inthetrunkroom

YES, IT WAS POLICY

At the very beginning of his campaign,  GOP candidate trump made no bones about the fact that he had a thorough disdain for all immigrants even though he is second generation himself and also married two immigrants.  His rancor, though, is especially vicious these days toward those from Mexico and Latin America. In his opening speech from trump tower in 2015 – more like a tirade – he decried pretty much all those from Mexico and even those living in Mexico and rapists, drug dealers and criminals.  He complained that they were “ not the best” being sent by the Mexican government, as if to say this was a planned migration sponsored by the president of Mexico. He vowed to build a wall to keep this so called criminal element out and he insisted that Mexico would pay for that wall. We have seen how that all has played out and, though this will never happen, it continues to be fodder for his red hat base who are consumed with the mind set that favors a far right, white supremacy, so called nationalist agenda. However,  in spite of all this, one could never predict what has been happening in the recent months at the border with Mexico.

In an historic move in policy – yes,  written policy – the trump administration, with no plan or rhyme or reason other than blind contempt for anyone from South of the border, took the inhumane and possibly criminal measure to forcibly separate parents from their children as they crossed the border  legally seeking asylum from the chaos, violence and war in their own countries. One looks at this policy as being criminal because crossing a border to seek asylum is not a crime. In fact it is legal and is protected by not only U S law but also international law and there are procedures and protocols in place to manage those requests.  We know that these measures were executed under instruction from the White House from documents made public including policy memos written by the attorney general which were confirmed in his public speeches. Also, there are documents from the White House itself encouraging this policy.

As part of the implementation of this policy, several of the legal ports of entry were ordered closed, forcing these refugees to cross the border at non sanctioned crossings, i.e. illegal crossings, where their children were taken from them and placed in holding facilities – unlicensed facilities ill equipped to handle children of school age, let alone infants and two year olds, those of “tender age” while the parents were sent to detention centers without knowing where their children were located.  

 As events became public knowledge the official spin began in full force. The official position taken by some spokespersons was that the treatment of children was as it always is for unaccompanied minors. The problem was, and still is, that these children –  more than two thousand of them – were not unaccompanied when they got to the border. They were only “unaccompanied” when they were separated from their parents by orders from DOJ and the oval office.  The spin continued in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS )  Kirstjen Nielsen asserted on at least one occasion that it “ was offensive to say that trump purposely separated children”…. It should be clear as glass that this administration, giving way to the well known and documented evidence of intolerance at the highest levels, made the policy rooted in bigotry the operational mandate at the border.  As more and more information became available, it was clear that children were being badly treated, dispersed throughout the country and many parents were being deported without their children. Court cases were filed, advocates headed to Texas to make issues known and the press covered the events in as much detail as they could. This was difficult as even members of congress were barred from actually seeing how these thousands of children were being treated.

After weeks of this absurdity and with pressure from advocacy groups and the federal courts, the White House finally backed down and decided that it would be better if the children were reunited with their parents. However, there was no plan for that reunification. There was no plan and there never was a plan. This was a policy specifically designed to punish people whose only crime was that of seeking a better life. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Alex Azar, in several on air interviews, stated  in no uncertain terms, that everything was under control and that reuniting all of these children with their parents could be done with the simple keystrokes on a computer, meeting the recently issued court order.

Here’s the problem. DHS officially cannot account for nearly fifteen hundred children having placed them in various facilities all over the country with having no tracking data. And if found, the reuniting with actual parents would be difficult because DHS/ICE took and destroyed birth certificates and other documents from these families as they were arrested upon crossing the border. One could continue to delineate the human tragedy created by the administration at the southern border but the news coverage – indeed, even the international news coverage – is sufficient to expose the truth.

What is the fact is that, in their dealings with immigrants – either legal or illegal-  no other country in recent history, with the possible exception of Nazi Germany, had and executed a policy to fracture families in the way in which the trump administration did. It was and is sheer bigotry taken to a level of insanity.

To date of this post, under federal court order, out of the approximately two thousand five hundred children in question, most have indeed been reunited. However, approximately six hundred and fifty have not been reunited. The official administration answer to this is that these children are not eligible to be reunited, though there is no explanation as to just what this means or what the criteria is for determining this status. Part of this has to be that many of the parents were deported after clearly rigged administrative hearings on asylum requests while court deliberations were on going with many children being told that their parents abandoned them. Yes,  this is actually what has been happening at our borders.

Far from the wishes of the administration, foreign nationals are permitted to seek asylum and, up until the trump administration and the term of Attorney General Sessions, there was never a policy or legislation which required the removal of children from their families. What the people witnessing this catastrophic mess need to understand is that this all is sheer bigotry made in to policy. What is beyond sad is that, at least from one point of view, there are far too many that find this policy acceptable and, dismissing the plain fact that most who are here, unless their ancestors were here before 1491, started out as immigrants,  a good number coming in to the country illegally. 

The entire episode at the border is truly a black mark on our history – a history built on immigrants seeking a better life, free from oppression and persecution.

 

Some time ago, senate leader mcconnell made a statement that this has been the “ very best year for conservative values”…I firmly believe that the late true conservative Willam F Buckley is turning over in his grave at that. Conservative values then meant governance and responsibility. Today, it means greed, a brutal self serving agenda, disdain for differences and that whole concept of fiscal responsibility has gone the way of respect for any intellectual approach to problem solving.

What we have today is an administration which is driven by ego and which thrives on complete and total chaos. The years of planned and orchestrated obstructionism  paired with widespread fear and ignorance have paid off giving us the most unresponsive administration in history – one which cares naught for anyone other than the gaslighted base which still has not figured out that they have been conned into believing flat out lies. The administration lies about so much on such a frequent basis that they had to some up with the justification that “alternative facts” are an acceptable explanation for their statements. This is an administration which attacks the free press, especially those news bureaus which expose this “emperor with no clothes “ for the fake that he is.This is an administration which will push it’s own clearly authoritarian agenda of hatred regardless of the damage it does to either person or country. It has brought together not the  “ best and the brightest” but rather the most corrupt administration eclipsing  even the Nixon Watergate era. 

We have seen indictments of campaign managers, national security advisors and so called foreign policy advisors. We have seen almost a forty per cent turnover of staff with so few willing to replace them that the oval office is now its own director of communications.  We are seeing unparalleled corruption on the cabinet level , seeing cabinet secretaries flagrantly misuse their office for personal gains and do it with complete immunity, as long as the white house agenda is adhered to. We have seen an occupant of the oval office openly mocking a handicapped reporter and his then campaign manager openly mocking a child with downs syndrome and his parents.

However, with all that and more being said, the worst is now a matter of record and who would ever have thought that the United States would stoop to such depths of inhumanity.What is and has been going on on our Southern border is, by any standard, unimaginable. Children are being taken from their parents and being put in what can only be described as concentration facilities. Parents cannot see them or contact them. Most do not even  know where their children are. In fact, Homeland Security cannot even account for over  fourteen hundred children. These children, raging from aged less than a year to seventeen are being held in facilities fashioned out of abandoned WalMart stores and kept inside for up to twenty-two hours per day. 

When challenged by not only the press – other than fox and friends, of course – but also by churches of all denominations, advocacy groups, corporate CEOs and near anyone with a sense of decency about this horrible policy, the administration line of response is that all the criticisms are fake. They blame a non existent law passed by democrats, stating that it is not policy by rather that law which forces them to separate children from their mothers and fathers. This complete lie is perpetrated by the White House press secretary and the attorney general and the White House chief of staff. It is interesting as, once again, the facts belie the message. This public fabrication continues even in the face of documented proof of it all being the policy of the White House ( policy statement of 2017 ) and the attorney general ( policy memorandum of April 2018).  Joining in this continuing fabrication is the newest cabinet member of the corruption team,  Secretary Kirsten Nielsen, also a second generation immigrant, who strongly espoused the policy,  pulling that old national security rabbit out of the hat.

These senior administration appointees will, with not batting an eyelash, counter any criticism with the fake news line they have resorted to on every occasion of any criticism and add that the public simply cannot believe the reports and actual on the scene accounts, but cannot believe the pictures and sound recordings either. Sadly, a sizable portion of the public – the electorate public –  is accepting of all of this.

The outrage, to date, may be having some effect and perhaps we may see some change. Nevertheless, to thousands of children, the damage – severe damage has been done and there is never, we repeat, never any justification for any of this. It was all a policy formulated to force congress to pay for a Wall between the U S and Mexico – the wall which then candidate trump swore he would build and that Mexico would pay for.  Secretary nielsen says “ it is offensive to suggest that trump administration is purposefully separating children from their parents ”. We know it is purposeful. We know it was and is calculated. Yes, this horrible, barbaric, cruel and inhumane policy was all used to blackmail congress in to satisfying a thin skinned ego and an ignorant supporting electorate in order to secure reelection. 

So, if the “best year for conservative values” means attacking the country and its governing system, constantly and continually lying to the public, disrespecting different cultures and religions, having a deep disdain for the less fortunate and attacking the free press in its quest for the truth- well, it’s all just  criminally insane, nothing less.

In 1965, the Johnson administration enacted the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1964 with the express purpose of protecting the rights granted under the 15th Amendment.  A key section was section 4(b)  of Section 5 of the Act which was  designed to protect groups from discrimination based on race or language minority and required pre clearance of changes on voting practices and procedures based on the track record of certain states – nine to be exact – with oversight being from the Department of Justice.                                                                      In 2013, the Roberts Court deemed that section unconstitutional and, in Shelby County v Holder, it struck down that section as being not responsive to current needs. It was almost like the court thought that discrimination in the voting place was not a pressing issue, even in the face of the growing tide of blatant voter suppression in Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas  and Arizona. Other than the Citizens United decision, this may have been the worst decision by the Roberts court to date. Almost immediately, in many red states, including those nine which were under those earlier pre clearance requirements , pending and new voter id laws, scheduling revisions, and other restrictions began to be implemented.

What followed was a widespread, calculated aggressive campaign to limit access to voting in minority and other heavily democratic communities. All during the run up to the 2016 election, we were bombarded with completely unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. The GOP continually blasted blue states, alleging that they allowed illegal immigrants and other non citizens to vote. When it was all over, the eventual winner whined that he did not win the popular vote because over three million “illegals” voted in California alone, thus adding fuel to the already intense xenophobia fire. In response to that allegation, the administration established the Commission on Election Integrity, headed up by the king of anti-immigrant legislation and policies, Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas and the author of the infamous Arizona SB1070. With all intent of requiring major purges of voter roles in particularly blue states, the Commission met with such backlash from over twenty-six states, that the Commission was disbanded.  In the end, perhaps the Secretary’s adhering to several conspiracy theories came back to haunt him. The idea of voter roles being controlled by Washington instead of by the states simply would not fly and that effort was curtailed.

For now, outright voter suppression from inside the beltway was on hold. However, the fall out from Shelby vs Holder was still simmering and state legislatures were busy formulating subtle ways of denying the right to vote to large segments of the population. By no means is the fight over and now, another force facing the protection of the right to vote has emerged.

At this point, there are two compelling issues facing what is left of our democratic election system. The first revolves around voter registration, the integrity of voter information and of course, voter turn out. The barriers highlighted above notwithstanding, it is imperative that both parties, but particularly the democrats, need to be about voter registration and they need to be all about the integrity of the voting process on the state level. Too often there have been numerous issues with things like switching of polling places at the last possible hour, confusion regarding provisional ballots and absentee ballots along with  the actual loss of signature pages for ballot initiatives. A prime example might be the curious finding of over nine hundred “misplaced “ ballots in the governor recall election in Wisconsin – a find which allowed the governor to beat the recall and the election stood in spite of the interesting history of a certain county election clerk. In that same light, the democrats need to be about the formulating of a clear and relevant message – something which they did not have in the 2016 election and certainly still do not have – but that’s an issue for another time.

The second of these compelling issues is that of the interference by a foreign government in the 2016 election. Intelligence agencies both here and abroad all agree that our election system was tampered with and while it may or may not have actually caused a change in the eventual outcome, it most certainly did influence it.  This very point has been definitively confirmed by the recently released senate committee report which completely supports the IC assessments. It also shatters the excuse for the totally biased, partisan excuse for a report which came form the House Committee . 

What is astounding are two key points. One is that the current administration is still completely adverse to admitting that there was meddling in the 2016 election and that Russia and Russian hackers were in fact behind it all.  Perhaps there was collusion between the GOP campaign and Russia, perhaps not. However,  there is no question that interference in the election process both by utilizing trolls and hackers and by the manipulation of certain social media  platforms did happen. 

Secondly, there is likewise agreement among the intelligence community that this interference is continuing and the administration has, to date, either failed or consciously decided to not take any action to  either curtail or eliminate this  attack on our election process. While there is some talk about the issue, or more accurately talk around it, neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch has seen fit to formulate a plan of action on this serious matter. It is abundantly clear that the administration has chosen to continue to deny the existence of foreign meddling and that there was any collusion between the GOP and Russia. The message is on going and continual and constant and congress has chosen to either follow that message or to completely ignore the facts of the matter, opting to subscribe to the whole idea of a  “witch hunt” and the whole “deep state” conspiracy theory. It seems that not only does the White House get its message from Fox and Friends, but congress does as well. One has to ask the question – just how much does Russia hold over the oval office and over key members of congress ?

At this point in time, one has to have serious concern about the future – both the immediate mid term election cycle and the upcoming election cycle in 2020. Will future elections be bought and sold even more so than they already are ? Will future elections be swayed or even determined by outside influences, particularly by foreign governments who at least currently have widespread if not sympathizers at least deniers that a problem exists ? We as a nation are at a more than significant crossroad and which path we choose will determine the fate of our very form of government. It is indeed that serious and all need to be seriously concerned.

On numerous occasions over time, in one argument or another, one has looked at what can only be described as a frightening lack of sophistication on the part of the body politic when it comes to understanding political process. In years past, the subject of “Civics” was taught and most learned at least the fundamentals of things like government and governing. These days, that part of the curriculum has, shall one say, has been sorely neglected. In fact, in a recent finding by the National Assessment of Educational Progress ( NAEP ), only twenty-five percent ( 25 % ) of  students reach the “proficient” level in the area of civics. There are many school districts which have forgone the offering of a curriculum focused on civics all together. While some may not view this as a real issue, it truly is and the effects of this lack of not only proficiency but also  lack of interest in government and governing rears its head  with every election, be it local, state or national.

Across several articles, including one in the Guardian, millennials have one of the new large blocks of eligible voters and yet only 36 % turned out for the 2012 election and less in the 2014 mid term election. The trend toward anti – intellectualism has gained traction since  the 2015 run up to the 2016 election and that trend is gaining even more since. And recall, over one hundred million registered eligible voters didn’t think voting was important enough to even  show up in 2016.

It is sad that people still fail to see the connection between what happens inside the beltway and what happens in their neighborhood. What is even sadder is that many do not see that same connection even on their state levels. One can accept that there was and continues to be a great deal of disappointment and dismay with much of how government operates and yet, there is much that  benefits every day people, in spite of the highly complex nature of government and we would be no doubt in a miserable state of affairs without it. It is also important to note that how well or not so well government operates is a function of the who in government more than it is the what. In short, how much is done for the electorate or is done to the electorate is a direct product of whom the electorate puts in place.

Which brings one to that CHALLENGE. What one can hope is that, with all the chaos and proven misinformation floating around out there, not to mention listening to that complete circus know as the WH press briefing, is it not about time for you, the electorate, to become far more informed that you are ? It does not mean one has to be a wonk or an analyst or even a constitutional scholar. Those indeed abound and are worth the listen. What the challenge is to everyone is to take the time to engage  with more than one source of information and spend some time fact checking, at least for the pressing issues. One has to accept there is a good amount of “fake news” out there. However, there are numerous sources on the other side of that coin who present legitimate, factual information, leaving the judging of relevance to the reader or listener, as the case may be.

The country is seeing the complete and utter failure of government to govern. It is victim to self promotion, the drive for personal wealth enhancement, the enactment of destructive policy driven by ego and obsession and an agenda fostered by fear and ignorance . What is puzzling is that so many sit and wonder how this happened. The term “gaslighting” should come to mind immediately and how that bullet is avoided in the future is to accept the CHALLENGE. As a colleague so eloquently put it, it is time for a “COGNITIVE RECALIBRATION”, a rethinking of our posture in the overall scheme of things and how control of the nation’s future can be returned to the electorate rather than the elite few.

  

Late one evening in June, 1972, one of the many phones at the City Desk at the Washington Post rang and a report came in about a burglary at the Watergate Complex. A seemingly not unusual burglary story was assigned to two relatively young reporters – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. After reviewing the initial reports, they noticed something about the burglars – one was a former CIA agent and in the employ of the Committee to Reelect the President -CREEP and this break in was in fact at the offices of the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) which had its headquarters at the Watergate. As the saying goes, the rest of the story is history and indeed it was the beginning of an historical event – the resignation in the face of impeachment and conviction of a sitting president.The story shocked the nation but it all would never have been were it not for the dogged and determined reporting of two Washington Post reporters. True news reporting about real facts.
Fast forward to 2017. Speaking at the White House Correspondents Dinner – which the current occupant of the Oval Office declined to attend – those same two reporters addressed the critical importance of solid journalism and the compelling need for it especially in the political climate of today. Carl Bernstein led the remarks by saying that Nixon targeted the media in an attempt to divert attention from the blatant misconduct in the administration. “Yes, follow the money but also, follow the lies” he added. How compelling is this insight in this era of a steady stream of lies, fabrications and misdirections emanating from the current administration. The constant berating of legitimate news bureaus exhibits a pathos unlike anything we have seen in the history of presidential politics, a berating which seems to apply only to those outlets which ask the hard questions and refuse to pander to the collective egos of the West Wing. Time and time again the legitimate press has raised questions about discrepancies in statements from the oval office and statements from cabinet level officials which contradict each other. And time and time again, the oval office has decried the main stream press as being the purveyors of “fake news” – a term used more and more to describe any news report that challenges the veracity of pronouncements coming out of the White House and its inner circle.
The constant effort of this administration, as further evidenced by the pronouncements of the WH Press secretary, to minimize the role of the press and demean its place is a free society is appalling.

In an interview conducted in 1974, German political theorist Hannah Arendt discussed the notion of a free press. To quote “ The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed ; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed ? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe lies but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history……… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please “.
In the realm of politics, and particularly political rhetoric used to advance an agenda, the stretching of the truth has become commonplace. From the day the 2016 GOP candidate announced his candidacy with an aggregation of actors in the trump tower lobby posing as supporters, through a campaign full of exaggerations and conspiracy theories, to an administration rife with lies and liars, this so called smartest team ever assembled has constantly and utterly failed the test of credibility. The open abuse of power by a calculated manipulation of information has placed the country in a very dangerous position, domestically as well as internationally. It is the role of the free press to shed light on these abuses so that at least a significant segment of the populace will choose to be informed. Associate Justice Hugo Black wrote in 1964 (Jacobellis v Ohio, 1964 ) the press serves and was designated to serve as a powerfull antidote to any abuses or power by governmental officials and as a constitutionally chosen means for keeping officials elected by the people responsible to all people whom they were elected to serve. Suppression of the right of the press to praise or criticize governmental agents and to clamor and contend for or against change……muzzles one of the very agencies the Framers of our constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free.
A very much today parallel demonstrating just in how dangerous a circumstance we find ourselves is not limited to the writings of our own press and legitimate news outlets. Take note of the remarks of someone who has and is living through the consequences of unchallenged suppression of the press. In a recent interview with Lawrence O’Donnell, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova draws serious parallels between Russian Putin and U S trump. She relates that mr trump is now using the very same phrases that mr putin has been using for the past seventeen years. She adds, they share the very same views about their critics and the media.

Ms Tolokonnikova continues … mr trump’s supposed lack of any true political beliefs plays perfectly into putin’s hands. He is “….really concerned with himself, his fame and his wealth..” and mr putin knows, as a former KGB agent, just how to deal with people who are easy to understand and easy to bribe….. Democracy is eroded by authoritarianism and pro authoritarianism and there can be no doubt that the trump administration is completely pro authoritarianism. What is frightening is that, while most can see and realize that we are on a very wrong road, his enablers in congress continue to allow this charade of a presidency to continue. It has been, is and will continue to be the role and purpose of a free press to serve to inform the electorate of the status and goings on of their government , on all levels, and should any or all of those levels inch toward suppressing or even silencing that free press, it may be time to clean and cleanse.

A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT

As cautioned on several occasions, ignore what they say and pay close attention to what they do, one needs to be tracking this so called tax reform package. As per Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University, the tax bill is plain and simply, a heist. It is gas lighting, pure and simple. Let’s take a brief look.

Of the top major corporations on Wall Street, – three hundred are paying 14% tax rate ; half of that number are paying zero in taxes ; and half of that number are not only paying nothing, but are getting subsidies ; with stocks at an all time high and corporate profits at a likewise all time high, and CEO salaries exceeding any level of sanity, why the massive tax cuts, especially as wages are stagnant…
The current plan as offered will add between 1.5 and 1.7 trillion to the national debt…
83 % of the benefits will go to the top 1 % …
People like the trump kids stand to gain over two billion dollars in tax free estate funds…
It will eliminate taxes on pass through income, the primary source of wealth for so many…
These considerable tax reductions for corporations will be permanent while the tax cuts for individuals will expire in seven years.. causing the tax burden on the middle and lower income wage earners – approximately 60 % – to actually increase
An item added literally at the last minute, with targeted benefits specifically for real estate developers represents $414 billion in lost revenue..

It is no accident that the trump administration has encased itself in Goldman-Sachs alumni, serving as advisors on this tax measure – rather Wealth measure – and one can be confident that this was part of the overall agenda all along. This is not a tax bill. It is a wealth transfer bill, moving billions to the upper ten per cent.

This bill was designed and formulated behind closed doors and issued on a strict need to know basis, completely excluding all democrats. There were no hearings, no expert witness testimony and no access across the aisle. This is how the GOP handled the most impactful piece of legislation since the Affordable Care Act, which, for the record, had numerous hearings and, much to its detriment, had over 100 amendments tagged on to it.
One needs to also ask the key question which all are reluctant to ask and the GOP is emphatically unwilling to answer – how, in the face of a 1.5 trillion dollar debt addition, will the cost of this monstrosity be covered ?
One can see, based on observing the GOP for decades, precisely how they plan to accomplish that. They will extract payment from the broad social safety net programs and those ancillary programs which support states and the communities within them. It is already in the works , as per senate rules established some time ago, that any new legislation which increases the debt will trigger automatic cuts is major domestic programs. The price tag to date will be approximately $120 billion, including $25 billion in cuts to Medicare. It will also trigger, by virtue of eliminating the “individual mandate” element of the ACA – the final nail in that coffin – the loss of health insurance for nearly thirteen million people. Also, it seems that, as part of covering the 1.5 trillion to be added to the debt, the less than esteemed congress will allow CHIP to expire, tossing nearly nine million children of working families off their health insurance.

This legislation had, for all practical purposes, not as much to do with reducing the tax burden on the middle class as it has to do with giving Wall Street corporations and the upper ten per cent a major reduction in taxes…. in spite of the fact that many major corporations pay a lower rate in taxes than most wage earners. This was nothing more than ransom paid to those donors who fund the GOP campaigns, keeping them in office so that their financial well being is secured. It is now a government of the donors, by the donors and for the donors.

NORMAL VS THE NORM

In the Winter 1993-94 edition of the American Educator, there was a compelling article written by one of the foremost authorities on social movements and socio-political issues, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He addresses a trend which was of concern then and is decidedly of concern today. While the article is a bit academic in nature , it is worth the read and worth comparing the theory proposed much earlier to our modern day America. The overall premise, based on earlier works by French sociologist/philosopher Emile Durkheim, takes a look at stages of deviant behavior in a societal setting. It is true that his theory focused on criminal behavior, but by extrapolation, we can consider destructive behavior as similar with its impact on societal networks and how they choose to contend or not contend with it.
The article parses the theory into three stages: Altruistic, Opportunistic and finally, Normalizing. The first two pose interesting theories on how a social community may choose to operate either around or with a segment of criminal or deviant behavior. The third, Normalizing, is the one which by far causes the most concern. In terms of destructive deviant behavior, while altruism may be shallow and opportunism may be distasteful, normalizing goes far beyond in its impact and its very nature makes it very very dangerous.Examples of widespread destructive behavior are all around us. However, there is no place that exemplifies how far into the realm of destructive behavior we have travelled than that of our national politics. While there is plenty of blame to go around for this phenomenon, one can argue that behavior inside the Beltway often paves the way for the surfacing of seriously deviant behavior down the entire social structure. What is of most pressing concern is that much of this behavior has now become the norm, in effect being normalized by not only the insiders but also by the electorate outside the beltway.

Headline after headline provides accounts of money laundering schemes, extra marital affairs, kickbacks, contract fraud and influence peddling. Fabricating and twisting of actual events to suit one’s own agenda has become such an accepted art form that one White House advisor coined a new phrase – “alternate facts” – as being an acceptable way a Press Secretary to explain the antics surrounding the Oval Office. As an example,
In recent testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates revealed a conversation she had with White House Counsel regarding the then National Security Advisor and his connection with Russian intelligence during the campaign and his subsequent lying to several senior staff, including the Vice President. The reply of the WHC was a question as to why DOJ cared about whether WH advisors lied to each other.
These behaviors, inappropriate at best and possibly criminal at worst, have now become the benchmark for conducting business. What is more than amazing is that, in this day and age, the unbelievable is believed, the far fetched is accepted, the outlandish is the conventional and what was utterly neurotic is now the normal. To add to the confusion are not just the behaviors being what they are but the explanations and excuses for them. Yes, the aberrant is being normalized. This is, in the opinion of scholars and political scientists alike, a very dangerous climate to be in. That being said, one might ask how did we arrive at this condition.

While I suspect there might be several theories out there, there is one which seems to be of particular relevance. In an article titled” The Age of American Unreason”, Susan Jacoby, paraphrasing Moynihan in her article in the Washington Post notes that “ dumbness has been steadily defined downward for several decades by a combination of forces. Video culture over print culture and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism are specifically highlighted.
There is a cult of ignorance across the U S and there is a strain of anti-intellectualism winding its way through both our political and our cultural life. Journalists Charles Pierce, author of “The Dumbest Generation” looks at the idea that there is a trend to trust the least those people who actually know what they are talking about Rational thought is considered the enemy and critical thinking has become the devil’s tool. One suspects that enhancing ability to learn and cultivating interest in anything outside the realm of producing income are a thing of the past. There are numerous studies that support this contention but the studies that have to cause the most concern are the ones that show the widespread lack of knowledge in regard to government and the social structures impacted by decisions made by government – aka social policy. This lack of knowledge coupled with the gullibility produced by the rampant anti-intellectualism has brought us to this condition of “normalization” which is so dangerous. After all, it is so much easier to accept and not question than it is to take a critical look at issues, parse them out into their component parts and then decide if and how one will be affected and what, if anything, needs to be reviewed, reevaluated and revised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Social Security Act was passed in 1935. It was a monumental piece of legislation and its immediate effect was to lift millions from the edge of poverty. As early as 1936, the GOP began a fight to repeal the Social Security Act – a fight which in several ways, continues until today.
Nonetheless, in spite of two GOP administrations stealing funds from the Trust, it survives and millions of the elderly and disabled are kept from destitution.
The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. It, too, was a monumental piece of legislation designed to bring access to affordable health care to all across the board. It was, admittedly, flawed form the beginning, with certain critical compromises made , one suspects, in order to at least get it passed with the aim of adjusting or amending it down the road. However, with the turn of the election, prompted by a major smear campaign, the Act was never adjusted and the flaws took their toll. Key to it all was the ability to opt out for two key components – the states, who could opt out of Medicaid expansion and the insurance companies, who could opt out of providing “essential services”. Both these elements were critical to the success of the ACA but the insurance lobby had its way. Eliminating the “Public Option” was also a key contributor to weakening the Act and so, the drive to repeal it began as soon as the 2010 election was over. Just as in the case of the Social Security Act, the GOP immediately began to push for the repeal of the ACA and, instead of discussing and debating with the purpose to amend, the House spent the better part of its energy – unsuccessfully, one should add, trying to repeal the ACA, calling for a floor vote over fifty times. The votes were strictly along party lines but the Act remained.

One needs to ask the question – what is it that makes the GOP so against safety nets, and in this case, access to affordable health care ? Was it, and is it still their record disdain for the then President Obama – a black, highly educated, articulate and engaged president ? Was it their need to take adequate care of the huge health insurance companies whose contributions keep them in office ?

Enter a new administration, led by a complete incompetent who started years ago with his attacks on President Obama, being a principal in the whole “birther” movement. The hallmark of his campaign was that he would immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, only later taking on the added dimension of repeal and replace. His “promise” was to have better, lower cost health coverage for everyone. Not likely, as it turns out.
What it all ended up being was a floor fight of epic proportions among the GOP members. On the one side, the far far right so called conservatives who are full bent on repealing the ACA and making health care only accessible to those who can afford it. Sort of along the same lines as automobile insurance, without the discounts. This would include the complete repeal of Medicaid, health care support to approximately seventy-four million people. And on the other side, the moderates who, while wanting to reduce the debt and the debt ceiling, still are not willing to crush so many millions of people, especially those who are already receiving health insurance either through Medicaid or through Medicaid expansion under the ACA. The democrats, in this battle, simply do not figure as, by the numbers, the GOP can swing a vote majority all on their own.
The vote finally passed on the second introduction, laden with scary amendments, and then went to the Senate where the fight continues even though in the final floor vote, it failed once again. In the meantime, out on the street corners, people – some people – are awakening to the fact that many could very well lose their health insurance completely. The storm is continuing and even the strategy has taken a major shift from the campaign promise to repeal and replace to simple repeal and possibly replace down the road a year or two – probably after the next mid term election.
However, while one tries to follow all the ups and downs over health care and the fate of the ACA, one needs to ask the question – just what is the real agenda here. What one needs to look at is the ever present GOP agenda to have the top ten per cent pay little or nothing in taxes, contribute next to nothing to the betterment of the nation as a community and lay the burden of enlarging the wealth inequality even more.
If one takes a close look at the so called “American Health Care Act”, it is full of conflict and hidden agenda. It will cause the ending of insurance coverage for over twenty-three million people over the next several years, will defund Planned Parenthood, will accent the use of HSAs and will repeal all the taxes put in place by the Affordable Care Act.
One can see not only the drive to reduce the deficit by penalizing those who vulnerable populations which receive public dollar support – children, the elderly, the disabled – but will add to the coffers of that upper ten per cent by reducing the tax rates. In spite of the CBO scoring, the push is still on, under the guise of loyally fulfilling a campaign promise – one steeped in lunacy – to enhance earnings of the money crowd and step on the opportunities for every one else. Perhaps it is truly a conspiracy to pander to the upper ten per cent and as the same time, make quality health care accessible only to those who can afford it while their major contributors, the insurance companies continue to bilk the public with exorbitant fees and costs. Unfortunate that, in order to stay in office, the GOP has elected to punish the elderly, the disabled and  the children

Each year Congress invites the president up to the Hill to present a State of the Union before a joint session. Recently, though less than sixty days in office, Congress invited Mr Trump to address that joint session and present some idea of his forward agenda, though considering the content, one could easily submit that he invited himself. In what was tantamount to a campaign speech, interspersed with a huge dose of self adulation, Mr Trump offered the usual dose of egotism and fear mongering. It was not, however, what was said so much that should be the cause for concern. Rather, it was, is and will continue to be the goings on behind closed doors in this administration that warrants great concern.  In reality, there are three schemes at work here and all need to be closely followed. It is, in a manner of speaking, a matter of life and death for our nation as a nation.
The first, if you will, is the “… destruction of the administrative state…” as clearly articulated by the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Surrounded by a team of close advisors who are devoted to principles of the “…destruction of the administrative state…”, the inner circle has carved out an agenda purposed exclusively to bring about the elimination of most of the federal government system, particularly those parts which, in their opinion, represent overreach on the part of all three branches of government and the executive agencies of which they are composed.This is, by no means, a single nation agenda but rather a significant part of a global agenda formulated in Russia by the extreme right wing political scientist, Aleksandr Dugin. It represents an extreme right wing posture and, while rooted in conspiracy theory, the aim is to reduce government to its most basic and most limited functions. For some idea of the direction this is going, take a look at key cabinet members who all are carefully placed with a hidden purpose to either severely cut back operations or eliminate the  very agency to which they were appointed.                                                                                                                   The second is the enhancement of wealth for the top ten per cent and that it might come at the expense of the quality of life for the other ninety per cent matters naught. It has been a long standing far right agenda we saw back in the days of the emerging Tea Party Caucus and now has become the overall marching orders of both the House and the Senate. With little or no doubt, it is purposed to virtually eliminate the taxes on the upper two per cent and use the cessation of government providing any of the safety net services it has been providing for decades to compensate. There are numerous items that support this proposition but one need only to look at the legislative package presented by the House to be convinced. The diluting of any and all regulatory packages such as Dodd-Frank ; the elimination of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau ; the elimination of regulatory packages, if not the entire agency from EPA and FDA ; the elimination for the Department of Education. These all point to the agenda to save and redistribute not just  the wealth but also the burden. Of these though, the prime elements of this agenda are the privatization of Social Security, the capping of Medicare allowed expenses and making it a voucher system and the block granting of Medicaid back to the states with the elimination of the “Ten Essential Services” currently available under the Affordable Care Act.                                                                                             The third plan is the calculated subversion of the political fabric with complete distraction, keeping the public overly focused on nonsense rather than the two above.Now every week, if not every weekend, the nation is treated to the rant and ravings of this so called president about matters which , gleaned from the likes of Breitbart and Mark Levin, have little or no basis in reality. At least, to date there is not any concrete evidence in support of them.In the meantime, while the gaslighting with these calculated distractions continues, the real secretive agenda is being moved forward. Far right wing baseless rants are being turned in to policy and we are seeing the undoing of decades of progress. Follow the road to chaos over the past two months and get some idea as to the direction the country is being dragged.

The gaslight guru and his minions have not only set a new low in terms of ethics but an even lower bar as it relates to actually governing. The Saturday morning tweets have replaced policy memoranda. Press conferences have been replaced by a circus of backtracking and excusing and the president is treating his position as if he were a corporate CEO , taking off every weekend to play golf. All in all, we are being treated to a complete farce instead of government and sadly, it will be the middle class and the less fortunate who will eventually pay the price. Dementia is defined as a persistent disorder manifest by impaired reasoning. One, in looking inside the beltway, can only conclude that this is the prevalent condition.

Some time ago, the Salvation Army had a public service spot which was purposed to demonstrate the art of distraction. It pictured an attractive young lady in a tight white and gold dress and for sure, most people viewing the photo spent most of the time looking at that dress and the curves it covered. What the caption asked was, “Why is it so hard to see the black and blue ?” The black and blue were the bruises on the young lady’s thigh and mouth. Interesting !

The every day experience is full of distractions – some of which are valuable as they allow a reprieve from the stress and strain of our work a day world. Some, though, not so much. As in the illustration above, the distraction there proved to be a way to hide an evil truth and therein lies the issue of today.
We, as a country, have been subjected over the past eighteen months to the rants and ravings of one Donald Trump – a not so self made billionaire who has little or no respect for anyone or anything that does not fawn all over him, bolstering his immense ego or contribute handsomely to his bank accounts. His conspiracy theory based pronouncements are all but ludicrous and yet, by some stroke of stupidity, he was elected president. Fear and ignorance have won once again. And, in spite of assurances and projections by his ever loyal inner circle, his interactive style continues to be beyond the pale of civil or even rational . However, there is a greater concern, believe it or not, than having the mouth from Manhattan sitting in the oval office and how he got there. It is what is going on behind the scenes after the inauguration is over.
While the new president continues to flail away at every institution and the very mechanics of government, we, as a nation, stand distracted from the greater evil about to rear its very ugly head and destroy any semblance of progress we may have achieved since as far back as the early sixties. The “Breitbart Congress” is pushing a very dangerous agenda with the idea that,as long as Mr Trump sits at the president’s desk, their proposals will be approved and their agenda will become the law of the land.

From the very start, the GOP tried to block and then repeal the Social Security Act in1935 and have been and continue to do so even to today. Now, while living up to its long history of being attentive to the wants of the few and ignoring the needs of the many, Congress is poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While the ACA has had its flaws, especially in the quite inept way in which it was initially rolled out to the public, it has been the way in which millions have been able to secure something which has been denied them – health insurance. Now, the GOP wants to repeal the Act and , in spite of claims to the contrary, does not appear to have any plan with which to replace it, leaving those millions again without health care. Proposals ranging from outright privatizing health care to the so called free market to forcing people to rely in those ever inaccessible Health Savings Accounts have surfaced but there is no agreement on any of this. And all the while, those millions of people are awaiting their fate, some in the very midst of treatment plans.
As recently as the first week of the new Congress, a member of the House has introduced a bill to essentially eliminate the Civil Service protections afforded GS level employees of the federal government. While the stated purpose may seem to have some merit on the surface, one can clearly see the opportunities there for senior managers to simply dismiss those employees who do not meet either their personal or philosophical schemes.
On a broader scope, one only has to look at the cadre of proposed cabinet members to see the hidden agenda of the incoming administration but, as most people do not pay attention to these matters, one day all might wake up and find things like no rules for protecting the environment, no support for public education, no protections from Wall Street reckless practices and oil pipelines all over what were once protected wilderness lands.
The incoming president’s choice for the Department of Education has no idea about the IDEA, about Title IX, wants to push everyone to a school voucher system and has no experience whatsoever in public education. His choice fro the department of Energy thought he was going to be an ambassador for the gas and oil companies. His choice for EPA is currently a party in a lawsuit brought against the EPA by the state of Oklahoma where he is outgoing Attorney General and his choice for DHHS has several sweetheart deals on stock in health equipment companies which he purchased shortly before he introduced legislation which would directly benefit those companies.
The question then is what, if anything, can be done. Short of orchestrating an amendment to the Constitution to permit the recalling of members of Congress, the primary tool for swaying this tide of arrogance and vengeful extremism is vigilance. Vigilance on the part of the citizenry, vigilance on the part of watch dog groups, vigilance on the part of advocate groups and, as important as any, vigilance on the part of the media. The media – not those dime store tabloids or outlets for conspiracy theorists and other extremists but the legitimate and purposeful news services, of which there are many.
The incoming administration has had and no doubt will continue to have a strained relation with the news media, especially those long standing, reputable organizations like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the LA Times and the network news services of NBC, CBS, ABC, and even the BBC whose perspective is often very interesting when it comes to U S politics. All of these, by the way, are seemingly anathema to Mr Trump.It will be up to them to be the watch dogs for the country and they must not shy from exposing not only the good but also and especially  the bad and the ugly.