10/24 Newsletter Addition:

Highlighting News Stories Of Interest, Plus An Update On Mt. Pleasant High School

Feel free to keep tabs on this research manual and strategy guide for the pro-democracy movement on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn, including past pieces on the 2024 Autopsy, Bench-Building, DOGE News, Project 2025 Authoritarianism, Progressive Populism, and more (First Come, First Serve!).

Via Instagram: Trump showing us the importance of why the No Kings movement is needed today

Today, I am doing just a news recap since things are a little busy here:

First, despite initial promises to not alter the White House as it is, Trump is demolishing the historic East Wing to build his new $300 million ballroom, funded by crypto bros and corporate oligarchs. He originally said the ballroom would cost $200 million, then $250 million, now it is up to $300 million.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly promised to give away MS-13 informants, who the US offered protection for, to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele in order to gain his approval for sending deportees to the notorious CECOT prison. My brother David recently highlighted the importance of why Bukele is so desperate for those informants.

Notes From Underground (#12): MS-13 and the Trump-El Salvador Scandal

In multiple AI videos on social media, Donald Trump touted potential campaigns up to 2048 and showed himself putting a crown on his head and brandishing a sword for all to bow down to. So much for his earlier BS in trying to even pretend he cared about democracy. Thus, the importance of the No Kings movement.

Speaking of which, political scientists say that for a peaceful anti-authoritarian movement to succeed, it will require at least 3.5% of the engaged citizenry to continually engage in protest. That means protesters will have to aim to get almost 12 million Americans out on the streets at a certain point in time leading up to the 2026 midterms. Remember the 3.5% Rule.

For California and New Jersey voters, political officeholders, and elections officials, be on standby and alert for DOJ election observers, another sign Trump’s DOJ is ready to directly intervene in the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections.

TMZ reports that Donald Trump is considering a commutation or pardon for Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Speaking of which, a January 6 insurrectionist pardoned by Trump is arrested for threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. A hardly changed man of you asked me, or anyone.

And, Trump pardoned a Binance crypto business figure who failed to stop child sex abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism.

A newly released article chronicles RFK Jr.’s subordinates at HHS who come from the corporate sector (companies like Palantir, McKinsey, and Abbott Laboratories).

In a sign of things to potentially come, ICE begins its stockpiling of missile warheads and chemical weapons.

2020 election deniers in the federal government plot a national emergency declaration for the 2026 midterms to take control of voting machines and other state-run election processes.

Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, a frequent critic of Hunter Biden, joins a business venture with Donald Trump Jr. slated to go on the stock market soon.

Trump denies FEMA aid to Democratic states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Vermont, and even Western Maryland.

Dr. Oz says Trump has a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, but doesn’t announce what that plan is.

Trump refuses to offer needed Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, once again proving that he is a Putin Puppet. Furthermore, it highlights how the media should cover more of what Donald Trump does, not just what he says.

Another text scandal plagues the Republican Party, with the Office for Special Counsel appointee railing against Martin Luther King Jr. and proudly proclaiming his “Nazi streak.” He withdrew his nomination this past Tuesday.

Trump prefers to import Argentinean beef than Buy America from our own cattle ranchers. Meanwhile, turkey, steak, and lettuce prices increase in time for Thanksgiving.

Consumer inflation hit 3% for the first time since Biden was in office, as a newly released report today shows. So much for lowering prices on Day One, or even in the first year.

Food aid cuts aren’t limited to foreign countries. The $500 million cut to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) means the cancellation of 94 million pounds of food aid to pantries all across the United States.

Can an abundant populist agenda be created without the influence of dark money and with the relentless criticism of blatant corporate greed and unprecedented oligarchy? A growing number of figures, from Waleed Shahid, to Mike Konczal, and to some extent, in a past CNN interview, Bernie Sanders, say yes.

Rural advocates propose a round of ideas based upon the 1980s Populist Caucus platform which includes greater representation for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for small business leaders and farmers, reign in pharmacy benefit managers, strengthen protections against private equity plundering, and reopen trade with Cuba.

One issue under the radar until recently: the possibility that access to Section 8 housing vouchers, for all the issues there are already, will be severely curtailed further. I have heard anecdotal stories that the government shutdown and the budget megabill may already have cuts underway for Section 8 housing. What can definitively be said though based on public reports is millions of people may lose access to housing aid with time limits, “work requirements,” and stripping aid entirely based on immigration status. If people are indeed losing their Section 8 vouchers by the end of this year, that will only worsen the growing homelessness and housing affordability crises out there all across this country.

Finally, to something local. Last week, I discussed my local Mt. Pleasant High School.

The proposed plan for its partial demolition includes a reduction of book storage in exchange for a media center, as well as taking out some greenroom space, and shrinking some classrooms.

I am not an architect or construction worker, so it’s hard for me to outline all the potential issues present in the plan. However, for those in Rhode Island, if you are interested in learning more, I encourage you to follow State Senator Sam Bell’s work bringing to light this specific issue.

One of my biggest questions from the community meeting on Monday was, why the need for a partial demolition of what is a historic building? RIDE, PPSD, and Downes Construction have repeatedly been saying there is no way to fully renovate the school, even though they did not even do a more recent comparative cost assessment of full renovations vs. a partial demolition (never mind the carbon footprint from any such demolitions). It is puzzling why RIDE angles aggressively for some kind of demolition, a project stemming back years.

Why isn’t a full renovation possible? Many schools in the past have done full renovations. My old middle school, Nathan Bishop, on the East Side of Providence, once upon a time was in poor condition, potentially at risk of closure. But, Providence Schools and many local neighborhood advocates (like current City Council candidate Jill Davidson) pursued a full renovation that improved building standards while preserving the actual school itself. I know. I saw the new classrooms, the polished gymnasiums, the advanced air circulation systems, including air conditioning, the redesigned walls, the bright colors, and more. It was a true state-of-the-art facility.

Why shouldn’t the community be entrusted to consider that some option? Let me add more.

We are not much more than a year out from the next local and state elections. Yet, the state-controlled Providence Schools intends to carry on with a partial demolition right before any new government (Providence City Council, RI General Assembly, or the executive offices) can consider alternative options. That’s right. Even if the community elects people to different offices who want to preserve the building or just see a more transparent process, RIDE, based on their answers Monday, committed to no flexibility for making those accommodations possible.

The importance of transparency and community feedback is essential for a local issue like this. Neighbors in my neck of the woods have called for a renovation of the building that preserves its architectural uniqueness and integrity, as former RI State Representative Joanne Giannini outlined perfectly. But instead, like in 2023, RIDE maintains its commitment to rush the review and ram the entire process down our throats so people don’t offer the feedback needed to best guide our school community and neighborhood.

And what a travesty that is and would be.

With that, for new readers, here was my last post:

And see you again on Monday.