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Dear John,
Last week, the president told an audience of hundreds of military generals and admirals from around the world that our cities should be military “training grounds.” [[link removed]]
This is a bald authoritarian power grab.
In June, the Trump Pentagon spent millions on a military parade [[link removed]] on the streets of Washington D.C. Now, with the current and threatened deployment of troops in Washington D.C. [[link removed]] , Memphis [[link removed]] , Portland, OR [[link removed]] , and Chicago [[link removed]] , that parade looks less like a vanity project and more like a test case.
This is simple: There is no place for the military on our city streets.
The militarization of our streets is the signature policy of this administration. This week, we collaborated with In These Times to show that if Trump’s deportation force were a military, it would be the 13th largest in the world. [[link removed]]
There’s a simple way to stop this: Congress should withhold funding.
The military parade cost millions of taxpayer dollars [[link removed]] , as I wrote in Newsweek in June. The deployment of troops to U.S. cities is costing millions more [[link removed]] , as NPP’s Hanna Homestead found for The Intercept in August. Congress can quite simply forbid using federal funds for these deployments.
The current government shutdown [[link removed]] presents an opportunity: Members of Congress should challenge the $1 trillion Pentagon budget that the administration is using to deploy troops to U.S. cities, and the $170 billion in deportation funding [[link removed]] that is sending masked invaders to terrorize immigrant communities.
As the Trump Pentagon prepares to make more of our cities into military “training grounds,” this is a consolidation of power by an authoritarian regime that we simply can’t afford.
In solidarity,
Alliyah, Hanna and Lindsay
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TRADEOFF: WEAPONS AND WAR VS. MEDICAID
During a government shutdown, we’re seeing American resources be used to help boost militarism at home and abroad instead of helping communities truly be safe. Recently, the U.S. lethally struck [[link removed]] boats off Venezuela, killing civilians, and deployed [[link removed]] troops to the Caribbean due to an alleged “ war [[link removed]] on drug cartels”. And across many U.S. cities, 35,000 troops [[link removed]] and counting are on the ground. According to a new poll conducted by NPR, Americans broadly don’t support [[link removed]] the president's National Guard deployments. Notably, Pentagon funding and activities are among those that can continue undisturbed during the shutdown.
While Pentagon spending soars, 17 million people [[link removed]] are at risk of losing health insurance [[link removed]] due to GOP cuts to Medicaid in the Big Ugly Bill - and cuts from the Big Ugly Bill and the failure to extend certain ACA healthcare subsidies could result in 51,000 preventable deaths [[link removed]] . True safety means we invest in the health of our communities rather than funneling taxpayer dollars to violent control of our streets and endless wars.
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Photo courtesy of Andriy Blokhin (Shutterstock) [[link removed]]
FEDERAL WORKERS ARE STILL UNDER ATTACK
Even before the ongoing government shutdown and Trump's threats of additional mass firings [[link removed]] of federal workers, the Trump administration fired two fair housing lawyers [[link removed]] for whistleblowing . According to The Guardian, prior to their termination, the lawyers reported to a member of Congress [[link removed]] that they were being blocked from enforcing fair housing law. One of the lawyers, Paul Osadebe, reported that Trump administration officials told him "this is why we’re firing you, because you spoke out. They are as blatant as can be about it.” Osadebe wrote an op-ed earlier this year for IPS’ Inequality.org about how he would not voluntarily leave his federal job [[link removed]] .
This is the latest attack from the administration on federal workers after rounds of indiscriminate firings earlier this year, ostensibly to save federal dollars. But as we showed earlier this year, if the administration were really interested in saving taxpayer dollars, they would have taken a hard look at Pentagon contracts [[link removed]] , which cost $414 billion, compared to $271 billion for all federal workers across all agencies in FY 2022 .
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Photo courtesy of Feleecia Guillen
"NO TROOPS, NO ICE!" AT NYC CLIMATE WEEK
On September 20, NPP partner and climate powerhouse 350.org organized the Make Billionaires Pay [[link removed]] march during NYC Climate week . Around 25,000 people [[link removed]] marched the streets calling to shut down billionaires, polluters, and fascists and to protect migrants, our planet, and our futures.
Climate activists also demanded an end to the bloated Pentagon spending and war profiteering. NPP co-sponsored the “ Drawing the Line At the Pentagon, For the Planet [[link removed]] ” mini-summit hosted by CODEPINK which expanded on the connections of climate and militarism, featuring speakers protesting military airshows [[link removed]] and the genocide in Gaza.
Here are three ways [[link removed]] the climate crisis and the Pentagon are connected:
1. As the world’s largest institutional greenhouse gas emitter in the world, the Pentagon pollutes our airs and waters and extracts from the land.
2. Pentagon spending crowds out investments we need for climate.
3. War and environmental breakdown drive ecocide, forced displacement, and political instability.
Read More [[link removed]]
“Total waste of money.”
“Could’ve been an email.”
“...An inane message of little merit.”
– Comments to Politico [[link removed]] by current and former Pentagon officials, about Secretary Pete Hegseth’s in-person speech to hundreds of admirals and generals
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READ/ WATCH/ LISTEN
The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago [[link removed]]
Sarah Lazare and Lindsay Koshgarian, In These Times
Trump Replaces GOP’s Pocket Constitutions with Unconstitutional ‘Pocket Recissions’ [[link removed]]
Karen Dolan, DC Journal
Lessons from Resistance to Authoritarianism Around the World [[link removed]]
Institute for Policy Studies webinar series
Climate Week Is Here; Our Governors Are Still Siding with Polluters [[link removed]]
Feleecia Guillen, Common Dreams
The US Military Isn’t a Political Weapon, but Trump and Hegseth Are Using It Like One [[link removed]]
William Hartung, Inkstick
Paddlefish: A story to break through our nuclear apathy (fiction) [[link removed]]
Madison Hissom, Inkstick
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