War Journal

Entry # 11 - 2/19/17 - 9:20 pm

The entry below was reposted here for quick reference:  Original article here.

What is it that conservative voters just don't get yet?

No, the liberal left doesn’t harbor deep-seated desires and grand plans to control every aspect of your life in ‘political correct’ totalitarian style. You’re being told that because it makes you easier to influence politically (there's nothing so unifying as a common enemy).

Yes, the folks on the left do love America too, and no, they don’t hate you or your freedoms. Whoever tells you these things is not your friend or ally- you’re their tool to the extent you believe that stuff. When lefties sound frustrated with you, part of that is they don’t like that you’re being taken advantage of in ways that affect everyone. Also, they’ve been trying to tell you this a lot, but it doesn’t seem to be getting across.

Liberals are never coming for your guns. They might want you to comply with some rules and accept some limitations to their use, and some are beyond angry with how the gun die-hards refuse to accept any regulation whatsoever, but it’s just. not. going. to. happen. The folks telling you it’s gonna happen are the same folks who just sold you your stockpiles of ammo at price-gouging rates because you were convinced you had to buy it while you could. They’re not your friends; you’re their marks.

No, lefties aren’t in favor of Sharia law when they make it clear they don’t like to see Muslims discriminated against. It means they don’t want the USA to act like a theocracy, not because they want to impose a Muslim one.

No, the Nazis and fascists weren’t left-wing, and it doesn’t matter that the GOP was once the party of Lincoln and civil rights. What does matter is that the GOP is the party of voter suppression, gerrymandering, and false claims about rampant voter fraud.

No, ‘getting tough’ on social issues such as crime or drugs doesn’t work. If it did, the problem would already be solved. It's quite possible that the perceived unfairness of ‘get tough’ rules (as applied) contributes to the problems (like the way community:police relations aren’t good in high-crime areas).

No, the money from tax cuts to the rich never ever ever ever trickles down, and the people who tell you it will are making out like bandits while you wait.

No, we’re not broke from idle moochers draining the system and living large on too-generous benefits. We spend tons on corporate welfare and government contracts, more than we do on other sorts of welfare. The stories about welfare queens and lazy moochers living large on the dole are invented to keep your attention away from all the tax dollars going into corporate pockets.

No, the USA isn’t number one in the world at anything now, except for per-capita incarceration, military spending, and the prices we pay for medical care and pharmaceuticals. We have lots of potential to be better, and wanting the USA to be better isn’t the same thing as not-loving America.

We get it, the future in which white people are a minority makes you uneasy- but the problem isn’t who’s a minority, it’s that minorities are regarded and treated as second-class citizens by too many people. Fix that part, and everything has potential to turn out fine. Not fixing it means when we’re the minority, it’ll be our (or our grandchildren’s) turn to be treated as second-class, and we’ll deserve it when we have to protest about how White Lives Matter. Social justice isn’t about taking away white rights, it’s very much in our interests.

No, it’s not hypocritical when ‘tolerant’ liberals aren’t tolerant of intolerance or bigotry. It would be hypocritical if they were.

A lot of those jobs are never coming back, and politicians telling you they will aren’t your friends- you’re their marks. Already the easy-to-automate work has been automated, and eventually even the skilled labor (like automating work) will eventually be automated. (yes, today there is software writing other software, machines building other machines). Eventually, this will force us to re-think the idea of work being our identity, or how to organize an economy with surplus labor that still looks like America.

Chris Joosse

RM

Entry # 10 - 2/19/17 - 8:27 pm

The entry below is reposted here for quick reference:  Original article here.

Fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn really pulled off a unique feat here—he managed to get canned from two top national-security jobs in three years, by two different presidents. Trump said Thursday he fired Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about whether, while Obama was still president, he discussed easing sanctions on Russia with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. (It appears Flynn also lied to the FBI about this point, which will be big trouble for him.) But Trump also said he didn’t believe Flynn did anything wrong in discussing the sanctions, and that he didn’t instruct him to bring that up, but that “I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it.” He also decried the coverage about the incident as uniformly “fake.” Something isn’t quite adding up here, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see this story back in this weekly feature many times in the coming months.

Signed a bill to allow coal-mining operations to put more pollution in streams.
That’s really not an ungenerous reading of the bill Trump signed on Thursday. The legislation, as David Dayen outlined recently, used a heretofore rarely used mechanism instituted by the Congressional Review Act of 1996 (CRA), by which Congress can junk recent regulations and prevent the executive branch from ever signing something similar in the future without Congress. By signing the bill, Trump eliminated an Obama rule that protected 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 square miles of forest from mountaintop-removal operations that dump debris rich with heavy metals into nearby ecosystems.

Allowed oil companies to hide bribes to foreign governments.
This was another CRA bill that Trump signed Tuesday. It eliminated a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that required oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments they made to any foreign governments. In many countries that are resource-rich but have unstable, despotic governments, small ruling cliques hoard the wealth from resource extraction at the expense of the larger population. Reformers hoped the rule would bring any corporate payments to these corrupt governments to light. A White House document asserted that Trump’s move “blocks a misguided regulation from burdening American extraction companies.”

Pulled back a defense of an Obama-era transgender protection effort.
The Obama administration issued guidance last year that required that transgender students be allowed to use bathrooms that match their identity, with an interpretation Title IX nondiscrimination rules. A Texas judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the guidance last year, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Loretta Lynch was planning to defend the Obama protections in court. But almost immediately after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the next attorney general, DoJ said it won’t contest the judge’s ruling.

Nominated a new secretary of labor.
After the original nominee, Andrew Puzder, withdrew his name—following a domestic-violence scandal and the revelation that he’d hired an undocumented housekeeper—Trump nominated the conservative lawyer Alex Acosta to replace him. Acosta once clerked for now–Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, served on the National Labor Relations Board under George W. Bush, and later as an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. In the latter role he supported an effort by Ohio Republicans to challenge the registration of 23,000 voters.

Issued a new Obamacare rule that makes getting coverage more difficult.
The Trump administration proposed a new rule to “stabilize” the health-insurance marketplaces. But, as David Dayen writes, they “look more like rules to increase the hassle of obtaining coverage.” The proposal cuts in half the time people have to sign up for the insurance exchanges. People trying to enroll at other times because of a significant life event—unemployment, for instance—would face have to meet stricter verification standards. “This is the equivalent of putting an insurance-company storefront on the eighth floor with no elevator, so people too infirm to make it up the stairs cannot apply,” writes Dayen.

Stepped up immigration raids. 
As of Monday, more than 600 people had been arrested in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in at least a dozen states. They included a transgender woman who was seeking a protective order against an allegedly abusive partner, and a 23-year-old “dreamer” who was detained when ICE officers came to arrest his father. About a quarter of those detained had never before been convicted of a crime.

RM

Entry # 9 - 2/19/17 - 2:00 pm
The entry below is reposted here for quick reference:  Original article here.


Fought for the travel ban in court—and lost.
Last Friday, a federal judge in Washington state put a nationwide halt on Trump’s travel ban. The administration immediately appealed the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel heard arguments Tuesday, and Thursday rejected the administration appeal, keeping the ban from being enforced.  Trump issued a series of tweets blasting the courts, and labeled the Washington judge a “so-called judge.” This attack on the judiciary alarmed many experts who felt it was an attack on the fundamental system of checks and balances.

Signed three tough-on-crime executive orders (that don’t do much).
On Thursday morning, without any advance notice to the press, Trump signed three executive orders on crime—one that promises a crackdown on transnational drug gangs, one that aims to heighten penalties for crimes against police officers, and an order that creates a task force on reducing crime. The three orders, to put it bluntly, don’t really do anything. They instruct federal agencies to enforce existing laws, share more intelligence information, and plot various studies and commissions about crime. The most ominous thing in the orders: expressing a desire for nationwide legislation to toughen penalties for crimes against law enforcement, similar to Louisiana’s “Blue Lives Matter” legislation. There are already strict penalties for attacking officers, and the Louisiana bill broadens them to the point of making resisting arrest a felony offense. National legislation to this effect would be a disaster, but the executive order does nothing more than signal an intent to pursue it at some point in the future.

Recommitted to “One China’ policy.
Since 1979, the United States has agreed to recognize Taiwan as part of mainland China. In December, Trump shocked leaders around the world by speaking with the president of Taiwan directly and signaling he might end the policy. There are legitimate human-rights reasons why this policy is flawed, but experts were stunned that Trump had called it into question, threatening a major plank of world order, without building any diplomatic groundwork or giving advance warning—and before he was even president. But Thursday evening, in a phone call with the Chinese president, Trump recommitted to the One China policy. This has become somewhat of a pattern in the new administration—tough administration talk followed up by a retreat to routine policy. It was true of the settlements in Israel and two-state solution, administration actions on Iran following a missile test, and now relations with China.

Released a list of terrorist attacks the media supposedly didn’t cover.
This isn’t a policy action, but it’s worth noting. On Monday, in a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, Trump made a remarkable accusation about terror attacks in Europe: “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that.” The dark implication that “the press” was deliberately ignorant to, or worse, aiding foreign terror groups is deeply disturbing—-and also unsubstantiated, leading scores of reporters to demand information on what attacks hadn’t been covered. The administration then released a list later Monday of terror attacks that had, indeed, been covered. (Many locations were also misspelled.) Taken in concert with the attacks on the judge in Washington—and Trump’s direct implication that the judge would be responsible for future terror attacks—the White House is already laying blame on the judiciary and the media for any attack that happens. Not incidentally, these are two critical institutions that would serve a check on presidential power and overreach in the wake of a major attack.

Ethics violations?
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said during an interview from the White House briefing room on Thursday. By delivering what she called a “free commercial” for her boss’s daughter’s company, Conway appears to have violated federal ethics rules that forbid public officials from using their offices either for their own gain or others. Watchdog groups have filed complaints, and the chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee sent a joint letter calling on the Office of Government Ethics to recommend “appropriate disciplinary action.” But it’s up to the Trump administration to take action, and so far the White House has dismissed criticism, saying only that Conway has “been counseled on that subject.”

Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by Melania Trump described her position as “one of the most photographed women in the world” as a “unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to make millions of dollars. The lawsuit seeks $150 million from a British tabloid that published now-retracted allegations that she’d worked as an “elite escort” in the “sex business,” arguing that the allegations hurt her brand. Though the lawsuit doesn’t specifically cite her role as first lady, it certainly suggests that Melania Trump intended to capitalize on it to establish “multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term.”

Supporting drug testing for recipients of unemployment benefits. 
The White House issued a statement of support for legislation in the House that would make it easier for states to require people seeking unemployment benefits to be tested for drugs.

That “immediate” Obamacare repeal-and-replace is going to take a little longer.
On the campaign trail Trump promised that if elected, he would roll out an Obamacare replacement “immediately. Fast. Quick.” But in an interview this week he admitted, “it’ll take until some time into next year.” David Dayen writes that while it’s tempting to assume the right’s hunger for repeal has died out, “the battle over health care really only began at 2:11 [Friday] morning, when the Senate cast the final vote confirming Tom Price as health and human services secretary.” Now that Price has been confirmed, he is likely to provide the blueprint for congressional Republicans to coalesce around.

RM


Entry # 8 - 2/17/17 - 9:50 am
The entry below is reposted here for quick reference.  The original post is a reply to a Facebook comment, which read, "We suffered for eight years. Now it's your turn."

“I am surprised you would wish suffering upon me. That of course is your right, I suppose. I do not wish harm on anyone. Your statement seems to continue the ‘US v THEM’ mentality. The election is over. It is important to get past campaigning and campaign rhetoric and get down to what is uniting, not dividing and what is best for ALL Americans.

There will never be a President who does everything to everyone’s liking. There are things President Obama (and President Clinton) did that I do not like and conversely there are things I can point to that the Presidents Bush did that I agree with. So I am not 100% in lock step with the outgoing President but have supported him and the overall job he did.

And, if you recall, during the Presidential Campaign back in 2008 the campaign was halted because of the “historic crisis in our financial system.” Wall Street bailout negotiations intervened in the election process. The very sobering reality was that there likely could be a Depression and the world financial markets could collapse. The United States was losing 800,000 jobs a month and was poised to lose at least 10 million jobs the first year once the new President took office. We were in an economic free-fall. So let us recall that ALL of America was suffering terribly at the beginning of Obama’s Presidency.

But I wanted to look back over the last 8 years and ask you a few questions. Since much of the rhetoric before Obama was elected was that he would impose Sharia Law, Take Away Your Guns, Create Death Panels, Destroy the Economy, Impose Socialism and, since you will agree that NONE of this came to pass,

I was wondering: Why have you suffered so?  So let me ask:

Gays and Lesbians can now marry and enjoy the benefits they had been deprived of. Has this caused your suffering?

When Obama took office, the Dow was 6,626. Now it is 19,875. Has this caused your suffering?

We had 82 straight months of private sector job growth – the longest streak in the history of the United States. Has this caused your suffering?

Especially considering where he the economy was when he took over, an amazing 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama (far more than President Bush). Has this caused your suffering?

Obama has taken Unemployment from 10% down to 4.7%. Has this caused your suffering?

Homelessness among US Veterans has dropped by half. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama shut down the US secret overseas prisons. Has this caused your suffering?

President Obama has created a policy for the families of fallen soldiers to have their travel paid for to be there when remains are flown home. Has this caused your suffering?

We landed a rover on Mars. Has this caused your suffering?

He passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Has this caused your suffering?

Uninsured adults has decreased to below 10%: 90% of adults are insured – an increase of 20 Million Adults. Has this caused
your suffering?

People are now covered for pre-existing conditions. Has this caused your suffering?
Insurance Premiums increased an average of $4,677 from 2002-2008, an increase of 58% under Bush. The growth of these insurance premiums has gone up $4,145 – a slower rate of increase. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama added Billions of dollars to mental health care for our Veterans. Has this caused your suffering?

Consumer confidence has gone from 37.7 to 98.1 during Obama’s tenure. Has this caused your suffering?

He passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Has this caused
your suffering?

His bi-annual Nuclear Summit convinced 16 countries to give up and destroy all their loose nuclear material so it could not be stolen. Has this caused your suffering?

He saved the US Auto industry. American cars sold at the beginning of his term were 10.4M and upon his exit 17.5M. Has this caused your suffering?

The deficit as a percentage of the GDP has gone from 9.8% to 3.2%. Has this caused your suffering?
The deficit itself was cut by $800 Billion Dollars. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama preserved the middle class tax cuts. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons. Has this caused your suffering?

He signed Credit Card reform so that rates could not be raised without you being notified. Has this caused your suffering?

He outlawed Government contractors from discriminating against LGBT persons. Has this caused your suffering?

He doubled Pell Grants. Has this caused your suffering?

Abortion is down. Has this caused your suffering?

Violent crime is down. Has this caused your suffering?

He overturned the scientific ban on stem cell research. Has this caused your suffering?

He protected Net Neutrality. Has this caused your suffering?

Obamacare has extended the life of the Medicare insurance trust fund (will be solvent until 2030). Has this caused your suffering?

President Obama repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Has this caused your suffering?

He banned torture. Has this caused your suffering?

He negotiated with Syria to give up its chemical weapons and they were destroyed. Has this caused your suffering?

Solar and Wind Power are at an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?

High School Graduation rates hit 83% – an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?

Corporate profits are up by 144%. Has this caused your suffering?

He normalized relations with Cuba. Has this caused your suffering?

Reliance on foreign oil is at a 40 year low. Has this caused your suffering?

US Exports are up 28%. Has this caused your suffering?

He appointed the most diverse cabinet ever. Has this caused your suffering?

He reduced the number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Has this caused your suffering?

Yes, he killed Osama Bin Laden and retrieved all the documents in his possession for analysis. Perhaps THIS caused your suffering?

From an objective standpoint it would appear that the last eight years have seen some great progress and we were saved from a financial collapse. Things are not perfect. Things can always be better. We are on much better footing now than we were in 2008.  I look forward to understanding what caused you to suffer so much under Obama these last eight years.” ~ Scott Mednick

RM

Entry # 7 - 2/3/17 - 7:50 pm
The entry below is reposted here for quick reference - Original article here.

Week two of the Trump administration was dominated by fallout from last Friday’s ban on refugees and on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. The White House tried to downplay its impact: Press Secretary Sean Spicer claimed Monday that only 109 people were “slowed down” by the order. But Friday, a lawyer from the Department of Justice admitted in court that more than 100,000 people lost their visas.

Resurrecting torture-friendly officials at the CIA.
Gina Haspel, Trump’s pick for second-in-command at the CIA, oversaw the torture of two detainees at a detention site in Thailand in the early years of the George W. Bush administration. One of the men was waterboarded more than 80 times in a single month, confined for hours in a small box, and slammed into walls. Later, Haspel helped to destroy video recordings of the torture sessions. Haspel’s appointment does not require Senate confirmation.

Putting a hard-right-winger on the Supreme Court. 
On Tuesday night, Trump unveiled his pick to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, whom Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley described as “an extreme right-wing jurist who has ruled dozens of times for the powerful and against the less fortunate.” But his record is somewhat beside the point: As Ari Berman writes, that seat on the high court belongs to Merrick Garland. “It was unprecedented and outrageous that a judge as qualified and mainstream as Garland didn’t even get a hearing,” writes Berman. “And it’s more than a little ironic that a president who won 5 million more votes than his opponent in 2012 couldn’t make the selection but one who got 2.9 million fewer votes than his opponent can.”

The beginnings of a massive deregulatory push.
Trump followed up on a campaign promise to cut regulations, signing an executive order that directs federal agencies that want to implement a new regulation to repeal two others in exchange. David Dayen writes that the order is mainly a gimmick, and he doubts it will actually lead to the withdrawal of a single rule, but is a clear message that a broad deregulatory push is coming.

A deadly and potentially ill-planned raid in Yemen.
Trump approved a counter-terror operation in Yemen that ended in the deaths of an American Navy SEAL and, according to the rights group Reprieve, as many as 23 civilians, including 10 children. According to The New York Times, “almost everything that could go wrong did.”

Letting retirement advisers rip off clients. 
The Obama administration spent years writing and implementing a rule that forces investment advisers to operate in the best interest of their clients, instead of offering advice that prioritizes their own financial incentives. Americans lose $17 billion each year from this type of bad advice, but Trump signed a presidential memorandum Friday to eliminate the rule, which was to take effect in April.

FCC won’t defend rate caps on prisoner phone calls.
Under a Democratic majority, the FCC implemented limits on how much prisoners could be charged for making phone calls; states would often award prison phone contracts to companies that could charge as high as $14 per minute; the companies then split profits with state governments. The limits met court challenges, and the new Republican FCC majority announced Thursday it would stop defending the case in court.

Aggressive, confusing actions toward Iran.
Sanctions against certain people and companies in Iran were the only concrete action the administration took regarding Iran this week. But several rhetorical assaults are worth noting: Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, told the White House press corps Iran was “officially on notice.” Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely accused Iran of attacking a US military ship. And Trump sent a series of vague, threatening Tweets about Iran, including one at 3:30 in the morning. Talk matters in the international arena—it can lead to war.

Placed a political adviser on the National Security Council.
In a presidential memorandum reorganizing the National Security Council, Trump sidelined the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs by saying they should attend principals-committee meetings only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” He added his political adviser Steve Bannon—who has no foreign-policy experience and has expressed a litany of rabidly Islamophobic views—as a regular member, which is unprecedented and concentrates even more power over foreign policy in the Breitbart wing of the White House.


Fired the acting attorney general.
Within 24 hours of Trump’s executive order in immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, several federal courts halted some parts of enforcement. Monday, acting attorney general Sally Yates said she would not have the Department of Justice defend the ban in court, because she was not “convinced that the Executive Order is lawful.” Trump fired Yates almost immediately. He had the legal right to do that—unlike Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” which was illegal—but the move raises questions about whether Trump thinks the Department of Justice works for him, instead of defending the country’s laws.

RM


Entry # 6 - 1/29/17 - 2:47 pm
The entry below is reposted here for quick reference - Original article here.

Obamacare
Trump signed an executive order over the weekend that directs federal agencies to “exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The New York Times said the order “should be seen more as a mission statement, and less as a monarchical edict that can instantly change the law.” But it could still scare health insurers into pulling out of the ACA marketplaces, which would set off a market collapse.

Global Gag Rule
Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy via a presidential memorandum on Monday. Also called the Global Gag Rule, it prevents foreign NGOs that receive US aid from using funds from any source, including non-US funding, to “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning”—effectively forbidding them even to refer patients to other abortion providers. If health groups don’t comply, they’ll lose US assistance. Formerly the policy applied only to family planning funding, a pot of about $600 million. But Trump expanded it to all global health aid, which amounts to some $9.5 billion. As Zoë Carpenter noted this week, policy experts predict this will mean 6.5 million more unintended pregnancies, 2.2 million more abortions, 2.1 million more unsafe abortions, and the deaths of 21,700 pregnant women.

Federal Regulations Freeze
On his first day, Trump ordered a government-wide freeze on on federal regulations that haven’t been published in the Federal Register yet. Many are harmless, but many are not—like a rule about inspecting airplane fuselages for cracks.

Federal Hiring Freeze
There will be a hiring freeze on federal workers, thanks to a presidential memorandum Trump signed Monday. Across the federal government, this means no new positions will be created, with limited exceptions, and no vacant positions will be filled. (Trump excepted military personnel, which is one-third of the federal workforce.) The memo has many broad exemptions that may allow agencies to keep filling vacant spots or even creating new ones, but to the extent it’s effective, it may end up costing the government more money—-since private contractors will be hired to fill in any gaps.

Trans-Pacific Partnership
The United States is no longer a party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, after Trump formally withdrew on Monday. As David Dayen wrote this week, Trump simply “add[ed] the tombstone to an already dug grave.” Congress had not ratified the deal, and it was almost impossible to see how it would have even if Trump suddenly favored the trade pact. This was also foretold before Election Day, since Hillary Clinton was also opposed to the deal.

Keystone XL and DAPL
Trump restarted the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline projects with presidential memorandums on Tuesday. The Obama administration rejected both projects on environmental and land-use grounds, but Trump tried to clear the way for them to restart. He also ordered the commerce secretary to explore ways to ensure pipelines and other infrastructure projects use American-made materials. That order may just be duplicative of the 1933 Buy America Act, and thus might not change anything. One shouldn’t assume the two pipelines will automatically be built, either. There are a lot of economic reasons that Keystone may no longer be feasible, and although the company moved quickly on Thursday to resubmit its application to build the pipeline, the State Department has to find a way to say yes. Whatever it decides will almost certainly be challenged extensively in court. The Army Corps of Engineers, meanwhile, is reviewing the Dakota pipeline’s path under Lake Oahe. Trump asked them to speed up and approve it, but he doesn’t really have legal authority to make them do that. “Executive orders are legal orders—they’re law—but they can’t contravene legislative enactments. So an executive order can’t say, ‘Ignore the [National Environmental Policy Act] and give me a pipeline,’” one expert told The Atlantic.

Immigration
Trump signed several executive orders on immigration that would ostensibly begin construction of his infamous wall along the Mexican border. But once again there’s more talk than action—Trump can’t authorize the massive spending needed to build the wall without congressional appropriations. He merely directed federal agencies to shift a little money around, and also to outline requests to Congress asking for what money will be needed. The orders also dramatically broadened which undocumented people should be prioritized for deportation, including someone who “in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose[s] a risk to public safety or national security.” (Read: anyone). Among the other features that terrified immigration-rights advocates: expanded detentions centers, including more privately run facilities; hiring 10,000 more immigration officers (if Congress approves the money); stripping federal funding from cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities; and the planned weekly publication of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Net Neutrality
Trump named Ajit Pai as the chair of the Federal Communications Commission. Pai is already a member of the commission, and will no doubt use his chairmanship to scrap or restrict net-neutrality rules, which he has long opposed. He also opposes recent broadband privacy reforms and regulations on cable top boxes.

Communications Blackout
Wide swaths of the federal bureaucracy went into a virtual blackout this week, as “Trump administration officials instructed employees at multiple agencies in recent days to cease communicating with the public through news releases, official social media accounts and correspondence.” (Some national parks went rogue and tweeted out information about climate change that was swiftly deleted. This lead to an array of “alt” national parks accounts that claim to be run by silenced employees, though it’s not clear they actually are.)

James Comey
Trump retained James Comey as FBI director, following his spectacular malfeasance and interference in the November election. Of course, it benefited Trump, so this should be no surprise. (Trump also blew a kiss at Comey during a public appearance at the White House.)

RM
Entry # 5 - 1/29/17 - 2:45 pm
The entry below is reposted here for quick reference.

As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern -- claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.
2. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
3. Call anyone who opposes them "enemies."
4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them "deceitful" and "scum."
5. Hold few press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements.
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants' goals.
7. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against them.
8. Attribute acts of domestic violence to "enemies within," and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
9. Threaten mass deportations, registries of a religious minority, and the banning of refugees with particular religious beliefs.
10. Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such as labor unions and opposition parties.
11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority and power.
12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public.
13. Put generals into top civilian posts.
14. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators.
15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.
These warning signs should be of concern to everyone, regardless of political party. In fact, historically, conservatives have been especially vigilant against potential threats to our constitutional rights.  All Americans must join together to protect American democracy against tyranny.
Consider yourself warned.

Robert Reich

RM

Entry # 4 - 1/26/17 - 8:33 pm

Make America Great Again sure comes at you fast.

RM

Entry # 3 - 1/19/17 - 12:33 pm
The entry below is reposted in entirety from John Pavlovitz's blog.  It is reposted here for posterity, future reference, and because it expresses my personal sentiments perfectly.

Let the Record Show
JANUARY 19, 2017 / JOHN PAVLOVITZ

Let the record show that I did not consent to this.

Let it show that I did not vote for this man, that he did not represent me, that I did not believe he was deserving of being here, that I grieved his ascension.

Let History record my objection to him, to the ways humiliated women and vilified Muslims and threatened protestors and disregarded people of color.

Let it record my repulsion at his tremendous cruelty, his lack of compassion, his contempt for dissension, his absence of simple decency.

Let witnesses mark down my disgust at the way he boasted of infidelity, at how he ridiculed a disabled reporter, at the way he attacked female opponents for their appearance, at the way he marginalized immigrants.

Let it be remembered that I did not look the other way when women accused him of assault, when the reality of his Russian alliances came to light, when he refused to share his tax records—though large portions of the American media and its people chose to.

Let it be remembered that I did not buy into the fear that he perpetuated of those with brown skin or hijabs or foreign birthplaces.

Let the record show that I looked on with disbelief as he spent countless early morning and middle-of-the-night hours following the election on social media, broadcasting a steady stream of petulant, insecure, incoherent messages instead of preparing to do a job he was ill-equipped for and seemingly not all that interested in.

Let the record show that I watched him assemble a Cabinet of billionaires and bigots, of people woefully unqualified to steward our children, our safety, our healthcare, our financial stability—and that I was horrified by it all.

Let it be remembered that my faith would not allow me to fall in line behind this man while so many professed religious people did; that I saw nothing resembling Jesus in him, and that to declare him Christian would have been to toss aside everything I grew up believing faith in Christ manifested in a life.

Let History record my grieving at the racism and bigotry and homophobia that characterized his campaign, marked his supporters, and is evident in his assembling Administration.

Let it be known that I was one of the more than 65 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton; who understood that though flawed, she was an intelligent, experienced, passionate public servant with the temperament, commitment, and qualifications to lead and lead well.

Let the record show that I greatly lamented the day of his inauguration, and that I promised to join together with other good people to loudly resist and oppose every unscrupulous, dangerous, unjust and dishonest act this new Administration engages in.

History has been littered with horrible people who did terrible things with power, because too many good people remained silent. And since my fear is that we are surely entering one of those periods in our story, I wanted to make sure that I was recorded for posterity:

I do not believe this man is normal.
I do not believe he is emotionally stable.
I do not believe he cares about the full, beautiful diversity of America.
I do not believe he respects women.
I do not believe he is pro-life other than his own.
I do not believe the sick and the poor and the hurting matter to him in the slightest.
I do not believe he is a man of faith or integrity or nobility.
I do not believe his concern is for anything outside his reflection in the mirror.

I believe he is a danger to our children.
I believe he is a threat to our safety.
I believe he is careless with our people.
I believe he is reckless with his power.
I believe America will be less secure, less diverse, less compassionate, and less decent under his leadership.

And if I prove to be wrong, it will be one of the most joyful errors of my life. I will own these words and if necessary, willingly and gladly admit my misjudgment because it will mean that America is a better and stronger nation, and the world a more peaceful place.

But right now I don’t see that happening.

Right now I am worried for my country, concerned for our planet, scared for the future of my children, and greatly saddened that 62 million Americans seem okay with all of this.

Let the record show that I was not okay with it.

Not at all.

RM


Entry # 2 - 12/28/16 - 5:30 pm

*Note before beginning:  Asset liquidation and debt consolidation proceeds apace.  It is becoming clear that increased funding, via new income streams, must become a greater priority.

The holiday season is upon us all, and hasn't provided the much-needed distraction from current events that many of us were hoping for.  My own Christmas day was mostly spent engaging in a long distance political argument via text-message with my mother and brother.  After that debacle, I decided it was time to completely let the 'unproductive' anger that I've been nursing since November 8th finally turn...into what it should...'productive' acceptance.

A wise friend (Thanks Cory) recently reminded me that "the word 'acceptance' is used in two different ways. It can mean something like complacency or resignation -- in which case it leads to an emotional and spiritual deadening. But it can also be the opposite of denial, a recognition of a problem that requires action and the acceptance of a personal mandate to be part of that action -- and in that case it is energizing and enlightening."

In this spirit, I've come to this space with the firm decision to clean the slate once and for all.  Time to dump this baggage, and "leave it all right here"... all the hatred, contempt, anger, disgust, anxiety, panic, fear, and negativity... for a few reasons.  Emotional catharsis is tops on the list of course, clearing the mechanism as it were, but there's more, and it has nothing to do with 'complacency or resignation.'

I never want to forget the way that 'we' feel right now.  This way, 'we' will be able to return to this space and recall with perfect clarity, any time it is needed, exactly why we were so angry that we fought any kind of acceptance, productive or otherwise.  I'll stop when I think it's time to stop...this is my dictatorship and thus far this journal remains unedited.  Serious irreverence may follow; be warned.

First let's start with Trump (Cheeto Jesus, Mango Mussolini, Shitler) himself and his disgraceful candidacy.  It turns out that our friends over at The Daily Kos have compiled a handy list for us entitled, 400 Reasons Not to Vote for Trump.   While you may not agree with them all, you can bet that all your particular favorite reasons to hate the 'orangutan with the little red hard-on' will be listed, along with handy links to their sources for further juicy details.  Well alright then, maybe this won't take nearly as long as I thought!

Next let's go straight to the Trump voters themselves.  Where the literal fuck to begin?  This could take until the next election, and those would just be my personal reasons...so I won't bother with those...probably.  Instead I'll recall this:

"Please understand that I am not mad at you because Clinton lost. I am totally unconcerned that you and I have different 'politics.' And I don't think less of you because you voted one way and I another.

"No, I think less of you because you watched an adult mock a disabled person while addressing a crowd and still supported him. I think less of you because you saw a candidate spout clear racism day after day and still backed him. I think less of you because you heard him advocate for war crimes and still thought he should be given the reins of government. I think less of you because you watched him equate a woman's worth to where she landed on a scale of 1 to 10 and still got on board. I think less of you because you stood by silently while he labeled Mexicans as criminals and Muslims as terrorists.

"It wasn't your politics I found repulsive. No, it was your willingness to support someone who spouts racism, sexism, and cruelty almost every time he opens his mouth. You sided with a bully when it should have mattered most, and that is something I will never be able to forget.

"So in response to your post-election expression of hope, no, you and I won't be 'coming together to move forward.' Obviously, the president-elect disgusts me; but it is the fact that he doesn't disgust you that will stick with me long after the election."

Phil Shailer, Hollywood

If that doesn't cover it well enough, check here, here, here, here, and here if you need to remember.  See, now I feel better already, and that's what I'm talking about.  Don't ever forget, after all, that Trump voters are afraid...of everything...most of all, afraid of all the rest of us.  So afraid, that even under the supposed protection and favor of the Supreme Being of the universe, they'll give up their liberty willingly like good puppies and turn to praising some golden calf like Trump as their 'Savior' and 'new King,' in order to lead them out of the desert of the real and back to the glory of Egypt.

 They are confused and pitiable.  All are afraid, some are evil, some are stupid, many are willfully ignorant, most are misinformed.  When the votes are all tallied, counting third party, write-in's, etc...over 75 million Americans voted against Herr Drumpf, and plenty of them are chomping at the bit for civil disobedience at minimum.  

They are not confused, and that's not changing.  In fact it hasn't even started.  It's one thing to pretend you're persecuted because you're stupid, stubborn, delusional, won't adapt, uneducated, willfully ignorant, continually vote against your own self interest, and live in a reality bubble, and quite another to actually know that your existence is in real jeopardy.  That said, it's time to start talking about just what to do now that 'we've' accepted that.

RM

Entry # 1 - 11/27/16 - 2:05 pm

Following the recent general election, the decision has been made to liquidate as many assets as possible, in order to facilitate maximum flexibility in the future.  All but one of my family has moved under one roof, and we've pooled our resources, stronger together from experience.  So my wife and children are in a solid, safe place.  We are detaching from our 'love' of material things rapidly (easily done in my case), so that if it becomes necessary to move and move quickly, we won't hesitate.    Additionally, we will no longer be burdened by their maintenance and storage requirements.  We will no longer own things that 'own us' for the foreseeable future.  When you really get cut-throat about it, it's truly amazing how 'little' you actually require, and the rest will easily fit into inexpensive storage.

You might think after 2 divorces, homelessness, and six years as a starving student that I wouldn't have many assets to liquidate, or that accurate inventory of the same would not be so difficult.  Turns out upon close examination that I have stuff (after consolidation efforts thus far) in 4 different cities in WA state alone.  The only thing nearly as difficult so far, has been accurately determining the true extent of my debt liability as well.   Student loans, child support, court fines, contested bills, current bills...this will be a process.  Upon determination of my actual net worth, or lack thereof, I shall use every means available to drop this baggage as quickly as possible.

RM