Category: Democracy under threat

Democracy, Democracy under threat, Destruction of the federal government, Energy, Environment, Health care, Jeff Hurd, politics

Summary of Rep. Jeff Hurd’s 3/11/25 town hall meeting

by Anne Landman • March 12, 2025 • 7 Comments

Republican House Rep. Jeffrey S. Hurd. CD-3

Here is a summary of CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd (R)’s town hall meeting held on 3/11/2025, with thanks to author Jim Marshall, who compiled the notes.

First, some observations by me: Hurd pulled last minute switches to both the time and the instructions for participating in the meeting, which made it difficult for constituents to join the call and probably reduced the number of participants. Many people who followed the last-minute changes and called in reported they were unable to hear the meeting. I personally dialed the updated (833) number on my cell phone at the appointed time and got 15 minutes of silence. After I heard voices, I put the phone on speaker but noted that the speaker phone did not work on this call. Unsure whether it was a setting on the other end, I tried hanging up and dialed in using my Google Voice number, and was able to hear the call on the computer speaker.

After about 20 minutes of introduction, softball questions were taken first and more serious questions about Ukraine, Russia, Trump & Musk’s attacks on the federal government and their efforts to erode democracy were addressed later.

Here is the summary of the meeting provided by Jim Marshall:

French Senator discusses global ramifications of the Trump regime

by Anne Landman • March 11, 2025 • 19 Comments

This is a video of French Senator Claude Malhuret posted on March 7 in which he discusses what is going on in the United States, and how Europe needs to react to it. Sen. Malhuret is a French physician and lawyer who has been in the French Senate since 2014. He is a center-right legislator. This video has been going viral and reflects what European countries think about the current state of affairs we are enduring here in the U.S. under Trump. The full video is about 8 minutes long.

It tells us much about what the rest of the world thinks of what the Trump regime is doing to the United States.

Here is an excerpt of the talk from the beginning of the video:

CMU fostering a climate of hate

by Anne Landman • March 7, 2025 • 14 Comments

This piece was written by Jacob Richards and is reprinted here with permission from The Revolutionist. The Revolutionist accepts no advertising and is 100% volunteer-run and subscriber-funded community media. You can subscribe to it at this link.

Colorado Mesa University’s Western Culture Club is hosting an out-and-out white Supremacist as a speaker on campus later in March. (Time and date erased because we don’t platform nazis).

A new campus club, the “Western Culture Club,” appeared on campus in early March promoting a talk by Jared Taylor to be held at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) later in March. Taylor is an avowed white supremacist and author, and this is just the latest escalation by bigots on campus, seemingly with the blessing of the CMU administration.

When students started a new semester at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction on January 20th, the same day Trump took office, the campus seemed different.

Emboldened by the inauguration of an openly racist and openly fascistic president, racist students on the campus have begun a now months-long sticker campaign. The stickers call on students to fulfill “civic duty” to “report any and all illegal aliens” to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

DOGE cancels leases on four federal agencies in Grand Junction

by Anne Landman • March 5, 2025 • 27 Comments

Local TV news stations KJCT and KKCO are reporting that Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is terminating the leases of four federal Agencies in Grand Junction:

Fact-checking convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser and President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on 3/4/25

by Anne Landman • March 5, 2025 • 5 Comments

Donald Trump flat-out lied to Congress and Americans last night in his talk to Congress and the country. Here are some of the lies, fact-checked immediately after the speech by political commentator Rachel Maddow.

Here is more vetting of Trump’s lies by the New York Times.

Here is more fact-checking of Trump’s lies by CBS News.

More checking of Trump’s lies by ABC News/Politifact.

The Guardian: “Trump’s talk was littered with false claims he’s been corrected on but continued to repeat.”

U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to review Tina Peters’ conviction

by Anne Landman • March 4, 2025 • 5 Comments

Tina Peters’ mugshot for her arrest on 3/9/2022. She was sentenced to 9 years incarceration on charges related to election tampering and is currently trying to get Trump to help her get out of prison. He can’t pardon her because she was convicted on state, and not federal charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), now a tool that convicted felon, sexual abuser and President Trump wields to help his friends and punish his enemies, has agreed to review former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ 2024 criminal conviction which led to her incarceration. The DOJ will be looking for “political bias” in her case.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy publicly bullied and berated over his war time clothing at White House visit

by Anne Landman • March 3, 2025 • 17 Comments

At a shameful White House meeting last week between convicted felon/adjudicated sexual abuser President Trump and his #2, JD Vance, Trump and Vance bullied and yelled at Ukrainian President Zelensky in a televised display of anger and resentment toward the leader of a democratic country that’s been invaded by Russia. Beyond this, as bad as the made-for-Russia meeting already was, Brian Glenn, White House correspondent for the right-wing cable channel Real America’s Voice, chimed in and berated Zelenskyy over his war time clothing, to the delight of Trump’s cabinet. You can see the harassment of Zelenskyy over his war time attire playing out in the clip above.

Trump’s illegal, unappointed “co-president,” billionaire Elon Musk, dominates a cabinet meeting at the White House on 2/26/25 wearing a baseball cap and T-shirt. No one publicly criticized his attire.

Brian Glenn, who attacked Zelesnkyy over his clothes, is the boyfriend of right-wing firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, and one of the hand-picked reporters the White House has chosen under its new policy of choosing the press pool reporters who will cover them favorably and excluding reporters they think won’t cover them favorably — a classic authoritarian move to assure a positive spin on all news coverage of the regime.

Convicted felon Steve Bannon, who gave a Nazi salute at CPAC on 2/21, is set to headline the Colorado Republican Party’s 2025 annual fundraising dinner in Denver

by Anne Landman • February 25, 2025 • 1 Comment

Convicted felon and former Trump aide Steve Bannon will headline Colorado’s Republican fundraising Centennial Dinner on March 28, 2025 in Denver.

Bannon plead guilty February 11, 2025 to defrauding donors to his “We Build the Wall” nonprofit organization, which told donors it was carrying out a private effort to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Charges against Bannon included money laundering, conspiracy and fraud. Bannon was also convicted in another similar federal case in 2020, but escaped prosecution in that case after Trump pardoned Bannon at the end of his first term. Bannon has also been banned from serving as an officer or director of any charitable organizations or nonprofits that has assets in New York, and is banned from accessing the names of people who donated to “We Build the Wall.”

Indivisible groups to host Town Hall meeting, with or without Republican CD-3 Rep. Jeff Hurd, on Sat., 2/22 in Grand Junction

by Anne Landman • February 21, 2025 • 12 Comments

Click the graphic above to sign up and find out location

UPDATE: As of 12:27.p.m. on Saturday, Feb., 22, 453 people have registered to attend.

UPDATE: As of 3:45 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, 315 people have registered to attend.

Indivisible Grand Junction, Indivisible Montrose, Mountain Action Indivisible (Carbondale) and Indivisible North Fork will host a town hall meeting for CD-3 Congressman Jeff Hurd, with or without him, this Saturday, February 22, from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. in Grand Junction at a venue near to central downtown. Indivisible will reveal the location of the town hall to people who sign up to attend the event.

Indivisible mobilizes individuals and groups to defend democracy. It focuses on combining pressure by local constituents with national campaigns. Indivisible works both inside and outside established systems.

Trump, governing as an authoritarian, publicly portrays himself as king, dictator

by Anne Landman • February 21, 2025 • 20 Comments

Actual Trump TwitterX post from Feb. 19, 2025

Instead of signing legislation passed by Congress — the normal way policies are made in U.S. — Trump has been continuously circumventing Congress’s power by writing a slew of executive orders, signing at least 70 of them as of February 20. Trump has essentially been governing not as the president of a representative democracy, but as an authoritarian.

What Trump wants goes, and no one else’s opinion matters or gets any consideration.

Even more worrisome, in the last week Trump openly likened himself to a dictator and a king.

The post above is from an official White House social media account, not from a parody or Trump’s personal account. It’s on an official government account for the White House, an official document. It refers to Trump’s interference with a new congestion toll policy instituted by New York City to reduce extreme traffic congestion in the busiest part of Manhattan, and it’s one of Trump’s unprecedented efforts to inject his interference into local issues.

Multiple Republican senators break from Trump’s views on Putin, Ukraine War

by Anne Landman • February 20, 2025 • 10 Comments

In a seismic shift against Trump’s favorable views of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s overt lie that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “a dictator,” GOP Senators Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) publicly spoke out against Trump’s views.

Senator Wicker, the Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a reporter that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a criminal who is not to be trusted in peace negotiations about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

When asked about the way the U.S. conducted peace negotiations with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and specifically how the U.S. excluded Ukraine and America’s NATO allies from the talks, Senator Wicker said Ukrainians should “definitely” be at the table in any peace negotiations, and European interests should be “considered and carefully weighed.”

When Sen. Wicker was asked if Putin can be trusted in peace negotiations, Wicker answered,

“No. Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.”

“Not My President’s Day” national day of protest announced for Feb. 17, 2025, @ noon at City Hall

by Anne Landman • February 14, 2025 • 9 Comments

A super PAC is urging Americans to rally en masse nationwide February 17th at noon at city halls across the country to show opposition to “co-presidents” Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s lawless dragging of the nation into fascism and oligarchy. It is the same group that organized the #50501 protests at state capitals across the country February 5th.

As public school districts across Colorado take steps to protect students from ICE raids, Mesa Valley School District 51 says it is “obligated to comply”

by Anne Landman • January 31, 2025 • 7 Comments

First page of the letter sent to “District 51 families and colleagues” saying the District “will remain politically neutral,” and telling parents to update their student’s emergency contacts

On January 20, convicted felon, sexual abuser and now President Trump rescinded the decades-old federal policy (pdf) of not pursuing immigrants in “sensitive places” (pdf), including schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, mosques, funerals, weddings, parades and public demonstrations like marches and rallies.

U.S. Department of Education policy says that in the U.S., all children are entitled to a public education (pdf) regardless of their immigration status.

News from today indicates Trump is going after immigrant kids. White House “border czar” Tom Homan, who is carrying out Trump’s mass deportation, says the data they seek on children won’t be used for enforcement, but rather to “ensure that children were placed in the best possible homes,” according to the Washington Post.

But Trump recently enacted a change in federal policy that will now allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents enter and arrest immigrants in these places.

As he started his term, Trump promised to prioritize removing “violent criminal” immigrants, but has since changed his stance and now considers every undocumented person in the U.S. to be a “criminal,” even though being in the U.S. without legal status is a civil and not a criminal violation.

Trump says he seeks to pursue criminals, but as the first U.S. president who is a convicted felon, Trump himself is a criminal.

Trump violates law in after-hours firing of 17 independent inspectors general

by Anne Landman • January 28, 2025 • 7 Comments

Trump sleeping during a religious service (Photo: YouTube)

Late on Friday, January 24, convicted felon and President Donald Trump fired 17 Inspectors General of federal agencies.

Inspectors General are independent government watchdogs who investigate allegations of waste, fraud and abuse inside government agencies.

Trump’s action was done in a way that violated 5 U.S. Code Chapter 4, §415 (e)(2) of the Inspector Generals Act of 1978, which says he must give both houses of Congress 30 days notice of the removal:

(2) Inspector general removed or transferred.— If an Inspector General is removed from office or is transferred to another position or location within a designated Federal entity, the head of the designated Federal entity shall communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer.

In legal terms, the word “shall” indicates an absolute obligation. It clearly imposes a specific duty upon a person. Trump also violated another part of the same law that requires the President first supply “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons for the change” to both houses of Congress:

(B) If the President places an Inspector General on non-duty status, the President shall communicate in writing the substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons, for the change in status to both Houses of Congress (including to the appropriate congressional committees) not later than 15 days before the date on which the change in status takes effect…”

Trump defended his move by lying to the public. He said that a mass removal of inspectors general was “a very standard thing to do.”

It is not.

A reminder of the dangers of putting wealthy business leaders in charge of government

by Anne Landman • January 25, 2025 • 9 Comments

Photo: FBI

For those of you who think big business leaders are automatically qualified to run government or head it’s important agencies, here is a picture of the Enron Code of Ethics, signed by the Company’s former Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay. The foreword in the Code states that Enron “enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty… but no matter [what]… Enron’s reputation… depends on its people, on you and me.”

Remember Enron?

Billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s “First Buddy,” gives Nazi salute twice during speech at Trump’s inaugural celebration

by Anne Landman • January 22, 2025 • 22 Comments

Billionaire Elon Musk, who spent $277 million to get Trump elected and who publicly declared himself Trump’s “First Buddy” in a November 11, 2024 tweet, gave a Nazi salute not once but twice during his talk at Trump’s inaugural celebration at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2025 [Video clip: PBS]

Musk, who is facing global criticism over the gesture, has not explicitly denied it was a Nazi salute. Instead he dismissed the criticism as a “tired” attack, writing on his social media platform that “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

Right wing extremists celebrated Musk’s use of gesture.

It is illegal to perform this gesture in Germany.

In an article by investigative reporter Bernard Condon posted January 21 on Associated Press, Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalization and terrorism, said the gesture was a fascist salute and that “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw.”

Meta’s Abandonment of Fact-Checking Empowers a President Who Traffics in Lies

by Anne Landman • January 17, 2025 • 9 Comments

Republished from The Contrarian with permission from the author, Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and author of the New York Times bestseller Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. As a legal analyst, her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, Just Security, Slate, and National Public Radio, and she has been quoted in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Politico, and other publications.

As false information about wildfires in Los Angeles rages online, Mark Zuckerberg is fanning the flames of disinformation.

Last week, the Meta CEO announced that the company would stop fact-checking posts on its social media sites. Meta will move to a community notes model, similar to that used by the X platform, relying on users to flag false claims rather than using professional fact-checkers, such as PolitiFact. While conceding that more “bad stuff” will appear on Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Threads — Zuckerberg said the change was necessary to prevent “too much censorship.”

Disinformation now identified as the greatest global threat

At a time when the World Economic Forum identifies disinformation as the greatest global threat, Zuckerberg is burning down the defense system of a social media company with 3.5 billion users worldwide. What could possibly motivate a move that will certainly lead to more chaos and upheaval in society?

People’s March to be held Saturday, Jan. 18 @ 1 p.m., to bring together people who fear second Trump administration

by Anne Landman • January 9, 2025 • 11 Comments

The Womens’ March held around the time of Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 is coming back in 2025, but this time it has been rebranded as “The People’s March,” to be even more inclusive.

The 2025 Grand Junction People’s March will start at the Old Courthouse on 6th and Rood Ave. on Saturday, January 18 at 1:00 p.m. in Grand Junction, just prior to Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The event will coincide with a national People’s March will in Washington, D.C. scheduled to start 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

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