#Agenda Project Action Fund

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024: Supported Nonprofit Organizations

Here are the nonprofit organizations that will be supported by this year's FTH auction. Many of these orgs will be familiar from last year's list, but we've cycled in some new groups as well. In particular, because it's a major election year in the US, we've brought in (or brought back) organations focusing on voter enfranchisement.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Bellingcat *

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists brought together by a passion for open source research in the public interest.

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center *

The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit legal organization that fights for liberation and equity through the lens of intersectional disability justice.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda *

A national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals, NBWRJA delivers proactive advocacy and policy solutions to address issues at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Life After Hate

LAH provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people.

Middle East Children's Alliance *

MECA is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. They collect funds in order to provide direct aid, financial support for community projects, water purification systems, and university scholarships, and also create educational and cultural programs in the US and internationally to increase cultural understanding.

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence.

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Razom *

Razom initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity

Sherlock’s Homes Foundation *

SHF provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves

Spread the Vote

STV helps eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws.

Violence Policy Center *

VPC works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

VoteRiders

VR works to help all citizens exercise their right to vote. It informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.

Umbrella: Environmental orgs

For the past four years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in communities where the need is especially acute. This year our umbrella category is environmental organizations.

Pollinator Partnership *

Deploy/Us *

Together Bay Area

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Coral Restoration Foundation *

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Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

Democratic governors and attorneys general are working to Trump-proof their states ahead of his inauguration, gearing up to ensure their residents have access to medication abortion and the resources in place to fight Donald Trump’s actions in court. On Thursday morning, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he is taking the first step to safeguard his state from some of Trump's worst policies by calling a special legislative session. Newsom wants the legislature to pass more funding for the California Department of Justice so that it can file lawsuits against Trump’s actions if need be. "The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack—and we won’t sit idle," Newsom said in a release. "California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive."

Newsom thinks California will have to fight Trump on reproductive freedom and protecting LGBTQ+ individuals, as Trump’s Project 2025 agenda calls for banning medication abortion and rolling back LGBTQ+ rights. For example, Project 2025 calls for banning medication abortion, for once again banning transgender individuals from serving in the military, and eliminating protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. “No matter what the incoming Administration has in store, California will keep moving forward,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a news release. “We’ve been through this before, and we stand ready to defend your rights and protect California values. We’re working closely with the Governor and the Legislature to shore up our defenses and ensure we have the resources we need to take on each fight as it comes.” Other states such as Massachusetts, Washington, and New York have stockpiled doses of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion that Republicans want to ban nationwide. Project 2025 calls for revoking mifepristone’s Food and Drug Administration approval, even though the drug has been proven to be safe. 

[...] And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker held a news conference on Thursday to assure residents that “Illinois will always strive to make you welcome and safe and protected."  Pritzker said, "Chaos, retribution and disarray radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it. Perhaps this time may be different. But if it isn't, Illinois will remain a place of stability and competent governance."

This is what needs to be done in Blue states like California, New York, and Illinois: Trump-proofing their states to protect access to abortion, gender-affirming care, mifepristone, and LGBTQ+ rights.

This can be a prelude to a potential blue state secession to protect what made America great.

[mariacallous]

As Project 2025 becomes more and more of a detriment to Donald Trump’s campaign, the fingerprints of people close to the Orbán-government are becoming increasingly apparent. Recently, the project’s training videos for internal use were leaked, featuring several people cooperating with the Hungarian PM’s political network.

Since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris’s campaign positioned Project 2025, the roadmap created by a potential second Donald Trump presidency as a central issue of this year’s presidential election. Most recently, the Heritage Foundation’s project was bought up extensively during the August Democratic convention.

One speaker, Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow even brought a giant copy of the 900-page document, calling it the playbook of Trump’s prospective term and comparing its content to a dictator’s policies.

Trump for his part has been ambiguous about his relationship with the project. While reportedly endorsing it earlier, he denounced the project after it was targeted by the Democrats, claiming he knows nothing about it and doesn’t know who is behind them, while calling some of its content „ridiculous and abysmal”. In truth, many of Project 2025’s authors are former members of Trump’s administration.

Trump also did not help his case by appointing J.D. Vance as his running mate, a man close to Heritage Foundation’s president Kevin Roberts. Vance also attempted to distance himself from the project and claimed that he and Roberts were merely personal friends. In the Heritage Foundation, these denouncments led to the resignation of Project 2025 director Paul Dans.

A shift to illiberalism

Among other goals, Project 2025 envisions a massive purge of federal civil servants, replacing them with political appointees ready to further the agenda of „the next conservative administration”, removing many of the checks and balances that limit the executive branch’s power. Critics compared the roadmap to the strategies employed by autocratic leaders often praised by Trump, such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

Orbán’s political network likely had direct influence on Project 2025: Heritage Foundation and many of Project 2025’s authors have a history of working with organizations funded and controlled by the Hungarian government.

Originally a proponent of Reaganite Neoconservatism, the Heritage Foundation in recent years has become influenced by Trump’s brand of populism, and shifted towards isolationist foreign policy, especially when it comes to responding to the actions of Putin’s Russia. This transformation was finalized with Kevin Roberts becoming the think-tank’s president in 2021.

Roberts saw Orbán’s „illiberal state” as an example to follow. In 2022, Orbán welcomed Roberts in Budapest, and Heritage signed a cooperation agreement with the Danube Institute. The so-called educational institute is a branch of the Lajos Batthyány Foundation, a lobbying and network-building organization funded directly by Orbán’s government.

In December 2023, the Heritage Foundation hosted an international conference where people affiliated with the Orbán government (including officials of the Hungarian Embassy in Washington) lobbied US Congressmen to vote against the Biden administration’s planned military aid to Ukraine.

A direct influence of Orbán allies

More recently the investigative organization ProPublica published hours of training videos, made for internal use by the Heritage Foundation, instructing would-be political appointees in furthering the aims of Project 2025. Several of the people appearing in these videos have previously worked with the Danube Institute or other similar pro-Orbán organizations.

In one of the training videos, Spencer Chretien, co-director of Project 2025, offers advice regarding political appointees. He says that in a new conservative administration „loyalty and ideology are more important than professional experience”.

Chretien was previously involved in building ties between the Heritage Foundation and Hungary. In May 2024, the (Hungarian) Center for Fundamental Rights – another state-funded organisation that exists mainly to praise Orbán’s government – hosted representatives from the Heritage Foundation, including Chretien.

In this event entitled “We Win, They Lose – America’s Choice”, Chretien presented Project 2025.

The project was also showcased in Hungary at another event in February 2024, this time organized by the Danube Institute. There, the Heritage Foundation was represented by Troup Hemenway, Senior Advisor to the Foundation and Co-Director of Staff Placement for the 2025 project.

In another leaked educational video, Roger Severino, a former Trump administration official, spoke about the role of political appointees in the legislature.

Severino last visited Hungary last year: according to Mathias Corvinus Collegium, he was invited by the entire Heritage management team to Budapest for a discussion on education, including Severino and Heritage President Kevin Roberts.

Mathias Corvinus Collegium is a private educational institute which received vast sums of public funds and was transformed into a trainig ground for young pro-Orbán elites.

In the video titled “Presidential Transitions”, Ed Corrigan and Rick Dearborn discuss how to apply for a political appointment during a presidential transition. Dearborn was Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Trump administration, Corrigan was a member of Trump’s transition team and is currently President and CEO of the Conservative Partnership Institute.

In January 2023, the Center for Fundamental Rights hosted a joint event with the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington, D.C. In February 2024, the Liszt Institute, part of the Hungarian Department of Culture and Innovation, hosted a joint event with the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington, D.C. At this event, Ed Corrigan presented a book written by Balázs Orbán, a member of Viktor Orbán’s cabinet, together with the politician.

[steviestits]

Webs of Desire - Part 1.1

Click here to go to the fic's masterpost.

Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: T Summary: Eddie has a problem. No, it's not that his whole body can light itself aflame or that he has to fight supervillains as a member of the superhero team, the Fantastic Four. His real problem is Steve Harrington, the horrible photographer that keeps helping the Daily Bugle ruin the reputation of his best friend and crush, Spider-Man. To make matters worse, Spider-Man doesn't even care that Steve is taking unsolicited pictures of him and is content to let the man continue to profit off him! That's why Eddie takes it upon himself to make certain that Steve Harrington's life is a living nightmare until he does the right thing and leaves Spider-Man alone. (Steve is Spider-Man, and Eddie is an idiot but also the Human Torch.)

Huffing while crossing his arms over his chest, Eddie leaned against the far wall of the Fantastic Four’s lab. He glanced around at all the shiny and new lab equipment done up in the team’s colors of blue and white with their logo plastered on every beaker and pipette that could fit it, feeling that maybe they were trying a little too hard. Ever since they got blasted with cosmic radiation and became the Fantastic Four, incessant branding, forced color schemes, and matching spandex (that gave Eddie worse wedgies than the ones he got from the bullies at school) had taken over his life.

Don’t get him wrong. Eddie loved being the Human Torch, getting the chance to save people was amazing, but he hated everything that came with it. Since they decided not to hide their secret identities in order to fund their research, the Fantastic Four was always in the eyes of the public. There was a certain image that they all needed to maintain and were always going to charity events, fundraisers, or doing interviews to promote the projects they were working on since not everyone could be as rich as Iron Man, after all.

Today was one of the days that they were doing an interview, which normally didn’t mind as he loved being able to put on the charm for the reporters, except this one was with the Daily Bugle. Not only that, the photographer that was coming to take the photos was none other than Steve Harrington, the sleazeball who stalked Spider-Man and stole shots of the web crawler in action. It wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the Daily Bugle couldn’t write a single nice thing about the other superhero and was the reason why half the city didn’t trust him.

“Stop sulking,” Nancy chided as she passed. “We all hate doing these interviews, but a puff piece or two isn’t going to kill us.”

“This isn’t just any puff piece,” Eddie said with a disgusted snort. “This is a puff piece for the Bugle. Who knows if it’ll stay a puff piece after Murray Bauman finishes with it.”

“He has a point,” Hopper interjected. “Murray has his own agenda, whatever that is.”

Hopper then came lumbering into the central lab, his rocky body nearly knocking over several workstations in the process despite the fact that they’d tried to design the space with him in mind. The man had come along as their science officer and had honestly gotten the worst of powers out of all of them. While him, Nancy, and Jonathan could return to their original appearances, Hopper was stuck in his mutated form and had been labeled “The Thing” by none other than Bauman himself.

“Murray still has a large reader base, so we have to play nice,” Jonathan said.

Then Jonathan appeared to Eddie’s left, lowering his invisibility. It used to make them jump when he’d pop up out of nowhere, but they all had gotten used to it by now. They’d gotten used to a lot since they all needed special clothes that would conform to their needs. Like Jonathan needed clothes that would vanish with him, and Eddie needed ones that were fireproof. That’s where most of their budget went when they first found out about their powers, making certain they wouldn’t have to walk around in the nude due to material restraints.

Eddie wanted to make another attempt at complaining when the buzzer sounded signaling that the reporters had passed through security and were now on their way up to the lab. It didn’t take long for the elevator to reach their floor as not just the lab but everything in the Fantastic Four building was state of the art. The doors opened with a cheery ping, though what Eddie felt when the occupants walked out wasn’t anywhere close to that jovial energy.

A woman with short, dirty blonde hair stepped out of the elevator first. She wore a brown plaid waistcoat over a solid gray button-down paired with matching suspenders over all of that. Pinned to her breast pocket was a press badge that declared she was Robin Buckley, reporter for the Daily Bugle, while an awkward picture of her next to the text.

Then, in all his pompous glory, Steve Harrington strode out behind her. He wore a baggy, yellow sweater, which he’d tucked into a pair of loose, blue chino pants, and wire-framed glasses that made him appear clever. His light brown hair was styled into a wave that looked effortlessly natural even though it probably took him hours to maintain. Around his neck was a bulky digital camera and under that he had a lanyard with his press badge on it.

The rest of the Fantastic Four moved forward to greet the two reporters while Eddie remained in the back, so he could glare at Steve from a distance. Spider-Man was a close, personal friend of Eddie’s, and if they thought that he was going to be cordial to the asshole smearing his reputation then his teammates were severely underestimating Eddie’s ability to hold a grudge. He was going to make certain that Steve had an absolutely miserable time while he was here.

Seeing that they were making small talk, Eddie glanced around and noticed a pen lying on a nearby desk. He picked it up then started to casually flip it into the air as he waited for the perfect opportunity to lob it at Steve’s head then if Steve said anything, Eddie could just callously say that his hand slipped. Steve probably get so pissed that his perfectly styled look was ruined that he’d storm out and vow never to step foot in the Fantastic Four’s lab again.

Eddie smirked to himself before he tossed the pen at Steve. However, to Eddie’s dismay, Steve reached up without even looking and casually plucked the speeding pen from the air. He didn’t even seem to have realized he’d done it, because Steve looked down at his hand mystified before he glanced around to find its source of origin. When his eyes landed on Eddie, he raised an eyebrow curiously, silently questioning what had happened.

The smirked faded, and Eddie instead let out a nervous laugh as he said, “Would you believe my hand slipped?”

Masterpost ~ Part 1.2 (Coming Soon-ish)

[aliensupersyn]

Part 2; Sukuna and Gojo vs Shinzō Abe: Gege's De(con)struction of Japanese Bureaucracy

Art by me

Manga spoilers below!

Overall thesis for this project: Godzilla and Mothra create the cultural context of creatives using powerful monsters (or kaiju) to disrupt Japanese bureaucracy and society, usually to make some larger criticism.

Gege Akutami probably celebrated the assassination of Shinzō Abe as a dream come true. Gege overtly criticizes the bureaucratic powers that Abe specifically aided in restoring within Japanese politics. The powerful bureaucrats, after being accused of irresponsibly handling Japan's funds, and throwing the nation into an economic crisis, regained their political standing thanks to Abe. Yet, the damage has been done, and many different mangaka portray Japanese bureaucrats as antagonists who must be challenged or killed.

Sukuna unleashes an attack that disrupts Japanese society and throws the powers-that-be off balance, challenging the modern status quo that he once dominated in the Heian era. Gojo goes even further and eliminates that status quo, seeing it as the only possible answer to ensuring his students' safety from their political power. Yet, how did the once reverent bureaucratic powers gain such a tarnished reputation that titles like Bleach, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tokyo Ghoul, and One Piece all depict them as antagonists at the very least, and defeated villains at the worst. Below, I discuss the history that perhaps informs an action like Gojo murdering the Higher-Ups, and explore Shinzō Abe's role within that context.

The bureaucracy emerged as a major power center in the Meiji era (1868–1912) (Shimizu 2013). Bureaucratic autonomy was reinforced during the period of military mobilization and war in the 1930s and 1940s, and further institutionalized in the early postwar years. Many political leaders were purged during the Occupation (1945–1952), while most bureaucrats were not, and this enabled the bureaucracy to entrench its power. (Vogel 103)

While the U.S. forced Japanese government reform in the late 1940s, the bureaucrats emerged mostly unscathed. The different ministries mostly maintained their ranks throughout the years by choosing their officials from a small, conservative pool of candidates from the top schools in Japan. Gege directly references the elitist, conservative selection pool with his establishment of the three great houses and the Jujutsu High School campuses in Tokyo and Kyoto. The Zenin, Gojo, and Kamo houses act as politicians who reinforce the will of Headquarters, Jujutsu Kaisen's bureaucrats. The great families possess hidden or bloodline techniques that they keep to themselves; they inhibit and promote certain techniques depending on tradition; they withhold the right to purge their ranks of undesirables; and they often meddle with the Tokyo and Kyoto schools to push their agendas. The great families and the Higher-Ups in Headquarters notably prefer traditional sorcery techniques, which partly led to Kinji Hakari and Maki Zenin forsaking jujutsu society. Headquarters, who appoints grades to sorcerers, would never acknowledge their unique strength, and therefore neither would ever prosper within a jujutsu society maintained by the bureaucrats. Only those who meet the conservative criteria pushed by the Higher-Ups can prosper in jujutsu society. Therefore, Headquarters' conservative nature often conflicts with the main cast throughout the story.

Gege uses Maki Zenin's story arc to demonstrate some of the irrational extremes the great houses go through to maintain Headquarters' conservative ideals regarding jujutsu sorcery. Maki could have been a powerful asset to the Zenin, but their conservative nature and narrow perspectives were the death of them. Gege uses both Maki and Gojo to slaughter the political powers in JJK. While the story addresses Maki and Gojo's actions as extreme and monstrous, it shouldn't go unnoticed that Gege thrives on depicting the death of those debilitating government structures. Despite Toji Zenin having the power to wipe them out, his family still never truly respected his strength because he did not have a cursed technique. The Zenin could easily be blamed for Toji choosing to become a skilled assassin who targets sorcerers. Toji's family inspired his hatred for sorcerers, which led to nothing good for anyone. The Zenin think because Maki was born a woman, she could never reach the heights of Toji, which lulls them into a false sense of security. One might argue that the Zenin used Maki to take out their bottled frustrations for Toji. Despite her talent with weapons, and acknowledgement from Satoru, the Zenin regularly appealed to Headquarters to inhibit her graded promotions.

Gege consistently depicts Headquarters' debilitating laws as irrational measures, and twice it ends in a bloody mess. Gege's references and depictions of Japanese bureaucrats' conservative nature likely comes from a sudden decline in public opinion and power; this loss of the control that was once so carefully maintained includes powerful reforms enacted by Shinzō Abe's first and second administrations. There's a trail of events that leads to Gege's hostile characterization of Japanese ministries. The bureaucrats were once hailed as saviors of the Japanese economy, a force that led them into the luxurious "bubble" era in the late 1980s. Though, when that bubble popped just as soon as it emerged, and Japan as a nation went broke until the late 90s, the bureaucrats lost the trust of the public and government (Vogel 107). In this weakened state, they were now finally vulnerable to reform.

Prime Ministers Junichirō Koizumi (2001–2006); Shinzō Abe (2006–2007); and Yasuo Fukuda (2007–2008) all proposed extreme reforms to the bureaucrats. Though, by time Fukuda took power, his administration was literally locking ministers out of meetings (Vogel 109). The escalating feud between the bureaucrats and Fukuda's administration led to the DPJ "gaining a reputation for incompetence, as they failed to develop a coherent economic strategy; floundered in international diplomacy, especially US-Japan relations; and took blame. . . . for policy failures in responding to the March 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown" (Vogel 109). Because the bureaucratic ministries held the power to draft and revise legislation, barring them out of politics quite literally led to disaster. I won't get into the specifics of the bureaucrats' power, but Fukuda belittling their presence within the government led to Abe's unexpected return.

Once he returned in 2012, Abe ushered in an entirely new age for Japanese bureaucracy. In some ways, he limited the ministries' powers, but he also created the new cabinet bureaucrats. The new elite class of bureaucrats would dominate his second administration as Abe's most trusted advisors. As the cabinet bureaucrats rose in power after Abe established new and "special “headquarters” (honbu) and “offices” (shitsu) to coordinate major policy initiatives," their public perception continued to dwindle (Vogel 109). In modern Japan, bureaucrats retain only a fraction of their old power, but Vogel points out that for many citizens, that's still much more than they deserve:

The public image of bureaucrats has dropped considerably since its heyday. The share of people who reported that they trust bureaucrats declined from 44 percent in 1994 to 22 percent in 2002, while the share who stated that they do not trust bureaucrats rose from 51 percent to 74 percent (Tsukishima 2006, 286). Meanwhile, many university graduates no longer view the civil service as an attractive career. The number of applicants for civil servant positions dropped from a high of 330,686 in 1995 to 130,090 in 2018, while applicants for the Level 1 (“career”) positions declined from 41,433 to 22,559 (National Personnel Authority 2019b). (111)

Vogel ensures that modern Japanese bureaucrats still maintain strong political power, especially over industry, despite the many reforms they've suffered through the years. The discrepancy between bureaucrats holding onto power despite their poor public perception takes interesting personifications in manga. Below, I examine both Jujutsu Kaisen and Bleach's similar depictions of Japanese bureaucrats in action. Both Gege and Kubo Tite present bureaucratic forces as conservative powers that inhibit growth and the futures of young cast members.

Bleach uses similar visual metaphors of faceless bureaucrats giving orders that challenge the now shaky leadership of the pressured society. In both titles, the bureaucrats reappear after the defeat of the leading force of power in their respective verses. After Genryusai's death and Gojo's sealing, the bureaucrats intervene, often prioritizing their own self-preservation. Doing so, they attempt to enforce laws that hinder the main cast. Bleach depicts Central 46 as cowards who argue against Shinsui's suggestion for Kenpachi to finally evolve and truly inherit his title. In JJK, the Higher-Ups order Yuji's death and declare Gojo a traitor who must not be unsealed.

Both Gege and Kubo Tite characterize the faceless bureaucratic powers-that-be as greedy and controlling forces that will readily inhibit growth if it poses any hypothetical challenge to the status quo; that system being one that allows the jujutsu Higher-Ups and Central 46 to make the rules with little restriction. In JJK 0, the Higher-Ups readily criminalize and attempt to expunge Yuta for Rika being too powerful for them to control. The fact that Gege began with a negative depiction of Japanese bureaucracy before JJK proper existed stresses his honest dislike for that particular sector of government.

Gege provides a straightforward description of the power balance. Interestingly enough, the bureaucratic sorcerers still exist within the whole of the Japanese government. The reason why the Jujutsu Inspector General never appears may be because he resides elsewhere, as a cabinet bureaucrat, the elite position created by Abe; though, take that wth a grain of salt. The Jujutsu Inspector General may also be a reference to the now abolished role of Inspectorate General of Military Training. Both Headquarters (呪術 総監部, Jujutsu Sōkanbu) and (教育総監部, Kyōiku sōkanbu) were bureaucratic powers that performed miliary (sorcery) training and withheld a broad domain of power.

While all the Higher-Ups may not have been a monolith, the conservative faction dominated Headquarters. In the beginning, Gege depicts Headquarters as a corrupt power that manipulates the system and purposely sets Yuji up to die on a botched mission. They discreetly wield power over which sorcerers live and die. Kenjaku gaining control of Headquarters not only erases Kamo's political power that could have been used to aid the cast, but also reinforces Gege's depiction of bureaucrats as an antagonistic force.

Gege demonstrates overt criticism against Japanese bureaucracy in his depiction of them as antagonists that ultimately need to be slaughtered in order to ensure the future of the young cast. The ministries went through a unique journey that included them avoiding American-sanctioned government reforms, introducing an economic boom and crash to the Japanese economy, fighting with Prime Ministers to stay in power, and finally being saved by the infamous Shinzō Abe. Bureaucrats may maintain power, but Gege demonstrates why many Japanese people believe that to be an issue, not a solution to Japan's problems.

Notes:

The manga Noragami depicts the bubble era's sudden end as the God of Poverty, Kofuku's fault. She partied too hard and created an economic crash. As punishment, Ebisu put her under house arrest.

I thought this part would be a focus on Sukuna, but I realized that I really had a lot of foundation to lay before I get there. I had to teach myself a little about Japanese bureaucracy so that I could properly examine it. Thankfully, I found a great source by a clear writer.

Introduction - Part 1

Sources:

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Bureaucracy, written by Steven K. Vogel, chapter 6 of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics.

Memorandum Regarding Sorcerer Duties, written by Gege Akutami, pages posted here.

[supercorpzine]

Over the years we’ve been asked many times about how to run a fandom zine, so to finally answer those questions here is our incomplete and rough guide/collection of questions to ask yourself on good practices for running a fandom event or charity zine. By no means is this an exact how-to, but we hope this will help answer questions and prompt you in the right direction for running a clean and organized event safely and responsibly!  

Purpose

What is the purpose of your zine (or event)? Why are you doing this? Is it for fun? Are you raising money for charity? Are you doing it because you just want to and because you love fandom and your ship? Is it a combination of all of the above? Will it be fan fiction? Fan art? Gifs? Video edits? Music? A combination of any? Are you going to run a big bang or reverse bang? Are you running a gift exchange for the holidays? These are all incredibly important questions to ask yourself when you first decide you want to lead a zine or event!

If this is for charity, decide your charities before you launch anything. It is good practice to have a solid plan on what you want to do and what you want to accomplish before posting an interest check. It is better to be prepared and have to postpone your zine or event than to try to run a project with no clear cut agenda. Projects that do not have a clear path or set agenda have a much higher risk of fizzling and falling apart.

When choosing your charity, make sure to research them first before making your final decision. To best protect yourself and make sure your money is going to a real cause your charity should be a 501(c)(3) registered charity and you should be able to view their IRS 990 form on their website, or on a helpful website called Charity Navigator.

WARNING. If you are involving money, it is in your best interest NOT to include photoshop manipulations, gifs, videos, or any other form of media that includes real photography or the voices of your characters (this includes voice actors). Actors and companies are very strict in their contracts about how their likenesses and voices can and can’t be used for profit. You would be risking the integrity of your event as well as financial responsibility. If anything, you could potentially receive a Cease & Desist with a threat of legal action.

If you are concerned about the safety of your money, draw up a contract with any partners that protect those funds from being stolen-or result in legal consequences if so. If you are running a non-fandom event and paying your artists, you will need to speak to a lawyer to make sure you safely and legally can compensate them for their work. Find and speak to a lawyer or financial advisor to see what your options are.

Audience

Who is your audience? Events and zines with narrower focuses are easier to maintain. Are you prepared to keep a close audience or are you going to go broader? If you are thinking of a broader event you should look and see if other people from different fandoms are interested in running a fandom project to help you organize the process and spread the word. Do your research on fandom relations. Some fandoms are often not held in favorable light by other fandoms and trying to marry two together may result in a failure to organize. If you are determined but may not have the audience, start small with something like a fic exchange and see how it goes.

Though not necessarily true, a good way to gain an audience is by generating content. Have you been active in the fandom you want to run your zine/event for? If so, how have your posts been doing and have you been interacting with other people? People are more likely to trust and join a project if they at least know of the person running it even if they aren’t a “BFN” (Big Fandom Name). There is no way to truly determine if you will even get an audience as much of fandom’s attention now is based on what’s the newest and what is going to bring the most instant gratification. Fandom events take a lot of time, how will you maintain your audience during the lulls?

Organization

How are you going to organize this? What social media platforms do you want to utilize? Will you set up a Discord? Only contact via Email? How will you collect and organize the contributions? Google drive folders or documents or an AO3 collection? Will you have your contributors email you word docs or PDFs if you are distributing? 

Is it a call for all admissions or will you have curated limited slots? Are you doing an invitation only event? If you are doing applications, what are the requirements? How will you vet people? Allowing transphobic creators into a zine raising money for trans charities is not ideal, which is why we encourage having the vision for your event before you put out an interest check. What is your schedule? How long do you want to dedicate to the entire process while still allowing adequate time for people to contribute? How are you going to share it?

What if it’s 100% digital? Will you do an online collection on AO3? If not AO3, how are you compiling it? Will you have the contributors send you a PDF that you will then stitch together? Will you find someone with design experience to do it for you?

What if you want to print? Who will you print with? How will you ship? Will you offer it internationally? It is possible some printers will not want to work with you if you are trying to do monetary sales on fan fiction and fan art for fear of copyright infringement. Make sure to do your research for online companies (Lulu does not like to do this, Smartpress is a decent option) or look around at a local printshop (tends to run more expensive, especially now with continuing material shortages). If you are doing print things get trickier, especially if you need to adhere to print specifications-usually CMYK, 300dpi, press ready PDFs following the printer’s templates for safety area and document bleed-at a minimum. You’ll have a smoother time if someone on your team (or you) have some sort of design experience. It’s easy to put words on a page to print. It’s hard to make them look good.

At a glance digital considerations:

Where to host (do not tie money to ao3, see note in Outreach & Promotion)

Create a visual standard (colors, sizes, ‘logos’, etc)

Create submission standard (word count or other content requirements, location, file type/size, etc)

At a glance print considerations:

Digital layout for print

If offering both digital & physical versions, you will want to have files tailored to each application (see notes about bleed & printer templates above)

Finding and working with a vendor

Shipping

-International packages come with their own caveats about where will accept what shipping companies -Physical items: generate labels, acquire boxes & protective stuffing, physically package items (where? Enough packagers?) -Schedule pickups -Size of product will affect size & therefore cost of shipping per item

At a glance overall considerations:

Sales vendor/storefront if applicable

Tracking sales items

Tracking costs & transparency documents

Tracking participant communications

Tracking customer communications

Upkeeping social media posts & communications (& generating content)

Tracking participant deliverables

With all of this considered, clear communication is key. Having clear expectations of deliverables, dates, and timelines for your participants and as well as clear responsibilities between leadership individuals will help you be successful.

Timeline

Your timeline is important and you should try your best to stick to it. Have it posted, have an FAQ, again be transparent about both internal scheduling for your contributors and public scheduling for those watching. 

When creating your schedule, it may be helpful to do a ‘workback’ schedule - pick an ideal final date, and working backwards, add in estimated times and dates for every single task and deliverable to see what is realistic to accomplish for contributors and for leadership. If you are ordering physical items, build in buffer times - particularly remembering that with today’s chaotic global supply chain, things may take more time. Required check-ins can be helpful for visibility and prevent procrastination.

Also do your research on your fandom. Have there been previous events? If so, are you potentially overlapping with other events? Potential overlap can harm both events, so look around and think about potentially starting when one is finishing up or has just finished so you can reach a bigger pool of creatives. Don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to other event organizers, they may be wanting to participate in other events that aren’t theirs but have been unable to due to scheduling. BUT, don’t let others’ schedule dictate your own, you need to stick to a calendar that you know you can abide by.

Quality and Curation

An “all welcome” zine or event is far different from a curated zine or event. What is the quality of work you are looking for? People are more likely to interact with work that is of better quality if it involves money, so if you are wanting to raise money or pay your participants (or have enough funds for production and shipping alone), then you might need to think about running a curated project. Even with talented contributors, if the time isn’t right or if something changes with the event leadership the quality can still be affected.

Another consideration when deciding on curation is physical (and to a lesser extent) real estate. If you are printing, costs of printing itself and shipping are affected by page size and number and weight, so remember to account for this when looking at curation, printers, shipping, and finances.

When thinking about curation and before opening applications, leadership should be in agreement on how many spots for each type of media are ideal, and what parameters the project is looking for ie x amount of fanfiction or fanart or both, certain styles, certain themes, certain content, certain subjective qualities etc. Those are qualities based on submitted work but there could be other factors you might filter your participants by, such as age if you have explicit content, previous participation in fandom work, etc. Having these clarified will help the team confidently select participants as well as give applicants better expectations and understanding of the decisions made.

Rejection, unfortunately, is the reality of a curated project. It can be difficult to turn an application down because you can see the passion and excitement, but the work isn’t right or ready for the project. Not everyone will be accepted if they don’t meet the standards that you are looking for, and not everyone has the formal creative background through school or career to teach them how to navigate these rejections. There will be some people who don’t have experience applying to something like this before or who won’t understand why they weren’t chosen or take a rejection as a personal attack. You must be prepared for upset or inappropriate responses and be able to act calmly and professionally while sticking to your decisions, and without lashing out. If you need someone on your team skilled in PR or customer service, this will be a good time for them to help you. This is your project, and you must stick by what you set out to do.

Outreach and Promotion

How are you going to find contributors? Are you going to rely on word of mouth or ask people to join? Do you have a minimum count of people you would like to join? How are you going to spread the word? Social media accounts? What kind of content are you going to generate to keep up the attention to the project? How will you get this content-yourself or asking those interested to help?

Find your core audience and cater your posts to catch their attention. Use hashtags, graphics, buzz words etc to bolster this. Retweet/reblog/share to your stories regularly a few times a week to keep the momentum. The more you put this on people’s radar, the better chance you’ll have at it stabilizing and gaining momentum. There is no “easy step” to starting and maintaining an event.

**Remember, please DO NOT use Ao3 as a platform for promoting a monetary project. You may use it as a means of distribution and sharing but be conscious of how that work is presented. Bringing money into Ao3 risks the legality of what the OTW’s legal team has fought and won for fandom.

Finances

Things get harder when money is involved. If you plan to sell your zine or raise money through your event it is in your best interest to make it 100% not for profit. If you are creating a fanzine it is highly recommended that it is solely for charity to protect yourself from copyright and receiving a cease and desist letter (and possible legal retaliation).

This means your contributors nor you will be receiving a single monetary amount for anything, everything will be going to the charity (or charities) you have chosen. If you choose to print, you will have to account for 30-50% of your gross going to production and shipping and any other materials you may need. If you are determined to raise money, offer your zine or the content as a limited exclusive offer for a few months before allowing your contributors to post. Doing so helps drum up excitement and generate sales therefore helping you raise more money.

An easy and clean way to raise money is either through PDF sales or a fundraiser where interested supporters share a receipt of a donation so you don’t have to touch a cent. Your gross profit would then become your net profit, and you can give the entirety of the funds raised without messing with the logistics of printing and shipping. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Taxes

Talk to a tax accountant for guidance for your state and country.

While you may not be planning on counting your raised money as taxable income and donate every cent, the IRS (or other government tax offices) may not think so. Make a financial plan that protects you from owing extra income tax as some charities don’t accept PayPal donations and you will need to transfer funds through a bank account-or plan to take a small percentage to pay taxes on or consider registering as an LLC depending on how long you want to be in operation. You can then of course turn around and donate the percentage taken to truly donate every cent. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Transparency

If money is involved you MUST be transparent.

This will not only protect you and your contributors in the long run, but gain trust. This means records of all receipts, record of orders, record of donations, EVERYTHING (with your personal information blacked out). Show a record for any reimbursement of materials if you choose to take that reimbursement. Not sharing the bare bones of your financial records can open you up to questions and criticisms and grow distrust-which would then hurt future endeavors. 

The first step is to open a new clean paypal account for zine-only transactions, this will help you with transparency. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Dedication

Here’s the kicker. If you don’t have the dedication to run your project, it will suffer and possibly even fail.

Running a fandom zine or event takes a lot of time and energy on your part. They simply don’t spring into existence just because you think it would be fun and you have the passion for it. Things would be so much easier if that were the case!

Some events will be easier to maintain than others, like fic exchanges. Big bangs can also be as easy or as hard as you want them to be depending on the number of contributors and if you are doing a regular-or reverse bang, or an open or closed big bang.

Zines usually require a lot more dedication and effort to complete because of printing, production, shipping, and finances. At the shortest, these endeavors can last from three months to six to eight months, with zines ranging up to a year or over depending on internal scheduling even if your supporters only see it publicly for a couple months. Even if you do try to do everything right, sometimes projects just don’t work out. Anything could happen to halt or slow down the process, but it’s up to you to keep it going if you can and if you want to.

In the end, this is a fun project that you can do. But there are many moving parts to make sure that it runs smoothly. In short: take your time, get your ducks in a row, and have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish because it will take a lot of work. Good luck!

[its-suanneschafer-author]

Continuing my review and summarizing of Project 2025, the GOP 2024 platform, and Trump’s Agenda 47.

1) Trump denies knowledge of Project 2025, a radical conservative Christian manifesto, yet many of his present and former advisors wrote the 900 page document which is a blueprint for the new GOP president starting from day one with massive, sweeping actions that will not only paralyze the government but will ensure chaos for years to come. It is the most detailed look at a future Trump presidency. Trump’s name is mentioned 268 times in the document, so it was certainly written with him in mind. Trump instituted 64% of the policy recommendations that were put out in the 2016 conservative mandate, a blueprint for the Trump administration and which was as right-wing and conservative as the current Project 2025.

2) Agenda 47 collects formal policies Trump plans to put into effect, many of which rely on executive orders and significant expansion of his executive powers. In 2023, Trump campaign officials stated that Project 2025 aligns well with Agenda 47.

These policies include:

A) restriction of Chinese ownership of US infrastructure

B) End the “Biden war” on US energy by eliminating every regulation that hampers domestic production, getting out of the Paris Agreement, and giving fast approval to every oil infrastructure project that comes before his administration 

C) Baseline tariffs on most foreign goods, revoking Chinese Most Favored Nation trade status

D) Decrease trade deficits

E) Not bailing out failing banks, slashing regulations, and repealing Biden’s tax hikes to reduce inflation

F) The Trump Reciprocal Trade Act will tariff other countries’ imports at the same rate they tariff our exports. NB: The costs of these tariffs will be passed on to consumers and will cause more harm than good

G) Gut Biden’s Green New Deal policies and electric cars initiative, and terminate all emission regulations on cars, fossil fuels, etc

H) Dept of Education

1—Cut federal funding for any school or program teaching critical race theory or gender ideology by removing the radicals who have infiltrated the Dept of Education. 

2—Keep men out of women’s sports. 

3—Create a new way to certify teachers based on their patriotism and give preferential treatment to schools that abolish teacher tenure, abolish DEI, and adopt direct election of school principals by parents. 

4—Pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that engage in “equity” by taxing up to the entire amount of their endowment

5—Restore parental rights to control their child’s education; allow parents to hire and fire principals and teachers.

6—Bring back school prayer NB: This includes reading the Bible but doesn’t include any teachings of other religions

7—Allow teachers to carry concealed weapons at school 

8—Immediate expulsion and sentencing to reform school of any student who harms another student or a teacher or use or possession of drugs at school

9—The US government will issue bachelor’s degrees to those who did not finish their degrees by creating a new educational institution aimed at competing with schools already in existence. NB: This is from the man who owes fines from the failure of his own for-profit college.

I) Reinterpret presidential powers so that he has greater control of the government in the White House

(the unitary executive theory).

1—Dismantle the “deep state” and revamp every aspect of the US government. NB: These policies could upset the balance of power between the three branches of the federal government and provoke a constitutional showdown by usurping congressional authority and cutting out any program he doesn’t like or whose proponents have angered him. This is a fascist plan

2—Prevent World War III and end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. NB: The fact that he has buddied up to Putin makes this highly unlikely.

3—Overhaul the entire US defense and intelligence bureaucracies

4—Ask Europe to refund the money we spend to rebuild the stockpiles we sent to Ukraine. NB: Good luck with that

J) Keep Medicare and Social Security intact. NB: Every single congressional Republican—and 43 Senate Republicans—sided with Big Pharma over the American people and blocked an amendment that would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 for millions of Americans on private insurance. Thus, Big Pharma and the rich get richer at the cost of the health and lives of the poor. In March 2024, the Republican Study committee which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and 80% of their members proposed yet another budget that would cut the following by $4.5 trillion over 1-0 years: Medicare (transition Medicare to a premium support system that would raise premiums for many seniors), Social Security ($1.5 trillion in cuts) , the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Initiative and increase prescription drugs (removing $35 insulin), energy and housing costs while raising the retirements age plus forcing $5.5. trillion in tax cuts for the very rich.

K) Immigration policy

1—Ban birthright citizenship 

2—End welfare for illegal immigants

3—Massive deportation of immigrants

L) Inflation

1—Build “Freedom Cities” on undeveloped federal land to lower cost of buying a home

2—Build vertical takeoff and landing vehicles

M) Shatter the left-wing censorship regime

L) Law enforcement

1—Increase investment in police personnel, stop illegal drugs

2—Death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers

3—Overhaul federal standards on disciplining minors

4—Concealed carry reciprocity

M) DEI

1—Abandon DEI, terminate any offices, staff, and initiatives connected to DEI

2—Focus on anti-white racism rather than discrimination against people of color

N) Transgender and LBGQI+ rights: Terminate all gender affirming care at any age and terminating federal funding for any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in it

[collapsedsquid]

Reboot 2024 was supposed to shed light on the so-called “New Reality.” In promotional materials, its organizers prominently touted how this paradigm shift would lay waste to institutions and incumbents, all in the name of a revolution against the “elite.”  [...] Over and over, Roberts pitched Project 2025 and Heritage’s agenda as being aligned with the tech industry, suggesting that tech evangelists and e/acc futurists are “kindred spirits” with conservatives due to their love of capital (both human and financial) and liberty to do what they wish.  “There are still people who are wired for freedom,” Roberts declared. “And that, I think, we can revitalize the Republic around.”  [...] There was Jessica Anderson, the president of the Republican-boosting super PAC Sentinel Action Fund and the former executive director of Heritage Action, an advocacy group related to the Heritage Foundation. Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute and a defender of some of the most vile propagandists on the right, was a featured guest. Katie Biber, chief legal officer for crypto investment fund Paradigm, repeatedly attacked Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and championed the need to “abolish liberal nonprofits.”  At times, the conversation on stage flirted with extreme visions about how to correct America’s course as a global leader. National Security Institute head Jamil Jaffer, for example, declared that “we are days and weeks away from a mass-scale terrorist attack,” noting that a rapid increase in defense spending is necessary. 

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Steven Beschloss at America, America:

This is a strange, in-between moment, rippling with uncertainty stirred by a deeply vengeful man bent on destruction who will soon retake the ultimate levers of power. His hasty dumping of unqualified nominees—each one providing a different version of reckless endangerment to our nation’s safety and security—underscores the serious questions about how bad the coming months and years will be.

Will they mete out punishments to serve their boss’ whims, ending justice as we know it? Will we be able to rely on the safety of our food and water and drugs? Will diseases long abated by vaccines re-emerge as new and unnecessary dangers to our children and ourselves? Can we trust that our military will serve the American people rather than be transformed into a weapon against us? Will we face new attacks by foreign adversaries because our allies can no longer safely share intelligence with us? Will we suffer serious economic decline fueled by billionaires and reckless ideologues focused on expanding their own fortunes while demanding sacrifices from everyone else? Can we be sure that in 2026 there will be another election?

In turn, who will be the heroes of this time? Who will stand up and speak out, refusing to be cowed or ruled by fear? Who will take action to stop the demolition of our democracy? Who with power will demand that the practices and principles that have successfully driven the American system of government be recognized and followed? There are some early signs: Matt Gaetz was a road too far for Attorney General. The Senate chose South Dakota’s John Thune as its new majority leader, not Trump-backed lickspittle Rick Scott from Florida. Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said categorically that he would not leave his post if Trump asked or tried to fire him. Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced she would oppose Trump’s nominees if they are not properly vetted by the FBI. “This isn’t about partisanship," she reportedly told close allies, "it’s about ensuring we don’t compromise the standards of public office." South Dakota’s other GOP senator, Mike Rounds, said this when asked about anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Look, I believe in vaccines. I think they’ve saved millions of lives.”

Will there be other GOP senators who find their spine in the coming months to confront Trump’s reckless decisions? Will we see Democrats oppose the coming onslaught with all the vigor and virulence they can muster? These would be leaders to notice and encourage. Let’s also pay attention to the critical role of state and local officials to protect their citizens and push back against the Trump-inspired federal efforts to deport millions of undocumented migrants and pursue myriad other actions that will cause damage to real people. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker best summarized this commitment: “You come for my people, you come through me.”

In this period, we will need fearless truth-tellers to remind us of the differences between right and wrong, true and false. They will be critical in asserting factual reality as the anti-government propaganda intensifies to justify extreme attacks on the agencies, procedures and resources established to create safety and security, particularly for at-risk people. Trump lackey and election denier Pam Bondi, nominated for Attorney General, has already pledged to prosecute the prosecutors. Trump chose Russell Vought, a chief architect of Project 2025, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, even though Trump said he knew nothing about the project’s policy agenda. Vought has already pledged to help impound any funds approved by Congress if the next president disapproves of their intended purpose—demonstrating utter disregard for the legislative body’s power of the purse enshrined in the first article of the Constitution.

Steven Beschloss wrote in his America, America blog on who will be the heroes to save America.

[mariacallous]

Project 2025 outlines a radical policy agenda that would dramatically reshape the federal government. The report was spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and represents the policy aims of a large coalition of conservative activists. While former President Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, many of the report’s authors worked in the previous Trump administration and could return for a second round. Trump, himself, said in 2022, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”

In other words, Project 2025 warrants a close look, even if the Trump campaign would like Americans to avert their gaze.

Project 2025’s education agenda proposes a drastic overhaul of federal education policy, from early childhood through higher education. Here’s just a sample of the Project 2025 education-related recommendations:

Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED)

Eliminate the Head Start program for young children in poverty

Discontinue the Title I program that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children

Rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students

Undercut federal capacity to enforce civil rights law

Reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools

Promote universal private school choice

Privatize the federal student loan portfolio

It’s an outrageous list, and that’s just the start of it.

We’ve reviewed the Project 2025 chapter on education (Chapter 11), along with other chapters with implications for students. We’ve come away with four main observations:

1. Most of the major policy proposals in Project 2025 would require an unlikely amount of congressional cooperation

Project 2025 is presented as a to-do list for an incoming Trump administration. However, most of its big-ticket education items would require a great deal of cooperation from Congress.

Proposals to create controversial, new laws or programs would require majority support in the House and, very likely, a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the Senate. Ideas like a Parents’ Bill of Rights, the Department of Education Reorganization Act, and a federal tax-credit scholarship program fall into this category. Even if Republicans outperform expectations in this fall’s Senate races, they’d have to attract several Democratic votes to get to 60. That’s not happening for these types of proposals.  

The same goes for major changes to existing legislation. This includes, for example, a proposal to convert funding associated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to no-strings-attached block grants and education savings accounts (with, presumably, much less accountability for spending those funds appropriately). It also includes a proposal to end the “negotiated rulemaking” (“neg-reg”) process that ED follows when developing regulations related to programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The neg-reg requirement is written into HEA itself, which means that unwinding neg-reg would require Congress to amend the HEA. That’s unlikely given that HEA reauthorization is already more than a decade overdue—and that’s without the political baggage of Project 2025 weighing down the process.

The prospect of changing funding levels for existing programs is a little more complicated. Programs like Title I are permanently authorized. Eliminating Title I or changing the formulas it uses to allocate funds to local educational agencies would require new and unlikely legislation. Year-to-year funding levels can and do change, but the vast majority of ED’s budget consists of discretionary funding that’s provided through the regular, annual appropriations process and subject to a filibuster. This limits the ability of one party to make major, unilateral changes. (ED’s mandatory funding is more vulnerable.)

In sum, one limiting factor on what an incoming Trump administration could realistically enact from Project 2025 is that many of these proposals are too unpopular with Democrats to overcome their legislative hurdles.

2. Some Project 2025 proposals would disproportionately harm conservative, rural areas and likely encounter Republican opposition

Another limiting factor is that some of Project 2025’s most substantive proposals probably wouldn’t be all that popular with Republicans either.

Let’s take, for example, the proposed sunsetting of the Title I program. Project 2025 proposes to phase out federal spending on Title I over a 10-year period, with states left to decide whether and how to continue that funding. It justifies this with misleading suggestions that persistent test score gaps between wealthy and poor students indicate that investments like Title I funding aren’t paying off. (In fact, evidence from school finance reforms suggests real benefits from education spending, especially for students from low-income families.)

The phrase “Title I schools” might conjure up images of under-resourced schools in urban areas that predominantly serve students of color, and it’s true that these schools are major beneficiaries of Title I. However, many types of schools, across many types of communities, receive critical support through Title I. In fact, schools in Republican-leaning areas could be hit the hardest by major cuts or changes to Title I. In the map below, we show the share of total per-pupil funding coming from Title I by state. Note that many of the states that rely the most on Title I funds (darkest blue) are politically conservative.

Of course, the impact of shifting from federal to state control of Title I would depend on how states choose to handle their newfound decision-making power. Given that several red states are among the lowest spenders on education—and have skimped on programs like Summer EBT and Medicaid expansion—it’s hard to believe that low-income students in red states would benefit from a shift to state control.

What does that mean for the type of support that Project 2025 proposals might get from red-state Republicans in Congress? It’s hard to know. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that the GOP’s push for universal private school voucher programs has encountered some of its fiercest resistance from rural Republicans across several states.

3. Project 2025 also has significant proposals that a second Trump administration could enact unilaterally

While a second Trump administration couldn’t enact everything outlined in Project 2025 even if it wanted to, several consequential proposals wouldn’t require cooperation from Congress. This includes some actions that ED took during the first Trump administration and certainly could take again.

Here are a few of the Project 2025 proposals that the Trump administration could enact with the authority of the executive branch alone:

Roll back civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students

Roll back Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination

Dismantle the federal civil rights enforcement apparatus

Eliminate current income-driven repayment plans and require higher monthly payments for low-income borrowers

Remove protections from predatory colleges that leave students with excessive debt

Federal education policy has suffered from regulatory whiplash over the last decade, with presidential administrations launching counter-regulations to undo the executive actions of the prior administration. Take, for example, “gainful employment” regulations that Democratic administrations have used to limit eligibility for federal financial aid for colleges that leave students with excessive loan debt. A second Trump administration would likely seek to reverse the Biden administration’s “gainful employment” regulations like the first Trump administration did to the Obama administration’s rules. (Then again, with the Supreme Court striking down Chevron, which provided deference to agency expertise in setting regulations, the Trump administration might not even need to formally undo regulations.)

Other Project 2025 proposals, not explicitly about education, also could wreak havoc. This includes a major overhaul of the federal civil service. Specifically, Project 2025 seeks to reinstate Schedule F, an executive order that Trump signed during his final weeks in office. Schedule F would reclassify thousands of civil service positions in the federal government to policy roles—a shift that would empower the president to fire civil servants and fill their positions with political appointees. Much has been written about the consequences of decimating the civil service, and the U.S. Department of Education, along with other federal agencies that serve students, would feel its effects.

4. Project 2025 reflects a white Christian nationalist agenda as much as it reflects a traditional conservative education policy agenda

If one were to read Project 2025’s appeals to principles such as local control and parental choice, they might think this is a standard conservative agenda for education policy. Republicans, after all, have been calling for the dismantling of ED since the Reagan administration, and every administration since has supported some types of school choice reforms.

But in many ways, Project 2025’s proposals really don’t look conservative at all. For example, a large-scale, tax-credit scholarship program would substantially increase the federal government’s role in K-12 education. A Parents’ Bill of Rights would require the construction of a massive federal oversight and enforcement function that does not currently exist. And a proposal that “states should require schools to post classroom materials online to provide maximum transparency to parents” would impose an enormous compliance burden on schools, districts, and teachers.

Much of Project 2025 is more easily interpretable through the lens of white Christian nationalism than traditional political conservatism. Scholars Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry describe white Christian nationalism as being “about ethno-traditionalism and protecting the freedoms of a very narrowly defined ‘us’.” The Project 2025 chapter on education is loaded with proposals fitting this description. That includes a stunning number of proposals focused on gender identity, with transgender students as a frequent target. Project 2025 seeks to secure rights for certain people (e.g., parents who support a particular vision of parental rights) while removing protections for many others (e.g., LGBTQ+ and racially minoritized children). Case in point, its proposal for “Safeguarding civil rights” says only, “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.”

These types of proposals don’t come from the traditional conservative playbook for education policy reform. They come from a white Christian nationalist playbook that has gained prominence in far-right politics in recent years.

At this point, it’s clear that the Trump campaign sees Project 2025 as a political liability that requires distance through the election season. Let’s not confuse that with what might happen during a second Trump administration.

[beardedmrbean]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) didn't report a staggering $7 billion in award-level obligations and outlays during fiscal year 2022, according to an inspector general audit released this week.

The EPA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) determined that the agency underreported its award-level outlays by $5.8 billion, or 99.9%, and its award-level obligations by $1.2 billion, or 12.9% during FY22, the period between October 2021 and September 2022. The agency further failed to report any of its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act outlays and under-reported its coronavirus pandemic-related outlays.

"The lack of complete and accurate reporting also led to taxpayers being initially misinformed about the EPA’s spending, and policy-makers who relied on the data may not have been able to effectively track federal spending," the OIG report concluded.

In response to the audit, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., blasted the EPA and called for increased transparency into its activities. 

"It’s outrageous and unacceptable that the EPA cannot keep track of its spending or inform Congress — and the American people — of how it is using taxpayer dollars," McMorris Rodgers said in a statement Thursday. "This eye-opening report only further highlights the need for more transparency at the EPA."

"It also raises questions about whether the agency is incapable of managing its record-high budget or if the agency is attempting to hide the amount of taxpayer dollars it is spending to advance the administration’s radical rush-to-green agenda," she added. "The Energy and Commerce Committee will continue holding this administration accountable for its actions that are driving up costs across the board and hurting Americans."

MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT SIGNED NDA INVOLVING CCP-TIED COMPANY, DOCUMENTS SHOW, CONTRADICTING HER PAST CLAIMS

The EPA ultimately corrected its FY22 figures in May 2023 as a result of the OIG audit while making configuration changes a month later. Overall, the inspector general made five recommendations which it said the agency agreed to make.

The report, meanwhile, comes as the EPA both manages a massive green energy fund and continues to request a larger budget. The Inflation Reduction, Democrats' massive climate and tax bill passed in 2022, created the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which in turn establishes a national green bank to fund green projects nationwide.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS OPEN PROBE INTO BIDEN ADMIN FOR OPENING PUBLIC LANDS TO FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

And the White House is requesting that Congress approve a FY24 EPA budget of more than $12 billion, a record level. Republicans have aimed to reduce the EPA budget to about $6 billion, which would be the agency's smallest budget since the early 1990s.

"The Biden administration is using EPA as a pass through for taxpayer dollars to fund left-wing groups that aim to get Democrats elected, not improve the environment," Mandy Gunasekara, a Heritage Foundation visiting fellow who served as the EPA's chief of staff during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.

"A failure to report $7 billion is absurd and unacceptable, but also symbolic of how Team Biden operates: prioritizing their political goals over the needs of the American people," she continued. "I’m glad Chair Rodgers is monitoring this and hope the committee brings forth the agency’s Chief Financial Officer to account for this serious oversight."

The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Rowe

* * * *

Trump's Project 2025 Nominees

November 23, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Nov 23, 2024

Trump released a flurry of nominations on Friday evening—apparently hoping that Americans would not notice that several of the nominees share a connection to Project 2025 and Fox “news” programs.

The most significant nomination is Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President and is charged with (a) creating the budget and (b) oversight of federal agencies to ensure compliance with the president’s policies and spending authority. Although the job sounds like it is “in the weeds,” OMB is where the hard work of implementing the president’s policies takes place.

Russel T. Vought served as acting director of OMB for two years during the first Trump administration. That’s good and reassuring in the sense that one of the most important jobs in Washington will be filled with someone actually qualified to perform the job.

But Vought is also an “architect” of Project 2025. Per the NYTimes,

Mr. Vought was a leading figure in Project 2025, the effort by conservative organizations to build a governing blueprint for Mr. Trump should he take office once again. Mr. Trump tried to distance himself from the effort during his campaign, but he has put forward people with ties to the project for his administration since the election.

Mr. Vought’s role in Project 2025 was to oversee executive orders and other unilateral actions that Mr. Trump could take during his first six months in office, with the goal of tearing down and rebuilding executive branch institutions in a way that would enhance presidential power.

To the surprise of no one, Trump's claim during the election that he knew nothing about Project 2025 was a lie. There is almost no one better positioned to advocate for the goals of Project 2025 than Vought—both because of his key role in drafting the agenda and because of the powerful position he will assume at OMB.

Vought has been a vocal advocate for eliminating the “independence” of certain federal agencies—such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Reserve.

Removing the independence of those regulatory agencies would put the president in the position to reward friends and punish enemies through the power of federal agencies.

For example, the SEC has charged Elon Musk with violating securities laws in his takeover of Twitter. Under the current operating protocols for the SEC, the president would not interfere in decisions by the SEC to initiate prosecutions or enforcement actions. But if Trump is successful in eliminating the independence of the SEC, Trump could order the SEC commissioners to drop the case against Musk.

Other nominations that deserve scrutiny include:

Sebastian Gorka as the senior director for counterterrorism. Gorka was forced out of the White House during Trump's first administration because he frequently clashed with senior intelligence leaders who saw Gorka as an ideologue with little real-world experience.

Marty Makary, has been nominated to lead the FDA. Per The Hill, Makary is a Johns Hopkins’s oncology surgeon who espoused contrarian views about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2021, Makary published an op-ed in the WSJ asserting that “herd immunity” would end the pandemic by April 2021. In fact, cases of Covid in the US increased substantially after Makary’s op-ed, with nearly half of the total deaths occurring after his claim that “herd immunity” would end the pandemic.

Scott Bessent has been nominated as Secretary of Treasury. Bessent is a hedge fund manager and may have the experience to serve in the position. However, he is a deficit hawk who also wants to extend the costly Trump tax cuts from 2017. Per HuffPo,

Even as he pushes to lower the national debt by stopping spending, Bessent has backed extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law in his first year in office. Estimates from different economic analyses of the costs of the various tax cuts range between nearly $6 trillion and $10 trillion over 10 years. Nearly all of the law’s provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025.

To put a finer point on Bessent’s nomination, extending tax cuts for the wealthy while reducing deficits likely means that deficit reduction will be borne by the middle class and working poor.

And to put an even finer point on the nominations—and to paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign motto— “It’s Project 2025, stupid!” We were right all along—and Trump was lying all along. Somehow that storyline is missing from the media on Friday . . . .

Trump voters suddenly feel better about the economy

Readers send me dozens of copies of articles each day that explain “why Democrats lost the 2024 election.” Most of the analyses are subterfuges for attacking either (a) the progressive wing of the party for being too liberal or (b) the centrist wing of the party for not being liberal enough.

I will say again that the last thing Democrats should be doing at this moment is assigning blame for the loss. One op-ed published in legacy media today effectively advocated abandoning support for unions and LGBTQ people. That is both wrong and a horrible idea. We can’t change who we are as a party to chase elusive Trump voters who are likely not being honest about their reasons for supporting Trump.

Most of the analysts who are scolding Democrats start with the patently false notion that Democrats have “abandoned the working class.” They then pile on with the corollary that Democrats lost because they failed to address concerns about the economy and inflation.

The commentators assume that exit polling accurately reflects why voters supported Trump. There is good reason to believe that Trump supporters are offering post-facto rationalizations to justify their support for Trump's divisive and hateful platform.

A new survey suggests that Trump supporters weren’t being honest about their reasons for supporting Trump. See MSN, Poll: Republicans reverse views on economy and election fraud after Trump’s win; much smaller shifts among Democrats

Per the article, a significant portion of Republicans suddenly changed their mind about how good they felt about the economy after Trump won. Per MSN,

The survey of 1,612 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Nov. 14 to Nov. 18, found that fewer than half of Republicans (48%) now say the economy is getting worse. But immediately before the Nov. 5 election, nearly three-quarters of Republicans (74%) said the economy was going downhill.

That’s a sudden 26-point shift.

A 26-point shift is significant. To state the obvious, the economy did not make sudden improvements in the ten days after the election. Rather, when complaining about the economy no longer justifies voting for Trump, more Republicans acknowledge that the economy is doing well.

So, it is a mistake to base “What went wrong?” analyses on the unquestioning acceptance of what voters are saying in exit polls. It is also a mistake to talk about “what went wrong” by ignoring the fact that Trump's campaign platform had three culture-war pillars: racism, sexism, and white supremacy.

Those policy pillars are manifesting themselves in Trump's nominees for senior positions in his administration. To publish an analysis of “why Democrats lost” while ignoring Trump's campaign themes is a recipe for delusion.

But I digress. We must use caution when publishing, reading, or sharing analyses about why Democrats lost. And no part of that analysis should be used to blame or banish any part of the Democratic coalition. We must stick together to increase our chances of victory in the short term.

Concluding Thoughts

I will hold a Substack Livestream on Saturday morning, November 23 at 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 a.m. Eastern. If you have the Substack app on your phone, you will receive a notice when I go live. You will not receive a link in advance. To download the Substack app, go to these links: Substack on the App Store and Substack - Apps on Google Play.

I was chatting with a reader about their feelings of exhaustion “in the face of four more years of Trump.” I understand those feelings but believe we should be thinking about resisting Trump in a series of discrete, shorter time periods. Thinking about our resistance in “phases” can help us be more strategic and relieve artificial pressure from our shoulders.

Between today and the Inauguration (January 20, 2025), Joe Biden is still president and can take steps to appoint judges and implement policies in a way that will delay or defeat efforts to undo Biden’s accomplishments.

After the Inauguration, Trump and his enablers will face the daunting task of embedding themselves in a massive federal government while they undertake their promised deportation of 10 million immigrants. That period will last eighteen months and will be a daily challenge. But then, the 2026 midterms will get underway. Trump's congressional supporters will be concerned about re-election—a concern that may cause them to re-think their loyalty to Trump. Our leverage and messaging opportunities will increase.

In the last two years of his presidency, Trump will be a lame duck.  The internal GOP struggle to replace Trump will be in full swing and Trump will be fighting with his party as much as he will be fighting with Democrats.

Here’s my point: While we cannot relent, the period of maximal effort will be the next twenty months (Dec and January, plus eighteen months before the 2026 midterms). What happens after that depends on whether Democrats retake the House in 2026.

So, rather than thinking about Trump's tenure as a four-year unbroken battle, break up the periods of resistance into smaller periods. Doing so is realistic, smart, and healthy. We are in this battle for the long term. We can’t burn ourselves out with outrage and freneticism. We have a job to do. Let’s do it in a measured but passionate way. That will increase our chances for success.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[ridenwithbiden]

President-elect Trump has repeatedly pledged to dismantle the Department of Education, a decision that could radically reshape learning across America.

Why it matters: The Department of Education plays a crucial role in making education access and quality more equitable for students nationwide.

Abolishing the department and the accompanying changes are "an effort to strip the federal government of any ability to do good ... as a way to justify further defunding our public schools and colleges," Kelly Rosinger, an associate professor of education and public policy at Penn State, told Axios.

State of play: The Department of Education has been a punching bag for Republicans for decades. Ronald Reagan threatened to abolish it, and many inside the GOP have echoed Trump's calls for its end.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) last year said, "Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., should not be in charge of our children's intellectual and moral development," while introducing a bill to kill the department.

Driving the news: Elon Musk, one of President-elect Trump's most influential backers, posted a video to X Monday showing Trump boasting about closing the department and sending all education matters "back to the states."

The official 2024 GOP platform also calls for closing the Department of Education. Can Trump actually get rid of the department?

While not impossible, Trump's political pathway to abolishing the Department of Education is narrow.

Eliminating the department would require congressional action, likely including a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate, the Washington Post reported.

Despite their 53-47 Senate majority, Republicans are unlikely to muster up the votes to circumvent the filibuster.

A House vote last year on an amendment eliminating the department failed after 60 Republicans joined Democrats opposing it, per the Post.

Flashback: Trump's animus toward the Department of Education isn't new. During his first term, he proposed merging the Education and Labor departments.

Betsy DeVos, Trump's previous secretary of education, was seen by many critics as anti-public education. What does the Department of Education do?

The Department of Education's budget funds a variety of programs to help students obtain a quality education.

The department funds Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 school districts.

Head Start programs provide vital child care services for many low-income and rural communities across the country, Rosinger pointed out.

The department also administers Pell Grants, which help low-income students attend college.

The Office of Special Education Programs provides resources to support students with disabilities through age 21.

The department also collects national data on schools and enforces federal civil rights laws to prohibit discrimination.

Zoom in: The Department of Education is also the loan holder for most federal student loans.

What happens if the department is eliminated?

Project 2025, which Trump's allies have touted as the incoming administration's agenda, outlines plans to abolish the department, which it calls a "one-stop shop for the woke education cartel."

Instead, Project 2025 calls for redistributing various federal education programs across the government, while eliminating others or transferring them to the states.

For instance, it calls for management of Title I to be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. The department's civil rights office would join the Justice Department, and the Treasury Department would manage student loan collections and defaults.

What they're saying: These changes — from shifting programs across agencies, shuffling staff or losing experts in the field — could mean "chaos ahead," Rosinger said.

"When federal government programs are chaotic, it's going to disproportionately harm working-class families," she added.

What could happen to student loans?

While Trump has repeatedly railed against the Biden administration's student debt forgiveness efforts, Project 2025 takes aim at the federal government's role as a student loan lender.

Project 2025 says that income-driven repayment (IDR) plans have "proliferated beyond reason," and that a new IDR plan should be instituted that requires payments equal to 10% of a borrower's income for those earning above the poverty line.

It also calls for returning to a system where private lenders offer student loans. Private loans typically come with higher interest rates than federal loans.

There are also concerns the administration could narrow the scope of loans available to help students attain higher education, like eliminating Parent PLUS loans for undergraduates and graduate student PLUS loans — both of which Project 2025 calls for, Rosinger said.

How will this reshape American education?

These changes would profoundly alter American education.

For one, it will "decimate" the professional education bureaucracy, as Trump replaces career experts in their fields with political appointees, Rosinger said.

Between the lines: Even if the Department of Education is left intact, changes are likely, as the Trump administration is unlikely to continue the Biden administration's efforts to expand LGBTQ+ and gender equality protections or forgive student debt, Rosinger said.

The Trump administration could also transfer responsibility for accrediting universities and colleges to the states, she added.

That could see accreditation being "used as a lever" to discourage schools from pursuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and affirmative action programs, Rosinger noted.

The bottom line: "Looking at Project 2025, the programs that are supporting trans students, that support low-income students, that support racially minoritized students, these are going to be the ones that are the most threatened," Rosinger said.

[milkboydotnet]

From Deprogramming Imperialism (org founding statement here):

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that representatives of the Unification Church (UC) admitted to members of CORU (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations)—a CIA-backed far-right militant group known for assassinations and bombings against the Cuban government from the 1970s through the 1990s—that the UC provided 85% of the funding for the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The WACL supported repressive dictatorships and funded and trained paramilitary groups worldwide, including in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Nicaragua. The WACL and the more explicitly UC-directed CAUSA played a key role in organizing conferences in the Philippines after the fall of Marcos, where US and Philippine intelligence agents, politicians, and civic leaders mapped out a “low-intensity conflict”, “unconventional warfare” counterinsurgency strategy relying heavily on militias and paramilitaries in order to stamp out communist insurgency.

It’s crucial to understand that the UC was not just an abusive organization that promoted “right-wing values” but that it was and is actively aiding an anti-communist, imperialist agenda, endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats.

As we face an era of heightened political repression and creeping fascism under Trump, it’s important to recognize that Biden’s own counterinsurgency policies have led to the raids of Palestinian activists’ homes and the classification of groups like Samidoun as terror organizations. Billions of US tax dollars have funded the Philippines’ fascistic counterinsurgency strategies since the 1980s, regardless of which party holds office. Though the DNC postures itself as a progressive force for marginalized sectors, they have time and time again revealed that their interests are in upholding imperialism rather than serving its working class and exploited constituents.

As much as we decry the Unification Church’s role in the formation of the institutional Religious Right, and their role in promoting reactionary ideas and policies in the Republican party, we recognize that DNC is just as responsible for imperialist exploitation and global fascistic terrorism.

As we look for the root causes of the vile policies and actions of the RNC and DNC, as well as the abuse and corruption in the Unification Church, we find imperialism at their core.

We must confront the reality that the UC’s abuses weren’t just internal corruption—they were part of the global imperialist project. The UC’s labor trafficking, racial hierarchies, support of right-wing coups, and human rights abuses reveals itself as a microcosm of the global imperialist project, which demands exploitation to uphold the interests of imperialists and their lackeys.

Deprogramming Imperialism is an educational collective of former UC members dedicated to creating resources that expose this reality, reclaiming our agency through organizing, and building solidarity in the fight against imperialism. Want to contribute to these efforts? Reach out to us and join our study group! DeprogrammingImperialism@protonmail.com

[tieflingkisser]

This AIPAC Donor Funnels Millions to an IDF Unit Accused of Violating Human Rights

The battalion has a dedicated U.S. nonprofit to support its operations — whose president is supporting AIPAC’s political agenda.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion is an all-male unit of the Israel Defense Forces that was formed to allow ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the military while still complying with their religious beliefs, through accommodations like providing time for prayer and limiting interactions with women.  The battalion is also notorious for its alleged abuses of Palestinians and human rights violations in the West Bank, including an incident that led to the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian American man in 2022. These allegations landed the group, formally known as the Nahal Haredi, on a short list of IDF units that Secretary of State Antony Blinken intended to sanction last month. That move would have cut off the battalion’s supply of U.S. weapons and other military aid — until the Biden administration backed away from those plans under pressure from Israeli officials. But the battalion has another reliable source of international support: a charitable nonprofit in the U.S. The man leading that organization, which has funneled millions to the IDF group in recent years, is also a donor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, which is running a multimillion-dollar campaign to oust critics of Israel’s human rights abuses from Congress and install stalwart pro-Israel allies in their place. “It’s absolutely incomprehensible that we provide tax write-offs to American citizens who use their funds to support groups and activities that are clear violators of human rights and violators of what is essentially American policy,” said Jim Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute. “And now, some of the very groups that we are holding up as sanctionable for their human rights behavior similarly are getting tax write-offs. It’s simply something that ought to end.”

[...]

Friends of Nahal Haredi, the U.S. nonprofit that supports the battalion, is led by a man named Stephen Rosedale, the founder and chairman of a company that operates more than 100 long-term care, medical rehab, and other healthcare facilities across seven states. Rosedale, a registered Republican, has given a total of $33,500 to AIPAC and its affiliated political action committees this cycle, including $25,000 to AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, and $10,500 to AIPAC’s regular PAC. Rosedale is also backing the challengers picked by AIPAC to oust Reps. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., in its plan to unseat the Squad. Rosedale has also given at least half a million dollars to various U.S. political campaigns since 2009.  Rosedale, Friends of Nahal Haredi, and the United Democracy Project did not respond to requests for comment. “We know that AIPAC’s primary role is to prevent any accountability for the Israeli government and military,” said Eva Borgwardt, national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a Jewish advocacy group. “So it’s not surprising that their donors are also backing IDF battalions with scores of documented human rights violations.”  Netzah Yehuda’s alleged human rights violations include leaving a 78-year-old Palestinian American man detained during a raid in the West Bank outside overnight before he died of cardiac arrest. The man, Omar As’ad, was a U.S. citizen and had previously lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Israeli officials dismissed two battalion officers after As’ad died but said it was not possible to determine whether their conduct caused his death. The State Department said it was “deeply concerned” by the circumstances of As’ad’s death and called for a thorough criminal investigation. No one was ultimately prosecuted for As’ad’s death. “The question here is really for the Democratic Party,” Borgwardt said. “Are they going to side with the majority of Americans who want a ceasefire and conditions on weapons to Israel? Or are they going to side with AIPAC and its unconditional backing of Netanyahu’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza?” AIPAC’s efforts to silence critics of Israel in Congress should make the group as repulsive to Democrats as the National Rifle Association, Borgwardt said. “Why are we not treating AIPAC like the NRA when we know it’s funded by people who also support weapons sales with zero accountability for civilian deaths including those of thousands of children?” 

[protoslacker]

So, regardless of Project 2025, the expansion of harmful anti-rights language and restrictions on funding from the United States to NGOs and multilaterals is already part of the playbook. Thankfully, human rights defenders also have a playbook, too. More than 100 organizations endorsed the 2023 Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Policy Agenda, which focuses on specific policy and leadership actions the executive branch can take to further advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice in the United States and around the world.

Eve Brecker & Rachel Clement at Rewire News Group. ‘Disbanding’ Project 2025 Won’t Stop Global Attacks on Women’s Rights

As the global “gag rule” turns 40, conservatives will stop at nothing to control how other countries implement their health programs.