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Although I haven’t been back since, there was a thirty year period of my life – from the late 1970s to 2008 – when I spent a good deal of time in southern Florida, Hollywood Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale to be precise. After selling our family home where my sisters and grew up in NYC, my mother moved to a condominium retirement community called “Carriage Hills” in Hollywood. It still exists. After her second husband died in a car accident, she lived most of the rest of her life with her older sister, my aunt, Malvina Stone, referred to in the family simply as Aunt Mal. The two sisters lived together there for fifteen years until dementia set in about the same time for both.
I loved visiting my mother and aunt, but had an uncomfortable sense of how, what had been little more than a tropical swamp had been transformed into strip malls, retirement communities and a completely depressing housing boom. There had to be more to Florida than this, I thought? The development craze, already well advanced there, had parallels to the orgy of the same just picking up on the front range in Colorado where I lived (and still live). Give me the swamp teaming with life any day over southeast Florida strip malls. Read more…
Bill Amundson portrayal of Trumpty-Dumpty (printed with permission)
Trumps Holy War Against Muslims: The Immigration Ban: What’s It All About?” on “Hemispheres” Middle East Dialogues” hosted by Jim Nelson, interviewing Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince. Tonight (Tuesday, January 31, 2017) at 6 pm Mountain Standard Time: KGNU Boulder, Colorado: 88.5 FM, 1390 AM and streamed at www.kgnu.org
1.
Well, the Trump presidency has begun…
His election and the selection of his cabinet have already been described as “a corporate coup.” Instead of “draining the swamp” of corporate lobbyists and the like, he has replenished it and then some with a cabal of billionaires, extreme militarists pickled in conspiracy theories, and climate deniers.
His election and the selection of his cabinet have already been described as “a corporate coup.” Instead of “draining the swamp” of corporate lobbyists and the like, he has replenished it and then some with a cabal of billionaires, extreme militarists pickled in conspiracy theories, and climate deniers.
He has begun by instituting what is called the American version of “The Shock Doctrine” – a political blitzkrieg with the goal of radically restructuring the American body politic, restructuring the country, along cold, mean, uninhibited, uncontrolled, disaster capitalist lines…
Bypassing Congress where possible – even though it is Republican dominated – his administration started with a flurry of executive orders and Congressional maneuvers aimed at cutting social services, bolstering the military, cutting environmental regulations and attacking the federal civil service. President Donald Trump has announced to cut $10.5 trillion out of the federal government over 10 years by gutting federal agency budgets by as much as 10 percent while slashing 20 percent from the federal workforce and reducing the size of regulatory agencies by 75%. Read more…
Denver Women’s March – “Not Ready To Make Nice;” The Donald Trump Record: January 19-26, 2017…The Week from Hell
So this is the harvest of the first week in office: more packs of lies, or “alternative facts”, by the day. – Uri Avnery
All they are saying is give Trump a chance!
Who is the “they” anyway who wants to give Trump “a chance”…a chance to do what? Easy to answer actually, “they” include Trumpty Dumpty himself, his closest political allies and advisers and that portion of the media and corporate America who support his program.”They” includes many Democratic elected officials and needless to say the Republicans, including those who first shunned him but are now metaphorically licking his boots. “A chance” refers to his program as he steamrolls along in these first weeks of his presidency to undue not 70 but more than 100 years of social legislation domestically and reshape U.S. economic and political alliances abroad along.
It’s been an avalanche of climate denial, disaster capitalism, narrowly conceived protectionism, an orgy of militarism, so much so that a global opposition is fast crystallizing with unprecedented speed. Giving Trump a chance is the wrong approach – to put it mildly – to Trumps political blitzkrieg which has only just begun, the Republican Party version of “The Shock Doctrine.” But whomever was holding this sign, which on the surface seems something approaching insipid – but isn’t – is no, this is precisely the time not to give Trump a chance, “not to make nice”.
What follows below is a list of what the new Trump Administration did in the five days from January 19-24, 2017. Thanks to Doug Vaughan for re-posting this Facebook post from Mark Rudd (of New Mexico). As Vaughan noted: ” they will turn the clock back as far and as fast as resistance allows to make our future an irreversible horror from the past.”
The original list was posted “from a guy at Amherst.” As Donald Trump was inaugurated only on January 20, 2017, and he began issuing his executive orders the day prior, it reflects the fact his administration had started to implement their right-wing revolution even before Trumpty Dumpty took office. The list from “a guy from Amherst” does not include the Executive Orders that Trump signed on January 25, and 26 which I will add at the bottom. At the end of the list provided by “a guy from Amherst”, I’ve added more recent information I could find to “round out” the first week of the Trump Administration’s onslaught, which has only just begun. I’ll post it now, but will fill in the web links substantiating everything over the next few days.
One point I want to add here – missing from this list of horrors (with a few exceptions) is the Trump Administrations’ plans for its full-scale attack on the labor movement, on unions, that will make Ronald Reagan’s firing of PATCO workers 2017 look like child-play. (I will focus on that over the next week or so.)
It’s only just begun. Give Trump a chance is a formula for only deepening the unfolding disaster. To the contrary, his political agenda needs to be challenged to every extent possible, the sooner the better.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protesters were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition. The man who admitted shooting him was released by the police.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
* Also on January 24, 2017, DT announced that he would cut federal regulations by 75%.
Then, according to an article that appeared at the on-line SLATE website by Elliot Hannon, on January 25, 2017..
* On January 25, 2017, DT called for a “major investigation” into nonexistent voter fraud.
* On January 25, 2017, DT signed an order directing the Department of Homeland Security to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
* On January 25, 2017, DT announced that part of America’s new anti-immigration strategy will be a weekly published report of “a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.”
* On January 25, 2017, DT announced that there will be an “Office for Victims of Crimes Committed by Removable Aliens.”
* On January 25, 2017, DT began referring to humans as “removable aliens.”
* On January 25, 2017, DT is preparing to reduce its investment in and influence on the world and is preparing a draft order titled “Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations,” which calls for “at least a 40 percent overall decrease” in U.S. funding of international organizations. “If President Trump signs the order and its provisions are carried out, the cuts could severely curtail the work of United Nations agencies, which rely on billions of dollars in annual United States contributions for missions that include caring for refugees,” according to the New York Times.
*On January 25, 2017, DT signaled a retreat from America’s international commitments in a draft executive order titled “Moratorium on New Multilateral Treaties.” “The [order] calls for a review of all current and pending treaties with more than one other nation. It asks for recommendations on which negotiations or treaties the United States should leave,” according to the New York Times. “The order says this review applies only to multilateral treaties that are not ‘directly related to national security, extradition or international trade,’ but it is unclear what falls outside these restrictions. For example, the Paris climate agreement or other environmental treaties deal with trade issues but could potentially fall under this order. An explanatory statement that accompanies the draft order mentions two United Nations treaties for review: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
*On January 25, 2017, DT made it policy that refugees are not welcome in the country at the moment and fewer will be welcome in the future.
*On January 25, 2017, DT banned Moslems from seven countries from entering the United States. We bomb them and then ban them from entering the U.S. By so doing DT essentially declared that millions of Muslims unwelcome in America
*On January 25, 2017, DT’s administration is planning on letting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provided protections on undocumented immigrants who arrived as children, expire.
*On January 25, 2017, DT stated that torture “works,” that he is planning on issuing an executive order re-authorizing the use of torture by the CIA and reopening notorious “black site” prisons to carry out torture of terrorism suspects, like the prison in Guantánamo Bay, which will continued to be used.
There are a number of Trump “initiatives”to add from January 25-26, 2017, collected from various sources:
* On January 25, 2017, DT’s‘s nominee for Attorney General Sen. Jeff Sessions stood firm on his support of a bill that would allow for discrimination against the LGBTQ community on the basis of a firmly held religious belief.
* On January 25, 2017, the New York Times printed a story that six journalists were arrested and charged with felony rioting while covering the violent protests that took place just blocks from President Trump’s inauguration parade in Washington on January 20th
*On January 26, 2017, the entire senior level management team at the State Department was fired by President Donald Trump’s administration this week, CNN reported Thursday.
* On January 26, 2017, DT’s Bureau of Land Management auctioned oil and gas drilling rights in northwest New Mexico despite protests from Native Americans and environmentalists. The rights for drilling on 843 acres sold for $3 million on Wednesday. The sale of the parcels had been postponed on three occasions since 2012. Critics contend the parcels are too close to Chaco Culture National Historical Park and that development in an expansive stretch they refer to as “the greater Chaco area” could damage cultural resources.
*On January 26, 2017, calling the federal employee medical and retirement benefits “unsustainable,” DT “threw his support behind “dramatic changes” (meaning cuts) to federal employees’ retirement and health benefits.
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Denver Women’s March – “Pussies With Extra Teeth; An Explanation of the Series
Denver Women’s March – “Nasty Women Scientist.”
Denver Women’s March – “If My Uterus Fired Bullets, the G.O.P. Would Fund It
Denver Women’s March – “Its About Our Daughters”..(and Our Sons and Everyone)
It’s about our daughters; The poster was carried by a supporter of Colorado NOW
Sounds a bit …sentimental? Perhaps.
But there were a great many people, young mothers, couples who came with small children, and older folks like us worried about the future of our already grown children, our daughters, including the support of Colorado NOW, state chapter of the National Organization of Women. Why drag a six month old to such an enormous affair? Because people understood the demonstration is as much about the future, the future of our daughters (and our sons).
Why were so many sixty, seventy and eighty year old somethings there, walking with difficulty, many in wheel chairs struggling to make their way, in what was a sea of humanity, now estimated to have been 200,000 strong? That is a load of folk to wade through in a wheel chair or with a baby stroller. The policies that President Donald Trump is moving to put in place essentially by edict (presidential directives) are targeting everyone, but among the special targets, no doubt, are hard-won women’s rights. That is, what all Trump’s nasty, stupid, misogynous comments during the campaign were about. They were a prelude to a political coup which is now unfolding before our eyes.
Some of Trump’s attack on women has economic roots, but most of it, especially his attack on reproductive rights, Planned Parenthood and the like is simply a bone to the Christian Right’s obsession medieval obsession with reproductive rights. Trump himself probably doesn’t gives a hoot one way or another about abortion. But he’s coming through for that part of his base with something and in return, he expects and demands allegiance. Remember this is a wheeler-dealer and for everything he gives, he takes back double in return. It isn’t that difficult in any case, because the Christian Right has absorbed much of Trump’s thinking on climate change denial, the assault on regulation, etc.
Women understood well that Trump’s personal attack against Hillary Clinton, if successful, would trigger a political reversal of women’s status in this country. In an effort of damage control with the goal of checking the Trump Administration’s plans to reverse decades, if not centuries, of women’s struggles for equality, they took to the streets. The accepted figure for how many people turned up in the USA alone is 2.9 million, itself an impressive figure. But now two social scientists, experts at estimating crowd numbers claim that no less than 3.7 million in the United States demonstrated across at least 500 different cities. Those numbers come from professors Jeremy Pressman, of the University of Connecticut, and Erica Chenoweth, of the University of Denver, who have been compiling estimates for all the marches into a single spreadsheet. That would push the Reuters’ claim to the number of demonstrators worldwide, 4.6 million, to over 5 million people around the world who took to the streets to oppose the Trump Agenda. That’s a lot of people.
The accepted figure for how many people turned up in the USA alone is 2.9 million, itself an impressive figure. But now two social scientists, experts at estimating crowd numbers claim that no less than 3.7 million in the United States demonstrated across at least 500 different cities. Those numbers come from professors Jeremy Pressman, of the University of Connecticut, and Erica Chenoweth, of the University of Denver, who have been compiling estimates for all the marches into a single spreadsheet. That would push the Reuters’ claim to the number of demonstrators worldwide, 4.6 million, to over 5 million people around the world who took to the streets to oppose the Trump Agenda. That’s a lot of people.
Frankly the poster struck both a broader social and also very personal bell as at least in part – it was about our daughters. Although when we come to the conclusion it is important enough, after half a century of it, Nancy and I are tired of demonstrations. We find it increasingly uncomfortable and exhausting to be in large crowds. Some demonstrations have an impact, others don’t; we try to choose accordingly. How would this one fare, we wondered? Besides, the time as come, not so much to retire from political work, but to step aside and let the younger generations of American radicals find their own way. But as soon as our two daughters asked if we would join them at the march, we knew we would go, to be with them and support them in the first round of the increasingly nasty battle for their future, and that of generations to come. And glad we were that we did. Of course it wasn’t just about “our daughters.”
No question that the women who organized this great march – or should we say more accurately – “these great marches” did so with their daughters in mind, the future. A century of women winning economic, social and political rights – actually 150 years and probably longer of social struggles would be more accurate – threatens to be swept away before our very eyes in a matter of months. It started with the movement to end slavery and the liberation of Black women from both the economic oppression of being slave laborers and the sexual oppression that went along with it. The last half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was the battle for women’s right to vote. In the 1960s, women won, with the landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, greater control over their bodies, including the right to have abortions. Women have been key players in broader social movements, the backbone of those movements in fact – the labor movement, civil rights, peace movements. One could go on.
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Denver Women’s March: “Pussies Now With Extra Teeth” – An Explanation of the Series
Denver Women’s March: “Nasty Woman Scientist”
Denver Women’s March: “If My Uterus Fired Bullets, The G.O.P Would Fund It”
oil fields in black, natural gas fields in red
Trump’s Middle East Policy: Lost In the Desert:
KGNU Hemispheres “Middle East Dialogues” with Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince: Tonight, Tuesday, January 24, 2017 @ 6-7 pm, Mountain States Time
KGNU: 1390 AM, 88.5 FM in Denver-Boulder area. Streamed at http://www.kgnu.org.
If My Uterus Fired Bullets The G.O.P. Would Fund It
I thought this one of the more original posters at the march. Like so many others, this one took a fair amount of time to put together, is, original and strikes a chord if you think about it, its message hits on a profound truth. It’s colorful, combines letters with bullets, hard not to notice it. Besides, the politics of it is – as we used to say – is “right on.” What is “right on” about it? It juxtaposes the contempt that the Trump administration has for women’s rights with the burgeoning military/war budget.
Kudos to the unknown author/artist!
Never has the old peace slogan of the need to cut the military budget and use those funds for human needs been more apt. In fact, the Trump presidency plans to do just the opposite: further fund military spending with money saved by cutting the federal work force, slicing federally funded social program already wounded by 35 years of Reaganomics. Read more…
Denver Women’s March – “Nasty Woman Scientist”
The young woman holding this sign , “a nasty woman scientist” – at the march (January 21, 2017) does so both because of her status as a woman and scientist. There were many other similar posters. So many proud to be “nasty women!”
“The nasty woman” theme originated, when during the October 19, 2016 debate. At one point, Trump interrupted Hillary Clinton’s support for having the rich pay more into the social security fund. The idea of sharing even a tiny bit of his wealth with retirees who actually worked for a living was too much for the Tweeter-President, Trumpty-Dumpty.
Hitting below the belt as he often did, Trump commented , “she’s such a nasty woman!” The remark was embraced by women all over the country and thrown back into Trump’s face an example with one of his many misogynist remarks during the campaign. It shouldn’t be surprising that there were “nasty women scientist” posters and many variations on that theme at the march. Read more…
“Pussies Now With Extra Teeth” – This is a response to the wondrous remarks of our new president who seemed to enjoy grabbing women by their crotches. So one shouldn’t be surprised that there were a fair number of posters, banners, about women defending their vaginas, uteri (is that the plural of uterus) and boobs – just responding to the president in kind so to speak. There were also a flood of people, mostly women but some men as well, wearing what now are called “pussyhats.” At first we (Nancy and I) wondered, hmmm, how is it that so many people are wearing these pink hats that look like cats. The “pussy theme’ was rather prominent, pervasive.
A meeting to oppose the Trump Agenda and cabinet appointments of “MoveOn.com” in Jefferson County, Colorado (suburb just West of Denver)
The meeting was held today (January 15, 2017) at the Jefferson County Public Library in Lakewood (20th and Miller in Lakewood). It was called by Jefferson Country residents, members of “MoveOn.Org.” A notice was placed on the internet and the responses were so active that the organizers had to close to invites. As it was an overflow crowd came, more than 100 people. Jefferson County is a large, sprawling county west of Denver, part of which is on the plains, but a good portion of which lies in the foothills of the Rockies. People came from all over the county, from Lakewood, Arvada, Golden in the main but also a few from some 25 miles away in Aurora, on the other side of Denver.
Not a bad for a Sunday afternoon with the National Football League playoffs on tv. Imagine, a group of Coloradans who put politics before football!
Not a bad for a Sunday afternoon with the National Football League playoffs on tv. Imagine, a group of Coloradans who put politics before football!
It was a feisty, determined group, from what I could tell, overwhelming white and middle class, with a few exceptions most people there over the age of 50. There were there to get involved, to do what they can to oppose the Trump agenda and cabinet appointments. At the outset several people commented on pleased they were “not to feel alone.” According to the event chair, one “Ralph,” this MoveOn.org event was one of more than 500 taking place all over the country that includes 13,000 people nationally, an indication of the mounting opposition nationwide to “the Trump era” and all the negative wonders it has in store for the country and the world.
The event was well-organized, with a focus on what are referred to as “breakout groups” – small groups of people who focused on a particular issues. The issues included Healthcare, Immigration, Corporate excesses and from all appearances another breakout group was coming together to deal with climate change as well. The audience was serious, one could say deeply worried about the administration to come, and clearly committed to challenging Trump on his policies and cabinet choices, to engage in what might be called “damage control.”
Concerns about saving the Affordable Care Act, stopping “Trump’s deportation machine,” opposing the privatization of Medicaid and Medicare, the importance of saving funding for Planned Parenthood were all mentioned by participants. A number of participants expressed their anxiety about Trump reversals on climate change too. It was apparent that both the organizers and participants were connected in one way or another to the Democratic Party through the Jeffco Political Action Task Force and a number of other connected organizations.
While overall the meeting was overwhelmingly positive (from where I am sitting), there was a repeated insistence on keeping the political tone “in the center,” “of discouraging negativity,” and concerns about possible disruptions (which apparently have taken place at other MoveOn events). It all sounded a bit over-cautious, and a touch “anti-left” as if people whose politics might be a notch or two left of the organizers were looked upon with suspicion. And, given there was an overwhelming emphasis on domestic issues, there was no mention – or concern it seemed – about American’s wars abroad and global military build up, which concerned me.
Be that as it may, the good people of Jefferson County are – as we used to say – getting their act together, preparing for will be a long-term political battle for the fate of the nation. To be successful, they will have to find common ground with people from other political perspectives (and backgrounds). This is a moment when the moderates need to find common ground with the left and likewise, more radical elements need to develop good working relationships with their more moderate partners. …a time for alliances, for “united fronts” as we used to say, for political flexibility and maturity. No political trend, “centrist” or “left” can succeed alone.
Among the activities planned by MoveOn.org are January 24, pickets and demonstrations at the offices of U.S. Senators to oppose the Trump cabinet appointments. The bigger the turnout, needless to say, the better. More details on this later.
Fallujah, Iraq. 2004. from Dahr Jamail concerning the role of General James Mattis: “Mattis was the head of Camp Pendleton’s 1st Marine Division in Iraq and played a lead role during both of the US sieges of Fallujah in 2004…During the April 2004 siege, more than 700 civilians were killed by the US military, according to Iraqi doctors in the city whom I interviewed in the aftermath of that attack…During the November siege of Fallujah later that same year, which I also covered first-hand, more than 5,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. Most were buried in mass graves in the aftermath of the siege. Mosques were deliberately targeted by the US military, hospitals bombed, medical workers detained, ambulances shot at, cease-fires violated, media repressed, and the use of depleted uranium was widespread. All of these are, again, war crimes”
The KGNU interview is concluded here.
But because Trump does not intend to spend much time in Washington D.C. and these people (Flynn, Mattis, etc) will by default, run U.S. foreign policy, they will have to rely upon what are referred to as the “regional allies” which are the Saudis, the Israelis, the Turks, giving them much more room to maneuver, a green light for military action
Rob Prince: There is another one, Ibrahim. The position for Secretary of Defense has not yet been decided but the man who has gotten the most publicity in the media is retired General James Mattis. His nickname is James “Mad Dog” Mattis. After 41 years of military service he retired; at least as the media puts it, he is loved by his troops. He’s a bit like Michael Flynn, quite quotable, although I can’t use his vivid descriptions on the air because KGNU would be fined. But I wanted to give you an idea of the quality of the man who is being seriously considered for Secretary of Defense.
This is a quote Mattis made from the San Diego Union Tribune:
“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. I’m pleading with you with tears in my eyes. But if you f&*k with me I’ll kill you all.”
He’s made the statement on how he enjoys killing people. He’s stated that on a number of occasions.
Flynn, Mattis are people “beyond the pale,” “one toke or two tokes over the line” as they say, and they will be essentially running this country’s foreign policy. We use these examples of Flynn, Mattis, Giuliani, but really they are all cut out of the same mold. They are all from the ultra-right, their foreign policy is rather simplistic and militaristic in nature. There is the sense that these guys are going to run into a buzz saw – they can do great damage for sure – but it is the almost complete absence of political solutions and that it will be the military solutions that will carry the day.
Ibrahim Kazerooni: There is another problem here, Rob. It is not just a case of being mindful of those who are being presented or appointed, and it does not appear that Congress is going to challenge anyway. By all appearances they are going to get the jobs. But because Trump does not intend to spend much time in Washington D.C. and these people (Flynn, Mattis, etc) will by default, run U.S. foreign policy, they will have to rely upon what are referred to as the “regional allies” which are the Saudis, the Israelis, the Turks, giving them much more room to maneuver, a green light for military action.
They will become a more integral part of what we discussed earlier, the Obama Doctrine of remote control, allowing the regional lap dogs to do the dirty jobs. They are going to do the same thing. So now we are going to have more room for the Saudis, Israelis and the Turks to come forward to play a more decisive role in the period ahead in shaping and forming regional policy. Read more…
No to the Climate Denying Trump Cabinet: Colorado Environmental Groups Picket at the Offices of Senators Bennet (D-CO) and Gardner (R-CO)
Picketers at Senator Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) office calling on the Senator to vote against the confirmation of climate-denying cabinet hopefuls.
We call on you, our elected representatives to the U.S. Senate, to block Mr. Trump’s Cabinet picks including:
– Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State nominee, spent his career at Exxon and has been CEO since 2006. Exxon has paid 40 organizations to create doubt about the settled science of climate change, using some of the same PR people the tobacco companies used. They are manipulating the media to convince the public that fossil fuels don’t hurt our environment. They’re lying.
– Scott Pruitt, EPA head nominee, is a climate change denier who wants to abolish the EPA. He has fought and sued the agency he’s being asked to run. He opposes the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon and has demonstrated an anti-environmental agenda throughout his career. As Attorney General, Pruitt has done nothing to protect the people of Oklahoma from the alarming influx of earthquakes caused by fracking and waste disposal in the state.
– Ryan Zinke, Department. of the Interior nominee, has a 3% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, saying he is a “climate denier who supports drilling in the Arctic and continuing outrageous subsidies for dirty energy development on public lands–positions that align with the oil and gas companies that have spent nearly $350,000 on his campaigns.”
– Rick Perry, Department of Energy nominee, doesn’t accept the scientific consensus on the importance of reducing carbon emissions to slow the impact of human-induced climate change. He is on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has attracted global negative attention for its horrific abuses of Native Americans and allies attempting to protect their ancient burial grounds, unceded territory and drinking water for million of Americans.
Denial Is Not An Energy Policy
Considering that it was a weekday the turnout for the picket at Senator Michael Bennet’s office was sizable. My informal estimate is that 200+ people turned up there at noon today (Monday, January 9,2017) to “Stand Up Against Trump’s Anti-Climate/Environment Cabinet.” A huge banner read “Denial Is Not An Energy Policy.” Other picket signs included “Oil, Coal and Gas = Climate Chaos,” “Climate Denial = Climate Disaster,” “Stop Trump’s Big Oil Climate Denial Cabinet,”Protect The Generation.”
Organized by 350Colorado, representatives handed Rosalie Rodriguez, from Denver’s office staff, a petition calling on the Congress to reject the nominations of Rex Tillerson, C.E.O of EXXON as Secretary of State, Scott Pruitt, EPA head nominee, a climate change denier who wants to abolish the EPA, Ryan Zinke, Department. of the Interior nominee who who supports drilling in the Arctic and continuing subsidies for dirty energy development on public lands and Rick Perry, Department of Energy nominee and former Texas governor, on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline. Read more…
The discussion begun in Part One continues.
Jim Nelson: With all that negativity, I do want to jump in here. She (Hillary Clinton) did win the popular vote, and did so by a lot.
Rob Prince: Yes, but it’s kind of a pyrrhic victory though isn’t it, given the way in which the electoral college is constituted. But in the end, more primary factors were at work: Despite his billionaire background, his crooked business dealings, his cynical bigoted comments against virtually everyone – be it women, physically handicapped, people of color, Muslims, immigrants – he won the electoral vote and thus the presidency. Few – if any – presidents-elect are less qualified for the job, with less foreign policy experience. Be that as it may…Donald Trump will be inaugurated as this country’s 45th president.
I want to emphasize something else, that has been downplayed, not talked about that much – and that is what was going on from the angle of political economy that contributed to Clinton’s loss and Trump’s victory. Not only in these past years, but over the past forty years a decline in the standard of living of the majority of the American people. What had developed out of that decline is a slow simmering unending political crisis – I see it going back well before Obama came to office in 2008 frankly.
Think about this: the same people in the Midwest who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 voted for Donald Trump in 2016. What was Obama’s message, his promise in 2008? Simple, in a word change! He told the American people to “Be the Change.” There was a movement here in Colorado called “Be The Change.” Having said that, we know that Obama did not deliver on that promise, or certainly he didn’t deliver in the manner in which he promised both on domestic and foreign policy.
Now what was Donald Trump’s message – beyond the xenophobic, racist rhetoric? It was Obama’s message of 2008! He, too promised change.
Jim Nelson: Exactly
Rob Prince: Donald Trump promised change too and people in the Midwest especially listened. Trump was able to mobilize the base of the Republican Party, itself having moved to the right over the past decades while Hillary Clinton did not do likewise for the Democrats. So here we have an element of the population that veering in 2008 to the left – it doesn’t care that Barack Obama is Black, on a personal level, certainly one of the most liberal presidential hopefuls ever. Midwesterners voted for him because he promised change! Eight years later, this same population veers rightward. Now they don’t care – I don’t even know how to begin to describe Trump – a billionaire, with a record of economic damage, personally obnoxious, racist, sexist and from all accounts ignorant of both domestic and foreign policy. But these Midwesterners don’t care about that either. Like Obama before him, Trump promised change. They figured that liberal Dems couldn’t deliver the change, maybe a conservative Republican billionaire whose father had ties to the American Nazis of the 1920s and 1930s can do it.
So here we have an element of the population that veering in 2008 to the left – it doesn’t care that Barack Obama is Black, on a personal level, certainly one of the most liberal presidential hopefuls ever. Midwesterners voted for him because he promised change! Eight years later, this same population veers rightward. Now they don’t care – I don’t even know how to begin to describe Trump – a billionaire, with a record of economic damage, personally obnoxious, racist, sexist and from all accounts ignorant of both domestic and foreign policy. But these Midwesterners don’t care about that either. Like Obama before him, Trump promised change. They figured that liberal Dems couldn’t deliver the change, maybe a conservative Republican billionaire whose father had ties to the American Nazis of the 1920s and 1930s can do it.
That is the thread between the two. Obama failed to address in any meaningful way the deep crisis, so basically what we are seeing is a part of the country saying “OK, that (the Obama Presidency) didn’t work: let’s try something different, let’s try Trump. Read more…
Lunching With Riyad: The UN Security Council Vote Condemning Israeli Continued Settlement Building
Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN,
Obama’s abstention at the U.N. was meant to throw a monkey wrench into the Trump-Friedman program, slow it down enough so that in the end it cannot be implemented and in so doing, save what little bit of prestige and good will is left for the United States in the region. It is not a serious peace initiative that will result in the fading goal of a two state solution, more simply a kind of holding action, damage control meant to prevent Trump and Netanyahu from doing their worst. It remains to be seen whether this will work or not.
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nation from the Palestinian Authority
On a chilly day with a cold wind whistling down urban wind tunnels of Manhattan, along with a mutual old friend, we met for lunch in Manhattan. He was on a tight schedule but managed to carve out an hour to sit with two old friends and companeros. Although I hardly expressed it, I was moved to see my old friend – now in a position of some authority – after all these years. Riyad Mansour is currently Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations from the Palestinian Authority. We knew each other long ago and far away when we were both peace activists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Good organizing…and he was among the best. It had probably been around thirty-five years since I saw him though, maybe more.
I had requested the meeting, not to get into any nitty-gritty movement dirt or gossip about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but to get a sense of how close – or off the mark – my thinking on the current situation of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and to hear it from a trusted Palestinian voice. Mansour stated the general approach succinctly: to underline in the United Nations and other international organizations the seriousness of the Palestinian acceptance and support of international law as the Israelis violate it with impunity. Read more…
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 