Highlights of the Trump/Republican Party Agenda 4 the Very Wealthy

Greed is the explanation!

#The Resistance
is the antidote!

Since the end of the 19^th century, the Republican agenda has, first and foremost, been to promote the economic interests of the very wealthy.

In the current 115^th Congress, the Republican  agenda is, unmistakably, indifferent to the well-being of the other 99+% of Americans.

The primary (economic) goal of the Trump Administration and Republican Congress is to reduce the share of tax revenue from the very wealthy and “their” large and powerful corporations. By a standard measure of income inequality, America currently ranks 45th out of 144 nations – the change in the tax structure by the Trump administration and Republican Congress will certainly markedly increase economic inequality in America. In 2008, America ranked 28^th among 33 developed nations for children in poverty households. Likewise, America is an outlier for elderly poverty and single parent families headed by females. We can expect increased rates of poverty and reduced benefits available to the poor.

In turn, such a change in the tax structure will be used to justify a reduction in all areas of discretionary (as opposed to mandated by existing law) spending, except military spending This will result in reductions in programs that promote the well-being of the other 99+% of Americans. Starting with Reagan, the Republican Party has used whatever leverage to reduce the effectiveness of regulatory law passed TO PROTECT THE WELL-BEING OF THE 99+%. For example, budgets have since been continually reduced for the FDA (overseeing the healthfulness of food and drugs), OSHA (protecting employees in their workplace) and the EPA (protecting harm to the environment – particularly that promotes harm the 99+% from a “poisoned” environment). 

Regulation TO PROTECT THE WELL-BEING OF THE 99+% will be under never before imagined attack in order TO INCREASE CORPORATE PROFITS. Reducing the active role of regulatory agencies or weakening regulations will expose Americans to greater health risks (and other risks) of all kinds – at work, as consumers, and through air/water/food/medications, etc. 

In particular, gutting the protections of Obamacare and throwing enrollees into a health insurance market that will be more expensive will leave many families (as much as 30 million over time) without coverage or “healthcare poor". Thus, making American health care even less effective than all other affluent nations – in 2015, the U.S. ranked 31st of 195 nations in life expectancy, 38th out of 175 nations in infant mortality, etc. It is almost unimaginable that the richest nation, with the highest material standard of living, stands alone among affluent nations without a system of national, universal coverage healthcare system (not based on affordability). 

GREED IS THE EXPLANATION!#The Resistance is the antidote!

Biased Media: Resistance to an Illiberal, Anti-Democratic America

calling out the media

Resistance to an Illiberal, Anti-Democratic America=

Resistance to an MSM PROPAGANDA MACHINE!

NBC Is Building A Trump Normalization Machine

"After running a proto-fascist campaign, President-elect Donald Trump will bring his hate, misogyny, and bigotry to the White House at the end of the month. And when he does, NBC will have a machine ready to normalize him." (by John Whitehouse, Media Matters, January 4, 2017)

A uniquely powerful key to Trump's elevation to the Presidency and the damage he will do is the ability of the media to avoid the enabling role it played during the primaries and the campaign. The media has to give the public informed, critical substance on policy, not highlight every twitter remark as if the media were reduced to tabloids. So long as the news organizations act primarily as entertainment (to compete for viewer or reader ratings), the public will not get the appropriate crucial coverage of, for example, global warming, nor the appropriate analytical coverage of why the 99.99% have been losing ground (including the implications of changes in the personal income laws favoring the wealthy or changes in overall economy to a service economy or changes in technology requiring fewer industrial production jobs).

"What it really shows is just how craven,
self-serving and self-involved our media are."
by Neal Gabler, March 25, 2016, Moyers and Company

No question that consolidation in media ownership and sensitivity to advertiser influence are part of the long term decline of a substantive, critical journalism and a commitment to investigative journalism (meaning more than “fact checking”). However, Trump has used his celebrity status and media tabloid-like coverage to his advantage ($1.9 billion free media coverage) and, even more significantly, he has used the uncritical reportage to NORMALIZE HIS ILLIBERAL BEHAVIOR AND POLICY PROPOSALS.

"But when Trump lies, the Wall Street Journal—the second largest paper by circulation in the country—will not call it a lie, according to the its editor-in-chief Gerard Baker."

"Each time, by the time the truth came out, the news cycle had moved on — letting the lie stand in millions of people’s minds." (by Laurel Raymond, Think Progress, January 2, 2017)

Outside of the tabloids and highly partisan media, e.g. Hearst or Murdoch, journalists have generally regarded their work as in the Jeffersonian public interest. JOURNALISTS IN THAT TRADITION MUST STAND AGAINST uncritical reportage –  they should be extremely wary of equal time on two sides, (e.g. climate change), and they must debunk and contextualize fake news, call out lies/false claims in the strongest possible terms! 

Leonard Pitts, Jr.

"Baker’s is a mindset that has become all too common. With the obvious exception of certain partisan news outlets, some reporters, fearful of being tagged for “bias” on contentious issues, seek to safeguard themselves by ritually quoting a source from Side A and another from Side B while avoiding even painfully obvious conclusions. They call this “fair and balanced.” It’s actually gutless and dumb." Media Must Take A Moral Stand, by Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald, January 4, 2017

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article124444124.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article124444124.html#storylink=cpy

We are learning unwittingly how 
MEDIA CAN DESCEND INTO PROPAGANDA.

One key to resistance is

• for the majority public to become actively engaged in criticizing when media journalism fails its promise
• for the majority public to SUPPORT MEDIA JOURNALISM THAT RECLAIMS A STANDARD THAT CAN NOT NORMALIZE THE ILLIBERAL, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC, PROTO-FASCIST ELEMENTS OF THE NEW PRESIDENCY AND CONGRESS

The Republican Road to Fascism in America

WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH POSSIBLE AMERICAN FASCISM. WE MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 
MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A LIBERAL CULTURE OF BROAD TOLERANCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL 

MUST RESIST!

Salon article: Nixon was more like a proto-Trump

Backstory: Ever since Nixon's appeal to the backlash against greater racial equality, the Republican Party, the party of the wealthy/powerful elite, has increasingly appealed to hatred and anger against racial minorities, women, and now more than any time since the early 20^th century, immigrants – and thereby has divided America more and more, demolishing a center (e.g., Independents, ticket-splitting). 

Starting with Reagan, the Republican agenda to protect billionaires and the profit of powerful corporations has become more obvious – for example, by reforming the tax code thereby putting more burden on the bottom 99.99%, and attacking regulations (put in place to protect the lower 99.99%) by using the wealthy propaganda myth of the “free market”.          

To begin with, the Republicans captured the religious fundamentalist vote by flipping on cultural issues starting with a woman's right to an abortion (Reagan). But the fundamentalist vote and the economically Conservative vote was not enough in 2008.

As a result, the wealthy elite created the “virtual” Tea Party to build a larger angry white constituency – angry about a feeling of economic precariousness. And Americans should feel greater economic vulnerability – before the G.W. Bush “Great Recession” starting in 2008, median family income had been stagnant for more than three decades (even with more family members working more jobs) and job and retirement pension security was being progressively diminished for the almost all workers.

The Here & Now: Trump is not only illiberal but anti-democratic, questioning and challenging Constitutional constraints on the Executive and chilling any criticism by individuals or by the media (i.e. the 1^st Amendment right to free speech) by veiled and not so veiled threats of violence by his supporters or retaliation by himself (e.g. restricting the libel law). Twentieth century Americans do know something about how speech was chilled during the McCarthy era – Trump's threats during the primary campaign are consistent with his on-going twitters etc. and threaten to chill speech in a much more profound way - indeed, more similar to fascist regimes.

"In the interim, there are a slate of policies on his docket that would entrench not only his kleptocratic interests, but also allow him, together with the GOP, to create an internal empire less responsive to the plurality of voters and more responsive to wealthy and regressive special interests. "(From The warning signs of fascism that Americans should be watching for under president Donald Trump, by Casey Michel)

No surprise then that a lightning-rod-of-hate-and-anger demagogue like Trump could divide America as much as it was in the Civil War era. Trump's "MO" is:

• spouting a message that he could bring all the (better paying?) jobs back
• saying only he could fix things & “make America great again”
• bring back traditional values
• modeling illiberal behavior
• unapologetically demeaning women
• unapologetically demeaning ethnic, and national minorities
• unapologetically demeaning any critics 

But Trump is not only illiberal but anti-democratic, questioning/challenging Constitutional constraints on the Executive and chilling any criticism by individuals or by the media (i.e. the 1^st Amendment right to free speech). His challenges are by veiled and not so veiled threats of violence by his supporters or retaliation by himself (e.g. restricting the libel law). 

Twentieth century Americans do know something about how speech was chilled during the McCarthy era.Trump's threats during the primary campaign are consistent with his on-going, headline making tweets, etc., and threaten to chill speech in a much more profound way - indeed, more similar to fascist regimes.

The Republican Party and its elite economic backbone have paved the way for Trump's demagogic appeal to angry, hateful emotions (rejecting rational analysis entirely) and for his illiberalism and anti-democratic inclinations. 

WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH POSSIBLE AMERICAN FASCISM. WE MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY MUST RESIST. 

ANY WHO WANT A LIBERAL CULTURE OF BROAD TOLERANCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL 

MUST RESIST!

#TheResistance

NEEDED: New ACTIVISM! New GLOBAL WARMING DIRECTION!

Global warming is already having significant and costly effects on our communities, our health, and our climate.

"Unless we take immediate action to reduce global warming emissions, these impacts will continue to intensify, grow ever more costly and damaging, and increasingly affect the entire planet — including you, your community, and your family." From the Union of Concerned Scientists. Read more...

Since the election, it has become clear that the Trump Administration will be guided by the denial policies on global warming and the illiberal value policies that were espoused during the campaign.

Donald J. Trump Verified account

@realDonaldTrumpThe concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Trump promised to “cancel” the Paris deal on the campaign trail, and Republican lawmakers have vowed to make sure it’s never implemented.

GLOBAL WARMING WILL CONTINUE 

TO INCREASE OVER MANY HUMAN LIFETIMES! 

Therefore, with regard to global warming, I will begin to pay attention to how communities can pursue rational adaptation planning for a future of continuous warming and climate change. 

TAXES SPENT ON INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS THAT IGNORE WARMING ARE MONIES WASTED AND FAIL TO BETTER PROTECT COMMUNITIES FROM WARMING DRIVEN HARM.


At the same time - we MUST continue to be actively involved, resisting what is inherently WRONG, remembering that this new, incoming administration's ideologies and intentions are NOT GOOD, NOT NORMAL!

Only an ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL OF ACTIVISM 

CAN EXERT ENOUGH PRESSURE TO BREAK: 

(1)THE MEDIA SILENCE ON GLOBAL WARMING &

(2)THE REPUBLICAN REFUSAL 

TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM GREATER HARM.

Furthermore, only an ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL OF ACTIVISM, by members of the MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WHO REJECTED THE VALUES AND POLICIES OF THE INCOMING ADMINISTRATION, CAN BLUNT THE VIRULENT ASSAULT UPON FUNDAMENTAL, WELL-ESTABLISHED AMERICAN VALUES  AND PROGRESS THAT THE IN-COMING ADMINISTRATION IS DETERMINED TO PURSUE.  

WE WILL NOT GIVE UP OR GIVE IN! 

WE WILL NOT GO ALONG SILENTLY 

OR MEEKLY WITH WHAT IS WRONG. 

WRONG IS NOT NORMAL. 

THE "RIGHT" IS WRONG!

Entirely NEW LEVEL OF ACTIVISIM NEEDED!

CRISIS ISSUE:
GLOBAL WARMING IS INCREASING!

           

WHAT CAN WE DO?

ONLY AN ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL OF ACTIVISM 

CAN EXERT ENOUGH PRESSURE TO:

1. BREAK THE MEDIA SILENCE ON GLOBAL WARMING AND 
2. BREAK THE REPUBLICAN REFUSAL TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM HARM

With the stunningly unexpected victory of a Trump Administration that regards global warming as a hoax, WE CANNOT EXPECT NATIONAL POLICY TO SLOW GLOBAL WARMING – (UNLESS CATASTROPHIC CLIMATIC EVENTS BREAK THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRIES’ CONTROL OF REPUBLICAN POLICY). 

We can, however, try to breach the denial of science BY A VERY BROAD BASED AND HEIGHTENED LEVEL OF ACTIVISM TO MAKE THE PASSAGE OF ESSENTIAL LEGISLATION POSSIBLE.

Knowing the positions and priorities of the in-coming Presidential Administration and Congressional majorities, PROACTIVE organizing to break the media silence on and Republican Party denial of global warming must begin NOW.

Further, we must build an activist movement that cuts across specific organizational priority issues. Since we are all vulnerable to the increasing harm of global warming, single issue politics (like gun control, LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, etc.) must come together in coalitions that draw upon uniquely broad based activism.

More than half of the electorate voted for Hillary Clinton and sensible global warming policy. A very large majority of Americans acknowledges global warming as real. WE ARE ALL ACTIVISTS. If we can FLOOD the local media, our local House members and our Senators – in person, with email, with calls, with letters, we can make our views much more difficult to deny and, hopefully, promote the essential global warming legislation. 

CLIMATE CHANGE. Democratic Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley (L) corrects a sign that reads 'Congress Wake Up to Climate Change', beside Democratic Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse (C) and Democratic Senator from California and Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Barbara Boxer (R), at a news conference held to announce members of a newly formed Senate Climate Action Task Force, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA, 14 January 2014. File Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA

VOTE BLUE - WE MUST WIN!

We are down to the wire in the MOST 

FATEFUL ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION!

FATEFUL because TOO RAPIDLY INCREASING GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS HUMANITY!

(Trump wants to dismantle the Paris Climate Agreement. GOP denies global warming is real.)

Pro-Trump billionaires pour money into last-minute bid for swing states

Not surprisingly, the consequence of the legally indefensible Supreme Court Citizens United decision, is the UNTHINKABLY VAST AMOUNTS OF MONEY paying for the superabundance of the Republican attacks ads in the Presidential swing states and, even more so, in the Senatorial swing states – which have made the races much closer than anyone anticipated six months ago.

Remember in November 

just how much the American people have been lied to by Trump! 

Do NOT FORGET THIS.

We have one day left to try to convince others - via Facebook, Twitter, phone calls, texting, door-to-door - 

2 VOTE 4 THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES!

1. Vote. 
2. Encourage OTHERS 2 VOTE!
3. HELP OTHERS GET TO THE POLLS to cast their votes (in spite of the obstacles that the Republican state parties have created to disenfranchise significantly many Democratic voters). 
4. Convince others to vote rather than sit out the election. 
5. Convince others to not throw away a vote on a third party candidate. This is no time for a protest vote. 
6. VOTE BLUE because the real interests that the Republican candidates represent are the very rich and the powerful multinational corporations.

VOTE BLUE FOR THE SAKE OUR CHILDREN...

 

...AND FOR THE WELL-BEING OF ALL AMERICANS!

#FlipItDem