Latest news with #TreasuryBuilding
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The huge banner of a glaring Trump in front of the USDA is a literal sign the U.S. has lost its democracy
A colossal, brooding image of Donald Trump now looms over the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C. The banner is unmistakably authoritarian in both style and scale. It features a stone-faced Trump gazing down upon the capital like a watchful overlord. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. This is not a campaign advertisement. It is a signal. A warning. A literal and metaphorical sign that democracy in America is no longer functioning as intended. Historically, such displays of obnoxiousness have not heralded democratic renewal. Quite the opposite. They've marked the entrenchment of dictatorship. Authoritarian regimes the world over have relied on these massive visual monuments to instill fear, demand obedience, and project omnipresence. For decades, and most especially during World War II, Stalin's steel-eyed portraits towered over Soviet streets and public buildings, reminding citizens that the state saw everything. Mao Zedong's image hung from Tiananmen Gate like a secular deity watching over the masses. It was massive, larger than life, eternal, aloof for a reason.. History books and other visions etched in my memory bring images of Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Fidel Castro of Cuba, and of course Hitler, who all followed the same playbook. They saturate public space with the leader's face and saturate your mind with the leader's authority. Imagine, for a moment, if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had plastered massive banners of his face across Washington during World War II. Hanging a 30-foot portrait from the Treasury Building or looming over war bond posters with cold, impassive eyes. The public would have been outraged. Congress would have rebelled. Even amid war, Roosevelt respected the distinction between democratic leadership and personal cult. Trump has now joined this visual canon of despots with his banner brooding over a government institution. It is not just 'deeply creepy,' as some observers have said. It is the textbook behavior of a man who believes the state belongs to him. It is fascist iconography, domesticated. This chilling banner didn't emerge in a vacuum. Since being sworn in for his second term on January 20, Trump has governed not as a president but as a ruler unbound by law, or at least he thinks he's unbound by law. His Department of Justice has been purged of independence, its prosecutors reassigned or fired if they resisted Trump's will. And don't even get me started about the 'yes, yes, yes' attorney general, Pam Bondi, who is a perfect lackey for the wannabe dictator. No to Trump in not in her vocabulary. Trump's suggestion that he should be allowed a third term because one was supposedly 'stolen,' is no longer a fringe fantasy. It's a real and present threat, floated not only at rallies and interviews but by White House aides and conservative media outlets that now function more like state-run propaganda than independent journalism. He has declared that federal workers must show 'personal loyalty' to him. Inspectors general and career civil servants have been removed en masse and replaced with unqualified loyalists. Programs that support education, public health, and environmental protection have been gutted in favor of funding massive security forces that answer directly to the Executive Branch. And his takeover of the Kennedy Center, his chosen board of directors, naming himself as chairman, is just another check-mark on the autocrat bucket list and that is control of the arts. Meanwhile, efforts to erase and rewrite history are accelerating. Trump's allies are systematically removing references to slavery and civil rights from textbooks, recasting the January 6 insurrectionists as 'patriots,' and purging LGBTQ+ references from public libraries. This is not governing. It's regime-building, complete with a giant portrait. As Trump's face stares down from the side of a federal agency building, it's a 30-foot reminder of who is in charge, who is watching, and who cannot be questioned. This use of personal imagery as a weapon of psychological control is not just about ego, and it's a key mechanism of authoritarian rule. During Stalin's Great Purge, his image became synonymous with the state itself. To criticize Stalin, even in private, was to invite arrest, or worse. Saddam Hussein commissioned thousands of portraits of himself, placing them in every school, airport, and office in Iraq. The size and frequency of his image sent a clear message that this country was his. So too with Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong il, and his son Kim Jong Un. whose portraits are reportedly required in every home in North Korea, and most people clean them on a regular basis. Disrespecting the image is a punishable offense. These leaders understood something simple but potent: Symbols shape reality. And control of the visual environment is control of the collective psyche. The USDA banner is not just gaudy or excessive. It's strategic. It's authoritarian. It's a message not just to the public but to the bureaucracy itself that loyalty flows up, power flows down, and both are enforced with fear. Democracy depends on a humble, limited executive, and while we've had some egomaniacs as president here in the U.S. (think Richard Nixon), we've been fortunate not to have one who plasters banners of himself outside of government buildings. Our presidents have been elected, not enthroned. They serve, not rule. The placement of a massive Trump banner on a government building reveals that this line has been crossed, and we are no longer a republic. We are living under the cult of one man. When the government starts using public property to display the ruler's image, when dissent is criminalized, when history is rewritten and power is centralized, we are not looking at the future. Instead, we are seeing the end of something. The end of accountability. The end of democratic pretense. The end of America as we knew it. The banner may yet come down. But the damage it represents is already done. Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Moment van appears to drive through Just Stop Oil protesters while eco-zealots marched through London as frustration boils over in the capital
A van appeared to drive through Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters as hundreds of eco-zealots marched through the streets of London for their 'last day of action' today. It comes after the eco-clowns announced they were 'hanging up the hi vis' last month following three years of disrupting ordinary Brits' lives. The group's last hurrah involved frustrating drivers by blocking roads on the Trafalgar Square roundabout as they walked from St James' Park to Waterloo. Video footage seems to show a man slowly driving a white minivan carrying a child and at least one other passenger towards protesters. People standing front of the vehicle, some holding a JSO banner, look to hold their hands up with one shouting 'officer, I'm being pushed back'. The minivan appeared to edge forward until the bonnet was pressing against them. The driver then exited the vehicle and could be heard shouting 'what are you doing blocking the whole road up?' and saying to police 'what about my right to get home?' as a mass of people including press photographers gathered closely. Film appears to capture the officers reminding the man that the disruption is temporary and that people had a right to protest. The minivan appeared to edge forwards until the bonnet was pressing against them. The driver then exited the vehicle and could be heard shouting 'what are you doing blocking the whole road up?' and saying to police 'what about my right to get home?' as a mass of people including press photographers gathered closely Police seemed to successfully call for the crowd to move away from the vehicle. Similar incidents of drivers appearing to be angered by people in the road were also caught on camera. Last month JSO announced it would stop direct action and announced it had won its demand to end new oil and gas. During Saturday's rally Keir Lane, 59, from Northamptonshire, told reporters that JSO's alternative to disruptive action is yet to be decided. Speaking outside the Treasury Building, he said spray painting it and sitting outside waiting for police to arrest him would be 'high-accountability action' and 'owning your action'. 'I suspect going forward, because of the punitive state - because of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the 2023 Public Order Act - I think people will be looking at more unaccountable stuff. That's a theory.' Asked for an example, he said: 'Turning up at a bank and glueing the door locks and walking away, or coming to the Treasury, glueing the door locks, running away'. He added: 'There's a lot of people who don't agree with unaccountable actions, some people do, so I don't know'. Mr Lane said: 'You learn the ropes, you learn your business, and you have to identify your strengths and your weaknesses and make changes in what you do.' Asked if that action had become a weakness, he said: 'No, but you can't carry on doing the same thing time and time again'. The march paused at Downing Street, as well as the Royal Courts of Justice where the names of 11 JSO activists said to be serving jail sentences were read out. It concluded outside the Shell Centre, Waterloo, that was blocked by police. A message from the co-founder of JSO and Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, recorded in prison was played to the crowd. He said: 'I have been in a state of some nervous tension all week because I don't particularly feel uplifting to be honest, and faking it is not really one of my things. 'I didn't agree with the winding up of JSO and I want to see a lot more mobilisation and all the rest of it. 'In addition, I've been given a weather report which says that next week hundreds of Asian cities will have all-time high record temperatures and it will be 50C in the Philippines. 'No doubt if a million people have died in record temperatures by this time next week then people will be putting on their hi vis rather than hanging them up.' Hallam was originally jailed for five years for agreeing to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the M25 for four successive days, but his sentence was later reduced to one of four years at the Court of Appeal. JSO has drawn attention, criticism and jail terms for protests ranging from throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers and spray painting Charles Darwin's grave to climbing on gantries over the M25. In its March statement announcing the end of direct action, it said: 'Just Stop Oil's initial demand to end new oil and gas is now Government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. 'We've kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.' The Labour Government has said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration, while a series of recent court cases have halted fossil fuel projects including oil drilling in Surrey, a coal mine in Cumbria and the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea over climate pollution. But Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer criticising its actions and saying protesters must face the full force of the law.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Council to spend £5.5m in office revamp project
Plans for a contractor to refurbish office space for up to 500 council staff in a £5.5m scheme have been approved by a council. Hull City Council believes its proposals to redevelop the Treasury Building on Guildhall Road, in Hull, will "in turn help sustain the city centre economy", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. The cabinet has approved a procurement of a contract worth up to £4.4m for the refurbishment on Monday and the work is expected to begin in September. Staff in the authority's corporate, IT and finance teams are currently based in the Maritime Buildings on Alfred Gelder Street, which is closing because it "provides an inefficient operating base", a report says. They will relocate into the Treasury Building once the work is completed in June 2026, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has said. The authority's report stated the project would enhance the council's estate and create an asset worth about £5m. The proposed work, which is subject to planning and building regulation consent, includes replacing all windows, installing a new heating and cooling system, fitting partitioning for meeting rooms and private spaces, new office furniture and lighting. The project has a total budget of £5.5m and will be part funded by the government. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Local Democracy Reporting Service
BBC News
25-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Hull City Council to spend £5.5m in office revamp project
Plans for a contractor to refurbish office space for up to 500 council staff in a £5.5m scheme have been approved by a City Council believes its proposals to redevelop the Treasury Building on Guildhall Road, in Hull, will "in turn help sustain the city centre economy", according to the Local Democracy Reporting cabinet has approved a procurement of a contract worth up to £4.4m for the refurbishment on Monday and the work is expected to begin in in the authority's corporate, IT and finance teams are currently based in the Maritime Buildings on Alfred Gelder Street, which is closing because it "provides an inefficient operating base", a report says. They will relocate into the Treasury Building once the work is completed in June 2026, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has authority's report stated the project would enhance the council's estate and create an asset worth about £ proposed work, which is subject to planning and building regulation consent, includes replacing all windows, installing a new heating and cooling system, fitting partitioning for meeting rooms and private spaces, new office furniture and project has a total budget of £5.5m and will be part funded by the government. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
