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In Defense of Democracy and Freedom
Democracy Quotes
A 'Working Democracy' 
In Democracy, 'Facts Count' 
 
February 2025
Outrage after JD Vance claims judges are not allowed to check executive power
Vice-president accused of threatening constitution after saying judges have no right to restrain president’s agenda
Via The Guardian / February 10, 2025
* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/jd-vance-judges-trump
Article III of the US constitution confers a power known as judicial review, which gives federal judges the authority to rule on cases involving the president, as well as other branches of government.
Vance’s comments drew widespread criticism.
Daniel Goldman, a Democratic representative from New York, responded on X: “It’s called the ‘rule of law’. Our constitution created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances on each other (‘separation of powers’).
“The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won’t have problems.”
Quinta Jurecic, a fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank, told the New York Times: “What Vance’s wording suggests is that the executive could potentially respond to a court order by saying to the court, ‘You’re unconstitutionally intruding on my authority and I’m not going to do what you say.’
“At that point, the constitution falls apart.”
~
Programming Alert: America Under Siege
By Jim Acosta / February 10
In one revealing social media post, Vice President J.D. Vance somehow managed to upstage his boss, who spent this past weekend attending the Super Bowl, seizing control of the Kennedy Center and abolishing the penny, by issuing a performative decree on the propaganda platform of his other superior, Elon Musk, insisting that the White House need not adhere to rulings from federal judges. 
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power,” Vance posted. 
Vance, who is a graduate of Yale Law School, is saying the riot part out loud. Presidents cannot violate rulings from the courts, unless of course, the Constitution is rendered null and void. Such an action would, for all intents and purposes, amount to something of a non-violent insurrection, executed from inside the government. To that end, Trump’s critics would note this is not his first rodeo. The idea that “judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power” may be the view of the most ardent conservatives on the Supreme Court. But it’s hard to imagine Chief Justice John Roberts holding such a view. Though one can imagine a lot these days. 
Over the weekend, MAGA-world was howling after a federal judge temporarily blocked Musk’s government efficiency team, DOGE, from having access to the Treasury department’s highly sensitive federal payments system. Trump responded to the ruling, calling it a “disgrace.”
Trump’s actions since the start of his second administration raise serious questions about what his intentions would be, moving forward, if the guardrails of a judicial branch are tossed aside. His pardons and commutations for January 6th rioters, his stripping of the security details for outspoken ex-government officials like former national security adviser John Bolton, his move to tear down USAID and the Department of Education, not to mention his erratic fixation on acquiring Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal all call for bright red lines curtailing Trump’s executive powers. After the last couple of weeks, this is no time to remove any constitutional restraining bolts. 
 
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Purging "Climate Change" as Verboten Words in the Trump Administration
: Hard Turn in Climate-Related Policies Led by Cuts, Deletions, Erasures, and Firings 
: Online Websites Are Being Scrubbed of Climate and Renewable Energy Content, Earth Science Research, Statistics, Data, and Educational Tools
The Washington Post and multiple news sources have begun reporting that Trump Executive Orders to government agencies are rapidly resulting in widespread purging of online references to "climate change".
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/31/federal-agencies-websites-trump/
* https://www.theverge.com/news/604484/donald-trumps-data-purge-has-begun
* https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31012025/trump-administration-war-on-science/
* https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-dot-secretary-sean-duffy-moves-to-overturn-biden-era-fuel-economy-standards/ar-AA1y81KH
>The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website overhaul reprises a similar move by Trump’s first administration, which touched off a “Don’t Say Climate” movement among Republican-led state governments. Climate change is no longer listed on the EPA’s main environmental topics drop-down menu, which is instead populated with topics like bedbugs and radon.
>David Doniger, senior attorney with the environmental nonprofit the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the EPA’s “Orwellian” website changes “of a piece with [Trump] denying climate as a problem” and “trying to bury inconvenient facts and pretend these problems don’t exist.”
>At the Department of Energy, the webpage for the Office of Energy Justice and Equity is gone — as are all of its employees, who were placed on administrative leave earlier this week as part of the Trump administration’s purge. 
>The web address for the department’s Low Income Energy Affordability Data Tool now redirects visitors to a page headlined “Restoring Energy Dominance” and links out to a description of the president’s promise to end a pause on liquefied natural gas exports. 
>Another program no longer specified that it would help develop programs for an energy future that was equitable or clean.
>“Climate change” was also removed from a page describing an Environmental Protection Agency tool used to analyze greenhouse gas emissions and air quality. 
>Several Department of Transportation references to “climate change” have been replaced with “climate resilience,” a more generic term that describes protections from disasters, without investigating their root causes, according to Alys Campaigne, Climate Initiative Leader at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
>An agency within the Department of Transportation even went as far as to remove goals around “achieving net-zero emissions and increasing equity.” Instead, the new goals for the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Infrastructure now read to “enhance resilience, and make America more globally competitive.”
>Meanwhile, at the Agriculture Department, a page on the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities has been taken down. The Forest Service’s website has been similarly scrubbed. And at least two pages are gone that informed visitors about how climate change is affecting the nation’s 193 million acres of federally managed forests and grasslands.
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Global CO2 Emissions: Record High
* https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-co2-emissions-hit-record-high-2024-report-says-2024-11-13/
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January 2025
January 21, 2025
Beneath a veneer of calm, Trump’s inauguration holds warning signs for US democracy
: The warning signs were clear
Via the Associated Press
* https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-biden-democracy-power-00d5651a0ac611c2c6e3b555c4a8ad11
The celebration of the peaceful transfer of power kicked off just before noon Monday with both Trump and Biden present. That was a stark difference from last time, when Trump didn’t attend the event to hand over power to Biden.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar kicked off the speeches because she chairs the joint congressional inaugural committee. She pronounced that the theme was “our enduring democracy.” It was a fairly anodyne line and in other circumstances would be a fairly routine speech, but had a stark implication given the setting. ...
Klobuchar spoke about how “in other countries” the festivities might be in a presidential palace, but the United States holds them at “the people’s house,” the Capitol complex. She concluded by recognizing the firefighters battling blazes in Southern California.
“Our democracy’s strength and grit must match theirs,” Klobuchar said.
"I did have a couple of things to say that were extremely controversial,” Trump told the crowd in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall. It was the same space that had filled with rows of National Guard troops sleeping on the hard floors for weeks in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.
Hours later, Trump followed through on a campaign promise to pardon those involved in the attack...
Even after regaining the highest office in the land, Trump continued to lie about his 2020 election loss. He didn’t mention it in his formal address, but in his impromptu, second speech, Trump falsely contended it was only due to voter fraud and that if votes were counted accurately he would win California, a state he lost by more than 3.2 million votes.
And perspective from Europe...
Trump the wrecking ball brings chaos to order, executing a parade of grievances
:Planet-sparing Paris agreement goes out the window, along with punishment for January 6 insurrectionists, as Donald Trump glories in his return to power
Via The Guardian
* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/21/donald-trump-inauguration-paris-agreement-climate-executive-orders
When the obituary of planet Earth is written, there may be a prominent slot for what took place in a basketball and ice hockey arena in downtown Washington on 20 January, 2025.
It was here that, with a wry head shake and gleeful twirl of the pen, Donald Trump again withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, to the joy and jubilation of 20,000 spectators apparently indifferent to fate of the pale blue dot they live on.
“We’re going to save over a trillion dollars by withdrawing from that treaty,” gushed an aide at Trump’s prompting, implying that watching the world burn is a small price to pay.
This was the moment it really hit home. Trump is back. The human wrecking ball who left a trail of chaos and division in his first four years has returned with a vengeance. America voted for this. People will get hurt.
Monday’s first batch of executive orders, contained in black folders, was also a reminder of Trump’s insatiable appetite for spectacle. His swearing in and inauguration parade had been brought indoors because of extreme cold weather. Naturally he saw an opportunity to turn it into a reality TV show.
“60th presidential inauguration” was written in red and gold on electronic screens. A red carpet covered the floor. A giant cartoon-like reviewing stand had been set up with an oversized presidential seal, a lectern and a tiny desk.
~
Monday, January 20, 2025
Donald J. Trump Inaugurated
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
:
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US Environmental Protection Agency Pick Speaks Up at Confirmation Hearing
: 
* https://newrepublic.com/post/190315/trump-epa-lee-zeldin-science-quiz-confirmation-hearing
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January 12
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” today that he believes the fires in Los Angeles will be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history in terms of “scale and scope” as well as “the costs associated with” the destruction and rebuilding.
And via one of the top writers on environmental news, Seth B of the AP
* https://apnews.com/article/fire-devastation-climate-change-santa-ana-winds-a46e2bb6785b1e325f6076fb22c8fcc5
Via AGU... Amplified California Wildfire Risks
* https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL092843
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Los Angeles Fires Send a Message (and Who's Getting It?)
The effects of climate change bring massive costs and suffering
: File:Palisades Fire - Sunset Blvd - Photo Apu Gomes.JPG
: Photo by Apu Gomes
Op/Ed by Peter Kalmas
GreenPolicy360 recalls early warnings about climate change
Our friend George E. Brown who became a colleague was a first voice to rise in the US Congress to take on the questions -- and dangers -- of climate change. 
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/George_E._Brown_Jr
Look back to the origins of US climate science/earth science/atmospheric science, and there's an East Los Angeles Congressman, George Brown, out in front. In many ways this science work would go on to put in place a foundation and beginning of a modern environmental movement.
Let's take time to read again about a man who made a positive difference and changed the world for the better, even as the struggles continue.
When we speak of climate policy, George first acted to protect clean air above Los Angeles in the 1960s, then worked to create the EPA, environmental laws, and then pivoted in the 70s to become a leader of protecting what we call the "Thin Blue Layer" above home planet Earth.
We envisioned what the disruptions of a warming climate could bring. Now in Los Angeles the changing environment is delivering a disaster described as the region's worst in history, one that augurs more danger to come in the future.
This moment calls for increased awareness and action.
Congressman Brown was instrumental in proposing and establishing the Presidential Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976. He was working alongside the National Academy of Sciences as they released a first-ever climate report in 1977. In 1977 he and the new Office of Science and Technology sent a first government warning of "climatic fluctuation" and "catastrophic" change to President Carter:
* https://greenpolicy360.net/w/File:1977_from_the_Office_of_Science_and_Technology_Policy.jpg
The First US Climate Act 
* https://greenpolicy360.net/w/File:US_Public_Law_95-367.png 
* https://greenpolicy360.net/images/1969_beginnings_of_the_modern_environmental_movement.pdf
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Day_Memories_on_the_50th_Anniversary
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:EarthScience_Missions_via_the_EOS_-_2022.png
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Earth_Observing_System_-_fleet_of_satellites.png
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/LANDSAT_and_Virginia_Tower_Norwood
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Landsat,_a_50_year_legacy.png
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:You_can_manage_only_what_you_can_measure_Dr_David_Crisp,_OCO-2,_June_2014_m.jpg
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Earth-NASA.jpg
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Climate_Change
* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Climate_Policy
 
Listen to a Climate Scientist, Michael Mann, Explain Factors Involved in the LA Wildfires
* https://x.com/michaelemann/status/1877139391073624436?s=61&t=14LnFHA-cgLSdk-DhRp7cw
 
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January 4, 2025
First, a Nobel Peace Prize, and now a U.S. Medal of Freedom
Congratulations to Jane Goodall. Her work is an inspiration to all, and how each of us can make a positive difference.
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:: Photo: Gabriela Herman for The New York Times
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2025! A 4 Billion+ Year Old Planet Begins Another Year Orbiting Its Sun Star
: Fly On #PlanetCitizens #SpaceshipEarth
: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Earth
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December 30, 2024
On News of the Death of a Former U.S. President
: Jimmy Carter was 100 Years Old
“When I was in the White House, I thought of human rights primarily in terms of political rights, such as rights to free speech and freedom from torture or unjust imprisonment. As I traveled around the world since I was president, I learned there was no way to separate the crucial rights to live in peace, to have adequate food and health care, and to have a voice in choosing one’s political leaders. These human needs and rights are inextricably linked.” -- Jimmy Carter
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December 25, 2024
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