All The Promises.

Prom

CREDIT: AP Photos/Graphic by Adam Peck.

Trump made promises about every five to ten seconds. It didn’t matter what he was talking about, false promises fell from his lips like water tumbling over a cliff. He also made many promises about promises, of the “I promise we’ll keep our promises!” variety. Oh yes, he’s not going to be like every other politician in the world, no. This bit of bullshit most people see through, or at least they should. It seems that Trumpoids actually expect him to make good on all the promises. Silly Trumpoids, promises aren’t for politicians! Or narcissistic, filthy rich despots, either.

Think Progress has put an enormous amount of work into tracking all the promises. They discarded all the vague, general ones, like “I promise to make the country great again”, because that doesn’t actually mean anything. Even limiting themselves to concrete promises, they counted 663 promises to date, and counting. That’s a whole lot of promises. The full article is in-depth, and a very good, if depressing read. This is an ongoing program, naturally, tracking the life of these promises. Most politicians are savvy enough to limit the amount of promises they make; the really smart ones talk more about efforts needed, and possible programs. The savvy and smart do that because they know just how much hot water they can land in for breaking promises, voters tend to be a bit weird in that regard. Perhaps most voters don’t believe the promises, but they’ll still hold a politician’s feet to the fire if they don’t come through. It’s a bit different with Trumpoids, they believe the promises, and they want them kept. It’s going to be interesting, to say the least.

Donald Trump will take the Oath of Office 583 days after he first announced his improbable run for the White House.

Along the way, he made 663 promises (and counting), according to a ThinkProgress analysis of Trump’s public statements that examined well over 4 million words from his media interviews, his policy position papers, and his speeches to supporters, interest groups, and national television audiences.

These promises matter. Trump’s voters expect him to deliver. As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pointed out two weeks ago on the Senate floor regarding Trump’s pledge to not cut entitlement programs like Medicare, “This was a central part of his campaign… This is what he asked millions of elderly people and working class people to vote for him on.”

Yet attention spans are shorter than ever, and Trump himself is skilled at distracting attention from policy or scandal with tweets and endless varieties of incendiary remarks. It’s easy to forget what he told voters he would do.

So starting the week after the election, ThinkProgress undertook a two-month research project to document every promise Trump made, from the golden escalator ride to the inauguration. They are housed here in ThinkProgress’ searchable, interactive Trump Promises Database.

I clicked on ‘Promised by Day One’ (sourced quotes not included):

Hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce workforce size.

Instruct Treasury Secretary to label China a currency manipulator on day one.

Stop losing jobs on day one from Florida and nationwide.

Announce plans to renegotiate NAFTA day one.

Pursue requirement that for every new regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated on day one.

Announce withdrawal from TPP on day one.

Direct Commerce Secretary and USTR to identify foreign trading abuses that affect the American worker, and begin ending those abuses immediately, on day one.

Begin cancelling billions in climate change spending for the United Nations on day one.

Lift restrictions on production of fossil fuels on day one.

Lift environmental roadblocks to “energy infrastructure projects” to move forward on day one.

Turn around EPA “killing your companies” and losing jobs on day one.

Propose constitutional amendment for term limits.

Propose ethics reforms on day one to end government corruption.

Pursue a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising campaign dollars on day one.

Pursue five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists on day one.

Pursue lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government on day one.

Ask Congress for bill repealing Obamacare and replacing with “reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability.”

Get all criminal immigrants out.

Get rid of “international gangs of thugs and drug cartels” before anything else, first piece of paper he signs.

Begin moving 2 million “criminal aliens” out of country on day one.

Issue mandate to everyone, including police to get the bad illegal immigrants out of the country in first hour.

Put strong language in first day in office that when illegal immigrants first get caught they get jail time.

All illegal immigrants out day one.

Repeal Obama’s Immigration executive orders.

Ask Congress to pass “Kate’s Law”.

Cancel all federal funding of sanctuary cities on day one.

Ask DoS, DHS, DoJ to comprehensively review terror immigration cases for extreme vetting as soon as he enters office.

Suspend immigration from “terror-prone regions” on day one.

Immediately suspend admission of Syrian refugees.

Begin working on impenetrable physical wall with latest technology on day one.

Build impenetrable physical wall.

Get rid of gun-free zones in schools.

End gun free zones on military bases on the first day.

Issue temporary moratorium on new agency regulations.

Order review of every regulation issued over last 10 years, cancelling “needless” ones.

Cancel every unconstitutional Obama admin executive action, memo, and order on day one.

Unsign executive orders.

Knock out ISIS oil day after he’s president.

As we now know, Donny isn’t going to work on Day one at all, because hey, weekend! Jesus fuck, I thought that list was never going to end. Obviously, it’s incredibly unrealistic, and it goes to show that Trump will say anything at any time, to any one. Lots of words, no thought. Have a wander over to Think Progress for the full story.

What Art Under Trump?

Illustration: sophiazarders.tumblr.com.

Illustration: sophiazarders.tumblr.com.

Margaret Atwood has an excellent article up at The Nation about the chill which is already sweeping over the artistic community at large. Atwood is no stranger to dystopian scenarios, but thankfully, those were fiction. We may well be facing an artistic dystopia very soon.

Of what use is art? It’s a question often asked in societies where money is the prime measure of worth, usually by people who do not understand art—and therefore dislike it and the artists who make it. Now, however, the question is being posed by artists themselves.

For American writers and other artists, there’s a distinct chill in the air. Strongmen have a well-earned reputation for suppression and for demanding fawning tributes: “Suck up or shut up” has been their rule. During the Cold War, many writers, filmmakers, and playwrights received visits from the FBI on suspicion of “un-American activities.” Will that history be repeated? Will self-censorship set in? Could we be entering an age of samizdat in the United States, with manuscripts circulating secretly because publishing them would mean inviting reprisal? That sounds extreme, but considering America’s own history—and the wave of authoritarian governments sweeping the globe—it’s not out of the question.

In the face of such uncertainties and fears, the creative communities of the United States are nervously urging one another not to surrender without a fight: Don’t give up! Write your book! Make your art!

But what to write or make? Fifty years from now, what will be said about the art and writing of this era?

[…]

In the short run, perhaps all we can expect 
from artists is only what we have always expected. As once-solid certainties crumble, it may be enough to cultivate your own artistic garden—to do what you can as well as you can for as long as you can do it; to create alternate worlds that offer both temporary escapes and moments of insight; to open windows in the given world that allow us to see outside it.

With the Trump era upon us, it’s the artists and writers who can remind us, in times of crisis or panic, that each one of us is more than just a vote, a statistic. Lives may be deformed by politics—and many certainly have been—but we are not, finally, the sum of our politicians. Throughout history, it has been hope for artistic work that expresses, for this time and place, as powerfully and eloquently as possible, what it is to be human.

This is a do not miss article. Outstanding, and highly recommended.

Sister Marches.

Wm

If you can’t make the women’s march on Washington, there are sister events! They are going on everywhere, not just here in uStates, but all over the world. Check out the sisters page, and see if you can find a march near you. (There are even three here in nDakota!)

World of Wonder has more details.

ACA Repeal: Catastrophic.

CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.

CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimate of how many people will become uninsured if Republicans move forward with their likely plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and the numbers are brutal. Thirty-two million people would lose their health insurance by 2026, and premiums would double in the same time frame.

Americans would also see a sharp and immediate drop in insurance rates. According to the CBO, “the number of people who are uninsured would increase by 18 million in the first new plan year following enactment of the bill.”

The CBO examined a bill pushed by Republicans in the previous Congress, the “Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015,” which would phase out provisions of the Affordable Care Act that help make health insurance affordable — including subsidies for plans purchased on Obamacare exchanges and the law’s Medicaid expansion. It would also immediately repeal provisions, such as the law’s individual mandate, which are intended to bring people into the insurance market.

At the same time, this bill would also leave in place certain regulatory reforms, such as the requirement that insurers cover people with preexisting conditions.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but if I faced doubled premiums, that would be the end of healthcare coverage for me, and as someone who needs to have spinal and neck injections every 3 months, well, that would stop too, because I know damn well I couldn’t cover the procedure out of pocket. That would leave me in massive pain with no respite, because without the injections, I don’t get pain med scrips.

Nevertheless, partial repeal would lead to a massive expansion of the uninsurance rate. Indeed, many people would be unable to obtain insurance at any price. As CBO explains, “roughly 10 percent of the population would be living in an area that had no insurer participating in the nongroup market.”

A Massachusetts study found that “for every 830 adults gaining insurance coverage there was one fewer death per year.” If this figure is applied to the 32 million who will lose insurance if key provisions of Obamacare are repealed, it means that about 38,500 people will die every year who otherwise would have lived in Republicans succeed in their plans to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act.

Yeah. All that shit about death panels? Well, now we know for sure who doesn’t care about people dying, but that’s hardly news. Naturally, rethuglicans are attempting to discredit and dispute the report, but they are still offering nothing but vacant looks towards anyone who expects details about the so-called replacement plan.

Republicans have indeed suggested several possible replacements for the Affordable Care Act, such as dismantling state insurance regulation, giving states more leeway to deny Medicaid coverage to people who are now eligible, and tax cuts that would primarily benefit the wealthy. To date, they have not settled on a specific replacement plan, however, and the ideas they have floated so far would insure only a fraction of the people currently insured under the Affordable Care Act.

So, what we have to look forward to in this brave new world? Taxes, Pain, Death.

Via Think Progress.

Day One-ish.

Trump humps flag. Twitter.

Trump humps flag. Twitter.

Trump has disclosed to The London Times that his first day of working as president will be Monday, January 23rd, because I guess now presidents of whole countries don’t work weekends.

“One of the first orders I’m gonna sign — day one — which I will consider to be Monday as opposed to Friday or Saturday. Right? I mean my day one is gonna be Monday because I don’t want to be signing and getting it mixed up with lots of celebration,” Trump told the London Times.

Stephen Colbert had something to say about that one:

Via Raw Story.

Potential Grizzlies.

Waving Grizzly gif on Twitter.

Waving Grizzly gif on Twitter.

Betsy DeVos’s hearing veered straight into the absurd, citing potential grizzlies:

However, nothing quite caught the flavor of how poorly her hearing went than her response to Sen. Chis Murphy (D-CT) who asked her, “Do you think guns have any place in or around schools?”

After saying the availability of guns should be “best left to locales and states to decide,” Devos replied to further questioning on guns on campus by adding, “I will refer back to Senator Enzi (R-WY) and the school he was talking about in Wyoming … I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

Ms. DeVos is not only singularly lacking any qualification to head up the Department of Education, she’s not exactly stellar in the thinking department. She did note she had a bleeding heart:

If the question is around gun violence and the results of that, please know that my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.”

Buuuuuuut…potential grizzlies, man! I’m hearing Cheech & Chong in my head. The twittersphere erupted over the potential grizzly bears.

Mo Gaffney

✔ @mogaffney

So DeVos won’t say guns don’t belong in schools. Except says yes when grizzlies are near. How many grizzly adjacent schools r there?

*

Adam B. @AllThingsBooks

“We need guns in schools because of grizzly bears.” You know what else stops bears? Doors.

*

Sarcasticsapien @Sarcasticsapien

I’m confused. Betsy DeVos wants to bring God into schools but also guns because I guess God isn’t powerful enough to stop grizzly bears.

*

Gary @mrgaryhuang

I must REALLY live in a liberal bubble. I didn’t think grizzly bears were even remotely a problem in public schools.

More Tweets at Raw Story.  Also covering this story, Think Progress.

We Freed the Slaves, Say Thank You!

Gov. Paul LePage (YouTube/screen grab).

Gov. Paul LePage (YouTube/screen grab).

Supreme asshole bigot LePage is at it again, this time saying that Rep. John Lewis needed to show more gratitude to white people. C’mon, boy, tap those shoes and tip that hat, yeah? All the racist goons are delighting in slamming Rep. Lewis and all people of colour.

The Portland Press Herald reports that LePage slammed Lewis for questioning President-elect Donald Trump’s legitimacy during a regular appearance on a local talk radio show, and he said Lewis needed to show more gratitude to past white presidents who worked to free black people from slavery.

“John Lewis ought to look at history,” the governor told the George Hale and Ric Tyler Show on the Bangor-based radio station WVOM. “It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”

Christopher Cousins of the Bangor Daily News writes that LePage is simply incorrect when it comes to the history of Jim Crow laws, however, as Hayes agreed to “an informal deal after a contested election that gave him the White House in exchange for promising to pull Northern troops out of the South,” which thus “allowed Jim Crow laws to take root.”

As usual, white bigots who just can’t keep their mouths shut also can’t manage to check a few facts first. How about a “fuck you, go back to school” instead of a thank you? I think that would suffice.

LePage, who this past summer was caught on tape calling a Maine lawmaker a “son of a b*tch socialist c*cksucker,” also criticized the American left for being “so hateful” and “trying to bully us out of believing our constitution.”

:Laughs: Oh, there really isn’t any need for commentary, bigoted cons always manage to swallow both their feet before anyone can get a word in edgewise.

Via Raw Story.

Some People and Their Kids…

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, left, his son Michael G. Flynn, second from left, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, third from left, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on November 17, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File.

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, left, his son Michael G. Flynn, second from left, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, third from left, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on November 17, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File.

On Monday night, Michael Flynn Jr. — son of and former chief of staff for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — tweeted out a story published on Voltaire Network entitled, “General Flynn’s Proposals to Reform Intelligence.”

The story, published last month with a Damascus dateline and authored by Thierry Meyssan — a 9/11 truther who published a book in 2002 entitled, “The Big Lie” — previews how Flynn plans to rollback “the big reforms that took place during the Bush and Obama years.”

Perhaps most significantly, the story says the “radical overhaul” Flynn is planning involves the elimination of the office of the Director of National Intelligence, an office created by President Bush in 2004, with power centralized under Flynn instead.

“The 16 agencies should no longer be accountable to the National Intelligence Director but only to the National Security Adviser,” Meyssan writes. “In other words, they will be accountable to General Flynn personally.”

The story cites anonymous sources, which some informed observers believe include Flynn Jr. himself.

[…]

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly bashed reputable outlets like CNN as “FAKE NEWS” while linking to content from staunchly pro-Trump sites like One America News and LifeZette. In his most recent post on Gab, a social media platform that caters to white nationalists, Flynn Jr. struck a similarly anti-mainstream media tone, writing, “Im sick of these fake news media a$$holes pulling at strings, trying to pit Trumps cabinet against each other. Piece of advice, good number of his cabinet sat across from (in @GenFlynn case interrogated) members of Al Qaeda so nothing LSM can OR WILL EVER do to shake these TRUE PATRIOTS!!”

The full, depressing story is at Think Progress. We are in so much trouble.

Repeal of ACA and Native Lives.

marty-two-bulls-cartoon-011317-1

© Marty Two Bulls.

Mark Trahant has an in-depth article about the problems of no healthcare.  In related news, Trump’s Health and Human Services pick is busy trying to fan the stench of corruption away from himself, but the stink is speaking loudly:

Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.

Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.

Full story at CNN.

The J20 Strike and Art Walkouts.

(graphic by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic).

(graphic by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic).

The #J20 Art Strike is imminent and we’ve compiled a running list of spaces that will be closing for Inauguration Day. The Art Strike is intended as an act of solidarity with the broader slate of #J20 events and, as the movement’s site puts it, as a

tactic among others to combat the normalization of Trumpism — a toxic mix of white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, militarism, and oligarchic rule. Like any tactic, it is not an end in itself, but rather an intervention that will ramify into the future. It is not a strike against art, theater, or any other cultural form. It is an invitation to motivate these activities anew, to reimagine these spaces as places where resistant forms of thinking, seeing, feeling, and acting can be produced.

Since there are thousands of spaces across the country, we decided to start local and contact New York-area galleries and art nonprofits to see which would be closing — museums will be listed in a separate post. Below this list is another listing of those spaces organizing special programming for January 20, the day of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Full article at Hyperallergic.

(image courtesy Ana Cecilia Alvarez, Beth Fiedorek, and Alexandra Leon).

(image courtesy Ana Cecilia Alvarez, Beth Fiedorek, and Alexandra Leon).

In solidarity with the nationwide #J20 movement, students at CalArts in Southern California are organizing a walkout “against the president of Donald J. Trump on inauguration day, January 20,” in their words.

Organized by students Ana Cecilia Alvarez, Beth Fiedorek, and Alexandra Leon, the event is slated to take place at noon local time. The official flyer includes the #J20 Art Strike statement that was released last week. CalArts is considered one of the leading art schools in the country, if not the world.

Hyperallergic reached out to the organizers to understand their motivation for the action. “Organizing around J20 at CalArts was catalyzed by that particular reaction that occurs to political angst when it meets a vacuum,” Fiedorek and Leon told Hyperallergic.

Full article at Hyperallergic.