They’ll say anything to kill offshore wind

 

Trump’s Interior Department just made up a brand-new excuse to block offshore wind: they’re suddenly claiming wind turbines would “imperil search and rescue operations.” The Executive Director of the National Association for Search and Rescue (you know, an actual expert on the topic) said in response: “There’s no history of having a problem with that at all, ever.” That’s right — they’re just making crap up at this point. It’s completely ridiculous. We need your help to fight back. Please chip in $10 or more right now to help SEEC PAC respond to these bogus attacks and power the clean energy future we need. DONATE $10 » This isn’t about safety. It’s not about search and rescue. It’s about stopping clean energy because Big Oil and their allies don’t want to compete with affordable, renewable power. Over the past five months, the Trump administration has tried to block five offshore wind projects — and now they’re throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. This is just the latest example of Trump’s anti-clean energy crusade. SEEC PAC is working to elect and support climate champions who will protect clean energy innovation and keep America moving forward. But we can’t do it without you. Please chip in $10 or more today to stop Trump’s latest attack on clean energy! If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately  $10 $20 $30 $40 $50 Other Together, we’ll make sure the truth wins over fiction. — Team SEEC PAC

Thanks to your help in 2024, SEEC PAC was able to re-elect over 95% of our pro-environment members to the U.S. House of Representatives — defying the odds on a night where Democrats lost seats. Now we are counting on you to help our SEEC members pass climate, clean energy and environmental justice policies in the 119th Congress while we continue fighting for a sustainable future.     DONATE TODAY The Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Political Action Committee (SEEC PAC) is an organization that supports members in the U.S. House of Representatives and candidates who fight for clean energy, climate change solutions, environmental justice, and protection of our nation’s clean air, water, wildlife, and public lands. Will you make a donation to our fight today?   Paid for and authorized by the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Political Action Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Political Action Committee 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC 20003 United States

Congressman Auchincloss responding to your message.

 September 26, 2025

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. I appreciate your input on this important issue and welcome the opportunity to respond to you directly.

Like you, I am a strong supporter of Head Start, which provides early learning and development, health, and family well-being services to promote the school readiness of children from low-income families. Head Start has served nearly 40 million children nationwide since its founding, and, in Massachusetts, Head Start programs served over 11,000 children and employed over 4,000 people in the 2023-2024 program year. As the father of three young children, I understand firsthand how essential early childhood education is to ensuring every child has a strong foundation for academic, social, and emotional growth throughout their life.

I am committed to providing access to child care for all Americans. That is why I joined my colleagues in sending letters to the House Appropriations Committee requesting robust funding for the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five program (PDG) and Head Start in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 spending bills. On March 11, 2025, the House passed H.R. 1968, a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through September 30. The CR maintains funding for these programs at FY 2024 levels, which authorized and appropriated $315 million for PDG and $12.27 billion for Head Start.

Further, you may be interested to know that I strongly support direct-to-provider operations grants for Massachusetts. These grants, initially created with funding provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, provide monthly allocations of public funds to early childhood education providers based largely on the number of children that a provider is licensed to serve. These grants also provide additional funding to programs that serve low-income children and that employ more educators, incentivizing lower ratios of children to teachers and thus improving the quality of early learning programs. Direct-to-provider grants have worked as intended, allowing providers to stay open, increase teacher pay, and minimize tuition hikes.

Funding for high-quality child care and early education is an investment in American families and our economy. As your Representative, supporting families with young children is extremely important to me. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind should legislation related to Head Start be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me about this important issue. Your comments help me to better represent the people of our Congressional District. Please do not hesitate to email me through my website at auchincloss.house.gov or call my office at (202) 225-5931 if I can be of any further assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Jake Auchincloss
Member of Congress

   

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Take Action: Against the Burning of $10 Million of contraception

 

MomsRising

momsrising.org

Today is World Contraception Day but instead of celebrating progress, the Trump Administration is preparing to burn nearly $10 million worth of perfectly good birth control. Contraception that U.S. taxpayers already paid for and which women desperately need is currently sitting in a warehouse in Belgium. [1]

Tell U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio loud and clear: Destroying birth control is simply cruel and wasteful. These contraceptives—including IUDs, pills, and implants—should be saving lives, not going up in smoke. When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

The outrageous plan to destroy birth control stems from Trump’s freeze on foreign aid. Even though organizations have stepped up and said they would buy these products, the U.S. government has flat out rejected those offers and chose destruction over delivery.

Family planning is lifesaving healthcare. Studies show that destroying these birth control supplies will cause 362,000 more unintended pregnancies and over 700 preventable maternal deaths. [2] Access to contraception reduces maternal and child mortality and allows women and girls to pursue educational and economic opportunities. 

Speak out against the destruction of birth control that will save the lives and health of women and girls. Sign our letter now telling US Secretary of State Rubio that this is harmful and a waste of taxpayer dollars. When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

In addition to burning almost $10 million worth of contraception, the administration would also spend $167,000 to pay for the incineration. This is unconscionable!! And a complete waste of our taxpayer dollars!

When you click, you’ll automatically sign on to our petition that reads:

Dear U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

We strongly oppose the plan to destroy almost $10 million dollars worth of taxpayer-funded birth control. These supplies are safe, effective, and needed. It is not too late to do the right thing. 

There are numerous offers to buy the supplies (many of which do not expire until 2031). The Administration must immediately stop the plan to burn these products.

Family planning is lifesaving healthcare. Studies show destroying it will cause 362,000 more unintended pregnancies,110,000 more unsafe abortions, and over 700 more preventable maternal deaths. We urge you to do everything you can to ensure lifesaving products reach people in need.

Thanks for all you do, 

-Gina, Tina, Monifa, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

References: 
[1] The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear
[2] RH Alert: The true cost behind destroying $9.7M of contraceptives

Speak out against burning $10 million worth of birth control supplies!
When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

TAKE ACTION

Simple but Not Easy free speech after Charlie Kirk Jake Auchincloss Sep 19 “In any argument there are only three possibilities. You are either wholly wrong, partially wrong, or wholly correct—and in each case free speech is critical." So wrote John Stuart Mill in his timeless On Liberty, published in 1859. His book remains the best argument for free speech ever penned. Mill explains that open debate forces the wholly wrong to confront error; prevents the wholly correct from becoming dead dogma; and improves the partially wrong by allowing audiences to fuse together the best of competing ideas. Perhaps no idea is more associated with America than free speech. It's why Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that he preferred newspapers to governments. Jefferson and Mill both grappled with disinformation, censorship, and violence. Yet each ended up on the side of more speech, not less. Democrats of today should, too. We must uphold that value without fear or favor, right or left. And we must confront the power now most oppressive to open inquiry, which is the fusion of politics with algorithms on social media. Uphold the value MAGA is firing comedians who mock it, censoring scientists at the National Institutes of Health, and using official power to bully political opponents. It is not the party of free speech. Hear it yourself from a GOP senator: "I tend[ed] to think that the First Amendment should always be sort of the ultimate right. I don’t feel that way anymore." Democrats should prosecute that case: MAGA is now the party of cancel culture. To be credible, though, we need to challenge our own side. Checking the illiberal and tribal impulses of both sides is critical to sustaining vigorous, nonviolent debate. Democrats at all levels must reject excuses for violence. Leftist celebrations of, or excuses for, the murder of Charlie Kirk are sickening. On the other extreme, we must also stop acting like speech can be violent. Cancel culture relies on the notion that some words are too dangerous. The Supreme Court has carved out extraordinary exceptions—yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater—but these are exceptions that strengthen the rule. Speech does not lose its protection because you hate it. I have consistently defended that principle even in instances when it cuts against my own convictions. Confront the power "I like TikTok. It helped get me elected." That's the president's point of view on the platform controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Besides the CCP, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are the two most powerful social media titans. Do you trust those three to gatekeep our discourse? Democrats must stop deferring to social media platforms as corporations with special rights and start regulating them like utilities with obligations. Utilities are quasi-monopolies that provide essential services. They can be privately governed, but they deliver a public good. Today, the government considers internet cables to be a utility, but not social media algorithms. But they both do the same thing: they amplify (or suppress) digital speech. That's an essential service. We should not want the government controlling these algorithms. But we should pull these algorithms from the realm of private product into the sphere of public good. I wrote more about that in this Substack. The social media corporations reject this view. When they lobby, they compare themselves to book publishers: simply printing others' words. That's a misleading analogy. They are closer to a library—a library that secretly decides what books are on display, and who will read them. The American people consider libraries a public good. And we want a strong role in how we access the shelves.

 

Dispatches of alarm and hope, on politics and society, democracy and justice. Because silence is not an option. We may read and write alone, but we drive change together.   Watch now   Taking the Up Escalator Down Got a Minute or Two? Mad Hattery and Other Outrages Steven Beschloss Sep 25 There’s never a shortage of mad hattery and other outrages from the Trump regime. This latest video installment spotlights the “Sinister Case of the Halted Escalator.” Which, in the mad, mad world of Trump, had to be dangerous sabotage and yet another reason to push the vengeance button. Except that, once again, the Trump operation was targeting an imaginary enemy. Here’s my two-minute video on the topic. Your feedback is welcome. Becoming a paid subscriber to America, America—for $50 a year or just $5 a month—helps sustain our work, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to our dynamic community conversations. It also represents your commitment to honest, fearless and independent journalism.

 

Watch now

Ben and Katie Couric LIVE: 'Moral Clarity in a Time of Cowardice'

Watch the full conversation!

Ben Meiselas, Katie Couric, and MeidasTouch Network Sep 25

First off, thank you to the thousands of you who joined me and Katie Couric live. This community is why my brothers and I—and our entire team—do this. If you missed it (or want to re-watch), I’ve embedded the full conversation with Katie Couric above. Please share it widely and consider joining as a paid subscriber if you haven’t yet.

Katie opened with the question I get often: how do we keep up with this avalanche of chaos? My answer is simple: moral clarity. Start from values and the coverage writes itself. We don’t “both-sides” a hate rally when the speaker literally declares hate. We don’t pretend it’s normal when a president plays doctor and tells pregnant women to avoid Tylenol or tries to convert the People’s House into a gilded ballroom sponsored by his corporate donors. We call it what it is.

Trump’s UN spectacle was pure grievance and cruelty. Yes, tens of millions still cheer that. We have to reckon with that. But a majority of Americans don’t. He’s losing altitude because the cruelty is the point, and most people don’t want their country run by a bully whose only ideology is self-enrichment. Our job is to show receipts. Show the clip, the document, the lie, side by side. No euphemisms. No enabling. Just ‘play the clip,’ as I like to say.

Katie and I also talked about the corporate capitulation around Jimmy Kimmel. I’ve sat in those executive suites. I’ve heard the soaring speeches about civil rights and “values.” Then a bully rattles the cage, and suddenly principles are negotiable. But just like with mob threats, once you pay the protection racket, they always come back for more.

The ballroom grift at the White House isn’t a “personal touch.” I liken it to a marker, like a dog peeing on your mailbox to claim his territory. Where’s the action? Where are the lawsuits? If you’re comfortable with foreign or corporate money reshaping public property, you’re comfortable with corruption. I’m not. None of us should be.

We also discussed the creeping effort to muzzle the press, including nonsense “pledges” to report only “authorized” information. That is straight up authoritarian. The press can’t keep treating this like normal politics. “That’s just Trump being Trump” is how democracies drift into soft dictatorships.

And yes, we must demand more from our politicians. People want leaders who look them in the eye and say: I care about you. I feel your pain. Here’s what I’m doing. There are bright spots, like real pushback from governors and communicators who understand message discipline. But the moment demands organization and action that matches the stakes. Voters want fighters who will put skin in the game, not just press releases and strongly-worded letters.

What can you do right now? Live your values out loud. Don’t let everyday cruelty pass unchallenged. Show up for peaceful mass actions like the ‘No Kings’ rallies if you can. Support independent media so we can keep bringing receipts instead of vibes. Clip, cite, and share. Rest when you must, then get back in. Authoritarians count on your exhaustion; don’t give it to them.

We also touched on the Epstein files and the daily scandal conveyor belt. The $50,000 “COVID bag” bribe allegations, the UAE chip-for-cash corruption, and more. If any of this were exculpatory for Trump, Fox would have it on a loop. The frantic blocking is the tell. The game isn’t to chase every headline; it’s to expose the pattern: corruption, impunity, and the systematic demolition of guardrails. Keep the pressure on. Make them answer under oath.

A quick aside: I really want to thank you all. Successful resistance needs people who show up with evidence, integrity, and community. That’s you. That’s us. We will never be perfect, but we will be persistent. And we will be honest.

Thank you again for showing up live in such huge numbers. If this conversation resonated, please share the video, subscribe here, and invite a friend into the fight. We’ll keep bringing the receipts. We’ll keep saying “No.” And together, we’ll reclaim the idea of America from a con man who mistakes cruelty for power and gold paint for greatness.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

A guest post by Katie Couric I’m a journalist always looking for a deeper understanding of the issues.

Today in Politics, Bulletin 215. 9/27/25. Ron Filipkowski Sep 26 ∙ … The latest Epstein documents just released to House Oversight included a scheduled visit by Elon Musk on Dec 6, 2014 to Epstein Island. NBC: “Within documents of Epstein’s schedule, there is evidence that Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon had scheduled meetings with Epstein, as well as evidence of a pending trip by Elon Musk to Epstein’s island.” … Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) stirred the pot by suggesting that Trump wanted this to be included in the 3rd batch of documents released to the committee as his revenge for Musk’s comments about Trump’s Epstein connections: “Trump OUTS Elon Musk as being in Epstein Files. Revenge for Elon outing Trump? Elon, what do you know about Trump’s involvement?” … Trump posted this today on Truth Social: “Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS!” … WaPo reported on the urgent meeting where Sec of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of the most senior generals and admirals stationed all over the world to DC next week: “Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to travel on short notice from around the world to hear him make a speech on military standards and the ‘warrior ethos’.” … Source: “It’s meant to be an eyeball-to-eyeball kind of conversation. He wants to see the generals.” … Hegseth also put out a video making this announcement: “Under my direction, the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee will keep their medals. This decision is final. Their place in history is settled.” … The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki: “We gave 10 Medals of Honor to US troops who landed in Normandy and fought the Germans on D-Day. We gave 20 Medals of Honor - twice as many - to US cavalrymen who killed hundreds of Lakota, most of them women and children, at Wounded Knee. That’s absurd and embarrassing.” … “Congress awarded a huge number of Medals of Honor to soldiers who fought at Wounded Knee in order to try to change the narrative around the event. But 135 years later, we shouldn’t be pretending that all of those soldiers ‘deserved’ the highest honor the military bestows.” … Fallout today from the Trump-ordered authoritarian indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, who he has despised for years after the RussiaGate investigation, with even Fox analysts commenting on air today that they don’t think the case will hold up in court. … WSJ editor and Fox contributor Kim Strassel on Fox: “While I think a lot of Americans would love to see some sort of accountability for James Comey, I’m not sure this particular charge is the way to go about it. In part because I’m not sure it’s actually going to stick in the end and that will leave a lot of disappointed people, too.” … National Review editor and Fox contributor Andrew McCarthy on Ted Cruz’s comments about the case: “I love Ted, but McCabe never said that Comey authorized it. They’re not going to be able to prove he authorized the leak. By all accounts he didn’t. I don’t think this case even gets to trial.” … Minutes after his newly appointed US Attorney Lindsey Halligan got the indictment, Trump posted: “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI. Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.” … MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian: “What I am hearing from DOJ sources: The Comey indictment is among the worst abuses in DOJ history. Shocking. It’s hard to overstate how a big a moment this is.” … Katie Miller responded: “Yes absolutely shocking how they raided our President and trumped up charges for politics. Save your pearl clutching. We need to find and fire everyone who believes indicting Comey is an abuse. They are who went after our President.” … Mehdi Hasan: “Stephen Miller’s wife doesn’t seem to understand how all of this politicization and weaponization of the justice system, and open targeting of political opponents, could rebound on her lawless husband when/if Democrats are back in office.” … Dilanian said it appears that false evidence may have been presented to the grand jury to secure the indictment: “The indictment appears to attribute to Comey words he never uttered. In answering Sen. Ted Cruz (at a Senate hearing), Comey said he stood by his 2017 testimony. He did not say in the 2020 hearing that he had not ‘authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports.’” … Andrew McCarthy on Maria Bartiromo’s show: “I don’t think there’s a case. It seems to be premised on something that’s not true, which is that McCabe said that Comey authorized him to leak to the Wall Street Journal. I don’t see how they can make that case.” … Dilanian: “So interesting to hear Lindsey Graham frame the Comey case as being about the Trump Russia investigation, when actually it’s about whether Comey lied about authorizing someone to leak about another matter entirely. For MAGA, these charges are a way to punish Comey for alleged wrongdoing in the Russia investigation, despite the fact that he was cleared in that matter first by an inspector general and then by a Trump-appointed special counsel.” … MSNBC: “Lindsey Halligan, the newly installed US Attorney who has never prosecuted a case, presented the Comey indictment all by herself to the grand jury. She may have a problem finding a prosecutor in office to work on the case.” … Trump: “They weaponized the justice department like nobody in history. What they’ve done is terrible. So I hope - frankly I hope there are others.” … Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on Fox: “This is about lying to Congress under oath, and Comey needs accountability for that. He doesn’t get to just walk through the woods and write poetry and do other weird things and post on Instagram anymore. He’s gonna actually have to face it.” … Fox chief political analyst Brit Hume: “If the case comes down to James Comey’s word against Andrew McCabe’s, the jury might have a hard time believing either one of them.” … Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) on Fox: “This is probably just the first step in a longer process and other individuals who are gonna get caught up in this.” … Fortune: “Lindsey Halligan, 36, takes over one of the most significant prosecutorial offices in the country despite having no experience as a prosecutor at any level. The appointment comes after Trump forced out her predecessor, Erik Siebert, for refusing to pursue charges against NY AG Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.” … “Halligan’s rapid ascension from FL insurance lawyer to fed prosecutor represents a stark departure from traditional DOJ hiring practices. Court records show she has participated in only 3 federal cases throughout her career, all while serving as one of Trump’s personal attorneys. By contrast, Siebert, whom she replaced, was listed as an attorney on 675 federal cases during his extensive prosecutorial career.” … “She went to Holy Family High School in CO before earning a degree in political science and broadcast journalism from Regis University in Denver—the same school Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s wife, attended. During Halligan’s college years, she competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant twice, reaching the semifinals in 2009 and placing third runner-up in 2010.” … “The E. District of VA, known as the ‘rocket docket’ for its rapid case processing, handles significant national security and terrorism cases owing to its proximity to DC. The office serves more than 6 million people with a staff of 300 prosecutors. Under federal law, Halligan can serve as interim US attorney for only 120 days unless extended by federal judges or confirmed by the Senate.” … ProPublica: “For months, the complaints have rolled in from parts of the country hit by natural disasters: FEMA was moving far too slowly in sending aid to communities ravaged by floods and hurricanes, including in central TX and NC. Many officials were blaming Kristi Noem. But records obtained by ProPublica show how one locality found a way to get FEMA aid more quickly: It asked one of Noem’s political donors for help.” … “The records show that Noem quickly expedited more than $11 million of federal money to rebuild a historic pier in Naples, FL, after she was contacted by a major financial supporter last month. The pier is a tourist attraction in the wealthy Gulf Coast enclave and was badly damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022.” … “Frustrated city officials had been laboring for months, without success, to get disaster assistance. But just two weeks after the donor stepped in, they were celebrating their sudden change of fortune. ‘We are now at warp speed with FEMA,’ one city official wrote in an email. A FEMA representative wrote: “Per leadership instruction, pushing project immediately.” … “Along with fast-tracking the money, Noem flew to Naples on a govt plane to tour the pier herself. She then stayed for the weekend and got dinner with the donor, local cardiologist Sinan Gursoy, at the French restaurant Bleu Provence.” … Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, also appears to own a home in Naples near the city’s pier, according to property tax records. Lewandowski is an unpaid staffer at DHS serving as Noem’s de facto chief of staff. (Media reports have alleged the two are romantically involved, which they have both denied.)” Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I’m off Saturdays. We are heading into peak fall foliage season over the next few weeks in New England, so activities are centered around that. Going to the Fryeburg Fair tomorrow which is celebrating its 175th anniversary. We will get a nice drive through Maine to see some early foliage. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Next one will be out on Sunday night recapping the weekend. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Trump: “We will be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cabinets, Bathroom Vanities, and associated products, starting October 1st, 2025. Additionally, we will be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture. The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the US by other outside Countries. It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process.” … Note that he cites “national security” as his legal justification for tariffs on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. … He wasn’t done with the new tariff announcements: “In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all “Heavy (Big!) Trucks” made in other parts of the World. Therefore, our Great Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions. We need our Truckers to be financially healthy and strong, for many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!” … Punchbowl: “Trump admitted Thurs that his tariffs have been hurting American farmers. His solution — a farm bailout using tariff revenues — requires congressional approval. But Democrats are in no mood to help Trump mitigate the impacts of his trade war. The solution is even simpler, Democrats say: Drop the tariffs.” … Ranking Dem on House Agriculture Committee Angie Craig (MN): “Trump is desperately trying to find a way out of the mess he’s made with his trade war against the world. Trump’s tariffs hurt farmers, but they also hurt small businesses, manufacturers and working families by making everything cost more.” … Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO): “I’d just say to my Democrat colleagues — they always say they’re the party of the working class. Well, fantastic, you know what, let’s compromise and let’s agree to give working people relief. We can start with farmers and go from there.” … Politico says that Trump’s budget director wants a govt shutdown and has been planning for it for years : “With the layoffs threat Wed, Russ Vought has cast himself as a main character in the shutdown standoff ahead of the Tues funding deadline. It’s a role he is no doubt comfortable playing, having navigated dozens of spending fights as a congressional aide, think-tank operative and Trump official. Now Vought is well positioned to further execute his long-held views on govt spending if federal cash stops cold, after months of groundwork undermining bipartisan funding negotiations and upending the federal bureaucracy.” … “His ideological allies are already excited by what Vought might have in store at OMB if the govt does in fact shut down at midnight Sept. 30. Paul Winfree, who served as Trump’s budget director during his first term, called Vought’s threat a ‘brilliant’ move. During the last shutdown under Trump, which ended in early 2019, Vought served in an understudy role. Winfree said Admin officials at the time sought to play down the impact on most Americans: ‘But this time, Russ is putting the pain on the bureaucracy.’” … “The OMB director’s latest move fits neatly into the playbook he articulated during vetting earlier this year for Senate confirmation, after helping write the Heritage Foundation’s controversial ‘Project 2025’ recommendations during Trump’s campaign. Put simply, he thinks Congress can set a ceiling for agency funding but a president can spend less.” … An official from Trump’s first term outlined Vought’s messaging strategy: “Shutdowns create a natural inflection point between essential and nonessential. If the govt can function with only essential employees and not inflict pain on the American people, then why would we not want that? It proves the point the admin has been making from the campaign all the way to day one: That there is bloat and excess within the govt.” … Trump to the press on the way to the Ryder Cup golf tournament today: “The Economy is doing well. Prices are down. We have virtually no inflation. Everything is going good. We’re respected by every nation in the world and you know what happened? The Democrats want to shut it down. They want to give trillions to illegal migrants—people who came into our country illegally.” … “They want to have transgender for everybody. These people are crazy - the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down the govt.” … House Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “Donald Trump, get back to Washington DC. Why are you at a golf event right now and the govt is four days away from closing? That’s outrageous. And it speaks to the fact that these extremists could care less about the health, safety, and economic well-being of the American people. They’re on vacation right now.” … Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) introduced a bill that would ban the ability for women to get mifepristone by mail: “Chemical abortion drugs are dangerous, and women are suffering life-threatening complications because critical safeguards were recklessly removed. It is time to restore commonsense protections, guarantee adequate medical care for women, and hold Big Abortion accountable for putting profit over safety.” … Sinclair announced today that it will put Jimmy Kimmel’s show back on their stations across the country: “Over the last week, we have received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives. Our decision to preempt this program was independent of any govt interaction or influence.” … “Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations. While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.” … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): It’s time to repeal and rewrite the 1996 Telecom Act. Meta owns Facebook, IG and WhatsApp. The Ellison family owns Paramount and CBS, and may soon get control of CNN, Tiktok, and HBO. iHeart owns a mind blowing 870 radio stations. Nexstar is about to own TV stations in half of U.S. markets. These mergers need govt approval. And in autocratic states, regimes benefit from a small number of oligarchs owning all the media.” … “The regime does a simple deal: make the media oligarchs rich in exchange for censorship of criticism of the regime. That’s EXACTLY what Trump is doing. He approved the Ellison/Paramount deal, but only with a public commitment to censorship. And he is now publicly threatening Disney and Nexstar and others if they don’t bend the knee and censor his critics. I wish the billionaires that own these companies cared about democracy more than getting rich. But they don’t. They are willing to help destroy free speech so they can buy a bigger private jet.” … “Media monopoly and autocracy DO go hand in hand. And so we need a remedy. How did we get so exposed to Trump’s corruption? The short answer is the 1996 Telecom Act. It smashed local media ownership preferences and made big mergers way easier. And it gave legal protection to today’s social media giants for harm done on their platforms. Repealing and rewriting the 1996 Act to allow govt to break up these growing pro-censorship monopolies is the only real protection from totalitarianism.” … “Hungary and Russia still have elections. But the regime never loses. Because the corporate media monopolies - controlled by the govt - won’t platform political opposition. And now it’s happening here. Democrats can’t just complain. We need a plan to stop it, for good.” … Newsmax: “First lady Melania Trump launched a line of American-themed Christmas ornaments. The ‘Celebrating America’ line includes 6 ‘limited-edition, handcrafted Christmas ornaments’ that are ‘designed to celebrate America and the upcoming 250th anniversary. Each ornament is proudly handcrafted in the US and will include an engraving of Melania Trump’s signature.’ according to Trump’s website.” … The ornaments cost $75-$90. The collection includes ornament-sized versions of Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. Melania: “I am excited to continue this annual holiday tradition with the Celebrating America collection of ornaments. This year, I sought inspiration in our Nation’s upcoming 250th birthday, and all of the holiday blessings that we enjoy as Americans.”