1461 Days of Trump: 2017

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Friday 8/25/17 - Day 218: Hurricane Harvey

As I write, Hurricane Harvey has just made landfall in Texas. If you're in that region, stay safe. The administration is largely unprepared for a natural disaster like this, of course. While it's likely to be the first disaster not of their own making, it will be a disaster for many people nonetheless. Fueled by warmer waters and temperatures from climate change, this is going to be a bad hurricane.

Of course, the administration is seeking to capitalize on the hurricane: all border patrol checkpoints will remain operational during the hurricane. So, undocumented people find themselves in a tough position: try to evacuate, as advised, and risk deportation, or stay in place, and risk death. Note that undocumented people are typically the least capable of preparing themselves for a natural disaster. Note also that this is a break from previous policy.
News sites are reporting that Gorka has been terminated from the administration. The self-styled expert on anything that buzzed into his head, I'll be glad never to hear from this idiot again. Of course, as a close friend of Bannon's, he's probably going straight to Breitbart.
This evening, Trump issued a formal pardon for former sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, a despicable racist who was found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order against prolonging traffic patrols targeting immigrants. This is actually terrifying - Trump has basically broadcast that a court's injunction against his policies has no teeth to back it up. As the ACLU put it, this is essentially an endorsement of racism.
The first cracks from inside the administration emerge over Trump's Charlottesville response: National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn had harsh words for the administration. Now the rest of the administration should follow suit!
Saturday is Women's Equality Day! Yup, it's official. Trump declared it late this evening. WTF? Like this was given any thought whatsoever.
You may be unaware of what's going on in Venezuela, but it's not pretty down there at the moment. The administration has decided to implement a new round of sanctions against the country, in an effort to get them to reform. However, the state oil company Citgo is immune. Why? They donated half a million dollars for Trump's inauguration. I believe this satisfies the definition of corruption.
Because people discovered that whatever gets Trump's attention last is what he literally forms policy based upon, Kelly is now trying to completely restrict the flow of unvetted information to Lord Turnip. This is a sad, sad state of affairs.
Trump is rolling back regulations too fast even for oil and gas companies. Ugh.

Thursday 8/24/17 - Day 217: Feuding

Another relatively quiet day today. Perhaps it's because Congress is in recess?

Trump's feud with McConnell and Ryan intensifies. This a fucking soap opera. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that nothing gets accomplished for the next three and a half years?
Trump is actually working to enforce his transgender military ban. The ban is due to be implemented within 6 months. What a waste of time, space, resources, training and human lives.
More members of advisory committees are calling it quits with this administration. Good. Every bit adds to the pressure to GET A NEW ADMINISTRATION.
In a bit of a surprise (or maybe not, given that over a million people wrote to him to say "Don't you dare touch our monuments"), Zinke has decided not to eliminate any national monuments. However, he does want to catastrophically downsize a number of them so that oil drilling and coal mining can take place. Of course, it's debatable if the administration even has the power to do so. You can bet this will land in court.
Obamacare is functioning! Every county has access to Obamacare for next year.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Wednesday 8/23/17 - Day 216: Phoenix Rally

Today's headlines were dominated by Trump's unscripted "clap for me" rally in Phoenix.

There was nothing particularly of note in what he said, most of which was well-worn and tired. It was, apparently, best described as a "rant".
He did, however, threaten to shut down the government if congress doesn't fund his wall. What happened to Mexico?
Of course, he spent a long time talking about how "large" the crowd was.
And he doubled down in support of White Supremacy and in his attacks on the media.
Takehome message: Trump is fanning the flames of totalitarianism in this country. It's perfectly obvious to Republicans. Why do they still support him?

In other news:

Trump's voting commission is hiding public information. Like that will bolster their credibility...
The UN issued an "early warning" to the USA regarding the administration's attitudes towards racism. The only other countries to receive such a warning in the past decade were Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria. Great company! This goes to show how far the administration has plundered and pillaged the reputation of this country.

Tuesday 8/22/17 - Day 215: Afghanistan

So the Turnip gave a speech last night. The most amazing part of the speech was how Trump displayed that he is capable of reading from a teleprompter. Ostensibly, it was about escalating the never-ending war in Afghanistan. Here's the transcript. Basically, "We're ramping up. I'm not telling you when or where or how many more American's we're sending in. We're done with nation-building; now we're killing terrorists." From the guy who campaigned on getting out of Afghanistan. Apparently he took some convincing by the military wing. I'm completely convinced that this administration has no idea about what it's doing in foreign policy.

Otherwise, today's seemed oddly quiet, so here's some appropriate reading to remind you of all the fantastic aspects of the government:

The Washington Post has been keeping a list of all of Trump's lies and misleading claims. They recently topped 1,000. That's more than 5 a day. This is insane. "Many are repeats of claims that have been previously debunked".
Apparently Trump is in a cold war with the Republican leadership. There are a number of articles like this floating around at the moment. Complete dysfunction.
Trump's FCC has decided that screwing over prisoners and their families is a priority. Recidivism 'R' us!
And finally, in a small act that basically sums up the administration: To get their wall started, they've issued a waiver to 37 laws and regulations, mostly environmental in nature.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Monday 8/21/17 - Day 214: Solar Eclipse

After a month of for my own sanity, I'm now back and ready to keep you up-to-date with the latest shenanigans by our filthy administration. I've posted links to other aggregators for each of the days I missed, if you really want to catch up. Otherwise, here's a 2-minute rundown on how fucked up the month has been.

Today was completely dominated by a total solar eclipse, coast to coast. Not even the administration could doubt the science involved in the phenomenal natural spectacle.

But while the nation looked towards the sun and the moon...

The Trump family has exhausted all funding for the Secret Service for the year (already). Over 1000 agents have exhausted their yearly allowance of hours, and many look like they won't be paid for their work. This is typical of Trump - employ somebody, and then don't pay them.
The GOP is happily spending money at Trump's properties. Disgusting.
In the wake of a variety of industry advisory committees being disbanded, we have a new one: the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment just got the axe. The committee's chair has suggested that this move is short-sighted. I think he was being generous.
The administration has pulled the plug in Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, cutting grants three years into their five-year tenure. The reason? They had issue with the pilot program, rather than the current program. The real reason? They weren't promoting abstinence.
The administration has halted research on the effects of mining coal by blowing up mountaintops. After recently allowing the mining of coal by blowing up mountaintops. Incredibly shady. What have they got to hide?
The administration has also decided to undo Obama's ban on selling drinks in disposable plastic bottles in National Parks. Because a cabinet with deep-seated ties to industry just loves deregulation, right? Environmental protections? Not so much.
Banon's "firing" looks more likely to have been a strategic move to enable him to more freely pursue the combined Bannon-Trump agenda. Indeed, he has already picked back up where he left off at Breitbart, declaring that he was "going to war for Trump". Ugh. If I never hear Bannon's name again, it will be too soon.
There was a blink-and-you-missed-it white nationalism rally in Boston this weekend. There were also ~40,000 protestors there to greet them. Go Boston!