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<title>One key element was missing from the massive ‘No King’ rallies</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/one-key-element-was-missing-from-the-massive-no-king-rallies/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/one-key-element-was-missing-from-the-massive-no-king-rallies/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dick Polman, Cagle Cartoons Columnist]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 17:43:21 +0000</pubDate>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=287777</guid>
<description><![CDATA[To the surprise of absolutely nobody – except perhaps the MAGA cultists who bought the nonsense about impending “antifa” “Marxist” “terrorist” violence – the patriots who marched on Saturday numbered in the multi millions and did so in peace, in red states as well as blue, in cities like Boise, Idaho as well as my<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-key-element-was-missing-from-the-massive-no-king-rallies/"> […]</a>
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-key-element-was-missing-from-the-massive-no-king-rallies/">One key element was missing from the massive ‘No King’ rallies</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-e1761067995876.png" alt="" width="760" height="507" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287778" />
To the surprise of absolutely nobody – except perhaps the MAGA cultists who bought the nonsense about impending “antifa” “Marxist” “terrorist” violence – the patriots who marched on Saturday numbered in the multi millions and did so in peace, in red states as well as blue, in cities like Boise, Idaho as well as my own Philadelphia.
If this grassroots movement is to have any chance of foiling the fascists who are destroying democracy and the rule of law, it will need to galvanize the communities that helped elect the criminal regime. I was pleased to see multitudes on the streets, but I wonder how many of those people voted for Trump in 2024. I suspect the percentage was small. The next time, it needs to be sizable.
It was all well and good, at the rally that fronted Independence Hall, to applaud House members Jamie Ruskin and Madeleine Dean (both Democrats) and various labor union speakers (who favor Democrats), but their participation was de rigueur. A certain kind of speaker still needs to come forward, somewhere, some time soon, saying something like this:
“On this day we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution and recall the deep commitments that unite our country…
“There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment and expose the pretensions of tyrants and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom…
“Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen and defended by citizens and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities…
“Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny…
“In America’s ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience…
“Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before, ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever…
“Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time…
“Americans of every party and background, Americans by choice and by birth are bound to one another in the cause of freedom…We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul…
“When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, ‘It rang as if it meant something.’ In our time, it means something still…Liberty will come to those who love it.”
That was George W. Bush. At his second Inaugural, on Jan. 20, 2005.
I remember that address only because I was sitting in the fifth row below his podium in the teeth-chattering chill, praying that my pens wouldn’t freeze. His words came to mind during No Kings II because the sentiments therein are precisely what some prominent Republicans need to say if we are to reverse the decimation of the America we love.
Strange bedfellows are desperately needed. It’s not enough for anti-Trump voters to show up en masse and laugh at the witty placards and applaud speakers they always agree with. Hopefully, in aforementioned Boise, Idaho and other red enclaves, there were rally attendees who voted MAGA but have now recoiled from the horrors they put in motion. Perhaps their numbers would grow exponentially if Republicans like Bush stepped forward.
Michael Steele, a former national Republican chairman, writes: “We could really use Bush’s voice right now. He has a voice that would resonate with a lot more Americans than even he may believe. Imagine how much more powerful this movement of Americans would be with his voice added to it. I know he may not agree with everything being said, but I have faith that he still believes in the principles of democracy. Even a single sentence from him would matter.”
Sadly, he has walked away from public life. He’d rather paint than fuel the democratic movement. That’s his choice, but surely there must be Republicans who still believe in the democratic values that Bush voiced in that second Inaugural, who still love the America that nurtured them, who still hew to the principles of the Constitution they swore to uphold in elective office. Their continued silence puts sand in the movement’s gears; what the movement sorely needs is a bipartisan imprimatur.
At his Inaugural 20 years ago, Bush challenged his listeners: “Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?” If only we could answer in the affirmative.
Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Subject to Change newsletter. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/one-key-element-was-missing-from-the-massive-no-king-rallies/">One key element was missing from the massive ‘No King’ rallies</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
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<title>REPUBLICAN SCARE TACTICS</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/republican-scare-tactics/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/republican-scare-tactics/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[CAGLE CARTOONS]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:45:45 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Cartoons]]></category>
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<title>10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:40:45 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Authoritarianism]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[A crowd gathered for a “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. Hasan Akbas/Anadolu via Getty Images Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University What happens now? That may well be the question being asked by “No Kings” protesters, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. Pro-democracy groups<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest/"> […]</a>
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest/">10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[ <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/697050/original/file-20251019-56-m8gxen.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C4500%2C2998&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" /><figcaption>
A crowd gathered for a “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. 
<a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hundreds-of-people-gather-for-a-no-kings-protest-to-defend-news-photo/2241622843?adppopup=true">Hasan Akbas/Anadolu via Getty Images</a> 
</figcaption><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shelley-inglis-837513">Shelley Inglis</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rutgers-university-1240">Rutgers University</a>
What happens now?
That may well be the question being asked by <a href="https://www.nokings.org/">“No Kings” protesters</a>, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.
Pro-democracy groups had aimed to encourage large numbers of Americans to demonstrate that “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BarronCountyDems/posts/no-kings-event-in-rice-lakesaturday-oct-18-10am-12pm-331-s-main-st-mayo-clinic-a/1245910924245305/">together we are choosing democracy</a>.” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93xgyp1zv4o">They were successful</a>, with crowds turning out for demonstrations in thousands of cities and towns from Anchorage to Miami.
And while <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/17/no-kings-republicans-hate-america/">multiple GOP leaders</a> had attacked the planned demonstrations, describing them as “hate America” rallies, <a href="https://www.khsu.org/2025-04-22/hundreds-of-scholars-say-u-s-is-swiftly-heading-toward-authoritarianism">political science scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/16/trump-authoritarianism-warning">national security experts agree</a> that the current U.S. administration’s actions are indeed placing the world’s oldest continuous constitutional republic in jeopardy.
Once a democracy starts to erode, it can be difficult to reverse the trend. Only 42% of democracies affected by autocratization – a transformation in governance that erodes democratic safeguards – since 1994 have rebounded after a democratic breakdown, <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/61/v-dem-dr__2025_lowres_v2.pdf">according to Swedish research institute V-Dem</a>.
Often termed “<a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/on-democratic-backsliding/">democratic backsliding</a>,” such periods involve government-led changes to rules and norms to weaken individual freedoms and undermine or eliminate checks on power exercised by independent institutions, both governmental and non-governmental. 
Democracies that have suffered setbacks vary widely, from <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/new-kind-authoritarianism-democracy-decline-home-and-abroad">Hungary to Brazil</a>. As a longterm <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shelley-inglis-837513">practitioner of democracy-building overseas</a>, I know that <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/09/19/american-democracy-resilience-00548910">none of these countries rival</a> the United States’ constitutional traditions, federalist system, economic wealth, military discipline, and vibrant independent media, academia and nonprofit organizations.
Even so, practices used globally to fight democratic backsliding or topple autocracies <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/democracy-playbook-2025/">can be instructive</a>. 
In a nutshell: Nonviolent resistance is based on noncooperation with autocratic actions. It <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/chen15682">has proven more effective</a> in toppling autocracies than violent, armed struggle. 
But it requires more than street demonstrations. 
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXem-j3jjEk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption>One pro-democracy organization helps train people to use video to document abuses by government.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Tactics used by pro-democracy movements</h2>
So, what does it take for democracies to <a href="https://v-dem.net/media/publications/PB__42.pdf">bounce back from periods of autocratic rule</a>?
Broad-scale, coordinated mobilization of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTckJzV1xIA">a sufficient percentage of the population</a> against autocratic takeover and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/11/autocracy-resistance-social-movement/684336/">for a renewed democratic future</a> is necessary for success. 
That momentum can be challenging to generate. Would-be autocrats create <a href="https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny">environments of fear and powerlessness</a>, using intimidation, overwhelming force or political and legal attacks, and other coercive tactics to force acquiescence and chill democratic pushback. 
Autocrats can’t succeed alone. They rely on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371371333_Breaking_Down_Pillars_of_Support_For_Democratic_Backsliding">what scholars call “pillars of support”</a> – a range of government institutions, security forces, business and other sectors in society to obey their will and even bolster their power grabs. 
However, everyone in society has power to erode autocratic support in various ways. While individual efforts are important, collective action increases impact and mitigates the risks of reprisals for standing up to individuals or organizations. 
Here are some of the tactics used by those movements across the world:
<h2>1. Refuse unlawful, corrupt demands</h2>
When enough individuals in critical roles and institutions – the military, civil servants, corporate leaders, state government and judges – refuse to implement autocratic orders, it can slow or even stop an autocratic takeover. In South Korea, parts of the civil service, legislature and military declined to support President Yoon Suk Yeol’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98lygwd837o">imposition of martial law</a> in 2024, foiling his autocratic move. 
<h2>2. Visibly bolster the rule of law</h2>
Where would-be autocrats disregard legal restraints and install their supporters in the highest courts, individual challenges to overreach, even if successful, can be insufficient. In Poland, legal challenges in courts combined with <a href="https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/all-rise-judicial-resistance-in-poland/">public education by the judiciary</a>, lawyers’ associations initiatives and street protests like the <a href="https://www.iaj-uim.org/iuw/es/the-judiciary-possible-ways-of-development-march-of-a-thousand-robes-one-year-later/">“March of a Thousand Robes” in 2020</a> to signal widespread repudiation of the autocratic government’s attacks on the rule of law.
<h2>3. Unite in opposition</h2>
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2025/machado/facts/">Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela</a>, is an example of how political parties and leaders who cooperate across differences can offer an alternative vision. 
Novel candidates can undermine the ability of autocrats to sow division and demonize major opponents. However, coalitions can be <a href="https://www.smerconish.com/exclusive-content/how-can-21st-century-autocrats-be-removed-from-power-lessons-from-hungary/">difficult to form and sustain to win</a>. Based on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/poland-parliamentary-election-autocracy-tusk/675656/">experiences overseas</a>, historian Anne Applebaum, author of “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725302/autocracy-inc-by-anne-applebaum/">Autocracy Inc.</a>,” has <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-weeknight/watch/historian-warns-a-chill-spreads-as-trump-admin-follows-familiar-authoritarian-playbook-248699461996">called for a pro-democracy coalition</a> in the U.S. that could unite independents, Libertarians, the Green Party, dissident Republicans and the Democratic Party.
<h2>4. Harness economic power</h2>
Everyday consumers can pressure wealthy elites and corporations that acquiesce to, or prop up, would-be autocrats through boycotts and other methods, like the “<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/teslatakedown">Tesla Takedown</a>” in the U.S. that preceded <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/jpmorgan-cuts-price-target-tesla-shares-brokerage-expects-lower-deliveries-2025-03-12/">a drop in Tesla share value</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-signals-his-time-leading-doge-is-coming-to-an-end/">owner Elon Musk’s departure from his government role</a>. General strikes, led by labor unions and <a href="https://civilresistance.info/sites/default/files/zunes-sudans-2019-revolution.pdf">professional associations</a>, as in Sudan or Myanmar, can be particularly effective.
<h2>5. Preempt electoral manipulation</h2>
Voting autocrats out of office remains the best way to restore democracy, demonstrated recently by the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/after-a-victory-for-democracy-what-is-brazils-road-ahead/">u-turn in Brazil</a>, where a pro-democracy candidate defeated the hard-right incumbent. But this requires strategic action to keep elections truly free and fair well in advance of election day.
<h2>6. Organize your community</h2>
As in campaigns in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/indias-farmers-protest-an-inclusive-vision-of-indian-democracy/78B4021417116DCC65F05177645AA34F">India</a> starting in 2020 and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/13/chile-crisis-town-hall-meetings-neighbours">Chile</a> in 2019, participating in community or private conversation forums, local town halls or councils, and nonpartisan student, veterans, farmers, women’s and religious groups provides the space to share concerns, exchange ideas and create avenues to take action. Often starting with trusted networks, local initiatives can tap into broader statewide or national efforts to defend democracy.
<h2>7. Shape the story</h2>
Driving <a href="https://www.ned.org/winning-the-battle-of-ideas-exposing-global-authoritarian-narratives-and-revitalizing-democratic-principles/">public opinion and communicating effectively</a> is critical to pro-democracy efforts. Serbian students created one of the <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/how-serbian-students-created-the-largest-protest-movement-in-decades/">largest protest movements in decades</a> starting in 2024 using <a href="https://eajournals.org/gjahss/vol13-issue-5-2025/creative-resistance-the-role-of-art-activism-in-advancing-social-justice/">creative resistance</a> – artistic expression, such as visual mediums, satire and social media – to expose an autocrat’s weaknesses, reduce fear and hopelessness and build collective symbolism and resilience.
<h2>8. Build bridges and democratic alternatives</h2>
Bringing together people across ideological and other divides can increase understanding and counter political polarization, particularly when religious leaders are involved. <a href="https://www.yuva.org.tr/en/izmir-citizens-assembly-for-climate/">Even in autocratic countries like Turkey</a> or <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/kyiv/local-initiatives.-success-stories">during wartime as in Ukraine</a>, deepening democratic practices at state and local levels, <a href="https://ecnl.org/news/citizens-assemblies-participatory-democracy-action">like citizen assemblies</a> and the use of technologies that improve the quality of public decision-making, can demonstrate ways to govern differently.
Parallel institutions, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-nov-30-mn-49188-story.html?utm_source">such as schools and tax systems</a> operating outside the formal repressive system, like during <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Kosovo-conflict">Slobodan Milosevic’s decade-long crackdown in Kosovo</a>, have sustained non-cooperation and shaped a future vision. 
<h2>9. Document abuses, protect people, reinforce truth</h2>
With today’s technologies, every citizen can <a href="https://www.witness.org/">record repressive incidents</a>, <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-corruption-foundation/31938527.html">track corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/22/nx-s1-5517973/smithsonian-document-citizen-historians">archive historical evidence</a> such as <a href="https://www.citizenhistorians.org/">preserving proof of slavery</a> at danger of being removed in public museums in the U.S., or <a href="https://syrianarchive.org/en/">collecting documentation of human rights violations in Syria</a>. This can also entail bearing witness, including by <a href="https://pbiusa.org/en/who-we-accompany-us">accompanying those most targeted</a> with abusive government tactics. These techniques can bolster the survival of independent and evidence-based media, science and collective memory.
<h2>10. Mitigate risk, learn and innovate</h2>
The <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-future-of-nonviolent-resistance-2/">success rate of nonviolent civil resistance is declining</a> while <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/article/new-report-regimes-are-expanding-ways-intimidate-and-silence-opponents">repressive tactics by autocrats are evolving</a>. Democracy defenders are forced to rapidly adjust, consistently train, prepare for diverse scenarios, try new techniques and <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2022/09/five-strategies-to-support-us-democracy?lang=en">strategically support each other</a>.
International solidarity from global institutions, like European Union support for democrats <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/belarus/">in Belarus</a> or <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/council-europe/eu-statement-georgia_en">Georgia</a>, or online movements, like the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9655-1_7">Milk Tea Alliance across Southeast Asia</a>, can bolster efforts. 
<h2>Democracy’s future?</h2>
The end of American democracy is not a foregone conclusion, despite the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2025-03-25/democracy-expert-raises-alarm-about-u-s-trends-under-trump">unprecedented rate</a> of its decline. It will depend, in part, on the choices made by every American. 
With <a href="https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/36317/autocracies-outnumber-democracies-for-the-first-time-in-20-years-v-dem/">autocracies outnumbering democracies for the first time in 20 years</a>, and only 12% of the world’s population now <a href="https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/36317/autocracies-outnumber-democracies-for-the-first-time-in-20-years-v-dem/">living in a liberal democracy</a>, the future of the global democratic experiment may well depend on the people of the United States.<img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/266432/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shelley-inglis-837513">Shelley Inglis</a>, Senior Visiting Scholar with the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rutgers-university-1240">Rutgers University</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest-266432">original article</a>.
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/10-effective-things-citizens-can-do-to-make-change-in-addition-to-attending-a-protest/">10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
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<title>Elderly Enemies of America and the No Kings March (Satire)</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/elderly-enemies-of-america-and-the-no-kings-march/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:13:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Authoritarianism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Protests]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Satire]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[extremism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[No Kings]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[No Kings march]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[seniors]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=287765</guid>
<description><![CDATA[“We refer to it by its more accurate description, the ‘hate America’ rally. They’re going to bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat party.” –– Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I joined residents from my retirement community<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/elderly-enemies-of-america-and-the-no-kings-march/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/dreamstime_s_14285258-e1760981063351.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="533" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287766" />
“We refer to it by its more accurate description, the ‘hate America’ rally. They’re going to bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat party.” –– Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House
By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO — I joined residents from my retirement community in a No Kings March. Little did they know I was an undercover agent for ICE. I keenly observed my peers for indications of whether they constituted the sinister cabal Johnson described. Here is my report:
I was suspicious of the walkers and canes they used that could be wielded as lethal weapons to attack the police. Conversing with them, I knew they were communists and socialists because they were receiving Medicare and Social Security benefits.
The source of their radical politics was obvious: they were born and raised under the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Some of them had previously participated in the anti-Vietnam war, civil rights, and feminist protests that had diminished this country’s ability to militarily intervene into the affairs of other countries and the power of white men to discriminate against people of color and women, rendering the United States the effeminate and weak laughingstock it had become until Donald Trump rectified these wrongs. Moreover, others were descended from immigrant parents and grandparents who inculcated into them alien values and a love of foreign cultures.
I checked to see if my peers belonged to Antifa or were anarchists and Democrat supporters of Hamas. One of them admitted that she had an Aunt Eva, but I think she merely stressed the long “e” to mislead me about her real political affiliations. She was wearing a mask which she deceptively claimed was intended to prevent the spread of her cold. Others struck me as anarchists since they questioned government policies like deporting the dangerous undocumented invaders who innocently contend that they are only here to escape persecution and provide for their families. None were waving Palestinian flags or wearing keffiyehs, but they were dropping “f” bombs right and left before saying Trump’s name. If that’s not a predictor of their capacity for terrorism, I don’t know what it is!
They do hate what America has become. They hate the way Trump, Congress, and the Supreme Court have violated constitutional freedoms like the right of assembly, due process, and free speech. Johnson knows what he’s talking about. That’s why he refuses to call the House of Representatives into session. Who knows what dangers would be unleashed if a few rogue House and Senate Republicans betrayed their party by denying Trump royal powers?
Laurie Baron, retired from San Diego State University, is a professor emeritus of history. <a href="https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2025/10/18/satire-elderly-enemies-of-america/">This article is reprinted from San Diego Jewish World </a>which, along with The Moderate Voice, is a member of the San Diego Online News Association.
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<title>TRUMP SHATTERS ANOTHER NORM: POSTS FAKE VIDEO SHOWING HIM DUMPING FECES ON PROTESTERS</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-shatters-another-norm-posts-fake-video-showing-him-dumping-feces-on-protesters/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-shatters-another-norm-posts-fake-video-showing-him-dumping-feces-on-protesters/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Protests]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ai]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[fake videos]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Harry Sisson]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[No Kings]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[No Kings protests]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Norms]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Polarization]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Trump feces dump]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Vulgarity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Vulgarization]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=287754</guid>
<description><![CDATA[When history is written — if in the future honest history is written — Donald Trump will go down as having done many negative things to American politics. But, above all, he’ll go down as a president who shattered norms, relentlessly worked to polarize and who contributed to the vulgarization of American politics. The latest<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-shatters-another-norm-posts-fake-video-showing-him-dumping-feces-on-protesters/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/eeeeeee.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287755" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/eeeeeee.jpg 768w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/eeeeeee-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />
When history is written — if in the future honest history is written — Donald Trump will go down as having done many negative things to American politics. But, above all, he’ll go down as a president who shattered norms, relentlessly worked to polarize and who contributed to the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/vulgarization">vulgarization</a> of American politics.
The latest episode in Trump’s lastest race to the political gutter came in the form of an AI video that<a href="https://www.memeorandum.com/251019/p44#a251019p44"> shows him dumping fecal matter</a> on No Kings demonstrators. <a href="https://www.nokings.org/news/nearly-7-million-people-attend-overwhelmingly-peaceful-no-kings-day-of-action">The organizers estimate</a> 7 million people participated. Trump soon responded with his video which also showed him specifically dumping crap on<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Sisson_(influencer)"> 23-year-old political influencer Harry Sission</a> who <a href="https://x.com/harryjsisson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">has 337.9k followers on X.</a>
Attention Harry: you are now likely to get many more followers on Twitter and on TikTok, be invited on more cable shows and will have a lucrative income from public speaking.
The video was shocking even coming from norm-shattering Trump. Whoever thought an american President would a)be so publicly vulgar, b)do a video reflecting his desire to dump fecal matter on 7 million people who oppose him c)do a video which underscored again how he is President of the base, for the base and of the base. Trump seemingly seeks to be president of Red America and punish Blue America, which he perceives as The Enemy. The latest news is that he’s considering cutting off all federal funding to California.
How did the media cover it? 
<a href="https://www.memeorandum.com/251019/p38#a251019p38">The New York Times:</a>
<blockquote>President Trump has posted a fake video on social media that showed him wearing a crown and flying a jet labeled “King Trump” that dumps brown liquid on protesters.
The short video, shared on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account late Saturday, was posted on the same day that protesters participated in a daylong mass demonstration, known as “No Kings,” against the Trump administration. The protests were held in cities and towns in all 50 states, with participants holding signs such as “I Pledge Allegiance to No King” and chanting slogans against the president, accusing him of acting in authoritarian ways.
The fake video, set to the song “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, shows the plane dropping a brown liquid resembling feces onto the heads of protesters, who appeared to be gathered in a city.
The White House on Saturday also posted on social media an A.I.-generated image of Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance wearing crowns. “Have a good night, everyone,” the post said, with the crown emoji.
<blockquote>.
<a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-posted-ai-video-062046140.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWVtZW9yYW5kdW0uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAeee5DoChg-nLJdH-ea8uady4dTfp0So2VBbt3MNtyO4Md0Fy3-ilUTZnef28wGifP_Rj1CinTNjy2y_p0qw_3pauBOR3Jx9mvicgD_pOIdKcrztemAFu1DNirezTi0AOyZArOf9VKpziO4fMBA8ANavwVPFkVThbQeIqDIUDpl">The Huff Post:</a>
<blockquote>Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated video of himself dumping shit on Americans marching in protest at his policies.
The bizarre clip shows the US president flying a fighter jet and wearing a crown as he targets those taking part in Saturday’s “No Kings” marches.
Trump posted the video on his Truth Social page late on Saturday night US time.
The 19-second clip starts with the jet, bearing the logo “King Trump” taking off from an airfield
Trump is then seen in the cockpit with a crown on his head and wearing military fatigues.
The video then pans out to show him dumping his brown payload, which proceeds to land on the heads of the marchers in the streets below.
It came after around 100,000 anti-Trump protesters marched in Washington DC to oppose the moves he has openly taken toward authoritarianism since his return to the White House in January.
They carried signs and wore clothing with messages ranging from the direct – “NO KINGS, NO NAZIS, NO TRUMP” – to the subtle – a cap with the words “Gulf of Mexico,” referring to his decree that it now be called the Gulf of America.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/king-trump-79-takes-dump-on-protestors-in-bonkers-ai-video/">The Daily Beast:</a>
<blockquote>President Donald Trump acknowledged the “No Kings” protests organized against him on Saturday by sharing a thoroughly bizarre AI-generated video of himself.
In the video, posted to Truth Social on Saturday evening, Trump—wearing a crown—can be seen flying a plane that has “KING TRUMP” emblazoned on the side.
As Kenny Loggins’ 1986 hit “Danger Zone” from Top Gun plays, “King” Trump flies over New York City and unloads several tons of mysterious brown sludge on protesters.
The first person struck by the sludge is 23-year-old liberal influencer Harry Sisson, who has become the target of MAGA ire for his criticisms of the president.
Many of Trump’s supporters have spent several days calling for Sisson—who was born in Singapore but is an American citizen—to be deported.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Reaction on social media was far more blunt (WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE FOLLOWS):</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
He's definitely not mad that 7 million Americans came out to protest him yesterday….<a href="https://t.co/tmLK8ajfkA">https://t.co/tmLK8ajfkA</a> <a href="https://t.co/vSsJH6CGBa">pic.twitter.com/vSsJH6CGBa</a>
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1979903257720893468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thanks to Trump for posting a video that proves the point of the protest <a href="https://t.co/jvUTD10CoY">https://t.co/jvUTD10CoY</a>
— Joni Askola (@joni_askola) <a href="https://twitter.com/joni_askola/status/1979813445920047273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I wonder what the Nobel peace prize committee will make of this…… <a href="https://t.co/tsbxSx397M">https://t.co/tsbxSx397M</a>
— Nick Bryant (@NickBryantNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickBryantNY/status/1979753615092015318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I for one do think it's possible for America to find a president better than one who, faced with claims he is dumping shit on Americans, posts a video showing himself dumping shit on Americans. <a href="https://t.co/ClCD1oZUY5">https://t.co/ClCD1oZUY5</a>
— George Conway ????? (@gtconway3d) <a href="https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1979874497307316733?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
As a once proud American, I am embarrassed the any US citizen would post such a video, let alone the president of our country. <a href="https://t.co/D3yMfPYesj">https://t.co/D3yMfPYesj</a>
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1979835727589650866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The president of the United States of America is posting memes of himself flying a fighter jet as a King, dropping crap on Harry Sisson and other No Kings Day protesters. 
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Americans are not being paid because of a government shutdown and he is… <a href="https://t.co/PBwyhf4eN9">pic.twitter.com/PBwyhf4eN9</a>
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1979873705485345258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
But seriously why would the President post an image on the Internet of airdropping feces on American cities? <a href="https://t.co/HFrJIFZaCg">https://t.co/HFrJIFZaCg</a>
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1979744703257157801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The wildest part about the largest protest in American history is that the president’s response was to post a video literally proving the point of the protest. <a href="https://t.co/02lNxxUsck">https://t.co/02lNxxUsck</a>
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1979752449146843351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
they said Kamala Harris was too emotional and unserious to be president. <a href="https://t.co/crsVJAGrbR">https://t.co/crsVJAGrbR</a>
— sean (@_sn_n) <a href="https://twitter.com/_sn_n/status/1979757024608141550?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
While wearing a Crown. <a href="https://t.co/KrWTsIlqGf">https://t.co/KrWTsIlqGf</a>
— John Avlon (@JohnAvlon) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnAvlon/status/1979903308732002736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Authoritarianism doesn't happen in a vacuum. It requires enablers. When a leader posts fantasies of monarchical rule, and his entire party looks the other way, they become complicit. The issue isn't just Trump's posts; it's the institutional decay of a party that refuses to be a… <a href="https://t.co/jShrnAcUBZ">https://t.co/jShrnAcUBZ</a>
— Andrew Weinstein (@Weinsteinlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/Weinsteinlaw/status/1979957330725753285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Trump posts an AI video of him dropping feces on American citizens.
The White House Press Secretary replies to a reporter “your mom.”
The Vice President laughs at jokes made by 20 and 30 year olds about rape, gas chambers, and Hitler.
How can anyone stand by this?
— Travis Akers ?? (@travisakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/1979908706172129503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Again, how the hell could someone elect this?? <a href="https://t.co/BsERuBwrff">https://t.co/BsERuBwrff</a>
— Oksii ? ?? (@Oksii33) <a href="https://twitter.com/Oksii33/status/1979836550264598764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“Hurrr durr were owning the libs”
Nah MAGA, you’re embarrassing yourselves, America, the office, and doing so while prices rise and Congress covers-up crimes.
I truly cannot think of something more pathetic, than thinking memes like this are “winning!” <a href="https://t.co/Dg4krYj6Xk">https://t.co/Dg4krYj6Xk</a>
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) <a href="https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/1979755810533302690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I’m from Scotland.
We have inept politicians here. 
Politicians with bad judgement, poor policies and lack of integrity.
But no politician in Scotland, the UK or Europe for that matter comes even close to how absolutely embarrassing Trump is… <a href="https://t.co/Kbsm3ngQcx">https://t.co/Kbsm3ngQcx</a>
— Stu Cameron (@stucam7771) <a href="https://twitter.com/stucam7771/status/1979837281633747188?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump is a sick man. <a href="https://t.co/XtTtUX7KGP">https://t.co/XtTtUX7KGP</a>
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1979893296135897301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump posted an AI video showing him DUMPING FECES on No Kings protesters. Here is how the media covered it:
1. NYT: Trump Posts Fake Video of Himself Flying a ‘King Trump’ Jet Over Protesters 
2. Axios: Trump posts fake video in "KING TRUMP" jet as GOP dismisses No Kings…
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) <a href="https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1980064800974508468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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One day, historians will explain why a sitting U.S. President posted an AI video of himself flying a plane that drops feces on Americans, during a shutdown, on the same day as the largest protest in U.S. history defending Social Security, health care, and the Constitution.
— Karly Kingsley (@karlykingsley) <a href="https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/1979983537915732419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The AI video Trump posted of himself dumping shit all over America from a plane was metaphorically the most accurate piece of propaganda he’s put out this year.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1980078185946718528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
In the past week: 
•Trump attacked me with an AI video •JD Vance joined in and went after me •MAGA got “Deport Harry Sisson” trending number one on X
Guys… I think Trump and his fans don’t like me. I wonder why? I wear it as a badge of honor and I’ll keep calling them out.
— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) <a href="https://twitter.com/harryjsisson/status/1980044277347430640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I’ve said it but I’m going to continue saying it, for documentation sake.
Posts from the President and White House like this are a shame for the office of the presidency — no matter who holds it. 
Depicting a sitting president dropping waste on citizens crosses every line of… <a href="https://t.co/o4fJ8qNBaD">https://t.co/o4fJ8qNBaD</a>
— Amber Speaks Up (@AmberWoods100) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmberWoods100/status/1979795462044500052?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s super alpha to get all angry about protests and post AI videos of yourself dropping feces on America because you can’t handle your emotions, oh and wearing an oxygen mask like a douche helmet because you’re a fatso <a href="https://t.co/BtBZFweHdD">pic.twitter.com/BtBZFweHdD</a>
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) ???? (@AdamKinzinger) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamKinzinger/status/1980075706806944117?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The press will ask a few Republicans about this video and they'll claim they haven't seen it and the story will blow over within 24 hours where if any other American politician in the last 50 years did anything like this it would be in the first paragraph of their obituary. <a href="https://t.co/AkKW5Ucf8B">https://t.co/AkKW5Ucf8B</a>
— Poker and Politics (@PokerPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/PokerPolitics/status/1979743467640430625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
An accurate representation of how this kind of leader really feels about those he governs. Autocrats starve kill jail impoverish and use and discard people because they feel scorn for humanity. <a href="https://t.co/aHwe2F3cwM">https://t.co/aHwe2F3cwM</a>
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) <a href="https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1979751641067954674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump has made America an international laughingstock <a href="https://t.co/bl5po92wEn">https://t.co/bl5po92wEn</a>
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1979748812509053212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reminder: The people who protect nukes may be furloughed bc of the shutdown bc they are not "essential."
Donald Trump decided that whatever sweaty incel who made this *is* essential. <a href="https://t.co/wY0UmjYKJn">https://t.co/wY0UmjYKJn</a>
— emptywheel (check) (@emptywheel) <a href="https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1979758205040574853?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rando person with vaguely lefty politics posts one lightly insulting thing toward conservative Americans and it becomes a national scandal. 
President of the United States uses taxpayers money to generate a video of himself literally shitting on his constituents and… what? <a href="https://t.co/N8rmNnwZ2Y">https://t.co/N8rmNnwZ2Y</a>
— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) <a href="https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/1979861394771325024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bailout for Argentina while American farmers suffer. Health care costs soar as the super rich get more tax cuts. Out of control corruption. He and his family enrich themselves while pushing your cultural buttons with nonsense. Wake up MAGA. This is what Trump does to you. <a href="https://t.co/r7AJzLzPwU">https://t.co/r7AJzLzPwU</a>
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1979895058154623243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
He’s not funny. And he’s not well. <a href="https://t.co/QRS5by0e1s">https://t.co/QRS5by0e1s</a>
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) <a href="https://twitter.com/juliettekayyem/status/1979887047314981090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The U.S. president posting this video — of him literally shitting on his own citizens for protesting — sums up his perspective on the First Amendment. <a href="https://t.co/GH1yFSqe2G">https://t.co/GH1yFSqe2G</a>
— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/1979882038556782814?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is what Trump posted today in response to the largest protest in US history.
This man is clinically insane. <a href="https://t.co/CpODtr76Lc">pic.twitter.com/CpODtr76Lc</a>
— Daractenus (@Daractenus) <a href="https://twitter.com/Daractenus/status/1979827701071659406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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I think it’s clear who actually hates America. <a href="https://t.co/Hr4wZnmVsT">https://t.co/Hr4wZnmVsT</a>
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahLongwell25/status/1979875181045964867?ref_src=twsr
c%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Well. The president is posting more insane AI videos while his shutdown heads into week 4. And 24 million Americans are about to see their health care premiums double or triple.
He is unhinged beyond comprehension. <a href="https://t.co/P4eZ0o9Aco">https://t.co/P4eZ0o9Aco</a>
— Yassamin Ansari (@yassaminansari) <a href="https://twitter.com/yassaminansari/status/1979758337727336457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The President of the United States has posted an AI video of himself unloading tons of raw sewage on American cities.
One of the targets in the AI video is Harry Sisson. <a href="https://t.co/wMTzGp3scY">pic.twitter.com/wMTzGp3scY</a>
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1979742306350907535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Trump posted an AI video of himself wearing a crown and dumping shit from a “King Trump” jet on No Kings protesters.
This is where we are as a country. <a href="https://t.co/rnzUkJ4C4K">pic.twitter.com/rnzUkJ4C4K</a>
— PatriotTakes ?? (@patriottakes) <a href="https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1979730605458755991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<title>Comments against voting rights restrictions due Oct. 20</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/comments-against-voting-rights-restrictions-due-oct-20/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/comments-against-voting-rights-restrictions-due-oct-20/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[KATHY GILL, Associate Editor]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:56:44 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[The movement to restrict voting access, this time led by Stephen Miller, has petitioned the Election Assistance Commission to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote by mail. As many have noted over the years, it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. Thus White House aide Miller is proposing a “solution” to a<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/comments-against-voting-rights-restrictions-due-oct-20/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/comments-against-voting-rights-restrictions-due-oct-20/reg-cropped-125px-adobestock_707937832/" rel="attachment wp-att-287749"><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/reg-cropped-125px-AdobeStock_707937832.png" alt="close up of US voter registration form with pen" width="2000" height="1164" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-287749" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/reg-cropped-125px-AdobeStock_707937832.png 2000w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/reg-cropped-125px-AdobeStock_707937832-300x175.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" /></a>
The movement to restrict voting access, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Legal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">this time led by Stephen Miller</a>, has petitioned the Election Assistance Commission to require <a href="https://cdn.wildapricot.com/203628/resources/Documents/Newsletter%20Archives/Newsletter%20Documents/Resisting%20Threats%20to%20Democracy/Example%20of%20comments%20to%20EAC_10.16.25.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">proof of citizenship when registering to vote by mail</a>.
As many have noted over the years, it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. 
Thus White House aide Miller is proposing a “solution” to a non-existent problem. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/10/12/nx-s1-5147789/voting-election-2024-noncitizen-fact-check-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From NPR last year</a>:
<blockquote class="highlight">There’s no evidence for the claim, which echoes a racist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.”
[…]
After the 2016 election, the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for voting rights, surveyed local election officials in 42 jurisdictions with high immigrant populations and found just 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes cast, or 0.0001%.
[…]
The Washington Post reviewed a Heritage database of voter fraud cases and found 85 cases relating to allegations of noncitizens voting between 2002 and 2023.
</blockquote>
In July, <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/30/noncitizen-voting-remains-exceedingly-rare-new-review-finds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UCLA election law professor Rick Hasen</a> told Oregon Public Broadcasting:
<blockquote class="highlight">
“It really is not a big problem, both because on the individual level, it would be hard to get noncitizens to agree to it. And on the broader level, it’s just not a very cost-effective way to try to steal an election.”
</blockquote>
This is not a rulemaking but a proposal for rulemaking. Nevertheless, it’s important to point out that a rulemaking is not needed to solve a non-existent problem. And, as Victoria Francis, deputy director of state and local initiatives of the American Immigration Council, told Democracy Docket, “<a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/states-investigate-noncitizen-voting/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Laws are meant to address real problems</a>.” 
 
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EAC-2025-0236-0001" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Submit comments on the federal rulemaking website by Monday, October 20</a>. Sample text for this ‘much ado about nothing’ wedge issue:
<blockquote class="highlight">
I am writing to oppose the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) from conducting a rulemaking regarding adding documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) to the federal voter registration form.
I oppose requiring citizens to submit a passport or other citizenship documents to register to vote because this is a “solution” looking for a “problem” that does not exist. In 2016, the Brennon Center, for example, found evidence of 0.0001% of suspected noncitizen votes out of 23.5 million votes cast. Suspected, not confirmed.
Moreover, such a regulation would be the opposite of efficiency in spending, a talking point of this Administration. Citizenship verification will be very expensive. There are many well-documented needs in our country where our tax dollars could be spent far more efficiently and effectively, such as mental health care, affordable housing, and health insurance costs. 
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
</blockquote>
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<title>YOUNG REPUBLICAN ELEPHANT WITH HITLER FACE</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/young-republican-elephant-with-hitler-face/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[CAGLE CARTOONS]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:01:08 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Banning abortion is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/banning-abortion-is-a-hallmark-of-authoritarian-regimes/</link>
<comments>https://themoderatevoice.com/banning-abortion-is-a-hallmark-of-authoritarian-regimes/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest Voice]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:56:15 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Abortion rights protesters march against Trump’s deployment of federal troops to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 2, 2025. Jose Luis Magana/AP Seda Saluk, University of Michigan Pregnant women crossing borders to get an abortion. People who miscarry facing jail time or dying from infection. Doctors who won’t perform lifesaving procedures on a pregnant patient for fear<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/banning-abortion-is-a-hallmark-of-authoritarian-regimes/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[ <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/694836/original/file-20251007-56-vayp0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C313%2C6000%2C3375&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" /><figcaption>
Abortion rights protesters march against Trump’s deployment of federal troops to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 2, 2025. 
<a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search?query=abortion%20rights%20protest&mediaType=photo">Jose Luis Magana/AP</a> 
</figcaption><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/seda-saluk-1534887">Seda Saluk</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a>
Pregnant women <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/world/americas/mexico-abortion-women-border.html">crossing borders to get an abortion</a>. People who miscarry <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/10/31/stillbirth-oklahoma-arkansas-women-investigated">facing jail time</a> or <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban">dying from infection</a>. Doctors who <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2024/04/24/im-an-er-doctor-if-the-supreme-court-upends-emtala-patients-will-die/">won’t perform lifesaving procedures on a pregnant patient</a> for fear of prosecution.
For years, this was the kind of thing that happened in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/22/more-than-30000-polish-women-sought-or-foreign-abortions-since-law-change-last-year">Poland</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/world/americas/27iht-web.1127nicaragua.3680485.html">Nicaragua</a> or <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61798330">El Salvador</a>. Now, it’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-arrest-miscarriage-fetal-personhood-rcna199400">headline news in the United States</a>.
As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UMxj894AAAAJ&hl=en">a scholar who studies the relationship between reproductive rights and political regimes</a>, I see the U.S. mirroring a pattern that has happened in authoritarian regimes around the world. When a government erects barriers to comprehensive reproductive care, it doesn’t just <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797896">cause more death and suffering</a> for women and their families. Such policies are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/expanding-abortion-access-strengthens-democracy-while-abortion-bans-signal-broader-repression-worldwide-study-240278">a first step in the gradual decline of democracies</a>.
Yet, the U.S. is different in a meaningful way. Here, abortion has historically been framed as a personal right to privacy. In many other countries I’ve studied, abortion is viewed more as a collective right that is inextricably tied to broader social and economic issues.
The American individualist perspective on abortion can make it harder for people in the U.S. to understand why banning abortion can serve as a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/ticking-time-bomb-restrictions-on-abortion-rights-and-physical-integrity-rights-abuses/8E033094CB21BB7428E2C4D7AECA6C72">back door for the erosion of civil liberties – and of democracy itself</a>.
<h2>Autocrats target abortion first</h2>
Restricting reproductive rights is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.
From <a href="https://news.uoregon.edu/content/history-fascism-reproductive-rights-offers-lessons-today">Benito Mussolini’s Italy</a> in 1926 and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-01-04/stalins-abortion-ban-soviet-union">Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union</a> in 1936 to <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/abortion-rights-in-spain-back-to-past/">Francisco Franco’s Spain</a> in 1941 and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/15/romania-exposes-how-abortion-bans-kill-women-rip-society-apart/">Nicolae Ceau?escu’s Romania</a> in 1966, the first move most 20th-century dictators made after seizing power was to criminalize abortion and contraception.
Initially, for some of those autocratic leaders, limiting access to abortion and contraception was a strategy to gain the approval of the nation’s religious leaders. The Catholic Church held great power in Italy and Spain, as did <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130500051924">the Orthodox Church</a> in Romania. At the time, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2004.00002.x">these faiths opposed artificial birth control</a> and still believe life begins at conception.
Restrictions on reproductive rights <a href="https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1936-2/abolition-of-legal-abortion/">also aimed</a> to <a href="https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2015/01/13/inenglish/1421140333_379388.html">increase</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0738399195008519">birth rates</a> following two world wars that had stamped out some of the population, particularly in the Soviet Union and Italy. Many political leaders saw <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3789509">procreation as a national duty</a>. They designated women – white, heterosexual women, that is – specific roles, primarily as mothers, to produce babies as well as future soldiers and workers for their regimes.
In the past two decades, countries in Europe and the Americas have been following this recognizable pattern. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/31/nicaragua-abortion-ban-threatens-health-and-lives">Nicaragua</a> and <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/un-cedaw-report-poland-abortion/">Poland</a> have both banned abortion. <a href="https://populationmatters.org/news/2025/01/viktor-orbans-hungary-the-erosion-of-reproductive-rights/">Hungary</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/05/legal-yet-virtually-banned-turkish-women-denied-right-to-free-safe-abortions">Turkey</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/28/russia-limits-womens-access-to-abortion-citing-demographic-changes">Russia</a> have all clamped down on access to it.
Restricting reproductive freedoms has helped Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdo?an stoke lasting political divisions within society that help them consolidate their own power.
These leaders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2024.102947">invoke a threat of moral and demographic decline</a>, claiming that child-free women, queer people and immigrants pose a danger to national survival. In doing so, they portray themselves as defenders of their respective nations. It’s a way to regain and retain popular support even as their policies <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/once-prosperous-hungary-is-now-the-poorest-nation-in-eu-meanwhile-this-tiny-nation-tops-the-wealth-rankings/articleshow/121978907.cms?from=mdr">deepen poverty</a>, <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/reports/democracy-human-rights-and-rule-of-law-in-russia-making-the-case/">erode civil liberties</a> and <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2014/corruption-media-and-power-turkey">increase corruption</a>.
These politicians have also taken power away from a significant portion of the population by reinstating earlier, fascist-era restrictions on bodily autonomy. As <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2020/Discussion-paper-Democratic-backsliding-and-the-backlash-against-womens-rights-en.pdf">feminist scholars</a> have pointed out, strong reproductive rights are central to functioning democracies.
Restrictions on reproductive freedoms often necessitate other kinds of restrictions to enforce and maintain them. These might include <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/04/texass-war-abortion-now-war-free-speech">free speech limits</a> that prohibit providers from discussing people’s reproductive options. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/13-protesters-arrested-supreme-court-ahead-abortion-pill/story?id=108506592">Criminalizing political dissent</a> enables the arrest of people who protest restrictions on reproductive freedoms. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/idaho-most-extreme-anti-abortion-state-law-restricts-travel-rcna78225/">Travel bans</a> threaten prison time for individuals who help young people get abortion care out of state.
When these civil liberties weaken, it becomes harder to defend other rights. Without the right to speak, dissent or move freely, people cannot engage in conversations, organize or voice collective grievances.
<h2>Putting the US in a global context</h2>
In 2022, <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/roe-v-wade/">the U.S.</a> joined the likes of Poland and Hungary when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of federal abortion protections.
President Donald Trump was not in power when this happened. Yet the Supreme Court’s conservative majority was shaped during <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2019/02/06/trump-targets-abortion-state-of-the-union/">his first term</a>.
Since then, both the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/trump-veterans-affairs-abortion-ban">second Trump administration</a> and many states have enacted <a href="https://time.com/7291156/trump-emergency-abortion-guidance/">their own regulations</a> or bans on abortion. This has created a divided country where in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html">some states</a> abortion is as restricted as it is under some of the world’s most autocratic regimes.
Yet, there’s a key difference.
In the U.S., abortion is viewed by the law and the public as a matter of individual rights. The debate often boils down to whether a person should be allowed to terminate their pregnancy.
In many other contexts, reproductive rights are understood as a collective good that benefits all society – or, conversely, harms all society when revoked.
This perspective can be a powerful driver of change. It’s how, for example, women’s and feminist groups in places such as <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/historic-vote-argentina-legalize-abortion/">Argentina</a>, <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/colombia-court-decriminalize-abortion/">Colombia</a> and <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/mexico-supreme-court-decriminalizes-abortion-federal/">Mexico</a> have successfully pressured their governments to decriminalize abortion in recent years.
Since 2018, the movement known as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/01/opinion/abortion-latin-america.html">Latin America’s Green Wave, or “Marea Verde</a>” for their green protest bandannas, has deliberately and strategically <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/27/1107717283/abortion-rights-green-symbol">reframed abortion as a human right</a> and used that assertion to expand reproductive rights.
The Latin American <a href="https://im-defensoras.org/en/2024/04/resumen-ejecutivo/#los-derechos-que-defendemos">feminist activists have also documented</a> how restricting abortion intensifies authoritarianism and worsens both individual and collective rights.
In a region where many citizens remember life under military dictatorship, highlighting the relationship between abortion and authoritarianism may be particularly galvanizing.
<h2>Limits of framing abortion as an individual right</h2>
<a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade in 1973</a> recognized abortion as a private medical decision between “<a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/roe-v-wade">the woman and her responsible physician</a>” up to the point of fetal viability ? roughly around 24 to 26 weeks ? and that framing has stuck.
This was basically what the mainstream pro-choice movement advocated for at the time. White feminists saw abortion rights <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pro-choice-movement">as a personal liberty</a>. This framing has real limitations.
As Black and brown <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/books/reproductive-justice/paper">reproductive justice advocates</a> have long pointed out, Roe <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/07/30/fetal-viability-missouri-abortion-amendment/">never served women of color or poor people particularly well</a> because of underlying unequal access to health care. Their work has, for decades, illustrated the strong connection between racial, economic and reproductive justice, yet abortion is still largely regarded as solely an individual issue.
When debates about reproductive freedoms are framed as fights over individual rights, it can engender a legal quagmire. Other entities with rights emerge – the fetus, for example, or a potential grandparent – and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2012.675046">are pitted against the pregnant person</a>.
Recently, for instance, a pregnant woman declared brain dead in Georgia <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/05/21/adriana-smith-died-3-months-ago-georgia-could-make-smiths-family-pay-to-use-her-as-a-human-incubator/">was kept alive for several months</a> until her fetus became viable, apparently to comply with the state’s strict anti-abortion law. As her <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/funeral-plans-adriana-smith-georgia-mom-delivered-baby-life-support-brain-dead/85-d0fce1e8-f37e-4a2f-a043-a64da11c2f13">mother told the press</a>, her family had no say in the matter.
Narrowly focusing on abortion as an individual right can also obscure why banning it has societal impacts.
<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19609407/">Research worldwide</a> shows that restricting reproductive freedoms <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/05/27/1099739656/do-restrictive-abortion-laws-actually-reduce-abortion-a-global-map-offers-insigh">does not</a> lead to fewer abortions. Abortion bans only make abortion dangerous as people turn to unregulated “back alley” procedures. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8d9z853jndo">Maternal and infant mortality rates rise</a>, especially in marginalized communities.
Simply stated: More women and babies <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/09/16/infant-mortality-rises-in-states-with-restrictive-abortion-laws-new-research/">die when abortion and contraception laws become more restrictive</a>.
Other kinds of suffering increase, too. Women and their families tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224241292058">become poorer</a> when contraception and abortion are hard to get.
Abortion bans also lead to discriminatory practices in health care beyond reproductive health services, such as <a href="https://phr.org/our-work/resources/cascading-harms-how-abortion-bans-lead-to-discriminatory-care-across-medical-specialties/">oncology, neurology and cardiology</a>. Physicians who fear criminalization are forced to withhold or alter gold-standard treatments for pregnant patients, for example, or they may prescribe less effective drugs out of concern about legal consequences should patients later become pregnant.
<a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2025/06/04/what-is-emtala-how-trump-just-overrode-federal-law-on-emergency-abortions/">Lifesaving procedures</a> in the emergency room must await a negative pregnancy test.
As a result, abortion bans decrease the quality and effectiveness of medical care for many patients, not just those who are pregnant.
<h2>Defending reproductive freedoms for healthy democracies</h2>
These findings demonstrate why reproductive rights are really a collective good. When viewed this way, it illuminates why they are an essential element of democracy.
Already, the rollback of reproductive freedoms in the U.S. has been followed by efforts to limit other key areas of freedoms, including <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/18/nx-s1-5421276/scotus-transgender-kids-decision">LGBTQ rights</a>, <a href="https://www.freedomforum.org/free-speech-facing-threats-2025/">freedom of speech</a> and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-travel-ban-exceptions-immigrants-visa-4d5a4d07a4430dd1e1cf24511370bc0e">right to travel</a>.
Access to safe abortion for pregnant people, gender-affirming care for trans youth, and international travel for noncitizens are intertwined rights – not isolated issues.
When the government starts stripping away any of these rights, I believe it signals serious trouble for democracy.
This story is published in collaboration with <a href="http://www.rewirenewsgroup.com/">Rewire News Group</a>, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering reproductive and sexual health.<img loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/265459/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/seda-saluk-1534887">Seda Saluk</a>, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-abortion-is-a-hallmark-of-authoritarian-regimes-265459">original article</a>.
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[Donations received as of 10/15/25: $290 The Moderate Voice hasn’t done a fundraiser in quite a while — and now is the time. TMV is one of a small number of traditional news-political blogs that remains in a social media-powered era. Its posts appear on a phone news app and also on Google News. Over<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/donate-to-the-moderate-voice/"> […]</a>
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Donations received as of 10/15/25: $290
The Moderate Voice hasn’t done a fundraiser in quite a while — and now is the time. TMV is one of a small number of traditional news-political blogs that remains in a social media-powered era. Its posts appear on a phone news app and also on Google News. Over the years, it won various awards and some well-known print and broadcast journalists have praised it.
The time has com for a needed fundraiser. TMV gets a modest bit of advertising but it has no big corporate sponsor, no political group bolstering it, no big donation from an individual. It will be increasingly adding more variety (entertainment reviews, book reviews etc) going into 2026, a critical mid-term election year.
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<title>Why Argentina? Bessent teases another $20,000,000,000 bailout</title>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[KATHY GILL, Associate Editor]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:01:32 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[The Argentine mid-term elections are in 11 days, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is teasing the possibility of doubling US investment in a country marked with “financial risks from debt obligations, rapid inflation, and reduced investor appetites (CIA).” Bessent called this a “private-sector” endeavor, one he has been working on for “weeks.” The aid<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/why-argentina-bessent-teases-another-20000000000-bailout/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/us-aims-to-raise-20bn-facility-to-support-argentinas-struggling-economy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Argentine mid-term elections are in 11 days</a>, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is <a href="https://www.memeorandum.com/251015/p78#a251015p78" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">teasing the possibility of doubling</a> US investment in a country marked with “<a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/argentina/#economy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">financial risks from debt obligations, rapid inflation, and reduced investor appetites</a> (CIA).”
Bessent called this <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/us-aims-to-raise-20bn-facility-to-support-argentinas-struggling-economy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a “private-sector” endeavor</a>, one he has been <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/15/bessent-says-u-s-considers-doubling-aid-to-argentina-by-tapping-outside-funding-00609011" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">working on for “weeks</a>.”
<blockquote class="highlight">The aid is aimed at bolstering Argentina’s collapsing currency and calming economic unrest before Oct. 26 midterm elections that will determine if the country’s leader, Javier Milei, an ally of President Donald Trump, will maintain a political mandate to pursue a dramatic government cost-cutting agenda. Bessent said the U.S. bought Argentinian pesos again on Wednesday morning.</blockquote>
That announcement led to a “rebound” in stocks. News reports have outlined how that benefits <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-argentina-bailout-hedge-fund-billionaire-rob-citrone-scott-bessent/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bessent bud, billionaire hedge fund manager Rob Citrone</a>. 
<blockquote class="highlight">Citrone, the co-founder of Discovery Capital Management, is also a friend and former colleague of Bessent—a fact that has not been previously reported in US media outlets. Citrone, by his own account, helped make Bessent very wealthy.
Since Javier Milei, a right-wing populist, became president of Argentina in December 2023, Citrone has invested heavily in Argentina. </blockquote>
<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/oct/14/argentinas-javier-milei-arrives-white-house-20-billion-currency-swap/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Argentine President Javier Mile met with President Donald Trump</a> at the White House on Wednesday, where Trump pulled no punches on his ROI expectations.
<blockquote class="highlight">Trump also said continued U.S. support for Argentina is contingent on Mr. Milei winning reelection later this month. If he loses, Mr. Trump said, “We are not going to be generous with Argentina.”</blockquote>
Trump is undoubtedly hoping that Mile’s plan of “<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-argentina-bailout-hedge-fund-billionaire-rob-citrone-scott-bessent/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">deregulation and sharply reduced government spending</a>” proves a successful model he can crow about.
After all, a sign of Mile’s unpopularity is mirrored in <a href="https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53161-government-shutdown-donald-trump-approval-ice-immigration-economy-doj-justice-department-conversion-therapy-october-10-13-2025-economist-yougov-poll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">public unhappiness</a> with <a href="https://time.com/7324702/argentina-milei-economy-peso-scandal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump policies</a>:
<blockquote class="highlight">In early October, lawmakers resoundingly overturned two vetoes that were part of his economic reform process: Argentina’s Senate voted 59-7 to overturn Milei’s block on new funding for universities and 58-7 against his attempt to veto new money for pediatric health?care. The Chamber of Deputies, Argentina’s lower house, had already rejected Milei’s vetoes.</blockquote>
Just last week, Mile’s party’s top candidate for the province of Buenos Aires, José Luis Espert, “had to pull out of the race over his ties (no need for the world ‘alleged’) to Federico ‘Fred’ Machado, <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/10/the-javier-milei-clown-show-reaches-its-grotesque-finale.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an Argentine businessman who is under arrest and facing extradition to the US on charges of cocaine trafficking</a>.”
The <a href="https://time.com/7324702/argentina-milei-economy-peso-scandal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">referendum on Mile’s policies</a> looks grim:
<blockquote class="highlight">[A]fter the midterms, Milei will likely have to take the hugely controversial step of devaluing the Argentine peso, and for that he’ll need the full support of his base. A tepid election showing will make it more difficult. His party already holds just seven out of 72 seats in the Senate and 38 out of 257 seats in the Chamber in Argentina’s fragmented politics.</blockquote>
So, why Argentina? Bessent has an apparent quid pro quo of some sort going with Citrone. Trump wants external validation for extraordinary government cuts. The two seem to me to be a thin veneer cushioning a $40,000,000,000 gamble. What else is lurking in the shadows?
Related: <a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-offers-argentina-20-billion-lifeline/">Trump offers Argentina $20 billion lifeline</a> (2025), <a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/the-election-of-javier-milei-and-the-challenges-of-an-impoverished-argentina/">The election of Javier Milei and the challenges of an impoverished Argentina</a> (2023)
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<title>‘The Battle Within’ Offers Hope for Veterans and First Responders</title>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dorian de Wind, Military Affairs Correspondent]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:29:36 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[(September was Suicide Prevention Month. October 28 will be National First Responders Day and, of course, November 11 is Veterans Day. This article is dedicated to honoring the Service, dedication, and sacrifices of these brave men and women.) Throughout history, fighting men and women have lived with the terrible physical and mental scars of war.<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/the-battle-within-offers-hope-for-veterans-and-first-responders/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[ <img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-05-150753.png" alt="" width="300" height="260" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287480" />
(September was Suicide Prevention Month. October 28 will be National First Responders Day and, of course, November 11 is Veterans Day. This article is dedicated to honoring the Service, dedication, and sacrifices of these brave men and women.) 
Throughout history, fighting men and women have lived with the terrible physical and mental scars of war.
However, it was not until the end of the Vietnam War that the serious, long-term consequences of traumatic stress of war on the mental health of active-duty service members and Veterans began to be seriously studied and understood.
Perhaps a turning point in understanding and defining the psychological costs of war was the 1988 National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study (NVVRS) <a href="https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB90164203.xhtml">designed to </a>“provide information about the incidence, prevalence, and effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related post-war psychological problems among Vietnam veterans…”
Since then, numerous additional research studies have shown that veterans of the post-9/11 conflicts (“Persian Gulf” and Iraq/Afghanistan wars) experienced at disturbing rates mental health disorders, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury (TBI),labelled the “signature injury” of those conflicts.
Such traumatic war stress has led to a dramatic increase in depression, anxiety and personality disorders, drug and alcohol abuse.
However, nothing says more about the mental health crisis among our veterans than<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/for-veterans-veterans-day_b_4247047"> the staggering number of veterans who take their own lives</a>.
<a href="https://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Suicide-Data-Report-2012-final.pdf">A 2012 VA “Suicide Data Report”</a> revealed that 22 veterans did exactly that – took their own lives – every day. That is one veteran committing suicide every 65 minutes!
While such suicide rates remained unacceptably high during the last two decades, the promising news is that they began to fall in 2020 through 2022. 
<a href="https://news.va.gov/137221/va-2024-suicide-prevention-annual-report/">
According to the most recent (2024) VA National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report</a>, in 2022, there were, on average, 17.6 Veteran suicides per day.
But whether 17.6, 22, or even fewer veteran suicides a day, it is an unacceptable statistic.
The mental health crisis among Veterans remains “a serious national concern,” according to the VA, <a href="https://www.va.gov/health-care/health-needs-conditions/mental-health/">“with over 1.7 million veterans receiving mental health services at VA facilities in 2024” </a> 
Expansive and excellent as the VA mental health services are, there remains an urgent need for additional complementary and supportive services.
Numerous organizations, community outreach and support groups, service networks, and nonprofits have stepped up to provide additional and much-needed mental health therapy and counselling, crisis intervention services and peer support, or to connect veterans with the help they direly need.
One such organization is The Battle Within (TBW), an Olathe, Kansas-based nonprofit that not only provides mental health services to Veterans, but also to First Responders, including firefighters, frontline medical and law enforcement personnel affected by service-related trauma and PTSD.
Its mission is simple, yet powerful: “To promote mental health in the lives of people who have continually been thrust into extraordinary circumstances.”
Founded in 2018 by more than 100 Veterans, First Responders (people who “have been there”), and community members, The Battle Within provides Veterans and First Responders with the mental and behavioral health care and support they need after going through traumatic events.
Its Executive Director, Justin Hoover, a Purple Heart recipient himself, came home from the battlefields of Iraq with mental health issues and channeled his personal experiences into “empowering veterans and first responders to navigate their mental health journeys,” through The Battle Within.
He was assisted in this journey by a psychotherapist named Adam Magers, also a combat veteran and now a Clinical Manager at TBW and author of “Odysseus and The Oar: Healing after War & Military Service,” a book that can be “understood as a map to veterans’ healing and transformation process after war and military service…”
Magers is also the architect behind the curriculum for “Revenant Journey,” one of the two flagship programs of the organization.
<figure id="attachment_287708" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287708" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBW-firepit.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1536" class="size-full wp-image-287708" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBW-firepit.jpg 2048w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBW-firepit-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287708" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy The Battle Within</figcaption></figure>
The “Journey” is a 5-day intensive group therapy program designed to help Veterans and First Responders suffering from PTSD understand the traumas they have endured in service, to provide an introduction to tools that set the stage for healing, and to develop a community of support…”a collective effort where we wrap our arms around each other, hold hands, and work together to climb out of the depths of pain and trauma.”
The Revenant Journey is aptly described as a “jump start” to the therapy process.
The other major program, “Frontline Therapy Network,” helps select the proper therapy and therapists from a vetted, nation-wide psychotherapy referral network of more than 100 licensed mental health professionals. Through therapy sessions, Veterans and First Responders can begin traumas treatment and start their journey toward mental wellness. After “graduation,” Veterans and First Responders are connected with long-term care options, designed to complete the journey to recovery.
Whether called loyal pets, devoted military working dogs, ferocious four-legged warriors or gentle therapy, comfort and service dogs,<a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/military-weekendto-the-dogs/"> these creatures are very close to my heart.</a> 
That is why I find the third TBW program, Dogs 4 Valor, so interesting.
Dogs 4 Valor is a 6 to 9-month service-dog training and certification program in the Olathe-Kansas City area that pairs retired Veterans and First Responders with service dogs to help manage anxiety, depression, PTSD triggers and other daily-life challenges. The program nurtures a deep and trusting relationship and understanding between each handler and their dog and helps participants regain their confidence and improve their quality of life by encouraging them to engage in social activities and feel comfortable in public spaces.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O’Brien (below), who “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/service-dogs-veterans-ptsd-4b9e73723549d1c7f25a1b7b8dc249d1">brought home with her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder</a>” after a tour of duty at a dangerous internment camp in Iraq, is — along with her lab-poodle mix Albus — a 2023 graduate of the Dogs 4 Valor program.
<figure id="attachment_287475" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287475" style="width: 1073px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-05-153736.png" alt="" width="1073" height="598" class="size-full wp-image-287475" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-05-153736.png 1073w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-05-153736-300x167.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 1073px) 100vw, 1073px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287475" class="wp-caption-text">Screenshot AP News video</figcaption></figure>
In an interview O’Brien <a href="https://apnews.com/article/service-dogs-veterans-ptsd-4b9e73723549d1c7f25a1b7b8dc249d1">tells AP News</a> that she can now go out in public again, even going on vacation. “Things that I never would have thought I would do really, probably ever again,” she says.
Since 2018, The Battle Within has served more than 1,000 Veterans and First Responders.
BTW receives numerous laudatory comments from program participants. There is perhaps no more powerful testimonial than one from a Revenant Journey graduate: “…It saved my life, my marriage and my faith,” writes a 50-year-old Veteran and Law Enforcement Officer.
If you or someone you know wants to learn more about this commendable organization, please visit The Battle Within at <a href="https://www.thebattlewithin.org">https://www.thebattlewithin.org</a>
If you’re a Veteran in crisis or concerned about one, call 988 for immediate help and press 1 or Text 838255

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<title>Trump’s Bondage to Big Oil and Business</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-bondage-to-big-oil-and-business/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[ROBERT A. LEVINE, TMV Columnist]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Big Oil]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Black Lung Disease]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[EPA]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[renewable energy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[trump]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[Maybe Trump feels he’s not making enough money for himself and his family from the presidency, though its doesn’t seem that way to me. Why is he doing things to screw the American public, particularly the lower and middle classes? Between crypto and all the “gifts” he’s received from tech titans, Middle East royalty, and<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trumps-bondage-to-big-oil-and-business/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cccccccdc-300x214.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="214" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-287440" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cccccccdc-300x214.jpg 300w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cccccccdc.jpg 706w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Maybe Trump feels he’s not making enough money for himself and his family from the presidency, though its doesn’t seem that way to me. Why is he doing things to screw the American public, particularly the lower and middle classes? Between crypto and all the “gifts” he’s received from tech titans, Middle East royalty, and others asking for favors or trying to get on his good side, it seems like he’s really raking in plenty of dough. In fact, his use of the presidency for personal gain seems to outweigh all of the past U.S. presidents put together. Yet he doesn’t mind doing things that will hurt Americans and the world’s population. Every day he appears to come up with new “executive measures” that will cause Americans pain, even though they may be helpful to his wealthy sycophants.
For example, cutting the staff at the Internal Revenue Service dramatically. It was crazy to do that. As it was, there were not enough employees at the IRS in the first place. Ordinary people who want a refund or needed help with their tax returns can now wait forever, because there are not enough employees to handle all the returns and answer all the questions. And fortunately for Trump’s rich buddies, there are not enough staff to check all the tax returns of the wealthy who are using various schemes to evade or reduce the amount of taxes they have to pay. It’s been shown that the more IRS employees there are to check returns, the more taxes are collected. But it doesn’t matter to Trump even when our national debt is about $36 trillion or so. If the government can’t collect a few extra billion from the wealthy, so what.
There is also Trump’s reducing the staff at the Environmental Protection Agency. This means greater pollution in our air, water and soil will not be uncovered and the guilty companies will not be forced to clean it up and be fined. The money really doesn’t count as much as lowering the levels of pollution that are regularly damaging American health. But for Trump, It’s more important for Big Business to avoid paying for the pollution they cause, so the executives and owners of the offending companies can boost their incomes. All his buddies. A recent article showed that industrial facilities owned by profitable companies released more of their toxic waste into the environment. (Fikru and Brodman) Trump doesn’t care.
Also in the pollution arena is black lung disease endemic in coal miners. Trump has been pushing coal as a fuel for the nation even though it is the worst fuel for climate change and the dirtiest fuel in terms of pollution. And the miners invariably come down with the deadly black lung disease from inhaling coal dust. Miners are demonstrating, saying that the Trump administration is not enforcing limits on coal dust to protect them from black lung disease. Trump doesn’t care as long as the owners make more money. Screw the environment and the miners.
Trump also thinks of climate change as a hoax and a scam. He’s eliminating subsidies for electric vehicles hurting employees at GM and Ford and decimating our electric vehicle industry. H’e handing the whole industry to China. Trump is in bed with the fossil fuel companies who have given money for his campaign and support him. Electric is the future and Trump is going with the past- coal, oil, natural gas. Climate change is real and Trump is hurting Americans and the world with his environmental policies. He’s letting the Chinese eat our lunch with solar and wind generated electricity which is cheap and non-polluting while he sucks up to the fossil fuel companies and abandons clean electricity. Trump’s domestic policies are bad for America and bad for the world.
www.robbertlevinebooks.com 
Buy The Uninformed Voter on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or at your local bookstore.
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<title>Trump found his replacement for Roy Cohn</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-found-his-replacement-for-roy-cohn/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dick Polman, Cagle Cartoons Columnist]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:39:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Corruption]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Department of Justice]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Dick Polman]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Justice Department]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Pam Bondi]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Partisanship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Roy Cohen]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[When Trump ran into trouble during his first term, he reportedly cried out, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?!” Alas, his favorite thug-fixer-lawyer had been dead since 1986 (having perished just six weeks after he was disbarred for fraud). Nobody in Trump’s embattled orbit was qualified to pick up the torch and run with Cohn’s credo, which,<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-found-his-replacement-for-roy-cohn/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[When Trump ran into trouble during his first term, he reportedly cried out, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?!”
Alas, his favorite thug-fixer-lawyer had been dead since 1986 (having perished just six weeks after he was disbarred for fraud). Nobody in Trump’s embattled orbit was qualified to pick up the torch and run with Cohn’s credo, which, was quite simple: If they hit ya hard, hit ‘em back twice as hard.
Back in the day, Trump told the press, “If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy.”
Now he has Cohn 2.0, courtesy of slavish supplicant Pam Bondi, who is systematically destroying the credibility of the Justice Department, converting it into a Trump defense firm, and spitting venom at anyone with the temerity to ask adversarial queries.
What we witnessed last week on Capitol Hill would likely live in infamy if not for the fact the news cycle churns so quickly, fueled seemingly each hour by new horrors, hurling whatever just happened onto the ash heap of amnesia.
But I can’t let it go, not just yet.
It’s important to remember why Bondi got the gig as America’s top legal eagle. Her loyalty pact with Trump, forged in scandal (naturally), was sealed way back in 2013. As Florida’s attorney general, Bondi was deciding whether to join a class action lawsuit, filed in New York, against phony Trump University, with dozens of bilked Florida suckers demanding justice.
That’s when the Donald J. Trump foundation, then a nonprofit charity, swung into action. It sent an illegal $25,000 campaign contribution to a political group with ties to Bondi, who herself solicited that donation. Shortly thereafter, she announced she would not join the class action suit. Trump denied trying to buy Bondi, and Bondi denied there was any quid quo pro, but denials like those have less value than a degree from Trump University.
Anyway, she showed up in front of a Senate oversight committee, seething in anger at the very idea that anyone in the legislative branch would dare exercise the constitutional right of oversight. Senators do that as part of their duty to check and balance the executive branch and report to the American people. But that means nothing to Bondi because Bondi basically behaves and auditions for an audience of One.
Take, for instance, her exchange with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who asked if the FBI found photos of President Trump with half-naked young women in Jeffrey Epstein’s possession.
Bondi tried the Roy Cohn treatment: “Senator, you sit here and you make salacious remarks, once again trying to slander President Trump, left and right, when you’re the one who was taking money from Epstein’s closest confidants. I believe, I could be wrong, correct me, Reid Hoffman…Yet, you’re grilling me on President Trump, some photograph with Epstein? Come on.”
It’s a good thing she said “I could be wrong,” because there’s no evidence that anyone named Reid Hoffman or Reed Hoffman has ever donated anything to Whitehouse’s Senate campaigns. But she needed some kind of Cohnesque con, given the sensitivity of the Epstein scandal, given the fact that she has shut down release of the files, and given the fact that, as Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, she declined to prosecute Epstein after he got a slap-on-the-wrist sweetheart plea deal from the feds in 2007.
During the Senate hearing, she also did her Cohn thing during an exchange with Senator Richard Blumenthal: “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service…You lied. How dare you. I’m a career prosecutor. Don’t you ever challenge my integrity.”
Blumenthal, a U.S. Marines reservist for six years, said on the stump in 2008 that he’d served “in Vietnam.” He acknowledged that falsehood and apologized for it…15 years ago. Apparently Blumenthal’s lie in 2008 carries more weight with Bondi than the 30,573 lies that her bone-spurs client uttered during his first term alone.
It’s no wonder 280 former Justice officials have signed a letter demanding Congress demand more oversight of Bondi, not less. The letter points out 5,000 public servants have exited the Justice Department since Bondi began her reign, taking steps that have already proved ‘“catastrophic for the nation.”
I’d love to believe Bondi’s mockery of Senate oversight will backfire. Terry Moran, the ex-ABC reporter, clearly harbors such a hope. On his Substack, he references “Normal people. Remember them? Well, we’re still out here, you and me and tens of millions more…Normal, decent people don’t want what Pam Bondi showed them…Americans haven’t changed that much, for all our desperate political disagreements. We are still a decent, middle-class, middle-temperament, middle-of-the-road nation.”
But if that’s true, why did Americans re-hire a convicted criminal and saddle us with the second coming of Roy Cohn? And even if the normal and the decent wake up in sufficient numbers to protest what has happened to this country, what evidence is there that the authoritarians in power will care?
Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Subject to Change newsletter. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/john-darkow_weaponization-of-the-doj-e1760492330748.png" alt="" width="760" height="592" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287702" />
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<title>Bill Maher Is Only Politically Incorrect When It’s Politically Convenient.</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/bill-maher-is-only-politically-incorrect-when-its-politically-convenient/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Thomas Hoffman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:08:27 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Comedy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Television]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Bill Maher]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[branding]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Republicans]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://themoderatevoice.com/?p=287697</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Bill Maher has transformed from progressive ally to self-anointed centrist crusader — but his recent commentary reveals more about media branding than political courage. Maher has made a second career out of bashing the “lunatic far left,” warning that wokeness is dooming Democrats and fueling Trumpism. The latest installment in this trend came when he<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/bill-maher-is-only-politically-incorrect-when-its-politically-convenient/"> […]</a>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/billmaher.jpg" alt="" width="686" height="386" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-287705" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/billmaher.jpg 686w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/billmaher-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px" />
Bill Maher has transformed from progressive ally to self-anointed centrist crusader — but his recent commentary reveals more about media branding than political courage.
Maher has made a second career out of bashing the “lunatic far left,” warning that wokeness is dooming Democrats and fueling Trumpism. The latest installment in this trend came when he criticized former Vice President Harris’s book 107 Days. As The Daily Beast recently reported, he slammed late-night hosts like Colbert, Stewart, Oliver, and Kimmel for “parroting whatever MSNBC was saying,” casting himself as the last honest man in political media.
But, Bill Maher is only politically incorrect when it’s politically convenient. He attributes Democratic failures like Vice President Harris’s 2024 loss to progressive overreach, but that critique feels more like bandwagon politics. Maher had no problem with “the lunatic far-left” under President Obama — in fact, he sometimes criticized Obama for not being progressive enough. He neglects to acknowledge that Obama’s presidency was perhaps the first example of how radical left backlash helped fuel Trumpism, as Trump got elected after Obama.
He currently calls on Democrats to cater to moderates, yet during the 2020 primary he scoffed at the idea of a Biden campaign, only embracing him once Biden became the inevitable nominee. 
Lately, Maher has criticized liberal cities for lenient crime policies and played host to Andrew Cuomo (who blasted the Defund the Police movement). However, here in New York City, the “lunatic far-left” is on the rise, with Zohran Mamdani leading in the polls in the mayoral elections. Maher has been interestingly silent on the New York City mayoral race. Biden, Harris, and Cuomo never ran on “Defund the Police.” Democratic nominee Mamdani did — calling the NYPD “wicked and corrupt.” Even if Mamdani claims to have shifted, a supermajority of his supporters still back the cause.
It’s easy to bash the far left when it’s losing, and even easier to support old-school centrist Democrats like Cuomo when they win.” But if someone like Mamdani actually wins — or even just creates the illusion of momentum? Will Maher keep railing against the “lunatic far-left progressives”? Or will he drop the act? 
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<title>Trump slaughters another small Venezuelan boat’s crew</title>
<link>https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-slaughters-another-small-venezuelan-boats-crew/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[KATHY GILL, Associate Editor]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:18:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[President Donald Trump, continuing to govern via the social network where he has a financial stake, announced that the United States has again blown up a small Venezuelan boat, killing all aboard. He has accused the crew, without evidence, of carrying drugs with intent to distribute in the United States. This is the fifth such<a class="read-more" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-slaughters-another-small-venezuelan-boats-crew/"> […]</a>
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-slaughters-another-small-venezuelan-boats-crew/">Trump slaughters another small Venezuelan boat’s crew</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/1974150886084485503"><img loading="lazy" src="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot-fifth-V-boat-color-v2.png" alt="fifth Venezuelan boat bombed by Trump" width="2068" height="1372" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-287693" srcset="https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot-fifth-V-boat-color-v2.png 2068w, https://themoderatevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/screenshot-fifth-V-boat-color-v2-300x199.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 2068px) 100vw, 2068px" /></a>
President Donald Trump, continuing to <a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/us-news-orgs-response-to-trumps-governing-via-truth-social-ho-hum-as-he-calls-for-illinois-chicago-arrests/">govern via the social network where he has a financial stake</a>, announced that the United States has <a href="https://www.memeorandum.com/251014/p94#a251014p94" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">again blown up a small Venezuelan boat</a>, killing all aboard. He has accused the crew, without evidence, of carrying drugs with intent to distribute in the United States. This is the <a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/nyc-bar-association-classifies-trumps-attacks-on-boats-in-the-caribbean-as-murder/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fifth such bombing this fall</a>, 27 dead, an action the NYC Bar Association has called “murder.”
Last week, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-cartels-drugs-venezuela-boat-strike-af1a784864268707a76755a98615563e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said</a>, in a televised address to military leaders:
<blockquote class="highlight">“I want to warn the population: We have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the U.S. empire operates is not normal… It’s anti-political, anti-human, warmongering, rude, and vulgar.”</blockquote>
Although Trump has not provided any details or evidence to Congress, the NYTimes obtained an internal memo earlier this month which “reportedly stated that Trump has deemed cartels engaged in drug smuggling as ‘non-state armed groups’ whose actions ‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/14/trump-six-killed-us-strike-boat-venezuela" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">constitute an armed attack against the United States</a>‘.”
Last month, UN experts condemned the “<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/us-war-narco-terrorists-violates-right-life-warn-un-experts-after-deadly" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extrajudicial execution</a>” of first two attacks on alleged drug traffickers.
<blockquote class="highlight">“International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers,” the experts said. “Criminal activities should be disrupted, investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law, including through international cooperation.”</blockquote>
Even the conservative Daily Caller expressed shock: “<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/13/trump-administration-military-narco-terrorists-venezuela-maduro-marco-rubio-regime-change/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">What The H*ll Is Going On With Trump’s Narco Strikes? Are We At War With Venezuela</a>?”
Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also posted a screen capture of the Truth Social post on Twitter/X:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://t.co/aFlvNsx8Ee">pic.twitter.com/aFlvNsx8Ee</a>
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1978155148389089289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When will the MAGA Congress do its job, demand evidence (which is probably non-existent or he would have touted it) and curtail Trump’s warmongering? After all, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/us/trump-venezuela-gang-ties-spy-memo.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. intelligence agencies have disputed</a> Trump allegations that these are Tren de Aragua (a Venezuelan criminal organization) boats. 
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The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com/trump-slaughters-another-small-venezuelan-boats-crew/">Trump slaughters another small Venezuelan boat’s crew</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://themoderatevoice.com">The Moderate Voice</a>.
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