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Summary:

Radical right-wing groups prepare for a possible Trump comeback in 2025: A coalition of right-wing organizations led by the Heritage Foundation is recruiting and training thousands of Americans to be ready to serve in a potential second term for Donald Trump or a similar candidate.

The goal is to dismantle the federal bureaucracy and the "deep state": The project aims to replace as many as 50,000 federal workers with conservatives who share Trump's vision of reducing the size and scope of the government, by using a controversial executive order that would make it easier to fire civil servants.

Read the Project 2025 handbook’s detailed and a broad agenda for the next president: The nearly 1,000-page "Project 2025" plan—the 2025 Mandate for Leadership handbook—offers a how-to manual for the next administration, with proposals ranging from overhauling the Department of Justice and the Pentagon, to abolishing diversity and inclusion initiatives, to dismantling the EPA and NOAA, to reinstating service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccine. Download your own copy here:

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CPAC speaker asserts the end of democracy and implies a transition to a theocracy.

Avoid the mistakes and resistance of Trump's first term: The organizers claim that they learned from the pitfalls of Trump's first years in office, when he faced difficulties in appointing his Cabinet, implementing his policies, and dealing with the opposition from lawmakers, government workers, and his own appointees.

The project is inspired by Trump, but not limited to him: The project is open to any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat the Democratic POTUS candidate in 2024. The proposals are echoed by other GOP rivals such as Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Project 2025 challenges the constitutional balance of powers and the rule of law: The project advocates for a unitary view of executive power that would allow the president to act alone without congressional oversight or judicial review, and to bypass the Senate confirmation process by installing loyalists in acting roles. This is, in essence, a dictatorship.

Jon Stewart Calls BS on Trump & the GOP's Performative Patriotism

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Since launching in January 2017, Run for Something has recruited nearly 100,000 people across all 50 states to run for state or local office. We provide a safety net for new and exciting progressive leaders — at all stages of their journey — helping them run efficient, strategic, grassroots, driven campaigns while feeling supported throughout the process. Founded in late 2012 by Omar and Rafael Rivero, Occupy Democrats is a political organization and an advocacy journalism news website that provides an online counterbalance to the Republican “Tea Party.” Since then, it has grown into the largest and most active community of Democratic voters in the world and has spearheaded the resistance to President Trump and his radical supporters.

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The 2024 presidential campaigns genuinely offer a distinctive choice in how we view our young country and what we want our futures to look like. Since Reagan, political leaders have encouraged us to think only about ourselves and our current prosperity, asking us, “Are you better off today than you were under the previous administration?”

In this current election, a bigger question must be our focus: What kind of country do you want to live in?

One focused on fear, racism, misogyny, loss of freedoms, and a free-for-all for corporations to pillage our planet? Do we want to live in a country where a small group of people have decided that we don’t deserve the opportunity to live freely? Do we want Project 2025—essentially a replacement for our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and historical judicial decisions—to force us under the rule of one man and his power-hungry sycophants? A leadership that will force Christian Nationalism into our government, our media, our education systems, and our culture, using the fascist playbook as its template?

Or do we want a country rooted in compassionate values like dignity, empathy, equality, and respect? Do we want to live by the democratic ideals that have served our young country so well? Do we want the freedoms we have gained: The right to read what we want, love who we want, control our bodies, be treated equally under the law, vote safely in our elections, and create the kind of caring families and communities we want?

Compassion, empathy, and kindness

Without these values, we devolve into our primal animal instincts, rooted in fear. It is these values that helped slavery become illegal, gave women the right to vote, installed labor and safety laws, inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and embraced the legality of same-sex marriage.

These values must drive solutions for people without housing, mental health access, abundance, childcare, public education, and elder care. Compassion and empathy must be extended to other species—we are all part of a greater ecosystem.

Character

Character matters. We must ensure that our leaders have a moral underpinning that shows up every day in their personal and political actions. I want to know that the values of compassion, empathy, and kindness guide their actions. Honesty is often hard to find in the political industry, but the test is simple: If a candidate regularly shows you who they are through their words and actions, believe them.

Would you tolerate a friend who regularly lies, exaggerates, and distorts reality? A friend who insults and calls you names when your opinion is different? Who cares nothing about your life, values, opportunities, and freedoms? Someone who refers to you as a loser, a basement dweller, and not very smart? Why would you accept a political leader who does?

In October 2023, Republican Senator Mitt Romney said, “Donald Trump represents a failure of character, which is changing, I think in many respects, the psyche of our nation, and the heart of our nation. That’s something which takes a long time, if ever, to repair.”

Brave intelligence

Political leadership demands knowledge about our history and philosophical foundations, as well as a moral understanding of what is right and wrong. More importantly, bravery is required to stand by this intelligence. Who is standing up for all of our citizens? Who is listening to us?

Our political leaders are humans who have flaws and make mistakes. Still, to lead a country whose principles are based on democratic ideals, they must demonstrate their character and moral beliefs. Only one candidate and campaign have shown this, and it’s not Donald Trump, MAGA elites and their sycophants. It's the Harris-Walz campaign.

For me, my legacy—the long-lasting impact of particular events and actions that took place in a person’s past —will include a vote against a fascist takeover of America. democracy is not perfect, but we will miss it once it’s gone.

Stop Project 2025. Save our democracy and freedom. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

Trump’s solutions: “Drill baby drill,” even though the US is already the world’s largest oil producing nation. Climate change and costly weather-related disasters are real existential threats. Only Democrats will do something about it – there’s no time to waste.

Thanks to Trump’s Supreme Court, women and men are losing their rights to family planning. Democrats are working to preserve the right of access to birth control, in vitro pregnancy assistance, and protecting the choice of if-and-when to have children.

While Republicans distract with culture-war red herrings, the deficit is out of control because Republicans have gifted trillions in tax cuts for the wealthiest people and corporations – now exceeding the inequality of the Gilded Age. Wealth has shifted to those needing it the least, at the expense of the majority of us who need it the most. Democrats will make taxes fairer for the working class, and put more money in the pockets of anyone making less than $400,000 annually, while preserving Social Security and Medicare from cuts by millionaires & billionaires.

Trump says he hired only “the best” staff and advisors, but had the highest staff turnover of any recent President. When they left he vilified many of them as the “worst.” Few if any – including Christian conservative VP Pence – have endorsed him. None were at the Republican convention. Instead several were at  the Democratic Convention and endorsed Kamala – followed by ultra-conservative Republicans who put their country before a Party that has become a cult.

Trump wants to go back to a past filled with anger and retribution. He denigrates veterans, and has no policies; only incoherent blathering about sharks, boats, batteries, and Hannibal Lecter. He’s a delusional narcissist, con-man, convicted felon, and sex offender.

It’s time to leave the weirdo criminals behind. Vote for Democrats and Kamala Harris for President, and secure a future of freedom and prosperity for the middle class.

Mr. Throop expresses the idea that the Republican Party, like most of us, is for safe communities, good schools, and an affordable economy. Certainly sounds like something we all can agree on, right?

On the surface, yes. But let’s pop the hood and take a closer look.

Safe communities: How many of you, like me, avoid crowded places like concert venues, fast food restaurants at busy times, county fairs, big shopping malls, movie theatres, live political rallies? Do you do so because, also like me, you know of people who were victims of or narrowly escaped gun violence in one or more of those venues? Do you worry about sending your kids to school? Do you worry about your healthcare facility being attacked by a violent, potentially deadly pro-lifer? Do you worry about visiting the U.S. Capitol, a State capitol, voting location, or local Council meeting for fear of violence – particularly if anyone (even those with prior records of violence or mental health issues) could be carrying handguns or assault weapons? Do you worry about registering your fellow citizens to vote because you might be threatened by someone carrying a gun, as I was a few years ago at the entrance of a busy public grocery store in The Dalles?

If so, thank your Republican representatives for ensuring that not even the most basic common-sense gun violence laws are enacted to protect your life and the lives of those you love in your very community.

Good schools: See paragraph above. And then add to it the following: How many of you can afford to send your kids to private school – or even home-school them, because you must work outside the home? What if you can no longer count on a free public-school education for your children? And what if your child is required to take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) exam because they received a public-school education, as the authors of Project 2025 are proposing in an effort to give military recruiters access to more candidates, essentially putting those children first in line for the draft (https://bit.ly/3MrojV9 , page 102)? Note that private-school students wouldn’t face a similar requirement, thus implying that going to war as a young adult is mandatory repayment for your childhood education – even though your parents’ taxes and yours too already pay for it. And sure, some of us might not like the books available to our children in the school library, but isn’t that something we can discuss reasonably with our children and with their teachers? Do we need to hound teachers and librarians into quitting because we don’t agree with some ideas, as the Republican Moms for Liberty and other groups believe?

An affordable economy: The actual, verifiable fact is that Trump oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of ANY U.S. president. According to ProPublica, known for its in-depth investigative reporting, “Donald Trump built a national debt so big (even before the pandemic), that it’ll weigh down the economy for years.” (https://bit.ly/47pY77j ) If he’s elected and given a Republican-majority Congress, Trump plans to sign these and more billionaire- and corporate-friendly tax cuts into law, costing the US another $4 trillion (https://ampr.gs/4g4wfcH), minimum, over the next decade. Meanwhile, if Trump implements the 20%-general and 60%-for-China import tariffs he’s now proposing (up from his original 10% earlier this year), the rest of us will see our expenses driven up by at least $2,600 per year according to one economic think tank (https://bit.ly/3TdSV09) – not counting the tax-cut induced deficit expense we’ll eventually pay for through more taxes on the non-millionaire/billionaire/corporate classes.

Mr. Throop doesn’t even touch on all the other issues today’s Republican Party supports: Hiding our country’s history of slavery, oppression of Native Americans and other ethnic groups, and lack of rights for women and children; gutting our Voter Rights Act to make it harder for Americans to vote; making the President a king per the Supreme Court’s recent disastrous Trump v. United States decision; cozying up to Putin and Orban and other dictators worldwide; abandoning NATO; turning our backs on ALL immigrants, including those Dreamers who were born in the U.S. or brought here as very young children, or those who are spouses of US citizens – even as data shows recent immigration has shrunk the federal deficit and will contribute to a $7 trillion increase in GDP and $1 trillion in additional government revenue over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, February 2024 (https://bit.ly/4gb7yeL and https://bit.ly/4dQ8Z0E).

I agree with Luke Throop when he says, “It’s worth taking a fresh look.” But I would add that it’s worth taking a fresh look BEYOND your usual sources, whether Fox News or MSNBC. Dig in and learn all you can about the parties’ perspectives and policy proposals from primary sources: For example, check out Project 2025 (https://bit.ly/3MrojV9) and the 2024 Democratic Platform https://bit.ly/4dIW6oJ ).

Then, take action as an informed citizen voter. Stop Project 2025. Save our democracy and freedom. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

In a recent Goldendale Sentinel news article, it’s stated the Goldendale homeschooling community objects to and wants to regulate books it deems inappropriate for young children at the Goldendale Library. An “anonymous resident” made a study of how infrequently “objectionable” LGBTQ content is checked out, and claimed they contain “explicit content not fit for children to be reading,” which appears to refer to any relationship that isn’t heterosexual. The argument seemingly is that lack of demand should result in lack of availability.

This simply is a not-so-clever version of censorship and book-banning.

As a knowledgeable parochial school graduate who actually believes in human rights, I too have concerns about books with content not fit for children to be reading.

The most prominent of these books is the Bible. It contains countless atrocities, including fratricide, infanticide, child abuse, child marriage, murder by stoning, torture, the rape of women, promoting slavery, dismemberment, mass murder and genocide – all sanctioned by God. In the great flood an angry God killed every single human being – including countless unborn fetuses – save one family and a few land-based animals. I guess sea creatures were OK.

But while it is deeply disturbing, I do not object to children knowing the reality of such morally and ethically bankrupt religious perspectives, and also demonstrating where conservative religious cults want to cherry-pick the stories and morals they wish to promote.

Will religious conservatives advocate removing the Bible from public library access for children, and protect unsuspecting motel guests?

Only when a non-existent hell freezes over.

Stop Project 2025. Save our democracy and freedom. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

I say this for many reasons, but right now I’ll focus on just one: The Supreme Court. Since the onset of the Roberts Supreme Court in 2005, we have seen the ideological bent of the court move further and further to the right, with this court regularly overturning established, 50- to 100-year precedents, laying the groundwork for power further concentrated in the hands of the fewer and wealthiest and with new opportunities for corruption and authoritarianism to flourish. And while change is often good, with several key rulings, especially those remanding jurisdiction back to the states and the lower federal courts, the Court has only added to the growing divisiveness, litigiousness, inequality, and unrest in our country.

Let me offer examples:

• The Dobbs Decision of 2022, which overturned the Roe v. Wade Decision, a precedent of 50 years. The Court’s 1973 Roe Decision held that the abortion right is part of a right to privacy that springs from the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The Roberts Supreme Court, however, decided that “the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition” and overturned Roe. Since the decision, a patchwork of extremely restrictive abortion laws have sprung up across the nation, with women and girls suffering unwanted, imposed, and life-threatening pregnancies; IVF becoming another target of restrictive legislation—with contraception potentially up next; and the Trump GOP speaking openly of a nationwide abortion ban to be imposed in a second Trump presidency.

• The Chevron Decision, which struck down a 40-year precedent and cut back the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer, ruling that courts should rely on their own interpretation of ambiguous laws. As a result, executive branch agencies will have more difficulty regulating the environment, public health, workplace safety, and other issues that affect the health, safety, and well-being of the American people. And the courts will be flooded with lawsuits, further holding up the government’s work on behalf of the American people.

Each of these Supreme Court decisions has spawned a cascade of consequences over the last 20 years. Perhaps the greatest outcome of these Supreme Court rulings has been to disunite our States of America, with a patchwork of inequitable state laws now in place that erode the rights of our citizens.

Democrats want to use the White House and a necessary congressional majority to rectify the impacts of some of these Supreme Court decisions with laws that will apply across our nation, strengthening our democracy, and supporting most of our citizens.

When it comes to the Supreme Court, this next election is consequential; we are likely to see two conservative justices retire. I believe that if we want to preserve and further restore our democracy, we must vote in Democrats, up and down the ballot in November 2024.

We can agree that our immigration system needs repair, but when a bipartisan group of legislators came up with a strong plan for the border, including increased staffing for processing asylum applications and emergency authority to close the border if crossings reached 4,000 daily over a one week span, Trump told Republicans to vote "no" on it, keeping it a continuing campaign issue.

In conclusion, Project 2025's plan for immigrants is the opposite of humane and thoughtful, and will upend the lives of good people who only want to make life better for their families.

Project 2025

As a retired American who relies on Social Security as a partial source of my income and Medicare for my health insurance, I don’t trust the MAGA political party to protect Social Security (SS), Medicare, and Medicaid.

Despite Trump’s claims since 2016 that he won’t cut SS, each of his proposed budgets included cuts while in office. It’s difficult to predict what Trump would actually do to protect these necessary programs. The MAGA/RNC platform includes a statement about protecting SS and Medicare but excludes Medicaid, a program that serves over 80 million Americans. This exclusion aligns with the Project 2025 goal of eliminating Medicaid.

Despite the looming funding issue, Project 2025 says little about SS but has much to say about Medicare. It proposes that the private insurance option, Medicare Advantage (MA), become the preferred program. Since this option was offered in 1997 as Medicare Part C, there have been many reports of denied medical services, higher out-of-pocket costs, and limited access because of preferred networks. Additionally, the MA insurance companies have overcharged Medicare billions of dollars since their inclusion [464]. Project 2025 calls for eliminating Biden’s regulations designed to curb fraud.

In the last month of his presidency, Trump pardoned multiple convicted health executives who stole billions of dollars from the Medicare program and, in several cases, endangered the health and safety of seniors.

Trump and his MAGA sycophants cannot be trusted to protect the programs that serve almost 150 million Americans.

Stop Project 2025. Save our freedoms. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

Project 2025, pp. 450 Goal#2, 463-469

The test is to determine whether American citizens care enough about our democracy, rights, and freedoms to stop Project 2025 and Christian nationalism.

Here’s investigative reporting on this terrible development in Yakima County: https://bit.ly/3X1qofm

Project 2025 and Christian nationalism are entwined--a complementary union.  Briefly, Christian nationalism is the power grab and Project 2025 is the power conduit.  Christian nationalism has nothing to do with Christianity. “Christian” is in the name apparently to dupe the uninformed. See “What is Christian nationalism?”.

If American citizens fail the test, Trump will be elected, and this union will become a deadly cancer, metastasize fast, kill our democratic republic and our freedom; and thus usher in an American Dark Age. 

Stop Project 2025. Save our democracy and freedom. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

With the major events of the 2024 general election and Trump’s dismaying popularity with his grifted, lied-to, and defrauded followers, I'm more upset than ever with the media.

Right-wing Republicans in Congress, including Senator McConnell, have gained substantial traction since 2008, and Project 2025, by extension, has been able to develop unfettered. Why? Because journalists have not been doing their jobs informing Americans about significant political developments and calling-out Republican lies (since 2008).

Ample air and print time is given to Trump, a seditious wannabe dictator, who has been indicted and/or convicted for serious felony crimes. But on Trump’s destructive Project 2025 intentions, corporate media had been almost silent until early July 2024. If elected POTUS, Trump’s intention is to implement the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 (overview) to undermine our democratic republic, disregard the rule of law, bypass, reconstrue, or terminate the U.S. Constitution, gut the EPA and NOAA, and reject climate science, among many other heretical goals.

What on earth is the matter with these so-called journalists? Why are they effectively silent? Do they not see that history is starting to repeat itself? Except this time, it's not Germany and Hitler; it's the U.S.A. and Trump.

Donald Trump rambled and lied for over an hour without any follow up questions or fact-checking [from reporters]. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell’s observations (25 minute video).

The media has yet to turn on the political tsunami-sirens, but they should be turned-on full volume.

At the same time, corporate media fails to report on Biden-Harris administration's many successes (and Harris’ significant contribution thereof), despite congressional and SCOTUS’ right-wing Republican's obstruction. Moreover, the media fails to effectively report the destructive consequences of this long-term obstruction on all of us Americans. But corporate media zealously reports Biden's latest gaffs or protests against him and Harris’ laughs, while saying little about Trump being, in my opinion, a mental cripple and emotionally retarded, if not ill—certainly the media doesn’t question whether Trump is qualified to be POTUS.

The political tsunami-sirens are off, but the corporate media is making a lot of noise about American politics that are essentially inconsequential.

Stop Project 2025. Save our freedoms. Vote for Harris-Walz and Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

Unfortunately, in our political system, not all people are heard or represented, let alone on an equal basis. Rural Americans, who make up about 20% of the population, face many challenges and barriers to access and influence in our democracy.

Republican gerrymandering has diverted voters from diverse Democratic districts into largely rural districts where Republicans have a huge advantage. This is made worse by Democratic election funds, PACs, and political donations that have been increasingly diverted to battleground states and metropolitan candidates. This has created a dearth of Democratic information directed to rural populations—a void that has been filled by right-wing media outlets, such as Fox News and Newsmax. These rural citizens have been disinformed, often lied to, about Democrats by these right-wing media outlets since 2012. And they are now, in 2024, especially vulneable to Project 2025 propaganda!

For example, 80% of rural central Washington has not heard positive Democratic messages, but routinely hears a steady stream of right-wing disinformation—and rural communities have suffered the consequences.

If this trend continues, Democrat-dense urban centers will not be enough to achieve a Democratic majority in the Electoral College, as we learned in 2016.

Consequently, confidence in Democrats to serve the needs of rural communities declined. This has led to Republican majorities in crucial local positions, impacting groups like native Americans, Latino, LGBTQ+, Asian, and African Americans.

We must regain rural voter confidence in Democratic agendas by displacing right-wing disinformation with truthful, educational, and relevant information about how Democrats serve rural America.  For over fifteen years, Republicans have been effectively convincing Americans to vote against their own best interests. We must persuade rural voters to vote for their own best interests, and vote for Democrats.

That's why Democrats need your help. When you’re deciding to donate to local, state, and national Democratic campaigns, consider reserving some of your donation funds for rural candidates. You can help empower and amplify the voices of rural Americans who are often left out and left behind.

Rural Americans are not a monolithic group. They have diverse backgrounds, identities, experiences, and opinions (see Summary of under References below). However, they also share some common challenges and barriers that affect their quality of life and their participation in our democracy.

Some of these challenges and barriers include:

• Lack of access to quality health care, education, broadband, transportation, and other essential services and infrastructure.

• Higher rates of poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and economic insecurity.

• Lower levels of civic engagement, social capital, and political representation.

• Greater exposure to environmental hazards, climate change impacts, and natural disasters.

• More vulnerability to the effects of globalization, automation, and trade policies that favor urban and suburban areas.

• Less media attention, public awareness, and policy responsiveness to their needs and concerns.

• These challenges and barriers not only affect the well-being and dignity of rural Americans (20% of U.S. population), but also undermine the health and vitality of our democracy. When rural Americans are marginalized and excluded, our democracy becomes less diverse, less inclusive, and less representative.

By reserving some of your donation funds for rural candidates, you can help create a more inclusive and representative democracy that benefits everyone. And supporting rural democrats is good strategy:

• By investing in rural candidates and campaigns, you can help expand the democratic map, flip more seats, and win more elections at all levels of government.

• Expanding the democratic base, coalition, and electorate to include more rural voters who share democratic values and priorities.

• Electing more rural democrats who can bring their perspectives, experiences, and expertise to the policymaking process and advocate for the needs and interests of rural communities.

• Building more trust, dialogue, and collaboration between urban and rural democrats who can work together to find common ground and solutions to the challenges facing our country.

• Strengthening our democracy by ensuring that all Americans, regardless of where we live, have a voice and a vote in our political system.

Our democracy is only as strong as the people who participate in it. We need your help to make sure that rural Americans are not left out or left behind in our political system.

By donating to local, state, and national democratic campaigns, and reserving some of your donation funds for rural candidates, you can help make a difference in the lives of rural Americans and the future of our democracy.

References

The Democrats’ Rural Problem, Washington Monthly, July 2022

What Democrats Don’t Understand About Rural America, NY Times, May, 2022

Healthcare Access in Rural Communities, RHIhub, January, 2024

The Electoral College and the Rural-Urban Divide, Aspen Institute, February, 2021

These maps show how Republicans are blatantly rigging elections, The Guardian, Nov. 2021

Rural voters continue to evade Democrats, NBC News, November 2023

Democrats losing in rural America because ‘we are very bad at messaging,’ says Sen. Jon Tester, NBC News, December 2022

6 charts that illustrate the divide between rural and urban America, PBS, March 2017

Summary of, “Joke’s on them: how Democrats gave up on rural America”, The Guardian, February 2022

The main argument of the article: Rural America is not a monolithic entity, but a complex and diverse place with its own class structure, political culture, and economic challenges. The Democratic party has failed to address rural political culture and economic needs. Republicans pander to rural voters with fabricated authenticity, with false displays of rural credentials—and win.

The history of rural economic decline and consolidation: How rural America has suffered from market consolidation, corporate domination, and government policies that favored large-scale agribusiness over small farmers and ranchers.

The rise of rural conservatism and resentment: How rural America has developed a conservative political identity that is shaped by a sense of loss, nostalgia, and opposition to urban elites and cultural change.

The failure of the Democratic party to appeal to rural voters: The Democratic party is criticized for neglecting the internal class structure of rural America, pandering to rural stereotypes, and failing to offer bold economic policies that could address rural grievances.

The possibility of change and opportunity in rural America: Rural America is not hopeless or homogeneous, but rather has potential for change and opportunity, as evidenced by the recent labor strikes, the diversity of rural communities, and the people working to improve their local conditions.

The proposal suggests drastic policy changes aimed at nearly eliminating abortions, including recommending that the FDA remove abortion medications, such as Mifepristone, from the market. It also proposes limiting the use of Mifepristone to seven weeks, often before a woman is aware of her pregnancy, and enforcing the Comstock Act to prohibit the mailing of these drugs and certain contraceptives, potentially criminalizing such actions.[1] Under these proposals, women experiencing medical emergencies could be denied access to these lifesaving medications, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

The project advocates for the protection of life from conception, proposing a national ban on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and several forms of effective contraception.[2]

Voters should be aware that a future administration led by President Trump and Vice President Vance would likely implement the policies detailed in Project 2025. Your vote matters.

Project 2025: https://bit.ly/4fguwk3,

1. p. 562

2. pp. 450, 458-459

In concert with the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, the Klickitat Democrats (a county in WA) initiated a "letters to the editor" (LTE) campaign. Our focus is to provide factual information about the many major successes of the Biden Administration; Trump’s outright lies, grifts, and criminal convictions; and the consequences of Project 2025 sedition, which Trump fully supports. The urgent metamessage is, “Save our democracy” by voting for Democrats, state and federal, up and down ballot.

Newspapers, even online, tend to limit LTEs to 200-350 words.  Our challenge—which we are meeting—is to produce substantive LTEs that are the written equivalent of easily understood “sound bites” and highlight one issue per LTE.

The problem is that our reach is probably no more than 10,000 to 30,000 readers per month.  This is a small, insignificant drop compared to ~180 Million registered voters who all need to be informed about these topics.

Please check this site out and distribute links to it: https://www.stop-project-2025.info/ (it's free!)

Especially these Project 2025 related links:

What is Project 2025? https://bit.ly/4bAZKjK

True Intentions: https://bit.ly/3Vq7FcD

What is Christian nationalism? https://bit.ly/3RuJIzQ

Project 2025--A bold attack on climate action...: https://bit.ly/3z4XEKz

Project 2025 Messaging Survey: https://bit.ly/3z4XJhl

Project 2025--How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism: https://bit.ly/4eoIekf

A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration: https://bit.ly/3Ww8EtZ

In our LTE writer group's experience, relatively few people know about the Project 2025 agenda.  This is an "all hands-on deck" moment in our history, so I believe we need to factually inform as many millions of Americans as possible in a few short months about Project 2025--this is a real threat to our democracy and country.

Please download your own copy of the Project 2025 plan and share it with as many people as you can:

2025 Mandateforleadership Full

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A conservative individual recently asked one of the LTE writers, "How much harm can Trump do in four years?"  Project 2025 is a 950-page detailed response to that question. The brief answer is: Trump supports Project 2025, which is sedition and a power grab—a government take-over plan that emphasizes Trump as dictator, anti-truth, anti-Christianity, anti-science, and predatory corporate profiteering—in all, it’s anti-American. When Trump says he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, he’s lying—his closest advisors are deeply involved with Project 2025! When Trump says he’s trying save democracy, he’s lying—he wants to dismantle our system of government and become a dictator!

We’ve had a long time to prevent what is now an extreme emergency. The first alarm was in 2000, when SCOTUS decided the Bush-Gore election outcome. That alarm became louder and more urgent in 2009. I started to write about the alarming Republican "slow coup” in public forums in ~2010, described in this 2013 Facebook post.  

Now, in 2024, it has a name: “Project 2025” detailed in a ~950-page document titled 2025 Mandate for Leadership. It’s a planned coup that calls for devolving our democratic republic to a dictatorship mixed with Christian nationalism and predatory corporations operating outside the rule of law and civil protections. And it’s no longer “slow”, because it’s almost done.

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For years, right-wing Republicans have been putting pieces in place for a successful coup, while too many unaware Americans have not voted or were duped to vote against their own best interests. Consequently, McConnell and his right-wing minions in Congress are re-elected term after term.

They’ve blocked pertinent legislation since 2009. McConnell stole the SCOTUS seat vacated in February 2016 with Scalia’s death. He blocked Obama’s legitimate nominee for over a year by insisting that the people should decide in an election year. This enabled Trump to nominate Neil Gorsuch. McConnell hypocritically drove Trump’s Amy Coney Barrett nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg just a month before the 2020 election. Trump instigated insurrection, and right-wing Trumpers in Congress have blocked beneficial legislative progress and strengthened seditious efforts.

Moreover, Trump appointed right-wing lackeys to SCOTUS and stacked the lower courts with more of his minions. SCOTUS with its recent Immunity and Chevron rulings has built the legal foundation for Trump’s smooth implementation of Project 2025, if elected.

We have only ONE last defense against the loss of our republic, the rule of law, and rights and protections, such as Social Security and protecting clear air, water, and healthy food:

That ONE last defense is YOU and a strong majority of Americans voting for Democrats up and down the ballot on November 5th, 2024. This is not about partisanship. It’s about saving our way of life, our democracy, and the rule of law under the U.S. Constitution.

There's only one issue on the 2024 ballot: Save our democracy! And that’s in your own best interest! If we fail to do this, then we lose everything else that matters to us as American citizens.

What is Project 2025? https://bit.ly/4bAZKjK

What is Christian nationalism? https://bit.ly/3RuJIzQ

That’s more than enough reason not to elect Trump, but there’s more.

Already a convicted criminal, Trump was found guilty by a jury again! On May 30, 2024, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. These falsifications likely enabled him to win the 2016 election. This led to his disastrous effects on America and 99% of American citizens, including 180,000 needless Covid deaths, weakening national security, undermining our democracy and the rule of law, and causing deep political and xenophobic divisions among Americans.

But this is only the most recent conviction. In 2023, Trump was convicted of 17 felonies, including tax fraud. In the E. Jean Carroll cases, he was convicted of sexual abuse and defamation. On February 16, 2024, Trump was convicted on charges of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Trump must pay more than $550M in penalties for these earlier convictions. The May 30, 2024, conviction will likely result in a much-deserved prison sentence. Trump has been indicted for 57 more felonies in three pending cases. Convictions could lead to more prison sentences.

This adds even more to Trump’s well-documented history of criminal acts, six failed businesses, many personality defects, constant pathological lying, and inability to take personal responsibility for his actions by blaming others for his failures. 

One would think all this would get through to his MAGA sycophant minions and undermine their support. But it doesn’t: Trump is like flypaper. MAGA devotees whiff the stench of Trump’s B.S. and are drawn to him like flies to cow pies and stick to him like flypaper.

Regardless of Biden’s many successes, this undeterred support for Trump, compounded by Biden’s several highly visible mistakes—prematurely lifting border restrictions and too slow to draw a hard line on Netanyahu’s Gazan genocide—places our democracy in jeopardy. 

If Democrats don’t win 2024 elections, federal and state, up and down ballot, we will lose our democracy to a wannabe dictator, theocrats, and predatory corporatists.

What is it going to take to retain and strengthen our republic in 2024? It’s actually quite simple: Americans must vote en masse for Democrats, federal and state, up and down ballot in 2024!

William F. Buckley Jr. was both a Conservative and a Libertarian. He is recognized as one of the most influential people in American conservative politics. He founded the National Review, which was the standard-bearer of American conservatism.

Until 2009, the National Review excluded people, ideas, or groups unworthy of the Conservative label. The Review denounced Ayn Rand, the John Birch Society, racists, white supremacists, and anti-Semites. Conservatism then connoted a reasoned, constructive counter-point to liberalism—working together, America progressed toward establishing a more perfect union.

If elected, Trump’s agenda will be based on The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. Trump and Project 2025 supporters hide under the label "conservative", but they are not Conservatives—they are psychotic radicals spreading irrational fear and paranoia throughout America, often through completely fictional conspiracy theories.  They are just small-minded devotees of a man-child wannabe dictator.

Their goal is to undermine our democracy (sedition) and devolve it from a more perfect union to an unregulated predatory corporatocracy (profit regardless of consequences), with theocratic (racist Christian nationalism) and oligarchic (billionaire class) oversight.  This means you and I will vote in farce elections like in Russia or North Korea. We will lose basic protections under the law, such as clean air, water, and food, regulation of toxic chemicals, Social Security, due process, free speech, free press, and much more.

If William F. Buckley were alive, likely he'd call these radicals anti-Americans, racists, white supremacists, and anti-Semites. He’d probably encourage voting for Democrats (as is Liz Cheney, George Conway, Adam Kinzinger, The Lincoln Project members, and many other legitimate Conservatives).

What will it take to retain our freedoms and strengthen our democracy in 2024? It’s actually quite simple: Americans must vote en masse for Democrats, federal and state, up and down ballot in 2024!

This is not about partisanship. It’s about saving our way of life, our democracy, and the rule of law under the U.S. Constitution.

We got to this point because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and abortion rights. The Alabama Supreme Court cited Dobbs (the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade) 15 times in their decision declaring the unborn as “living persons with rights and interests.”

Since each state now has the ability to take away a women’s right to make her own health care decisions, several have done so. In Alabama, not only does a pregnant woman not have any choices concerning her health and wellbeing, she no longer can seek IVF to expand or start her family. As a consequence, several IVF clinics in Alabama have stopped offering these services.

Let’s be clear, contraception is next. The Republican Party is determined to enact these laws nationwide. Your vote matters.