Month: February 2019

Being the ‘Worst. Negotiator. Ever.’ is not a ‘national emergency’

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The true author of The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz, confessed “I put lipstick on a pig,” and expressed remorse for creating the mythology that Donald Trump is a great negotiator. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All. If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.”

Donald Trump has just demonstrated that he is the “Worst. Negotiator. Ever.” A year ago, Democrats put $25 billion on the table to build his “big beautiful wall on the Mexico border” that he said Mexico would pay for, agreeing to pay ransom for a comprehensive agreement on DACA eligible immigrants to have a pathway to citizenship. Trump had said he “would sign whatever bill they (Congress) send me.” There’s even video. But Trump rejected that deal, choosing to listen to his racist white nationalist adviser Stephen Miller who demanded deep reductions in legal immigration to the United States.

Fast forward to this past December. The spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security that congressional leaders and President Trump agreed to included $1.6 billion for 65 miles of fencing. Then Fox News, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh convinced him to renege on the deal and he demand $5 billion for his “big beautiful wall on the Mexico border” that he said Mexico would pay for. The Trump Shutdown lasted 35 days, and he did not get one dime for his wall in the short-term CR spending bill.

The current legislation approved by Congress last night only provides $1.375 billion to build 55 miles of barrier (not his wall) in the Rio Grande Valley, a small fraction of what Trump demanded before triggering his Trump Shutdown.

As Aaron Blake of the Washington Post wryly noted: “Trump could have taken $1.6 billion and/or declared a national emergency last year, before all this went down; he will have gotten basically nothing for shutting down the government for 35 days.”

Actually, Trump could have taken $25 billion for his wall, and he negotiated himself down to $1.375 billion for border security and no wall. “Worst. Negotiator. Ever.”

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Fighting Hate in America

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Carolyn’s note: Feb. 2019 –  there are no words (just two flyers) for why these types of talks are necessary in the United States of America.

These are Real National Emergencies

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  The Popular Vote Loser is apparently going to announce a National Emergency on February 15, 2019, with regards to the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the Southern Border so he can take funds from other departments (Defense for example) in order to build his antiquated wall. Never mind that there are greater risks at … Read more

Anti-democratic authoritarian Republicans reject the will of the voters on citizen initiatives (Updated)

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Voters in the red state of Utah last November voted to expand Medicaid coverage to 150,000 uninsured people in the state, with 53 percent in favor. But the Republican state legislators they also elected to office in November had other ideas. “We will decide, and you will obey!” Utah Voters Approved Medicaid Expansion, But State Lawmakers Are Balking.

Authoritarian Republicans rejected the clear will of the voters, and greatly curtailed the Medicaid expansion plan that voters believed they had approved in November. Utah Governor Signs Plan To Minimize Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion, Offering Road Map To Other Red States. “This is a dark day for democracy in Utah,” said Andrew Roberts, a spokesman for the group Utah Decides.

Something similar is happening here in Arizona. Arizona voters voted overwhelmingly in favor of the referendum rejecting the “vouchers on steroids” bill passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature in 2017 (Prop. 305). The Voter Protection Act should protect the will of the voters expressed in this ballot measure.

But authoritarian Republicans in the Arizona Legislature reject the will of the voters — and piss on the Voter Protection Act — by pursuing yet another expansion of school vouchers to privatize public education. “We will decide, and you will obey!” Senate panel OKs new school voucher bill, despite recent rejection by Arizona voters:

Rejecting claims it was ignoring the will of voters, a Senate panel voted Wednesday to advance SB 1395 (.pdf) to alter the rules governing the use of vouchers of state dollars by parents to send their children to private and parochial schools.

Sen. Sylvia “The earth is 6000 years old” Allen, R-Snowflake, acknowledged many of the provisions in her SB 1395 were sent to voters last year as part of Proposition 305, which was rejected by voters by a 2-1 margin.

But Allen told members of the Senate Finance Committee she is not trying to override that vote (oh yes, she is). Allen said what’s in her bill wasn’t the focus of voters — or the cause of defeat for changes in the program formally known as empowerment scholarship accounts.

“What they were focused on and heard over and over again was this was expanding the program to all families, that rich people were going to benefit from these ESAs, and that this money was going to religious schools,” she said. All were part of Proposition 305.

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House Judiciary Committee advances gun control for first time in decades

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Today is the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the year after Parkland, there was nearly one mass shooting a day. “Since Parkland, there have been nearly 350 mass shootings in the US — nearly one a day.”

“The shooting inspired a new national movement for gun control, the #NeverAgain movement, culminating in the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC, and sister marches across the country last March.”

The student-led movement has had some successes, but there has also been some backsliding. Here is every new gun law in the U.S. since the Parkland shooting:

Legislatures around the country have passed dozens of bills to address gun violence in the year since the 17 people died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

In all, 123 new laws were enacted in the 364 days since the Parkland tragedy, according to data collected by the Associated Press. Below is a list of them all, organized by state.

Many of the new laws already in effect added restrictions on owning a firearm. For example, 18 of these laws disqualified more people from owning guns, 11 are so-called “red flag laws” that allow people to petition a court to take away firearms from someone who poses a danger to themselves or others, and nine states passed new prohibitions on bump stocks, a firearm add on that allows a semiautomatic weapon to fire at a rate comparable to a machine.

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