Twitter: @gimleteyemiami
for updates to this post, click this link.
(first published on 1/24/17, see above).
Jan. 31: Last night, Trump fired the acting US Attorney General Susan Yates who refused to defend his poorly planned immigration ban, published by the White House without input of any federal agencies. A former commissioner of US Border Control expressed shock that agencies had not been consulted, briefed, or received instructions how to administer the Trump ban. "The last thing you want with 60,000 staff and 340 ports of entry is lack of clarity." Gil Kerlikowske, frm commissioner, US Border Control told CNN. The Wall St. Journal editorial page blasted the Trump move as slipshod, writing today, "The reaction to the refugee order is also a warning that controversial policy changes can’t merely be dropped on the public like a stun grenade. They need their own extreme internal vetting to make sure everyone knows what’s going on. They need to be sold and explained to the public—again and again. Mr. Trump is right that the government needs shaking up, but the danger of moving too fast without careful preparation and competent execution is that he is building up formidable political forces in opposition. The danger isn’t so much that any single change could be swept away by bipartisan opposition, but that he will alienate the friends and allies at home and abroad he needs to succeed. Political disruption has its uses but not if it consumes your Presidency in the process." Diplomats in the US State Department are circulating a dissent memorandum for signatures. A morning NPR report said that more than 100 diplomats have signed the dissent memo. In less than two weeks, Trump appears to be increasingly isolated in the White House, surrounded by insiders with no prior experience in government of any kind. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are organizing to filibuster Trump's nominee to the US Supreme Court.
Jan. 30: World-wide protests erupt over Trump's immigration ban including demonstrations at many US airports. Trump supporters say, "Calm down", but a chaotic transition, followed by mass protests dwarfing the inauguration, then infighting, inconsistency, and tongue-lashings of the press by the White House, then a series of executive orders written by ex-Breitbart ideologues, not reviewed by any qualified agency staff, set the world on edge. White House officials argue that the rollout was a success despite the chaos that followed.
Career state department diplomats are organizing a dissent letter. WH spokesman Spicer challenged diplomats to "get with the program or they can go."
Los Angeles International Airport yesterday was at a standstill. Demonstrations around the nation spontaneously attracted tens of thousands of people. The web erupted with speculation, roughly organized around two ideas: 1) that Trump is mentally unstable and isolated in the White House by a very small group of right-wing extremists with no experience in government -- in other words, incompetent narcissists bungling on a massive scale -- and 2) that Trump and his Leninist advisor, Steve Bannon, kicked the hornet's nest of popular outrage deliberately, to distract from their agenda of forced change. Read: Trial Balloon For A Coup. Meanwhile, Republican members of Congress are quiet and confused; unsure whether to support an executive branch detached from checks and balances or more concerned their own aims will be sunk by Trump.
Jan. 29: Thousands of demonstrators flooded New York JFK international airport. Trump says his immigration plan is working "nicely".
A federal court stayed part of Trump's executive order. Almost 200 Google employees were affected by the ban. Green card holders — legal permanent residents of the U.S. — are also included in the ban. A senior Trump administration official says they will need a case-by-case waiver in order to return to the U.S. if they are currently outside the country. Any legal immigrant to the United States is now being vetted more thoroughly than members of Trump's cabinet.
Jan. 29: The state of California is studying ways to suspend financial transfers to Washington after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal money from sanctuary cities, KPIX 5 has learned. “California could very well become an organized non-payer,” said Willie Brown, Jr, a former speaker of the state Assembly in an interview recorded Friday for KPIX 5’s Sunday morning news. "They could recommend non-compliance with the federal tax code."
Jan. 28: Jeffrey H. Wood, a lobbyist for the Southern Company, is the new acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice division that oversees environmental crimes. The Southern Company is a major campaign donor to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominated Attorney General. Wood was a lobbyist for Southern until last week and, according to The Intercept, "announced only with a modest notice posted on January 23 on the Environment and Natural Resource Division’s website." Southern Company generates 33 percent of its power from coal. The company provided funding for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that lobbies state lawmakers to undermine environmental regulations, as well as at least $409,000 to Dr. Willie Wei-Hock Soon, a controversial scientist who doubts that the Arctic is warming.
Jan. 28: Google recalls travelling staff members to the US after an executive order from President Donald Trump restricting entry for nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, excluding Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt where Trump has financial interests.
Jan. 28 Trump immigration order ban causes chaos at airports around the world. Inside JFK, Mark Doss, a supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, asked a border agent, “Who is the person we need to talk to?” “Call Mr. Trump,” said the agent, who declined to identify himself.
Jan. 27: In Time Magazine, former Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev says, "it appears the world is headed to war". The man tipped to be Trump's ambassador to the European Union says, he wants to help bring it down just like the Soviet Union.
Jan. 27: Trump prepares an executive order to defund contributions to the United Nations, despite the fact that the US contribution to the U.N. is only 1% of the nation's defense budget.
Jan. 27: A Public Policy poll show a majority of Trump voters support Trump having a private email server, despite the massive outrage and right-wing vilification of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Jan. 27: The first full-blown foreign policy standoff of the Trump administration has taken shape as Mexico cancels meeting with Trump WH over the lie that Mexico will "pay for the wall".
Jan. 26: The State Department's entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, The Washington Post reported. #TerraIncognito
Jan 26: In Philadelphia, thousands of protesters gather outside building where GOP Congressional leaders and President Trump meet to discuss killing the Affordable Care Act.
Jan. 26: Breitbart's Steve Bannon appears to be single-handedly drafting orders signed by Trump, without input of relevant agencies including standard legal review by affected agencies. "President Donald Trump’s team made little effort to consult with federal agency lawyers or lawmakers as they churned out executive actions this week, stoking fears the White House is creating the appearance of real momentum with flawed orders that might be unworkable, unenforceable or even illegal. The White House didn’t ask State Department experts to review Trump’s memorandum on the Keystone XL pipeline, even though the company that wants to build the pipeline is suing the U.S. for $15 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter."
Jan. 26: As a result of Trump White House command to turn off a Twitter feed from Badlands National Park, more than three dozen Twitter feeds have popped up, "alternative" sites staffed by anonymous agency employees, in resistance and opposition to the Trump administration's efforts to shut down science and fact.
Jan. 26: Citing a new wave of interest in Donald Trump's Palm Beach Club, Mar-A-Largo, Trump seeks to profit by doubling admission fees, a shameless exercise in the Trump business to profit from the presidency.
Jan. 25: White House website petition page now has 330,000 citizens who have signed requesting that President Trump release his tax returns.
Jan. 25: "U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives."
Jan. 24: "The Centers for Disease Control postponed a summit scheduled for next month on climate change and public health ahead of President Donald Trump's inauguration, participants and the CDC confirmed Monday."
"EPA staff has been instructed to freeze all its grants ― an extensive program that includes funding for research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring and education, among other things ― and told not to discuss this order with anyone outside the agency, according to a Hill source with knowledge of the situation."
Jan. 24: "The Trump White House has also banned employees and scientists at the Department of Agriculture from publicly disclosing any information, according to another email obtained by the AP. This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds and social media content," a WH email stated."
Jan. 24: "JOHN GORE, AN ATTORNEY who has worked to defend laws that critics say are designed to weaken the voting rights of African-Americans and other minorities, was selected by President Donald Trump to serve as a senior civil rights official at the Department of Justice. Gore’s new role as Trump’s choice for deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is notable because he will lead the division that oversees civil rights laws, including voter suppression issues. Trump and his nominee to lead the Justice Department, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, are strong supporters of voting restrictions such as voter identification."
Jan. 24: Trump accuses Democrats of sneakily organizing 3-5 million illegal immigrants to vote for Clinton. Somehow Democrats forgot to put 77k of them in the states she needed to win the electoral college! Investigate!
Jan. 24: Senator John McCain asked to comment on Trump's proposal to go back to Iraq and take its oil. McCain shakes head, laughing: "No. It doesn't make any sense."
Jan. 24: After Trump signs an executive order reversing Obama ban on Keystone Pipeline, Badlands National Park @badlandsNPS twitter feed lights up with scientific assertions on climate change. Half an hour later, the "rogue" twitter feed is deleted but not before going viral.
for updates to this post, click this link.
Jan. 31: Last night, Trump fired the acting US Attorney General Susan Yates who refused to defend his poorly planned immigration ban, published by the White House without input of any federal agencies. A former commissioner of US Border Control expressed shock that agencies had not been consulted, briefed, or received instructions how to administer the Trump ban. "The last thing you want with 60,000 staff and 340 ports of entry is lack of clarity." Gil Kerlikowske, frm commissioner, US Border Control told CNN. The Wall St. Journal editorial page blasted the Trump move as slipshod, writing today, "The reaction to the refugee order is also a warning that controversial policy changes can’t merely be dropped on the public like a stun grenade. They need their own extreme internal vetting to make sure everyone knows what’s going on. They need to be sold and explained to the public—again and again. Mr. Trump is right that the government needs shaking up, but the danger of moving too fast without careful preparation and competent execution is that he is building up formidable political forces in opposition. The danger isn’t so much that any single change could be swept away by bipartisan opposition, but that he will alienate the friends and allies at home and abroad he needs to succeed. Political disruption has its uses but not if it consumes your Presidency in the process." Diplomats in the US State Department are circulating a dissent memorandum for signatures. A morning NPR report said that more than 100 diplomats have signed the dissent memo. In less than two weeks, Trump appears to be increasingly isolated in the White House, surrounded by insiders with no prior experience in government of any kind. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are organizing to filibuster Trump's nominee to the US Supreme Court.
Jan. 30: World-wide protests erupt over Trump's immigration ban including demonstrations at many US airports. Trump supporters say, "Calm down", but a chaotic transition, followed by mass protests dwarfing the inauguration, then infighting, inconsistency, and tongue-lashings of the press by the White House, then a series of executive orders written by ex-Breitbart ideologues, not reviewed by any qualified agency staff, set the world on edge. White House officials argue that the rollout was a success despite the chaos that followed.
Career state department diplomats are organizing a dissent letter. WH spokesman Spicer challenged diplomats to "get with the program or they can go."
Los Angeles International Airport yesterday was at a standstill. Demonstrations around the nation spontaneously attracted tens of thousands of people. The web erupted with speculation, roughly organized around two ideas: 1) that Trump is mentally unstable and isolated in the White House by a very small group of right-wing extremists with no experience in government -- in other words, incompetent narcissists bungling on a massive scale -- and 2) that Trump and his Leninist advisor, Steve Bannon, kicked the hornet's nest of popular outrage deliberately, to distract from their agenda of forced change. Read: Trial Balloon For A Coup. Meanwhile, Republican members of Congress are quiet and confused; unsure whether to support an executive branch detached from checks and balances or more concerned their own aims will be sunk by Trump.
Jan. 29: Thousands of demonstrators flooded New York JFK international airport. Trump says his immigration plan is working "nicely".
A federal court stayed part of Trump's executive order. Almost 200 Google employees were affected by the ban. Green card holders — legal permanent residents of the U.S. — are also included in the ban. A senior Trump administration official says they will need a case-by-case waiver in order to return to the U.S. if they are currently outside the country. Any legal immigrant to the United States is now being vetted more thoroughly than members of Trump's cabinet.
NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders—including the order at hand. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.) ... How incompetent is this order? An immigration lawyer who works for the federal government wrote me today describing the quality of the work as “look[ing] like what an intern came up with over a lunch hour. . . . My take is that it is so poorly written that it’s hard to tell the impact." from Lawfare, Benjamin WittesJan. 29: In an unprecedented move, Trump placed political advisor Steve Bannon within the top tier of advisors in the national security council and downgraded career military brass including the director of national intelligence and the joint chiefs of staff. Last week, Bannon described the US mainstream media as "the opposition party" and that it should "keep its mouth shut". Prior to the November election, former Breitbart spokesman Kurt Bardella called Bannon a “pathological liar”.
Jan. 29: The state of California is studying ways to suspend financial transfers to Washington after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal money from sanctuary cities, KPIX 5 has learned. “California could very well become an organized non-payer,” said Willie Brown, Jr, a former speaker of the state Assembly in an interview recorded Friday for KPIX 5’s Sunday morning news. "They could recommend non-compliance with the federal tax code."
Jan. 28: Jeffrey H. Wood, a lobbyist for the Southern Company, is the new acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice division that oversees environmental crimes. The Southern Company is a major campaign donor to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominated Attorney General. Wood was a lobbyist for Southern until last week and, according to The Intercept, "announced only with a modest notice posted on January 23 on the Environment and Natural Resource Division’s website." Southern Company generates 33 percent of its power from coal. The company provided funding for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that lobbies state lawmakers to undermine environmental regulations, as well as at least $409,000 to Dr. Willie Wei-Hock Soon, a controversial scientist who doubts that the Arctic is warming.
Jan. 28: Google recalls travelling staff members to the US after an executive order from President Donald Trump restricting entry for nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, excluding Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt where Trump has financial interests.
Jan. 28 Trump immigration order ban causes chaos at airports around the world. Inside JFK, Mark Doss, a supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, asked a border agent, “Who is the person we need to talk to?” “Call Mr. Trump,” said the agent, who declined to identify himself.
Jan. 27: In Time Magazine, former Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev says, "it appears the world is headed to war". The man tipped to be Trump's ambassador to the European Union says, he wants to help bring it down just like the Soviet Union.
Jan. 27: Trump prepares an executive order to defund contributions to the United Nations, despite the fact that the US contribution to the U.N. is only 1% of the nation's defense budget.
Jan. 27: A Public Policy poll show a majority of Trump voters support Trump having a private email server, despite the massive outrage and right-wing vilification of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Jan. 27: The first full-blown foreign policy standoff of the Trump administration has taken shape as Mexico cancels meeting with Trump WH over the lie that Mexico will "pay for the wall".
Jan. 26: The State Department's entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, The Washington Post reported. #TerraIncognito
Jan 26: In Philadelphia, thousands of protesters gather outside building where GOP Congressional leaders and President Trump meet to discuss killing the Affordable Care Act.
Jan. 26: Breitbart's Steve Bannon appears to be single-handedly drafting orders signed by Trump, without input of relevant agencies including standard legal review by affected agencies. "President Donald Trump’s team made little effort to consult with federal agency lawyers or lawmakers as they churned out executive actions this week, stoking fears the White House is creating the appearance of real momentum with flawed orders that might be unworkable, unenforceable or even illegal. The White House didn’t ask State Department experts to review Trump’s memorandum on the Keystone XL pipeline, even though the company that wants to build the pipeline is suing the U.S. for $15 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter."
Jan. 26: As a result of Trump White House command to turn off a Twitter feed from Badlands National Park, more than three dozen Twitter feeds have popped up, "alternative" sites staffed by anonymous agency employees, in resistance and opposition to the Trump administration's efforts to shut down science and fact.
Jan. 26: Citing a new wave of interest in Donald Trump's Palm Beach Club, Mar-A-Largo, Trump seeks to profit by doubling admission fees, a shameless exercise in the Trump business to profit from the presidency.
Jan. 25: White House website petition page now has 330,000 citizens who have signed requesting that President Trump release his tax returns.
Jan. 25: "U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives."
Jan. 24: "The Centers for Disease Control postponed a summit scheduled for next month on climate change and public health ahead of President Donald Trump's inauguration, participants and the CDC confirmed Monday."
"EPA staff has been instructed to freeze all its grants ― an extensive program that includes funding for research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring and education, among other things ― and told not to discuss this order with anyone outside the agency, according to a Hill source with knowledge of the situation."
Jan. 24: "The Trump White House has also banned employees and scientists at the Department of Agriculture from publicly disclosing any information, according to another email obtained by the AP. This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds and social media content," a WH email stated."
Jan. 24: "JOHN GORE, AN ATTORNEY who has worked to defend laws that critics say are designed to weaken the voting rights of African-Americans and other minorities, was selected by President Donald Trump to serve as a senior civil rights official at the Department of Justice. Gore’s new role as Trump’s choice for deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is notable because he will lead the division that oversees civil rights laws, including voter suppression issues. Trump and his nominee to lead the Justice Department, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, are strong supporters of voting restrictions such as voter identification."
Jan. 24: Trump accuses Democrats of sneakily organizing 3-5 million illegal immigrants to vote for Clinton. Somehow Democrats forgot to put 77k of them in the states she needed to win the electoral college! Investigate!
Jan. 24: Senator John McCain asked to comment on Trump's proposal to go back to Iraq and take its oil. McCain shakes head, laughing: "No. It doesn't make any sense."
Jan. 24: After Trump signs an executive order reversing Obama ban on Keystone Pipeline, Badlands National Park @badlandsNPS twitter feed lights up with scientific assertions on climate change. Half an hour later, the "rogue" twitter feed is deleted but not before going viral.
10 comments:
Trump said during the campaign that he was going to eliminate EPA. The guy who he wants to head it has a lot of lawsuits against the agency. I don't know how that would work. How can you have lawsuits against yourself? There is a lot wrong with this gag order. Congress would have to approve elimination of the Department since it enforces many laws. Pressure has to be applied to Congress.
Does anyone know what is the procedure if the President has a nervous breakdown?
There were some physicians on TV yesterday who said they had calculated the estimated deaths per year if ACA is eliminated with no comparable replacement. The number was 48,000 deaths per year. If you break it down to months, it is 4,000 deaths per month. Imagine, some people voted for their own deaths. One thing for sure, they definitely voted for the deaths of other Americans. We don't know what the impact is of the anti-ACA executive order Trump just signed, but if it impacts ACA, the deaths will begin, if they have not already started.
I see what you mean. That is 133 dead Americans per day. It looks like one thing but it is actually something else. If the goal is killing off a lot of Americans, then eliminating ACA with no comparable replacement, is an excellent strategy.
OODA Loop, get used to it.
RESIST!
IT'S YOUR RIGHT!
The President himself doesn't pay taxes. Why should California?
California and MA are looking hard at succession from the US under Trump. NY is a little behind them. They are big blue money, or donor states. If they leave and don't pay taxes to the US govt., the whole federal budget falls apart. The issue is going on a California ballot.The states that voted for Trump are all recipient states, that is they get way more money from the federal govt. than they send in taxes. Other rich states will leave too, so all Trump will have left is a bunch of poor states that voted for him. So the 200+ year American experiment comes to an end because of the electoral college and the election of one crazy man.
The stock market will crash too. It is based on globalization. With walls, and tariffs, and so much uncertainty, people will take their money out of it. With the travel ban, people have already begun moving their money out of the country. Why put your money, or have real estate in a country that any day now with a tweet, you could be denied entrance into the country that has your money, or where your property, real estate is located? Extreme vetting is happening with people from many countries, and on your next trip, it could be you.
It's like being in the Twlight Zone. . .
Yep. Stock market did tank today. I assume this wont do much for Florida tourism. Pres of FIT warned students against leaving US...
Now, about those jobs... Have been looking months and see less new jobs in past few weeks then prior to the election. That's all that republican optimism out there! All that winning bigly.
He is putting out sensationalizing policy ceremonies (such as One New Regulation = Delete Two Existing Regulations and the idiotic 7 nation ban) only to mask the catastrophe he is cooking up behind locked doors of the now KKK controlled Oval Office.
Post a Comment