Trump Just Fired 17 Inspectors General – Makes Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre Look Like A Picnic

Executive Orders And Purge Of Independent Oversight Are First Steps In Consolidating Fascist Power

With A Loyal Republican Congress And Federalist Society Driven Supreme and Federal Courts, Trump Is Now A Dictator With No Oversight

In the dark of Friday night, Trump just fired 17 Inspectors General (IG’s). (see NY Times, Washington Post,  and Reuters stories). Trump’s “Friday Night Massacre”.

Echoes of Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre come to mind, but Nixon’s corrupt abuses are dwarfed by Trump’s moves.

Once again, the corporate media is downplaying and not reporting on the significance of these outrageous Trump moves or calling them out. Here’s just one example from the Reuters story:

The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires the president to give both houses of Congress reasons for the dismissals 30 days in advance.

Appeared to violate federal law? Just like several of the Executive Orders, the illegality  is blatant.

At least the Washington Post headline correctly described them as a “late night purge” – but they too pull punches by saying the move “appears to violate federal law”.

The IG’s conduct rigorous investigations and serve as independent watchdogs of federal agencies to prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and other corruption. They also investigate the performance of federal agencies in implementing and enforcing federal laws. IG’s often followup the claims of whistleblowers in exposing corruption.

Their firing invites corruption.

Their firing allows Trump to dictate illegal and corrupt policies to federal government agencies, with no independent accountability.

Their firing allows Trump to mask any exposure of his administration’s actions, suppress information and science, and spin the narrative with no oversight, countervailing force or inside information from federal agencies.

Congressional oversight is controlled by Trump’s Republican loyalists. Judicial oversight is controlled by a right wing Supreme Court and decades of right wing Federalist Society federal court judicial appointments.

Trump can replace the IG’s with his loyalists and lackeys, or allow the positions to remain vacant.

Just like his illegal Executive Orders, it is another classic move of a Fascist.

These are impeachable offenses.

Democrats need to shut down Congress and make this shit stop.

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MAGA On Welfare

Trump Seeks To Slash The Social Safety Net To Offset Billionaire Tax Cuts

MAGA Working Class People Would Be Harmed

MAGA Will Not Oppose Trump’s Cuts

The New York Times has a long story today abut Trump’s proposed cuts to social safety net programs. The story goes into detail about the impacts of such cuts on working class people, especially Trump’s MAGA base, see:

The new administration wants to slash aid for health, food and housing, but many of those programs now reach the struggling working class he is courting.

Gee, it’s a little late now. Perhaps they should have reported this story BEFORE the election?

The NY Times and the Democratic Party have ignored the working class and poor and homeless for decades now, as they abandoned the New Deal Coalition in favor of taking corporate money and championing Neoliberal economic policies that destroyed labor and deindustrialized and devastated working class communities.

The Democrats and media lost touch with the idea that government and government programs benefit the day to day lives of real people and that there are direct links between politics and all those “kitchen table” issues they tend to trot out during campaign rhetoric.

As a result, they both have zero credibility and many working people feel so betrayed that they voted for Trump, some even knowing that they were voting against their own economic interests.

The NYT story seems like an obvious attempt to drive a wedge in Trump’s MAGA base.

It won’t work.

First of all, MAGA does not read The NY Times (it’s “fake news” to them).

But there are many other reasons, which I listed in this reader comment to the NYT:

MAGA will not oppose even elimination of the social safety net for the following reasons:

1) they are in a cult and the leader is never wrong and even if he is, he is not to be resisted or criticized;

2) MAGA believes welfare is evil because it creates dependence on government and saps the individual’s will and dignity. They prefer “Christian charity” and tough love to build character;

3) MAGA thinks welfare recipients are lazy, stupid, drug or alcohol dependent, or mentally ill and don’t deserve to live the easy life with their tax money;

4) MAGA thinks most of the money goes to black people, a blatantly racist false assumption;

5) MAGA is cruel – they enjoy making people suffer, particularly liberal democratic people;

6) MAGA hates government and wants it dismantled. They have been told by right wing media, the Christian White Nationalist Church,  and Republicans for decades that all their problems were created by government, not the corporations who shipped jobs overseas to exploit slave labor and no environmental regulations and the billionaire’s who rigged the system;

7) MAGA thinks they earned what they have and the poor, homeless, unemployed, sick, et al deserve what exactly they got and should suffer.

There is no reasoning with MAGA and virtually no ground for traditional politics as usual compromise.

The media and the Democrats need realize this and focus on the dangers of Trump’s fascist regime and get people of good will off the couch and out in the streets.

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Republican Democrats Seeking Justice Then – Are Republican Fascists Now

A Strong Historical Contrast

President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address delivered on On March 4, 1865, only 41 days before his assassination (emphasis mine):

“One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. … It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. …

“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Trump’s second inaugural remarks:

… Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our Republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. […]

As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, the radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens. While the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair, we now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad. […]

Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina, who’ve been treated so badly. And other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago. Or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defence (sic).

Pretty obvious which President reflected real US values and history.

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Trump’s Memo Is Merely Passing Wind On Attack On Wind Power

Once Again, The Murphy Administration And Environmental Groups Are Caught Flatfooted And Playing Defense

Where Is The BPU Fact Sheet On Components Of Residential Electric Bills That Could Prebut The Van Drew And Trump Lies About Consumer Costs?

Where Are The Fact Sheets On The Science And Impacts On Grid Reliability To Prebut The Trump Lies About Brownouts, Blackouts, And Destruction Of Fisheries And Wildlife?

Just Like Biden’s “Pause”, Trump Won’t Weaken The Law Of Leases Because Big Oil & Gas Won’t Allow That To Happen

Passing wind is normal, but the amount varies between individuals and depends on a number of factors including diet. Some people pass wind only a handful of times per day, others up to 40 times, while the average seems to be about 15. Symptoms of excessive (or embarrassing) flatulence include: passing wind often. ~~~ Source Link

The Trump “Memorandum” (not even an Executive Order) on wind is being distorted by media reporting (see today’s NJ Spotlight story:

And media is leaving crucial information out of the story.

So let me try to set things straight on the basics.

Trump issued a “Memorandum”, which is not even an Executive Order in terms of its legal effect.

Similar to Biden’s “Pause” on fossil leasing, Trump issued a “Temporary Withdrawal” (the first words of Section 1).

Politically, it’s very likely to serve the same political/PR purposes and suffer a similar fate.

Big Oil and Gas and Mining simply will not tolerate any monkeying around with the federal law on energy and minerals leasing.

To signal his intent not to mess around with all that and to make that very clear to the Big Oil, Gas, and Mining interests – and revealing Trump’s incredibly corrupt pro-fossil bias – Trump not only highlighted the “Temporary” nature of the policy, he explicitly exempted oil and gas and minerals leases:

This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.

The federal law Trump invoked explicitly limits the President’s authority to withdraw outer continental shelf lands from the federal leasing program. That power is limited to “unleased lands”:

“withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.”

The suspension of existing leases would require a declaration of war by Congress (see sub-Section c) National security clause).

Trump also makes that clear in his memo:

Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas.

Any suspended leases under a declaration of war require payment of just compensation to the lease holder. Big Oil and Gas and Mining made sure that they get paid.

Under certain limited situations, the Secretary of Defense and the President could suspend existing leases, as required for national security. But again, that would require significant compensation to the lease holders. Again, Big Oil and Gas and Mining made sure that they get paid. (see Sub-Section (d)National defense areas; suspension of operations; extension of leases).

The Trump memo applies to BOTH on shore and off shore wind leases.

During the “Temporary” period, Trump’s memo requires an environmental review process. During this period, no “new” permits, leases, rights of way, or loans can be made to on shore or off shore wind. (See Section 2).

Total hypocrisy because Trump is focused on the alleged high subsidies to wind, but he ignored the $7 TRILLION in annual subsidies to fossil, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is no radical green group.

Total hypocrisy here, because the environmental reviews apply only to wind (not to the far more destructive fossil and mineral leases).

Total hypocrisy because the Trump memo does NOT include any policy direction, decision rules or standards, or timeframes to govern the environmental review process.  The Trump environmental review process is vague and standardless and not time bounded, allowing the exercise of total bureaucratic  discretion!

This garbage is coming from an Administration that parrots corporate talking points about the lengthy delays, high costs, and “regulatory uncertainty” of environmental review under NEPA and EPA permit programs!!!!

And in another incredible example of hypocrisy, in order to protect communities from environmental impacts, Trump ordered recommendations on “removal” of “defunct and idle windmills”.

I don’t have data on how many “defunct and idle windmills” there are, but I can guarantee that the environmental impacts don’t come close to the hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines (including uranium) and oil and gas wells that are poisoning communities, water, air, soil and wildlife.

None of these facts or context were reported by media that I am aware of.

Finally, Trump is lying about not only the science, but the economic impacts on ratepayers.

These lies have been deployed for many months now, and yet have not effectively been rebutted by the Murphy administration and NJ environmental groups.

These groups should have anticipated Trump’s Day One attacks on wind and renewables – which were telegraphed months in advance- and gotten out in front of the debate.

Just one example of this: the Murphy BPU’s Energy Master Plan has a chart on the components of the typical residential gas and electric bill.,

That chart shows that subsidies to renewable. energy are a tiny fraction of the typical residential energy bill.

For example, I wrote about this way back in 2013

Facts on the breakdown of energy costs, from the NJ Energy Master Plan – note that the RGGI charge is so small it is invisible on these charts:

Why wasn’t such information prominently and repeatedly presented in advance to “prebut” and inoculate the media from the Trump lies?

Here’s some examples I wrote about that almost 15 years ago:

Here’s a more recent example:

and even NJ Spotlight reported:

For New Jersey ratepayers, however, the actual cost paid will be far less — $46.46 MWh — when the energy and capacity revenue produced by the wind farm is refunded to utility customers. It means the estimated monthly impact will be an increase of $1.46 for residential, $13.05 for commercial, and $110.10 for industrial customers, according to the state Board of Public Utilities, which approved the project on Friday.

That’s Peanuts!

The credibility  of those who grossly exaggerated the cost of wind is shot, no?

Why were the Murphy people (BPU and DEP) and the environmental groups AGAIN caught flat footed and playing defense?

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Trump Is Restoring Shameful US Concentration Camps

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