(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . WRAP PROJECT 2025 AROUND TRUMP'S F***ING THROAT--AND KEEP IT THERE. (This is BIG, Folks!) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-10-21 In my long life, the plan known as Project 2025 is the ugliest, most vicious, most horrifying assault on America’s freedoms I have ever seen. Concocted by sick, demented religious fanatics and despicable Fascist scum, it literally calls for the establishment of a Right-wing dictatorship in the United States, a dictatorship run by and for the exclusive benefit of “Christian” Nationalists and ruthless, predatory, businesspeople HIGHLIGHTS OF PROJECT 2025: --Attack on Reproductive Rights Guttmacher is on the case: Threats to Medication Abortion It...recommends revoking mifepristone’s US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, which would remove the drug from the market entirely. Nearly two-thirds of all abortions provided by clinicians are medication abortions, and the vast majority of them use the combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. Although use of misoprostol alone is also safe and effective, it is unclear how widely this regimen would be offered by providers, or taken up by patients, if mifepristone were no longer available. Further, Project 2025 suggests that a hostile administration could bypass the FDA and effectively ban medication abortion—and potentially all abortions—through enforcement of the Comstock Act, an 1873 anti-obscenity law that prohibits mailing anything “intended for producing abortion.”3,4 The law could be used to prevent the distribution of medication and supplies needed for abortion care and if applied broadly, it could result in a nationwide total abortion ban. Guttmacher also highlights Broader Attacks on Abortion Access, Denying Access to Abortion Care in Emergency Situations, and Attacks on Contraception. The entire summary is horrifying and infuriating. --ATTACK ON PUBLIC EDUCATION Brookings is on the case: Project 2025’s education agenda proposes a drastic overhaul of federal education policy, from early childhood through higher education. Here’s just a sample of the Project 2025 education-related recommendations: Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Eliminate the Head Start program for young children in poverty Discontinue the Title I program that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children Rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students Undercut federal capacity to enforce civil rights law Reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools Promote universal private school choice Privatize the federal student loan portfolio… Much of Project 2025 is more easily interpretable through the lens of white Christian nationalism than traditional political conservatism. Scholars Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry describe white Christian nationalism as being “about ethno-traditionalism and protecting the freedoms of a very narrowly defined ‘us’.” The Project 2025 chapter on education is loaded with proposals fitting this description. That includes a stunning number of proposals focused on gender identity, with transgender students as a frequent target. Project 2025 seeks to secure rights for certain people (e.g., parents who support a particular vision of parental rights) while removing protections for many others (e.g., LGBTQ+ and racially minoritized children). Case in point, its proposal for “Safeguarding civil rights” says only, “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.” --ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES The ACLU is on the case: In addition to noting the attack on abortion rights, the ACLU emphasizes the following: Mass Deportations Targeting immigrant communities through mass deportations and raids, ending birthright citizenship, separating families, and dismantling our nation’s asylum system. Abusing Warrantless Surveillance Exploiting the executive branch’s vast and unprecedented powers to spy on Americans’ lives with warrantless surveillance of our data. Unleashing Undue Force on Protestors Violating the First Amendment by using federal law enforcement to target journalists and protestors. Severely Limiting Voting Access Abusing executive power to interfere in our elections by criminalizing the voting process and damaging fair representation. Censoring Critical Discussions in Classrooms Censoring academic discussions about race, gender, and systemic oppression, in violation of the First Amendment, and promising to cut federal funding for schools with curricula that touch on these subjects. Rolling Back Trans Rights Weaponizing federal law to require states and private actors to discriminate against transgender people by threatening to sue schools that protect the rights of trans students or telling hospitals that they would lose their Medicaid funding if they provide gender-affirming medical care to trans adolescents. --ATTACK ON THE SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES Brennan Center for Justice is on the case: Above all else, it espouses a maximalist version of the “unitary executive theory,” the notion that the president personally controls the executive branch and can act free from checks and balances. It’s a fancy version of what Trump told civics students in 2019: “I have an Article II [of the Constitution], where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” This agenda, which would undermine the independence of executive branch agencies, would reverse decades of efforts to depoliticize law enforcement, fiscal policy, and science. Take the FBI. After abuses by J. Edgar Hoover, federal law gave the bureau’s director a 10-year term, thus extending the job across presidential terms and minimizing political involvement. Project 2025 would give the president the power to hire an FBI director loyal only to him. It would upend the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and many other critical agencies. It would impose political and ideological control over questions like who should be prosecuted, what medicines are safe, and whether friends of the president should be given a pass on insider trading. The Project 2025 book sets out in detail the plan to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with loyalists. Trump tried to implement a similar scheme, known as Schedule F, near the end of his term but ran out of time. Now, the Heritage Foundation writes, “Empowering political appointees across the Administration is crucial to a President’s success.” This may sound bland, but it is a truly radical proposal. No president has ever sought anything like this power. It is inherently corrupt. --ATTACK ON WORKERS’ RIGHTS From The Guardian: Project 2025 contains several recommendations that would, when taken together, cut the pay of millions of workers, especially by making overtime pay available to fewer workers, even though many Americans rely on overtime pay to make ends meet. This so-called “Presidential Transition Project” shows outright hostility toward government employee unions – whether police unions, firefighters’ unions or teachers’ unions – saying that Congress should consider abolishing all public sector unions. Project 2025 would further undermine unions by recommending a ban on the use of card check, one of labor’s most effective tools to organize workers. Once a union gets a majority of employees at a workplace to sign pro-union cards, unions often point to this majority support to persuade employers to grant union recognition and bargain… The 37-page labor chapter contains recommendation after recommendation designed to make corporations and rightwing ideologues happy. With many employers complaining that today’s low jobless rate makes it hard to find enough workers, Project 2025 recommends making it easier for 16- and 17-year-olds to work in dangerous jobs – jobs that federal law currently makes off-limits to workers under the age of 18… Project 2025 would shrink many workers’ paychecks by calling for a law that limits when they receive overtime pay – to only when they work more than 80 hours over a two-week period, instead of the current system of working more than 40 hours in one week. That means if an employee works 55 hours one week and 25 the next, that worker won’t qualify for overtime pay, despite working 55 hours one week. The writers of Project 2025 intend to control EVERY AREA OF PRIVATE LIFE: --They intend to outlaw 100% of all abortions, even for 10 year-old children who have been raped, even for women who will die of sepsis without one. --They want a national pregnancy registry to keep track of pregnant women and make sure these women stay pregnant, even against the will of those being tracked. --They want miscarriages investigated on the grounds that they might be illicit abortions. --Many of them are urging the death penalty for women who get an abortion. --They want to restrict the travel of pregnant women, in case these women are trying to flee to a place where they can terminate an unwanted pregnancy. --They want to force teenaged girls to submit their menstrual information to local officials. --They want to keep child marriage legal so middle aged MAGA men can have sex with children. --They intend to outlaw ALL forms of birth control, starting with oral contraceptives. --They intend to outlaw and invalidate all gay marriages. --They intend to force women to stay in abusive relationships by outlawing No Fault divorce. --They intend to allow states to IMPRISON LGBTQ people for their “crimes against nature”. --They intend to destroy all effective sex education and replace it with “abstinence-only” idiocy. --They intend to ban any books they find “sexually indecent”. --They intend to take over the Internet to ban anything they consider “pornographic”. --They want to ban In Vitro Fertilization. --They even think they are entitled to dictate what women wear in public. --And they want to destroy “recreational sex”. It’s kind of startling when you see it all laid out like this, isn’t it? PROJECT 2025 WOULD BE THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. Here is a quick summary that you can circulate on social media: When people learn something about this, they’re appalled. Project 2025 is MASSIVELY UNPOPULAR. Check out the polling: Project 2025 remains deeply unpopular . A majority of Americans oppose Project 2025 (52 percent oppose – 13 percent support), including three in four Democrats (net -69; 76 percent oppose – 7 percent support), two in five independents (net -30; 40 percent oppose – 10 percent support), and three in ten Republicans (net -8; 29 percent oppose – 21 percent support). While Republicans who identify with the MAGA movement narrowly support Project 2025 (net +6; 30 percent support – 24 percent support), it is underwater by 25 points among non-MAGA Republicans, of which only one in ten support it (10 percent support – 35 percent support). Project 2025 is also widely opposed across racial groups, including at least half of Black Americans (net -43; 56 percent oppose – 13 percent support), white Americans (net -38; 51 percent oppose – 13 percent support), Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (net -37; 13 percent support – 50 percent oppose), and Hispanic Americans (net -35; 52 percent oppose – 17 percent support) saying they oppose it. These numbers, published just last Friday, indicate that a lot of Americans don’t yet know about this hideous plan, but when they see it, THEY DON’T LIKE IT. (Our task here is very clear.) From the same source: Now, check this out and put 2 + 2 together. People HATE Project 2025 when they learn of it, and they connect it Trump. But we must educate the voters who haven’t heard of it: The Orange Shitgibbon’s advisors have warned him about this, and his response was unsurprising: Trump disavows Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, despite MAGA ties My response? What Are Donald Trump’s Connections to Project 2025? Project 2025 was published by The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank with direct ties to former President Trump’s administration. Though Trump has falsely claimed he is not connected to Project 2025, a recent report from CNN found at least 140 people who worked on Project 2025 previously worked in the Trump administration. The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts also previously worked on President Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has described his organization’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism.” Roberts was also one of the principle advocates for overturning the 2020 election to keep Donald Trump in office after he lost the election. Heritage Foundation executive Mike Howell recently called the 2024 election illegitimate before voting even began, claiming without evidence that any result other than a Trump victory will have been the result of fraud. Russell Vought: The left-wing Centre for Climate Reporting published secret footage Thursday of two people posing as donors and speaking with Vought—a former Trump administration staffer who runs a right-wing group and authored a chapter of Project 2025—who said he’s “not worried” about Trump distancing himself from Project 2025, claiming the ex-president “blessed” the project and “is very supportive of what we do.” Kevin Roberts: Trump flew on a private jet with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in 2022, the Washington Post , before speaking at a Heritage Foundation event, and he also praised Roberts in a February speech as “doing an unbelievable job.” Trump flew on a private jet with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in 2022, the Washington Post reported , before speaking at a Heritage Foundation event, and he also praised Roberts in a February speech as “doing an unbelievable job.” Public Comments: Trump publicly cheered the Heritage Foundation’s policy work in the past, saying in 2022—before Project 2025’s agenda was released—that the organization was “going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate.” Project 2025 Briefing: Roberts told the Post in April he had briefed Trump on Project 2025, saying he “personally [has] talked to President Trump about Project 2025 … because my role in the project has been to make sure that all of the candidates who have responded to our offer for a briefing on Project 2025 get one from me.” CBS News' data team extracted more than 700 specific policy proposals from Project 2025's 922-page policy guide and compared each one to policies enacted during Trump's first term as well as his campaign platform, rally speeches and interviews. From shuttering the Department of Education to excising every mention of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from federal agencies' projects and programs, the Project 2025 agenda often matches Trump's recorded words and his Administration's deeds. Within Project 2025, CBS News identified: At least 80 proposals that would revive executive orders and other policies of Trump's own administration from 2017 to 2020. 170 proposals that match ideas Trump's campaign has published on its campaign website or that he's said in rally speeches and interviews. 21 more proposals that match both Trump's past actions and his campaign promises and statements. x CNN: Donald Trump is trying to distance himself from Project 2025, but Trump’s top aides and allies are the ones who are behind Project 2025, including Ben Carson, Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, Russ Vought, Ed Corrigan, Wesley Denton, Troup Hemenway, Brooke… https://t.co/ah2SN1qjvs pic.twitter.com/c7BX7RbSrJ — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) July 5, 2024 x Project 2025 director: Many are supportive of Trump because they’re excited by what Project 2025 offers. Trump and Project 2025 have significant overlap pic.twitter.com/B2OyKRY2sr — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 3, 2024 I think this motherfucker is threatening us. x Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" https://t.co/ndMJlNlUKH — Media Matters (@mmfa) July 3, 2024 Roberts is a terrifying religious fanatic who has deep ties to the fascist Catholic organization Opus Dei. And Shady Vance has close ties to him. x So, what are the ties between JD Vance and the Opus Dei network that has penetrated Washington, DC over the past few years? A THREAD 🧵 pic.twitter.com/iOYHuYscSv — Gareth Gore (@gareth_gore) October 3, 2024 x Trump knows everything about Project 2025. pic.twitter.com/7vczF7bTEE — Aes🇺🇸 (@AesPolitics1) August 29, 2024 Vance has deep ties to the Heritage Foundation, and in particular to Kevin Roberts, who has been president of the right-wing think tank since 2021 and is the architect of Project 2025. Vance has praised Roberts for helping to turn the organization “into the de facto institutional home of Trumpism” and has endorsed elements of Project 2025. Vance is also the author of the foreword to Roberts’s upcoming book, Dawn’s Early Light, which The New Republic has obtained in full even though the book’s publisher, HarperCollins’s Broadside Books, has apparently tried to suppress it amid the scrutiny of Project 2025 and Vance’s ties to Roberts. The subtitle and cover of Roberts’s book were softened as scrutiny of the Trump campaign’s ties to Project 2025 grew. The book, which is scheduled to be published on September 24, was originally announced with the subtitle “Burning Down Washington to Save America” and featured a match on the center of its cover. The subtitle is now “Taking Back Washington to Save America,” and the match is nowhere to be seen. Promotional language invoking conservatives on the “warpath” to “burn down … institutions” like the FBI, the Department of Justice, and universities has also been removed or toned down, though it is still present in some sales pages. x Unearthed video: JD Vance thanks Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation for their “incredible work” of creating a plan for Trump to implement in a second term pic.twitter.com/tEsdUxrUYS — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 28, 2024 x Top Trump advocate touts Trump’s Project 2025, calls to give Trump total power: We have to end checks and balances. We have to put the president entirely in charge of government pic.twitter.com/2qRUHwKaPH — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) April 25, 2024 A key author of Project 2025 was caught in a secret recording bragging about how close he is to Donald Trump and admitting his love of “Christian nation-ism.” Russell Vought, who is reportedly in line for chief of staff in a second Trump administration, said that his group, the Center for Renewing America, is leading the charge drafting executive orders and policy memos to help Trump immediately take action upon entering the Oval Office. He was caught on camera by two undercover British journalists from the nonprofit Centre for Climate Reporting, which published the secret recording on Thursday. Vought revealed his group plans to create “shadow” agencies to implement its draconian vision to solidify the “Judeo-Christian worldview value system.” “We’ve been too focused on religious liberty, which we all support, but we’ve lacked the ability to argue we are a Christian nation,” said Vought. “I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation,” he said. “And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.” My response to all these proposals? You want to win? TIE TRUMP TO PROJECT 2025 HERE IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS—AND WATCH THE WHOLE FUCKING RIGHT-WING SHITSHOW GO DOWN TO DEFEAT. 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