Are Americans Strong Enough To Resist The Siren Call Of Fascism Trump Has Unleashed?

Trump's fascist goon squad unconstitutionally occupying Portland tear-gassed the city's mayor yesterday, something Trump seems to have particularly enjoyed and taken great pride in. Robert Kuttner termed what's happening in Portland Full-On Fascism. With their silence and in some cases with their cheers, Members of Congress from his own party have given Trump the green light. "Trump," wrote Kuttner, "has run out of other strategies, so he is pursuing a long-standing fantasy of having a personal secret police force that is beyond legal control. Last week, unidentified storm troopers dispatched from Border Patrol units descended on Portland over the objections of state and local officials. They made random arrests without any regard for due process, and jailed and brutalized citizens. If Trump gets his way, Chicago, New York, and other liberal bastions that he doesn’t like will be next. The gambit, worthy of Putin’s anonymous armed green men and Hitler’s SA, is sinister and brilliant. It brings America close to civil war, pitting illicit federal power against lawful state and local authority. It divides progressive mayors from fascistic police forces that reject civil authority. In Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked Trump to keep his shock troops out, the head of the police union has urged them to come."

Trump’s grand design is to use his secret police to provoke physical clashes, which then become the pretext for sending in more storm troopers. America is seen as falling into civil disorder, and Trump (having provoked the disorder) poses as the law-and-order president.

What might stop this? Two things. One would be large numbers of Republicans objecting to this illicit use of paramilitary power. So far, libertarian Rand Paul has been very lonely.

Republicans in principle are against arbitrary executive power, but opportunism trumps principle. They shame themselves, like the German conservatives who enabled Hitler.

The other firebreak is the courts. After the unlawful invasion of Portland, Oregon’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, asked the U.S. district court to enjoin Trump’s illegal action. The ACLU has filed its own suit.

If these actions persist, we can expect expedited review by the Supreme Court. Once again, as will occur when Trump tries to steal the November election, the fate of America’s democracy could well come down to one man.

He’s preferable to Trump, but I sure wish John Roberts were a more reliable defender of constitutional government.

Pennsylvania state Senator Daylin Leach (D) noted that the predictable result of Trump's attack on Portland "is to inflame the situation, and obviously there is nothing about this which is compatible with democracy. They did a lot of this sort of thing in Chile and Argentina in the 70s and in Russia now. In Russia, many of the people seized go on to have truly unfortunate falling-off-balcony accidents, sometimes several on the same day. A lot of clutzes there. In America, we are not supposed to use the federal government’s military assets for domestic policing. That’s why they don’t send the nuclear submarine Ticonderoga to your house to search for weed. We also don’t arrest people at all unless there is either an arrest warrant or the appropriate police witness a crime being committed. And if we detain you, we tell you who is doing the arresting and why. We read you your Miranda rights. Hell, we are even supposed to give you one phone call."

Aside from all the democracy-schmemocracy problems with this, it is extremely dangerous. You have to comply when the police arrest you. You are under no obligation to comply if a bunch of anonymous dudes with guns try to grab you off the street and cram you into the back of a Land Rover. Some people might legitimately be frightened and resist, and then, well…what could go wrong?

Trump, and his Twap Wigit Bill Barr have now promised to invade a number of other cities that don’t want them. It seems that they want to normalize this as they’ve normalized so many other gashes to the heart of our democracy. But is this really creeping “fascism”?. Well, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC has put out a list of 12 signs that a country is heading towards fascism. Look at this list and tell me which ones we are not currently experiencing.

• Powerful and continuing nationalism
• Disdain for human rights
• Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
• Rampant sexism
• Controlled mass media
• Obsession with national security
• Religion and government intertwined
• Corporate power protected
• Labor power suppressed
• Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
• Obsession with crime and punishment
• Rampant cronyism and corruption

There is a famous “Doomsday Clock” that tracks how close we are to nuclear war. During tense times we’ve gotten as close as three minutes to midnight. I am unaware of a “Fascism Clock”, but don’t be surprised if someday you see me with a version on Shark Tank. But I can only imagine if such a clock did exist, we would already be hearing the chimes. If we don’t stop this now, when will we?

Bernie warned his followers yesterday that "We are in a very dangerous moment in American history. Last month, as you'll recall, Trump had peaceful protestors outside of the White House in Washington, D.C. viciously attacked by federal agents who wore no identification. As we speak, in Portland, Oregon, federal agents in combat gear and unmarked vehicles are pulling protesters off the streets and jailing them without charges, despite opposition from local and state officials."

He is sounding the alarm that "What Trump and his allies are now doing is 'normalizing' the use of federal troops to patrol and make arrests of American citizens in communities throughout the country. Today it is Portland, Oregon. Tomorrow, Trump is suggesting it could be New York City, Chicago or Philadelphia. Next, your hometown. This is what a police state is all about."

Make no mistake about it: Donald Trump does not believe in democracy, our Constitution or the rule of law.

He is working aggressively to suppress the vote and, in the midst of this terrible pandemic, is vigorously opposing the right of citizens to vote by mail. He has ignored decisions of Congress, which is why he was impeached. He has contempt for a free press and has called the media 'an enemy of the people.' He has used his office for blatant personal and political gain, running the most corrupt administration in modern American history. He has ruptured our relationships with long-time democratic allies around the world while he embraces right-wing authoritarian leaders in Russia, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Yes. We must all come together to defeat Trump in November, but we must also act right NOW to stop the movement toward authoritarianism and a police state.

That is why I am introducing legislation with Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon which would greatly curtail the activities of federal military forces in our communities. This bill would limit their ability to conduct crowd control to properties immediately surrounding federal buildings without the invitation of the Governor and Mayor, require federal agents to wear visible IDs, and ban them from making arrests or detentions in unmarked vehicles.

...Too many Americans fought and died to defend American democracy to let President Trump move us even further in an authoritarian direction... Trump's strategy of hateful rhetoric and using a crisis to seize more power is nothing new. It has been used by authoritarian leaders throughout history. Our job NOW is to stand together, fight back, and stop the movement toward authoritarianism and a police state.

Blue America is a citizen's organization co-sponsor of Jeff Merkley's petition to let Trump know Authoritarianism has no place in America. "Trump," wrote Merkley "would rather be a tinpot dictator than the president of a democratic republic. His Department of Homeland Security is using unmarked paramilitary forces to patrol the streets of Portland, Oregon. In recent days, those federal agents have attacked protestors and grabbed people off the streets into unmarked vans. This is unacceptable and it must change." His petition outlines 4 demands:

• We must require federal agents and the agency they work for to be clearly identifiable.
• We must prohibit the federal misuse of unmarked vehicles.
• We must prohibit federal agents from patrolling city streets, outside of federal property, unless invited to do so by local authorities.
• We must require agencies to disclose how many personnel have been deployed and for what mission when they’re sent into our cities.

Congress must prohibit these police state tactics. The American people must speak out. You can make your voice heard-- in a manner of speaking-- by signing here.

The next fascist might not be as incompetent

Jamie Raskin offered a piece of legislation that would prevent any president of pardoning himself for criminal activities. "We've never had a president attempt to pardon himself," said Raskin, Maryland's best member of Congress and a constitutional law expert, "and no president has ever come close to that point, but with Donald Trump all things are possible, and we want to make it completely clear that our understanding of the Constitution is that it does not include the possibility of the President pardoning himself."

Has Trump Gone To War Against An American City? Does He Have Storm Troopers Gassing Peaceful Protesters? The Most Repulsive Reelection Stunt Ever Pulled

The Psychedelic Furs were always ahead of their time. The song above, lead track on the Forever Now album, was written and recorded almost four decades ago!

You have to have a party
When you're in a state like this
You can really move it all
You have to vote and change
You have to get right out of it
Like out of all this mess
You'll say yeah to anything
If you believe all this but
Don't cry, don't do anything
No lies, back in the government
No tears, party time is here again
President gas is up for president
Line up, put your kisses down
Say yeah, say yes again
Stand up, there's a head count
President gas on everything but roller skates
It's sick the price of medicine
Stand up, we'll put you on your feet again
Open up your eyes
Just to check that your asleep again
President gas is president gas again
He comes in from the left sometimes
He comes in from the right
It's so heavily advertised that he wants you and I
It's a real cowboy set, electric company
Every day is happy days
It's hell without the sin, but
Don't cry, don't do anything
No lies, back in the government
No tears, party time is here again
President gas is up for president
Line up, put your kisses down
Say yeah, say yes again
Stand up, there's a head count
President gas on everything but roller skates
It's sick the price of medicine
Stand up, we'll put you on your feet again
Open up your eyes just to check that your asleep again
President gas is president gas again
President gas
Oh, president gas
Whoa, president gas
Oh, president gas
Whoa, president gas
Oh, president gas
Whoa, president gas

On Saturday evening L.A. Times reporter Richard Read noted that "Undeterred by civil rights lawsuits and pleas from local officials to stand down, federal agents in camouflage have continued their crackdown against demonstrators in Portland, Ore., into the weekend, launching impact explosives and tear gas late Friday at downtown protesters shouting, 'Go home.' Since early in the week, agents dispatched by the Trump administration, some in unmarked vehicles, have confronted and detained activists, according to Oregon state officials, charging at least 13 with crimes related to demonstrations. One protester was hospitalized with skull fractures July 11 after a federal agent shot him in the face with a projectile. By the administration’s move to make Portland an example in a national 'law and order' initiative just months before the presidential election, the conduct of federal forces here has accomplished what weeks of strife between protesters and Oregon officials had failed to do-- uniting them, at least momentarily, in common cause."

“Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening,” state Atty. Gen. Ellen Rosenblum said in a statement. “If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere.”

Rosenblum on Friday sought an injunction against federal law enforcement agencies, accusing them of seizing protesters without probable cause, pulling activists into unmarked vehicles and detaining and questioning them without basis for arrests. She said agents in Portland wore no identifying information other than the label “police” on their military fatigues.

...Trump is doing this because it plays well with the right-wing media and his political base," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in an interview Friday. "If Trump thinks he can get away with this in the Pacific Northwest, he’s going to try this elsewhere.”

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch dubbed the Trump-provoked violence in Portland Trump’s made-for-TV fascism and predicted it won't get him reelected. "As protests in Portland over police brutality and racial inequity near the end of a second month," wrote Bunch, "these heavily camouflaged, helmeted and anonymous agents have routinely fired tear gas-- even though courts have mostly banned local police from deploying it-- and projectiles at protesters near a federal building in Oregon’s largest city. And-- as captured in video or described by victims-- these agents even snatched peaceful protesters off Portland sidewalks, shoved them into unmarked vans and took them for questioning without identifying themselves or their agency. These are the kind of Kafkaesque, police-state tactics that most civilized folks hoped had gone the way of Chile’s late authoritarian (and U.S.-installed) 20th-century dictator Augusto Pinochet, only to return for the increasingly desperate and dangerous final days of Trump’s disastrous presidency and America’s descent into madness and chaos."

These hazy, tear-gas-soaked nights in the Pacific Northwest have been five years in the making-- the inevitable climax of a story line that began on a morning in June 2015 when Trump descended a gilded escalator to start building a movement of right-wing rabble with hate speech against Mexicans. You were warned in the early days of his presidency, when Trump made good on his promise to the white-supremacist unions of cops and federal border and immigration agents to “take the shackles off,” cheering on police brutality while setting the stage for agents to show up at schools and courthouses and disappear undocumented immigrants with deep roots in their communities. Those who said nothing or uttered toothless platitudes at these tactics, or the agents ripping toddlers from the arms of their parents at the Mexican border, shouldn’t be shocked by now seeing Gestapo tactics in the streets of Portland.





Indeed, Trump’s inexorable frog-in-boiling-water push toward full-on authoritarianism has been so successful that almost no attention was paid on July 1, when the government announced a program with the Orwellian name of Protecting American Communities Task Force, or PACT (apparently the “F” is silent), which had the started goal of protecting statue and monuments. But PACT’s real open-ended and ill-defined mission seems to be escalating conflict in a handful of cities, like Portland, with the most-active far-left communities.

PACT is comprised of officers from an array of agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (yes, even though the Canadian border is 285 long miles away)-- whose union Twitter feed is a steady stream of pro-Trump propaganda, including diatribes against “the Radical Left”-- as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service. Under the leadership of Wolf-- a presidential lapdog who wields the powerful hammer of Homeland Security even though he’s only been confirmed as an undersecretary-- this is a “dream team” for a Trumpian secret police.

And there’s a very real chance that Pinochet-style federal policing may be coming to your hometown very soon. Acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (also not Senate confirmed) told NPR on Friday that “this is a posture we intend to continue not just in Portland but in any of the facilities that we’re responsible for around the country.”

Chad Wolf set the template for these unwelcome-- literally no major government official in Oregon has asked for this intervention and most have pleaded for the federales to go home-- mini-invasions when he showed up in Portland on Thursday, snubbed elected leaders but met with the head of Portland’s police union, and posted a picture on Twitter of himself rallying the troops, whoever these troops actually are. “Our men and women in uniform are patriots. We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch,” Wolf tweeted-- trying to make it sound like his camouflaged crusaders were ready to storm Omaha Beach rather than fire rubber bullets at graffiti vandals armed with chalk.

Has Trump offered him a preemptive pardon? Why doesn't the Senate act?

Wolf’s renegade Homeless Security army is tragic vindication for those of who’ve been warning since the early 2000s that the extensive security apparatus that America created after 9/11-- from that ominous too-1930s-Germanic sounding moniker of “Homeland Security” to the level of militarized policing unavoidable seen since George Floyd’s murder-- would be turned against U.S. citizens, especially if America ever elected a president with an authoritarian streak.

For now, though, Trump’s 21st Century fascism is mostly a political performance. Unable to run on his leadership or his record, with a mounting coronavirus death toll that just passed 140,000 and 11 percent unemployment that may get worse again before it gets better, the president is hoping to save his presidency with fear. But his desperate and misguided efforts to recreate Richard Nixon’s 1968 “law and order” campaign and somehow scare voters about Joe Biden won’t work unless he can bring nightly scenes of disorder and chaos into your living room.

...Yes, it’s more than a little ironic that all of this is unfolding on the very weekend that the greatest living American in the arena of civil rights, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, died at age 80 (and that we also lost another champion of democracy, the Rev. C.T. Vivian). Lewis had a complicated relationship with the type of left-wing activists leading the current protests in Portland but there’s no doubt that the late congressman-- famously beaten by both angry mobs during 1961′s Freedom Rides and by Alabama troopers near the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma four years later-- would have been appalled at the government’s brutal crackdown on any form of dissent there.

“We are tired of being beaten by policemen,” Lewis said in his address to the 1963 March on Washington. “We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again. ... I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete.”

The air has been filled all weekend with political platitudes about Lewis, many of them from hypocrites who’ve devoted their political careers to fighting everything he stood for, from voting rights to basic human rights. There is so much work left undone to honor the legacy of this great man, but a simple start would be to get Trump’s tin soldiers out of Portland, today if possible.

Is He A Legitimate President? Or Just A Temporary Anomaly Who Has To Be Carefully Dealt With & Worked Around? Or Something Worse?

It makes me sick that so many Americans-- thirty-something percent-- actually believe a word the asshole says. Saturday night it was another scare tactic/threat that "if anyone but me takes over in 2020 (I know the competition very well), there will be a Market Crash the likes of which has not been seen before!" Hours later he was fighting with the NY Times-- accusing them of treason-- for exposing how worried the military is that they can't trust the "Putin president" with secret information.

David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth, in their report, U.S. Escales Online Attacks On Russia's Power Grid wrote something that would have been unthinkable about any other president but is so obvious about Trump as to be almost an afterthought. Ostensibly, the story was that the U.S. has been "stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning" to Putin. "In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly discussed action directed at Moscow’s disinformation and hacking units around the 2018 midterm elections... Bolton, said the United States was now taking a broader view of potential digital targets as part of an effort 'to say to Russia, or anybody else that’s engaged in cyberoperations against us, You will pay a price.'"

The commander of United States Cyber Command, Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, has been outspoken about the need to “defend forward” deep in an adversary’s networks to demonstrate that the United States will respond to the barrage of online attacks aimed at it.

“They don’t fear us,” he told the Senate a year ago during his confirmation hearings.

But finding ways to calibrate those responses so that they deter attacks without inciting a dangerous escalation has been the source of constant debate.

Mr. Trump issued new authorities to Cyber Command last summer, in a still-classified document known as National Security Presidential Memoranda 13, giving General Nakasone far more leeway to conduct offensive online operations without receiving presidential approval.

But the action inside the Russian electric grid appears to have been conducted under little-noticed new legal authorities, slipped into the military authorization bill passed by Congress last summer. The measure approved the routine conduct of “clandestine military activity” in cyberspace, to “deter, safeguard or defend against attacks or malicious cyberactivities against the United States.”

Under the law, those actions can now be authorized by the defense secretary without special presidential approval.

“It has gotten far, far more aggressive over the past year,” one senior intelligence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity but declining to discuss any specific classified programs. “We are doing things at a scale that we never contemplated a few years ago.”

The critical question-- impossible to know without access to the classified details of the operation-- is how deep into the Russian grid the United States has bored. Only then will it be clear whether it would be possible to plunge Russia into darkness or cripple its military-- a question that may not be answerable until the code is activated.

The shocking part of The Times' report, buried deep in the article, is that Trump is being kept in the dark about what's going on. "Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place 'implants'-- software code that can be used for surveillance or attack-- inside the Russian grid. Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction-- and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister."

In August, General Nakasone used the new authority granted to Cyber Command by the secret presidential directive to overwhelm the computer systems at Russia’s Internet Research Agency-- the group at the heart of the hacking during the 2016 election in the United States. It was one of four operations his so-called Russia Small Group organized around the midterm elections. Officials have talked publicly about those, though they have provided few details.

This goes right to the core of Trump's legitimacy as a president. Is he the president? Or just a temporary anomaly that has to be carefully dealt with and worked around? Or something worse? A Russian asset? Adam Kinzinger is a conservative Republican in a safe Illinois congressional seat made up of exurbs and rural areas west and south of Chicago (R+8, where Trump beat Hillary 55.5% to 38.3%). Kinzinger served in the Air Force and piloted missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard. He takes national security extremely seriously. On Saturday, during an interview with S.E. Cupp on CNN, he admitted that Republicans in Congress "privately" agree that Trump's comments about taking dirt from foreign governments is "unacceptable."

Is Climate Change Denial An Impeachable Offense?

"President" Gas

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler was the ranking member of the committee but he didn't have a free shot at the chair when the Democrats won back the House. Pelosi ally Zoe Lofgren is the number 2 most senior Democrat on the committee and she decided to play "a woman should have this position" card. In a case like that, the House Steering and Policy decides with the guidance of the top Democrat in the House. In other words, Pelosi makes the decision. She knew it had to be Nadler. She just wanted one thing out of him: she'd call the shots, especially on impeachment. He agreed, became chair and she's not allowing impeachment to move forward. Everyone just spits out her idiotic, misleading talking point that they can't do anything until Mueller is finished with his investigation-- actually an outrageous, boldfaced lie, worthy of Trump himself. Yesterday, Nadler was on John Catsimatidis' radio show, where the takeaway was this Nadler quote:

"I view this president and his conduct as the greatest threat to the democratic system and to the constitutional government since the Civil War, whether it’s threatening the newspapers or threatening the judiciary or calling people who criticize him treasonous."

The "greatest threat," huh? "Since the Civil War?" And still no impeachment? And as horrifying as Trump's threat to democracy is-- which Nadler is supposed to protect us from-- there's an even more existential threat Trump has made himself to our families, our country, our world: his line in the sand stance that Climate Change doesn't exist. That's a big deal. The fake "president is going to kill us all.



Author Daniel Levitin isn't a Climate Scientist; his field is cognitive psychologiy and he is best know as a neuroscientist. This morning he told me that "Science has become very specialized, and scientists tend to be expert only in the narrow domains they’re trained in. You wouldn't believe what a climate scientist has to say about building a particle collider; you shouldn’t believe what biologists, engineers, and chemists have to say about climate science. And that’s exactly what’s going on here. If you look at the scientists who have come out against the idea of climate change-- I mean if you really look to see what field they were trained in, and what kinds of journals they publish in-- you’ll see that almost none of them are actually climate scientists. Nearly every climate expert agrees that (a) climate change is real, (b) it is caused by human activity, and (c) it is urgent to do something about it."



Today, just a few hours ago, Audrey Denney officially launched her 2020 congressional campaign for California's first congressional district, where the current incumbent, Trump ally Doug LaMalfa, might as well be wearing an "I'm With Stupid" t-shirt. Just before her noon launch, Audrey told us that she was "mortified when I read that article. This administration seems to be intent on systematically undermining our country’s trust in science-- all to give more money and power to their political allies. Climate change is not a partisan issue-- it is a moral issue. If we want a planet for our children to live on, we need to elect leaders at all levels of government who are committed to climate action."

Eva Putzova is running for Congress in Arizona for a seat held by an "ex"-Republican Blue Dog, Tom O'Halleran, who didn't get the message about what switching parties means. He's about as likely to embrace the Green New Deal as Trump is. "Trump's denial of climate change," Eva reminded us today, "is already costing our country lives and resources. Our President and Congress should do what we did in Flagstaff, Arizona-- adopt a climate action plan. We need urgently political courage at every level of government to take bold, meaningful climate actions, not more debates over the science of climate change." Progressive Chicagoland Democrat Marie Newman is in a similar situation-- running against a Blue Dog, Dan Lipinski, who doesn't back the Green New Deal and, in many ways, is more a Republican than a Democrat. "We need to support the Green New Deal initiative and support the development of this framework into actual programs and legislation-- we literally do not have a choice anymore. We must act," said Newman, in no uncertain terms.

Kara Eastman, the progressive Democrat running for the swingy Omaha-based Nebraska seat, has been completely clear on where she stands on Climate Change. Today she asked, "Why would an administration do this? There is overwhelming evidence of climate change, its causes, and its solutions. This is the way for Republicans to counteract the tremendous support for plans like the Green New Deal. It is a political ploy to undermine the Democrats and dupe the American public. Ensuring a new, booming economy with great paying jobs and true community development is how America can become a leader in combating climate change. There is simply no sane or moral reason anyone would be against this."

Mike Siegel, the Austin-based progressive Democrat taking on one of Trump's top allies in Texas, Michael McCaul, told us today that "Trump's announcement is one more example of the Republican Regime abusing government offices to push propaganda. Instead of developing rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific research, this will be a corporate front group designed to protect fossil fuel profits to the detriment of human life and our planet. I can only hope this panel will suffer the same fate as Kobach's election fraud commission. In the meantime, progressives will keep fighting for a Green New Deal, and winning the hearts and minds of the American people."

Yesterday, writing for the Washington Post Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey and Brady Dennis reported that Trump is putting together a committee of scientists as fake as he is a president to discredit the science behind Climate Chance. Eilperin, Dawsey and Dennis wrote that Trump "plans to create an ad hoc group of select federal scientists to reassess the government’s analysis of climate science and counter its conclusions that the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming the planet, according to three administration officials." Looks like they already reached their conclusion before they've even been formed! It sounds like a joke. Nate McMurray, who came within a handful of votes of defeating Trump-enabler Chris Collins in an area of New York between Buffalo and Rochester last year-- and plans on finishing the job next year-- told me that Trump "is a little late. In Western New York we are beyond debating the obvious, as we deal with more intense storms, higher water levels eroding land on the Great Lakes, and changing farming patterns. This President tries to reshape reality. We live in it." I think there are few regions in the country where people would disagree with Nate.

The National Security Council initiative would include scientists who question the severity of climate impacts and the extent to which humans contribute to the problem, according to these individuals, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The group would not be subject to the same level of public disclosure as a formal advisory committee.

The move would represent the Trump administration’s most forceful effort to date to challenge the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions are helping drive global warming and that the world could face dire consequences unless countries curb their carbon output over the next few decades.

The idea of a new working group, which top administration officials discussed Friday in the White House Situation Room, represents a modified version of an earlier plan to establish a federal advisory panel on climate and national security. That plan-- championed by William Happer, NSC’s senior director and a physicist who has challenged the idea that carbon dioxide could damage the planet-- would have created an independent federal advisory committee.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act imposes several ground rules for such panels, including that they meet in public, are subject to public records requests and include a representative membership.

While the plan is not finalized, NSC officials said they would take steps to assemble a group of researchers within the government. The group will not be tasked with scrutinizing recent intelligence community assessments of climate change, according to officials familiar with the plan.

The National Security Council declined requests to comment on the matter.

During the Friday meeting, these officials said, deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman said Trump was upset that his administration had issued the National Climate Assessment, which must be published regularly under federal law. Kupperman added that congressional Democrats had seized upon the report, which is the product of more than a dozen agencies, to bolster their case for cutting carbon emissions as part of the Green New Deal.

Attendees at the session, which included acting interior secretary David Bernhardt and senior officials from across the government, debated how best to establish a group of researchers that could scrutinize recent federal climate reports.

Happer, who headed an advocacy group called the CO2 Coalition before joining the administration in the fall, has challenged the scientific consensus on climate change inside and outside of government.

Public records show the coalition, which describes its mission as informing policymakers and the public of the “important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy,” has received money from far-right organizations and donors with fossil fuel interests.

In 2017, according to federal tax filings obtained by the Climate Investigations Center, the group received $170,000 from the Mercer Family Foundation and more than $33,000 from the Charles Koch Institute.

One senior administration official said the president was looking for “a mixture of opinions” and disputed a massive inter-agency report in November that described intensifying climate change as a threat to the United States.

“The president wants people to be able to decide for themselves,” the aide said.

Several scientists, however, said the federal government’s recent findings on climate change had received intense scrutiny from other researchers in the field before they became public.

Christopher Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute who served on the National Academy of Sciences review panel for the scientific report that formed the basis of last year’s climate assessment, said the committee met several times “to do a careful, page by page evaluation by the entire report.”

“The whole review process is confrontational from the very get-go, but it’s based in scientific credibility, in a traceable chain of evidence through publications,” said Field, an earth system science and biology professor.

Trump officials had weighed the idea of conducting a “red team-blue team” exercise on climate change, an idea espoused by Scott Pruitt, who was then the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, during the early months of the administration. White House aides, including then-chief of staff John F. Kelly, blocked the idea, and at one point discussed whether to “ignore” the climate research being conducted by federal scientists.

Government researchers across a range of disciplines have identified climate change as a serious threat for the past two decades, under Republican and Democratic administrations.

In 2003, the Pentagon commissioned a report to examine how an abrupt change in climate would affect America’s defense capabilities: Its authors concluded that it “should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern.”

Last year, a military-funded study warned sea level rise and other climate impacts could make more than a thousand low-lying islands in the Pacific Ocean “uninhabitable” by midcentury, including an atoll where a missile defense site is located.

Just last month, the national intelligence director delivered a worldwide threat assessment that “climate hazards” including extreme weather, wildfires, droughts and acidifying oceans are worsening, “threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security.”

Judith Curry, a former Georgia Tech climate scientist whom Republicans have sought to testify on climate change because she often highlights the uncertainties that remain, said in an email that she backed the idea of an independent assessment of government climate reports as long as the participants reflected a range of perspectives and are not activists on either side of the debate.

But retired Rear Adm. David Titley, who served as oceanographer of the Navy and chief operating officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the new initiative could imperil national security by clouding “truthful assessments of the risks stemming from a changing climate.”

“I never thought I would live to see the day in the United States where our own White House is attacking the very science agencies that can help the president understand and manage the climate risks to security of today and tomorrow,” said Titley, who sits on the advisory board of the Center for Climate and Security, a nonpartisan group focused on climate-related risks. “Such attacks are un-American.”

Trump Puts America Last, As Always When He's Palling Around With Putin

When Herr Asshole got back from his disastrous trip to Paris, he couldn’t think of anything better to do than insult Emmanuel Macron, the French president on twitter... in a way he would never have been man enough to do to his face. Trump is certainly the most disgusting excuse for a national leader anywhere in the world— and a stain on our nation, just like his dwindlng base of supporters are. I once pissed on Nixon’s grave. I look forward to defecating on Trump’s. Imagine what Jamie McCourt must have thought when someone in the Embassy rang her up and said, "Madame Ambassador, I think you had better take a look at la page twitter du grand crétin." Although... she did give him $400,000 for the job so she’s probably as cretinous as he is. (Besides, she used to be married to Frank McCourt and didn’t even have the class to change her name back.)

Aside from everyone in the world laughing at him for his general petulance and for being afraid to get his “hair” wet, Trump is also pissed off about Paris because Macron released an international agreement on cybersecurity principles Monday as part of the Paris Peace Forum, which was the backdrop for Trump’s latest international buffoonery. More than 50 nations were among the initial signatories, but not authoritarian states like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran… and Trumpistan.

As Axios explained yesterday, "The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace is another step in the disjointed effort to create international norms and laws for cybersecurity and warfare. In most international matters of regulating the internet, there tends to be a wide split between the liberal Western order and authoritarian nations like Russia and China. The agreement does not command any specific legislation." Asshole just wanted to show he stands with Russia and China against democracies and especially against Macron.

The principles include agreements to promote human rights on the internet, thwart election hacking, cease the theft of intellectual property via hacking and stop "malicious cyber activities in peacetime, notably the ones threatening or resulting in significant, indiscriminate or systemic harm to individuals." China, Russia and North Korea have each been accused of violating some or all of these in the past.

And Trump probably hopes to. Caroline Orr, reporting for ShareBlue, wrote that no one is positive why Asshole refused to be part of the new framework agreement.

The need for the international pact couldn’t be clearer. Current international law protecting civilians is founded on notions of state sovereignty and traditional methods of warfare, but the digital environment doesn’t respect or abide by international borders, and the information battlespace does not separate state actors and combatants from civilians.

Without rules and norms to define these matters in the digital environment, civilians can all too easily get caught in the crossfire of state-sponsored hacking, misinformation campaigns, and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

Just as the Geneva Convention specified rules of combat to protect civilian populations during wartime, the cybersecurity pact is meant to define what is unacceptable, and to provide a legal basis for punishing those who breach international rules and norms in the digital world.

It’s not clear why the United States chose to join some of the world’s most repressive regimes in refusing to sign the agreement, but it’s far from the first time America has split from its allies under the leadership of the Trump administration— and just like the previous times, Russia stands to benefit substantially from America’s retreat from the global stage.

The Kremlin regularly uses its cyber capabilities as tools of war, sometimes turning them against the Russian population, and at other times aiming at countries like Ukraine, Estonia, and, most recently, the United States. And in many instances, Russia has gotten away with these acts of aggression and human rights violations, in part because there is not even widespread agreement on the definition of cyberwarfare or the rules of engagement.

A new agreement like the one unveiled Monday would put the United States and its allies in a stronger position to mount a defense and hold Russia accountable for such acts. But, as the RAND Corporation warned in a 2017 report, “Without clear consensus on what constitutes a cyber violation, Russia will likely continue to maneuver unfettered in the vast gray area of international law.”

With the Trump administration continuing to make inexplicable decisions that benefit Russia with no apparent gains for the U.S., it’s not hard to see why so many people believe that Putin has a hold on Trump.

Unfortunately for the American people, that also means Putin has a hold on Trump’s decision-making— and despite what Trump may claim, there’s nothing “America First” about America retreating.

Pruitt Will Be The Gift, Politically Speaking, That Keeps On Giving, Right Through 2019

The Senate should have listened back then

On his last day in office, Scott Pruitt was still working to screw the American people-- for generations to come. According to a report this morning from the NY Times, on Friday, in his final hours in office, the EPA granted "a loophole that will allow a major increase in the manufacturing of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution as trucks that have modern emissions controls." That followed "intense lobbying by a small set of manufacturers that sell glider trucks, which use old engines built before new technologies significantly reduced emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide that are blamed for asthma, lung cancer and other ailments." Scott Pruitt (and Donald Trump)-- always looking out for more effective ways to destroy life on the planet earth.

Susan Collins (R-ME) had the good sense to vote against confirming Pruitt, but, alas, to no avail. Two right-wing fake Democrats, Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Joe Manchin (WV) voted with the GOP to confirm, as they do so frequently, and Joe Donnelly hid under his bed and refused to come out to vote. So much damage could have been avoided. The case to back grotesquely bad Democrats is always... "the confirmations." It was Bay of Arizona's argument today on Twitter when I wrote that I could see supporting every horrible, worthless Democrat for the sake of checking Trump, except one-- Kyrsten Sinema.

You can't imagine how much worse Sinema will be than Manchin and Heitkamp

We haven't heard the last of Pruitt yet. All those investigations aren't going away and some of the ethics ones will likely turn into criminal ones. Politico: "Pruitt is still facing more than a dozen federal probes from his tenure as EPA administrator, and EPA’s watchdog and congressional investigators are promising to continue looking into his long list of ethical woes and lavish spending allegations. Those investigations have already prompted Pruitt to turn to an outside attorney for advice and set up a legal defense fund before his resignation."

EPA’s inspector general expects to finish and release as many as four separate reports on Pruitt this summer, according to a spokesman.

An investigation into Pruitt’s security detail may wrap up as early as this month, and the watchdog expects to complete work in August on its audit of Pruitt’s 2017 travel and the use of a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act to give raises to close aides. And a separate probe into law enforcement pay will likely conclude in two to three months...

Those IG reports could provide fresh ammunition for Pruitt’s critics, but if they find evidence that laws were broken, they must hand the evidence to the Attorney General to decide whether to prosecute.

Pruitt confirmed in May that he had formed a legal defense fund, though Democrats and outside groups raised concerns about the possible conflicts of interest that could arise if companies or industries made donations to that fund, and whether its operation would be sufficiently transparent.

Five House Democrats later asked the Justice Department and FBI to open a criminal investigation into whether Pruitt’s activities were used to enrich himself and his family-- such a probe would not necessarily be disclosed publicly.

Other investigations continue as well. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is looking into allegations Pruitt retaliated against employees who questioned his spending and management habits. And the Washington Post reported on Thursday that the White House Office of Management and Budget has determined the $43,000 private phone booth Pruitt installed in his office violated the law. The Government Accountability Office has previously said the purchase was illegal.

Remember all those ridiculous media reports-- actual "fake news"-- absurdly claiming that Pruitt had resigned. What kind of stupid is that? All their readers and viewers children who have to be shielded from something as unpleasant as the word "fired?" I was doing a radio interview when the host interrupted with the breaking news and read it as it was coming off the transom, including "resigned." I started laughing. It wasn't until Friday that news sources started acknowledging that Trumplandia realized they couldn't afford to keep him on any longer and that Kelly and other persuaded the Imbecile-in-Chief to let him go. Being an incredible coward-- as most bullies are-- Trump hid upstairs under his bed as Kelly called Pruitt and told him to send in his resignation letter.

Bloomberg reported that "Pruitt didn’t want to leave his post and was described as being devastated that he had to resign, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a personnel matter. Apparently someone told Señor Trumpanzee Pruitt ordering his staff to alter his public schedule to shield some meetings from public view-- now why, oh why, would he do that?-- "could be a criminal violation of the Federal Records Act." Trump doesn't give a hoot about graft and corrupt-- after all, he sets the pace in America's first actual kleptocracy-- as long as no one gets caught. Getting caught as the straw that broke the trumpanzee's back. President Gas announced that "Pruitt chose to resign because he felt he was a distraction."

It May Be Difficult Not To, But Trump Shouldn't Be Obsessed Over-- Leave That To Mueller's Team

Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was on Meet the Press yesterday dancing on the head of a pin held up to the camera by Chuck Todd: "I do hope that somebody runs on the Republican side other than the president, if nothing else than simply to remind Republicans what conservatism is and what Republicans have traditionally stood for." Traditionally.

Meanwhile Marco Rubio was on This week demonstrating once again that he is always open to voting against Trump's trespasses against decency, the constitution and humanity-- until Trumpanzee barks at him. Little Marco votes with Señor T 97.2% of the time. Only 7 Senate Republicans have adhered more faithfully to Trump's vile and unconstitutional agenda-- and all of them have adhesion scores of 97.3%. Rubio sounded like a ruffled toy poodle when he told Martha Raddatz that he had seen "no evidence" of Trump's whacked out Spy-Gate charges and that the FBI was focussing on "individuals with a history of links to Russia that were concerning... As far as what I have seen to date, it appears that there was an investigation not of the campaign, but of certain individuals who have a history that we should be suspicious of, that predate the presidential campaign of 2015, 2016. And when individuals like that are in the orbit of a major political campaign in America, the FBI, who is in charge of counterintelligence investigations, should look at people like that," said Rubio, a puffed up member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And Trump wasn't on TV. He never goes on any programs where he could be asked questions. Instead he was locked in his nursery, diapers unchanged and reeking of shit, tweeting up a storm of nonsense.

Whose reputation is in tatters? Rudy Giuliani's more than anyone's. Yesterday he was on CNN's State of the Union embarrassing himself that Mueller's investigation is part of Trumpanzee's Spy-Gate fantasy. Politico offered an alternative interpretation of who twittery Trump was referring to as having their reputations in tatters.

Trump has repeatedly called special counsel Mueller's probe a "witch hunt," a charge that in recent weeks has been coupled with renewed calls from his allies to end the probe soon. Some House lawmakers have gone even further, arguing that reports stating a confidential FBI informant met with Trump campaign officials means the investigation is irrevocably tainted.

"With Spies, or “Informants” as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign," Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, "even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or “Justice” contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?"

It's unclear who Trump is referring to when he says individuals have "went back home in tatters." A score of former campaign aides have reportedly met with Mueller's team along with congressional investigators-- racking up significant legal bills in the process.

Mueller has so far secured at least five guilty pleas, including from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and former campaign aide Rick Gates. Papadopoulos' conversation with an Australian diplomat about getting "dirt" on Hillary Clinton has been reported to be the impetus for the FBI's original investigation into the president's campaign that has become the Mueller probe.

The president has attacked the investigation throughout Memorial Day weekend, returning to some of his favorite line of attacks including the political affiliations of Mueller's team and claiming that the question of Russian interference was made up by Democrats after losing the 2016 campaign. Some of those attacks were echoed by attorney Rudy Giuliani, who told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union that there was no justification for the Mueller probe to continue.

What Trump doesn't want is for Democrats and independents to ignore his tomfoolery and outrageous viciousness and talk directly to voters about what voters are interested in talking about. Randy Bryce spent the weekend, not obsessing over Trump's childish and incoherent tweets but on staying focussed on his own message:

I've worked minimum wage jobs in the past, so I know what every other working person knows: no one can survive on $7.25.

It's been eleven years since Congress raised the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour-- but it's still not enough. Everyone, no matter what they do for work, deserves dignity and no one who works full time should ever be forced to live in poverty. Period.

That's why I'm fighting to raise the minimum wage to $15 and support all working families.

Working folks all across the country are struggling just to make ends meet while multi-millionaire, lifelong politicians are busy putting corporations and special interests first in Washington, D.C.

Just last September, Paul Ryan was asked at a New York Times Times Talk, "What's the minimum wage in Wisconsin?" And guess what? He didn't know-- someone had to shout out the answer from the audience. And Bryan Steil, Ryan's handpicked replacement and a corporate lawyer who helped outsource jobs, will only carry on Ryan's tradition of ignoring the problems working people face.

It's long past time for working families like mine to have someone fighting for us in Congress. So when I get to Congress, that's what I'm going to do. Fight. For all of us.

Another Blue America-endorsed congressional candidate, Paul Clements, who didn't mention Trump in his Memorial Day message to supporters, Paul Clements (MI-06), instead talked about gun sanity instead. "Of course, I was frustrated hearing about the middle school shooting in Indiana yesterday," he wrote. We all grow more frustrated with each occasion of tragic news in our nation's schools--and in other public spaces that are supposed to be safe. As I posted on Twitter yesterday, although my thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the shooting, I agree with our nation's rising and energetic students: thoughts and prayers are not enough. When I get to Congress, I will stand up to the National Rifle Association. The NRA's extremism has created unhealthy political conversations and dangerous public spaces. Nobody is is trying to take all our guns away. Universal background checks and limiting military-style weapons are common-sense safety measures I will fight for in Congress... Please join me in rejecting the NRA and taking real action to protect our nation's schools and other public spaces."

And yesterday Jared Golden sent an e-mail telling his supporters why they wouldn't be hearing from his campaign today-- and it had decidedly NOTHING whatsoever to do with Trump. "I wanted to let you know that you won't be hearing from me or my campaign at all tomorrow-- in person, on the phone, or online. I won't be actively campaigning on Memorial Day. It's a day to remember, and to give thanks. To all of the men and women who have given their lives in service to America, and to their family members, thank you with all my heart. Tomorrow, I'll be thinking about and honoring the men I served with who didn't come home with us, and praying for their families. We won't ever forget your sacrifice."

To Those Who Voted For The Orange Fascist: It's On You Now. Period

- by Noah



I'm pretty numb right now. I woke up this morning and I felt like I did when, as a boy, I woke up on the morning of November 23,1963: heartbreak, depression, and wondering what would become of all of us. I live in New York City and the streets are eerily quiet today. The constant cacophony of honking horns is silenced. No one is stopped at the light blasting their choice of music for all the world to hear. Normally, it’s only this quiet during a hellacious blizzard. I haven’t even heard a raised voice.

I worry about what the election of Donald J. Trump says both about and to all of us. Perhaps most of all, I worry about what this election of Trump says to our children. It tells school kids that they can get all the way to the top, not if they study but if they refine their bullying ability, as if bullying wasn’t already a problem in our schools. It tells our boys that assaulting our girls is not just ignored but may be even rewarded. I think of what a picture of an accomplished woman president placed, nicely framed, on the classroom wall would have said about our country and what it would say to our girls.

Don’t waste anytime mourning. Organize!
-Joe Hill

I do know that we need a patriotic resistance movement. I'd like to think that Trump is such a pathological liar that he was lying about everything, but, I know better. I don't see him changing. He is incredibly mentally ill and maladjusted. I do suspect that the most disappointed people in the next couple of years will be those who voted for him. The weight of buyer’s remorse will be immense. The rest of us will have expected the misery. We will all have to live in the consequences. The media has played a supportive role in the rise of Trump (and not just the $2 Billion in free airtime for his Castro/Hitler style ravings) in that his supporters have no idea that he is far more of a crook than they ever imagined HRC to be, and that he has repeatedly failed in his business ventures. They will now have a President-elect on trial for fraud and, possibly, if the case proceeds, rape of a minor. Impeaching him will be hard with a Repug Senate and House. His brand is already suffering. His Toronto hotel closed. The new one in Washington is about to go belly up, but, ironically, his inauguration will buy it time. The way Trump operates, I have little doubt that visiting dignitaries will be told to stay there, and, that somehow, we the taxpayers will pay for their stays. Now he can use his position to enrich himself and his family, which is, most likely, the reason he ran in the first place.

All I can say in Trump’s favor is that, yes, things like NAFTA and CAFTA and similar trade agreements do need to be renegotiated. I recall that the great Thom Hartmann said several years ago now that the party that gets behind that idea and incentivizes the return of industrial jobs to Americans will reap the political success. Unfortunately, there is no doubt that the republicans would give us a structure to go along with it that pays workers slave wages and enriches only the big boss man. I see the return of the company store and the company-owned home. We had a hint of that in what Mitten Romney said about the “wonderful” factories in China; the “wonderful factories in China where Ivanka’s line of shoes is made and where Trump’s line of ties is made.

Funny how the powers that be have removed all mention of Joe Hill from school textbooks. We’ll be needing another Joe Hill more than ever now.

Trump’s supporters called the flawed Hillary Clinton many things. One was "Oligarchist." So what did they do? They voted in an Oligarchist on massive steroids. Even Trump’s New York home is patterend after the Palace of Versailles, right down to the gold filigree chairs he sits in.

Trump’s campaign was a case of "The Cult Of Personality" ruling the day. Personally, I could never have thrown in my lot with the KKK and all of those other White Supremacy groups even if I thought Trump was sane and even if I agreed with him on economic issues. Character should matter, but, all too often, it doesn’t when we decide who goes to Washington. In fact, bad character is often the one true bipartisan thing in our nation’s capitol.



I'm left with two hopes. One is the aforementioned highly unlikely one about him lying so much that he turns out to be the opposite of what he presented to us all. The other is more long term: I see our country's political history as a series of pendulums. The country swings left. Then the country swings right. What happened in the 1920s and the FDR reaction of the 1930s is as good example as any of this. Soup kitchens begat the now endangered Social Security program. The more the pendulum swings one way, the more it often swings back the other way. Trump's followers saw things like gender equality and Obamacare as extreme left things. They even saw the corporatist-centrist President Obama himself as extreme left, and homophobia and race was something that they, unconsciously in some cases, consciously in others, hung their criticisms and nihilistic hatreds on. So, perhaps, in four, or eight years, or maybe twelve, the inevitable reaction will give us the Republican Party's worst nightmare, full blown Socialism, or, at least President Elizabeth Warren. My advice (unwanted) to the Republican Party is: Be careful what you wish for. [NOTE: Bruce has a part II, or an update, coming mañana.]

I've been listening to this song a lot in recent months. It's one of my absolute favorite songs of the last 35 years. It could not be more appropriate than it is today. Great artists give us timeless art.