<![CDATA[THE BOSTON AMERICAN

Seriously. Jimmy Kimmel, James Comey… who’s next, Jimmy freakin’ Carter? (Granted, the guy did have the gall to put solar panels on the White House.) Hell, throw in Jim Nabors for the weirdest possible flex. How about Henson, or Brown (pick one)? Jim Rice could have some skeletons. And we know Fallon's not going unnoticed. It’s getting ridiculous. First they yank a late-night guy off the air for saying stuff late-night hosts have been saying for decades. Then, in a clear vengeance move and publicity stunt, they unprecedentedly accuse an ex-FBI director of lying under oath and slap him with charges that would equate to a 5-year prison sentence if they could ever stick. Next thing you know, this list is longer than a Jeffrey Epstein birthday invitation's.

If somebody handed me this mess as a comedy sketch or jeopardy category — “I’ll take famous Jim’s sucked into the political spotlight for $200, Alex.” I might chuckle. But it’s not a sketch or a gameshow. It’s propaganda theater. And the producers are aiming the spotlight, the cameras, the PR, and yes — the prosecutors — at whatever, and whoever, suits the Project 2025 script.

Here’s the setup to this rant: From the campaign trail to today, Trump says he’s got nothing to do with Project 2025, and his sidekick Stephen Miller is pretending he’s just some policy wonk who left a 900-page “how-to” manual lying around. Come on. These guys are about as unfamiliar with Project 2025 as Belichick was with Tom Brady’s under-inflated balls. It’s right there in front of us. The reason they deny it isn’t ignorance — it’s fear. They know how radical this thing sounds if you say it out loud. But actions speak louder than denials, and if you watch closely, you can see the plays being run one after another.

So what is Project 2025? It’s not a policy memo. It’s not a think piece. It’s a 900-page bible (see the WSJ link below) led by the Heritage Foundation — the conservative mothership of think tanks. Think of it like an IKEA instruction booklet for reshaping America's Democracy, except when you’re done you don’t have a bookshelf, you’ve dismantled the Department of Education, rolled back LGBTQ rights, put a bullet in "woke", kneecapped abortion access, and handed the Oval Office a stack of new executive powers that allows conservatives to crawl out of the corner with the confidence of a January 6th insurrectionist.

HERE ARE THE JIMMY CLIFF NOTES:

1. Reshape the Federal Government

Purge the bureaucracy: Remove tens of thousands of career civil servants (“Schedule F” plan) and replace them with political loyalists.
Centralize executive power: Shift authority from independent agencies to the Oval Office.
Shrink or eliminate entire departments: Especially the Department of Education, which conservatives view as unnecessary.
Roll back regulatory agencies: Slash budgets and power of agencies like the EPA, FCC, and OSHA

2. Social and Cultural Policy

Eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs in all federal offices, universities, and contractors.
Reverse abortion protections: Push for nationwide restrictions, even if Roe is overturned at the state level.
Curtail LGBTQ rights: Limit protections in schools, workplaces, and healthcare; restrict gender-affirming care.
Promote “traditional family values”: Increase funding for anti-abortion and faith-based groups.

3. Immigration and Borders

Mass deportations: Reinstate and expand Trump-era enforcement like Title 42 expulsions.
Build detention infrastructure: Larger capacity for holding undocumented migrants.
Expand the border wall and surveillance: Accelerated construction and digital tracking.
Curtail asylum: Make it harder to apply for and receive asylum protections.

4. Law, Order, and Justice

Stack the DOJ with loyalists: Reduce independence of the FBI and DOJ; pursue political investigations when directed by the White House.
Limit voting access: Encourage state-level restrictions on mail-in ballots, early voting, and registration drives.
Tough-on-crime agenda: Increase penalties and expand police authority.

5. Media and Communications

Rein in the FCC: Loosen restrictions on media ownership (allowing consolidation).
Tilt public broadcasting: Push PBS and NPR to eliminate perceived “liberal bias,” or defund them.
Control digital speech: Remove government efforts to counter disinformation; pressure social media companies.

6. Economic and Energy Policy

Drill, baby, drill: Expand fossil fuel exploration, pipelines, and coal use.
Slash environmental rules: Roll back climate change initiatives, defund green energy projects.
Weaken labor protections: Target unions, overtime rules, and minimum wage expansions.
Privatize federal programs: Open space, infrastructure, and even parts of Social Security/Medicare to private competition.

7. Education and Schools

Dismantle the Department of Education: Push decisions down to states and localities.
Promote “school choice”: Funnel public funds into private and charter schools, especially religious ones.
Censor curricula: Restrict teaching on race, gender, and sexuality; promote “patriotic education.”

8. Foreign Policy

America First doctrine: Reduce foreign aid, pressure NATO allies, and scale back multilateral commitments.
Tough on China: Trade restrictions, tech decoupling, military expansion in the Pacific.
Pro-Israel priority: Support conservative policies in the Middle East.

In short: Project 2025 is not just a wish list — it’s a manual for remaking the American federal government and society in a more authoritarian, Christian nationalist, and corporate-friendly mold.

And let’s not kid ourselves about who’s driving it. At the top sits Stephen Miller. Trump’s longtime aide, speechwriter, and immigration hardliner. His fingerprints are all over the harshest sections, even though he now pretends he’s just a guy polishing silverware. Then there’s the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank founded in 1973 with the mission of turning conservative ideas into plug-and-play policy. They were behind Reagan’s “Mandate for Leadership” in the 1980s, which became the governing bible of his administration. Project 2025 is the sequel — except this time, it’s got over a hundred groups in the huddle: the Family Research Council, Independent Women’s Forum, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Institute for Energy Research, and a revolving door of Trump staffers who left government, wrote this playbook, and got back in line for their jobs - and got them.

Russell Vought, Trump’s budget guy, wrote big chunks of the bureaucracy section. Brendan Carr, still sitting at the FCC, wrote the telecom and media chapters. And Tom Homan, Trump's "Border Czar"? (Is it me, or does that not sound like a party planner at a mexican restaurant?) He's the former ICE director who was a key contributor to the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. The policy book published by the Heritage Foundation as part of Project 2025 which included large-scale deportations. John McEntee, the gatekeeper of personnel, is right there again. Even E.J. Antoni, a Heritage economist, is Trump’s man on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Kevin Roberts, current president of Heritage? In April 2022, Trump and Roberts took a private 45-minute flight to a Heritage conference. At the event, Trump praised the organization, saying they would "lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do".

The Point? This isn’t some fringe organization like the 'Proud Boys'. These are powerful, extremely well financed people in the building with the President of the United States of America today.

So, why are their underoos all bundled up? Let’s do a little look back, shall we?

You might say we should have seen this coming. Because for fifty years the squeaky (less than humble) liberal side stacked up wins that changed the country in ways that stuck. Civil rights ended segregation. Women’s rights opened doors in schools and workplaces. Roe v. Wade enshrined reproductive rights. The EPA and clean air and water laws gave us something resembling breathable skies. Same-sex marriage became the law of the land. Barack Obama was elected and gave us Obamacare which expanded health coverage to millions. Add in Title IX, DEI programs, and you’ve got a half-century of structural shifts that weren’t just election-season talking points — they were permanent changes to the field of play. To conservatives, each one was a punch in the gut. And by the 2010s they were sick of the stomachache. Winning seats in elections wouldn't cut it anymore. They wanted to change the rules of the game. Project 2025 is the game plan.

If this all feels new, guess again.
A century ago, progressives wrote their own playbook. The country was a mess of robber barons, monopolies, child labor, and machine politics. Reformers didn’t just complain — they rewrote the rules. Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle and out came the FDA. Journalists like Ida Tarbell dragged Standard Oil through the muck — literally why they were called muckrakers, because they raked the filth out into daylight. Then came FDR with the New Deal: Social Security, unemployment insurance, the government as a backstop. Then LBJ with the Great Society: Medicare, Medicaid, federal aid to education. Those reforms stuck. They didn’t just win elections — they changed the entire game.

That’s the mirror. Progressives used a playbook to expand democracy and spread power wider to the citizens, and it had serious momentum. Project 2025 is conservatives embodying their own Mein Kampf to contract it, concentrate it, and claw back everything that got away from them. The progressives said, "Spread the wealth". While the conservatives are saying, "Stop compromising" and "Build a propaganda machine... We'll put a puppet on top who’s ego-driven enough and empathy-devoid enough, to blather on while we quietly do the real work."

And while we’re here, let’s talk about the media angle. Control the story, control the field. That’s why Jimmy Kimmel’s (and Stephen Colbert's) suspension wasn’t just late-night drama — it was a warning shot. Say the wrong thing, step out of line, and suddenly the FCC, the network, the sponsors all decide you’re radioactive. It’s why you should be paying attention to deals like the Nextstar merger, too. Media consolidation isn’t an accident. It’s part of the same playbook: fewer voices, tighter control, louder propaganda. Reagan’s crew figured it out with talk radio. Today’s version is cable, streaming, digital, and yes, gutting the FCC’s guardrails to tilt the coverage.

And guess who probaly helped: Remember Occupy Wall Street? Back in 2011, a bunch of kids with tents and Twitter feeds managed to shift the national vocabulary with “the 99% vs. the 1%.” It was impressive as hell, for a second. But they didn’t have a plan, they didn’t have structure, and they fizzled out. However, they proved that raw anger can catch fire. That fire later fueled both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, just channeled in different directions. Occupy was what happens when you have outrage without architecture. Project 2025 is what happens when you take outrage, give it architecture, and fund it to the hilt.

So, why deny it? Why not just say: "PROJECT 2025 LIGHTS MY FIRE, BABY!" out loud?
Because they know how extreme it sounds. If they admitted that Project 2025 is the plan, they’d lose independents overnight. So they do the two-step: deny the blueprint, execute the outcomes. Trump says he’s never heard of it, while policy after policy matches its pages. Miller claims he’s not involved, even though his fingerprints are smeared across the immigration sections like barbecue sauce on a rib joint menu. They’re not denying because it’s false. They’re denying because it’s true — and too radical to sell honestly.

That’s the tell. If Project 2025 were mild tinkering, they’d brag about it. The fact that they’re running from it while enacting it is proof enough of how extreme it is. Which leaves us with a choice: pay attention, or get played. Because here’s the bottom line: Project 2025 isn’t coming. It’s here. It’s not a campaign promise. It’s not a policy debate. It’s a playbook. The plays are being run, the refs are looking the other way, and the scoreboard isn’t going to fix itself. Don’t be duped. Don’t laugh it off as just another headline about another Jim in the spotlight.

[end scene]

Here are a few video links to stir up some dinner conversation at your next Chamber of Commerce meeting:

CNBC Trump’s Presidential Debate with Kamala Harris: Trump denies having anything to do with Project 2025: https://youtube.com/shorts/2GJwYsNsGdk?feature=shared

MSNBC interview with Stephen Miller where he denies Project 2025 being a foundation of Trump policy, despite several alignments with the election campaign playbook: https://youtu.be/65hE3Ll1Fec?feature=shared

What is Project 2025? Defined by WSJ: https://youtu.be/y16SZhZJHkI?feature=shared

PBS Newshour Explores Project 2025's origins and goals to reshape American culture: https://youtu.be/z7rASQFXZjM?feature=shared

Fox Affiliate reporting Trump denies knowing much about Project 2025: https://youtu.be/_jmXS87BmnU?feature=shared

MSNBC Shows Project 2025 architects who are now in Trump’s administration: https://youtu.be/LnGsyz4-xf4?feature=shared