Tuesday, February 27th, 2018
Stephan: The thing corrupt plutocrats hate the worst is uppity peasants. What to do? Well change the law so screwing the peasants out of their money is legal, of course. And that is exactly what the Trump administration has done. Here's the story.
Office of Management and Budget Director and CFPB Interim Director Mick Mulvaney.
Credit: Win McNamee
Donald Trump ran for office promising to protect the “forgotten man and woman” and to Make America Great Again for Americans who feel left behind. “It’s not just the political system that’s rigged, it’s the whole economy,” he told supporters during a 2016 speech on the campaign trail. But now in office, Trump isn’t doing much to “un-rig” the system. His administration has systematically dismantled consumer protections for ordinary Americans and compromised protections for everyday investors as well.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the guide of interim director Mick Mulvaney has moved to rein in many of the consumer protection and enforcement actions taken by his predecessor, Richard Cordray. The bureau has dropped cases against predatory payday lenders, reportedly rolled back its investigation of the Equifax data breach, and reformulated its mission to scale back its reach. Federal regulators in September released AIG from special government oversight mandated after the financial crisis and set aside a legal fight […]
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2018
William Boardman, - Reader Supported News
Stephan: This story is getting almost no coverage; there are so many scandals in Trump world that the military misbehaving in a small Vermont city just doesn't stand a chance. That's a shame because for almost 250 years civilian control of the military has been a bedrock fundamental of American society.
Is this report just about an individual over-reaching Major General, or a first data point of a trend? Only time will tell.
Maj. Gen. Steven Cray at a press conference called to challenge a civilian ballot item in Burlington, Vermont.
Credit: Vermont Biz
There was a time when pretty much every American understood that the US Constitution provides for civilian control of the military. And there was a time when Americans understood that uniformed military were not to engage in civilian politics. Generals were free to be presidents or other high-ranking officials, but not till they were out of the military. Retired officers remain subject to a less stringent military code regarding political activity. The current president relies on several former generals, despite the five-year ban on such service, because it was waived.
Civilian control of the military is bedrock American constitutionalism. The president is the commander in chief. There is no parity, it is not a negotiated relationship – we have civilian control of the military. And most military officers have understood that the correct response to that assertion was “Yes, Sir!”
That seems to have been some time ago, back before American militarism […]
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2018
MARTIN CIZMAR, - Raw Story
Stephan: The swirling cesspit that is the modern Republican Party has convinced me of one thing: based on the data there is no limit to hypocrisy amongst these men and women. Here's yet another example.
Thanks people of Oklahoma you are so discerning in your choice of representatives. By discerning I mean from a large population of Republican scumbags, you pick only the most grotesque scumbags. And they prove it by demonstrating in their fracking votes, christofascism, and a host of other issues, say guns for instance, their utter contempt for you.
Republican Representative Markwayne Mullin
Oklahoma Republicans are ready to solve the school shootings—with Jesus and by eliminating violent video games.
“The first thing everybody wants to talk about is gun control,” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin.
Instead, Mullin said it was important to look at “the whole situation.”
Mullin—the owner of a successful plumbing business, who did not serve in the armed forces or in law enforcement—approaches the problem of school shootings “based experiences I’ve had in my life.”
After the shooting, Mullin had an epiphany upon discovering that his two teenage boys played the first-person shooting game Call of Duty, which is set in World War II.
“I walked upstairs not too long ago. My two boys were playing Call of Duty with my brother-in-law and I looked at it for about three minutes and my palms were sweaty… the graphics are so real that that can’t be good. I made them turn it off and they’ve never gotten to play it since,” said Mullin in a Facebook video made after the Parkland shooting.
“Hollywood elites they always want to go […]
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Monday, February 26th, 2018
Stephan: Every single person in the United States is an immigrant or the descendent of immigrants. Donald Trump's wife is an immigrant, and her family is here as a result of what he calls "chain migration," which he says he opposes. His daughter is married to a man whose family are recent immigrants. So what is this great immigration debate really about?
The answer is obvious to anyone who actually looks at reality through the prism of facts: White supremacy, a world view based on hate and fear. And thanks to Trump this cowardly perspective is in such an ascendent position that it has reached the point described in this report, to our great national shame.
Remember the Statue of Liberty, with her plaque saying, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"?
Well forget it, the plaque should be taken down. That was an America of another age.
People wave U.S. flags during a 2017 naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Credit: Jae C. Hong/AP
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is changing its mission statement to eliminate a passage that describes the U.S. as “a nation of immigrants.” (emphasis added)
The agency’s new mission statement as it appears on the agency’s website reads:
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”
Here is USCIS’s previous mission statement:
“USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”
The removal of the phrase “nation of immigrants” was announced to agency staff in an email letter from Director L. Francis Cissna.
In the letter, Cissna said, “I believe this simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency’s role in our country’s lawful […]
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Monday, February 26th, 2018
David Derbyshire, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Humanity has disordered the meta-systems of the earth and species that took millenia to evolve are being snuffed out.
We seem to be unable to see this, let alone to do anything about it and, as a result, our children and their children, and generations of children yet unborn will live in a a world disordered by our unconsciousness and, I believe, they will curse us.
Dead saiga antelopes in a field in Kazakhstan. About 20,000 of the species were found dead in one week.
Credit: Reuters
There was almost something biblical about the scene of devastation that lay before Richard Kock as he stood in the wilderness of the Kazakhstansteppe. Dotted across the grassy plain, as far as the eye could see, were the corpses of thousands upon thousands of saiga antelopes. All appeared to have fallen where they were feeding.
Some were mothers that had travelled to this remote wilderness for the annual calving season, while others were their offspring, just a few days old. Each had died in just a few hours from blood poisoning. In the 30C heat of a May day, the air around each of the rotting hulks was thick with flies.
The same grisly story has been replayed throughout Kazakhstan. In this springtime massacre, an estimated 200,000 critically endangered saiga – around 60% of the world’s population – died. “All the carcasses in this one of many killing zones were spread evenly over 20 sq km,” says […]
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