The Narrative of Power

 📚The Fight to Control the National Story📚

📌After Weekend’s Border Patrol Surge in North Carolina, Governor Says Effort is ‘Stoking Fear’

What Happened: Charlotte, North Carolina is the latest target of the Trump administration's immigration raids despite objections from local leaders and down trending crime rates. Residents report encountering masked, heavily armed agents at churches, apartment complexes, and stores where they are racially profiling people. Governor Stein says these border patrols are “stroking fear” and “dividing our community.”  

Why It Matters: This latest deployment isn’t about safety—it’s about spectacle. When a president targets a city with falling crime rates, they turn their office into a dictatorship. And with local leaders saying no and Washington is forcing it anyway, it’s a reminder that this strategy isn’t grounded in data, only control. These raids are turning everyday spaces into sites of fear, making immigrant families calculate every errand like a risk assessment. Failing to treat immigrants as valuable members of the community, this kind of inhumanity turns people into political props. Instead of addressing real crises like housing costs or rising grocery prices, the administration is manufacturing fear to distract from its failures. 

📌Trump Likely to Face Long Military Commitment and Chaos If He Ousts Maduro in Venezuela, Experts Say

What Happened: Trump believes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s time in office will end soon and that land strikes inside the country are possible. Though the United States does not have the military assets or congressional approval to remove Maduro from power, Trump has approved covert action within Venezuela. Experts warn Trump will face military strife and diplomacy issues if he attempts to oust Maduro.

Why It Matters: This is how a foreign policy crisis starts, with one man testing the limits of power. Trump has already shown he is willing to act without Congress, striking supposed drug boats off the coast of Venezuela. Now he is floating the idea of strikes inside the country itself despite lacking the military capacity or legal authority to remove Maduro from power. Covert operations blur the line between deterrence and provocation, pulling the United States deeper into conflict with no clear end game. If Trump pushes ahead, the fallout will be strained alliances, destabilized diplomacy, and possible military confrontation that puts the safety and wallets of Americans at risk.

📌Enrollment of Immigrant Students Shrinking at Schools Nationwide

What Happened: Schools are seeing a significant drop in enrollment of students from immigrant families, illustrating the widespread impact of Trump’s deportation measures. In many cases, school children are forced to leave behind their education, friends, and community to follow their deported parents.

Why It Matters: The inhumanity of Trump’s deportation agenda extends far beyond the economy. Once someone is deported, they do not only leave behind a job or house, but their families and entire livelihoods. Children lose access to a stable classroom routine once a parent is removed, cutting off learning in the middle of crucial developmental periods. Many families are forced to flee their communities overnight which erases friendships built through years of shared time. Every displacement sends a message that education holds less value than political theater. The result of Trump’s agenda is a generation being pushed off their academic path, not by choice, but through fear-driven policy.

📌Group of South Carolina Lawmakers Look at the Most Restrictive Abortion Bill in the US

What Happened: A small group of South Carolina senators reviewed a bill that would sentence women who get abortions to decades in prison, and the bill also opens the door to restricting IUDs and IVF. Anyone who helps women get an abortion would also face up to 30 years in prison. Though the bill has at least six more steps to go through before being passed, it has gone further than any other such proposal across the United States since Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

Why It Matters: The fall of Roe v. Wade at the hands of Trump created the political space for bills like this to surface. Lawmakers now feel emboldened to treat reproductive care as criminal behavior, something that turns routine medical decisions into potential felonies. This climate shows how quickly a post-Roe landscape can slide from restriction to the literal Handmaid’s Tale. Each proposal—no matter how far they actually go—signals a future where women live under threat of prosecution for choices that they could once make alone. Without safe abortion care, women will die. Republicans even hearing bills like this show that their supposed pro-life beliefs don’t extend to the actual humans living and breathing on this earth.

📌Texas Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court After Federal Judges Block Newly Drawn Congressional Map For Next Year's Midterm Elections

What Happened: After a federal judge blocked the newly drawn congressional map for Texas, state leaders have appealed to the Supreme Court. The map gerrymandered the state to grant more seats to Republicans in the upcoming 2026 midterms. Voters of color who typically vote Democrat were specifically targeted by the maps, disenfranchising already marginalized communities.

Why It Matters: The appeal from Texas state leaders shows that this redistricting battle is far from over. California took a major step by allowing its citizens to approve a map that combats the one in Texas, but efforts by states like Missouri and Florida to unfairly add more Republican seats threatens this progress. If this Supreme Court rules in favor of Texas, it signals to all Republican states that the constitutional voices of minorities and Democrats can be silenced. Democrats must follow in the lead of California—not gerrymandering without reason, but giving their citizens the chance to choose their fate. We deserve to live in a democracy where free and fair elections are a right and not something that must be fought for, so as we await the decision of the Supreme Court, it’s important to plan the next steps of resistance. 

📌Education Department Takes a Major Step Forward in the Trump Administration's Plans to Dismantle It

What Happened: Accelerating plans to shut down its processes, the Department of Education is transferring many of its grant programs to agencies like the Department of Labor. These grants are supposed to fund K-12 schools in low-income communities, teacher training, and programs that steer students towards college degrees. Other transfers include the State Department taking on foreign language programs and the Interior Department overseeing Native American education. 

Why It Matters: Without the Department of Education, all public school students will struggle to learn, thrive, and advance their learning, especially those most vulnerable. Quality education should be a basic human right, but according to the Trump administration, it should only be offered to those who can afford it. We are already facing a teacher shortage and seeing literacy rates decline, and surprisingly, the answer to this problem is not shutting down the department meant to fix it. The State, Interior, and Labor Departments are not equipped to handle the education roles, leaving students and teachers without needed support. Cuts to the federal government have real consequences, yet Trump doesn’t care—his only priorities are money and control, not the people he was elected to serve.  

🎭 Meme of the Week

See you next week—stay informed, stay engaged, and don’t let the BS fool you.

✨Your movement bestie – Shae

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