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Dear Progressive Reader,
On Friday, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance shocked many in the country, and more in other parts of the world, with a verbal attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a live broadcast from the Oval Office. “This is going to be great television,” concluded the U.S. President and former reality TV star. “[O]ne thing that was on his mind, as always, was the ratings. He sounded almost excited by the drama of the spectacle, as though he could feel the front pages of the world’s newspapers being written in real time,” reported ([link removed]) The New York Times.
But this, and many other recent White House actions, are just the most public aspects of the Trump Administration’s reshaping of decades of policy and practice. Many other, more quiet but equally important, actions are taking place every day. On Tuesday, the White House announced ([link removed]) it would take control of deciding which members of the press would be allowed to cover certain news events. “This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the President. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” stated ([link removed]) the White House Correspondents’ Association in a press release. Peter Baker, writing in The New York Times, compares the chill in Washington today to the early days of Vladimir Putin’s reign in
Moscow. “There is a similar chill now in Washington. Every day someone who used to feel free to speak publicly against Mr. Trump says they will no longer let journalists quote them by name for fear of repercussions,” he explains ([link removed]) . “[I]n decades of reporting in Washington, under Republicans and Democrats, it has never felt quite like this.”
The previous week, the White House announced ([link removed]) “President Trump was unanimously elected ([link removed]) as Chairman of The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees and fired ([link removed]) a slew of the Center’s board members over their obsession with perpetuating radical ideologies.” The result has been a growing number ([link removed]) of artists cancelling their appearances at the nation’s performing arts icon. In addition, other acts have been axed for not adhering to Trump’s cultural expectations—including ([link removed]) a play about vaccine policies in schools and an orchestra with “Pride” in its name. In 1950, German playwright Bertolt
Brecht was called before the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to testify about his cultural writings. In a prepared statement that he was not allowed to read, Brecht wrote ([link removed]) , “At the beginning, only a very few people were capable of seeing the connection between the reactionary restrictions in the field of culture and the ultimate assaults upon the physical life of a people itself.”
Brecht, who came to the United States to flee Nazi oppression in his homeland, penned a famous play during his exile. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui ([link removed]) , tells the story of a Chicago gangster who rises to power through threats and bullying and retribution against his detractors. The final epilogue (as translated ([link removed]) by Jennifer Wise) reads “Thus learn you how to see, and not just look, / And act instead of talking all day long; / The world was almost ruled by such a crook!”
This week on our website, Glenn Daigon reports on ([link removed]) how changes at the FCC are affecting attempts to challenge the FoxNews ecosystem; Michael Felsen, former Labor Department attorney, pens an op-ed ([link removed]) on the current vilification and firings of federal workers; and Melinda Tuhus covers ([link removed]) a new report on the mental health impacts of the war in Gaza on children. Plus, Katie Brimm and Natalia Pinzón opine ([link removed]) on the importance of farmers and ranchers in preventing wildfires; and Anthony Pahnke raises a warning ([link removed]) about threats to funding
for public policies that protect farmers of color and calls on readers to “fight discrimination and forward racial justice.”
Finally, a new website ([link removed]) has been created to track the progress of the Trump Administration in actualizing the goals of Project 2025 (a document that Trump disavowed ([link removed]) during his campaign). According to a news report ([link removed]) by Fast Company, the website “shows that, in less than two months, more than a third of the rightwing agenda’s objectives have been fulfilled.” One objective, currently listed ([link removed]) as “in progress” is the break-up and potential privatization of NOAA ([link removed]) —the folks that bring us weather reports and storm warnings. Weather? Why do they hate weather? Many of us do not like experiencing certain types of weather, but aren’t we all glad we know when these are coming? Well, according to one Reddit user
([link removed]) , “Private weather forecasters (the Commercial Weather Services Association) have been lobbying to shut down weather forecasting by the National Weather Service since the 1990s and [Pennsylvania Republican Senator] Rick Santorum proposed a bill to do that in the 2000s. Back in 2017, Trump nominated Barry Myers—the former CEO of AccuWeather who was one of the most aggressive opponents of federal weather forecasting—to lead NOAA. The nomination stalled out in the Senate and he eventually withdrew.” It appears there is a buck to be made on everything, even the weather ([link removed]) .
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. - This coming week the "Big Share" will take place on March 4. The Progressive is one of a number of social justice organizations to which you can donate during this annual event. You can visit this link ([link removed]) for more information or to make your gift to progressive journalism.
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