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	The fight for American democracy by PBS, AP, Brennan Center, ACLU, agencies USA   On Jan. 20, 2025 Donald Trump began his second term as President.   Apr. 2025   As President Donald Trump celebrates his first 100 days in office, a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds that a plurality of Americans give him a failing grade.   Forty-five percent of U.S. adults rated Trump’s return to the Oval Office an “F,” including 80 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of independents. At the other extreme, 23 percent of Americans, including 54 percent of Republicans, gave the president an “A.”   Over half of U.S. adults say Trump’s second term has had a mostly negative effect on their lives, and a majority believe he is rushing to make changes without considering the effects of his actions. A majority of Americans — 53 percent — disapprove of his leadership. When asked about Trump’s handling of the economy, 39 percent said they approved. Another 55 percent disapproved, while 6 percent were unsure.   Trump’s tariffs and trade policies have raised concerns and anxiety among Americans, with sixty-four percent of Americans say they expect grocery prices to rise in the next six months. A number of economists predict a coming economic recession, with inflation and interest rates expected to rise.   http://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/06/10/governor-newsoms-address-to-california-democracy-at-a-crossroads/ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/09/veterans-trump-national-guard-la-protests http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/democrats-outragedafter-senator-forcibly-removed-dhs-news-conference-122796366 http://apnews.com/article/immigration-protests-los-angeles-media-4b9b062785bde9428a3155812fd092de http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/this-is-what-autocracy-looks-like-8339/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trump-filled-key-positions-with-people-who-spread-extremist-views http://theglobalobservatory.org/2025/06/as-the-un-charter-turns-80-americas-commitment-to-it-is-withering/   http://www.nbcnews.com/science/climate-change/earth-co2-record-global-warming-rcna210974 http://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/16/an-epa-without-science/ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/01/us-veterans-affairs-agency-doctors-scientists-research http://thefactcoalition.org/senators-experts-decry-gutting-of-corporate-transparency-act/ http://thefactcoalition.org/house-tax-package-corporate-tax-breaks-2025 http://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/06/panel-urges-lawyers-to-stand-firm/ http://www.americanbar.org/groups/bar-leadership/resources/resourcepages/executiveorders/ http://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/opinion/trump-corruption.html http://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/04/26/constitutional-crises/   http://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-tariff-pause-doesnt-pause-economic-pain-and-will-cost-families-4600-per-year/ http://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5372334/harvard-professor-offers-a-grim-assessment-of-american-democracy-under-trump http://goodauthority.org/news/us-democracy-is-under-attack-lessons-for-democracy-defenders/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/06/26/notes-from-an-occupation-marilynne-robinson/ http://www.jurist.org/commentary/2025/05/living-against-reason-american-survival-in-trump-ii/   http://www.epi.org/publication/the-upside-down-priorities-of-the-house-budget/ http://www.epi.org/publication/100-days-100-ways-trump-hurt-workers/ http://www.cbpp.org/ http://ips-dc.org/summary-high-moral-stakes/ http://www.afscme.org/press/releases/2025/afscmes-saunders-a-historic-and-relentless-assault-on-working-people-and-unions-underscore-the-first-100-days-of-this-administration http://www.propublica.org/article/how-trump-budget-cuts-harm-kids-child-care-education-abuse http://firstfocus.org/news/100-days-of-war-on-children/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/trump-administrations-deep-cuts-to-public-health-leave-system-reeling   http://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-first-100-days-creating-an-imperial-presidency-that-harms-americans/ http://www.hrw.org/feature/2025/04/24/100-human-rights-harms-100-days/trump-administrations-assault-rights-united http://www.aclu.org/the-first-100-days http://knightcolumbia.org/documents/dmuey34qsx http://www.npr.org/2025/04/29/nx-s1-5327518/donald-trump-100-days-retribution-threats http://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/nx-s1-5413094/npr-public-radio-lawsuit-trump-funding-ban http://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pbs-chief-slams-trumps-executive-order-aiming-to-cut-federal-funding-for-pbs-and-npr-as-unlawful   http://standupamerica.com/2025/04/100-days-of-cowardice-republicans-enable-trumps-assault-on-democracy/ http://issueone.org/articles/unchecked-exec/ http://www.citizen.org/news/trumps-100-days-of-oligarchy-corruption-and-conflicts-of-interest/ http://accountable.us/trumps-first-100-days-power-and-profit-for-him-while-americans-pay-the-price/ http://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-start-of-week-14 http://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/g-s1-67870/justice-charges-new-jersey-immigration http://jeffries.house.gov/2025/05/19/joint-democratic-leadership-statement-on-rep-lamonica-mciver/ http://humanrightsfirst.org/media-library   http://theconversation.com/trumps-first-100-days-economic-uncertainty-spikes-while-the-presidents-approval-ratings-tank-255449 http://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence http://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-first-100-days-have-badly-damaged-trust-in-america-both-economically-and-as-an-ally-255150 http://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2025/05/trump-state-department-budget-cuts-treaty-review-interdependence http://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2025/03/trump-foreign-policy-second-american-revolution-nato-un/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/30042025/trump-second-administration-first-100-days-assault-on-the-environment/ http://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement   http://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-statement-on-vote-against-republican-budget-resolution http://unidosus.org/press-releases/new-report-34-million-children-at-risk-from-proposed-cuts-federal-programs-medicaid-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap http://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-jayapal-dingell-hundreds-of-health-care-workers-introduce-medicare-for-all/ http://thanedar.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-shri-thanedar-introduces-articles-of-impeachment-against-president-donald-j-trump-for-high-crimes-and-misdemeanors http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/prospect-podcast/69818/trumps-100-days-with-ruth-ben-ghiat http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/05/is-the-us-becoming-an-autocracy http://www.npr.org/2025/04/28/nx-s1-5377445/doge-musk-trump-100-days http://www.americanprogress.org/topic/doge/ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/trump-agenda-2025.html   http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/united-states/69410/trump-may-bring-about-americas-destruction http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01397-1 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/31/scientists-letter-trump-administration http://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/5/1/kgaf011/8099165 http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00780-2 http://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-press-freedom-authoritarianism http://www.socialeurope.eu/how-the-world-can-push-back-the-playbook-to-counter-trumps-second-term http://www.socialeurope.eu/europes-existential-choice-democracy-or-far-right-chaos   Mar. 2025   Trump’s moves test the limits of presidential power and the resilience of US democracy, by Nicholas Riccardi for the Associated Press.   During his first six weeks in office, President Donald Trump has embarked on a dizzying teardown of the federal government and attacks on long-standing institutions in an attempt to increase his own authority.   He has pardoned those who attacked the U.S. Capitol to overturn his 2020 election loss, placed loyalists atop the FBI and military, and purged the Department of Justice, which dropped investigations against Trump allies.   He declared control over independent agencies such as the Federal Election Commission, punished media outlets for coverage he dislikes and his allies suggested he could defy court orders.   Those who monitor democracy across the globe had warned that a second Trump term could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy. His opening weeks in office have done nothing to dispel those concerns.   “Trump is using the classic elected authoritarian playbook,” said Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College, who joined more than 800 other political scientists in signing a letter warning that Trump is undermining the rule of law and the basic constitutional principle of checks and balances. “It’s almost embarrassing how crude it is.”   Nyhan said some of Trump’s moves echo those made by others who won democratic elections and then moved to centralize control, such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Those who have resisted authoritarians in other countries say they are alarmed by what is happening in the United States.   “I feel like I’m living through this twice,” said Maria Ressa, a journalist who won a Nobel Prize after being prosecuted by the government of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019, on a call last week about the threat of Trump to democracy. “What you’re seeing is exactly that — think about it as death by a thousand cuts,” she said. “You’re bleeding so much that, at some point, the body politic dies.”   Trump has certainly embraced the image of a strongman. The president declared, “we are the federal law” and posted on his social media site that “He who saves his country does not violate any law” — a quote often attributed to Napolean Bonaparte. The official White House account posted on the social media site X an image of a smiling, crowned Trump with the words “Long Live the King.”   Trump’s supporters say he is trying to preserve American democracy by giving voters what they want — a strong president. How strong Trump can become is in question. Courts have paused several of his executive orders, including ones seeking to eliminate Government agencies created by Congress and ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally.   Many who track democracy warn that the Trump Administrations'conception is incomplete. “The power you gain through the ballot box is not unlimited power. That’s the essence of liberal democracy,” said Kevin Casas-Zamora, secretary general of the pro-democracy group International IDEA.   On the world stage, Trump and his administration have alarmed longtime allies in Europe over whether the U.S. remains committed to NATO and his siding with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine, a country the Kremlin invaded three years ago, and at the United Nations last month. On Friday, Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Russian officials and many Trump allies expressed glee; European nations reacted in horror.   U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the close relations between the Trump administration and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government amounted to an existential threat. “This Putin-Trump alliance means abandoning our allies, supporting authoritarianism and undermining our democratic traditions,” he said.   A common theme throughout Trump’s actions is about expanding his personal power, says Josh Chafetz, a Georgetown law professor. There are plenty of warning signs, including the aggressive use of the Department of Justice to promote Trump’s political interests.   The department directed prosecutors to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, citing his cooperation with the administration’s immigration crackdown. That led to several senior Justice Department officials resigning after saying such a deal was dangerous and some former top prosecutors warning about the risks to the rule of law.   Trump’s pick to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, represented some defendants who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin, in his interim post as the top federal prosecution in the nation’s capital, contacted at least two congressional Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, to “investigate” previous statements they had made. One statement related to Musk and another dealt with the conservative Supreme Court justices who were in the majority ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion.   “This notion that you can use your power to reward your friends and punish your enemies — it reminds me of something that has long been a staple of Latin American politics,” said Casas-Zamora, who is from Costa Rica.   Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, kicking them out of their Pentagon workspace or barring them from the Oval Office and picking which will be allowed to cover his events. His appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS and National Public Radio, which receive federal money.   Trump also issued an executive order to take control of independent agencies such as the FCC, Federal Election Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission.   Some leading Democrats have used striking analogies in warning about Trump’s actions. In a State of the State address last month that ended with a scathing assessment of Trump’s actions, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who is Jewish, implored lawmakers to remember what gave rise to Nazism in Germany nearly a century ago. “If we don’t want to repeat history,” Pritzker said, “then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.”   http://apnews.com/article/trump-democracy-autocrats-authoritarian-constitution-threat-542ac437a58880e81c052f8f2df1643f http://apnews.com/article/democrats-trump-actblue-indivisible-legal-threat-fbi-42f502bcb5888b12628629710c6eb21b http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/new-us-administration-must-recommit-human-rights-home-and-abroad-un-experts http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/united-states-new-administration-must-halt-sweeping-attacks-independent http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/06/opinion/trump-doge-fires-inspectors-general.html http://americanoversight.org/investigation/the-trump-administrations-dismantling-of-federal-agencies-and-threats-to-important-social-services/   Feb. 2025   Trump’s Actions have created a Constitutional Crisis, Scholars Say. (New York Times)   There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.   It can also be obvious, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.   “We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” he said on Friday. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”   He ticked off examples of what he called President Trump’s lawless conduct: revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal spending, shutting down an agency, removing leaders of other agencies, firing government employees subject to civil service protections and threatening to deport people based on their political views.   That is a partial list, Professor Chemerinsky said, and it grows by the day. “Systematic unconstitutional and illegal acts create a constitutional crisis,” he said.   The distinctive feature of the current situation, several legal scholars said, is its chaotic flood of activity that collectively amounts to a radically new conception of presidential power. But the volume and speed of those actions may overwhelm and thus thwart sober and measured judicial consideration.   It will take some time, though perhaps only weeks, for a challenge to one of Mr. Trump’s actions to reach the Supreme Court. On Monday, a federal judge said the White House had defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump administration is disobeying a judicial mandate.   It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump would defy a ruling against him by the justices.   “It’s an open question whether the administration will be as contemptuous of courts as it has been of Congress and the Constitution,” said Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “At least so far, it hasn’t been.”   That could change. On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance struck a confrontational tone on social media. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote.   Professor Shaw said a clash with the courts would only add to a crisis that is already underway. “A number of the new administration’s executive orders and other executive actions are in clear violation of laws enacted by Congress,” she said.   “The administration’s early moves,” she added, “also seem designed to demonstrate maximum contempt for core constitutional values — the separation of powers, the freedom of speech, equal justice under law.”   Pamela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford, added that a crisis need not arise from clashes between the branches of the federal government.   “It’s a constitutional crisis when the president of the United States doesn’t care what the Constitution says regardless whether Congress or the courts resist a particular unconstitutional action,” she said. “Up until now, while presidents might engage in particular acts that were unconstitutional, I never had the sense that there was a president for whom the Constitution was essentially meaningless.”   The courts, in any event, may not be inclined or equipped to push back. So much is happening, and so fast, that even eventual final rulings from the Supreme Court rejecting Mr. Trump’s arguments could come too late. After the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are disassembled, say, no court decision can recreate them.   In many cases, of course, the Supreme Court’s six-member conservative majority may be receptive to Mr. Trump’s arguments. Its decision in July granting him substantial immunity from prosecution embraced an expansive vision of the presidency that can only have emboldened him..   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/24/trump-judges-impeachment-law-doge http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/obeying-court-orders-isnt-optional http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/breaking-law http://therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-administration-non-adherence-to-court-orders/http://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/ http://www.justsecurity.org/107687/statement-trump-international-law-human-rights/ http://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/opinion/trump-musk-public-attention.html http://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/trump-musk-federal-government.html http://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/elon-musk-weaponizes-the-government http://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/doge-resignations-elon-musk-022731 http://socialsecurityworks.org/2025/02/17/elon-musk-is-stealing-your-personal-social-security-data http://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/13/trump-vance-constitutional-crisis http://issueone.org/press/new-effort-to-defend-americas-checks-and-balances/ http://www.democracycollaborative.org/tracking-the-crisis/   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-takes-steps-to-shutter-usaid-and-gives-musk-unprecedented-access-to-federal-systems http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html http://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/usaid-spending-trump-musk.html http://raskin.house.gov/2025/2/full-remarks-raskin-condemns-president-trump-and-elon-musk-s-illegal-and-unconstitutional-abolition-of-usaid-at-press-conference-outside-the-agency http://raskin.house.gov/2025/2/raskin-statement-and-questions-posed-to-elon-musk http://www.usaidstopwork.com/ http://www.interaction.org/statement/60-ngos-respond-to-terminations-of-life-saving-programs/ http://www.interaction.org/statements/ http://cti.interaction.org/FY25/ http://www.icvanetwork.org/90-day-suspension-order-resources/ http://www.acaps.org/en/thematics/all-topics/us-funding-freeze   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/trump-agenda-2025.html http://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/trump-state-health-grants-cuts.html http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/30/former-us-ambassadors-warn-authoritarianism http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/07/trump-viktor-orban-electoral-autocracy http://apnews.com/article/fbi-justice-department-trump-bondi-bove-adams-a003af9d9aebe89cd289361a65c9401b http://apnews.com/article/trump-orban-hungary-autocracy-authoritarian-republicans-dfdf6299a614ec4e364be37c1132e446 http://monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-march-2025/USA http://apnews.com/video/progressive-caucus-members-fire-elon-musk-753c0dac339c4f5ca82f2d51e13f7a38 http://nwlc.org/press-release/nwlc-public-citizen-more-than-110-organizations-call-for-investigation-of-elon-musks-lawless-government-takeover/   http://www.vox.com/politics/398618/elon-musk-doge-illegal-lawbreaking-analysis http://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-federal-layoffs-set-the-stage-for-greater-privatization-and-automation-of-the-u-s-government/ http://www.politico.com/interactives/2025/trump-executive-orders-project-2025/ http://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/elon-musks-revolutionary-terror http://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/opinion/trump-musk-iraq-takeover.html http://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/new-polling-republican-plan-to-gut-vital-programs-shower-ultra-wealthy-with-tax-breaks-is-unpopular-with-voters/ http://inequality.org/article/will-the-current-musk-coup-define-our-future/ http://zeteo.com/p/elon-musk-has-plunged-america-constitutional-crisis http://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup http://www.thenation.com/article/politics/courts-cant-stop-the-trump-musk-coup/   http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-return-to-power-amounts-to-end-of-progress-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2025-01 http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/our-work/carr-commentary/misinformation-and-disinformation-soviet-era-words-how-jd http://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/us/politics/trump-immigration-climate-dei-policies.html http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/01/trump-executive-order-spending-congress/681484 http://democracyforward.org/updates/tro-on-omb-freeze/ http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressreleases/national-council-nonprofits-statement-executive-orders-president-trump http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressreleases/national-council-nonprofits-statement-pause-federal-grants-and-contracting http://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trumps-constitutional-chaos-federal-spending http://nonprofitquarterly.org/federal-funding-freeze-could-decimate-nonprofits/   http://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/10/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-for-schools-food-banks-00222796 http://schoolnutrition.org/sna-news/proposed-school-meal-cuts-prompt-nationwide-advocacy/ http://childrensdefense.org/statement-mississippis-refusal-to-participate-in-summer-food-assistance-program-hurts-youth/ http://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/two-americas-the-people-vs-the-billionaires/ http://www.commondreams.org/news/house-republicans-budget-blueprint http://www.citizen.org/article/corporate-america-dominates-tax-lobbying/ http://breachrepairers.org/get-involved/news/10-takeaways-from-new-report-the-high-moral-stakes-our-budget-our-future/ http://breachrepairers.org/uploads/The-High-Moral-Stake-Report_March-3-2025.pdf http://cepr.net/publications/donald-the-taxman/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/scott-bessents-3-percent-deficit-target-would-require-massive-cuts-to-anti-poverty-programs-and-middle-class-tax-increases/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/medicaid-work-requirements-could-put-36-million-people-at-risk-of-losing-health http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/2025-budget-stakes-millions-could-lose-needed-food-assistance http://www.cbpp.org/ http://inequality.org/article/what-we-americans-now-need-most-a-farewell-to-grand-fortune/ http://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/trump-project-2025-underway-executive-orders.html   Jan. 2025   Police express outrage over Trump’s Jan. 6 Pardons, by Luke Broadwater for the New York Times   More than 150 officers from the Capitol Police and the D.C. police were injured when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol four years ago.   When inmates are released from federal prison, the Justice Department places a call to their victims, notifying them that the defendant who attacked them is now free. On Tuesday, the phones of U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. police officers were buzzing nonstop.   For Aquilino A. Gonell, a former Capitol Police sergeant, the automated calls began on Monday evening and continued into Tuesday morning after President Trump issued a sweeping legal reprieve to all of the nearly 1,600 defendants, including those convicted of violent crimes, in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.   Between 7:03 a.m. and 9:37 a.m., Mr. Gonell received nine calls from the Justice Department about the release of inmates.   Mr. Gonell, who was assaulted during the attack and retired because of the injuries he suffered, was as outraged and distraught as he was shortly after the violence.   “It’s a miscarriage of justice, a betrayal, a mockery, and a desecration of the men and women that risked their lives defending our democracy,” he said of the nearly 1,600 pardons and 14 commutations.   More than 150 police officers from the two agencies were injured during the assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob four years ago. Some were hit in the head with baseball bats, flagpoles and pipes. One lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her down as they marched to the building.   Now many of those officers described themselves as struggling and depressed in response to Mr. Trump freeing their attackers.   In the days and weeks after the riot, several police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died, including Officer Brian D. Sicknick of the Capitol Police, who was attacked by the mob, suffered a stroke and died of natural causes on Jan. 7. Officers Jeffrey Smith of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and Howard S. Liebengood of the Capitol Police died by suicide in the days after the violence.   Craig Sicknick, the older brother of Brian Sicknick, has dedicated an area of his house to his brother, putting up a portrait and displaying the pocket-size military medallions known as challenge coins and other mementos on a table.   “I think about my brother almost every day,” Mr. Sicknick said. “He spent his life trying to do the right thing. He did it while he was in the military. He did it as a police officer. He did it in his personal life.”   The pardons, Mr. Sicknick said, leave him heartbroken that there will be no accountability for those who stormed the Capitol.   “We almost lost democracy that day,” he said of Jan. 6. “Today, I honestly think we did lose democracy.”   On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, there were few condemnations of the pardons from Republican senators, even those who have spoken out against the violence.   Some of the officers who were victims that day are pledging to fight on. “For anyone who cares about truth and respect for law and law enforcement, his pardons are an unspeakable outrage,” said Patrick A. Malone, a lawyer for seven officers who sued Mr. Trump over the attack. “The officers I represent will not forget!” Mr. Malone said.   Harry Dunn, one of the most outspoken officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6, spent Monday and Tuesday checking in with his former colleagues.   “Everybody’s angry and sad and devastated,” said Mr. Dunn, who has left the Capitol Police.   One officer, Mr. Dunn said, went to bed after a long shift only to be awakened by an automated voice mail from victim services informing him of the release of a Jan. 6 defendant.   “Every officer who testified in court is now getting these automated calls that, ‘Hey this defendant is being released,’” Mr. Dunn said. “The number of calls people are getting, it’s unbelievable.”   Mr. Dunn himself said he is feeling a mix of emotions, including frustration and resignation.   “It’s mind-blowing to me that everybody is now surprised and up in arms about it,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump “said he was going to do it, and what me and the other officers were doing speaking out was getting people to realize what was coming.”   He added: “I get so many messages, ‘Harry, you’re a hero.’ I don’t want to be a hero. I want accountability.”   http://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/us/politics/jan-6-pardons-police.html http://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/opinion/trump-democracy-autocracy.html http://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/opinion/trump-assault-government-americans.html http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-pardoning-jan-6-insurrectionists-would-endorse-attacks-democracy http://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-condemns-jan-6-pardons/ http://www.justsecurity.org/107288/nine-experts-pardons-january-6/ http://www.justsecurity.org/tag/january-6th-attack-on-us-capitol/ http://societyfortheruleoflaw.org/statement-on-january-6/ http://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-releases-report-trump-attempt-overturn-2020-election-2025-01-14/ http://www.justice.gov/storage/Report-of-Special-Counsel-Smith-Volume-1-January-2025.pdf http://www.citizen.org/news/history-if-not-the-courts-will-judge-trumps-unconstitutional-democracy-destroying-actions/ http://www.govinfo.gov/collection/january-6th-committee-final-report   Trump’s victory is a call to action for those who value our system of checks and balances, by Michael Waldman - Brennan Center for Justice   I want to share with you a few thoughts about the election. The election was free and fair. The system was strengthened immeasurably since 2020, with election officials and law enforcement pulling together. Voting, overwhelmingly, proceeded without incident.   The American people chose national elected leaders who have made clear their authoritarian intentions — who have a fearful, divisive vision of the country, one filled with hatred. Voters did this with eyes wide open.   How will we at the Brennan Center respond to this moment? We will stand up to authoritarianism and abuse of power. We will work with allies to explain, call out, and fight.   We provide leading expertise on the 18th- and 19th-century statutes that Donald Trump has promised to use to implement mass deportation and stretch executive powers beyond their limits, laws such as the Insurrection Act, the National Emergencies Act, and even the Alien Enemies Act.   We will fight the weaponization of the Justice Department. We will stand up against national legislation that aims to make it harder for Americans to vote. And more.   And we will continue to expose the growing role of big money in American politics. Both sides had plenty of cash, of course. But, according to the New York Times, one-third of the president-elect’s funds came from a small handful of billionaires. That is something new and ominous.   We will ask hard questions. In exit polls, the number one issue was the health of democracy. What do voters mean? How do we deepen that understanding?   And we will recognize, too, that our institutions of self-government have failed to produce progress for too many people. We can bring to this moment the ability to think anew and help craft the next agenda. For now, at a moment of maximum peril, we will continue to fight for American democracy.   http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/pivotal-time-voting-rights http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/presidents-executive-order-elections-explained http://www.brennancenter.org/series/project-2025 http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/uncovering-conflicts-interest-and-self-dealing-executive-branch http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/government-sale http://standupamerica.com/2025/04/sore-losers-house-republicans-vote-to-limit-nationwide-injunctions-against-trumps-unlawful-actions http://academic.oup.com/healthaffairsscholar/article/2/12/qxae163/7909271   http://cpj.org/special-reports/alarm-bells-trumps-first-100-days-ramp-up-fear-for-the-press-democracy/ http://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-and-21-civil-society-groups-urge-congress-preserve-funding-public-media http://rsf.org/en/trump-s-war-press-10-numbers-us-president-s-first-100-days http://cpj.org/2025/03/cpj-house-hearing-on-pbs-and-npr-a-dangerous-mischaracterization-of-u-s-public-media/ http://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/media/trump-media-speech/index.html http://www.ap.org/the-definitive-source/announcements/ap-statement-on-oval-office-access/ http://apnews.com/article/president-donald-trump-protest-c8796556fbf20e796f42167f61c3d942 http://cpj.org/2025/02/cpj-denounces-trump-administrations-actions-against-ap-other-retaliation-against-media/ http://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-demands-white-house-fully-restore-ap-s-access-and-let-press-do-its-job http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-press-club-statement-on-ap-reporter-blocked-from-the-oval-office-302374145.html http://pen.org/press-release/alarm-over-fcc-letter-questioning-npr-and-pbs-over-sponsorships/ http://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/fcc-chairman-carr-npr-pbs-investigation http://cpj.org/2024/12/trump-steps-up-actions-against-press-with-des-moines-register-lawsuit   http://insideclimatenews.org/news/31012025/trump-dot-orders-sweeping-purge-of-initiatives/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/31012025/trump-administration-war-on-science http://www.dw.com/en/us-science-funding-freeze-a-threat-to-academic-freedom/a-71501071 http://civilrights.org/2025/03/14/trumps-speech-further-compromises-independence-of-the-doj http://civilrights.org/project2025/ http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/hr-9495-a-threat-to-free-speech-says-oxfam-america/ http://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-urges-house-to-kill-bill-that-could-give-trump-admin-power-to-crush-dissent-and-go-after-political-enemies http://www.openglobalrights.org/regulatory-repression-comes-full-circle/ http://www.philanthropy.com/package/nonprofits-and-the-trump-agenda http://www.article19.org/resources/usa-what-it-means-to-protect-free-expression/ http://cpj.org/2024/11/cpj-press-freedom-must-be-staunchly-defended-during-second-trump-presidency/ http://rsf.org/en/rsf-urges-trump-cease-attacks-media-and-turn-new-page-press-freedom-his-next-administration   http://www.citizen.org/news/trump-administration-watchdog-wipeout-carries-out-project-2025-plan-to-remove-independent-inspectors-general-likely-costing-taxpayers-millions/ http://accountable.us/trump-transition-week-in-review-more-unfit-crony-nominees-that-invite-corruption-rigged-system-against-working-people/ http://accountable.us/home/trump-accountability-war-room/ http://americansfortaxfairness.org/wealthy-elites-leading-trumps-cabinet-transition-team-report http://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/01/11/their-kind-of-indoctrination/ http://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-billionaire-takeover-and-the http://www.propublica.org/article/trump-impoundment-appropriations-congress-budget http://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/21/trump-meme-crypto-coin-ethics http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/16/trump-administration-consumer-financial-protection-bureau   Second Trump Term a threat to Rights in US and the World. (Human Rights Watch)   Donald Trump’s second term as United States president poses a grave threat to human rights in the United States and the world, Human Rights Watch said today.   These concerns reflect Trump’s rights-abusing record during his first term, his embrace of white supremacist supporters and ideology, the extreme anti-democratic and anti-rights policies proposed by think tanks led by former aides, and campaign promises, including to round up and deport millions of immigrants and retaliate against political opponents.   “Donald Trump has made no secret of his intent to violate the human rights of millions of people in the United States,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch.   “Independent institutions and civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, will need to do all we can to hold him and his administration accountable for abuses.”   During Trump’s first term as president, from 2017 to 2021, Human Rights Watch documented his record of rights abuses. These included policies and efforts to expel asylum seekers and separate families at the US-Mexico border, advance racist tropes against Black communities and other people of color, adopt policies that punish low-income families and deprive them of health care, and to fuel a violent insurrection to overthrow the results of a democratic election.   Trump’s pledges during his 2024 campaign raise greater cause for concern in a second term, both domestically and internationally. In 2023, he said he would not be a dictator “except for day one” in office. Trump has repeatedly praised autocrats such as Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un.   He has proposed policies that would weaken democratic institutions that protect fundamental human rights and would lessen checks on presidential authority. The threat of abusing the executive office is of even greater concern because of a recent US Supreme Court decision that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken in office.   Project 2025, a governing plan written by Trump’s former advisers and political allies, details many other abusive, often racially discriminatory policies that the new administration may adopt. Although Trump has denied connections to Project 2025, many of his statements echo its premises.   While the presidential campaign cycle featured rhetoric from both candidates that was hostile toward immigrants, Trump made scapegoating immigrants a central pillar of his campaign. He has called for extreme policies that include mass detention of migrants and mass deportations of millions of people, which would tear apart families with deep roots in the US.   Such a program would invariably entail racial profiling, lead to heightened abuses by law enforcement during mass roundups, and instigate more xenophobic actions among the wider public.   During the campaign, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, spread racist lies about Haitian migrants in particular and fomented disinformation that immigration leads to increased crime in the United States.   Abortion rights will be under increased threat during Trump’s second term. His insistence that states should have the power to block access to basic health care allows policies that violate rights, endanger health, lead to preventable deaths, and criminalize private health care decisions.   Trump has vowed to retaliate against his political enemies. Throughout speeches and campaign interviews, he has used increasingly dangerous rhetoric, referring to his critics as “the enemy from within.”   Trump threatened to order the US Department of Justice to pursue prosecutions against President Joe Biden and others he claims oppose his agenda, including election officials and voters.   Trump has also suggested he would invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the US military and national guard against people in the US who might exercise their right to protest.   With respect to foreign policy, during his first term Trump demonstrated little respect for treaties, multilateral institutions, or efforts to protect the human rights of people living under repressive governments.   His administration consistently worked against women’s rights and environmental progress at the United Nations and tried to redefine and limit the definition of rights to be protected through the US Department of State.   Trump has signaled opposition to funding for humanitarian aid and civilian protection efforts in major conflicts and crises. Likely partnerships with rights-abusing governments during a new Trump administration risk emboldening these governments to further harm people within their purview and perpetuate cycles of abuse and immunity from accountability around the world.   “Rights-respecting institutions and officials need to hold the line during the Trump administration,” Hassan said. “World leaders, federal and state workers, activists, and ordinary citizens have a role to play in protecting human rights and keeping Trump from carrying out the abuses he has promised.”   http://www.hrw.org/feature/2025/04/24/100-human-rights-harms-100-days/trump-administrations-assault-rights-united http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/17/doges-growing-reach-personal-data-what-it-means-human-rights http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/28/us-trump-administration-guts-foreign-aid http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/20/martin-luther-king-jrs-legacy-trumps-hatred-and-ill-will http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/18/signs-diminishing-democracy http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/18/interview-womens-rights-under-trump http://www.washingtonicc.org/2025-open-letter-regarding-sanctions-on-icc http://rfkhumanrights.org/press/advocacy-groups-urge-the-united-nations-to-address-united-states-escalating-abuse-of-immigrants-asylum-seekers http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/usa-president-trump-must-respect-human-rights-second-term/   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/americas-concerns-trump-agenda http://humanrightsfirst.org/library/statement-on-the-2024-presidential-election/ http://rfkhumanrights.org/press/open-letter-from-kerry-kennedy-following-the-2024-u-s-presidential-election/ http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/publications/post-election-2024-future-human-rights-us http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/can-us-rule-of-law-withstand-trump-by-antara-haldar-2024-12   http://www.newyorker.com/culture/2024-in-review/the-weird-new-normal-of-donald-trump-in-2024 http://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trump-inauguration-second-term-presidency http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/12/05/the-second-coming-fintan-otoole/ http://www.thenation.com/article/activism/trump-peoples-march/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/26012025/trump-targets-biden-environmental-justice-initiatives/ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/leonard-leo-npr-interview http://www.dw.com/en/german-envoy-warns-trump-driven-by-vengeance-reports/a-71344176   Nov. 2024   Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action. If we stick together, it’s the US that will lose out, by Bill Hare, a climate scientist and chief executive of Climate Analytics.   Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House is a major setback for climate action but ultimately it’s the US that could end up losing out, as the rest of the world will move forward without it.   The US is the world’s biggest economy and its second biggest emitter. Positive US engagement on climate has been important to landmark leaps forward, like getting the Paris agreement over the line, and just last year committing to transitioning away from fossil fuels.   The US missing in action in the latter half of this critical decade for climate action is nobody’s idea of a good outcome. President-elect Trump has promised to leave the Paris agreement and reports have emerged that he could be thinking of pulling out of the underlying United Nations framework treaty on climate change.   But we’ve been here before and the truth is that a second Trump presidency can’t stop climate action, just like his denial of human-induced climate change won’t spare the US from its impacts.   The energy transition is now well under way. The economics of renewable technologies are so attractive that they have become an energy juggernaut. Since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, global investment in clean energy has increased by 60%.   Nearly US$2tn a year is now invested in clean energy projects, almost double that spent on new oil, gas and coal supply. Before the pandemic, this ratio was closer to 1:1. The US added 560 gigawatts of renewable capacity in 2023. That’s about six times the size of Australia’s entire electricity capacity, added in just one year.   Domestically, Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has set wheels in motion for climate investment that will be hard, and politically unpopular, to undo. Famously, no Republicans voted for the legislation but red states have been the main beneficiaries of the money, projects and jobs it has created. House Republicans have even pushed back against their peers to protect some of the act’s clean energy tax credits.   Climate impacts are accelerating in pace and scale that is untenable to ignore. Hurricanes Helene and Milton, supercharged by climate change, are expected to cost more than US$50bn. Fires in California, heatwaves in the sunbelt states, and flooding in the US South are wreaking huge damage on Americans. Last year a poll showed a majority of them feel that climate change is already causing serious effects. None of this stops the day Trump re-enters the White House.   Internationally, we’ve been in this position before. In 2001 George W Bush quit the 1997 Kyoto deal. Last time Trump was in power, he left the Paris agreement, albeit for a short time. I don’t want to downplay the impacts of Trump, or the Project 2025 agenda to which he has been linked, but climate action didn’t stop then and it will not stop now.   Other players, notably China, are increasingly moving into a leadership position on the issue, because of the strategic policy and economic interests it advances. The European Union is moving ahead with its green economic development agenda despite a rightward shift in the balance of power across the EU27 – with action on the climate emergency driving the economic development needed for this region of 350 million people.   The US, if Trump does enact the changes he has campaigned on, will find itself falling behind on new technologies and markets.   How damaging the second Trump presidency is to climate action depends very much on how other countries react. If many follow Trump in either rolling back – or slowing down – their action, the damage will be severe, long-lasting and difficult to overcome.   http://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level http://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/climate/epa-zeldin-rollbacks-pollution.html http://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/president-trump-ignores-science-makes-disgraceful-decision-withdraw-us-paris-agreement http://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/climate/trump-climate-change-executive-orders.html http://www.reuters.com/world/trumps-paris-climate-exit-will-hit-harder-than-2017-2025-01-21 http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/pik-statement-on-donald-trumps-inauguration-serious-concerns-about-the-future-of-international-climate-cooperation http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-executive-order-paris-climate-agreement http://www.dw.com/en/what-does-trumps-second-term-mean-for-the-climate/a-70932970 http://usclimatealliance.org/press-releases/alliance-paris-withdrawal http://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2025/01/sierra-club-reaction-trump-s-absurd-energy-emergency   http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-news-that-the-united-states-has-withdrawn-from-the-paris-agreement-again http://www.wri.org/statement-paris-agreement-withdrawal-erodes-americas-standing-world http://ips-dc.org/release-climate-justice-groups-paris-agreement-withdrawal-is-deeply-misguided http://350.org/press-release/keeping-optimism-alive-centering-the-climate-agenda-under-president-trump/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/31012025/trump-administration-war-on-science http://www.dw.com/en/us-science-funding-freeze-a-threat-to-academic-freedom/a-71501071 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/trump-climate-change-federal-websites http://www.propublica.org/article/epa-workers-resign-trump http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00243-8 http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00197-x   Oct. 2024   AP: Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say.   With characteristic bravado, Donald Trump has vowed that if voters return him to the White House, “inflation will vanish completely.”   It’s a message tailored for Americans who are still exasperated by the jump in consumer prices that began 3 1/2 years ago.   Yet most mainstream economists say Trump’s policy proposals wouldn’t vanquish inflation. They’d make it worse. They warn that his plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging.   Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter in June expressing fear that Trump’s proposals would “reignite’’ inflation, which has plummeted since peaking at 9.1% in 2022 and is nearly back to the Fed’s 2% target.   The Nobel economists noted that they aren’t alone in sounding the alarm. “Nonpartisan researchers,” they said, “predict that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will increase inflation.”   Last month, the Peterson Institute for International Economics predicted that Trump’s policies — the deportations, import taxes and efforts to erode the Fed’s independence — would drive consumer prices sharply higher two years into his second term. Peterson’s analysis concluded that inflation, which would otherwise register 1.9% in 2026, would instead jump to between 6% and 9.3% if Trump’s economic proposals were adopted.   Taxes on imports — tariffs — are Trump’s go-to economic policy. While in office, Trump started a trade war with China, imposing high tariffs on most Chinese goods. He also raised import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum, washing machines and solar panels. He has still grander plans for a second term: Trump wants to impose a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods and a “universal" tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else that enters the United States.   Trump insists that the cost of taxing imported goods is absorbed by the foreign countries that produce those goods. The truth, though, is that U.S. importers pay the tariff — and then typically pass along that cost to consumers in the form of higher prices, which is how Americans themselves end up bearing the cost of tariffs.   “There’s no question that tariffs are inflationary,’’ said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, which studies the costs of government policies.   Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute have calculated that Trump’s proposed 60% tax on Chinese imports and his high-end 20% tariff on everything else would, in combination, impose an after-tax loss on a typical American household of $2,600 a year.   Trump has made some implausible claims for protectionist policies. Asked how he would lower grocery prices — a particular irritant to many Americans — Trump has said the nation should limit the importation of food because America’s farmers are “being decimated’’ by foreign competition.   “It’s sort of nonsensical to say that I am worried about high food prices, so I want to put a tax on food imports,” said Clausing, who is also a UCLA economist specializing in tax policy. “As you tax them, the food in the grocery store absolutely gets more expensive.”   A huge proportion of food consumed in the United States — about 60% of fresh fruit and 38% of vegetables — are imported, according to Department of Agriculture data.   “While Trump tariff promises to ‘make the foreigners pay,’ researchers concluded in their Peterson report, ”our analysis shows his policies will end up making Americans pay the most.”   http://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/10/tariff-reality-check-trump-retreat-00285270 http://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/fiscal-and-economic-effects-revised-april-9-tariffs http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/trump-tariffs-list-pause http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/trump-tariffs-threaten-global-growth-and-raise-risk-of-severe-shocks-says-bank-of-england http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/10/tariffs_trade_war_china_markets http://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/7/jayati_ghosh_tariffs http://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/05/poor-countries-are-victims-of-trump-s-cynicism_6739870_23.html http://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/06/trumps-tariffs-may-be-perilous-for-small-heavily-indebted-countries-in-global-south http://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/09/dramatic-sell-off-of-us-government-bonds-as-tariff-war-panic-deepens http://theconversation.com/new-modelling-reveals-full-impact-of-trumps-liberation-day-tariffs-with-the-us-hit-hardest-253320   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/12/i-feel-utter-anger-from-canada-to-europe-a-movement-to-boycott-us-goods-is-spreading http://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250314-europeans-boycott-us-products-to-protest-against-trump-tariffs http://www.dw.com/en/trade-boycott-us-products-donald-trump-tariffs-v5/a-71899620 http://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/blogs/americo-martins/internacional/brasil-deveria-retaliar-trump-com-imposto-sobre-oligarcas-diz-economista/ http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/oligarch-tax-for-multinational-firms-to-maintain-market-access-by-gabriel-zucman-2025-02 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/true-dangers-trumps-economic-plans http://www.brookings.edu/articles/tariffs-on-all-imports-would-create-chaos-for-business/ http://geographical.co.uk/geopolitics/what-international-bodies-could-trump-dump http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-musk-economy-lower-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-higher-costs-for-everyone-else-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2024-11   http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2025/03/25/irs-cuts-may-cost-500-billion-in-lost-tax-revenue-as-taxpayers-exploit-system/157841 http://inequality.org/facts/taxes-inequality-in-united-states/ http://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tax-plan-wealthy-corporations-oil-billionaires-musk-1235107554/ http://accountable.us/new-campaign-spotlights-the-billionaires-and-corporations-fighting-for-wealthy-tax-cuts/ http://inequality.org/topics/wealth-concentration/ http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/what-billionaires-see-in-donald-trump   http://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025s-tax-plan-would-raise-taxes-on-the-middle-class-and-cut-taxes-for-the-wealthy/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/an-american-democracy-built-for-the-people-why-democracy-matters-and-how-to-make-it-work-for-the-21st-century/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/house-committee-farm-bills-30-billion-snap-cut-other-harmful-proposals http://www.prri.org/research/challenges-to-democracy-the-2024-election-in-focus-findings-from-the-2024-american-values-survey/ http://www.brookings.edu/events/democracy-at-a-crossroads/ http://www.cbpp.org/blog/food-insecurity-rises-for-the-second-year-in-a-row http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/house-republican-agendas-and-project-2025-would-increase-poverty-and   11 Oct. 2024   US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge. (Guardian News)   Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US.   A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing hundreds of fatalities, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday.   The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).   Katie Nickolaou, a Michigan-based meteorologist, said that she and her colleagues have borne the brunt of much of these conspiracies, having received messages claiming that meteorologists or the government are creating and directing hurricanes (they aren’t) and even that scientists should be killed and radar equipment be demolished.   “I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” Nickolaou said.   “I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather,” Nickolaou said.   A wide range of misinformation has been spread as Helene and then Milton gathered pace in the Gulf of Mexico, such as claims spread by Trump that Fema had run out of cash for hurricane survivors because it has been given to illegal immigrants.   Violent threats have also become common, with posts across TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), alleging that Fema workers should be beaten or “arrested or shot or hung on sight”.   More outlandishly, several of Trump’s closest allies have baselessly asserted that the federal government is somehow controlling hurricanes. “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation,” claimed a video shared by Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Trump.   “Yes they can control the weather,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, wrote on X last week. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”   This steep rise in falsehoods has drawn a sharp response from Joe Biden, who has blamed Trump for an “Onslaught of lies.. It’s beyond ridiculous,” Biden said of the claims being made around weather control. “It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop.”   Although humans can worsen hurricanes by burning fossil fuels, creating a hotter ocean and atmosphere that gives hurricanes more energy, they cannot create, control or steer individual storms.   For meteorologists, the experiences around Helene and Milton are just an extreme continuation of a trend where the public is increasingly getting its information from extremist figures online rather than experts, according to Chris Gloninger, a former TV meteorologist and climate scientist who faced threats for talking about the climate crisis during his forecasts.   “The modern Republican party has an army of people who are on social media with huge followings who just disseminate this misinformation,” Gloninger said. “I’m seeing my former colleagues getting threats, I’m getting messages that we are steering hurricanes into red states. It’s mindblowing, I’ve never seen anything like this in any disaster.”   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/meteorologists-death-threats-hurricane-conspiracies-misinformation http://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-congress-opposing-cuts-to-federal-emergency-management-agency/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/delta-merner/the-human-right-to-a-stable-climate/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/chris-williams/what-is-scientific-integrity-and-how-does-it-keep-all-of-us-safe/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/chitra-kumar/project-2025s-assault-on-epa-human-health-and-the-environment-must-never-be-put-into-action http://blog.ucsusa.org/category/science-and-democracy/ http://blog.ucs.org/series/trump-administration/ http://earth.org/100-days-of-trump-how-the-us-overturned-years-of-climate-progress/ http://www.propublica.org/article/trump-epa-greenhouse-gas-reporting-climate-crisis http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/child-asthma-will-worsen-with-trumps-pollution-rollbacks-and-rfk-jr-s-cdc/ http://www.nature.com/collections/jcjhabjhgi http://council.science/blog/science-diplomacy-and-the-global-state-of-affairs/   Oct. 2024   Trump sparks outrage after calling for army to handle enemies on election day. (news agencies)   Donald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month’s presidential election.   In comments that further fuelled fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called “the enemy within” when the election takes place on 5 November.   He singled out the California congressman, Adam Schiff, who was the lead prosecutor in the ex-president’s first impeachment trial, as posing a bigger threat to a free and fair election than foreign terrorists.   Trump’s comments, to Fox News in response to a question on possible election “chaos”, triggered an angry reaction from Kamala Harris’s campaign, which likened them to previous remarks that he would be a dictator “on day one” of a second presidency and his suggestions that the US constitution should be terminated to overturn the 2020 election result, which he falsely claims was stolen by Joe Biden.   Adam Schiff responded by accusing Trump of inciting violence in the same manner as he was widely accused of doing on 6 January 2021, when a mob attacked the US Capitol in an effort to stop certification of Biden’s election win.   “Today, Trump threatened to deploy the military against the ‘enemies from within.’ The same thing he has called me,” Schiff wrote. “Just as he incited a mob to attack the Capitol, he again stokes violence against those who oppose him.”   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/14/trump-military-enemy-within-armed-forces-election-day http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-authoritarian-rhetoric-hitler-mussolini/680296/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/ http://www.theatlantic.com/if-trump-wins/ http://sojo.net/articles/opinion/christian-faith-requires-us-speak-out-against-fascist-rhetoric http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/12/05/the-second-coming-fintan-otoole/ http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/us/politics/john-kelly-trump-fitness-character.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/25/opinion/what-trump-says.html http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2024/10/trumps-escalating-rhetoric-washington-week/680419/ http://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/30/nation/trumps-new-york-rally-reflects-party-where-hate-speech-has-become-mainstream/ http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/us/trump-msg-rally.html http://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-00183537   http://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5163293/la-times-editor-resigns-trump-msnbc-washington-post http://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5156184/elon-musk-trump-election-x-twitter http://www.npr.org/series/973275370/untangling-disinformation http://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-25/from-bannon-to-musk-the-decade-that-made-misinformation-the-new-normal.html http://counterhate.com/research/musk-misleading-election-claims-viewed-1-2bn-times-on-x-with-no-fact-checks/ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/trump-media-assault-silence-criticism   http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/06/the-guardian-view-on-elon-musks-disinformation-escalating-hate-and-threatening-democracy http://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/08/spain-pm-pedro-sanchez-denounces-elon-musk-at-franco-anniversary-event http://www.dw.com/en/european-leaders-decry-elon-musks-meddling/a-71227690 http://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241219-musk-s-possible-meddling-in-uk-politics-stirs-concern http://www.dw.com/en/german-politicians-criticize-musk-backing-for-far-right-afd/a-71117414 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/elon-musk-vivek-trump-tax-cuts-social-security-medicare-1235212608/   http://inequality.org/research/billionaires-vs-democracy/ http://library.witness.org/product/tipsheet-on-combating-misinformation-disinformation-in-elections/ http://www.justsecurity.org/104407/authoritarianism-plutocracy-press-freedom/ http://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-verbally-attacked-media-more-100-times-run-election http://www.mediamatters.org   http://www.justsecurity.org/92714/american-autocracy-threat-tracker/ http://www.americanprogress.org/series/project-2025-exposing-the-far-right-assault-on-america http://www.propublica.org/article/trump-impoundment-appropriations-congress-budget http://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga http://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trump-second-term-new-age-authoritarian-capitalism-china-musk/ http://www.cgdev.org/blog/project-2025-and-development-policy-i-read-it-so-you-dont-have
	Afghan women face "erasure from public life" three years since Taliban takeover by UN Women, agencies   Mar. 2025   As new school year starts in Afghanistan, almost 400,000 more girls deprived of their right to education, bringing total to 2.2 million.   Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on the third anniversary of the ban on secondary education for girls in Afghanistan:   “As a new school year begins in Afghanistan, it marks three years since the start of the ban on girls' secondary education. This decision continues to harm the future of millions of Afghan girls. If this ban persists until 2030, over four million girls will have been deprived of their right to education beyond primary school.   “The consequences for these girls - and for Afghanistan - are catastrophic. The ban negatively impacts the health system, the economy, and the future of the nation. With fewer girls receiving an education, girls face a higher risk of child marriage with negative repercussions on their well-being and health.   “In addition, the country will experience a shortage of qualified female health workers. This will endanger lives. "With fewer female doctors and midwives, girls and women will not receive the medical treatment and support they need. We are estimating an additional 1,600 maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths. These are not just numbers, they represent lives lost and families shattered.   “For over three years, the rights of girls in Afghanistan have been violated. All girls must be allowed to return to school now. If these capable, bright young girls continue to be denied an education, then the repercussions will last for generations. Afghanistan cannot leave half of its population behind.   “At UNICEF, we remain unwavering in our commitment to Afghan children – girls and boys. Despite the ban, we have provided access to education for 445,000 children through community-based learning—64 per cent of whom are girls. We are also empowering female teachers to ensure that girls have positive role models.   “We will continue to advocate for the right of every Afghan girl to receive an education, and we urge the de facto authorities to lift this ban immediately. Education is not just a fundamental right; it is the pathway to a healthier, more stable, and prosperous society.”   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/new-school-year-starts-afghanistan-almost-400000-more-girls-deprived-their-right   Dec. 2024   Afghanistan: Ban on women medical training must be repealed. (OHCHR)   The ban against women in Afghanistan attending classes at private medical institutions is yet another direct blow by the de facto authorities against Afghan women and girls. It is the latest in a long string of State-sponsored discriminatory measures targeting women and girls in the fields of education, work and others – hijacking the future of the country.   The measure is profoundly discriminatory, short-sighted and puts the lives of women and girls at risk in multiple ways. It removes the only remaining path for women and girls towards higher education and will decimate the already inadequate supply of female midwives, nurses and doctors.   This decision will limit women and girls’ already precarious access to healthcare, as male medical staff are prohibited from treating women unless a male relative is present. Afghanistan already has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. Women’s presence in the health sector is crucial.   All these measures, taken by men with absolute lack of transparency and without any involvement of those concerned, are clearly aimed at excluding women and girls from public life.   Afghanistan’s de facto authorities hold the effective power and responsibility for the welfare, security, and safety of the entire population.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urges the de facto authorities to repeal this harmful directive. It is high time women and girls’ human rights are ensured, in line with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations.   Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and campaigner for Amnesty International, said: “This is an outrageous act of ignorance by the Taliban, who continue to lead a war against women and girls in Afghanistan. This draconian action will have a devastating long-term impact on the lives of millions of Afghans, especially women and girls.   “In a country like Afghanistan, where people are bound to traditional and cultural practices, women in most parts of the country are not allowed to be checked or treated by a male doctor.   “With this ban, it will mean there will be no more midwives, nurses, female lab and medical personnel to serve female patients,” she said.   Heather Barr, at Human Rights Watch, said: “If you ban women from being treated by male healthcare professionals, and then you ban women from training to become healthcare professionals, the consequences are clear: women will not have access to healthcare and will die as a result.”   * Afghanistan already suffers from one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and there are deep concerns that that the ban would further erode women’s precarious access to healthcare.   * IPC Afghanistan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation projects for the period (November 2024 to March 2025), which coincides with the peak of the lean season, will see 14.8 million people (32 percent of the total population) classified in IPC Phase 3 or above (Crisis or worse). Nearly 3.5 million children, aged 6 to 59 months, are suffering or projected to suffer acute malnutrition between June 2024 and May 2025 and require urgent interventions. This includes 867,300 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and almost 2.6 million cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). Additionally, 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are expected to suffer acute malnutrition in the same period: http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159434/   http://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-afghanistan http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/12/afghanistan-ban-women-medical-training-must-be-repealed http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-reported-restrictions-Afghanistan http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1157866 http://www.msf.org/excluding-women-medical-institutes-threatens-future-healthcare-afghanistan http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/06/taliban-afghanistan-ban-women-training-nurses-midwives-outrageous-act-ignorance-human-rights-healthcare http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/03/afghanistans-taliban-ban-medical-training-women http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/12/afghanistan-licenses-ngos-must-not-be-revoked http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/new-morality-law-affirms-talibans-regressive-agenda-experts-call-concerted http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognised-crime-against-humanity-un-experts-say http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-afghanistan   28 Aug. 2024   UN Women deeply concerned by new Afghanistan morality law   UN Women is deeply concerned about the recent enactment of a morality law by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, which imposes extensive restrictions on personal behaviour, effectively erasing women from public life and granting broad enforcement powers to the morality police.   On 21 August 2024, the de facto authorities announced the ratification of a detailed “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” which imposes extensive restrictions on the Afghan population. This law significantly deepens the already severe curtailment of the rights of Afghan women and girls, including requirements for women to cover their entire bodies and faces, and it forbids women’s voices in public.   Women are also prohibited from interacting with non-Muslims, using public transport alone, and looking at men to whom they are not related by blood or marriage.   Over the past three years, since their takeover of Afghanistan, the de facto authorities have subjected Afghan women and girls to more than 70 edicts, directives, and decrees stripping them of fundamental rights. UN Women data shows that these restrictions are having dire impacts in the lives of Afghan women and girls.   For example, only 1 per cent of women surveyed feel like they have influence over decision-making in their communities; 64 per cent indicate that they do not feel safe leaving their homes by themselves compared to 2 per cent of men; and 8 per cent indicate knowing at least one woman or girl who has attempted suicide since August 2021.   These oppressive laws and policies must be immediately reversed, and the de facto authorities must adhere to their obligations under international law to ensure the full rights of all women and girls.   UN Women stands in unwavering solidarity with every Afghan woman and girl subjected to these measures and we will continue to work with our partners to support the full realization of their rights.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2024/08/un-women-deeply-concerned-by-new-afghanistan-morality-law http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/08/afghanistan-repressive-law-must-be-immediately-repealed   Aug. 2024   Press briefing at the United Nations by UN Women Country Representative in Afghanistan, Alison Davidian, on the three-year mark of the Taliban takeover:   "I’ve just come back from the north of Afghanistan. I asked the women I met what they want the world to know about their lives.   One woman, Nasima told me this: “I was married at 16. I couldn’t finish school. My hope was that my daughter’s life would be better. Now I’m worried her life is going to be worse. To those who are still listening to our voices, please help us fight for our freedom.”   This week marks three years since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.   Three years’ worth of countless decrees, directives, and statements targeting women and girls – stripping them of their fundamental rights. Eviscerating their autonomy.   Our latest publication, shows trends based on rounds of consultations we’ve done with thousands of Afghan women, from the provincial capitals to the most rural areas since August 2021.   One of the first, most striking, trends is the erasure of Afghan women from public life.   To date, no woman in Afghanistan is in a leadership position anywhere that has influence politically, at the national or provincial level. When Afghan women are engaged in the Taliban’s structures, their roles are largely about monitoring compliance of other women with their discriminatory decrees.   This political erasure is mirrored at the social level. Our data shows that when you take away basic rights, it impacts every area of life. Of the women we surveyed, 98 per cent felt they had limited or zero influence on decision-making in their communities.   It is also reflected in the home. Our data shows that the percentage of women who feel they can influence decision-making at the household level has dropped by nearly 60 per cent over the last year. To give some context, three years ago an Afghan women could technically decide to run for President. Now, she may not even be able to decide when to go and buy groceries.   It wasn’t perfect three years ago. But it wasn’t this. Linked to the loss of rights, our data points to an escalating mental health crisis. Sixty-eight per cent of the women we consulted report “bad” or “very bad” mental health. And 8 per cent indicated knowing at least one women or girl who had attempted suicide.   What is also clear three years in, is that the Taliban’s restrictions on the rights of women and girls will affect generations to come.   Our analysis shows that by 2026, the impact of leaving 1.1 million girls out of school and over 100,000 women out of university is correlated with an increase in the rate of early childbearing by 45 per cent; and an increased risk of maternal mortality by at least 50 per cent.   In the face of this deepening women’s rights crisis, I am often asked: what can we do to support Afghan women and girls?   My answer is always this one key thing.   We must continue to invest in women. Nothing undermines the Taliban’s vision for society more than empowering the very part of the population they seek to oppress.   Practically, based on UN Women’s work over the past three years, investing in women translates into three main strategies:   Allocate flexible and long-term funding to grassroots women’s organizations. This is one of the most effective ways to reach women and girls, respond to their needs, and invest in one of the few sectors where women can still influence decision-making. It’s hard, but it’s possible.   Design programmes dedicated to countering the erasure of women and girls, investing directly in their resilience, empowerment, and leadership. Initiatives particularly for education, livelihoods, and entrepreneurship are crucial ways to meaningfully address structural drivers of gender inequality.   Finally, it is essential to facilitate spaces where Afghan women can express their concerns and priorities directly. Our data shows that Afghan women want to represent themselves. But one meeting and one participation option will not do. Across any engagement, we need to ask: How can we consult and include Afghan women? What can we do differently to break the pattern of women’s exclusion?   Three years ago, the whole world was watching a takeover that was livestreaming horror. Three years later, while the world’s attention may have turned elsewhere, the horrors have not stopped for Afghan women and girls, nor has their conviction to stand against the oppression.   When it comes to the fight for women’s rights, we are at an inflection point in Afghanistan, but also globally. The world is watching what happens to women and girls in Afghanistan. In some places, it watches to condemn; in others, it watches to emulate the Taliban’s structural oppression.   We cannot leave Afghan women to fight alone. If we do, we have no moral ground to fight for women’s rights anywhere. Their fate determines the fate of women everywhere.   What we do – or fail to do – for Nasima, her daughter, and all Afghan women and girls, is the ultimate test of who we are as a global community and what we stand for.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/08/resolve-of-afghan-women-in-the-face-of-erasure-three-years-since-the-taliban-takeover http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/06/gender-country-profile-afghanistan http://tinyurl.com/3y9ahfwx http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1153151 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/1000-days-education-equivalent-three-billion-learning-hours-lost-afghan-girls http://www.nrc.no/news/2024/august/3-years-neglect-in-afghanistan/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-101/en http://www.rescue.org/article/millions-afghans-endure-crisis-three-years-after-taliban-takeover http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2024-december-2023-endarips http://news.un.org/en/tags/afghanistan http://reliefweb.int/country/afg http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/international-community-must-not-normalise-taliban-rule-afghanistan http://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/afghanistan/need-for-an-urgent-rethink-of-international-response-to-the-human http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/11/afghanistan-taliban-tighten-grip-3-years-rule Visit the related web page
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