Category: Trump effect

November 24, 2017

This week, we were disheartened to learn that Congressman John Conyers, who has represented part of the Detroit metropolitan area since 1965, entered into a 2015 confidential settlement of a wrongful termination claim from a female staffer. The staffer asserted that she was fired for rebuffing Conyers’ repeated sexual advances (Source: “She Said a Powerful Congressman Harassed Her. Here’s Why You Didn’t Hear Her Story,” by Paul McLeod, and Lissandra Villa, Buzzfeed News, 11/20/17). Buzzfeed further reported that, in early 2017, a second staffer had withdrawn a complaint that Conyers had engaged in a similar pattern of behavior with her and that the Congressman’s senior staff members retaliated against her for asserting the complaint (Source: “Another Woman Accused Rep. John Conyers of Sexual Harassment in Court Filings This Year,” by Paul McLeod and Lissandra Villa, Buzzfeed News, 11/21/17). These twin revelations were followed up by attorney, Melanie Sloan, going on the record to accuse Conyers of abuse during her tenure on his staff. Sloan alleged that Conyers berated her and criticized her appearance and that when she attempted to raise the issue with Congressional leadership, she was dismissed as “mentally unstable” (Source: “Ethics lawyer says Conyers mistreated her during her years on Capitol Hill,” by Kimberly Kindy, Steve Hendrix and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, The Washington Post, 11/22/17).

Continue reading “This is going to leave a mark”

November 21, 2017

As every day vomits up new evidence of men who are serial harassers, leaving a trail of dashed ambitions in their wake, the poisonous policies of the Trump administration continue apace.  Yesterday Charlie Rose and Glenn Thrush were the latest to be revealed to have exercised droit de seigneur in their personal fiefdoms.  As riveting as these tales of the powerful brought low by their uncontrolled lechery may be, we must not lose sight of the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s continued commitment to white supremacy as government policy.

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was ending the protection afforded to Haitian refugees under the 1990 Temporary Protected Status Law.  59,000 Haitian refugees, who came to the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake, have been given 18 months to leave the country.  This is despite the fact that Haiti continues to be crippled by extreme poverty (the legacy of revenge exacted by France for having successfully freed itself from colonialism and slavery).  Since their arrival in the United States, these Haitian immigrants have had 30,000 children who are American citizens.  They are part of the diaspora of Haitian refugees who send remittances back to Haiti that account for more than 25% of the country’s income (Source:  “59,000 Haitians Must Leave U.S. As White House Ends Protections,” by Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, 11/21/17). Continue reading “Droit de seigneur”

November 18, 2017    

 

     Our entire society has been buffeted by a blizzard of revelations of men who have sexually harassed and assaulted women with impunity.  We have simultaneously been buried in an avalanche of lies; victims of a President and an entire executive branch unable and unwilling to tell the truth about any issue, large or small.  Trump lies even when recordings, other people or his own words offer easy refutation.  The result is that we live our lives in a state of vertigo, profoundly disoriented by the fact that so many in government lack any moral compass and that so many we revere have been revealed to be incapable of resisting  the temptation to abuse the power we have given them. Continue reading “Vertigo”

November 16, 2017

 

Every time we think we have vanquished Republican efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act, it returns zombie-like, to threaten us anew.  The Republicans are counting on the tawdry Roy Moore saga and the new Al Franken scandal to distract us from their repugnant policy agenda and are rushing their abhorrent, redistributive tax plan through.  The constant battle to block legislation designed to reduce most of us to lives of penury and squalor is by turns enervating and enraging. Although that may seem like shrill hyperbole, consider the likely impact of the key provisions of the Republican bills currently under consideration:

Elimination of the State and Local Tax Deduction (“SALT”).  If the tax bill passes in its current form, it will eliminate (or at a minimum sharply curtail) this critical deduction that has been in place since the passage of federal income tax legislation in 1913.  The SALT deduction prevents double taxation of income, ensures that states and localities have sufficient revenue to fund essential services, and is a key component of housing values.  30% of all American taxpayers claim the deduction, including 39% of those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 per year and 75% of those earning $75,000 to $100,000 per year (Source: The Impact of Eliminating the State and Local Tax Deduction, prepared by The Government Finance Officers Association, www.gfoa.org). Continue reading “Accounting past due”

November 14, 2017

 

As a fifth woman came forward to tearfully recount Roy Moore’s attempted rape of her when she was only sixteen, Republican Senators finally fled Moore’s toxic side like rats leaving a sinking ship.  Although it was a palpable relief to hear Mitch McConnell say flatly, “I believe the women,” his call for Moore to step aside is much more about naked political calculation than principle.  Lest we forget, Moore was a lawless homophobe before he was revealed to be a disgusting sexual predator and no Republican found that to be disqualifying.

The sudden emergence of a Republican conscience has been brought on by fear of the shrinkage of their razor thin Senate majority.  The word is that they are considering the Hail Mary pass of Jeff Sessions as a write-in candidate, since it is too late to get Moore off of the ballot.  This would have the added partisan benefit of giving Trump the chance to appoint a new Attorney General who would not be recused from the Russia investigation and could fire Bob Mueller. Continue reading “Sweet Home Alabama”

November 12, 2017

 

Tuesday’s resounding electoral victories gave us reason to feel hopeful for the first time in a year. In Virginia and New Jersey, Ralph Northam and Phil Murphy won decisively against Republican candidates who waged ugly, racist campaigns. In addition, Democrats scored victories around the country, including the first trans woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, the first Sikh mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, the first African American mayor of Helena, Montana and the first African American woman mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. While these results are truly encouraging, we must be careful not to over-interpret them. Since Tuesday, Democrats have been crowing that these wins prove that blatant appeals to bigotry are ineffective. Unfortunately, a closer look at the numbers disproves that comforting message.

Continue reading “The Path To Power”

November 7

One year ago today, Americans went to the polls and elected the most unqualified man in American history to be President of the United States.  After waging a campaign grounded in racism and bullying cruelty, Trump was rewarded with the highest office in the land.  In the immediate aftermath, puzzled prognosticators searched the ashes for clues as to the cause of this calamity.  They were unwilling to face the obvious fact that 53% of white women chose racism over feminism, or that many Trump voters had a high enough income to be untroubled by “economic anxiety.”  Journalists, academics, and some Democrats told us that if we just went to the Midwest and made a convincing case to displaced white workers who have been voting for Republicans since Ronald Reagan, we could win them back. Continue reading “VOTE!!!!”

November 5, 2017

 

On Thursday of this week, Donna Brazile detonated a bomb inside of the Democratic Party in an article in Politico, which contained explosive charges suggesting that the Joint Fundraising Agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign rigged the primaries in Clinton’s favor. Brazile’s evidence for her claim that the Joint Fundraising Agreement was a “cancer” was the fact that it gave Clinton’s campaign control over how money was spent prior to the nomination being secured and the fact that it gave Clinton’s campaign control over key DNC staff hires, such as Communications Director (Source: “Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC,” by Donna Brazile, Politico, 11/2/17). Closer examination reveals that the arrangement, while unusual, was not unprecedented (Source: “No, the DNC didn’t ‘rig’ the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton, by Boris Heersink, The Washington Post, 11/4/17). While it is certainly true that those agreements are evidence of the DNC’s preference for Hillary Clinton, they do not offer any evidence that the DNC was responsible for Clinton receiving 3.7 million more votes than Bernie Sanders in the primary (Source: Heersink, The Washington Post, 11/4/17). Continue reading “Turn the page.”

November 2, 2017

 

Every morning we steel ourselves for the quotidian journey through the toxic sludge of our current reality.  Every morning brings a new revelation in the seemingly endless stream of prominent men behaving badly.  Whether arbiters of culture or pundits from across the political spectrum, prominent men seem incapable of refraining from assaulting or abusing women who have the temerity to be ambitious.  Yet this dispiriting drumbeat seems like mere background noise in the face of many more daunting challenges to our collective sense of safety and security.

Tuesday, the tranquility of our fall afternoon was shattered by a truck wielding terrorist who murdered eight people by careening down a bike path in lower Manhattan.  New Yorkers absorbed the shock with sober equanimity, refusing to be cowed into cancelling the annual Halloween Parade in the Village.  Governor Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio managed to condemn the terrorist and reassure us that our safety was their paramount concern, without descending to hateful rhetoric.

In contrast, the walking garbage fire in The White House could not resist the impulse to do exactly the opposite.  Trump immediately called for an end to the Diversity Visa Lottery program that was responsible for Sayfullo Saipov’s entry into the United States, taking a swipe at New York Senator Chuck Schumer in the process.  Trump chose to disregard the fact that Schumer co-sponsored legislation that would have ended the program in 2013 and the obvious fact that there is absolutely no logical link between the existence of the program and Saipov’s act of terror (Source:  “Schumer and the Diversity Visa Lottery,” Factcheck.org, 11/1/17).  Of course, Trump never lets facts or logic get in the way of an opportunity to demonize a Muslim immigrant.

Trump ratcheted up the demagoguery yesterday by calling the American judicial system a “joke” and a “laughingstock,” saying that Saipov should be sent to Guantanamo (Source:  “Trump labels US justice system ‘laughingstock, ’” by Dan Merica, CNNPolitics, CNN.com 11/1/17).  Although we’ve lost our capacity for surprise, we should be shocked that Trump so brazenly evinces his rejection of the judicial system at the foundation of our democracy.  We should be unnerved by Trump’s palpable desire to make any person’s fate subject to the whims of a mercurial despot, rather than dependent on universally administered neutral legal principles.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to emulate fascistic strongmen, so his exhortation that the “animal” be sent to Guantanamo is entirely consistent with his autocratic ambitions.  We should see his reckless effort to foment a desire for vengeance for what it is – the desperate attempt of a morally and intellectually bankrupt man to deflect attention from how Mueller is closing in on his confederates.  It is only a matter of time before the Special Prosecutor turns up evidence that points definitively to a corrupt, treasonous effort at the highest levels of his campaign to undermine democracy.  Trump and his accomplices know that their only hope is to derail the Special Counsel investigation and ultimately, the rule of law itself.  They are counting on our fear and bigotry being stronger than our love for justice.  It is up to us to prove them wrong.

October 31, 2017

 

The indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his partner, Rick Gates, along with the guilty plea of former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos landed with brute force in Washington yesterday.  Manafort’s indictment was clearly anticipated, judging from the crowd of reporters staked out in front of his suburban Virginia condo in the pre-dawn hours, looking to catch what we can only hope is the first of many perp walks of the Trump administration.  The twelve count indictment against Manafort and Gates details a money laundering scheme involving more than $75 million dollars, stretching back to 2008.  It includes charges of conspiracy against the United States, Conspiracy to launder money and False and Misleading statements in connection with registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  The 31 page indictment details an elaborate fraudulent scheme employed by Manafort and Gates to disguise their work for Russian backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.  The indictment details how Manafort used millions of dollars laundered through an offshore account in Cyprus to fund the purchase of three Range Rovers, nearly One Million Dollars’ worth of Oriental rugs and Five Million Dollars’ worth of renovation costs on his home Water Mill, New York (Source:  United States of America v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr. and Richard W. Gates, III, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, October 27, 2017). Continue reading “Enemies, foreign and domestic”