Saturday, June 15, 2024

Via Robert Reich // Trump’s plan to dismantle democracy… and our plan to stop it

 

Inequality Media Civic Action

Dear Daniel,

Have you heard about Project 2025? If not, you might want to sit down before reading the rest of this email — because frankly, it’s terrifying.

Project 2025 is a nearly 1000-page step-by-step playbook for Donald Trump’s second term that would literally turn America into an authoritarian MAGA police state and shred our most cherished freedoms.

But most Americans haven’t heard a word about it, because the mainstream media has almost totally ignored it. So we need to get the word out. Fast.

Inequality Media Civic Action is launching a major public education push through viral posts and videos on social media to alert the American people about Project 2025 and the dangers of a second Trump term.

Will you donate $5 a month to help get the truth out and warn the American people about Project 2025?

Yes, Robert! I'll start a monthly donation to help Inequality Media alert the American people about Project 2025 and the dangers of a second Trump term.

No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in monthly.

At nearly a thousand pages, Project 2025 is longer than most Stephen King novels, and a lot scarier. The Associated Press called it “a plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision” — and if anything, they’re understating the threat.

Think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. In fact, you can go ahead and read it yourself, because the whole thing is posted on the internet.

Under Project 2025, a second Trump term would begin by purging nonpartisan civil service workers like EPA scientists and IRS accountants and replacing them with unqualified Trump toadies. These are the rank-and-file government employees who prevented some of Trump’s greatest excesses last time around, like having the military shoot protesters or seizing voting machines to overturn the election. Next time, they’ll all be gone.

Project 2025 then aims to strip Americans of our most basic freedoms by banning abortion nationwide, rolling back LGBTQ rights, banning books, and quashing free speech.

And then to enforce these attacks on our rights even in blue states, Project 2025 lays out a plan to turn America into a MAGA police state by using the Justice Department to prosecute district attorneys Trump disagrees with, invoking the Insurrection Act to shut down protests, and mobilizing red state national guard units against blue states that resist his authoritarian agenda.

There’s so much more in Project 2025 that I can’t begin to cover it all. Drastic rollbacks of environmental and workplace protections. The mass deportation of 20 million immigrants. The shredding of the separation of church and state.

But because the mainstream media is almost totally ignoring Project 2025, Inequality Media Civic Action is preparing to launch viral videos across every major social media platform to sound the alarm. And to make sure we have the resources we need to get the word out, I’m asking you today: Will you donate $5 a month to help us launch and scale up this program?

Click here to start your monthly donation and support our efforts to warn the American people about Project 2025 and the dangers of a second Trump term.

Or, if you can't chip in monthly, click here.

Thank you for joining with us,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

Copyright © 2023 Inequality Media Civic Action, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
P.O. Box 9323
Berkeley, CA 94709

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Heart Sutra- 般若心経 -Buddhist Mantra to remove all obstacles- Tinna Tinh

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 


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RIGHT EFFORT
Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of ill will. (MN 141)
Reflection
We all have the capacity for unhealthy states. This capacity was eliminated by the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, his awakening being largely defined as dismantling the mechanism by which such states as anger, jealousy, hatred, and cruelty arise. Pulled up by the roots, they can no longer occur. But for the rest of us, the issue is more about managing these states than vanquishing them, and this requires restraint.

Daily Practice
Restraining the arising of unhealthy mental and emotional states that lie dormant in the unconscious mind but have not had occasion to erupt into consciousness is an  important practice. We learn to position ourselves and hold ourselves in ways that do not encourage these states to arise. If you do not ruminate about people treating you badly, for example, you will not be likely to feel ill will or hatred toward them.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna
One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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Via Daily Dharma: Survey the Landscape of Your Body

 

Support Tricycle with a donation »
Survey the Landscape of Your Body

As you survey the landscape of your body from within, see if you can find a place to rest your awareness—a place that feels neutral or pleasant. 

Kate Johnson, “Making Friends with Yourself”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE


The Four Noble Truths: Living Life with Purpose
With Lama Aria Drolma
A brand new Dharma Talk is available now! Join ordained Buddhist nun Lama Aria Drolma to discuss the core foundation of Buddhism, offering profound insights into the very nature of human existence.
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Via White Crane Institute // 2020 - The Supreme Court ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment

 

Noteworthy
2020 -

The Supreme Court ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court. The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.

The cases were the court’s first on LGBT rights since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and replacement by Kavanaugh. Kennedy was a voice for gay rights and the author of the landmark ruling in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States. Kavanaugh generally is regarded as more conservative.

The Trump administration had changed course from the Obama administration, which supported LGBT workers in their discrimination claims under Title VII. During the Obama years, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had changed its longstanding interpretation of civil rights law to include discrimination against LGBT people. The law prohibits discrimination because of sex, but had no specific protection for sexual orientation or gender identity.

In recent years, some lower courts have held that discrimination against LGBT people is a subset of sex discrimination, and thus prohibited by the federal law. Efforts by Congress to change the law had failed.

The Supreme Court cases involved two gay men and a transgender woman who sued for employment discrimination after they lost their jobs. And while these precedents may make us feel warm and fuzzy all over, they are certainly in the gunsights of the current SCOTUS bench. 


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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

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