Trump’s first budget

In case there were any doubts remaining, Trump’s first proposed budget proves he lied his ass off during the campaign. So much for being a populist. Almost nothing in there remotely helps the people who voted for him (or anyone beyond the 1%, who – wait for it – get huge tax cuts). Understatement of the day: “The events of the past four months have demonstrated that Donald Trump is not going to solve...

Easy Listening White Supremacists

I recently came across a new term for a certain subset of Trump supporters: “Easy Listening White Supremacists”. They don’t personally or directly advocate Aryan supremacy or dress in white robes, but they sure like to sit back and nod and listen as other people hint at (or straight up advocate these things. In history there are witnesses, perpetrators, and victims. And it is the reactions of the witnesses...

Flynn lied on his security clearance application

From the NY Times: “Michael T. Flynn misled Pentagon investigators about his income from Russian companies and contacts with Russian officials when he applied for a top-secret security clearance last year…” So what are all the conservatives going to say now? Because I don’t know how many times I heard, “But Obama gave him a top secret clearance!” as a reason for why Flynn’s Russia...

Feeding Private Prisons

While we are gawking at Trump, the House is drafting an immigration bill that will change the penalty for being in the country illegally from a civil infraction (subject to deportation and possibly a fine) to a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. If this bill passes, it will instantly create 11 million felons in this country. Instead of mass deportation, this sets up a mass transfer of civilians into federal...

Trump and the Law

The thing about Trump is that, while he hasn’t obviously broken the law in any area (that we know of; his secrecy is suspicious), he has obviously disrespected the Office of President, the American public, half our allies, and most of our traditions. All previous presidential candidates released their tax returns not because the law required it, but because it was customary, and a sign of respect for our democratic...

Corprotocracy and Net Neutrality

So this is how corprotocracy works… Look at net neutrality. The FCC is looking to make some new rules that will allows some very large corporations make billions of dollars off of some large and a lot of small companies. The stakes are high: as I said, billions of dollars. The Trump-appointed FCC chair is trying to ram the new rules through to overturn the rules put in place during the Obama era. The agency has, by...

Simplify government?

It’s not clear to me that with the complexity of modern life we can actually make do with less government. And in a purely anarchic system, it is the large/strong that prosper at the expense of the rest. I’m not saying that the outcomes of the current system ought to be defended. But a system a lot like the one we have seems necessary to the society we have developed. The question is how to run it for the benefit...

The leakiest administration in history

So glad that we don’t have to guess why Trump fired Comey. Thanks to the leakiest administration in history, everyone in the room told the NY Times, within a day of the event. “Mr. Comey’s fate was sealed by his latest testimony about the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election and the Clinton email inquiry. Mr. Trump burned as he watched, convinced that Mr. Comey was grandstanding....

Conservatives and character

Flynn has been in the news a lot recently, as conservatives rally around their guy, and more and more of his flaws surface. Obama fired Flynn because he was insubordinate and unstable. Apparently, he has a habit of lying as well as ignoring the rules around national security if it meant big paydays from foreign dictators. But other than that I’m sure he’s a great guy and a real American. Once upon a time...

On the Comey firing

So this Comey thing is interesting. By all objective standards he crossed a line (several, actually, including last August and October) and deserves to be fired. And the process of firing him appears to have been deliberate and legitimate. But it is Trump doing the firing, and Trump (and those around him) likely have ulterior motives. So that confuses things. If nothing else, we live in interesting times.

On the 2017 GOP Health Bill

May 4th: Welcome to Trump’s America, where the GOP House passes a health insurance bill that is a couple of days old, hardly anyone has read, and hasn’t been formally analyzed for its impact. Because the details aren’t really important. A $600 billion give-away to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts can’t get hung up on the need to know exact how many people are going lose coverage as a result. The...