Trump immigration plan could keep whites in U.S. majority for up to five more years

Stephan:  In rural Tidewater Virginia where I grew up, when you get through a complex deliberately obfuscated issue, we say you are down to the lick log, the essential point. Well with this story we are down to the lick log on what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do with their immigration policies. It is very ugly, and utterly racist. Read and weep. Oh, the lick log is a log where salt crystals have formed that deer and other wildlife lick to get the salt they must have for health.

President Trump’s proposal to cut legal immigration rates would delay the date that white Americans become a minority of the population by as few as one or as many as five additional years, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

The plan, released by the White House last month, would scale back a program that allows people residing in the United States to sponsor family members living abroad for green cards, and would eliminate the “diversity visa program” that benefits immigrants in countries with historically low levels of migration to the United States. Together, the changes would disproportionately affect immigrants from Latin America and Africa.

The Census Bureau projects that minority groups will outnumber non-Hispanic whites in the United States in 2044. The Post’s analysis projects that, were Trump’s plan to be carried out, the date would be between 2045 and 2049, depending on how parts of it are implemented.

(The Post’s methodology for estimating the annual impact of Trump’s proposed cuts is explained in more detail at the bottom of this report. Projecting this far into the future entails certain assumptions that could alter the range, but demographic experts said The Post’s approach […]

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Americans Are Mistaken About Who Gets Welfare

Stephan:  It is an article of dogma amongst White racists including many senior Republican politicians, that the welfare network is just a system to support Black and Brown people who are, to quote the current White House Chief of Staff, "to lazy to get up off their asses." As in so much else these fearful hate filled people are fact-free and the truth is very different. This report deals with actual facts.

Credit: pearlsofprofoundity

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress may soon embark on a racially-fraught policy battle over “welfare.”

“We can lift our citizens from welfare, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity,” Trump said in his State of the Union address last week, the latest signal that Republicans want “welfare reform” this year.

Trump has often pandered to racists among his supporters. He said Mexico sends “rapists” to the United States and that there were some “fine people” among the neo-Nazis who staged a deadly protest last year in Charlottesville, Virginia. When the president said Mexican heritage made it impossible for a judge to be fair, House Speaker Paul Ryan called it the “textbook definition” of racist.

The word “welfare” is different. It’s a standard political term that […]

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After approving Medicaid work requirements, Trump’s HHS aims for lifetime coverage limits

Stephan:  The Trump administration in front of our eyes is attempting to dismantle the safety net of America, as meager as it is. And because of the fear and racism of about 38% of the  citizens they are getting away with it since the Republican Party has become an organization of complicit zombies

Credit: FedWeb

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After allowing states to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees, the Trump administration is now pondering lifetime limits on adults’ access to coverage.

Capping health care benefits — like federal welfare benefits — would be a first for Medicaid, the joint state-and-federal health plan for low-income and disabled Americans.

If approved, the dramatic policy change would recast government-subsidized health coverage as temporary assistance by placing a limit on the number of months adults have access to Medicaid benefits.

The move would continue the Trump administration’s push to inject conservative policies into the Medicaid program through the use of federal waivers, which allow states more flexibility to create policies designed to promote personal and financial responsibility among enrollees.

However, advocates say capping Medicaid benefits would amount to a massive breach of the nation’s social safety net designed to protect children, the elderly and the impoverished.

In January, the Trump administration approved waiver requests from Kentucky and Indiana to terminate Medicaid coverage for able-bodied enrollees who do not meet new program […]

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Trump tells Pentagon to plan a military parade

Stephan:  I think it is clear by both his actions and words that Donald Trump considers himself to the authoritarian leader of the United States and, like all autocrats, he loves the pomp and circumstance of military parades. The media talk about this as arising from his visit to Paris and the military parade the French put on and that may be a factor. But I think what is really driving Trump are the North Korean military parades. I wonder if he will want one of the flagbearers to carry a flag with his face on it; or maybe just a big golden "T". This parade will cost millions of dollars, probably tens of millions, and Pennsylvania Avenue will have to be repaved. Imagine how many children that money could feed? Personally, I think we should all boycott the parade. In fact if this really gets scheduled as Trump wants, I will start a petition urging people to boycott it.

Troops march past a portrait of the late leader Kim Jong Il during a military parade to mark the 65th anniversary of the country’s founding, Sept 9, 2013.
Credit: AP/Kim Kwang Hyon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump has asked for a military parade and the Pentagon is reviewing potential dates, Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers said Tuesday.

The spokesman described the planning process as being in its “infancy.”
In response to the news, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump had asked the Defense Department to “explore” the idea.
“President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great servicemembers who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe. He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation,” Sanders said.
The Washington Post first reported Trump told top Pentagon brass last month he wants a […]

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Former national monuments shrunk by Trump to be opened for mining claims

Stephan:  The legacy that each generation of Americans bequeaths to the generation that comes after them, the national parks, forests, and monuments, with Trump's administration have been shrunk and now subject to exploitation by a few wealthy Republican supporters. It is such a tragedy.

Donald Trump downsized Bears Ears national monument with a December order.
Credit: Andrew Cullen/Reuters

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land that were part of two US national monuments shrunk by Donald Trump are being opened on Friday to mining claims for uranium and other minerals.

It is a symbolic step in a broader conflict over the fate of America’s public lands, on which Trump hopes to encourage greater access for extractive industries.

In December, Trump ordered that Bears Ears national monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument, both in southern Utah and home to ancient Native American sites, spectacular landscapes and rare flora and fauna, be downsized by a total of 2m acres.

How Trump’s cuts to public lands threaten future dinosaur discoveries

His proclamation judged that large portions of the monuments were not unique or of particular scientific or historic interest, a point fiercely contested by environmentalists, Native American groups and scientists, who have brought five lawsuits.

Today is when “the Trump administration […]

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