Day 4: Resistance is mandatory

So much shit going on today. Where to start? Three executive orders seem to be the important pieces.

• Withdraw from TPP. The largest trade agreement in the world, and the US is dumping it. China must be soooo happy - they're going to pick up the pieces that the US just dropped. Yes, the TPP wasn't necessarily the best agreement, but really, this is giving a huge gift to China. Some noise about wanting to renegotiate NAFTA. Doing so would likely hurt specific US companies that rely on it, without much benefit.
• Reinstate the Global Gag Rule on abortions. This one is vile. Trump doesn't care one way or the other, but Pence sure as hell does. "We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions." Sounds like a terrific reason to NOT do this.
• Instituted a federal hiring freeze. Which always ends up costing more because contractors are expensive. Oh, federal wages got frozen too.
• Met with Republicans to insist that he only lost the popular vote because 3-5 million illegals voted. There is no evidence for this, and the only people promoting the theory are writing on conspiracy theory websites. He has even been rebuked by his own party over this! The guy is a sore, sore narcissistic loser. The only real reason to push this completely debunked theory is to shore up support for voter suppression laws. Keep an eye on this!

Last week, Republicans revived an obscure old rule to allow budget measures to terminate individual federal programs, rather than just changing the budget of an agency. Combined with the federal hiring freeze and cabinet members deadset on destroying their portfolio, this is terrible news for the public service. Oh, did I mention Gingrich wants to fire federal employees who voted for Clinton?