mark
Common Dreams
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[l] at 4/3/25 3:04pm
Following the Senate confirmation of Mehmet Oz to be the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman issued the following statement:“In confirming Mehmet Oz for the position of Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on health care in America. “In addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump Administration’s dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial health care services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires. “As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz will also seek to further privatize Medicare, increasing the risk that seniors will receive inferior care and further threatening the long-term health of the Medicare program. We already know that privatized Medicare costs taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs.“Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for health care in America under Trump.” Click here to read Public Citizen’s analysis on the impacts of expanding Medicare Advantage.
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[l] at 4/2/25 9:01am
The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will today consider Katharine MacGregor, nominated to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior, MacGregor, who held the same position in the last Trump administration, currently works as a vice president at NextEra Energy. In response to MacGregor’s nomination, Alan Zibel, research director with Public Citizen, issued the following statement: “Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Doug Burgum are plotting to sell off America’s national public lands to their billionaire friends, and Kate MacGregor is the perfect henchwoman. During the first Trump administration, MacGregor became infamous as a conduit for fossil fuel and mining interests to realize their extractive agenda. MacGregor was the key Interior Department contact for energy companies looking for help with regulations and permits—with one fossil fuel trade group executive noting that ‘we’ll call Kate’ was the solution to virtually every problem. “If MacGregor returns to the Trump administration, she will serve Trump, Burgum and Elon Musk’s efforts to sell off public lands, limit public access, and let oil, gas, and mining companies exploit and damage national public lands without any semblance of safeguards. Public lands belong to all Americans, not wealthy corporate executives. The Trump administration’s extreme agenda of selling off and exploiting our nation’s natural areas, while making reckless decisions that threaten public safety, stands to ruin Americans’ summer vacations, increase wildfire risk across the country and enrich wealthy corporate interests.”
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[l] at 4/2/25 8:59am
Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold its confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department, Katharine MacGregor. A review from government watchdog Accountable.US spotlights MacGregor’s record as a passionate ally for big oil and gas interests who served as the industry’s point person at Interior during the first Trump administration. MacGregor’s nomination follows the confirmation of fellow Trump administration parrots of the oil lobby, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.“With Katharine MacGregor’s nomination to Interior, President Trump continues to build a dream team of big oil and gas shills to ravage America’s public lands, while taxpayers and our environment deal with all the fallout,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “It’s all part of the Trump plan to let oil lobbyists write their own rules and seize whatever land they please in the name of maximum profits after they made record high donations to his campaign.”BACKGROUND: During her previous tenure as Deputy Secretary of the Interior, oil industry leaders considered MacGregor such a reliable friend that in a released audio recording, Independent Petroleum Association of America leader Dan Naatz nonchalantly stated “we’ll call Kate” as a solution to a litany of policy goals of the industry. In one glaring case, emails obtained through FOIA show that MacGregor helped expedite a “deficient” application to drill for a specific oil company. Prior to joining the first Trump administration, MacGregor worked to help advance the legislative priorities of the oil industry in the House Natural Resources Committee. At one point, she even said she was “excited” about a bill that would have allowed natural gas pipelines to be built through national parks. Since leaving the Trump administration, MacGregor has worked for NextEra, a diversified energy company with a substantial fossil fuel portfolio.
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[l] at 4/1/25 1:31am
While everything is still awful, it was heartening to see Tesla Takedown's myriad protests and fiery message: "Would've fought the Nazis? Now's your chance." And as the world's richest, dimmest, cheesehead Nazi whines about people being mean to him, their persistence brings solace: Judges, park rangers, fired workers fighting back, Swasticar posters popping up - "Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds" - and wild hacks, from DOGE lists to (eww) videos of the two foot-fetish besties at it on HUD screens. What a time to be alive. On Saturday, Tesla Takedown's Day of Action saw over 500 rallies, at nearly every Tesla showroom in the US - San Jose to Austin to New York - and in over 200 cities worldwide, rippling from Australia and New Zealand across Europe. Each was locally organized and thematically designed, "Smash the Fash" to “Down with Doge,” with great signs: Don't Buy Nazi Cars, Burn A Tesla Save Democracy, Tesla Funds Fascists, Musk the Only Immigrant Taking Away American Jobs, DOGE: Department of Greedy Elon and Honk If You Hate Elon, with its accompanying cacophony. Also their sieg-heiling balloon effigy and to the point chants: "We don't want your Nazi cars/Take a one-way trip to Mars." Add multiple incidents of Tesla burnings, eggings, poopings and beadings - revelers throwing Mardi Gras beads at an unwelcome Cybertruck in their parade - and it becomes clear the rage at Musk for his many, many (unelected) transgressions is growing. Its goal: "To boycott Tesla and hurt him so that he stops hurting us."Despite pie-in-the-sky White House claims DOGE is "very popular" and the regime's flunkies and fawners are "thrilled" with its move-fast-and-break-things carnage, the sound of angry pitchfork-rattling is palpable, and rising. They've lost a flood of lawsuits by advocacy groups and fired workers; judges have repeatedly said their closings and very existence violate the Constitution; GOPers are fleeing angry constituents at town halls; people who've lost jobs for citing the damage being done, aka tracking how many hungry children will die from USAID cuts, are furiously speaking out; and people are realizing when rich fascists slam a "parasite class" - half of them children - to justify their crimes, rich fascists are the biggest parasites of all. When that happens, the parasites inevitably throw vengeful pity-parties for themselves. When DOGE got dealt a series of legal setbacks, Musk yowled we no longer have "real democracy in America" and all these treasonous judges should be impeached. So much for "Heal thyself."Because, "The country is being run by your drunken uncle sitting in his recliner watching (TV) and yelling 'throw the book at ’em!'”, any pushback against illegal acts of autocrats is met with paranoid histrionics like those of Nazi Stephen Miller, who's defended the disappearing of largely innocent migrants by raving, "We were invaded and occupied. Entire towns were subjugated. Our Treasury was in the (sic) plundered...America voted for liberation." Thus have protests against Musk sparked frantic Fox headlines - "Feds on High Alert" - and threats from the regime's DOJ that said protests will be viewed as "domestic terrorism" and "hate crimes," which no Jan. 6 mobsters were charged with. The FBI has formed a task force to investigate “violent activity toward Tesla," and the mad king has vowed to "catch (the) bad guys," calmly musing, "I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences" and "perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador...recently famous for such lovely conditions!”Of course our salesman-in-chief also supported his "first buddy" with a recent White House auto mall, hawking Teslas outside the People's House for "a truly great American" who's "being treated very unfairly" by people "breaking a law (as) Radical Left Lunatics often do (by) trying to illegally and collusively boycott one of the World’s great automakers," even though said cars do randomly explode and have the highest rate of deadly accidents of any brand. Cue tacky burlesque show of fat geezer who can't drive and hates EVs clambering into Tesla and exclaiming, "Wow! Everything's computer!" as slimy bot moronically explains, as to one of his prop children, "It's very simple. It's literally like a golf cart that goes really fast." It's also like a rocket that explodes mid-air in a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," strewing debris into the water. Or like a car that inexplicably bursts into flames, its lithium batteries spewing toxic fumes, while often trapping people inside, sometimes fatally, due to electronic doors that don't work when needed.Alas, as Tesla shares plunge here and abroad - down 76% in Germany, 50% in China, with sad Elmo losing billions - all 46,000 of its hideous, $80,000 Cybertrucks, once lauded as the Fascistmobile of the future, were just recalled after national safety advisors warned it can fall apart while driving due to bad glue making some trim panels detach and fly off, causing "road hazard” for other drivers. This is its 8th recall in two years, including one for sticking pedal pads that could lead to "unintended acceleration." The Cybertruck is already banned in Europe for exterior edges deemed "a pedestrian danger"; here, it's just ceaselessly trashed as a loud rusty "shitbox" with bad suspension that gets stuck in snow. The brazen, inept hubris it represents offers a bleak metaphor, suggests Paul Krugman: "America is now trapped in a burning Tesla." And with large parts of the economy and government "on the verge of self-immolation" and the combined arrogance and ignorance of Musk/Trump, "It’s hard to see how we get out." Swasticar billboard in UK makes a splashScreengrab from TikTokPerhaps, in part, with the help of popular rage. There've been multiple leaks naming alleged DOGE staffers, and an updated list with newly added attorneys to handle growing lawsuits. With protests on the rise, an online searchable map called Dogequest also appeared, documenting the locations of Tesla owners and dealerships and reportedly doxxing DOGE team members with their addresses and phone numbers; the site said it would remove owners' information once they sold their vehicles, but it's evidently since been taken offline. Several leaks have named dubious "wasteful" projects DOGE shut down: millions "doled out" to "push" equity, immigrant justice, indigenous knowledge, a performance of Angels in America in Macedonia? No less outlandishly, last week DOGE (which is still legally not a thing) forcibly laid off almost all employees of the US Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded think tank, because it "has failed to deliver peace." Two former staff just sued to stop a DOGE-r from taking over.Of course, as Jon Stewart notes, these "profit-seeking psycopaths" won't touch the billions in subsidies to the rich, polluting, killing, "where the real money is": Over a billion in hedge-fund loopholes, $3 billion to oil and gas giants, $2 trillion to defence contractors, all while cutting health care, food stamps, hot lunch for kids. And while the mad king plays golf on 9 of 10 weekends, or over a quarter of his time "in office," at a cost of over $26 million. This weekend, he also "won" his own gazillionth tournament and boasted he made a great deal with the Finnish president to buy polar Icebreakers for the U.S. though in fact Biden made the deal last year. And Musk was there, high as a kite, playing with silverware, "in all our faces," having bought a government and hired a horde of clueless teenage incels to break shit and steal data and fire thousands of people "whose lives you’ve turned upside down who now can’t get anyone to answer the phone at Social Security because you’ve pared their staff down to the bone."Of those who still have jobs, many are some pissed to be under the thumb of a rich jerk who demands they report what they did each week while he frolics at Motel-A-Lago. The Alt National Park Service sent shopping lists. Others said they researched why ketamine abusers wear sunglasses inside, reviewed court decisions about DOGE violating the Constitution, began the beguine, visited CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com, became Death Destroyer of Worlds, sent photos of their visit to Las Vegas' Mob Museum, "didn't vote for Elon" each day, listed five foods they couldn't keep down, "was a Lover, Sinner, Joker, Smoker, Midnight Toker," "did not give you up/did not let you down/did not run around/did not make you cry/did not say goodbye," "I get up in the evenin'/And I ain't got nothin' to say/I come home in the mornin/'I go to bed feelin' the same way." "I’m fairly sure I’m going to get fired, which is fine since I don’t work there anyway," one wrote. Another suggested, "Dear Mr. Nazi Musk, You should get a dog instead." The "best example of civil disobedience EVER!" came the day employees were ordered back from remote work to HUD offices, where they found a grotesque, AI video of Trump fervently kissing the two left feet of his First Lady, with text of "Long Live The Real King," playing on a loop on screens throughout the building. Best: Staff couldn't turn it off, so frantically sent people to every floor to unplug TVs. "Bravo, hackers, a grateful nation tips their hats to you," was one response, urging it be shown in Times Square and at all those crappy golf clubs. Another: "They should leave it running for DOGE Bros to come fix it." After freelance journalist Marisa Kabas shared the clip online, Bluesky briefly took it down as "non-consensual explicit material," aka deepfake porn. Kabas wrote to argue it was "to protest a fascist regime, in the public interest and legitimate news"; Bluesky "reevaluated" and put it back up. One comment: "I'm fairly sure whenever this happens in real life it's completely consensual." Regardless, said another, "Bad day to have eyes." — (@) Meanwhile, Mr. Rich Nazi Snowflake with "zero self-awareness" keeps whining. As protests and vandalism reports began rising, he whined, "The goal of the left is to destroy my influence, so they relentlessly push negative propaganda about me like the fake Nazi stuff...They are evil." Also, "My companies are suffering," but definitely not the moms who can't get food stamps for her kids or the cancer patients whose trials abruptly halted or the HIV/ Ebola clinics that had to fold or.....Then he whined about Gov. Tim Walz celebrating Tesla stocks falling into the shithole by calling Walz "a huge jerk." "What an evil thing to do," he screeched on Fox. "What a creep, what a jerk. Like who derives joy from that? Does that sound like a good person to you? I don’t think so." This, from the arbitrer of good personhood. But Minnesota's Mr. Nice Guy walked it back - "I have to be careful about being a smartass" - and offered Musk a deal: He'll stop mocking Tesla's plunging stock "when you take your hands off Social Security." No response.Still, the huge jerk in a cheesehead hat whined on. Heckled at a Wisconsin rally where he'd come to bribe voters to elect a MAGA creep to a vital state Supreme Court seat by giving away two $1 million checks, he charged (Jewish) philanthropist George Soros was "funding" it all - "It was inevitable a few Soros operatives would be in the audience" - like it costs more than a buck or so to make a sign reading, "Fuck South African Apartheid Nazis," this while he's literally, blatantly buying votes. Chutzpah, thy name is. The next day, Ashley St. Clair, one of his baby mamas, sold her Tesla to make up for his "vindictive" cut in child support - "his modus operandi - I'm not the only one cleaning up after his messes" - and video of more protests prompted him to fume online, never mind the left's "puppets and paid foot-soldiers," "It is time to arrest those funding the attacks." We're with the patriot who watched a sneering MAGA thug cruise through the protest in his Cybertruck and declared, "Get this fucking asshole outta here." Musk siel-heil cut-outs at U.K protestImage from U.K. group Overthrow Musk
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[l] at 3/31/25 9:43am
Speaking as individuals, about 1,900 elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (The National Academies) released an open statement to the American people today, a “SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.” The warning comes at a critical time for science and public health, as the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator has been forced out and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to consolidate his control over the department and advance an agenda full of misinformation and lies.Public Citizen Health Research Group Director Dr. Robert Steinbrook issued the following statement:“The nation’s scientific enterprise is being annihilated and the silence of too many of our scientific leaders is only making the ongoing catastrophe worse.“The ‘SOS’ signal from 1,900 scientists must be a wake-up call for our leading scientific and medical organizations to show courage and speak out at this critical moment.“If scientists and scientific and medical organizations will not forcefully speak out in defense of science and public health, who will? There is no alternative.”Additional context on the letter: According to the statement: “The quest for truth—the mission of science—requires that scientists freely explore new questions and report their findings honestly, independent of special interests. The administration is engaging in censorship, destroying this independence. It is using executive orders and financial threats to manipulate which studies are funded or published, how results are reported, and which data and research findings the public can access. The administration is blocking research on topics it finds objectionable, such as climate change, or that yields results it does not like, on topics ranging from vaccine safety to economic trends. A climate of fear has descended on the research community.”Established by Congress in 1863 as a private nongovernmental institution, the mission of the National Academies is to “provide independent, objective advice to inform policy with evidence, spark progress and innovation, and confront challenging issues for the benefit of society.” The organization itself, however, has been silent about the Trump Administration’s attacks on science and public health. The signatories to the letter represent about 23% of the full membership of the National Academies and 41% of the members who were reached by the members’ campaign. Although many of the National Academies’ activities are requested and funded by Congress and federal agencies, the organization does not receive direct federal appropriations.
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[l] at 3/31/25 9:42am
In a review published today in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Open Climate Change, top scientists issued an urgent warning that fossil fuels and the fossil fuel industry are driving interlinked crises that threaten people, wildlife, and a livable future.Today’s review synthesizes the extensive scientific evidence showing that fossil fuels and the fossil fuel industry are fueling not only the climate crisis but also public health harms, environmental injustice, biodiversity loss, and the plastics and agrochemical pollution crises.The review focuses on the United States as the world’s largest oil and gas producer and dominant contributor to these fossil fuel crises. It presents the solutions already available to phase out fossil fuel extraction and use and transition rapidly and fairly to affordable clean, renewable energy and materials across the economy.“The science can’t be any clearer that fossil fuels are killing us,” said Shaye Wolf, Ph.D., climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the report. “Oil, gas and coal will continue to condemn us to more deaths, wildlife extinctions and extreme weather disasters unless we make dirty fossil fuels a thing of the past. Clean, renewable energy is here, it’s affordable, and it will save millions of lives and trillions of dollars once we make it the centerpiece of our economy.”The review highlights that fossil fuels account for about 90% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, heating the climate, acidifying oceans, and fueling unprecedented climate disasters. Air pollution from fossil fuel combustion is responsible for millions of premature deaths worldwide and hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the United States every year. The climate crisis causes additional deaths and physical and mental health harms from escalating climate disasters, disease transmission, food insecurity, and displacement of people.Based on their findings and decades of research, the authors urge governments to immediately stop fossil fuel expansion and phase out existing fossil fuel development to limit the damages from the climate crisis.“Fossil fuel pollution impacts health at every stage of life, with elevated risks for conditions ranging from premature births to childhood leukemia and severe depression,” said co-author David J.X. González, Ph.D., an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “We’ve got to work fast to end fossil fuel operations near our homes, schools and hospitals and trade fossil fuel infrastructure for healthy, clean energy.”While fossil fuels harm everyone, the review details disproportionate harms of fossil fuel extraction, processing and use on communities of color and low-income communities.“Decades of discriminatory policies, such as redlining, have concentrated fossil fuel development in Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor white communities, resulting in devastating consequences,” said Robin Saha, Ph.D., an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Montana. “For far too long, these fenceline communities have been treated as sacrifice zones by greedy, callous industries. The most polluted communities should be prioritized for clean energy investments and removal and cleanup of dirty fossil fuel infrastructure.”Fossil-fuel-induced climate change and pollution are also accelerating extinction risk. Up to one-third of animals and plants could be lost forever in the next 50 years if fossil fuels go unchecked. To protect biodiversity, the review highlights the importance of siting renewable energy infrastructure in the built environment and increasing protections for ecosystems that provide vital carbon storage, among numerous other benefits.The review further shows that the fossil fuel industry is increasing the production of plastics, creating pervasive pollution that contaminates the air, water, soil, food systems, wildlife and human bodies.The review recommends ambitious targets to reduce primary plastics production and plastic chemicals of concern while incentivizing safe and sustainable plastics alternatives and nonplastic substitutes, as well as sustainable agricultural practices to limit fossil-fueled petrochemical pollution from pesticides and fertilizers.The review also discusses a key barrier to transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy: The fossil fuel industry’s decades-long, multibillion-dollar disinformation campaign to conceal the dangers of its products and block policies to phase out fossil fuels.“The fossil fuel industry has spent decades misleading us about the harms of their products and working to prevent meaningful climate action,” said Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University. “Perversely, our governments continue to give out hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to this damaging industry. It is past time that stops.”The 11 coauthors are Shaye Wolf, Ph.D. (Center for Biological Diversity), Robert Bullard, Ph.D. (Texas Southern University), Jonathan J. Buonocore, Ph.D. (Boston University), Nathan Donley, Ph.D. (Center for Biological Diversity),Trisia Farrelly, Ph.D. (Cawthron Institute), John Fleming, Ph.D. (Center for Biological Diversity), David J.X. González, Ph.D. (University of California Berkeley), Naomi Oreskes, Ph.D. (Harvard University), William Ripple, Ph.D. (Oregon State University), Robin Saha, Ph.D. (University of Montana, Missoula), and Mary D. Willis, Ph.D. (Boston University).
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[l] at 3/28/25 10:02am
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (TX-35) issued the below statement following a late-night executive order issued by President Trump attempting to end collective bargaining for federal unions across more than 30 agencies.“With this order, Trump is trying to destroy unions and labor rights as we have known them for 100 years. Trump’s attempt to end federal labor unions is his most dangerous attack on working America so far. We must all rise up to stop this — in the streets and in the halls of Congress — or else Trump will hand over every last one of our rights to the billionaires.”
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[l] at 3/28/25 9:34am
Two new Data for Progress surveys find that Democratic voters are deeply dissatisfied with party leadership and favor a more combative approach to opposing President Donald Trump. When asked to grade the Democratic Party’s response to Trump, 70% of Democratic voters gave the party a C or below, with 21% giving it an F.The surveys, conducted among Democrats and Independents who lean Democratic, find that voters want a party leadership focused on fighting back against Trump and advocating for working-class Americans.A strong majority of Democratic voters (61%) say Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is not doing enough to oppose Trump, and 51% believe he lacks a clear, long-term strategy. After reading about Schumer’s vote in favor of the Republican spending bill, a majority (51%) of Democratic voters believe Senate Democrats should select a new leader, compared to just 34% who think Schumer should remain in his role."Democratic voters are sending a clear message: they want leaders who will fight Trump and put working people first,” said Danielle Deiseroth, Executive Director of Data for Progress. “The base is tired of weak opposition and business-as-usual politics. This level of discontent is unsustainable for a Party looking to build back in the wake of major losses — at a certain point, Democratic leaders will need to show voters that they are taking a stronger stance against Trump, or step aside for someone who will.”Additional key findings:Democratic voters are divided on who they believe leads the party, with 17% naming Vice President Kamala Harris, followed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (15%), former President Barack Obama (15%), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (11%), and "no one" (11%).66% of Democratic voters prefer a Senate leader who will fight harder against Trump and the Republican agenda, while only 14% prioritize bipartisan compromise.By a +44-point margin, Democratic voters support older leaders retiring to make way for the next generation.Democratic voters overwhelmingly support funding programs like health care and housing, even if it increases the deficit (63%-34%), and prioritize fighting for the working class over corporate interests.While Democratic voters strongly support legal challenges (81%), public engagement, and voter registration drives to oppose Trump, they are less supportive of tactics such as interrupting major Republican speeches.Read the full polls here.
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[l] at 3/28/25 9:23am
In response to President Trump’s instruction to government agencies to end collective bargaining rights with federal worker unions, Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser issued the following statement: “Contrary to what Trump, Musk, and even neoliberals claim, a strong civil service is critical to the country. Few innovations have served the public interest more than the government permitting public employees to band together and create the protection of a union against politicians carrying water for America's most rapacious and least moral corporations. And the advent of DOGE makes the protections of a union even more critical to ensuring public servants can work for the broader public and rein in favors for Trump’s elite donors like Musk. It is time for all decent forces to condemn Trump and Musk's unlawful actions and decry the assault on the right of public employees to organize.”
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[l] at 3/28/25 8:46am
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on Elon Musk’s statements during his interview on FOX News last night:“Using comments that tracked those of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Elon Musk repeated the Trump administration’s lies about Social Security. He made the absurd claim that 40 percent of the over 78 million Americans who call Social Security’s 1-800 number every year are ‘fraudsters.’ Like Lutnick, he said that those ‘who scream the loudest’ are ‘the fraudsters.’The truth is that Social Security has a fraud rate of 0.00625 percent, far lower than private sector retirement programs. It is Musk and DOGE who are inviting in fraudsters. Scammers are already rushing in to take advantage of the confusion created by DOGE’s service cuts. No one who thinks Social Security is a criminal Ponzi scheme should be anywhere near our earned Social Security benefits or the sensitive data we provide the Social Security Administration.“
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[l] at 3/27/25 3:30pm
Robert W. McChesney, the eminent media scholar and co-founder of Free Press, died on Tuesday, March 25, in Madison, Wisconsin. Before his retirement, McChesney was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught for two decades. He also taught from 1988 to 1998 at the University of Wisconsin. Among many other honors, he received lifetime-achievement awards from the International Communication Association and the Union for Democratic Communications. McChesney was the author or editor of 27 books, including Rich Media, Poor Democracy; The Problem of the Media; and Digital Disconnect. He co-authored several books with his frequent co-author and close friend John Nichols, including The Death and Life of American Journalism and Dollarocracy. McChesney was the president of Free Press in its early years and served on its board of directors afterward. Free Press President and Co-CEO Craig Aaron said: “Bob McChesney was a brilliant scholar whose ideas and insights reached far beyond the classroom. He opened the eyes of a generation of academics, journalists, politicians and activists — including me — to how media structures and policies shape our broader politics and possibilities.“While McChesney spent much of his career charting the problems of the media and the critical junctures that created our current crises, he believed fundamentally in the public’s ability to solve those problems and build a media system that serves people’s needs and sustains democracy. His ideas were bold and transformative, and he had little patience for tinkering around the edges. Rather than fighting over Washington’s narrow vision of what was possible, he always said — and Bob loved a good sports metaphor — that we needed to throw the puck down to the other end of the ice.“McChesney believed in turning ideas into action — which is why he co-founded Free Press. He believed that people deserve a say in policy decisions that for far too long were made in their name but without their consent. He taught us that the media wasn’t something that just happened to us, but something that we can and must shape and change. We at Free Press remain committed to that work and his vision.“McChesney was a generous mentor and devoted friend to me and so many others who made his cause our life’s work. While I was first moved by his words on the page, what I will remember most is his humor and kindness, his passion for the Cleveland Browns and Boston Celtics, and especially his devotion to his family. We send our deepest condolences to his wife, daughters and many friends. May his memory be a blessing.”
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[l] at 3/27/25 1:00pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) today released the following statement announcing his intention to bring to the Senate floor two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) to block the sale of certain offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel:Next week, I will force Senate votes on two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval I have introduced to block certain offensive arms sales to Israel. These sales, proposed by the Trump Administration, would provide $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government to continue its destruction of Gaza. Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage. No humanitarian aid has entered Gaza in more than three and a half weeks, since Israeli authorities announced a complete blockade – that’s no food, water, medicine, or fuel since the start of March. Blocking humanitarian aid is morally abhorrent and a clear violation of both the Geneva Convention and the Foreign Assistance Act. This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and some $18 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars. Israel has dropped U.S.-provided 2,000-pound bombs into crowded neighborhoods, killing hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants. These actions are immoral and illegal. The latest Trump sales provide almost $8.8 billion more in U.S. bombs and other munitions, including more than 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs. The United States must not continue to supply endless amounts of military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government. It is particularly unconscionable while President Trump and Israeli officials openly talk of forcibly displacing millions of people from Gaza to make way for what Trump calls a “Riviera.” There is a name for such a policy — ethnic cleansing — and it’s a war crime. Hamas started this war with its brutal terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel had a right to respond against Hamas. But Netanyahu’s extremist government has instead waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Out of a population of 2.2 million, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 112,000 have been injured – 60 percent of whom are women, children, and elderly people. In the last week alone, eight aid workers have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total to 399. Israel’s bombardment has damaged or destroyed 92 percent of the housing in Gaza, and devastated the civilian infrastructure and the health care system. Every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed, as have hundreds of schools. Congress must act to block these arms sales.
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[l] at 3/27/25 11:58am
Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s sweeping staff cuts and reorganization at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):“Donald Trump often claims, ‘We love our seniors,’ but today’s drastic cuts at HHS reveal just how empty those words are.“Slashing staff at HHS will do nothing to help Americans live longer, healthier lives. Even worse, dismantling the Administration for Community Living—an agency that provides assistance so seniors can stay in their homes, access medical care, and support essential programs like Meals on Wheels and local senior centers—is short-sighted and harmful to a secure quality of life.“These actions, along with the continued disruption at the Social Security Administration, send a clear and alarming message to older Americans: ‘You’re on your own.’”
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[l] at 3/27/25 10:20am
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on news that the Trump administration is delaying and partly walking back plans to force millions of additional Americans into Social Security field offices:"Americans are rightfully furious about the Trump administration making it harder for them to access their earned Social Security benefits. They are making their voices heard at townhalls and rallies across the country, and calling their members of Congress. Now, they've forced the White House to partly walk back a needless burden.The Trump administration is now delaying plans to needlessly force millions of additional Americans into understaffed, overcrowded field offices for in-person verification. They are also exempting people applying for Medicare, Social Security disability benefits, and Supplemental Security Income from the requirements. This is just a starting point. The damage the Trump administration is doing to Social Security remains immense. The White House needs to roll back all of these senseless burdens, cancel plans to close dozens of field offices, and fully staff the Social Security Administration instead of pushing out thousands of employees. However, even this partial victory shows that when the American people fight for our Social Security, we can win. We are only going to get louder!"
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[l] at 3/26/25 2:41am
Hoo boy. Because only the best people, the new amateur-hour clusterfuck by a regime embodying "an unbelievable cocktail of incompetence and illegality" abetted a catastrophic security leak wherein "national security" officials discussed classified military plans for airstrikes in Yemen on an unsecured messaging app and oops included a journalist. The blank response from our steadfast commander-in-chief, too busy with Greenland, George Clooney and pudgy portraits to know about it: "You're saying they had what?" The news of "one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence in history" by the "but-her-emails" party came from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a piece titled, "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans." (Gift link here). "The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen," it begins. "I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming (because) Pete Hegseth had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing." Goldberg says the backstory began 10 days ago, with a connection request on the open-source app Signal, known for disappearing messages, from Trump National Insecurity adviser "Michael Walz." Given Trump's earlier attacks on Goldberg as "a guy named Goldberg" who runs "a failing magazine" - his crime: calling the famed "suckers and losers" jab chilling and historically illiterate" - Goldberg figured it was a troll seeking to "somehow entrap me." But in the next few days the messages kept coming from top officials' accounts: Vance, Gabbard, Rubio, Hegseth, Nazi Stephen Miller, CIA head John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was evidently in Moscow at the time but def didn't connect his phone to the Kremlin's guest WIFI network, where Signal is easily accessed. The messages ranged from specific plans from Walz - “Team - establishing a principles (sic) group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours" with deputy Alex Wong "pulling together a tiger team" to follow up from "meeting in the Sit Room" - to random Europe-bashing from Drunk Pete to JD: "I fully share your loathing of European free loading. It's PATHETIC." All told, the Military Times says the content revealed "operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing" On March 15, Trump bombed Yemen, citing the Iran-backed terrorist group's attacks on international shipping routes over Israel's genocide in Gaza."Republicans, as everyone knows, are careful stewards of America’s security," notes Jeff Tiedrich, and would never do anything as "clownfuckingly insane" as texting war plans to each other in such detail they even include the weather forecast over a phone app," never mind inadvertently including a journalist in the discussion or, say, "absconding with dozens of boxes of classified documents, lying about having them, refusing to return them, hiding them, bragging about their contents to golf cronies, waving them in the faces of randos, scrawling to-do lists on them (and) then stashing them in the unspeakably ugly shitter of their vermin-infested Florida golf motel." Still, in a mind-blowing miracle of improbable spin, the White House tried to defend the historic, blundering, "final nail in the but-her-emails coffin" by claiming the leak was "a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials" who, added Fox News, "after years of secrecy and incompetence," make us proud "these are the leaders making these decisions in America." A succinct Hillary Clinton: "You have got to be kidding me."The latest evidence the regime is "a clown car driving against traffic on the interstate of leadership" was met with outrage, including among the GOP's own members and even some at the top: "Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing - Mike Waltz is a fucking idiot." The swift consensus: "Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels – and certainly not to those without security clearances. Period.” Also, "Fubar" - "fucked up beyond all recognition” and, "We knew it was amateur hour, but good grief." Much of the rage was aimed at fascist, smirky, erratic, wildly unqualified Pete Hegseth, who's spent his brief reign erasing black, brown and female military history and braying about "accountability"; before that, he liked to critique Biden for handling classified info “flippantly” and blast Hillary - "Hey, this you?" - for not being in jail. VoteVets on Pete: "Gross incompetence." One critic deemed him "an incompetent, xenophobic, reckless, unprofessional, unserious, ignorant, war- mongering moron. What a prick," thus rendering especially surreal the thread's plaudits: "Good job, Pete!" "Powerful start!"Along with past, smug hypocrisies recalled online - Marco in 2016: "Nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton. We're gonna hold people accountable" yada yada - were nods to the fact that no victims of Trump/DOGE incompetence, bigotry and greed, among thousands of "DEI" hires, veterans' caregivers, medical researchers et al fired, ever leaked war plans. On the Cabinet's confederacy of dunces: "Thank goodness they're all White men so we know they didn't really do anything wrong." And there are the crimes. By law, government communications must be archived; use of unsecured Signal, which erases content and proof of its existence, was likely an illegal effort to avoid government channels and the prying eyes of Congress - "a conspiracy of the highest magnitude." The use of Signal also likely violated the Espionage Act, which sets rules for handling national security information - on approved government systems - and makes it a crime to remove such information "from its proper place of custody" (ditto). That's without sending classified information to a journalist without clearance, and then not noticing it.All told, the "epic fuck-up" was blasted as "a stunning breach of security" and "historic mishandling of classified information" that would end any officer's career with criminal charges. Eric Swalwell urged all on the thread be fired: "Their idiocy just put a giant target on America. We are not safe." Mike Young saw "a neon sign of (Trump's) utter contempt for competence, security, and the American people," from slashing people's rights to putting troops at risk. Pete Buttigieg called it "the highest level of fuck-up imaginable" by miscreants who "claim to care about competence and merit. These are not serious people." Jared Moskowitz, with an assist from Jamie Raskin, went for trolling: He held up a sign with three emojis - fist, flag, fire - Mike Waltz sent on Signal to celebrate the Yemen strikes. Rather than a speech, he said, "When we do things where we agree, I just hold this up. When we’re in like a chat with friends, right? About, like, where we’re dropping missiles.....And this will tell you I think it’s good.” Later, he took to social media to use the emoji combo to like a possible My Cousin Vinny sequel and a cat TikTok. The GOP, meanwhile, deflected and downplayed. Sean Hannity whined a "media mob" is "obsessed with an accidentally leaked text," hence their "phony outrage.” Brit Hume conceded it was "a major leak" but added, "Fortunately, it was leaked to an American citizen," albeit a Jew, which might not count. Mike Walz told Laura Ingraham he's "not a conspiracy theorist," but "of all the people out there, somehow this guy (Goldberg) who has lied about the president, the bottom scum of journalists (is) the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact." And their leader, either actually dumb or playing dumb when asked about it, insisted, “I don’t know anything about this," followed by the obligatory smear: "I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. It's, to me, it's a magazine that's going out of business...But I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?" Later, he said the fiasco was "the only glitch" in "two perfect months," and "not a serious one," and besides Walz, "a good man," had "learned a lesson." Whew. We feel better already, knowing his "national security" team and the rest of Freedonia is on the job. - YouTube www.youtube.com We're also reassured knowing that, even though he might sometimes forget who he's bombing when, he's busy making America great again. Having randomly disappeared with no evidence or due process over 200 mostly innocent Venezuelans for having tattoos to be tortured in an El Salvador prison - an act yet another judge eviscerated with, “Nazis got better treatment" - his lawyers are invoking the “state secrets” privilege to refuse to provide a D.C. judge with information about their victims. Insisting "no further information will be provided,” they cite Trump's absolute authority to remove “designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of the United States," despite multiple intelligence documents, family claims, news reports and pieces of evidence that contradict their allegations. For good measure, he also abolished all the Dept. of Homeland Security's civil rights and detention abuse watchdogs - basically, everyone charged with providing oversight of the treatment of people by the department’s various policing agencies - in the worthy name of his growing authoritarianism.In more unintended consequences of both his and DOGE's tyranny, the IRS estimates that DOGE-driven disruptions are on track to reduce tax receipts by more than $500 billion for non-discretionary funding, which means most government functions except the military and safety net services like Social Security and Medicare. In other words, in about eight weeks, DOGE has managed to "lose the U.S. government - more or less light on fire - more than half of what goes to most of the stuff we think of as the government." Between DOGE and ICE, they're also inadvertently creating a national labor shortage so critical that Florida lawmakers are considering loosening child labor laws to fill the gap; their proposed new law would let children as young as 14 work overnight shifts on school days, a move that Gov. Ron DeFascist supports. "Yes, we had people that left - aka were brutally deported - but you're also able to hire other (imaginary) people," he says. "And what's wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean, that’s how it used to be when I was growing up.”Along with GOP efforts to return children to "clean" coal mines, they're also looking for new places to exploit. This week, Usha Vance, wife to history's most disliked VP, will visit Greenland for a pricey pointless photo-op, a move blasted by P.M. Mute Egede as a "provocation (to) demonstrate power over us," which is why he won't meet with her. Trump said they invited her; they didn't, which is clear from their new red hats: "Make America Go Away." (Canada reportedly wants them too.) J.D. just said he's also going - "I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself" - which will piss off Greenlanders even more: "Trump needs to get the difference between 'yours' and 'mine.'" He's also got "the Danish Viking blood boiling," with Denmark leading a growing movement in Europe to boycott U.S. goods. Danes are giving up U.S. beer, popcorn, Pringles, Oreos, Pepsi, Colgate, ketchup, power tools, California wine and Tesla, choosing E.U-made options and drinking more champagne. One resident reported buying dates from Iran, then being shocked to realize, "I now perceive the United States as a greater threat than Iran."At home, Trump is still diligently grifting, whining, and lashing out. For the first time in 150 years, he's turned the White House annual Easter Egg Roll into a branding opportunity, offering corporate sponsorships to buy $200,000 worth of goodwill and, “Be a part of history." The "petty, insecure baby" and "sensitive snowflake" is also haranguing "radically left" Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to take down a chubby, "purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before” Trump portrait, where aides once put up a prank Putin one; Trump's was commissioned by a GOP admirer, but he says "many people" have written to complain. Uh huh. Finally, the leader of the free world took time out from his onerous schedule to slam George Clooney as "a ‘Second Rate Movie Star’ who never came close to making a great movie" after Clooney blasted his regime for bullying the media, and them in turn for buckling under pressure. "What does Clooney know about anything?" Trump sneered. "(He) should go back to television." Clooney's response: "I will if he does."Back in the grown-up world, his lackeys still struggle to shake off the Signal scandal, toeing the "No classified material was sent to the thread" line with their usual class, insight, mud-slinging and whataboutism. "Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin," said Barbie Press Secretary, insisting we're all good "thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of, you know. In a seething, palpably furious response to reporters, a testy Pete Hegseth - nah, he's not a loose cannon - echoed her: "You’re talking about a deceitful and highly-discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of pedaling hoaxes...Nobody was texting war plans." The next day, still testy: "Nobody's texting war plans. I know exactly what I'm doing." Half of America noted the White House already confirmed the text chain was authentic, all Goldberg has to do is release the text (which he's reportedly mulling doing), Pete is "a fucking liar," also a national security risk who should be fired. On Tuesday, his accomplices squirmed, lied and prevaricated before Congress, a sordid show of clowns and bunglers. Still, despite fighting the Quakers, the Baptists, the Lutherans, the Catholics, they claim God on their side. Now, televangelist, spiritual adviser, "Special Government Employee" and head of White House Faith Office Paula White is offering a special Passover/Easter deal. For just $1,000, she will get us seven supernatural blessings. The best: "God will assign an angel to you." God will also: Be an enemy to your enemies, give you prosperity, give you a special year of blessing. It's true: Other evangelicals call her an unqualified "spiritual wolf" and "false teacher leading people to Hell"; one skeptic says, "There's got to be a special place in hell for this whore"; her 2020 speech to elect Trump was intense - "Strike, strike, strike, I hear a sound of an abundance of rain, a sound of victory, victory, victory, angels are coming from Africa"; okay she kinda cherry-picks Exodus 23, leaving out, “Do not spread false reports, Do not deny justice to your poor people, Do not accept a bribe, Do not oppress a foreigner. But if you act now, you'll also get a Waterford crystal cross, regular $100, now $30% off. Because only the best people. — (@)
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[l] at 3/25/25 2:35pm
Following the vote by the Senate Finance Committee supporting the nomination of Mehmet Oz for the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman issued the following statement: “Mehmet Oz is fundamentally unqualified for the position of Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and should never have been nominated for the position based on his conflicts of interest alone. The Senate Finance Committee should have unanimously rejected his confirmation. “Under Oz’s watch, could strip crucial health care services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act could be stripped from hundreds of millions of Americans. As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz would seek to further privatize Medicare, threatening access to care for tens of millions of Americans. Privatized Medicare Advantage plans deliver inferior care and cost taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs.“He also refused to commit to push back on efforts to slash Medicaid, which would harm access to care for millions – especially the poor and vulnerable – just so Trump and Musk can give tax breaks to their billionaire buddies. “We need a CMS Administrator who believes in the importance of protecting crucial health programs like Medicare and Medicaid and would put patients ahead of corporate profits.We can only hope that sanity prevails when Oz comes for a vote before the full Senate. No Senator should be fooled by the snake oil Oz is selling.” Click here to read Public Citizen’s analysis on the impacts of expanding Medicare Advantage.
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[l] at 3/25/25 2:20pm
Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, issued the following statement regarding Frank Bisignano’s confirmation hearing today before the Senate Finance Committee. “Retirees who tuned into Frank Bisignano’s confirmation hearing hoping to hear that he planned on halting the chaos and destruction of the Social Security Administration caused by Elon Musk’s DOGE team were left disappointed.“Mr. Bisignano refused to contradict Musk’s claim that Social Security is a criminal Ponzi scheme or acknowledge that a person whose benefit claim takes 3 months longer to complete simply because of new DOGE-imposed changes had experienced a cut in the benefits they earned.“Mr. Bisignano knows a lot about processing payments and came across as a big fan of artificial intelligence in call centers. Unfortunately, he said nothing to assure older Americans that he gets the unique challenges technology presents to Social Security beneficiaries, who are older and have less access to or familiarity with technology. “We urge members of the Senate to reject his confirmation.”
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[l] at 3/25/25 11:38am
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on the just-concluded confirmation hearing for Frank Bisignano, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration:“Today’s hearing showed that Frank Bisignano is not the cure to the DOGE-manufactured chaos at the Social Security Administration. In fact, he is part of it, and, if confirmed, would make it even worse. Bisignano describes himself as ‘a DOGE person’. That’s something he has in common with the current acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, who has slashed staff and services at the direction of Elon Musk’s DOGE. Though Bisignano wouldn’t admit it, he has been intimately involved in creating the current chaos surrounding the Social Security Administration. Fortunately, a high-level civil servant has blown the whistle and set the record straight.Bisignano’s record at the private sector companies he has run is right in line with DOGE. He cut staffing to the bone and reportedly created toxic work environments. If he is confirmed, the now toxic work environment at SSA will likely get worse.Social Security needs a commissioner whose loyalty is to beneficiaries, not Elon Musk. Bisignano would not even contradict Musk’s slander that Social Security is a criminal Ponzi scheme. Every Senator who cares about Social Security’s future should vote no on the confirmation of Frank Bisignano. He is not only unqualified, with no expertise regarding this vital program — he is dangerous to it.”Clips from the hearing can be viewed here.
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[l] at 3/25/25 11:30am
Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Oklahoma v. EPA (consolidated with PacifiCorp v. EPA) and EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, LLC. These cases pose a major threat to the integrity of the judicial system, and would enable special interest-backed groups to sue the EPA before ideologically-aligned judges and potentially manipulate the outcome of those cases. Both cases involve a key provision of the Clean Air Act, which has long required companies challenging actions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do so in the D.C. Circuit, if those actions have a “nationwide scope.” When the Clean Air Act was codified into law over half a century ago, Congress was intentional and clear in designating the D.C. Circuit as a neutral venue for litigating EPA actions that could impact multiple states. Now, Republican-led states and the oil and gas industry are trying to roll back this decades-old provision of the Clean Air Act so they can more easily shop their challenges to EPA actions in industry-aligned courts, like the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. “We all know that corporate special interests have been hand-picking judges to hear their cases to guarantee more favorable outcomes. The cases before the Supreme Court today would turbocharge this judge shopping at everyday Americans’ expense,” said Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone. “These cases are yet another assault on foundational laws protecting the environment and public health, being brought forward to line the pockets of Big Oil & Gas. At a time when confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low because of Justices’ ethical lapses, siding with special interests to weaken the integrity of the judicial system would only fracture Americans’ trust further.”The cases being heard today are part of a larger strategy to greenlight judge shopping in the Fifth Circuit and other circuits dominated by conservative judges. For example, an Accountable.US analysis released last year revealed that the industry-aligned U.S. Chamber of Commerce was taking judge shopping to new extremes, and that since 2017 roughly 63% of the Chamber’s lawsuits challenging federal regulations were filed in district courts under the Fifth Circuit’s jurisdiction. While the Federal Judicial Conference has adopted a new policy addressing the problem of judge-shopping and its effect in undermining public confidence in the courts, certain federal courts within the Fifth Circuit, like the Northern District of Texas, pointedly refused to implement the policy.
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[l] at 3/25/25 11:28am
oday, the Republican-led House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries will consider legislation that would dramatically weaken the widely popular Endangered Species Act (ESA) and strip protections for gray wolves in 48 states.The first bill — the “ESA Amendments Act of 2025” — would gut the critical protections that the ESA provides for thousands of imperiled species, upend the scientific consultation process (which has been the cornerstone of American species protection for 50 years), slow listings to a crawl while fast-tracking delistings, and allow much more exploitation of threatened species and shift their management out of federal hands to the states, even while they are still nationally listed. The second bill — the so-called “Pet and Livestock Protection Act of 2025″ — would reissue the first Trump administration’s delisting of the gray wolf across most of the U.S. and bar judicial review of that action. In 2022, a federal court reversed this delisting, after conservation groups challenged it.In addition to the Republican-led Congressional attacks on the ESA and gray wolves, the Trump administration recently terminated hundreds of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees — nearly 5 percent of the agency’s workforce — which is already critically understaffed. Without those employees, it will be even harder for disappearing vulnerable species to receive crucial protections, and for vitally important ecosystems across the U.S. to remain intact. In response to attempts to undermine the ESA and delist gray wolves, organizations from across the country sent a letter to HNR leadership outlining opposition to the bills. Additionally, groups from the Endangered Species Coalition issued the following statements:“These attempts to weaken the Endangered Species Act, or to go around it by picking off species like the gray wolf, represent a fundamental disconnect between a small number of legislators and millions of Americans,” said Earthjustice legislative director for lands, wildlife, and oceans Addie Haughey. “The ESA — and the iconic species it protects — enjoys immense support across the political spectrum. If these bills move forward, Congress will be acting against popular will and ignoring science to sacrifice the wildlife we love and the ecosystems we rely on.”“Congressman Westerman’s bill would eviscerate the Endangered Species Act and push imperiled species to extinction,” said Ellen Richmond, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “The Endangered Species Act is the backstop for our nation’s wildlife already at the brink of extinction and this bill would sanction their swift descent into nothingness. We urge our representatives in Congress to listen to the American public’s overwhelming support for the Endangered Species Act and reject this disastrous bill which does nothing to strengthen wildlife protections and instead reverses decades of conservation success.”“We are in a biodiversity crisis, and Congress is playing with fire. These bills would accelerate extinction at a time when we can least afford it,” said Josh Osher, public policy director for Western Watersheds Project. “The Endangered Species Act isn’t just about saving wolves, grizzlies, or sea turtles—it’s about protecting the ecosystems that sustain us all. Weakening these protections pushes our planet further into collapse. Congress must open its eyes and reject these reckless attacks before it’s too late.”“These extreme bills would gut protections for wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. They are being introduced against a backdrop of sudden and indiscriminate firings across the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, robbing these agencies of the experts who implement these crucial protections based on the best available science,” said Susan Millward, executive director and chief executive officer for the Animal Welfare Institute. “These assaults on wildlife protections come at a time of staggering biodiversity loss, and imperiled species don’t have the luxury of waiting out these political games.”“Extinction is forever,” says Katherine Miller, Country Director for FOUR PAWS USA. ” If we allow the protections afforded by the ESA to be weakened and undermined by legislation like this, the consequences of these decisions will reverberate for generations. The ESA protects both iconic native species like Bald eagles and non-native species like Bengal tigers. It has also protected millions of acres of habitat, ensuring a livable planet for all of us.”“The ESA Amendments Act of 2025, introduced by Representative Westerman, is severely out of step with how most Americans view and support wildlife protection. It prioritizes big industry and special interests ahead of decades-long, science-based protections that work,” said Chris Allieri, executive director and founder, NYC Plover Project. “Radicals in Congress are fast-tracking extinction and looking to severely weaken, if not entirely remove, bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.” “The Endangered Species Act is one of the country’s most popular and successful conservation laws, and Donald Trump wants to throw it in the garbage to pad the bottom lines of his corporate supporters,” said Bradley Williams, Sierra Club’s Deputy Legislative Director for Wildlife and Lands Protection. “Since Day One of his administration, Trump has shown again and again that he wants to hand over control of our public lands and waters to billionaires and corporations. Imperiled wildlife will suffer the consequences. For more than 50 years, the United States has made amazing progress bringing species back from the brink of extinction. It’s because of the ESA that species like the grizzly bear and bald eagle are living symbols of America and not just photos in a history book. If Trump and his allies in Congress get their way, that progress won’t just come to a screeching halt – it could be completely reversed.”“For decades, the Endangered Species Act has been a critical lifeline in preventing the irreversible loss of our nation’s wildlife. Legislation like H.R. 845 and H.R. 1897 would undermine this powerful tool against extinction and jeopardize ongoing recovery efforts of our iconic native species, like the gray wolf.” said Jennifer Eskra, Director of Legislative Affairs at Humane World Action Fund “At a time of growing biodiversity loss, it is essential that legislators prioritize science over politics and stand with the millions of Americans who support the ESA.”“The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most respected and successful conservation laws. Unfortunately, Representative Westerman’s ESA amendments are crafted for greedy billionaires clinging to a 19th-century vision of plundering the planet,” said Endangered Species Coalition National Policy Director Jewel Tomasula. “This bill would devastate the sea turtles people love to see at the beach, the bumblebees that pollinate our food crops, and the spotted owls that indicate healthy forests. This bill would destroy wildlife and wild places, not protect them.”“These reckless attacks on the Endangered Species Act and gray wolves are nothing more than a giveaway to industry at the expense of our nation’s most imperiled wildlife,” said Joanna Zhang, endangered species advocate at WildEarth Guardians. “Gutting protections for species on the brink of extinction is not reform—it’s a death sentence. Americans overwhelmingly support the ESA because it works, and we urge our representatives in Congress not to stand by while Trump and his allies try to dismantle one of our most effective conservation laws.”
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[l] at 3/25/25 11:27am
he Union of Concerned Scientists, Earthjustice, and 121 other organizations sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to support the office and to oppose two bills that would prevent EPA from relying on scientific health assessments produced by the office's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). If you are tracking these issues and would like more context on how closing the EPA’s scientific research arm would harm public health and the environment, please see the letter and a blog post published today by UCS President Gretchen Goldman, who previously served in the White House and as DOT's climate change research and technology director.If you would like to speak with UCS president and blog writer Gretchen Goldman or issue area expert Darya Minovi, please contact UCS communications officer Lana Cohen via lcohen@ucs.org or (646) 410-1462. To speak with experts at Earthjustice, please contact Alejandro Davila at adavila@earthjustice.org.

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