Chronicle of Days to Change III
- Kristin Kowalski Ferragut
- Mar 31
- 27 min read
The American socio-economic-political climate continues to be unstable and alarming. I'm again here to share posts I've made to social media, but would like to begin with additional thoughts.
The possiblility of losing the thread of these dangerous days now feels to me less profound than the possiblility of losing the rich history of diverse groups -- blacks, LGBTQ individuals, Latina/Latino/Latinx or Hispanic people... This all is American History. Each group informs our whole, individually and as a society. That much of this is threatened by the current regime's censorship and wiping out of information is horrifying, only second to their wiping out of people.
I'll refrain from sharing the long rabbit hole I've went down about the weight and teeth, or lack thereof, of Trump's executive order regarding the Smithsonian. Instead, I'll share two valuable resources. 1) In researching, I've used Ad Fontes Media to see the leanings of news sources to determine reliablility. I planned to site neutral sources in hopes of being heard by those across the isle. 2) There is a website, known as the Wayback Machine that archives web pages, more than 928 billion of them so far. I'm grateful for the work they do, which seems increasingly essential not just for accessibility, but for preservation.
Before logging some posts, I'd like to comment in greater depth on a visual I posted on March 10th. I fact checked the quote, because it was a little hard to believe, but it is apparently accurate.
I have previously said both in interviews and in conversations that I consider empathy a dangerous emotion. My reasoning has been that those who feel empathy -- that can take on the worries, angst, and sorrows of others -- bear a substantial burden. Perhaps this is clearer in a poem I wrote:
Empathy
Do not go into the mire as though you might offer coattails to kite
escape to fresh space. It’s too hot for jackets and besides, we set
them aside long ago. We travel only with skin that fails to hold in
heat from combustion hearts. There’s no denying attraction to warmth,
sound, dying to save another. The wail of a witch at the stake resonates
the same as a banshee’s warning; both beguile, but only one might
be saved. Loud-eyed do-gooders rebranded Sympathy as pity, although
she’s the best understanding we had before throwing ourselves
into the fire. All the green tea and dark leafy vegetables
in the world won’t protect us from our own good intentions.
In that light, I always feel bad encouraging the empathy of sensitive souls or teaching empathy to those that might find the pain of others crushing. (Although also, I am not sure that I've successfully taught empathy to anyone that didn't already exhibit the tendency to feel it.) Well, my thoughts on this have dramatically changed. If sadness is the price to avoid cruelty, oppression, and selfishness, I say welcome the wistful, even in those I love.
I may see some of you out next Saturday. Be safe and Bring the Noise!
Feb 21 -- repost of Marc Elias response to Musk
Mr. Musk,
You recently criticized me and another prominent lawyer fighting for the rule of law and democracy in the United States. I am used to being attacked for my work, particularly on the platform you own and dominate.
I used to be a regular on Twitter, where I amassed over 900,000 followers — all organic except for the right-wing bots who seemed to grow in number. Like many others, I stopped regularly posting on the site because, under your stewardship, it became a hellscape of hate and misinformation.
I also used to buy your cars — first a Model X and then a Model S — back when you spoke optimistically about solving the climate crisis. My family no longer owns any of your cars and never will.
But this is not the reason I am writing. You don’t know me. You have no idea whether I have suffered trauma and if I have, how it has manifested. And it’s none of your business.
However, I will address your last point about generational trauma. I am Jewish, though many on your site simply call me “a jew.” Honestly, it’s often worse than that, but I’m sure you get the point. There was a time when Twitter would remove antisemitic posts, but under your leadership, tolerating the world’s oldest hatred now seems to be a permissible part of your “free speech” agenda.
Like many Jewish families, mine came to America because of trauma. They were fleeing persecution in the Pale of Settlement — the only area in the Russian Empire where Jews were legally allowed to reside. Even there, life was difficult — often traumatic. My family, like others, lived in a shtetl and was poor. Worse, pogroms were common — violent riots in which Jews were beaten, killed and expelled from their villages.
By the time my family fled, life in the Pale had become all but impossible for Jews. Tsar Nicholas II’s government spread anti-Jewish propaganda that encouraged Russians to attack and steal from Jews in their communities. My great-grandfather was fortunate to leave when he did. Those who stayed faced even worse circumstances when Hitler’s army later invaded.
That is the generational trauma I carry. The trauma of being treated as “other” by countrymen you once thought were your friends. The trauma of being scapegoated by authoritarian leaders. The trauma of fleeing while millions of others were systematically murdered. The trauma of watching powerful men treat it all as a joke — or worse.
As an immigrant yourself, you can no doubt sympathize with what it means to leave behind your country, extended family, friends and neighbors to come to the United States. Of course, you probably had more than 86 rubles in your pocket. You probably didn’t ride for nine days in the bottom of a ship or have your surname changed by immigration officials. Here is the ship manifest showing that my family did. Aron, age three, was my grandfather...
As new immigrants, life wasn’t easy. My family lived in cramped housing without hot water. They worked menial jobs — the kind immigrants still perform today.
Some may look down on those immigrants — the ones without fancy degrees — but my family was proud to work and grateful that the United States took them in. They found support within their Jewish community and a political home in the Democratic Party.
I became a lawyer to give back to the country that gave my family a chance. I specialize in representing Democratic campaigns because I believe in the party. I litigate voting rights cases because the right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy. I speak out about free and fair elections because they are under threat.
Now let me address the real crux of your post.
You are very rich and very powerful. You have thrown in with Donald Trump. Whether it is because you think you can control him or because you share his authoritarian vision, I do not know. I do not care.
Together, you and he are dismantling our government, undermining the rule of law and harming the most vulnerable in our society. I am just a lawyer. I do not have your wealth or your platform. I do not control the vast power of the federal government, nor do I have millions of adherents at my disposal to harass and intimidate my opponents. I may even carry generational trauma.
But you need to know this about me. I am the great-grandson of a man who led his family out of the shtetl to a strange land in search of a better life. I am the grandson of the three-year-old boy on that journey. As you know, my English name is Marc, but my Hebrew name is Elhanan (אֶלְחָנָן) — after the great warrior in David’s army who slew a powerful giant.
I will use every tool at my disposal to protect this country from Trump. I will litigate to defend voting rights until there are no cases left to bring. I will speak out against authoritarianism until my last breath.
I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey.
Defiantly,
Marc Elias
Feb 22 -- For democracy, diversity, justice & freedom
Feb 22
Feb 23 -- Bring the Noise -- Trump administration backtracks on eliminating thousands of national parks employees
Feb 28 -- Shared from Feminist News
After Trump's disgraceful behavior at the White House today with President Zelensky major world players just came out to defend Ukraine and Zelensky:
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “Dear Zelensky, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.”
- President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausea: “Ukraine, you’ll never walk alone.”
- Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: “Dear Zelensky, Denmark proudly stands with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
- French President Emmanual Macron: “There is an aggressor: Russia. There is a people being aggressed: Ukraine. We were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue doing so. We, that’s the Americans, the Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, and many others. Thank you to all those who have helped and continue to do so. And respect to those who, from the beginning, have been fighting. Because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, for their children, and for the security of Europe.”
- President of Moldova Maia Sandu: “The truth is simple. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine defends its freedom—and ours. We stand with Ukraine.”
- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson: “Sweden stands with Ukraine. You are not only fighting for your freedom but also for all of Europe’s. Slava Ukraini! ”
- Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Mer: “Dear Volodymyr @zelenskyyua, we stand with #Ukraine in good and in testing times. We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war. (FM)”
- Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković: “Croatia knows from its own experience that only a just peace can last. The Croatian Government stands firm in its belief that Ukraine needs such a peace - a peace that means sovereignty, territorial integrity, and a secure Europe.”
- Finland’s Prime Minister @PetteriOrpo: “Finland and the Finnish people stand firmly with Ukraine. We will continue our unwavering support and work towards a just and lasting peace.”
- Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal: “We stand united with @ZelenskyyUa and Ukraine in our fight for freedom. Always. Because it is right, not easy.”
- Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris: “Ukraine is not to blame for this war brought about by Russia’s illegal invasion. We stand with Ukraine.“
- Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkevics: “Ukraine is a victim of the Russian aggression. It fights the war with the help from many friends and partners. We need to spare no effort for just and lasting peace. Diplomacy sometimes is the art of the impossible in difficult circumstances. Latvia stands with Ukraine”
- Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof: ”The Netherlands supports Ukraine as firmly as ever. Now more than ever. We want a lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression started by Russia. For Ukraine and its people, and for Europe.”
- Prime Minister of Luxembourg Luc Friedsen: “Luxembourg stands with Ukraine. You are fighting for your freedom and a rules based international order. ”
The West stands with the heroic Zelensky. Trump sides with Putin. What has our nation become?
March 1 -- shared from Chuck Hobbs
So, the real tragedy in the way in which Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky was mistreated by Trump/Vance today is that the United States, per the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, is contractually bound to defend...wait for it...Ukraine! That Memorandum was signed three years after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and at the time, Ukraine had the third largest nuclear arsenal in the WORLD behind the United States and Russia. To coerce Ukraine into transferring its arsenal to its former fellow Soviet state Russia (for further arms reductions), President Bill Clinton, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and Great Britain's Prime Minister John Major assured Ukraine of its sovereignty and defense in exchange for eliminating its nuclear capabilities. No one alive at the time would have imagined that within 30 years, Russia, under its Dictator Vladimir Putin, would break the treaty--twice--by invading Ukraine and that the U.S., led (in name) by a sick Putin sycophant named Donald Trump, would take sides with Russia by falsely blaming Ukraine for the latest war, and by demanding that Ukraine beg and bow for U.S. assistance that, per that old Budapest Memorandum, it "should" be providing anyway!
Trust, if Ukraine was still sitting on the world's third largest nuclear arsenal, Russia NEVER would have invaded and Trump wouldn't be trying to pimp the nation's vast mineral resources. But just like the U.S. has broken treaty after treaty with Indigenous American tribes over the past 200 plus years, I believe that Ukraine MUST turn to the European Union to supply all of its armament needs! Indeed, as a longtime student of world history, I also believe that several old U.S. allies like Taiwan, South Korea, Germany and Japan had better be prepared for anything because the U.S., at least while under MAGA control, is NOT to be trusted to uphold treaties that provide for mutual defense and stability.
*Pic of Clinton, Yeltsin et al signing the Budapest Memorandum circa '94
Stay tuned to more Hobbservations
March 1 -- shared from Mensa Saskatchewan
In the Constitution of Mensa, it says that Mensa is not allowed to take any political action and cannot hold political affiliations (though Members or groups of members may express opinions as members of Mensa, provided their opinions or actions are not expressed as being those of Mensa as an organization). So while I do have personal opinions on what happened between Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy (Володимир Зеленський) during the session with the press at the White House today, I am keeping those to myself. I wanted to provide some fact checking on the numbers being thrown around though, as these numbers are not politics but verifiable numbers.
The USA has not spent $350 billion in Ukraine, nor even $300 billion. I have seen figures ranging anywhere from $119.7 billion (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) to $182.8 billion (U.S. Department of Defense), but the most consistent figure that I have seen is around $175 billion, and only $105.1 billion of that is to the Ukrainian government directly:
- $2 billion in humanitarian aid
- $33.3 billion in budget support
- $69.8 billion in weapons, equipment, and other military support
(Council on Foreign Relations, BBC News, Euronews, US Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve)
Most of the remainder is funding various U.S. activities associated with the war in Ukraine, and a small portion supports other affected countries in the region (the $182.8 billion figure includes US military training and replenishing US defence stocks, so it includes all spending on the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine). (Council on Foreign Relations, BBC News)
Of the $182.8 billion from the USA, only $83.4 billion has been sent, with the remaining $99.4 billion either not yet committed or not yet approved for payment. This is why Ukraine has received only $76 billion from the USA, and the $100 billion that people claim is missing is actually money that has not been sent. (Euronews, Українська правда, and CSIS | Center for Strategic & International Studies)
By comparison, the Kiel Institute calculates that, including military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the EU has spent $138.7 billion (compared to their calculation of $119.7 billion from the USA). Their calculations include only support directly given to Ukraine and exclude things like money used to replenish U.S. weapon stocks following donations to Kyiv, funds spent to help neighbouring countries welcome Ukrainian refugees, etc. However, using a broader definition, the European Union has committed $198 billion so far. (BBC News, Washington Post, Fox News)
Of all the funding Ukraine as received, NATO estimates that nearly 60% of the funding for Ukraine has come from across Europe and Canada. (ABC News and BBC News)
Canada has given $19.7 billion in aid to Ukraine:
- $12.4 billion in financial aid
- $4.5 billion in military assistance
The remaining funds are spread between humanitarian, development, stabilization, etc. aid funding. (THX News and Government of Canada)
Canada has also provided $5 billion to Ukraine from seized Russian assets, and the money will be repaid from interest earned on the held Russian assets (i.e., Russia will be bearing the burden of repayment). (Global News, National Post, CTV News, The Kyiv Independent, and Anadolu Agency)
In total, Ukraine has spent $120 billion of its own money, and Ukraine estimates that that total they have spent on the war is about $320 billion. (Voice of America)
If you're wondering, 35% of the funds going to Ukraine from Europe have been loans, and some of the repayment of those loans are coming from revenues from frozen and seized Russian assets and Ukraine isn't having to pay those portions of the loans, and the rest are really generous terms where Ukraine will be repaying less interest over lengthy repayment periods. The remaining 65% is grants an in-kind support. (Washington Post and BBC News)
The actual value of the weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine by the USA is about 60% lower than they were priced because the price was for new stock. Much of the military equipment and ammunition sent to Ukraine is old and of limited combat effectiveness because it came from aging US stockpiles, some of the ammunition is expired, and a majority of the equipment isn't even used by the US military anymore (and therefore has an effective value of $0 to the USA). Normally, this stock would have to be disposed of, but giving it to Ukraine means there are effectively no disposal expenses. Furthermore, much of the funding for Ukraine is being spent in the USA, such as employing US workers to manufacture the replacement equipment and supplies for refilling US stockpiles.
March 2 -- shared from Robert Obie Holmen
Longtime Republican columnist and commentator David Brooks said the following after the White House mistreatment of the Ukrainian president on Friday.
“I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we're a flawed country, but we're fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they're usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance."
“They're not because we're ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen."
“Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that's safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office."
“And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I'm in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It's a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”
March 3 -- Of it all, this horrifies me most
shared from UCLA -- President Trump cannot use Guantánamo Bay to dodge the law and abuse immigrants. We'll see him in court.
Mach 11 -- Shared from UCLA
March 19 -- Shared from NOH8 Campaign
March 19 -- I study history and think we have a long way to go to give voice to the stories of all groups. It's vitally important for context to understand who we are as individuals, why our circumstances in society are as they are, as well as to learn empathy / humanity. Erasing history, like banning books... can we agree that at least that is the wrong direction?
Shared from Heather Cox Richardson
March 17, 2025 (Monday)
From 1942 to 1945, the Code Talkers were key to every major operation of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. The Code Talkers were Indigenous Americans who used codes based in their native languages to transmit messages that the Axis Powers never cracked. The Army recognized the ability of tribal members to send coded language in World War I and realized the codes could not be easily interpreted in part because many Indigenous languages had never been written down.
The Army expanded the use of Code Talkers in World War II, using members of 34 different tribes in the program. Indigenous Americans always enlisted in the military in higher proportions than any other demographic group—in World War II, more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between 19 and 50 joined the service—and the participation of the Code Talkers was key to the invasion of Iwo Jima, for example, when they sent more than 800 messages without error.
“Were it not for the Navajos,” Major Howard Connor said, “the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
Today, Erin Alberty of Axios reported that at least ten articles about the Code Talkers have disappeared from U.S. military websites. Broken URLs are now labeled “DEI,” an abbreviation for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Axios found that web pages associated with the Department of Defense have also put DEI labels on now-missing pages that honored prominent Black veterans. Similarly missing is information about women who served in the military, including the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. A profile of Army Major General Charles Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, was similarly changed, but the Defense Department replaced the missing page and removed “dei” from the URL today after a public outcry.
Two days ago, media outlets noted that the Arlington National Cemetery website had deleted content about Black, female, and Hispanic veterans.
The erasure of Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from our military history is an attempt to elevate white men as the sole actors in our history. It is also an attempt to erase a vision of a nation in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to work—and fight—for the common good.
After World War II, Americans came together in a similar spirit to create a government that works for all of us. It is that government—and the worldview it advances—that the Trump administration is currently dismantling.
The most obvious attack on that government is the attempt to undermine Social Security, a system by which Congress in 1935 pulled Americans together to support the nation’s most vulnerable. President Donald Trump and his sidekick billionaire Elon Musk have been asserting, falsely, that Social Security is mired in fraud and corruption.
Today, Judd Legum of Popular Information reported that an internal memo from the Social Security Administration, written by acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz, called for requiring beneficiaries to visit a field office to provide identification if they cannot access the internet to complete verification there. Diaz estimated that implementing this policy would require the administration to receive 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors a week.
But Social Security Administration offices no longer accept walk-ins and the current wait time for a visit already averages more than a month, while this change would create a 14% increase in visits. The administration is currently closing Social Security offices. Diaz predicted “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” that would create increased “challenges for vulnerable populations.” She also predicted “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”
In the news over the weekend has been the story of 82-year-old Ned Johnson of Seattle, Washington, who lost his Social Security benefits after he was mistakenly declared dead. Upon that declaration, the government clawed back $5,201 from Johnson’s bank account, canceled his Medicare coverage, and warned credit agencies that he was “deceased, do not issue credit.” While Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” said the error had “zero connection” to its work, it is at least an unfortunate coincidence that Musk has repeatedly insisted that dead people are collecting benefits.
Various recent reports show the cost of the destruction of the government that worked for everyone. Kate Knibbs of Wired reported today that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have decimated the teams that inspect plant and food imports, creating risks from invasive pests and leaving food to rot as it waits for inspection.
Today, Sharon LaFraniere, Minho Kim, and Julie Tate of the New York Times reported that cuts to the top secret National Nuclear Security Administration have meant the loss of critical employees—from scientists and engineers through accountants and lawyers—at the agency that manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. The agency was already shorthanded as it worked to modernize the arsenal and was hiring to handle the additional workload. Now it appears to have lost many of its leaders, who were most likely to be able to land top jobs in the private sector.
Republicans convinced Americans to vote to undermine a government that enables all of us to look out for each other by pushing a narrative that says such a government is dangerous because it gives power to undesirables and lets crime run rampant in the U.S. On Friday, Musk reposted an outrageous tweet saying that dictators “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.”
The idea that a government that works for everyone is dangerous is at the heart of the administration’s rhetoric about the men it has deported to El Salvador without the due process of law. Although we have no idea who those men are, the administration insists they are violent criminals and that anyone trying to protect the rule of law is somehow siding with rapists and murderers. On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that the judge insisting on the rule of law was supporting “terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
In place of a world in which the government works for all Americans, President Donald Trump and his supporters are imposing authoritarianism. This morning, Trump declared the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, President Joe Biden, “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” and went on to say that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” The Constitution does not have any provision to undo a presidential pardon, and Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that “[i]mplicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be.”
After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back Trump’s insistence that Biden’s pardons were invalid by saying that Trump was just suggesting that Biden was mentally incompetent when he signed the pardons, Trump pulled the Secret Service protection from Biden’s children Hunter and Ashley, apparently to demonstrate that he could.
The rejection of a government that works for all Americans in order to concentrate power in the executive branch appears to serve individuals like Musk, rather than the American people. Isaac Stanley-Becker reported in The Atlantic on March 9 that although the government awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s communications network, Musk has instructed his SpaceX company to install its equipment in that network. Those installations seem designed to make the U.S. air traffic control system dependent on SpaceX, whose equipment, Stanley-Becker notes, “has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.”
When Evan Feinman, who directed the $42.5 billion rural broadband program, left his position on Friday, he wrote an email to his former colleagues warning that there would be pressure to turn to SpaceX’s Starlink for internet connection in rural areas. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” he wrote.
Cuts to the traditional U.S. government also appear to serve Russia. Over the weekend, the administration killed the Voice of America media system that has spread independent democratic journalism across the world for 83 years. About 360 million people listened to its broadcasts. The system was a thorn in the side first of the Soviet Union and now of Russia and China. Now it is silent, signaling the end of U.S. soft power that spread democratic values. “The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote.
And maybe those two things go hand in hand. Maggie Haberman, Kate Conger, Eileen Sullivan, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported today that Starlink has been installed across the White House campus. Officials say that Musk has “donated” the service, although because of security concerns, individuals typically cannot simply give technology to the government.
Waldo Jaquith, who worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and who specializes in best practices for government procurement of custom software, posted on social media: “I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure.”
The test of whether Americans will accept the destruction of a government that works for the common good and its replacement with one that works for the president and his cronies might well come from the need to address disasters like the storm system that hit the Deep South and the Plains over the weekend. At least forty people died, including four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, six in Mississippi, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, four in Texas, and at least twelve in Missouri. High winds, tornadoes, and fires did extraordinary damage across the region.
The destruction caused by a hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas, in 1900 was a key factor in developing the modern idea of a nonpartisan government that could efficiently provide relief after a disaster and help in the process of rebuilding. As Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios reported last week, Trump has suggested “fundamentally overhauling or reforming” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or even getting rid of it entirely, turning emergency relief over to the states. A new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database shows that Republican-dominated states receive a lot of that assistance.
Sarah Labowitz, who led the study, told Fitzpatrick: “Up to now, when there is a disaster, the government responds. They clean up the debris, they rebuild the schools, they run shelters, they clean the drinking water. All of that is supported by a federal disaster relief ecosystem that spreads the risk around the country, spreads the costs around the country. And if we stop spreading the costs around the country, then it's going to fall on states, and it's going to fall on states really unevenly.”
March 19 -- Shared from A Mighty Girl
In a powerful act of solidarity and resistance, more than 500 Canadians formed a long line along the U.S.-Canada border in Quebec on last Saturday's International Women's Day to protest the U.S. government’s attacks on women’s rights and Canada’s sovereignty. “The turnout on a frigid, blustery Saturday morning overwhelmed organizers,” one participant wrote on social media, with the hundreds of participants facing south toward Vermont. Huge numbers of protesters also flooded several blocks in downtown Montreal chanting "shame on you" outside the U.S. Consulate.
In Montreal, protest organizer Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette denounced the actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, asserting: “You are not kings. We are not handmaids." Fellow organizer Laure Waridel took aim at the U.S. government's increasingly repressive policies toward women, declaring: “Shame on you for your treatment of women." “Shame on you for your betrayal of your friends and allies,” she continued, accusing the administration, in a reference to Trump's increasingly close alliance with Vladimir Putin of Russia, of “siding with murderers and despots” and undermining democracy. “You can try to intimidate us with trade wars, (but) we’ll never become your 51st state."
Over the past month, Trump has repeatedly attacked Canada, one of the country's closest allies for over 150 years, on numerous fronts. In addition to starting what has been described as a "very dumb" trade war with one of the nation's largest trading partners and imposing on and off again tariffs against Canada which have caused the U.S. stock market to nosedive to a six-month low and raised fears of a recession, Trump has repeatedly made comments threatening Canada's sovereignty.
In addition to calling Canada "the 51st state" on multiple occasions and referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "governor," when asked in early January by a New York Times reporter if he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, Trump admitted that he planned to use "economic force." According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Trump is considering tearing up a slew of agreements and treaties that govern the relationship between the two countries with the longest undefended border in the world and he wants to eject Canada from the 69-year-old intelligence-sharing Five Eyes alliance made up of four of the US' closest allies.
On Tuesday, Trump intensified his threats against America's long-standing ally, writing on social media: "The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!"
Canadian citizens and elected officials are taking Trump's threats very seriously, with many expressing a feeling of dismay and violation at such abhorrent treatment from a long-time trusted friend and ally. As Trudeau said last week, after Trump imposed tariffs yet again: "The excuse that [Trump's] giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false. What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us."
Thank you to our Canadian friends for their support for American women! A Mighty Girl supports our proud and independent neighbor to the north!
March 21 -- Things are alarming. Still, there remain effective checks on power -- our voices, the judiciary -- not to be taken for granted.
I interviewed a federal employee fired from HHS for my blog, in want to share a story, humanize the job losses. The interview was interesting and sad and now, heh, moot. She got her job back. Any value in sharing still? I'm thinking not; not worth risking muddying the already murky waters.
"In a lawsuit (PDF) filed by a collection of state attorneys general, the judge said probationary employees in HHS, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and other departments must be reinstated by Monday, March 17..." https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/.../hhs-probationary...
That Trump may have ignored a judge's ruling to hault deportation of Venezualan migrants to El Salvador is concerning. That he's applying the Alien Enemies Act horrifies me. That Judge Boasburg continues to persist in unraveling what happened is heartening. https://www.theguardian.com/.../judge-us-deportations... This story has understandibly gotten a lot of attention.
But, from my failed start of a blogpost, it is clear that courts are making an impact. More to the point, thousands of federal workers have been reinstated thanks to court orders. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7x382je03o And there's more, with other executive orders being blocked https://www.usnews.com/.../how-many-of-trumps-executive...
March 28 -- The events are frightening -- ICE taking Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil; the rounding up and shipping off of hundreds of men to an El Salvadorian prison without due process -- at least one of them, Jerce Reyes Barrios, was mistaken for having gang involvement because of a misinterpreted soccer tattoo; Sara, a 10-year-old girl in Houston who was being treated for brain cancer and is a US citizen, deported with her parents and four other siblings...
Many terrorful stories
Shared from Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: Pope Francis unleashes a historic attack on the Trump administration over its cruel treatment of migrants — and takes specific aim at remarks made by J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert.
So-called Christians in the MAGA movement are melting down over this...
The Pope, head of the Catholic Church, issued a rebuke of Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, stating that it removes the migrants of their inherent dignity as people and "will end badly."
Usually one to abstain from commenting directly on the internal politics of individual countries, Francis made his new remarks in a letter addressing U.S. bishops.
In it, he invoked the Bible's Book of Exodus and said that God is "always close, incarnate, migrant and refugee" and pointed out that Jesus Christ was "expelled from his own land" when his family fled to Egypt and had to "take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own."
Putting fake Christians to shame, Pope Francis went on to state that Jesus loved "everyone with a universal love" and taught us to see the"dignity of every human being, without exception."
"Thus, all the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa," the pope wrote.
He then turned his pen towards addressing the United States directly.
"I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations," wrote Pope Francis.
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," he continued.
"At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival."
"That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," wrote the pope.
It was the next part of the letter that has really infuriated MAGA supporters. Recently, Vice President J.D. Vance — who was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church in 2019 — attacked the Church's compassionate teachings on immigration.
Proving that he either doesn't understand Catholic theology or would prefer to cherrypick what he likes and doesn't, Vance butchered a medieval concept known as "ordo amoris" or the "order of love."
"As an American leader, but also just as an American citizen, your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens," Vance told Fox News. "That doesn’t mean you hate people from outside of your own borders, but there’s this old-school [concept] — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world."
Of course, the idea that one should love those closest to you doesn't mean that you shouldn't love people from other countries. Vance shamelessly twisted the meaning to suit his party's xenophobic views. St. Augustine, who pioneered the concept that Vance was referencing, certainly didn't advocate for an authoritarian mass migration program.
In his letter, Pope Francis wrote that "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," a direct and blunt rebuke of Vance's claims.
"In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!" the pope continued. "The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'Good Samaritan', that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."
Francis warned against deploying "an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth."
He went on to urge the bishops in the United States to continue working "closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ" and "promoting fundamental human rights."
"God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human!" he added.
Pope Francis then turned his attention to the entire Catholic Church, urging its followers "not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters."
He concluded by calling for all of us to work towards a "a society that is more fraternal, inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all."
In other words, we need to build a world where MAGA is not the law of the land.
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