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Swift Backlash Meets President’s Tweet Declaring Ban On Transgender Military Service

July 28, 2017 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us , , ,
By John Zangas for DC Media Group - Washington, DC– A tweet issued by President Trump Wednesday morning appeared to rescind a Department of Defense policy which allows transgender men and women to serve openly in the U.S. Armed Forces. Activists were quick to react and staged a protest outside the White House within hours. “I am shocked, angry and feel betrayed,” said Kara Zajak, a U.S. Navy Submariner, who identified as a transgender woman. “We had all this going through, it was passed, we had the [military] instructions and we were following them,” she said. Trump’s tweet caught the Pentagon flat-footed, and its website showed the policy was still in effect as of Thursday. The president apparently did not directly order military leaders to change policy in any documented form. According to a letter seen by Reuters, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the military that no changes would be implemented until a presidential directive. In June 2016, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced implementation of the policy paving the way for transgender people to serve in the military.

Trump Faces Down CIA And Co-Opts Pentagon On Syria

July 28, 2017 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com , , ,
By Glen Ford for Black Agenda Report - It’s not like Donald Trump to “stifle” himself, as TV’s Archie Bunker used to say, but the president has been relatively subdued about his decision, reportedly made last month, to terminate the CIA program that has armed, trained, directed and protected jihadist fighters in Syria. Trump’s uncharacteristic reticence on the matter is understandable, given the agency’s homicidal culture and history. It is also likely that Trump’s gaggle of White House generals, led by Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis and national security advisor H.R. McMaster, have kept the Pentagon in check, preventing a reprise of the mutiny that sabotaged President Obama’s cease-fire and intelligence-sharing agreement with Russian forces in Syria, on September 17 of last year. In a blatant rebellion against civilian authority, U.S. warplanes killed 100 Syrian soldiers at Deir Ez-Zor, allowing ISIS to overrun half the city. The next week, with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at his side, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee, “The U.S. military role will not include intelligence sharing with the Russians." The Pentagon had “punked” lame duck President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry.

Protest Against Trump’s Transgender Military Service Ban

July 28, 2017 Hayley Miller, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , , , , ,
By Hayley Miller for The Huffington Post - New Yorkers came out in droves Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump’s seemingly sudden decision to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. Hundreds rallied in front of the U.S. Army Career Center in Times Square as trans activists and allies blasted the president’s discriminatory policy proposal, which he announced in a series of tweets early Wednesday morning. Tanya Walker, a trans woman and U.S. Army veteran, said she was “appalled” by Trump’s tweets, and led the crowd in chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” ″It is our duty to fight,” Walker told the crowd. “It is our duty to win. We must love each other and protect each other.” The ban would reverse an Obama-era policy that allowed transgender people to openly serve in the country’s armed forces. The policy would affect thousands of transgender people actively serving in the U.S. military. Trump announced the ban on Wednesday on Twitter and claimed he made the move after consulting with military experts, despite the Pentagon lifting the ban on transgender service members in 2016. Jacqueline Swannick, a trans woman and former Army medic, joined protesters demonstrating against the proposed ban on Wednesday.

President Trump Cruelly Threatens Trans Service Members With Rank Discrimination

July 27, 2017 Chase Strangio, www.aclu.org , , , ,
By Chase Strangio for ACLU - Apparently that extensive work over many years and across many areas of expertise was reversed in a matter of minutes — over Twitter. Indeed, contrary to Trump’s suggestion on Twitter, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified in Congress just last week that inclusion of transgender individuals in the military promoted readiness and caused no disruption or cost. He explained that “[t]he military conducted a thorough research process on this issue and concluded that inclusive policy for transgender troops promotes readiness” and urged Congress “to respect the military’s judgment and not to breach the faith of service members who defend our freedoms.” Congress ultimately rejected a proposal to ban health coverage for transgender servicemembers and dependents. As Mullen noted, “Thousands of transgender Americans are currently serving in uniform and there is no reason to single out these brave men and women and deny them the medical care that they require.” This is not about cost. This is not about readiness or a strong military. Today’s announcement is about targeting, demonizing, and endangering a group of people who are risking their lives every day for our country.

Whistleblower Case Shows How Trump Tries To Silence Science

July 21, 2017 Sabrina Shankman, www.insideclimatenews.org , ,
By Sabrina Shankman for Inside Climate News - For the first time since the Trump administration came to office and began dismantling the key science underpinnings of federal climate policy, a senior agency official has invoked the protections of the whistleblower law to publicly object to what he calls an illegal attempt to intimidate him. The official, Joel Clement, had been the director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the Interior Department before he says he was arbitrarily reassigned to an obscure accounting post to punish him for speaking up about protections for native Americans in Alaska. He says that was ordered by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to force him to be quiet or quit—and to send a message. Clement, who publicized his formal complaint in a commentary published Wednesday in the Washington Post, said his case is not an isolated example but part of a pattern. "It's been a difficult few months for those of us on the inside," he told InsideClimate News in an interview. "This administration has abused a long list of rules and procedures to purge scientists and experts that don't agree with their political views. We need to work together strategically to end these abuses or the health and safety of more Americans will be at risk."

NAFTA Renegotiation Objectives Indicate Possible Stealth Attack On Public Health, Food, Agriculture

July 19, 2017 Audrey Fox, www.foe.org , ,
By Audrey Fox for Friends of the Earth - WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released the Trump Administration’s objectives for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trade promotion authority legislation requires the President to provide “a detailed summary” of the objectives of trade negotiations 30 days before negotiations begin. Friends of the Earth Senior Trade Analyst Bill Waren issued the following response: Donald Trump demonized NAFTA and the TPP during his presidential campaign and made assurances he would rework trade deals to protect the American people. Now, it appears that Trump has modified his message. Since taking office, Trump has shown repeatedly that he plans to “re-do” NAFTA to benefit corporations. Trump’s statement indicates he plans to step up his war on public health and the planet by modeling NAFTA’s provisions related to environmental regulation on the TPP. These objectives appear to set the stage for a stealth attack on strong regulation of food, agriculture, chemicals, and biotechnology.

New Lies Exposed In Russiagate

July 17, 2017 Staff, www.moonofalabama.org , ,
By Staff of Moon of Alabama - The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin is dully elected and not a dictator. The Russian Federation may not be a "liberal democracy", but it is a democracy. The picture is old. It shows all Russian journalists who died during their work since 1991. Most of them died as war- or crime-correspondents and were not involved in politics at all. The death of most of those journalists is not mysterious. Getting blown up by artillery during the wars in Chechnya, Yugoslavia or Ukraine is no mystery at all. Most of these journalists never criticize Putin. They were already dead before Putin had any significant political role. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lists 82 killed Russian journalists since 1992, most of them died due to war or related to civil crimes or corruption. There are about 80 portraits of journalists in the picture Mounk tweeted. Two recognizable portraits and names therein are of Vlad Listyev, a TV entertainment producer killed in 1995 over some controversy about lucrative advertisement on public TV. Another portrait is of Dmitry Kholodov, killed in 1994 while investigating mafia connections within the Russian military. At the time of their death Putin was a minor bureaucrat in Saint Petersburg. He did not gain power until he became acting president at the end of 1999. According to the CPJ numbers more Russian journalists were killed during the eight years of Yeltsin's presidency (1992-2000) than in the 17 years of Putin's presidencies since.

Neocons Enlist In Anti-Trump #Resistance

July 15, 2017 James W. Carden, www.consortiumnews.com ,
By James W. Carden for Consortium News - FPI was founded in 2009 to give the displaced neocons who had worked for President George W. Bush a platform from which to endlessly criticize the new Democratic administration and push for a continuation of Bush’s disastrous neocon foreign policy. (Some other neocons sheltered in place mostly inside the State Department and the Pentagon.) During the Obama years, FPI gave a platform to Kristol and likeminded neocons such as Dan Senor, James Kirchick and Jamie Fly, who went on to serve as a foreign policy adviser to neocon favorite Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida. FPI was generously subsidized by hedge fund manager Paul Singer. The Washington Post recently reported that “Those close to the organization said that in the new policy and political environment marked by the ascendency of Donald Trump, many donors, including Singer, are reassessing where to put their funds.” But does the demise of FPI mean the neoconservatives would be, at long last, going away for a while — perhaps to take stock in the immense damage they have caused the country and the word? The answer would seem to be: not on your life.

‘No Trump Zone’ Planned In Paris Ahead Of President’s Visit

July 14, 2017 Julia Conley, www.commondreams.org ,
By Julia Conley for Common Dreams - As the Trump administration attempts to deflect questions from the press regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s controversial meeting during last year's campaign with a Russian lawyer, the president himself has kept a relatively low profile ahead of a scheduled trip to France this week—but the French aren't expected to give him a warm welcome as hundreds of demonstrators plan to form a "No Trump Zone" in Paris, where they will march in protest of Trump's visit and his policies. Trump was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to attend France's national celebration of Bastille Day, where the two would honor the cooperative relationship their countries have shared on what would also be the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entering World War I. Trump accepted the invitation despite the two leaders' disagreement on issues including Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change policy, and a frosty exchange they shared at the NATO Summit in May. The group "Paris Against Trump" is behind the plans for a "No Trump Zone" in the Place de la Republique in the center of Paris. As the group wrote on Facebook, "Trump is not welcome in Paris.

Renewable Energy Is Becoming So Cheap US Will Meet Paris Commitments

July 11, 2017 Zoë Schlanger, www.qz.com , , , ,
By Zoë Schlanger for Quartz - Research analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that renewable energy like solar and wind power are hurtling towards a level of ubiquity where not even politics can hinder them. Renewable energy is simply becoming the cheapest option, fast. Basic economics, the analysts say, suggest that the US will exceed its commitments in the Paris agreement regardless of whether or not president Donald Trump withdraws, as he’s stated he will. “We project that by 2020, renewables will be the cheapest form of new-power generation across the globe,” with the exception of a few countries in Southeast Asia, the Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report published Thursday. “By our forecasts, in most cases favorable renewables economics rather than government policy will be the primary driver of changes to utilities’ carbon emissions levels,” they wrote. “For example, notwithstanding president Trump’s stated intention to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, we expect the US to exceed the Paris commitment of a 26-28% reduction in its 2005-level carbon emissions by 2020.” Globally, the price of solar panels has fallen 50% between 2016 and 2017, they write. And in countries with favorable wind conditions, the costs associated with wind power “can be as low as one-half to one-third that of coal- or natural gas-fired power plants.”

Justice Department’s Corporate Crime Watchdog Resigns

July 3, 2017 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com , ,
By David Sirota for International Business Times - One of the Justice Department’s top corporate crime watchdogs has resigned, declaring that she cannot enforce ethics laws against companies while, she asserts, her own bosses in the Trump administration have been engaging in conduct that she said she would never tolerate in corporations. Hui Chen -- a former Pfizer and Microsoft lawyer who also was a federal prosecutor -- had been the department’s compliance counsel. She left the department in June and broke her silence about her move in a recent LinkedIn post that sounded an alarm about the Trump administration’s behavior. “Trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to was creating a cognitive dissonance that I could not overcome," Chen wrote. “To sit across the table from companies and question how committed they were to ethics and compliance felt not only hypocritical, but very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic. Even as I engaged in those questioning and evaluations, on my mind were the numerous lawsuits pending against the President of the United States for everything from violations of the Constitution to conflict of interest, the ongoing investigations of potentially treasonous conducts, and the investigators and prosecutors fired for their pursuits of principles and facts.

Newsletter: Color Revolution Comes Home?

July 1, 2017 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The United States has perfected the art of regime change operations. The US is the largest empire in world history with more than 1,000 military bases and troops operating throughout the world. In addition to military force, the US uses the soft power of regime change, often through 'Color Revolutions.' The US has been building its empire since the Civil War era, but it has been in the post-World War II-time period that it has perfected regime change operations.US military presence around the world Have the people of the United States been the victims of regime change operations at home? Have the wealthiest and the security state created a government that serves them, rather than the people? To answer these questions, we begin by examining how regime change works and then look at whether those ingredients are being used domestically.

Stop Trump From Making NAFTA Even Worse

July 1, 2017 Ethan Earle, www.inthesetimes.com , , , ,
By Ethan Earle for In These Times - Many on the Left have been deeply critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since before it was fast-tracked into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1994. Now, President Donald Trump’s current plan to renegotiate NAFTA is poised to make the massive trade deal even worse. In late May, a loose coalition of civil society groups gathered in Mexico City to discuss this upcoming renegotiation. Participants included the AFL-CIO, Canadian Labour Congress and over one hundred other labor, environmental, and immigrant rights organizations from across Mexico, the United States and Canada. The meeting produced a joint declaration opposing a Trump-led NAFTA renegotiation and marked the kickoff of the latest international campaign against free-trade deals that benefit corporations and political elites at the expense of workers, communities and our shared environment. NAFTA’s legacy is marred by lost jobs, lower wages, increased inequality and a litany of environmentally destructive practices. While the people who gathered in Mexico City have long opposed NAFTA for its pro-corporate bent, a consensus emerged that President Trump and his team are cooking up something even worse. Two questions follow from this judgment: What can we do to stop Trump, and how can we use the moment to challenge the powerful interests that he represents?

Protest Friday As President Moon Meets President Trump

June 28, 2017 Staff, www.m.yna.co.kr , , , , ,
By Staff of Yonhap News Agency - SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) -- Thousands of South Koreans staged a protest rally in central Seoul on Saturday demanding the withdrawal of the deployment of an American high-tech anti-missile defense system as President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump are set to meet in Washington D.C. next week. "The deployment of THAAD, which is unnecessary for the defense of the Korean Peninsula, should be pulled back," the protesters said in a rally held in Seoul Plaza at the heart of Seoul. The rally's organizer put the number of participants at 3,000. The rally came ahead of the first Moon-Trump summit to be held from June 29-30, which is expected to feature the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). After taking office last month, Moon ordered the deployment to be delayed until an environmental impact assessment is carried out at its deployment site. "The South Korea-U.S. summit to come next week should be a venue where the review of the THAAD deployment should be assured," the protests said. They also demanded the U.S. stop enforcing the deployment.

Trump Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across The Government

June 19, 2017 Jessica Huseman and Annie Waldman, www.propublica.org , ,
By Jessica Huseman and Annie Waldman for Pro Publica - Previously unannounced directives will limit the Department of Justice’s use of a storied civil rights enforcement tool, and loosen the Department of Education’s requirements on investigations. Elizabeth Hill, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, told ProPublica that the new “enforcement instructions seek to clear out the backlog while giving every complaint the individualized and thorough consideration it deserves.” Lifting the requirement of collecting three years of data will allow complaints to be addressed “much more efficiently and quickly,” she said in an emailed statement. Read the full statement here. For decades, the Department of Justice has used court-enforced agreements to protect civil rights, successfully desegregating school systems, reforming police departments, ensuring access for the disabled and defending the religious. Now, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the DOJ appears to be turning away from this storied tool, called consent decrees. Top officials in the DOJ civil rights division have issued verbal instructions through the ranks to seek settlements without consent decrees — which would result in no continuing court oversight.
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