Trump Administration

Trump Pandering To Racists With Repeal Of DACA

September 12, 2017 Abraham, www.blackalliance.org Resist! DACA, Immigration, Racism, Trump Administration, Undocumented

By Abraham for BAJI - NEW YORK, NY – This morning Attorney General Sessions announced that the Trump Administration will rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allowed 800,000 immigrant youth to live, work and remain in the United States without the constant fear of deportation. Established in 2012, the program has transformed the lives of young people, including thousands of Black immigrants, bringing stability, along with economic and educational opportunities to marginalized families and communities. “BAJI is appalled by Trump’s decision to rescind DACA. By canceling the program President Trump is yet again pandering to white supremacists over immigrant, Black, and poor communities, as well as millions of organizations, businesses, and allies that support DACA recipients. It is now up to Congress to come up with a long term solution to our broken immigration system that protects human rights and enables immigrant families to live and thrive in the U.S.,” says Opal Tometi, BAJI’s Executive Director and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Network. “BAJI stands with the millions of young undocumented immigrants whose lives are on the line, including those protected under DACA. Until dignity, justice, and human rights protections can be afforded all oppressed communities in the U.S....

Ending DACA Would Be Cruel And Senseless

September 7, 2017 Jesse Mechanic, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! DACA, Immigration, Trump Administration, Undocumented

By Jesse Mechanic for The Huffington Post - President Trump has unofficially set forth plans to dismantle the Consideration for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). According to reports, he plans to let congress hash out the details over the next six months. There is a fair amount of bipartisan support for DACA and numerous legal challenges are locked and loaded, so fully erasing the law will not be easy. This article is based solely on the intention of destroying DACA and what that intention represents. Ending the program would be heartless and myopic. There seems to be a lot of misinformation swirling about on DACA, so let’s first go over the basics: DACA was implemented through executive order by the Obama administration in 2012. The law grants deferred action (protection from deportation) for people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. Being granted deferred action does not provide legal status or future amnesty. DACA recipients (DREAMers) must apply for renewal of deferred action status every two years.

Venezuelan Left Fights Back Against Trump’s Threats And Sanctions

September 7, 2017 Emile Schepers, www.peoplesworld.org Resist! Left, Sanctions, Trump Administration, Venezuela

By Emile Schepers for People's World - On Friday, August 25, President Trump announced the imposition of tough new sanctions on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as punishment for the establishment of a new National Constituent Assembly in that country. But the Constituent Assembly is not taking Trump’s latest attacks lying down, but rather is forging ahead with a full program of reforms on the heels of military threats against the South American country. Threats against Venezuela by the United States are not new. President Obama had already declared Venezuela to be an unusual threat to U.S. security and interests, using language required to make the imposition of sanctions legal. However, the composition and politics of the Trump administration have greatly increased the anti-Venezuela mood in our executive branch. The high concentration in the U.S. political establishment, in the Trump cabinet and among Trump’s closest advisors and personal cronies — of people with axes to grind against Venezuela — has increased the danger. For example, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used to be the CEO of Exxon-Mobil, a transnational oil giant which has had sharp disputes with the Venezuelan government over the nationalization of some of their properties in that country.

Protest Outside Of Rex Tillerson’s House Over Hurricane Harvey

September 7, 2017 Anthony Torres, www.alternet.org Resist! Hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Protests, Rex Tillerson, Trump Administration

By Anthony Torres for AlterNet - Wednesday night, I joined dozens of D.C. residents for a vigil of mourning and reckoning outside the D.C. residence of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former ExxonMobil CEO. We mourned for our sisters and brothers in Texas, Bangladesh, Mumbai and Sierra Leone drowning in their homes. We leveraged our resources to raise funds for the community organizations that will sustain the organizing needed for just and equitable recoveries. As we mourned, we also condemned those responsible for these human catastrophes: the oil barons and politicians who profit off of climate disaster. We gathered just before sunset at a neighborhood park in Kalorama, one of D.C.’s most exclusive neighborhoods, home of Ivanka Trump, President Obama and Rex Tillerson. Led by local leaders from Sunrise Movement, Hip Hop Caucus, Rising Hearts Coalition, 350 DC, Interfaith Power and Light and more, we marched in song, hand in hand, toward Rex’s multimillion-dollar residence. Upon arriving, we lit our candles and raised them toward the building to shine a light through this dark hour. While we stood in prayer, nearly a dozen police stood between us and his front door...

How President Trump’s Tax Plan Would Really Affect The Middle Class

August 31, 2017 Chye-Ching Huang, www.cbpp.org Educate! Donald Trump, New Economy, Taxes, Trump Administration

By Chye-Ching Huang for CBPP - President Trump is set to speak in Missouri today where he will reportedly continue to tout his tax plan’s benefits for the middle class even though it would actually concentrate its tax cuts at the top — and could even hurt low- and middle-income families. Over the last two years, the President has released several different tax plans that would deliver trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations but do little to help working families. Yet, he’s consistently promised to help the middle class: in his inaugural address, for example, he said that “every decision” on taxes will “be made to benefit American workers and American families.” In fact, if President Trump’s proposed tax cuts are paid for through the types of spending cuts he has proposed in his budget, low- and middle-income Americans would clearly end up far worse off.

Trump’s Tough New Sanctions Will Harm The People Of Venezuela

August 29, 2017 Mark Weisbrot, www.thehill.com Educate! Sanctions, Trump Administration, US Imperialism, Venezuela

By Mark Weisbrot for The Hill - The Trump administration announced new, unprecedented sanctions against Venezuela on Friday that are designed to cut off financing to Venezuela. The Trump team pretends that the sanctions are only directed at the government. But as any economist knows, this is clearly false. By starving the economy of foreign exchange, this action will harm the private sector, most Venezuelans, the poor and the vulnerable. These sanctions will deepen the severe depression that Venezuela’s economy has been in for more than three and a half years, which has already shrunk income per person by more than a third. They will worsen the shortages of food and essential medicines. They will exacerbate the country’s balance of payments crisis, and therefore feed the spiral of inflation (600 percent over the past year) and depreciation of the currency (on the black market) that has been accelerating since late 2012. And they will further polarize an already divided country. Opposition leaders who support the sanctions, or are associated with them because of their longstanding ties to the United States, will be seen as treasonous — much as Republicans in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, are portrayed by those who believe they collaborated with the Russian government to win the 2016 election.

The Hard Numbers On The War In Afghanistan Trump Left Out Of His Speech

August 23, 2017 Mike Ludwig, www.truth-out.org Educate! Afghanistan, Trump Administration, US Imperialism, US military, Wars and Militarism

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - Last night, President Trump was expected to announce that he would be sending several thousand more troops to Afghanistan, where the United States has been at war for 16 years and violence and corruption have become a way of life. Instead, he outlined a vague strategy meant to appease both a public weary of endless war and the military generals who are now among his top advisors. In his address to the nation from Fort Myer, Trump did not say how many more troops he would send to Afghanistan, or how much more money he is willing to spend on the war. He only said that restrictions on wartime spending would be lifted, and that military commanders would have the freedom to launch attacks without waiting for approval from Washington. Trump also refused to give a timetable for withdrawing American forces, saying only that the enemy would not be privy to when and where the US would attack. He said the "nation-building" effort in Afghanistan is over, and the US would no longer seek to forge democracies in foreign lands "in our own image." Trump did mention that the Taliban could have a place in a functioning Afghan democracy, a sign that the White House might now be willing to negotiate with anti-government forces after years of bloody warfare, but it's not clear what such negotiations would look like.

Trump’s Afghan War Speech: More Of The Same, With More Killing

August 23, 2017 W.J. Astore, www.bracingviews.com Educate! Afghanistan, Trump Administration, US Imperialism, US military, Wars and Militarism

By W.J. Astore for Bracing Views - Actually, the consequences of an American withdrawal are both unpredictable and (most probably) acceptable. Sure, terrorist organizations may gain impetus from an American withdrawal. It’s also possible that a notoriously corrupt Afghan government might finally negotiate with the Taliban and other organizations, and that regional power brokers like Pakistan and Iran, who have their own interests in regional stability, might broker a settlement that Americans could live with. Trump further argued that a rapid U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 led to “hard-won gains slip[ping] back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate, and won, were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS.” The truth is far more complex. The prolonged U.S. occupation of Iraq helped to create ISIS in the first place, and failed American efforts to create and train reliable Iraqi security forces contributed to easy ISIS victories after U.S. forces left in 2011.

Trump’s New FERC Commissioner Rob Powelson Accepted Gifts From Energy Industry

August 21, 2017 Itai Vardi, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Corruption, Energy, FERC, Money in Politics, Trump Administration

By Itai Vardi for Desmog Blog - Robert Powelson, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed commissioner to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), received both gifts and reimbursements for travel, lodging, and hospitality from the energy and utility sectors in his previous position as a state regulator. He will now regulate those sectors at the federal level. Powelson, a Republican, began his tenure at FERC last week. Documents and emails recently uncovered by the Energy & Policy Institute, a watchdog monitoring attacks on renewable energy, indicate that he maintained a close relationship with industry groups as a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. In addition, earlier this year, Powelson said pipeline opponents are engaged in “jihad,” a statement which drew criticism from activists and further solidified his pro-industry image. NFL Game and Industry Conferences. DeSmog has found that according to Powelson’s financial interest disclosures at the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission, in September 2013 he accepted two tickets from NRG Energy to attend a football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Diego Chargers. Each ticket cost $105. Powelson attended the game with James Steffes, a senior vice president at NRG Energy, a large energy company operating numerous power generating stations throughout the U.S.

The Activists Who Helped Shut Down Trump’s CEO Councils

August 21, 2017 Sarah Anderson, www.inequality.org Resist! CEO, Corporations, Economics, Trump Administration

By Sarah Anderson for Inequality - The CEOs who made up two White House advisory councils have fled like rats on a sinking ship. Their exodus — a dramatic rebuke of Donald Trump — came within 48 hours of the incendiary August 15 press conference where the President praised some of the participants of last week’s white supremacist rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia. But many of the CEOs on these councils had been under heavy pressure to disavow Trump’s agenda of hate and racism even before Charlottesville. That pressure came from grassroots activists. The Center for Popular Democracy, Make The Road New York, New York Communities for Change, and several other immigrant and worker advocates had led that activist campaign, targeting the leaders of nine major corporations affiliated with the Trump administration. The campaign, working through a web site called Corporate Backers of Hate, detailed the connections between the nine companies and the Trump administration and encouraged people to send emails to both the CEOs involved and members of their corporate boards. Throughout the spring and summer, the campaign also held protests against the companies, including a civil disobedience action at the JPMorgan Chase headquarters on May Day...

10 Ways Trump’s New NAFTA Threatens People And Planet

August 17, 2017 William Waren, www.medium.com Educate! NAFTA, Trade Deal, Trump Administration

By William Waren for Friends of the Earth - During his campaign for president, Donald Trump demonized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), calling it “the worst trade deal” and making false assurances that he would rework NAFTA, and other trade deals, to protect the American people. As the process to renegotiate NAFTA begins, Trump’s rhetoric and actions strongly suggest that he plans to step up his war on the planet. Trump’s NAFTA “re-do” is highly likely to reflect many elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and specifically, the portions of the TPP that would undercut environmental regulations. The Administration’s statement on July 17 of its NAFTA negotiating objectives reinforces concerns that Trump plans to use a new NAFTA to hamstring effective environmental regulation across the board and accelerate global warming. When we compare the evils of Trump’s new trade deal against reality of our current economy, the American people should be extremely concerned about the future of our environment. As trade renegotiations begin in Washington, D.C., on August 16, we compiled a list of ten ways this process endangers our environment.

In J20 Investigation, DOJ Overreaches Again. And Gets Taken To Court Again.

August 16, 2017 Mark Rumold, www.eff.org Resist! Courts, DOJ, Inauguration, Trump Administration

By Mark Rumold for EFF - We’ve already written about problems with the government’s investigation into the J20 protests—a series of demonstrations on January 20, the day of President Trump’s inauguration—which resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protesters. But prosecutors in DC are still at it. And they’re still using unconstitutional methods to pursue their investigation. This time they served a search warrant on hosting provider DreamHost that would require the company to turn over essentially all information on a website it hosts, www.disruptj20.org—a site that was dedicated to organizing and planning the protest. Did you click on that link? Well, that’s apparently information the government wants to know. In just one example of the staggering overbreadth of the search warrant, it would require DreamHost to turn over the IP logs of all visitors to the site. Millions of visitors—activists, reporters, or you (if you clicked on the link)—would have records of their visits turned over to the government. The warrant also sought production of all emails associated with the account and unpublished content, like draft blog posts and photos.

The Corruption Of Mike Pence And The Privatization Of Infrastructure

August 16, 2017 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Money in Politics, Trump Administration

By David Sirota for IB Times - In 2015, then-Gov. Mike Pence made the controversial decision to keep the Indiana Toll Road under the control of a consortium of private corporations, which was represented by a local lobbying firm that had funneled large donations to Pence’s gubernatorial campaign. This year, the same lobby firm signed up to press the Donald Trump administration on behalf of IFM Investors — the same foreign company that Pence originally approved to run the toll road consortium. In fact, documents reviewed by International Business Times show the lobbying firm that bankrolled Pence has been in direct contact with the vice president on federal infrastructure policy. The firm has lobbied Pence on behalf of Melbourne-based IFM as Pence has explicitly extolled IFM in his work spearheading a White House plan to privatize roads, bridges and airports. That trillion-dollar initiative, which Trump is scheduled to promote on Tuesday and which could enrich foreign investors, comes as Trump has said he is focused on “putting America first.” In response to IBT's questions, White House spokesperson Natalie Strom said in a written statement that Trump “has made it clear that his priority is investment in American infrastructure” and that White House staff “welcome foreign companies who recognize that under President Trump, building American infrastructure is a good investment.”

DOJ Seeks 1.3M IP Addresses Associated With J20 Protests

August 15, 2017 Staff, www.dreamhost.com Resist! DOJ, Inauguration, Mass Surveillance, Trump Administration

By Staff of Dream Host - You would be shocked to see just how many of these challenges we’re obligatedto mount every year! Chris Ghazarian, our General Counsel, has taken issue with this particular search warrant for being a highly untargeted demand that chills free association and the right of free speech afforded by the Constitution. Demand for Information. The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 millionvisitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visitedthe website. (Our customer has also been notified of the pending warrant on the account.) That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.

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