Archives for the month of: February, 2017

Charles Blow reminds us that Americans have a long tradition of resisting tyranny.

Disruption works. It is what Americans do when faced with tyranny, corruption, and lies.

The Trump resistance movement is stretching its wings, engaging its muscles and feeling its power. It is large and strong and tough. It has moved past debilitating grief and into righteous anger, assiduous organization and pressing activism.

Welcome to the dawn of the fighting-mad majority: The ones who didn’t vote for Trump and maybe even some who now regret that they did.

They are charging forward under the banner of sage wisdom that has endured through the ages: Show up, get loud and fight back. Do it with your body and words, with your time and money, with every fiber of yourself. They see what this dawning regime means and they don’t intend, not even for a second, to wait around to see what happens. “What happens” is happening right now and it’s horrific.

Donald Trump is a vulgar, uninformed, anti-intellectual, extremely unpopular grifter helming a family of grifters who apparently intend to milk their moment on the mount for every red cent.

Trump still hasn’t released his taxes or fully disconnected from his businesses. His wife is suing The Daily Mail because she believes the newspaper may have injured her “unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to “have garnered multimillion-dollar business relationships for a multiyear term.”

When his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line was dropped by Nordstrom, Trump lashed out at the retailer on Twitter, citing Ivanka as something of his moral compass: “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” This begs the question: “Why do you need someone to push you to do the right thing?”

Then, top Trump adviser Kellyanne “QVC” Conway, from the confines of the White House briefing room, said during a televised interview: “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would say.” She continued: “I’m going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody; you can find it online.”

Unethical is too kind a word for these classless cretins. Furthermore, Trump has nominated, and his Republican conspirators in the Senate have confirmed, a rogues’ gallery of some of the least qualified, most questionable appointees in recent memory. Aside from some of them being the fiercest critics of the very agencies they are charged with leading, some have also been accused of bigotry, plagiarism, insider trading and overall vacuousness.

Trump’s Muslim ban has also been an absolute disaster and has met some much-applauded resistance in court, most recently with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rebuking the administration’s lawyers like children.

This administration is already manifesting as the disaster we knew it would be; the stench of its rot surrounds us. What is there to wait and see? A rose will never bloom from a weed; you must snatch that thing up at first sight, by the root.

That is why you are seeing so much grass-roots resistance from a multiplying array of groups. One of the most prominent is called “Indivisible.” The Nation interviewed Ezra Levin, a former Democratic staffer and co-founder of the project and reported on the exchange: “Levin says that Indivisible built on the Tea Party’s model of ‘practicing locally-focused, almost entirely defensive strategy.’ This, he adds, ‘was very smart, and it was rooted in an understanding of how American democracy works. They understood that they didn’t have the power to set the agenda in Washington, but they did have the ability to react to it. It’s Civics 101 stuff — going to local offices, attending events, calling their reps.”

I would add that these groups are practicing one of the most effective tactics of confronting power: disruption. Town hall meetings have been disrupted; protesters disrupted Education Secretary Betsy Devos’s plans to enter a Washington school.

Disruption works!

When Frederick Douglass attacked Abraham Lincoln by saying that he “seems to possess an ever increasing passion for making himself appear silly and ridiculous, if nothing worse,” Douglass was being disruptive.

When women suffragists paraded through Washington, they were being disruptive.

When Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat, she was being disruptive.

When civil rights activists marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were being disruptive.

When LGBT people fought back at The Stonewall Inn, they were being disruptive.

When Act Up flooded Times Square, they were being disruptive.

When Occupy Wall Street refused to move from their parks, they were being disruptive.

When Black Lives Matter took to the streets and ground traffic to a halt, they were being disruptive.

When Native Americans stood in resistance at Standing Rock, they were being disruptive.

When Elizabeth Warren persisted, she was being disruptive.

Disruption is not a dirty word; in this environment, it’s a badge of honor.

Yes, it’s important to show up on Election Day, but it is also important to show up on the hundreds of days before and after. This is what the resistance movements are saying to Trump and his America: Buckle your seatbelts, because massive disruption is in the offing.

Trump is not normal. He is not competent. And we will not simply sit back and suck it up.

I have mixed feelings about whether I should continue devoting so many posts to the multiple transgressions of Trump.

On one hand, this is a blog devoted to education.

On the other, I believe we are in the midst of a historic and unprecedented national crisis. We have elected a man who is angry, bitter, ignorant, vengeful, unstable, and tied to the white-supremacist alt-right and the Kremlin.

He has already turned our country into an international laughing stock.

He has appointed a cabinet composed mostly of incompetent, unqualified, or mean-spirited people at odds with the agency they are supposed to lead.

He refuses to divest himself of his conflicts of interest, and several of his appointees–including Betsy DeVos–have followed his example. He has demonstrated contempt for the norms of ethics and transparency in government.

What is the reason for his admiration for Putin? Putin is the richest man in the world. Does Trump owe him billions?

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I love my country. I vote in every election. I am patriotic. I hate what Trump is doing to our country.

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My question to you:

Should I stick to education or continue to speak out on the issues of national significance, as well as education?

I find it hard to separate the two. Should I?

CNN reports that top members of the Trump campaign were in frequent contact with Russian government officials during the presidential election.

Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign – CNN
https://apple.news/Aff-8BHpyRSyeepRInbxxvQ

 

From the Washington Post:

“Russia carried out a comprehensive cyber campaign to sabotage the U.S. presidential election, an operation that was ordered by Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and ultimately sought to help elect Donald Trump, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a remarkably blunt assessment released Friday.

“The report depicts Russian interference as unprecedented in scale, saying that Moscow’s role represented “a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort” beyond previous election-related espionage.

“The campaign initially sought to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, “denigrate” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and damage her expected presidency. But in time, Russia “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump” and repeatedly sought to artificially boost his election chances.”

 

The New York Times reports the same story.

What are the reasons for the close ties between the Russian government and Trump’s National Security Advisor?

Did Michael Flynn collude with the Russian government to elect Trump?

Why won’t the Republicans hold hearings?

Why Attorney General Sessions investigate the Trump-Putin link?

Did Putin choose Trump as our president?

Why don’t the Republicans care?

Do they love power more than their country?

is Trump an illegitimate president?

While most people watched in amazement as the nation’s top national security advisor resigned, Trump signed the first legislation passed by the new Republican Congress.

“President Trump signed his first piece of legislation on Tuesday, a measure that could presage the most aggressive assault on government regulations since President Reagan.

“The bill cancels out a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that would have required oil and gas and mining companies to disclose in detail the payments they make to foreign governments in a bid to boost transparency in resource-rich countries.

“It is the first of a series of bills Congress is considering that would take advantage of the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which had been used only once before today. The act gives a new president and Congress the power to revoke rules and regulations promulgated by the previous administration in its final 60 legislative days.
The previous time the review act was invoked was in 2001 to overturn a Clinton administration regulation about ergonomics.

“It’s a big deal,” Trump said as he signed the measure in the Oval Office. “The energy jobs are coming back. Lots of people going back to work now.” The White House later issued a background paper saying the measure Trump signed “blocks a misguided regulation from burdening American extraction companies.”

“Hill Republicans are also seeking to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations that would: prevent coal-mining operations from dumping waste into nearby waterways; restrict methane emissions by oil and gas operations on federal land; require federal contractors to self-certify that they comply with U.S. labor laws; require each state to issue annual ratings for teacher-prep programs; and introduce a planning rule for federal lands.”

It is not clear why this deregulation would bring back American jobs. It appears that it’s purpose is to disclose bribes paid to foreign officials to win contracts.

The latest fiasco in the Trump administration left Kellyanne Conway holding the bag, after insisting that Mike Flynn had the “full confidence” of Trump, only seven hours before he resigned. She couldn’t spin her way out of this mess or come up with alternative facts.

On a serious note, the National Secutiry Council–the nation’s agency to maintain foreign affairs and security– is in disarray. Steve Bannon is a member but the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are not, and the president’s national security advisor is gone. Meanwhile, Trump takes highly confidential phone calls in public.

Chaos. Incompetence.

As an opinion columnist wrote the other day, if you wanted your car fixed, you would find a better mechanic, not a massage therapist. Experience matters. Intelligence matters.

Ignorance and inexperience are dangerous.

Our reader Susan Schwartz sent this link to a delightful song about Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”

The song is from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fabulous fantastical musical CATS.

The Washington Post reports that Trump knew “for weeks” that Flynn lied.

President Trump was aware that his national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled White House officials and Vice President Pence for “weeks” before he was forced to resign on Monday night.


Trump was briefed by White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador “immediately” after McGahn was informed that Flynn had misled Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.


”We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to Gen. Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said.


The comments contradict the impression given by Trump on Friday aboard Air Force One that he was not familiar with a Washington Post report that revealed that Flynn had not told the truth about the calls.
”I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen it. What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that,” Trump told the plane.


Spicer said that the president and a small group of senior aides were briefed in late January after the Justice Department informed McGahn about Flynn’s calls.


The White House Counsel’s office conducted a “review” of the legal issues and determined that “there was not a legal issue but rather a trust issue,” Spicer said. “The president was very concerned that Gen. Flynn had misled the vice president and others. The president must have complete and unwavering trust of the person in that position.”


Spicer said that “the evolving an eroding level of trust as a result of a series of other issues is what led the president to ask for Gen. Flynn’s resignation.

“
The press secretary repeatedly said that Trump was not concerned with the nature of the conversations that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador but that the lack of trust created an “unsustainable” situation.
”The president has no problem with the fact that he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be,” Spicer said.


Michael Busch reflects on Betsy DeVos’ lack of knowledge of federal policy, federal laws, and federal programs and wonders if she will be a fish out of water in her new post?

http://www.warscapes.com/opinion/whats-store-betsy-devos

He recalls when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg brought in a novice to run the school system. She had no experience with public schools; she had been a magazine publishing executive. She didn’t know the lingo or the issues. She made gaffe after gaffe in public meetings. She depressed the mayor’s poll ratings. She didn’t last 100 days.

Andy Borowitz writes a humor column for “The New Yorker.”

In this post, he writes about Betsy DeVos and her shaky grasp of math.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/devos-says-trumps-forty-per-cent-approval-rating-means-more-than-half-of-country-supports-him?mbid=nl_021317%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=24457067&spMailingID=10423868&spUserID=MTMzMTgyNDgxNjMzS0&spJobID=1101073649&spReportId=MTEwMTA3MzY0OQS2

Whoever knew the name of the Secretary of Education? Whoever cared what the Secretary of Education said or did?

DeVos is a lightning rod. She won’t operate under the radar. We are watching.

Do you feel that you are living in an episode of “The Twilight Zone”?

 

In a time of despair, we need to laugh. We need to be inspired. Art, love, laughter, joy will save our sanity.

 

Here is some sunshine. Enjoy!

 

Here is the back story. It was truly a surprise for the students and teachers. The school leaders were in on the secret.