The White House has been
hearing out a chorus of ideas in recent weeks for persuading Americans to get
married and have more children, an early sign that the Trump administration
will embrace a new cultural agenda pushed by many of its allies on the right to
reverse declining birthrates and push conservative family values.
One proposal shared with
aides would reserve 30 percent of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the
prestigious, government-backed international fellowship, for applicants who are
married or have children.
Another would give a
$5,000 cash “baby bonus” to every American mother after delivery.
A third calls on the
government to fund programs that educate women on their menstrual
cycles — in part so they can better understand when they are
ovulating and able to conceive.
Those ideas, and others, are
emerging from a movement concerned with declining birthrates that has been
gaining steam for years and now finally has allies in the U.S. administration,
including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk. Policy experts and advocates
of boosting the birthrate have been meeting with White House aides, sometimes
handing over written proposals on ways to help or convince women to have more
babies, according to four people who have been part of the meetings who spoke
on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Administration officials have not indicated what ideas — if
any — they might ultimately embrace. But advocates expressed confidence that fertility
issues will become a prominent piece of the agenda, noting that President Trump
has called for a “baby boom” and pointing to the symbolic power of seeing Mr.
Vance and other top officials attend public events with their children.
“I just think this administration is inherently
pronatalist,” said the activist Simone Collins, referring to the movement to
reverse declining birthrates.
Ms. Collins, along with her husband, Malcolm Collins, sent
the White House several draft executive orders, including one that would bestow
a “National Medal of Motherhood” to mothers with six or more children.
“Look at the number of kids that major leaders in the
administration have,” Ms. Collins said, adding: “You didn’t hear about kids in
the same way under Biden.”
The behind-the-scenes discussions
about family policy suggest Mr. Trump is quietly building an ambitious plan to
promote the issue, even as he focuses much of his attention on higher-profile
priorities such as federal cuts, tariffs and mass deportations. Project
2025, the policy blueprint that has forecast much of Mr. Trump’s agenda so far,
discusses family issues before anything else, opening its first chapter with a
promise to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life.”
If this sounds familiar, you are a
better student of history than most people.
The Nazi regime sought to racially reshape German society. As part of
this effort, the Nazis created the Lebensborn
program. The program encouraged so-called “Aryan” Germans
deemed “hereditarily healthy” to have children. It provided unwed pregnant
women with medical care in discreet residences so that they could give birth
far away from the potential judgment of family members and neighbors. Under
this program, newborns were only released to their mothers’ care if the
authorities agreed. Many of the children were placed with adoptive families
instead.
The Lebensborn program expanded during World
War II. German authorities kidnapped foreign children and placed
them with German families. The families then raised the children to believe
that they were German.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/holocaust/1933-1938/creation-of-lebensborn-program
The Cross
of Honor of the German Mother (German: Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter), referred to colloquially as the Mutterehrenkreuz (Mother's
Cross of Honour) or simply Mutterkreuz (Mother's Cross), was a state
decoration conferred by the government of Nazi Germany to honour a German-citizen mother for
exceptional merit to the German nation. Eligibility later
extended to include ethnic German ('Volksdeutsche') mothers from, for
example, Austria and Sudetenland, that had earlier been
incorporated into the German Reich. Under the Nuremberg laws, German Jews and those of partial Jewish ancestry were not
considered full citizens (Reichsbürger) and were not eligible for the Cross of Honour.
The decoration was
conferred from 1939 until 1945 in three classes: bronze, silver, and gold, to Reichsdeutsche mothers who
exhibited probity, exemplary motherhood, and who conceived and raised at least four children in
the role of a parent.[
Classes
·
1st class, Gold Cross:
eligible mothers with eight or more children
·
2nd class, Silver Cross:
eligible mothers with six or seven children
·
3rd class, Bronze Cross:
eligible mothers with four or five children
Women who
qualified for the medal had special privileges, which are listed in the link posted
below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honour_of_the_German_Mother
Since our
freedoms today are under attacked in America, it is worthwhile to compare what
was happening in Germany in the 1930’s to the America of today.
Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany comprised
several laws that segregated the Jews from
German society and restricted Jewish people's political, legal and civil rights. Major legislative initiatives included a series of
restrictive laws passed in 1933, the Nuremberg
Laws of 1935, and a final wave of
legislation preceding Germany's entry into World War
In April 1933, the Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, or 'Civil Service Law', as it was more commonly known when
passed, established the ability of the Nazi-led government to legally
remove undesirables from the civil service profession, including doctors,
teachers and lawyers.
The
Trump administration is moving forward with efforts to make it easier to fire
some federal workers from their jobs, as part of its push to both shrink the
federal government and exert more control over it.
On Friday the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) proposed a rule reclassifying tens of thousands of career
civil servants as "at-will" employees, the White House announced in a
statement. Removing civil service protections would make workers easier to
fire.
The White House said the proposed rule
would address "unaccountable, policy-determining federal employees who put
their own interests ahead of the American people's."
President
Trump and his allies, including billionaire Elon Musk, have said they want to
"dismantle
government bureaucracy," which they criticize as a "deep state,"
and root out what Trump has called "rogue
bureaucrats." They've claimed, without presenting evidence, that
the government is rife with corrupt employees and non-existent workers.
Trump has long argued that his administration should have greater flexibility
in appointing people who will faithfully carry out his agenda and firing those
who won't.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5369550/trump-federal-workers-schedule-f
Law Concerning Admission to the Legal Profession
This act of legislation was also passed in April as a supplement to the
Civil Service Law. This law specifically attacked judges and public
prosecutors, and forbade any Jews
from taking the Bar examination which
was necessary to become a lawyer.[
It is no secret that Trump has been attacking judges
that he does not agree with, whether if is Fanni Willis, Letitia James, and
even many of the lower courts. A few days ago, he openly defied an order from
the Supreme Court that required him to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United
States from a prison in El Salvador, even though he had not committed any
crimes, and was sent there by mistake.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/who-is-kilmar-abrego-garcia-what-to-know-about-father-deported-to-el-salvador/3722843/
Looking to further enact their racial
agenda, the Nazi party then looked toward curbing educational policy. On April
25, 1933, the Law Against the Over-Crowding of German schools was passed, and
required an end to any Weimar teachings that discussed democracy and
equality; it enforced the teaching of racial pride.
The Trump administration has been threatening to
withhold funding from any school that teaches DEI.
July 1933 Citizenship and Denaturalization Law
With the goal of
excluding Jews from having full citizenship rights, an Advisory Committee for
Population and Race Policy met at the ministry of the Interior to discuss a new
citizenship law.[8]
What followed was
the Denaturalization Law passed on July 14. As a result of this law, the Reich
government could take away the citizenship of those who were deemed
"undesirable", applying to anyone who had been given citizenship by
the Weimar government. Those who saw the results of this law first were the
"150,000 Eastern Jews in Germany"
In America,
there are a number of ways that people can become citizens.
https://citizenpath.com/ways-to-become-a-us-citizen/
Citizenship through Birth
Citizenship through Acquisition
Citizenship through Derivation
Citizenship through Naturalization
Trump has been trying to take away birthright
citizenship, which was first granted by congress in 1868. Trump’s mother was
born in Scotland, and his current wife was born in Slovenia. Without the right
of naturalization, they would not be citizens, and neither would Arnold Schwarzenegger,
the former governor of California.
Establishment of the Chambers of Culture]
On September 29,
1933, the power of Jewish Cultural life in Germany was transferred to Joseph Goebbels, who established chambers of
culture that would regulate activity in their chamber of either film, theater,
music, fine arts, literature, broadcasting, and the press. The chambers of
the different genres of culture were combined in their umbrella body, the Reich Chamber of
Culture.
Each Chamber had
the power to exclude anyone involved in any of the facets of culture, even
without an "Aryan clause" written into the legislation.
For example, the
film chamber could dismiss any Jews involved in any stages of the film-making
process including the "producer, actors and ticket collectors in the
theater". To continue involvement in the film industry one would need
"licensed permission from the chamber president".
As a supplement to
the Chambers of Culture, a journalism law went into effect on October 4, 1933,
stating that to produce work for the press, journalists and editors
would also need specific legal permission
The Kennedy Center's board voted unanimously to elect
President Trump to be its new chair Wednesday afternoon, as the president
reshapes the center's governing body and performances, moving away
from what he views as "woke culture," multiple sources told CBS News.
One board member, Jacqueline Mars was present, but did not
vote, one source said. After Mr. Trump announced plans last week to remove the
Kennedy Center's chairman and board of trustees and install himself as
chairman, the White House has begun filling board member slots that are open,
sources say.
New members of the
board included White House officials, family members of administration
officials, donors and their spouses.
Mr. Trump doesn't want
productions to lean into "woke culture," as he
believes they have in the past. But some programs will proceed as planned, such
as Hadyn's "Creation," based on the Biblical creation story and
performed by the Choral Arts orchestra and symphonic chorus, one source
said.
And the lineup — theater, music, singing, dance — will
continue. But Mr. Trump wants the performances to appeal to what he views as a
broader, more inclusive and more balanced audience, instead of those that only
appeal to half the country, one person said.
Some content on the Kennedy Center website is also
expected to be removed, including a reference to the fact that the center is
"standing on
the traditional land"
of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway tribes.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-reshaping-kennedy-center-board-performances/
Second wave of anti-Jewish legislation, 1938–1939
After the
Nuremberg Legislations and during 1938, "worse than total expropriation
was to follow: Economic harassment and even violence would henceforward be used
to force the Jews to flee the Reich or the newly annexed Austria. Within the
second phase, 1938 was the fateful turning point."
De-certification
of all Jewish physicians, who were no longer allowed to treat German patients
and forced to refer to themselves as "sick-treaters", a degrading
term.
March 22, 1938
Jews were forbidden from owning private gardens.
July 27, 1938 A decree was enforced stating all streets in Germany needed
to be renamed.
Trump recently declared that the Gulf of Mexico was now
the Gulf of America, and he also changed the name of Denali to its original name
of Mr. McKinley.
November 12, 1938
Jews were forbidden from attending movie theaters, the opera, and concerts
November 15, 1938
Jewish children barred from attending public schools.
Damian Felipe Jimenez has many dreams
about his future — he could be a restaurant owner, a scientist or maybe
something else. As he works through sixth grade, he knows education will be
critical in making his dreams a reality, but he’s increasingly worried that
option could soon disappear for some of his classmates.
Felipe Jimenez is one of hundreds of
children who have packed the Tennessee Capitol this year to oppose legislation
designed to upend the long-standing U.S. constitutional right to free public
education for children, regardless of immigration status. It’s a protection
established by the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which struck down a Texas law that
sought to deny enrollment to any student not “legally admitted” into the
country.
“I am the son of immigrant parents who
have shown me to respect and value everyone,” Felipe Jimenez told lawmakers
earlier this year, speaking on behalf of the impact the bill would have on his
peers. “Just like me and all the kids in this country, we have the right to
dream and make those dreams come true. The right to an education should not be
taken away from us because of our immigration status.”
A
growing number of conservative leaders are pushing states to overturn Plyler v.
Doe — including the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. This year, Tennessee’s Republican
lawmakers appear the most willing to take up the cause by advancing legislation
that directly contradicts the Supreme Court’s decision and would spark a legal
battle that supporters hope will not only go before the high court but also allow justices to reverse the ruling.
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-immigration-students-73e446fc2e12299d49c94ce4101b4884
Kristallnacht, or the
"night of broken glass", refers to Jewish pogroms that took place on
November 9 and 10 in 1938. The wave of violence occurred in Germany, annexed
Austria, and areas of Sudetenland that were occupied by Germany These
attacks targeted synagogues, Jewish-owned businesses, other Jewish
establishments, and Jewish citizens in general. More than 100 Jewish people
were killed, and thousands more were arrested during these attacks. This was
the start of organized Nazi attacks, and the mass incarceration of the Jews.
There were no clear instructions on how to execute the violence, so it caused
the destroying of Jewish property and inhumane treatment of Jewish people The
rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and Sudetenland.
Firefighters were instructed to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby
buildings, but not to put the fires out on the burning synagogues. There were
also about 7,500 Jewish-owned establishments that were robbed and had their
windows shattered. About 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and moved to prisons
or concentration camps as well. The German government placed full blame on the
Jews for the destructions and imposed a fine of one billion Reichsmark on the Jewish community. The
government took away all insurance payouts that would go to the Jews whose
businesses or homes got destroyed. This left the Jews responsible for the costs
of all repairs.
This led to many
decrees in the weeks following. These decrees were designed to deprive the Jews
of their means of living. Many of these movements enforced "Aryanization" policy.
This meant that Jewish-owned property would be transferred to "Aryan"
ownership for a fraction of the true value. To further remove the Jews from
public life, the Jews were expelled from attending German schools, and they
lost the right to have a driver's license or own an automobile.[23]
Kristallnacht was
essentially the turning point in the Nazis persecution of the Jewish people. It
expanded the efforts to remove Jews from German economic and social life. It
also led to forced emigration of Jews in order to make Germany free of Jews. Kristallnacht
and the events that followed it showed the Nazi regime that they could count on
the nationwide support of anti-Semitism from the general public. This showed
the Nazis that they could easily move forward with their plans without much opposition
from within Germany. The events of Kristallnacht foreshadowed the Holocaust and
mass murders of the Jewish people.
After Kristallnacht, many
German Jews knew that they had to leave the country. As a result, many German
Jews realized that they had to leave the country.
MS St.
Louis was a diesel-powered ocean liner built by the Bremer Vulkan shipyards in Bremen for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).
She was named after the city of St. Louis, Missouri. She was the sister ship of Milwaukee. St.
Louis regularly sailed the trans-Atlantic route from Hamburg to Halifax, Nova Scotia,
and New York City, and made cruises to the Canary Islands, Madeira, Spain, and Morocco. St. Louis was built for
both transatlantic liner service and for leisure cruises.
In 1939, during
the build-up to World War II,
the St. Louis carried more than 900 Jewish refugees
from Nazi Germany intending
to escape antisemitic persecution. The refugees first tried to disembark
in Cuba but
were denied permission to land. After Cuba, the captain, Gustav Schröder,
went to the United States and Canada, trying to find a nation to take the Jews
in, but both nations refused. He finally returned the ship to Europe, where various countries, including
the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, accepted some refugees. Many were later
caught in Nazi roundups of Jews in the occupied
countries of Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and some historians have
estimated that approximately a quarter of them were killed in death camps during
the Holocaust. These events, also known as the
"Voyage of the Damned", have inspired film, opera,
and fiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
The essential
robbery of Jews became legal when Jews were forced on February 21, 1939, to
turn in all jewelry of any value.
In this second
wave of legislation, Jews were ostracized even further from society, with
strict restrictions living under "a German regime that practiced terror
and arbitrariness through the judicial system".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Jewish_legislation_in_pre-war_Nazi_Germany
On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius
Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund
billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington's Birthday, as a pro-"Americanism" rally; the stage at the
event featured a huge portrait of George
Washington with swastikas on each side. Approximately 100,000 anti-Nazi
counter-protesters gathered outside, attempting to break through lines of
police officers guarding the rally on three occasions. The Bund rapidly
declined in the aftermath of the rally, not owed to the outbreak of World War II, but with Kuhn being imprisoned for embezzlement by the end
of the year and his successors being prosecuted for espionage
Even today, antisemitism is the leading cause of hate
crimes in America, as exemplified by the Charlottsville march in August of
2017.
Under trump, our democracy is under siege, and we are
now a fascist state. If you review the 12 warning signs posted in the link
below, you will see that we are already there.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/
Until the
2026 midterms, it will be difficult to change the direction of the country.
So far, the courts
have been successful at rolling back some of Trump’s ideas, but he has
progressed to the point that he is now ignoring the decrees of the Supreme court.
Congress can
help somewhat, but since the Democrats are the majority party in both the House
and the Senate, its power is limited, which means that it is up to us to fight
back.
In the near term,
the nationwide rallies organized by 50501 are having an effect.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=50501
Costco is one of
the companies that are refusing to drop DEI programs, and Harvard has just sued
the administration because Trump wants too much control over its program.
Not all
corporations are as brave.
ABC recently agreed
to pay Trump $15 million to settle a defamation suit involved an interview by
George Stephanopoulos, and a New York law firm agreed to provide $40 million in
free legal fees so that its members could still enter federal buildings.
However, CBS News entered a new period of turmoil on Tuesday after
the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, said that he would
resign from the long-running Sunday news program, citing encroachments on his
journalistic independence.
In an extraordinary declaration, Mr. Owens — only the third
person to run the program in its 57-year
history — told his staff in a memo that “over the past months, it has become
clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to
make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for
the audience.”
“So, having defended this show — and what we stand for —
from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the
show can move forward,” he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New
York Times.
“60 Minutes” has faced mounting
pressure in recent months from both President Trump, who sued CBS for $10
billion and has accused the program of
“unlawful and illegal behavior,” and its own corporate ownership at Paramount,
the parent company of CBS News.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/media/cbs-60-minutes-trump-bill-owens.html
Harvard
University announced Monday that it has filed suit to halt a federal freeze on
more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the
Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
In
an April 11 letter to Harvard, the Trump administration had called for broad
government and leadership reforms at the university and changes to its
admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity
on campus and stop recognizing some student clubs. The administration has argued universities
allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against
Israel’s war in Gaza.
Harvard
President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the demands. Hours
later, the government froze billions of dollars in federal funding.
“The
Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between
antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other
research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American
success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a
global leader in innovation,” said the lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court.
“Nor
has the Government acknowledged the significant consequences that the
indefinite freeze of billions of dollars in federal research funding will have
on Harvard’s research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the
national interest in furthering American innovation and progress,” it added.
Harvard has been joined by 269 members of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, who have pledged to defend academic freedom.
https://apnews.com/article/harvard-trump-lawsuit-grants-f098f55c6986b37e1227e7bcf8967a46
In contrast, Columbia
University made changed in its policies in order to preserve $400 million in
federal grants.
Sharon and I
attended the “oligarchy tour that featured Bernie Sanders and AOC at a local
high school, and we shared space with 23,000 other people. Even it you never
attend a rally, there are three things you can do to make America a good place
again:
1)
Vote
2)
Educate
as many people as you can about the dangers that the current administration is
forcing on the public.
3)
Never
give up
