Tuesday, November 22, 2016

On John Scalzi's Blog: An Overview of the Problem

(This was written in response to this post. I am reposting it here, partly so I have these links somewhere where I can find them again.)

I think looking at the proposals for advisers and formally-named cabinet secretaries gives ample reasons for terror. Now, it may be that the Senate will find reasons to reject some of secretary nominations, but I would not count on it. So if, for instance, Sen. Jeff Sessions becomes attorney general, goodbye to Federal civil rights enforcement. And what do we do if we get an anti-abortion Supreme Court majority?

The public response to the election of Trump is one of the most hopeful things I have seen, but it can be worn down by harassment. Just as in the fascist countries in the 1930s, It is likely to be hard to maintain opposition in the face of possibly violent harassment, and we will not be able to count on Federal support against our abusers.

The sheer corruption of the incoming administration, even before Trump is actually inaugurated, is astonishing; we are back to Warren Harding days with much larger amounts of money.

And, finally, the Koch Brothers connection is also troubling. Trump originally promised to protected Medicare and Social Security and is now promising to sign legislation dismantling them both.

BTW, Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo is all over this. Could do worse than to pay attention to him, at least before Trump sues TPM out of existence.

Some TPM links:
  Appointments —
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-cabinet-spex
  Corruption —
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-details-trump-macri-call
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-corruption-will-be-endless
  Koch brothers influence —
   http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/behind-make-america-great-the-koch-agenda-returns-with-a-vengeance

No comments: