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New Yorker magazine just included an eleven-page
story by Jonathan Blitzer in its July 22 issue that explains how ‘Project 2025’
is being used to recruit and indoctrinate future government employees, should
the Republicans ever regain power.
Entitled ‘Inside the Trump Plan for 2025,’ the article is more frightening
than any earlier expose of conservative scheming that I have ever seen before. Even candidate Trump seems to be trying to
distance himself from ‘Project 2025’ but too much of it appears in the
Republican platform for him to get away with that flimsy evasion.
The New Yorker article on ‘Platform 2025’ should
take about an hour to read and leave you worried, very worried. I recommend that you read the article, but suspecting
that you might not, first, let me give you TWO HANDLES onto the threat its subject matter
describes.
THE FIRST HANDLE is an
awareness of the existence of an organization called the Conservative
Partnership Institute (CPI), which many in Washington regard as the next
Trump administration in waiting, according to the article. It unites many of
the about two dozen right-wing organizations (such as the Center for Renewing
America) that sprang up after Trump’s 2020 defeat. It is extremely well funded
and has acquired numerous properties in and around Washington to serve the
multitude of conservative organizations at work in that city, providing office
space and meeting venues, and in effect tying them into one physical network,
conceivably more effectively than the Republican National Committee could ever
do. But it does more.
It appears that the CPI’s purpose is to recruit
top trainees and school them in conservative principles for placement in the
conservative organizations belonging to its ‘partnership’ and ultimately to be placed
in staff positions in the administration and on congressional staffs. Of course, the 920
page ‘Project 2025’ is a great partof the training they receive.
THE SECOND HANDLE is a partial listing of names of just some of those associated with the Heritage Foundation, the Conservative Partnership Institute, and groups related to them, sourced from the New Yorker article. There are interlocking relationships whereby those heading up one group affiliated with the CPI serve on the Boards of others. Even their financing can be manipulated by law firms associated with it whereby donations to one group end up paying the expenses of another. Some of these names you might recognize. All of them you should fear as being threats to American democracy, along with the members of the House of Representatives’ ‘Freedom Caucus’ who work closely with the CPI, actually using their facilities for meetings occasionally, when what they discuss might be inappropriate to be voiced in a 'public' government building!
These are the names: Mark Meadows, Russell Vought, Steven Miller, Jeffrey Clark, Betsy DeVos (all part of Trump’s last administration), former Senator Jim DeMint (Heritage), Kevin Roberts (CPI), Senators Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Tom Cotton; Leonard Leo (Federalist Society), Rick Perry, Rachel Bovard, Cleta Mitchell, John Eastman, Gene Hamilton, Kash Patel, and Saurabh Sharma.
Criticism of ‘Project 2025’ is rampant, but all too often such criticism is just a generalization, failing to get down to its specifics. To get some idea of the dangerous anti-democratic, fascist ideas it contains, you might take the DNC's advice at the top of this posting and 'google it.'
I've already done that and found a couple of very readable summaries of its content, one of which you can find at https://19thnews.org/2024/07/project-2025-women-education-lgbtq-workforce/ or by CLICKING HERE. (That source also includes links to the entire 920 page document itself.)
Another excellent source is a CBS piece on 'Project 2025,' which you can find by copying and pasting https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-project-2025-trump-conservative-blueprint-heritage-foundation/ on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE. Both articles include many more names than those listed in the 'Second Handle' appearing just above in this posting of which you should be aware.
'Project 2025' is an anti-democratic, fascist threat to democracy in the United States. If you believe in the preservation of representative democracy in the United States, please vote against any and all candidates of the Republican Party, whose platform incorporates many of the ideas of 'Project 2025.' But first, visit one of the links provided in the preceding two paragraphs (or do your own investigating) so that your decision might be based on fact and not just upon mere emotion.
JL
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Other Political Thoughts
Back in 2020, Kamala Harris opened her quest for
the Democratic presidential nomination with a terrific speech at a rally in
Oakland, moving her to the top tier of potential candidates. But immediately thereafter, her intensity
quickly faltered, and she fell to the rear of the pack, with Joe Biden
eventually winning the nomination. Let’s
hope that the vice-president’s super enthusiasm, manifested daily since
President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, continues at its present
level.
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And speaking of vice-presidents, it’s a myth that G.O.P.
vice-presidential candidate, Ohio Senator, and author JD Vance, as well as my prediction of
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear becoming the Democratic choice for that
position, are from rural ‘Appalachia.’ Vance is from Middletown,
now a northern suburb of Cincinnati, which sits on the Ohio River across from
Kentucky. Beshear is from Louisville,
which sits about a hundred miles further down the river on the Kentucky side. The current population of the Cincinnati metropolitan
area is about two million and that of the Louisville metropolitan area is well
over one million. Neither are small
towns representative of rural Appalachia, in fact, both are the homes of
well-known universities, and boast fine symphony orchestras.
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Yale Professor Timothy Snyder in his July 24 posting
raises the question of whether JD Vance, now that Republicans recognize that more
than just MAGA loyalists are needed for their ticket to compete with Kamala Harris,
may be ‘sacrificed’ by Trump and the Party’s big money backers (such as Elon
Musk and Peter Thiel) who possibly got Vance his nomination in the first place,
as follows:
‘Vance must now imagine a world, about three
months from now, in which Trump instructs his followers that Vance is to
blame. Trump has driven Republicans
out of the party by stochastic
violence. He was ready to sacrifice the life of his last
vice-president. If Vance leaves now, he will feel the heat for a moment,
but can go back to his prior life. The longer Vance waits to leave the
Trump ticket, the greater the risk of a scenario involving a stake.’
I would hope he refers to a 'figurative' stake. I had alluded to
the possibility of betrayal within the Republican ticket two postings ago in
Jackspotpourri in my ‘Wealth and Power’ comments, at the close of which Brutus
joined in stabbing Julius Caesar. All is
not milk and honey in MAGAland.
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The following letter from a reader (not me) appeared in Thursday’s Palm Beach Post. I heartily agree.
‘After speaking with friends and acquaintances who favor the Republican
Party and their nominee, my conclusion is that they don’t value the role that law plays in our society. A felon running for office flies in
the face of respect for our judicial system, as does repealing law that has
stood for 50 years to guarantee a federal right [Roe v. Wade], as does tossing
a serious case accusing a former president of mishandling sensitive documents.
All issues come and go and can be negotiated but the politicizing the judiciary erodes the pillar of our democracy
that carries out equal justice under the law. We’d better save an impartial
judiciary.’
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People in the
entertainment world usually stay away from
politics, but that isn’t the case in this presidential race. Country music
performers, whose songs’ lyrics often reflect a raw deal
society or romance had dealt them, tend to lean Republican, a party
coincidentally appealing to voters with similar anxieties. But stars like Beyonce and Streisand support
Democrats! When the biggest star of all
in today’s music world, Taylor Swift, comes out for Kamala Harris, as I expect she eventually
will, that will nail down the younger generations’ votes for Democratic
candidates. Right now, she seems to be concentrating on getting them to
register to vote. A smart businesswoman,
there might even be a place for her in a future Democratic administration if
she ever tires of schlepping all over the world to display her talent.
JL
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For those of you who would like a Harris flyer to display in your car’s rear window mounted on a piece of cardboard, as I do, here is one to replace the Biden flyer I designed earlier.
It will have to do until the Democratic Party comes up with one of its own. Try to copy it and print it out or ask me for one. I feel such displays of one's opinions work! Seeing them inspires others to recognize that there are many sharing their political views, and motivate them to work harder to see that those views become a reality on November 5.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore has suddenly ceased. In their place, however, there have appeared large numbers of ‘hits’ on each posting in the hundreds, and as was the case with those from Singapore, but this time from Hong Kong! I suspect that the Chinese are playing around with internet transmissions, possibly to try to identify who is reading them.
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.
If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. This is an election year. Spread the word.
JL
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