Dave Lindorff says that "Donald Trump's cabinet choices are suggesting a governing philosophy along the lines of a corrupt municipal police force relying on gangsters to help it keep street crime in check." Putting banksters in charge of Commerce and Treasury is the most egregious sin -- of course the last two Democratic Presidents also put banksters in charge of regulating banksters, but Donald Trump was supposed to be different, wasn't he? Anyway, Mr. Lindorff allows himself a moment of misplaced optimism -- that the Administration will be "so infected with the greed bug" that they might "spare the world the murderous policies of their predecessors." No: their attempts to plunder America will be so unpopular they'll have to resort to murderous policies -- possibly after another 9.11-sized terrorist attack, which matter I'm sure has already come up in transition meetings.
Steve Horn at In These Times says "Carrier is 'Gaming the System' and Trump Just Played Into Its Hands." It's a good article, but I think it's the other way around, actually -- Mr. Trump is gaming the system to get his votaries to applaud to accept ever-more corporate welfare handouts (which his votaries hate) under the guise of "saving jobs." One could very easily save (and even create!) jobs by taxing millionaire income at 91% and closing corporate tax loopholes, so that executives would have no choice but to create jobs -- only then, when their choice is spending money or letting it get taxed away, will they spend it on work and on workers. In the meantime, Mr. Trump is running this game, just like Mr. Bush ran his game, and the sooner we stop suggesting he's dumb or out of his depth, the better.
If you were wondering if maybe Mr. Trump's absurd allegation that "millions of people...voted illegally" came from anywhere in particular, Sue Sturgis at Facing South tells you where: from a Texas right-wing activist who says he's "verified," via "analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations," that the "(n)umber of non-citizen votes exceeds 3 million. Of course he hasn't shown his work, despite doing the analysis very, very quickly, and of course he has some corruption-related skeletons in his closet dating at least as far back as his work privatizing Texas state government functions (and continuing through his work with the Tea Party actually disrupting elections).
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar suggests we fight Donald Trump, and all the corrosion of values his Administration will bring, through "a new civil disobedience" and "laser-aimed boycotts" of any business associated with Mr. Trump. Mr. Abdul-Jabbar is only the latest to reminds us that "just give him a chance" is bunk, and it sure is helpful to hear Dr. King's voice reminding us that "(t)his 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" (And if I get any action alerts telling businesses to stop advertising on Breitbart -- as several big names have already done -- you'll get them, too.)
Finally, Adam Lynch at Yes! magazine describes three recent victories at the state level by pro-solar power forces over pro-corporate energy utility forces. First up (even before the defeat of anti-solar power ballot initiatives in Nevada and Florida) is a net-metering agreement in Mississippi which will enable solar-powered homes to sell some of their energy back to the utilities -- and this only happened after Mississippi voters replaced two of three state public service commissioners. I hate how often it seems to take utter disasters to get bad people out of office -- but I'm always glad to see good Americans transmute misery into good works.
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