In the news and why we MUST resist
/I am not feeling hopeful about America right now, and frankly, I don't think you should be either. The news from the Evil Yam's dictatorly abode is getting worse and worse. Some recent developments:
Assaults on the media and freedom of the press:
CNN, The New York Times, The LA Times, and Politico, among others, were blocked from the White House press meeting. BLOCKED. This is unprecedented behavior from an American presidential administration. Indeed, just this past December (yes, the one just three months ago), Sean Spicer, WH Press Secretary said, "open access for the media is 'what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.'" It seems the latter shoe is starting to fit quite comfortably.
-Meanwhile, a Chicago affiliate of ABC suspended an anchor for tweeting several anti-Trump sentiments. Speech seems to be becoming less free, eh?
Hate crimes and bigotry:
On Friday, two Indian-American men were shot, one of them killed, in Kansas by a white American who had been kicked out of the bar in which they all relaxed for such egregious racial slurs that other patrons complained. After leaving, he returned and fired on the men. It is being investigated as a premeditated hate crime. You think? Trump has made no statement about this event.
You probably also saw the horrific vandalization of a Jewish cemetery, Chesed Shel Emeth, in St. Louis, MO. Trump only made a statement denouncing this heinous act when asked directly about it by a journalist.
Trump is also still working on instating a travel ban despite not one reliable news or security source suggesting that such a ban is reasonable or is called for in any way. Homeland Security issued the article I link to.
Hate is becoming policy.
The roundups and threats of and actual deportations continue. Interestingly and concurrently, Trump rescinded "an Obama admin directive that would have ended the government's association with private prisons." As do many who have studied the systemically racist, enormously overpopulated, failing criminal justice system, Obama believed private prisons were "neither safe nor cost effective." But with Trump's deportation plans "comes the possibility of millions of illegal immigrants who will need to be detained somewhere" prior to their ouster. And it turns out according to USA TODAY, the private prison industry has already said thank you to Donald Trump.
After tweeting a promise to the LGBTQ community in June of 2016 to fight for them and their rights, Trump last week, with the support of newly installed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rescinded an Obama directive aimed at protecting LGBTQ students in schools by tossing the decision to do so back to the states. As do I, many LGBTQ advocates believe desperately that federal protections are critically important to supersede the possible (likely; see North Carolina, for example) bigotry of state governments.
Who's really running the show?:
Scary white supremacist WH Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, emerged from the shadows of evil last week to deliver a forceful speech on plans to "deconstruct the administrative state" and "upend the world order." This included massive, sustained attacks on the media (see point 1, above). “Every day, it is going to be a fight.” Bannon remains on the National Security Council, also unprecedented.
Trump's lies:
On February 21, Washington Post reporter, Chris Cilizza, published a well-documented piece showing that not once for the 33 days since his inauguration has Trump gone a day without lying. Some days those lies number one or two while other days the fib tally climbs to 7 or more.
Russia:
And meanwhile, Trump's (and his team's) relationships and involvement with Russia prior to the election and since remains exceptionally murky and unknown. Now, the Trump administration "has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia, a politically charged issue that has been under investigation by the FBI as well as lawmakers now defending the White House."