Archives for January 2017

Oh boy, I don’t know where to begin. I remember civics lessons in grade school and citizenship merit badges as a Boy Scout. The grade school class was every other Friday for one period and the merit badges were boring and something you had to get through to advance. I learned there was a house and a senate and each state had two senators and a bill needed to pass both houses of congress. That was about it. I grew up in a strongly Republican right wing town. I didn’t know it was right wing until much later but they had the strongest chapter of the John Birch Society, which at the time boasted a fancy copier machine that could also collate as it copied. The head of the society was Robert Welch of Welch’s jam and grape juice. He called Eisenhower a Communist and I’ve never bought anything named Welch’s since that time. Boy oh boy, how times have changed.

We’ve still got those folks screaming they are patriots and that if you’re not with ‘em they’re agin you. They’ve gotten much better organized and their efforts are better directed by the same hidden money interests. Not different, the same, although there are some new players, but the old guard is still there in the form of the sons and daughters of the original ones.

I’ve learned more about the Constitution, my rights, and how our democracy was formed and how it is designed to work in the last few decades then I ever thought I’d need to know. But yesterday I learned a very disturbing thing – how Trump won. I posted the article but to recap: big money and big data combined to create profiles of 200 million Americans, down to psychological profiles, and political likes and dislikes. They used that information to individually target voters and sent them specifically designed messages framing those messages in carefully crafted words, pictures, videos, headlines and even colors to elicit the response they wanted. If you drive an American car you’re more likely to vote for Trump. In Little Havana in Miami they sent out a video showing Hillary saying something that those folks wouldn’t like in an effort to cause doubt and keep them away from the polls. They targeted 17 states in their efforts, and you know what? It worked. Before they were on Trump’s campaign they were on Cruz’s. People wondered why Cruz did so well in rural Wisconsin. Well, wonder no more. Those folks got targeted messages that fired them up.

People running a traditional get out the vote campaign were caught flat footed as is evidenced by the sweeping victories of people who stand for things most voters don’s agree with.

Okay, so that’s one thing, and if it isn’t countered in kind by the next election cycle we are in deep do-do.

Moving on, did anything else happen yesterday? Oh yeah, ten days into his presidency Mr. Trump has managed to create a Constitutional crisis of his own making, one that could have been easily avoided. The question for many is “Did he choose to do this, or was he unaware, or is this all part of the grand scheme of Bannon to destroy our government as he pledge in 2013 that he wanted to do?” It’s unclear at this point in time.

As most of you probably know by now Team Trump fired the acting Attorney General because she issued a directive to her attorneys not to defend his Muslim ban because she thought it unconstitutional and asked for clarification from the president. Instead of explaining their position they fired her, which left a gap in some important legal stuff. Apparently, she was the only person who could sign a certain kind of wire tap request. Trump got another person to step in temporarily until his AG nomination is approved, which is severely in doubt, but as I understand it to be able to issue these wire tap requests you have to be approved by the Senate. Some have said there are ways around this, I don’t know.

Immediately, historians and constitutional scholars were roused to the phone to explain, enlighten and clarify. Parallels were drawn to Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” which I remember in my early 20s as happening but didn’t really pay much attention to. Nixon’s original AG, John Mitchell, had been relieved of his duties and a new AG was appointed whom Nixon told to fire the Special Watergate Prosecutor because the prosecutor had demanded the Watergate tapes and Nixon knew if they came to light he was guilty and would be impeached. That AG, Elliot Richardson refused, was fired and replaced by another who refused and was fired and replaced by Robert Borke who did the dirty deed. All on one Saturday night. Ah, Robert Borke and I thought all that happened to him was he didn’t get appointed to the Supreme Court.

So the historians filled us in on the history but the Constitutional scholars helped with the meaning and consequence. The significant thing is that this was brought about, whether intentionally or not, by actions in the White House. The Attorney General is charged with upholding the law not doing the bidding of the politician who appointed them. A point that seems to be lost on the White House. Additionally, it was noted that the State Department has a special dissent procedure which states that you can dissent via this process and that there will be no repercussions. If for instance you don’t think you can carry out a request because you think it’s illegal, like say waterboarding. However, you have to sign your name so they can respond. This request goes directly to the secretary of state skipping the whole chain of command. One hundred people have filed dissents since this President was elected, very unusual. So when Mr. Spicer said if people in the State Department can’t do their bidding they should quit. He obvious is oblivious or unknowing of how things work. Maybe they want everyone in the government to swear loyalty to Mr. Trump?

The people who have left the Department of State, career diplomats, which has been described as a purge, and if you look at the organizational chart the top three levels appear to be gone. They are getting down to the level that the people who issue passports and visa will be next to go.

Back to the Constitutional crisis, historians used the word unprecedented. Yes, there are similarities to The Saturday Night Massacre but that was a situation brought on by circumstances outside of the White House. This was created by the White House, whether intentional or not. (I already said that didn’t I? Oh well.) There is a fascinating thing to consider: do Trump and Bannon want chaos, or is it just incompetence and naivety? Hard to know at this point. Is this all a grand plan to install Pence as president, and if so don’t you wish Kaisich had stepped up to the plate when asked? I think both governors are sneaky and deceitful when it comes to the ways they shut down women’s clinics in their states but at least Kaisch seems rational and not imbued with religious zealotry.

All this happened before 10 pm last night, and then . . . and then . . . Trump fired the head of immigration, the guy in charge of airport security. If they thought everything was going so well at the airports as they professed why fire this guy and put in someone three levels down, a junior assistant something or other? Oh wait, he’s in charge of the deportation and enforcement? Oh maybe he doesn’t have any qualms about locking up citizens and sending them to black sites or other countries, stay tuned.

Lastly, there was a lawyer who was part of the team that argued for a stay on the Muslim ban. BTW if you are keeping score, as of last night the White House is 0 for 5 on court appearances about the Muslim ban. (That makes the WH Losers!!!) This lawyer, a young fellow, was part of the team that argued in New York about the ban. He said that the lawyers for the government offered no reasons for the ban because they hadn’t been informed about it. Surprise, surprise, the White House issued an executive order and didn’t consult the people who would have to defend it in court. Nor did they consult with the people who would have to enforce it. Apparently the head of Homeland Security was asked about it while it was being announced, when he was on a helicopter. So I guess you could say he heard about it, but had no input.

Additionally that lawyer said that the wording was so vague that it was not clear if it applied to Green Card holders or not, as well as other individuals with other statuses. This despite Reince Pribus told Chuck Todd in his Sunday morning “if you’d just stop talking and listen” statement (or Steven Bannon’s “shut up and listen” to the press because you lost and you’re the opposition. Really? The press is the opposition party? Apparently,lawyers reading the words from the White House on this order couldn’t figure out exactly who it applied to, but the intent was clear, and that is apparently an important part of interpretation. This because of Mr. Trump’s statement both as president and as candidate, and because of his actions as president.

One of the constitutional folks asked about this said that this was “an unforced error” on the part of the White House. The last time such a thing happened in our history, ten months later the President resigned. Things move faster now.

I remember a Peter Sellers’ movie where he played a detective. It might have been one of the Pink Panther, Inspector Cloiseau movies, but whatever it was there came the final big scene where everyone is gathered in the drawing room and Peter as the old detective recounts what has gone on and who said what. After relating what three people said they did Sellers gets visibly angry and emphatically asks, “Why are they lying?” The hitherto fore genial detective is enraged. He is obviously being lied to, why? Up until that point in the movie I doubt anyone realized they were lying. It’s not so subtle in today’s world. Mr. Putin, who has been accused of many ham handed killings of his opponents, has asked that if there is any evidence of Russia interfering with the U.S. elections then they should come forward. At the time of that statement people brought up the fact that revealing exactly how we knew about this interference would play into Russia’s hand because they could figure out who told us and the Russians could eliminate him. Well, the other day a guy was sitting in a high level Russian meeting. The former MI6 agent who said his source was close to a Russian deputy. Well, this guy sitting in that high level Russian meeting was close to this Russian deputy. Folks came in threw a bag over his head and dragged him out of the meeting. The next day he was found dead in the back of his car. Authorities report that he died of a heart attack. You gotta be some kind of stupid to believe that. (Why are they lying to me?)

Sunday, yesterday, Reince Priebus (who names their kid Reince anyway?) was on both Meet the Press (MTP), and Face the Nation (FTN). In both interviews he was sitting in an office that had behind him a bronze sculpture of which I could only see the back half of the animal. It was a herbivore with a little tiny tail twisting up in the air. I’m guessing it was a buffalo, a bull buffalo, which is appropriate given what he went on to say in both interviews. Both Chuck Todd and John Dickerson wanted to know about the Muslin ban that held up people at U.S. airports and prevented some people from even getting on planes to come here. Well, first off it’s not a Muslim ban said Priebus. Really? says I. Hum, the president ran on putting in place a Muslim ban, issued statements wanting a Muslim ban, asked Rudy Guiliani how to legally do a Muslim ban and you say this isn’t a Muslim ban? Go on.

According to Priebus 326 thousand people entered the U.S. on that day and only 109 were detained for further questioning. On the next interview that number dropped to 324, no accounting for what happened to those 2,000 people, but 109 were held for further questioning and wouldn’t we, the American people want that? Apparently not, because apparently that isn’t what was happening. Priebus went on to say this was narrowly focused, which if it was then why make a big splashy seemingly wide net announcement? Why have agents not say if they are holding people? Why are they lying? Then the issue came up of holding up Green Card citizens. Well, that had nothing to do with the Muslim ban, excuse me not the Muslim ban ban. Holding up Green Card citizens can be done at the discretion of Customs officers if they see or suspect anything suspicious. Really? So all of a sudden they got suspicious? Why are you lying?

Oh and all those thousands of people who showed up spontaneously at airports to protest weren’t a big deal and Trump said everything was going really well in regard to this and Priebus said that they had been working on this ban for weeks (Really? When you’ve only been in office nine days!) So how could that be? How could they have been working on it for weeks, unless of course the racist who had worked in Jeff Sessions office (the one who is buds with the racist that got sucker punched while spouting hateful racist stuff and has been shown over and over on the internet), who now works in the White House happened to offer up this ban that apparently olde Jeffy has wanted to do for years. Remember it is Sessions who gave Trump his first immigration policy position when he first started running for Pres. But why would I think a senator from Alabama might be a racist just because he has said racist things in the past, acted as an AG to deprive black people of their rights, and been denied a Federal judgeship based on his record of racism?

If you are only holding people to ask them a few more questions why are your agents denying and or being silent on holding them? Why aren’t you allowing them access to lawyers that have gone to the airports to represent them? Why are your agents saying things like We’re not holding anyone in the U.S. because they are in Customs arrivals and that isn’t technically U.S. soil. Why?

Why are there reports of people at Dulles being cuffed and taken to a secret location?

Why are you saying this ban isn’t a religious ban if you are specifically giving special status to certain religious groups?

The gaslight is indeed bright.

Let’s move onto health care. A congressman has been nominated for Health and Human Services. He’s a doctor. He’s also been involved in what looks like to anyone who can read one plus one is two that he has been involved in very shady stock trading. Namely, the fact that he has bought stock in a company then introduced legislation that would directly help that company. So based on those two facts: he’s a doctor, and he does unethical stock trades, isn’t he a perfect choice to come up with a health care plan? Not sure. Gotta think about that one.

Meanwhile a tape surfaced from the recent Republican retreat where the pols were concerned that they didn’t have anything to replace Obamacare with. It was interesting to watch one of the round table discussions where a woman from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal said well it’s early in the process and they’ve got lots of good ideas how to do this. (Shades of Paul Ryan, “We’ve got lots of good ideas.”) To which former RNC chairman Michael Steele said that’s not the problem. The problem is they’ve had six years to come up with a replacement and they’ve got nothing.

That leaked tape seems to be the only honest thing these Republicans have said that is honest.

When I last wrote a post about the glories of the Trump administration it was the beginning of day seven. Little did I know what would transpire, There are three areas I wish to discuss: what has happened, what some thoughts and reactions are, and lastly, a definition of terms of: liberal, progressive, conservative, right-wing, and alt-right.

Where to begin?

After my last post I went and watched to some the news shows. Wow. The commentary was unlike anything I’ve ever heard when it came to describing the President and his behavior. Words that I always hope would be used to describe the President of the United States like: mature, reasonable, cautious, adult and the like were absent. David Brooks, a conservative commentator whom I think is smart but is annoying because he tends to talk down to people, observed that the president seemed to either be like a whirling dervish atop the government signing meaningless executive orders and actions ( a la Berlusconi) or he was a petulant child. Brooks believed he was more the petulant child whose ego needed to be continually stroked and feed.

Rachel Maddow, a person that many feel the way I do about David Brooks, but whom I like especially for her often very informative and fact filled opening segments, had a most interesting Thursday show where she reported two top Russian officials were arrested, One was hauled out of a meeting by putting a bag over his head and has not been seen since. Why, she asked would this happen? The only reasoned explanation she could conclude was that in fact some or all of what the former M6 agent had reported about Trump must be true and the release of the actual report gave the Kremlin the specific information they needed to find the mole and take them out. This would then be proof that the Russians did in fact tamper with our elections, based no the idea of “look at what they do, not what they say.”

Since last report the administration has walked back, denied and gaslighted their gag orders on various government agencies. At first it was “No, no, we didn’t mean you couldn’t talk to the people, the press, and Congress” when in fact that is exactly what they meant. Also, website pages that had disappeared were re-instated, most dealt with climate change. Not sure how they explained that one, if they even tried. At one point, they (the administration) actually used the word “rescinded.”

Much of the speculation around all this was termed “Trump being Trump”, or the new way “we” were going to be running the government, or this is the way to negotiate, etc. The idea being that so much was going on some would leak through. or as some call it “moving the frame.” Whatever and however one wishes to characterize it the U.S. government is careening off into uncharted waters.

By day 8, an order to deny entry to people from seven countries was in place, and some people were kicked out of the country, notably a professor at Clemson University who had been here for years. This order caused people to be detained at airports, even U.S. citizens. It is astounding, and disheartening. A judge finally put a stop to it – temporarily.

One thing all this activity and this election has done is to galvanize people, mainly in opposition, but not entirely. In Richmond where I live on the outskirts a resistance meeting was scheduled in someone home. It had to be moved to a local church because 324 people sent and RSVP. Realize I live in the district that Eric Canter was from, and he got ousted by a tea party conservative named David Brat. So even in this bastion of Trump conservatism there is a huge and growing resistance to these actions. There was also the huge Women’s March on the Saturday after the Inauguration, but that was followed a few days later by a large anti-abortion march. The anti-abortion march has been held for 44 years. One report talked about regardless of what you feel about abortion it is the single most enduring galvanizing issue of the last four decades. For me, I can’t abide by people thinking they can tell other people what they can or can’t do with their own body.

This brings me to conversations I’ve had with some people. Actually, they aren’t conversations as much as someone makes a declaration stating something about me, or at least what they think about what my political views are. It usually goes like this “You’re more liberal than me.” This quickly devolves into my being instructed why I’m wrong, or at least don’t understand some issue. Sometimes the word liberal is used, sometimes it’s progressive. Usually, it’s used in opposition to the word “conservative.” I give the same explanation each time, which is: I don’t consider myself liberal or progressive but some have characterized me that way. I consider myself a “What works” type of person. If there’s a conservative idea that works I’m all for it. I can’t think of one that does work. I believe in the idea that a rising tide floats all boats so I look for political and economic solutions that help the most people. I find conservative economic ideas don’t do that, in fact they do just the opposite.

I believe that people should be free. That they should have the right to freedom of the press, assembly, religion, speech and that they should be entitled to clean air, water, food, land, ocean, streams, etc. I think the whole clean grouping needs to be stated because it’s been under such relentless attack. I also believe that people have the right, if they choose, to be prejudice, hateful, narrow minded and delusional. However, there are limits to that sort of thing. I don’t think one should be allowed to yell fire in a crowded theater when there isn’t a fire. I don’t think one’s prejudice should be allowed to take action against others based on their prejudice, that’s discrimination. I don’t think ones hate, or delusions should be translated into actions. Nazi Germany comes to mind, but we tend to forget that many of the attitudes that let the behavior in Germany at that time, were prevalent in other countries too. There’s been the picture of the ship that was refused to let Jewish passengers from Europe to emigrate here or to South America early in WWII and had to return to Europe. Or that Anne Frank’s family was denied asylum here. What people forget is that there was deep distrust of the Jewish people in the U.S. at the time. I received an alumni magazine last year from my university where they were lauding a well-known professor. They showed a copy of a letter of recommendation for him that was written in that era that said something along the lines of “Well, even though he is a Jew, if you can look past that …” France has had a long history of discrimination and hatred against Jewish people from the trial of Alfred Dreyfus in 1894 to the magazine Charlie Hedbo, which if it has been noted that if published in the U.S. would probably be considered both racist and antisemitic. Not that the Israelis are without blame. Their attitude toward the Palestinian people is deplorable and what they claim to hate that is done to them they practice on their Palestinian brethren.

So where does this leave us? Mikhail Gorbachev has this week said that it looks like the world is preparing for war. The folks who keep the clock that tries to guess if we are getting closer to nuclear holocaust has moved the clock closer to that.

These are dangerous times.

A comment that is being repeated now with more and more regularity is that this is exhausting. The question is being raised as to how long can this be kept up. How long can the President keep making these pronouncements and how long can people march, resist, and demonstrate? At what point an time does it move in another direction? Will this resistance movement last until the next election cycle and will they be able to get more reasonable people installed? Or will the crowd erupt, grab their pitchforks and lanterns and march on the palace and throw the rich out. How long will it be before building with the name Trump on them be desecrated? I don’t think we are far off.
Some say Trump won’t last, that he’ll be impeached. Then we get Pence, a political operative that has a deep seated religious belief that he says instructs him. Instructs him to force his beliefs on the rest of us. Not what this country was founded on or for, but that hasn’t stopped him, not in Indiana and certainly it won’t if he gets the power.

These are not only dangerous but scary times. There is no reason to believe that a democracy will or can survive.