Every day, we are bombarded by new and upsetting developments.
The barrage of negative and destructive news makes it hard to focus closely on any individual story, or even feel like you can get your bearings before there are suddenly 10 new outrages demanding your attention.
That being said, I drilled down on five policy stories about the Trump administration, three of which I chose primarily because they concerned topics I had previously covered on my blog.
This provided me with valuable background knowledge that allowed me to get my footing for these stories more quickly.
Trump has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Accord, attempted to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization, chosen to deny transgender and nonbinary Americans accurate federal identity documents, attempted to freeze huge swaths of federal government spending, and separately frozen foreign aid spending.
We’ll talk about all five of these stories today, but this is only a partial list of the many horrible things Trump has already done in his first few weeks as president.
These are preliminary summaries of chaotic, quickly developing stories.
I have done my best to ensure these summaries are accurate and up-to-date at the time of publication.
If you are looking for a more complete accounting of these important stories, I recommend researching them yourself, including through the links in this article.
Trump signed the order during a public event where he discussed his decision.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip-off,” he said. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries, while China pollutes with impunity.”
Even though Trump’s executive order claims the US withdrawal will be effective immediately once his administration submits formal notice, the Paris Agreement requires countries to wait one year after submitting written notice before they can withdraw from the pact.
Signing the Paris Climate Accord is a symbolic act that shows a country is committed to working with the international community to combat climate change.
Regardless of whether a country commits to limiting its greenhouse gas emissions in theory, it’s more important that they take efforts to do so in practice.
And Trump hasn’t just initiated the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, he has already taken action to reverse Biden administration policies that limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Trump also instructed agencies to review any regulations that might, “burden the development of domestic energy resources.”
That could include EPA rules limiting emissions from coal and gas power plants, and fees on oil and gas companies for releasing methane into the atmosphere.
Denying the need to take action to combat climate change is particularly egregious considering the intense heat waves across the US over the past two years.
The hot, dry and windy conditions that preceded the Southern California fires were about 35% more likely because of climate change, according to a new report.
I wrote an article in 2021 about the history of the Paris Climate Accord.
The article discusses Obama’s decision to sign the agreement, Trump’s decision to withdraw during his first term, and Biden’s decision to rejoin the accord.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency that works to combat disease and improve the health of people around the world.
Trump has criticized the WHO for how it handled the COVID pandemic.
Trump’s decision to leave the WHO could have dire repercussions for public health in the US and around the world.
Disengaging with the WHO could prevent the US from learning about emerging outbreaks like monkeypox and the potential reemergence of diseases like malaria and measles.
As the COVID pandemic has shown, once a disease outbreak begins in a foreign country, it can quickly spread to the rest of the world, including to the United States.
That’s why its so essential to have an organization like the WHO that monitors diseases that pose a global threat.
Countries around the world rely on the WHO to achieve important health goals, including routine immunizations, outbreak control, and nutrition programs.
Countries without their own health agencies also rely on the WHO for public health guidelines, childhood vaccinations, and drug approvals.
Trump has also appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent years spreading dangerous misinformation about vaccines, to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The US Senate will vote on whether to confirm him for the position.
The Trump administration has implemented policies preventing transgender and nonbinary Americans from receiving identity documents from the federal government, including passports, that accurately reflect their gender identity.
Time Magazine wrote a great article on this topic.
Trump signed an executive order that criticizes people who deny “the biological reality of sex” and dismisses gender identity, calling it “disconnected from biological reality.”
The order declares that all federal agencies and employees with use the term “sex,” not “gender,” in all applicable policies and documents, that the US will only recognize “two sexes, male and female,” and that government-issued identity documents will, “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
This prevents transgender people, who identify with a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth, from receiving identity documents that correspond to their gender.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to State Department staff requiring them to suspend all gender marker update applications, and to suspend requests for identity documents with an “X” gender marker, used by nonbinary people.
I have covered the Biden administration’s decision to allow transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans to receive federal identity documents that accurately reflect their identities.
I have also exhaustively covered the two lawsuits, one by an Intersex American, and one by a Transgender American, that prompted the Biden administration to adopt those policies.
A Trump administration official issued a memo ordering the federal government to pause huge swaths of federal spending, while government agencies complete a comprehensive analysis to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be impacted by Trump’s executive orders.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo said.
The Trump administration's attempt to withhold federal funding is fueling a long-brewing legal battle over the core constitutional principle that Congress gets to decide how to spend taxpayer money.
The spending freeze temporarily prevented state Medicaid agencies, Heart Start early education programs, and community health centers from accessing the Payment Management Services web portal run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Federal Courts have temporarily suspended the funding freeze while they consider legal challenges to the Trump administration’s authoritarian power grab.
Trump hasn’t just created chaos with his spending freeze at home, he has done the same with a separate funding freeze for US foreign aid spending abroad.
Virtually all foreign aid programs around the world that depend on US funding ground to a halt due to a “stop work” memo from the State Department, following a Trump executive order to freeze foreign assistance for 90 days, while the administration determines whether the programs comply with Trump’s foreign policy agenda.
In the executive order, Trump stated, “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases (are) antithetical to American values.”
“They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
As part of that freeze, the Trump administration instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with US aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics, according to the New York Times.
"In a matter of days, Mr. Trump’s order to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has intensified humanitarian crises and raised profound questions about America’s reliability and global standing," the NYT reported.
In the “stop work” order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained he had given a waiver for military aid to Israel, which allowed that spending to continue despite the broader foreign aid freeze.
This policy watch provides an overview of the Trump administration's executive order to pause all foreign aid programs, including for global health, and related actions to date.
The only legal mechanism for removing a US president from office is impeachment.
I believe the Trump administration’s federal spending freeze and foreign aid freeze can be fairly described as abuses of power that warrant impeachment.
Perhaps the 'fallen arms strike' of #ElSalvador in 1944 could be an inspiration. Both workers and businesses worked together and freed their country peacefully from an autocrat. libcom.org/article/1944-el-sal…
In 1944 El Salvadoran Dictator General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez had successfully crushed several armed revolts. But a General strike eventually forced him from power.
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Every day, we are bombarded by new and upsetting developments.
The barrage of negative and destructive news makes it hard to focus closely on any individual story, or even feel like you can get your bearings before there are suddenly 10 new outrages demanding your attention.
2/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I am making sure not to overwhelm myself by the scale of it all.
I am taking plenty of time to direct my attention to things that are relaxing, which have nothing to do with politics.
3/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •That being said, I drilled down on five policy stories about the Trump administration, three of which I chose primarily because they concerned topics I had previously covered on my blog.
This provided me with valuable background knowledge that allowed me to get my footing for these stories more quickly.
4/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Take time to do what you can to fight back against Trump.
But also take time to ensure you don't overwhelm yourself in the process.
5/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •With that out of the way, let's begin.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
6/x
#Trump #Politics #US #USPolitics #Republicans #Climate #Health #LGBT #ForeignAid
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The first two and a half weeks of Donald Trump’s second term have featured a whirlwind of outrageous, chaotic, and horrible decisions.
7/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Accord, attempted to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization, chosen to deny transgender and nonbinary Americans accurate federal identity documents, attempted to freeze huge swaths of federal government spending, and separately frozen foreign aid spending.
8/x
#Politics #US #Trump
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •We’ll talk about all five of these stories today, but this is only a partial list of the many horrible things Trump has already done in his first few weeks as president.
9/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •These are preliminary summaries of chaotic, quickly developing stories.
I have done my best to ensure these summaries are accurate and up-to-date at the time of publication.
If you are looking for a more complete accounting of these important stories, I recommend researching them yourself, including through the links in this article.
10/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread contains an article I wrote about five policy stories from the first few weeks of Trump's second term.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
11/x
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJonChevreau reshared this.
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump has signed an executive order that begins the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Accord.
12/x
#Trump #US #Politics #Climate
JonChevreau reshared this.
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Under the international agreement, countries pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and combat climate change.
13/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump signed the order during a public event where he discussed his decision.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip-off,” he said. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries, while China pollutes with impunity.”
14/x
#Trump #US #Politics #Climate
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Even though Trump’s executive order claims the US withdrawal will be effective immediately once his administration submits formal notice, the Paris Agreement requires countries to wait one year after submitting written notice before they can withdraw from the pact.
15/x
#Trump #Climate
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Signing the Paris Climate Accord is a symbolic act that shows a country is committed to working with the international community to combat climate change.
16/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Regardless of whether a country commits to limiting its greenhouse gas emissions in theory, it’s more important that they take efforts to do so in practice.
And Trump hasn’t just initiated the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, he has already taken action to reverse Biden administration policies that limit greenhouse gas emissions.
17/x
#Trump #Climate #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •National Public Radio (NPR) has written a great article about Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
npr.org/2025/01/21/nx-s1-52662…
18/x
#Trump #Climate
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •According to NPR, Trump has revoked many of Biden’s executive orders on climate change.
Trump revoked an executive order that required government regulators to evaluate the risks climate change poses to the financial system.
19/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump also instructed agencies to review any regulations that might, “burden the development of domestic energy resources.”
That could include EPA rules limiting emissions from coal and gas power plants, and fees on oil and gas companies for releasing methane into the atmosphere.
20/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Denying the need to take action to combat climate change is particularly egregious considering the intense heat waves across the US over the past two years.
21/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Climate change also makes natural disasters, like the deadly and destructive wildfires in Los Angeles last month, more likely.
nbcnews.com/science/climate-ch…
22/x
#US #Politics #Climate
Conditions that fueled California fires were more likely due to climate change: report
Evan Bush (NBC News)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I wrote an article in 2021 about the history of the Paris Climate Accord.
The article discusses Obama’s decision to sign the agreement, Trump’s decision to withdraw during his first term, and Biden’s decision to rejoin the accord.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2021/0…
23/x
#Trump #Biden #Obama #US #Politics #Climate
Biden to rejoin Paris Climate Accord
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread about the early days of Trump's second term can be read as an article on my blog, Meticulous Musings.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
24/x
#Trump #US #Politics
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency that works to combat disease and improve the health of people around the world.
Trump has criticized the WHO for how it handled the COVID pandemic.
25/x
#Trump #Health #COVID #WHO #US #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •In 1948, Congress enacted a joint resolution authorizing President Truman to allow the United States to become a member of the WHO.
As part of this resolution, Congress created a right for the US to withdraw from the WHO after one year’s notice.
The WHO accepted this condition on US participation.
26/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •While US law allows the US to withdraw from the WHO, it’s unclear whether Trump can do so without Congressional approval.
The Congressional Research Service has written a short report about the legal questions posed by Trump’s decision to leave the WHO.
crsreports.congress.gov/produc…
27/x
#Trump #Health #WHO
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Regardless of these formalities, Trump’s decision has already had real world consequences.
The Trump administration instructed employees of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop engaging with the WHO in any way.
28/x
#Trump #Health #WHO #CDC
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The US is the WHO’s largest donor. US funding accounts for nearly 15 percent of the organization’s budget.
Trump’s decision to leave has prompted the WHO to initiate a hiring freeze to cut costs.
The New York Times has written a great article about Trump’s decision to withdraw from the WHO.
nytimes.com/2025/01/29/health/…
29/x
#Trump #Health #WHO #GiftArticle
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump’s decision to leave the WHO could have dire repercussions for public health in the US and around the world.
Disengaging with the WHO could prevent the US from learning about emerging outbreaks like monkeypox and the potential reemergence of diseases like malaria and measles.
30/x
#Trump #Health #WHO
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •As the COVID pandemic has shown, once a disease outbreak begins in a foreign country, it can quickly spread to the rest of the world, including to the United States.
That’s why its so essential to have an organization like the WHO that monitors diseases that pose a global threat.
31/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Countries around the world rely on the WHO to achieve important health goals, including routine immunizations, outbreak control, and nutrition programs.
Countries without their own health agencies also rely on the WHO for public health guidelines, childhood vaccinations, and drug approvals.
32/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I wrote an article about Trump’s attempt to withdraw from the WHO during his first term, and Biden’s decision to rejoin the organization.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2021/0…
33/x
#Trump #Biden #Health #COVID #WHO #UN
Biden to improve US pandemic response
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump has also appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent years spreading dangerous misinformation about vaccines, to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The US Senate will vote on whether to confirm him for the position.
npr.org/sections/shots-health-…
34/x
#Trump #RFK #Vaccines #US #Politics #Health #HHS
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread can be read as an article on my blog, Meticulous Musings.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
35/x
#Trump #Climate #Health #LGBT #Trans #ForeignAid #US #Politics
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The Trump administration has implemented policies preventing transgender and nonbinary Americans from receiving identity documents from the federal government, including passports, that accurately reflect their gender identity.
Time Magazine wrote a great article on this topic.
time.com/7210389/donald-trump-…
35/x
#LGBT #Trans #Transgender #Nonbinary #Identity #Documents #Trump #Republicans #Passport
The Implications of Trump’s Executive Order on Sex
Solcyré Burga (Time)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump signed an executive order that criticizes people who deny “the biological reality of sex” and dismisses gender identity, calling it “disconnected from biological reality.”
The order declares that all federal agencies and employees with use the term “sex,” not “gender,” in all applicable policies and documents, that the US will only recognize “two sexes, male and female,” and that government-issued identity documents will, “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
26/x
#Trump #LGBT
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This prevents transgender people, who identify with a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth, from receiving identity documents that correspond to their gender.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2023/1…
27/x
#LGBT #Trans #Transgender
Gender Identity and Biological Sex
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to State Department staff requiring them to suspend all gender marker update applications, and to suspend requests for identity documents with an “X” gender marker, used by nonbinary people.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j…
28/x
#Trump #LGBT #Nonbinary #Passport #Politics
Rubio instructs staff to freeze passport applications with ‘X’ sex markers
Joseph Gedeon (The Guardian)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Nonbinary people have a gender that isn’t exclusively male or female.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2023/1…
29/x
#LGBT #Nonbinary
Gender Identity and Biological Sex
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I have covered the Biden administration’s decision to allow transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans to receive federal identity documents that accurately reflect their identities.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2021/1…
30/x
#LGBT #Trans #Transgender #Nonbinary #Intersex #Biden #Democrats #US #Politics
State Department updates passport gender marker policies
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Intersex refers to people who are born with physical traits in between those traditionally considered male or female.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2023/1…
31/x
#Intersex #LGBT #LGBTQIA
Intersex Experiences
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I have also exhaustively covered the two lawsuits, one by an Intersex American, and one by a Transgender American, that prompted the Biden administration to adopt those policies.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2023/1…
32/x
#LGBT #Intersex #Transgender #Passport #Identity #Documents #US #Politics #Biden
The fight for accurate identity documents
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •That's not the only way President Trump has harmed the rights of transgender Americans in his second term.
Trump has also signed an executive order banning transgender troops from serving openly in the US military.
npr.org/sections/shots-health-…
33/x
#Trump #Transgender #Military #Ban
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread can be read as an article on my blog, Meticulous Musings.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
34/x
#Trump #Climate #Health #LGBT #ForeignAid #US #Politics
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •A Trump administration official issued a memo ordering the federal government to pause huge swaths of federal spending, while government agencies complete a comprehensive analysis to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be impacted by Trump’s executive orders.
documentcloud.org/documents/25…
35/x
#Trump #Spending #Government #US #Politics
OMB memo on federal aid freeze
www.documentcloud.orgJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo said.
36/x
#Trump #US #Politics #Marxism #Transgender #GreenNewDeal
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This unprecedented and illegal power grab abrogates Congressional authority over federal spending and violates the Impoundment and Control Act.
citizensforethics.org/reports-…
37/x
#Trump #Republicans #Government #Impoundment #Congress #Spending
Understanding the Impoundment Control Act - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in WashingtonJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Here is a quick Vox explainer about Trump's federal funding freeze.
vox.com/donald-trump/397185/th…
38/x
#Vox #Trump #Politics #PowerGrab
The Logoff: What is up with Trump’s plan to freeze federal spending?
Patrick Reis (Vox)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •NBC: Trump's effort to withhold federal funding triggers constitutional showdown
nbcnews.com/politics/white-hou…
39/x
#NBC #News #Trump #Politics #Spending
Trump's effort to withhold federal funding triggers constitutional showdown
Lawrence Hurley (NBC News)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The spending freeze temporarily prevented state Medicaid agencies, Heart Start early education programs, and community health centers from accessing the Payment Management Services web portal run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
cbsnews.com/news/medicaid-head…
40/x
#Trump #Chaos #Republicans #Medicaid #HeadStart #Health #HHS #US #Politics
White House blames "outage" for locking out Medicaid, Head Start, health centers from funding site
Alexander Tin (CBS News)Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Federal Courts have temporarily suspended the funding freeze while they consider legal challenges to the Trump administration’s authoritarian power grab.
npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-52856…
41/x
#Courts #Law #Trump #Checks #Balances #Chaos #Politics #US
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread can be read as an article on my blog, Meticulous Musings.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
42/x
#News #Trump #Power #Politics #Law #US
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump hasn’t just created chaos with his spending freeze at home, he has done the same with a separate funding freeze for US foreign aid spending abroad.
44/x
#Trump #ForeignPolicy #ForeignAid #US #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Virtually all foreign aid programs around the world that depend on US funding ground to a halt due to a “stop work” memo from the State Department, following a Trump executive order to freeze foreign assistance for 90 days, while the administration determines whether the programs comply with Trump’s foreign policy agenda.
npr.org/sections/goats-and-sod…
45/x
#NPR #Trump #ForeignPolicy #Foreign #Policy #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •In the executive order, Trump stated, “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases (are) antithetical to American values.”
“They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
whitehouse.gov/presidential-ac…
46/x
#Trump #Foreign #Aid #America #World
Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid – The White House
The White HouseJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I added the parenthetical “are” in the quote above, because the sentence in a formal executive order doesn’t make grammatical sense without it.
47/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •As part of that freeze, the Trump administration instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with US aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics, according to the New York Times.
nytimes.com/2025/01/27/health/…
48/x
#NYT #NYTimes #HIV #AIDS #Trump #Cruelty #Health
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Another New York Times article lists other efforts harmed by the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze.
“In famine-stricken Sudan, soup kitchens that feed hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone have shut down.
In Thailand, war refugees with life-threatening diseases have been turned away by hospitals and carted off on makeshift stretchers.
In Ukraine, residents on the frontline of the war with Russia may be going without firewood in the middle of winter.”
49/x
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •"In a matter of days, Mr. Trump’s order to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has intensified humanitarian crises and raised profound questions about America’s reliability and global standing," the NYT reported.
nytimes.com/2025/01/31/world/a…
50/x
#Trump #Foreign #Aid #America #World #Hunger #Health
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump’s commitment to putting “America First” apparently means innocent people in other countries have to die.
51/x
No Gods , no Masters! RESIST
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •In the “stop work” order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained he had given a waiver for military aid to Israel, which allowed that spending to continue despite the broader foreign aid freeze.
pages.devex.com/rs/685-KBL-765…
52/x
#Trump #Rubio #Israel
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •I briefly discussed the horrors of Israel's War in Gaza in an article I wrote last year.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2024/0…
53/x
#Israel #US #War #Gaza #Hamas
Israel’s War in Gaza
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •After the initial “stop work” order, the US State Department issued waivers to allow some US foreign aid projects to continue.
kff.org/policy-watch/the-statu…
54/x
#Trump #Rubio #Foreign #Aid #KFF
The Status of President Trump’s Pause of Foreign Aid and Implications for PEPFAR and other Global Health Programs | KFF
KFFJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •This ongoing thread can be read as an article on my blog, Meticulous Musings.
jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2025/0…
55/x
#Trump #US #Politics #Climate #Health #Hunger #LGBT
An Endless Series of Outrages
jasonbeets.blogspot.comJason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Trump’s nascent second term is already an authoritarian nightmare.
Trump is antithetical to every positive thing the United States has ever stood for.
He must be removed from office.
56/x
#Trump #US #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The US doesn’t have a “vote of no confidence” option available in parliamentary democracies.
My alarm and dismay about Trump’s unfitness for office isn’t concentrated around a single, discrete policy decision.
It’s about his overall pattern of behavior.
57/x
#Trump #Authoritarian #Unfit #President
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •The only legal mechanism for removing a US president from office is impeachment.
I believe the Trump administration’s federal spending freeze and foreign aid freeze can be fairly described as abuses of power that warrant impeachment.
58/x
#Impeach #Trump #Impeachment
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •But Congress, in its current form, won’t impeach Trump or even pass legislation to reverse any of the policies I discussed today.
Republicans run both chambers of Congress.
A Republican House won’t impeach Trump, and a Republican Senate won’t convict and remove him.
59/x
#Trump #US #Politics
Jason Beets
in reply to Jason Beets • • •Many people are despondent by this constant drumbeat of outrageous and unacceptable behavior.
They are looking for a way to “do something” in response to these provocations, even though they don’t know exactly what they can or should do.
60/x
#Trump #US #Politics
Napoleon Cornejo
in reply to Jason Beets • • •1944: El Salvador General Strike Brings Down Dictatorship
libcom.org