Month: January 2017

Week One in Trump

Posted on January 30, 2017 in Politics, Trump

Here’s a recap of the last 10 days or so. A lot happened, so let me know if I got anything wrong or missed anything. Also, not all of these are set in stone; congress has to pass legislation for some of these.

  1. Trump delivers his American Carnage speech at his inauguration, and he begins with a flurry of directives and orders.
  2. Millions of people around the world participate in women’s marches. Though there were clearly more marchers than inauguration attendees, Sean Spicer flat-out lies about crowd sizes and yells at the press in his first press conference. Trump doesn’t like Spicer’s suit.
  3. Trump speaks to CIA officers, using a loaded crowd and offending the memorial by bragging about his inauguration crowd size.
  4. Kellyanne Conway tells Chuck Todd that Spicer didn’t lie, he presented alternative facts, adding a new phrase to our lexicon.
  5. Orwell’s 1984 hits the best sellers list again.
  6. Trump pulls out of the TPP and orders a renegotiation of NAFTA. He also announces a federal hiring freeze.
  7. Trump voids an executive action that would have reduced the cost of home mortgages and make it easier to buy a home.
  8. Trump signs an order directing the repeal and replacement of the ACA. Republicans in congress are overheard talking about their lack of a replacement and the difficulties in coming up with one.
  9. Trump re-enacts and expands the Mexico rule, preventing any NGOs that mention abortion options from receiving US money regardless of what the money is used for.
  10. Sean Spicer redeems himself after his first press conference.
  11. Trump claims that 3-5 million people voted against him illegally, based on a story told to him by a German golfer.
  12. After hearing a report from Bill O’Reilly, Trump threatens Chicago with martial law.
  13. Trump approves the DAPL and Keystone pipeline, and mandates that they be manufactured from American-made products. Also promises to reduce EPA regulations, prompting a Twitter response from the park association that led to…
  14. Trump implements a clamp down on public correspondence by federal agencies that led to…
  15. Federal agencies develop rogue accounts to keep the public informed.
  16. Additionally, leaks from the White House staff point to fear and discord in the administration.
  17. Trump authorizes an investigation into voter fraud allegations. He might want to start with his own family and staff, several of whom were found to be registered in multiple states.
  18. Trump authorizes the construction of the Mexico wall (funding to be approved by Congress). Suggests he will tax Mexican imports 20% to pay for it, putting the bill in consumers’ hands.
  19. Trump bans federal funding to sanctuary cities and pledges to keep a list of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in said cities. Note that the federal government does not control how states allocate funds to cities, so it is unknown how this will play out.
  20. Trump re-opens the door to black sites and torture.
  21. Trump continues to tweet from an unsecured phone, and his staff continues to use private email servers.
  22. Trump makes it a policy that scientific studies be reviewed based on their potential political importance rather than their scientific importance.
  23. Scientists plan a march. And teachers. And also LGBQT activists.
  24. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway both attack the press, with Bannon calling it the opposition party and Kellyanne Conway saying reporters who disagree with the administration should be fired.
  25. Trump signs a ban on travel from 7 countries – Syria, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. Inadvertently or not this results in many green card and visa holders being detained or turned away, and protests erupt at airports across the country. After much confusion and heartbreak, Trump said things went smoothly at the airports this weekend.
  26. And the coup de grace, Trump removes the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the National Security Council and replaces them with Steve Bannon.
  27. Immigrants plan a march.
  28. Trump fires the acting attorney general for not defending the travel ban after 5 law suits were filed.
  29. Trump fires the acting director of immigration enforcement without explanation.

The First 10 Days

Posted on January 11, 2017 in Politics, Trump

I copied this entry from a facebook post, factchecked it, and made some edits. Sorry I can’t give props to the original author since I don’t know who it was. But here it is. The first 10 days of 2017.

 

Just so you can keep it all organized, here’s the first week in review:

  1. Trump orders home all Ambassadors and Special Envoys without exception, ordering them out by inauguration day.
  2. House brings back the Holman rule allowing them to reduce an individual civil service, SES positions, or political appointee’s salary to $1, effectively firing them by amendment to any piece of legislation. We now know why they wanted names and positions of people in Energy and State.
  3. Senate schedules 6 simultaneous hearings on cabinet nominees and triple-books those hearings with Trump’s first press conference in months and an ACA budget vote, effectively preventing any concentrated coverage or protest.
  4. In the House Rules doc, the House GOP expressly forbids the Congressional Budget Office from reporting or tracking any costs related to the repeal of the ACA (though the CBO has issued a few reports on this already).
  5. Despite the growing mountain of evidence that the Russians deliberately interfered in our election, Trump continues to deny the intelligence community’s findings and instead favors Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange.
  6. Trump asks Congress (in other words, the taxpayers) to pay for the wall, not Mexico.
  7. Trump threatens Toyota over a new plant that was never coming to the US nor will take jobs out of the US.
  8. House passes the REINS act, giving them veto power over any rules enacted by any federal agency or department–for example, if the FDA or EPA bans a drug or pesticide, Congress can overrule regardless of the science behind it. Don’t like that endangered species designation? Congress can kill it.