#An open letter to the U.S. Congress | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

secular-jew · 11 months ago

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I’m a Palestinian American. Here’s Why I Can’t Support the Anti-Israel Protesters. By Elizabeth Gillanders. August 16, 2024

Walking past Union Station in the nation’s capital, I recently was met with a heartbreaking sight. Vandals had defaced the Columbus Memorial Fountain with spray paint, writing the words “Hamas is coming” in big red letters.

Trash and signs discarded by anti-Israel protesters littered the ground. A burnt shopping cart stood off to one side with piles of ash beneath it.

Most depressing, however, were the three bare flag poles that had been robbed of their American flags. Protesters had burned the flags, the only remnant a charred piece of fabric atop another pile of ash.

This was the aftermath of the July 24 “pro-Palestinian” protests in Washington, D.C., organized in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address that day to a joint meeting of Congress.

As an American of Palestinian heritage, some expect me to cheer on these people. They expect me to condemn the U.S., hate Israel, and support Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to wiping out the Jewish state.

But these expectations don’t represent me, nor my family.

I inherit my Palestinian background from my mother’s side of the family; her parents emigrated to America from the Middle East. My grandma was born in Israel and later moved to Ramallah in the West Bank and eventually to Jordan.

After arriving in America in her 20s, my grandma worked hard to become a U.S. citizen. She learned the English language while raising my mother and uncle. She opened a restaurant with my grandpa, lovingly named the Chicken Pantry, in Hamtramck, Michigan. When that business closed, my grandma worked as a real estate agent before eventually retiring in the land of prosperity.

America brought my family prosperity. My grandparents taught my mother to “kiss the ground you walk on” because they knew what a blessing America is.

They passed this lesson on to me.

Although many seem to think that my Palestinian heritage should cause me to align with protests that supposedly are “pro-Palestinian,” it’s precisely because of my heritage that I cannot do that.

Israel went to war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip only after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 and kidnapped about 250 in a rampage of rape, torture, and murder Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

About 10 months later, as pro-Hamas protesters march in this country to “free Palestine,” they call for the death of America. As they burn the American flag, they burn all that my family has worked to achieve.

As the protesters pledge their allegiance to Hamas, they encourage a group that my grandmother wouldn’t hesitate to call a terrorist organization that operates with a strategy of human sacrifice.

Think about it. Why are there no Hamas military bases in the Gaza Strip adjoining Israel? Because the terrorists hide behind their own people.

They dress like noncombatants in Gaza. They establish bunkers in hospitals. They commandeer ambulances for transportation.

These actions are all in direct violation of Article 18 of the Geneva Conventions, the international pacts that set minimum standards during armed conflict for the treatment of civilians, soldiers, and prisoners of war.

One example is Hamas’ use of Gaza’s most important hospital, Al-Shifa. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Hamas uses a bunker under the hospital as a base for military operations. This not only makes the hospital a target, but takes medical resources needed for the sick.

In contrast, the Israel Defense Forces have given civilians in Gaza opportunities to evacuate and warned of impending attacks. No other nation goes this far to protect enemy civilians.

How can I support pro-Hamas demonstrators who wish to end the nation that brought my family so much? How can I back a terrorist group that uses its own people as human shields? How can I hate Israel, when the IDF has worked to keep Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way?

I believe it’s important to point out that, contrary to popular belief, not all Arabs think the same. Some of us do see this conflict differently. And our thoughts and beliefs should not be snuffed out because they go against the “narrative.”

To some, perhaps our stance makes us walking oxymorons. But we are proud ones, nonetheless.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 8, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 09, 2025

Stocks were up early today as traders put their hopes in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s suggestion that the Trump administration was open to negotiations for lowering Trump’s proposed tariffs. But then U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said there would not be exemptions from the tariffs for individual products or companies, and President Donald J. Trump said he was going forward with 104% tariffs on China, effective at 12:01 am on Wednesday.

Markets fell again. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by another 320 points, or 0.8%, a 52-week low. The S&P 500 fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2%.

Rob Copeland, Maureen Farrell, and Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times reported today that over the weekend, Wall Street billionaires tried desperately and unsuccessfully to change Trump’s mind on tariffs. This week they have begun to go public, calling out what they call the “stupidity” of the new measures. These industry leaders, the reporters write, did not expect Trump to place such high tariffs on so many products and are shocked to find themselves outside the corridors of power where the tariff decisions have been made.

Elon Musk is one of the people Trump is ignoring to side with Peter Navarro, his senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro went to prison for refusing to answer a congressional subpoena for information regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Since Musk poured $290 million into getting Trump elected in 2024 and then burst into the news with his “Department of Government Efficiency,” he has seemed to be in control of the administration. But he has stolen the limelight from Trump, and it appears Trump’s patience with him might be wearing thin.

Elizabeth Dwoskin, Faiz Siddiqui, Pranshu Verma, and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post reported today that Musk was among those who worked over the weekend to get Trump to end his new tariffs. When Musk failed to change the president’s mind, he took to social media to attack Navarro personally, saying the trade advisor is “truly a moron,” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.”

Asked about the public fight between two of Trump’s advisors—two of the most powerful men in the world—White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “Boys will be boys.”

Business interests hard hit by the proposed tariffs are less inclined to dismiss the men in the administration as madcap kids. They are certainly not letting Musk shift the blame for the economic crisis off Trump and onto Navarro. The right-wing New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is backed by billionaire Republican donor Charles Koch, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump’s tariffs against China are not permitted under the law. It argues that the president’s claim that he can impose sweeping tariffs by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is misguided. It notes that the Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to levy tariffs.

With Trump’s extraordinary tariffs now threatening the global economy, some of those who once cheered on his dictatorial impulses are now recalling the checks and balances they were previously willing to undermine.

Today the editors of the right-wing National Review urged Congress to take back the power it has ceded to Trump, calling it “preposterous that a single person could enjoy this much power over…the global economy.” They decried the ”raw chaos” of the last week that has made it impossible for any business to plan for the future.

“What has happened since last Thursday is hard to fathom,” they write. “Based on an ever-shifting series of rationales, characterized by an embarrassing methodology, and punctuated with an extraordinary arrogance toward the country’s constitutional order, the Trump administration has alienated our global allies, discombobulated our domestic businesses, decimated our capital markets, and increased the likelihood of serious recession.” While this should worry all Americans, they write, Republicans in particular should remember that in less than two years, they “will be judged in large part on whether the president who shares their brand has done a good job.”

“No free man wants to be at the mercy of a king,” they write.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told the Senate yesterday: “I don’t care if the president is a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t want to live under emergency rule. I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me and have a check and balance on power.”

Adam Cancryn and Myah Ward reported in Politico today that Republican leaders are worried about Trump’s voters abandoning him as prices go up and their savings and jobs disappear. After all, voters elected Trump at least in part because he promised to lower inflation and spur the economy. “It’s a question of what the pain threshold is for the American people and the Republican voters,” one of Trump’s economic advisors told the reporters. “We’ve all lost a lot of money.”

MAGA influencers have begun to talk of the tariffs as a way to make the United States “manly” again, by bringing old-time manufacturing and mining back to the U.S. Writer Rotimi Adeoye today noted MAGA’s glorification of physical labor as a sort of moral purification. Adeoye points out how MAGA performs an identity that fetishizes “rural life, manual labor, and a kind of fake rugged masculinity.” That image—and the tradwife image that complements it—recalls an imagined American past. In reality, the 1960s manufacturing economy MAGA influencers appear to be celebrating depended on high rates of unionization and taxation, and on government investing heavily in infrastructure, including healthcare and education.

Adeoye notes that Trump is marketing the image of a world in which ordinary workers had a shot at prosperity, but his tariffs will not bring that world back.

In a larger sense, Trump’s undermining of the global economy reflects forty years of Republican emphasis on the myth that a true American man is an individual who operates outside the community, needs nothing from the government, and asserts his will by dominating others.

Associated with the American cowboy, that myth became central to the culture of Reagan’s America as a way for Republican politicians to convince voters to support the destruction of federal government programs that benefited them. Over time, those embracing that individualist vision came to dismiss all government policies that promoted social cooperation, whether at home or abroad, replacing that cooperation with the idea that strong men should dominate society, ordering it as they thought best.

The Trump administration has taken that idea to an extreme, gutting the U.S. government and centering power in the president, while also pulling the U.S. out of the web of international organizations that have stabilized the globe since World War II. In place of that cooperation, the Trump administration wants to invest $1 trillion in the military. It is not just exercising dominance over others, it is reveling in that dominance, especially over the migrants it has sent to prison in El Salvador. It has shown films of them being transported in chains and has displayed caged prisoners behind Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was wearing a $50,000 gold Rolex watch.

Now Trump is demonstrating his power over the global economy, rejecting the conviction of past American leaders that true power and prosperity rest in cooperation. Trump has always seen power as a zero-sum game in which for one party to win, others must lose, so he appears incapable of understanding that global trade does not mean the U.S. is getting “ripped off.” Now he appears unconcerned that other countries could work together against the U.S. and seems to assume they will have to do what he says.

We’ll see.

For his part, Trump appears to be enjoying that he is now undoubtedly the center of attention. Asked to make “dinner remarks” at the National Republican Congressional Committee tonight, he spoke for close to two hours. Discussing the tariffs, he delivered a story with the “sir” marker that indicates the story is false: “These countries are calling us up. Kissing my ass,” he told the audience. “They are dying to make a deal. “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir. And then I’ll see some rebel Republican, you know, some guy that wants to grandstand, saying: ‘I think that Congress should take over negotiations.’ Let me tell you: you don’t negotiate like I negotiate.”

Trump also told the audience that "I really think we're helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation, not a bad. It's great. It’s going to be legendary, you watch. Legendary in a positive way, I have to say. It’s gonna be legendary.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Tariffs #trade wars #incompetence #Letters From an American #Heather Cox Richardson #National Republican Congressional Committee #“sir”#American Myth #the cowboy #lone wolf #National Review #AEI #stock market

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todaysdocument · 9 months ago

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Circular Letter from the Woman's Protest Committee on the Statehood Bill

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Petitions and Related Documents That Were Presented, Read, or TabledFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Tabled

WOMAN'S PROTEST COMMITTEE.

[small horizontal line]

"The Status of Woman Marks the Degree of a Nation's Civilization."

OCTOBER 22nd, 1904.

DEAR MADAM:-A bill is now pending in Congress which so vitally affects the interests of women in the great South-

West that we believe you and your organization would like to protest against the injustice therein threatened our sisters.

The bill proposes to unite Oklahoma and Indian Territories into one State under the name of Oklahoma, and to com-

bine New Mexico and Arizona Territories into a State under the name of Arizona. This measure has passed the Lower House

of Congress, has been read twice in the Senate and is now before the Senate Committee on Territories, of which Senator Al-

bert J Beveridge is Chairman, and the following named Senators are also members: William P. Dillingham, Knute Nelson,

Thomas R. Bard, Henry E. Burnham, John Kean, William B. Bate, Thomas M. Patterson, James P. Clarke and Francis G.

Newlands. Now is the time to amend, while the bill is in Committee.

The portion of the bill threatening injustice to the women in the proposed new States is found in Paragraph 5 of Sec-

tions 3 and 21, which would allow these States, when organized, to disfranchise minors, criminals, lunatics, non-residents,

ignoramuses and [italic] women. This part of the bill reads as follows:

"Fifth-That said State shall never enact any law restricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account

"of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, or on account of any other conditions or qualificartions, save

"and except on account of illiteracy, minority, [italic] sex, conviction of felony, mental condition, or residence; pro-

vided, however, that any such restrictions shall be made uniform and applicable alike to all citizens."

There may be other objections to this part of the bill, that Congress gratuitously interferes to forbid negro disfranchise-

ment, or disfranchisement "for any other conditions or qualifications," which latter will prevent disfranchisement for lack of

United States citizenship, a prohibition never before laid on a State. This wording will be interpreted by some as even pro-

hibiting the future enfranchisement of women in these new States. These paragraphs might well be omitted.

But the injustice to women might be averted if only the word "sex" were stricken from the paragraphs. The pioneer

women of the West, who have labored and suffered by their husbands' sides to advance civilization, ought not to be so unjustly

classed with felons, lunatics and children, while their own husbands, equals in other respects, are enfranchised. The Congress

of the United States ought not to set its seal upon the possibility of the perpetual disfranchisement of these women, an un-

merited disgrace and punishment. It is true that in many States women have been tacitly ranked with these defective delin-

quent and dependent classes, but never before has the insult been so open and flagrant, nor has it been in an Act of Congress.

The representative of the United States Government, the Territorial Governor of Arizona, once before interfered in

Arizona legislation to the defeat of women, by vetoing the woman suffrage bill passed by the Legislature of Arizona.

The women of all our great country should now protest against the women of the Southwest being ranked with the

classed justly disfranchised, any other member of which may be effort, behavior, or lapse of time, achieve enfranchisement.

Will you not ask your organization to write to the two Senators from your own State, to Senator Beveridge, the Chair-

man of the Committee on Territories, and to the rest of the Committee, asking each to work for the omission of the word

"sex" from the two paragraphs quoted above, or for the omission of the entire paragraphs.

There is need of haste in this matter and we urge action by your organization at the earliest possible date.

The sending out of this letter is authorized by the following named women, who, as individuals, urge you to take

speedy action:

Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, Honorary President General Federation of Women's Clubs; Miss Susan B. Anthony, Honorary

President National American Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, President National Council of Women;

Mrs. Hannah G. Solomon, President National Council Jewish Women; Rev. Anna H. Shaw, President National American

Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary A. Livermore; Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard; Miss Laura Clay; Miss Margaret Haley,

President National Teachers' Federation; Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, Franchise Superintendent of National Women's Temperance

Union; Mrs. Emily W. Thorndyke, President National Catholic Woman's League; Mrs. Lida P. Robinson, President Arizona

Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, (Dorothy Dix); Mrs. Mary T. Hagar, President National Ladies of

the Grand Army of the Republic; Mrs. Ellen C. Sargent, Honorary President of California Woman's Suffrage Association; Mres.

Mary S. Sperry, President California Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Legal Advisor National

American Woman Suffrage Association; Miss Clara Barton; Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Honorary President International Coun-

cil of Women; Mrs. Elmina Springer, of the Woman's Relief Corps and Eastern Star; Mrs. Florence Kelley; Mrs. Emmy C.

Evald, President National Lutheran Woman's League; Mrs. Frederick Schoff, President National Congress of Mothers; Mrs.

Leonora M. Lake; Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis, Legislative Superintendent of National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and

Mrs. Lilian M. N. Stevens, President National Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Will you notify your local press as to your action, and also notify Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, of Warren, Ohio.

#archivesgov #october 22 #1904 #1900s #women's suffrage #statehood #clara barton #susan b. anthony

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leftshoeuntied · 11 months ago

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Quick lil tf141 x reader scenario but also I haven’t studied the U.S. amendments in however many years so if there are mistakes give me grace hahah

I’ve been thinking about a situation where the reader is home and all of the sudden there is a forceful knock at her front door, and when she opens the door, she is met with four gruff men staring back at her.

“Hello” she says apprehensively eyeing each of men individual “can I help you?”

“This is 32 Spearhead Road, right?” one of the men asks her.

“Yeah” she responds with a nod, still a bit wary of the group of men before.

“Brilliant, thanks love” The same man says leaning down to pick his rucksack back up and begins to push through the slightly ajar door and shoulders by the reader, and the other three men begin to follow his lead into the mudroom and kitchen.

“Bi-huh, excuse me!” the reader exclaims after a moment of shock, turning to follow the men, hot on their heels “what do you think you’re doing?” as the four start to disperse into the house, too casually.

“You said this is 32 Spearhead, no?” the original man pauses, turns to look over to the reader, sliding the rucksack off his shoulder and dropping it onto the tiled floors, “we’re here for the housing”.

“Excuse me? What housing?” The reader exclaims, still shocked at the men who barraged into her home and with growing frustration at their casualness of the situation.

“Temporary military housing” the man says plainly with a nod towards the reader and a raised eyebrow, like she should already know what he is referring to, “Captain John Price” he says stepping closer to the reader and sticking his hand out.

The reader ignores his hand and looks at him with a look frustration and confusion, “I get that you say you’re here for housing, but I have no idea what you mean. I’m not military”.

“I was told you should’ve received prior notice of our arrival” Price drops his outstretched hand. “Something in the post?” he adds after noticing the even more growing confusion on her face.

The reader eyes the pile of mail in the basket in the middle of her kitchen island. She had been meaning to get to the ever-growing pile of mail from the last couple of weeks, but the anxiety of the red stamps stating ‘past due’ and ‘action required’ on a majority of the envelopes kept her from digging through it.

Pulling the basket closer to her, she starts rifling through the envelopes to see one envelope inconspicuously labelled as federal first-class mail from an address in Virginia. When she rips open the envelope, a plain typed letter falls out with the heading of ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ and the CIA’s seal in the top left corner.

As she quickly scans the letter, a few things stand out to her, the ‘ask’ but more like demand that she houses an American ally’s soldiers for an indefinite amount of time, an offer of a weekly stipend for her support, and ending the letter thanking her for doing her part in support of the American military and our allies, that we could not win this war without the support of Patriots like her. She would have scoffed at the last comment if she wasn’t spiraling at the moment.

“No no no, I know my rights” she says pointing to her chest, finally getting her thoughts straight. “The third amendment says I can’t be forced to house any soldiers in my house against my will” the reader argues looking back up from the documents with a furrowed brow, but drops her gaze again, using her finger to scan through the document quickly one more time. “Especially not British soldiers” she mutters.

“Sorry love, I don’t know anything about your laws, I just followed the orders” Price says leaning against the kitchen island, watching as she continues to scan through the document, looking for an out.

______

TLDR: My thoughts are that the US has to formally declare war but during the formal war declaration process, congress slips through a law through that allows the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to override the 3rdamendment (there is some debate on if the U.S. could actually do this, but with the right scenario it could be pushed through only during active war), and with the average American focusing more on the formal declaration of war, the overriding of the 3rd amendment is purposefully missed on the formal announcement to the news from the American government because there would be so much outcry over it.

Is this anything? It’s been banging around my brain for the last week or so, so it’s nice to get it on paper at least hahah but let me know your thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it!

#tf 141 x reader #captain john price #tf 141 #tf141 x you #price x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #gaz x reader #soap x reader #leftie's thoughts

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rjzimmerman · 11 months ago

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Excerpt from this story from Truthout/Floodlight:

The IRA is the Biden Administration’s signature climate law. The historic act is the most aggressive climate policy in U.S. history, rolling out billions in tax breaks and other incentives with the goal of cutting economy-wide carbon emissions 40% by 2030.

Every congressional Republican voted against the bill, arguing it was nothing more than handouts to prop up climate and social justice programs. Some on the extreme right continue to argue that climate change is a hoax. But now some GOP House members who voted against the IRA are urging their leader to consider saving key portions of it.

In fact, it is the red states that overwhelmingly have benefitted from the federal government’s infusion of clean energy money, according to a report released today by, a national nonpartisan group of more than 10,000 business leaders that advocates for a cleaner economy and environment.

Friday marks two years since Biden inked his signature on the IRA. Companies have announced roughly 330 clean energy and vehicle projects since that time, efforts that could create 109,278 jobs and bring in a whopping $126 billion in private investments, if completed, according to the E2 report.

E2’s report breaks down IRA-boosted projects by state, sector and industry as well as by congressional district. It found that “nearly 60% of the announced projects — representing 85% of the investments and 68% of the jobs — are in Republican congressional districts.”

Among the major projects is the South Korea-based solar manufacturer QCells. Last year it announced a $2.5 billion expansion in Dalton, Georgia, spurring more than 2,500 jobs and helping change a town known as the “carpet capital of the world” into a destination for clean energy manufacturing.

Since 2022, the northern third of Nevada has added more than 5,000 jobs from a $6.6 billion investment in projects such as the Rhyolite Ridge and Thacker Pass lithium mines as the state aims toward becoming the lithium capital of the United States.

And in North Carolina, $19.7 billion has been poured into the state, creating 22 clean energy projects and more than 10,000 jobs in solar, recycling, electric vehicle and battery manufacturing. The investments include a $13.9 billion Toyota Motor North America EV/hybrid battery plant slated to open next year.

E2’s report is based on publicly available information, including news releases and formal government announcements. Roughly one-third of the information did not include how much money was being invested or how many jobs a project was expected to create, E2 stated.

In other words, the impact of the IRA is likely broader than the nonprofit’s tally. That bodes well for environmentalists and clean energy advocates.

18 congressional Republicans signed a letter to GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana urging him to be cautious in repealing all or parts of the IRA — something Trump has vowed to do if he is again elected president.

“Energy tax credits have spurred innovation, incentivized investment and created good jobs in many parts of the country — including many districts represented by members of our conference,” the Aug. 6 letter to Johnson said.

The Congress members said they had heard from industry and constituents that clawing back previously issued energy tax credits, especially on projects that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development.

“A full repeal would create a worst-case scenario where we would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return,” the letter states.

#Inflation Reduction Act #climate change #President Biden #renewable energy #employment #capital investment

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ausetkmt · 2 years ago

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Her name was Julia Chinn, and her role in Richard Mentor Johnson’s life caused a furor when the Kentucky Democrat was chosen as Martin Van Buren’s running mate in 1836.

She was born enslaved and remained that way her entire life, even after she became Richard Mentor Johnson’s “bride.”

Johnson, a Kentucky congressman who eventually became the nation’s ninth vice president in 1837, couldn’t legally marry Julia Chinn. Instead the couple exchanged vows at a local church with a wedding celebration organized by the enslaved people at his family’s plantation in Great Crossing, according to Miriam Biskin, who wrote about Chinn decades ago.

Chinn died nearly four years before Johnson took office. But because of controversy over her, Johnson is the only vice president in American history who failed to receive enough electoral votes to be elected. The Senate voted him into office.

The couple’s story is complicated and fraught, historians say. As an enslaved woman, Chinn could not consent to a relationship, and there’s no record of how she regarded him. Though she wrote to Johnson during his lengthy absences from Kentucky, the letters didn’t survive.

Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, who is working on a book about Chinn, wrote about the hurdles in a blog post for the Association of Black Women Historians.

“While doing my research, I was struck by how Julia had been erased from the history books,” wrote Myers, a history professor at Indiana University. “Nobody knew who she was. The truth is that Julia (and Richard) are both victims of legacies of enslavement, interracial sex, and silence around black women’s histories.”

youtube

Johnson’s life is far better documented.

He was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature in 1802 and to Congress in 1806. The folksy, handsome Kentuckian gained a reputation as a champion of the common man.

Back home in Great Crossing, he fathered a child with a local seamstress, but didn’t marry her when his parents objected, according to the biography “The Life and Times of Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky.” Then, in about 1811, Johnson, 31, turned to Chinn, 21, who had been enslaved at Blue Spring Plantation since childhood.

Johnson called Chinn “my bride.” His “great pleasure was to sit by the fireplace and listen to Julia as she played on the pianoforte,” Biskin wrote in her account.

The couple soon had two daughters, Imogene and Adaline. Johnson gave his daughters his last name and openly raised them as his children.

Johnson became a national hero during the War of 1812. At the Battle of the Thames in Canada, he led a horseback attack on the British and their Native American allies. He was shot five times but kept fighting. During the battle, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh was killed.

In 1819, “Colonel Dick” was elected to the U.S. Senate. When he was away in Washington for long periods, he left Chinn in charge of the 2,000-acre plantation and told his White employees that they should “act with the same propriety as if I were home.”

Chinn’s status was unique.

While enslaved women wore simple cotton dresses, Chinn’s wardrobe “included fancy dresses that turned heads when Richard hosted parties,” Christina Snyder wrote in her book “Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers & Slaves in the Age of Jackson.”

In 1825, Chinn and Johnson hosted the Marquis de Lafayette during his return to America.

In the mid-1820s, Johnson opened on his plantation the Choctaw Academy, a federally funded boarding school for Native Americans. He hired a local Baptist minister as director. Chinn ran the academy’s medical ward.

“Julia is as good as one half the physicians, where the complaint is not dangerous,” Johnson wrote in a letter. He paid the academy’s director extra to educate their daughters “for a future as free women.”

Johnson tried to advance his daughters in local society, and both would later marry White men. But when he spoke at a local July Fourth celebration, the Lexington Observer reported, prominent White citizens wouldn’t let Adaline sit with them in the pavilion. Johnson sent his daughter to his carriage, rushed through his speech and then angrily drove away.

When Johnson’s father died, he willed ownership of Chinn to his son. He never freed his common-law wife.

“Whatever power Chinn had was dependent on the will and the whims of a White man who legally owned her,” Snyder wrote.

Then, in 1833, Chinn died of cholera. It’s unclear where she is buried.

Johnson went on to even greater national prominence.

In 1836, President Andrew Jackson backed Vice President Martin Van Buren as his successor. At Jackson’s urging, Van Buren — a fancy dresser who had never fought in war — picked war hero Johnson as his running mate. Nobody knew how the Shawnees’ chief was slain in the War of 1812, but Johnson’s campaign slogan was, “Rumpsey, Dumpsey. Johnson Killed Tecumseh.”

Johnson’s relationship with Chinn became a campaign issue. Southern newspapers denounced him as “the great Amalgamationist.” A mocking cartoon showed a distraught Johnson with a hand over his face bewailing “the scurrilous attacks on the Mother of my Children.”

This political cartoon was a racist attack on Johnson because of his relationship with Julia Chinn. (Library of Congress)

Van Buren won the election, but Johnson’s 147 electoral votes were one short of what he needed to be elected. Virginia’s electors refused to vote for him. It was the only time Congress chose a vice president.

When Van Buren ran for reelection in 1840, Democrats declined to nominate Johnson at their Baltimore convention. It is the only time a party didn’t pick any vice-presidential candidate. The spelling-challenged Jackson warned that Johnson would be a “dead wait” on the ticket.

“Old Dick” still ended up being the leading choice and campaigned around the country wearing his trademark red vest. But Van Buren lost to Johnson’s former commanding officer, Gen. William Henry Harrison.

Johnson never remarried, but he reportedly had sexual relationships with other enslaved women who couldn’t consent to them.

The former vice president won a final election to the Kentucky legislature in 1850, but died a short time later at the age of 70.

His brothers laid claim to his estate at the expense of his surviving daughter, Imogene, who was married to a White man named Daniel Pence.

“At some point in the early twentieth century,” Myers wrote, “perhaps because of heightened fears of racism during the Jim Crow era, members of Imogene Johnson Pence’s line, already living as white people, chose to stop telling their children that they were descended from Richard Mentor Johnson … and his black wife. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that younger Pences, by then already in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, began discovering the truth of their heritage.”

#He Became the Nation’s Ninth Vice President. She Was His Enslaved Wife.#enslaved people #Richard Johnson #Julia Chinn #Youtube

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ivygorgon · 5 months ago

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An open letter to the U.S. Congress

Expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to low-income children!

1,091 so far! Help us get to 2,000 signers!

As House and Senate negotiators finalize a tax package, I strongly urge you to demand that it include expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to low-income children. While this proposal wouldn’t go as far as the last time Congress expanded the CTC in 2021 as a part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, it is a step towards fixing the current CTC, which provides higher benefits to families earning $400,000 per year than to families earning $15,000. There are currently 19 million children who do not receive the full credit (or any credit) because their families do not make enough money. The vast majority of these families have some paid income but are still left out of the full CTC. As reported, the proposed CTC expansion will reach 80% of those currently not getting the full CTC―and lift about 400,000 children above the federal poverty line. This would be an important―albeit incremental and temporary―step to shift tax policies and reduce poverty. When the Child Tax Credit was expanded in 2021, child poverty fell by 46%, lifting 716,000 Black children, 820,000 white children, and 1.2 million Hispanic children out of poverty in just one year―a stunning achievement. When Congress let the expanded CTC expire at the end of 2021, all of the gains made were wiped out. Children out of poverty have better school performance, better health outcomes, and are more mentally and emotionally well-adjusted. Ensuring that the full Child Tax Credit reaches the lowest-income children who need it most will have immeasurable benefits to families and our society for generations to come. As your constituent, I am strongly urging you to expand the Child Tax Credit in upcoming legislation, and to oppose any tax package that does not include a significant CTC expansion targeted to help low-income families―and then work to enact permanent tax policy changes to bring the full credit to all families with low incomes. Thanks!

▶ Created on January 16 by Jess Craven

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posttexasstressdisorder · 1 month ago

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WhatMatters

Your guide to California policy and politics

By Lynn La

June 12, 2025

Presented by Child Care Providers UNITED, Californians for Energy Independence, Dairy Cares and First 5 LA

Good morning, California.

Here’s where $4.4 billion in mental health spending is going

A person walks by a homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters/CatchLight Local

In March 2024, voters narrowly passed Proposition 1 — a mental health measure championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that included a $6.4 billion bond to pay for the creation of housing and treatment facilities.

More than a year later, how has the money been spent?

As CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall and Jocelyn Wiener explain, $4.4 billion of the bond money is earmarked for mental health and addiction treatment beds. The rest is for housing and support services for patients with mental illness or substance use disorders.

Last month the state released $3.3 billion to fund 124 projects across 42 counties, which should fund more than 5,000 treatment beds and 21,800 outpatient treatment slots, according to Newsom’s office. That’s about 74% of the beds and 82% of the outpatient slots the bond first pledged to fund.

Big counties received a large portion of the money — Los Angeles County got nearly $1 billion for 35 projects — but some rural counties, which are in the most need of mental health resources, also received grants. Fresno County, for example, won grants for four projects, including one that would enable Fresno Community Hospital and Medical Center to add 107 in-patient beds.

Though the money is a boon for health clinics and treatment centers, mental health advocates and county leaders have raised concerns about the speed of which the money is being distributed. California has historically awarded counties that can develop “launch ready” projects, which can be completed on a faster timeline. Prop. 1 is no exception, which could lead to the state bypassing funding for more complex, hard-to-build facilities, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

The application process for $800 million in grants is now open until Oct. 28, which Newsom’s office plans to distribute funds by next spring.

Read more here.

Huntington Beach rejects library review panel

Supporters of restricting library books display titles they want removed from the children’s section of the Huntington Beach Central Library during an event at Lake Park in Huntington Beach on May 31, 2025. Photo by Mette Lampcov for CalMatters

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff:

After a combative campaign that devolved into fights about censorship and pornography, voters in Huntington Beach have rejected a committee to review library books for sexual content.

The special election that ended Tuesday pushed the Orange County community into the center of a national battle over free speech, parental rights and what material is available to children in public libraries. It also tested the power of an ascendant political movement led by the self-proclaimed “MAGA-nificent” city council, which in recent years has turned Huntington Beach into the bulwark of conservative resistance to California’s progressive governance.

With more than 50,000 ballots counted on Tuesday night, the campaign to repeal the community review board, created last year by the city council, led with 59% of the vote.

Spencer Hagaman, campaign manager to repeal the review board, in a statement: “We are united in protecting our libraries. No one will take away our freedom to read.”

But the city council’s push to restrict access to books that it considers obscene is likely to continue. Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark was not ready to concede on Wednesday and noted that the election had raised awareness in Huntington Beach about the process for challenging library material.

Van Der Mark: “Our resolve and dedication to protecting our children remains strong. It remains unchanged.”

And lastly: CA’s pension system

Firefighters work to put out a fire in the rubble of a home that burned down on Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters

To assist California public employees, a bill introduced this year would allow newly hired police and firefighters to retire earlier, and increase the cap on how much California pensioners can earn in retirement. But former Gov. Jerry Brown says the proposal would make the state pension system “less secure.” Find out what happened to the bill from CalMatters’ Adam Ashton.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: Newsom has asked the Legislature to fast-track the Delta tunnel project through the budget process, but Democratic legislators — divided roughly along north-south geographic lines — punted the issue instead.

CalMatters contributor Jim Newton: Antonio Villaraigosa, a former speaker of the Assembly and mayor of L.A., is magnetic, resilient and principled — and shouldn’t be underestimated as a candidate for California governor.

Other things worth your time:

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

Why the death of reporter Ruben Salazar 55 years ago resonates with journalists covering LA protests today // CalMatters

Newsom urges Americans to ‘not give in to’ Trump in livecast // Los Angeles Daily News

We published real photos of troops sleeping on a floor in LA. Right-wing critics called them fake // San Francisco Chronicle

Fact-checking Trump and Miller’s claims of a ‘migrant invasion’ in CA // The Washington Post

The White House is delighted with events in LA // The Atlantic

In CA, a biomass company’s expansion raises fears of more fires // Grist

RV encampments are notoriously hard to close. This CA city found something that works // KQED

Amid Trump threats, Santa Clara County will continue funding gender-affirming care with local dollars // The Mercury News

ICE expands immigration raids into CA’s agricultural heartland // Los Angeles Times

Why LA’s food and yard waste is being dumped in the Antelope Valley // Los Angeles Times

See you next time!

Tips, insight or feedback? Email [email protected]. Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here. Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.

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us-cj · 3 months ago

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ATF’s Fast and Furious Seems Colored With Shades of Iran/Contra Scandal

Posted by Bill Conroy - July 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm

Congressional Inquiry Raising Specter of Spooks in the Soup

The acting head of ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) has seemingly blown the cover of both DEA and FBI informant operations in order to spare his own neck and to deflect blame away from a badly flawed operation undertaken by his own agency.

In doing so, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson has also left open the door to the house of mirrors that always comes into play when U.S. interests intersect with foreign affairs.

The operation that has put Melson in the hot seat before Congress is known as Fast and Furious, which was launched in October 2009 as an offshoot of Project Gunrunner — ATF’s larger effort to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico

However, Fast and Furious actually undermined the goal of Project Gunrunner by allowing some 2,000 or more firearms illegally purchased in the U.S. to “walk” (or be smuggled under ATF’s watch) across the border in a supposed effort by the federal law enforcement agency to target the kingpins behind Mexico’s narco-gun-running enterprises, ATF whistleblowers contend.

Two of the guns linked to the Fast and Furious operation allegedly were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was shot to death by Mexican border marauders in Arizona late last year. The whistelblower revelations about Fast and Furious have since sparked Congressional inquiries.

In a letter sent on July 5 to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, two Republican members of Congress from the committees probing Fast and Furious made startling allegations in the wake of what they say was an interview of ATF’s Melson conducted by “both Republican and and Democratic staff.”

The letter was drafted by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform; and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

http://web.archive.org/web/20191221140010/https://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/07/atf-s-fast-and-furious-seems-colored-shades-irancontra-scandal.html

#atf involvement in gunwalking #operation wide receiver #attorney general eric holder operation fast and furious #democrat party #operation fast and furious #pam bondi #accountability #?

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beardedmrbean · 8 months ago

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TD Bank is the 10th-largest bank in the country – but for a while was the No. 1 choice for criminal organizations laundering drug money, according to federal prosecutors.

The bank's $3 billion plea deal shocked the finance world but prompted a U.S. senator to slam the Justice Department for "absurd legal gymnastics" that she says were too soft on executives.

For years, the bank prioritized growing its profits without investing in mandatory precautions to prevent cartels and other organized crime groups from using its systems to launder money, allowing crooks to shuffle $671 million in secretive transfers that should have been flagged and reported to authorities – sometimes with the help of corrupt bank employees, according to the plea agreement.

"By making its services convenient for criminals, TD Bank became one," Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters in October, announcing the bank's guilty plea.

CHINESE MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINALS TEAM UP WITH MEXICAN CARTELS TO MENACE US, OFFICIALS WARN CONGRESS

"TD Bank also became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures, and the first U.S. bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering," he added. "TD Bank chose profits over compliance with the law – a decision that is now costing the bank billions of dollars in penalties."

At the time, he said the investigation was ongoing and warned that more charges could be coming.

An admitted international money launderer in another case, Da Ying Sze, a 45-year-old from New York, bribed bank employees with almost $60,000 in gift cards. He pleaded guilty in his own case to a conspiracy that laundered $653 million on behalf of criminals in the U.S., China and Hong Kong.

Some of it was drug money. And $470 million went through TD Bank, according to federal prosecutors.

For almost a decade – between January 2014 and October 2023 – the bank failed to comply with mandatory anti-money laundering regulations that required it to flag suspicious transactions, according to court documents. Instead of updating their system to keep up with emerging technology, bank officials saved money by leaving an outdated anti-money laundering program in place.

The anti-money laundering program was known to executives and so ineffective that employees joked about it, according to federal prosecutors.

"These failures enabled, among other things, three money laundering networks to launder over $600 million in criminal proceeds through the Bank between 2019 and 2023," federal prosecutors wrote in court documents. "These failures also created vulnerabilities that allowed five Bank store employees to open and maintain accounts for one of the money laundering networks."

OPINION: CHINESE ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS SPIKE BY 7,000%. ONLY CHINA KNOWS WHY

Those five corrupt employees helped criminal organizations launder $39 million to Colombia through nearly 200,000 ATM withdrawals.

Even with the massive corporate fine and an "asset cap" that places a tight restriction on the bank, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., blasted the Justice Department for "legal gymnastics" that let top executives off the hook.

"The way that DOJ structured the plea agreement ensures that TD Bank will not face the full range of penalties that Congress has enacted for banks that engage in criminal money laundering," she wrote in a public letter to Garland.

"These shocking failures enabled three separate money laundering syndicates to launder more than $670 million through the bank between 2019 and 2023," she continued. "The magnitude of the dollar value of these illicit transactions is dwarfed only by the obviousness of the criminal activity."

In all, criminal organizations laundered more than $670 million, according to authorities, and the total fines were set at $3 billion.

Without consequences for the executives, she argued, banks can just write off billion-dollar government fines as a business expense in the future.

The bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The bank's CEO, Bharat Masrani, told The Associated Press that steps were being taken to fix the deficiency and end the corruption after the bank pleaded guilty last month.

"We know what the issues are, we are fixing them," he said. "As we move forward, we’re ensuring that this never happens again, and I’m 100% confident that we get to the other side and emerge even stronger."

To address the money laundering problem, the bank says it began a multi-year security boost that included hiring dozens of new leaders and hundreds of experts on money laundering prevention and fighting financial crime.

#nunyas news

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todaysdocument · 1 year ago

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Presidential Message of Abraham Lincoln, transmitting a letter from James W. Nye, Nevada Territorial Governor

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Presidential MessagesFile Unit: Presidential Messages to the 38th Congress Suggesting Legislation or Submitting Specific Information or Documents

[left corner] S. H. Sonegal [?]

[top center page] 1/2

To the Senate of the United States.

In compliance with the Resolution of the Senate of the 27th instant, requesting information in regard to the condition of affairs in the Territory of Nevada, I transmit a copy of a letter of the 25th of last month addressed to the Secretary of State by James W. Nye, the Governor of that Territory.

Abraham Lincoln

Washington,

29th April, 1864.

[top of page] 1

Governor Nye to Mr Seward

[left margin] Gordon. [right margin] Territory of Nevada

[right margin] Executive Department

[right margin] Carson City, Mar. 25, 1864

Hon. Wm. H Seward

Secretary of State

Washington D.C.

Sir:

This territory since I had the honor last to communicate with you, has been making rapid progress in all things pertaining to moral & material improvement. Churches have been built; schoolhouses erected. In almost every form in the territory, substantial improvements in every brand of industry are made, giving us quite the appearance of an old settled country. Business is becoming thoroughly systemized, & carried on with a rigor I never observed in any other locality. Obstacles that would seem insurmountable in many places, here seem only to quicken the pace & the energies of our people; they fly themselves to their reward with a will absolutely irresistable. Mountains are tunneled; shafts are sunk thousands of feet through solid rock; rivers are turned from their channels; canals are made conducting water for 50 or 60 miles; roads are constructed over our highest mountain peaks with a wonderful facility & rapidity; mines are opened & quartz mills erected as by magic; cities sprung up like the "gourd in the night"; wealth is going out & coming in to the territory with a power of current in its flow, that bears us

[full document and transcription at link]

#archivesgov #April 29 #1864 #19th century #abraham lincoln #nevada #nevada history #us history

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mariacallous · 6 months ago

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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been immobilized in recent days as part of the Trump administration’s tumultuous effort to remake the federal government.

The Trump administration on Monday said it is merging USAID with the State Department, a move that came amid days of turmoil at the agency and statements by tech billionaire and close presidential advisor Elon Musk that the agency was being shut down completely.

Employees have been told to stay out of USAID’s headquarters in Washington, career staffers have been put on leave, contractors have been laid off, and international staffers across the globe have been ordered to return home.

USAID is the U.S. government’s lead humanitarian and development agency, providing assistance to countries worldwide to help address poverty, disease, and other humanitarian crises as well as to promote democracy and other U.S. interests.

Critics of the agency including Musk and President Donald Trump argue that it is rife with fraud and waste and that its expenditures don’t align with U.S. interests. But experts warn that the administration is moving to dismantle an agency that provides essential aid to millions across the globe and serves as a critical source of U.S. soft power, potentially opening the door for adversaries such as China and Russia to gain increased influence as Washington pulls back from the world.

Here’s what you need to know about what’s going on with the agency, why Trump and Musk want to dismantle it, and what’s at stake.

What’s going on at USAID?

A flurry of recent moves has sparked alarm and confusion at USAID, leaving the agency in limbo and with an uncertain future.

It all began with Trump signing an executive order on Inauguration Day freezing all U.S. foreign assistance for 90 days pending review. Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed that with a cable detailing how that order should be carried out, freezing nearly all foreign assistance, with a few carveouts for emergency food programs and military aid to Egypt and Israel.

As the primary agency responsible for providing such assistance, USAID soon came into the administration’s crosshairs. The USAID website went dark on Saturday, the Trump administration closed the agency’s headquarters on Monday, and staffers were told to work from home. Close to 100 career USAID staffers have been placed on leave, and hundreds have reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems.

Two top security officials at USAID were also placed on administrative leave after attempting to prevent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representatives from gaining access to restricted parts of the agency.

USAID “has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States,” the State Department said in a post on X on Monday.

Going forward, Trump has tapped U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the agency’s acting administrator, the statement said. Rubio’s messaging on the agency hasn’t been as absolute as Musk’s, and he’s said that his agenda is not “about ending the programs that USAID does, per se.”

“There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do,” the top U.S. diplomat told reporters in El Salvador.

In a letter to Congress, Rubio said that he had tapped Trump ally Peter Marocco to engage in a “review and potential reorganization of USAID’s activities.” That could entail a “suspension or elimination of programs, projects or activities; closing or suspending missions or post; closing, reorganizing, downsizing, or renaming establishments, organizations, bureaus, centers, or offices; reducing the size of the workforce at such entities and contracting out or privatizing functions or activities performed by federal employees,” he wrote.

However, on Tuesday, a notice was posted on the USAID website stating that as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, “all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.” Direct hires have 30 days to return home, and contracts deemed nonessential will be terminated, the notice added.

As of now, USAID has effectively been shuttered, in practice if not officially.

“What we’ve seen in the last two weeks is a stoppage of almost all foreign aid and U.S. implementing organizations having to send their staff home,” said George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Sustainable Development. “This goes on for a few more weeks and a number of them are going to go belly up.”

Why do Trump and Musk want to dismantle USAID?

Critics say that the agency is wasteful and that its spending doesn’t align with U.S. interests. As head of DOGE—which is not an official government agency—Musk has been one of USAID’s sharpest opponents. He has baselessly decried USAID as a “criminal” organization and said it should “die.”

U.S. foreign aid traditionally garners bipartisan support. Washington has been the world’s biggest foreign aid donor, even as that money represents a relatively tiny fraction of U.S. spending. Foreign assistance—which includes development support, humanitarian assistance, and security funding—accounts for just 1 percent of the entire U.S. federal budget. Around 60 percent of that money is administered by USAID.

USAID was initially established via an executive order signed by then-President John F. Kennedy in 1961 in concert with the Foreign Assistance Act of the same year. Legislation in 1998, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, established USAID as its own agency—separate from the State Department.

But the agency has been a target of conservative critics for years. Lawmakers such as GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky have long characterized USAID, and foreign aid more generally, as wasteful and corrupt. “Abolish USAID and all foreign aid,” Paul said in a recent post on X.

A 2019 review by the USAID inspector general pointed to significant issues with programs funded by the agency falling short of expectations. Along these lines, there are also proponents of U.S. foreign aid, such as Walter Kerr, the executive director of Unlock Aid, who have criticized USAID’s effectiveness and called for reform. But Kerr said the “first priority” at the moment should be “to make sure that we can get life-saving assistance flowing again.”

Musk, the world’s richest person, has gone beyond debating the merits of foreign aid or critiquing the allocation of USAID’s budget. The billionaire has made a series of unfounded and conspiratorial statements about the agency in recent days, including an unsubstantiated claim that USAID “funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people.”

Musk has also stated that USAID is a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.” Similarly, Trump on Sunday said that USAID was being run by “radical lunatics.”

The future of USAID was also a key focus of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy blueprint. Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the initiative on the campaign trail, he has appeared to draw from the plan after taking office.

In a Project 2025 chapter focused on the agency, former USAID Deputy Administrator Max Primorac argued that the Biden administration had “deformed the agency.” Primorac advocated for further tying U.S. foreign aid to U.S. foreign-policy aims, writing that the agency must focus on “countering China’s development challenge” and turn away from the Biden administration’s “radical climate policy.”

“The next conservative Administration should scale back USAID’s global footprint by, at a minimum, returning to the agency’s 2019 pre–COVID-19 pandemic budget level,” the chapter wrote. “It should deradicalize USAID’s programs and structures and build on the conservative reforms instituted by the Trump Administration.”

Primorac did not respond to Foreign Policy’s request for comment.

What’s at stake here?

The Trump administration’s moves against the agency have alarmed former USAID officials and experts, who warn that the president is gutting an agency that provides essential aid to millions worldwide and advances U.S. foreign-policy interests.

If the effort to dismantle USAID continues in the way it appears to be trending, “we would be looking at the removal of a huge and important tool of American global statecraft,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former top USAID official. “This is a key way that the United States does good in the world.”

“The U.S. will lose influence and a lot of people will suffer” if USAID disappears, Konyndyk said, and the country will “look like a ridiculous, ungenerous, and unreliable global actor.” Konyndyk warned that China and Russia will seek to “capitalize on that for their own influence.”

Moscow already appears to be paying close attention. Musk’s efforts against USAID were praised by Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Monday. “Smart move by @elonmusk, trying to plug USAID’s Deep Throat. Let’s hope notorious Deep State doesn’t swallow him whole,” Medvedev said in a post on X.

“Countries are asking whether or not we’re a dependable ally,” Ingram said. “The Chinese don’t do this; the Chinese carry through with their commitments.”

The apparent merger of USAID with the State Department also raises legal questions. Since USAID was established via an act of Congress, Democrats and legal experts say the administration is acting illegally, with Democrats accusing the White House of launching the country into a constitutional crisis.

“Trump/Musk cannot unilaterally close USAID or transfer under State,” Sen. Andy Kim posted on X. “Any action to shut USAID down would need to go through Congress, and we will fight this.”

Even some Republicans have spoken out in support of USAID in the midst of the Trump administration’s efforts against the agency. GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Monday told reporters that he has “felt for a long time that USAID is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China’s effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America in the Western Hemisphere.”

But Wicker also said he was open to seeing an audit of the agency to shed light on the “mismanagement” pointed to by Rubio.

“Many people around the world are dependent on U.S. foreign aid, and that means if people can’t access emergency medicines or food, there will be grave consequences,” Kerr said, adding, “After we resolve this immediate humanitarian crisis we can focus on reform.”

Konyndyk said there’s “a constructive, good-faith conversation that needs to be had about some of the ways that USAID works,” while going on to say that problems at the agency are not going to be solved by “woodchippering” it or merging it into the State Department.

The Trump administration’s evolving effort against USAID leaves the agency with an uncertain future, but it’s likely to face both legislative and legal challenges in the days ahead.

“I don’t think enough is yet being done. But we’re starting to see the system react,” Konyndyk said. “Ultimately, this is going to end up in Congress, in the courts.”

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rjzimmerman · 4 months ago

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From The Revelator:

Editor’s note: This op-ed was written by a group of current and former employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who have asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about retaliation. It was originally published by Environmental Health News and is republished with permission.

The Trump administration is making accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse associated with federal environmental justice programs under the Inflation Reduction Act as justification for firing federal workers and defunding critical environmental programs. But the real waste, fraud, and abuse would be to strip away these funds from the American people.

As current and former employees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who developed and implemented the agency’s environmental justice funding and grant programs, we want to offer our first-hand insights about the efficiency and importance of this work. This is not about defending our paychecks. This is about protecting the health of our communities.

IRA funding is often described as a “once-in-a-generation investment,” putting billions of dollars toward improving the lives of American families in red, blue, and purple states. Working with communities, we’ve been placing these resources directly into their hands, supporting people to better protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land where we live, learn, work, play, and grow — including key protections from natural disasters.

As civil servants, we took an oath to protect and invest in the American public. We are committed to providing effective programs and being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and there are many policies in place to ensure our accountability. But despite our careful planning and oversight, the new administration is halting programs Americans depend on for their health and wellbeing.

We should work together to demand that the Trump administration restore this critical funding back to the people.

The Risks of Losing a Once-in-a-Generation Investment

The Bush administration introduced environmental equity (and justice) programming to the EPA in the 1990s. EPA staff working on environmental justice programs partnered with communities to meet their needs and used rigorous systems to track funds and results.

The Trump administration recently paused many of these environmental justice programs that fund community-led projects like air, water, and soil testing; training and workforce development; construction or cleanup projects; gardens and tree planting; and preparing and responding to natural disasters. Other examples of the EPA’s environmental justice programs include providing safe shelters during and after hurricanes, land cleanups to reduce communities’ exposure to harmful pollutants, and providing water filters to protect residents from lead in drinking water.

This administration has halted funds, claiming “the objectives of the awards are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” In reality, these funds were approved by Congress, and these grants remain in alignment with the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment. Even though there are court orders to unfreeze billions of dollars in federal grants, the Trump administration continues to withhold this critical money from the people who need it most.

We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable to serving the American people, applying the same mandates that we have held our federal workforce and grant recipients to: follow the law, follow the science, and be transparent.

Terminating the EPA’s Environmental Justice Programs Is Hurting Our Communities and the Economy

Some grant recipients who have lost access to EPA funding had already been working for more than a year on projects that must now be paused. Many recipients have hired local employees and made commitments in their communities.

Now that funds are being pulled back, these organizations have had to lay off staff, pause local contracts with private companies and small businesses, and shut down community-driven projects. These attacks will impact the integrity of programs funded by our hard-earned tax dollars and take money away from communities across the country.

By withholding promised funding and terminating existing contracts, the Trump administration is exposing the EPA to increased risks of litigation. Relationships that were built through years of meaningful engagement between communities and the federal government are being jeopardized. Organizations, institutions, and companies will likely shy away from future federal grant or contracting opportunities because no one wants to work with someone who doesn’t pay their bills and backs out on their promises.

It is a waste of taxpayer dollars for the U.S. Government to cancel its agreements with grantees and contractors. It is fraud for the U.S. Government to delay payments for services already received. And it is an abuse of power for the Trump administration to block the IRA laws that were mandated by Congress.

How to Take Action to Restore Funding to the American People

It can feel impossible to keep up with the news right now, but this story touches all of us. We should pay attention to what’s going on in our communities and find ways to stay engaged, like attending town halls to hear about the local impacts of federal policies and making your voice heard.

If you are interested in advocating for the return of federal funding to the American people, we urge you to:

Advocate for funding to be restored in your community. Take part in local town hall and other events in your area to advocate for federal funding to be returned to the people. Make your voice heard and claim your right to clean water, clean air, and a safe environment.

Learn how the EPA’s environmental justice programs are investing in your state, city, or community. View this environmental justice grants map to see where IRA dollars and funding from the EPA’s environmental justice programs were invested.

Learn how federal cuts are impacting your communities. Stay tuned to view a Federal Cuts Tracker Map (we’ll add a link here when it’s live) to read and share stories about how federal cuts are currently impacting your communities.

Share on social media. Share our story or similar news stories on social media with #federalfundingfreeze, #federalcuts, or #truthtopower.

#EPA #trump #environmental activism

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