From his crackdown on illegal immigration to his reversal of Obama administration policies on criminal justice and policing, Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views — moves drawing comparatively less public scrutiny than the ongoing investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.
Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president’s travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
Sessions has even adjusted the department’s legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.
Supporters and critics say the attorney general has been among the most effective of the Cabinet secretaries — implementing Trump’s conservative policy agenda even as the president publicly and privately toys with firing him over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia case.
Supporters suggest that this is simply a return to a Justice Department that "respects the rule of law."
But the truth is that it is a return to a Justice Department that can once again openly discriminate against minorities, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community.
Oh and one that can benefit major Trump donors from the private prison industry.
Courtesy of The Observer:
The private prison industry has thrived under Trump. Shortly after the election, stocks soared for the two largest private prison corporations, GEO Group and CoreCivic. Trump’s Department of Justice reversed a plan to reduce the use of private prisons in February 2017, paving the way for new government contracts for the industry. In April 2017, the GEO Group received a $110 million government contract to build an immigrant detention center in Texas. The same month, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gave CoreCivic a contract extension on its 1,000 bed immigrant processing center in Houston, Texas. GEO Group has received $774 million in government contracts in 2017 so far, and the company’s stocks have continually increased in response. This week, Bank of America increased its ownership of the company’s stock by over 2500 percent due to favorable forecasts. CoreCivic has ongoing contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice worth several billion dollars. The stock price for both companies has increased over 100 percent since Trump was elected.
In August 2017, officials from GEO Group and CoreCivic said they anticipate earnings to increase in tandem with immigrant detention time. In February 2017, a leaked memo from the Trump administration cited plans to double the capacity of beds at immigration detention centers from 31,000-34,000 individuals held daily to 80,000. This immigration policy coupled with Attorney General Sessions’ intent to revamp the war on drugs, which caused the United States to have the highest incarceration rate in the world, means that the private prison industry can expect a surge in government contracts and profits throughout Trump’s presidency.
It is no coincidence that one of the largest private prison companies in the country recently held its leadership conference at a Trump golf resort.
This is a symbiotic relationship.
The Justice Department implements policies which create more convicts, and the private prison industry creates more cells to hold them at taxpayers expense.
Soon to be work camps.
ReplyDeleteTrump Is Quietly Making It Even Harder To Report Sexual Harassment And Discrimination
ReplyDeleteThe White House has been trying to shut women up this whole time.
To the droves of women speaking up about sexual harassment and discrimination, the Trump administration’s message is clear: Shut-up.
Behind-the-scenes, and mostly through executive orders, the White House is making it harder for women to report sexual harassment and fight sex discrimination.
The clearest example came in March. It received little coverage at the time. President Donald Trump reversed an Obama-era order that forbid federal contractors from keeping secret sexual harassment and discrimination cases. The 2014 rule prohibited these companies, which employ about 26 million people, from forcing workers to resolve complaints through arbitration, an increasingly common method businesses use to settle disputes out of the public eye.
“This was a clear sign of the administration silencing women,” said Jessica Stender, senior staff attorney for Equal Rights Advocates, a women’s rights nonprofit.
And it’s only a small piece of the picture. “The Trump administration has a clear anti-women agenda,” Stender said. “I say that with complete certainty. This is an all-out, full frontal attack on women.”
The attack so far has seen the most success via executive order, but a vast swath of the public policies proposed or endorsed by administration officials attempt to scale back women’s rights. From Trump’s repeal of executive orders meant to reduce pay discrimination to the budget floated in May, the failed repeal of Obamacare, and now the Republican tax bills, actions taken or backed by this administration harm women.
“The Trump administration has a clear anti-women agenda. I say that with complete certainty. This is an all-out, full frontal attack on women.”
Jessica Stender, senior staff attorney and Equal Rights Advocates, a women’s rights nonprofit.
This war on women comes at a time when feminist ideals have never seemed more powerful. Finally, sexual assault victims are being heard and believed. Sexual predators like Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein are facing real consequences, losing their jobs, their movie deals, their companies. And, though it’s hard to believe now, the U.S. just last year came extremely close to electing its first female president.
In this atmosphere, the Trump administration’s actions look remarkably like a real-time backlash to the growing assertion of female power. The assault on women began almost instantly after the primal female scream that was the women’s march in January.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-sexual-harassment-discrimination_us_5a15b385e4b03dec8249b7e5?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Welcome To The Class War
ReplyDeleteFinancial capital is people, my friend.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-tax-plan-class-war_us_5a1431dde4b0bfa88c1cfafa?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
“This is an agency that enforces the rules against some of the most powerful financial interests in the country. Everything was structured for its independence.”
ReplyDelete"“If there are disagreements about these issues, the appropriate place to settle them would be in the courts,”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-sends-sympathies-to-financial-institutions
Trump Plugs MAGA Merch For Black Friday, Twitter Users Howl
ReplyDelete“MAGA: Mueller Ain’t Going Away.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-blackfriday-maga-promo_us_5a18b9b5e4b0cee6c04fcf54?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
There was a big bump when he first got elected, it was forecast we got in and then got out as the private prison stocks aren't doing as well as they were. It was a a brief blip and if you were right place at right time you made some money, but it seems that bubble has burst.
ReplyDeletePutin Signs Bill Targeting U.S. Media in Russia
ReplyDeleteThe move comes not long after multiple Russian officials threatened retaliatory action in response the U.S. government's recent decision to force Russia Today, a state-owned Russian media company, to register as a foreign agent.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/25/putin-signs-bill-targeting-u-s-media-russia.html
Trump Supporters Are Attacking Actor LeVar Burton Because They Think He’s LaVar Ball
ReplyDeleteSome Donald Trump supporters don’t know the difference between LaVar Ball and LeVar Burton, and many have reportedly attacked Burton on social media in recent days.
Ball, of course, has been feuding with Trump after his son, LiAngelo Ball, was released back into the United States after being caught shoplifting in China. Trump, of course, doesn’t think LaVar Ball has shown enough appreciation for his son’s release, though it’s unclear what the president did to facilitate it.
Now, according to the Associated Press, Trump supporters are defending their president by hurling insults at the wrong guy.
More from the report:
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/25/trump-supporters-attacking-levar-burton-lavar-ball.html
LaVar is reviving "Reading Rainbow".
DeleteIs it any wonder the uneducated Deplorables are attacking him? Of course they can't tell the difference. But even if they could, probably wouldn't matter.
(BTW I heard him speak at an AARP event. Great guy.)
Trump angry that people take CNN seriously when Fox News is ‘MUCH more important’
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-angry-that-people-take-cnn-seriously-when-fox-news-is-much-more-important/
‘He’s enabling this stuff’: Ex-skinhead explains how Trump is popularizing white supremacy in the US
repentant ex-skinhead in Canada believes that the white supremacist rhetoric coming from United States President Donald Trump is growing racist movements across North America.
Brad Galloway broke away from the skinhead movement in Canada after 13-years and told the Toronto Star, “the guy down south there is enabling this stuff, I believe, by allowing it to be normalized.”
“The movement is growing because of the normalized message coming from the United States,” he says. “It’s so often that people are latching on to this.”
Galloway now works with the organization Life After Hate to prevent others from following his path into organized bigotry. Galloway is featured in a new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary Skinhead, which premiers on Sunday.
Galloway’s Volksfront gang in Canada originated in Portland, Oregon and he sees a similar trend now developing as bigotry from America again crosses the border. The Canadian documentary Skinhead even features a Donald Trump campaign rally.
The documentary also notes how the U.S. Ku Klux Klan (KKK) spread north to several Canadian provinces in the 1910s.
There is a worry that Trump valorizing white supremacy could eventually bring further violence to Canada, such as the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“They’re heavily armed, they’re trained in military tactics and have very rigorous training. That really worries me,” hate crime research Dr. Barbara Perry explained. “You combine that with the street patrols they’re engaging in, and that’s just a recipe for disaster.”
Watch a trailer for the Skinhead documentary airing Sunday on CBC:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/hes-enabling-this-stuff-ex-skinhead-explains-how-trump-is-popularizing-white-supremacy-in-the-us/
Morrissey supports killing Donald Trump ‘for the safety of humanity’
ReplyDelete..."If there was a button here and if you pressed on it, Trump would die dead [sic]- would you push it or not?" Der Spiegel asked Morrissey.
"I would, for the safety of humanity. It has nothing to do with my personal opinion of his face or his family, but in the interest of humanity I would push," the singer responded.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/morrissey-supports-killing-donald-trump-for-the-safety-of-humanity/
so would I.
Trump furious with Ivanka for ‘special place in hell’ attack on Roy Moore now featured in Democratic campaign ad
ReplyDeleteTrump is reportedly furious with first daughter Ivanka Trump after her comments about embattled Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore appeared in a campaign ad for Democratic opponent Doug Jones, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Trump’s continued support for Moore is harming his relationship with daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
“There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” Trump told the Associated Press when the allegations were reported. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”
“Do you believe this?” Trump reportedly asked aides in the Oval Office when he learned his daughter’s words were being prominently featured in Moore opponent Jones’s campaign ads.
The infighting has created a no-win situation for Republicans.
“Either we’re saddled with a Democrat in a seat that ought to be Republican,” GOP strategist Scott Jennings explained, “or we’re saddled with a brand anvil that’s going to drag down the president, drag down the Senate, drag down the party and plunge the Senate into immediate turmoil when he gets there.”
Watch the ad featuring the Ivanka Trump comments on Roy Moore that infuriated her father:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-furious-with-ivanka-for-special-place-in-hell-attack-on-roy-moore-now-featured-in-democratic-campaign-ad/
"The infighting has created a no-win situation for Republicans."
DeleteThat sentence just makes me happy.
He’s also trying to gut the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau by circumventing the law and putting Mick Mulvaney in as interim director. There will be a power stuggle on Monday.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mulvaney-interimhead-consumer-bureau_us_5a18c06ee4b064948074802b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Delete"Donald Trump has named his Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney the acting head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau in what’s bound to be a major showdown over the agency’s future. It’s a bureau that Mulvaney once derided as a “joke.”
It also sets up a battle over who has the right to name an interim director of the consumer agency: Trump or Obama-era banking regulator Richard Cordray, who announced he was leaving his post as the head of the CFPB by the end of the day Friday.
In a challenge to the president, Cordray named his own chief of staff Leandra English as deputy director of the agency before stepping down in a move seen as a strategy to protect the agency and thwart efforts by Trump to weaken CFPB, Politico reported. The deputy director is meant to serve as an interim head until a permanent head is confirmed, according to the Dodd-Frank Act, the legislation that created the agency in 2010 to help protect consumers from a repeat of the subprime mortgage debacle and other banking infractions.
In a note to his staff, Cordray said, “Upon my departure, [English] will become the acting Director pursuant to section 1011(b)(5) of the Dodd-Frank Act.”"
I hope Ms. English gets there bright and early and is sitting at Cordray's desk when Mulvaney hauls his ass out of bed. In fact, how about they change all the locks and only she has the key to the office. I'm sure the staff isn't going to follow any orders by Mulvaney if he tries to give any. Would be priceless if security didn't even let him in the building.
Bush ethics czar demands Kellyanne Conway appear before Congress and name lawmakers she claims sexually assaulted her
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/bush-ethics-czar-demands-kellyanne-conway-appear-before-congress-and-name-lawmakers-she-claims-sexually-assaulted-her/
Republicans attacking Franken need to address their party’s history of toxic sexism or STFU
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/republicans-attacking-franken-need-to-address-their-partys-history-of-toxic-sexism-or-stfu/
GOP strategist warns party to ditch Roy Moore or get ready to ‘wear him around your neck’ in 2018
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/gop-strategist-warns-party-to-ditch-roy-moore-or-get-ready-to-wear-him-around-your-neck-in-2018/
Sessions exposed covertly installing white nationalism in the Justice Department
ReplyDeleteAttorney General Jeff Sessions is quietly working behind the scenes of his own department to dismantle civil rights.
While national attention is focused on the Russia investigation, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is quietly working behind the scenes to dramatically reshape the Department of Justice.
With nationalism as his guide, Sessions is systematically revamping DOJ policies on everything from sentencing guidelines and civil rights protections to immigration laws and voting rights. The changes have been implemented quietly, but their impact will be anything but subtle.
On immigration, Sessions has enacted policies that reflect his view of who belongs in the country — a view that is “distinctly anti-immigrant,” according to Vanita Gupta, who led the DOJ’s civil rights division under the Obama administration.
Before his time as Attorney General, Sessions had for years been one of the most extreme anti-immigrant members of Congress. As the Washington Post wrote in January, “Sessions has opposed nearly every immigration bill that has come before the Senate the past two decades that has included a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.”
As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Sessions has brought his extreme anti-immigrant agenda into the DOJ, pushing for harsh policies that reflect his bigotry.
For example, according to the Washington Post, Sessions is doing whatever he can to try to link terrorist suspects to immigration:
https://shareblue.com/sessions-exposed-covertly-installing-white-nationalism-in-the-justice-department/
Shameful State Department purge targets top women, Latino, and African-American diplomats
ReplyDeleteSecretary of State Rex Tillerson is purging his department of high-level diplomats. Unsurprisingly in the Trump era, many of those pushed out are minority voices.
Experts have been aware of Tillerson’s plot to destroy State Department from the inside for months. According to an August 2017 article in the Los Angeles Times, “Current and former State Department officials say it appears that one goal in the current reorganization is to reduce staff by attrition, what one critic called ‘death by a thousand cuts.'”
We now know that those cuts are disproportionately felt by women, Latinos, and African-Americans.
The vacancies are not only appalling because of who they hurt, but because of the impact they have on the mission and security of the United States.
“All the expertise has frittered away,” said Ira N. Forman, who served as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism under President Obama.
Even diplomats who served under other Republican administrations, are speaking on the record.
“The United States is at the center of every crisis around the world, and you simply cannot be effective if you don’t have assistant secretaries and ambassadors in place,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a retired career diplomat who was an under secretary of state for President George W. Bush.
“It shows a disdain for diplomacy,” he added.
The harshest critique comes from recently retired ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith. While she was initially excited about the prospect of Tillerson leading the department, his leadership, or lack thereof, has changed her mind.
“These people either do not believe the U.S. should be a world leader, or they’re utterly incompetent,” Smith said. “Either way, having so many vacancies in essential places is a disaster waiting to happen.”
more...
https://shareblue.com/shameful-state-department-purge-targets-top-women-latino-and-african-american-diplomats/
Trump tries to replace woman leading consumer watchdog agency with his own pathetic lackey
ReplyDeleteA strong, smart, competent woman was tapped to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Naturally, Trump is trying to replace her with a man.
https://shareblue.com/trump-tries-to-replace-woman-leading-consumer-watchdog-agency-with-his-own-pathetic-lackey/
They're challenging the autonomy of the Bureau and the Dodd-Frank bill that mandates how it is run.
DeleteJust more dismantling of our government by a TRAITOR.
Sessions always looks like Great Aunt Prudie.
ReplyDeleteEver notice how the people who promote 'Law & Order' are the first to break the law, and support candidates who they'd never allow within 100 yards of their family but who happen to have the correct letter (R) after their name?
ReplyDeleteEver notice how the people who fly the banner of 'Family Values' and 'Pro-Life' are the first ones to cut prenatal medical care, health services for children, food stamps for families, and public education?
Ever notice how the people who demand 'Respect for the Military' are the first to cut veterans' services, divert funding from equipment needed on the ground to instead pay for unneeded and obsolete (but very expensive) war toys, and start unnecessary wars?
Ever notice how the people who claim to be 'Working For the Middle Class' are the first to increase taxes on the lower and middle class to give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations, vote against increasing the minimum wage, eliminate programs to help pay for advanced education or job training, and pass laws to make it easy for corporations to send jobs overseas?
Ever notice how the people who say they 'Care About Americans' are the first to repeal laws that prevent discrimination, repeal laws that protect the environment, pass laws that prevent legal voters (who happen to be the wrong color or political party) from casting their ballots, and crash the economy while blowing up the deficit?
Ever notice how the people who say 'America First' are the people who look the other way and make excuses when Russia subverts our sacred election process and controls our top leaders?
Ever notice how the Republican party has become a collection of vile, misogynistic, racist, vindictive liars?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/justin-trudeau-world-leaders-net-neutrality-fcc_us_5a173046e4b0d4906cade94a?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
ReplyDelete"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is among the world leaders who have spoken up in support of net neutrality this week in the wake of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s announcement that it plans to throw out regulations that require internet providers to treat all online content equally."
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rosenworcel-net-neutrality-fcc_us_5a16e240e4b0cee6c04e8a40?section=us_politics
"One of the Federal Communications Commission’s top five officials has urged Americans to “make a ruckus” in response to the agency’s plan to vote next month on a policy to gut net neutrality.
In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel issued an urgent plea for the public to call or write to the FCC before the Dec. 14 vote.
“Reach out to the rest of the FCC now,” wrote Rosenworcel, who served as a commissioner under the Obama administration from 2012 to 2017 and was unanimously confirmed to return under Chairman Ajit Pai in August. “Tell them they can’t take away internet openness without a fight.”"
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fcc-net-neutrality-comments_us_5a15b869e4b025f8e9332c04?section=us_politics
"The Federal Communications Commission received millions of suspicious comments in support of its plan to repeal net neutrality, and it ignored multiple requests for evidence that would explain their origin. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman isn’t happy about that.
On Tuesday, one day after Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai announced he would forge forward with a plan to gut net neutrality, Schneiderman published an open letter calling out the agency for some serious misdeeds.
In particular, he noted the FCC “has refused multiple requests for crucial evidence” that is essential to his office’s ongoing investigation into the “fake comments.” Since many of those comments used the identities of “hundreds of thousands” of real Americans, Schneiderman says, whoever submitted them likely broke the law.
The New York attorney general says his office requested the FCC records at least nine times over five months from multiple top FCC officials, yet “received no substantive response.”"
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-fcc-chair-wants-to-gut-net-neutrality_us_590258a1e4b0bb2d086c3cca
"When Ajit Pai, President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Communications Commission, announced his plan to roll back his own agency’s net neutrality rules on Wednesday, he sounded nervous.
“I am confident we will finish the job,” he said, in a somewhat stilted speech at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. “This is a fight we intend to wage, and this is a fight we are going to win.”
If Pai is nervous, he has good reason to be. Net neutrality is extremely popular with both Republicans and Democrats. The activists who support strong rules are loud and well-organized, and the organizations that oppose the rules — cable companies like Comcast and telecom providers like Verizon, HuffPost’s parent company — are not loved. When cable and telecom companies lost the fight against the Obama administration’s strong net neutrality rules in 2015, they lost badly. The fight this time could be even fiercer."
I think that this is how Bannon has done his ugliest work - in figuring out who the worst possible persons were to head various federal departments and agencies and then steering their ways through the system. Twenty-first Republican conservatives like Bannon aim to destroy the very concept of constitutional government and they're succeeding: department by department, agency by agency.
ReplyDeleteBy the time the next president comes to office, if that day ever arrives, the federal government will be in shambles just as many state governments are now. Given the example of Michigan, just elect a conservative Republican "businessman" and give him a conservative, "business"-oriented, Republican legislature and destruction of the very core of the state is guaranteed.
And still so many Americans believe that electing "businessmen" is the answer to all our woes. It's just the beginning.
Beaglemom
HRC 2020 Vision.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/24/heres-your-leftover-turkey-the-case-for-hillary-clinton-2020/