November 2, 2018

  • The Progressive Lens Monthly Round-up: October 2018

    Trump Era Days 620-650

     

    What was reported?

    • The Jobs report showed that the economy added a mere 134,000 jobs, unemployment fell to 3.7%, and wages only grew by 2.8%.
    • In a special New York Times investigative report, it was revealed that President Trump’s family amassed their wealth by illegally using certain tricks to dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes through the means by which Fred Trump passed on to his children their inheritance.
    • When the honor of his pick for the Supreme Court – Brett Kavanaugh – was questioned by a woman named Dr. Christine Ford who accused him of an attempted rape in the early-1980s, Trump took to a rally and happily mocked the accuser to loud cheers amongst his followers. Before another accuser had come out about a separate incident in college, texts from Kavanaugh to those around him suggested that he wanted to organize a refutation of such before the accuser came out. When the FBI investigated the accusations, Trump limited the scope thereof (confirmed by FBI Director Wray himself) and a number of possible witnesses were reportedly ignored. As expected, White House Counsel Don McGahn resigned following the confirmation.
    • Just as was the case when she became Speaker of the House after the 2006 Democratic takeover of Congress, Pelosi is again taking impeachment off the table.
    • Trump’s Ambassador to the UN – Nikki Haley – resigned a day after an investigation was opened into her allegedly accepting illegal high-dollar gifts including free private jet rides.
    • It was discovered that the Republican candidate for Governor in Georgia – who also serves as the Secretary of State in George, which is the chief elections officer – has presided over the holding of thousands of voter registrations primarily for voters statistically most likely to vote for his opponent. Then, a bus taking black voters to the polls was forced to suspend helping people get to their ballots after an unknown caller complained.
    • In a rare good moment for the working class, Trump signed a bipartisan bill which permits pharmacists to tell their customers when they can pay less for the medication they need by circumventing medication covered by their insurance.
    • Claiming that they are trying to avert “cost” and “protect” the landmarks, Trump’s National Park Service announced intentions to severely restrict demonstrations all around the nation’s capitol with special emphasis on the areas around the White House, at the National Mall, and in front of Trump International Motel.
    • After a number of nations prevented the United States from being able to renegotiate rates which allows countries like China to send small packages to American consumers for a cheap price, the Trump Administration announced that they plan to withdraw the United States from the long-standing worldwide postal treaty.
    • Trump reached a deal with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to save NAFTA and effectively rename it as the “United States – Mexico – Canada - Agreement”. There were some improvements from expanded access for U.S. dairy exports to Canadian consumers and a requirement that a significant chunk of auto parts be manufactured in areas of the Continent paying a basic living wage.
    • The President threatened California Governor Brown with losing federal aid for firefighters if the state doesn’t clean out dead/rotting trees and curb the forest fires which are primarily getting worse due to climate change.
    • After a regional election in Germanyled her party to suffer with some setbacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to step down as her party’s leader and forego another bid for any post in the next national election. This came along with an equally shocking election in Brazil as part of a rightward, nationalist, authoritarian shift across the globe.
    • Trump revoked the visas of same-sex partners for diplomats, requiring that they must be married in order to receive a visa despite the fact that sexual orientation is not universally protected from persecution throughout the world.
    • Trump started holding rallies making things up out of thin air, claiming the Congressional Democrats were proposing an “open borders bill” and asserting that the Democrats were part of a “left wing mob”.
    • Despite claiming in 2016 that there was a supposed precedent against confirming new Justices in a presidential election year, Senate Majority Leader McConnell did not refuse to entertain confirming another justice should the opportunity arise in 2020.
    • After the turmoil over Kavanaugh, the Senate confirmed to the 8th Circuit Court a man rated by the American Bar Association to not be qualified for the job.
    • A climate report sponsored by the United Nations concluded that humanity has until 2030 to reduce carbon emissions by 40-50%.
    • Hurricane Michael obliterated much of Florida almost as a Category 5 storm which came almost out of nowhere as it rapidly strengthened over the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
    • In an attempt to offset part of the cost of his tax cut for the rich, Trump called for a 5% reduction in spending across the board for all agencies.
    • Claiming that the surging deficits are not the fault of recent Republican policies, Senate Majority Leader McConnell indicated that the blame lays squarely with the social safety net and that such will be targeted next to curb the debt.
    • In the days leading up to Saudi Arabia’s confession that they murdered Jamal Khashoggi a number of prominent conservatives started to suggest that he may have deserved to be killed largely by claiming he was tied to Islamic extremists.
    • As part of their ever-changing story – which was unsurprisingly defended by Trump – the Saudi went from outright denying any knowledge of what happened to U.S. resident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to confessing that he died after a “fight”.
    • It was announced that Trump will withdraw the U.S. from the cold war era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty which has been instrumental in shielding Europe from housing nuclear weapons.
    • The Trump administration revealed its intentions to stop recognizing transgenders for legal purposes.
    • Following a scare wherein over a dozen bombs were sent through the mail to the Obamas, the Clintons, Soros, Robert De Niro, and several other high profile critics of Trump in addition to CNN by a Trump fan in Florida and after a handful of hate crime-based mass shootings, Trump took to the stage within hours of each for his divisive rallies and even returned to Twitter to again use violent rhetoric accusing the media of being the people’s “true enemy”.
    • Putting his view of the world in simple black and white terms of “globalists” versus “nationalists”, Trump proudly declared that he is a “nationalist”. Meanwhile, the people of Brazil elected a new fascist president of their own, named Jair Bolsonaro, whom has run on a message similar to Trump’s, applauded the prior fascist regime which fell in the 1980s and has even suggested an assault on minority populations.
    • Hours before the suspected bomb-mailing, Trump-loving terrorist was caught by the FBI, Trump lamented on twitter about the attention that the crisis had stolen via the mainstream media. He practically gave a wink to conspiracy theorists by using quotations around the word “bomb” which for some implied that these incidents may have been staged. Most of all, he was upset that the attention had been taken off the momentum his party seemed to enjoy from his fearmongering and the angst over how Kavanaugh was handled.
    • President Trump said that he was too busy to visit our servicemen and women overseas – despite all the rallies and other leisurely activities he takes time to enjoy -, saying that doing so wasn’t “necessary” or “important”.
    • Breaking with the standard of not deploying federal troops on American soil save for emergencies, Trump is sending thousands of soldiers to the border to prepare for the slow-moving caravan from Central America which will take possible months to traverse over a thousand miles here. This latest act of bravado comes after Trump spent weeks playing the fear game firing up his base with fear of the supposed foreign “invasion”, claiming they were organized by Democrats to come and steal our elections.
    • Trump floated the possibility of abolishing or altering birthright citizenship via executive order, despite the fact that such is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
    • Trump is reportedly about to cancel the “Countering Violent Extremism Grant Program” which is geared towards curbing domestic terrorism with funding for preventive training and other measures. Before this signal of cancellation surfaced, one of the grants which was withheld by the Administration was money that had been previously reserved for an organization in Chicago led by former white supremacists who go around the country and talk to young people about the importance of tolerance.

     

     

    Tonight’s Conclusion

     

                The time has come. Two years of Trump world have led us to this pivotal moment. If we fail to stop the drift towards totalitarianism then we may not get another chance in the near future. Our system is being tested like never before and the ultimate test is for us: will we pump the brakes on this? It is a cliché to say this every election cycle but it is too true each time and even more so now; this is THE most important election in the history of our country. Get out and vote!

     

    #NotMeUs #OurRevolution #TheResistance #ImpeachTrump

     

    Purchase my manifesto, “The Pillars of Unitism”.

     

    Before I part, here are some articles which may interest you:

     

    • Scientists have observed peculiar behavior amongst chimpanzees being monitored via hidden cameras. It is thought that this behavior – wherein they are inexplicably compiling stones in odd locations – could indicate the primal stage of the evolution of a religion.

     

    Until next time…

     

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