When I was much younger, I would have bristled if someone told me to vote a straight ticket. I was one of those scolds who insisted that one’s duty as a citizen was to research the bona fides of all candidates, from President to coroner, and vote accordingly. And in a perfect–or even marginally better–world, I would probably stand by that assertion.
But we are in uncharted territory. Thanks, ironically, to decades of weakening political party structures and influence, the voting public has separated itself into two blocs, one of which is a more-or-less normal political party spanning a fairly wide range of policy preferences and engaging in relatively typical intra-party disputes, while the other has morphed into a cohesive racist cult that threatens the most fundamental bases of the American Idea.
The accuracy of that last paragraph is demonstrated by the fact that I don’t have to tell you which is which.
A vote for anyone in the cult is a vote for the goals of Project 2025, because even Republicans who are personally conflicted about or even opposed to the MAGA zealots have shown zero willingness to confront the crazies who are firmly in control of their party. Those who recognize the threat and retain their spines have all declared their intent to vote Democratic.
And let’s be quite clear about that threat.
Heather Cox Richardson has described it accurately and succinctly:
Project 2025 stands on four principles that it says the country must embrace: the U.S. must “[r]estore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children”; “[d]ismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people”; “[d]efend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats”; and “[s]ecure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty.’”
In almost 1,000 pages, the document explains what these policies mean for ordinary Americans. Restoring the family and protecting children means using “government power…to restore the American family.” That, the document says, means eliminating any words associated with sexual orientation or gender identity, gender, abortion, reproductive health, or reproductive rights from any government rule, regulation, or law. Any reference to transgenderism is “pornography” and must be banned.
The overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the right to abortion must be gratefully celebrated, the document says, but the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision accomplishing that end “is just the beginning.”
Dismantling the administrative state starts from the premise that “people are policy.” Frustrated because nonpartisan civil employees thwarted much of Trump’s agenda in his first term, the authors of Project 2025 call for firing much of the current government workforce—about 2 million people work for the U.S. government—and replacing it with loyalists who will carry out a right-wing president’s demands.
The plan asserts “the existential need” for an authoritarian leader to dismantle the current government that regulates business, provides a social safety net, and protects civil rights. Instead of the government Americans have built since 1933, the plan says the national government must “decentralize and privatize as much as possible” and leave “the great majority of domestic activities to state, local, and private governance.”
It attacks “America’s largest corporations, its public institutions, and its popular culture,” for their embrace of international organizations like the United Nations and the European Union and for their willingness to work with other countries. It calls for abandoning all of those partnerships and alliances.
The current head of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, has remade what was formerly a Rightwing think tank into an organization focused upon “institutionalizing Trumpism.” Heritage has negotiated a formal partnership with Viktor Orban and is working to bring the neo-fascist policies of Hungary to the United States.
Unlike members of the MAGA base, Heritage and other Rightwing activists are well aware that Trump is an ignoramus wholly incapable of ushering in their desired policies; he’s basically a convenient tool.
In January 2024, Roberts told Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times that Project 2025 was designed to jump-start a right-wing takeover of the government. “[T]he Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start,” Roberts said. “And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.”
The only thing that will stop the completion of the January 6th coup and the remakng of America along the lines of a Rightwing wet dream is a massive and comprehensive rejection of the GOP, from top to bottom.
If the French could do it, surely we can.
While most of us Dems always seem to take the risks involved with internal dissent before rallying around what is hoped to be the best choice (rather than the other “party” who are in immediate lockstep no matter what), I feel that an extremely important step in the process of retaining our democracy is to hear – loud and clear – from those GOPers smart enough not to go along with the crazy insanity that is maga and Project 2025. Where are they? There have to be many many more high profile folks out there in addition to Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Nicole Wallace, George Conway to name a few. Now is the time to take a risk people, the stakes are the highest they’ve ever been. We need your voices to add to the profound seriousness of the moment.
Now more than ever, vote Blue no matter who. This is a TEAM sport..
Fear produces procrastination, procrastination produces inaction, in action unlocks the door to subversion and subterfuge, then, men’s natural leanings come to the fore, those willing to exert authority over their fellow men, find it easy when those others are paralyzed in fear and procrastination.
Lawlessness, or the man of lawlessness as revealed in Scripture, seduces the weak minded. Also, it talks about this lawlessness corrupting the word of God. So, if/when this happens, The backlash is going to be severe. People will hate religion because these men of lawlessness have corrupted religion. Made it an unbearable burden, used it as a bludgeon, to subjugate their fellow man.
2nd Thessalonians 2: 1 – 3
That’s why scripture calls the men of lawlessness, the sons of destruction! Those who would act as a restraint have been effectively muzzled. The final result is going to be devastating.
The apostle Paul discussed the mystery of the lawlessness, and, the devastation it will pervey. Unfortunately, humanity cannot fix the problem, because humanity is the problem! Was it appropriate for the apostle Paul to claim the heart of men seek badness all the time? What does history tell us? Prepare for the worst!
What we need is a Blue Tsunami. If the Dems don’t win big, Jan 6, will look like a picnic.
John Sorg; please back off of your pulpit, people are dealing with political problems you and Scripture have no concept of. Real day-do-day survival problems encompassing personal attacks unimaginable prior to Trump, MAGA, White Nationalism, Freedom Caucus, the 2025 plan and others. It is now 7:40 a.m. and I have been on line seeking help since 5:55 a.m. You won’t find the answer to my problems in any Bible.
I have lived in my home for more than 19 years and throughout all of them have dealt with 2 serious problems; no prior knowledge that the full residential size lot next to my property is a City right-of-way and I am held responsible for all maintenance on the lot. The second problem much more serious with arbitrary power outages in the 6600-6700 blocks of East 19th Street, NORTH SIDE OF STREET ONLY. The outage June 20-30th resulted in AES checking tree limbs on power lines behind our homes, using flashlights in the dark Saturday night. Sunday brought AES trucks, Meade Electric and Wright Tree Service who cut down huge small tree size limbs and branches and piled them in back yards and filled the entire back half of that City right-of-way vacant lot next to my property. On Saturday, July 6th, I watched as three 80 year old men (2 from across the street not affected by outage or limbs) who do not like my Democratic yard signs, drag all downed limbs from the 6672 owner’s side to my side of the lot. Now they are my responsibility and AES has refused to dispose of the limbs and posted notices on the homes with downed limbs that they are responsible. I have no limbs in my yard as my power lines are relatively clear. I received no notice from AES due to no limbs on my property; the City right-of-way is another issues. I (we on the North side of 19th Street) AGAIN lost our fridge and freezer foods due to almost 21 hours without power.
I have contacted Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), my City Councillor Andy Nielsen, Council President Vop Osisli and my State Representative Black Johnson and am waiting for help in any form. I didn’t bother with AES as they denied help to those who did make contact. After the FOUR DAY outage August 29 to September 3rd I did contact them and received a response that they had no record of any outages on our street. IURC Board members are appointed by the Governor, making the entire problem political in this red state of Indiana.
Yes, John, please!
The existential threat is Project 2025, and those Un-Americans who pursue its goals!
JoAnn, your problems suck, but John’s scripture this morning was very fitting as it relates to the nature of man. Washington is full of lawlessness as the US believes the rules-based order is high above international laws that we helped create.
That’s not working well for our international activities, as the world is tired of being lectured by a lawless rogue state. Organizations like the EU and NATO are filled with weak-minded yes people who seek the power that comes from their position yet can make no decision without consulting the US.
Viktor Orban has traveled to Ukraine, Russia, and China to coordinate an actual peace agreement in Ukraine. Many in the EU consider him a fascist leader. Nevertheless, he is making an effort to stop the war. For his efforts, the EU and NATO hammered him, and the EU wants to strip Hungary of its temporary presidency. The EU has been clamoring about Russia wanting to attack Europe once they are done in Ukraine, so you’d think they want peace. Nope!!
As Biden just announced at NATO on opening day, the US is creating a new weapons and support package for Ukraine. You see Orban’s peacemaking attempts conflict with the US’s plans for Ukraine—more death and destruction.
As for P2025, Trump and the GOP have their own platform that they just released this week, which is much shorter and doesn’t look to dismantle the administrative state except for Dept of Ed, which he says education is a state matter:
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/08/nx-s1-5033015/rnc-republican-party-platform-2024
The Heritage Foundation is collecting resumes for government positions in Washington to assist the POTUS on day one in Jan 2025. If you’re interested, submit your resume:
https://www.project2025.org/personnel/
Jo Ann Green, maybe John Sorg can come remove those branches for you! or the fellas from across the street, who had the time and strength to move them from one side of the lot to the other!
I am sick of people criticizing instead of doing something constructive to make a difference. Our country is in such a bad way right now, we need to support each other when we can. And in my opinion, helping an older lady like you (and I am not far behind you in age) is truly the right, moral, Christian, thing to do! So to all you men who needs your egos stroked that you are “strong”, well, here’s a great opportunity to show up and show off!
But to stay on track for this post, the repuklican party has become the party of me, certainly not we. Our state of Indiana run by them and the businesses in it with CEO’s of that same ilk, have no need for anyone not in their status realm. Us little folk, until our dying breath need to fight to educate (Or shame, if need be), to make these elites understand they are nothing without the rest of us!
In November, we must vote Blue only, so we do not lose our democracy. Then we will have four years to root out those Dems who were not worthy of the office!
I couldn’t agree more, Sheila, but I will toss in my one, very minor, quibble. Heritage and its ilk should never be called “think tanks”. “Liberal think tanks” always asked questions (perhaps “liberal ones”) and looked for answers; “Conservative think tanks” always started with the answer, laissez-faire, etc. and tried to prove why it was the only correct answer. This false equivalency, like presenting Creationism as the equivalent of science, leads us to wake up one day with President Trump.
Hopefully, once was enough to wake us up.
What the backers of Project 2025 aren’t saying out loud, but I am certain they fully grasp, is that it will require a massive and intrusive administrative state to implement and enforce the first, third, and fourth principles. While autocratic rule presents the appearance of efficiency, beneath that facade it requires an administrative state that micromanages society and human interaction down to the most local of levels. Project 2025 is the basic framework of almost any dystopian novel you want to pick as an example of the genre.
And yes, Trump is a tool, and the MAGA crowd a convenient tactical distraction that’s kept Project 2025 under the radar until now. I think that Roberts and the rest of the organizational leadership behind it don’t really care what happens to Trump after they seize power. Roberts wants a revolution, “bloodless, if liberals let it,” but at some point revolutions tend to eat their own, and when Trump’s incompetence and buffoonery gets in the way, they’ll dispose of him like a used kleenex.
Someone once said that the average voter has a 6th grade education. Throw in almost no education in civics or critical thinking and here is where we are.
There is an old rock song “Make it Real”. That’s what we have to do to get those average voters to understand the potential impact of Project 2025 on their, their children’s and their grandchildren’s lives. It’s hard when the only thing real is grocery, housing, health and gas prices. And doesn’t it sound great when “they” promise and fund you to send your kids to any private school you want?
There is also ample evidence that the head of the ticket influences turnout and possible line voting. A dottering old man who revels in being “the leader of the Free World” inspires view who are turned on by celebrities, sports heroes, superheroes and the like….
I have left my comment for the day to Sheila at home substituting Pearlstein for Richardson on this topic, noting, inter alia, that our State of Indiana with its KKK capture in the Twenties added a new dimension to the America of the day. We need to reject this right wing anti-historical attempt to reject America and its constitutional history with every fiber of our collective being.
The moment after he wins in November, there will be a countdown to Trump selling autographed copies of Project 2025 (probably in a Bible Combo Pack) in 10, 9, 8, 7….
We inherited a liberal democracy. The hard part was done for us. We are now being tested to determine if we are worthy of it by defending it. This is like when I came into life in 1942.
We have lived the liberal life and need to be worthy of passing it on instead of tearing all we know down, firing our founders, and hiring an authoritarian homewreaker to rebuild. (The takeover of the red party is just a taste of what could happen to all of us. They have a self-appointed king. Our party still is a democracy with all of its problems and potential.}
Why is it not a simple matter of standing up for our past, present, and future selves?
So, with great trepidation, I ask Lester: When you and your group do all that pavement-pounding and door-knocking, which party exactly are you advocating that the people vote for? Or is it a “Just get out and vote” campaign? And with your constant criticism of Biden, who are YOU backing? I can’t believe you would vote for a fascist. And we all know that voting for 3rd. party candidate is a wasted vote.
So, Lester, put your cards on the table, if you have a pair (pun intended) , orZIP IT!!! (And I know you won’t – sigh) :-{
Todd S. – DITTO!!!
And as for John S. , I always just skip over you since I’ve had enough Bible-banging to last me several lifetimes.
Vote BLUE or live in HELL.
A solution enters the imagination:
– Biden and Harris step back and there are a series of quick primaries in critical states to select new choices.
– DEMS create powerful messaging around two themes: 1. A vivid dystopian “kitchen table” picture of where Project 2025 will take the lives of ordinary people. This should be done with lots of graphics, social media, games… 2. A new, short sharp agenda to get a “Project Democracy” done in the coming years: put Roe into US law, get rid of/severely injure “Citizens United” and partisan gerrymandering, crackdown on Big Whatevers via tax/regulatory reform.
The tearing down of democracy is being done by the current administration and its sovietesque law fare tactics that started with the totally fake ‘Russian colluion’ hoax and continues to this day. If you can’t see that putting a hugely popular, viable political opponent in jail is the antithesis of ‘democracy’ than frankly, please don’t vote.
seems the media is taking upon itself to dump on Joe. has the commercial media millionaires now deciding who stays and goes while trump sellls ads.. seems to explicit now. every major/minor web site is making opinions and whatevers to throw Biden under the bus with no regard to his real time work everyday. seems the news media is becoming the who wins and looses at our peril. there is little to no attention to trumps own cognitive talk. this close to election and the media makes the we have to win, into their own sell to everyone. its time the media takes the fallout over how they report and tell Americans the real facts over their need to drive a spike into the heart of our democray. all this for a quick buck. did that BUD boycott work? maybe their sponsors should be accountable to our democracty over hate and false unchecked bias. its time for a fairness doctrine again,one like Germany has..
Lester – already done by the Lincoln Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpLpOtFNFWg
PS – I knew you wouldn’t take the challenge! No guts, no glory!
Robbie:
as the dirt flys in the gravel pit im hauling to, theres a buncha trumpers workin here. in NoDak its 500 to one in liberal minds. most of these guys are hard core god,guts and gun types, im privleged to be the one who opens some eyes on maga and 2025. they never heard of 2025 until recently. they could care less. as long as they stay uninformed. talking with them face to face about the present dangers of trumps behind the curtian, priceless…
Kathy – thanks for the link, but….
1. Very few people have or will have seen seen this, and..
2. The only items that might affect the “average voter” and their civic knowledge are if they might be deported and the women’s health issues. The rest is way above their heads or their “kitchen table” issues.
3. It is all about DC, not “me”
Lester:
1. Very few people have or will have seen seen this, and..
YOU know this HOW???? It just cam out.
2. The only items that might affect the “average voter” “if they might be deported and the women’s health issues: .. .
— it’s ALL there in the ad.
“powerful messaging around two themes: 1. A vivid dystopian “kitchen table” picture of where Project 2025 will take the lives of ordinary people. This should be done with lots of graphics, social media, games… ”
It’s all there in the ad!!!!!!
DID YOU EVEN WATCH IT???? >:-<
This discussion, responding to me, is about you this time.
Lester – as I said before, you are a bag of negative hot air with nothing positive to add to this blog. And I am disappointed in myself that I wasted time on you!!!
Kathy, I don’t do the GOTV door-to-door campaigns, so I can’t answer that question. As a journalist, I attend to facts regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum because, in an oligarchy, there is no right or left. It’s top-down.
As for whom I am backing for POTUS, it won’t be #GenocideDementiaJoe or #CriminalDon. They are both disgusting, rotten figures. If the DNC candidate wins, we will be involved in WW3 within four years. I’m not sure that is called “winning.”
Failure of our political parties (both of the two main parties) should be the topic of every media organization in the US, but it’s not. Citizens should ask, “Why not?”
The media is owned by the same oligarchy that owns the political parties. It’s all part of the same signs of decay we see everywhere. The US is no longer the leader of the free world. Predatory capitalism is failing us and our vassal states (Europe and the South Pacific).
The question that was asked a decade ago is, “How will the US handle the rise of China and the end of the unipolar world?”
The answer in 2024 is, “We are doubling down on our role as the leader of the free world with sanctions, tariffs, coups, and military might.”
Neither party offers a solution and will only once it seeks its independence from the oligarchy. There are no signs either is willing to change.
Leave it blank or vote for the Green Party.
Kathy – WADR – don’t want to enrage you more…very few ordinary people have every heard of or “follow” The Lincoln Project. Have a relaxing day….
Todd, leaving it blank or voting for the Green Party IS a vote for Trump. Your choice, of course. Enjoy the dictatorship when it arrives.
Campaign posters for November should clearly depict the road ahead as diverging into a Red one and a Blue one, with slogans like “be careful what you wish for” or “your choice now, your descendants‘ fate” or “ the road not taken makes all the difference” Lining the Red road and beckoning to the voter is a pantheon of fascist leaders from history.
Miriam,
Please explain the logic behind your statement that not voting for a candidate is a vote for the other candidate.
One person, one vote. There is no mystery or magic behind the concept.
Third parties have a difficult path because the two oligarchy-owned parties make it extremely difficult for them to win. Even the Democratic (democracy) Party. Why is that?
It’s rigged. 😉
Lester: It is not necessary to “follow” the Lincoln Group to see the ad. It is being shown widely in the swing states–not in Indiana or other states where the outcome is unlikely to determine the result of the Electoral College.
From HCR blog yesterday she addressed how the press is having a feeding frenzy on Bidens age issue without covering the blatant lies of tfg. Also the press is not emphasizing the devastating rulings of the SC and how those rulings go against the American premise that no one is above the law. Let a crime boss get to be POTUS and see what happens.
HCR also stated that tfg isn’t putting much effort(money) into the ground game like campaign offices in all states. Instead, he’s hiring lawyers in the battleground states to look into voting issues and finding ways to contest the electoral college. So the project 2025 coup goes on and involves members from all levels of Government including SCOTUS. Also, some of 4th estate is resorting to sensationalism; partisan and monetary reasons are involved.
This is a dire cold civil war that needs all Americans against the unlawful overthrow of US Government and rescinding of our rights to unite and vote in mass to oust Maga and project 2025.
The elections in France and England could be bellwether indicators for US too,
Sheila – Understood. But, I stand by my personal opinion that “The only items that might affect the “average voter” “if they might be deported and the women’s health issues: .. .”
We also have a problem with this in the short attention spans of folks today. Not sure they will watch past the first 2 minutes or so. Much more effective would be the example I shared earlier today with the $ reductions in veterans’ benefits. The same could be done for other areas…I haven’t read document.
Victor Orban is NOT a peacemaker, Orban is a Putin puppet advocating for a FALSE peace where Ukraine is the only one giving up land, while Russia regroups to invade not only Ukraine, but also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and more countries on his long wish list. Donʻt be fooled. Putin and Russia have no intention of honoring any new treaties, evidence of which can be seen by looking at all the old treaties they have trampled over in the past.
Yes, Peggy, we need a Blue Tsunami!
Complacence in the safety of the system of “checks and balances” and “no one is above the law” was rooted in an assumption that nobody would have the gall to challenge or overturn them. The nefarious Project 25 proponents have no true allegiance to the Constitution or to upholding democracy in the form of a republic which has stood for 248 years. Power at all costs is their actual mantra, and if that means destroying what the Founding Fathers build, then they are all for that destruction.
There is no place for faltering or doubt, there is not a luxury of choice in this upcoming election. Everyone who cares about this country and future generations MUST VOTE BLUE for every office, from school boards, to city councils, to state legislators and secretaries of state, to Congress, to the President of the United States.
Typo:
built not build
We all may have missed the larger issue than the Presidential election outcome. There have been four SCOTUS decisions that have already altered our futures in ways full of potential unintended (not not) consequences.
1) Dobbs which re-endowed states with power over women’s choice and those medical professionals trained to deliver services to them, essentially dehumanizing women.
2) Chevron, which will allow complete deregulation of federal financial, health, safety, communications, environmental and trade administrative agencies, to name a few.
3) Snyder, which will now allow the U.S. to join much of the rest of the third world in which citizens understand that paying an official a “gratuity” for services rendered is the only way to deal with officials. Let the lobbyist take note that offering payment after the fact for favorable treatment is now the order of the day.
4)Trump, which places the final authority of what constitutes “official” duties of the executive in the hands of the SCOTUS itself, putting the power to rule into the majority hands of a corrupt and compromised judiciary.
Any or all of these already determined outcomes are already having impacts on our daily lives, likely in ways that we will become more aware of as they eat away at the underpinnings of our laws, infrastructure and healthcare.
It is already happening. Who is the President is just a sideshow. The real power has already passed to the Judiciary and it is corrupt.
We all may have missed the larger issue than the Presidential election outcome. There have been four SCOTUS decisions that have already altered our futures in ways full of potential unintended (or not) consequences.
1) Dobbs which re-endowed states with power over women’s choice and those medical professionals trained to deliver services to them, essentially dehumanizing women.
2) Chevron, which will allow complete deregulation of federal financial, health, safety, communications, environmental and trade administrative agencies, to name a few.
3) Snyder, which will now allow the U.S. to join much of the rest of the third world in which citizens understand that paying an official a “gratuity” for services rendered is the only way to deal with officials. Let the lobbyist take note that offering payment after the fact for favorable treatment is now the order of the day.
4)Trump, which places the final authority of what constitutes “official” duties of the executive in the hands of the SCOTUS itself, putting the power to rule into the majority hands of a corrupt and compromised judiciary.
Any or all of these already determined outcomes are already having impacts on our daily lives, likely in ways that we will become more aware of as they eat away at the underpinnings of our laws, infrastructure and healthcare.
It is already happening. Who is the President is just a sideshow. The real power has already passed to the Judiciary.
At least when it comes to the choices allowed to run for office via the Uniparties….
All that matters is which marionette of the donor-class are you willing to give your vote?
If you’re willing to gamble on a wildcard you’ll vote for Trump.
If you want more of the same authoritarian ineptitude you’ll support Biden.
Both choices are emblematic of an empire in decline.
America…ain’t it great!
1787: Ben Franklin was asked what the Constitutional Convention had created? He replied that it was “a Republic, if you can keep it!”
Well, we have kept it for 237 years, but this fall is going to be our test. Will we succeed in keeping it, or will we fail? I am not happy about being in this situation, but I will vote straight blue in an effort to keep it, and I will do everything in my power to convince others in Indiana about the necessity to do the same.
@JD
You left out the very important recent Supreme Court decision of Grants Pass that allows for the criminalization of the homelessness, but the impact goes well beyond the homeless and jumpstarts Project 2025.
Not to let the City of Grants Pass off the hook, but what really drove this case is funding from private interests. Jon Lonsdal, a tech billionaire, through his agency Cicero Institute, is the most well-known, and he has been campaigning across the nation to develop local ordinances and state legislation to criminalize homelessness. Cicero Institute offers ready made templates for every step of the process. HB1413 was introduced in the 2024 Indiana Legislation using a Cicero Institute template. The National Homeless Law Center has a tracker of Cicero Institute bills and other anti-homeless bills too.
As for Supreme Court decision, most people seem to think this is about local communities “being fed up with the homeless”, and missing the bigger picture of ties to Project 2025 and similar plans. Lonsdal, along with others, has financial interests in “private jails” including overflow jails and legal encampments. So when the homeless are fined for sleeping outdoors in Grants Pass and other places with bans, and the homeless can’t pay their fines, they will be jailed, and Lonsdal will profit for “taking care of the new criminals aka homeless” in his overflow jails and legal encampments. Lonsdal helped set up a Supreme Court win so that he can setup the homeless people to be his future clients. So instead of using his billion(s) to help people, he used his wealth and influence to make even more money at the expense of human suffering. (If you want to read his justification, Cicero Institute filed a friend of the court brief, or you can go to the Cicero Institute website.)
Lonsdal through Ciero Institute also campaigns to take funding away from housing first programs that actually end homelessness by housing people with needed supports, and diverts it to jails and legal encampments through the criminal justice system. Combine this goal with Project 2025 goals of ending funding for the disabled, immigrants, and hard to house; and then there are even more people that will wind up being warehoused in jails/prisons/encampments that bring money to Lonsdal and others like him. (There are others beyond Lonsdal, but they have not been as out in the open about as Lonsdal.)
Also, the outcome of the Supreme Court decision seems to leave the determination of who is arrested and how up to “local communities” for homeless bans and/or sleeping outdoors bans. There is actually a description of sleep paraphernalia in this court case that includes blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, etc. as evidence of an intention of a crime that a person planned to sleep outdoors vs a randomly falling asleep outdoors while taking a lunch break. How it is determined if a person truly broke the anti-sleeping outdoors ordinance seems to be left up to the discretion of those enforcing the ordinance.
It has been pointed out in other articles that I have read about this case, that the City of Grants Pass is a former sundown town. This rule could easily be misused even further to target minorities, immigrants, and anyone deemed undesirable.
Unfortunately this case has been overshadowed by the other major Supreme Court decisions that were all announced within a few days of each other.
Lester – I appreciated your statement above and agree with you….
“There is an old rock song “Make it Real”. That’s what we have to do to get those average voters to understand the potential impact of Project 2025 on their, their children’s and their grandchildren’s lives. It’s hard when the only thing real is grocery, housing, health and gas prices. And doesn’t it sound great when “they” promise and fund you to send your kids to any private school you want?
If the average American has only the intellect of a sixth grade pupil,that is proof the education system in the US has failed.
Todd,
Third party votes in this election will take votes away from Biden, not from tfg, hence delivering the election to him (tfg). That’s what happened to Hilary and also to Al Gore. That’s not what we need right now. I get it that you don’t like Biden, but if tfg is the alternative, perhaps you (and others) might find him preferable to tfg and the loss of our democracy?
Loss of our democracy….
That horse left the barn years ago.
To quote George Carlin; We have a uniparty system bringing forth an illusion of democracy.
Of course,the ruling-class is a big club—And you’re not in it!