"The former Librarian of Congress abruptly fired by President Donald Trump has found a new position with the country’s largest philanthropic supporter of the arts."
💜📚💜
#LibraryOfCongress #librarian #antifascism #bookbans #librarians #AmericanLibraryAssociation
Trump’s government cuts and the catastrophe in Texas: Here’s what we know – CNN What Matters
CNN What Matters
Trump’s government cuts and the catastrophe in Texas: Here’s what we knowAnalysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, 4 minute read, Published 5:47 PM EDT, Mon July 7, 2025
A large truck is impaled onto a tree after flash flooding on the bank Guadalupe River on July 5, in Center Point, Texas. Jim Vondruska / Getty ImagesCNN — President Donald Trump’s approach to the federal government has been to cut, cut, cut, which means when there is a disaster in which the government plays a role, he will have to expect questions about those cuts.
When there’s a plane crash, as there was days into his second term, the shortage of air traffic controllers will be scrutinized.
When the administration quietly backtracks on some layoffs and struggles to re-fill key positions, it will lead to concerns that cuts went too far.
When there’s a tragic flood that catches an area off-guard, the effect of his cuts on the National Weather Service and FEMA will become a line of inquiry.
The disaster in Texas continues
Flash floods killed at least 95 people over the July Fourth holiday, and many others are still missing. Rescue and recovery are still ongoing, so no one can say for sure that personnel cuts at the National Weather Service or open positions at forecasting offices in Texas amplified or even affected the flood’s tragic outcome.
There are many facts yet to be discovered, and a full investigation will certainly be conducted.
But Trump’s approach to weather and disasters is well-known
Recent reports about how staffing and budget cuts are affecting forecasting at the agency may ultimately be seen as an early warning.
“The National Weather Service is in worse shape than previously known, according to interviews with current and former meteorologists, due to a combination of layoffs, early retirements and preexisting vacancies,” CNN’s Andrew Freedman wrote back in May. The report also noted that a third of National Weather Service forecasting stations lacked a top meteorologist in charge.
There’s plenty more
CNN reported in April the Trump’s administration plans to close weather research laboratories and climate research programs meant to improve weather detection as the climate warms. That budget proposal was more recently submitted to Congress.
Project 2025, the conservative government blueprint that presaged many of the Trump administration’s decisions, called for much less federal spending on weather forecasting and more reliance on private companies.
FEMA’s future is in question
We also can’t say for sure that Trump’s hands-off approach to emergency management will affect recovery in Texas. In fact, Trump quickly declared the flood zone to be a major disaster area.
But he has also said he wants to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the federal government to play a much smaller role.
“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it back to the state level,” he said at the White House in June.
Asked if Trump is reconsidering that position in light of the horrible Texas floods, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this:
“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need. Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue. And the president has always said he wants states to do as much as they can, if not more.”
From article…
Trump’s government cuts and the catastrophe in Texas | CNN Politics
#2025 #America #ClimateChange #CNN #CNNWhatMatters #Disaster #DonaldTrump #Floods #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Texas #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Trump’s tariffs are unlawful: How the “nondelegation doctrine” limits Congress
July 7, 2025 · by Eric Bolinder
This guest post from Eric Bolinder, a professor of law at Liberty University, is based on his recent law review article on the constitutionality of President Trump’s tariffs. Before Liberty University, Eric was counsel at Cause of Action Institute, where he helped litigate Loper Bright, the case that overturned Chevron deference, and at Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Editor’s Note: A PDF file at the end of this post shows his recent law review article.
On April 2, President Trump announced “Liberation Day”—the imposition of across-the-board tariffs on imports into the United States. Without congressional action, these tariffs are highly vulnerable to legal challenges as they may violate something called the “nondelegation doctrine.” Recently, two courts, the Court of International Trade and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, enjoined the tariffs (though both decisions are stayed), finding that the President had no statutory authority to implement them. These courts echoed what I’ll discuss below, that if the statute does authorize tariffs, then they may be unconstitutional under the nondelegation doctrine.
First, a quick background. President Trump’s basis for the tariffs is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”). IEEPA allows the President to “deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat” coming from outside the United States.” Upon a declaration of a national emergency, the President can “investigate, regulate, or prohibit”—among many other broad powers—any transactions in which a foreign country or national has an interest. Accordingly, President Trump found that trade deficits and a lack of reciprocity from other nations is an “emergency.”
In a recent paper, I analyzed the history of the tariff power in America. Starting with the Boston Tea Party, I found that many of our founders and earliest presidents supported using tariffs for protectionist means or to achieve balanced trade with other nations, just as President Trump seeks now.
But this historical practice revealed a crucial distinction: Congress has, through legislation, always determined, set, and instituted the tariff schedules. Through America’s history, Congress has instituted tariff schedules and given the President the ability to turn them on if other nations are behaving badly, or to turn them off. This comports with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which exclusively reserves the tariff power for Congress:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises (U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8)
With few exceptions, courts have consistently upheld executive use of tariff power so long as the executive is engaging in a classic use of executive authority—finding facts and execution—after Congress engaged in core legislative authority—determining what to tariff and at what rates. The President cannot unilaterally create and design the tariffs himself.
Below is the PDF law review article, FYI.
ssrn-5228068DownloadRead more: Trump’s tariffs are unlawful: How the “nondelegation doctrine” limits Congress
Source Links: Trump’s tariffs are unlawful: How the “nondelegation doctrine” limits Congress – GovTrack.us
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How Trump is using the ‘Madman Theory’ to try to change the world (and it’s working) – BBC
BBCHow Trump is using the ‘Madman Theory’ to try to change the world (and it’s working)
1 day agoBy Allan Little, Senior correspondent
Asked last month whether he was planning to join Israel in attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump said “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.
He let the world believe he had agreed a two-week pause to allow Iran to resume negotiations. And then he bombed anyway.
A pattern is emerging: The most predictable thing about Trump is his unpredictability. He changes his mind. He contradicts himself. He is inconsistent.
“[Trump] has put together a highly centralised policy-making operation, arguably the most centralised, at least in the area of foreign policy, since Richard Nixon,” says Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.
“And that makes policy decisions more dependent on Trump’s character, his preferences, his temperament.”
Getty Images. Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding the Marine One presidential helicopter and departing the White House on 24 June 2025 in Washington DC. Getty ImagesTrump has learned to put his unpredictability to political use, making it a key strategic and political asset.
Trump has put this to political use; he has made his own unpredictability a key strategic and political asset. He has elevated unpredictability to the status of a doctrine. And now the personality trait he brought to the White House is driving foreign and security policy.
It is changing the shape of the world.
Political scientists call this the Madman Theory, in which a world leader seeks to persuade his adversary that he is temperamentally capable of anything, to extract concessions. Used successfully it can be a form of coercion and Trump believes it is paying dividends, getting the US’s allies where he wants them.
But is it an approach that can work against enemies? And could its flaw be that rather than being a sleight of hand designed to fool adversaries, it is in fact based on well established and clearly documented character traits, with the effect that his behaviour becomes easier to predict?
Attacks, insults and embraces
Trump began his second presidency by embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacking America’s allies. He insulted Canada by saying it should become the 51st state of the US.
He said he was prepared to consider using military force to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of America’s ally Denmark. And he said the US should retake ownership and control of the Panama Canal.
Article 5 of the Nato charter commits each member to come to the defence of all others. Trump threw America’s commitment to that into doubt. “I think Article 5 is on life support” declared Ben Wallace, Britain’s former defence secretary.
Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: “For now the trans-Atlantic alliance is over.”
A series of leaked text messages revealed the culture of contempt in Trump’s White House for European allies. “I fully share your loathing of European freeloaders,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told his colleagues, adding “PATHETIC”.
Read more: How Trump is using the ‘Madman Theory’ to try to change the world (and it’s working) – BBCSource Links: How Trump is using the ‘Madman Theory’ to try to change the world
#2025 #America #BBC #BBCNews #Books #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
The Truth About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare – Center for American Progress
Jul 3, 2025
The Truth About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare
The Center for American Progress and The Arc break down the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, exposing how its deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to benefit losses, increased paperwork requirements, and rural hospital closures that will hurt Americans—especially people with disabilities.By Mia Ives-Rublee, andKim Musheno
A sign that reads “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is seen by a desk after the the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump’s tax bill at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 3, 2025. (Getty /AFP/ Alex Wroblewski)This column is a collaboration between the Center for American Progress and The Arc.
Authors’ note: The disability community is rapidly evolving to use identity-first language in place of person-first language. This is because it views disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, prefer person-first language. In this column, the terms are used interchangeably.
On July 3, Congress passed the sweeping, regressive One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Amid the self-imposed rush to deliver the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4, many Americans will be looking for information about the bill, which was largely debated in the dead of night and pushed through at breakneck speed. This confusion has only been exacerbated by misleading and inaccurate statements about how and whether the bill’s cuts will affect people with disabilities.
In this column, the Center for American Progress and The Arc address the rhetoric surrounding the bill and unpack the devastating impacts that its deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, in particular, will have on people with disabilities.
Those who need Medicaid most, including people with disabilities and the elderly, will be affected by the bill’s cuts
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the OBBBA will cut federal spending on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits by $1.02 trillion, due in part to eliminating at least 10.5 million people from the programs by 2034. With new federal limits on Medicaid eligibility likely increasing the number of uninsured, along with other provisions that restrict states’ ability to raise revenue to fund their Medicaid programs, states will have to reevaluate their budgets to either supplement the spending or cut services. Research shows that when federal funding for Medicaid decreases, states tend to cut optional benefits such as home- and community-based (HCBS) first. It is nearly impossible to carve out a specific population, such as disabled people or elderly people, because the cuts to Medicaid funding will affect everyone due to hospital closures and health care workforce layoffs.
The bill will make it harder for states to fund home- and community-based services
The OBBBA creates a new category in 1915(c) HCBS waivers that will cover people who do not meet the existing requirement of needing an institutional level of care to receive HCBS. States would be allowed to apply to access this funding as long as their proposed program does not increase the average HCBS wait times for people who meet the need for institutional care. In order to implement this additional category, the federal government will provide $50 million in fiscal year 2026 and $100 million in fiscal year 2027. In 2020, average Medicaid per capita spending on HCBS was $36,275. Yet in the first year of the bill’s new HCBS waiver, funds from the bill would only be able to cover HCBS costs for about 27 people per state—without accounting for overhead spending or inflation. Moreover, states will be contending with massive federal funding losses due to the bill’s Medicaid cuts, which will likely lengthen wait times for HCBS, making them ineligible to establish the new category at all.
Medicaid paperwork requirements will cause eligible people to lose coverage
While some advocates of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act have claimed that it will “[stop] the subsidization of competent adults who are just choosing to not work,” the reality is that nearly all Medicaid recipients who aren’t automatically eligible based on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and are able to work are already working. Indeed, only 8 percent of recipients between the ages of 19 and 64 who weren’t on SSI or SSDI in 2023 “[weren’t] working due to retirement, inability to find work, or other reason[s].” Those who were not working were statistically more likely to be older women who left the workforce to care for aging parents or children.
The OBBBA requires individuals to prove that they are working, engaging in community service, or receiving work training for at least 80 hours per month—or that they are enrolled in school part time—unless they qualify for an exemption. Medicaid enrollees who are trying to find a job, are having difficulty finding employment, or who lack reliable transportation to work would be penalized under this requirement. That includes at least more than 2.6 million adults with disabilities who don’t have SSI or SSDI and have difficulty working due to disability or illness.
Research indicates that paperwork requirements such as those in the bill—particularly for Medicaid—don’t increase employment rates and often increase overhead costs. A group of researchers evaluated the first year of paperwork reporting requirements in Arkansas and found that there was a significant loss of Medicaid coverage in the initial six months among eligible people and no significant change in employment. Georgia also implemented a trial program, called Pathways, that included paperwork requirements, and state caseworkers found the monthly verification of employment overly burdensome. To date, taxpayers have spent more than $86 million on Pathways only to have 6,500 participants enrolled in the first 18 months of the program—75 percent fewer enrollees than the state had estimated would participate in year one.
The bill will put rural hospitals at risk
Read more: The Truth About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare – Center for American ProgressSource Links: The Truth About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare – Center for American Progress
#2025 #America #CenterForAmericanProgress #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Roll Call 190 | Bill Number: H. R. 1 – How the Republicans (GOP) Voted to Harm America and Americans – Targets for Dump the Trump, November 2026.
Roll Call 190 | Bill Number: H. R. 1
Jul 03, 2025, 02:31 PM | 119th Congress, 1st Session
Vote Question: On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment, One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Vote Type: Recorded Vote
Status: Passed
VOTES
Aye: 218
No: 214
present: 0
not voting: 0Votes by party
votes by party
Party Ayes Noes Present Not Voting
Republican 218 2 0 0
Democratic 0 212 0 0
Independent 0 0 0 0
Total 218 214 0 0All votes, Name, Party, State, Votes, All votes
All votes
Name Party State Votes
RepresentativePartyStateVoteAderholtRepublicanAlabamaAyeAlfordRepublicanMissouriAyeAllenRepublicanGeorgiaAyeAmodei (NV)RepublicanNevadaAyeArringtonRepublicanTexasAyeBabinRepublicanTexasAyeBaconRepublicanNebraskaAyeBairdRepublicanIndianaAyeBaldersonRepublicanOhioAyeBarrRepublicanKentuckyAyeBarrettRepublicanMichiganAyeBaumgartnerRepublicanWashingtonAyeBean (FL)RepublicanFloridaAyeBegichRepublicanAlaskaAyeBentzRepublicanOregonAyeBergmanRepublicanMichiganAyeBiceRepublicanOklahomaAyeBiggs (AZ)RepublicanArizonaAyeBiggs (SC)RepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeBilirakisRepublicanFloridaAyeBoebertRepublicanColoradoAyeBostRepublicanIllinoisAyeBrecheenRepublicanOklahomaAyeBresnahanRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeBuchananRepublicanFloridaAyeBurchettRepublicanTennesseeAyeBurlisonRepublicanMissouriAyeCalvertRepublicanCaliforniaAyeCammackRepublicanFloridaAyeCareyRepublicanOhioAyeCarter (GA)RepublicanGeorgiaAyeCarter (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeCiscomaniRepublicanArizonaAyeClineRepublicanVirginiaAyeCloudRepublicanTexasAyeClydeRepublicanGeorgiaAyeColeRepublicanOklahomaAyeCollinsRepublicanGeorgiaAyeComerRepublicanKentuckyAyeCraneRepublicanArizonaAyeCrankRepublicanColoradoAyeCrawfordRepublicanArkansasAyeCrenshawRepublicanTexasAyeDavidsonRepublicanOhioAyeDe La CruzRepublicanTexasAyeDesJarlaisRepublicanTennesseeAyeDiaz-BalartRepublicanFloridaAyeDonaldsRepublicanFloridaAyeDowningRepublicanMontanaAyeDunn (FL)RepublicanFloridaAyeEdwardsRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeEllzeyRepublicanTexasAyeEmmerRepublicanMinnesotaAyeEstesRepublicanKansasAyeEvans (CO)RepublicanColoradoAyeEzellRepublicanMississippiAyeFallonRepublicanTexasAyeFedorchakRepublicanNorth DakotaAyeFeenstraRepublicanIowaAyeFineRepublicanFloridaAyeFinstadRepublicanMinnesotaAyeFischbachRepublicanMinnesotaAyeFitzgeraldRepublicanWisconsinAyeFitzpatrickRepublicanPennsylvaniaNoFleischmannRepublicanTennesseeAyeFloodRepublicanNebraskaAyeFongRepublicanCaliforniaAyeFoxxRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeFranklin, ScottRepublicanFloridaAyeFryRepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeFulcherRepublicanIdahoAyeGarbarinoRepublicanNew YorkAyeGill (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeGimenezRepublicanFloridaAyeGoldman (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeGonzales, TonyRepublicanTexasAyeGoodenRepublicanTexasAyeGosarRepublicanArizonaAyeGravesRepublicanMissouriAyeGreen (TN)RepublicanTennesseeAyeGreene (GA)RepublicanGeorgiaAyeGriffithRepublicanVirginiaAyeGrothmanRepublicanWisconsinAyeGuestRepublicanMississippiAyeGuthrieRepublicanKentuckyAyeHagemanRepublicanWyomingAyeHamadeh (AZ)RepublicanArizonaAyeHaridopolosRepublicanFloridaAyeHarriganRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeHarris (MD)RepublicanMarylandAyeHarris (NC)RepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeHarshbargerRepublicanTennesseeAyeHern (OK)RepublicanOklahomaAyeHiggins (LA)RepublicanLouisianaAyeHill (AR)RepublicanArkansasAyeHinsonRepublicanIowaAyeHouchinRepublicanIndianaAyeHudsonRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeHuizengaRepublicanMichiganAyeHuntRepublicanTexasAyeHurd (CO)RepublicanColoradoAyeIssaRepublicanCaliforniaAyeJackRepublicanGeorgiaAyeJackson (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeJamesRepublicanMichiganAyeJohnson (LA)RepublicanLouisianaAyeJohnson (SD)RepublicanSouth DakotaAyeJordanRepublicanOhioAyeJoyce (OH)RepublicanOhioAyeJoyce (PA)RepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeKeanRepublicanNew JerseyAyeKelly (MS)RepublicanMississippiAyeKelly (PA)RepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeKennedy (UT)RepublicanUtahAyeKiggans (VA)RepublicanVirginiaAyeKiley (CA)RepublicanCaliforniaAyeKimRepublicanCaliforniaAyeKnottRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeKustoffRepublicanTennesseeAyeLaHoodRepublicanIllinoisAyeLaLotaRepublicanNew YorkAyeLaMalfaRepublicanCaliforniaAyeLangworthyRepublicanNew YorkAyeLattaRepublicanOhioAyeLawlerRepublicanNew YorkAyeLee (FL)RepublicanFloridaAyeLetlowRepublicanLouisianaAyeLoudermilkRepublicanGeorgiaAyeLucasRepublicanOklahomaAyeLunaRepublicanFloridaAyeLuttrellRepublicanTexasAyeMaceRepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeMackenzieRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeMalliotakisRepublicanNew YorkAyeMaloyRepublicanUtahAyeMannRepublicanKansasAyeMassieRepublicanKentuckyNoMastRepublicanFloridaAyeMcCaulRepublicanTexasAyeMcClainRepublicanMichiganAyeMcClintockRepublicanCaliforniaAyeMcCormickRepublicanGeorgiaAyeMcDowellRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeMcGuireRepublicanVirginiaAyeMessmerRepublicanIndianaAyeMeuserRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeMiller (IL)RepublicanIllinoisAyeMiller (OH)RepublicanOhioAyeMiller (WV)RepublicanWest VirginiaAyeMiller-MeeksRepublicanIowaAyeMillsRepublicanFloridaAyeMoolenaarRepublicanMichiganAyeMoore (AL)RepublicanAlabamaAyeMoore (NC)RepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeMoore (UT)RepublicanUtahAyeMoore (WV)RepublicanWest VirginiaAyeMoranRepublicanTexasAyeMurphyRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeNehlsRepublicanTexasAyeNewhouseRepublicanWashingtonAyeNormanRepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeNunn (IA)RepublicanIowaAyeObernolteRepublicanCaliforniaAyeOglesRepublicanTennesseeAyeOnderRepublicanMissouriAyeOwensRepublicanUtahAyePalmerRepublicanAlabamaAyePatronisRepublicanFloridaAyePerryRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyePflugerRepublicanTexasAyeReschenthalerRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeRogers (AL)RepublicanAlabamaAyeRogers (KY)RepublicanKentuckyAyeRoseRepublicanTennesseeAyeRouzerRepublicanNorth CarolinaAyeRoyRepublicanTexasAyeRulliRepublicanOhioAyeRutherfordRepublicanFloridaAyeSalazarRepublicanFloridaAyeScaliseRepublicanLouisianaAyeSchmidtRepublicanKansasAyeSchweikertRepublicanArizonaAyeScott, AustinRepublicanGeorgiaAyeSelfRepublicanTexasAyeSessionsRepublicanTexasAyeShreveRepublicanIndianaAyeSimpsonRepublicanIdahoAyeSmith (MO)RepublicanMissouriAyeSmith (NE)RepublicanNebraskaAyeSmith (NJ)RepublicanNew JerseyAyeSmuckerRepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeSpartzRepublicanIndianaAyeStauberRepublicanMinnesotaAyeStefanikRepublicanNew YorkAyeSteilRepublicanWisconsinAyeSteubeRepublicanFloridaAyeStrongRepublicanAlabamaAyeStutzmanRepublicanIndianaAyeTaylorRepublicanOhioAyeTenneyRepublicanNew YorkAyeThompson (PA)RepublicanPennsylvaniaAyeTiffanyRepublicanWisconsinAyeTimmonsRepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeTurner (OH)RepublicanOhioAyeValadaoRepublicanCaliforniaAyeVan DrewRepublicanNew JerseyAyeVan DuyneRepublicanTexasAyeVan OrdenRepublicanWisconsinAyeWagnerRepublicanMissouriAyeWalbergRepublicanMichiganAyeWeber (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeWebster (FL)RepublicanFloridaAyeWestermanRepublicanArkansasAyeWiedRepublicanWisconsinAyeWilliams (TX)RepublicanTexasAyeWilson (SC)RepublicanSouth CarolinaAyeWittmanRepublicanVirginiaAyeWomackRepublicanArkansasAyeYakymRepublicanIndianaAyeZinkeRepublicanMontanaAyeDirect link: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025190
Source Links: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives – Vote Details
#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #GOP #Health #History #HR1 #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Republicans #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #VotedForHR1
Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump – Current Affairs
From article…Current Affairs,
A Magazine of Politics and Culture
Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated TrumpThey rejected kings and were sincerely concerned about the possibility of a dictatorship. But we need to move past founder-worship and focus on justice.
By Nathan J. Robinson, filed 04 July 2025 in History
Trump Run Out of DC by Founding Fathers by Michael McCulley is marked CC0 1.0 Universal An AI image, free to use…On July 4th, we can say one thing for sure about the Founding Fathers: they would have fucking hated Donald Trump. Trump may have revived the 18th century practice of capitalizing letters seemingly at random (the Declaration of Independence says “He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country,” while Trump posts things like “Iowa voted for me THREE TIMES, because they love my Policies for our Wonderful Farmers and Small Businesses”). But the founders were thoughtful about executive power. They detested monarchy. They had long philosophical debates over exactly how the government should keep from turning into a tyranny. Trump, meanwhile, flagrantly violates the Constitution in both domestic and foreign affairs.
Of course, we should approach the founding generation with deep skepticism. For one thing, we know that most of them were morally blind on the most important issue of their day, slavery. Thomas Jefferson kept people enslaved while knowing full well that it was wrong, and ignored the pleas of ex-slave Benjamin Banneker, who wrote to him personally to beg him to live up to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The majority of Americans (women, Black people, Native Americans) were excluded from participating in democracy at the founding of the country, which undermines the legitimacy of the entire Constitution.
Nevertheless, it’s striking just how far the current president’s view of executive power departs from the original vision of the framers, the men that the American right ostensibly worships and whose “original” vision they say they want to emulate. Take borders, for instance. Trump recently proudly presided over the opening of a brutal new swamp prison for immigrants. Trump was amused at the prospect that if they tried to escape, the immigrants would be attacked and possibly eaten by alligators. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt boasted that “Alligator Alcatraz” was “isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain.” Thousands of people will be housed in tents there even in the punishing Florida heat, part of Trump’s effort to fulfill his plan to kick millions of people out of the country who have done nothing except work difficult jobs in construction and agriculture.
Read more: Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump – Current AffairsSource Links: Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump
#2025 #America #CurrentAffairs #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Dan Rather on Paramount’s $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President’ (EXCLUSIVE) – Variety
Jul 2, 2025 7:11pm PT
Dan Rather on Paramount’s $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President’ (EXCLUSIVE)
dan rather, tim knox eyevine/reduxLegendary former CBS News anchor Dan Rather expressed disappointment Wednesday at Paramount Global‘s decision to pay $16 million to the Trump administration and settle its lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” report.
“It’s a sad day for journalism,” Rather told Variety. “It’s a sad day for ’60 Minutes’ and CBS News. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the President and a kneeling down and saying, ‘yes, sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.
Read more: Dan Rather on Paramount’s $16 Million Trump Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out to Extortion by the President’ (EXCLUSIVE) – VarietySource Links: Dan Rather on Paramount’s Trump Suit Settlement: ‘It Was a Sell-Out’
#2025 #60Minutes #America #CBSNews #DanRather #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Paramount #Politics #Resistance #Science #Television #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #Variety
Did My Father’s World Die with Him? Grieving the Incalculable Costs of “STEM.” – The Scholarly Kitchen
Source: “This isn’t just (only) a historian special pleading for the humanities; it’s in the originating legislation for the NEH that employs the same language of national purpose and service as the NSF’s:This isn’t just (only) a historian special pleading for the humanities; it’s in the originating legislation for the NEH that employs the same language of national purpose and service as the NSF’s:”
“An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future….Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. It must therefore foster and support a form of education, and access to the arts and the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.”
“We all have a picture of the world, an idea of what is real, inside which we live. Sudden disaster–the death of a loved one, the loss of a vital job, a murder, a meltdown at a nearby nuclear reactor–breaks that picture and we have to try to reconstruct it, or something like it, or something completely different.”
Salmon Rushdie, “A Sundering,” in Suleika Jaouad, The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (2025), 271.
He would say something like but gravity isn’t political, and Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 – that’s fact, not interpretation. And I would say, yes, gravity itself the physical force isn’t political, but how we come to research and understand and then harness it absolutely is political, distributed by human relationships and negotiations of power. And while Benjamin Franklin was indeed born, that we choose to frame the event as such reflects our priorities; we could instead note that Abiah Folger Franklin labored long in a period of high maternal mortality to deliver the eighth of her 10 children, whom she named Benjamin. These were the kinds of conversations we had, my dad and I, scientist to humanist, secure in the parameters of a world committed to knowledge.
My father, an early and prominent computer scientist, passed away more than two years ago. Since then I’ve been trying to make sense of how rapidly the world that helped make him, and in turn the one he helped shape, is unraveling. Like many Americans of my generation, I have parents who lived their lives in the wake of World War II and all that the war’s end meant for the United States – what we convinced ourselves we were committed to at home and around the world. An academic, entrepreneur, public servant, and leader, my dad believed as deeply in America as he did in science – and in the inexhaustible value of higher education and scientific research for the nation. Child of an immigrant father, he invested wholly in what he was certain made the US great: the historic partnerships among academic, government, and industry institutions that were part of a post-war commitment to expanding opportunity, and to keeping the US at the economic and innovation pinnacle. This sense of national interest and national purpose was just as deeply rooted in an ideal of global collaboration.1
These broad commitments and the structures to underpin them were blown forward from the mid- into the late twentieth century by gale force political winds. As a historian, I loved talking with my dad about that context, and how those winds might change. Now that they have, grieving his death feels inextricably tangled with grieving the catastrophe now overtaking the world he believed in.
From article…This is a more personal post than most; over the last 10 years I’ve loved writing here, and learning from and with The Scholarly Kitchen (TSK) and SSP community. It has felt important to speak and write about the humanities for a scholarly communications industry dominated by the needs and interests of STEM research and publication, and it’s been a privilege to share ideas about the biggest issues that influence scholarship across disciplines. It’s not an accident that the conversations I had with my dad about how and why the STEM-ified nexus of US academia, research, and policy looks the way it does echoed alarms I’ve raised in TSK pieces over the years. These include questions about industry specifics like monolithic Open Access and the citation metrics game; about the landscapes of social media and legacy media; and perhaps further afield a failure of attribution culture in historical fiction that nonetheless felt to me like a perfect exemplar of taking humanities knowledge infrastructure for granted.
Source from: Library Link of the Day
http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/ (archive, rss, subscribe options)Source Links: Did My Father’s World Die with Him? Grieving the Incalculable Costs of “STEM.” – The Scholarly Kitchen
#2025 #America #Books #DonaldTrump #Engineering #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Mathematics #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #STEM #Technology #TheScholarlyKitchen #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Live Rep. Hakeem Jeffries – House – C-SPAN – July 3, 2025
Editor’s Note: Do not forget his speech… the protest goes on… Dump the Trump, Nov 2026
https://www.c-span.org/networks
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/politics/video/hakeem-jeffries-magic-minute-house-speech-contd-digvid
#2025 #America #CSPAN #DonaldTrump #HakeemJeffries #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USHouseOfRepresentatives #UnitedStates
Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection – Politico
Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection
The document circulated Wednesday as GOP leaders sought the hard-liners’ support.
By Meredith Lee Hill, 07/02/2025, 12:51pm ET
The House Freedom Caucus is circulating a memo sharply criticizing the Senate-passed GOP megabill as Republican leaders work to secure hard-liners’ votes Wednesday.
The three-page document seizes on more than a dozen modifications to the bill made after it passed the House in May. Some, but not all, were due to Senate budget rules requiring the elimination of some provisions to sidestep a Democratic filibuster.
One issue that cannot be entirely attributed to decisions made by the Senate parliamentarian include the revised bill’s outsized deficit impact: “The bill violates the House framework of $1 of tax cuts for $1 of spending cuts (with 2.6% economic growth), increases the deficit by $761 billion without interest and more $1.3 trillion with interest after changes were made in base text and a wrap-around amendment was adopted,” the memo says. “This was not what Leader [John] Thune and Speaker [Mike] Johnson promised.”
The House could be in for another all-nighter
House GOP leadership is optimistic they’ll get the holdouts to flip in the coming hours. But once a deal is reached, it could take several more hours to complete the process of sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Members will have to take a vote on the rule setting up floor consideration of the bill, which provides for one hour of debate. But that could go considerably longer: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to give an extended “magic minute” speech which would not be deducted from the official debate time.
By Meredith Lee Hill and Mike DeBonis
07/02/2025, 6:54pm ETSee the memo below…
house-freedom-caucus-critique-of-senate-passed-megabillDownloadSource Links: Another all-nighter? – Live Updates – POLITICO
#2025 #America #Congress #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politico #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Library of Congress - Washington DC #art #photography #architecture #STUNDAY #EastCoastKin #SundayShadows #SilentSunday#urbanphotography #architecturephotography #LibraryOfCongress #WashingtonDC #BookSky #Libraries #library #LoveLibraries 📸©helene-cook.eu
An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. – H.R. 1
In the Senate of the United States,July 1 (legislative day, June 30), 2025.Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 1) entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.’’, do pass with the following
Editor’s Note: Here’s your personal copy of this ugly bill, 870 page ugly, as passed on July 3rd, 2025.
BILLS-119hr1easDownloadSource Links: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025190
#2025 #America #BigUglyBill #California #Clerk #DonaldTrump #Health #History #HR1 #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USHouseOfRepresentatives #UnitedStates
7/4/2025 – Liberty Lament – DrWeb’s Domain
#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #DumpTheTrump #Health #History #July4 #LibertyLament #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Who was Alan Lomax? 🎵
Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) spent almost 70 years as a folklorist and ethnographer, collecting, archiving, and analyzing folksongs and music in America.
www.loc.gov/item/n500394...
#AlanLomax #FolkMusic #LibraryOfCongress #music
Alan Lomax (1915 – 2002)
Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection – Politico
Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection
The document circulated Wednesday as GOP leaders sought the hard-liners’ support. Meredith Lee Hill
By Meredith Lee Hill, 07/02/2025, 12:51pm ET
The House Freedom Caucus is circulating a memo sharply criticizing the Senate-passed GOP megabill as Republican leaders work to secure hard-liners’ votes Wednesday.
The three-page document seizes on more than a dozen modifications to the bill made after it passed the House in May. Some, but not all, were due to Senate budget rules requiring the elimination of some provisions to sidestep a Democratic filibuster.
One issue that cannot be entirely attributed to decisions made by the Senate parliamentarian include the revised bill’s outsized deficit impact: “The bill violates the House framework of $1 of tax cuts for $1 of spending cuts (with 2.6% economic growth), increases the deficit by $761 billion without interest and more $1.3 trillion with interest after changes were made in base text and a wrap-around amendment was adopted,” the memo says. “This was not what Leader [John] Thune and Speaker [Mike] Johnson promised.”
Editor’s Note: The 3-page document is attached below in PDF.
house-freedom-caucus-critique-of-senate-passed-megabillDownloadRead more: Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection – PoliticoSource Links: Inside Congress Live
#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #FreedomCaucus #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USHouseOfRepresentatives #USSenate #UnitedStates
GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE “Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation” – Democracy Now
GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE “Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation”
Story, July 02, 2025, Watch Full Show
ListenGuests
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.Links
“What’s in the 2025 Reconciliation Bill So Far?”The budget bill just passed by the Senate provides more than $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement and detention. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, who worked on an analysis published by the American Immigration Council, says the new budget would make ICE “the single largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation.”
Transcript: (not final)
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
Much of the discussion around Trump’s budget bill has focused on the massive cuts to Medicaid, the tax giveaways to the rich, and the impact on the national debt to the tune of $3 trillion. Meanwhile, Vice President Vance, who cast the tie-breaking vote, was focused elsewhere: on immigration. He wrote on social media, quote, “Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions,” unquote.
This bill provides a whopping $170 billion to transform immigration enforcement and detention. This includes $45 billion for new detention jails. That’s 265% more than the current ICE detention budget and more than the budget of the federal prison system. ICE’s enforcement budget would increase by $30 billion, a threefold increase, and there’s some $46 billion for border walls and more. American Immigration Council calls the bill, quote, “the largest investment in detention and deportation in US history; a policy choice that does nothing to address the systemic failures of our immigration system while inflicting harm, sowing chaos, and tearing families apart,” unquote.
For more, we’re joined by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which just published the in-depth analysis of the immigration enforcement provisions of the bill.
Aaron, welcome back to Democracy Now! So, you have the bill being passed, eked through, needed the vice president to pass the — to cast the tie-breaking vote. And Trump wasn’t celebrating in D.C. He was deflecting attention from the millions who would lose Medicaid funding, something like 17 million, to go to what he’s calling “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades. Talk about the significance of this and this proposed massive increase to the ICE budget.
AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK: Yeah, if we look at the reconciliation bill, we can see that the amount of funding that ICE would get under this bill would be transformative for the agency. We’re talking nearly 20 years’ worth of detention funding to be spent only in a four-year period, and an increase to ICE’s enforcement budget beyond anything we’ve ever seen before, allowing the agency to expand mass deportations over the next four years to every community nationwide.
Read more: GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE “Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation” – Democracy NowSource Links: GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE “Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation” | Democracy Now!
#2025 #America #AmericanDemocracy #Books #California #DemocracyNow #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
Anne Deysine, US law expert: ‘We are experiencing the dawn of a lawless society’ – Le Monde (English)
Opinion
Donald TrumpAnne Deysine, US law expert: ‘We are experiencing the dawn of a lawless society’
In an interview, Anne Deysine, a US law specialist, explains that the US Supreme Court’s June 27 ruling would lead to institutional ‘chaos,’ as Trump is now able to keep changing US institutions and society through his executive orders, which are often illegal.Interview by Pascal Riché, Published on July 1, 2025, at 3:00 am (Paris), 4 min read Lire en français
On Friday, June 27, the US Supreme Court limited the power of federal judges: They will no longer be able to suspend the application of executive orders through “universal injunctions.” The case concerned an executive order abolishing birthright citizenship, in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Many legal challenges had been brought against the executive order, not only by 22 states, but also by migrant advocacy groups and several pregnant mothers who sought to protect the rights of their unborn children.
Anne Deysine, a legal expert and American studies specialist, emeritus professor at the University of Nanterre, says in an interview that the US Supreme Court’s decision will lead to chaos and threaten civil liberties.
Is the Supreme Court’s decision a political one?
It is certainly political. If the Trump administration requested the Supreme Court intervene urgently, it was not because it was seeking to defend the legality of the executive order ending automatic citizenship for any child born on US soil, but to ask the court to suspend so-called “universal” injunctions issued by federal judges in lower courts and upheld on appeal. Yet when many executive orders issued by the Biden administration – such as those mandating vaccinations, for example – were also suspended using the same type of universal injunctions, the court did nothing.
Read more: Anne Deysine, US law expert: ‘We are experiencing the dawn of a lawless society’ – Le Monde (English)Source Links: Anne Deysine, US law expert: ‘We are experiencing the dawn of a lawless society’
#LeMonde_ #2025 #America #Books #DonaldTrump #Health #History #LegalCases #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration
Remembering veteran PBS newscaster Bill Moyers – National Public Radio (NPR)
Headshot of Terry GrossFresh Air, Media
Remembering veteran PBS newscaster Bill Moyers
July 1, 202510:44 AM ET, Heard on Fresh AirTerry Gross, 45-Minute Listen, Transcript,
20250701_fa_590c1c13-0a1f-448c-9acc-4c2c0b9f3bc9Listen to the Fresh Air ShowMoyers, who died June 26, worked as a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson before becoming an award-winning journalist and PBS host. Originally broadcast in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2017.
Hear the Original Interviews
Health Care, Bill Moyers On Working With LBJ To Pass Medicare 52 Years Ago
Fresh Air, Bill Moyers’ View Of Contemporary America, Bill Moyers’ View Of Contemporary America
Read more: Remembering veteran PBS newscaster Bill Moyers – National Public Radio (NPR)Source Links: Remembering veteran PBS newscaster Bill Moyers : NPR
#2025 #America #Books #DonaldTrump #FreshAir #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #NPR #Politics #Resistance #Science #TerryGross #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
@jonny this entire thread is amazing, top-notch tool development for a noble cause.
@ #academia : if you feel desperate about the wholesale breakdown of science under the current US administration, consider helping out with #SciOp: Decentralized backups of datasets under threat, in a torrent swarm.
Have a disused laptop or Raspi? Make it part of the swarm and take the data outside the US (or any) administration's grasp!
#scienceunderattack #bittorrent #decentralizedbackup #libraryofcongress
