Monday Reads: Oy.JUST.Oy.
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: abortion rights, Afternoon Reads, Central Intelligence Agency, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, collective bargaining, Congress, Corporate Crime, corporate greed, corporatism, corruption, Russian elections | Tags: 2017, afternoon reads, DUMP TRUMP, Jan 21, New Orleans Women's March 75 Comments
Photo taken by Lynda Woolard at the NOLA March for Women (scowling dakinikat in background)
Things–unpleasant and dangerous–are beginning to happen that shows we’ve been taken over by the Alt Right and the horrifying historical meaning of “America First”. It’s not just in the speeches any more. Some of today’s executive orders are horrifying and signal to the world we’re a really hostile presence for every one. It makes no difference if you’ve been our friends, allies, or enemies. We’re an agent of chaos on a level heretofore unknown.
Frankly, I believe an economic crisis is on its way sooner than I thought possible. There are several actions that look distinctly like acts of war. The winners for this move are China and Australia if you want to know where to invest your money. Trump is ending free trade. BTW, nutter Bernie is ecstatic. I really don’t think they understand the concept of trade at all.
This will not create US jobs. If anything, it will take away the jobs of those who work for firms that export US goods. As an economist, I cannot stress enough how devastating this will be to the US economy, our geopolitical and geoeconomic standing in the region, and our relations with other nations. Isolationism has never been–historically–a good thing. Additionally, it will not save or re-create US jobs destroyed by technology. For example, it’s only a matter of years before there will be no need for long haul truck drivers. We’re already learning to be our own grocery checkers.
I think the deplorables are going to really be hammered on all of this as well as the rest of working people. What’s needed are unions to offset the self-dealing of Senior Management and excessive dividend programs.
President Donald Trump abruptly ended the decades-old U.S. tilt toward free trade by signing an executive order to withdraw from an Asia-Pacific accord that was never ratified and promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said on Monday after signing an order withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership accord with 11 other nations. He didn’t sign any actions to direct a renegotiation of the Nafta accord with Mexico and Canada, yet he said on Sunday he would begin talks with the two leaders on modifying the pact.
“We’ve been talking about this a long time,” Trump said
Marching on Saturday with the 3 – 5 million others dampened my despair. I’m still extremely afraid of this insanity. But, it was so wonderful to know so many of us reject his delusions and aspire to create a more perfect union. We are a gumbo. We are a patchwork quilt. We are a jazz riff. We are so much more than Trump’s Narcissism can comprehend, respect, grasp, grok, appreciate, love … please enjoy my pictures of the NOLA March for Women and one other I got caught in by my friend Lynda Woolard who is–in turn–the red head in the photo shown second. I’m scowling at the southern sun just to the right of the Vulva up top.
More on the executive orders he signed today which includes re-instating the Mexico City Policy and freezing federal hiring, This is what putting America first is going to look like. Women, of course, were included in the slaughter. We will be hated more than we ever were before and we will likely hate ourselves.
“We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs,” Mr Trump said in his short, nationalistic speech on Inauguration Day. “Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.”
The TPP withdrawal order was one of three actions taken by the President in his third full day in office. He also ordered a freeze in government hiring and re-imposed a ban on providing federal money to international groups that provide abortions.
Mr Trump has criticised international free trade deals for rewarding companies to outsource work and has attributed the loss of US manufacturing to foreign labour.
The man is insane and has no idea of what he speaks. Seriously, we’re headed to Depression. It’s the 30s all over again.
This is one piece of news that is also likely to isolate us from people we need as friends in the region. It’s like to embolden suicide bombers and terrorists. IMHO, it is an act of war. He plans to announce the movement of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
UPDATE: The White House has now confirmed it is in the early stages of talks regarding the embassy’s move
Channel 2 cited an anonymous source as saying a member of the Trump administration would announce the highly controversial move on the President’s first full working day in office.
I imagine the Radical Chistianist Terrorists are preparing for the rapture–yet again–as we speak.
Here are some other things you may want to read.
From The New Yorker and the pen of Robin Wright: TRUMP’S VAINGLORIOUS AFFRONT TO THE C.I.A.
From Rolling Stone: The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence; He’s trampled on the rights of women, LGBTQ folks and the poor. Then there’s the incompetence. Meet, quite possibly, the next president
From the WSJ: U.S. Eyes Michael Flynn’s Links to Russia,Counterintelligence agents have investigated communications by President Trump’s national security adviser, including phone calls to Russian ambassador in late December
From Politico: Hillary Clinton plots her next move; The Democrat has been studying election presentations, including reports on where she underperformed.
From Variety: CNN Declines to Air White House Press Conference Live
From Reuters: Ethics lawyers to sue Trump over foreign payments
A group including former White House ethics attorneys will file a lawsuit on Monday accusing President Donald Trump of allowing his businesses to accept payments from foreign governments, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit, brought by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, will allege that the Constitution’s emoluments clause forbids payments to Trump’s businesses. It will seek a court order forbidding Trump from accepting such payments, said Deepak Gupta, one of the lawyers working on the case.
Trump does business with countries like China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, the group noted in a statement.
“When Trump the president sits down to negotiate trade deals with these countries, the American people will have no way of knowing whether he will also be thinking about the profits of Trump the businessman,”
I really just can’t do today. I can’t.
There’s A Hot Wind Blowing
Posted: March 5, 2012 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent!, Anti-War, Austerity, Banksters, Civil Liberties, Department of Homeland Security, financial institutions, income inequality, Russian elections 8 CommentsThere were few surprises in yesterday’s Russian election. Vladimir Putin won in what he declared a ‘clean victory.’ For his side.
Arrests in Moscow--image via SkyNews
For protestors of the last few months, the White Ribbon movement, opinion was to the contrary, comments generally expressing ‘shame, disgrace, treachery.’ Yet according to official results, Putin pulled a 64% majority, well over the 50%, which would require a run-off vote. Independent observers, however, reported widespread irregularities, insisting that Putin’s majority was perilously close to the 50% cliff. According to one observer, Roman Udot, with Galos, a free election watchdog organization, which recorded many cases of multiple voting and voter intimidation:
“It’s one pixel away from a second round.”
What was the reaction to Putin’s victory speech? Thousands of protestors hitting the streets in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And combat-style police, 12,000 reported in Moscow alone, on the ready.
One of the details that piqued my interest was the fact that Putin’s support comes heavily from elderly pension holders. Putin has been wise enough to keep the pension money flowing, even with a slight increase. For the older generation, Putin is the Devil they know. For the digital-savvy young? Not so much. The educated middle-class have reached a tipping point, disgusted with governmental fraud, corruption and political lip service to democratic principles.
This is not a new phenomenon. Social uprisings have been springing up all over. Currently, we’re watching Syria fall apart, desinigrating into civil war. This is on the heels of insistent calls for change across the Middle East—Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya—the message of which spread like a virus across Europe, the UK, the United States, Japan, China and now Russia.
Say what the pundits will but just beneath our own political process, the charade of another electoral season guided and shaped by money and corporate interests, there’s a hot wind blowing. The strident cacophony of the right wing, each member trying to outdo the other with outrageous comments or the pitiful whines of Wall St. bemoaning the decline in kingly bonuses, only underscores the obvious: the self-regulating, free market, privatize-the-world philosophy is a bust. Fraud is as wide as our broken housing market, the Big Lie deeper than a fracking well.
The intriguing question is what common denominators run through all these movements, despite the vast geographical/political differences? And why, presumably, did these social/political movements catch so many pundits, experts and leaders by surprise?
These are two of the questions, Paul Mason, a UK journalist and Economics Editor for the BBC attempts to answer in his book: ‘Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions.’ Mason brings on-the-ground reporting, essay-like reflections, economic insights as well as a historical perspective to what we read in the headlines, websites and tweets of last year. And what we might expect coming at us, all of us in the coming months. He also does an effective job of bringing the pain, the anxiety, the suffering of people caught in the jaws of poverty, austerity and political crackdowns to life. We can see it. We can feel it and understand that we share more with the rest of the world than we have differences. This is a shattering truth.
The ‘why’ of the Dissent that Circled the World is intricately tied to the shuddering economic principles of globalization, fueled by a neoliberal narrative, the particular type of capitalism that has been favored and defended for the last forty years and has enriched the top 1% at the expense of everyone else. This is a system that insists markets are self-regulating, that free, unimpeded markets are the path to Paradise and privatization is always superior to public [government] direction. It is an ideology that refuses to look at the damage caused to vast swaths of the world’s population–the liberties extinguished, the income inequality produced, the environmental destruction–the very realities which are rejected, even when the evidence is undeniable. For instance, the global economic collapse and the implications of climate change.
Mason has reduced the drivers of the world-wide pushback to three main factors: graduates without a future, the rise and sophistication of social networks and the change in consciousness those very networks have produced, particularly as it relates to the definition of freedom and what that really means to ordinary people. Social networks—Facebook, twitter and cell phone usage—have changed the way we see and interact with one another and have fundamentally erased barriers of class, nationality, language and geographical distances. This is the hum of the hive and it’s growing stronger, which is why it’s regarded as a threat.
Anyone thinking the use of the word ‘threat’ is hyperbole should check the recent bill [HR 347] passed overwhelmingly in the US Congress making it a felony to participate in many of the Occupy Wall Street protests of last year. In fact, the bill has been coined the ‘anti-Occupy bill.’ Why haven’t we heard about this? Where is our brave press, the Fourth Estate, defending American liberty? They claim it simply isn’t relevant—no big deal. Interesting too–not a single Democrat voted against the bill’s passage. Not one. In fact, it’s reported that only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted ‘nay.’ The bill’s vague language leaves the discretion regarding events of ‘national significance’ up to the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security.
Why is there a hot wind blowing? This is why.
Occupy Portland, February 29, 2012--AP photo/Rick Bowmer
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Recent Comments