Presidents throughout the years have differed in their approaches to policy, based on political platforms, ideologies and individual beliefs. Mr. Trump, however, has shown highly abnormal behavior by lying routinely to the American people without compunction, intentionally fueling divisions in our country and actively working to degrade the imperfect but critical institutions that serve us.
Although appalling, those actions shouldn’t be surprising. As was the case throughout his business and entertainment careers, Mr. Trump charts his every move according to a calculus of how it will personally help or hurt him. His strategy is to undercut real, potential and perceived opponents; his focus is to win at all costs, irrespective of truth, ethics, decency and — many would argue — the law. His disparagement of institutions is designed to short-circuit legitimate law enforcement investigations, intelligence assessments and media challenges that threaten his interests. His fear of the special counsel’s work is especially palpable, as is his growing interest in destroying its mandate.
For more than three decades, I observed and analyzed the traits and tactics of corrupt, incompetent and narcissistic foreign officials who did whatever they thought was necessary to retain power. Exploiting the fears and concerns of their citizenry, these demagogues routinely relied on lies, deceit and suppression of political opposition to cast themselves as populist heroes and to mask self-serving priorities. By gaining control of intelligence and security services, stifling the independence of the judiciary and discrediting a free press, these authoritarian rulers followed a time-tested recipe for how to inhibit democracy’s development, retard individual freedoms and liberties, and reserve the spoils of corrupt governance for themselves and their ilk. It never dawned on me that we could face such a development in the United States.
–from an op-ed by John Brennan, career CIA officer and director of the CIA from 2013 to January 2017, in the Washington Post, dated June 1, 2018 (obtained from Microsoft’s News application built into Windows 10)
(illustration courtesy of pixabay.com and WikiImages– showing the legendary Baron Munchausen and his ride on a cannonball… “Munchausen’s Syndrome”, a condition in which the sufferer invents tall tales, is named after this mythical individual.)
At this point, does it even make sense to speak of “international trade”?
The really large businesses operate globally. Bribing local officials is pretty much routine.
The current difficulties over NAFTA are intended to put pressure on companies that have integrated their operations. Exceptions will have to be bought from Trump and his Republican enablers. The Republican base actually admires this, much as a gang member admires the toughness of his or her boss. The falsity of the “national defense” rationale is part of the appeal, just as the falsity of Evangelical theology appeals to the people who want to force it onto others.
If Trump’s trade policy appears to defy logic, it’s a sign that you’re using the wrong logic. Think of the Republicans as a criminal gang, where anybody can be whacked at any time, but more like the IRA than the Mafia. It’s American, not Manchurian, and will be much, much harder to be rid of.
I’ve been saying for years that the notion of a trade deficit between the U.S. and its allies, and indeed, many of its enemies, is absurd — it’s like a trade imbalance between say California and Oklahoma. And trade with our so-called enemies, facilitating their integration into the global economy, is probably the single most effective way to facilitate change in those societies as global trade leads to improved economic conditions, which leads to less uncertainty about things like how am I going to feed my family, which leads to a growing interest in improving social conditions, personal freedom, and participation in society. Unfortunately, many of the policies pursued in this country since the Reagan revolution have undermined those conditions, leading to the kind of uncertainty that results in people preferring strong man — who they believe will at least keep them safe — to the messy uncertainly of democracy and, indeed, the market. I find it ironic that the very people who are doing the most to undermine our society do it in the name of personal freedom, the market, and, of course, religion (their religion that is, they don’t care about freedom of or from religion any more than they care individual freedom).
Most of the deaths came in the three months after the hurricane, from delayed medical care. The total estimate was 4,645.
“The researchers say their estimate, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, remains imprecise, with more definitive studies still to come. But the findings, which used methods that have not been previously applied to this disaster, are important amid widespread concerns that the government’s tally of the dead, 64, was a dramatic undercount.”
This from a New York Times article whose words were funneled into a Microsoft news application in Windows 10; the story was repeated by every major news portal.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
From National Public Radio (NPR) today:
”
The four [Federal Election Commission–FEC] commissioners on Thursday deadlocked, again, on proposals to consider new rules, for example, for foreign-influenced U.S. corporations and for politically active entities that don’t disclose their donors.
“We have reason to think there are foreign actors who are looking for every single avenue to try and influence our elections,” said Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat who offered two proposals for new regulations.
Both proposals failed on partisan 2-2 votes.
The FEC is debating the question in the shadow of several investigations of Russian election interference, which included an alleged $1.2 million-per-month campaign to place anonymous, socially divisive ads on prominent Internet platforms.
”
And from March 18:
”
The Federal Election Commission, better known for deadlocks than decisions, has unanimously agreed to take a first step against anonymous political advertising on the internet. The proposed rule deals with disclaimers — the “authorized by” taglines that are mandatory in print, television and radio ads that explicitly support or attack candidates.
…
Although the FEC is acting after Russian trolls spread advertisements through social media during the 2016 presidential election, the proposed rule wouldn’t have touched most of those ads. Disclaimers are required only for “express advocacy” messages that attack or support candidates. The Russian ads were not that direct, and many focused on issues without mentioning the candidates.
”
(image courtesy of pixabay.com and creozavr)
Just ran across this while surfing through the RationalWiki:
| —Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and evangelical Christian[1] |
A long exposition of who Katharine Hayhoe is was shown on the University of Toronto physics department website in 2012. The reason I like it and find it resonating is that “faith is the evidence of things not seen” is a famous definition from the Bible, specifically Hebrews 11:1, which says (King James Version):
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and geralt)
MedPage Today reports on a resurgence of black lung disease, as described in an analysis presented at the annual conference of the American Thoracic Society:
“The confirmation of an increase in progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) across the coal mining industry follows several reports of outbreaks in isolated coal mining regions, including a 2016 CDC report of 60 PMF cases identified at a single radiology clinic in eastern Kentucky.
“Earlier this year, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported more than 550 cases of PMF occurring in three clinics in southwestern Virginia since 2013 — the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported in the U.S.
“The newly reported analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data on coal miners collected since 1970 identified 4,679 cases of PMF, with half occurring among miners presenting for evaluation after 2000.
“The analysis was presented May 22 at ATS 2018, the annual international conference of the American Thoracic Society.
“We have known about the clusters of PMF cases, but this study represents the first systematic attempt to assess the burden of PMF in former miners,” the study’s lead researcher, Kirsten Almberg, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, told MedPage Today.”
Additional nuggets from the MedPage Today report:
“The change may also be influenced by changes in mining practices in recent decades, [Almberg] said. Current mining practices, such as surface mining, typically expose miner to high levels of rock dust, including crystalline silica dust. ‘Silica is much more toxic to the lung than coal dust. And it is now profitable to sort out coal from rock, so that is increasingly part of the process.’ ”
“…39% of miners who applied for black lung benefits had never participated in surveillance during their careers.”
“Also at the session, a fourth-generation coal miner, William “Cotton” Jarrell of Peabody Energy, a Fortune 500 coal company, who now works in mining safety, addressed the challenge of getting miners to seek medical attention: “We don’t want to know, so a lot of us just don’t go to doctors,” he said.
“You can help us by not letting us cancel appointments. Instead of having a receptionist do it, the doctor should pick up the phone and call us with a simple ‘Hey buddy, I need you to get in for this appointment.’ That would make a huge difference. And if that doesn’t work call our wife. She’ll get us in there. And as a last resort, call and tell us you’re disappointed. We hate to disappoint people. If you tell us you’re disappointed that we missed an appointment, I guarantee you we will make the next one.”
(image courtesy of pixabay.com)
Research reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (sorry, but everything except the abstract is behind a paywall) has confirmed that the Earth’s orbit varies over a 405,000 year cycle influenced by the masses of Jupiter and Venus, which takes it from a nearly circular orbit to a slightly elliptical orbit around the sun. Currently, the Earth is in a nearly circular orbit.
The research was based on evaluation of lead-to-uranium ratios in a core drilled from rock in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The core went back nearly 250 million years (give or take a few tens of millions) and far exceeded the length of previous cores– the maximum was 50 million years.
The New York Times reported that previous cores in the Northeast, 2,000 miles away, showed reliable climate cycles of 202,500 years but were unsuitable for determining uranium-to-lead ratios.
The new core will be a big help in dating fossils back to 250 million years ago, which just happens to be right after the worst disaster in Earth’s history (suspected but not proved to be due to runaway volcanism which produced the enormous lava fields known as the Deccan traps) and around the time the first dinosaurs and mammals appeared.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
We need to be patient.
We do not know what Mr. Mueller knows, but we do know that he has been far ahead of the news. For example, only in the last few days has George Nader’s name become so widely known. But Mueller has already spoken with Nader several times and Nader has testified before the grand jury; he is cooperating, which probably spells trouble for at least Don Jr. and Jared Kushner.
The problem with this investigation is that following the money only leads to more money. That’s why the process is taking so long. Mr. Muller is finding a boulder field of rocks to look beneath. It appears that in addition to Russia, two gulf nations were also willing to pitch in to help Trump win the election. And Don Jr. met with all interested parties along with more Trump campaign people. There’s a lot of smoke there, but this isn’t yet all of it.
Yes, this administration in Trump’s shadow has taken corruption to new levels. I believe the whole point of the Trump presidency is to exploit the nation for profit. What other reason could there be?
Donald Trump could care less about Making America Great Again. Donald Trump cares about Donald Trump. He attacks his own government and our historical allies while obsequiously sidling up to dictators.
This is not an American president. This is a concerted heist coupled with a flagrant disregard of the constitution and years of sound tradition.
My fellow Americans, our president is a criminal conman.
(illustration courtesy of pixabay.com and johnhain)
James Russell Lowell, in 1871, in “My Study Windows”, in a section about Abraham Lincoln, wrote: “The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.”
Theodore Roosevelt (May 1918 editorial “Sedition, a Free Press and Personal Rule” in “The Kansas City Star”) See this entry in the web site “Quote Investigator”
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and skeeze)
Addendum: Abraham Lincoln, 1864 (again according to “Quote Investigator”):
“Let the people know the facts, let them see the danger; but let every effort be made to allay public fears, to inspire the masses with confidence and hope, and, above all, to frown down every attempt to create a panic.”
Conrad Theodore Seitz 