My reaction to Trump’s first month in office
[In the past I have
been criticized by friends and family for not providing my sources for all the
statements I make in my blog. What I
have written here should be considered more of a brain dump than a research
paper and I don’t have time to go through and hyperlink to sources. If anyone is curious where I get my crazy
ideas, I am happy to provide sources and back up my claims with facts upon
request.]
Also, there is this discussion about whether or not we
should give “Trump a chance” now that he is President. Of course, he has a chance, he is in the
White House, but that does not mean we should not speak out when we disagree
with what he does. I was in the street
protesting against actions taken by both our previous presidents and expect I
will be with this president as well.
People also say the press is not being fair to him. The job of the press should be to challenge
the government. That is what keeps them
honest. The Iraq war was an example when
the press failed in their job in this regard.
So Trump should not complain. It
is ironic he says it is all fake news (CNN, BBS, NBC, New York Times, etc)
while he embraces Fox News and Breitbart.
The other day Trump got into trouble for making claims about crime in
Sweden caused by immigrants, as his source he sighted a sensationalistic story
he watched on Fox News. We know the
media gets stories wrong, we know media is biased on both sides, but Trumps
obsession with the news all being “fake” if it makes him look bad is just
ridiculous. He needs to grow up.
During the campaign I disagreed with nearly everything Trump
promised to do so naturally I find myself in disagreement with what he is doing,
since, to his credit, he is doing what he promised. However, it is not just
what he is doing, but how he is going about doing it. His lack of diplomacy is disturbing, his
disregard for advice from professionals is worrying, and his lack of concern
for what is factual is frightening.
I was very upset with the Republicans in congress who made
it their stated goal to block everything Obama tried to do when he was elected. Hundreds of appointments never got confirmed,
every piece of legislation was filibustered requiring a super majority to pass
anything, they even shut the government down.
The talking points were that Obama was pushing a radical socialist
agenda. The truth is, Obama was a very
moderate President. He was far from
liberal – he deported more people than any president, he presided over the
biggest increase in domestic oil production in US history, he took single payer
health care off the table before beginning to compromise with the Republicans,
he authorized more drone strikes than any US president, he promoted free trade
agreements, etc.
Now the Democrats are in a tough place. If they obstruct Trump, they will look like
hypocrites, after complaining about Republican obstructionism. But what Trump wants to do is so far to the
right of the political mainstream that the energized liberal leaning base of
the Democratic party is demanding the Democrats do just that – obstruct! This is a major flaw in the way the two party
system is working out in our country.
Especially with gerrymandering, which is allowing congress to get increasingly
polarized. A Mitt Romney or Lindsey
Graham administration would be far less worrying and probably would have less
Democratic opposition.
Of course as we can see, politicians leading from the center
have failed to do enough to reign in corporate power and to help the working
class. A moderate Republican or Clinton
presidency would have likely continued the status quo. It is difficult to see a way out of our
political dilemma. Of course my hope is
that reaction to Trump will pull the political pendulum back to the left.
I wrote most of this
a couple weeks ago and of course everyday there is more to comment on. I would like to be solution oriented, rather
than just complaining, but it is important to be aware of what our government
is doing and to analyze the effects of their actions so we can be informed
voters. As far as solutions, I think we
need to organize, this could be one of the great outcomes of this
election. It was people in the street
that helped force civil rights laws to be passed, to force the end of the
Vietnam war, etc. Also we need to take
positive actions in our local communities.
If you want to help create jobs, buy local, and if you don’t care where
you create jobs, at least buy fair trade.
Vote with your dollar. Work
towards making your community welcoming to immigrants, use less fossil fuels if
you are worried about climate change, etc, etc.
It is time for the grassroots to grow what we want from the ground up
because positive change is not likely to trickle down to us from the top any
time soon.
So thoughts on a few specific actions of Trump in these
first few weeks:
Oil Pipelines/Fossil
fool production: Well, what can I
say. This is the issue I will take to
the streets for. (I marched on the White
House to protest the Keystone XL pipeline while Obama was Pres.) Ramping up oil
infrastructure when scientists warn us we must keep 80% of the remaining fossil
fuels in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate disruption is a crime against
humanity and a crime against nature.
Plus, renewables are at the point of being cost competitive, are better
for job creation, can decentralize and democratize energy production, and are
cleaner throughout their life cycle than fossil fuels. The argument we must ramp up coal mining to
give coal miners jobs is just short sighted.
Teach coal miners to do other things.
There is a couple from Silicon Valley who have moved to coal country and
using their own money have trained coal miners to code and create
websites. These ex-miners are landing
tons of jobs with companies starved for tech help. Just one example that could be replicated, if
only our leader was inspired to do so.
When Trump signed an executive order to allow the Keystone XL pipeline
he claimed it would create 28,000 construction jobs. The State Department actually says it will
only create 3,900 jobs for one year and only 35 permanent jobs
Lack of diplomacy: Trump’s tweets about how Obama was too nice
to Iran but Trump will not be. This type
of talk is exactly what can help hardliners in countries like Iran get
elected. Ayatollah Khomeini was just
telling Iran that Donald is now showing Iran the true face of America. By being a bully he is opening the door to
leaders who will talk tough and stand up to America the Bully. This makes the
world more dangerous. While Trump says
he is going to rid the world of terrorism and make us all safer, his style, his
mouth, his tweets, his policies are all much more likely to make us less safe. I can’t understand how anyone thinks
otherwise, although I know some do.
Heath Care: Well this is one of the most classic Trump
moments. This weekend Trump was speaking
to the nation’s governors. He actually
said:
"Now, I have to tell you, it’s an
unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that healthcare could be so
complicated."
This is so classic. Yes, Trump, we all knew it was so complicated,
why do you think it took so long to get this passed by the Democrats. Trump has
been promising a ‘better plan that will cover everyone and be less
expensive’. We can spend pages
dissecting the reasons this cannot happen with any of Trumps ideas. Basically the only way to do this is a single
payer system, which in this country will even struggle to keep health care
costs down because hospitals charge so much, drug companies charge so much,
doctors get paid so much, etc. Trump’s
plan has been compared to all three current Republican plans in congress and
his actually does worst than all three at reducing cost and expanding
care.
Job creation:
This is really what people elected him for. I am not sure how serious he is about
this. I am sure he would like to create jobs
and he boasts about the thousands here and the thousands there that he says he
saved from moving to Mexico. But job
creation needs to happen in the millions.
If he is serious about creating jobs why not invest in renewable
energy? If he is serious about creating
jobs why increase military spending while slashing the budget elsewhere. Dollar for dollar, military spending is the
worst possible place to spend the government’s money as far as job creation is
concerned. His attack on NAFTA and other
trade deals will have winners and losers.
Many jobs could be lost. For
instance Mexico is the biggest foreign purchaser of US dairy products and
without NAFTA it could be that dairy from places like New Zealand would be
cheaper for Mexico to buy, costing US dairy farms billions of dollars. I was against NAFTA but repealing it now is
not necessarily beneficial to our economy.
And our country has been adding jobs under Obama (and decreasing illegal
immigration) so he does not really need to do much to claim job growth. But what kinds of jobs are we talking
about. The struggle of the working class
comes more from low wages and underemployment (part time work) than
unemployment. By the people Trump has
chosen to lead the economy and department of labor I have little hope he is
going to create living wage jobs for people.
His nominees:
Trump has complained that he can’t get his cabinet
confirmed. He is the one who chose
controversial people for every cabinet post, of course the confirmation for
these people will not be smooth. Also
many of them had not filled out their conflict of interest documents and other
items needed for vetting on time. And
some are pulling out due to conflicts of interest, others have turned down the
position.
I have blogged about
them before. Putting an enemy of public
education in charge of the Department of Education, a Wall Street banker who
enriched himself while earning the nickname the ‘Foreclosure King” as Treasury
Secretary, a fast food CEO charged with labor and safety violations in charge
of the Department of Labor, someone with a history of suing the EPA in charge
of the EPA, someone who once said he would get rid of the Department of Energy
in charge of the Department of Energy, and someone who has fought against civil
rights, voting rights, immigrant rights, gay rights, in charge of the
Department of Justice – well I suppose this is Trump’s prerogative and elections
have consequences. Not much we can do
but speak out against them, hope they surprise us, and if they don’t, say I
told you so, and hope people are paying attention and vote differently next
time!
Sure seems like Trump’s goal is to dismantle the very parts
of the government that are meant to protect the people from the corporate quest
for making as much money as possible. If
I give Trump the benefit of the doubt I would think that perhaps these people
who seem critical of the very departments they are in charge of, will be the
right people to find ways to scale back the bureaucracies that have built up
over time. Of course I would trust them
to do this more if I believed they believe in the mission of their
departments.
“Immigration Ban”
– I watched a conservative blogger talk about how great this was and how Trump
executed it perfectly and how it was such a common sense thing and how Obama
made the list of countries so why are liberals all whining about it and the
liberals are just still upset they lost the election and that is the only
reason they are in the street protesting.
This demonstrates how we can live in two different realities, because I
see it all just the opposite. Obama made
the list and probably increased the vetting process for these countries. Nothing wrong with that and that is not what
Trump did. If Trump had said he is
halting issuing NEW visas until his admin can review the vetting process I would
not complain. But the way he did this,
overnight stopping anyone from coming who is not a citizen, was just
stupid. Green card holders could not
return home after visiting family or going on a business trip. People who had visas issued after years of
vetting, could not be reunited with their families. Something like 100,000 visas were
revoked. And all this in the name of
making us safer. Ironically it was more
likely to make us less safe. The bad
publicity this gave us was the perfect recruiting tool for ISIS. It also showed a total lack of understanding
of the terrorist threat. The vast
majority of terrorist attacks here at home have been from US citizens who have
been radicalized via the internet – not affected by this ban. Look at the backlash from US corporations who
have said this will hurt the economy and make it less likely for tech companies
to start businesses here in the US or US diplomats, past bipartisan cabinet
officials, and State Department officials who have said this makes us less
safe. This was amateur time in the White
House. And to justify it Trump and his
team continue to make up lies. (ie: Bowling
Green Massacre) And Trump says the media
is covering up and failing to report terrorist attacks to downplay the
threat! What? His list of underreported events included
attacks overseas that did not even kill anyone to San Bernardino, which was
clearly heavily reported on. Alternate
reality. His list was also exclusively
attacks by Muslims on non-Muslims.
Clearly a list created to stoke fear of a particular group of
people.
Supreme Court: again, this is one of those consequences from
the election. Trump made public a list
of conservative judges vetted by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society
– and he was elected and now chose someone from that list. Gorsuch, while not the worst on the list, is
certainly (if he sticks to his past record) going to swing the court in favor
of corporate rights over human rights. We
are just gonna have to suck this up. I
strongly believe we would be better off if Presidents would nominate Judges
from the center of the ideological spectrum, rather than the fringes. Obama tried to do this a year ago by
nominating Garland and the Republicans played politics with that appointment
and won. This is a consequence of the
election that will last decades. Shame
on the Democrats for not making it a bigger issue during the campaign.
Voter Fraud: More alternative facts from the team Trump on
this one. 3 – 5 million illegal voters
in the last election with no proof of a single one. Trump came up with a list of voter rolls that
have people who should not be registered, like people registered in two states.
(turns out half his family were registered twice – classic). Again – if he had said he wants to improve
the voter rolls, great, claiming that there is widespread voter fraud – not
true. Just this weekend a Trump
surrogate was repeating the false claim that voters were bussed across state
lines to vote twice. Of course widespread
voter fraud has been a claim made by republicans for ages and has been used to
pass stricter voting laws like voter ID laws.
So I would expect that when Trump
comes out with his report on the topic that he will recommend making it more
difficult for people to vote, because we know this affects poor voters more
than wealthy voters. Everyone from
Federal Judges to Republican politicians have called these voter ID laws out
for what they are – clearly intended to suppress the vote with no evidence of a
problem they are trying to solve. In
fact in Texas the voter ID laws were ruled unconstitutional by federal
judges. Texas appealed and not Jeff
Sessions is dropping the fed’s case so even though they won, looks like the law
may be allowed to stand, no surprise considering Sessions’ record on the issue.
Deregulation: Trump says he will get rid of 80% of
regulations because ‘none of them do any good’.
That is just crazy talk. I am
sure there are lots that are poorly written or obsolete. I could get behind an honest look at reducing
regulation. Maybe start by cutting them
by 20%. Trump wants to allow
corporations, which by definition have no moral compass because they are
mandated to maximize profit, to be able to make as much money as possible. That is Trump’s world view. This increases income inequality and is
exactly the system people thought they were voting against.
The regulations he
is attacking first – regulations on the fossil fuel industry (because they have
such a hard time making a profit) and the banking industry. He plans to repeal Dodd Frank, which was
meant to prevent the risky behavior banks take that caused the Great Recession
of 2008 and the Great Depression. When
banks take risks, they maximize profit for their CEOs and then when the banks
fail, the taxpayers bail them out while the working class gets screwed. While Dodd Frank could be tweaked to help
smaller banks it is a common sense and important regulation. Repealing it clearly increases the risk our
economy could fail again.
I cannot see how
anyone thinks the far right end of the spectrum has anything to offer the
working class. They govern for the
corporate class, the 1%. Deregulation is
the goal so corporations and the people running them, can make as much profit
as possible while not having to suffer under ‘burdensome’ rules intended to protect
the environment or workers.
Funny thing is, many
of these regulations actually create more jobs.
Let’s say you require coal plants to install new air scrubbers or to
take extra precautions with their coal ash disposal. These steps cost the company more money
because they need to hire more people to do the extra work. That could mean less profit for the
corporation or higher electricity prices, but we should pay more for dirty
energy and if we really want to create jobs we need more money being spent and
less going into the Swiss bank accounts of the CEOs.
