Launching the Project 2025 American Fascist Whites Only and Isolationist Dystopia: The American Duce's First Week Back on the Job

 My God! Donald Trump, America's Duce and Felon in Chief has been back in power for nearly a week and he and his MAGA apostates have embarked, at greater warp speed than their program to produce a vaccine for the Coronavirus, on launching this country into a Modern White Christian Nationalist-Science and Historically illiterate- Back to the Rich Whites Only and Isolationist Gilded Age-Project 2025 dystopia that would make George Orwell and Sinclair Lewis wince.

Since Dear Leader's return, he and his team of ultra-right fanatics have moved to:

• Do away with Birthright Citizenship. Fortunately, after receiving a complaint from State Attorney Generals including Arizona's Kris Mayes, a Reagan Appointee Judge in Seattle struck it down for being "blatantly unconstitutional."
• Pardon over 1500 domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol at Dear Leader's behest on January 6, 2021. 
• Pause funding for infrastructure and clean energy projects. 
• Deny members at United States health agencies like the Center for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, and Federal Drug and Food Administration from speaking out on pandemic-related matters like the growing Avian-Bird Flu.
• Start the process to withdraw from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord.
• Start the process of doing away with the Prescription Drug Benefit and taking health insurance away from working and middle-class families enrolled in the Obamacare/Affordable Care Act Marketplaces. 
• Halt works at the Justice Department Civil Rights Division.
• Do away with 60-year-old federal hiring civil rights protections initiated by President Lyndon Johnson. 
• Purge 17 Inspector Generals from cabinet departments.
• Take away the security protections of people like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Dr. Anthony Fauci because Mr. Trump did not like how they opposed him. Biden had no problem keeping up Bolton and Pompeo's security. Pretty sure he knew they did not vote for him. Trump told a reporter that he would not feel responsible if something bad happened to Fauci if he was harmed thanks to him pulling his security. Just plain petty vindictiveness from a petty 78-year-old juvenile.
• Issue discriminatory practices against the LGBTQ Community.
• Float the idea of doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
• Extort concessions on voter ID laws from California leaders in exchange for additional disaster relief.
• Expand avenues to spread misinformation under the guise of promoting the freedom of speech and press. 
• Abandon thousands of Afgan, Ukranian, and South American refugees/asylum seekers after they had filled out all the legal paperwork.
• Declare a border emergency when there is no real emergency right now and transport, for a show at greater expense than usual, the deportation of illegal immigrants on military aircraft instead of cheaper charter flights as has been routinely done every week in the Biden Administration. 
• Rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. 
• Cut off foreign aid, even for health and humanitarian grounds like AIDS prevention to all countries except Egypt and Israel. 
• Do away with anything that promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion including telling the Air Force to remove an educational video of the Tuskegee Airmen. How racist is that? Only in White Nationalist MAGA World would Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion be dirty words.
• Not do one thing to help improve lives or lower costs for everyday Americans or end the war in Ukraine.Instead, they have as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, launched a "Campaign Against America" and a "GOP Tax Scam."

JoJo fromJerz really put it well in the video summary yesterday.

https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1883216638155321795

It is not like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the Democrats, and the Never Trump Republicans did not warn everyone. 

https://twitter.com/ChrisDJackson/status/1883201342564659403

If only the people had learned from history, not succumbed to Trump Amnesia, and listened. More proof that low-income and uneducated people were duped by this charlatan and his apostates.

This meme from Jo JofromJerz is also illustrative. 

https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1883273650608242906

The Middle Class and Working Class Voters who inexplicably gave their vote to Trump, forgetting his past track record and believing the promises of the Liar in Chief, are now getting the hosing of a lifetime. 

So is everyone else and the country. 

This agenda is a threat to the American Experiment and Ideal and must be vigorously opposed at the legislative and public relations levels. 

Democrats have improved their messaging (Contract Against America and GOP Tax Scam are good sound bites) but need to do more to reach out to people and shame Republicans by, as MSNBC's and former Republican National Chair Micheal Steele suggested, offering resolutions and voting measures to get them on the record supporting these back-to-the Rich Whites Only Nineteenth Century policies and also let them "choke on" their own measures by unanimously voting against MAGA immigration and budget legislation. 

Democrats also need to put forth a legislative alternative to the MAGA one so people can see that Democrats are still the party, despite Republican misinformation, that looks out for them.

For the Record, Joe Biden Inherited a Disaster and Will Leave the Country Better Than He Found It

For all the lazy and timid reporters and pundits in this country who do not counter Donald Trump and his MAGA allies when they say they are inheriting a mess, just remember what shape Trump and his minions left the country in four years ago when the 45th President did not have the decency to go to his successor's inauguration.

President Joe Biden inherited a disaster from his predecessor largely due to his mismanagement of the Coronavirus and the economic recession that followed that resulted in compromised supply chains which helped lead to...wait for it...inflation. 

Biden also came into a Capitol days after Trump enabled a Domestic Insurrection at the Nation's Capitol. Oh and if Republicans attempt to justify the pardons Trump will give any of the January 6 domestic terrorists by bringing up Hunter Biden, tell them they are full of it. Comparing the younger Biden's transgressions with people who wanted to stage a coup on the American Constitution is ludicrous. 

In the four years, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris led the Executive Branch:

• A record number of Minority and Women Judicial Appointees to the Bench including the first Black Woman to the United States Supreme Court.
• Close to 17 million jobs were created. In fact, there is no month in the Biden/Harris Administration where there was negative job growth. There was no recession during the Biden/Harris years. 
• Overseeing the end of the Coronavirus Pandemic with the American Rescue Plan which distributed vaccinations, helped fund schools and public safety. 
• A cabinet and White House team where no one has a criminal record and no one was pushed out due to scandal. 
• Major investments in clean energy programs. 
• A Bipartisan Infrastructure program that is delivering results across all parts of the country. 
• Expanding the Obamacare/Affordable Care Act Health Marketplaces.
• Standing up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and expanding N.A.T.O.
• The CHIPs and Science Act is a boon to American Manufacturing.
• Reducing prescription drug prices for seniors. 
• Rising wages.
• Falling inflation.
• Falling illegal border crossings as a result of the President having to take Executive Action after Republicans obstructed bipartisan immigration reform and torpedoed, at Trump's request, a border security deal. 
• Falling crime rates except for Donald Trump's legal issues. 
• The first gun safety legislation in 30 years.
• Increased health care protections for veterans. 
• Record numbers of small business start-ups. 
• The expansion of the Child Tax Credit until Republicans and Joe Manchin took it away.

In virtually all vital metrics, the Biden/Harris Administration will leave the country better off than when they found it. 

His record in many ways is superior to the first terms of Reagan, Bush I Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump when they ran for a second term. 

It is still hard to believe that the American People did not see that. 

Well, now the American People are getting the person who created the disaster Biden inherited. 

If history is any guide, this second Trump term is probably not going to end well in four years. Let us hope for the best while expecting the worst. The team coming in tomorrow is not exactly from the A list. 

Goodbye President Joe Biden. 

We will miss you.

It Appears Speaker Mike Johnson Has Never Heard of the Separation of Powers

 Our long national nightmare is returning.

This week has shown yet again that the Republican Party, after 40 years in the making with increasing levels of subservience to a series of "Dear Leader" Presidents (Reagan, Bush II, and Trump,) has morphed into an authoritarian-plutocratic-white nationalists-alternative reality based-neo fascist political entity.

In 2025, fealty to Donald Trump is the order of the day to MAGA world among Executive Branch Nominees and those supporters walking the halls of Congress. 

Examples of this are the confirmation hearings of Trump's Attorney General and Treasury nominations.

Pam Bondi, Trump's Attorney General nominee, repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 elections and feigned ignorance that F.B.I. Director nominee Kash Patel had an enemies list. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGAIKA_5tJg

Scott Bessent, Mr. Trump's Treasury Nominee, is prioritizing renewing and expanding the 2017 Trump-Republican Plutocratic and Large Corporate Tax Cuts, refuting evidence it had no long term positive effects on the economy and helped (along with Reagan and Bush II Republican trickle down tax cuts,) explode the national debt. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xS-xIPvBLo

He also expressed the need for spending cuts (that would hurt the middle and working class) and opposition to raising the federal minimum wage. 

This social media post from JoJo from Jerz says it all. 

https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1880228842842804238

Finally, there is House Speaker Mike Johnson who earlier in the week, on orders from Trump at Mara Largo, replaced the House Intelligence Chairperson Mike Turner. 

Turner's sin. 

Not bending the knee to Donald Trump and, according to reporting from The Hill, saying that Russian Propaganda had made its way into MAGA-Republican talking points. 

According to reporting by the New York Times, Turner said that Johnson removed him from his post after Trump told him to. 

Mr. Johnson apparently has not heard of separation of powers and checks and balances. But in MAGA world and with his devotion to biblical scripture, Mr. Johnson probably does not think he has to care about such constitutional guard posts. 

This is a gift to America's enemies. 

In the Times reporting, ranking Democratic member on the House Intelligence Committee Jim Himes commented that Turner's removal “sends a shiver down my spine" and “The removal of Chairman Turner makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what’s to come. The Constitution demands that Congress function as a check and balance to the executive branch, not cater to its demands.”

In reporting from the Hill, Himes is reported to have said "The removal of Chairman Turner makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what’s to come,”

Himes last words may be spot on. 

These hearings 

What Are Republicans Doing at Arizona's and the Nation's Capitols? Not Helping People

 The United States Congress went into session on January 3.

The Arizona State Legislature did so on January 13. 

What is the first legislative proposals to come down the pike to help the people in Arizona and across the nation?

Not a whole hell of a lot. 

While measures are debated on the House floor on discriminating against innocent transgender children (How Christian is that? Watch Representatives Yassamin Ansari's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's take down of Republicans on their measure.) and proposals are leaked showing Republicans wanting to enact spending cuts in programs like Medicaid, Health Care Marketplaces, and Food Stamps that will hurt the disadvantaged and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)and all is provisions that helped seniors get discounted prescription drugs and provided for the largest investments in Clean Energy (apparently the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, while railing publicly against the IRA., has been privately asking for funding from that law for his district,)so they could finance the renewal and expansion of the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. 

They also introduced a bill to allow Donald Trump to negotiate with Denmark to obtain Greenland.

The Republican House Conference, filled with mostly white men, wants to also make it harder for pregnant women and new mothers to vote remotely. 

How Christian is that? 

It is definitely the height of male chauvinism. 

From Arizona House Democrats.

In the Arizona House of Representatives, Republicans on the Education Committee, still with their Wild Wild West world view, decided to bring up yet again a bill to arm teachers with firearms in all schools. 

Where are the agenda items to fully fund K-12 schools or reign in fraud and abuse in the Empowerment Scholarship Account Programs?

Nowhere to be seen. 

In the Arizona State Senate, SB1011, a Republicans only sponsored bill that could, according to Senate Democrat Senator Analise Ortiz, under the guise of processing votes faster, put inconveniences and obstacles in the way of people casting ballots, was scheduled to be heard in committee today. 

Nowhere in the proposed legislation are Democratic ideas like expanding early voting and allowing voters to drop off their ballot without signing for it as long as they show valid identification. 

So much for, as Senate President Peterson said just before Governor Katie Hobbs giving her State of the State Address, working to adopt "common sense" measures.

Discrimination against innocent children, cutting spending on social justice programs, paying lip service to Trumps mania to acquire Greenland, being hostile and unaccommodating to pregnant women, having a deaf ear to the need of public school funding and Empowerment Scholarship fraud, and promoting voter suppression. 

In what reality is that an agenda to help the people and make their lives better? 

Short answer. 

It is not.

In His Farewell Address, President Biden Calls on the People to "Keep the Flame and Faith" While Fighting the Coming "Oligarchy of the Tech Industrial Complex"

In his last Oval Office Address as President of the United States, Joe Biden delivered his farewell address, thanking the American People for entrusting him with the American Presidency, calling on them to continue fighting for the American Ideal, ward off the rising Oligarchy of the "Tech Industrial Complex," and to stay engaged and "keep the flame and faith."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlFXvRfBTjg

Echoing President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address, Biden warned Americans of an emerging "oligarchy of extreme wealth, power, and influence that threatens our Democracy and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,"labeling this as the rise of a "tech industrial complex" that is fueled by spewing disinformation while looking to restore a Late Nineteenth Century Gilded Age where yellow journalism thrived, women and minority rights were non existent and the Progressive Era Achievements of the last 115 years were just dreams of muckraking journalists and public servants. 

While also reminding the people of all the achievements of the Biden/Harris Administration (The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, Veterans Health Care Expansion, Seniors receiving lower cost prescription drugs, the largest investment in clean energy legislation, the first gun safety legislation in 30 years, expanded health care markets, and promoting an economic philosophy where everyone gets a fair shot,) the President called for reforms to the American system to strengthen the Republic including:

• 18 year term limits for future Supreme Court Justices. 
• Campaign Finance Reform and the end of Dark Money. 
• Reforming the tax code to end all vestiges of the failed philosophy of Trickle Down Economics. 
• Prohibiting sitting members of Congress to hold and trade stock.
• An amendment taking away immunity from a President for crimes he or she would commit. 
• Safeguarding the emerging A.I. technologies by ensuring the American lead in it. 

In his concluding remarks, the President called the American People to action, saying that America is always about "possibilities" and the fulfillment of "The America of our dreams is always closer than we think and it’s up to us to make our dreams come true.," telling them it is "Your turn to stand guard, stay engaged, keep the flame, and keep the faith" and do today what the agents of Progressivism did to the Robber Barrons a century ago.

In a recent ranking by the nations historians, President Biden ranked in the top third of American Chief Executives. His predecessor and successor was dead last. 

Paying attention to the Biden/Harris Administration's achievements, previous speaking events, and tonights address, it is easy to understand why he is in the top third. 

He will be missed. 

Reacting to the Biden Farewell Address, Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano commented in an official statement:

"Following President Biden addressing the nation for the final time from the Oval Office, we thank him for his lifetime of service and recognize the progress he achieved for Arizonans. The Biden-Harris administration championed historic legislation that brought hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs to Arizona and led the nation out of the health and economic disaster of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2025 and beyond, we will re-elect our incumbent Democrats and Arizona Democrats who will build on this progress, fight against Donald Trump and his corporate inter

Democrats Need to Counter the White-Christian- Nationalist-American Taliban Indoctrination Mission of Turning Points U.S.A.

One of the reasons Donald Trump and Republicans prevailed over Kamala Harris and Democrats in many pivotal Arizona races and in battleground areas across the country was their emphasis on targeting their disinformation narratives toward uninformed-low information voters across non-conventional social media sites.

One of the vehicles for this disinformation narrative is the White-Christian-Nationalist Turning Points USA organization.

A fixture now in Arizona politics, this fringe movement is now becoming greatly normalized in the increasingly MAGA centric Republican Party in Arizona and across the nation.

Its leader Charlie Kirk has seen his influence grow to the point where he joined Donald Trump Jr. on a recent excursion to Greenland and has threatened to use his organizations resources to support MAGA primary challengers to incumbent Republican Senators and House members who steer against the Trump agenda. 

From NPR

They host Mr. Trump and his allies at political events, sponsor conventions like a recent one at the Phoenix Convention Center, are a presence on college campuses where they spread their dogma and attack same sex professors, and are aligning with local Christian private schools, siphoning funding from the Empowerment Scholarship Account private school voucher system to indoctrinate their students towards their cultish world view while also claiming that it is the reality based world is brainwashing everyone else.

Matters of State Strategies Matt Grodsky refers to Turning Point as “ an up and coming local Taliban chapter” on college campuses.

From a historical perspective, their mission sounds eerily like youth organizations founded by totalitarian societies like 1930’s Germany’s Hitler Youth.

Democrats, Progressives, and Centrists cannot let organizations like Turning Points fester and spread their gospels of lies and false narratives to Arizona’s and the nation’s youth.

They need to reinvigorate and create new reality-based youth organizations that build on Democratic and Pragmatic Progressive values to counter Turning Point and entities like them.

Matt Grodsky

In an interview describing the threat Turning Point poses and what people on the center and left have to do to offer Arizona’s and the nation’s youth a fact based and attractive alternative, Matters of State Strategies Matt Grodsky offers his perspective on what needs to be done.

The questions and his responses are below.

In your opinion, what are three reasons Turning Point is a threat to the American electorate?

“They have made far-right extremism and frankly far-right Christian fundamentalism attractive to younger voters. They've made radical conservatism if you even call it conservatism cool. So, I think that's a big one.”

“They are always in constant lock step with MAGA messaging. Something that differentiates the Republican operation versus the Democratic one is we are not always in sync with each other in terms of our message. Whereas I would argue that the MAGA operation knows how to fall in line, and Turning Point definitely follows that approach.”

“The third reason is that they're well-funded. They have just hordes of money that they're utilizing, not just to win big races, but now county races. They did well this past cycle and I'm imagining; they'll be looking to flex that muscle even more in 2026 and we have not come up with a good counter offensive to that.”

Would it be fair to characterize Turning Point as a modern fascist-authoritarian-White-Christian- Nationalist-youth organization? Please explain.

“Yeah. I'll take it a step further. I'll call them your up-and-coming local Taliban chapter on college campuses. They're far-right extremism and they're making extremism normal. They're taking a population of individuals and we're speaking primarily about younger individuals here, that we have to remember as consultants and operatives and members of the media, a lot of these young people don't remember 9/11, and I bring that up because they don't remember the unity that we had in the wake of that tragedy. They don't remember an era of politics where it was normal where we could respect each other, or election cycles before the era of Trump. The current vitriolic state of our politics is all they know and it's normal to them.”

“So, I think that the ground is fertile for that demographic to be pulled into something like this, because it doesn't seem as absurd as it would to other generations and I think that's the risk.”

Would it be fair to think of them as a modern-day Hitler Youth?

“They amplified the Big Lie, supported and sponsored the January 6th insurrection, and have made it very clear that they will support whatever Trump wants. The nature of well-funded extremist groups like this one is that they generally follow a path to violence. We've seen this story throughout history.” 

Do you think Turning Point is using the Arizona ESA Private School Voucher program to funnel funds to their schools and allies in the home school industry to indoctrinate children? Please explain.

“I don't know, factually, if they are doing that. I wouldn't be surprised if they were. It just goes to show that they are not only electing extremists into office, but then they're benefiting from policies that those extremists pass, and you've set up a vicious cycle there. We, as Democrats, have to decide how serious and focused we want to be about breaking that cycle by actually winning elections and combating some of this.”

Turning Point recently hosted a conference at the Phoenix Convention Center. I sent you some links to articles from Arizona Right Watch and AZ Mirror. Based on that and your earlier responses, what are at least three steps Democrats and Progressive activists should take to counter and overtake the Turning Point recruitment and messaging machine.

“I think the easiest fix that we could do locally because Turning Points is based here is for Arizona Democrats to reinvigorate some of the youth pipelines that they've had in the past so operations, like the Young Dems on various college campuses, and find a way to pipeline those guys in so that they're being fed into the various the LD offices, the county offices, and eventually, the state party, and that those individuals are becoming candidates or staff and getting pumped into the ecosystem so that we're building a bench. That needs to start on college campuses because I think our presence is weaker in that regard.”

“I think the other big thing that we have to do is you need an operation that is not branded in traditional Progressive messaging. It needs to be a more centrist- youth-focused operation that inverts the Turning Point messaging and uses it to attract the same base of lower efficacy and lower information young voters that might lean more conservative. They might just be independent and need a reason to not necessarily back the Democratic party, the Democratic brand, but the values that party represents. You need to repackage those values in a more universal approach. I think it would be a mistake to put a gazillion dollars behind an organization that sounds like every other liberal think tank we've got out there. I think it needs to be different, and it needs to sound more centrist and a little bit more down to earth. But I think that's a big step you need to take. The other component is funding. A lot of national groups have their own siloed missions. By contrast, the right has found a way to coalesce and fund things with a long-term goal in mind. Often in collaboration with other super organizations. Democrats have to be more focused and pool resources more effectively. The only reason Turning Point exists is because Charlie Kirk gave a speech, a bunch of big MAGA donors watched him and they wrote him checks. Now you have an organization that's pulling in millions and millions of dollars every year through their various organizations and spending that at our expense and we've got nothing to counteract that. I think it will require some investment and strategy from the donor class as much as it is the operative class.”

Do you see any signs that Democrats have learned that lesson in Arizona and they're moving in that direction?

“I haven't seen any move in that direction. Part of the reason why I'm glad we're talking about it is we need to have that conversation, and it can't be a conversation that starts in 2026. It needed to start about six months ago. I haven’t seen it yet but time will tell.”

Is there anything not covered in the previous questions that you would like the readers to know about how Turning Point is a threat and how Democrats, Progressives, and Centrists can counteract that?

“I think we need to take them seriously. For a while now, they've been the butt of jokes. We all felt pretty confident after 2022. We watched Charlie Kirk have a meltdown on Election Day in 2022 because he realized his people weren't going to turn out to vote because they all shot themselves in the foot with the vote by mail operation.”

“But at the end of the day, he's got a massive amount of money. He's got a very well-funded operation that has now shown that it has the ability to perform and get results.”

“I think the main message is to take it seriously."

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