From Sequester To Shutdown: How Nation’s Top HIV/AIDS Organization Stays Open
GOP’s Actions Preventing Americans From Eating
Speaker of the House John Boehner and his House Tea Party Republicans are enjoying their government shutdown, which follows in the footsteps of their government sequester, but most Americans are not happy at all. Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee may like yelling fire in a crowded Congress, upsetting centuries of tradition that guide orderly lawmaking, but average Americans, and those in extraordinary need, aren’t invited onto “Meet The Press” to talk about their “vision” for America.
Yes, sadly, those Americans whose voices aren’t given free access to CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC platforms to share — or spin — their stories are of course the ones who are most affected by a shuttered and sequestered federal government.
When the sequester hit in March, it hit ordinary Americans who rely on food stamps and other critical and life-saving government services hard. It also hit hard countless non-profits and the people they work tirelessly to help.
Now that we’ve moved from sequester to shutdown, from cutting some funding and services to cutting almost all, those most in need among us are really hurting — and many are really hungry.
And it takes an extraordinary response from non-government organizations to be the safety net for an ever-growing number of Americans.
Take GMHC for instance. Gay Men’s Health Crisis was its name decades ago — today it’s just GMHC — and it is actually not only the nation’s leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy, but the world’s. And it was the first.
Based in New York City, the 31-year old non-profit told The New Civil Rights Movement yesterday what they think of how the federal government is treating the people they exist to help and care for. GMHC has been forced to reduce and lay off staff, reduce meal sizes, reduce the food they distribute, and, if that weren’t bad enough, reduce mental health services.
“I am enraged,” Janet Weinberg, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer for GMHC told The New Civil Rights Movement via email. “Every day at GMHC we provide critical services to New Yorkers from all boroughs, of many ages, Black, White, Latino, from all walks of life and sexual orientations. However, what most of them share in common is the need for affordable, quality, life-saving healthcare.
“Elected officials need to be in touch with their uninsured constituents who desperately need and want health care insurance. They need to listen to our clients’ stories and learn the consequences of their actions. GMHC and our clients feel those consequences every day.
“Because of the sequester and other federal funding cuts, GMHC had to reduce services and lay off staff who fulfilled those valued services that were cut,” Weinberg told us. “Even though many people living with HIV and AIDS come to our dining room to enjoy their only hot, nutritious meal of the day, cuts to these programs mean we can no longer offer them seconds. We’ve had to reduce the groceries we distribute in our food pantry program, and can no longer offer a waiting list.
“My heart sank recently when I heard that, because of cuts in mental health services, someone who came to us for help who has mental health issues and just lost his job had to be placed on a waiting list to see a counselor.”
But Weinberg promises that “despite the federal government shutdown, GMHC will continue to be here for New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS.”
“We are able to stay open even though we will not receive our government grant funds during this shut down. However, we need Congress to do its job and stop playing games with people’s healthcare.â€
The government shutdown, and the sequester, have real consequences — not for members of Congress, most of whom will be re-elected from their gerrymandered districts — but for real Americans in need.
Good and vital organizations like GMHC, exist to serve. Congress is supposed to. It’s time for that to start happening again.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
