TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON TRUTH

AUGUST 1, 2017—DECEMBER 31, 2017

BY JON NELSON

INTRODUCTION

Much has happened since I completed my book “Fascism Comes to America” in July, 2017. In that book I discussed how Trump’s popularity had sunk lower in the six months since his presidency started than any other president since polling began. The trends since then have continued their downward plummet: Trump’s approval rating is, at this writing, somewhere around thirty percent. Clearly, were the election held today, Trump would stand the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell.

But another fact has emerged, mainly that the Republicans in power have no intention of surrendering it. Whether by lies, innuendo, or perhaps, even a coup, they will do everything in their power to maintain their grip on the reins of government. Given their actions since assuming power, it doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. This of course does not mean that they are planning a coup in upcoming elections (at least not at present), but they clearly are not interested in democracy and they couldn’t care less about what the people want. In order for them to keep control, they will resort to the most bald-faced lies imaginable. This article will focus on the lies that Trump, his administration, and various other Republicans have been feeding the American people in the period between August, 2017 and January 1, 2018. I will examine the policies they have implemented or are trying to implement. I will show the connections between fundamentalist religion and the Republican party. I will begin with Trump’s multitudinous lies. I will then move on to his cabinet and other Republican supporters, and will also give examples of the truly awful things Republicans are trying to foist on everyone. Taken together, all this should make any thinking American realize the threat that the Republican agenda means to all of us.

A FEW OF TRUMP’S MANY LIES

Let us begin by examining some of Trump’s campaign promises and contrast them what he has actually done.

***During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump said: “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens.” Six months into his presidency, Trump proved again what a consummate liar he is. First, he called for a ban against transgender people serving in the military on July 26, 2017, after promising that community during the campaign that they had no greater friend than him. He has also eliminated federal protections from workplace anti-LGBTQ discrimination and is even trying to roll back protections for LGBTQ students in our public schools; bullying and threats are OK in Trump’s worldview. If all this weren’t enough, he fired the entire HIV/AIDS White House counsel without warning on December 27, 2017. He didn’t even have the decency to tell them to their faces; instead he notified them by FedEx! Trump’s real intentions on how to deal with the LGBTQ community are dangerously obvious: His 2018 budget will make huge cuts to programs including $150 million on HIV/AIDS at the Centers of Disease Control. In addition, the budget includes over a billion dollars in cuts from global disease programs including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Just under a year into his first term, Trump has yet to appoint an HIV/AIDS chief, the first time since Bill Clinton created the position in 1993 that a president has failed to do so.

***During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised to invest a trillion dollars in our nation’s infrastructure, which he promised would increase the number of available jobs. Instead, his budget threatens our safety, our drinking water, and cuts funding to repair roads and bridges, and limits funding that assist communities facing natural disasters.

***Trump famously declared that, as president, he would “drain the swamp.” Instead, he has filled the swamp to overflowing with corporate polluters, billionaires, and yes men. The swamp now threatens the well-being of every American.

***He promised to provide affordable health care for every American. Instead, he has signed legislation that will throw almost thirty million Americans off health insurance. This scam will also force older Americans in particular to pay substantially more for health coverage.

***Trump tried to appear sympathetic with working families during the presidential campaign, saying that he understands their pain. However his budget includes massive cuts in affordable housing, college financial aid, and helpful programs such as Meals on Wheels and Head Start.

***Candidate Trump promised that he wouldn’t touch Medicare and Medicaid. President Trump supports a budget that cuts funding for Medicare by half a trillion dollars and over a trillion dollars for Medicaid.

***As a candidate, Trump promised to stop pharmaceutical companies from “getting away with murder.” Once he became president, he installed Scott Gottlieb as head of the Food and Drug Administration, a man who has interests in several health care companies and has received millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies. Gottlieb, like his president, is strongly opposed to lowering the price on drugs people depend upon.

***Candidate Trump promised to “stop Wall Street from getting away with murder.” Once he became president, he signed an executive order that deregulates the same financial institutions that have, through illegal maneuverings, caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, their homes, and their life savings.

***Candidate Trump promised that the tax plan he envisioned would leave rich people like himself worse off. Even the most superficial examination of the bill passed in December, 2017 reveals quite the reverse to be true: Almost every American earning between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year will see a tax reduction, and Trump himself will benefit enormously.

Is this not conclusive proof that Donald Trump is the most shameful liar in politics today? But perhaps the biggest lie of all in 2017 came from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders who, despite all the lies listed above coming from Trump’s mouth, still had the audacity to say: “We believe the truth is fundamental, and to suggest otherwise is outrageously insulting.” The facts are right there in front of your nose, Sarah; be insulted if you want.

Author Bella DePaulo is a social scientist who has researched lies and liars. Her conclusions about Trump are telling. Citing the Washington Post’s Fact Checker, she first notes that most adults make an average of 1.65 lies per day. Then she gets to the nitty gritty: “In Trump’s first 298 days in office, however, he made 1,628 false or misleading claims or flip-flops, by The Post’s tally. That’s about six per day, far higher than the average rate in our studies. And of course, reporters have access to only a subset of Trump’s false statements—the ones he makes publicly—so unless he never stretches the truth in private, his actual rate of lying is almost certainly higher.” (Bella DePaulo, Washington Post, December 8, 2017) DePaulo also notes that the rate of his lies is has been increasing to around nine per day since October 2017, “outpacing even the biggest liars in our research.” She also pointed out that the overwhelming majority of his lies, contrary to those of others studied, are self-serving and/or hurtful toward others.

In my book, I have gone into great detail about the role of the media in enabling Trump and his fellow extremists. The mainstream media has failed to call him to task for his many lies on the campaign trail and since assuming the presidency. But this is nothing new at all; Republicans have proven themselves to be utterly shameless liars over the decades, and the media has been complacent, to say the least, in exposing their lies and evasions. It should be painfully obvious that the Republican party simply cannot be trusted no matter what they say. Aided and abetted by a compliant media, they get away with lie after lie, evasions, distortions and then blame all their problems, and the country’s problems, not only on Democrats, which is not surprising, but also on the same media that has been enabling them.

Trump’s hostility toward the media should come as no surprise; they report what he says and does, and that makes them his enemy. He conducted a war against the media long before becoming president, and it has escalated since. Any objective facts that contradict what he wants to be true are labeled “fake news.” Merely reporting anything unfavorable to this hyper-sensitive man is considered bias. Journalists who dare to question his actions in any way are labeled “enemies of the people” (Stalin couldn’t have said it better). Objective news outlets are labeled “pathetic,” “sad,” and “dishonest.” Considering the magnitude and frequency of his own lies, this is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. Even though a free press is guaranteed in the first Amendment, Trump wants to censor it and make it conform to his whims. These are the actions of a dictator or, in his case, a dictator wannabe.

There are so many objectively verified lies that have come from this man’s mouth that it would take a small book to list them all. Recognizing that he did not win the popular vote, he made the ridiculous assertion that Hillary Clinton’s supporters had fraudulently packed polling places with millions of illegal voters. Here is another one: During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would not benefit from any tax proposals he would sign into law. Yet the criminally evil bill finally passed by the Republican-controlled Congress is chock full of provisions that he and his family will benefit from. It’s called a conflict of interest, but Congressional Republicans, as usual, are looking the other way when it comes to one of their own. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the wholesale looting of America. Republican leaders are doing all they can to write into law any legislation that financially benefits them and their corporate donors—at the expense of everyone else.

TRUMP THE BUSINESSMAN

Trump has a long history of looting at the corporate level; he and his cronies are simply using similar tactics at the top levels of government.
Consider this: As a businessman, Trump was once the CEO of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, which was a publicly traded company. He and his supporters never fail to praise him for his business acumen, yet he was never able to make this a profitable enterprise. But he himself benefitted from running it, mainly by placing his personal debts onto the corporate balance sheet, which only served to cheat shareholders of any profits that might have accrued. In other words, these shareholders were being forced, without their knowledge, to help Trump pay of his debts. He used this same strategy in other companies as well. What his supporters either don’t know about or else don’t care about is that Trump was fined by the Federal Trade Commission as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, but still managed to avoid going out of business.

Even if he were a successful businessman, this alone hardly qualifies him to lead the United States. I’ve covered this in detail in my book “Fascism Comes to America” so I needn’t repeat myself here. However, a quick review is in order. The simple fact is that by the turn of the 21st century, Donald Trump was broke. His credit was shot, and just about all of his businesses were dying or dead. The only thing he had going for him at that point was his name. He soon started his way back to the top, but not by conventional business means: his rise came when he began to make money from corrupt overseas business deals. This enabled him to sell real estate in New York at ludicrous prices. While he claims that his rise was due to his own business acumen, the fact is that his licensing deals never amounted to much and his investments outside of real estate cost him much more money than he made. Trump is a shady businessman to say the least. Since the 1980s, he has quietly purchased over 1300 condominium properties in all-cash transitions that allow buyers to avoid legal problems by hiding their finances as well as their identities. The rules as they stand allow a man like Trump to accept money from just about anyone. If the source was a criminal from another country, Trump could simply claim he was unaware of it. All this is indicative of money laundering by the president of the United States. That is why Robert Mueller brought charges against Paul Manafort and Robert Gates and is getting closer and closer to Trump himself. There is little doubt that this investigation will throw light on this massive money laundering operation, and it also explains why Trump said that if Mueller dared to investigate financial crimes, it would be “crossing a red line.” Mueller doesn’t have to look far for proof: Trump is still doing conducting his business in the same way: The number of unknown buyers working through offshore accounts is actually increasing.

All this from the “brilliant” businessman who has declared bankruptcy not once, but seven times.

Part of the problem is that we really don’t have a full picture of Trump’s corruption since he refuses to provide the people who voted him in with a clear accounting of his business interests. All this should be kept in mind when we remember that he has steadfastly refused to disclose his income tax returns. In defiance of the Constitution, he has refused to divest himself of his business interests; he has even profited from having visiting dignitaries stay at Trump hotels! As of the end of 2017, no less than sixty four trade groups, foreign governments, Republican candidates and others connected with politics either stayed at or else held events at properties either directly owned by or otherwise linked to Trump, according to Public Citizen, a non-partisan political watchdog group. This is undeniably a conflict of interest since he has not divested himself from properties he owns or that carry his name, despite his earlier promise that he would hand control of his business empire to his sons and move his assets into a trust. This is a violation of what is known as the emoluments clause in the Constitution, which was put in place so that politicians would not seek office only to expand their financial interests. Clearly, Trump is violating the Constitution. Why aren’t politicians making an issue out of this blatant conflict of interest? If this were not enough, the tax scam passed in December will save him hundreds of millions—perhaps a billion—dollars. Another conflict of interest. And more silence from our leaders. As Robert Weissman noted: “Our objective is to illustrate, again and again, that President Trump’s conflicts mock Candidate Trump’s promises to rid Washington of corruption, cronyism and insider-dealing.” (Public Citizen, December 27, 2017). Weissman also notes in the same article: “Trump’s conflicts are driving policy—in ways that benefit superrich people like him, and that devastate regular Americans.”

We have no clear picture of the full extent of Trump’s personal corruption, since in violation of decades’ worth of tradition he has refused to give us a clear sense of his income streams or financial interests. It would be trivially easy for Congress to force Trump to disclose his tax returns, but instead of holding his feet to the fire, they are taking their cues from him—even though many of them spent the 2016 campaign openly recognizing that he was unfit for office.

In addition to his dishonesty and corruptibility, Trump himself is an inveterate racist. Neo-nazi groups rejoiced at his inauguration. Hate crimes agains minorities have increased dramatically since his nomination. In August 2017, a “unite the right” rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, uniting nationalists, white supremacy groups and other fringe organizations. Naturally, this brought out a large group of counter-protesters, one of whom was killed and nineteen injured when a car plowed into them. People naturally expected the president to condemn racism; instead, he said that there are “good people on both sides” of the issue. In other words, the president of the United States is saying that there are “good” Nazis and Klansmen. Given this evil statement, can anyone wonder why we are experiencing such a rise in hate crimes? The racist protestors were enabled by Donald Trump and even said so. Former KKK leader David Duke wrote on Twitter: “Thank you Mr. President for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville& condemn the leftist terrorists.”

During the Second World War, the “greatest generation” fought against fascism and totalitarianism and won the worst conflict in world history. After the war and the death of president Franklin D. Roosevelt, his successor Harry Truman fought racism and integrated the armed forces. This was done even though Truman himself, in his younger days, considered joining the KKK; he stormed out in anger during the first meeting he attended. It is increasingly obvious that we have come full circle on racism; we are rapidly becoming the “worst generation” as bigotry, ignorance, fear and hatred permeate the oval office and encourage the worst in society to be as brazen as the KKK was a hundred years ago.

The United States is indeed starting to look more like 1917 rather than 2017; Trump and his Republican cohorts and supporters are out to destroy civil rights because they are bigots. There is just no way to sugarcoat it. But the scariest part is that there are still a sizable number of people who support him, either out of ignorance, or out of racism. Those are the only two alternatives.

Even the business community was so shocked by Trump’s support of racism that many of its leaders publicly rebuked him. By August 17, the heads of General Electric Co., and Intel Corporation had joined the flight from the president’s economic advisory and manufacturing councils; so few were left that Trump announced that the panels would be disbanded. And, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was so incensed at Trump’s remarks that they issued a statement decrying racial bigotry. Coupled with the resignation of chief strategist and overt racist Steve Bannon, Trump has found himself increasingly isolated on the race issue.

Incidentally, one of those “fine” people among the white supremacists was arrested after he was found tampering with the brakes of an Amtrak train. Trump, not surprisingly, was silent on this, just as he was silent on the question of why the white supremacists, and not those opposing them, are the ones both provoking and instigating terrorist attacks. Were people on “both sides” in Charlottesville carrying firearms and other weapons? Were “both sides” advocating white supremacy and hatred against blacks, Jews, gays and other minorities? Were “both sides” proudly waving Nazi flags? Clearly, the president’s words were an affront to anyone who considers him/herself to be a moral person.

One letter writer called Trump’s statement on Charlottesville “a 9/11-style attack on the soul of this country. For the first time in my 61 years, I fear for the future of our democracy and for my personal safety.” (Letters, L.A. Times, August 17, 2017)

The term “alt-right” has often been used in the past year to describe those Republicans who hold the most extreme views on politics and race. Trump naturally decided that, since these people exist in the right-wing, there must be a corresponding group in the left-wing, so he began using the term “alt-left.” He described those protesting the bigots in Charlottesville as belonging to the “alt-left.” However, this term denotes a false equivalency. There are no leftist groups that label themselves in this way. More importantly, there are no people in the left wing who are openly anti-Semitic, anti-gay, and advocate violence against those they don’t like. Despite the paucity of evidence, right-wing media spokespersons such as Sean Hannity continue to use the term. One Nation, a fringe Republican advocacy group, labeled Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as belonging to the “alt-left.” Apparently, their advocacy of income equality puts them in the same category as the liars, racists, and murderers in the alt-right. Consider Republican strategist Barry Bennett’s words: “There is an alt-left that is trying to define the progressive movement. They want church schools banned, guns banned, corporations eliminated.” This is a fairly typical example of the lies that fringe Republicans engage in. Liberals don’t want to “ban” church schools, only that taxpayers not be forced to subsidize them. They don’t want guns banned; only a sensible policy keeping them out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. And they certainly don’t want corporations banned; only that they pay their share of the taxes. Incendiary words lacking substance: that is what passes for intellectual discourse in today’s Republican party.

Trump’s unfitness for office was obvious to all thinking Americans long before he announced his candidacy. Rather than citing a left-leaning political pundit, here is a July 2016 quote from comedian Dick Van Dyke: “He has been a magnet to all the racists and xenophobes in the country, I haven’t been this scared since the Cuban Missile Crisis. I think the human race is hanging in a delicate balance right now, and I’m just so afraid he will put us in a war. He scares me.” Van Dyke’s comments are right on the money: Trump’s eagerness to bait North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has made an unwinnable nuclear war a very distinct possibility. In the thermonuclear age, a war of this nature could destroy huge segments of humanity. This should scare anyone, yet Trump’s dwindling supporters brush all this off as if it doesn’t concern them.

There is also a threat of war against Iran. On October 13, 2017, Trump decertified the Iranian nuclear deal framework, even though there was no factual basis for doing so. The deal, dating from 2015, specified that Iran would convert and/or reduce its nuclear facilities and accept the Additional Protocol in order to lift all nuclear-related economical sanctions. The result would be to free up billions of dollars in oil revenue and other assets. Trump has always hated the deal and promised to destroy it. However, even his top advisors are saying that, were we to withdraw now, the alternative could be the de-stabilization of the Middle East, a nuclear-armed Iran, or even war. They note that if we restore sanctions, this could convince regime extremists that the United States cannot be trusted and encourage them to renew the nuclear program.

Trump’s endless twitters are exacerbating this and other problems. He rants and raves on twitter without giving thought to the potential consequences. He said in September 2017 that North Korea “won’t be around much longer.” He also re-tweeted phony Islamophobic videos from an anti-Muslim hate group in Britain. Since the beginning of his presidency he has sided with white supremacists and re-tweeted their posts, actions that has encouraged them and led, either directly or indirectly, to the violent confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia in August. Despite the obvious dangers, Twitter refuses to call him to task, saying that he is not violating their terms of service, even though the company has recently cracked down on groups that use their account to promote violence. So Twitter needs to hold the president to the same standards as everyone else.

I have already provided numerous examples of Trump’s many lies. But he is far from the only liar on the political scene. Republicans, as we will see, couldn’t care less about the truth. What they want is complete control over the United States and everyone in it. They don’t want discussions, they don’t welcome dissent, and they don’t respect the Constitution. This is how fascist governments work, and our government is currently being run by fascists. That should be obvious to any thinking American. For those who have their doubts, I refer you to my book “Fascism Comes to America,” which is available on my blog.

A NEW CONSTITUTION?

With regard to the Constitution, some really alarming developments have taken place even before Trump assumed the presidency, which have only escalated in 2017 and promises to increase even more in 2018. One of these threats comes not from the White House, but from the billionaire Koch brothers special interest group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This group is throwing untold amounts of money at state lawmakers in an effort to radically reshape or even abandon the Constitution. They are demanding nothing less than a new Constitutional Convention. If all their efforts pan out, then delegates not appointed by the American people will have free access to re-write the Constitution in a way that favors the right-wing agenda. It’s nothing more than a power grab, and it threatens the United States survival as a free country.

What would they do if they are successful in their efforts to alter or abandon the Constitution? Civil rights legislation would certainly be rolled back, environmental protections would be removed, and a new economic policy would be enacted that favors—you guessed it—the extremely wealthy at the expense of everyone else. As I write this at the beginning of 2018, only six states are blocking the way for an Article V Constitutional convention. The problem in having another Constitutional Convention is that there are no guidelines in place that put any kind of limits on such a convention once it is called. There are no executive, judicial, or legislative bodies to settle disputes that arise; the result could easily be nothing less than complete political anarchy. Who would determine how delegates to the convention would be named? Moreover, a Constitutional convention can make its own rules and set its own agenda. Given the way today’s Republicans enact legislation behind closed doors with no input from anyone they don’t like, is there any doubt that a new Constitutional Convention would be run in a similar fashion? Anything could be put on their agenda: elimination of a free press, individual rights, criminal justice, privacy, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, or anything else imaginable could be introduced, and result in disastrous change. Given the agenda of the Koch brothers and other right-wing extremists, a new convention could easily run amok, resulting in a totalitarian document unrecognizable in form to the present Constitution. Let us take as an example one potential consequence. The delegation could decide that fundamentalist Christianity will become the “official” religion of the United States. This is a high priority item for Republican Christian fundamentalists. And for those not of the official faith? They would first be marginalized. Next, some of their rights would be eliminated, followed by others. They could become designated “enemies of the state” and even more drastic measures taken against them. A new Christian Dark Age could easily ensue, and protestors would have no legal recourse to protect their “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is not a slippery-slope argument; history is replete of examples in which exactly this type of thing has taken place, step by step. To cite the most notorious example, Hitler assumed power by being voted into office.

If six more states approve, the super rich right-wing extremists will then have a two-thirds majority to destroy the Constitution. Once again, despite the clear and present danger this evil plan poses to our survival as a nation, the mainstream press has been lax in doing its duty by reporting it to the public. And Republicans complain that the press is against them? If the press doesn’t cover something this dangerous, they are by default complicit in the destruction of our country.

It is not just corporate bigwigs and billionaires who are calling for a new Constitutional Convention. Many right-wing Republican leaders are doing the same, including Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Tom Coburn, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Rand Paul.

The only other time in American history that a Constitutional Convention was called was in 1787 and the result was the Constitution we currently live under. The men of 1787 were the leading intellectuals, patriots, and statesmen of the time whose names have come down to us as beacons of democracy. Can anyone seriously imagine that a new convention will bring out men of similar distinction? Will any of them come to the convention with the intention of putting country above politics? The actions of virtually all Republican leaders in recent years clearly show that they will not.
The idea of a new convention has been floating around for years. Even before Trump’s election, intelligent people were raising serious issues. For example, David Super, professor of law at Georgetown University, summed up the situation thusly: “Do we really want to open up our nation’s core defining values to debate at a time when a serious candidate for the White House brags about his enthusiasm for torture and the surveillance state, wants to ‘open up’ reporters to lawsuits, scoffs at the separation of powers and holds ideas about freedom of religion that are selective at best?”

Do the American people really want to abandon the foundational document of our country, a document that has served us so well for over two hundred years? And for what? A totalitarian document that serves the interests of a limited few while marginalizing everyone else? A document that turns the country into an oligarchy at best and a dictatorship at worst?

The Russian investigation is continuing, despite shrill right-wing voices demanding that it be ended. Fox News, of course, has called for special investigator Robert Mueller’s firing. This despite their joy when he was first put in charge of the investigation; he is a Republican and they thought he would follow the party line. When he proved that he could be honest and objective and the investigation turned uncomfortable for their party, they began their attacks on him. Fox News is, of course, the leading right-wing news media giant; the scandals associated with it have not diminished its popularity with Republican diehards. We know for a fact that Russian agents ran ads that favored Trump. We also know that over 10 million Americans saw the Russia-backed Facebook ads leading up the 2016 election. Mueller’s investigation has, as of December, 2017, resulted in two guilty pleas and four indictments, which obviously worries Trump and his supporters, so much so that they are doing everything they can to derail the investigation. This is nothing more than obstruction of justice, and all the rationalizations in the world cannot change that fact. As it stands now, foreign governments can spend unlimited amounts of money trying to influence our elections. Given this and multitudinous other objectively proven facts, trying to derail the investigation smacks of a coverup ten times worse than Watergate.

Republican congressmen Matt Gaetz Louie Gohmert, and Andy Biggs have introduced a bill demanding that Mueller be fired. If this were not enough, some Republicans are closing ranks to defend Trump and sabotage the investigation; they are even calling for an investigation of the FBI, the Justice Department and, of course, Hillary Clinton. At the end of December 2017, Republican Francis Rooney of Florida called for a purge of the FBI and the Department of Justice! Rooney and too many Republican leaders are trying to politicize the DOJ and FBI, but their real objective is to obstruct justice. Let’s face it: What Rooney really means by “purge” is to go after everyone who is criticizing or investigating the president.

Trump’s lawyers are just as absurd, calling for a second special counsel to investigate the investigators! These are all smokescreens; what the Republicans want is for everyone else to be investigated, even though there isn’t a shred of evidence to back up their faith-based lies about their opponents. Obviously, there is no place in today’s Republican party for honesty and integrity, and the sooner the American public wakes up to that fact, the sooner we will be out of the quagmire the extremists have put us in.

What are these people afraid of? If Trump has nothing to hide, why does he continue to call it a witch hunt?

Obviously, they are afraid of the truth. In October 2017, Facebook revealed that over $100,000 in pro-Trump ads were purchased by a Russian company with known links to the Kremlin; these ads were blatantly dishonest and, as revealed in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, might have reached well over a hundred million Americans. From the outset, Facebook advertisers have never been required to disclose who pays for election ads. Considering that two-thirds of Americans polled say that their primary news source is the internet, this is a scandal of immense proportions. Clearly, Russia used Facebook and other media sources to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Donald Trump has even gone so far as to ask his lawyers if he can actually pardon himself. The fact that he can even ask such a stupid question shows how constitutionally illiterate this man is.

Late in October 2017, Mueller handed down indictments against Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort and an associate named Rick Gates for crimes including “conspiracy against the United States.” Manafort has a long record of dubious actions, including lobbying for known dictators such as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Mobuto Sese Seko of the former Democratic Republic of the Congo and others. Currently, he is under investigation by a number of Federal Agencies including the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI, which has assembled a dossier of criminal activities committed by him since 2014. Mueller’s indictment charges him with, in addition to conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, false FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) statements, and being an unregistered agent of foreign principle. Republican responses were typical. Fox News demanded Mueller’s firing, as did many House and Senate leaders. Despite the indictments, Trump has done his best to distance himself from all wrongdoing. His efforts have been transparently ridiculous. The day after the indictments against Manafort and Gates were handed down, Trump responded by renewing his attacks on Hillary Clinton.

The polls don’t lie. Donald Trump’s approval rating is currently hovering around 30%; the Republicans know this and that is why they are doing their utmost to divert attention away from him and his criminal cabinet. This is the reason they want a Constitutional Convention; they want to remain in power and have their actions unquestioned and unassailable. They know that most Americans recognize that Trump has lied to them, repeatedly. They know that most Americans want a complete and impartial investigation into the Russian scandal. If this is much ado about nothing, what are the Republicans afraid of?

There are also serious questions being raised about Trump’s mental health. His words and actions are not those of someone in full possession of his mental faculties. Foreign policy alone is a shambles. He has alienated most of our former allies, supported some of the world’s worst dictators, continues to provoke a nuclear conflict with North Korea, and another conflict in the Middle East by declaring Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. Here at home, his actions threaten our environment and his words are supporting white supremacy and inciting more and more people toward violence. Surely this indicates a pathological mindset that only requires one incident for him to flare up and do something stupid and dangerous that could endanger our survival. While there has been no diagnosis of Trump’s mental state, he is clearly provoking people towards dangerous and unscrupulous behavior. Clearly, a diagnosis of the president’s mental state is in order. On January 12, 2018, he will undergo a physical exam. The question is whether or not he will undergo a capacity exam at the same time. Such an exam is an evaluation of an individual’s ability to perform certain functions. Without such a test, the individual’s ability to think rationally and make clear headed decisions cannot be known. Every officer in the military is required to take such a test, but the commander-in-chief does not. This is a situation that needs to be changed.

Gun deaths are up twelve percent since Trump assumed the presidency. Our schools, in addition to being massively underfunded, are seeing increases in bullying and hate crimes. Hate crimes in general have escalated dramatically during this same time period. Is this coincidental, or is it indicative of a leader who is actively working against our best interests?

So we have a president who is constantly provoking our enemies and alienating our allies, instigating civil conflict, and laying a foundation for a violent culture that could give way to epidemics of violence—not to mention poke a beehive in the Middle East by declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. All of these actions are consistent with the pathological pattern he has already shown of resorting to violent words the instant he feels contradicted or threatened.

THE CORRUPTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

Let us move on from the president to the other major players in the Republican party. The examples of Republican totalitarianism are multitudinous and ubiquitous. The Daily Kos reported on the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act:” ‘Imagine a law that would make it illegal to boycott companies from certain countries for political reasons—a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. If this sounds too extreme even for today’s far-right Congress, you may be surprised to learn that a quietly moving bill, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S. 720/H.R. 1697), would do just that. Even more concerning, the bill has 43 co-sponsors in the Senate—including more than a dozen Democrats—and a majority of the House has signed on. The bill is so broad that if the government claims that your decision to boycott a company ‘furthers or supports’ a boycott issued by a group like the United Nations Human Rights Commission, prosecutors could charge you with a felony. If you were convicted, courts could levy fines from $250,000 to $1 million and prison sentences up to 20 years. Under current law it is already illegal for U.S. residents and companies to join a boycott of any country friendly to the United States if that boycott was launched by a foreign country. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would expand this law to criminalize participation in boycotts launched by intergovernmental organizations, such as the European Union or United Nations. This direction is dangerous, and it has nothing to do with your stance on Israel’s policies—this is about the fundamental right to free speech and political dissent.” (Daily Kos, July 31, 2017)

As the above example indicates, Republicans are doing much of their damage in secret, behind closed doors. For example, a bill called the “Smoggy Skies Act” was quietly approved by the House of Representatives in July, 2017. This act would delay for almost ten years the regulations on clean air set by President Obama. In other words, the bill is yet another sop to the dirty fuel industry—at the expense of the American people’s health and well-being.

The absurdity of continuing to support fossil fuel and other outmoded, dying industries can be seen just by looking at the facts. Ninety percent of Americans polled think that we should be focusing on getting more energy from the sun. Solar energy lets us harness the power of the sun in our own homes, and it causes no pollution. But fossil fuel companies are making every effort to keep us from going in that direction, despite its obvious benefits. Environment America provides us with some powerful statistics: “Today, we have enough solar energy to power one in 14 American homes, and we generate 43 times more solar today than we did a decade ago.” And: “As of mid-2017, around 90 policy actions were being considered by states that could negatively affect rooftop solar.” Simply put, the dirty fuel industries are trying to thwart progress and the health and will of the American people. And, they have the Republican party on their side.

The Republican party today constitutes the single greatest threat to our survival as a democracy, and perhaps as a species. Only a well-informed citizenry can halt them in their tracks. This is one of the main reasons why Republicans are so blatantly anti-education. Their goal, quite simply, is to eliminate public schools and replace them with fundamentalist Christian ones, where students are taught to believe what they are told and not to think independently. The less educated the citizen, the more likely he/she is to listen to right wing demagogues and vote Republican. That is a simple fact borne out by even the most superficial study of American demographics. Trump supporters will forever support him and his policies. No matter what the evidence is that contradicts their faith in him, or however reliable the source, it automatically becomes “fake news.” Self-delusion is a crucial ingredient in the makeup of the fundamentalist mindset.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has made even the most cursory attempt to study this administration and, more broadly, the Republican party itself. “Alternative facts” have replaced the so-called “fake news,” meaning news the president and his cabinet don’t like. As with so much else the Republicans come up with, this is, among other things, a distortion of the English language because the word “facts” denotes something that is objectively provable. There are no “alternative facts” because there is no alternative reality. But the problem is deeper than that inasmuch as about a third of the American population still believes every word Trump says. He tells them what they want to hear, and as soon as he opens his mouth, all critical thinking faculties shut down. Simply put, Trump and the Republican party have declared war on truth. This is not a new strategy; the GOP has been spewing forth right-wing mythologies for years. The only thing that has changed is the quantity and brazenness of the lies.

Science has been, and continues to be, a favorite target of Republicans. Since reality doesn’t give them what they want, Republicans direct their ire against the scientific community. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris accord, formulated as an international agreement to fight global warming. And his Department of Energy head, Rick Perry, claims like his boss that climate change, even if it exists, has nothing to do with human activity. Climate change is the most notable example of the hatred of scientific fact since Trump took office, but this kind of nonsense has been going on for years, even decades. For example, the Office of Technology Assessment, founded in 1972 to provide Congress with objective facts and authoritative analysis regarding various scientific issues that congressmen and women aren’t expected to be experts on. The OTA gave invaluable information about acid rain, CFCs, and other important science related issues. When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the OTA’s days were numbered, a classic example of how conservative politics trumps scientific inquiry.

However, the Trump administration has gone much further in their war on science. Trump has fired scientific advisors who refuse to tell him what he wants to hear. He has eliminated government web sites in order to attack climate change. This, and the seemingly endless war against biological evolution, stem cell research, and other issues conclusively demonstrate that this administration will stop at nothing to destroy any kind of scientific inquiry that contradicts what they want to believe to be true.

But hating science is far from being the exclusive domain of the Trump administration. All over the country, legislation has been introduced, and in some cases become law, which attack and undercut solid scientific principles. There are multitudinous examples of this, but I will discuss only one. New Mexico’s public education department, over-run with right-wing Republican administrators, had re-written the science standards in order to attack scientific evolution. Evolution has been a favorite whipping boy for fundamentalists of all religions since Charles Darwin first published The Origin of Species in 1859. In New Mexico, state education officials tried to re-write the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), eliminating evolution outright, and downplaying the importance and significance of other important scientific findings. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) expressed disdain over this, but it took an outraged public to cause the officials not to implement the new science standards. Sometimes, the threat of lawsuits is the only thing that causes the anti-science community to back off.

Republican supporters will believe anything their heroes tell them. Again, this is hardly a recent development. President Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney launched a massive campaign to convince the American public that the invasion of Iraq was necessary because they possessed “weapons of mass destruction.” Although by that time thoroughly debunked, a Harris poll in 2006 found that half of the American people still believed the administration’s lie, up from 36% the previous year. And, a 2012 poll conducted by YouGov found that 63% of Republicans polled still believed the lie, whereas only 15% of Democrats did. This is a dramatic example of how easily swayed the American people, and particularly Republicans, can be—and even more dangerously, how they will unhesitatingly believe what their government tells them, even if it contradicts what the experts are saying.

So no, Barack Obama was not born in Kenya, and no, he isn’t a Muslim. As laughingly ridiculous as this is, many Republicans still believe it. They want it to be true, so it is. That is the way they think.

And for those Republicans who still scream about how Obama’s tax policies hurt everyone, here are some discomforting facts. Obama’s stimulus program, introduced during his first year in office in 2009, delivered tax relief to 95% of working households. I emphasize “working” because another tiresome cry of Republicans is that the program gave untold millions of dollars to people leeching off the government. In fact, within a year, federal tax revenue as a percentage of the country’s economy dropped to a level unseen since 1950. In short, Obama’s stimulus program was the largest two-year tax cut in American history. Despite these objectively provable facts, a CBS poll in February of 2010 found that those supporting the Tea Party movement still believe that taxes had increased since Obama took office; 72% of them wrongly believed that the plan was giving free coverage to illegal immigrants. And conservatives are supposed to be such experts on economics!

According to the overwhelming consensus of economists, Obama’s stimulus plan created millions of new jobs. The Republicans don’t like facts such as this, so they ignore the economists and seek out anyone who claims “alternative facts.” Literally tons of research conducted over decades have shown that raising taxes on “job creators” do not harm the economy in the least. Again, the Republicans don’t like the data, so they ignore it. The bottom line is very simple: Whenever a Democrat is in the White House, the economy booms. All the Republican lies cannot change that fact.

Nothing about the Republican’s agenda makes sense. They put all their faith in unchecked corporate power and tax us to support it (the nonsensical tax bill passed in December, 2017) while cutting job programs and worker safety protections. As reported by Environment America’s, Margie Alt, July 31, 2017: “When polluters contaminate our clean air and water, we need to hold them responsible for the damage they cause. In the past, when companies have violated the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act, courts have ordered them to contribute to environmental restoration efforts, like rebuilding wetlands or installing solar panels. Now, a few members of Congress are pushing a bill that would make it impossible for legal settlements to require these beneficial projects.” One guess which party these Congressmen/women belong to.

Trump and his administration couldn’t care less about how pollution damages our health. Consider the Clean Power Plan. This plan sets limits on the emissions power plants can emit into the atmosphere and biosphere; it would reduce these emissions by an estimated one third. So naturally Trump began working to repeal the Clean Power Plan in October, 2017. If he is successful, asthma cases will increase, people will need more sick time off of work, and thousands more pollution-related deaths will occur. If this isn’t proof positive of this administration’s indifference to our health, I don’t know what is.

Trump wants to destroy everything Obama accomplished, regardless of the consequences. One of his goals is to eliminate the Clean Water Rule, even though it protects drinking water for a third of the American population. The rule is crucial for our health and well being. Passed in 2015, it protects millions of miles of streams and an estimated 20 million acres of wetlands. Naturally, Scott Pruitt, as head of the EPA but really just a shill for corporate polluters, wants to destroy the rule. The problem for him is that anytime the EPA wants to change a rule, they must first accept comments from the public, and the public has made itself crystal clear that it wants the rule to stand. The Clean Water Rule just makes good common sense. Credo Action informs us about its safeguards: “1) Restricting sewage plants from dumping into protected waters without permits. 2) Requiring facilities storing large amounts of oil to develop oil spill prevention and response plans. 3) A provision that states must prepare plans to clean up protected waters that do not meet water quality standards. 4) Requiring developers get approval before discharging solid material into protected waters. 5) Prohibiting the discharge of radiological, chemical, or biological warfare agents, any high-level radioactive waste, or medical waste into covered waters.” (Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action, September 1, 2017)

Another ridiculous situation arose in 2017 when a Colorado baker refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, saying that doing so “violated” his religious beliefs. Why is it that religious beliefs (always fundamentalist in nature) are cited whenever someone wants to discriminate against someone else? The basic question is: Does a person’s religious belief allow them to legally discriminate against others? Until recent years, the answer would have been an unequivocal no. However today, with the Religious Right in control of the Republican party and the three branches of government, the situation is markedly different. This case is a throwback to an earlier time when racism was justified for exactly the same reasons. Immediately after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965, a case arose in South Carolina in which the owner of a chain of restaurants called Piggie Park claimed that his religious rights would be violated if he was held responsible for disregarding the Act. In the early 1980s, two racist Christian universities insisted that they had a legal, moral right to discriminate against blacks. The courts rejected all these arguments, and should do the same with this case. Taken to its logical conclusion the baker, if victorious, would have the legal right to put a sign in his business window saying: “We do not serve homosexuals and lesbians.”

When one opens a business, it is with the understanding that they will serve everyone. Certain minor exceptions can be permitted, as when a restaurant insists that its patrons wear shoes and a shirt. But to cite religious beliefs in order to discriminate against anyone they don’t like is blatantly unconstitutional. It is also downright un-American.

Another angle on this case, one that has not been introduced as I write this, is that the plaintiffs in the case should argue that their religion preaches tolerance toward diversity and that the baker’s discrimination is a violation of their religious beliefs. This would put the court in the position of deciding which religion is the better one, something expressly forbidden in the Constitution. Not that the Constitution means much to far-right Republicans.

The Religious Right has hijacked the phrase “religious freedom” to mean the right to discriminate. Proof of this is ubiquitous; every time the phrase is brought up, it is used for that purpose. To cite one of countless examples, Mississippi recently passed House Bill 1523, which allows religion to be used as a legal justification for discrimination against anyone they don’t like, including LGBTQ people, single mothers, and anyone who has had sex outside of marriage. It would also allow individuals, health-care providers, and corporations to cite their religious beliefs as a foundation for refusing “undesirable” people access to services.

It is indicative of how far right the Republican party has gone that, back in 1990, ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia declared that a person’s right to religious freedom: “does not excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law.” Scalia would have thus ruled against the baker in the Colorado case. Considering that Scalia has become something of a standard-bearer for Religious Right legal activists and right-wing Republicans, one can only wonder how they would rationalize his views on this issue.

Then there is the Roy Moore situation. Moore ran for the U.S. Senate late in 2017 and lost to Democrat Doug Jones. Moore’s home state, Alabama has always been a Republican stronghold. Moore has always been a controversial figure, to say the least. The former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme court was removed from that post in 2003 by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary because he refused a federal court’s order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments which he had ordered to be placed in the lobby of the Alabama Judicial building. He ran again for the same position and won in 2013 but ran into trouble again when he ordered probate judges to continue enforcing Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage, even tough the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled this to be unconstitutional. For this, Moore was suspended in 2016. After failing in his appeal effort, he resigned in April, 2017. Moore clearly believes he is a law unto himself, and ignores higher court rulings when he doesn’t like them.

If his illegal maneuverings were not enough, Moore is also a racist whose comments to that effect are a matter of public record. For example, when a black man asked him in September 2017 when he thought the last time America was “great,” Moore responded: “I think it was great at the time when families were united—even though we had slavery—they cared for one another.” The religious fundamentalist judge still believes that states rights trump federal law. In other words, like far too many other Republican dixiecrats, Moore has not learned the lessons of the Civil War.

Moore also believes that Muslims should not be allowed to hold public office. And, like Trump, he was part of the “birther” nonsense claiming that president Obama was not born in the United States. He is such an extreme anti-abortionist that he thinks a fertilized egg should have personhood status. And, of course, his hostility toward the LGBTQ community borders on the psychotic.

Moore lost the election in December, 2017. Amusingly, Trump has put some of the blame for the defeat on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But it was Trump who picked Sessions to be Attorney General. In other words, Trump is blaming Sessions for not being two people at the same time. Is Trump really this stupid?

As great as Moore’s early scandals were, an even greater one emerged when late in the campaign, several women announced that he had sexually assaulted them as teenagers. One of these girls was only fourteen years old! When right-wing political commentator Sean Hannity asked him: “Do you remember dating girls that young?,” Moore said: “Not generally, no. If I did, you know, I’m not going to dispute anything, but I don’t remember anything like that.” As the scandal grew, Moore began to change his tune. On November 27 he said: “I do not know any of these women.” Soon, he began to call the women liars, and questioned their morality. He also insisted they were playing political games. Eventually, he resorted to flat-out denial when he said that these crimes had never occurred and that the women had simply made them up. All this presented a problem for at least some Republican leaders. The bottom line from a political standpoint is that these people will do anything to keep a Democrat from being in the Senate, especially considering the narrow majority they currently hold. While many of these Republicans began to distance themselves from Moore, Trump announced on November 21 that: “Roy Moore denies it. He totally denies it.” This was enough for a few Republicans to waffle and wiggle on their previous stances, most notably Mitch McConnell who, prior to Trump’s announcement of support for Moore, had opposed his candidacy. As I have previously discussed, McConnell is a man utterly devoid of ethics: When Republican Senator Scott Brown was elected to represent Massachusetts, McConnell insisted that the final vote on Obamacare be delayed until Brown had been sworn in. Yet he reversed course with Jones, insisting that the vote on the Republican tax scam take place before Jones was seated. This is undemocratic, partisan politics, and utterly typical of Mitch McConnell.

Further proof of McConnell’s utter lack of ethics was seen in his demand that Democrat Senator Al Franken resign amid allegations of sexual harassment. Then, hypocrite that he is, he turned around and voiced his support for Roy Moore. As I mentioned in my book, this man is a national disgrace.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, when questioned as to what the difference was between Franken’s conduct and that of the president, said: “Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn’t.” You read this right: The president is off the hook because he denied what he said and did. This is what passes for logic in today’s Republican party. So, according to Sanders’ standards, if Franken had groped his accuser, threatened a lawsuit against her, and then denied outright that it had happened, Sanders should, to be consistent, let him off the hook. But Republicans have one set of standards for themselves, and another set for Democrats. Had this been the case, the Republicans would be screaming to the heavens about Franken’s immorality and lies.

Unfortunately for Moore and his supporters, there was objective evidence backing up the women’s claims. One of the documents is a high school yearbook with a card attached to it, signed by Moore. He wrote: “Happy graduation, Debbie.” And: “I wanted to give you this card myself.” Moore signed the card “Roy.” So obviously he knew this woman when she was a teenager. So he lied about that. The scrapbook also has a note written by the girl as follows: “Wednesday night, 3-4-81. Roy S. Moore and I went out for the first time. We went out to eat at Catfish Cabin in Albertville. I had a great time.” If the card is real, and the handwriting matches that elsewhere in the yearbook conclusively proving that it is, then the date between Moore and the girl must have been real as well. This clearly proves that Moore’s defense that he might have met them only in passing is a baldfaced lie.

The thing to remember about all this is that the Republican party is the party always screaming to the heavens about how immoral America has become and that they, being bible-believing Christians, hold the moral high ground. “Family Values” is a phrase they have been chanting ad nauseum for decades. The Moore case alone makes their claim of superior morality laughably ridiculous. Many of the same Republicans who screamed about Bill Clinton’s “lies” concerning Monica Lewinsky (who at least was an adult at the time!) have no problem supporting an accused child molester—as long as he is a Republican. The rationalizations made defending Moore are pathetic. Comments such as: “we are all sinners” or that: “God has forgiven him” show conservative hypocrisy at its worst. The Senate’s longest serving Republican, Orrin Hatch, said: “Many of the things that he allegedly did were decades ago.” James Dobson, who founded the right-wing group Focus on the Family, referred to Moore as a man “of proven character and integrity.” Alabama’s state Auditor, Jim Zeigler, said that Moore’s predilection for young girls was all right, because Mary was young when she gave birth to Jesus. Unbelievable.

Moore posted an interview with Carson Jones, Doug Jones’ son, done with The Advocate, an LGBT publication, on his Facebook page, a silent invitation to a good old-fashioned gay-bashing pecking party.

Is Roy Moore the best possible Republican candidate that Alabama could produce? If so, I would hate to see who the worst one is.

Moore lost the election, but the fact that it was even close is a telling indictment against Republican voters. And a clear indication that there is something fundamentally wrong in the Republican party, to say nothing of white Christian evangelicals, 81% of whom voted for him despite everything that came out against him. And, as might be expected from this loser (and I’m not referring to the election), Moore has, at this writing, refused to concede the results. He even posted an interview with Doug Jones’ gay son in The Advocate, hoping to instigate an anti-gay backlash, as if this would somehow make him the election winner. Moore’s version of immorality, typically for extreme Republican homophobes, does not include his own son, who has been arrested nine times. Great family values coming from the Moore household!

The Radical Religious Right, when faced with a litmus test to prove their moral superiority, failed at every level. These people have, for decades, railed against the LGBTQ community, liberals, atheists and other freethinkers, feminists, single mothers, and anyone else that doesn’t measure up to their “higher” version of morality. Yet, in order to win an election, they threw their support behind a suspected child molester. By doing so, they have put politics above morality and conclusively proven that their claims of moral superiority are laughingly false.

The point in understanding all this is that the extremists in the Republican party are all religious fundamentalists, and people of this mindset aren’t the least bit interested in hearing the views of others, much less considering them. They believe they have god on their side, and that, for them, settles it. Anyone opposed to them is, in their view, opposing god because their interpretation of scripture is the only valid one. And, in a sense they have a point. Consider Romans 16:17: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned: and avoid them.” In other words, ignore and avoid anyone who disagrees with your religious views. The seeds of intolerance are right there, in their own bible, and quotes such as this illustrates their mindset. This is why religion is so inherently dangerous: It tends to make extremists out of its adherents. If there is one thing we have seen over and again in religious history, it is this. Emotions, rather than rational thought, are what drives the religious impulse, and unchecked, unexamined emotions are a threat to everyone.

The political doctrines of the Religious Right Republicans are strikingly similar to the doctrines of any religious despot and any political dictator. We see the same ideas in both: The demand for unquestioning obedience, surrender of the intellect, intolerance of diversity, and the demand for conformity. These points seem to be lost on most Democrats who try to “work” with Republican leaders. This is an exercise in futility; Republicans of this mindset cannot compromise because their entire worldview is based on subjective wishes and desires, not objective evidence. They have gotten as far as they have because too many Democrats have abandoned their own core values. They are not unlike Neville Chamberlain who, by appeasing Hitler when he signed the Munich Pact in 1938, laid the groundwork for the Second World War.

I believe that most Republicans are terrified of human progress, although they certainly don’t hesitate to use the latest technology to brainwash the masses and advance their agenda. Despite this, their statements and actions indicate that they are deathly afraid of human reason. The modern world scares them because today, more and more people are rejecting the senseless dogmas of religion. Technology has worked against the religionists too: More and more people are realizing that, over the millenia, religions have contributed nothing to our understanding of the world and how it operates, nothing toward advancing human progress, nothing that makes us behave better towards one another, and nothing that helps us organize ourselves into benevolent communities. No religion has delivered on any of its promises to bring peace, health, and happiness to humanity. As Ayn Rand correctly pointed out decades ago, faith and force are the two great destroyers of civilization.

Believing that religion will aid humanity is like believing that arsenic will improve health.

There was a time when the Republican party possessed at least a semblance of moral scruples. Even the scandal-ridden Richard Nixon possessed some degree of ethics when he disavowed the support of the Reverend Gerald L.K. Smith when Nixon was running for vice-president. Smith was a notorious anti-semite and racist who was quite well-known in far-right circles until his death in 1976. Nixon distanced himself from Smith by saying: “There is no place in the Republican party for the race merchandisers of hate like Gerald L.K. Smith.” What Republican leader of today would dare say anything similar?
House Speaker Paul Ryan, author of the tax scam passed in December, 2017, is as fundamentally anti-rational as anyone else in the Republican party. Although he claims to be a follower of Objectivist founder Ayn Rand’s philosophy, he carefully picks which things he likes and ignores everything else. Rand was a confirmed rationalist, which led her to atheism. But Ryan conveniently ignores this discomforting aspect of her thinking. After the typical Republican “thoughts and prayers” were offered following yet another mass shooting, Ryan went on the offensive against those who demanded action. Appearing on Fox News (where else?), Ryan opined: “It is the right thing to do in moments like this because, you know what? Prayer works. And I know you believe that and I believe that and when you hear the secular left doing this thing, no wonder you have so much polarization and disunity in this country when people think like that.” Ignoring the faulty grammar from one supposedly so bright, it is not at all surprising that no one at Fox dared to ask Ryan a very simple question: If prayer works, then why do we still have all these mass shootings? Words indeed come easier than action.

Getting back to Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner is also one of his chief advisors. As with virtually everyone else associated with Trump, he is a thoroughly despicable individual. He has become a “subject of interest” in the ongoing Russian scandal. When applying for security clearance, Kushner dishonestly failed to report the numerous meetings he has had with various Russian officials. In his official capacity and due to his security clearance, Kushner has access to the country’s most sensitive and secretive information. Protecting that information from falling into the wrong hands is of the utmost importance and, given Kushner’s ties to Russia, steps must be taken to revoke his security clearance until his name is cleared of any wrongdoing. Here, we see yet another major scandal percolating in the Trump administration.

Trump has no problem promoting violence in America, as seen when he told police not to be “too nice” when they arrest people and even suggested that they should hit suspects heads against police car doors. If this isn’t disgraceful, then I don’t know what is.

The White House and the Republican party are on the wrong side of just about every issue. The white elephant in the middle of the room is over-population, which no politician will touch, of course. Yet the Vice President is telling people they should have more babies. These people are so far removed from reality that it is hard to believe anyone takes them seriously.

In my book, I discussed how the United States is now a kakistocracy. This is a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous individuals. To have a kakistocracy, you must have a leader who has a complete disregard for the interests of the country, the people living in it, and the importance of its institutions. Trump clearly fits the bill. You must also have a people so ignorant of this person’s potential danger that they elect him anyway, even though his conduct and immorality were known long before the election. Clearly, these people wanted someone who represents the very worst in America. Since his election, Trump has clearly thought he is a law unto himself, able to say and do anything he wants. And, the Republican-led Congress continues to turn a deaf ear to his criminality.

This administration also has a higher turnover rate than any other in American history. The fault for this lies exclusively with the president; anyone who dares to disagree with him soon finds him/herself out of a job. Some of these tenures have been ridiculously short; Communications director Anthony Scaramucci lasted only ten days before being replaced. And this was before he had officially began his job! Steve Bannon proved himself too radical and hate-filled even for most Republicans; the White House chief strategist was out by mid-August, 2017. By the end of 2017, 34 percent of the president’s staff had either resigned, been fired, or else re-assigned somewhere else. By comparison, nine percent of Obama’s staff resigned within his first year; six percent for George W. Bush, and eleven percent for Bill Clinton. Perhaps a revolving door would be appropriate for the West Wing.

THE CABINET AND OTHER TRUMP APPOINTEES

Trump continues to place the worst possible people in positions of authority, including agency and department heads who have a long history of fighting the very agencies they are supposed to run. On August 2, Trump’s nominee Steven Bradbury was approved to be the general counsel for the Department of Transportation. This is the same Bradbury who was the Bush-era architect of torture which he euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation techniques” as if this somehow makes it moral. Because of his work, the CIA retained the right to torture prisoners until Obama closed the program in 2009. This is yet another example of medievalists in our midst; only totalitarian-oriented Republicans could support torture in this supposedly enlightened age.

Vice President Mike Pence is a fundamentalist Christian to the core; he would like nothing better than for the United States to be officially designated a Christian nation. His track record while governor of Indiana, which I examined in my book, was abysmal. As a religious extremist, he naturally denies climate change and is opposed to LGBT rights. And, he lied about Russia’s involvement in the presidential election. But this was only one of countless lies he has promoted or promulgated. Commenting on Trump’s promise to produce his tax returns, Pence said: “He hasn’t broken his promise.” He dismissed as “absolutely false” the idea that Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering the country. Confronted with his own words and those of his boss saying that he thought Vladimir Putin to be a great leader, Pence simply said: “No we haven’t.” Lies such as this, which are contradicted by the public record, are an insult to any thinking person.

Pence, like everyone else in this administration, is against consumer protections. His vote broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate that eliminated more financial protections for consumers, making it much harder if not impossible for ordinary Americans to initiate lawsuits against banks that break the law.

Pence is nothing more than a rather unintelligent lackey for untrammeled big business and the Christian right. But he is far from being the only extremist in the Trump administration.

The Department of Energy, under the direction of Rick Perry, who had previously campaigned to destroy it, is an essential part of the American landscape because of all the essential work it does. Among the department’s duties is to deal with nuclear waste and to address nuclear threats. Of course, Perry and his boss couldn’t care less about protecting American lives.

Jeff Sessions has proven himself a walking disaster as Attorney General. He has appeared four times before his colleagues in the Senate; they have questioned him about the Russian scandal, and has repeatedly stumbled and contradicted himself, thus destroying whatever remained of his integrity and credibility. He is a proven liar who should be removed from office for committing perjury to the Senate about his ties to Russia during his confirmation hearing; while under oath, he discussed his role as advisor during Trump’s campaign and lied about having met three times with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. If the nation’s top law enforcement official is willing to lie under oath, and Republicans refuse to hold him accountable, what does that say about the state of the current Republican party?

As Attorney General, Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into the Russian scandal; he later violated his own recusal by assisting Trump in firing FBI director James Comey, hoping to take some of the pressure off the investigation.

Sessions, like so many others in this administration, has a history of overt racism against blacks. He, again like everyone else in this cabinet, is a climate change denier. He wants to make abortion a criminal offense, and is vocally against LGBTQ equality. He has issued a federal license to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, a group long a favorite target of right-wing conservatives. The justification for discrimination, in this and every other case brought before the courts, is “religious freedom” which of course means the freedom for right-wing Christians to discriminate against those they don’t like. One of Sessions’ memos notes that government “cannot unduly burden people or certain businesses from practicing their faith.” This is a singularly stupid rationalization; if business people want to discriminate against people, let them find another job. “Religious liberty” has become a calling card for discrimination, but it can be safely guessed that this “liberty” will not be extended to anyone who is not a fundamentalist Christian.

Sessions is also trying to add a politically motivated question on voter’s citizenship status to the 2020 Census. Even though the Census is required in order to count every person living in the United States, whether or not they are actual citizens, the administration’s hateful anti-immigrant stance poses a threat that people might be afraid to participate in the Census, fearing retaliation. This would not give us accurate Census numbers, which naturally will have an adverse effect on the electoral process. Trump’s administration has already defunded the Census, and is attempting to put a man who defends North Carolina’s racist gerrymandering in charge of it.

The Justice Department, under Sessions, has become a mockery of what justice is supposed to mean. In one notable case, the department’s lawyer Hashim Mooppan has argued that it is permissible for an employer to fire an employee because of his or her sexual orientation. He rationalized this ridiculous conclusion by saying that, under federal law, employers had the right to “regulate employees’ off-the-job sexual behavior.” In other words, employers could discriminate against their employees for anything they don’t approve of sexually, whether it be adultery, promiscuity, or sexual orientation. So much for civil rights. If this is not enough Sessions, long known for his hostility toward protecting people with disabilities, has eliminated ten documents that offered advice on how to deal with disabilities. One of these protects disabled people from being exploited on the job. Disabled workers in segregated workshops can literally be paid only pennies per hour. By repealing the guidelines, Sessions makes it clear that (surprise!) he favors the wealthy segregated workshops and wants them to continue profiting from the labor of disabled workers and keep them from moving on to higher paying integrated jobs.

To reiterate his campaign lie, remember that Trump had told the LGBTQ community that he was their best friend.

Eric Dreiband has been nominated by Trump to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice department. Like everyone else in Trump’s cabinet, he was selected not to run, but to rein in, or even destroy, the powers of the post he was appointed to run. Predictably, he has a long record of siding with corporations in cases involving discrimination. For example, he was part of a defense team for Abercrombie & Fitch that refused to hire a Muslim teenager because the teen’s headscarf violated their official clothing policy. The case went to the Supreme Court, and the firm lost. Dreiband has tried to limit the authority of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Ironically, he had previously worked for the EEOC as general counsel; it may be logically inferred that he took the information obtained in that capacity to use against them at a later date.

In September, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned due to (yet another) scandal in the Trump administration; this one involved expensive use of chartered flights which undermined Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of entitlements. Trump appointed Big Pharma CEO Alex Azar to head the agency. As with all Trump’s appointees, Azar has a spotty record. He played a major role in making certain life-saving products too expensive for many to afford. For example, as head of drug corporation Eli Lilly, Azar oversaw the price of insulin rise from $74 to $269. This is the man Trump appointed to be in charge of American’s health!

Trump has nominated Kathleen Harnett White to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. She is another climate change denier who doubts the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change. Of course, she is not a scientist (how many real scientists are there in the Republican party?) but, like the other climate change deniers in Trump’s cabinet, thinks either that she knows more than the experts do in their area of expertise, or else ignores them because their findings contradict what she wants to believe and the course she intends to pursue. And, as one might expect, this course is decidedly anti-scientific in every respect. She is a senior fellow at the Koch brothers (who else?) and Exxon-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation. She thinks that carbon dioxide is plant food that causes no damage and has equated belief in climate change to paganism. She is also opposed to solar and wind power, calling them “unreliable and parasitic.” She insists that fracking has “virtually no documented environmental impacts.” Not only are her views on science completely wrong, so are her views on American history. As ridiculous as it sounds to anybody who has advanced beyond the second grade, she has said that: “fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery.” Has she even heard the term “King Cotton?” Taken together, all this makes her singularly un-qualified to oversee environmental policy in the United States.

Trump chose Ajit Pai to chair the Federal Communications Commission. Pai wasted no time in eliminating net neutrality, an action that has caused more anger and backlash than almost any other thing this administration has done since its outset. Pai’s agenda is crystal clear: He wants the right wing to have complete control over the media. He wants a huge television empire that disseminates right-wing “news” without any fear of backlash from liberals or anyone else disagreeing with their version of the truth. In December, 2017, Pai (a Verizon attorney) ignored the wishes of most Americans and repealed net neutrality protections, selling out to Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, thus opening the door to corporate monopoly over internet services. These corporations are monopolistic, and are the same ones that finance the campaigns of climate deniers and shamelessly sell advertisements to fossil fuel polluters. With net neutrality out of the picture, they will be able to use their financial power to silence any individual or group that dares to question or oppose them in any way. This is another example of the totalitarian mindset so typical of today’s Republicans. By destroying net neutrality, it will become much harder for people to organize and disseminate controversial opposing viewpoints online. Which, of course, is exactly what right-wing demagogues want.

The mainstream media, so often attacked by conservatives for its alleged “liberal bias” in fact goes out of its way to downplay the nonsense coming out of Washington. This has been going on for decades, but has grown to miasmic proportions since Trump assumed the presidency. The liberal bashing which all conservatives constantly harp on has worked: The media goes out of its way to avoid being branded as “liberal,” as if this is some kind of dirty word. We currently have less Democratic governors than at any time since 1922. In the past ten years or so, Republicans have gained almost a thousand seats and 27 chambers in state capitals across the country. They have been re-writing voting laws and gerrymandering congressional districts to marginalize Democratic opposition. In North Carolina, for example, Republican state lawmakers are on the record as admitting that they drew congressional districts for their party’s advantage. Gerrymandering is a corrupt effort to eliminate “undesirable” voters from participating in the electoral process and it makes a mockery of the “one person, one vote” guarantee in the Constitution. And, thanks in large part to the 2010 ruling Citizens United, Republicans have outspent Democrats by three hundred percent in state legislative races. All this has enabled them to obviate the will of the majority of voters.

R. Alexander Acosta has headed the Department of Labor since April, 2017. A visit to the department’s website will paint a rosy picture of all the wondrous things that have happened since Trump became president, but the reality is quite different. One of the most mean-spirited pieces of legislation was a proposal to allow employers to steal their worker’s tips. In other words, a waitress earning minimum wage will have to surrender the tips she is making for a job well done. In violation of the law, the DOL has not provided any kind of estimate on how much would be transferred from workers to their employers. This is just another example of an administration that wants to hurt working people while the subservient press continues to idolize Trump as a populist. The DOL’s actions are typical for this administration: Do something bad, lie about its consequences, and then avoid or ignore the law. In addition, the DOL has been trying to eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans who depend on it, for exactly the same reasons—hurting workers.

Late in September, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after it became known that he was using taxpayer dollars for his private travel expenses. But he is hardly the only cabinet member guilty of this: EPA’s Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke have spent close to a million dollars on private travel expenses as well as other frivolities. While we as taxpayers are being ripped off in this way, Republicans continue to make vital cuts to programs affecting our health, communities, and public lands. A good reporter might well ask the president: Is this an example of “clearing the swamp?”

Putting Betsy DeVos in charge of education is another example of the fox guarding the henhouse. She has no background in education; indeed, she has no interest in education except as a method to advance her right-wing Christian agenda. Her sole objective, and that of the majority of Republicans, is to defund public schools and force taxpayers to subsidize private schools, the overwhelming majority of which are religious. This is just another example of how the administration wants to dumb down America, using blind faith as a tool against critical thinking. The Republicans know how unpopular their ideas about education actually are with most Americans; for this and other reasons, few in the cabinet are making public speeches anymore on this subject, other than offering vague generalities. DeVos found out why the hard way. During a recent attempt to justify what she euphemistically calls “school choice” at Harvard University, she was met with placards and banners proclaiming such things as “our students are not 4sale” and “White Supremacist.” During the question and answer period, one student brilliantly asked her: “ So, You’re a billionaire with lots and lots of investments, and the so-called ‘school choice’ movement is a way to open the floodgates for corporate interests to make money off the backs of students. How much do you expect your net worth to increase as a result of your policy choices and what are your friends on Wall Street and in the business world—like the Koch brothers—saying about the potential to get rich off the backs of students?” Not surprisingly, DeVos had no answer to this pointed question. (Walter Einenkel, Daily Kos, September 29, 2017) Her record is terrible: In addition to having no background in education, she has destroyed the rights of students with disabilities. She has abandoned victims of sexual assaults on campuses. And, she wants to make student loans much harder to come by. She has no problem whatever with for-profit colleges taking financial advantage of their students. She has closed more than 1500 civil rights cases since she assumed the post—900 of them without a hearing! And, of course she has proposed massive budget cuts to public education. If this were not enough, she rescinded the campus sexual assault policy passed during the Obama administration. Why? Just because it was passed during the Obama years. Campus rapists everywhere must be cheering!

At this point, we should re-examine a little of our history. Back in 1876, Congressman James G. Blaine proposed the Blaine Amendment, which prohibited any tax money going to any church or religious group for any purpose whatever. Although it failed at the federal level, the majority of states added it to their constitutions; many of these made a special point of excluding religious schools from being funded. For example, Missouri’s constitution has a “no aid” clause which reads: “No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion.” Unfortunately, logic and reason have since fled the scene: in June, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that, under certain conditions, churches are legally entitled to receive taxpayer support. This is in direct conflict with both the letter and intent of the United States Constitution, to say nothing of the will of the people; the First Amendment demands that churches and religious groups be self-supporting. All of the founding fathers agreed on this and there are countless quotes from them to that effect. Simply put, today’s Republican lawyers are trying to re-write the Constitution.

After the end of the Second World War, political leaders in the United States, cognizant of the Blaine Amendment, appeared to be heading in the right direction with regard to church/state issues; legislators in subsequent years began eliminating forced prayer in schools, beginning with the 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education, followed the following year by McCollum v. Board of Education, the 1962 case of Engel v. Vitali and the final nail in the coffin, the 1963 decision of Abington Township School District v. Schemp. Obviously today’s theo-fascists want to return to earlier times when dissent from the prevailing religious dogma was unthinkable. Suffice it to say that diversity of opinion is not a major concern of today’s Republican party.

DeVos is, like all Republican leaders, an ardent supporter of school vouchers, even though the majority of Americans don’t want to subsidize non-public schools, rightly recognizing that most of whom are religious and therefore should not be receiving money from the public coffers. Therein lies the rub: The unstated premise behind vouchers is that Republicans want to eliminate public schools, and force all students to attend religious ones. They rarely say this, of course (openness about their intentions is hardly a Republican virtue), but their actions conclusively demonstrate this fact. Once again, they aren’t interested in anything that disproves their ideas. They ignore the public’s hostility toward vouchers. They ignore the fact that repeated studies have shown that voucher schools do not produce better students or better test results than public schools. They don’t care that vouchers violate religious freedom by forcing taxpayers to subsidize religious views they do not share, something expressly forbidden in the Constitution. They ignore the fact that private schools can reject any student of their choosing. They ignore the fact that these schools are not accountable to taxpayers and can install policies that people outside of that particular faith (who are being forced to subsidize them) may not share. None of this matters to Republicans, who are almost universally dedicated to installing something that is unconstitutional, unworkable, never produces the effects claimed, and that the public does not want. And, even though voucher issues have been repeatedly rejected across the country, Republicans continue to force them on an unwilling public. So much for the will of the people.

Kellyanne Conway, currently serving as Counsellor to the President, is yet another would-be totalitarian despot. Proof of this was seen during one of her frequent rants against the mainstream media (which has been far too generous in letting Trump off the hook every time he says or does something stupid), she said: “Not one network person has been let go. Not one silly political analyst and pundit who talked smack all day long about Donald Trump has been let go. They are on panels every Sunday. They’re on cable news every day.” The last time I checked, criticizing politicians, including the president, is not cause for dismissal in a country supposedly based on freedom of speech. She has never said that she supports the free press, only “a full and fair one” meaning, of course, fair to the despots running the country. Obviously, were Conway to have her way, any criticism of Trump would be cause for immediate dismissal. If she doesn’t understand the meaning of democracy and a free press, why is she in the position she is in? The woman is pathetic, like everyone else in this administration.

One of the very worst people in the Trump administration is Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is a crony of corporate polluters and seeks to undercut or destroy every advancement made by the EPA. When he was Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA not once, but fourteen times and always insisted that it should be eliminated. So where is he now? In charge of the agency he wanted to destroy. If that makes any kind of sense, I would love to hear it. The only way to interpret this is that “draining the swamp” means, to Trump and his fellow Republicans, destroying the functions of government.

During his various political campaigns, Pruitt accepted over $300,000 from the gas and oil industries. Now as head of the EPA he has, behind closed doors, quietly replaced real scientists on the EPA board with fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives. This is one of the most blatant example’s of this administration’s utter hostility toward science, to say nothing of its disregard for the health of its citizens. Because of this, other scientists have resigned in disgust. Joel Clement, a leading expert in climate science, wrote in his resignation letter: “[Secretary Zinke] and President Trump have waged an all-out assault on the civil service by muzzling scientists and policy experts like myself.” The Daily Kos notes: “He’s refusing to regulate even those chemicals that were specifically called out in the Toxic Substances Control Act. He decimated the rules for dealing with the most polluted, most dangerous SuperFund sites and refuses to provide any justification for the change. And he took his whole team to Morocco to party with lobbyists and advocate for fossil fuels … which is not the EPA’s job.” (Daily Kos, December 27, 2017) Knowing that his agenda will not sit well with the public he is sworn to serve, the paranoid Pruitt has a custom built soundproof booth in his office, installed two new security systems on his door and even has an entire floor blocked off from the rest of the EPA. No other EPA head has ever done anything remotely similar. What is this man trying to hide? According to the Kos: “Pruitt’s personal security now costs about 63 percent as much as it costs to guard the Pope—and one of the two is working to cut that cost.” The Kos article rightly summarizes this ridiculous situation by saying that Pruitt is totally out of control and that the American people have a right to know what is going on behind the closed doors of the EPA. If Pruitt and other Republicans think that the function of the EPA is to subsidize oil and coal, why all the secrecy?

Pruitt, like everyone else in the Trump administration, isn’t the least concerned about the health and welfare of the American people. Communities everywhere are facing dangerous exposure to toxic waste, dirty water, and polluted air. For example, a dangerous neurotoxin called chlorpyrifos is being sprayed on our fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that between six and ten million pounds of this chemical is being sprayed each year on crops that everyone consumes. Despite clear evidence of its dangers, and despite the EPA’s own recommendation that, even in small quantities it is dangerous, Pruitt decided to keep it legal. Chemically, chlorpyrifos is similar to sarin nerve gas and it has been linked to lower IQs and memory problems in children whose mother had been exposed to it while pregnant.

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discussed how politics affects science during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zaria. He first notes that so-called scientific papers can be found that say whatever people want to hear, but these are not objective scientific truths. Tellingly, he notes: “But an emergent scientific truth, for it to become an objective truth, a truth that is true whether or not you believe in it, it requires more than one scientific paper. It requires a whole system of people’s research all leaning in the same direction, all pointing to the same consequences. That’s what we have with climate change as induced by human conduct. This is a known correspondence. If you want to find the 3 percent of the papers or the 1 percent of the papers that conflicted with this and build policy on that, that is simply irresponsible.” (Jen Hayden, Daily Kos, September 20, 2017) But then, irresponsibility is a hallmark of this administration.

Sorry to say for Pruitt and Trump, but the facts are crystal clear regarding the reality of climate change. Ignoring the facts simply puts our lives in danger. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports the findings of the National Oceanic Administration which confirmed that 2016 was the hottest year on record. They also reported that greenhouse gases were the highest on record, and that the Antarctic had a record low sea ice level. So what does the Trump administration have to say about this? Nothing at all.

One of the countless problems confronting us is the declining bee population, which poses a grave threat to agriculture across the globe. There are certain pesticides that have been proven to be lethal to the bees and the European Commission decided to ban some of the pesticides that have played a role in what is called the “colony collapse disorder.” The commission placed a two year ban on pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Here in the United States, we have not been so wise. Bayer and Monsanto are both big users of toxic pesticides, and the Trump administration will certainly not make any effort to ban their use. Bees do much more than give us honey: They pollinate 71 out of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the food for everyone in the world. Despite the importance of bees in food production, Trump will slash the EPA’s funding, making it extremely difficult for the agency to do its job—not that the president and Pruitt have any intention of doing their jobs, or even care about the consequences. Pruitt was selected, after all, for the sole purpose of destroying the EPA from the inside. And, true to his colors, Pruitt’s EPA is currently considering allowing these pesticides to be sprayed on 165 million acres of American farmlands which had previously been protected. This despite the fact that beekeepers have reported losing 33% of their honeybee colonies in 2017. In addition, Syngenta, an agrochemical Swiss company which is a rival to Monsanto, is trying to get the administration’s approval to spray thiamethoxam on more than 165 million acres of America’s prime agricultural land. If the EPA, under Pruitt, approves this, they will be able to use this toxic pesticide on our wheat, barley, potato, and rice crops. The bottom line is that over seven hundred bee species in North America are in danger of extermination. If the Trump administration continues on its current path, the bee colonies will continue to die off, food will become scarcer, and more people will suffer and die as a result.

Trump nominated Michael Dourson to head the EPA’s chemical safety office. This might have been the most extreme choice possible. As Credo Action notes: “He has a long history of greenwashing the deadly effects of toxic chemicals to protect corporate profits and runs an industry-funded ‘science-for-hire’ consulting firm charged with undercutting environmental regulations…For more than two decades, Dourson has been the go-to ‘voice of the chemical industry’ when corporate polluters and chemical manufacturers need misleading research to minimize the effects of toxic chemicals. In the 1990s, tobacco giant Philip Morris hired Dourson’s firm to generate research downplaying the negative effects of secondhand smoke. He justified his decision to work with Big Tobacco by saying: ‘Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. … Why should we exclude anyone that needs help?’…A man bought and paid for by the chemical industry who has put the health and safety of American families at serious risk should not be in charge of overseeing chemical safety and pollution.” (Credo Action, October 9, 2017) Dourson is nothing more than a shill for Dow, DuPont, and Monsanto who have hired him repeatedly over the years to try and convince people that highly toxic substances found in pesticides, shampoos, and other products are harmless, even though they have been proven to play a significant role in cancer, birth defects, and other abnormalities. Apparently, for once, all this was too much even for the Republican Congress. When it became obvious he wouldn’t be approved (the first Trump nominee not to be approved), he withdrew his nomination.

THE ROLE OF FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANITY

The elephant in the middle of the room that no one is mentioning is fundamentalist Christianity. Although Trump himself is far from being one himself, he has surrounded himself with those who are religious extremists, and this is the driving engine behind just about all of their actions. 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, whereas in earlier times they would never support a man who is not a fundamentalist Christian. It is singularly amazing that evangelicals who speak so loudly about “family values” support a man who has been divorced twice, married three times, and has numerous infidelities and sex scandals linked to his name. Despite all this, Trump has not disappointed them. Since he assumed the presidency, the White House has become an evangelical power base; virtually every single person nominated to key posts is a fundamentalist Christian who would like nothing better than to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy. For example, when Energy Secretary Rick Perry was governor of Texas, he used mass prayer as a means of addressing and correcting social problems; the results (or lack thereof) speak for themselves! Vice President Pence is another believer in the literal interpretation of the bible who is one of the most homophobic politicians in the country. Betsy DeVos has said that her goal as a public servant is to “advance God’s kingdom.” Jeff Sessions believes that anyone who doesn’t believe in god (meaning of course his god) cannot be truthful. Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow has a long history of opposition to the separation between religion and government and has defended forced school prayer at the Supreme Court (and, like so many other Christian leaders today, has long been known to make enormous profits from non-profit groups he and his family either run or are involved in). And Housing and Urban Development head Ben Carson, supposedly one of the “intellectuals” in the cabinet, believes that biological evolution is a lie created by the devil. These individuals, alongside everyone else in this administration, constitute a threat to our democracy because they are convinced that their own personal interpretation of Christianity is the only correct one and that those who don’t adhere to it need to be, at the very least, marginalized. The idea of keeping their religious preferences out of the public sphere is unthinkable to them; their goal is to force their beliefs on everyone else. Theirs is a truly un-American stance.

Considering the tax scam that rewards only the super rich at the expense of everyone else, it might be time to consider how this jibes with what their Bible says. Although as an atheist I am loath to quote scripture, a couple of verses here might prove enlightening. Jesus (assuming that such a person actually existed) had big problems with wealth. Luke 16 tells us that people cannot serve both god and mammon. Matthew 19 says that it is nearly impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. That same chapter urges people to support the poor.

Other contradictions abound. Matthew 26 tells us that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword, yet the gun lobby is more powerful than any other single constituency in Washington and Trump is constantly engaging in wars of words with North Korea’s leader which threaten to ignite a nuclear war. Jesus is portrayed as offering comfort to the marginalized in his society, yet this administration is willing to discriminate against people of color, the LGBTQ community, and other minority groups. Apparently, in addition to “alternative facts,” the government also believes in “alternative Christianity.” Taking the metaphor further, it seems obvious that they are living in an alternate reality.

The big question is obvious: How do Republicans square their actions with their biblical beliefs? Their hatred of Democrats is so extreme that they will overlook the moral failings of a man like Trump, and abandon their own moral principles (skewed as they are) for political expediency. This conclusively demonstrates that the evangelical community is morally bankrupt.

Secrecy is now standard operating procedure in the Trump administration. The public is generally unaware of what they are doing. Meetings are held in secret, and the minutes not made available. People and groups they are meeting with are also rarely disclosed. To reiterate, all this is being done because they know that their agenda is not popular with the overwhelming majority of Americans.

An important aspect of Trump’s agenda (and that of his fellow Republicans) is to pack the courts with right-wing extremist judges. Contrary to historical precedent, he and his Republican colleagues have been appointing these people at a dizzying pace, and these are lifetime appointments. Most of these individuals have little or no qualifications to serve. As an example, let us examine the case of Brett Talley. Sierra Rise informs us: “Talley has never been to trial in the less than three years he’s practiced law. To top it off, the American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously voted him ‘not qualified’ for a federal judgeship. Of the approximately 1,800 nominees ABA has rated from 1989 to 2016, just two had unanimously been voted as ‘not qualified,’ Brett Talley of course being one of them. Despite Talley’s abysmal record, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee approved him for a lifetime appointment…Talley is a extremist ideologue who has defended the KKK, called President Obama’s EPA a ‘lawless organ of federal power,’ and mocked gun control after the Sandy Hook massacre.” (Sierra Rise, November 29, 2017)

Talley is far from the only neo-fascist ideologue Trump has nominated. Some of the others include Jeff Mateer, Liles Burke, and Thomas Farr. Farr, in a throwback to the civil rights era when blacks weren’t allowed to vote, has defended North Carolina’s bigoted attempt to use voter ID laws to disenfranchise African-American voters yet again. Mateer has said that the existence of transgender children is “proof that Satan’s plan is working.” He has defended businesses’ alleged “right” to discriminate against minorities while opposing any laws that protect those minorities’ civil rights and liberties. Burke, who has a portrait of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his office, believes that women should be prosecuted for damage done to their fetuses if they take illegal drugs during their pregnancy because he thinks the word “child” in a child endangerment bill should apply to “unborn children,” meaning fetuses.

All these judges are of course religious fundamentalists. Such people are a threat to the judicial system because they put their subjective faith beliefs ahead of the law. But there is no legal or rational justification for them to do this; sin is not a legal term. Since we do not (at least for now) live in a theocracy, any legal ruling must have a secular foundation. Any judge who renders a decision based on his or her religious beliefs cannot objectively determine the truth and has no business in the legal profession.

There are medievalists in our midst. And they are re-writing the laws of the land.

The individuals cited above are typical examples of the people on the fringe that have emerged since Trump assumed office and that he is attempting to put in positions of power. As previously mentioned, he is appointing such people at an extremely fast rate; many of these posts are unfilled because his fellow Republicans refused to allow President Obama to fill them. Consider these statistics: In the first six months of his presidency, Trump nominated 27 federal judges. That’s three times more than Obama and more than double the totals of Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton combined. Prior to Trump, no president had ever had more than three judges confirmed in his first six months in office. Trump has had nine confirmed. Credo Action tells us: “Given the number of judicial vacancies, and the pace of nominations and confirmations, in just one more year, one-eighth of all cases filed in federal court [could] be heard by a judge [Trump] appointed.” (Heidi Hess, Credo Action, September 8, 2017)

In their mad rush to get these unqualified people on the courts, Republicans have eliminated the “blue slip” process that gives each Senator information on these nominees from their home states. These have been used for over a century. When Obama was president, Republicans worked hard to keep the blue slips, but now that Trump is in power, they have done an about face. This is yet another example of how Republicans want one set of rules for themselves, and another for everybody else. What hypocrisy!

THE WAR ON THE ENVIRONMENT

SierraRise reports on another ridiculous item from the White House: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received instructions from the Trump administration that seven words are banned from the agency’s 2019 budget proposal. The banned words are: vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, science-based. Is this not proof positive of this administrations hostility toward science? Banning words can be an extremely dangerous path to embark on, yet it is a strategy that is a key part of the Trump administration’s coercive ideological agenda. Earlier this year the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ began to disappear from government websites.” (SierraRise, December 20.2017) This in a year that has seen incontrovertible evidence of climate change’s results: Untold damage caused by wildfires, the melting of polar ice caps, $300 billion in hurricane damage, the disappearance of coral reefs and other disasters are without question evidence of climate change. Yet the Trump administration blithely ignores the evidence before their eyes; they see what they want to see. Truly, this administration is completely out of touch with reality.

The Republican war on the environment is overt and obvious. Trump nominated coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to fill the number two spot at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Wheeler lobbied for corporate polluters, in particular for Murray Energy, the biggest coal mining conglomerate in the entire United States. When HBO’s John Oliver ran an expose on the coal industry, CEO Robert Murray attempted to sue Oliver. Murray naturally is another climate change denier, even going so far as to claim that the earth’s temperature is cooling rather than heating up. Murray is another confirmed liar; he lied when he said that four thousand scientists told him that humans are not affecting climate change.

Another winner is Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, author of a book about global warming called “The Greatest Hoax.” Inhofe gained a degree of notoriety when he attempted to prove his case by bringing a snowball to the floor of the Senate.

Fossil fuel lobbyists insist that if we fight climate change, it will be expensive and drain consumers bank accounts. This is yet another lie. In fact, clean air and clean car standards issued during Obama’s presidency reduced carbon emissions, saving consumers billions of dollars in fuel bills.

Perhaps a word about how climate change comes about is in order here. The key point is that Republicans deny that humans play a role in global warming. This is simply wishful thinking on their part. Most people are aware of how our tropical rain forests are being systematically destroyed. This is primarily due to the white elephant in the room, namely over-population. When a country begins to have too many people, they look to the rain forests as potential food growing zones. So they go in, chop everything down, pile it up and burn it. All the nutrients that were in the plants are now contained in this ash. The ash is then plowed in and the rainforest is converted into agricultural land—but only briefly. The production will be excellent for the first year because there is plenty of food due to the nutrients in the ash, for the plants to live on. But the second year, the harvest won’t be nearly as good as most of the nutrients have gone. By the third or fourth year, there is no harvest at all, so officials go out and destroy more rainforest, endlessly repeating the cycle. What happened to the nutrients? They go into the plants that are harvested, and the harvest is removed from the area, so there is no replacement. Meanwhile acidic rain continues to fall, dissolving any remaining nutrients. The problem is that these soils were never meant to grow the kinds of plants people want to grow there.

One of the things that takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is green plants. So when rain forests are destroyed, the balance of nature that keeps global temperatures constant is upset. In other words, we are tampering with nature by destroying the rainforests, and global warming is the direct result of our doing so. These are indisputable facts from the scientific community, and Republican efforts to ignore science threaten the public good, indeed even our very survival. And they call themselves “conservatives?”

One of the biggest issues concerns the Muslim ban that Trump has been promising to implement since he began his presidential campaign. This is not only discriminatory and unconstitutional, it is also wrong-headed. The simple fact is that, over the last ten years, 74 percent of all religious-extremist killings have been done by haters on the right wing, not Muslims. Of course, the facts will have no bearing whatever on Republicans. How could they? We have a supporter of white supremacy as president. Since his election, hate crimes have escalated enormously in this country. Violence against gays, women, people of color, and people who are not fundamentalist Christians continues to make headlines virtually every day. Anti-semitic violence has increased by 67 percent since Trump won the election. But the Republicans have an answer to all this: It’s all just “fake news.” Of course, Republicans define fake news in the same way as Joseph Stalin defined “enemies of the people.” Dictators are all the same.

Our national parks and treasures, to say nothing of the environment, are of no concern to today’s Republicans. They want to open up these parks and our oceans to corporate polluters, seeking short-term financial gain at the expense of the American people and our way of life. The problem for Trump is that he has no legal right to decommission any national monument. The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) made this clear when it filed a lawsuit to protect Bear Ears national monument in Utah: “Under the Antiquities Act, the president may create national monuments. That is all. He or she may not diminish or revoke existing monuments—only Congress has that ability. Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt, Presidents have designated more than one hundred monuments throughout our country. No President has ever previously sought to abolish one by Executive Order because the Antiquities Act does not authorize the President to do so. If this unprecedented and unlawful action is allowed, the 129 national monuments across the United States will be at risk.” Of course, legal niceties mean nothing whatever to today’s Republicans. How did Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke review the situation? By working with Energy Fuels Resources Inc., which has been lobbying for years to repeal Bear Ears’ status. The rationalization? Is that the de-commission has nothing to do with extracting resources. Like hell it doesn’t! These people aren’t even convincing liars.

Bear Ears is far from the only target. Even the Grand Canyon is now threatened by radioactive uranium mining. This mining would pollute the Colorado River, which is the water source for millions of people. It would also destroy forests and Native American communities. All this emanates from Trump’s March 2017 executive order which told federal agencies to examine their rules in order to find ways that allow more oil drilling, fracking, and coal and uranium mining.

This not the only aspect of our national parks that has drawn the attention of this administration. Public lands enemy Ryan Zinke, who heads the Department of the Interior, has proposed raising the entrance fees to virtually every national park by an estimated 180 percent. Apparently, Republicans want to get all the money they can from these parks before destroying them. Zinke also recommended to Trump that he reduce the size of four national monuments and open six others to drilling, logging, and mining. Knowing that reducing or destroying parks and monuments are highly unpopular with most Americans, the details of the destruction were kept secret until they were leaked to the press in September 2017, yet another example of this administration’s determination to keep the American people ignorant of its actions. The Sierra Club listed the targeted monuments: “Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, New Mexico’s Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte, Nevada’s Gold Butte and Basin and Range, Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters, Oregon’s Cascade Siskiyou, the Pacific Ocean’s Rose Atoll and Pacific Remote Islands, and the Atlantic Ocean’s Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.” (Lena Moffett, Sierra Club, September 18, 2017)

Let’s take Katahdin Woods as an example. This pristine wilderness is literally a gift to America from Burt’s Bees entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby and her family so that Maine’s North Woods would be preserved for future generations. Wildlife lives there in abundance, including lynx, bears, moose, and a wide variety of birds. Environmental Action tells us of the threat: “Interior Secretary Zinke did not recommend shrinking the overall size of Katahdin as he did with Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. But the secretary also called for ‘active timber management’ that could signal new commercial logging in this pristine place.” (Environmental Action, January 4, 2018)

The Bears Ears National Monument is a case in point of what this administration wants to do to our national treasures. The administration wants to shrink it by over a million acres—an area larger in size than the state of Delaware. The reason is that the administration wants to open the area up to uranium mining operations. As already noted, Uranium is a high-polluting element that has already polluted much of the area’s drinking water. We see once again the administration’s utter contempt for the health and well-being of the citizens it is supposed to protect.

Fracking, in addition to turning beautiful scenic areas into industrial zones, has caused untold damage to the environment. It pollutes our water, both on the surface and underground. It destroys wildlife. Fracking has contaminated an Ohio wetland with millions of gallons of drilling fluid, and caused a huge explosion in Colorado. Naturally, Trump and his minions are doing their best to weaken or remove restrictions on fracking.

THE REPUBLICAN TAX SCAM

It is time to consider the tax scam passed by the Republicans in December, 2017.

Since their tax scam was passed, gloating Republicans have continued with the lie on how it will benefit everyone. However, most Americans can see through their lies; the scam is extremely unpopular, even among many Republicans. Ironically, it’s even less popular than tax increases passed under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton!

Recognizing how unpopular the Republican tax schemes have been, Republicans have tried all kinds of legalistic and economic legerdemain to “prove” how they will benefit everyone. They have tried to sell the American public on the idea that these cuts shouldn’t be though of as benefiting the mega-rich, but as increasing the income of ordinary workers. Trump’s spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quoted in October, 2017 as saying: “The average American family would get a $4000 raise under the president’s tax plan.” Trump, ever the self-promoter, reiterated this, and upping the ante to $5000. These numbers don’t stand up to critical scrutiny, as most economists have recognized.

This patchwork bill was so poorly thrown together that, once passed, few seemed to notice that it had such irregularities as last-minute changes written in the margins, countless crossing outs, and other inconsistencies that guaranteed dissatisfaction from just about all sectors of society—which is precisely what has occurred. And of course, the public was little aware of some of the items that have been quietly added to the bill, such as anti-abortion language, which could lay the groundwork for a complete ban on abortion. This is another example of the sneaky, back-door politics that is so typical of the Republican party.

The funny thing about the tax scam (perhaps the only funny thing) is that many of the wealthy people who voted for Trump will be among its first victims. Wealthy homeowners across the country spent the last week of 2017 trying to prepay their 2018 property taxes before the new rules take effect. They then found out that those prepaid taxes might not be deductible after all. The scam limits deduction for both state and local taxes at $10,000. The irony is that these same people had benefitted under the Obama administration’s unlimited deduction allowances. It is amusing to envision these homeowners rushing to their accountants in the final week of 2017, only to find out that he/she has gone on vacation! Will these people now see the light and become former Trump supporters? Only time will tell, but don’t bet on it. Instead, they will find some way to blame the Democrats for their problems.

Once the scam was passed, Republicans went to work to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and more. As Credo Action noted: “Even before the Trump Tax Scam passed, (Paul) Ryan was talking about his plans to gut Medicaid and Medicare in 2018. ‘We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform,’ he promised last week, suddenly rediscovering a passion for the deficit after pushing trillions in tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy.” (Kaili Lamb, Credo Action, December 21, 2017) The article also points out how this contradicts what Trump had promised earlier: “Donald Trump repeatedly pledged during the 2016 campaign not to attack Medicare, Medicaid or our Social Security system but he has since seriously undermined these programs.” The Republican’s strategy is a bald-faced lie: They are doing their best to sell the American people about how huge the deficit is (after their corporate giveaways immeasurably increased the problem) and then trying to “remedy” it by cutting the above programs, in addition to other programs such as Meals on Wheels ( which is not “showing any results,” according to budget director Mick Mulvaney), SNAP, and others. Fortunately, the majority of the American public recognize an economic Trojan horse when they see it; they are fighting mad about it, not that their Republican leaders are listening to them.

The irony about the Republican’s attacks on Social Security is that so many of them have supported it in the past, including presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr. Bush, for example, once said: “The last thing we need to do is mess around with Social Security.” This is further proof, if any were needed, just how extreme the current Republican party is—and how out of step with their own history.

Speaking of Reagan, Republicans have attempted to justify their tax scam by pointing to the supposed beneficial results of Reagan’s 1986 tax cuts over the following decade. In fact, the economy was much stronger in the decade prior to Reagan’s massive cuts. But little things like objective facts mean nothing to Republican demagogues.

California Senator Diane Feinstein slammed the tax bill on December 20, 2017, noting: “Californians will be hit especially hard by the cap on the state and local tax deduction, making it more difficult for communities to pay for services that our families rely on. It’s no wonder a bill that primarily benefits the wealthy is so unpopular with the American people. They understand this isn’t middle-class tax reform, it’s a middle-class tax hike.” Feinstein has been involved in exposing numerous other nonsensical items from the Republican leaders; she has made every effort to get information related to possible obstruction of justice and collusion by the President in the ongoing Russian scandal.

Republicans aren’t offering anything new with this ill-conceived piece of legislation. In fact, it’s nothing more than the nonsensical “trickle down” theory of economics advanced by conservatives during the Reagan years. The idea is that, by reducing taxes for corporations and the wealthy, businesses will prosper and ultimately everyone will reap the benefits. The only problem is that it simply does not work. The wealthy do not go out and spend their extra cash, as the rest of us do; the only thing that causes economic growth is when people spend their money, and the wealthy just don’t do that. Despite what Republican and Libertarian economists claim, they hoard it. Every time the Republicans attempt to install economic ideas based on “trickle-down” theories, the rich get richer and everyone else suffers. This is a demonstrable truism, not a partisan bias. Every time these theories are put into practice, the cuts drain the government of the money it needs to pay for essential services; Republicans then use this as an excuse to de-fund programs that benefit everyone else, saying they are “not working.” Well of course they won’t work if they don’t have the money to function!

The results are predictable: The top one percent of the U.S. population takes in more than twenty percent of the money generated each year. This imbalance is twice what it was during the 1970s. Meanwhile, the average American working family has seen a sharp decline in earnings. This is why the Republican’s claim that the stock market is doing well, or the economy in general, is a smokescreen to cover the real issue: the gradual elimination of the middle class and the polarization of the country. Money is power, and the more money the wealthy can take from everyone else, the more power they will have in enforcing everyone else to conform to their will. All this should be kept in mind when we remember Trump’s campaign promise to “fix the rigged system.” This tax scam will rig the system even more: 91% of those earning above half a million dollars annually will see a huge tax cut. This of course includes those Republicans who wrote and supported the bill, a clear conflict of interest.

The constant references to a “great” economy or to how well the stock market is doing under Trump is yet another Republican lie; it was during the presidency of Barack Obama that the real benefits began to accrue. He was the man who pulled us out of the Great Recession and set the wheels in motion for a strong economy, which Republicans are now claiming as their own.

According to the Daily Kos, only one out of the top 42 economists actually believes that the GOP tax bill will benefit the country. And, only one (presumably the same individual) believes that the bill will not harm the deficit. (Jamess, Daily Kos, November 26, 2017) The whole idea of the Republican tax scam, based on long since disproven Reaganomics, is nothing more than a sham devised to reward corporate donors to their campaigns. Under the Republicans, money doesn’t trickle down; it trickles up.

The tax scam has numerous other provisions in it, all of them rotten to the core. One thing the mainstream media has been doing right is pointing out how the scam will give huge tax breaks to billionaires as well as gas and oil companies. Under the tax plan, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be opened for more drilling, again filling the coffers of corporate polluters. Once this is gone, it will not come back. Programs designed to protect our water and air as well as clean energy will wind up on the chopping block. In typical Trump/Republican manner, the plan to drill in America’s last pristine wilderness was buried on page 56 of the budget plan, in the hopes that nobody would notice.

The GOP’s tax scam violates the very purpose taxes were collected in the first place: To pay for the cost of services the government supplies. Paying off billionaire supporters can hardly be interpreted as a “service” to the American people. The billionaires who will benefit from this giveaway proves that Trump’s alleged populism is an out-and-out lie.

Other issues the tax scam raises include making it much harder for people to pay off their loans since they will not be able to deduct such expenses from their taxes. There is no incentive for job growth in rural or urban areas since the bill removes a tax credit encouraging businesses to invest in those areas hard hit by the recession. And, the bill will also add over a trillion and a half dollars to the national deficit, Republican lies to the contrary. For example, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised that: “Not only will this tax plan pay for itself, but it will pay down debt.” Rest assured that Republicans will react to the ever-increasing national debt by cutting more social services. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare will wind up on the chopping block. This is standard operating procedure in the Republican party.

Even though the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation pointed out that this budget will increase the national debt by over a trillion dollars in the next decade, even counting in the projected economic growth, Mnuchin dismissed the Committee’s findings. Again, this is typically Republican: When the facts don’t support the theory, discard the facts. This is rather akin to religious fundamentalists who do the same thing with arguments that disprove their religion. Facts and truth, in this mindset, are subjective in nature rather than demonstrably objective. In both cases, rationalizing and “alternative facts” replace discomforting truths.

Take House Speaker Paul Ryan. When Obama was president, Ryan spoke out against the dangers of a huge deficit: “The facts are very very clear: The United States is heading toward a debt crisis. We face a crushing burden of debt which will take down our economy—which will lower our living standards.” Then, when Trump’s tax plan was proposed, he suddenly did an about face: The tax plan’s promise of trillions of dollars flowing toward corporations and the super-rich will raise the national debt to unprecedented levels. Yet Ryan is now OK with this, since it is a Republican plan. He now says: “If this results in giving us a faster economic growth, that will help us reduce our debt….You have to have tax reform to get faster economic growth.” Exactly how paying obscene amounts of money to corporations and billionaires will benefit everyone else is never discussed—not surprisingly, because the bottom line is what it always is with Republicans: trickle-down economic nonsense. These are the same Republicans who won their House and Senate seats by screaming about the dangers of deficit spending. Their hypocrisy is astounding.

Another lie coming from Ryan is seen when he said with a straight face that “the entire purpose of this tax bill is to cut middle class taxes.” If so, why didn’t they just cut middle class taxes outright? Instead, he and his like-minded supporters claim that corporations will use their tax savings to raise workers’ salaries. But of course there are no provisions in the bill forcing corporations to do this. Given their record profits in recent years, we may conclude that corporations are doing quite well; they don’t need a tax cut.

In fact there is a major loophole in the scam that hasn’t gotten the attention it should. This loophole is in the form of something called “pass-through” income. This refers to money that businesses have made that “passes through” to the business owner’s personal tax return, which enables the business to avoid paying the corporate income tax. Although the scam’s supporters claim that this will benefit small businesses, the reality is that the wealthy will be the main beneficiaries (surprise!) and workers will suffer. Trump himself will benefit enormously from this scam, as he owns more than 500 large “pass-through” real estate companies—a clear conflict of interest.

I am a native Californian, so it might be of interest to note what Ron Galperin, the Los Angeles City Controller, has to say about the ramifications of the tax scam for my state: “…taxpayers at the bottom of the earning brackets—those who need the most help—will see their taxes rise. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, by 2027, taxes will increase for Americans making $75,000 a year or less, and those making between $20,000 and $30,000 will see their taxes go up by 25.4%.” (“The Republican tax overhaul is terrible for L.A,” Ron Galperin, Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2017) This will take place under what Trump has called “the largest tax cut in history.” Who is he kidding? Galperin also notes in the same article that state and local tax deductions would be eliminated, and that: “The Republican tax plan would also exacerbate our affordable-housing crisis. Buried deep within the draft is a provision that would end the tax-exempt status for the bonds used to fund affordable housing. This would affect millions of Angelenos, including veterans.”

The sick irony of all this is that Trump insists that Californians: “Really are bing subsidized by states like Indiana and Iowa.” This is just another Trump lie: In fact California already pays more in taxes than any other state, in the neighborhood of half a trillion dollars per annum, which is approximately 12% of all taxes paid in the country. Considering all this, a reasonable question might be: Why are we being hit so hard? Is it because California went Democratic in the last election and this is just another example of Trump’s seeking revenge? Just wondering.

The tax scam is Robin Hood in reversal: Robbing from the poor to give to the rich. Let’s call it what it is: Trickle-up economics.

The scam will directly affect millions of Americans because it repeals the individual mandate, the results of which will be an estimated 13 million fewer people having access to health coverage. Healthier people will opt out of the health insurance market, resulting in a huge increase in premium costs for those not so fortunate as to be healthy. Trump also signed an order that allows so-called association plans to be available which don’t offer the same health protections required under Obamacare. The result will be a surge in fake insurance policies that will fail to help people when they become ill.

The bottom line is this: Every time an American loses their health insurance, it will be the Republican’s fault. And the chief responsibility will lie with Trump, who based his campaign on the promise to “fix” healthcare. Republican leaders continue to insist that we have the greatest healthcare system in the world. Perhaps they would like to say that to the 28 million Americans who have no health insurance whatever. I would also like to hear them justify why, if our system is so great, Americans pay more for prescription drugs than any other country in the world. If our system is so great, why is it that so many people cannot even afford the medicines they need? The system, in its current form, provides hundreds of billions of dollars in profits to insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and those providing medical equipment. While people are dying because of inadequate healthcare, Trump and his immoral cohorts are taking their money and giving it to corporate polluters and billionaires. So when far-right Republicans claim that the healthcare system is “great,” they are lying. Pure and simple.

Despite Trump’s ludicrous claim that the bill would “cost me a fortune,” he and his family (as well as countless other Republican leaders) will greatly benefit from its passage. The numbers don’t lie. Anyone who believes Trump’s claim is in serious denial.

They are also in denial if they insist that Trump isn’t turning the country over to corporate interests. During the first seven months of his administration, he met with over 300 corporate heads, more than three times the number Obama met with during all eight years of his presidency. Trump’s anti-regulation agenda is an obvious payback to these corporations. Public Citizen notes: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce remains intent on stripping away people’s right to sue corporations for wrongdoing. (And) the same Jeff Sessions who wants to impose the harshest penalties possible on low-level offenders—is aiming to scale back dramatically corporate criminal prosecution.” (Robert, Public Citizen, December 22, 2017)

In 2016, the so-called “Panama Papers” showed how the wealthy were able to avoid paying their share of taxes. The following year, a new scandal emerged, based on the “Paradise Papers” which showed that Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Commerce Secretary has maintained financial ties to a major Russian energy company that has direct ties to Vladimir Putin. Not surprisingly, given the general dishonesty of Republican politicians, Ross failed to mention these connections during his confirmation hearings. There are an astounding 13 million pages of documents illustrating how international corporations, hedge funds, and Wall Street bankers are able to use the system to avoid paying taxes. Among those listed in the papers are corporations such as Apple, Nike, and Uber. Even the Queen of England is a beneficiary! More to the point for our interests here, the papers also name more than a dozen close associates of the president who are also cheating the system. Among them are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, economic advisor Gary Cohn, the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Robert Mercer. The mega-rich are able to avoid their tax duties by putting their monies in offshore shell companies, while everyone else does not have that luxury. Given the new tax scam they were in such a hurry to pass, it is obvious that the Republicans want to have one tax code for themselves and their friends, and another one for the rest of us. This whole ridiculous scenario should be independently investigated and the truth brought before the American people.

To illustrate just how skewed our values have become, Fortune Magazine awarded JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) as the number one company in its annual list called “Change the World.” Of course, JPMC has been a major financier of the Dakota Access Pipelines as well as Keystone XL and others. They received this award even though the report Banking on Climate Change identified them as the largest funder of climate disaster projects. BOCC also noted that the firm had invested almost seven billion dollars in fossil fuel projects in 2016. This despite the fact that there is something called the Equator Principles which is supposed to unite banks in minimizing the impact of these projects on the environment in the areas. However, as with so many documents, there are loopholes that allow these banks to continue throwing money into projects that threaten the environment and endangering lives.

What has emerged in recent decades is the singular fact that there is one standard of behavior for Democrats, and another for Republicans. From the moment Barack Obama took office, Republicans went out of their way to discredit anything he said and did. The ridiculous “birther” campaign was but one example of their undying efforts to discredit him at every opportunity. Their hounding of Obama was continuous but they never came up with a single impeachable offense. They tried to do the same thing against Hillary Clinton (the absurd notion of voter fraud, and the even more ridiculous idea that she was running a child-pornography ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor) and came up with exactly nothing. Now, with the tables reversed, Donald Trump could very easily be impeached for countless very real transgressions and treasonous actions, from using the White House for his own personal profits to the ongoing Russian scandal. Yet those same Republicans are now conspicuously silent. And the American public’s reaction is a stifled yawn. Why the double standard? It is singularly amazing that the Republican party continues to be supported by anyone; their hypocrisy and outright immorality is simply unbelievable.

What we are witnessing today in this country is wholesale treason committed by the majority members of a political party. This is historically without precedent. The Republican party is engaged in an ongoing assault on everything we hold dear as a nation, and those who still support the party are equally guilty.

This doesn’t mean that the Democratic party is guiltless; far from it. In fact, there are eight sellouts in New York who call themselves the “Independent Democratic Conference.” Their strategy is to seek election as Democrats and then betraying the party by voting to give Republicans control of the state Senate. They also block any kind of progressive bills and legislation. Jeffrey D. Klein is the IDC’s leader, and others include Jose Peralta, Jesse Hamilton, David J. Valesky, David Carlucci, Marisol Alcantara, Diane Savino, and Tony Avella. Voters need to be aware of these turncoats and remove them from office at the next election. With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

The NRA is one of the most powerful lobbying voices in America today, and the Republican party is utterly beholden to their interests. Congress was just about to pass an NRA-sponsored bill to deregulate gun silencers when the mass shooting in Las Vegas occurred, the deadliest such shooting in American history. This bill, absurdly called the “Hearing Protection Act” would eliminate any restrictions on silencers. After the mass shooting, they quietly postponed voting on the measure and then offered “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the shootings and their families, as if this would help them in any way. All talk, no action: that is how the Republicans deal with senseless, preventable tragedies such as this.

That the Republican party is utterly beholden to the NRA and the gun lobby is certainly no secret. Even though most Americans of both parties support background checks, the NRA opposes them, so Republicans fall in line behind them. California alone has some of the most extreme gun fanatic Republicans in Congress. Dana Rohrabacher sponsored a bill that would allow adults to carry guns in schools and classrooms. Ed Royce, Jeff Denham and Mimi Walters sponsored a bill that would allow concealed weapons in state parks. Steve Knight supported a bill that would allow armor-piercing ammunition. All of them have received an “A” rating from the NRA.

Rohrabacher in particular seems to be fairly typical of today’s Republican leaders. He voted for tax cuts for the richest Americans. He wants to allow oil drilling off California’s coast. It goes without saying he doesn’t believe in climate change. Key Race Alert notes that: “He brought an alt-right Holocaust denier to Capital Hill and accepted money from him. And he took campaign donations from Paul Manafort—who was just indicted as part of the Trump-Russia investigation!” (Key Race Alert, via RedtoBlueCA.Org, November 1, 2017) Clearly Dana Rohrabacher is an unqualified bigot who has no right to be put in any kind of position of authority.

Speaking of California, its state employee pension fund, CalPERS, is invested in a real estate fund that pays millions of dollars to the Trump Organization each year. This means that, without the knowledge of most of them, over a million and a half public employees are putting money directly into Trump’s pockets—yet another scandal of immense proportions. If only the media would do its job and look into it! Although this is blatantly unconstitutional, the teflon president is getting away with it. And it’s not just in California; New York, Texas, Montana, Arizona, Michigan and Missouri are all entangled with the same real estate fund, CIM Fund 2. The emoluments act, whereby a president is supposed to divest himself of his business interests before assuming office, is the operating principle here. Ruling on two lawsuits brought against Trump for just that reason, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels dismissed the case not because it was without merit, but because he ruled the defendants “lacked standing,” which has become a standard rationalization for right-wing judges lacking the courage to address unpopular issues.

One of the ways Republicans have been successful in winning so many contested elections is by their partisan gerrymandering efforts. Gerrymandering allows a party to lock in control of a states’ Congressional and state legislative seats, even when the votes are fairly evenly split among both parties. The fact that Donald Trump is president even though he lost the popular vote by over two million votes is proof positive how effective this strategy has been for Republicans.

Scandal after scandal continues to rock the Republican party. Although they will of course deny it, Republicans don’t want blacks to vote, since the majority of them are Democrats. Why else would they be working so hard on voter suppression? Georgia is a case in point. Here, the Republican Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, has voiced his complete support for Trump’s ridiculous voter fraud commission. But that is just the surface of a much deeper issue: Kemp is currently being sued for cutting off voter registration early, thus making it more difficult for people to register in time for federal elections. In October, 2017, an interesting aspect of the case emerged when the Associated Press found out that a computer server central to the case was wiped clean by its custodians immediately after the suit was filed. Of course, Kemp claims ignorance as to how this came about, blaming the elections center at Kennesaw State University. The University claims this is “standard operating procedure” but also claims to have no knowledge of who authorized the erasures, even though their job is to report directly to Kemp. Shades of Watergate!

Voter suppression is an exclusively Republican phenomenon. The right-wing Supreme Court led the way back in 2013 when it gutted the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protected black communities’ right to vote. This was the infamous Shelby v. Holder ruling, and it has tipped the scales in favor of Republican candidates, since a majority of blacks tend to vote Democratic. Since Trump assumed the presidency, the effort to suppress “undesirable” voters has escalated. Trump’s ridiculous commission on voter fraud added fuel to the fire.

The Republicans are trying to convince the public that there are major problems with the electoral process and are doing their utmost to steal elections by enacting discriminatory photo ID laws, moving and even eliminating polling locations making them more difficult to find, cutting back early voting, and any other strategy that enables them to make it harder for people to vote. The 2016 election was the first presidential election in half a century in which voters did not have the protections of the Voting Rights Act. The results were that Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio all went to Trump. In Wisconsin, for example, it is estimated that some 200,000 potential voters were kept from voting in a state that Trump won by only 23,000 votes. There is simply no way of denying that the Republican victory in 2016 was largely due to the rescinding of the Voting Rights Act. There is nothing comparable to this in the Democratic party; it is the Republicans who are attempting to return us to the Jim Crow era.

Part of the Republicans’ war on truth has a historical precedent. The Justice Department tried to create an official enemies list (remember Nixon’s list?) of people who dared to visit a website critical of Trump and his policies. This is a first step in a totalitarian dictatorship which the Republicans want at all costs. Fortunately, Public Citizen was able to intervene in a criminal trial to stop this un-American effort.

Simply put, Republicans are fascists-in-waiting who want total control of all government agencies. Look at the facts: A tax code that they and their corporate donors benefit from. Gerrymandering. Voter ID and suppression. The Voting Commission. Examine the way they conduct their business in Congress. Everything is done behind closed doors with no impact from outsiders, including the American people. Simply put, the Republican party doesn’t represent the interests of the American people, and anyone who thinks they do is simply deluding themselves. There isn’t a single positive thing in their agenda.

Because they are demonstrably corrupt, scandal after scandal has emerged in the Republican party. Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is the latest cabinet member whose crooked dealings are just now coming out. The Daily Kos notes that: “After being appointed to Trump’s cabinet, Secretary Ross retained investments in shipping company Navigator Holdings. One of Navigator Holdings’ top clients is Sibur, a massive Russian energy company owned by Vladimir Putin’s family.” (Daily Kos, December 27, 2017) In other words, Ross is financially benefitting from a company that does business with Putin and his family. Here we see once again conflicts of interest as well as a clear connection between the Trump administration and Russia. No wonder that Republicans want to derail the investigation!

THE ROLE OF THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA

In my book, I went into a great deal of detail about how right-wing news outlets have fed their viewers all kinds of non-factual garbage, and how the conservative mindset, based on faith rather than objective truth, eats it all up. The Daily Kos ran an article that deftly sums up how many conservatives are so completely tuned out to anything that contradicts what they want to believe is true. The author discussed his Christmas Eve visit to his Fox News loving mother-in-law. Parroting what she heard from Fox, she insisted that: The Civil War was not about slavery. When she was told that every single Confederate state cited slavery as the reason for secession, she ignored the facts. She also insisted that she should have the right to impose her version of Christian “values” on everyone else and that the fact that she cannot do so violates her Constitutional right to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Also, she believes that businesses should have the right to refuse service to the LGBTQ community, or anyone else that they think somehow violates their “religious freedom.” When it was pointed out to her that if this “right” were followed through, businesses could also refuse to serve blacks, the discomforting fact fell on deaf ears. (Daily Kos, aboutmri, December 25, 2017)

As stupid as these rationalizations are, and despite the fact that they are ridiculously easy to refute, they are shared by the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress and the White House. These people must be relegated to the fringes of society and not be allowed to determine public policy for the rest of us. These are the people responsible for the “dumbing-down” of America.

Donald Trump would never have become president without extreme right-wing news media outlets making every effort to sell him to the American public. Clearly, these outlets have abandoned any pretense of doing objective reporting. Instead, they have become propaganda agents for the Republican party. And worse may be yet to come. The Sinclair Broadcasting group is an extremely right-wing company that currently reaches about forty percent of American homes. They are known for their right-wing slant on the news; in April, 2017, they hired Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor of Trump’s presidential campaign staff, as their chief political analyst. They are currently attempting to merge with the Tribune company, which would mean they could reach nearly twice as many homes. This would be an unholy media conglomeration, turning the so-called mainstream media markedly further to the right than it already is. This should be kept in mind whenever conservatives speak of the “liberal media.” Their favorite whipping boy has in fact long been in their corner.

There is historical precedent for all this. Back in 2001, President George Bush had lost the popular vote and was only put in the presidency due to a most dubious Supreme Court decision. Then, assuming that he had the support of most Americans, he began a rightward turn that tried to undue all the accomplishments of his predecessor, Bill Clinton. This strategy had of course been hidden from the public view, but within months, the truth began to emerge. The public knew they had been duped and, by September 11, his popularity had dipped dramatically. Trump has followed the same script almost to the letter, lying to the public and making promises he quickly reneged on. Bush’s “solution” should give us all pause and ask: “Can it happen again?” Immediately after the terrorist attacks on that date, his approval rating soared to 90% and he used this to get us into a pointless and costly war in Iraq. The war had been planned prior to 9/11, and resulted in hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of unnecessary deaths. The unstable situation we currently see in the middle east is a direct consequence of this war. It also destroyed our image and prestige with other nations. The right-wingers here at home denounced protestors as being “unpatriotic” and the mainstream press looked the other way as torture was installed, the Geneva Conventions were discarded, and a new version of 1984 was installed, with surveillance on never-listed individuals becoming an integral part of the administration’s agenda. The war cost us over a trillion dollars, but Republicans still found it in their hearts to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy.

In fact, the United States has, since 2001, spent an estimated six trillion dollars on war. Yet Republicans have no problem at all with this; it is only when the poor, the elderly, and the sick seek governmental assistance that their hackles rise. It is singularly astonishing as well as ridiculous that Republicans refuse to discuss this, while at the same time waxing poetic about balancing the budget.

Given Trump’s current approval rating, somewhere around 30%, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision him doing something similar to what Bush and his administration did in 2001. His provoking of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is but one example of this. The unconstitutional Muslim ban is another. Simply put, Trump is laying out a foundation for military action, in the hope that it will boost his approval ratings. He also knows that, in times of war, the president has virtually unlimited powers.

North Korea, according to most commentators, is currently our biggest nuclear threat. And Trump continues to bate their insane leader. In addition, Trump has said that the only possible way for the United States to neutralize the nuclear threat posed by North Korea is by an invasion of land forces. Clearly, he wants war, and a war with North Korea could easily escalate into a nuclear confrontation. So, perhaps our biggest nuclear threat comes from our own president. If North Korea decides to wreak nuclear havoc on the United States, it will due to Trump’s big mouth. The same president who ran his campaign by saying he would “put America first” will have no problem at all getting us involved in foreign conflicts.

At least with Bush, he didn’t instigate 9/11, even though he knew about it prior to its happening. And, the Bush administration never attempted to subvert the judiciary and the press. The same cannot be said of Trump and the current Republican Congress. Donald Trump, like virtually all Republicans, is assuming that what is in his best interest is also in the country’s best interest. The result could be a cataclysmic disaster, unless the country wakes up from its self-induced slumber.

As the country sinks further and further into the abyss, Trump spends an unprecedented amount of time on the golf course. The same man who criticized president Obama for taking so many vacations has taken three times as many days at leisure than his predecessor. And while Republicans are praising themselves for their cuts on everyone except the wealthy, American taxpayers are footing the bill for Trump’s vacation time.

Donald Trump is the most unqualified person ever to seek the presidency. His words and actions are wildly unpredictable, making it virtually impossible to predict what he will do or say next, but in every case, the consequences have been disastrous. His number one obsession is himself, not his country. He wants more and more money, he wants his ego constantly stoked, and he lashes out at any perceived slight. These are the actions of an immature juvenile, not the leader of a (once) great country. He has absolutely no respect for the customs and institutions that made America the envy of the rest of the world. He thinks he is above the Constitution. And, of course, he has proven himself to be the most egregious liar on the political scene today. He began his presidency by lying about the number of people at his inauguration. He lied when he said President Obama bugged Trump Tower. He and his cronies call these lies “alternative facts.” But his lies are so frequent and so bizarre that any reasonable person should wonder if he actually believes them. But whether he does or doesn’t, the lies alone disqualify him from holding any political office, much less the highest in the land. His lies are serving as the foundation for our national policies. Naturally this is undermining people’s trust in the government. Repeatedly, he has lied about something and then denied that he said it, truth and intellectual integrity be damned. And if called to task, he insists that his lies will be verified at some future date. Civilization is based on the fact that there are objectively provable facts. Trump and his cabinet, along with the majority of Republican leaders and a complacent media, seem blithely unaware of this basic fact. We have a word for people like Trump; we call them demagogues.

Trump is neither intelligent nor politically savvy. But he does possess the ability to say things that target the anger, mistrust, suspicions, ignorance and insecurity in people who desperately want to believe in his crazy antics and conspiracy theories. These people will continue to support him, no matter what happens. His approval rating is now less than one-third of the population. Rest assured that it will go no lower—or higher. That is, of course, unless he gets us into the war he wants.

Trump is certainly able to get the attention of, and keep the support of those mentioned above. But he cannot tap into human intelligence and compassion simply because he does not possess those traits himself. And that is his tragedy—and that of our country.

Being a good citizen means being able to examine and re-examine core beliefs. It means being able to question what you are being told, even if it contradicts what you want to believe is true. It means searching out truth claims from a variety of sources. It means recognizing the difference between reality and reality TV. Those who are unable or unwilling to do these things have reneged on their responsibilities as citizens. They are the true un-Americans, and they comprise as much as a third of the voting public, perhaps more. If we are to continue being a free nation, facts must be objective; there is no such thing as a subjective fact or truth.

SUMMARY

When Trump became president, thinking Americans were very worried. At the end of 2017, our worst fears have been realized, and then some. In addition to his ridiculous and immoral travel ban, huge corporate giveaways, and sabotaging of our health care, he has also attacked our courts, free press, our national parks and treasures, and brought us close to nuclear annihilation. Despite his promise to do so, he has refused to release his tax returns. His victory ushered in an era of corruption, cronyism, nepotism, conflicts of interest, and general lawlessness that is without parallel in American history. Trump Hotel has been proven to receive payments from foreign governments, a clear and impeachable conflict of interest. Trump himself will be a huge beneficiary of the Republican’s tax scam, an obvious conflict of interest. He has spent more time on the golf course than any other president, and taxpayers are paying for it. That such a man could even attain a single vote is an indication how low our standards as Americans have become. White supremacists walk the halls of the White House and determine our policies. Anti-semitism is on the rise, and hate crimes have increased since Trump’s election. Women’s rights, the rights of the LGBTQ community, minority rights, and the rights of other groups are under attack. The health and well-being of every American is threatened as a new and vicious attack on our environment has begun. Our national parks and treasures face elimination in the interest of propping up the dying fossil fuel industry. Protections for workers, consumers and the environment have been rolled back. Millionaires and billionaires receive huge tax benefits because ordinary Americans are being forced to subsidize them. Trump supports police brutality, saying that arresting officers should be “rough” with suspects. Trump’s deregulation agenda, and that of the Republican Congress, focuses on paybacks to corporate donors. He has put corporate executives in charge of agencies whose job is to monitor what they do, a classic example of the fox guarding the henhouse. This was evident from the beginning, as cabinet members and deputy secretaries were selected not because of their expertise, but rather because of their known opposition to the agency they are supposed to serve. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is doing everything in its power to strip away people’s right to sue corporations for their crimes and excesses. A complacent Republican-led Congress has gone out of its way to avoid confronting Trump and his cabinet on any of their abuses of power. A foreign government meddled in our affairs and was instrumental in Trump’s election. And the media, who we have always relied on in the past to keep us informed on anything political, has come under the control of a few corporate bigwigs who determine what will be and what will not be reported and who then “interpret” the news to serve their interests, which always corresponds to right-wing conservatism. Trump’s personal lawyer stupidly claims that: “the president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer,” meaning that he thinks Trump is above the Constitution. And the Constitution, the law of the land, is being trampled on by evil men and women in all branches of government who have no interest in serving the people who elected them. As Public Citizen noted: “Trump is a walking, talking violation of basic standards of ethics and morality.” Add to that basic human decency and you have a pretty good summation of what this man and his cronies are really like.

Given all this, can anyone in their right mind deny that we are rapidly becoming a fascist state?

As an historical aside, consider what Alexander Hamilton, one of our founding fathers, said over two hundred years ago. As you read this, you might well imagine he was anticipating the dangers of a man like Trump having any kind of power: “The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion.” Can anyone deny that all this has happened since January 20, 2017?

A few ideas on how to change things for the better might be in order here. The first ideas concern individuals. The first thing to do is to agitate, agitate,agitate! Write your local and state politicians. Attend meetings. Write letters to the editor. Become an activist any way possible. A sense of outrage about what is being done to us and our country is long overdue, both from individuals and from our leaders.

Next, groups from all walks of life need to become politically active. The entire scientific community needs to raise its collective voice and oppose the anti-science and anti-moral nonsense that this administration is forcing on the American people. Schools need to unite demonstrating the follies of vouchers. Atheists and others in the free thought community must coalesce and begin working not only to show that evangelicals have no moral compass whatever, but also to eliminate the tax-exempt status of churches known to be supporting political candidates.

The disastrous Citizens United decision must be over-turned at all costs. This decision opened the floodgates to massive amounts of money corrupting our political processes, under the ridiculous idea that corporations are people. As a result of this ruling, corporations spent over 1.4 billion dollars to influence the 2016 presidential election, up forty percent from the previous election. We must insist on a 28th amendment to the Constitution that overrules this decision.

We must agitate for net neutrality protections. Americans must be able to rely on unbiased news reporting; if the proposed Sinclair-Tribune mega-merger is allowed to take place, we will be at the mercy of a nearly universal right-wing media slant. Our democracy depends on our ability to access a free internet.

Clean, renewable energy must be the wave of the future, if we are to survive as a species. The overwhelming majority of Americans recognize this, and we must elect representatives who share this view. The potential is already there for us to meet our current needs; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory informs us that enough sunlight reaches the United States to meet our electricity needs alone a hundred times over and that, if we throw our support behind offshore wind, the east coast could meet up to forty percent of its power needs. Compare this with the Republican’s vision of ecological devastation, dirty fossil fuels and the threat of huge oil spills and the choice should be obvious.

Legislation must be enacted that ensures that a criminal administration like Trump’s never sees the light of day again. The best way to accomplish this is to eliminate once and for all the stupid electoral college system that handed the election to Trump, even though he lost the popular vote by two and a half million votes. All online campaign ads must list the donors who paid for them; the same thing is already being done for television and printed advertisements. The highly inappropriately named Citizens United case of 2010, was a corrupt ruling that said that money is a form of free speech (!); essentially, it allows billionaires and corporations to buy elections. This stupid ruling must be overturned; big money groups spent 1.4 billion dollars on the 2016 election, 40 percent higher than four years earlier. Finally, there must be legislation enacted that prohibits the same legislation from coming up again and again. For example, school vouchers continuously re-emerge under different names such as “education enhancers,” but the simple fact is that most Americans don’t want vouchers under any name.

What would be wrong with pumping up Medicare so they have the power to negotiate better deals that can bring down prescription drug prices? Surely this would be better than allowing Wall Street mega-billionaires to buy up pharmaceutical companies and then charge anything they want. Another thing that must be done comes from the Organic Consumers Association. In an email sent out on December 27, 2017, it noted: “We must confront the powerful corporate and political forces that designed a food and farming system around generating the highest possible profits for a handful of corporations, to the detriment of family farms, the environment, food quality and human health.”

As I write this, we are moving into our second year of this madness. Donald Trump is a thoroughly evil man who has surrounded himself with equally evil people whose words and actions threaten the United States, and the world, as nobody has done since the Second World War. They are on the wrong side on every single major issue. Waiting until the 2018 elections may be too late; many of the reins of totalitarianism are already in place. Today’s Republicans want a one-party state where they can do whatever they want and are answerable to nobody; everything they have said and done reflects this.