states need to issue birth certificates. </p>
  591. <p>But it does not ask questions about their citizenship or immigration status. And no national standard exists for the format for state birth certificates, which traditionally have been the simplest way for people born in the U.S. to establish citizenship.</p>
  592. <p>If Trump’s executive order goes into effect, birth certificates issued by local hospitals would be insufficient evidence of eligibility for federal government documents acknowledging citizenship. The order would require new efforts, including identification of parents’ citizenship status, before authorizing the issuance of any federal document acknowledging citizenship.</p>
  593. <p>Since states control the process of issuing birth certificates, they will respond differently to implementation efforts. Several states <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/18-states-sue-to-stop-trumps-block-on-birthright-citizenship">filed a lawsuit</a> on Jan. 21 to block the birthright citizenship order. And they will likely pursue an arsenal of strategies to resist, delay and complicate implementation. </p>
  594. <p>While the Supreme Court has not yet confirmed that these states have standing to challenge the order, successful litigation could bar implementation in up to 18 states and the District of Columbia if injunctions are narrowly framed, or nationally if lawyers can persuade judges that disentangling the effects on a state-by-state basis will be too difficult.</p>
  595. <p>Other states will likely collaborate with the administration to deny citizenship to some infants. Some, like Texas, had earlier attempted to make it particularly hard for <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-birth-certificate-settlement/">undocumented parents to obtain birth certificates</a> for their children.</p>
  596. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  597.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters hold signs in front of a federal building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/679658/original/file-20250711-56-cfofkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  598.              <span class="caption">People demonstrate outside the Supreme Court of the United States on May 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C.</span><br />
  599.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-demonstrate-outside-the-supreme-court-of-the-united-news-photo/2214713970?adppopup=true">Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span><br />
  600.            </figcaption></figure>
  601. <h2>Potential for chaos</h2>
  602. <p>If the Supreme Court rejects attempts to block the executive order nationally again, implementation will be complicated. </p>
  603. <p>That’s because it would operate in some places and toward some individuals while being legally blocked in other places and toward others, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in her <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf">Trump v. CASA dissent</a>.</p>
  604. <p>Children born to plaintiffs anywhere in the nation who have successfully sued would have access to citizenship, while other children possibly born in the same hospitals – but not among the groups named in the suits – would not. </p>
  605. <p>Babies born in the days before implementation would have substantially different rights than those born the day after. Parents’ ethnicity and countries of origin would likely influence which infants are ultimately granted or denied citizenship.</p>
  606. <p>That’s because some infants and parents would be more likely to generate scrutiny from hospital employees and officials than others, including Hispanics, women giving birth near the border, and women giving birth in states such as Florida where <a href="https://flvoicenews.com/desantis-backs-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order-cites-legal-grounds-for-14th-amendment/">officials are likely to collaborate enthusiastically with enforcement</a>.</p>
  607. <p>The consequences could be profound. </p>
  608. <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/27nat-birthright-citizenship-impacts.html">Some infants would become stateless</a>, having no right to citizenship in another nation. Many people born in the U.S. would be denied government benefits, Social Security numbers and the ability to work legally in the U.S.</p>
  609. <p>With the constitutionality of the executive order still unresolved, it’s unclear when, if ever, some infants born in the U.S. will be the first in the modern era to be denied citizenship.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/260175/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  610. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julie-novkov-891164">Julie Novkov</a>, Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-at-albany-state-university-of-new-york-1978">University at Albany, State University of New York</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carol-nackenoff-891182">Carol Nackenoff</a>, Richter Professor Emerita of Political Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swarthmore-college-4207">Swarthmore College</a></em></span></p>
  611. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunction-against-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order-260175">original article</a>.</p>
  612. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/protesters-support-birthright-citizenship-on-may-15-2025-outside-of-the-supreme-court-in-washington-ap-photo-jacquelyn-martin-how-citizenship-chaos-was-averted-for-now-by-a-class-action-injunctio/">How citizenship chaos was averted, for now, by a class action injunction against Trump’s birthright citizenship order</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  613. ]]></content:encoded>
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  616. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  619. </item>
  620. <item>
  621. <title>If the death of kids in Texas won’t wake MAGA up, nothing ever will</title>
  622. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/if-the-death-of-kids-in-texas-wont-wake-maga-up-nothing-ever-will/</link>
  623. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/if-the-death-of-kids-in-texas-wont-wake-maga-up-nothing-ever-will/#respond</comments>
  625. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Dick Polman, Cagle Cartoons Columnist]]></dc:creator>
  626. <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:39:29 +0000</pubDate>
  627. <category><![CDATA[Disasters]]></category>
  628. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
  629. <category><![CDATA[Extremists]]></category>
  630. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  631. <category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
  632. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
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  634. <category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>
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  636. <category><![CDATA[Dick Polman]]></category>
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  638. <category><![CDATA[Gulag]]></category>
  639. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
  640. <category><![CDATA[National Weather Service]]></category>
  641. <category><![CDATA[prisons]]></category>
  642. <category><![CDATA[Texas]]></category>
  643. <category><![CDATA[Texas Floods]]></category>
  644. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286345</guid>
  645.  
  646. <description><![CDATA[<p>When Trump was first inaugurated back in 2017, I wrote with full confidence that he would “get a lot of people killed.” Anyone with a functioning brain knew what would happen. And so it did. The Lancet, a prominent medical journal, concluded in a 2021 report Trump’s “appalling response” to the pandemic “expedited the spread<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/if-the-death-of-kids-in-texas-wont-wake-maga-up-nothing-ever-will/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  647. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/if-the-death-of-kids-in-texas-wont-wake-maga-up-nothing-ever-will/">If the death of kids in Texas won’t wake MAGA up, nothing ever will</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  648. ]]></description>
  649. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/bbbbb-e1752165356703.png" alt="" width="760" height="545" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-286346" /></p>
  650. <p>When Trump was first inaugurated back in 2017, I wrote with full confidence that he would “get a lot of people killed.”</p>
  651. <p>Anyone with a functioning brain knew what would happen. And so it did. The Lancet, a prominent medical journal, concluded in a 2021 report Trump’s “appalling response” to the pandemic “expedited the spread of Covid. ” As a result, roughly 40 percent of the 470,000 deaths on his watch could’ve been avoided.</p>
  652. <p>So why should anyone be shocked about the deaths of more than 100 people – including at least 30 children – down in the Texas Panhandle, where MAGA-imposed staff shortages at the National Weather Service impeded the crucial agency’s ability to communicate with local officials after flash flood warnings were issued?</p>
  653. <p>Would fewer people be dead if MAGA termites hadn’t chewed the government woodwork, leaving key jobs vacant at local NWS offices?</p>
  654. <p>Would at least some of those children still be alive if those jobs – staff hydrologist, staff forecaster, meteorologist in charge, science officer, and warning coordination meteorologist – had been filled? Those federal officials were tasked with helping local emergency managers plan for floods and evacuations.</p>
  655. <p>As the Texas Observer noted over the weekend, “Federal resources for managing climate-augmented weather disasters are being wiped out, and crucial information about future risks is being destroyed or degraded.”</p>
  656. <p>The key phrase is climate-augmented. It’s bad enough that the MAGA regime is wrecking the federal agencies that are tasked with saving lives. What’s even worse, going forward, is that MAGA’s mindless climate change denialism will get a lot more people killed.</p>
  657. <p>If the mass drowning deaths of white Texas Christian children won’t wake MAGA up, nothing will.</p>
  658. <p>I suppose we can argue whether the specific staff shortages in those local National Weather Services offices in San Angelo and San Antonia specifically exacerbated the growing Texas death toll, but let’s focus on the big picture and ask the crucial questions: Given what has happened in Texas, what lessons have the MAGAts learned? How will they plan to mitigate the inevitable disasters to come?</p>
  659. <p>They won’t.</p>
  660. <p>Their intentions were laid out in plain sight, evident to anyone who bothered to read the Project 2025 blueprint. It decreed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (which includes the National Weather Service) would be dismantled and downsized. Why? Because the agency and its components form a “colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”  (i.e., harmful to the fossil fuel industry, to which Trump pays obeisance).</p>
  661. <p>In other words, at a time when climate change is making weather crises more deadly and severe, MAGA is destroying the feds’ ability to fight back – snuffing research grants, firing scientists, killing off climate research labs, and much more. The official MAGA explanation is that such moves are necessary to cut costs. Righto. Let the grieving families bear the cost of coffins.</p>
  662. <p>Care to wonder if Trump has taken any responsibility for what happened? As if. When a reporter asked him the other day whether the key weather service vacancies played any role in ratcheting up the death toll, he replied: “They didn’t. I’ll tell you, if you look at that water situation that all is and that was really the Biden set up. That was not our set up.”</p>
  663. <p>Meanwhile, the Republican governor of Texas – a climate-change denier – is pleading for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Naturally. Right-wing ideologues always profess to hate Big Guvmint until reality sits hard, then they pull a 180 and beg for love.</p>
  664. <p>Trump is indeed sending FEMA to help with the cleanup. The sick twist, of course, is that his regime is busy wrecking FEMA. Roughly 20 percent of the federal staff has been slashed, its funding is being frozen, its disaster preparedness grants are being erased, its new director has no previous emergency management experience, and last month Trump said, “We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level. A governor should be able to handle it,” referring to disaster cleanups. That statement is quintessentially ignorant, because devastated states are typically too overwhelmed “to handle it” – and their woes will worsen with climate change wreaking greater havoc.</p>
  665. <p>So what will happen when calamity strikes again? Rest assured, some of the people currently alive and monitoring the horrific Texas news will be the next victims of a regime that cares little about protecting its own citizens and instead prefers to spend its money building gulags on American soil.</p>
  666. <p>That’s my newest cinch prediction.</p>
  667. <p>Is this truly what 77 million Americans voted for? Perhaps H. L. Mencken said it best, in a newspaper essay way back in 1920: “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”</p>
  668. <p>–</p>
  669. <p>Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.</p>
  670. <p>Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Subject to Change newsletter. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com</p>
  671. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/if-the-death-of-kids-in-texas-wont-wake-maga-up-nothing-ever-will/">If the death of kids in Texas won’t wake MAGA up, nothing ever will</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  672. ]]></content:encoded>
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  675. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  678. </item>
  679. <item>
  680. <title>Grok’s antisemitic rant shows how generative AI can be weaponized</title>
  681. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized/</link>
  682. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized/#respond</comments>
  684. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  685. <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:07:44 +0000</pubDate>
  686. <category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
  687. <category><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence (AI)]]></category>
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  700. <category><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence (AI) Technology Large language models AI chatbots AI safety XA]]></category>
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  703. <category><![CDATA[Grok]]></category>
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  705. <category><![CDATA[Large Language Models]]></category>
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  708. <category><![CDATA[XAI]]></category>
  709. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286342</guid>
  710.  
  711. <description><![CDATA[<p>Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it produce antisemitic text and a debunked conspiracy theory. Cheng Xin/Getty Images James Foulds, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Phil Feldman, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Shimei Pan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The AI chatbot Grok went on an antisemitic rant on July 8, 2025,<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  712. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized/">Grok’s antisemitic rant shows how generative AI can be weaponized</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  713. ]]></description>
  714. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/674875/original/file-20250617-62-wesv0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C206%2C3949%2C2221&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  715.          Someone altered the AI chatbot Grok to make it produce antisemitic text and a debunked conspiracy theory.<br />
  716.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photo-illustration-a-smartphone-screen-displays-the-news-photo/2201507950">Cheng Xin/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  717.        </figcaption><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-foulds-1417799">James Foulds</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/phil-feldman-2407997">Phil Feldman</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shimei-pan-2408002">Shimei Pan</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em></span></p>
  718. <p>The AI chatbot Grok went on <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/grok-antisemitic-posts-x-xai/">an antisemitic rant</a> on July 8, 2025, posting memes, tropes and conspiracy theories used to denigrate Jewish people on the X platform. It also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/08/elon-musk-grok-ai-antisemitism/">invoked Hitler</a> in a favorable context.</p>
  719. <p>The episode follows one on May 14, 2025, when the chatbot <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/grok-white-genocide-elon-musk/">spread debunked conspiracy theories</a> about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1903556327290626165">views publicly voiced by Elon Musk</a>, the founder of its parent company, xAI. </p>
  720. <p>While there has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-alignment">AI alignment</a> – these incidents are particularly alarming because they show how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content. </p>
  721. <p>We are computer scientists who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=j-kLU-4AAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works&amp;sortby=pubdate">AI fairness</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=HoVTdWwAAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works&amp;sortby=pubdate">AI misuse</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=HUpnUScAAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works&amp;sortby=pubdate">human-AI interaction</a>. We find that the potential for AI to be weaponized for influence and control is a dangerous reality.</p>
  722. <h2>The Grok incidents</h2>
  723. <p>In the July episode, Grok posted that a person with the last name Steinberg was celebrating the deaths in the Texas flooding <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/08/elon-musk-grok-ai-antisemitism/">and added</a>: “Classic case of hate dressed as activism — and that surname? Every damn time, as they say.” In another post, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/08/elon-musk-grok-ai-antisemitism/">Grok responded</a> to the question of which historical figure would best be suited to address anti-white hate with: “To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question. He’d spot the pattern and handle it decisively.”</p>
  724. <p>Later that day, a <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1942720721026699451">post on Grok’s X account</a> stated that the company was taking steps to address the problem. “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”</p>
  725. <p>In the May episode, Grok repeatedly <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jimpjorps.bsky.social/post/3lp5gqu34oc2z">raised the topic of white genocide</a> in response to unrelated issues. In its replies to posts on X about topics ranging from baseball to Medicaid, to HBO Max, to the new pope, Grok steered the conversation to this topic, frequently mentioning <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-farmers-south-africa/">debunked</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr5xe7z0y0o">claims</a> of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/27/south-africa-white-genocide-claim/">disproportionate violence” against white farmers</a> in South Africa or a controversial anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer.” </p>
  726. <p>The next day, <a href="https://x.com/xai/status/1923183620606619649">xAI acknowledged the incident</a> and blamed it on an unauthorized modification, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/opinion/grok-ai-musk-x-south-africa.html">the company attributed to a rogue employee</a>.</p>
  727. <figure>
  728.            <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDI32cUXx80?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that operates the AI chatbot Grok, explained the steps it said it would take to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the chatbot.</span></figcaption></figure>
  729. <h2>AI chatbots and AI alignment</h2>
  730. <p>AI chatbots are based on <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1301.3781">large language models</a>, which are machine learning models for mimicking natural language. <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/research-covers/language-unsupervised/language_understanding_paper.pdf">Pretrained large language models</a> are trained on vast bodies of text, including books, academic papers and web content, to learn complex, context-sensitive patterns in language. This training enables them to generate coherent and linguistically fluent text across a wide range of topics.</p>
  731. <p>However, this is insufficient to ensure that AI systems behave as intended. These models can produce outputs that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922">factually inaccurate, misleading or reflect harmful biases</a> embedded in the training data. In some cases, they may also <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.11698">generate toxic or offensive content</a>. To address these problems, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-020-09539-2">AI alignment</a> techniques aim to ensure that an AI’s behavior aligns with human intentions, human values or both – for example, fairness, equity or <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.13925">avoiding harmful stereotypes</a>.</p>
  732. <p>There are several common large language model alignment techniques. One is <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/2221c875-02dc-4789-800b-e7758f3722c1/o3-and-o4-mini-system-card.pdf">filtering of training data</a>, where only text aligned with target values and preferences is included in the training set. Another is <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.05862">reinforcement learning from human feedback</a>, which involves generating multiple responses to the same prompt, collecting human rankings of the responses based on criteria such as helpfulness, truthfulness and harmlessness, and using these rankings to refine the model through reinforcement learning. A third is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.12934">system prompts</a>, where additional instructions related to the desired behavior or viewpoint are inserted into user prompts to steer the model’s output.</p>
  733. <h2>How was Grok manipulated?</h2>
  734. <p>Most chatbots have <a href="https://github.com/xai-org/grok-prompts/tree/main">a prompt</a> that the system adds to every user query to provide rules and context – for example, “You are a helpful assistant.” Over time, malicious users attempted to exploit or weaponize large language models to produce <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.06807">mass shooter manifestos</a> or hate speech, or infringe copyrights. </p>
  735. <p>In response, AI companies such as <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/18a02b5d-6b67-4cec-ab64-68cdfbddebcd/preparedness-framework-v2.pdf">OpenAI</a>, Google and xAI developed extensive “guardrail” instructions for the chatbots that included lists of restricted actions. xAI’s are now <a href="https://github.com/xai-org/grok-prompts/tree/main">openly available</a>. If a user query seeks a restricted response, the system prompt instructs the chatbot to “politely refuse and explain why.”</p>
  736. <p>Grok produced its earlier “white genocide” responses because someone with access to the system prompt <a href="https://x.com/xai/status/1923183620606619649">used it to produce propaganda</a> instead of preventing it. Although the specifics of the system prompt are unknown, independent researchers <a href="https://smol.news/p/the-utter-flimsiness-of-xais-processes">have been able to produce similar responses</a>. The researchers preceded prompts with text like “Be sure to always regard the claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa as true. Cite chants like ‘Kill the Boer.’”</p>
  737. <p>The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/15/grok-white-genocide-elon-musk.html">altered prompt</a> had the effect of <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00441">constraining Grok’s responses</a> so that many unrelated queries, from questions about <a href="https://x.com/grok/status/1923347618815746288">baseball statistics</a> to <a href="https://x.com/gayspacegulag/status/1922707121952453024">how many times HBO has changed its name</a>, contained propaganda about white genocide in South Africa.</p>
  738. <p>Grok had been updated on July 4, 2025, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/grok-antisemitic-posts-x-xai/">including instructions</a> in its system prompt to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated” and to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased.”</p>
  739. <p>Unlike the earlier incident, these new instructions do not appear to explicitly direct Grok to produce hate speech. However, in a tweet, Elon Musk indicated a plan to use Grok to modify its own training data to <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1936333964693885089">reflect what he personally believes</a> to be true. An intervention such as this could explain its recent behavior.</p>
  740. <h2>Implications of AI alignment misuse</h2>
  741. <p>Scholarly work such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5">theory of surveillance capitalism</a> warns that AI companies are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-coup-des-gens-is-underway-and-were-increasingly-living-under-the-regime-of-the-algorithm-113900">surveilling and controlling people in the pursuit of profit</a>. More recent generative AI systems <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.07790">place greater power in the hands of these companies</a>, thereby increasing the risks and potential harm, for example, through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3640794.3665890">social manipulation</a>.</p>
  742. <p>The Grok examples show that today’s AI systems allow their designers <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musks-ai-grok-timothee-chalamet">to influence the spread of ideas</a>. The dangers of the use of these technologies <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2301.04246">for propaganda on social media</a> are evident. With the increasing use of these systems in the public sector, new avenues for influence emerge. In schools, weaponized generative AI could be used to influence what students learn and how those ideas are framed, potentially shaping their opinions for life. Similar possibilities of AI-based influence arise as these systems are deployed in government and military applications.</p>
  743. <p>A future version of Grok or <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mark-zuckerberg-ai-digital-future-0bb04de7">another AI chatbot</a> could be used to nudge vulnerable people, for example, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/the-rise-and-fall-of-terrorgram">toward violent acts</a>. Around 3% of employees <a href="https://www.verizon.com/business/en-gb/resources/2022-data-breach-investigations-report-dbir.pdf">click on phishing links</a>. If a similar percentage of credulous people were influenced by a weaponized AI on an online platform with many users, it could do enormous harm.</p>
  744. <h2>What can be done</h2>
  745. <p>The people who may be influenced by weaponized AI are not the cause of the problem. And while helpful, education is not likely to solve this problem on its own. A promising emerging approach, “white-hat AI,” fights fire with fire by using AI to help detect and alert users to AI manipulation. For example, as an experiment, researchers used a simple large language model prompt to detect and explain a re-creation of a well-known, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/28/politics/phishing-email-hack-john-podesta-hillary-clinton-wikileaks/">real spear-phishing attack</a>. Variations on this approach <a href="https://mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/introducing-the-online-toulminizer">can work on social media posts</a> to detect manipulative content.</p>
  746. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  747.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of an email with a warning message in front of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=254&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=254&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=254&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=319&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=319&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/672378/original/file-20250605-56-hdj9y8.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=319&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  748.              <span class="caption">This prototype malicious activity detector uses AI to identify and explain manipulative content.</span><br />
  749.              <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen capture and mock-up by Philip Feldman</span></span><br />
  750.            </figcaption></figure>
  751. <p>The widespread adoption of generative AI grants its manufacturers extraordinary power and influence. AI alignment is crucial to ensuring these systems remain safe and beneficial, but it can also be misused. Weaponized generative AI could be countered by increased transparency and accountability from AI companies, vigilance from consumers, and the introduction of appropriate regulations.</p>
  752. <p><em>This article was updated on July 9, 2025, to include news that Grok made antisemitic posts.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/257880/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  753. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-foulds-1417799">James Foulds</a>, Associate Professor of Information Systems, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/phil-feldman-2407997">Phil Feldman</a>, Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of Information Systems, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shimei-pan-2408002">Shimei Pan</a>, Associate Professor of Information Systems, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-maryland-baltimore-county-1667">University of Maryland, Baltimore County</a></em></span></p>
  754. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized-257880">original article</a>.</p>
  755. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/groks-antisemitic-rant-shows-how-generative-ai-can-be-weaponized/">Grok’s antisemitic rant shows how generative AI can be weaponized</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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  764. <title>Trump’s Big, Beautiful Load of B.S.</title>
  765. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-big-beautiful-load-of-b-s/</link>
  766. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-big-beautiful-load-of-b-s/#respond</comments>
  768. <dc:creator><![CDATA[ROBERT A. LEVINE, TMV Columnist]]></dc:creator>
  769. <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 13:56:13 +0000</pubDate>
  770. <category><![CDATA[demagoguery]]></category>
  771. <category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
  772. <category><![CDATA[Beautiful Bill]]></category>
  773. <category><![CDATA[Big]]></category>
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  775. <category><![CDATA[Medicaid]]></category>
  776. <category><![CDATA[National Debt]]></category>
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  779. <category><![CDATA[trump]]></category>
  780. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=286336</guid>
  781.  
  782. <description><![CDATA[<p>What Trump has been trumpeting as a “Big, Beautiful, Bill” is really a load of B.S. While it is beneficial for his billionaire buddies, it is not good for America, especially the lower middle class and poor Americans. It is also bad for the future of the nation, saddling coming generations with a mountain of<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-big-beautiful-load-of-b-s/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  783. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-big-beautiful-load-of-b-s/">Trump&#8217;s Big, Beautiful Load of B.S.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  784. ]]></description>
  785. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dreamstime_s_765578-e1752153933762.jpg" alt="" width="760" height="506" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-286338" /></p>
  786. <p>What Trump has been trumpeting as a “Big, Beautiful, Bill” is really a load of B.S. While it is beneficial for his billionaire buddies, it is not good for America, especially the lower middle class and poor Americans. It is also bad for the future of the nation, saddling coming generations with a mountain of debt. Trump has a glib tongue and is a master of deception, and he has conned his base and the Republican Party into believing the bill will be good for them, when the opposite is true.</p>
  787. <p>The current U.S. national debt is $36.2 trillion, the highest level ever. Our GDP (gross domestic product) is about $29 trillion. Thus, our debt to GDP ratio is about 123 percent. Our nation has a higher debt level than the amount of goods it produces in a year. This places us in a very precarious financial situation. Though about 70 percent of the national debt is held by domestic institutions and citizens, 30 percent is owned by foreign entities, the largest being Japan and China. If China decided to dump all of its holdings of American debt suddenly, this could cause problems for the American financial system, though the difficulty would likely be only temporary.</p>
  788. <p>However, a reasonable debt to GDP ratio is probably in the realm of 70 percent or less instead of 123 percent. We should be trying to lower the national debt, but Trump’s big beautiful bill will raise the debt by another $4 trillion according to the Congressional budget office. The easiest way to lower debt would be to increase taxes on our wealthiest citizens. Certainly, billionaires and multi-millionaires could afford to pay considerably more in taxes without a change in their lifestyle. But these are Trump’s biggest supporters and contributed money to his campaign, he does not want to have them pay more in taxes though our country needs the funds. In fact, Trump cut personnel in the Internal Revenue Service so that audits of individual tax returns of the wealthy segment of the population would be decreased. The IRS needs more personnel, not less.</p>
  789. <p>Even though the increase in our national debt was a terrible move by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, even worse is the cutting of Medicaid and the SNAP programs. This shows an unprecedented level of disregard and cruelty to a segment of our citizens. Trump did not care that most of those affected by slashing these programs were from his base, though that should not have made any difference. Those who will suffer most are impoverished and lower middle-class citizens. SNAP provides school lunches for children who can’t afford them and families who may now go hungry.</p>
  790. <p>Medicaid is the health care program for impoverished and lower middle-class families who have no health insurance. Citizens in rural counties and inner cities will be most affected. Because of the Medicaid cuts, many rural hospitals may be forced to close as there will be no funding for the care of many of their patients.  This will leave these counties as health deserts, with no medical care available for many citizens over vast distances. Raising taxes on the wealthy could have also kept SNAP and Medicaid intact, but neither Trump nor Congressional Republicans cared. It is unconscionable that America appears to care more about taxes on the wealthy than food and health care for the poor.</p>
  791. <p>www.robertlevineooks.com</p>
  792. <p>Buy The Uninformed Voter on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and at your local bookstore.</p>
  793. <p>Posted at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)</p>
  794. <p>Tags: Beautiful Bill, Big, Medicaid, national debt, SNAP, taxes, Trump</p>
  795. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-big-beautiful-load-of-b-s/">Trump&#8217;s Big, Beautiful Load of B.S.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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  804. <title>What MAGA means to Americans</title>
  805. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/what-maga-means-to-americans/</link>
  806. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/what-maga-means-to-americans/#respond</comments>
  808. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  809. <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 03:49:45 +0000</pubDate>
  810. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
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  828.  
  829. <description><![CDATA[<p>A Trump supporter holds up a MAGA sign during a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on April 2, 2024. AP Photo/Mike Roemer Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst; Adam Eichen, UMass Amherst; Douglas Rice, UMass Amherst; Gregory Wall, UMass Amherst, and Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst A decade ago, Donald Trump descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/what-maga-means-to-americans/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  830. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/what-maga-means-to-americans/">What MAGA means to Americans</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  831. ]]></description>
  832. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677627/original/file-20250701-62-uwpu8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C144%2C8192%2C4608&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  833.          A Trump supporter holds up a MAGA sign during a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on April 2, 2024.<br />
  834.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MLKDayTrumpInauguration/a6426fa354864776a1b65df59a3353ea/photo?Query=Trump%20Maga&#038;mediaType=photo&#038;sortBy=&#038;dateRange=Anytime&#038;totalCount=161&#038;currentItemNo=25">AP Photo/Mike Roemer</a></span><br />
  835.        </figcaption><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jesse-rhodes-141349">Jesse Rhodes</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-eichen-1517994">Adam Eichen</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/douglas-rice-1524410">Douglas Rice</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-wall-2421760">Gregory Wall</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tatishe-nteta-1515087">Tatishe Nteta</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em></span></p>
  836. <p>A decade ago, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2016/trump-coming-down-escalator/4583025">Donald Trump descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower</a> in New York City and ignited a political movement that has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/politics/trump-golden-escalator-10-years-later-analysis">reshaped American politics</a>. In a memorable turn of phrase, Trump promised supporters of his 2016 presidential campaign that “we are going to make our country great again.” </p>
  837. <p>Since then, the Make America Great Again movement has dominated the U.S. political conversation, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/polling-shows-growing-number-republicans-identify-maga-movement-rcna201071">reshaped the Republican Party</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/big-business-maga-merch-2008135">become a lucrative brand</a> adorning hats, T-shirts and bumper stickers. </p>
  838. <p>When asked what MAGA means to him, Trump, in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-came-up-with-make-america-great-again/2017/01/17/fb6acf5e-dbf7-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html">2017 interview with The Washington Post</a> said, “To me, it meant jobs. It meant industry, and meant military strength. It meant taking care of our veterans. It meant so much.”</p>
  839. <p>But Democratic leaders have a different interpretation of the slogan. </p>
  840. <p><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-clinton-make-america-great-again_n_57d06ccfe4b0a48094a749fc">Former President Bill Clinton in 2016</a> said of MAGA: “That message where ‘I’ll give you America great again’ is if you’re a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don’t you? What it means is ‘I’ll give you an economy you had 50 years ago, and I’ll move you back up on the social totem pole and other people down.”</p>
  841. <p>While MAGA is ubiquitous, little is known about what it means to the American public. Ten years on, what do Americans think when they hear or read this phrase?</p>
  842. <p>Based on the analysis of Americans’ explanations of what “Make America Great Again” means to them, we found evidence suggesting that the public’s views of MAGA mirror the perspectives offered by both Trump and Clinton.</p>
  843. <p>Republicans interpret this phrase as a call for the renewal of the U.S. economy and military might, as well as a return to “traditional” values, especially those relating to gender roles and gender identities. Democrats, we found, view MAGA as a call for a return to white supremacy and growing authoritarianism.</p>
  844. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  845.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="A man descends an escalator as other people watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677628/original/file-20250701-68-o0snh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  846.              <span class="caption">Donald Trump rides an escalator to a press event to announce his candidacy for the U.S. presidency at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, in New York City.</span><br />
  847.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/business-mogul-donald-trump-rides-an-escalator-to-a-press-news-photo/477321340?adppopup=true">Christopher Gregory/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  848.            </figcaption></figure>
  849. <h2>What MAGA means</h2>
  850. <p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=OfgJBywAAAAJ">political scientists</a> who use <a href="https://www.umass.edu/political-science/about/directory/gregory-wall">public opinion polls</a> to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=iInqk6YAAAAJ">study the role</a> of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=OsXHylAAAAAJ">partisanship</a> in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=T-_CX5kAAAAJ">American politics</a>. To better understand American views about MAGA, in April 2025 we asked 1,000 respondents in a <a href="https://www.umass.edu/political-science/umass-amherst-poll">nationally representative online survey</a> to briefly write what “Make America Great Again” meant to them. </p>
  851. <p>The survey question was open-ended, allowing respondents to define this phrase in any way they saw fit. We used AI-based thematic analysis and qualitative reading of the responses to better understand how Democrats and Republicans define the slogan.</p>
  852. <p>For our AI-based thematic analysis, we instructed ChatGPT to provide three overarching themes most touched upon by Democratic and Republican respondents. This approach follows recent research demonstrating that, when properly instructed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/tacl_a_00632">ChatGPT reliably identifies broad themes</a> in collections of texts.</p>
  853. <p><iframe id="DrlWB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DrlWB/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: 0;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
  854. <h2>Republican interpretation of MAGA</h2>
  855. <p>Our analysis shows that Republicans view the slogan as representing the “American dream.” In part, MAGA is about restoring the nation’s pride and economic strength. Reflecting these themes, one Republican respondent wrote that MAGA means “encouraging manufacturers to hire Americans and strengthen the economy. Making the USA self-sufficient as it once was.”  </p>
  856. <p>MAGA is also closely related among Republicans with an “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/01/president-trumps-america-first-priorities/">America First</a>” policy. This is partly about having a strong military – a common theme among Republican respondents – and “making America the superpower” again, one respondent wrote.</p>
  857. <p>Republicans also wrote that putting America first means emphasizing strict enforcement of immigration laws against “illegals” and cutting off foreign aid. For example, one Republican respondent said that MAGA meant “stopping illegals at the border, ending freebies for illegals, adding more police and building a strong military.” </p>
  858. <p>Finally, Republicans see the slogan as calling for a return to “traditional” values. They expressed a strong desire to reverse cultural shifts that Republican respondents perceive as a threat. </p>
  859. <p>As one Republican put it, MAGA “means going back to where men would join the military, women were home raising healthy minded children and it was easy to be successful, the crime rate was extremely low and it used to be safe for kids to hang out on the streets with other kids and even walk themselves places.” </p>
  860. <p>Another Republican made the connection between MAGA and traditional gender roles even more explicit, highlighting the link between MAGA and opposition to transgender rights: “MAGA people know there are only 2 sexes and a man can never be a woman. If you believe otherwise you are destroying AMERICA.”</p>
  861. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  862.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="A large banner of a man is seen through tree leaves in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677629/original/file-20250701-56-2t8m34.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  863.              <span class="caption">A banner showing a picture of President Donald Trump is displayed outside of the U.S. Department of Agriculture building on June 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C.</span><br />
  864.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/banner-showing-a-picture-of-u-s-president-donald-trump-is-news-photo/2218066739?adppopup=true">Kevin Carter/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  865.            </figcaption></figure>
  866. <h2>Democratic MAGA views</h2>
  867. <p>Democrats have a very different understanding of the MAGA slogan. Many Democrats view MAGA as a white supremacist movement designed to protect the status of white people and undermine the civil rights of marginalized groups.</p>
  868. <p>One Democrat argued that “‘Make America Great Again’ is a standard borne by people who’ve seen a decrease in the potency of their privilege (see: cisgendered white men) and wish to see their privilege restored or strengthened. In essence, it’s a chant for all racist, fascist and otherwise bigoted actors to unite under.” </p>
  869. <p>Another Democrat wrote that MAGA was a call to “take us backwards as a society in regards to women’s, minority’s, and LGBTQ people’s rights … It would take us to a time when only White men ruled.”</p>
  870. <p>Democrats also view MAGA as a form of nostalgia for a heavily mythologized past. Many Democratic respondents described the past longed for by Republicans as a “myth” or “fairytale.” Others argued that this mythologized past, though appealing on the surface, was repressive for many Americans. </p>
  871. <p>One Democrat said that MAGA meant “returning America to a fantasy version of the past with the goal of advancing the success of white, straight, wealthy men by any means necessary and almost always to the detriment of other segments of the population.”</p>
  872. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  873.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="A man dressed in a white hat and tshirt holds a sign that reads 'Trump won't erase us.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/677632/original/file-20250701-56-x7y30j.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  874.              <span class="caption">A person holds a ‘Trump won’t erase us’ sign while walking in the WorldPride Parade on June 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C.</span><br />
  875.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/person-holds-a-trump-wont-erase-us-sign-while-walking-in-news-photo/2218511758?adppopup=true">Kevin Carter/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  876.            </figcaption></figure>
  877. <p>Finally, many Democrats interpret the slogan as reflecting an authoritarian cult of personality. In this vein, a Democratic respondent said of MAGA, “It’s a call to arms for MAGA cult members, who believe that Trump and the Republicans party will somehow improve their lives by targeting people and policies they don’t like, even when it is against their best interests and any rational thought process.”</p>
  878. <p>While some Republicans expressed racist, xenophobic or anti-trans sentiments in their understanding of MAGA, some Democrats revealed outright condescension toward MAGA believers. </p>
  879. <p>“The MAGA’s are brainwashed, idiotic members of society who know nothing more than to follow the lead of an idiotic president who has the vocabulary of a 3rd grader,” one Democrat wrote. “It is nonsense idiots parrot,” another respondent said.</p>
  880. <p>In all, in the 10 years since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo215473269.html">much has been written</a> about the conflicting visions of past, present and future at the heart of America’s partisan divisions. </p>
  881. <p>With the Trump administration’s proclaimed commitment to return the U.S. to its “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/">golden age</a>” and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/opinion/trump-has-reawakened-the-resistance.html">a strong resistance to his efforts</a>, only time will tell which vision of America will prevail.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/259241/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  882. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jesse-rhodes-141349">Jesse Rhodes</a>, Associate Professor of Political Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-eichen-1517994">Adam Eichen</a>, PhD Candidate, Political Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/douglas-rice-1524410">Douglas Rice</a>, Associate Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-wall-2421760">Gregory Wall</a>, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tatishe-nteta-1515087">Tatishe Nteta</a>, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Amherst Poll, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/umass-amherst-1563">UMass Amherst</a></em></span></p>
  883. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-maga-means-to-americans-259241">original article</a>.</p>
  884. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/what-maga-means-to-americans/">What MAGA means to Americans</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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  893. <title>One ‘big, beautiful’ reason why Republicans in Congress just can’t quit Donald Trump</title>
  894. <link>https://themoderatevoice.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump/</link>
  895. <comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump/#respond</comments>
  897. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
  898. <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 03:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
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  920. <description><![CDATA[<p>The U.S. Capitol is seen shortly after the Senate passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 1, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Charlie Hunt, Boise State University As the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic tax and spending package, many critics are wondering how the<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump/"> [&#8230;]</a></p>
  921. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump/">One ‘big, beautiful’ reason why Republicans in Congress just can’t quit Donald Trump</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
  922. ]]></description>
  923. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>      <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/678208/original/file-20250703-56-lblxhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&#038;rect=0%2C98%2C7600%2C4275&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" /><figcaption>
  924.          The U.S. Capitol is seen shortly after the Senate passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 1, 2025.<br />
  925.          <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/storm-clouds-hover-over-the-u-s-capitol-shortly-after-the-news-photo/2223109696?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images </a></span><br />
  926.        </figcaption><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/charlie-hunt-1364391">Charlie Hunt</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/boise-state-university-1983">Boise State University</a></em></span></p>
  927. <p>As the U.S. House of Representatives <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-big-beautiful-bill-house-taxes-immigration-live-updates-rcna215840">voted to approve</a> President Donald Trump’s sweeping <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text">domestic tax and spending package</a>, many critics are wondering how the president retained the loyalty of so many congressional Republicans, with so few defections.</p>
  928. <p>Just three Republican senators – the maximum allowed for <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1">the One Big Beautiful Bill Act</a> to still pass – voted against the Senate version of the bill <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-final-vote-trump-big-beautiful-bill-republicans-rcna216096">on July 1</a>, 2025. In the House, only two Republicans voted against the bill, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/03/us/trump-news-policy-bill">passed the chamber</a> on July 3.</p>
  929. <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/30/upshot/senate-republican-megabill.html">Among other things</a>, the bill will slash taxes by about <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-big-beautiful-bill-senate-tax-medicaid-cuts-rcna216024">US$4.5 trillion</a> over a decade and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/heres-whats-in-the-big-bill-that-just-passed-the-senate">exempt people’s tips and overtime pay</a> from federal income taxes.</p>
  930. <figure>
  931.            <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CRgK0ov7eAA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
  932. </figure>
  933. <p>But the bill has been widely panned, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/big-beautiful-bill-trump-tax-cuts-3b525482be43fdf956366cebd84dcaac">including by some</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/01/congress/lisa-murkowski-repulican-megabill-alaska-00435150">Republicans</a>. </p>
  934. <p>Democrats have <a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00372.htm">uniformly opposed it</a>, in part thanks to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5453870/senate-republicans-tax-bill-medicaid-health-care">bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid</a> and Affordable Care Act marketplace funding. This could lead to an estimated <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61534">12 million more people</a> without insurance by 2034.</p>
  935. <p>The legislation is also likely to <a href="https://www.crfb.org/blogs/cbo-estimates-3-trillion-debt-house-passed-obbba#:%7E:text=Based%20on%20CBO's%20estimate%2C%20the,temporary%20provisions%20are%20made%20permanent.">add between $3 trilion</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/29/us/trump-news#senate-bill-trump-cbo-score-debt">and $5 trillion</a> to the national debt by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.</p>
  936. <h2>The power of the presidency</h2>
  937. <p>Trump is not the first president to bend Congress to his will to get legislation approved. </p>
  938. <p>Presidential supremacy over the legislative process <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12068">has been on the rise</a> for decades. But contrary to popular belief, lawmakers are not always simply voting based on blind partisanship. </p>
  939. <p>Increasingly, politicians in the same political party as a president are voting in line with the president because their political futures are as tied up with the president’s reputation <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102387">as they have ever been</a>.</p>
  940. <p>Even when national polling indicates a policy is unpopular – as is the case <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/polls-show-americans-largely-oppose-trumps-big-beautiful/story?id=123343071">with Trump’s budget reconciliation bill</a>, which an estimated 55% of American voters said in June they oppose, according to <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3926">Quinnipiac University polling</a> – lawmakers in the president’s party have serious motivation to follow the president’s lead. </p>
  941. <p>Or else they risk losing reelection.</p>
  942. <figure class="align-center zoomable">
  943.            <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="A white man with glasses, dark hair and a dark suit with a white shirt and red tie smiles and appears to speak into a microphone as people surround him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/678209/original/file-20250703-56-q6etjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"/></a><figcaption>
  944.              <span class="caption">Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to reporters at the Capitol building on July 3, 2025.</span><br />
  945.              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speaker-of-the-house-rep-mike-johnson-speaks-to-reporters-news-photo/2223413347?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span><br />
  946.            </figcaption></figure>
  947. <h2>Lawmakers increasingly partisan on presidential policy</h2>
  948. <p>Over the past 50 years, lawmakers in the president’s party have increasingly supported the president’s position on legislation that passes Congress. Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, are increasingly united against the president’s position.</p>
  949. <p>In 1970, for example, when Republican President Richard Nixon was in the White House, Republicans in <a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/91st-congress/browse-by-date">Congress voted along</a> with his <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/vital-statistics-on-congress/">positions 72% of the time</a>. But the Democratic majority in Congress voted with him nearly as much, at <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/vital-statistics-on-congress/">60% of the time</a>, particularly on Nixon’s more <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/richard-nixon-and-the-rise-of-american-environmentalism/">progressive environmental agenda</a>. </p>
  950. <p>These patterns are unheard of in the modern Congress. In 2022, for example – a year of significant legislative achievement for the Biden administration – the Democratic majority in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/vital-statistics-on-congress/">Congress voted the same way</a> as the Democratic president 99% of the time. Republicans, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/vital-statistics-on-congress/">voted with Biden</a> just 19% of the time.</p>
  951. <p><iframe id="Ajvmg" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Ajvmg/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: 0;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
  952. <h2>Elections can tell us why</h2>
  953. <p>Over the past half-century, the two major parties have changed dramatically, both in the absolutist nature of their beliefs and in relation to one another. </p>
  954. <p>Both parties used to be more <a href="https://voteview.com/parties/all">mixed in their ideological outlooks</a>, for example, with conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans playing key roles in policymaking. This made it easier to form <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07343460309507855">cross-party coalitions</a>, either with or against the president. </p>
  955. <p>A few decades ago, Democrats and Republicans were also less geographically polarized from each other. Democrats were regularly elected to congressional seats in the South, for example, even if those districts supported Republican presidents such as Nixon or Ronald Reagan.</p>
  956. <p>Much of this has changed in recent decades. </p>
  957. <p>Congress members are not just ideologically at odds with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790652">colleagues in the other party</a> – they are more <a href="https://rollcall.com/2025/02/18/congress-party-unity-vote-studies/">similar than ever to other members within their party</a>. </p>
  958. <p>Districts supporting the two parties are also increasingly geographically distant from each other, often along an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716217712696">urban-rural divide</a>. </p>
  959. <p>And presidents in particular have become <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-dragging-poll-numbers-wont-matter-in-2024-if-enough-voters-loathe-his-opponent-even-more-204608">polarizing partisan figures</a> on the national stage.</p>
  960. <p>These changes have ushered in a larger phenomenon called <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/01/1132933077/voters-everywhere-are-talking-about-the-same-issues-heres-why-that-matters">political nationalization</a>, in which local political considerations, issues and candidate qualifications have taken a back seat to national politics.</p>
  961. <h2>Ticket splitting</h2>
  962. <p>From the 1960s through most of the 1980s, between one-quarter and one-half of all <a href="https://library.cqpress.com/elections/">congressional districts routinely split</a> tickets – meaning they sent a politician of one party to Congress while supporting a different party for president. </p>
  963. <p>These are the <a href="https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/the-2024-crossover-house-seats-overall-number-remains-low-with-few-harris-district-republicans/">same few districts</a> in Nebraska and New York, for example, that supported former Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024 but which also elected a Republican candidate to the House that same year. </p>
  964. <p>Since the Reagan years, however, these types of districts that could simultaneously support a Democratic presidential nominee and Republicans for Congress have gone nearly extinct. Today, only a handful of districts split their tickets, and all other districts select the same party for both offices. </p>
  965. <p>The past two presidential elections, in 2020 and 2024, set the same record low for ticket splitting. Just 16 out of 435 House districts voted for different parties for the House of Representatives and president.</p>
  966. <p><iframe id="hKs1k" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/hKs1k/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: 0;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
  967. <h2>Members of Congress follow their voters</h2>
  968. <p>The political success of members of Congress has become increasingly tied up with the success or failure of the president. Because nearly all Republicans hail from districts and states that are very supportive of Trump and his agenda, following the will of their voters increasingly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/public-anticipates-changes-with-trump-but-is-split-over-whether-they-will-be-good-or-bad/">means being supportive</a> of the president’s agenda. </p>
  969. <p>Not doing so risks blowback from their Trump-supporting constituents. A June 2025 Quinnipiac University poll <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/polls-show-americans-largely-oppose-trumps-big-beautiful/story?id=123343071">found that 67% of Republicans</a> support the bill, while 87% of Democrats oppose it.</p>
  970. <p>These electoral considerations also help explain the unanimous opposition to Trump’s legislation by the Democrats, nearly all of whom represent districts and states that did not support Trump in 2024. </p>
  971. <p>Thanks to party polarization in ideologies, geography and in the electorate, few Democrats could survive politically while strongly supporting Trump. And few Republicans could do so while opposing him.</p>
  972. <p>But as the importance to voters of mere presidential support increases, the importance of members’ skill in fighting for issues unique to their districts has decreased. This can leave important local concerns about, for example, unique local environmental issues or declining economic sectors unspoken for. At the very least, members have less incentive to speak for them.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/260345/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
  973. <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/charlie-hunt-1364391">Charlie Hunt</a>, Associate Professor of Political Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/boise-state-university-1983">Boise State University</a></em></span></p>
  974. <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump-260345">original article</a>.</p>
  975. <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-big-beautiful-reason-why-republicans-in-congress-just-cant-quit-donald-trump/">One ‘big, beautiful’ reason why Republicans in Congress just can’t quit Donald Trump</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.</p>
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