

"A Horrid, Horrid, Petty Little Man.
God knows the limits of his evil, blackened soul. This old man was never shown love as a child..."
- Aure
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Trump
"A Horrid, Horrid, Petty Little Man.
God knows the limits of his evil, blackened soul. This old man was never shown love as a child..."
- Aure
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Trump
#Trump moves to close down #VoiceOfAmerica #USPol
#Putin will give him a pat on the head for that.
Democracy
My latest thoughts on what’s happening in the US: If people are Nazis they should be excluded from participating in democracy. Their values don’t align. Don’t let them have a seat at the table. #uspol
Rolling Stone: Outgoing Broadband Chief Issues Stark Warning Against Elon Musk
“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,” wrote Evan Feinman
#BostonMA protest calls for end of war in #Gaza, release of activist #MahmoudKhalil
Nationwide demonstrations were scheduled this weekend to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil
By Thea DiGiammerino, March 16, 2025
"Hundreds calling for the end of the war in Gaza rallied in the streets of Boston Sunday, one of many demonstrations across the country protesting not only the violence but also recent action by the Trump administration toward a man who was arrested by immigration officials after speaking out about the issue.
"Chanting '#FreePalestine,' and other mottos calling for the end of the war, the crowd gathered in Copley Square then marched to the Mass. Ave Bridge, where they blocked traffic for around 10 minutes before moving off the streets.
"Massachusetts State Police said they monitored the event and no arrests were made."
[...]
"'When the Trump administration detained multiple people from the #PalestineMovement we could have seen our communities react in fear, we could have seen hundreds of Bostonians staying home today. And that’s not what we’re seeing because we know people will stand up against this #bullying,' one attendee told NBC10 Boston.
"Tensions over the situation in the Middle East and the #Trump administration's policies concerning the war remain high. Last week, the #DepartmentOfEducation issued a warning to 60 colleges and universities that they were under investigation for allegations of antisemitism. The Department of Justice also announced the creation of a federal task force to investigate the issue, and said Boston would be one of the cities targeted in the work."
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/hundreds-rally-calling-for-end-to-war-in-gaza-release-of-activist-mahmoud-khalil/3660014/
#USPol #FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreeSpeech #ResistFascism #ResistDOGE #ResistICE
Perhaps the real enemy of the people was the president we elected along the way.
#USpol
Gridiron Club journalism dinner omits toast to sitting president for first time in 140 years
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol
As well, the world should stop arrivals or put in #quarantine anyone from or travelling through the #US due to lack of medical response to #contagious #diseases. #measles #vaccinations #USPol #auspol #RFK
Trump is a renowned golf cheat, at his and other courses.
He probably ended up playing with himself to win the trophy
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Trump
Mar. 13 NPR “Consider This” talks about risks of DOGE data access, with cameo by me
NPR's Ailsa Chang; Elizabeth Lair of the Equity and Civic Technology Project at the Center For Democracy and Technology; Jonathan Kamens, late of the VA; and University of Virginia law professor Danielle Citron, talk about the risks of DOGE having access to federal government data and how the Privacy Act of 1974 is being used to push back on it.
#politics #USPol #DOGE #privacy
https://blog.kamens.us/2025/03/16/mar-13-npr-consider-this-talks-about-risks-of-doge-data-access-with-cameo-by-me/
"They Can't Beat All of Us"
A Report Back from the #FloridaAbolitionistGathering
#CrimethInc, March 15, 2025
"From February 28 to March 2, hundreds of #abolitionists and #anarchists from across the country converged in Gainesville for the first Florida Abolitionist Gathering (#FAG). Across a passionate weekend of #workshops, films, food, #debate, #ritual, and #protest, the contours of a robust regional #resistance movement came into focus.
"The #intergenerational, heavily #queer and #trans, and strongly multi-issue and anarchist group of abolitionists that converged in Florida articulated an expansive vision of #liberation anchored in the urgent need to dismantle the #PrisonIndustrial complex in all its manifestations. The gathering showed that even as liberals wring their hands about the death of democracy, scrappy groups of organizers continue to fight back—and sometimes win—deep within the belly of the beast."
Read more:
https://crimethinc.com/2025/03/15/they-cant-beat-all-of-us-a-reportback-from-the-florida-abolitionist-gathering
#Resistance #Resist #USPol
#CopCity Is Everywhere
Learning from the Movement to #DefendTheForest
#CrimethInc, 2025-03-14
"The movement to #StopCopCity and defend #WeelauneeForest was one of the most important social struggles of the Biden era. Its trajectory tells us a lot about the challenges we confront today under Donald Trump. In the final chapter of our chronology, we trace the movement’s concluding phase, beginning in 2023 and ending with Trump’s arrival in power, and explore what we can learn from it."
Read more:
https://crimethinc.com/2025/03/14/cop-city-is-everywhere-learning-from-the-movement-to-defend-the-forest
#ACAB #StopCopCityQueens #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #JusticeForTort #USPol
Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
A whistle-blower report and other documents suggest that Trump’s nominee to run the Pentagon was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history
#USPol It's quaint that USians think things like courts are going to stop Trump et al
A fundamental understanding. - GIFs - Imgur
https://imgur.com/gallery/fundamental-understanding-Xifun2I
"Trump invokes 18th century law to speed deportations"
That's not what he's doing. He's using an emergency law to curtail constitutional rights of people residing within the US.
If media used language concisely, perhaps more Americans would understand what's actually happening.
#KansasCity #CommunityGardens the latest #nonprofit to feel impact of federal funding cuts
By Nathan Brennan
Published: Mar. 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM EDT
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - "Kansas City Community Gardens has been serving the metro since 1979, officially 501c3 in 1985. The nonprofit helps out thousands of families every year, but like so many other nonprofits across the country, their federal funding is on pause.
KCCG Executive Director Jennifer Meyer said the nonprofit already budgeted for $300,000 of federal grant money to be reimbursed throughout the year. After the most recent federal cuts, that money isn’t showing up.
"'We’re having to be really conservative on how we approach the spring season,' Meyer said. 'Those grants operate on a reimbursement basis, so we do the work, buy the seeds, buy the fruit trees, and then submit billing on those grants. We have not seen a reimbursement come through since December of last year, so right now, that’s all on hold and uncertain.'
"Kansas City Community Gardens has been serving the metro since 1979, officially 501c3 in 1985.
"Meyer said the garden won’t have to shut down, there are enough donors to keep the garden running during the spring season. However, #KCCG is still feeling the impacts by having to trim seasonal staff. If federal grant money doesn’t show up at all, Meyer said the nonprofit will have to make some tough decisions.
"'Last year, #FoodInsecurity rates quietly crept back up to pandemic levels, so our community needs food,' Meyer said. 'We know that #gardening is a great way to get #HealthyFood into neighborhoods and families who are on a tight budget, so this funding lets us do that.'
"Meyer expects the spring season to run as normal, just with fewer staff. KCCG offers an annual membership program with fees based on income and the number of people in a household. Membership ranges from $2 to $45.
According to the KCCG reader’s digest, enrollment includes:
- 10 free packs of seeds and the opportunity to buy more at a low-cost member price
- Free 10-pound bag of fertilizer
- Starter plants, including vegetables and herb transplants, fruit trees, berry bushes and more at a low-cost member price
- Low-cost garden supplies, such as straw, compost and pest control products
- Low-cost tilling services and access to KCCG rental plot gardens."
Learn more about Kansas City Community Gardens’ outreach and resources at this link:
https://kccg.org/
#CommunityGardens #USDAFundingCuts
#USPol #FoodInsecurity #BadDOGE #Hunger #Missouri
I don't want to go *too* far in praising this article, because there are still a large number of problems with the way it minimizes the danger of Trump literally annexing Canada, but its existence demonstrates that at least one US media outlet (NBC) understands that Trump is not joking, or playing the angles here, and is in fact dead serious about taking over Canada:
Trump's quest to conquer Canada is confusing everyone
"Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump first mentioned his love for Canadians, including his “many friends” like hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Then he riffed about how Canada shouldn’t exist as a sovereign country before getting to what has increasingly become a fixation: wholesale annexation of Canada as a U.S. state.
"Canada only works as a state," Trump said Thursday. "We don’t need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible country, visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S. Just a straight, artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many many decades ago. Makes no sense. It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state."
"But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion?" Trump continued, adding, "And again, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now, there will be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry."
As I said at the top of this post, this is by no means a perfect article; NBC spends far too much ink focusing on Trump's personal animus towards Justin Trudeau (who is no longer even the Canadian Prime Minister) and allowing named GOP officials to pretend they're confused by Trump's annexation plan even as they enact his orders to try and make that plan a reality. Crucially however, this report *does* make it abundantly clear that Trump is dead serious and his minions know full well that he's not joking:
"Trump has been unapologetic in his quest to conquer the Canadians — an effort he said in January would be conducted by “economic force.” The result has been a disintegration of the relationship between the U.S. and one of its closest allies, and a stock market plunge over fears of ever-increasing escalation of a trade war. Both Canadian officials and Republicans initially thought the president was merely joking, ribbing Trudeau — a longtime foil — after they met at Mar-a-Lago in November. It was after that visit that Trump first publicly floated the notion of absorbing Canada. Few think he’s joking now, and the Canadians have stopped laughing.
A source with direct knowledge of the discussions told NBC News that Trump is heavily focused on Canada in conversations with aides, who believe he is completely serious about making the country the 51st state — even with Trudeau out of power and a new prime minister in place."
Unfortunately, and despite this refreshing frankness, I have some problems with the sloppy journalism and credulous naivety with which NBC states that nobody knows where Trump is getting the idea to annex Canada from, including Republicans in his government. The fact is that MAGA-connected fascist propagandists like Candice Owens (and others) have been advocating for taking over, or even invading Canada since at least 2021-2022 for a variety of reasons; including natural resources, water rights, climate imperialism (although they don't use that term,) and even to protect their ideological brethren in the larger Canadian fascist movement from legal repercussions for their own slow-moving coup attempt in Canada, the so-called "Trucker Convoy." I genuinely have no idea if US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has any clue what Trump is thinking, but fascist media personalities in Trump's orbit certainly do, and this regime has already shown a willingness to outsource official policy from raving nazi dipshits on YouTube, so I don't think "where Trump is getting this idea from" is the kind of puzzle you need Scotland Yard's finest detectives to solve.
With less funding and more hunger, a #DentonTX #CommunityGarden still wants to grow and feed more
By Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales Staff Writer Mar 14, 2025
"Friends of Shiloh Field Community Garden always plans to harvest more crops for its local partner #FoodPantries and #HomelessShelters. This year, the community garden’s board chair said the volunteer-run farm expects more people to need the food they grow.
"'Every year we try to outdo ourselves,' said Christina Proctor, the chair of the board for Friends of Shiloh Garden, the nonprofit that operates the community garden. 'We always anticipate making more than we did the last year. Talking to the #FoodBanks and they tell us every year that we have increased the number of requests for food for us. Ever since 2020, it just keeps going up.'
"Food banks across the country saw both hunger and food insecurity spike when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered businesses and closed offices, shedding workers and leaving families without paychecks. Inflation and rising costs have kept some families strapped and struggling to feed their families. And as North Texas has grown, problems such as hunger, homelessness and food insecurity have grown with it.
"The immediate future for hungry Texans of all ages looks grim. But recent cuts are affecting children greatly. The School Nutrition Association reported Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture [#USDA] announced it would cut the $660 million #LocalFoodForSchools program for 2025.
"Politico, citing a spokesperson for the USDA, reported that the department also cut the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The program would have funded about $500 million this year to support food banks.
"For the second year in a row, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission opted not to participate in the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer [#EBT] program, which would have paid $120 per eligible child for families already receiving food benefits through the summer months.
"The program is meant to fill the gap left when public schools are on summer break, and children who qualify for free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch are vulnerable to greater food insecurity. The commission opted out of the program when the state Legislature didn’t move to allocate the money needed to get the program up and running on Monday.
"Denton residents learned this week that Lovepacs Denton, a nonprofit that gives food to Denton ISD students to get them through school breaks and long weekends, will close after the school year ends in May.
"#Austerity is impacting state and local assistance services all at once. Celia Cole, the CEO of Feeding Texas, said that cuts to programs like this not only put more Texans at risk for hunger, but they also reduce stimulus spending that benefits the state’s farms. Feeding Texas is a network of 20 food banks that feed hungry Texans and advocates for policies that prevent hunger. Cole said the Summer EBT funding could have fed Texas children and teenagers last year.
"'The first opportunity that Texas had to run the program would have been in summer of 2024, and we missed out on it because, I think really more than anything, was that Texas Health and Human Services Commission ... had so much else on their plate with #Medicaid unwinding,' Cole said. 'They were facing really serious backlogs and getting people enrolled in Medicaid.'
"Then, as the deadline for summer of 2025 got nearer, Cole said, it became clear that the commission would need money from the state to administer the program. Monday was the deadline for the Legislature to allocate the funds. Cole said programs like Feeding Texas will have to stretch their resources and be strategic with funding and food.
"For Denton nonprofits, leaders are preparing to do the same. The Friends of Shiloh Garden is keeping close tabs on costs. Proctor said seeds aren’t as costly as donors might think, but over the last two summers, water costs have soared.
"'Our biggest expense in production is water,' she said. 'We’ve been very blessed that Denton Bible Church has been helping us subsidize our water bill by giving us some money to help offset that cost.'
"In 2023, when Denton saw about 55 days of triple-digit heat, Proctor said water costs were almost too much.
"'That was the year we almost had too close because it was just so expensive,' Proctor said. 'Our water bills that year were just ridiculous.'
"The operation installed drip irrigation and weed cloth to cover the drip lines and saw savings. But the nonprofit is still looking to serve more people and give its partners more of what they want."
To support the community garden, www.shilohfield.com for donation and volunteer information.