Cryin’ and prayin’ won’t help if the GOP keeps on passing bills like their tax “reform” package. In lieu of what is by now a familiar rant about the dastardly GOP and the increasingly erratic President Trump, here’s an updated cartoon by the late Jack Ziegler I found on Twitter that says it all — well most of it.
Here’s more on Jack Ziegler and the unaltered version of the cartoon.
In the torrent of horrific appointments coming out of the Trump administration it is easy to miss specifics that wash by. Allgov.com, for those brave enough to face them all, regularly posts an up-to-date list of Trump appointments.
Among the most recent batch: Seema Verma, who has been tagged by Trump as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at Health and Human Services (HHS); William Beach was named Commissioner of Labor Statistics part of the Department of Labor (DOL); and Bruce Lee Myers will be head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA operates as part of the Commerce Department under Wilbur Ross, recently alleged to have business ties to Russians close to Vladimir Putin.
Prior to her appointment as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma redesigned Indiana’s healthcare program for former Governor — now Vice President — Mike Pence. Under her Healthy Indiana Plan the state’s care rating went from the 33rd healthiest state nationwide (bad) to 41st (worse). Part of the re-organization was removing people from Medicaid eligibility if they didn’t contribute to health care savings accounts.
At the Dept. of Labor, recently appointed Commissioner for Labor Statistics William Beach was formerly the longtime president of the Koch-brother-funded Institute for Humane Studies (“called a haven for climate change deniers”) and more recently was at the right–wing think tank Heritage Foundation. There he advocated abandoning Social Security and supported privatization of retirement in financial markets. During the Great Recession he favored cutting unemployment benefits.
The first two of these far-from-qualified appointees embody the kind of bumbling incompetence and/or extreme ideology we’ve come to expect from this administration. But for pure self-serving grifting potential it may be hard to beat the appointment of AccuWeather CEO Bruce Lee Myers to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA operates as part of the Commerce Department and runs the National Weather Service. Under normal circumstances this conflicted appointment might attract substantial attention, but given the thick fog of questionable ethics engulfing President Trump it hardly receives the kind of notice it deserves.
Allgov.com reports: [… Bruce] Myers was executive vice president and general counsel for AccuWeather. In 2007, Barry took his brother’s place as chief executive officer of the company.
The Myers brothers for years financially supported Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania). In 2005, Santorum introduced a bill that would have restricted NWS [the National Weather Service] from providing regular weather reports to the public. Instead, it would reserve the taxpayer-funded product of NWS for use by companies such as AccuWeather. Santorum’s bill was not passed.
In 2014, AccuWeather made a deal with the Chinese government to disseminate weather information there for 20 years. The agreement was made after Chinese hackers were accused of having accessed into NOAA’s computers to disrupt satellite data dissemination.
AccuWeather has been critical of the Weather Service and Myers has made no secret his desire to privatize all or parts of the weather service for profit. Congress recently passed and Trump signed legislation that should speed that process along. The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 has provisions to expand and pursue pilot programs to use and coordinate commercial data options and private-sector weather solutions among various federal government weather stakeholders.
So thanks to Trump and the GOP Congress it looks like the sun (and our tax dollars) may soon be shining down on for-profit private-satellite operators like Bruce Lee Myer’s family business AccuWeather. Who says you can’t control the weather (or at least control access to crucial weather information)?
The question is whether the USA can survive the blatant conversion of government resources to inform and enrich the President’s friends. Those folks must have very deep storm cellar-bunkers many hundreds of miles from major sources of water — as well as their own private line to what will become secret government disaster warning information. Duct tape and plastic isn’t going to help as climate change drowns Miami.
Although Democrats made significant gains on Election Day last week, which was hopeful news, sadly it was also the one-year anniversary of Trump’s “BIG” victory — of course Donald narrowly won but he continues to lie about it. So, a little late, here is what seems an appropriate poem to mark the event. (Sadly a Russian language version of the poem was unavailable):
Disaster at Sea
It was a calm, still day in Yarmouth,
The channel clear and wide,
As the last of the timber sailing ships
Sailed out on the evening tide.
They never saw that ship again;
They searched when it was light,
But that fine old timber vessel sank
That clear and peaceful night.
No one knows what happened
On that night in 1910;
But the crew and her cargo of woodpeckers
Were never seen again.
Nine “threatening” words: generalized trust, better functioning democracy, less corruption and crime. 
A recent study from Sweden indicates that in the first few years since it was enacted, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is reversing a general decline in trust — one that has taken place over the past five decades. The research was conducted by the Swedish Universities Umeå and Lund
The research study indicates a fact about the healthcare issue and the ACA that could explain why the GOP and now Trump have been determined from the start to kill and or sabotage it at all costs: Obamacare might be key to reversing the trend of declining social trust that has plagued the United States since the 1970s.
“Before 2010, worsening health in the U.S. led to a decrease in people’s generalized trust. Coinciding with the introduction of Obamacare in 2010, this negative relationship no longer holds true,” says Jan Mewes, associate professor at the Department of Sociology at Umeå University in Northern Sweden.
Generalized trust is defined as the belief that most people, even strangers, can be trusted. Past research shows that societies with higher levels of generalized trust also have better functioning democracies, with less corruption and less crime. Over the past five decades, the U.S. has undergone a steady decline in generalized trust. [Added emphasis]
The Swedish study concluded just about at the time the GOP completed the takeover of Congress and Trump became President and they note: it will be interesting to see if the ACA will be retained in its current form […] Will it last, or will US citizens eventually ‘revert to form’, where poor health coincides with a lack of trust in others once again?
While something dynamic has been driving the GOP and president Trump to kill and/or sabotage ACA, their actions may prove self-destructive. A recent Kaiser poll found a solid majority of respondents, 66%, thought lawmakers should work to stabilize ACA markets rather than repeal the law. The breakdown by party showed strong support among Independents (67%), 85% support among Democrats, and even a sizable minority of 43% support with the GOP.
Ronald Reagan pretty much summed up his philosophy when he quipped that the nine most threatening words in the English language are: “I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” Any success for the ACA, a government program, carries an existential threat to that longtime GOP mindset.
And it sure looks like an increase in generalized trust and a better functioning democracy with less corruption would make life a little harder for President Trump and his scheming administration.
Think!Vermont is the slogan of a new marketing campaign scheme and website designed to be catchy enough to lure businesses and employees to the Green Mountain State. Governor Scott and his team rolled it out this week in Burlington. The VT. Agency of Commerce and Community Development says the new website is part of an effort to support existing Vermont businesses.It will also act as a hub for inspiring stories, encouraging statistics and lots of links to useful information for businesses. 
“We only use red tape for ribbon cuttings,” declares the Think!Vermont website based campaign which reportedly draws a quaint picture of the state according to SevenDays’ story
“Our Vermont brand is powerful,” Scott said at a press conference at the Vermont Tech Jam at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction. “Think!Vermont will tell unique and positive stories about Vermonters and Vermont businesses.”
[…] Scott, who often says that Vermont loses an average of six workers every day from its workforce, said he hopes Think!Vermont will lower that number.
Well, sure Phil — maybe. Earlier, on a much smaller budget, then-Lt. Governor Scott created a tie-dye sticker that read: “Buy local! It’s not just for hippies anymore!” But right off the mark Scott’s latest effort looks like businesses in Utah and Virginia will be benefiting from the Gov’s efforts.
The host Network Solutions LLC is located in Hendron, Virginia (where they employ 2,000 people). And the thinkvermont.com IP address according to whois.com is actually based in Provo Utah.
Imagine some out-of-state tech biz doing the minimal checking I did, and what conclusion they’re likely to draw: “um, it’s catchy, and it’s a pretty state, but obviously they don’t have the in-state talent we would need to move there or even do significant business there …”
I suppose it is quaint to think you should source everything from within the state, but I’ve got to wonder how much Phil Scott and his team Thought!Vermont when contracting it out. They say they Think!Vermont, but Scott’s team’s first step was sending our tax dollars out of state for the latest Vermont branding campaign.
In their fourth annual Survey of American Fears, Chapman University found several new fears entered the top ten, and they explore worries over extremism in the age of Trump. The university’s 2017 surveyed 1,207 adult respondents from across the country who were asked about 80 different fears.
The categories ranged from fears about the government, the environment, terrorism, health, natural disasters, and finances, as well as fears of public speaking, spiders, heights, ghosts and many other personal anxieties.
The 2017 survey shows that the top 10 things Americans fear the most are:
1) Corruption of government officials (same top fear as 2015 and 2016)
2) American Healthcare Act/Trumpcare (new fear)
3) Pollution of oceans, rivers and lakes (new in top 10)
4) Pollution of drinking water (new in top 10)
5) Not having enough money in the future
6) High medical bills
7) The U.S. will be involved in another world war (new fear)
8) Global warming and climate change
9) North Korea using weapons (new fear)
10) Air pollution
The researchers this year also took a closer look at one particular fear-related phenomena: fear of extremism. Three out of five surveyed said they are very afraid or afraid of Islamic Extremists/Jihadists as a threat to national security. However a majority of Americans, 51 percent, also view White Supremacists as a threat to national security.
The political divisions that exist in America were reflected onto which group represented the greatest threat. While other types of extremist groups are a concern to large groups of Americans, only those [Islamic Extremists/Jihadists and White Supremacists] were identified by a majority of survey respondents. Roughly one-third of Americans identify the following four as threats: Extreme Anti-Immigration groups, the Militia/Patriot Movement, Left-Wing Revolutionaries, and Extreme Anti-Abortion groups. One in five Americans is afraid Extreme Environmentalists are a threat. […]
In other words in the age of Trump some calls (threats) are coming from inside the house (country). This fear affects the daily lives of Americans and even leads some to question the value of American freedom — 29 percent of Americans report being very afraid or afraid of being a victim of hate crime. One-third agree or strongly agree with the statement, “In order to curb terrorism in this country, it will be necessary to give up some civil liberties.” Even more, 35 percent, disagree or strongly disagree with the statement, “We should preserve our freedoms even if it increases the risk of terrorism.” As has been seen before, elevated fears over national security can lead to lower support for national values. [added emphasis]
Well, on the “bright” side — from Trump’s perspective, that is — I guess only 65 percent agree with the statement, “We should preserve our freedoms even if it increases the risk of terrorism.” Is it time to join the ACLU?
About the survey: the sample used for the Chapman University Survey of American Fears mirrors the demographic characteristics of the U.S. Census. For additional methodological details, see the full report.
I suppose it is possible Trump is still just bent about the small crowds at his Inauguration Day celebration. But whatever the case his Attorney General Jeff Session is going fishing on Facebook and the internet. 
The DOJ continues demands to access the private account information on potentially thousands of internet users in a case from that day. The administration claims it is investigating the planning, organization and participation in anti-Trump demonstrations (what they refer to as riots) on January 20 2017, Inauguration Day.
CNN reports […] administration lawyers are demanding the private account information of potentially thousands of Facebook users in three separate search warrants served on the social media giant, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
The warrants specifically target the accounts of three Facebook users who are described by their attorneys as “anti-administration activists who have spoken out at organized events, and who are generally very critical of this administration’s policies.”
When served with the federal warrants Facebook is prohibited from notifying the targets or making the public aware of their existence. However Facebook went to court and successfully fought to notify the people targeted by the Trump administration. Hit last August with similar DOJ demands for private account data, internet provider DreamHost leaked the news to the public.
The scope of Session’s fishing expedition should get the alarm bells ringing. CNN: In court filings, [one of the targeted people] says if [the] account information was given to the government, officials would have access to […] “personal passwords, security questions and answers, and credit card information,” plus “the private lists of invitees and attendees to multiple political events sponsored by the page.” […]
“What is particularly chilling about these warrants is that anti-administration political activists are going to have their political associations and views scrutinized by the very administration they are protesting,” said ACLU attorney Scott Michelman.
And if that doesn’t get the alarm bell ringing about the lengths the DOJ is willing to go to chase anti-Trump demonstrators, this may:
The DailyBeast reports today that Federal prosecutors in Washington want to use a video made by a far rightwing group as evidence in court to convict hundreds of people charged with rioting at Inauguration Day demonstrations. In September, the U.S. attorney moved to introduce a series of videos ripped from right-wing and conspiracy-theorist YouTube channels, including a video produced by the far-right militia the Oath Keepers.
The video names listed in the filing match those of dubious YouTube videos boasting of “INSANE Protests Riots Compilation,” or far-right internet videos claiming to show “Mayham” [sic] in the streets.
And one of those videos—an audio file overlaid with a slideshow of protest pictures—was uploaded as part of an “operation” by a right-wing militia.
The Oath Keepers were formed in 2009, as the Southern Poverty law Center explains: […] in the direct aftermath of the election of the nation’s first black president. Today, it is one of the largest radical antigovernment organizations in the United States.
There’s a dream team nightmares are made of: President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Session and the Oath Keepers all on the same side, wading in the same stream, out to catch the same exercising-their-constitutional-rights-to-swim-upstream fish.
While the drama between Donald Trump and his Secretary of State play out in the headlines, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is hard at work on what is being called an unprecedented proposal to prop up the coal industry and nuclear power plants that are at risk of closing.
Following Trump’s goal to shore up aging coal and nuclear power plant operations, Sec. Perry is rapidly trying to make significant changes to the rules the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) follows to regulate power markets.
Specifically thehill.com reports: Perry wants to increase the payments to troubled coal and nuclear plants by requiring that certain regional electric grid operations pay power plants their actual costs of operating plus a “fair rate of return.”
It would be a significant shift from the bidding process now allowed and would almost certainly raise electricity costs for consumers, critics say of the plan.
But Perry’s idea has garnered significant praise from coal and nuclear industry leaders, who say it could revive plants they say deserve to be paid more.
They argue that because these plants build up larger fuel supplies than competitors producing electricity from wind and solar power, they should be paid more.
Energy Secretary Perry is not only attempting to rush the rule change through a process that could normally take year to write and even longer to enact.* Perry’s proposed changes may also violate FERC’s legal authority which by law [… ] centers on the responsibility to ensure that wholesale power rates are “just and reasonable.”
Any new regulation would have to demonstrate that without the higher payments for coal and nuclear, rates are unjust or unreasonable. If it fails to do so, a federal court could overturn the new regulation.
“FERC does not have the authority to just decide that a particular source of generation gets paid differently now because Rick Perry requested it,” said Justin Gundlach, a climate change law fellow at Columbia University Law School.
[*It should be noted that the Obama era Clean Power Plan rules took year to write and don’t enforce emission reduction until 2022.]
When nominated to lead the Dept of Energy, former Texas governor and presidential candidate Perry seemed to have little idea of the massive scope of the agency’s responsibilities. Vanity Fair wrote in an article this summer: Since Perry was confirmed, his role has been ceremonial and bizarre. He pops up in distant lands and tweets in praise of this or that D.O.E. program while his masters inside the White House create budgets to eliminate those very programs. His sporadic public communications have had in them something of the shell-shocked grandmother […]
He seems to have warmed to one task — putting his thumb on the scale for carbon emissions and toxic waste while carrying out climate change denier- in- chief Donald Trump’s orders.
As of March 2017 there were 770,00 FAA registered drone owners — and that, according to the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (a drone industry trade and lobby organization), was up from 670,000 at the start of the year.
News this past week included stories that Texas, Maine and Vermont are all struggling to come to grips with different angles on drone regulation in at what might be the start of an age of drones.
The state of Texas has passed a law criminalizing certain drone uses. The Texas law makes it a crime to operate a drone over “concentrated animal feeding operations,” as well as telecommunication facilities and certain oil and gas facilities. It also bars Texas cities and towns from making their own rules regulating drone usage — a measure that has become controversial in its own right.
Supporters of the law say it will protect against aerial poisoning of livestock or power line sabotage. Opponents say the state is protecting industry, oil, gas, and large farming operations from public scrutiny from the air.
Hmm, would the Texas Legislature pass a law protecting a business from public scrutiny?
In Maine, state police drones are now being dispatched to remotely take images of traffic accidents that are being stitched together with software . That state’s police say it saves time and money by cutting a task that pre-drone might have taken as long 24 hours down to 14 minutes. Maine police purchased 200 drones estimated to cost $5,000.00 each[corrected 4/18/18 : Maine bought three DJI Matrice model 200 drones, each costing about $5,000 ].
While Maine allows remote aerial photographing of crash scenes, drone regulations prohibit their use in criminal investigations without a warrant. Vehicles and people unrelated to the crash must be removed from the police images. The Maine ACLU advocacy director Oamshri Amarasingham questioned how practical it can be for the state police to crop unrelated individuals out of every photo taken at an accident scene. The ACLU says without appropriate protections the new practice could violate the privacy of Maine residents.
And finally Vermont’s drone story involves a man stopped from videoing a high school sporting event from the air. In Vermont, individual high schools are allowed to decide whether or not to permit or ban drones at their sporting events — but the Vermont Principals’ Association says they are banned during the playoffs.
Recently in Montpelier objections were made when […] a licensed Montpelier resident who had asked permission to record a girls soccer game with a drone was asked to stop filming.
“We looked into it and made sure they had a permit or license, and they did,” Montpelier Athletic Director Matt Link said of the person who made the request. “It was OK with the officials before the game, but during the game there was a protest.”
Vermont Principals’ Association Executive Director Bob Johnson mentioned safety concerns over a drone crashing into a crowd. A quick YouTube search shows plenty of compilation videos of crashes. And it isn’t just “pilot” error causing the troubles. A study in the UK of 150 crash incidents by RMIT University School of Engineering found technical problems were the cause of 64 percent of the incidents, which occurred between 2006 and 2016. Naturally insurance companies are setting their sights on risk management and drone liability.
This week it is Vermont, Maine, and Texas hassling through legitimate concerns about expanding drone use by law enforcement and private individuals. There’s plenty more stories like this in sight for all states, cities and towns. And just wait until Amazon unleashes fleets of speedy delivery drones from their airborne fulfillment centers. Time to duck and cover.
Quinnipiac University has new poll out and the results may prove reassuring for anyone in need of an occasional reminder there’s still a reservoir of sanity in the U.S.
President Donald Trump is not “fit to serve as president,” American voters say 56 – 42 percent, and voters disapprove 57 – 36 percent of the job he is doing as president, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.
Democrats say Trump is not fit 94 – 5 percent and independent voters say 57 – 40 percent. Republicans say 84 – 14 percent that he is fit. And the poll found Donald that 57% of Americans disapprove of the job he is doing.
The poll results do remind us that divisions still run deep as ever along not only party but racial and gender lines.
On President Trump’s handling of race relations: American voters disapprove 62 – 32 percent of the way President Trump is handling race relations. Disapproval is 55 – 39 percent among white voters, 95 – 3 percent among black voters and 66 – 28 percent among Hispanic voters. President Trump is doing more to divide the country than to unite the country, American voters say 60 – 35 percent. 
Looking forward, according to Quinnipiac polling, voters also say 49 – 40 percent — including 47 – 34 percent among independent voters — they would like to see Democrats win control of the U.S. Senate next year. Got to hope that comes soon enough. Or is that hope too audacious ?
Methodology: The poll was conducted from September 21 – 26, and surveyed 1,412 voters nationwide. Quinnipiac pollsters conducted live interviewers by calling landlines and cell phones. The results have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.