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New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Trump's takeover of DC policing is entirely sensible and a win for the people of Washington
Washington, DC's political class may scream in fury at Team Trump's takeover of policing, but we suspect most district residents will be relieved: Regular people put public safety first. The city's politicians have failed to do that, and the feds have a duty to act when the nation's capital is unsafe. Even Democrats have been willing to stomp on DC's demands for 'home rule' when it comes to fighting crime: By a vote of 81-14 in 2023, for example, the Dem-run Senate joined with the GOP-run House to override the City Council's bid to reduce maximum penalties for violent crime, including carjackings — and President Joe Biden signed the measure into law. Advertisement Carjackings, for the record, are still triple the 2018 level, part of a grim wave of youth crime — yet city leaders have refused to get serious about stopping the violence. Nor did President Donald Trump rush to do this: He warned Mayor Muriel Bowser last year that action was on the table; she's had six months to turn things around — but several high-profile recent crimes, including last month's shooting death of 3-year-old Honesty Cheadle, showed she needs help. Indeed, as Trump noted, the US capital has more murders per capita than notorious Mexico City and Bogotá, Colombia. The homicide rate is six times New York City's. Advertisement To drive crime down, this intervention will bring in new resources, including hundreds of National Guard and broader deployment of the federal Park Police. Note, too: The feds share blame for DC's high crime: The US Attorney for the District of Columbia is responsible for all felony prosecutions in the city — but Biden appointees to the job refused to prosecute over half of local crimes. We hope neither the City Council nor Democrats (in Congress or neighboring Maryland and Virginia) try to sabotage this intervention. Everyone but the bad guys, and DC's citizens most of all, is a winner if it succeeds.
Arabian Post
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Arabian Post
Trump Plan To End Free Elections In 2026 Midterm And 2028 Presidential Revealed
By Mark Gruenberg NEW YORK—The Trump administration and its radical right foot-soldiers in the federal government and in the states are undertaking a comprehensive scheme to undermine future state and federal elections, in effect rigging the rolls to keep themselves in power no matter what the voters decide. So far, other than the report itself, by the Brennan Center for Law and Justice at New York University, there's been little—or little-noticed—response. The comprehensive scheme is detailed in a combination of a Trump executive order on March 25 and the notorious SAVE Act, a GOP voter repression law that would disenfranchise at least 21 million people, most of them women—the voters most likely to oppose the Trump-right-wing-corporate agenda. Detailed and footnoted protests were aired by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to the GOP-run House Administration Committee and by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—whose members include the AFL-CIO—to the GOP-run Senate Rules and Administration Committee. And states have gone to court to try to block Trump, the Brennan Center adds. 'A president has no right to rewrite the country's election rules or regulate federal elections on his own,' the center's report says. 'As a federal court recently put it, 'The Constitution vests none of these powers in the president.' In issuing the order, the president claimed extraordinary unilateral authority to regulate federal elections and usurp the powers of Congress, the states, and the (U.S.) Elections Administration Commission, an independent, bipartisan federal agency.' Protecting U.S. elections, at all levels, from partisan manipulation, is now and has been for more than a century, important to workers, union, and non-union. One, as AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler often points out, is that the GOP Trump regime views organized labor as a key roadblock to its partisan and repressive agenda. And the best way to crush labor is to crush workers' right to vote. And, second, and just as important, restricting who can vote, and who cannot, centralizes power in the hands not just of Trump but of the corporate interests that back him and who turn a blind eye—or worse–to repression both at the workplace and at the ballot box. After all, paraphrasing the late UAW President Walter Reuther, what is won at the bargaining table can be taken away by the stroke of a pen. The elements in the right wing's coordinated attempt to entrench itself in power go far beyond what Trump tried in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost it to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, and knew it. But he tried to overturn the results in lawsuits and other intimidation in selected swing states—and went 0-for-62 in court cases. When that failed, he turned to aiding and abetting the Jan. 6, 2021, Trumpite invasion, insurrection, and attempted coup d'etat at the U.S. Capitol. But now the Trump right-wing playbook to undermine and rig coming elections is much more extensive and much more under the radar, the Brennan Center reports. It includes: Attempting to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems. Targeting or threatening to target election officials and others who keep elections free and fair. Federal officials, at the Justice Department, had an important role in countering disinformation and combating racial discrimination. This federal protection for fair elections may no longer exist. Supporting people who undermine election administration by putting them on state and local elections boards. Retreating from the federal role of protecting voters and the election process by defunding agencies Congress established to safeguard the vote and ensuring the Federal Elections Commission, already hobbled by a years-long deadlock, remains toothless. Giving a 'go' signal to future violence to overturn elections, by Trump's pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists. The Brennan report leaves out one tactic of Trump, the MAGAites and the right-wing: Stacking state and local elections boards. An attempt occurred in Nevada, a swing state in 2020 and 2024. And after the four-member, evenly split Wayne County, Mich. (Detroit) elections board voted 3-1 to certify Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's margin there in 2020, Michigan MAGAites forced the Republican commissioner who voted for certification out of office. 'Why do we conclude this represents a concerted strategy? Among other things, President Trump tried to do this before,' the Brennan Center points out. 'He was the first president to try to overturn the results of a presidential election and used federal power to do so. 'Institutions and key officials blocked him. These internal checks, however, are now gone, and many public officials will likely carry out the president's will. 'This campaign to undermine elections runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Only Congress and the states can set election rules. The executive branch, especially the Department of Justice (DOJ), is charged with enforcing federal laws. But neither the president nor the DOJ has the authority to set rules governing elections or to supervise' state elections procedures. Yet Trump is trying just that. And, as CREW and the Brennan Center point out, the misnamed SAVE Act, a key goal of the House's ruling right-wing Republicans, would aid and abet that campaign. Other specifics include: Attempting to impose a 'Show Your Papers' requirement on voters. Trump, in a March 25 executive order, and the GOP congressional majority, in the SAVE Act, say doing so would prevent 'voter fraud,' which even Trump's last Attorney General in his first term, Bill Barr, called non-existent. But 'show your papers' mandates, using a citizenship document to even register to vote, 'would undermine voting and disrupt election administration in multiple respects.' Estimates are that the mandate, the SAVE Act, or both, would disenfranchise at least 21 million voters nationwide. Most of them would be women, whose names on their initial voter registrations are different from the name they now use. Force the states to re-certify all their voting machines, buy new ones, or both. That would cost billions of dollars. It's also one step removed from Trump's demand for hand counts of all elections. The certification would be done by federally approved firms and methods, and only one has been okayed by the federal Elections Administration Commission, on July 7, 2025. There are also bans on unauthorized access to voting machines and equipment. The result of violating them is to toss the machines—and the votes they count—out. Tina Peters, former county clerk in rural 'red' Mesa County, Colo., is now serving a 9-year term in prison for allowing Trumpite election deniers access to her county's machines after the 2020 balloting. She was convicted last year. There is a plan for retaliation against opponents of the right-wing's voter rigging. The targets include state and local elections officials, non-partisan groups such as the League of Women Voters, civic groups that mobilize voters 'and other individuals and entities that protect elections and the rule of law,' the Brennan Center reports. That kind of retaliation could target both unions and their get-out-the-vote drives and groups such as the Poor People's Campaign, which registers and mobilizes poor and low-wealth people—the very voters least likely to participate, but also the most likely to oppose the Trumpite, right-wing and corporate hegemony. The Brennan Center reports likely targets for 'law enforcement' type retaliation would include individual voters, election officials, 'perceived political adversaries, and journalists.' The last two groups of targets have been GOP targets before: On Richard Nixon's enemies list. Labour leaders—AFSCME President Jerry Wurf and UAW President Leonard Woodcock—were on it, too. Trump's FBI Director Kash Patel 'stated 'We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections–we're going to come after you,'' the Brennan Center adds. The Brennan Center reports three active task forces leading that retaliation: The Justice Department's 'Weaponization Working Group, the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office Election Integrity Task Force, and the Washington, D.C., Attorney's Office Special Unit. Letting DOGE—Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency–access sensitive private and personal voter registration files, just as it did with other agencies, including the Labour Department and the National Labour Relations Board. And the threat isn't only from DOGE's misuse of the files. The Brennan Center adds that when DOGE grabbed the NLRB's files, its security was so lax that foreign hackers immediately invaded them. 'The administration could abuse voter file access to claim fraud and erode public trust in elections,' the Brennan Center warns. 'It could also pressure state officials to target groups of voters and carry out unwarranted voter purges. Any disclosure of sensitive personal information puts individuals and groups at risk of being intimidated or doxed. And mishandling voter file data could expose U.S. elections to political and foreign interference.' As regards intimidating election officials. after what happened in 2020 to the two African-American women in Georgia at the hands of Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani—one a ballot counter, the other her mother—local elections officials are scared and defecting in droves. 'Criminal investigations and prosecutions would impose a severe personal and financial toll on election officials or nonprofit employees for simply doing their jobs to help keep elections free and fair. But beyond that, the harms that stem from targeting the officials and civil society groups that make our elections work are manifold,' the Brennan Center report says. 'Even if the administration never charges any officials, the threat alone of criminal investigation or prosecution will likely exacerbate the exodus of election officials. In 2024 33% of local election officials knew at least one colleague who resigned in part due to fear for their safety, of increased threats, or of intimidation; 21% stated they were unlikely to continue serving in their role for the 2026 midterms. In 2025, 59% of officials reported fear of political interference in their ability to do their jobs. And 46% were very or somewhat concerned about potential politically motivated investigations of themselves and their families.' The Brennan Center reports 'federal and state law prohibit anyone, including federal officials, from intimidating voters and those, like election officials or civic engagement organizations, who assist or encourage them to vote. And though voters rarely do so, they are able to sue DOJ officials under anti-intimidation law in federal court.' 'The Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances to ensure free and fair elections. The power to regulate elections lies in the hands of states and Congress. Courts and advocates complement this system to uphold the Constitution and federal law,' the Brennan Center declares. 'U.S. election infrastructure leaves no room for the president to insert himself. Yet that is exactly what he purports to do.' (IPA Service) Courtesy: People's World
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida could make schools show fetal-development video backed by anti-abortion group
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida schools could be required to show students detailed videos of human fetal development under legislation filed this week that mirrors bills backed by an anti-abortion group and adopted in recent years in North Dakota and Tennessee. Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, who chairs the Florida House education committee, filed HB 1255 late Wednesday afternoon. The multi-pronged education bill includes a requirement to show students in grades 6 through 12 a 'high-definition ultrasound video, at least one minute in duration' and a three-minute computer-generated video 'showing and describing the process of fertilization and various stages of human development inside the uterus.' North Dakota and Tennessee passed similar laws requiring schools to show a fetal-development video by Live Action, an anti-abortion group. The video, titled 'Baby Olivia', is a three-minute, computer-generated video that shows and describes the process of fertilization and the various stages of human development inside the uterus — echoing the language in HB 1255. 'If young people see the beauty of these beginnings, then hopefully they'll think twice before running to the abortion clinic,' said Sen. Janne Myrdal, a North Dakota Republican who helped introduce that state's bill, in an interview with The Associated Press in 2023. Live Action gained notoriety in the late 2000s for secretly recording abortion clinics and posting its 'investigations' to social media, where the organization has now amassed millions of followers across several platforms. The organization has called for outlawing abortions. Trabulsy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the bill was 'anti-abortion propaganda' being snuck into sweeping education legislation. 'It's just sick,' she said. Eskamani said Florida is missing the mark on sex education in public schools and heading further in the wrong direction with Trabulsy's bill. 'This video is not scientific. It is from an anti abortion organization,' Eskamani said. 'This is clearly an attempt to continue to push an anti-abortion agenda onto our children — where I thought the legislature didn't want to indoctrinate kids.' Citing a new state law, Florida education officials last year told school districts they could not teach students about contraception or other sex-related topics and must 'emphasize abstinence' in any sex education lessons. A bill similar to Trabulsy's failed in Arkansas — like Florida, a GOP-run state — this week when the 'Baby Olivia Act' failed to get enough votes in committee, according to the Arkansas Advocate. The Florida Legislature, which starts its new session Tuesday, is dominated by Republicans who enacted a strict six-week ban that, with some exceptions, limits most abortions. But some lawmakers could vote against the bill, Eskamani said, if 'voters hold them accountable.' In November, 57% of Floridians voted to protect abortion rights until viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy. Amendment 4, however, needed 60% of the vote to become law, and so failed to pass. 'Pushing anti-abortion propaganda onto our children is not something that the people of this state want to see,' she said. --------
