Day 148: Breaking up with Cuba

Today was oddly quiet for a weekday. Perhaps people realized that the rest of the week has already been so horrible that they've given us a reprieve? I doubt it.

• Trump has backtracked on relations with Cuba, undoing (but not completely rolling back) progress made by Obama. This was one aspect of Obama's presidency that I was really proud of, and I'm disgusted that Trump has put his grubby fingers on it again. Of course, Trump referred to it as a "one-sided deal", because anything Trump doesn't like is reflexively called a "one-sided deal". This wasn't a deal at all; it was an important thawing of relations, and Trump has zero understanding of it.
• Today, the Department of Homeland Security said that it would not be dropping support for the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). DACA immigrants are sometimes referred to as "Dreamers". While ostensibly good news, it's not like being a Dreamer was ever any protection against ICE agents who want to kick you out. The deferred action for parents part of the program, which was suspended and ultimately led to a tied supreme court, was completely dropped, however.
• In what seems absurd, Trump's personal lawyer has lawyered up, indicating that he may be a person of interest in Mueller's probe.
• The war in Afghanistan is being escalated by increasing the number of troops there by 4,000, almost a 50% increase. This war has been going since 2001ish, and seems to be the neverending war.

This has nothing to do with the administration, but is bound to become political: Amazon has launched a takeover bid for WholeFoods. Here is an opinion piece that cautions about the political power that the monopoly that is Amazon wields that I think is worth reading.