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What Matters

Tune out the idiots. Call out the charlatans.
This is a CHARLATAN because it steers federal funds to ideological narratives in place of honest, evidence-based civics and history. Instead of debating standards in public and passing laws, it rewards compliance and punishes dissent—an attack on academic freedom, free expression, and the rule of law.

📚 ‘Patriotic Education’ Grants Try to Standardize Viewpoint & Whitewash History

September 19, 2025

The Education Department just created a new supplemental priority to shift discretionary funds toward “patriotic education,” aligning with a conservative civics coalition and signaling federal rewards for ideologically compliant curricula. That’s a direct shot at academic freedom and honest history—literally using government money to rewrite history.

👉 Read the Chilling DOE Press Release

What You Can Do: ✍️ Submit a quick public comment at Regulations.gov opposing the “Patriotic Education” grant priority (search that exact title), and 📬 email/call your local school board + state reps to reject any grant that ties funding to ideology—ask for evidence-based civics (e.g., the C3 Framework).

♻️ Trump DoJ Moves to Kill Vermont’s Climate Superfund Law

September 19, 2025

The Justice Department asked a federal court to nullify Vermont’s 2024 Climate Superfund Act, which makes major polluters pay for climate damages. This is an aggressive attempt to shield fossil fuel giants and preempt state accountability, and it’s an attack on climate protection and the rule of law.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 📣 Share case updates with friends and family and call out any effort to preempt states’ rights to recover climate damages.

🗽Poll: American Jews Say Trump’s Campus “Antisemitism” Drive Is a Pretext to Muzzle Dissent

September 18, 2025

A new survey finds roughly three-quarters of American Jews believe the Trump administration is using antisemitism as an excuse to silence free speech on campus. Even though nearly half of the respondents have faced some form of antisemitism in the past two years and a majority are concerned about antisemitism on college campuses, nearly three-quarters believe that Trump’s campus threats and actions are targeting something other than antisemitism.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 💸 Contact your Senators and Representative: oppose viewpoint-based funding threats and demand Title VI enforcement that protects speech and due process.

⚖️ 📢 File Big, Intimidate Bigger: Trump’s $15B NYT Lawsuit

September 16, 2025

Trump’s latest $15 billion suit against The New York Times isn’t about winning in court — it’s about grabbing headlines, intimidating reporters, and preventing future truth-telling. With no federal anti-SLAPP law, these cases can linger long enough to drain resources and leave the false allegation as the lasting record.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 💸 Share the follow-ups when these suits collapse and support journalism under fire. Learn more about SLAPP laws where you live .

🤝 Trump Administration Disallows Medicaid Funding of Planned Parenthood Services

September 12, 2025

A federal appeals court is allowing the government to block Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood, cutting off access to care for more than a million low-income patients. The move punishes providers for offering reproductive health services, even when those services are legally protected and widely relied upon. By weaponizing Medicaid rules to serve an ideological agenda, the administration is playing politics with people’s health.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 💸 Support local clinics and Planned Parenthood — donations now directly cushion the blow of blocked reimbursements.

♻️ Energy Secretary Says Fossil Fuels Safer Than Climate Risk, Pushes Fossil Fuel Sales in Europe

September 11, 2025

Today in Brussels, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright downplayed the dangers of climate change while promoting expanded U.S. oil and gas sales to Europe, claiming hydrocarbons have delivered more human safety and prosperity than any climate harms. Days earlier he blasted global net-zero targets as unrealistic “crazy” ideas. And on Sept. 3 his department disbanded a DOE climate working group of contrarian advisers, a move now wrapped up in ongoing legal wrangling.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Defend evidence standards. Urge local agencies, school boards, and utilities to keep science-based climate metrics in curricula, procurement, and resilience plans.

🗽UK Criminalizes Solidarity: Nearly 900 Arrested for “Palestine Action” Signs

September 10, 2025

After the UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group in July, London police arrested 890 people at a rally where many were detained simply for holding “I support Palestine Action” signs. Rights groups called the mass arrests a new low for protest rights, as detainees reportedly included older Britons—vicars, priests, war veterans, and descendants of Holocaust survivors. Critics warn the crackdown weaponizes anti-terror laws to chill lawful dissent and assembly.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Tragedies like the murder of Charlie Kirk can trigger hurried, overbroad restrictions—watch for proposals in the U.S. that criminalize support, signage, or association rather than actual violence.

⚖️ Texas School Tries to Gut Title IX – Judge Says Not So Fast

Stephen F Austin Title IX

August 4, 2025

Stephen F. Austin State University cut multiple women’s sports teams — despite female students making up a majority of enrollment. A federal judge ruled the move violated Title IX and ordered the teams reinstated. Now the school is appealing, and the outcome could weaken protections for women in sports nationwide.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 🔁 Call SFA’s president at (936) 468-2201 and urge the school to drop its appeal. Then share this story with the Title IX athletes and supporters in your life — the stakes go far beyond one campus.

🗳️ Update: Abbott Pushes Forward to Redraw Texas Voting Districts, Threatens to Arrest Dems Stalling Vote

Governor Abbott Redistricting Texas, a True Charlatan

August 4, 2025

The Texas redistricting vote has stalled after Democratic lawmakers left the state to deny Republicans a quorum. In response, Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to have them arrested and forcibly returned. Meanwhile, the redistricting plan — which could shift five congressional seats in Republicans’ favor — remains a flashpoint in the battle over voting rights and political power in the state, and the nation.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Support groups fighting gerrymandering, like Common Cause Texas or the Brennan Center. Share the story with friends outside Texas — gerrymandering anywhere is a threat to democracy.

📚 Trump Fires Truth-Teller: Labor Stats Chief Ousted for Reporting Bad News

distrustful information

August 1, 2025

In an authoritarian swipe at independent government data, Donald Trump has fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after a July jobs report contradicted his claims of economic strength. McEntarfer — a respected, Senate-confirmed expert — was accused without evidence of “rigging” the numbers. The real issue? The data told the truth, and Trump didn’t like it. If he’s willing to purge a statistician for inconvenient facts, can we trust anything the federal government tells us?

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 🔁 Contact the Senate HELP Committee (which oversees labor issues) at 202-224-5375 — Urge hearings and public statements defending civil servants against political retaliation. Also, join one of Saturday’s Rage Against the Regime Protests near you!

🌎 Pentagon Pulls Out of Aspen Security Forum, Citing “the Evil of Globalism”

July 29, 2025

The Pentagon abruptly withdrew its senior officials from the Aspen Security Forum, explicitly branding the event as promoting “the evil of globalism” and being out of alignment with the Trump administration’s values. (The U.S. has deeply engaged in this forum since its inception in 2010.) This retreat from public forums signals a broader ideological shift: sidelining platforms that prioritize international cooperation and nuanced policy debate, and reinforcing a closed, administration‑aligned worldview.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 🔁 Share this post and the Politico article to highlight how ideological posturing may harm U.S. soft power and undermine engagements with allies and experts.

🌎 Ex-Marine Who Killed 3 in Madrid Freed by Trump in Prisoner Swap

July 23, 2025

Dahud Hanid Ortiz—a former U.S. Marine and convicted triple murderer of three people in Madrid in 2016—was included in last week’s prisoner swap between the Trump administration, Venezuela, and El Salvador. Despite being sentenced in Venezuela to 30 years, he was released alongside nine other American “political prisoners.” Spain’s victims’ families are outraged, calling it a “grave miscarriage of justice” and warning that Ortiz is a “real danger to society.”

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Stand with Spain’s justice system and the victims’ families—urge both U.S. and Spanish officials to press for accountability. Demand transparency from the U.S. government: Was Ortiz detained upon return?

📢 Congress Votes to Defund NPR and PBS — Cuts Approved July 18

July 18, 2025

Last night, the Senate passed a bill rescinding $1.1 billion in federal funding for NPR and PBS — funds essential to local and national news, children’s programming, and civic education. Critics say it’s biased media, but rural stations warn it’s their lifeline—and they’ll struggle to survive without it. The Senate vote is set for July 18.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Become a sustaining member of NPR/PBS Visit NPR.org or PBS.org to start ongoing donations that offset federal losses. 🌐Share this post to alert friends and family—public media depends on every voice.

📚 Federal Gov. Slashes DOE Jobs & School Funding, Then Tells States: “You’re On Your Own”

states begging federal government for funding

July 15, 2025

The Trump administration says it’s “returning education to the states,” but is doing so by gutting federal funding—especially programs aimed at helping the poorest students, English learners, and special education needs. Districts across the country are now facing massive staffing cuts, especially in the communities least able to fill the gap.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: 📞Call your state’s Department of Education and demand they release a district-by-district impact report — and tell your governor and state reps to fight back against federal overreach that hurts the kids who need support most.

🗽 Free Speech on Trial — Literally — in Massachusetts Court

July 7, 2025

A historic bench trial begins today in Boston, where a coalition of universities is suing the Trump administration for punishing them over peaceful, pro-Palestinian campus protests. The federal government has pulled funding, blocked student aid, and labeled dissent as extremism — all in violation of First Amendment rights.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Support organizations fighting for civil liberties on campus, like the ACLU and PEN America. And write to university leaders — thank those standing up, and push those who aren’t to speak out.

🤝 U.S. Steps Back from Defending LGBTQ Rights at the U.N.

photo of people on the street

July 7, 2025

In a reversal that stunned human rights advocates, the U.S. declined to support the U.N.’s renewal of a watchdog tasked with investigating LGBTQ+ discrimination worldwide. Though the mandate passed, America’s absence sends a chilling signal: under Trump, the U.S. is stepping away from its long-held role as a defender of human dignity.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Contact your representatives and demand that the U.S. recommit to LGBTQ rights on the global stage. Remind elected officials that global leadership means defending human rights, not retreating from them.

♻️ New Spending Bill Slashes Clean-Energy Funding

July 3, 2025

This Ugly Un-American bill is a giant U-Turn when it comes to key climate incentives for solar, wind, and hydro- conversion, which motivated consumers to seek cleaner energy sources and required companies to move away from fossil fuels. This bill will cost Americans tens of thousands of jobs and likely cause irreparable harm to our planet.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Donate to or volunteer with grassroots climate orgs like Sunrise Movement, Evergreen Action, and Climate Cabinet.

♻️ Trump’s Undoing of Eco-Legislation Fulfills Carbon Brief’s Worst-Case Warning

gray scale photo of metal fence

June 30, 2025

In early 2024, the UK-based climate analysis nonprofit Carbon Brief warned that if the rollback-heavy environmental agenda Trump campaigned on became reality, U.S. emissions could soar by billions of tons—undoing decades of climate progress and pushing global temperatures higher than ever projected. Today, that warning reads like prophecy. Many key clean-energy programs have already been dismantled. And if the Senate passes Trump’s latest spending bill, the final chapter of Carbon Brief’s climate horror story will be nearly complete.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Tell USAID and your reps that the U.S. must lead with compassion, not fear. Stand up for global responsibility.

🌐 America, the Island: Global Aid Slashed to Fund Domestic Deportation

June 24, 2025

This is no budget tweak. The administration is gutting foreign aid—then redirecting the funds to deportation flights and immigration crackdowns. Money once used for food, medicine, and disaster relief around the world is now bankrolling “voluntary exits.” This isn’t putting America first. It’s abandoning the rest of the world.

👉 Read the full story

What You Can Do: Tell USAID and your reps that the U.S. must lead with compassion, not fear. Stand up for global responsibility.

♻️ Trump’s Wars at Home & Abroad: Deregulate, Drill, and Deceive

June 23, 2025

What a week for Trump! — rolling back clean air rules, killing EV credits, and stoking foreign oil chaos. All while handing billions to fossil fuel donors. This isn’t energy independence. It’s fossil fuel obedience.

👉 Read the full story

🤝 Navy to Rename Ships That Honor Veterans, Black, Gay, and Female American Heroes

Navy ship maneuver

June 4, 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaked plans to rename a U.S. Naval ship named for prominent San Francisco gay activist and Navy veteran Harvey Milk, who was assassinated at City Hall in 1978. Hegseth’s plans also include removing the names of Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Medgar Evers, Cesar Chavez, and others from ships already named after these heroes.

👉 Read the full story

This is an IDIOT because renaming the Pentagon the “Department of War” is an unserious gimmick that changes nothing about U.S. defense policy while burning public attention on branding and signage. It’s a distraction dressed up as toughness, ignoring real security challenges in favor of political theater.

America’s Got a New “War Department” — Just for Show IGNORE THIS!

September 8, 2025

President Trump has issued an executive order rebranding the Department of Defense as the “Department of War,” giving it that title as a secondary name while keeping “Defense” legally intact. The move appears largely symbolic, designed to project toughness and evoke wartime imagery, rather than change actual policy or military structure. Critics say this name-game distracts from pressing issues — modernization, strategy, budget — and wastes time and money on signage and semantics.

👉 Read the full story

Moonshot Madness: Duffy’s Lunar Nuclear Dream Ignores Republican-Led Collapse of U.S. Science IGNORE THIS!

August 5, 2025

While America guts science standards, slashes education budgets, and shuts out global engineering talent, federal officials like Sean Duffy are proposing a nuclear reactor on the moon…yep, you read that right! Just more fantasy policy from a party that can’t even staff domestic labs — but wants to claim space. And wants to distract from what truly matters!

👉 Read the full story

Distraction Action: Administration Making Idiot Headlines to Shift Focus from Epstein IGNORE THIS!

July 21, 2025

While the Epstein firestorm burns bright over MAGA-world and D.C.: Trump demanded two pro sports teams revert to their (racist) former mascots. The Army reversed renaming of bases that had just recently shed their Confederate ties. And a new Republican-led inquiry into President Biden’s mental competency has been launched. All frustrating and awful, yes…but not when Rome is burning. We can’t let these distract us from the erosion of the 8 Nonnegotiables! (And for that matter, Epstein too…unless Trump is on that list, the whole Epstein saga is an IDIOT too!)

Idiot Alert: MTG Thinks the Government Controls the Weather IGNORE THIS!

AI generated MTG as idiot scientist weather forecaster

July 11, 2025

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene just introduced a bill to criminalize “weather modification” — blaming wildfires and floods on what she claims are deliberate manipulations of the skies. Scientists say it’s total fiction. But that doesn’t stop this kind of nonsense from dominating headlines and distracting from real threats — like climate change, limits on free speech and press, and basic science literacy.

👉 Read the full story

Turbulence in the Headlines — Not in the Sky IGNORE THIS!

safe plane travel

July 10, 2025

Panic over near misses and emergency landings is fueling air travel anxiety, but the reality doesn’t match the noise. U.S. airline safety remains as strong as ever — with fatalities and serious incidents at historic lows. Unless you’re an air traffic controller, you can ignore the hype and keep your focus on what truly matters.

👉 Read the full story

Trump Demands Nobel Peace Prize— For Being Trump IGNORE THIS!

June 26, 2025

At a recent rally, Trump complained that he’s never received the Nobel Peace Prize — despite “many, many nominations.” He then scoffed that it was a “media conspiracy” to hide his greatness. Never mind that his nominations came from far-right European nationalists and U.S. MAGA lawmakers. The Narcissist in Chief should be ignored…again!

👉 Read the full story

Texas Mandates Ten Commandments in Classrooms IGNORE THIS!

Ten Commandments Classroom

June 23, 2025

Starting this fall, every public school classroom in Texas must display a framed copy of the Ten Commandments—specifically the Capitol-monument version. Lawmakers claim it promotes “moral clarity,” but critics see it as religious pandering wrapped in a culture war stunt. Why ignore it? Even Texas courts are highly likely to overturn this, but it does highlight a bevy of misguided education efforts ongoing in the state for 2+ decades.

👉 Read the full story

Trump Again Pushes False Claim of SA Genocide, This Time to President Ramphosa IGNORE THIS!

South Africa President Ramphosa Trump

May 28, 2025

It’s not clear whether Trump actually believes a “white genocide” is taking place in South Africa, or if he’s trying to mislead Americans for some ulterior reason (or if he doesn’t know the definition of “genocide”!). Either way, he’s only embarrassing himself and the country he represents.

👉 Read the full story

Qatar’s Gifting a Luxury 747 to Trump, and You Shouldn’t Care Less! IGNORE THIS!

Boeing 747

May 25, 2025

Nothing should surprise us less than the Grifter president accepting a $400M gift from a foreign government that undoubtedly wants to curry favor from the US government. The infighting it’s causing in the world of Trump sycophants is amusing, though, as even FoxNews acknowledges.

👉 Read the full story

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