Category: Economics / Economy / Income / Financial
Everyone’s FINALLY Admitting Bernie Sanders was Right About Everything
Trump’s inauguration is just days away. It didn’t have to be this way. In fact, Bernie Sanders warned the Democratic Party that Americans would fall for a far right demagogue if their material needs weren’t addressed. Hacks in the Democratic Party and mainstream media are finally admitting Bernie Sanders was right. In this video we explain why his theory of change was 100% correct and look back at how Democratic Party elites sabotaged the very movement that could’ve saved us all from Trump’s rise.
This could be a resource, or you could be or know of a resource
Either way, I thought I’d paste it in here, and whoever needs it, wants it, or knows something about it can do their thing. The title leans in one particular direction, but there is more info within, and I pasted it all here.
Seeking trans-friendly employers who sponsor visas
Nobody should have to move to another country to be themselves.
However, I’ve spoken to multiple people who feel they need to move away from the US in order to avoid harms caused by the new administration’s executive orders that target trans people. Exactly how to do this is sometimes opaque and feels difficult.
If you are actively hiring for positions in a company that is friendly to transgender people, in a country that is safe for transgender people, and you are willing to sponsor visas for people seeking to emigrate for these positions, I would like to hear from you.
If this is you, please enter your details here, and I’ll make them available on a public, open source website soon.
If you’re unsure which countries are considered to be safe for transgender people, and if your country is one, Rainbow Relocation has a reasonable list, and others are available.
To be clear: I want trans people to feel safe here in the United States, and I want them to be here. But I also understand peoples’ need to feel safe in the current moment. I am not urging people to move, but I would like to make life easier for people who want to. I’m making this request in the spirit of assistance, because I’ve already been asked.
I am also probably not the right person to put this together! But I didn’t see anyone else doing it. If you are from a reputable organization that supports transgender safety in a professional way, and you would like to take ownership of this list or collaborate, or if you are already doing something like this and I missed it, please email me at ben@benwerd.com.
I’m writing about the intersection of the internet, media, and society. Sign up to my newsletter to receive every post and a weekly digest of the most important stories from around the web.
NH man accused of civil rights violation in LGBTQ sign thefts
Maga cult members and the fundamentalist Christians (maybe they are the same) are feeling very emboldened. They feel they have the right to erase those they don’t like or agree with. Remember their refrain is to make America great again and take back their country back. Their country, only theirs. No one else matters, no one else should be here if they disagree with them or live differently from the maga Christians. They want a country for only them by only them. We really have to fight this hard. Hugs.
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Frank Hobbs Jr. is accused of stealing signs supporting gay rights from an intersection in Goffstown, New Hampshire, during Pride Month
By Michael Rosenfield
A New Hampshire man is under investigation for possible civil rights violations.
Frank Hobbs Jr. is accused of swiping someone else’s signs supporting gay rights.
New Hampshire authorities say Hobbs was caught on camera stealing signs from a Goffstown intersection.
A woman had lawfully placed signs in support of the LGBTQ community, and when one of them disappeared, she decided to do some detective work.
“She set up a trail camera to monitor the intersection and make sure her signs weren’t taken down,” said Senior Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Sean Locke.
Sure enough, that camera recorded another theft taking place.
“She was able to capture someone on video coming to the intersection removing the signs and driving away,” said Locke.
It happened last June during Pride Month, and the New Hampshire Department of Justice has now filed a complaint against Hobbs accusing him of civil rights violations.
Local law enforcement said he was easily recognizable because he’s well known in the community.
According to court documents, Hobbs denied knowing anything about the incident, but when informed there were photos, he said he’d been told by people at Town Hall he could remove signs that displayed “pedophile symbols” and that he found the signs offensive.
“These identity-based or bias-based behaviors and unlawful acts create a perception in the community that this may not be a safe place if you’re a person who identifies as LGBTQ+ if these signs are getting torn down,” said Locke.
Hobbs has not returned multiple requests for comment.
He will have a hearing and is facing thousands of dollars in fines depending on what a judge decides.
OK, So There Is Bad News Within,
but the reason I’m posting it is so we can be aware, and be better able to help our own neighbors locally. It may not be ours to start writing letters and calling on ACLU or any of those things, but maybe simply keeping our eyes open for the regular people we know or interact with. So here is this, which came to me from Death Penalty Action. It’s the first 10 EO’s issued today, plus some policy info.
All of the Day 1 executive actions Trump has announced so far
Updated January 20, 20251:50 PM ET By Lexie Schapitl Franco Ordoñez
For updates, context and analysis of Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, check out NPR’s live blog throughout the day Monday.
President Trump is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders, memorandums and proclamations after his inauguration on Monday, reversing many of his predecessors’ policies and reinstating actions from his first term in office.
The actions are expected to address a range of issues, including campaign priorities like border security and culture war issues like DEI policies.
Here’s what we know so far:
Immigration
Trump is expected to declare a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, designate criminal cartels as terror groups and end birthright citizenship for children born to immigrant parents without legal status, according to incoming White House officials who spoke to reporters on a call on condition of background.
Trump will also reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which would require some asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court, the officials said.
The moves are some of 10 sweeping executive actions on border security that incoming officials say Trump plans to sign on Monday:
- Declare a national emergency at the border: The officials on the call said this action will allow U.S. armed forces to finish the border wall and allow the secretary of defense to deploy members of the armed forces and National Guard to the border.
- “Clarify” the military’s role in border security: This action “directs the military to prioritize our borders” and protect territorial integrity “by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities,” the officials said.
- End “catch and release,” continue building the wall, and end “Remain in Mexico”
- Designate criminal cartels as terrorists: This will allow the U.S. to more easily remove members of groups like Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela, and MS-13.
- Suspend refugee resettlement: The official said the U.S. would suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months.
- End asylum and close the border to those without legal status via proclamation: Officials said they are planning to end asylum entirely and close the border to those without legal status via proclamation, “which creates an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum.”
- End birthright citizenship: The officials said the White House plans to end birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. They argued the amendment does not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents without legal status. This action is likely to see immediate legal challenges.
- Enhance vetting and screening: The officials said they are going to “enhance vetting and screening of illegal aliens.”
- “Protect American citizens against invasion”: Officials said this “equips agents and officers of ICE and CBP with the authorities” they need to deport people from the U.S.
- Restore the death penalty: “This action in particular, directs the Attorney General to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal aliens. It encourages state agencies and district attorneys to bring capital state charges for these crimes,” the officials said.
Read more from NPR’s Ximena Bustillo.
Defining ‘sex’ and ending DEI programs
Trump will sign an executive action on Monday that says it’s the policy of the United States to recognize two biologically distinct sexes — male and female — an incoming White House official speaking on background told reporters Monday.
“These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the official said.
The change will require government agencies to use the definitions on documents like passports, visas and employee records the official said. Taxpayer funds will not be allowed to be used for “transition services,” the official said.
A second action will end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, the official said, giving as examples environmental justice programs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as diversity training.
National energy emergency and “electric vehicle mandate”
Trump intends to declare a national energy emergency on Monday, aiming to cut red tape and regulations for the energy industry, and a second one specific to Alaskan resources, an incoming White House official told reporters on a background conference call.
“That national energy emergency will unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce coal and natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” the official said. The official said energy prices are too high, but declined on the call to name a lower target price.
The action will end what incoming Trump officials call the “electric vehicle mandate” and will end “efforts to curtail consumer choice on the things that consumers use every single day, whether it be showerheads, whether it be gas stoves, whether it be dishwashers and the like,” the official said.
Trump has long railed against energy efficiency standards on the campaign trail, and specifically taken aim at “electric vehicle mandates,” a term he uses to encompass all policies designed to encourage a transition to battery-powered cars. Rules actually requiring 100% of vehicles to be electric do not exist on the federal level.
Inflation
Trump will sign a presidential memorandum on inflation Monday, an official from the incoming administration said. The official did not provide additional details.
NPR correspondents Tamara Keith, Ximena Bustillo and Camila Domonoske contributed to this report.
Useful Info for We Who Care
DEI in the Age of Trump: A Roadmap on How to Build More Just Communities in the Next Four Years
PUBLISHED 1/18/2025 by Nilanjana Dasgupta
With Trump’s second presidential administration looming before us, Americans who care deeply about equality and social justice are asking ourselves: What now? How do we move forward in this dramatically changed political and legislative climate? What actions will have a fighting chance of getting traction? What is the most effective sphere of influence for individuals?
A high priority of Trump’s agenda for his second presidential term is to eliminate diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in federal agencies and to also take away federal funding from agencies, contractors and organizations that have DEI programs. This, together with the repeal of affirmative action in college admissions by the U.S Supreme Court, makes many initiatives related to diversity and civil rights a target for the second Trump administration.
The truth is some diversity, equity and inclusion programs, like training, haven’t worked. Research shows that while DEI trainings increase attendees’ awareness and knowledge about bias, there’s little evidence of changes in attendees’ behavior, nor increased diversity in the types of people hired, promoted, retained or more inclusive climate in the organizations where such training is implemented. Sometimes DEI training backfires, creating resentment and resistance when people feel coerced.
In my new book, Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities, I explain why.
DEI training tries to change individuals’ beliefs, hoping it will change their future behavior. But individuals’ beliefs often don’t shift behavior because human behavior is buffeted by multiple situational forces. These include the social roles individuals occupy and their accompanying behavioral etiquette, what others around them are saying or doing, and norms and rules that constrain their actions, all of which guide people’s behavior no matter what their personal beliefs.
Another situational force is the physical design of places where people live and work, which influences whether casual interactions with others of diverse backgrounds are easy or not. Such interactions, when pleasant and repeated, morph into familiarity and friendliness that are an essential building block for trust.
Like wallpaper, these situational forces are in the background, barely noticed. Yet they subtly nudge people’s thoughts and actions in small ways, accumulating over time in one of two directions. They either pull us apart based on initial differences, increasing unfamiliarity, mistrust and polarization, or they push us together, increasing familiarity, trust and inclusion.
We need to notice the wallpaper that silently pulls and pushes our own behavior. To do that, we must step out of our bubble and mix with people different from ourselves.
Even if individuals’ behavior were to be changed by DEI training, they would be quickly overwhelmed by the wallpaper when they returned to their workplace, stepped into their old roles, surrounded by unchanged norms, rules and colleagues, and in buildings with limited physical arrangements for cross-group mixing and relationship building.
Here is an alternative roadmap to social justice backed by scientific research simplified in the form of five steps.
First, we need to notice the wallpaper that silently pulls and pushes our own behavior. To do that, we must step out of our bubble and mix with people different from ourselves. Have real conversations, be curious and learn about the material conditions of others’ lives that may not be visible from the outside. Repeated interactions start a virtuous cycle of growing familiarity, understanding, trust, cross-group relationships and a sense of belonging in a shared community. These interactions reveal stories about people’s material conditions, highlighting inequality or vulnerability in a personal way, and grow solidarity and momentum for change.
Know that inequalities often hide in the “3 Rs” where we live and work: rules, resources and recognition. Do the rules in the place where you live or organization where you work exclude some people’s voices from decision-making, especially people with less power? Are there transparent and reasonable processes to change these rules? Are resources distributed to individuals based on need, merit, effort, seniority, or a combination? Are the criteria and processes for resource distribution open and transparent? Are people recognized for their contribution fairly?
If you see inequalities in the 3 Rs where you live or work, don’t be silent. Talk to others, see what they think, and explore ways to act collectively for change.
Second, actions make more of a difference if they attempt to change the material conditions of people’s lives—access to high quality education, healthcare, housing and employment—than if they are mostly symbolic—mission statements, lawn signs or imagery of diverse people on websites and marketing materials.
Third, acting collectively with other people will get more traction rather than acting alone because individuals quickly get swept away by situational forces. In acting together, the goal is not to limit ourselves to gather with people who are all the same. Rather, when we are not afraid to mix with people different from ourselves, we are able to discover and develop new allies across the spectrum instead of being caught in old identity traps that haven’t served us well.
Because the wallpaper is old and sticky, collective action is needed over and over again in different ways. It’s not one and done. That’s the fourth step.
Finally, actions get more traction if they are local. That’s the Goldilocks space. That’s our call for action in the next four years and the hope for change.
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Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs for our series, ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.
I thought this one could be interesting for us to read here.
Also, all of us has a state legislature, and, well, they need our attention.
As Kansas legislators jollily jostle into Statehouse, a low-budget Harry Potter film begins
Clay Wirestone
Members of the Kansas House of Representatives are sworn in on Jan. 13, 2025. (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector)
Watching senators and representatives traipse merrily into the Statehouse on Monday morning was like watching the beginning of a knockoff Harry Potter movie, one in which lawmakers returned to their majestic chambers full of excitement for the year to come.
Of course, Harry Potter movies feature fewer magical tax cuts for corporations, fantastical abortion messaging bills and terrifying anti-trans legislation.
I felt excitement in the air, as freshly elected supermajority Republicans licked at their lips at the prospect of enacting their agenda without having to pay pesky Democrats the slightest notice. House GOP members were heading out to a caucus meeting across the street — one closed to journalists — and hellos and backslaps echoed throughout the entrance.
It’s going to be a long three months. But don’t worry. I’ll be here writing this weekly roundup to collect bits and bobs that we didn’t get to over the week.
Think of me as Topeka’s own J.K. Rowling, only not transphobic.
Press restrictions
I’ll have more about this Monday, but despite embarrassed protestations from some Republican House members, leadership indeed banned reporters from the chamber’s floor. Either have the decency to own the fact (it’s spelled out on a document sent to journalists) or voice your opposition, but don’t lie.
In the meantime, word of the new restrictions spread across the state and nation.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker covered the situation here: Kansas House bans reporting from floor, mirroring move in Senate. Reflector editor Sherman Smith appeared on KCUR’s Up to Date on Tuesday to talk about the situation. TV stations KSNT out of Topeka and KWCH from Wichita also wrote about the changes.
Making money moves
Senators and representative have a good reason for the positive attitudes I saw Monday: They’re making a lot more money.
Thanks to a convoluted process involving an independent commission and its binding recommendations, rank-and-file lawmakers’ base pay more than doubled, from $21,000 to $43,000, for the session. If you include per diem reimbursements, that brings the average salary to $57,000. Leadership in both chambers saw their pay increase as well.
I’m on the record praising this idea. Given the aging demographics of our Legislature, these heftier salaries could attract younger talent. Hopefully, they will also cultivate a more professional attitude toward doing the people’s work. We shall see.
Conservative check-ins
We can’t ignore the various conservative lobbying groups that often have lawmakers’ ears, so today let’s check in with Americans for Prosperity and the National Federation of Independent Business.
AFP this week touted a new campaign calling on legislators in Washington, D.C., to renew former and future President Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts. The group claims in a news release that it will spend $20 million across 50 states to spread the word.
“If Congress fails to renew the TCJA, Kansans will be left paying $2,228 more in taxes,” claimed AFP-Kansas director Elizabeth Patton. “Along with increasing the burden of inflation on working families, the expiration of these tax cuts would cripple local businesses with a $988 tax increase and ultimately cost over 6,760 jobs.”
Meanwhile, the NFIB surveyed Kansas members and revealed the results, which mysteriously track with Topeka Republicans’ priorities.
The group writes in its own news release that more than 88% want state property taxes lowered. It also notes that 86% “believe Kansas should require the disclosure of third parties with financial interest in litigation,” and that 62% “support waiving fines and penalties for first-time regulatory errors.”
Kassebaum addendum
In my Monday column about former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal, I noted that other state news organizations had only skimmed the surface in reporting on the honor.
Right on time, Marion County Record reporter Finn Hartnett popped up Wednesday with a lovely profile of Kassebaum at home. Read and enjoy.
Calling contributors
With a new year and new legislative session comes a new call from yours truly for contributors to the opinion section. We have a page of guidelines about what we’re looking for, but the short version is this: If you want to write about Kansas, and you live in Kansas, please drop me a line.
We don’t run traditional letters to the editor (he said politely, so please don’t send them), but I would love to see pieces in the 650-850 word range about the Sunflower State and its extraordinary residents. Take a look at our opinion section to see more.
Who knows, perhaps you can be the next non-transphobic J.K. Rowling along with me.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Crap … saying the children are in charge when the republicans are the majority is an insult to children.
Trump’s first immigration raid to target 300 people in Chicago on Tuesday
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/17/trump-ice-raid-chicago-report
Why make a point to hit Chicago? Because the city is the third largest sanctuary city and the state President Obama lived in when he was in the Senate. This is entirely to make a point, make a splashy example. Their goal is to talk tough and act like the biggest bullies in the schoolyard. Hugs
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Operations billed as targeted raids often result in more of a dragnet effect, however, where residents without any kind of criminal record who happen to be undocumented are swept up and put under threat of deportation, and even many who are living and working in the US legally are held for hours or days after being rounded up alongside others.
Trump has often been critical of Chicago, which has some of the country’s strongest protections for people in the country without legal status.
The nation’s third-largest city became a so-called sanctuary city in the 1980s, limiting how police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. It has strengthened those policies several times since, including after Trump first took office eight years ago.
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Administration to send 100 to 200 officers to city on day two of new presidency, Wall Street Journal reports
Ice officials arrive to arrest a Mexican national at a home in Paramount, California, in 2020. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
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Donald Trump’s incoming presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, according to unnamed officials talking to various media outlets.
Federal immigration officers will target more than 300 people, focusing on those with histories of violent crimes, one official told the Associated Press, marking Trump’s initial attempt toward fulfilling his campaign promise of large-scale deportations.
The operation will be concentrated in the Chicago area, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because plans have not been made public. Arrests are expected all week.
News that Chicago has emerged as the earliest target city in the expected crackdown from the incoming Republican president was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, citing four people familiar with planning.
The raid, expected to start on Tuesday, would last all week, the newspaper said, adding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
Ice and the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. But a source with knowledge of the incoming administration’s plans previously told Reuters that Ice would intensify enforcement across the country but that there would not be a special focus on Chicago or a surge of personnel there.
“We’re going to be doing operations all across the country,” the person said. “You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, said at an event in Chicago that the administration was “going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois”, the Journal reported.
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Homan then told Fox News that Chicago will be one of many places across the country where federal authorities plan to make arrests.
“We’re going to take the handcuffs off Ice and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that’s what’s going to happen,” Homan said. “What we’re telling Ice, you’re going to go enforce the immigration law without apology. You’re going to concentrate on the worst first, public-safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem.”
Operations billed as targeted raids often result in more of a dragnet effect, however, where residents without any kind of criminal record who happen to be undocumented are swept up and put under threat of deportation, and even many who are living and working in the US legally are held for hours or days after being rounded up alongside others.
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that mass deportations remain a top priority. He didn’t give an exact date or city where they’ll start, but he said they would begin soon.
“It’ll begin very early, very quickly,” he said, adding: “I can’t say which cities because things are evolving. And I don’t think we want to say what city. You’ll see it firsthand. …
“We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think you would agree with that. I don’t know how anyone could not agree.”
Immigration was at the center of Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the 5 November presidential election.
“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said in January 2024.
Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the US government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, Reuters has reported, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to cooperate.
Immigrants and groups advocating for them have been preparing to throw up legal roadblocks to mass deportation.
Trump has often been critical of Chicago, which has some of the country’s strongest protections for people in the country without legal status.
The nation’s third-largest city became a so-called sanctuary city in the 1980s, limiting how police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. It has strengthened those policies several times since, including after Trump first took office eight years ago.
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, and first-term Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, have said they won’t back off those commitments.
Homan blasted top Democratic leaders in the state during a visit to the Chicago area last month.
“The reality is that, I think there has been a level of fear since Election Day,” Brandon Lee, a spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said on Saturday. “We were always operating as though Trump was going to target Chicago and Illinois early in his administration.”
Advocates have been working to inform immigrants of their rights, and creating phone trees to notify people about where and when officers are making arrests. Officers typically work without warrants that entitle them to forcibly enter a home.
“We’re just trying to be as ready as we can,” Lee said. “We’re never going to know all the details [of Ice operations]. But for members of the community, knowing their rights is empowering.”
Jesus García and Delia Ramirez, Democratic members of Congress, urged immigrants in Chicago to remain calm and exercise their rights, particularly to remain silent and refuse to allow officers into their homes without warrants.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting
Mike Johnson’s Biblical World View And Help For California Wildfire Victims
I like what he says about the idea that you have to earn god’s love, you have to earn salvation. This is in relation to the maga in congress not wanting to give aid to California for the fire assistance. He points out that if you have to earn your salvation then you did it not Jesus. And if you can do it on your own why need god? He points out that the Jesus never required people to prove they were worth before he helped them. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 