SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Sunrise on J.D. Vance: Big Oil Sell-Out
In response to Donald Trump announcing J.D. Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate, Sunrise Movement Communications Director, Stevie O’Hanlon, released the following statement:
“Like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance has proven that he will make it a top priority to roll back climate protections while answering to the demands of oil and gas CEOs. Vance is one of Congress’s biggest recipients of donations from oil companies.
J.D. Vance not only flip-flopped on supporting Trump, he flip-flopped on climate. He went from expressing concern about climate change before running for the Senate, to voting to gut EPA protections and denying that there even is a climate change crisis.
J.D. Vance will sell out to the highest bidder, whether that’s Trump or the fossil fuel industry. That makes him dangerous. Donald Trump was the worst president for climate in U.S. history. J.D. Vance will empower Donald Trump to enact even worse damage on our planet in a second Trump administration.”
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
LATEST NEWS
As Trump-Musk Target Social Security, Seniors Share Stories of Benefit Cutoffs
"Elon Musk and Donald Trump are stealing seniors' hard-earned benefits. It's already happening, and it'll get worse if they go through with closing branch offices and cutting staff."
Mar 16, 2025
"DOGE is a disaster of incompetence."
That's how one political scientist responded to Saturday reporting about a Washington state man fighting for his Social Security benefits as U.S. President Donald Trump and the head of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire Elon Musk, attack the federal bureaucracy, including the agency that administers payements to seniors like Leonard "Ned" Johnson.
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat shared the story of 82-year-old Johnson. In February, his wife received a notification from their bank that the Social Security Administration (SSA) requested a return for benefits paid out after the supposed death of her husband. She figured it was a scam—as Johnson was alive—but the request was real and $5,201 was pulled from their account.
As Westneat detailed, after making multiple calls to SSA, during which Johnson was "put on hold and then eventually disconnected," and securing an appointment that was ultimately rescheduled for next week, "he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown," one of several sites across the United States that DOGE wants to shut down.
According to the columnist:
After waiting for four hours, Johnson admits he jumped the line: "I saw an opening and I kind of rushed up and told them I was listed as dead. That seemed to get their attention."
Once in front of a human, Johnson said he was able to quickly prove he was alive, using his passport and his gift of gab. They pledged to fix his predicament, and on Thursday this past week, the bank called to say it had returned the deducted deposits to his account. As of Friday morning he hadn't received February or March's benefits payments.
"When I was in that line, I was thinking that if I was living solely off Social Security, I could be close to dumpster diving about now," he said.
Author Jeff Nesbit, the public affairs chief for five federal agencies or departments—including SSA—under four presidents, shared the article on the Musk-owned social media site X, saying: "So incredibly sad that Musk/DOGE are now preying on people like this. I hope older Americans understand the assault underway against Social Security right now."
Progressive political consultant Matt Herdman similarly said: "Elon Musk and Donald Trump are stealing seniors' hard-earned benefits. It's already happening, and it'll get worse if they go through with closing branch offices and cutting staff."
I cannot imagine how many seniors, lacking the acuity and means of the man in this story, will be left destitute bc of the whims of some of the richest people on the planet www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
[image or embed]
— Josh Kovensky ( @joshkovensky.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Johnson isn't the only senior who has had to fight for his Social Security since Trump returned to office in January and installed various billionaires to key positions in the federal government. James McCaffrey, a 66-year-old retiree in Oklahoma City, told his story to NBC affiliate KFOR earlier this week.
McCaffrey learned that his Social Security benefits were suspended when he received a notice saying that he needed to pay $740 or he was going to lose Medicare, health insurance for seniors. After multiple phone calls and hours on hold, he finally got through. He then quickly received the missing payment, but never got an explanation—and SSA refused to give one to the news station.
However, McCaffrey believes his trouble may stem from the fact that he was born on a U.S. military base in Germany—and Musk's recent Fox Business appearance, during which he claimed that undocumented immigrants are receiving benefits. That came shortly after a podcast interview, during which a billionaire called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme."
McCaffrey is now concerned about other seniors facing similar issues. As KFOR reported:
He worries about people who may not have the time and resources he had to get to the bottom of what happened and get his benefits back.
"I’ve been a diligent Boy Scout type, I prepared," he said. "But, no, I shouldn't have to."
He also worries about people who may not share the same savings or the same financial cushion [that] he had to fall back on. "And you interrupt that for seven days, two weeks or even longer, and they're in bad trouble," he said. "They could be out of the house. They could be out of food. I don't know."
In response McCaffrey's experience, Ashley Schapitl, a public relations professional who previously worked for Senate Democrats and the U.S. Treasury Department, said, "Picture thousands of Social Security beneficiaries having their benefits canceled with no explanation and limited recourse to get them reinstated."
Two stories today about different people wrongly thrown off Social Security, one marked dead, the other seems to be because he was born outside the U.S. on a U.S. military base. First effects of DOGE on SSA. This will get worse. www.wkrn.com/news/nationa... www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Trump and Musk's recent moves and remarks have fueled fears that they are working to privatize Social Security.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) laid out a potential GOP "attack plan" for the program on X Friday:
One: Trump and his vassals tell lies that there's no plan to cut Social Security.
Two: Trump and Musk lie loudly about imaginary Social Security "fraud" to lower public confidence in the program.
Three: Musk sends his nasty Musk-rats in to Social Security to damage administration of the fund, leading to "interruption in benefits."
Four: Trump then declares emergency and hands administration of Social Security to private equity and tech bros to fix problem they created.
Five: Republicans declare victory that they "saved Social Security" by handing it to private equity/tech bros, and put Trump's name on checks.
The advocacy group Social Security Works took note of Whitehouse's thread and said: "Everyone needs to read this. Musk and Trump are breaking Social Security so they can turn it over to Wall Street."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Legal Fight Underway as Trump Invokes Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for Deportations
"Today was a horrific day in the history of the nation," said the leader of one legal group, but "the rule of law prevailed."
Mar 15, 2025
Even before U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday publicly revealed that he was invoking the Alien Enemies Act, legal groups took action, which led to a federal judge temporarily blocking the administration from using the 1798 law for deportations.
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the District Court for the District of Columbia issued "a classwide, nationwide temporary restraining order, blocking removal of any noncitizens in U.S. custody who are subject to today's AEA order for the next 14 days," according toLaw Dork's Chris Geidner. Earlier in the day, the judge had issued a TRO for the individual plaintiffs in this case.
Like Geidner, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick shared updates from the evening hearing on social media. He noted that the ACLU said at least two planes were en route to El Salvador and Honduras. The judge—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—ordered any planes in the air to turn around but said he could not take action for any aircraft that had landed.
With a few final matters, the hearing is now over. Great job by the ACLU and partners in getting this lawsuit filed so quickly, and on Judge Boasberg for understanding the urgency. We'll have to watch to see whether the planes are turned around in time, as at least one is in the air now.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 6:54 PM
The national and D.C. arms of the ACLU launched the lawsuit with Democracy Forward, whose president and CEO, Skye Perryman, stressed early Saturday that "the United States is not at war, nor has it been invaded. The president's anticipated invocation of wartime authority—which is not needed to conduct lawful immigration enforcement operations—is the latest step in an accelerating authoritarian playbook."
"From improperly apprehending American citizens, to violating the ability of communities to peacefully worship, to now improperly trying to invoke a law that is responsible for some of our nation's most shameful actions, this administration's immigration agenda is as lawless as it is harmful," Perryman added. The AEA was most recently used during World War II to force thousands of people of mostly German, Italian, and Japanese descent in internment camps.
Lee Gelernt, lead counsel and deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, called Trump's move "as unprecedented as it is lawless," and said that "it may be the administration's most extreme measure yet, and that is saying a lot."
After the initial TRO, Perryman said that "yet again, the judicial system is essential to protect our democracy. We collaborated through the night with our co-counsel to ensure that the president could not invoke wartime powers to deal with his policy challenges. We are gratified to see the judge's decision and will work on the next stages to ensure those impacted by this dangerous move to invoke wartime powers when the nation is not at war—and has not been invaded—are protected."
After the president’s unlawful and unprecedented invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a judge issued a nationwide temporary restraining order in Democracy Forward's case with our partners at @aclu.org & @aclu-dc.bsky.social. Full statement to follow.
[image or embed]
— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) March 15, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Following Boasberg's final decision Saturday, the broader TRO, Perryman declared that "today was a horrific day in the history of the nation," but "the rule of law prevailed."
The legal battle stems from an effort to deport five Venezuelans accused of being involved with the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), but based on Trump's comments on the campaign trail—and his recent designation of multiple cartels as terrorist groups—the president is expected to seek a wider use of the AEA to deliver on his promised mass deportations.
Trump's proclamation, dated Friday but released Saturday, says TdA "is a designated foreign terrorist organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking."
"TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States," Trump said. "I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies."
It is noteworthy that Trump's EO invoking the Alien Enemy Act to deport certain Venezuelans without recourse to the protections of immigration law was signed on March 14, but not made public until today (March 15). In other words, they started the organizing these deportations by secret order.
[image or embed]
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
The legal fight is far from over. The next hearing before Boasberg is scheduled for Friday afternoon. The groups behind the lawsuit were not alone in sounding the alarm about Trump's invocation of the 18th-century law.
FWD.us president Todd Schulte said in a statement that "the Alien Enemies Act was last used to incarcerate 120,000 Japanese-Americans and tens of thousands of others during World War II. Its use was a mistake and a tragedy."
"There should be no effort to invoke this law today or in the future—against anyone, no matter their immigration status, be they an adult or child, as is proposed in today's declaration," he asserted. "Actions like this have no place in the immigration system or country we should seek to build."
Allison McManus, managing director for national security and foreign policy at the Center for American Progress, said that "invoking the Alien Enemies Act is a dangerous abuse of power intended to deprive people of their legal rights. This announcement comes just one day after the president threatened to use the Department of Justice against his critics, raising the likelihood that these powers will be exploited and put the safety of any American who speaks out against this administration at risk."
McManus added that "every American, regardless of their politics, should be concerned that the president is granting himself powers last invoked to detain thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II—one of the most shameful times in U.S. history."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Bombs Yemen After Houthis Revive Blockade on Israeli Ships
"U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran," said one peace group.
Mar 15, 2025
This is a developing news story... Please check back for possible updates.
U.S. President Donald Trumpannounced Saturday that he had ordered the military to "launch decisive and powerful" action against the Houthis in war-torn Yemen, a glaring contradiction of what critics have called the Republican's "anti-war charade."
The U.S. bombing follows Trump redesignating the Houthis—also known as Ansar Allah—as a terrorist organization shortly after returning to office in January and comes just days after the group renewed a blockade on Israeli ships.
Shuaib Almosawa reported earlier this week for Drop Site News that "the military spokesperson for the Houthi-led government in Yemen on Tuesday announced the resumption of the naval blockade targeting Israeli ships traversing Yemen's waterways, following the expiration of its deadline for Israel to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip."
"In a televised statement broadcast by Almasirah TV channel, Houthi spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that the blockade on Israeli ships now covers Yemen's waterways in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait," according to Almosawa, a freelance journalist based in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Trump's lengthy Saturday post on his Truth Social platform did not explicitly mention Israel or Gaza. He said in part that "funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk."
Almosawa reported Saturday that at least nine civilians have been killed in Trump's new bombing campaign.
According toThe Associated Press:
The Houthi media office said the U.S. strikes hit "a residential neighborhood" in Sanaa's northern district of Shouab. Sanaa residents said at least four airstrikes rocked the Eastern Geraf neighborhood in Shouab district, terrifying women and children in the area.
"The explosions were very strong," said Abdallah al-Alffi. "It was like an earthquake."
The United States, Israel, and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen. Israel's military declined to comment.
Trump noted the bombings under former U.S. President Joe Biden, saying Saturday that his predecessor's "response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going."
The U.S.-based peace group CodePink called out another part of Trump's post, saying that he "claimed that the Houthis have waged an 'unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism' against America and other ships, aircraft, and drones. However, he conveniently ignores critical context behind these actions. The Houthis' attacks on foreign cargo ships began in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, aimed at deterring the continuation of Israel's ongoing plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine."
"This campaign ceased when a cease-fire was finally put in place, only to resume due to Israel's ongoing violations of the cease-fire agreement," CodePink continued, noting Israeli strikes that just reportedly killed aid workers and journalists in Gaza. "Instead of confronting the root causes of this violence, U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran."
"CodePink and its allies demand an immediate halt to U.S. military intervention in Yemen and across the Middle East," the group concluded. "We call on the government to prioritize peace and justice by immediately ending all military aid and funds to Israel and holding Israel accountable for breaking the cease-fire."
Members of Congress across the political spectrum have a history of criticizing U.S. bombings of Yemen throughout its decadelong civil war as illegal. Justin Amash, a libertarian former Michigan congressman, slammed the Saturday strikes on social media.
"I'll say it again. It is unconstitutional for President Trump to engage in acts of war in Yemen," Amash explained. "It doesn't matter how appropriate you think it is for the U.S. to take on Houthis or terrorists or anyone. Congress has not authorized war in Yemen. Engaging in war there is unlawful."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular