Project 2025 on Women

                                                                                            written 21 July, 2024

                                                                                        published 28 July, 2024

 

            At some point we will view extreme wealth as a hording/addiction disorder, much like seeing a 500 pound person.  "Too Much, and Never Enough" is Mary Trump's book about her uncle Donald.  But, in our culture of personality, the wealthy are worshipped and have traditionally dominated the GOP agenda, despite having unpopular goals.  Social justice progress in the 60's and 70's prompted GOP alignment with "Christian" conservatives, specifically around the issue of abortion.  This resulted in a decades long project to stack the Supreme Court, and in 2022, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion was reversed.

            Much to the GOP surprise, this reversal was not popular with 70 percent of the population.  Trying to distance themselves, they shifted the rhetoric to a States Rights issue.  However, since 2022, all 7 states that had abortion on the ballot legalized it, bringing the total to 29.  2 more of the currently limited or banned states will vote in November.  Idaho, typical of those with an abortion ban, has lost 22 percent of their obstetricians, and 3 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments.  Most medical students say they won't practice in states with abortion bans.  But the GOP, driven by a self-righteous agenda, ignores this and pushes ahead anyway.

            Project 2025 is a set of administrative actions the president can take unilaterally, without regard for Congress, individual state decisions, or voter's desires.  The section on Reproductive Rights will remove any mention of abortion from all government laws, policies, and regulations.  Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts writes that a pro-life administration starts by removing the terms “abortion, reproductive health, and reproductive rights, out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, and legislation that exists.” 

            The 1873 Comstock Act, named after Anthony Comstock, a devout Protestant activist who opposed women suffragettes, is still on the books.  It criminalizes the involvement of the United States Postal Service in conveying "abortion-related" material.  Using the Comstock Act, sales of mifepristone, which is used in over 50 percent of abortions these days, will be tracked and criminalized, effecting a national ban on at-home abortions.

            The Department of Health and Human Services will redefine Medicaid to avoid providing reproductive health care and penalize providers who do.  States will be allowed to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans, and disqualify providers of elective abortions.  Medicaid funding will be withdrawn from states that require abortion insurance. 

            Abortion access is currently allowed at VA hospitals, in some circumstances.  The Department of Defense allows abortion for servicemembers.  Hospitals are required to offer abortions in medical emergencies regardless of state bans.  All these will be reversed.

            Project 2025 will reinstate a longtime Republican policy goal, barring nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. aid from providing abortion services or advocating for legal abortion.  Title X, a federal Family Planning Program, provides low-cost contraception, STD screenings, and prenatal care to low-income people, and has never been used for abortion services.  Project 2025 will eliminate these services.

            The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will cancel programs that are deemed "pro-abortion".  Based on the contested religious theory that life begins at conception, the CDC will “eliminate programs that do not respect human life”, and pivot from "abortion as health care” to “research that supports pro-life policies." 

            Project 2025 is anti-surrogacy, claiming that “all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them” and aims to end all fetal cell research to “ensure that abortion and embryo-destructive related research become both fully obsolete and ethically unthinkable.”  This includes In Vitro Fertilization, a common aid for infertile couples.

            Religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act would be reinstated, allowing coverage denial of any kind of contraception.  Instead, education on “fertility awareness-based” methods of contraception and family planning (charting ovulation, and avoiding sexual activity) would become mandatory.  Health Resources & Service Administration guidelines would eliminate support of condoms because they are not a “women’s” preventative service.  

            In their arrogance, the GOP is convinced abortion is a passing phase, just a "woman's issue".  Personal empowerment is to be subverted to intensive, pseudo-religious, governmental intrusion.   If you have a mother, wife, sister, or daughter, or are a woman yourself, get educate about Project 2025.  Decide if that is the world you want.  If not, talk to everyone you know about Project 2025, so we all see what is coming, and vote Harris for president!  

 

 

Project 2025 On Climate

                                                                                            written 14 July, 2024

                                                                                        published 21 July, 2024

  

            In 1973, a military junta, with US assistance, overthrew the elected Allende government in Chile, and installed Pinochet as dictator.  Massive changes were swiftly made at all levels of government, destroying the previous democracy.  "Shock Doctrine", by Naomi Klein, describes this in detail.  Chile didn't recover until 1990.  Similar events are brewing in the US.

            The billionaire class knows their self-serving policies are unpopular, and they are losing demographically.  They have aligned with so called "Christian" fundamentalists, another declining demographic, to push through a last gasp effort: Project 2025.  

            The GOP has yet to articulate any specific policy goals for this campaign, but Project 2025 has been in secret development for years.  Trump serves as a media distraction, with his torrent of lies, fantasies, and bombastic behavior, while right wing organizations have created a detailed, 900 page agenda, for the first 180 days of his next administration.  Trump claims to "know nothing about it", yet over 30 members of his first administration are authors of the various sections.   

            One hundred groups, led by the Heritage Foundation, funded by dark money from the Donors Trust and the Koch network, funneled through the Federalist Society vice president Leonard Leo, plan to remake our government to suit their limited desires.  You can read it for yourself, just search on "Project 2025 document", or find summaries.

            Numerous agencies in the government would be eliminated, or redefined.  Over 50,000 civil service positions will be reclassified as “at-will” workers, which the administration could then fire and replace.  A list of 100,000 possible applicants is already being compiled, with MAGA loyalty the primary requirement, and knowledge appropriate to the job they will be assigned being secondary.  A training academy will provide appointees with background knowledge and expertise, to immediately begin rolling back "unwanted" policies, advancing conservative, and "Christian" Nationalist ideals.

            Of the ten major sections in Project 2025, this article focuses on just Climate Change.  

            The core goals are: ending climate protection, gutting clean energy programs, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, and deregulating the oil industry.

            Four specific agencies are defined for elimination: Clean Energy Corps, Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies, DOE Loans Program, and DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  These offices invest in American manufacturing, create good paying jobs, set minimum energy efficiency standards for appliances and equipment, drive research and development, and help launch utility-scale solar and wind industries, expanding domestic manufacturing.

            Another agency to chop is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, managing fishing, and protecting marine mammals in the US economic zone.  For the GOP, ignorance is bliss.

            The chapter on the Agency for International Development plans “rescinding all climate policies from foreign aid programs” and shutting down any offices or departments connected to the Paris Climate Agreement.  It will eliminate or curtail funding to federal programs or offices related to climate change, and recommends reopening the Arctic for oil drilling, expanding other drilling projects, and leasing land in western states for coal mining.

            The chapter on the Environmental Protection Agency calls for shrinking the agency by firing new hires and eliminating the environmental justice department.  The author, Mandy Gunasekara, Trump's former EPA chief of staff, claims the left has "overstated the climate crisis, which will be mild and manageable".

            Mild and manageable?  These people are ignorant, delusional, or corrupt.  

            Heat is setting records everywhere, becoming more lethal.  Availability of affordable homeowner's insurance is a growing concern.  In Texas, millions are still out of power and flooded by hurricane Beryl, with heat coming next.  Midwestern farmers can't work their flooded field.  In the last two weeks, Ruidoso, New Mexico evacuated from devastating fires, and was then twice inundated by flooding.

            Project 2025 will destroy our democracy and threatens the planet, so the GOP must lose.  We can still vote.  The Democratic candidate for president is irrelevant, compared to what the MAGA GOP Project 2025 plans.  Even a head of cabbage would be better.  Pick a section of Project 2025 that is important to you, and educate yourself.  Decide if that is the world you want.  If not, vote Democratic across the board.  Democrats have their issues, but they are not pushing theocratic autocracy.  Talk to everyone you know about Project 2025, so we all see what is coming.  Let's leave a habitable planet for our descendants. 

 

GOP Unveiled

                                                                                              written 7 July, 2024

                                                                                        published 14 July 2024

                                                                   

            On September 11th, 2001, watching the Twin Towers fall, I felt gut punched, realizing the whole world had changed that day.  That attack by foreign terrorists used planes.  This July 1st, I felt the same way, but this time, domestic terrorists used their position of trust.  The Supreme Court decided to grant immunity to the president, destroying the foundation of our society: equal application of the law.  This clarifies the election.  The GOP has dropped its mask, and stands revealed as a party that prioritizes profits over principles, party over country, driven by self-righteous religious fervor. 

            The GOP was forced to tip its hand in order to keep their felonious, morally compromised candidate out of court before the election, giving a modest window for effective response.  Because Biden is president, he is now immune, and can never be prosecuted.  Further, Biden is now "King Joe", with previously unrealized executive powers, should he choose to act.

            Floods of suggestions have been offered, ranging from expanding the Supreme Court to arresting Trump as a "national threat", and sequestering him in Guantanamo.  The Republicans on the Supreme Court could be removed from the bench, as allowed in the Constitution, for failing to act with "good behavior" while in office, and then arrested for treasonous acts and perjury during their Senate confirmations.  Simple assassination has been suggested as the most expeditious remedy, now "legal" when declared "official acts".  But just because corrupt GOP judges have given "King Joe" these sweeping powers, actually having moral values precludes such acts, so a more refined response is needed.  

            The goal is restoration of the rule of law, and the first step should be a resounding electoral defeat of the GOP authoritarian power grab.  With control of Congress and the White House, Supreme Court reform could proceed, with term limits and mandatory ethical standards, previously unnecessary until this MAGA Court.

            Towards this end, "King Joe" can declare that presidential election be decided by popular vote, eliminating the structurally skewed Electoral College and the swing state drama, which has allowed minority rule for decades.  The President and Vice President are the only people selected by all voters, so applying popular voting to them is reasonable, and doesn't affect any other part of the electoral system.  Five of the six renegade members of the Supreme Court were selected by Bush the younger, and Trump, both losers of the popular vote, so their judges don't represent the will of the people.

            The National Popular Vote bill is an existing agreement between states that vow to cast all their electoral votes for the national winner of the popular vote, to take effect when states totaling more than 270 votes agree.  So far, 18 states, with a total of 209 votes, are on board.  Another 7 states, with Democratic governors, have 87 more votes, and most have already had hearings on this bill, so are possibly open to supporting immediate federal action.

            "King Joe" can decree election day to be a national holiday, mandating that no one wait in line for more than 1/2 an hour to vote.  Further, harassing poll workers could be made a Class A felony, with strong fines and jail time.  The National Guard could be assigned to secure every polling station to deter voter intimidation.

            Strategically, the Democratic campaign should shift the focus away from the personality conflict between Trump and Biden, onto the stark policy differences between the parties.  Whatever Biden's actual limitations, he is an ethical man, with ethical people advising him, unlike his opponent.  The GOP has made it clear: ethics have no place in their drive for absolute power.  This election is between representational democracy, with law applied equally to all, versus theocratic autocracy, where the powerful few are "special", operating under different rules that advantage themselves.  

            Trump's personality is a tar baby distraction, sucking attention away from the complete lack of publicized GOP policy goals.  The real GOP action has proceeded in secret, planning a "shock and awe" project to gut the government, and rapidly install an autocratic alternative to dominate every aspect of American life, as outlined in the massive Project 2025 document, available online. 

            A unified Democratic campaign should completely ignore Trump (further infuriating him), and pound on the policy differences between the two parties, to make sure every voter knows exactly what the GOP Project 2025 plans for them.  We win on policy, not personality.

 

 

Moral Values

                                                                                           written 30 June, 2024

                                                                                          published 7 July 2024

     

            The first debate showed Biden is indeed an old man.  He has spinal arthritis and walks slowly.  He had a summer cold and his voice was raspy.  He talked softly and lost his train of thought at times.  However, when he spoke, he was relatively coherent, 

and answered the debate questions with actual facts and policies.

            Trump showed his true nature as well.  He is a pathological liar, and a totally self-obsessed bully.  Post-debate CNN fact checkers documented over 30 major lies.  Trump never answered the questions asked, despite repeated requests from the moderators, but returned over and over to his standard fantasy: America is a hell hole, and it is all Biden's fault (or Pelosi's, or migrant invaders, but never him).  He refused to take responsibility for any of his actions, claiming America was perfect during his term, but immediately went downhill after he left.  

            Biden looked weak, but relevant, and Trump looked mentally ill, autocratic, and irrelevant.

            Like it or not, these are probably our choices in November.  However, in America, we don't have an authoritarian as President (although Trump and Republicans plan to change that).  It isn't just the person in the Oval Office, but an entire team, at all levels of government, that actually make things happen.  So, in addition to focusing on the strength or weakness of the presidential candidates, it is important to look at the team with which they are aligned.

            When the candidates were asked the one question about the climate crisis, Trump described how the water and air were "perfect" during his term, and Biden discussed the IRA legislation, which is the largest climate action yet taken in the US.  Despite being hindered by their big business ties, the Democrats understand the climate crisis, while the Republicans deny it even exists, legislating in Florida against any official mention.  Trump told the fossil fuel executives if they gave him $1B and he would remove all the climate legislation limiting their desire to kill the planet for trillions in profit.

            The Republican dominated Supreme Court (stacked by Trump), is waging relentless war on women, yearning to return us to the days when women "knew their place" (barefoot and pregnant).  Republicans in Arizona support laws written in the 1864, having learned nothing since.

            Republicans in Louisiana are taking us even further back: to Moses, 3500 years ago.  The Ten Commandments are now required in every school in that state, setting a "moral standard" for all, and other Republican led state are following suit.  Recently, Bill Maher, a confirmed atheist, pointed out the first four commandments support God's ego, as if he is insecure.  Another five prohibit killing, adultery, stealing, coveting, and lying (Trump fails at least four of these), but there is nothing about rape, slavery, or child abuse.  Perhaps Republicans aren't too concerned about those, as they make war on women, support low wage slavery, and want to put children to work. 

            Moses led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, and went up on the mountain to commune with God.  The masses got bored, and cast a golden calf to worship, a vestige of their previous religion.  When Moses returned with the Commandments, he was upset by this retrograde behavior, and the tribes were condemned to wander in the desert for 40 years until all the transgressors had died.  Moses's God is judgmental, punishes the wicked, and fear of God is expected.   

            1500 years later, Christ brought a new set of rules, teaching that God should be loved, the essence of a unity perspective.  Both sets of rules are included in the Bible as the Old and New Testament, and fundamentalist Christians worships both sides, so you should be God fearing to be a "good" Christian, but also love God.

            This confusion of love and fear seems insane, as they are polar opposites.  Despite this, many people strive to live Christ's spirit of love, but the religious organizations founded by men are often aligned with fear, guilt, judgement, and punishment. 

            The US Constitution declares a separation between Church and State, allowing each to choose for themselves.  But Republicans, supporting self-proclaimed "Christian nationalists", self-righteously believe they know what is best, and are willing to force Old Testament morality upon everyone.

            Those are the choices this November.  The leader of the party is consequential, but so is what their party has in mind.