Pruitt Will Do It!

Pruitt

In the same week that we learn the earth set another high temperature record for 2016 -- only the third year in a row that earth's high temperature has broken all previous records -- we also get treated with Scott Pruitt's confirmation hearing to be Trump's leader of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Irony, the Force is with you!

Pruitt stated flatly that climate change is not a hoax -- directly contradicting his ignorant boss -- but he's also largely hostile to the agency he seeks to lead ... like most of Trump's cabinet choices. Pruitt has been attorney general of Oklahoma and in that office has sued the EPA numerous times. Oklahoma is a safe zone for fracking, which has produced hundreds of earthquakes for the pleasure and enlightenment of its citizens.

Betsy All-Wetsy

Betsy DeVos had her confirmation hearing last night to become Trump's education secretary, and it was conducted by the Republican chair of the committee like tiptoeing past a cave full of dozing  vampires as the sun goes down. Chair Lamar Alexander limited the questioning to one 5-minute round per senator. Yeah, that's a thorough vetting.

DeVos has no experience with public schools, never attended them herself, and she never sent her own children to public schools.

A super-rich former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and no friend of public education, DeVos has not yet completed her paperwork for the Office of Government Ethics, which is responsible for vetting presidential nominees for potential conflicts of interest.

She declined to take a position on whether guns belong in schools, and she said that if President Trump wanted to end gun-free zones around schools, she would go along with him. She wouldn't commit to aggressive anti-rape policies on college campuses.

She seemed completely misinformed about federal law which requires states that take federal funding to provide children with disabilities the services they need to benefit from a public education. Not just misinformed. She expressed actual hostility toward that idea, saying the individual states should decide what they're willing to do for disabled students. “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities, and other states might not be so good, and then what? People can just move around the country if they don’t like how their kids are being treated?” Sen. Tim Kaine asked her.

A Watauga County school counselor posted this on Facebook last night: 

This is unbelievable. I am sitting watching the hearing of DeVos and crying. I'm crying for my autistic students, for my learning disabled students, for my students with all disabilities. If you are a parent of a student with a disability you MUST, for your child, call and demand that Sen. Burr not confirm her even though she was one of his largest donors.

Meanwhile, Back in the Trump Locker Room

Ryan Zinke, Trump's nominee to take over the Department of the Interior, failed to rise to "command" level in the Navy because he falsified travel reimbursement vouchers, for which he also had to repay the Navy. He believes that climate change is "not proven science," meaning he's ignorant as well as dishonest.

Monica Crowley, who was selected just weeks ago to serve in a high-profile post on Trump’s National Security Council, has exited the locker room suddenly, after it came to light that she copied other author's words in a published book and also in her doctoral dissertation. Plagiarism. Another form of theft.

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, has a history of trading in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and health insurance stocks while serving on the health subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee:

Last year, Mr. Price bought stock in a company that makes orthopedic implants shortly before introducing legislation that could have protected the company, Zimmer Biomet, from financial losses due to a new federal regulation. The regulation sought to rein in spending on joint replacements for Medicare patients; Mr. Price’s legislation would have delayed its implementation. After he introduced it, Zimmer’s political action committee contributed to his re-election campaign; the string of events was first reported Monday by CNN.

But in the administration of Donald J. Trump, what's a little conflict of interest? "Follow the leader."

Berger-Moore: "Let's Make a Federal Case Out of It!"

So newly sworn-in Governor Roy Cooper immediately took steps to expand Medicaid coverage to 600,000 North Carolinians who are still without medical insurance, and this past Friday, Phil Berger and Tim Moore, Republican leaders in the NC Senate and House, filed a federal lawsuit to stop the expansion of Medicaid coverage to 600,000 citizens, and they got Judge Louise Flanagan to put a temporary halt on Cooper's plan.

Wait! Federal lawsuit? Berger-Moore are suing on the basis of state law -- that Roy Cooper can't expand Medicare coverage under the ACA unless Berger-Moore say, "Yes, you may." Berger-Moore passed a law back in 2013 saying, "Obamacare, stay the hell out of North Carolina!"

As Rick Glazier points out, the lawsuit belongs in the state courts, but Berger-Moore are going to great lengths to keep the case away from state judges. The named defendant in the Berger-Moore lawsuit is the US Department of Health and Human Services, which has made no decision on Cooper's application. Why didn't Berger-Moore sue Gov. Cooper for the action that he took rather than the federal agency which has taken no action? You can't litigate something that hasn't happened.

The answer for why a federal lawsuit speaks to the fix that the NCGOP is in. It owns only one of three branches of government now, instead of the three that they owned on December 31, because they not only lost the governorship. They also lost the NC Supreme Court.

So, of course, they don't want to be eventually in front of those five judges! Not with the General Assembly's recent track record!

What Virginia Foxx Wants

She's taking control as chair of the House Education Committee and will be in a position to scheme in high gear. Rob Christensen outlines her wish list:

Among other goals, she wants to divert the billions of dollars in federal aid awarded under Title 1 for poor students and use it for school vouchers. She is a strong supporter of President-elect Donald Trump’s $20 billion school-choice plan that emphasizes vouchers. She wants to re-examine the emphasis on transgender rights in the Education Department’s civil rights division. She wants to shift college loan programs back to banks and reverse regulations targeting for-profit colleges that cut off financial aid to programs that leave students with high debt and poor job prospects.

It's ironic, isn't it, that such a dick would want to "re-examine the emphasis on transgender rights"?

Framed

"The Verdict of the People" by George Caleb Bingham

A little history on decorating the US Capitol for the president's inauguration:

For decades, the Congress has hosted the new prez on inauguration day at a luncheon in Statuary Hall in the Capitol. It requires a big catering operation with lots of last-minute food prep, large wait staff, groaning trays, clattering china. After Ronald Reagan's first inauguration, organizers decided they needed to erect a temporary partition behind the president's table to wall off the kitchen/service prep, and that's exactly what they did for Reagan's second inauguration and every inauguration since.

But then they had a big blank, ugly partition wall behind the prez. Very untelegenic. What to do? They decided to hang a famous 19th century American landscape painting (Jasper Francis Cropsey’s “Autumn on the Hudson River,” 1860) for Reagan's 2nd Inauguration, and the partition wall has been similarly decorated by other famous American paintings every inauguration since.

The Inauguration of Donald J. Trump: The Decor Bites Back

So what's going to hang on the partition directly behind Trump's hairdo? Why, "The Verdict of the People" by George Caleb Bingham, painted in 1855 and depicting a typical American election day in the 19th century. It's a large canvass crowded with many American faces, some celebrating, some mourning.

Problem is, the Bingham painting celebrates the triumph of pro-slavery politics in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The people celebrating in the painting are Democrats, mainly a pro-slavery party in the Missouri of that time. The ones weeping are Whigs. The painter was a Whig. “Bingham is painting out of a great fear that popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska act will lead to an irreparable divide in the country,” says Adam Arenson, a Missouri historian.

So the PEOTUS, who many find to be deep-dyed in the racist strain of American politics, will have a famous beware-the-racists American painting hanging literally over his head. Cool.

Donald Did Not Choose the Painting

Okay, I'm feeling some sympathy for Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, the schlub who chose the painting, begged the St. Louis Art Museum for the loan, and arranged for its temporary relocation to Statuary Hall.

Sen. Blunt, as chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, thought of the painting back in July and asked the St. Louis museum for the loan. All those arrangements were made before the election, so Blunt had no foreknowledge of who would be honored at the luncheon. It was not a deliberate choice of painting topic.

I suspect Blunt liked the title, "The Verdict of the People," for what that phrase means in a democracy. The verdict of the people is what it's all about. But I also suspect that otherwise Blunt knew squat about the historical and political message in the painting. Either that or he has no capacity for irony.

He didn't know it would be Trump. He also didn't know that Trump would lose the popular vote by almost 3 million. The verdict of the people? Debatable.

In the meantime, there's a small uproar going on about the painting, maybe especially in St. Louis, which went for Hillary while the state of Missouri went for Trump. Every time you see a photograph of Trump standing in front of that painting, you can have a quiet chuckle, because you know the history.

Zach Galifianakis Has a New North Carolina Film

News from Working Films:

North Carolina – once a beacon of light and generosity in a sea of red state reactionary politics – is now one of the most regressive and intentionally belligerent states in the union. The new documentary Democracy for Sale featuring NC native Zach Galifianakis uncovers the role that money has played in this shift and offers a lesson for the rest of the nation. 

We’re thrilled to be partnering with Appalachian Voices, Democracy NC, The NC NAACP, and many others to organize more than a dozen screenings across North Carolina to inform and mobilize residents to demand campaign finance reform, environmental protection, and an end to racist gerrymandering....

Schedule of dates and cities below.

Monday January 23rd at 7pm – CullowheeRoom 210, Memorial Dr.
Cullowhee, NC 28723
Hosted by: Student Democracy Coalition.
A K Hinds University Center – WCU

Tuesday January 24th at 7pm – Walnut Cove
Rising Star
915 Windmill St.
Walnut Cove, NC 27052
Hosted by: Appalachian Voices.

Wednesday January 25th at 7pm – Asheville
The Grail Moviehouse
45 S French Broad Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
Hosted by: Buncombe County NAACP, Clean Water for NC, Democracy NC, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and Southern Environmental Law Center.

Thursday January 26th at 7pm – Bakersville
The Old Courthouse
11 N Mitchell Ave.
Bakersville, NC 28705
Hosted by: Yancey Mitchell NAACP.

Sunday January 29th at 3pm – Shelby
Newgrass Brewing
213 S Lafayette St.
Shelby, NC 28150
Hosted by: MountainTrue, and Broad River Alliance.

Tuesday January 31st at 7pm – Fayetteville
Cameo Art House Theatre
225 Hay St.
Fayetteville, NC 28301
Hosted by: The Fayetteville Branch NAACP.

Wednesday February 1st at 7pm – Wilmington
The Cameron Art Museum
3201 S 17th St.
Wilmington, NC 28412
Hosted by: New Hanover County NAACP.

Thursday February 2nd at 7pm – Durham
Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
4907 Garrett Rd.
Durham, NC 27707
Hosted by: The Durham People’s Alliance, and NC WARN.

Friday February 3rd at 7pm – Chapel Hill
Church of Reconciliation
110 N Elliott Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Hosted by: Southern Environmental Law Center, Church of Reconciliation Justice and Peace Committee, and Raging Grannies.

Monday February 6th at 7pm – Boone

Price Lake Room at ASU's Student Union
287 Rivers St.
Boone, NC 28608
Hosted by: Appalachian Voices, Democracy Matters, and Democracy NC.

Tuesday February 7th at 7pm – Raleigh
Community UCC
814 Dixie Trail
Raleigh, NC 27607
Hosted by: 350 Triangle, and the CUCC Social Justice Committee.

Tuesday February 7th at 7pm – Goldsboro
Saint Mark Church of Christ
700 W Ash St.
Goldsboro, NC 27530
Hosted by: Down East Coal Ash Coalition and Wayne County NAACP.

Tuesday February 7th at 6pm – New Bern
UU Fellowship of New Bern
308 Meadows St.
New Bern, NC 28560
Hosted by: Craven County NAACP and Democracy New Bern.

Additional screenings are being scheduled in Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Pembroke, and Winston Salem. If your city isn’t on the list and you’d like to bring Democracy for Sale to your town, contact Andy at amyers@workingfilms.org.

What Have You Done, America?

PEOTUS was right off the bat in his press conference yesterday ... lying about himself:

It’s very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of news conferences, and it’s good to be with you.

Sound right to you? Do you recall "almost daily" press conferences either before he won the nomination or after? (Note: Above direct quote is from the published transcript of the press conference, since I couldn't actually make my eyes watch it.)

Trump Will Keep His Conflicts of Interest

He keeps telling us that the law on conflicts of interest don't apply to him, like a man who already knows just how egregiously he plans to exercise his privilege to benefit the family business by steering the US government in certain lucrative directions. He says he'll turn over daily business operations and management to his two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and won't discuss any business dealings with them.

Yeah, riiight! If you believe that, you're as stupid as you act.

Because Mr. Trump is known for his high-grade truthfulness and his almost Christ-like selflessness.

Bottomline: Most of what PEOTUS proposes for his business does not satisfy governmental ethics experts. The director of the Office of Government Ethics said yesterday after Trump's announcement: "This is not a blind trust," he said. "It's not even close."

Braggart-in-Chief

Trump said:

We’re going to create jobs. I said that I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created, and I mean that.

Under Obama, the unemployment rate now stands at 4.7 percent, which is at or very near what economists have generally considered "full employment." In other words, it's not more jobs that's needed as much as higher wages, and Trump's already on record saying wages are too high. People can find jobs. The problem right now is that they often need two or three of them to maintain a toe-hold in the middle class.

Later Trump said this:

...if our politicians had what it takes .... you would have millions more workers right now in the United States that are 96 million really wanting a job and they can’t get. You know that story — the real number. That's the real number.

According to NPR reporter Danielle Kurtzleben, "There are not 96 million Americans who want a job and can’t get one. Not even close. According to the latest jobs report, there were around 7.5 million unemployed Americans — that is, people who are out of work and looking for a job. Of course, there are discouraged workers and other 'marginally attached workers,' all of whom want to work but are not searching. Those people total nearly 1.7 million. Add that to the number of unemployed, and you get around 9.2 million."

 

His Continuing Tickle-Fight with Putin

Trump said:

As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.

That's a first! Opening the door a crack on Russian hacking, but then he very quickly smudged the threshold: "other countries and other people" have done it too, so who can be sure, amirite? Much later in the press conference, he essentially took it all back: "But you know what, it could have been others also" who did the hacking.

All the furor yesterday was over the leaked report that Putin has collected incriminating video of "salacious behavior" and other shit on Trump that he can use to blackmail our prez. Maybe that's all fantasy, but Trump has been acting like a man who knows he's under threat of blackmail.

"If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability," PEOTUS said, which sounds so much like whistling past the graveyard.

Late in the press conference, Trump was asked directly: "Can you stand here today, once and for all, and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign." Trump ignored the question and changed the subject.

Still No Release of Tax Returns

Because ... of course not. Hell has not frozen over yet.

"The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. They’re the only ones," said Trump. A new poll by the Pew Research Center found that 60% of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns.