Power to the People

At yesterday's CPAC gathering (Conservative Political Action Conference), the power behind the Trump throne, Steve Bannon, stated that Trump's agenda is "the deconstruction of the administrative state" which means eliminating taxes, regulations and trade pacts and replacing them with a system that "empowers ordinary people over coastal elites..." Bannon's use of the term "elite" begs the question what is a billionaire who lives in a penthouse with a golden elevator?

This is all part of the ongoing magic trick by the Republican Party of convincing its members to vote against their own self-interests. The Party has taken advantage of the fact the voters don't know the difference between an elitist and the actual elite. Republican voters think an elitist is Sean Penn aiding earthquake victims in Haiti or some unknown Ivy League college professor quoting Howard Zinn instead of Wall Street bankers getting incredibly wealthy by betting against their own clients and nearly collapsing the American financial system.

Bannon said the plan is to fight the "globalists and corporatists" which is interesting since Trump's economic team is led by billionaire investor, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a hedge fund manager; and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, former president of Goldman Sachs. They have been tasked with cutting taxes for the wealthy and rolling back banking regulations, that, of course, will "empower ordinary people."

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” 
― George Carlin

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

I always thought one of the greatest magic tricks of all-time was the Republican Party continually getting people to vote against their own self-interests. Donald Trump has improved upon it. With his masterful use of alternative facts, Trump mesmerizes his hardcore supporters and creates the illusion that their grandest wishes are about to be fulfilled.

Here is an article from Robert Reich:

Donald Trump gave a speech Friday at South Carolina’s Boeing facility, where the new 787 “Dreamliner" was unveiled. He said the plane was “built right here” in South Carolina, and that “our goal as a nation must be to rely less on imports and more on products made here in the U.S.A.“ 

That’s pure fantasy. I’ll let you know why in a moment. 

He also called for "a very substantial penalty to be paid when they fire their people and move to another country, make the product, and think that they are going to sell it back.” And said he’ll lower taxes and get rid of regulations that send our jobs to those other countries. "We want products made by our workers in our factories stamped by those four magnificent words, ‘Made in the U.S.A.’”

Trump doesn’t seem to know anything about global competition, and what’s really holding back American workers. 

In fact, almost a third of Boeing’s Dreamliner comes from abroad.

And not from low-wage countries. In fact, the Dreamliner’s components come from countries with high taxes and high regulations, good wages, strong unions, excellent schools including technical education, and universally-available health care. 

For example:

1.The Italian firm Alenia Aeronautica makes the center fuselage.

2. French firm Messier-Dowty makes the aircraft’s landing-gear system.

3. German firm Diehl Luftfahrt Elektronik supplies the main cabin lighting.

4. Swedish firm Saab Aerostructures manufactures the access doors.

5. Japanese company Jamco makes parts for the lavatories, flight deck interiors and galleys.

6. French firm Thales makes its electrical power conversion system.

7. Thales selected GS Yuasa, a Japanese firm, in 2005 to supply it with the system’s lithium-ion batteries.

Oh, and the first delivery of the Dreamliner is scheduled to take place next year – to Singapore Airlines. Currently there are 149 orders for it from worldwide customers including British Airways and Air France.

In other words, contrary to Trump, the Boeing Dreamliner is made all over the world and will be sold all over the world.

Trump’s “America First” economics is pure demagoguery. We get a first-class workforce by investing in Americans’ education, training, infrastructure, and healthcare – and rewarding them with high union wages. 

We don’t boost the competitiveness of American workers through xenophobic grandstanding.

#makeadifference
#resist
#grabyourwallet
#nobannowall

The Death of the EPA

This is what prosperity looks like to Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As the former Attorney General in Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA dozens of times. Pruitt's official state website refers to him as the "leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda." The Senate rushed to confirm Pruitt today before emails between Pruitt and the fossil fuel industry are released Tuesday as ordered by a Oklahoma court.

Pruitt plans to immediately eliminate the Clean Power Plan which restricts greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants and the Waters of the United States rule that designates which waterways are regulated by the federal government. The President just recently repeal the "stream protection rule" that prohibited dumping of waste into nearby streams. In Scott Pruitt's new world you definitely will want to avoid using water.

When asked by Sen. Tom Carper at the EPA nomination hearing to name one Clean Air Act regulation that he supported, Pruitt could not.

#makeadifference

“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” 
― Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Spread the Word

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

"Last week Public Policy Polling released a poll showing that 51 percent of voters who support President Donald Trump’s attempted Muslim ban believe that the Bowling Green massacre, a figment of Kellyanne Conway’s insufferably vivid imagination, is one of the reasons why it’s necessary." - Bob Cesca, Salon

How is it possible that so many are so uninformed? It is vital to share as much information from creditable news sources as you can. Social media provides excellent platforms for spreading factual information because it provides exposure to news that may not be read or seen on Breitbart, Infowars, The Drudge Report or even Fox News. Spread the word.

#makeadifference

Privilege in Action

This was a recent Facebook post:

I want my friends to understand that "staying out of politics" or being "sick of politics" is privilege in action.
Your privilege allows you to live a non-political existence. Your wealth, your race, your abilities, your religion, or your gender allows you to live a life in which you likely will not be a target of bigotry, attacks, deportation, or genocide. You don't want to get political, you don't want to fight because your life and safety are not at stake.
It is hard and exhausting to bring up issues of oppression (aka "get political"). The fighting is tiring. I get it. Self-care is essential. But if you find politics annoying and you just want everyone to be nice, please know that people are literally fighting for their lives and safety. You might not see it, but that's what privilege does.
I also want to say to my friends who are new to this, my friends who have recently become more vocal, my friends who've seen the damage #45 has done so far, my friends who went to the women's march -- I am proud of you for getting involved. Don't stop there. Keep having these discussions, keep talking about politics, stay active.
And when you read the critiques of the march from other progressive women who didn't feel represented, don't get defensive or discouraged. Activism needs critique. We need to ask ourselves where we were as Flint's water has been poisoned, or where we were when Philando Castile was killed, or John Crawford or Eric Garner. If the women who showed up at the march showed up when people of color were murdered, it would stop.
Intersectionality means showing up even when the issues don't affect us directly. Stay awake and stay active. We need you so much right now.
I am passing this on and hope you do the same. unfourtunately I am not quite sure who wrote it,  
- Kristen Tea by way of Marc by way of Grace Towers by way of Michelle Arce (edited to replace a word with #45) by way of Amy Grillo by way of Nora Bates Zale

#makeadifference
#resist
#grabyourwallet
#nobannowall

“Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not.” 
― Noam Chomsky

Whose Responsibility is it?

In his 1967 article, The Responsibility of Intellectuals, Noam Chomsky wrote, 

"Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. In the Western world at least, they have the power that comes from political liberty, from access to information and freedom of expression. For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology, and class interest through which the events of current history are presented to us." 

Fifty years later, despite our eroding rights, most of us, not just the intellectuals, now have "political liberty, access to information and freedom of expression," but we have not used them responsibly. Sadly, it has taken the rise of the Trump Gleichschaltung to reawaken our sense of obligation.

Here are some easy suggestions from Robert Reich on how to 

1. Get your senators and representatives to pledge to oppose Trump’s agenda.

Reject his nominees, prolong the process of approving them, draw out hearings on legislation. Call your senator and your representative and don’t stop calling.

2. March and demonstrate.

3. Make your city and state sanctuaries—

that won’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities in deporting undocumented immigrants, especially people who have been here since they were very young.

4. Boycott all Trump products, real estate, hotels, resorts, everything.

And then boycott all stores that carry merchandise from Trump family brands.

5. Write letters to the editor of your newspaper and op-eds—

with a steady flow of arguments about the fallacies and dangers of Trump’s First 100 Day policies and initiatives.

6. Contribute to social media with up-to-date daily bulletins—

on what Trump is up to, and actions in your region in opposition.

7. Contribute to the most effective opposition groups.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Economic Policy Institute, Inequality Media, MoveOn, and others.

8. Make the resistance visible—

with bumper stickers, lapel pins, wrist bands.

9. Push progressive causes at your state and local level—

environmental reform, progressive taxes, a higher minimum wage, ending gerrymandering, stopping mass incarceration. Make your state a model of what the federal government should do.

10. Start a move in your state to abolish the electoral college—

by committing your state’s electors to vote for the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote.

11. Reach out to independents and even Trump supporters who agree with this agenda—

and get them involved.

There are many options available to those with a renewed sense of civic duty:

#makeadifference

#resistance

#grabyourwallet

#nobannowall

ACLU Resists Trump

The last several weeks have been breathless and agonizing — but also exhilarating — for us at the ACLU. 

Breathless because President Trump began actually putting his unconstitutional campaign promises into reality. Agonizing because his policies have begun impacting peoples’ lives. And exhilarating because of how the public has responded to our opposition to his policies. 

Before President Trump took office, many believed that his proposed plans were simply campaign rhetoric and that he wouldn’t actually try to implement such blatantly un-American and unconstitutional policies. But if there is one thing we have learned since his inauguration, it’s that he is intent on making his promises a reality. He showed that with the executive orders to crack down on immigrants, with his pick for the Supreme Court, and with a Muslim ban, which we were able to stay in federal court the day after he imposed it.

In the coming days and weeks, President Trump will likely issue executive orders curtailing LGBT and reproductive rights. We anticipate that the Trump administration will ratchet up the detention and deportation machinery that will tear families apart. Communities will be profiled and targeted based on their skin color or perceived national origin. He may also move to defund Planned Parenthood. Taken together, Trump’s policies have the potential to affect the lives of millions of Americans in heartbreaking ways. And when this happens, we will go to court to defend the constitutional rights of immigrants and citizens alike — just like we have these past two weeks. 

This is what we do. It’s why the ACLU was created.

The day Trump took the oath of office we filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding any and all government documents that addressed conflicts of interest and violations of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. We did so because President Trump has refused to sell or place his businesses in a blind trust. We are now searching for a business competitor to Trump who would have standing to challenge the violation of the Emoluments Clause. 

There is no limit to how big a resistance to Trump we can build at the ACLU. 

During Trump’s first week in office, we filed a constitutional challenge to Trump’s Muslim ban. We now have several cases challenging its constitutionality — including in New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland. Just last week, 50 ACLU affiliates filed coordinated Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information from Customs and Border Protection field offices about how the Muslim ban was interpreted and implemented at airports across the country. And we have another lawsuit in the works to file the minute Trump tries to allow federal government employees and agencies the right to discriminate in the areas of LGBT and reproductive rights under the guise of religious freedom. 

The protests across the country — in the streets and at airports and courthouses — have been truly exhilarating. I was stunned to come out of the courthouse in Brooklyn following our emergency hearing last week to stop the Muslim ban and find hundreds of people chanting, “A-C-L-U! We are here to stand with you.”

The public response to our opposition to the policies and orders of President Trump has been astonishing. Almost 1 million people have made online donations to the ACLU. Our membership has now more than doubled since the election. The spontaneous public support to our work has also swelled the list of our activists. More than 1 million have signed up to follow us on Facebook, and our Twitter following has tripled.   

All in, we have received over $79 million in new contributions online since the election, with the average donation being $79, which for many is a significant chunk of money. This surge of contributions towards our annual $220 million budget will allow us to scale up in significant ways to build a war chest for future battles.

We plan to spend over $40 million to build up our state offices. Among advocacy groups, the ACLU is the only organization with boots on the ground in every state. Even as we fight at the federal level, the front lines may well be in Florida, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Georgia — critical states with large populations that decide the trajectory of national politics. The second tier of priority states for growth is Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, and Virginia. Already, we see anti-reproductive rights laws, anti-immigrant bills, and anti-Muslim policies being introduced in state legislatures.  

We are also taking a close look at those states where the politics are in flux — where our advocacy can be particularly impactful as people go to the polls to vote in the near future. This infusion of $40 million into our state offices will turn into 100 new ACLU staff positions in places where litigators and advocates can make a real difference.

We also plan to spend over $13 million to build a grassroots member-mobilization program. With the surge of new members, we now have a growing army of people who don’t just want to write a check. They want to join the fight. We will be asking our volunteers and members to join our team and partner with us to do grassroots calls-to-action, local town halls, lobby days, acts of protest, and engagement on our core priorities. Ultimately, we want to have our membership surpass that of the National Rifle Association. We are now half the size of the NRA, but with continued growth, mobilization, and activism, we can build an even bigger force across a broader range of issues.

We plan to spend over $21 million to hire new lawyers, advocates, and other staff in the headquarters of the ACLU to strengthen the core functioning of the headquarters. We are still the David to the government’s Goliath. We have 300 litigators on payroll nationwide — 100 of them in our headquarters. The government has over 19,000 lawyers on its payroll. 11,000 of them belong to Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department if he’s confirmed as the next attorney general.

I am confident that we will win many of our cases. Even in those that we might lose, our litigation will frame the controversies for the public to understand and engage with us in the advocacy. At the very least, if we carpet-bomb the Trump administration with lawsuits, we can rob it of momentum and gum up the machinery of its anti-civil liberties and anti-civil rights agenda. This litigation is expensive and time-consuming. The average case takes between two and three years, with some lasting a decade or more. As we ramp up our litigation and advocacy, we need to have the staying power to keep up after President Trump all four years and beyond.  

Finally, we will spend $5 million in infrastructure, new office space, and expansion of operations to get this work done. This overhead pays for database systems to house our growing membership base and new office space to accommodate new staff. Rest assured that we will put the bulk of the money into real programs: Our program/management ratio is 86 percent program, 14 percent management, including fundraising. 

We are poised to launch a full-throttle response to whatever lies ahead over the next four years. There is no limit to how big a resistance to Trump we can build at the ACLU. It has been our history for over 97 years to fight the worst assaults against justice, equality, and democracy. It is our mission — our mandate — to rise to that challenge again.

With your help, we will continue to do so.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/aclu-announces-expansion-plan-fight-trump-policies

The Wizard of Trumpland

Gary Varvel's cartoon of February 2, 2017 depicts President Trump cutting the bonds of regulations, enabling "Business" to soar unfettered. How thrilling. If you subscribe to the myth of trickle-down economics, then you are probably ecstatic, just as Varvel hoped you would be. If you live in the real world, you may have a different response. Here are some real facts (which sadly must now be distinguished from alternative facts): in a deregulation frenzy, President Trump recently signed orders allowing coal companies to dump "debris" in nearby streams. This won't increase the demand for coal or the need for jobs but it will certainly improve Big Coal profits. Then President Trump overturned a rule requiring oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. The payments can now go to private individuals undetected. And for the week's finale, the President plans to overturn the Fiduciary Rule which requires brokers to operate in the best interests of their clients. Brokers will soon be able to recommend high-risk investments to retirees because they are more profitable to the brokers. Yes, Mr. Varvel, a picture is worth a thousand words. How soon until Trump supporters realize that what the cartoon doesn't depict is that someone is going to be left holding those regulations bags?

#makeadifference

Make a Difference

#makeadifference

Our activism works. Let’s keep pushing.

Business leaders who join Trump’s business councils are legitimizing his hateful agenda and endangering Muslims, immigrants, women, people of color, LGBTQ people and our planet. We need massive pressure to force them to stop.

SHARE.CREDOACTION.COM

No Room for Nature

Enjoy it while you can because the Trump Administration believes nature's beauty is not profitable.

"We'll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can't destroy businesses." Donald Trump

#makeadifference

Resist

With Trump in the White House, and Republicans controlling all three branches of government, popular resistance has never been more important. There are many ways to resist. Find one that works for you.

Your Guide to the Sprawling New Anti-Trump Resistance Movement

The election of Donald Trump was a catastrophe for progressive America, but the damage may be mitigated over the long term by a remarkable surge of energy on…

THENATION.COM

Support those who take a stand

The Super Bowl is thankfully over and there is much discussion surrounding the commercials. Some of the companies promoting their products decided to do so by offering their opinions on the human rights policies of our current administration. The more cynical among us will claim that the companies are just trying to sell more. While that is certainly true (that is the purpose of advertising), it can be quite risky to take a stand against such a vengeful authoritarian and his malevolent acolytes. Please do what you can to support these companies (Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Airbnb, Audi, 84 Lumber and 10 Hair Care) and those that stand for human rights for all.

#makeadifference
#grabyourwallet
#boycotttrump
#resistance