- \n
- Make it hard for people who have changed their names \u2013 married women for instance \u2013 to vote;<\/li>\n
- Force anyone who tries to register to vote or update their voter registration to provide a birth certificate or passport, which many people do not have or do not have easy access to;<\/li>\n
- Ban mail-in registration and online voter registration (which 42 states currently allow). The bill would even prohibit voter registration drives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That is what Trump wants. How is it possible that anyone but billionaires can support such an attack on themselves? How is it possible that Congress can do nothing about all the impeachable offenses Trump has committed? How is it possible that Congress could ignore the 5 million-plus people who rallied around the United States a few days ago to demonstrate their disgust with the Magas (click here<\/a> for the definition of, and need for, that word Maga).<\/p>\n
Compare what Trump and the Magas want with what Democrats want. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed it well when he rallied Americans to oppose fascism by emphasizing the principles that would provide the foundations for a healthy and strong democracy, which he listed as: \u201cEquality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.\u201d He called for \u201cthe cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, we get a Trump who is so evil that he illegally sends foreigners who are here legally to a prison in El Salvador known to be a torture chamber \u2013 he even pays El Salvador $6 million to run the prison for him, and he and wants more prisons like it built there. He threatens to send \u201chomegrown\u201d people there \u2013 \u201cI would love to do that.\u201d He even admits he accidentally expelled one man who he knows is innocent, but he refuses to return him even though the Supreme Court has ordered him to do so. He expels foreigners who are here legally if they speak out against him or something he believes in. Oh, good Lord, the list seems endless.<\/p>\n
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And so, since neither Congress nor the Supreme Court is doing anything to stop him, and since the Senate is his lapdog and can\u2019t be counted on to do anything either, that leaves it up to the so-called \u201cfourth estate\u201d \u2013 the press, the news media \u2013 to fulfill its responsibility.<\/p>\n
And yes, the fourth estate does have a responsibility. The First Amendment to the Constitution “frees” the press from government control or oversight, and that freedom carries with it the responsibility to be the people’s watchdog. A functioning free press is necessary for a functioning society.<\/p>\n
But it is not doing that. The press, like Congress and the Court \u2013 and several universities and major law firms and businesses and others — are meekly giving in to Trump\u2019s dictatorial ways.<\/p>\n
One problem is that the powers behind many news outlets do not care about news. They care only about money. Conglomerates buy newspapers, squeeze every penny they can out of them, and then shut them down. More than 3,200 U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005, which is an average of about two a week.<\/p>\n
Big newspapers aren\u2019t doing much better. Recall during the presidential campaign how the press harped on how Joe Biden\u2019s age showed during the Biden-Trump debate but largely ignored Trump\u2019s stream of baldfaced lies during the same debate. Or how they largely ignored Project 2025, which Trump is using now to destroy America\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s threats of expensive-to-fight lawsuits also tend to dampen investigative reporting to newspapers, which are hemorrhaging readers and therefore income.<\/p>\n
Television outlets are doing even worse. CBS settled a baseless $20 billion \u2013 billion! — lawsuit Trump filed against it in order to gain his approval for a corporate merger. The suit claimed CBS \u201cdeceptively edited\u201d an interview with Kamala Harris, which it did not do, but caved anyway to assure the merger.<\/p>\n
Likewise, ABC gave Trump $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit rather than stand by its reporting. Anchor George Stephanopoulos said Trump had been found \u201cliable for rape\u201d when he had been convicted of \u201csexual abuse.\u201d The judge, however, said that the jury\u2019s verdict \u201cestablished that Mr. Trump \u2018raped\u2019 her, albeit digitally rather than with his penis.\u201d In some states, that would have been rape.<\/p>\n
We do have one thing in our favor, as far as the press goes. More and more readers are turning away from traditional news sources and are turning to major bloggers and organizations that are focusing on the truly important news of the day. They are reading bloggers like historian Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Hubbell, Joyce Vance and Robert Reich, and information from organizations like Indivisible (my favorite), Common Cause, Common Dreams, ACLU, the Contrarian, CREW, the Meidas Touch \u2013 among others.<\/p>\n
But mostly it is up to us, individual citizens who must take to the streets in ever-growing numbers, who will not give up. It is the people above all who have stopped dictators in the past, and it will be We the People who will stop Trump this time \u2013 just by regularly showing up, speaking out, and resisting however we can.<\/p>\n
Robert Hubbell put it this way: \u201cThe upwelling of institutional resistance \u2026 is due to the grassroots protests by concerned citizens who have demonstrated the political will to resist Trump. Resistance by the people reinforces judicial and institutional decisions to push back against Trump\u2019s vengeance-fueled reign of political terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if anyone wants to make a truly dramatic impact on the world today, and you think one person cannot make a difference, I have a suggestion for you. Rumors persist that Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act of 1870 Sunday or Monday \u2013 essentially, declare martial law — so he can send the armed forces and the National Guard to our southern border to stop illegal immigration. From there it would be just a short step to using the military against U.S. civilians, which he has said he would love to do even though doing so would probably violate the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Hence my suggestion: Use Go Fund Me to raise money to place a billboard near a military base (or billboards {plural} near military bases {plural}). The billboards should remind members of the armed services that they took an oath to serve the Constitution, not the president, and they must take great care to live up to that oath no matter what the consequences.<\/p>\n
Personally, I think it would be a badge of honor to accept a dishonorable discharge if it became necessary to live up to that oath.<\/p>\n
Onward and Upward!<\/p>\n
\nA FEW RELATED RESOURCES <\/strong>curated by the folks at GrowPurpose.com<\/strong><\/p>\n- \n
- Is Trump declaring martial law on Easter and what is the Insurrection Act of 1807?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Could Trump invoke Insurrection Act \u2013 and what powers would that give him?<\/a><\/li>\n
- James Carville Fears Trump Will Declare Martial Law and Rig the Elections<\/a><\/li>\n
- What Should We Do If Trump Invokes the Insurrection Act?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Democrats Are Getting Real About the New Anti-Trump Resistance: \u201cThe Final Check Is the People\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Could Trump invoke Insurrection Act \u2013 and what powers would that give him?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Is Trump declaring martial law on Easter and what is the Insurrection Act of 1807?<\/a><\/li>\n
![\"CLICK](\"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/CONTACT-ELECTED-OFFICIALS.jpg\")
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