It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

Posted on March 2, 2026 by Debra29

Frederick Douglass

Actions

Demonstrations

Specific organizations have consistently organized responses on a local, state, and national level. Join and keep track of what is happening where. You can find a demonstration close by to attend. If you are unable to attend, please consider a donation . These organizations also coordinate rallies, phone calls, text banking, emails, petitions, candidate debates, trainings, campaigns and events. Local community groups are also coordinating responses at a neighborhood by neighborhood level.

Indivisible a national organization with local chapters has taken the lead in organizing all of the above. local chapters that can use your support.

League of Women Voters – a national organization with local chapters that has taken the lead in protecting elections in our country

Swing Left – a national organization that focuses on training volunteers to register voters, phone bank, fundraise, and engage in door-to-door campaigning for Democratic candidates.

MoveOn – a national organization with extensive outreach and strategies for affecting change

50501 – a national organization with a focus on organizing and training local and state level responses.

No Kings – a coalition that organizes and supports peaceful mobilizations across the nation.

ACLU – a national organization with local chapters who are fighting in the courts , in addition to training, organizing and coordinating actions.

Radical Elders – a national organization with local chapters mobilizing adults over the age of 55 joining rallies, demonstrations and events

Calls, Emails and Letters

The organizations above and below offer a multitude of other ways to affect change if you can’t attend a demonstration.

5 Calls – an organization that makes it easy for your to contact your representatives.

Vote Forward – volunteers send handwritten letters to unregistered and low-propensity voters encouraging them to participate in our democracy.

Litigation

Numerous organizations, led by coalitions of state attorneys general, the ACLU, and groups like Democracy Forward and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), are actively suing the 2025-2026 Trump administration. Key challenges target executive orders on birthright citizenship, DEI, immigration, environmental policies, and funding, with major litigation filed by unions and civil rights groups. Donate to the groups above in addition to becoming more involved in elections at the state level. Governors and state attorney generals are often leading the charge against this administration.

Follow the continuous litigation through sites like Just Security in addition to Law Fare . Here is a snapshot from the New York Times of where multiple lawsuits against President Trump stand, highlighting district court cases where a judge has entered a final order for or against the administration. Many of those cases have been appealed.

Immigration and ICE

Across New York City––and across the country––immigrant communities are living through a moment of deep fear and uncertainty. Federal immigration enforcement has escalated in both scope and brutality, with devastating consequences.

ICE agents brutally killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse, when he intervened to protect a woman who was being pepper-sprayed. His killing, and the earlier killing of Renée Nicole Good, are horrifying reminders of what advocates have long warned: ICE operates with excessive force, minimal accountability, and profound disregard for human life.

What are your Local Officials doing about Immigrants & ICE?

The quote above was from my local City Council Member Shahana Hanif’s newsletter She goes on to link ways to respond in New York City. Afterwards more than two-thirds of the New York City Council signed on to a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer imploring him to continue blocking any funding package that includes resources for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

What are your State Officials doing about Immigrants & ICE?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a bill that would prohibit what are known as 287(g) agreements. These are signed deals between local law enforcement agencies and ICE that permit sheriffs’ offices and other agencies to hold detainees for ICE, serve warrants and generally allow local and state resources to be used in non-criminal federal immigration raids. It’s a beginning but it may not go far enough.

New Jersey limits immigration enforcement actions on state property. There is an executive order prohibiting agents from staging operations or making arrests on nonpublic areas of state property without a judicial warrant. Additionally, a NJ state-run website is promoting broad immigration information, with details on the rights of individuals, businesses and schools during ICE enforcement actions.

Andrew Gounardes, my NY State Senator, introduced the New York For All Act which would prevent state + local government agencies from colluding with ICE’s cruelty.

A New Jersey State Assembly committee cleared a pair of immigration bills. One would put the force of law behind the Immigrant Trust Directive, which limits New Jersey law enforcement interaction with federal immigration agents. The other bill would restrict the collection and sharing of individuals’ immigration status

What are your House Representatives & U.S. Senators doing about this?

On February 3, Congress funded all the agencies except Homeland Security for the whole fiscal year and gave itself until February 13 to negotiate details of that appropriations bill. No deal was made so a partial government shutdown began Feb 14. The Senate returned Feb. 26, but without a Senate vote to end the partial government shutdown scheduled, a DHS funding lapse continues amid a bitter bipartisan battle over Trump’s ICE crackdowns.

Democrats have pushed for a range of new restrictions on immigration agents, including requiring them to obtain warrants from judges to make arrests in homes, mandating that they show visible identification, and prohibiting face coverings while they are engaged in immigration enforcement operations. Democrats have also pushed for a stricter use-of-force policy and new training standards, as well as an end to roving patrols. Additionally Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries want language barring agents from entering sensitive locations, like schools, houses of worship and polling places; and a legal bar against racially profiling people to detain.

Republicans have criticized proposed restrictions as overreach, while immigrant advocates and some former ICE officials question if such changes would be effective.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who are supposed to be able to conduct unannounced inspections of any place ICE detainees are being held, had been repeatedly denied entry. A court order last December reaffirmed the law requiring ICE to let members of Congress inspect its detention facilities. Immigrants are being held in correctional facilities and warehouses.

My Congressman Dan Goldman visited  previously secretive holding cells used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. ICE has detained more than 120 kids in ‘inhumane’ hold rooms in this facility.

He also visited the Metropolitan Detention Center, a hulking federal jail in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in his district. Federal habeas corpus lawsuits and interviews with immigrants locked up there in recent months described frequent lock downs, inedible food, and difficulty accessing medical care.

Communities Respond

Now that ICE plans to use $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers, we must turn our protests to meetings on the local level. Such a plan affected Roxbury New Jersey, where the Trump administration finalized the purchase over the objections of Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo and the town council, all Republicans. “Despite repeated outreach, our federal representative, Congressman Tom Kean Jr., did not engage to the level we had hoped to provide the advocacy our residents deserved,” they said in a letter, adding that the council was considering its legal options to challenge the purchase. More than 1000 people showed up in Roxbury to protest the administrations decision to use their warehouse. This is a Republican district. Amid residents’ mounting anger, elected leaders say no to detention plan — and yes to immigration agency’s broader mission
NJ Congressman Menendez and U.S. Senator Kim joined other representatives to fight the Roxbury and Newark warehouse facilities.

NJ pension pressed to ditch tech firm Palantir over ICE enforcement. A longtime government contractor, Palantir’s technology allows clients to comb through digital data, personal information

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the U.S, filed an Emergency Motion to stop ICE enforcement near schools.

Residents seek to end contracts between ICE and local governments. People in communities are objecting to long-standing contracts for services ranging from the use of training facilities at local gun ranges to parking spaces.

The Trump administration wants to green light mass deportations and get rid of judges that stand in the way. The U.S. has a quarter fewer immigration judges than it did a year ago. The continued drain of personnel and resources from the already strained immigration court system has contributed to depleted staff morale, mounting case backlogs — and a floundering due process system.

Volunteer or donate to national and local immigrant advocacy groups who defend and support immigrants in our communities including:

New York Immigration Coalition – represents 200 groups
Immigration Defense Project
Legal Aid Society Immigration Law Unit
Make The Road NY – local chapter of a larger national organization Make The Road States

Local advocacy groups in Long Island, NY. (See if you can join your own community’s advocacy groups.)

Islip Forward – Islip, NY
Sisters of St Joseph Brentwood, NY
Long Island Latino Association, Inc. Osman Canales | President and Founder
Sepa Mujer

Next Post : The Midterm Elections, The Iran War and More

Posted in Immigration, Resistance, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Debra29

Martin Luther King Jr.

Democrats sweep key elections in NYC, New Jersey & Virginia

Updated November 28, 2025

Mamdani wins historic New York City mayoral race

Zohran Mamdani won Tuesday’s election for mayor of New York City, leading former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by nearly 9 percentage points so far. See how Mamdani did in precincts across the city:

More than 2 million New Yorkers cast a ballot in a high-stakes election that smashed recent turnout levels. Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani culminated a meteoric political rise Tuesday by scoring a decisive victory in a polarizing mayoral election. At just 34 years old, he will become the youngest mayor in over a century, the first Muslim to lead New York City and one of the most prominent democratic socialists holding elected office in the country.

The races for Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough Presidents, Judges and City Council Races and Proposals had a few surprises.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill wins governor’s race

A former Navy pilot, first elected to Congress in 2018, will be New Jersey’s next governor.The tight race has surprised some in the traditionally blue state, which has had a Democratic governor for the past eight years and a legislature controlled by Democrats for even longer.

But the possibility that the governorship could flip to a Republican — along with the statewide contest being seen as an indicator of public opinion on Trump’s second term — put the election in the national spotlight and drew nearly $200 million in spending.

Sherrill’s win is a boon for Democrats, who lost ground in the state last year despite the party’s large voter registration advantage. President Donald Trump came 6 points shy of winning New Jersey in 2024 — compared to his 16-point loss in 2020 — due in part to gains he made among Black and Hispanic voters. Those gains seemed to dissolve, with Democrats flipping several counties that Trump won last year, according to the Associated Press.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governors race.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to give Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and make history as the first-ever woman to lead the commonwealth.

Throughout her campaign, Spanberger zeroed in on affordability and lowering costs for Virginians amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history as well as President Donald Trump’s attempts to remake the federal government. Spanberger, who was elected to the House in 2018 as part of a Democratic wave fueled by backlash to Trump, also capitalized on outrage over the administration among the Democratic base.

The History of the Historic New York City Mayor’s Race

New York City is looking at a general mayoral election unlike any other in its history. As most know, the race at this point is between Zohran Mamdani , Andrew Cuomo running as an Independent and Curtis Sliwa, Republican. Policy positions can be found on their websites and in the City and State New York article linked above.


The Democratic Primary results shocked most as polls mistakenly predicted that Andrew Cuomo would be the winner. Mamdani ran on a platform that emphasized affordability. He proposed freezing rents for rent-stabilized tenants, making city buses and childcare free and creating publicly owned grocery stores with low prices.

Polls continue to place Mamdani in the lead. Many people believe Mamdani’s rise in NYC reflects a generational fight within the Democratic Party. On October 24th, Hakeem Jeffries, US House Minority Leader, endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries’ counterpart in Congress and a fellow New York Democrat, has so far declined to endorse anyone in the mayoral race.

With the New York City mayor’s race now in the homestretch, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is facing mounting pressure to drop out to pave the way for a showdown between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner for months.

A new poll released this past Monday puts Cuomo within the margin of error against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani in a head-to-head contest.

Here a key takeaways from the first General Election Debate that aired Oct 16.

Seven takeaways from the final debate , Oct 22, include a more energized Cuomo came ready to fight, Mamdani mostly played it safe, all three candidates would keep Ms. Tisch as police commissioner, Cuomo and Sliwa ganged up on Mamdani, Sliwa was sharper on policy, all three criticized the ICE raid on Canal Street, and there were quick-witted one liners from all three candidates.

Comptroller
Comptroller Democrat candidate is Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine With a complicated $112 billion dollar budget, New York City needs someone to keep a keen eye on its wallet. There’s a lot to handle: union contracts, a giant pension fund, agency audits and more.

Public Advocate
The Public Advocate Democrat candidate is incumbent Jumaane D. Williams. The Public Advocate is a non-voting member of the New York City Council. They introduce and co-sponsor bills in the City Council, provide oversight for city agencies, and investigate citizens’ complaints about city services.

Borough Presidents
A borough president reviews land use proposals and gives an advisory opinion that can influence City Council decisions. Democrats who won the Primary include: Manhattan Brad Hoylman Sigal, Brooklyn Antonio Reynoso, Bronx, Vanessa Gibson and Incumbent Donovan J. Richards for Queens and Michael Colombo for Staten Island.

City Council Members
All 51 seats on the City Council are up for grabs in November, Eight races are for open seats, and the themes of many of these contests mirror the battles playing out at the mayoral level, with affordability a key issue. These are the Democratic Primary winners for each City Council District.

District Attorneys
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the only incumbent to face and win a primary challenge. The additional Democrat district attorneys include Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn, Melinda Katz, Queens, Michael McMahon, Staten Island and Darcel Clark, the Bronx

Judges
Judges of the Supreme Court and of the Civil Court are on the ballot under the Democratic Party column.

Proposals
There are six proposals on the ballot in November. The League of Women Voters explains the proposal in plain language and explains what each proposal would do. The NYC Council Leadership called on Board of Elections to reject Ballot Proposals Two, Three and Four. They state that they use language that seeks to deceive voters by concealing their effect. Here is another breakdown of the proposals.

Important Dates
NYC Mayoral General Election
November 4, 2025

Early Voting Dates and Deadlines are here.
Last day to apply online or by mail is October 25, 2025
Last day to apply in person at your county board of elections is November 3, 2025
Put your ballot in the mail ensuring it receives a postmark no later than November 4, 2025
Drop off your ballot to your county Board of Elections Office no later than November 4, 2025 by 9pm.
Drop off your ballot to an early voting poll site in your county between October 25 and November 2, 2025.
Drop off your ballot to an election day poll site on November 4, 2025 no later than 9pm.

New Jersey Governor’s Race
November 4, 2025

Blue New Jersey is expecting a very close race . Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot first elected to Congress in 2018, is facing off against pro-Trump Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a longtime New Jersey politician and small business owner. In the closing weeks, both candidates have hurled increasingly personal attacks against one another and received endorsements from some of the biggest names in their parties. Former President Barack Obama will campaign with Sherrill in gov race’s closing stretch.

Mikie Sherill says her three top priorities as governor will be affordability, protecting kids and making state government more accountable. Some Democrats believe that Sherill’s campaign is playing it too safe. NJEA supports Sherill and her commitment to protecting educator pensions, strong public schools for every student, keeping NJ affordable and supporting working families and labor.

Democratic New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill is narrowly in the lead in the New Jersey gubernatorial race but her Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli is catching up, according to a poll. Republicans have not won a gubernatorial election in New Jersey since 2013 and have voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1988. But the GOP has seen success in the state in recent years. President Donald Trump increased his vote share by 10 points in 2024. This was the best showing by a GOP presidential nominee in two decades.

Along with Virginia’s, New Jersey’s governor’s race will be the first major barometer of voters’ reaction to the first nine months of Mr. Trump’s leadership in his second term. The New York Times convened a panel of 11 local leaders to assess the candidates for the Nov. 4 election.

The first New Jersey governor’s debate The crowd was loud, engaged and at times, disruptive.The candidates, though, not so much. Meeting Sunday night for their first debate, Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli each got in a few zingers, but as debates go, this one was rather tame.

Ciattarelli and Sherrill had a more contentious meeting at the second NJ Governor’s Debate . This one focused as much on Trump and personal controversies as it did local concerns about affordability. The heated attacks presaged a contentious last month of campaigning heading into the November 4 election.

Important Dates
New Jersey Governors Race
November 4, 2025

October 22
Mailing of Sample Ballots for General Election
October 25 – November 2
Early Voting Period
October 28
Deadline to apply for a Mail-In Ballot by Mail for General Election
November 3 – by 3:00 p.m.
Deadline for In-Person Mail-In Ballot Applications for General Election
November 4
Deadline for Post Office Receipt of Mail-In Ballots from the General Election
November 4 – by 8:00 p.m
Deadline for In-Person Submission of General Election Mail-In Ballots to County Boards of Election and to Authorized Ballot Drop Boxes
For more information.

What You Can Do

Donate. Fundraise. Volunteer in a local campaign . This includes, but not limited to, canvassing, phone banking, and text banking. Get involved even in the final stretch.

Posted in NYC Races, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty,”

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Debra29

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author and dissident .

Cuts to Medicaid

The administration’s signature legislative achievement, a new budget law, OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, the national health insurance program for the poor and disabled, and $285 billion from the country’s largest food program.

The health care cuts will be implemented over several years and primarily target Medicaid – the joint federal-state program that provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families.

The cuts are enacted through several mechanisms that will reduce the number of people enrolled in Medicaid: Work requirements, more frequent eligibility checks, immigration restrictions, reduced state funding options, restrictions on lawfully present immigrants and major changes in the Affordable Care Act,

Thousands of legal immigrants in NJ could be thrown off Medicaid including refugees and domestic violence victims. The changes to Medicaid include adding work requirements and restrictions on hospital aid. These are expected to cost the state $3.3 billion annually in the years to come and could force some 350,000 people out of the plan, according to the department’s calculations.

The cuts to Medicaid, however, will not stop New Jersey from continuing to use state taxpayer dollars to fund its “cover all kids” initiative, which provides health care to undocumented children whose families meet the NJ Family Care program’s regular income-eligibility requirements.New Jersey is one of 14 states, plus Washington D.C., to commit state or local dollars to covering undocumented children, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy analyst.

Medicaid cuts will devastate nursing home residents. . Medicaid is the primary payer for nursing home care. It pays directly for residents’ careand provides financial support that enables many residents to use their Medicare benefit as well. Medicaid is critical for nursing home residents because the United States does not have acomprehensive program to pay for long-term care services.

Democratic-leaning states will feel more of the impact of Medicaid cuts in an analysis by Oxford Economics. The report says that millions of Americans – regardless of where they live – will lose access to health insurance because of the tighter eligibility rules and new work requirements. Undocumented immigrants will be disproportionately affected, with many losing coverage under Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. States such as California and New York – which have both expanded Medicaid and have large immigrant populations – are expected to be hit hardest. Other vulnerable states with large immigrant populations include Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington, D.C.

Cuts to SNAP

As many as 144,000 Pennsylvania residents, and as many as 45,000 Philadelphians, could lose their food stamps, according to state officials.The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps pay for groceries. New work requirements for SNAP recipients take effect. People who receive food stamps have to work 20 hours a week, or prove they have a medical or caretaker exemption.

Once you leave the New York Metropolitan Area, how many families are in need of support? This map shows the share of households in each state that reported receiving cash public assistance (also known as TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or food assistance (also known as SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2023. Trump’s recent megabill has slashed federal funding for safety net programs and pushes food aid costs to the states.Draft proposals would require states to cover between 5% and 25% of benefit costs starting in 2028 and pick up 75% of administrative expenses.This marks a major change from today, where the federal government funds SNAP benefits entirely.

Red states brace for SNAP fallout. Republican state officials are still assessing how their budgets will be impacted by the GOP’s recently passed megabill, which dramatically slashes federal funding for safety net programs and pushes food aid costs onto states for the first time. Several officials report that they’re mainly focused on decreasing their payment error rates, which measures over and under-payments of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — the metric that will determine how much of the program states will need to pay for starting fiscal year 2028.

N.J.’s hunger crisis intensifies amid cuts from ‘Big Beautiful Bill”. Food Banks like Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Human Needs Food Bank, 40 Food Banks of South Jersey have seen demand increase significantly . 1 in 9 New Jerseyans are considered food insecure.

This map shows the share of households in each state that reported receiving cash public assistance (also known as TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or food assistance (also known as SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2023

Cuts to Medicare

The OBBB will cut $1 trillion from health programs – the largest rollback of federal support for health care in American history. These cuts will result in an estimated 10 million people losing their health insurance coverage. It is projected to add at least $3.4 trillion to the national debt. It speeds up the timeline for when Medicare’s trust fund (which pays for hospital care) will become insolvent. While these broad health care cuts will affect many Medicare beneficiaries indirectly, including those who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, several provisions of the OBBB directly target Medicare beneficiaries.

The OBBB limits Medicare coverage for immigrants. Restricts premium-free Medicare Part A to citizens or lawful residents. Prohibits most asylum recipients from receiving Medicare coverage. It includes only a modest increase for physician reimbursements: It eliminates Medicare for refugees, survivors of human trafficking or domestic violence, and people with temporary protected status. In addition, it blocks improvements to Medicare savings programs and nursing home staffing standards.

American citizens with a Low Income Subsidy, a cost sharing program with Medicare Part D was cut so the LIS recipients will have to pay more for prescriptions. Another cost sharing program called Medicare Savings Program was blocked and it will impact low income individuals who used it to afford things like prescription drugs, medical supplies, hospital stays and nursing facility care.

Impacts on the Affordable Care Act

The law is going to make it more difficult to enroll in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, also known as Obamacare, and then harder to keep coverage, due to a few changes:

Enrollees will need to update information around their income, immigration status, and other details every year, or risk losing coverage.

Plans are no longer automatically renewed. Individuals will have to manually reenroll every year during open enrollment. Last year, 10 million people were automatically reenrolled.

The open enrollment period has been shortened by a month—now ending December 15, rather than January 15. For the current plan year, 40% of people signed up after December 15.

New enrollees—including those who enroll outside of open enrollment due to a life event or income change—will need to prove eligibility before they can receive subsidies that help offset the cost of their monthly premium. This is a change from the current policy, which allows applicants to get up to 90 days of premium assistance during the application process.

It’s also likely to drive up the cost of ACA plans, due to what’s not in the law: The law does not extend the ACA premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Without those, premiums are predicted to increase for 2026 by an average of 75%. This is the issue at the center of the deadlock in the shutdown fight in Washington DC between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Legal Responses

Twenty-one Democratic attorneys general, including New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, sued in federal court to block the new policies of HHS and the labor and education departments. “By altering a “decades-old understanding” of federal law, the administration has “wreaked havoc, affecting dozens of vital community programs, millions of people, and billions of dollars in funding” to the states, the attorneys general said in an updated complaint.

New York sues to stop Medicaid cuts for Planned Parenthood. New York has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop a law that would cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. The lawsuit alleges that the new federal law targets the organization illegally and violates the First Amendment, the Spending Clause, and the ban on bills of attainder in the U.S. Constitution.

A U.S. appeals court panel on September 11 allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

Lawsuit seeks to halt Medicaid terminations in Florida The Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program filed the lawsuit on behalf of three Floridians in US District Court in Jacksonville against the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families. The residents are a 25-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter, who has cystic fibrosis, as well as a 1-year-old girl.

Lawsuit challenges USDA demand for food stamp data as some states prepare to comply. In new guidance issued earlier this month, the USDA told states they must turn over data to the agency, through their third-party payment processors, “including but not limited to” names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of all applicants and recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, going back more than five years. More than 40 million people rely on the assistance each month. New York’s Attorney General Letitia James leads nationwide lawsuit against Trump admin over SNAP food benefit data demands.

States Win Order Blocking USDA Demand for SNAP Recipients’ Data A group of 21 states and the District of Columbia won a court order temporarily blocking the US Department of Agriculture from requiring states to turn over the sensitive data of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients.

What You Can Do

Visit the Actions Page and join organizations across the United States . Their actions include letter writing, canvassing, phone banking, demonstrations, texting and more.

Contact your Federal and State representatives and let your voice be heard. Did your US Senator or House Member support these cuts? What will your state do to support citizens who will be cut out of health care and food support?

DONATE to organizations that are working with the communities impacted by these cruel and malicious cuts.

NJ Citizen Action

Center For Medicare Advocacy

National Immigration Law Center

Modern Medicaid Alliance

Protecting Immigrant Families

AARP

Find your local Food Bank Donate donate donate and volunteer

Next Post The NYC Mayor and NJ Governor Races

Posted in Health Care, One Big Beautiful Bill, SNAP, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty,”

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Debra29

Joseph Stalin

Targeting higher education is an essential tool in the autocratic playbook. Across the world, authoritarian leaders are targeting universities and professors to silence critical thinking and crush academic freedom.Threats to higher education in the U.S. resemble free speech and academic freedom challenges faced by universities in autocracies globally.

We are witnessing an unprecedented effort to target, intimidate, and exert greater control over U.S. higher education institutions. The Republican Trump administration has been using federal money as leverage to force its agenda on colleges. Project 2025 and a growing number of conservatives believe they must use the government to rein in the radicalization and corruption of the “woke elites” distributed in civil society, and all levels of government. American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Frederick Hess’s suggestion in National Review: “Institutions that apply ideological litmus tests—such as mandatory DEI statements for admission, hiring, or academic promotion—should be stripped of state subsidies and rendered ineligible for taxpayer-funded financial aid or student loans.”

The Republican Trump administration is using the government’s power to compel compliance with its views. Can a president determine what universities teach, whom they employ, how they admit people and what government largess they deserve as a result?

Harvard University

President Donald Trump acted to strip billions of dollars in government funding for Harvard’s education programs .The White House says it wants to send a message. It cites concerns from Jews on campus who said they were harassed during protests over the Gaza war. It says Harvard’s hiring and admissions discriminate against conservatives, especially white men with traditional views about gender. It says it wants to protect civil rights and free speech. The administration demanded extensive information about international students, staff payroll and protests. Then it tried to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard. The Justice Department opened an investigation into the student-run Harvard Law Review.

Funding cuts and freezes
The administration cut $2.2 billion in multiyear research grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard, mostly from the National Institutes of Health.
It froze roughly 500 N.I.H. grants for Harvard-affiliated institutions, such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
It disqualified Harvard from future federal grants.
The administration terminated grants worth $450 million from eight federal agencies, saying the school was a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination.” It did not identify the agencies involved.

Columbia University

The Republican Trump Administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, HHS alleged that Columbia violated Title VI, which prohibits those receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, or national origin — including discrimination against individuals based on their actual or perceived Israeli or Jewish identity or ancestry. It comes after recent executive orders barring diversity, equity and inclusion programs at all educational institutions that receive federal funds.

University of California

The Justice Dept. opened an inquiry into University of California hiring practices. The Trump administration has targeted the state system as part of its broad effort to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and programs.

Duke University

The Republican Trump administration froze $108 million dollars in funds to Duke University. The university was accused of racial discrimination in its health care system, the latest high-profile school targeted and stripped of federal funding. Duke University is the latest high-profile school, from Columbia University to Harvard, that the Trump administration has targeted and stripped of a large amount of federal funding, based on vague accusations that the university abets antisemitism or supports diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The move comes amid a wider pressure campaign from the Trump administration to shift the ideological tilt of American higher education.

University of California LA

The Republican Trump Administration is freezing over $300 Million for UCLA. They accuse the university of adhering to “illegal affirmative action” policies, failing to do enough to combat antisemitism on campus and discriminating against women by allowing the participation of transgender athletes.

University of Virginia

The president of the University of Virginia, James E. Ryan, resigned in June, chased out by the Trump administration and a conservative alumni group known as the Jefferson Council, which has board connections.

George Mason University

The president of George Mason University, Gregory N. Washington, is facing an attack from the Trump administration and the university’s highly partisan board, appointed by the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin.

Other Targeted Universities

The government suspended about $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over a transgender swimmer who previously competed for the school. The Education Department investigated University of Pennsylvania as part of the administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.

It halted dozens of research grants at Princeton. It froze more than $1 billion of Cornell University’s federal funding as it investigated allegations of civil rights violations. Northwestern University saw a halt of $790 million.

Trump has said colleges that don’t get in line with his administration’s priorities, like eliminating research related to being transgender or having diversity and inclusion programs may also lose federal funding. On Friday, his administration announced investigations into 50 universities as part of this DEI crackdown. The majority of those colleges, which include schools like the University of Kansas and the University of Utah – they partnered with a small nonprofit called The PhD Project that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business. The Education Department alleges the program limits eligibility based on race, and so colleges involved are engaging in, quote, “race-exclusionary practices.”

The Small Print of the Recent Settlements

Both Columbia and Brown promised to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle claims of violations of federal anti-discrimination laws, including accusations that they had tolerated antisemitism. As part of the settlements struck with two Ivy League universities in recent weeks, the Trump administration will gain access to the standardized test scores and grade point averages of all applicants, including information about their race, a measure that could profoundly alter competitive college admissions.

The release of such data has been on the wish list of conservatives who are searching for evidence that universities are dodging a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the consideration of race in college admissions, and will probably be sought in the future from many more of them.

But college officials and experts who support using factors beyond test scores worry that the government — or private groups or individuals — will use the data to file new discrimination charges against universities and threaten their federal funding. The additional scrutiny is likely to resonate in admissions offices nationwide. It could cause some universities to reconsider techniques like recruitment efforts focused on high schools whose students are predominantly people of color, or accepting students who have outstanding qualifications in some areas but subpar test scores, even if they believe such actions are legal. Lastly, Trumps deals with top colleges may give rich applicants a bigger edge.

The Effect of The Cuts

Despite huge endowments Northwestern, Stanford, Columbia, Boston University, USC, Harvard and Brown are anticipating cuts this fall.

The Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development hit Johns Hopkins University with $800 million in canceled funding, prompting the Baltimore-based institution to shut down numerous international programs and lay off 2,222 employees earlier this year.

There were hundreds of buyouts at Duke University. Duke officials announced the buyouts before the Trump administration froze $108 million in federal grants and contracts and opened investigations into alleged racial discrimination, accusing the university of emphasizing diversity over merit in hiring, admissions and other practices.

Legal Responses to date

Judge Blocks Trump Proclamation Barring Harvard’s International Students

Harvard files lawsuit against Trump Administration.

Eighteen research colleges are seeking to formally support Harvard University’s legal challenge against the Trump administration for cutting or freezing roughly $2.8 billion of the institution’s grants and contracts.

The American Association of University Professors and others argue in a new lawsuit that the executive orders violate the Constitution.

Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda

The Trump administration’s sweeping policy changes have been resisted with a wave of lawsuits. Hundreds have been filed by state attorneys and media organizations, physicians and nonprofits, migrants, international students, law firms and unions. Read about them here.

What You Can Do

My original post Determined to be free will link you to the various organizations you can join or support, in addition to contacting your Congressional and Senate representatives. Register for your college alumni association to see what your university is facing and what you can do to help.

Join Blue Sky, a social media platform designed as an alternative to X . You can follow your representatives and numerous organizations including Indivisible. They just posted a letter you can send to Harvard as an alumni, employee or public citizen.

Next Post: The Republican OBBA Act and its cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP

Posted in Higher Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?

Discrimination is alive and soaring.

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Debra29

Jonathan Kozol

The Republican Party has embraced the Heritage Foundation’s handbook, Project 2025. The Project’s handbook’s DEI recommendations fit into four main categories: (1) Abolishing DEI offices and personnel; (2) Ending the government’s participation in DEI initiatives; (3) Amending laws to align with a conservative vision of nondiscrimination; (4) Taking enforcement action against organizations that engage in DEI.

These goals have also seeped their way into state and local legislation. Since the Supreme Court’s blow to affirmative action in higher education admissions in 2023, state lawmakers have introduced more than 106 anti-DEIA bills. Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is working to eradicate DEIA initiatives and civil rights protections with executive orders that would reverse decades of federal anti-discrimination policies.

What is Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility?

Diversity ensures representation among qualified persons across race, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status, military status, shared ancestry, parental status, persons who live in rural communities, and more so that institutions reflect the communities they serve.

Equity recognizes that inequalities exist and works to dismantle the barriers that disproportionately harm marginalized communities, ensuring fairness in access to resources and opportunities.

Inclusion ensures that institutions are not just diverse, but that all individuals, especially those historically excluded, can fully participate and contribute without fear of discrimination or bias

Accessibility expands opportunities for individuals of all abilities by removing physical, technological, and systemic barriers that may prevent full participation in society through reasonable accommodations, inclusive work and public spaces, and more.

On the one hand, DEI is a broad-brush term that refers to the policies and measures that organizations use to prevent discrimination, comply with civil rights laws and create environments more welcoming to people from marginalized backgrounds. The scope of DEI programs goes far beyond leveling the playing field for black and brown people. Other groups benefitting from DEI: White women, LGBTQ+ people, families who need IVF, disabled people and veterans.

Supporters of these diversity programs say they help companies hire and retain top talent and boost innovation and profits.”Talk to any CEO of a major Fortune 500 company. They’ll tell you that their bottom line, dollar wise, does better when there’s more diversity in the room,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a former civil rights lawyer and a Democrat, recently told the New York Times.

In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions. The ruling didn’t have direct implications for companies but it energized conservative groups led by Stephen Miller, now White House deputy chief of staff for policy, and anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, who have targeted corporate “wokeism” at nearly four dozen companies from Apple to Pizza Hut-owner Yum! Brands.They took aim at controversial measures such as setting hiring targets, which they say are illegal racial quotas, for women and people of color.

The organization that Miller co-founded, America First Legal, recently called on the Labor Department to investigate federal contractors, like Meta and Lyft, with DEI policies that it says may violate federal law and Trump’s executive order. Another activist, Robby Starbuck, wrung concessions from corporations like Walmart and Target through pressure campaigns on social media.

A growing number of prominent companies have scaled back or set aside the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that much of corporate America endorsed following the protests that accompanied the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020.Facebook and Instagram owner Meta canceled DEI programs altogether to align themselves with the Trump administration. The Companies Rolling Back DEI Programs as of April 11, 2025 – IBM, Gannet (nation’s largest paper publisher), United Health Group, MLB, Victoria Secret, Warner Bros, Goldman Sachs, Paramount, Bank of America, Black Rock, Citigroup, Pepsi, Coca -Cola, Disney and more. Several U.S. retailers that publicly scrapped diversity, equity and inclusion programs — including Target, Amazon and Tractor Supply — are maintaining certain efforts behind the scenes.

The Republican Administrations Anti-DEI Actions

Since Trump took office, the National Park Service —- an agency charged with preserving American history —- has changed how its website describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow.

Earlier administrations investigated whether Native American school mascots were discriminatory. The Trump administration defends them, reflecting a broader shift.

K-12 schools must sign certification against DEI to receive federal money, administration says. “Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.“The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law,” the administration wrote in the certification, adding that it is illegal for programs to advantage one race over another.

Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding to programs with ‘improper ideology’. “Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,”

Frustrations, fear of erasing history voiced after artifacts returned from African American history museum. The removals come after the Trump administration issued an executive order to remove certain pieces of history from the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., one of which is the NMAAHC..

Colleges Must Eliminate DEI Programs to Receive Research Funding, NIH Says The N.I.H. has terminated hundreds of diversity grants awarded to young researchers, many of whom come from the very places that supported Trump. The push to end D.E.I. has been a blunt instrument, eliminating highly competitive grant programs that defined diversity well beyond race and gender. Those who have lost grants include not only Black and Latino scientists, but also many like Mr. Dillard, who are white and from rural areas, which are solidly Trump country. The administration has denounced universities as hotbeds of liberal elitism, inhospitable to viewpoint diversity. The canceled diversity grant programs were intended to make science less elite, by developing a pipeline from poorer areas of the country that tend to be more conservative.

Legal Responses

A lawsuit was filed that challenges constitutionality of Anti-DEI orders. The plaintiffs are the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, and Baltimore’s mayor and city council. They argue that the executive orders undermine efforts to correct historical discrimination against women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ individuals.

A coalition of civil rights organizations, including the National Urban League, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Lambda Legal, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging recent executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives within federally funded institutions.

The Trump Administration’s Department of Education recently issued a “Dear Colleague” letter, which threatens federal funding cuts for education institutions for engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.The NEA and ACLU have filed a lawsuit challenging the letter, arguing it imposes unfounded and vague legal restrictions and limits academic freedom.

Judge issues temporary injunction against Trump administration cancellation of humanities grants. In reaching her decision, the judge said the “defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients’ perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas. This is most evident by the citation in the Termination Notices to executive orders purporting to combat ‘Radical Indoctrination’ and ‘Radical … DEI Programs,’ and to further ‘Biological Truth.’”

Federal judge strikes down NIH directives against DEI research. A federal judge on Monday vacated the National Institutes of Health’s directives to eliminate research funding for diversity, equity and inclusion-related projects.

Community Responses

Boycotting large corporations over DEI rollbacks. Consumers across the country are trying to hit large corporations where they hurt: their bottom line. The group People’s Union USA is urging buyers to stop shopping at major companies like Walmart, Target and Amazon in protest of corporate control and following the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The National Urban League backed last month’s economic blackout by urging consumers to be intelligent about how they spend their money.

Fast-food giant, Mc Donald’s is facing a weeklong boycott over corporate DEI rollbacks. The boycott is a show of economic resistance against McDonald’s abandonment of DEI goals, including leadership diversity targets and supplier inclusion programs. McDonald’s Responds to Nationwide Boycott

A coalition of civil rights groups have launched a weeklong initiative to condemn Donald Trump’s attacks on Black history, including recent executive orders targeting the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC.

State & Local Government Responses

In New Jersey, a bill was introduced that would require diversity, equity, and inclusion offices in all state agencies
New York Warns Trump It Will Not Comply With Public School D.E.I. Order
Mass. schools boss defies Trump DEI edict: State will ‘continue to promote diversity’
Democratic-led cities and states push back on threats to cut US school funding over DEI

What Else You Can Do

The League of Women Voters created an excellent resource on How DEI Impacts Us – And Democracy.
Join your local League to get involved in advocacy within your community.

Call or email your federal, state and local representatives , and insist they remain committed to DEI .

Far-Right Candidates Are Trying To Take Over Public Schools Across The Country. Consider serving your community as a volunteer member of your local board of education. Each state has a school board association which will guide you through the steps. Or attend your local school board meetings to confirm curriculum decisions do not reflect the anti-DEI initiatives.

Become involved with your local library. Book banning is not new to this country. It’s just on a whole other level Local libraries are generally controlled by a local government entity, often with oversight from a library board or commission. Across the South over the last decade, control of what happens on bookshelves has turned into a pitched battle, with white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups on one side facing off against an unlikely coalition of progressives, educators, Black leaders and drag queens on the other.

Donate and/or volunteer with organizations committed to fighting the Republican’s anti-DEI goals:

ACLU

National Urban League

Legal Defense Fund – NAACP

Lambda Legal

Southern Poverty Law Center

Next Post: The Assault on Colleges

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There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Debra29

Elie Wiesel

The Trump Administration has militarized our own government against immigrant communities, fueling a lawless crackdown on people who came to this country seeking peace, safety, and the American dream. And the New York GOP rubber-stamped it, giving Trump a green light to wage war on immigrants. ……..U.S. Representative Dan Goldman

Enforced disappearance is the secret abduction or detention of a person by a state or political organization, or their proxies, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s whereabouts and condition. This practice is recognized as a serious violation of human rights and is frequently used as a strategy to spread terror within society.

Our Voices

Federal, State and Local Responses

Here is a skeleton profile of a one coordinated response from New York representatives. The same should be happening with your congressional, state and local representatives.

Legislation
My U.S. Representative Dan Goldman introduced the No Secret Police Act – which would ban ICE agents from wearing masks while engaging in civil immigration enforcement.

He coordinated with local representatives;
ICE and DHS have been detaining law-abiding, nonviolent immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza, New York in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Last week, he joined NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander outside 26 Federal Plaza to protest ICE’s conduct.

Demanding ICE Stop Housing Immigration Detainees at the Notoriously Violent Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center
The Trump Administration has been sending non-criminal, non-charged, and nonviolent immigrants, many of whom have ongoing asylum cases, to be detained in federal prisons across the country. Currently, over 100 immigrant detainees are being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, many lacking any criminal record. Last week (he)  I sent an oversight letter to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) demanding answers on their new interagency agreement with ICE and for the BOP to immediately suspend all transfers to MDC and any other facility with a documented history of unsafe conditions. 

My state senator joined, “ICE is disappearing immigrants, many of whom have no criminal records, into a jail that a judge called ‘contemptuous of human life and dignity.’ That should appall all of us,” said State Senator Andrew Gounardes. “This isn’t about public safety—it’s a show of force meant to instill fear in our communities and keep immigrants in the shadows. It’s incredibly dangerous, disturbing and un-American. It must end now.”

What has your federal, state and local representatives done? Your phone calls, texts and emails with your electeds make a difference. Receive their newsletters. Hold them accountable for decisions made regarding mass deportations, ICE raids and detention centers. Meet them during open hours. Attend town halls .

Community Responses

Flemington Residents Band Together as ‘Beloved’ Member of Community Apprehended by ICE The council unanimously condemned the actions of ICE in town.

Adirondack communities respond to ICE enforcement.

How Chicago communities are resisting ICE raids.

What has your town council done in response to ICE raids?

Faith Leaders Respond

Catholic Bishops Try to Rally Opposition to Trump’s Immigration Agenda – As the Trump administration escalates its aggressive deportation campaign, Roman Catholic bishops across the United States are raising objections to the treatment of migrants and challenging the president’s policy.

US faith leaders opposed to ICE raids counsel nonviolent resistance and lead by example.

What Can Congregations Do To Prepare For Immigration Raids?

Dozens of Jewish groups protest Trump’s plans for mass deportation.

Council of American Islamic Relations Condemns Violent ICE Raids on Farms in Ventura County, Demands Full Accountability

Industry Responses

After early reprieve from immigration enforcement, farming industry reckons with raids. This administrations broad immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies he does not want to lose – farms, hotels and eateries. Immigration Raids Are Threatening Businesses that Supply America’s Food, Farm Bureaus Say.

A U.S. crackdown on foreign-born workers could spell trouble for the hotel and hospitality industry, which has lobbied for years to expand the pathways for immigration to the United States to help fill over 1 million job vacancies. The National Restaurant Association, along with state hospitality associations, has urged President Trump to provide “targeted relief” from his immigration crackdown. They advocate for policies like deferred action with work authorization for long-serving employees who meet certain criteria, such as passing background checks and paying taxes. Some restaurants and industry groups are taking steps to support immigrant workers directly, such as establishing emergency relief funds and offering guidance on legal rights.

How President Trump’s immigration crackdown is impacting construction

Legal Actions

20 States Sue Over Federal Effort to Deny Migrants Access to Safety Net

27 religious groups sue Trump administration to protect houses of worship from immigration arrests

Groups Take Legal Action to Halt Trump Fast-Track Deportation Policy

Massachusetts Sanctuary Cities Sue To Stop Trump From Entangling Them In Federal Immigration Enforcement

‘Brazen, midday kidnappings:’ LA immigration sweeps violate Constitution, lawsuit says

What Else You Can Do

Indivisible has excellent suggestions on How You Can Be An Immigrant Ally Locally.

Join and support the groups on the Actions 2025 post. Their coordination led to the The “Good Trouble Lives On” national day of action this past July 17. Protests and events against President Donald Trump’s controversial policies that include mass deportations and cuts to Medicaid and other safety nets for poor people occurred at more than 1,600 locations around the country.

Donate and/or volunteer with the following organizations. They work against immigration raids by providing legal defense, advocacy, and community organizing:

Immigrant Rights American Civil Liberties Union

The Immigration Defense Project IDP

The National Immigration Law Center

RAICES

Next Post: Assault #2

Posted in Immigration, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Actions 2025

Posted on June 23, 2025 by Debra29

“You do have to steel yourself. You do have to prepare yourself for the next turn of the news cycle, the next development. Every day you see another attack on the rule of law. You see another attack on the constitutional order, and it does require you to toughen up and, for lack of a better phrase, to prepare yourself for what’s coming. And what I hear you say — that is very, very powerful and so very true — you also have to find a community. It’s hard to do this isolated and on your own.”

To Save Democracy, Here’s A Playbook That Works

The Heritage Foundation is the conservative Washington-based think tank that’s best known for spearheading Project 2025, This is the blueprint for President Trump’s second term that called for reshaping the federal government and an extreme expansion of presidential power. The Republican Party supports President Trump in every way possible, including reaching the follow Project 2025 objectives:


1. It proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the Department of Justice, be placed under direct presidential control – a controversial idea known as “unitary executive theory”.
2. The proposals also call for eliminating job protections for thousands of government employees, who could then be replaced by political appointees.
3. The document labels the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization”. It calls for drastic overhauls of the agency and several others, as well as the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
4. Abortion and Family – it proposes withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market, and using existing but little-enforced laws to stop the drug being sent through the post.
5. Immigration – Project 2025 authors suggest dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and combining it with other immigration enforcement units in other agencies, creating a much larger and more powerful border policing operation. On this issue, his administration promises to go in a slightly different direction – and potentially much further – than the Project 2025 proposals

Read on to realize that most policy decisions being made come straight from this conservative think tank including Energy, climate and trade and Education, tech and DEI. In addition, even before President Trump was re-elected, the Heritage Foundation set out to destroy pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.

The Trump Republican decisions are also influenced by The Federalist Society. It focuses on the legal field, promoting conservative and libertarian interpretations of law and influencing judicial appointments.The Federalist Society played a major role in selecting and steering 234 Trump-nominated judges, including three Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. These appointments significantly shifted the federal judiciary to the right.

Despite the successful partnership in stacking the courts with conservative judges, tensions have emerged more recently. Trump has publicly criticized the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo, expressing disappointment that some of his appointed judges did not rule in his favor regarding the 2020 election. This has led to speculation that Trump may now view Federalist Society ties as detrimental to potential nominees. In fact some say the next Conservative Civil War is upon us.

Follow the Project 2025 Tracker to see how the authoritarian blueprint’s executive action proposals are on track.

Action Planning

As in the past, actions can take several forms: demonstrations, rallies, donations, petitions, town halls, letters, emails, phone banking, text banking, social media posts, community building, local, state, and federal actions. Join an organization below that has the infrastructure and expertise to fight for our democracy.

Organizations

50501 Movement (50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement)

American Civil Liberties Union – each state has a local division

American Federation of Teachers

Community Workers of America

Declaration for American Democracy

Good Trouble Lives On

Indivisible Has local chapters

League of Women Voters Has local chapters

Move On

Public Citizen

Third Act

Service Employees International Union

Social Security Works

Many, many choices

Join one of the over 200 organizations who supported and organized the No Kings Demonstrations across the United State on June 14, 2025.

Contact your Federal, State and Local Representatives who are in the process of creating legislation in response to each assault.

Join a neighborhood group. Our neighborhood started a FaceBook page for a well loved, law abiding resident who was arrested by ICE when he went to renew his work papers. The neighborhood set up a Go Fund Me for the family, and showed up at each local and county meeting that dealt with supporting ICE . They also involved our Senators (both Democrats). The man was consequently kept in a jail in this state and not deported as of yet. Be present. Be vocal. Be brave.

Next Post: An executive branch assault, legal challenges to date, and organizations that can use your support in the fight

Assaults to Date

Academic Institutions, Climate , DEI, DOGE cuts, Food Banks, Immigration & ICE, Journalism, Justices, OBBA (one big beautiful bill), Medicare, Medicaid, Public Media, Science, Social Security, Tarriffs, Transgender, Voting, War

Posted in Resistance, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Actions 2025

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being.

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Debra29

Eleanor Roosevelt

Governor’s Race below Updated June 11

Mikie Sherrill wins the Democratic primary
Jack Ciattarelli wins the Republican primary.

Sherrill beat out five other Democrats for her party’s nod, pitching herself as the most electable candidate — after her party struggled in the state last year compared with other recent presidential elections — and as a Democrat willing to stand up to Trump. She also leaned heavily on her background as a former Navy helicopter pilot and on criticism of Trump.

“It’s going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people. So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I’m not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans,” Sherrill told her supporters Tuesday at a victory rally.You probably can’t do better than to quote George Washington at this moment: Fix the bayonets, I’m resolved to take Trenton,” Sherrill added.”

The New Jersey Primary election results including Governor and State Assembly relied on a redesigned ballot intended to give all candidates a fair shot, it is the first race in decades that was not largely predetermined by local party leaders.

This is also the first year for a governor’s race under a 2023 campaign finance law that appears to have opened the door to this year’s record spending by independent groups backing candidates.

NJ primary 2025: What the numbers reveal

Record turnout, record spending, and history made as Dems nominate a woman for governor for first time. The results of New Jersey’s primary were both predictable and surprising: The frontrunners won the gubernatorial nominations, but few predicted the speed and decisiveness of the wins by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

New Jersey Primary
Tuesday June 10, 2025
6am – 8pm

New Jersey has a closed primary system, meaning only Democrats and Republicans can vote for their party’s nominees to run in the general election.

Unaffiliated voters, who are not registered as either a Democrat or a Republican, may choose to vote in the state’s primary, but they must declare a party to do so. If you’re interested WHYY explains how to do so.along with other NJ Primary information.

New Jersey Voter Registration
Deadline: Tuesday May 20

Anyone can register to vote, so long as they are a U.S. citizen, have been a resident of their New Jersey county for at least 30 days before the election and will be at least 18 on or before Election Day.

You can register to vote online. You will need your date of birth and either a current and valid Driver’s License, a non-driver Identification Card (ID card) issued by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) or a Social Security card.

New Jerseyans can find out whether they are already registered to vote.

Early Voting Period
Tuesday June 3 – Sunday June 8

This new option enables all registered voters to cast their ballot in person, using a voting machine, during in-person early voting period prior to Election Day. You can now choose to vote, in person, when it’s most convenient for your schedule.

No matter where you live in the county, you can vote your specific ballot at any of your county’s designated in-person early voting locations. Find your county’s locations here.

In-Person Early Voting for both the Primary Election and the General Election. Early voting locations will be open from at least 10 am to 8 pm on Mondays through Saturdays, and from at least 10 am to 6 pm on Sundays. No appointment is necessary. Accommodations will be made for voters with disabilities.

Vote By Mail

Any voter may apply for vote-by-mail by completing the Application for Vote-By-Mail Ballot and returning the application to their County Clerk.

After you complete your Vote-By-Mail Ballot, return your ballot by one of three ways, mail it back, place it in one of your county’s Secure Ballot Drop Box Locations or return it to your County Board of Elections Office.

The New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, provides a video to help you through the steps.

Voters can check the status of their mail ballots online.

Return your ballot. How you return it is up to you.
Select one of the following three ways:
Mail: It must be postmarked on or before 8:00 p.m. Election Day and be received by your county’s Board of Elections on or before 6 days after Election Day.
Secure Ballot Drop Box: Place it in one of your county’s secure ballot drop boxes by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. Secure Ballot Drop Box locations
Board of Elections Office: Deliver it in person to your county’s Board of Elections Office by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. County Election Officials

WHYY provides further information regarding if you received a mail ballot, but want to vote in person.

The Race for New Jersey Governor
(updated June 3)

The Democrats include Ras Baraka, Steven Fulop, Josh Gottheimer, Mikie Sherrill, Sean Spiller and Stephen Sweeney. The Republicans include Jon Bramnick, Jack Ciattarelli, and Bill Spadea.

The New York Times sent a wide-ranging survey to candidates for governor of New Jersey about housing, immigration, abortion, transit, affordability, schools and climate.

The race for governor of New Jersey includes a large field of Democratic primary candidates competing against each other — and trying not to be drowned out by the drama in Washington. That’s a particular challenge for the Democratic contenders, who include two members of Congress, two big-city mayors and two union leaders.Each Democrat is trying to carve a path to victory.

New Jersey is set to hold its gubernatorial elections this year, with hotly contested primaries set for next month — and many experts are saying the high-stakes race could be a harbinger for the mood of the country ahead of 2026’s critical midterm elections.

As of May 27, Rep. Mikie Sherrill is the frontrunner and getting knocked by opponents and watchers of Garden State politics. But Sherrill is running just the type of campaign that made Murphy governor while embracing the Democratic establishment, opponents and close observers of Garden State politics say. “But where I sit, I think the voters are looking for a candidate who is not going to say ‘I’m part of the institution, promote me’ — but someone who says ‘I’m going to remake the institution.’

In new television ads and mailers in June, Sherrill’s rivals have bashed her wealth, her establishment ties, and past campaign contributions she accepted from a PAC associated with SpaceX, the spaceflight company helmed by Elon Musk. The grievances aren’t new, but they’re escalating as the primary approaches. And they’re coming from candidates like Steve Fulop and Ras Baraka, who are running as anti-establishment insurgents, as well as party darlings like Steve Sweeney as they look to erode Sherrill’s support among voters, many of whom remain undecided.

NJ PBS and NYNC radio covered the May 7 debate between Republicans Bramnick, Ciattarelli (recently supported by Trump) and Spadea. You can watch the full conversation here. They sparred for an hour on issues ranging from affordability and housing to education and federal funding cuts in one of two required debates.

The USA TODAY Network New Jersey surveyed nine of the candidates on topics ranging from transit to taxes, affordability, housing and justice reform to give residents a frame of reference on where the potential nominees from each party stand.

Will GOP gains in the wake of Trump’s victory shake up the Garden State governor’s race? The conservative think tank, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research’s City Journal seems to think so.

Still undecided by June 3?

The second debates of the 2025 governor’s race, sponsored by NJ PBS, was on Monday, May 12, for the Democrats. You can view it through the link.

That was followed by the third and final gubernatorial debates, sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey and Rider University: Sunday, May 18 for the Democrats and Tuesday, May 20 for the Republicans.

The debates linked above were 2.5 hours and be centered around three specific issue topics: Democrats debated on Taxes and Affordability, Education, and Public Transportation and Development; and Republicans debated on Taxes and Affordability, Education, and Crime.

Politico has created an interactive face -off between a Republican and Democrat to help you decide whom to vote for.

Here’s how the Democrats running to be governor say they’ll make New Jersey more affordable.

Finally, CBS has provided in depth interviews on the issues with each candidate for New Jersey Governor.

The Races for New Jersey General Assembly

New Jersey has a Democratic trifecta. The Democratic Party controls the office of governor and both chambers of the state legislature

New Jersey has 40 legislative districts, and each one is represented by one senator and two members of the Assembly (senators are not on the ballot this year). Legislative elections are held in November of each odd-numbered year. .Members of the New Jersey General Assembly serve two-year terms. All 80 seats in the New Jersey General Assembly are up for election in 2025.

More candidates are running for seats in the New Jersey Assembly this year than they have at any point since Jimmy Carter was president.This year, 209 Assembly candidates — 123 Democrats and 86 Republicans — will vie for their parties’ nomination on June 10, up from the 170 that ran for the lower chamber when it was last on the ballot in 2023. Just two sitting legislators are seeking reelection unopposed. Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Mercer) and Assemblyman Anthony Verrelli (D-Mercer) have no primary challengers, and no Republicans filed to run in their 15th Legislative District.

“New Jersey LCV is proud to endorse our largest ever slate of candidates in legislative primaries, because the stakes for our environment and democracy have never been higher,” said Allison McLeod, Deputy Director of New Jersey LCV. “As we face unprecedented rollbacks in environmental protections at the federal level, it’s critical New Jersey has bold champions here at home who will fight for clean energy, environmental justice, and our democratic institutions.

Find your elected officials and district number.

Then use your district number to determine who the Primary candidates are in your New Jersey General Assembly district. Find their campaign websites and see how they stand on the issues facing New Jersey.

The Virginia Governor’s Race

In what could be a key 2025 bellwether, Virginia’s race for governor will also make history, all but guaranteeing the Commonwealth’s first female governor. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer, will face Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran, after both state parties confirmed their nominees in recent days.One of the only competitive races of the year, the Virginia gubernatorial contest will be closely watched by both parties — and is often treated as a referendum on the president’s party.

The conventional wisdom in New Jersey politics is that the party that wins the presidency is given a disadvantage in the next year’s gubernatorial race. New Jersey and Virginia are the only states that hold gubernatorial elections the year after presidential years, making them national bellwethers for the political environment headed into the midterms.

Local and State Actions

Become informed, Vote, Donate, Volunteer for candidates in this year’s city and state elections. Attend town halls, fund raising events, zoom meetings, community gatherings. Let your voice be heard.

Federal Actions

In response to any and all actions by the present federal administration.

  1. Call, email and show up at your local representative’s office. Daily. . Hold House and Senate Republicans responsible for each and every Executive action taken by this administration.

2. Join National Networks:

Indivisible

Move On

Vote Forward

Vote Riders

League of Women Voters New Jersey

3. Hold your Democratic elected officials responsible for showing up and responding to what this administration is doing. . Attend their town halls, offices, and demand that they lead rallies and marches that you participate in. Demand that they stand in for Republican town halls when the Republicans fail to hold one.

4. Join any community actions that are in support of Americans who are affected by the recent decisions made by this administration.

Next Post: Federal Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, The Assaults on the Judicial Branch

Posted in 2025 State Elections, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being.

One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Debra29

Georgia O’Keeffe

New York City Primary Day Results
June 25, 2025

The New York City Election for Mayor
Mamdani Stuns Cuomo in New York Mayoral Primary

Here are 5 Takeaways from the New York City Democratic Primary results for Mayor.

1.Mamdani’s exuberant optimism attracted disaffected New Yorkers.
2.The Cuomo brand seems to have lost its shine.
3.Mamdani built a novel coalition.
4.Mayor Adams gets the opponents he hoped for.
5.Progressives generally had a good night.

It’s equally important to see this outstanding graphic how each neighborhood voted in this Primary. Expand and zoom in for specific areas.

CBS News estimates a turnout of 1.1 million voters, with most voting in person Tuesday. That’s more than a third of registered Democrats in the city, and a noticeably higher turnout than the 2021 primary.

As written earlier , the votes are not final. While Mamdani has taken a commanding lead in the race, the results thus far are only preliminary. They won’t be officially certified until every vote is counted, including mail-in ballots, and so on. That process could take a week or more from Election Day.

Results for Comptroller, Public Advocate , Borough Presidents and City Council
(as of June 25)

The New York Times has done an exemplary job of providing up to date information on all races. Use the bar at the top of their page to navigate the political positions. CBS News provides similar data for those who do not have a NYT subscription.

How Will We Know Who Won NYC’s Mayoral Election, and When Will We Know It?

For an answer, have patience. We may not know those official results until weeks after the polls close.Yes we’ll see some results that night, but may not have a definitive answer about who won.The city Board of Elections will release unofficial, first-choice-only votes after the polls close at 9 p.m. on primary night, June 24.

The second Democratic primary debate was held Thursday, June 12, and hosted by Spectrum News NY1.(link to video of debate). It was billed as a debate for “leading contenders,” so only those who have raised enough money by the New York City Campaign Finance Board’s metrics will be in attendance. Ramos and Blake did not clear the fund-raising bar to qualify for the second debate.

The New York Times Opinion section put together a panel of community leaders and asked whom they would endorse. The majority answer: Brad Lander in first place.

The New York City mayoral race shifted into high gear with its first primary debate, where the top Democratic hopefuls will vied to be ranked first (or at least fifth) on New Yorkers’ primary ballots. This was hosted by NBC and Politico.

For more than a decade Democratic primary nominees have handily won in general elections in New York City since as far back as 2009, the last time Mayor Mike Bloomberg ran as an independent for his third term. That might change this year. A Republican, Democrat, Independent, and Working Families Party candidate will be in the running in the general election Tuesday, Nov 3, 2025. It isn’t guaranteed that the Democrat Primary winner will prevail.

Mayor Eric Adams faced an uphill battle in the June 24 Democratic primary . He will run for re-election as an independent instead. This came after a five count corruption indictment he faced was dismissed by a judge of Trump’s Justice Department and record low approval ratings.

Many believe that time is running out to topple Cuomo. Democratic rivals to the former governor are hoping to dent his polling lead with upcoming ads. As late as May 27, we continue to have the Cuomo paradox: Unpopular, yet still leading the New York City mayor’s race.

However, as the competition heats up, Cuomo plans to run on an independent ballot line in the NYC mayoral race, even if he loses the Democratic primary in June . In a statement, Cuomo said he made the move to appeal to voters who feel the Democratic party “has been hijacked.” He will be listed alongside Mayor Eric Adams and attorney Jim Walden, running on their own independent ballot lines.

Meanwhile Zohran Mamdani is trying to build a new NYC Democratic primary coalition. Can the 33-year-old surprise breakout candidate unite Muslim and South Asian voters, young leftists and even convince some former Eric Adams supporters?

The Working Families Party is taking steps to run a candidate in the general election for mayor, teeing up what could shape up to be the first competitive election in New York City in more than a decade These steps include placing a name to hold a place until after their summer convention. That person will step down and make way for one of the WFP’s four endorsed mayoral candidates — City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and State Sen. Zellnor Myrie — if none of them succeeds in the June Democratic primary. Curtis Silwa is the only candidate endorsed by the Republican parties of each of the boroughs.

Politics NY provides a profile of each of the candidates running in ALL city races. It includes articles on local news, community meetings, interviews and more across all five boroughs.

New York City Voter Registration

You can now register to vote online in New York. You can also register through the Department of Motor Vehicles by mail to the Board of Elections in the City of New York and in person.

The last day to register to vote in person is Saturday June 14. Applications to register by mail must be received by Saturday June 14.

New York City June Primary
Tuesday June 24, 2025
6am – 9pm

Early Voting Period
Saturday, June 14, 2025 – Sunday, June 22, 2025.

Do you wish to apply for NYC Early Mail or Absentee Ballot ?
Are you voting in person? Find your poll location. Learn what’s on the ballot and more by the NY Public Library before you leave.

Would you like to track your early mail or absentee ballot? Do so here.

Primary Dates and Times

Last day to apply online or by mail is Saturday June 14, 2025
Last day to apply in person at your county board of elections is Monday, June 23, 2025
Put your ballot in the mail ensuring it receives a postmark no later than Tuesday June 24, 2025
Drop off your ballot to your county Board of Elections Office no later than June 24, 2025 by 9pm.
Drop off your ballot to an early voting poll site in your county between Sat June 14 and Sun June 22
Drop off your ballot to an election day poll site on Tuesday June 24, 2025 no later than 9pm.

Ranked Choice Voting

New York City uses ranked choice for primary and special elections only. NYC Votes guides you through the process.

The League of Women Voters also provides a clear explanation of how the ranked choice system works:

Voters rank candidates in the order of their preference: first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on.
When all the ballots are counted, if one candidate gets more than 50% of the first choice votes, they win.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of first choice votes, the candidate with fewest votes is considered defeated.
Voters who ranked the defeated candidate as their first choice have their votes counted for their second choice.
This is repeated until only two candidates remain. The one with the most votes wins.

Candidates for Mayor
(updated June 22)

Bill Clinton Endorse Cuomo

The former president’s endorsement is the latest example of how establishment Democrats seem to prefer Mr. Cuomo to his prime rival, Zohran Mamdani.Mr. Cuomo worked in the Clinton administration as the housing secretary, and the former president’s backing, as well as a taped robocall providing his support, could help turn out older voters in the tightening Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday. The former governor was endorsed on Friday by Representative Jim Clyburn, who was once the highest ranking Black member of Congress, and by some newspapers, including The New York Daily News.

Ahead of the June 24 primary election, the leading Democrats in the race visited the New York Times newsroom for interviews. Here are the interviews with former governor Mario M. Cuomo. , New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. former state lawmaker Michael Blake, State lawmaker Zohran Mamdani, former NY Comptroller Scott Stringer, and former head fund executive Whitney Tilson

As of June 12, recent polls show that Cuomo is roughly 10 percentage points ahead of the No 2 candidate Zohran Mamdani. Here is an analysis of his comeback.

New York City campaign finance regulators withheld more than $600,000 in public funds from Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign saying they suspect him of illegally coordinating with a super PAC supporting his bid..This was followed by another $675,000. He has now been penalized nearly $1.3 million in total, a significant loss of public funds that could have been spent in the final weeks before the June 24 Primary. Cuomo’s lead over Mamdani narrows in NYC mayoral primary, new poll shows.

A June 2 poll indicates that Democrats prefer Adrienne Adams to Cuomo in general election if she were to run on the left-flank Working Families Party ballot line,

On June 1, News 12 Brooklyn interviewed both Brad Lander and Scot Stringer . The progressive magazine ,The Nation, endorsed both Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani in the New York City Democratic Primary.

As of June 4, polls show Mamdani is in second place for the upcoming Primary. He gets key endorsement for NYC mayor in battle for Asian American votes by State Senator John Liu. He recently responded to a call for his deportation from a Republican City Councilwoman.

There were some surprising stances when The City/Gothamist surveyed mayoral hopefuls.

Mayoral candidates combat Cuomo with just weeks left. New fundraising disclosures show Council Speaker Adrienne Adams marshaling a surge in financial support to help her take on the former governor as he builds a campaign juggernaut.

Candidates in this wide, weird and unsettled field include Democrats Andrew Cuomo, Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Zohran Momdani, Scott Stringer, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos, Michael Blake, Whitney Tilson in addition to Republican Curtis Silwa and Independents Eric Adams and Jim Walden.

The format City and State uses for mayoral candidates includes: idealogical stance, major endorsements, fundraising, home, the message the candidate is running on, what’s holding the candidate back and what’s the candidate’s “deal” (summary of how they got here). It then goes on to link other articles about the candidate. It’s a comprehensive profile of the 12 candidates (11 Democrat and 1 Republican) running for mayor of the City of New York.

The New York Times provided an excellent summary of each candidate. It recently had an interview with Brad Lander , in addition to an article profiling Adrienne Adams’ recent endorsements. The paper asked the leading Democrats in the race to answer a list of policy questions including affordability, public safety, President Trump, homelessness, congestion pricing, immigration, schools and their one big idea.

Candidates for Public Advocate

The public advocate, a non-voting member of the New York City Council has the ability to introduce and co-sponsor legislation, oversees city agencies and investigates complaints about municipal services.
Under the city charter, the public advocate would act as mayor if the sitting mayor resigns or dies until a special election can be held.

Incumbent Jumaane Williams, former congressional candidate Marty Dolan, computer engineer Theo Chino, and Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar are running for Public Advocate. Read through their linked websites for information about the candidate and endorsements to date.

Candidates for Comptroller

The NYC Comptroller is essentially the city’s Chief Financial Officer. Their main responsibilities include overseeing the city’s budget, auditing City agencies, and managing the city’s five public pension funds, which total over $194.5 billion in assets, according to the Office of the Comptroller. They also review city contracts, settle claims on behalf of the city, and ensure transparency and accountability in government spending, including enforcing prevailing wage and living wage laws.

The two leading candidates for this position are Justin Brannan, City Council member and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. The City provides a synopsis of what they agree and disagree on. Their linked websites provide more information , including endorsements.

This past February, Brooklyn Democrats gathered to question candidates for City Comptroller and Public Advocate on key issues, including city audits and tenant protections.

Candidates for Borough President

While borough presidents can’t create or pass laws, they can fund organizations in their boroughs (about $4 million of the city budget is set aside for this purpose); make land use decisions; appoint members of local Community Boards and the City Planning Commission, who advise on land and neighborhood needs; and advocate for residents of their boroughs. Be sure to review their websites for information about them and their endorsements.

Manhattan – Brad Hoylman Sigal, and Keith Powers City & State reports on recent endorsements for Powers and Sigal .

Brooklyn – Incumbent Antonio Reynoso and Khari Edwards City & State reports on fundraising for this race.

Queens – Incumbent Donovan Richards and Henri Ikezi The online Qns.com reports on Richards State of the Borough Address. Henri Ikezi is reviewed by the Queens Daily Eagle. Republican Bashek Grimes is also running.

The Bronx – Incumbent Vanessa Gibson and Rafael Salamanca City & State interviewed Salamanca back in September. The Bronx Times profiled Gibson ‘s State of the Borough Address.

Staten Island – Incumbent Republican Vito Rossella and Democrat Michael Colombo Borough President Rosella became involved with congestion pricing and its impact on the borough. Staten Island Live profiled Colombos’s campaign.

Candidates for city council members

New York City Council members are responsible for several key functions, including enacting local laws, approving the city budget, and overseeing the performance of city agencies. They also make land use decisions and provide advice and consent over mayoral appointments.

Find your City Council District. Then determine what candidates are running in your district number.

City & State focuses on the most important primary races to watch. There are dozens of candidates, millions in matching funds, and 51 seats on the ballot. They profiled each district’s race with the Incumbent, the challenger (if there is one), the district’s demographics, voter enrollment and what’s the deal with who is running. It even provides further reading on what’s happening in the district.

Actions

  1. Vote Remind friends and family members to do so as well. Share the voting information posted above.

2. Donate  Continue to support candidates who need your support from my last post You cannot be neutral. There are a multitude of fundraising drives. Act Blue is a portal for the Democratic Party.

3. Volunteer in a local campaign

4. Join National Networks whose focus is on electing local politicians by turning out the vote up to and including Election Day. 


NYC League of Women Voters

NYC Votes

When We All Vote

5. Become involved in town halls, zoom meetings and national actions involving your elected local representatives , union leaders, and community organizations. Contact your national Congressional Members and U.S. Senators on a regular basis.

6. Join national networks

Indivisible

Vote Forward

Move On

Upcoming Posts: New Jersey and Virginia State Elections, Federal Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, The Assaults on the Judicial Branch

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.

Determined to be free

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Debra29

“Once people sense their own power, no authoritarian government can stand against the people who are determined to be free. ” Tsakhiaglin Elbegdorj, Journalist and President of Mongolia

“The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.” 1944. Henry Wallace, Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Authoritarian/Fascist Slide

Poland pulled back from an authoritarian slide. What can the U.S. learn from its nonpartisan approach?

Trump’s Attacks on Press Freedom Are Paving the Way for Authoritarianism . New research shows that once a country begins a descent into authoritarianism it’s extremely difficult to reverse. And the first vector of attack is often the free press.

White House bars AP, Reuters and other media from covering Trump cabinet meeting

Trumps FCC Chief opens investigation into NPR and PBS. Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration.

Action 1

Hold your politician responsible for every action or inaction

Every Republican politician in this country is responsible for his or her support of this administration’s decisions. Under our system of government, each branch was created to keep the other branch in check. The Legislative branch is not doing this. It’s time for Democrats to become leaders of the opposition. Message, email and call your representatives each and every time an event has occurred. The links below will bring you to their sites. Save their phone numbers.

Find your U.S. House Representative.

Find your U.S. Senator

Action 2

Support Journalism

As stated on page one of the autocrat’s playbook, retaining control of a country depends on control of news and information streams. The playbook covers a spectrum of tactics,,,,,, but there is a consistent theme throughout: to suppress resistance, freedom of expression must be quelled. Your subscription/donation can help to shore up the only way we have access to what is happening. It is an act of support for journalism during these dangerous times.

The League of Women Voters have created a chart to give you an idea of whether a site is considered to be unbiased. AllSides Technologies Inc. is an American company that estimates the perceived political bias of content on online written news outlets. This is their take.

50 Leading Media Outlets for News Coverage in 2025 include traditional sources like CNN, Fox, NBC, BBC, CBS and ABC. These would require a cable or streaming subscription.

Some sites below are free. I’ve provided a digital subscription link to those who aren’t. Please find other reliable political news sources in your neck of the woods and subscribe/donate.

National Online Political News Sources

The Atlantic (+print)
Axios
AP News
The Guardian
The Hill
The Huffington Post
The New Yorker (+print)
New York Times (+print)
The Newshour
Newsweek (+print)
Politico
Pro Publica
Reuters
Slate
Time (+print)
USA Today
Vox
Washington Post (+print)


New York Online Political News Sources

Brooklyn Eagle (+Print)
The City
City & State New York
The Gothamist
Newsday (+print)
Staten Island Live

New Jersey Online Political News Sources
NJ Spotlight News
New Jersey Globe

Pennsylvania Online Political News Sources
City and State Pa
Spotlight Pa

Donate to Public Broadcasting 

PBS  This is the national organization that connects and supports local public television stations, allowing them to buy and distribute programs. 
NPR  National Public Radio  This is a non-profit membership media  national organization that serves as a national syndicator to over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States, offering a wide range of news, cultural, and music programming. 

Donate to NY Metropolitan local member stations. Only a part of your PBS and NPR donations  go toward the local stations.

Television/Streaming

WNET  Thirteen (NY)
NJPBS (NJ)
WLIW (Long Island)
WHYY  (NJ/Pa/Delaware)

Radio 
WNYC 
WQXR
WHYY

Action 3

Join a Group

A. Join Indivisible which links you to actions in your local area on a weekly basis. These rallies include federal workers and supporters from affected federal agencies, labor leaders, elected officials, and consumer advocates.

B. The successful Hands Off mass mobilization campaign of 1300 rallies and marches throughout the nation on April 5. Rallies continue on a weekly basis and include all Americans impacted by this administration’s decisions Join them.

C. Join your Democrat or Republican town halls. Join alternative town halls if your representative or senator refuses to hold one. Dems plan more town halls in GOP districts for recess as Republicans refuse to hold them. Let your voice be heard. Personal narratives are best. How have this administration’s decisions impacted your life?

D. Join The League of Women Voters They just joined a coalition of voters rights organizations in a lawsuit challenging Trumps unlawful executive order on voting.


NEXT POST

New York City Mayor and City Council Elections
New Jersey and Virginia Governor and Legislative Branch Elections
Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

The assaults on the Judicial Branch


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Determined to be free