GLAAD: “President Trump claims to be a strong proponent of freedom of speech, yet he is clearly committed to censorship of any information containing or related to LGBTQ Americans and issues that we face. This action proves the Trump administration’s goal of making it as difficult as possible for LGBTQ Americans to find federal resources or otherwise see ourselves reflected under his presidency. Sadly for him, our community is more visible than ever; and this pathetic attempt to diminish and remove us will again prove unsuccessful.”
(January 21, 2025 — New York, NY) — Today GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is breaking news that the Trump administration has eliminated nearly all LGBTQ and HIV focused content and resources from the White House website, as well as eliminated LGBTQ and HIV content from key federal agency webpages.
Mentions of “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “gay,” “transgender,” “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and related terms are no longer accessible on WhiteHouse.gov, and the search term “LGBTQ” now brings up zero results on the site. In addition, some LGBTQ-specific pages have been taken down from the Centers for Disease Control, Department of State, and more. GLAAD will continue to monitor federal agency websites in the coming days and weeks to track any LGBTQ-related webpage takedowns.
GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) released the following statement: “President Trump claims to be a strong proponent of freedom of speech, yet he is clearly committed to censorship of any information containing or related to LGBTQ Americans and issues that we face. This action proves the Trump administration’s goal of making it as difficult as possible for LGBTQ Americans to find federal resources or otherwise see ourselves reflected under his presidency. Sadly for him, our community is more visible than ever; and this pathetic attempt to diminish and remove us will again prove unsuccessful.”
GLAAD created an archive of mentions of LGBTQ terms and terms related to HIV on the White House website and other major federal government websites in anticipation of Trump’s second term. GLAAD broke the news about tracking these webpages’ in a story written by the Washington Bladehere. GLAAD previously monitored and broke the same story during President Trump’s first term.
In his inaugural address yesterday, Trump stated: “This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.… And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately. Our armed forces will be freed to focus on their sole mission—defeating America’s enemies.”
About GLAAD: GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org or connect @GLAAD on social media.
Ice given unprecedented authority to expedite deportations as US cities face raids and troops arrive at US-Mexico border
A person sits inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor building in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP
Trump gives Ice power to deport immigrants who came legally under Biden
Ice given unprecedented authority to expedite deportations as US cities face raids and troops arrive at US-Mexico border
The Trump administration is issuing a new round of heavy-handed measures that could rapidly deport immigrants who entered the United States through recently established legal pathways, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained the New York Times.
The directive, signed by the acting homeland security secretary, Benjamine Huffman, grants Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials unprecedented authority to expedite deportations for immigrants who entered the country with government authorization through two key Biden-era programs.
These programs, which have allowed more than a million immigrants to enter the country since 2023, had provided scheduling for migrants or asylum seekers through the government-run app CBP One or temporary legal status for up to two years through a parole program for certain countries.
US asylum seekers in despair after Trump cancels CBP One app: ‘Start from zero again’
Read more
The newly reported memo instructs Ice officials to identify and potentially rapidly deport immigrants who have been in the country for over a year and have not yet applied for asylum, in effect sidestepping traditional immigration court proceedings.
In no waste of time, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, posted on X on Friday: “Deportation flights have begun,” accompanied by official pictures of people boarding a military-style aircraft.
Despite such flights being routine under successive administrations, the White House is promoting such images strongly and also deployed troops to the border late on Thursday, including US marines arriving in Boeing Osprey aircraft in California.
The developments come as so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago, Newark and Denver are experiencing direct impacts of the administration’s hardline immigration stance. In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka condemned a small-scale local Ice raid on Thursday that he claimed resulted in the detention of both undocumented residents and citizens – including a US military veteran.
And Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, told CNN the city would cooperate with Ice to deport “violent criminals”, but pushed back against arrests in schools and churches.
A DHS spokesperson defended the new policies, writing in a statement that “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” and that the administration “trusts law enforcement to use common sense”.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already challenged the policy in federal court, with the senior staff attorney Anand Balakrishnan characterizing the approach as a “mass deportation agenda” that circumvents constitutional due process.
Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, has been vocal in his opposition to the immigration programs of the last administration, previously criticizing the admission of immigrants from what he termed “failed states”.
Thousands who had received or were waiting for CBP One appointments south of the border were left devastated this week after the app was abruptly shut down moments after Trump was sworn in, while those already in the country using the app and who were preparing to apply for asylum may now be in the line of fire.
Later on Friday, the Trump administration followed up, announcing that it was expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, allowing immigration officers to deport people without appearing before a judge.
The administration said it was expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country, in a notice in the Federal Register outlining the new rules.
“Expedited removal” gives enforcement agencies broad authority to deport people without requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. There are limited exceptions, including if they express fear of returning home and pass an initial screening interview for asylum.
Critics have said there is too much risk that people who have the right to be in the country will be mistakenly swept up by agents and officers and that not enough is done to protect immigrants who have genuine reason to fear being sent home.
The powers were created under a 1996 law. But these powers were not widely used until 2004, when homeland security said it would use expedited removal authority for people arrested within two weeks of entering the US by land and caught within 100 miles of the border. That meant it was used mostly against immigrants recently arrived in the country.
In the notice on Friday the administration said the authority could be used across the country and would go into effect immediately.
The notice said the person put into expedited removal “bears the affirmative burden to show to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have the right to be in the US.
I want to thank Ten Bears who also had this in his post. I am not sure if I can find it again but I will put a link below to his main channel if I can find the specific post. I also had it in my list to post but as he got it done first I wanted to give him credit along with Joe My God.
When people tell / prove to you who they are believe them the first time. Republicans are totally in to gaslighting, changing reality from what is real and happened to what will help keep them in power, and they feel keeping the power of their seats in congress / their job is worth more than the people of this country or protecting the country. They are out for themselves and what they can milk from the job for their family wealth. For the republicans and some democrats it has long stopped being about leading the country to a better place, to securing the needs of the people, providing for the good of the people as the constitution requires of them. They see being elected as a golden ticket to wealth and power. So if being a Nazi is the way to that they will do it, if agreeing with the demented mentally deficient convicted felon in all his absurd whims is how they need to keep that golden ticket they will do it no matter who it hurts or the consequences. Hugs.
The Tennessee Federation of Republican Women is coming under fire for providing parents a reading list for children that cites Adolf Hitler as an example of leadership. “Hitler and all intelligent leaders throughout history have understood that the way to change a country was through the training of its youth, to get them while they are young,” the group’s reading list says.
The list is titled “Growing American Patriots Through Literacy” and posted on the group’s website. “How do we make the changes necessary?” the reading list says, just before the Hitler quote. “Proverbs 22:6 teaches us that if ‘we train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.’” The books suggested include “Camilla Can Vote” by Sen. Marsha Blackburn and “A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing Americans” by Lynne Cheney.
Read the full article. The group’s president, Sharon Boreing [photo above], is not returning calls from reporters.
The Tennessee Federation of Republican Women is coming under fire for providing parents a reading list for children that cites Adolf Hitler as an example of leadership. https://t.co/QsRL8NCZ0k
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump made good on his promise to pardon all of the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists. But while many MAGA supporters like Jacob Chansley, the self proclaimed “QAnon Shaman” and the face of the deadly Capitol riot, celebrated their pardons, one MAGA celebrity is singing a different tune.
Pamela Hemphill is a 71-year-old Boise, Idaho resident. She was known as “the MAGA granny” to Trump’s supporters, but in May 2022, she was sentenced to two months in jail on a misdemeanor charge in the Capitol attack, according to the Department of Justice.
Hemphill pled guilty to the charge after she was caught live streaming the insurrection and posting videos on YouTube from inside the Capitol during the attack. More than two years later, Hemphill said she got exactly what was coming to her. “We were wrong that day, we broke the law,” she told BBC. “There should be no pardons.”
It’s been confirmed that five U.S. citizens were killed during the Jan. 6 riot. This includes Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died on Jan. 7 as a result of injuries sustained during the attack, according to U. S. Capitol Police.
Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, said she spoke to Sicknick’s brother. “We now have no rule of law,” he reportedly told Scott. The brother even went as far as to call Trump “a poor excuse of a man.”
Hemphill said accepting the president’s pardon “would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation.” She continued to the Idaho Statesman saying, “The J6 criminals are trying to rewrite history by saying that it was not a riot; it wasn’t an insurrection. I don’t want to be a part of their trying to rewrite what happened that day.”
So with that, she’s turning down the pardon offer, going against the president and his MAGA movement’s wishes, and she’s well within her rights to do so. The MAGA granny wouldn’t be the first person to reject a presidential pardon. In 1833, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a pardon recipient can indeed turn down the offer. The ruling was later upheld in 1915, according to the Library of Congress.
Hemphill says her attorney plans to file an official letter of rejection of the president’s pardon.
Activists with the Abolitionist Action Committee attend a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
‘Ghoulish’: Trump Expands Federal Death Penalty
The Republican president “articulated his plan to drastically increase executions, and we all know this is one promise he can’t wait to keep,” said one death penalty abolitionist.
Delivering on a promise to “vigorously pursue the death penalty,” U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday night signed an executive order that reverses his predecessor’s moratorium on federal capital punishment and calls for expanding it.
The widely expected order—one of several issued on Inauguration Day—was swiftly criticized on factual and moral grounds.
Attorney and death penalty expert Robert Dunham pointed out that the order “starts with a demonstrable falsehood (‘Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes’), signaling that the administration intends not to allow the facts to affect its policy decisions.”
“In fact, the death penalty does not contribute anything to public safety,” said Dunham, citing a study by the Death Penalty Policy Project, which he directs. “As for ‘deterring the most heinous crimes,’ see my analysis of the worst of the worst mass shootings in the United States.”
“It is essential, with the importance and deadly consequences of this policy, that media coverage report the truth and not just the rhetoric,” he stressed. “The executive order is grounded in a false, dark fantasy about deterrence and has nothing to do with making the public safer.”
Declaring that “the death penalty is unjust and cruel,” the ACLU warned that Trump’s order not only directs an expansion of its use at the federal level but also encourages states to do the same.
Specifically, the order says that “in addition to pursuing the death penalty where possible,” the attorney general shall seek it “regardless of other factors” for federal cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer or a capital crime committed by an undocumented immigrant—and shall “encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to bring state capital charges for all capital crimes with special attention to” those circumstances, “regardless of whether the federal trial results in a capital sentence.”
The order further directs the head of the U.S. Department of Justice to “seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of state and federal governments to impose” the death penalty and “ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”
Last week, outgoing U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “withdrew the Justice Department’s protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital, after a government review raised concerns about the potential for ‘unnecessary pain and suffering,'” The Associated Pressreported. “The protocol could be imposed by Trump’s new acting Attorney General James McHenry III, or his pick to lead the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, once she’s confirmed by the Senate.”
Though Trump’s order doesn’t name Garland, it explicitly takes aim at former President Joe Biden for his moratorium as well as his attempt to prevent another GOP killing spree like the one that occurred at the end of the Republican’s first term, accusing the Democrat of commuting the sentences of “37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport.”
Biden said last month that “in good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” He left Charleston church gunman Dylann Roof, Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on death row. The others now face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Trump cannot reverse Biden’s commutations, but he directed the attorney general to “evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each” of those 37 men and “take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”
The president also said that the attorney general “shall further evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with state capital crimes and shall recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.”
Death Penalty Action executive director Abraham Bonowitz said in a Monday statement:
President Trump’s executive order demanding capital charges for the murder of law enforcement officers or capital crimes by illegal aliens is unnecessary bluster, because the death penalty already exists for such crimes. But Trump can’t help himself. Donald Trump’s Agenda2025 articulated his plan to drastically increase executions, and we all know this is one promise he can’t wait to keep.
We are also dismayed at President Biden’s cynical compromise that commuted 37 federal death sentences while leaving seven prisoners on federal and military death rows. While expressing both his personal opposition to the death penalty and his desire to maintain the moratorium on executions he imposed in 2021, Biden has nevertheless primed the pump for Donald Trump to resume his execution spree.
Social media users also slammed Trump’s order, with one saying that “this is extremely disturbing” and another calling it “one of the most ghoulish things I’ve ever fucking read.” Many critics highlighted that the president issued the measure while pardoning over 1,500 insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to the deaths of multiple police officers.
James Goodwin, policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, noted that it “is straight out of Project 2025,” the sweeping Heritage Foundation-led playbook from which Trump unsuccessfully tried to distance himself during the campaign.
Trump has a long history of supporting capital punishment. As journalist Prem Thakker put it, “On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the man who bought [a] full-page [newspaper] ad calling for the execution of the Central Park Five—five Black and Latino teens wrongfully convicted of rape—makes one of his first acts as president to restore and prioritize the death penalty.”
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.
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.
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.
Heh. An adult acting like a child (child-ish, not child-like) is a narcissistic tell. I have commented from time to time about how my SIL (hubby’s sister) acts like a 7-year old running around in a 74-year old woman’s body. She gets insulted when called out as being narcissistic, to which I can only reply, “then stop acting like one. If you are not, you deserve an Academy Award for best portrayal of one.”
A person sits inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor building in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP
Scottie's Playtime 