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Dear Progressive Reader,
Donald Trump has begun announcing his choices for various cabinet positions and other jobs in a newly restructured federal government. A new President normally has more than ([link removed]) 4,000 positions to fill, with about 1,300 of those requiring confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Trump has already signaled that he hopes to circumvent this confirmation process through “recess appointments” when the Senate is not in session. This tactic may be particularly important ([link removed]) in the nomination of federal judges, who have ([link removed]) lifetime appointments. A large group of Trump-appointed judges may be key to Trump’s ability to push through various policy initiatives since in his first term (2017-2021) a large number of those were blocked by
([link removed]) judges in federal courts.
States are also preparing to respond ([link removed]) to Trump policies during his upcoming term. In Wisconsin, state Attorney General Josh Kaul said ([link removed]) last week, “If the new Administration infringes upon the freedoms of Wisconsinites or attempts to use our system of justice as a tool for vengeance, we will act . . . to uphold equal justice under the law.” Similar statements have been made by officials in Illinois ([link removed]) and Washington State ([link removed]) , and California Governor Gavin Newsom has called
([link removed]) the state legislature into special session to allocate funds for court challenges to Trump’s potential policies and actions.
Other groups and sectors of society are also preparing ([link removed]) to face attacks from a second Trump Administration. The news media, especially independent news organizations that have been critical of Trump are also bracing ([link removed]) for blowback from a President who has promised ([link removed]) “retribution.” As I wrote ([link removed]) in 2017, Trump’s attacks on the press in his first term had international impact as well, giving authoritarian leaders in other countries permission to go after their own “enemies” in the media. Nobel Prize-winning ([link removed]) Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, in her 2022 book How
to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future ([link removed]) , says, “Autocrats are using technology better, spying on journalists and human rights activists with impunity. And they are learning from one another, perfecting the dictator’s playbook.” Trump has threatened changes ([link removed]) to libel laws in order to go after individual journalists and news organizations, and while H.R. 9495 ([link removed]) , a bill that would have allowed Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury to strip nonprofit status from individual independent media organizations has been temporarily stopped ([link removed]) in the U.S. House of Representatives, the concern
([link removed]) remains. Additionally, Project 2025 specifically targets ([link removed]) funding for NPR, PBS, and Pacifica radio by name. As the Columbia Journalism Review notes ([link removed]) this week, “Loosening the federal libel laws that Trump has called a ‘shame and a disgrace’ will require an act of Congress. But, failing that, Trump prevailing in his open defamation cases could prompt other outlets to shy away from publishing harsh criticism.” The Progressive and our peer media organizations are engaged in active conversations on these topics with the determination of protecting what Sherif Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists has called ([link removed]) the “firewall of democracy.”
This week on our website, Chris Edelson looks at ([link removed]) the ways Donald Trump is borrowing from “the dictator’s playbook;” Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies ask the question ([link removed]) of how an incoming Trump Administration will deal with the world’s wars; and Samer Badawi reports on ([link removed]) how the video streaming service Netflix is removing Palestinian content from its platform. Plus, Eleanor Bader reviews ([link removed]) the new book, We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition; and Melania Murphy provides a review ([link removed]) of The Three Melissas: A
Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness. Also, Basav Sen pens an op-ed ([link removed]) on the failures of “carbon capture” as a method to combat climate change; Katy Nightingale tells her own story ([link removed]) of choosing to leave the United States in order to build a new life in another country; and ecologist Amy McEuen opines on the importance of planting seeds, even after a political defeat. “My experience and education,” she writes ([link removed]) , “give me faith in the power of small acts. At this moment, that faith is badly needed.”
Finally, today marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the murder in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests and two women who worked for them. It is a story I have covered extensively ([link removed]) since 1989, and on this day I always remember those events and the quest for justice in El Salvador and around the globe.
Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. - The new 2025 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available. You can order one online and have it mailed to you. Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2025. Just go to indiepublishers.shop ([link removed]) , and while you are there, checkout some of our other great offerings as well. There is still time to get your items delivered for the holidays.
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