Prepare For The Storm
Breaking Through the Noise: A Rapid-Fire Rundown on the Latest Attacks on Civil Rights, Government Failures, and Economic Realities.
Prepare For The Storm is a random frequency newsletter with news roundups for a community of thinkers, doers, and realists preparing for what’s next.
The Erasure of LGBTQIA+ People is in Full Swing
The erasure of Transgender community members is in full force with a notable attack on the Stonewall National Monument website.
Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY
"The National Park Service has removed mentions of "transgender" from its website for the Stonewall National Monument in New York, a small park dedicated to an LGBTQ+ uprising that helped advance civil rights for the community."
Meanwhile, Rep. Trevor Lee of the State of Utah seeks to ban Pride flags and instead, allow Nazi and Confederate flags to fly for historical purposes. The bill, HR 77 has been amended and is a developing situation.
Addy Baird
"Asked Friday morning about the amended bill, Lee commented only on the headline of the previous story on his bill. “Redact your ridiculous headline,” he wrote in a text message, before adding that The Tribune should “apologize for sowing divide and spreading hate to the general public.”
"Lee has touted on the social media platform X that his bill aims to specifically ban pride flags in schools. The House Education Committee passed the version of the bill including government buildings Thursday."
Let's jam up Lee's phone lines and voice our displeasure.
From The "Musk is a Tool" Files
404 media reports that the new DOGE.gov site is a security nightmare. Their database wasn't locked down and can be hacked easily.
Jason Koebler
"Doge.gov was hastily deployed after Elon Musk told reporters Tuesday that his Department of Government Efficiency is “trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions—we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X, and to the DOGE website.” At the time, DOGE was an essentially blank webpage. It was built out further Wednesday and Thursday, and now shows a mirror of the @DOGE X account posts, as well as various stats about the U.S. government’s federal workforce."
This man has your social security number and other personal information. You should be outraged. Call your State AG and have them join the growing lawsuit against DOGE and Elon Musk.
Stop The Money Flow
It's no secret that many blue states pay more into the Treasury than they get back from the Federal Government. Those states are called donor states, while many red states are recipient states - they get more from the Federal Government than they pay into. I say let's stop the money flow and have blue states pay themselves first.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques
However, blue states would do well to remember that it is they who are picking up the bill for red states. Before Republicans start criticizing Democrats about their dependence on federal dollars, a quick review of the facts may be warranted. For instance, while federal dollars to New York represented 38% of its state budget in 2022, Texas received the same proportion, and Florida received even more (40%). Similarly, much attention from the GOP is given to Medicaid funding in blue states such as Illinois, but they conveniently ignore the fact that Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and West Virginia, among other red states, see a greater share of the cost of their traditional Medicaid programs covered by the federal government.
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