The man on the right is the real power behind the Romanov throne, uh, I mean the White House.
The man on the right is the real power behind the Romanov throne, uh, I mean the White House.
It has become painfully obvious who is running the show at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And it ain't the guy with the orange skin.
The moniker “President Bannon” has become common when describing the white nationalist serving as Donald Trump’s alt-right-hand man: former Breitbart honcho Steve Bannon. But that description, while capturing the ultimate power grab, doesn’t accurately encompass the totality of the influence.
Past U.S. presidents have given others a majority stake during their terms in office. When Woodrow Wilson was incapacitated with a stroke, his second wife, Edith, made decisions on which matters to bring to the bedridden president’s attention. Certainly George W. Bush seemed second-in-command to Vice President Dick Cheney and adviser Karl Rove. All presidents have had strong advisers who influenced their decision-making.
But Bannon is in a class by himself. He was pulling Donald Trump’s strings before the election, even long before he became the campaign’s CEO. As President Trump’s chief strategist, Bannon first sucks up to Trump then bends his ear with his theories and beliefs of white nationalism, his anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic bigotry, his desire for a global populist movement for “Judeo-Christian” values, his paranoia. Bannon writes (or at least dictates) the ill-thought-out executive orders; Trump just signs them. Bannon overrode other agencies to say that yes, green card holders also would be affected by the Muslim ban. Bannon now is ensconced at the National Security Council and is (by some reports) running the show there, too. According to a story in Foreign Policy:
Even before he was given a formal seat on the National Security Council’s “principals committee” this weekend by President Donald Trump, Bannon was calling the shots and doing so with little to no input from the National Security Council staff, according to an intelligence official who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.
“He is running a cabal, almost like a shadow NSC,” the official said. He described a work environment where there is little appetite for dissenting opinions, shockingly no paper trail of what’s being discussed and agreed upon at meetings, and no guidance or encouragement so far from above about how the National Security Council staff should be organized.
Writing executive orders. Setting national security policy. Telling Trump what to do. To me, the best reason to think of Bannon as Rasputin is …
Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Annie Bell Robinson Devine in Washington DC in 1965 for the Mississippi Congressional Challenge
Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Annie Bell Robinson Devine in Washington DC in 1965 for the Mississippi Congressional Challenge
If you are not aware that in recent decades black women have been the most reliable and solid voting bloc for Democrats, you should be. We proved it, once again, in the recent presidential election. That stance and practice has a history, rooted in the time when many black Americans had been Republicans and the Democratic Party was the home of racist, anti-black Dixiecrats who took extraordinary measures to restrict black voting rights.
Of course the political party that currently represents and practices racism with a capital ‘R’ calls itself ‘Republican’—and is now occupying the White House. The popular vote loser and liar-in-chief (aka Birther Trump) has placed slimy white supremacist Steve Bannon in a key position to aid, abet and undermine the Constitution. The R’s in the House and Senate are doing nothing to stop the turning back of the clock to pre-civil rights days, and are participating in the deconstruction of our rights while embracing an openly racist, sexist, xenophobic agenda—which they advanced for the eight years they blocked President Obama.
This is our first Black History Month under the new, illegitimate regime, and since voting rights are on the table and more voter suppression and gerrymandering loom large in the near future, I’d like to honor some of the women of our recent past who we should adopt as shining examples to emulate and inspire us as we fight for our future.
These black women can and should be role models for people of all colors and genders.
They were not ensconced in the ivory tower of academia. They were not politicians. They were women from poor and working-class backgrounds who against the odds—and at risk of death— decided to step up, speak out, organize, and challenge the status quo and the government.
They are too often glossed over or passed over completely when history is being taught.
Thomas Countryman is not a pundit. He’s not anything at the moment, other than a citizen, husband, and father. However, until this week he was the Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, a position he held after serving the United States for 35 years. In that role, it was Countryman who was tasked with keeping WMDs from reaching terrorists, and restricting the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. That critical position is now vacant.
Our work is little understood by our fellow Americans, a fact that is sometimes exploited for political purpose. When I have the opportunity to speak to audiences across this amazing land, I explain “We do not have a Department of State – we do not have a foreign policy – because we love foreigners. We do it because we love Americans.” …
We want Americans to sleep the sleep of the righteous, knowing that the smallest fraction of their tax dollar goes to ease poverty and reduce injustice. We want them to know that our consular officers are the first of many lines of defense against those who would come to the US with evil purpose. We want the families of America’s heroes – our servicemen – to know that their loved ones are not put into danger simply because of a failure to pursue non-military solutions. ...
Business made America great, as it always has been, and business leaders are among our most important partners. But let’s be clear, despite the similarities. A dog is not a cat. Baseball is not football. And diplomacy is not a business. Human rights are not a business. And democracy is, most assuredly, not a business.
Seriously, if this much of the speech hasn’t convinced you to go read the rest of it, you need another cup of coffee. I’ll put down the end for you, because I love it, but you need to click that link and read it all.
I leave you with one last thought, from one of my favorite philosophers. If you’ve never read him, or not for many years, I urge you to take the time now. His name is: ….Winnie the Pooh.
And he said:
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Thank You and God Bless You!
That’s just one. One of the people whose service Donald Trump discarded this week. You can find more analysis of Countryman’s speech at Foreign Policy, but the link above will give you the full text.
Honestly, I’m doubting anything else this week is going to match up. But let’s go see…
Lauren Paquette dreams of owning a home with a pool. But the 34-year-old fifth-gradescience teacher knows it's a pipe dream: She recently had to find a roommate to help with the monthly rent of $1,425 on her three-bedroom house in Houston. Although that's relatively cheap compared with rents across the country, it's tough on a teacher's salary. Saving up for a down payment is out of the question, said Paquette, a single mother.
"It's not like I went into this job thinking I'd make a bunch of money, but I expected to be able to make ends meet," Paquette said. Finances have been easier since she left North Carolina for Texas (North Carolina ranks in the lower tenth of states for teacher pay), but Paquette's struggles aren't unique.
As housing prices have soared in all the usual major metropolitan areas—as well as in cites like Las Vegas, Sacramento, Atlanta, and Minneapolis—teachers' wages haven't kept pace. And with school districts already struggling to recruit and retain educators, this rising gap is just another barrier to keeping teachers in the profession. [...]
Coming up on Sunday Kos …
Trump’s right-wing political correctness makes us less safe, by Ian Reifowitz
Law and disorder at the CBP, by Susan Grigsby
NO to everything Trump and YES to Starbucks for doing the right thing, by Egberto Willies
We’ll consider Gorsuch after you consider Merrick Garland, by David Akadjian
Is Steve Bannon Donald Trump’s Rasputin? Da, by Sher Watts Spooner
Judge not, lest ye be judged, by Jon Perr
Killing the EPA, by Mark E Andersen
How black women helped shape history and today’s Democratic Party, by Denise Oliver Velez
“The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.”
—Philip K. Dick, How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978.
At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Obama Caps CEO Salaries of TARP Recipients; Who Will Work for a Paltry $500,000 Per Year?
Look, here's the situation: Bush may have wanted to bail out his backers in the financial services industry, and that may have driven his support for the $700 billion bailout. But most people who supported it did it in spite of the irresponsible CEO's who helped create the collapse of the credit markets. Most people who supported the bailout did so because it was too important to the entire economy to keep credit from completely drying up. It was a case of how people often refer to what FDR did during the Depression: it was saving capitalism from the capitalists.
But the guys (and they're almost all guys) who blew their companies' money on obscure "financial products" that were mostly just bets on bets on bets, they don't deserve any great rewards from the taxpayers. It's not in the public interest to make sure they continue to get over over 350 times the pay of the average American worker.
Trump is coming on stronger than previous worst President ever candidate Richard M. Nixon. And it’s only been a week! We’ve already seen the Saturday Night Massacre play out here in the firing of the Attorney General for “betrayal.” Trump is such a drama queen! Somebody please call FEMA and have them declare the White House a Federal Disaster Zone!
Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Y’ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
Over the last week, several stories focused on the state of their local county organization have drawn significant attention. In light of that, I’m going to take this week to talk about our county parties, one of the building blocks of the Democratic party and how you can make yours better.
It is easy to throw up our hands and say, “well, this isn’t working” and walk away, but a big part of making the party as a whole better is building an understanding of what county party organizations can do, should do, and don’t do for candidates and members. Settle in and let’s fix your county organization.
It’s already the pattern on jobs. Any time a company announces new jobs, even if they’re just filling positions announced years before, Donald Trump is quick to claim credit. And the media is extraordinarily quick to give it to him. The same thing applies to the second half of Trump’s “winning.’
“With all of the jobs I am bringing back into the U.S. (even before taking office), with all of the new auto plants coming back into our country and with the massive cost reductions I have negotiated on military purchases and more, I believe the people are seeing ‘big stuff.’”
At the time Trump wrote this, he had negotiated nothing on military purchases, or anything else. The most he had done was post a pair of tweets on the cost of some military programs. But the media was already crediting him with savings, especially on the F-35 fighter program. But according to Senator Jack Reed, that’s credit which is totally undeserved.
President Donald Trump claims that his intervention forced Lockheed Martin to reduce the cost of its F-35 airplane to the Pentagon, but the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee says that's not true. …
After Spicer took credit for the president Friday, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Armed Services Democrat, responded more bluntly.
"This is simply taking credit for what's been in the works for many months," Reed told CNBC in a telephone interview. "These are savings that would have happened anyway."
Cassini, now making kamikaze dives through Saturn's Rings near the end of its mission, snapped this image of the outer "B" ring in January with a resolution akin to a terrestrial skyscraper. Resolution will continue to improve as the probe gets closer and closer to the rings and passes repeatedly low over the turbulent cloud-tops for the next several months.
Cassini, now making kamikaze dives through Saturn's Rings near the end of its mission, snapped this image of the outer "B" ring in January with a resolution akin to a terrestrial skyscraper. Resolution will continue to improve as the probe gets closer and closer to the rings and passes repeatedly low over the turbulent cloud-tops for the next several months.
In the arid reaches of the Lone Star State, tucked under some of the darkest, world-class night skies for optical astronomy, an unlikely reservoir was born by a quirk of geology and topography. DeSmogBlog paints the picture beautifully:
Travelers crossing the long stretch of arid desert spanning West Texas might stumble across an extraordinarily improbable sight — a tiny teeming wetlands, a sliver of marsh that seems like it should sit by the ocean but actually lays over 450 miles from the nearest coast.
Famous as “the oasis of West Texas,” Balmorhea State Park now hosts over 150,000 visitors a year, drawn by the chance to swim in the cool waters of the park's crystal-blue pool, which is fed by up to 28 million gallons of water a day flowing from the San Solomon springs. The pool's steady 72 to 76 degree Fahrenheit temperatures make the waters temptingly cool in the hot Texas summer and surprisingly warm in the winter locals say — part of the reason it's been called “the crown jewel of the desert.” Iconic Texas wildlife — diamondback rattlesnakes, road-runner, and javelina — stir in the underbrush. And they're not alone. Unique animals, including multiple endangered species, have adapted specifically to live in or near these springs' desert waters ...
But, as the article notes, signs of oil and gas have been found in the region. Given our current bumbling corrupt administration along with Exxon’s new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, even West Texas locals are deeply concerned about what might happen next.
Our friend Phil Plait, known to millions as the Bad Astronomer, has boldly gone to his new blog home at SyFyWire. Phil originally became the “bad” astronomer by debunking pseudoscience like moon landing hoaxers and related nonsense back in the neolithic days of the Internet, also known as the ‘90s. But there should be no doubt that he will be every bit as passionate and successful, in both illuminating the beauty tucked into every tiny out-of-the way parsec, and in defending the future of science against all comers. You can help show him Great Orange welcome by visiting here!
While Lagrange 2 may soon become the literal focal point for near and infrared astronomy with James Webb, Chile has already become the place for traditional land-based optical astronomy. But in just a few more years, the 30 meter Magellan telescope will begin operations and the science returned is expected to be incredible.
Some of the hundreds of protesters who showed up Saturday in Janesville, Wisconsin, to challenge House Speak Paul Ryan's immigration stance.
Some of the hundreds of protesters who showed up Saturday in Janesville, Wisconsin, to challenge House Speak Paul Ryan's immigration stance.
On Wednesday, 16 constituents showed up in six-term Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam’s office to discuss Obamacare with the Congressman. But when a staffer learned a reporter was present, the meeting was canceled. Katherine Skiba and Marwa Eltagouri reported:
“I am flabbergasted that Peter Roskam and his staff would turn us away,” Sandra Alexander, who organized the meeting, said. “They didn’t have the courtesy to listen to us. We are a peaceful group.” [...]
A Facebook group called "6th District of Illinois-Holding Peter Roskam Accountable" has sprung up to urge calls to Roskam.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is taking the unusual move of targeting Roskam, an unusual move for a representative serving a persistently Republican district. And the DSCC is not the only opposition. By Friday, 80 or 90 people had signed up to attend the Palatine Township Republican Organization's monthly meeting where Roskam was scheduled to speak and expected protesters. And were there ever. As you can see in the video below, there were hundreds.
That wasn’t the only place resisters appeared to give their Congressperson a message Saturday. The townhall meeting set up in a local theater by Republican Rep. Tom McClintock in Roseville, California, drew a huge crowd inside and out. Angela Hart reports:
The Senate will vote early in the coming week on whether to confirm an education secretary who has never attended public school, never sent her kids to public school, never worked as an educator, never had anything to do with education but using her money to try to privatize public education. She’s largely had her way in Michigan, and it’s been a disaster for Michigan students, schools, and teachers. Now Donald Trump wants to give her a chance to do the same to the whole country.
And we just need one more vote to defeat her.
I’m not going to lie, it’s a long shot. We’re talking about getting a Republican to do the right thing, when the person they’d be rejecting is a huge Republican donor. But you can’t win if you don’t try. So what are you doing this weekend?
One of several thousand protesters who showed up at San Francisco International Airport last Sunday to demonstrate against the Trump regime's ban on travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations.
One of several thousand protesters who showed up at San Francisco International Airport last Sunday to demonstrate against the Trump regime's ban on travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations.
With a court battle in the works over the pr*sident’s Muslim travel ban, the Trump regime is most assuredly not in full retreat in the matter, and the final outcome is uncertain. But for the moment at least, the worst aspects of the ban are in abeyance and will remain so until the judiciary resolves the matter one way or another. At ABC News, Don Melvin and Ali Azouzi report:
The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday it won't force airlines to block foreigners with visas from boarding planes into the U.S. under President Donald Trump's travel ban.
The move comes as the State Department also announced it has reversed the cancellation of visas under Trump's executive order, which bars people from seven predominantly Muslim nations from traveling into America. The State Department had said up to 60,000 foreigners had their visas "provisionally revoked" since the order went into effect a week ago.
The departments' decisions essentially back up a federal judge who on Friday halted Trump's executive order.
From his Twitter perch, Pr*sident Donald Trump attacked that judge—James L. Robart of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington—for his ruling Friday staying several parts of the ban on refugees, and holders of visas and green cards from seven Muslim-majority nations. In addition to Robart’s ruling and that of several other federal judges, dozens of spontaneous protests have taken place at airports around the nation, some of them drawing thousands of demonstrators.
Charlie Savage at The New York Times is reporting that the Trump regime, under pressure from various members of Congress, cabinet officials and human rights activists, has backed off a draft plan to resurrect the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret torture dungeons. After details of the draft plan appeared in the media and touched off criticism, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo said they had not been informed of the plan. White House press secretary Sean Spicer went so far as to lie and claim the draft plan hadn’t originated at the White House:
On Thursday, the White House circulated among National Security Council staff members a revised version of the draft order on detainees that deleted language contemplating a revival of the C.I.A. prisons, according to several officials familiar with its contents.
The draft order retains other parts of the original that focus on making greater use of the military’s Guantánamo Bay prison, which the Obama administration had tried to close. Those sections, reflecting repeated vows from President Trump, include a call to bring newly captured terrorism detainees there and to freeze plans for any more transfers. [...]
“It sounds like a smart reaction to the reaction to the leaked draft,” said [Elisa Massimino, the president of Human Rights First]. “Transparency is a good corrective to overreach, and it provides the opportunity for more careful consideration of the broader implications of an order like this.”
The revised draft, according to Savage, also does not include a 2007 executive order rescinded by President Barack Obama listing the specific torture techniques considered to be war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Leaving the details out would reduce the legal liability of interrogators who use proscribed techniques. Also left out of the revision is the rescission in the original draft of two of Obama’s executive orders. One prohibited the CIA from running secret prisons and requiring interrogators to stick to questioning techniques included in the Army Field Manual. The other called for closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. As I noted last month:
Combined with “extraordinary rendition”—the CIA snatching of suspected terrorists from the streets of several other nations, most of them U.S. allies—and torturing them in secret prisons in Romania, Poland, Thailand and elsewhere, the Bush administration’s pretense that Guantánamo was not subject to U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions sparked strong opposition inside and outside the United States. That opposition led to Supreme Court decisions undercutting the administration’s policies in the matter.
Under current law, any prisoners under the control of U.S. authorities—including the CIA—can only be interrogated using methods found in the Army Field Manual. Barred are techniques such as stress positions, waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
