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Summary

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a memo prioritizing federal funding for communities with marriage and birth rates above the national average.

The directive, which applies to grants, loans, and contracts, also prioritizes projects benefiting families with young children.

A congressional aide criticized the policy, saying, “Considering fertility rates when prioritizing federal grants? We obviously have no idea what the full impact of that will be… It’s absolutely creepy. It’s a little ‘Chinese government.’”

The memo also blocks mask mandates and requires compliance with immigration enforcement.

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[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 79 points 3 days ago

Wait until conservatives find out that communities with high birth rates are not white.

[-] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 12 points 2 days ago

The ones actually running the show don't actually care what skin color they have so long as they are able to work them hard with minimal labor protections and rock bottom wages.

If you look around at the news articles out there... nobody is talking about farmhands getting picked up by ICE. It seems to be exclusively people in major cities. Maybe someone has seen some articles talking about ICE arrests at places of work, but it seems like this time the goal is to nab them at church, the grocery store or when they are bringing their kids to and from school.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Cheap labor. Meat for the grinder.

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[-] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 214 points 3 days ago

Remember how all the protest voters told us how Harris would have been the exact same? Something about the DNC not offering a candidate that would be any better than trump?

Yeah… Don’t believe them when they try to tell you that they didn’t go out of their way to help make this happen.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 111 points 3 days ago

Yep. Quite a few of them have gone quiet, I've noticed. Not one of them has apologized for their cloying sanctimony before the election, no matter how wrong it was.

[-] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 73 points 3 days ago

They have gone quiet because the project is now wound down. Dufus is in the white house, so they have been moved to a new task.

[-] tiefling 33 points 3 days ago

They've moved on to directly attacking trans people and bipoc

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[-] CooperRedArmyDog@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

Still here, not going to appologize, I stand by my statement, both of them are facist, and the only two difrences between them where trajectory into utter decay, and retoric. Both of them make libs sanctamonious and tell me that I cannot call a spade a spade because the spade is actualy a hoe (it is very much a spade).

I never said they where congurent, or exactly the same, I said they where in the long run equivelent, and I stand by that statment. I said that Harris did nothing to earn my vote, and I stand by that, I said that running on "I am slightly less bad than the other guy and because there are only 2 parties that means you have to chose me" is not a sound or acceptable electoral stratagy, and I once agian stand by that. I said that her winding down her "they are wierd" and "Its neighborly not to hord wealth and be a rich ghool" tactics, that where working, and where austensably the reasons she chose Walz as her running mate because her brother in law, an Uber Exec did not like it was moronic and I stand by it.

Why have I decided not to keep posting about this, because your lot has stopped screaming that I have to cast a vote to someone that if I did I would not be able to sleep at night because I made an afermitive choice to suport them, because i see no significant disagreement between your view that "trump is a facist and the US is NOW facist" and mine "Wow trump as expected really plunged at a steep slope, he took some of the plausable denyability out before I was expecting, but it does not change that the Previously Facist US that is still Facist is moving down the Facism railway" so there is no god damn reason for me to post about it all the time

And before you ask, yes I know there are lives at stake and live are being torn apart, I am aware and not unsympethetic, no I do not think that it would have accelerated this fast with Harris, no I am not an accelerationis, no I did not "want" trump, yes if only 2 options exist harris would have been the slightly better one, but agian that is like saying eat dog shit, or eat dog shit coated in chocolate, I am not going to willingly chose either of those options.

So no, I am not sorry, no I am not gone, and no I am not "quiet" I just see no significant disagreement on the basis that I feel the need to write a comment, let alone now that election season is over you see a whole lot less trying to tell me that one would be the greatest thing ever.

[-] korazail@lemmy.myserv.one 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'll repeat and elaborate on something I said a few times before the election. As a preface, I fully understand your desire to not just 'choose the lesser evil', but the timing of your (the collective you, all the people who either sat out the election or, worse, convinced others to sit out) decision to make a stand is the part I take offense to.

The time to choose the lesser evil is when you have only those two choices and neither are good. You did indeed have a third choice, but that third choice was to walk away and potentially let the greater evil win -- which it did. In that way, you are partially responsible for that greater evil succeeding. Had you (collectively) voted for the lesser evil, we would not be slashing federal staffing, waging cold trade wars, deporting people, and letting several idiotic and vengeful toddlers run this country into the ground right now.

The time to take your stand is actually, RIGHT NOW. If you are not engaged in trying to field a better candidate, then you are letting the "system" drive instead, and it will continue to present democratic leadership that is not aligned with your beliefs. You alone probably can't make any significant impact, unless you happen to be wealthy and have tons of free time and want to go run for office. However, if all those people who were 'BoTh SiDeS!'-ing in October would come back and continue to hammer on the Democratic party to put forth candidates that reflect their values, we might actually get somewhere.

The way to do this is simple, but hard:

  1. Identify your local, precinct, Democratic party organization.
  2. Join it.
  3. (hard part) Engage and promote your values.


Either find candidates or run for offices. Failing that --which I'd admit is challenging; public service is not lucrative and is also very unstable, which is why we generally see already-rich old people in those positions -- become an advocate for your policies and rise up through precinct, district and state to reach the national stage.

If you are not working on those goals, Shut the fuck up and vote for the lesser evil. You are not helping anyone by posting here.

I've done step 2. My values mostly align with my precinct Democrats, and I helped with Get-Out-The-Vote initiatives in my area. What did you do to prevent fascism?

Still here, not going to appologize, I stand by my statement, both of them are facist, ...

I'd also like to point you to Wikipedia's article on Fascism and see if you can provide a few examples of where Kamala Harris espoused those particular values. For each item in that first paragraph, I could quickly find you something where trump tells you that's him. A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on, though, and maybe someone else can take over if you need examples and can't google by yourself... Kamala was going to at least stay within the system, while trump is going to destroy it.

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[-] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I sincerely hope that each and every one of them is at least capable of feeling guilt. Because I so badly want them to suffer the guilt of having helped caused this. I don’t even care anymore that they refuse to admit it. They know it, I know it- them admitting it doesn’t make it better.

Knowing they feel the full weight of guilt pressing on them for being partially responsible for everything that will happen as a result of their ignorance?

Yeah… That does make it a little better.

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[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago

How many more times do Republicans need to win before Democrats stop blaming voters?

[-] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

How many more times do republicans need to win before protesters decide to get off their ass and participate?

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[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 29 points 3 days ago

Yeah, this is all the voters’ fault!

Quite the naive take you have there, playing right into the divide and conquer strategy which fascists love to employ.

Many of those protest voters have been intensely pressuring the DNC to make serious changes to their leadership to signify they do actually intend to learn something from their defeat and do better next time. So far, Dems have largely refused to do so. In fact Dems seem intent on making the same mistakes again in the next election cycle - so buckle up for an even more devastating loss next time. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow find a way to forego a democratic primary again in ‘28, if we make it that far. It will be alright though, for them - they have been assured the donor checks will keep coming, and they can continue grifting with insider trading through the next term. Just like these fossils have been doing for the past 50 years.

Dems/Liberalism can not save us from fascism.

[-] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ninety million people didn’t vote. That’s over one third of the voting body of the country. Third party votes made up another three million. Don’t even try to offload the responsibility non-voting had in the mess we’re in.

And don’t pull that “divide and conquer” bullshit here. We all tried to get you to join us in solidarity against trump. You refused. So no, that shit isn’t going to play here at all and you should be embarrassed for even thinking about mentioning it.

Hypocrite.

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[-] riskable@programming.dev 209 points 4 days ago

Prioritize funding for places with higher birth rates, you say? So... Communities with loads of immigrants. Got it.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 120 points 4 days ago
[-] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 37 points 4 days ago

They don’t even have to imply it!

They can just define it with congressional districts or some arbitrary measure that clusters their desired groups and fragments their undesired groups.

Even if this wasn’t the actual, real end to even the charade of U.S. democracy, it would take at least a generation or two to “prove” those policies are hurtful in the courts.
What then? The damage is done. Infrastructure built. Certain groups given generational advantages, certain groups left behind.

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[-] victorz@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

Me and my wife have been watching Handmaid's Tale over the years and we've been saying for some years now that America is way closer than what's comfortable to actually becoming that society. It's actually unreal to see it unfold.

[-] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 74 points 3 days ago

This is going to benefit communities with a lot of hispanic families, lmao.

[-] ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago

They'll find some way to draw up a beneficial neighborhood map that excludes black and brown neighborhoods.

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[-] excral@feddit.org 10 points 3 days ago

Inb4 non-white children born only count as three fifths

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[-] badelf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago

It's not a surprise. The oligarchs are going to need more slaves after they send the army out to kill us.

[-] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 96 points 4 days ago

Not gonna fix old broken roads unless y'all fucking and making babies like rabbits. Florida? NO ROADS FOR YOU! Texas? NO ROADS FOR YOU!

The memos of this administration will go down in history as the dumbest shit ever penned. Even worse the nupties who wrote them will get cushy private sector jobs lobbying or something later.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 36 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

dumbest shit since Bush

which was dumbest since Reagan

which was dumbest since Nixon

you'd better believe it can get worse.

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[-] medicsofanarchy@lemmy.world 74 points 4 days ago

"I was told there would be a medal".

Shamelessly clipped from History.com:

This Day In History: December 16

1938 Hitler establishes Mother’s Cross to encourage German women to procreate

On December 16, 1938, Adolf Hitler institutes the Mother’s Cross, to encourage women of "pure" German origin to increase the size of their families and grow the population of the Third Reich.

The Nazis started such encouragement early. When members the League of German Girls (a wing of of the Hitler Youth movement) turned 18, they became eligible for a branch called Faith and Beauty, which trained these girls in the art of becoming ideal mothers. One component of that ideal was fecundity. And so each year, gold medals were awarded to women with eight children or more, silver medals to women with six to seven, and bronze medals to women with five. The crosses were distributed between 1938 and 1944.

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[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

Also

Wouldn't that just reward areas where the babies have already been made? It's not going to incentivize babymaking. Like what are they imagining? "Hey babe, let's make 5 more of them, we'll get better roads"?

[-] GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There's a movement in the American churches where members are told to fill their quiver, AKA have a lot of kids. I wouldn't be surprised if an order like this came from the christian nationalists with project 2025. They are wanting to build up their own communities and spurn the areas that they aren't populating.

Edit: those kind of people also say that allowing donations to churches to be tax deductible is god's way of rewarding them for tithing. They want the government to reward them for their beliefs.

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

“Considering fertility rates when prioritizing federal grants? We obviously have no idea what the full impact of that will be,” said this aide. “It’s absolutely creepy. It’s a little ‘Chinese government.’ [The Trump administration] would hate that comparison, but I don’t know where else I’ve seen a policy of ‘we need to incentivize baby-making.’”

Can't disagree there, it's very CCP like and creepy.

[-] Australis13@fedia.io 67 points 4 days ago

I feel like they've buried the lead.

In addition to its directives related to marriage and babies, the Transportation Department’s memo blocks recipients of federal money from implementing “mask mandates,” a reference to requirements that transit agencies followed to limit the spread of infection during the height of COVID-19.

The memo also requires recipients to comply with federal immigration enforcement in order to receive funding — the latest effort by the administration to target undocumented immigrants, conduct mass arrests and deportations, and deny federal transportation funds to so-called sanctuary cities.

So (1) no ability for public transport systems to implement measures to stop pandemics (which will be important since avian flu is around the corner) and (2) no federal funding for transport to sanctuary cities (of which Washington D.C. is arguably one).

[-] stormdelay@sh.itjust.works 49 points 4 days ago

(just fyi, it's "buried the lede")

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[-] Noedel@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

This kind of sounds like government officials coming up with a more trump proof way of saying "build infrastructure in areas with predicted growth".

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago

Is there some problem with underpopulation? The qons were always saying "America is full" when it comes to refugees.

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[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 41 points 4 days ago

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2069436850145993

50 States, 50 Protests, 1day

Feb 5 @ your downtown.

Pass the word!

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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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