Appoint an oligarchy of billionaires to run the show? No... not the Apprentice, but the United States of America! Govern by PROCLAMATION? Executive ORDERS to eliminate regulations on banks and against polluters? Eliminate regulations that protect consumers, remove restrictions from mining companies that prevent the dumping of contaminants into streams? Executive ORDERS to implement a "gag rule" on federal employees - especially those who advocate environmental protection and agree with 95% of scientists that global warming is real and is caused, not as a Chinese plot, but by human activity and carbon emissions? "Instructions" to the press by Senior Counselor to the President Steve Bannon that the press should "shut up?" Is this the movie plot to some nightmare future in the Trumpworld vision of what the United States should be? In any case, what is the administration afraid of? And, what are "alternative facts" anyway?
During his first two weeks in office, President Trump has ignored the other two branches of government - the legislative and the judicial branches - along with their shared power and system of checks and balances - and has been governing by EXECUTIVE EDICT! "Edict" is defined as "a decree or law of major import promulgated by a king, queen, or other sovereign of government; an authoritative command or dictate; a law ordained by a sovereign, by which he (or she) forbids or commands something..." (Free Legal Dictionary.com). President Trump has insisted that his appointments be quickly adopted without waiting for the traditional legal process of vetting by the FBI, reports to Committees of Jurisdiction, completion of Committee disclosure and information forms, and compliance with the standards and rules that have been commonplace in the advice-and-consent process of the US Senate for decades. Trump has approached his appointment powers as President in the very same way that he has operated his businesses - his way or the highway. Most Senate Committees insisted that their process be followed and at least one nominee - Secretary of the Army nominee Vincent Viola, another billionaire investor and owner of the Florida Panthers hockey team - withdrew his nomination because he either could not or would not shed his business interests in order to eliminate potential conflicts of interest that could occur in his role as Secretary of the Army. Like Trump, Viola's plan was to transfer control of his company to his family but not divest himself of ownership of the company. That didn't pass muster with the Military Code of Ethics which applies in this case. On the other hand, Acting United States Attorney General Sally Yates, a career prosecutor, was fired by President Trump - recalling his role in "The Apprentice"- after refusing to enforce his Muslim Entry Ban on January 30th. The Trump way or the highway.....
And, then there is Steve Bannon...... and his appointment to the National Security Counsel as a permanent member. In a break from history and, some argue, from federal law and practice, Trump ordered the Counsel to seat Bannon, regardless of the law which defines with precision as to who the permanent members would be, notably including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Intelligence Director. President Trump appointed Bannon and demoted (read removed) the Joint Chiefs Chair and the Director of National Intelligence, regardless of their statutory status. Presidential Press Spokesperson, Chuck Spicer, poo-pooed this violation of law with the comment that the President, "is entitled to appoint whoever he pleases to advise him on policy matters." Sounds like yet another royal "edict" to me.
OK... so, maybe Trump is entitled to issue orders, edicts, and rule by proclamation.... After all, he was elected with a "massive mandate!" Whoa! Let's look at THAT outrageous claim..... In the first place, Donald Trump LOST to Hillary Clinton in a nation-wide vote by 3 MILLION VOTES. So, his argument is that he actually won? Because 3 to 5 million illegal immigrant and fraudulent votes were cast? This is utter nonsense, no matter how many times that it might be repeated. In the first place, 2/3 or more of the state-based elections are conducted and supervised by REPUBLICAN SECRETARIES OF STATE. All 50 states have denied that they discovered any voter fraud of any kind at all. In fact, with more that 165,000,000 votes cast in November, not more than 4 cases of voter fraud have been reported. Even adding those 4 votes to Trump - say from his daughter Evanka, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his Senior Counselor Steve Bannon, and his son, Donald Junior who all are registered in two states - he still lost the popular vote by nearly 3 MILLION VOTES. No matter how you slice it, Trump was REJECTED by a majority of American voters.
Well, you might argue, he won "a massive landslide" in the electoral vote. This also is a FRAUD and a stretch of the facts. Trump did win the electoral vote - 306-232 - but a change in just 2 states would have led to a different outcome. Still, even that doesn't change the fact that Trump lost the popular vote 48.2% for Clinton and 46.1% for Trump, a difference of 2,865,000 votes, not 4 votes. And, reflecting that vote split, the Democrats picked up House Seats and Senate Seats along the way as well. Taking Independent candidacies into account, 54% of Americans who cast their ballot for president in November, 2016 voted against Trump. Nevertheless, Trump continues on the path of Edict, Order, and rule by Proclamation. The only "massive landslide" of sorts that has taken place recently was the MASSIVE WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON that took place the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. More than 1 million women and their supporters marched in DC on a positive message of Human Rights for all People. They were joined by hundreds of local "sister marches" that took place in every state and in thousands of cities and towns across the nation and in 33 countries around the world, totaling some 5 million + protestors. Perhaps that is the number that President Trump had in mind when he described "5 million fraudulent votes" being cast. The 5 million who marched that day and the millions who have marched since - in protest of renewed attacks on the environment, against Trump cabinet picks, in support of the Health Care for All, and more - suggests that the "emperor has no clothes."
As recently editorialized in "The Nation" magazine (Feb. 6-13, 2017), "Trump has no mandate to privatize medicare or medicaid, no mandate to ramp up attacks on voting and labor rights, no mandate to deny climate change, and no mandate to make the world a more dangerous place." And, now, given the most recent court rulings in Washington State and in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, it appears that he also has no mandate to reverse the proud American tradition of welcoming immigrants - and especially refugees - to join us in seeking the fulfillment of the American Dream. With Trump's recent edict banning Muslim immigration to the US from 7 selected countries and an outright bar on accepting refugees from Syria, our President has attempted to erase the words of welcome that were etched on the base of the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed immigrants from around the globe for generations as written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. Her sonnet was inscribed on the base of the statue in 1903, and has served as a beacon of hope in welcoming immigrants to the United States for more than 100 years. In part, the inscription reads, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." May this sentiment ever be so.
Millions have marched against the TRAVEL BAN imposed by President Trump, and opponents have lined up against the measure, including dozens of Republican Senators and House Members. Given the announcement by the Justice Department that they will appeal the Federal Judge's ruling that implements a temporary stay of the Trump Order, and are asking the Court of Appeals to set aside the lower Court ruling, it appears that the issue may yet land in front of the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals will hear the case but has refused to disturb the lower court injunction against the order. It seems as though President Trump has yet to learn that a our democracy will function as the founders intended and that those who would attempt to deny, destroy, dismiss, or ignore our history and the precedents established that are our heritage, will be swept away by the tide of history and the might of the majority. Majority trumps mandate. And, that may yet prove to be Donald Trump's undoing.
Meanwhile, back at the Senate confirmations..... Are we discovering that the billionaire nominees, like Trump, bristle at the "impertinence" of the elected officials and others who dare to challenge them and their worthiness to be "at the switch?" This narcissist attitude should not come as a surprise, given Trump's operational history as a CEO of many companies and we should not expect anything different from his nominated Cabinet Members. Instead of "draining the swamp" as Trump promised his supporters over and over, he is "stocking the pond" with corporate piranhas, many from the Wall Street crowd that he attacked during the campaign.
Stay tuned. More on this in the next article.
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