Tag: Freedom under threat

Democracy under threat, Elections, Equal rights, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Jeff Hurd, Women

W. slope Rep. Jeff Hurd votes for the SAVE Act, which would make it harder for married women & rural residents to vote

by Anne Landman • April 13, 2025 • 12 Comments

Chart showing how Colorado Representatives voted on HR-22, the “Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility” (“SAVE”) Act. CD-3 Rep. Jeff Hurd voted “yes” on the Act, which will make it much harder for millions of married women to vote. All Colorado Democrats opposed the measure.

On April 10, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” (SAVE) Act by a margin of 220-208. CD-3 Rep. Jeff Hurd (R) voted for the measure, essentially a voter suppression law that would make it vastly harder for married women and rural voters to register to vote or update their voter registrations. The bill was supposedly introduced supposedly to make it harder for non-citizens to vote, but there are already laws in place that prohibit non-citizens from voting and in reality, the problem of non-citizens voting is vanishingly rare. For example, a 2024 audit of voters in Georgia found that out of 20 million registered voters, only 20 non-citizens were registered to vote, and when they were found, they were purged from the voter rolls.

April 5 Hands Off! Rally & Protest: Grand Junction, CO Fights Back

by Anne Landman • March 25, 2025 • 1 Comment

UPDATE: THE EVENT IS ON!! HERE’S THE CURRENT INFO:

On April 5, 2025, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Mesa County Dems, Indivisible GJ, Western Colorado Alliance, Mesa County Action Coalition, and others are hosting a protest on the lawn of the Historic Lowell School Building on 7th and Grand! This is in conjunction with the nationwide protests on April 5

Bring your signs and park in the parking lot at Grand and 8th! There will be food trucks, kids’ activities with Creative Spirits Colorado, and Gemini Brewing will be open. This is a nonviolent, family-friendly, peaceful protest that welcomes all people.

Here is the up to date link for the Grand Junction Hands Off! event.

Word about the supposed “cancellation” of the event (see below) is that the venue was changed, and in order to change the venue for the event online on Mobilize.us, organizers had to cancel the original event, wait 24 hours and the re-post the event with the new venue.

NOTE: I GOT AN EMAIL SAYING THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED BY THE ORGANIZER, BUT SIMILAR EVENTS ARE STILL TAKING PLACE IN MONTROSE, MOAB, GLENWOOD SPRINGS (SAYRE PARK) , EDWARDS (EAGLE COUNTY) AND GUNNISON.

The next national protest against the Trump/Musk regime is the Hands Off! National Day of Action on Saturday, April 5. Hands Off rallies and marches are taking place nationwide that day. In Grand Junction the event will be from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. The exact location hasn’t been stated yet, but from the map it looks like it might be Lincoln Park.

Here is the description of the event from Mobilize.us:

About this event

Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. We are fighting back!

They’re taking everything they can get their hands on — our health care, our data, our jobs, our services — and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.

On Saturday, April 5th, we’re taking to the streets to fight back with a clear message: Hands off!

This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.

A core principle behind all Hands Off! events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

Check out handsoff2025.com for more information.

Accessibility

Mainly flat ground

Have accessibility questions? Reply to your registration email to confirm your requirements or request more information.

Authoritarianism, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy, Democracy under threat, Destruction of the federal government, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Republicans violating laws, Trump Insanity

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:

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.

Rep. Jeff Hurd uses anti-semitic trope to dismiss constituents at the town hall meetings he refuses to attend

by Anne Landman • February 28, 2025 • 14 Comments

CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents western Colorado (Photo: X/Twitter)

When CD-3 Rep. Jeff Hurd (R) was running for office, he was open to talking to all sorts of western Colorado residents when he wanted their votes. Now that he’s in office, though, Hurd can’t be bothered with meeting hundreds of voters clamoring to talk to him about the lawless destruction of the federal government now happening under convicted felon and sexual abuser President Trump and his co-president Elon Musk. Instead, Hurd dismissed multiple town halls and hundreds of constituents and their concerns by suggesting they are mere Soros-funded theater.

In a February 27, 2025 interview with Colorado Public Radio’s Ryan Warner, Warner asked Hurd about the 2/22 town hall meeting in Grand Junction attended by more than 400 worried constituents, that Hurd blew off. Here’s the part of the interview about it, and what Rep. Hurd said:

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.”

Under multi-billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, Washington Post pulls full page ads critical of Musk

by Anne Landman • February 23, 2025 • 9 Comments

One of two full page ads the Washington Post cancelled at the last minute with no explanation. The ads were funded jointly by Common Cause and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

At the last minute, the Washington Post (WaPo) pulled two full page ads funded by the nonprofits Common Cause and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that called for Elon Musk’s ouster from government. The ads were “wrap around ads” set to cover the entire front and back pages of the paper. The groups also bought a large ad inside the paper, but pulled that ad after being informed their wrap-around ads were being cancelled. The ads met all of the criteria the paper had established for publication. WaPo offered the groups no explanation for the last minute cancellation. The ads were supposed to appear in the Washington, D.C. edition that gets delivered to the White House.

The Washington Post is owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the third richest human being on Earth, who has been increasingly kowtowing to Donald Trump.

CD-3 Rep. Jeff Hurd skips G.J. town hall meeting where over 400 constituents waited anxiously to hear from him

by Anne Landman • February 22, 2025 • 17 Comments

A standing room-only crowd packed into the First Congregational Church for a town hall meeting with CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd (R), who failed to show up to the meeting.

Over 400 people packed a town hall meeting held at the First Congregational Church at 5th and Kennedy in Grand Junction for 3rd CDHouse Rep. Jeff Hurd (R) at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2025, but Rep. Hurd failed to show. Some attendees came from as far as Montrose and some drove as much as 3 hours to attend the meeting.

Four western slope chapters Indivisible (Indivisible Grand Junction, Indivisible Montrose, Mountain Action Indivisible (Carbondale) and Indivisible North Fork) organized the meeting out of a sense of urgency because of the rapid-fire destructive actions Trump and Musk have been taking that are throwing thousands of Americans out of work, damaging the economy and eroding global trust in America and its longstanding international alliances.

Organizers notified Hurd about the meeting and sent him multiple invitations through phone calls, emails, and through other means within the last four days, but Hurd did not respond or show up.

By the time the meeting was held, 477 people had registered to attend.

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.

A convicted felon now in charge of the country, Trump is moving quickly to end law enforcement as we know it

by Anne Landman • February 2, 2025 • 4 Comments

Letter sent to federal law enforcement officials who worked on the criminal cases against convicted felon and now U.S. President Donald Trump. The two federal cases against him were for his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and for hoarding classified and top secret government documents and refusing to return them to the federal government. The letter notifies federal law enforcement employees they are being fired because their investigations did not please Trump.

The following analysis of Trump’s ongoing mass purge of federal law enforcement officials was taken from Rachel Maddow’s show 1/31/25 show, starting at 17:12 into the show (video). I transcribed her presentation and then lightly edited the text to make it clearer as a written, rather than a spoken piece. I also included links to further information. I chose to highlight Maddow’s presentation because it is perhaps the fullest, clearest and most concise explanation of the current state of affairs ongoing on under Trump that has been broadcast so far. (Note: Italicized, bolded and capitalized emphasis are mine.):

—————————-

Trump is punishing law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who pursued violent January 6 criminals to gain revenge on law enforcement personnel who participated in a previous investigation that is now over. The point of Trump’s actions is to permanently, irrevocably change law enforcement in the United States so FBI and prosecutors will no longer pursue criminal investigations and cases against suspects if the suspected criminals are associated with Trump and his supporters.

Trump is trying to get rid of American law enforcement as we know it.

They are trying to get rid of the very idea of an independent “justice-is-blind” system that makes America who we are. It is hard to see how this can be corrected or undone.

The practical effects of Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship

by Anne Landman • January 27, 2025 • 6 Comments

Presidents have no authority to change the rules of citizenship on their own, as adjudicated sexual abuser, convicted felon and President Donald Trump is trying to do, but if Trump’s recent dictatorial attempt to end birthright citizenship at the stroke of a pen were to ultimately be realized, it would create negative repercussions for parents and babies born in the U.S. after February 19, 2025. Estimates are that about 150,000 children born in the U.S. each year and their parents could face obstacles under this system.

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.”

People’s March unites locals who oppose oligarchy, loss of rights & right wing extremism

by Anne Landman • January 19, 2025 • 13 Comments

The People’s March on Saturday, January 18, provided a chance for a large group of Mesa County’s growing number of liberal residents to get together, enjoy camaraderie, speeches, free hot coffee, chai and cookies provided by Octopus Coffee. People were bundled up as the temperature was just below freezing.

The crowd numbered around 300 people.

On Wednesday, January 15, President Biden gave a farewell address to the public in which he warned Americans of a coming “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” Biden said,

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

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.

Arrest affidavit: Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric motivated strangulation attack on local TV reporter

by Anne Landman • December 28, 2024 • 22 Comments

Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, who attacked and attempted to strangle KKCO TV reporter Ja’Ronn Alex

KKCO TV News reporter Ja’Ronn Alex was followed and physically attacked December 18 by a Trump supporter who yelled “Are you even a U.S. citizen! This is Trump’s America now! I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

Trump publicly states he intends to erode the Constitution rather than preserve, protect & defend it as his oath requires, thus should not be sworn in

by Anne Landman • December 10, 2024 • 14 Comments

Swearing in Trump after he promised on national television to degrade the U.S. Constitution would be assisting him in undermining the Constitution

In a recent interview with Kristin Welker broadcast on national television on December 8, convicted felon and president-elect Trump promised to “absolutely” end birthright citizenship “on day one” of his presidency:

KRISTEN WELKER: You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Correct.

KRISTEN WELKER: Is that still your plan?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Absolutely.

KRISTEN WELKER: The 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, “All persons born in the United States are citizens.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

KRISTEN WELKER: Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.

Page 1 of 2

1 2 »