How can Heritage Foundation be a tax-exempt non-profit when it’s actively engaged in political activity? Even organizations like the major teachers’ unions have to keep their tax-exempt and political action bodies separate. Kind of hard to argue with a straight face that Heritage Foundation is a nonpartisan public policy research institution like Brookings.
There is a shocking amount of non-compliance among tax-exempt organizations. 501(c)(4)s - PACS - can engage in political activity; 501(c)(3)s are prohibited from campaigning in political races. Hello Evangelicals - I'm looking at your churches.
But keep in mind, wasn't it a few years ago the GQP right wingers in Congress attacked the IRS as being biased against conservatives, so the IRS did tweak some of their non-prof rules in their favor. I have always held that there are a LOT of non-profs that are just money laundering machines set up for the Right.
(Homage to Donald Trump’s ‘Proud Boys’ and Others)
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will un-steal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “OrangeFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “Save our leader, OrangeFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that, “Maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few.” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no… not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthie honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthie waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
This is all a good conversation on the manifesto. It’s widespread an insidious. I had a brief chat with a cop about guns and I could see from his defense of the 2nd amendment that he was already a likely supporter of all of this move to the extreme political right. My mantra continues to be to reevaluate our positions and move to the center. After all, often, we do take our sympathies from those with greater influence. We need to cut the far left Bull and move to the center. I know this confuses many but we are now living in a biforcated society and if these wounds aren’t healed, we lose to an autocratic government. The handwriting is on the wall. My satire of the coming revolution is indeed, a potential reality. Take it for what it’s worth.
Bill....When the traitors at Heritage threaten Liberals with violence......do they have a direct line to these nazi militas?? As November gets closer.......what protection do Liberal wives, sons and daughters have against them?? Rape, stealing, destruction of personal property are part of war and these brainwashed nazi's you describe cannot wait to pull the trigger and pull down their pants.
Jenn - Thanks for the ProPublica link! I love their work and just contributed.
At Airventure (Oshkosh airshow in July) the Wisconsin Guard put on a demo of their combined arms capabilities. https://youtu.be/raMOZhHBwg0 As I watched I didn’t know whether the WI Gov was R or D so I immediately googled to discover he is a D! Tony Evers. Timothy Snyder's Bloodbath Candidate Thinking About immediately came to mind. https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-bloodbath-candidate
What happens if Red State governors send their Army and Air Guard units to support Trump? POTUS needs to activate all Red state governor Guard units from 1 November to 31 January to have them under his command!
As the clock keeps ticking.........Heritage "mercinary, proxy" pawns are already being installed as "election watchers.." I have always been a bit frightened to ask what counter measures can be taken. What can we do to protect ourselves from these deranged overaged men who traded their GIJoe's/toy soldiers for AR15s??
It's a bottomless pit, Andy. It's what P 2025 is all about: freedom through privatization. Freedom to steal our money, and screw us, at every turn. Ayn Rand would be ecstatic!
I would say that the real reason is because We the People allow them to be. The Mainstream Democratic Party, needs to be planning as much as the Right wing is, with their crazy religious agenda to protect the mainstream population from their craziness. They have taken over legislatures of Red states and with their lawsuits are also taking over the lives of Blue States. We need to be planning and getting rid of the law that allows churches tax exempt status, or any other religious group, because we have separation of church and state in our constitution.
My Democrats Abroad Project 2025 Book Club is reading Chapter 14 Health and Human Services section for next week's discussion. It is all about religious interpretation and anti abortion. Abortion is not health care according to them, they also want big tracking of deaths due to abortion (like if a woman gets chemotherapy and loses the child that is called death due to abortion). Miscarriage is not in there. They want big data bases on women and abortion as well as anything else we do, and they want to have the CDC promote the rhythm method. No mailed abortion pills, or abortion pills, or IVF, or fetal cell research. No Woke agenda. They also do not want the CDC to issue medical advice to people during pandemics that might interfere with their church attendance, because saving souls should be prioritized over saving lives. This is now the 11th chapter my group is reading and discussing, and we have also read the Forward. This is just a small taste of policies and plans that will clearly give the US third world status quite quickly.
That reminds me of the 1978 SNL skit where Dan Aykroyd and Lorraine Newman were green after having bloodletting in a medieval "hospital", Steve Martin was the Medieval Barber Theodoric of York.
I don't recall who posted this ProPolitica story but it's important to read it as a "complement" to Project 2025, another side of the P25 coin. I feel confident that Harris/Walz will be elected in November but it's crucial that we recognize that there may well be another "January 6" event when that happens. President Biden and governors of all states must be prepared to deal with the violence that the APIII (American Patriots Three Percenters) will likely undertake when Trump loses the election.
Wanna bet - they call for religion in schools (section 5) and a "Christian National Government - that and a few bucks makes al the difference in the world. The NFL claimed to be a "non-profit" because they held summer camps for kids. (for which the parents pay) That status continued for 73 years until 2015. Congress was threatening to remove and the NFL 'gave up' the non-profit status (pretty bloody hard to be "non-profit when the owners were raking in billions of dollars every year.) This coming from a diehard football fan
You also can deduct donations to nonprofits from your taxes. This originated as a way to keep charities afloat without the government directly funding them. Now it;s just abused. The NRA and the NFL are nonprofits too, if you didn't know that.
Someone has to challenge that. So far, no one has. Also, what does their mission statement say? If, at no point do they mention the MAGA party, they may be able to make a case for saying it's all "theory." Although Project 2025 is pretty darn specific, as more comes out, that may be the way for complain to the IRS and challenge their status.
It does not matter if they can make a case when everyone with half a brain in their head can see otherwise. Particularly since ProPublica came out with the Secret Project 2025 training videos.
They are doing cutting edge journalism that belongs to a democracy. Unfortunately, having allowed our MSM to be owned by oligarchs, all of whom belong to the "I will do anything I can to avoid paying taxes" group, we see them slanting their journalism towards Trump and against Harris.
I am in a group that is reading Project 2025 and discussing it as a book club, thanks to Prof. Vance's suggestion. Andra Watkin's Substack has been a huge help because she is an expert on Christian Nationalism (CN) and also The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). It is super important to look at Project 2025 through their lens to understand how things that we would think would be harmful and assume most educated people would is defied by these groups. If you understand their beliefs in general and also their End-of-Days beliefs, then it makes sense that they would not care about the environment, women's health, or education.
In a piece on how the CN differ from the NAR in End of Days, she explains that CNs believe the end of days is near. So the fact that P2025 totally destroys public education does not matter and why as home schoolers they do not worry about their children learning history, science or math, because God is coming to save them as virtuous practitioners and leave the rest of us behind in the cesspool that has been created. The NARs however, believe that everyone on the planet earth must be living in the way they define a Godly manner or else...
So they have to impose their rules on the rest of us. Project 2025 is not just something that is going to happen in one fell swoop with Trump coming in. It has been happening for a while aided by Red State Governors, Legislators, and Courts, including the highest court in the land.
Jen, I am slogging my way through Chapter 14 of Project 2025. I have renamed it Unhealthy and Inhumane Services. It is so disturbing. Written by Roger Severino, a lawyer, it is stressing no abortion, no birth control other then it seems the rhythm method, no sex ed, all monies from the government tied to policing behavior around sex, health care, abortion data banks, no IVF, adoption and and incentives for states to reduce their medicaid costs, food is tied to heteronormative families, and sexual behavior etc... Medicare for people who are older and may have difficulty thinking is going to be overwhelmingly complex with choices, but these will be in the private sector. to I think they are pretty much touching everyone who in foster care will be experimented on with draconian policies. The infusion of protection of religion and religious organizations is code for Christian nationalists. They are not protecting Jewish organizations, or Muslim, or Buddhist for that matter, or Atheist. This is another chapter that is providing a formula that is both contradictory, and for turning the US into a third world country. Each one we have read lists the mandates under Biden that need to be undone, and some also include Obama, this does not name it but attacks a program from the Roosevelt Administration, so the arm is reaching far back to the days when we first conceived of supporting the people of our nation. I am sickened. I have to read this chapter in small doses. It goes from page 449-497 if you do not include the footnotes. I am almost done, but not quite. I will take a break and then slog through the rest tomorrow.
Linda - you should be heartened by this news. There's a link at the end for citizens abroad to register to vote if not already, and get information about voting..
Excerpt: "There are approximately 1,625,136 people living abroad from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all battleground states. In 2020, just 44,000 votes across Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin votes won Joe Biden the presidency."
If you want to stop it, the government must adjudicate, as in sue. If no one complains, or a member of Congress doesn't call for an investigation, nothing will be done. One can read and advocate till the start of a new dawn, it won't make any difference. Only the IRS, or the government can make them "pay." The project is no longer a secret. But they still have their tax exempt status because no one has taken formal action.
The policing of charity status, especially when used as a front for political and financial corruption, is all but non-existent here in Northern Ireland. As a neighbour recently commented, a local fundamentalist church has more money flowing through it than the government. Most of it coming in from the US MAGA mega church circuit. They aligned with the Democratic Unionist Party and their successful support of Brexit as these charity protected churches hold much of their voting base. They also act as cover for continuing Loyalist paramilitary ‘community leaders’. I do not know how charities are policed in the US but I suspect you would find a similar cosy revolving door between corrupt players in politics and finance to facilitate similar criminal abuses of power.
Section 501(c)(4) organizations may engage in lobbying so long as it pertains to the organization's mission. The trade-off is that donations made to 501(c)(4) organizations are typically not deductible by the donor as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. (as a 501(c)(3) is.)
Great Question. We should all be using instances of where they are promoting violence like Kevin Roberts on the War Room threatening violence to file a complaint with the IRS about their tax-exempt status.
I'm amazed that Heritage seems to be a 501(c)(3) -- I assumed they were a 501(c)(4), like the NRA and, for that matter, the NAACP. 501(c)(4)s can support legislation, but they can't support candidates. (As a member of my local NAACP Branch, I know that they are scrupulous about adhering to this.) 501(c)(3)s aren't supposed to engage in political activity, period.
Why would simple publishing of it get them in trouble? Lobbying for it, endorsing candidates who support it, etc. -- those would absolutely cross the line (which I'm guessing they've done), but publishing itself, even publishing about politics, isn't a political activity the way the IRS seems to define it. Most if not all major think tanks publish about politics. Their employees even testify in Congress.
I actually asked the NYT back in March to do a running report on non-profs in that same vein but got crickets. I also went to the IRS website and printed out their complaint form to report about Heritage. Just haven't sent it in yet. Form is fairly simple.
Eff me. Really. The Democrats are filled with NGOs and political operative organizations that masquerade as nonpartisan public party research. Look in the mirror.
There is no way this plan can ever be allowed to see the light of day. That means no Republican can ever be allowed to gain enough power to implement it. How that can ever be pulled off though will be the challenge. These people are dangerous. We’ve already experienced what happens when they succeed in taking over one, very important branch of the government. Rights disappear, regulations that keep us safe are gutted, our vote is threatened and to top it all off SO FAR is they’ve declared the President has the Divine Rights of a King(with a few limits). Project 2025 is a sick joke that will utterly kill this country and lead to god knows what in the rest of the world. This document should scare the daylights out of everyone so we have to maintain the push for awareness. Stick it all over trump and vance. Paint them with it then get out and vote keeping this horror in mind.
Yes. Learn about the people running for each position. Vote for those who support the rule of law and our Constitution. Check your registration. Help others do the same. Protect our freedoms when you vote.
I'm telling anyone who will listen to me - vote AGAINST republicans up and down the ticket. Project 2025, simply put, is a roadmap to FASCISM. Trump is the puppet, who will be manipulated by the puppet-masters. They KNOW the secret. Compliment him!
Jennifer Welch on IHIPNEWS brilliantly made the analogy of Trump being the "Trojan Horse" used to shove 2025 down the throats of America. She and Angie(Pumps) Sullivan went on to point out that Heritage already has Executive Orders ready for Trump to sign if he scams the election. Michael Cohen has said that people will violently fight back with all they have got if Maga is given the go ahead for deportations.
The demonic "fake Christians" that fill the Magat-churches by the thousands support Heritage and follow the exact OPPOSITE to the teachings of Jesus
You have to wonder why the Heritage Foundation made this disgusting plan public at all. Did they really think no one would push back? Anyone dumb enough to do such a thing shouldn't be anywhere near government.
They’ve made the goal to replace the civil service one of the linchpins of the whole thing. Those people have to come from somewhere. Add to that we have always had a lot of low-information voters. It was out for months before anyone in the MSM talked about it at all. I’ve read almost all of Project 2025 and it took me a long time. I also don’t know how a lot of the agencies function so some parts of it don’t raise alarm bells without a working knowledge of how what is being proposed differs from today. As one example, the section on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is fairly opaque and talks about diminishing its influence. This isn’t what I see as one of the biggest smoking guns because they are already hampered by a long-delayed confirmation of a member Biden nominated about 2 years ago. Other plans aren’t spelled out at all, such as a discussion to ban pornography caught on tape by one of the authors but not in the document at all. Other plans, such as abolishing the Department of Education are more blatant, but again, months went by with crickets from the MSM and it’s still not something anyone has asked Trump about that I’m aware.
As president, Trump was able to abolish "merit selection" in favor of the spoils system in many agencies. My position became euphemistically extinct, a mastodon (pachyderm in the nature of an elephant, rather than a Dodo bird} during the last couple of years I worked. https://www.govinfo.gov/link/cpd/executiveorder/13843
Not only registered to vote but an independent election observer in my county. Watching the count is like watching paint dry on the wall. No one stealing votes, no one counting fake ballots. Been doing this for about 5 years, each time all I have observed is a well run and accurate count. Nothing fake about it.
How creepy is that hidden camera interview. I've just been sent 200 post cards and a mailing list to send by October 24th to Florida voters. Have never done this and am excited to help!
We’re doing Georgia since Tennessee doesn’t count. I also wholeheartedly support all the Democratic candidates running locally, because politics begins at home. We can’t let Gloria and the Justins down!
Your comment doesn’t make sense to me. You say we can’t let the 2 Justins & Gloria down, & yet insinuate that you aren’t doing postcards to get out the vote in TN because it doesn’t count.?
I signed up to write 300 postcards, the majority of them in my home state of NM. Even though it’s not an extremely important state to win for the EC votes for president, it is very important when it comes to keeping our Democratic Senator, & 2 Democrat House seats.
President Harris won’t be able to get much of her agenda done if we don’t have a majority in both Houses of Congress.
Well, Christian Nationalism … of course! The desire of white men (the Church of Whites Only) to dominate “others,” — all in the name of an historic person of color.
Imagine a "Department of Gatherings" from which one would be required to obtain permission & a permit to call a meeting of, say, more than dozen people., and provide location & agenda.
Imagine then, a citizen's committee staffed with trump loyalists who must report violations like say, backyard barbecues or even tailgate parties.
Extreme? Once, of course, but not if trump AND therefore Project 2025 are elected.
Is there a department of gatherings in Project 2025? Please give a page number. If this is not found in Project 2025, please clarify that fact. If you are simply imagining something, I'd like to know.
I think you're probably right regarding word-for-word examples, but I have not consumed or margin-noted the 900+ pages of the document.
I used the word, "Imagine" twice to emphasize the intent of my post. The intent is a plea to recall America's history with previous explorations and incantations with which this document rhymes, and the outcomes and ends which each such experiment met.
Project 2025 is an example of history repeating itself.
From what the former President and present GOP candidate has said, it is abundantly clear that the principles of dictatorship will be the GOP candidate's guide for long-term governing the country. Of this motive, there is much evidence already even as it may cloak itself in innocent, workable solutions.
If, as the candidate has made clear, that certain groups are going to be "rounded up and deported", it is but a tiny step to imagine what is, and has been in other established dictatorships, the monitoring of protest groups organizing themselves to question and gathering to protest & resist the dictator's edicts. That is the "timbre" of Project 2025.
The requirement to cite chapter & paragraph as a valid response deflects and sidesteps the real point being made in my post which intends to be a remembrance of Germany's leadership between 1933-1945, and other, more recent examples, some of whom the GOP candidate has entertained with flourish.
Project 2025 is first & foremost, a Heritage Foundation instrument of conservative thought, created some four years ago.
The GOP and its candidate have made Project 2025 their own and are realizing, only just now, that it is, by millions of Americans using their own imaginations, actually, deeply unwanted & unpopular. But the document is now as close to feral as any bad piece of work could be.
Another practical problem with your imagined future. You say it is a short step from rounding up all the immigrants to forbidding meetings of citizens. On a conceptual level it may be a short step. On a practical level it will take a bureaucracy of thousands to round up the immigrants using people with primarily police and military skills, but it will take another bureaucracy of thousands with primarily computer skills to detect all those meetings that need to be forbidden. Under real world conditions, it doesn't sound like a short step to me.
You are imagining that Trump can accomplish every extreme that a dictator can accomplish. I am a professional historian (PhD), and you have to go far to find out someone who knows more about what has happened during the last 5000 years on the planet. I just finished reading the 15 volume Cambridge history of China.
Although one can “imagine” trump's minions achieving that level of authoritarianism in this country, it's kind of like you or me “imagining” we can duplicate what Lebron James can do on a basketball court. Russia and China have lived under authoritarian regimes for hundreds/thousands of years. Consequently, I find it impossible to “imagine” that Trump's minions could install so complete an authoritarian regime on their very first try in this country.
Let us stick to the 900 pages of Project 2025 and cease "imagining."
I could see Don Hudson's suggestion occurring on a local level with local "citizens" taking it upon themselves to monitor and report any gatherings they deem "suspicious". That could devolve to "any gatherings" because people in the gatherings *might* be plotting against the government.
Yes, it wouldn't be a "top-down" organized bureaucracy, it would always be local, everywhere, gradually becoming the way society worked, energized by the natural insecurities & self-protective strategies that emerge within such a social system. The offences take the form of heresy rather than laws.
Thank you, Susan. I've seen it either way but your spelling of the phrase is correct. I had always taken it to mean, "It is up to you", the meaning I was attempting to convey.
Trompe hasn't backed down, he's just using his own version. It's called Agenda 47. There's nothing particularly different from Project 2025.
Let's not lull ourselves into thinking that Project 2025 will disappear when Kamala Harris becomes President. The Heritage Foundation's been around for decades and Christian Nationalism has been around for centuries.
And Trump has not back down from Project 2025, he's just trying like h**l to distance himself from it as it becomes more toxic for more citizens as they learn about it.
If you read the 2025 statements about what they plan to do for agriculture, it becomes apparent that they intend to do away with small and family farms. This will be brought about by encouraging the further development of industrial scale farms and providing support for the development of additional monopolies in agricultural industries. So much for supporting farmers!
Thank you for highlighting this. This would be a devastating loss and would negatively affect the quality of our food, and thus our health. Not to mention losing an essential bedrock in the American way of life.
I agree it would be a devastating loss. I would no longer be able to buy the only eggs I like, which are pasture raised on small family farms. And all the organic produce I buy. How wonderful of them to want to fill us all with their pesticides.
How do you spell Oy-ee? meaning like "yikes" or "yoiks".... Thank you, Joyce, for more on the repercussions a Project 2025 could bring. Looking at it from a real perspective (separate from the emotions), the shallowness and immaturity of these plans puzzles me. How could mature, educated adults imagine that a government like ours could entertain these peculiar plans? Take, "Project 2025 targets the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)"--so, they are even taking on Mother Nature, and taking us to a existence where we'll have no idea what's going on in the large scale geophysical world. We know that Trump is poorly educated and not even curious about what he can't see and feel in front of him, but are all of these characters--Vought, Roberts, etc. the same?
Imagine living in Florida during hurricane season without NOAA available with their discussions and cones of impact and constant updates and with no spaghetti models!
Never fear, though! DonOLD will be there with his magic marker to guide the storm to its destination….
My impression is they are arrogant in believing they're the only people deserving power and in knowing they'll be OK in the short-term and not caring about future climate. Project 2025 is a great fit for those who embrace authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption.
In going for the short term, they obviously don't care about their children and grandchildren. Project 2025 is a great fit for those who don't give a damn about the majority of the people in the country, even those of us who are not POC.
I tried to translate Oy Gevalt, and couldn't get anything. Would you please translate for me? My heritage is Jewish but my upbringing stayed a million miles from that.
The first two paragraphs are useful for basic understanding, then it gets pretty nerdy, but whatever works for you.
(BTW you needn't stay a million miles from your heritage if you don't want to. Jewish Community Centers and many synagogues, especially Reform ones, are very welcoming...)
Thank you very much, Noorillah. I appreciate your explanation of the phrase. As for my heritage, I just don't relate to it. I did not find out about it until I was 21, after my sister encountered some prejudice (her boyfriend's family figured out that if she was Hungarian and not Catholic, she must be Jewish. Not necessarily a correct assumption, but in this case it was). With that news of my heritage, I went through a long period of wondering who I was, which was very uncomfortable. We were not raised to be religious in any way. That said, if I were to lose my husband, I would very likely look into a Jewish Community Center, now that I know they would be good.
They say they are going to farm out the functions of NOAA to private companies, like they’ve done with a large portion of our prisons.
Any time critical infrastructure like that is privatized to for-profit corps, they always cut corners to increase profits; reference the Texas power grid during that terrible freeze a few yrs ago.
Valerie, did you mean "oy vey", the Yiddish expression? I'm guessing that all the others are as bad, because the only thing that matters to them is getting ever richer. Like money is the root of all happiness…
“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets..." Yep, this language sounds accurate for the time in history they want to take us back to...
You are absolutely right, Joyce. Trump's comments make it easy to dismiss him as a fool. But beware! He's no fool. He's an unscrupulous, unromantic bandit come to town to steal democracy. Call him out at every turn and support the good guys at every opportunity. It's time!
How can Heritage Foundation be a tax-exempt non-profit when it’s actively engaged in political activity? Even organizations like the major teachers’ unions have to keep their tax-exempt and political action bodies separate. Kind of hard to argue with a straight face that Heritage Foundation is a nonpartisan public policy research institution like Brookings.
Clearly un- American and a danger to democracy.
There is a shocking amount of non-compliance among tax-exempt organizations. 501(c)(4)s - PACS - can engage in political activity; 501(c)(3)s are prohibited from campaigning in political races. Hello Evangelicals - I'm looking at your churches.
The Heritage Foundation is a c3. Here's what the IRS has to say: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/the-restriction-of-political-campaign-intervention-by-section-501c3-tax-exempt-organizations
But keep in mind, wasn't it a few years ago the GQP right wingers in Congress attacked the IRS as being biased against conservatives, so the IRS did tweak some of their non-prof rules in their favor. I have always held that there are a LOT of non-profs that are just money laundering machines set up for the Right.
Thank you for that. I'll read it later when my outrage cools. Just what I need at 530 am.
(From my book, "Donald's Vanity Tantrums.")
Fred Jackson and the Second American Revolution
(Homage to Donald Trump’s ‘Proud Boys’ and Others)
Fred Jackson was a proud rebel in The Great Northern Militia Alliance. He and his wife Ruth were often found hosting summer neighborhood barbecues. They easily found new supporters for the coming war to take back America. Fred stationed himself at the pit and handed out chicken legs drenched in homemade sauce to new, unsuspecting recruits -- kinda like a politician on election-day would do; promising a chicken in every pot. Talk of big government, guns and revolt would come later.
Fred and his cohorts believed themselves to be the direct Anglo-Saxon descendants of America's 18th century rabble-rousers who tossed bales of tea into Boston harbor after news of the British Stamp Act reached these shores. But tea-toddlers, they weren’t.
He was proud of his new-found abilities to recruit and had recently been promoted by the Alliance to the rank of sergeant of his own local militia. Wasting no time consolidating resources, Fred collected everything from boxes of canned food to crates of assault weapons. All were discreetly stored away in basements and underground bunkers in his local neighborhood.
Strategic plans were soon under way as this historic moment arrived, the moment to take back America. A secret, unnamed Northern Alliance militia representative from high up the chain of command visited one evening to give a short pep talk to the men and their wives in the basement of Jackson's home.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mysterious commander said, “the time has come to act. We must stop the tyranny and treasonous actions of our government. Today we take action. We will starve the beast into submission. We will bring the entire nation to a screeching halt by whatever means are necessary. And we will un-steal the election. You know who I’m talking about; the great populist himself, codenamed, “OrangeFatso.””
“Yep”… they screamed in unison, “Save our leader, OrangeFatso.”
He jabbered on like this awhile longer and then said something about how it was one's duty to avoid payment of taxes like they did in the Boston revolt.
A rebel in the audience was overheard mumbling that, “Maybe them damned liberals wouldn't be so bad if we could just shoot a few.” as he cleaned and oiled his weapon. After the rousing speech ended, the mysterious speaker made way out of Fred's hatchway as quickly as he had arrived and was driven off into the night before anyone could ask questions.
The next day, Fred called for another drill. The basement was a good place to train without attracting attention. His supportive wife listened from upstairs as she tapped her foot to the muffled sounds of her husband's marching orders.
"Left...right...left...right...left...right...left...right."
During the drill, Fred's wife heard her husband cry,
"Oh no… not again. I told you not to march forward in the cellar."
"Ruthie honey," Fred yelled from the basement, "Billy bumped into the wall again and now has a nose bleed. Quick, get me an ice pack."
One thing that should be noted about the division of labor between the men folk and their women; it was written in the Northern Militia Alliance's “Code of Conduct” that men would do the fighting and the women would play supportive roles – just like in the olden days of the founders. Their women were as important as Betsy Ross – who is thought to have sewn the first flag – was to the cause of revolt.
The country of Fred's birth was no longer recognizable to him. Waves of foreigners had migrated across the unprotected southern frontier. His leader had often spoken of building a really high wall to keep out the hordes. The government, Fred believed, was overrun with big-spending liberals and nanny-state socialists. Fred even thought that his own past president of the United States was born in another country.
“He wasn’t born here. You know he owes his allegiance to the United Nations,” cried Fred.
Encrypted communiques were now being sent and received with increasing frequency throughout the “Alliance.” The days of waiting had drawn to a close.
And so it came to pass. The militia teams began assembling. They gathered along every mountain pass and byway. They took positions beside bridges and waterways. Fred's platoon prepared to assault its assigned mountain. This really was only a big hill but these rebels had a tendency to magnify everything around them including the importance of they’re mission. Their watches were synchronized.
Sergeant Jackson finally gave the order to charge.
“CHARRRRRRGE!” he screamed.
The men began their long, wild, rickety-split charge to the top of the assigned hill. Fred held his assault rifle in the air with one hand, and with the other grabbed his pants before they slipped down below his protruding belly – an unfortunate victim of too many beer-drinking strategy sessions.
Well they whooped and hollered for so long that soon most of the militia troops were out of breath. By the time they reached the summit, the sergeant could be heard cussing' (at no one in particular.) He wondered if he had rushed up the wrong hill. His GPS repeated, “recalculating... recalculating...” His phone vibrated on his belt and he quickly grabbed it and listened intently.
His head turned slowly downward as he stared at his mud-caked boots. His heart was pounding. He was breathing fast.
“Yes sir, I see. But when are we...? Win the hearts and minds, first? But...OK, I’ll inform the men.”
The sergeant ordered roll call and sadly told his men that not only did they seize the wrong hill, but the unseen generals had decreed that this was only a drill. The real revolution was yet to come but now, without the element of surprise. Dejected, they began to hobble down the green hill.
Then suddenly, Sergeant Jackson received another message. This time, he could hardly contain himself. Something new had just happened and word was spreading like wildfire. His fingers quivered as he responded:
“I’ll tell the men right away.” The sergeant rallied the now exhausted rag-tag men around him and excitedly yelled,
“All hands to Burns, Oregon. The government is assaulting some ranchers. The Bunkerville boys from Nevada are leading the counter assault. I'll be driving out at first light if anyone needs a ride.”
Fred finally made it home in his Ford pick-up truck while still sweating from the long charge. His dear sweet Ruthie waited at the half-opened door as dusk settled in.
“Come in my hero. I made your favorite hot soup for you.”
Fred stumbled in and sat at their kitchen table and slurped down the refreshing food. He then went straight to bed without explaining anything to his worried wife about the disappointing details of the false deployment.
Fred dreamed about the new revolution soon to sweep the land of his birth – the land he hardly recognized any more. And he dreamed that his name would one day be enshrined 100 years from now, along the nearby interstate highway where he lived. The sign would read: “The Sergeant Fred Jackson Expressway: Named for a Patriot of The Second American Revolution Who Stood His Ground and Helped Take Back America.”
Then Fred farted and repositioned his head on the pillow as he slept like a baby all night long.
This is all a good conversation on the manifesto. It’s widespread an insidious. I had a brief chat with a cop about guns and I could see from his defense of the 2nd amendment that he was already a likely supporter of all of this move to the extreme political right. My mantra continues to be to reevaluate our positions and move to the center. After all, often, we do take our sympathies from those with greater influence. We need to cut the far left Bull and move to the center. I know this confuses many but we are now living in a biforcated society and if these wounds aren’t healed, we lose to an autocratic government. The handwriting is on the wall. My satire of the coming revolution is indeed, a potential reality. Take it for what it’s worth.
Bill....When the traitors at Heritage threaten Liberals with violence......do they have a direct line to these nazi militas?? As November gets closer.......what protection do Liberal wives, sons and daughters have against them?? Rape, stealing, destruction of personal property are part of war and these brainwashed nazi's you describe cannot wait to pull the trigger and pull down their pants.
You bet they do. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-secret-ap3-militia-american-patriots-three-percent?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=toc
Jenn - Thanks for the ProPublica link! I love their work and just contributed.
At Airventure (Oshkosh airshow in July) the Wisconsin Guard put on a demo of their combined arms capabilities. https://youtu.be/raMOZhHBwg0 As I watched I didn’t know whether the WI Gov was R or D so I immediately googled to discover he is a D! Tony Evers. Timothy Snyder's Bloodbath Candidate Thinking About immediately came to mind. https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-bloodbath-candidate
What happens if Red State governors send their Army and Air Guard units to support Trump? POTUS needs to activate all Red state governor Guard units from 1 November to 31 January to have them under his command!
Of course they do. Where do you think their money comes from?
Answer to your question: Yes.
As the clock keeps ticking.........Heritage "mercinary, proxy" pawns are already being installed as "election watchers.." I have always been a bit frightened to ask what counter measures can be taken. What can we do to protect ourselves from these deranged overaged men who traded their GIJoe's/toy soldiers for AR15s??
Heritage is tax-exempt for the same reason that the Catholic Church (and other religions) are tax exempt: to make us pay twice for our damnation.
Tax-exempt and applied for and received PPP loans, which were forgiven, and we pay for their use of fire departments and police.
It's a bottomless pit, Andy. It's what P 2025 is all about: freedom through privatization. Freedom to steal our money, and screw us, at every turn. Ayn Rand would be ecstatic!
"It's a bottomless pit, Andy," and if I may say, "STRAIGHT TO HELL!"
They must not win and we must be ready for the consequences.
The whole point of this political movement is more wealth for the rich.
The hate is just to bring the marks into the tent to get fleeced.
Indeed, she would.
I would say that the real reason is because We the People allow them to be. The Mainstream Democratic Party, needs to be planning as much as the Right wing is, with their crazy religious agenda to protect the mainstream population from their craziness. They have taken over legislatures of Red states and with their lawsuits are also taking over the lives of Blue States. We need to be planning and getting rid of the law that allows churches tax exempt status, or any other religious group, because we have separation of church and state in our constitution.
My Democrats Abroad Project 2025 Book Club is reading Chapter 14 Health and Human Services section for next week's discussion. It is all about religious interpretation and anti abortion. Abortion is not health care according to them, they also want big tracking of deaths due to abortion (like if a woman gets chemotherapy and loses the child that is called death due to abortion). Miscarriage is not in there. They want big data bases on women and abortion as well as anything else we do, and they want to have the CDC promote the rhythm method. No mailed abortion pills, or abortion pills, or IVF, or fetal cell research. No Woke agenda. They also do not want the CDC to issue medical advice to people during pandemics that might interfere with their church attendance, because saving souls should be prioritized over saving lives. This is now the 11th chapter my group is reading and discussing, and we have also read the Forward. This is just a small taste of policies and plans that will clearly give the US third world status quite quickly.
Back to the Dark Ages.
Worse than the Handmaid's Tale, if that's even possible. I'm thinking, as I read these posts and the reality of P25, that it is possible to be worse!
That reminds me of the 1978 SNL skit where Dan Aykroyd and Lorraine Newman were green after having bloodletting in a medieval "hospital", Steve Martin was the Medieval Barber Theodoric of York.
I'm really not sure how much soul-saving most of those churches actually do.
I don't recall who posted this ProPolitica story but it's important to read it as a "complement" to Project 2025, another side of the P25 coin. I feel confident that Harris/Walz will be elected in November but it's crucial that we recognize that there may well be another "January 6" event when that happens. President Biden and governors of all states must be prepared to deal with the violence that the APIII (American Patriots Three Percenters) will likely undertake when Trump loses the election.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-secret-ap3-militia-american-patriots-three-percent
Heritage can not claim to be a religious organization!
Wanna bet - they call for religion in schools (section 5) and a "Christian National Government - that and a few bucks makes al the difference in the world. The NFL claimed to be a "non-profit" because they held summer camps for kids. (for which the parents pay) That status continued for 73 years until 2015. Congress was threatening to remove and the NFL 'gave up' the non-profit status (pretty bloody hard to be "non-profit when the owners were raking in billions of dollars every year.) This coming from a diehard football fan
Oh but it might as well be! The Insurrection will morph into the Inquisition.
It’s a non-profit. Doesn’t need to be religious.
Well said. Sounds like this might be personal for you. Me too.
You also can deduct donations to nonprofits from your taxes. This originated as a way to keep charities afloat without the government directly funding them. Now it;s just abused. The NRA and the NFL are nonprofits too, if you didn't know that.
Someone has to challenge that. So far, no one has. Also, what does their mission statement say? If, at no point do they mention the MAGA party, they may be able to make a case for saying it's all "theory." Although Project 2025 is pretty darn specific, as more comes out, that may be the way for complain to the IRS and challenge their status.
It does not matter if they can make a case when everyone with half a brain in their head can see otherwise. Particularly since ProPublica came out with the Secret Project 2025 training videos.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election
They are doing cutting edge journalism that belongs to a democracy. Unfortunately, having allowed our MSM to be owned by oligarchs, all of whom belong to the "I will do anything I can to avoid paying taxes" group, we see them slanting their journalism towards Trump and against Harris.
I am in a group that is reading Project 2025 and discussing it as a book club, thanks to Prof. Vance's suggestion. Andra Watkin's Substack has been a huge help because she is an expert on Christian Nationalism (CN) and also The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). It is super important to look at Project 2025 through their lens to understand how things that we would think would be harmful and assume most educated people would is defied by these groups. If you understand their beliefs in general and also their End-of-Days beliefs, then it makes sense that they would not care about the environment, women's health, or education.
In a piece on how the CN differ from the NAR in End of Days, she explains that CNs believe the end of days is near. So the fact that P2025 totally destroys public education does not matter and why as home schoolers they do not worry about their children learning history, science or math, because God is coming to save them as virtuous practitioners and leave the rest of us behind in the cesspool that has been created. The NARs however, believe that everyone on the planet earth must be living in the way they define a Godly manner or else...
https://project2025istheocracy.substack.com/p/what-is-the-new-apostolic-reformation
So they have to impose their rules on the rest of us. Project 2025 is not just something that is going to happen in one fell swoop with Trump coming in. It has been happening for a while aided by Red State Governors, Legislators, and Courts, including the highest court in the land.
Their entire life's based around the myth of the magic sky daddy.
It would be sad if it weren't so infuriating.
Jen, I am slogging my way through Chapter 14 of Project 2025. I have renamed it Unhealthy and Inhumane Services. It is so disturbing. Written by Roger Severino, a lawyer, it is stressing no abortion, no birth control other then it seems the rhythm method, no sex ed, all monies from the government tied to policing behavior around sex, health care, abortion data banks, no IVF, adoption and and incentives for states to reduce their medicaid costs, food is tied to heteronormative families, and sexual behavior etc... Medicare for people who are older and may have difficulty thinking is going to be overwhelmingly complex with choices, but these will be in the private sector. to I think they are pretty much touching everyone who in foster care will be experimented on with draconian policies. The infusion of protection of religion and religious organizations is code for Christian nationalists. They are not protecting Jewish organizations, or Muslim, or Buddhist for that matter, or Atheist. This is another chapter that is providing a formula that is both contradictory, and for turning the US into a third world country. Each one we have read lists the mandates under Biden that need to be undone, and some also include Obama, this does not name it but attacks a program from the Roosevelt Administration, so the arm is reaching far back to the days when we first conceived of supporting the people of our nation. I am sickened. I have to read this chapter in small doses. It goes from page 449-497 if you do not include the footnotes. I am almost done, but not quite. I will take a break and then slog through the rest tomorrow.
Linda - you should be heartened by this news. There's a link at the end for citizens abroad to register to vote if not already, and get information about voting..
Excerpt: "There are approximately 1,625,136 people living abroad from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all battleground states. In 2020, just 44,000 votes across Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin votes won Joe Biden the presidency."
https://meidasnews.com/news/dnc-investing-seven-figures-to-turn-out-votes-from-democrats-living-abroad
If you want to stop it, the government must adjudicate, as in sue. If no one complains, or a member of Congress doesn't call for an investigation, nothing will be done. One can read and advocate till the start of a new dawn, it won't make any difference. Only the IRS, or the government can make them "pay." The project is no longer a secret. But they still have their tax exempt status because no one has taken formal action.
Thank you Linda for your summary and diferentiating the MO of his 'beautiful Christians'.
The policing of charity status, especially when used as a front for political and financial corruption, is all but non-existent here in Northern Ireland. As a neighbour recently commented, a local fundamentalist church has more money flowing through it than the government. Most of it coming in from the US MAGA mega church circuit. They aligned with the Democratic Unionist Party and their successful support of Brexit as these charity protected churches hold much of their voting base. They also act as cover for continuing Loyalist paramilitary ‘community leaders’. I do not know how charities are policed in the US but I suspect you would find a similar cosy revolving door between corrupt players in politics and finance to facilitate similar criminal abuses of power.
How about the NRA and churches?
NRA is a 501(c)(4). Per "Taxgirl" at Forbes:
Section 501(c)(4) organizations may engage in lobbying so long as it pertains to the organization's mission. The trade-off is that donations made to 501(c)(4) organizations are typically not deductible by the donor as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. (as a 501(c)(3) is.)
Great Question. We should all be using instances of where they are promoting violence like Kevin Roberts on the War Room threatening violence to file a complaint with the IRS about their tax-exempt status.
I'm amazed that Heritage seems to be a 501(c)(3) -- I assumed they were a 501(c)(4), like the NRA and, for that matter, the NAACP. 501(c)(4)s can support legislation, but they can't support candidates. (As a member of my local NAACP Branch, I know that they are scrupulous about adhering to this.) 501(c)(3)s aren't supposed to engage in political activity, period.
Well then, they should be toast with the publication of the Mandate for Leadership.
Why would simple publishing of it get them in trouble? Lobbying for it, endorsing candidates who support it, etc. -- those would absolutely cross the line (which I'm guessing they've done), but publishing itself, even publishing about politics, isn't a political activity the way the IRS seems to define it. Most if not all major think tanks publish about politics. Their employees even testify in Congress.
Same way as the NFL grease enough palms and you can get away with anything.
I actually asked the NYT back in March to do a running report on non-profs in that same vein but got crickets. I also went to the IRS website and printed out their complaint form to report about Heritage. Just haven't sent it in yet. Form is fairly simple.
Eff me. Really. The Democrats are filled with NGOs and political operative organizations that masquerade as nonpartisan public party research. Look in the mirror.
Eff you is right ahole. Glad to see some self-awareness at last.
Also ask this question about the NRA.
I dunno. I’ll bet if you asked Bill Barr he would clarify your questions and concerns. Maybe Lawrence Tribe would be a better resource.🧐
I imagine that Bill Barr would be confused too. He knows what he wants to get, but providing a rational reason for it might be a stretch.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/1e2m7px/the_heritage_foundations_response_to_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
There is no way this plan can ever be allowed to see the light of day. That means no Republican can ever be allowed to gain enough power to implement it. How that can ever be pulled off though will be the challenge. These people are dangerous. We’ve already experienced what happens when they succeed in taking over one, very important branch of the government. Rights disappear, regulations that keep us safe are gutted, our vote is threatened and to top it all off SO FAR is they’ve declared the President has the Divine Rights of a King(with a few limits). Project 2025 is a sick joke that will utterly kill this country and lead to god knows what in the rest of the world. This document should scare the daylights out of everyone so we have to maintain the push for awareness. Stick it all over trump and vance. Paint them with it then get out and vote keeping this horror in mind.
Thank You, SPW !!
And be Prepared! https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-secret-ap3-militia-american-patriots-three-percent
Yes. Learn about the people running for each position. Vote for those who support the rule of law and our Constitution. Check your registration. Help others do the same. Protect our freedoms when you vote.
I'm telling anyone who will listen to me - vote AGAINST republicans up and down the ticket. Project 2025, simply put, is a roadmap to FASCISM. Trump is the puppet, who will be manipulated by the puppet-masters. They KNOW the secret. Compliment him!
Jennifer Welch on IHIPNEWS brilliantly made the analogy of Trump being the "Trojan Horse" used to shove 2025 down the throats of America. She and Angie(Pumps) Sullivan went on to point out that Heritage already has Executive Orders ready for Trump to sign if he scams the election. Michael Cohen has said that people will violently fight back with all they have got if Maga is given the go ahead for deportations.
The demonic "fake Christians" that fill the Magat-churches by the thousands support Heritage and follow the exact OPPOSITE to the teachings of Jesus
Excellent advice.
You have to wonder why the Heritage Foundation made this disgusting plan public at all. Did they really think no one would push back? Anyone dumb enough to do such a thing shouldn't be anywhere near government.
They’ve made the goal to replace the civil service one of the linchpins of the whole thing. Those people have to come from somewhere. Add to that we have always had a lot of low-information voters. It was out for months before anyone in the MSM talked about it at all. I’ve read almost all of Project 2025 and it took me a long time. I also don’t know how a lot of the agencies function so some parts of it don’t raise alarm bells without a working knowledge of how what is being proposed differs from today. As one example, the section on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is fairly opaque and talks about diminishing its influence. This isn’t what I see as one of the biggest smoking guns because they are already hampered by a long-delayed confirmation of a member Biden nominated about 2 years ago. Other plans aren’t spelled out at all, such as a discussion to ban pornography caught on tape by one of the authors but not in the document at all. Other plans, such as abolishing the Department of Education are more blatant, but again, months went by with crickets from the MSM and it’s still not something anyone has asked Trump about that I’m aware.
As president, Trump was able to abolish "merit selection" in favor of the spoils system in many agencies. My position became euphemistically extinct, a mastodon (pachyderm in the nature of an elephant, rather than a Dodo bird} during the last couple of years I worked. https://www.govinfo.gov/link/cpd/executiveorder/13843
Reagan tried and failed to eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy. Reagan's Secretary of Interior, James Watt, opposed hiring Jews in government. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181285958/james-watt-reagan-interior-secretary-dies
As caretaker of the EEOC, Clarence Thomas was able to kill virtually every age discrimination case.
Malignant narcissists always have to brag about what they do, what they think they’re getting away with.
Not only registered to vote but an independent election observer in my county. Watching the count is like watching paint dry on the wall. No one stealing votes, no one counting fake ballots. Been doing this for about 5 years, each time all I have observed is a well run and accurate count. Nothing fake about it.
Thank you for your support.
How creepy is that hidden camera interview. I've just been sent 200 post cards and a mailing list to send by October 24th to Florida voters. Have never done this and am excited to help!
We’re doing Georgia since Tennessee doesn’t count. I also wholeheartedly support all the Democratic candidates running locally, because politics begins at home. We can’t let Gloria and the Justins down!
Please partner with FT 6. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Your comment doesn’t make sense to me. You say we can’t let the 2 Justins & Gloria down, & yet insinuate that you aren’t doing postcards to get out the vote in TN because it doesn’t count.?
I have 200 almost completed and ready for Arizona when the time comes.
I signed up to write 300 postcards, the majority of them in my home state of NM. Even though it’s not an extremely important state to win for the EC votes for president, it is very important when it comes to keeping our Democratic Senator, & 2 Democrat House seats.
President Harris won’t be able to get much of her agenda done if we don’t have a majority in both Houses of Congress.
Cool! As Joyce Vance says we're in this together!
Well, Christian Nationalism … of course! The desire of white men (the Church of Whites Only) to dominate “others,” — all in the name of an historic person of color.
This battle is being fought to stay free. It’s nothing less than a fight for survival. I am convinced of this.
Imagine a "Department of Gatherings" from which one would be required to obtain permission & a permit to call a meeting of, say, more than dozen people., and provide location & agenda.
Imagine then, a citizen's committee staffed with trump loyalists who must report violations like say, backyard barbecues or even tailgate parties.
Extreme? Once, of course, but not if trump AND therefore Project 2025 are elected.
Tu Um Est, November 5th.
Is there a department of gatherings in Project 2025? Please give a page number. If this is not found in Project 2025, please clarify that fact. If you are simply imagining something, I'd like to know.
Hello Kathleen;
I think you're probably right regarding word-for-word examples, but I have not consumed or margin-noted the 900+ pages of the document.
I used the word, "Imagine" twice to emphasize the intent of my post. The intent is a plea to recall America's history with previous explorations and incantations with which this document rhymes, and the outcomes and ends which each such experiment met.
Project 2025 is an example of history repeating itself.
From what the former President and present GOP candidate has said, it is abundantly clear that the principles of dictatorship will be the GOP candidate's guide for long-term governing the country. Of this motive, there is much evidence already even as it may cloak itself in innocent, workable solutions.
If, as the candidate has made clear, that certain groups are going to be "rounded up and deported", it is but a tiny step to imagine what is, and has been in other established dictatorships, the monitoring of protest groups organizing themselves to question and gathering to protest & resist the dictator's edicts. That is the "timbre" of Project 2025.
The requirement to cite chapter & paragraph as a valid response deflects and sidesteps the real point being made in my post which intends to be a remembrance of Germany's leadership between 1933-1945, and other, more recent examples, some of whom the GOP candidate has entertained with flourish.
Project 2025 is first & foremost, a Heritage Foundation instrument of conservative thought, created some four years ago.
The GOP and its candidate have made Project 2025 their own and are realizing, only just now, that it is, by millions of Americans using their own imaginations, actually, deeply unwanted & unpopular. But the document is now as close to feral as any bad piece of work could be.
Tuum EST
Don
Another practical problem with your imagined future. You say it is a short step from rounding up all the immigrants to forbidding meetings of citizens. On a conceptual level it may be a short step. On a practical level it will take a bureaucracy of thousands to round up the immigrants using people with primarily police and military skills, but it will take another bureaucracy of thousands with primarily computer skills to detect all those meetings that need to be forbidden. Under real world conditions, it doesn't sound like a short step to me.
You are imagining that Trump can accomplish every extreme that a dictator can accomplish. I am a professional historian (PhD), and you have to go far to find out someone who knows more about what has happened during the last 5000 years on the planet. I just finished reading the 15 volume Cambridge history of China.
Although one can “imagine” trump's minions achieving that level of authoritarianism in this country, it's kind of like you or me “imagining” we can duplicate what Lebron James can do on a basketball court. Russia and China have lived under authoritarian regimes for hundreds/thousands of years. Consequently, I find it impossible to “imagine” that Trump's minions could install so complete an authoritarian regime on their very first try in this country.
Let us stick to the 900 pages of Project 2025 and cease "imagining."
I could see Don Hudson's suggestion occurring on a local level with local "citizens" taking it upon themselves to monitor and report any gatherings they deem "suspicious". That could devolve to "any gatherings" because people in the gatherings *might* be plotting against the government.
Yes, it wouldn't be a "top-down" organized bureaucracy, it would always be local, everywhere, gradually becoming the way society worked, energized by the natural insecurities & self-protective strategies that emerge within such a social system. The offences take the form of heresy rather than laws.
I just used Google translate to understand the Latin - your phrase should read "Tuum Est", which means "it is yours."
Thank you, Susan. I've seen it either way but your spelling of the phrase is correct. I had always taken it to mean, "It is up to you", the meaning I was attempting to convey.
Cheers,
Don
Trompe hasn't backed down, he's just using his own version. It's called Agenda 47. There's nothing particularly different from Project 2025.
Let's not lull ourselves into thinking that Project 2025 will disappear when Kamala Harris becomes President. The Heritage Foundation's been around for decades and Christian Nationalism has been around for centuries.
The next Republican president, period.
And Trump has not back down from Project 2025, he's just trying like h**l to distance himself from it as it becomes more toxic for more citizens as they learn about it.
If you read the 2025 statements about what they plan to do for agriculture, it becomes apparent that they intend to do away with small and family farms. This will be brought about by encouraging the further development of industrial scale farms and providing support for the development of additional monopolies in agricultural industries. So much for supporting farmers!
Thank you for highlighting this. This would be a devastating loss and would negatively affect the quality of our food, and thus our health. Not to mention losing an essential bedrock in the American way of life.
I agree it would be a devastating loss. I would no longer be able to buy the only eggs I like, which are pasture raised on small family farms. And all the organic produce I buy. How wonderful of them to want to fill us all with their pesticides.
How do you spell Oy-ee? meaning like "yikes" or "yoiks".... Thank you, Joyce, for more on the repercussions a Project 2025 could bring. Looking at it from a real perspective (separate from the emotions), the shallowness and immaturity of these plans puzzles me. How could mature, educated adults imagine that a government like ours could entertain these peculiar plans? Take, "Project 2025 targets the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)"--so, they are even taking on Mother Nature, and taking us to a existence where we'll have no idea what's going on in the large scale geophysical world. We know that Trump is poorly educated and not even curious about what he can't see and feel in front of him, but are all of these characters--Vought, Roberts, etc. the same?
Imagine living in Florida during hurricane season without NOAA available with their discussions and cones of impact and constant updates and with no spaghetti models!
Never fear, though! DonOLD will be there with his magic marker to guide the storm to its destination….
Imagine what air and sea navigation would be like without NOAA! Does he think his Trump plane flies without data from NOAA?
Convicted felon DonOLD
My impression is they are arrogant in believing they're the only people deserving power and in knowing they'll be OK in the short-term and not caring about future climate. Project 2025 is a great fit for those who embrace authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption.
In going for the short term, they obviously don't care about their children and grandchildren. Project 2025 is a great fit for those who don't give a damn about the majority of the people in the country, even those of us who are not POC.
We're easily past OY and well into OY GEVALT!
I tried to translate Oy Gevalt, and couldn't get anything. Would you please translate for me? My heritage is Jewish but my upbringing stayed a million miles from that.
Susan,
Oy Gevalt is stronger than oy vey or oy, and used to convey a more drastic or disturbing situation. That's how i use it and have always heard it.
But i'm no expert, so suggest you look at this site for more:
https://forward.com/news/4093/oy-gevalt/
The first two paragraphs are useful for basic understanding, then it gets pretty nerdy, but whatever works for you.
(BTW you needn't stay a million miles from your heritage if you don't want to. Jewish Community Centers and many synagogues, especially Reform ones, are very welcoming...)
Thank you very much, Noorillah. I appreciate your explanation of the phrase. As for my heritage, I just don't relate to it. I did not find out about it until I was 21, after my sister encountered some prejudice (her boyfriend's family figured out that if she was Hungarian and not Catholic, she must be Jewish. Not necessarily a correct assumption, but in this case it was). With that news of my heritage, I went through a long period of wondering who I was, which was very uncomfortable. We were not raised to be religious in any way. That said, if I were to lose my husband, I would very likely look into a Jewish Community Center, now that I know they would be good.
oy gevalt interjection "Oh, God!" Uh-oh!, "woe is me!" "Enough already."
As stronger phrase than Oy vey in certain situations.
Thank you, Judith, for contributing so well to my education.
It's like "Oh dear!" on steroids. 😀
Thank you, Paula!
👍
The best translation I found was "Woe! Violence!" but often used in a more comical context: "Oy gevalt- my coffee spilled all over me!"
Thank you, Alison. I can see where violence could result if over-hot McDonalds coffee spilled in the wrong place…
It's just 'Oy' or 'Oy-vay". As for Mother Nature, all you need is a Sharpie.
They say they are going to farm out the functions of NOAA to private companies, like they’ve done with a large portion of our prisons.
Any time critical infrastructure like that is privatized to for-profit corps, they always cut corners to increase profits; reference the Texas power grid during that terrible freeze a few yrs ago.
People died.
Do you mean "Oy Vey" (oy vey /oi′ vā′/ interjection
Used to express irritation, dismay, sorrow, or self-pity. Oh dear.
OR, as someone reminded me below:
oy gevalt interjection "Oh, God!" Uh-oh!, "woe is me!" "Enough already."
As stronger phrase than Oy vey in certain situations.
Valerie, did you mean "oy vey", the Yiddish expression? I'm guessing that all the others are as bad, because the only thing that matters to them is getting ever richer. Like money is the root of all happiness…
Apparently.
“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets..." Yep, this language sounds accurate for the time in history they want to take us back to...
I used to laugh at MAGA and tell them that the Feds have the tanks to fend off their AR-15s. If Trump is re-elected, MAGA will have the tanks.
Yeah--What part of WE'RE NOT GOING BACK! do they not understand??
IMO, all of it. What the rest of us want and need - the majority of us - is irrelevant to them. Sadly.
You are absolutely right, Joyce. Trump's comments make it easy to dismiss him as a fool. But beware! He's no fool. He's an unscrupulous, unromantic bandit come to town to steal democracy. Call him out at every turn and support the good guys at every opportunity. It's time!
His frantic knee-jerk reactions display a hunted animal...with a bad ending....
Blunt End of the Future, 2025
You "won’t have to vote again"
Government will be so spit shiny
There will be no need for you the electorate.
Drip-by-drip the blunt end of a drop,
Slicks the grip that can flip the switch
Allowing power to us the electorate.
Book-by-book the blunt end of a flame,
Burns the mind that knows which switch
Needs to be flipped for us, the electorate.
Bigot-by-bigot the blunt end of emotions,
Vilifies and dehumanizes ‘other’
To stop them from being part of our electorate.
Yes/no-by-yes/no the blunt end of thinking,
Fire hoses away academic freedom,
That reimages the switch, to help us electorate.
Erasure-by-erasure the blunt end of a pencil,
Demonizes to neutralize a free press,
Where information flows to us electorate.
Want-by-want the blunt end of memory,
Glorifies a golden past,
Lights up what never existed for us electorate.
Grit-by-grit the blunt end of a grain,
Erodes the wit that protects the grid
That permits power to us electorate.
Vote-by-vote the blunt end of will
Can grip the switch of government
Turn-on what nurtures the electorate.