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Health care price woes remain a top concern for Americans as the federal  ...
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The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Secur ...
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<p>The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Secur ...

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Source: https://www.commondreams.org/rss.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Common Dreams</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/</link><description>Common Dreams</description><atom:link href="https://www.commondreams.org/feeds/feed.rss" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 17:50:53 -0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMjEwMDM4OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTgxMjIyMDI1N30.ErOfRE5hvYF7nWXKN4iUp2dOTKR2-o5weET2FxMgj9A/image.png?width=210</url><link>https://www.commondreams.org/</link><title>Common Dreams</title></image><item><title>California Nurses Association condemns Trump administration plans to deploy ICE, National Guard to invade Bay Area</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/california-nurses-association-condemns-trump-administration-plans-to-deploy-ice-national-guard-to-invade-bay-area</link><description><![CDATA[
California’s largest union of registered nurses, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the largest U.S. RN union, issued the following statement responding to recent announcements by the Trump administration that both ICE and the National Guard would be deployed to the San Francisco Bay Area:Registered nurses across California condemn and reject the Trump administration’s recently announced plans to deploy <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-immigration-operation-21114328.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Major federal immigration operation headed to San Francisco Bay Area, ">ICE, border patrol agents</a>, and <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-national-guard-trump/3967003/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the National Guard</a> to the San Francisco Bay Area. President Trump so far has sought to misuse the National Guard and active-duty soldiers to attack five major Democratic-led cities: Washington, D.C; Los Angeles; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; and Memphis, Tenn. As advocates for the health and safety of all patients, regardless of their immigration status, nurses warn that increased militarization of our neighborhoods actively endangers public health. Armed federal agents on our Bay Area streets and in our communities, not immigrant workers, are the biggest threat to all of our safety. Immigrants are our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, are us, and we stand in solidarity with all immigrants as working people.Across the United States, we have been outraged to see violent raids, kidnappings, and indiscriminate racial profiling of Black and Brown people, resulting in physical harm and immense trauma to our patients — as well as disruption to critical community resources, including hospitals. Nurses know that when ICE attacks immigrants and other activists, it often takes patients they injure to our hospitals. These federal agents bring fear and panic to places that must remain safe spaces for healing. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, an ICE agent in Los Angeles <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/21/ice-la-shooting-marshal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shot</a> two people — something that never would have happened if they weren’t attacking immigrant workers who are just trying to make a better life for themselves. This resulted in ICE converging on California Hospital and the entire facility being locked down, with visitors and ambulances being turned away. Nurses reject any ICE presence at our health care facilities and will be holding our employers responsible for ensuring that we can continue to do our jobs saving the lives of all patients. Trump has also violated the due process and Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, who have been detained, beaten, tased, and <a href="https://www.wbez.org/public-safety/2025/10/07/marimar-martinez-anthony-ian-santos-ruiz-border-patrol-shooting-brighton-park" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shot</a> by immigration agents (at least 170 U.S. citizens, according to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pro Publica</a>) during these violent raids and military deployments. A <a href="https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nnu-statement-on-release-of-los-angeles-rn-from-ice-custody" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">registered nurse</a> and former member of our union was among those detained in Los Angeles.California nurses demand an immediate stop to the violence the Trump administration has already inflicted on our state and on our nation, and we will be standing in solidarity to resist and say, “No!” to this outrageously unjust attack on the Bay Area. Our communities are not war zones, and we understand that when this administration comes after the most vulnerable, we all lose.]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 17:50:53 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/california-nurses-association-condemns-trump-administration-plans-to-deploy-ice-national-guard-to-invade-bay-area</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Utter Desecration: Walking Wrecking Balls, All Of 'Em</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/utter-desecration-walking-wrecking-balls-all-of-em</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/trump-s-demolition-of-the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-begun.jpg?id=61781423&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=372%2C0%2C372%2C0"/> In a perfect, ghastly metaphor for the state of our "democracy," J.D. and Drunken Pete just oversaw an "artillery fiasco" at a Marine Corps celebration where a live shell detonated over a highway and hit their motorcade - Lesson #1: "Morons Are Governing America" - and Trump abruptly began a demolition of the East Wing of The People's House for "his fucking ballroom," though he claimed construction "wouldn't interfere" with it. Lesson #2: They "lie like they breathe," bulldoze history and wreak havoc as they go.On the same day as No Kings but definitely not to distract anyone even though the actual date they're marking isn't until November 10, repulsive bros J.D. Vance and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@colbertlateshow/video/7556055723692657975?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc" target="_blank">manly </a>"We Are The War Department" Pete <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DNleddjh9bb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hegseth </a>went to California for the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton to watch a training exercise that included firing live 155mm M777 shells out of howitzers from the ocean over Interstate I-5, an action Gavin Newsom <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/18/white-house-to-fire-explosive-artillery-over-major-roadway-in-southern-california-i-5-to-be-temporarily-shut-down-on-saturday-due-to-life-safety-risk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">decried </a>as "an absurd show of force" that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-i5-closed-artillery-marines-vance-newsom-327f869d9f951cabda8248c574d9a186" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">threatened </a>public safety. Just in case, being a grown-up, Newsom shut down 17 miles of the highway. Vance, in turn, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/artillery-interstate-5-marines.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ridiculed </a>his move as "consistent with a track record of failure," sneering the governor "wants people to think this exercise is dangerous" when of course it's "an established safe practice" and anyway he's a big boy who knows stuff.So. What happens "when the commander-in-chief is an idiot and the head of the Pentagon is a blackout drunk?" In Chap. 874 of Adventures of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight But Still Hit Enough, after Marines began<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/21/2349652/-Trump-s-I-5-stunt-in-pictures?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web" target="_blank"> firing live rounds</a> over the highway, one shell prematurely <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xjc7mkotpenvhh6ffewkdpyn/post/3m3lcoolty222?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">exploded </a>- some "saw the artillery round fail to clear the highway and explode near the southbound lane" - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/us/politics/shell-interstate-5-marines-california.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">raining </a>burning shrapnel onto a Highway Patrol car and motorcycle in Vance's security detail in what officials called "an unusual and concerning situation" that surely nobody could have predicted. Except maybe Gavin Newsom, who I-told-you-so <a href="https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1980042039095173593" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">raged, "</a>Next time, the Vice President and the White House shouldn’t be so reckless (with) their vanity projects (and) put lives at risk to put on a show. If you want to honor our troops, open the government and pay them."Vance, who's evidently hated wherever he goes - his family's summer <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jd-vance-vacation-river-raised_n_6894e24fe4b0a4e36891b241" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vacation</a> in the English countryside was met by residents holding a "Dance Against Vance Not Welcome" party complete with Go Away banner, insults, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jd-vance-memes_l_67cf31bde4b0c23ef0b83510" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">memes, </a>and a staff mutiny at a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jd-vance-cotswolds-holiday-dean-manor-b2805421.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pub </a>where he wanted to eat - told reporters he had "a great visit" with the Marines. His team declined to comment on his "artillery fiasco," but others had thoughts. They suggested he'd probably say "it was just kid pieces of shrapnel doing normal kid pieces of shrapnel stuff," or locker room shrapnel, or antifa, thus representing the most destruction seen on No Kings Day. Also, "Nothing says 'Warrior Ethos' like firing live ammunition across a busy Southern California freeway on a Saturday afternoon," "MAGA stands for Morons Are Governing America," and, "This is a whole new level of dipshitery."Then, on Monday, came Trump's backhoes and destruction crews suddenly, methodically ripping through the historic, stately, 1902 East Wing of the White House to build a garish $250 million, "beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago" - "the remodel no one asked for" - despite his earlier adamant <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/20/white-house-begins-demolishing-east-wing-facade-build-trumps-ballroom/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzYwOTMyODAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzYyMzE4Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NjA5MzI4MDAsImp0aSI6ImQ3OTIwYjJmLWVhZWQtNDMyYS05ODE5LWE0YjZmZGRjMGVmNSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9wb2xpdGljcy8yMDI1LzEwLzIwL3doaXRlLWhvdXNlLWJlZ2lucy1kZW1vbGlzaGluZy1lYXN0LXdpbmctZmFjYWRlLWJ1aWxkLXRydW1wcy1iYWxscm9vbS8ifQ.q30xAHfJxSe9Z9aMBNIVTXQJfGDzoqQdxlTLIHuvp68" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">claim </a>the project "wouldn’t interfere” with the former structure: "It’ll be near it but not touching it (and) pay total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of...It’s my favorite place. I love it." Shockingly, he evidently lied. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/31/trump-white-house-ballroom" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Announcing </a>the boondoggle in July, he also said it would be 90,000 square feet and seat up to 650 people - now grown to 999 people - making it the largest room in the White House. And it will ostensibly be funded by "many generous patriots" who also happen to be billionaires seeking deregulation and access to his gilded power.Trump claims America's masses have long been yearning for a glitzy ballroom - it took so long because "there’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms" - and he is "honored to finally get this much-needed project underway," especially now during a government shutdown, when wealth and income inequality is at a record highs, SNAP benefits are being slashed, millions of people are struggling to buy groceries, health care and Medicaid are threatened, special ed and veterans' services are in jeopardy, farmers and small businesses are suffering, federal workers are either losing their jobs or not getting paid, he is sending billions to Argentina for no discernible reason and he is giddily spending millions on golf and new jets and fake gold slathered feckin' everywhere while demanding his let-them-eat-cake cult members keep tightening their gullible belts.Architects have noted the fortuitous timing: The White House is a public property<a href="https://www.threads.com/@artygoodman/post/DQC2w5ziUmQ?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"> run</a> by the National Park Service, but this carnage is purportedly exempt from review by multiple planning and preservation bodies Trump has dismissed, rendered toothless or effectively disappeared in the shutdown. "This is by design," said one. “The object of power is power." Whose very public abuse, in this instance, prompted cries of WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? Many Americans watched in horror as an iconic White House built by slaves - where Nancy Reagan's new china, Jimmy Carter's solar panels, Obama's dog once quaintly sparked outrage - was blithely razed and pillaged. Joe Walsh called it "an utter desecration of the Peoples’ House," adding he'd gladly invite patriots, some weekend, "to bring their own sledgehammers & crowbars to help tear that abomination down."The Bulwark's Mona Charen has<a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-white-house-renovation-awful-fitting-architecture-ballroom" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> called </a>Trump "a walking wrecking ball of law, tradition, civility, manners, and morals." His tacky paved Rose Garden, fake-gold-drenched Oval Office, many crimes against good taste and now ballroom reflect "a low and shameful time" of transforming the graceful into the sordid (that) "will be both awful and fitting." Now, the <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xjc7mkotpenvhh6ffewkdpyn/post/3m3niba54cc2d?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.democraticunderground.com%252F100220735401" target="_blank">metaphorical </a>has become literal in a defacement one historian calls "like slashing a Rembrandt painting.” "This is Trump's America," said one patriot of the dusty devastation. "And that was our history." Many felt sickened by the grisly manifestation "of the entire Trump administration": "It is not his fucking house," "Holy mother of God, this is horrifying," "Jesus fucking Christ, somebody stop him," "That was our democracy." "Breaking News: Antifa destroys the White House," said one. "Correction: It was Trump."Update: Aceco, the company doing the demolition, is being<a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/aceco-silver-spring?utm_campaign=uno&utm_medium=inapp&utm_source=new_reaction_received" target="_blank"> savaged </a>on Yelp with a flood of one-star reviews for "taking one of the most sacrilegious dem jobs in American history." "We all make choices in this life," read one, "and this was a bad one." Others: "How dare you destroy part of OUR house for that pedo dictator?", "Oops. Bad move tearing down the People's House. And you probably won't get paid," and, "May karma prevail."Updated update for a surreal timeline: Wednesday night, the mad king <a href="https://x.com/joeygarrison/status/1981110296631800308?s=46&t=baBBhbs8HKxS8e5N8kXp1g" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said,</a> Ok, fuck it, we'll just take down the whole thing: "We determined that, after really a tremendous amount of (non-existent) study with some of the best (imaginary) architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section — you know, the East Wing, was not much.”]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 06:08:15 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/utter-desecration-walking-wrecking-balls-all-of-em</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/trump-s-demolition-of-the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-begun.jpg?id=61781423&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Amazon Oil licence granted by Brazilian government threatens communities and climate commitments ahead of COP30</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/amazon-oil-licence-granted-by-brazilian-government-threatens-communities-and-climate-commitments-ahead-of-cop30</link><description><![CDATA[
Less than a month before COP30 in Belém, the Brazilian government, host of the UN climate negotiations, has just granted a license for exploratory oil drilling in the Amazon basin (block FZA-M-59, in Foz do Amazonas). The decision ignores scientific warnings, international commitments, and, above all, the voices of the peoples and communities who have lived in and protected the Amazon for centuries.Authorising oil drilling in the Amazon not only threatens critical ecosystems but also repeats the same logic that has brought us to the brink of climate collapse.“Authorising new oil licences in the Amazon is not just a historic mistake — it’s doubling down on a model that has already failed. The history of oil in Brazil shows this clearly: huge profits for a few, and inequality, destruction, and violence for local populations. Brazil must take real climate leadership and break the cycle of extraction that has led us to the current climate crisis. We urgently need a just energy transition plan, based on renewables, that respects Indigenous, quilombola, and riverside peoples and guarantees them a leading role in decisions about climate and energy - including at COP30,” says Ilan Zugman, Latin America and Caribbean Director at <a href="http://350.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">350.org</a>.<a href="http://350.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">350.org</a> calls on people, social movements, scientists, political leaders, and all sectors committed to climate justice to unite in reversing this decision and pressuring the Brazilian government - and governments worldwide. We must demand not only the cancellation of this and future oil exploration projects in the Amazon, but also the collective construction of an energy transition plan that: <ul><li> Respects Indigenous, quilombola, and riverside territories;</li><li> Ensures these communities play a leading role in energy and climate decision-making;</li><li> Prioritises clean, decentralised energy built for people’s well-being, not for the profit of a few.</li></ul> Brazil has the chance to choose a different path: a future of clean energy, decided with the people of the Amazon, not imposed upon them. The time to act is now. We must draw a clear line: for the planet, for the people, for the future. Brazil must choose life and climate justice - not profit and destruction.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:47:52 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/amazon-oil-licence-granted-by-brazilian-government-threatens-communities-and-climate-commitments-ahead-of-cop30</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Health Care Costs are a Priority — Trump and Republicans Aren’t Delivering</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/health-care-costs-are-a-priority-trump-and-republicans-arent-delivering</link><description><![CDATA[
Health care price woes remain a top concern for Americans as the federal government shutdown enters its fourth week. New <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwszUGOrCAQgOHTwA4DJQIuWPTGaxikqmzf09YBZrz-pDuz_ZI_P0YI2WonKRrv9OhBe5DPmAMPwXAAB24k1sGHbHSfB4Mhe7Zyiy6ws2jG4NJgZ2OyGfUwBrcIq-uG9H_7UkfadipVOUQXfEar3FDX1r1d7vHZ2lVF_xAwCZju--5426nyWa5yroVq7c6yCpgwtVSpVQETaBgETEa_ma95vfNcn98Nz_s1L3s6aG5pqd2FLA_CLalCO6VKasP4gfkPRP8wLmjtZYn_zpewOp_Hcb6wUDo-Z1lbITreZc_gyRKqMRMo63FRaeCsAjEvYeEFLcmfCL8BAAD__1AJavk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">polling</a> from Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress finds nearly three-quarters of voters are concerned about health insurance premiums rising this year. For the third week in a row, a majority say Democrats in Congress should continue negotiations on government funding until rising health care costs are addressed.This heightened concern comes as millions of Americans are <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwszjGu3CAQgOHT4G5WeIwBFy7cWEkX5QJPmBl2yTOwAfxWuX20UdpP-qWfVrReST3wOhotF4PS4PBYDUp0Ex6zCcrNuLDS1pH1i5n8wd4McdU2aEXjYrWb1cc4-nGR82L1IZRskfgz_obk4sm1gSbS1nhSoOd277e3D-f66P3ZxLQJ3AXu91quTK9SP305T3eU6nr84lupd4H76wm-5M65C9yv51kcNYE7SpwF7qMUuH9jd_YHfM_tqi57hh-VU7xSg60ybGdlR3_gZ2wx3yGUClviGr3LDcbbk8KQmKKDyie7xhBp_Qcf_0FM26itlGao66-ShZK-pFQyVXapvTeH1itzepdTQMOKCRbPCMrQAW4OHiyHcNgjHKR4-FrxbwAAAP__qXR71g" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">opening their mailboxes to find a warning</a>: health insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act plans will double — and for some spike nearly 600%— if Republicans in Congress fail to extend critical Affordable Care Act tax credits by November 1.Working class families are sounding the alarm as they are hit with the brutal reality of paying hundreds more each month for health care, <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwszktu3iAUxfHVwOxGgHl5wCATbyPicflMYyAFnKi7r1x1-pPO0T85YaNkmqLjRrPdCGYEPZ3ONiidFVMJmZGcC843r4RQMmWpkRanbdYy8d1qr-QH55HvTO1WByLZLAk_y2-ovlw4JuiUtDUxSdBqvtbb4_Ry51pfk2zvRBxEHK_R75Z--viM_bp86MOv8o1vfbyIOBr-TCIOX3GU6BvE3uZdn_PZ7wG9wRp3_ZqAsbde_4CfcKK_1gnRD4TY55oQr1IDEQetmIqHgRf6iVCS-wcf_4Fs71xbxgwd7ldvRLLYa-0tDfR1PkV0roFYn-WWhUGJCfaIAqRJAbzKESzmHGzIIUmk3078DQAA__-RnnZd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on top of rising prices</a> for groceries and other essentials. <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsy8Gu2yAQheGnwbuJMMGAFyzuxq9xBcyQ0BqTMiRu375y1d3Rd_SjVy5paSbyszVytUpaNT39skSZTVxjzhaNdMph1kktyWVS8b5OxRuXjcZ5dSYs-nue07zKZXUmCi25IP0sv6CGslNnMIjG2YQazMKPcbt82v1zjBeL-5dQm1DbeZ63FPmgk2-pVaG2T0FqQm2xU-ABKRyJOvC7f8qndeDwh6Ec_O7XAWfZd0iNB9TWCcYzHNcaj_AgKBn4HblgIQb6_SqdhNqmSlgCdNopMEFB_w--_4O4f83GSWmn7n-0Q2iZWq3twE6h8q31x8SjE9WrvGdlSRPCmkiBthghLDmBo5yjizmipunj1d8AAAD__-blea4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WATCH</a> Lori Hunt, a breast cancer survivor living in Iowa City, explain how her insurance will cost more than her mortgage if the health care subsidies expire.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:23:12 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/health-care-costs-are-a-priority-trump-and-republicans-arent-delivering</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>The Frog Abides: We The People Are Pissed</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/the-frog-abides-we-the-people-are-pissed</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-kid-in-the-america-we-ve-left-to-him-her-them-for-now.jpg?id=61778444&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=338%2C0%2C339%2C0"/> Just like smarmy tiny MAGA Mike warned, up to eight million Marxists, terrorists, Hamas fighters and other patriots - along with hordes of radical inflatable frogs, chickens, unicorns, bananas - stormed America's streets to march, sing, dance, feel "joyful and connected," not get arrested, and flaunt brutal hilarious signs slamming the evil idiots now unimaginably in power; in response, their idiot leader posted a grotesque AI video of himself in a crown and fighter jet dropping shit on his own citizens. What a day.Despite a suddenly silent GOP after their incendiary drivel about a "hate America" rally - which organizers said saw RSVPs more than double - the mood of No Kings' over 2,700 rallies was jubilant. Many said it felt like a giant block party, and it was<a href="https://www.threads.com/@stewarteestis/post/DP83fIRiFOj?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.threads.com/@stewarteestis/post/DP83fIRiFOj?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">giant:</a> Protests in <a href="https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/your-pics-from-no-k..." target="_blank">small towns</a> and big cities in all 50 states - yes <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@two.huskies.and.a.dove/video/7516032289265011999" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Alaska</a>! - drew two million <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/us/no-kings-protests-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more </a>people than the first No Kings, and 14 times more than both Trump's inauguration crowds combined. (What a loser.) Among Dem pols was Chicago Mayor Johnson: "We will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower." Global rallies included London, Berlin, Vancouver, Mexico, a sole <a href="https://www.threads.com/@stewarteestis/post/DP83fIRiFOj?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">patriot </a>in Estonia: "One person, one pebble is all it takes to start a landslide. Sir, thank you for your service." The message, organizers said, was clear: "America will not be ruled by fear, force, or one man’s power grab." In New York City, over 300,000 people packed Times Square. In D.C., over 200,000 streamed through the National Mall, with one contingent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6im4Yr9xA0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">carrying </a>a massive Constitution. Chicago saw "an astonishingly <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:udnac33pmf2iwcblpeai5a5p/post/3m3ipm7s52c2h?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.democraticunderground.com%252F100220731381" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">large crowd," </a>San Francisco <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Mi8XXePPg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">formed</a> a giant human banner, crowds overflowed the Boston Common, the other Portland was <a href="https://x.com/MikeNellis/status/1979601785636659406" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">flooded </a>with protesters - aptly, with many <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_XQYdcEakU" target="_blank">frogs</a> visible after organizers began giving out free <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9tXQ8j1bN/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> costumes</a>. Many Dem members of Congress turned up. Startlingly, among over seven million terrorists gathering in thousands of locations, there were reportedly “zero protest-related arrests." There were also zero sightings of ICE, because they only appear where they can grab people with zero oversight or opposition. One observer: "They know. We know. It's all illegal. Fourth Amendment. They are cowards is what they are."The signs, as always, were fabulous: History Has Its Eyes On Us. Trump Is the Enemy Within. This Sucks. Fuck Nazis. Nice Oligarchy You Got There: Would Be A Shame If Anything Happened To It. Fascists Are Losers. Impeach Trump Again. Stop Pretending Your Racism Is Patriotism. Know Your Parasites: Dog Tick, Deer Tick, Lunatick. Uncle Scam: Dissent Is Patriotic. So Many Things, So Little Sign. We Thought This Was Going To Be Bad But Holy Shit. Unicorns Against Fascism. Fight Truth Decay. Elect A Rapist, Expect To Be Fucked. This Is My Resisting Bitch Face. Not A Terrorist, Just A Former Republican. Attention, Clean Up On Aisle USA: Orange Stain. I Pray Big Beautiful Bill Will Be the Name of Trump's Cellmate. (Stephen Miller with horns): Fuck You Pee Wee German. Trump We All Hate You. The Frog Abides.Republicans, of course, graciously acknowledged their fear-mongering was unjustified bullshit. Just kidding. Hysterical, face-palm-shameless Fox News chyron: "CHAOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. No Kings Protests Brought Mayhem to Many Cities." Nancy Mace: "Democrats hit the streets today protesting law and order. Nothing says 'We care about democracy' like showing up to a rally sponsored by Communists." (Jesus, what planet/timeline do these cretins come from?) Trump, ever-astute: "I hear very few people (are) going to be there." No Kings participants, in contrast, were notably, succinctly eloquent on why they were there. History teacher Ariel Fernandez: "What I tell my students all the time is democracy is a verb. You do it. So I’m here to do it." An unnamed Black guy in Oakland: "This is the point of America right here."Still, the mindless atrocities go on. Customs and Border officials just <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/clp_bulletin_executive_order_on_m-f_gender_20250707.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">implemented </a>a new rule requiring airlines to reject "X" sex markers on passports, available since 2022, and impose an "M" or "F" just to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/18/ai..." target="_blank">make the lives</a> of trans or non-binary people more difficult and/or prevent them from flying internationally; said one, "The more they can keep us confused and freaked out, the more they can do whatever they want." Unions are filing dozens of lawsuits - with some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/federal-worker-firings-blocked-judge-government-shutdown" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">success - </a>to fight efforts to cut hundreds of thousands of government jobs, strip collective bargaining rights and gut federal agencies. Each suit demonstrates the same thing, said one attorney: "A government willing to break the law just to see if anyone will stop it. It’s governance by impulse..like handing the keys to the country to a group of 12-year-olds. They’ll keep testing the limits until an adult stops them.”Alas, the adult is definitively, lamentably not their evil idiot leader, who somehow keeps plunging to "a new low, until the next new low." On Sunday, he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/19/trump-colombia-gustavo-petro" target="_blank">said </a>Colombia's president Gustavo Petro was an "illegal drug dealer,” also "a low-rated and very unpopular leader (pot/kettle) with a fresh mouth toward America" after Petro rightly charged Trump with murder in his latest extra-judicial killing - "It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE" - of a Colombian fisherman Petro said "had no ties to the drug trade," the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2025/10/19/trump-petro-colombia-drugs-us-aid/c7090fe0-aceb-11f0-ab72-a5fffa9bf3eb_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">29th</a> U.S. execution of likely innocent poor brown people. Trump brazenly threatened to cut U.S. funds to Colombia and close their "killing fields" or he would, not "nicely.” (With a horse's head in his bed?) Petro: "I respect (the) culture and people of the USA...The problem is with Trump, not the USA." Join the large, sorrowful crowd.On No Kings Day, Trump<a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/trump/202..." target="_blank"> hid </a>at Mar-A-Lago, where he hosted a <a href="https://static.politico.com/27/49/8bf359314de6aab0ca5898b319f3/10-17-palm-beach-invite.jpg?nname=playbook-pm&nid=0000015a-dd3e-d536-a37b-dd7fd8af0000&nrid=62505476-66f6-4704-819c-f2f394774f8a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$1 million-per-plate</a> fundraiser in his gold-drenched <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-hous..." target="_blank">ballroom</a> for MAGA super Pac <a href="https://democrats.org/news/trump-keeps-the-governm..." target="_blank">billionaires</a> during a government shutdown. Then he went online and <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115398251623299921" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shared</a> several AI videos, each more puerile and bizarre. In one, he and J.D. <a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1979729073497936319" target="_blank">wear </a><a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1979729073497936319">crowns</a> as Dem leaders wear sombreros (again). Then he has a crown and sword as Dems <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115398257963308786" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bow down </a>to him. Finally, piloting a "King Trump" fighter jet, he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115398251623299921" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">drops </a>a massive load of shit on protesters below. Ha! Good one! Talk about presidential leadership! Let the American people and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/billybraggofficial/posts/..." target="_blank">Billy Bragg -</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/billybraggofficial/posts/...">-</a> who were all bigly<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:honeoslflg3tlhfme4uzngcb/post/3m3jhucppws25?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fdigbysblog.net%252F" target="_blank"> not amused</a><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:honeoslflg3tlhfme4uzngcb/post/3m3jhucppws25?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fdigbysblog.net%252F"></a> - eat shit! CNN host Manu Raju: "I don't really know what to say (except) this is the President of the United States." Maybe say this: "History will be kind to the first Republicans who meaningfully say 'enough.'" Or t<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/6e8ddc48-3ee1-4abf-95b1-8dc78485400c?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">his</a>: "Fuck you, you fucking fuck." Or this: "Every day is No Kings Day.""Every single rally (including in the small towns) was bigger than the surrounding police force available. That (is) VERY IMPORTANT if (you’re) demonstrating social coherence AGAINST a fascist government and its makeshift gestapo.” - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/drlisacorrigan.bsky.socia..." target="_blank">historian </a>Lisa Corrigan<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1979705913692008820">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1979705913692008820"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:23:59 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/the-frog-abides-we-the-people-are-pissed</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-kid-in-the-america-we-ve-left-to-him-her-them-for-now.jpg?id=61778444&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>King Donald the First: Fuck That</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/king-donald-the-first-fuck-that</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/frogs-and-the-rest-of-us-face-off-against-fascists.jpg?id=61774751&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=252%2C0%2C252%2C0"/> The run-up to No Kings Day has seen a crazed wave of hysteria from a right wing shrieking about Hamas, Marxists, Huns, Orcs, Barbarians at the Gate with the sinister portent, "You'll see the hate for America all over this thing." What the. We think we'll see millions of people - also frogs, chickens and a detained giraffe - who support health care, free speech, our neighbors, and the right to oppose becoming an authoritarian hellhole. DeNiro: "We're all in this together, with liberty and justice for all." Organizers <a href="https://www.nokings.org/" target="_blank">vowing,</a> "No Thrones, No Crowns, No Kings" are predicting the largest, one-day demonstration in U.S. history, with people in 2,500 towns and cities across the country celebrating the First Amendment's guarantee to "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The original No Kings protest took place 250 years ago, Robert DeNiro <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DPmDYiIkfHh/?utm_sourc..." target="_blank">noted</a> in a sober ad for Indivisible , when Americans decided they didn’t want to live under the rule of King George III; they declared their independence and fought a bloody war for democracy, which since then has proved "often challenging, sometimes messy and always essential." As to today's would-be king, he said, "Fuck that." Indeed.The messaging around the new No Kings from <a href="https://www.nokings.org/partners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hundreds of groups</a> organizing it has been strikingly consistent, calling on people to “engage in the work of democracy." The Human Rights Campaign blasts "an authoritarian regime that’s forgotten who it serves," charging us to "stand together in the belief that America belongs to its people." Authoritarians, they note, require division to carry out their agenda: "They need people to stop trusting each other, to stop talking to each other, to make us forget who we are, we, the people, demanding a country that makes good on its promise of freedom. And there is nothing more American than that." Despite the abuses and intimidation, the task is "to remind those in power who they answer to. This is our country."Over time, the right's frantic bloviating and fear-mongering have escalated along with the reasons to protest - health care, shut down, masked thugs, broccoli prices. But its basic tenets have stayed the same: Only GOP speech is protected, not yours. If you oppose them, you're a terrorist, probably <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m2tvpocdyo2k" target="_blank">paid.</a> The only legit American is one who thinks and looks like them. And they can viciously lie, provoke, insult, harass, <a href="https://x.com/CattardSlim/status/1978556033632292930" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> dissemble </a>or demonize you as communists, fascists, pedophiles, vermin all they like, but Democrats are the ones "inciting violence." Thus on Saturday, will they recoil from what smug, obsequious, despicable fraud MAGA Mike calls "the hate America rally," and no wonder. Damn, little Christo-fascist dude, what would Jesus say? "I have had it with these people," Mike sputtered a few weeks ago on "the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, antifa people" planning to gather and "playing games with real people's lives...I can’t believe they’re actually doing this." (The next thing you know, they could be cutting health care..) This week, it was an “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-kings-republicans-hate-america-terrorists_n_68e93f7ae4b0a0b11bf2a30a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,</a>“ again with "pro-Hamas supporters," "antifa types," "Marxists in full display (who) don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic,” which of course include the foundational truth that we have free speech and no kings. The hypocrisy went even more over the top when Thug-In-Chief Tom Homan inveighed about "hateful rhetoric," darkly warning "there will be bloodshed." Scott Bessent,vowed he'd <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scott-bessent-wants-to-wage-a-post-911-style-war-on-the-american-left_n_68efe509e4b017d85b737225?utm_source=buzzfeed&utm_medium=iframely" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">investigate </a>the event's "networks of terrorist organizations" as “the farthest left, hardest core, most unhinged in the Democratic Party.” Pundit Scott Jennings <a href="https://x.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1978993051545..." target="_blank">charged</a> Dems "care more about criminals than victims...more about illegal aliens than American citizens. And if you speak up or push back? We saw what happened to Charlie." (OK, but we're still gonna need to see those <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m2toaim..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Epstein files.) </a>The most insane bullshit spewed from Press Barbie, who after seeing an interview with Zohran Mamdani sneeringly <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/16/2348907/-Trump-s-propaganda-princess-spreads-unhinged-hatred-about-Americans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">told</a> Fox News it shows Democratics' main constituency is “made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals." Whereas Repubs are "standing up for law-abiding Americans." Just fuck off, Barbie."The White House says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor," <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/tim-walz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">responded </a>Tim Walz. "Your neighbor isn’t the problem. The White House is." Hakeem Jeffries <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZfpLQ_AcIw&t=3s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">slammed </a>Leavitt as "sick" and "out of control," linking her claptrap to a surge in hate speech evidenced by recently <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/15/2348617/-Young-Republicans-leaked-chats-reflect-Trump-s-racist-influence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">leaked</a>, racist, sexist, Hitler-loving sewer talk from Young Republicans. "They are ripping the sheets off in plain view," he said. "This is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration." Bernie Sanders on their "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1HBV2v8Lq0" target="_blank">Hate America</a>" drivel: "Really? Because people are defending the Constitution (and) are not going to let (you) turn this country into an authoritarian society? The right to protest is what America is about. You are not going to stop us."Their choice of slurs are "classic authoritarianism," says anti-fascism expert Stanislav Vysotsky, "playing to a base that is rabid for violent retribution against their enemies." The name-calling instills us-vs.-them fear of dissent, dehumanizes opponents as an existential threat, helps justify a violent crackdown, and in this case is carefully calibrated to fit into Trump's demented decree outlawing "Antifa," which is still not a thing, as "a domestic terrorist organization," which is also not a thing. "I don't think it's that complicated," said Indivisible's Ezra Levin. "The one thing an unpopular authoritarian regime is scared of is mass, organized, peaceful people-power." "When people rise, kings fall," <a href="https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/no-kings-day-oct18?..." target="_blank">notes</a> Michael Moore. "There are more of us than there are of them."There've been glitches. As part of a look-over-here-what-Epstein-files-campaign, they're having a 250th anniversary celebration for the Marines, including a "live-fire Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration" at Camp Pendleton just as No Kings is underway, along with a "beach bash" and “vanity parade” Gavin Newsom calls "an absurd show of force"; he did convince them to cancel a planned<a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/i-5-highway-trumps-missi..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> shutdown </a>of a major highway that would've caused chaos. And L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged protesters, as The Onion <a href="https://theonion.com/protesters-urged-not-to-give-..." target="_blank">noted, </a>"not to engage in violence and give (the regime) an excuse to inflict all the damage th<a href="https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/portlands-protest..." target="_blank">https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/portlands-protest...</a>ey have been inflicting (since) day one of Trump’s term" because "you wouldn’t want them abducting people in broad daylight and deporting them."Up to Friday night, the right's<a href="https://digbysblog.net/2025/10/17/if-these-are-all..." target="_blank"> feverish smears </a>kept coming: There would be "<a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1979193041094349311" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mobs</a> of radicals," the "anarchists and pro-Hamas wing," "terrorists" to be treated "just (like) Al-Qaeda or ISIS." Unexpectedly, some of the most powerful rebuttals to their ridiculous bunkum has come from Portland's now-iconic, blow-up, often-dancing animal creatures: Its Portland Frog, new comrades from the Oregon Frog Brigade - "The Few. The Proud. The Web-Footed" - the longtime Portland Chicken, and various dolphins, roosters, sharks, T-rex and other anti-fascist critters relying on their inherent absurdity and their town's legacy of staunch anti-authoritarianism to make fools of the masked, armed, awkward, camo-swathed thugs accosting them "in this uniquely chaotic moment." The creatures are <a href="https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/portlands-protest..." target="_blank">serious</a> about their absurdism. Seth Todd, 25, the somber OG Frog, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/10/10/in-portland-activists-use-humor-to-counter-donald-trump-s-apocalyptic-portrayal-of-the-city_6746281_4.html" target="_blank">sees </a>it as "a strategy" to dismantle the narrative of violent protesters and ICE's strongman cosplay: Guns pointed at black-clad, scary- looking activists play differently drawn on a boogeying, oversized, silent frog: "Nice body armor, but (you'll) look stupid trying to take down an inflatable frog." Jack Dickinson, 26, the "chicken" Noem bravely <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPhuJrTEu2Q/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPhuJrTEu2Q/">stared down, </a>has a graduate degree in economics with a focus on game theory, read most of Project 2025, and likes <a href="https://lucid.substack.com/p/the-portland-chicken-..." target="_blank">using</a> "whimsy" to combat bullies: "What they <a href="https://www.wweek.com/culture/2025/10/09/an-interv..." target="_blank">rely on </a>is fear." "At some point, I just I tied my own fate to that of the movement," he says. "The place this is going (is) such a departure from the world I thought (of) as a kid, I would much rather do anything I can to prevent that world from happening."Other heroes have stepped up. The giraffe-suited <a href="https://linktr.ee/robbyroadsteamer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comedian</a> Robby Roadsteamer was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTuJ7P8YiM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">singing </a>Rod Stewart songs of peace and love outside ICE when three camoed jerks, rifles at the ready, detained him; a GoFundMe has<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-robby-roadsteamers-eye-surgery-recovery?attribution_id=sl:9f059cd9-51b7-47ef-98cc-bcd23595bc57&lang=en_US&ts=1754363238&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp13_c&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> raised </a>over $115,000. Kermit, the timeless leader of The Frog Resistance, has <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/trending/2025/10/why-ar..." target="_blank">re-surfaced </a>with a new take on his classic Rainbow Connection: "Why are there so many/ Trump thugs in ski masks/ and why do they have to hide?” And a little-known Irving Berlin song from 1941 has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSlGYQBPaN0" target="_blank">re-emerged;</a> it was sung by Al Bowlly, killed in London by a German bomb sent by the subject of the song just weeks after it was released: "When that man is dead and gone/We'll go dancing down the street..." Speak up, stay safe, hold onto hope. <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bw5zxdSObso?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> - YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw5zxdSObso" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a> ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Oct 2025 04:52:20 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/king-donald-the-first-fuck-that</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/frogs-and-the-rest-of-us-face-off-against-fascists.jpg?id=61774751&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Advocacy Orgs Launch Ad Campaign to Defend Healthcare in Face of Shutdown</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/advocacy-orgs-launch-ad-campaign-to-defend-healthcare-in-face-of-shutdown</link><description><![CDATA[
This week, a coalition of public interest organizations: Public Citizen, Indivisible, MoveOn, Fair Share America, People for the American Way, American Federation of Teachers, SEIU, National Education Association, and Working Families Power launched a new ad campaign in Axios’s Hill Leaders newsletter urging Congress to stand firm in defense of health care even as the Trump administration launches cruel and wholly unnecessary firings above and beyond traditional shutdown furloughs. The ads will appear in every issue of the newsletter this week. The new ad campaign highlights the threat that the budget proposal being pushed by Trump and Congressional Republicans pose to health care access and affordability, stating: “Republicans have shut down the government because they have no interest in keeping healthcare affordable for millions of Americans. Doubling insurance premiums is not what Americans need. Enough is enough! We must fight to save healthcare.” The first of the ads comes nearly two weeks into the government shutdown. The groups behind the ads say any deal to fund the government must include protections for Americans’ health care and Congress’s power of the purse, which the Trump administration has repeatedly flouted. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, stated: “Across the country, Americans are urging their representatives to push back against Trump’s destructive agenda and fight for a budget that protects access to health care and safeguards Congress’s authority over federal spending. Members who are fighting for these principles should know that the American people stand with them.” Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, said: “Healthcare is worth fighting for. It’s time for Republicans to join Democrats and end the healthcare price hikes that are coming for millions of working Americans. MoveOn members won’t stop fighting for affordable healthcare.” Kristen Crowell, executive director of Fair Share America, said: “Working people in this country pay our taxes, and have watched this Republican Trifecta in Congress and the White House take trillions of our tax dollars and hand them away to the billionaires while creating a crisis that will increase our health care costs exponentially. Now they've shut down the government rather than protect our healthcare. We are fighting to take back the funding that they stole from us, re-fund the programs our communities need and create a government that works for everyone – not just the billionaires.” Maurice Mitchell, national director of Working Families Power, said: “Trump and Republicans don’t care that our health insurance premiums are going to spike, or that tens of millions of families will lose care under their plan. They only care about satisfying their billionaire donors. It's important that voters know that Republicans would rather shut down the government than lower health care costs for our families." Svante Myrick, president of People For the American Way, added: “Republicans slashed healthcare funding, now they’re holding the American people hostage as their reckless cuts are poised to hurt millions of Americans. Democrats are fighting for affordable healthcare for all, and we fully support that fight. Restore affordable healthcare now.” The ad launch is part of a broader initiative by the sponsoring organizations and others to demand Congress agree on a budget plan that protects health care from Trump administration cuts and prevents Trump from simply refusing to spend duly appropriated funds.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:54:21 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/advocacy-orgs-launch-ad-campaign-to-defend-healthcare-in-face-of-shutdown</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Hezbollah and MS-13 'R Us, Naked On Bikes In Frog Ears</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/hezbollah-and-ms-13-r-us-naked-on-bikes-in-frog-ears</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/survivor-of-war-ravaged-bike-riding-hell-hole-of-portland.jpg?id=61747451&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=275%2C0%2C275%2C0"/> Despite court losses, public antipathy, ridicule, a shutdown they ignore, the nascent police state lurches on with its daft apocalyptic narrative of an America in flames. Their victims include brown parents torn from kids, a minister shot, an 87-year-old veteran tackled, a beloved Black school official. Each time, their allies plead for "radical empathy." Each time, ICE declines, stonily citing "public safety." Joseph Goebbels: "It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition (that) a square is in fact a circle."In another up-is-down, whitewashing moment, on Monday the regime marked "Columbus Day," thus <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114411157925493893" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reclaiming </a>from "the ashes of left wing arsonists" the explorer's noble, white Christian nationalist legacy of "faith, courage, perseverance and virtue" - not <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1044823626/indigenous-peoples-day-native-americans-columbus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Indigenous Peoples Day's </a>theft, exploitation and genocide of almost 100 million Native people - to celebrate "the triumph of Western civilization, such as it is. In its name, Trump continues waging his war on<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-fea..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> free speech</a>, political opposition, constitutionally protected rights, brown people and anyone who disagrees with him in ongoing efforts to become the man-child king of an authoritarian <a href="https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/197173274870561..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hell-hole </a>most Americans <a href="https://contrarian.substack.com/p/it-turns-out-americans-dont-want?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3719374&post_id=175984309&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=l8hwn&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> don't want.</a>While Trump has declared eight national emergencies to justify his draconian powers, courts are largely holding the line, or at least a standoff, against the insanity. In Oregon, a three-judge panel <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/04/portland-national-guard-deployment-judge-decision/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ruled </a>200 National Guard troops called up can remain federalized but can't yet be deployed in Portland. In Chicago, a judge temporarily <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/09/trump-national-guard-troops-chicago-ruling" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blocked </a>deployment of 500 National Guard from Texas already in nearby Elwood; a judge also banned ICE agents from using "riot control weapons" against protesters there. On Tuesday, a Rhode Island judge <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.rid.59597/gov.uscourts.rid.59597.75.0.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">slammed </a>the government for defying an order banning them from withholding FEMA funds from states that won't cooperate with ICE crackdowns, calling them out for "a ham-handed attempt to bully."How far the regime will go to defy court orders may depend on vengeful Nazi <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/201387/stephen-miller..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mastermind</a> Goebbels/Miller, who calls every court decision they lose "legal insurrection"; his heartbroken relatives, in turn, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/alisa.kasmer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">call</a> him "the face of evil." The ever-seething Miller <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-honcho-s..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">describes </a>protests as "domestic terrorist sedition" and the use of troops against them as "an absolute necessity to defend (our) government, public order and the Republic itself." Last week, saying the quiet part out loud, Miller lied the president has "plenary” or absolute power under Title 10 of the US Code; then he blinked and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/1o0x5ib/miller_glitches_while_falsely_claiming_title_10/" target="_blank">glitched out</a>, reflecting what experts call "cognitive overload" in the "reptilian" brain, often when mistakenly saying something damning. When not freezing, he furiously <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1971762700410..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sputter</a>s out attacks on a "campaign of terrorism (that) will be brought down" by his righteous mission "to dismantle terrorism and terror networks." At Charlie Kirk's memorial/rally, Miller thundered, "We are the storm" in a demonic, Nazi-esque <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPcp67tidDY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">speech</a> that posited "them" - "You are nothing. You have nothing. You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred...Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve'" - against "us": "Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Philadelphia...Our ancestors built the cities...built the industry. We stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.”Last week, trying to maintain momentum in the face of enduring resistance, Trump called an "Antifa Roundtable" - in fact a rectangle - to follow his declaration of Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization" 'cause he still doesn't get it's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/22/trump-executive-order-antifa-terrorist-organization" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">neither</a> terrorist nor an organization, but simply anyone anti-fascist. Gathering flunkies and far-right influencers to help, per one <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-held-antifa-round..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> headline</a>, "Protect Americans From Dancing Unicorns," they repeated like an incantation the notion of "terrorism" and "insurrection" to make it so. In rhetoric echoing Press Barbie's vow Trump will "end the Radical Left’s reign of terror in Portland once and for all," a press release referenced an imaginary "Antifa-led hellfire" and "a wasteland of firebombs, beatings, and brazen attacks."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1976382769686098305">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1976382769686098305"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Trump opened the meeting declaring, "The epidemic of Antifa-inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade." He claimed “paid anarchists” want to "destroy our country," and "many people" have died in leftist violence; the correct <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/new-eyewitness-accounts-feds-didnt-identify-themselves-before-opening-fire-on-portland-antifa-suspect" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">number </a>is one, in 2020, followed by three deaths on the left. He <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/1976776133887549815" target="_blank">raved </a>about "flag-burning mobs," "degenerates" and, without irony, "people that want to overthrow government" before occasionally <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1976033049654726994" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nodding off, </a> Everyone agreed with him about everything. "This is not activism, it's anarchy," intoned Pam Bondi before vowing to take "the same approach" to Antifa as to drug cartels: "We're going to take them apart," and then presumably, summarily <a href="https://x.com/svdate/status/1976049416369995951" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">kill</a> them from above? A suitably icy ICE Barbi<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/kristi-noem-says..." target="_blank">e vowed</a> to "eliminate Antifa from existence." "They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA (Tren de Aragua]), as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, all of them," she said. They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us." Despite that peril, she later bravely <a href="https://www.aol.com/news/kristi-noem-praised-stari..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ventured </a>to war-torn Portland, where protests <a href="https://x.com/NancyRomm/status/1976974181431705764" target="_blank">cover </a>about a block of its 135 square miles. There, MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1975662466874175498" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gushed, </a>she survived mean signs - "Molotovs Melt Ice" - and, from a rooftop, "<a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1975662466874175498" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stared down</a> an Antifa army," aka a few protesters<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3m2nbexipfc2z" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">/enemy combatants </a>and a guy in a chicken costume. Also in her entourage was a (pardoned) Jan. 6 <a href="https://x.com/davidmedinapdx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rioter </a>who'd just <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/media/1338881/dl?inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">texted</a> a friend, “We need a war, bro."At a Cabinet meeting later that week, Noem <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1976326164315783210" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">claimed</a> city, state and police officials - "all lying, disingenuous, dishonest people!" - were "absolutely <a href="https://x.com/RonWyden/status/1976679424117612841" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">covering up</a> the terrorism hitting their streets" because otherwise why was the city so quiet? Sen Ron Wyden: "Thoughts and prayers to Cosplay Cop Kristi who had to endure the dogs, farmers' markets, capybaras (at Debbie Dolittle's Petting Zoo") and marathon runners of Portland." Wrote Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo: "I never thought renowned puppy-killer Kristi Noem would be so afraid of protesters wearing frog costumes, but here we are...There is no terrorism happening here. I think that they are just a very scared people."To the press later, Trump praised Noem and promised to punish people who create mean signs. In one hilarious, terrifying moment, he was asked if, given all the terrorism, he'd given more thought to suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional protection from <a href="https://theconversation.com/habeas-corpus-a-thousand-year-old-legal-principle-for-defending-rights-thats-getting-a-workout-under-the-trump-administration-254525" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unlawful detention</a>. "Uh, suspending who?" he asked. "Habeas corpus." "I dunno," he said. "I’d rather leave that to Kristi - what do you think?” Kristi: "Umm..." George Conway: "President Non Compos Mentis has no idea what the writ of habeas corpus is.” Still, Trump <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/1976776133887549815" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">yammered</a>, Portland is "a burning hellhole...You don’t even have stores anymore. They don’t put glass up. They put plywood. Every time I look at that place it’s burning down. There are fires all over the place.” <img alt="Federal agents face off against an inflatable frog in Portland." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fe83feedee2fb4c757d3d9ec8ebb153c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="f6dda" loading="lazy" src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-face-off-against-an-inflatable-frog-in-portland.jpg?id=61752471&width=980"/> Federal agents face off against an inflatable frog in Portland.Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/AFP via Getty ImagesSomehow, despite their noise and power, Americans still aren't buying it. Last week, the White House <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1976668787467514316" target="_blank">bragged</a> a video of Noem blaming the shutdown on Dems was “currently playing at every public airport in America." Not: Multiple airports are <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/201697/airports-pushi..." target="_blank">refusing</a> to play it, citing the Hatch Act and opposing "using public assets for political propaganda. Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: "Can you think of a single movie in which there's a government video denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces (and) that government was the good guy?” In Chicago store fronts have started <a href="https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220711194" target="_blank">displaying </a>signs that read, "ICE do not have consent to enter this business unless they have a valid judicial warrant."And mockery rejecting the right's ludicrous narrative is rife. "This is JB Pritzker reporting from war-torn Chicago," began one video from the governor. "It’s quite disturbing. The Milwaukee Brewers have come in to attack our Chicago Cubs. I've seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup. Our deep dish pizza has gone shallow....It’s a challenge to survive here, but there’s no hellscape I’d rather be in." Late-night's Jimmy Kimmel, citing "demonstrators in animal costumes dancing to Farruko’s Pepas," asked viewers in Chicago, Portland, Memphis etc to prove how crimey their cities are by sending in <a href="https://www.koin.com/news/portland/jimmy-kimmel-wants-to-see-portlands-hellhole-amid-trumps-claims-against-city/amp/" target="_blank">videos</a>:of their own war-ravaged communities under the hashtag <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/ShowMeYourHellhole?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#ShowMeYourHellhole.</a><a href="https://x.com/TrumpCuntry/status/1976118265228493098" target="_blank">Memes</a> abound, especially in Portland, where proudly weird residents have embraced the goofy. "Breaking: Antifa founders identified!" (Churchill and FDR). "<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3m2krnaxwxs25" target="_blank">Boomerfita </a>from the war zone" (boomers/his Land Is Your Land). "The <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:t6ubj2wlhc34awzcymh3qpur?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.democraticunderground.com%252F100220708739" target="_blank">Battle</a> of Voo Doo donuts rages on!" (ICE/donuts). Deadly <a href="https://x.com/pdxfrontline/status/1975758838881263811" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dance parties </a>(large blow-up animals). Gavin Newsom: "WE <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1975793415049941186" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FOUND </a>THE PORTLAND WAR ZONE PETE !!" (Ditto.) Tales of brutal brunch lines, soup groups disrupted, an eight-year-old's soccer team clobbered by a gang of bandits. The OG Frog has been <a href="https://x.com/MAGACult2/status/1977185756365066478" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">joined </a>by a shark, chicken, dolphin, polar bear, <a href="https://www.registerguard.com/picture-gallery/news/politics/2025/10/12/see-photos-of-the-emergency-world-naked-bike-ride-in-portland/86662348007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">alligator</a>, maybe rooster, more frogs - "He's a friend from another pond" - and chants: "Frog, frog, frog." Sunday also <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/naked-..." target="_blank">saw </a>an<a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/naked-..."></a> emergency run of Portland's World Naked Bike Ride, a “quintessentially Portland way to protest” that draws up to 10,000 riders each summer. This one, in pouring rain with a die-in mid-ride, drew about 1,000, many in more-than-usual clothes or with clear ponchos over messages on chests and backs - "We're Cold But Not As Cold As ice, No Faux King Way, End Occupation" - and one brave soul playing bagpipes on a unicycle. The mood was jubilant. “Joy is a form of protest,"" said one. Also, "The people are willing to be vulnerable and stand up for something they believe in," and from a tearful 70-year-old, "Damn, this is a good place to live. This city has a beating heart of love and compassion.”Not so a GOP <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1977547494469873795" target="_blank">horrified</a> by the joyful spectacle. Asked where's the limit on "acceptable conduct" by federal agents facing protesters, sanctimonious prig and liar MAGA Mike cited their "abuse by radical leftist activists" before <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/us-hou..." target="_blank">adding</a> "the most threatening thing I've seen" was those giddy bicyclers: "I mean, it's getting really ugly." Go fuck yourself, Mike. He also charged they'd attacked cops (not), with many arrests. About 30 protesters have been arrested since June, with about half accused of "<a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/10/portland-man-accused-of-spitting-in-face-of-federal-officer-outside-ice-building.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/10/portland-man-accused-of-spitting-in-face-of-federal-officer-outside-ice-building.html">assaults"</a> like spitting, shoving, throwing a water bottle, kicking back a tear gas cannister. Police made no arrests Sunday; ICE agents detained one person - a clarinetist with a protest band - for an unknown "crime."For things getting "ugly," check out an evil plot, informally dubbed "Freaky Friday," wherein the feds will offer $2,500 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/10/03/ice-children-d..." target="_blank">bribes</a> to previously <a href="https://archive.ph/Mu7X5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tracked, </a>unaccompanied migrant minors over 14 in exchange for them agreeing to be deported to the countries they fled. Advocates denounce the "cruel" notion of coercing vulnerable kids whose <a href="https://latino.ucla.edu/unaccompanied-children-are-under-attack-again/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">funding </a>for legal support has been cut to waive their rights for a cash incentive, or "resettlement support stipend" - especially when they're told that, if they say no, they'll be picked up when they turn 18 by an abusive force of masked, armed federal agents <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-ice-smashed-..." target="_blank">repeatedly found </a>to be the out-of-control aggressors - from smashing windows to people's faces - during arrests. <img alt="A so-called federal law enforcement official responds to being filmed." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="132e90a2ad01182e87c03c2eab3b871f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="29c55" loading="lazy" src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-so-called-federal-law-enforcement-official-responds-to-being-filmed.jpg?id=61752528&width=980"/> A so-called federal law enforcement official responds to being filmed.Photo from BlueSky In response, ICE argues they use "objectively reasonable force." Tell it to Rafie Ollah Shouhed, a longtime, 79-year-old car wash owner in California who <a href="https://ktla.com/news/79-year-old-american-citizen..." target="_blank">filed</a> a federal civil rights suit seeking $50 million after ICE thugs stormed his business and body slammed him to the ground so hard he suffered multiple broken bones and a traumatic brain injury when he tried to tell agents grabbing his workers they had papers. He also told them he'd just had heart surgery, but three guys jumped on his back anyway, with one pressing a knee into his neck and telling him, "You don’t fuck with ICE." He was handcuffed, detained, held 12 hours with no care, calls, food or water. Five of his <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/79-year-us-citizen-claim..." target="_blank"> workers </a>were also detained. There was also the ICE t<a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1971291604322582673" target="_blank">hug</a> at a New York courthouse who brutally<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-throws-woman..." target="_blank"> threw down </a>Ecuadorian Monica Moreta-Galarza when she tried to stop agents from dragging her husband away from her and her two kids. The guy choked and <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f7utvjkqbgwfjonqtpfcf5fu/post/3m2kctlml522z?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fdigbysblog.net%252F" target="_blank">body-slammed </a>when he didn't step back fast enough from a curb as ordered. The goons <a href="https://digbysblog.net/2025/10/13/what-does-cbp-te..." target="_blank">roughing up </a>bystanders filming, smashing car windows to drag a guy from his one-month-old, <a href="https://www.kcrg.com/2025/09/26/advocates-iowa-cit..." target="_blank">abducting </a>a 27-year-old Colombian during his <a href="https://www.kcrg.com/2025/09/25/escucha-mi-voz-claims-ice-takes-one-its-members/" target="_blank" title="https://www.kcrg.com/2025/09/25/escucha-mi-voz-claims-ice-takes-one-its-members/">shift </a>at an Iowa City market though he was mid-asylum-process, he wore an ankle monitor for tracking, and he, his wife, their infant son lived at a Catholic Worker House. The 8 goons who <a href="https://x.com/JoshEakle/status/1977076066666922409" target="_blank">yanked</a> a girl from her car as she screamed, "I'm 15." There were also the 30 storm-troopers in riot gear who<a href="https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/10/12/documents-al..." target="_blank"> blocked</a> a Portland ambulance from leaving with an injured protester as they argued about one riding with them in the ambulance, which isn't allowed; when the driver put the ambulance in park and it moved a few inches, one goon got in his face and screamed, "DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I WILL SHOOT YOU." And there was the sad, strange story of Dr. Ian Roberts, the Black, beloved, charismatic Des Moines school superintendent, "tremendous advocate," "trusted partner (who) showed up in ways big and small for students" and former Olympic runner from Guyana <a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2025-09-2..." target="_blank">arrested </a>by ICE for being just another "criminal illegal alien.” At first, the community <a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2024..." target="_blank">rallied</a><a href="https://www.kcci.com/article/ian-roberts-des-moines-schools-superintendent-detained-by-ice/68080086" target="_blank"></a> around him, praising his "leadership, empathy and responsiveness," fondly remembering his running against kids, usually in a dapper, three-piece suit, so they could<a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2024..." target="_blank"> boast</a>, "I raced an Olympian." "His contributions are immeasurable," they said, "and we stand with him." But soon a <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/Latest-Updates-Case-Dr-Ian-..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">labrythian history</a> emerged of weapons charges, dubious <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/us/ian-roberts-des-..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">claims </a>of prestigious degrees, visas granted and denied. Officials faced questions about hiring practices, teachers and parents <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/09/27/iowa-republican-lawmakers-probe-des-moines-public-schools-after-superintendents-arrest-by-ice/86392069007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> struggled</a> to explain his absence to kids, especially Black ones, and many wrestled with "a dark and unsettling time in our country." For ICE, his arrest was a simple "wake-up call for communities to the great work our officers are doing (to) remove public safety threats.” <img alt="Former Olympic runner and school superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts races some of his kids. " class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f03338b531b672901ea9ee7b86efc538" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ef5e7" loading="lazy" src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/former-olympic-runner-and-school-superintendent-dr-ian-roberts-races-some-of-his-kids.jpg?id=61750076&width=980"/> Former Olympic runner and school superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts races some of his kids. Photo from Des Moines school systemICE's "great work" was also evident last month as Rev. David Black of Chicago's First Presbyterian Church stood in front of the Broadview detention facility, praying in his clerical collar, when heavily armed ICE agents on the roof <a href="https://religionnews.com/2025/10/07/in-chicago-cle..." target="_blank">fired </a><a href="https://religionnews.com/2025/10/07/in-chicago-cle..."></a>pepper balls that<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mskellymhayes.bsky.social..." target="_blank"> struck</a> him in the head; as he hit the ground, he could hear them laughing. At another Broadview protest, Black along with many others was also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DPhBNLZDbYA/?utm_sourc..." target="_blank">tased i</a>n the face, shoved to the ground and <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3m2fui3tmp226" target="_blank">detained. </a>He is one of dozens of faith leaders who've been shot multiple times with pepper bullets from ICE - "They are unhinged," says one Methodist - and have <a href="https://religionnews.com/2025/07/28/fourth-group-of-religious-organizations-sues-trump-administration-over-ice-raids-at-churches/" target="_blank">filed lawsuits</a> challenging ICE policies and their <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/watch-ice-sued..." target="_blank">treatment</a> under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.Faith leaders and activists, while denouncing ICE actions as "domestic terror," remain a visible presence at protests, often bearing signs that read, “Who would Jesus deport?" and "Love your neighbor, love your God, save your soul and quit your job." Black, too, keeps returning to "shout down these gates of hell"; above all, he praises "the unbelievably heroic people standing with me...proclaiming liberation in the face of evil itself." By rote, even facing off against clergy, that evil is steadfast: DHS goon Tricia McLaughlin calls the protesters “rioters” who assault agents, throw tear gas or rocks, and "endanger the safety of brave law enforcement officers and illegal aliens inside the facility.” God save her soul. <img alt="David Black gets repeatedly tased in the face at Broadview detention facility." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="02b50221529f0d0a9f6b7aafda1c514e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="bcb12" loading="lazy" src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/david-black-gets-repeatedly-tased-in-the-face-at-broadview-detention-facility.jpg?id=61752643&width=980"/> David Black gets repeatedly tased in the face at Broadview detention facility.Photo by Ashlee Rezin of the Chicago Sun-Times.The police state shows no more mercy to veterans, another group often turning up to<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/13/us..." target="_blank"> protest </a>the state of the country they risked their lives to defend, arguing "the basic freedoms we once swore to protect are under attack." They range from the famed Subway sandwich hurler in D.C. to a disabled 87-year-old arrested after he and his walker traveled from an assisted living facility in Florida to protest Trump's military parade in D.C. Veteran critics - most citizens, many brown - say they see "a pattern of state-sanctioned abuse" by ICE, along with ill-trained, reckless, "trigger-happy" agents who would be removed from a front line and court-martialed for their violence. So much for the highest male standard.Their victims include a 70-year-old Air Force veteran <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/five-individuals-charged-federal-court-chicago-assaulting-or-resisting-federal-agents" target="_blank">charged</a> with assault after he "made physical contact" with an agent's arm at Broadview; a 35-year-old Marine vet and infantryman in Afghanistan shot with rubber bullets, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPEpsthDYC8/?igsh=MTF1YmN6NGgxOHd6MQ%3D%3D" target="_blank">tackled</a> by thugs and arrested at Broadview; a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, protested in Portland, got his face <a href="https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/video-shows-marine-veteran-tackled-at-portland-ice-protest/" target="_blank">slammed</a> to the ground by <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social/post/3lwh667beac2p" target="_blank">goons </a>snarling, “You’re not talking shit anymore, are you?" and is suing for $150,000 after being hospitalized. ICE said he "used fake blood to falsify injuries" and "perpetuated and encouraged violence.” ICE should know. No wonder a new American hero on an e-bike was born after he <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hey-m-not-u-ci..." target="_blank">taunted </a>ICE with, "Hey! I'm not a U.S. citizen!" before taking off. "Q: How many out-of-shape, masked ICE agents does it take to <a href="https://x.com/busblog/status/1972477771994808700" target="_blank">kidnap</a> a delivery driver on a bike in downtown Chicago? A: More than these." <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4AnLAxVtXKk?rel=0&start=28" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> - YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AnLAxVtXKk&t=28s" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a> ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:02:49 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/hezbollah-and-ms-13-r-us-naked-on-bikes-in-frog-ears</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/survivor-of-war-ravaged-bike-riding-hell-hole-of-portland.jpg?id=61747451&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>A Beacon Of Hope and Woke Bullshit</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/a-beacon-of-hope-and-woke-bullshit</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/maria-corina-machado-gestures-during-a-january-protest-in-caracas.jpg?id=61737810&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=316%2C0%2C316%2C0"/> Citing the value of “keep(ing) the flame of democracy burning," the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for (her) people." Machado called the award an “immense recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans." With their usual grace, MAGA-ites blasted the choice of "some lady in Venezuela" and not a mad king terrorizing brown people, siccing troops on his citizens, and murdering fishermen. America: Fuck that guy.Machado is a key but <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/peace-has-no-meaning-when-right-wingers-like-maria-corina-machado-win-the-nobel-prize" target="_blank">divisive </a>figure in Venezuela: She's been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/peace-has-no-meaning-when-right-wingers-like-maria-corina-machado-win-the-nobel-prize" target="_self">called </a>"the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine" and CAIR has blasted her for supporting Israel's right-wing Likud Party and anti-Muslim fascists. She's also faced years of political persecution under Maduro’s regime while building a powerful grassroots democracy movement from a once-fragmented opposition. A 58-year-old industrial engineer, she was blocked by the courts from running against Maduro in 2024; facing death threats and bogus charges, she has been living in hiding since then. The Nobel Committee <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/10/nobel-peace-prize-2025-live-latest-news-updates" target="_blank">praised </a>Machado as "a brave and committed champion of peace" struggling "to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” They also called her a symbol of civilian courage and "a beacon of hope for Latin America." Possibly sending a message to those of us facing growing autocracy, they affirmed the value of “keep(ing) the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness" and said she "has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.”International leaders praised Machado's "tireless struggle for freedom and democracy (that) has touched hearts and inspired millions"; the EU Commission's Ursula von der Leyen called the award a tribute to her courage and “every voice that refuses to be silenced.” She joins the ranks of other distinguished women honored in recent years for championing human rights, including Iran's Narges Mohammadi, Myanmar's Daw Aung San Suu Ky - both still imprisoned - Tawakkol Karman of Yemen and Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, joint recipients in 2011.Announcing this year's award, the Nobel Committee seemed to especially take note of and aim at the looming threat posed by Trump. "When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," they <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/articles/nobels-fredspris-2025-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote</a>. "Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended - with words, with courage, and with determination." (And, sometimes, blow-up animals costumes."Told the news before the announcement in an emotional, early morning call from Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Machado sounded shocked and tearful. "Oh my God, Oh my God," she repeatedly exclaimed. "I have no words." She quickly added, "I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this." Harpviken graciously assured her that both she and the movement did deserve the honor. <blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1976596971084247228">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/1976596971084247228"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>In grotesque contrast were the denizens and Narcissist-In-Chief of MAGA land, outraged the prize was not awarded to a racist, lying, vindictive despot who's busy threatening political opponents, ordering violent roundups of immigrants, deploying his military against cities whose leaders disagree with him, cracking down on dissent and undertaking <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjzw3gplv7o" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extrajudicial killings</a> of fishermen in the Caribbean who may not have done anything wrong while boasting about "ending" several imaginary wars and whining that not winning the award would be "a big insult to our country."Somehow, shamefully, some mainstream media took seriously Trump's longtime, petulant claim to deserve what many consider the world's most prestigious prize - for many, proof of how low American media have fallen during the reign of a guy who <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-explodes-over-brain-speculation-with-surprise-medical-check/#user-comments" target="_blank">still boasts </a>about his "perfect score" on a basic cognitive test that requires naming a camel and lion, who is arguably more likely to win a Heisman Trophy or Miss Teen U.S.A., and who now joins the estimable ranks of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Putinm, and "all the Kims" to rightly fail to win a Nobel.With discomfiting, possibly strategic generosity, Machado later <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/i-dedicate-nobel-peace-prize-to-trump-for-his-support-for-our-cause-says-venezuelas-maria-corina-machado-2801223-2025-10-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dedicated </a>her prize not only to "the suffering people of Venezuela," but to Trump for "his decisive support of our cause." Trump giddily twisted that mention into claims he'd “been helping her along the way,” she accepted the prize "in his honor," and he was "happy because I saved millions of lives." Still, MAGA officials and fans were pissed, and a White House statement charged the Committee "proved they place politics over peace" by rejecting Trump, who "has the heart of a humanitarian." Supporters called the decision "unbelievable," "a disgrace," "an utter joke," "woke bullshit." "They hand it to someone nobody's (aka I've) ever heard of," said one. "The prize is garbage now, a Crackerjacks prize." Right-wing activist Laura Loomer called the choice "an absolute joke." "Everyone knows President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize," she said. "More affirmative action nonsense." From The <a href="https://x.com/MAGAVoice/status/1976577061461561853" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MAGA Voice</a>: "Some random person that nobody knows... TRUMP COULD HAVE CURED CANCER" (if he hadn't halted cancer research.)"Dear Snobs, Accredited Clowns and TDS-driven socialists of the European elite," <a href="https://x.com/pcsadlercreutz" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote </a>one Sebastian Adlercreutz, whose bio reads, "No woke lefties...Jesus is my Lord." "You have yet again managed to turn the Nobel Peace Price into a worthless trinket." Several GOP Reps raged online: One argued, "The Nobel Peace Prize does not <a href="https://x.com/derrickvanorden/status/1976639272766587347" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">deserve </a>Trump," one proposed Congress give Dear Leader their own Nobel Peace Prize - it's unclear how that might work - and one <a href="https://x.com/claudiatenney/status/1976638191248581005" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thought </a>they should create their own Trump Peace and Prosperity Award as a sort of participation trophy."TOTAL FIX," <a href="https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220710667" target="_blank">fumed</a> a Truth Social post evidently from Trump. "Norway - a tiny country with expensive fjords and weak politicians - has the nerve to lecture AMERICA...Their leader (is) a LIBERAL lightweight and globalist puppet, a clowen in Oslo's palace, and his Nobel cronies are a disgrace." Announcing 100% tariffs on Norwegian goods, it charged "they RIGGEDED the nobel to embarass ME" and declared, "We will FIGHT. We will EXPOSE them. Norwegian Marxists will not humiliated AMERICA and get away with it!" Eventually, it turned out the post was a parody. We think.]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2025 03:09:43 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/a-beacon-of-hope-and-woke-bullshit</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/maria-corina-machado-gestures-during-a-january-protest-in-caracas.jpg?id=61737810&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Millions Of U.S. Children Could Go Hungry Next Week If Trump’s Shutdown Persists</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/millions-of-u-s-children-could-go-hungry-next-week-if-trumps-shutdown-persists</link><description><![CDATA[
Next week, should the government shutdown persist, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) could run out of funding, imperilling food access for 5.3 million children under the age of 5. This follows Trump’s July budget reconciliation bill, which stripped Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from more than 2 million vulnerable Americans.A <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/rb_2510_wic3/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new Food & Water Watch map</a> details where the most young children at risk of losing federal food assistance live, should the shutdown continue. After Puerto Rico, where a whopping 76% of children under age 5 rely on WIC food assistance, the top impacted states are: <ol start="1"><li>California – 38% of children under five rely on WIC for food assistance</li><li>New York – 35%</li><li>Delaware – 34%</li><li>North Carolina – 34%</li><li>Kentucky – 33%</li><li>West Virginia – 32%</li><li>Oregon – 32%</li><li>New Mexico – 32%</li><li>Georgia – 31%</li><li>Alabama – 31%</li><li>Vermont – 31%</li></ol> Congressional Democrats have proposed a short-term appropriations bill to fully fund WIC; Congressional Republicans’ proposal would keep funding flat, amounting to $600 million in cuts over the course of the year when accounting for rising inflation and grocery prices. President Trump announced this week that he would use tariff revenue to fund WIC benefits while debate continues; such a move is likely impossible without an act of Congress to appropriate the funds.Food & Water Watch Managing Director of Policy and Litigation Mitch Jones issued the following statement: <blockquote> “Trump and Congressional Republicans have driven America headfirst into a government shutdown. It is poor women and children who will feel the impacts first and worst. Congressional Republicans need to put food back on the table for struggling families by passing a bipartisan spending bill that protects food access.” </blockquote>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 19:10:02 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/millions-of-u-s-children-could-go-hungry-next-week-if-trumps-shutdown-persists</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Oxfam reaction to Gaza ceasefire deal</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/oxfam-reaction-to-gaza-ceasefire-deal</link><description><![CDATA[
Reacting to the announcement of the first stage of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, Oxfam International’s Executive Director Amitabh Behar said: “This is a desperately needed step towards ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We welcome the release of Israeli hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians. “This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel’s unlawful occupation and blockade. It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty. “The path forward must be Palestinian-led and rooted in the fulfilment of fundamental rights. Negotiations on Gaza’s future must go beyond bricks and mortar – they must restore the foundations of daily life, rebuild shattered communities and offer pathways to healing and hope. This must go hand-in-hand with Palestinian self-determination, with Palestinians leading the rebuilding and governance of Gaza, and shaping their own future across all occupied territory.“The ceasefire must immediately unlock full and unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza, supported by the international community ensuring that a sustainable ceasefire is upheld. “The international community must also ensure that Israel opens all crossings and allows aid and commercial goods to flow freely and safely at scale into every corner of the Strip. Humanitarian efforts must be UN-led and principled. “Israel’s deliberate use of starvation, forced displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure over the past two years must be investigated as crimes under international law and those responsible held to account. A ceasefire marks only the beginning. It stops the killing and must pave the way for the next phase: preparing the ground for a sustainable peace and genuine reconciliation. This process cannot succeed without justice and accountability at its core, to prevent impunity and ensure the cycle of violence is not repeated. “This moment must mark a shift toward an authentic, inclusive process grounded in human rights, equality, and dignity for all. World leaders must ensure that this ceasefire is upheld by all parties, that those who committed war crimes are investigated and prosecuted and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is upheld.” ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 18:46:44 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/oxfam-reaction-to-gaza-ceasefire-deal</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>CTU Denounces President Trump’s Targeting of Chicago’s Mayor</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ctu-denounces-president-trumps-targeting-of-chicagos-mayor</link><description><![CDATA[
In response to Donald Trump calling for the arrest of Brandon Johnson, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates cited the <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.v92pwawuJ-Tgw-w_8VW1EhXFnQfaPM2jOWwh5uAsrgglridUdeIIH_vnCJ-bIbx1AqC4uRlA0DEKVq2kILg-YX1Gbd_lx1eijaveg-KkZl3ucxLUTWkkb6iSuRTymoL_J3lZwbs9kxRRDcOjedu_t2THAOMgJ00BwO7Z50jwokj0adkvlxk1bFH7_aESIvoT_QKKS9xMeDGjwYdLS3T0ejWD8A8c83FrcMjsYYosaJ69MrFOjISvpAY2p9qTG0JGvAgMrSTz4sNY6ln9XSvLivf_0gwDNKuEqp4EYVYj2Q2oytPKfv6mlOxHemegrRI4Ia1eDYLTG3QqQLxhWO7T27TXG8wnQXAYA8m6NMVcfU-tL9sLwN9JISGClsxMWzYrUkRKBzZocHZ_yMlkKjsfSw/4kk/Tuu4JUejQEq7oSna-GpngA/h2/h001.UJ3u9UibYot5MFWcgYww92PG066x2kfpPSXuNhMs2Rk" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">city’s 1850 council resolution calling on local police to not aid and abet fugitive slave patrols</a>, and denounced Trump’s targeting, claiming it is making everyone less safe.“A hundred and seventy five years after Chicago passed resolutions refusing to aid and abet fugitive slave patrols, we have a mayor who is taking every step to once again protect Chicagoans from lawless capture and we have a sitting President who is attacking him for it. Sen. Stephen Douglas denounced Chicago for refusing to support the agents deployed to take away Chicagoans’ liberties and Trump is doing the same today. Our democratically-elected mayor is making our city safer by keeping a bright line between local government and the lawless invasion of our city being carried out at the order of the President. He should be celebrated and protected for it. Whether Trump is in his right mind and intentionally shredding the constitution or is unwell mentally, his newest level of attack on our city and our elected mayor is more evidence that he is unfit for office and must be stopped.”]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 19:10:57 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ctu-denounces-president-trumps-targeting-of-chicagos-mayor</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>As Feds Move to Charge Uber Driver for Some LA Fires, Prosecutors Fail to Hold Fossil Fuel Companies Accountabile</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/as-feds-move-to-charge-uber-driver-for-some-la-fires-prosecutors-fail-to-hold-fossil-fuel-companies-accountabile</link><description><![CDATA[
Federal prosecutors today charged Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknech with setting a fire on New Year’s Eve 2024 that eventually grew to devastate the Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades. The fire, which was initially contained by the Los Angeles Fire Department after burning 7 acres, rekindled itself as a windstorm blowing across the Santa Ana Mountains drove the fire into the community. At the time of the fires, Southern California was in the middle of the <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rC-2FTtiJbWXiDaAfGvZCDN9Q3KaynQ4iBZ55Pe2t2lMAVFrSpc_ciJuXYfraQrmEXzxHGEcWNeiZKy7tdzQawxB4GG8-2FLPyhKWA4iiF6MSH6OJ2-2BUNtBAHsM9WPS35FVKJVmFTjW3m2IwgUo3u6HhitOgrMHtKgCE9epr3PLoQ3Dbn013y3I9elwaC3-2FG6RkyNqpDLVFfPF2dREwnzgL-2FxH6Qm7HNBMflqYQ0go8qLYSAaK4vNmK-2FnFEMFZnVBx47XtL0HFsH0u-2FLmZ0mY4Ox5If2jsNFUZ-2BJSdyYMVsturB7N6j347PEzoG-2BsNq4o-2B5bmAgbY1co6TXsWydDqp0Jdkz08JgpKo4XFUfDIkskLPySd6XXp4CWz8wIzx8LQHV7uxVdEEvg-3D-3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">driest 9-month period in over 150 years</a>. In response, Aaron Regunberg, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project, issued the following statement: “The person who lit a spark that turned into the horrific Los Angeles fires should face accountability for their recklessness. But let’s be clear—that spark wasn’t the most impactful cause of those fires. “A fire not only requires a spark, but the tinder to fuel the flames. What created the fuel that turned a spark into the catastrophe that destroyed lives and homes across the region in January was climate change, which drove the reduced rainfall, dried out vegetation, and increasing overlap between flammable drought conditions and Santa Ana winds that caused the conditions for the firestorm. “These climate effects were the direct, foreseeable—and, in fact, foreseen—consequences of a small number of fossil fuel companies that knowingly generated a huge portion of all the greenhouse gas emissions that caused these fire conditions, and fraudulently deceived the public to block and delay solutions that could have ameliorated this catastrophe. If prosecutors want to hold the actors who are responsible for this disaster to account, they should also be pursuing these Big Oil companies.”]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 19:06:57 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/as-feds-move-to-charge-uber-driver-for-some-la-fires-prosecutors-fail-to-hold-fossil-fuel-companies-accountabile</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Student and Worker Leaders Plan Coordinated Campus Protests As Outrage Builds Against Trump’s Proposed “Compact”</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/student-and-worker-leaders-plan-coordinated-campus-protests-as-outrage-builds-against-trumps-proposed-compact</link><description><![CDATA[
In recent days, outrage has erupted on campuses across the country after nine universities received the Trump administration’s demand to sign his ‘loyalty oath’ compact. It would grant the Trump administration sweeping power over who schools admit, what they teach and research, and what students are safe on campus. Students and educators are denouncing it as an unprecedented assault on academic freedom. Students and workers at the affected universities have already gathered thousands of petition signatures urging administrators to reject the compact. Student governments and faculty senates are introducing resolutions condemning the deal. Student and worker leaders are planning coordinated campus protests in the coming weeks to maintain pressure, such as petition deliveries, teach-ins, and class walkouts. “By signing this compact, UVA would be selling out its most vulnerable populations of students: international students, transgender students, and students of color, and compromising its foundational principles of independence, truth-seeking, and democracy. If Interim President Paul Mahoney chooses to sign, he’ll be showing that how UVA chooses to operate can be bought and sold by the Trump administration, which threatens the very core of what our institution stands for,” said Kelsey Levine, a student at the University of Virginia. “In this crucial moment, everyone in this country who believes in the value of education must stand up against Trump's attempts to coerce loyalty oaths from American colleges and universities", said Todd Wolfson, President of The American Association of University Professors. This corrupt bribery attempt would usher in a new draconian era of thought policing in American higher education, cripple our technological innovation capacity, and assault our very democracy. Now is the time to resist". "This compact does not seek to create or advance academic excellence – it seeks to destroy any semblance of it. It is starting with nine colleges and universities, but we know that this is just the beginning of this latest escalation in this administration's continuous attacks on higher education. Workers, students, campus community members across this great country are coming together to fight for a higher education system that actually works for all -- one that is affordable, strengthens freedom and democracy, and stands up to its public mission,” said Evan Bowman, Vice Chair of Higher Ed Labor United. External protests and pressure will continue to build over the coming weeks as university administrators weigh whether to approve or deny the compact.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 17:28:49 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/student-and-worker-leaders-plan-coordinated-campus-protests-as-outrage-builds-against-trumps-proposed-compact</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Sierra Club Endorses Zohran Mamdani for New York City Mayor</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-endorses-zohran-mamdani-for-new-york-city-mayor</link><description><![CDATA[
Today, the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, announced its endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City, citing his strong record of standing up to fossil fuel interests, his work to lower emissions and grow the city’s clean energy footprint, and his push to lower costs for families–a central pillar of his campaign for mayor.“Throughout his time in elected office, Zohran Mamdani has been a champion of protecting the environment and public health, and his vision for New York City is centered on achieving both of those goals by expanding access to clean energy—the most effective way to lower costs and protect New Yorkers,” said Karl Palmquist, Chair of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter’s New York City Group. “When Sierra Club members and supporters took up a critical fight to protect Astoria and its residents from expanded fracked gas plants, it was Assemblymember Mamdani standing shoulder-to-shoulder with us in the streets and in community meetings. He’s ready to fight for us because he’s been fighting for us, and we look forward to electing Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor.”The organization previously endorsed Mamdani in his 2024 race for assembly.“Zohran Mamdani has taken on the utilities and fought back rate hikes, stood up to corporate polluters, and led the charge for the expansion of public renewables,” said Loren Blackford, Sierra Club Executive Director. “Time and again, as a candidate and an elected leader, Zohran has worked to put our people and our planet first. On behalf of the thousands of our members and supporters here in my home city of New York, the Sierra Club is proud to endorse Zohran Mamdani in his campaign for mayor.”The New York City mayoral election will take place on Tuesday, November 4, and early voting runs from October 25 through Sunday November 2. The Sierra Club urges all voters to make a plan to cast their ballot. For more information on how to get involved with the campaign, visit <a href="http://zohranfornyc.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">zohranfornyc.com</a>.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:29:47 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-endorses-zohran-mamdani-for-new-york-city-mayor</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Sierra Club Blasts Report of "Concierge, White Glove Service” for Fossil Fuel Companies</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-blasts-report-of-concierge-white-glove-service-for-fossil-fuel-companies</link><description><![CDATA[
A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/07/white-house-fossil-fuel-concierge/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report from the Washington Post</a> yesterday, detailed the lengths to which the Trump administration is catering to fossil fuel companies, offering “concierge, white glove” service for executives looking to circumvent environmental and safety reviews. This news comes at a time when Donald Trump is blocking more affordable, clean energy options, like wind and solar, in the name of a sham energy emergency. In response, Sierra Club Director of Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy Mahyar Sorour issued the following statement: “The reality of fossil fuel companies getting white glove, concierge service from the Trump administration would be comical if it weren’t so sinister. During the election, Trump told oil and gas executives that he would clear the way for more production without any safeguards if they gave his campaign a billion dollars - they did and now Trump is blocking clean energy and giving the oil and gas industry immense handouts in return. Fossil fuel companies make obscene amounts of money on the backs of the American people while pumping our air and water with dangerous, cancer-causing pollutants and denying any responsibility. The Trump administration is rolling out the red carpet for the polluters and tearing down any semblance of guardrails to protect people and keep energy affordable.”]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:28:34 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-blasts-report-of-concierge-white-glove-service-for-fossil-fuel-companies</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>EWG analysis finds farm emissions from fertilizing ‘continuous corn’ crops fueling climate crisis</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ewg-analysis-finds-farm-emissions-from-fertilizing-continuous-corn-crops-fueling-climate-crisis</link><description><![CDATA[
Fertilizing massive “continuous corn” crops across the Midwest is a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions, <a href="https://www.ewg.org/research/fertilizing-huge-corn-crops-releases-greenhouse-gases-conservation-practices-can-help?auHash=tNS_q4zP2bRWcJ0ARxRm8aD018Y8QvDb1dWN5zLerLQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a new Environmental Working Group analysis shows</a>. But proven conservative practices could dramatically cut farming’s contribution to climate change.The new report, focused on four Corn Belt states, draws extensively on cropland and climate data from the Agriculture Department. It highlights the outsize climate toll of continuous corn – when farmers grow corn on the same field year after year. Nearly 15 million acres in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are planted this way, representing one-fifth of all cropland across those states.Corn is the most nitrogen-fertilizer-intensive crop in the U.S. and accounts for more than two-thirds of all nitrogen fertilizer use nationwide. Nitrogen fertilizer is applied to crops and interactions in the soil turn it into nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas roughly 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Agriculture produces nearly 80% of all nitrous oxide emissions in the U.S., four times more than all other sectors combined. Applying nitrogen fertilizer to continuous corn crops also leads to nitrate pollution of drinking water. Drinking tap water contaminated with nitrate can increase the risk of health harms, including several types of cancer.“Continuous corn locks farmers into a system that demands enormous amounts of fertilizer and creates climate emissions,” said <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/our-experts/anne-schechinger" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anne Schechinger</a>, EWG’s Midwest director and lead author of the report. “But even modest investments in regenerative conservation practices could help farmers shrink agriculture’s climate footprint while protecting drinking water and public health,” she said.<h3>Small investments for big payoff</h3>Nitrous oxide emissions account for 52% of U.S. agricultural greenhouse gases. Corn production alone generates more than half of agriculture’s nitrous oxide emissions.Overall, U.S. agriculture is responsible for roughly 10% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions from all economic sectors. With climate change intensifying, farmers are under mounting pressure to shrink their greenhouse gas footprint and keep agriculture from overtaking other sectors as the nation’s top source of climate pollution. Projections show farm-related emissions rising by roughly 0.25% annually through 2050.EWG’s analysis finds that adopting just four proven conservation practices on a small fraction of continuous corn acres could yield major climate benefits.The practices are riparian forest buffers, tree or shrub establishment, hedgerow planting and windbreak establishment. Implementing each practice on just 1% of continuous corn acres across the four Corn Belt states would cut total greenhouse gas emissions from those acres by 3.67 million metric tons every year. That’s equivalent to taking more than 850,000 gas-guzzling cars off the road.“These are relatively small changes with outsized impacts,” said <a href="https://www.ewg.org/who-we-are/our-team/al-rabine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Al Rabine</a>, EWG GIS analyst and co-author of the report. “Planting trees or shrubs along the edges of cornfields can sequester carbon, cut nitrous oxide emissions, and reduce water pollution – a triple win for farmers, communities and the climate.”The report also highlights the climate benefits of working lands practices that allow farmers to keep entire fields in production, such as adopting no-till, using cover crops, switching to different fertilizer types and diversifying crop rotations.<h3>Beyond emissions, drinking water is at risk</h3>EWG’s analysis shows that fertilizer use on continuous corn doesn’t just fuel climate change – it also contaminates drinking water. Nitrate pollution, a byproduct of fertilizer runoff and leaching to water, has been linked to cancers and birth defects. In regions like southeast Minnesota, where karst soils allow contaminants to easily seep into groundwater, nitrate in private well water already poses serious health risks.<a href="https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/reviewed-nitrate.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EWG’s Tap Water Database</a>, updated in February, shows the extent of nitrate drinking water contamination in the U.S. Tap water systems in agricultural areas often have the highest nitrate concentrations. Private drinking water wells can also have unsafe levels of nitrate, especially when near animal farms and intensively fertilized fields, or where septic tanks are used.The Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 set a limit of 10 milligrams per liter for nitrate in drinking water. The agency has never updated this limit, despite it being decades old. Epidemiological research suggests that the EPA’s nitrate limit does not sufficiently protect public health from cancer risks.<h3>Policy reforms needed</h3>Some farmers are adopting <a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2025/09/beware-misleading-regenerative-claims-food" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">regenerative practices</a>, which generally refers to efforts that aim to improve soil health and that might have climate benefits.EWG’s report stresses that, even with those efforts, far more crop acres must be put into conservation – and quickly. That requires reforms to federal and state farm programs.The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act initially boosted funding for climate-smart conservation practices. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted in July, stripped all climate-smart designations. As a result, additional federal funding to farmers will no longer prioritize practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.EWG recommends updating federal programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to:<ul><li>Prioritize practices proven to cut greenhouse gas emissions</li><li>Cover up to 90% of costs for legitimate regenerative practices</li><li>Support longer-term contracts with farmers, between three to five years, ensuring conservation measures stay in place over time</li></ul>Changes to federal farm subsidies could also encourage farmers to diversify crop rotations instead of planting continuous corn year after year.<h3>Key findings</h3>Some of the most important findings from the report:<ul><li>Fifteen million acres in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are used for continuous corn, representing 20% of harvested cropland.</li><li>Continuous corn requires massive nitrogen fertilizer use, fueling greenhouse gas emissions, including from nitrous oxide, that contribute to climate change.</li><li>Nitrous oxide is 273 times more potent than the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and stays in the atmosphere for over 100 years.</li><li>Adopting key conservation practices on just 4% of continuous corn acres total in these four states could cut greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 850,000 cars annually from the road.</li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:27:42 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ewg-analysis-finds-farm-emissions-from-fertilizing-continuous-corn-crops-fueling-climate-crisis</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump Administration Doubles Down on Safety of Cancer-Linked Atrazine</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trump-administration-doubles-down-on-safety-of-cancer-linked-atrazine</link><description><![CDATA[
The Trump U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/endangered-species/biological-opinions-available-public-comment-links-final-opinions-and-links" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> that the widely used pesticide atrazine does not pose an extinction risk to a single protected animal or plant, despite widespread contamination of the nation’s rivers, lakes and streams.Tuesday’s announcement echoes recent events: Tough rhetoric on the dangers of atrazine in the initial Make America Healthy Again Commission’s report was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/05/maha-report-agriculture-lobby/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">replaced</a> with industry talking points in the follow-up report following outcry and heavy lobbying by corporate agriculture.The Environmental Protection Agency’s initial assessment of atrazine in 2020 found that it was <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-widely-used-pesticide-atrazine-likely-harms-more-1000-endangered-species-2020-11-05/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">likely to harm</a> more than 1,000 imperiled species.“This announcement is an absolute joke,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “You’d have an easier time convincing me that the government isn’t really shut down than persuading me that atrazine isn’t putting a single endangered species at risk of extinction.”The Fish and Wildlife Service’s draft assessment mainly finds that mitigations already proposed by the EPA are sufficient to prevent atrazine-induced extinction of endangered species.Yet a Center <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-urged-to-ban-cancer-linked-atrazine-kill-biden-era-plan-2025-01-30/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">analysis</a> submitted to the Trump administration found that the EPA’s plan would still allow harmful levels of atrazine in more than 11,000 U.S. watersheds, which encompass about one-eighth of the entire landmass of the continental United States.“Despite rhetoric to the contrary, there is no better friend of atrazine than the Trump administration,” said Donley. “Hiding behind the rhetoric of MAHA, a poison that’s likely to keep Americans sick for generations is moving forward full steam.”Under the first Trump administration, the EPA <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-scraps-protections-children-pesticide-linked-birth-defects-cancer-2020-09-18/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">discarded</a> safety protections that were in place to protect young children from atrazine.Atrazine, which is <a href="https://pan-international.org/pan-international-consolidated-list-of-banned-pesticides/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">banned</a> in 60 countries, is the second most <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pnsp/usage/maps/show_map.php?year=2019&map=ATRAZINE&hilo=L&disp=Atrazine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">widely used</a> pesticide in the United States and one of the nation’s most controversial and widespread pesticide water contaminants. It is a known hormone-disrupting pesticide linked to <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818361" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">birth defects</a>, multiple <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10880817/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cancers</a>, and fertility problems like <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/epdf/10.1289/ehp.6417" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">low sperm quality</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22000761/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">irregular menstrual cycles</a>.The EPA is reassessing the safety of atrazine because that is required every 15 years for each EPA-approved pesticide.The Fish and Wildlife Service’s draft assessment stems from a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/court-orders-trump-fish-and-wildlife-service-to-protect-endangered-species-from-atrazine-chlorpyrifos-three-other-toxic-pesticides-2025-03-13/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legal agreement</a> with the Center. The agreement ordered the agency to complete steps to reduce harm to endangered species by finalizing biological opinions for atrazine and simazine by March 31, 2026.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:21:49 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trump-administration-doubles-down-on-safety-of-cancer-linked-atrazine</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Untethered To the Facts</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/untethered-to-the-facts</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-terrorist-portland-frog-faces-off-against-troops.jpg?id=61722899&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=479%2C0%2C479%2C0"/> Armed terrorism by the White House escalates - What stage of fascism is it when the fuhrer defies the courts to send in troops anyway? - as does the batshit rhetoric about left-wing "terrorism" to hide their own, the fever dream agitprop to buttress the fantasy, and the deranged push for retribution against dissent, by anyone. "Trump has pardons and tanks - what do you have?" asks one troubled patriot. We the people, righteous judges, Portland's frog, Pritzker's rage, D.C. wiseguys' revived pedo besties - and the facts.Two months ago, the United States made the Human Rights Watch list for the first time in 249 years; rights advocates <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/30/us..." target="_blank">cited</a> a nation "sliding deeper into the quicksands of authoritarianism" with peaceful protests met with military force, critics treated as criminals, journalists targeted, and support slashed for civil society. Despite a core principle that America's military not be turned against fellow citizens, they noted, we've seen an invasion of ill-trained, hyped-up ICE thugs - and now presumably more professional National Guard - representing an ominous "line that democratically elected leaders aren’t meant to cross.” Add to that a vengeful, demented manchild <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/406e0299-d552-4dff-b64f-2a009449d9c3?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">raving </a>about "the enemy within" making bad, lethal decisions based on fake tee vee news - "Portland is burning to the ground...All you have to do (is) turn on your television" - and it's clear, says Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, "The only threat we face is to our democracy - and it is being led by President Trump."That threat got worse Monday as Trump, who's long been keen to sic the troops on us all, suggested he's open to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-insurrecti..." target="_blank">invoking </a>the Insurrection Act "to put down future civil unrest," aka continue inventing fake crises to "bulldoze what's left of constitutional restraints" in an "unhinged despotism" free of pesky democratic guardrails. For now, he and his rabid flunkies - cue Press Barbie vowing he'll "end the radical left reign of terror in Portland once and for all" - settled for embarking on a witless weekend "game of whack-a-mole,” frantically conspiring to send National Guard troops from whatever state they could get away with it to whatever city they decided "needs a little terrorizing," a brazen end-run around the ruling by Trump-appointed Oregon Judge Karin Immergut, who he whined "lost her way" by blocking the deployment of Oregon troops to Portland after arguing his characterization of "a burning hellhole," which he's never visited, was "simply untethered to the facts."So okay, they figured, we'll send 300 troops from California, a cool two-fer against mouthy Newsom, who swiftly called the move "a breathtaking abuse of the law and power," and sued. Immergut was not amused: "How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she <a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-guard-oregon-california-trump-newsom-3b8e12f8d2d39f195dda73dda31f1681" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">asked</a>, politely noting the move "appears (intended) to circumvent" her ruling. After learning the regime was already looking to send 400 Guard members from Texas (Albania was their next choice), she called bullshit, cited Oregon police reports that protests were small and subdued - "8 to 15 people, mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around" - and blocked "deployment, reassignment or relocation" from any state, given "neither the facts on the ground (nor) the claimed legal base for the deployments had changed." Damn, irksome facts again. Still, Stephen Miller called the ruling a "legal insurrection.”And, really, when you <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOQu4zQqiOY" target="_blank">look at </a>the Portland protests, it's understandable. While a handful of people have peaceably gathered - and sometimes done the<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPUafiqjA0R/" target="_blank"> cha cha </a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPUafiqjA0R/">cha </a>- on the legal side of a blue line outside the largely tranquil ICE facility since June, their forces often <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOQu4zQqiOY" target="_blank">included</a> the terrorist, blow-up Portland Frog, who In one recent tussle was pepper-sprayed in their vent by infuriated ICE agents. Now, the stalwart spicy Frog is back; asked about the assault in an interview, they cheerfully dismissed it with, "I kinda coughed a bit, but that was about it...Just a little pepper - I've tasted spicier." At that point, a phalanx of ICE thugs emerged together and pointlessly fired off clouds of teargas toward the handful of protesters; the Frog danced and sang, "You put your left foot in..." As the troops carefully, ridiculously backed away, the protesters yelled, "Fucking losers" and "We're supposed to love each other." The Frog kept dancing. He also <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xyhqoefra64tzimlsqx3mepp/post/3m2ijv2ufz22e?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fdigbysblog.net%252F" target="_blank">shimmied.</a> Truly a burning hellhole.Having failed in their attempts to liberate Portland, the regime turned its sights on equally offensively blue Chicago, where 400 Texas National Guard members are being <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-national-guard-hea.." target="_blank">deployed </a>despite the opposition of Gov. JB Pritzker, who vowed, "Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting." The action comes a week after hundreds of ICE agents <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/immigration-ag..." target="_blank">staged </a>a draconian,<a href="https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/welcome-to-the-era-of-kavanaugh-raids" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> jack-booted </a>raid on a South Side apartment building - Pritzker: "They are the ones making it a war zone" - rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters, tossing smoke bombs, busting down doors, zip-tying sleepy residents, including crying naked children and U.S. citizens. Later, ICE Barbie<a href="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/Ef9am7iV" target="_blank"> released</a> a histrionic, Call-of-Duty-esque video, martial music pounding, presumably to <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1973796727615598738" target="_blank">showcase </a>their heroism in the face of terrified children. Text on one version threatened, "To every criminal illegal alien: Darkness is no longer your ally. We will find you." A second one read, "Chicago, we’re here for you.”<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1974443512017178924">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/1974443512017178924"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Maybe because even some of the regime's sociopaths have a discomfiting sense they're on the wrong side of history and feel the need to compensate - or because, per Patriot Takes, it's "a complete <a href="https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1973449497218035897" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">clown show</a>" - their weird, incendiary agitprop keeps coming. A baffling meme <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1974253107983855729" target="_blank">show</a>s race cars on a track that promises, "Victory is within reach. Recapture our national identity." Say what? A collage of Democratic leaders, including Biden, <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trump-shares-meme-ca..." target="_blank">proclaims, </a>“THE PARTY OF HATE, EVIL, AND SATAN.” Oregon Republicans posted a flashy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/06/or..." target="_blank">image </a>of rows of police riot shields against a smoke-filled, blood-red night sky to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/oregonrepublicanparty/posts/pfbid022PFtHyDvS2uPkTSKKXb12T1ptcU3AQAAN7J7nmXVciQN8HCze1PTTDNaKM1NELktl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">celebrate </a>Trump saving "burning-to-the-ground" Portland with California troops, except he was blocked because it was illegal and didn't, and the image is fabricated, combining two earlier, real-life photographs in South America, nearly a decade apart, of riot police in Ecuador and Brazil respectively.Still, nothing approaches the awful - the inhumane, the sadistic, the sick - of Kristi Noem's Homeland Security's obscenities, which keep proliferating. Ever since her grotesque performance before an El Salvador prison cell packed with unfortunates - which led to <a href="https://religiondispatches.org/dont-take-the-bait-..." target="_blank">charges </a>of her "sadistic eroticization of power" - and echoing her famed, makeup-slathered photo-ops - Barbie firefighter, Barbie cow-girl, Barbie-fake-ICE-agent-holding-a-gun-aimed-at-her-colleague's head - she's seemed to revel in the theatrical glitz of a once-pedestrian job, turning every atrocity into a chintzy action movie. In that, shamelessness is her super power: She seems so proud of her Chicago assault on an apartment building of sleeping families she keeps returning to it. One eerie new video<a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1975629857775341895" target="_blank"> mixes </a>scenes from it with other arrests as singers declare, "We''re having an All Night Revival." Another shows multiple heroic thugs seizing their victims with the text, "Bag it. Tag It. Take it down." Yes: human beings.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1975623769357193478">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/1975623769357193478"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Then there's the <a href="https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/grim-reapers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cruel insanity </a><a href="https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/grim-reapers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a>of an AI<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MqCRuFkls" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> video</a> using Blue Oyster Cult's “<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115307915499158903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Don’t Fear the Reaper" </a>to portray Project 2025's Russell Vought as the government shutdown's Grim Reaper declaring, "Now their time has come...Here comes the reaper....He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain" as Trump plays cowbell and Vance plays drums in their deathly band. It also features presumably DOGEd or furloughed federal workers - fraud, waste, and abuse all - as zombies hurtling past an unemployment office, and Democrats speaking as so much, "Blah blah blah blah." Veterans of the U.S. national security community, part of The Steady State: "A president posting a video depicting his opponents as prey for the Grim Reaper and zombies outside the unemployment office is the opposite of what we expect in a healthy democracy.” George Conway: "We elected a pathology."Along with weird cosplay, we also elected a party of brazen, relentless liars. Facing anger over the shutdown and spiking health insurance costs, MAGA Mike announces he'll "look right into the camera" and tell you the GOP is "working around the clock every day to fix health care" when, in fact, he sent the House home until Oct. 14 and they're cutting CHIP and Medicaid. <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m2mhejg3kn2f?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">Armed </a>with canned attacks, a bellicose, amnesiac Pam Bondi just <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/pam-bondi-adam-schiff" target="_blank">lied and blustered </a>through four hours of testimony. Trump told sailors "we will get our service members every last penny" (not) during a shutdown he blamed on Democrats, randomly posted: "JUST OUT: Good news for the holiday season. EARLY PRICES ARE DOWN," though they don't exist, with "NO INFLATION," and told reporters, "You have Black women with MAGA hats on in Chicago. All over the place. They want the Guard to come in." <blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@independent/video/7556963963825671456" class="tiktok-embed" data-video-id="7556963963825671456">
<section>
<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@independent" target="_blank" title="@independent">@independent</a>
Donald Trump stars in a Grim Reaper-themed AI-generated video posted to his Truth Social account mocking Democrats. The clip features a cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", with Russell Vought portrayed as the mythological character. It came as the president threatened to use a temporary lapse in government funding to enact permanent cuts to the federal workforce as a way to punish workers at agencies he believes are staffed by people who did not vote for him or his party. Click the link in bio for more 🔗 #DonaldTrump #AI #USNews #news
</section>
</blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script> Elsewhere, America pushes back. In Chicago, Gov. Pritzker <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/c6ef7892-0355-41e4-897c-dc4d9af93f9f?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">declared, </a>“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion.” Citing armed, "rogue, reckless" goons roaming the city, Mayor Brandon Johnson <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/chicago-mayor-creates-ice-free-zones-to-block-raids-by-rogue-arrest-teams/" target="_blank">established </a>"ICE free zones" that forbid them from using city-owned land as staging areas: "If Congress won’t check this administration, Chicago will." On the South Side, residents and passersby honked, hassled, wrestled and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/reel/787647540541067" target="_blank">ran off </a>- "Get the fuck outta here" - a couple of ICE thugs trying to detain a guy. In New York, the Bar Association <a href="https://www.nycbar.org/press-releases/unlawful-attacks-on-venezuelan-vessels/" target="_blank">vowed </a>to legally pursue regime officials justifying attacks on Venezulean boats that constitute "illegal summary execution," or "murder." In D.C, The Secret Handshake <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5561891/trump..." target="_blank">resurrected </a>their prancing Epstein/Trump statue "to stand gloriously on the National Mall"; when a second permit was suddenly, temporarily revoked before they got their third, the group released <a href="https://www.thesecrethandshake.com/thefiles" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3D-printable versions</a> of the statue online.In a searing, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282460/gov.uscourts.mad.282460.261.0_1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">161-page ruling,</a> District Judge William Young, an 85-year-old Reagan appointee, <a href="https://www.lawdork.com/p/judge-william-youngs-rul..." target="_blank">blasted</a> the regime for violating the 1st Amendment rights of pro-Palestinian and other protesters, charging they targeted a few people for speaking out and then used "the full rigor" of immigration laws to deport those few and silence others; Young specifically slammed "the President’s palpable misunderstanding" that he cannot simply "seek retribution for speech he disdains." Marcy Wheeler <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtenEblLYo0&t=91s" target="_blank">reminded</a> listeners that, "The main scene of crime in Washington, D.C. is the White House,” that Vance, Miller, Noem, Patel, Bondi are all "working hard to paint Trump opponents as violent terrorists to distract from the crimes they're committing (as) part of a criminal conspiracy" run by Trump, "a career criminal." At Public Notice, Lisa Needham echoed her: "The terrorism is coming from inside the government." And someone, somewhere, flipping the GOP's florid AI script,<a href="https://x.com/EastEndJoe/status/1973933418166800560" target="_blank"> made</a> this paean to resistance.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1973933418166800560">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/EastEndJoe/status/1973933418166800560"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 04:30:42 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/untethered-to-the-facts</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-terrorist-portland-frog-faces-off-against-troops.jpg?id=61722899&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Administration’s own guidance affirms sidelined workers are owed backpay, AFGE says</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/administrations-own-guidance-affirms-sidelined-workers-are-owed-backpay-afge-says</link><description><![CDATA[
American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley issued the following statement in response to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/07/trump-memo-furloughed-federal-workers-backpay" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a report</a> that the White House is considering withholding the backpay of federal employees furloughed due to the government shutdown:“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law. It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over.“As we’ve said before, the livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game. It’s long past time for these attacks on federal employees to stop and for Congress to come together, resolve their differences, and end this shutdown.”]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:18:08 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/administrations-own-guidance-affirms-sidelined-workers-are-owed-backpay-afge-says</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>ACLU to Federal Appeals Court: White House Retaliation Against Disfavored Reporters Puts U.S. in Dangerous Company</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/aclu-to-federal-appeals-court-white-house-retaliation-against-disfavored-reporters-puts-u-s-in-dangerous-company</link><description><![CDATA[
Warning that retaliation against the press is a tactic that “belongs to a society much different and more oppressive than our own,” the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of the District of Columbia filed a brief late last night in support of the Associated Press in their lawsuit against the Trump administration.The brief supports the AP’s claim that the White House violated the First Amendment when it restricted the AP’s access to official events because the outlet refused to adopt the administration’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The brief argues that incursions on free expression, left unchecked, frequently lead to greater repression, as demonstrated by American history and the modern experience of other nations, and the brief catalogues the Trump administration’s alarming campaign of retaliation against dissenting voices.“Attacking a free press is a key play in the autocracy playbook, as we have seen around the world in recent years,” said Scott Michelman, legal director at the ACLU of D.C. “When countries like Hungary and the Philippines have regressed from democracy toward autocracy, the punishment of journalists critical of the ruling party has been a harbinger of worse to come. By punishing the AP for refusing to parrot the administration’s worldview, Trump is taking a step down a dangerous road. The First Amendment exists to block any incursion against press freedom, and we are asking the court to heed the lessons of our own history and of world history by enforcing the First Amendment here.”In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” When the Associated Press chose not to use the new moniker, the White House retaliated by barring the AP’s reporters from participating in the press pool in the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One. The news organization filed suit in February and was granted reinstatement by a federal judge in April. Part of the judge’s decision was temporarily stayed by a panel of the D.C. Circuit.“The president cannot punish a press outlet for its choice of words,” said Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The White House press pool guarantees the public’s timely access to important information about the president and the executive branch. If the president can banish any media outlet that refuses to parrot the administration’s talking points, the American public will hear exclusively from sycophants and stenographers.”Participation in the White House press pool is historically managed by the White House Correspondents Association, and the president has not in recent history had the power to remove individual outlets based on the content of their coverage.The AP’s suit, Associated Press v. Budowich, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It is currently before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the ACLU and the ACLU of D.C. filed the amicus late Monday. Related Documents <ul><li><a href="https://www.aclu.org/documents/ap-v-budowich-amicus-brief" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP v. Budowich Amicus Brief</a></li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:15:25 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/aclu-to-federal-appeals-court-white-house-retaliation-against-disfavored-reporters-puts-u-s-in-dangerous-company</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Hearing Watch: Will AG Pam Bondi Own Up To Her Conflicts of Interest?</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/hearing-watch-will-ag-pam-bondi-own-up-to-her-conflicts-of-interest</link><description><![CDATA[
This morning, <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BvfnbNkKp9AnZtI5JVY2zZE=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=" corporate lobbyist ">corporate lobbyist </a>turned U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BoeiDLr1SmZsPJ03vvRe4cE=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">faces</a> Senate Judiciary Committee questioning for the first time since her confirmation. The hearing <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BgLyjCaw2DHFdKhHR8m3tAs=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comes as</a> “[m]ore than 275 former Justice Department employees are demanding Congress increase oversight of the department following a mass exodus of career officials who question the integrity of the department's work.” Beyond these concerns from former colleagues over Bondi’s unwillingness to put the constitution above her loyalty to President Donald Trump, the Attorney General has also validated concerns raised in January over her inability to put the public interest before her former lobbying clients and wealthy friends. During Bondi’s confirmation process, government watchdog Accountable.US <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BvGVSILiEZB7uA5atJxjxZk=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">revealed</a> that at least five of Bondi’s direct lobbying clients have faced DOJ fines, investigations, or related scrutiny that could pose serious conflicts should they have business before Bondi’s DOJ. Bondi’s clients included Amazon, General Motors, The GEO Group, Uber, and Major League Baseball.Now, in her first months as Attorney General, Bondi’s lobbying work continues to pose a wide variety of conflict of interest concerns, <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BmMET8tKsZ0PrSlvidjQtoc=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an Accountable.US review found</a>—with Ballard Partners seeing a surge in DOJ lobbying work since her confirmation; with Bondi’s DOJ scuttling a major antitrust challenge in favor of a new Ballard Partners client; and with Bondi’s DOJ facing a lawsuit over a memo she signed allowing Trump to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar, who she represented while at Ballard Partners. “In her eight months as Attorney General, Pam Bondi has confirmed all warnings about her treating the office as an enforcer for Donald Trump’s personal whims while also acting as a walking conflict of interest for her former lobbying firm and clients,” said <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Bp0NB9HCyjAbXy175DNkGdw=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Accountable.US</a> Executive Director Tony Carrk. “It says it all that the former Qatar lobbyist Bondi penned a DOJ memo – i.e. corruption ‘get out of jail free card’ – allowing Donald Trump to use a gifted luxury super jet from the nation he’s doing billions of dollars in crypto business with during and after his presidency. During her first Senate hearing, will Bondi answer for all these sweetheart deals she’s supporting for the President and former lobbying clients while millions of working Americans are asked to choose between a continued government shutdown or losing their health care?” <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BvmfVD7ntqy6KvghC0anhHo=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">HERE’S HOW BONDI’S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE ALREADY COMPROMISING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC INTEREST</a>: <ul><li> Since Pamela Bondi became Attorney General, Ballard Partners has become “<a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BnObom-L3hI1zZlGAPX9sEI=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the highest-paid lobbying shop</a>” in Washington D.C. On top of this, Ballard has represented <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Br_kDaO8vybpgX8uyb5q0-Y=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">10 different clients</a> directly before Bondi’s DOJ in the first months of the second Trump administration—more DOJ clients than it had in the first Trump and Biden administrations combined. </li><li> In March 2025, shortly after Bondi’s confirmation, Ballard Partners <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Bp3EVBXDmDvsGv7qKFDwYXQ=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">registered</a> as a lobbying firm for American Express Global Business Travel, which paid the firm <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Bhu5Yjm2EjKiYN1c-yxuHUQ=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$200,000</a> to exclusively lobby Bondi’s DOJ in the first half of 2025 alone. Notably, in July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Bjs7QnoR5wffmshRgPuC6vw=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dismissed</a> the Biden Administration’s challenge against a <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BlLLAFJlBRKEnhteiIO6DZ4=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$540 million merger</a> that would have allowed American Express GBT to “<a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BrFP6SbavR7G8OR-oIQR_lY=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">eliminate its second-largest rival</a>” CWT Holdings. </li><li> While she was with <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BvFiH2bEm7ODZb909xcZ3pw=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ballard Partners</a>, Bondi was a <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BlgRSGEQm4NigULbtUvzSo8=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">foreign lobbyist</a> for the nation of Qatar. Once she became Attorney General, Bondi “<a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BnqRAbRtpjqLsC3FLz43ZGA=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">personally signed</a>” a DOJ legal memo approving the legality of Qatar’s royal family gifting a $400 million “<a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BtIwM7Yo6DM-M0Jk-SFYyN4=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">palace in the sky</a>” jet to the Trump administration, for Trump to use as Air Force One. In July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ was <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2Bqk4xjrVtMGn8jByd1Ycxzs=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sued</a> by the Freedom of the Press Foundation for refusing to release the memorandum Bondi reportedly signed approving the gift. <ul><li> Meanwhile, the Trump Organization announced its first foreign deal in Trump’s second term, a new <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BhiMiIf1KXnU_r-SYVX3ldg=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">luxury golf resort</a> in Qatar developed in partnership with a <a href="https://api.neonemails.com/emails/tracking/click-link/nwJv15dZZyqUw4nQQzVFeQKu2ESGbC7Ke4XmM-KhHcg=/Kdyf_E7gL4eqnWraEdz2BpoZo30m5tP4Pq3jmgN3V0w=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Qatari government-owned company</a>.</li></ul></li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:41:43 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/hearing-watch-will-ag-pam-bondi-own-up-to-her-conflicts-of-interest</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Under Bondi's Leadership, DOJ Has Become the White House's Revenge Arm</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/under-bondi-s-leadership-doj-has-become-the-white-house-s-revenge-arm</link><description><![CDATA[
Today Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before Congress amid mounting concerns that the Justice Department under her leadership is being weaponized to go after President Trump's perceived enemies. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response: “The abuse of the Justice Department under Bondi’s watch has been rampant, including the recent high profile and scandalous move to secure an indictment against former FBI Director Jim Comey after the President publicly demanded they do so, and despite the previous prosecutor's claims of insufficient evidence. “The DOJ has been in constant turmoil since Bondi took the helm, firing prosecutors who worked Capitol riot cases or investigated Trump and pushing out senior officials at the FBI. “At the same time, under her leadership, the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, the section dedicated to fighting corruption from federal officials, has been reduced from a total of thirty-six employees to two. The Department of Justice is intended to be independent from the White House, not its revenge arm. Her tenure shows they have become exactly that.”]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:40:25 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/under-bondi-s-leadership-doj-has-become-the-white-house-s-revenge-arm</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>The Human and Financial Costs of the Post-10/7 Wars, Two Years Later</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/the-human-and-financial-costs-of-the-post-10-7-wars-two-years-later</link><description><![CDATA[
Two years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. government has spent a total of $31 billion combined on military aid to Israel and U.S. military operations in the region, according to the latest research from contributors to the Costs of War project, housed at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. The research series reveals that this U.S. spending in the post-10/7 wars has come with an extensive human toll: over ten percent of the population of Gaza has been killed or injured, while at least 5.27 million people have been displaced in Gaza and the wider region.As of October 3, 67,075 people in Gaza <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/1/ec21731d875266edc1280367d6caf9d04ccf8d4865745408b2285a2dcef7f27d?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">have been killed</a> and 169,430 people injured according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, out of the approximately 2.2 million people living there in July 2023. These 236,505 casualties (people who have been killed and injured) constitute more than 10 percent of the pre-war population of Gaza. The research underscores that the Gaza Ministry of Health numbers are “not an exaggeration,” as some critics argue; they are likely an undercount. “Most of the deaths in Gaza have been civilians, many of them children,” said Neta Crawford, co-founder of Costs of War and author of the new report, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/2/f17f3e0537fe553cd5feb5e97fa7b95882aafa0370b1f7db5a8ffeb1a3c8a5cc?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025</a>. “The pace and scale of direct killing and injury by the Israel Defense Force bombs and bullets will only be exceeded by the long-term death and misery due to starvation, displacement, destruction of health care facilities and the inadequate level of humanitarian assistance.” Between October 2023 - September 2025, the U.S. <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/3/829d8200f330d49b77f1a4c68be453daf01ead47682b98b0a5e2e7c413a4e535?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel</a>. This figure does not include the tens of billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that have been committed for weapons and services that will be paid for and delivered in the years to come. During the same period, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/4/c0027a723ef5ed0af49648f5279593937a1c5d37ef95cb3244a022da9a50148f?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an additional $9.65 - $12.07 billion</a> was spent on U.S. military operations in Yemen, Iran and the wider region, totaling $31.35 - $33.77 billion in U.S. spending on the post-10/7 wars.“The devastating damage the current Israeli government has done to Gaza and its people would not have been possible without U.S. financing, U.S.-supplied weapons, and U.S. assistance with spare parts and maintenance,” said Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of the new report, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/5/0b02ad4bd9ebca150ec3c40b9ff113051b81813b4686db3c4d8f9a0d1cb6f44a?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025</a>, co-published with the <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/6/7e4dd20f7a8b785eaab42b0fe58f9c883bd0fcfecf60153e3398e1818542de06?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Quincy Institute</a>. “But despite this dependence, neither former President Joe Biden nor current President Donald Trump have used Israel's reliance on U.S. weapons as a tool to pressure Tel Aviv to change its conduct.”“The American public has a right to know how U.S. funding is used in conflict, and to recognize that our military activities in the Middle East carry significant costs that are often hidden,” said Linda J. Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of the new report, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/7/dff94e4e97cf057fa5abdd45bf4327558830e1ff5aa9c6f6b8f45a56d7f56793?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Costs of United States Military Activities in the Wider Middle East Since October 7, 2023</a>. “These financial and social costs should be weighed alongside policy decisions.”Additionally, mass population displacement has been a significant feature of the violence experienced in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank, and other parts of the Middle East since October 7, 2023, where <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/8/22d79f20ffac24019425a5d03aa078f2aff5b6083de07699c5e89259e43483f7?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">at least 5.27 million people</a> have fled or been forced to leave their homes (as of early September 2025). This total includes an estimated 1.85 million displaced children under 18 years old. Some of these people have since returned home, while many others have not. (This figure does not include Syria and Yemen, where there is a lack of data documenting how the post-10/7 wars have caused displacement.)“The displacement of over 5 million people to date plus the potential displacement of millions more underscores the urgency of ending the violence as quickly as possible, of allowing the displaced to return home as international law requires, of ensuring reparation for the displaced, and of holding the perpetrators accountable for crimes committed,” said David Vine, political anthropologist and longtime Costs of War contributor, and author of the new report, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/9/46fefcd981076e934ded49008286b3ab5b203103533e6f9f3644ab69fe4e85d4?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mass Displacement since October 7, 2023: Flight from War, Genocide, and Expulsion in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank</a>.“For well over a decade, the Costs of War project has shed light on the costs of the so-called U.S. ‘war on terror’; now we’re examining the devastating costs of U.S. military spending and operations in the post-October 7 wars – which in the case of Gaza, many experts call a genocide,” said Stephanie Savell, Director of Costs of War. “Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: what we’re talking about is human suffering. This research shows that the suffering is unthinkably vast. The research will inform efforts to stop the mass killing and displacement, move beyond the <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/d541421306a64ae8badc4ec1100a63ef/10/251411523b68330f657f64ba3d21cbfd4739d693945bebfdb9638c9b64c1fd7f?cache_buster=1759846881" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">war paradigm</a>, and explore true solutions towards peace.”]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:30:33 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/the-human-and-financial-costs-of-the-post-10-7-wars-two-years-later</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s Latest Insult to Social Security: A Part-Time Commissioner</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-latest-insult-to-social-security-a-part-time-commissioner</link><description><![CDATA[
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on this morning’s <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/480c29864dfd4f2a94cca2f96df9caf8/1/293a8e713dd884033783357d0775698d3bf88c9f78321f18fbec465fa319bd97?cache_buster=1759768522" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announcement</a> that Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano will also serve as CEO of the IRS: “Frank Bisignano is so underqualified for the job of Social Security commissioner that his <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/480c29864dfd4f2a94cca2f96df9caf8/2/20264c03367e3ca6322817a7bb542272f1cfe57d69f351d073821bd6863edaf0?cache_buster=1759768522" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first move</a> was to google ‘Social Security’. Bisignano’s decision to take on a second job running the IRS highlights that he has learned nothing. It also puts the lie to Donald Trump’s claim that he won’t hurt Social Security. The Trump administration has already plunged Social Security into crisis by pushing out thousands of the most experienced, knowledgeable workers. They are causing chaos and real harm, including ending paper checks for Americans who have previously shown they need them. Now, Bisignano’s divided attention will create a bottleneck that makes the inevitable problems that arise even harder to correct.Never in Social Security’s 90-year history has a commissioner held a second job. Bisiginano’s new role will leave a leadership vacuum at the top of the agency, especially since Trump hasn’t even nominated a deputy commissioner. It always takes less time and effort to destroy something than to build and maintain it. By denying the system a full time commissioner, the Trump administration is allowing Social Security to rot through sabotage and neglect.”]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 06 Oct 2025 16:42:27 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-latest-insult-to-social-security-a-part-time-commissioner</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Weird Drivel and Loser Shit: This Looks Like Terrible</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/weird-drivel-and-loser-shit-this-looks-like-terrible</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-soviet-union-s-young-pioneers-prepare-to-fight-the-enemy-within.jpg?id=61682551&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=362%2C0%2C362%2C0"/> Whew. Our authoritarian theater lurches on into a nascent police state forged by an avenging despot, equally deranged and malignant, who conflates lies, raves, phantasms - see wacko AI videos - with reality. The five-time draft-dodger, with his neo-Nazi Secretary of War Crimes, just rabidly urged a roomful of silent generals to join a "war from within" against their own citizens, for now in Portland. Reviews of his new reality show: "Fat Man and Little Boy bombed." Also, "The commander-in-chief is not okay."Despite his manifest unfitness and <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6waxgers6k753hgsmh2prmv7/post/3lzyb2shyuc2s?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.democraticunderground.com%252F100220685260" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">underwater </a>approval ratings- "People hate this mad king shit" - he and his vile cohorts are busy erasing rights and building an internal legal and military force aimed at silencing skeptics, opponents and "terrorist networks," aka most of us, in the time-honored name of "national security." This week he also got to play peacemaker with a war criminal, <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/09/trump-israel-gaza-palestine-peace-deal-netanyahu-hamas.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spewing </a>"fatuous bleats" as he proclaimed "one of the great days ever in civilization" at the signing of a Gaza "peace plan" that included no Palestinians, leans hard into Israel's genocidal vision, and puts a bloody "<a href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2510348&post_id=174918213&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=l8hwn&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNTY2ODM5MSwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTc0OTE4MjEzLCJpYXQiOjE3NTkyMzg1MTMsImV4cCI6MTc2MTgzMDUxMywiaXNzIjoicHViLTI1MTAzNDgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0._Fm76YmUzZO8rjiZ4nYfLhHAohK3Cb6R2DDIGMWVLEo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stamp </a>of legitimacy" on their effort to "achieve through politics what the war of extermination could not achieve on the ground." Hamas must take it or leave it: "There is no negotiation here. There is an American plan." If Hamas rejects it, Israel will "finish the job" thanks to the plan's convenient loopholes; Trump eagerly affirmed they'd "have our full backing to do what (you) have to do."Mostly, the alleged master of the art of the deal has just been refusing to negotiate at home. The current shutdown is the unsurprising result of a so-called president who in response to queries about discussions of differences, said one official, "read (sic) all the shit they’re asking for, and said, ‘On second thought, go fuck yourself'"; then he reversed himself, talked to Jeffries and Schumer, but seemed unaware of the ACA health insurance stalemate that largely triggered the crisis. The last few days, as his party literally ran away "on vacation" rather than try to hammer out an agreement, he helpfully contributed to the discourse on keeping government open by posting a series of what-the-actual-fuck, "straight-up-Orwell's-1984" deep fake videos, each more bizarre and offensive than the last, thus confirming the widespread belief that, "Donald Trump has always lived in his own world of lies and ignorance and growing misinformation - he has no idea what reality is."Thus, his batshit post announcing, “MEDBED HOSPITALS: THE NEW ERA IN HEALTHCARE," offering us all magic, imaginary "medbeds" that cure cancer, reverse aging, regrow body parts, and keep a zombie JFK Jr. alive. The news grew from a longtime QAnon conspiracy theory that government elites have been <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d2c39258-5a7a-44e4-803b-3b8f9b51158a?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hoarding </a>this medical marvel in tunnels for themselves so, say, after a hard day of trafficking children out of a pizza parlor, Hillary Clinton can go home, lie on her medbed, and regrow her missing limbs. No more: Now, "Every American will soon receive their own MedBed card," with grifters selling $11,000 "medbed generators." This, to be clear, as Trump and the GOP actively <a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/septem..." target="_blank">work</a> to gut health care protections for millions. His post was deleted after about 12 hours, long enough for many to wonder, "Is it bad when the leader of a country is so cognitively impaired he can no longer determine what's real?" and for Gavin Newsom to <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/19723151186012..." target="_blank">re-post </a>with, "DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST IT."That was premature. There was more. Soon after, there was Trump's re-post of a video titled, “The Great Replacement is no longer conspiracy theory!” Based on a <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f1a5d1e0-8428-4517-8244-6b52ed22d251?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsmax</a> segment, it blamed Dems for encouraging hordes of undocumented migrants to come here to vote, with over two million getting illegal Social Security numbers. That was <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115290424560405640?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">followed </a>by a now-infamous, grotesquely racist, staggeringly juvenile post, "one of his most demented ever" and National Embarrassment #742, featuring a deep fake (Jewish) Schumer and (African-American) Jeffries, with inexplicable Mexican music, sombrero, waxed moustache, telling reporters,. “We have no voters left because of all of our woke, trans bullshit." Etc. America: "This is sick." <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc2Mg1UjTvY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jeffries</a>: "Next time you have something to say to me, say it to my face." He noted House and Senate Dems "are here, on duty, ready to fund the government. Bigotry will get you nowhere. Do your job." Then he <a href="https://x.com/hakeemjeffries/status/1972844795635929591" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> posted </a>a photo of the pedo besties with, "This is real." <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ljzh55eVG1M?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> - YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljzh55eVG1M" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a> Speaking of: In more weirdness, pardoned Jan.6 QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a68135234/qanon-shaman-trump-lawsuit-portland/" target="_blank">sued </a>Trump - also Musk, Israel, the NSA, IMF, World Bank etc - for $40 trillion, claiming he's the rightful president, and at this point why not; he also trashed Trump for not releasing the Epstein files. Meanwhile, Trump's so out of it he thought Whiskey Pete's Warrior Fest was for other countries' top brass: "Isn't it nice people are coming from all over the world to be with us?" Then he veered to "It's just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily." Maybe that's because Kegseth is reportedly both "<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-aides-expose-pete-hegseths-manic-meltdowns/" target="_blank">crumbling"</a> and <a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/battle-of-the-sexes-..." target="_blank">out of control</a>: Spooked, paranoid, "even more manic, dude is crawling out of his skin" since Kirk's killing; into vain "total princess shit"; throwing "full-blown tantrums" if challenged - on his "pussy-ass-bitch" Department of War name swap, extra-judicial killings of fishermen in the Caribbean, critics <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/29/hegseth-national-defense-strategy-trump-dissent/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">deeming </a>his ideas for change "myopic and potentially irrelevant." Each time, "He just WENT OFF."So sure, great to see a loose cannon and "drunken freak" Secretary of Bravado with the power to unilaterally summon to Quantico from around the world, at the cost of millions of dollars, over 800 U.S. generals and admirals with much-decorated decades in the service and unequaled command expertise to serve as extras for a MAGA pep rallED talk/ lecture about meritocracy, "warrior ethos" and "a return to the highest male standards" from a greasy, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/16/2328346/-In-the-Trump-administration-merit-based-hiring-really-means-lying" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unqualified</a> former Major in the National Guard and ex-host of a Fox News weekend program with a messy history of alcoholism, incompetence, sexual infidelity, rape, and threatening national security by butt-dialing classified information to a reporter - all of which could have been "accomplished," a term doing a lot of lifting here, in a simple email or leaked Signal chat. No wonder, standing before a gaudy massive flag like a knock-off of George C. Scott in Patton, the ignoble Pete "gave off a lot of small dick energy." Once he opened his mouth, it got worse. Lamely citing Trump's "Liberation Day" for his botched tariffs, Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/1973011465809363083" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">declared. </a>"Today is another Liberation Day - the liberation of America’s warriors." Decrying "the insane fallacy that diversity is our strength" and reciting a list of tired grievances, he vowed no more DEI, identity months, "frivolous complaints" about abuse, "dudes in dresses," "climate change worship," "stupid rules of engagement...We are done with that shit!” "Every day, we have to be preparing for war, not defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not defend," he raved. "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy...We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country." And no more Mr. Nice Legal Guy. "You kill people and break things for a living," he snarled. "You are not politically correct, and don’t necessarily belong (in) polite society.” So: Let your <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/30/2346175/-Hegseth-demands-military-turn-into-a-bunch-of-war-criming-a-holes?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_3&pm_medium=web" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bigot flag </a>fly. Make war crimes, sexual assault, hazing great again.And if you don't like it, resign. Given the <a href="https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220686401" target="_blank">stony silence,</a> many didn't, especially once he <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/1/2346260/-Cartoon-Beardos-and-fatsos?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">went after </a>the beardos - usually Black and/or Muslim men - and the fatsos, warning of new physical fitness standards: “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard (work outs), so can every member of our joint force." The reviews - this is a reality TV show, right? - were brutal. "Hegseth brought the generals before him to fat shame them (and brag that he can do push-ups)...I fucking want my money back, asshole," read one. Also, "Pete will always be a National Guardsman assigned to a civil affairs unit who got a bunch of Crusader tattoos in his 40s because he wants you to think he's a cool, war-criming operator instead of an online wife-beating loser saying what it means to be a WARFIGHTER to a roomful of legit guys who all outrank him," and, "I would posit it’s more unacceptable to see a Christo-fascist, tattoo-festooned Fox dunk-tank clown in the halls of the Pentagon, frankly, but maybe that’s just me."<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/01/pete-hegseth-generals-speech-veterans-react" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Military</a> critics called his appearance "embarrassing,” “ridiculous,” "shocking," "insulting," "offensive," "self-aggrandizing." Jamelle Bouie <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3m22jfemjes2h" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called</a> it "some of the most loser shit I have ever seen." A veterans advocate noted "people (who) have served 20 or 30 years in uniform do not need (Hegseth) to tell them about warrior ethos" or "lethality": "He's barely qualified to host Fox News. Has he no honor?" Navy commander Bobbby Jones <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJCtc9iPOY&t=117s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tore into </a>a sleazy "Sec bro" who thinks push-ups can replace "critical thinking under pressure...honor, courage and commitment." On his bigoted, divisive views on race, gender, DEI: "WHAT?! You're kidding me. You have the nerve to think you have the right to be the arbiter if someone of color or a woman deserves to be there? When you weren't even good enough to make my rank? And you try to erase their history? You need to take the example of the people you tried to lecture today and hopefully live your life more like them. The world will be better off." <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/egJCtc9iPOY?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> - YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJCtc9iPOY&t=117s" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a> You'd think it couldn't get more cringe after Hegseth ended with a histrionic, Dr. Strangelove-like, "WE ARE THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR! GODSPEED!" (Cue, "There's no fighting in the War Room!") Improbably, it did when the world's most famous five-time draft dodger, criminal and pedophile lumbered onstage to join "a middle manager dry drunk cosplaying tough to lecture US generals on the Constitution and loyalty." "A drunk and a rapist walk into a bar..." noted one online sage. Another: "Hegseth: No fatties in the chain of command! Trump: Waddles onto stage." The seemingly heavily sedated Private Bonespurs spoke slowly, slurring words in "an unusually meandering speech," "a disgraceful and unnerving performance" and "a nakedly partisan appeal that violated every standard of American civil-military relations." It was also "an inexcusable strategic risk (to) convey an inane message" and "a waste of time for people who emphatically had better things they could and should be doing."He insulted Biden 11 times: "They looked at him falling down stairs every day," with a long weird detour about stairs and how Obama - "I had zero respect for him" - would "bop down those stairs. I’ve never seen it. Da-da, da-da, bop, bop." There was his love of the word “tariff," America becoming "rich as hell," "PEOPLE COMING IN FROM INSANE ASYLUMS," the wars he ended and “millions and millions of lives” he saved, the rigged election, the autopen, the fecking Gulf of America, "the <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1973023822623514725" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">concept </a>of battleships" like in Victory At Sea, the “beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper, with the real gold writing" when he signs things: "Everyone loves my signature." Most significantly, he "told a roomful of silent generals to join a war from within," that "we're under invasion," it's a "big part of war now," "we should use some of these dangerous (blue) cities as training grounds for our military," and their first priority is "defending the homeland," which has a vague Germanic ring to it we can't quite place.<a href="ttps://www.mediaite.com/media/news/lt-general-rip..." target="_blank">Takeaways</a>: "The president told the military American citizens are the enemy and he wants them to practice war on them. I think this is called Treason." "We want you to wage war on your fellow Americans. Also in 13 hours you aren’t getting paid." "Bad actors, bad movie. The director should be ashamed. 0/10." “He billed the taxpayers millions to fly every general to Washington to <a href="https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1973023545388380436" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hear </a>this weirdo drivel." "The commander in chief is not okay," wrote Tom Nichols of his "farrago of fantasy, menace, and autocratic peacocking." "It's one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd, but another to aim this kind of sludge at military officers" used to treating presidents with respect, and assuming they're "basically normal. You have to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person they just saw on stage." Then Nichols cites a famed moment in 1973 when an Air Force nuclear-missile <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/09/what-if-the-president-ordering-a-nuclear-attack-isnt-sane-a-major-lost-his-job-for-asking/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">officer </a>asked in a training, "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” <img alt="One of many cartoons about Hegseth's Warrior Jamboree" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ff05b4becd0c29a367f1b7704a644d4e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="aaf0c" loading="lazy" src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/one-of-many-cartoons-about-hegseth-s-warrior-jamboree.jpg?id=61692681&width=980"/> One of many cartoons about Hegseth's Warrior JamboreeFrom<a href="https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220690198" target="_blank"> Democratic Underground</a>And here we are. The stoic, professional top brass in Quantico sat dead silent, stone-faced, through the madness. At its end, some limply applauded but most remained <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1973018467818430677" target="_blank">silent</a>; in the limited images released, they look pissed, as if "'Bitch, please' were a photo." Still, with or without their approval, the regime's "war from within" goes on apace. On Sept. 27, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115276694936263266" target="_blank">announced </a>he would "provide all necessary Troops to protect War-ravaged Portland" and any ICE Facilities "under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists" with "Full Force, if necessary." He was reportedly hepped up from watching an earlier bogus <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6378445531112" target="_blank">segment</a> on Fox showing two hostile scenes in Portland that turned out to be from 2020 BLM protests. But who needs facts? "I didn't know that was still going on," he yammered. "Portland is unbelievable - the destruction of the city. These are paid agitators...What they’ve done to that place...They just burned the place down. It's just, it’s like living in hell." JD <a href="https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-executive-order-tiktok-deal-september-25-2025/#245" target="_blank"> nods </a>along.Hours after announcing the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/us/portland-trump-ice-protests.html" target="_blank" title="">deployment</a> of 200 National Guard to hellish Portland, city and state officials <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.189270/gov.uscourts.ord.189270.1.0.pdf" target="_blank">sued </a>Trump, Hegseth, and ICE Barbie to block their "patently unlawful" move based on "wildly hyperbolic pretext...Their characterization of Portland as ‘war-ravaged’ is pure fiction." Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on their "fruitless show of force: The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city...The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it." The threat drew several hundred protesters - far more than the <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f2f13b09-90bd-4788-9fd1-668bf83724de?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" target="_blank">handful </a>that have been turning up for months - overseen by federal snipers on rooftops. "We are average, everyday citizens tired of (Trump's) illegal actions," said the wife of a veteran, who called the deployment "a moral injury." Around then the addled, reality show nitwit who makes policy based on what he sees on biased, bigoted, fantastical Fox News was dumbfounded to learn that he might be...wrong.In an interview, he <a href="https://criticalread.substack.com/p/trump-am-i-wat..." target="_blank">described</a> talking to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who tried to set him straight. "I said, 'Wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'" he <a href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/trump-seems-to-back-off-portland-military-plan/283-e9c6bdfb-92d6-4881-bb74-09bb325a5270" target="_blank"> exclaimed. </a>"My people tell me different. They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible.” Reality bites, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/warravagedportland?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXS6ARMiNYtgE5hx4iPfZjaF-3wozmwGswmqKWlGIL_CielNIFEcxyYrRygoc4xQT6205-y82f5SXn8tTBEeZK5ob0Lw5tGqwSPeaWSj8ddQ-7nUAjOOnKeE1LQZdbU4TxSqbUh7yR7iJLiOhPOHGVYM4ncCR7GpqaqCvWbJhZeJdU1EridUEqHVE5f6tAjb61dkJhOwU_vUX2XKaMU7vvW&__tn__=*NK-R" target="_blank">#WarRavagedPortland </a>bit back. Last weekend, residents - "Stay safe, stay weird" - <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/portland-oregon-war-ravaged-trump-mocked-b2835092.html" target="_blank">flooded </a>social media with images of their hellish life: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DPIoTjLjseq/" target="_blank">Gardens, </a>picnics, drummers, runners, street fairs, cherry <a href="https://x.com/aintscarylarry/status/1972006776674660525" target="_blank">blossoms, </a>food, bikes, dancing, Taco trucks, dystopian bread lines, pastry-filled farmers markets, blissed-out dogs rolling in grass: "Here’s our dog writhing in agony on the killing fields of war-ravaged Portland." There were trees wrapped in multi-hued knitting - "We knit at dawn" - marauding hordes amidst sun-dappled roses - "Oh, the demise of humanity!" - and a brave beer in a koozie: "It's unsafe to even walk your beer down the street without protection!"Chilling <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1ns3py0/greetings_from_war_ravaged_portland/" target="_blank">tales </a>emerged of violent kittens attacking toilet paper - "WAR AND DEVASTATION HAPPENING IN PORTLAND! KITTENS DESTROYING VERY EXPENSIVE TP !" - long lines for brunch - "Hellscape doesn't begin to describe it" - and "leaves not staying on the trees anymore from so much violence. Good God, it's horrific." At an outdoor fair, "kids were chasing geese, people were selling tie-died shirts, and one sick son of a bitch was selling Nepalese food. It was crazy." Video <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CapitalistDogs/posts/warr..." target="_blank">revealed </a>an empty, silent ICE building "under siege" - "By that definition, my house is under siege"; one from Sen. Ron Wyden <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e4a1e989-e015-433f-981e-5d77ec82d513?j=eyJ1IjoibDhod24ifQ.5jEjeLiJZS5OfHG4v_xEBlfZCsRwcX2P4Vv9vuux9BQ" target="_blank">showed </a>the same placid scene, with a few protesters across the street. One harried victim described "sipping my iced pumpkin latte and strolling past historic Victorians, boutiques selling $300 clogs, women in Eileen Fisher cardigans debating olive oil varieties (and) too many options for artisanal cheese, and so many dogs who eat better than I do. I couldn’t help but wonder - if this is war, where do I enlist?"Survivors from other cities <a href="#WarRavagedPortland">sent</a> thoughts and prayers: From "war ravaged DC," "post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," "the liberal hellscape of Denver, where they're eating the dogs!" Many sent moral support - "The Portlish are a strong and noble people. We stand with you" - and one eager citizen said she "can't wait for the National Guard to come clean up Seattle - there is litter everywhere." There were searing war dispatches. "We barely survived today. Everything is in chaos. We began the day with huckleberry pancakes...They were terrifyingly delicious." "Dearest Mother, I write to you from the front lines (where) our batallion bravely holds the line between the artisanal kombucha stand (and) the enemy, armed with reusable tote bags and passive-aggressive signage. Our oat milk rations are low." "My dearest wife, These barbarians will not yield...We have severed the cords of their latte machines but they are making cowboy coffee in their camps...A Golden Retriever has stolen my ammo belt."On Wednesday, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115300118756896774" target="_blank">announced</a> 200 National Guard troops were "now in place" at a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/27/portland-oregon-trump-national-guard" target="_blank">small protest</a> at Portland's ICE facility, and they have "begun restoring LAW AND ORDER." But NBC News affiliate KGW <a href="https://www.kgw.com/video/news/local/trump-claims-national-guard-now-in-place-in-portland-though-none-can-be-seen-outside-ice-building/283-386fab8e-59e6-49c8-ada0-61e070135603" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> "none can be seen," and <a href="https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/mediaplayer?clientID=4879615486&eventID=2025091032" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lawmakers</a> said they'd been told troops still need a few days to prepare, maybe by wending their arduous way through the artisanal breads. Guard officials say the deployment, expected to cost at least $3.8 million, is to "protect federal facilities," a slight discrepancy from a White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/09/president-trump-deploys-federal-resources-to-crush-violent-radical-left-terrorism-in-portland/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">release </a>shrieking troops would "crush violent radical left terrorism" in the tranquil city. "I know this isn't easy," Oregon's adjutant general told Guard members of a mission neither they nor residents seem enthused about. "We don't get to pick and choose." For now, five Portlanders, some in bathrobes, held a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPJ5BJNiWEi/" target="_blank">pastry protest</a> - "We're here for the hellscape" - as other stalwarts struggled to endure the war's hardships. "They have forced us to listen to music and revel in community," they said. "Pray for us."<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7988b2f2614741b1ca4981791900c53f"><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="true" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/anna.dyer.7/videos/1480204166596223"></div></div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2025 18:00:40 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/weird-drivel-and-loser-shit-this-looks-like-terrible</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-soviet-union-s-young-pioneers-prepare-to-fight-the-enemy-within.jpg?id=61682551&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>New Complaint Filed Against Small Business Administration for Hatch Act Violation</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/new-complaint-filed-against-small-business-administration-for-hatch-act-violation</link><description><![CDATA[
Today, Public Citizen filed <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-10012025852.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-10012025852.pdf">a complaint</a> against the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a message on its homepage blaming “Senate Democrats” for causing a government shutdown. The complaint alleges this is a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes.Public Citizen filed <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-09302025835.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-09302025835.pdf">a complaint</a> against the Department for Housing and Human Services yesterday on similar grounds. Experts are reviewing other instances of agencies using taxpayer dollars to fund partisan shutdown messaging.Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen who filed both complaints, stated:“The message being broadcast at the top of the Small Business Administration’s website is an obvious Hatch Act violation. The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government.“Ethics officials — as lacking in power and status as they may be under Trump — must act immediately to prove them wrong. The American people deserve better.”The full complaint is available to review <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-10012025852.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/OSCFiling-HolmanCraig-HA-10012025852.pdf">here</a>.]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:46:11 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/new-complaint-filed-against-small-business-administration-for-hatch-act-violation</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s $625M Coal Bailout Won’t Be Enough to Save Expensive, Dirty Energy Source</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-625m-coal-bailout-wont-be-enough-to-save-expensive-dirty-energy-source</link><description><![CDATA[
The Trump administration today announced a coordinated attempt to keep the struggling U.S. coal industry alive slightly longer, including opening more than 13 million acres of national public lands for coal mining, reducing royalty rates paid by mining companies to taxpayers and $625 million in federal funding for uneconomic coal plants across the country. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s climate program, said:“President Trump’s coal giveaway is exactly the wrong direction for the country. It is clear that solar, wind and battery storage will provide nearly all affordable, clean energy in the near future, and expensive, dirty coal will be a relic of the past.“Trump’s effort to block renewables and keep fossil fuels on life support only hurts Americans. It forces us to pay for unduly expensive energy and wasteful corporate subsidies, harms our health by polluting our air and water, and neglects to build up domestic manufacturing and supply chains for the energy technologies of the future while China races ahead.“Other forms of energy are simply far less expensive than coal—as well as cleaner, cheaper, and safer for a climate habitable for humans. This bailout is nothing more than a wealth transfer from the American people to Trump’s billionaire friends sitting atop a failing industry.”]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 18:34:02 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-625m-coal-bailout-wont-be-enough-to-save-expensive-dirty-energy-source</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Donald Trump Gives Away Taxpayer Dollars to Big Coal</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/donald-trump-gives-away-taxpayer-dollars-to-big-coal</link><description><![CDATA[
Today, the Department of Energy announced a <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-beautiful-clean-coal-gas-funding/761378/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$625 million</a> effort in retrofitting aging coal plants. The Trump administration has slashed <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5417842-trump-administration-cuts-green-energy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">billions of dollars</a> in clean energy investments and issued multiple <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/23/nx-s1-5513919/trump-stops-offshore-wind-renewable-energy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stop work orders</a> on clean energy projects, while <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2025/04/trump-hands-out-free-pass-big-coal-americans-pay-price" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">exempting</a> toxic, dirty coal plants from lifesaving guardrails. In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement: “Rather than investing in affordable and clean energy, Chris Wright is taking taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and giving it to wealthy executives in the coal industry. This is a transparent wealth transfer from everyday Americans, who are already making tough decisions at the kitchen table, to the millionaires that run the fossil fuel industry. If Chris Wright, or anyone in Donald Trump’s administration, truly cared about bringing down the cost of electricity, they would be investing in affordable clean energy instead of taking a sledgehammer to the progress our country has made. By handing out millions to the coal industry, the Trump administration is divesting from Americans’ health, from our environment, and from our path forward to a cleaner, healthier future.” ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 18:30:42 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/donald-trump-gives-away-taxpayer-dollars-to-big-coal</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission continues Christian Nationalist assault on public education</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-religious-liberty-commission-continues-christian-nationalist-assault-on-public-education</link><description><![CDATA[
Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser issued the following statement in response to today’s Religious Liberty Commission <a href="https://cisionone-email.media.au.org/c/eJwszE3O2yAUheHVwAzL_Bk8YPAN6m1EwL12bmpMAnai7r5K1elzdF4IqxtBW45BOjvLSStj-T2MWQEoMLPREUG6NGnUYOasIKK2mVOYPMSkLULMmG7SqDx75YxSKzNjJ8Df9BIl0o6tCzfN1lqfkhElvc55-A58D_fzfHamf5hamFo-n8_wuPpJGYetvplaGu60Ub262ClhO_-IXEuh3qkeTC3XM9dCxybuGBsdW2dK_4Irx5PqwQsCRdFwx9hREIR_cPsPTP9IO8lJ8xYe9WBm_KbrAQ1j6UNtG-9nQyzf5yrdmrz3ApWVwljnhAdvhPWgDUgL1if-DupvAAAA__-AIGuf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hearing</a> on religious freedom in public education:“Yet again, President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission demonstrated that its true purpose is to advance a Christian Nationalist agenda and impose one narrow religious view on the nation’s public school children. The speakers at today’s hearing made that clear – from the former high school <a href="https://cisionone-email.media.au.org/c/eJw0js1u3SAUhJ8Gdufq8o8XLLLxa0TAOb6mMSYBEqtvX7lqVyN9oxl9GDb3RGU4BeHMIqyS2vA9oH3GSKRStNYoi5vOLqlss1DKakO8BOsxJmUIY6b0LrTMi5dOS7kx_RwF6aN8QY3loD7A2cUY41PSUNPXXB53wY-wz_k5mHpjcmVyva7rEb8frb-YXPd2wUXw2dukPKHTUV6lfQ_YOhG2yuR60CsekOOgweT6Pz_oPAl_ww-kTpX6bCeMvLd2AJYxe8mTyZVXwhLvW4qDoGD4C97_AabehLHCKt7Dr3Yy_cyt1nZip1jHrcjH7ET1Xm7Cbcl7DySNAG2cA49eg_GoNAqDxif-E-SfAAAA__-Dm3Vt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">football coach</a> whose attorneys spun what one federal judge called a ‘deceitful narrative’ to recast his coercive post-game prayer rallies with public school students as quiet, personal, private prayers, to a public high school history teacher who has <a href="https://cisionone-email.media.au.org/c/eJwszcuu2yAUheGngdmOzGUDHjDIxK8RcdmOacE04LbK2x_l6Ey_paU_-90uWSEnLyyuwiipkR-e5LokRIHBLMbE1SqBSRuLi1Y2GcuLNy6HqJBySBQfQsu0Omm1lDvTyyyZfpcXtFAqjQnWrIjoYtTQ4utab5-BV39c15_J1J3JjcktllrfzxGO0G59PJncwrhKqjSZ3P4fdMJ1EKQa5hy9NygT3v3vgFbmLP2EvVDNvFEuAQZVCpOgZP8Njx9g6i7QCKP48L_6yfSSemv9zINCm58sn9cgap_nLuwenXNAEgVotBZcdhrQZaWzwIwu8n9efgUAAP__i95maw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">likened</a> public schools to a ‘mission field’ where she engages in ‘spiritual warfare’ to oppose LGBTQ+ students’ identities.“The majority of speakers at today’s hearing are affiliated with Christian Nationalist organizations working to obliterate church-state separation, turn public schools into Sunday schools and misuse religious freedom as a license to discriminate. The commission continues to ignore the true threats to religious freedom in public education: Christian Nationalist mandates to display the Ten Commandments, teach the Bible as truth, infuse curricula with Christianity, install school chaplains and impose coercive prayer on students, to name just a few.“Today’s meeting has been an outright assault on our country’s promise of church-state separation. That promise is central to true religious freedom. It means that families – not politicians or public school officials – get to decide how and when children engage with religion. The commission should be joining Americans United in demanding a national recommitment to church-state separation as the best way to defend religious freedom for all – our inclusive public schools and our democracy depend on it.”Americans United submitted extensive written public comments to the commission on <a href="https://cisionone-email.media.au.org/c/eJwszjFvnjAQxvFPY7ZD-PCBGRheVWXqEFXqHNm-I3GLMcGmr_rtK6KM9_vrpIfndey4p0ZmPdKkhx4NNe8z-cmODn0Y2Iaus07bzoepJ0a0bLmJ82DZ-Z6EXRD_qg2GyeJoEFdluhJZ_sQPSC5uchYYh4mIrPcGkv-oU3uHZpvfaz2K6h8KF4XL8_ls3dXm8-0-Dgh5r7JXhct1bNlxUbhgh6Rw6SaFy-MXfMspyV4L_JQtvsV8FfgRvZz132eKpcS8wynwcvktBvjOV3D1tpfaAsLUIrZI7cFrk4Sjg1M2cUUg8vwJr1-g-oemQQ99c86_865MF3JKeedTXCr36KbUUyTdn6seV2-tBUHSYGgcwbI1QJZ7w5qYrG_-zvg_AAD__0F8d6M" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sept. 22</a> and <a href="https://cisionone-email.media.au.org/c/eJwsjjGP3CAQRn8N7saCgbFx4WIVyVXSREp9AjPskRizB2xW-feRT1d-7-mTXljjLIOmgVc106ImjYaG93WSy66l1sYqH7WZojQTI0nnjVI6qCGtkw3Oa-LgdvZvyuC-WJwNYhRGthT4T_qA7NLBtcE8LURkvTeQ_UdfxksMx_re-6MJfRO4Cdxer9fonmOp92s8YC9n57ML3J6Po7jQBG4okQRuchG43X7Bt5Izn71BLBV-8pHuqTwbfE-ea__3qVNrqZzwg7mn8w4lwjLaEWl8hDhkDslB5YNdY0hh_QRvX0Dom6JJTXqo6-9yCiP3knM5Q2WX2xU6tF6Z8_WMao7eWguMpMDQPIMN1gDZoE1QFMj64e-K_wMAAP__p89zMg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aug. 30</a> that explain the true threats to religious freedom in public education. The most recent comments explain public school officials’ rights and responsibilities regarding religious freedom; dispel the myths surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (in which AU represented the school district); and how private school vouchers undermine both public education and religious freedom.]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 17:44:36 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-religious-liberty-commission-continues-christian-nationalist-assault-on-public-education</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>

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