The federal government shutdown will enter its third week as the 9th Senate vote to temporarily fund the government until November 21st failed to secure enough votes. As Democrats continue pushing for additional Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Republicans are digging in their heels while the Trump administration continues laying off thousands of more federal employees, potentially more than 10,000 before all cuts are done.
Meanwhile former President Barack Obama released an ad yesterday in California spurring voters to support Proposition 50, which would further Democratic efforts to redraw Congressional maps.
California, the whole nation is counting on you. Democracy is on the ballot November 4th.
-President Barack Obama
Even isolated from the rest of the world news, those developments are at the very least concerning. Yet when American democracy seems to be hanging by a thread, it is important to acknowledge moments it is still visible.
During the second Trump Administration, the Supreme Court has often been in the news for dozens of shadow docket cases, rapid nontransparent court rulings in emergency cases. Yesterday, however, the highest court in the land rejected Alex Jones’s appeal to pay $1.4 billion in damages for making repeated false claims that the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was a hoax.
According to court papers, Jones disgustingly suggested more than once on his show that the 2012 massacre resulting in 26 deaths, including 20 children, was a “staged event.” As of yesterday, Jones can no longer avoid accountability for the immeasurable pain he caused the families of the victims.
While that despicable conspiracy may finally be put to bed, federal government propaganda is being rebuffed across our nation’s airports. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem attempted to show a video at American airports nationwide:
It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.
Despite Transportation Security Administration requests to airports across the nation, the 10 largest U.S. airports (accounting for 35% of commercial passengers) and dozens of other airports are openly refusing to show the video citing the Hatch Act, which prohibits such partisan messaging. Airports not participating in the administration’s blatant propaganda efforts span both red and blue states, including airports in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and Chicago.
As propaganda efforts are being pushed back at national airports, further curtails to the First Amendment by the reemergent Department of War are being repudiated by mass media outlets. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attempted to implement a repressive policy in which journalists could not ask members of the military to disclose classified (and unclassified) information. In essence, no more whistleblowing. More than 30 news outlets declined to adhere including The New York Times, The The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NewsMax, Bloomberg News, Reuters and the Associated Press.
As all five major broadcast networks (Fox News Media, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and CNN) stated jointly yesterday:
Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.
Speaking of war, a tentative ceasefire was reached in Gaza. Of course many steps remain and early news stories indicate how fragile a peace it may be. But after 2 years of terror and anguish in the region for all involved, 20 remaining Israeli hostages and nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners were freed to go home. A true horror that began in early October 2023 with 1200 people killed in Israel and tens of thousands killed in retaliation in Gaza may not continue into the foreseeable future.
Those returning home cite brutal conditions endured in captivity, not all dead hostages have been returned and Hamas has not disarmed prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to threaten “all hell” to break loose. Yet the stakes of a ceasefire holding, even for a moment, are painfully clear as Tess Ingram, communications manager for UNICEF, told ABC News:
[Humanitarian organizations are] not asking for anything unreasonable. We’re asking for the volume of aid that entered Gaza Strip before the escalation in October 2023. I think that’s something to watch for in the coming days. Does the aid flow? Are the crossings open? Is the U.N. enabled to do its job, to serve the children of Gaza?. ... But the other part is, does the ceasefire hold? The stakes are really high right now, so that ceasefire has to hold.
The U.N. reported Sunday that “hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread bundles were distributed in the north and south [Gaza]. Additionally, cooking gas entered the strip for the first time since March as well as tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicine.” Though only a trickle of what is needed for sustained relief for Palestinians, it is a start. And thankfully, food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (legally registered in the state of Delaware), at which Palestinians were being shot and killed, are being shut down as per the terms of the ceasefire.
Of course, there are far more news stories this past week which can cause alarm and dismay. For those wanting to affect change, there will be another nationwide “No Kings” protest on Saturday, October 18th, which is projected to surpass the impressive 5 million protestor turnout in June.
Indivisible co-founder of the “No Kings” movement Ezra Levin predicted “We are looking at the largest protest in modern American history on Oct. 18.”